What the (Near) Future Holds

The year of 2011 looks to be a good one for music; there are many albums I'm anticipating as well as various events I look to attend. Whatever the state of the music industry I maintain that album releases still retain their status as important milestones for bands and should be respected as such. So what does the future hold for this year at least?

Mastodon:

Progressive metallers Mastodon are due to release their fifth studio album this year. The followup to their critically acclaimed Crack The Sky, this next work is to be entitled The Hunter. There's much interest into what kind of sound to expect from the new album since its predecessor was so much more progressive than their previous work. According to their drummer, Brann Dailor, it's going to be "Faster, heavier, crazier". Bill Kelliher, guitarist for the band says: "It's a good representation of where we are," and that there's "A lot of short bursts of energy going on". This suggests that in this album, while exploring new material, the band are returning to the likes of Leviathan and Blood Mountain, whose songs were generally shorter than their counterparts on Crack The Skye. The Hunter will have its work cut out if it's to match the reception that 2009's album received. Mastodon will be playing this year's Sonisphere UK (among other Sonispheres across Europe), I'll be sure to mention them in this year's "Sonisphere: Review" post. There should be a review of the album on this blog as soon as I get hold of a copy. So far there isn't a release date for it yet, but it should be out by the end of the year. Stay tuned.

Paramore:

This band haven't been given their due credit on this blog. Paramore received much praise for their 2007 album Riot!. Full of power it was a hit and is still my favourite album from what I've listened to of their discography. They currently have three albums released as well as three EPs. Their debut All We Know Is Failing was released back in 2005. The band's latest album, Brand New Eyes is a great example of Paramore's talent for their punk genre and, while not quite to the same standard as Riot!, it is a thoroughly entertaining album. In the early weeks of 2011 (Source MTV), Paramore took some time off in order to focus on a new album. I'd anticipate that, while no formal release date has been set, if all goes well the new work should be out by the end of the year.

Sonisphere Knebworth (UK)

In terms of musical events for this year this is the one I'm most looking forward to. I won't go into vast detail about all the different bands since there'll be two posts dedicated to Sonisphere 2011, one before and one after (like last year). However I will talk for a bit about the importance of this year's festival to the world of metal. Last year, after what seems like centuries of arguments and feuds, Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax, better known as The Big Four of thrash metal, shared the same stage for the first time in history at Sonisphere Bulgaria. The festival in Sofia was the setting for this historical event which culminated in the bands coming together (with the unfortunate absence of most of Slayer due to non-argumentative issues) in playing Diamond Head's Am I Evil?. This year these four bands will be coming to the UK to share a stage for the first time in this country. Other historical events are occurring at this years Soniphere Knebworth in the form of Biffy Clyro's first ever festival headline. Yes the alternative rockers have been given their first headline slot by the Sonisphere organisers, a decision that prompted much debate among the musical community with heavily polarised viewpoints shared. So all in all it looks to be a very important festival for the world of music, one I most certainly will not be missing. As I said I'll talk more about Sonisphere 2011 closer to the time when all the details have been finalised in two blog entries; one before the festival in anticipation, and one after the festival to act as a review.

Tool?

It's looking very unlikely now but I thought I'd mention it briefly anyway. Tool (who I talked about in Notable Artists... V) haven't released an album since 2006's masterpiece 10,000 Days. The gap between their last few albums seems to be usually five years, so we're due a new one any time soon. What's stopping the album is that some members of the band, particularly Maynard James Keenan, have side projects that need time and effort, for instance Keenan has been working with his other band A Perfect Circle. All we can do is wait patiently and hope that an album will be out in the next couple of years. One of the great things about Tool is that although they don't release new material very often, they have yet to release an album that isn't brilliant. I'll keep my eye out for news.


So that's 2011 for me. There are a few things I haven't included, like the fact I'm seeing Iron Maiden in August, but they may get their own blog posts in the form of reviews. Anyway that's all for now.

Thanks,

big_friendly_letters.