crash_override

Wow, sorry to hear that. Enter Shikari is a very up and coming band, they certainly have coat-tails to be ridden. Maybe your next band will open for U2 or something popular like that. Think big.

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Arya Stark

The fact that we would have opened for them wasn't worth satying in the band,. anyway. They trated me like ****, and I hate girlfriends tagging along at practices, you know?

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crash_override

Worst. Thing. Ever.

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Arya Stark

Especially when they're making out with the girlfriend instead of writing music. I'm glad we agree. xD

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Flower Child

Your Workin Man Blues review.........perfect. This makes me such a proud member of MB. You are exactly right when you say this is a reality for so many people, including my family. My Dad has worked at the Farmers Coop in my town for as long as I can remember and that line in Workin Man Blues that goes "I aint never been on welfare, thats one place I wont be, and I'll go back workin.." is always a favorite of his. Again, great review, made my day.

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Crash's Band Spotlight - 25 JUN 2009


Now, I know a lot of you out there don't like the whole christian/metalcore scene, but please understand that this was part of my growing up. I played in a metalcore band (slightly christian infulenced) in high school and still love some of the classic bands. That being said, here goes.

Zao is probably the most important band as far as bringing metal into the christian mainstream, but also deserves credit for being arguably the single biggest influence on the metalcore/ post-hardcore scene of the early 2000's. Recording on dirty tracks and coming from humble beginnings, Zao crafted a style of hardcore punk/post-hardocre music that transformed the way heavy music was seen in the late nineties. Recordings like 1996's 'All Else Failed" and 1997's 'The Slinter Shards The Birth of Separation' opened new doors into realms previously unknown. Allowing post-hardcore to bridge with some new type of metal that featured not only slow crunching riffs, distorted basslines, and growling vocals; but added heavily christian influenced vocals and sound clips reminiscent of White Zombie. This instantly gained Zao a cult following and inspired copy-cat bands that remain countless to this day. While the band shows they take influence in bands like Carcass and Earth Crisis, Zao twists and turns whatever influence they may have taken into something completely unique and edgy. While the band early recordings are rare and didn't recieve much public acclaim, their early live performances remain legendary amongst the underground scene in which they flourished from around 1995 until 1999-2000.

The band received their first semi-big hit record with 1999's Liberate Te Ex Infernis (Save Yourself From Hell). Zao has remained zigilant into the late 2000's, changing band members many times but never sacrificing their beliefs, creative and religious alike, and maintaining a solid following to this day. Zao is truly a staple of modern metal/metalcore music and is largely responsible for igniting a new scene in the underground. Below I have included recommended albums, videos, and a short intro to Zao compilation. Thank you for reading and hope you enjoy.

Album Recommendations:

All Else Failed (1996)
Where Blood and Fire Bring Rest (1998)
Liberate Te Ex Ifernis (1999)
Parade of Chaos (2002)
The Funeral of God (2004)

Some footage of a very underground show (circa 1998). Enjoy.

A song from 'Where Blood and Fire Bring Rest' - Ravage Ritual



Link to the Crash Course Of Zao:
Free File Hosting Made Simple - MediaFire

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crash_override

The Abominal Homan sent me:

This album is basically a smorgasborg of different genres which the band switches between whenever they see fit. At times having a jazzy feel, occasionally polka, grindcore, metal, folk and whatever else they feel like it seems. This album will bore you to the verge of death and then pull a complete 180 on you and leave you sayin wtf?, this formula pretty much repeats until the album is finished. They also throw a 'cover' type song of some Hank Williams for a minute. Overall this album was... Intersting, but quite the task to avoid skipping over some tracks. Not bad for a one time listen but I can't see myself wanting to listen to this again.

Overall 4/10

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crash_override

Concert Review


Well this show was cool. Besides all the religious propaganda (more from certain bands than others), it was really solid. Good set of bands here, most I have heard/seen before, but some were foreign to me and will remain to be so. See there's good and bad here just like anything else you run into in music. The opening bands were a joke, an excuse to go across the street and get a beer.

Gwen Stacy pulled a 180 on the show and really kicked things into gear, probably the most underrated band on the tour. They should be playing above alot of these bands on the bill, but because of their abrasive style, lack of over the top religious blabber, and not so flattering image. But still, more of the more enjoyable bands musically. My 3rd time seeing Gwen Stacy (having played with them twice) they are better and tighter sounding than ever, new song unveiled shows strong promise for the new future. Overall a strong performance from GS.

Oh Sleeper is a band one of my old roommates would constantly rave about, got me into them a bit. Although I've never been a huge fan, they have some good tracks and I do know most of their songs off their old album. This made the show a lot more engaging, the have tons of energy, progressive elements, heavy sound, and not too much off topic blabber. Solid sow from them, new album out soon.

Project 86 is a band I had heard one song from before this show, and will probably stay at that level for quite some time. Lots of attempted crowd interaction (dispite the crowd obviously not receiving them well), religious blabber, and dragging on of the songs to ridiculous interludes smothered in bland spoken word. Was not pleased by this performance.

Sleeping Giant. Here is a band that seems like the want to be preachers more than musicians. They played 3 songs in their set and drug them on sooooooooo long with annoying crowd interaction attempts and RIDICULOUS religious preaching. This band was more of a task to sit through than anything. I wouldn't recommend them to anyone, terrible live performance.

The Chariot is a group of pure entertainers. Flailing about, throwing guitars amongst each other, tossing stage props into the air randomly, crawlling around on the floor and controlling the venues lighting themselves makes for one hell of a show. While the music was an incoherent burp of noise and un un-recognizable to even some of their fans (myself included), the stage antics and pure presence made up for it and made the show quite enjoyable.

Haste The Day, if you can call them that anymore. I have now seen them live 8 times, and they are the primary reason I went to the show tonight. The band had no original members on stage, and looked about as alive as a rotting horse carcass. The two new guitarists couldn't play their way out of a paper bag, but do a fantastic job of looking more like d-bags than Stephen Keech (no easy task), The new bassist is tolerable, but nothing special, and the drummer have no sense of dynamics what-so-ever. That being said, some of the old songs sounded ok, just not the same. When you're used to seeing the old guys up there giving it their all to perform, seeing these hack up there was a huge let down. To top off the horror story, Stephen Keech now has a kid rock hair cut and is attempting to play guitar whilst doing his vocals on certain songs. Not a good idea I might add, not at all. The band, despite their last release being fairly good, seems to be on the fast decline. A band that once inspired me to play, now shames me to even be a fan. Metallica syndrome is in effect, RIP HTD.

Overall, the show was worth 17 bucks. I got a lot of anger out there, I really needed that.

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Alfred

The Chariot's album is pure metalcore awesome.

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crash_override

They have a lot of quality stuff, never been one of my favorites, but they put on one hell of a show.

I assume you're talking about the newest album?

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