The Top 10 Metal Albums of 2013

2013 marked another great year for metal and all its splintered genres. Although some promising acts disbanded, legends passed away, and some douche brought a lot of unwanted attention our way, 2013 was still a year full of celebration. There were great milestones and anniversaries, epic comebacks and most of all, slammin’ new albums for us depraved metal fans to enjoy. Trying to cram a year’s worth of stellar releases into a mere top 10 might seem like an act of lunacy…but that’s us alright, stupid like a fox. This is The Top 10 Metal Albums of 2013...

Iron Maiden & Megadeth @ San Manuel Amphitheater. 9/13/13.

The Battle of San Bernadino. An eight hour heavy metal bonanza in the blistering outskirts of Southern California. Somewhere along the edge of civilization (LA County) and chaos (the desolate landscape/highway system that leads to Las Vegas) a shit ton of awesome metal bands besieged the San Manuel Amphitheater (the largest outdoor amphitheater in North America) for a full day of mosh pitting, dirt breathing, guitar shredding goodness. Iron Maiden, aka the coolest band ever, headlined the event while thrash metal legends Megadeth, Anthrax, Testament and Overkill; along with neo-thrash younglings Warbringer, handled supporting duties. "Run To The Hills" indeed.

Well, that was a sick lineup. Too bad life and traffic interfered. Between conflicting work schedules, the basic human need for food/subsistence and the two and half hour trek to the venue (FML road construction/detours/Friday after work traffic blows) we missed all the opening acts before Megadeth. Hearing Anthrax play "I Am the Law" while hiking to our seats and watching them take a bow after closing their set with "Antisocial," doesn't count. 

For whatever reason, Megadeth was the only group from thrash metal's "Big Four" lineup that I had never seen in concert. Metallica, Slayer and Anthrax, I've seen them all at least twice over the past decade but have somehow always missed Megadeth. Well, on Friday the 13th, on band leader Dave Mustaine's birthday no less, the curse was finally lifted. The band opened with "Hangar 18" and the 30,000 people in attendance went ballistic. 

photo by:  Kathy Flynn @ WickedGoddessPhotography.com

Thankfully, Dave and co. played a greatest hits set, with only one track off their new album Super Collider making the cut. After years of struggling with live vocals, Megadeth have recently begun tuning their guitars down a step so that Dave's voice is finally in key with the music once again. This meant that the vocals sounded fine but the music to some of the band's more technical songs *cough*"Tornado of Souls" & "Holy Wars..."*cough* sounded a bit funny. By funny, I mean distorted and slow and kind of silly. Songs with more groove and start/stops like "Sweating Bullets" and the ending breakdown of "Wake Up Dead," were awesome though, especially with thousands of people shouting along. Finally got to see Megadeth on Mustaine's birthday. Circle of life.

photo by: Kathy Flynn, @ WickedGoddessPhotography.com

Iron Maiden are magicians. Swashbuckling, acrobatic, hypnotists. Only Iron Maiden could make such a large and sterile venue like San Manuel feel like a cozy club gig. Their music and stage show are larger than life. Attending an Iron Maiden show is an all encompassing experience. The elaborate backdrops on stage, the fireworks and pyrotechnics, the singing and chanting, and dear lord the guitar harmonies. It's like hanging out with the singing outlaws from The Pirates of the Caribbean ride, but in Tomorrowland and Frontierland all at once. This was the final run of their 2013 Maiden England tour, where they revisited songs from their Seventh Son of a Seventh Son album. It was pretty much the same show as their concert from last summer, but with a crap load more people. The audience at a Maiden show is almost as important as the members onstage. The crowd at The Battle of San Bernadino was in full scale celebration mode. I took some crappy cell phone footage during "Run To the Hills" and "Fear of the Dark" and the audience was so loud I could barely hear the band. The maniacs in the lawn area behind us kept the entire venues spirits up, lighting multiple bonfires and chanting/jumping in unison all night. The rabid crowd response kept the band's energy going which resulted in yet another spectacular Iron Maiden show for the record books. How these guys keep rocking so hard in their 50's while I struggled walking back to the car once the lights came on, is something I'll never know.








*BONUS IRON MAIDEN OVERDOSE FOOTAGE*
Some awesome individual recorded the ENTIRE concert. Check it out below:

Halloween 2011: Scary Music Overdose

It's Halloween. All week I've been spamming my facebook profile with random "dark" themed songs that none of my normal people friends give two shits about. Thankfully, I can always count on you bloggers to put up with my crap!

"...please take my hand."


"...need to know!"


"...enter to the realm..."


"...sworn to black we'll always be."

So happy Halloween. I guess. haha. I worked all weekend so didn't really do much celebrating (other than watching Evil Dead II at a friends house which is always awesome though). This year Halloween lands on a Monday, so blaaah. Here's a pic from a two Octobers ago, the last time I dressed up:

*hint* I'm not the mouse with the crooked ears. I'm the half-assed Abbath!

High On Fire, Torche & Kylesa @ The Glass House, Pomona. 9/30/10.

I have a love/hate relationship with this venue. The Glasshouse has great sound, allows in’s and out’s and doesn’t hassle people about cameras inside. Unfortunately, because it’s a fairly large, flat venue, depending on the crowd turnout you might get stuck in the rear of the building staring at the back of some guy’s head. That and it’s in Pomona…which means a traffic plagued drive to barren town USA.  We left extra early to make sure traffic wouldn’t screw us out of seeing Kylesa. Turns out the doors didn’t open until a half hour later than advertised and there was another band opening the show also. Since we had about an hour to kill we headed over to a Mexican restaurant down the block to grub.  In our gluttonous delight, our fat asses missed the opening band Yeti’s entire opening set and made it to the Glasshouse as Kylesa finished up their first song (“What Becomes An End” I believe).

Kylesa was on fire this night. Their last headlining run through Hollywood was a muddled mess, plagued with sound problems and a fill in drummer. Tonight, the band made the most of their limited opening slot and rocked the fuck out. This was my first time experiencing Kylesa in a legit venue (their headlining off date at the Echoplex was sick, but the sound was shotty and their last gig at the Knitting Factory was just prior to the club shutting down…pretty dilapidated). The crisp PA and awesome sight lines (i.e. not ridiculously crowded) allowed me to be fully engulfed by the band’s set.  No really, I literally felt like I was in some kind of trance. Laura’s eerie vocals on “Running Red” sucked me in like the snake from The Jungle Book.  Kylesa’s dueling drummers, and addition percussion from Phil (guitar/vocals) and the bass player displayed throughout the night was the icing on the hypnotic cake. Heavy, trippy, rockin’ sludge metal…whatever the fuck Kylesa are, I love them.

Torche blasted through their set like a band possessed. I swear, the energy emanating from this band is beyond infectious. I heard some good things about these guys in the past but after I finally caught them live at 2009’s FYF FEST I was sold. Fat, monolithic doom riffs meets sugary rock’n’roll = AWESOME. It’s rare to see “heavy” type bands smile onstage, but Torche is one band who wears their enthusiasm on their sleeves.  I positioned myself dead center in front of the stage to watch their gamma powered drummer in action. For my good deed I was rewarded by almost taking a flubbed drumstick to the face(er, camera lens). It’s all good though. Torche rocked the house and dare I say, stole the show.

He puts the spring in Springfield.

AC/DC, Motorhead…High on Fire.  That’s pretty much the entire review of their set right there. Workhorse band who’s the best there is at what they do, and in this case it’s rocking out hesher style. Matt Pike is the “M” in metal alright? Sure, they’re kind of a one trick pony (stoner rock meets mid paced thrash with Lemmy vocals simmering above) but what an awesome trick it is. I’ve never proclaimed myself to be the biggest High on Fire fan alive and although I have all their records tucked away on my trusty iPod, I’m not the dude memorizing their lyrics…or even song titles for that matter. All I know is that in a live setting, this band kills. I stood off to the side of the stage as the long hairs tussled with each other in the make shift pit bobbing my head with a goofy grin on my face.  Why? I don’t know. It’s in my metal DNA or some shit. Like how fish thrive in the ocean, I enjoyed the hell out of my time watching High On Fire play.