Archive for October, 2012

The Acacia Strain vs. Fear Factory – Death Match

Rise / Candlelight The Acacia Strain have knocked out yet another band in the last Death Match. Having defeated the grind masters of Pig Destroyer , the Acacia Strain have two wins under their belt, but they face an incredibly difficult challenge on the path to win number three. Fear Factory have been unleashing industrialized thrash for over 20 years. The band issued their eighth full-length album, ‘The Industrialist,’ in June of this year, and have just released a music video for the record’s title track. The sound is still very much Fear Factory, and provides deadly ammo for the band in this week’s Death Match. Can the Acacia Strain continue their winning streak? Or will Fear Factory melt them down? Your votes decide the winner. Pick your favorite song in the poll below! (This Death Match ends on Tuesday, Nov. 6, at 10AM ET. Fans can vote once per hour! So come back and vote often to make sure your favorite song wins!) The Acacia Strain, ‘Victims of the Cave’ Fear Factory, ‘The Industrialist’ ? Sorry, you need to have javascript running to see this poll. ? Email Me When Death Match Winners Are Announced Enter your email address below to receive the Loudwire newsletter, which will include notification of the weekly winner of the Death Match, as well as our top stories of each day. Email Rules of Death Match Two bands fight to the death each week. Fans can vote once per hour. The triumphant band goes on to compete in the next Death Match. If a band wins four straight Death Matches, its song will be honored as immortal in the Loudwire Death Match Hall of Fame.

P.O.D. Lyrical Controversy Leads California Festival to Switch Venues

Razor & Tie P.O.D. was scheduled to perform in Ventura, Calif. Sunday (Oct. 28), but canceled the gig  after some controversy erupted with the venue. Originally scheduled for the Ventura County Fairgrounds, the Monster Jam Fest was moved to a smaller venue after fairground officials objected to the lyrical content of the P.O.D. song, ‘Youth of the Nation.’ According to the Ventura County Star , a fairgrounds official emailed the promoter Ezio Van Horst saying they did not want P.O.D. to play ‘Youth of the Nation’ because some of the song’s lyrics were “too touchy and controversial.” The lyrics refer to a school shooting, and the paper says the email described the song as “too violent to be played at a family event.” Except for a tweet announcing the cancellation and a link to the Ventura County Star article, the band has not commented on the issue. The scaled down show apparently took place without P.O.D.’s participation. P.O.D. will be getting back on the road in November, opening for 3 Doors Down and Daughtry . They will take a few days off from that tour to set sail on the 2012 ShipRocked Cruise Nov. 27 – Dec. 3, then return to land to wrap up the last couple of weeks of the 3 Doors Down/Daughtry tour. Their latest single ‘Higher,’ from the ‘Murdered Love’ album, recently entered Loudwire’s Cage Match Hall of Fame . Watch P.O.D.’s ‘Youth of the Nation’ Video [button href=”http://loudwire.com/in-this-moment-maria-brink-p-o-d-sonny-sandoval-shiprocked-2012/” title=”Next: P.O.D.’s Sonny Sandoval Talks Shiprocked 2012″ align=”center”]

Polish Supreme Court Rules Against Behemoth’s Adam ‘Nergal’ Darski in Bible-Tearing Incident

Liz Ramanand, Loudwire Behemoth frontman and leukemia survivor Adam ‘Nergal’ Darski ran into some legal troubles after tearing up a Bible onstage during a Sept. 2007 performance in Gdynia, Poland. He did so while calling the Catholic church “the most murderous cult on the planet.” Nergal was cleared of any criminal charges by Polish judge Krzysztof Wieckowski in 2011, but the Supreme Court of Poland has now ruled that the vocalist has in fact committed a crime in the Bible-tearing incident. This new development opens up the possibility of the Behemoth frontman serving up to two years in prison. Poland’s penal code states, “Whoever offends religious feeling of other people by publicly insulting an object of religious cult or a place for public holding of religious ceremonies, is subject to a fine, restriction of liberty or loss of liberty for up to two years.” This law is a direct opponent to the concept of Freedom of Speech, and may claim two years of Nergal’s life behind bars. “[The decision] is negative and restricts the freedom of speech,” said Nergal’s attorney Jacek Potulski to Reuters (via Blabbermouth ). “The court decided that this is allowed in a democratic system. We are still arguing that we were dealing with art, which allows more critical and radical statements.” The case will now be taken to a smaller court for another trial. Behemoth had been tearing up the Bible onstage for two years before the Poland incident, with no ramifications until Sept. 2007. “Behemoth fans know what Behemoth is about, know what the lyrics are about, and know at least a little of the philosophy behind the band,” bassist Tomasz ‘Orion’ Wróblewski told Decibel Magazine in 2009. “So, it’s kind of surprising that there are people coming to the shows and feeling offended with what we do onstage. If such a person comes to a show, he comes with the purpose of being offended, I guess, and it shouldn’t be like that. We’re not offending any particular person. We’re just offending the religion that we’ve been raised in.” Stay tuned for more news on Behemoth’s Adam ‘Nergal’ Darski as further legal proceedings occur. Watch Footage of Nergal’s 2007 Bible-Tearing Incident in Poland

Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine Discusses Being Hit by Beer + Rocks at Croatian Festival

Mary Ouellette, SheWillShootYou.com You may remember an incident in Croatia earlier this year where Megadeth were pelted with beer bottles and rocks after a group of fans blamed the ‘Big 4′ thrash act for W.A.S.P. no-showing at the festival. After frontman Dave Mustaine was hit in the head with a rock, the band ended their set early. Now, nearly four months later, Mustaine has spoken out about the event in a new interview. After being asked by Powerline about the online backlash to some of Mustaine’s controversial comments, such as speaking out against gay marriage and claiming that President Obama “was born somewhere else than America ” even after Obama’s long-form birth certificate was released, Mustaine eventually made his way to the Croatian incident. Mustaine mistakenly placed the event in the Czech Republic rather than Croatia, but he still recalled the situation with vivid detail: I treat people the way I want to be treated. Even when we were in the Czech Republic and people were upset about the whole debacle with W.A.S.P. not playing and took it out on us. That wasn’t our fault but they still were taking it out on us and when we were in Dubai we did a meet-and-greet and a woman and her little boy came up. And she said, “Yeah, he saw you in the Czech Republic and he was supposed to meet you after the concert and you guys finished early.” And I was gonna say, “Yeah, but …” and she said, “He cried because he didn’t get to meet you.” And I thought, “You know what?! Son of a gun …” The guys that acted out there, I understand why they did that. They wanted to see W.A.S.P., they don’t know why that they didn’t play and somebody had said something that it was our fault. It wasn’t our fault. We don’t decide whether W.A.S.P. plays or not. And they had been out in the sun drinking and they thought it was a novel way to express their disdain for the way things took place was to throw objects at us. I understand. I totally understand. I would have handled it a little bit different. I’m not a p—y who throws rocks at artists. They may not love me, but I still have love in my heart for them. And I’m not going to write the Czech Republic off just because of these few people who mishandled themselves that day. I think that if the guys who actually did that, if we sat down and talked, we’d probably have a lot in common. Because I don’t dislike W.A.S.P. I’m actually friends with Blackie [Lawless] and I probably would have wanted to see them play as much as their fans did — well, probably not as much, but it’s funny how similar a lot of us are when you get down to it, but this mob mentality gets people fired up and you’re afraid to say what your convictions really are because … You know, I saw a letter about three years ago. It was the vice president of GE and I’m thinking it was an open letter about how afraid he was about the way things were going and how he doesn’t think he’ll be able to write the same letter several years later because of the fact that if anybody who says anything negative right now about a politician is going to be vilified and, man, damn if he wasn’t right. [button href=”http://loudwire.com/megadeth-dave-mustaine-shares-concerns-vocal-damage-cursing/” title=”Megadeth’s Dave Mustaine Shares Concerns Over Vocal Damage + Cursing” align=”center”]

Papa Roach, Bush, Disturbed Members + More React to Hurricane Sandy Destruction

Ethan Miller / Mark Metcalfe / Kevin Winter, Getty Images The world is keeping a close eye on the East Coast today as Hurricane Sandy’s destruction has wreaked havoc with its high winds, torrential rain, and potential for even more trouble as the storm heads inland. Many across the nation are sending their positive thoughts to those dealing with the storm and its aftermath, including a number of rockers. In addition to all the physical damage the hurricane has caused, there’s quite a financial toll as well as much of the eastern seaboard has lost power and a number of businesses have shut down until the weather passes. It’s also affected a number of bands, who have either canceled or postponed dates on the East Coast or had their travel affected. Papa Roach , Bush ‘s Gavin Rossdale , Disturbed ‘s David Draiman , and Motley Crue ‘s Tommy Lee are among the initial musicians posting their thoughts on Hurricane Sandy, sharing their well-wishes and even posting links for their fans to donate to the aid that will be needed in the aftermath of the natural disaster. Here are their thoughts below: Checking the pictures of #Sandy on buzzfeed.tumblr.com . Sorry for everyone’s loss on the east coast :/ — ? Papa Roach ? (@paparoach) October 30, 2012 hurricane sandy-treacherous times-sorry for all the disasterwatching the news now.it is terrible. — GAVIN ROSSDALE (@GavinRossdale) October 30, 2012 SUCH DEVASTATION. SUCH LOSS. I CANT HELP BUT BE OVERCOME WITH EMOTION SEEING THE IMAGES OF THE DESTRUCTION WROUGHT BY #Sandy . — DAVID DRAIMAN (@DAVIDMDRAIMAN) October 30, 2012 PLEASE DONATE IN OUR NATION’S TIME OF NEED. I DID. redcross.org — DAVID DRAIMAN (@DAVIDMDRAIMAN) October 30, 2012 Hope everyone is doin ok inhurricane Sandy east coast! Damn!!! — TOMMY LEE (@MrTommyLand) October 30, 2012 We want to send our prayers and thoughts to our people at Razor and Tie, The Agency Group, Splitmedia and most… fb.me/ADg259eZ — Nonpoint (@nonpoint) October 30, 2012 We at Loudwire send our positive thoughts and well-wishes to those affected by Hurricane Sandy.

Serj Tankian Showcases ‘Orca’ Symphony Project in Austria

Hannah Johnston, Getty Images Serj Tankian got a chance to see his symphonic vision come to fruition Sunday (Oct. 28) when he joined the Das Karussell Orchestra in Austria to perform his ‘Orca’ classical symphony. Tankian launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund the event and the recording of a filmed show for a 2013 release. The end result was a rousing success, as Tankian and the orchestra were loudly cheered following the performance. The singer stated before the show, “‘Orca’ is the first four-act symphony that I have composed, a mix of early-20th-century compositional styles combined with the powerful range of film scoring. I decided to name my symphony ‘Orca’ because orcas ‘appear to have no parallel outside humans’ in terms of their cultural faculties. An orca is really a dolphin with much darker tendencies. I see this dichotomy as a great metaphor for humanity.” Tankian initially sought a $25,000 goal to fund the entire project, and added that any additional funds would be used to cover the expenses of mixing, mastering, and promotion. Video footage from the show can be seen below. Watch Serj Tankian + the Das Karussell Orchestra Perform ‘Orca — Act 1′ Watch Serj Tankian + the Das Karussell Orchestra Perform ‘Sky Is Over’ [button href=”http://loudwire.com/system-of-a-down-serj-tankian-offers-his-take-on-the-2012-u-s-presidential-election/” title=”Next: Serj Tankian Offers His Take on the Election” align=”center”]

‘Ghost Adventures’ Host Zak Bagans + Lords of Acid’s Praga Khan Create Spirit-Filled ‘NecroFusion’ Disc

Zak Bagans Entertainment Most know Zak Bagans as the host of the Travel Channel paranormal series, ‘Ghost Adventures,’ but he’s taking his expeditions a step further by teaming with Lords of Acid’s Praga Khan to create a spirit-filled album called ‘NecroFusion.’ The newly released album features eleven new songs that tell the stories of departed souls who have yet to cross over into the afterlife. Armed with his SB7 Spirit Box, Bagans has been able to record “electronic voice phenomena,” known as EVP, over the years and he’s showcased some of those cases on ‘Ghost Adventures.’ However, the idea came about over time for Bagans to translate those voices in a different kind of way, and that’s where Khan came into the fold. Loudwire caught up with Bagans, who shared how the idea initially came about, if he thinks that by making the album he’s helping some of the spirits to cross over, and he shares one of his more terrifying experiences researching spirits at a music store. Can you discuss how the idea to record this album came about and how you ended up working with Praga Khan from Lords of Acid? The idea behind ‘NecroFusion’ came about when Praga Khan of Lords of Acid contacted me after I started making a bunch of Twitter posts about how big a fan I was. Lords of Acid was my favorite band in high school and Praga is a true pioneer of that style of electronic music. He’s done songs for films like ‘Austin Powers,’ ‘Basic Instinct,’ [and] ‘Virtuosity.’ He’s a legend. I started tweeting how I was a big fan of Lords of Acid, and his manager contacted me and asked if I wanted to do vocals for a song called ‘Paranormal Energy’ on the band’s ‘Deep Chills’ album. Apparently Praga was experiencing some paranormal events in his studio in Brussels, and things just fell into place. So I went down to L.A., I recorded with Chris Vrenna from Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson and we did that song, it turned out really good, it hit the Top 5 in the Electronic music charts, it was a big hit. After that, it’s been revolutionary, and my paranormal research with these spirit voices that I’ve been getting — I use a couple of different devices, the SB7 Spirit Box, and also a digital recorder. About two years ago, we started getting absolutely insane, crystal-clear, intelligent voices from the dead. I tried debunking it. I’m very skeptical of our own evidence until we find those logical explanations to prove it as paranormal. Once we were able to put these voices up on a wavelength so you can see the waveform in an audio program, you can see that the spirit voices were laid on top of these sweeps through the Spirit Box, so we eliminated it as any contamination. The voices were intelligent, we had voices give us details about a murder-rape that happened in the 1970s in Denver that we shared with the Denver police department, and they were absolutely astounded by the findings. I’ve had another spirit tell me what color light that was making our electro-magnetic detector go off, and I established visual communications. So it’s 100 percent, and now that I know I’m documenting these spirit voices, I thought it would be a great way for the most powerful vocal messages of our time to be combined with music, the most powerful way to send a message. If you think about it, when you listen to music — music makes you cry, it makes you happy, it makes you dance, it makes you mad, those are the same emotions that I experience when I feel the energy of a spirit when I’m contacting the spirit and communicating with it. So it’s a full supernatural experience while you listen to these songs. Praga obviously has the musical background with Lords of Acid, but many of the samples he’s using came from you and what you’ve recorded. How much input did you have into deciding what would and would not be used for the record and can you talk about the process of putting the songs together? I had a lot of input on every song. Ideally, every single spirit chose the lyrics for every single track. At times, I would be sitting doing hundreds and hundreds of sessions because you don’t always get spirit voices. Over the course of a year, I did hundreds of sessions, maybe in one session at one haunted location I’d ask 150 questions, I’d get no response. Another time I’d ask another 150 questions and maybe I’d get a spirit response from two questions. So I had to take those two questions and use them for a song, and I never knew which questions would be answered by the spirit. That’s why I say that the spirits answered the questions and chose the lyrics for the songs. What’s really interesting is that once I got the spirit voices, I would then tell Praga the emotions that I was feeling during that time, because when I communicate with spirits, I feel that spirit’s energy. They don’t have a body. They don’t have a mouth. It’s just their energy. And so, if the spirit was angry, if it was sad, I would feel that energy. I would explain that to Praga and together we would choose the right tone and tempo of the music and the display and the presentation, so that the listener could be calibrated with that emotional level, that experience of when I was communicating with that spirit, and the emotion from the tone of the spirit, so it’s a full, emotional, personal experience. The spirit voices are complimented by the music that is establishing the emotional tone originally set by the spirit. So, you have the full-on experience. And you never know, you’re listening to these spirit voices, and the spirit may know that you’re listening to the music and their voices, so you’re really helping the spirit to be at rest and have closure and maybe be free from being trapped, just by your listening to the song. The music has so many different purposes. Obviously you’re used to hearing the electronic voice phenomena that you’ve recorded over the years, but what was it like the first time you heard it put to music? The first time I heard the EVPs put into music, it was awesome. On my show, ‘Ghost Adventures,’ you just hear the voice. You’re not there so you don’t get the full experience. You don’t feel the energy of that spirit that’s talking to you. I like to say it’s like being in a bubble – you lose track of time, you lose track of everything. It’s like being in the afterlife, but you’re still alive. You can feel that, and it’s actually a great feeling. Sometimes it’s scary as s—, too. But the first time I heard it in music, it put me back in that moment of feeling the energy when I captured the voice. The spirit voices are immortalized through the music, but the music brings you that emotional energy as well, what I feel when I talk to those spirits. So I’m bringing that full, first experience to you as you listen to it. Having completed the ‘NecroFusion’ album, do you think that it’s helped any of those whose voices are heard on the disc or was this just an interesting thing to put music to? Yes, I believe I’m helping these spirits to possibly be free from being trapped, being stuck here by allowing their voices to be heard. If you think about it, I believe a lot of spirits are trapped, because they’ve been trying for 100, 200, 300 years to tell somebody a clue to their unsolved murder, or just something they need to say or they want to contact someone. So now, with the evolution of technology, I believe that’s to my benefit. The technology that I’m using, we’re able now to tap into these spirit frequencies and listen to them. It’s no different from a cell phone, or being able to send a picture or a video through space. This technology is now allowing us to tap into these frequencies and hear these spirits, and I think it’s helping these spirits. On the track ‘Sing for Me,’ where you hear the female sing — when I was conversing with her — I tried for months to get a spirit to sing a song, and once this woman did — you can even hear her go, “I … sing …,” and then she gives us a note. I don’t know what she’s singing, but during that moment, I remember I was very emotional, extremely emotional. And the tone of the music in that song reflects my emotional experience when it was happening. I believe that putting these spirit voices in this music is helping to free them because their voices are finally being heard. Not only that, but I’ve already gotten tons of feedback from people saying ‘thank you so much, I had a friend who committed suicide, you’re now giving me that closure that I needed to know that there’s an afterlife.’ I’m helping the dead and I’m helping the living with this music. You talk about many of your demonic encounters happening at Bobby Mackey’s Music World, and in particular one case that inspired the song ‘Poor Pearl’  (as seen in the video below). Would you discuss your research into Pearl and your thoughts after hearing the demonic response to whether or not she was fine? For some reason, my investigations at Bobby Mackey’s, Pearl Bryan was very sad. We did an investigation there, and one of the EVPs we captured, you hear a girl crying, and they you hear a male voice going, ‘Precious … No.’ Pearl Bryan was murdered by her boyfriend –- Scott Jackson and Alonzo Walling were two devil worshippers who killed Pearl –- it was a documented case. When they were being hung in the gallows, they said that they would forever haunt Bobby Mackeys [the building that today is Bobby Mackey’s club was a slaughterhouse when the murder was committed). I believe that it is those two spirits who haunt that building today. I believe that the EVP we recorded there was Pearl, and it makes me sad to think that she may be being held hostage there, that she’s trapped there, being held there by these two evil spirits. I believe that these two spirits opened a portal to all of the demonic attacks that have taken place at Bobby Mackeys. Bobby Mackey is a strange guy. He doesn’t believe in the hauntings there, yet he’s had 19 sworn affidavits from police officers, clergy, officials who have signed their names to having had paranormal experiences there that were all demonic. But Bobby is the only one who hasn’t had a paranormal experience — the only one who doesn’t believe in it — yet every single person in his family has had severe experiences there. So I thought it would be a great idea for him to do a song with me and dedicate it to Pearl Bryan, so that’s what we did. I actually documented a voice, I believe that the spirits of Scott Jackson and Alonzo Walling have followed me, have attached themselves to me, having caused my demonic possession at Bobby Mackeys, to where I had to have a demonic exorcism performed on me. It’s been a horrific place. At one point during the investigation and on the song, I said ‘I think Pearl is safe now…’ and unexpectedly, we got a crystal-clear voice that said, ‘Is she?’ mocking me in a sarcastic manner, and I believe it was the voice of one of the two guys who killed her and chopped her head off and threw it down the basement’s well that was used by the slaughterhouse to drain all of the blood into the Licking River. So I believe that they opened up that place to hell. I believe that they came through and said, ‘Is she?’ What was the most interesting track on this album for you and can you explain why it stands out? ‘Demonator.’ I did that song to say ‘f-you’ to the demons who have wreaked havoc in my life. The track starts with two EVPs who were captured during a live event. These EVPs were witnessed by about 25 people as they were captured in real time by a Spirit Box. My friend Tara, her daughter’s voice came through saying ‘mommy’ and Tara immediately knew it was her daughter who was back home. That’s what they like to do, these demons, they like to f–k with you, mess with you, they like to mock your voices. The second voice you’ll hear on ‘Demonator’ goes ‘Guys, be careful.’ That’s MY voice that was captured at the event as well. The problem was, I was in the basement doing an investigation with 15 people, and that voice was captured upstairs with Dave Schrader [fellow paranormal investigator] and another group of people, and the demon was mocking me and used my voice. So I thought it would record a track and dedicate it to all those demons who tried scaring me with these voices. Now I use these voices in a badass song called ‘Demonator.’ You can pick up Zak Bagans Vs. Praga Khan’s ‘NecroFusion’ album via iTunes here . Watch Zak Bagans Talking About His Connection With Spirits