Tis the Season to Support Your Favorite Musicians by Purchasing Their Merch!

Alright, I'm busted. This is not a concert recap - it's a metal/hard rock shopping guide. This list is, however, based off of my concert experiences over the last year. If you're planning on buying Christmas gifts, support your favorite musicians in the process. They probably need to buy presents, too. These are my top 10 gift suggestions for hard rock or metal fans.

1. Gypsyhawk - Revelry and Resilience
This is a solid rock album, suitable for heavy metalers and non-heavy metalers alike. I vote it best album of 2012.

2. Gypsyhawk - Patience and Perseverance
Yes, Gypsyhawk gets to be on the list twice. This is their first album. Same band, different feel. I LOVE this album. You could probably give this to anyone and they'd thank you for changing their lives for the better.

3. Scorpion Child - Self Titled
This is a hard rock album with just a touch of psychedelia. Suitable for fans of Zeppelin, Deep Purple, and Rainbow. Also, it's got AMAZING production quality. This album is a real gem.

4. Dreaming Dead - Midnightmares
This technical death metal album will render your puny human existence to a pile of cold ash. Buy it for someone you love - or hate.

5. Wanna buy something different than CD's or music downloads? Give the gift of Enslaved concert tickets for their February 8th show at The Troubador.

6. Havok - Time is Up
This thrash metal album will knock the wind out you! Seriously, it's so awesomely violent you might need to include a first aid kit with it!

7. Isolation in Infamy - Self Titled EP

Another brutal technical death metal album that will melt your face and ears off. Give it to your best friend or your grandma. Not sure if it's available on itunes so hit up the band on facebook or at their next show.


8.  Kreator - Phantom Antichist 
Wow, you mean a thrash metal band that's been around since the 80's recently put out a GOOD album?? Yes, I do. Not all bands act like Metallica. Some continue to make good music. Go buy this album.

9.  Accept - Stalingrad
The perfect gift for any Accept fans who've been hiding under a rock for the last year! It's a heavy album with a classic 80's Accept feel - even though it came out in 2012. Also suitable for AC/DC, Judas Priest, and German metal fans.


10. Vegan Black Metal Chef DVD 
You get 10 episodes of instructional cooking videos with original black metal soundtracks. Why the hell not? (Gauntlets not included.)

Enslaved at The Roxy - Scion Metal Matinee on 11/10

Enslaved played a special FREE show last Saturday at The Roxy courtesy of Scion A/V Metal's Label Showcase. If you are not on the Scion A/V email list or at least following them on facebook you need to do so ASAP! Scion works with various record labels to host a free matinee show every month and the bands they choose are good at least 50 percent of the time (I've seen Holy Grail and Skeletonwitch on two different metal matinee occasions). That's a pretty good ratio if you ask me. The catch is that you have to RSVP to go to the shows.

So as I was saying, Enslaved played last Saturday. These guys flew all the way out here to play one show in LA, so I feel really fortunate that I was able to attend.  The crowd was pretty good although I was a bit disappointed that the venue didn't hit max capacity since it was a FREE show. I think some people were confused and didn't realize that the show was in the afternoon at 4:00 pm. Pay attention, people! 

If you aren't familiar with them, Enslaved is an awesome metal band from Norway. It's hard to pin them down to a particular genre although Enslaved is currently associated with viking metal. They certainly had roots in the Norwegian black metal movement but their music has become more progressive and atmospheric over the span of their 20 year career. I enjoy it, although there are a few prog moments that make my head spin. Mostly, it reminds me of being lost in a Norwegian blizzard after slaying all of your enemies in a surprise ambush!  If you're into that sort of thing, Enslaved is the band for you! They played some songs off of their newest album, (which I do not currently own but it is on my Christmas wish list) as well as plenty of old stuff. Fans always love the old stuff! Of course they finished with Isa and a cover of Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song. I don't place Led Zeppelin on a masturbatory pedestal like lots of other music fans but I really dug this cover. It was kind of evil and foreboding! If you missed them this time, check them out when they come back to LA on an official tour early next year.

Be sure to check out Enslaved on Facebook if you have not done so already. (I always plug everyone on Facebook because it's the easiest thing to do.)

The next events on my concert calendar are Legal Tender, Ascendancy, and Desecrate tonight at The Whiskey, and Eluveitie at The House of Blues on 11/29.

Skeletonwitch and Havok at The Whiskey on 10/30

Much head banging was had last Tuesday at The Whiskey for the Skeletonwitch and Havok show! Since it was the night before Halloween there was a smattering of costumes and skull face-paint. Major props to the giant banana circling in the pit!

The first band I caught was a local band named Legal Tender. Seemed like kind of an odd name for a thrash metal band but maybe there's a story behind that. Anyway, they were pretty choice. The bassist and the guitar player shared an incredible dynamic and played really well off of each other. I'll definitely be catching another Legal Tender show!

The big surprise of the night for me was seeing Havok. I've heard a little bit of their music before and I seem to recall thinking it was pretty rad but not ever following up with a second listen. Needless to say, I was not prepared for the face crushing, adrenaline surging show that they brought to The Whiskey. As soon as these guys hit the stage, the crowd erupted into a voracious, frenzied circle pit! Both guitarists stormed up a whirlwind of rapid rhythms, furious melodies and immaculate solos, although it was the drummer who really drove the train with his pounding, relentless drum fills and double bass. This band was seriously tight. I will definitely be picking up a CD soon, and a "No Karate in the Pit" T-shirt.

Few bands could have followed a set like that without falling short but Skeletonwitch didn't miss a beat. They tore right into the audience with a song off of their newest album and kept hammering away with all of their old fan favorites like Beyond the Permafrost, Soul Thrashing Black Sorcery, Submit to the Suffering, and Upon Wings of Black. The nightmarish song lyrics combined with Chase Garnette's despair inducing scream really make Skeletonwitch seem like a band that teleported here straight from the bowels of hell. There's a visceral quality to their music. It has the heaviness and complexity of death metal with the speed and dexterity of thrash. 

My throat was mostly hoarse by the end of the night from screaming along to Skeletonwitch. It was the perfect end to a crazy run of six concerts in seven days. Check out Legal Tender, Havok and Skeletonwitch on facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/skeletonwitchmetal

https://www.facebook.com/HavokOfficial

https://www.facebook.com/legaltenderband

The next event on my concert calendar is (hopefully) Scattered Hamlet on Wednesday, November 7^th, at The Viper Room. I'll also be seeing Enslaved on Saturday, November 10^th at The Roxy.