Everyone’s favorite metallers from Gothenburg Sweden, the Haunted (I mean At the Gates, COUGH), has a new album out.  Kill two birds with one stone:  new metal + Halloween metal.  I will leave it up to our intelligent readers to determine the connection between the Haunted and Halloween.

Aside from that, get your ass to their myspace page and listen to the new album in its entirety. Upon first listen, it’s a pretty solid cut, and as the Haunted are want to do, they start it off with a bang.  I recommend “Pieces” and “Crusher”.  Kickass track.

http://www.myspace.com/thehaunted

Holy fuck!  I don’t say “late to the game” because this band is late, but because I am. This band is amazing. They sound like classic Entombed armed with nailbats. Their first cd came out last year, and they’ve got a new one on the way soon. I’ll definitely be seeing these guys when they come around to NYC in October. Go listen now!

http://www.myspace.com/trapthem

If there are two things Vincent and I enjoy, they are Halloween and Metal.  So it goes that right here and now am inventing a new sub genre of metal called Halloween Metal.  This will be the first of several posts about bands that bridge the gap between vanilla metal and horror metal.  Let me explain.

Lamb of God is metal as shit, but they don’t necessarily espouse thoughts of zombies crawling the earth or decapitation via chainsaw etc. 

On the other end of the spectrum lay bands like GWAR or Mayhem, who bring the blood and guts and costumes right on stage with them and make horror a part of their persona.  Good in their own right, but you need to be in the right frame of mind to listen to and enjoy that.

Then, you have the bands who through their imagery/logo/cover art/tone/overall sound atmosphere generate a dark and sinister image in your head.  You know, something not too sinister, but something that will make you smile and recall scenes from Army of Darkness or the feeling you had creeping around during Halloween as a kid, maybe riding around town stealing street signs or egging the mayor’s house.

At the same time, you want to punch the next person in the face who walks by.  It’s the best of both worlds!

I think this feeling is something one immediately associates themselves with, or thinks is absolutely insane.  I am of the former, and I hope you are too.

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Whilst recovering from the night that was Carcass on Sunday, I had an important decision to make.  Do I spend the entire day on the couch, mindlessly watching NFL football (nothing wrong with that whatsoever), or pick my ass up and go see Reggie and the Full Effect?

There were advantages and disadvantages to both decisions, but the most salient being the fact that this was supposedly their farewell tour, and I had to yet to catch them live.  

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It’s been about 15 years since Glenn Danzig was the blackest of anything (makes no sense), but I still dig him and will gladly slap anyone who brings up that Northside Kings incident.  Also, his upcoming Blackest of the Black tour may be your last chance to catch him before he retires.  I’ll be at the New York show on October 15th at Roseland. Check his 53 year old ass out before his voice is completely shot.

PS- Even if you think Danzig sucks, you should definitely check out the tour website. The only thing it’s missing are animated gifs of a mailbox opening and closing.

Blackest of the Black Website (brace yourself)