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Underground: Lunatic Medlar- Finely Tuned Machine

Manos Spanos
When I first heard about Lunatic Medlar, I was really curious about what the band could produce. With members of Tarvide Dyskinesia, Universe217, Konkave and Sun of Nothing, we can only expect something really good. The collaboration between all those members is something really interesting, if we consider the fact that all those bands are included in the list of the best metal bands of Greece. Their debut album is titled ‘Finely Tuned Machine’ and its early release gave an end to our anticipation and curiosity. Let’s take a deep journey into what Lunatic Medlar have achieved. ‘Finely Tuned Machine’ includes eight songs and is mostly an instrumental record. The songs can be characterized as a fusion of doom metal with post metal elements. I would call it a mixture of Mastodon and Cult of Luna, with groove guitars, doom riffs and progressive touches. The level of experimentation is pretty high, with progressive elements all over the songs. With the ideal production (done by Steve Lado), we have a modern sound that reminds of post bands like The Ocean or Mastodon, only under a heavy rock and doom metal prism.
03 min read

MACHINE HEAD: Previously Unreleased Demo Versions Of ‘Through The Ashes’ Songs Posted Online

Manos Spanos
MACHINE HEAD frontman Robb Flynn has uploaded demo versions of the band's songs"Imperium", "Days Turn Blue To Gray" and "Descend The Shades Of Night" to the group's official YouTube channel. The final tracks were included on MACHINE HEAD's "Through The Ashes Of Empires" album, which celebrated its tenth anniversary earlier this week. In the latest installment of his online blog, "The General Journals: Diary Of A Frontman... And Other Ramblings", Flynn offered up a lengthy explanation for how the demo recordings came to life. "In May of 2002, not long after we finished the 'Supercharging America' tour, our-then-guitarist Ahrue Luster quit the band," Flynn wrote. "It seems weird even talking about theAhrue era of the band as feels like a lifetime ago, probably because it WAS a lifetime ago! Literally thousands of bands have come and gone from that era he was with us ('98-'02). We get on fine now, so I don't have anything negative to say about him other than he was just really a bizarre choice to get in the band. However, to his credit, he did bring in a some cool songs ('Blood, Sweat And Tears', parts of 'The Burning Red', parts of 'Silver' and 'Blank Generation'), but yeah, when he quit no one in the band was surprised, and most Head Cases [MACHINE HEAD fans] just went, 'Meh.' "Once he was gone, we decided to continue as a three-piece and to write and record the next album that way. It was a good decision as we weren't interested in bringing in another person, and truthfully, we couldn't think of anyone off hand if we wanted to. We figured we'd cross that bridge when touring came up, and guess what? We had some pending European festival dates coming up in June. Someone (possibly [then-bassist] Adam [Duce] or our managerJoseph [Huston]) brought up getting my old VIO-LENCE guitarist, drinking buddy and partner in crime Phil Demmel to fill in for the dates. Phil was recently back on our radar as Adam had filled in playing bass for VIO-LENCE in the summer of 2001. But Phil playing with us? At first I wasn't into the idea. After I'd quit VIO-LENCE, there was a long period where Phil and I didn't talk, things didn't end on a good note, and I blamed him for a lot of it. On top of that, I had also taken a personal vow to never to mention VIO-LENCE in interviews, advertisements, album covers, ANYTHING related to MACHINE HEAD. I wanted MACHINE HEAD to stand or fall on its own merits and I wouldn't use my previous band in any way to help sell or sink it. "When VIO-LENCE broke up, [Demmel's] next band TORQUE opened for MACHINE HEAD a few times, and later his next band TECHNOCRACY would open some shows too, but we didn't really hang out anymore. It wasn't until almost eight years later than him and I had a real heart to heart (leaving an Oakland Raiders game) that we cleared the air, and after that, we hung out a lot. Usually at football games or shows. "Once I was on board, we decided to see what he'd say, so Adam reached out to him (viaAOL AIM... anyone remember that?) and Phil came back and said, 'Yes.' In fact, he told us that it would be perfect as he had decided he was retiring from the music business. He'd been doing it for 10 years since VIO-LENCE ended and he was frustrated. He had been married for a while, had a long-standing steady job and the band thing hadn't been working so what better way to end his music career than by jamming with one of his favorite bands? His choice was a good one, he'd be jamming with his old friends, touring the world for two weeks where he'd be playing over Rob Halford and Bruce Dickinson, headlining festivals to 20,000 people and then go and settle down. "It was perfect situation. We didn't want a band member and he didn't want to join a band and it was a simple agreement. Phil wheeled his stuff over from the VIO-LENCE rehearsal room (they'd recently reunited and had done a string of weekend shows, but were also getting ready to retire) and when we jammed together, it was just awesome! There was a chemistry. Something was different about the energy in the room. We all felt it. "And while I felt something, I didn't voice it, I didn't want to. "We went on tour and the first show was in Dublin, Ireland with EVILE and GAMA BOMBopening. The show was nutzo!!! About halfway through the show, I looked to my right and thought, 'Hey, I remember that guy!' There he was, stage right muggin' it up and smiling like a Cheshire cat every chance he got. The next show was a 'secret' TEN TON HAMMER show in London at The Garage (or as the Brits say 'the gair-ige') and hanging out on that small stage, jamming cover songs, annihilated on vodka, having onstage chug-a-lugs with hammered fans, and playing to a frankly insane group of Head Cases, there was something happening, something real, a connection. "And it wasn't OK to talk about it... "Because he was retiring... "And we didn't want someone in the band...
016 min read

DEVIN TOWNSEND Has ‘No Interest’ In STRAPPING YOUNG LAD Reunion

Manos Spanos
Aniruddh "Andrew" Bansal of Metal Assault recently conducted an interview with renowned Canadian multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter and producer Devin Townsend. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below. Metal Assault: The last time we did an interview, it was September of last year and at the time you were telling me about this "Retinal Circus" show that you were going to do soon after. Here we are almost a year later, and you're soon releasing a DVD of that show. First of all, for you what was that experience like, doing that show in London? Devin: It was basically every emotion sort of wrapped up into one. Being perfectly honest, overall it was a really good experience but it was fraught with technical hurdles and I didn't actually recognize what we had done until I started editing it. In hindsight, it's great but at that time it was just a lot of stress. Metal Assault: What kind of technical problems did you face? Devin: Well, the ideas that I typically have for "Retinal Circus" or "Ziltoid" or any number of projects that I do are usually on such a scope that there's no feasible way you can do it with the amount of money and time that we usually have. "Retinal" was an extreme version of that. There were a 100 people in our performing group, we had a day and a half worth of rehearsal, and overall, we did achieve what I had hoped to achieve from the show, but to get it to that point it was chaos. You can imagine when there are a 100 people, including circus performers, choir members and people that had no connection to what I've done or to the music itself. They had to become familiar with the music and being on our stage, and all these things that went into this three-hour performance. We had props, we were playing songs we'd never played before, and I think there were 50 or 60 wireless units going. Something as simple as trying to find the frequencies for the wireless units became a challenge when we had to go and do it amidst the chaos of pulling off something that was so bizarre. For me, on a personal level, narcissistic to the point of nausea, it was a heck of a thing! But ultimately, for me it was a success. I tend to be hyper-aware of what I do and what it is that I project into the audience, I real awkward sort of quasi-nerdy thing. So by doing "Retinal", which was so awkward and so nerdy, it allowed me to kind of liberate that. It's what people are going to say now,
06 min read

CHIMAIRA: ‘Wrapped In Violence’ Video Released

Manos Spanos
CHIMAIRA's video for the song "Wrapped In Violence" can be seen below. The track is taken from the band's seventh studio album, "Crown Of Phantoms", which sold around 7,400 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No. 52 on The Billboard 200 chart. The record arrived in stores on July 30, 2013 via eOne Music. CHIMAIRA's previous CD, "The Age Of Hell", premiered with more than 7,000 units in August 2011 to debut at No. 54. The band's 2009 effort, "The Infection", registered a first-week tally of 15,000 to land at No. 30. This figure was roughly in line with the opening number of CHIMAIRA's 2007 album, "Resurrection", which shifted 16,000 copies to enter the chart at No. 42. CHIMAIRA made last year headlines by way of crowd-funding a fan version CD/DVD where they doubled their initial goal via IndieGoGo. "Crown Of Phantoms" track listing: 01. The Machine 02. No Mercy 03. All That's Left Is Blood 04. I Despise 05. Plastic Wonderland 06. The Transmigration 07. Crown Of Phantoms 08. Spineless 09. Kings Of The Shadow World 10. Wrapped In Violence 11. Love Soaked Death CHIMAIRA will kick off the "Celebrate The Chaos" tour this weekend. The trek will feature support from IWRESTLEDABEARONCE, OCEANO, REFLECTIONS and FIT FOR AN AUTOPSY. Comments CHIMAIRA vocalist Mark Hunter: "CHIMAIRA turned fifteen last August and the only appropriate way to celebrate the chaos is to hit the road. Take a trip through the entire catalog with us and rediscover old favorites in the new era of domination! Rise up! The time has come..." In an interview with Ghost Cult, Hunter stated about CHIMAIRA's new CD: "'Crown Of Phantoms' is the culmination of three years of going through tons of changes, harsh realities but also excitement. It's something brand new and when you put all those things together you get 'Crown Of Phantoms' as a result. These are exciting times for the band and it's the polar opposite of where I was with the band two years ago." Regarding whether he thought of packing it in after the numerous lineup changes that CHIMAIRA went through since the release of 2011's "The Age Of Hell", Hunter said: "Many people on the Internet thought we were done for. By the timing and the speed things were unraveling, I had the luxury of not thinking rationally and I simply soldiered on. It was happening so fast and not thinking about quitting was a sort of defense in a way. I defended what I hold dear and what I wanted to fight for. Of course there were moments of insecurity and doubts. Luckily, I had a good team and a good support system of friends and family around me telling me that I was crazy if I wanted to change the band name or quit altogether. They pointed out that bands like MEGADETH and BLACK SABBATH went through countless lineup changes. BLACK SABBATH had a super successful era without Ozzy. Of course, with MEGADETH, 'Rust In Peace' was one of their best albums and it wasn't recorded with the same lineup who did 'Peace Sells', which is another MEGADETH classic. There are more examples of bands that went through major lineup changes and still had major success. Of course, to be in this situation is scary as hell."
03 min read