Hollywood Metal Episode 93 (audio)

It was a sad week for Metaldom as the iconic Ronnie James Dio passed away after a valiant battle with cancer. Hollywood Metal extends a sincere horns up to the man who, either directly or indirectly, influenced 100% of metal as we know it today. \,,/ \,,/  R.I.P. DIO

Dan Serper joined me on the show for a remote broadcast via skype. I invited him to pick out a few of the tracks this week because Dan has a highly trained ear for metal so i’m always interested to hear what he has to say about one band or another in terms of what they are doing technically and music-theory wise, with the music. His first selection was SCAR SYMMETRY “Holographic Universe.” These guys are a melodic death metal band from Sweden and they perform at the higher end of the melodic metal spectrum in terms of technical ability and song complexity. Up next was my selection of WHISPERED “Blindfold”. This band is a melodic power metal band that has similarities with CHILDREN OF BODOM in the sense that they use coarse vocals over charging power metal and neoclassical riffs. The theme of their album is the Japanese Samurai warrior culture which is, of course, metal. It’s also a nice change from the usual Finnish themes of nordic culture, darkness, sadness or diabolical stuff. (Which are also awesome.) At this point the show myself and Dan said a few words about Ronnie James Dio and I played the immortal song “Holy Diver” as a tribute to this legend of a man. Not wanting to dwell on the sadness and in the spirit of metal we proceeded to get right into Dan’s next pick for us, SIKTH “Summer Rain”. This is another very complex band, musically speaking. They do a number of things in their songs that push the boundaries of their instruments and progressive metal genre. A mutual favorite KALMAH was next with “Rust Never Sleeps.” I’ve said a lot about this band over the last couple years but it bears repeating. These guys exemplify quality melodic death metal. I’m glad to see these guys gaining traction world wide. I’m fully expecting a US tour in the very near future. Lastly, GWYDION, Portugal’s premier viking metal horde have released their second full length called Horn Triskelion. It’s a great album that hits hard right from the start. After and epic intro track “Fara I Viking” and its thunderous drums and riffs remind listeners why we bow to the Æsir

Hollywood Metal Episode 92 (audio)

Sunday April 25 was the day of the FINNTOLL – MOONSORROW – SWALLOW THE SUN show in Hollywood so it was only fitting to open the show with those bands. I’ve made it know before that MOONSORROW is one of my top tier bands but now I’m making it clear that I’m putting them second on the list behind ENSIFERUM and bumping ELVENKING to 3rd since they have deviated from their early power/folk albums I fell in love with. Perhaps if they get back I will re-evaluate this decision but for now MOONSORROW really strikes a chord with me. Their music is so epic that each song deserves an accompanying video. “Unohduksen Lapsi” was the song selected for today. SWALLOW THE SUN, also from Finland, is another band steadily moving up on the overall list. These guys combine melodic death with doom in a way that gives the songs a really thick emotional feel to them while retaining the MDM riffs that make you want to bang your head. “These Woods Breathe Evil” is the track I selected. Side note: Kai Hahto is drumming with SWALLOW THE SUN during the WINTERSUN interim. Hopefully some news regarding ‘Time’ will surface during the tour. The headliners for Sunday were FINNTROLL. Their new album 2010 Nifelvind is quality. I had trouble selecting the best track so I flipped a coin and went with “Drap”. Videos of this show can be found on my youtube channel. When Emilio Hochet from BLOODSTEEL is on the show it can only mean one thing…. power metal. Thus we closed the show with a few mutual selections from his signature genre. DARK MOOR “In the Heart of Stone”, DRAGONLAND “Ride for Glory” and VIRGIN STEELE “Kingdom of the Fearless (The Destruction of Troy)” closed the show. DRAGONLAND owes us a release that they announced for September 29th 2009…. not sure what’s going on there but no doubt it probably rules.

Hollywood Metal Episode 91 (audio)

Alas, the US release date for KALMAH’s new album had arrived so it was time to add “Sacramentum” to the playlist as co-host Tracey Hays and I both marked that as a must-play. All in all, I think its a very strong release from these veterans but I think the album of the year title is still very much up in the air. (Jari, are you listening?) A pair of Austrian bands were next. HEATHEN FORAY and BIFROST are two quality viking/pagan metal bands. I had a hard time choosing which songs from each but settled upon “Winterking” from HEATHEN FORAY and “Ragnarok” from BIFROST. Both have memorable riffs and epic subject matter. Tracey introduced me to IMMANIFEST today. These guys are a symphonic black metal band from Florida who just released their first EP called Qliphotic. I had no idea what that meant during the show but doing some research afterwards reveals that Qliphotic is a derivative of Qliphoth which refers to “the  representation of evil forces in the mystical teachings of Judaism (such as in the Kabbalah)” according to wikipedia. In other words, evil and demonic stuff…. awesome. “Thaumiel” is the song we picked from the EP and it too is dark and epic all around: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thamiel. WINTER RAGE is an upstart band from Croatia that released an EP in ‘08 called The First Raging Snow. “Northern Legacy” is off that EP and I am now definitely on board for a full length from these winter warriors. Congratulations goes out to our friends in STATIUS, who won battle of the bands last weekend for a spot on California Metalfest this summer. Drummer Wyatt Bentley brought WODENSTHRONE to my attention during the bonfire after-party. “Leodum On Lande” is pretty much an atmospheric black metal clinic.

Hollywood Metal Episode 90 (audio)

Tracey Hays joined me on the program for episode 90. He also picked a couple of the tracks as he has been insisting that we play these awesome bands. WAVES OF AMPHITRITE from Illinios is an interesting new band with an EP out. Elements of power and symphonic black metal are combined to create their epic sound. I have been on a big MANOWAR kick lately so at least two songs from the kings of metal were necessary. “Sleipnir” and “Thor (The Powerhead)” were choosen. I’m sure I will be playing more of them in the next few weeks as I have rediscovered my love for the defenders of true metal. Tracey selected “Belus’ Doed” from the new BURZUM album. The new album is great because it doesn’t deviate too much from the melodic black trance-inducing metal that we have come to appreciate from Varg. Tracey’s next pick for the show was from VHALDEMAR, a spanish power metal band with some excellent neoclassical shredders. “Breaking All The Rules” is just a solid song. We ended with “Repulsion Salvation” from SKELETONWITCH, one of Tracey’s favorite bands and one I saw recently in Hollywood.

Hollywood Metal Episode 89 (audio)

This weeks episode featured LA’s own DELPHIAN who have been “rippin’ off weeners” lately. They brought along their good friends Greg and Dane who are in a band called PDP currently shredding their way to the top of the LA scene. During the interview we discussed the origins of both bands and DELPHIAN’s recent appearance in the Mike Judge movie “Extract.” Greg Harrison of PDP teaches shred guitar at Musicians Institute in Hollywood so it was great to hear his perscpective on the state of metal in Hollywood and LA as we’re clearly going through some sort of transition stage. DELPHIAN also gave us some insight on the steps they are taking to push their band to the next level. With the availability of personal recording equipment on the rise they think that bands can get decent recordings on a small budget and ultimately demonstrate to labels that they are serious about the bands future. Four songs from each band were featured. From DELPHIAN they included: “The Lunatic Fringe”, “A Suicide Speech to Pursuade” “Speaking with the Shadows” and “Dominion” which is a collaboration with PDP members. From PDP we played: “Pile Driven”, “Weight”, “317″, and “Die Motherfucker”. If you’re into metal capable of ripping weeners off I highly recommend these bands:

DELPHAIN – www.myspace.com/delphianmi
PDP – www.myspace.com/heaviocity

Hollywood Metal Episode 88 (audio)

Today on the show I interviewed a good friend of mine, Patrik Carlsson, from Västerås, Sweden.  Patrik is the guitarist for two excellent bands, ANACHRONAEON (melodic dark metal) and EYECULT (melodic black metal) while Andreas Åkerlind is the great drummer for both. Our history goes back about 3 years now as listeners know that I am a big fan of Patrik’s work, particularly the song “The English Wizard” off ANACHRONAEON’s 2007 album As The Last Human Spot In Me Dies. Over the course of the interview we talked about the motivations behind the two bands as well as the thematic content and song construction. He detailed the history the two projects and explained what is in the immediate future for both. If you’re into melodic death and black metal, I think you will agree that both of these bands deserve to be counted amongst the upper-crust of the dark metal world. Four ANACHRONAEON songs from the new album 2010 The Futile Quest for Immortality were featured on today’s episode. They include: “Ages Ago”, “The Darkness In The Corner Of My Eye”, “The Message” and “The Beast Called Man.” Two EYECULT songs were also featured. These songs are from a December 2009 release called Morituri Te Salutamus, they are “Aeternum” and “Oblivaeon.”

         

For information on ordering these two masterpieces, feel free to contact Patrik at either:
www.myspace.com/anachronaeon
www.myspace.com/eyecult

As I alluded to on the show, back in the summer of 2008 the company I work for, SaysMe.tv, was shooting a series of television commercials to promote the company services which is mainly to make it easy for anyone to run their own commercials on TV. The idea was to put someone one TV who clearly looked like they hijacked a commercial spot. I was selected to be that guy so we shot the commercials one night with some camera equipment and copious amounts of Jack Daniels. During the weeks leading up to the shoot I was rocking out hard to ANACHRONAEON’s “The English Wizard” and the director thought it would be great to use that as the soundtrack for the spots. The result was these nine gems:

Hollywood Metal Episode 87 (audio)

Hollywood Metal Episode 86 (audio)

Saturday Jan 30th 2010: After a few weeks off Hollywood Metal Radio is back in the saddle charging forth towards honor and glory! I was at the KORPIKLAANI – TYR – STATIUS – REIGN OF AVARICE show this past Tuesday and there is plenty of footage on the youtube channel Youtube.com/HollywoodMetalRadio. Tracy Hays was back on the show today after taking a leave to start a new job so it was good to have my old pal back rocking on the show. Tracy picked AMORPHIS “Silver Bride” to lead off the show. While they do sound quite a bit different from the early days, I still like their heavy sound and polished production work. AMORPHIS will always be legendary in my book. Next I played a clip of the Howard Stern show that featured an audio byte from me during the Conan O’Brien rally at Universal Studios last week. I’ve been a huge fan of Conan since I was 12 so I’ve been very involved with the whole late night shakeup that’s going on. Upon return to the metal I played a band called TUMULUS which I was recently introduced to via a friend on twitter. This band is everything I’m looking for in a power/folk band and definitely one of the best Russian bands I’ve ever heard. The guitars are so perfect in the songs and the lead singer has a great voice. The synthesizers create a really cool folk melody using an interesting sound, very much like AMORPHIS did on “Black Winter Day” years ago. Very glad to hear that sound again. CRYPTIC WINTERMOON was next with what I would call a black metal ballad. The song features some great piano parts that setup a powerful story of war and hardships sung in a black metal voice. Unique, to say the least. I decided to play two songs in a from from VIGRID next because the one I like the most, “Crown of Thorns” doesn’t feature vocals and was only 3 minutes in length but “Howl for the Absent Moon” does and both are fantastic pagan black viking metal songs. SKELETONWITCH is coming to town in 2 weeks to put on a free show at the Roxy on Sunset Blvd. There is a website where you can RSVP for the show which is hyperlinked off www.moshking.com February 11th. That’s going to kick ass so I played “Released from the Catacombs” from their new cd called 2009 Breathing the Fire. Lastly, I closed the show with a song from a friend of mine named Kevin Curtain who has a band called DAYS OF LAMENT which was featured about a year ago. This song is called “Absent” and it’s a virtuoso melodic groove metal piece that I dig.

Hollywood Metal Episode 85 (audio)

Sunday Dec 13th 2009: I met a fellow black metaller at a party this weekend named Pasha Hanover aka Warharan. Pasha is a guitarist who has played in several LA based bands and has quite an impressive list of both released and unreleased material. I invited him on the show to pick up on the conversation we started on Friday. I kicked the show off with BORNHOLM because I’ve been dying to play “Call of the Heathen Horns” for weeks now and I couldn’t hold back any longer. For those of you who are unfamiliar BORNHOLM is the best black metal, if not the best heavy metal band, from Hungary. This album is a bit more up-tempo that the last one and it totally kicks ass.. enjoy. LUFTWAFFE RAID is one of Warharan’s current bands. It’s a raw black metal sound that centers around a WWII European theatre theme. “Doom from the Dark” and “My Friend Axis Sally” are the two selections I played today. This band has been getting a good amount of recognition in the US and overseas and it’s good to see SoCal black metal making a mark in other black metal circles. COR SCORPII is the band that was created by ex WINDIR keyboardist Gaute Refsnes and ex WINDIR guitarist Stian Bakketeig. Thus, it is not hard to figure out why this band sounds identical to mighty WINDIR. While I was aware of VREID’s WINDIR roots, I was unaware that this band was the other spawn and am happy to hear a similar sound carried on. HITHLUM is another project that Warharan was involved with. The band is a Tolkien-influenced black metal band that released a great cd is 2005 called 2005 In The Land of Mordor, Where the Shadows Lie. The song I picked was “Children of Thorondor.” Warharan says this project is likely finished but I hope that turns out not to be the case since this is definitely some quality stuff. MEN ENTER TAVERN. I don’t have to say anything more than that because I already know that if you are reading this, you are already interested in a band with that name. As their name suggests this is a folkish, viking, black metal band hailing from Germany. Furthermore, I am happy to report that this band friggin rules. Listen to “Oskorei” I think you will agree.

Hollywood Metal Episode 84 (audio)

Saturday Nov 21st 2009: After a few weeks of schedule and time zone conflicts I was finally able to record a conversation with one of my favorite metalhead friends, Tero Tolkki. Hailing from Finland, Tero is the creator of Finnish news and band database MetalFromFinland.com. The timing of our conversation actually worked out quite well because I was right in the middle of a heavy concert week that featured two Finnish bands. KIVIMETSAN DRUIDI (Heathenfest, in support of ELUVEITIE, BELPHEGOR, ALESTORM, VREID and local support from STATIUS) as well as mighty ENSIFERUM on the North American leg of their From Afar Tour (Support from BLACKGUARD, LAZARUS AD and local support from EINVERA). In between those two concerts I also saw DETHKLOK!!! Needless to say, I didn’t get much sleep this week but it didn’t matter because I was totally prepared for this conversation having had a few weeks to think about what I wanted to ask the dude who created my most trusted source of brilliant metal. In spirit of the conversation I kept the playlist strictly Finnish leading off with STAM1NA an excellent power/thrash band that utilizes and interesting vocal cadence in their songs. They truly have a unique sound and that is extremely hard to do these days. Along with STAM1NA, Tero and I share a mutual respect for MORS PRINCIPIUM EST, a fast pace, but extremely melodic band that is long overdue for some world attention. Every album these guys put out is flawless, yet they still seem to fly beneath the radar. Tero tells me that they are working on new material so hopefully it releases to much fanfare. Mighty ENSIFERUM and INSOMNIUM were also necessary for today’s show, both with new releases and both within my top 5 band list. Tero shares my sentiments on these bands including my appreciation for Petri Lindroos as Jari Maenpaa’s successor. Lastly, KIVIMETSAN DRUIDI was the last choice for today because I saw them on this night and I say,  because I am writing this post after the fact, that this band is very good live. I enjoyed the album when I first heard it. I thought that they could use some finishing touches on their sound but I definitely like them more having seen them live. I hope they get the opportunity to come back soon. Big thanks to Tero Tolkki for taking the time to speak with me, Please check out his site for all things Finnish, metal and awesome.