New Video For Cauldron's Nitebreaker!

          Toronto metal band Cauldron has released a new music video to celebrate Halloween! Check out the song Nitebreaker from their recently released album Tomorrow's Lost.

     Might as well watch some of their other videos while you're rocking out  ;)

Skull Fist, Diemonds, Fatality, Call Of The Wild And Old James At The Hard Luck

     This past weekend on July 7th I attended the Skull Fist, Diemonds, Fatality, Call Of The Wild and Old James show at the Hard Luck Bar. 5 Awesome bands for 10 bucks! It would take me forever to review the whole concert so I'll just point out my highlights from the night.

- I got to hang out with a friend I haven't seen in a while.
- Old James played a Skynyrd cover and as they put it, "we play some fucking good BBQ music."
- Call Of The Wild were sloppy at first but had it together by about the third song. They played a very competent cover of Street Lethal by Racer X! Bitchin'!
- The female lead from Diemonds has a good dirty rock voice and they have the enthusiasm of a band playing to a sold out arena.
- Fatality play some good old school thrash and the lead singer's banter between songs is funny enough that he could do stand up comedy. I was laughing my ass off with his jokes about long hair.
 - Skull Fist is consistently awesome. Their showmanship and musicianship are as tight as you can get!

     I give the whole night a 9/10. I would have given it a 10 but I'm getting old and it was a looooong night.

     My next trip to The Hard Luck Bar will most likely be on July 21'st, 2012 to see Barn Burner and Skeletonwitch. It's sure to be an awesome show so if you're in Toronto go support the bands!

 

3 Inches Of Blood - Long Live Heavy Metal Review

    Long Live Heavy Metal is the 5th studio album from Vancouver metal band 3 Inches Of Blood.

     This album is a little different than their other releases in that it includes a couple of instrumental tracks and some acoustic guitar. At this point I believe vocalist Cam Pipes is the only current member who has appeared on all 5 albums and he is still belting the songs out like a small, bearded viking version of King Diamond. The album starts off strong with the epic Metal Woman and the even better My Sword Will Not Sleep. Both songs are great classic 3 Inches Of Blood. The first instrumental track, Chief And The Blade,  features the acoustic guitar with a  flute and is not bad at all. It leads into the song Dark Messenger which features an acoustic intro but quickly changes over to the standard metal 3 Inches is so good at. The rest of the album is pretty straight forward and features a mixed bag of songs. I enjoyed the marching rhythms of 4000 Torches but there's something about  the song Storming Juno that makes me want to skip it. The album ends with another instrumental tune called One For The Ditch that has a nice electric solo over an acoustic backing. I give the album a 7.5/10

Metal Woman. Track 1 of Long Live Heavy Metal

Electric Wizard - Legalise Drugs and Murder

     I haven't heard anything new from the Doom Metal band Electric Wizard since their 2010 album Black Masses (which is awesome by the way). Just this past week they released a new 7" single called Legalise Drugs and Murder. I'm thrilled to hear something new from this band and hope a new album is on the way! If the Doom gods have any mercy Electric Wizard will come to Toronto for a live show.

Here's the new song!!!

     It kind of sounds like their own song The Chosen Few from the album Witch Cult Today (2007). Guess they got high and forgot they already wrote this song? It's cool though... I still love you Electric Wizard!

Children of the grave....Children of the grave....Children of the grave

Skull Fist at the Hard Luck Bar

     I attended a concert last night at The Hard Luck Bar in Toronto for Call Of The Wild, Lust Boys and Skull Fist.

     
     I got to the venue around 10:45 (finding parking was a bitch) and Call Of The Wild was just finishing up. I wasn't able to find any information about them by doing a quick search on the internet and I heard maybe a song and a half when I got to the show so I can't comment on how good/bad they were.

     Lust Boys from Victoria BC went on stage around 11:15. I had seen earlier in the day that their tour van broke down outside of Sault Ste. Marie so they had to rent a U-Haul truck to make it to the show. They were a lot more fun and much better sounding than I had anticipated. The guys looked kind of cheesy (somewhat suitable when they name themselves Lust Boys and sing about stuff like Leatherette Boots) but the band was tight and the singer was truly exceptional. The highlights of the set were the two covers the band played. They first covered My Michelle by GnR then later on they played Youth Gone Wild by Skid Row. Both songs made the crowd go nuts. The band played a very solid 45 minute set. For some good cheesy glam metal I give the Lust Boys a 7/10 + 1 bonus point for playing some GnR and some Skid Row: 8/10

                                            
                                              The Lust boys on stage at the Hard Luck Bar

     It seems like everybody in the bar was there for Skull Fist. Skull Fist play shred heavy classic style heavy metal. My mother describes their sound as "the sound you would hear while you were having a nervous break down." The band was setup on stage by 12:30 but they were delayed an extra 10 minutes or so because singer/guitarist Jackie Slaughter was having trouble getting his pedalboard to work. The audience crowded the stage, and when the band started playing the people up front started going nuts (like the guy in the sleeveless Scorpions shirt and bandanna with the stripper girlfriend who was grinding on anything she could see, or the super tall dude in the leather coat who was grabbing random people and throwing them into the mosh pit).

    
     Five or six guys kept jumping up on stage just to leap back into the audience and try to crowd surf. They had very limited sucess. Several songs into the set they had already played some of my favorites including "Head Of The Pack" and "Ride The Beast."

    
     At some point, one of the guys who kept trying to crowd surf jumped into the audience and nobody was there to catch him so he took a dive head first into the floor, knocking him out. The band was asked to stop playing by the bar and the police were brought in to revive the unconscious moron. Once on his feet again, the surfer was escorted to the rear of the bar by the police and the band resumed playing with a cover of Ted Nugent's "Cat Scratch Fever".

     Half way through the next song the guy who was knocked was right back to jumping off the stage, also, Jackie's guitar had cut out again. Unfortunately, after a good 5 minutes of the band trying to sort out the technical difficulties I had to leave the show to pick up my girlfriend from a party she was attending across town. I didn't even get to hear "No False Metal" and I was hoping they would play their cover of Angelwitch's "Angelwitch."

     Because Skull Fist sound awesome live and put on such a great show (when jackasses aren't knocking themselves out or equipment isn't messed up) I give the show a 9/10. If you're from Toronto Skull Fist are supposed to be playing again May 10th, 2012 with swedish power metal band Sabaton at The Annex Wreck Room. However, just yesterday Sabaton announced that they will be splitting up but some members (singer and bassist) will continue on. I have no idea how this will affect any future shows.

 

Making Noise And Drinking Beer

     For anybody who may be interested in where I got the name from this blog I totally suggest checking out the Toronto Heavy Metal band Cauldron (the name comes from their cover of a Tyrant song from 1984). I have included the two versions of the song. I'm sure I'll post more about Cauldron whenever they play a Toronto show again. If anybody likes Metal I'd suggest going to see Skull Fist. They will be playing at the Hard Luck Cafe sometime towards the end of March.

     As an funny connection to my first ever post on this blog, the name of the Tyrant album "Mean Machine" is also a villain from the world of Judge Dredd!

Original Tyrant version

Newer Cauldron version