This is just me, but I attend Darkest Hour shows mostly to make goo-goo eyes at guitarist Mike Schleibaum, fellow devotée of my boner band The Crown (and The Cars). That’s my M.O. no judgements please. Still I was bummed when sweet drummer Ryan Parrish announced his departure from DH late last year. But dude is already in A Cancerous Affair, the project started by his former DH bandmate and guitar freak Kris Norris. And which now welcomes its newest member, keyboardist Knockerz Randall.
Hahahah! Dear MetalSucks.net, I can assure you that I’m as angry as ever, if not even more so for not having any hair.
-AKP
So much win! Now AKP and I are Facebook friends and we’re total besties! At some point in the near future, whenever Swallow the Sun gets back to the U.S., I hope to bro down with AKP and share some vodka, weed, tea or any beverage/food of his preference (’cause I wouldn’t wanna make him too irate) whilst AKP serenades me with his angry philosophies on life. I can’t wait!
Meanwhile, I’m enjoying listening to the new Swallow the Sun album Emerald Forest and the Blackbird, now streaming in full over at the Finnish site Inferno (out officially February 1st). Each song is accompanied by one quote from David Lynch’s freako bizarre TV series Twin Peaks — so fitting, right??? — selected by guitarist Juha Raivio. I’m just one song in right now, and already I’m absolutely in love — I can’t WAIT to crank this thing at full blast tonight.
Byzantine broke up before their time, mere days after the release of their magnum opus Oblivion Beckons. I cried.
But today there are so many good things to report that I can barely contain my excitement! To start, Byzantine are recording a new record — jubilation! They’re doing it with the “definitive” Byzantine lineup, and yes, that includes ex-departed guitarist Tony Rohrbough — double jubilation! And to top it all off they’re financing the whole thing themselves via Kickstarter, so you — YOU! — can donate to the cause and get something cool back in return while you’re at it.
It’s occasionally hard to tell whether we should cheer superstar wrestler Hulk Hogan as an unhinged eccentric or jeer him as a sideways freak who paws his own daughter on TV when not sweatily humping other half-nude guys on TV. Okay, shit, it’s not that tough to call actually — especially when the Hulkster pops round The Sun (UK) offices to cull the latest relationship gossip on Heidi Klum (silly!) and Cameron Diaz (really?).
Truly, the gentleman prefers blondes. Anyway, after casually implying his fandom of The Stone Roses — a major news item in England for their recent reunion — Hogan dropped these bombshells on The Sun:
Friday, January 27th, 2012 at 10:40am by Axl Rosenberg
Following their A+++++ WDBWA work on the videos for “Prehistoric Dog” and “Wires,” you might be concerned that Red Fang and director Whitey McConnaughy had run out of ideas for clips that awesome, hilarious, and awesomely hilarious. But the behind-the-scenes pics we saw last year for the band’s latest vid, “Hank is Dead,” promised something just as “Dog” and “Wires,” and the finished product does not disappointment. I mean, I was pretty much crying with laughter right from the opening scene. And I’m writing this after a full day in a hot, dank, roach-infested jury room, listening to two lawyers duke it out for the “Least Articulate Attorney Who Can Get Yelled at By the Judge Most Often” award, so I was in a pretty shitty mood, and not really predisposed to laughter.
Bravo, Red Fang and Mr. McConnaughy. Bra… fuckin’… vo.
“Hank is Dead” appears on Red Fang’s most recent release, Murder the Mountains, which is out now on Relapse.
Friday, January 27th, 2012 at 10:00am by Axl Rosenberg
Yesterday, the MetalSucks reader known as “Ibo” e-mailed us to say that he attended a Black Dahlia Murder concert in Glasgow, Scotland on January 22 — and that bassist Ryan “Bart” Williams “wasn’t on bass. It was some guy I’d never seen before.” A quick YouTube search turned up fan-filmed footage from the show which confirms that, yes, indeed, Mr. Williams was not the bass player at this show — and, we can therefore presume, the band’s entire European tour:
Last week we offered up two MetalSucks hoodies to whoever could come up with the funniest caption to the photo at right. It is most definitely still really fucking cold here in the Northeast (and cold enough in most of the U.S.), so these two folks will get good use out of their hoodies before spring comes along:
Rise95: “I wish I could win a hoodie in an Internet contest.”
Sacajewea: “Cold Man’s Child.”
Nice work, fellas. While rooting around at the Axl Annex of the MS Mansion the other day we came upon a box of shirts left over from the inaugural Metal Suckfest this past November. These shirts are really sweet, and there are only a few left — check out a photo of the front right here — and they’re super-limited edition, previously only available at the fest itself. These shirts and all the festival artwork were design by Mr. Vertebrae 33 himself, Rodney Githens. We’ve got FIVE to give away. So do it to it: leave a comment with the funniest caption to the photo below (sent in by reader CF Santos). Remember to use a real email address (or post it along with your comment if you’re using FB Connect / Twitter etc).
Before there were blogs there were these things called magazines, and the only metal magazine we still get excited about reading every month isDecibel. Here’s managing editor Andrew Bonazelli…
I’ve only met Dave Witte once, at the editor-in-chief’s palatial Playboy Mansion-esque estate over the Fourth of July (all metal folk remained fully clothed, thank god). He’s a startlingly accomplished whiffle ball pitcher and an otherwise gregarious dude, which in my book is good enough to put his beret-ed mug on the March cover. More notable to you, perhaps, is his long, varied and unfuckwithable extreme music c.v., which branches furthest from the underground in the form of Municipal Waste. The party-thrash institution’s fifth album, The Fatal Feast, isn’t merely an excuse for Dave, Ryan, Phil and Tony to do a gross-out cover/interior spread—it doubles as an interstellar concept album that you really must read about to believe. It’s in the Decibel webstore now, bolstered by the pink-on-white, two-track Torche flexi disc of your dreams.
In other news, as you’re by now well aware, we’ve corralled four bands who are big fans of beer-buzzed suburban backyard whiffle ball games—Behemoth, Watain, the Devil’s Blood and In Solitude—for our inaugural Decibel Magazine Tour, starting in April. Well, dates and ticket info have finally been released, with all sorts of insane deals that are selling out already. Pig out here while there’s still time.
-AB
The April 2012 issue of Decibel, which also features Municipal Waste, Napalm Death, Cattle Decapitation, and an Overkill The Years of Decay Hall of Fame, is available for order here. But why not justget a full subscription to ensure that you never miss one of these awesome flexi discs?
“Scheduling has been a nightmare for a long time,” says guitarist Rob Caggiano about Temple Of The Black Moon. That seems like hyperbole, but gosh maybe not: TotBM drummer John Tempesta has been dashing between The Cult and Testament tours; singer Dani Filth’s full time job is Cradle Of Filth; Caggiano is bound to Anthrax’s rigorous itinerary, and his TotBM writing partner, Tom Cato Visnes, has been involved with Sahg, I, Gorgoroth, and Ov Hell outings in just the last five years.
When people ask me to point to an example of a hardcore band that I really, really like (which is like totes every day!), I always point to Cancer Bats. Their post-punk/hardcore influences are salted with a dash of metal, for sure — there’s even some Kvelertakian bluesy licks here and there — but those meaty riffs are all about maximum up-tempo, let’s-fuck-shit-up hardcore MOSH at heart.
Take their new song (and video) for “Old Blood” — the bands that inspired modern hardcore heavy hitters like Stray From the Path and This is Hell are all over those riffs, although I honestly don’t know enough about hardcore to say who (maybe Refused?). The frenetic energy of Cancer Bats flows from every orifice of this track, and the jittery practice-space video perfectly fits the part. As Sergeant D would say, this = you’re moshing!
Say what you will about its corny message and lulzy ’90s in-your-faceness, but let us all face facts about Extreme’s “Get The Funk Out”: Holy ballz this jam is the work of superstuds. For starters, drummer Paul Geary just rips on it, esp on those big entrances to the choruses (i.e. on the “If you”s); the second one (at 1:53) is what a renowned musicologist may describe as mega-bonerz awesome. With Geary in charge, the whole band locks ass-tight into the swing. I love!
Here’s when you know that a band has finally “made it”: when they’ve got their own stage carpets, custom-monogrammed with the band’s logo, to stomp and spit all over as they play live every night. These are no scrims, props or hanging stage-banners, mind you: only the members themselves and those up in the balcony will ever see them, and those things have gotta cost $500-$1,000 each, easy. And THAT, my friends, is success, a definition by which Lamb of God are now in the bigtime.
“New York City’s always been good to us,” bellowed newly-dreadlocked Lamb of God vocalist Randy Blythe, frenetically pacing from one side of the stage to the other in his trademark camo shorts, in that specific Randy Blythe galloping gate. “We go way back here. We used to play The Wetlands, CBGB’s, all those places,” said Blythe, seemingly not realizing (or maybe just not caring) that the majority of those in attendance were too young or too suburban to have ever attended a show at either. “Last time through we played a little venue called Madison Square Garden, with Metallica. This is much more our style — I like to see your faces!” Indeed, it was refreshing to see Lamb of God at the relatively tiny 1,200-capacity Irving Plaza; last time I saw them headline was in 2007 at the Roseland Ballroom, three times the size of Irving, and the band has only EXPLODED in popularity since then.
The intimacy of this show was what made it so special. Big bands will do this from time to time, do a quick tour of “underplays” immediately prior to or during the release week of an album to generate hype, build buzz, and give back to the diehards. And those shows are always a blast; this one had been circled on my calendar as a highlight for the month of January the very minute it was announced. Lamb of God did not disappoint.
Onward and upward for Brooklyn’s Primitive Weapons! Last we checked in with the band we were premiering a song from their debut 7″ on Shinebox Recordings. That was only a year ago, but since then they’ve signed with fancy-pants new label Prosthetic Records and announced a new full-length album, The Shadow Gallery, out March 13th.
Pitchfork premiered our first taste of new music from The Shadow Gallery yesterday in the form of a crushing track called “Quitters Anthem,” and — WHOA. I already thought Primitive Weapons were a good band — we did agree to premiere a track of theirs, after all — but if “Quitters Anthem” is any indication, The Shadow Gallery is going to completely knock the 7″ out of the park. The song is powerful, big, instantly headbangable and, yes, even anthemic; Primitive Weapons have somehow found their own singular voice in a post-Mastodonian minefield littered with carcasses of bands that have tried and failed to capture the energy of the latter’s early recordings. I say this having just listened to one song, of course, but I just listened to it three times in a row and could easily go another three times without tiring.
Thursday, January 26th, 2012 at 12:00pm by Gary Suarez
A389 Recordings‘ opening salvo of 2012 includes the self-titled debut 7″ from Unholy Majesty, a 90s-nodding, sample-happy Clevo-core act–from the United Kingdom. Lest geography concern you, these three cuts never lack in authenticity. Unabashedly metallic, with flecks of thrashy bravado in places, “The Owl & The Serpent” spits and grinds like all good Integrity-referencing shit should. If this even remotely sounds like your thing then trust me: this is your thing.
Ten out of ten MetalSucks readers agree: Ihsahn is awesome! Proving that I am not completely delusional (ok, maybe a little), you all voted Ihsahn’s second solo album After as your collective favorite album of 2010. That same year I named it as my #2 favorite record of the year; despite all the shit you guys constantly throw at me in the comments, at least we agree on something.
So it should get you all very excitebike to know that Ihsahn is already working on a follow-up. Ex-Nevermore shredder Jeff Loomis announced Tuesday that Ihsahn was the latest in a star-studded cast of guests that have contributed to his forthcoming solo album, after which Ihsahn went on the record to share his jubilation as well, revealing a juicy little tidbit in the process:
Thursday, January 26th, 2012 at 10:40am by MetalSucks
Mark Reale, guitarist of the band Riot, passed away yesterday at a hospital in San Antonio. He was only 56 years old.
Things went from bad to worse very quickly for Mark. He was hospitalized on January 13th in San Antonio due to complications of Crohn’s disease, a condition he’d battled for most of his life. The band and Mark then collectively made the decision that Riot would make their scheduled appearances without Mark, including their voyage on the 70,000 Tons of Metal cruise. Then, on January 20th, it was revealed that Mark had been in a coma brought on by a subarachnoid brain hemmorhage since January 11th and his condition was even worse than expected. Reale finally passed away last night.
As far as we know, the rest of the band is still on the 70,000 Tons of Metal cruise somewhere in the Caribbean Sea. Phone and Internet access aren’t readily available, but I’m sure they’ve been notified by now; they must be absolutely devastated that they can’t be with their brother. Our thoughts and best wishes are with Mark’s bandmates, friends and family.
To be honest I don’t think I ever listened to Riot prior to today, but it’s always a sad day when one of our metal brethren passes on. Listen to Riot on MOG and keep Mark in your thoughts.
Thursday, January 26th, 2012 at 10:00am by Axl Rosenberg
Earlier this month I recounted a humorous tale of my namesake getting stuck with jury duty, and revealed my own plans to avoid such a horrid fate this very week: I was going to wear a disgusting death metal shirt to jury selection. My thought process being that no lawyer would ever see a scumbag in such a shirt and want said scumbag on his or her jury. And even after Vince pointed out a flaw in my plan — “What if the defense attorney thinks you’ll be sympathetic to his client?” — I decided to stick with it, ’cause I assumed that if a defense attorney did make that assumption, so would the prosecutor, who would consequently have me dismissed.
So yesterday morning, I woke up, and did not shower, and did not shave, and did not brush my hair, and basically tried to look as gnarly as possible, and then I showed up for jury duty wearing this:
Now, I know it’s not the most offensive shirt ever, but keep in mind that this Hate Eternal tee is only not offensive relative to other metal tees. I didn’t think there was any way the norms would look at a demon palming Jesus’ skull and crushing it and think, “Gosh, he seems like a swell fellow.”
[UPDATE, 5:10pm: MS reader Mick Stingley informs us that "Blood and Fire" is based on the unreleased VH song "Ripley" from the 1984 sessions. Listen to the "Ripley" demo here.]
[UPDATE #2, 9:32am: OK, "Ripley" was apparently not from the 1984 sessions, although it did appear in the score of the 1984 film The Wild Life.]
Original post:
I might not be the best judge of quality when it comes to new Van Halen. Whenever I press play I hear the unmistakable sounds of Eddie’s fingers gently caressing a guitar fretboard and DLR’s screechy croon and that’s it, it’s all over, I’m a schoolgirl in love and I give no fucks at all about the outside world.
So naturally I’m pretty amped on this 90-second sample of “Blood and Fire” even though I guess it’s pretty tame-sounding. Some people will probably say the gang vocals sound weak without Michael Anthony, but whatevs, I’m into them. And the always underrated rhythm playing of EVH — everyone always just talks about his leads — is on full display here if you listen for it; the nuanced fretboard dancing in both the verse and underneath the chorus is just so, so… EDDIE!
I’m still kinda lukewarm on VH’s decision to mine old riff tapes for the new record instead of starting new songs from scratch — and I’m not sure if “Blood and Fire” is one of the new songs using recycled b-side riffs — but I’m still pretty optimistic about A Different Kind of Truth. February 7th, but you already knew that.
Wednesday, January 25th, 2012 at 4:30pm by Gary Suarez
Newt may seemingly have Mitt on the ropes right now, but that’s no reason to hold up your Pit Romney coverage! Here’s the latest update on the hardcore festival season…
After a 2011 announcement that didn’t exactly thrill me, United Blood seems to have rebounded for 2012, if this initial lineup is any indication. Big names like Agnostic Front and Ringworm stand out, as do pleasant surprises like New Lows and Power Trip. I count five bands that were part of the 2011 initial lineup announcement: Backtrack, Bitter End, Fire and Ice, Naysayer, and Stick Together. The rest of the list is rather robust as well: Beware, Break Away, Dead End Path, Free Spirit, Harms Way, Lockdown,Outcrowd, Soul Search, Suburban Scum, Take Offense, Tough Luck, United Youth, Wisdom in Chains, and Xibalba. Weekend passes are on sale here and here, and with March 30-31 as the dates, you probably want to snag those tickets sooner rather than later.
Have you had enough summer tour-related excitement for one day yet? No? Well, hot on the heels of this afternoon’s official announcement that Slipknot, Slayer, Motorhead, Anthrax, As I Lay Dying, Whitechapel and two other bands no MS readers will care about will all be playing the 2012 Rockstar Mayhem Festival, Slipknot just posted some kind of flyer/poster on their Facebook page that includes one more awesome band: High on Fire!
High on Fire are about due for a new album (their last was 2010′s Snakes for the Divine), so the timing for a blockbuster summer tour would make sense. Have those guys really taken it to the next level over the past few years, or what? Great gig for High on Fire — their presence on the fest gives us olds one more reason to attend, and they’ll undoubtedly pick up tons of new fans along the way.
Get the full list of tour dates here. Tickets go on sale Friday, April 6th.
After a 2011 announcement that 
