Album Of The Week: Beneath The Remains by Sepultura

When you think of heavy metal and the country of Brazil, there is one band that instantly comes to mind and if Sepultura is not that band then what are you 12? Sepultura which in 1989 was made up of Max Cavalera (Vocals/Rhythm Guitar), Andreas Kisser (Lead Guitar), Igor Cavalera (Drums), and Paulo Jr. (bass) was being considered at the time to be the Brazilian version of Slayer or the second coming of Slayer. Nonetheless, the band signed a deal with Indy upstarts Roadrunner Records (Now a major label) and released their third studio album Beneath The Remains on April 7, 1989 which means it celebrates it’s 30TH anniversary this year. The album was a major breakthrough for the band featuring better production while also giving the band the distinction of being the only band with two albums inducted into the Decibel Hall Of  Fame. On Loudwire.com’s 50 Best metal albums of all time list, they ranked the album at 21. There was a bit of controversy surrounding the album cover because originally the band wanted to use Michael Whelan’s cover art Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre which Igor started getting tattooed on his arm. Roadrunner decided that Whelan’s other artwork Nightmare In Red was a better choice and they convinced the band to use it. The funny thing about is that Roadrunner ended up giving the other artwork to Obituary who used it for their album Cause Of Death.

1. Beneath The Remains– The title track opens the album with a very melodic riff that is haunting in nature before it launches in an all out thrash metal blitzkrieg. The track talks about how senseless war is, but our world is plagued with it. Kisser lays down one killer solo on this track. 5/5

2. Inner Self-This track kicks off right where the title track kicked off in this classic thrash sounding track that reminds you of Megadeth, Testament, etc. The track is all about you being you and not allowing the government or anyone else dictate who you are. 5/5

3. Stronger Than Hate-a killer track whose lyrics were written by Kelly Shaefer of Atheist and features background vocals by him and John Tardy of Obituary. The track seems to be about someone who has lost all hope with the way society is and what he is feeling is stronger than hate. 5/5

4. Mass Hypnosis– an awesome track and one of the more famous tracks from the album about how the government breeds hate into the country which causes people to want war and to fight it. 5/5

5. Sarcastic Existence-The tracks opens up with a cool drum riff from Igor before the band joins in. The track’s lyrics are very interesting because they are talking about a man who hates life so much that he wants to end it, but he doesn’t really hate life he just loves death and destruction. 5/5

6. Slaves Of Pain– A very Slayer-esque track that is all about how we are slaves to what the government feeds us whether it’s in print or on the TV, but don’t let it define you. 4.5/5

7. Lobotomy-I hear a little bit of Anthrax in the track that’s mixed with the insane shredding that accompanies it. The lyrics seem to be about someone who has always fought for good, but some how has changed what he does like he’s received a lobotomy. 4.5/5

8. Hungry-a track that is all about all the slaves of the corporate world who are too concerned with masking money that they forget to live life. 4.5/5

9. Primitive Future– The last track on the album is kind of inspirational in a way because it’s all about how you have to forge your own future despite how bleak things can be and you can’t look to the past because that will set you backwards. 5/5

My Final Thoughts– This is truly an awesome album and a very awesome thrash metal record that shows you why people probably believed them to be the new Slayer. Sepultura were truly one of the greats and what a time the late 80’s to early 90’s would be for groove/extreme metal bands. My favorite tracks are the first five plus Primitive Future. That is why I am giving this album 4.8 stars out of five for a final grade.

Pedal Cup: Quarterfinal Results

I just wanted to take the time once again to thank everyone who has gotten involved in the voting process because without you this is not possible. The Pedal Cup which is our metal version of the World Cup has had some surprising results since the first round and the quarterfinals went without a hitch. As usual, we gave you three ways to cast a vote in the tourney with one being the Facebook page, the second being my Twitter page, and the third being right here on the blog site. One of the matches that took advantage of most of the ways I gave you was the BABYMETAL vs Sepultura match and what a weird outcome it turned out to be as all BABYMETAL needed was the Twitter count to win. Morbid Angel’s win was the most lopsided of the tournament as Confess was the only band that failed to gain a vote. The semifinals are now set, but you’ll have to wait until later to be able to participate and vote for the two teams that will move on tot he championship. Check out the box scores down below:

 

Pedal Cup: Quarterfinals

Here is the moment you have all been waiting for, it is the quarterfinals of the Pedal Cup which is the World Cup of Metal. You guys came to play in the knockout stage and I want to thank every single one of you guys for that because without you none of this is possible. Now we have some interesting matches moving forward like Morbid Angel (rep. USA) taking on Confess (of Iran) and while our cultures may be different from each other, there is one thing they have in common and that is they live and breath metal. Literally they do because Confess are in Jail for playing “Satanic music” and there is nothing more metal than that. Arch Enemy (Rep. Sweden) look to repeat the same success they had in the previous round, but they have one heck of a challenge ahead of them in Behemoth (rep. Poland). The legends of Brazil in Sepultura are going to need all the votes they can get when they take on BABYMETAL who scored the highest amount of votes in the last round. Last, but certainly not least Portugal’s own Moonspell face a heavy task as they take on Norwegian legends Dimmu Borgir in what should be one heck of a clash. You guys have 24 HRS to vote so vote for the bands you love and have some fun with it. As always, there are three ways to vote with one being on the Facebook page, the other on Twitter, and the last way to vote right here on this blog.

Pedal Cup: First Round Results

The results of the first round of the knockout stage of the Pedal Cup are here and if you still don’t know what this is, it’s our equivalent of the FIFA World Cup, but for Metal. We had some great matches in the first round with some surprise results. Normally in every tournament with Kreator as a competitor, the fans usually come in droves causing everyone in the world to cry foul, but this time around they have been bounced out of the cup like their fellow countrymen. The fans of Japan’s own BABYMETAL showed up for sure giving us the biggest vote count of the tournament so far. Now to figure out who won what match, we broke it down and you’ll see in the box score that we tallied the votes from this site, Facebook, and Twitter and totaled them up to give you the final result sort of like A+B+C= D. Check out the results below and stay tuned for the next round.

 

Pedal Cup: First Round: Phase One

Alright Metal heads, today is a day to be excited because the first half of the knockout stage round of the Pedal Cup has commenced. The Pedal Cup is our alternative to the Pedal To The Metal Tournament this year as it is our World Cup styled tournament. The matches for today are Portugal (represented by Moonspell) taking on Egypt (Crescent), France (Rep. by Gojira) taking on Norway (rep. by Dimmu Borgir), Brazil (rep. by Sepultura) taking on Germany (rep. by Kreator), and Belgium (rep by Leng Tch’e) taking on Japan (rep. by BABYMETAL). We have given you guys several options as far as ways to vote in this tournament with one by visiting the Facebook page and the second by visiting my twitter page @Themonsterhour. Now you can go ahead and do it that way or you can also vote here, but you only have 24 hours to do so. So support your favorite metal bands and let the best bands win. Phase two of the first round matches will come tomorrow.

Pedal Cup Is Here

This year, we didn’t do a Pedal To The Metal March madness styled tournament and that was my decision based on how busy I was with various other projects and lack of participation at the time. Although with the 2018 FIFA World Cup happening right now in Russia, I thought now was the perfect time to introduce a new tournament. The only difference between the Pedal Cup (short for Pedal To The Metal) and the World Cup is that we have 16 bands from all over the world instead of their 32 teams. If any country was left out of this tournament, hopefully in four years we’ll see you in it the tournament then. The way I chose what countries would be represented here was basically based on who had made it to the knock out stage of the world cup. Now there were some countries I had to sub out because I couldn’t find bands for those countries so I either added a country that wasn’t in the real world cup or chose some teams from the group stage. The countries (and their bands in parenthesis) are England (Cradle Of Filth), Portugal (Moonspell), Belgium (Leng Thc’e), United States (Morbid Angel), Germany (Kreator), Sweden (Arch Enemy), Norway (Dimmu Borgir), Japan (Babymetal), France (Gojira), Denamrk (Hatesphere), Poland (Behemoth), Brazil (Sepultura), Switzerland (Samael), Russia (Catharsis), Iran (Confess), and Egypt (Crescent).

The bands that I am most excited about seeing how well they do are the Middle Eastern bands in Confess who we support their right to creative freedom and Crescent who have been throwing it down for quite some time. The way the brackets are going to be done is exactly the same as the world cup with the teas that are obviously not in the tournament or who did not make the knock out stage placed in the spots that we couldn’t finds for. There is also going to be a new way for all of you guys to vote on this. One way is to visit the Facebook page for Moshpits and Movies and you can vote there (we are going to be setting up the matches there very soon). The other way is that you can click on the article on this page and vote there as well.The matches are only going to last 24 hours which means you only have 24 hours to vote for the band/country that you want to see move on to the finals. Check out the bands and their flags down below and stayed tuned here for more info as it comes.

Ass Whoopin Wednesdays: Falcon Rising (2014)

It has been quite some time since the last Ass Whoopin Wednesday post that I did and like I promised it would return. Now the question was what film was I going to choose for the return and Falcon Rising caught my eye on Netflix. Michael Jai White (Tyson) stars as John ‘Falcon’ Chapman, a former Marine who is having a hard time adjusting to life after the military. One day after a visit from his sister Cindy (Laila Ali), he finds out that she was brutally beaten almost to death in Brazil. So, John travels down to Brazil to get to the bottom of it, but he’ll have to deal with the corruption that runs wild in the Favelas of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The film also stars Neal McDonough (Captain America: The First Avenger) as Manny Ridley, Lateef Crowder (Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice) as Carlo Bororo, Masashi Odate (Letters From Iwo Jima) as Hirimoto, Hazuki Kato (Muppets Most Wanted) as Tomoe, Millie Ruperto (Presumed Dead In Paradise) as Katarina Da’ Silva, Jimmy Navarro (Heroes From Another Land) as Thiago Santo, Daniel Cardona (The Preppie Connection) as Kuka, and the film was directed by Ernie Barbarash (Cube Zero). Before we get into the review of the film, lets check out some stats:

Alright, lets look at the stats here as Michael Jai White racked up 34 kills/knockouts with an epic fight at the end of the film. The only thing we really know about his past is that he has flashbacks to the time he was in the military and that he has PTSD. That is pretty much all we know which is why I wrote somewhat. He has no love interest in the film, but his sister is practically beaten to death which is good motivation to want to get them back and believe me he gets the job done. I have to be honest and say that while I did enjoy the film, I am so used to White playing the part of a villain rather than the role of a hero. It took a little getting used to because I still think he makes a better villain. The film has some pretty awesome fight scenes in it though like the one towards the end of the film, but there are just times in the film when things get awkward. There is one moment when he is beating the crap out of someone and then all of a sudden they are OK with each other. That is essentially the only thing really wrong about the film other than the liquor store robbery scene which was corny as hell. According to one source, they are apparently working on a sequel to the film and you know me, I’ll probably check it out and post it here. Nevertheless, this isn’t that bad of a film because it is an action film after all. I am going to give the film 3.6 fists out of five for a final grade.

Rock And Metal News 11/10/2014

Pale Emperor Album Artwork Courtesy of Cooking Vinyl

This is something that I used to do on my old blog called Rock And Metal News where I gave you summaries of news stories that involve rock and metal bands. For our first news story, we are taking a look at one of my favorite shock rockers and some new album news. You can credit iTunes New Zealand with unveiling the new album title, track listing, and album cover for Marilyn Manson’s new album which is apparently titled The Pale Emperor. According to that iTunes, the album is due out in January, but we have to remember that nothing has been confirmed from Marilyn Manson’s camp yet. So, the regular version features ten tracks while the deluxe version of the album has thirteen tracks. Here is the track listing below and if you want to check out the first single Third Day Of A Seven Day Binge, just click here.

The Pale Emperor Track Listing:

1. Killing Strangers
2. Deep Six
3. Third Day of a Seven Day Binge
4. The Mephistopheles of Los Angeles
5. Warship My Wreck
6. Slave Only Dreams To Be King
7. The Devil Beneath My Feet
8. Birds of Hell Awaiting
9. Cupid Carries a Gun
10. Odds of Even
11. Day 3 (Deluxe Edition Only)
12. Fated, Faithful, Fatal (Deluxe Edition Only)
13. Fall of the House of Death (Deluxe Edition Only)

 In other news, Black Tusk bassist Jonathan Athon has died yesterday (November 9, 2014) in a motorcycle accident. I guess he was out cruising with his girlfriend Emily Boutwell when they crashed on November 7 as they hit the side door of an Acura that was driven by an 85 year old man. For most of the weekend, he remained in critical condition, but he unfortunately passed away at the age of 32. The band’s publicist released a statement that read:

It is with deep regret and saddened hearts that we must tell you that Athon passed away this morning from injuries sustained from his motorcycle accident. Doctors told us that he suffered irreparable brain damage shortly after the accident. He has been in a coma and sustained by life support until now. As per his wishes, we removed Athon from his life support systems and his organs will be donated. His body will be cremated and a memorial is being planned for family and friends in Savannah. He was 32 years old and will be forever missed. Thank you all for your support during this devastating time for us, it would have made him proud.

Machine Head’s Robb Flynn is starting to become one of the most controversial figures in metal whether he was attacking Avenged Sevenfold or his latest blog post where he says no more festivals. When it comes to touring Robb Flynn has said that his band is putting off all of the festivals and here is why, “We’re going to stop doing festivals. As it stands now, we have passed on a headline slot on Wacken, Soundwave Festival in Australia, Download U.K., Sonisphere U.K., Knotfest, Hellfest and a plethora of other festivals throughout the world. In fact, we have made a decision to not do ANY festivals for the entire ‘Bloodstones & Diamonds’ album cycle. In 2012, we did three months straight of ‘summer’ festivals in Europe, but summer in Europe doesn’t really start until September, so for the most part, we were playing outdoors to a lot of people, yes, no doubt, but these people are watching Machine Head at 5PM in the freezing rain with bitter winds ripping across the festival grounds and don’t forget the fatal lightning strike too. Half the time, both the band and the audience are in cold/wet survival mode and to be honest, when it’s like that, no matter how awesome the first Black Sabbath album starts, it’s the lamest environment for a heavy metal show.” He goes on to explain that while the money is good, the expenses end up outweighing what they might have taken in as he explains, “On that 2012 tour we earned more money than we had ever made, some shows were great, a lot were kinda “meh”, but because of fly-dates galore, days-off galore, and some mind-bogglingly bad budgeting we spent all the money we made. Imagine working your ass off for 3 months and not coming home with anything to show for it?” The idea behidn dooing festivals was believe that by throwing a great show, it would open up doors for you as far as new fans are concerned, but Robb doesn’t seem to believe it anymore. He says, “It used to be delivering a killer festival set could be a game changer. But I haven’t seen that happen in a while,” says the vocalist. “For most bands it used to mean, slaying the huddled masses would pack ‘em in next time the band headlined. And ya know what? Maybe it does happen for some bands (though I haven’t heard that recently) but it just isn’t working for us anymore.” So, don’t expect to see them on any festivals in the near future!

I’ve heard of guys doing all sorts of stuff when they retire, but this seems to be something out of You Don’t Mess With The Zohan metal style. In that film, Adam Sandler plays an Israeli secret service agent who just wants to cut hair for a living and not fight anymore. Nergal of Polish Blackened Metal band Behemoth is a singer who likes to defile religious passages with his music that just wants to cut hair for a living at an affordable price. That is correct my fellow metalheads, Nergal opened up a barbershop called Barberian Academy & Barber Shop and it’s strictly for men. Unfortunately, you have to live in Warsaw, Poland if you want to visit the shop that offers hair cuts, beard trims, manicure’s, and other stuff. The reason for opening the shop is that Nergal wanted a new challenge as he opened it with business partner Małgorzatą Marczewską. If you want to find out more about the shop, visit their Facebook page here.

The Osbournes have apparently decided that they want to return for a limited run on Television once again after 13 years since they had been off the air. Apparently, Ozzy wants to do it once again for certain reasons that Sharon explains, “It’s been 13 years since we first did it. He said for the three years we did it he was drunk the whole time and he’d like to be sober. As I say, it’s not forever. No more than eight episodes. It’s a kind of catch-up, what they’re doing now.” Well, I for one am not sure if this is something I will venture to watch, but who knows. Filming will commence in January.

Here is an article courtesy of The House Of Hair Online:

Wanna own a piece of Queensrÿche? The band has made the unusual move of offering fans a chance at buying an ownership stake in a company that, according to Billboard.com, entitles them to a “fixed percentage” of future revenue made through sales of Queensrÿche albums and merchandise. The band hopes to raise a total of $2 million with the offering, that requires a minimum buy-in of $50,000.

Attorney Marc LoPresti says Queensrÿche is “hoping that [this move] will engage more people instead of less, because for the guys, it’s about the music and it’s about the fans.” The money raised through the deal will give the group “the flexibility to do a lot of things,” comments drummer Scott Rockenfield. Check out this YouTube video announcing the campaign, and check out the “Building An Empire” site for all the particulars.

So, apparently Michael Sweet Of Stryper and George Lynch of Dokken have a new project together called Sweet & Lynch which will have a debut disc out in January of 2015 called Only To Rise and I have the album cover for you to check out below:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There are a lot of creatures that we probably haven’t discovered in the Amazon in Brazil, but a group of metalhead scientists have discovered a new one who was named after Ozzy Osbourne. A group of scientists who were on a month long expedition in the Amazon discovered a frog like creature that can produce bat like sounds that they have named Dendropsophus ozzyi. Pedro Peloso, one of the scientists who discovered the species back in 2009 told National Geographic, “As soon as I heard its call, I knew it was a new species. I had never heard anything like it.” The group collected about 21 of the specimen that is brown and orange with long delicate fingers and toes and Pedro says, “the male frogs also have an unusually large vocal sac, a nearly transparent piece of skin that inflates to produce its unique high-pitched chirping sound. Male tree frogs in general make loud calls to communicate with females in distant treetops, but the new species is the first known to sound like a bat.” The group came up with it’s name after they discovered  that they had a mutual love for Black Sabbath and Ozzy. Check it out with the pic directly to the left of this paragraph.

Ever since Phil Rudd was arrested for the murder for hire (charges have been dropped and now faces threatening to kill charges), stories have been coming out of the word work about his partying habits. Apparently some prostitutes have come out to speak about Phil’s wild sex escapades with one escort claiming, “There were up to four girls when I’ve been there. He sort of separates the girls. On his boat, he’d have one in his main room, one in the lounge area and one in the smaller room. He’d go to different rooms randomly.” Another woman has come out and stated that she once charged Rudd $1,500 for 8 to 10 hours of fun and she continues, “If he wants a girl he’ll pay top dollar and he’ll have sex with girls in front of whoever is there, right there in the same room. A lot of the girls will do whatever he wants because he’s a big player – whether or not they feel comfortable.” Another prostitute claims that Rudd had stiffed her on a bill and owes her lots of money stating, “I was there for five days straight. It’s not freaking easy because he’s hard work. He was pissed off because I wanted to go home. He booked a lot of girls through my boss, so it was good money. Instead of my boss chasing him up, he let it go because it would ruin future business.” Befoe I continue with another quote from the last girl, it should be noted that prostitution is legal in New Zealand. The woman continues, “It’s hard enough to hang out with him because you can’t understand him. No personality at all. All you do is follow him around and he gets sidetracked. Then he bloody loses his keys and he’s a mess of a person. If he doesn’t eat, you don’t eat, if he doesn’t shower, you don’t shower. That’s what it’s like being with him. I would never go there again even if you paid me a million dollars a week.” Rudd’s son Thomas has come out and defended his father saying he is good man and as we all know no one is perfect. What do you think of this story?

Metallica recently played a gaming convention in Anaheim called BlizzCon with an amazing 70 minute set that featured classics like Fade To Black, Master Of Puppets, Creeping Death, and so much more. If you want to check out the band’s full set, just go here.

Album Of The Week: Roots by Sepultura

Sepultura which translated from Portuguese means Grave, a Brazilian heavy metal band that was at one time called the Brazilian Slayer. The band at the time of the recording of Roots was made up of Max Cavalera (Guitars/Lead Vocals), his brother Igor Cavalera (Drums), Andreas Kisser (Guitars), and Paulo Jr. (Bass). Roots was the one of the first records I had ever listened to from the band and I love how they mixed those cool tribal sounds with the heavy metal, so I was hooked enough to want to research the group and all of their albums. For the next four weeks, I am going to try and review an album from each of the four members of Killer Be Killed with the Killer Be Killed album being reviewed in the fifth week. So, that is why I chose Roots from Sepultura considering it is one of my favorite albums from the band which featured some cool guest appearances you’ll read about later. The album was produced by Ross Robinson, a guy who was just coming off some impressive work with Korn as well as some other groups, so you’ll notice that the sound of the record is almost reminiscent of Korn’s first record. Here is what Max Cavalera told Kerrang Magazine in 2008 about the album, “Roots came from a blurry dream I had about going to the rainforest. Wine may have been involved. In the end, when we actually went into the forest to record, it was unbelievable. The whole album was a huge personal journey for me, and as a Brazilian, it felt as an incredible achievement. Everyone was inspired and Iggor was at the top of his game. The percussion was crazy and we worked with so many great musicians, in the end coming out with a 15-minutes drum jam that someone likened to a crazy Brazilian Pink Floyd. When we took the album to Roadrunner they loved it except for the title. They thought it would sound like a Bob Marley tribute album. We explained it to them, and thankfully they got it.”

When you hear the sounds of the forest and crickets just before it explodes with the drums, you know you’re about to get your teeth kicked in with the opening track Roots Bloody Roots. This was always one heck of a way to open up an album and it’s definitely one of my favorite tracks from the band. Attitude is the next track on the record and it opens with Max using a Berimbau instrument to help set up the song whose snare hit explodes like a bomb when the track kicks off. The track’s lyrics were actually written by Max’s stepson Dana Wells who would later die right after the album was released. It was the catalyst that would eventually see Max leave the band. Cut-Throat is one of the tunes on here that has a heavy Nu-metal influence in the playing while being one of those songs that has a real activist meaning to it. Ratamahatta is another track that starts with a real tribal feel to it before it kicks into overdrive with guest appearances from Carlinhos Brown on vocals while David Silveria of Korn plays percussion on the track. Jasco and Itsári (which features the Xavante tribe) are instrumental tracks on the record. Lookaway is one of the coolest tracks on the record that features DJ Lethal with Jonathan Davis of Korn and Mike Patton of Faith No More providing vocals. Breed Apart is another track on the record with the tribal beats while having that Korn Self Titled playing on the track at times.

Straighthate proves that I am sucker for killer bass lines to go along with the sonic assault of Andreas Kisser that just smashes your head in with the trash elements in the track. Dictatorshit saw the band flexing their hardcore punk roots in a song about the coup in Brazil in 1964. Spit sees Sepultura combine so many elements of metal in one track that it’s just insanely heavy that you can see where bands like Slipknot got their inspiration from while the bass heavy Dusted saw the band experimenting with sounds while keeping it heavy as hell. Born Stubborn is truly an heavy ass anthem telling the system to go F@#$ itself. Ambush was a song that was inspired by the book  Fronteiras De Sangue, a book about Chico Mendes who was a man that died protecting the rainforest. Endangered Species is the last track of the album I am reviewing and it starts off very slow before it starts to pick up the pace and it’s one of the few songs to feature a guitar solo on the record. I have always loved this record cause it was the first one that turned me onto the band. Is it their best album? Well, that is debatable depending on what your tastes in metal are. I am going to give the album four stars out of five for a final grade.