Any of you who left comments last week telling me about fucked up things you’ve seen at show rule. I’ve always felt that metal shows need to have an element of danger to them or there’s something wrong.
Let me rephrase. Not that there’s something wrong, but there’s something missing. People who talk about how metalheads are well behaved and community oriented are misguided in my opinion. When I was growing up, metal shows were scary. The metal scene from my formative years was one where you needed to always watch your back because of all the different things that could happen to you. It could have been skins jumping you for not being a skin, it could have been sharps jumping you for having long hair, it could have been wall to wall pits where motherfuckers with razor blades were running around cutting motherfuckers. It could have been any number of fucked up things. These weren’t your sanitized for the kids deathcore concerts of today. If you want to know why I say that, I’ll bring up an example from a deathcore tour DAATH had the pleaure of being a part of in 2007.
Thursday, July 9th, 2009 at 1:00pm by Sammy O'Hagar
Kylesa’s not new to the millennial metal underground, but one would not be surprised if their fanbase grows exponentially in the wake of their fucking fantastic new album, Static Tensions. Tighter and more coherent than its predecessors, it shows the band flexing a muscle they’d been alluding to throughout their career. This is not to dismiss their previous successes; the band have been an intense and wonderful blend of sludge, crust punk, doom, trad metal, and otherwise from the beginning.
A big part of the band’s artistic success is Laura Pleasants, the group’s acid-throated vocalist/guitarist. Her sinewy leads provide a metal ying to guitarist/vocalist Philip Cope’s punk rock yang, a thorough stirring of the band’s hybrid stew. During a recent show on Mastodon’s Crack the Skye tour (where, if they didn’t blow the headliners off the stage, they certainly equalled them), she and drummer Eric Hernandez (who also deserves credit for keeping Kylesa’s two drummers from devolving into a masturbatory percussion fiasco) discussed the composition of Static Tensions, Kylesa’s place in the metal world, their penchant for playing cross-genre shows, and why Laura being a woman in metal isn’t really as big a deal as it may seem.
Thursday, July 9th, 2009 at 12:30pm by Vince Neilstein
You know when Beavis & Butthead would flip to a video so beyond belief, so beyond the threshold of suck, that they’d just sit with their mouths wide open in disgust?
“Uhhh… uhhh… uhhhh…..”
Ladies and gentlemen: this video. Wow.
What’s worse, this band, or the fact that a whole slew of 14 year olds probably think these guys are so hard and heavy?
When people talk about neo-thrash bands like Warbringer, their words usually carry a subtle hint of disdain. I concede that it’s hard not to mention what they are (neo-Bay Area Thrash) before saying how good they are (very). But to brand Warbringer (or Municipal Waste) fetishizers of a bygone era implies something vaguely untrustable, beyond a mere affection for the Thrash idiom. And it’s true, there’s little about Warbringer that suggests an original vision. All the same, their debut full-length War Without End and now the Gary Holt-produced Waking Into Nightmares are too awesome to be the creation of some tribute band; it’s simply not possible that Warbringer is comprised of five masters of mimicry. Rather, it’s clear they feel that Bay Area-native bands did shit right. And now they do.
Thursday, July 9th, 2009 at 11:00am by Axl Rosenberg
I have kind of a love/hate relationship with Twitter, but I have to admit, it’s become a useful source of information.
So. Through the Eyes of the Dead, whose 2007 album Malice was actually capable of killing small animals, have suffered through some fairly heavy-duty line-up changes since that album’s release (including going through two vocalists inside of a year). The band endures, though, and are currently recording a new album. Meanwhile, they tweeted/twittered/twatted/twote/whatever that they’re playing four dates in August. I highly recommend you go check ‘em out.
Dates are after the jump. In the meantime, here’s the band’s video for “Failure in the Flesh.” The Romero-esque goodness was directed by David Brodsky.
Thursday, July 9th, 2009 at 10:11am by Axl Rosenberg
…Matt Wicklund, formerly of the now-defunct Himsa. He also played on Praises to the War Machine, the excellent solo album Nevermore’s Warrel Dane released last year.
Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 at 5:00pm by Gary Suarez
Andrew W.K., I Get Wet (Island, 2002) Andrew W.K. – vocals
Jimmy Coup – Guitar
Erik Payne – Guitar
Frank Werner – Guitar
Gregg Roberts – Bass
Donald Tardy – Drums Produced by Andrew W.K., John Fields, Scott Humphrey, TSD, Frank Vierti
It has been suggested by some of our commenters that I don’t belong here. Be it my distaste for deathgrind, my inability to appreciate the tr00 kvlt nature of Norwegian black metal, or the fact that I don’t give a flying fuck about Protest The Hero, I’ve always felt like an outsider around you people. Yet at no point did I feel so out of place than during the countdown of the 21 Best Metal Albums of the 21st Century… So Far. Sure, I participated. I submitted a list. I presumed many of my picks would never make the cut (Unsane’s Visqueen; Zozobra’s Harmonic Tremors), but also acknowledged less esoteric favorites of mine from the past nine-and-a-half-years (Boris Pink; Down’s III: Over The Under) that I thought had a shot. Still, nothing could have prepared me for the sheer disappointment these past few weeks when none of my favorite albums made the goddamn list.
Rather than be mature about this sad state of affairs, I am now going to explain why everyone who voted in this poll is a fucking butthole for not selecting Andrew W.K.’s 2002 masterpiece, I Get Wet. Click to read more…
Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 at 4:00pm by Sammy O'Hagar
Isis, Oceanic (Ipecac, 2002) Aaron Turner – Vocals/Guitars Michael Gallagher – Guitars Jeff Caxide – Bass
Aaron Harris – Drums
Bryant Clifford Meyer – Electronics/Guitars/Vocals Produced by Matt Bayles and Isis
Around three years ago, I reached a crossroads with metal. At the time, I was listening to Anaal Nathrakh, Vital Remains’ Dechristianize, and Guttural Secrete, and each of the three were the heaviest of their respective niche, in my opinion. But they were heavy to a degree where I genuinely couldn’t see music getting any heavier: where do you go when you’re already firing on all cylinders, and even in doing that, you’re firing more than most of your contemporaries? To be honest, with all three bands, a notch “heavier” would leave them as noise (in fact, listen to Anaal Nathrakh’s “Castigation and Betrayal” off of 2007’s otherwise un-noteworthy Hell is Empty and the Devils Are Here for proof), perhaps even so heavy they couldn’t support themselves. So it was from here that I went outward to see what bands could do with heaviness that didn’t involve trying to out-brutal or out-necro one another. It was here where I discovered drone doom, post-metal, and the like: bands that tested patience not by being loud and fast, but slow, bordering on meandering (and often crossing that border in the case of many lesser bands), creating soundscapes and spaces in lieu of obliterating them, focusing on building mood but not emotion. It was here I stumbled upon Isis, and specifically their perfect, still-career best album, Oceanic.
Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 at 3:46pm by Axl Rosenberg
I don’t actually know very much about Malevolent Creation. For whatever reason, they just never came across my radar. I mean, I’ve heard of them, but I guess I never came to that point where a friend was like “Dude, check out this band!” or whatever, ’cause I never listened to them. I have no opinion about their music one way or the other.
But y’all have been e-mailing us all week about guitarist Phil Fasciana’s claim to Blabbermouth about being the next Bruce Willis n’ shit. In case you missed the whole story, Fasciana e-mailed “the CNN of heavy metal” and claimed to have kicked some ass and taken some names after walking in on a convenience store robbery in Ft. Lauderdale:
Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 at 3:15pm by Axl Rosenberg
Even without Jamie Hooper (who, I can assure you, is not returning to 3IOB anytime soon, if ever), 3 Inches of Blood has made another killer album with Here Waits Thy Doom. I mean, it’s just all the metal-as-fuck shit you’ve come to expect from 3IOB. It makes me wanna give a high-pitched scream just typing about it.
The album won’t drop ’til September 8 (one week earlier in Europe), but the band is streaming a new track, “Call of the Hammer,” here. In the words of some tool I used to know, check that shit out, yo. Then come back here and let us know whatcha think.
In April I reported the imminent Cave In reunion and wondered aloud what new material would sound like. Wonder no more. The new album Planets of Old will be released on 12″ only on July 28th via Hydra Head, and the new single “Retina Sees Rewind” is now available for purchase on iTunes.
SLAYER guitarist Kerry King, a close friend of the late “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott (PANTERA, DAMAGELAN), had the legendary axeman’s guitar in the studio during the recording process for SLAYER’s new album, “World Painted Blood” (although he didn’t use it it during the sessions), still with the same strings that were on it the last time Dimebag played it. “The one thing that made me look at my lead playing a little differently was when Dimebag passed away,” revealed King. “Not that I’m going to fill Dime’s shoes because nobody can do that, but I paid more attention to my leads while recording this album. I wanted to make them more memorable in memory of Dime.”
Arsonists Get All the Girls have been through a lot since the release of their last album, 2007’s The Game of Life. From various line-up changes to the tragic death of a bandmate, the last two years have most certainly been a struggle for the Santa Cruz outfit.
The sheer force of those travails – as well as the newfound maturity the band has achieved because of them – shine through on their third full-length, Portals. This album is a major evolution for Arsonists Get All the Girls – the band has created a record that’s angry, experimental, challenging, and, of course, heavy as a motherfucker.
Portals comes out July 14 on Century Media. In the meantime, you can stream the entire album right here! And if ya dig it, pre-order Portals, along with a groovy AGATG t-shirt, here.
Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 at 12:30pm by Vince Neilstein
\M/etal? Probably not. Awesome? Absolutely. Muse are one of those bands that appeal to metalheads who lean toward the proggier, more experimental side of the spectrum, and one of those bands who absolutely repulse the tr00er than tr00. To the latter: ya’ll are missin’ out. Muse are making some seriously great tunes that anyone with an appreciation for complex music — and really, isn’t that why all of us metalheads are here? — should know how to appreciate.
So, Muse are finally following up their jizztastic 2006 masterpiece Black Holes & Revelations with a new album, The Resistance, set to be released on September 14th (in the U.K., we presume). Early reports suggest a more ambitious, progressive bent than the last album, with guitarist/singer Matt Bellamy going on record as saying there would be a symphony (which the tracklisting confirms). Get ready for awesome.
Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 at 12:00pm by Satan Rosenbloom
A nearly twenty-year-old band with a disc called Atavism in its catalog on a label known for its pre-1985 metal jones releases another retro heavy metal record? Get outta here! Next you’re gonna tell me the new Hatebreed’s got breakdowns in it. As with every other album in their catalog, Slough Feg’s seventh, Ape Uprising!, defiantly bucks two decades’ worth of progress in the metal world. It’s even tough to reconcile the term “new album” with Ape Uprising!’s analog, leather-clad, early-80s swashbuckling sound. This is the hard rock/metal hybrid your older stepbrother would bump at a teenage sausagefest in his mom’s basement, singing “Never coming down from the trees! / Never bending down on my knees!” with fists shaking at the sky.
Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 at 11:00am by Axl Rosenberg
I’ve been meaning to mention this for a week. But I can already tell it’s gonna be a slow news day, so now seems like a good time to bring it up.
The lovely ladies at Reign in Blonde discovered that McSweeney’s has has a list of Heavy Metal Board Games. They have also added a few suggestions of their own. Here are a few that tickled me:
Whitesnakes and Ladders
Motley Clue
Twister Sister
Black Scrabbleth
Crytopoly
Dio’s and Dragons
Check out the rest of the list here. And, of course, I’m dying to see if y’all can come with s’more.
The list was never meant to be definitive – there would be no way to compile a so-called “definitive” list of the “best” metal albums anyways. We were just hoping to have some fun, and we’ve certainly had fun. And hopefully at least some of you have had fun, too.
But no matter which 21 albums our panel ended up selecting, there were always going to be hundreds – literally hundreds – of worthy records that just weren’t going to get the love they deserve.
To that end, throughout the remainder of the week, each MetalSucks staffer will be writing about one album that he wishes had made the list.
In the meantime, after the jump, you can check out all the albums our panelists voted for that didn’t make the list; in other words, these albums would be on a list of the 543 Best Metal Albums of the 21st Century… So Far.
We hope that it continues to provide fodder for your arguments.
Tuesday, July 7th, 2009 at 6:00pm by Vince Neilstein
OH, C’MON. YOU KNEW IT WASN’T REALLY ICP.
We recently polled a wide array of musicians, managers, publicists, label reps, and writers from within the world of metal to find out what they thought the 21 Best Metal Albums of the 21st Century So Far have been. Eligible albums were released between January 1, 2000 and April 1, 2009. Each panelist turned in a ballot, with their #1 album worth 21 points, their #2 album worth 20 points, and so on and so forth. The ballots are now in and we’ll be counting down one album a day until we reach #1. Today we present the #1 album, coming in with a total of 320 points…
Mastodon, Leviathan (Relapse, 2003) Troy Sanders — Bass, Vocals
Brent Hinds — Guitars, Vocals
Bill Kelliher — Guitars Brann Dailor — Drums Produced by Matt Bayles and Mastodon
“Deedily-deedily-doo” might be as instantly recognizable as any Mastodon riff, but the guitar riff that starts Leviathan album-opener “Blood & Thunder” is THE quintessential Mastodon riff. Riff; repeat; queue one of Brann Dailor’s graceful, rolling drumfills and it’s fucking ON. An album full of fire, fury, aggression; punk, metal; post-hardcore riffage, classic metal guitar leads; distinctly Mastodonian gruff vocals. On Leviathan, Mastodon infused their hardcore roots with more metal and more prog; it’s the album on which Mastodon became Mastodon.
When people talk about neo-thrash bands like Warbringer, their words usually carry a subtle hint of disdain. I concede that it’s hard not to mention what they are (neo-Bay Area Thrash) before saying how good they are (very). But to brand Warbringer (or Municipal Waste) fetishizers of a bygone era implies something vaguely untrustable, beyond a mere affection for the Thrash idiom. And it’s true, there’s little about Warbringer that suggests an original vision. All the same, their debut full-length War Without End and now the Gary Holt-produced Waking Into Nightmares are too awesome to be the creation of some tribute band; it’s simply not possible that Warbringer is comprised of five masters of mimicry. Rather, it’s clear they feel that Bay Area-native bands did shit right. And now they do.
Yesterday 
Arsonists Get All the Girls have been through a lot since the release of their last album, 2007’s The Game of Life. From various line-up changes to the tragic death of a bandmate, the last two years have most certainly been a struggle for the Santa Cruz outfit.
\M/etal? Probably not. Awesome? Absolutely. Muse are one of those bands that appeal to metalheads who lean toward the proggier, more experimental side of the spectrum, and one of those bands who absolutely repulse the tr00er than tr00. To the latter: ya’ll are missin’ out. Muse are making some seriously great tunes that anyone with an appreciation for complex music — and really, isn’t that why all of us metalheads are here? — should know how to appreciate.
