Multiple people have RAVED to me about New York’s own Black Anvil over the past couple of months, swearing up and down that this band was the absolute brownest, stinkiest shit in metal right now.

And now the band has signed to Relapse.

Because I’m a total dick who doesn’t always heed his friends’ advice, I still haven’t listened to Black Anvil’s most recent release, Time Insults the Mind. But they’re doing a show at Public Assembly in Brooklyn this Sunday with some cool bands, including perennial MetalSucks doom faves Salome. Schedule permitting I’ll get to check out Black Anvil then. In the meantime, here’s some footage of the band I stole from Metal Injection. Watch it and then hit up Black Anvil’s MySpace page and let us know what you think.

Also, get details of the Black Anvil/Salome gig after the jump. Even if you don’t dig Black Anvil, Salome are an absolutely amazing band that need to be experienced live.

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We regret to inform you that tomorrow’s MetalSucks co-sponsored BLACKENEDFEST show (feat. Mayhem, Cattle Decapitation, Cephalic Carnage and Withered) in Boise, Idaho has been canceled. The entire Idaho readership of MetalSucks over the past month totals 695 people, but hey, if we can save even one of you a potentially long drive for nothing, it’s worth it. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

So, we’ve heard the new Darkest Hour album, The Eternal Return, and while I’ll leave a full review to someone else, I can tell you that the album shreds. With all due respect to Kris Norris, his departure from the band had no discernible effect on the quality of their music, and ex-At All Cost axe master Mike “Lonestar” Carrigan is a more than able replacement. Plus, saying his name makes me think of Spaceballs. Good times.

You won’t get to hear The Eternal Return in its entirety until Victory releases it on June 23, but in the mean time, the band has posted another new song, “Devolution of the Flesh,” on their MySpace page. Check it out; you’ll only hate it if you don’t like to rock.

-AR

Voivod and He Is Legend both released new songs this week on their MySpace pages. There is no common theme here other than that I dig the new stuff from both bands and that they’re both worthy of ya’ll’s attention. And since it’s Friday, the MetalSucks Monkeys are cranky and aren’t coming up with any clever headlines or puns.

The new Voivod sounds pretty much like Voivod; it’s the last album that will feature contributions from the late guitarist Piggy, and the band claims it’ll be their last effort ever. The new He Is Legend is easily their best and most focused work yet… I’ve listened to this song at least 5 times already this week.

Voivod releases Infini on June 23rd via Relapse Records (pre-order here) and He Is Legend drops It Hates You July 21st on Tragic Hero (pre-order here).

-VN

I saw Municipal Waste live on that Lamb of God tour last month, and I have a whole new level of respect for these dudes. The band’s latest, Massive Aggressive, comes out August 25 on Earache, and I, for one, am pretty friggin’ excited.

Check out the artwork below… it’s so metal I could tie it around Lars Ulrich’s legs and sink that fucker to the bottom of the ocean.

-AR

A lot of you have e-mailed us over the past few weeks to express excitement for the October release of the metal-themed video game Brutal Legend (trailer above), which stars the voice of Jack Black as as “a heavy metal roadie who is transported to a mythical ancient world where he is called upon to fight evil.” Or something.

As far as I can tell, the excitement for the game comes from a) Black’s participation and b) the fact that there’s going to be a metal game that isn’t a rhythm game (e.g., Guitar Hero).

Unfortunately, Variety reports that a lawsuit might hold up the release of the game:

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When Axl posted our Blood Has Been Shed exclusive news bit yesterday, he hinted at a full interview with Killswitch Engage’s Howard Jones and Mike D’Antonio; and here she is. Chatting with Howard and Mike was more like shooting the shit with some old friends than it was a formal interview, even though we’d never met the dudes before. Howard and Mike told as all about the new album, working with producer Brendan O’Brien, the decision to self-title the new record, their work in Blood Has Been Shed and Overcast respectively, the band’s writing process, what it’s like to play arenas, and more.

Howard was sporting a sick beard so naturally we had to comment on it, and that’s where things started:
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Congrats to “canea” for winning last week’s funny photo caption contest. Canea gets a limited edition super-sweet Sunn O))) double-disc vinyl set of their new album Monoliths and Dimensions, which came out last week. The winning entry:

“I come for your jellybeans. But only the black ones.”

This week we’re giving away a guitar signed by God Forbid. But here’s the cool part; the guitar also has a bunch of other signatures on it. We’re guessing they’re by some past or present Century Media artists, as CM has been kind enough to donate the guitar for this contest — but who knows? It could be Brian Fair, it could be Jeff Loomis, or it could be some schmuck in the mailroom who thought it’d be funny to sign the guitar. Maybe you can figure it out: check out pictures of the guitar here, here and here. But regardless, it’s got God Forbid signatures so that’s pretty fuckin’ cool, right?

Come up with a funny caption to the below photo and the guitar shall be yours.

The cycle begins. I used to not think that I could play and drink onstage. I never ever ever touched drinks or smoked weed before a show. I came from the school of thought that you needed to have your brain fully functional for the show.

Well, pre-show jitters would occur. I just would notice that parts of my body were trembling. Then the adrenaline rush would start. And I noticed that it became very, very difficult to get my brain and my hands to get onto the same page. There’s something about being in fight or flight mode which makes it hard to focus on very precise picking and things of that nature. In the midst of an adrenaline high mixed with nervousness, interesting things happen. Parts of songs can be completely forgotten. What fret that solo starts on can become a challenging thing to remember. Basic song structures can seem suddenly hard to remember. Etc., etc., etc. Sounds like the behavior of a stoned person, but it’s really just the behavior of a really hyped-up nervous person. I started thinking to myself that maybe this isn’t my brain functioning at its fullest potential. This is my brain redlining itself and hindering my ability to play.

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Tomorrow we are going to tell you what the list is all about. In the meantime, here’s one last little tease.

Last week we told you that the list is actually the result of a poll, and that certain members of certain bands all participated in the poll.

Managers, publicists, and labels reps who work with, have worked with, or in some cases even discovered the following bands also participated in the poll:

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Reader Josh Kidd just tipped us off to the existence of an Israeli black metal band called Dagor Dagorath. And I, uh, actually can’t tell if they’re really Jews or not. For one thing, there are other Israeli black metal outfits with no Jews (see: Melechesh), and for another thing, Wikipedia tells me that “Dagor Dagorath” is ” is a fictional battle described in the legendarium of J. R. R. Tolkien.” (And, yes, I did have to look it up. I am indeed a dork about many things, but Tolkien bores me to tears.) So, nothing Jewey about that.

I also Wikipedia‘d (it can be a verb, right?) the name of DD’s new album, Yetzer Ha’Ra, and it does have Jewish connotations:

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One of the most disappointing aspects of Guitar Hero: Metallica was that you have to play with nu-’Tallica, not the Burton or even Newstead-era band we all know and love (I’m told older versions of the Four Horsemen are available as “unlockable content,” but there’s only so many hours in the day and these snarky blogs ain’t gonna write themselves.). That being said, at least the makers had the good taste to not pretend that Robert Trujillo was in the band when they recorded Master of Puppets.

Now comes this 56-second bootleg clip of Guitar Hero: Van Halen, taken at recent nerd fest videogame convention E3. At first I was like “Sweet! Look, it’s DLR and EVH when they had long hair! CLASSIC HALEN ROOLZ!!!!”

And then I saw Fatty Ding Dongs Van Halen. Who not only wasn’t in the band during the early days of VH, he wasn’t even, y’know, FUCKING BORN YET. This like when the band tried to replace their cover art photos of Anthony with ones of Fatty Ding Dongs; even Axl Rose isn’t a big enough douche vag to try and completely re-write history. Bogus. Fucking bogus.

That all of this comes in the midst of EVH claiming and Michael Anthony denying that Anthony actually quit the band, and, well, it’s enough to make you wanna listen to fucking Chickenfoot. Christ.

-AR

Speaking to Spinner.com earlier this week, Trent Reznor said of his former protegé, Marilyn Manson, “drugs and alcohol now rule his life.”

And now this BBC interview pretty much seems to prove it.

This is funny/sad, and worth a listen even if (or maybe especially if?) you don’t like Manson.

-AR

[via Blabbermouth]

[Thanks: Andrew Robbins]

The MetalSucks co-sponsored Thrash & Burn tour has announced its inital run of dates. The tour will be headlined by DevilDriver and feature Despised Icon, Veil of Maya, and Thy Will Be Done, amongst others. Check out a trailer for the tour above, courtesy our friends and fellow co-sponsors at Metal Injection; then get the dates after the jump.

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I went to bed and when I woke up this morning a number of interesting bands had announced album titles and release dates for their new records. Wowza. So… here we go:

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Can we all agree that Iron Maiden 2000 comeback album Brave New World was a fucking phenomenal return to form? The return of Bruce-Bruce and the triple guitar attack of Dave Murray, Janick Gers and the recently rejoined Adrian Smith meant an end to the god-awful Blaze Bayley era and spawned an album full of a decade’s worth of pent-up vintage Maiden gems. The presence of Dickinson and Smith in the writing process made that much of a difference for Steve Harris, as the band cranked out now-classics such as “Ghost of the Navigator,” “Out of the Silent Planet,” the album’s title-track, and this, “The Wicker Man,” the album’s opening cut and first single. Maiden hasn’t matched this level of excellence in their two efforts since Brave New World, but at least we’ve got this one record that restored dignity to the once great band and no doubt allowed Maiden to return to their superstar, stadium World tour status of today.

-VN

[Sorry about the choppy video/audio midway through -- best I could find]

When people talk about neo-thrash bands like Warbringer, their words tend to carry a hint of disdain. I concede that it’s hard not to mention what they are (neo-Bay Area Thrash) before saying how good they are (extremely). But to brand Warbringer (or Municipal Waste) fetishizers of a bygone era implies something vaguely untrustable, beyond a mere affection for the Thrash idiom. And it’s true, there’s little about Warbringer that suggests originality. All the same, debut album War Without End and now the Gary Holt-produced Waking Into Nightmares are too awesome to be the creation of some tribute band; it’s simply not possible that Warbringer is comprised of five masters of mimicry. Rather, it’s clear they feel that Bay Area bands did shit right. And now Warbringer does, too.

But it wasn’t until now that any of this could be firmly argued. War Without End came out just last year, but Warbringer is already eons tighter, heavier, and catchier than 12 months and like 70,000 shows ago. There’s no shortage of energy at any of Nightmares‘ 40 minutes, which says a lot about the work of a band showing no aversion to unhurried instrumental passages. It also speaks volumes about vocalist John Kevill (both kill and evil appear in his name — that rules), who spends much of Nightmares precision bombing between two guitarists both clearly enjoying a hot streak, not to mix metaphors. Anyway, the instant it was announced that Gary Holt (Exodus) would be producer, we could draw conclusions with some accuracy about the sound (like the last few Exodus records), but Nightmares is equally defined by stylistic nods to Kreator and deranged, speedy Iron Maiden-isms.

And when we talk about energy, it’s the little touches: After the first chorus on “Forgotten Dead,” out rips a furious mini-solo a la “E.vil N.ever D.ies”. (Speaking of solos, at least three of them sound downright celebratory despite Nightmares’ otherwise bleak tone.) Meanwhile, Ben Bennett’s dissonant, honking bass on “Abandoned By Time” makes me think less of Tom Araya. In fact, Bennett is the band’s new secret weapon, turning in a couple tasteful solos (!) plus John Tardy-esque vocals (!!) on “Shadow From The Tomb.” Elsewhere, eerie instrumental “Nightmare Anatomy” might’ve appeared on Forbidden’s Twisted Into Form or, minus the always-soloing Alex Skolnick, The New Order by Testament. But Warbringer’s closest relative may be Sweden’s The Crown, with whom they share a knack for emphatic performance of mega-riffs. After all, great metal bands like Warbringer live and die by their riffs. So will I.

- ADF

Anso DF is a former music journalist who’ll see you at the Whisky next week and on daily Metal news column Hipsters Out Of Metal!

A few weeks back Vince and I got to interview Howard Jones and Mike D’Antonio about the new Killswitch Engage album. We’ll be running that interview soon enough, but for now there’s some news we just have to share.

You may recall that, back in January, BHBS guitarist Corey Unger confirmed that he was, at long last, writing a new album, but hinted that Jones and drummer Justin Foley (who is – duh – also in KsE now) might be involved in only limited capacity, if at all. Unger stated that “There is a vast mix of people who will be involved in this project including the original members. The line-up of musicians is very artistically driven based on the album’s style.”

Well, I wasn’t gonna get in a room with Howard Jones and not ask him about his involvement (or lack thereof) in a new BHBS record. Here’s what Jones had to say:

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Not much to say here: Metal Injection captured The Red Chord performing a new song, “Floating Through the Vein,” at Maryland Deathfest a couple of weeks back. And, uh, here it is!

The Red Chord should have a new album out later this year. Get excited.

-AR