Song of the Day: Michael Jackson - Thriller

     I know what you're thinking: what the fuck is Michael Jackson doing on this metal blog? Well, it's Hallowe'en, and I needed a good spooky song for today. But aren't there any evil and/or scary metal songs, you ask? Aren't there like a million of them, you demand? Sure, but therein lies the problem. There's umpteen gazillion metal songs that could be good for Hallowe'en, but there's also only so much time in the day for me to choose from them. So I've decided to just go with my gut and present the most Hallowe'eny song I can think of.

Song of the Day: Intervals - Tapestry

     Guten tag, everyone. Today I've got a killer new tune for you from a band that I've been talking up at every available opportunity over the last few months. They've been streaming their new EP online for the last week or two, but since said EP is officially out today, what better day to crank some instrumental metal?*

Song of the Day: Machine Head - Aesthetics of Hate

     Afternoon everybody, it's Monday once again (funny how it happens every week...) and it's imperative to start the week off right. Normally this might mean a Metallica Monday, but today I'm going to go with another M band, albeit one with which you're probably already familiar. That band is Machine Head, which means that this is Machine Head Monday.

Song of the Day: Enter Shikari - Mothership

     We're going to change directions again today, moving from yesterday's Canadian indie-emo-alt-rock to some British post-hardcore electro-metal* in my ongoing quest to provide you, dear reader, not just with some rockin' tunes, but with some rockin' tunes you might not already know. To that end, let's talk about Enter Shikari.

Pit Report: Protest the Hero

     As you may be aware (since I told you as much) I saw Protest the Hero play on Monday night, so I thought it might be fun to do a quick little pit report about the show. Enjoy!

Song of the Day: Moneen - Tonight, I'm Gone...

     Today we're going to shift gears a little, given yesterday's foray into quasi-satirical, quite possibly offensive hip-hop. From that we move to Canadian alt-indie rock. Too big a jump for you? Too bad.

Song of the Today: Weerd Science - Girl, Your Baby's Worm Food

     Hey everybody, I'm back with today's Song of the Day for today, but I've got a bit of a caveat before we get started, and here it is: this song is super duper NSFW and probably pretty offensive if you don't have a good (read: dirty, filthy, and generally terrible) sense of humour, or if you're just pro-life. Huh? What does TheBeard mean by that? Read on.

Song of the Yesterday: 3 - Alien Angel

     No excuses today, just late with yesterday's song, so you get another double header. The first one requires a bit of a walk, so bear with me. Now, by now you should all at least have heard of Coheed and Cambria, what with all the talking about them I've done: a couple of songs of the day and the Super Tuesday post in anticipation of their new album, The Afterman Part 1: Ascension (which, by the way, is pretty good). If you read that super Super Tuesday post, then you might remember me mentioning a gentlemen named Josh Eppard, Coheed's original drummer, who was gone for an album or two but is now back with the band.

Song of the Day: Deftones - Tempest

     Just a super quick one today, since I'm exhausted and need to get to bed ASAP. In honour of the new Deftones album coming out in a couple of weeks (November 13th, to be exact) and the good reviews that are starting to pop up online, you song today is "Tempest", the second song released from the forthcoming Koi No Yokan. I'm starting to get pretty excited about this one, and after hearing the first couple of songs off of it (today's "Tempest" and "Leathers" from about a month back) I hope you are too.

Song of the Day: Trioscapes - Blast Off

     I've got something a little different for you today, and something I can't believe I haven't posted about before. However, I warn you now, there be saxophone ahead. I know sax isn't everyone's favourite thing, and can in fact be quite divisive, so consider this your fair warning that today's song includes sax.* Intrigued? Read on.

Song of the Day: Protest the Hero - C'est la Vie

     I don't know if I've mentioned it before now (it might very well not have come up) but I'm going to see Protest the Hero tonight. I've seen them a couple of times before at another venue, and I've seen several other band's at tonight's venue, so by doing the maths I've come to the conclusion that seeing a high energy band like Protest the Hero in a small comedy club should be a good time. I'm looking forward to putting another notch in my Protest the Hero belt.

Song of the Day: Revocation - The Grip Tightens

     Yesterday I promised you that today we'd be back to business as usual here at Loud Noises and I don't intend to disappoint. I think Classic Rock Week went well, and I might explore other ideas for theme weeks in the future*, but for now it's time to get back to some metal. And today's song has the added bonus of having a fun video to go along with it.

Song of the Day: The Who - Pinball Wizard

      OK kids, it's been fun, but Classic Rock Week is coming to a close. Starting tomorrow, we'll be back to regularly scheduled programming with some tasty, tasty metal, but today I've got one more slice of classic rock for you to feast your ears on before we zip up our time hoodies and return to the present. It was a tough call today, as there are so many good classic rock songs that have stood the proverbial test of time. I've tried to pick songs this week that are not just songs I like or that I think others will like, but ones that are also good on their own merit and not just because we hear them through the hazy filter of nostalgia. Some classic rock is definitely enjoyable largely for nostalgic reasons, while some transcends those nostalgic reasons and remains kick-ass because it was kick-ass to begin with.

Song of the Day: Jimi Hendrix - Castles Made of Sand

     In my humble opinion as both a guitarist and a fan of music generally, there are a number of names that one simply has to touch upon in any discussion of classic rock, names that you just can't leave out. I've included several of those names so far this week, and today I present to you one more. Today's song just might be my favourite by this artist, and it's not necessarily one of his most well known songs, so I thought it would be a perfect choice to recommend to you.

Songs of the Days: Yeah, I know...

     Yeah, I know, shut up. My excuse today is that I've been working a bunch and it's midterm time, so students have been e-mailing me with a million and one silly questions. But no matter. Still a day late and a dollar short, so once again you get a double dose of classic rock today as Classic Rock Week continues not-quite-apace.

Song of the Day: Pink Floyd - Us and Them

     Classic rock week continues here at Loud Noises with yet another band that needs no introduction. Once I settled on this particular band, the choice of song was made for me by the fact that today's song is covered by not one but two great bands - Misery Signals and Between the Buried and Me. Open and shut case, really.

Song of the Day: Led Zeppelin - Moby Dick

     It would be next to impossible for me to do any kind of classic rock week without having a song by today's band. The tough part is picking a song. After all, British rock gods Led Zeppelin have an extensive catalogue that's stuffed to the gills with great songs. One could probably write an entire blog (and someone out there probably is) about Zepp, so monumental was their impact on rock and/or roll. Ultimately, I decided today to go with one you might not know if you're not a Led Zeppelin fan.

Songs of the Weekend/Classic Rock Week Kick-Off

OK, I missed doing a song yesterday, but unlike usual I have a valid excuse: we were at a friend's wedding yesterday. But on the plus side (for you, anyways) is that it kind of gave me the idea for today's Song, and possibly some direction for the rest of the week. Allow me to explain.

For a while now I've been contemplating doing a week (or more than one, if things go well) of themed songs. The idea I've been kicking around is a classic rock week, but not in a traditional sense so much as with the spirit of metal in mind. Some classic rock is considered to be directly presaging early metal, while other stuff may only have elements that have found their way into some form of metal or other, but the bottom line is there's a lot of good stuff from back in the day that's not The Beatles or The Rolling Stones or some other band you here on classic rock radio all the time (not that any of those bands isn't good). Now, I know classic rock isn't the most cutting edge music and that most of you will have heard most of it before. But maybe you're a young metalhead who hasn't heard it all and is curious about what came before. Or maybe you have heard everything before but just need to be reminded that metal isn't the only thing under the sun. Either way, I've been thinking for a while now that a week of classic rock might be a fun idea.

Then last night we're at this wedding, my girlfriend and I, and "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen comes on, and it seems like everybody in the room is belting out every word. That led me to the thought today that maybe I should take that as a sign that now's the time (the time is now*) for a classic rock theme week. So starting today, this week here at Loud Noises is Classic Rock Week, and today's a double feature because I missed yesterday. And your first song, as you might have guessed, is "Bohemian Rhapsody" from 1975's A Night at the Opera.  At first glance, not very metal at all, but take another look. Operatic vocals (quite literally), multi-instrumentation, an unorthodox arrangement and some heavy riffing are all qualities of this song that you might also expect to find today in proggier stuff like Opeth, making "Bohemian Rhapsody" a song that still rocks and sounds fresh today.

So that's yesterday. Now today. Your second song is one more traditionally connected with metal, namely "War Pigs" from Black Sabbath's 1970 classic Paranoid. If I have to tell you why this one's metal, you should probably just leave now.

* a million bonus points to anyone who can correctly guess the classic rock reference there.

Song of the Day: Puscifer - REV 22:20

     I've decided to complete the Maynard James Keenan trifecta today, even if the third part of this trinity is the least metal of the three. Unlike Tool and A Perfect Circle, Puscifer is Keenan's solo project, in which he can explore whatever musical experimentation strikes his fancy. Such musical experimentation is considerably more electronic and more pop-y than either of his other gigs, but still worth checking out as yet another showcase for his powerful voice.

Song of the Day: Tool - 46 & 2

     I had a deeply unsettling thought after posting yesterday's Song of the Day. As I said, I pretty much assume that you all know who I was talking about yesterday - A Perfect Circle aren't exactly new or underground. But then I pictured the one metal fan out there in the world who (hypothetically) read yesterday's post and reacted with a hearty "who the fuck is Maynard James Keenan?"  Today's song is for that one poor bastard.

Song of the Day: A Perfect Circle - Judith

     I bet you've heard of today's band, but if perhaps you've been living under a rock or on a different planet for the last ten to fifteen years, you might not know that Maynard James Keenan has more gigs than just Tool. Sure, Tool's awesome and easily Keenan's best stuff, but that doesn't mean that everything he touches isn't rock solid, because it is. Even Puscifer. But the Maynard James Keenan side-project* I like best is definitely A Perfect Circle.

Song of the Day: Sylosis - Out From Below

     Well, it's been a long wait, but Super Tuesday is finally here! It certainly doesn't rival Christmas morning or the last day of school or anything, but there's a little part of me that's been looking forward to today for months, largely because today's band's new album drops in North America today (fuck you, Europe). Don't get me wrong, I'm really looking forward to new Between the Buried and Me and Coheed and Cambria as well, but of the three, Sylosis is the one I've really been waiting for.

Song of the Day: Metallica - One

     It's already getting late, so today's going to be short and sweet. And since it is getting late, and it is Monday, I'm going to take the easy way out and call it a Metallica Monday. And since each passing day convinces me more and more that Metallica will never release any more good music, your song's going to have to be an old one.

Song of the Day: The Black Dahlia Murder - Miasma

     I guess it's more than a two-day theme, because today I have another band for you that I've written about before (back in the United Nations of Metal post) but never given a Song of the Day, and although I don't really like retreading old ground, I think today's band is awesome enough and underground enough to warrant some more exposure. So if you're not listening to The Black Dahlia Murder, what the fuck is wrong with you?

Song of the Day: Russian Circles - Malko

     Today is a continuation of yesterday's theme of reminding you about shit I've already mentioned. However, unlike Refused, a band you should almost be ashamed not to have heard of by this point, today's band is not one I'll shun you for not knowing. That being said, they're cool, and you'll still be a cooler, less shunnable person for having heard them, so do yourself a favour and wise up right now to instrumental masters Russian Circles.

Song of the Day: Refused - New Noise

     I've talked about today's band and their importance to modern heavy music before before in a Song of the Day, but I feel like there's probably some among you out there who still don't know how much the music you like probably owes them. So today you get another song from the classic final album by Swedish punk pioneers Refused.

Song of the Day: High on Fire - Snakes for the Divine

     Today's band put out a new record earlier this year, and while I haven't heard anything from it yet, they're definitely one of those metal bands that I'd like to listen to more of than I do and be more into than I am. I do however have a copy of their previous album, and just in case you don't know them I'm taking a track from that one for today's song.

Song of the Day: Tesseract - Nocturne

     I've written about today's band before (they are, after all, What You Should Be Listening To), and they've even had a song of the day before, but after a summer of relative quiet from them, things are once again happening and so they deserve another look in case you don't know them yet. Based on that description, I could be talking about Sylosis, but today's song actually happens to be the new tune from another of my absolute favourites, Tesseract.

Song of the Day: Coheed and Cambria - Domino the Destitute

     A few days ago I started some Super Tuesday prep when I said we'd be doing some Songs of the Day based on the badass albums coming out next week. Last time we did this was Between the Buried and Me's new video "Astral Body" and today is round two: Coheed and Cambria's new video.

Song of the Day: The Faceless - Autotheism: Movements I, II, III

     Super buzzed-about tech death metal band The Faceless released their third album, Autotheism, in August, and it's a doozy. I guess I'm well behind the curve on this one, since it came out a month and a half ago, but I've been listening to it a bunch over the last week or so. I liked The Faceless before; Planetary Duality is an opus of sci-fi tech-death goodness, and they played a great set this summer at Heavy TO. But Autotheism has gotten in my brain like some kind of ear-burrowing space slug, thanks in no small part to today's song. Today's songs, actually. What do I mean?