Weekend Wildcard - Storm in a Tea Cup by Red Hot Chili Peppers

This Weekend's Wildcard is brought to you by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. This one comes off of their 2006 album Stadium Arcadium. The album was critically praised for integrating musical styles from several aspects of the band's career. The album gained the band seven Grammy Award nominations in 2007 including an award for Best Rock Album and one for Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition Package.

Scott's Metal Track of the Day - 11th Hour by Lamb of God

Today's Metal Track is brought to you by Lamb of God. This is off of their 2003 album As the Palaces Burn. This is starting to become my favorite LOG track. It is fantastic from start to finish with tons of great riffs, vocals, and breakdowns.

The song is about alcoholism and how self-destructive it is:
"Sweetly she draws me into her arms
A liquid embrace to chase the day way.
Sedate Numb Deaf and Dumb
Stumbling into solitude.
A clouded judgment day is fueled.
Take me under your black wings
Mark my words and remember me."

Scott's Metal Track of the Day - Sad Man's Tongue by Volbeat

Today's Metal Track is brought to you by the Danish metal band Volbeat. This is off of their 2007 album Rock the Rebel/Meet the Devil. You can tell that this one is heavily influenced by Johnny Cash. When I saw them play this live, they talked about Cash's influence on the band before this song and I actually thought it was a cover of one of his songs at he time.

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Scott's Metal Track of the Day - Prison Song by System of a Down

Today's Metal Track is brought to you by System of a Down. This is the opening track off of their breakthrough album Toxicity. This song is an attack on the US's criminal justice policy and its "war on drugs" that has led to a rapid expansion of imprisonment over the past 30 years or so.

The main criticism is the over incarceration of petty drug offenders due mandatory minimum sentences while research has shown that these individuals would benefit more from treatment than from incarceration. This expansion of imprisonment has been very costly to tax payers. Money that might be better spent on treatment and education.

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Scott's Metal Track of the Day - King of Nothing by Shadows Fall

Today's Metal Track is brought to you by Shadows Fall. This one comes off of their 2009 album Retribution. I love the main riff in this one along with the drums. Randy Blythe from Lamb of God provides guest vocals in the song and while it is only a few words it is the highlight of the song for me as they are laid over the main riff mentioned above.

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Scott's Instrumental Metal Track of the Day - Angel of Darkness by Andy James

Today's Instrumental Metal Track is brought to you by Andy James. This is off of his 2011 self-titled solo album. This YouTube phenomenon has been recognized by guitar stars including John Petrucci  and Mark Tremonti and he’s also played alongside Zakk Wylde, Paul Gilbert, and Guthrie Govan.

He has released several solo albums and 2 albums with the band Sacred Mother Tongue. He has become famous online not only for his incendiary playing, but also his tutorials and DVD’s.

Easy Like Sunday Morning Track - The Forgotten One by Times of Grace

Today's Easy Like Sunday Morning Track is brought to you by Times of Grace. This was a side project by the current lead singer and lead guitarist of Killswitch Engage. This album, The Hymn of a Broken Man, was released in 2011 before Jesse rejoined Killswitch as the lead singer.

Adam Dutkiewicz wrote the material for this album while he was in the hospital in the UK for emergency back surgery while on tour with Killswitch. Now that Jesse has rejoined Killswitch I wonder if they will release any new material under this band.

Weekend Wildcard - Mama Kin by Aerosmith

This Weekend's Wildcard is brought to you by Aerosmith. This was the first ever single by Aerosmith (Other than a demo of "Make it") that was released in 1973. It was featured on their self-titled debut album released the same year.

You don't hear this one on the radio nearly as much as their other songs. Guns N' Roses covered the song in 1986 and it was subsequently released on their EP Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide of the same year and later re-released on their 1988 EP G N' R Lies.

Scott's Metal Track of the Day - X.Y.U. by Smashing Pumpkins

Today's Metal Track is brought to you by The Smashing Pumpkins? Wait they are not metal. True, but this song definitely fits the bill. This one comes off of their 1995 double CD masterpiece Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness.

I can't say exactly what this song is about. Many think it means "Ex, Why You?" but I haven't found a good source yet. If any one knows please share. All I know is that it rocks!

"And into the eyes of the jakal I say KAAAA-BOOM!!!!"

Scott's Metal Track of the Day - Critical Mass by Nuclear Assault

Today's Metal Track is a classic brought to you by Nuclear Assault. This one comes off of their 1989 album Handle with Care. I know my brother and I had their 1986 album Game Over on cassette but I can't remember if we also had this one.

If it is not obvious through the lyrics, this song is about the human race destroying natural resources through pollution such as oil spills to the point of critical mass. This is just an outstanding display of thrash metal. It's been a while since I've listened to it so it has been on repeat this morning.



Shadows Fall covered the song on their album Retribution

Scott'es Metal Track of the Day - Rational Gaze by Meshuggah

Today's Metal Track is brought to you by Meshuggah. Adam posted this to our blog last year but I wanted to re-post it again because it is that good. This one comes off of their 2002 album Nothing. This genre of metal is often referred to as Djent and Meshugah is the band that coined the term which represent an "elastic, syncopated guitar riff". The best way to explain to someone what Djent is is to play this song for them. They'll get it.



Another reason I wanted to post this is because of this outstanding mashup of the song and the Wolf of Wall Street posted a couple of weeks ago.

Scott's Metal Track of the Day - War Ensemble by Slayer

Are we about to see war in Crimea? Here is some appropriate metal in case you need to break it out. Today's Metal Track is brought to you by Slayer. This is the opening track off of their 1990 album Seasons in the Abyss.

One music critic noted that the album's music "accurately sums up the controlled panic of combat that the Army itself has been using Slayer songs to psych its troops for military maneuvers..." \m/

Scott's Instrumental Track of the Day - Surfing with the Alien by Joe Satriani

Today's instrumental track is brought to you by Joe Satriani. This is the title track off of his 1987 album Surfing with the Alien. The song refers to the Marvel Comics character Silver Surfer who is depicted on the album cover. The original artist, John Byrne, has stated that they image was used without permission and he has not received any payment for its use even though the liner notes indicate that it was used with permission.

Easy Like Sunday Morning Track - More Than Words by Extreme

Today's Easy Like Sunday Morning Track is brought to you by Extreme. It was released in 1990 on the album Extreme II: Pornograffiti and is the band's most successful song. This acoustic ballad was a departure from their normal funk metal style.

The song was written as a warning that the words "I love you" were becoming meaningless because they were being used too frequently and without sincerity. It suggests that you have to do more than just say the words to show that you love someone.

Weekend Wildcard - Good Times Bad Times by Led Zeppelin

This Weekend's Wildcard is brought to you by one of the greatest rock bands of all time Led Zeppelin. This is the first song on their debut self-titled album released in 1969. This is a heck of way to introduce yourself to the world.

This has always been one of my favorite Zeppelin tracks because of the drums. Bonham developed the technique after listening to Carmine Appice of Vanilla Fudge. What he didn't realize was that Carmine was actually using a double bass set. Bonham was able to pull it off with just one.