CHIMAIRAAAAAAAAAA
Holy crap, people are getting The Infection tats already? That’s fucking devotion.
ANYWAY, here’s some cool Chimaira shit you should know about:
Archive for March, 2009
METALLICA TO PLAY SXSW?
From Austin360.com:
Austin Powell of the Austin Chronicle says he’s received confirmation from the Metallica camp that the metal superstars will indeed be playing Stubb’s on Friday March 20 at 10 p.m. as part of the “Guitar Hero: Metallica” showcase…
Roland Swenson of SXSW was not too happy with Thursday’s “Off the Record” scoop, however. “He didn’t get it from us,” Swenson said. “We were told not to confirm anything and we’re sticking by that.”
So, let’s say this is true. Is it even worth attempting to get in? Seeing Metallica in a 2,100 capacity venue would be a priceless experience, but is it worth potentially having to wait on line for hours? Yours truly and Kip will be blessed with press credentials, but I still find it hard to believe that 10,000 indie rock-loving pretend Metallica fans who also have badges/wristbands won’t be trying to get in, too. Worth a shot, I guess?
-VN
METALSUCKS PROUD TO SPONSOR RELAPSE CONTAMINATION TOUR FEATURING OBSCURA, GRAVES OF VALOR, AND ABYSMAL DAWN
Full confession: I just cut and pasted the following from our friends at Metal Injection, who are also sponsoring this totally excellent tour. BUT, at least I am admitting it and linking to them, which is more than I can say for certain other sites that have recently done the same to MI (and us, for that matter).
So…
Metal Injection MetalSucks strives to only sponsor the best, and we definitely did it this time, as we are one of the presenting sponsors of this year’s Relapse Records Contamination tour featuring 3 of the hottest up and coming Relapse acts: OBSCURA, GRAVES OF VALOR and ABYSMAL DAWN. The shredding will be at an all-time high and we will be sure to be at the NY show to catch all the action. Special guests are still to be announced for some dates, so be on the lookout for those. Also, we will certainly be doing a ticket giveaway for each stop of the tour early next month. Full tour dates after the jump…
DAATH ARE “SILENCED”
Quick tip for anyone looking for a good death metal fix: Revolver are hosting a new Dååth track, “Silenced,” from the band’s excellent forthcoming album, The Concealers. There’s also an interview with the band about the track. Here’s an excerpt:
MARTEN HAGSTROM OF MESHUGGAHHHHH!! THE METALSUCKS INTERVIEW
By all accounts, the Meshuggah / Cynic / The Faceless tour earlier year was exactly the masturbatory dude-fest it promised to be from the get-go. With a lineup like that, how could it be anything less than completely mindblowing? Before the show I had the opportunity to catch up with Meshuggah guitarist Marten Hagstrom. I asked him about the touring lifestyle, how the band’s sound has evolved and changed over the years, Meshuggah’s now near-legendary cult status, and one question that really got his goat about the hoardes of Swedish melodic death metal bands that have grown to popularity in recent years. Our chat, after the jump.
JOIN US AT SOUTH BY SOUTHWEST!
MetalSucks is proud to present, along with our friends at The End Records, an actual Official South by Southwest 2009 Showcase! Kip and I will be rockin’ with our cocks out in Austin, TX non-stop from Wednesday through Saturday while Axl and a particularly clever MS Mansion Monkey named “Higgins” hold down the fort here in NY. You’re likely to catch us at many of the awesome metal-flavored SXSW events going down this year (including but not limited to Full Metal Texas), but you will absolutely catch us at the kick-ass MetalSucks / The End Records showcase at The Ale House Pub on the eve of Thursday, March 19th. The killer lineup includes Junius, Hull, These are They, Goes Cube, Tub Ring and Early Man — holy fuckin’ shit!!
Set times and location after the jump. See you there.
WHY ON EARTH WOULD WE POST ANOTHER DOPE VIDEO?
Because they’re freakin’ HILARIOUS, that’s why!
I actually did try to listen to Dope’s new album, No Regrets, on Monday night. I did not make it very far.
-AR
[via Headbanger's Blog]
HAVE I MENTIONED MY SERIOUS MAN CRUSH ON TRENT REZNOR THIS WEEK?
Headbanger’s Blog just alerted me to the fact that Trent Reznor allegedly left the following message on Twitter:
“You know that feeling you get when somebody embarrasses themselves so badly YOU feel uncomfortable? Heard Chris Cornell’s record? Jesus.”
All I have to say is this:
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
As you were.
-AR
P.S. I know what you’re thinking: “What the fuck does that picture of Eliza Dushku have to do with Trent Reznor or Chris Cornell?” And the answer is, as far as I can tell, nothing. I did a Google image search for “Trent Reznor” “Chris Cornell” in hopes of finding a photo of the two singers in friendlier times, and instead the picture of Dushku sticking out her chest came up. And since she’s really hot, I thought, hey, why the heck not?
AT LEAST THIS SEPULTURA VIDEO DOESN’T HAVE ANY HALF-ASSED REFERENCES TO KUBRICK
Gee. Sepultura are really giving this A-Lex bull pucky the full court press, huh? They just released one mediocre video less than a month ago, and already they’re on to the next one – this “live” clip for “What I Do.”
I gotta say, I’ve never seen the Derrick Green version of Sep live, but this actually does make the show look kinda fun. Almost makes me wish they were playing this song instead:
KARL SANDERS’ SAURIAN EXORCISMS IS NILE WITHOUT THE METAL
Thursday, March 12th, 2009 at 12:00pm by David Bee Roth
Q: What’s the heaviest part about Nile?
A: Karl Sanders
Now that’s only half a fat joke. Anybody could be the fat guitarist in Nile compared to Dallas Toller-Wade’s scrawny guns, but my main point is that Sander’s has a beastly metal persona to match his physical presence: from being a roadie for Morbid Angel to masterminding one of the heaviest bands ever (fact), the dude is a true metal lifer and the world is a heavier place with him on it. The guy just has great enthusiasm for the genre; in interviews he never hesitates for a second to throw the horns in any situation where it’s even mildly necessary. His fanatic endorsement of guitar companies (usually based on how metal the headstock looks) is probably one of the greatest testaments to career satisfaction I’ve seen. This motherfucker loves doing what he does.
SHRED MY FACE OFF
If there’s one thing I love about shred… ok, fine, I love pretty much everything about shred. But a favorite pastime of mine is watching the facial expressions of one-man shred guitar virtuosos. Here, Rob Marcello of Danger Danger gives us some choice nuggets. Pain, bad-assery, confusion, surprise, indifference, anger, mouthing the notes, it’s all there. The best is the sequence from 1:15 to 1:25; the eye-roll followed by the horns, followed by a nod to the Asian dude mysteriously perched on the side of the stage. Priceless.
-VN
THE NEW HEAVEN AND HELL ALBUM COVER IS METAL AS FUCK
Look: I don’t want to play into any kind of imaginary, percevied rivalry between Ozzy Osbourne and Dio-Sabbath Heaven and Hell. They are two separate entities. There’s no reason one has to be “better” than the other. Who cares, right? I mean, all parties involved are getting older and closer to death, which means that people will kinda naturally start to talk about their legacies, but so what if Ozzy’s next big project is some terrible sub-This is Howie Do It variety show on Fox while Black Sabbath are making what I’m 99.9% sure is going to be an album so rocking you’ll have no choice but to rape the neighbors’ cat? I mean, it’s totally irrelevant to the conversation, right?
Anyway, here’s the album cover for H+H Music Factory’s The Devil You Know. Yes, that giant eyeless demon appears to be holding someone who was not only crucified but stuck with hundrerds of additional nails. Yes, somewhere Kerry King and Larry Carroll are pissed they didn’t think of it, first.
The Devil You Know will be released on April 28. A first single, “Bible Black,” should be coming soon.
-AR
SINCE YOU ASKED… SOUNDSCAN NUMBERS FOR THE WEEK
Lamb of God’s Wrath dropped 67% to #12, moving a still very respectable 22,146 units. They should cross the 100,000 mark next week. God Forbid’s Earthsblood dropped 54%, just barely out of the Top 200, but still shifted 2,493 units (check last week’s debut numbers for both releases here). Cannibal Corpse moved 1,389 copies of Evisceration Plague in their 5th week on the chart, and will cross 20,000 cume next week. Score! Elsewhere, acts like Nickelback, Hollywood Undead and Kid Rock shifted way too many albums, and that’s really all you need to know.
By the way people, these Soundscan numbers do include both physical and digital albums.
-VN
POLL: WHO WAS/IS THE MOST IMPORTANT MEMBER OF METALLICA, PAST AND PRESENT?
The question is simple enough but the answer sure ain’t easy. Who was or is the most important member of Metallica, past and present? Take all things into consideration — musical ability, songwriting, charisma, performance, motivation, and intangibles, aka the “X” factor. For the sake of keeping things realistic, I’ve left out original bass player Ron McGovney, but I can’t imagine any of you would’ve voted for him anyway; and if you’re that one dude who would have, congratulations, you’re a douchebag.
Vote below and tell us why in the comments!
n
{democracy:40}
VIDEO FOOTAGE FROM AN ALTERNATE UNIVERSE IN WHICH KERRY KING WAS A MEMBER OF PANTERA
So it’s a slow news day. I mean we’ve gotten some press releases but nothing really exciting.
So a-sniffin’ around YouTube I did go, and I found this pretty cool footage of Kerry King playing three songs with Pantera on two separate occasions.
First up is a rendition of “Raining Blood” from 1989.
OVERPRICED MUSIC FESTIVAL GETS MARGINALLY LESS SUCKY
All Tomorrow’s Parties festivals have a pretty irksome format. Essentially, no matter where they’re held, it’s so out-of-the-way that in order to attend you’re compelled to stay at some overpriced resort. Ticket prices aren’t exactly cheap to begin with, so what started out as a neat weekend with bands you love rapidly becomes tough to justify in these doleful economic times. Up until now, this coming September’s lineup for the Catskills, NY weekender didn’t have much for heavy music fans to get pumped about, but today’s announcement that both The Jesus Lizard and The Melvins are scheduled to perform on the Friday and Saturday nights, respectively, changes that – sorta.
GUITAR HEADBANG HERO
Really? Yes, really. That sound you hear isn’t just the craptastic floppy bass of Korn, but the official death knell of the Guitar Hero / Rock Band / music video game axis. Yup, it’s officially over. Deader than MySpace in 2007.
-VN
[via Revolver]
SOILWORK’S PETER WICHERS: THE METALSUCKS INTERVIEW (FINALLY!)
Watching Peter Wichers play with Soilwork last month at New York’s Highline Ballroom was like witnessing a homecoming of sorts. Sure, it wasn’t the very first show back for Wichers, a founding member and key songwriter who recently returned to the group after a four-year hiatus, who had already been playing with the band for weeks on tour with Darkane, Warbringer and Swallow the Sun. Still, it just felt so right. Without Wichers, Soilwork was like a lumbering beast doing its best Soilwork impersonation… but it wasn’t quite Soilwork. Sworn to a Great Divide was a decent album, but “decent” was exactly as far as it went. Before the show I caught up with Wichers to ask him about the circumstances leading to his return to the band, balancing life on the road and life with a family, what it’s like to play someone else’s material in your band, his production work on the Nuclear Blast Allstars project and Warrel Dane solo record, and what the future holds for Soilwork. Our chat, after the fold.
RAZOR OF OCCAM’S PROBLEM MAY BE A GOOD PROBLEM TO HAVE
The problems most people have with black metal – shitty production, sloppy musicianship, lack of substantial riffs – are solved in the realm of blackened thrash. While using the skeletal elements of black metal (tremolo picked minor key riffs with raspy vocals), the genre forgoes those relative weaknesses and makes black metal a matter of ball-kicking fury instead of grouchy Satan/Odin worship. Of course, blackened thrash’s need for speed and punishing fretwork sacrifices the subtle emotional depth and dynamic intensity of good black metal, and increases the possibility of a skin deep encounter. Good blackened thrash, though, is like Pringles: despite its dubious nutritional value, it’s impossible to not consume as much as possible at once. (Skeletonwitch and Absu are great examples, providing relatively varied songs to maintain interest throughout an entire full length of raspy shouting and relentless, frosty jackhammer riffing.) Razor of Occam aren’t as successful, drifting into same-y territory after a while, but certainly are quite enthralling for a song or two. And perhaps, according to late and (very) great comedian Mitch Hedberg, this make Razor of Occam’s Homage to Martyrs the pancakes of blackened thrash – all exciting at first, but then by the end you‘re fucking sick of them. Though, in staunch defense of RoO, pancakes are by no means a commodity worth getting rid of just because they’re good in small doses. Nor does this make Homage to Martyrs a bad album, just a hard to take all at once.
GORGOROTH v. GORGOROTH: THE RESULTS!
MS Maniac Kye has alerted us to the fact that Gorgoroth’s official website has posted an update regarding the long-brewing Gorgoroth naming rights battle, in which Gaahl and King ov Hell attempted to trademark the Gorgoroth name shortly before quitting the band. And…. the verdict has come down in favor of Infernus:
Oslo City District Court has today delivered a verdict on the main question in the Gorgoroth trademark case, which took place at the end of January 2009. The court has decided that King ov Hell’s trademark registration # 243365 of the band name Gorgoroth is NOT valid and shall therefore be deleted. The court states that King ov Hell and Gaahl excluded themselves from the band Gorgoroth when they tried to fire Infernus in October 2007. The court further states that Infernus cannot be excluded from Gorgoroth, unless he himself decides to quit. Infernus is very pleased, but not surprised, by this verdict. The remaining issues concerning financial matters and such are yet to be decided upon.
I’m not a big enough Gorgoroth fan to care much one way or the other, but presumably some of you will be extremely excited/outraged about this development. Battle it out in the comments section.
-VN
