Pantera - By Demons Be Driven

     Just a quick Throwback Thursday post tonight to keep things on time (such as they are), and when I need to throw it back, metal-wise, you know that means it's time to draw from my Old School band quiver. And no, I'm not doing another Nothingface song quite so soon.

     Much more universally loved than Nothingface is Pantera, making them a consistently solid choice for a Throwback Thursday song. Tonight we're going to keep things simple with a selection from what is arguably the band's masterpiece.

     "By Demons Be Driven" may come near the end of the running time of 1992's classic Vulgar Display of Power, but it is far from the back of the pack. Cutting guitar, punchy drums, Phil's snarl -- it's all here, and it's all Pantera at their finest. Sit down and study up one this lesson in metal history 101, because it most definitely will be on the final.

    

Thursday: Nothingface - Error in Excellence

     Throwback Thursday time, which means it's time to go back to one of my trusty TBT wells for something tasty. You should all know some of those bands of old I gravitate towards by now, so, anybody placing any bets on your Thursday song this week?

     Those of you who wisely put money on Nothingface, congratulations, you've picked the humble wooden cup amidst the gallery of golden goblets that would, of course, have been poor choices. I really dug Nothingface back in the day, and they've only dug themselves deeper into my heart. There aren't too many people from my youth that I still hang out with, but even the metalheads I've become friends with later in life all share a common love for many of the same bands of yore, Nothingface included.

     So let's go back to what is probably my favourite Nothingface album for a song that goes out to all those gentlemen mentioned above, past and present, who get that nostalgic grin on their face when this band comes on. Your Throwback Thursday song is "Error in Excellence" from 1998's An Audio Guide to Everyday Atrocity, simply because I've always liked both the song and the album. Happy time travelling!

Thursday: Nothingface - Ether

     It's looking more and more like Throwback Thursday might become a regular feature around here, given how often I use the penultimate day of the work week as an excuse to post about some blast from the past or other. Not that I'm against that, nostalgia junkie that I am.

     This week is going to be no different, as I throw it back once again to one of our favourite bygone bands of yesteryear with a track from their final album. The band in question is Nothingface, in my opinion one of the more underrated bands to never make it big in the late 90's and early 2000's, and the album is Nothingface's 2003 swansong Skeletons.

     Skeletons didn't make a whole lot of waves when it came out, and it only produced a long single "Ether", your Throwback Thursday song. Maybe "Ether" and Skeletons were a little too catchy and "radio-friendly" for Nothingface's existing fanbase, or maybe Nothingface never had the support to make it big anyways. Or maybe the band simply imploded before they really had a chance. I don't know, but I do know that Nothingface ran its course too soon for me and some of my friends, so raise a glass and then bang your head to what was and what could have been with Nothingface.

The Fall of Troy - Cut Down All the Trees and Name the Streets After Them

     As far as I know it's not an "official" crowdfunding campaign yet, but until-recently-defunct post-hardcore band The Fall of Troy is taking fan donations with an eye towards new material, tours, and the like. In a nutshell, the band seems to be back together.

     Who knows when, or even if, this turn of events will result in a new record or a tour of any size (they've been playing shows for a while now, but only a handful at a time). This guy right here can only hope the "if" is "yes" and the "when" is "soon", but for the time being he's going to have settle for something from the band's back catalogue.

     Join him and have a listen to "Cut Down All the Trees and Name the Streets After Them", the opening track from 2007's Manipulator, before hoping that Nothingface is the next band from the early 2000's to get back together.

Song of the Day: Nothingface - Can't Wait For Violence

     Lately I've been driving around with my mp3 player set to shuffle through my entire library (normally I listen to whole albums) so I've been hearing some stuff I haven't heard in a while, or wouldn't normally hear. Like today's dong, for example.

Song of the Day: Nothingface - Breath Out

     I ran into an old acquaintance/sibling of an old friend tonight, and it made me feel a little nostalgic, so for today's song we're going to take a ride in the ol' Wayback Machine and listen to a(nother) song by one of my favourite heavy bands back in high school. Let's go!

Song of the Day: Nothingface - Goldtooth

     Due to the great expense involved in operating the Wayback Machine, we'll be hanging out in the past for at least another day whilst raising funds for the journey back to 2012. In the meantime, you get to hear another great song from back in the day, by another great band that my friends and I listened to a fair amount of. Like Sevendust, Nothingface were in their heyday roughly concurrently with nu-metal, but also like Sevendust I've always thought of Nothingface as more of a straight up metal band. In fact, if anything I'd say Sevendust was the more nu-metally of the two, although that's really neither here nor there. Bottom line, Nothingface was awesome.

     Today's song is "Goldtooth", the opening track from Nothingface's 1998 An Audio Guide to Everyday Atrocity (which is a pretty fucking cool album title, if you ask me). Put it on and prepare to be assaulted. Matt Holt's arrogant, aggressive delivery of the line "feel your cunt dripping, it all smells the same" is worth the price of admission on its own.