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2007-01-01T00:17:00.000+07:00

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PanterA : Video

2006-12-31T07:52:00.000+07:00

"Watch video with RealPlayer"

Cowboys from Hell: The Videos

Cowboys from Hell Video Clip I (real video)
Cowboys from Hell Video Clip II (real video)

Vulgar Videos

Mouth for War Video Clip I (real video)
Mouth for War Video Clip II (real video)
Walk Video Clip (real video)
This Love Video Clip I (real video)
This Love Video Clip II (real video)
Domination Live in Moscow Clip I (real video)
Domination Live in Moscow Clip II (real video)
A Vulgar Display of Fucking Liquor Video Clip (real video)

3 Watch It Go

5 Minutes Alone Video Clip (real video)
I'm Broken Video Clip I (real video)
I'm Broken Video Clip I (real video)
Planet Caravan Video Clip I (real video)
Planet Caravan Video Clip I (real video)

3 Vulgar Videos From Hell (DVD)

This DVD contains the first three
home videos plus additional footage...

Reinventing the Steel (Newly Released Videos)

Revolution Is My Name FULL Video (real video)

This is a video that is played on TV

not one that you can purchase.

PanterA Discography

2006-12-31T04:25:00.000+07:00

"Listening the song with RealPlayer or download, it's free no cost"

Metal Magic

Ride My Rocket ( realaudio FULL )
I'll Be Alright ( realaudio FULL )
Tell Me if You Want It ( realaudio FULL )
Latest Lover ( realaudio FULL )
Biggest Part Of Me ( realaudio FULL )
Metal Magic ( realaudio FULL )
Widowmaker ( realaudio FULL )
Nothin' On (But The Radio) ( real audio FULL )
Sad Lover ( realaudio FULL )
Rock Out ( realaudio FULL )

Projects in the Jungle

All Over Tonight ( realaudio FULL )
Out For Blood ( realaudio FULL )
Blue Light Turnin' Red ( realaudio FULL )
Like Fire ( realaudio FULL )
In Over My Head ( realaudio FULL )
Projects In The Jungle ( realaudio FULL )
Heavy Metal Rules ( realaudio FULL )
Only A Heartbeat Away ( realaudio FULL )
Killers ( realaudio FULL )
Takin' My Life ( realaudio FULL )

I am the Night

Hot And Heavy ( realaudio FULL )
I Am The Night ( realaudio FULL )
Onward We Rock ( realaudio FULL )
D*G*T*T*M ( realaudio FULL )
Daughters Of The Queen ( realaudio FULL )
Down Below ( realaudio FULL )
Come - On Eyes ( realaudio FULL )
Right On The Edge ( realaudio FULL )
Valhalla ( realaudio FULL )
Forever Tonight ( realaudio FULL )

Power Metal

Rock the World ( realaudio FULL )
Power Metal ( realaudio FULL )
We'll Meet Again ( realaudio FULL )
Over and Out ( realaudio FULL )
Proud To Be Loud ( realaudio FULL )
Down Below ( realaudio FULL )
Death Trap ( realaudio FULL )
Hard Ride ( realaudio FULL )
Burnnn! ( realaudio FULL )
P.S.T."88" ( realaudio FULL )

Cowboys from Hell

Cowboys from Hell ( realaudio FULL )
Primal Concrete Sledge ( realaudio FULL )
Psycho Holiday ( realaudio FULL )
Heresy ( realaudio FULL )
Cemetry Gates ( realaudio FULL )
Domination ( realaudio FULL )
Shattered ( realaudio FULL )
Clash with Reality ( realaudio FULL )
Medicin Man ( realaudio FULL )
Message in Blood ( realaudio FULL )
The Sleep ( realaudio FULL )
The Art of Shredding ( realaudio FULL )

Vulgar Display of Power

Mouth for War ( realaudio FULL )
A New Level ( realaudio FULL )
Walk ( realaudio FULL )
Fucking Hostile ( realaudio FULL )
This Love ( realaudio FULL )
Rise ( realaudio FULL )
No Good (Attack the Radical) ( realaudio FULL )
Live in a Hole ( realaudio FULL )
Regular People (Conceit) ( realaudio FULL )
By Demons Be Driven ( realaudio FULL )
Hollow ( realaudio FULL )

Far Beyond Driven

Strength Beyond Strength ( realaudio FULL )
Becoming ( realaudio FULL )
5 Minutes Alone ( realaudio FULL )
I'm Broken ( realaudio FULL )
Good Friends and a Bottle of Pills ( realaudio FULL )
Hard Lines, Sunken Cheeks ( realaudio FULL )
Slaughtered ( realaudio FULL )
25 Years ( realaudio FULL )
Shedding Skin ( realaudio FULL )
Use My Third Arm ( realaudio FULL )
Throes of Rejection ( realaudio FULL )
Planet Caravan ( realaudio FULL )

The Great Southern Trendkill

The Great Southern Trendkill ( realaudio FULL )
War Nerve ( realaudio FULL )
Drag the Waters ( realaudio FULL )
10's ( realaudio FULL )
13 Steps To Nowhere ( realaudio FULL )
Suicide Note PT. I ( realaudio FULL )
Suicide Note PT. II ( realaudio FULL )
Living Through Me (Hell's Wrath) ( realaudio FULL )
Floods ( realaudio FULL )
The Underground in America ( realaudio FULL )
(Reprise) Sandblasted Skin ( realaudio FULL )

Official Live: 101 Proof

New Level ( realaudio FULL)
Walk ( realaudio FULL)
Becoming ( realaudio FULL)
5 Minutes Alone ( realaudio FULL)
Sandblasted Skin ( realaudio FULL)
Suicide Note Pt. 2 ( realaudio FULL)
War Nerve ( realaudio FULL)
Strength Beyond Strength ( realaudio FULL)
Dom/Hollow ( realaudio FULL)
This Love ( realaudio FULL)
I'm Broken ( realaudio FULL)
Cowboys From Hell ( realaudio FULL)
Cemetary Gates ( realaudio FULL)
Hostile ( realaudio FULL)
Where You Come From ( realaudio FULL)
I Can't Hide ( realaudio FULL)

Reinventing the Steel

Hellbound ( realaudio FULL)
Goddamn Electric ( realaudio FULL)
Yesterday Don't Mean Shit ( realaudio FULL)
You've Got to Belong to It ( realaudio FULL)
Revolution Is My Name ( realaudio FULL)
Death Rattle ( realaudio FULL)
We'll Grind That Axe for a Long Time ( realaudio FULL)
Uplift ( realaudio FULL)
It Makes Them Disappear ( realaudio FULL)
I'll Cast a Shadow ( realaudio FULL)

Singles/Miscellaneous

5 Minutes Alone

5 Minutes Alone
The Badge ( realaudio FULL )
Cemetery Gates

Alive and Fucking Hostile E.P. (unsure of track list)

Domination
Primal Concrete Sledge
Cowboys From Hell
Heresy
Psycho Holiday

Demon Night Soundtrack Singles

Cemetary Gates (Demon Night Edit)
Polica (Performed by Sepultura)
Instant Larry (Performed by Melvins)
Psycho Holiday (live)

I'm Broken/Slaughtered Disk 1 of 2

I'm Broken
Slaughtered
Domination (live from Moscow 1991) ( realaudio FULL )
Primal Concrete Sledge (live from Moscow 1991) ( realaudio FULL )

Mouth For War

Mouth for War
Rise
Cowboys From Hell (Live in America 1990) ( realaudio FULL )
Heresy (Live in America 1990) ( realaudio FULL )

Planet Caravan

Planet Caravan (Album Version)
By Demons Be Driven (Biochemical Mix) ( realaudio FULL )
Heresy (live from Moscow 1992) ( realaudio FULL )
Cowboys From Hell (live from Moscow 1992) ( realaudio FULL )

Planet Caravan ( image not available )

Planet Caravan
Primal Concrete Sledge
By Demons be Driven
Walk

Walk: Biomechanical Mix

Walk (Album Version)
No Good (Attack the Radical)
Fucking Hostile (Biomechanical Mix)
By Demons Be Driven (Biomechanical Mix)

Walk: Cervial Mix

Walk (Album Version)
A New Level
Walk (Cervical Dub Extended) ( realaudio FULL )
Walk (Cervical Edit) ( realaudio FULL )

Walk: Japanese Edition (unsure of track list)

Walk (Album Version)

Miscellaneous PanterA Songs
from various albums

Hole in the Sky
Cold Gin
Cat Scratch Fever
Raining Blood
Imortally Insane ( realaudio FULL )
Avoid the Light
Light Comes out of Black

PanterA

2006-12-31T03:01:00.000+07:00

Pantera was a heavy metal band from Arlington, Texas, that formed in 1981. Emerging alongside influential classic thrash metal acts such as Slayer, Metallica, Megadeth, and Anthrax, Pantera was a key formulator of the groove metal (post-thrash) subgenre of heavy metal music.

It would not be until nine years after forming that Pantera saw its first bit of commercial success in its major label debut, Cowboys from Hell. From there, Pantera became one of the most celebrated heavy metal bands of the 1990s. Despite the generally cold reception of the band's first four albums, critics have lauded Pantera's style thereafter; Jason Birchmeier of the All Music Guide considers Pantera to be "arguably the greatest metal band of '90s and ... one of the greatest and most influential metal bands ever." The band has received accolades such as ranking 45 on VH1's list of the "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock" and fifth on MTV's "Top 10 Greatest Heavy Metal Bands of All-Time".

Due to long-standing internal conflicts, Pantera dissolved in 2003. The following year, the band's guitarist, Dimebag Darrell, was shot and killed on-stage while performing with his new band, Damageplan.

History

Formation and early glam years (1981-1987)

Pantera formed in 1981 with its original line-up consisting of drummer Vinnie Paul Abbott, his brother, guitarist Dimebag Darrell Abbott (originally referred to as Diamond Darrell), bassist Tommy Bradford, guitarist Terry Glaze (also known as Terrence Lee), and vocalist Donnie Hart. At its conception, the members of Pantera were in 11th grade. They began performing KISS and Van Halen covers as well as original material in the glam metal vein in Texas nightclubs. Along with adopting the glam metal sound, the band members frequently performed in spandex and teased-up hair, a common appearance in the glam metal scene.

In 1982, Hart left the band and Glaze took over vocal duties. Rex Brown (originally referred to as Rex Rocker) soon replaced Bradford on bass. Pantera became an underground favorite, though its regional tours in this era never took them past Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana. The band began supporting fellow heavy metal acts such as Stryper, Dokken, and Quiet Riot, who in turn promoted Pantera's debut, Metal Magic. Metal Magic was released on the band's record label with the same name in 1983 and produced by the Abbott brothers' father, Jerry Abbott (referred to as "The Eldn'"), at Pantego Studios.

The following year, Pantera released its second album, Projects in the Jungle. Though still very much a glam metal album, the band members crafted songs that had less overbearing melodic influences than songs from Metal Magic. Another change was Terry Glaze's surname, which would be "Lee" from then on. In addition, a music video for the album's lead track, "All Over Tonight", was eventually created. Projects in the Jungle was also released on the independent Metal Magic Records label and produced by Jerry Abbott.

For the third consecutive year, Pantera recorded a full-length album to be released on Metal Magic Records, this time entitled I Am the Night. As with Projects in the Jungle, this album saw Pantera's sound becoming heavier (though still rooted in glam metal), and the heavy metal press took more notice of the band. Because of poor distribution, I Am the Night was a costly album to many fans. Around 25,000 copies of I Am the Night were sold. Pantera's second music video was produced for the track "Hot and Heavy".

A new vocalist emerges (1987-1989)

In 1986, two landmark thrash metal albums, Slayer's Reign in Blood and Metallica's Master of Puppets were released. These two bands would prove to be an important influence on Pantera's change in musical direction. Terrence Lee's glam approach did not fit the band's new outlook and was released; Pantera's search for a new vocalist had begun.

The band went through temporary vocalists such as Matt L'Amour and David Peacock before eventually discovering New Orleans native Philip Anselmo. Prior to joining, Anselmo was the vocalist for the bands Samhain and Razorwhite, and at his first jam session with Pantera, immediately clicked with the other members. With the search over, the band members decided to seriously reconsider their glam metal sound and image. Referring to the band's spandex appearance, Vinnie Paul remarked at a band meeting that "These magic clothes don't play music. We do. Let's just go out there and be comfortable – jeans, t-shirt, whatever – and see where it goes."

More than just the band's image was changing, however. In 1988, Pantera released its first album with Anselmo, entitled Power Metal. By far the band's heaviest album at this point, Power Metal was a mix of 1980s hard rock and thrash metal, sometimes blending both styles in a single song. Complementing the band's new sonic approach was Anselmo's harder-edged vocals compared to those of Terrence Lee.

As with the previous three '80s albums, Power Metal was released on Metal Magic Records. Because the band members would later ignore their independent releases as they sculpted a new, heavier image, these four albums are not listed on the band's official Web site and have become hard-to-find collector's items.

Cowboys from Hell (1989-1991)

Shortly after Power Metal was released, guitarist Dimebag Darrell (known then as Diamond Darrell) auditioned for Megadeth's vacant guitar slot. Darrell insisted his brother, bandmate Vinnie Paul, be included, but since Megadeth already had a drummer (former Megadeth roadie Nick Menza), the band backed off and recruited Marty Friedman instead. The Abbott brothers focused their attention back on Pantera, when in 1989, they were given their first shot at commercial success.

After being turned down "28 times by every major label on the face of the Earth," Atco Records representative Mark Ross saw the band perform after Hurricane Hugo stranded him in Texas. Ross was impressed by the band's performance and called his boss, suggesting that Pantera be signed to the label. Atco Records accepted, and at the close of 1989, the band recorded its major label debut at Pantego Studios.

Released on July 24, 1990, Cowboys from Hell was another leap into heavier territory. Pantera showed a more extreme style on this outing, leaving behind its glam metal influences in favor of an amalgamation of power metal and groove metal dubbed "power groove" by the band. Although Anselmo still used Rob Halford-influenced falsetto vocals, he also adopted a more abrasive delivery. Guitarist Abbott's more complex riffs and solos, along with his brother's faster-paced drumwork were evidence of the band's extreme transformation. The album marked a critical juncture in the band's history and most fans, along with the band itself, consider it Pantera's "official" debut. This release includes the popular tracks "Cemetery Gates", a brooding seven-minute piece that focuses on death and religion, and the thrashing title track, which gives the band members their nickname and personality.

So began the Cowboys from Hell tour alongside thrash act Exodus and hardcore punk band Suicidal Tendencies. In 1991, Rob Halford performed with the band onstage, which led Pantera to open for Judas Priest on its first show in Europe. The band eventually landed on a billing with AC/DC and Metallica and played to a crowd of over 500,000 for the "Monsters in Moscow" concert, which celebrated the demise of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Vulgar Display of Power and Far Beyond Driven (1992-1994)

Pantera's unique "groove" style came to fruition in its breakthrough album Vulgar Display of Power, released on February 25, 1992, which saw the replacement of the power metal falsetto vocals with a hardcore-influenced shouted delivery and heavier guitar sound. While some critics point to the rise of grunge music as the subsequent downfall of glam metal, others claim Pantera, most notably on Vulgar, as being the catalyst that overpowered popular '80s metal. Among critics and fans, it is frequently cited as the band's best effort. Songs like "Fucking Hostile", a fast, aggressive challenge of authority, the riff-driven "Walk", and "Mouth for War", remain some of the most popular songs in Pantera's catalog. Singles from Vulgar also received significant airplay on radio and their music videos on MTV. The album entered the American charts at #44.

Also in 1992, Pantera again collaborated with Judas Priest vocalist Rob Halford and cut the track "Light Comes Out of Black" for the Buffy the Vampire Slayer soundtrack. Halford took over main vocalist duties on the track, with Anselmo providing backing vocals. After the collaboration, Pantera hit the road again, visiting Japan for the first time in July 1992 and later performing at the Monsters of Rock festival co-headlined by Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath in Italy.

The extent to which Vulgar Display of Power grew in popularity can be assessed by the instant success of its follow-up, Far Beyond Driven (released on March 15, 1994), which debuted at #1 in both U.S. and Australian album charts, the first metal album to do so. "I'm Broken", Driven's fourth track, was nominated for Best Metal Performance at the 1995 Grammys. In this release, Pantera continued its groove metal approach, while taking an even more extreme direction with its musical style.

Pantera hit the road again and toured South America, along with being accepted into another Monsters of Rock billing. On June 4, 1994, the Abbott brothers got into a scuffle with journalists from the metal magazine Kerrang! over unflattering cartoon depictions of drummer Vinnie Paul. Pantera continued to tour the United Kingdom and eventually ended it in the United States where the band were opened for by fellow groove metal band Prong.

Band tension and a new album (1994-1996)

According to the Abbott brothers, frontman Phil Anselmo began behaving strangely and distanced himself from the band when they returned to the road in 1995. The rest of the band members first thought that Pantera's fame had gotten to Anselmo, but Anselmo cited back pain from years of intense performances as the reason for his erratic behavior. Anselmo attempted to subdue his pain through alcohol, but this, as he admits, was affecting his performances and "putting some worry into the band." Doctors predicted that with surgery, Anselmo's back problem could be healed, but that the recovery time could be a year or more. Anselmo refused, and began using heroin to completely numb his back pain.

Anselmo's on-stage remarks also became notorious during this time, and a Canadian DJ labeled some of his comments during a Montreal show as racist. Anselmo issued a public apology, stating that he was drunk and that his remarks were a mistake.

In 1995 Anselmo also began the first of numerous side projects called Down. Down was a supergroup consisting of Anselmo on vocals, Pepper Keenan and Kirk Windstein on guitars, Jimmy Bower on drums, and Todd Strange on bass. Down's first album, NOLA, was released on September 19, 1995. Pantera's own Rex Brown would later replace Strange on the group's second release, 2002's Down II: A Bustle in Your Hedgerow, named after a famous line from Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven".

Pantera's next album, The Great Southern Trendkill (released on May 22, 1996), came out during grunge rock's dominance and at the onset of rap metal. It is often considered Pantera's "overlooked" album. Phil Anselmo recorded the vocals for this release in Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor's studio in New Orleans while the rest of the band members recorded in Texas, evidence of the continued distancing between Anselmo and the rest of the band. In comparison to the band's previous efforts, there was a heavier emphasis on vocal overdubbing in a somewhat "demonic" fashion. Drug abuse is a popular theme in Trendkill, as exemplified by tracks such as "Suicide Note" and "Living Through Me (Hell's Wrath)". Perhaps the most popular song from Trendkill is "Drag the Waters", which advises the listener to take the motives of others with a grain of salt. "Drag the Waters" became the album's only music video, and likewise, the only track from the album to appear on the band's compilation album.

Overdose, a live album, and more side projects (1996-2000)

On July 13, 1996, Anselmo overdosed on heroin an hour after a Texas homecoming gig. After his heart stopped beating for almost five minutes, paramedics gave Anselmo a shot of adrenaline and sent him to the hospital. Anselmo apologized to his bandmates the next night, but this did nothing to stop the increasing doubt within the band. The revelation of heroin use came as a shock to Vinnie Paul, and his brother, Dimebag Darrell, was embarrassed by Anselmo's actions, according to the guitarist's girlfriend. Anselmo says he would relapse two more times and guilt overcame him.

Some of the band's live performances were eventually compiled in its July 29, 1997 release, Official Live: 101 Proof, which included fourteen live tracks and two new studio-quality songs: "Where You Come From" and "I Can't Hide". Some of the tracks' titles were slightly changed from their originals (e.g., "Hostile" instead of "Fucking Hostile"), while a track like "Dom/Hollow" ("Domination" and "Hollow", respectively) merged two separate songs together for a live performance. Two weeks before the live album's release, Pantera received its first platinum album in Cowboys from Hell. Nearly four months later, both Vulgar Display of Power and Far Beyond Driven went platinum.

Around this time, Anselmo ventured into more side projects, such as playing guitars on Necrophagia's 1999 release Holocausto de la Morte, where he went as the alias "Anton Crowley". He also temporarily joined the black metal supergroup Eibon and contributed to that band's 2000 release. Another one of Anselmo's "Anton Crowley" projects was black metal band Viking Crown. The Abbott brothers and Rex Brown began their own heavy metal/country music crossover project, Rebel Meets Rebel, around the same time.

Final album and break-up (2000-2004)

Pantera returned to the recording studio with Anselmo in 2000 and cut its last album, Reinventing the Steel, which was released on March 14. Steel debuted at #4 on the Billboard 200 and included "Revolution Is My Name" and "Goddamn Electric", the latter of which featured a Kerry King performance recorded during Ozzfest in Dallas. "Revolution Is My Name" became the band's second nomination for Best Metal Performance in the 2001 Grammys.

The band once again returned to touring and visited the United States, South Korea, Australia, and Europe. The tour in Europe was cut short, however, due to the September 11, 2001 attacks. This would be the last time the members of Pantera performed together. Back home, the band planned to release its fourth home video in Summer 2002 and record another studio album later that year, but neither came about. Anselmo again engaged in numerous side projects, chief among them being Superjoint Ritual. A second Down album, Down II: A Bustle in Your Hedgerow, was also released in 2002. Vinnie Paul claims that Anselmo told him he would take a year off following the events of September 11, but Anselmo's touring and record output for both Superjoint Ritual and Down contradicted this. The Abbott brothers were frustrated, and held out for a time, assuming Anselmo would return. However, according to Anselmo, taking a break from Pantera was a "mutual thing" between each of the band members.

The band officially broke up in 2003 when the Abbott brothers concluded that Anselmo had abandoned Pantera and would not return. The break-up of the band was not amicable and subsequently a war between the former bandmates was waged via the heavy metal and musical press. The Abbott brothers and Pantera crew members claimed that they tried numerous times to contact Anselmo over the phone to reorganize Pantera, but Anselmo maintains that they never called him. Caught up in the torrent was Rex Brown, who says "It was a bunch of he said, she said nonsense that was going on, and I wasn't going to get in the middle of it." Anselmo's comment in a 2004 issue of Metal Hammer magazine saying that "Dimebag deserves to be beaten severely" typified Pantera's internal conflicts; Anselmo insists that this comment was tongue-in-cheek.

In July 2004, Vulgar Display of Power went double-platinum, and The Great Southern Trendkill went platinum the next month.

Dimebag Darrell's murder (2004)

On December 8, 2004, crazed fan Nathan Gale, 25, jumped onstage and shot and killed Dimebag Darrell at the Alrosa Villa in Columbus, Ohio, as Damageplan, Darrell and Vinnie Paul's new band, began performing its first song. Before he was shot dead by police officer James Niggemeyer, Gale also killed fan Nathan Bray, 23; club employee Erin Halk, 29; and Pantera security official Jeff Thompson, 40. (For more on the shooting, see Dimebag Darrell.)

Anselmo flew to Texas to attend Darrell's funeral and waited five days in a hotel room for a response from Vinnie Paul. Anselmo says he called the drummer and anyone else he could get a hold of several times. Rita Haney, Dimebag Darrell's girlfriend, finally answered one of Anselmo's calls and said she would "blow [Anselmo's] head off" if he showed.

Public comments made by Phil Anselmo following the shooting suggested that he had considered reuniting with the band prior to Dimebag Darrell's death. However, an interview with Vinnie Paul one year after Dimebag Darrell's murder stated that this reunion was never going to happen.

When asked in an interview with Crave Music if there was any chance of him reconciling with Anselmo, Vinnie Paul answered "Absolutely not. That's it." The former Pantera drummer has since begun work on Hell Yeah, a collaboration between him and members from Mudvayne and Nothingface.

Personality and influences

Pantera has toured with Ozzfest as main stage acts twice; the band played at the second annual Ozzfest in 1997 and the fifth Ozzfest in 2000. Over the course of their career, Pantera's members became known for their excessive partying and debauchery, even acquiring an official drink called the "Black Tooth Grin". The Black Tooth Grin (or "Black Tooth," alternatively), which was named after lyrics in the Megadeth song "Sweating Bullets", is a mixture of Crown Royal or Seagram 7 whisky (sometimes both are used together) and Coca-Cola.

Pantera also adopted a self-described "take no shit" attitude, epitomized in its popular song "5 Minutes Alone" off of Far Beyond Driven. According to drummer Vinnie Paul Abbott, during a show in San Diego, California, Anselmo was annoyed by a heckler and encouraged the crowd to "jump [his] ass and beat the shit out of him on the spot." Consequently, the band was sued; the man's father took action and called Pantera's manager, saying, "You just give me five minutes alone with that Phil Anselmo guy and I'll show him who's big daddy around here," to which Anselmo responded, "You just give me five minutes with that cat's dad and I'll whoop his ass." Thus, "5 Minutes Alone" was born out of that experience.

The band members take pride in what they perceive to be an uncompromising career in which they never "sold out" or gave into trends. This is most noticeably highlighted in the themes and title of The Great Southern Trendkill. On Pantera's official Web site, Anselmo puts it in his own words:

We've survived every fucking trend. Heavy metal, grunge metal, funk metal, rap metal – and we're still here. We put everyone on notice that we don't fuck around. Our fans know we're true right down to the fucking core.

Similarly, the die-hard attitude of "We'll Grind That Axe For a Long Time" (from Reinventing the Steel) is, according to Anselmo, "in a way, our motto."

Aside from their thrash metal influences, the band members cite heavy metal pioneers Black Sabbath as one of their favorite bands. As a tribute, Pantera has recorded three different covers of Black Sabbath songs (all from the Ozzy Osbourne era). The first was "Planet Caravan", a slower, quieter song planned for the first Sabbath tribute album, Nativity in Black, that eventually became the final track on Far Beyond Driven. The band performed Sabbath's "Electric Funeral" on the second Nativity in Black. For the 2003 compilation album, The Best of Pantera: Far Beyond the Great Southern Cowboys' Vulgar Hits!, Pantera covered Sabbath's "Hole in the Sky". Pantera's affinity for Black Sabbath is also shown through the lyrics, "Your trust is in whiskey and weed and Black Sabbath," in "Goddamn Electric". The same song also mentions Slayer, one of the band's thrash metal influences.

Criticism

Exhorder

Pantera has come under criticism within the heavy metal world in relation to New Orleans groove metal band Exhorder. Some fans have accused Pantera of stealing from Exhorder the groove metal sound for which it became famous. While Pantera's style change on Cowboys from Hell was released before Exhorder's debut, Slaughter in the Vatican, Exhorder self-released two demos in the late 1980s that a number of fans believe to be the real birth of the musical style Pantera popularized.

The All Music Guide points to several elements of Exhorder's debut that could potentially explain its lack of success in relation to Pantera. In disagreement with the opinion that Exhorder is "Pantera minus the good songs," AMG's review of Slaughter in the Vatican expresses that "perhaps a more accurate billing would be to call them Pantera without the major label backing." They also point to the fact that the title of Exhorder's debut, along with the unsubtle album cover, "certainly didn't help [its] cause any."

However, some fans and critics dispute any notion that Pantera "stole" Exhorder's sound. Brian Davis, a contributor to Internet radio station KNAC, addresses the issue as follows:

Exhorder's main "claim to fame" is the common opinion that they're the band that Pantera stole their sound from. That's total bullshit. There are minor similarities in guitar style, and on occasion, vocalist Kyle Thomas spits out a line or scream that will bring Pantera to mind, but to go so far as to say that Pantera is an Exhorder clone is ludicrous.

Despite originally decrying Pantera as a rip-off to their sound, former lead vocalist of Exhorder, Kyle Thomas, has recently stated that he does not care about any of the criticism and is sick of seeing Exhorder's name tied to Pantera's. He also stated that he and the members of Pantera were great friends who used to tour together, and that he mourns the loss of Dimebag Darrell.

Megadeth

Besides some claims that Pantera stole Exhorder's sound, Dave Mustaine of Megadeth told MTV in 1994:

When I got together with James [Hetfield], he and I created a guitar style that everybody and their brother is playing now, everyone. I'm not gonna name anybody 'cause I'm not gonna promote them. OK, we'll say "panther" in Spanish. You're welcome guys. We might as well be cooking their dinner for them or pushing their little wheelbarrow to the bank for them.

Miscellanea

VH1's Behind the Music Pantera episode premiered May 11, 2006.

Several of Pantera's music videos were featured in Beavis and Butt-Head, an animated television series.

Pantera contributed a song called "Pre-Hibernation" to an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants. The main riff is similar to the one in "Death Rattle", a track off of Reinventing the Steel.

Cover versions of Pantera songs composed by Robert Prince were used in the making of Doom, a best selling first person shooter computer game from the 1990s.

Pantera's song "Cowboys from Hell" is featured in the video game Guitar Hero as one of the final (and more difficult) songs.

Members

Most recent

Phil Anselmo (Philip Hansen Anselmo) – Vocals

Dimebag Darrell (Darrell Lance Abbott) – Guitars and backing vocals

Vinnie Paul (Vincent Paul Abbott) – Drums

Rex Brown (Rex Robert Brown) – Bass

Former

Terry Glaze (Terrence Lee Glaze) – Vocals and guitar

David Peacock – Vocals

Donnie Hart – Vocals

Matt L'Amour – Vocals

Tommy Bradford – Bass

Metallica

2006-12-30T22:45:00.000+07:00

* Born: 1981

* Birthplace: California

* Best Known As: The heavy metal band who did "Enter Sandman"

Metallica is an American heavy metal band, formed October 28, 1981. With 57 million albums sold in the United States alone and 35 million albums sold outside the U.S. , the band has sold just over 90 million albums, making them one of the most commercially successful heavy metal acts in history. Metallica is currently 18th on the RIAA's list of top selling acts in the United States.

After building a loyal following by helping to develop modern heavy metal, especially thrash metal (Metallica is the most successful of the "big four" of thrash metal, which include Megadeth, Slayer, and Anthrax) in the mid-1980s, the band broadened its audience in the early 1990s.

In 2003 Metallica released their long-delayed 8th studio album, entitled St. Anger. Although the album polarized critical and popular opinion, their 2004 Madly in Anger with the World supporting tour was a success, and a documentary of the recording of the album during a time of internal turmoil, Some Kind of Monster, was a critical success.

Metallica dominated heavy metal music in the 1980s and 1990s, emerging as one of the top musical acts in history by the end of the century. Drummer Lars Ulrich (26 December 1963) and guitarist James Hetfield (3 August 1963) started the band in 1981. After a few line-up changes (including guitarist Dave Mustaine, who left in 1982 to form Megadeath), the band released Kill 'Em All in 1983 and toured the U.S. with Ulrich, Hetfield, guitarist Kirk Hammett (18 November 1962) and bass player Cliff Burton (10 February 1962). In 1986 the band released Master of Puppets, signalling their development from speed metal thrashers to serious songsmiths who could pound out the heavy riffs. That same year a bus accident claimed the life of Burton, and Jason Newsted (4 March 1963) joined the band. Their major-label release ...And Justice For All was a critical and popular success (they had a top 40 hit with "One"), and the band toured relentlessly. Their so-called "black" album in 1991 included the hit song "Enter Sandman," and their exposure on MTV helped make them superstars. In 1996 they released Load, followed the next year by Reload, both top-selling albums that solidified Metallica's presence in mainstream rock. In 2000 they were in the news regularly for their legal battle with the online file sharing service, Napster, and drummer Ulrich appeared before the United States Senate, explaining to a sympathetic Orrin Hatch that file sharing was, in fact, stealing. Eventually Metallica and Napster reached an agreement, but in 2001 Jason Newsted left the band and James Hetfield entered a substance abuse rehabilitation program, leaving the band's latest recording on hold.

History

Early days (1981-1985)

Metallica was formed in Petaluma,California, in 1981 by James Hettfield and Lars Ulrich after they each placed classified advertisements in the publication The Recycler. Hetfield, who had been influenced by the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, tried to start his own band before contacting Ulrich but was unsuccessful. Bassist Ron McGovney was an original member, and the band used a few transient guitar players, such as Brad Parker and Jeff Warner. At their first session, in Lars Ulrich's garage, there were only three members, Ulrich, Hetfield, and Lloyd Grant, but McGovney joined a few days later.

Metallica got its name when San Francisco-area metal promoter Ron Quintana asked Ulrich to help pick out a name for his new magazine to promote U.S. and British metal bands. Quintana came up with a list that included "Metallica," but Lars suggested "Metal Mania" and used "Metallica" for the band he and Hetfield had just started.

Biography

Metallica was easily the best, most influential heavy metal band of the '80s, responsible for bringing the music back to Earth. Instead of playing the usual rock star games of metal stars of the early '80s, the band looked and talked like they were from the street. Metallica expanded the limits of thrash, using speed and volume not for their own sake, but to enhance their intricately structured compositions. The release of 1983's Kill 'Em All marked the beginning of the legitimization of heavy metal's underground, bringing new complexity and depth to thrash metal. With each album, the band's playing and writing improved; James Hetfield developed a signature rhythm playing that matched his growl, while lead guitarist Kirk Hammett became one of the most copied guitarists in metal. Lars Ulrich's thunderous, yet complex, drumming clicked in perfectly with Cliff Burton's innovative bass playing. After releasing their masterpiece Master of Puppets in 1986, tragedy struck the band when their tour bus crashed while traveling in Sweden, killing Burton. When the band decided to continue, Jason Newsted was chosen to replace Burton; two years later, the band released the conceptually ambitious ...And Justice for All, which hit the Top Ten without any radio play and very little support from MTV. But Metallica completely crossed over into the mainstream with 1991's Metallica, which found the band trading in their long compositions for more concise song structures; it resulted in a number one album that sold over seven million copies in the U.S. alone. The band launched a long, long tour which kept them on the road for nearly two years. By the '90s, Metallica had changed the rules for all heavy metal bands; they were the leaders of the genre, respected not only by headbangers, but by mainstream record buyers and critics. No other heavy metal band has ever been able to pull off such a trick. However, the group lost some members of their core audience with their long-awaited follow-up to Metallica, 1996's Load. For Load, the band decided to move toward alternative rock in terms of image -- they cut their hair and had their picture taken by Anton Corbijn. Although the album was a hit upon its summer release -- entering the charts at number one and selling three million copies within two months -- certain members of their audience complained about the shift in image, as well as the group's decision to headline the sixth Lollapalooza. Re-Load, which combined new material with songs left off of the Load record, appeared in 1997; despite poor reviews, it sold at a typically brisk pace through the next year. Garage Inc., a double-disc collection of B-sides, rarities, and newly recorded covers, followed in 1998. In 1999, Metallica continued their flood of product with S&M, documenting a live concert with the San Francisco Symphony; it debuted at number two, reconfirming their immense popularity.

The band spent most of 2000 embroiled in controversy by spearheading a legal assault on Napster, a file-sharing service that allowed users to download music files from each other's computers. Aggressively targeting copyright infringement of their own material, the band notoriously had over 300,000 users kicked off the service, creating a widespread debate over the availability of digital music that raged for most of the year. In January 2001, bassist Jason Newsted announced his amicable departure from the band. Shortly after the band appeared at the ESPN awards in April of the same year, Hetfield, Hammett, and Ulrich entered the recording studio to begin work on their next album, with producer Bob Rock lined up to handle bass duties for the sessions (with rumors of former Ozzy Osbourne/Alice in Chains bassist Mike Inez being considered for the vacated position). In July, Metallica surprisingly dropped their lawsuit against Napster, perhaps sensing that their controversial stance did more bad than good to their "band of the people" image. In late summer 2001, the band's recording sessions (and all other band-related matters) were put on hold as Hetfield entered an undisclosed rehab facility for alcoholism and other addictions. He completed treatment and rejoined the band and they headed back into the studio in 2002 to record St. Anger, released in mid-2003. The recording of St. Anger was capped with the search for a permanent replacement for Newstead. After a long audition process, former Ozzy Osbourne/Suicidal Tendencies bass player Robert Trujillo was selected and joined Metallica for their 2003/2004 world tour. The growing pains the band experienced during the recording process of St. Anger were captured in the celebrated documentary Some Kind of Monster which saw theatrical release in 2004. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine & Greg Prato

In early 1982, Metallica recorded "Hit the Lights" for the first Metal Massacre compilation. Desperate for a full time lead guitarist, Ulrich posted an advert in a local newspaper. Dave Mustaine from Huntington Beach, California, from the band Panic responded and met for an audition. Ulrich and Hetfield were so impressed with Mustaine's warm-up and equipment, they asked him to join before the audition began.

A few months later the band recorded a full demo, No Life 'Til Leather, which quickly drew attention on the underground tape trading circuit. After conflicts with Mustaine, McGovney left the band and was replaced by Cliff Burton from Castro Valley, California. Burton was lured from his band Trauma with the proviso Metallica relocated to the San Francisco area.

When the group arrived in El Cerrito, California, live performances and word-of-mouth enabled it to quickly build a healthy following in the Bay Area thrash metal scene. The music was inspired by bands such as Motörhead and Diamond Head (as the band declared in the sleeve notes of Garage Inc. (1998) "two heads were better than one"), Saxon and other British metal bands. They also took inspiration from hardcore punk bands like the Misfits and Discharge.

Metallica then travelled to Rochester, New York, in 1983 at the urging of local promoters Jon and Marsha Zazula, and after a few gigs the band signed with the Zazulas' new label, Megaforce Records. Shortly after arriving in New York, Ulrich and Hetfield decided Mustaine's aggressive and disruptive behavior relating to his extensive alcohol and drug problems was becoming too much to handle. Mustaine was asked to leave the band, and Kirk Hammett was drafted from Exodus to replace him. A former pupil of Joe Satriani, Hammett brought to the band his own unique style. This would become more apparent after Ride the Lightning, the first album to feature Hammett's songwriting. Mustaine would go on to create the hugely-successful Megadeth.

Metallica released its first album, Kill 'Em All (1983) on Megaforce. The album set the template that they would follow throughout the 1980s, featuring Hetfield's heavy vocals and aggressive rhythm guitar. The album did not have huge initial sales, but consolidated their loyal fan base in the growing underground metal scene. A year later, Metallica released their Ride the Lightning (1984), adding complexity and further melodic flair to the thrash metal of their debut. Longer songs showcased lyrical and musical growth, like "Fade to Black", a slower, more introspective song, or an ode to hoplessness and death, that some thought reflected the thoughts of someone contemplating suicide. The song in fact was written after the band's equipment was stolen (most notably a Marshall amplifier given to him by his mother who had died of cancer, leading Hetfield to post numerous rewards for the safe return of it in magazines and newspapers). The inclusion of slower, introspective songs with clean or acoustic guitar distinguished Metallica from most other thrash or heavy metal bands. Some tracks on Ride The Lightning contain riffs brought by Kirk Hammett from Exodus. "Trapped Under Ice", for example, is reminiscent of Exodus' "Impaler".

Mainstream success (1986-1994)

Metallica signed a major label deal with Elektra Records in 1984, and released Master of Puppets (1986). Many fans regard the album as the band's finest work, and some consider it to be the greatest heavy metal album of all time. Despite the fact that no singles were released for the album, the band received some minor airplay from album tracks "Master of Puppets" and "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)". The album charted at number 29 on the Billboard Top Album Charts.

On September 27, 1986, during a European leg of shows, Burton was killed near Ljungby, Sweden, when Metallica's tour bus skidded off an icy road and flipped over. Burton was thrown out of the window, and the bus landed on top of him. It is uncertain if Burton was dead at this point or not. A winch that was lifting the bus off of him snapped, causing the bus to crush him a second time. It is said that Hetfield repeatedly yelled at the bus driver, asking him where the patch of ice was.

Burton's death left the band's future in doubt. The three remaining members knew the bassist would want them to carry on,[citation needed] and with the Burton family's blessings the band sought a replacement and began auditions almost immediately. Among the most promising of the auditioneers was Les Claypool, a childhood friend of Hammett's. The band liked Claypool but felt his style "too funky".[citation needed] In the band's Behind the Music episode, Hetfield explains that Claypool was too good (as well as too "out there") for Metallica (he had suggested "jamming to some Isley Brothers"), to which the latter responds, "They never returned my calls. I weeped; weeped like a little girl." Claypool later formed Primus.

Jason Newsted, formerly of Flotsam and Jetsam officially joined Metallica on October 28, 1986, three weeks after Burton's funeral. With Newsted, the band finished the Damage, Inc. tour in the early months of 1987. Following the tour, the band quickly recorded The $5.98 EP: Garage Days Re-Revisited in July 1987 as a way to test a new studio they had constructed (according to the EP's liner notes) and to test the talents of Newsted. This EP continued Metallica's fascination with covering songs by British metal and hardcore bands relatively unknown to American audiences. "Breadfan" by British group Budgie became a concert staple.

...And Justice for All (1988), the first studio album since Burton's death, featured some of the band's most structurally complex music. Very little of Newsted's bass is audible, and some fans speculate this was done intentionally as a reaction to Burton's death or as a way of hazing Newsted. The most likely reason, as mentioned by Hetfield and Ulrich in subsequent interviews, was that because Newsted wasn't at the mixing sessions, he wasn't able to affect the final mixing process. Ulrich has also stated the lack of perceived bass resulted from Newsted exclusively mirroring Hetfield's rhythm tracks.

Although the song-writing was praised, the production of this album was heavily criticized as Lars Ulrich's drums clicked more than thudded and the guitars had a thin sound. The Damaged Justice tour followed. However, over time, because of the complexity and length of the songs, the band would later cease to play most of them live (though several songs, most notably "One", would remain a constant in the group's live performances).

In 1989, Metallica received its first Grammy nomination for the album ...And Justice for All for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance Vocal or Instrument. However, in one of the most misunderstood Grammy decisions to date, the award was given to Jethro Tull for the album Crest of a Knave. The result generated much controversy, as Metallica was widely expected to take home the award, and was standing off-stage waiting to receive it after performing the song "One" for the telecast. Lars Ulrich even referenced the snub in accepting a Grammy for "One" the following year, stating, "We gotta thank Jethro Tull for not putting out an album this year."

The album also contained their last instrumental to date, "To Live Is To Die", which was a sort of tribute to Cliff Burton because it contained some of Burton's unused riffs and a poem he had written that was read by Hetfield.

It was during this time the band embraced the mainstream music world with their first ever music video. Ironically, they would choose the song "One", a song based upon the controversial World War I-themed anti-war novel "Johnny Got His Gun",written by Dalton Trumbo.

For the video, the band performed the song in an abandoned warehouse. The performance was then extensively "remixed" with footage of the film version of Johnny Got His Gun. The end result featured a coherent but shortened "mini-movie" version of "Johnny Got His Gun", with an intricate level of synchronization between the song and the film's dialogue, creating a singular narrative between the two.

The "remix" video was submitted to MTV, with the alternate "performance only" version held back in the event that MTV would ban the remix version. MTV accepted the remix version and despite its length (the video ran for nearly ten minutes) put the video in heavy rotation.[citation needed] The video would be many viewers first exposure to Metallica and was voted the #25 in the fall of 1999, when MTV aired its last "Top 100 Videos of All Time" countdown, and was prominently featured during MTV's 25th Anniversary edition of "ADD Video", which showcased the top videos to air on MTV in the last 25 years.

In 1991, the self-titled album, Metallica (popularly known as The Black Album by fans) saw the band reaching out to a wider audience. The record was co-produced with Bob Rock, whose resume included work with hard rock acts The Cult, Bon Jovi, Mötley Crüe, and many others. The album featured a black cover that evoked humorous comparisons to Spinal Tap. The majority of the making of the Metallica album and the following tour was documented in A Year and a Half in the Life of Metallica. The recording sessions were a long and arduous process, lasting over a year due to infighting among the band's members and endless arguments with Rock about the album's direction, scope, and sound. The cost of recording the album was reputed to be over $1 million.[citation needed] However, despite the battle to finish the album, it quickly became the band's most successful release, charting at number one on the Billboard charts.

The album featured the hit "Enter Sandman", which exemplified the radically pared-down style of songwriting across the album; it became one of Metallica's best-known songs and has been used extensively at sporting events. Another hit was "Nothing Else Matters", a more plaintive, acoustic ballad that outraged some fans but secured the album as a massive crossover hit and brought Metallica firmly into the mainstream. The intro to the track "Don't Tread on Me" pastiches Leonard Bernstein's "America" from the musical "West Side Story".

This album had been preceded by a cover of Queen's "Stone Cold Crazy" which was contributed to Rubáiyat, a compilation album commemorating Elektra's 40th anniversary, and which Hetfield, together with Queen's remaining band members, performed live at The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert. Metallica also played a set at the concert.

Charges of selling out would be aimed at Metallica throughout the 1990s, to which the band often joked that they did indeed sell out — each and every date of the tour. Indeed, the Wherever We May Roam tour following The Black Album was especially successful and eventful. Many dates were held with no opening act, instead showing an introductory film that included unused interview footage from A Year and a Half..., and other footage of band members' antics backstage. The best-known incident during this tour was a pyrotechnics accident in 1992 in Montreal while Metallica was performing a series of joint shows with Guns N' Roses. Hetfield suffered severe second and third degree burns to his left arm during the opening of "Fade To Black", leaving him unable to play guitar for a portion of the tour (former Metallica roadie and Metal Church guitarist John Marshall filled in while Hetfield continued to sing). The Guns N' Roses set was also cut short when lead singer Axl Rose left the stage claiming he was unhappy with the sound. After two setlists cut short, fans grew angry and a riot ensued.

Load era (1995-1999)

After almost three years of touring to support The Black Album, during which time the trek was relabelled the Nowhere Else to Roam Tour, Metallica took a respite until late 1995. On December 13, they recorded during their rehearsal for Lemmy Kilmister's 50th birthday party; four Motörhead covers were later released as a two-part limited edition CD single. The band spent around a year writing and recording new songs, resulting in Load (1996). At one point during early production, Load was intended to be a double album. Ultimately, it was decided that it would be best to release half of the songs first, and continue to work on the remaining songs and release them the following year. This resulted in the follow up album ReLoad (1997). Some songs written during Load were changed by the time they were recorded for ReLoad; in particular, "Fuel" had different lyrics than the version played during the Load Tour, as evidenced by the version played on the Cunning Stunts concert film (the song was then-titled "Fuel for Fire").

These albums represented a significant musical change for Metallica. The band's breakneck metal tempos and layered guitar compositions had largely been replaced by bluesy guitar tones, slide guitar and shuffle rhythms. Hetfield's vocals took a larger role than ever before, and several songs (such as "Mama Said" and "Low Man's Lyric"), and showed the band's willingness to experiment with varied sounds and instruments. These changes included the use of the steel guitar (commonly used in country music) in "Mama Said" (this is not supported by Kirk Hammett, who in a Guitar Player interview claimed it's not pedal steel guitar on "Load", but an electric guitar processed to emulate one), as well as the use of the hurdy-gurdy and violin in "Low Man's Lyric".

Many of the changes on Load and ReLoad had been anticipated by earlier experiments (especially on The Black Album), but listeners generally regard the two albums as the band's turning point. Sales were lower than sales of the previous three albums. Many songs from Load and ReLoad received extensive radio play, including "Until It Sleeps", "Hero of the Day", "King Nothing", "The Memory Remains", "The Unforgiven II", and "Fuel".

Hetfield noted later in the documentary film Some Kind of Monster that many songs on these two albums were initially thought by the band to be of only average quality, and polished and re-worked repeatedly until judged to be releasable.

By 1996, all of the band members had cut their hair (although Hammett eventually grew it back), which was ridiculed by many, including band friends Alice in Chains, whose edition of MTV's Unplugged featured, on Mike Inez's bass, the words "friends don't let friends get Friends haircuts." Metallica were in the audience for the taping of the show.

In 1998 Metallica compiled a double CD called Garage Inc.. The first CD contained newly recorded covers, ranging from obvious Metallica influences such as The Misfits, Thin Lizzy, Mercyful Fate and Black Sabbath to more unexpected choices like Nick Cave and Bob Seger (the band's cover of Seger's "Turn the Page" garnered extensive radio airplay). The second CD gathered together previously released covers, including the original The $5.98 E.P.: Garage Days Re-Revisited, which had become a scarce collectors' item. The CD also included B-side covers going as far back as 1984.

On March 7, 1999, Metallica were inducted into the San Francisco Walk of Fame. The mayor of San Francisco, Willie Brown, proclaimed the day "Official Metallica Day" in San Francisco. A month later, on April 21-22, 1999, Metallica recorded two performances with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, then conducted by Michael Kamen. Kamen, who had previously worked with Bob Rock on "Nothing Else Matters", approached the band with the idea of pairing Metallica's music with a symphony orchestra. Kamen and his staff composed additional orchestral material for a number of Metallica songs and the concerts featured broad selection of songs dating as far back as Ride the Lightning. Metallica also wrote two brand-new Kamen-scored songs for the event, "No Leaf Clover" and "−Human." The audio recording and concert footage were released later that year as the album/concert film S&M, in November 1999, on CD, VHS, VCD, and DVD.

Napster controversy (2000-2001)

In 2000, Metallica discovered that a demo of their song "I Disappear" was being distributed via the Napster P2P file-sharing network. Not only was the song unfinished, it was supposed to be released in combination with the Mission: Impossible II soundtrack.

They soon discovered that in addition to the demo, their entire catalogue was also freely available. The band initiated legal action against Napster and, in the process, demanded that 300,000 Napster users found to be trading Metallica songs be banned from the network. Legal actions were also started against Yale University, University of Southern California, and Indiana University for not blocking Napster from their campuses. In 2001, Metallica and Napster agreed to an out-of-court settlement which led to many Napster user accounts being locked out. The band did not take legal action against any individuals for copyright infringement. Lars Ulrich provided a statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee regarding copyright infringement on July 11, 2000.

The lawsuit created a public relations nightmare. Throughout the controversy, many websites hosted cartoon parodies of band members, portraying them as selfish rock stars who were out of touch with their fans. The most popular of these was a cartoon parody entitled Napster Bad!, by Camp Chaos, which spawned an entire series. Some critics mocked Ulrich by spelling his name as "Lar$". In retaliation to the controversy, Ulrich appeared during the 2000 MTV Video Music Awards, in a skit with that years host Marlon Wayans, that blasted against fans' idea of using Napster to share music. Marlon was featured as a college student listening to Metallica's "I Disappear" (ironically to the idea that the demo version was being downloaded on Napster, and to the fact that it was Metallica's current big playing single on radio and MTV), and Lars walking in and from receiving Wayans' sharing excuse, interpreted the idea of sharing by being able to borrow anything that was yours without asking, can also be coined to the point of anything and Metallica roadcrew entered into the dorm room and confiscated everything, while slapping a Napster sticker onto everything, leaving Wayans with an empty room, and even clothless. Napster creator Shawn Fanning would respond by presenting an award wearing a Metallica shirt, saying "I borrowed this shirt from a friend. Maybe, if I like it, I'll buy one of my own," to mock the controversy Ulrich and co. had ensued upon. Public ridicule was widespread as many longtime fans felt Metallica had got their start via underground trading of bootleg recordings of their performances[citation needed]. Metallica's defense was that Napster was allowing free access to their back catalogue and not live bootleg recordings which the band had always encouraged. The fan backlash would not be the only setback the band would experience that year.

Metallica, like a number of other bands, refused to sell their music on iTunes for a number of years. They finally ended this holdout on Tuesday, July 25, 2006, although only in the US and Canada.

Newsted's Departure (2001-2003)

As plans were being made to go into the recording studio in 2001, Newsted left the band, ostensibly due to "the physical damage I have done to myself over the years while playing the music that I love." However, subsequent interviews with Newsted and the remaining members revealed that Newsted's desire to release a CD and tour with his Echobrain side-project – and Hetfield's intense resistance to such an idea – was the primary cause of Newsted's departure, as Hetfield believed a release by an individual band member would somehow weaken the band. The 2004 documentary Some Kind of Monster provided more insight into the reasons for Newsted's departure. In the film he says he felt Metallica's desire to hire a therapist to help solve the problems between the band members was "fucking lame and weak".

This would be the first in a series of low-points the band would endure. In July, 2001, Hetfield entered rehab due to "alcoholism and other addictions". For nearly a year, Metallica ceased to function in any meaningful way. Ulrich and Hammett, for the first time, seriously considered the possibility that Metallica might be finished. Hetfield eventually returned to the band following his rehab hiatus. Slowly and cautiously Metallica continued as a 3-piece throughout the writing and recording of their next album. Longtime producer Bob Rock handled bass duties for the sessions.

Metallica held auditions for Newsted's permanent replacement in early 2003. Robert Trujillo formerly of Suicidal Tendencies, and Ozzy Osbourne's band, was chosen as the new bassist. Robert's resume also included Infectious Grooves as well as a stint with Black Label Society on their Boozed, Broozed, and Broken-Boned DVD. As Metallica moved on, Jason Newsted also found a new musical home joining Canadian thrash metal legends Voivod in 2002. In an interesting turn of events, Jason became Robert's replacement in Ozzy's band during the 2003 Ozzfest tour (which included Voivod as part of the touring bill).

St. Anger (2003-2004)

In June 2003, Metallica's eighth full-length, St. Anger, debuted at number one on the album charts. Though it was an intentionally raw and unpolished album, harsh criticism from fans followed. The record's under-produced sound, Hetfield's "flexible" sense of pitch, Ulrich's new signature steel snare drum and no guitar solos received particular criticism. The album won best metal performance at the 2004 Grammys, the band's seventh such award. The documentary Some Kind of Monster followed the album and offered an inside view into the daily affairs of Metallica as never before. While the film focused on the growing tensions within the band, it fulfilled its original purpose of helping to promote the album. The film also exposed to fans that Metallica had sought the guidance of a therapist, Phil Towle, to deal with a vast amount of the band's inner turmoil.

Having toured extensively for two years with Godsmack in support of St. Anger on first the brief Summer Sanitarium Tour 2003 in festivals and then the lengthy Madly in Anger with the World tour (in which nearly every performance was professionally recorded and sold on LiveMetallica.com) Metallica took a break from performing and spent most of 2005 with friends and family.

Escape From the Studio '06 Tour and The New Album (2005-Present)

On February 16 2006, Metallica announced on their official website, that after their 15+ year relationship, longtime producer Bob Rock has stepped down from recording Metallica's next studio album. Rock had produced every Metallica album since 1991, beginning with Metallica. Metallica is working on a studio album with legendary producer Rick Rubin known for his work with, among numerous others, Slayer and Danzig.

Metallica debuted an untitled song nicknamed "The New Song" in Berlin, Germany on June 6th, 2006 on the European leg of the Escape from the Studio '06 mini tour. On August 12th, 2006, Metallica debuted another song in Tokyo, Japan on the Asian leg of the tour, nicknamed "The Other New Song" (which are available to view on YouTube). The band has previously unveiled new songs prior to their release: Four songs from Ride the Lightning ("Fight Fire with Fire", "Ride The Lightning", "Creeping Death", and "The Call of Ktulu") were performed before the release of the album; Master of Puppets' "Disposable Heroes" was debuted in September of 1985; ...And Justice for All's "Harvester of Sorrow" received its live debut in 1987, Load's "2x4" was played during the Escape from the Studio '95 mini-tour; and Reload's "Fuel" and "Devil's Dance" were played at various points during the Load tour 1996-97 and again during the 3 shows European mini-tour in August 1997 ("The Memory Remains" and "Bad Seed" were teased numerous times at shows throughout 1996 and 1997).

It was during this time on tour that the band finally bowed to fan pressure decided to make each of their albums available at the iTunes Store - though strictly in the U.S. and Canada until issues with their European label are sorted out - allowing individual tracks to be legally downloaded for the first time. Exclusive tracks from the Seattle '89 shows were added to the band's first four albums.

On October 13, 2006 Metallica announced that they will release a DVD containing all their videos from 1989 to 2004. The DVD will be called The Videos 1989-2004 and it will be released on December 4, 2006 worldwide and on December 5 in North America.

Other appearances

* James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich contributed their voices to the Disney cartoon "Dave the Barbarian" in an episode titled "Here There Be Dragons", which aired February 27, 2004.

* James Hetfield lended his voice in the movie "South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut" which was produced by Trey Parker and Matt Stone.

* On September 20, 2005, Metallica went to the studio to record their voice parts for their appearance in an episode of The Simpsons. The episode was named The Mook, the Chef, the Wife and Her Homer and it was the first of Season 18, being aired in the United States on September 10, 2006. In the scene, Otto Mann passes Metallica as they stand by their broken-down bus. He offers to give them a ride, but Bart drives off with his bus. Metallica ends up getting a ride from Hans Moleman (who slept with Lars's grandmother), and they drive off as Metallica starts playing "Master Of Puppets".

* James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett have recorded guest voices for Adult Swim's new show "Metalocalypse".

* Metallica played two shows with The Rolling Stones in their hometown of San Francisco on November 13, 2005 and November 15, 2005. Metallica opened both nights and the concert was held at SBC Park.

* Metallica played their first shows on the African continent March 18-25, 2006, at the Coca-Cola Co-lab Massive Mix in South Africa. The band was billed alongside such artists as Collective Soul, Seether, Simple Plan, and Fatboy Slim.

* The band made an appearance in the independent film The Darwin Awards and played at its Sundance Film Festival private party premiere on January 25, 2006.[citation needed]

* On March 13, 2006 Metallica inducted Black Sabbath into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and played "Iron Man" and "Hole in the Sky". The ceremony was aired on VH1, March 21, 2006.

* Throughout the entire 2006 tour, Metallica has performed Master of Puppets in its entirety to celebrate the album's twentieth anniversary of release. These performances mark the only full renditions of "Orion" since Burton's death. The band has performed abbreviated versions of the song on many occasions, most notably as part of the bass solo during the Nowhere Else to Roam world tour from 1991-1993, and in November 2005 during a pair of dates opening for The Rolling Stones.

Jason Newstead - X Metallica

2006-12-30T20:17:00.000+07:00

* Genre: Rock

* Active: '80s, '90s, 2000s

* Instrument: Bass, Guitar (Bass), Theremin

Biography

Jason Curtis Newsted (born March 4, 1963 in Battle Creek, Michigan) is an American bass guitarist currently a member of Voivod, but is best known as the former member of the band Metallica from 1986-2001. He currently resides in Walnut Creek, California.

Bassist Jason Newsted may not have been an original member of Metallica, but he was present for the band's rise from the metal underground to the top of the charts worldwide from the late-'80s up to the dawn of the 21st century. Born on March 4, 1963, in Battle Creek, MI, Newsted and his family relocated when he was 14 to Kalamazoo, MI. Shortly thereafter Newsted discovered rock music via Kiss and their blood-spurting, fire-breathing demon bassist, Gene Simmons. He soon discovered other popular metal bands of the day (Ted Nugent, Rush, Black Sabbath, Blue Oyster Cult), all the while learning bass and playing in local bands.

In 1981, Newsted and a friend left Michigan with hopes of making it to California to start up a band, but made it only as far as Phoenix, where they remained. Newsted formed a new band shortly thereafter, dubbed Dogz, which changed their name to Flotsam & Jetsam by 1983, specializing in a newly founded metal style -- thrash. It was also around this time that Newsted discovered the frontrunners of thrash, Metallica, quickly becoming his favorite band. Flotsam & Jetsam signed with the Metal Blade record company, appearing on an edition of the label's Metal Massacre compilation and recording a debut album, 1986's Doomsday for the Deceiver. All the while Newsted was the band's leader, serving as the main songwriter and lyricist in addition to his bass duties.

Flotsam was quickly moving up the ladder when Metallica (who had just released their most successful album yet, the classic Master of Puppets release) suffered the tragic death of bassist Cliff Burton mid-tour in September of 1986. Metallica decided to soldier on and began auditioning bass players to fill the void left by Burton. Despite a promising future with Flotsam & Jetsam, Newsted opted to try out for Metallica and got the gig. Metallica picked up where their tour left off shortly after naming Newsted their new member and spent 1987 working on their highly anticipated follow-up to Master. Although 1988's epic prog-metal concept album And Justice for All was a major hit and broke Metallica to the big time, Newsted's bass was barely audible in the mix, while his songwriting talents were barely utilized at all (he earned a lone co-songwriting credit with the album-opener, "Blackened"). By the release of 1991's self-titled release, Metallica had become one of the world's most popular rock bands -- a more straightforward musical approach and embracement of music videos had paid off, as the album would eventually sell over ten million copies in the U.S. alone. After a mammoth two-year tour in support of the album had ground to a halt in 1993, the members took time off.

It wasn't until 1996 that the quartet would issue their next studio album, Load, but the group took some heat from longtime fans due to their new look (short hair, designer threads) and a more varied musical style that embraced other forms besides metal. But Load was another sizeable hit, as was its follow-up a year later, Reload. 1998 saw a compilation of cover tunes from over the years, Garage Inc., while 1999's symphonic metal experiment, S&M, was well received. Newsted had also found time to guest on other artist's recordings (Voivod's Phobos, Jim Martin's Milk & Blood, U.N.K.L.E.'s Psyence Fiction, and Sepultura's Against) and was set to launch a side-project titled Echo Brain in 2000, which appeared to cause some strife within Metallica -- confirmed by a tell-all interview by all four bandmembers in Playboy magazine in early 2001. Around the same time the aforementioned Playboy interview hit the stands, Newsted abruptly left Metallica, offering the statement, "Due to private and personal reasons, and the physical damage I've done to myself over the years while playing the music I love, I must step away from the band." ~ Greg Prato, All Music Guide

Jason left his previous band, Flotsam and Jetsam to join Metallica in 1986 after the tragic death of popular bassist Cliff Burton.

During an evening of drinking, the three members of Metallica: James Hetfield, lead guitarist Kirk Hammett, and drummer Lars Ulrich reportedly came to a decision in the restroom of Tommy's Joynt in San Francisco amongst the urinals, and upon their return to the bar asked Jason to join Metallica. It was Ulrich who asked Newsted coolly: "Want a job?"

After confirming Jason as their new bassist, Metallica constructed a cheap studio in Ulrich's garage in order to acclimate Jason to Metallica. In this studio, the band quickly recorded an album consisting completely of cover songs called The $5.98 EP: Garage Days Re-Revisited, an homage to the New Wave of British Heavy Metal bands that influenced them. Jason was often referred to by the nickname "Jason Newkid" and in autograph sessions Jason would sign his name and add "Bassface" below, often having the B marked out by one of the other band members.

In 1988, the band recorded ...And Justice for All, Jason's official debut with Metallica. While the album contains classic Metallica songs such as "Blackened" (which Jason co-wrote), "One," and "Harvester of Sorrow", the bass guitar is all but non-existent, buried under layer upon layer of Hetfield's rhythm guitar tracks. Only a trained ear can make out many of the parts, although this can also be partially attributed to Jason's doubling of Hetfield's rhythm guitar parts (drummer Ulrich has challenged fans to find any instance in any song on the album in which Jason is not doubling the rhythm parts).

Jason withstood an ongoing series of practical jokes during the mammoth two-year Damaged Justice tour supporting ... Justice .... Some of his hazing experiences would include: being tricked into eating wasabi, the band members ordering alcoholic drinks and charging it to his hotel room and, mentioned during the 2001 Playboy interview [1], having his personal belongings getting thrown out of his hotel window. He said the hazing went from fraternity pranks (such as the autograph sessions mentioned above) to being downright cruel with turning down the bass in ...And Justice for All as an example. He felt that the hazing never stopped. Many fans who have come to his defense have cited this behavior among the evidence that he was never fully accepted as an equal member of the band.

He left Metallica in January 2001. He joined the Canadian metal band Voivod in 2002. The last song Jason played with Metallica was "Fade to Black" at the VH1 Music Awards and he knew at the time that it was going to be the last song he would play with the band.

In the film Some Kind of Monster, Newsted claimed that he left Metallica because of James Hetfield's controlling desire to keep everyone in Metallica and out of side projects (specifically Echobrain, which Newsted desired to release an album and tour with). Ironically, in Echobrain's self-titled debut album, Kirk Hammett is credited with playing a solo on one track ("Suckerpunch"), without consequence from Hetfield. Jason also admitted that after 13 years, he still felt that his bandmates had not accepted him as an equal to his predecessor, Cliff Burton. He also said that the band's decision to hire a psychologist was, "really fucking lame. And weak."

In 2003, Metallica picked former Ozzy Osbourne and Suicidal Tendencies bassist Robert Trujillo as Newsted's replacement. Jason was very happy with the decision Metallica made and in a bizarre twist, Ozzy immediately chose Jason to replace Rob for Ozzfest 2003. Following the end of Ozzfest, Jason left Ozzy's band to concentrate on his work with Voivod. Even though he isn't 100% happy with his relationship with Metallica, they are on better terms than they were immediately after his departure. He has said, "I'll be right there [at the concerts] cheering them on" on MTV Icon. However, after finding out the line up for the Summer Sanitarium Tour 2003, Newsted criticized Metallica for touring with pop-metal bands such as Linkin Park and Limp Bizkit, stating that they were only doing that to get stadiums full. He also noted that he wasn't saying that as the hurt former member, but as a fan. He briefly criticized the production of post-Newsted album St. Anger as well, to which Hetfield has responded that "he's just a voice among many."

In most recent news, Jason Newsted joined Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee and former Guns N' Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke to form Supernova, a band that finalized its member lineup by selecting a lead singer in the competition style reality television show Rock Star. Supernova's first album is to be released just before the new band hits the road in 2007.

Style

Like Lemmy Kilmister of Motörhead and many bassists in the Rock and Metal genres of music, Newsted favors playing pickstyle instead of his fingers. In Metallica's documentary A Year and a Half in the Life of Metallica he explained that while learning to play his first bass he had no amp. To make the sound audible, he played with a pick and used a very heavy downstroke that physically starts from his shoulder ("the movement comes from the shoulder and involves the whole arm" - Bass Player magazine Sept/Oct 1991, "Metallica Right-Hand Technique" by Jason Newsted, page 38) and not his wrist (as does most other pickstyle players), which led to not only his unique tone and sound but a strength and consistency in his right-hand picking technique which leads to Jason hitting the strings at the exact same area on every single stroke (Bass Player magazine Sept/Oct 1991, "Metallica's Jason Newstead - New Album, New Sound" pgs 30-39) .

However, Newsted does use his fingers on occasion. The videos for "One", "King Nothing" and "Nothing Else Matters" show Jason using his fingers, and he also plays with his fingers on the fretless acoustic bass used for "The Unforgiven" from the aforementioned film. In addition to this, the video for the song "The Memory Remains" shows Jason playing fingerstyle and occasionally slapping his bass. Also, on the live DVD S&M, Jason can be seen playing fingerstyle on the song "- (Minus) Human," which was written a few years before the DVD was out on the street but previously unreleased (as well as "No Leaf Clover"). More recently he played fingerstyle while performing some of the Supernova original songs while on Rock Star Supernova

He is also known for his deep and throaty singing style. While in Metallica, he provided backing vocals to Hetfield and would even take entire verses from "Seek & Destroy", "Whiplash" and "Creeping Death" for himself to give Hetfield's voice a rest. His backing vocals have been met with both respect and criticism from fans; the respecting fans often cite this as one of the aspects of his departure from Metallica that is most missed.

Newsted is also noted for his energetic stage presence. Once described by Lars as a "energy bomb-of-a-person", Newsted would frequently run on stage, and headbang. He has stated in interviews that during some shows he would "Jack up his neck pretty bad" and "couldn't play for a few minutes." He has since attempted to remedy this problem by using lighter basses and Newsted occasionally headbangs to this day, years after leaving Metallica.

Rock Star: Supernova

In July 2006 Jason joined the band Supernova that is seeking a singer for the new band. The other band members are Gilby Clarke (guitar), and Tommy Lee (drums). The band selected Lukas Rossi to be their lead singer on September 13, 2006 on the television show Rock Star: Supernova.

On October 23rd, 2006 Newsted injured his shoulder while attempting to catch a falling bass amp head. He is scheduled for immediate surgery, and will then undergo a lengthy rehab process that could detain him for up to nine months. The band is searching for a temporary replacement for their upcoming tour. [2]

Discography

* Flotsam and Jetsam

o 1986 Doomsday for the Deceiver

* Metallica

o 1987 Garage Days Re-Revisited

o 1988 ...And Justice for All

o 1991 Metallica

o 1993 Live Shit: Binge & Purge

o 1996 Load

o 1997 Reload

o 1998 Garage Inc.

o 1999 S&M

* Sepultura

o 1998 Against (guest)

* UNKLE

o 1998 Psyence Fiction (guest)

* Voivod

o 1998 Phobos (guest)

o 2003 Voivod

o 2006 Katorz

* Echobrain

o 2002 Echobrain

* Papa Wheelie

o 2002 Unipsycho

o 2002 Live Lycanthropy

* IR8/Sexoturica

o 2002 IR8 vs. Sexoturica

* Moss Brothers

o 2001 Electricitation

DVD & Video

* Metallica

o 1989 2 of One

o 1992 A Year and a half in the life of Metallica

o 1993 Live Shit: Binge & Purge

o 1998 Cunning Stunts

o 1999 S&M

o 2004 Some Kind Of Monster

o 2006 The Videos 1989-2004

Lars Ulrich - METALLICA

2006-12-30T17:51:00.000+07:00

Lars Ulrich (born December 26, 1963) is the drummer and founder of Metallica. He was born in Gentofte, Denmark to a middle-upper class family and worked in a gas station and as a paper boy during his childhood and teens. At the age of thirteen he begged his grandmother to buy him his first drum kit. The kit was a Ludwig because he wanted to have the same drum kit as Ian Paice of Deep Purple. Ulrich moved to Los Angeles, California at the age of seventeen, to pursue his training in tennis. After publishing an advertisement in a local Los Angeles newspaper, called The Recycler, he met James Hetfield and created a band — Metallica.

Besides being one of Metallica's founding members and main songwriters, drummer Lars Ulrich is also the band's spokesman. Born on December 26, 1963, in Gentofte, Denmark, Ulrich's father (Torbin Ulrich) was a nationally renowned tennis player, and it appeared as though Lars would follow in his father's footsteps, as the young Ulrich practiced hard on tennis skills. In 1973, his father took Lars to his first rock concert, to see the mighty Deep Purple in Copenhagen, which opened the youngster's eyes to hard rock and heavy metal. After he decided that the tennis life wasn't for him after all, Ulrich shifted his focus on music (namely the New Wave of British Heavy Metal movement: Iron Maiden, Saxon, Diamond Head, Motorhead, Def Leppard, etc.), and took up the drums. His family relocated to California in the early '80s, as Lars promptly put an ad in the local music paper looking for other similarly minded musicians looking to start up a band (even though the NWOBHM had yet to make an impression stateside). One of the first replies he received was from guitarist James Hetfield, as the pair agreed that they should form a band that was a reaction against the glam metal that had infiltrated Los Angeles at the time. Soon after, Metallica was officially born.

Several other bandmembers came and went, until a lineup consisting of bassist Cliff Burton, lead guitarist Dave Mustaine, plus Ulrich and Hetfield (the latter also doubling on vocals by this time) moved to San Francisco, building up a solid fan base due to their shows and a heavily circulated demo tape, No Life 'Til Leather. Metallica was offered a record contract with the independent label Megaforce if they agreed to move to New York, which they did, replacing Mustaine with Kirk Hammett in the process. Over the course of three releases, 1983's Kill 'Em All, 1984's Ride the Lightning (which was the group's first to be issued by a major label, Elektra), and 1986's Master of Puppets, Metallica became one of heavy metal's most promising new bands, until Burton's tragic death nearly derailed the group. With massive success just around the corner, the remaining members decided to carry on with replacement member Jason Newsted, resulting in such blockbuster releases as 1988's And Justice for All and 1991's self-titled release, which established the group as one of the biggest rock bands on the planet. The '90s saw more sold-out stadium tours and further hit albums (1996's Load, 1997's Reload, etc.), before Newsted exited the band in early 2001.

Between Metallica tours throughout the '90s, Ulrich kept himself busy forming his own record label, Music Company (via Elektra/Asylum) and jet setting with other rock stars as well as movie actors. In the late '90s, Ulrich received criticism from rock fans when he publicly spoke out against the mp3 file sharing internet server Napster, attempting to lend a hand in closing down the server by prohibiting Napster from including any Metallica songs - going as far as giving a list of Metallica fans who had downloaded songs of the group (which resulted in the ban of nearly 300,000 users from the service).

LARS ULRICH IMAGES

James Hetfield - METALLICA

2006-12-30T17:02:00.000+07:00

James Hetfield is the guitarist and vocalist from the band Metallica.

Hetfield was born on August 3, 1963, in Downey, Los Angeles County, California.

Hetfield was 9 years old when he took his first piano lessons, before taking on his brother David's drums and finally picking up a guitar in his pre-teens. Inspired by bands such as Black Sabbath, The Beatles, Venom, Led Zeppelin and Thin Lizzy, Hetfield formed his first band, Obsession, in his early teens.

He started the band (Metallica) in 1981 with Lars Ulrich (Drummer).

James has been a major endorsee of ESP guitars since 1991, and is best known for playing custom-made Explorer-style guitars with an EMG 81/EMG 60 set for pickups.

Metallica was formed in Downey, California, in 1981 by drummer and former tennis prodigy Lars Ulrich and guitarist and vocalist James Hetfield, who met after Lars Ulrich placed a classified advertisement in the American publication The Recycler. Bassist Ron McGovney was an original member, and the band used several transient guitar players, such as Brad Parker and Jeff Warner. Their first session played was in Lars Ulrich's garage. At that time there were only three members, Lars Ulrich, James Hetfield, and Lloyd Grant. Ron McGovney joined a couple of days later. Metallica got its name when drummer Lars Ulrich was helping San Francisco area metal promoter Ron Quintana pick out a name for a new magazine to promote metal and the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal bands. Quintana came up with two suggestions: "Metallica" and "Metal Mania." Lars suggested that the name Metallica was lame and told him to use Metal Mania. Lars then decided to use Metallica as the name for the band he and James Hetfield had just started.

In early 1982, Metallica recorded "Hit the Lights" for the first Metal Massacre compilation. Guitarist Lloyd Grant was brought in to do the solos on the track but was never a full member of the band. Desperate for a full time lead guitarist, Ulrich posted an ad in the local newspapers. Dave Mustaine from Huntington Beach, California, a guitarist from the band Panic responded, and upon arrival started a sound check. Ulrich and Hetfield were so impressed with Mustaine's warm up and equipment that they asked him to join before actually auditioning. A few months later the band recorded a full demo, "No Life 'Till Leather", which quickly drew attention on the underground tape trading circuit. Conflicts with Mustaine eventually caused McGovney to leave the band, and he was replaced by Cliff Burton from Castro Valley, California, lured from his band Trauma in exchange for the other members of Metallica relocating to the San Francisco area.Upon arriving in El Cerrito, California, the group quickly built a healthy local following in the Bay Area Thrash Scene via word-of-mouth and live performances. Metallica then traveled to New York in 1983 at the urging of local promoters Jon and Marsha Zazula, and after a few gigs the band signed with the Zazulas' brand new label, Megaforce Records. Shortly after arriving in New York, Mustaine was fired due to various disruptive, unproductive behaviors all related to alcoholism and other addictions. Kirk Hammett was drafted from Exodus to replace him. Mustaine would go on to create the thrash metal band Megadeth. A pupil of Joe Satriani, Hammett brought to the band a more melodic and progressive guitar style quite different from Mustaine. This would become more apparent after "Ride the Lightning", the first album to feature Hammett's songwriting.

After Hammett joined the band, the classic Metallica line-up was installed, Kirk Hammett on guitar, Lars Ulrich on drums, James Hetfield on guitar and vocals, and finally Cliff Burton on bass. Many saw Metallica's formation as a direct reaction to the prevalent rock and roll music of the early 1980s. Inspired by bands such as Motörhead, Diamond Head (declaring in the sleeve notes of 1998's "Garage Inc." that "two heads were better than one"), Saxon and other bands of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, as well as from hardcore punk bands like the Misfits and Discharge. Yet Metallica's fusion of these influences transcended mere stylistic mashup, creating a heavy, hard, dynamic, yet capably melodic stlye perfectly reinforced by the evolving depth of their subjects, lyrics and composition, most noticeably starting with "Ride the Lightning".

Metallica's first album, "Kill 'Em All", was released in 1983 on Megaforce Records. The album set the template that they would follow throughout the 1980s, prominently featuring the heavy vocals and aggressive rhythm guitar of James Hetfield. "Kill 'Em All" did not have huge sales after its inititial release, but it did establish Metallica a loyal fan following in the growing 'underground metal' scene. A year later Metallica released their second album for Megaforce, "Ride the Lightning". The new album expanded their form with longer songs that featured lyrical and instrumental growth that rose above some of the playing on "Kill 'Em All". One significant development on "Ride the Lightning", the song "Fade to Black", presented a slower, more introspective lyric, musing on the perspective of someone contemplating suicide. Indeed "Fade to Black" represents the first such song in a tradition that would come to include "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)" and "One". The inclusion of songs with these slower, more ballad-like passages and psychologically sensitive lyrics demonstrates one of the important factors that distinguished Metallica from most other thrash metal bands such as Anthrax, Slayer, and Megadeth, whose musical ability rivalled Metallica, but whose artistry never quite matched.

This development as songwriters continued with "Master of Puppets", which many consider Metallica's finest album, and which featured the compositional influence of bassist Cliff Burton more than any other Metallica album. "Master of puppets" was also to be the last record with Cliff Burton, who tragically died in a bus accident on September 27, 1986, in rural Sweden.

Later, Jason Newsted joined the band as a new bassist. He stayed in the band for 15 years and has released 5 Albums with Metallica ( ..And Justice For All, Metallica, Load, Reload, Garage Inc.) and appeared on the official Metallica Concert DVD's entitled Live Shit: Binge and Purge, Cunning Stunts and S&M. In the Year 2000, there were some arguments between James Hetfield and Jason Newsted. This was basically because Metallica did not listen to Jason's musical ideas; Jason only being credited for 3 songs out of the 5 albums he was in.

Jason then left the Band and helped a fairly unknown band called Echobrain to
release their album. Once they successfully released it he left Echobrain and joined Ozzy Ozbourne's band. Jason is now a member of Tommy Lee's band "Rock Star Supernova," however he will be out of that band for approximately 9 months after suffering back injuries when trying to catch his bass head which fell off his amp. When he recovers, who knows what project Jason may encounter next?

When Metallica released "St. Anger" in 2003, it received mixed reactions from fans and critics, but hit #1 on the Billboard 200 in it's first week, after which sales plummetted and it became Metallica's poorest overall seller to date. While producing, the band searched for a new bassist. His name was: Robert Trujillo.

Now In 2007, using Rick Rubin's critically acclaimed producing abilities, they will start to record the newest album which is as of yet untitled. The writing stage is complete and recording will begin next january with an expected release of late fall. A supposedly world tour will follow.

Kirk Hammet - METALLICA

2006-12-29T18:37:00.000+07:00

Birth Place: San Francisco, California, USA
Date of Birth: November 18, 1962
Heritage: American

Kirk Lee Hammett was born on November 18th 1962 in San Francisco, California. He got his first own guitar at the age of 15, when he would buy a Montgomery Ward Strat copy from a friend for ten dollars and a Kiss album ("Dressed To Kill"). But he only started really playing it after about six months later.

During his adolescence, Kirk was very introverted, as he had moved from San Francisco to a suburb, the East Bay. He suffered a lot from the culture shock, and the music he would listen to -Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix or Cream- set him apart from the other kids even more. But playing his favorite songs like "Purple Haze", "Wild Thing" and "Communication Breakdown" on the guitar made him feel closer to the music he was listening to. Together with John Marshall (from "Metal Church" -he replaced James Hetfield a couple of times when James broke his arm and when he had the accident with the pyrotechnics in Montreal in 1992) he would figure out songs and jam on them.

The first real good guitar Kirk bought was a blonde Stratocaster with a maple neck, because of Hendrix. After listening to UFO, with Michael Schenker, he bought a black Flying V, which can be heard on the first three or four Metallica albums. By then, he had formed a band called Exodus, and they would play Thin Lizzy, UFO, Judas Priest and Iron Maiden cover songs, but also original ones. From the money they actually got for playing at garden parties or so they had to pay the PA they rented. Exodus opened a couple of shows with Metallica, and Kirk was very impressed by them, and their original sound. When lead guitarist Dave Mustaine got expelled, after a fight with James Hetfield, Kirk was invited to an audition in New York and he joined the band without thinking twice. Actually he found that he was more suited playing with these guys than with the band he himself had formed!

In 1982, a few weeks before Metallica recorded their debut album, "Kill 'Em All", Kirk took lessons from Joe Satriani, from whom he also adapted that 12 hours a day playing routine. "Kill 'Em All" would then mark the beginning of an incredible Metalli-era!

( See the MetallicA History ).

In the band, when recording, Kirk used to play only the lead guitar parts ( until "Load") and eventually contribute arrangement ideas. He would compose up to 40 takes for one single solo, recording them on his portable recording machine. Kirk really considers his solos as "songs in the song", and so he would not stop working on them until he is fully satisfied with the result. ( Take for example the "Enter Sandman" solo. It's composed of several takes to give the perfect solo! ) His playing has quite evolved since the early years with "Kill 'Em All". So Kirk admits having overplayed on "...And Justice For All", where he tried to impress everybody and make proof of his virtuosity. But on the "Black Album" and especially on "Load"/ "ReLoad" Kirk dropped some speed in favor of a more bluesy playing style and experimental sounds. His song writing role changed too and he contributed some rhythm guitar work to the last two albums. His influence in the band has considerably grown this last years, as Metallica used to be fairly dominated by the duo Hetfield/Ulrich. But Kirk's charisma has always put him apart and has at least equally contributed to his popularity as his extraordinary guitar playing has.
In his private life, Kirk got divorced from his first wife Rebecca (which he married on December 3, 1987) and wed his girlfriend, Lani, on January 31 1998 in Kailua, Hawaii.

Clifford Lee Burton R.I.P.

2006-12-29T17:27:00.000+07:00

"When a man lies he murders some part of the world
These are the pale deaths which men miscall their lives
All this i cannot bear to witness any longer
Cannot the kingdom of salvation take me home"
- Cliff Burton: "To Live Is To Die" -

Cliff Burton Tribute

Nine years ago today, Cliff Burton was killed in a tragic, freak bus accident.

I was lucky enough to have seen and met him once in 1986. It was June 5, 1986 and Metallica was playing small shows in between breaks from the Ozzy tour. They played a small venue called The Villa Real in McAllen Texas to about 4500 people. The opening band was The Godz. In those days, the band was not huge like they are today, so the band members were able to walk around in the venue....I even ran into James Hetfield ( before he signed his name Jaymz ) in the bathroom.

The show itself was great. The stage was about 6 feet tall and the tiny barricade was about 3 feet from the stage. It was intense.

Afterwards, I hung out by the tour bus and Cliff came out and chatted with a few of us and signed autographs. He then said that he would be right back, and he went back into the bus and got the rest of the guys to come out and sign autographs too. After a while, they had to leave, but I remember that Cliff thanked us repeatedly and said, "See you next year."

About 3 and a half months later, I heard that Cliff was dead. I could not believe it.

The Metallica of today has many new fans who did not even get to know Cliff or get to see him play live in concert. Often referred to as the "soul of Metallica," he was an integral part of their innovative sound and approach during a particularly important period in their development.

He was more than just the second bass player in the band. He was about an attitude. He was such a special person, that even today, his name comes up repeatedly...and his name always will.

He is unforgettable. His untimely death remains one of the most regrettable tragedies in rock.

Even today, nine years after Cliff's death, Jason Newsted is considered "Cliff's replacement." Sadly for him, he will never truly be accepted by those who knew the band when Cliff was around.

As a tribute to Cliff, I've put together a collection of interviews, articles and quotes that some of you might find interesting. I didn't write most of this.....I just put it together..so I take no credit.

"Cliff was so completely honest to himself and the people around him. He hated all this being-put-on-a-pedestal bullshit."

Lars Ulrich, 1986

"To this day, I think of him every day."

Kirk Hammett, 1988

"He was a great and very special talent.....Cliff's solos were absolutely brilliant."

Jason Newsted, 1988

"He was a wild, hippie-ish, acid-taking, bell-bottom-wearing guy. He meant business, and you couldn't fuck around with him. I wanted to get that respect that he had. We gave him shit about his bell-bottoms everyday. He didn't care. "This is what I wear. Fuck you." He loved music. He was really intellectual but very to the point. He taught me alot about attitude."

James Hetfield, 1993

Clifford Lee Burton

2-10-62........9-27-86

Back in late 1982, it was decided that bassist Ron McGovney wasn't really pulling his weight in Metallica. One of Metallica's peer bands up north making the rounds about this time was Trauma. In addition to being a favorite Bay-area club circuit draw, the band was gaining recognition through their one-song demo, featuring "Such a Shame," that eventually was transferred to vinyl on Metal Massacre II. More noteworthy, however, Trauma possessed within its ranks "the most headbanging bassist" Lars and James had ever seen - Cliff Burton. They initially spotted him during a live Trauma show at LA's Troubador.

"We heard this wild solo going on and thought, 'I don't see any guitar player up there.' It turned out it was the bass player, Cliff, with a wah wah pedal and this mop of hair. He didn't care whether people were there. He was looking down at his bass playing."

James Hetfield

Burton, who grew up with Faith No More guitarist Jim Martin near San Francisco, was a cross between Clint Eastwood and E.F. Hutton: Didn't say much, but when he did, people listened. Especially Hetfield and Ulrich, who were puppies with peach fuzz and acne when they relocated Metallica to the Bay Area in 1983 to be closer to Cliff. Cliff Burton had flavor: he wore bell-bottoms, read H.P. Lovecraft, studied piano, and even went to junior college. He drove a 1972 VW stationwagon. He was the son of Jan and Ray Burton, two San Francisco hippies and he still had those hippie ideals; he liked his beer, liked his pot or whatever, liked to chill out, and he was really laid-back, relaxed and happy.

He lived with his family in San Francisco, and for three and a half years he worked hard to take Metallica to the top. After replacing Ron McGovney in late 1982, Cliff instantly made a name for himself with his classic "wind- mill" style of of thrashing on stage, with his hair flying out in all directions, and with his outdated, completely "unfashionable" image. With his hair hanging straight down from him head, he seemed eternally clad in a pair of bell-bottom jeans and a faded denim jacket. If it was cold, he wore a flannel shirt underneath.

Offstage, he was the ultimate laid-back Californian, a total opposite from his wild, aggressive onstage attack. His sense of humor was great, as were his bass solos and everything about his stage presence. He was the most visual of all the band onstage, he would just go wild. The best example of how cool and unflappable Cliff was happened in the summer of 1985 at their Castle Donnington Festival appearance (August 17, 1985). Having ducked beneath a flying pear which ended up embedding itself in his bass bin, Burton coolly sauntered over to his stack, picked up the pear, took two bites out of it and hurled it back into the crowd.

For a while there it really looked as if 1986 was gonna be Metallica's year. After all, their third LP,_Master of Puppets_, had literally taken the music world by storm and, in doing so, had made the band virtual mega-stars in the eyes of the metal-doting public. Metallica had finally "made it", and it seemed that nothing could halt their inexorable rise to even greater glory. Then, during the European leg of the group's phenomenally successful Master of Puppets world tour, something went wrong - catastrophically wrong.

Fresh from their triumphant UK tour, Metallica had headed once more for Scandinavia where they'd played three shows at the Olympen in Lund (September 24, 1986), the Skedsmohallen (September 25,1986) in Oslo and at the Sonahallen in Stockholm (September 26, 1986).

It was approaching dawn on Saturday, the 27th of September 1986, and Metallica's two tour buses were making their way along a godforsaken road that lies somewhere between the Scandinavian cities of Stockholm and Copenhagen. Apart from these vehicles, the route was deserted- there was noone else traveling at that unearthly hour of the morning. Suddenly, for no apparent reason, just before 6:15 a. m., one of the coaches swerved violently to its right and started careening wildly down the wrong side of the road. It was out of control, and a crash was inevitable.

The bus's brief but horrific excursion came to a halt some 60 feet further up the tarmac. By this time, though, the vehicle was on its side and lying in a ditch by the side of the road near the small Swedish town of Ljungby.

During the unavoidable confusion that followed, the vast majority of the overturned bus's passengers managed to scramble free of the wreckage. Those that emerged included three of the four members of the band. In truth, the survivors had been extremely lucky, as they'd all somehow managed to escape with little more than minor injuries and shock.

Swedish police arriving on the scene of the crash immediately arrested the driver as a matter of routine, but later released him without charging him after further investigation revealed that the cause of the crash was black ice on a nasty bend in the road.

Unfortunately, however, there had been one fatality in the accident...... what is more, the deceased individual turned out to be one of the group. So, tragically, in the short space of those few dreadful seconds on that lonely Swedish road, Metallica's dreamlike existence was suddenly transformed into a hellish nightmare..their 24 year-old bass player, Cliff Burton, was dead.

"I saw the bus lying right on him. I saw his legs sticking out. I freaked. The bus driver, I recall, was trying to yank the blanket out from under him to use for other people. I just went, 'Don't fucking do that!' I already wanted to kill the guy. I don't know if he was drunk or if he hit some ice. All I knew was, he was driving and Cliff wasn't alive anymore."

James Hetfield -1993

The dazed group dealt with their anxiety in the manner they were most familiar with: drinking. James broke two hotel windows and screamed, venting his rage. Kirk and his guitar tech, John Marshall, were so shaken that they left the light on in their room that night. On September 29th, James, Lars and Kirk returned to the United States.

"I wasn't too angry in the beginning. I was obviously grieving, but the anger started setting in when I realized that it's not new that people in rock-n-roll die, but usually it's self-inflicted in terms of excessive drink or drug abuse. He had nothing to do with it. It's so useless. Completely useless."

Lars Ulrich, January 1987

The gap left by Cliff's death yawned across the pages of tributes run by the music press the week after the tragedy. In Kerrang!, for example, advertisements were taken by friends and fans alike; a bleak, black double- page spread ran messages from the Zazulas ("The Ultimate Musician, The Ultimate Headbanger, The Ultimate Loss, A Friend Forever"), and Anthrax ("Bell-Bottoms Rule!! Laugh it up, We Miss You"), while Music For Nations also took out a page ad which simply read: "Cliff Burton 1962 - 1986." The pain ran deep.

His family and friends remembered him as a "world class local boy" with a love for Johann Sebastian Bach, Mexican food and his hometown. His parents said he was "an appreciative and thoughtful son. Because of his performing, he'd sleep all day and stay up all night and never wake us up. Once, a little boy came up to the door, early in the morning and wanted Cliff to sign his shirt. So Cliff staggered to the door - and said "Sure, of course I'll sign it."

" I once called him up and said 'How do you like being a rock star?', and he was furious. He asked me never to refer to him that way again," said his sister, Connie.

At the conclusion of his memorial service (October 7, 1986), "Orion," from the band's _Master of Puppets_ album, was played. The elaborate instrumental made a fitting tribute for the young bassist, since, as James Hetfield recalled, Burton was Metallica's most educated musician and "Orion" was largely his composition.

Cliff was also responsible for expanding the scope of Metallica's lyrical themes. Along with Kirk, he admired the works of H.P. Lovecraft.

Now, I know that it has been nine years since Cliff's death and I know that there's an old aphorism that is frequently uttered following such tragic bereavements, and it is this: time heals. Simple, but in most cases true. It goes without saying that time should never be allowed to diminish or erase the happy memories we share of someone who is no longer with us. Unfortunately, though, we are often guilty of letting this happen. For this reason, I'm sure that you won't mind joining me in a brief moment of remembrance for one of the rock world's most tragic losses ever.

I'm going to kick off by stating a simple but startlingly chilling truth... Cliff Burton died young....much too young. There is nothing that we can do or say that will ever alter this totally wretched fact. I guess I could resort to the old saying :" Only the good die young," but I won't, because it's such a stupid, empty and totally faceless adage. It says, and means, absolutely nothing, and certainly doesn't make it any easier to accept the dreadful fact that a life has been cut unneccessarily short. Cliff was in his prime, a fine bassist in one of the world's most popular heavy metal bands.Cliff possessed a truly great talent, and there is no doubt in my mind that he was the foremost bassist in his particular genre of music. Musically, his presence was felt in his aggressive playing, either doubling the guitar lines or adding syncopated counterlines. Maintaining a heavy, relentless bottom-end pulse as a component of the rhythm section as well as a strong intuitive sense of embellishment in melodic fills, Cliff represented the ultimate thrash bassist. He was the perfect foil for the energetic and propulsive drum bombast of Lars and the pulverizing crunch-chording of James and Kirk.

"The only person who was able to figure out a time and write it on a piece of paper was Cliff. He had an immense knowledge of timing, musical harmonies and music theory in general."

Kirk - 1987

"Cliff's taken classes in school on music theory, things like mixing harmonies together. I think he took a junior college course. "

James - 1986

Cliff was also a fine and inventive soloist, and his clever use of distortion and wah-wah in his "(Anesthesia) - Pulling Teeth" showpiece made it one of the highlights of the band's live set. More importantly, Cliff was one hell of a nice guy and a much-loved figure in the Metallica camp. He always went out of his way to talk to the band's fans- no matter how tired he was. He was certainly the most unanimously appreciated by the band members as well as by the public.

Although he is no longer with us, his memory and his music will live on forever. As a personal tribute, I always listen to his music on this day and think about what happened and I just wonder why it had to happen.

"You don't burn out from going too fast. You burn out from going too slow and getting bored."

The late Cliff Burton

Question: What would you say to a band that's just starting out on the rock scene today?

Cliff : Quit!

Rob Barrett of CANNIBAL CORPSE

2006-12-29T02:18:00.000+07:00

Hailing from Buffalo, N.Y. Rob moved to florida in 89. He's been playing guitar for 21 years. Rob joined cannibal corpse in 93. "I've been recording and touring since 91. I admire gary moore, randy rhoads, eddie V.H., tony iommi, + steve vai just to name a few."

Discography:

1992- SOLSTICE - steamhammer/spv

1992- MALEVOLENT CREATION - retribution - roadrunner

1994- CANNIBAL CORPSE - the bleeding - metal blade

1996- CANNIBAL CORPSE - vile - metal blade

1997- CANNIBAL CORPSE - monolith of death (vhs/dvd) - metal blade

1998- HATEPLOW - everybody dies - pavement music

1999- MALEVOLENT CREATION - the fine art of murder - pavement music

2000- HATEPLOW - the only law is survival - arctic music

2000- MALEVOLENT CREATION - envenomed - arctic music

2002- MALEVOLENT CREATION - the will to kill - nuclear blast

2004- MALEVOLENT CREATION - warkult - nuclear blast

2005- HATEPLOW - moshpit murder (live in detroit) - arctic music

2005- MALEVOLENT CREATION - conquering south america (live in brazil) - arctic/caroline music

2005- ROADRUNNER UNITED - the all-star sessions - roadrunner

2006- CANNIBAL CORPSE - kill - metal blade

Pat O'Brien - Cannibal Corpse

2006-12-29T01:24:00.000+07:00

The technical guitar master of the group, guitarist Pat O'Brien knows no equal when it comes to shredding fast, difficult songs coupled with heavy, hair raising solos. The songwriter of the group with the most complicated songs under his belt, Pat's credits include 'From Skin to Liquid,' 'Hatchet to the Head,' 'Systematic Elimination' and 'Blunt Force Castration.' A specialist in creating chaotic environments through music, Pat brings an inventive edge to the Cannibal Corpse compendium, allowing him to explore different musical angles in producing death metal.

Formed in Buffalo in 1989, Cannibal Corpse is one of the leading proponents of extreme gore-death metal (in fact, they are acknowledged as the number one seller of death metal albums, over a million albums sold thus far in their career). Their style and image has scarcely changed over the years, and they show no sign of letting up.

Pat joined the group in 1997 after recording 'The Politics of Ecstasy' with Nevermore in 1996, replacing Rob Barrett on guitars. Pat has been a part of several different bands/side projects, including Leather's 'Shock Waves' and Ceremony's 'The Days Before the Death EP,' and is rumored to have been in Prizoner (Tim Keyes' Band), Lethal, Chastain, and Monstrosity. Pat uses B.C. Rich Guitars, Mesa Boogie Amplifiers, and EMG Pickups.

Paul Mazurkiewicz - Cannibal Corpse

2006-12-29T01:16:00.000+07:00

Paul Mazurkiewicz is the drummer of Cannibal Corpse, and one of two remaining original members, the other being bassist Alex Webster.

Musical History

Paul was originally in the band Tirant Sin, alongside other future Cannibal Corpse members Chris Barnes and Bob Rusay. He, Barnes and Rusay met up with Alex Webster and Jack Owen in 1987, and Cannibal Corpse was formed (though some sources say that the band was formed in 1988).

Talent

Paul is a very able drummer, able to maintain solid timing at fast tempos, along with the ability to play complex slow rhythms whilst still maintaining solid timing. However he is often criticized as having rather rudimentary technique and a limited range of style, especially compared to most other death metal drummers. For example, he almost always plays blast beats on the hi-hat open-handed, whereas most death metal drummers also utilize the ride, crash or even china cymbals during blast beats. He rarely if ever makes use of polyrhythms. In addition, his top speed for playing 16th notes with either hands or feet seems to be around 180 - 200 bpm, considered fast by normal standards but rather slow by death metal standards, where tempos of 220 or even 240 bpm or more are commonplace.

Other Information

He is a vegetarian and is Jewish [citation needed] He uses DW drums, as seen in the "Make them Suffer" video. He also is a father with one daughter.

Alex Webster - Cannibal Corpse

2006-12-29T01:14:00.000+07:00

Alex Webster (born in 1970, Buffalo, New York) is the bassist from Cannibal Corpse. He is one of two current members who were of the original lineup, the other being drummer Paul Mazurkiewicz

Musical Biography

Webster was originally of the band Beyond Death, with ex-Cannibal Corpse guitarist Jack Owen, back in 1987. Both met up with Chris Barnes, Bob Rusay and Paul Mazurkiewicz, all of which were in the band Tirant Sin. He is credited with coming up with the name, "Cannibal Corpse."

Talent
Alex is recognised as an exceptional bassist in death metal and the metal genre in general. He can play at exceptionally fast speeds, and is one of few bassists in death metal history to perform bass solos (his most recognised and most notable being the one in the opening of legendary Cannibal Corpse song, Hammer Smashed Face). He revealed in a making-of DVD for The Wretched Spawn, where he initially started playing guitar but changed to bass because he felt he could master the instrument more quickly. He also plays without using a pick, which is unique for death metal bassists.

Besides playing bass, Alex has also contributed to lyric and music writing on many occasions for the band, some examples being "Fucked With A Knife," "Puncture Wound Massacre," "I Will Kill You," "Unleashing The Bloodthristy" and "Murder Worship" to name a few.

George Fisher - Cannibal Corpse

2006-12-29T01:00:00.000+07:00

George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher is the vocalist for the death metal band Cannibal Corpse. Formerly of the band Monstrosity, Fisher joined Cannibal Corpse in 1996, first appearing on their album Vile. He replaced fellow death metal vocalist, Chris Barnes, who had left the band to focus on his side-project, Six Feet Under. Fisher is also the vocalist of Paths of Possession, a melodic death metal band.

Fisher is known for his style of headbanging while performing, as well as his ability to spit rapid-fire lyrics while maintaining either his guttural growl or trademark scream (the former can be heard in numerous Cannibal Corpse songs, such as "Worm Infested" and the latter is most exemplified by the beginning of "Blood Drenched Execution"). He is also known for lengthy screams tens of seconds long. Examples can be heard in "Mutation of the Cadaver," "Devoured By Vermin," and at the end of "They Deserve to Die."

Corpsegrinder was the name of Fisher's first band, and when introduced to members of Monstrosity, someone failed to remember his last name and introduced him as "George, that guy from Corpsegrinder", hence the nickname. Fisher cites Chuck Schuldiner of Death as his biggest musical influence.

He also regularly provides guest voices on Adult Swim's Metalocalypse animated series and is the inspiration for character Nathan Explosion of the same show.

Cannibal Corpse

2006-12-28T23:31:00.000+07:00

Cannibal Corpse is an American Death metal band founded in 1988. The band has since released 10 studio albums, one boxed set, and one live album. Although Cannibal Corpse had virtually no radio and television exposure, a cult following began to build behind the group with albums like 1991's Butchered at Birth and 1992's Tomb of the Mutilated.

Cannibal Corpse mostly draws influence from thrash metal bands, such as Slayer;[1] other death metal bands, such as Death, have also played a major role in establishing their sound.[1] Cannibal Corpse is known for their horror fiction-themed lyrics, and highly explicit album covers and song titles.

Biography

Cannibal Corpse formed from the ashes of three Buffalo-area death metal bands, Beyond Death (Webster, Owen), Leviathan (Barnes), and Tirant Sin (Barnes, Rusay, Mazurkiewicz). The band played their first show at Buffalo's River Rock Cafe in April 1989, shortly after recording a five-song demo tape Cannibal Corpse, aka Skull Full of Maggots. Within a year of that first gig, the band were signed to Metal Blade Records and their full-length, debut album, Eaten Back To Life, was released in August 1990.

Cannibal Corpse's music is known for its death grunt singing style. Like other death metal groups who have songs about rape, murder and necrophilia, the band's lyrics and the imagery on their album covers are often explicitly sexual and violent. Their albums were censored and banned in several countries; in Germany, they were not allowed to play any song from one of their first three albums in concert, not allowed to play at all in the state of Bavaria, not allowed to display the original cover images (drawn by Vincent Locke), nor to print the lyrics in their CD booklets.[citation needed] They were banned in Australia but were allowed to perform there for a 2006 Tour.[citation needed]

Much like directors who helm zombie horror films, Cannibal Corpse prides itself on its graphic imagery as nothing more than an extreme form of over-the-top entertainment. As vocalist George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher comments in the music documentary Metal: A Headbanger's Journey, "it's art, just look at it as art. Yeah, it's disgusting, ... but go to the Vatican and look at some of the art there. That's real, that's representing something that's real, that could happen. This [artwork], you know, that's never going to happen ... monsters aren't going to rip out of people's bodies anytime soon".

Fisher also stated his frustration in an interview regarding the DADV of live performances of certain songs, saying "We can play 'Dismembered and Molested' in Germany but we cannot play 'Born in a Casket'. Which one sounds worse?" Song titles include "Entrails Ripped From a Virgin's Cunt", "Fucked With A Knife", "Meat-Hook Sodomy", and "Necropedophile". In May 1995, then-Senator Bob Dole mentioned the band by name and accused them of violating human decency. Cannibal Corpse also enjoyed a brief cameo in the 1994 Jim Carrey film Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, performing their song "Hammer Smashed Face." (Carrey actually insisted that the band perform in the movie because he was a fan of the band.)[2]

In 1995, Chris Barnes departed from the band for musical differences (he is now the vocalist of Six Feet Under and Torture Killer) and was replaced with Monstrosity's vocalist George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher, who is known for his record-long screams in songs such as "Devoured by Vermin" and "They Deserve to Die." Jack Owen left Cannibal Corpse in 2004 to spend more time on his second band, Adrift. He joined Deicide in late 2005. Jeremy Turner of Origin briefly replaced him as second guitarist on 2004's "Tour of the Wretched". Recently Rob Barrett, a former member of Cannibal Corpse who appeared on the band's albums Vile and The Bleeding rejoined the band to play festivals in the Northwest United States and Europe. Rob officially left Malevolent Creation and joined Cannibal Corpse. Their latest album, Kill, was released March 21, 2006 on Metal Blade Records.

Members

Current

* George Fisher - Vocals (1995-)

* Pat O'Brien - Guitar (1997-)

* Rob Barrett - Guitar (1993-1997, 2005-)

* Alex Webster - Bass (1988-)

* Paul Mazurkiewicz - Drums (1988-)

Previous

* Chris Barnes - Vocals (1988-1995)

* Bob Rusay - Guitar (1988-1993)

* Jack Owen - Guitar (1988-2004)

* Jeremy Turner - Guitar (2004-2005)

Discography

Eaten Back To Life

1. Shredded Humans

2. Edible Autopsy

3. Put Them To Death

4. Mangled

5. Scattered Remains, Splattered Brains

6. Born In A Casket

7. Rotting Head

8. The Undead Will Feast

9. Bloody Chunks

10. A Skull Full Of Maggots

11. Buried In The Backyard

Butchered At Birth

1. Meat Hook Sodomy

2. Gutted

3. Living Dissection

4. Under The Rotted Flesh

5. Covered With Sores

6. Vomit The Soul

7. Butchered At Birth

8. Rancid Amputation

9. Innards Decay

Tomb Of The Mutilated

1. Hamer Smashed Face

2. I Cum Blood

3. Addicted To Vaginal Skin

4. Split Wide Open

5. Necropedophile

6. The Cryptic Stench

7. Entrails Ripped From A Virgin's Cunt

8. Post Mortal Ejaculation

9. Beyond The Cemetary

(EP) Hammer Smashed Face

1. Hammer Smashed Face

2. Zero The Hero

3. The Exorcist

The Bleeding

1. Staring Through The Eyes Of The Dead

2. Fucked With A Knife

3. Stripped, Raped, And Strangled

4. Pulverised

5. Return To Flesh

6. The Pick-axe Murders

7. She Was Asking For It

8. The Bleeding

9. Force Fed Broken Glass

10. An Experiment In Homicide

Vile

1. Devoured By Vermin

2. Mummified In Barbed Wire

3. Perverse Suffering

4. Disfigured

5. Bloodlands

6. Puncture Wound Massacre

7. Relentless Beating

8. Absolute Hatred

9. Eaten From Inside

10. Orgasm Through Torture

11. Monolith

Gallery Of Suicide

1. I Will Kill You

2. Disposal Of The Body

3. Sentenced To Burn

4. Blood Drenched Execution

5. Gallery Of Suicide

6. Dismembered And Molested

7. From Skin To Liquid

8. Unite The Dead

9. Stabbed In The Throat

10. Chambers Of Blood

11. Headless

12. Every Bone Broken

13. Centuries Of Torment

14. Crushing The Despised

Bloodthirst

1. Pounded Into Dust

2. Dead Human Collection

3. Unleashing The Bloodthirsty

4. The Spine Splitter

5. Ecstasy In Decay

6. Raped By The Beast

7. Coffinfeeder

8. Hacksaw Decapitation

9. Blowtorch Slaughter

10. Sickening Metamorphosis

11. Condemned To Agony

Live Cannibalism (live)

1. Staring Through The Eyes Of The Dead

2. Blowtorch Slaughter

3. Stripped, Raped And Strangled

4. I Cum Blood

5. Covered With Sores

6. Fucked With A Knife

7. Unleashing The Bloodthirsty

8. Dead Human Collection

9. Gallery Of Suicide

10. Meat Hook Sodomy

11. Perverse Suffering

12. The Spine Splitter

13. Gutted

14. I Will Kill You

15. Devoured By Vermin

16. Disposal Of The Body

17. A Skull Full Of Maggots

18. Hammer Smashed Face

Gore Obsessed

1. Savage Butchery

2. Hatchet To The Head

3. Pit Of Zombies

4. Dormant Bodies Bursting

5. Compelled To Lacerate

6. Drowning In Viscera

7. Hung And Bled

8. Sanded Faceless

9. Mutation Of The Cadaver

10. When Death Replaces Life

11. Grotesque

12. No Remorse (bonus Track)

(EP) Worm Infested

1. Systematic Elimination

2. Worm Infested

3. Demon’s Night

4. The Undead Will Feast

5. Confessions

6. No Remorse

The Wretched Spawn

1. Severed Head Stoning

2. Psychotic Precision

3. Decency Defied

4. Frantic Disembowelment

5. The Wretched Spawn

6. Cyanide Assassin

7. Festering In The Crypt

8. Nothing Left To Mutilate

9. Blunt Force Castration

10. Rotted Body Landslide

11. Slain

12. Bent Backwards And Broken

13. They Deserve To Die

Kill

1. The Time To Kill Is Now

2. Make Them Suffer

3. Murder Worship

4. Necrosadistic Warning

5. Five Nails Through The Neck

6. Purification By Fire

7. Death Walking Terror

8. Barbaric Bludgeonings

9. The Discipline Of Revenge

10. Brain Removal Device

11. Maniacal

12. Submerged In Boiling Flesh

13. Infinite Misery

Sepultura - Territory

2006-12-25T02:47:00.000+07:00


From Chaos A.D. (1993)

Band members

Current members
• Derrick Green - Vocals/Guitar
• Andreas Kisser - Guitar
• Paulo Jr. - Bass
• Jean Dolabella - Drums

Former members
• Max Cavalera - Vocals/Rhythm Guitar (1984-1996), now with Soulfly
• Igor Cavalera - Drums (1984-2006)
• Jairo Guedes - Lead Guitar (1984-1986)
• Wagner Lamounier - Vocals/Guitar (1984)
• Roy Mayorga - Drums (Toured in Igor Cavalera's absence in 2006), now with Stone Sour

Discography

"Bestial Devastation"

Track :
1. The curse.
2. Bestial Devastation.
3. Antichrist.
4. Necromancer.
5. Warriors of death.
6. Troops of Doom.

"Morbid Visions"

Track :
1. Morbid Visions.
2. Mayhem.
3. Troops of Doom.
4. War.
5. Crucifixion.
6. Show Me The Wrath.
7. Funeral Rites.
8. Empire Of The Damned.
9. The curse.
10. Bestial Devastation.
11. Antichrist.
12. Necromancer.
13. Warriors Of Death.

"Schizofrenia"

Track :
1. Intro.
2. From the past comes the storms.
3. To the wall.
4. Escape to the void.
5. Inquisition symphony.
6. Screams behind the shadows.
7. Septic Schizo.
8. The Abyss.
9. R.I.P. (Rest In Pain).
10. Troops Of Doom.

"Beneath The Remains"

Track :
1. Beneath The Remains.
2. Inner Self.
3. Stronger Than Hate.
4. Mass Hypnosis.
5. Sarcastic Existence.
6. Slaves Of Pain.
7. Lobotomy.
8. Hungry.
9. Primitive Future.

"Arise".

Track :
1. Arise.
2. Dead Embryonic Cells.
3. Desperate Cry.
4. Murder.
5. Subtraction.
6. Altered State.
7. Under Siege (Regnum Irae).
8. Meaningless Movements.
9. Infected Voice.

"Chaos A.D."

Track :
1. Refuse / Resist.
2. Territory.
3. Slave The New World.
4. Amen.
5. Kaiowas.
6. Propaganda.
7. Biotech Is Godzilla.
8. Nomad.
9. We Who Are Not As Others.
10. Manifest.
11. The Hunt.
12. Clenched Fist.

"Roots".

Track :
1. Roots.
2. Attitude.
3. Cut throat.
4. Ratamahatta.
5. Breed Apart.
6. Straighthate.
7. Spit.
8. Lookaway.
9. Dusted.
10. Born Stubborn.
11. Jasco (instrumental).
12. Itsari (instrumental).
13. Ambush.
14. Endangered Species.
15. Dictatorshit.
16. Canyon Jam (instrumental).

"The Roots Of Sepultura".

Track :
1. Intro.
2. C.I.U. (Criminals In Uniform).
3. Orgasmatron.
4. Dead Embryonic Cells (original mix).
5. Desperate Cry (original mix).
6. Murder (original mix).
7. Under Siege (original mix).
8. Necromancer (demo version).
9. The Past Reborns The Storms (demo version).
10. A Hora E A Vez Do Cabelo Nascer.
11. Drug Me.
12. Crucificados Pelo Sistema.
13. Anticop.
14. Intro (live).
15. Arise (live).
16. Inner Self (live).
17. Mass Hypnosis (live).
18. Escape To The Void (live).
19. Troops Of Doom (live).
20. Altered State (live).

Downhill Couch Racing with Dying Fetus

2006-12-24T18:54:00.000+07:00

Funny Videos, Extreme Videos, Crazy Videos, Stupid Videos and much much more......

www.killsometime.com

Self-reliance and musical integrity are the two principles to which Dying Fetus have always lived by. Formed in 1991, during the height of the death metal explosion, Dying Fetus have matured into one of the premiere extreme death metal/grind-core acts to emerge from the massive global metal underground. The band is recognized worldwide as a prime example of songwriting perfection, combining an innovative mix of technical virtuosity and catchy song structures to create the ultimate blend of death metal, hard core, and grind.

http://www.dyingfetus.com/

Dying Fetus - Kill Your Mother - Rape Your Dog

2006-12-24T18:28:00.000+07:00


The official Dying Fetus video clip for 'Kill Your Mother - Rape Your Dog' (1998)

Dying Fetus

2006-12-24T03:15:00.000+07:00

"Not only does this band pulse with grim fury, they maintain it with stellar musicianship." -Terrorizer

Self-reliance and musical integrity are the two principles to which Dying Fetus have always lived by. Formed in 1991, during the height of the death metal explosion, Dying Fetus have matured into one of the premiere extreme death metal/grind-core acts to emerge from the massive global metal underground. The band is recognized worldwide as a prime example of songwriting perfection, combining an innovative mix of technical virtuosity and catchy song structures to create the ultimate blend of death metal, hard core, and grind.

In 1995, Dying Fetus self-released, promoted and distributed their first album, Infatuation With Malevolence . In support of the album, the band toured the Eastern U.S.. This tour included a high-profile performance at the CMJ Music Convention at New York's Lincoln Center. Dying Fetus also represented death metal as a genre on a panel at the convention.

1996. Dying Fetus's second album, Purification Through Violence is released simultaneously in America on Pulverized Records and in Europe on Diehard Music Worldwide. Dying Fetus immediately embarks on their first full North American tour, hitting 25 cities with Canada's Kataklysm and Florida's Monstrosity. The response to the band's unreal live show is astounding and the Dying Fetus name takes residence in the minds of metal heads everywhere.

1998. Dying Fetus's third album, Killing on Adrenaline is released simultaneously worldwide on both Germany's Morbid Records and in the USA through the band's own label, Blunt Force Records. Dying Fetus embarks on unprecedented 9 week, 52 date North American/European tour, hitting 12 countries in the process- from Denmark to Spain and Belgium to Poland. The band performed at dozens of festivals, including co-headlining shows on the Morbid Metalfest, as well as the Superbowl of Hardcore. During this time, Dying Fetus continued to make a name for themselves, appearing in national and international magazines, placing tracks on dozens of compilation CDs, and consistently doing radio and internet promotional activities. All on their own accord.

1999. Dying Fetus reissues the out of print Infatuation with Malevolence CD (their 93-94 demo collection) with extra tracks via their own label, Blunt Force Records. The new version contained 3 live songs recorded on the 1998 European tour, as well as one demo track not included on the previous edition of the disc.

2000. Looking to expand their scope even further, Dying Fetus sign to Relapse Records and immediately hit the road for a U.S. tour with DESTRUCTION and KATAKLYSM. The band re-issues their Grotesque Impalement EP, a collection of old material and covers issued to hold their rabid fan base over until the new album arrives. Never a band to rest on their laurels, Dying Fetus then completes work on what is easily their finest album (and first for Relapse Records) to date, Destroy The Opposition in July, 2000. A musical mugging aimed directly at the corporate "rock" world, Destroy The Opposition is a brutal response to the everyday stress and pressures of reality in today's age, providing a natural outlet for the alienation and frustration that such a pathetically consumer-oriented and greed-dominated society creates. The record was an immediate success and the band hit the road, touring internationally in support of the album for the next 16 months.

2003. After almost three years DYING FETUS have returned with their brand new full -length Stop At Nothing. Symbolically representative of the greater alliance of anti-mainstream death metal /grindcore / hardcore-punk scenes, DYING FETUS stand in direct opposition to what is considered "normal" in the overwhelmingly conformist American arena. Retaining the vicious, dual-vocal attack and slamming grooves that have become their trademark, DYING FETUS' Stop at Nothing is a savage return-to-form by one of the most influential bands in death metal. Intensity unparalleled, and musical power unrivaled, DYING FETUS are the leaders of the new generation in extreme music.

- Bio taken from Relapse Records.

Deicide

2006-12-23T23:19:00.000+07:00

One of Florida's original hardcore death metal acts, Deicide play atonal death metal for the sake of pure destructive rhythm, and innovated styles used by black and death metal bands alike.

Deicide
Roadrunner

1990

Production: Although somewhat disappointingly muddied and lacking in bass tone the production captures the raw sound of Deicide without compromising too much of the essential color of each note.

Review: A formative work of integration of theory into death metal, Deicide's self-titled album integrated the primitive musical atavism of early death metal with the ambient tendencies of atonal music, drifting more into self-defining structure than less abstract works based upon an arbitrary framework of musical value. With strips of chromatic chords thundering together in complex harmonic overlays, a lack of key centric composition, destructive atonal lightspeed guitar solos and roaring umbrage of vocal torment expressing the archest of blasphemies, Deicide created an aesthetic to match the structure of music reflecting a meta-ideology that emphasized the similarities between musical construction and philosophical exploration of the postmodern state of nihilism and misanthropic despair through composition fashioned from freely allocated and recombinated vector indicative note sequences, a statement of hopelessness to conventional composers.

Tracklist:
1. Lunatic of god's Creation
2. Sacrificial Suicide
3. Oblivious to Evil
4. Dead by Dawn
5. Blaspherereion
6. Deicide
7. Carnage in the Temple of the Damned
8. Mephistopheles
9. Day of Darkness
10. Crucifixation
Length: 33:36

Vocals barked in the hoarse cough of Glen Benton, administerer of blasphemy, and highly metaphorical lyrics about the nature of self and will in an egoless and essentially unconcerned universe, chase and intensify the rhythms of each phrase and drive further energy into the endurance beating of the primal rhythm propelling each song. The crosscut of extreme guitar and thunder of barre chords sliding home rides over the changing and dissolving riffs of high speed tremelo, fluttering melodic within bassthrob with the subtlety of avalanche. Centering revolves around able percussion that mercurial stays in clipping encyclic beats or jumps through fractions to reach a threshing gallop; the subtleties of fill and complementary rhythms is well managed and inspirationally coherent with the motion at the essence of each song.

Seemingly almost idiotic for its roving simple riffing and the comedy of theatrical Satanic vocals, or for the drifting and schizophrenic guitar solos that strike tonelessness into the heart of tone, or even just for the relentlessness of verse and chorus vocal rhythms, the music of Deicide proves its beauty when its structure (as broadcast through the riff, point of all association in the tradition of metal bands) reveals the clarity of divergent elements unified in the conclusion of their precepts, often in nihilistic recursion: in moments of clarity one can see the diligent and artistic process of conception as a means of addressing an unsatisfying reality work as communication to liberate the entrapped minds of the human sheep of earth.

Legion
Roadrunner

1992

Production: Inflated but consistently balanced loudness with partial bass emphasis.

Review: After a promising debut in which an occultist theme in image and music unleashed its nascent potential upon a sleeping world, Deicide tackled the second album stopping point head on with their most ambitious statement yet of complexity and theory in opposition to the mindless, and it almost destroyed the band. The end product was under a half hour, and even a 44-second detour into a cinematic evil intro did not change this violation of form. Further, in a time when image was becoming recognized as important many felt the aesthetics did not live up to the abstracted lunacy of the first. While this dialogue occurred, Deicide created an enduring statement to the evolution of death metal technique with a Miltonian will to oppose all central control and morality through music which cannot accept stasis.

A rage of vocalist churlish hurls a howling sequential cadenced murmur topping volume of percussive guitars moving a tonal center in arpeggio around which undulation in rhythm encodes dialogue internal to placement at that space within a counterpoint warplan of colliding halves, complementary, founding a justified jihad within the place of motivic change and motion, wavelike curling and collisive, to which songs adhere in wisdom of pop music using melodic hook underneath the thrusting roar, an american trailer Mozart creating from the trash of dead empires a rhythmic delivery of larger vision (thus inconvenient; thus resurrective; thus immortal pyrrhic like the dead empires themselves).

Tracklist:
1. Satan Spawn, The Caco-Demon - intro 0:44 (4:26)
2. Dead But Dreaming (3:14)
3. Repent to Die (3:59)
4. Trifixion (2:58)
5. Behead the Prophet (No Lord Shall Live) (3:45)
6. Holy Deception (3:19)
7. In Hell I Burn (4:37)
8. Revocate the Agitator (2:47)
Length: 29:07

Pompous, righteous, aggressive the guitar duality merges in constant interplay between harmonies and unified rhythm shifting subtle texture within constant iteration of theme in usefully changing avenue, pointing units at one another across a tonal divide of vast yet often chromatic advances; its arrogance is its elitism, and its elitism is to encode its masterview within the next intensity level of the technique used by Discharge, then Slayer, and then Sepultura in its evolution. Warring between two statements, if each self consistent justifies its melodic balance with rhythm and structural management of tonal division to resonate with conceptual position, naturally invokes the human cognitive apparatus toward perceptual tokenization and thus statement, in language as in natural resolution to gaps in data, of x-compare-y as the weapons of battle are unasheathed.

From this modal playing framing atonal song development is a dying Baroque gasp given ferocity by the gutter logicianship of death metal in a rising force of logic within the decaying realm, a negative truth within a larger existential conception which can never be reconciled with the forces of Judeo-Christian morality; its expression (cause and effect as self-inventing forms of calculation and change) brings to mind the ancients alongside the more recent philosophical efforts in Nietzsche and Heidegger to replace morality with a primal, natural valuation of a constantly changing aesthetic landscape with unaltering core values, as seen is the modern time.

Masterminds Asheim and Benton conspire on theme and motion but percussion commands instrumentalism by integrating constant foreshadowing or thematic recurrence in textures shifting externally while contemplating inward dialogue with accentuation resonant throughout three themes simultaneously. Herein is the seat of division which propels negativity against its opposite to reveal the similarity within, dissolving dualism through acidic degeneration of theme to uncover the opponent structure as natural and the free beast thus engaged warlike in adversarial strikes against the kingdom of goodness that is the justification for a post-modern industrial society. Jazz and rock theory are reduced to unabashed worship of linear simplicity overlaid with topological extensions recurrently integrated into conceptual points of emphasis to each phrase, resulting in a technicality and innovative scope few drummers are allowed to match. Bentonic bass: direct, adventurous often, too often a creative element hidden that needed a second bass track.

While slackers, none of these instrumentalists are shabby in the sense of rendering, although their riffs are elemental, drum patterns basic, and vocal cadences so essential to the pop nature of each composition that they are obvious to the listener and in retrospect may seem overdone. Yet composite this work expresses the an essential belief of death metal: there must be a way to escape the cloying public tendencies toward social compromise and vapid material values as symbolism obstructing the intricacy and necessity of the problem of negativity in modern spiritual and philosophical thought as inherent to any questing, querying, ambitious life, and this fantastic vision of mental clarity and exploration is one generation summarized as an introduction to the genre.

Once Upon the Cross
Roadrunner

1995

Production: Clear and somewhat thickened, a little stodgy but representative.

Review: After a frustrating response to their highly technical second album, Deicide resurrected the simple driving aspects of their music in a even sparser form which hammers home a violence of its own vengeance on the gelatin mentality of servitude. Their first album, Deicide, attracted people for its rhythmic vibrance and anger as well as its simplified speed/death metal structures and Satanic lyrics, and "Once Upon the Cross" continues this tradition with intricate song architectures that decrypt to relentless elemental phrases.

This album invents an almost-new style of music, with powerful rhythmic riffs made from simple components joined into the most violent record yet heard in death metal, in that it is more minimalist and more theatric than most metal of its age. On this album, Deicide is closer to mainstream music than ever before, yet within a technique and compositional attitude of ferocity and hatred.

Tracklist:
1. Once Upon the Cross
2. Christ Denied
3. When Satan Rules His World
4. Kill the Christian
5. Trick or Betrayed
6. They Are The Children Of The Underworld
7. Behind The Light Thou Shall Rise
8. To Be Dead
9. Confessional Rape
Length: 28:14

Riffs are clean-cut and simple, heavy strumming with coherent response from the drumkit. Songs follow verse-chorus loops, which is at first disappointing, but eventually appreciated as the ambient effect of this much musical violence settles into the listener. As usual, lyrics are a series of finely articulated catch phrases strung together with casual words for rhythmic use; Benton shouts the vocals hoarsely over the roar of his band, not quite able to do a death vocal but perfectly able to throw emphasis into the phrases he wants heard.

The godly release that "Deicide" was (an eternal landmark) has not been matched, but a new direction brings new powers and some interesting lyrics, although the propagandistic stance of "Kill the Christian" ("Rip up their Bible before it's too late") shows how defensively angry Deicide have become. In cadence with muffled strumming to be followed by an unleashed blast of tremelo chords reducing to a central tone, Benton gutpukes his lyrics in a hoarse shout to incite counterrhythm in guitar and the exact but lightly playful drumming of mastermind Steve Asheim (who is credited for writing most of the album).

Lead guitars interweave atonally with the march of chords but exist as support and not augmentation; the rockstar solos of the first album are gone but so are the integral statements of each solo. As a construction of this new ideal, this album achieves an almost transcendental violent alienation, and for that adds a new style to the death metal lexicon, but for the listener its endurance will be lengthy for its tight rhythmic and structural songwriting.

Serpents of the Light
Roadrunner

1997

Production: The sounds on this album are somewhat intentionally degraded without really leaving the realm of studio production, giving this a full and somewhat organic sound. Previously bass intense guitar production has become more like the fuzzbox cheap amp combinations of European black metal bands.

Review: Extending their intense fusion of compelling rhythm and structurally hidden melody that inspired two generations of death and black metal, Deicide have infused modern black metal technique into resiliently self-violent death metal structuralist nihilism, bringing forth a monster of their characteristically hydraulic riffing and thunderously abrupt and seemingly random rhythmic changes that also speaks the fluid language of black metal melodic vectoring.

Riffs are now mostly composed of single notes played at vibrant tremelo speeds, incorporated into melody supporting the implied musical contortions of the main riff and the rhythm of its chorus, driving at various parts of each song the directions and harmonic tendencies of pieces to come. Drumming contains the music like a ribcage and propels it with a hydraulic bounceback beating of percussion that drives the music in a terrifying organic but abstract direction. Recombinations of the crucial connecting elements of each song lets them restate, in rephrase, the various convergences of ideas and their evolution. Music devolves from basic idea to sound crafted in deliberately bent and simplistic ways with a focus on a more facefront virus: the repeated mandate of a single-line chorus. This musical language has all of the uncertainty out of certainty that death metal carried, and all of the ambiguous fluctuation of tones that black metal has developed melodically.

While this makes for a very listenable work that is easier to follow than, say, their second album "Legion," the need for polemic clarity of communication has delimited the stylistic range of the band and constrained their creation: the thrill of discovery is gone and in its place is a fair amount of repetition of known ideas. Previous songs from this band have been modified and recombined to deliver the catchy and evocative chorus lines on top of proven sequences, leaving out the self-evidence and inspirational nonlinearity of earlier material. For example, the title track "Serpents of the Light" uses a modified verse rhythm of "Trick of Betrayed" and third track "Blame it on god" features a four-part counterpoint to "Dead by Dawn"'s chant of a phrase in two rhythms, and later songs on the album showcase quotations from the first three albums. The repetition in music echoes the repetition in lyrics, both of their own message and of an analogue to Christian proselytization.

Tracklist:
1. Serpents of the Light
2. Bastard of Christ
3. Blame it on god
4. This is Hell We're In
5. I am No One
6. Slave to the Cross
7. Creature of Habit
8. Believe the Lie
9. The Truth Above
10. Father Baker's
Length: 30:44

Nevertheless these rhythms retain their charged power and are carried well into this format by the inventiveness of the two guitarists and drummer Asheim's relentless accuracy riding a rhythm into its derivations and restatement. Shock troop tempo changes, galloping interludes, song bridges that pummel through conflicting musical directions and unify in emulsified rhythm, and precision counterpoint song fragments that give voice to the convoluted structures are all pieces of the equation.

At its best this music is brilliant: engaging, rhythmic like the weight of a gun in the hand, melodic with an urgency and dissonance that encourages the listener to see an emptiness opening like hope, in its moments of convergence a focus of beauty and unfulfilled, yearning adventurousness. Riffs melt open in rippling melody. Guitar solos seem often more tongue in cheek versions of the rock-cliché bending atonal comedy masterpieces of earlier albums, with more attention paid to lucidity and rhythmic placement in each phrase for comprehensibility. The at-times heavily dogmatic lyrics underscore the forebearance of rhythm with simple meter to emphasize and counterpoint the dominant chorus rhythm, often a single phrase in early 80s speed metal style.

Theatrics and horror movie aspects of the band have been toned down and the music made even more ambient, reducing its hard stops and edged rhythms in favor of flowing tremelo patterns and metaphrase percussion. Caught between manipulation and response, Deicide react, while in the process of responding. This duality of art is shown in the contrast between the innovative and the dialectically illustrative; despite leaning toward the latter, "Serpents of the Light" pulls itself out by its teeth, delivering a rigorous work of compelling intensity wrought from simplistic assemblies of notes and arranged in precision detail in a network of rhythms.

When Satan Lives
RoadRunner

1998

Production: The science of the live album has come a long way since its origin. The sound reproduction here is excellent, if a little too slick: a soundboard recording with fade-ins of crowd noise at the beginning and end of every track to give it the "live" feel does not inspire confidence as to its authenticity, but the clarity of a flattened drum layer underneath an aggressively forward dual-guitar construction explains the advantages of this approach. Glen Benton's vocals turn out better than his basswork, which holds position tucked into the lower-end of the guitars. Neither input nor mixing compensates for the directness of this induction, but the clarity holds up except instances of extreme synchronous discontinuity on all instruments.

Review: For a live album, this is a reasonable effort. Deicide showcases their rigorous technicality through songs spanning four albums with heavy emphasis on the most recent two, a failing perhaps to consider the importance of the more fundamental "Deicide" and its followup, the majestic and theatrical "Legion." All songs are showcased in the newer digital neo-Swedish distortion unveiled on the last album with excellent instrumental precision, to the point of being identical to the work on the albums except for instances where the live material is more accurate to technicality than the original.

Tracklist:
1. When Satan Rules His World
2. Blame It On God
3. Bastard of Christ
4. Children Of The Underworld
5. Serpents of the Light
6. Dead But Dreaming
7. Slave To The Cross
8. Lunatic Of God's Creation
9. Oblivious To Evil
10. Once Upon The Cross
11. Believe The Lie
12. Trick Or Betrayed
13. Behind The Light Thou Shalt Rise
14. Deicide
15. Father Baker's
16. Dead By Dawn
17. Sacrificial Suicide
Length: 55:22

Glen Benton's normally-deep voice ranges on this recording between a chanting shout, a deep growl and a shrieking black-metal-esque howl cast in the burlesque rather than strictly confrontational nature of his other vocals. The most phenomenal performer in the band, the versatile and prolific Steve Asheim, is heard somewhat in the background playing with exuberance and a form of prescient tightness. His rhythmic exactitude urges on the power riffing and cadenced vocal polemic of the band around him, providing a firm basis to one of the most demandingly scripted and yet energetic releases to come from a metal band live.

Cryptopsy

2006-12-23T20:05:00.000+07:00

Heavy northern contenders Cryptopsy bring New York style death metal to Canada with a euormetal precision flair.

Blasphemy Made Flesh
Radiation

1995

Production: Pretty hollow and distant, not enough bass or enough distinction to guitar line, but still cool.

Review: As death metal grew into an accepted style, the question of new directions became heavy and Cryptopsy thrust against it one effort, in Blasphemy Made Flesh, to resurrect the blasting intensity and ferocity that death metal originally had, but in a time when music is faster and more violent as a whole.

Tracklist:

1. Defenestration (4:34)
2. Abigor (3:51)
3. Open face surgery (4:25)
4. Born headless (4:01)
5. Serial messiah (4:29(
6. Swine of the cross (3:06)
7. Gravaged (A Cryptopsy) (2:48)
8. Memories of blood (3:33)
9. Mutant christ (4:22)
10. Pathological frolic (4:39)
Length: 39:50

Their music, with its long blast beat sequences and dark recursions into structural destruction, brings a fervent expression of bitter humans feeding off of a self-destructing universe enslaved to concrete aggression. Underneath a grunting, forced vocal beats heavy inertial rhythm and varied but classic death/speed metal guitar: much downstroke percussive strumming alternating with tearing streams of chords. The band crests the edge of technicality but pursue a goal of depravity beyond that simple classification, emphasizing speed technique and churning textures of riff in death metal with strong heavy metal roots.

There are periodic lulls but they are artistically used; 'unrelenting' would be a good adjective, as these pause for breath as the aerobic assault resumes. With this and the similarities in percussive style in mind, many would file Cryptopsy as a Suffocation clone, but analysis of the music reveals this to be deficient in structural and rhythmic comparison. Suffocation break their rhythms into cycles and responses, where Cryptopsy use the simpler technique of more linear rhythms interacting only at the level of the song as a whole.

Patterns of classic death metal in a cognitively linked riff salad permeate the music of Cryptopsy where Suffocation use speed metal/death metal hybrid song constructions of even divisions in an extension of Slayer, Sepultura, Deicide and Morpheus Descends. For Cryptopsy innovation comes in the development of an acerbic almost technical style while retaining the brutal classic death metal foundation that makes this music scary to outsiders, leaving composition at a level some generations behind for the state of death metal at the time of this release.

In pursuing some of the ideals of Suffocation and other extreme classic bands - emphasis on impact, recursive rhythm, complexity, and expressiveness - Cryptopsy have leapt over the clone barrier and surpassed the lackluster performers in this zone of music. While their songwriting skills linger, it may be only a matter of time. For the interim, "Blasphemy Made Flesh" provides what death metal needs: a resurrection of its raw spirit and energy to be channeled into forms new and old.

None So Vile
Wrong Again

1996

Production: Smothered subtly tonal texture is diluted, but overall range and configuration are preserved, delivering in order of clarity guitar, vocals, drums, bass and in that preserving the power of this music heard live.

Review: Cryptopsy work in the ambiguous areas between death metal and grindcore with their rhythmic and harmonic work, much in the way "Legion" from Deicide or "Mortal Throne of Nazarene" from Incantation took the anti-tone progressive nature of complex composition and enhanced it into dangerously anti-musical yet lucid death metal. Where this style succeeds is where the musicians can apply its strict precision to their designs.

In "None So Vile," Cryptopsy update their death metal stylings to closer approximate this aesthetic, and although they only shadow the musical innovations of their metallic ancestors the compelling rhythmic violence propelling the abstract, anti-organic phrasing to accentuate harmonic nihilism in the music holds together a complex set of ideas, within a range of conceptual space, in what is clearly a better strike than most of their contemporaries can handle. Simultaneously with technical growth has come a reemergence of heavy metal influences in these songs that are essentially blues, rock and metal merged into a stream of chords played with the most extreme influences of death/grind at the time.

Tracklist:
1. Crown of Horns (3:57)
2. Slit Your Guts (4:02)
3. Graves of the Fathers (4:11)
4. Dead and Dripping (3:53)
5. Benedictine Convulsions (4:00)
6. Phobophile (4:38)
7. Lichmistress (2:31)
8. Orgiastic Disembowelment (4:51)
Length: 32:05

Blasting chops of guitars syncopate under a crucifixion hammerbeat and in conventional death metal style integrate several riffs into a wrapping conclusion which bursts through delicate, silvery, and rare melody of speed-picked notes, tone preconception free but relevant in the hardcore sense of instantiated languages: in each riff, elements are introduced and manipulated according to their relative relationships, creating an objective space of nihilistically minimized musical pieces.

Percussion is intense showmanship of reasonable technilcaity, from the tension-laden uphill climbing march beats of ancient hardcore bands to the blastbeat fleeting ring of off-beat sub-phrases stitching out fragments of a subconscious conclusion. Its power is energy more than innovation, although through the use of natural elasticity of the human wrist it excels. In acidic deconstructors the farflung essence of vitriol spills through harmonic barriers as the deranged and irreverently energetic voice of lead guitar, over the passage of riffs thoroughly borrowing from grindcore but rooted in the thundering finality of destruction that metal and thrash employ.

Of vocals: rich, full, deep tone and abrasive deconstructive patterning on the inside of each sound, an incomparable strength of signal and a beautiful relentlessness, played well against the cruising bass backdrop with a counterpoint cadence borrowed from the furious, embittered mainmen of hardcore fifteen years ago. Through simplification and repetition in structure and yet development of individual elements to have more flavor and individualized conception, Cryptopsy have brought themselves into a world of crossover music that holds much of the future for extreme metal-influenced genres.

Rhythmically similar to a police beating, this release opens areas for exploration in metal through excessive rhythmic violence. Cryptopsy investigate counter-rhythms in strum and the use of melody and dissonance to enhance otherwise straight heavy metal powre chord combinations. The resulting evolution of style enforces the minimal and nihilistic composition of alienation in the midst of a familar framework. Combined with the surgical precision workhorse rhythm of complex but effective drumming, this album emanates a powerful but dreamlike prose of the emergence of death metal.

Suffocation - Despise the Sun

2006-12-23T19:54:00.000+07:00

Despise the Sun
Vulture

1998

Production: Reasonable, bassy, flat.

Tracklist:

1. Funeral Inception
2. Devoid of Truth
3. Despise the Sun
4. Bloodchurn
5. Catatonia
Length: 16:34

Review: Constructed from the same elements of abstract structure and compelling rhythm that made Suffocation a deathmetal standard, "Despise the Sun" sees the band comfortable enough in their style to develop it to a muscular prime in which it pits its own themes against one another in a vast internal conflict represented as rhythmic warfare.

With more fast strumming than previous albums, and less reliance upon the chanting-rhythm muffled strumming that was "heavy" then, this is a savage example of pounding death metal that utilizes contrapuntal structures in a recursive pattern to produce its effect. A major theme contrasts a challenger, and the two each split into their component parts, which prowl in the form of unseen riffs to return for structural elucidation. The refinements in style can best be seen in the final track, a remake of "Catatonia" from the band's first EP.

Highly percussive from its continued use of heavy downstroking and variable expectancy rhythm, where the pattern of a chord's appearance in a tempo structure is defined by a strict structuralism of the whole complex enough to permit surprises. Engaging, energetic and insightful, this music tears along with no letup in intensity. Accompaniment by the gutteral bass blast of vocals punctuates the riffing with a voice of power and reason.

Tearing itself apart as it builds, "Despise the Sun" is nonetheless a powerful testament to artistic process as well as death metal design, and its conflict if taken literally projects a hidden reality embedded within the justifications of human survival. Whatever the abstract interpretation, however, the textural existence that is this music contains both the complexity to be interesting and the brutality to mystify.

Suffocation - Pierced From Within

2006-12-23T19:35:00.000+07:00

Pierced From Within
Roadrunner

1995

Production: Reasonable, bassy, flat.

Review: In death metal history, Suffocation stands unique for fusing the technical with the percussive and brutal older styles of death metal as well as for being emulated more than any other band.

Tracklist:

1. Pierced from within
2. Thrones of blood
3. Depths of depravity
4. Suspended in tribulation
5. Torn into enthrallment
6. The invoking
7. Synthetically revived
8. Brood of hatred
9. Breeding the spawn
Length: 45:29

Older death metal used simple structures and repetitive, percussive beats ending in extremely recognizable resolutions to sound heavy and dark, but was shunned by metal audiences as too rudimentary and redundant.

Suffocation integrated the heavier styles of death metal with the muffled strumming and downstroke rhythms of speed metal as did many bands innovating New York style death metal, but then integrated more complex rhythms with a variety of influences and bizarre, mocking lead guitar.

A typical song would begin with slamming, pummeling beats under sections of riffs and then break into the fast strumming chorus riffs of death metal, with chords flowing together from distortion and speed. This beginning would modulate into the unpredictable -- a punk- like strut beat, a walking jazz bassline, or a structural bridging to define the song. Each song brought forth its own struggles and torment both musically and lyrically, at odds with itself and the world.

With Pierced From Within, Suffocation have returned from the abyss of popularity after their brilliant second album, Breeding the Spawn, was ignored by fans either for its lack of bass-heavy production (made famous by Suffocation's first album, Effigy of the Forgotten) or for the fans' pompous attitudes about death metal.

Where Breeding the Spawn was focused and cohesive, Pierced From Within expands to include divergent styles and musical metaphors. Thunderously heavy and rigorously artistic, it surpasses expectations and suprises consistently.

Suffocation - Breeding the Spawn

2006-12-23T19:27:00.000+07:00

Breeding the Spawn
Roadrunner

1993

Production: Reasonably representative, but not enough clarity or bass to guitars in the mix, resulting in a washed-out trebbly sound. For this reason most fans rejected this release, causing great damage to an otherwise excellent album.

Tracklist:

1. Beginning of Sorrow
2. Breeding the Spawn
3. Epitaph of the Credulous
4. Marital Decimation
5. Prelude to Repulsion
6. Anomalistic Offerings
7. Ornament of Decrepancy
8. Ignorant Deprivation
Length: 35:52

Review: Highly-rhythmic and easily combative, Suffocation's second album builds on the legacy of their first with more emphasis on the bearing weight of repeated changing rhythm than the percussion of repetition, which because of its rhythmic nature has a certain degree of repetition not experienced here. In many ways, this album served as a precursor to some of the experiments in hypnotic metal that came after death metal's obsession with "technicality."

Often using sliding, entirely motion-oriented riffs to direct their tunes, Suffocation are as capricious as nature herself and so direct immediate onslaught toward any idea, even that of onslaught itself. As such it would be easy to get buried in the complexity were it not for a masterful sense of rhythm which guides each song toward its conclusion. Behind that rhythm is a Slayer-derived sense of melody which enables the band to work with few open intervals and still give hints of breadth to harmonic space in simple gestures of motion that refuse to strictly harmonize.

The highly dissonant nature of this approach is downplayed because of the rhythmic intensity and narrowness of harmonic focus toward the conclusions of most of the more intensely thrashing material, but the emergence of melody brings a profound conclusion to each song. As always the gutteral vocal expansion of vocalist Mullen is crippling and corrosive. With the overall emphasis on brutality no musicality is lost: the predominant element in this album's evolution, becoming more prominent toward the end of the disc, is its tendency toward doom metal with slow and drawn-out riffs in the Morbid Angel style, but even darker, more forebodingly abstract. And although you can barely hear it, there is highly creative lead work from Cerritos and Hobbs sparsely distributed through these songs.

A recursive percussionism of apocalyptic negativity, Suffocation brings a great vitality to existence with these insurgent anthems to chaos and power, and through its use of savage aggression and brutal minimalism encourages independent thinking in a nihilistic world.

Metal Temple

Suffocation mp3 music downloads

PanterA : Video

PanterA Discography

PanterA

Metallica

Jason Newstead - X Metallica

Lars Ulrich - METALLICA

James Hetfield - METALLICA

Kirk Hammet - METALLICA

Clifford Lee Burton R.I.P.

"When a man lies he murders some part of the world These are the pale deaths which men miscall their lives All this i cannot bear to witness any longer Cannot the kingdom of salvation take me home"- Cliff Burton: "To Live Is To Die" -

Rob Barrett of CANNIBAL CORPSE

Pat O'Brien - Cannibal Corpse

Paul Mazurkiewicz - Cannibal Corpse

Alex Webster - Cannibal Corpse

George Fisher - Cannibal Corpse

Cannibal Corpse

Sepultura - Territory

Downhill Couch Racing with Dying Fetus

Dying Fetus - Kill Your Mother - Rape Your Dog

Dying Fetus

Deicide

Cryptopsy

Suffocation - Despise the Sun

Suffocation - Pierced From Within

Suffocation - Breeding the Spawn

"When a man lies he murders some part of the world
These are the pale deaths which men miscall their lives
All this i cannot bear to witness any longer
Cannot the kingdom of salvation take me home"
- Cliff Burton: "To Live Is To Die" -