Tag: Heavy Metal

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Music Music Features

Slayer at the Horseshoe Casino

This Friday night, heavy metal legends Slayer will play the Horseshoe Casino in Tunica, alongside Anthrax and Death Angel. Yes, you read that right. The band responsible for the most metal song of all time — “Raining Blood” — is playing at a casino. Formed in 1981 by guitarists Kerry King and Jeff Hanneman, Slayer are one quarter of the thrash-metal assault that took the world of heavy metal by storm in the mid-’80s, alongside Anthrax, Metallica, and Megadeth. You could also include hardcore band Suicidal Tendencies as an honorary member of that “core four,” as the Suicidal fan base exhibits some of the same characteristics as Slayer worshippers.

Slayer

Slayer’s insanely dedicated fan base will tell you that the band has never released a bad album, but it was the trifecta of Reign in Blood (1986), South of Heaven (1988), and Seasons in the Abyss (1990) that solidified Slayer as the world’s best metal band leading into the ’90s. The band has won two Grammy awards and influenced everyone from Slipknot to Pantera, but the California powerhouse has also had their fair share of controversy. In addition to being accused of being Nazi sympathesizers (Slayer’s iconic logo mimics a Nazi relic), the band has been accused of bringing thousands of teens to worship the Dark Lord by moms and dads who just don’t “get it.” Their lyrics deal with themes that are not exactly uplifting in nature, and their albums consistently feature grotesque, violent, and controversial cover art. Pentagrams tend to do that.

Taking all of these things into consideration, Saturday’s concert should make for one of the most historically significant shows the Horseshoe has ever booked, and with Anthrax on the bill, there’s a good chance the gig will sell out.

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Music Music Blog

Metal in Memphis: Three Days of Thrash

Ghoul play the New Daisy on Friday, July 29th.

Every once in awhile the heavy metal music gods shine their light (or darkness?) upon Memphis, giving us multiple days of heavy music in multiple venues. This week is one of those times. Here are three killer heavy metal shows happening this week at the Hi-Tone, Murphy’s, and the New Daisy. 

Wednesday, July 27th.
Reserving Dirtnaps, Primitive Man, Yautja, Act of Impalement, 8 p.m. at the Hi-Tone Small Room, $8. 

Metal in Memphis: Three Days of Thrash (2)

Metal in Memphis: Three Days of Thrash

Metal in Memphis: Three Days of Thrash (3)

Metal in Memphis: Three Days of Thrash (4)


Thursday, July 28th.
Sadistic Ritual, The New Masters of Evil, Shards of Humanity, 9 p.m. at Murphy’s, $5.

Metal in Memphis: Three Days of Thrash (5)

Metal in Memphis: Three Days of Thrash (6)

Metal in Memphis: Three Days of Thrash (7)

Friday, July 29th.
Carcass, Crowbar, Night Demon, Ghoul, 8 p.m. at the New Daisy, $20-$25.

Metal in Memphis: Three Days of Thrash (11)

Metal in Memphis: Three Days of Thrash (8)

Metal in Memphis: Three Days of Thrash (9)

Metal in Memphis: Three Days of Thrash (10)

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Music Music Features

Deftones Live at Minglewood Hall

Metal megastars Deftones hit Memphis this Tuesday for a show at Minglewood Hall. Formed while three of the members were still in high school, Deftones have become one of the biggest bands in alternative metal, with a Grammy award and around 10 million total albums sold. The band’s fanbase is notoriously loyal, and albums like White Pony and Around the Fur are classic examples of mid-’90s nu-metal, before it got repackaged by major labels for MTV consumption. The band also paved the way for indie experimental metal bands like Glassjaw to gain traction, and it could be said that Deftones are one of the first bands to mold nu-metal/experimental metal into what it is today.

Opening for Deftones is Code Orange, the Deathwish Inc./ Roadrunner Records band from Pittsburgh. Formerly known as Code Orange Kids, the four-piece definitely owes a lot of their song structures and writing style to Deftones, although they are most commonly referred to as a hardcore punk band. The band recorded their second album I Am King with Kurt Ballou, a producer who once recorded the first album by Memphis’ own Nights Like These, even though the label they were on eventually asked the band to re-record the album with another producer. Sadly, that session has never been officially released. Code Orange are definitely flying the modern metal-core flag high, and their upcoming album for Roadrunner Records will likely see the band move in a more mainstream direction. Tickets moved fast for this one, and as a result the show is sold out.

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Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Music Video Monday: Super Witch

This Music Video Monday promotes itself. 

Two summers ago, El Dorado Del Ray, Joey Killingsworth, and John Pickle asked me to play heavy metal with them in a band called Super Witch. I hadn’t had a band to play with in a while, and while I had played jangle pop, indie, punk, noise, and all kinds of guitar rock since I first took up the bass when I was 15 years old, I had never actually played heavy metal before. So I said yes, and I’ve been glad I did. I’ve learned a lot from these guys, made some new friends, and become a better bass player for it. We’ve been slowly recording an album with Dik LeDoux’s Au Poots studio and Rocket Science Audio’s Kyle Johnson, and now it’s finally ready for public consumption. Along the way, we also made some music videos. 

John Pickle is not just a great drummer, but he’s also a Memphis filmmaking pioneer. For years in the 1990s, he created the legendary public access TV show Pickle TV, which brought gonzo insanity to unsuspecting cable subscribers all over the land. He’s made two Super Witch music videos. The latest is “The Need”, in which he used some footage of us recording the song in the studio to demonstrate what a great editor he is. 

Music Video Monday: Super Witch (2)

The first Super Witch music video was “Army Of Werewolves”, where Pickle took the opportunity to create a video based on a simple concept he had been tossing around for a long time. All four members of the band shot our segments separately for this one, but one thing I can tell you is that if you detune your bass so the strings flop around enough to capture on camera, you’ll probably break your nut. Thanks to John Lobow for fixing it for me afterwards. 

Music Video Monday: Super Witch

And finally, here’s a Super Witch video I directed. Last year, we played an awesome show at Black Lodge Video that was captured on film by Christopher Woodsy Smith. Around the same time, the Maiden protests in Kiev, Ukraine were going on, and I noticed that some videos I was seeing from the street riots had a very similar color pallette as the Black Lodge footage. So my wife and editor Laura Jean Hocking and I cut together scenes from the two sources into this video for “House Of Warlocks”. I’m very proud of it, and I hope you like it, too. 

Music Video Monday: Super Witch (3)

You can download our album Super Witch Has Risen over at Bandcamp on a pay-what-you-can basis. 

Thank you for indulging my conflict of interest. If you would like to see your music video in this space next week, please email me at cmccoy@memphisflyer.com. 

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Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Time Warp Drive-In: Cartoon-A-Palooza

September sees two Time Warp Drive-Ins. The first, happening this Saturday at the Summer Drive-In, is the Cartoon-A-Palooza.

We are living in a golden age of animation. Once relegated to the kiddy pool, now animation is accepted as a fully adult medium Most of the great works of animation, such as Chuck Jones 1938-62 work for Warner Brothers, was aimed at both the juvenile and adult audiences, but it was taboo for a grown up to admit they liked cartoons. Nowadays, it’s cool for old and young alike to be Pixar fans, but if you had to point at the moment when the tide turned, it would be 1988’s Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Time Warp Drive-In: Cartoon-A-Palooza

Between filming Back To The Future and its two sequels, director Robert Zemeckis loosely adapted a 1981 genre mashup novel called Who Censored Roger Rabbit? The amount of negotiation it took to put so many different company’s characters in one film is staggering to contemplate. Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse, to cite just one example, had to have exactly the same amount of screen time. But it was worth the hassle, because Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Has held up incredibly well. Its seamless blending of animation and live action has proven to be a blueprint for how special effects movies are made in the CGI era. But most importantly, it’s just plain fun for everyone.

Time Warp Drive-In: Cartoon-A-Palooza (2)

On the internet, Space Jam is remembered for its website, which has been online and unchanged for 19 years. It’s a family friendly marraige of live action and animation in the Roger Rabbit vein. It’s notable for being Michael Jordon’s only big screen acting role, and the highest-grossing basketball movie of all time.

Time Warp Drive-In: Cartoon-A-Palooza (3)

Like Space Jam, Heavy Metal was also the brainchild of producer Ivan Reitman. But that’s where the similarities end. Although it came out in 1981, it can be seen as the last gasp of 70s psychedelia. And it’s definitely not made for kids. The anthology of stories adapted from the British comic magazine whose name it shares are a unique blend of sci fi, fantasy, raunch, and drug humor. It’s a little uneven, because each segment was produced by different animators, and the years have applied a layer of cheeseiness. Bit it has survived as a cult classic, and I have to admit I’ll watch it every chance I get.

The final film of the evening is Fritz The Cat. The legendary counterculture film launched the career of Ralph Bashki, and raised the public profile of cartoonist R. Crumb, on whose work the film is based. It’s raucous and funny, and definitely of its time. One can’t help but think that the biggest reason it was so controversial was because it was ahead of its time in trying to create animation that was aimed at adults, not kids

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Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Anvil! The Story Of Anvil

Anvil! The Story of Anvil (2008; dir. Sacha Gervasi)—This not-so-distant relative of Chris Smith’s remarkable 1999 documentary American Movie is one part Metallica: Some Kind of Monster and one part This Is Spinal Tap; in fact, one scene in Anvil! takes place at Stonehenge, where the demons dwell. But what makes it less withering and more sincere than either of those great works—could you call them musicals?—is its working-class pride and DIY spirit. For whatever reason, Anvil was a pop metal band that missed its chance to ride the mid-1980s wave that washed Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, the Scorpions and others onto the shores of pop superstardom—and it’s not like they were that much worse (or better) than any of their better known peers. Maybe lead singer Steve “Lips” Kudlow wasn’t magnetic enough, although he comes off as both a true believer and a pretty decent guy throughout. What’s more likely is that, as Motörhead’s Lemmy Kilmister says, they were cursed with bad luck and bad timing.

Whatever the cause of their non-stardom, it’s clear that rock and roll has saved Lips’ life and sustained his lifelong friendship with band mate Robb Reiner (there’s that Spinal Tap connection again…). No matter what they encounter—inept foreign managers, shady club owners, indifferent record execs, dead-end day jobs—they show signs that they will endure if not necessarily prevail. Lips’ optimism is both touching and foolish in a world where one of his biggest fans shows his appreciation by getting his favorite frontman a job peddling sunglasses over the phone. Three cheers for the Asian heavy metal enthusiasts who eventually redeem Anvil’s struggles, and one more cheer for superfan filmmaker Gervasi, who chronicled his idols’ twilight (and subsequent semi-resurgence) with compassion and humor that’s almost never condescending or cheap.

Grade: A-

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Sing All Kinds We Recommend

It’s About to get Heavy…

Louisiana’s scariest export crawls out of the swamp for a performance at the Hi-Tone this Thursday night. Simply put, EYEHATEGOD have been one of the heaviest bands on the planet since they formed in 1988, releasing seminal albums like Take as Needed for Pain that helped define the sludge metal genre. This will be the first Memphis show in quite some time for the nice boys from New Orleans, who are also currently touring with Ringworm, an equally crushing metal band. Enabler from Milwaukee will kick off the show.

Check out videos from EYEHATEGOD and Ringworm below, and get ready to have your food digested when these guys crank up their amps this Thursday night at the Hi-Tone. 8 p.m. doors, $15 gets you in.