Too Heavy To Hug #701

Welcome to THTH, Forte’s premier source of all things heavy, hard, fast and metal.
As mentioned last issue, the fashion of bands releasing anniversary albums 10 years on, for example is getting tedious, but at the same time, why can’t this sort of thing extend to movies? Do movies release themselves 10 years on? Not sure. What about books? Do they release anniversary copies of books? And what about columnists for Forte, like, should I just copy and past my column from October 2008 but with more commentary about it? Should I include the extended column from then complete without edits and with spelling and grammatical errors for all to see, as a celebration of it? To be honest, in October 2008 my THTH instalment was sent from Laos where I reviewed a Regurgitator gig I saw in the country, and since I’ve recently interviewed the band at least twice for Forte, so I don’t want to be too repetitive.
Having said that, though, where is the line when it comes to releases? Metallica released Death Magnetic in 2008, where the fuck is the 10 year anniversary for that album? Same goes with Opeth’s Watershed, Trivium’s Shogun, Gojira’s The Way Of All Flesh, Gunners’ Chinese Democracy? To be honest, if any of those albums should be released for their 10 year anniversary it should be Chinese Democracy considering how long that album took to drop the first time. But where does it end? Or, does this thing never end and the only thing keeping the aforementioned albums from being released for this anniversary is time, time to elapse until they all turn 20 years old and in 2028 we’ll get flooded with re-releases of albums that were shit the first time around and will still be shit twenty years later.
In other news
The Ocean will release their new album Phanerozoic I: Palaezoic on Friday November 2.
Opeth will release Garden of the Titans: Live at Red Rocks Ampitheatre on Friday November 2.
Parkway Drive, Killswitch Engage and Thy Art Is Murder will play Margaret Court Arena on Friday November 2.
Psycroptic will release their new album As The Kingdom Drowns on Wednesday November 7.
Conan and Bell Witch be at Max Watts on Thursday November 8.
Architects will release their new album Holy Hell on Friday November 9.
Sinsaenum will play Max Watts on Saturday November 10.
Amon Amarth will release The Pursuit Of Vikings: 25 Years In The Eye Of The Storm, a retrospective documentary and a live album, on Friday November 16.
Amenra, YLVA and LO! will be at Max Watts on Saturday November 17.
The Metal in the Mountains 2018 day festival featuring I Am Duckeye, Grindhouse, Monarchus, As Flesh Decays, plus more, will be held at Beechworth’s Servicemen’s Memorial Hall on Saturday November 24.
Psycroptic will play Geelong’s Barwon Club on Wednesday November 28, then Ballarat’s Karova Lounge on Thursday November 29.
Watain will play Melbourne’s Max Watts on Friday February 22.
Devin Townsend will release his new album Empath in March 2019.
Soilwork will be at Max Watts on Saturday March 16.
If you have any news about local metal bands, shows or albums, let THTH know by emailing to [email protected] or get in touch via Twitter at @TooHeavyToHug
Written by Paul S Taylor