Gigantour

Far behind on the postings so here's some to keep ya held over. First up is the Dave Mustaine created festival Gigantour. Founded in 2005, the touring festival has toured sporadically through the US and overseas. The festival features bands hand picked by Mustaine that showcase guitar playing as well as high energy performances. Over the years the lineup has included bands like Megadeth, Dream Theater, Overkill, Opeth, Into Eternity, Arch Enemy, Fear Factory, Life of Agony, Nevermore, Motorhead and Lacuna Coil. There have been releases of the first two Gigantour tours on CD/DVD. I decided to go with the Vol. 2 here which features, The SmashUp, Sanctity, Into Eternity, Opeth, Arch Enemy, Overkill, Lamb Of God and Megadeth. Solid mix of songs from all the bands here. Worth a listen for some live cuts that weren't released anywhere else.

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The Concert For George

Continuing on with another benefit show. This time around it's 'The Concert For George'. This show was held on the anniversary of George Harrison's death. Organized by George's wife Olivia and son Dhani, under the musical direction of Eric Clapton and Jeff Lynne. The concert took place at Royal Albert Hall on November 29, 2002, with proceeds of the show going to the Material World Charitable Foundation. The album was split into two parts. The first part containing more of an Indian music flair with Ravi Shankar's daughter Anoushka playing a few numbers. After a interlude, the band kicks into high gear playing some of George's hits. The band included the likes of, Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Billy Preston, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty, Dhani Harrison, Albert Lee, Joe Brown, Jools Holland and Jim Capaldi.Again one of the better live shows that you will ever hear, this is simply a must listen to.

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The Concert For Bangladesh

Starting off the week with a bit of Beatles like benefit concerts. First up this week is the legendary 1971 concert 'The Concert For Bangladesh'. Organized by former Beatle George Harrison and Sitar master Ravi Shankar, the concert was staged in order to promote the war ravaged and poverty stricken county of Bangladesh. Recorded live at Madison Square Garden on August 1, 1971, the concert featured in addition to Harrison and Shankar, Leon Russell, Ringo Starr, Billy Preston, Eric Clapton, and Bob Dylan. The album features both Harrison's solo works and some Beatles songs. Rumors swirled that the concert would feature a Beatles reunion, but neither Lennon or McCartney were on board with the idea. The album was produced by Phil Spector and was originally released as a triple LP, the album got the remastered treatment in 2005 and included two bonus tracks. Proceeds of the album continue to go to the George Harrison for UNICEF fund. A landmark in benefit concerts as well as live albums, this is truly a must listen.

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Curse Of The Demon

Next up is the Dwell tribute to Mercyful Fate. 'Curse Of The Demon: A Tribute To Mercyful Fate' was released in 2000 and feature some more well known bands covering Mercyful Fate. Once again like the tribute to King Diamond, there are some odd choices for songs to cover, i.e. 'At The Sound Of The Demon Bell' and 'Torture (1629)'. This one spans covers from the 'Nuns Have No Fun' EP up to 'Dead Again'. Bands on this one include, Soilwork, Vital Remains, Memory Garden, Acheron, Morta Skuld, and Dan Swano. Musically this is a little better. There is a Mercyful Fate connection here with the band Hemsifear, as current Mercyful Fate guitarist Mike Wead plays guitar in the band. Overall again, nothing great, but worth a listen for the dedicated fans.

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Church Of The Devil

Finishing off this week of various albums with a double shot of tribute albums from the label Dwell. Dwell was a label that really specialized in metal tribute records featuring up and coming or unknown bands. At one point they did have a small roster that included Soilent Green. However we will focus on the King Diamond tribute first. 'Church Of The Devil: A Tribute To King Diamond' was released back in 2000 and features a few bands that you may have heard of. The album features songs from 'Fatal Portrait' up until 'The Graveyard'. There are some odd choices for songs to cover here, i.e. 'The Poltergeist' and 'The Wedding Dream'. The bands feature on here are for the most part unknown and now split up. Perhaps the most known bands are here are Ion Vein, Prototype, Estuary, and Black Witchery. The covers in general are a bit rough in spot, some are a bit better than others. It is rather hard to cover the King after all. Not one of the better tributes, but still worth a listen.

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Century Media Covers

Continuing on with the Century Media label in today's post, we jump ahead to something the label put out to celebrate their 20th year anniversary. 'Century Media - Covering Twenty Years Of Extremes' is an interesting double album. It's all Century Media bands covering songs from current and past Century Media artists. This is really a unique idea for a compilation album. You have a lot of great bands on here paying some respect to some really great bands. Few examples include, Arch Enemy covering Dream Evil and vice versa. Dark Tranquillity covering Sentenced. The Agonist covering Dark Tranquillity. In This Moment covering Lacuna Coil. Cryptopsy covering Strapping Young Lad. Firewind covering Nevermore and the list goes on. As with most cover albums, some are good, some not so much. Good stuff overall and worth checking out.

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Century Media

There are a few decent Metal labels still around today that really stand behind and promote their artists. Century Media is one of those labels. In fact they've been doing it for over Twenty years now. The label always puts out samplers and the likes to promote their artists. I have a number of these, but I decided to go with the bonus disc from the 'Tenth Anniversary' box set. Originally the box set was a 3 CD set that covered some of the past and present bands signed to the label. Released in 2001, the box set was a limited release and is somewhat of a rare find nowadays. The last CD in the set was a collection of rare B-sides and Live tracks. At the time of release unless you were a collector most of these tracks were pretty hard to find. However in the modern digital age where the majority of classic albums are getting the deluxe treatment, most of these are probably not so rare anymore. In any case featured here are B-Sides and Live cuts from the likes of, Grave, Samael, Unleashed, Nevermore, Moonspell, The Gathering, Sentenced, Tiamat, Arch Enemy, and Dark Tranquillity. This is a solid collection of tunes, and worth a listen if you dig the B-Sides like I do.

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