Let me begin by saying that I thoroughly enjoy Timbaland. His work with Ludacris, Jay-Z, and especially Missy Elliot has yielded great, forward-thinking results for his genre of choice. Yes, metal faithful, I think Justin Timberlake’s work with him is damn fine pop music as well. However, Timbaland’s best work has been within the confines of pop music, and I have yet to have a problem with that. His first foray into rock – or rock music as I (and many others, in that his work with No Doubt, Duran Duran, and OneRepublic haven’t exactly strayed far from the bands’ roots) know it is a spectacular, bordering on legendary, misfire. Chris Cornell – Soundgarden’s former golden-throated front man that has spent the better part of this decade coasting with Audioslave – picked perhaps the worst partner for his gravelly shout on his latest (even terribly titled) solo album, Scream. And though I am far from one to decry someone’s sense of artistic exploration, I must say that this one is hilariously misguided. The only thing keeping this album from being a so-horrifically-bad-it’s-good triumph is the familiar sound of Cornell’s shriek over a terribly mismatched backing track, a ploy seemingly utilized for the sake of a desperate stab at commercial relevancy. He’s a long way from Louder than Love, Badmotorfinger, and Superunknown, and it’s hard to see how he’d be able to make his way back.

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Or so says a screen grab from Belladonna’s Wikipedia entry taken by the intrepid metal shit-digger-uppers of Metal Inquisition. And why wouldn’t it be true? It’s on Wikipedia, Metal Inquisition said so, and it’s Joey Bella-fuckin-donna (side note: real name Bellardini!). But hey, the article is actually about the twice-ex-Anthrax singer’s house outside of Syracuse, NY:

The house has three bedrooms, was built in 1990, and has 2600 square feet of living space. Perhaps the most intriguing thing about the house is that it has no central air conditioning. I know that to our non American readers this may seem normal…but for a house in the US to not have A/C (particularly one this size that was built in 1990) is downright strange, even in upstate New York. Why would Joey not have air conditioning in his house? It could only be for one reason…

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Slipknot are out on tour with Coheed and Cambria right now, and I guess it’s like one big love-in or some shit, ’cause ‘Knot percussionist Shawn “Clown” Crahan has done a remix of C+C’s “Kashmir” “Welcome Home,” which is currently streaming on the band’s MySpace page.

Look: generally I think re-mixes are a waste of time, a total wankfest, and, often, a chance to fuck with a perfectly decent song just because you can. And this one doesn’t really strike me as being any different; it doesn’t seem like Clown had any unifying thoughts behind this remix other than to drop acid and just go kuh-ray-zee with Pro Tools. And I say that as someone who generally thinks Clown is a pretty cool dude (his completely nonsensical rants aside).

Check it out and weigh in below.

Thanks to good1apollo for the tip!

-AR

Our very own Dallas Coyle and his brother Doc of the mighty God Forbid made the long trip all the way from New Jersey to San Antonio, Texas, to premiere their long-awaited new CD release, Earthsblood.

Hosted by S.A. metal institution Robb Chavez of Robb’s Metal Works, the Coyle brothers stopped into the Cabo Grille to chat with fans, answer questions from the press, and drink beers while spinning their new record.

It was also the first meeting between two MetalSucks contributors (MS bloggers Dallas Coyle and Corey Mitchell pictured above with Doc Coyle and Antonia “Toni” Garcia of OMCTV).

The Coyles talked about the theme of Earthsblood, how they came about the artwork for the new record, their upcoming tours with Lamb of God and Mayhem Fest, the improbability of running their own record label, the effect an Obama presidency may or may not have on their career, and their sheer, unadulterated love for metal.

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Thanks to Metal Injection for pointing out that A Life Once Lost have apparently started work on the follow-up to 2007′s Sacrament, Part II Iron Gag. In a statement, the band said “Now that we’ve heard Lamb of God’s Wrath, we know what our new album should sound like!”

In all seriousness, I shouldn’t give ALOL shit for aping LoG; for one thing, I actually really, really like ALOL’s music, and for another thing, they sometimes ape Meshuggah, too. So…

While we wait for the ALOL album later this year, here’s the band’s video for “Vulture” off of 2005′s Hunter, which is a rabid dog of  a record if ever there was one. That guitar solo is suh-weet!

-AR

When I started watching this live video of Dream Theater performing “Metropolis” ten (maybe more?) years ago, I was thinking that the complete fucking ape-shitness of the audience pegged it to Japan. I was wrong; around the 2:40 mark James LaBrie yells “Korea!” I’ve just never seen this kind of fervor at a Dream Theater concert in the states; there’s practically a fucking moshpit. At a Dream Theater concert. Usually it’s a bunch of dudes (and it’s always just dudes) nodding their heads to the beat with their jaws on the floor and their dicks in their hands (yup, I’m guilty as charged!). James LaBrie sounds like complete crap here, so the LaBrie-hating contingent will have their field day here (and I know there are a lot of you), but the rest of the band is at full strength with a furious wind whipping their hair around for maximum rockness.

-VN

In the August 2007 issue of Decibel, Psyopus mastermind Chris “Arpmandude” Arp wrote a column bemoaning the repetitive use of 4/4 time in metal. “The overuse of the number four is primitive, uncreative, boring and hopelessly lame,” he wrote. “The focused movement against this could be a vital step towards sustaining the ingenuity of the art.” While his specific point was about time signatures, the underlying theme – renouncement of tradition as a prerequisite for progress – applies to pretty much every aspect of Psyopus’s sound. Arp is a qualified lecturer on the topic of innovation. Whether he continues to walk the walk is another question.

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Here’s of brief history of me and my love for Sigh: I reviewed Hangman’s Hymn in 2007. Prior to that, I had heard of Sigh, but for whatever reason, never really heard any Sigh. I admit it. I was a Sigh virgin. But…

…when I fell in love, I fell hard, dude. It got all, like, serious n’ shit pretty quickly.

So: I am coming to the recent reissue of Sigh’s 2001 album, Imaginary Sonicscape, with very fresh and very eager ears. And if I was gonna talk about this album someone else who, like me, was a fairly newish Sigh fan, I’d tell him or her what long time Sigh fans must already know: once upon a time, Sigh were a completely different – but somehow equally awesome – band.

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I deliberately made last week’s logo a heckuva lot of easier than normal, and I guess it worked, because for once, most of you correctly guessed the band’s name (and in case ya didn’t, it was “Immersed in Blood”). So the luck of the draw says that Dirk Agueros gets our last copy of Dragonforce’s ultra awesome Ultra Beatdown. Enjoy, Dirk!

This week the par-tay animals at Roadrunner Records have kindly donated five copies of Airbourne’s Runnin’ Wild for us to give away. This here’s drinkin’ music if ever there was such a thing; if you like loud, obnoxious hard rock, this album is a must-own!

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 (assuming more than one person gets it right this time), and announce his or her names next week.

I tried to actually make the logo hard again this week, so if you want a CD, you’re gonna hafta earn it!

-AR

Is your website trve… or is it emo? MS Maniac “Al” posted a link to his website — the appropriately titled Trve Vs. Emo — that tells you just how br00tal your website is or isn’t. The application would’ve been a lot more fun if the page didn’t explain how it works, but apparently it parses “lyrics by norweigan [sic] black metal bands, such as Mayhem, Burzum and Darkthrone” to arrive at the Trve ranking and “emo bands like My Chemical Romance and Fall out boy” to arrive at the Emo ranking. We decided to take it for a spin and test the Trveness of some of our favorite websites.

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Since a) we rocked out to Darkane on Sunday night at the MetalSucks sponsored Soilwork/Darkane/Warbringer/Swallow the Sun tour (get remaining tour dates here!), b) I was just talking to Frank Godla from Metal Injection about how awesome this band is, and c) Vince has been twittering (tweeting?) about the band, this seemed like a good time to post a Darkane video.

So, here’s a Darkane video. For the song “Chaos Vs. Order.” Enjoy.

-AR

WHEN: Wednesday, February 11, 2009
WHERE: Scout Bar, San Antonio, Texas
WHO: Tesla

By the time Tesla’s 1986 debut record Mechanical Resonance was released, this Old Fart had fallen far down the metal rabbit hellhole, migrating from the chick-friendly hair metal stylings of Motley Crüe, Ratt, and Black ‘n Blue to the not-so-chick-friendly thrash growls of Metallica, Megadeth, and Slayer.

Having moved on from wearing torn black fishnet armbands for the Crüe at The Summit in Houston to trying to avoid getting killed by a mob of angry skinheads at a Fearless Iranians From Hell gig at The Ritz in Austin, the last thing I ever expected back then was to have my head turned by a seemingly second-rate Bon Jovi wannabe group. I mean this was the same year the world was inundated with Metallica’s Master of Puppets, Slayer’s Reign in Blood, Megadeth’s Peace Sells…But Who’s Buying?, Cro-Mags’ The Age of Quarrel, and Watchtower’s Energetic Disassembly. But Tesla’s aural introduction to the world reminded me why I got into hard rock and heavy metal in the first place – rocking guitars, soaring vocals, and infectious-as-hell choruses will always do the trick.

Twenty-three years later, however, I have plummeted even further into the abyss as is evidenced by my Top 10 list from last year – Jucifer, Trinacria, Matriden, The Berzerker – these are not common household names with chant-along verses that make women rock out and big burly dudes scream about love. Subsequently, I was not expecting much from Tesla, despite the fact that 2008 was The Return of the Old Fart with everyone from Testament to Heaven and Hell to Mickey Rourke making unbelievable comebacks.

I am happy to report that Tesla most definitely receive the Old Fart seal of approval.

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I’m gonna get some of you to buy the new Buried Inside album if it kills me.

Last month the band posted a new song, “V,” on their MySpace page; the song comes off of Spoils of Failure, the band’s first new album in what feels like for-ev-er. Now a second new song, “II” (I’m noticing a theme here), has also been posted.

And it’s awesome. This band is just awesome. I’m pretty confident that this album is gonna be awesome. Check out the song and revel in the awesome awesomeness with me.

Spoils of Failure will be out on Relapse on March 3 here in the States and March 9 everywhere else. Awesome!

-AR

Kreator’s latest, Hordes of Chaos, is driving metalheads everywhere absolutely batty (read our own Satan Rosenbloom’s review here), and now the band has released a video to go with the title track. And while I’m sure the idea of two bare chested barbarians brawling seemed incredibly metal during pre-production meetings, it really just comes off as incredibly homoerotic. I mean, what is this, a Manowar video?

-AR

Wrath, Lamb of God’s highly anticipated new album, opens with a track entitled “The Passing,” which has to be one of the best soft intros ever not written by Metallica in the 80s, before exploding with a typically rockin’ riff on the first real song, “In Your Words.” It’s a rousing start, and one which might lead the listener to think that Wrath is gonna be another winner from one of the American New Wave’s most popular and widely adored bands.

And then something strange happens: you wait for a chorus that never really arrives.

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I’ve always loved Stone Temple Pilots and refuse to make any apologies about it. Found this video at HardRockChick.com of Stone Temple Pilots dressed up in full KISS makeup for a show in 1993 at The Roseland Ballroom in NYC, and it goes to prove what I’ve been saying all along; STP were always just a modern version of their classic rock heroes, unfairly thrown into the whole grunge / alternative axis by some marketing minions in a major label conference room. Here they are performing “Crackerman;” look at that audience go apeshit. Also: is Weiland actually playing that guitar or just hamming it up as part of the Paul Stanley shtick?

Rumor has it that the DeLeo bros. are working on material for a new STP album while Weiland finishes up his solo tour. No word yet on the status of the pending lawsuit with Atlantic Records.

DeLeo bros. 4-evr!

-VN

As threatened previously, I have decided to see Chris Cornell live in concert this Spring, my perverse fascination getting the best of me. Apparently, he did a handful of North American gigs last year, including an autumnal jaunt through select Western U.S. and Canadian cities. From glancing at some of those setlists, it appears that most of those performances were exclusive showcases of material from Scream, the delayed Timbaland-produced album now due out this March. (Those who buy a ticket to these shows will get a free digital copy of the album upon release.)

What’s truly unsettling, however, is what else I stumbled upon in my Intarweb searching: a Verizon-sponsored website that allows fans to create horrible mash-ups of new Cornell tunes and Soundgarden classics. Trust me: you will never think of “Jesus Christ Pose” the same way again.

-GS

If you’re at a show and any of the following descriptions apply to you, then, congratulations, you are probably the biggest douche bag at the concert. Seriously, kill yourself.

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Can you think of a more fitting way to celebrate bloody ol’ St. Valentine’s Day than by a couple tunes from the legendary band Death?

Me neither. Here’s the first two tracks from 1995′s Symbolic…

DEATH - “Symbolic”

DEATH – “Zero Tolerance”

-KW