SKELETONWITCH « Hollywood Metal

March 28, 2010

Hollywood Metal 90

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.

Filed under: Showlog — Tags: Brendan Biryla, BURZUM, Hollywood Metal, MANOWAR, SKELETONWITCH, Tracey Hays, VHALDEMAR, WAVES OF AMPHITRITE — Brendan Biryla @ 7:04 pm

Comments (0)

February 22, 2010

Hollywood Metal Episode 86 (Jan-30-2010)

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.

Filed under: Showlog — Tags: AMORPHIS, Brendan Biryla, CRYPTIC WINTERMOON, DAYS OF LAMENT, Hollywood Metal, SKELETONWITCH, Tracey Hays, TUMULUS, VIGRID — Brendan Biryla @ 6:08 pm

Comments (0)

Hollywood Metal Episode 62 (Apr-18-2009)

Hollywood Metal Episode 62 (audio)

Saturday April 18th 2009: Tyler and Lane of PHLEGETHON were here in the studio with us drinking beer and talking about their journey though metaldom. First up was of course PHLEGETHON with “Feeding the Phlegethon” a brutal number that starts off with an epic intro but wastes no time bringing the thunder! The band used 2 vocal style perfectly alternating between guttural harsh and raspy harsh. Great tremolo picking, pounding drums and multiple changes of pace and melody.. epic! Speaking of epic the next band wrote the book on epic. MOONSORROW “Kylan Paassa” which translates to “A Village Away” is yet another 7 minute epic from these Finnish masters. The tortured screams of these vikings bellow out against the atmospheric keyboards… a warning to all that only the warriors of Odin are worthy of such entertainment. Known for their catchy riffs and sustainable originality despite the extreme length of most of their songs, MOONSORROW demonstrates why they are among my top 10 band list. And then it was time for more PHLEGETHON! “Creature of the North” blazes along with the tremolo guitar and drums for the first part but then turns into a crushing headbanger around 1:18 into the song as the drum cadence switches to rollicking thunder! The song alternates tempo throughout… excellent work .. great musicianship. SKETELTONWICH was a late entry to the show. We had an agreement on how awesome this band is so we decided to play “Within My Blood.” BLACKGUARD is rapidly moving up my list of top bands (maybe even cracking the top 10 soon). “Scarlet to Snow” is a brilliant way to start your album. This song is heavy, fast and epic. The use of keys is masterful and once again, I’m always a fan of lead guitar floating above the song.. almost independent of the other instruments. The intro is positively awesome too. INGRIMM is a folk metal band I discovered while checking up on my friends TARABAS who are playing at Black Troll Fest in Germany soon. We’ll play them next week on the show, but this week I was to play INGRIMM who is also playing BTF. This band featured a good mix of metal styles within their songs. Firmly rooted in folk, there is also are melodic death-like guitars and some speedy power metal solos. “Ingrimm” is the name of this track and most of the tracks on their latest album 2008 Todgeweiht are great as well. KALMAH is one of my all time favorites. This band is incredibly melodic and talented on all instruments. “Heritance of Berija” features both searing and heavy guitars. There is even an nice piano interlude that morphs into a kick ass guitar solo.. Everyone in the LA area needs to check out PHLEGETHON. They will be opening for NAPALM DEATH and KATAKLYSM at the Key Club in Hollywood on May 3rd, playing at the Cobalt Cafe in Canoga Park May 21st as well as Heathen Fire Fest Sept 12th somewhere in Los Angeles.

Filed under: Showlog — Tags: BLACKGUARD, Brendan Biryla, Hollywood Metal, INGRIMM, KALMAH, Lane Storli, MOONSORROW, PHLEGETHON, SKELETONWITCH, Tyler Sturgill — Brendan Biryla @ 4:04 pm

Comments (0)

February 21, 2010

Hollywood Metal Episode 15 (Apr-5-2008)

Hollywood Metal Episode 15 (audio)

Saturday April 5th 2008: Episode 15 was a feast of black metal. Out of the gate was a thrash/black metal band called SKELETONWITCH (“Baptized in Flames”). Once you get over the name and realize that this is not an 80’s hair metal cover band you’ll realize that this one of the best thrash metal bands in the USA. Blending thrash riffing with black metal elements this band has the fresh sound that I think thrash metal needs, especially here in the states. Sweden’s NAGLFAR was up next with (“The Way of the Rope”). This band has been around for a long time and is considered one of the best known black metal outfits from sweden. The music doesn’t stray too far from the traditional black metal mold but if your looking for a solid, go to, black metal band NAGLFAR has stood the test of time. Staying in Sweden, MITHOTYN (“King of the Distant Forest”) was next. Unfortunately, these guys disbanded after 3 excellent albums in the late 90’s but the legacy they left has been a big influence for today’s new viking metal bands. Another band that disbanded of their own accord was EINHERJER which we played next. The song was “Naar Hammeren Heves” from the 1997 EP Far Far North. As I mentioned on the show, I have never never seen such variance among metal fans as I see in the opinions on EINHERJER albums. Some people claim that one of the albums is mediocre and yet to others it’s a viking metal masterpiece. Regardless, everyone agrees that this was an important and influential band for the genre. This weeks show ended with KAMPFAR (“Ravenheart”) from Norway. The word KAMPFAR is an old norse war cry to Odin and this band is a testament to Norwegian black metal.

Filed under: Showlog — Tags: Brendan Biryla, EINHERJER, Hollywood Metal, KAMPFAR, MITHOTYN, NAGLGAR, SKELETONWITCH — Brendan Biryla @ 4:59 pm

Comments (0)