It's that time of year again! Sonisphere 2011 is this weekend and I'm rather exited. In this post I'll discuss the bands I'm most looking forward to and why. Then after the festival there'll be a post where I review the post.
The UK stop of the Sonisphere 2011 tour is at Knebworth House in Hertforshire from 8-10th July with an option to get there the day before (the Thursday). Last year I bought an early entry ticket, and I've done the same thing this year. It's not that much more, and it's really worth it. It allows you to ensure a good camping spot and time to explore the festival grounds whilst there aren't many people around. Anyway, the festival itself. Here's the day by day breakdown of what I think will be the highlights.
Friday
The Big Four are playing the first day of Sonisphere UK, their first time ever appearing in Britain on the same stage. It's a historic event for the UK sector of the world of metal and I'm very much looking forward to it. However I won't be seeing all of the bands, or rather I'll miss bits. For instance I'll miss a lot of the first of the Big Four, Anthrax's, set so that I can go and see Lower Than Atlantis on a different stage. I saw Anthrax last year so it's not too much of a problem for me, but I'm sure I'll enjoy the part of their set I see. Joey Belladonna is a phenomenal frontman and really injects energy into an already energetic band. Next up is Megadeth. I haven't seen them live before, but I've heard that they are (allegedly) not that good a live act. Furthermore I saw them in the Big Four film (filmed at the first Big Four show in Sofia, Bulgaria last year) and they didn't meet expectations. However I'll reserve judgement. After Megadeth are Slayer, who I've also seen and love. They clash with Protest the Hero, who I'm yet to see, so I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do yet. Slayer are an ace live act but I really like Protest the Hero, their Mathcore genre with its high pitched melodies works well. The headline act, Metallica, should be great. I really like their studio work and I haven't yet seen them live. My only concern is that they won't play Nothing Else Matters, my favourite song of theirs, even though it's usually a staple of their live shows; they haven't been playing it much of late.
Saturday
There are two bands that stand out for me from Saturday's lineup, and they are entirely different. The first band is Gallows, whose studio work is great and whose live performance is mind blowing. Their stage presence is like nothing else. For me they're the second best UK live act in existence, second only to Iron Maiden. I really hope they play my favourite song from their two albums, Kill the Rhythm; it's not always on their setlist so I won't be too disappointed if they don't. The other act is The Mars Volta. Their prog-heavy music is full of interesting interludes and effects and I love them. I thoroughly recommend Octahedron, my favourite album from what I've listened to of their discography, it's fantastic. I'm really looking forward to seeing how different their live show is; apparently a large part of their set is improvised, something that few bands do nowadays.
Sunday
Mastodon play the last day of the festival and will be fantastic. There's no question about it. I saw them back in February 2010 and I still can't believe how good they are. They played Crack the Skye, 2009's critically acclaimed album, from start to finish before returning for an encore of crushing classics. Truly they are a band to be reckoned with. Bill Bailey's worth a mention, he's one of the many comedy acts at the festival (another is Steve-O), however the difference with this act is that he's headlining the second stage. According to him he's preparing a special metal-themed set to include Rammstein/Kraftwerk inspired music as well as some old favourites. By "old favourites" I very much hope he means that he'll play his love ballad which I encourage all of you to search for, it's great. Finally the headline act, Slipknot, should be amazing. Their album Iowa is great and from what I've heard of their performances from the Sonisphere's that have already gone so far this year they shouldn't disappoint.
So that's my festival lined up. I couldn't possibly include all the bands I'm looking forward to, those are just some of the highlights. I'll be back after the festival to post a review of the event. If you want you can check out last year's Sonisphere articles here: Sonisphere 2010: Before and here: Sonisphere 2010: After.
Showing posts with label Megadeth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Megadeth. Show all posts
Tuesday, 5 July 2011
Tuesday, 14 June 2011
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.
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.
Sunday, 30 May 2010
Notable Artists II
Greetings to you all, and I give my usual apologies for the lack of any posts recently, I am sorry. Anyway, today's post is another entry in the "Notable Artists" series. Today's post is a piece about the band Megadeth. They aren't the usual non-famous band I pick for this series, but they aren't that well known outside the genres of Rock and Metal, so that is why I thought them appropriate for this article. Anyway, on with the post.
I've had one of their albums for ages, but I have only recently properly listened to it. The album is Rust in Peace and I very much like it. The combination between great bass lines, good guitar riffs, brilliant lead guitar, and good singing to boot, makes this a band of accomplished musicians from the start. This is true, the talent is evident in the music. However I like the music for more than just the presence of talent, for there is much more to music than just a load of talented musicians playing in the same room, this has been the problem for some past supergroups. The different parts of Megadeth fit together very well and the resulting sound is brilliant. So I recommend you listen to them if you haven't already. I shall be getting some more of their albums in the near future.
As always feel free to comment about this, another article I've written, or in fact anything you want to share.
Thanks,
big_friendly_letters
I've had one of their albums for ages, but I have only recently properly listened to it. The album is Rust in Peace and I very much like it. The combination between great bass lines, good guitar riffs, brilliant lead guitar, and good singing to boot, makes this a band of accomplished musicians from the start. This is true, the talent is evident in the music. However I like the music for more than just the presence of talent, for there is much more to music than just a load of talented musicians playing in the same room, this has been the problem for some past supergroups. The different parts of Megadeth fit together very well and the resulting sound is brilliant. So I recommend you listen to them if you haven't already. I shall be getting some more of their albums in the near future.
As always feel free to comment about this, another article I've written, or in fact anything you want to share.
Thanks,
big_friendly_letters
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