Neurosis, The Eye of Every Storm (Relapse, 2004)
Scott Kelly – Guitars/Vocals
Steve Von Till – Guitars/Vocals
Dave Edwardson – Bass/Keyboards/Synths
Noah Landis – Organ/Piano/Samples
Jason Roeder – Drums
Produced by Steve Albini and Neurosis

Part of the difficulty of trying to come up with nominations for the best albums of the 21st century is trying hard to remember when the fuck your favorite albums even came out. A lot of the albums I voted for were released before I’d ever even heard of the bands who wrote them and sometimes before I was even into metal at all (the three Staind albums under lock and key in my attic will forever haunt all of my cred). The millennial cut-off point meant that any of my instinctive choices that come into my head whenever the words “Best Metal Albums” pop up weren’t even close to matching the criteria (Dissection’s Storm of the Light’s Bane). Some of my favorite bands released good albums in the 21st century but certainly didn’t come close to releasing the “best” ones (Emperor’s Prometheus) and even though I wanted to include them just to be represented, I couldn’t justify it.

It would be criminal, however, not to at least mention Neurosis considering the debt that Mastodon (who snatched the #19, #13 and #1 spots on the list) and a slew of others owe this band. Even though the fan census favorite album is ineligible (1999’s Times of Grace), even though their newer releases don’t have the far reaching influence of their 90’s work, and even though I am now sure that I was the only person to vote for this album, I urge each and everyone of you to take a first or second glance at the underrated glory of The Eye Of Every Storm.

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Planning to spend yet another Friday night home alone before jerking off and crying yourself to sleep? Why not listen to tonight’s Metal Injection Livecast instead, since I’m going to be on it and I have such a mellifluous voice? We’re going to smoke and/or drink and talk about metal, play a game called “Thrash It or Trash It” in which we make fun of give careful consideration to submissions from unsigned bands, and generally make asses out of ourselves. All live on the air!

Plus, you can even call in and ask us questions, tell us why we’re douchebags, whatever you want – just call 646-929-1357 and we’ll, like, talk to you n’ shit. If you kiss my ass a little and tell me how much you love MetalSucks, I might even be nice to you.

The show starts at 10 pm EST. You can listen here. I can’t promise that you will have fun, but I can promise that you can listen to me having fun.

-AR

Ever since discovering yesterday’s Shitstain subject matter Motionless In White, I’ve been borderline obsessed; I’ve watched the music video at least three times, as well as the video of their counterparts in suckitude, Attack Attack!. I’m fascinated; I just can’t get enough! There’s so much to be astounded and baffled by, and ENDLESS material to make fun of. Both videos have been making the Interwebs LOLz rounds rapidly. So I thought we’d take a look at the fine fashion sported by Motionless In White.

• Side-swooped haircuts: Here’s a tip guys, take back all the hours of your lives you’ve spent flat-ironing your hair and try writing some original music.

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First of all:

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Second of all:

I just stepped out to grab some lunch (and no one tried to shoot me!), and when I returned to the mansion, my inbox was flooded with readers e-mailing to tell me about the following tweets from one Mr. Zakk Wylde:

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We haven’t written about the passing of former Crimson Glory vocalist Midnight because, well, we’re not really Crimson Glory fans. But we know, based on your e-mails, that a lot of you are fans and were saddened by the news, and metal is nothing if not a community.

Our friend Carlos Ramirez has written a little bit about the singer’s death on Noise Creep:

Crimson Glory’s 1988 release, ‘Transcendence‘ is undoubtedly the group’s magnum opus. The album remains one of the touchstones for melodic metal all of these years later. Its 10 songs are filled to the gills with one stunning riff and vocal performance after the other. Midnight’s prowess in the recording booth knew no bounds. On songs like “Lady of Winter” and the piercing “Red Sharks,” he moves through the material with the controlled force of a classically trained vocalist. He also had a distinct tone to his higher range notes that set him apart from many of the guys coming up at the time.

Read the rest of Carlos’ tribute here.

-AR

This just in: Malevolent Creation’s Phil Fasciana is officially a douche turd.

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It’s always sad to see any metal label, let alone a reputable one, bite the dust. But you can’t say SPV didn’t have it coming. SPV put out plenty of quality records over the years, but it seems like recently we received in inordinately high amount of promos from head-scratchingly obscure European bands on SPV; I’m thinking, “these make you guys money? ok then…” After all, it is a business.

So is SPV really going away or what? Here’s the money quote in a recently released lengthy statement from the label:

“An ongoing international artist relationship and export business is planned…”

Translation: the label will continue on selling their catalog and repacking their most popular albums in special editions, box sets, compilations and greatest hits collections. And why not? It’s easy money. Sad to see the core label go, though.

-VN

As you may recall, Jim Carrey is a Cannibal Corpse fan. And I guess he passed his love of death metal on genetically, ’cause about 18,000 of you have e-mailed us in the last twelve hours to tell us that his surprisingly cute daughter is knocked up by and marrying Alex Santana, the lead singer of a death metal band I’ve never heard of called Blood Money.

Of course, this isn’t really news per se, and now that I’ve written that opening paragraph, I find I really have nowhere to go with this. But like I said, a lot of you seemed to find it very exciting, so, uh, I hope I’ve satisfied in you in some way.

-AR

Just about a year ago I took it upon myself to offer Ozzy Osbourne five tips to record a good album again. And my very first tip?

FIRE ZAKK WYLDE. I’ve made this suggestion before, and I know it’s a controversial one; Zakk is, undeniably, the best guitar player Ozzy has worked with since Randy Rhodes’ untimely passing. And at his best, Zakk is a brilliant, brilliant guitar player. Unfortunately, somewhere along the way, Zakk seems to have decided that he needs to release every semi-coherent riff that pops into his beer-soaked brain. If Zakk can’t or isn’t willing to work his ass off like he was 19 again, step up to the plate, and knock one out of the park, it’s time to explore other options. Ozzy could comb the known world looking for the next Zakk Wylde – lest we forget, Zakk was just some unknown teenager when Ozzy originally discovered him – or, if that’s too risky, I’m sure there’s only about 18 trillion famous axe masters (How about Jerry Cantrell? Pepper Keenan? Ozzy’s already got one former member of Faith No More in his ranks – maybe he can steal Jim Martin away from his pumpkin farm? I know Ozzy almost hired Buckethead a few years back) who would be willing to give the job their best shot.

And, hey, lookit that! Ozzy has revealed to Classic Rock magazine that he is, indeed, parting ways with Wylde.

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[Sent in by Ash H. via TotallyLooksLike.com]

Pig Destroyer, Terrifyer (Relapse, 2004)
J.R. Hayes – Vocals
Scott Hull – Guitars
Brian Harvey – Drums
Produced by Scott Hull

Of the three Pig Destroyer albums our panelists voted for, Terrifyer scored the lowest. But it’s still my favorite PD offering, so fuck it, I’m gonna go ahead and write about it.

Ahem.

HOW THE FUCKING FUCK DID PIG DESTROYER NOT WIND ON THIS LIST? Their place in the grind pantheon is, like almost anything, open for debate, but at least as far as I’m concerned, they perfected grind, they epitomize grind, THEY ARE GRINDCORE.

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Strapping Young Lad, Alien (Century, 2005)
Devin Townsend– Vocals/Guitars/Keyboards
Jed Simon – Guitars
Byron Stroud – Drums
Gene Hoglan – Drums
Produced by Devin Townsend

By the time of 2005′s Alien, Strapping Young Lad frontman Devin Townsend had been keeping a frantic pace for a decade: He regularly produced three albums a year, he had solo albums leaking from his bum, and his once-abandoned SYL returned to active status.

That SYL returned with an unheard-of two albums in two years was great news, but it was unexpected that Alien would be SYL’s masterpiece, a cacophonous set of maelstrom metal with the occasional twinkle of Devy solo records. A few weeks before its release, Townsend told me that SYL (the album) came about cuz he was finally frustrated/freaked enough to make a SYL (the band) album. Like it or not, after six years had passed since their penultimate 1997 record City; lotsa shit had changed in the world at large since then, including some large-scale bloodshed.

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Emperor, Prometheus – The Discipline of Fire & Demise (Candlelight, 2001)
Ihsahn – Vocals/Guitars/Synths/Bass/Programming
Samoth – Guitars
Trym – Drums
Produced by Ihsahn

Screw you guys. Emperor don’t need your stupid list of the 21 Best Metal Albums of the 21st Century. They probably don’t give a fuck about how they’re remembered, and not just because they’ve had convicted arsonists, murderers and flying elves in their ranks. Emperor had achieved legendary status long before Prometheus – The Discipline of Fire & Demise was conceived by main man Ihsahn, so perhaps the only place to go was bigger, grander, more complex. Lucky for Ihsahn that his bandmates Samoth and Trym were busy getting their blackened death metal project Zyklon off the ground – there are very few checks to Ihsahn’s grandiose ambitions on Prometheus. The album is the sound of a master metal craftsman, lost in his own imagination, polishing and tweaking and overdubbing until every last detail gleams like obsidian.

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Is it just for me or has Metal Blade been signing bands left and right? I guess in today’s climate of people not paying for music, the more the merrier, right?

Here are a couple of recent Metal Blade signees that I’m really digging at the moment:

Eryn Non Dae: When will lazy journalists stop comparing all French metal bands to Gojira? Oh, wait… oops. But seriously, the other day I read a review of Hacride in Decibel in which the reviewer compared them sonically to Gojira (false) and then said the record may be just as good as The Way of All Flesh (also false — but it is good). Are we even listening to the same band? If not for sharing a home country, these comparisons would never be made; the two bands share very little other than being French, being metal, and being awesome. ANYWAY, Eryn Non Dae are also from France, are also metal, and are also awesome. They do not sound like Gojira (or Hacride); they sound a whole lot more like Meshuggah drums and vocals-wise, with some real different guitar playing in the form of added dissonance and chaotic, frenetic Dillinger-esque passages. They’re pretty f’n cool; if you like the proggy weirdo metal shit I usually recommend, you’re gonna like this. Check ‘em out.

Istapp: The press release announcing Istapp’s signing to Metal Blade has a collective quote from these three Swedes that sums up pretty much everything you need to know about the band:

“We are proud to announce that we have conquered Metal Blade Records. The war against the sun will now proceed with an even stronger force. Our upcoming album “Blekinge” will hit the earth hard. Prepare yourself for the final avalanche!”

Alright, I can get down with that! Istapp play black metal that doesn’t sound like it was recorded inside Varg’s asshole and is actually weirdly catchy. It’s like halfway between Enslaved and 1349 (pre-Revelations of the Black Flame). Curious to hear how this holds up over a full-length release; we’ll find out soon enough.

-VN

Any of you who left comments last week telling me about fucked up things you’ve seen at show rule. I’ve always felt that metal shows need to have an element of danger to them or there’s something wrong.

Let me rephrase. Not that there’s something wrong, but there’s something missing. People who talk about how metalheads are well behaved and community oriented are misguided in my opinion. When I was growing up, metal shows were scary. The metal scene from my formative years was one where you needed to always watch your back because of all the different things that could happen to you. It could have been skins jumping you for not being a skin, it could have been sharps jumping you for having long hair, it could have been wall to wall pits where motherfuckers with razor blades were running around cutting motherfuckers. It could have been any number of fucked up things. These weren’t your sanitized for the kids deathcore concerts of today. If you want to know why I say that, I’ll bring up an example from a deathcore tour DAATH had the pleaure of being a part of in 2007.

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Kylesa’s not new to the millennial metal underground, but one would not be surprised if their fanbase grows exponentially in the wake of their fucking fantastic new album, Static Tensions. Tighter and more coherent than its predecessors, it shows the band flexing a muscle they’d been alluding to throughout their career. This is not to dismiss their previous successes; the band have been an intense and wonderful blend of sludge, crust punk, doom, trad metal, and otherwise from the beginning.

A big part of the band’s artistic success is Laura Pleasants, the group’s acid-throated vocalist/guitarist. Her sinewy leads provide a metal ying to guitarist/vocalist Philip Cope’s punk rock yang, a thorough stirring of the band’s hybrid stew. During a recent show on Mastodon’s Crack the Skye tour (where, if they didn’t blow the headliners off the stage, they certainly equalled them), she and drummer Eric Hernandez (who also deserves credit for keeping Kylesa’s two drummers from devolving into a masturbatory percussion fiasco) discussed the composition of Static Tensions, Kylesa’s place in the metal world, their penchant for playing cross-genre shows, and why Laura being a woman in metal isn’t really as big a deal as it may seem.

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You know when Beavis & Butthead would flip to a video so beyond belief, so beyond the threshold of suck, that they’d just sit with their mouths wide open in disgust?

“Uhhh… uhhh… uhhhh…..”

Ladies and gentlemen: this video. Wow.

What’s worse, this band, or the fact that a whole slew of 14 year olds probably think these guys are so hard and heavy?

Uhhhh…..

-VN

[See also: Shitstain Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4]

When people talk about neo-thrash bands like Warbringer, their words usually carry a subtle 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 (very). 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 an original vision. All the same, their debut full-length 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-native bands did shit right. And now they do.

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-AR

[Buzzfeed by way of Reign in Blonde]

I have kind of a love/hate relationship with Twitter, but I have to admit, it’s become a useful source of information.

So. Through the Eyes of the Dead, whose 2007 album Malice was actually capable of killing small animals, have suffered through some fairly heavy-duty line-up changes since that album’s release (including going through two vocalists inside of a year). The band endures, though, and are currently recording a new album. Meanwhile, they tweeted/twittered/twatted/twote/whatever that they’re playing four dates in August. I highly recommend you go check ‘em out.

Dates are after the jump. In the meantime, here’s the band’s video for “Failure in the Flesh.” The Romero-esque goodness was directed by David Brodsky.

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