Archive for March, 2009

They got a new album coming out, “Black Sails at Midnight”, and fellow metal news site Metal Storm posted the tracklist, cover art and a link to a new song off it, “Keelhauled”. I have to say, the song isn’t great by any means, but it sure beats the hell out of anything found on their previous shitbag, “Captain Morgan’s Revenge”. Tracklist looks good and the cover art is mighty fine too. I still hate their singer though.

01. The Quest
02. Leviathan
03. That Famous Ol’ Spiced
04. Keelhauled
05. To The End Of Our Days
06. Black Sails at Midnight
07. No Quarter
08. Pirate Song
09. Chronicles of Vengeance
10. Wolves of the Sea

Finnish power metal legends Stratovarius will release their new album “Polaris” in the US on May 26. The band that was thought dead (by me) after main man Timo Tolkki left amidst a cloud of dramatic bullshit return with a new album and 2 new band members. Lauri Porra replaced super bassman Jari Kalinueandrogenusorsomething and some young finnish guitar wiz, whose name still escapes me, took over the Tolkster’s duties. Here’s the tracklist:

01. Deep Unknown
02. Falling Star
03. King of Nothing
04. Blind
05. Winter Skies
06. Forever Is Today
07. Higher We Go
08. Somehow Precious
09. Emancipation suite: I Dusk
10. Emancipation suite: II Dawn
11. When Mountains Fall

I have a thing for judging upcoming albums based on how dumb the tracklists are, but this one seems pretty ok. Also, I found this video on blabbermouth’s page on the story which features the band shooting a video for what I imagine is the single off the new album, where they appear to be playing in the middle of a hurricane.

It’s also got some classic finnish retarded humor and a medley of songs off “Polaris”, which are surprisingly not horrible sounding so far. Let’s hope they deliver this time around.

The new video from So-Cal Bullshit band, Steel Panther calls out many pop-culture icons and writes numerous checks their ass can’t cash.

The song is called Death to all But Metal, but how are you going to put down hip-hop with inventive lyrics such as these.

Eminem can suck it, so can Dr. Dre
They can suck each other, just because they’re gay
They can suck a dick, they can lick a sack 
Everybody shout, heavy metals back!

I know you really want to appear strait guys, but when you walk around dressed like a  Cinderella cover band, nobody is going to believe you.

Also, if they truly hate these people, then one might ask them why they have invited the likes of Avril Lavigne, RZA (of Wu-Tang fame), Lil Jon (YEEEAAAA that guy), and Kelly Clarkson to join them onstage?

The video itself sucks as well, it starts off with some kid in the strangest music class I’ve ever seen, being all rebellious and angsty as teenagers do. Then he says something about Death to All But Metal and then the music starts and my ears glaze over. It does feature Sarah Silverman though, she’s hot.

I could care less about bringing death to all but metal, just death to false metal like this fucking losers.

An iTunes organizational plug-in that actually works? GTFO.

I randomly came across this tool while perusing the internet one day, and for some reason the ad caught my eye. Another tool that attempts to find all your missing artwork? Meh, I fully expected it to tag all my Borknagar as Bon Jovi, but I decided to give it a shot anyway .

Excuse me while I shove my foot in my mouth.

After installing it I thought that something had gone wrong, where was the nag screen telling me my trial would expire? Or that all my album art would be replaced with the company logo if I didn’t pay up in 30 days?

I opened iTunes to an unexpected sight, a sleek, unobtrusive side panel waiting to be explored.

TuneUp will analyze your library and put any tracks it thinks need cleaning into a “Dirty” playlist. Simply start dragging songs (or groups of songs) over to the cleaning area, marked with a cute little bottle of windex. The program tells you what it thinks should happen to the tags and sorts the songs by artist and album to let you review changes that are going to be made.

I started using TuneUp on every album I added to my library and quickly used up my free 500 tags. However I don’t think 29.95 is too much to ask for this helpful piece of software. They also have a 19.95 yearly subscription, but I can’t quite see why you’d only want to use this for a year.

There is also a “Now Playing” feature which will show you some videos and news related to whatever artist is playing, kinda cool I guess, but really only works for more mainstream bands.

The concerts feature is nice, but it only gives you ticket links through StubHub which is generally a rip off, as you can see in the screenshot, 55 dollars for the Lamb of God tickets? Also, using StubHub exclusively means if it’s not on there, you don’t see any tickets. NO KREATOR FOR JOO!

So overall I highly recommend this software, reading the current tags can be a bit slow at times, but not so much that it’s distracting, and the Concert and Now Playing sections aren’t always useful. But the meat of the program is solid and it works.

Get a free trial at http://www.tuneupmedia.com. When you decide to purchase, use the Promo Code: METALSCAPE to get a cool 15% off.

St. Patricks was a week ago

ITE: Guitar Hero, Zach gets stood up by some asshole, Old podcast co-hosts, ugly fat chicks, pool showers, Heavy Metal Hentai, I don’t get Mastodon, The wolf in the sky and the morons that believe he’s actually there, Devin Motherfucking Townsend and his new stuff, Pagan Knights, Zach’s Tech Tip Minute and forum malfunctions.

Playlist:
Astriaal – The Funeral Procession/Ritual Hate Construct
Heaven and Hell – Bible Black
Reusmarkt – Fortress Ung
Municipal Waste – The Art of Partying
Bolt Thrower – Anti-Tank
Kreator – Violent Revolution
Steve Ouimette – The Devil Went Down to Georgia
Dalriada – Tavaszköszöntõ

Shownotes:
TuneUp Promo code: Metalscape
Mastodon MySpace
Testament tour dates
Blot und Eisen

If it’s not Bruce Dickinson, it’s a reporter.

Sharon didn’t like being questioned about the merits of the new “family” show Osbournes: Reloaded, when her own family has such a public problem with addiction. You can read her comments Here

In all fairness, it doesn’t seem like a show really aimed at a “family” audience, all the naughty language is still there including little kids. But I still hate that bitch.

The preview for the show did get a couple lulz out of me though, so I’m sure I’ll check it out when it premieres on March 31st.

Oh and if you’re wondering, yes Ozzy is featured singing one of his shitty ballads

Popular music networking site Last.fm has announced that it will no longer be free for people outside of The U.K., Germany, and the U.S.A.

Those users will get a 30 song trial period and will then need to pay 3 euros a month to continue listening to last.fm radio. Other services like scrobbling, recommendations, charts, and events will still be free.

I think this is probably due to some pressure from the larger content providers who don’t feel comfortable letting their music run rampant on the internet because you know, publicity is only a good thing when you control exactly who sees it…

Luckily I’m still safe, since I love using last.fm radio, but I don’t think I will be for long.

The Official Announcement

Melo-Death Vikings Amon Amarth have posted a new music video for their song “Guardians of Asgaard” on MySpace.

The video has everything you’d expect. Fur/Mail clad vikings in the snow, Fur/Mail clad vinkings in fiery caves, random shots of snowy mountains, random shots of fiery caves, band shots in fiery caves, mysterious old men, legendary hammer hidden for centuries in a fiery cave.

I had grown tired of Amon Amarth so I haven’t checked out their newest album Twilight of the Thunder God. But this song is decent despite that odd sounding solo. I suppose I should pick up the album.

Meh.

The reincarnation of Dio-era Black Sabbath (you know, the good one) have released a track from the bands upcoming first album.

The track, entitled “Bible Black”, is great but it raises some questions about the direction of the forthcoming album, “The Devil You Know”.

Bible Black is also the name of an intensely popular Hentai video game, which has spawned multiple anime spin-offs.

While I’m not one to judge the great R.J. Dio, I never would have taken him for a hentai nerd, but hey Ronnie, it’s all cool with me man, nobody’s judging you.

To play a demo of the game, head over here (NSFW).

Oh yeah, the song…

Download Heaven and Hell’s Bible Black

Sure it may look pretty much the same now, but a mighty winds a blowin’.

With this new site we plan to make Metalscape more than just THE Metal Podcast, but also a place to come for up to date metal news and album reviews.

Stay tuned as the sight will be changing quite a bit in the upcoming days.