Author Archives: Simo

#OccupySabbath

Seems a lot of fans feel pissed off about the whole Black Sabbath without Bill Ward situation, so much in fact that they’re willing to do the only thing that really counts: gathering on a Facebook page!

No, seriously there’s a Facebook page called 1,000,000 Black Sabbath fans say yes to Bill Ward which has been making news lately because it was made to show off the discontent most Black Sabbath feel about this whole “reunion without one member” thing. There’s also an online petition organized at change.org, so you can check that out as well.

Now, I don’t want to be the cynical asshole, and I actually liked the page myself (and I’d recommend everyone else doing it as well, it’s better than just bitching), but I’m not sure how well this will work. Currently, the people who liked the page amount to about a show and a half the band could do on the tour. What’s I’d suggest doing, and don’t take this  advice unless you’re really butt hurt about this: Boycott the tour. That’s where the biggest money is, and that’s the only thing that might send the message across. If you bought the ticket, ask for a refund, because you’ve most likely bought it when the shows were branded as the “reunion” tour, which the new one won’t really be.

In short: #OccupySabbath! I AM THE 25%! Let us know if you have any other ideas. Tag your tweets with my highly original protest hashtag.

New Chimaira line-up releases a brand new song

Bass, Bass. Wir brauchen Bass Bass…

New Chimaira bitches!* They gone all old school german rap on us. And like Martin Luther King, they have a dream. I don’t recognize anyone in the band, but isn’t Chimaira like all new people anyway? Maybe their dream is to get some of the old people back?

Jesse comes home

It’s official: Following Howard Jones’ departure, Jesse Leach has come back to Killswitch Engage to fill in the vocalist position. He left the original spot in 2002.

Now, I’ve been accused before of not caring about bands I write about, and unfortunately, that’s exactly the case today. I once tried listening to The End of Heartache and not only have I gone to sleep, I think I actually went into a shorter comma. People do tell me Jesse’s stuff with the band is supposed to be more raw ‘n shit, but same people told me the albums with Jones’ weren’t that bad, so I don’t know if I could trust anyone anymore.

You can tell me what a huge asshole I am in the comments section.

What do you get when you cross Slipknot and Limp Bizkit?

Adema? Papa Roach? Crazy Town? Oh nu metal, you so funny.

I am not kidding, though. Slipknot/Stone Sour guitarist Jim Root recently moved to Florida, where he met up with Sam Rivers, Limp Bizkit‘s bass player, and apparently they’re starting a new project. If they get Lil Wayne to be on the vocals, I’m betting 2012 will be nu metal revival year.

My wishes will stay only wishes, because the project they’re working on is electronic music or whatever:

“I live down in Florida now, and you know Sam from Limp Bizkit lives down there. I ran into him the other day. He came over to my house. He’s got a studio in his house and he’s been writing a lot of like weird kind of electronica kind of music that’s you know kinda aerial and spacey and all that stuff, it was really cool.

It had kind of a weird kind of Portishead vibe to it and I love that band, so I think I might… I mean why not. I don’t have enough projects going on, why not add another one.”

That’s too bad, I was just about to look for my baggy pants… Oh well. We’ll keep you updated with the news on this project once we get more news and if we don’t have anything better to do.

Thanks: ThePRP

Is any Black Sabbath better than no Black Sabbath?

Genuine question, folks. As you may have probably heard by now, Bill Ward will probably sit out the reunion and the making of the new album, despite initially appearing willing to do so. Posting in length on his website, he cites contractual issues as the main reasons for doing so.

The rest of the band officially commented earlier today on Facebook:

We were saddened to hear yesterday via Facebook that Bill declined publicly to participate in our current Black Sabbath plans…we have no choice but to continue recording without him although our door is always open… We are still in the UK with Tony. Writing and recording the new album and on a roll… See you at Download!!!

– Tony, Ozzy and Geezer

Now, you can look at this in two ways: first, it sucks. It sucks because a new album and tour that was built on top of the reunion factor and hype and ends up being built by only three members is a lie. It sucks we were being lied to. It sucks because of Sharon, even though I have no idea if she has anything to do with it. It sucks because even Tony is pushing on to continue with this despite his cancer. It sucks because people were waiting for this for so long and it won’t happen because of some contract issues and fees.

On the other hand, could there really be a Black Sabbath reunion without all this drama? I mean, cancer is nothing to joke around with, but God, what a timing. I actually see people writing Sharon’s with dollar signs ($haron), which is something basement dwellers used to do with Microsoft and most of them grew out of the habit. A few people are happy because hey, it’s a drummer, who gives a shit, maybe they find someone younger who can keep the show going.

I have no idea if it’s just the curse of this band, and who knows what will happen in the meantime, but I know one thing — I won’t be buying that ticket. At least not for now. I saw what it looks like, and it literally has all four members on it. You can help me make my mind up in the comments.