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 #18 album, coming in with a total of 110 points…

Lamb of God, New American Gospel (Prosthetic, 2000)
Randy Blythe — Vocals
Mark Morton — Guitars
Willie Adler – Guitars
John Campbell — Bass
Chris Adler — Drums
Produced by Steve Austin and Lamb of God

Any fan attending any Lamb of God show in the last nine years has had absolute confidence in one aspect of the set list: they’re going to close with “Black Label.” It has been such a staple for the band that I can say with utmost certainty that should they continue for another nine years, this song will never go unplayed. Why would they rob their fans of the perfect closer? From the tension building intro with that insistent piccolo snare (dundundun pop pop pop pop pop pop dun dundun) to the crippling breakdown, there is so much finality in the song that an encore would undermine it completely. It’s the goddamn encore-annihilator! This is your last chance to dance, motherfuckers!!! This song makes teenagers want to rush each other to butt heads. When I was  just a wee sprite and I first saw the video, I thought I had finally discovered death metal. “Black Label” is violently heavy.

So could the message be any clearer on 2000’s New American Gospel when it appears as the opening track? Mike Tyson v. Hector Mercedes – 1985. First Round Knockout.

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Okay, fine — I’ll admit it: I’m on a non-weed kick. Or, lemme correct that — I’m on a non-weed buying kick. ‘Cause I’m still down to smoke from time to time but I get really compulsive about le ganj, and if me have a bag in me clutches, ima puffaleel every day of the week….which is all well and good in theory (not really), but seriously I’ve been doing that for way too long and I need to get ahold of myself before my brain dwindles down to a scant shred and I can’t properly form a sentence (let alone impart my wisdom to the youth of America). Will power, shmill power — that concept doesn’t really come into play when th’erb attaches itself to your lungs like black venomous goo on Spiderman.

And furthermore, in conjunction with all the painkillers I’ve been ingesting recently, it’s hard to drink whiskey AND smoke weed AND stand upright/keep my eyes open sometimes….so puffing before concerts and social outings has dropped to an all-time minimum for me lately. I don’t mind all that much, usually don’t miss the ol’girl, but shit yo, certain concerts have really been lacking for me lately, and I’m forced to wonder if smoking before a band goes onstage actually does make all the difference sometimes.

Is “stoner” rock/metal not even worth it without the pot?

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In a not-that-surprising turn of events that I predicted back when musicians first starting jumping on the Twitter train, NIN frontman Trent Reznor — former Twitter king — is now railing against the service, though not for the reason I initially thought. According to a lengthy blog post by Trent on the NIN.com forum [via Metal Insider], the Internet haterati and psychopaths appear to have gotten the best of Trent, and he’ll be pulling out of social networking entirely for the time being:

I will be tuning out of the social networking sites because at the end of the day it’s now doing more harm than good in the bigger picture and the experiment seems to have yielded a result. Idiots rule.

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Here’s Mr. Michaels, post-Tony Awards snafu:

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Hype can kill a record, or at least wound it at first. I had been told of the supposed greatness of Coalesce’s first record in a decade several times before Axl Rosenberg forwarded it to me last week for review: on the day it leaked back in April, a friend sent me a link to it and feverishly insisted I download it. I did not and forgot about it. Another friend, after hearing it, described it as “really weird, with a lot of stoner sorta parts,” pausing, before adding, “You’ll probably like it a lot.” Then Decibel gave it a 10 out of 10, a grade I’ve personally seen attributed only to Cannibal Corpse’s DVD retrospective last year. By the time I was ready to hear it, there was no way it could meet the expectation set for it unless it came with a solid gold statue of Betty White wrestling a hyrda with a sound similar to that. I was seemingly set up for disappointment – a legacy record that hit the desks and hard drives of folks with a weak spot for the band due to the part they played in their youth? – and it wouldn’t be as good as, say, Cynic’s Traced in Air or another of metal’s precious few decent comebacks. After a decade of bands ripping off Coalesce, how could anything they do sound fresh, let alone pull off anything that could stand up to their mythic catalog?

To be honest, I don’t know how, but they did. Rest assured, Ox is every bit the solid record you’ve heard it to be.

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Our friend and 21 Best Metal Albums of the 21st Century… So Far contributor Carlos Ramirez of Noisecreep has compiled yet another useless list so you all can argue, flame, and make snap-judgments on each others’ lifestyles and values (aka another day in the MetalSucks Haterade Mafia) based on musical tastes. Today’s list du-jour harks back to a time when high-pitched singers were all the rage and picks the best of that era. Though the list doesn’t actually bother to classify the top ten high-pitched singers of all-time in order, the fact that OMG I CAN’T BELIEVE _____ ISN’T ON THIS LIST should be plenty for ya’ll to get all hot and bothered about. If you ask us, Nitro’s Jim Gillette’s inclusion on this list is all that matters.

-VN

Alice in Chains have officially announced Black Gives Way to Blue as the title of their new, Layne Staley-less album. It will be released on September 29.

I know a lot of people – myself included – are really, really, REALLY cynical about this record, but if done right, it really could be their Back in Black. For now, let’s just say that there is 200% no album I’m more curious to hear this year, for better or worse.

Here they are doing “Again” with their new vocalist, William DuVall, at Rock am Ring in 2006. Vince and I have seen this DuVall fellow live in concert twice, and I think he’s at least worth giving a shot.

-AR

The Red Chord’s new album now has a name, Fed Through the Teeth Machine, which is, um, interesting.  Metal Blade will release the album later this year, but in the meantime, guitarist Mike “Gunface” McKenzie is shooting and editing an in-studio diary for our friends at Metal Injection.

Watch part three below. You can check out part one here, part two here, and a new song, “Floating Through the Vein,” here.

-AR

Tickets for the MetalSucks co-sponsored U.S. Thrash & Burn Tour — headlined by DevilDriver and featuring Despised Icon, Veil of Maya, Periphery, Thy Will Be Done and others — have now gone on sale, and if you pre-order by the end of today you’ll also receive a free tour poster, and, if you order 4 tickets, a t-shirt! By ordering today (I feel like I’m selling a fucking Ginsu knife) you’ll also be automatically entered to win the “Ultimate Thrash & Burn Tour Package.” Only one winner will be chosen, and will receive:

The Ultimate Thrash & Burn Tour Package includes:
- A Thrash & Burn guitar, provided by Washburn
- Dinner with one of the Thrash & Burn bands of your choosing before the show
- A T-shirt pack, including a shirt from each band on the tour and a Trash & Burn tour shirt
- An autographed poster signed by all of the bands

Check out the full list of tour dates after the jump, and pre-order tickets here; remember, this deal is only good through today.

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I won’t bore you with the specifics of the emotional fucking anguish I have been experiencing this week, but suffice to say, it has now come to this: I am currently enjoying quite the little cocktail of multiple substances all designed to help me relax. And while I do feel pretty dizzy and I’m having a hard time typing this and can’t figure out why the screen won’t stop moving, as though the images and words on the monitor were drifting listlessly across a lilting ocean, I do NOT feel sleepy and I do NOT feel less stressed out. Now it looks like my screen is in 3-D. That can’t be good.

But to stay on topic: even with all these legal and illegal pharmaceuticals in me, nothing made he feel happy happy joy joy until my RSS feed vomitted forth this headline from Blabbermouth:

FAITH NO MORE Kicks Off Reunion Tour; Setlist Revealed, Video Available

And now I can feel my shoulders loosen, crystallixed toxins forced out, my neck is relaxed, my head is light. And maybe that’s why it now appears that the words I am typing are growing ever closer and further away, but, hey, whatever ya call it, it’s grand.

Here’s some shitty videos from the gig:

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OK, maybe they are just a little deathcore. But they certainly don’t suck; 10 seconds into their new record In Shoals (out now on Lifeforce), I was already reconsidering my preconceived notions about this horribly-monikered German band. Where most modern death metal bands bite the riffs of Morbid Angel and Cannibal Corpse and mix them with large helpings of generic breakdowns, War From A Harlots Mouth (PS: What happened to that apostrophe, guys?) take their cues from headier bands like Meshuggah, Atheist, Dillinger Escape Plan, the very occasional Psyopus-style jazz freakout, and whatever other bands influenced the current Obscura/Psycroptic/Arsis axis of tech-death. Yeah, they sprinkle in breakdowns every now and then, but it’s less “let’s slow it down for the karate-chop kids in the pit” and more “this part fits perfectly right here.” Whatever it is, it’s extremely well-executed and it’s music for people who like their music a little more… complicated. Chops, chops and more chops, but shit — songs too!

Check ‘em out on MySpace and watch their video for “Crooks At Your Door” below. 

-VN

War from a Harlots Mouth – crooks at your door from simon wfahm on Vimeo.

SPECIAL GUEST BLOGGER BEN APATOFF OF APATOFF FOR DESTRUCTION & METAL INJECTION

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 #19 album, coming in with a total of 109 points…

Mastodon, Remission (Relapse, 2002)
Brann Dailor – Drums
Brent Hinds – Guitars/Vocals
Bill Kelliher – Guitars
Troy Sanders – Bass/Vocals
Produced by Matt Bayles

Mastodon’s first album erupts with a sound bite from Jurassic Park before unleashing twelve auditory beasts that absolutely wipe the floor with any CG Tyrannosaurus Rex.  From hectic, abrasive mathcore (“Crusher Destroyer”) to spacey, slow-building epics (“Trainwreck”) to a monolithic Thin Lizzy cover (“Emerald,” worth tracking down on the re-release,) four then-unknown southerners who’d barely discovered clean vocals already sounded like they could pull off everything.

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Horns up for the improbably named Jess Buttkus and Scott Deaner. They each correctly identified last week’s logo as belonging to the band Explosive Diarrhea, and for their troubles, they each win a special Roadrunner Records Top Shelf 2 Disc Edition of Type O Negative’s classic 1993 album, Bloody Kisses. Just remember, Deaner and Buttkus: you can’t go out if your boobs roots are showing.

This week the too too kind ladies and gents at Roadrunner Records have donated two (2) copies of cKy’s new album, Carver City, for us to give away. Alternative Press gave this album 4 outta 5 stars, and All Music called it “smart and unique,” praising its “seriously heavy riffs.” In other words, you need to check this baby out!

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 two winners from everyone who gets it right, and announce his or her names next week.

This week’s logo comes to us from Dublin reader Craig Duff. Normally I’d make some lame Irish joke here, but since Craig basically did my job for me, I’ll just wish you all good luck.

-AR

‘Cause he’s on a roof! Get it?!? I crack me up.

Anyways, here’s Thy Will Be Done’s new video, for “Earth’s Final Embrace.” The track comes from the band’s Still born release, Was and Is to Come, and the video was directed by David Brodsky. It’s an awesome song and fun video, so check it out, then read Vince’s interview with Thy Will Be Done front dude J. Costa. And don’t forget that Thy Will Be Done will be tearin’ new assholes all up and down these great United States this summer as part of the MetalSucks co-sponsored Thrash & Burn tour. Get dates and ticket info here.

-AR

[via Metal Injection]

When I was twenty years old, I was trying to stay awake during college classes, attempting not to get fired from my shitty job before I’d saved enough money to take one of those “middle class white kids backpacking through Europe” trips, and dating a girl who Vince liked to call “The Critic” for her alleged resemblance to the cartoon character of the same name.

John Laux is twenty, and he’s the guitar player for Warbringer, one of the top bands in the current thrash metal revival. He didn’t have to backpack through Europe because he’s, y’know, toured Europe. His band just released their second full-length, Waking into Nightmares (Century Media), which was produced by Exodus main main Gary Holt. If I get hit by a bus tomorrow, Laux will already have lived a much fuller, cooler life than I have.

I can’t hold it against the dude, though; he’s an awesome guitar player in an awesome band, and his success is well-deserved. John was recently cool enough to answer some of my retarded questions via e-mail. After the jump, get his thoughts on Warbringer’s latest, working with the legendary Mr. Holt, the perils of trying to help a drunken fan cross the border, and more.

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The same band that brought you the blackest album of all time has once against revolutionized the art of packaging recorded music by releasing the deluxe edition of their new album, Back From The Dead in a fold-out cardboard digipak — featuring 12-inch tall cut-outs of the band members — that takes 20 minutes to assemble.

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I have a beef with Krist Novoselic. Though he doesn’t know that I exist, I’ve written about him on my No Yoko No blog a couple of times. Nearly all of the music Novoselic has put out since his time with Nirvana I could pretty much do without, as he’s distanced himself from anything even remotely rocking. Of course, his membership in a reunited Flipper beginning in 2006 gave me hope that I’d once again hear something worthwhile from one of the first bassists that inspired me to pick up the instrument. Sadly, he left the seminal punk group holding the bag just prior to a U.S. tour this past Fall, forcing the band to cancel the dates on account of the short notice. In that band’s own words, Novoselic “has decided that touring is not something he wants to do, at this time.”

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Anyone following this year’s MetalSucks co-sponsored, Mayhem-headlined Blackenedfest tour should already know that this tour has been plagued from the start. First was the Marduk no-show (reportedly due to visa problems) followed by the Boise cancelation, then a message posted on Cephalic Carnage’s MySpace page this Monday announcing the band had decided to drop off the tour in Denver without any further explanation. The latest wrinkle is an exclusive, in-depth, first-hand report from Metal Injection roving reporter Justina Villanueva, who had been out on the road covering the entire tour for Metal Injection.

Reports Justina in her tour diary at Metal Injection:

I had my only Almost Famous moment of this tour in Denver, Colorado. We were not exactly in a descending plane but it definitely felt like we were. I watched Blackened Fest collapse within a matter of several hours. It wasn’t a short run of a tour but it’s demise was very short notice to the people involved.

Just after Withered left the bus to start their set, Cartel (tour manager) came onto the Cephalic/Withered shared mobile home to announce, “Guys, tonight might be the last night of the tour.” He started inquiring about who were the unnecessary people on the tour so he could free up bunk space. This included Sid, Leonard’s (Cephalic vocalist) son, and Chuck, Nick’s (Cephalic’s bassist) brother. Because we were in Denver, Cephalic’s home, the question at hand was easy to seal away: two free bunks. But, two free bunks doesn’t solve the extra 6 people still on Marduk’s money-swallowing bus. At that point in the night I knew one bus would be sent home and maybe some crew (most likely me too). But, I didn’t expect the actual outcome: a Mayhem only tour.

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1349’s Hellfire was pretty damn close to a perfect black metal album: nothing but top notch frostbitten riffs played at grindcore speed with Ravn’s lunatic vocals over them and production grimy enough to evoke the necessary rawness but not obscure the music at its heart. At once precise and uncompromising, the album eschewed the genre’s weak points and simply tore the guts out of whomever cared to listen. Much like Anaal Nathrakh, Hellfire was an example that I pointed to when people dismissed black metal as a poor/embarrassing man’s death metal.

Of course, this may be the bulk of the weight in my big ol’ bag of fucking disappointment with the band’s follow up to Hellfire, Revelations of the Black Flame. Just when the band were appearing to be brutal enough to ascend black metal’s negative connotations, Black Flame finds them taking an unfortunately masturbatory turn into the realm of avant-garde black metal, at once trying to challenge the norms and boundaries of black metal while embracing its most ridiculous aspects.

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SPECIAL GUEST BLOGGER BRAM TEITELMAN OF THE SYNDICATE & METAL INSIDER

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 #20 album, coming in with a total of 105 points…

Shadows Fall, The War Within (Century Media, 2004)
Brian Fair – Vocals
Jonathan Donais – Lead Guitars
Matt Bachand – Rhythm Guitars
Paul Romanko – Bass
Jason Bittner – Drums
Produced by Zeuss

In 2009, “metalcore” is a polarizing word. Mainly because the fusion – of metal and hardcore, of screamed and sung vocals, of Sweden and America – is a cliché by now, a dead horse that’s been beaten by countless formulaic bands that forgot to write actual songs. Go back almost exactly five years, however, and the sound was as close to a revolution in metal as there has been this decade. Killswitch Engage’s The End of Heartache made an impressive debut at #21 on Billboard’s top 200 chart in May of 2004, but on September 28th of the same year their New England brethren Shadows Fall’s fourth album, The War Within, did them one better, debuting at #20. While neither of the New England trifecta of those two bands and Unearth would probably want to label themselves as “metalcore,” they represent the heights of the genre, for better or worse.

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