In typical Tickets There fashion, we found an album we loved. We listed to the hell out of it and never bothered for one second to put a word down on paper. For years we’ve struggled to express the excitement about albums we love, but that stops now because Animator’sBlacklisted deserves the attention of every metal fan in Ireland.
In Blacklisted, the Wexford lads have accomplished a truly memorable album, perfectly mixing writing quality, tight musicianship; all densely ground together to create something very special. Their diverse musical backgrounds fully complement each other as their sound screams through and you’re confronted with a thrash / hardcore assault of riffs, political angst and speed. First up to get the hearts racing, ‘State of Emergency’. Sirens, a brooding build-up; composed of John F. Kennedy’s 1961 ANPA address, breaking new stores snippets and James’s scream, “The shit has hit the fan this time, our nations on the brink” sets the tone for this entire record. ‘Death From Above’strikes hard and fast, but its allure begins to pale when listed before the epic ‘In God We Trust’. A magnificent masterpiece of thrash metal. In God We Trust is reason enough to own this album, but it’s just one of several prime cuts.
‘Ultra 53’ 🙂 begins to express more personal anguish through a mix of swooping riffs, spiralling leads and surprise turns before ‘Dreadweb’ knuckles it’s way in to deliver some of the most balls out riffs and screaming solos of the whole album. ‘Taking the Liberty’ and ‘Electric Armageddon’ continues the punishing and lands yet another quality tune from this record. ‘Western Shadow’ adds little unfortunately for this review, the breakdown into scratchy bridges leads us astray, but the closing anthem of anthems (since In God We Trust), ‘When Duty Calls’ is the closing crown jewel on this incredible debut.
After months of listening, it’s hard to pretend there’s no prior judgements here. But six months ago I knew Animator as a name only. However, one or two listens of this album will turn any fans of thrash metal into Animatoriacs. This is a band with the talent, power and hunger to go far and all you need to do is press play. Well done lads!
Waterford thrash metallers, Animator, have just released their debut album through Bandcamp. Titled BLACKLISTED, the album comes out on EBM records and has been hotly anticipated by metal heads around the country.
You can stream the album for free and download for a ‘Pay what you want’ scheme. If the quality is anything compared to the first single, ‘Death From Above’, we’re in for a real treat. Tickets There would like to wish Ryan, Darren, James and Barry well with the record. Looking forward to spinning this instead of the new Meadeth and Sabbath albums.
Goodbye livers and brain cells, hello THRASH YOUR HEAD OFF \,,/. With the Day of Decay coming up on June 1st at Fibbers, Club Carnage have now decided to make things extra gruelling; by announcing a mouth watering line-up of thrash metal for the day before.
Psykosis, Atominated, Animator, Visceral Attack, Exzeltic and Edenfire are all playing on the night and entry is just €6, doors are at 8.30 and there’s drink promos and late night metal galore. You’d be half psychotic to even think about missing this gig.
Just to note, this night will also serve as the launch night for Atominated’s new EP, ‘World Without Flesh. Praise The Lord for thrash metal \,,/
Sligo Rovers, the best pubs in the country and less stress; all things I miss about living back in the west. Now it turns out there’s something new to go back for; the incredible, Twisted Wrath. The Galway/Mayo quartet have been on the go for almost six years and have recently put out their second EP, Madman’s Chorus, as a free download. I’m writing that too much today, you f**kers should be paying for music this good 🙂
Madman’s Chorus is an all too short slice of thrash metal Gold. Four songs of pure head banging glory. Wall to wall riffs/shredding solos, speed drums and anthem grounded vocals. There’s not a moment on this EP where your attention begins to wane or songs drag out. Opener ‘North Titan’ is a mesh of Manowar meets Testament! Epic in content and uncompromising in its mission. The EP’s title track continues the power and adds an almost Maiden element to the lyrics. Nowhere to hide – this song is a hammering attack of thrash metal at its best (well, close to its best).
‘To The Sword‘ comes swooping in, not very distinct from the previous songs, before suddenly accelerating into Slayer-esque thrash territory; where’s it’s harder riffs and grittier, heavier vocals. By the time ‘Smoke’ kicks in you’ll be begging for more but sadly, it’s the closing tune and a fitting end to a great second EP from a very promising band.
With all these Dublin bands blowing TT’s auld head these days, it’s great to see homeland bands aren’t lagging behind. Twisted Wrath are an excellent find and well worth as much of your time as you can spare. Listen to them now on Bandcamp.
Waterford thrash metallers, Animator, are promising great things from their debut album. Due to hit shelves ‘soon’ by EBM Records, Blacklisted is one of the must watch releases this year and the band have helped fuel the excitement with the release of a new song titled ‘Death From Above’. You can listen by playing the video below. We’re restraining ourselves here at TTHQ from reviewing and waiting for the album ….but, it’s fricking awesome. Check it out now and see for yourself.
EHT Promotions have just announced a thrash metal bash to end them all. This August, GAMA BOMB, along with Psykosis, Edenfire, Exzeltic,Animator and Snowblind will take over Dublin’s Fibber MaGees for a night of full on bullet belt mayhem. It all takes place on August 16th with tickets costing €15. Doors are at six so get there early.
Gama Bomb are currently gearing up for the release of their fourth album, The Terror Tapes which is out this Friday. Earlier this month the first single, ‘Terrorscope‘ was released on 7″ after initially being released as a free download in March. The artwork for Terror Tapes was designed by legendary horror artist Graham Humphreys (Nightmare on Elm Street / Evil Dead).
Yes, seriously! 18 bands, two stages, a fiver in and loads of drink promos! That’s the name of the game at Fibber MaGee’s on April 13th as metal comes to town. For anyone that thought the Dublin Day of Decay was the next big day out, welcome to hell!. There’s quite a few names so I’ve posted the names and stage times for each act below. Went through all the effort of copy and then paste to get that info to you so please take the time to read it. Of course I didn’t forget the amazing drink promos either.
April 13th @ Fibbers. See you there! For more information, check out the Facebook Event Page.
UPSTAIRS STAGE-
WARPATH 12:15 – 01:00 DEAD LABEL 11:30 – 12:00 VILE REGRESSION 10:45 – 11:15 ONLY FUMES & CORPSES 10:00 – 10:30 AESECT 9:15 – 9:45 DEATH OF A SALESMAN 8:30 – 9:00 EDENFIRE 7:30 – 8:00 AGGRO-CULTURE 6:45 – 7:15 ATOMINATED 6:00 – 6:30
DOWNSTAIRS STAGE-
SPITTIN BONES 11:00 – 11:30 MURDOCK 10:15– 10:45 HORNETS 9:30 – 10:00 BY CONQUEST OR CONSENT 8:45 – 9:15 CORROSIVE MACHINE 8:00 – 8:30 PSYKOSIS (replacing Zero Tolerance) 7:15 – 7:45 NEW AGE EXTINCTION 6:30 – 7:00 HOLLOW TRUTH 5:45 – 6:15 STRONGHOLD 5:00 – 5:30
Late Night DJ after the bands finish to close
DRINK PROMOS:
Vodka/Paddy Powers + Mixer €3
Pints from €3.70
Shots: Jager/Mickey Finns €3
Beer Pitchers from €11
Pitcher JD/Captain Morgan’s /Cocktail €16
3 Jager or Agwa Bombs €10
Bottle of Buckfast €12
We’re a little behind on the auld review front, so let’s start with a 2011 release from Belfast metallers Warcrux. They describe themselves as a thrash / sleaze band, but we’re not getting that from the EP. All the hallmarks of later Metallica are there and there’s some goof foundations for things to come, but the sound is much more polished, less aggressive and at times – too acoustic for thrash metal. The sleaze? nah.
Kicking off with ‘Ties That Bind’, the slow acoustic build up unfortunately doesn’t lead into the typhoon of riffs and Armageddon you might expect. There’s no sign of thrash or sleaze and little to distinguish the song from any other young band trying to impersonate ReLoad Metallica. As deep as it tries to be, it just doesn’t hit the mark in any way and even the double bass drums can’t save it.
Good news, ‘Pray For Ares’ puts the EP on its feet and finally we get a little metal. The vocals don’t deliver that deathly blow this blogger thinks metal bands need, but it’s a marked improvement from Ties That Bind. Goes on for a bit, but with pints involved it could be a handy live number. ‘Leave Me To Crawl’ has another one of those melodic intros, but the band don’t mess with you this time. James Hetfield sounds good on vocals…. Ah no, the singer improves a fair amount here. Riffs, solos, heaviness a gogo all packed into one place. Most bands would probably finish a metal EP with the ballad song but in this case, we’re glad Warcrux pounded out the metal for us.
On that note – well worth checking out. Young band who can only improve. Stay away from the acoustic guitars until you’ve completed your Kill Em All and all will be well….well as in dead since you’re killing them all. I’m killing this piece right now aren’t I? Doesn’t matter, no one’s reading anyway.
Now this is what Tickets There has been waiting for, Thrash Metal Mania is hitting the Pint next month with a line up so tasty…well, you wouldn’t want to cook it. That’s called cannibalism (*wink).
Psykosis, Exzeltic, Atominated and Damageflag head up a bill that’s going to make your ear drums bleed and liver rot. There’ll be brutal riffs, shredding vocals, pounding rhythm and, if there’s time, a solo or two.
Seriously though, all four bands are well worth catching. TT will be there for a little ‘Terror At 03:00am’ and ‘Agent of Chaos’! Doors are at 20:00 hrs, price is just €5 (if you don’t want to pay that then you’re a dirty cheap b*stard) and there’s drinks promotions! Pints start from €3.60, all spirits with a dash for €5 and two cocktails for €10. Cheaper than Saorview, more fun than the couch – get yer ass out and see some quality Irish metal \,,/
Another one of the best new thrash bands to be found roaming the fair streets of our capital, EXZELTIC. Mass carnage, violent revolution, rampant anarchy and some balls to the wall solos. Every time I see them they get better and better and can be found in Fibber Magees on the 16th of this month headlining Metal Mania
Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax have announced they will play this years British Sonisphere festival being held in Knebworth between July 8th and 10th.
The four legendary bands will be playing Friday the 8th joining already confirmed head-liners Slipknot and Biffy Clyro. The event is under the same banner the four (fucking thrash legends!!) groups played under last year and with several other Sonispheres taking place around Europe, hopes are high this will not be their only European pit stop. We’ll bring you more as soon as we hear it.
In the mean time, tickets are on sale now @ www.aloud.com
It’s late, I’m still in pretty bad shape from a furious session on Saturday and not eating right all week but the allure of Megadeths new album, End Game just sting there on their MySpace is far too tempting to leave alone so Tickets There is going to attempt a very, very, very hastily written review of what some people are calling Dave Mustaine’s best album in almost two decades.
Ok, we’ll do this MySpace Review style. Things kick off with Dialectic Chaos, which I actually heard the other night and all I can say is FUCKING BRILLIANT!. Two minutes of chaotic riffs, riveting, powerful solo’s and intense drums. There are no lyrics, it needs no lyrics. This song is pure fucking metal to the core and an incredible strong intro, especially for a modern Megadeth album. This Day We Fight! is next and it wastes little time starting it’s aggressive mission to send the memory of Death Magnetic into it’s grave. Dave’s voice sounds harder and grittier than normal and it swells in sporadic, plunging solos. This is a track that will send mosh puts around the world into a haze of maddened frenzy’s and ensure no fan will be able to touch there neck for weeks after a gig. 44 Minutes is next and it starts off a little tamer than the previous numbers. A police radio scrambles in over machine gun like riffs. The bass stands out like a tourist in a mosque and the Deth take a stab at delivering one of those slower numbers they’ve tried more recently. Not really as piercing or as powerful as the previous two but not bad all the same. The drums and bass make up for the songs slightly mundane structure…and the solo is pretty fucking rockin’!. When the final chorus comes in you find the whole song growing on you a little bit more. Seems to fall together and become interesting. Another savage solo and the respect increases.
1,320 is next and it kicks off with a Judas Priest style bike revving before the guitar and drums kick in, in classic Megadeth, Punk styled fury. This is thrash metal for those of you who haven’t heard it, notice the difference? The riff is fast, Dave belts out angry forceful lyrics with a vengeance as the instruments break away together to allow some incredible shredding from Dave and…what ever the new guitarist is called. Not bad to say the least. Two and a half minutes in, the guitars explode in a duelling battle that, in the words of Dylan Moran “would melt your face”. This is the kind of thing that causes tinnitus when you hear it live. The true sound of energy filled, unyielding talent that strives to out do itself with every note. Bite the Hand has the least number of plays so I’m a little weary but it starts of pretty well. The drums style keeps changing and it’s brilliant. Another full on metal track with sneering, guitars but much deeper, crunchy, bellowing riffs. Dave sings about the current economy (please note Dave has always done this, it’s not just a fad) as the band that spill their guts to keep up with him. I cannot get over the amount of solo’s on this album. Isn’t this the band that release Risk and Cryptic Writings a few years ago? Cause there’s no signs of those albums left. Don’t know why it’s the least played, it fucking rocks. Bodies jumps in straight away and crunchy bass makes a welcome return. Maybe it’s always been there and I just need decent headphones. This isn’t a bad number but possibly best described as an album track….so far, I’m only a minute in. It’s defiantly not one of their future classics but it’s decent. Great solo at the end but I wont say I wasn’t waiting for the albums title track before the end.
Endgame has the traits of a true metal blitz in the making. Not bad. Gets better and better as it continues. Pretty savage riffs, Dave’s lyrics awkwardly fall together but only hang on loosely before breaking again. Unlike Peace Sells, which was clever, Endgames lyrics sound very forced. Maybe Dave really isn’t that angry anymore? Nah, no-one happy person can play like that. Ah, not bad but I need to be in bed in 15/20 mins so lets check out The Hardest Part of Letting Go. Hmmm, acoustic guitars, violins and Chellos. Ah, this is where Cryptic Writings got to, I knew it must be around somewhere. It’s not terrible or anything but no something Megadeth need to keep in their repertoire. They already have A Tour Le Monde and that’s enough for any band. Oh Wait, two minutes in there’s an apocalyptic kind of knock on the head. Good, galloping riffs appear from no where as the lead pushed it’s self further and further into the spotlight. There’s even a few duelling moments. Tickets There is once again turned around.
The album first single, Head Crusher is next and the third last track of the album. I don’t know if any of you out there know what a Head Crusher was but its all there’s in the name really. They used this nasty little device during the Spanish Inquisitions and it could be made to last for hours, days and even weeks. The first thing that would happen is your jaws would crush together, shattering your teeth inside your skull. Then you eye sockets would buckle and they would literally pop out. Some of the devices had little metal plates, resembling small ice cream scoops to catch the eyes as they popped out. Then it got painful. May not sound as horrendously violent as the public sawings that they used to do or treatment from the Spanish tickler but pretty shocking to say the least. Oh the song, sorry. The song is FUCKING AWESOME!! NUFF SAID. Second last track How The Story Ends is thankfully not another ballad. It’s not my favourite, possibly the one I like least, though it has some of the best machine gun styled drum and guitars interaction on the whole record. Final song, The Right to Go Insane is thankfully heavy one. No soppy ballad to send us to bed, just another kick in the skull from Mustaine. Chorus sounds kind of grungy in it’s delivery but it works, works pretty well in fact. Some nice, distance between the chords in the bridge that adds some tension as you wait for everything to tear back. This is a very respectable Megadeth track and a welcome return finally to a fairly impressive album.
So, that’s it. Honestly, I was expecting more but I thought the same thing about Death Magnetic when I first heard that so you can be sure Tickets There is going to give it another few drillings before making our final decision. Might sound alot better when our minds aren’t clouded with the worry of how late we’re staying up, getting spellings correct while writing so quickly and all that nonsense. It still lacks Dave’s full on aggression though. The rage and bitterness that inspired and drove so much of the bands earlier work seems a little distant and forced on Endgame. It’s still more appealing than The System Has Failed and United Abominations but is doesn’t quite deliver the classics we know from albums like Rust In Peace, Countdown to Extinction or Peace Sells. Still well worth a go.
In typical Tickets There fashion, we found an album we loved. We listed to the hell out of it and never bothered for one second to put a word down on paper. For years we’ve struggled to express the excitement about albums we love, but that stops now because Animator’s Blacklisted deserves the attention of every metal fan in Ireland.
‘Ultra 53’ 🙂 begins to express more personal anguish through a mix of swooping riffs, spiralling leads and surprise turns before ‘Dreadweb’ knuckles it’s way in to deliver some of the most balls out riffs and screaming solos of the whole album. ‘Taking the Liberty’ and ‘Electric Armageddon’ continues the punishing and lands yet another quality tune from this record. ‘Western Shadow’ adds little unfortunately for this review, the breakdown into scratchy bridges leads us astray, but the closing anthem of anthems (since In God We Trust), ‘When Duty Calls’ is the closing crown jewel on this incredible debut.
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