The Exodus tour, I remember that. Were you at the KC show?

I wouldn't be surprised if someone punched Kanwulf in the face.

Sorry to sound like a d-bag here, but could it be, perhaps, that they wore jogging suits because they're comfortable? Does the assumption immediately have to be "sell out" or that they are betraying metal in some way by dressing a certain style?

Ouch, I opened for them once, drummer was so laid back and cool. Talked with him for a while I recall..

Yes, he still does I believe. They hate the new shit so much that they had to try it themselves lol But Trey kind of indirectly stated in an interview that he didn't like bands that sing about sticking dildos in their asses lol (porno brutal deathgrind bands) and that it is just plain shit. True that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGRXVhSIQi4

No, Pittsburgh, sorry.

Yep they are comfortable, so are pajamas but I can't wear them to work so a metal band shouldn't wear jogging suits on stage.

I literally just started playing a Billy Joel album while reading this...

*Vividly imagines Billy Joel throwing up the horns and shredding like Vivian Campbell or something..."

loooooooooooool, I love the idea that metal bands have a dress code to meet like its a real job and not guys performing art for practically no money while living out of a van. Next time I go to a show I should wear a sportcoat with patches on the elbows and shit.

Glad to make you laugh it was supposed to be funny. Haha

I once heard that MANOWAR and MERCYFUL FATE had some sort of feud after they played some shows together, does anyone know about that?

I had a vague recollection of reading something about Joey DeMaio and King Diamond having some kind of disagreement; there was the usual sort of verbal sparring in the press. I remember reading an interview with King Diamond in "Metal Mania" (or one of those 80's mags from that era) where he was not very gracious towards Manowar, although he didnt elaborate as to what exactly went down.

From the August 1991 "Clash Of The Titans" issue of Guitar World:

Jeff Gilbert (interviewer): What about Testament?

Dave Mustaine: Who? You mean the guys who are ripping off our drum riser and stage moves, and copying all of Metallica's sounds, and singing like James?

Scott Ian: And with dance steps laid out on the stage on how to have stage presence. But we didn't mention the name, you did.

Dave Mustaine: Guitar World called them "the Lennon & McCartney of thrash," but aren't they more like Simon and Garfunkel?

Scott Ian: All I have to say is: where would they be without these three bands (Anthrax, Megadeth, and Slayer) and Metallica? I just find Testament too hard to even take seriously. Whatever they do, I suppose they do it well, but it just isn't them. Every time you hear them on the radio, you think Metallica.

Jeff Hanneman: I heard them on the radio the other day and I could have sworn it was Metallica.

I like how they forgot to mention that they were all just jealous because Alex Skolnick is 3 times the guitarist any of those guys will ever be. Also, is it just me or does Testament not really sound that much like Metallica? Yeah there are some similarities, but especially earlier on they were definitely more dark and aggressive sounding.

I wouldn't say He's better then Mustaine or the other top tier Megadeth guitarists, but yeah he is better then those other guys. I do hear a bit of Metallica in there but it's nowhere near as obvious/Worship like bands such as Trivium.

He's definitely better than Mustaine when it comes to lead playing, but in terms of riffing I could see why he might be better.

There's no question Testament took a lot from Metallica's style. Doesn't make them bad. If you're gonna copy a band from that era, Metallica's a very good choice assuming you can pull it off. Ultimately I doubt any of them were rather jealous re: Testament regarding anything, which is why they were 3/4 of the Big 4 and Testament is merely another thrash band to the majority.

Good God, don't even try to claim Mustaine is better than Skolnick. Personal preference? Okay, I totally get it. But at the end of the day, Skolnick slays all of those guys without even trying. He's on an entirely different level and I'd love to see them try to comprehend the fusion licks he pulls out of his ass in a live setting. As far as the comparisons to top tier Megadeth lead players? Skolnick's in their league. When you get that good, it no longer becomes a matter of who is better.

I seem to recall hearing about Mustaine make some disparaging comments towards Pantera back in the early 90s. I think he called them rip-offs or something, though I'm not 100% sure.

In terms of their Metal work he is. Although I forgot he has projects outside of Testament in the Jazz Fusion vein so maybe I spoke out of turn...

Ten years ago or so I read of something similar. It was very possibly way over exaggerated, but something along the lines of manowar transporting some gear for king diamond or MF(cant remember which) and they lazily just tied the gear to the top of the bus, resulting in equipment falling/getting damaged. Basically King Diamond was extremely pissed, and put curse on joey demaio. The story always makes me laugh, but I doubt anything to this extent ever occured.

Instead of just adding a old myth/rumor to this thread,
In the summer of 2003 I was in colorado, I was hanging out with martin lopez (ex-opeth drummer) during the day before their show. He mentioned Dream Theater, how he doesn't like them, how they're full of themselves, and mentioned when they crossed paths at some festival or something, he viewed james labrie as some snobbish whiny crybaby making him dislike them even more.

I do think Skolnick had more technical ability than any of the other guitarists on that tour, even more than Mustaine (although with Dave, it was close.) The other 3 BANDS however, were better. Technical ability does not always translate into writing memorable songs. I dont really know why those bands would talk shit about Testament (maybe they were just talking out of their ass being drunk or something?) since regardless of ability, all three were far more successful than Testament ever was. Testament just seemed to burn out (creatively speaking) after only two albums, and even their second one really wasn't all that great. I remember reading somewhere that there was an age gap between the bands too. I think Skolnick was barely 18 when their first album came out, while the other bands were already in thier mid to late 20's.

Don't expect Geoff Tate and Queensryche to appreciate the slow crushing riffs and Ozzy's eternal lament tone of voice that made early Sabbath such a wow. They obviously preffered Black Sabbath after Dio took the reins and you can spot some influences from that era in their sound.
The spacey part in "Heaven and Hell" with Tony's distant guitar for instance is a feature of many a Queensryche song. You can't expect Tate to even understand "Doom" as the 'Ryche's sound is severely devoid of any riffs that can be described as "slow and crushing"!

Check out their rather bland cover of NEON KNIGHTS!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdw0IVgCs60

If I remember correctly, Fuck Xasthur is droneriot here on the MA.

Awesome thread! The Abbath clip made me laugh hard.

On Ralph Santolla and Deicide, I actually met him at a gig in Stockholm and had a shot of vodka with him. Really, really cool guy. I asked him about the feud with Glen and he basically said Glen is a piece of shit and a psychopath. If half of what Ralph said is true Glen really is an asshole.

Glen Benton fired Santolla because of his drinking problems.
You meet Santolla and drink vodka with him.

Any questions?

One shot, yes. But he wasn't drunk when I spoke to him.

I read that Iron Maiden lead singer said that he hated reality TV. And that during several gigs at Ozzfest, that Ozzy's entourage threw eggs and bottletops when they played live. Ozzy's wife threw a fit when Bruce stated his comments! He did not intend to insult the Osbournes on their reality TV show!

I'm pretty sure he openly said Sharon Osbourne was a bitch and that their show was crappy, but she also went on stage and said Dickinson was a prick for his comments so who knows. Either way I side with Dickinson.

Yeah, this just made me that much more excited to see the two of them play with Death Angel when they come to Indy on the 27th.

And at this point, isn't it pretty much common knowledge that Glen Benton is an asshole?

Benton claimed one of the Hoffmans (I can never remember which one is which) was on steroids, compare the band pics from the first album to Legion and the blonde guitar player is all fat and bloated, Glen claimed the other one was a total moron, etc. Funny shit. Watch that documentary dvd that came with the Scars Of The Crucifix album, all four of them seem a bit...dim.

If you've ever read any interviews with Kam Lee, the guy's generally pretty nasty towards just about all of his former bandmates.

In terms of sheer skill and ability, Skolnick is the winner all day. IF you prefer Mustaine, that's fine. Mustaine has made more music that I enjoy, personally. But he's not anywhere near the player Skolnick is.

Mike Muir (ST) slammed Rage Against the Machine (not metal) in interviews for being kids from wealthy families not knowing anything about any hardships in life now and having had their college education and cars paid through by their folks.. Now singing about revolution and pretending to 'fight the power'. That was about when RAtM were at their peak. Infectious Groove then released this song called "Do What I Tell Ya!" which made fun of RAtM's "Killing in the Name of".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8l2UtJ83I4

Many feuds between Ritchie Blackmore and Ian Gillan of Deep Puple (accepted as metal by this site):

Ian Gillan: "I'd rather slit my throat than work with Ritchie again". Then Gillan joined Purple again, and worked with Ritchie again.

Ritchie Blackmore on Ian Gillan (recently): "Ian did a wonderful thing with his voice on Highway Star. He could sing then."

David Coverdale on Deep Purple (1989): "I wonder who their singer is this week ?"

Ian Gillan on Glenn Hughes (both former singers with Deep Purple and Black Sabbath (or Iommi solo): "All he ever did is copy Stevie Wonder"

Travis Ryan really doesn't like Dave Astor. At all. When I asked Josh about him, he was like "Yeah, none of us talk to him, we've just gone our separate ways and done our own things and left it at that.". Later that night, when a buddy and I were talking about Kevin Schwartz's playing in Pathology, Travis overheard our conversation and immediately interjected with "Fuck Pathology. Well, fuck Dave Astor. Pathology's okay, he's just lucky that he has that kid who's a good guitarist and songwriter playing for him.". I'm guessing that either a). Travis is the one who hates him and Josh is ambivalent about the whole thing, or b). both of them hate him and Josh is just a lot more tactful in regard to his words about it.

I know a couple people who've met Kam Lee, and they've all said the same thing about him: rude, abrasive, obnoxiously standoffish dick with a massive rockstar complex. This is just hearsay, but Jeremy Nissenbaum (Lecherous Nocturne's old drummer) apparently blew up at him when LN was playing with one of Lee's bands (might have been Bone Gnawer) and had to put up with Lee acting like an asshole all night and just generally pissing everyone off. I don't know what he said, but it was apparently something about how he had no right to act like a big shot when his greatest claim to fame was being the singer for a glorified garage band and how he was famous only because of other people's ideas and needed to quit taking credit for shit that he didn't create. Lee apparently responded by getting up, walking to a bouncer, and telling him to "get this fuckin' kid out of here before he gets his ass kicked", which only caused the bouncer to tell him to get fucked and that he was just as sick of his bullshit as everyone else was and that Nissenbaum just said what everyone was thinking. Once again, I don't know if it's true or not, but it certainly lines up with everything else I've heard about Lee's behavior towards others.

Yer I remember Travis mentioning Dave when I was hanging with those guys. Definitely doesn't like the guy lol

I've always seen Jon Leon as being the new Jon Schaffer. Where Iced Earth is more "Jon Shaffer and friends", White Wizzard is pretty much "Jon Lean on friends". Although the latter have the kind of line-up turnover which makes Spinal Tap seem stable... I may go to a White Wizzard show to see if their drummer spontaneously-combusts.

It was Chris DeGarmo, because he DOES look like JLC.