Metal Guru

It's been an odd week. I can't really put my finger on it but I know that it has much more to do with the latest language debacle or the new collaborative effort at MaltaMedia. When the going gets tough there's nothing like heavy metal to realign the gray matter adequately for the next challenge.

In case you're wondering how I go about dealing with this sort of thing, just have a listen to the 110th podcast in my weekly Mużika Mod Ieħor series. It's all metal all the way going from hard rock to the heaviest metal since lead and mercury were discovered.

Frenzy Mono have recently teamed up with bassist Albert Bell to form a new band called Nomad Son. The podcast opens with The Blacksmith from Frenzy Mono followed by Shallow Grave from Nomad Son, which is one of the songs that landed the band a recording contract with Italian label Metal on Metal. Albert Bell is one of a handful of rock gurus on the Maltese scene. I've known him since we were both sixth formers about 25 years ago and I'm truly impressed by his prowess.

Nomad Son are playing a gig with Lithomancy at the Poxx Bar on 3 May. Lithomancy have almost been around for two full decades. As Maltese metal bands go they're dinosaurs even if their brand of metal remains close to the cutting edge of the hardest rock genres. I like any band that Dino Mifsud Lepre drums in and Rex is one of the most versatile singers on the local rock scene. Lithomancy fans know them best for their Witness of Eternity, which has to be one of the death metal classics from the Maltese dark scene.

Hardcore metal bands are still numerous in Malta. Metal tastes on the islands have come a long way since the days of Black Sabbath, Judas Priest, and even Metallica. I've selected new material from two relatively new bands for the latter part of this week's podcast. The first comes from last year's Erythuria album Annihilate to Repent, launched at Poxx on October 5. The track I've selected is called Touched by the Gods. The other band is Tendency Charge. From their (possibly as-yet unreleased) EP Stages of Peripheral Diversity I've picked To Punish and Enslave.

I have a feeling that some of the regular MMI podcast listeners will not necessarily appreciate some of the hardcore metal sounds presented on this week's edition. I believe that this should most certainly not preclude this music from the series. I'm also pretty sure that listeners who understand what I'm on about with my podcasts can see why I chose to play all sorts of music from the alternative music scene in Malta.

The RSS feed for the Mużika Mod Ieħor podcast is available here or you can simply click here to subscribe directly with iTunes. You can also add the latest episodes to your My Yahoo! page. If you have no idea what any of this means, just click here.