Normally when I think of The Berzerker, I think of this dude:
(The one in horns, not the lil’ Asian fella.)
But as long time MetalSucks Maniac Mark Moritz-Rabson recently reminded us, The Berzerker is also one of the many extreme metal acts who, for whatever reason (lack of time and resources, mostly), we have generally failed to cover here at MetalSucks.
I posit a theory: Scott “Wino” Weinrich = doom metal’s Dylan. Even if you can’t stand what he does, you recognize how important the dude is to the development of heavy metal, and must bow to his continued mastery of all things Sabbath-inspired. In a career that’s spanned over three decades, Wino’s fronted a ridiculous number of great bands, including St. Vitus, The Obsessed, Spirit Caravan and The Hidden Hand – one band for every two drug habits he’s kicked. No matter how great his bandmates, it’s Wino himself that draws us to each new project. He’s the denim and leather-clad patron saint of trad doom, its spiritual center and most trusted voice. But somehow, before Punctuated Equilibrium, we’ve never had an album that Wino owned in both name and spirit.
Still skeptical about that study we published last month claiming that headbanging could cause “mild traumatic brain injury or concussion”? Think again.
I am going to include exclamation points and some kind of onomatopoeiatic grunting noise in every Cannibal Corpse headline from now until the time I review their new album. Just deal with it.
ANYWAY, The Deciblog dudes have a short clip from the making-of DVD that will accompany Cannibal Corpse’s new album, Evisceration Plague. And in case hearing the title track didn’t make you go from six to midnight right quick, this video oughta finish the job. ‘Cause not only does the music sound sick, but it’s got Erik Rutan! I haven’t typed the dude’s name in caps for a couple of weeks, so once more with feeling – ERIK FUCKING RUTAN! Plus, as The Deciblog notes, the band’s Centuries of Torment DVD was very possibly “the greatest thing ever,” so there’s reason to be confident that this could be an above average “please please please buy a physical copy of the album” filler DVD.
Check it out here.
-AR
I don’t actually have any news about Dave Mustaine or the new Megadeth album. I’ve just been seeing the above headline or some variation thereof a lot as of late, and wanted to know what it would feel like to type it.
As it turns out, anticlimatic and a little douchey. Hm.
-AR
Meeting Gojira’s Joe Duplantier in person did little to quell my already raging man-crush boner for the guy and his band. Gojira’s The Way Of All Flesh — which ended up as both mine and Axl’s #1 pick for 2008 — is everything I look for in a metal album, or any piece of music for that matter. It’s smart, progressive, brutal, heady, artful, melodic, crushing, socially/environmentally conscious… I could keep going (and I have, on many occasions). It was no surprise then that Duplantier was just the kind of person you’d imagine would be responsible for such an album; smart, articulate, deliberate in his choice of words, and giving exactly the kind of answers an interviewer could hope for. That is, everything except the brutality; Duplantier was pretty much one of the most mild-mannered, soft-spoken metal musicians we’ve ever met. Which actually isn’t that surprising, considering he adamantly opposes the slaughtering of baby seals and stands up for a number of other sociopolitcal and environmental causes (and always the right ones).
Axl and I caught up with Joe a couple of hours before Gojira’s set supporting In Flames in NYC this past December. We asked Joe about Gojira’s seemingly sudden success in the U.S., fan and press reactions to The Way of All Flesh, how he views his choice to write lyrics about social issues, his stance on combining politics with music, and the band’s plans for 2009. Our interview follows, after the jump.
So… we have heard Lamb of God’s new album Wrath in its entirety. Since I got my hands on it late last week I have listened to nothing other than Lamb of God on my iPod.
Behemoth are getting ready to record their Metal Blade debut, and like every other band in the known universe, they’ll be releasing a series of webisodes to attempt to get their fans all hot n’ bothered and build some pre-release hype (in which I now find myself, at least for the moment, a willing participant).
The initial webisode covers pre-production, which means we get a glimpse of the band sans their usual make-up corpse paint, which, at least for me personally, ruins the illusion that Nergal is a bad-assed motherfuckin’ anti-christ and reminds me that he’s really just some Polish dude named Adam Darski.
-AR
When I was a teenager I used to spend my summer and winter vacations working in my dad’s guitar store, where a motley crew of whacky sales people inevitably shaped my taste in music. There were the usual assortment of characters that would come into the store regularly, among them a man we lovingly referred to as “Dudeman” because he’d begin every sentence with “Dude, maaaan…” like an aging Pauly Shore. Dudeman was a balding, skullet-donning man in his 40s who always wore a Wayne’s World baseball cap that was two sizes too big and a stone-washed denim jacket that was two sizes too small. Dudeman was constantly stoned and always had on those cheap Sony headphones, the kind that came with every Walkman, with the adjustable metal bracket arched over his head and bent into an upside-down “V” on top to compensate for his hat and enormous, shiny dome.
ANYWAY, MetalSucks Maniac Mark Schenkel sent in this commercial for NYC electronics/music retail mainstay J&R in which all of the dudes therein remind me of Dudeman. Dudeman, wherever you are, I hope you’re well and still rockin’ out. Long live the dudemans of the world.
We’re looking to take on a couple of new writers here at MetalSucks. Specifically, we need the following:
THESE ARE NOT PAID POSITIONS (at least not yet). You will get free music, concert tickets, and your writing exposed to a large readership.
If you’re interested, see how to apply after the jump.
Frequent MetalSucks contributor and best-selling true crime author Corey Mitchell’s most recent book, PURE MURDER, has been nominated for the Preditors & Editors Best Print/Electronic Novel in 2008.
***DEADLINE TO VOTE: JANUARY 14***
PURE MURDER was named one of the four Best Metal Books of 2008 at MetalSucks.
In my review for AC/DC’s Black Ice, I wrote about how certain trademarks of an artist or band – Michael Jackson’s falsetto, Axl Rose’s gravelly throat, Angus Young’s dirty blues rock pecking – suck me in immediately, even despite their use for blatantly nostalgic purposes. The punch in the gut of Andreas Kisser’s muddy-but-monolithic power chords at the beginning of “A-Lex I,” the opening track on Sepultura’s eleventh album, A-Lex, pull me right back to being seventeen and getting lost in the ridiculous grooves of the band’s punk/thrash classic, Chaos A.D. Of course, when making this comparison, I meant it positively toward Black Ice. And though A-Lex doesn’t necessarily suckle at the leathery teat of nostalgia, it doesn’t lift off in the way the intro track implies. Though the album is packed with primo Sepulturaness, it’s also packed with directionless filler, bloating it from a tight groove metal record to an overly/questionably ambitious record that’s practically impossible to get through in one sitting. Their lack of self-editing ultimately mars the record, but the bits of it that are good – and don’t let my misgivings fool you, because there’s quite a bit that’s pretty fucking good – make you glad they’re still here, even if they are completely without the Cavalera brothers for the first time since the band’s inception.
Big, big, BIG props to MetalSucks Maniac Barb Crompton, who was literally the only person to correctly identify last week’s logo as belonging to the charmingly named Diarrhea Humiliation. Barb wins Dream Theater’s amazing Chaos in Motion 2007 – 2008 five disc DVD/CD. It’s gonna blow your mind and make you see the world in a whole new light, Barb.
This week the super fantastic peeps at Roadrunner Records have given us five autographed New York Dolls One Day it Will Please Us to Remember Even This CD booklets. Please note that we’re not giving away any copies of the actual One Day it Will Please Us… CD. Still, that shouldn’t bother you ’cause a) it’s been out for awhile and hopefully you already own it and b) this prize is so fucking cool in and of itself.
All you have to do to win is identify the name of the band whose logo appears below, then shoot me an e-mail with your answer, your name and address at axl [at] metalsucks.net. We’ll randomly select five winners from everyone who gets it right, and announce his or her names next week.
Good luck, everyone…
-AR
Animosity’s Leo Miller is not a man of large stature, which is why it was so surprising to see him command the stage like a rabid dog upon catching them on the Metal Sucks-sponsored Job for a Cowboy/ All Shall Perish/ Annotations of an Autopsy tour. Miller and company brought the sort of frenetic energy necessary to translate their last two stellar full lengths – Empires and last year’s Animal – to life, which is by no means a small feat. In a time when death metal bands rely on either predictability or shifting between riffs too rapidly to savor, Animosity jump from thought to savage thought masterfully, producing blink-and-you’ll-miss-it excellence reminiscent of old Dillinger Escape Plan through a DM lens. Their records demand repeat listens, and reward greatly upon them. Miller’s gruff vocals and atypical lyrical approach help elevate the band to thinking man’s level, counteracting metal’s brutish stereotypes.
I managed to catch him – after three botched attempts – on my way out the door after Job for a Cowboy’s set in Providence at the end of last November, and goddamn, I’m glad I caught him. He possesses the kind of eloquence and thoughtfulness an examination of his lyrics would imply, and it was interesting to get a glimpse into the thought process behind the gut-wrenching Animal, easily one of my favorite metal records of 2007, if not in the last few years. Despite the difficult personal events that lead to the album, Leo had a positive tone to his voice throughout our entire conversation, touching upon the band’s plans for the future and his feelings on our next president.
Well, not quite… but one NY Times writer credits the mighty Mastodon album Leviathan as a crucial cog in his cancer recovery playlist. Any time the New York Times mentions metal in any sort of non-derogatory light — in the same sentence as Meshuggah, no less — is meta-news-worthy indeed:
“Leviathan” by Mastodon
The best heavy metal — Meshuggah, Metallica, Mastodon — slashes through the cancer-induced fog sometimes brought on by the mental weight of my diagnosis and the fatigue caused by my treatment. Its fury snaps me back to life like the electrodes clamped to the skull of Frankenstein’s monster. Mastodon’s album “Leviathan,” their head-banging take on “Moby-Dick,” lets me imagine Ahab as a crazed guitar-shredder lashed to that great white whale, even as I am lashed to prostate cancer (though I don’t plan on going down with the ship).
Nine Inch Nails and Alice Cooper are also part of the playlist. So, cancer patients: smoke ‘em if ya got ‘em, especially if you live in Cali. And check out the new Mastodon song while you’re at it.
-VN
Raw
wicked
fiery
thrash
power
kill
dying
dead
METALLICA – “The Four Horsemen”, from Kill ‘Em All (1983)
-KW
In the past while on tour, I’ve encountered many special things that I regret not having a video camera around to document. Last summer, we did have the foresight to bring one along, and it was totally worth it. We ended up whittling down close to six hours of footage into a ten minute “rockumentary” of that particular tour. However, some of the people we filmed along the way deserved to be seen in their fully candid, unedited glory, and here’s a particular character I’d like to share with you all.
We arrived to the show in Orlando, FL early enough to hang with the daytime locals at the bar we were playing. Not long after we sat down, this dude comes in announcing that he only has one dollar, but needs a beer. He got it, and proceeded to infiltrate our little clique, dazzling us with his sloppy redneck wit. I grabbed the video camera and let it roll.
2008 was pretty good for Gods And Queens, given the not-insignificant recognition their “untitled” Robotic Empire debut received, including the #19 slot on Decibel’s year-end Top 40 Extreme Albums list as well as the #9 spot on my own list.
I’ve never actually caught Daath live (at least not yet), so I don’t know how the band handles soloing duties – but I do know that guitarist Eyal Levi is kind of the public face of the band and it’s de facto leader, so people may forget that there’s another super talented guitarist, Emil Werstler, in the band.
But the below video of Werstler shredding his ass off should throw the dude in the spotlight at least for a hot minute. Fucker has chops, that’s for damn sure.
Daath’s new album, The Concealers, will be out later this year. While you’re waiting patiently, don’t forget that you can download an exclusive Daath death metal metal medley consisting of covers of Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel and Dying Fetus right here at MetalSucks.
-AR
FREE ORAL SEX
ALL ATTRACTIVE LOUISVILLE AREA WOMEN
PLEASE APPLY
No hidden costs or agendas
Some restrictions apply
See terms and conditions page for qualification s
So reads the opening message at Louisville Free Face, a website brought to you by Louisville, KY resident George Kistner. The website is an absolute must-visit, in its entirety; I especially recommend the “Terms and Conditions” link (ex: “You Must be Disease Free,” as if this condition would stave off any potential client who happened to be diseased. Also: “You should let your friends know about your experience if you have a good time.”) The picture of Mr. Kistner, at left, is pulled from the “About Me” section, where he lists “George, Vampire Lord, or God” as nicknames he often goes by.
And yes, the website is completely serious. I love the internet.
-VN
P.S.: And to think I just bought land in the state in which this fine gentleman resides…
