Iron 'n Steel 'n Metal: What's New With Jason Ellis of WMSE's Team Metal

words by Jason Ellis

One of my favorite bands on the planet (and one of the bands my pop got me into when I was real young…further proof that my old man rules a bunch), Y&T are going to be playing in Chicago on March 10th. In an era when people go back and “discover” old bands from back in the day that they never heard before, or just passed over, it’s a shame that hasn’t happened yet for Y&T. Their blues-based hard rock of their early records is essential, at least by my opinion. Even their steps towards the hair rock style are leaps above most other bands of that genre. The only misfortune from their hair rock era is drummer Leonard Haze’s picture on the back of the Down For the Count LP. Where a lot of people seem to be catching up with the back catalogs of pre-Blackout Scorpions, Pentagram, Trouble, etc., Y&T still seems to be ignored or overlooked. Invest the time and YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_W0iCAa361o

Probably my favorite band from our fine state played their last show on Saturday, February 25th. The Antiprism were traditional metal done exactly right, with no concept of trend or fashion — music that’s sincere and honest and also amazing. Stand up people playing stand up music. They decided to call it a day after their latest release, Age of Wonders. It’s a perfect swan song. If you like NWOBHM or Celtic Frost, or just good traditional metal, do not sleep on this. I listen to it daily, since getting into it. Listen, here.

Lastly, Russia’s Inferius Torment just released their awesome Ceremony of Godslaying on World Terror Committee (listen, here). Best way to explain what they do is to take elements of Arkhon Infaustus, Endstille and the earlier Marduk releases and make them all very distinctly Russian-surrounding (if you are into Russian black metal, you know what this means. If you are not, it means very cold, sterile and bitter-sounding). An awesome touch on modern orthodox black metal.

That’s it for me, now. ‘Til next time.

Tune into 91.7 FM WMSE Wednesdays at 9 p.m. – 12 a.m. CST to listen to Jason’s show, Team Metal.

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29 Feb This entry was published on February 29, 2012 at 6:41 pm. It’s filed under Local Music, new music, Previews, Reviews and tagged Age of Wonders, Arkhon Infaustus, Celtic Frost, Ceremony of Godslaying, Endstille, Inferius Torment, Iron 'n Steel 'n Metal, Jason Ellis, Marduk, NWOBHM, Pentagram, Scorpions, Team Metal, The Antiprism, Trouble, World Terror Committee, Y&T. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.