I’m very pleased to share with y’all the exciting news that San Francisco’s bad-ass motherfuckers Kowloon Walled City will release its new album with Perpetual Motion Machine, home to other rad acts such as The Catalyst. Boasting a sound that gives noise rock royalty like Unsane a run for its money, the sludgetastic band has been blogging away about at its website about the recording of this as-yet untitled album, which will be available in LP and CD formats. From the studio photos I’ve seen, they’re subsisting primarily on Easter candy and energy drinks, though I’m sure there’s some Rice-A-Roni around there somewhere.

If you weren’t paying attention the last time I talked about this awesome band, you can still download a free copy of the Turk Street EP. Or, you can continue to be a fucking douchebag and not get wise to one of the best contemporary acts representing The New Wave Of American Noise Rock.

-GS

[Gary Suarez would really like to know whatever happened to predictability. He also writes for Brainwashed and usually manages the consistently off-topic No Yoko No. Say, why don't you follow him on Twitter?]

Way back when in the halcyon days of 2004 whilst MetalSucks Maniac Rod Blogojovich and I resided in a flophouse on the sand-washed lower peninsula of Michigan, there was a band that absolutely blew our minds named Whiskey Fistfight. Rod has written up a description of the band far more fitting and elegant than I could have, so I’ll let him steer the ship from here:

If ever a band lived up to it’s name Whiskey Fistfight did just that. Like a night that starts out simply with a couple shots of Beam and ends with four broken knuckles and at least a pint of missing blood, Whiskey Fistfight certainly looked innocent enough. They didn’t dress in black, they didn’t have long, stringy hair, and with nary a tattoo to be seen none could have suspected the pure, five-fingered brutality that emerged from these four guys once they got their Irish up. They fought as one brass-knuckled fist: guitar playing that would put Van Halen and Dimebag to task with it’s sheer dexterity and ruthless cruelty, inexorable machine gun smattering of drums, and over all singing like two gravestones rubbing together. Whiskey Fistfight was that rarest of beasts: young, visceral, intelligent, and downright sickeningly talented.

But Whiskey Fistfight seems to have gone AWOL like so many promising Michigan bands of yore. A few minutes of Google searching turned up a long-dormant PureVolume page and another long-dormant PureVolume page of a band called Guns of Navarone, a band formed “from the escrements of what was WHISKEY FISTFIGHT.” Their official website is down. No contact info. No MySpace. Anyone know the whereabouts of the members of this once fine band?

-VN

Following on the heels of the hilarity of Rate My Corpse Paint and Vince’s excellent discovery of Russian High School Black Metal Show N’ Tell, our bro-bros at Metal Injection have stumbled upon this little gem.

So that happened.

-AR

I’ve got a bit of a cold, so I’m not really up for writing some long drawn out post replete with nautical allusions, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t try and turn you on to a stellar post-hardcore band I’ve only just discovered. City Of Ships is a Virginia-based trio that recently signed to Translation Loss Records. Due out this June, the full-length debut Look What God Did to Us was produced by Andrew Schneider at Brooklyn’s Translator Audio, a studio that has served such Scraping Genius… faves as Made Out Of Babies and Zozobra, as well as the upcoming Celan (Chris from Unsane) album I’m so fucking stoked about.

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Invisible Oranges posted this pretty incredible footage of Metallica rehearsing in the summer of ’92 with Metal Church’s John Marshall, who was the band’s guitar tech that was called up to step in on rhythm guitars when Hetfield suffered severe burns from a pyro accident on the band’s stadium tour with Guns N’ Roses. I think it’s pretty surreal to be reminded that Metallica have to rehearse just like everyone else.

Invisible Oranges also pointed the way to this blog by Marshall about attending Metallica’s induction to the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame a few weeks back. It’s a fun read, but it also has an actual photo of Pushead, who I’ve never seen before, and who in no way, shape, or form looks the way I’d imagined. THE ILLUSION IS RUINED!!!

-AR

Wow. We haven’t done one of these since March. My sincerest apologies… shit happens, y’know? But since I sent out the prizes to the winner of that contest ages ago and have no fucking recollection whatsoever of the name of the band for that contest, let’s just start fresh, m’kay?

Alrighty. So. For our first week back, the fine folks at Roadrunner Records have provided us with some copies of the ultra-special super duper yowza edition of Machine Head’s 2007 instant classic, The Blackening. In addition to the album, you get two bonus tracks – a cover of Maiden’s “Hallowed By Thy Name” and a cover of Metallica’s “Battery” – PLUS a DVD with live performances, music videos, “making of” specials on those music videos, and, the piece de resistance, a “making of” documentary about the creation of The Blackening itself. So clearly, if you’re a fan of Machine Head or just good fucking metal in general, you need to own this. I’ve got three (3) copies to give away this week and then we’ll have a couple of more next week.

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 DOT net. We’ll randomly select three winners from everyone who gets it right, and announce his or her names next week.

Thanks to longtime MetalSucks Maniac/past Completely Unreadable Band Logo winner Kirsten Hogenson for suggesting this week’s logo… it’s a toughie to be sure!

-AR

This is too amazing for words. The best is the one dude who seems to have no other purpose than to headbang. Thanks to MS Maniac Chetan P. for sending this one in.

-VN

The Devil You Know, the new Dio-Sabbath record, is every bit as rockin’ as I’d hoped it will be. I’m working on a review before its release a week from today, but if you’re anxious to hear it – and you really, really should be – it’s currently streaming on The Leak, which, for better or worse, is a VH1 sub-site.

GO LISTEN TO THIS ALBUM. IT IS AWESOME AND PUTS ALL OTHER VETERAN BANDS TO SHAME.

-AR

Chimaira have never made the same exact album twice, so the only thing a listener can assume about a new Chimaira record is this: it’s going to be crushingly heavy. This band makes truly unpleasant, misanthropic Metal with a capital fucking “M.” Fuck, their most famous song is all about how they don’t like you very much.

The Infection is no exception. It sounds at once both distinctly like Chimaira and yet not precisely like anything the band has ever made before. The dichotomy of it, though, is that the vitriol is wrapped the catchiest and, in some ways, most optimistic music the Cleveland sextet has ever created.

Click to read more…

To celebrate Metallica’s induction into the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame a few weeks back, Fuse generously donated Metallica’s entire discography to one lucky MetalSucks reader. We asked you to tell us your favorite Metallica song and why it’s your favorite; we meticulously sorted through the entries (yup, we really read all of ‘em), and we’re happy to announce that Bryan Wall is the lucky man. Read Bryan’s hilarious “ball busting” entry in its entirety, below; it seriously had my laughing out loud all 3 times I read it!

My favorite song is Damage, Inc because it saved me from getting Tabasco Sauce on my balls. True Story.

When I was 18 and a freshman in college I pledged a fraternity (ridiculous things seemed important at 18, but I did it and it was fun and I really have no excuses), and it’s no secret that hazing takes place in fraternities. The one I was in was pretty notorious for vicious hazing, and vomiting and constant physical pain were how I spent my first 10 weeks of school. Great times. This being 1999, there were a few guys that were 2 or 3 years older than me that had grown up in the heyday of Thrash and were still very legitimate metalheads. They found out that I played guitar in metal bands before college, and that I also knew how to play almost every song on the first three Metallica albums. This alone saved me more misery than any ass-kissing could have ever done. One guy in particular, Jim, was an obsessed Metallica fan and would force me (I was a pledge, after all) to sit in his room and play the Master of Puppets album on his shitty electric guitar while he and his drunk friends screamed along. This usually lasted for hours, but it was fun so I really didn’t care.

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At some point late yesterday afternoon I smacked myself in the forehead and gave a postively Homerian cry of “D’oh!” as I realized that I had completely forgotten to give a listen to the new Suicide Silence song, “Lifted,” which is currently streaming on the group’s MySpace page.

And that’s why you shouldn’t smoke so much pot, kids.

So. “Lifted.” Alright, let’s talk about this bitch!

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Wowza. Greg Puciato posted this Sunday on his MySpace blog (and I think it’s important to note that it’s his MySpace blog – I don’t know if we can assume this represents the feelings of the entire band). It’s fucking War and Peace length, so wait ’til your boss isn’t around to start reading.

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I mean, look at these dudes. They be scary. Like, real “don’t wanna run into these guys in a back alley” scary, not faux “I wear corpsepaint to cover up for my small penis” scary. They nearly fuckin’ made me cry through sheer awesomeness at the 3rd stage of New England Metal & Hardcore Fest this past Friday; a band that bills themselves as “Old School Brutal Style” can’t go wrong. The Destro are at the top of my “psyched for a new album in ’09″ list at the moment; their new record was recorded just prior to NEMHF with Ken “Not a Child Molester” Susi of Unearth fame, so expect that shit to drop on Ironclad / Metal Blade some time this year.

Here’s their video for “Beast Burden” from their debut record released in 2007. I’m pretty sure they’ve got a new bassist now (and possibly even a new drummer) but rest assured the new lineup kicks even more ass than the last. Listen to more of The Destro on Myspace.

-VN

I’m sure Saner’s mother has never been prouder.

Read the entire article here.

-AR

…than with a clip of Down playing “Hail the Leaf” in 1995?

Look at that crowd, dude! That doesn’t seem very chill at all.

And, hey, why not? After the jump check out the band doing “Bury Me in Smoke” at the Download Festival in 2006. Vince and I were there, about as close to the front as you can get. Ah, the memories.

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A great time was had by all at this year’s New England Metal and Hardcore Festival. The bands killed, the people were quality, the Metal Insider panels were insightful, the beer was alcoholic, the pot potent, and the hippies at The Dead festival down the block were downright hilarious and provided for some good laughs. I had smashing fun live-Twittering the event (search for #metalfest on Twitter for all event updates posted by anyone, or look at the MetalSucks twitter account for just our updates), and made many new friends. Your MS reporters did 7 interviews, including a philosophy session with Haunted vocalist / blogger Peter Dolving, and those will be published in due time. But for now, check out my quick synopses of the bands that we saw after the jump.

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So this Burning Human record ended up being really fucking cool. Any time early press about a band loudly touts the fact that the band features a member of another more famous band (in this case drum-guru Jason Bittner of Shadows Fall) I’m naturally skeptical; but about 5 seconds of the new song “Tormented Mind” was really all I needed to convince me that Burning Human is completely capable of standing on their own as a brutal, crushing death metal band. Honestly, this is some of the finest straight up death metal I’ve heard since Bloodbath’s The Fathomless Mastery decimated my brain last year. “Tormented Mind” comes from their new album Ressurection Through Fire, produced by the legendary James Murphy (Death) and out on Koch/E1 tomorrow. Download it for no charge, guilt-free, below! Check out Burning Human’s MySpace page for an extra streaming track. Enjoy. [Click the below link to stream and download]

Burning Human – “Tormented Mind”

-VN

I keep hoping Slipknot will select “Gematria (The Killing Name)” as their next single, as the song is actually pretty friggin’ heavy. But hey, fuck do I know? They’re millionaires and I help run a website.

So the band’s new single is, in fact, “Sulfur,” which is a pretty good song itself. And I like the accompanying video. Slipknot is such a visual band that I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that they constantly release cool videos, but, hey there ya have it.

-AR

I’ve never had the privilege of seeing Goes Cube in concert, but I imagine a t-shirt wearing beardo turning to his flannel-weaering beardo friend and going “Listen to this one, broheim! This shit is so good!” about every single song they play. Such is the embarrassment of riches on Another Day Has Passed, the Brooklyn band’s first full-lengther after a string of sold-out EPs: thirteen varied, hard rocking buzzsaw tunes, and nary a bad one in the bunch.

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Scars on Broadway didn’t work out. I’m still not entirely sure why. There seems to be some consesus that their album sucked, but I didn’t think so at all (and neither did my colleague Sammy O’Hagar, who reviewed the record). In any case, it’s a moot point, because at the end of the day, all any of us really want is for System of a Down to get back together already.

And I suspect no one wants that more than drummer John Dolmayan, who apparently auditioned to be the new drummer for Smashing Pumpkins. Because there’s really only two possible reasons he might have done this:

1. He’s bored.
2. He’s broke.

For the sake of humor, let’s assume Dolmayan is broke.

Click to read more…