Metal goes acoustic: Six is six too many

So welcome to the sixth edition of my ‘Metal goes acoustic.’ Keeping things serious, this time I’m posting a cover of an Amon Amarth track. Regular readers of Dose of Metal will know we absolutely love Amon Amarth here, so how does their music fare in an acoustic version?

The track in question is God of War Arise. The original is excellent, but I feel this is a perfect example to show that not all songs can work acoustically.  The person playing the cover does a fantastic job, and his playing is near flawless, however I can’t help feeling it just doesn’t work well on acoustic. Overall, Amon Amarth needs some distortion and power to their sound, and that’s what is lost in this cover. It’s a bit like having sex and never climaxing.

Jamey Jasta announces solo album

Damn, I’m being imagnative with my topic titles today, I must say. So can you guess what this news is about? That’s right, in order to dilute the news of Spineshank finishing work on their comeback album, I thought to myself “why not post something positive?” So here I am, finding Metal news from elsewhere and reposting it for the awesome readers of Dose of Metal, and this time it’s in regards to Jamey Jasta.

The member of such great bands as Hatebreed, Icepick, and Kingdom Of Sorrow, has revealed details of a solo album, possibly to be released at some point this year.

Speaking to UGO.com, Jasta reveals “I just finished the JASTA album. The album is basically songs I’ve written over the last 2-3 years that didn’t fall into any sort of set category as far as genre. I guess you could say it has elements of metal, hard rock, hardcore and punk in it, but it’s kind of a wide variety of tunes. I just had fun with it and I did some collaborations and co-wrote some stuff which was fun. Hopefully it’ll come out in June of this year! I’ll probably leak a song or two at some point on http://www.twitter.com/jameyjasta”

More crap can be found over at Metal Hammer.

Spineshank reveal album details

Man the lifeboats, women and children first, and for God’s sake, cover your ears. Nu/Industrial Metallers from the late 90s/early 00s, Spineshank, have revealed the details of the forthcoming album, Anger Denial Acceptance, now scheduled for a late 2011 release.

I assume from the album’s title, that the band will be returning from where they left off. According to guitarist Mike Sarkisyan though, I’m assuming wrong, as he claims the album will be more mature. Oh joy…

An interview with Mike Sarkisyan can be found here.

Blast from the Past: Black Sabbath – Heaven and Hell

Towards the end of the 1970s, Black Sabbath were in a real turmoil. The band had been falling apart for years, with addiction consuming Ozzy and the band, and as a result of the band’s problems, the quality of the music was dramatically taking a dive. After the release of 1978’s poorly received Never Say Die, as stated by Iommi, ironically the band were actually dying. Ozzy was fired and everyone assumed the band would end.

As we all know though, the band didn’t end, and instead, with the help of Ronnie James Dio, they went on to release a new album, known as Heaven and Hell. I’m here to take an objective and honest hard look at the album and deliver to you a review on the 1980 album. How does it compare to the Ozzy albums? Read my review after the jump.

Skinlab like covers

I’d love to be able to say I know who Skinlab are, and I’d love to be able to say that I care, but I don’t. Of course, I could spend two minutes on Wikipedia and then pretend like I’ve know everything, but (faux) professionalism isn’t my thing. If you do know who Skinlab are, congratulations, here’s a medal.

So anyways, the band are apparently releasing a covers EP soon called Under The Influence, a title that is almost as witty as my posts. Here’s the tracklisting for the album, courtesy of Metal Hammer. It looks about as riveting as the prospect of a Saturday night with me. I give them props for choosing Ten Ton Hammer though, as it’s a great song, and one that’s often over looked.

Nailbomb – Wasting Away
Acid Bath – Paegan Love Song
Crowbar – Planets Collide
Level – Push
Machine Head – Ten Ton Hammer