The what's going on in Thrash thread

[redfly]

Speaking of politics and metal, did you guys notice during that Overkill live show a Ukraine flag made its way on the stage? They draped it over the drums for a few songs but I noticed it was removed before they came back on stage for the encore.

No I somehow missed that. I'm going to have to re watch it. I kinda wanted to anyway.

 

[redfly]

I think that's a piss poor excuse used by bands happy to sit on their arse and ride the wave. Too many bands have spent 2 years bitching about not playing, and not being able to make money. A live stream gives a band the opportunity to make money from the entire world in one single event with the overheads of only one show. I don't even care if they are free or not, too many bands did SFA for the fans yet the fans are still rewarding them. Ok there has been some album releases which has given fans something but when a live show is so easy to stream these bands missed out and missed out big time.

If a band like Obituary can do 4 pay for view events in 4 weeks, from their house, then bands like Testament, Exodus, F&J etc could surely do them. From memory there was figures spoken about where Obituary had up to 35,000 people streaming their events at a time. You don't have to be good with sums to know that 35,000 x $30 (which it was for us here) made them money. But given the costs of streaming and the overheads from their own house, they probably made more from that gig than just about any night in a club.

But to me it's not even about money, most of the bigger bands were still getting paid during the pandemic. Whether it was from record sales, merch sales, or other lines of things they all have set up. Or others like that dickhead from Destruction said early on when he was bragging that the German government would pay him not to play and any band not set up like his were fucking stupid. I like people who give it a go and don't just wait for shit to come to them, so the bands who did something during the pandemic, free or not, are the ones I'll be supporting into the future, not the bands who sat on their arses and waited for people to pay them.

Well you've convinced me. Lazy fucking assholes!

 

[Slammed]

Well you've convinced me. Lazy fucking assholes!

It's good to see you've seen the light
I know it's not as black and white as I've made it, some bands didn't even bitch about taking time off or not making money. Some bands did keep busy in other ways. But I do think when we look back on the 'pandemic years' we are going to easily see a lot of people didn't make as much of the time as they could have (not just bands).

I also think, or at least hope, that it's the bands that did do stuff during the pandemic that grow and earn a bigger fan base.

 

[redfly]

But payment isn't the be all and end all of these things. I'm sure bands like Testament and Exodus could afford to put on a live stream for free. They pick the venue, they put on a skeleton crew for sound and lights, they do a deal with a mob who can handle the stream, whether there is a paying in house crowd or not would have been up to whatever rules were in place. A one off like that wouldn't or at least shouldn't break the bank account of any band. Shit, if the band can't work local deals where half of that stuff is provided at a discount during a pandemic then their sales and management team should be fired. Even if costs bellied out to $20K, we are talking about bands and labels who have made millions between them, if they couldn't find that kind of money to 'buy' the fans during a time where tours aren't happening then something is wrong. Even if the band wants to make that money back, how many $30 tickets does a band have to sell worldwide to make $20K (devilishly enough it's 667 ), and there is no chance in the world that a band like Testament or Exodus would sell less than a 1000 tickets to such an event.

I think too many bands had the same attitude as that dickhead from Destruction. As well as claiming any band who wasn't set up like Destruction to receive government payments was stupid, not taking into account that not every country offered what the German Government did, the wanker also claimed he'd never do drive in gigs, or any other gig where he could not have a large crowd. In other words they were happy to ride out the pandemic because whatever money they were making was sufficient to get by despite many crying poor that the music industry was dying.

I think Chuck and Eric said something it would have to be free? I think we know why Testaments didn't happen. I don't know why they couldn't have gotten a fill in though. I'm sure most of us would be just fine with a cool guest lead. Whoever it was. Murphy, Glenn. Whomever (not Drover). Obviously I can't say 100% why Testament's never happened. But. C'mon. they said something like we gotta get Alex to fly from NY. Alex was busy making stupid videos. This doesn't have much to do with what you said. I just wanted to bitch about it again.
At least they didn't hold the album back.
As for the other bands.

 

[redfly]

It's good to see you've seen the light
I know it's not as black and white as I've made it, some bands didn't even bitch about taking time off or not making money. Some bands did keep busy in other ways. But I do think when we look back on the 'pandemic years' we are going to easily see a lot of people didn't make as much of the time as they could have (not just bands).

I also think, or at least hope, that it's the bands that did do stuff during the pandemic that grow and earn a bigger fan base.

Flotsam did that one song with Bittner. That was pretty cool. I wonder why they didn't do more. Lol Blabber never even picked that up. Just BW.
Mark Simpson did some cool stuff. I'll at least remember that. Because you're right. History will remember those that did jack shit.

 

[Slammed]

I think Chuck and Eric said something it would have to be free? I think we know why Testaments didn't happen. I don't know why they couldn't have gotten a fill in though. I'm sure most of us would be just fine with a cool guest lead. Whoever it was. Murphy, Glenn. Whomever (not Drover). Obviously I can't say 100% why Testament's never happened. But. C'mon. they said something like we gotta get Alex to fly from NY. Alex was busy making stupid videos. This doesn't have much to do with what you said. I just wanted to bitch about it again.
At least they didn't hold the album back.
As for the other bands.

It's funny to think they couldn't do it because of one person. Two weeks ago Frenzal Rhomb played a gig but their guitarist was in iso so instead of cancelling they put him on screen from his lounge room and got a guest on stage. Like you say the Alex excuse might be speculation but there was ways around things.

Actually wasn't Alex a part of a number of those iso videos where different muso got together and played a song?

Not holding back the album for them was really a good move. Sure they haven't been able to tour it, but if they hadn't released it until after the pandemic was over I think many fans would have turned on them, not to mention the amount of merch they've been able to sell because of the album. The other risk would have been that the album leaked and it's release became out of their hands.

 

[redfly]

Yeah! See man. That's how you do it!

Yeah he was. I think with Charlie and Sepultura and either some others or more than one with Charlie. I still can't believe Testament did nothing. they really sounded excited about it.

Oh yeah. What a nightmare for them if they didn't release it and it had gotten leaked. I know I was and still am really happy they released it. Good album!

 

[Slammed]

Flotsam did that one song with Bittner. That was pretty cool. I wonder why they didn't do more. Lol Blabber never even picked that up. Just BW.
Mark Simpson did some cool stuff. I'll at least remember that. Because you're right. History will remember those that did jack shit.

I think Blabber might have ignored Flotz a little bit after the album came out because Flotz did that big exclusive interview with the entire band and Bravewords.

Obituary might have ended up releasing their shows for nothing several months after their shows, but they also ran comps during the live stream where people could win drum skins etc. They then copped shit from some people for having a bio written about 'a death metal band'. But they also dropped a series of other videos to keep fans going. I know some bands did that, but too many didn't. Charlie and Scott did shit too but I prefer to forget some peoples output

 

[redfly]

Blabbermouth? ...Feel?.... I guess stranger things have happened!

Did Scott do anything?

 

[Slammed]

Yeah! See man. That's how you do it!

Yeah he was. I think with Charlie and Sepultura and either some others or more than one with Charlie. I still can't believe Testament did nothing. they really sounded excited about it.

Oh yeah. What a nightmare for them if they didn't release it and it had gotten leaked. I know I was and still am really happy they released it. Good album!

I agree, it was funny watching the main guitar player freeze occasionally while the guest, who I believe was just a fan, fucked up things on stage

Chuck also sounded excited about releasing those new songs which may or may not have been an ep, or just extra songs for the album, including a title track, but we've heard nothing about that. It's going to be awful silly if they release the new album and include the title track which didn't make it on the previous album

Both Testament and Flotz released good albums knowing they couldn't tour them immediately. Flotz arguably had two albums, although they did get about 12 months touring for Chaos before things shut down. They weren't the only ones either, but any band who either sat back and held music, or sat back and waited to write new music has in my eye failed. Unless it's a band like Metallica that can probably get away with never releasing another album, a band who didn't release something in the last 2 years and hasn't got something ready by mid this year probably wont have anything new to offer fans until mid next year.

 

[Slammed]

Blabbermouth? ...Feel?.... I guess stranger things have happened!

Did Scott do anything?

Someone had to tell them they missed out

Scott who?

 

[redfly]

I agree, it was funny watching the main guitar player freeze occasionally while the guest, who I believe was just a fan, fucked up things on stage

Chuck also sounded excited about releasing those new songs which may or may not have been an ep, or just extra songs for the album, including a title track, but we've heard nothing about that. It's going to be awful silly if they release the new album and include the title track which didn't make it on the previous album

Both Testament and Flotz released good albums knowing they couldn't tour them immediately. Flotz arguably had two albums, although they did get about 12 months touring for Chaos before things shut down. They weren't the only ones either, but any band who either sat back and held music, or sat back and waited to write new music has in my eye failed. Unless it's a band like Metallica that can probably get away with never releasing another album, a band who didn't release something in the last 2 years and hasn't got something ready by mid this year probably wont have anything new to offer fans until mid next year.

You hear that Anthrax?! Slammed is watching you! He's watching all of you!
I agree, to not put any effort in this whole time is bullshit. No way around it.

 

[redfly]

Someone had to tell them they missed out

Scott who?

 

[Slammed]

You hear that Anthrax?! Slammed is watching you! He's watching all of you!
I agree, to not put any effort in this whole time is bullshit. No way around it.

I can't get enough of Antisocial and Bring Tha Noize. Charlie sings them both in his sleep and Scott wears Flav Flav pj's around the house!

 

[redfly]

Oh no. That's all just terrible!
I like or liked Anti social. But sooo sick of it.

 

[Slammed]

I see this morning Anthrax are headlining a Euro tour later this year. 28 shows touring a 6 year old album, I bet the fans seeing that tour are in for a treat!!

 

[redfly]

Yeah? They're gonna bust out some deep cuts and not play covers?! Sweet! . I wonder if they'll even play anything off of Kings.

 

[zerostatic]

Saw that announcement too and Municipal Waste opening up for them should get the crowd going wild. I would like to see that lineup in the United States, as long as Anthrax doesn't play Antisocial, haha.

 

[redfly]

Yeah that would be cool if they brought it here. You’re right should be a good show. .

 

[Slammed]

I bet Anthrax are hoping the crowd stays after Municipal Waste

They are probably going to have to play for at least 60 mins, their same old tired set wont cut it, they'll have to add new songs. But you realy do have to wonder what those songs will be. I'd actually be worried about not getting my moneys worth paying to see them headline.