Author Archives: Alex

Slipknot get new touring bassist

Slipknot is the only nu-metal band you’re allowed to like, maybe because they’re original. Sure, Mushroomhead, Kiss and all the other gimmick masked/painted bands did this before them. But still, putting masks on takes time so you gotta respect that. Or maybe not.

Anyway, Slipknot lost their bassist, Paul Gray,  almost a full year ago so now it’s time for a replacement. And I wish I could make a joke but they actually made a pretty wise choice.

“Donnie was in the band at the very beginning, and rather than get an outsider, we thought it would be a fitting tribute to Paul to play with someone from within the family. Donnie was great friends with Paul and we can’t think of a better way to celebrate his memory than with someone who was there with us at the very beginning. The eight of us are looking forward to being onstage again and honoring Paul‘s legacy with our families in Europe and Brazil this summer.“

So the new bassist is Donnie Steele (sounds like a pornstar name, but it isn’t… I think) and he’s been in the band before and was good friends with Paul, so yeah, fans must be happy. Then again, they’re called ‘maggots’ by their favorite band, so how happy can they really be?

Lars Ulrich got another job

When Lars made a cameo in “Get Him To The Greek,” people kept joking about him wanting an acting career. I laughed at that preposterous assumption. But who’s laughing now?

“HBO has added Metallica‘s Lars Ulrich to ‘Hemingway and Gellhorn,’ starring Nicole Kidman and Clive Owen. Ulrich will play Dutch documentarian Joris Ivens in the TV movie, which chronicles the stormy marriage between Ernest Hemingway and war correspondent Martha Gellhorn.“

Read full article here.

Haha, really? Did they think of him because of “For Whom The Bell Tolls,” the Metallica song inspired by Ernest Hemingway‘s novel of the same name? Cause the movie seems to take place around the time that novel was written. Can you imagine Robert Trujillo scoring the whole movie on bass? Wow, this sounds like Oscar material already.

Frankly, if Lars is pursuing a movie career, I have two movies I’d like to see him in. One — A full length feature adaptation of “Napster Bad.” Two — The Robocop reboot. Look at that photo above and tell me he doesn’t look like Murphy. Your move, creep.

Yesterday’s headlines

I’ve been a bit absent from this site for the last couple of weeks because I’m a winner, and I’m #winning, and my goddesses kept me busy.  But now I’m back, and because there’s no news for today, I’ll turn back the hands of time (#winning) and give you Monday’s headlines a day too late.

Queens Of The Stone Age (pictured above) are performing on Conan next month. This would be interesting news if the year was 1999.

Texas is a great state. They gave us Pantera. But then they also gave us Hellyeah. Anyway, the city of Austin decided that “Motörhead Day” will be celebrated on March 8th. Let’s be honest, Lemmy does look like he belongs in Texas, so it’s a good match.

In Flames have a new guitarist. I didn’t even know they lost their previous guitarist. Wait, who are In Flames again?

Marilyn Manson walked on a runway at a fashion show, because when you say “Marilyn Manson” you immediately think “model, fashion, runway, hot.” How could this happen? Well, it was in Japan, so go figure.

Ride the Master of Justice

Say what you will about 90s Metallica and especially early 2000s Metallica, but you have to admit 80s Metallica kicked ass. And I don’t think anyone can deny the impact “Master of Puppets” had on rock music in general, not just metal, so regardless of your feelings for the band nowadays, you have to respect who they were a few decades ago.

I guess whenever I hear an influential album, I always ask myself… “Did these guys know they were making history when they were recording it, or were they just doing their job without thinking too much of the future?”

Well, someone sort of asked the same question to Flemming Rasmussen, the record producer behind Metallica‘s best albums.

Phoenix New Times: “Master of Puppets” is widely regarded as one of the best heavy metal albums of all time. Did you know you were onto something special when you were working on it 25 years ago?

Flemming Rasmussen: Oh, yes. Right from the demos, we pretty much knew this was gonna be a killer album. I think we all felt that this was gonna be the best Metallica album yet, as we had a bunch of really strong songs. Even the instrumentals were awesome.

PNT: You produced three consecutive Metallica albums — “Ride The Lightning”, “Puppets” and “Justice” — but they have three distinctly different sounds. Was that a conscious decision by you and the band?

Flemming: Yes. The difference between “Ride” and “Master” is evolution, as “Master” is a perfection of the sound we started to evolve on “Ride”. And in my opinion, we did really master it on “Master”. That album sounds so good. When I got onto the “Justice” album, they were a month into the session, and it was a new studio, etc., so we decided on a more up-front and dry sound. As for the mix, they had already hired someone else to do this, so I had no say in that. But it’s still a classic metal album, and the sound has inspired a whole new generation of metal bands.

Read full interview here.

Must be empowering being able to say “I was there!” when talking about the recording of such classic albums. Can you imagine the shame of the people behind “St. Anger” though?

Source: Blabbermouth

Ba(da)ss clinic and Young cover

As we mentioned earlier, our good friend David Ellefson and Frank Bello did some bass clinics together. Now you can see some footage of it, including one of David performing…

Ain’t that sweet? Of course it is. Make the jump to see the videos.

In other (sort of) Megadeth related news, former guitarist Jeff Young’s band, Souls On 11, recorded a Thin Lizzy cover in memory of the late Gary Moore. The song is “Don’t Believe a Word” and you can listen to it after the jump, also.