"Less is more" might work when describing a few things... Like body fat or, I don't know, wart size.

But when it comes to blog posts (or penis size), less is definitely not more, which is why I have to apologize for the lack of posts lately. Thing is, what happened was... Hell, I don't have to explain myself you. What are you, my mother?

Anyway, we're all going through busy times with our 'real' lives, and we simply cannot post tons of posts daily like we used to at this time. But hopefully we'll pull our shit together. Let's face it, this is still the 49th best metal blog on the interwebz, at least according to the study I did.

So be well, and keep watching this space... Exciting things are coming up*

*- Not really, but we do plan on posting more...

Rob Zombie and Dave Mustaine have one thing in common. They're both involved in unintentionally hilarious movies. Dave was in Some Kind of Monster, Rob directed a few 'horror' films.

But now the guys have two things in common: They're touring together!

These are the dates:

May 11 - Holmdel, NJ @ PNC Bank Arts Center
May 12 - Scranton, PA @ Toyota Pavilion
May 16 - Pittsburgh, PA @ Stage AE
May 18 - Grand Rapids, MI @ The Deltaplex
May 20 - Columbus, OH @ Rock On The Range
May 22 - La Crosse, WI @ La Crosse Center
May 24 - Sioux City, IA @ Tyson Center
May 25 - Wichita, KS @ Hartman Arena
May 26 - Pryor, OK @ Rocklahoma

I'm seeing Megadeth again this summer. Not much else to say, really. I just am.

Lemmy is apparently pretty pissed off about the new Motörhead box set being sold at $600 in some places. I'll say, that's quite a lot, isn't it?

"Unfortunately, greed once again rears its yapping head. I would advise against it even for the most rabid completists!"

Read full article here.

I advise you to buy it. And if you're gonna spend $600 on that, might as well spend $1,000 on the complete collection of Dose of Metal article, printed on glossy paper for your needs. Email me for more info.

Dear editors,

I understand how hard it is to take raw footage and edit it into something beautiful and coherent -- especially when it needs to be in time with the music. I really do understand, because although I am a metal messenger by night (read: blogging nerd), I am also a professional editor by day. I am not saying I'm necessarily better than you at this, nor am I trying to brag, I'm merely explaining how I know a thing or two about this activity.

There is, however, no reason to giving me a close-up of the drummer, whilst the lead guitarist is doing a solo. You see, each member of the band is important in his own right, so you don't have to be unfair and focus on the singer more than you focus on the guitarist, for instance. Unless we're talking about a solo artist and his live band, that is. But if we're talking about a metal band, when the lead guitarist is doing a solo, I want to see him do that solo. As many shots of him playing the guitar as necessary.

When a solo is happening, fuck the singer, fuck the drummer. I want to see the solo being played. And here's one of the many reasons:

A lot of people who listen to this type of music play instruments themselves. Chances are, if someone plays guitar and is watching an AC/DC dvd, for instance, he is interested in watching Angus Young do his thing. So when Angus is doing a solo, focus on that solo. Alternate between close-ups and full shots of him, do whatever you have to do to feel like you're editing the concert, but don't lose track of which instrument is the main focus at any given time.

Fans usually buy these DVDs, they want to see when the guitarist does his solo, when the vocalist does his trademark scream, when the drummer does a blast beat. Just put yourself in their position. This is the music they're playing, what would I want to see if I was a big fan?

I think editors who work on concerts need to be familiar with the band they're working on.

Make the jump, cause I'm not done yet. I'm gonna start giving examples of good edits versus bad edits. Ohh boy, I'm so excited! Feel these nipples.

Nice try, woman, but the only cut I want from you is for the bacon in my breakfast...

Again, I want to stress that I'm not trying to be condescending. Concert DVDs are, for the most part, very well made. But I found myself wanting to see what the guitarist was doing when a certain guitar lick was being played, but instead I got a close-up of the bassist's sweaty face. It just didn't feel right, and it made me think that the people behind the concert's post-production were not into this type of music.

There's a certain rhythm and dynamic to a piece of edited content, however, I think rules need to be broken a little more when we're talking about a show. Even if you feel you need to insert a shot of the crowd during a drum solo, don't. Wait for a pause, show the crowd's reaction then, but focus on the fucking drummer for the rest of time. That's all I'm saying.

Let me give another example: James Hetfield. Being the singer of Metallica, Jaymz has a lot of 'air time,' so to speak. And since Metallica puts out DVDs like Bangbros puts out porn, boy do I have a lot of Metallica footage I could be giving as an example.

However, I feel Jaymz is being unfairly treated as a guitarist by you guys. He has two or three solos per concert, yet even then, we get shots of Kirk and Lars. It's not right, man.

Here's how you don't cut "Nothing Else Matters's" solo:

The solo (which starts at 5:51) is going on, but you don't even see who's playing it. You get shots of Kirk and Lars for the first 8 seconds, then you see a quick close-up of James' guitar, only to go back to Lars right after... The solo ends and we've barely even seen James, it was mostly Lars... Why?

Granted, this was on TV, probably broadcast while it was actually happening, even though they didn't broadcast the full concert. But even if it's live, the director needs to realize who's playing what and focus on him. And this happens on DVDs as well, so don't be giving me the "THIS IS NOT A DVD!!111" excuse, it's just to illustrate what I'm talking about, as I've seen similar mistakes on actual DVDs.

Anyway, here's how you should do it:

The solo (which starts at 6:28) is show almost in its entirety whilst being focus on James. Lars makes yet another appearance, but it's just for a split second, cause the drums are prominent. It's all James, as it should be... It's his solo, and for God's sake, it's one of the few solos he does in Metallica, let the man have his guitarist moment. And let the pretend Metallica fans be amazed that it's not Kirk who does all the lead work in the band.

And again, if you're trying to discredit this example by saying "Well, duh Alex, this is a DVD, of course it's edited properly" then let me give you an example of sloppy editing from the very same DVD:

During James' "Oh yeah!!??" moment in "Enter Sandman," he starts the riff then the song continues (4:43). However, the editor here chose a shot of the audience members giving the devil horns. Why? Then they went for a ridiculously wide shot of the stage. If you look close, James actually does a jump, too. Why not show this? It's a DVD, they must have had at least 2 cameras on James, why not show a full shot of James doing the jump and playing guitar, instead of showing us the audience and stage? They could have made the cut to the fireworks exactly as they went off, not 2-3 seconds earlier...

While these cuts sort of made sense from a rhythm point of view, I'm sure most people will agree that they'd rather see James do the jump and play the riff, than see a bird's eye view of the stage.

And since I started this rant with AC/DC as an example, let's take a look at two of their concerts and see sloppy editing vs. better editing.

Angus Young's virtuosity shines in the intro for "Thunderstruck." It's the quintessential AC/DC guitar moment. Simple, yet exciting as fuck. So why would you show Angus' back almost the entire time?

I understand the crowd was massive, and the shot of Angus' back with the crowd was poetic, but again, this is a concert. The diehard AC/DC fan will most likely want to see Angus' fingers in action (that's what she said!). You can pick many, many other times during this concert when you can focus on the crowd. This was Angus' moment, and you've ruined it. BASTARDS!!!

Here's another bad example:

Why show all the wide shots in the world instead of focusing on Angus? Why, oh fucking why? In fact, if you look at most "Thunderstruck" performances, chances are they're gonna show a variety of wide shots for no reason whatsoever.

However, whoever edited this was doing it right:

It starts on Angus, and it stays on Angus. That's the way it should be. Obviously the intro is long as fuck, and the riff continues well into the song, so you can't have Angus be the main focus the entire damn song. But start like this video did, because it's Angus' shit. That's how you fucking edit a "Thunderstuck" intro, yo.

Got it?

Of course, I do know that it's not just the editors who are at fault. Maybe the editors meant well, but the producers and directors tried to feel like they knew what they were talking about, so they forced them to add shots here and there. It happens. A producer's job is to ruin it for the rest of the crew working on any given project, I get that. But you really need to be a fan of rock/metal music if you're gonna edit rock/metal concerts. And the more about the band in question, the better.

So to the editors out there, thanks for all the hard work, but apply yourselves next time. If you hear a guitar solo, figure out who plays that solo and stay on that dude until the solo ends.

Yours truly,

Alex

Mordax are from Denmark, and we've talked about them in the early days of the site. Back then we still had all our photos in black and white, and they were an unsigned band from Copenhagen.

How things have changed, because Mordax are now signed, and we're the biggest metal site in existence.  Ok, so we're not really the biggest, but I think we're the biggest metal site that is called 'Dose of Metal,' so that has to count for something, right?

Check their video out, then go to their site for more metal wizardry.

Torture Killer released their debut album For Maggots To Devour in 2003 and Matti Liuke sang on said album. Juri Sallinen replaced Liuke on a split EP with Satujumala in 2005. Chris Barnes, of Six Feet Under, replaced Sallinen on Torture Killer's second album Swarm! just to be replaced by Sallinen again for their third album Sewers. Fast forward to 2012 and Pessi Haltsonen replaced Sallinen and is about to release an EP with Torture Killer, called I Chose Death.

Despite changing their vocalists more often than changing their socks, Torture Killer's backing band has been rather stable since its inception. And that's exactly where they're very strong. I've always liked Torture Killer for their riffing and melodies. I Chose Death doesn't seem to stray away from that too much and I really like the first song of said EP, which you can listen to below.

Make up your mind about it yourself by listening to it. Torture Killer aren't groundbreaking but I've always had a soft spot for them and I'll definitely get that new EP because they never disappointed me before.

Matt DeVries (picture above on the left), who left Chimaira to join his former Chimaira bandmates Rob Arnold and Kevin Talley in Six Feet Under last year, left Six Feet Under. Former Brain Drill and Vile bassist Jeff Hughell (pictured above on the right) joined Six Feet Under shortly afterwards.

DeVries isn't unemployed now though. Matt joined Fear Factory to replace Byron Stroud (pictured above in the middle), who joined 3 Inches of Blood earlier this year.

To make matters even more confusing, I will now give you some of the official announcements by the bands about their new bassists and I'll black out the names so you'll have absolutely no idea who is talking about whom.

"... is proud to announce our new member, bass player ... He's an amazing musician and I have been a fan of his work since first hearing ... a few years back. We feel with the addition of ..., all the puzzle pieces are in place and the killing machine known as ... is now a true force to be reckoned with! Prepare to be toe tagged and body bagged."

I wonder who said that.

"We are very excited to have ... playing bass for ... We feel he is a great addition to our touring lineup. He has been a friend for a very long time and he is a great musician who will be a perfect instrument in the ... machine."

Hmm, there's a big hint in there about who the band is. Read all the links I provided above and you'll soon know where the announcements came from. Yes, you have to work for your news on Dose of Metal. Nothing is for free here!

As a huge metal fan, I am surely a huge Judas Priest fan. Well the two are synonymous after all, because JP are in fact one of the very founders or our genre and not all metalheads today realize just how much they owe to Priest for their favorite bands sound!

It may have been Black Sabbath who introduced the world to dark / doom metal, but It was Judas Priest who were the first mainstream act to have the “Heavy” guitar double attack, they were the first along with Motörhead to bring the biker image to metal with the leathers and Rob’s Harley becoming a stage mascot. So even if you have never really gotten into this band, its well worth giving them a try and at least having something of theirs in your collection, because without them, there would simply not be the sounds that we know and love today and they have done some great songs through the decades.

1. One For The Road - 4:38
2. Rocka Rolla - 3:07
3. Winter - 1:42
4. Deep Freeze - 1:20
5. Winter Retreat - 3:28
6. Cheater - 2:58
7. Never Satisfied - 4:50
8. Run Of The Mill - 8:33
9. Dying To Meet You - 6:19
10. Caviar And Meths - 2:02
11. Diamonds And Rust - 3:14

While all album reviews are subjective, I have to try to develop a fair system to base my opinion, so, here is the method that I use to rate albums:

Points Given:
½ skull for good album art (quality & innovation)
½ skull for good track length diversity (duration & style)
½ skull for good vocals (lead & backing)
½ skull for good bass / percussion
½ skull for good rhythm / technicality
½ skull for good lead / solo’s
½ skull for good lyrics
½ skull for keeping it metal & standing the test of time (timeless album)
½ skull for having one or more hit / concert hall anthem
½ skull for doing something different that worked well for the fans and or production quality

Points Deducted:
1 skull for disappointing the majority of existing fans
3 skulls for totally leaving the metal genre (by not actually having heavy guitars in the music)
1 skull for any combination of poor vocals and or weak lyrics
1 skull for lack of originality as an artist
2 skulls for not writing own material
2 skulls for weak musicianship (instrument playing ability / use of too many effects to mask skill)

One comment which surely should not need to be made is, if you don't like 70’s Rock / Metal then you will not like this album, but that should be obvious right? So with no further blabber from me, where better to start than their debut album Rocka Rolla!

It was released in 1974. The first single was the track "Rocka Rolla" from which the album took its name. One crucial thing about this album is that it was not just the first, of such an important band to the metal scene, but also the fact that pressure from the label to add an extra musician to increase the “Wall of sound” effect, was aiming at bringing in a keyboard player, that would have totally changed the dynamic of the bands sound and style, which would have no doubt impacted on every band they influenced going forward! But luckily for us, they added a second guitarist instead, thus the birth of the dual guitar metal sound was born! They did add keyboard synths at a later stage of their career, but due to having the dual guitars so early on, it colored their style at the infancy of their recording process and so this is an important matter that reflects the choice of many of the best metal groups playing today.

It's worth a mention that there were some technical issues during the recording of this album and so the quality was considered fairly poor, they had the very same producer who had been working previously on Black Sabbath's albums, so this was not expected. Another thing that is surprising was that some of the bands most popular songs of that early time were omitted from the final cut and some of the fans did not like that. But nevertheless it was the first taste of things to come.

So straight off, we see that the artwork for this album like most JP covers is actually pretty good for the time, we see that there is something original about it and then we look at the track list. Here we can determine that we have some longer tracks and some shorter ones. This again is a precedent set by these early metal bands which pioneered diversity in track length and demeanor.

So now to the songs themselves. We start off with “One For The Road,” it has a real 70’s groove and you cant help but hear a touch of Zeppelin going on there. It's a decent start but at this early stage, it's none too metal. Then we go into the title track “Rocka Rolla” which has a kinda David Bowie sound to it, but it definitely picks up the pace a bit, obviously a bit of a dated sound now but remember we are in August 1974 so this was cutting edge.

Track 3 is “Winter” which is a very Sabbath-esque, it's short but dark, I like it!

Track 4 is the shortest on the album and called “Deep Freeze,” it is almost part of the same track as 3; in as much as it has the same riff and the two flow one into the other. Again I like it.

5 is “Winter Retreat” and is initiated with a wailing crash of 1970’s effects and at the time had not been done to death yet, so kudos for the experimentation. This track changes halfway through and becomes a mellow guitar piece with lyrics to match, there is something Deep Purplish about it somehow, even though I also think Rob’s voice is better than just about any of his contemporaries of the time, except for Plant and Coverdale whom he matches.

Track 6 is “Cheater” and is a rocker, it has the typical early JP blues rock sound, complete with harmonica and a standard rock beat. Its a highlight in terms of a good old fashioned tremolo ended solo from KK.

Track 7 is “Never Satisfied” which reminds me of my ex-wife, fortunately she won't be reading this as she is not a metal fan. The track is pretty decent and another fair album track. By the time these songs were written and recorded Priest had already toured with Sabbath and I think they had gone about the business of taking some inspiration from them while also looking to differentiate themselves at the same time.

Track 8 is “Run Of The Mill” which says it all really, not the most fun track for me, but its the longest song on the entire album and for me went on a bit too long at eight and a half minutes. It does show off Rob’s vocal ability some though in parts. This track is one of the more popular songs on the record, although its not my cup of tea.

Track 9 is “Dying To Meet You” which I cant help but feel sounded like so many typical 70’s guitar bands. Its not one that does much for me. It does however keep some darkness to it and shows the mellower side of the group at the same time. I think its a track which could be good if they decide to rescue it in the future with a new version of it. It starts off different to how it ends, its another song of two halves and the second half does pick up and have some better riffage, again its very Led Zep. (Whom I love, but just this is not like a class Zeppelin song).

Track 10, “Caviar And Meths,” starts slowly, builds and shows some character. I actually quite like this. It's a instrumental and for me is a small highlight.

The final track is number 11 “Diamonds And Rust,” which is the epic anthem of the release. It is played at many JP shows till this day. Its another highlight when the chorus kicks in “We both know what memories can bring, they bring diamonds and rust.”

Okay, there you have it, that’s the album. So whats the verdict?

Based on my ranking system, they picked up full half skulls for each element (taking into consideration the period) except they failed for poor quality production and not putting live fan favorites onto the album and not making the album so that it stands the test of time.

So with 4 skulls, it is now time to look at what I would deduct. I could only take away one skull, that was for disappointing the majority of fans by not putting on tracks like “The Ripper” which many of their faithful concert going groupies would have despaired at. So overall rating = 3 skulls, not bad really for such an old record and a first attempt. Luckily they went on to get much better!

Kim Jong-il is dead, long live Kim Jong-un.

Also, remember the band called North Korea? We wrote about them last year when they released their first EP, The Basement Tapes Vol. 1. New year, new tapes, and the band have earlier today teased the release of the second EP, (shockingly) called The Basement Tapes Vol. 2, scheduled for release on 02 / __ / 2012 -- meaning sometime in the next two weeks. We'll keep you posted with the news of the release.

You can download the first EP (I recommend it) in exchange for a tweet or a Facebook post on this page and you can see a live clip for Master Plan B above.

What you can hear and see above is Meshuggah's new lyric video for their recently leaked track Break Those Bones Whose Sinews Gave It Motion.

I have no idea if the track is supposed to indicate that their new album is a concept one dealing with the rise and fall of emo subculture, but hot dayum, that's long. That's what she said, herp.

Anywho, it's fucking Meshuggah, you either love it or you kinda suck.

We all know Korn as the band who invented metal ten years ago. They also reinvented it last year with their metalstep project, and  it seems now they're about to do the same to acoustic music.

A while back Metal Hammer posted about the above cover of Korn's Narcissistic Cannibal by British rock band The Dirty Youth. Seems that the band heard the song, and decided to take the band on tour with them for some European dates. Our only guess is that they'll also write a "revolutionary" acoustic album together. Oh wait...

Because they won a "metal" Grammy. A lot of people got super pissed off about this, because the category they won is called hard rock / metal.

To explain: Dear metalheads, hard rock / metal means hard rock OR metal. Not hard rock and metal.

Either way, blame the people at Grammy's who lumped bands like Dream Theater, Mastodon, Megadeth with Sum 41 and Foo Fighters. Dave Grohl did rock out a Slayer shirt (as seen above) so that makes it completely okay, right?

The thing I only care about is finding out if Skrillex won the best singer Grammy <3

Today would mark Cliff Burton's 50th birthday, if it wasn't for that terrible accident that happened 26 years ago. So today is a good opportunity to listen to some oldschool Metallica and hear what Cliff and the guys left behind for the world - killer music.

Happy Birthday Cliff Burton!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b95o89kBoXs

Somebody shared the above image on my Facebook news feed today and I think it's pretty cool. I can't give you a source right now, but feel free to let me know where this picture came from and I'll update this article with the source.

Either way, it's a pretty sweet idea and nicely done. If you're into metal and chemistry, this should give you wet dreams. Click the above image to see the full picture.

Seems a lot of fans feel pissed off about the whole Black Sabbath without Bill Ward situation, so much in fact that they're willing to do the only thing that really counts: gathering on a Facebook page!

No, seriously there's a Facebook page called 1,000,000 Black Sabbath fans say yes to Bill Ward which has been making news lately because it was made to show off the discontent most Black Sabbath feel about this whole "reunion without one member" thing. There's also an online petition organized at change.org, so you can check that out as well.

Now, I don't want to be the cynical asshole, and I actually liked the page myself (and I'd recommend everyone else doing it as well, it's better than just bitching), but I'm not sure how well this will work. Currently, the people who liked the page amount to about a show and a half the band could do on the tour. What's I'd suggest doing, and don't take this  advice unless you're really butt hurt about this: Boycott the tour. That's where the biggest money is, and that's the only thing that might send the message across. If you bought the ticket, ask for a refund, because you've most likely bought it when the shows were branded as the "reunion" tour, which the new one won't really be.

In short: #OccupySabbath! I AM THE 25%! Let us know if you have any other ideas. Tag your tweets with my highly original protest hashtag.