Annihilator is one of the most underrated Metal bands for the past couple decades thanks to the amazing guitar work and writing of founding member Jeff Waters.Perhaps the bands biggest obstacle is being from Canada, far from any major Metal Scenes and festivals.  The other reason is the turnover of band members, mostly in the vocal departement.  Waters has done a good job of getting similar style vocalist (including himself) but as we all know, consistency in a band is important.

Annihilator has been called a “Thrash” band, and early in their career they were, but over time they’ve ventured into other areas, including more strait up Metal and even some Industrial and Gothic styles.

Anything Jeff Waters puts his hands on is top-notch quality and anyone into Metal should really look into their extensive library.  Here’s the song and video that made them famous early in their career, “Alison Hell”.

George Lynch found success in “Dokken” back in the 80′s and was quickly touted as one of the genre’s best guitarists.  

Even though Dokken was never quite “Metal” they had some heavy moments, mostly because of Lynch.  He went onto have success after Dokken with “Lynch Mob”, a blusier and more gritty band that sounded closer to Aerosmith.  They were victims of the change in scenery in the early 90′s, but have continued to put out music here and there over the years.

Lynch is still a monster player and is very well respected among his peers. Here he is at last year’s Halfway jam with the instrumental “Mr. Scary”.

We don’t know who is behind the sudden trend of laugh-out-loud Kmart ads, but we say keep ‘em coming!

Just last month we gave you the famed ‘Ship Your Pants‘ Kmart commercial that created both headlines and guffaws around the country. Now the discount chain is back with a hysterical ad about the gas savings offered by Kmart. The commercial promises “big gas savings,” which as you might guess, sounds a little like something else…

The commercial is another win for Kmart. We can’t guarantee we’ll shop there, but we definitely won’t use the DVR to fast forward through their commercials anymore.

Source: Kmart Offers Some ‘Big Gas’ Savings in Funny New Ad

If Judas Priest had scheduled a film premiere 30 years ago, Rob Halford would have showed up on a Harley. But time stands still for no one — not even a Metal God — and Halford was rocking a decidedly different set of wheels at the New York screening of the band’s ‘Epitaph’ DVD on May 14.

‘That Metal Show’ host and all-around rock and roll raconteur Eddie Trunk was on hand to cover the event, which found Halford restricted to a wheelchair. But don’t worry, Priest fans; as Halford assured Trunk during their interview (embedded above), it’s strictly temporary.

Calling the situation “evil,” Halford explained, “I’m in agony right now. But it’s just a back injury; it’s going to be fixed. The Metal God will be bouncing back and everything will be great.”

It’s the latest in a bout of recent setbacks for Priest. As Classic Rock Magazine points out, the band was also forced to cancel the ‘Epitaph’ screening planned for May 24 at the Forum in London, although they’ve promised to make it up to fans at a different venue. “We’ll be holding a screening at the Soho Hotel, London, at 8pm on Friday,” Priest explained in a press release, assuring ticket-holders that “Tickets already issued will be honoured and those attending will also receive an advance copy of the DVD. Alternatively, a full refund will be offered by Ticketmaster. We are very sorry for any inconvenience this may cause.”

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Source: Rob Halford Suffers Back Injury, Promises ‘The Metal God Will Be Bouncing Back’

Former Kinks guitarist Dave Davies will return from a six-year solo recording break on June 4 when he releases his sixth full-length collection of original studio recordings, the defiantly titled ‘I Will Be Me.’

Davies — whose last release, 2007′s ‘Fractured Mindz,’ came after he suffered a stroke that required him to re-learn the guitar — assembled a talented, eclectic group of friends to join him for the sessions, including members of the Jayhawks and Anti-Flag. The set, which is being released by Cleopatra Records, is preceded by the leadoff single ‘Little Green Amp’ (video embedded above).

A tour is also planned to support the album, which will find Davies visiting select North American cities throughout May and June (with more dates reportedly to follow). Take a look at the complete list of currently scheduled shows here, and listen to the full ‘I Will Be Me’ track listing, which we’ve embedded below.

Dave Davies Summer 2013 Tour Dates
5/27 — New York, N.Y., City Winery
5/28 — New York, N.Y., City Winery
5/29 — New York, N.Y., City Winery
5/30 — Shirley, Mass., The Bull Run
5/31 — Norfolk, Ct., Infinity Hall
6/01 — Bethlehem, Pa., Musikfest Cafe
6/02 — Fall River, Mass., Narrows Center for the Arts
6/04 — New York, N.Y., City Winery – Hudson Square Music & Wine Festival (free show)
6/06 — Hermosa Beach, Calif., Sainte Rock
6/07 — San Juan Capistrano, Calif., The Coach House
6/09 — Agoura Hills, Calif., The Canyon
6/11 — Del Mar, Calif., San Diego County Fair

Source: Kinks Guitarist Dave Davies Announces New Solo Album

The concert film has gone out of vogue, so we’re curious to see if Metallica can resurrect the form with ‘Metallica Through the Never,’ which combines concert footage with the imagination/hallucinations/whatever of the main character played by ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2‘s Dane DeHaan. Here’s the first trailer, and it’s… interesting.

On the positive side of things is the music, which — at least for the trailer — is the song “Master of Puppets,” and that’s one of the band’s best. Perhaps if this leans more heavily on Metallica’s back catalog classics, it might be fun to sit through. If it’s mostly a live rendition of ‘St. Anger,’ we’re not as interested.

The big question is if the world Dane DeHaan’s character inhabits makes sense/is interesting within the context of a concert film. This is a 3D and Imax movie and the images suggest something metalheads may fantasize about, so it could be awesome in a laser light show way. We’ll see if it works when ‘Metallica Through the Never’ opens in Imax on September 27, and on regular screens October 4. Here’s the synopsis:

Starring Metallica, a cast of thousands of their fans and breakout star Dane DeHaan (Chronicle, The Amazing Spider-Man 2), Metallica Through the Never is written and directed by award-winning filmmaker Nimrod Antal (Predators, Kontroll) and produced by former IMAX film producer Charlotte Huggins (Journey to the Center of the Earth). The film marries groundbreaking footage and editing techniques with a compelling narrative, in which a band crew member (played by DeHaan) is sent out on a mission during Metallica’s roaring live set in front of a sold-out arena. While on this mission, he unexpectedly has his life turned completely upside down.

And here’s the film’s poster:

Source: ‘Metallica Through the Never’ Trailer: Angry Mobs and “Master of Puppets”

“Mercyful Fate”, for better or worse, was one of the biggest influences of the Black Metal scene that openly worships Satan.

The Danish band is mostly knows at the leaping point for lead singer “King Diamond” who wore the face paint that was a demonic version of Kiss.   King Diamond is opening a Satanist, although if you look closer he’s more of an atheist due to his dislike of religion.

Mercyful Fate’s music is more based in Horror and madness than devil worship.  His falsetto voice is rather disturbing, and some have found it even comical.  Either way it’s very unique and he continues to one of Metal’s most enduring characters.

Listen to King Diamond talk about record labels and his disgust for criminals.

“Leatherwolf” had a pretty strong following for awhile in the mid-80′s.  Perhaps their problem was they were too pretty to be a serious “Metal” band but yet too heavy to be a true “Hair” band.

Musically they were more on the Metal side of things, at one point they had three guitarists and were sharing the same stage as Metallica and even Slayer.  The label however tried to  market them as more of a party rock band and they never really struck gold with either audience.

“Street Ready” in 1989 has some very strong Power Metal anthems on it and even though their career in the 80′s was relatively short they maintained a strong audience and are still around today.

Here’s their first single “The Calling”  from 1987.

“Leatherwolf” also was part of the cult-favorite movie “Return Of The Living Dead” with a contribution to the soundtrack.

King of the World. That’s what I call Bono. If we could elect a King, he’d surely be in the running. He a tireless philanthropist, unending in his search for the good in all mankind, and he can write a pretty damn good song when he’s in his little rock group called U2.

BUT. He wasn’t ALWAYS Leader of Terra.  He once was just a scrawny lying teenager. And they weren’t always called U2.

True Story.

According to a recent article in Rolling Stone; Bono and boys LIED to get on an Irish TV show called Youngline back in the good old days (well ok 1978). The story goes that the producer of the TV show saw them playing a Ramones tune at a rehearsal and asked them on the show to play the song. They agreed, but before the curtain came up on their first ever TV gig, they had kicked out a member of the band, decided to play their own original song called Street Mission, and changed their name to U2.

And yes, dammit. it’s pretty good for 1979.

Every weekday around 9:30, we pull one out of the attic. In case you are new, the Attic is a mythical place where we were “enlightened” by great music…and other stuff.

While being interviewed about the destruction, OK tornado survivor Barb Garcia tells CBS that she was riding out the twister in her bathroom, holding tightly to her dog. But as winds picked up and her home collapsed around her, she lost her grip and they were separated.

Moments after saying she had been unable to located the pooch, he miraculously appears from a pile of rubble, in what is easily the most amazing video of hope to emerge from this tragedy so far.

The country continues to pray for and help the people devastated by the massive tornado that touched down in Oklahoma on Monday, killing dozens.

While thoughts go out to those affected, plenty of video of the tornado has emerged to show just how catastrophic the event was.

Born as Alicia Augello Cook, this 32-year-old has been a talent powerhouse in the music scene for over 10 years. We just discovered her Instagram, though, so we’re crushing all over again.

The world famous R&B singer/songwriter, musician,record producer and actress released her first album ‘Songs in A Minor’ in 2001. It sold over 12M copies, and she was named “best-selling new artists” and “best-selling R&B artist” in the same year. The following year, the album earned her five Grammy Awards. Groundbreakingly powerful, Alicia was the first female to have an MTV Unplugged album that debuted at #1. Remember this?

She’s released 5 full-length albums, all successful, the latest being 2012′s ‘Girl on Fire.’ She is currently touring with Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, Method Man and Maxwell on the ‘Set the World on Fire’ world tour. Check out her Instagram to see how the tour is going, and check out more pics below. Here’s the title track from the newest album:

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Source: Alicia Keys — Celeb Crush

“Grim Reaper” was technically a product of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal as guitarist Nick Bowcott put the original band together in 1979.It wasn’t until a few years later after adding vocal virtuoso Steve Grimmett that the band really took off.  In fact, their debut “See You In Hell” sold a quarter of a million copies in the United States, a feat nearly impossible considering they had virtually no label support here.

The band ended up putting our only three releases before the “Hair” band really took over the scene here, and grunge was the final nail in the coffin.  However they have reformed and done some shows and the band still remains very well-respected in the Metal community.

Here’s a video from “Lionsheart”, a band featuring vocalist Steve Grimmett post-Grim Reaper.

An enormous tornado with a debris cloud two miles wide tore through the metropolitan area just south of Oklahoma City on Monday afternoon.

UPDATE 9:28 p.m. EST: At least 51 people were killed in the storm, including seven children from Plaza Towers Elementary School in Moore, according to KFOR in Oklahoma City. The news station reported that 75 student and staff were inside the school when the storm struck. Officials said Monday night that the search of the rubble remaining of the school had turned to a recovery mission.

UPDATE 8:33 p.m. EST: At least 37 people have been killed in the storm, according to the local medical examiner. The two-mile wide twister, has been given a preliminary classification of an EF-4 tornado (winds of 166 to 200 mph), according to weather officials. Crews are continuing to search an area of 30 square miles for victims of the powerful storm.

UPDATE 7:49 p.m. EST: ABC News reports that at least 10 people have been killed in the storm in Moore, Okla. today.

UPDATE 7:04 p.m. EST: The AP reports that several children were pulled alive from the wreckage at Plaza Towers Elementary School, in Moore.

UPDATE 6:05 p.m. EST: CNN affiliate KFOR is reporting that people are pulling children out from the rubble of an elementary school in Moore. There is no official word yet on the condition of the children.

The town of Moore suffered tremendous damage as the twister gradually moved east, but it never did reach the downtown area of Oklahoma’s capital city. The National Weather Service had issued a tornado emergency warning for the region, a rarity for such a highly populated area. Schools, houses, businesses and many, many more buildings have been utterly devastated.

The tornado may also have touched down in or near the town of Newcastle, which is where many people who had been evacuated due to Sunday’s storms were sheltered.

In total, more than 171,000 people may have been in the path of the tornado, according to CNN.

You can view live coverage of the aftermath here.

This post will be updated as further information comes in.

[NBC, CNN]

After showing us absolutely nothing back in February when they ‘revealed’ the Playstation 4, Sony has again gone above and beyond to show us literally nothing again in an effort to ‘hype-up’ the impending unveiling of the PlayStation 4 at E3 on June 10th.

Sony needs to fire its marketing department and hire the guys from Disney that teased us  with The Avengers movie.

Don’t adjust your screens or glasses, kids. Yes that’s the blurriest, most anti-climactic teaser P-O-S video in history.

Sheesh.

If you’re a fan of comedy you’ve surely found yourself inundated with commercials and promotions for YouTube’s Comedy Week. Well, the wait is over because it’s finally arrived.

Simply put, YouTube Comedy Week will be just that: a week filled with videos of sketches, stand up, improv and music, all in celebration of the comedic arts. Many of which will be live-streamed and will star some of the biggest names in the industry today. The week-long “festival” kicked off with ‘The Big Live Comedy Show,’ an event that included names such as:

Hannibal Buress

Jon Dore

Epic Rap Battles of History

Garfunkel and Oates

The Gregory Brothers

The Lonely Island

Seth Rogen

Sarah Silverman

Tim & Eric

Vince Vaughn

Reggie Watts

Owen Wilson, and many more.”

In addition to those luminaries, tons of YouTube cut-ups of various levels of Web fame will be featured. (See video above for a rundown.)

The rest of the week will continue with different performances each night. Tonight will be International Stand-Up Night, starting at 9PM. Tuesday delivers Improv Night; Wednesday is Stand-Up Night; Thursday takes on College Humor’s All Nighter and Friday closes out the week with Set List Live & Music Night.

Be sure to tune in for a week of great comedy!

Source: YouTube Kicks Off Comedy Week With Some of the Web’s Funniest People

“Warrior” was an Los Angeles-based band that had very limited success and exposure but  they became an amazing example of the strength of Heavy Metal and it’s reach.

They only had one release out in 1985 through Metal Blade Records, but it was enough for people the remember them 13 years later when they finally did another one.  And they had enough of a following to attract Krokus frontman Mark Storace to join them for an album back in 2004.

The moral to the story is that Metal has amazingly loyal and hardcore fans and the 80′s Metal bands have been able to come back years later and still find people listening to their music.

Fans who attended the Anaheim, Calif. date of the Rolling Stones‘ ’50 & Counting’ Tour’ got a little bit more than they bargained for Saturday night (May 18). Former Nirvana drummer and Foo Fighters front man Dave Grohl came out mid-set at the Honda Center to join the legendary rockers for a searing rendition of ‘Bitch.’

It wasn’t a last-minute jam; the Stones teased Grohl’s appearance via Twitter earlier Saturday. Clad in his usual post-grunge attire of plaid shirt and jeans, a joyous Grohl banged out the guitar parts along with Keith Richards and traded vocals with Mick Jagger in what must have seemed like an impossible rock and roll dream come true.

The set proved there’s still life in the band; unlike some of their more bloated past tours, the Stones sounded rawer, more stripped-down, lean and mean on Saturday night. Former Stones guitarist Mick Taylor also joined the band for ‘Midnight Rambler’ and ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction).’

The group’s current tour has provided plenty of surprises for fans. Gwen Stefani and Keith Urban were onstage on opening night in Los Angeles, while Tom Waits, John Fogerty and Katy Perry have also jumped onstage at various dates.

As for Grohl, he’s starting to make a habit out of jamming with legends; he recently said that inducting Rush into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and jamming with them at the induction ceremony was “one of the most special nights of my life.”

The Rolling Stones will perform at the Staples Canter in Los Angeles on Monday (May 20) before heading to Toronto for a gig next Saturday (May 25).

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Source: Rolling Stones Joined by Dave Grohl at Anaheim Concert