Fubar: Balls To The Wall
Blu-ray | DVD | On Demand
Directed by Michael Dowse
Starring: David Lawrence, Paul J. Spence, Andrew Sparacino, Terra Hazelton
Screen Media Films
Release date: April 20, 2011

The sequel to the Canadian mockumentary comedy, FUBAR, has arrived. Screen Media Films have been marketing this film as “Spinal Tap meets The Trailer Park Boys” – but it’s got a bit of Jackass in there too, as well as a touch of Tenacious D, Bill and Ted, and Wayne’s World thrown in for good measure. And while there is truth to the comparisons above, there’s something about the sequel, Fubar: Balls to the Wall that stands on its own. If you’re a metalhead, and enjoy any of the films mentioned above, then this is a movie you will most likely enjoy.

And there’s metal and hard rock spread nicely throughout this film, with songs from and references to bands such as Dio, Krokus, Blue Cheer, Poison, Slaughter, and much more.

The official website for Gibson guitars has released what they perceive to be the top 50 metal songs of all time. Gibson.com’s writers and editors worked on compiling the list over several weeks, releasing 10 entries at a time, and recently released the top 10, which declared the number one metal song to be “Master of Puppets” by Metallica.

In some ways, the number one spot for Metallica is fitting, considering 2011 is the 25th anniversary of the release of their Master of Puppets album. Having said that though, metalheads are notorious for having fierce and strong opinions about what they consider to be their “top songs,” on top of their fierce and strong opinions about what bands are or are not even metal.

With just a few more days left til the end of February, now’s the time to get in on Amazon’s $5.00 MP3 album deal of the month for February 2011: 100 Albums For $5.

Here’s some of my favorite picks from the 100 albums on sale: Dio‘s first album Holy Diver; John Lennon‘s Imagine; Pat Benatar‘s Crimes Of Passion; and Fugazi‘s 13 Songs. There’s plenty of other selections from other genres (I saw some R. Kelly, Lil Wayne, Lenny Kravitz, Usher, The Judds, Carrie Underwood, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, The Smiths, Violent Femmes, Frank Sinatra, and many more.)

There’s also a $.69 Song Sale (they are typically $.99 each) where thousands of songs are discounted. You can go to the main page and then view by genre from the list on the left — there’s 102 hard rock/heavy metal songs to choose from (you know that’s my area) from bands like Megadeth, Accept, Sepultura, Tesla, Free, and Corrosion Of Conformity. (If you’re into Latin music, there’s over 1,155 tunes.)

I thought that for this Australia Day (which is celebrated every January 26 down under), I’d link up with our recent Geeks of Doom theme of celebrating the 25th anniversary of some of the music and albums released during 1986. That year was a big one for Australian artists, with some key releases stamping their mark on the history of the Aussie music industry and the rock scene down under.

From Metal to Pop, from Traditional Alternative to Post-Punk, join me in a look back at some of the biggest and more memorable music releases from Australia 25 years ago in 1986.

The New York Times released an online hodgepodge of musicians we lost during 2010, and have omitted three major losses during the year that should anger metalheads across the Earth. In their year review, the Times has snubbed Ronnie James Dio (Black Sabbath, Dio), Peter Steele (Type O Negative), and Paul Gray (Slipknot).

You can view the New York Times montage over at their site if you can be bothered. I’m not embedding it here, because for my part, I’m disgusted they’ve overlooked three significant musicians — presumably just because they’re from the metal genre. The grounds upon which I make this assumption are that there is no metal whatsoever in their “tribute.” Rock, Soul, Pop, R&B, Hip Hop, Post-Punk are all included in the company of Funk, Disco, and others. Metal (and related genres) are nowhere to be seen.