Skipping Kansas: Overkill

Dang. Overkill will be skipping us on their amazing tour next year. Closest date looks like Oklahoma.

Vader
Overkill
God Dethroned
Warbringer
Evile
Woe Of Tyrants

Apr. 01 - Philadelphia, PA @ The Trocadero
Apr. 02 - Worcester, MA @ The Palladium
Apr. 03 - Hartford, CT @ Webster Hall
Apr. 04 - Quebec City, QC @ Imperial de Quebec
Apr. 05 - Montreal, QC @ FouFounes
Apr. 06 - Toronto, ON @ Phoenix Concert Theater
Apr. 07 - Cincinnati, OH @ Bogarts
Apr. 08 - Detroit, MI @ Blondies
Apr. 09 - Chicago, IL @ The Metro
Apr. 10 - Milwaukee, WI @ The Rave
Apr. 11 - Minneapolis, MN @ Station 4
Apr. 13 - Denver, CO @ Gothic Theatre
Apr. 15 - Vancouver, BC @ Red Room
Apr. 16 - Seattle, WA @ El Corazon
Apr. 17 - Portland, OR @ Roseland Theater
Apr. 18 - San Francisco, CA @ The Grand Ballroom
Apr. 19 - Las Vegas, NV @ House of Blues
Apr. 20 - Los Angeles CA @ House of Blues
Apr. 21 - San Diego, CA @ House of Blues
Apr. 22 - Phoenix, AZ @ O.K.'s
Apr. 23 - Tucson, AZ @ The Rock
Apr. 24 - Farmington, NM @ Gators
Apr. 25 - Tulsa, OK @ Marquee
Apr. 26 - Austin, TX @ Emu's
Apr. 27 - Houston, TX @ Scout Bar
Apr. 28 - Dallas, TX @ Trees
Apr. 29 - Louisville, KY @ Headliners Music Hall
Apr. 30 - Springfield, VA @ Jaxx
May 01 - New York City, NY @ Nokia Theater

Get better soon, Dio!

Perhaps one of the best vocalists in metal, Ronnie James Dio (Dio, Rainbow, Black Sabbath, Heaven & Hell) was diagnosed recently with stomach cancer. He canceled a full European tour. Luckily, the cancer was found in its very early stages. Dio has said he'll do all that he can to be back on stage as soon as possible. Get well soon, Dio!

Skipping Kansas: Kreator (again)

One of the biggest German thrash acts of all time are coming back to the states. However, Kreator is skipping us. Again!

The line-up is:

** March 3-12:

KREATOR
VOIVOD
NACHTMYSTIUM
EVILE
LAZARUS A.D.

** March 13:

KREATOR
NACHTMYSTIUM
EVILE
LAZARUS A.D.

** March 14:

KREATOR
VOIVOD
NACHTMYSTIUM
EVILE
LAZARUS A.D.

** March 16:

KREATOR
EVILE
LIGHTNING SWORDS OF DEATH
LAZARUS A.D.

** March 18-31:

KREATOR
KATAKLYSM
EVILE
LIGHTNING SWORDS OF DEATH
LAZARUS A.D.

"Hordes Of Chaos Part II" tour dates:

March 03 - Jaxx, West Springfield, VA
March 04 - The Trocadero, Philadelphia, PA
March 05 - The Palladium (MA), Worcester, MA
March 06 - Nokia Theater, New York, NY
March 07 - Club Soda, Montreal, QUE
March 08 - Imperial de Quebec, Quebec City, QUE
March 09 - Opera House, Toronto, ONT
March 10 - Peabody's Cleveland, OH
March 11 - Blondie's, Detroit, MI
March 12 - The Bottom Lounge, Chicago, IL
March 13 - Rave, Milwaukee, WI
March 14 - Block Station 4, St Paul, MN
March 16 - Bluebird Theater, Denver, CO
March 18 - Corazon, Seattle, WA
March 19 - Rickshaw Theater, Vancouver, BC
March 20 - Hawthorne Theatre, Portland, OR
March 21 - Slim's, San Francisco, CA
March 23 - House of Blues, West Hollywood, CA
March 24 - House of Blues, San Diego, CA
March 25 - The Rock, Tucson, AZ
March 27 - Emo's Alternative Lounging, Austin, TX
March 28 - Meridian, Houston, TX
March 30 - The Club at Firestone, Orlando, FL
March 31 - The Masquerade, Atlanta, GA

Cannibal Corpse -- Kansas City, MO -- November 22nd, 2009

A great night! The place was pretty well packed, and people went really crazy for most of the bands. Great crowd, great bands, great experience.

Except for the warm-up band. They're local (I think?) and called Seasons After. They're pretty much the generic hard rock/"metal" bands you hear on the radio. Mudvayne, Stone Sour, etc. It was the generic formula you get from those songs and the singer was horrendous. People were yelling for them to get off the stage by the end of the first song. 2/10

Erik Rutan is the MAN. Third time seeing Hate Eternal and they were fantastic as always. Only a three-piece this time, no second guitarist. But it really didn't matter. Erik was definitely the best guitar player there tonight. Crowd was pretty meh for them. Unbelievable. Oh well, I think Hate Eternal and Mr. Rutan speak for themselves. 9/10

Bringer Of Storms
Behold Judas
I, Monarch
Catacombs (YES, DON'T EVER STOP PLAYING IT, ERIK!)
Fury Within
To Know Our Enemies/The Obscure Terror (I don't remember which!)
The King Of All Kings

I think I am older than every member of Born of Osiris. Seriously, I doubt any of them are above 21. It was funny. I knew I wasn't going to like them, but they were a lot less bad than I thought they'd be. If they got rid of all the deathcore garbage and breakdowns, their twin guitar work could actually produce something listenable! Other than that, it was pretty much 50% breakdowns. Sometimes they'd add keyboards on top, but it really didn't do much. They have potential, but they need to get away from deathcore. Still, probably the best (or least worst) deathcore band I've seen. Miles ahead of Winds of Plague and Whitechapel. 5/10

Unearth. It was my third time seeing them, so I knew what to expect. And to make matters worse, I was smack dab right in front of their douchey guitarist. I knew I was going to get beer spit on me, have him thrust his crotch in my face and whatnot. But you know what I did? I decided to headbang and play along with Unearth for the sake of maybe he wouldn't do stuff to me. And you know what?

It was great.

I know, but they were SO much better than the two times I saw them before. In fact, the guitarist was one of the best parts! He faked out giving me a pick a couple times before he finally gave me one. I got another one and gave it to this kid behind me who was going nuts. Unearth was actually...*gulp*...good. I had a great time. I dunno if I'd pay money to see them headline just yet, but they might be getting there. 7.5/10

Unearth opens for good bands. I saw them open for Slayer, then Testament, and now the mighty Cannibal Corpse. Third time this year for me seeing them, and they are one of the funnest live metal bands ever. "Death Walking Terror" remains the heaviest song ever live and "Hammer Smashed Face" is just fantastic to hear. I headbanged so hard that I had to stop, lest I wanted to vomit on the security guards.

I wasn't on the same side as Alex Webster, but after a few songs, people started chanting his name. He laughed. In fact, Paul Mazurkiewicz got a chant too! And I finally did it: I yelled out "FUCK THE ALLIANCE!" and Corpsegrinder laughed and said "Of course!" No Skull Full of Maggots, but it was still fantastic. 9.5/10

Evisceration Plague
The Time To Kill Is Now
Death Walking Terror
I Cum Blood
Fucked With A Knife
Pit Of Zombies
The Wretched Spawn
Make Them Suffer
Vomit The Soul
Priests Of Sodom
Unleashing The Bloodthirsty
Hammer Smashed Face
Stripped Raped and Strangled

I actually inteded to see most of Hatebreed, at least until they played the Slayer cover, but I was dead. Headbanged harder than ever, except for the last time I saw Skeletonwitch. Great show. Lots of good surprises, and all the bands really delivered.

Alice In Chains - A New Era!

Reactivated grunge metal gods Alice In Chains will be returning to the Midland Theater in Kansas City on February 21st, 2010. If you remember, Kansas City was the last US show AiC played before their singer, Layne Staley, passed away.

Tour alert: Devildriver

Devildriver will be hitting the road in the US in January of next year with Suffocation (rumored to be co-headlining), Goatwhore, and Thy Will Be Done. So far, the only 2 dates to surface are in Milwaukee and California, so I'll keep my eyes peeled.

Skipping Kansas: Awesome Behemoth tour

Amazing Behemoth tour is coming to the states, but no dates near us yet. Behemoth always tours a ton for each new release, so hopefully they'll be back within the year.

Behemoth
Septicflesh
Shining

Jan. 07 - Philadelphia, PA - Theatre of the Living Arts
Jan. 08 - W. Springfield, VA - Jaxx
Jan. 09 - Raleigh, NC - Volume 11
Jan. 10 - Atlanta, GA - Masquerade
Jan. 11 - Tampa, FL - State Theatre
Jan. 13 - Austin, TX - Emo’s
Jan. 15 - Tucson, AZ - The Rock
Jan. 16 - Los Angeles, CA - House of Blues
Jan. 17 - San Francisco, CA - Slims
Jan. 18 - Portland, OR - Hawthorne Theater
Jan. 19 - Seattle, WA - El Corazon
Jan. 21 - Calgary, AB - Republik
Jan. 22 - Edmonton, AB - The Starlite Room
Jan. 23 - Regina, SK - The District
Jan. 24 - Winnipeg, MB - WECC
Jan. 25 - St. Paul, MN - Station 4
Jan. 26 - Chicago, IL - House of Blues
Jan. 27 - Cleveland, OH - Peabody's
Jan. 28 - Pittsburgh, PA - Mr. Smalls
Jan. 30 - New York, NY - Gramercy Theatre

Skipping Kansas: American Carnage

Jealous of the sweet Canadian Carnage tour featuring Slayer and Megadeth? Well don't...

They're coming here! With a better line-up! (well, not HERE here, but the States at least)

Slayer
Megadeth
Testament
(rumored)High On Fire

JANUARY
18 WaMu Theatre, Seattle, WA*
19 Memorial Coliseum, Portland, OR (tickets sold via www.rosequarter.com)
21 Cow Palace, San Francisco, CA*
22 Long Beach Arena, Long Beach, CA * (tickets on sale 11/21)
23 Dodge Theatre, Phoenix, AZ**
25 Magness Arena, Denver, CO*
26 Tingley Coliseum, Albuquerque, NM*
27 El Paso Coliseum, El Paso, TX*
29 Verizon Wireless, Houston, TX**
31 Municipal Auditorium, Nashville, TN*

FEBRUARY
1 Gwinnett Arena, Duluth, GA*
2 Broadbent Arena, Louisville, KY* (tickets on sale 12/4)
4 Roy Wilkins Auditorium, Minneapolis, MN* (tickets on sale 12/4)
5 UIC Pavilion, Chicago, IL* (tickets on sale 12/4)
6 Cobo Arena, Detroit, MI*
9 Chevrolet Theatre, Wallingford, CT**
11 Izod Center, East Rutherford, NJ*
13 Susquehanna Center, Camden, NJ*
14 Tsongas Arena, Lowell, MA*
16 Pavillon de la Jeunesse, Quebec City, QC (tickets sold via Billetech.com)
18 John Labatt Centre, London, ON (tickets on sale 11/27 via JohnLabattCentre.com)
19 Air Canada Centre, Toronto, ON (tickets sold via Ticketmaster.ca)
20 Bell Centre, Montreal, QC (tickets sold via Admission.com)
22 Moncton Coliseum, Moncton, NB (tickets sold via MonctonColiseum.com)
23 Metro Centre, Halifax, NS (tickets sold via TicketAtlantic.com

*Tickets sold through Ticketmaster
**Tickets sold through Live Nation

Art Brut -- Lawrence, KS -- November 7th, 2009

Formed a Band
Bad Weekend
My Little Brother
Summer Job
Modern Art
Rusted Gun of Milan
What A Rush
Pump Up the Volume
Good Weekend
Direct Hit
Emily Kane
The Passenger
DC Comics And Chocolate Milkshake
Alcoholics Unanimous
18,000 Lira
Post Soothing Out

9/10

Best surprise live band of the year for me. I hate all my friends who told me this band was britpop, they are pretty much a punk rock band with Smiths-overtones (if that makes a lick of sense). Extremely loud and really awesome.

Thank you Lawrence.com for the tix!

M Art Brut! Top of the Pops!

Metal As Art 2010 Tour

Hypno5e
Revocation
The Binary Code

Pretty good tour early on next year. I saw Revocation open up for Quo Vadis in Maryland and their new album is great as well. It'll be in Lawrence at the Replay Lounge on January 31st, and in Kansas City at the Riot Room (21+) on February 2nd.

Overkill 2010 US Tour!

After touring pretty much everywhere last year with Exodus, East Coast thrash titans (and the band that should totally be in the Big 4 instead of Anthrax), OVERKILL will be touring North America in Spring of 2010 with the killer line-up of polish death metal titans VADER and blackened death metal killers GOD DETHRONED! No exact dates have been set, but it looks like it'll take place in April.

EVIL!

NEVER DIES!

Album Review: Slayer - World Painted Blood

1. World Painted Blood
2. Unit 731
3. Snuff
4. Beauty Through Order
5. Hate Worldwide
6. Public Display Of Dismemberment
7. Human Strain
8. Americon
9. Psycopathy Red
10. Playing With Dolls
11. Not Of This God

In my personal experience, it seems acceptable in the metal community to completely dismiss Slayer after "Seasons In The Abyss" in 1990. And for a while, I'd have agreed. Some fans say they haven't been good since South of Heaven, some say they haven't released a good album since "Divine Intervention". Whichever you may think, Slayer definitely has altered their music since the 90's, and the wariness that Slayer fans felt then has carried over into the 2000's. "God Hates Us All" was down-tuned and appealing to the "nu-metal" crowd, whereas "Christ Illusion" in 2006 only partly made amends for the 16 years prior to it, but ultimately failed. As we almost close out the first decade of 2000, Slayer returns once again with their tenth studio album. And Slayer fans should rejoice: they're back. Kind of.

First things first: There are some songs on this album that sound like they come right out of their '80s period. The beginning of "Snuff" sounds right at home on "South of Heaven" and "Public Display Of Dismemberment" could be mistaken as an unused track from the "Reign In Blood" sessions. Of course, Slayer still has some faults. There are still unconventional "Slayer songs" which do nothing but harm the band at this stage. "Human Strain" is definitely an odd-sounding song and ultimately sounds like something off of "God Hates Us All". I understand why Slayer wouldn't want to make a straight-up, balls-out thrash record at all times, but they've been like that for the better part of 20 years now. Had they taken the Slayer formula of war and satanic lyrics with speed and solos, this could've easily been album of the year. Another fault that should be mentioned (as I'm sure it's been mentioned about Slayer since 1994): Tom needs to stop yelling. It's sounding too forced these days. "Playing With Dolls" has a creepy vibe throughout and it features Tom actually singing through parts of the song which make it a very interesting song, albeit lacking in the end.

Also: "Americon" might just be the stupidest Slayer song ever released, lyrics-wise. Without even looking, I bet that Kerry King penned the lyrics. "It's all about the motherfuckin' oil/Regardless of the flag upon its soil". COME ON.

But I digress. "World Painted Blood" injects new life into the worn down thrash machine that is Slayer. "Unit 731" and "Snuff" have enough breakneck speed to satisfy old-school thrash fans, and "Psycopathy Red" might just be the best Slayer song written since 1990. The band still has its chops. The songs are still unmistakably Slayer, but they must have been listening to the myriad of forum posts on the internet about the guitar solos sounding the same. Lots of varied stuff here, but not enough to forget that it's Mr. King and Mr. Hanneman on the axes. The bass break (first ever for Slayer?!) in "Psycopathy Red" shows Mr. Araya has still got it, even if he needs to stop screaming all the time. Trust us, Tom. You sound a lot better when you let the lyrics come naturally. I've always been a huge fan of Mr. Lombardo's skill on the skins, but unfortunately, it doesn't seem like it really shines through on this album. Not to say that it's bad, just nothing too special.

The mix is not good on this album. It's not "Death Magnetic" bad, but it's still not that great. You have to really listen to pick up the drumming and the guitars are pretty "tinny" at times as well. It shouldn't make too much of a difference to die-hard Slayer fans, though.

At the end of the day, Slayer released a record. As the most consistent of the Big 4 of thrash metal, that should be more than enough reason to pick it up. But if you need more convincing, just know that "World Painted Blood" has Slayer back to being the thrash monster terrorizer that we all know and love. It's not perfect, but as long as you don't compare this album to any of their other albums (which you shouldn't do anyway), you'll find that Slayer is faster, hungrier, and a hell of a lot more evil than they have been in a while. SLAYER!!!

85/100

Stand-out tracks: Unit 731, Snuff, Psycopathy Red