(written by Islander) I have mixed feelings about the Fourth of July, probably a result of living through wars in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan in which U.S. government officials wrapped themselves in the flag, exalted themselves with military fly-overs, and belched “patriotic” rhetoric while lying to citizens and sending their children overseas to be maimed […]
The post SEEN AND HEARD ON A SATURDAY: SNĚT’, GREH, GOMMA, SHABTI, HOLY DEATH, CARCERAL appeared first on NO CLEAN SINGING.
Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine has named his “Last Supper” of guitar players – keeping a place for Rainbow and Deep Purple icon Ritchie Blackmore for “being metal as f*** back when there were no metal guitar players.”
Mustaine was asked to name his favourite guitar players in a new interview with YSOLIFE and he offered up a list of legendary musicians for his dream “Last Supper” scenario. Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, AC/DC and UFO‘s guitar heroes would join Blackmore at the table curated by the thrash metal star.
Mustaine says: “I would have to say probably one of my favourite guitar players has a lot to do with the era that they came in. And I would say for guitar layering and sounds, it would be Jimmy Page.
“For excellent note selection, it would be David Gilmour. For being metal as f*** back when there were no metal guitar players, Ritchie Blackmore. I am not a fan of the keyboard, so I could have had them be a little bit lighter shade of purple and gotten rid of the keyboard player. But, yeah, he was great.
“And then, of course AC/DC and Angus and UFO with Michael Schenker. That’s my ‘Last Supper’ kind of thing I’d want, to have those guys with me.”
Mustaine adds that few modern day guitarists would make his list because, in his words, it’s easier to learn to shred now than it was in his day.
He says: “There are so many guitar players now that are really good, especially because of the software that they can learn how to play with.
“When we started off, we didn’t have all these apps. We had to learn by lifting up the stylus on the record and scooting it back a couple grooves and dropping it and hoping it went in the same f***ing spot so we could pick up our guitar and our pick at the right time and play along with the song again, until they started developing cassette decks where you could slow stuff down or back it up real easy.
“But that was the way we learned stuff.”
Megadeth’s self-titled and final album is out now and the band have a number of farewell tour dates lined up before wrapping up their decades-long career.
Noah Kahan is appropriating Will Toledo’s culture. The viral folk star’s eventful Great Divide tour happened to stop by Pittsburgh last night while the furry convention was in town, and he was for some reason very excited about that, welcoming the furries and even trying on the head of an audience member’s furry costume.
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French black/death/doom metal tyrants Viande return with their second album of suffocating savagery. Set for release via Transcending Obscurity Records on 31 July.
A short introduction keeps suspense before malevolent riffs come into life with a crushing tone and hard drumming to match. The dissonance and grooves flow like molten putrescence with this ferociously heavy production allowing the filth to be felt in your very being as the instruments contort beneath some resplendently wicked vocal delivery. This is pugnacious, horrible music… in the best way! Taking some of the blackened death cues of bands like Teitanblood and Black Curse but with some industrial and noise elements; Viande curate a nightmarish experience like no other. Their debut album is a phenomenal one and their live shows are supremely intense. Thankfully they have not lost that edge and the opening moments of “Monument Aux Morts” concoct a pungent and bloody cocktail of death, horror, morbidity and anxiety.
From the sparse waves of anguishing dissonance to the hammering savagery of a more bestial rage; there is a range of emotions but they always link back to this dirty and malicious atmosphere that haunts this bloodcurdling record. Their use of dynamics is precise, wasting no time but also taking plenty to corrupt your soul with this suffocating and hostile experience which has clearly not been rushed. The attentiveness to detail and depth of the sound is magnificent. All of the small textures heighten the sensory experience while the obvious bludgeoning carnage is never diluted by anything unnecessary. A truly immersive session of auditory torture. Stirring disquiet from a bottomless abyss of inhuman black/death metal force; Viande has definitely created something potent that balances sheer violence with a more introspective and uncomfortable experience that is as haunting as it is scathing.
To quote my interview with Viande about this album’s creation: “Psychiatric wards, intensive care, drunk brawls leading to serious health problems, accidents, recovery… Some of us paid a very heavy price”. It is clear their music has led them to the darker realms, and that is palpable in these nauseating pieces of musical sickness. Their desire to create “highly visual and evocative music” has certainly been fulfilled here, as the record will transport you to an abattoir of horrors that take disturbing form. While lengthy, this album is varied, and its charred being twists into new constellations of darkness and depravity to ensure you will never quite predict what’s coming, nor feel any sense of security or safety throughout. The discordance meets militant aggression, and the fluid, incorporeal form of Viande moves between these sections effortlessly, with transitions that always evoke the maximum in vibrant despair.
This is as twisted as it gets. A foreboding and yet lethal dose of blackened death metal with such a superb sense of texture, sound, and atmosphere. There is no shortage of mean-spirited atmospherics and an equally sublime abundance of furious disarray. Though all of this comes together due to the constant, unwavering sense of doom that is conveyed with profound disdain and a mighty delivery from start to finish. From the pits of your stomach, you might feel revulsion towards this record and yet be allured by its authentic and unique approach to black/death metal that manages to summon a more zealous spirit to the style than many.
For more; read my Viande interview here.
Rating: 9 out of 10.
Testament guitarist Alex Skolnick sat down with Ultimate Guitar ahead of the band’s European summer festival run to discuss his new book, Jazz-Rock Guitar Improvisation — published by Hal Leonard and co-authored with Dave Rubin — and why rock guitarists who fixate on speed and technique are limiting themselves as players, drawing on Miles Davis as the defining counterexample.
On the shape of the summer schedule, he said: “Yeah. The first show is a festival headlined by Iron Maiden, which is exciting, and we’re doing a number of these European festivals. That’s a great thing about doing metal guitar in the 2020s — there’s this festival circuit that didn’t exist when we first started. So we have festivals in July, then I come back for a couple of weeks, then I’m back in August. These are mostly metal festivals, but occasionally we get put on these pop festivals that have a token metal band. I think Rihanna is headlining one of them, which is really interesting. Riot Fest in Chicago is like that — they have pop and stuff you’d never think to place together.”
September is taking shape around jazz rather than metal, with one major exception still to be revealed: “Then September has been up in the air. There was another festival tour in the works, but another tour came up for early 2027 — it hasn’t been announced, so I can’t say who it is, but it’s a very big tour that we’re a support act on. So now September’s open, and I’m going to do more of the jazz-rock thing. I have some dates booked on the West Coast. And I’m actually part of a Jeff Beck tribute — which is fitting, because it’s his birthday today. It’s taking place in September in Northern California with a bunch of musicians, put on by a friend of mine, guitarist Eric Barnett, who’s been doing it for a couple of years now. It’s an all-star thing.”
“And I’m trying to work out a show with Stuart Hamm at the Baked Potato. We played there a couple of months ago — we actually had about three shows there this year, which is pretty good; it doesn’t always work out with my touring schedule. And I think I have another show there with a group I played with earlier this year — it’s still being put together. Somehow, I’m going to be playing the Baked Potato, which is always great. This other group is with Brian Charette, a great organ player. So it’s a nice mix of metal stuff and jazz stuff — these two worlds a lot of us think of as separate.”
Turning to the book, Skolnick described its intended audience: “Well, you’re my target audience, somebody who maybe wasn’t a natural with music theory instantly, but wants to explore it, and explore it in such a way that you’re not hit over the head, with hopefully relatable examples.”
He argued that jazz is more accessible than rock guitarists tend to assume, particularly when approached through jazz-rock as a gateway: “Well, quite a bit, actually. My gateway to exploring jazz was jazz-rock. It really just took having a taste for Miles Davis in the ’80s, and Return to Forever, and Jeff Beck’s instrumentals in the ’70s, and then having it explained to me.”
“Like, all these people Jeff Beck is playing with: ‘Okay, Narada Michael Walden, the drummer and one of the main composers on Jeff Beck’s Wired — he also played for this group called the Mahavishnu Orchestra, you should listen to them.’ And then Mahavishnu Orchestra — ‘oh, that’s led by John McLaughlin, who played for Miles Davis in the ’70s.’ And then you discover that jazz is foundational to a lot of that music. In the same way that blues is a source of much rock, and what led to hard rock, I think jazz is a source for more improvisational ideas — ideas a bit more complex than blues-based ones.”
Skolnick then addressed the book’s dedication to Miles Davis, framing it around the same tension between technique and artistry that the book itself explores: “It’s really interesting, because I discovered him at a time when I was very caught up in the Van Halen revolution — Eddie Van Halen. And then there seemed to be this hierarchy of guitar players that came in the wake of it: Randy Rhoads with Ozzy, Yngwie, all these amazing players. The music was great, and it’s still great, and I think that’s often overlooked, because so much attention gets paid to technique. Eddie Van Halen talked about this in interviews — he was very frustrated by it, because he saw music as a whole and saw technique as just one ingredient in his music.”
“But Miles did not have the most technique. If you put him up against other trumpet players of the day — Dizzy Gillespie, say, or Clifford Brown — he couldn’t outdo them, couldn’t outrun them in speed and dexterity. Instead, he created palettes and colors. He was just a real artist. It wasn’t about technique. It was about creating this sonic image. And he was able to do that decade after decade, each time reinventing himself, and also uplifting these amazing musicians who’d go on to be incredibly influential, including a lot of the ones I mention in the book.”
Jazz-Rock Guitar Improvisation, co-authored by Skolnick and Dave Rubin, is published by Hal Leonard and is available now.
The post TESTAMENT’s ALEX SKOLNICK: “So Much Attention Gets Paid to Technique — EDDIE VAN HALEN Was Very Frustrated by It, Because He Saw Music As A Whole and Saw Technique As Just One Ingredient” appeared first on Sonic Perspectives.
