BLURB-O-RAMA

From the SF Weekly:

Though the members of Marduk have been heroes on the Scandinavian black metal scene since forming in 1990, the band hasn't done a full U.S. tour since 2001. Now is the perfect time to see the group, though, as its latest album, Wormwood, is its best ever. Combining the blast beats and furious guitars of earlier discs Nightwing and Panzer Division Marduk with the compositional complexity and lyrical sophistication of frontman Mortuus's side project, Funeral Mist, the group is at a creative peak. And live, Marduk is ferocious, hitting the crowd with a mix of classic songs and new material that's unrelenting and savage, yet disciplined. (Mortuus drinks blood from a horn at the same point in the set every night.) Black metal doesn't always come off live, but Marduk delivers the goods.

From the St. Louis Riverfront Times: It's sort of sad that old-school band names — i.e., Paul Revere and the Raiders, Little Anthony and the Imperials, Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers — have gone out of style. Why? Well, because after umpteen lineup changes, which have left the band with exactly one founding member, Dave Mustaine and the Megadeths kinda has a nice ring to it. Here's the thing, though: This is the best Megadeth lineup of the 21st century. New guitarist Chris Broderick is a shredding machine, and the album the band's promoting, Endgame, is the best one it's released in over fifteen years. The songs are terrific, the playing is breathtaking, and Megadeth just seems newly energized. So don't miss this tour, 'cause there's no guarantee Mustaine won't have fired everybody by this time next year.

From the Cleveland Scene: The best band on a tour that hits Peabody’s tonight probably won’t even perform. Hypocrisy, a long-running death-metal band led by legendary producer Peter Tägtgren, has been forced to sit idle because its frontman can’t enter the U.S., though his bandmates are already here. It’s a shame, because Hypocrisy’s catalog is solid, and touring guitarist Alexi Laiho can be counted on to deliver shred-tastic solos on demand. Fortunately, the headliners, pagan metal act Ensiferum, rock the crowd quite capably with their polka-thrash drinking anthems. Kataklysm singer Maurizio Iacono’s side project Ex Deo (which also had to miss some dates because of visa issues) plays death metal with lyrics about ancient Rome, which is sort of cool. And Blackguard is one of the “pirate metal” bands that are sprouting up like weeds lately.