Tag Archives: Metal

Tuesday: Castle at Kobo

Tuesday night, San Francisco’s Castle brings their thrashy doom metal to Kobo. A couple of Columbus’s finest metal bands – Sleepers Awake and Ride to Ruin – share the bill. Doors at 8, show at 9. $7 will get you in the door.

DonewaitingTV presents EYE – live at Relay Recording

When we invited the guys in EYE to come record a song for DonewaitingTV at Relay Recording in June, little did we know that they’d blow our minds with a 19-minute epic space-metal jam.

Here is the world premiere of EYE’s “Usurpers/Restorers” from their Kemado Records debut, Center of the Sun.

EYE is Matt Auxier, Matt Bailey, Adam Smith, Brandon Smith

Session notes:
Recorded on June 10, 2012 at Relay Recording Studio
Audio engineer: Jon Fintel
Audio assistant: Roseanne Clariborne
Video producer: Dan Hoffman
Videographers: Dan Hoffman, David Foulk, James McCullars

Thursday: Pallbearer & Royal Thunder at Ace of Cups

Pallbearer with Royal Thunder and Before the Eyewall play their only Ohio date at Ace of Cups on Thursday, September 13. Doors are at 8pm, show at 8:30. Tickets are $8 in advance (at Ace of Cups), $10 at the door.

How many times have I reviewed an instrumental band saying, “Not bad but find it hard to write more than a few words about the ebb and flow of the music. If they had vocals, there would be something I could latch onto and at least discuss that”? Arkansas’s Pallbearer has taken the metal instrumental sound (think of a heavier, doomier Mogwai) and added what could best (best? maybe not, but the best I can do) be described as early Ozzy-like vocals more for effect than for the listener to grab onto and singalong with.

On the current tour, sponsored by Scion A/V, Pallbearer is joined by (slipping into my Bill & Ted voice) the most excellent Royal Thunder who I had the great fortunate of interviewing earlier this year prior to the show at Ace of Cups with Baroness. For my money (and I’m sure some will disagree), Royal Thunder stole the show as Mlny Parsonz led the band through an amazing set of classic hard rock/stonerish anthems that I describe to the uninitiated as early Ann Wilson (Heart) fronting Led Sabbath.

Interview: Royal Thunder

Royal Thunder opens for Baroness at Ace of Cups on Wednesday night. The Facebook event page says doors open at 8, with Royal Thunder going on at 8:30. Tickets are $15 at the door.

On heavy rotation in my ears the past few weeks has been an advance copy of Royal Thunder’s CVI which Relapse Records will be releasing in all sorts of different formats (sorry, no cassettes) on May 22. In simple terms, the Atlanta band sounds like Ann Wilson of Heart fronting Led Sabbath – Royal Thunder obviously influenced by the early stoner rock bands of the ’70s.

Already making a wave in Atlanta and the south – where heavy music is thriving – Royal Thunder’s been invited to join Baroness on a few dates in the next week including a Columbus show at Ace of Cups on Wednesday night, giving the four-piece an opportunity to try new material out in front of metal-loving crowds.

Singer/bassist Mlny Parsonz was kind enough to answer questions via email and she responded within an hour of receiving them which makes for the quickest response I’ve ever received when conducting interviews this way.

I have 3 kids and I won’t answer the question, “Which is your favorite?” because each one brings joy to my life in a different way. BUT … I’m asking you to pick – If Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin both announced reunion tours running the entire summer of 2012 and somebody owed your booking agent a huge favor and gave you the option of opening one of these tours, which one would you pick and why?

When I was in high school, some friends and I piled into a van and drove to PA to see the Black Sabbath reunion tour with Pantera in the late ‘90s. So we pull into PA and turn on the local rock station only to hear the DJ say “The Sabbath show is canceled due to Ozzy having voice issues”. Being a HUGE Sabbath fan, I was surprised at how much I hated them at that moment. We went to a hockey game instead; I walked away a Pittsburgh Penguins fan(!) and finished off the night drinking booze, and sulking while we watched “What Dreams May Come”. Our tickets were good for the reschedule in ATL, so we eventually did get to see ‘em and needless to say it ruled.

Saw Page and Plant in the late ‘90s as well! They were doing some homoerotic tour together and I enjoyed every bit of that sexy display while smoking PCP.

All this to say, what was the better show? Sabbath. Who would I wanna tour with? Zeppelin. Sabbath. Zeppelin. Sabbath. Well fuck, what came first, the chicken or the egg? That’s how I feel about this question. Ha. Legends man, LEGENDS!!
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Monday: Diamond Plate opens for Overkill @ Screamin’ Willies

30-year thrash vets Overkill are obviously the draw on this Monday night Metal bill at Screamin’ Willies on the east side of Columbus but the bill is stacked with up-and-comers opening the show.

Diamond Plate can no longer be considered “kids” on the thrash metal scene, having formed in Chicago in 2004, but they are among the newer bands that pay homage to ’80s/’90s metal by assaulting listeners with furious guitar playing, machine-gun drumming and vocals that sound like the devil himself screaming in a lake of fire.

Diamond Plate’s 2011 full-length debut, Generation Why?, finds the band taking the Megadeth/Slayer/Anthrax sound found on their 2009 EP, Relativity, and moving into a metalcore direction, as evidenced primarily in the vocals. There’s still some melody found in Diamond Plate’s music which might piss off thrash purists, but these guys rank up among Warbringer and Havok as some of the better new “old school” thrash bands out there today.

Screamin’ Willies is located at 1921 Channingway Center Drive in the Reynoldsburg area. Tickets are $17 at the doors which open at 6pm. The full bill is: Overkill, Godforbid, Suidakra, Diamond Plate, Sourblood, Beneath the Sea.

Sunday: The Sword @ Outland

Gonna be a heavy-ass weekend in Columbus. Start off with with the sludgy/stoner/’70s-rock Saviours at Ace of Cups on Saturday night (w/ Ramming Speed, Charlie Hustle, and Yeti) and follow it up with the head-bashing triple bill of The Sword, Black Cobra and Mount Carmel at Outland on Liberty on Sunday. Both of these shows are the ONLY Ohio shows on these individual tour itineraries. Take that Cleveland and Cincinnati!

The Sword’s 2010 release, Warp Riders, is an unironic slab of monolithic Sabbath-y riffs as interpreted by a Texas band with early ZZ Top flowing in their bloodstream. At least that’s the way I hear it. This is The Sword’s first appearance in Columbus since a sold-out January 2009 date at the Ravari Room. The Sword is on tour with Kyuss Lives (too bad we couldn’t get THAT bill here) and doing Columbus as a one-off. Not to be outdone, Black Cobra’s latest, Invernal, sounds like Ministry without the industrial noises. Pretty hardcore and in-yer-muthafuckin-face if you ask me (did you?).

Tickets for The Sword show are $15 at the door.

Wednesday: Death Angel @ The Alrosa Villa

When Anthrax, Testament and Death Angel fall tour dates were announced a few months ago, there appeared to be a hole in the schedule on November 16. This left metalheads in central Ohio with a little bit of hope that PromoWest would deliver a killer bill at one of their venues. But within hours of the initial tour announcement, the Alrosa Villa posted info about a one-off Death Angel show thus eliminating any chance of the full bill hitting Columbus.

Back in my formative years (late ’80s/early ’90s) I knew of Death Angel as the thrash metal Filipino-American kids. I don’t think that really helped them get airplay on Headbanger’s Ball, but “Bored” was a staple and the band member’s ages (all in their late teens) was usually mentioned. After going on hiatus for 10 years, a few of the original members (singer Mark Osegueda and guitarist Rob Cavestany) got back together with a revolving door of new members. The current lineup, touring behind 2010’s Relentless Retribution, has been together since 2009.

(Old school Death Angel vs New school Death Angel)

A full night of metal takes place Wednesday at the Alrosa with a lineup of Death Angel, Dismemberment, Skullbomb, Fade to Oblivion, A.O.D., and Strikken. Doors open at 6 with music to start shortly thereafter. Tickets are $14.

Friday: Skeletonwitch @ Ravari Room

Now that they’re gracing the cover of Decibel Magazine, Skeletonwitch’s stock is sure to rise which means the days of playing venues like Ravari Room are numbered. Being the featured story in one of the best metal periodicals on store shelves is a well-deservered honor for the Athens, Ohio band that’s been laying waste to Ohio and the rest of the world since 2003.

This week, the ‘Witch released Forever Abomination, a punishing slab of devil’s spit that’s as heavy as metal comes. Chance Garnette’s demonic growls scare the living bejesus out of me – they’re the possessed sounds you pray you’ll forget about when waking up from the worst nightmare you’ve ever had. And while the band’s music can fairly fall into many different subgenres of metal (death, black, thrash), guitarists Nathan Garnette and Scott Hedrick and bassist Evan Linger definitely are at least partially influenced by ’80s European metal acts such as Iron Maiden and Judas Priest.

Reduced To The Failure Of Prayer by Prosthetic Records

Skeletonwitch’s Forever Abomination CD release show at the Ravari Room on Friday night features guests Shrine of Suffering and The Pandemic Nemesis. Doors open at 9pm and the cover is $12.

Tour: Anthrax/Testament/Death Angel

Anthrax and Testament have just announced a co-headlining tour with Death Angel serving as the opening act. Anthrax is touring to support Worship Music which will come out later this month and may very well be the best metal album of 2011 (review forthcoming) while Testament has a new album coming out in 2012.

From the press release:

The Anthrax fan club presale begins today at www.anthraxarmy.com, and the public on-sale kicks off Friday, September 9 at 10AM local time. For more information or to purchase tickets, log onto http://anthrax.com http://www.testamentlegions.com/ or http://deathangel.us/

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Quick, name a song that should never be covered.

How about the ’80s all-star metal fundraising song “We’re Stars” by Hear n’ Aid?

A bunch of Manitoba musicians decided to pay tribute to Ronnie James Dio by covering the song.

I apologize in advance.

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