The News Review:

- From classical to heavy metal and punk then back to classical …
- Guidance from the wise ones
- Cold Food Cold Feet Long Lines for Crowd At Lincoln Memorial Concert
- Is bama’s presidency the change hip-hop needs?
- An Interview With Drummer Baal-Thamor f Gothmog
- BIBLE F THE DEVIL: New Shows Announced – Jan. 18 2009
- Quick Takes

From classical to heavy metal and punk then back to classical …
Irish Times Ireland 
“It was pure coincidence” he says. “It could have been that he had lessons with a jazz guitarist and that’s where I would have gone. “It wasn’t too long after that that I got interested in rock music heavy metal punk things like that. I started playing in bands. But I was also going every Saturday morning to my classical guitar lesson which was helping me immensely playing rock music as well because I understood how the guitar worked. The idea that I played in heavy metal bands and then emerged into classical guitar it didn’t happen that way. I was learning classical guitar from the very beginning.
Related from Southwestmuseum: American Indian Composers Go Classical

Guidance from the wise ones
Akron Beacon Journal H 
Something like ”The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long. ” That’s a line from the band Lizzy Borden and part of a compilation called Time Flies When You’re in a Coma: The Wisdom of the Metal Gods. Time Flies is one of many many books that land on my desk all attempting to give me guidance. Workman Publishing in particular seems to specialize in guidance and to have me very much on its radar. I’m not sure how helpful all this information is. But I can’t help but look and ponder.

Cold Food Cold Feet Long Lines for Crowd At Lincoln Memorial Concert
CQPolitics.com DC 
The event ? part party part TV extravaganza part inspirational prelude to the change of political power ? packed the area around the reflecting pool. Heavily bundled spectators came early to establish squatting rights. Temperatures were in the low 30s and the reflecting pool bounded by metal barricades was frozen solid. Lines 100 people deep and more than a dozen wide waited to buy hot dogs ? that didn?t stay hot for long ? sodas and potato chips. By noon the sides of the reflecting pool were jammed with bama fans and concert goers while a steady stream of people had flowed in from the east side of the Washington Monument through a checkpoint at the World War II Memorial. Singing Along As the event began actor Denzel Washington got nearly as much applause as the bama family. ?n this day we are inspired by the man we have elected to be the 44th president of the United States of America? Washington said in his introductory remarks.

Is bama’s presidency the change hip-hop needs?
Newsday NY 
While sales of rock music dropped only 6. 5 percent last year hip-hop sales dropped nearly 20 percent according to The Nielsen Company – part of an alarming trend for hip-hop. In 2003 hip-hop was the third-most-popular type of music. By 2008 it had dropped to sixth behind country and metal only slightly ahead of gospel music. ver the past five years hip-hop sales have fallen 57 percent according to Nielsen. Though much of that decline is because of the overall sales decline in the industry – about 33 percent in the same period – part of it is a hip-hop-specific problem. Jeff Chang hip-hop historian and author of “Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation” says the change has already begun.

An Interview With Drummer Baal-Thamor f Gothmog
Metal Underground MD 
Norway is the mother of black metal and the influence is undeniable. xFiruath: What draws you to play black metal as opposed to any other type of music? Baal-Thamor: It?s the perfect mixture between speed power and melody that draws us to play this way. It?s not that we wanted to play exclusively black; we all listen to black and other kinds of metal and our music is the natural reflection of what we?ve been listening to since we were kids. xFiruath: Gothmog was the name of the second-in-command to the Witch King of Angmar in the Lord of the Rings novels. Does your music or lyrics deal with the events from the Lord of the Rings or did you settle on the name for how it sounds? Baal-Thamor: I have to add some extra info about that I?m afraid. Gothmog was the lord of the Balrogs (the demons of fire) and in honour of it later on in history came the one you said. We took that name ?cause I personally love The Lord of the Rings it?s my favourite book ever and the story surrounding the lord of the Balrogs is great.

BIBLE F THE DEVIL: New Shows Announced – Jan. 18 2009
Blabbermouth.net NY 
19 ? Liar’s Club – Chicago IllinoisMar. 07 – Cobra Lounge – Chicago IllinoisThe band will embark on a European tour in early March. According to a press release BIBLE F THE DEVIL’s latest album “Freedom Metal” (Cruz Del Sur Music) “marches beyond the epic concept” of BIBLE F THE DEVIL’s previous release toward an effort “simply overflowing with cranium-bludgeoning classics-in-the-making. ” Collaborating again with acclaimed Chicago engineer and producer Sanford Parker (MINSK NACHTMYSTIUM LAIR F THE MINTAUR) for the recording of “Freedom Metal” BIBLE F THE DEVIL’s fans can expect shit-hot and throttling production values for the new material that are the standard at Parker’s Semaphore Studio in Chicago. Having completed the “Freedom Metal” sessions in May 2008 BIBLE F THE DEVIL has spent the two years since their last full-length release honing the new material live and even discarding songs that the band felt would not make the cut a luxury that they had seldom been afforded before in the band’s history. Vocalist and guitarist Mark Hoffmann said “This is a true heavy guitar-lover’s album. ne for people who would rather actually plug a real Les Paul into a Marshall and just lay waste than those who would merely simulate shredding on their Playstation 3.

Quick Takes
Los Angeles Times CA 
After that listeners heard only a repeating loop of songs interspersed by a recorded announcement that Indie was moving to the Internet. From its start in December 2003 Indie — an FM simulcast at 103. 1 of KDLD in Santa Monica and KDLE in Newport Beach — was a curiosity: a commercial station that played modern rock punk metal country and other types of alternative music sprinkled among various eclectic programs. It also featured an unlikely owner the Santa Monica-based Spanish-language broadcasting chain Entravision Communications. The station cultivated an aura of hipness and iconoclasm — great for making a small and loyal audience feel like part of an exclusive club but not necessarily a good business model. In the most recent Arbitron ratings Indie ranked 38th in the market averaging just. 6% of the listening audience compared with the 3.