Darkest Hour's Darkest Hour?

It’s finally here! My days of anxious waiting by the mailbox have finally paid off! The first of my many pre-orders that I spoke of earlier has finally arrived. The first one in? Darkest Hour’s newest release The Eternal Return. And here’s what I have to say about it:

Hoooooly butts!

That about sums it up pretty well. However, the short story long would go a little something more like this:

Darkest Hour is one of those bands who developed a really large following in their early years. Tiny clubs in the greater Washington DC area would become sweaty meat boxes exuding testosterone and metal in one big stinky mess. As the band grew along with the scene they’d become a part of, concern grew among the truest of the true fans that they would "lose their edge" or "sell out" or what have you. In their past two CDs produced by Devin Townsend, Darkest Hour has danced the fine line between the absolute brutality that has become synonymous with the little thrash metal niche they’ve carved out for themselves and the dangerous turf of commercial success. Under Devin’s watchful eye, the song writing abilities and general compositional talents of the guys in the band flourished…although not to the extent of sounding manufactured. However, the guys decided to record The Eternal Return with Brian McTernan, who produced their record Hidden Hands of a Sadist Nation. Also, for whatever reason, before the last tour cycle, the band parted ways with their lead guitar player (and one of the fastest shred-junkies I personally have ever seen) Kris Norris. Not gonna lie, when I heard this I had this pang of fear that the unprecedented talent brought by Norris and the change of producers would push the band a step or two back.

NnnnnOPE dot com! Seamlessly they picked up right where they left off and continued writing, composing, and producing super awesome one hundred percent good fun time excellent America speed thrash metal!! Oh man and I couldn’t love them any more for it!

Couple key little factoids I’ve picked up in the couple spins I’ve given the record:

-New lead guitar player goes by Lonestar. Awesome?...! And he’s pretty above average himself.

-Mike Schleibaum does a lot more soloing and the guy LOVES his wah pedal and whammy bar. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this.

-The album has a very "major key" feel to it making a lot of the songs sound optomistic and upbeat. Compared to Undoing Ruin and Deliver Us (their last two CDs), this CD seems to present a more hopeful lyrical scene. Whether this is all part of a larger musical/lyrical purpose I don't know, but its an interesting little something I noticed.

-Guitar tone on the record for a lot of the rhythm work is kinda grainy sounding. It’s almost to the extent of sounding bad, but I think this was intentional. Having a grainy distortion on a mix like this adds to the raw, testosterone driven sound of the composition as a whole.

-The drums are TOTALLY roomed out. The beginning of one song has a little drum fill (track two or three I think) where you can hear how BIG and AMBIENT the room is. Totally sick…bro.

-The kick drum tone literally drives this record. With the grainy, distortion on the guitars, the HEAVILY fuzzed bass, and all the screaming, the super clean and super up-front (meaning that in the mix the kick drum, and only the kick drum, is really loud) kick tone punctuates every down beat, accent, and rhythm.

-I’d say the biggest victory on this CD is the use of the really roomy, clean sounding drum set mixed into the mess of everything else to produce a really interesting balance. It holds up the intensity while allowing the listeners attention to be directed to the interesting rhythms and picking techniques exhibited by the bass and guitars.


Epic. WIN!

It's A Hard Knock Life

It’s hard being a super mega nerdo fanboy these days. This is a rough life I lead. Burdened with the responsibilities and expectations placed on me by my friends, my family, myself, and my adoring throng of loyal readers…all like, 8 of you. I struggle through each day scouring the interwebs, the airwaves, and magazine stands pulling tidbits and factoids, soaking up information and knowledge like a leathery old broad who against all better judgment STILL sits out at the beach in the sun reading grocery store rags yelling at kids who kick sand on her towel all the while leering at the lifeguard who has no choice but to watch all the idiots in the water who think that since they’ve got a boogie board they’re impervious to the powers of the ocean. What are they thinking? Do they know how big the ocean is? Do they understand the force they’re dancing the dance of fate with? A sharkbiker could totally annihilate one of these kids should it be in the area and have the taste for flesh. Not that the life guard could really do anything about it. Sharkbikers are WAY more adept in water. It’s like they’ve lived there for thousands of generations! I mean, if a shark was on land and tried to start it with me, I’d TOTALLY be able to punch it right in its sharkface and run away cuz what chance does it have on land? None. We dominate the land. But I digress…

What do I do with this information I’ve gleaned? I digest. I analyze. I blatantly make stuff up and speak with conviction and surefootedness (Holy crap that’s a word? If spell check doesn’t pick it up that means it’s a word right?) in hopes that nobody questions the ridiculous claims I make.

So with this in mind, I’ve been doing my due diligence and do a pretty above average job at keeping all the inter-pages in my recent history, perusing the music magazine aisle at the book store, and keeping my ear to the ground for any tremor yet unheard. And what ho?! What’s this I hear?! The dawn of the new season! You’re damn right! New music season!

Let’s be honest, there’s no season for this, but somehow bands seem to put music out all at the same time…I think it has something to do with the average half life of Matthewkatzium…it’s the 111th element. No need to look it up. It’s fact. Either way, plastered all over MySpace, PureVolume, ReverbNation and all the respective record label websites (victoryrecords.com, ferretstyle.com, roadrunnerrecords.com, etc etc) are album presales! Woo!

For any music idiot super fan boy/girl, this is the golden harvest. What’s this? The CD I could buy in the stores for $10? Except that now, for the added cost of $9.99 (plus shipping and handling of course) I could have the VERY same CD but with an exclusive t-shirt?! A t-shirt that no one else will have unless they too feverishly refreshed their myspace page too? I. Must. Have. This. Immediately.

We fan-people don’t deal in dollars and cents. We deal in “making-of DVDs” (in one of Killswitch Engage’s presale offer packages), “limited edition t-shirts” (Poison the Well’s presale goodie), “signed screen printed posters” (as featured in Darkest Hour’s presale), “limited edition packaging” (one of the better gimmicks…same cd…different box), “exclusive 7 inch record complete with never before heard b-side recording and alternate version of a song already on the record” (unnecessarily part of August Burns Red’s presale bundle), and the ever popular bonus tracks as featured in pretty much EVERY pre-sale come-on ever.

Do I resist? Never. Do I nerd out about every single piece of paraphernalia? Absolutely 100% yes every time. Will I ever stop? Signs point to no.

This is one of the August Burns Red pre-order packages. I hate them for making me choose between the bundle with the t-shirt + poster and the one with the 7" vinyl. Decision: pending.

A Photo Essay Of Sorts

Looking back at my posts here on Wolfbiker, I’ve realized I’ve been lacking something… Color! Flare! Panache! Of course I mean pictures! I talk about all this whacky, zany stuff but what does funny metal stuff really look like? Well…let me show you. I’ve scoured the internet (a little more than half-assedly) looking for photos of what I see as the goofy things that happen in metal. Given that I’m at the whim of what’s already out there, the following pictures characterize some of the more humorous aspects of a musical genre that is sometimes mislabeled as serious.

My first example is probably one of the most outlandish minds in metal, Adam Dutkiewicz (known lovingly as Adam D). Whereas he’s one of the most influential, talented, and anal retentive producer/engineer/mixers out there, on stage with his own band Killswitch Engage he is the biggest caricature of the metal genre there is. Everything he does is so outlandish and overstated that it can’t possibly be taken seriously…no matter how you spin it. Don’t be fooled though, this guy is a fantastically talented musician with a stranglehold on songwriting, music theory, and ultimate shrediness. For seriously.

Scrawny white guy wearing a cape flexing non-existent muscles? Sounds familiar… Note the neon green taped arrow pointing at his hand so you’re sure not to miss how awesome his shredology-ism is.

Viking helmet? Short shorts shorter than the boxers he’s wearing underneath? Licking the guitar he so shamelessly shreds proving not only his technical prowess but also his ability to do so while emulating the 80s hair metal that inspired him? Stupid stuff written on his guitar in tape? Check. Check. Check. Check.

Oh the denim rock god strikes. Taking the image of the “heavy metal guy who has rips in his jeans but doesn’t care because he’s so metal” image to the next level. Left the cape in the tour bus? A problem for mortals! Make do with what you have! …in this case, apparently a blow-up doll.

Metal and fire go together like koalas and cuteness. Greg Puciato from The Dillinger Escape Plan demonstrates this at some outdoor festival. Note the guitar player’s neon pink guitar…I’m pretty confident color totally effects the sound of the guitar. Probably has a bright tone. Punny.

This is Mike Schleibaum of Darkest Hour. Metal’s ultimate “dude.” The guy is a total gear head and can and will talk anyone’s ear off about tone, pedals, guitars, amps, or ANYthing really. Anyway, the guitar company Washburn made him a custom guitar named the Dude. They eventually made him a second one…called the Dude II. Note the headstock truss-rod cover.

I saw the Bled once at the House of Blues where the stage has a drop down curtain. When the first song started RIGHT as the curtain pulled open, this is what the crowd saw. Aside from having a full frontal assault of raucous hardcore to the face, there seemed to be something horribly wrong with the singer. Soon everyone caught on. You could literally hear the laughter over the music…which was saying something…cuz boy howdy it was loud.

Ken Susi plays guitar for Unearth…really well. Apparently, he also plays the air horn. I like that at a loud metal show, the air horn still makes him wince like a baby.

The Unearth guitar players are just lil’ guys…which makes them perfect for stage antics…like mid-song push-ups, mid-song beer chugging, mid-riff high-fives, and mid-song 100% fun-time acrobatics…like this! Buz McGrath rides John Maggard around like a metal totem pole. Gross. Awesome. Gross.

I’d like to finish this little photo journal with the consistently wittiest and goofiest band I’ve seen. Every Time I Die is a silly band…specifically their guitar players. Andy Williams is a massive loaf of dude with the ability to sneeze facial hair out of his face. To top it off, he’s probably one of the nicest, most genuine dudes ever. For example, he went through an entire US tour advertising the fact that he’d be outside at every show offering hugs. What a teddy bear. Last time I saw them (I think…or maybe 2 times ago?) they took the stage to play their southern rock inspired metal wielding these guitars. Andy played the pink zebra striped one and Jordan played the light blue guitar that has a painted-on caricature of Andy’s face.

Andy also went the entire length of Warped Tour one year making a shirt for each show…here’s one sporting the Queen song/lyrics “Fat bottom girls make the rocking world go ‘round”.

So that’s pretty much that...hopefully you enjoyed the visual hilarity that this music can inspire! Now imagine all this in motion. How can you not laugh?

A Steady Eye To The Future

I'm excited. Let me tell you why.

New stuff, yo! There's been a bit of a dry spell recently in the way of new metal/hardcore coming out and finally there's land on the horizon!

Darkest Hour is back in the studio with their new guitar player (replacing Kris Norris). They've put up a couple pictures on their myspace site of the recording process which, to gear junkies and all around nutjobs like myself, is very exciting. From what I can garner from what few pictures they've got up, they're still holed up in a practice studio somewhere writing. I'll be interested to know who they wind up having produce the record, I can only hope it'll be Devin Townshend again, but I've got a feeling they're gonna want to try someone else. More on that as it comes...

August Burns Red is also in the studio recording with Jason Suecoff turning the knobs. Nooooot too sure how I feel about this. As excited as I am for new ABR, Jason Suecoff (Trivium, All That Remains) seems to be pushing the whole radio-friendly thing too hard...which is one of the things about this band that appealed most to me. If the band lets Suecoff push them, I'm guessing this record will sonically sound great, but will be heavy on straight forward rhythms (less of the awesome August Burns Red mathiness), more singing, and more guitar solo passages. In my opinion, the LACK of all three of those things was what I thought put the wind in that bands' sails. Either way, I'll hold judgement till I hear it. After all, I have been wrong before...sparingly...

Protest the Hero and As I Lay Dying have live DVDs in the works...both are AWESOME live bands and I hope to all hell the energy and cohesiveness of their performances are appropriately captured! Oh man...ya...these bands play concerts in my head all the time and I'm definitely stoked for you all to see/hear what I see/hear while spacing out...at work...

Every Time I Die just got signed to Epitaph too! That's a HUUUUGE move for those guys, the music they play, and the scene they represent. Epitaph is still an indie label I guess, but they're definitely one of the bigger ones. It's owned/operated by one of the guys from Bad Religion and is REALLY heavy on the idea of leaving music making in the hands of those making it. By all accounts they treat their bands well, and have the budget to do huge things with their bands. Also, maybe an ETID/Parkway Drive label-mate tour could be on the horizon? God I hope that happens... Anyway, under this label, ETID is going back into the studio with Steve Evetts in April. So I'm thinking new music in Fall '09? Sweetnuts!

Poison the Well are also in the studio...ironically enough with Steve Evetts... I expect nothing but good things from this...although I really liked their work with those two Swedish dudes (don't feel like looking up their names, but I think one of them is Pelle something or other and the other's last name starts with H?) I've got trust that Poison the Well won't disappoint. Plus I've got the third installment of their limited edition records that I can't listen to to look forward to!

So all this is good and nice...but in all honesty, what's really got me all antsy in my pantsy is...new Alexisonfire! Yowza! Boom! Yes! Probably the undisputed champs of fun-time-Canadian-indie-hardcore, Alexisonfire is back in the studio (I think they're at about day 4 of tracking) with the same dude who did their last record, Crisis. I can all but guarantee that this new disk is gonna sound freakin' sweeeeeeeeet. Vintage in tone, progressive in arrangement. Wrap your noodle around THAT tasty gem! I highly recommend any one who doesn't own Crisis to run out and pick it up. It's genre hopping, energetic, melodic, caustic, it's everything! It's probably what a Canadian version of Versions by Poison the Well would sound like...but a little bit more silly. Do this: go to their myspace every day. www.myspace.com/alexisonfire They're posting blogs/videos/pictures every day they record. You can witness the slow onset of the insanity that never fails to permeate a control room. Back in my glory days with the Awakend, I damn near lost my mind after 4 days of tracking/mixing...Imagine what fun will develop over several weeks?! In Canada!? In a studio down the road from a brewery no less... Let the hilarity, and fantastic tunage, ensue. View this video and understand why I can't wait: http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=52921041

Get excited yo! I am!