Concert Review: Carcass, Deafheaven, and Inter Arma.

Saturday November 26th at 3:02pm, Danny arrived at my house.

By 3:04pm, we were two minutes into a road trip into the middle of our home state in order to see a metal bill of epic proportions. Carcass, Deaf Heaven and Inter Arma were playing at the Blue Note in Columbia, MO, the home of Mizzou.

For the drive, we just spoke and argued about metal mostly. Like how Danny doesn't understand how amazing Lulu is and how he thinks I'm nuts for my espousing of Underdog Albums, like Lulu and Kiss's Music From The Elder.

There was an interesting discussion about how we both used to traverse this drive in our childhoods and that we both made a pit stop in the same place in High Hill, MO. The most interesting thing about our drive though, was the pot bellied stove.

Interview: Six-Score Talks Grindcore

Six-Score

There's that oft ignored little chunk of extreme metal, Grindcore or Grind.

Perhaps it's just me that ignores it. In the over 700 reviews, interviews, etc on Glacially Musical, Grindcore makes up less than five total posts.

Well, let's make up for that by hearing what Six Score out of Austria has to say.

Glacially Musical: Guten tag, herren. I hope today finds you well.

Six Score: Hi, thanks a lot for being interested in us! It's a pleasure for us to answer your questions!

GM: Grind is something I'm not personally too familiar with. Tell me what grind is.

SIX-SCORE: Grind is the hard version of Punkmusic. The content of real Grindcore is political and critical and should lead us to think about all different processes which are embedded in this cruel world. 

Top Ten of 2016: CSIGO

This was a great year for music as there was a ton of awesome stuff released. It was tough but I finally whittled my choices down to the following albums.

Mitski – Puberty 2

Mitski’s genre is indie rock, according to Wikipedia. I think she is the new princess of Grounge!

Album Review: The Workhorse III: Closer to Relevance

Sometimes, instead of falling neatly into a predetermined genre, a band decides to focus their energy on just creating great songs, regardless of how they are classified.  This describes Workhorse III, a trio from Philadelphia, who have set about to make an album of infectious tunes, and leave it to listeners and reviewers to figure out how to explain it.  Their self description as "too rock for metal and too metal for rock" suits them well.  

At times I heard punk rock, at other times they were clearly crushing it in the proud lineage of Sabbath.  There were moments when a Motorhead influence seemed clear.  Which is suitable, since Motorhead themselves have often defied categorization.

The dominate theme is songs which, although often containing dark lyrical content, are high energy, catchy, and most of all fun. I listened to it once on my way to work, and already several of the songs were stuck in my head, demanding a second listen on the way home.  In all cases, the riff is king.  It is the prominence of the distorted riff which could earn them a place within metal's hallowed halls.  At the same time there is no denying the strong vocal melodies will also appeal to fans of classic rock.

LP Review: "More Badass Than Half Ass" by Korean Fire Drill

More Badass Than Half Ass

Now more than ever, we need laughter in our lives.

There has been a great deal of ugliness across the United States already and sometimes we just need to be able to just take a moment, breathe, and get back to fighting back.

Anyone out there who needs to hear it...there are lots of us out there who're fighting and willing to listen.

But in the meantime, we all need to be able to keep our chins up and move forward. Because if we stand and watch, we'll all be trampled.

As for Korean Fire Drill's name...interestingly enough, they aren't the first band with an Asian country in their name that we've reviewed. Remember Half Japanese? As I don't precisely agree with John Cleese and political correctness, I can plainly say there is no othering in this record.

Vinyl Review: "Hardwired...to Self-Destruct" by Metallica

Hardwired...to Self-Destruct

There are a great many bands in the world that are referred to as mighty, well in the metal community anyway.

Metallica is one of those bands whose superlatives are many and possibly too few at the same time.

Let's look back to the 90's when grunge and alternative were king of the roost. What a strange time that was.

A large refrain heard over and over again by the likes of Soundgarden et al. was that they couldn't listen to songs about Dungeons & Dragons.

This was something that I really didn't understand in 1992 because the metal in my ears for years had been about serious issues: corruption in the legal system, televangelists stealing from the masses, the death penalty, etc.

Song Premiere: "Strip Sin City" by Turbo Shokk

If you enjoyed their top ten, their interview, and the review of their soon to be classic record, check out the single below!

Because we all know that you're hungry for more Turbo Shokk!

Buy their debut record, Get Radical here.

Interview: Tyrants Blood's Marco Banco

Tyrants Blood

Tyrant's Blood is a busy group of guys. For the past decade plus they've been out making music, playing shows, and recording albums.

Tridroid Records will be re-issuing their debut record on my birthday next month. Thank you for the awesome present!

Today guitarist, Marco Banco, talks the re-issue, Tyrants Blood, and the music industry in 2016.

Check it out.

Glacially Musical: First off, let's talk about your name. What does it mean?

Tyrants Blood: Tyrants Blood means a few different things to people. 

The tree of liberty must be refreshed with the blood of tyrants for instance. But to us the name described how we treated the band when we started in (20)05.

We were quite rigid in our ideals that we would not be  another hackish photo copy desperately attempting to appeal to any limp scene. 

Tour Diary #2: Jagged Mouth

11/01 Seattle, WA

The show was at a small bar called The Kraken in the "U district". We played with only 3/5 of a band called Morrow because the rest of the guys were underaged. A God Or Another played some good local short haired black metal next. Good stuff. Having friends in attendance who had transplanted to the area was a nice highlight. We played next and Ol'Dagger headlined.

So far the formula of having several genres of metal represented each night has really worked out well.

11/02 Portland OR

After all of us spending the night scattered in three different locations, we departed the Seattle area in the early afternoon, stopped at Trader Joe's in Olympia for lunch and supplies, and it was nice to have time to just enjoy the area and travel at an easy pace.

Top Ten of 2016 #4: Turbo Shokk

So you want to know Turbo Shokk's top 10 picks of 2016. 

We can't say that we're surprised. After all, if you want to know what's best, you ask the best - and when it comes to hard rocking heavy metal, Turbo Shokk is it. 

Michael Arcane (Drums), Razor O'Shea (Guitars, Bass) and Stack Manley (Vocals) present their best of 2016. 

You're welcome.

Album Review: "Anathema" by Endemise

Anathema

There is a tendency for black metal bands to fall into one of three categories, either ambient black metal such as Wolves in the Throne Room, symphonic black metal such as Dimmu Borgir or a modern version of second wave Norwegian black metal such as Mayhem.  

Some bands, such as Ottawa's Endemise, manage to cross reference all three of these.

At first glance, it is clearly symphonic black metal, as an underlying orchestration exists throughout the album, which provides the gravitus and emphasis unique to the genre.  

This is a personal favorite subgenre of black metal, but I was equally excited to find there were so many other elements to enjoy on the album.

Endemise had escaped my notice prior to this review, but I knew instantly I had chosen wisely within the first minute of the first song "Nocturne".  The track opens with sounds of  a forest campfire accompanied by haunting and atmospheric orchestration.  

Split EP Review: "Split" by Shroud Eater and Dead Hand

Split

The split EP.

Today we're taking a look at the first of a few of these that are coming down the pipe that, well, even with my personal aversion to them, cannot be passed over.

Doom/Stoner/Sludge/Horror/Whatever Metal is something that's really turning my wheels in this day and age.

Black Sabbath is what started my journey in to metal, well started the serious journey anyway. At the ripe old age of 9, The Road Warriors were using Iron Man as their entrance tune.

Little did I know, my best friend Tom, had Black Sabbath's Greatest Hits on cassette tape. Well, needless to say, hearing that tape really started me down the right path. Though, I'd been a fan of music for a few years prior to that, this awakening is what took me.

Vinyl Review: "MC Chris Is Dreaming" by MC Chris

MC Chris Is Dreaming

Let's get a few things nice and sparkling clear before we move forward.

There are two things I need to explain before we continue with this particular review. MC Chris is one of my absolute favorite artists.

Aside from the previous revelation, I am a giant nerd. Those of you who follow my twitter account have actually seen that. After all, part of my bio is the "guy wearing a Voltron shirt at a Slayer concert."

So, naturally being a big nerd, I've been familiar with nerd music for quite some time.

As can be seen in the unboxing video below, I received a copy of the standard LP and not the limited edition vinyl. As is common for artists not on a major label, it took some extra time to get a copy of the vinyl after the digital/CD release.

Interview: Turbo Shokk and Hair Replacement Metal

Over the years, many movements have come and gone.

Turbo Shokk has arrived and they're bringing their perfected version of hair metal to the masses.

Normally this intro would be a bit bigger, but our new friends are rather long winded, so let's just let them go at it.

Glacially Musical: Thank you for taking some time for me today. The word on the street is that Turbo Shokk is the real hair metal and everything else is just false metal. How did you become the first hair metal band?

Michael Arcane (drums): Whoa whoa whoa, you got it all wrong. We didn’t invent hair metal, we just perfected it, and are bringing it back. Like, I didn’t invent the grilled cheese sandwich either, but I did perfect it. The secret ingredient? Lots and lots of butter. Same as Turbo Shokk.

Razor O'Shea (guitar): You're close--we're the first Hair REPLACEMENT metal band. We make hard rockin' music for balding people. Every riff I write is like support group catharsis in audio form. 

LP Review: "The Brimstone Aggrandizement" by Echelon

The Brimstone Aggrandizement

Here's a quick preface.

Due to the recent events in America, I have grown angrier. Please expect to see lots of extreme metal.

There was a time, in the not too distant past, when Death Metal wasn't a thing.

Hell, back then we didn't even differentiate between different kinds of metal. Metallica was in the same group as Iron Maiden who was in the same group as Black Sabbath and sometimes Jefferson Airplane.

Yes, I'm old.

How so much has changed since those carefree days of youth, back when C# was as heavy and as low as we could go. Later on, Steve Vai would give the tools to Korn who made it easier to take metal into strange new places.