Archive for the ‘2010’ Category
Ghost – Opus Eponymous
Have you heard Ghost yet? This new band hails from Sweden. Doesn’t seem that too much is known about them. Singer wears a costume and I 
sort of think this may be a joke band of sorts, like Brujeria. The flip side to my claim is that it’s definitely a listenable album. I bought it off of iTunes for $8.91 and have listened to it about 10 times in the last week. They are very retro 70’s stoner rock sounding and really seeming to take a cue from Blue Oyster Cult. Lots of simple yet effective vocal harmonies. It’s not a heavy record but I do like it. It’s sort of sloppy here and there and sounds very analog. No heavy distortion or anything like that…think of the Witchcraft albums, it’s got production more like those. Very stripped down and basic. Some of the vocal phrasing reminds me a bit of early Mercyful fate as well, which is not a bad thing.
I do find it funny how overtly Satanic their lyrics are. Just think Eric Bloom singing about his love for the Devil. haha.
Overall it’s a fun album and I do recommend it. The USA release comes out soon on CD but as stated before, it’s available pretty cheaply on iTunes. Get it! 7/10
The vids on YouTube don’t really do them much justice as I think this is an album that needs to be listened to from front to back.
John McLaughlin – Austin, TX – Nov. 24, 2010
Back around 1985/86 one of the guys from my church had given me and a few of us metalhead kids some records to listen to. It was jazz stuff. The 2 that stood out for me were John Macey’s Eclipse (would love to
The Master.
find this somewhere) and Mahavishnu Orchestra’s Birds of Fire. Bird’s of Fire quickly became an album near and dear to my heart and still listen to it often. I really like a lot of that early 70s jazz/fusion stuff and thanks to Pat, it opened my mind up to some other music outside of hard rock and metal. Hell, just throw some distortion in some of this stuff and it would be metal.
About 2 or so years ago I saw an advertisement on Stubb’s website for John McLaughlin and freaked out. I nabbed 2 tickets and the day of the show Doug and I were walking up on the venue and noticed that the crowd was very young. I was a bit perplexed. Why would all these kids want to see John McLaughlin? Then I saw the show poster stapled on the outside wall. “Jon” McLaughlin was playing that night. Some young kid and an acoustic guitar. D’oh! I felt pretty stupid. What a monkey! We ended up just giving our tickets to someone in line. They were pretty inexpensive so it was no big deal. The 2 kids were appreciative.
A month or so ago I was fortunate enough to see Mahavishnu’s Billy Cobham at the beautiful One World Theatre. It was quite awesome as was the venue. Even prior to buying my Cobham tickets, my guitar player had snagged us 2 tickets to see John McLaughlin and the 4th Dimension. In case you didn’t know, John created Mahavishnu Orchestra after playing with Miles Davis (Bitches Brew). Miles told him to form his own band and he did. What a band he formed!
We get to the theatre around 7 and hang out for a bit. It’s pretty rare for this venue to have an opening act on stage but they did for John’s 2 night stand. It was 2 Argentinian brothers who call themselves Seis Cuerdas (6 strings in English). They played a short set of latin/flamenco/jazz/almost metal stuff on 2 acoustic guitars. They were pretty damned good but I was there to see John and his band.
The band comes out to a standing ovation and John greets the crowd an the music starts. My God. For as blown away as I was by Cobham’s show, this was even more intense. John’s playing was awesome and having never watched any video of him before, I was blown away by his playing style. His fretting and picking style reminded me a lot of Tony Iommi in that it was very limited motion. You hear a lot of things being played but you don’t see them. No wasted motion. It was quite awesome to see. John didn’t talk much between songs nor did he need to. The music surely did the talking.
His backup band was great as well. He had Etienne Mbappe on bass. This dude was awesome. First time I had seen a bass player wear gloves. There were some great moments where he and John were playing off of each other and playing the same runs together. Just awesome. Gary Husband handled the keyboard duties and did a great job. He also did some drums trade-off stuff with main-drummer Mark Mondesir. Holy hell, this dude was quite possibly one of the most incredible drummers I have ever seen live. It could have easily been a clinic in power-jazz drumming. He was awesome and I enjoyed his performance even over Billy Cobham’s. This guy is just awesome and seemingly can play anything. I recommend looking him up on YouTube. For as awesome as the bands was as a whole, Mark’s drumming made the night for me. I’ll always be a drummer on the inside even if I am unable to play them nowadays. Just awesome.
I was really hoping that they would do a meet and greet after the show like Cobham did, but no luck. It was another great experience watching a stage full of great musicians doing their thing. Next up there for me is Al Dimeola. That one will be my “freak out” show. Al is in my top guitar players of all time. Having only seen him with Return to Forever a few years ago, I am pretty excited to see him up close (2nd row center aisle seats…same ones for Cobham and McLaughlin).
Thank you and goodnight!
Triptykon – Austin, TX 10-29-10
My history with Celtic Frost goes back to about 1986 as noted here. I am a fan. While Monotheist is probably my least favorite album, it’s not bad. A year or so ago Tom G. announced that Celtic Frost was done and he had a new project called Triptykon…which uses the Frost script in one their logos. Tom seems to have some deep seeded issues with carrying on as Frost.
No matter.
Triptykon was announced to play Emo’s and I was in. I mean c’mon. It’s Tom G! I bought the meet and greet pass mainly to get his signature in the book.
Per my normal routine I walk to the venue early and happen to catch Tom G. walking the streets. I talked to him for just a few moments and headed over to the venue. The pre-sale on this show was 60. SIXTY! I was able to get in early via a friend who worked there and got to catch the soundcheck. They did Usurper and for whatever reason, Tom was smiling and laughing the whole time. This was the last show on the tour as they canceled the Houston show. It is my understanding that the tour attendance had been pretty light. Last night’s show had Triptykon playing before the headliner. The tour included Yakuza (Chicago) and 1349 (Norway) on the bill. Local band Mammoth Grinder opened but I missed them.
At the end of soundcheck Tom G was asked if he needed more monitor. Tom G responded with, “I can hear myself enough. Doesn’t matter, we’re just playing Austin.” Ouch! C’mon Tom G! Show a little love!
Tom G signs the book.
After soundcheck I hung outside talking with a few friends before the quick meet and greet. Only 7 people (including me) bought the pass for it. Two guys drove up from Monterrey, Mexico for this. That was cool. They brought each member of the band some gifts from Mexico which mainly consisted of tequila. Very cool. I had Tom G sign the book which got the usual reaction from bands…”What the hell is this?” He read through the Celtic Frost section and signed it. We all snapped a few pictures and that was it.
I left there to drop the book off back at the house and went to a bar for a beer. I missed Mammoth Grinder and caught most of Yakuza’s set. Not my cup of tea at all. Sort of avant-garde metal with lots of saxophone. Their slower mellower stuff was alright as background music but they aren’t something that I would want to listen to regularly.
Triptykon cam on next and I was glad to see the place fill up a little. There may have been 150 people there but I think that’s pushing it. They opened up with Frost’s Procreation of the Wicked. This band is tuned
Eyes as black as his soul! Tom G!
down a bit and it’s weird hearing this song in a lower key. Overall they were good, solid. Tom G is no guitar wizard by any stretch of the imagination, but he does write good riffs. The Triptykon stuff sounds like where the music from Monotheist left off. Slow, plodding, dark. I enjoyed the show quite a bit, though. How many more times are we going to see Tom G in the states, ya know? They also plays Circle of the Tyrants and Usurper with the singer for 1349 handling vocal duties.
I was tired and didn’t stick around for 1349. I’m really not that big of a black metal fan. I saw what I wanted to see.
Setlist:
- Crucifixus (Intro)
- Procreation of the Wicked
- Goetia
- Circle of the Tyrants
- Abyss Within My Soul
- The Usurper
- Synagoga Satanae
- The Prolonging
- Winter (I think they did this)
Ugh!
(all images clickable)
Love the H. R. Giger guitar!
My shitty vids from the show. The lighting was terrible.
Christian Mistress – Agony and Opium EP
I caught Christian Mistress (Olympia, WA) live last night at Red 7 in Austin. I saw someone mention that they had a 
NWOBHM feel about them so I went to YouTube to see if there were any clips and lo and behold, the whole new EP was up there. I liked it enough to go see ’em.
I’ll be the first to admit that I am not the biggest fan of most metal bands fronted by women, but there are always exceptions and Christian Mistress is one of them.
This band does have a bit of NWOBHM to them and the songs on the EP sounds pretty good and have some good hooks. Her voice is a bit raspy but it works well. You can download it from iTunes for $6! I did.
Their live show left me with a bit to be desired. I don’t know if it was because of the sound at Red 7 or what, but they were not very tight at all. They’ve been on the road for a few weeks as well and typically bands that are playing out a lot get tighter live. But this matched some of the live clips I watched on YouTube. That being said, I’d certainly go see them live again.
Check ’em out (click fotos to enlarge).
Catching up with Metal Church’s Craig Wells
I love Metal Church. Well, I love the David Wayne/Mike Howe eras. Seeing them in 89 was an awesome experience. When Mike Howe left the band, only the return of David Wayne could have kept me interested in them. Well, he rejoined the band and they put out Masterpeace which
Craig Wells, some happy kid (me!) and Mike Howe 1989
unfortunately did not have Craig Wells on it. Fortunately though, Craig did play on David Wayne’s solo album which was called Metal Church. It was a good album overall!
Thanks to the internetz, I was able to catch up with Craig and he graciously agreed to answer some questions.
What/who was your main inspiration to pick up a guitar and what was your first guitar?
“When I was about ten my Father bought me a semi hollow body red Sears Silvertone guitar at a pawn shop in Seattle. I asked for it because I listened to records all the time, mostly Beatles songs..I just liked anything really, Smokey Robinson , Temptations, anything on the radio and available on vinyl…”
How did you end up in Metal Church? Did you know those guys beforehand and just decided to put a band together?
“Metal Church coming together is kind of complicated…We were school friends but I had moved away from the home town to Kent, which was not far from Seattle so to get together I had to drive 100 miles to rehearse. I knew everyone from school bands and after being a band then not being a band a few times, eventually it all came together. I saw Dave Wayne’s phone number on the wall in Guitar Center of Seattle, it was an ad he posted claiming he was the best singer in the North West! It said “I can sing Whole Lotta Love and hold the end note longer than any living being”.
Sounded good to me…. I called Dave and soon met up with him and we began writing some music in my families home. We wanted to get a band going but he was in work release from jail so every weekend he had to go back in or violate his parole so everything took a while to get going….soon Dave’s time was over and I convinced him to go with me to a rehearsal with the rest of the future MC members and it became MC soon after that. That was with David, Duke , Kirk , Kurdt and myself…David and I lived in the Kent area and the band was 100 miles away in Aberdeen so rehearsal was minimal in the beginning till the rest of the band came to the Kent area [or closer] and we then rehearsed in my Grandmothers garage, we rehearsed there for about five years, coming and going on tour …”
What are some of your favorite memories of those early days in the northwest metal scene?
“Many memories but we never had a whole lot of a club scene or metal scene, all of us in the band lived and worked far from the city in the early days, I drove delivery, Duke and Kirk worked in a shake mill, Dave was a nurse, and Kurdt still lived a hundred miles away in Aberdeen. We played our first Seattle gig at the Moore Theater it was the Headbangers Ball and not till after we had toured a couple years did anybody in Seattle even really know us…then we had many friends in our home base of Kent, they all lived close and they were the Kent Bangers, they were awesome friends, and of course we had a great time..We were outsiders all growing up in a logging town on the coast of Washington state called Aberdeen and Hoquiam.. so nobody in Seattle knew us.”
What Metal Church album are you most proud of?
“It is very hard to say I am most proud of one album over the other but I can say that the first album period was the most fun time in MC because we were making music as a band effort with us writing stuff that was inspiring to us and we worked together and everybody had input. I guess I pick the first MC album…It was recorded in only a couple weeks of overnight sessions.”
How did you end up on Sir Mix*A*Lot’s song Iron Man? (see video below)
“I ended up on playing Iron Man for Sir Mixalot solely because of Terry Date our joint producer…it was his idea and he asked me to track the guitar so I said sure, pay me with a bag of Dicks Cheese Burgers, and he said yes, so we did it! That`s all…nothing more to it than that, just a great time at the studio.”
What led to your departure from the band?
“The main thing that lead to my departure from MC was a lack of vision and the desire to choose to solder on from everybody…my opinion was if we are going to agree to make a new album then we are going to do it and continue making albums and not stop, We agree to make the band again and it be our livelihood, I can not go back and forth…. no matter what happens we are not turning back and we will expect to tour and live it out. Nobody else wanted to see it that way…they wanted to make a test album and just throw something out and see if it gets some bites and maybe do something later…I realized that I was at a cross road it was either music and touring or stay with my family and the band members were not concrete in choosing the band, so I chose to go my own way…”
Did you join another band after?
“I have never been with any other band…why should I?… I did not need anything beyond that…because MC was my blessing, all we had to do was SHOW UP and we could make music and we rocked…who would want anything else?”
Do you miss touring?
“Sure, I miss touring, who wouldn’t? fortunately now I have a life with my family that I value very dearly so I can just look back and smile at the old days..It was great!”
Losing David Wayne was a pretty devastating blow to the fans and especially to his family and former bandmates. What impact did his sudden death have on you?
“Dave’s passing was very sudden as you said…we had some rocky times, we kicked him out of the band and then years later I became friends with him again and he was back with us all again so all I can say is that I am glad that we became friends again prior to him leaving but I am sad I did not get to say good bye.”
Are you still playing music? What’s going on with Craig Wells these days?
“Yes I still play music at home in my free time purely for enjoyment…I work as a broadcast engineer for FOX and that keeps me busy and my plate is full with my family. Maybe we will jam again sometime and if we don’t, I will always look back on the day with a smile!”
Thanks Craig for taking the time to do this. Metal Church helped provide the soundtrack to my life and I’ll always regard them as one of the best metal bands ever. I’ve asked Mike Howe and Kirk Arrington to do interviews, but to date they have not responded to my requests.
The Metal Files 
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