Papa Roach Release Metamorphosis: The Bring Back Glam! Album Review

Papa Roach are back with a vengeance - and a new album. The fifth major label work by the California-based band explores some raw emotion - and big sound.

Aptly deemed Metamorphosis, Papa Roach explore all the common themes of a hard rock record: love, loss, drugs...and trashy women. Still, there's deep emotion here, proving that Papa Roach have grown both as a band...and as individual songwriters.

Metamorphosis features these songs:

Days of War
Change or Die
Hollywood Whore
I Almost Told You That I Loved You
Lifeline
Had Enough
Live This Down
March Out of the Darkness
Into the Light
Carry Me
Nights of Love
State of Emergency

 I could add a bunch of flowery words, dissect every song - and bend every note. No need: The. Album. Rocks. Sure, the year is young - but this doesn't change the fact that Metamorphosis is the best album I've heard in 2009. Want some breathy proof? Fine.

The album is full of songs that can be stand alone singles. Placed together, the songs create a comprehensive story. Clearly, Papa Roach were getting a little conceptual when they placed "March Out of the Darkness" right before "Into the Light."

The best tracks are "Hollywood Whore," "Lifeline," "Change or Die" and "I Almost Told You That I Loved You."

Papa Roach front man Jacoby Shaddix recently said of Metamorphosis "...We wanted to stretch ourselves and write hooky guitar licks and have a sass and an attitude about it at times. But there's still a vulnerability and heavy emotional content, and a sociopolitical edge with a song like 'Had Enough.' We wanted to see how many places we go and maintain our identity."

Metamorphosis hits stores March 24, 2009.

Crue Fest 2 Press Release

Ambulance delivers Motley Crue to press conference at the Fuse TV studio in true Dr. Feelgood style

Crue Fest 2 stars Motley Crue with Godsmack, Theory of a Deadman, Drowning Pool & Charm City Devils.

Crüe Fest 1 DVD available March 24th - includes bonus material and artist commentary.

Mötley Crüe announced the line up today for their second annual summer festival tour, Crüe Fest 2 at the Fuse TV studio in New York City. The follow-up to the most successful rock festival of last summer stars Mötley Crüe with Godsmack, Theory of a Deadman, Drowning Pool and introduces Charm City Devils.

In addition to announcing the line up, the Crüe debuted a new music video featuring members of all five Crüe Fest 2 bands performing the single “White Trash Circus.” During the announcement Mötley Crüe was joined on stage by Sully Erna of Godsmack, Tyler Connolly of Theory of a Deadman, Ryan McCombs of Drowning Pool and John Allen of Charm City Devils. The single of this track featuring Mötley Crüe with these vocalists is available to radio today.

Crüe Fest 2, produced by Live Nation and kicking off on July 19th in Camden, NJ tours across North America and concludes on September 5th in Darien Lake, NY. Select dates go on sale to the public on March 20th, the remainder go on sale the 21st -- check www.CrueFest2.com and www.Motley.com for exact on-sale information and for tickets. Tickets are also available at on Live Nation's website at www.livenation.com. Additional details can be found by calling 818.748.9075. Citi® cardmembers have access to presale tickets beginning March 17 at 10am local time through Citi's Private Pass® Program. For complete presale details visit: www.citiprivatepass.com.

Mötley Crüe’s Nikki Sixx says, ”This is what we imagined when we came up with the idea of Crüe Fest last summer – putting together the most kick ass bands on one bill for a day of rock. All of the bands on this tour compliment the others -- musically, theatrically and passionately.”

Hammer Swings Down

Is "Hammer Swings Down" by Babylon A.D. the most underrated Glam tune of all time?

If you don't know the song, you're about to be in for a real treat. The song truly owns - and is basically everything that's great about Glam Metal.

Babylon A.D. for Rocklahoma 2009 I say!

Crue Fest 2 Announcement Today

Motley Crue are making the Crue Fest 2: The White Trash Circus announcement before their concert tonight at Madison Square Garden in New York City. The press conference will be broadcast live on FUSE TV.

Finally, we will officially learn the touring lineup for Crue Fest 2. You might recall the possible lineup leaked a couple weeks ago. The rumored bands are Godsmack, Theory of a Deadman, Saving Abel and Drowning Pool. Saving Abel are touring with Hinder and Papa Roach this summer, so I guess they are out. I've been saying for awhile now that Charmed City Devils will be on the bill. We'll know for sure in a few hours I guess.

 
Speaking of Motley, the band is set to debut Crue Fest 1: The Movie later this week. The concert features all the Crue Fest 1 bands: Buckcherry, Papa Roach, SIXX: AM, Trapt and, of course, Motley. Click the link above to see if the film is being screened in your area. The one night only premiere is this Thursday, March 19.

When Motley make their announcement - I'll post here and we can discuss.

Holy Glam - Hot Leg!

Holy Glam, batman! Our friend Lucifer sent me an email back on January 19 telling me to investigate Hot Leg. Ok, so I forgot...until a few hours ago. My goodness, Hot Leg are hilariously Glam!

Now, Hot Leg is Justin Hawkins new band. Does that name sound familiar? It should, because he was the lead singer of The Darkness. As you know, The Darkness was supposed to be the second coming of Glam. Things didn't really seem to work out that way, but I'm glad Hawkins is plugging along nonetheless.

Hot Leg are definitely a parody band, but it's all good because there is some real Glam talent here. Red Light Fever came out last month. There are already a couple singles and videos out to support the debut disc.

Here's the clip for "Cocktails"

Hot Leg - Cocktails

I've Met Jesus

AOL Launches 'Noisecreep' - Read Me There Too!

The Glam Mistress got her a fancy job writing for AOL music. The site is called Noisecreep and it's all Metal - all the time. The link is on the left navigation bar of this site, where it will remain for easy access. Please visit Noisecreep and make it a daily stop. Oh yeah, comment my articles and make me look good so they'll keep me!

So far, only one of my stories has posted. More are coming next week. Click here for the first one.

Here's an article about the Noisecreep launch.

Headbanging at AOL Music By Maria Russo

 ...Let’s focus on the official launch today of Noisecreep, the company’s new heavy metal/hard rock portal. It will be part of one of the few recent success stories at AOL, the MediaGlow division, a collection of blogs and content sites.

Noisecreep will follow the path blazed by three other AOL genre-specific music sites: theboot.com (country), spinner.com (straight down the middle rock), and theboombox.com (hip hop and r &b). These sites all wear their AOL branding lightly -- so a hard-core metalhead will likely be spared the knowledge that he is hanging out on an AOL site

As AOL entertainment head Mike Rich explained the company’s entertainment content strategy: “We’re embracing fragmentation on the web. We believe consumers are starting their day in many places, so we want to make sure we have enough front portals for them to enter into that connect with something very specific and passionate for them.”

With all of its music content combined, AOL Music is at the top of the web music category, with 23 million unique visitors last month, according to Comscore.

Noisecreep, then, was a natural. The site hopes to give the heavy metal audience a fully fleshed-out experience, with categories like “metal dictionary” and “female rock report” as well as concert tour info and news.

There will be AOL studio sessions. And the site hopes to promote some lesser-known acts, giving them a shot at the big time. “We like Mastodon, Killstwitch Engage ... Right now with heavy metal and hard rock, unless you’re AC/DC or Metallica, you’re not getting much play. These bands really haven’t had a big platform to say hey, here we are, here’s our music.”

In Case You've Never Seen a Bobby Dall Bass Solo...

Just push play.