All posts by Chris Butera

Chris Butera enjoys going to metal concerts, reading and having a cold one with friends.
Music

Band of the Week: Thy Antichrist

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It’s time to blacken the New Year with Thy Antichrist.

Since 1998, the last pure Black Metal band on earth has been infecting the globe with their brand of darkness. Originally hailing from Medellín, Colombia, they relocated to Dallas, Texas in 2011.

The band consists of Antichrist 666 on vocals (the only original and constant member), Frost Giant on bass and Abyssus on guitar. For live performances they have been utilizing the talents of various drummers.

2014 was a big year for Thy Anthichrist. In August they played Rock al Parque, a South American open-air festival to a crowd of 80,000 heavy metal maniacs which was then wrapped up with a short United States tour in the fall. Other notable acts on Rock al Parque 2014 were Thrash Metal legends Anthrax and Exodus as well as Black Label society.

Despite only having one full-length album (2004’s Wicked Testimonies), Thy Antichrist has slowly developed a tremendous cult following and has become one of the top underground bands to watch for.

Movies

Trailer Feedback: The Spongebob Movie – Sponge Out of Water

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Loveable Nicktoon Spongebob Squarepants and pals have another movie coming out in 2015.

A CGI movie.

While “Sponge Out of Water” will start in the animated style everyone is used to, the cast of undersea critters will emerge to the surface and become “real” in a Smurf sense (rather than the style of the actual show; which occasionally merges live action and 2-D animation).

The animated section looks like it will entertain the masses as it takes after the show, but the CGI/live action portion that looks to be the majority of the film is already overbearing and cramming as many mediocre to unfunny gags as possible.

All because the Krabby Patty recipe is missing.

Who wanted this?

Movies

Trailer Feedback: Hot Tub Time Machine 2

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2010 gave us Hot Tub Time Machine: a comedy about three friends and a kid who through strange phenomena re-live a specific moment in their lives that also changes the course of their current ones.

Since the original was a hit, Hollywood has kept tradition by giving us a sequel five years later.

Hot Tub Time Machine 2 takes place in the present, or at least seems to begin that way. At some point all of the main characters from the original (sans John Cusack) have time traveled to the past and used their future knowledge to their advantage a-la Biff Tannen. Unfortunately for the present, there are no ideas left to pillage and everyone is headed for a downward spiral. Trying to discover what they did wrong and how to fix their predicament, they decide to re-invoke the powers of the blessed jacuzzi. Along the way they visit the future, run into Adam Scott (Step Brothers), and eventually decide to time travel everywhere just for the heck of it.

Don’t pretend you wouldn’t do the same.

HTTM2 looks like it can hold up with the original. There should be plenty of interesting moments and plenty of laughs to go along with them. However, it also looks like too many of said moments could cause for a convoluted plot with more groans than grimaces.

Music

Band of the Week: Iron Reagan

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Iron Reagan is a crossover thrash metal band featuring members of Municipal Waste, ANS and Hellbear and there is no way of avoiding their barrage of noise.

With two albums (Worse than Dead, The Tyranny of Will), a demo, an EP (Spoiled Identity), and a split with Exhumed, Iron Reagan is quickly climbing the ranks of the underground metal scene.

The band has an undeniable presence combined with a wild, high-octane live performance that captures the spirit of hardcore beautifully.

2015 looks to be off to a great start as Iron Reagan will be hitting the road again in January on the “Through Space and Grind” tour with Exhumed, Napalm Death, and Voivod with special guests Ringworm, Dayglo Abortions and Phobia playing select dates.

Pro Wrestling

The Ascension’s Debut a “Raw” Deal

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We saw them grow on NXT.

They were ready.

For a good month we saw old school vignettes hyping the Raw debut of The Ascension. A team that demolished and pulverized every superstar on NXT for two years, holding the NXT Tag Team Championships for a record 364 days. Konner and Viktor were more than poised to unleash hell on the WWE locker room.

Then the actual debut happened.

Edge and Christian put a freshly dethroned Miz and Mizdow in a tag match against The Ascension that resulted in a quick and predictable squash match. The match itself was fine, but The Ascension deserved better than that.

They beat a team who had just lost their Tag Team Championships under an hour ago.

How are we to believe that The Ascension are unstoppable monsters if their first match in the big leagues is against two guys who just lost?

The best debut would have been a mere tease.

As soon as The Uso’s regained their Tag Team Championships from Miz and Mizdow, Jimmy Uso’s real-life wife Naomi came out and celebrated with them in the ring, creating a feel good moment for the WWE Universe.

What better time could it have been to have The Ascension standing on the entrance ramp staring them down, eyeing the coveted gold in the arms of the new champions?

While it’s no doubt that The Ascension will rise to the top of the mountain, they debuted with a whimper rather than the bang they deserved.

Random

Bonesaw/Zamboni Update

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Hey Guys,

Long story short, The Bonesaw is going to continue to grow in 2015. I have not posted much in the last week due to Christmas chaos (which I rather enjoyed) and other things going on due to work and personal situations as we all have at some time or another.

Zamboni has been working on our debut album for quite some time now. Rob has been hard at work mixing the album and either him or Roger will be programming the drums for the final two tracks unless we can find some way to get him over to Rob’s to track them.

The plans have been set in motion for the annual Thrash Bash BBQ show which Zamboni hosts every Summer at Rob’s house in Wantage, NJ (If you don’t know about Thrash Bash BBQ, I have inserted a video package of this years event below made by Birdman Dan of the band “RROOAARRGH” who played at our first event). I will post updates to that and the Zamboni album as often as I can, but will of course lay in the shadows until things are solid.

As for The Bonesaw, I’ve been working on a few podcasts that will be featured on the site exclusively. Our guests being featured are currently some underground thrash metal bands but will continue to grow as time goes on. Lots of great stories from a few good friends involved in the music scene that I’m sure you guys will enjoy. Come January we should have some episodes ready to go for your listening pleasure. I’m currently in the midst of securing a podcast domain for an RSS feed so that the podcasts will be available on Itunes. The podcasts will also be backed up on YouTube.

I would like to thank everyone who has checked this out so far and for everyone who will give this “shitty new blog” a try.

Don’t forget the door is always open and if you want to write for us email your pitches to Bonesawzine@gmail.com.

Have a happy and healthy New Year,

Chris Butera

Movies

Trailer Feedback: Iron Sky – The Coming Race

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Nazis on the moon was just the beginning. This time we’re going to the center of the earth.

In Iron Sky: The Coming Race, not only are we dealing with reptilians, but Hitler is alive and he’s got a Nazi Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Eat your heart out, Jules Verne.

It looks like The Coming Race will start immediately after Iron Sky left off, with civilization as we know it coming to an end. The female President of the United States calmly takes her helicopter to the arctic ends of the earth, entering a fortress before revealing herself to be a reptilian.

It’s almost as if this was her plan all along.

She then heads down into what we now know is “the hollow earth” and is greeted by The Fuhrer himself on his pet dino from the third reich, who comically heils her.

On top of that, another teaser for Iron Sky: The Coming Race was released last week.

Jesus Christ.

Music

Band of the Week: Witchaven

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At the forefront of the Black Thrash Metal movement is California’s Witchaven.

Formed in 2005 under the name Witching Hour, this band was originally intended to be a Venom tribute band.

Fortunately, they realized their talents and became something more.

From 2006 to 2009, Witchaven built their underground empire – releasing a slew of demos, splits, EP’s and compilations before finally releasing their debut “Terrorstorm” in 2010. They then released the “Sacrificial Burnt Offering” EP in 2012 before releasing their sophomore album “Blood Sacrifice” in 2014.

Witchaven has had a revolving door of lineup changes since their incarnation with Henry Montoya and Lerby Sanchez as the only consistent members.  Through their hard work, dedication and talent they have and will continue to change the landscape of the New Wave of Thrash Metal.

Pro Wrestling

WWE TLC 2014 Thoughts

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wwe tlc 2014

As usual, WWE ended 2014 with a bang. Unfortunately, that bang was in the form of an exploding TV that cost Dean Ambrose his TLC match against Bray Wyatt.

Ambrose gave Wyatt the beating of his life, elbow dropping his opponent through a table from a ladder multiple times before finding a TV under the ring. The TV was not only plugged in, but it also gave Ambrose the idea to go for the biggest ladder he could carry. He then dropped the big elbow off that giant ladder onto Wyatt through the Spanish announcer’s table.

Dragging Wyatt into the ring, Ambrose readied to finish him off with the TV, but it was plugged in and prevented the blow. Then it exploded after Ambrose tried again. Wyatt then hit Sister Abigail and that was all she wrote.

Two things can be said of this. One: who leaves a TV under the ring? And two: there is no way any of us are to believe someone can be that stupid.

The Kickoff match was well done with Goldust and Stardust really delivering their offense and executing their heel tactics beautifully. They get better every night. The New Day predictably got the win, but the match was solid. Hats off to these teams for getting the crowd pumped up.

Dolph Ziggler and Luke Harper put on the match of the night in an excellent Ladder match with Ziggler stealing the show and the Intercontinental Championship in his home city.

The Miz and Damien Mizdow had a decent encounter with the Uso’s for the Tag Team Championship with a logical DQ finish. The inclusion of Jimmy Uso’s real life wife Naomi into the storyline is interesting and will add real life situations into play if done right. Mizdow is slowly becoming a fan favorite with his antics and will hopefully get his shining moment down the road.

The Divas Championship match was also a decent match with a logical conclusion of Brie Bella’s interference and Nikki Bella taking advantage of a referee’s blind spot with a foreign object.

The Steel Stairs match between Big Show and Erick Rowan was much better than expected with good use of the stairs. This was a tough match to work but the two superstars did a great job with what they had.

Kane and Ryback’s Chairs match on the other hand, was pretty boring and predictable. Ryback was dominant, lots of chair shots and way too long.

Jack Swagger and Rusev’s United States Championship encounter also was very predictable. It’s clear that there are big plans for Rusev, but the “foreign oppressor vs. patriot” angle is getting old. We need to see more layers to the Rusev character.

Last but not least, John Cena once again overcame the odds and defeated Seth Rollins in a Tables match – securing his number one contender spot to face Brock Lesnar for the WWE Championship yet again.

You didn’t have to watch WWE programming since SummerSlam to figure that out.

It is nice to see Jamie Noble and Joey Mercury playing the parts of Rollin’s lackey’s perfectly. These guys were the best part of the match.

It was also nice to see Roman Reigns back in action as he saved the day for Cena and is moving into a nice feud with Big Show for the time being. Having said that, Reigns returning at the pay-per-view before the Royal Rumble was a mistake as he would have had a much better reaction at the Rumble en-route to victory.

Perhaps WWE is saving that reaction for the return of Daniel Bryan.

Pro Wrestling

WWE TLC 2014 Predictions

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Another year has come and gone which means Wrestlemania season is just around the corner. As is tradition, WWE will make sure 2014 goes out with a bang in this year’s installment of their annual TLC pay-per-view. Below are our predictions for the winners of each match.

The New Day vs. Goldust and Stardust (TLC Kickoff)– While the cosmic duo sets its sights on the darkening of The New Day, we at The Bonesaw feel that since The New Day has debuted very recently, it is likely that they will prevail against the brothers Dust. Expect a good back and forth with plenty of tag team twists and turns as both teams have great chemistry with their partners and deliver unique offenses. The one variable is which two members of The New Day will be doing the brawling. Our money’s on Big E and Kofi Kingston due to their more direct confrontations with Gold and Stardust.

Nikki Bella (c) vs. AJ Lee (Divas Championship Match) – A re-match for the championship that should (hopefully) last longer than their Survivor Series encounter. These two young women will make the match as interesting as they can with the time they are given but it a tough call due to the constant flip-flopping of the title. History tells us Lee will regain her championship, but we predict Bella. One thing’s for sure: sister Brie will have some involvement in the outcome.

The Miz and Damien Mizdow (c) vs. The Uso’s (WWE Tag Team Championships Match) – A tag match that will be entertaining due to The Uso’s hybrid style and Mizdow’s hilarious antics. Chances are the champions will retain, but just barely as The Uso’s will outmaneuver the self proclaimed “A-lister” and his goofy “stunt double.”

Luke Harper (c) vs. Dolph Ziggler (Ladder Match for the Intercontinental Championship) – Ladder matches are notorious for death-defying spots and hard hitting action. Harper and Ziggler will put their bodies on the line with an intense showing of instestinal fortitude. The two rising stars will put on a heart-stopping clinic  that will culminate in Ziggler winning back his championship.

Rusev (c) vs. Jack Swagger (United States Championship Match) –  Aside from their characters being natural enemies, Rusev and Swagger have shown great chemistry in their feud. TLC will be no different when stars, stripes and sickles clash again for the United States championship. The Bonesaw believes Rusev will again conquer the good ol’ U.S. of A. – but would enjoy seeing Swagger knock off the Bulgarian Brute as it would greatly benefit his career.

Ryback vs. Kane (Chairs Match) – The inclusion of a Chairs Match is very unnecessary in any circumstance. The feud of Ryback and Kane is probably a short placeholder that would fare better with a regular match or a no-disqualification stipulation. The match will be decent if it is not given too much time. If we see more than 10 minutes, this could turn into a stinker. It is very likely that Ryback will continue his rampage.

Erick Rowan vs. Big Show (Steel Stairs Match) – Similar to Ryback vs. Kane, this very shoehorned in match with a steel stars stipulation rather than chairs might be decent if given a short length. Fans would much rather see Rowan battle his former tag team partner Harper, but it is what it is. The Big Show is almost a lock to win this one.

Dean Ambrose vs. Bray Wyatt (Tables Ladders & Chairs Match) – This match will steal the show. It will be as violent as PG programming will allow and the in-ring psychology will tell a fantastic story. Wyatt will endure the beating of his life, but The Eater of Worlds will defeat the unstable one in order for the feud to continue. The promos alone are too good to stop this freight train now.

 John Cena vs. Seth Rollins (Tables Match) – It should be noted that should Cena lose, he also loses his no. 1 contender spot against Brock Lesnar for the WWE title. Not to Rollins, but to an unknown  challenger to be announced at a later date. Seeing as Rollins is in possession of the Money in the Bank briefcase, the match is more about a notch on his belt as he will get his championship match whenever and wherever he likes until the next Money in the Bank pay-per-view. It will be a hard fought battle and a great main event, but chances are Cena will find his can of spinach and emerge victorious yet again. Having said that, we really hope Rollins wins.