Song of the Day: System of a Down - Toxicity

     Due to the high cost of operting the Wayback Machine, we're spending at least another day in my high school past. Which band are we dealing with today? I'll give you a hint: I saw these guys live this year.

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?

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.

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.