Come! Get some!

Come! Get some!
Again oldies... But with style! You don't see them around often anymore, so grab'em fast!

THUNDERHEAD-Classic Killers Live (1994) [Awesome live from this a bit underrated German band]
THUNDERHEAD- Ugly Side (2000 Jap. Ed.) [Cpt.'s cover is different from this one]
TIME MACHINE-Alinger Daemon (2001) [This is f*cking great progressive from the best Italian prog. band. Also underrated!]

Metal 'till Death Vol. 3 (Crescendo 26/10/2008)

Long time no live!
First headbanging after the last deluding PRIEST experience.

Back to the roots, at my beloved Crescendo Live House for "Metal 'till Death Vol. 3".
We got to see Outbreak Riot, Sec Dimension, Crucified, Wheel of Doom, GSD, After Zero and Satanic Heritage. All people from around here (Japan, I mean), but telling the truth, despite the bombastic title, of "metallic" there was very little tonight. We got death, MDM, half-a-way NU-Metal/metal core ... all quite enjoyable, but nothing really awesome. Nothing but one, AFTER ZERO! Oh, men! The revelation of the day! A very intriguing MDM, with hearth-attack fast riffings, razor-sharp screaming, furious percussions & a persistent melody behind a blasting power.

Sandbanks delayed my brig, so I finished by missing Outbreak Riot, despite they were one of the band I wanted to check out (last time in Kagurazaka I liked them very much). Sec Dimension, Crucified and GSD did a good show, but for some reason didn't get my numbers. MDM & Metal Core with much movement on stage, but little pathos. Also musically speaking : display of aggressivity on stage, but mostly already heard tunes. Don't mean to diminish the guys... maybe I wasn't in the mood for it, but they didn't impress me at all.

Wheel of Doom are worth deserving a shot (I knew them from a previous gig, last year). They delivered a short, but very effective armageddon-like strike. Very aggressive death/thrash metal. Drumming and vocals get close to black m., but guitar section stays far from it. Not something I would listen on commuting to work, but pretty enjoyable on the whole. Beside, the dudes are really cool on stage!

After Zero were the coolest tonight! They got everything I needed to ignite. Presence on stage, right music, energy... and even more! After a neckbreacking track, a Run to the hills-like drumming cvught my attention and in no time an awesome - as well as unexpected - Maiden's Aces High blew me away! Too bad most of the youngsters in the crowd didn't appreciate that jewel as much as the Cpt.

Satanic Heritage were a bomb! I liked the performance and their skills very much. Powerfull and fast Death, with melodic grinding and very harsh vocals. Unfortunately the singer doesn't suits my needs, nor does their attitude: they played a bit too much for themselves and the band's buddies they knew. But since they're young, I guees we can expect better for the future.

That's all for today. I leave you with two demos from the gig: take them or leave them (you're not going to see them elsewhere I think).

AFTER ZERO Demo (Try the live track first)

OUTBREAK RIOT Demo

Some more THUNDERHEAD

Somebody keep thrashing them, and I keep rescuing them...
Small pearls of a gone age... golden age of metal.
Last week got a couple more of THUNDERHEAD albums, awesome German band. And since I noticed you hit them quite a bit, here I'm giving you Movin' On (1993 EP Jap. Ed.) and The Beast of Thunderhead (1997), both quite hard to stumble upon. Guess you already have the first Behind the Eight Ball.

Product of Disgust

More than "Product of Disgust" this CEREBRAL FIX box is an awesome product of delight!
I've been stalking for a while this treasure chest , which is an AWESOME limited 2000 only box set (Cpt. one is nr. 0002!!!) for a while at the pirate market... But you know, not knowing well the band's sound , I was a bit skeptical... Taking up your butt a box isn't that pleasant! But after checking them out - those few tracks you can find around, I mean - I went in for the kill! And most surprisingly got it less than half-priced! Am I scary or what? I was so happy I forgot to ask about a similar one by ARTILLERY.

Anyway, not very much know outside UK are these Britons, where instead they gathered enormous success in the past. English thrash/death metal band formed in Birmingham in 1986. They became members of the UK thrash metal and death metal scenes through four albums, three of which were on major labels before finally disbanding in 1993. In 2006, they announced a reunion for only one night stand, which eventually got repeated a couple of more times, showing how much their fans still needed them and what is their potential. Voices say they have an album's worth of new material, but for now they are waiting for the reception of the new songs - 4 pieces enclosed in this box. And inside the box you find all their discography plus a collection of demos & lives. The later is not particularly appealing to non-collectors: sound is crammy and the quality, well... But if you like it you go for it! The whole is squisitely packed with pics, band history, reviews, etc. A lovely set-up for a kick-ass listening experience! Read out some detail on the albums HERE, if you want. I'm beaming it up just because there is little of their stuff around and certainly there are dudes who want to give them a try! Bring them good, don't spread it for free too much and have fun!

I'll be damned!

I'll be damned!

I knew Japan has an image as for pollution, radiations and mutations, but I have never seen these results before!!!

JAPANESE BOOTY

Warming up for this forthcoming weekend live house action, here you go with some good stuff from the land of the rising sun.

ONMYOZA-Inyo Shugyoku (2006)

Guess you may already know them... the most successful female fronted band around here. Yet you don't see much of their stuff around, nor you get to stumble upon their CD at the shop so often - outside Japan, I mean. Almond-eyed female singers sound pretty much all the same, but ONMYOZA is a bit of an exception, since she's the prototype of them all. She's not bad at all and has a nice power. Yet on the long run her limited excursion range may result a bit tedious. This double CD is certainly a good selection of their repertoire. A perfect start for those who still ignore them, as well as a good end! You'll get what I mean!

ANIMETAL-Complete Last Live (1999)

You could take them as a joke, were it not for the awesome musicianship of the players and for the stratospheric voice of virtuoso EIZO SAKAMOTO, singer of world famous Osaka originated Anthem. And I do love his scream, one of the best - if not THE best voice in Japan. Animetal is a parodistic band, covering virtually all the most known anime soundtracks Japan-born. Those of you who got blessed by the first or second invasion of Japanese animation on TV in Europe, will certainly recognize & enjoy their themes (I still got many on 45' vinyl). But those of you who are in metal since those days (a long while ago!) will also recognise a mountain of other references... Helloween, Maiden, Metallica, AC/DC. You lucky bastards won't probably understand a shit of the Japanese singing, so most of the tracks may not sound so booring to you, as they often do with me! But just in case, be carefull to ABSOLUTELY check out track 08 (Mazinga Z), 09 (Guitar solo - I'd like to see more things like this one!) and track 14 (This is Animetal). You'll get hell of a fun!

GERMAN BOOTY

I love European metal. German in particular.
And I was just enjoying to the new CANNON-Metal Style out and around these days (German band I strangerly didn't know before, despite their previous releases), when I recalled THUNDERHEAD! Fu*king enjoyable metal. No extra shit, no virtuosism... just groovy sound, clichè-packed-but-funny lyrics, cool & screamy vocals and a-uhh rythms! In an era ruled by Helloween, it wan't easy to cut out a space for themselves, but they managed not to take compromises and mantained their style all the way through! Encyclpaedia Metallum epitomizes better than I could do (even if too shortly) their staus:

"After an unsuccessful audition with Victory (Ger), American vocalist Ted Bullet met ex-Viva (Ger) guitarist Henrik Wolter and ex-Talon (Ger) bassist Ole Hempleman in a Hanover bar, and with the addition of drummer Alex Scotti to complete this German- based band, recorded a demo that quickly prompted a contract with Intercord. Behind The Eight Ball was recorded when the band had hardly played a live date, but was a reasonable debut in a basic metal style similar to the Almighty's early work, and sold well on the German market as the group played with Victory and Uriah Heep in the USA and in the UK and Europe with Motörhead. Busted At The Border and Crime Pays followed in the traditional metal footsteps of the debut, although Thunderhead became a more cohesive band as a result of their live work, with more power metal overtones to their heavily guitar-based sound. They maintained their level of success in Germany, undoubtedly helped by their frontman's English vocals and outrageous onstage demeanour, but they remained a minor act in global terms."

The two bricks I'm piling here are those I like at most: Killing with Style (1993), Were You Told The Truth About Hell (1995)! The sound is pretty American-like... but you'll feel that EXTRA kick & riffing that distinguish European metal from Whitesnake and other a-like sounding bands. Crush Course in Life, Thank you for Making me Suffer, Killing with Style... all are awesome heabanger tracks! Enjoy! Talking too much...!? Shit, happens...!

ROCKIN' again!

Port's up and running again... with brand new HUGE dock. But something got lost and privateers need new passes to cross the gates. Call the Cpt. once inside.
Have fun!

Die Hard BOOTY

Mac rules, dudes!
All hell breaking loose on my hard disc... nonetheless the machine is still kicking for now! So, beaming you what I was getting ready before the storm:

CENTURY MEDIA 'Covering 20 Years Of Extremes' (2008)

To celebrate their anniversary, together with a successful yard sale/party at the Dortmund office in June with exclusive live shows by ANGEL DUST and TURISAS, Century Media released this very special 2CD compilation on September 15 in Europe and on October 14 in North America featuring 32 exclusive covers from acts within the label's repertoire. Response from the musicians was overwhelming and the result... well, check the track-list yourself:

CD 1 (67:36)

01. ARCH ENEMY covering DREAM EVIL's "The Book Of Heavy Metal"
02. DARK TRANQUILLITY covering SENTENCED's "Broken"
03. HEAVEN SHALL BURN covering TIAMAT's "Whatever That Hurts"
04. SHADOWS FALL covering ONLY LIVING WITNESS's "December"
05. BRAND NEW SIN covering ICED EARTH's "Watching Over Me"
06. WOLF covering MOONSPELL's "Alma Mater"
07. MERCENARY covering ARCH ENEMY's "Burning Angel"
08. GOD FORBID covering MERAUDER's "Master Killer"
09. WARBRINGER covering UNLEASHED's "Execute Them All"
10. GRAVE covering ASPHYX's "Vermin"
11. ARCHITECTS covering STAMPIN' GROUND's "Officer Down"
12. NAPALM DEATH covering DESPAIR's "Outconditioned"
13. KRISIUN covering DEMOLITION HAMMER's "Human Dissection"
14. CRYPTOPSY covering STRAPPING YOUNG LAD's "Oh My Fucking God"
15. MAROON covering SAMAEL's "Baphomet's Throne"
16. WATCH THEM DIE covering BLOODBATH's "Breeding Death"

CD 2 (66:47 min)

01. FIREWIND covering NEVERMORE's "Believe In Nothing"
02. DREAM EVIL covering ARCH ENEMY's "Let The Killing Begin"
03. FEAR MY THOUGHTS covering HEAVEN SHALL BURN's "The Weapon They Fear"
04. THE AGONIST covering DARK TRANQUILLITY's "Monochromatic Stains"
05. THE FORSAKEN covering GRAVE's "You'll Never See"
06. DEVIAN covering MORGOTH's "Isolated"
07. HEAVEN SHALL BURN covering MERAUDER's "Downfall Of Christ"
08. ABORTED covering TURMOIL's "Playing Dead"
09. TERROR covering SUBZERO's "Boxed In"
10. NAPALM DEATH covering HELLHAMMER's "Messiah"
11. ASPHYX covering CELTIC FROST's "Os Abysmi Vel Daath"
12. ZIMMERS HOLE covering OLD MAN'S CHILD's "Doommaker"
13. FU MANCHU covering PENANCE's "Words To Live By"
14. MANNTIS (feat. IN THIS MOMENT) covering LACUNA COIL's "Heaven's A Lie"
15. KIVIMETSÄN DRUIDI covering THE GATHERING's "Leaves"
16. INTRONAUT covering EYEHATEGOD's "Dixie Whiskey"

Port Troubles...

Sailors...

Port server will be down for a while.

This morning the machine failed and... it's still in reanimation. Trying to understand what happened.

Library is safe, of course, but I don't have a spare engine to run it right now... Nor the money to get the new one I'd like.

Will keep you informed.

ELECTRIC BOOTY

Wowowow! Australian old farts AC/DC's new album is among us!
But, hei! What goes around, comes around: we don't take shit from anybody and we don't want glories that don't belong to us! New AC/DC is brought you by that fast-ass of DARK LORD. We usually don't post things already going around... but this is too huge. So we are happy to... let's say... amplify it! Love'em or hate'em: they're always the same! 15 tracks, dudes!! Shake your leg!

EPIC BOOTY

«Single column!» Get ready your speaker for some epic stuff, dudes!
That's right. Despite I usually need nitro-injected tunes to keep myself alive, I couldn't do without the pindaric and LSD-like shivers and fantasy leaps that epic metal vibes give me. And I'll tell you, there are bands with huge balls out there. Following you will find some very nice epic treasures... all from Italy, one of the last places on earth where you would have looked for it, don't you?

WOTAN-Epos (2007)

It's from last year. The band is not very prolific (2 albums only in the long time span of their existence), but what you get is worth the wait. The singer's got the numbers for the task, together with a very unusual vibrato-voice (I like it quite a bit). Not very high-pitched, as it may call for - if we want. All mid tempo tracks, except for one, that will kick your ass less epically, leaving some very nice scar. A bounch of very interesting sounds & effects inside will unleash your imagination and in no time you will be catapulted to a Conan the Barbarian-like world... while stomping your feet, air-drumming, and banging your dick-head! Just kidding! Lovely!

HOLY MARTYR-Hellenic Warior Spirit (2008)

Clearly inspired to 300 movie, it is a bit less grabbing than Wotan's one (more than mid-tempo it's a realy heavy-ass tempo), but lyrics and pathos are worked out in very fine concept. The singer hasn't all that epic scream - if we have to be honest - but that doesn't turn out as a diminishing point: after all not-epic metalheads may not like that acute and chorus-like singing typical of the thread. Musicianship is up to the task with very brilliant moments (The Lions of Sparta, H'Tan H'Epi Tas). Yet, on the whole, the "seriousness" of the concept behind, without a single real shake to the bag, may get you bored a bit.

DARK QUARTERER-Symbols (2008)

Dont underestimate the power of the dark side! These are fu*cking killer dudes who eat any musician in the thread (and outside) in a single bite! Creators of the epic-progressive, if you don't know them already, prepare yourself for the trip of your life into serious epic music. Sound and perfection fanatics, they deliver you abounch of tunes so rich and subtle that it may take months for you to unfold, digest and appreciate all they've put inside. The singer & bassist Gianni Nepi, has got a quite unique voice: apparently it doesn't stand out at all, at first listen. Then little by little it start carving deep cuts in your ears, swinging between high-pitched screams and that freaky incredible epic acute singing needed. Check out the following live performance, from previous albums material...



Have fun!

LOUD PARK '08

I've got another thing comming... to say it with PRIEST!
Yes, my dears. Yet again! But this time, it ain't the next, 'cause I'm not going!

You'll say I'm a pain in the ass, but I'll tell you: I went to all the previous edition of LOUD PARK and this year the venue's line-up is really miserable!
I mean, Slipknot, Bullet for my valentine, Loaded, Apochaliptica, Secret Whisper... What's that?!! That's supposed to be loud?
The only flag carriers I can spot in there are CARCASS, OBITUARY and MOTLEY CRUE.
Past editions got Megadeath, Heaven & Hell, Anthrax, Blind Guardian, Anvil, Arch Enemy, As I lay Dying... C'mon, gimme some fu*king metal, please!

Its been a while Boys!!

Sailors,

I have been traveling the seven seas over the past month or so and finally have some time to tell you about it. The site is kicking ass and so are all the metal covens out there! Starting with before my vacation to Maui!

1st show - Raven and Hirax at Safari Sam's in Los Angeles. What a little fun place to hang and party in! Raven was one of my favorite bands growing up, seen them several times throughout my metal journey and that night was a blast Aug 23, 2008. All the heads were there in full force. One of the best screams in metal is John Gallagher, they did not disappoint and it was so intimate. Check out my buddy Oleg's NWOBHM site, www.myspace.com/nwobhmcornershow , we had a great reunion, hopefully video is going to surface of this show.

2nd show- Maui 2008 If any of you get a chance to go here, GO!! It is the most tranquil and peaceful place ever. Had great times with friends from Seattle and Brooklyn, NY. I really got into snorkeling and kicking back. Damn the sky and the water are so blue you can see for miles. The water was 75 degrees and you could watch the stars move, magical!! Check out J13 in all his glory!

3rd show - Children of Bodom and Black Dahlia Murder. This was another great show! Somehow I got into the VIP are and got to watch the show devoid of being trampled! I can still bang so no worries but had an awesome view. Black Dahlia Murder I have seen and they really were tight. I think I was there more for the musicianship of Children of Bodom and man I got it! What a great night about 30 feet from the stage with a perfect view. Rob Lowe the actor was even hanging in the VIP, it was a great show and time!!

TOMORROW NIGHT- AMON AMARTH, ENSIFERUM, BELPHEGOR at the Avalon. A place the Capt. and J13 know intimately now, 3 INCHES OF BLOOD!!!

Well thats it for now. Crazy talks of Disturbed in Canada in December and Swedish Rock Fest next year 2009.

J13