Brutal Legend

The demo is live for Brutal Legend, which will be released on October 13 for XBox 360 and PS3, starring Jack Black as the voice of Eddie Riggs, whose mission in the game is a hellish one.

The game's soundtrack will feature over 100 heavy songs from 75 bands, and below is a list of sonic highlights (the LA Times:

• Black Sabbath - Children of the Grave
  
• Children of Bodom - Angels Don't Kill
  
• Dethklok - Mermaider
  
• Diamondhead - Am I Evil?
  
• Dragonforce - Through the Fire and Flames
  
• Judas Priest - The Hellion/Electric Eye
  
• Mastodon - Crack the Skye
  
• Ministry - Thieves
  
• Ozzy - Mr. Crowley
  
• Rob Zombie - SuperBeast
  
• Slayer - MetalStorm/Face the Slayer
  
• And Plenty More
  

Better than 'Guitar Hero'? 'Brutal Legend' packs 100+ heavy metal songs

New Dethklok Album 9/29 - Streaming Live NOW!

If you visit the Dethklok MySpace page, you can experience the entire second album - streaming online in its entirety - right now.

A Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse Tour?

There's no official name for the tour - or a tour itself - but rumors are flying about a possible Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth, and Anthrax tour. If it happened, it would represent a first for these bands, and it would cause about a million metalheads' brains to explode instantaneously.

Since it's Lars (drummer from Metallica) talking about it, though, there's a good possibility it will happen. He may be sort of a, well, um, eccentric, but he's a capable businessman, and when he says things - think Summer Sanitarium, S&M, the tour with GnR, and Garage, Inc. - they usually come to fruition.

Kerry King, guitarist for Slayer, had this to say on the Metal Hammer web site:

I’ve heard people referencing Lars,” says King. “I don’t know Lars that well and I haven’t heard it from Lars but apparently he’s talking to somebody about it. Maybe us, Metallica, Megadeth (and), I think he even threw in Anthrax and I said in this day and age, I know we had that time together but how do you leave out Machine Head?

Source: The Big Four Tour? Kerry King Says it Could Happen
Picture Source: Flowkey.net

Mastodon

Occasionally, I like to discuss what I have been listening to on my not-iPod, and since I've already done a pseudo-expose on Coheed & Cambria, I can't very well do them again.

So instead I've chosen MASTODON. Good thing, too, since Mastodon's new album, Crack the Skye was released yesterday.

Mastodon, as an entity, is extremely difficult to explain. They are (and you will find subject-verb agreement problems all over the place when I talk about bands, because "Mastodon are" just sounds funny) a postmodern-ish metal-ish band, with vast, textured albums that more often than not contain a single theme cast through various lenses throughout.

As depicted in the cover art above, Leviathan, which is ostensibly about the book Moby Dick, differs from Crack the Skye, which, to the best idea of anyone, is about either Tsarist Russia or Rasputin. The lyrics can be awfully abstract, as can - honestly - the music.

I can't speak to the lyrics, because I can scarcely give you more than one word from any given song, because I'm so enthralled by the structured chaos of the songs and the offbeat guitar harmonies produced therein. Right now, I'm giving Crack the Skye a good listen-through, and I'm mesmerized. It's not like most metal, which hits you over the head with message, or musicality, or structure, etc.

Not the same with Mastodon. Nuance abounds, and I'll guarantee that you won't like every song the first time through listening to any of their albums (although every thing on the new record is pretty solid), so you have to give it a few spins. It's sort of like a hard-to-digest movie. You might have to give it a few listens before making a judgment. I did the same thing with Blood Mountain and, specifically the song "Colony of Birchmen" for a month or so.

To begin with, listen to "Colony of Birchmen" from Blood Mountain and "I am Ahab" and "Megalodon" from Leviathan. And, to be honest, perhaps you should give the new album, Crack the Skye, a listen all the way through. It's...something else. And, not to be a total Georgia Jingoist, but you should probably support the GA Metal, because these guys are (somewhat) from Atlanta. Plus, it was pretty kick-ass for them to do a song for the ATHF Movie.