Heavy Low-Down: Bill Ward likes modern metal, Tom Warrior doesn't, Invisible Oranges best of lists, Gorguts & more

by Doug Moore

Triptykon at Inferno Festival 2012 (more by Fred Pessaro)

First things first: for those of you who haven’t fled town for the holidays already, there are some noteworthy shows this weekend. Tonight, tour-happy USBMers Vattnet Viskar tops a strong local bill that includes So Hideous, Alekhine’s Gun, & Imperial Triumphant at the Acheron (12/20). (Tix here.) Saturday night offers one of the year’s most notable death metal lineups — Gorguts, Origin, & Nero Di Marte at Saint Vitus (12/21). The new Gorguts record topped a lot of metal year-end lists, including my own. That show is sold out, unfortunately; if you didn’t nab tickets or if blastbeats and growling aren’t really your speed, you can always catch Martin Rev (of Suicide) at the Bowery Electric, along with brutal prog bangers Child Abuse and Timo Ellis‘s new noise rock unit Netherlands. (Tix here.) Don’t forget to keep an eye on our NYC Metal calendar for the latest.

It’s been a predictably scant news week otherwise. Russian Circles/Inter Arma/KEN mode, Dying Fetus, and Lord Dying all announced tours or NYC appearances, while Cult of Luna won’t be back here any time soon. Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward is stoked on modern metal, while Celtic Frost/Triptykon frontman Tom G. Warrior evidently isn’t:

“I gave up on watching heavy music a long time ago. I really don’t give a shit about the state of heavy music nowadays. I’m not really a friend of being conservative in art, and I’m not really a friend of repetition. I’m not really a friend of people copying themselves and others. By necessity I’ve given up assessing or following the scene I’m part of…It’s been so frustrating how utterly listless the creative forces in some bands are. How unimaginative. That bothers me. Number one – music for me is art, and art is anarchy, art is reinventing yourself, art is taking a risk. Art is not being repetitious.”

One wonders how he’ll react to the rest of the Maryland Deathfest lineup when Triptykon plays there next year.

We wrapped up our year-end coverage over at Invisible Oranges this week — we discussed some notable album anniversaries that we missed, some great independent/self-released albums, and some interesting album covers of both the good and horrendous variety. We also ran personal best-ofs by Richard Street-Jammer, Brad Sanders, Joseph Schafer, and Wyatt Marshall. And, as ever, we ran down all the new metal releases fit to buy.

Oh, and one more bit of IO-related news: we’re giving away prize packs from Season of Mist Records, Deathwish Inc., Relapse Records, Willowtip Records, and Prosthetic Records. It’s not too late to enter (and win). Happy Festivus.