Not so long ago Upon a Burning Body pulled one of the stranger marketing stunts I’ve ever seen, when they faked the disappearance/kidnapping of lead singer Danny Leal. All of this came about in the lead up to the release of their newest album, The World Is Our Enemy. Now this was quickly exposed as the hoax that it was and the whole incident was puzzled over with, as it tends to now a days, many people declaring it to be the worst thing that has ever happened blah blah blah. However, there is no denying, having now heard The World Is Our Enemy, that the whole incident was very bizarre and in many ways a possible look into the future of our music industry.
Andrew O’Neill: A History of Heavy Metal
So the Edinburgh Fringe is in full swing and with my dissertation finally over I have been able to catch a couple of shows. Unsurprisingly, Andrew O’Neill’s History of Heavy Metal was one of the first that caught my eye. Those of you who are regular attendees of Sonisphere and Download may be aware of O’Neill, as he has regularly appeared on the comedy stages of both due to his musical leanings. Far from being a gimmick, O’Neill genuinely appears to live and breath heavy metal and because of that has put together this show, allowing him to talk about heavy metal to an audience that – assuming they have seen the name of the show – know what to expect.
Gimmick Metal
Gimmick metal bands are hardly a new thing. In fact having a ‘gimmick’ is something that has been around in heavy metal pretty much since the start. People like Alice Cooper have made legendary careers out of a gimmick and there is nothing wrong with that. One of my favourite gigs of all time was watching Alice Cooper on Halloween. It was the perfect gimmick fitting the perfect occasion. In recent years this gimmickry seems to have grown however and I am personally getting a bit fed up of it.
An Intelligent Blockbuster
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is one of the most interesting blockbusters you will see this year. This is not only because it finally puts Andy Serkis on the top of the billing, acknowledging that his performance in a motion capture suit is equally as important as a flesh and blood actor, but because it remembers that just because you are playing to a mass audience, it doesn’t mean you have to go dumb.
Machine Head at Liquid Rooms, 31/7/2014
Sometimes you just know that a gig is going to be special. Machine Head deciding they were going to go on a UK club tour, was very much one of those occasions. This is a band that on recent trips to the UK have played Wembley Arena and headlined Bloodstock. Now they are crammed into a venue which bands half their size could easily fill.
The Joys of Angry Music
There is a common misconception that all heavy music is angry. Yet that couldn’t be further from the truth. If I listen to a band like Metallica or Iron Maiden, anger is usually the last thing on my mind. Yet to many people those bands are the personification of heavy metal. However, that does not hide the fact that there are some very angry bands out there, who recently I have taken a lot of joy out of spending time listening to.
Wrassling Metal
Now a quick look in the sport section of this site will show that I am a bit of a wrestling fan. It is something that a while back I would have been quite reticent to mention, I was kind of embarrassed by it. However, as the years go by I have realised that that is just a bit silly and have embraced my love of spandex clad men pretending to fight. Something I have less been able to embrace my love of is ‘wrestling metal’.
My Thoughts on Illegal Downloading
So earlier today I read this article after Chris Hewitt, News Editor at Empire Magazine, posted it online. Now I have verged on talking about the piracy issue in the past, but it is something I generally try to avoid. I cannot sit here and claim that I have never downloaded anything illegally or streamed it online. Of course I have. If I want to watch a film that is not in my DVD collection or on Netflixs I will download it, it is not something I am proud of but when the option is there I am usually found lacking.
Music fans and Petitions
So in the last few weeks I have seen a few online petitions going around for a variety of musical based reasons. One of these was asking Ghost as a band to break up, because they are not heavy metal (seriously how much of a twat do you have to be to create that) and another one requesting that Iron Maiden go back to having Derek Riggs design their album artwork. Of course, campaigns like this are not new. Weezer once famously had someone attempt to raise ten million dollars, which he was going to offer to them as long as they promised to never make music again. Yet in recent years Change.Org seems to be getting filled up more and more with stupid petitions and more often than ever before, they tend to be aimed at some of our favourite artists.
The Return of the Drog
As a Chelsea fan the return of Didier Drogba is a minefield of emotion. On one hand this is the guy who made our team tick for so many years, he is the perfect Mourinho striker and played a big part in some of the best moments of my Chelsea supporting life. On the other hand, the old saying states you should never go back for a reason.
Ramblings About Wrestling 