ACHTUNG

After an unexpected hiccup last Friday and today, the new episode of the Me(n)tal-Meltdown show will be uploaded tomorrow. Keep your eyes and ears peeled for the return of the Me(n)tal-Meltdown online radio show!

Best and Worst of 2011?

The year hasn’t yet come to a close, but with December creeping up I figured that now would be a good enough time to start asking around – what was best (and worst) in Metal, for 2011?

 

I’m saving my own personal list for later, but I’m sure the rest of you can get talking. Expect a reminder for this on Friday, when the Me(n)tal-Meltdown show returns!

 

What was the best album/news/gig/festival of 2011 for you? What was the worst? Surely it can’t all have been great (here’s a secret, I was actually let down by the new Amon Ama — whoops)!

 

Get commenting – and for extra measure, answers to either of the above which include “Black Sabbath’s reunion” don’t count! That one’s enough of a mixed bag as it is, and not that many of you were surprised with the announcement on 11/11/11.

 

Looking forward to reading from you!

When Cultures Collide – Is It All Folk Metal?

I hardly ever write about a topic that I’ve just read about somewhere else… okay, I guess that Baby Metal post contradicts that since I saw it in a post from a friend (to be fair he only linked to the videos and not much else). Either way, it didn’t change the fact that this recent post on Invisible Oranges set off a few questions in my head on the issue of regional influences and folk metal.

Wolves In the Throne Room (Supersonic Festival), The Custard Factory, Birmingham; October 22nd, 2011

For what may be the last round of live shows ever in a band’s career, picking a multi-genre festival is not usually a first choice for many within the extreme metal field across a country like the British Isles. Yet for Washington’s black metal-influenced Wolves In The Throne Room, the Birmingham-based Supersonic 2011 Festival was right there in the band’s string of final UK dates.

The Thing That Should Be

or – that Metallica collaboration we really want:

 

The above clip has already featured around various sites on the Internet (at least from what I’ve seen), and mercifully it’s not the only one that can be found.