Tag Archives: Colonel Blast

SOPA – We asked for opinions

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is a very controversial subject. We found that out when we asked 20 musicians, 3 artists, 1 band manager and 1 PR agent for their opinion on the matter, and only 6 of them finally sent us a statement.

We do understand that some people don’t want to comment on the bill though. Not everyone is going to understand and agree with what these people think. They are musicians after all, not average internet users. So their opinion on the matter might split their fanbase into two camps, and we can definitely understand why they don’t want to risk that.

With that being said, with this article we’re trying to give those people a chance to speak on the matter, since they would be affected by it in different ways than most people. Five musicians (including one who is also the director of an independent record label), one artist and finally the writers of this website speak out on the Stop Online Piracy Act and piracy in general right after the jump.

Now, why would our opinion really matter? Dose of Metal and other similar music blogs rely heavily on Youtube and PR agencies distributing music for promotion purposes through one-click hosts. Without that, this site would barely be able to exist in its current form.

Musicians and other artists would face an even bigger challenge, if this bill went through. Just think of all the internet promotion they couldn’t count on anymore.

Keep all that in mind when you’re reading the rest of this story after the jump.

Interview: Ben Whitfield (Colonel Blast, Condate Records)

An interview with Colonel Blast on Dose of Metal? What the hell is going on? Confused much? Not sure what I’m talking about? Well, let me give you a little background information before we get started.

In May of 2011, I was contacted by Condate Records’ PR agency. They sent me the Split Roast album, which included songs by Colonel Blast, Cancerous Womb, Diascorium, Magpyes and Dyscaphia. I reviewed said album a couple of days later.

I was very impressed with Colonel Blast’s contributions to the split, so I tried to get their debut album next to review it aswell. I was promised to get the album soon afterwards, but in the end nobody gave it to me, even though I was in contact with people from the PR agency, Condate Records and even the band. I decided to just buy the album instead and then write about it, which I did in July.

People from within the band apologized, for not giving me the album, a bit later on Facebook. Shit happens. I offered them an interview, and even contacted two seperate bandmembers about it. I never received an answer. That annoyed me a bit, so I moved on and tried not to talk about them on our site anymore.

Fast forward to Thursday of last week. I found out about This Is Turin, Darryl Jones’ (Colonel Blast vocalist) original band. I liked their songs, but wasn’t sure if I should or shouldn’t post about them. The incidents surrounding Colonel Blast and Condate Records (to which This Is Turin are also signed) were still in the back of my mind. I decided to write about them anyhow, with a detailed backstory as to why I was reluctant to write about them.

I was pretty open in that article, and Ben Whitfield took notice of said post. Ben is the mainman behind Condate Records and Colonel Blast, of which he is also the guitarist. He contacted me and we discussed the incidents of last year and patched things up. We agreed to do an interview and talk about it all openly.

This is where we stand today and, if you go on reading after the jump, everything will be explained. I’m ready to move on and close this chapter, and so is Ben. We discussed these past happenings and then moved on to talk a bit about Condate Records, their roster and finally Colonel Blast. Now click ‘continue reading,’ to… continue reading.

Thursday Dose: This Is Turin

Writing for Dose of Metal gave me the opportunity to check out bands, I probably wouldn’t have heard of otherwise. Of all the great bands I got to check out, one stood out.

In May of last year, I reviewed Condate Records’ Split Roast sampler. The review didn’t go over well with some of the bands included on the sampler, but it never really bothered me what people thought about my writing. You just have to take it with a grain of salt, when a band, that you wrote negatively about, criticizes your work.

One band included on the Split Roast sampler was Colonel Blast. They got the best rating from me, with a 4-and-a-half skull rating for their two songs included. I really wanted to get their debut album next to review. I wrote to Condate Records, I wrote to their PR agency and I wrote to the band, to no success. It may be speculation on my part, but I felt like they didn’t want to cooperate with us, because of my negative reviews of some of their fellow bands.

Here is the catch, I’m a stubborn motherfucker. If you don’t give me your album for review purposes, I’ll just buy it and then review it. Obviously, as a reviewer for a metal blog, you can’t buy each and every album you want to review. You’d be broke within weeks. I bought Colonel Blast’s For The Greater Good anyhow and gave it a 5 skull review.

Following that review, the band apologized to me for not sending me their album and thanked me for the review. Maybe I was wrong, and the band simply overlooked my inquiry by mistake. To leave it all behind, I offered them an interview. I wanted to do a joint interview with their previous singer Matt Bolton and their current singer Darryl Jones. I never got an answer and was finally fed up with their unprofessionalism.

It’s pretty simple. I don’t have to write about your band. If I like your band, I’m writing about it to make other people, who read our site, check out your band. To me that’s a very positive thing. If I like your band, write positively about it and you simply don’t want to cooperate with me… well… fuck you. There’s not a better way to put it. If you don’t want the promotion, I won’t force it upon you.

More than half a year later, I find out about This Is Turin. This Is Turin is Darryl Jones’ original band, and guess what. I like them. So, even after the two dumps Colonel Blast took on us, I’m again swallowing my pride and going out of my way to write about their singer’s work. This time I’m not doing it because I think they deserve the promotion. I’m doing it because this is what Dose of Metal is designed to do; write about good music.

This Is Turin certainly do play great music and I’d like our readers to listen to them. After all, this should be about the appreciation of music, and not personal feelings towards their creators. I just want you, the readers, to understand that it wasn’t an easy decision for me to write about This Is Turin. But I want you to check them out either way. You can do that on Soundcloud or simply click the play button below. While you do that, I will keep on questioning my decision to write about them.

The weekly playlist: Shit done got stained

If your memory is a wee bit shit, fear not, we have these fancy things called links. Check it out. Aren’t I amazing?

So, last week I decided to write a short playlist article, where I reviewed some new songs. I’m back again, with a silly title (and no, I really don’t know what it means), but it’s more or less the same principle. We’ve had some new (well newish) songs released this week, Guido has introduced me to some new tracks, and well, I’m still as self-indulgent and egotistical as ever, so yes make that jump for this week’s song reviews.

Weak Recap: Simo’s back!

You guys remember Simo, right? He took a two-month break from the interwebz, to see if this ‘real life’ thing is as good as people say it is. Once he realized talking to a girl in real life is not as easy as on Facebook, he came back. With a vengeance.

Okay, so maybe not with a vengeance, but he came back. And now I get to interview him, which is not an honor and a privilege.

We’ll talk about a lot of things, a lot of boring things, so I’m not gonna lie to you… It will be a pretty boring article, so don’t bother reading this further. It will only make you waste a lot of valuable time.

But if you’ve got nothing better to do, make the jump and read what two people who rarely get laid (and when they do, it ends in tears) have to say about this past week’s articles.

Enjoy! (you won’t, trust me, but I like being optimistic)