This video is made of all things metal and good:

I've added news feed for:

Century Media
Metal Blade and
Nuclear Blast

so you might notice a blob of old news coming into the stream.

be seeing you

dazza

Deceptor haven't played in over a year and they were presenting new material to the world. A recipe for disaster in my books but it looks like they put in the hours and their set was brilliant. They've moved from more or less thrash to a really interesrting mix of thrash and NWoBHM. They let me film the entire set although I missed the first song because of beer matters.













Mutant have been on this UK tour with Gama Bomb and as with their tour of the UK with Evile by the time they got to London they were on top form. Firing on all cylinders mutant are an unstoppable thrash force.






Gama Bomb are always a treat and no finer band has come out of Ireland's thrash scene. Poor old Philly (singer) was suffering with a sever cold but he soldiered on through the set just managing to keep up with the band Playing a rich mix of Survival of the Fastest, Citizen Brain and Tales From A Grave in Space the packed crowd at the Islington Academy 2 loved it




To conclude. Best TShirt EVER

Dom Lawson (Metal Hammer) tweeted an interesting little documentary about Satyricon's The Age of Nero. It's a little late, that albums been out since late 2008 but it's a timely reminder of what a great album it is (despite the poor review the idiots at metal-archives have given it).

This is the fading first international tour but it doesn't seem like it. Following in the tradition of all Israeli bands The Fading play Gothenburg melodic death metal! Given that the security was super tight for this gig The Fading had a sizeable fan base installed at the front of the stage. The Fading were tight, fast and showed no fear.

Warbringer ALWAYS put on a good show. This is a metal fact. At no point do they stop thrashing. Storming through tracks from War Without End and their new album Waking Into Nightmares Warbringer show why they are a force in the metal world.






With a new bassist installed Evile have had a few weeks rehersal and have embarked on a UK/European tour and will soon set off for the US with the mighty Kreator. The limited rehearsal time showed and there were a few hiccups along the way with lyrics forgotten and missed beats here and there. The fact is that when Evile fuck up a lot they are still much tighter and much more professional than most bands. In a few months they will surely be back to their much deserved AAA status.

Clearly Evile enjoyed being back on stage and the fans enjoyed their return. The new bassist, Joel, is much more in your face then Mike was and I think he brings a new dimension to the outfit. Evile are back, if they ever really went away.

Lion music published a passionate article on why downloading is killing
music here and I thought I'd take some time to respond. It's worth reading the article as it's written by the artists in Lion's stable and some interesting points are made.

Killing Music or Revenue?
It's important to ask this questions as they are not the same thing. Obviously if you get an album for free you are not giving any money to anyone and that revenue stream is being throttled. But the music is still alive and a new set of valuable ears has heard the music.

The points was made that Apple (via the iPod and iTunes) and your ISP are making money from you downloading. I can see why a musician would think this but it doesn't help, it's tangental to the core issue and only leads to calls for levies on iPods, Blank CD's, ISP's, Physical music sales.

The point was also made that digital distribution (via iTunes etc) is a great opportunity. This is more helpful and if musicians could see how they make money from 'online' they would not see it as a threat.

While the 'traditional' revenue streams for bands are being killed off the cost to get a fan or 'cost to ear' has been lowered 100 fold in the last 10 years and will only get lower as time passes. Musicians need to see that this is the future and ears not CD's are important.

The Value of Music.
Something is worth what people will pay for it. In a philosophical sense music has an infinite value to society but in reality, for most people, music in static form is worth little or nothing.

A musician is however more then the sum of his music. Musicians, more then any other artist, command the attention of their audience. They can shape the belief system of the audience, inform their audience and entertain their audience. We have all travelled miles to see bands, queued for hours to buy tickets and borrowed cash from friends to buy merch at a gig. This is the power and influence of a musician.

So while music is of little value the brand that is a musician has great value.


So why can't musicians see this
Believe it or not most musicians are actually quite normal and don't see themselves or their band as something people buy in to. They see their music as a product and that products have a value and thus they can make money from their product.

If you combine this with the fact that very very few musicians are business people it's easy to see why they shy away from the new landscape of music production.

On top of this most records labels aren't run by business people either! Most metal labels are run by hard working fans of music who basically work their arses off to make a living but they love it... until you get a few beers in them and then they tell you how much they hate it.

The cherry on top of this faltering cake is that neither the bands nor the labels understand the technology that they are being driven by. They dream of restrictions to downloading without really understanding why it wont work and they would love to harness the power of the internet for distribution but they don't know how.

So what should labels do?

• Offer high quality downloads of all music for free. It costs about £0.04p ($0.06) to deliver mp3s/artwork to a potential fan. In return the fan should give their email address so they can be contacted later on.
  
• Offer CD quality downloads of all music for £5.00 ($8.00)
  
• Offer a 'download it now and we'll send you a CD' as well for £10.00 ($16.00)
  
• Offer a download it now, we'll send you a gig ticket and you can get a free CD if you want for £15.00 ($23.00)
  
• Give bands a better cut of revenues but give them much less to record. Poverty breeds invention after all.
  

Of course all these numbers are guestimates. I don't run a record label but they are not unrealistic and they are at a price point I would gladly pay.

What should musicians do?

• Come to terms with the value of your music
  
• Understand the value of your brand as an artist/band
  
• Push labels to offer more revenue but understand they will take on less risk by offering you less money upfront.
  
• Engage with fans directly via mailing lists, back stage chats, merch stand offers, pre gig pub meets. Your core fans will go further then you think and will inspire you more then you could ever imagine.
  
• Be realistic, the world has changed but there are more opportunities to lower your cost and increase your revenue if you work at it.
  
• If you study music at a university or college actually attend the business lectures!
  

What should fans do?

• Cut bands and labels some slack. It's easy for you but VERY hard for them to change over night.
  
• Buy merch from bands and labels. If you can avoid giving money to the big shops then do. It's all money leeched from the scene.
  
• Go to gigs... and then go to even more gigs. Everyone wins if you go to gigs.
  
• If a label or band does something you appreciate let them know. If you would like a gig ticket with a CD email them... if you want more or less, tell them. They have no clue what's going on without your feedback.
  
• Support your local scene by going to see unsigned bands. The future of music is in your hands. Only with your encouragement will the scene grow.
  

be seeing you

metaldazza

It's the morning after the night that was and my head is pounding. Earache hosted another brilliant xmas party this year in London at the Purple Turtle. It was rammed and full of christmas cheer.

Kicking off the night Mutant played an excellent show to a subdued crowd. Maybe too many mince pies had been consumed but everyone seemed rooted to the spot. Even The Rauncher, sang by their old bassist Paul, failed to whip up a pit. They played their final song with Ol from Evile guesting on guitar. Interestingly he managed to stamp his authority on that song, it sounded very different.



After a short break Short Sharp Shock took over the stage. At first I thought that the crowd was going to turn ugly: beer, jumpers and plastic cups were being thrown on the stage. Gradually the crowd warmed and a quick game of musical mosh chairs complete with prizes brought the crowd in and the pit raged. A very impressive performance.



White Wizzard didn't have a bassist. Apparently he got concussion at the airport and wasn't allowed to fly. That's not the story I heard but it will do. What do you do when you listen to NWoBHM? You can't mosh, the music is too slow to head bang.... so you stand there and watch. You need spectacle and I don't think White Wizzard delivered that. The music was good but the lack of a bassist left them sounding thin. There were plenty of cheers and plenty of claps but it seemed a little too muted. The Wizzard is going to have to work harder when they return to the UK for a tour. I have no doubt that they will. Credit to them for forging on and putting on a good show in the circumstances though.



Near the end of the set Digby from Earache was handing out a limited edition record from the boys with Over the Top and a cover of Gates of Gehenna originally by Cloven Hoof.



The good news is that Christmas is definitely going to be delivered on time as Santa Claus was getting some well deserved shut eye before the big push in a few days.



At the end of a snowy night in London all credit has to go to Earache and it's staff for putting on an excellent night.

Merry midwinter everyone

Lost World Order have put their current album up for download. For a new band the quality is very high and the download includes a humorous how-to build a booklet movie for your download.

If you are a fan of Kreator-esque Metal with hints of Entombed and Sodom then this album could be for you. Go here to download the album and artwork.

It's good to see bands get their act together and release quality offerings like this to build an audience for their music.

On the 10th of December Inner Rage played their last ever set at the Purple Turtle.

Here is the entire set with only a few minor edits to shorten it a little. It's fifty minutes of pure unadulterated Inner RAGE!

I really enjoyed their performance, especially the twin guitars in Within My Blood and the singers animated singing throughout the entire night.

They were supported by Toxic Holocaust and Goatwhore who were both top notch but I wasn't allowed to film them.