C O L U M N S

The Necrofile - Issue 38
by EC

Contents:
- Japan Bonus Cuts
- Grave Digger
- The Showdown is coming!
- Supercharger

Okay, Ozzy's new album "Scream" is upon us. I really love it as evident in my recent review celebration of its very existence. I think Gus G is a great fit for the group and Ozzy's vocals, manufactured or not, sound amazing considering his age. With that being said I am going to give credit to Ozzy for doing something that most bands just don't have the heart or intestinal fortitude to accomplish. Ozzy has actually made available the JAPAN BONUS CUT. Yes, he has allowed you, the important listener, the ability to play the Japanese bonus track "Jump The Moon". This is a historic, monumental effort folks! I have collected for years, often doing my very best to pick up every single track afforded by the band on a record release. Often I would purchase US and European versions in digipak just to obtain the coveted "bonus track". Bands like Denmark's Pretty Maids would often fit numerous bonus tracks on alternate editions that were only available by import. I have hundreds of bands that I know for a fact released albums on Japanese pressings (JVC, Pony Express, Victor, Sony) and featured bonus cuts that I have tried to track down for decades. Now Ozzy, out of sheer brilliance, steps up and offers the exclusive bonus track for the world to play on Myspace. Seriously, that is impressive to me. Go check it out!

Germany's Grave Digger has announced plans to release a new album. The record, "The Clans Will Rise Again", will be released worldwide on Napalm Records and will feature a new line-up. Fans realize that for a short time Grave Digger actually featured two guitarists, Manni Schmidt and Thilo Herrman. Both of those guitarists combined for a twin guitar approach on the group's last album "Ballads Of A Hangman" in 2009. Herrman was brand new to the group and since then has been dismissed from the band or he simply quit. Schmidt has been a longtime member, originally joining in 2001. I am a huge fan of Grave Digger and had for years enjoyed Schmidt in Germany's Rage. I thought once Schmidt joined that the band would really elevate their signature sound. Unfortunately the combination has been lackluster at best. With a solid debut in "The Gravedigger" the band has steadily went downhill with the terrible "Liberty Or Death", sub-par effort "The Last Supper" and the average "Rheingold". The last recording with Schmidt at least had Herrman's occasional riffs to support it, allowing a dynamic spin on the tired formula. At this point I am ECSTATIC to learn that Schmidt is gone. From what I understand the final straw was some sort of disagreement with vocalist Chris Boltendahl. I wanted to go on record and vocalize my opinion and I wish Manni the best of luck in his future endeavors. I'm sure he just needs a change of scenery and I certainly hope new guitarist Axel Ritt will contribute to the future success of Grave Digger. Here is hoping the band reaches the prime-time sound of the late 80s and 90s records. The Clans Are Marching!!!

Man I'm excited about the new album from The Showdown!! The Nashville band releases their new album "Blood In The Gears" on August 24th via Solid State Records. The fantastic band released one of the best albums of all time in "Temptation Comes My Way" back in 2007. That record showed the band really streamlined to a true heavy metal sound, very similar to a cross of Accept's big block of riffs to Metallica's crisp and sharp heaviness. The youngsters threw a curveball at listeners in 2008 with "Backbreaker", a follow-up that showed a metalcore sound similar to the group's debut but a very aggressive vocal styling and some fast and heavier downtuned chords. That album was equally as great but just a little different direction. I'm really curious to see where the band goes from here. I'm really excited about all of the great talent coming out of Tennessee and at some point plan on writing a column specifically on the Tenn. scene.

Boys and girls, found a killer band online called Supercharger. The band has just released their brand new album "Hand Grenade Blues" on Voices And Music Entertainment. The album was produced by Tue Madsen (Dark Tranquility, Mnemic, Callenish Circle) and just shines with personality and bold attitude. The vocals are whiskey bent, with chops that are both fast, punky and a bit stoner at times. Fans of Motorjesus, Entombed, Motorhead, Chrome Division and Outshine should definitely check this out. The band's info can be found at www.myspace.com/wearesupercharger.

I always like to throw in a few non-metal tidbits like comic books or movies. I wanted to plug a pretty decent XBox game I've been playing. I've never actually played a "Dead To Rights" game and I know they have a fairly long publishing history. The new one, "Dead To Rights: Retribution", is a brand new title that doesn't necessarily relate to any previous entries. Your character is a hard boiled detective who sports a really cool K-9 named "Shadow". The game mixes great first person shooting with hand to hand combat. Fans of "Max Payne" to "Modern Warfare" will eat this one up. The game features the ability to grab weapons and use the "Gears Of War 2" cover system of pushing A to stand behind a wall or crouch behind a large item to shoot. The weapons featured here range from sniper rifles to shotguns and revolvers to automatics. The really cool gameplay comes in with close quarters fighting. You can easily run up on your enemy and use punching-kicking combinations to setup a grab or do a "fatality". During the grab you can knee/punch and do a really cool throw, enhanced by throwing from buildings or into electric currents. The "fatality" ranges from breaking an opponents neck, arms legs or generally punting a head like a football. You can also do weapon takedowns that are absolutely brutal in delivery. Often you can grab a gun and push your opponent to his knees, followed by a bullet to the head or a headlock shot. Beyond that ultra-violence you can become "Shadow" on some missions, allowing you to sneak up on guards and enemies and rip out throats, drag bodies or...cough cough....you can do a "scrotality"....I'll let you ponder what that means. Cool game, graphics kinda like "Resident Evil 5" and the main character looks like Chris Redfield. Grab it from Namco.

That is about it for now! This is a small drop in the bucket but hopefully once summer slows down there will be some more updates in this column.

Faith No More continues to be the worse band of all time.

Cheers!!

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