I love metal, almost anything metal. However, it so happens that I tend not to like what people call [insert label here]core (henceforth crapcore, a catch-all for all core subgenres). When I hear something on SiriusXM Liquid Metal that I don’t like, 95% of the time when I look the band up it’s some crapcore shit. So I’ve had enough. As of today, I’m on a one man crusade against crapcore on SiriusXM Liquid Metal. In the last few months, there have been some comments on their Facebook page about this, but I wanted to stay away from all that. Not anymore.

There are so many great metal bands who get ZERO air time on Liquid Metal, while fucking garbage crapcore bands like Demon Hunter, Dillinger Escape Plan, and all that shit get played every fucking hour. Enough!

Time to think whether crapcore belongs with metal. I think not. What do you think?

Best of 2009? What’s the best album of the year for YOU? We’re starting to put together the list of top albums and need your help. Leave your choices here and also call the BLOODLINE at 877-87-HEAVY to leave your top pick of the year. Best of 2009 week starts Mon., Dec. 28th! Thanks so much for all your support this ……year, it means the world to us! Hellyeah

Call them righ the fuck now and tell them that Crack the Skye is the best album of the year: 877-87-HEAVY

Or, you could give up on life, acknowledge you’re a loser for not understanding that Crack the Skye is the best album of the year, and go sodomize yourself with a fucking elephant horn until you die.

Really, this is a binary choice. Either you agree this is the best album of the year, or you sodomize yourself with an elephant horn up there beyond your wildest dreams.

Alternatively, I can send you a single bullet for free (plus shipping and handling).

There you go.

8:02     Thanks to Ian for going along with this, and keep up the good work!

8:01     Ok, time to sign off. I leave as Daath begins to play. It’s a nice band, but I don’t see what they bring to the table. They’re ok.

7:57     Can’t wait for Machine Head’s next album!

7:53     Machine Head covering Iron Maiden. It’s a very nice take on a classic song. Robb Flynn doesn’t have the voice of Bruce Dickinson, but that’s ok. He’s a great guitarist, and Bruce Dickinson is only second to Dio.

7:51     3 good songs in a row, we’re on a roll!!!

7:50     White Zombie… So many acid trips, so few songs…

7:50     Skeletonwitch’s riffing: incisive.

7:48     Skeletonwitch is awesome. Blabbermouth criticized the vocal, but I really like it.

7:47     Thanks for the plug Ian!

7:46     Sort of…

7:45     That song is from when Tom Araya could still sing.

7:44     It’s nice to have a deeper cut from Slayer. This is actually their best song from Diabolus in Musica. Someone at Liquid Metal knows their Slayer.

7:42     MOTHER FUCKING SLAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEER

7:40     Trap Them: don’t know these guys. Sounds harcore. Good filler, but I’m waiting for the next song. It’s just not metal enough for me, but if you’re into it, more power to you.

7:38     Please make it stop.

7:35     Metalcore is so passé. These guys should imitate the lemmings.

7:33     You can hear the talent, but there’s no hook for me. Just another band who clumsily integrates different influences. Jose, easy on the Ankla…

7:31     Ah, Ankla.

7:29     The new Fear Factory is just mehh. It’s 100% Fear Factory, minus the innovative factor they had when Demanufacture got big, way back in 1995. It may just be that specific song; I’ll definitely give the album a serious listen when it comes out in early 2010.

7:26     You did a great job, Ian. Thanks for dedicating this Bloody Roots to Dio!

7:24     I saw Lamb of God for the 3rd time a few weeks ago as part of the Metallica tour. They did a great show. I was never a big fan of Randy Blythe’s voice, but after I watched Killadelphia and Walk with Me in Hell, I got a much greater appreciation for the band, including Randy. I love the texture of the guitars, and the drumming is the definition of metal. 

7:21     Budweiser: the poor man’s best friend.

7:17     Ouch, Katatonia. Not my favorite band, but at least it’s not fucking IWABO or Horse the Band. At least Katatonia has something to bring to the table. Mood, melody. Actually I would not mind Liquid Metal having an hour of that stuff on a Sunday night.    

7:06     Heaven and Hell: excellent pick to conclude this special edition of Bloody Roots!

7:04     What, Ian has been touched internally by Dio?

7:02     Here we go folks, Bloody Roots is ending with a well deserved thanks to Dio for all he has done for the metal community.

Like everybody else, I listen to Liquid Metal because they play music that I like. But like everybody else, there’s much that I don’t like as well. So I thought it would be interesting to register my impressions as we progress through one hour of programming. I don’t expect them to play only stuff I like; it would be unreasonable to do so.

6:49

My best wishes to Dio for a prompt recovery. He’s the best voice in metal.

I am a big Slayer fan. Read: I love what they used to do, and really like the vibe at their shows. What they’ve written in  the last 15 years sucks. Big time. It’s pedestrian, unoriginal, 100% filler to help usher the coming tour.

World Painted Blood is different. It’s a gift to the long-time fans. Melody is back–sick melody is back. The slow, crawling nastiness is back. With this album Slayer returns to the grating evil of their guitars from before the late 1990s-early 2000s.  It’s fast, slow, intense, but it never feels pointless like their previous three albums.

Some songs are fast, as it should be. Some songs are spewing notes at a slower pace. Regardless of the pace, you feel the tension. “Playing with Dolls” is exhibit A that Slayer is back, they’re paying attention, and they’re as sick and evil as ever.  But the album is solid from beginning to end.

My favorite line from the album, perhaps *my favorite line in all of metal* because of the intensity it suggests: “You’ll wish you were in Hell.” This one gives me goosebumps.

May we all burn in Hell together.

Here’s an experience. This Saturday, December 12 starting at 6pm ET starting at 7pm ET, I will be blogging live for one full hour to comment on Liquid Metal’ playlist. I will comment on all songs and maybe tease Ian a little bit. I know that he doesn’t have 100% control over the playlist, but he owns 100% of the comments he makes!

No worries though, I am a big fan of Ian’s work (and so should you).

See you then!

UPDATE: I changed the time because, faithful listener that I am, I always listen to Bloody Roots either Tuesday or Thursday, and never noticed it also airs on Saturday. Since I would not want to pit myself against the teacher of the weekly heavy metal lesson, I am moving the live blogging to the 7-8pm time slot.

The list is not bad, with the usual suspects: Slayer, Megadeth, Ministry, Judas Priest, with (relatively) newcomers Lamb of God.

They’re not running the risk of repeating their 1989 fiasco.

But still, one has to wonder how they arrived at the conclusion that Mastodon did not deserve to even be nominated. This is bizarre. Just plain bizarre.

I can see myself thinking this is sooooo cool, ’cause I’m like you know, so groovy dude. This is so original because I don’t know shit, bro. My knowledge of music is so good dude, I fucking know that this band is the shit ’cause they mix Nintendo and metal together. It’s the new trendy shit, man: Nintendocore. Yeah, they say it with a straightface, ’cause they’re soooo original. I love whatever is original, like Nintendocore. If it were generated randomy by some programming script, I’d love it still, as long as it’s original. Those time signatures allow me to claim credibility, even if they don’t make any sense.

—————————————————————–

 IWABO is a joke, a fake product like a lot of trendy crap with a pathetic lack of real originality. Horse the Band comes up with a concept that appeals to people who think that a Nintendo NES is the epitome of music. Fine. Or not. They play their junk on SiriusXM. So, someone somewhere  thinks we are dumb enough to like Horse the Band; hey, we went along with IWABO… This is sad.

I won’t publish my final list until the year is actually over, but as far as I’m concerned here’s one album that I think dominated all others this year:

Crack the Skye, Mastodon

It’s obvious to me that #1 should go to Crack the Sky, by Mastodon. I can appreciate technical mastery but without melody, however deviant, to me there’s no point. With this album, Mastodon display an amazing mastery of  melody and moods while staying 100% metal. Unlike bands like Opeth, the progressive element is completely fused. Instead of progressive chunks alternating with metal ones, the two genres blend seamlessly. Unlike Enslaved’s Vertebrae, which came out last year, the metal is always present even when the songs go into a more atmospheric mood. This is not the heaviest album: the strings aren’t the beefiest, and the drums aren’t the fastest. But really, so what? This album single-handedly proves that metal is one of the most creative genres out there. Whenever someone you know laughs at heavy metal, this is the album to shut them up for good.

The only thing I didn’t like: at 6:00 of The Last Baron, there is a pathetic aping of Yes circa 1974. One wonders how it got past quality control.

They played the album from A to Z last winter, and it was a great show. The songs were integral, except for some of the vocals (which is understandable), and the presence of the band on stage was so powerful and tight that it’s hard to imagine any metal band pulling something similar off anytime soon. Or put another way, they raised the bar so high that this is what you now have to beat. good luck.