In The Pit · 21/07/2024
Klash Of The Ruhrpott - For nearly a year, I've had the tickets for this legendary event sitting neatly sealed on my desk. Announced in August 2023 (remember, when I DIDN'T go to Wacken), it was sold out within days. The Teutonic Four of Thrash Metal planned a show together. The chance to see Tankard, Destructrion, Sodom and Kreator the same day - well, there was not much to think about. I had immensely high expectations and a lot of anticipation for this event. What I didn’t count on was:...
In The Pit · 06/03/2023
For three years the State of Unrest tour of Lamb of God and Blind Guardian had been postponed. Originally planned for 14.03.2020 in Hamburg the concert has been rescheduled seven times in total until this finally happened. We haven't been holding on to our tickets since 2020, we only bought them in September 2022, but many loyal fans were there yesterday, who had been waiting for the whole three years and the atmosphere was awesome. My first concert in 2023, again in the edel-optics.de-Arena in...
Genre Tourism · 23/11/2022
251 days till W:O:A 2023. Deicide, yet another one of those bands that are widely acknowledged of shaping metal the way it is today. Deicide was formed in 1987 by drummer Steve Asheim and the brothers Eric and Brian Hoffman. Glen Benton joined the band as vocalist and bassist soon after. The band performed under the name of Carnage first and when Benton joined they called themselves Amon. Since 1989 they have been known as Deicide. Being founded in Tampa (the "capital of death metal"), Deicide...
Genre Tourism · 13/11/2022
258 days till W:O:A 2023. Defleshed - a death-thrash band from Sweden around guitarist Lars Löfven, bassist and vocalist Gustaf Jorde and drummer Matte Modin. Founded in 1991 by Lars Löfven, the band quickly made a name for themselves in the death-thrash genre and released five studio albums between 1996 and 2005. They disbanded in 2005 due to lack of inspiration. In 2021, after 16 years, the original line-up from 2005 came together again, initally with the goal to record only a couple of...
Genre Tourism · 07/11/2022
268 days till W:O:A 2023. Abbath - not a name I was familiar with until recently, but certainly one of the big names in black metal. Ole Eikemo aka Abbath Doom Occulta or just Abbath was a founding member of legendary Norwegian Black Metal Band Immortal, but also played a part in several other metal projects. One of those projects was "I", formed in 2006 and their to this day only album Between Two Worlds which I came across by chance a couple of weeks ago. I instantly connected with the epic...
In The Pit · 02/10/2022
Today - a short and sweet review of the "The Bay Strikes Back Tour" from Exodus, Testament and Death Angel from my overseas metal-friend Mike. Mike - musician himself - is my number one source for metal tips and recommendations and his concert reviews are considerably shorter than mine.
Genre Tourism · 22/07/2022
Onto the next subgenre! After dipping my toes into black metal I am actually going back a bit in time to explore the beginnings of yet another subgenre of heavy metal: Death metal. Death metal is characterised by downtuned, heavily distorted guitars, fast drumming, growling vocals, time changes and uncontolled guitar solos. It emerged in the mid 1980s as a direct descendant from thrash metal. To this day it is heavily disputed by fans which band and which album started death metal. Some say it...
Roots & Riffs · 10/06/2022
Venom’s 1981 debut didn’t just make noise—it started a movement. From Satanic shock tactics to proto-thrash mayhem, Welcome to Hell kicked the gates open for extreme metal.
Genre Tourism · 30/05/2022
To conclude the unholy trinity of teutonic thrash there is one last band that needs to be mentioned - Sodom. Founded in 1981 in Gelsenkirchen by Thomas Such aka Tom Angelripper the band has undergone numerous line-up-changes, leaving Tom Angelripper as the only constant member. For me save to say: Sodom features the most hilarious stage names I've come across so far. Tom Angelripper is in best company with Chris Witchhunter, Grave Violator, Aggressor, Destructor, Atomic Steiff, Bloody Monster...
Genre Tourism · 20/05/2022
By now Kreator has become one of my favourite bands I've found in metal so far. Who would have guessed. And when listening to Kreator there are other German bands that immediately come to mind. Kreator go hand in hand with the other icons of teutonic thrash metal: Destruction, Sodom and Tankard. Today's blog article is about Destruction. Yet another band with an impressive life span. Formed in 1982 Destruction celebrated their 40th anniversary this year and can look back on 15 studio albums,...