Who needs friends? Me, actually.

I must apologise for the lacklustre Download summary. It is virtually impossible to sum up with mere words the vibe you get from tens of thousands of rockers drinking, eating and circle of deathing for three days. My advice to you online cartel would be the following; check out the Throwdown pit on YouTube - if you don't want to be there in 2009, shame on you.
To explain the title of this entry, one of my dear friends, a car salesman who we shall call Shithouse (a name based on his size before his recent beer amnesty, street smarts and surname) owed me a very small sum of cash. Shithouse is one of the world's biggest Maiden fans and not only has he an extensive back catalogue of classic metal (oh fuck, I still have a Megadeth CD of his...) but he's also seen Heart live. Bow down, fools.
So anyway, Shithouse calls me and says "MADman, I've a spare ticket to Maiden. Coming?" To which one replies "I'm in squire, and thank you for your kind offer."
To summarise, free ticket to see Maiden supported by A7X and Within Temptation. You see, his lass wanted seats, he wants to be at the front "giving it plenty (sic)" so who better to call than everyone's favourite freshly-pierced metal head? That's me, by the way.

I bought my limited edition Eddie slip-ons today..........

It came, we saw, they conquered

After months of hype, grief, excitement, anticipation, tears, beers, Cyril Sneers, and potatoes, Download 2008 is no more. What a flucking weekend.

Stopping at the service station en route we were greeted by a number of sleeved-up metalers and one fat topless chap eating a civilised cooked breakfast - they were obviously headed the same way. A breakfast bap and Big One Brekkie later and we hit the road again.

Day 1 - Hostile impressed from the Gibson stage, and the gruelling death metal of Black Dahlia Murder certainly proved that we were at Download. For all those forum geeks (myself kinda included) that thought the festival was losing it's metal heritage, hush thy mouths. A personal highlight for me was seeing Rise Against perform classics Ready To Fall and Prayer For The Refugee - they ripped the crowd a new one with a perfect mix of hardcore and pop punking keeping us all confused as to whether to dance like a bell or throw the horns. Fuckin' A.

Disturbed continue to be one of my favourite bands; ever since I first saw Mad Davey come onstage in his Hannibal Lecter clobber 8 or so years ago when they supported Marilyn Manson, I've been a fan. THere is nothing as rousing as 10,000 fists in the air when they sing, um, 10,000 Fists. Particularly in the chorus, when the aforementioned fists go in the air...

But it was all about KISS on day 1. You can't beat slightly flabby, topless, middle-aged men in facepaint shooting fire out of their guitars for two hours for entertainment. Not playing Crazy Nights was a bit odd but throw Detroit Rock City and I Wanna Rock And Roll All Night in there and it was virtually a perfect gig. Pure theatre, these boys.

Day two was more beer-fuelled mayhem. Bullet, 36 Crazyfists, A Day To Remember - all sweet as. Biffy Clyro were sub par but what can you do?

I must apologise for this blog post. It's one of those ones where there's too much to write and I've lost my mojo with it. Plus, writing about Download reminds me I'm not there any more, which sucks huge hairy balls.

I can't help but feel this could go on and on and get a bit boring. So my summary is as follows:

Beers - 37
Best bands - HIM, Alter Bridge, BFMV, KISS, Disturbed, Municipal Waste, Black Stone Cherry
Worst bands - Biffy, Madina Lake, Job For A Cowboy
Food of choice - cheseburgers, some weird potato dish
Oddest image - men dresed as monkeys sodomising each other whilst the Elephant Man watched
Best hat - a chicken

Come rain or shine...

...we'll be there in a matter of hours now. Well, days. Not many. One, in fact.

Download 2008 has arrived so this will be my last entry before standing in a wet/muddy/hot/sweaty (tbc) field listening to popular beat combos such as Judas Priest and Alter Bridge.
Me and Hot Chick have pretty much planned who we're seeing already so as to avoid an embarrassing domestic situation outside the Throwdown slam pit. We've agreed on most things but the Cavalera Conspiracy vs. Lostprophets war still rages. The way I see it, Lostprophets are going to play their best stuff last so we only need to catch 15-20 minutes. Speculative at best.

Most excited about:
Alter Bridge
H.I.M (again)
Disturbed (again)
BFMV
Judas Priest
Cavalera Conspiracy
Black Stone Cherry
36 Crazyfists
Apocalyptica feat. Christina Scabbia
Potential sunshine
Phantom meat burgers
Beer

Least excited about:
£15-a-pint beer
Getting the shits (will happen with aforementioned phantom meat burger consumption)
Simple Plan
Simple Plan's hair
Simple Plan's fans' hair

So, beers and cheers up North, maggots. See you there. I'll be the stocky bloke with no hair in a black t-shirt.........

Seems like doomsday's come early this year...

I finally managed to find Atreyu's "A Deathgrip On Yesterday" album after months of looking. Turns out it was in a CD case. Imagine. Seen them twice now and both times have been mightily impressed. Not to sure about the bit where I got my teeth chipped in the pit last time but it's all par for the course. I'm still surprised that the fellow got his foot up to head height. Kids nowadays.
I wasn't sure about their new album "Lead Sails Paper Anchor" when I first heard it - my whole thang for Atreyu was the archetypal screamo/metalcore vibe, so was a bit taken aback by some of the glam rock clap-a-long tunes on "Lead Sails...". Couple of listens though, it's a bloody masterpiece. Bought "Suicide Notes and Butterfly Kisses" today as I'm in an angsty frame of mind and to be honest, only Atreyu, 36 Crazyfists or Caliban will really do.
That's me done for tonight as I need to work out "Ex's and Oh's" on guitar. Oh, it's going fine, thanks for asking.