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Decibel Magazine Metal and Beer Fest is Brewsome!

Decibel Magazine's Metal and Beer Fest is just fucking genius. Whomever came up with this brilliant idea should receive a huge bonus and/or promotion every year that it continues to happen. I attended last December’s edition in Los Angeles and I lost my Metal and Beer virginity there…and to liken the feeling to Nikki Sixx and his penchant for chasing the dragon…I needed more.

I recently returned from Philadelphia’s version and really had a chance to drink it all in this time. In addition to combining two things that are a match made in hell for each other (Heavy Metal and craft beer), the festival organizers have the marquee bands play exclusive setlists for this festival. For example, in Los Angeles, Testament played their incredible sophomore release, “The New Order” and Triptykon played an all Celtic Frost set. During the recent Philadelphia edition, Enslaved played their Viking Metal masterpiece, “Frost” and Obituary played their magnum opus, “Cause of Death.” These exclusive setlists are what really make this festival stand out among most current metal fests.

Another great attribute about this festival is the sheer amount, and affordability of merchandise available. I don’t remember seeing any T-shirts costing over $20. In addition, not only can you stuff your record bags with merch from the bands, the breweries in attendance slinging suds had plenty schwag on hand too. They also had tons of free stuff they were giving away such as coasters, koozies, stickers, pens, etc.… And if you weren’t sick of reading about all the merch you missed out on yet, Author/Bazillion Points owner and Heavy Metal Disk Jockey, Ian Christie, was commanding a table with a large collection of his books for sale.

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Bloodbath Guitarist Leaves The Band

Swedish death metal supergroup Bloodbath has announced that guitarist Joakim Karlsson has decided to leave the band. A statement from Karlsson reads as follows:

"I am putting away my Bloodbath vest for good.

"To be honest, I’ve never really considered myself a guitarist – at least not a particularly good one – just someone who plays guitar out of necessity because I wouldn’t be able to write my music otherwise. Bloodbath needs a lead guitarist; someone who can pull off these fast, evil solos and whatnot, and to be completely honest, that guy simply isn’t me. Bloodbath needs someone who can do it justice.

"I have had pretty much only good moments with the band, and I’m glad to have been a part of it for the last year and a half, but now I’ll do other things. (I vaguely remember having a main band which hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves during the last year. I think I’ll focus on that for a while.) Alright... Later, Bloodbath fans. I hope I at least managed to trick some of you into listening to Craft.

"By the way, some of you were making guesses about what songs I wrote for 'TAOSID.' I wrote 'Wayward Samaritan' (music/lyrics), 'Only the Dead Survive' (music, together with former Craft guitarist John Doe), 'Ride the Waves of Fire' (music/lyrics) and 'Wide Eyed Abandon' (music)." More...

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