Category — Albums

As has been reported on many sites, Metallica has released the first single from “Death Magnetic” entitled “The Day That Never Comes.” Now the band has made available a new track “My Apocalypse” via Metallica.com.

While a lot of people accused the band of ripping off their earlier material on “The Day That Never Comes” it still is probably better than anything they’ve released since 1991. This new track features more heavy riffing and fast beats as well as some great solos from Kirk Hammett, but for some reason I just can’t get past Hetfield’s vocals. Just not my style at this point, but the song definitely has the feel of classic Metallica.

Lars’ has been using the same Tama kits he usually does from what I’ve seen. He’s either using other snare drums or did something to his signature models. The sound is a lot better than the pongy-ness of the “St. Anger” snare sound.

A lot has been written about Metallica’s upcoming album “Death Magnetic”, now the albums first single has been made available to radio and is also streaming at the band’s MySpace page and website.

“The Day That Never Comes” is pretty much what you would expect from Metallica at this point, meaning it is derivative of their earlier material. This was the point I guess, seeing as though so much press had come out with the band stating that they were attempting to write new material more in line with their early albums.

The end result, at least this particular song, is a straight up rip-off of older material (particularly “One”) and some Black Album/Load-era sounds. Structure-wise there are A LOT of similarities to “One” and Lars Ulrich’s drumming isn’t particularly impressive.

This song is world’s better than any of the bands “St. Anger” material, but most music is. This is only one song on a 10-song album, so we’ll see. Listen to the track here…

Metallica: “The Day That Never Comes”

Wilco are gearing up to record their seventh album. This comes as exciting news for Wilco fans, but after debuting new songs during their headlining Lollapalooza set, its probably not much of a surprise.

I’m not a huge fan of Wilco myself, but their drummer Glenn Kotche is amazing. If you haven’t heard his drumming, check it out. His playing at times is very unconventional and his use of different accessories on his drum kit adds a lot of depth to Wilco’s music.

Regarding the band’s new music & album, Jeff Tweedy had this to say…

“we will allow ourselves a little bit more leeway in terms of sculpting the sound in the studio and doing overdubs and using the studio as another instrument. Last time around, it was more of a document.”

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Not too long ago a few tracks from Guns N’ Roses, 14 years in-the-making album “Chinese Democracy” leaked online. This led to rumors of whether or not the album would finally come out. The “Chinese Democracy” album, up to this point, has basically become a huge joke. Now though, there are some signs that it may finally see an actual release, maybe even an exclusive one. According to Billboard.com…

“But some concrete signs are finally emerging that the album’s release could be imminent. That’s because, according to sources, negotiations are underway for “Chinese Democracy” to come out as an exclusive at one of the big boxes — either Wal-Mart or Best Buy. Negotiations are also ongoing to have conventional record company distribution, another source says.”

Kind of fitting that they’d do a Wal-Mart exclusive huh? It’s like they’re making a huge joke sundae and putting the Wal-Mart cherry on top. None of the people Billboard tried to reach for comment were available, including the band’s management company, their label Interscope, or any of their reps.

This album features drumming work from both studio great Josh Freese, (who was a part of the project for around 2 years before leaving to play with A Perfect Circle) and also Brain, both of whom are DW Drums endorsers. Hopefully at some point we can hear their work on the album, even though I can’t stand Guns N’ Roses.

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Nine Inch Nails will start hitting arenas and festivals today as they begin their “Lights In The Sky” tour. This tour is special because Trent Reznor has said to be incorporating some kind of “high-tech” stage setup and video displays.

This tour is also significant for drummers because Josh Freese is once again taking on drum duties. If you recall from the rehearsal footage I posted here a while ago, his drumming is better than ever and fun to watch.

Here are the NIN tour dates:

07-25 Pemberton, British Columbia - Pemberton Festival
07-26 Seattle, WA - Key Arena at Seattle Center *
07-28 Edmonton, Alberta - Rexall Place *
07-29 Calgary, Alberta - Pengrowth Saddledome *
07-31 Winnipeg, Manitoba - MTS Centre *
08-02 Minneapolis, MN - Target Center *
08-03 Chicago, IL - Grant Park (Lollapalooza)
08-05 Toronto, Ontario - Air Canada Centre %
08-07 Uncasville, CT - Mohegan Sun Arena %
08-08 Worcester, MA - DCU Center %
08-09-10 Baltimore, MD - Pimlico Race Course (Virgin Mobile Festival)
08-12 Knoxville, TN - Knoxville Civic Coliseum %
08-13 Duluth, GA - Gwinnett Arena %
08-15 Oklahoma City, OK - Ford Center #
08-16 Houston, TX - Toyota Center #
08-18 Dallas, TX - American Airlines Center #
08-20 Saint Louis, MO - Scottrade Center #
08-22 Cleveland, OH - Quicken Loans Arena
08-23 Auburn Hills, MI - Palace of Auburn Hills #
08-25 Toledo, OH - Seagate Convention Center #
08-27 East Rutherford, NJ - Izod Center $
08-29 Philadelphia, PA - Wachovia Center $
08-31 Lexington, KY - Rupp Arena ^
09-02 Morrison, CO - Red Rocks Amphitheater %
09-03 Salt Lake, City UT - The E Center of West Valley %
09-05 Oakland, CA - Oracle Arena %
09-06 Inglewood, CA - The Forum %
10-04 Santiago, Chile - Arena Santiago
10-07 Sao Paulo, Brazil - Via Funchal
10-09 Porto Alegre, Brazil - Pepsi on Stage
10-12 Bogota, Colombia - Coliseo el Campin
10-15 Caracas, Venezuela - Poliedro de Caracas
10-18 Mexico City, Mexico - Foro Sol (Motrokr Festival)
10-19 Guadalajara, Mexico - VFG Arena (Motrokr Festival)
10-21 Monterrey, Mexico - Arena Monterrey
10-24-26 New Orleans, LA - Voodoo Music Experience

* with Crystal Castles
% with Deerhunter
# with A Place to Bury Strangers
$ with Does It Offend You, Yeah?
^ with White Williams

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Beck has released a music video for the track “Gamma Ray” from his new album “Modern Guilt.”

I mentioned Beck’s new material here a few weeks ago because the drumming on what I had heard was great. While not typically thought of as a drum-associated artist, the drums sounded full, solid and vintage 60’s. Another reason I was really digging some of Beck’s new material is because of the late 60’s early 70’s psychedelic production and drum sounds. Recently I’ve been trying to find obscure records from this era.

I’m eventually going to listen to the album on vinyl, and will give some more impressions on the drumming here. Until then, check out the surreal video…

Beck “Gammy Ray” Music Video

Rage Against The Machine frontman Zach De La Rocha is part of a new band/project with Jon Theodore, previously of The Mars Volta.

The band is called One Day As A Lion and is described as “a sonic reflection of the visceral tension between a picturesque fabricated cultural landscape, and the brutal socioeconomic realities it attempts to mask,”

Supposedly the record is an “exploration of kick and snare” which sounds really interesting. If this record turns out to be what I’m imagining (basically De La Rocha rapping over live drums with minimal instrumentation), this could be amazing.

Jon Theodore is a great drummer, as proven by his previous work in The Mars Volta. And I personally think this is cooler than getting a new Rage album. It comes out on July 22nd.

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Stereogum has a great article up about the possibility of a new Phish reunion. Better yet, they have a quite long editorial (rant), about the parallels between Metallica and Phish. You’re probably saying “wait a minute that does not make any sense at all…” and while you’re pretty much right, it’s kinda good.

“for Metallica it was a shredding Hammett, endless riffs, an eschewing of mainstream-rock song structures, and juvenile lyrics about death; for Phish it was a shredding Anastasio, endless arpeggios, an eschewing mainstream-rock song structures, and juvenile lyrics about nonsense.”

While the writer readily admits that the comparison fails on so many levels (and it definitely does), it is still worth a read just because it’s amusing.

Check it out.

I came across a piece a little while ago about Obama and what he has on his iPod. Here’s a sampling…

• The Rolling Stones (favorite song: “Gimme Shelter”)
• Stevie Wonder (Barack’s musical hero)
• Earth Wind & Fire
• Elton John
• Miles Davis
• John Coltrane
• Charlie Parker
• Bob Dylan (30 songs, including Blood On The Tracks)
• Bruce Springsteen

So we can see that the guy has taste, and kind of “drummer-taste” at that! He’s got Coltrane, Charlie Parker and Miles Davis on his iPod, among other cool stuff with excellent drumming!

“His favorite tune right now is Dylan’s “Maggie’s Farm,” which works out because Dylan’s favorite presidential candidate right now is him. Says Obama: “I’ve got to say, having both Dylan and Bruce Springsteen say kind words about you is pretty remarkable. Those guys are icons.” He likes hip hop too, with some qualification:

“I am troubled sometimes by the misogyny and materialism of a lot of rap lyrics,” he said, “but I think the genius of the art form has shifted the culture and helped to desegregate music.”

Smart guy.

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System of a Down offshoot band Scars on Broadway are preparing to launch their first US headlining tour. The tour is to support the groups self-titled album, which will be released through Interscope Records on July 29th.

The band also has a new music video for their hit single “They Say” which was directed by Paul Minor (Muse, Queens of The Stone Age).

While I’m not a huge fan of either Serj Tankian’s solo material or Scars on Broadway, it can’t be denied that John Dolmayan is a monster drummer. His work in System of a Down shows more of his skill with his huge drum kits and wide array of cymbals as opposed to what I’ve heard so far from Scars on Broadway. I’m curious to see what kind of drumming he displays on Scars on Broadway’s debut album.

Check out tour cities, a clip from Scars on Broadway’s “They Say” video and more information here…

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