The Theme Song Will Not Be Written by Jim Webb or Francis Scott Key

The Theme Song Will Not Be Written by Jim Webb or Francis Scott Key 

1. Metallica, "Blackened"
2. System Of A Down, "B.Y.O.B."
3. Faith No More, "We Care A Lot"
4. Black Sabbath, "War Pigs"
5. Anthrax, "Bring the Noise"
6. Gojira, "Ocean Planet"
7. Testament, "Practice What You Preach"
8.  Living Colour, "Cult of Personality"
9. Suicidal Tendencies, "Send Me Your Money"
10. Lamb of God, "Now You've Got Something to Die For"
11. Revocation, "Pestilence Reigns"
12. Megadeth, "Peace Sells"
13. Ministry, "Thieves"
14. Sepultura, "Refuse/Resist"
15. Rage Against the Machine, "Killing in the Name"
16. Slayer and Ice-T, "Disorder"
17. Misery Index, "Traitors"

A post-elections gift for some of my fellow campaigners, culled from a few of my past political metal mixes.

Angela Gossow

There's a great scene in Metal: A Headbanger's Journey where Angela Gossow of Arch Enemy talks about how death metal "is not a boy's club anymore." I wonder who broke that glass ceiling?



Not that we knew it was happening at the time. I first saw it 2001 at Jaxx, a now-defunct Springfield venue where my high school friends and I drove to see death metal bands on the weekends. The headliner was either Nile or Dying Fetus, but more importantly, Arch Enemy opened the show and tore the place apart. Their songs were tuneful and structured, like the thrash metal I worshiped, yet complex enough for my friends who were into technical death metal. Best of all was the lead singer, a ferocious performer with a gargantuan below. She had just joined the band and hadn't appeared on an album yet, and it felt like we were getting in on the the best secret in all of music.

That Monday at school, my friends and I were still talking about the show when one of us offered, "I don't think I've ever seen a girl in a band like that before." He was speaking for all of us. Of the dozens of death metal bands that we were listening to, not one of them had a female singer (or maybe even a female musician?). But it hadn't crossed my mind that we were seeing anything strange that night. Angela Gossow looked and sounded just like a great death metal frontman, and it made perfect sense that an already successful band would pick her to replace their founding singer.

Of course Arch Enemy would go even further with Gossow on board, with albums like Wages of Sin and Anthems of Rebellion pushing melodic death metal to even heavier levels. I started putting "Silent Wars," "We Will Rise" and "Burning Angel" on mix tapes. The next time I saw Arch Enemy was on Gigantour, on a coliseum stage where they blew away Opeth and nearly stole the show from Megadeth and Lamb of God. The third time I saw them, as headliners, they were louder and better than ever. One would be hard-pressed to find a better gateway death metal band--one that had obvious hooks but was still as brutal as brutal gets--than Gossow-era Arch Enemy.

Gossow's gender would inevitably come up for all of her screaming career, whether in that scene of A Headbanger's Journey or her excellent takedown of Revolver's idiotic "Hottest Chicks in Metal" issue. It wasn't about her being a woman, as she said in the latter interview, but it does stand as a neat footnote to her story, just another boundary that she crushed. In an era when Chris Fronzak is taken seriously as a frontman and Miley Cyrus is viewed as a feminist, good old Angela Gossow feels more important than ever.

This week, Gossow announced that she is leaving Arch Enemy to be a band manager, where she will almost certainly continue to be a force and an iconoclast in the death metal world. I don't know how The Agonist's Alissa White-Gluz will live up to her predecessor (although she certainly has the right influences), but I'm glad we'll be seeing Gossow's impact on Arch Enemy and death metal in general for years to come.

Roseland Ballroom

The Roseland Ballroom was like one of those old wooden roller coasters that always looks like it's about to fall apart. It wasn't the safest choice, and it didn't always work, but it could also be counted on for a thrill. Off the top of my head, I can remember three times where the sound blew out, including one where the performer ended the show early. But Roseland Ballroom had as much character as one could expect in a nearly 100-year-old venue. It was either the diviest ballroom or the fanciest dive, one of the only spots that deserved to be in Times Square in 1993 as much as 2013. It's no wonder that Keith Richards, whom it's fair to say has played his share of venues, singled it out as one of his favorites in his autobiography.

Roseland is closing in April, and I'd advise anyone in the New York City area to go before it's too late (Lamb of God, Killswitch Engage and Testament this Friday is currently the best thing on their roster). Until then, here are 10 great metal and alternative moments from the Roseland Ballroom.

1. Ministry, 2003

Straight out of rehab, Al Jourgensen raged back with Ministry's best album in a decade and a show that almost made my ears bleed through my earplugs. As if to prove he could still be crazy without drugs, Jourgensen smashed a guitar early on and brought out Skinny Puppy's Nivek Ogre for an encore of "Burning Inside." Bassist Paul Barker quit shortly after--he had handled two decades of Jourgensen's debauchery, but for some reason this tour was the last straw.

2. Liz Phair, 2004

Touring behind her "sellout" album, Liz turned out to be a cheerful, excited performer whose new songs, when freed from the Matrix's production, sounded fine next to "6'1"" and "Divorce Song." I stood next to a pair of perky kids who brought a homemade sign, sang along to "Why Can't I?" and looked terrified when she played "Fuck and Run."

3. Marilyn Manson, 2004

It was just the Marilyn Manson show that one could hope for. Promoting his first "Best of" album, the former Brian Warner played all the hits and brought out all the old costumes and props. This was also one of those show where the sound blew out, but after the "Irresponsible Hate Anthem" mosh pit, they were lucky the walls were still standing.

4. The Dillinger Escape Plan, 2006

Inexplicably thrown in between A Nightmare of You and AFI, Dillinger proved themselves the only real punk band on the bill with a blisteringly loud set. Greg Puciato, the most violent frontman since Iggy Pop, broke a speaker and a mic stand and was pulled back by security at the height of his presentation. To this day, I've never seen so many people cover their ears for an opening act.

5. Lamb of God with Machine Head and Gojira, 2007

With Gojira on their first American tour, Machine Head on their Blackening comeback and Lamb of God on their biggest headlining tour to date, metal packages did not get much better than this in 2007. After 17 years on the road, LOG were suddenly able to pack a space like Roseland with the heaviest metal to ever reach the Billboard Top Ten. Also, the only show that ever inspired me to start a blog.

6. Mastodon, 2007

Some promoter decided that a co-headlining tour with Mastodon and Against Me! would bring metalheads and punks together into filling out a bigger venue than either band was used to. Instead, the punk kids left before Mastodon came on, and we had a half-empty, 3,200-capacity room to thrash around in under the might of "Circle of Cysquatch" and "March of the Fire Ants."

7. The Pogues, 2009

The Pogues' soon-to-be legendary St. Patrick's Day reunion shows were a testament to the power of mankind, overcoming Shane's physical deterioration and the band's creative downfall to make something special. Like the Ballroom itself, the Pogues were old, wobbly and still capable of magic.

8. Them Crooked Vultures, 2009

Their album hadn't been released yet, and none of us had any idea what a band with Josh Homme, John Paul Jones and Dave Grohl would sound like. It turns out that even pretty good songs can be mind-blowing when they're supported by a fantasy rock rhythm section, and that the ultra-composed Homme was the perfect ringleader.

9. Lamb of God with In Flames and Sylosis, 2012

This was Randy Blythe's last tour before his manslaughter trial, so when I say that Lamb of God played like it might be their last night in New York, I'm not exaggerating. Seeing Lamb of God at their most emotional and political is like seeing Dillinger at their wildest or Andrew W.K. at his partiest.

10. Meshuggah with Animals as Leaders and Intronaut, 2013

Jens Kidman had fallen ill that month and Meshuggah had played their last few shows without their singer when they stopped in New York. Most of us assumed we'd be getting an instrumental show, until a minute into the first song, when Kidman ran out onstage and got a deafening burst of applause. Nothing less than "Swarm" and Kidman's angry samurai face could have prevailed over the noise, so luckily that was next.

As the Palaces Burn

Lamb of God's upcoming film As the Palaces Burn probably won't reach a wide audience. Like most music films, it will almost certainly be sought out by the fans and avoided by everyone else. It also has the bad timing (and poor naming choice) to be released around the time of the reissue of the album it's named after, meaning that even dedicated music fans will probably dismiss it as a self-congratulatory band doc.



That's too bad, because As the Palaces Burn looks pretty extraordinary, documenting the year of Randy Blythe still mind-blowing imprisonment and manslaughter trial. One doesn't have to be an LOG fan, or even a metalhead to amazed by the story, which will hopefully give some comfort to the band and the victim's family in documentary form. For the rest of us, it may provide the definitive case against stage diving, along with a depiction of one of the 21st century's most pulverizing artistic forces. I'm hoping that As the Palaces Burn gets a theatrical release.

God Forbid, IV: Constitution of Treason

When I first moved to New York, God Forbid seemed like an Ozzysend. Five burly East Brunswick dudes raging against the Bush Administration from stages with Lamb of God and The Dillinger Escape Plan while honoring their thrash predecessors was perfect for the 2006 metal world, especially on the heels of their lighting-riding, soul-slaughtering fourth album.





Even in the toothless, played-out genre that would come to be known as metalcore, IV: Constitution of Treason hits like a cinder block to your forehead. The songs aren't particularly fast, but they seem to breeze by under the Coyle brothers' riffage and Corey Pierce's blast beats. Lineup changes derailed them aesthetically, culminating in their break-up this week, but they retire with one of the best American metal albums of the 21st century.

Metalie

Natalie asked me for a metal mix. I know that she enjoys Loretta Lynn, the White Stripes and Marilyn Manson, so I took it from there.



Metalie

1. Metallica, "Battery"
2. Nine Inch Nails, "Wish"
3. Goatwhore, "Apocalyptic Havoc"
4. Torche, "Healer"
5. Motörhead, "Ace of Spades"
6. Judas Priest, "Breaking the Law"
7. Lamb of God, "Now You've Got Something to Die For"
8. Living Colour, "Cult of Personality"
9. Anthrax, "Got the Time"
10. Black Sabbath, "The Mob Rules"
11. Monster Magnet, "Power Trip"
12. Iron Maiden, "The Number of the Beast"
13. High on Fire, "Rumors of War"
14. Deftones, "Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)"
15. Ministry, "Jesus Built My Hotrod
16. Suicidal Tendencies, "You Can't Bring Me Down"
17. Rage Against the Machine, "Guerilla Radio"
18. Gojira, "Vacuity"
19. Slayer, "Angel of Death"
20. Converge, "Last Light"

I tried to sequence Metalie around an ideal jukebox night at the Lucky 13 Saloon. You come for your hits--your "Ace of Spades," "Breaking the Law" and "The Number of the Beast." But you stick around to find out that there's an American death metal band that rocks like Goatwhore, or to remember that the best Dio-era Black Sabbath song was on the Heavy Metal soundtrack.

I also took a few cues from Natalie's sister, whom I've known to teach Suicidal Tendencies in her classroom and throw horns to Monster Magnet outside of it. I've even included a few songs from a mix I made for Natalie's sister, most notably the Metallica/Nine Inch Nails combo that kicks things off. I wanted to try something new, but couldn't resist the way that the two sound together, or think of many bands that stand up next to either of them. They didn't become the great crossover metal and industrial artists by accident. In any case, consider Metalie a Sister Mix to her sister's mix.

But Natalie is her own lass, and she gets her own songs. I'm hoping that the Torche, Gojira and High on Fire tracks are all winning endorsements for modern metal. Maybe Natalie will hear Jeff Hanneman's immortality in "Angel of Death" and a Lamb of God song that wouldn't exist without him. Maybe this mix will provide endless headbanging delights, or maybe she'll forehand it into the garbage by the time she gets to "Guerilla Radio." But if that isn't metal, I'll eat my Motörhead box set.

Ten Metal Bands to See Before You Die: Daikaiju

I have a friend in the music business who perhaps goes to more metal shows than anyone I've met. He's at nearly every New York City area metal show, usually near the back working on his phone or taping for his web site, either of which holds more interest to him than seeing Lamb of God for the 30th time. I almost didn't believe him when he told me that a band I'd never heard of had completely blown his mind in a small club, but I knew I'd be catching their next show.



The closest I've come to summarizing the experience, over hours of gushing to various friends, is "surf rock from outer space performed by the Joker's henchmen." But that still doesn't feel accurate. Daikaiju's music has a brutality that most surf rock avoids, plus a hookiness that you don't expect to hear in math rock. What if mimes weren't annoying? What if rockabilly-metal bands knew more than three chords? What if four guys who didn't talk, sing or play anything you knew kept you completely entranced, to the point where when one of them stole your beer and dumped it on his head you applauded?

With a band like KISS, the original Kabuki-rockers, one would almost be surprised if they didn't knock your socks off--songs you love, flying, fire-breathing, blood-spitting and explosions are an almost guaranteed success. But what Daikaiju does is much harder, and I've rarely seen any band, megastars or not, put on such a commanding show. Both theatrical and spontaneous, it makes for one of the most interactive shows you'll ever see. Maybe this time they'll motion the audience onto the stage and play instrumental Rush covers from the audience. Maybe they'll start dancing with you, give away their instruments and somehow keep the songs going. Maybe you'll see them every time they come back to your area and check their web site for updates almost daily. I know I do.

Rage Days

Andrew W.K., whom sometimes seems like the happiest person in the universe, recently tweeted "Sometimes the angriest music makes us feel the happiest." (His previous post was "PARTY TIP: Start your day with a big dose of Pantera.") To metalheads, generally the best-tempered fan base in all of music, those insights are no surprise, but fans of less extreme music tend to be shocked by this.

AG doesn't listen to a lot of metal or punk, but she told me that sometimes she has "rage days," something that I don't understand the point of having if you don't listen to a lot of punk and metal.



Rage Days

1. Metallica, "Battery"
2. Converge, "Dark Horse"
3. Nine Inch Nails, "Wish"
4. Black Sabbath, "War Pigs"
5. Faith No More, "Falling to Pieces"
6. The Stooges, "Search and Destroy"
7. Sepultura, "Refuse/Resist"
8. Slayer, "Angel of Death"
9. Lamb of God "Now You've Got Something to Die For"
10. Minor Threat, "Filler"
11. Suicidal Tendencies, "You Can't Bring Me Down"
12. Nirvana, "Heart-Shaped Box"
13. Mastodon, "Blood and Thunder"
14. Marilyn Manson, "The Fight Song"
15. Rage Against the Machine, "Killing in the Name"
16. Stiff Little Fingers, "Suspect Device"
17. Pantera, "Fucking Hostile"
18. Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, "Stagger Lee"

As with any good introductory mix, I've included a few standards--I can't imagine anyone disliking "War Pigs," "Search and Destroy" or "Heart-Shaped Box." But I've also been making gateway metal mixes long enough to know that everyone who hears "Falling to Pieces" seems to enjoy it, or that most people in the 2000s seem to get into modern metal through Mastodon and Lamb of God. Maybe after this, AG will be ready for Goatwhore.

One thing I learned from putting together a specifically rage-based mix is how happy a lot of the best metal bands are. Even at their most belligerant, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, AC/DC, Van Halen, High on Fire, Motörhead, Ozzy and Amon Amarth are too gleeful to follow up songs like "Angel of Death" or "Dark Horse." Thus instead we get Metallica at their fiercest, Pantera at their most hostile and topping it all off, Nick Cave, to show that some of metal's most raging tracks can even hold up against "Stagger Lee."

Slayer, "Raining Blood"

Heaping praises on Reign in Blood is akin to bringing coals to Newcastle. It's almost ubiquitous on Best of Metal lists, and outside of Metallica's first four albums, it's the only thrash metal release that people who don't usually like metal own. But with Dave Lombardo being replaced over a silly contract dispute (it doesn't whose story about the terms you believe--there's no sane reason that an able Dave Lombardo shouldn't be in this band) this week, I'm going back to one of metal's only flawless tracks.



Several bloggers have already compared Half-Slayer (guitarist Jeff Hanneman is still recovering from an incapacitating spider bite) to KISS without Ace and Peter, but this is actually much worse. For all that the original KISS lineup is, the band doesn't compromise any of their nonexistent integrity by breaking up. Slayer has almost epitomized metal's integrity over the past few decades. Despite a few questionable business decisions, they've been the same straight-ahead, thrash-out-and-leave-the-room force of nature for almost 30 years.

The steady, ominous drumming that introduces "Raining Blood" is as iconic as any sound in metal. Lombardo's pacing isn't to take a breath, but to build suspense, which pays off at the infamous "In the Hall of the Mountain King"-emulating riff ("duh-nuh-nuh, nuh-nuh-nuh") that kicks in around the :33 mark. When it does, Lombardo steps right back into the war zone, directing the progression that a South Park would later honor as the ultimate hippie buzz-killer.

I once saw a pre-stardom Lamb of God open for Slayer, stepping up to one of metal history's greatest honors and challenges. Shortly before they closed, Lamb of God held a note and let Chris Adler drum the intro to "Raining Blood." "You all know why we're all here," Randy Blythe bellowed. He could have been talking to the crowd, or to any extreme metal fan in the cosmos, but he didn't need to say anything else.

Death to Stage Diving

"You want to get onstage, get your own band."

--Lemmy, putting a stage diver in his place.

You can do this if you're in the band.

A few weeks ago, I saw Titus Andronicus at Webster Hall. They put on a dynamic show, one that could make you believe that punk can survive in heartland rock, but every song was interrupted by attendees climbing onstage, most of whom would block the band, sing along or motion commands to the audience before diving back into the crowd. The musicians, visibly annoyed but surely aware of the communal, punk ethos of stage diving, tolerated the nuisance and carried on like the professionals  that they clearly are. 

There's an idea in punk rock that cool bands let their fans stage dive, since we're all really fans sharing the experience together. But if that experience includes some heavyweight whom I didn't pay to see blocking the band with his dance moves before crashing, boots first, onto the heads of the front row, I don't want to be a part of it. It's not communal if the act is fun for exactly one person in the venue. The rest of us will be united in exasperation at your jackassery, but I'd hardly call that community.

This February, Lamb of God's Randy Blythe is going to trial for involuntary manslaughter, after a stage diver whom he pushed off stage died from brain trauma weeks after the incident. My condolences to the late diver's family, but everything that I've read and seen about the case indicates that Blythe did nothing wrong. Maybe he was thinking of what a pain stage diving is for the band and the audience, or maybe he was thinking of metal's most famous stage-crashing, wherein Dimebag Darrell was killed by a mentally ill stalker whose mom had given him a gun. Whatever the case, stage divers should expect to be pushed back or kicked out. If things get too rough, it's perfectly acceptable for the band to stop playing.

The idea that we do this because it's a punk tradition is ridiculous. Punk rock supposedly eschews tradition, and it's gotten by fine without stage diving for decades. Can you imagine crashing a Sex Pistols performance? Johnny Rotten would eviscerate you. And no one would blame him.

Unless you're in a band, or if you're one of the rare, super-communal artists who invites people up en masse (meaning only Iggy Pop or Andrew W.K.), stage diving should be reserved for the comfort of your own home, where you're not in anyone's way and the only person you can hurt is yourself.

Three Ways to Improve Your Album

Five minutes from Sylosis' Monolith. 67 more to go.

Every year, my admiration for artists who pour themselves into creating and sequencing a full-length work of art swells. In the face of YouTube, iTunes, American attention spans and singles acts, a select few still care about making a great album. Imagine if most popular books only had two good chapters, or if most movies had a couple of good scenes. That's the state of albums today. Dependably creative artists like Converge are both rare and crucial to modern music, just as someone like Jonathan Franzen is to literature.

However, if we are going to keep putting great artists on a pedestal, we still need to hold them to high standards. There are many reasons why music isn't selling as well as it did in decades past. I'll argue that one reason is that in general, most new albums and artists, metal included, aren't as great as their predecessors. With music sales bringing in less revenue than ever for record labels, artists have enough creative control to indulge their best impulses more than ever, but also their worst. Bands as varied as Rush, Gojira and Baroness released good, even great albums this year, but with minimal effort they could have been much better. Here's how.

1. Keep it short.

This seems like the biggest problem for many of today's metal bands. A CD can contain up to 80 minutes of music, but that's no reason for your band to use all 80. If you're lucky enough to find an audience, you should leave them wanting more, not less. To paraphrase Lou Reed, 30 minutes is fine, 40 is pushing it, 50 and you're into jazz.

This isn't a recent phenomenon. Some of the world's finest metal bands have run out of steam over hour-plus long players. Guns N' Roses were the best band in the world when they recorded Use Your Illusion I and II, and even they couldn't get through two-and-a-half hours without "So Fine." But let's look at the good. Slayer's Reign in Blood, one of metal's only indisputable classics, doesn't make it to the half-hour mark. At the Gates reshaped death metal in 34 minutes on Slaughter of the Soul. Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden, all legendary for their epic compositions, found ways to end their best albums in under 45 minutes. Don't point out that you love all 65 minutes of Metallica's ...And Justice for All until you remind yourself that your band isn't Metallica.

2. Cut the interludes.

Hip-hop is the worst at this. Intro skits, outro skits, intermission skits, phone call skits--these are among the reasons why anyone with a considerable hip-hop collection dreads the shuffle option on their preferred listening device. Metal is also culpable, but instead of skits, they use musical interludes. This year, Veil of Maya, Between the Buried and Me and the Tony Danza Tap Dance Extravaganza littered their records with tossed-off, minute-long pieces that went from being entertaining to skipable over a few listens. Elmore Leonard once said of writing, "I try to leave out the parts that people skip." The best musicians record albums the same way.

3. Save some of the best for last.

Nearly every metal album I've heard in the past several years, even the great ones, are unarguably front-loaded. You don't play all your best songs in the first half of the show, and you also shouldn't play all your best songs in the first half of your album. Slayer ended records with "Raining Blood" and "Seasons in the Abyss." The Number of the Beast closes out with "Hallowed Be Thy Name." How many people who buy Lamb of God records can name a song on the second half of Sacrament or Ashes of the Wake? Those are both great records, but will anyone ever put either of them on a countdown near Rust in Peace? "Tornado of Souls" and "Lucretia" are on side two.

With most listeners sequencing their own playlists these days, some will contend that these gripes don't matter. But maybe listeners would be less inclined mess around with bands' intended tracklists if more artists proved that they knew how to make an album.

Lamb of God at Roseland Ballroom

It took a couple of mediocre albums to confirm what a great band Lamb of God really is. At last Friday's show at Roseland Ballroom, Virginia's greatest metal band aligned themselves with Maiden, Metallica and the elite few metal bands who can still stun from the stage long after their new albums stop mattering.



The smoke machines and projectors (which kicked off the show by airing Lyndon Johnson's "Daisy" attack ad) were new, but somehow they accentuated the excitement. Perhaps it was the novelty of seeing a band of Lamb of God's rawness with a higher-budget show--not since Pantera in the '90s has a band of such unmatched brutality fought their way into the Billboard Top Five. More impressive was watching the band lock in with the tightness of a brotherhood on older grooves like "Ruin," "As the Palaces Burn" and "Laid to Rest," still some of the best metal the past decade has offered. Even a few recent songs, rescued from the slog of their home albums, were even show highlights--every Lamb of God set should include "Set to Fail" and "Contractor." To the uninitiated, I'll recommend Sony's The Essential Lamb of God in advance.

Lamb of God's riff work will thrive Guitar World indefinitely, and snare master Chris Adler is still one of modern music's most discernible drummers. But this ongoing tour is deservedly the Randy Blythe Show. Currently facing involuntary manslaughter charges and coming off a stint in a Prague prison, Blythe is performing this tour like it literally will be his last, showing off 20 years of frontman experience, boundless energy and a bellow that shows no signs of winding down. Maybe he was especially charged up by the idea that he may be locked up for the next 10-15 years, but still some other force must account for his consistently rousing belligerence and engaging interaction. While his bandmates left stage to change instruments, Blythe was at times alone on stage, modestly thanking the fans or reflecting on his band's history between howling out curses to various oppressors.

Ending with the two-fisted "Redneck" and the swinging "Black Label," Lamb of God signed off with the conclusion that their best studio years may be behind them, but that they could be one of metal's best live bands for decades.

The openers were a mixed bag. England's Sylosis, hand-picked to star the show by Chris Adler, offered progressive, tuneful death metal, whereas Connecticut's Hatebreed epitomized the kind of hardcore kid numbskullery that Minor Threat worked to defy. In Flames, one of death metal's greatest claims on record, were slightly stifled by poor sound, an average setlist and a blinding stage light show.

System of a Down at Jones Beach Theater

Seven years after their last album, System of a Down still sound like mainstream metal's last stand. They're still the newest cutting edge metal act whose CDs could be sold at Target, the most modern metal band to write a tolerable song that your sister knows the words to. At Jones Beach Theater last Sunday, they gave no indication that they'll be releasing new music, even if that may be exactly what underground metal needs right now. System's ability to be avant-garde and popular was reflected in the line outside the venue, where Wiz Khalifa and Daniel Johnston t-shirts met.

Headbangers will always need our System of a Downs. Gripe all you want about it not being kvlt enough for you, but you never would have discovered grindcore if you hadn't heard Pantera, and there is an abundance of exciting underground metal bands with no modern gateway artist. Either System have to make new music, or Pig Destroyer is going to have to start writing choruses.



Openers the Deftones tore into "Rocket Skates" moments before the sky turned black and released a torrential storm on the band and attendees. Undeterred, either by their own professionalism, the crowd's energy or the fact that their biggest foe was still the Jones Beach acoustics, they boosted a standard "Best of the Deftones" setlist by employing the weather into their show. "This is some Michael Jackson shit happening, without (mechanical) fans," commented singer Chino Moreno, while the winds and downpour gave songs like "Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)" a grandeur that they never could have found in the Deftones' usual club setting.



System of a Down opened with "Prison Song," an anti-incarceration anthem that alternates between singer Serj Tankian's barked statistics and guitarist Daron Malakian's squeaked imitation of a crack-smoking Hollywood dwelling. It was a reminder of how the band originally stood out, by blending goofy irreverence and dour politics somehow never undermined each other (most System-y shirt: an armored vehicle with an erected tank gun that read "MINE IS BIGGER THAN YOURS.") Like Malakian's hero, Frank Zappa, System's songs danced between cheery melodies ("Bounce," "Cigaro,") and guitar spazz outs ("Suite-Pee," "Sugar,") often in the same composition ("Chop Suey," "B.Y.O.B.") If anything, the band's sense of humor gave their politics more weight than the self-serious riot acts of Rage Against the Machine and Lamb of God.

But like Rage, System of a Down showed last Sunday that they are best as a unit. Tankain's solo records or Malakian's Scars on Broadway have been struggling to come up with anything as instant as "Needles" or at wrenching as "Hypnotize" ever since System of a Down announced their hiatus in 2006. By last Sunday's show, they've still "got it," and if SOAD never records again as a band, it would the metal community's loss.

Help Randy Blythe

Randy Blythe is still in a Czech jail. I thought that this would be taken care of in a few days, but even after posting a nearly $200,000 bail, Blythe remains imprisoned.

I don't believe in fans jumping onstage during shows, unless the artist (i.e. only Iggy Pop or Andrew W.K.) encourages it, and even then in moderation. Especially after Dimebag Darrell's murder, no artist should be blamed for the fate of some jackass who jumps at the band during their performance. The more I read about this matter, the more infuriating it gets that Blythe is being detained. By all accounts from my friends in the music business, he is a good guy.

Please take a moment to help Randy Blythe here. There's been an absurd backlash to this fund, which Chris Adler has addressed here, and I can't see a good reason for Randy to be in jail. Send your best thoughts and support his way.

Dear Randy Blythe,

I am a huge fan of your music and a fellow Virginian. I can't wait to see Lamb of God with Gojira and Dethklok in August. The charges against you seem unfair to me, and my best thoughts are with you during this difficult time. I very much hope that things work out for you, and I encourage others to support you as well.

However, with your well-being in mind, surely you know at least one person who can get you a suit and tie. Court is literally the only place in the world where it is never cool to wear an Obituary hoodie.

Best wishes,
Ben

With a Purposeful Grimace and a Terrible Sound

When Gojira's From Mars to Sirius stormed the US in 2006, earnest but lazy stateside listeners called the band "a French Mastodon." Now that their fifth album, L'enfaunt Sauvage is out, no one with shrewder ears than Jann Wenner will be making that mistake.



Unlike the Georgia Giants, whose every record seems to reflect a new direction, or Lamb of God, content to stomp on their burnt palaces from heron, Gojira have found where they're going and gone deeper over their past few records. The oddly dry The Link excepted, each Gojira album succincts and out-brutalizes the serrated riffage and tribal drumming of the record before.

How Gojira can make death-prog this ingratiating is still a mystery. On L'enfant Sauvage, the band is wiping out old things like hooks and time signatures and rendering their Inconvenient Truth-worthy lyrics indecipherable. The push-pull of brothers Joe and Mario Duplantier is the kind of chemistry that comes around once in a metal moon--check out how Mario's cymbal precision glows under Joe's palm-muting in "Explosia," or how the drums infiltrate the guitar lines of "Liquid Fire" and the title track. A professor of tones, slides and pinch harmonics, Duplantier is one of the 21st century's guitar gods, whether turning "Born in Winter"'s mellow drone into a savage melody, eliciting cries under his brother's beatdown on "Pain is a Master" or dropping in on the ocean in "The Wild Healer." Unless Converge or Pig Destroyer can do better, this will be the year's best metal album.

Iron Maiden Memorial Day Playlist

Anti-war rallies would be more effective if they played more metal. Why is it always "Get Up, Stand Up" and never "War Pigs," "One" or "Civil War?" Few arts can depict the brutality of the battlefield as unnervingly as metal.

Bands have built careers on protesting war (Rage Against the Machine, System of a Down, Misery Index), even when the songs don't reflect their creator's own beliefs (Megadeth). Every time Lamb of God decry the government for mistreating its military, they are stepping into a pool with Slayer's "War Ensemble" and Sepultura's "Territory."

But before we get to an anti-war metal mix CD, remember that today is not about chickenhawk politicians who sacrifice the working class and stigmatize anti-war sentiments as being anti-troops. Today is about the brave men and women who risked and gave their lives in wars that, to paraphrase Trotsky, were interested in them, even if the fighters weren't interested in war. In modern music, no great band has honored these heroes more than Iron Maiden. Here's a playlist for today.

1. "Aces High" (from Powerslave, 1984)

Maiden's best show-opener starts with a history lesson (Churchill's "We Shall Fight on the Beaches" speech) and peaks with a chorus that soars as high as a Battle for Britain pilot. Watch out.



2. "The Trooper" (from Piece of Mind, 1983)

Inspired by Lord Tennyson's The Charge of the Light Brigade, "The Trooper" memorializes the British soldiers who died in the failed Crimean War charge. History books aren't as kind as they should be, so thank Steve Harris for taking it into his hands.



3. "Women in Uniform" (single, 1980)

Maiden hadn't found their best voice yet--they were still employing singer Paul Di'Anno and covering bands like Skyhooks, who wrote this well-meaning but stupid ode to a group that never gets enough credit. Some day women in combat will get the anthem that they deserve, but until then the least someone can do is Maidenize it.



4. "Where Eagles Dare" (from Piece of Mind, 1983)

"The world is grown so bad, that wrens make prey where eagles dare not perch," quoth the Bard in Richard III. Centuries later, the Shakespeare of Metal sung of those who are boldest when the world is at its worst.



5. "Die With Your Boots On" (from Piece of Mind, 1983)

A modern twist on the "With your shield or on it" adage? A tribute to a comically inaccurate Errol Flynn movie? This fan favorite is up for interpretation, but hear it today as a salute to the fearless armed forces.




Download here: Iron Maiden Memorial Day Playlist