Proving to be truly metal, the late AC/DC frontman Bon Scott has been immortalized in bronze. A statue memorializing the singer was unveiled Sunday in his hometown of Fremantle, Western Australia, where Scott was born, raised and is now buried. Scott died of alcohol poisoning in 1980 at the age of 33.

[Photo courtesy of news.com.au]

It’s a good thing Brazil exists. I know it has its problems–it’s running out of rain forests and it struggles with crime and poverty–but without it the world would be without lingerie models, and aging power metal bands would have nowhere to go where they’re still revered as GODS. For proof of the latter, check out this video of Helloween performing “Eagle Fly Free” from live DVD Keeper of the Seven Keys: Legacy World Tour. The video’s about a year old, but I stumbled upon it last night while rocking out to their 1988 classic 13-plus-minute epic “Keeper of the Seven Keys,” and I lost my shit.

Helloween’s a German power metal band that’s been around since the mid-’80s, though it seems to have a different lineup every couple years. Vocalist Andi Deris didn’t sing the original version of the song (which appears on Keeper of the Seven Keys pt. 2), that distinction belongs to the ethereal-voiced Michael Kiske. Still, he manages to sell it, even though he doesn’t have Kiske’s range. Deris probably could’ve just let the crowd sing the whole thing, though. If you’re unfamiliar with Helloween, you should probably go buy Keeper of the Seven Keys pt. 2 right away, along with some d20s and a D&D campaign module. That shit is that inspiring. It also has the greatest cover art of all time.

Tickets will be going on sale starting March 1st for Iron Maiden’s Western US leg of their Somewhere in Time World Tour. The tour is notable for a few reasons:

1. In celebration of the DVD release of their seminal concert film Live After Death, the band’s set list will include mostly classic songs from their ’80s period and a stage setup similar to that of the Powerslave tour (which was the tour Live After Death was born out of).
2. The band, crew and all their equipment is traveling the world together in the band’s Boeing 757 piloted by Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson.
3. Iron Maiden fucking rules, and they wrote all your favorite Ozzfest-metal band’s riffs 30 years ago.

The world tour is already underway, with healthy showings in Mumbai, India, and Perth, Australia. Pilot/vocalist/rock god Dickinson is excited about hitting the Western US:

“We are all greatly looking forward to getting back to see our fans in places like Texas, the South West and Seattle where we haven’t played for quite some time. And for this leg we will be able to bring along all Eddie’s toys which we couldn’t get on our plane during the first leg. We are all having a great time on this tour and really can’t believe the excitement it is creating round the world and the huge numbers of people who are turning out to see us. It makes for a really very exciting time for all of us, fans and band alike”

You should be pretty stoked too. After the jump, a couple Sky News clips about the band’s trip to Mumbai and Western US tour dates with dates and times those tickets go on sale. (more…)

James’ post somehow reminded me of my first exposure to possibly the most epic metal band of all time, Iron Maiden:

What can be more rock than this? If only Rick Allen had seen this first.

Sadly, I’ve long abandoned buckling my safety belt and I will one day look like Eddie. le sigh.

This is why you never let someone battling with paranoid schizophrenia host their own cooking show. Cincinnati OH one-man-band Joseph A. Peragine takes some burly photos; these images might at first come as stark contrast to the songs on “Self Medication…Poems of Alienation” that feature his soft vocal delivery and acoustic guitars. Then you run into spoken-word tracks that are spat with manic delivery and adderall-urgency. It’s like Filter showing up at a slam-poetry festival with an ovation guitar and a suitcase full of inner demons. His music is certainly not for everyone, but if it’s raining outside and your mood is a bit on the misanthropic side, at least you’re not feeling as confused and frustrated as our Band You’ve Never Heard Of Band of the Day, Joseph A. Peragine. Check out his space here.

Here’s to not beating around the bush:

I remember a few years back, Kittie came out and most people thought it was kind of novel that there was a group of young girls playing pretty heavy music. They’re also Canadian, which is totally precious. I’m not hating on Kittie (I’m not a fan, but whatever, there are far shittier bands that wave the metal banner), or Canada, and it’d be nice to go to metal shows and not have them be like comic book stores, sci-fi conventions and other nerdy sausage fests. Unfortunately for Kittie, most people have a hard time getting past the whole “girls playing metal” thing. But that’s probably because they’re not as brutal as Grey from Seattle, WA.

American metal heads can finally boast about having as stong an extreme metal scene as they do in parts of Europe thanks to Pacific Northwest bands such as Book of Black Earth. Grey is another band that should be added to that list. A power trio in every sense of the world, Grey consists of Suzanne (vocals/guitar), AJ (bass) and Becca (drums), who are also known as Gypsy Witch, Luna Loca and Bitch Hammer respectively, which is pretty damn metal. All their most recent press photos also take place in the forest, which is also very metal.

The most metal thing about them, though, is their sound which is a heavy, sludgy witch’s brew of earth-loosening doom. Three songs are posted on their MySpace page (my favorite of which is the despairingly beautiful and savagely heavy epic “Fields of Grey”), and that’s all I’ve been able to hear from them, but their first release, Mother Maiden Crone, will apparently be out in the spring of this year on Kreation Records–hopefully in time for Beltane.