Category: Music

Fear Factory, Glasgow Garage

Fear Factory, Glasgow Garage 18 Feb 2010
Blurred Burton

This was my first visit to The Garage in Glasgow, and I’m impressed. Friendly door staff, swift service at the bar and superb security at the front of the venue. Thank you to all for their hard work.

Even more impressive was that my first pint only cost me £2, though this may have been because the Strongbow wasn’t working off tap so I was given a can poured into a glass. My second was £2.80, but that’s still a damn good price for a gig.

Sylosis were on stage when I got there (I missed the first support – they could only have had 20 minutes) and I was pretty impressed by this five-piece. Despite being on a stage the size of a postage stamp (and being limited to the perforations around the edges) they had the audience’s attention and got a good send-off when they finished. Good luck to them.

What followed was without a doubt the fastest set change I have ever witnessed at a concert. I just had time to buy that second pint when the lights went down and Fear Factory took to the stage. Which begs the question, “who does it usually take them 45 flipping minutes at other gigs?”

The set was a great mix of old and new. Three tracks, if I recall correctly, from the new Mechanize album and plenty of older favourites including “Martyr”, “Lynchpin” and “Self Bias Resistor”.

Of course, the best was saved for last with the final encore being “Replica“.

It was great to see Dino back in the lineup. It’s almost like he’d never left. Twenty or so years this lot have been going and they’ve yet to release a bad album. Some definitely better than others, but Demanufacture makes it onto my top ten of all time partly due to its originality (at the time) and influence.

Great to see that they can still put on a hell of a show.

I’m bruised, battered, stretched, aching, hoarse, exhausted and elated. I keep thinking I’m getting too old for this, then I get the hairs going up on the back of my neck as the opening chords of a favourite track erupt from the speakers.

I’m not too old. And it’s not too loud. Roll on Hatebreed/Machine Head next Tuesday.

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F*ck you Cowell, I won’t do what you tell me!#ratm4xmas

The Battle of Christmas 2009
The Battle of Christmas 2009

For those who haven’t heard yet, there is a converted effort to shift this ridiculous “tradition” that’s surfaced over the last few years.

A bunch of over-rated self-involved karaoke starlets get led to believe they’re actually talented by a ridiculously rich record producer, a talentless female singer and… erm… some guy with an Irish accent. I have no idea who he is.

After far too long, during which time I have to endure people at work/college talking about the elimination round, one of them is finally selected by popular vote (which may or may not be rigged). This is usually the one who, coincidentally, is the most commercially promising as decided by the stupidly rich record producer. Funny that.

They then go on to have the Christmas number 1 in the UK, record an album nobody buys and get forgotten about shortly afterwards.

In the meantime, the smarmy rich record producer buys another Ferrari to compensate for… well.

This year, let’s make a difference. There is a plot launching today to try and get Rage Against The Machine‘s classic track Killing In The Name pushed to number one instead. OK, it’s not seasonal. But it’s actual music. By an original artist. Not a bloody cover version.

I’m writing this post well before the final of X-Factor. I don’t know who’s in it. I don’t care. I would, however, just like to have a decent song at number one for a change.

For full details, head on over to Rage Factor! which will tell you the relevant dates, and where to buy the single. It must be purchased this week to ensure the sales count towards the UK chart for Christmas.

T-shirts are available (10% of proceeds to the charity Shelter) as is a free PDF poster. It’s serious – even Bill Bailey tweeted about it!

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Darrell Lance Abbott #DimeRIP

damageplan2
The Man - The Legend

It’s five years since metal lost one of its most talented guitarists in the shape of one Dimebag Darrell. Formerly of the now-defunct Pantera and at the time playing with his brother, Vince Abbott, in the band Damageplan.

December 8th, 2004 is a date that will be remembered by pretty much everyone in the world of metal. Sure, people die all the time. There have been some sad cases over the last year or so alone. But none could be as shocking as Dime’s murder – live on stage, and right in front of his brother.

I won’t name the perpetrator. He doesn’t deserve the recognition.

But that night he took away one of the liveliest guys the metal world has ever known. I am lucky enough to say that I met a very drunk Dimebag after an aborted gig at Newcastle City Hall many years ago. He was – as were the rest of the band – just a great laugh. None of this “high and mighty, I’m in a band” crap. This was a guy who was living life for the hell of it.

You often hear that a musician would be happy if he died on stage doing what he loved.

But not like that.

RIP Dimebag. Your memory and your music lives on.

[Please tweet the hashtag #DimeRIP if you’re on Twitter – let’s make it trend to mark the day]

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Tagged: A Musical Exercise

SLAYER
SLAYER!!!!

I was tagged by The Random Within for this one. Git.

By reading this you are also tagged, and you must answer all the questions below using song names from one artist/group. You are not allowed to use the artist/group I have chosen.

Post a blog link to your attempt in the comments section.

Pick your artist: Slayer

  • Are you a male or a female? Sick Boy
  • Describe yourself: Aggressive Perfector
  • How do you feel? God Hates Us All
  • Describe where you currently live: War Zone
  • If you could go anywhere, where would you go? South of Heaven
  • Your favourite form of transportation? Drunk Drivers Against Mad Mothers
  • Your best friend is? Criminally Insane
  • What’s the weather like? Raining Blood (or Flesh Storm or Metal Storm)
  • Favourite time of the day? Witching Hour (or At Dawn They Sleep)
  • If your life was a TV show, what would it be called? Temptation
  • What is life to you? Seasons in the Abyss
  • Your fear? Necrophobic
  • What advice is the best advice you have to give? Read Between The Lies
  • Thought for the day? Evil has No Boundaries
  • How would you like to die? Die By The Sword
  • My soul’s current condition? Blood Red
  • My motto? Fight Till Death

I confess I “cheated” and used a couple of songs by other artists that Slayer have covered. All released on proper commercial albums, though.

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Who said metal is for the uneducated?

Well, my parents for two. Anyway, there are numerous reasons to say that this is rubbish – other than the fact that I like it an I iz ded smart, like.

I could point you in the direction of Iron Maiden‘s back catalogue. They’ve got a 13-minute opus based on Samuel Taylor Coleridge‘s Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Alfred Lord Tennyson‘s Charge of the Light Brigade inspired “The Trooper“. Sci-fi is embraced with “To Tame A Land“ (Frank Herbert‘s Dune).

Let’s not forget that singer Bruce Dickinson is (as well as a qualified commercial airline pilot and near-Olympic standard fencer) a history student. As a result, a large number of their songs are about historical events and characters. “Alexander the Great”, “Run To The Hills” (the genocide of the American Indians), “Where Eagles Dare” though based on a film and novel is set during WWII – as is “Aces High”.

Anthrax went for the more simply-titled Indians in their work about the destruction of the native American population. Their song “Among The Living” is based on Stephen King’s novel The Stand. “I Am The Law” is based on literature, though that’s the comic book character Judge Dredd! “Black Lodge” was inspired by David Lynch‘s Twin Peaks and which the series’ score conductor Angelo Badalamenti helped write.

Metallica got in on the act with songs such as “For Whom The Bell Tolls” based on the work of the same name by Ernest Hemingway. Slayer are well known for documenting serial killers and war-related atrocities in their songs. Megadeth have tackled freedom of speech.

These are just well-known examples.

Now, however, I give you something new. To me, anyway. Thanks to Andy for sending me the link to this new way for children to be taught Shakespeare – using the power of MMEETTTAAALLLLL!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQkzHU_U45s

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