Tag Archives: Caroline

Metallica To Serve As Official Ambassador To Record Store Day, New Live Album Release Planned

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Metallica record store day ambassador 2016 ghostcultmag

This years Record Store Day on April 16th , a day dedicated to supporting merchants, many of them independent retailers and other chains that still sell music. Every year a celebrity artist is chosen as an ambassador and this year that artist is Metallica. As one of the best selling bands of all-time, one of the current largest retailers of digital music, as well as a band that began in the underground by trading tapes, they are uniquely qualified to serve in this capacity.

Lars Ulrich commented on the honor:

“Independent record stores are part of Metallica’s DNA.. They have been pivotal in shaping each one of us into the music fanatics we’ve all become. We could not be any prouder to be Record Store Day Ambassadors for 2016 and are looking forward to screaming from every rooftop the next few months about everything independent record store and beyond.”

To celebrate the honor, Metallica will release a RSD only live album Metallica will release Liberté, Egalité, Fraternité, Metallica! – Live at Le Bataclan. Paris, France – June 11th, 2003, on their own label Blackened Records. The release will be a special CD featuring a live recording from the club, with the band, Record Store Day and independent record stores donating proceeds to benefit Fondation de France’s Give For France charity (details here)

 

Metallica! – Live at Le Bataclan. Paris, France – June 11th, 2003 track listing

The Four Horsemen

Leper Messiah

No Remorse

Fade To Black

Frantic

Ride The Lightning

Blackened

Seek & Destroy

Damage, Inc.

Lars Ulrich of Metallica, by Victoria Anderson

Lars Ulrich of Metallica, by Victoria Anderson

The sponsors for Record store day include labels that support rock and metal such as ADA, Border City Media, Caroline, Crosley Turntables, Disk Union, Dogfish Head Craft Brewery, InGrooves, Music Business Association, RED, Red Bull Sound Select, Redeye Distribution, Sony Music, Universal Music Distribution, Warner Bros. Records, WEA  and more. More details about record store day can be found at the RSD official website, which as just relaunched.

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Buckcherry – Rock n’ Roll

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Predictability is underrated. There is something that hits the spot about songs doing what you want them to, when you want them to, when you know you can trust a band not to throw you a curve ball, but in the process spit out a bourbon flavoured selection that will tick all the boxes it needs to, and guarantee nothing but a good motherfucking time. It’s album seven, and you know what you’re getting from Josh Todd and the Buckcherry boys. The title, Rock n’ Roll (F-Bomb/Caroline) even confirms it.

Making their (makers) mark swigging from the bottles marked Guns n’ Roses, Love/Hate and Aerosmith this album really does what it says on the tin, as opener ‘Bring It On Back’ teases ‘Welcome To The Jungle’ before swaggering into aural view, Todd’s effortless trademark vocals planting the seed of a chorus that’ll take root and grow.

‘Tight Pants’ is this years tongue-in-bum, dick-tapping, ass-slapping, stuck-in-your-head as brassy as the parps that enhance the chorus rump-shaker; it’s bum-chum ‘Wish To Carry On’ brings an overwhelming desire to whap your arm-round your mate and sing along to the optimistic boogie-rock while ‘The Madness’ brings the 4/4 power-stomp, banging its head to Velvet Revolver. ‘Wood’ is as wood does; as simple and recognisable Aerosmith worship as it’s oh-so-obvious double-entendre lyrics (I’m not even sure they’re double meaning, pretty upfront, so to speak…), and when they slow things down, effortless flecking ‘The Feeling Never Dies’ and its jangly blues rock, the Black Crowes shuffle of ‘Rain Falling’ and ‘Crazy,’ with swathes Americana and sitting-on-the-porch hooks, the depths and changes of pace are welcome.

While ‘Crazy Bitch’ from 2005’s 15 (Universal/Eleven Seven) is the anthem that the band will forever be known for due to being the most infectious earworm of all time ever and their self-titled début (Dreamworks) will never be surpassed as Buckcherry’s go-to moments, Rock n’ Roll joins a growing repertoire of credible, worthwhile and fun rock albums that continues the legacy of yesteryear. There’s usually a reason the big boys are the big boys, and since reforming  a decade ago the ‘cherry have managed to keep their pecker up, and the Rock n’ Roll a-rollin’.

 

7.5/10

 

STEVE TOVEY


We Came As Romans – We Came As Romans

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As expected, We Came As Romans (Spinefarm/Equal Vision/Caroline) continues the move away from the harder metalcore of the band’s origins, a journey the band instigated on 2013’s Tracing Back Roots (Equal Visions/Nuclear Blast/Caroline), as We Came As Romans seek to further establish a more hard rock, song-driven sound. ‘Who Will Pray’ and ‘The World I Used To Know’ are strong, earnest, electronic-tinged pop metal, while ‘Blur’ and ‘Regenerate’ espouse the values of wringing more forceful, heavier verses that lead into open fan-interaction-friendly choruses. When it works, WCAR produce punchy, catchy anthems not a million miles away from the furrow that more recent Of Mice And Men ploughs.

Self-titling an album is an interesting concept, effectively stating that this is the defining album; this is one that all fans and pundits alike should look to as the crucial release in a bands’ canon. It’s a dangerous approach, especially when said eponymous release isn’t a bands first and is used to promote a refinement or change in style, and WCAR is not an unmitigated success. In equal measures the album is also littered with faceless and patchy songs, that, while decent in their own right, stick no longer in the memory than last Wednesday’s commute to work, and in ‘Saviour of the Weak’ they have produced an insipid number that All Time Low would pass over.

The stylistic shift isn’t the issue, indeed it’s a progression and a step that WCAR are quite right to take, but while WCAR may establish a new identity, it actually sees the band lose some of its definition and competitive advantage, at points sliding them somewhat into the morass of eels of contemporary once-were-core hard rock bands. Despite the head-turning darker closing track ’12.30’, as a “statement” album WCAR falls short on the confidence and, in places, songs of a Hail To The King (Warners). While it achieves the aim in relocating the Michigan sextet more into the mainstream, a spot they seem comfortable in, it falls short in making a declaration of any real intent.

 

6.0/10

 

STEVE TOVEY

 


Korn – The Paradigm Shift

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Korn_TheParadigmShift_Cover3A paradigm shift can be described as a change in a believe system or a general view of how a large group of people perceive things, often in a scientific, social or philosophical context. It’s also the title of the upcoming Korn album, which marks the return of guitarist Brian ‘Head’ Welch. The new record is being marketed, or hyped if you will, as a return to the band’s original sound, so let’s see whether this claim holds any water.Continue reading →