Guitars’ revival forged in metal

The News Review:

- Guitars’ revival forged in metal
- SoCal headbangers evoke ’80s metal on major label debut
- The Gauntlet: Five Finger Death Punch Metal News

Guitars’ revival forged in metal
St. Petersburg Times – Aug 28, 2007
Fueled by a resurgence in heavy metal music and its numerous subgenres Halo makes and sells instruments with bodies carved to resemble rotting flesh distended eyeballs and bone. The guitars primarily find their way into the hands of death-metal musicians. Regular heavy metal music covers the usual topics of scorn and despair while death metal leans heavily on growled vocals and themes such as Satanism and dark mythology. Both are an important niche for electric guitar manufacturers like 5-year-old Halo. It sold 200 guitars its first year in business and now sells 200 to 300 a month in direct sales and another 200 per month to dealers said co-founder Waylon Ford. "Ever since we started making more outrageous designs we started selling more guitars" he said. "We really owe a lot to the metal genre.

SoCal headbangers evoke ’80s metal on major label debut
Baltimore Sun – Aug 28, 2007
In that time the group also sold over a million records opened for Korn and moved to a major label. Why you should care: Although the death metal screams and blitzkrieg rhythms of Atreyu’s early work is gone "Lead Sails" proves that the band was right to embrace the guitar solos pop choruses and thundering drums from “Headbangers Ball” reruns of yore. And the record is ambitious—for every Buckcherry-like cowbell-infused anthem like "Blow" (chorus: "blow those f—in’ words out the back of your head") there’s "Lose It" which switches tempos genres and instrumentation every few seconds (whoa is that a theremin?). Verdict: Although the band tries out a few too many styles (industrial acoustic ballad horns) and doesn’t quite settle down "Lead Sails" has the basics right… In that time the group also sold over a million records opened for Korn and moved to a major label. Why you should care: Although the death metal screams and blitzkrieg rhythms of Atreyu’s early work is gone "Lead Sails" proves that the band was right to embrace the guitar solos pop choruses and thundering drums from “Headbangers Ball” reruns of yore. And the record is ambitious—for every Buckcherry-like cowbell-infused anthem like "Blow" (chorus: "blow those f—in’ words out the back of your head") there’s "Lose It" which switches tempos genres and instrumentation every few seconds (whoa is that a theremin?). Verdict: Although the band tries out a few too many styles (industrial acoustic ballad horns) and doesn’t quite settle down "Lead Sails" has the basics right. It’s loud it’s crude and the guitar solos from axemen Dan Jacobs and Travis Miguel shred appropriately. Think of ‘em as Motley Crue for the Warped Tour crowd…and that’s a compliment.

The Gauntlet: Five Finger Death Punch Metal News
The Gauntlet – Aug 28, 2007
Delivering their own brutal brand of metal to audiences all over the nation on this summer’s FAMILY VALUES TUR the band members are proud to officially announce that they will extend their stay on the road joining the likes of Korn HellYeah and Droid. on this fall’s B#@CH! WE GT A PRBLEM TUR. Expressing his gratitude to the thousands of fans that witnessed FFDP command the Redctane “Guitar Hero” stage on this summer’s FAMILY VALUES TUR Vocalist Ivan Moody had this to say: “Family Values 2007 has been an experience I will never forget! ALL the bands are above and beyond amazing. Thanks to all the Knuckleheads and the bands for making this summer unforgettable… Delivering their own brutal brand of metal to audiences all over the nation on this summer’s FAMILY VALUES TUR the band members are proud to officially announce that they will extend their stay on the road joining the likes of Korn HellYeah and Droid. on this fall’s B#@CH! WE GT A PRBLEM TUR. Expressing his gratitude to the thousands of fans that witnessed FFDP command the Redctane “Guitar Hero” stage on this summer’s FAMILY VALUES TUR Vocalist Ivan Moody had this to say: “Family Values 2007 has been an experience I will never forget! ALL the bands are above and beyond amazing. Thanks to all the Knuckleheads and the bands for making this summer unforgettable.