German Hardrockers BERSERKER will donate 18.000€ to the Berlin cancer charity for children on May 25. November 2011 BERSERKER front man Schröder was diagnosed with cancer, now he is cancer-free. In 2012 the band collected money for this charity at their concerts and will also continue to do so in the future. Slayer´s Jeff Hanneman is dead: he passed away at about 11AM on May 2nd near his Southern California home because of liver failure due to an infection after a spider bite. More info: www.facebook.com/slayer
R.I.P. Jeff! Festivals cancelled: ROCK AM SEE (GER) takes a break in 2013 "lacking attractive headliners"; BURNING SEA in Croatia had to succumb to a new tax regulation; yet purchased BS-tickets can also be used to visit METALDAYS in Slowenia.
The Siberian Jay music video "I´m Holding" featuring Mikko Sirén from Apocalyptica on drums - we reported about the videoshoot in our "1h with" Special - can be watched here: http://youtu.be/C-hSNurZVcs
For 15 years, Children of Bodom are now part of the Metal community. During this time, they achieved something only a few bands have managed before: they created a new style of music. Since their first record „Something Wild“, they established a hard and rough sort of Metal, really close to Death Metal, with insanely fast classic Hardrock melodies. However, on their 2005 opus “Are you dead yet?” they began to change their style a little bit into a heavier and more groove oriented direction. This was to the expense of those ´light-footed´ melodies, though but on the other hand, it gave the sound a brand-new touch. This development can now be reconstructed on the best of-album “Holiday at Lake Bodom”.
But every best of-album raises the question of its sense and its target audience. In this case, these questions are actually quite easy to answer: this one is only for newbies, not for those who already own most of CoB albums. In comparison to many other bands, CoB (or Spinefarm) don´t seem to have put much effort into the release: there are no re-recordings, no remasters, no rare live-versions, actually nothing that makes it interesting enough for fans of the band to buy it. The only “treat” is a cover version of Dropkick Murphies `Shipping up to Boston`. The accompanying DVD is not a buying incentive either. A documentary of only 20 minutes and one single music clip is pretty poor by any standard – what about some live recordings or a full length history of the band?? All in all, I recommend: Don`t buy it!
