I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Norma Jean started to go downhill after Josh Scogin left. Maybe that’s just a coincidence, an incidental observation about a circumstantial event, but listening to The Chariot’s new song, “Evolve,” I’m inclined to believe there’s a connection.
All this talk of the Faceless touring with Atheist (are they literally the luckiest band ever or what?) inspired me to trawl YouTube for anything Atheist-related to share with ya’ll. In a moment of naivete I simply typed “atheist” into the search field and ended up with a bunch of religious propaganda videos. I even watched a few of them, and let me tell you, people on the Internet are fucking nuts. But you’re reading this here webernet site, so you knew that already.
Once I’d scratched my morning itch for hard-line right-wing religious propaganda I wised up and typed “Atheist band,” ending up on the following live clip of the band Atheist performing “Piece of Time” at Wacken in 2006. Considerably less crazy than the shit I’d watched earlier, but still pretty fuckin’ gonzo.
-VN
Okay, so The Black Crowes aren’t exactly metal, but, hey, I’m trying.
-AR
Greg Mottola’s one of those filmmakers you know even if you don’t know you know him: he’s directed episodes of Freaks and Geeks and Arrested Development, and his feature film credits include Superbad and, now, the coming of age dramedy Adventureland.
In all seriousness: I think Adventureland is the only movie I’ve seen this year that hasn’t made me wanna tear my eyes out and carpet bomb Hollywood. Maybe it just hit that right sentimental spot for me, but it feels like such an honest, hilarious, and heartbreaking portrayal of that age when you think you have it all figured out, and you quickly realize you don’t know jack shit about jack shit.
It also has a fantastic soundtrack. In addition to some awesome non-metal acts (The Replacements, The New York Dolls, Lou Reed, etc.), it has a chase scene set to Judas Priest’s “Breaking the Law” which is pretty much the best possible cinematic use of that song I could ever imagine. Couple with Mottola’s superb exploitation of “Panama” in Superbad, I have reached the conclusion that he would be a really, really awesome dude to hang with.
Here’s Priest doing “Breaking the Law” in 1982:
-AR
Seeing as we’re sponsors of the awesome Protest the Hero “Heads Will Roll” spring tour (also featuring The Number Twelve Looks Like You, Misery Signals, Scale the Summit and Fall From Grace), we figured it’d be fitting if we gave away a pair of tickets to each show date. Thanks to the fine folks at Vagrant Records, we’re able to do just that! The full list of tour dates is in the above graphic, and there is an additional date on May 15th in St. Paul, Minnesota at Station 4, not listed, that we will be giving away tickets for as well.
To win, sent an email to vagrantrsvp@gmail.com. Make sure the words “PROTEST THE HERO – (DATE / CITY / VENUE) – (FULL LEGAL NAME)” are in the subject line, written exactly in that format with the info for the show you’d like to attend. Only entrants who follow the instructions correctly will be considered for tickets. Winners will be selected randomly and notified via email if they are selected, and tickets can be picked up at door time at the will call window on the day of the show (winners will either be on Protest the Hero’s list or the Vagrant Records list).Good luck, and see ya in the pit.
We’re just a few weeks away from the release of the 21st century’s first Sabbath album, The Devil You Know, which, kind of miraculously, will actually feature a line-up people give two shits about. Seriously, if you’d told me ten years ago there’d be a new Sabbath album in 2009, I would have shrugged and wondered who Iommi recruited this go-round. But, no, it’s Dio-Sabbath, it’s really coming out, and it’s going to be kick-ass.
So. 2 things:
No, not Tool. But Berlin, Germany’s The Ocean certainly give them a run for their money in “best band ever” category. About a year ago Kip and I saw The Ocean headline a small NYC venue — before which we interviewed guitarist/mastermind Robin Staps over a round of whiskeys — and they literally made all of the opening bands look like little girls. And we’re not talking about slouchy openers, here — Withered, Lair of the Minotaur and Kylesa opened up, in that order — but the difference was just that stark in the live setting. The Ocean ruled, everyone else drooled in comparison.
…don’t.
We still haven’t heard the full album, The High End of Low, but the band has sent out a six song sampler, featuring three songs we’ve already heard and three brand spankin’ new ones. And while the songs aren’t terrible, exactly, they certainly don’t sound anything like the band that made Antichrist Superstar or, um, anything else from the original Twiggy Ramirez-era.
God bless Vagrant records for continuing to shell out $ for purty-looking Protest the Hero videos. Now three videos and over a year into the project we’re well past the point where a collection of home-vid live shots and backstage antics would pass for a music video, but instead we get this, a proper video for the song “Spoils” (from the jizztastic record Fortress). It’s not like this video is super-hi-fi like the now infamous “Van Breakdown Dance” video, but it’s pretty sexy, kinda like Rody Walker’s new beard.
Once you’ve watched the video, check out my interview with Walker. He talks a lot of shit. It’s fun.
-VN
Two excellent – albeit very different – upcoming metal releases are currently streaming in their entirety:
-AR
Vince and I are not in the MetalSucks Mansion right now. In fact, we haven’t been here most of the day. You’ve been reading stories we wrote earlier in the day and then auto-programmed to publish at their allotted times. Isn’t technology swell?
Why aren’t we working on the site right now, you ask? ‘Cause it’s Passover, that most metal of Jewish holidays. How metal? Why, Metallica wrote a song about it, of course!
So thanks to our pal Anton OyVey and his totally excellent blog, Bacon Jew (“I’m a Jew and I Love Bacon!”), for a) expressing our shared dread of spending too much time with our families (I don’t give a fuck who is still technically the youngest, I ain’t asking no more fucking questions), and b) posting this clip of Metallica performing said Passover classic on their Cunning Stunts DVD.
And if you don’t understand what “Creeping Death” has to do with Passover, head over to Bacon Jew to read the lyrics!
-AR
Apparently this comes from Pryor’s short lived ABC sketch show in 1977. I kind of can’t believe I’ve never seen it before.
Thanks to MetalSucks Maniac Erock2 for the tip!
-AR
The first time we spoke to Dååth guitarist Eyal Levi, it was purely about being a Jew. That’s all well and good, but now that Dååth are about to release an excellent new album, The Concealers (out April 21 on Century/Roadrunner), it seemed like a mighty good time to actually speak to the dude about, y’know, music n’ shit.
In addition to being a ridiculously talented musician, songwriter, and producer, Levi is also just one of those people you meet who is all-around good dude. After the jump, get Eyal’s thoughts on the band’s new album, the media and metal scene’s perceptions of Dååth, why ATL purp is tops, and more.
What’s that? Yet another of the summer’s best tour lineups will be sponsored by MetalSucks? Yes, yes, ya’ll!
Avant-garde psych metal band ZOROASTER, Indianapolis, IN doom metal trio THE GATES OF
SLUMBER and Belgian “über doom” unit SERPENTCULT (read DBR’s clever official review) will team up for the “North America is Doomed” tour this summer. Presented by Action! PR, Decibel Magazine and MetalSucks.net, the 14 city trek will kick off on August 1 in Chicago, IL and will hit major markets including NYC, Philadelphia, Boston, Cleveland, Toronto and Montreal.
On the topic of the tour, Zoroaster guitarist / vocalist Will Fiore states, “This tour is going to be so heavy, it’s scary! Each and every show is going to feature an amazing night of massive riffs, so come out and get lost. This is going to hurt…in all the right ways.”
Indeed, this tour promises to be even more metal than this guy. Tour dates and venues after the jump.
After the antics of the first day of the festival, I felt more than ready to get into day two with a healthy dose of music from the beginning. Unfortunately, that was not to be so for me, as at the time I thought I would be continuing on after SXSW into further ridonkulousness, all the way to a family vacation during Spring Break in Mexico….and today was the day that my renewed passport was meant to be FedExed to the flophouse where Vince and I were crashing.
When I had returned to said flophouse the night prior and to my surprise found an open couch in the living room right by the front door (where I was told FedEx homeboy would appear bright and early), I figured it prolly made the most sense to sleep right there on the ground floor as opposed to the stank upstairs sweat lodge where I would be sure to miss any sounds of door knocking.
Sadly, no FedEx arrived in the morning as promised — I was actually awoken by a phone call from Vince around noon wondering where the hell I had ended up last night. After a couple more hours my passport finally arrived, at which point I had to wait at least another hour for a cab to take me down to the action.
HOLY SHIT.
I still haven’t heard Chimaira’s The Infection. But because I’m a Chimaira dork, it was with great excitement that I listened to the fifteen second samples of each of the album’s ten songs on Amazon this morning. After the jump, my completely unfair snap judgement on thsi 150 seconds of new Chimaira music.
Silent Civilian’s 2006 debut Rebirth of the Temple was a really fucking solid record, a shining example of metalcore done right at the peak of the genre’s popularity. The riffs crushed, melding American core and Swedish shred with the now infamous Decibel-named “good cop / bad cop” vocal style, only at the time it hadn’t been beaten to death yet. Who woulda thunk that any member of Spineshank could shred so hard? Rebirth also benefitted from ginoromous Logan Mader production (Gojira, Psycroptic, Cavalera Conspiracy). I remember really digging the record at the time, so I was elated to hear that from a press release that Silent Civilian are working on a new record, Ghost Stories, for release this October.
News about Ace Frehley never ceases to amuse. There was the breaking press release announcing his brand new, straight-outta-1996 website, complete with animated gifs and Photoshop 101 text effects. And now there’s his first-ever video blog, a snapshot into the mind of this hopelessly out-of-touch legend. Watching this video is kind of like listening to my mom tell me she joined Facebook; there’s no way they really grasp the entirety of what they’re doing, but it’s a cute effort. Says Ace:
“By the way, that is me on MySpace and Facebook, and if you don’t believe me you can go to AceFrehley.com and you’ll find the link. It’s not brain surgery. (laughs) Hey, keep those photos, messages and all those great little anecdotes coming, because I do read them from time to time whenever I get a chance.”
That’s right, it’s not brain surgery, kids.
-VN
-VN
.jpg)
I was never a big Fear Factory person so someone please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, but did anyone ever really care about any of the members of that band who weren’t Burton C. Bell or Dino Cazares?
I ask because after about a year of speculation that the original Factory would be reuniting, it’s been announced that, yes, Bell and Cazares will now be working together again – but as a new band with a different, still to be determined name.
