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I mentioned that these Frenchmen have pulled out of Heavies TO and MTL to rejigger their schedule, and that they've been replaced by The Dillinger Escape Plan.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.