**Summer Slaughter with Cephalic Carnage, The Red Chord, Decrepit Birth, Decapitated and the Faceless www.myspace.com/summerslaughter

**Warped Tour with Whitechapel www.myspace.com/whitechapel

**Mayhem Fest with Lamb of God www.lamb-of-god.com

**The Cool Tour with As I Lay Dying, BTBAM and the Acacia Strain (see below….)   www.cooltour10.com

**Ozzfest….. maybe? Goatwhore, Kingdom of Sorrow and Skeletonwitch will be there…  www.ozzfest.com

**The new Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza record Danza III: A Series of Unfortunate Events drops Tuesday, July 6^th and track 2 from that album is the title of this edition of WhatTheFuckIsKatieBrutalUpTo  - definitely pick it up, it’s pure Danza and fun as shit, I’ve been crankin it for over a month now…     www.myspace.com/tonydanzatapdanceextravaganza

**Check out Super Black Object for something completely different… they remind me a bit of Mexico’s Hacavitz… dark and raw and creepy… www.myspace.com/superblackobject

**Scott Hull’s (Pig Destroyer, Agoraphobic Nosebleed) This Comp Kills Fascists II also slays….  www.myspace.com/thiscompkillsfascists

**I also pulled out The Abominable Iron Sloth again after a recent conversation… so easy to get into The Id Will Overcome…  www.myspace.com/theironsloth

Plus, I just got three new tracks from the Acacia Strain (Wormwood out 7/20) which I’m currently allowing to deafen me, and I’m seeing Faith No More for the first time ever on Monday in Brooklyn at the Williamsburg Waterfront www.freewilliamsburg.com

So while I think it’s awesome that we’re observing the birthday of our country this weekend, I think it’s also worth noting that metal is still fucking kickin it too.  Do yourself a favor and hit a show, buy a t-shirt, pick up an album… it’s summer. Let’s celebrate.

Yippee-Kay-Yay, motherfuckers.

It’s almost impossible, once you’ve started listening, not to plow through the record.  The menacing attack that inevitably hits in each track finds itself smoothly interrupted by melodic guitar breaks from time to time, an approach not often taken by Whitechapel in previous recordings. While still holding true to the sounds that got them to this point, the addition of these melodies to their otherwise brutal sound emancipates Whitechapel from the strictly deathcore genre in which they’ve thrived, proving that all three guitarists Ben Savage, Alex Wade and Zach Householder and bassist Gabe Crisp are now not merely chug-masters, but are truly honing their artistry as musicians. The melodies serve their purpose, beautifully interspersed, giving a little relief and then providing the path towards a deeper plunge into the merciless pummeling: Whitechapel dole out the punishments all over this record. Kevin Lane absolutely annihilates his drums, which actually take the beating in stride… I need to ask him how big his toms are. They sound deep, dark and huge. I can hear a little Randy creeping into Phil’s voice, but perhaps that’s just the Richmond air I’m smellin these days… he still has his thick gutterals going full blast.

“Devolver” is brilliant.  ”Breeding Violence” makes me wanna bounce up and down, making that track the one I’m most excited to see Whitechapel play live this summer, especially with Phil’s intoxicating vocal cadence. I always love an Acacia Strain riff, which is apparently green-lit since Vincent shows up on “Murder Sermon.”  ”The Darkest Day of Man” – “it’s only getting worse” – has a fabulous d-tune on the downswing, and the guest vox on “Reprogrammed To Hate” woke me right up (not that I was asleep, mind you) – most certainly the gnarliest vox Deftones‘ Chino Moreno has put down in recent years.  In “End of Flesh,” I’m pulled by the lolling guitars, antagonized by Kevin’s rolling double kicks and enticed by Phil’s vocal vomiting.

Whitechapel have certainly created something of which to really be proud. “A New Era Of Corruption” drops today from Metal Blade Records, go buy that shit.  They’re currently doing the European festival circuit (with As I Lay Dying) and will back in the states for the Warped Tour in July.  Can’t. Wait.

myspace.com/whitechapel

aneweraofcorruption.com

I also find it fitting that Adam D (who I last saw playing beer pong with a box from a case of beer as a hat) from KSE is heading up the production on this one, as his band also convinced me to rejoin the metal world at that time. Adam has perfected the sonic sheen on metal records – for example check out any of the albums in the last 6 years from All That Remains, Norma Jean, Unearth, Underoath and of course his work on all the Killswitch records solidly identifies the bands to which he puts his touch.

As I Lay Dying may be the only metal band that actually makes me feel like I’m falling in love – the emotions they evoke with their guitar melodies, it’s almost like dark chocolate for the ears. Their fifth full-length record is The Powerless Rise. All in all, I think this one completely annihilates their last record in brutality. “Anodyne Sea” is my favourite on the first couple of listens, and will most certainly become a perfect addition to the already stellar line-up of AILD classics.

“The Plague” has the meat, right out of the gate and I’m back to swooning for the guitars (Nick and Phil, geniuses, both) in “Upside Down Kingdom,” while Josh rounds out the tones. Solid drumming from Jordan on this one (no surprise there) – the drum sounds are big and fat and a little verby…maybe a little too verby, but that’s just me.

I am a huge Tim Lambesis fan, and smile to myself when I hear a little Austrian Death Machine vox sneak in there (bound to remind me, of course) and although my tastes tend to run dark and evil (I’ve been known to shudder when any band breaks into harmonies…) now I find that I don’t mind so much anymore. In “The Blinding Of False Light” Tim melds his monstrous vocals with Josh’s melodic singing flawlessly.

As I Lay Dying has established themselves as amazing musicians, with a solid discography, a Grammy nod and a sound that many try to duplicate and fail miserably. (Unless they get Adam D… then they can get a little closer, at least.) The Powerless Rise drops from Metal Blade Records on May 11th. Can’t wait to see them live again. Oh look, I can on Thursday:

Mon 05/03/10 Des Moines, IA People’s

Tue 05/04/10 Springfield, MO Remmington’s

Wed 05/05/10 Louisville, KY Headliners Music Hall

Thu 05/06/10 Richmond, VA The National

Fri 05/07/10 Allentown, PA Crocodile Rock Cafe

Sat 05/08/10 Pittsburgh, PA Mr. Small’s Theatre

Sun 05/09/10 Pittsburgh, PA Mr. Small’s Theatre

Mon 05/10/10 Nashville, TN Rocketown

Tue 05/11/10 Chicago, IL House Of Blues

Wed 05/12/10 Minneapolis, MN The Cabooze

Thu 05/13/10 Kansas City, MO Beaumont Club

Fri 05/14/10 Englewood, CO Gothic Theatre

Sat 05/15/10 Magna, UT The Great Saltair

Sun 05/16/10 Boise, ID Knitting Factory Concert House

Mon 05/17/10 Spokane, WA Knitting Factory Concert House

Tue 05/18/10 Eugene, OR McDonald Theatre

Thu 05/20/10 Reno, NV Knitting Factory Concert House

Fri 05/21/10 San Diego, CA SOMA San Diego

Sat 05/22/10 Las Vegas, NV House Of Blues

Out on tour with not a lot of my favourite bands, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go early. They’re also booked to rock the Download Festival with AC/DC on June 11th in the UK and on the 25th, playing at Gods Of Metal in Italy. Fuckin’ right, guys.

“Hi! I should be on the guestlist…?”

Two texts, a phone call, a handing-of-my-phone-over-to-the-nice-smiling-chica-running-the-will-call-office-who-then-handed-the-phone-to-her-boss…. And we were in. (New town and a newer venue for me to frequent… you never know if it’s going to come through or not… but it did.  Thanks to all of the wonderful people involved in that exchange!)

Unfortunately, we missed Between the Buried and Me, which I was relatively bummed about, but I HAD caught them at the 9:30 Club in DC on their last tour in 2009 – I want to say it was when they were out with the Faceless, so it’s not as though it was the end of the world.  I’m sure they were fantastic. (If you were there, please feel free to comment below… on Valient Thorr‘s performance as well!)

Mastodon took the stage after 9p.m.  Projected behind the big, hairy men was a film that seemed to include Rick Rubin (playing Rasputin, of course) who eventually got into a sword fight with the devil… along with a naked male who kept appearing in a very precarious situation with his, um, highly extended, coiled umbilical cord lit like a stick of dynamite… Symbolism. Ha. All of the images came from the amazing artwork from not only C.T.S. (including the starlit night sky for the astral projection imagery) but as the evening progressed, previous album artwork as well.  (I actually grabbed a sweet drawing from deviantart for this review – http://deathbox-was-taken.deviantart.com/art/Mastodon-Blood-Mountain-92434242 )

Mastodon kicked off the set with “Oblivion” which got my blood pumping right away, but, as pointed out by my gf, perhaps due to the fact that it’s towards the beginning of the tour, Brann’s vocals were nowhere in the mix.  Maybe he wasn’t singing.  Maybe Brent was supposed to be doing Brann’s part. No clue. But that was a little awkward.  After the rough start though – which may have just been an audio glitch – and Troy’s apparent little struggle with his in-ear mix, the rest of the set was practically flawless.  The sound was thick, the lighting appropriate and tastefully done as to not interfere with the constant images on the screen.  They rocked out tons of tracks off their newest record, Crack The Skye, with favourites thrown in like “Seabeast” and “March Of The Fire Ants” in their encore, which I can’t imagine NOT hearing when venturing out to catch these boys live.  Honestly, I don’t think it’s possible to walk away from a Mastodon show not completely impressed.

We were lucky enough to get to grab some time with most of the band afterwards and even shared a couple beers at the Capital Ale House (good god is their beer list massive.) Brent mentioned his passion for all the side projects he’s been doing – I’d check out fellow ATL band Zoroaster’s new track “White Dwarf” as an example…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZkFe-oDoRyo&feature=player_embedded

The dudes got their bus call and Suzy and I, as our luck continued, grabbed a ride home from yet another nice, hairy boy before heading straight to bed (it was a Sunday evening, afterall…)

By all means necessary, go catch this show.  Baroness, along with Valient Thorr, is on the tour for the duration and please try not to miss BTBAM like me… go early.

April 21st Sayreville, NJ – Starland Ballroom

April 22nd Hartford, CT – Webster

April 23rd Worcester, MA – Palladium

April 24th Burlington, VT – Higher Ground

April 26th Pittsburgh, PA – Palace Theater

April 27th Rochester, NY – Water Street

April 29th Grand Rapids, MI – Orbit Room

April 30th Indianapolis, IN – Vogue

May 01st Columbia, MO – Blue Note

May 03rd Albuquerque, NM – Sunshine Theater

May 04th Tucson, AZ – Rialto

May 05th San Diego, CA – House Of Blues

May 07th Pomona, CA – Fox

May 08th Oakland, CA – The Missing Link

May 09th Reno, NV – Knitting Factory

May 10th Eugene, OR – McDonald Theater

May 11th Spokane, WA – Knitting Factory

May 13th Billings, MT – The Shrine

May 14th Fargo, ND – The Venue

May 15th Omaha, NE – Sokol Hall

May 16th Lawrence, KS – Liberty Hall

May 18th Madison, WI – Orpheum

May 19th Urbana, IL – Canopy Club

May 20th Memphis, TN – Minglewood

May 21st Knoxville, TN – Valarium

May 22nd Lexington, KY – Busters

So you would imagine how super excited I was to learn that Danza (out of Nashville) is back on the road with Through The Eyes of The Dead, Impending Doom, Arsonists Get All The Girls and Chelsea Grin (and is actually going to be playing JUST mere blocks away from me here in Richmond at the Canal Club later in the month…) PLUS they released the first song off their upcoming record Danza III “I Am Sammy Jankis” – to listen:

http://bit.ly/901SXg

New album drops early summer.  Check out the Road To Metalfest dates and go support a band who is still writing new metal… not “nu” metal. But NEW FUCKING METAL

http://www.myspace.com/tonydanzatapdanceextravaganza

Fuckin’ slays. Can’t wait.

And although there doesn’t seem to be anything super interesting about this video, other than the flashes of “priests” torturing a chick in the woods and committing other acts that men of the cloth should probably never commit, I still get a thrill from the fact that there is a video at all… and you can see it here:

bloody-disgusting.com.

“It is with great regret that DragonForce announce a parting of the ways with singer ZP Theart. This is due to insurmountable differences of musical opinion but the rest of the band sincerely wishes ZP great success with his future projects.”

The band has begun a global search for his replacement immediately: “We are looking for a powerful, melodic singer to write a new chapter of DragonForce with us.” said guitarist Herman Li.

If you have the chops to do this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jgrCKhxE1s

you should go here: www.dragonforce.com/audition.

Have a nice day.

I can’t say I’ve enjoyed an album more in 2010 than Bangers, the Metal Blade debut from Montreal’s Barn Burner.  Since it’s only the end of January, that statement may sound like a backhanded compliment – make no mistake: Barn Burner is the shit.

I foresee these dudes quickly rising to the very tippy top of the “stoner rock” genre, putting a couple notches in their belts in other musical categories as they climb.  I find them to be way more palatable than The Sword and Fu Manchu, while still nestling in that kind of sound.  Bangers has some of the best rock tracks I’ve heard in years, ripe with biting lyrics, badass grooves and familiar riffage.  They don’t disappoint in touching on the typical topics of smoking drugs (“Holy Smokes,” “Beer Today, Bong Tomorrow”) and there’s that damn Wizard (thanks Sabbath) to whom so many of these groups feel the need to pay homage, but I adore the foray into redneck territory with “Fast Women.”

The musicianship is strong, the writing is solid, the melodies and lyrics are catchy – I can picture people across America driving in their cars, busting guts singing along with “Brohemoth.”  Vocalist/guitarist Kevin Keegan, with nods in the direction of Page Hamilton–style vocals in dismissively spitting out what he really thinks, is already a pro; Marc Doucette and Nick Ball would have no problem engaging the QOTSA guys in a session and Taylor Freund’s timing makes me so comfy I want to sit in his lap.

These dudes can fuckin’ rock it out. I am desperate to see Barn Burner play live.  So far no planned tours have been announced, but the boys will be doing a set at SXSW on March 18th at East End Tattoo, so if you’re in the Austin area, and can, GO.  For the rest of us, this will have to suffice for now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv33mDo7kIA

It could be appropriate to see them hit the road with an Eyehategod or maybe Crowbar in my metal circles, and granted, they’ve warmed up Priestess crowds already… but I can most certainly envision Barn Burner opening for Mastodon by the end of the year.  Who do I have to call to make that happen?

Check them out here and plan to pick up a copy of Bangers on February 16:

http://www.myspace.com/theinfamousbarnburner

You don’t have to agree with me on this. Or really on anything ever. But feel free to comment below if you’d like.  And in no particular order (because honestly, it’s too hard to decide) my top 10 metal records of 2009 are:

Tombs – Winter Hours

The Black Dahlia Murder – Deflorate

Behemoth – Evangelion

Gaza – He Is Never Coming Back

The Red Chord – Fed Through The Teeth Machine

Revocation – Existence Is Futile

Job For A Cowboy – Ruination

Cannibal Corpse – Evisceration Plague

Goatwhore – Carving Out The Eyes of God

Cattle Decapitation – The Harvest Floor

What I CAN tell you is that of those top 10, the ones I listen to the most are the new Gaza and the new Red Chord. But those are more recent releases… so that may be why.  I also fucking adore Mastodon‘s Crack The Skye but am starting to feel like I can’t call them a metal band anymore.  Tombs had the most interesting record and Cattle had the most brutal record in my top 10… and the rest are listed because they didn’t disappoint me.  Or were actually pretty good.

Happy New Year to all, be safe in your revelry and thank the lord (whichever one you worship) that 2009 is fucking over.  2010 will give us a new Misery Index record and a new Whitechapel record… so we have something to which we can look forward.