IN FLAMES - The Trocadero, October 4th 7PM

IN FLAMES is playing The Trocadero October 4th at 7PM. They will be joined by Between the Buried and Me, 3 Inches of Blood, and The Faceless.

Download and hand out your own flyer HERE.

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Interested in what went into making this? Read the full story here, but here's a snippet:

Behind the screaming demoness is a symbol. Now, those familiar with In Flames will see something familiar yet strange. In Flames has adopted a few symbols over the years, and there was a sort of tribal one used back in 2006 for Come Clarity. I decided to take the idea and make it my own. In this case, it involved turning it into the symbol of chaos as well.

There's some writing on the original piece, but I had to take it off the smaller versions of the posters because it didn't read well. I was listening to "A Sense of Purpose" while penciling it in and one lyric in particular came to mind: " Feel this up your conviction!" To me, though, it sounded like "Feel the Realness of Your Convictions!", thus the name of the piece. The lyric is from the song "I'm the Highway".

Interested? Make sure you check it out on my blog!

OBITUARY - The Troc, 9/28, 6PM - Be There!

"Stop Bitching and Start a Revolution". To me, these are words to live by.

I love metal shows, and I love concert posters. So its always a shock and annoyance to me to never see posters or flyers for metal concerts coming up in Philadelphia. The local blogs seem to tend to ignore them, instead opting to post (as I've ranted a million times before) about some indie rock or trance/electronica band.

On Monday, September 28th, Obituary, Goatwhore, Krisiun, and Warbringer will play The Trocadero at 6PM! Tickets are only $17.50, $20 at the door, and it should be a good show!

You can download the awesome flyer yourself to print and hand out by clicking THIS LINK.

So go out, spread the word, tell your friends, and jump in the pit!



-And, yeah, I made the flyer and everything, so show me some love, too: Larry West Productions.

Blasphemy! - Albums I Think Suck But People Love

Over the past year, I've been listening to my entire CD collection and I started trimming the fat since then. I think I sold off about 50 CD's, or about 5-7% of my collection.

So right now I'm kinda cutting to the bone because I have a few albums I've been keeping if only because there is so much damn praise around them. I've never said, "Wow, I gotta put this on!" or put it on willingly.

With that said, here are some albums I think suck:

Annihilator - Schizo Deluxe
Seriously, why? Why the hell did they release this? I bought it back in 2006 when Tower Records was going under after hearing some praise for it. My relationship with Annihilator in general has never been good; I never got into Alice in Hell, but thought Never Ever Land was pretty sweet. This album takes a few steps all over the metal map but winds up being unlistenable.

Bad Brains - I Against I
Blasphemy? You betcha! I keep reading how important and great this album is, but the reality for anyone just picking it up now, someone who may even know the history of it and the impact it had... it falls flat. It's been hailed as a marvel of punk and, oddly enough, metal. The reality is that the first/title track is the best one on the album and lives up to what you hear, but the rest of the album falls flat. It's a reggae album with one punk/metal song. No thanks!

Bathory - Hammerheart
If you thought me bad mouth Bad Brains was bad, if your a die-hard black metal fan, or even one who knows their stuff on the subject, you know that Hammerheart is a legendary album for being, to many, the first viking metal album and one of the first black metal albums. Unfortunately, it goes on far too long, gets boring, and "Blood Fire Death" is better.

Behemoth - Demonica
Generic black/death metal. Behemoth went on to become the leaders of the blackened death metal movement, creating a brand of metal as brutal as Nile but still keeping traces of the same song structure and, yes, melody of thrash. Demigod is nothing at all like that. Two re-recordings are on here that are simply incredible, but the rest of this two-disc set wanders through.

8-Album Mind: Suicide Machines

Static-X - Machine ♠♠♠♠
Static-X - Shadow Zone ♠♠♠♠
Static-X - Beneath... Between... Beyond... ♠♠
S.O.D. - Speak English or Die ♠♠♠♠♠
Suffocation - Human Waste EP ♠♠♠
Suffocation - Souls to Deny ♠♠♠♠
Dragonforce - Ultra Beatdown ♠♠♠♠
Suicidal Tendencies - Suicidal Tendencies ♠♠♠♠♠

Yes, I'm in the "S's" and, yes, there is a new Dragonforce album in this list. I had it with me yesterday but didn't crack it open after 2 weeks until today. More later.

Static-X is, without a doubt, the most under-rated band to come out big during the 1998 - 2002 period when metal was mired in nu-metal copycats. Static-X was lumped into that mix, despite owing more to Ministry and Metallica than Korn and Public Enemy. Their brand of industrial and metal was a welcome relief and a great counter-point to the ultra-sleek and shiny veneer of late-90's synth-pop.

Despite the fame they did achieve, many critics have held the band, and their albums, in negative views. I, on other hand, no longer do that. Yes, until 2004, I was in the "Static-X Sucks" camp, although it's hard to know why. Most likely it was because of the timing, but still, the band was great. Machine was a great follow-up to Wisconsin Death Trip, and Shadow Zone was panned MUCH harsher than it should have. There's a lot of good songs on this album as it blends their ferocity with a bit of a more mellow edge.

Although, without a doubt, BBB (to be short) was not good. Not even close. A collection of B-Sides and Rarities (and it makes sense after 3 albums; they had done a LOT of soundtracks), the album fails for one simple reason; It's not a cohesive piece. Static-X works best as a machine; each track on an album is like a piece of that machine and each element, each tiny piece, works perfectly in sync with the others. When you have a B-Side collection, your basically taking assorted pieces and seeing what happens. Instead of building a killing machine... you've got some insane contraption made to fix your breakfast like in Back to the Future... only it doesn't work.

The new Dragonforce album, "Ultra Beatdown", is a good solid album, but not one worth noting much. Preaching to the converted more than anything, really. Meanwhile, SOD's landmark album, "Speak English or Die" still holds well, the first album to introduce crossover AND blipcore!

Finally, Suicidal Tendencies self-titled debut.... without a doubt, in terms of an album that can speak to nearly ANYONE, this is THE most important album to ever be released! At least, in terms of lyrics. It's hard not to relate to lyrics about suicide and a horrible life, isn't it?