According to Billboard.com, Black Sabbath had been lined up as headliners for the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival before guitarist Tony Iommi was diagnosed with lymphoma. The lineup for the annual festival was revealed yesterday, with the Black Keys, Radiohead, and Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg named as headliners. There is no indication as to which act may have been called in to replace Sabbath.
While Coachella will not be hosting the reunited Black Sabbath, the festival will play host to the reunion of At the Drive-In and influential Swedish hardcore band Refused.
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At the Drive-In are reuniting 11 years after going on an “Indefinite hiatus.” The band just posted the following message to their Twitter account, as well as a newly launched website: “¡ ATTENTION ! To whom it may concern: AT THE DRIVE-IN will be breaking their 11 year silence THIS STATION IS …NOW…OPERATIONAL”
Following the release of the band’s third album, Relationship of Command, the members of At the Drive-In went there separate ways, with Cedric Bixler-Zavala and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez forming the Mars Volta and remaining members—Jim Ward, Paul Hinojos, and Tony Hajjar—starting Sparta.
]]>Texas-bred emcee Hyro Da Hero is one of the few to break the norm and make rap rock from a genuine rap perspective. His previous works have sampled heavy bands from the Refused to Circa Survive to Killswitch Engage; now with this debut full-length, he’s not only teamed up with metal super-producer Ross Robinson (the man behind Korn’s and Slipknot’s landmark first records, as well as Sepultura’s Roots, to name a few albums you might own) but also with members of At the Drive-In and the Blood Brothers, who play on select Birth School Work Death tracks and make up his touring band.
In his lyrics, Hyro name-checks the Deftones and Bad Brains while veering between somewhat standard rap braggadocio (“The World Stage,” “Man in My City”) and more incisive social commentary (“Ghetto Ambience,” “Sleeping Giants”). Sonically, he comes across sometimes like Eminem on Slim Shady’s heaviest songs; at other times, like Rage Against the Machine at their spazziest, or those Deftones in their more hip-hop-inflected moments.
In all, Birth School Work Death is definitely more rap than rock, but that’s a good thing. There’s a real sense of hip-hop culture in the lyrics, and there’s a sophistication in the way that the rap is made rock here—in other words, this isn’t just whiney frat-boy rhymes slapped on top of generic, down-tuned riffs. For open-minded rockers, Hyro Da Hero comes heavy and hard-hitting enough to justify some real headbanging; for the close-minded…well, good luck with that. BRANDON GEIST
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