Monday Metal Madness – Name that Guitar Solo

It’s time for another edition of Monday Metal Madness with a video link.  This time, the goal is to listen to the solos including the intro/outro clips and guess which band they come from.  The solos range from fairly shirt to pretty long.  So, it shouldn’t be terribly difficult.  You have most of the entire solos intact which should be ample time.  Once you have guessed correctly, just  make a comment below.  This video will also be posted on The History of Metal shortly after it posts here.  I’ll compile answers from both sites and list them here at the guessing ensues.  Enjoy.

Monday Metal Madness: The Riff Challenge

We haven’t done a Monday Metal Madness in a while, but who says they all have to be voting booths for different things?  Don’t get me wrong voting is fun, but this time around I thought I would throw in a video quiz for you all…including A Metal State of Mind owners besides me.  They were not in on song selection for this one…so you are all test subjects for future endeavors of the video quiz kind.

Based on some of our song quizzes over at The History of Metal, I thought I would test your knowledge of the mighty riff.  In about 1:33 listen to 20 riff samples and post your responses the comments box.  Some of these are instantly recognizable from some of metal’s most popular bands.  Others might take some deep thought, but not too much because you have from 1-7 seconds to listen to them.  A few of these might be of the bass and/or of the sample kind…I couldn’t make it too easy, but mostly guitar.  Have fun and give it a try.  Be sure to be ready, there is no intro to our video clip.  It just starts right into it.  Have fun and let’s see if we can knock this out.  Teamwork is great too!  If you need hints just ask.  Enjoy!

Monday Metal Madness – Grammy 2012 Follow-Up

The Grammy’s 2013 (best of 2012) aired last night and if you are like me you didn’t watch it…ok I watched some of it.  When Taylor Swift opens the show, it’s off on the wrong foot.  Besides all the pop glamor, let’s get to the metal because that’s really the most important part.  A few weeks ago, I put together a poll to see who you would like to see win.  Lamb of God took most of the votes with the rest being spread pretty evenly.  You can see the poll and it’s results here.

Ironically, one of the two bands that didn’t get a vote actually won.  I guess I should say congrats to Halestorm for winning the Best Hard Rock/Metal category despite not really qualifying as “metal” in my opinion.  This goes to show that in Grammyland, people still can’t differentiate between Hard Rock and Metal (Halestorm & Marilyn Manson = Hard Rock; everyone else = Metal).  At least Alternative got its own category; Metal deserves its own as well.

In another category, Storm Corrosion did NOT pick up the win for Best Surround Sound album.  Needless to say, it is another year of metal bands (and related metal bands) going unrecognized for the awesome work they do.  In the end I am not sure they care whether they win or not, but it would be nice to see metal get the recognition it deserves.

Here is the winning song.  Again, congrats to Halestorm.  At least they don’t suck.

Monday Metal Madness – Grammy Nominations 2012

Last year, for the 2011 Grammy Awards (click here for our 2011 poll), there were some cool deserving bands nominated for an award.  Dream Theater received their first nomination and Mastodon and Megadeth were also nominated.  However, it was Foo Fighters who swept anything and everything related to Rock/Metal.  Nothing bad on them, they deserve to be awarded for their work, they are a great band.  But, it’s painfully obvious that the Grammy Committee is still unable to draw the line between Rock, Hard Rock, and Metal. They need to separate these categories completely.  Incidentally, A Metal State of Mind voters wanted Dream Theater to win.

Monday Metal Madness – Christmas Metal

It’s been a while since we did a poll and I thought it would be the perfect time to sample and vote on some Christmas metal.  First of all, thank you for voting in the last poll which was an opinion poll.  You loyal readers voted England as the best metal producing country with Sweden at #2.  Though, I think most people voted due to the historic nature of metal England has produced, not necessarily for what England is producing today.

The other day at work one of the country music listeners asked me if there was any Christmas metal.  I really didn’t know until I started searching for it.  I was surprised to find a few things so I thought I would put it to poll and see what you think.  I did not use Trans Siberian Orchestra though, I thought that would be an unfair advantage.  Here goes, and have a happy holiday season.

First up is Twisted Sister with Heavy Metal Christmas.

This is 331Erock, our favorite guitar virtuoso, with a Christmas medley.

Third up is a collaboration effort with the following artists:

Jeff Scott Soto (Vocals; Yngwie Malmsteen, Talisman)
Bruce Kulick (Lead Guitar; Grand Funk Railroad, Kiss)
Bob Kulick (Rhythm Guitars; Kiss, W.A.S.P)
Chris Wyse (Bass; The Cult, Owl),
Ray Luzier (Drums; Army of Anyone, Korn)

Next is Joe Satriani with Silent Night.

Alice Cooper presenting us Santa Claws is Coming to Town.

This is another collaboration effort with the following artists:

Chuck Billy (TESTAMENT)
Scott Ian (ANTHRAX)
Jon Donais (SHADOWS FALL)
Chris Wyse (THE CULT)
John Tempesta (ROB ZOMBIE, THE CULT)

The last one is how the Grinch Kicked Metal Ass by August Burns Red

 

 

 

Monday Metal Madness – Opinion Poll #1

Readers voted most for Amon Amarth’s cover of Aerials (System of a Down) for the last Monday Metal Madness on 12 Nov.  Coal Chamber’s Shock the Monkey (Peter Gabriel) was a distant second and Megadeth rendition of Paranoid (Black Sabbath) scored zilch, nada, nothing.  Thank you for voting and be sure to catch our Top 25 Favorite Cover Songs posts starting in January 2013.

Recently, your fellow administrators of A Metal State of Mind wrapped up our Top 100 Favorite Albums of All Time.  It was fun to create and share with you all and our friends at The History of Metal on facebook.  After all was said and done, I (plantera7) noticed the majority of the bands that made my list came from the United States.  Perhaps that is because I am American, I am not really sure.  I like metal from all over.  There are plenty of other countries out there that put out great metal which brings me to this week’s poll.  It’s basically an opinion piece not accompanied by any videos.  Which country do you think is responsible for some of the “best” metal out there today?  There is no method to the madness, just vote for how you feel.  If you like, post a video from a band of said country as back up; could be worth some discussion.  Thank you for playing.  Within the poll I will list a few countries well-known for their metal, but feel free to write in…

Monday Metal Madness Poll – Good Cover Songs

Looks like the Stoner votes are in and Kyuss took the victory for best Stoner rock band over Monster Magnet and Sleep.  Thank you for playing in that poll and if you haven’t casted your vote there is still plenty of time.  You can check out that poll here.

Starting sometime in January, A Metal State of Mind will post our Top 25 Favorite Cover Songs in increments in lieu of the Theme Thursday.  The Theme Thursday will become an as necessary post since we have been doing that nearly two years.  For this week’s poll I am going to give you a small glimpse into what you will see on my (plantera7’s AKA Reggie) Top 25 cover song list.

These three cover songs represent the high, medium, and low of my list…a top 10, bottom 10, and one in the middle.  I am not going to spoil my list that much as far as who places where, but I am curious to see how you vote for what you think is the better of these cover songs.

Here are your choices…

First up is Coal Chamber’s version of Shock the Monkey.  The original was recorded by Peter Gabriel which makes this cover qualify for an “unlikely” cover which was the subject of a theme some time ago.  I like their take on the song where they made it their own, but didn’t stray too far from the core of the song.  Do you also notice the cameo?

Second is Megadeth’s rendition of Black Sabbath’s Paranoid.  I have to say it is all the cover songs of Black Sabbath that got me more into Black Sabbath themselves.  That sounds like it doesn’t make much sense, but I am more fond of Sabbath covers than the band itself, but that is slowly changing.  This is not the ony Sabbath cover on my list; just one I chose for this poll. What to you think?

This cover struck me as odd when I first heard Aerials covered, but it is very well done.  I would have never imagined Amon Amarth knew who System of a Down was, but I stand corrected.  Again, this is another example of a band making the song their own, but not steering too far from the core of the song.

 

 

Monday Metal Madness: The Original Stoner Rockers

Last weeks poll/quiz resulted in no one guessing the correct answer with the majority believing that Annihilator had a revolving door of members wider than a hooker’s (insert favorite word for the female genitalia here).  The band with the most members in and out of the group goes to Suicidal Tendencies with a whopping 26 different people in the band at one time or another.  Here’s the amounts for the rest:

Megadeth – 18
Annihilator – 25
Iced Earth – 25
Overkill – 13
Metal Church – 19
Opeth – 15

While my days of burning doobies is behind me for the most part, the music that I loved to listen to while flying high stuck with me.  Due to massive amounts of psychedelia rock/metal with those trippy elements gets labeled as stoner rock/metal, but I find that the music is highly enjoyable even without the aid of certain naturally occurring plants that are dried and lit on fire for recreational purposes.  The 3 biggest names that get dropped when referring to the pioneers of the style are Kyuss, Monster Magnet, and Sleep.

All 3 bands released their debut albums at around the same time, so it’s difficult to say which one was the true originator.  But since they each offer a much different sound from the other, let’s just say they all share the pioneer honors.  Eventually Kyuss and Sleep broke up as members of the bands went on to form bands like Queens of the Stoneage and High on Fire and Monster Magnet gradually drifted away from the heavy psychedelic sound in lieu for a more hard rock focus (they still do retain a lot of their original trippy sound though).  So, of the 3 which one appeals to the THC drenched part of your metal heart the most?  Enjoy!!

Monster Magnet:

“Cyclops Revolution” off of the album Superjudge

Kyuss:

“Thong Song” off of the album Blues for the Red Sun

Sleep:

“Dragonaut” off of the album Holy Mountian

Monday Metal Madness – Revolving Doors

Contrary to what I have been reading on several websites and facebook groups; looks like 61% the voters here at A Metal State of Mind want to see a Pantera reunion with Zakk Wylde on guitar.  Though, no one could really replace Dimebag, Zakk would certainly do the job justice.  As far as I am concerned, I would be a ticket holder for such an event.   Thank you for voting and joining us on our Monday Metal Madness polls.

This week, I am going with a trivia-based poll.  Over the years, doing research for reviews and other articles revealed that some bands (more than I imagined) had quite a revolving door of band members.  The bands listed in this poll have all had no less than 13 “former” band members.  The numbers I used for this poll does NOT include the current band members.  Also, I used the internet for my research and we all know the World Wide Web is not always accurate.

Here is your challenge:  Without doing any research, which of the following bands had the most “former” members?

Also, since I came up with this trivia poll, I will obviously not be voting on my own poll.  Enjoy, and if you want to comment with your thoughts about revolving band members let’s chat about it in the comments box.

Monday Metal Madness: Should There Be a Pantera Reunion

Recently the rumors of a Pantera reunion have been surfacing again.  But, how could that happen now that the great Dimebag Darrell is no longer with us.  Well the big rumor point is that Zakk Wylde has been approached about filling some pretty fucking big shoes.  It seems that Zakk, Phil, and Rex are down with the idea but Vinnie Paul (Dime’s brother) has yet to comment on the whole idea.  If you have been following the drama since the demise of Pantera and the death of Dimebag, it is well-known that Phil and Vinnie are on less than good terms (even after Phil has reached out multiple times, even going as far as say he’d let Vinnie physically batter him while he stood there and took it, to get on good terms with his former bandmate).  But even if Vinnie let go of his grudge, and joined up for the project, would it really be a great idea?

I don’t think so.  Dime was such an integral part of Pantera and seeing the band performing without him under the Pantera name seems like heresy to me.  On a realistic note, I think it would be killer if there was a tribute band for Pantera featuring some original members of the legendary group.  Call it Far Beyond Driven or something.  That way the Pantera name isn’t used without Dime and fans can still jam out to some awesome Pantera tunes as close as they will get them.  Even if Vinnie never lets go of his grudge, he won’t be able to say that Phil and Co. are tarnishing the Pantera name that him and his brother started years ago.  So, what say you?  Aye, Nay, or Triubte band?  Peace Love and Metal!!!!