2009's Best Music (Metal Edition)

1) Skeletonwitch - Breathing the Fire
2) Doomriders - Darkness Come Alive
3) Baroness - Blue Record
4) Kylesa - Static Tensions ("Said and Done")
5) Mastodon - Crack the Skye
6) Agoraphobic Nosebleed - Agorapocalypse Now (stream)
7) Slayer - World Painted Blood

Baroness Live

Baroness and John Baizley have just begun a tour in support of the Blue Record. Here are some great live clips from Metal Injection. "The Sweetest Curse" is my favorite song off this album, and this is a great live clip.

Artwork by Baizley

I haven't posted in a while, so I thought I'd take this chance to talk about something different. I'll probably have some pictures from Joel Smith and Modest Mouse when I get around to it. This post is about artwork by John Dyer Baizley. Baizley does awesome cover artwork for some pretty cool metal bands, including the band in which he is lead singer/guitarist, Baroness.

Baroness's new album comes out this october. The Blue Record artwork can be seen below. Baroness has two preview tracks from this album up on their MySpace.

(clockwise from upper left)

Baroness - Red Album
Baroness - Blue Record
Skeletonwitch - Beyond the Permafrost
Flight of the Conchords - I Told You I Was Freaky (out in October)
Torche - In Return
Kylesa - Static Tensions

Scion Rock Fest

It's hard to find good metal festivals. Usually you have to put up with a fair amount of sub-par bands. The Scion Rock Fest on Feb. 28th is the exception. Too bad it is in Atlanta. 2 of the 4 bands from my best metal albums of 2008 will be there.


Full band list (my picks in bold):

Mastodon, Neurosis, High on Fire, Converge, Boris, 1349, Cryptopsy, Torche, Nachtmystium, Wolves in the Throne Room, Baroness, Harvey Milk, Kylesa, Zordaster, Withered, Krallice, Toxic Holocaust, Skeletonwitch, Rwake, A Storm of Light, Warbringer, Salome, Suidakra, Tyr, Alestorm, Eyehategod, SuidAkrA, Septic Flesh, Soilent Green, Trash Talk, U.S. Christmas, Apocalyptic Visions

If only Gojira and The Sword were going to be there. Speaking of Gojira, here is their new video for the song "All the Tears" from The Way of All Flesh. It's not my favorite song off the album, but it has a pretty trippy video.

All The Tears




EDIT: 4/16 Added final lineup