Top Ten of 2012

Get to the chopper

I’m a bit of a Tim Lambesis fan, primarily because Austrian Death Machine is one of my favourite side projects of all time, but also because As I Lay Dying are a fine example of modern metal. It was therefore with great happiness that I received AILD’s forthcoming Decas album a couple of days back, and into my ears at a savage volume it went.

Decas is being released to celebrate AILD’s tenth year in the metal world and features three new tracks, a few covers and some remixes. The cover of Judas Priest’s Electric Eye is good shit but my personal highlight is their thrash cover of Descendants Coffee Mug. I love the original and this is a worthy reworking. Not sure about the weird dancey remix stuff though; when the Benjamin Weinman (of Dillinger Escape Plan fame) remix of Wrath Upon Ourselves came on it’s such a horrible bastard noise that I thought my MP3 player had packed up.

The new Whitechapel EP is in too and it’s a curious beast. It’s eight tracks that again, has a Weinman remix which I am not looking forward too, a cover of Pantera’s Strength Beyond Strength and an acoustic version of End of Flesh. Yes, and acoustic Whitechapel track. To be honest, it sounds pretty terrible, doesn’t it? I can’t really see how the kings of deathcore (a title I have assigned, before everyone gets pissy and cries about how Job for a Cowboy are better) would work at all without brutal downtuned 8-strings and savage drums. Watch this space for a full run down…

In other news, everyone’s favourite nice-assed midget John Bon Jovi has opened a restaurant called Soul Kitchen in New Jersey, which promotes healthy eating to families on a low income. The premise is, if you can’t afford to pay for the meal, you work in the restaurant as a volunteer to settle the tab. What a thoroughly bloody good bloke.

Fare the well

M

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