-Luke

In any event, the interview with Blitz was done back in January before Ironbound, Overkill’s latest album came out. Among the items discussed during this interview are Ironbound, and subsequent tour, the early days of Megaforce Records, the “Big Four”, his 30 year musical partnership with DD Verni, Randy Blythe of Lamb Of God, Mike Portnoy of Dream Theater, the NY Steel Benefit Show, the project he did with Dan Lorenzo called The Cursed, Hail! and his involvement in Turtlehead!

During Jose’s segment we discuss how the band was started, comparisons to other bands, some of the festivals they were about to play when the interview was conducted, and the recording of their latest album Exiled To Earth

Items discussed during both interviews include:

Korn, Iron Maiden, Angelwitch, Raulph Patland, Cannibal Corpse, Twisted Sister, Brutal Assault Festival, Bloodstock Open Air, Suffocation, Thrash Assault Forum, Exodus, Exiled To Earth, Feed The Beast, Alex Lee, Jerry Garcia, Overkill, Forbidden, Big 4, Suffocation, Bobby Blitz, Overkill, Ironbound, DD Verni, Immortalis, Dave Linsk, New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, Iron Maiden, Feel The Fire, Killers, Punk Rock, Warbringer, Hardcore, Pop, Green And Black Army, Exodus, NY Steel, In Union We Stand, 9/11, Sid Falk, Sebastian Marino, Merritt Gant, Rob Cannavino, Bobby Gustafson, Tim Mallare, Rat Skates, Joe Comeau, Megaforce, Metallica, Anthrax, Testament, Alex Parialas, Terry Date, Chris Tsangarides, Judas Priest, Ozzy Osbourne, Anvil, Colin Richardson, Pete Townsend, Peter Tagtgren, Death Angel, Megadeth, Slayer, Kreator, Destruction, Randy Blythe, Lamb Of God, Gigantour, Dave Mustaine, Willie Adler, Chris Adler, Jamey Jasta, Dan Lorenzo, Hades, Non-Fiction, The Cursed, Black Sabbath, Turtlehead, John Ostronomy, Fuse, Motorhead, Mike Portnoy, Frank Bello, Hail!, Tim “Ripper” Owens, Andreas Kisser, Dave Ellefson

The following tracks are featured during the episode:

Bonded By Blood (off of Exiled To Earth) – 600 A.B. (After The Bomb), Genetic Encryption and Prototype – Death Machine

Overkill (off of Ironbound) – The Green and Black, Bring Me The Night, Give A Little

So anyway, given my pretty neutral opinion of JFAC, I must say their album artwork has always been pretty amazing. Behold, album art of Ruination, in stores July 7th on Metal Blade Records, as created by artist Brent Elliott White:

Want to hear a new song from the album? Check out “Constitutional Masturbation” after the jump.

or

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zl3g8seYy74

or

www.chrisbroderick.com

or

www.myspace.com/chrisbroderick

Dave Mustaine’s Gigantour lands in New York City tonight. I gave it some thought. I was interested in seeing Megadeth. And I actually like In Flames (video below) and High On Fire. But I was not impressed with the other acts. After seeing High On Fire, I couldn’t picture myself standing through Children of Bodom (Children of Boredom seems more accurate) and Job For a Cowboy (just too extreme metal for my taste) in order to get to In Flames and Megadeth.

I realize Mustaine is trying to turn people on to music he considers worthy, but do these mini-fest tours work when they are at smaller venues. Afterall, I could go f*ck off and get something to eat during COB or the Cowboys — if I was at a fairgrounds or an arena.

Gigantour is a concert mega-tour festival organized by none other than Megadeth’s very own Dave Mustaine. It was founded in 2005 and has continued on since with some major bands from many different genres of metal and some high praise, and guess what? I went!

The Lineup:

Megadeth

In Flames

Children of Bodom

Job for a Cowboy

High on Fire

*Bolded ones are the ones I say “Hellyeah, Hellyeah, Hellyeah (THREE TIMES) NUKKA!” when I think aboot (I’m goin’ Canadian) them.

Are you ready? Just click the jump for more.

Tuesday, April 15, 2008 – Dallas, TX – Nokia Theatre at Grand Prairie

Now the only bands that I really cared about on that list are Megadeth and Children of Bodom. In Flames is a good band, I just don’t listen to them much. But even with that said, they are a great live band and perfect for a supporting act considering how bad some can be. I’d rather have had CoD as the band right before Megadeth, just because I would have liked them to have more time, but eh, that doesn’t really matter in the end.

Now generally at concerts, the opening bands are just boring and sound the same, however In Flames and CoB were great and with a little different sound. In regards to the other two, who I hadn’t heard of before, and I STILL haven’t heard of, I really don’t care about.

I got there at 7:15 and CoB was already halfway into their set. WTF. Yeah, the ticket said it started at 5:30, but that always just means doors open at the time and then you have to wait around for an hour to an hour and a half before music starts. They do this to get people to drink more beer, which costs 8 dollars for 24 oz. Needless to say, I don’t even think about it. BEER.

So I was thinking “Yeah, 5:30 for the door opening, warm up bands start at 6:30-7:00, I should have plenty of time to get there and see part of the first band and the other bands from then on. I got there at the end of “Hate Me!” by CoB, which is one of my favorite songs by them. Damn! Kind of pissed me off that I missed most of it. But eh, whatever. They will probably be back through Dallas soon enough with a full set. I just hope they play at a decent venue.

The crowd was surprising yet at the same time the usual. Of course there was the one guy (that I saw at least) that had drunk 5 of the 8 dollar beers. You know this because they walk around with each new beer inside of their empty cup. Not only do you know they wasted 45 dollars (same as the ticket price) on beer, but they are also a douche.

Then you have the 50-60 year old drunk guy that hits on the teenage girls. They always use the line, “I have a daughter that is (age), too!” Damn smooth.

Then you got your Emo (Dave Mustaine says it like “Emu” because of his voice) kids running around in their tight pants. I’m like, “what the hell! metal fans kill other people, not themselves! GTFO.” The surprising thing was that the Emo kids were leading the mosh in the circle pit. It looked like a bunch of chickens fighting in achicken coop! I can’t imagine what a pit at a real Emo show would look like. Circle jerks while cutting? *rimshot*

Oh yeah, I saw one of the stupidest shirts I had ever seen. “Bleeding the Fifth” was written on the back of someone’s shirt. I looked up the origins of it and it’s the first CD of a new band called Divine Heresy. I haven’t heard the music yet but that is the stupidest name I have ever seen. It makes no damn sense.

And… the alot of the crowd was just sitting around. WTF at that.

Music wise, all the bands were great. During Megadeth’s set there were a few technical issues, but it didn’t bother me or anyone else. The mic was kind of drowned out all night though, but that might just be because I was on the left of the stage and didn’t get to hear them well. I don’t care anyway about tech problems or any of that bullshit. I’m there because I like the band and the sound isn’t going to piss me off if the bass is too loud or the mic isn’t loud enough.

Highlights of the evenings were seeing Alexi from CoB shred his guitar live again. Got to see James Lomenzo in Megadeth again — he has played with a lot of Zakk Wylde’s projects through the years and is a great guy. I’m glad he is doing well, he looked like he was happy as hell and his playing was great too.

And of course, Dave Mustaine. I’m a big thrash metal fan if you haven’t discovered this already and he has been with it since all the way to Metallica’s first album and a half. I might joke a lot about his voice or what not, but I love his work on everything he’s done. Great stuff… but he still is a mix between Anne Nicole Smith, a kid with Down Syndrome and Spicoli (from Fast Times at Ridgemont High).

If you want to know anything else about the concert, just watch:

It basically covers everything. Here’s some setlists from the show I attended.

Children of Bodom’s Setlist

01. Six Pounder
02. Living Dead Beat
03. In Your Face
04. Hate Me!
05. Hellhounds on My Trail
06. Angels Don’t Kill
07. Blooddrunk
08. Downfall

Megadeth’s Setlist
01. Sleepwalker
02. Wake Up Dead
03. Take No Prisoners
04. Skin O’ My Teeth
05. Washington Is Next
06. Gears of War
07. Kick the Chair
08. In My Darkest Hour
09. Hangar 18
10. Ashes in Your Mouth
11. Burnt Ice
12. Trust
13. Tornado of Souls
14. Symphony of Destruction
15. Peace Sells

Not bad.

The show was awesome and I really recommend you guys check out Gigantour next time it tours in your area. The official site has tour dates and other information you might want to know.

I’m a little bummed about not getting any new Rock Band DLC this week. Oh well, I’ll probably be busy enough anyway.

FC’s: Rock Band Guitar: Sprode (Expert), Synchronicity II (Expert)

# of FC’s since beginning of log: 129