Carl Begai

Hails!

Once again, a big thanks to those of you stopping by to check out my playground. And to those of you posting comments, thanks for keeping it clean and being pretty damn articulate and intelligent when you set off on an overview, commentary or critique. I enjoy the feedback, positive and not, and it’s definitely of worth. Keep ‘em coming.

Currently up and running elsewhere (because it’s no fun staying in only one spot), I recently posted the larger portion of my recent interview with THE ALMIGHTY frontman Ricky Warwick on the BW&BK site here. He was a cool interview as always, discussing the here-and-not status of The Almighty, the death of his other band CIRCUS DIABLO, and being a folk artist. The folk-oriented portion of the interview is still available via Suite101.

I also supplied Suite101 with a review of DANKO JONES’ kick-ass B-Sides compilation, released earlier this year. You can find it here.
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By Carl Begai

The sleepy town of Topping, Virginia – population 1,766 if you believe the internet – is the last place you’d expect to find the singer of a neo-classical metal band. And you won’t because she’s been calling Osaka, Japan home since 2006, much to the benefit of self-styled “dramatic metal” shredders MinstreliX. Founded in 2004, the band cut a limited run four-song single with former vocalist Leo Figaro only to have things fall apart two years later, forcing the search for a new singer. Enter Lola, former resident of a U.S. town so small Google Earth has issues finding it, living and working in Japan with absolutely no designs on joining a band. Or standing on a stage, for that matter. New environments often bring with them changes both necessary and inspired, however, and when fate threw an unexpected opportunity to join MinstreliX at Lola she took it.
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Having spent well over a decade as a member of Strapping Young Lad’s indestructible line-up, the fans are justified in expecting guitarist Jed Simon’s first solo outing to be a continuation of the SYL legacy. And that would be a big fat “nope.” Sure, there are moments on Sovereign that recall Simon’s days of sonic devastation circa the City record (‘Take A Long Line’, ‘Hail Hail’), particularly with drummer Gene Hoglan behind the kit and Byron Stroud ripping up the bass, but this is flat-out mean rather than trademark SYL aggressive. Tenet is about old school so-raw-it’s-bleeding thrash, and minus the big Devin Townsend production values the band has still turned in an unexpectedly brutal debut. A mere nine songs, Sovereign is a frantic beating within the realms of Death Angel’s heaviest Bay Area thrash punk moments and old, old, old Metallica; all shred and no brakes save for the half-speed rest during ‘Going Down’. (continue reading…)

Hails!

Just an update on my writing for Suite101 in case anyone’s interested in what I’m up to when I’m not being metal.

I recently did an interview with The Almighty vocalist / guitarist Ricky Warwick that focused on his new folk album, Belfast Confetti, and ventured into the reals of his other band, Circus Diablo, as well as discussing the future of The Almighty. The story was so big that I ended up splitting it into two parts, with the folk-oriented portion of the going to Suite101. Click the picture of Warwick below to check it out.

For my fellow sci-fi / fantasy geeks, I also threw down an overview of Terry Goodkind’s popular series of books, The Sword Of Truth. Back in 1997 I picked up the first book, Wizard’s First Rule, and was impressed enough to buy into the books that followed. Unfortunately, Goodkind decided to stretch things out over 11 volumes when four were enough. My review gives voice to what I think of folks that don’t know when to quit or change things up so as not to bore people to tears.

Back soon with more material exclusive to this site as well as some BW&BK-related updates.

Cheers!
Carl