Viral Videos
While Devin Townsend is typically known for his progressive musical prowess, the esteemed musician's comedic side is showcased in a fan made video montage posted to YouTube. Compiled of clips from interviews, live performances, and video footage, the 25 minute reel is packed with sidesplitting moments.
While there is no shortage of clips of Townsend telling jokes on stage, making dry comments, playing pranks, and just plain being silly, perhaps the biggest "WTF" moment comes from a portion of the video where he tells an interviewer about a fart prank gone horribly wrong during a live performance with Steve Vai.
Around the 10:56 mark, Townsend shares a war story from the road with an interviewer. While the context of the video does not make it clear when or where the incident occurred, he had confirmed that it was during a live Steve Vai performance when he told the tale in a 2012 interview with Eric Alper.
The concept behind the prank was innocent enough. "We sampled a whole bunch of farts into his keyboard and I was like 'Okay, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna come up in the last song, I'm gonna stand up on the podium, I'm gonna put the mic up to my ass and just start letting the fart samples go,' right? And I thought this would be great," Townsend explained to the interviewer. While theoretically, that prank would be great, Townsend's poor judgment caused the prank to go horribly array in an upsetting climax.
Watch the video below to see more hilarious DT moments and find out the cringe-worthy details of how the prank ultimately ended at the expense of Steve Vai and the audience. Yikes!
Credit goes to Youtube User TheZoomootoo for creating this compilation.
Last week, we shared the video of Chicago-based guitarist Rob Scallon and guitarist Sarah Longfield covering "Payback" by Slayer on ukuleles. In case you missed it, the duo also tackled Cannibal Corpse's "Evidence in the Furnace" on ukuleles as well. Don't be thrown off by the idea of cross pollinating ukuleles and metal because it actually sounds crazy heavy!
Watch the video below and comment which songs you hope to see them cover next.
I'm sure you all remember Chicago-based guitarist Rob Scallon for his out-of-the-box covers of various metal tunes on the least metal instruments around. You might also remember Sarah Longfield for her shredding cover of Job For A Cowboy's "Entombment of a Machine" on the toilet. Now, the internet sensations have collaborated to bring yet another mind-blowing ukulele cover of Slayer's "Payback." And yes... it sounds brutal as hell! The only thing more priceless than the fact that such a heavy song is delivered on such majestic instruments is the looks on the flower clad audiences faces.
Watch the video here:
Sure, you've heard Guns N' Roses' "Sweet Child O' Mine" covered countless times. But how often have you seen someone shred the song on guitar and keyboard simultaneously?
In his latest video, Gabriel Guardian puts his ambidextrous abilities to work with an epic cover of the GN'R hit. Using hammer-ons and pull-offs, Guardian handles guitar duties single-handedly for much of the video while accompanying himself on keyboard.
Things really get wild around the 2:58 mark, where he harmonizes his guitar lines on the keyboard.
The 24-year-old virtuoso is sponsored by Fender and Jackson Guitars and Alesis keyboards and performs with progressive metal band Immortal Guardian and the live electronic duo Fyer. He's in the studio finishing up new records for both groups and has releases set for late 2016 and early 2017. He'll be performing with Fyer on the mainstage at Atlanta's Imagine Music Festival on August 26 through 28.
You can see more of his videos below and at GabrielGuardian.com, ImmortalGuardian.net and FyerOfficial.com.
Currently taking the Internet by storm is this video of thrash legends Metallica covering the Pokémon theme live in concert.
We jest, of course. What's really here is a quite masterful melding of Metallica concert footage and the Pokémon theme. In fact, James Hetfield's mouth syncs up with the lyrics quite well throughout the video.
Of course this isn't the first time Metallica have been redubbed. A few years back, YouTube user Andy Rehfeldt crafted an excellent smooth-jazz version of "Enter Sandman" and melded it to video of the group performing live. The video, included below, is just shy of 6.5 million views.
John Hetlinger, the 82-year-old who recently sang Drowning Pool's "Bodies" on NBC's 'America's Got Talent,' joined the band on stage this past Saturday, July 16, to perform the song at the Ink in the Clink festival in Mansfield, Ohio. You can check out his performance below.
Hetlinger also performed with the band the previous day at the Chicago Open Air festival (as pictured above).
The Navy vet and aerospace manager told KUSA he was surprised by the reaction to his initial 'America's Got Talent' performance. "I didn't know two and a half thousand in the audience would react the same way that 30 drunks in the bar do, but they did," he said. "Everybody seems to think it's great that an old man is screaming 'let the bodies hit the floor!'"
CJ Pierce, Drowning Pool's guitarist, said he first heard about Hetlinger's performance when family members started texting him. "I picked up my phone and I got a handful of texts from a number of people because I guess it got out yesterday ahead of the airing," he said. "I watched it, and man, I am so entertained by it. It's awesome to just see an 82-year-old man get out there and just belt out some metal—whether it was our song or any song, it was just killer to see him do that."
There probably aren't too many bands or artists who love it when their concert audiences spend more time staring at their phones—or taking duck-face selfies—than watching the band perform.
FYI: Corey Taylor of Slipknot hates it.
In fact, he's pretty much adopted the policy of destroying any phones he sees at his shows. "I see it every once in a while," Taylor told radio station WRIF in 2014. "People don't do it so much at our shows, and if they do, they do it from quite a ways back, because I empty whole water bottles into people as soon as I see them staring at their phone or tweeting or whatever."
Which brings us to an incident that took place at a Slipknot show this past weekend. In the photos and (very brief) video below, watch as Taylor smacks the phone out of a front-row fan's hand. The fan was texting at the time.
Taylor has been discussing the incident with fans on Twitter.
What are your thoughts on this issue?
We've seen metal in ridiculous places a lot over the past few years, but it's going to be hard to beat this one.
82-year-old 'America's Got Talent' contestant John Hetlinger recently got up onstage and performed a growly rendition of Drowning Pool's "Bodies" for the judges.
Hetlinger, a former Navy pilot and retired program manager for the instrument that repaired the Hubble Space Telescope, also has a YouTube channel with other covers.
Check out the video and priceless reactions from the judges and crowd below. We're voting for him!
Metallica performed the United States national anthem last night before Game 4 of the NHL Stanley Cup Final between the San Jose Sharks and Pittsburgh Penguins at the SAP Center in San Jose, California.
Watch James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett crush a metal version of the anthem below.
The band said prior to the performance, "Another year and another Bay Area sports team playing in the championship round! Our congratulations to the San Jose Sharks for winning the Western Conference title and skating in the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time in their 25-year franchise history."
Both of their guitars will be signed by all band members and available for bidding through NHL auctions following the performance and until June 15, with proceeds benefiting the Sharks Foundation and Little Kids Rock.
In addition, Lars Ulrich and Robert Trujillo opened the doors for the Sharks before they headed through their iconic shark head and onto the ice to "Seek and Destroy."
However, the Sharks lost last night's game, 3 to 1. The series heads back to Pittsburgh for Game 5 on Thursday.
Check out Metallica's Instagram for tons of photos of the event.