February, 2010: Ten years is a long time. So much good and bad music produced, so many talents lost while new ones continue to grow and develop. While mainstream publications focus endlessly on the activities of Bono, Springsteen, or the canonization of Dimebag, we thought it would be fun to run through a few highlights, some super-consistent artists this decade, tragic losses, and bizarre underground trends that popped up. Not a comprehensive list of course, but some interesting observations for sure.

The return of OBITUARY After recording some of the most important death metal albums in history, including "Slowly We Rot" and "Cause of Death," things were pretty quiet for OBITUARY by the turn of the millennium. The lackluster 1997 album "Back from the Dead" left most fans assuming the glory days of these Floridian pioneers were well behind them. During this time, rhythm guitarist Trevor Peres founded the crossover group CATASTROPHIC, and drummer Donald Tardy took on such jobs as drum tech for SIX FEET UNDER and performing with ANDREW W.K. As legend has it, during a 2004 ANDREW W.K. concert, the other OBIES jumped on stage to pump out some of their old tunes

and, realizing they still had it in them, decided to resurrect the band right then and there. 2005's "Frozen in Time" was more or less business as usual - a primal slab of riffs just as heavy and catchy as fans remembered, as complemented by John Tardy's sick-and-indecipherable-as-ever vocals. However, just as business was picking up, lead guitarist Allen West was imprisoned on multiple DUI charges. This curse was arguably a blessing, though, as longtime Florida metal veteran Ralph Santolla, fresh from his tenure in DEICIDE, was brought in. The album that resulted was 2007's "Xecutioner's Return," a reference to the band's original name, and what a return it was! Santolla's virtuosic performances were the perfect complement to the band's no-frills riffs, and the balance of thrashers ("Face Your God," Lasting Presence") and creepers ("Contrast the Dead") made it as enjoyable album as their earlier work. Not resting on their laurels, the OBIES have since released the equally solid "Darkest Days," in addition to another CATASTROPHIC album and a solo record from the TARDY BROTHERS called "Bloodline." "Back from the Dead" indeed!

Tom Warrior: One of the great personalities (according to some this translates to "asshole") and innovators of the very dawn of extreme metal came back from APOLLYON SUN's industrial metal delirium in the beginning of the decade to announce that CELTIC FROST, long buried in shame for the mishaps of "Cold Lake" and the eternal line-up problems and crises, would be back with new darker material and also that it was OK to mention HELLHAMMER again, a band whose presence and influence he had all but denied during the previous decade. The road to the comeback album "Monotheist" was expectedly bumpy, with APOLLYON SUN partner Erol Unala getting kicked

out of the project and replaced with Martin Eric Ain whose freaky relationship to Mr. Fischer including shared women, several communication breakdowns and accusations of treason that goes beyond "Lethal Weapon"-type buddy movies. Whether or not you liked the album's clash between post-gothic spaces and grooving mid-paced hard hitters, you had to admit it was visionary and uncompromising, while their darkest album since '85. No-one needed yellow press to comment on the inside workings of the band because Warrior's blog was already doing the same, spouting Shakespearean lament on the tragedies of having to work in a band with traitors conspiring to bring down CELTIC FROST once again. After an emotionally devastating tour which left both audiences and the band exhausted as they channeled the highlights of their discography into a low-tuned, torturing sonic temple of frost, it was all gone once again, the bitter words of Fischer once again echoing through the news forums of the world, eerily reminiscent of his own words on earlier break-ups and also other musicians such as Robert Fripp notorious of accusing everyone else of causing problems in his band. At the end of the decade, the Swiss death-bard shows no signs of slowing down as his memoirs of HELLHAMMER have been published in a 300-page book and his new project TRIPTYKON seems to be a mixture of doom metal and satanic krautrock mass. Despite the drama, it's nice that some of the metal gods still hold on to their otherworldly image and don't let us down by revealing that they're just nice and easy rock'n'rollers at heart (I'm looking at you, Fenriz of DARKTHRONE).

Mission accomplished: Honestly, if you had asked us in December of 1999 which artists would stage remarkable returns, Boston's MISSION OF BURMA wouldn't have made our top 100 best-guess list. But sure enough, MoB emerged from the shadows in 2004 with "OnOffOn", an absolute powerhouse of buzzing guitars, crazed drumming, and angular melodic choruses that simply brutalized even their own respectable 80s fare. Roger Miller's songwriting only seemed to improve for 2006's "The Obliterati", another front-to-back killer, wearing post-punk influences on their sleeves as they jammed through massive texts like "Careening With Conviction" and "2wice". 2009's incredible "The Sound,

The Speed, The Light" closed out the decade, sporting sweeping melodic collisions like the remarkable, driving "Forget Yourself" and the clobbering punk throes of "So Fuck It". It's not often that a band goes into hibernation for so long, only to emerge in such a no-holds-barred frenzy of ass-kicking. Keep the mission going, fellas.

Rise of the gimmick band: Of course, with any popular musical style we can expect it to be gradually cheapened to the point of ridiculous, cash-grabbing showy musical endeavors. In the 2000s this seemed to be particularly prevalent in the metal scene; bands like DRAGONFORCE, FINNTROLL and ALESTORM who'd dilute the ideas of true metal bands (whilst proclaiming themselves to be just that) to the point of absurdly poppy material that would make CHILDREN OF BODOM weep a mascara'd tear of shame. It seems integrity and class aren't nearly enough to thrive in this day and age -- bands feel the need to whore themselves to "make it" by whatever means necessary.

Be it DRAGONFORCE's 'extreme' power metal, which pumps up the already vapid aspects of bands like RHAPSODY's sound to its logical 'extreme' (note: sugar-coated, Care Bear-inspired music isn't really extreme) or ALESTORM's shamelessly Disney-fied use of a pirate gimmick that pulled out all the stops when it came to nauseating folk metal and "Yo Hoo"-ing but forgot that sounding like a Disney film isn't what most rock fans look for. Yes, the 2000s were a great decade for mass-appeal, child-friendly 'metal' bands. It's often a sort of self-defense mechanisms for the bands or fans to say something along the lines of "Hey, it's just good fun". Well, serious music fans should have noted a long time ago that heavy metal can be a whole barrel's worth of monkey fun without resorting to childish gimmicks and frankly stomach-churning music.

Cornell's ups and downs: Nobody here needs to be reminded of how awesome SOUNDGARDEN were in their day. Call them alternative, grunge, whatever… this Seattle quartet still made some of the highest quality hard rock of the late 80s and early 90s, and in this reviewer's opinion, "Badmotorfinger" and "Superunknown" are still two of the top rock albums ever recorded. The magic of these albums was thanks in no small part to the superhuman wail of frontman Chris Cornell. However, not much was heard from Cornell after the band's break-up in 1997. This, of course, changed in 2002 when rap-rock act RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE parted ways with their frontman Zack de la Rocha,

brought in Cornell and changed their name to AUDIOSLAVE. The combination was a very successful one, as Tom Morello and company effectively switched gears into a more melodic style to better complement Cornell's vocals. Still, for hard-nosed SOUNDGARDEN fans including this one, the songs were repetitive and a poor substitute for Cornell's previous work (admit it… few of us would really miss "Be Yourself" or "Show Me How to Live" if they magically ceased to exist). But even the least of the work of AUDIOSLAVE sounds like heaven compared to Cornell's 2009 collaboration with hip-hop producer TIMBALAND: the abomination known as "Scream." To put it bluntly, "Scream" sounds like the delusions of a washed-up rocker dubbed on top of music that was rejected by BRITNEY fucking SPEARS, and critical response to the album has ranged anywhere from outright denial of its existence to childlike whimpering. Even Cornell himself has taken steps to separate himself from "Scream," from re-growing his vintage 1991 locks to hinting at a more agreeable rock remix of the album. Finally, the close of 2009 brought the news that we'd been awaiting for almost 15 years: SOUNDGARDEN has reunited with the classic line-up of Cornell, Kim Thayil, Ben Shepherd and Matt Cameron! Sure, Cornell's voice is nowhere near what it used to be, but we're still optimistic that the next decade will give rock fans some more kick-ass SOUNDGARDEN tunes!

Bruce is back: The IRON MAIDEN reunion is interesting. Live they have succeeded in putting the band right back at the very top of the league in terms of pulling power. Once again they are one of the first name the largest of Festival promoters check availability on and the past decade has seen them return to Donington albeit under the modern day Download Festival banner rather than the old Monsters of Rock, play the UK's biggest indoor venue Earls Court in London a number of times and even headline their own show at Twickenham in front of some 60,000 of their own whilst also re-conquering countries that wouldn't touch 'em in the 90s whilst still taking their music to new markets with

India being this line-up's Eastern Europe. In the studio though the three albums produced, "Brave New World", "Dance Of Death" and the most recent "A Matter Of Life And Death" have been good without actually matching that memorable quality of the material that originally put them at the forefront of the genre. Sure they've laid rest the final pairing of the the first Dickinson era, the tired "No Prayer For The Dying" and it's successor "Fear Of The Dark" and of course they've outperformed the much maligned (although better in my mind than many will admit) brace of Blaze Bayley fronted albums, but for the best Maiden family release of the past decade I personally can't look beyond Bayley's 2008 album "The Man Who Will Not Die". Maiden's big successes in the past decade have been in the live arena with tremendously popular "history" tours where they've attracted a whole new generation into their following using the clever marketing strategy of set lists focused entirely on the old days. Warding off the nostalgia act criticism somewhat, at least this has been interspersed with new music when many would be happy to exist solely on past glories and to their credit they haven't (yet) gone for the already hackneyed idea of playing their best selling album in full... but then unlike others they're not yet that desperate to sell tickets. They do still need that studio album that truly defines this 6 man "reunion" era though.

From the book of Paul: One "supergroup" project that appears to have run it's course is the teaming up of ex-QUEEN members Brian May and Roger Taylor with one time FREE/BAD COMPANY voice PAUL RODGERS. What originally looked like a fairly open attempt to top up pension funds that little bit more, especially as Taylor and May opted to use the QUEEN name even though they were only half of the famously stable four piece, actually delivered some new music during their collaboration although they quickly resorted to live album safe-ground after it didn't set the world afire. A shame really as 2008's "The Cosmos Rocks", a nod perhaps to May's post QUEEN

return to academia and astronomy (occasionally appearing on the BBC's monthly "The Sky At Night" show), wasn't as bad an album as many would have you believe.. it just roundly failed to hit the heights that so many QUEEN albums that it sits alongside. Had they taken the option to eschew the QUEEN + PAUL RODGERS label with its associated easy publicity but massive expectation and go far (say) "May, Taylor, Rodgers" then surely people would have given more time to the thing before reaching for the ever present QUEEN Greatest Hits collection that sits on most people's shelves. Rodgers actually emerges from the partnership quite well. He delivers the old material well on the live albums and his vocals on tracks like "Through The Night" and "Still Burnin'" on the studio set recall his halcyon era. His own profile certainly was raised on the back of the publicity of the link up and the success of the live releases. Indeed, his short term future seems to be leading a reformed BAD CO. around arenas again rather than playing theatres under his own name as he was a few years back. May and Taylor though sadly seem intent to keep flogging the QUEEN name in whatever format offers itself. Whilst the stage show continues to please many, an initial vomit inducing collaboration with boy band 5IVE back at the start of the decade finds a similar landmark at the opposite end of the decade with the pair appearing on the dire publicity feast"The X Factor" pushing another hits compilation. In the overall summing up, what could have been a fairly credible period has been diluted by the choice of label to hang on it as well as the options they've taken to promote the QUEEN name. Consequently, the only surviving ex-QUEEN member to come out of the 00's with credibility intact is John Deacon.

Pleasant dreams: Three of the leather-jacket clad RAMONES, who gave us some of the greatest bubblegum punk ever written, shuffled off this mortal coil. Captivating frontman Joey Ramone, who proudly sung "I wanna live" sadly lost a battle with lymph node cancer. Cancer also claimed distinctive high-energy buzzsaw guitar playing of Johnny Ramone. Bass player Dee Dee Ramone had been in the band from their humble beginnings. He departed from the band in 1989 only to release a largely forgettable rap album under the name of Dee Dee King. Dee Dee met his demise after succumbing to the temptations of a heroin needle and overdosing to the point of no return. The deceased

RAMONES will be remembered for their music and were all granted their wish of not being buried in a Pet Cemetery.

Chuck Schuldiner: One of the earliest - and most devastating - fatalities of the decade would have to be the passing of DEATH frontman Chuck Schuldiner. With a resume stretching as far back as 1983 with the moniker MANTAS, Schuldiner has been largely credited as the father of death metal with such classic albums as "Scream Bloody Gore," in addition to adding a sense of finesse to the genre with his later, more progressive albums like "Human" and "Individual Thought Patterns." The line-up of DEATH was a revolving door of personnel, leading some to believe he was a hard-nosed dictator over his own band, although by all accounts he was a nice guy in real life. However, following

the 1998 album "The Sound of Perseverance," Schuldiner opted for a more streamlined metal sound, hired clean vocalist and PHAROAH frontman Tim Aymar and adopted the name CONTROL DENIED. Coinciding with the release of the album "The Fragile Art of Existence," though, was the diagnosis of a tumor in Schuldiner's upper neck. The next two years was a tumultuous period for Chuck, having to cope with treatments, piling medical expenses, a roller coaster of recovery and regression and, during all this, scrambling to finish the second CONTROL DENIED album. Unfortunately, the treatment had severely weakened his body, and he fell ill with pneumonia. Schuldiner passed away on December 13, 2001. But this was not the end of the story. Prior to his passing, Schuldiner had signed a record deal with Karmageddon Media, then known as Hammerheart Records. The remainder of the decade would see a bitter legal battle between Karmageddon and the Schuldiner family over the rights to the unfinished CONTROL DENIED album "When Man and Machine Collide." If fans didn't know which side to root for before, they certainly did by 2004 when Karmageddon released "Zero Tolerance," an unceremonious compilation of demos from the recording sessions of the unfinished album, along with the early DEATH/MANTAS demos tacked on for good measure. Even though Chuck's guitar parts for the album were finished, these vocal-less, nameless tracks are not easy for longtime fans to listen to. The label tried to convince fans that they were legally justified in releasing the material as-is, but most fans agreed that the album was a cold-blooded slimeball attempt at cashing in on Schuldiner's legacy. By November 2009, though, it seemed that the dust had finally cleared, the matter had been settled and, as rumor has it, "When Man and Machine Collide" will finally see the light of day sometime in 2010. While "The Fragile Art of Existence" may not have been Schuldiner's greatest work (the vocals often didn't match with the music), hopefully its follow-up will be far superior and, more importantly, reflect as closely as possible what Schuldiner himself had intended.

And all was dark: Around 2002-2003, it seemed a rather large chunk of the rock-loving populous became tired of lifeless nu-metal riffs, basketball jerseys, and lip piercings. To this end, British rock rousers THE DARKNESS delivered "Permission To Land" in summer of 2003, and for a brief time in Europe and parts of the USA skating rinks and shopping malls rocked with screaming guitars, prancing drums, and Justin Hawkins' ridiculous Brian Connolly-esque falsetto. Huge tours ensued, incorporating enough boas and sequins to make Cher blush. The second album, "One Way Ticket To Hell...And Back" took the pomp angle even further with the help of renowned producer ROY THOMAS BAKER.

From a songwriting standpoint, Hawkins' anthems like "Love is Only a Feeling", "Growing On Me" and "Dinner Lady Arms" were pages torn right from the books of LEPPARD, QUEEN, and THIN LIZZY, pretty hard to resist for many classic rock fans. While the second record went platinum, the party came crashing to a halt around 2006, Justin off to dispense his lyrical wit and guitar talent with a new outfit: the equally riff-crazy HOT LEG, a band sure to scratch the itch of glam-obsessed rock fans.

Quorthon: "Now your journey has reached the end of its trail / For today was a fine day to die" - it's hard to not be haunted by the idea that the enigmatic black and Viking metal demigod Quorthon had some notion of his impending fate when writing the immense epic metal explorations "Nordland I" and "Nordland II", giving the end of his career a completely different tone than if it had been closed with one of the mediocre thrashers like "Destroyer of Worlds". Always an elusive personality whose very real name managed to stay out of the public for the 20 years of his fame, the Swedish abominator known for his love of punk and banging women in airplanes dabbled in nearly all subgenres of metal

and proved so influential that if you want to purge the world of BATHORY clones, you need to napalm every Scandinavian village. Not bad for a garage and tracker based one man band that never made it big or conquered the stages that ended up cheering his 3rd generation rip offs. May his legacy endure until the days of Armageddon, as a monument of the true rock and metal spirit of integrity, accomplishment and rebellion!

The battle for the music format: At the beginning of the decade, hard-copy music production seemed to be humming along swimmingly. But in one of the biggest industry blunders in history, no one saw the convergence of music files and internet downloads as a problem until it was too late (or if they did, no one did anything about it). Subsequently, the last ten years have seen a ridiculous amount of gadgets, mp3-playing devices, strange CD formats like the Dual Disc, and even a trendy resurgence of vinyl (at 2-3x the original cost of platters of old) coupled with USB-friendly turntables. While it appears that micro-MP3 applications like the Ipod and Itunes have put a band-aid

on the problem for most casual music buyers, it's all to obvious that the widespread availability of file-sharing services and illegal downloads will continue to be a huge thorn in the side of large music distributors. Even mega-sellers like RADIOHEAD and METALLICA were forced to offer hugely-discounted hard copies or downloads of new releases late in the decade to combat the impact of music piracy.

A crowded battlefield? Folks who know their music history know that heavy metal and folk music are no strangers to each other, as can be heard in the works of both BLACK SABBATH and LED ZEPPELIN. Apart from the traditional instruments and musical styles, one would be hard-pressed to find a subject better fit for metal than the tales of Anglo-Saxon and Norse mythology ("Immigrant's Song," anyone?). During the 90s, new ground was broken by the Celtic styling of SKYCLAD and the Viking-themed epics of Quorthon and BATHORY, along with plenty of high-quality, long-standing acts such as ENSLAVED, ANCIENT RITES and SUIDAKRA. However, as the 00s progressed,

it seemed like every other metal band was jumping on the bandwagon with sword and shield in hand. Napalm Records, for example, is almost entirely comprised of bands that fall under either the folk or Viking subgenre or both. While there are quality examples to be found among this swelling scene - TÝR, for example, a band that puts riffs first and is often described as a "progressive" folk metal band - there are dozens more alongside them that look and sound indiscernible from each other. And although most of these bands are of either Germanic or Scandinavian origin, it really starts turning the stomachs of us music critics when we see bands from right here in the U.S. dressing in armor with the Hammer of Thor around their necks with seemingly no tangible connection to (or slightest clue about) the culture they're trying to imitate. To be fair, we've seen this countless times in metal's history, whether it was the power metal explosion of the late 90s or the influx of commercial black metal at the turn of the millennium. But as was the case back then, we have faith that history will fondly remember the good stuff from this folk/Viking era and cover the rest in a thick layer of obscurity.

The red zone: As many of you know, we're nuts about consistency here at the dog site. While no label is perfect (all of them capable of dropping a stinker here and there), Larry Hardy's In The Red imprint deserves a nod for an exceptionally strong run this decade. Not really a band alumnus as much as a quality music aficionado, Larry's taste produced a string of records that rivals the salad days of SST, Dischord, Ebony, and Crypt. Consider the drool-worthy balls-out attack of THE REIGNING SOUND's 2004 masterpiece, "Too Much Guitar", the gritty garage soul of THE DIRTBOMBS "Ultraglide In Black", the loveably kooky indie rock of THE DEADLY SNAKES, and the

Hendrix-cum-Devo science project that is HUMAN EYE's debut, and you'll start to get the idea that Larry has a nose for quality. Not only are his releases typically low on filler and rife with intense, sweat-n-blood performances, but the artists always sound like they're pulling from colorful, extensive music collections and influences. Here's hoping Mr. Hardy continues to delight us all with more friggin' great music throughout the next decade.

The return of thrash metal: Back in the 80s, the thrash metal subgenre was virtually unstoppable… that is, until the 90s saw the scene become stagnant and eclipsed by the more extreme death and black metal scenes. Since then, a handful of modern acts like SKINLAB and LAMB OF GOD have been given the title of "thrash metal band," though these bands bear little resemblance to classic thrashers like SODOM or EXODUS. But as for how the true, old-school, patches-over-denim thrash metal came back into vogue in the 00s, even the most astute of metal scholars are unclear. However, two locales in particular have had a big hand in the revival: California, home to such bands as

BONDED BY BLOOD and FUELED BY FIRE (in addition to a huge percentage of the thrash pioneers of the 80s); and Sweden, the homeland of acts like WITCHERY, TERROR 2000 and THE CROWN. Whatever the reason, these young thrash bands, often given the moniker of "re-thrash," have found hordes of fans worldwide ready to get caught in a mosh. Since this revival, we've seen bands from just about every corner of the globe, including England (EVILE), Northern Ireland (GAMA BOMB), Canada (REANIMATOR), Brazil (FARSCAPE) and, of course, the U.S. (SKELETONWITCH, RUMPELSTILTSKIN GRINDER, and plenty others). One of the biggest supporters of the scene seems to be Earache Records, the label that such acts as EVILE and BONDED BY BLOOD call home. Of course, it doesn't look like the old guard is willing to pass the torch just yet. Bands like OVERKILL and EXODUS never really went away, but the thrash revival has brought them a whole new generation of fans. In recent years, we've also seen many reformations of some of the more obscure acts of the classic era, such as HIRAX, WHIPLASH and VIO-LENCE. What's more, the Teutonic trio of KREATOR, SODOM and DESTRUCTION is still going strong, and legends such as SLAYER and TESTAMENT are just as popular today as they've ever been. Most importantly, METALLICA and MEGADETH, the two biggest commercial successes of the 80s thrash scene, have both made a return to their earlier, faster style with their most recent albums. Only time will tell how much life the thrash revival has in it since, as we saw 20 years ago, such a primal form of metal has little room to evolve. Still, thrash metal fans are a rabid bunch, so as long as they keep moshing, expect the bands to keep thrashing!

Social networking sites: The rise of Myspace saw many bands do away with their own websites (no domain fees and it was possible to tell how often people were listening to your compressed tracks). It remains the most useful social networking site for bands and musicians as the player streams music and unlike Facebook the player is easy to find. Sending out a demo is no longer the only option for many artists as they try to direct potential listeners to their Myspace sites. There was a downside to this as many bands and artists simply spammed with little regard to individual myspace members taste in music. Hip-hop artists would bombard indie, punk and metal in-boxes with friend

requests to any band or individual regardless of their genre tastes. The reasoning behind this was must be there would be more chance of being heard if you gain a large number of online friends. Often comment pages were spammed with upcoming shows and albums. Despite all the drawbacks, the fact that Myspace doesn't require membership to listen to the players makes it still relevant for bands to use as a promotion tool. Many who used the site on a personal level have now migrated to Facebook (which also features a player feature for musicians, but it's often difficult for the casual browser to find). Internet radio stations Pandora and Last.fm offered free listening to the music of your choice and recommended new bands based on established listening habits but then sadly they both became stations that you have to pay to listen to in many parts of the world. So much for globalization..

Immolation's perpetual death: While OBITUARY and SUFFOCATION, not to mention everybody else, suddenly revived their interest in brutal death metal and acted all high and mighty like they were the last true presence of the old school, someone was around lurking in the shadows, not making a noise about itself but creating more crafty, impudent and horrifyingly addictive musical experiences than all the big stage craving comebacks combined. Since their mesmerizing 1991 debut "Into Everlasting Fire" this NY soul crusher has never left us hanging, instead delivering the goods every couple of years in the form of technically intricate, brutal and atmospheric death metal which truly started

existing in a dimension of its own on monuments such as "Close to a World Below" (2000) and "Unholy Cult" (2002). Two albums later, third being announced for this year, it's hard to think of another band in the genre that has been so consistent in keeping their sound exciting and new while true-as-fuck in the sense of what death metal meant in the time of photocopied zines. Newer bands like NILE occasionally also have the capacity to get the tech DM obsessed 15-year-olds and the ancient demo collector geeks participate in the same pit action, but that's simply because all of those bands display obvious and major influence from the mind bending signature riff inferno of Ross Dolan, Bob Vigna and the rest of the squad who still after 20 years show no signs of growing up and attempting to pander with what is considered "normal" music.

What is and what should never be? Alongside all the reunions that occurred through the decade was the one so many wanted to see yet so few actually got to witness first hand. Indeed it's only thanks to the modern day phenomenon of internet file sharing and portable video cameras that the majority of us got the chance to see the bloody thing at all given the apparent reluctance to actually give this event a proper commercial release. I am of course talking about December 2007's LED ZEPPELIN gig in honor of the departed Atlantic head Ahmet Ertegun where the three remaining members of heavy rock's biggest name were joined by John Bonham's son Jason for a performance that met with pretty

much universal acclaim. Somewhat surprisingly, given the column inches gained and almost inevitable reinvigorating of the back catalogue and compilation sales that the appearance heralded the band have to date taken this no further... although that's not for the want of JIMMY PAGE trying. Credit though must go to ROBERT PLANT for resisting. He alone seems to be one of the few ageing stars to actually realize how hard it would be to consistently reproduce a standard that was natural three or four decades ago. Apparently PLANT is not against the idea of further one off gigs with PAGE and JOHN PAUL-JONES though but my guess is that in another ten years time the major event in the next part of ZEP history we'll be looking back on will actually be the official release of the O2 gig...and if it does prove the band's final live swan song at least it's a better ending than either Live Aid or the Atlantic 40th.

Great Scott: While some artists and bands seem to burn hot for a single decade before fading away, Scott Weinrich just continues to steamroll along. His SAINT VITUS contributions in the 80s, OBSESSED output in the 80s/90s, and 90s SPIRIT CARAVAN platters already represent more quality music than most heavy bands could ever hope to achieve. But this decade may have seen his greatest body of work fully realized. Beginning with the guitar-soaked stoner collaboration with Victor Griffin that is PLACE OF SKULLS "With Vision", Wino went on to unleash three titanic records via his HIDDEN HAND project mixing wiry psychedelia, extended guitar jamming, and bone-rattling hard

rock riffs. He's never shy about contributing licks to the platters of up-and comers or collaborations, from WOOLY MAMMOTH to CLUTCH, from SOLACE to SHRINEBUILDER, this renaissance metal man is happy to lend his Yoda-like musical skills to any quality project. If the thundering, doomy psych quality of his first solo slab "Punctuated Equilibrium" is any indication of where he's headed, the new decade should continue to bring a bevy of heavy from Mr. Weinrich.

Con artists of black metal? If the 90's corpse painted black metal warmongers gave you a hard time figuring out who's for real and who isn't, the new decade was a rioting mess somewhere between Jerry Springer and a pro wrestling tournament. I mean, the old scene had its simple if ugly consistency: you hate Christianity, so you burn churches and kick over some gravestones. But damn me if it's that simple nowadays. NARGAROTH started off as a reasonably honest sounding tribute to 90's black metal, but devolved into a message board and German talk show (!) filling fictional entity whose exploits included having been around the Norwegian black metal Inner Circle, an ex-buddhist, a convict

and having fled a gig by clinging to the bottom of a car. The American ambient black metal hype VELVET CACOON seemed to be completely created for the entertainment purposes of the Full Moon Productions message board, while avant-garde freaks all around the world gasped at the soft reverbed sounds of the "diesel harp, a guitar with diesel-powered pickups amplified through an aquarium". According to later information, the whole band was tripping on DXM and one of their albums was a recording entirely stolen from a random indie rock artist. I could go on about the exploits of "terrorist black metallers" NACHTMYSTIUM who, in their own words, "are more like hippies than your typical leather-clad metal maniacs" or the Scion and hipster sponsored eco-fascists WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM, but nothing will address the core question gasped by the pale and beset darkness obsessed music aficionado to the unresponsive cloudy skies: in Satan's name, why!? Vatican plotted mindfuck or Myspace powered ego drama, who can tell?

It's no joke, folks: Whether KILLING JOKE actually broke up or just went on hiatus is up in the air, however gaps between recording albums were inevitable. Shamanic frontman Jaz Coleman living in the isolation of New Zealand and working on various other projects varying from symphonic orchestras to industrial metal bands would have made practice and tour schedules difficult. While there were a number of compilations and live albums released during the decade, KILLING JOKE still shone bright in the recording studio. The second self-titled had a renewed vigor, which may have been in part to hiring an exuberant Dave Grohl to take on drumming duties or a refreshed Paul Raven

returning to the band after a thirteen year hiatus. KILLING JOKE sounded like a band that shouldn't be messed with and returned on top of their game. Their first album of the decade is not for the faint-hearted as the primal rhythms are a turbulent assault on the senses that jab with a metallic edge. A new drummer was enlisted for 2006's "Hosannas from the Basements of Hell". The album had a more varied sound than its predecessor and KILLING JOKE were once again flirting with the same pop sound that they played around with during the mid-80's. The dark edge remained complete with saw blade on steel guitar riffs and demonic trance vocals assuring that they still weren't seeking huge commercial success. As previously mentioned, bassist Paul Raven returned to the fold a number of times. Sticking to the devil they knew, the vacant position was usually refilled by original member Martin "Youth" Glover. One of Raven's more prolonged off-seasons saw his luminary industrial bass duties utilized on albums by PRONG and MINISTRY. There was even a quick in and out touring in the GODFLESH ranks. Raven was still in the recording process and working with TREPONEM PAL when he died of a heart attack in his sleep. While Paul Raven may be gone, an amazing legacy of recordings is left for us all to enjoy. A new album is slated for release later this year so fingers crossed that there will be more than two albums next decade.

More RIPs: Really don't want to dwell too much on the rock 'n roll casualties on this page, much more fun to emphasize the positive, new and exciting music flourishing by the day. When you think about the fact that the 2000s cost us three Ramones, a Beatle, Cash, Strummer, Piggy, Lux, Pig Champion, Dime, Nikki Sudden, Baloff, Sky Saxon, Paul Samson, and David Wayne, well...it's hard not to get a little bummed out. But we'd like to offer special mention a couple of great, creative guitarists that really deserve their own features here at Peacedogman: Ron Asheton and Robert Quine. Originally a bassist before moving into the guitar slot for THE STOOGES, Asheton seemed content to

move air, swaying ever-so-slightly while lurking behind those huge shades and Iggy's larger-than-life antics. Of course, the man could absolutely wail, whether generating a steaming mass of wah-wah licks a la "Dirt" or dishing out the yowling mad attack of "TV Eye", he was a true innovator, bending and shaping the traditional role of the rock guitarist to fit his own distinctive style until his death in 2009. Naturally, all the early STOOGES stuff is essential, but the truly brave should also dive head first into the damaged art noise of his later DESTROY ALL MONSTERS fare. Robert Quine made RICHARD HELL's "Blank Generation" one of punk's most seminal platters with his searing, strangling performances in the title track and other sweet obnoxious fare like "Love Comes In Spurts". Years later, his work with LOU REED proved equally barnstorming (check out the sparking walls of tension he creates in "Heavenly Arms" and "The Gun"). Quine had an amazing knack for working with great artists, and his special sauce always seemed to put the performances over the top, whether we're talking TOM WAITS' "Rain Dogs" or MATTHEW SWEET's "Girlfriend" record. Sadly, he committed suicide following his wife's death in 2004.

The road goes on and on: While it's wholly possible, and very probable considering the quality of their recent output, to say JUDAS PRIEST just got back to sell-out arenas and make a barely-deserved buck with exercises in tedium like "Nostradamus". One could never point the same accusatory finger at MANILLA ROAD, simply because they never were expected to gain anything but a cult following in the first place. MANILLA ROAD, with only Mark "The Shark" Shelton standing from the band's 80s line-ups, have put out some metal classics in this decade that truly stand-up to their classics. In fact, albums like "Voyager" have become modern-day USPM classics. Shark certainly hasn't lost any

of the magic that made the band so damn captivating the first time around. Their recent releases have a genuine excitement and confidence that can only be seen as the wise, old mages of heavy metal not simply reuniting but re-awakening what made them so vibrant in the first place. It's not a reunion -- it's simply continuing on down the Road of Kings!

Cruz Del Sur reinvents the steel: We are reminded of the days of old Metal Blade and Noise Records in the sense that while not absolutely every release from the label is a gem (or even worth listening to), their ratio is good enough to warrant checking out whatever they have to offer. These Italian doom, power and classic metal maniacs have given a chance for a new generation of epic, guitar dueling, sci-fi movie quoting, shrieking and pounding Vikings to make a glorious battle together for the throne of the best new traditional metal band of the decade: if you have enjoyed HAMMERS OF MISFORTUNE, PHARAOH, SLOUGH FEG, BIBLE OF THE DEVIL, DANTESCO or WHILE HEAVEN WEPT,

the chances are that also a few other bands on their roster you haven't yet heard will have you pounding your fist in the air. These are records you take to that uncle of yours who didn't like any metal released after 1985 and I'll be damned if their latest release, the SUPERCHRIST-connected pure NWOBHM facsimile HIGH SPIRITS doesn't start the fifth decade of heavy metal on a high beer and bikes powered note.

Closing thoughts: See, it wasn't all bad, was it? Even at post time, there's stuff we left out like producer Jack Endino's incredible work from THE ACCUSED to HIGH ON FIRE, the ups and downs of METALLICA, SLOUGH FEG's consistent output, and even JAY REATARD's untimely demise (even if it's technically our first casualty of the new decade). At any rate, hopefully the dog site will still be your main source for no-bullshit stuff that rocks throughout the next ten years. Looking forward to it...

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