TESLA RETURNS
-----------------------
Tesla is getting a whole lot of radio play for "Caught Up in a Dream". Now, I personally think it's a weak number that's too close in sound to "Love Song", but since it was their most well-known hit I can see why it was chosen as the first release; even to hook in some of those who don't really recall the band's bigger days over 10 years ago. If they can get some more hard rock back on the radio, then great. Let's just the next release will be a real burner.


OH CANADA!?
---------------------------
Hatebreed, Brides of Destruction and now Drowning Pool were recently denied entrance into Canada. The first supposedly because of border people were on a "power trip" and Brides because of "past felonies in our camp." Haven't heard what the DP issue was but three bands so close in time raises my eyebrows a bit. Could there be some metal bigots on the patrol? Sucks for the Canadians, eh? There's a lot of good metal fans up north, so I wasn't being sarcastic. Anyone want to bet that Hatebreed's vocalist who also hosts MTV2's Headbanger's Ball won't give it a mention on the show?


LORDS OF THE JAIL
--------------------------------
GORGOROTH singer Gaahl was sentenced May 4th to 18 months in a Norwegian prison on charges that he beat a 41-year-old man in what the victim called a ritual attack. The 28-year-old black metal vocalist, who has several prior convictions including one for assault and battery, was sentenced at Sunnfjord court in Forde, Norway. I guess his Mom's support didn't help out especially when she came up out of the floor and filled the place with fire and brimstone.


RIPPIN IT UP
----------------------
Former JUDAS PRIEST singer Tim "Ripper" Owens has revealed to the Washington Post that he found out about plans for the band to reunite with Rob Halford via an e-mail from band management. Owens says he was told the switch would be "best for everyone." "They could have called me," Owens says. "But whatever."

What weak-ass shit from Priest! They couldn't have sat down with him over some brews and gave him a nice "thanks-for-helping-us-exist-through-the-Nu-Metal-decade" send off? Shed no tears for Ripper cause he's tearing up the venues on the Iced Earth tour with vocals straight out of Hell.


TIMO X 2
--------------------------
STRATOVARIUS guitarist Timo Tolkki is out of the hospital after suffering a mental breakdown.

He wrote: "I finally realized that I have an illness. I completely lost control of myself. I have never felt more horrible, afraid and helpless in my entire life."

He's caught a lot of flak from various people in the metal community about faking all the weird behaviors over the last few months, but I do believe that he does suffer from a form of psychiatric disorder. I spent some time working at a metal health facility and you would be shocked at the behaviors and delusions of otherwise healthy adults. I saw women who wanted to roast their kids because they thought them possessed by the devil, guys who believed the gov't was trying to control them through the water supply and all sorts of irrational stuff. Many times a couple weeks of therapy and medication got them on the right track.

He also said, "I felt what many STRATOVARIUS fans must have felt about the turmoil and changes in the band they love. And finally I saw it clearly. STRATOVARIUS is Timo Kotipelto, Jens Johansson, Jörg Michael, Jari Kainulainen and Timo Tolkki. If this line up is not possible, then there cannot be any band called STRATOVARIUS.

From what I recall, Timo Kotipelto's solo CD went pretty high on some European charts and he has said before that he isn't interested in getting back together right now. It doesn't look very good for the band if Tolkki is serious about only having that line up. I could see him releasing a solo CD and putting STRATOVARIUS on hold until some useful dialog is opened up with the others.

Of course, there is still that sticky issue of the 1 Million Euros from the recording agreement advance that was received.


OPEN LETTER TO SCOTT WEILAND
------------------------------------
VELVET REVOLVER front man Scott Weiland has penned an "open letter" to Revolver writer Andy Langer with regards to Langer's VR article which ran in the magazine's June 2004 issue.

"I would love the opportunity to speak to you further, you fucking kiss-ass pussy sycophant bitch. Do you make common practice of licking the assholes of rock stars, only to walk away to a safe distance? ...No more interviews, you're all a bunch of fucking kiss-ass pussy turncoats."

Here's my open letter back to Scott:

Dear Scott,
"You've got some weird "Mick Jagger-meets-yoga" moves and an odd look about you, but most of the stuff you're involved in goes gold. Can't say the same about Slash because of Slash's Snakepit, but who cares. We may kiss some ass every now and then, but it's more from a fan-celeb perspective than a need to gather dirt. We'll do an interview with you and not change a word or try to be provocative. We don't have any money so we won't be flying out to meet you anywhere, so just drop us an email, dude, and we'll go from there."
JP


DOING A GOOD METAL DEED
-------------------------------
...And in the "Would ya look at that" file:
Alice Cooper is being awarded an honorary doctorate by a Christian liberal arts college, according to the Associated Press. The 56-year-old will receive the honorary degree at Grand Canyon University's commencement ceremony Saturday. Good for him.

Of others who have helped out the community let me mention Ronnie James Dio and his wife Wendy Dio (Chairman of the Board!) for their work with the Children Of The Night project which is a privately funded, non-profit organization launched in 1979 to get adolescent runaways, sexually abused children and prostitutes off the streets of Los Angeles and to help them to re-enter the mainstream society.

I'm not usually a giver to charities--except for my local cops who give me a nice sticker for my window--since I feel like a bunch of them use the money for their own paychecks, but on the COTN website it says (link: http://www.childrenofthenight.org) that "85% of our funds go directly to the program, 8% go toward fundraising. 7% go toward administration." Now, those kind of numbers I can deal with!

Check them out and maybe consider one less CD purchase this month and send it off to them or get a package together with some wish list items and mail it off. I'm gonna put some money where my mouth is and if any other readers want to join in, then drop me a line and let me know what you've done.


BEST METAL RIFFS EVER!!!
---------------------------------
GUNS N' ROSES' 1987 smash-hit "Sweet Child O' Mine" has the greatest guitar riff of all time, according to the readers of the U.K.'s Total Guitar magazine. The Top 20 Riffs Of All Time, according to readers of Total Guitar:

01. GUNS N' ROSES – "Sweet Child O' Mine"
02. NIRVANA – "Smells Like Teen Spirit"
03. LED ZEPPELIN – "Whole Lotta Love"
04. DEEP PURPLE – "Smoke On The Water"
05. METALLICA – "Enter Sandman"
06. DEREK & THE DOMINOES - "Layla"
07. METALLICA - "Master Of Puppets"
08. AC/DC – "Back In Black"
09. JIMI HENDRIX – "Voodoo Child"
10. BLACK SABBATH – "Paranoid"
11. OZZY OSBOURNE – "Crazy Train"
12. FREE – "All Right Now"
13. MUSE – "Plug In Baby"
14. LED ZEPPELIN – "Black Dog"
15. VAN HALEN – "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love"
16. AEROSMITH – "Walk This Way"
17. CREAM – "Sunshine Of Your Love"
18. QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE – "No One Knows"
19. GUNS N' ROSES – "Paradise City"
20. RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE – "Killing In The Name"


THE DEFINITIVE LIST ACCORDING TO JP
01. Iron Man - Black Sabbath
02. Smoke On The Water - Deep Purple
03. Purple Haze - Jimi Hendrix Experience
04. Back In Black - AC/DC
05. Crazy Train - Ozzy Osbourne
06. Layla - Derek And The Dominos
07. (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction - Rolling Stones
08. You Really Got Me - The Kinks
09. I'm A Man - Muddy Waters
10. Sunshine Of Your Love - Cream
11. Highway to Hell - AC\DC
12. Start Me Up - Rolling Stones
13. Whole Lotta Love - Led Zeppelin
14. Oh Pretty Woman - Roy Orbison
15. Paranoid - Black Sabbath
16. Black Dog - Led Zeppelin
17. Walk This Way - Aerosmith
18. Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap - AC\DC
19. Bad To The Bone - George Thorogood
20. Smells Like Teen Spirit - Nirvana


RANDOM THOUGHTS
-------------------------
Animals don't always react to cars coming down the road. Do you think that they can sense that a thousand pound vehichle isn't alive or are they just used to them?

How many saps have been losing money at the poker tables from watching The World Poker Tour and thinking they have the goods to beat the pros?


COLUMN QUESTION
-----------------
Is hardcore/metalcore becoming the next big trend in hard music?

Send your suggestions to me here at Maximum Metal or open up some discussion about my question or anything else in the Rawface forum.


Support your Indy Metal!!!
John Pardon
05.13.2004


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