Review: Caputing the band in live action during the early 80s, Black Sabbath's Born In Hell is culled from the short tenure of former Deep Purple singer Ian Gillan as lead vocalist, after the departiure of Ozzy Osbourne's replacemennt Ronnie James Dio. Therefore, among the run through the Brum band's overwhelmingly legendary back catalogue there nestles a very Sabbath take on 'Smoke On The Water'. Of course, the biggest selling-point here is simply Sabbath doing Sabbath, very loudly, although not quite as loud as the crowd's reaction at various points of the show. Not least Tony Iommi's insane solo as 'War Pigs' refuels in preparation for its monumental climax, worth the price of admission alone.
B-STOCK: Sleeve damaged but otherwise in excellent condition
Intro (feat Apocalyptica) (2:23)
Her Voice Resides (4:19)
4 Words (To Choke Upon) (3:43)
Tears Don't Fall (3:38)
Suffocating Under Words Of Sorrow (What Can I Do) (5:38)
Hit The Floor (3:30)
All These Things I Hate (Revolve Around Me) (3:40)
Hand Of Blood (3:23)
Room 409 (3:53)
The Poison (2:19)
10 Years Today (4:45)
Cries In Vain (3:54)
The End (6:17)
Review: ***B-STOCK: Sleeve damaged but otherwise in excellent condition***
The debut studio album from Brigend crew Bullet for My Valentine emerged in 2005 on Visible Noise Records and catapulted the Welsh band to success, going on to sell more than two million copies worldwide. Here it is again, celebrating (almost) two decades of life in a flurry of hard, jagged riffs and distinctively screamo-flavoured vocals courtesy of Matthew Tuck. The band reputedly formed to cover Metallica and Nirvana songs and while their sound doesn't ape either of them, they all share a cunning knack for combining memorable hooks and sonic brutality. Choose your Poison.
Review: BMG reissue the second ever release by the pioneering Swiss extreme metal band Celtic Frost, originally released in 1985 as an EP. Emperor's Return often goes criminally undersung as a fleshing-out of black metal as a genre, with the bleak imagery surrounding it going on to cement the style as its own niche. Their first record to feature American drummer Reid Cruickshank (aka Reed St. Mark), the EP comprises five thrash-come-black metal rabble-rousers, ahead of their time for 1985.
Review: An incendiary, iconoclastic album in the intersection of shoegaze, metal and post-rock, Sunbather by Deafheaven has more or less gone down in recent history as a supreme meme, one of those projects whose popularity on the Internet is more than likely to render it godlike status for decades to come. This remixed version is not a 'remix album' as received ideas of 'remixing' might suggest, but rather a full-blown re-mix and remaster by the band's very own Jack Shirley, who intends to continually bolster its monolithic status by giving a fresh sonic rundown. Most notably, this edition is tailored to spatial audio setups, so that the most obsessively audiophilic among us might bask in its newfound three-sixty-degree washes. That, too, comes with a new coloured vinyl pressing and freshly designed sleeves to boot.
Review: Set to tear the (proverbial) roof off of Gunnersbury Park this August alongside the newly rejuvenated Pendulum, nu-metal icons Limp Bizkit have reached a peak in their career where their previously maligned nu-metal hip-hop hybrid has become a nostalgia source for hundreds of thousands fans. What better preparation for the upcoming event than this double LP greatest hits collection that runs through a myriad of the band's most essential bangers. From the breakout (no pun intended) singles 'Break Stuff' and 'Nookie' which put Significant Other on the map and in CD collections, to the endless string of hits from ignorant masterwork Chocolate Starfish & The Hot Dog Flavored Water, such as 'My Generation', 'Rollin'', 'My Way' and the Mission Impossible 2 soundtrack stomper 'Take A Look Around', all the way up to the much underrated 'Eat You Alive' and The Who cover 'Behind Blue Eyes' from the unfairly forgotten Results May Vary, this is an ideal selection for both passive listeners and diehard fans. And yes, it obviously includes the George Michael cover of 'Faith'.
Review: Certified 12xPlatinum, winning Best Hard Rock Performance for 'Crawling' at the 44th Grammy Awards, and classified as the bestselling debut album since Guns N' Roses' Appetite For Destruction; the first full-length from nu-metal legends Linkin Park was a world event around the time of its release at the turn of the new millennium. Living up to its title Hybrid Theory with an effortless fusion of alternative metal, hip-hop and turntablism, all unified under late frontman Chester Bennington's immense vocal range and vulnerable lyricism, the project became an instant classic upon release with singles such as the aforementioned 'Crawling', 'Papercut', 'One Step Closer', and, 'In The End', all going on to achieve either Platinum or Diamond status in numerous territories in the decades since. While the band would eventually stray into the realms of U2-indebted arena rock, both this debut and their 2003 sophomore follow up Meteora are still considered, to this day, to be some of the finest, most accessible and pristine displays of the once maligned nu-metal subgenre.
The Czar: Usurper/Escape/Martyr/Spiral (instrumental) (9:25)
Ghost Of Karelia (instrumental) (5:35)
Crack The Skye (instrumental) (5:51)
The Last Baron (instrumental) (12:47)
Crack The Skye (Blu-ray)
Review: .Originally released in 2009, Crack The Skye would serve as the fourth full-length and creative rebirth of sludge-indebted alternative metal behemoths Mastodon. Inspired by the suicide of drummer Brann Dailor's sister in their youth, the album takes cues from prog classics such as Pink Floyd's Animals and King Crimson's In The Court Of The Crimson King to craft a monolithic sonic journey spread across seven tracks. With their later material taking on a more instantaneous approach to composition, whilst coming off the back of the harsh dynamics of 2004's Leviathan and 2006's Blood Mountain, the mercurial middle point the band found themselves on this LP emboldened them to add Dailor as a third lead vocalist, providing a melodious fulcrum between the snarl of bassist Troy Sanders and nasal croon of guitarist Brent Hinds. A hallucinogenic, astral projecting prog epic in the search for peace accumulated through unprocessed grief, the project has been held near and dear to the hearts of the band and their fanbase in the fifteen years since initial release and now celebrates such a milestone with this definitive boxset. Spread across gold vinyl 2xLP with a bonus blu-ray, poster, magnet sheet and 12-page booklet.
Review: The second and final instalment of thrash metal titans Metallica's Orion Music + More festival took place in Detroit, Michigan, on June 8th/9th 2013, and while the ordeal itself was a complete and utter financial disaster (hence there has yet to be a third event in the decade since), the line-up and performances across the weekend are still hyped and discussed to this day. Where the 4:30pm slot at the Vans Damage Inc Stage on the first day was originally allotted to a mysterious group named Dehaan, eagle-eyed fans connected the dots when remembering the name of actor Dane Dehaan who played the lead role in the Metallica concert film Through The Never. Then, as the "band's" logo was covered up with a hastily spray-painted "Metal Up Your Ass" banner (the original title to Metallica's 1982 debut full-length Kill 'Em All), attendees flocked in their droves just in time for a mid-afternoon shredfest of the iconic first album in its entirety, complete with the first ever performance of original bassist Cliff Burton's solo piece '(Anesthesia) - Pulling Teeth', by his replacement Robert Trujillo.
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