I got hold of Monotheist by Celtic Frost. Its a great digipac with a poster and fantastic artwork. The album is outstanding, very dark and full of atmosphere..doomy, heavy and a potential classic.Brilliant!

Now I picked up Christ Illusion and I have played it once…that may tell you something..I am a huge fan of Slayer, but on that one listen I found it predictable and badly produced! Now,I know I will get slated for thisand I am going to go back to it and reserve a final analysis, but my initial reaction is fucking average..potentially the biggest disappointment…

the new unearth is very good. Although tagged along with the NWOAHM lot, they have produced a brutal thrash metal album with great melodic riffs and killer breakdowns. Some may even class this melodic death metal..whatever you want to fuckin' call it it rips..some of the picking on tracks like This Time Was Mime is superfast..the album has a great DVD with live stuff and studio out takes, its a great package ……III: In The Eyes Of Fire

Amon Amarth

After seeing them play Wacken on the huge stage, with Pyrotechnics and Viking battles, I was looking forward to a rather more intimate show in London!
This band didn't disappoint, giving a blistering performance to a packed Underworld.
A mini Viking sword and shields battle took place prior to the bands arrival onstage, and the band went full throttle into Persuit of Vikings.
The set featured material from all of the bands releases and they played a song from the forthcoming album which name I have totally forgotten!
A great evening though and the band promised to invade…

I spent a small fortune in the metal market on merch and cd's, and visitng the Black Mark productions stand, where 'Boss' Forsberg was on site..for those who don't know thats Quorthon from Bathory father.Bloodthorn10/10 were the first band that I watched of the day along with a small and fucking priviliged crowd. They were brutal and were one of the weekends highlights, fucking true aggresive Norwegian Black Metal!
I had a gander at Fear Factory 6/10, who were ok, but seemed a bit lethargic on stage to me, I wonder if its all a bit boring for…

So finally it came around and we arrived at the site on the Thursday at 3pm, found a site to pitch tents and the rain fell! It soon cleared up and the sun shone all weekend more or less!
The first night we got a crate of Wacken offical beer and drank the lot with a couple of German metalheads that we got talking too, the Michael Schenker Groupand scorpionsplayed that night and so we promptly got bladdered to cope, and then hit the metal disco til early morning, totally wasted.
I woke and promptly threw up on…

Will do a write up soon.. when I am not totally knackered…watch this journal space friends

bloodthorn
aborted
atheist
finntroll
korpiklaani

These are bands that interest me and I am going to check them out at the festival..I only have a limited knowledge of them all really….

I am going to be playing some of the bands that I will be watching at Wacken open air 06 next week..emperor
soulfly
morbid angel
fear factory
nevermore
opeth
vreid
celtic frost
six feet under
amon amarth
battlelore
ministry
motorhead

testament

What a great show at the Islington Acadamy..all the classics were played,Into The Pit, The Preacher,Disciples of the Watch,Over The Wall,The Haunting,Practice What You Preach, Trial By Fire..
Alex Skolnickand the band were on fire, with recently borrowed from Exodus and ex Slayer sticksman Paul Bostaph pounding the drum kit like his life depended on it..classic.

I hope the weather holds and its just a little cooler..that will be perfect, but this humidity is killing me