Song of the Day: As I Lay Dying - Meaning in Tragedy

     My friends and I used to be big fans of As I Lay Dying. We haven't been as enthusiastic about their last couple of albums because they're definitely a band that has "found their sound" and seems content to rest on their admittedly heavy laurels. But their first couple of albums were apparently just what the doctor ordered when they came out, with Shadows Are Security being a real classic, and the album that made the band.

Song of the Day: Glassjaw - Tip Your Bartender

     Glassjaw is a bit like Guns and Roses. How, you ask? Well, it's been ten years since their last full length, the stupidly awesome Worship and Tribute, and we're all still waiting for the follow-up that has supposedly been in the works off and on for years. Of course the difference is that Glassjaw have at least put out a couple of EPs worth of new material in that time, if only in limited release. Hopefully my comparing them to Guns and Roses will somehow speed things along.

Song of the Day: Avenged Sevenfold - Darkness Surrounding

     Today's song requires a little bit of a walk, but I promise I'll make it as quick and painless as possible. At work this summer, we've been listening to a lot of Sirius satellite radio. Mainly it's been Alt Nation, I'm pretty much the only metal enthusiast where I work, but the past couple of weeks there's been some Octane in the mix. Among the bands I've heard on there lately that I used to listen to but don't really follow anymore is Avenged Sevenfold. But Octane plays their newer stuff, and I was always a fan of their first couple of albums. True to form, today you're getting the song that first alerted me to the existence of Avenged Sevenfold.

Song of the Day: Tool - Aenema

     So I was going through my playlist, looking for a song for today, when it occurred to me: I've been at this Song of the Day thing for going on two months now and I've yet to do a Tool song. Shame! Time to set things right!

Heavy TO Pit Report - Part 2: The Rest

     I told you I'd be back with more thoughts about my trip to day 2 of Heavy TO, and you know I wouldn't lie to you, so here I am! In no particular order, here are my ramblings about everything I didn't cover last time around:

Song of the Day: Mudvayne - Internal Primates Forever

     Once again it's Monday, time to get back to work and back to metal. Today's one of those days when I just let my playlist's shuffling do the choosing for me*, and I for one think it came up with something good. It's been a while since I've listened to any Mudvayne, but they're another one of those bands that I listened to a ton of in high school and university, back when I was still forging the penchant for metal that I have today. As with anything from one's youth, some bands I listened to back then don't stand up as well as others, but Mudvayne isn't one of them. I haven't heard much off of their last couple of discs, but the ones I've got and used to crank can still hold their own alongside more modern stuff.

Song of the Day: The Sound of Animals Fighting - The Ocean and The Sun

     It's Sunday (still, for a little bit at least) which means your song for today is going to be a little bit laid-back, a little less metal. Today's choice struck me as a bit of a no-brainer, given the whole "weekend-chill-vibe" thing, since I haven't even ever mentioned this band yet and they're definitely worth mentioning. The Sound of Animals Fighting was a super-group of sorts, counting members of Finch, Rx Bandits, Chiodos, and Circa Survive among its alumni, though the band has disbanded since the release of its third and final album in 2008. Still, the three album catalogue they produced is pretty interesting and definitely worth checking out.

Song of the Day: Queens of the Stone Age - Better Living Through Chemistry

     Once again it's the weekend (funny how they come around every week, eh?) and since there's only a couple of them left this summer, I thought maybe I'd go back to the template from last weekend, by which I mean picking some songs that are perhaps a little more laid back, a little more chill. As is so often the case, the band was the easy choice. My friends and I listened to a ton of Queens of the Stone Age through high school and into university; the first three QOTSA albums in particular were never far from our Discmen (yeah, I'm that old). The choice of song was less obvious, given that QOTSA can rock a laid-back groove with the best of them (*cough* Kyuss *cough*), but I think I settled on one that will take your day and set it to "chill" without too much difficulty.

Song of the Day: The Fall of Troy - Rockstar Nailbomb

     Afternoon everyone (or morning for me, as I just got up). I had to have a little Think to come up with the band for today's song, but once I got it, the old tried and true method of picking the song that first exposed me to said band kicked in, and Robert's your mother's brother. Inspired by yesterday's song (love you Kelsey!) I ended up going with another noodley, emo-y kinda band that's still capable of some heavy.

Song of the Day: Dance Gavin Dance - Uneasy Hearts Weigh the Most

     Today is a very special day here at Loud Noises, with a very special song to go along with it. Three years ago this evening, my girlfriend Kelsey and I went on our very first date (it was Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds, if you're wondering, which you probably aren't). It was super awkward, but maybe that's how I knew it was the start of something special. Three years later, we've been through a lot together, and we've had a lot of special shared musical memories, but one sticks out as the first song we connected over. It may not be Metal with an upper case M, but tough titties.

Song of the Day: The Contortionist - Holomovement

     Today I've got an adventure in Progland for you to embark upon. Ever heard of The Contortionist? Yes? No? Maybe so? Well you should hear of them. Their second LP, Intrinsic, was released last month, and while they're not yet ready to unseat a band like Between the Buried and Me for prog-metal supremacy, they're definitely worth checking out if, like me, you're a fan of this kind of thing, and I don't doubt that Intrinsic will appear on more than a few "best of 2012" lists come the end of the year.

Song of the Day: Circles - Eye Embedded

     Another day, another song here at Loud Noises, and today, like yesterday, I'm going to do a little retreading of ground from days gone by. A week or two ago, I posted my United Nations of Metal with a whole slew of international recommendations. Maybe you checked them out, maybe you didn't, but today I intend to make sure that at least one of these bands gets a little attention from you.

Heavy TO Pit Report - Part 1: The Bands

     I told you I'd have some thoughts from Heavy TO, and here they are, even if it did take me a week to write them down. And I have so many thoughts that I think I'm going to make this a two-parter. In this first installment, I'm going to go through each of the bands we actually payed attention to (ie: the ones we went to see) and give little baby reviews of their sets. I'm not going to try and remember set lists or anything like that (mostly because it's 2012 and the Internet does that shit for me), I'm just going to give you my impressions of each band's performance. So let's go!

Song of the Day: Tesseract - Deception (Concealing Fate Pt. 2)

     Morning, metalheads. It's Monday (all fucking day, I know) and it's back to the grind with some metal (if only I were into some Grind, that segue would be much better...). Today I'm covering a little bit of old ground, in the sense that I've already recommended this band to you, telling you they're some of What You Should Be Listening To (check the archives). But just in case you disregarded my earlier recommendation, or you're new to Loud Noises, or just whatever, please, PUT SOME FUCKING TESSERACT ON RIGHT NOW!!

     To that end, your song today is "Deception (Concealing Fate Pt. 2)" from Tesseract's debut LP One. I could have chosen virtually any song off this album, but I thought you might like this one for its opening riff. I guarantee headbanging by the time Dan start singing or your money back.

Song of the Day: The Beastie Boys - Make Some Noise

     I think we'll go with another laid back track today, before getting back to the slog of the week with some heavier stuff once again tomorrow. But what to choose? It's hard to believe, but Summer's winding down, and Fall is fast approaching, so perhaps some good time party music would be in order. Well, if chilling music is called for, I might have just the thing. It's not metal, but I think it'll get your head going.

Song of the Day: Radiohead - Lotus Flower

     I was wracking my brain, trying to decide what metal band deserved a song today, when it hit me: do something different today. It's the weekend, so perhaps something a little more chill is in order. I've been a Radiohead fan for a long time, and they're a band that's gone through so many changes, that I could pick a song from any number of stylistic directions. But if I'm thinking something chill, something decidedly not metal, I know where I'm going.

Song of the Day: Misery Signals - Nothing

     Today's choice of song was brought about by yet another studio video from yet another good band. It seems this fall is going to be chalk full of good album releases, as there's a bunch of bands either with records done and ready to go or records in the works. One such band is Misery Signals, one of my favourites for a long time now. Dense, technical, aggressive, and cathartic, Misery Signals is a band I call metal with the hesitation that such a classification doesn't do them justice. At any rate, Misery Signals isn't ready to put anything new out yet, but things are in the works.

Song of the Day: At the Drive-In - Arcarsenal

     Morning kids. I'm building on the last couple of day's songs today. Yesterday we had Death Before Disco because the day before I'd said Exotic Animal Petting Zoo reminded me of them. Well I also mentioned At the Drive-In, and even though I did remind you that At the Drive-In came up way back in the first Loud Noises post about The Mars Volta (meaning that if you wanted some ATDI, you should know where to look for a few recommendations from yours truly), I've decided to give them a day so that I can be sure you know what I'm talking about with this vibe I'm getting from these three bands.

Song of the Day: Death Before Disco - Modern Times

     Yesterday when I recommended Exotic Animal Petting Zoo's "Thorough. Modern." to you, I mentioned that EAPZ reminds me a little bit of Death Before Disco and At the Drive-In. Chances are you're familiar with ATDI (if for no other reason than I talked about them way back when I started this sucker), but it's also likely you don't know Death Before Disco, especially if you're a metalhead, as they're not the most metal band.  They've got their own heaviness, tinged with poppier, punkier flavours -- I hesitate to use the words "emo" and "screamo" for fear of sending you fleeing, but were I to use such words, I would mean them in the best possible way.

Song of the Day: Exotic Animal Petting Zoo - Thorough. Modern.

     See? I told you I'd see you later for today's song. Today we're back to our regularly scheduled programming, in the sense that Heavy TO themed stuff is done with (other than my pit report, which is in the works), so once again I've got some cool new shit for you. These guys are another pretty new discovery for me, but I'm liking their kinda chaotic sound, and they've got a cool video for one of the tracks from their new album. Sometimes these songs just pick themselves...

Song of the Day: August 13th

     Oh hai there! I'm back from Heavy TO, and my lack of sleep over the weekend caused me to miss doing the Song of the Day yesterday. But I'm back, and in addition to getting back to the regular Song of the Day schedule, I'm also working on some impressions I had from this weekend's onslaught that I'll be posting later in the week. For now, it's time for yesterday's song.

Song of the Day: Lamb of God - Ashes of the Wake

     Well, it's here people: day 2 of Heavy TO, and I'll be there! Or, more accurately, by the time you read this I probably am there. So who do I pick for a song on the last day of Heavy themed picks? Easy. They're not playing at Heavy anymore, but they're still awesome, and of course if you haven't heard, Randy Blythe is back in the US, so what more reason could I need to play a Lamb of God song?

Song of the Day: System of a Down - Soil

     Well kids, Heavy TO is almost here (or if you're going today or for both days, it's here already, you lucky sod!) So I've got one more day of preparatory listening for you to do, and if you've been following along (both with me and with the Heavy line-up) then you should be able to tell me who today's song is by (without looking at the title of this post, smart ass). Give up? Quitter. It's System of a Down.

Song of the Day: Deftones - Rocket Skates

     It's almost here people. Heavy TO (and Heavy MTL, of course) is this weekend, and so my Song of the Day prep work is coming to a close as well. But we're not quite there yet. You may or may not have noticed that I've just been going through line-up, starting with Saturday, and showcasing songs by the band's I'd want to to see. Luckily, as it happens, there's a couple more days I have to cover, and a couple more bands left to do. Today's band is the subheadliner on Sunday, the second to last act to go on.

Song of the Day: Killswitch Engage - Numbered Days

     Heavy TO approaches ever closer, and that means more songs from more bands playing this weekend. Today we've got another band that has new material in the works, and another band I'm pretty stoked about seeing: Killswitch Engage. I'm also stoked to see them back with original vocalist Jesse Leach, who's recently rejoined the band. It's one of the many things that informed my choice of song today.

Song of the Day: The Faceless - Prison Born

     Heavy TO prep continues apace today, with a track from a young band that seems to be the up and coming tech-death darling de jour. The fact that they announced the completion and impending release of their new album Autotheism sort of out of nowhere, the fact that we've so far heard only a minute-long snippet of the new stuff even though the record comes out next week, and the fact that their last record, Planetary Duality, was so awesome all combine to make Autotheism an album I'm pretty stoked for, and I'm certainly not the only one. Yes, you may have figured out by now that I'm talking about The Faceless.

Song of the Day: Periphery - Scarlet

     There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that if you're listening to metal in 2012, you have at least heard of Periphery before. Exactly how you feel about the band that Bulb birthed* might vary, and might have a lot to do with how you feel about this whole "djent" thing they're one of the leading purveyors of, but I know you know who they are. They just released their second full length, Periphery II: This Time It's Personal, and they're on the Summer Slaughter tour alongside the likes of The Faceless and Between the Buried and Me. Oh yeah, did I mention that all three of these bands are playing Sunday at Heavy TO?

Song of the Day: Slipknot - Disasterpiece

     We're almost done working our way through my favourite bands from day one of this year's Heavy TO festival, but we haven't done the Saturday headliner yet, and they're a big one. I saw Slipknot way back in the day (2001, to be exact) when they were just about to release Iowa, and it's really too bad that they're playing Saturday instead of Sunday, because I'd love to see them again. I guess I'll just have to settle for cranking some Iowa on the way to the show on Sunday.

Song of the Day: In Flames - Take This Life

     Heavy TO grows nearer daily, and so today I've got another song for you by a band appearing next weekend. This time around, it's the band that's replacing Lamb of God, Swedish metal veterans In Flames. I'm not the biggest In Flames fan, although I haven't heard any of their most recent material, but they've good some cool songs in their catalogue for sure. Today's might not be the best of the bunch in everyone's opinion, but it's the song that first exposed me to In Flames.

The United Nations of Metal

    I’ve got something kinda fun planned for this time out. Or at least I think it’s fun. Maybe I’m just a big dork. Anyways, some set-up: I recently got thinking about how insular we metal fans can be. I mean, we do listen to a pretty niche genre of music. Even your most mainstream modern metal bands, your Lamb of Gods (Lambs of God?), your Killswitch Engages, your Slipknots (OK, maybe Slipknot is a bad example...), even bands like these aren’t getting top 40 radio play, or appearing on People magazine, or even being followed by douchebags from TMZ. Even the biggest fish in the metal pond are seldom caught by the nets of mainstream popular culture. (How’s that for a metaphor?)

Song of the Day: The Dillinger Escape Plan - Widower

     A couple of days ago, when posting Gojira's "Liquid Fire" as the Song of the Day, I mentioned that these Frenchmen have pulled out of Heavies TO and MTL to rejigger their schedule, and that they've been replaced by The Dillinger Escape Plan. Either way this affects Saturday, and since I'm going on Sunday, I won't see either band. But I can still make you listen to them with me!

Song of the Day: Trivium - Rain

     More Heavy TO prep for you today, as well as the first Song of the Day repeat: Trivium. This is also the only kind of Song of the Day repeat allowed (ie: band) because I've been choosing songs, and will continue to choose songs, based on two simple unwritten rules which I will now commit to writing.
1) A band can't have back to back songs on consecutive days, or even days that are close together.
2) No repeat songs.
I won't be breaking either of those by picking another Trivium song (since it's been a few weeks since "The Crusade" was Song of the Day) so we're all good.

     Your Song of the Day is "Rain" off of 2005's Ascendancy. This is the song that got me into Trivium. I'm not the hugest fan of their newer stuff (don't get me wrong, I still like some of it) but when this came out this was a pretty solid, pretty thrashy metalcore album. And it got stuck in my craw partly because of this song. Even though it's the second track, it almost serves as the album opener, since it's the first "real" song, and boy does it fucking boot the door of the album wide open with that intro/verse riff. Have a listen, and then tune in again tomorrow.

Song of the Day: Gojira - Liquid Fire

     Day 2 of Heavy TO prep here, and today I'm going to go with one of the bands that was originally on the bill but has had to back out -- there are in fact two now. If you've been following the Randy Blythe story at all you know that Randy is still in jail in the Czech Republic, so any summer dates Lamb of God had scheduled, such as Heavy TO and Heavy MTL, have been cancelled. In Flames have awesomely taken Lamb of God's spot at both shows.

Song of the Day: Protest the Hero - The Dissentience

     Well, it's official: I'm going to Heavy TO! In case you're not Canadian, or you are Canadian and don't live in Ontario or Quebec, Heavy TO and Heavy MTL are a pair of metal festivals happening in Toronto and Montreal on the weekend of August 11th and 12th. All of the bands in the fairly deep line-up (which can be seen here for Heavy TO...) are playing both cities on alternate days, giving fans in both areas a chance to see everyone, which is a pretty rad idea in my book. Due to budgetary constraints and scheduling issues I'm only going to be at the second day, but lucky for you, you get to attend (in spirit, anyways) because from now until then I'm going to be featuring some of my favourite bands from this year's Heavy TO and MTL festivals in the Loud Noises Songs of the Day.

     So without further ado, today's song. We're going to start with Canadian punk-metal-prog badasses Protest the Hero today, and their song "The Dissentience" from 2008's Fortress. Since I'm going Sunday, I won't get to see them this time out, but if I were I'd like to see them play this one. Enjoy.