Monday Metal Update

by crustcake gerf (NYC)

"Everyone's favorite Masshole," Red Chord bassist Greg Weeks, had this to say last week in anticipation for yesterday's Super Bowl:

Recently I was asked to do a blog for Decibel concerning the greatest football team in NFL history, the New England Patriots... or as the magazine refers to them, the “Gaytriots.” I understand their frustration, them being from Philly and all, and accept their fifth grade humor as what it is: sheer jealousy. Wherever I go, people remind me how much they hate the Pats. I love it.

[...]

Bottom line is that, as much as I love [Full Blown Chaos vocalist] Ray Mazzola, his “Big Blue” and the rest of the country will be Full Blown Disappointed come Feb. 3rd. Go Pats!!!

Sorry Greg, the "Gaytriots" may have been 18-0 coming in to yesterday's game (cheating, running up scores like a bunch of Massholes, and having the best fucking luck imaginable in the injury dept.) but they just couldn't put the perfect season away.

(On a side note, I [crustcake gerf] have watched 5 of the last 7 Super Bowls in the winning cities-- Boston in 2002, 2004, and 2005, Indianapolis last year, and now of course I'm in the Big Apple. [beatmasterspeech was there with me in '02 and '04] The highlight, though, was definitely Boston in '02 when I witnessed first-hand Pats fans flipping cars and chanting "Yankees Suck.")

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Pitchfork's resident metal geek Brandon Stosuy published his latest "Show No Mercy" column last week. In it he chats with Hellbutcher of notably un-prolific Swedish black/thrash metallers Nifelheim. In true misanthropic form, Hellbutcher declares that he is "not into any black metal bands of today.":

Pitchfork: You've been around more than 15 years and have seen a lot. What are your thoughts on the development of black metal? For instance, other groups who've persevered-- Immortal, for instance, or quite differently, Darkthrone-- verus those who've shifted their sound rather drastically toward the mainstream. I'm thinking of Dimmu Borgir.

Hellbutcher: I am not into any black metal bands of today.

He is, however, a huge Maiden fan:

I have about 1,500 Iron Maiden albums, over 1,000 t-shirts and I have seen them live 140 times, I usually go to all Maiden gigs in Europe on their tours, on the last tour I saw them 32 times so you can probably say I am an Iron Maiden fan.

Stosuy also chats with Danish doomster Emil Brahe of Sol and Brown Jenkins' "one-man Texas-based [blackened doom] project Umesh."

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We love Cave In. So does MetalSucks:

Seminal Boston band Cave In have an intruiging history, one that took them from sweaty basement DYI hardcore shows to spaced-out progressive mettalirock to major-label bidding war and then all the way back, all within the span of a few short years. No heavy band from the Northeastern US seems to be as widely loved and respected yet criminally overlooked as Cave In.

Cave In were MetalSucks' 'Sunday Spotlight' yesterday. Read the feature, thorough as always, right here.

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Om, who released crustcake gerf's #4 album of 2007, have lost half their members:

Om is continuing forward with a new drummer and working on a new recording. Please check omvibratory.com and this page for updates. A live vinyl only LP Om - Live at Jerusalem will be forthcoming. This is Chris Hakius’ final release with the group. I personally apologize to east coast fans who planned on coming out to the shows. Please know that Om will be back in your area later in 08. Thank you to all of you. Live dates resume in late spring. There is a LOT of new material on its way. Shrinebuilder is also forging ahead. See you all soon. -al

Well, at least we have Shrinebuilder to look forward to.

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Japanese cult band Boris (or BORIS... or boris?) will be playing in New York on March 4th. Tickets are on sale now.

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Crustake received an email pitch two weeks ago to post the fourth episode of the "You Suck at Photoshop" series. We politely obliged-- after all, they are pretty funny. By the time the fifth installment dropped into our inbox, we kinda figured the gig was up and that the comedy had run its course, but we watched #5 anyhow, and Donnie (possibly Dane Cook? groan...) did not disappoint. What does all this have to do with music? Absolutely nothing. And we're totally ok with that. Just fucking watch it already:



So, is this the end of Donnie? If we don't hear from MyDamnChannel's PR people within the next week or so we'll be forced to assume so...

That's all for now, happy Monday!