Interview: Fair to Midland’s Cliff Campbell (The Void)

Tom Valcanis

27 October 2011

Ripples of interest in alt-metal combo Fair to Midland have turned to crashing waves that have reached from shore to shore in recent times – and it isn’t hard to figure out why.

Armed with hulking riffs as well as playful whistles and soulful banjos, they charm indie kids as well as their transgressive metal brethren with an energetic mix of southern twang and hard driving rock. However, it hasn’t been a smooth ride toward peer acclaim. Though picked up by System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian’s vanity label Serjical Strike in the dawn of the new century they parted ways in 2009. After much searching, they finally put ink to paper at E1 Music under their burgeoning metal sub-label.

Article: Heavy Metal para siempre - Latin American metal and Las Marimbas del Infierno (Metal as Fuck)

Tom Valcanis

26 October 2011

A special feature taking a look at Latin American heavy metal in a new film which spins a tale of extortion, survival and the unlikely blending of traditional marimbas and death metal.

On the front of Don Alfredo Tunche’s intricately carved marimbas, careworn and chipped away by countless hours of practice and performance are the words “Siempre Juntos.” In his native Guatemala, this means “always together.” For Tunche, a deliveryman broken down by extortionists who have him on the run, forcing him to keep his family far away in hiding, his cumbersomely large yet prized marimbas are his only companion. He wheels them around with great difficulty everywhere he goes, lest damaged by scorned ex-band mates or worse yet; it’s stolen for some quick cash.

Review: Lou Reed and Metallica - Lulu (TheVine)

Tom Valcanis

25 October 2011

In the most unlikeliest pairing since Phil Collins and Bone Thugs N’ Harmony (or, perhaps, Orson Welles and Manowar?), Velvet Underground stalwart Lou Reed teams up with the biggest riff factory known to mankind, Metallica. Metalheads and old rockers alike waited with baited breath for the first samples to appear online and both were roundly disgusted at what they heard (it takes a lot to disgust a metalhead, especially these days). Now that the monstrosity is here, requiring two discs to soundly contain all of Reed’s bewildering homespun ramblings and Metallica’s laborious, repetitive riffs — both of which announce themselves from the outset in opener 'Brandenburg Gate' — one quickly discovers stapling together rock legends does not a great record guarantee.