Fingers crossed.......

It's official - Reading 2008 has Slipknot. Whilst maintaining my positive outlook and villification of all those griping about Download 2008, this does make me nervous.

Rage Against The Machine and Metallica are strong headliners (I'll take or leave The Killers), definitely more "metal" than The Offspring and Lost Prophets, but let's make a list:

Reading 2008
For:
Good solid headliners
Slipknot
Might get some of the SoCal punk/ska cartel along in the smaller tents

Against:
So many bands beginning with "The" that it makes me want to the cut the my the balls the off.
Will be full of people who think heavy metal = Guns & Roses
The Feeling are there

Download 2008
For:
Alter Bridge, BFMV, Within Temptation - nice
Tattoo/piercers
Loads of beer and possibly more manly phantom meat stalls than Reading

Against:
None of my big guns are there yet....apart from H.I.M, that is.

The big question is, wll the mighty 'Knot make my summer and get to Donnington? And will Fear Factory surprise us all and bring some industrial aural damge to the month of June?

Fingers crossed............

Why can't we all get along?

So I've finally succumbed to the temptation to become that guy with the opinions online. I've started this blog to ask a simple question - why can't we all get along? Clearly I don't mean this is in a tree-hugging, nuclear weapon-disarming, Bernard Matthews turkey-releasing way but more in a sense of, why do people decide to complain constantly about music and bands?

Every gig I've been to recently, of which there are many, has included the two dudes who bitch for the duration of the set about how shitty the band are, how conventional the music is, and various other tired tirades which, let's be honest, are of no real value to man, woman or ferret.

I've recently bought tickets to Download 2008 as a present for my lurvly wife. This alternative music festival has been causing more controversy in the music world since them four scousers said something about Jesus. Why? The line up may not be amazing but there's enough metal and good old fashioned rock on there for everyone - and they're only about a third done. Not all the bands will be playing guitar with the severed head of a virgin dove whilst defeacating into the hair of their dead grandmother but surely the likes of Throwdown and Job For A Cowboy can't be seen as anything other than metal?

We are a nation of complainers but is not the whole point of the metal scene to embrace the different and be proud of our acceptance of diversity? Or do we really just want to feel hard because we like tough bands?