Welcome to the ARM blog

Here will be quick reads and updates on alternative, rock, and metal. From news to facts, it’s a one-stop read for you music needs.

About Me

I’m a radio student at SAIT polytechnic in Calgary AB, Canada. My passion lies in music, comedy and video games. I’ve been passionate about music from a very young age, my dad showering me in Metallica and Iron Maiden. since then I’ve mainly stuck to my roots but found my true love for Alternative Rock.

Grammy’s and Rock

With the rock and roll genre constantly declining in popularity, it’s always warming to see some of the best in rock up for nominations at the Grammy’s. Even after his passing in 2017, Chris Cornell won best recording package at the 2020 Grammy’s. With the love and support from his wife and millions of fans worldwide his legacy lives on.

Despite rock’s lack of popularity in 2020, we still have some great artists contending for the prestigious music awards. Vampire Weekend was nominated for album of the year with their album ‘Father of the Bride’, but lost to Billie Eilish’s ‘When We Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?’. I don’t think that the loss is too hard of a hit, Billie Eilish is arguably one of the best if not the best artist of the current generation. It’s also a bonus that she falls under the alternative genre and pumps out some great tunes for all types of listeners.

It’s seems really crazy when you first look at it, 20 years ago the highlights of the Grammy’s were artists like Santana, Metallica, and The Red Hot Chili Peppers. It makes sense though, the early 2000’s were the end of the major rock era. Bands like Breaking Benjamin, Blink-182, Sum 41, Greenday, and Nickleback were a sort of last hurrah for rock and roll dominating the music industry.

I love that popular artists today are still trying to keep rock relevant, like Post Malone recording with Ozzy Osbourne and Logic with Elton John. One of my favorite videos online is of Post Malone covering All Apologies by Nirvana: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBEMAh7H-jc. It shows where the inspiration of modern artists really comes from.

I’m not trying to say that rock is dead, but it’s sort of drifting into that cult following electronic had in the 90’s. In South America, rock and metal are still huge. I mean Rockin’ Rio was still able to pull in over 1.5 million people for the first day of the 2019 festival. That being said, the Rockin’ Rio line up did not only have rock and metal bands. Popular performers like Drake, Bebe Rexa, and P!nk were headliners of the massive music festival.

Honestly overall, I think even though rock has lost the place it held in Grammy’s, the genre will never die. Rock is constantly evolving and the number of sub-genres is mind boggling. Metal, nu-metal, alternative, rock-blues, folk-rock, ska, the list goes on and on. Not just rock, but music in general is so incredibly broad with unlimited possibilities. It will always be evolving. I’m sure I’ll see tons of new sub-genres as well as entire new genres be created in my lifetime and I’m excited to see where they go.

I love all types of music and genres from all over the world, so I’m not too upset that my favorite genres have lost their spotlight. As long as there is a passion for the music it will never die, and I know I’ll never lose my passion for music (especially rock). I’ll always remember that first concert, that first guitar chord I learned, and first CD I bought.

Happy, Sad and Angry.

There is so much happening right now in rock right now. I mean there always is, but right now it’s like rock is starting to become mainstream again. Last month I talked about how pop stars pairing up with rock stars is helping the industry in a big way. First off, we get a ton of new and interesting music, and we also get some amazing musicians in the rock world coming back into the spotlight. Like Elton John, and Ozzy Osbourne.

Honestly, the biggest news in rock right now is Rage Against the Machine’s new world tour. First off… HOLY S#%T, that’s the most excited I’ve been in a few years. I’m a huge Tom Morello fan. He is one of the main reasons I started playing guitar, but being able to see these guys back in action after years of being dormant is amazing. Like yeah, we got “One Day as a Lion”, which has a RATM vibe to them, but we don’t get the Morello riffs or the sick beats from Brad Wilk. It’s going to be an amazing tour and to hear these guys live will be a real treat. I’m just a little fanboy over here, counting down the days until I get to hear Zack De La Rocha scream his face off in front of 20,000 people.

Moving over to metal; oh boy, there is a ton of new stuff happening. Trivium has a new album. The thrash metal band hasn’t released an album in a few years, so it’s really cool to seem them active again… Maybe an upcoming tour? I don’t know.

Mr. Bungle teased a new album recently, showing videos of the boys back in the studio. If you don’t know who Mr. Bungle is, they’re a band that Mike Patton from Faith No More started after they broke up in 1998. It’s kind of hard to explain them, they’re a sort of a funk metal band that pushes boundaries. I highly recommend giving them a listen, if you haven’t heard of them, you will not regret it.

I want to get a bit controversial here… AC/DC’s new album. Don’t get me wrong, I love old rock and metal, BUT WHY AC/DC!? I am a HUGE Iron Maiden fan, but their last two albums were mediocre at best. Metallica, absolutely love them, but their last album… NOT VERY GOOD. You’d think that bands would learn from dumpster fires like Gun’s N’ Roses Chinese Democracy. Back to AC/DC, when are they going to realize that their last really good album was Razors Edge in 1990?! I know I just went off for a solid paragraph about them, but if bands keep trying to write exactly how they did 20, 30, 40 years ago, it’s just going to be disappointment after disappointment.

I’m going to end this post on a bit of a sad note. I was scrolling through some articles on Metal Hammer, a really good news site for rock and metal. I came across an article about Dimebag Darrell. The beloved lead guitarist of Pantera, who was tragically shot on stage in 2004 by an angry fan while performing with his new band Damage Plan. Anyways, a friend of Dimebag, and crew member Bobby Tongs, had something interesting to say about his friend. He said that just a week before Dimebag was shot and killed onstage, he was wanting to return to Pantera and do another tour with them. Honestly, it’s just heartbreaking to think about, because it will never happen. I know it’s a bummer of a note to end on, but I thought it would be important add to the blog.

Trying Times

Honestly, I don’t think anyone saw how bad this Covid-19 virus was going to be. It’s affected the music industry as a whole, not just my beloved rock and roll. Artists are still finding ways to connect with their fans with; online concerts, podcasts, and really blowing up social media lately. This is awesome, with sports, major TV and movie sets being shut down, people are relying on their favorite artist to step up and deliver content, to try and help people keep their sanity. But it is definitely not all rainbows and sunshine in the music world. Many tour dates have been cancelled for the foreseeable future, albums have been delayed, and overall, this last month has just been a real bummer.

For anyone who pays attention to social media, local or national news, you would have noticed that Ozzy Osbourne was diagnosed with a form of Parkinson’s, and has revealed most of his time now is filled with a lot of pain. That’s not the only sad part, Ozzy was supposed to be flying to Switzerland to get treatment for his Parkinson’s. The legend even suspended his North American tour in order to get the treatment. Now, along with his tour he’s had to cancel his trip to Switzerland, due to the Covid-19. It’s not all doom and gloom for Ozzy though. Just days before Sharon Osbourne announced Ozzy canceling their trip to Switzerland, their daughter Kelly had said that her dad was feeling a lot better after his recent stem-cell treatment. All I can really do is say, good luck Ozzy, all the best to you.

I know, I know, it’s typical of someone to be writing a blog and solely talking about the coronavirus… I’m not going to be that typical person, so let’s talk about the lighter side of the rock and roll world. So, Dave Grohl has come out saying that along with the Foo Fighters tour being cancelled, the band has scrapped their newest album. He found himself lost and without a way of expressing himself, and to keep his fans spirits up in trying times: Dave is launching a short story series called: Dave’s True Stories. The stories will be completely free, and be posted to his Instagram account! This is very exciting for us rock fans. The series will include; crazy stories from his early life, his time with Nirvana, and the Foo Fighters. We all know he’s about to call out some unsuspecting celebrities and some crazy stuff they’ve done as well. I really look forward to this series that Dave has instore for us.

I’m a pretty die-hard Metallica fan, so you know I was ecstatic to find out that they are doing a weekly online concert for free, for all fans. This is another beautiful attempt to keep fans spirits up and do their part as artists to bring content to the world in rough times like these. This is what the band had to say to us, the fans. “For now, go hang with your significant others, kids, pets, parents… whomever you have in your space. Create your playlists, watch some movies, try some old-fashioned board games, and most importantly, stay safe. We’ll keep in touch!” honestly the one positive that has come from this terrible pandemic is, it’s really bringing the world closer together. That’s all for now, hope you all are staying safe, keep on rockin!

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