Minimalism and rock do not necessarily go together. But as any pregnant lady can tell you, odd cravings can lead to some really satisfying flavor sensations. With that in mind, I’m pleased to introduce My Disco.

Like Shellac if envisioned by monks instead of grizzled music business vets, this guitar-bass-drums trio embodies asceticism in their angular music. Tracks off last year’s Paradise (produced by Steve Albini) work so damn well because they’re so damn spare. No elaborate rhythms, no complex basslines, and no fucking solos! Instead, My Disco produce appreciate the silences and gaps that can come from a more selective and, yes, minimal approach to music composition. In the hands of less skilled musicians, this kind of shit would fall flat on its face, but it undeniably works for these Aussies. You can see for yourself when My Disco joins noise rockers Young Widows on a string of North American tourdates.

-GS

[Gary Suarez is more stardog champion than slumdog millionaire. He also writes for Brainwashed and sporadically manages the consistently off-topic No Yoko No.]

Not to be a dick or anything, but if you ask me (and you didn’t but you’re reading this so fuck you), my good friend Sammy O’Hagar was too easy on Sepultura’s latest, A-Lex. The album is a mess, and there’s only one really decent song it – “We’ve Lost You.”

So: the good news is, Sep had the good sense to use “Lost” as the single for their new video. The bad news is, the video’s a mess. A-Lex, as you’re probably aware, is inspired by Anthony Burgess’ novel A Clockwork Orange and Stanley Kubrick’s adaptation of that novel. But this video just tosses in as many recognizable bits from Kubrick movies as possible: the Korova Milk Bar* from Clockwork is there, sure, but so are the creepy twins from The Shining, and the Venetian mask orgy crowd from Eyes Wide Shut, and the cowboys from… actually, Kubrick never made a movie with cowboys, so I dunno what the fuck that’s about. I guess they couldn’t afford the ape outfits from 2001 or something.

ANYWAY, the video seems to demonstrate and complete lack of understanding of Orange: putting the kid in a Beethoven shirt is all well and dandy, but having him beat the shit out of a rapist – e.g., Alex turning out to be someone who is violent with good reason – is bullshit.

After the jump, I’ve included Slipknot’s video for “Spit it Out.” It’s a cheap video for a not especially great rap-metal song, but as far as Kubrick-inspired metal videos go, at least the ‘Knot’s shows a sense of humor.

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Uberdrummer Josh Freese is getting ready to release a new solo album, Since 1972 (Freese’s YOB, natch), and is apparently determined to one-up his former boss Trent Reznor for the “Rockstar Adapting to a Changing Market in the Coolest Fucking Way Imaginable” award. Now, it’s entirely possible that Freese is just joshin’ around (sorry, couldn’t resist) – but even if he is, he’s funny as fuck. Here are the various price levels for purchasing Since 1972, and what Freese is (allegedly) offering for said price levels… I don’t even have to make any jokes here because Freese has done all the work for me:

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Since joining Twitter last week (follow us!) my brain has been systematically reprogrammed to process information only in pieces of 140 characters or less. After the jump, quickie haiku-like reviews of all the new music that’s arrived at the doorstep of the MS Mansion in succinct, Tweet form, plus MP3s! New releases from Mongoloid Village, Mechanism, Irepress, Stinking Lizaveta, Derek Sherinian and Cobalt.

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Or as holler-riffic future-fowad Chicago label Contraphonic reports/suggests, perhaps we should now call them Crush(ed) Kill(ed) Destroy(ed), since despite an internet-only full-length release just recently scratching the light of day (entitled The World’s Largest Area), the band apparently played their final, farewell show a couple weeks ago at the infamous Empty Bottle in Chi-town — so y’know…RIP.

:-(

Onto greener pastures, one hopes…

:-)

Clearly this band isn’t as metal with a capital MMMMM as we’re oft accustomed to around these parts…but their name sure is! Er, um, was. And if this angular, spastically dissonant opening track from their excellent 2006 album Metric Midnight doesn’t give you the energy to get yr Saturdaze goin, perhaps you need a big ol’ swig of THIS.

“Don’t worry, it won’t smell like urine and will be tasty too.” Yuuummmy!!

CRUSH KILL DESTROY – “Walter Mondale”, from Metric Midnight (2006)

-KW

I have a difficult relationship with Bang Camaro. On the one hand they write great, hooky throw-back ’80s cock rock anthems. On the other hand they do so ironically, and the band is made up of various members of fledgling indie-rock groups.

Check out the band’s new song “Night Lies” below, then check out some other tunes on their MySpace page. What do you think? The MS Twitter community gave a resounding “nay” this morning.

Bang Camaro – “Night Lies”

-VN

2009 is Suffocation’s twentieth anniversary (!), and they’re celebrating in all the usual ways: a headlining tour, a new album, a DVD, and… a video game?

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At least that’s what comedian Joe DeRosa seems to think and what many of you expressed in reaction to my “Failed Experiments in Human Creativity” post a few weeks back. Listen to DeRosa’s hilarious standup routine on ICP and Juggalos below [thanks: Brutal Jay, no relation to Violent J].

-VN

Here’s an interesting factoid Neuraxis fans might now know: vocalist Alex LeBlanc has actually worked a few matches as a pro wrestler on the Canadian indie circuit! So we asked him to review Darren Aronofsky’s new, Oscar nominated film, The Wrestler. Here are Alex’s thoughts on the film and its portrayl of pro-wrestling. Enjoy!

Being into wrestling for eight years now, I went to see The Wrestler with an opened mind. I knew it was going to be good since I’m a fan of Mickey Rourke and [director] Darren Aronofsky’s Requiem for a Dream. The thing I was particulary interested in is the portrayal of the wrestling world. Let me tell you: it is so accurate.

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Because we’re the metal version of The National Enquirer, we’re journalisticly obliged to post this, right? Not to do so would be negligent, right? Right?

Fine, fuck it, she’s got huge ta-tas. I mean look at those puppies!!

-VN

[Thanks: Brutal Jay]

So, as Vince mentioned, we went to see the Mesuggah/Cynic/The Faceless last night. It should go without saying that the show was killer – still, having never seen Cynic or The Faceless live before, I was somewhat unprepared for just how killer the evening turned out to be.

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Here’s all you need to know about Doomriders:

1) Nate Newton of Converge, J.R. Connors of Cave In
2) dirty, beer-fueled, hardcore-tinged southern rawk (think: Thin Lizzy for the modern era)
3) Awesome.

While the band promised but didn’t deliver a new record in ’08, Lambgoat reports that ’09 is the year; the band is reportedly recording at Godcity Studios in Massachusetts as we speak with producer-of-the-moment / Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou at the helm (!). The band’s put 12 songs to tape and plans on releasing an album later this year. Peep this track for a preview of what you might be in for.

Doomriders – “Black Thunder”

-VN

Congrats to the winners of last week’s photo caption contest, each of whom will receive a copy of The Bakerton Group’s latest El Rojo, a slammin’ buesy rawk record featuring all of the dudes from Clutch with no vocals. The winning entries:

Joe: “The real victims of wigger slam are the children.”

Rooktrocity: “On the verge of a major label signing, the founding members of Hollywood Undead made a tough, albeit necessary decision to leave the band’s weakest link, ‘Squatty 2 Bummin’, on a deserted road somewhere in the vast Nevada desert.”

This week we’re giving away a special limited edition 7″ boxset of the infamous This Comp Kills Fascists compilation (feat. Total Fucking Destruction, Insect Warfare, Brutal Truth, Magrudergrind a shitload of other awesome bands) provided to us by the Relapse Records deathsquad. Just come up with a caption we deem to our liking for the below photo — which happens to be the cover of the very boxset we’re giving away — and it shall be yours. Have a field day with this one, kiddies.

I’ve been trying for some time to figure out a way to articulate the feelings the created by listening to Agoraphobic Nosebleed, and here’s the only thing I’ve been able to come up with: AFDUTKASD’NAS#*%^^^DLABDNAPFUQ!!!NSDFW.

Now that we’ve gotten that out the way: AN have a new album coming out April 14, Agorapocalypse, and have now given fans a first taste of the music from that album – new song “Agorapocalypse Now” is currently streaming on the group’s MySpace page.

In case you didn’t think the band could get any crazier than they already are, brace yourself: this song is pure chaos in music form. And little wonder: the band has added Salome front chick Kat to their ranks, which means they now have three, count ‘em three, vocalists. The song they released with Kat last year, “Home Invasion,” was fucking wicked (and is also streaming on AN’s MySpace page); based on this new track, I’d say we’re in for some fucking aural violence come April 14.

-AR

I suppose it’s entirely possible that Winds of Plague – or, more specifically, Winds of Plague’s handlers – cleared the rights to use clips from Zack Snyder’s film adaptation of Frank Miller’s comic book graphic novel 300 for their new video, “Anthems of the Apocalypse.” But I somehow doubt it; I can’t see Warner Bros. giving up the rights that cheaply, and I don’t see WOP having it in their budget to fork over the Benjamins. Maybe they paid the dubba-dubba-WB with naked photos of keyboardsit Kristen Randall?

In any case, I have no fucking idea what the thematic significance is of 300 to the song anyway. In a press release, lead singer Johnny (the release doesn’t say what the dude’s last name is and I am far too lazy to Wikipedia that bitch right now) attempts to explain:

“This video pretty much is the perfect representation of WINDS OF PLAGUE: an energetic live show meets the brutal killing fields of oversized monsters, demonic samurai warriors and buff killing machines.”

Translation: “It looked cool.”

-AR

Those disappointed by the apparent sobriety of Mastodon guitarist Brent Hinds in his recent studio video will be pleased with the return to his usual, blissfully wrecked state in this interview conducted by Altitude. Hinds sheds some light on the concept behind Mastodon’s upcoming video for the single “Divinations,” and the results are, well, perfectly Mastodonian:

I’m trapped in a block of ice dressed as a cave man, there are explorers, they come find me, I put the Flying V up to the block of ice and it melts, I come out, play a rippin’ guitar solo, kill all of them, and then I eat them, and then a Yeti comes out and eats me.

YES! Axl remarked to me the other day that he wasn’t super-excited about this record, and I kind of agreed. But the more I hear the actual band members talk about the record the more stoked I become. Have faith!

-VN

[In which the Early Man guitarist/vocalist shares his thoughts on the world, music, and the usual assortment of drunken adventures/misadventures. Enjoy. -Ed.]

Hello everyone, welcome to WHIPLASH! With this column I plan to give you weekly updates and a behind the scenes look into everything that is going on in the world of Early Man, whether it be drinking, touring, recording, drinking, shredding, drinking, etc., if it’s happening I’ll be writing about it. What I won’t be doing with this column is writing 9 page essays about the “current state of the metal scene” or “my take on the new Metallica record” or any other boring crap like that. Don’t you get enough of that horseshit already? WHO FUCKING CARES! If you want to see what’s actually going on out here in the real world with a working touring metal band, well…it’s your lucky day. And just to make this all that much more interesting I’m going to take your questions and answer them right here on a regular basis via video response. Ain’t technology grand? Just remember, no question is a stupid question, I’ll take them all. Any topic, any subject, fire away. You can send them to: whiplash@metalsucks.net.

Before I take off I’ll use this opportunity to bring you up to speed with what’s been going on over the past 6 months with the band.

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There’s a flare of subsonic noise and distortion, mounting feedback and that queasy feeling you get when you’re about to be buried by a cascading avalanche. I braced myself for it, use my last inhalation on my lit cigarette. I knew this was gonna be Doom alright, Doom for me and Doom for everyone.

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Saying we’re not beyond stoked for the Meshuggah / Cynic / The Faceless pummeling we’re going to receive tonight would be like saying Wes Borland didn’t re-join Limp Bizkit for the moolah (it’s the nookie… yeah… that’s it). I mean this is pretty much the ultimate prog-metal erectionfest of 2009, whatwith the certain non-metal-itude of this year’s Prog Nation tour, amirite?

Lucky for you, Meshuggah and Cynic have been keeping their own online video channel from the tour. Check this clip of Meshuggah performing “Bleed” in Hollywood, and scroll through the arrows to watch Tomas Haake sound check footage, a Cynic performance, tour diaries and more. Listen to and download two free mp3s below while you’re at it.

Side note: certain MS staffers are still looking for tickets to this. If you got extras, email vince AT metalsucks DOT net.

Meshuggah – “Bleed”
Cynic – “Evolutionary Sleeper”

-VN

Are you guys hip to Crescent Shield? The band started as a side project for Onward vocalist Michael Grant and Destiny’s End guitarist (and frequent MetalSucks commenter!) Dan DeLucie, but eventually became their full-time gig; the band’s 2006 album, the aptly titled The Last of My Kind, was released to rave reviews, and rightfully so. This band should be opening for Iron Maiden; it’s difficult for me to imagine any Maiden fan (or fan of other bands like Maiden) not digging the everlovin’ shit outta Crescent Shield. The band even made the complete album avail for free download (with voiceovers – I mean, they gotta make a living somehow) on their website, and if you haven’t heard it, now’s the time to go download it.

The band has a new album, The Stars of Never Seen, coming out on May 8 in Germany and Europe, May 11 in the UK and June 2 in the USA and Canada (artwork above). Like I said, as a Maiden fan, I can’t help but eat this shit up; hopefully the new album will bring some of the same metallic goodness as The Last of My Kind.

After the jump, check out The Last of My Kind‘s opening track, “Above Mere Mortals.” There’s a crappy-quality bootleg of the band performing a new song floating around the net, but I don’t think it tells us very much about how the new album might sound; hopefully we’ll get something more official soon.

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