Oxygen Abortion ENDELESS

In 2011 Oxygen Abortion will release the follow up to their 2009 ep Antimatter. The new album will be titled ENDELESS and new tracks can be previewed here.
For more information on this upcoming released visit the official Oxygen Abortion Myspace.

The Smashing Pumpkins, live in Melbourne, 1998

Smashing Pumpkins
Date: June 20th, 1998, Adore Tour
Venue: Rod Laver Arena
Supported by: Jebediah
Cost: $53.90 AUD
Setlist:

1. To Sheila
2. Behold! The Night Mare
3. Ava Adore
4. Pug
5. Crestfallen
6. Tear
7. Thru the Eyes of Ruby
8. Perfect
9. Tonight, Tonight
10. Bullet With Butterfly Wings
11. Daphne Descends
12. Shame
13. For Martha
14. Encore:
15. 1979
16. Transmission (Joy Division cover)
17. Zero



In early June, 1998, Smashing Pumpkins released Adore, the follow up to their ground breaking album, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. Prior to Adore’s release, the Pumpkins were at their peak in popularity and the follow up to Mellon Collie was highly anticipated. Things had changed in the Pumpkins camp, drummer Jimmy Chamberlin exited the group and was replaced for the most part by drum programming for the album. In the live arena, a new drummer filled in, who was backed by two additional percussionists. There was also no trace of the grunge rock featured on albums before, the style was now a mellow and sometimes acoustic arrangement.
Australian fans had little over 2 weeks to get used to these changes after the album was released when the Smashing Pumpkins arrived on our doorstep.
The day before the Melbourne show, the Pumpkins played a ‘secret’ gig at Circular Key in Sydney that was broadcast by Triple J live around the country, and Australia got to hear the new Smashing Pumpkins set. The set consisted mostly of new material and a few re-workings of older tracks, but was missing many of the hits that SP became famous for.

When the Smashing Pumpkins played in Melbourne, the set was a little longer but followed the same tune. To their credit, the songs from Adore were improved with the live arrangements, featuring live drumming as opposed to programmed drums which brought a new life to these tracks. Daphne Descends rocked a little faster than on the CD, and the single, Ava Adore, featured a distorted electric guitar riff that brought back a bit of their grunge flavour to the mix.
Tear was also another stand out track, once again, faster and heavier than on the album.
The new songs were not the only ones to differ in musical arrangement to their original recordings. An acoustic based rendition of Tonight, Tonight pleased the crowd, as did a re-worked version of Bullet With Butterfly Wings, which featured a drum intro and followed a different format and feel to what fans were used to. Another song that received a different treatment was 1979, which dumped its usual clean guitar and mellow feel for a distorted electric versions.
While these 3 of their major hits were played, the crowd was becoming restless and mid set a chant for Zero began, with Billy Corgan dismissing the crowd saying ‘I don’t wear that shirt anymore’. When the band returned for their encore, it became apparent that the show was drawing to a close and there would be no more hits played, the chant for ‘Zero’ grew in intensity.
Corgan could only give in and give the audience what they wanted. Despite the fact that James Iha had already left the stage, SP started playing Zero, and it was a obvious that it was unrehearsed. Corgan forgot the lyrics, and even stopped playing guitar through parts, leaving Darcy and the drummer to carry the song. That was the end to an interesting evening, and a memorable concert for many different reasons.
The Pumpkins did not put on a bad show. The Adore songs were the highlight of the set and the live show gave a different perspective to that offered on the album. There was great musician ship and the additional percussionists and piano added to the shows mood. The crowd however did grow restless with the abundance of new material, and when the few hits were played they were not familiar versions, which didn't help with their mood. Perhaps if the album had been out longer, the fans may have been more ready for a show like this and more accepting of the performance, and you cant always please everyone anyway!

Dimmu Borgir - ABRAHADABRA

Dimmu Borgir have boosted the role of the symphony in their latest album, titled 'ABRAHADABRA'. The result is epic, a perfect blend of metal and orchestra.
Forget Metallica or Kiss with a symphony, entertaining as they may have been, on this album these two different styles are blended together so well and compliment each other throughout.

Here is a clip of the orchestra playing the song 'Gateways' and the album version below.




The iTunes edition of the album inlcudes 2 bonus orchestra only tracks! There is also a limited edition of the album which includes a book and bonus track. It will be released in the US on Oct 12th and is out now Australia.
Dimmu Borgir will the play Soundwave Festival in Australia in 2011.

Slipknot - Melbourne, Festival Hall 12/02/2000

Slipknot - Festival Hall 12/02/2000
Supported by: The Wolves, Segression
Price: 39.90 AUD

Setlist:

1. 742617000027
2. (sic)
3. Eyeless
4. Wait and Bleed
5. Liberate
6. Surfacing
7. Purity
8. Me Inside
9. Spit It Out
10. Get This
11. Scissors


When Slipknot arrived on Australian shores in early 2000, little was known of the men behind masks. There was still a great air of mystery surrounding the band and these gigs definitely fell into the honeymoon period of the release of their first self-titled album.

The bands arrival to Festival Hall was delayed, possibly due to the signing session held at Sanity in the Melbourne CBD, and hundreds of fans waited outside listening to the brief sound check going on and things were getting rowdy. Singing, chanting, screaming, and signs getting ripped from the doors of Festival Hall, the growing crowd was getting impatient waiting for the show to get underway.

Festival Hall was packed that night and sweat dripped from the roof. The stage was decorated with a Slipknot logo banner behind Joey’s drum kit and also two “people = shit’ signs either side.

After the 2 support acts, the lights dipped, and the over the PA a clip from the movie Gummo, two kids screaming obscenities, which leads into Slipknot’s album intro began the the 9 slowly started appearing on the stage. Joey first appeared by the drum kit, then Clown carrying a large flood light, and the suspense built over the next 5 minutes or so while the rest wandered out, the crowd waiting for the mayhem to start.

The band plowed through their first 5 songs without taking a breath, (SIC), Eyeless followed by Wait and Bleed, Liberate and Surfacing. Half the set was done with the songs being played even faster than they are on the album and the energy on the stage is intense. Sid dives into the crowd a number of times while percussionists Clown and Chris dive and climb allover their drum kits and push each other around the stage. The crowd takes a breath while slower paced and darker track Purity is played, which is followed by Me Inside, which at the time was only a bonus track on the digipack edition of the album, and seems to be lesser known the previous tracks played. The climax of the set is reached when Spit it Out is played, which was the single at the time. What follows next, is Scissors,which is usually an 8 minute track that was dragged out to around 15 minutes, and felt even longer. Scissors was filled with lots feedback and noise in the mid section, and extra rants by Corey, which created a menacing atmosphere but perhaps also brought the set to an anticlimax because it went on for so long.

The set lasted no more than an hour, with a 3rd of it being taken up by the intro and Scissors. It would have been good to hear more of the tracks from the album such as No Life & Prosthetics, but with the energy and madness in Festival Hall that night, it was perhaps not a bad thing that the set ended there. The band definitely gave it everything in that hour and left a huge impression when they left Australia.

Leaving the gig, you knew that it was one of those shows that people who would become fans in the future could only dream about seeing. The band was still new, fresh, mysterious and in the ‘nu-metal’ scene at the time, were a lot more aggressive than the other bands such as Linkin Park and Korn. It was also very raw. They didn’t have the more expensive stage shows with pyro and rotating drum kits that would come on later tours and they wore the original masks and jumpsuits that they first became famous in .

There is a really bad bootleg around of the show, and also this audio clip of ‘Me Inside’uploaded by seeme45 on Youtube.





update! this show has now been posted on youtube!

Review: Mushroomhead - Beautiful Stories For Ugly Children

It’s been a while since I have checked out a Mushroomhead release, but their latest album Beautiful Stories For Ugly Children has been streaming in full over on Aol.com this week so I thought I’d check it out.

I was a fan of 2001’s XX , which was creepy, violent and had this horror movie soundtrack feel running through out it that suited their masked appearances.

A few lineup changes over the years and we arrive in 2010 to see how things have changed.

The first few tracks get the album off to a rocking start with tracks like Come On, Slaughterhouse Road, with all their trademark palm muted riffs and double kicks, as well as the mix of clean and growling vocals (which at times remind me of Disturbed during the album.) The track I’ll Be Here almost has a hard rock feel to it rather than metal, but ends in traditional Mushroomhead fashion, with piano, distant melodic vocals and what sounds like children playing in the background.

The melodic vocals seem to be a standout feature of this album, on tracks like Burn The Bridge and The Harm You Do it sounds at times like a pop song with a metal backing track, not in a bad way, he just has a strong clean vocal style.

Half way through the album things start to change a little and get a bit more varied. Holes In The Void has a creepier feel and slows down the pace from the start of the album. The next track Harvest The Garden starts with a tribal drum intro and then along come the guitars and drums with a real groove feel, and the DJ can also be heard scratching away - would be a possible single if they are still released these days!

Now comes The Harm You Do which changes the pace again. Lots of piano and clean guitars on this one.
Things get heavy again for the next couple of tracks with a few mid-paced rockers. Your Demise brings back the heavy guitars, followed by piano through the verses and probably more guitar solos on this track than any other on the album. Darker Days breaks away from the mid-paced tunes with an 80’s metal/rock riff, a good change in style to the previous songs.

The album closes with Do I Know You? which is a short atmospheric song, with more piano & clean vocals and some sound bites of children playing, with the palm muted guitars creeping into the back ground before the album closes.

While the album is nothing to rave on about, I could imagine it would work really well live, and from what I read they are a great live band. While I wasn’t as impressed with this one as I was with XX, I don't think Mushroomhead fans will be disappointed with this solid release.

Update:

Check out this live video of Come On. Would be good to see more of these songs performed live! Intense!

Big Day Out 2011 Announcement

The 1st announcement for the Big Day Out 2011 festival was made over night, here's the lineup!

Tool, Rammstein, Iggy and the Stooges, M.I.A., LCD Soundsystem, Andrew W.K., Deftones, Crystal Castles, The Black Keys, Die Antwoord, Grinderman, Lupe Fiasco, Primal Scream (playing Screamadelica), The Bloody Beetroots, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes, Plan B, CSS, Ratatatat, PNAU, Bliss N Eso, Wolfmother, The Jim Jones Review, John Butler Trio, Angus and Julia Stone, Birds of Tokyo, Little Red, Gyroscope, Operator Please, Dead Letter Circus, Airbourne, Blue King Brown, Children Collide, The Naked and Famous, Anna Lune, Gypsy and the Cat, Kids Of 88, Kid Kinobi and MC Sure Shot, Lowrider and Sampology.

It will be interesting to see if TOOL will debut any new material at the BDO, having not released any music since their last appearance in 2007.

Here are the tour dates & venues:
FRIDAY JANUARY 21st AUCKLAND MT SMART STADIUM
SUNDAY JANUARY 23rd GOLD COAST PARKLANDS
WEDNESDAY JANUARY 26th SYDNEY SHOWGROUND
SUNDAY JANUARY 30th MELBOURNE FLEMINGTON RACECOURSE
FRIDAY FEBRUARY 4th ADELAIDE SHOWGROUND
SUNDAY FEBRUARY 6th PERTH CLAREMONT SHOWGROUND

Tickets will be on sale as listed below and will cost $155 + bf.
SYDNEY: WEDNESDAY 6th OCTOBER
GOLD COAST: THURSDAY 7th OCTOBER
AUCKLAND, MELBOURNE, ADELAIDE & PERTH: FRIDAY 8th OCTOBER

...and here's Andrew W.K making the announcement!

App Review: Cradle of Filth

Cradle of Filth have released an iPhone App to promote their upcoming album, 'Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa'.
First of all, the App features new music from the album, which as of today is 2 tracks. The first track, 'Lilith Immaculate' was added when the App was launched, and more recently the track 'The Cult of Venus Aversa' has also been included.
There is also a fan wall, allowing users to post messages & photos, and it can also show you where these users are located on the world map and the CoF fans nearest to you.
There is a news stream which is regularly updated, and a photo gallery that features new artwork and promo shots. There is a video section which features 15 videos, a good mix including 'Honey and Sulfur', 'Her Ghost in the Fog' and 'The Promise of Fever'.
There are also links to the CoF store, mailing list and the capability to link the App to your facebook and twitter accounts.
The App has a great user friendly layout, good content and seems to be quite stable.
It's also free so a very convenient way to get your hands on some new CoF material!

Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa is scheduled for release on 1st November 2010.

For more information visit the DDVA mini site.

Check out the demo below!

Trent Reznor Releases free 5 track EP

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have released a free 5 track EP, a sampler from the sound track they have been working on for the upcoming film, 'The Social Network'.
Reznor is continuing to explore different formats for releasing his music, much like he has for his last few releases including this year's How to Destroy Angels EP. The Social Network will be released as a standard CD, Blu-ray (audio only 5.1 surround and high resolution stereo) and 2 disc 180g vinyl formats in October. The album will also be released digitally on the 28th September, and the 5 track EP is available now.

Reznor has decribed the music as "electronic in basis, but mostly organic sounding. Lots of experiments and emphasis on sound fraying around the edges while focusing on the proper emotional tone for the various scenes".
From the sampler it sounds like the music will please fans of Nine Inch Nail's Ghosts album, while also touching on some of his other recent NIN material and also the previously mentioned HTDA.

Head over to www.nullco.com for more information and to download the EP.

The Social Network movie opens on October 1st in the US and is scheduled to be released in Australia on the 25th November.

Review: Metallica, Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne 16/09/2010

For their 2nd show in Melbourne for the Death Magnetic world tour, Metallica delved a little deeper into their back catalog. While still featuring all the set staples including Enter Sandman, Master of Puppets, One and Nothing Else Matters, they pulled out a few not so common in their usual set lists, especially for Australian shows! Some tracks featured from 1991's Black album included Holier than Though, Wherever I May Roam and The Unforgiven which added some great variation to the set. I had always wondered if ... and justice for all was rarely played because it was too long and or just didn't come across well live, but after seeing it played last night i can only conclude that it is because they just have too many great songs to be able to include songs like this in their regular sets.
Metallica certainly know how to command the crowd also, and playing in the round suits them perfectly, they don't neglect any part of the arena roaming the stage constantly giving every fan their money's worth for the entire concert.
There isn't a bigger show as far as metal concerts go. Set opener That was just your life featured laser lights which were effective even if a little unusual for Metallica. The lighting rigs were massive coffins which raised/lowered during various parts of set. There was plenty of pyro during One, Battery and Enter Sandman. The set closed with sing along to Seek and Destroy when massive black Metallica beach balls were released into the crowd.
After 6 years of waiting since Metallica last toured, you wonder if they 'still have it' and after last nights show, they have reminded Australia why they are the biggest metal band in the world.


Setlist:
That Was Just Your Life
Cyanide
Creeping Death
Holier Than Thou
One
The Four Horsemen
Wherever I May Roam
Sad But True
The Unforgiven
...And Justice For All
The Day That Never Comes
Master Of Puppets
Battery
Nothing Else Matters
Enter Sandman
- - - - - - - -
Helpless
Motorbreath
Seek and Destroy

Denouncement Pyre 'World Cremation' Album Teaser!

In 2010 Hells Headbangers Records will unleash the first DENOUNCEMENT PYRE full-length album, World Cremation, on 23/07/2010.
Featuring 8 tracks of primitive Black Death metal, the album charges forth with a darker & more focused approach than ever before.
This is a definite statement in the heretic evolution.

The album will be released on CD & gatefold LP, plus a limited edition digipack CD version and a coloured vinyl version w/ patch + poster.

Decaylust discusses the album in a interview at the following site: http://issuu.com/currents/docs/72010

Tracklist:
1. Black Womb of Magdalene
2. The Flesh of thy Master
3. Purification
4. Coven of Diabolical Prophecies
5. Engulfed Temples
6. Salvation, the fading light
7. A Banner Drenched in Blood
8. Invination of Poison

www.myspace.com/denouncementpyre
www.hellsheadbangers.com/
www.myspace.com/mdravenmedia