The Burden Brothers

I ran into the Burden Brothers completely on accident at this year’s South By Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. Their crowd was as big as their sound and I was totally impressed with the songwriting, performance and energy they put out. They played together like a pro sports team, well honed. I spoke with Cory Rozzoni who left Madison to relocate in Dallas.

Lacuna Coil

I picked up on Lacuna Coil with their first self titled Century Media EP release. It introduced the sound that would be the guiding light of their musical career thus far. Lush, soothing gothic metal, with interesting riffs, keyboards and amazing vocal harmonies. In fact, an interesting point about Lacuna Coil is that they have two dedicated vocalists, Andrea Ferro and Cristina Scabbia. Their vocal harmonies and interplay are what set the band apart from the pack. Andrea occasionally sings in a lower, gruff - yet powerful - style in addition to his clean complimentary harmonies. Cristina leads, prods, fluffs and adds dimension to each song and vocal extremity.

Back in 1997 when these talented Italians made their debut, few folks in the US were listening to this style of music. Most people were still caught up in the repulsive remnants of the ultra trendy and overdone “Seattle Sound” or feeding the pop punk explosion. The US market simply wasn’t ready. Various other bands came onto the international scene. Nightwish, My Dying Bride, The Gathering, Therion, Tristania, and Theatre of Tragedy were becoming recognized names in the growing gothic metal realm. Lacuna Coil was right there with them.

Judas Priest

In 1969, while hippies pranced about the farm fields of Woodstock, New York with flowers in their hair, Birmingham, England was giving birth to a monstrous new musical genre that came to be known as heavy metal. A group called Black Sabbath released its first album that year, and while others both in the United States and England were flirting with the heavier side of rock ‘n’ roll, it was that band that nailed metal squarely between the eyes.

Five years later, Birmingham’s fertile musical loins produced another heavy metal monster, one that came to rise just as high as the first, and perhaps, at times, was even more nimble. The vocals soared over others, the songs galloped faster, and two lead guitarists were used rather than one. That band was Judas Priest.

Amazingly, both Birmingham groups have reformed after varying hiatuses and are touring together this summer with Ozzfest, still playing the aggressive, distortion-heavy songs they wrote decades ago in front of fanatical, sellout crowds around the world. Recently, Rob Halford, the outspoken lead singer of Judas Priest, was kind enough to talk with Maximum Ink about his recently reunited band as well as the resulting tour and musical releases.

Alter Bridge

If you have tickets to see Alter Bridge in Chicago, Thursday, September 30th at the House Of Blues, I congratulate you. Some will envy you, though, because it sold out. If it’s any consolation, the guys won’t be packing up and heading out right after that show. They’ve just announced a 2nd show the following night, Friday, Oct. 1st at the same venue! It gets better, though; tickets for the Friday performance at the HOB are $9.47 thanks to 94.7 The Zone and a show at the Rave in Milwaukee is scheduled for Saturday, October 2nd.

In short, here’s the scoop…Creed is finished, Stapp’s doing whatever it is he does, and the rest of the band have moved on. Mark Tremonti (guitars) and Scottie Phillips, (drums) have formed a new band, Alter Bridge, with vocalist Myles Kennedy (formerly of Mayfield Four).  The new album “One Day Remains” is a melting pot of metal, love, memories, sadness, gratitude, happy thoughts and a good dose of guitar solos. That doesn’t sum it up, but I have to start somewhere.

Anthrax

Throughout their infamous 20 year career, the mighty ANTHRAX has always prided themselves on being a band of the people, for the people and by the people. This being said and with 2004 being an election year, ANTHRAX have taken that ideal one step further with their upcoming release, THE GREATER OF TWO EVILS, an all out assault on their history with each song being voted on by their fans via the Internet.

Recorded “live” in the studio over the course of two days, THE GREATER OF TWO EVILS stands out, as guitarist Scott Ian puts it, “As a raw, balls out, and in your face representation of how brutal this band is, was, and will always be.”

Finger Eleven

A band known for their ingenuity in songwriting, and amazingly energetic/enigmatic live shows, Finger Eleven are five seasoned rockers who continually seek new tour opportunities to share their music. Their third album, “Finger Eleven,” is a product of Johnny K (Disturbed), foosball, beer, and cigarettes. If you were lucky enough to get the limited edition DVD that came with their rare DVD/CD combo, you can peek into their world.

The DVD portrays aspects of the band rarely seen: The long hours in a studio away from home, and the hard work involved in creating and producing a record from the ground up. You can see first hand how much work went into this project. FE has been feverishly touring since 1995 throughout their homeland of Canada and the United States. If you have not seen this band live, you are missing one excellent and superbly energetic live show.

In the beginning, when the original members of FE were in high school, they were music nerds who decided to form a band for their high school’s Christmas talent show. They prepared three cover songs and rocked their school. Scott Anderson, vocalist, explains what happened, “After the Christmas show no one told us to stop playing, and we kept coming up with ideas and creating new songs.” After that show, they continued as a cover band called Rainbow Butt Monkeys for about six months because it was the only way to get gigs in their hometown of Burlington, Ontario.