MEET US IN ATLANTER
Several of you have emailed us inquiring about a possible meetup at tomorrow’s Scion Rock Fest in Atlanta… but what would be the fun in that? So let’s do it this way instead: we’ll be there, you find us. I have a full beard, Axl has a chin-strip beard and a goatee. I’ll be wearing a green hoodie, and if I were a betting man I’d say Axl will be wearing a black one. We look very Jewish, and strikingly similar to our South Park avatars (+ beard for me). We’ll be hanging with Rob from Metal Injection, and ya’ll know what he looks like. Ask around, and ye shall find us.
See you there!
A full 4 days before the March 3rd release of their Metal Blade Records debut The Onslaught, MetalSucks is pleased to offer the entire record of Wisconsin thrash upstarts Lazarus A.D. for free, streaming right here. The Onslaught was mixed by the infamous James Murphy (Death, Testament, Obituary) and contains 10 tracks of vicious thrash that pay due respect to their ’80s forefathers without simply ripping them off; there’s a slew of modern influences here too. The Onslaught will be streaming here until release day, so listen while you can and then be sure to 
Years ago, high-speed southern rockers Nashville Pussy almost made me miss this killer Motorhead gig. This is hard to admit, but in my mind, the handful of NP gigs by which I’d been dick-punched were so awesomely raucous, punishing, and relentless that a seed of doubt began to grow in me that Motorhead may not be able to follow them as the tour’s headliners. After the Pussy set, I almost made it to the doors, but a series of surprised frowns turned me back near the coat check. And then Motorhead tore my fucking head off. It felt great to be wrong.
Because the list of MetalSucks-sponsored tours going out this year wasn’t already kick-ass enough — whatwith the likes of the 
First Maynard, now this.
Do I rag on Fred Durst too much? Guess what? I don’t really care! It amuses me and it’s a slow news day.
Hello Metalsuckers. WHIPLASH! round 2. It’s 5am Thursday, I’m in L.A. about to head to Burbank airport to catch a flight to NYC for the start of our U.S. tour next week. I’ve got a couple minutes before I go so I thought I’d pop in real quick and give you an update. We’ve spent the past week practicing some new songs off of our upcoming full length that we will be playing on this tour. I got into the habit a couple of years ago of filming practice sessions, as in just turning a little camera on and setting it in the corner during practices. It’s an easy way to record jam sessions plus it adds the visual element which can be an interesting little extra layer when listening back. Anyway, I had a camera running this week during one of our practices and have uploaded a little clip of one of our new songs called “By the Serpent’s Breath You Seethe” for your viewing pleasure:
Lots of people must care about this band, right? Because at least once a week there’s a post on Blabbermouth about Stratovarius and/or ex-guitarist Timo Tolkki. Every time I see one of these headlines I chuckle on the inside, because Stratovarius have a very, very severe case of Nickelback Syndrome — presumably they have fans, lots of ‘em, yet I’ve never met a single one. I don’t give a shit about this band, nor do Axl or any of the other MS Mansion inhabitants (that I know of… monkeys excepted). I’ve never met a single person who likes this band, never seen a Stratovarius record, never encountered someone wearing a Stratovarius t-shirt at a show. To be fair, I had one Stratovarius track on my iPod once and it was pretty good, but my interest pretty much ended there.
There comes a time in the career of every mega-successful band where they hit the cruise-control button. You know what I mean; think of any band that’s had any amount of real (metal-)mainstream success and I’ll show you the exact moment that band flipped on said switch and either started writing the same album over and over or went off into watered-down oblivion. It’s not that you can blame these bands, and I certainly don’t, but the neverending demands of being in a superstar band — constant touring, radio promo, press, music videos, personal appearances, endorsements, more touring, repeat — stifle innovation by design. When the grind finally ends and it’s time to record another record again, it worked well the last time out so why change it up? It’s not by choice but by necessity; it’s those in-between moments the biggest bands lack that allow them to grow, to reflect, to look at what their peers are doing, to keep up with the latest, and to strive and push harder and harder to take the band to the proverbial next level. Fortunately for God Forbid, now on their 5th full-length record, they haven’t reached this point of mega-success and they haven’t hit cruise-control. There have been plenty of in-between moments (4 years since their last album, Constitution of Treason, to be exact). God Forbid have never stopped pushing, never stopped challenging themselves, never lost the hunger, never stopped to smell the roses; because frankly there haven’t been many roses to smell. The result is that every album has been different — and better — than the one before it, and Earthsblood is no different; it’s their best album yet.
I saw Cold open for Marilyn Manson once. Even though it was a good month after Halloween (I recall only because it was Thanksgiving weekend), guitarist Terry Balsucko wore a Michael Meyers mask the whole set and stood almost perfectly still, hunched over his guitar as though he should be in the belfry at Notre Dame; vocalist Scooter Ward stood at the lip of the stage, smoking a cigarette and remaining otherwise completely stationary; and drummer Sam McCandless’ hair was dyed to look like a cheetah’s fur.
Two of metal’s most prominent young bands now have front men who need serious medical attention and, as is so often the case these days, do not have the health insurance to pay for it. Find out how you can help after the jump.
