HELLHOUND (JPN)

While waiting for some report from BEAVER & POT-HEAD (alias Pipes and J13), still missing in action during their METAL raids in L.A., I will keep you company with some Japanese tunes of people I know personally.

HELLHOUND•Tokyo Flying V Massacre (2006). 100% freaky Jap metal heads, playing in modern time old school f*cking cool & kicking metal. Explicitly inspired to EXCITER, their decleared mission is to be the defenders of the true metal! So, "aged" headbangers, believeme: you will have an awesome time listening to them, both in record or live! And since they are about to relase a new album (Sept.) and to start a new series of gigs that, beginning with the live house behind the Port, will bring them as far as Germany and France (take a look at the prgrams below... hell I'm really pissed I can't check them out in Europe too!), you HAVE to give them your support too and buy their shit!

I mean, did you see??!! Did you see with what a mythological people they are going to play with in Würzburg? Nasty Savage... Tokyo Blade... Artillery...!!!

CARNIVORE and EXODUS

Two more pieces of eight for your treasure chest!

Carnivore•Omonymous (1985): freaky funny album and a must-have for any serious headbanger! If you like old Venom, you certainly like them. This copy is the Metal Mind Productions re-release (May 19, 2008, for in Europe and July 8 in the USA): digipak limited 2,000 copies (no: 0918!) on golden disc, digitally remastered using 24-bit technology. Differently from what I read somewhere, it does not feature the band's "Nuclear Warriors" demo as bonus tracks. Indeed it's the same as the 2001 re-issue. But it's awesome anyway.

Exodus•Bonded By Blood (1985): same year of good music... just like vine. First and must-have piece of this historic thrash institution! This is the Century Media 1999 limited "Silver" Edition, with restored blue cover and 2 live bonuses. The original cover. Later, the album was rereleased on CD with just the logo and album name set against a black and red crowd shot. This reissue
includes two bonus live tracks, with Steve "Zetro" Souza on vocals (recorded live in London on March 8,1989): 10. And Then There Were None [4:51] 11. A Lesson in Violence [3:26]
Have fun!

Hoist Anchor and Set Sail

Yes that is correct a certain someone from the Great White North will be stopping into LA for a series of shows with Johnny 13.  Yes thats correct Big Pipes has set sail and will be docking in Los Angeles tomorrow.  The shows are always legendary and here are some samples:

Of course Johnny has magic planned for the Mayhemfest on Sunday!!  Stay tuned for full details!  BTW, Five Finger Death Punch is there on Sunday!

J13

TORTURE SQUAD and FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH

"Stay hungry" singed Twisted Sister...
And I'm. Extremely hungry. Particularly of f*cking kick-ass tunes as those proposed by these two bands. Lately I've got my iPod full of juicy novelties, but after a few tracks here is where I constantly finish by returning. Too much fun!

Torture Squad, Hellbound (2008). Very talented Brasilian quartet playing a razor-sharp thrash with frequent technical death metal-like rushes and tempo changes (thrash voice). Very clean sound, pounding drum and killer arpeggios. You can't get bored with it! They've been around since a while... my bad I didn't know them earlier. Besides, they've been so kind to reply to the Cpt. greetings (so buy their shit!):

«Hi Roger, this is Castor, bass player of Torture Squad!
Domo Arigato... I am trying to speak japanese...hehe
That´s really nice to know that you´re enjoying our new album!!!
We wish we could play in Nihon asap!
Sayonara and take care!
Castor»

Five Finger Death Punch, The Way of the Fist. What to say? I loved them since first listen (much in debt to J13, who introduced them to me). Groovy sound; not properly thrash; not properly core; nor death... There's much variety: energy, riffs, melody, speed, growls, clean singing... And lyrics are cool too! Hell, it's L.A. guys! It has to be good!!! Ah, a note: this version is the 2007 limited edition. Tracks 11-14 are bonus. On 2008 edition 11 and 12 are replaced by two previously unrelesed tracks.

Get them before the link expires!

BRAIN DRILL

I'm not much into Death M. and Port Royal itself is not a great supporter of it. But we keep something to represent it too... What the hell, how could you ignore Slayer, Vader, etc. ?

Here you have 2 insanely tecnical and killer fast works I stumbled upon lately. BRAIN DRILL: one EP [The Parasites (2006)] and a full lenght [Apochalyptic Feasting (2008)], on their list of accolades. Guys from US. You may find discording reviews of them on the net. I chosed to pay attention to positive ones only: criticizing is easy, finding positivness in what you don't know is way more challenging. Beside, they have a kick more than other things I happened to listen. Be advised: you're going to withstand a rain of razor-sharp knifes ripping your flesh a part (the cover perfectly fit what is awaiting you)!

Bodom before 20:00...

Tokyo it's not L.A., I know...
But I felt really weird when the CHILDEEN OF BODOM + ALL THAT REMAINS gig I attended yesterday, finished: it wasn't even 20:00 o'clock!
"Now what?" I thought. "Are we really going home? Going somewhere else? To a disco? To work, maybe...?!" I thought to have a metal night... and istead I finished eating Chinese in Shinjuku!
Then add to this the fact that there was no whisky, no All That Remains (they cancelled a couple of days before), and that we had to withstand the outrage of having Outrage as replacement opener (no ticket refund for the cancellation)...

In any case the show was awesome and COB performed at the their best, as usual. There was not much talking and chit-chat, but that'S OK. The place (Studio Coast, Shinkiba, Tokyo) was really packed. It was the first time for the Cpt. there. It reminded me of House of Blues: a bit bigger, but with pit, a first level seats/stastanding row and a second floor. This time I didn't venture in the pit: I worked my ass out at the gym pretty bad the day before and was still tired and was not much willing to "be part of the carnage" that necessarily take place at such a gigs.
After Outrage's second track I went drinking, since with that noise I had no fun at all. Back inside, I got a very nice spot for taking pics... far from the usual Jap ballbusters, but... after the beginning I had the displeasure to notice that there was no memory card in the camera!!! Somebody I know took it out and forgot to put it back!! Fortunately for the world, my curses got mixed with COB sceams... It's a pity since the spot was really good and there were quite beautifull light effects. Those you see are the two only pics that fit on the resident memory.

Play list as follows: 1. Intro (Evil Dead II Soundtrack) 2. Sixpounder 3. Hellhounds On My Trail 4. Silent Night, Bodom Night 5. Follow The Reaper 6. Living Dead Beat 7. In Your Face 8. Banned From Heaven 9. Needled 24/7 10. One Day You Will Cry 11. Mask Of Sanity 12. Hate Me! 13. Angels Don't Kill 14. Blooddrunk Encore 15. Hate Crew Deathroll 16. Downfall

I'm happy to have attended this gig, since it made me re-evaluate newer stuff of COB, I have't been paying much attention to lately!

Booty delivery

Since a friendly Santa Claus from L.A. has recently put in my port's socks a copy of the new Dark Quarterer album Symbols (which - needless to say it - is AMAZING!!!), I decided I may as well declassify for everybody one of the older jewels I got a couple of weeks ago: War Tears (1994).

Dark Quarterer War Tears (1994)

After Etruscan Prophecy (1988), the guitarist Fulberto Serena left the band for personal reasons and after 2 years of search, it was replaced by Sandro Tersetta. With this new formation D.Q. decided to take on the challenge of a national competition. The piece they presented, "Out of Line" (one of Cpt. favourites) was not properly in the band's style, nonetheless it turned out a success: the band not only won the competition, but played it live on the national TV RAIDUE in 1991 (we are talking of Italian national broadcast... never seen METAL over there)!
The succes brought them to the attention of a German label and the piece was included in the their 3rd album (first on compact disc!), recorded in October 1993 in Germany near Hamburg, with awesome production.
There are 7 other tracks on the album, some with clear references to the two preceding albums, others more... let's say easy to listen (Led Zeppelin and Sabbath-like). Called a "masterpiece" in many reviews, it sold 2560 copies (which by current standard may appear laughable, but not for those days Italy).The fact is that the label disappeared into the void soon after, leaving contract rights unrespected and the group with only a few copies of the album bought at cost price to give to friends. The Italian distributor was not prepared to pay for copies from Germany and so the product has not been distributed in Italy fro a very long time (still now, probably)!!! The cover art may be questionable, but the tunes are fantasic! Get it before the link expires!