Anthrax has released the video for “In The End,” a song about lost heavy metal icon’s Dimebag Darrell Abbott and Ronnie James Dio. It’s from their new DVD/Blu-ray release “Chile On Hell,”  out now buy it here.

James Evans, jailed 8 days for posting heavy metal lyrics on Facebook.

Common sense and the ability to reason is all but a lost cause in our nation’s schools and law-enforcement agencies. More then likely, the ability not to have a ridiculous over-reaction to every little thing that you don’t understand is gone in the country as a whole as well. The latest example is of a Kentucky man who has spent 8 days locked in jail for a post he made on Facebook.

James Evans, 31, of Muhlenberg Co., KY, is a heavy metal fan. Often times Evans likes to post YouTube videos of songs or various song lyrics on his Facebook wall, something that I do myself and countless numbers of other people on Facebook do all the time.

Most people don’t get arrested for doing so, James Evans did.

On August 24th, Evans posted the lyrics to “Class Dismissed (A Hate Primer)” a song off of Exhibit B: The Human Condition, the 2010 album from legendary thrash metal band Exodus. Law enforcement officials were notified of the posting and two-days later James Evans was arrested.

Via WFIE/14 News:

Mike Drake, the Muhlenberg County school resource officer, says multiple agencies received calls concerned about the post.

So Evans was arrested for terroristic threatening.

The warrant says Evans was arrested because, “he threatened to kill students and or staff at school.” Read more…

Below is the posting, the snippet of song lyrics that got Evans in trouble with the law.

Now I will fully admit, those are some pretty violent lyrics, but I fail to see where a “threat” was made. Nowhere in that post did Evans say that he was going to a school to shoot teachers and staff.

When he was released on September 3rd, Evans had the following statement:

“It’s nonsense. I feel like my civil rights have been violated. You know first amendment freedom of speech out the window. Even all the guys I was in the cell with they thought it was nonsense themselves. I had several officials tell me it was nonsense that there was no reason why I should have even been here.”

His civil rights absolutely have been violated. To add insult to injury, Evans states that his case will be pushed back 6 months and he will have to undergo a mental evaluation.

Gary Holt, founder/guitarist/songwriter of Exodus issued the following statement in regards to this ridiculous arrest:

“The idea that an individual in this great country of ours could be arrested for simply posting lyrics to a song is something I never believed could happen in a free society,” states EXODUS guitarist Gary Holt. “James Evans was simply posting lyrics to a band he likes on Facebook, and he was locked up for it. The song ‘Class Dismissed (A Hate Primer)’ was written as a view through the eyes of a madman and in no way endorses that kind of fucked up behavior. It was the Virginia Tech massacre perpetrated by Seung-Hui Cho that was the subject and inspiration to write the song, one in which we put the brakes on playing it live after the Sandy Hook shooting, as we did not want to seem insensitive.”

Gary continues, “As some of us in EXODUS are parents, of course these things hit close to home, it’s every parent’s worst fear. These moments are the stuff of nightmares, and life, as well as music, isn’t always pretty. But when we start to overreact to things like lyrics by any band, including EXODUS, and start arresting people, we are caving in to paranoia and are well on our way to becoming an Orwellian society.”

Exodus, who recently reunited with vocalist Steve “Zetro” Souza are set to release their 10th studio album, Blood In, Blood Out, on Oct. 14. The band will also begin a string of U.S. tour dates with Slayer and Suicidal Tendencies on Nov. 11.

That is of course unless they get jailed by the thought police.

For decades now Frank Bello & Dave Ellefson have supplied the low end for one half of “the Big 4” of thrash metal, serving as the bass players for Anthrax and Megadeth respectively. The longtime friends began writing music together while traveling the world during the Metal Masters Clinics. The collaboration being dubbed Altitudes & Attitude will release their debut self-titled EP on Janurary 14th via Megaforce Records.

“What started out as simple bass ideas quickly developed into some really great songs together,” says Ellefson. “Our fans would probably never suspect that a couple of metal bass players would have songs like these inside of us. It’s exciting to write melody with diversity while still pushing the limits of lead-bass playing. Frank’s singing, and both of us playing guitars and other instruments, gave us a whole new dimension for creative opportunities.”

“We thought it would be cool to let fans hear something they wouldn’t expect from us- which is what Altitudes & Attitude is,” adds Bello.

The first track “Booze & Cigarettes” almost sounds like it could have been on Anthrax’s tragically underrated “Volume 8: The Threat Is Real.” The chorus is very catchy, the song is a little on the poppy side and not what you would probably come to expect from two of the founding father’s of thrash.

“Here Again,” steps it up and almost sounds like Megadeth with a different singer.

The third track “Tell The World” sounds like it would have fit in nicely with many of the post-grunge bands that filled alternative rock radio stations in the late 90’s.

It’s not “metal,” but what I’ve heard so far is enough to have me wanting more.

“Altitudes & Attitude” EP recording credits:

(01/14/14*Updated: The album is out now, you can buy it from Amazon via the link below. Also replaced the Soundcloud link (which is gone) with Spotify.

For the vast majority of Jason Newsted’s career in Metallica he was nothing more then James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich’s whipping boy. Not being allowed to really contribute to songwriting in the band and not allowed to express his creativity in outside projects. Then of course there is the way they pretty much completely mixed out his bass lines on the “…And Justice For All” album.

Before getting the Metallica gig after the tragic loss of Cliff Burton, he was a founding member (and primary songwriter) of Flotsam & Jetsam. After leaving Metallica in 2001 he briefly played Bass for Ozzy Osbourne, joined Canadian Progressive Thrash legends Voivod, participated in various musical (both metal and non-metal) side projects and launched an art career.

In late 2012 he announced  it was time to bring back the Heavy Metal and launch of his own band, NEWST∃D.

In January of this year the band released their debut EP, titled simply “Metal,” which served as just a little appetizer before the main course. NEWST∃D is Jason Newsted on lead vocals and bass, drummer Jesus Mendez Jr., guitarist Jessie Farnsworth, and added after the release of the debut EP, Staind guitarist Mike Mushok.

The first questions some might ask about “Heavy Metal Music” is; does it sound like Metallica, is the bass turned up ridiculously high in the mix (see Steve Harris solo debut “British Lion”). The answer to both questions is a resounding NO.

While at some very brief period there are parts of the album that harken to Newsted’s time in Metallica, this album doesn’t really sound like that band. Now Newsted’s vocal’s have some similarity to Hetfield’s mannerisms but that’s about it. Also, while it is refreshing to hear Jason’s highly underrated bass work, it definitely does not over power the rest of the music.

“Heavy Metal Music,” is a solid meat and potatoes release, but that does not make it a generic metal-by-numbers album. While its true that overall it does not stray too far from that Hard Rock meets Thrash line, if you listen closely you can hear touches of Motorhead, Prong, Black Sabbath, small touches of ‘Black album’ era Metallica and Voivod. Overall giving the album a very old school metal vibe seasoned with some small doses of stoner rock grooves and doom metal soul.

The opening track “Heroic Dose” and the closing track “Futureality,” both give off the doom-laden biker metal sound that reminds me a lot of Orange Goblin.

“Soldierhead” and “King Of The Underdogs” are the two carry overs from the debut EP and wise choices to include on the full length as well.

“…As The Crow Flies,” due to Jason’s Hetfield-like growling is the most Metallica sounding song on the album (14 years of standing next to a guy on stage, something has got to rub off) and also features some southern-metal sounding guitar jamming towards the end.

“Ampossible” and “Nocturnal both have a Black Sabbath / Cathedral / Candlemass vibe to them. At times the former sounds as if it could have appeared on the latest Black Sabbath Album.

Order Heavy Metal Music from Amazon

“Long Time Dead” and “Above All” sound like they could have been written by Dave Grohl for the Probot project.

“Twisted Tail of the Comet,” is the most diverse track on the album and the one where Newsted’s time in Voivod comes through the most.

As a vocalist no one is going to call Jason Newsted one of the top in the Heavy metal business, but that is not saying that he can’t sing. He has a raw & gruff growl that you can’t help but be reminded of the great Lemmy Kilmister and if that ain’t a compliment I don’t know what is.

Is “Heavy Metal Music” a legendary metal album? Not by any stretch of the imagination, what it is however is a pretty kick ass, blunt straight up horns in the air meat and potatoes slab of paleo-metal. That’s not a bad thing at all.

Oh and if the term paleo-metal takes off, I am taking full credit for it.

25 years ago today, …And Justice for All the fourth studio album by American heavy metal band Metallica, was released by Elektra Records. It was their first full length album to feature bassist Jason Newsted, following the death of Cliff Burton in 1986. …And Justice for All saw the band lose their bottom end as Newsted’s bass was almost mixed out completely and add some elements of progressive metal to their trademark thrash sound. The album featured songs with themes of political and legal injustice, war, and censorship.

So the former lead guitarist of Metallica and the former bass player of Metallica play a Metallica song in concert of of an album that neither of them technically appeared on — and it sounds pretty good (for cell phone video).

I say technically as even though Dave Mustaine did not appear on Metallica’s debut album “Kill ’em All” a good chunk of it — particularly this track, was written by him. Also Jason Newsted has grown into a pretty solid metal singer.

Alternate Reality, the Cleveland based band that brought the world the Worst Music Video of 2012 is backwith another video for us. This one filmed at the old Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield, most famous as the location for a certain film called Shawshank Redemption.

According to a news release sent by Steve Delchin of Wickliffe, “The ‘Metal Coma’ video follows the tale of old school metalheads who are suffering from ‘an acute overexposure to heavy metals’ and are locked up in ‘The Metal Sanitarium,’ a sinister asylum run by Dr. Overkill and his staff of nurses.

While I found their last song to be pure crap, this one is actually kind of catchy in an Anthrax “Madhouse” sort of way.

Joey Belladonna of Anthrax gets the crowd riled up at the House of Blues in Cleveland, OH 11/18/2011

Anthrax, Testament and Death Angel rolled into the House of Blues in Cleveland this past Friday night for the second to last stop on their fall tour. It was an amazing night of metal.

Death Angel, a band that I had loved as a kid but never got the chance to see live until tonight, opened up the show and were amazing. I got chills down my back and was transported back to my fourteen year old self as I finally got the chance to hear “Seemingly Endless Time” live.

Testament was a band I had liked, but was never really a huge fan of. I had always liked Alex Skolnick as a guitarist and had followed his non-Testament non-metal stuff. I didn’t know what I was missing out on by never having seen Testament live before. They were freaking awesome and heavy as all hell.

I did learn one very important lesson as they I started playing “Into The Pit,” off of 1988’s The New Order which incidentally is the only Testament album I had ever owned — I am too old to mosh. That song came on and I was instantly lured to the pit, like a Greek sailor in ancient mythology succumbing to the call of the sirens. Now as I write this twenty-four hours after the show, I still ache all over.

Last, but certainly not least Anthrax came on. Now I have seen Anthrax live on numerous occasions at numerous venues throughout Northeast Ohio — never have I seen them however with the Joey Belladonna fronted version of the band. Now I was a fan of the Joey version of the band, the version that many purists will call the ’real’ version of the band. It’s just that during the John Bush fronted years — Anthrax went from being one of my favorite bands, to my very favorite band.

That being said, they were fucking awesome last night. Not only did Joey Belladonna sing his balls off on their most recent album Worship Music, but he sounded amazing live and the band was tight as hell and the crowd was amazing. And it was finally great to hear the Joey-era songs live, actually being sung by Joey.

The set list was a great mix of classic-era material as well as tracks from the new album, my favorite being “In The End” written for Dimebag Darrell & Ronnie James Dio both metal legends that were lost between the times Anthrax had released a new record.

Anthrax have a great new album out Worship Music, with the ‘classic era’ vocalist Joey Belladonna back. But here is a great song from my favorite era of Anthrax, “Inside Out” off of Volume 8: The Threat Is Real, with John Bush on vocals and the late great Dimebag Darrell on lead guitars.