Head to The Meadows with Red Fang

And the winner for the most far-flung hard music tour of the year is... Communion of Sirens, featuring Opeth, In Flames and Red Fang. Should be interesting to see how the melodic, straight-forward rockers will fare with the more traditional metal-loving audience their Swedish cohorts attract. The package will be coming through New York City this December to perform at the horrendous Terminal 5, and with any luck I'll be catching it from the balcony. More dates listed below.

The Portland group have also just released a video for their Scion A/V collabo, "The Meadows," and it's as good humored as the gents that make up the group. Check it out! Couldn't be happier for their continued success.

Some Things I Take Seriously... Like Opeth

On Monday, I had no plans to see Opeth and Katatonia over their two-night stint at Webster Hall. But the latter's publicist made me an offer I couldn't refuse... so there I was, interviewing Katatonia for HighTimes.com backstage during the headliner's set when one of my most beloved songs, "Face of Melinda," began.

In my head, I kept thinking, 'It's OK, you've seen them do it live before.' But in reality, it wasn't. So I thank Brian Rocha for trying to hook me up with the second show so I could hear it. Below is our text message exchange. And thanks to Opeth and Katatonia for both putting on such compelling performances. Someone needs to make a best-of reel of Mikael Akerfeldt's hilarious between-song banter.

2008's Finest: Music Edition

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