Peanut butter and jelly. Movies and popcorn. Pummeling metal and praying for world peace. Some things just go together perfectly.

Welcome to the spectacle that is episode 49 of Issue Oriented. First, your fearless host talks to Burnt By The Sun vocalist (and Issue Oriented contributor) Michael Olender about good and evil, the perils of personal creativity, his band's new release Heart of Darkness and much, much more. It's a thought-provoking piece and we know you'll love it.

Then hear film maker Jonathan Kalafer discuss his new award-winning documentary, We Love You. This film documents an annual event called the Rainbow Gathering, which takes place at a different National Park each year. With up to 50,000 people in attendance, Rainbow Gatherings culminate with a prayer for peace taking place each 4th of July – even if Federal Agents shoot pepper spray at kids on July 3. Which Kalafer captured on film. We Love You recently won Best Documentary at the Los Angeles International Short Film Festival. Check out this interview – you'll be glad you did.

LISTEN: Issue Oriented episode 49 with Michael Olender (Burnt By The Sun) and Jonathan Kalafer (We Love You)

Issue Oriented ep49 - Burnt By The Sun, We Love You

 

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Fresh off our brand new interview with DETHKLOK creator Brendon Small, the people at [adult swim] have posted a quick teaser for the season premiere of Metalocalypse and it's below. The new season of the show starts this Sunday at 12:30am (technically Monday morning) and begins the show's new half hour format.

Peter Steele, frontman of TYPE O NEGATIVE and founder of my favorite thrash band evaaar CARNIVORE was for a while, quite the trainwreck. I remember seeing a Carnivore reunion a few years ago, and noticed he did not look well. Recently though, TYPE-O started touring again and its clear by the interview below that Peter Steele is clean, looks relatively healthy and still has that dry witty sarcasm that he is known for. The interview was pretty fun at first but then slowly it started taking a turn for the worse…

Ladies and gentlemen, Peter Steele has found God. Does this mean hell has really frozen over? Not only has he found God, he thinks you should have God in your life too. OMFG WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO YOU??? He literally says "We are all part of God's plan." To that I ask Pete, was this part of God's plan?. All the God talk starts at about 15 minutes in.

SLAYER have just announced the cancellation of their Canadian tour next week, as well as a planned live performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live citing Tom Araya having back issues. Here is the statement we received from the band's publicist:

Slayer's Tom Araya is currently under the care of a specialist for a back injury, thought to be related to his on-stage activity, and the physician has ordered an immediate surgical procedure to take place in Texas tomorrow (Tuesday) morning.

No further information is available. But this is obviously a total bummer for Canadian Slayer fans, and really all fans of Tom Araya and his fantastic scream.

More info on the rescheduling as soon as we get it.

So Revolver's new Hottest Chicks in Metal Ever issue is now on newsstands. You can go buy the issue or scan through it right here and it features your typical array of pretty girls. What does this have to do with metal? Not much really, but I think when Grace Perry of Landmine Marathon got the call, she was pumped because if she was a dude, there is no way in hell Revolver was covering that band. The cover is above and we have some other photos after the jump. (more…)

Time is winding down! You only have until this Saturday, appropriately Halloween day to submit your best impersonation of Alexi for a chance to win his sick-ass ESP guitar. In case you forgot what the deal was here is a snippet from the contest page:

Between now and October 31, you're going to film yourself doing your very best impersonation of Alexi Laiho. What does that mean? Exactly what it sounds like; you're going to do whatever it takes* to create a video where we can't tell you apart from Alexi. You can wear a wig, you can adopt Alexi's stage moves, or anything you want within reason. But to win, you'd better make us laugh, or blow our minds with your ability to be a clone of Alexi. In any case, our panel of judges will watch each video, and the one we deem the coolest will be selected to win an ESP Alexi Laiho Signature Series LTD AL-600 Scythe guitar!

So what are you waiting for? Get to recording and enter the contest!

Last month, details emerged about MASTODON scoring the upcoming movie of the Jonah Hex comic book. In a new interview with Paste Magazine, Troy reveals that the writer/director of the film, Jimmy Hayward listened to the band's classic record Blood Mountain a lot during the writing of the film for inspiration. So much so, says Troy, that he called the band and wanted them to score the movie.

The band recorded five new songs, as well as other small musical interludes totaling an hour of new music, described by Troy as "spacey, Melvins B-sides, Pink Floyd-like, surreal outer space, like Neil Young’s Dead Man. Swirling, nausea music." Also, if you think the band is getting rich off of this callabo, think again:

“I guarantee an incredibly popular misconception will be, ‘Oh my god, they’re selling out doing a fucking comic-book movie. They probably got a huge paycheck and don’t give a shit about integrity,’” Sanders continued. “The fact is the exact opposite. We sacrificed another two weeks away from home to give away an album’s worth of material for nothing in return but satisfaction in being a part of something incredible.”

An hour of MASTODON music in a movie? Sign me up! One has to wonder though if their dreams of making a full length Crack The Skye movie have been abandoned.

JOEY BELLADONNA may have recorded ANTHRAX's best-known songs, but anyone who's ever been caught in a mosh knows that JOHN BUSH had the best voice of any of Anthrax's singers. Now that they've brought back Joey, fired him again, brought in a new guy, fired him and released conflicting stories to the press, it looks like Anthrax are as tired of lead singer drama as the rest of us and have settled on a winner. From blast beat pioneer CHARLIE BENANTE at Noisecreep:

"We are in the process of regrouping with John Bush. We played two shows with him, and we are looking forward to proceeding with this lineup…If we move forward with him, that, to me, would make my life complete. It would be perfect."

While not a definite yes, that's more than promising enough for us to get pumped for a reunion (album? Tour? Please??) If any of you possibly forgot how killer We've Come for You All is, here's the video for "What Doesn't Die," complete with zombies and BRIAN POSEHN (oemacnikufesin.)

No wonder everybody talks shit on Ozzfest. They treat the bands like crap! While doing the rounds promoting his upcoming solo project, THE DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT, Devy was interviewed by Noisecreep and revealed just how shitty the band, and all second stage acts were treated.

There was one point, early on, when the band was walking to the catering area to get food, and [guitarist Jed] Simon walked down the wrong ramp, leading an Ozzfest stage manager on a tear. “He went fucking ballistic on Jed, so Jed was like, ‘Fuck you.’ The guy went nuts, and pulled this rank thing on us, like we were a bunch of upstarts and we spent the next three weeks at war with Ozzfest. They wanted to kick us off, we wanted to leave… the guy who put the lineup together didn’t want us to leave.

“Finally, I went up to the Ozzfest guys and said, ‘We’re old, for sure, but you gotta know we’ve been doing this for 15 years, and we have no delusions of becoming the next big thing. We do this because this is what we do, and the label paid $80,000 for us to be on this tour. So either we’ll spend the rest of the tour hating each other or we’ll pull it together.’ And they were like, ‘We’re old, to… let’s just get along,’ so I just went up on stage every day after that and gave the show shit.”

Yesh! Whereas everybody speaks wonders of how Mayhem Fest treats them, every second stage Ozzfest act I've spoken to has had similar stories to this. Speaking of that Ozzfest, it brought us the now-legendary interview of Snake from A Life Once Lost interviewing Devy about how much he hated being where he was.

After two years of inactivity due to tragic circumstances, DECAPITATED founding member Wacek "Vogg" Kieltyka issued a statement declaring the band is back and will begin touring in 2010: (more…)

While it may be some time until we hear new music from MESHUGGAH, the band announced on their official site that they plan to release a live DVD in early 2010. Oh, fuck yes. We are 99% sure the live footage will come from the show we attended earlier this year at Irving Plaza in NYC as there were cameras everywhere for that shoot. The band played for over an hour so it should be a good collection of songs from their entire catalog. And, who knows? Maybe, they'll even tour here again to promote it. Surely, it's something to look forward to.

And, while you wait for this live DVD, maybe our interview with drummer Tomas Haake will hold you over for now?

So it's Friday afternoon, and if you're visiting this site that means you're either at work with time to kill, or and home with time to kill. Well, we have a great time killer for you. VBS.tv recently posted a new one-hourish episode of its Music World series dedicated strictly to the current metal scene. The episode is hosted by a dude who has definitely been in the scene, Iano Dovi, a dude who crashed our All That Remains interview once and has tour managed a bunch of bands. So, you were in good hands from the start.

Iano goes on a road trip to London to discuss the origins of heavy metal and also visits the Terrorizer magazine offices and hangs out with TRIGGER THE BLOODSHED and MUTANT, two up and coming British thrash bands. Then, in part 2, the strongest of all the clips in my opinion, Iano spends some time in Sweeden discussing the Gothenburg scene with members of DARK TRANQULITY, IN FLAMES and AT THE GATES. There is some incredibly insightful and epic stuff in this clip. Then, Iano moves to California, chillin' at the Metal Blade offices and hanging out with our bros in SUICIDE SILENCE and the finally in the last clip, spends a day at Mayhem Fest interviewing Tom Araya (who admits ON CAMERA to liking Barry Manilow!!!), Black Dahlia Murder, Killswitch Engage and more.

The whole thing is a good viewing, but if you're pressed for time, seeing as it may seem a little slow at points, I'd recommend just watching the Sweeden part. I have embedded all four parts to the episode after the jump…

Part 2, 3 and 4 after the jump (Part 2 is a must watch)… (more…)

It pays to have friends in high places. Sweedish metal act HYPOCRISY have enlised guitar god Alexi Laiho of CHILDREN OF BODOM to fill-in on guitar for their upcoming tour with ENSIFERIUM. Not too many bands can just call up Alexi and he'll say yes, but turns out he goes way back with HYPOCRISY mainman Peter Tägtgren, who commented:

"Funny, the first CHILDREN OF BODOM show was a support gig for HYPOCRISY on the Nuclear Blast festival in '98. Since then, me and Alexi have become very good friends. I've helped him with producing and he's helped me by contributing a guitar solo on one of my records with my other band PAIN. There will be no shortage of alcohol on this tour, that's for sure."

Who even asked about the alcohol? I guess that means they're going to be extra wasted if they're already pre-gaming in the tour statements. Should make for some fun shows!

Also, don't forget, we are currently running an ESP Alexi Laiho Lookalike Contest, where the person who impersonates Alexi the funniest/best wins one of his sexy guitars. Click here for info.

Shocking news to report, Kristen Randall, keyboardist and resident female eye candy of WINDS OF PLAGUE has announced she is leaving the band to pursue other interests, like being on LA Ink and stuff. What is a band to do? Obviously, get another female to replace Kristen, and that being the girl on the left, Lisa Marx who has a weird past in the music scene being from Seattle hardcore band TO SEE YOU BROKEN and then having a stint playing guitar in KITTIE. Lisa will begin with the band on their upcoming tour.

Oh, and if you are interested in seeing Kristen Randall's boobs, that's after the jump… (more…)

Metalocalypse is known to ask musicians in the scene to play obscure parts on the show (here's a comprehensive guide). Well, when our brohams at MetalSucks recently interviewed DETHKLOK creator Brendon Small, they had to ask if we will see more of these, especially from their tour-mates in MASTODON and here is what he said:

That’s funny that you mentioned that, [because] we just recorded Mastodon in the upcoming episode and they were… we were blown away. We get a lot of people and we’re always surprised that they have this kind of other talent or can do voiceover stuff. Mastodon surprised us more than anybody else — they were really funny. Just hanging out with those guys on this tour has been really fun. They have a very good sense of humor. A lot of people in rock and roll, metal and all that stuff spend all their time on the bus just watching comedy and Monty Python and stuff like that. We have Mastodon coming. We have members of In Flames coming this season. I have some of my guitar heroes playing parts on this season, doing voiceovers, like Satriani, Vai, and Slash. I’m a guitar nerd so I had to reach out to those guys to see if I can get them on the show. They were great too.

Slash, Satch, Vai but no Thor Shredsteen? Somebody call his agent! Check out the full MetalSucks interview with Brendon here.

And, of course, I have to mention the greatest interview we ever conducted, our audio interview with Nathan Explosion, Skwisgaar Skwigelf and Pickles the Drummer can be heard here.

Jonny and I sharing a tender moment

In what is a bummer for the band and fans alike, JOB FOR A COWBOY have announced that they are dropping off their current tours with LAMB OF GOD, GWAR and THE RED CHORDdue to a family emergency. The band has issued the following statement:

We are super bummed to announce we are going to have to drop off of our current tour with GWAR and Lamb of God due to a family emergency. We have been having a blast on the road with all these guys and our bros in the Red Chord just started on the tour as well! Anyway, below are the dates we are missing, we are sorry to anyone who was planning to come out and see us, you should still go to the shows cause all the bands have been KILLER every night! See you after the 26th!

To see the remainder of their tour itinierary, click here