Hello, my Metalsucks children.  I write you on this day of rest from a flat in London as I recover from 3 days in Donington where I witnessed this year’s Download Festival.  I know a lot of you probably saw the live streaming on the festival site, so I won’t waste your valuable internet surfing time with bad Youtube clips (well, just a couple).

Why is Anton OyVey in the United Kingdom you ask?  Three words: FAITH NO MORE and three more words: AMERICAN EXPRESS POINTS.  Years ago, I had the chance to go to the holy land of Israel for free and turned it down.  But when my musical deity, Mike Patton, got back together with (most) of Faith No More, I couldn’t miss it.  Unfortunately after I had booked my flight they announced a pre-Download play at Brixton Academy, which everyone here tells me was one of the greatest concert experiences of their life. But I did get to see their first festival show in over a decade along with some other amazing (and not-so-amazing) bands.

So, on to my latest metal gospel.  If you don’t know about Download, it is the biggest UK rock and metal festival that started in 2003 and takes place at the same legendary location as the “Monsters Of Rock” Festival (back before most of you ended up being the lord’s little mistakes).  This year’s attendance was said to be over 75,000 people and had a very diverse lineup of metal, rock, classic rock and even some electronic. Three days, four stages and 120 bands, so I obviously was not able to see them all.  Here are two sentence reviews of each band I had the chance to witness (or that people were buzzing about):

Click to read more…

So, Chickenfoot released a new video last week. Chickenfoot of Hagar, Anthony, Satriani and Smith fame. Chickenfoot of selling over 49,000 albums (!!) during their album’s first week on the charts fame. Chickenfoot, recipients of a collective MetalSucks Haterade Mafia shrug. The video is basically just a collection of candid, studio, live performance and “goofing around” shots, which given the band’s makeup and selling points makes a whole lot of sense. And the fact that it’s so low budget is kind of refreshing, playing down the celebrity status of the band’s members. The perfect video for a ho-hum but serviceable rock song.

In other news, Eddie Van Halen is probably still saying Michael Anthony quit Van Halen and Michael Anthony is probably still saying he was kicked out. Same shit different day.

-VN

Acclaimed documentary and recipient of “Top 5 Metal DVDs of 2008” status, Heavy Metal In Baghdad — the moving documentary about Iraq’s only (at least at the time) metal band and the incredible obstacles they’re forced to overcome just to survive — is now available for streaming in its entirety on Hulu.com. Big ups to Vice / VBS.tv and Hulu for making this happen — more people need to see this incredible movie. In case you somehow missed it, watch the trailer below.

-VN

[Thanks: Bryan Wall]

At least twice per tour we end up at a strip club. You can’t avoid it. Sometimes you play places like Pop’s in St. Louis where the club is literally in a strip mall full of strip clubs, and everything else in a fifteen mile radius looks like its out of a Mad Max movie. If you want to get a bite to eat, you better go to that damn strip club or you are shit out of luck. Other times, there’s one nearby and dudes just wanna go party.

Click to read more…

Holy shit, does this band wish it were Meshuggah or what?

I just got an e-mail asking me if I want a copy of their album for review. Thank you, I’m sure you’re very a nice person, but, no, I already have enough shitty CDs sitting on my desk that I’ll probably never find time to review.

-AR

It was fun while it lasted… having places to buy music in NYC, that is. With Circuit City gone, Best Buy cutting shelf-space and many independent stores gone the way of Tower, the final nail was pounded into the coffin of physical music retail in New York City this weekend as the Virgin Megastore in Union Square closed its doors for the last time. Virgin was the only place left you knew you could get just about anything — albeit sometimes for a high price — and was always a fun diversion or time-killer that would inevitably end in some totally unnecessary but killer CD purchases. With MySpace and file-sharing now the prevalent way of finding out about new music it seems quaint that I’d often go into Virgin (or Tower) and buy CDs solely from sampling them on listening stations, but I can’t tell you how many good CDs I found that way.

With physical music stores an increasing rarity and a modicum of online music options (both legal and illegal), how do you get your music these?

n

[Thanks to Nona T. for the Virgin Megastore pic.]

This is an epic, classic progressive rock masterpiece that doesn’t even really start til about 3 minutes in! But you’re well off being patient and getting down with this ultra-melodic legend…

Interesting factoid — shortly after the recording of this awesome 3-song album, drummer extraordinaire Bill Bruford left the band to join another little prog outfit known as KING CRIMSON. Yelp!

If you’ve never heard a song by Yes before, get yr head out of yr rectum and be sure to check out “Heart of the Sunrise” as well (which was one of the first-ever Saturday Songs To Get Stoned To).

Now go smoke that weed — just don’t buy any (even though I’m about to).

YES – “Close to the Edge”, from Close to the Edge (1972)

-KW

So I just watched Faith No More’s Download Fest perf. I only saw one pair of boobies, and they were terrible boobies. On the other hand, FNM killed it and played “Take This Bottle” and Patton did part of “We Care A Lot” while doing sit-ups with the mic in his mouth, so ya take the good with the bad.

Speaking of the good with the bad: we started to unveil the results of our 21 Best Metal Albums of the 21st Century… So Far poll/list this week, and as usual, y’all had something to say about it:

• SP420 thinks it’s “unbelievable that so many people hold” the #17 album, Hatebreed’s Perseverance, “in such high regard.” Sp420, Jamey Jasta will be at your house in one hour to discuss.
• ionlanach thinks that the #18 album, Lamb of God’s New American Gospel, is “Mediocre, just like everything Lamb of God have ever done.” Even Randy Blythe’s BBQ sauce is offended
• I hate you thinks that if the #19 album, Mastodon’s Remission, “was your first metal album, you are gay” and that “metal is obviously not your fortay.” In other news, I hate you doesn’t know how to spell “forté” correctly.
• Fufkin calls the #20 album, Shadows Fall’s The War Within, “metalbore.” While I don’t agree with him (her?), that’s just clever enough for me not to make fun of Fufkin.
• Robert thinks that the #21 album, Slipknow’s Vol 3: The Subliminal Verses, is “sort of a pile of shit.” Which leads me to wonder: at what point does something go from being “sort of” a pile of shit to, y’know, an actual pile of shit?

Next week we’re countin’ down albums #16 through #12. The picks are clearly either gonna make you guys really fuckin’ happy or really fuckin’ mad. I’ll give you a hint, though: they’re all metal albums.

-AR

SPECIAL GUEST BLOGGER AMY SCIARRETTO OF ROADRUNNER RECORDS AND NOISECREEP

We recently polled a wide array of musicians, managers, publicists, label reps, and writers from within the world of metal to find out what they thought the 21 Best Metal Albums of the 21st Century So Far have been. Eligible albums were released between January 1, 2000 and  April 1, 2009. Each panelist turned in a ballot, with their #1 album worth 21 points, their #2 album worth 20 points, and so on and so forth. The ballots are now in and we’ll be counting down one album a day until we reach #1. Today we present the #17 album, coming in with a total of 113 points…

Hatebreed, Perseverance (Universal, 2002)
Jamey Jasta – Vocals
Sean Martin – Guitars
Lou “Boulder” Richards – Guitars
Chris Beattie – Bass
Matt Byrne – Drums
Produced by Matt Hyde

It took five years – FIVE!!! – for Hatebreed to follow up their classic, 26-minute opus, Satisfaction is the Death of Desire, with Perseverance. Making the fans wait till they were starved and parched probably would have served the band well even if the music wasn’t so toe-to-the-nuts, knuckle-draggingly brutal. Hatebreed fans were so desperately desiring new tunes from the band as we waited in the wings while Hatebreed wrestled themselves away from their label, Victory Records.

Click to read more…

GO HERE. THIS IS GONNA BE SICK.

-AR

[Update: Jim Ward tells Buzzgrinder a reunion isn't in the cards for him.]

Call it the latest in a long-line of inevitable reunions — At The Drive-In may be satiating my wish to get back together, reports ChartAttack.com:

Former At The Drive-In frontman and current Mars Volta singer Cedric Bixler-Zavala hinted that an ATDI reunion may be his next on his agenda in a recent interview with Drowned In Sound.

“We’ve been making amends with a lot of the members and giving some really good talks with them,” said Bixler-Zavala. “I wouldn’t mind it.”

Click to read more…

Steve Stamopoulos sent us this video of Rob Halford performing the Judas Priest classic “Delivering the Goods” with Skid Row on MTV. I remember watching this when it first aired, on whatever MTV’s equivalent of TRL was back in the day. The show was hosted by future ex-The Panic Channel vocalist, Steve Isaacs, who was maybe the last (only) cool VJ in the channel’s history.

There’s a studio version of this on the Skids’ most forgettable covers EP, B-Side Ourselves. It’s fun to watch this video, though, ’cause a) the song rocks and b) Halford is dressed like trailer trash.

-AR

And the hits just keep coming: Marilyn Manson has now leant his vocals to a remix of a Lady GaGa song called “Love Game,” which is currently being hosted by Perez Hilton, a.k.a. the MetalSucks of douchey celebrities. And while there’s something kinda funny about Manson being involved in a pop song where a woman is saying “I wanna take a ride on your disco stick,” the song is otherwise, as you’d expect, completely fucking awful.

I don’t know much about Lady GaGa, but someone more in the know about these things than I recently told me that she’s going to be bigger than Madonna. If that’s true, I hope I die tomorrow.

-AR

Thanks to Josh Kidd for the tip. Actually, take it back. Fuck you, Josh.

DBR’s ace comment on our 19th Best Metal Album of the 21st Century… So Far (Mastodon’s Remission, for those keeping score at home) made me chuckle:

I remember hearing “March of the Fire Ants” for the first time on a Headbanger’s Ball compilation when I was a teenager and even though it took me a while to realize I actually liked it, that riff would get stuck in my head for days.

deedily deedily doo, deedily deedily doo, etc.

Deedily deedily doo; dead on, amirite???

It also got me thinkin’. What other metal onomatopoeias are there that are absolutely instantly recognizable? Aside from the obvious classics (“Smoke on the Water,” “Iron Man,” etc). So let’s play a little game here. Post your phonetic representation of a metal riff as a comment but do NOT post the name of the band or song — then let other commenters guess what song it is in the replies to that specific comment (yay threaded comments!). Go!

-VN

So if you’ve been reading this site for awhile, you know we’re fans of God Dethroned and their new WWI concept album, Passiondale. Sammy O’Hagar gave it four outta five horns, and we were very proud to host the exclusive album stream shortly before its release.

So it kinda kills me to say that the band’s new video, for “Drowning in Mud,” is terrible. I mean, some directors know how to take a shoestring budget and do something cool with it, and some directors apparently think putting one dude in the middle of a field in a fairly ridiculous looking military outfit and filming him running around in a wide shot and then adding some old-timey looking effects in post will suffice.

Those directors are dead wrong.

Still, I encourage you to close your eyes and just enjoy the music. ‘Cause Passiondale is a really good record.

-AR

MetalSucks is proud to be teaming with Roadrunner Records to give away two (2) VINYL copies of Slipknot’s awesome 2008 release, All Hope is Gone, in what we think is one of our coolest contests ever. Here are the rules:

1. Design your own Slipknot mask. This should NOT just be a variation of a pre-existing mask – your assignment is to design a whole new mask, not, say, just a new mask for Clown or another member of the band.
2. Post your design or a link to your design in our comments section below. MAKE SURE YOU REGISTER FOR THE COMMENTS WITH A VALID E-MAIL ADDRESS, as the winners will be contacted via e-mail.
3. You can do the design with Photoshop, as a collage, with pen, pencil, paint, magic marker, crayon, poop smears – whatever you want. The only rule is that it has to be original and it has to look cool.
4. Axl and Vince will choose their two favorite mask designs. The creators of those designs will each win a vinyl copy of All Hope is Gone.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS CONTEST IS OPEN TO U.S. RESIDENTS ONLY.

So there ya have it. Get crackin’ on those mask designs, ’cause this prize is sweet, and Axl and Vince are really looking forward to seeing what y’all come up with!

-Axl, Vince, and Everyone at MetalSucks

…the band’s performance will be webcast live and for free (the best price!) at the Download Festival website. The band takes the stage at 9 p.m. UK time (I’m assuming you cats can figure out what time that is locally for yourself) and is scheduled to play for nearly two hours.

So while watching FNM over the net obviously isn’t nearly as cool as being there (and our own Anton OyVey is there, lucky bastard), it’s a start.

Of course, many other bands’ perfs will be streamed live, too, so if for some reason you’re a ree-ree who doesn’t like Faith No More, I’m sure you can find solace in Limp Bizkit or some shit.

-AR

This has absolutely nothing to do with metal, but everything to do with laughing your ass off. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Keep in mind that it’s 100% real.

-AR

If more mainstream hard rock bands sounded like Halestorm I’d like a lot more mainstream hard rock.

Meanwhile, Whitechapel remind me why deathcore is a waste of my time.

That is all.

-VN