…but they gave a damn good show yesterday night at the Medley here in Montreal. The Florida-based band was back in town with Matt Barlow back at the mike. I was the first time I could see him sign live for Iced Earth and he definitely kicks ass!!! The band played a full set of a duration of 1h40 which pleased every fan in the crowd.

At some point the show got interrupted because a stupid moron in the audience had the brilliant idea to spit on Jon Schaffer (pictured up here), the lead gutarist and leader of the group during Night Of The Stormrider. Very bad idea because Schaffer was really pissed off and screamed at the moron to invite him for a fight. Of course, the moron tried to leave the place but amazingly, the crowd pulled him back to the front of the stage where he was taken care of by angry fans. Weird scene but that was good for him! The band actually appreciated the response from the rest of the crowd and were then boosted to deliver the rest of the show.

Besides that, Iced Earth performed a quite interesting setlist. Among others, we were able to hear Behold The Wicked Child, I Walk Alone, Come What May, 10000 Strong, Declaration Day, the complete Gettysburgh set (3 tracks), Dracula, Burning Times, Watching Over Me, Night Of The Stormrider, Vengeance Is Mine, Melancholy and of course Iced Earth. Very satisfying for an Iced Earth fan.

Only one negative aspect: the volume was damn too loud. My right ear still makes me suffer 24h later…

Two power metal supergroups were in town last Friday and gave a hell of a show: Gamma Ray and Helloween. In fact the two German groups were sharing the stage for this event that was held at the Medley. Once again Gamma Ray and Helloween did not deceive their fans, blasting them powerful classic tracks like Somewhere Out In Space, Into The Storm, Empress, Heaven Can Wait, Ride the Sky (these one played by Gamma Ray), Halloween, Future World, Power, Eagle Fly Free, Mr Torture, As Long As I Fall (these one played by Helloween). In other words, this event was a blast for every power metal fan. Especially when the two groups joined forces together on stage and played I Want Out to close the show! Delicious!!! And it was, as usual, very rough on the ears and tympanums. But what the hell, that’s how we like it huh?!

Ho yeahhhh!!! The hockey season is beginning in a few weeks! Here is a good classic TV souvenir (here in Quebec) to put us in the mood:

And here’s a pretty song for you: Jesus is my friend!

I told you that this is useless entertainment… You’ve been warned!!!

Yep. Adios Mr. Sundin and welcome Mr. Lang. The Sundin soap opera is finished on the Habs side and this is a sad but good thing. If a player still doesn’t know on September 15th if he wants to play the next season or not, this means that he can stay home and retire! Bob Gainey did what he could in the case of Sundin and this wasn’t enough for the Swedish player to convince him to come play in Montreal. So be it! Gainey could not wait for mister Sundin for eternity. It has been a long wait enough according to me.

So let’s see how Robert Lang will do in the lineup. I hope he can be a bit as good as he was back in his glory days in the 1990’s when he was playing with Kovalev in Pittsburgh. But no matter what happens, the Habs are a better team today with Lang in the lineup than they were last week! Go Habs Go!

Well, the kings of trash metal are back my friends. Metallica are making an impressive comeback to the sound that made them famous in the 80’s with Death Magnetic. And believe me, they deserved to offer something good to their fans after the catastrophic St-Anger released in 2003. But here we are with a brand new album that deserves some respect. Death Magnetic is quite impressive.

Apart from the song titled The End Of The Line that has a “Load/Reload” vibe at its beginning, the rest of the songs of the album definitely sound like the 80’s era. This is pure trash metal my friends: fast tempo, aggressive lyrics, heavy riffs. We feel like we are back to the Master Of Puppets. All the songs rock but The Unforgiven III rocks a bit less. Nothing of that songs reminds us of the original one found on the Black album.

So trash metal fans can be happy: Metallica are back in the line that they should have never left. The 90’s and 00’s have been disastrous for a few bands, Metallica are no exception. But they are now back on track with Death Magnetic. It is worth 9/10. The best songs included in there are the first five. The rest are good too but less to be remembered.

Haaaaaaa!!! Iced Earth got its voice back! Matt Barlow is back home taking the place of Tim “Ripper” Owens that had replaced him as the lead signer of the group 7 years ago. Owens was OK but Iced Earth is definitively at its best with Barlow at the mike.

So here is the new CD entitled The Crucible Of Man, a follow-up to Framing Armageddon that was released earlier this year. Both albums cover the same storyline about the “Wicked”, a character that was created in the Something Wicked That Way Comes album back in 1998. The Crucible Of Man definitely continues where Framing Armageddon left. The same tone and atmosphere reign on the album, only the voice changes. The melodies are also present but maybe not quite as good as on Framing. But Crucible concludes the storyline in a fashionly way. John Schaffer’s (the lead-guitarist, music composer and mainman of Iced Earth) lyrics are quite sinister on Crucible. This contributes a lot to the album where the music is not as intense as on other Iced Earth albums.

The Crucible of Man is yet another excellent release of the Florida-based metal group. Not their finest but very good indeed. And thanks god Matt is back!!! I give it a 8/10 rate. The best songs on the album, according to me, are Behold The Wicked Child, A Gift Or A Curse, I Walk Alone and Come What May.

There are some of these albums that you know, at the first listening, that you will just never like them. In my case, Alice Cooper’s last effort Along Came a Spider falls into this category. After having listened to it once, I was already going to give it a 1/10 rate but after a few more listenings, my appreciation can now be measured at… 4/10.

I am not a hardcore Alice Cooper fan but I like a few of his classic songs (I’m Eighteen, School’s Out, Poison, No More Mr Nice Guy, etc.). I had read good reviews of Along Came a Spider on the web so I decided to give it a try. Error! I wasted 15 bucks!

I just cannot find any song on this album that I really appreciate, and that no matter how often I listen to it. I could say that Vengeance Is Mine, Wrapped In Silk and I Am The Spider are OK, but not that much. True fans of Alice Cooper will probably say that this is the sound and this concept album is a masterpiece. But for me, a metal album has to include some killer riffs and drum beats, one or more arena anthems and stuff like that. Along Came a Spider is far from containing these magic ingredients. This album is more like a joke to me, it is some kind of theatrical play put on disc. What more can I say. I expected more I guess…

Did the bell of retirement ring for Mr Cooper? I can’t say… But I can say that this album is weird and that Alice can produce more enjoyable music. So I’ll give it a 4/10 score, and this is mainly because the album’s interior booklet is really well done.

That’s how I would call the soap-opera saga floating around Mats Sundin since July 1st. Honestly, I have never been so bored to hear about a potential superstar player that still doesn’t know if he wants to hang on his skates or comeback to play another or two more seasons.

This is all so ridiculous… I can understand that a player wants to take some time to decide if he wants to retire or not but inc the case of Sundin, he had 4 full months to think about it (the Leafs did not make it into the playoff so Sundin’s season ended in April). How much time does he still need to make his mind? We would definitely love to have him on the roster in Montreal this season but while Mr. Sundin is thinking about his future, Bob Gainey has to wait for his decision and this can prevent him to acquire other impact players that could help the club.

I just hope that if Sundin can’t make his mind before the training camps, the NHL won’t allow his to sign anywhere. We saw what happened in the Niedermayer and Selanne cases last year. That was ridiculous and the NHL must prevent this kind of behaviour.

This beign said, let’s wait for the follow-up on this soap-opera…

This is how we like the Journal de Montréal! With weird front pages like the one found on today’s edition that proposes to the reader to cut a declaration and to put it on his fridge!

And after that the Journal de Montréal wants the population to consider the newspaper serious… Hummm…

PS: Ça sent la coupe!!!