Singers From The United States

"There has been no more potent embodiment of that spirit than the singer Huddie Ledbetter, known as ‘Leadbelly’. Ordinary he wasn’t: born in rural Texas in c.1888, regal in bearing and strong as an ox, he claimed to be the world’s greatest cotton picker, railroad track layer, lover, drinker and guitar player. His pride was matched by a temper and disposition to violence, resulting in spells in prison for assault and murder. And it was in 1933, in the Louisiana State Penitentiary, that he was discovered by folksong collectors John and Alan Lomax. Under the sponsorship of the Lomaxes, Leadbelly began his rise to stardom, benefiting from the gathering vogue for trad jazz and rugged authenticity. He gave concerts across the US and Europe, dying in New York in 1949. Though the strictest arbiters exclude his work from the jazz canon, it’s hard not to recognise his vital link to the essential force of the music."

"Angel, devil or both, Chet Baker is the stuff of jazz legend. By his mid-20s, the Oklahoma country boy was famous, leaping to stardom in 1953 with saxophonist Gerry Mulligan’s trend-setting West Coast quartet and winning polls on trumpet. His reputation was no mere publicity bubble. After playing with Baker in his pre-Mulligan days, bebop pioneer Charlie Parker told his trumpet protégé Miles Davis, ‘There’s a little white cat out on the coast who’s going to eat you up.’"

"Albert King is the Muhammad Ali of blues guitar -- a heavyweight with finesse, a bruiser with grace. Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee."

"Dizzy Gillespie’s old friend, bassist Milt Hinton, used to say, ‘Chords are our love, but rhythm is our business,’ and that might have been Diz’s lifelong motto as well. Whether the group was large or small, the groove headlong swing or sizzling Afro-Cuban, a Gillespie band lifted you out of your seat with its sheer musical energy. And the crest of that wave was the leader’s fiery trumpet, which had revolutionised jazz brass in the ’40s. The young Gillespie could play higher and faster for longer than anybody before him, and his passionate, coruscating solos define the brave new world of bebop. Just as radical were his harmonies and rhythms – fusillades of notes tumbling over bar-lines, defying conventional chord structures. And this was not mere ‘subversion’, but a well-conceived creative strategy. Despite his madcap reputation, Dizzy Gillespie was one of the prime theoreticians of bop and a tireless teacher, demonstrating, encouraging, inspiring."

"[Carter's] influence on the development of country music really can't be overstated."

"As the co-host of Hee Haw and a mainstay on broadcast television for years, Roy Clark was an extremely visible ambassador of country music in the '60s and '70s. And while many know Clark for his TV work first, that shouldn't diminish his very real abilities as a guitarist."

"[King] used to be a bulldozer driver, and plays like it. An awesomely physical guitarist, he may grab a note by the throat and muscle it up to the breaking point with his beefy right hand. Or he may just squeeze that note a little, and a little more, and a little more, teasing, coaxing, twisting it into place with subtly shaded bends. Albert King is the master of both the knockout band the nuance, and for him both extremes yield remarkably expressive results. [...] With his electrifying vibrato and eternal sustain, he covers a range of expression from delicate quips to police siren wails."

"Like his renowned guitar playing, Albert's husky voice is a most sensitive blues instrument -- sometimes powerful, sometimes gentle, often both. It's an intimate voice, full of experience and humor, and it's just as personal and identifiable as his guitar work."

"I'm a Yankee Doodle dandy, A Yankee Doodle do or die; A real live nephew of my Uncle Sam's Born on the Fourth of July."

"I'm no cranky hanky panky, I'm a dead square honest Yankee And I'm mighty proud of that old flag that flies for Uncle Sam Though I don't believe in raving, ev'ry time I see it waving There's a chill runs up my back that makes me glad I'm what I am."

"McComb’s forte is R&B, soul and jazz."

"When you tuned a guitar a new way you were a beginner all over again and you could discover all sorts of new things...It allowed us to throw out a whole broad body of knowledge about how to play the guitar."

"Michael Anthony’s minimalist bass style - for the most part root notes played in steady eighths - leaves plenty of sonic space for Eddie to experiment with."

"Lyrically, Doug Martsch let his Charlie Brown pessimism run rampant, yet he offsets his downbeat quips with genuinely comforting reassurances that we all feel overwhelmed and off-balance sometimes, finding solace in shared misery."

"Here I sit surrounded by white My arms wrapped around my back real tight What did I do that was so wrong that I had to pay I don't think anyone's gonna miss her anyway I just couldn't take any more shit So with the swing of my knife her stomach was split Putrid guts and bile all over the floor Couldn't help but laugh at this vision of gore Severed flesh began to expel blood Stench of defecation as I cut Shoved my hand into the gaping slice As you tried to emit gurgling cries Intenstines on the ground Guts removed Disembowel Twitching violently Dying in agony Blood comes flowing forth Eyes no longer see"

"It may sound crazy now, but at the time we couldn't find band members around here to save our lives. The quest for at least a bass player turned up blanks. I guess you can say we didn't fit in with what the Bay Area was churning out, being a total death metal band in a strictly thrash environment. Fuck it, we couldn't let that stop us, so we didn't."

"Burning from the inside out Bloody foam spews from your mouth Smell the putrid stench of flesh As it burns you to your death [...] The rancid smell of burning hair Screaming in excruciating pain Blood boils over, warping veins Burnt skull collapses onto melting brains Spontaneous death, up in flames Twisting and writhing as life burns away Until nothing is left but charred remains"

"The 80s were a lot of fun. It was a time where everybody had disposable income so everybody was always going out. There were half a dozen places to play in my home town. You could have quite the life playing four nights a week, even as a cover band, but after a while we wanted to write our own songs. You have to start asking yourself, ‘What is it I wanna do? What do we wanna sound like?’ It was a chance meeting with [ex-Morbid Angel frontman] David Vincent while we were playing Charlotte, North Carolina, where he introduced me to this whole universe of underground death metal that I was completely unaware of. That was the poison apple that I bit and it soon infected my entire band. [...] The vibe in the late 90s was that death metal was dead. We didn’t care though, because we were going to do whatever we wanted to do, the world be damned. We were from Greenville, South Carolina, which is a nowhere town. Already we had wrestled with the idea that probably no one was going to give a fuck, so let’s just do what we like and own it. We didn’t care about the ebb and flow of whatever is currently popular. [...] That mindset has helped us over the years, remembering who we are and why we’re doing what we’re doing. It’s humbling in a way that we are just some guys from South Carolina who are willing to work hard. We were happy that the timing of the universe then worked in our favour. You can’t complain - you just have to thank the metal gods."

"Sometimes the riffs, the ideas that are simpler, make a more direct connection and you can allow it to have that weight. Heaviness, doom, it’s a very elusive quality. If you get too tricky with it you lose that feeling of doom very quickly. It’s fleeting. It will run away, like a deer!"

"Basically, if you’re a guitar player, there’s riffs that are going to come out. It just happens. It’s part of it. So we’re not lacking in inspiration. George (Kollias) is always playing drums, so he’s always got drum ideas. You know, (guitarists) Brian (Kingsland) and Zach (Jeter) are always playing. So there are always new guitar ideas. It’s not necessarily an endless well, and not every riff that we come up with manages to make its way into a song. That is where it comes from; we love to play music, so we’re always riffing. But, as soon as you try to dictate to the muse, it goes away. You can’t force yourself to be creative. You can be disciplined and work on your craft every day. That’s a little bit different. Not always is gold just gonna fall out of the sky, like when you hear a Nile record. You know that’s not just because we sat down in 10 minutes and said, “Okay, we’re done writing the record”. No, those songs took years to put together. A lot of blood, sweat, and tears went into taking the inspiration that we had and crafting it into something."

"People radically underestimate what it takes to try and take all that sonic abuse and turn it into something that you can listen to. It eats the mix (fast double kicks), and then you add some down-tuned guitars and some low screaming, growling vocals. How on earth do you hear anything?"

"I think we’re aliens. I think we’re not necessarily native to this planet. I think we came here from somewhere else, destroyed ourselves a couple of times, and what’s left after all that period of chaos, that’s what we have left, and that’s why no one knows where the fuck we came from. The early part of human history and civilisation is riddled with unknowns. Where did we come from? Where did these ideas come from? How do the Egyptians have such an advanced civilisation? Well, I think it came from before and just no one remembers. (The) last Ice Age, when the sea levels rose 400 meters. There’s a whole lot of stuff sitting out there, covered by water that we have no idea where the fuck it is. What was there? Just imagine if you took our sea level right now and raised it by 400 meters, how much of our current civilisation would then be underwater? So what happened at the end of the last stage? How do we know what was before the end of the last ice age? We only have a few things you know left. So you know, and how much shit survives 10,000 years of natural decay? Not much. Why do we still even know about the Egyptians? Well, they managed to build some shit that lasted 1000s of years, right? Otherwise, would we know anything about them? No, we wouldn’t; or it just be speculation, hearsay, and rumour."

"It became obvious to us early on that if you put in too many exotic elements, at some point it’s no longer really a metal record. Different Nile albums have had varying levels of extraneous elements to them. [...] It’s always a variable based on what each songs need. It’s the randomness of the universe."

"I didn’t get really exposed to metal until I was a teenager, but world history I loved from a very early age. I was in fourth grade and had to do a book report on Alexander The Great, and that just fired my brain up. My dad was always watching the epic flicks of the day like Ben Hur, The Ten Commandments, Land Of The Pharaohs, so it was a worm in my brain from an early age."

"[Lambesis] cried on the show and stuff and really sold it, so people were like, ‘Fuck Jasta! He’s so insensitive! I can’t believe this!’ [...] I was one of the only people that publicly went against [Lambesis] and said it on multiple shows. Not a lot of people… I think I’m still, you could probably Google this, I’m still one of the only people that said, ‘No fuck this dude! It’s wack. He’s done. This is someone that should really be canceled’. And I swear, in one day I had maybe like 400 tweets where it was like, ‘Fuck you, Jasta, you never wanted to kill your wife?!?’… I was like, ‘No, I mean…’"

"Fuck Tim Lambesis."

"[Mullen] has an unrepentant, one-dimensional approach to his vocal attack, never once veering from his trench-digging gutturals. He was among the first to implement the ultra-low style, aided by blocking off some of the mic ports in the early days to help muffle and muddy his sound."

"I did not release the videos that have come out of Tim Lambesis. Not the ones that were released in November, nor the ones that were released today. Out of respect for me, I’m asking whoever is leaking videos to please stop. I will no longer stay silent out of fear of Tim. The lies being told by him in his last statement and in this recent podcast are deliberate attempts to cover up the truth and play the victim, using typical DARVO tactics. There was NEVER a domestic violence investigation against me, nor was there ever a restraining order placed against me. This is public information anyone can access online. The videos that Tim claims to have of me “abusing” him; are instances of self-defense and outbursts against his ongoing physical and mental abuse, and repeated infidelity with hundreds of people. The statement I released on October 24th defending his abuse, was drafted up by him and his new “managers” to protect his career and public image. Which I have proof of. Tim has continuously tried to intimidate me, bribe me, and beg me to sign an NDA in our marriage settlement stating that I will never publicly talk about him, so that the truth will be buried when our divorce is finalized, which are all recorded conversations. I also have a recorded phone call from Tim a week ago, rationalizing, and explaining why he thinks we should get back together. I refuse to let dishonesty overshadow the pain and trauma I have endured any longer. Not just to me, but to others close to this as well. This isn’t just about me anymore. There is Tim’s version of why his ex band mates left AILD, and then there is the truth. There is no “irony” behind the timing of the dissolution of AILD, and our marriage. Towards the end of our relationship, Tim told me, “In psychology, when someone hears a story of abuse in a relationship from one person, they are more likely to believe that person’s version because they were the first to tell the story.” At the time, I didn’t fully understand what he meant, but it is very clear to me now. The abusive, cheating, narcissist will try to destroy your life & your name with lies before you can shine light on the truth. I am done being SILENT."

"A single redemption arc is fine. A second one feels like a stretch that frankly, I have no interest in participating in. Best of luck to Lambesis and whatever musicians decide they want to be in that band at this point, but I think I'll sit the next news cycle out. There has been too many questionable things to arise regarding Lambesis over the past year (the band mates leaving, the videos). [...] This is the end of Lambesis on Metal Injection. [...] Update – Hours after all the above was published, Lambesis' ex-wife Dany has issued a statement."

"I can just speak matter of factly that I think sometimes when you’ve created enough hurt, so the very thought of me or sight of me, to some people, is a traumatic trigger and brings a high, high level of emotion to the surface."

"[Lambesis] cried on the show and stuff and really sold it, so people were like, ‘Fuck Jasta! He’s so insensitive! I can’t believe this!’ [...] I was one of the only people that publicly went against [Lambesis] and said it on multiple shows. Not a lot of people… I think I’m still, you could probably Google this, I’m still one of the only people that said, ‘No fuck this dude! It’s wack. He’s done. This is someone that should really be canceled’. And I swear, in one day I had maybe like 400 tweets where it was like, ‘Fuck you, Jasta, you never wanted to kill your wife?!?’… I was like, ‘No, I mean…’"

"For the sake of my mental well-being and personal beliefs, and in light of the recent developments surrounding the As I Lay Dying camp and Tim, this has become an inevitable step for me. [...] The repeated promises, the endless cycle of ‘I’ll do better’ – words that once gave me hope – have turned into a broken record that has brought no real change. Instead, I found myself trapped in a pattern that eroded my trust and my well-being. This cycle has reached into my personal life, affecting my mental health in ways I can no longer ignore."

"As we post this, the legal process is taking its course and we have no more information than you do… Our thoughts right now are with Tim, his family, and with everyone else affected by this terrible situation."

"Hi everyone, I needed some time to process all that has happened recently with AILD. As I reflect, I certainly agree that there was an unhealthy environment that made leaving for a new tour with the previous lineup unrealistic. It had become difficult to figure out even the smallest details, and I admit I can stick strong to my vision for the future of AILD even when others think it should go another direction. It saddens me to think about the behaviors, communication, and patterns of interaction that led up to the tour cancellation. Phil and I no longer saw eye to personally, creatively, or financially. Discussions during this time prompted his decision to depart first, with each of the touring members deciding to leave shortly after, as they were not interested in going on without him. Unfortunately, that wasn't the order in which everything was made public, as some statements were rushed out during a chaotic time in response to rumors. I fully support each of the guys' decisions to leave and believe at this time it is best for everyone. With that being said, my door will always remain open to discussing anything directly as I believe closing communication lead to many assumptions and problems of its own. Now, regarding what's next: AILD was founded on persistence and determination. For anyone who is familiar with the foundational years from 2000-2004, you know that more than 20 people (whom I'm incredibly grateful for) have come and gone to help bring to life this vision I've had in my head since I was 19 years old. I look forward to building a new team, and creating an atmosphere that is supportive, positive, and fosters a creative environment. ' will still be released November 15. I am proud of what we created and look forward to sharing it with all of you."

"I wasn’t going to talk about it because I didn’t want to let anybody know how deeply unhealthy things were because then they would tell me I have to leave the relationship. I wanted to find a way to fight and stay so I just kept it in. [...] The irony is that my relationship ended at the same time that those guys sort of gave up, per se. I’m not blaming them, but the solution occurred at the same time that they felt like they no longer were — they didn’t want to stick around because they felt like there was no solution. [...] I think that’s a criticism that’s warranted because I’ve had plenty of opportunities to take a step back and heal from that, but I never wanted to talk about it. [...] Twelve years ago is when I was arrested, and in the last 12 years I maybe acknowledged that loss once or twice."

"If there are [young fans that are violent], [...] I think there's something wrong with them psychologically. I think mostly, the kids are buying this music just for the sheer enjoyment, and you know, listening pleasure. I think they're probably getting more enjoyment out of the music than they are their own lives, some of these kids, so basically it's something to make them happy, not kill each other."

"I think there's many faces of horror, and you can explore the different types of horror out there."

"With 'The Bleeding', those guys as musicians were really wanting to progress the band musically in a way. I could kind of [see] why — I think they were wanting to, in a way, prove themselves as well-skilled musicians. And I thought they always were, because it was always very interesting music, the arrangements and stuff in Cannibal Corpse on the first three albums. But I think they wanted to really hyper focus their skills and weren't able to do that. And I just was along for the ride, man. I can write to anything. It was really challenging to me. And I really liked 'The Bleeding' too. I liked what we were doing with Bob. I didn't want Bob to leave the band, and I didn't want him to be forced out of the band, and neither did . So it kind of was a strange thing with that whole situation."

"I believe [cannabis] was placed here on earth by a higher power, or another being, or an alien being, or something that has a plan for us. [...] It's scientific knowledge that our systems are built around the cannabinoidal system. We need cannabinoids ingested into our bodies to build our immune systems. It's a natural benefit to us as humans. There's alot of things out there scientifically that prove this and show that it is actually a [possible cure] to cancer as well. [...] They say that, you know, basically, uh you know, used cannabis early on, as you, early man and we developed as we uh [...] as we kind of uh [...] I'd say uh I don't know. Give me a hint here, I'm having a kind of a mind warp here Gypsy. [...] But what they say now is that before cannabis was even on this planet other mammals -- other creatures -- had this system built and we developed from those, you know, other animals [...] as man went through the centuries. So it proves that this plant was actually put here for us to find. And we are actually benefitting from it. [...] What we don't need in our systems is [...] beer -- alcohol. We don't need cigarettes. We don't need tobacco. But for some reason, these things are legal to us and shoved down our throats, advertised on the Super Bowl, and we're supposed to consume these things. And they are the [deadliest] things that we consume as human beings in our daily lives and they kill more people on the face of this planet than anything else that we use recreationally. Okay? So why are these items -- alcohol and tobacco --available to us, and we use them and eat 'em up and let them kill us? Why does that happen? That's the hypocrisy [as] to why marijuana and cannabis should be legalized and it is because it does not harm anyone physically. It has been scientifically proven that it helps us and benefits us as humans and we need it in our systems -- Period."

"It actually almost got me killed at gunpoint in 1994 before a show in East L.A. Some gang members came on the bus and told me they didn't like my lyrics. One of them had just got out of San Quentin, and he had a .38 stuffed into his belt lining. He said, "We're gonna kill you if you keep writing about this stuff." I just tried to talk to him calmly and say, "Hey, I respect your opinion," but it was pretty scary. Luckily, we had a really good tour manager, who somehow got those guys off the bus."

"I came from a time when I was listening to Slayer and Slayer was listening to D.R.I. and all of a sudden all the fans of Slayer saw that Jeff Hanneman had a D.R.I. sticker on his guitar or that Lombardo was wearing a D.R.I. shirt in a picture. And you know what, D.R.I. became one of my favorite bands and I went to see them every time they came to town. And then metal heads and hardcore kids, in 1986, 1987 and 1988, they all started coming together and that formed death metal. All of a sudden people started moshing at a Slayer concert because there were a bunch of D.R.I. fans there, because Slayer had enough respect to wear one of their shirts, and that’s how people started slam dancing and shit. That’s how it all crossed together, and to have this separation in music, in death metal, with all these people with their fucking noses stuck in the air about things and being elitist about things, they should take a step back and look in history and see how it all started."

"I really wasn't doing it to shock people. I just thought it was exciting and interesting and it went along with what I gained from listening to the music. When those guys wrote, it presented such a violent image to me, I felt like I had to match it with the lyrics. And I was able to pull from my imagination some sick qualities of mankind and put it down to paper. For example, "Entrails Ripped From a Virgin's Cunt" was based on a true story my friend told me and I just kind of twisted the story and filled in the blanks."

"Tied tight to the bed Legs spread open Bruised flesh, lacerations Skin stained with blood I'm the only one you love I feel her heart beating my knife deep inside Her crotch is bleeding [...] Stick it in Rip the skin Carve and twist Torn flesh From behind I cut her crotch In her ass I stuck my cock Killing as I cum"

"Eyes bulging from their sockets With every swing of my mallet I smash your fucking head in until brains seep in through the cracks, blood does leak Distorted beauty, catastrophe Steaming slop, splattered all over me"

"They say I have died I still felt alive I won’t believe their lies…"

"I was trying to [provoke] thought in some way [with violent lyrics]. Hoping someone would see the twisted dichotomy. To be sickened by it and yet entertained by it. Like watching a horror movie."

"After what happened when Glen Benton fucking took scars royalties for 20 years and all Deicide merchandise, I will find you and hunt you down like the animal you are. I have no label and did my last album for the fans out of my own savings and will do it again with without label. I now pronounce curse on his hair piece Glen Michael Benton you will be history soon and Steve will hire new singer. Also remember this, I am Deicide. You are a disgusting individual that doesn’t care about anyone but [themself]. Glen your Amon, not now, you’re not good enough. I drew the logo [and] came up with the name. Unbelievable. I am Amon. Suck it Glen, we will meet again."

"Glen Benton is a fucking character, and his unwavering dedication to shitting all over Christianity and everything its iron grip has wrought upon the world is not always the smartest or most nuanced approach, but you can’t argue he gets his point across."

"Years ago I had a fight with a redneck, and we were going until we were both basically so beat up that we couldn’t stand up any more. It was like nobody could win; we just kept beating each other until we both hobbled off! I’d just moved down to South Georgia from New York, and the biggest redneck in the bar decided to pick a fight – he was digging and digging at me until he could get a response, and he got one!"

""Dead by Dawn," as quoted by Jon Wiederhorn of"