HOLY MASSIVE DOWNLOAD ANNOUNCEMENT BATMAN!

More than 30 bands were promised for the latest Download Festival line-up announcement, and more than 30 have been delivered. A titanic 37, in fact. And so now, courtesy of Metal Hammer for alphabetising them, here are all 37 in their respective glories.

Airbourne
Amon Amarth
Asking Alexandria
Black Dogs
Buffalo Summer
Cancer Bats
Converge
Down
Earthtone 9
Enter Shikari
Five Finger Death Punch
Goldsboro
Hacktivist
Hardcore Superstar
Heaven’s Basement
HellYeah
The Hives
Huntress
I AM I
In This Moment
Jimmy Eat World
Korn
Last Witness
Limp Bizkit
Motionless In White
Parkway Drive
The Sword
Three Doors Down
UFO
Vision of Disorder
Walking Papers
Young Guns



Don't try and tell me there isn't a single band in that list that makes you happy enough for a little bit of wee to come out. I DARES YE. And there's no BVB, so yay. 
Here's the official poster, to remind you of the rest of the freaking awesome line-up.

TOP 10 TRACKS OF 2012

Let there be no ado about this - a brief countdown of my top 10 songs from this year, more or less rated on how addicted to them I got. Set? Let's dive in.

10. Muse; UNSUSTAINABLE

The first we heard from The 2nd Law, containing (in my opinion) one of the best bits of music Muse have ever written (in the middle section), and all told a breathtaking live intro.

9. The Chariot; FIRST

The highlight of my 10/10 rated album from the mental metalcore pioneers. Metal x spaghetti western is all I'll say. Genius.

 

8. Rolo Tomassi; OLD MYSTICS

Full to the brim of shredtacular riffs and general brilliance.

 

 7. Parkway Drive; DARK DAYS

Brooding from the start, a killer riff, some brutal breakdowns and powerful vocals, it's PWD at their best.

 

6. Biffy Clyro; STINGIN' BELLE

A joyously triumphant song, and that's before the bagpipes come in. It's just awesome.

 

5. While She Sleeps; SEVEN HILLS

Everything that makes WSS good - heavy power with melody, emotion and an anthemic chorus.

 

4. Enter Shikari; GANDHI MATE, GANDHI

An absolute gem that continues to set ES apart. Dubsteppy beats, hardcore breakdowns and a classic Rou rant.

 

3. Marmozets; GOOD DAYS

I'd have settled for a song's worth of the opening sexalicious bass hook, but no, everything's awesome too. Way to keep getting better, guys.

 

2. Baroness; EULA

Lyrically clever, beautifully complex; an outstanding song.

 

1. Muse; SURVIVAL

A rousing, intentionally ridiculous but brilliant piece of Olympic bombasticness.

 

So, something Marmozets didn't win? I am still in possession of most of my marbles. Butt I just loved Survival so much, it was over-the-top, inspiring, but at the same time almost a pastiche of itself. The perfect Olympic theme, and a microcosm of why Muse are modern prog rock/the natural successors to the mighty Queen.

 

 

WEEK IN REVIEW; 10/12/12 - 16/12/12

So, in case you missed any posts from this last week (there weren't many, to be fair), this is the first of what I hope to instate as weekly round-ups. So heeeeere we go!

• theNOISE expanded into the realms of it's own social media accounts; I'm now on Twitter as @yesthisisnoise, and you can follow/Tweet posts using the above ^ buttons. Google Plus happened as well, but I don't get it so... Facebook and MySpace are to follow soon, and I have every intention to begin occasional vlogs, so a YouTube account may also see the light of day.
• You can also get in touch with me via email, at yesthisisnoise@gmail.com
• Review-wise, I put out my views on new albums by Rolo Tomassi and Parkway Drive (btdubs, they're both great albums. What does btdubs even refer to?). I even got retweets from Rolo and PWD's shouty man Winston, which was awesome in a nerdy, internet way.
• And finally, because it was only a quiet week, the only news item I deigned to report was the addition of the mighty Mastodon to Download Festival 2013.

Ok, so that was a brief week in review! Stay tuned this coming week for reviews of Marmozets, Blitz Kids, Deftones, a long-overdue review of Muse live in Madrid, among others!

Only 8 days until Christmas now (like you didn't know), so to help you stay festive, here's Corey Taylor's X-M@$!

ALBUM REVIEW; ATLAS by Parkway Drive

ATLAS by Parkway Drive
9/10
Serious stuff from Oz' finest metal export - deep, thoughtful, developed, and of course, brutal as f*ck.

You only have to look at the themes of PWD's releases over the years to see how they've matured as a band - from the early days of Killing With A Smile that hated things, through existence and monsters in Horizons and exploring the concept of feeling lost in Deep Blue, we arrive at the end of the world in Atlas. Yet through all this they've grown into and maintained a status as maybe the best metalcore act in the world, and this new release continues that upward trajectory - as a group, they have really pushed the boat (surfboard? They are beach bums at heart...) out and created something special.

A stand-out aspect of Atlas is the ambition, in terms of both content and musicality. The message of the album is clear; we've got a screwed-up planet that needs fixing; "there will be no future if we don't learn from our mistakes" (Dark Days). It's a big message, and this underlying theme stays strong throughout the 48 minutes of top-quality metal, but never overrides the music. But that music...

The voice is as much of an instrument as anything else, and vocalist Winston McCall has the most powerful voice I've ever heard in metalcore - watch live videos of PWD if you don't believe me - and it's a voice on form here, ripping out deep growls and strong highs without difficulty, but also exploring the more mellow semi-spoken side of vocals when the music takes that turn. McCall also delivers the lyrical content of Atlas with fantastic force - it's a dream combo of anthemic, memorable and overall memorable lyricism sung with emotion and belief in the content. 

As hinted at, we are treated to Parkway's more melodic side amongst the classic riff brutality that they're so good at. It is, in fact, one of the main ways that this album is so ambitious. The opening track to an album has to be killer and set the tone for the rest, and Sparks delivers with a quiet intro that builds into a grand, epic strings-fest that puts the whole album on a huge scale. Tracks such as The River and Atlas explore a more semi-acoustic vein, and darker, moodier riffs come to light on The Slow Surrender. But there is still the crushing heaviness that we know so well throughout, most evident on lead single Dark Days and album highlights Snake Oil & Holy Water and Blue & The Grey, the two tracks that see out the album, and these are as brutal as ever. 

In Atlas, Parkway Drive have produced a record that I would go as far as calling a metalcore classic. It has power in abundance, anthemic songs as far as the eye can see, some truly epic goosebump-inducing moody moments (intro to Dark Days. Trust me) and explores a more thought-provoking side without diluting what the band fundamentally are. A triumph.

THE BEACH BUMS ARE BACK

I speak, of course, of Parkway Drive, which may be the best thing to ever come out of Oz. I only say may because I've never listened to I Killed The Prom Queen. I keep meaning to, honest. 

Dem crazy buggers from Byron Bay have a new album on the way (alliteration and rhymes. I'm on fire), entitled Atlas, which shall be available October 29th here in this here Kingdom that be United. Dark Days be its name, and so without further ado, here is your slice of really fucking heavy for the day.

THESE RECURRING BREAKDOWNS ARE TAKING THEIR TOLL.

Ones in metal, you must understand. Or rather, the '_____core' subgenres of metal. Metal/jazz/deathcore, they all have some (mostly) heavy-ass breakdowns in them. It's really very easy to do generic breakdowns; far too many are 

CHUG CHUG CHUGGA CHUG CHUG *TREMOLO PICKING* MORE CHUGGACHUGCHUG

Using the lowest open string and maybe the first fret on occasions, just to spice things up a little bit. I think it's fair to say that a lot of the better known/respected _____core bands do actually do these well, which is why they are so good - if they were too generic, then they wouldn't garner much popularity or credibility as metal acts. A band I think have impressively worked themselves out of the generic breakdown rut is Bring Me The Horizon - to compare them across their 3 albums, I think they've got steadily better. From the brainless chug-filled Count Your Blessings, to the more rounded, developed sound of Suicide Season, to the superb There Is A Hell... While they've still got breakdowns, not every song in SS/TIAH... feels the need to descend to it. 

I digressed ever so slightly there. My bad. Anyway, there are a few bands that do them fantastically, such as The Devil Wears Prada, but my absolute favourite breakdown by any band I've ever heard is from Boneyards by Parkway Drive. There are a few dotted around the song, but the one at the very end; "There's blood IN THE WATER" at 2:50 - I love it. It's one of the best bits of growled vocals I've ever heard, and it leads into that powerful breakdown, it's sick.


Also check out the Zombie EP by TDWP, that's great.

PARKWAY DRIVE present 'HOME IS FOR THE HEARTLESS' DVD

Below is the new trailer for the newest DVD by one of the finest metalcore bands out there, Byron Bay Australia's Parkway Drive. This gives a tiny glimpse into the chaos that is a PWD show, and it makes me want to see them (properly*) all the more.

*I saw them at Sonisphere 2011, but from a distance... It's not the same.