Tales from the Jugular

Staff Want List for 2017!

Hello 2017!!!

A new year is upon us and all of us here have wants and anticipations that we hope will ripen to metal fruition! Here's some generic fun from us here at MM and a chance to throw out a plug or three.

Drum roll Nicko........

Venti - New albums from Iced Earth, Machine Head, Black Star Riders, Deceased and Motorjesus

Grande - New anything from Mother Misery, Morgana Lefay, Hypocrisy, Cradle of Filth, Paradise Lost, October 31, Amorphis

Tall - Poisonblack, Savatage, The Showdown, Beyond Fear, Mama Kin to re-activate.

Short - New material from Dokken, Tim Owens, Bang Tango and Alice Cooper.

Other Media - New albums from Old Crow Medicine Show, Hank Williams III, Chris Knight. New Halloween, Friday the 13th, Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Amityville films.

Looking for: AC\DC to put out a DVD from the "Rock or Bust" tour with Axl on vocals. Love some new stuff from: Audrey Horne, Danko Jones, Hardcore Superstar, Honeymoon Disease, Unleash the Archers, Mama Kin, Primitai, Savatage, Crimson Shadows, Triosphere, Kobra And The Lotus...if any of those bands aren't together, they need to reform.

The Return of Fun U.S. Hard Rock
Since the grunge era went into post-grunge and whatever it is now, there have been very few top-level U.S. bands that play hard rock that isn't influenced by an over-worry about people's feelings. Nobody has wanted to appear hedonistic for so long that U.S. rock has to rely on parody band Steel Panther for laughs and Canada's Nickelback had to show us all what trying to be a rockstar is about. Modern Country music has a better time than our rockstars! Sure, songs about doing lines of coke and having one night stands aren't the best influence, but most people my age have mortgages and kids and want escapism by proxy again. There's enough examples of wrecked lives to keep us off the pipe. The current generation is supposed to be smarter or they can learn what "don't do as I say" means. Buckcherry's "Crazy Bitch" was ten years ago and there's only so many times I can play Guns 'n Roses "Night Train". The Sunset Strip moved to Sweden and now it's time for it to travel back to the U.S. I want some music that makes me wanna crash my car into a swimming pool. C'mon bands, play some rock with your genitals again! Let's party!!!

More Virtual Reality
VR companies are supposed to be teaming up with concert promoters to broadcast shows with 360 degree camera technology that we can watch in headsets. It might not be available for clubs and underground bands, but with this tech I can be in another country's fest crowd without some smelly dude urinating on the ground beside me getting piss-splash on my Timberlands. I want to be front stage, on stage, and backstage with bands in 2017.

More Crossover Merch Branding (that isn't KISS)
A lot of bands are coming up with all kinds of cool merch from Kickstarter campaigns. I'd love to see more than the usual shirts, hats, patches...bring on more metal wines and beers!

Looking for: 2016 was a great year in metal and I see promise in this coming year with speculated releases from Alice Cooper, Dimmu Borgir, Iced Earth, King Diamond, Ozzy Osbourne, Sanctuary and System of a Down being some of my most anticipated. I'm also intrigued about new stuff from Body Count, Life of Agony and Pyogensis.

Hopefully some new bands with new ideas will emerge to lead a new direction or sound in metal (without the need of a new sub genre) to create that "Oh Wow" factor that has been missing. If all goes well some of these 80's bands will stop putting out discs just to cash in and Six Feet Under will call it a day.

Looking forward to: New Warbringer album, discovering more great bands on Bandcamp and anything coming out from Cadabra Records

Surprise for 2017: Ok it isn't metal but it kinda is. They announced a next gen version of Chaosium Inc.'s Call of Cthulhu video game. To say I'm anticipating this game with fervent anxiety would be the understatement of the year.

Wish for 2017: Better attendance at U.S. metal shows. The last few years I've noticed a decline in attendance at shows in the States, at least in my neck of the woods. I went to see LoG and Slipknot in 2014, Slipknot and Manson as well as Ghost BC last year and noticed an inordinate amount of room at all these venues. Live shows are one of many ways we as metal fans can support the bands and music we love and we need to step it up stateside.

Looking forward to:
Junius - Eternal Rituals For The Accretion Of Light
Galactic Empire - Galactic Empire
Obituary - Obituary
Six Feet Under - Torment
Steel Panther - Lower The Bar
Sanctuary - Inception
Dodecahedron - Kwintessens

Looking for: I really want Iron Maiden to announce a North American tour without paperless tickets. :) Stupid paperless tickets.




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