Metallica played their “Helping Hands” charity auction concert “Live & Acoustic From HQ: Helping Hands Concert & Auction”, which was streamed live earlier today (Saturday, November 14) from the band’s headquarters in San Rafael, California. In addition to Metallica originals and covers (Deep Purple, Bob Seeger, and Animals), the band played both acoustic and electric sets of music. During the electric set, the band played a reimagined version of “Disposable Heroes” — described by James Hetfield as “a heavy song we did acoustic, and we’re doing it heavy the acoustic-version way’ and “Wasting My Hate” from Load, performed for the first time since 2011, according to setlist.fm.Continue reading →
As we dash towards the holidays and the end of the year Ghost Cult is feeling good about this season of giving. So we are giving our fans a chance to get to know our partners, peers, and friends from bands in the world of music. They will chime in with some guest blogs, end of year lists, and whatever else is on their minds as we pull the plug on 2015. Today we have Bidi van Drongelen, Dutch booker and manager who has worked with the likes of The Devil’s Blood, Saint Vitus, Ghost, In Solitude and many more. Every year a multitude of his bands get booked at the excellent Roadburn festival, and we have asked him what he feels were the best releases of 2015.
1. Klone – Here Comes The Sun
Great songwriting, amazing vocals, and a crystal clear though heavy production blending prog and post metal.
2. Ghost – Meliora
Ghost has it all to become one of the leading melodic heavy rock bands in the world
3. Bliksem – Gruesome Masterpiece
If you like Metallica’sMaster of Puppets of Death Angel’sACT III….with the a raw female voice like Doro.
4. Royal Thunder – Crooked Doors
Great atmospheric rock album with the amazing voice of Mlny Parsonsz
5. Tribulation – Children of the Night
Melodies of occult rock like The Devil’s Blood drenched with a satanic black voice which reminds of Satyricon.
6. Chelsea Wolfe – Abyss
Refreshing approach of doom & drone. ART with capital A!
7. Paradise Lost – The Plague Within
8. Steak Number Eight – Kosmokoma
9. Melechesh – Enki
10. Enslaved – In Times
11. Clutch – Psychic Warfare
12. Thy Catafalque – Sgurr
13. Amorphis– Under The Red Cloud
14. RAM – Svbversvm
15. BRING ME THE HORIZON– That’s The Spirit
16. Mgła – Excercises In Futility
17. Baroness – Purple
18. Leprous – The Congregation
19. Graveyard – Innocence & Decadence
20. Hangman’s Chair – This Is Not Supposed To Be Positive
As the summer heat gets further away and we press on toward winter, all of the fall tours seem to be hitting my town at once. Earlier in the year it seems like there were hardly any tours worth going to, let alone any with a deep enough bill to make one be need to be there. Five Finger Death Punch on the strength of their new album Got Your Six (Prospect Park) put together such a bill that people came out early, and rocked out in droves. From Ashes To New energized the early crowd with their hybrid mix of modem metal and old school rap metal sounds. High energy stage shows with two front men and uplifting jams are the blood of this band, and we are going to keep an eye out for them for years to come. Following that up is In This Moment’stheatrical stage show that just floors people. Hard to believe the leaps this act has taken since starting out as a little metalcore band from Las Vegas. Front woman Maria Brinkchannels her inner Madonna via costume changes, props, and sheer bravado. Resurgent hit-makers Papa Roach are in the direct support slot on this tour. Their sets are always a rabid sing-a-long with fans, screaming out the words to every song and hopping around in step to the beat. At last it was time for FFDP, themselves now the modern rock and metal torchbearers in America, taking up the reigns from the mostly absentMetallica the last half decade. With larger than life staging, the larger than life band prowls all over the stage jumping off risers, all while their fans try to soak it up and hold on to what the band doles out. Everything about this band screams Las Vegas spectacle or Texas Roadhouse. Thanks to Evil Robb Photography who caught all the action for Ghost Cult with the cam in hand!
