Requiem

Manowar - 'Into Glory Ride'

That's a very suspicious use of quotation marks there... He has just started a new job so is really busy. I'm sure he'll call when things settle down. Right..? Right??? I'll just have to make some more friends at the Manowar show. I'm sure everyone who attends a Manowar covers band gig in a tiny bar in suburban Melbourne is going to be really down to earth with their head screwed on properly. Right? Right???

You don't think they run the risk of devaluing their currency by releasing rough garage job after rushed garage job? They're up to album number 16 by my count. Surely they're not feeling the spark that once made them great. I'm not hearing the spark. I'm hearing routine, which is a dangerous approach to creating art.

I heard someone with a Geelong accent muttering madly to themselves about second hand CDs and market bargains. I put two and two together.

I thought that was you outside my window last night...

Classic.

I stopped buying their albums after 'Sardonic Wrath'. It was sort of a bridge too far for me and I wasn't feeling the vibe. I guess I feel the same about 'Hate Them'. I just find those albums fairly mediocre. I steered well clear of the albums after that, although I did buy 'Arctic Thunder' due to the hype (and promising album art), but am largely disappointed with that album too, although it's alright. They seem happy in just playing blackened heavy metal that for me doesn't really go anywhere and serves no real purpose beyond simply existing or something. It just all feels so redundant. I presume for them it reignites the great spirit of the 80s that they loved so much, but for me the songs start, trundle along, then end. I'm exaggerating a little bit because 'Arctic Thunder' does have a bit of vibe to it, but not enough for me to get very excited about it. They're sort of like Iron Maiden. People revere them, quite rightly, for their first four or five albums, but much of their output in the last 20 years is fairly throwaway and seems almost like an income-earner rather than a work of art. Get together, jam for about 15 minutes, bang out an album, make a few Euros, repeat. Am I being ignorant here?

Absolutley, live shows are way better than live albums. In a promo video they were talking about how they wanted the live tracks they chose to be 'studio quality' etc while capturing the ambience of the crowd etc. I don't think if this is code for 'studio touch-ups', but at any rate it should sound really good. They don't do things by halves, I'll give them that much.

Yeah, True Belief turned me down like a virgin at a prom after-party about going, so if you were here we could go, praise heavy metal and argue over about how At the Gates and Sentenced finally got good around 1995....

I remember this too. Apparently I think it was Moonspell who were accused of playing the riff from 'A Dying Wish' backwards or something for 'Alma Mater'. As both albums came out in the same year - and the fact that they only sound a little similar - it's hard to imagine how any plagiarism could have taken place. I'm sure it's probably just a comment that someone (Anathema member?) made in the flippancy of youth that has been exaggerated in the retelling over time. Both tracks are 10/10 anyway, whether you play the riff forwards or backwards.

Ah cool. They're playing in Melbourne this weekend too I think if I've got my facts straight (which I invariably have not). I've been to the Barwon Club once before, and the guy who drove got a speeding ticket on the way there and one on the way back. Classic. Tomorrow night is the Manowar cover band. @True Belief isn't coming because they're not letting wimps and posers in the hall.

Been busy mate? How busy have you been mate?! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-v9Aeb7Pr0 *Damn youtube video embedding....

I'm telling anyone who will listen (and many who will not) that I'm attending a Manowar tribute show this Saturday at a small local venue. I'm really excited about it. They're playing the entire 'Fighting the World' album to celebrate its 30th anniversary - it's one of my favourite albums of theirs. Even if this band sucks, the fact that they'll be cranking through Manowar songs while I get sauced on manly beers means it will be a good night.

I just found out that Blind Guardian have released a 3CD live album a week a go called 'Live Beyond the Spheres'. The track list looks amazing and I'll be getting this for sure. This really crept up on me and I actually had no idea this was coming. Very exciting! Anyone got it yet?

Me again, with no one posting anything they're listening to in the 8 hours since I posted! Cool. NP: Whitesnake - 'Live... in the Still of the Night' Bad bad boys, getting wild in the city! I should be brushing up on my Manowar in time for the Saturday night tribute show, but I got bitten by the Whitesnake tonight. Ow!!!

Moonspell's 'Alma Mater' is one of the all time classics. 10/10 Too bad youtube videos don't load properly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAwxyDrPPPY

Typical South Australian response there. Next time you're here contact me and I'll show you around beyond Swanston street...

Most of us in Australia want New Zealand to join us to be our 7th state because it's an awesome place, so welcome to the forum!

OH MY GOD, I just found out that there is a Manowar tribute band playing this Saturday. They're playing 'Fighting the World' in its entirety plus other hits. See you there!

Trees of Eternity - 'Hour of the Nightingale' Nordic Metal: A Tribute to Euronymous Dio - 'Last in Line'

I would have thought that a wordsmith such as yourself would be a keen lyrical connoisseur. Lyrics completely anchor whatever I'm listening to into some sort of context which accentuates my enjoyment of the musical component. Regarding 'Massive Killing Capacity', I doubt you'll find anything particularly endearing in it, knowing your taste. It's so easy on the ears my dear Aunt Bertha plays it at her backgammon club. Not quite, but you know what I mean...

Yep, it's called the Bendigo Hotel in Collingwood. A convenient 13 minute bus ride from my house, it's all decked out with skulls everywhere, red light, pictures of Lemmy etc. Their house beer is called Skull Lager and is delicious. They play metal over an amazing PA. Usually older school stuff like Black Sabbath, Accept, Iron Maiden, Motorhead etc but often they'll go further underground and it's exciting and cool to discover what each new track is as it comes on. They've played 'De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas' stuff before, and occasional death metal. Once I was wearing an Ozzy shirt and they were playing old Ozzy songs - I felt more self-conscious than I thought I would hahaha. For some reason last night they were playing old Motley Crue and even a couple of Guns n Roses songs (the non-hits, to the pub's credit), which are a little light on but I was feeling good about it. I have a favourite armchair I make a point of acquiring when I'm there. It's also a live venue with a band room and beer garden out the back. There was a metal show on last night for $8 but I didn't go in - I just chilled out in my armchair in the front room. They have metal shows several times a week. Hell, this is Melbourne, you can almost always find some group of miscreants making a cacophony in the name of metal on any given night. Certainly every weekend there are great gigs on, increasingly with international bands if you're willing to shell out. At the moment recent and future shows in Melbourne from international acts include: Insomnium, Primordial, Thy Art is Murder, Accept, Dillinger Escape Plan, Arcturus, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Mike Portnoy's Shattered Fortress, Pallbearer, Kreator, Vader, Ministry, Napalm Death, Sebastian Bach (hell yeah!), Anathema (hell no these days) and the almighty Paradise Lost. And like I said, at least a couple of really good metal shows from local and interstate bands who actually play decent underground metal every week. It's a good time to be a Melbournian, but I guess you can say that every year in the 'World's Most Liveable City' TM.

I realise it's been a ridiculous amount of time since I listened to all the stuff I just used as good examples. I haven't heard 'The Shadowthrone' in ages, even though it's my favourite black metal album of all time. It sort of just sits there in the collection, radiating glory, and I forget to actually listen to it occasionally.

Oh I'm ecstatic. The funny thing about misspelling Saor is that at the time I wrote it I mulled over how it should be pronounced for quite some time, and I'm still uncertain. It will an awkward moment when I finally have to mention them verbally at a party/board meeting/church service. An immaterial contemplation if I'm going to spell it wrong anyway. Unsurprisingly, I'm a huge fan of the keyboard interlude. Cradle are the masters of it, and the final track on 'The Shadowthrone' is panzergodly. Yes, I can even sit through most of Burzum's 'Daudi Baldrs', that's how much I like them.

Had an interesting lunch today. A friend and I had various tasting plates which he cunningly claimed as a work related expense (don't ask). Salt and pepper calamari, Mediterranean dips, beef sliders, salami board washed down with two small beers. Curiously, this semi-upmarket place played a mixture of classic hits including AC/DC, Ozzy Osbourne and Whitesnake. Just bizarre because it was a regular sort of gastro pub and quite frankly I didn't appreciate the identity crisis. Dinner tonight was scrambled eggs on toast. Just noticed this cool post. Sadly, it's usually me who is doing the esplaining...