Dan G

That's cool man, (and as much as this has nothing to do with my actions personally) sorry it annoyed you. But to me it's no less credible than trying to generate a response by making snidy comments on an internet forum about someone who has no beef with you whatsoever... I'm not trying to start an argument, but this sort of thing is one of my bugbears. Moving on. Haha. Some people like St Anger so there's no accounting for taste... I'm glad you still like it, but "Find Me" didn't get us a European record deal and distribution...

Easy champ, there's no need to be a cunt about it. Here was the clue about who wrote it: "Dan, Nick, Marky and myself..... " I can't defend any of Ben's words, but I'm guessing "we aren't a soap opera band" refers to the fact that there is no inner-band tension surrounding Alex's decision to leave the band - rather than having anything to do with the trite, hyperbolic rubbish that followed... I wouldn't have put it in those words necessarily, but from my own point of view Alex has been a good friend and an important member of the band - I'd imagine Ben thought he deserved a bit more than simply; "Alex has left the band, it was his own decision. We wish him all the best." On the name vote, I'm going to go with Scotty Bizzle.

That's a much shorter/better way of saying pretty much what I was attempting to get across. (and punk is an attitude rather than a genre of music if you ask me... lets save that one for a rainy day...) Exactly, that's kinda my point! But to less informed ears you might just be "another noisy shouty metal band lolz". And similarly, Ascension appear to wish to be regarded as a power metal band - as opposed to being lumped in with bands/genres that to their ears they sound very different from. Ah, never mind anyway. Lets all sit back, have a cup of consumable-liquid (wouldn't want to get into specific sub-genres of beverages) and listen to some "rock music". Am I talking about Meatloaf or Discordance Axis... who knows, it's all the same bloody thing these days

But that's the thing, you're using the word "slightly" as if the only difference between the bands is that one tunes to E and the other to Eb. Iron Maiden are a metal band. Cannibal Corpse are a metal band. Are you trying to tell me that these bands only sound slightly different and therefore don't need separate sub-genres?

But the majority of those people who refuse to split metal into pedantic sub-genres are non-metal fans who (often hypocritically) split up their own musical tastes into equally pedantic sub-genres. Furthermore, power metal is a particularly infamous sub-genre-of-metal with certain idiosyncrasies that general metal fans either love or hate. i.e. A lot of broad-minded metal fans will listen to all sorts of metal except power metal. Conversely a lot of power metal fans listen to nothing but power metal. Regardless of whether you think ascension are brilliant or atrocious, I think they at least need to be judged as being a power metal band, and pretty much the only in Aberdeen at that. Of course I could be the only guy in Aberdeen who dresses up as Harry Potter and plays samples of animals being raped to the tune of popular TV game shows.... Try telling Jake or Scorge that they are simply in a "metal" band and lumping them in with emo bands, and see how long it is before they rip you a new asshole. The fact is they probably want to be as far removed as possible from a term as broad as "metal", but if you want to ignore subgenres and break it down into simple facts, you've got someone screaming over loud distorted guitars and drums which is no different to the pant-wetting-fringe-brigade. Your Gran would probably think that too. I'm not having a go at you, and I'm not defending or criticising any of the bands I have mentioned above. I'm merely pointing out that I think bands who consider themselves in sub-genres such as Power metal, Grind, Thrash, Death metal, Black metal, Doom etc etc don't deserve to be labelled pedantic and lumped into one general bucket of odds-n-sods metal.

Gary Glitter enjoys molesting kids... doesn't mean it's a good idea though.

Freddy Cricien is Roger Miret (Agnostic front's singer)'s half-brother.

In my experience that 30-50 every night over a week or 2 can make the difference between a band managing to stay afloat or have to cancel the rest of a tour because members can't afford to pay for petrol as well as living costs etc. I'm not trying to rubbish the battle of the bands thing. Two rubbish gigs for 4k sounds like a great deal! And like you say, the money can help the band in the long run which is definitely a good thing. But playing 50 gigs a year for 50 is 2500...

The only good thing about battle of the bands is potential money. Didn't you say you hated playing those gigs at the time?! There just seems to be a lot of inconsistency between you saying that money doesn't matter and that you should play gigs for fun... after playing horrible gigs for the sole purpose of money.

Not really. I think out of the 9 bands on that bill, only All Stations Down and Flood Of Red would fit that category... Didn't you enter a battle-of-the-band competition?!? The least dignifying gig on the planet, but at least there is a potential pot of gold at the end of it...

As opposed to strum, strum, strum. need-a-fucking-haircut.

I've got a feeling that we're looking at a bit of a strokes-and-horses-for-folks-and-courses scenario here....

50 is fuck all really. That would work out as ten pounds per band member* for a "nights work", before you consider any form of overheads e.g. petrol cost, van insurance or equipment wear and tear etc. Now if the door tax is 4, a band in question would only have to get 13 people through the door before they have made the promoter money (depending on venue hire). (on our last UK tour we were on 50-75 a night and were easily running at a loss) *although every band I've ever been in has always put any gig payment into a collective pot - there's never been enough to even vaguely consider dividing between band members!

That is ENTIRELY irrelevant though. A promoter's job isn't to get people to spend money at the bar, it's to get people through the door. What they spend their money on once through the door is up to them. Furthermore I've never met a band who thought "well 150 people turned up to see us tonight - but 85% of them just bought a diet coke, therefore the gig was a complete failure". Also the less times punters visit the bar to spend 3 on pints, the more money they would potentially have to spend on band merch which would obviously be more beneficial to the bands... In addition, the kids younger than 18 are more likely to buy band shirts as they can't spend their money on booze.

What have you heard in particular.. I'm interested?!

Even if you can play the entire Dream Theater back catalogue left handed whilst drinking rohypnol cocktails you shouldn't expect to waltz into the great band, My Mind's Weapon. In fact, NOBODY waltzes into My Mind's Weapon. You have to moonwalk into My Mind's Weapon - such is the level of technical skill required to be in the band. We actually have formal contracts with a clause enforcing that each member must be at least grade 1 billion at their chosen instrument.

A fantastic piece of writing that probably put a smile on my face Is the Judas Kiss probably quite good as well?

I'd say total guitar and tab books help... they exclusively taught me how to play guitar. Although I think the most important factor is GENUINE enjoyment from practising and just being able to play the guitar at all. If you want to be a great guitar player you have to put the work in... Metallica, Megadeth and Pantera guitar books were my building blocks though

Slayer had only just released south of heaven and had only been around for 5-6 years by then - so I'm guessing most of their die-hard nutter fans were in their relative youth and still had a good decade or 2 to get that lifelong Slayer obsession and dedication going.

Nuclear Assault are a (relatively speaker amongst thrash circles) well known and respected band though... Unknown or non-thrash support bands get grief from Slayer fans...

New metallica song - My Apocolypse Metallica.com Better than the first two new songs I reckon. Snare is too loud and there isn't enough drum fills. Still at least it isn't 7 jillion hours long like previous recent metallica efforts. Hetfield sounds good in places, but the mix isn't great at all. Some lame parts, but some decent enough parts.

have you ever seen Slayer live?! Opening for them would be horrible... they have the most hardcore-hate-every-other-band fans in the world. Guaranteed abuse.

Doesn't it go into "stone cold crazy" at 6:27?!

Agree with teabags, although Machine head's Supercharger is a very close second. Don't rate hetfield's voice these days, not agressive enough at all. From AJFA through to Garage Inc his voice was superb, but it's too clean and karaoke like these days. Cyanide is definitely better than st anger, but still very bland in my opinion. No great riffs, poor lyrics and pretty rubbish St Anger style vocals and phrasing. I've heard this is one of the worst tunes from death magnetic - I certainly hope so.