Thanks to all the commenters who pointed out that I left a ridiculously awesome to worship at the alter of Pig Destroyer off of my list yesterday: this below video.

In case you’ve never seen it, the short version is that vocalist J.R. Hayes’ mic died in the middle of a performance at CBGB, so the dude just keeps yelling… and is so loud he can still be heard over the music. That seriously might be the single most metal thing that has ever happened in the history of time and space.

Holy shit, do I fucking love this band.

-AR

Zenbu Media’s decision to shutter both Metal Maniacs and Metal Edge back in February was, for lack of a more poetic term, a total bummer. A lot of us grew up with those magazines; but beyond sentimental value, I think it’s just good to have as many different metal media outlets as possible. Just like it’s good to have as many different “actual” news outlets as possible; I’m all for multiple viewpoints, y’know?

So I’m glad to hear, per SMN, that “Mike Riddick, owner of Metalhit.com, stepped in to take over the development and operation of the new format for METAL MANIACS online.” In addition to the interviews, reviews, message boards, etc. that you would expect from Metal Maniacs (or any decent metal website), MM Online “will feature an Mp3 store with a catalog of more than 12,000 underground extreme metal songs from various bands and labels around the world.” Which is potentially very cool.

The new site is currently scheduled to launch in September at this URL. Clearly, it won’t be as cool as MetalSucks, but then, nothing ever is. Nudge nudge wink wink.

-AR

Metal Legacies is an ongoing memorial to extreme music pioneers who kicked the proverbial bucket way too soon.

Co-founder and bassist for the seminal Hermosa Beach punk-rock band Pennywise, Jason Thirsk was a positive contributing force to the indie rock pioneers. His contributions can be found on four albums including Pennywise and Unknown Road.

Despite his positive outlook on life and in his lyrics, Thirsk struggled with a dependency to alcohol. The freewheeling, partying lifestyle of the punk rock band caught up with the young bass player. In the summer of 1995, Thirsk left to sober up. He went to rehab several times, but he was unable to shake his addiction.

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I have only nice things to say about Decrepit Birth. Their music is br00tal, their influences are fucking legendary (Vader, Suffocation, Deicide), and there isn’t a single generic breakdown on either of their records. Singer Bill Robinson was the only member of the group ready and willing to sit down for an interview at this summer’s Dirt Fest (my review here), so I took him to the only comfortable place I knew of outside of the heat: the men’s bathroom. Although the smell of tour shits filled the air, the insight Bill gave me into the band and his life-style was nothing short of inspiring. He is homeless by choice and definitely looks it, but you would be surprised to know that he is cleaner then everyone on the tour combined. Living in the terraces of Santa Cruz, CA and growing herb for a living is not really the way I pictured the front man of a death metal band. But Bill does it, and does it well. He loves it so much that he feels the band is actually a sacrifice he makes for himself, and genuinely misses being away from the field he resides in (I slept in a field once  – it wasn’t by choice, and had everything to do with Jagermeister.).

Along with Bill’s love for weed comes hatred for the police. The pigs. All of the dick-knuckles in blue who cuffed and arrested more than two dozen people that very day (seriously, waaaaaay too many people got busted with pot and open containers in the parking lot). I’m with Bill on this one. All the fucking way. As far as Decrepit Birth is concerned, recording on a new album should begin sometime in the next eight months. As for the rest of 2009, with Summer Slaughter now officially dunzo, the guys will be embarking on a tour in the fall. Be there or be square, fuckers. Read on for full details…

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Oh boy. Here we go again.

Kerry King loves to talk shit. He loves to talk shit so much you’d think he writes for MetalSucks (Kerry, if you’re reading this, please come write for MetalSucks.). The man just cannot be stopped. Dave Mustaine, Machine Head, Metallica – all have been victims of his razor-sharp tongue.

His latest casualty: Killswitch Engage, who are out on the road with Slayer right now as part of Mayhem.

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MetalSucks is proud to present the exclusive debut of “The 42nd Ego,” the new video from Arsonists Get All the Girls. Directed by Jeremy Weiss, the clip is not the kind of apoplectic video we’re so accustomed to in metal these days, opting instead for a style that allows the viewer to concentrate on the sheer power of the song – which, like all of AGATG’s best work, seamlessly combines elements of death, hardcore and experimental.

Check out the video below. The track appears on Arsonists Get All the Girls’ awesome new album, Portals, which you can purchase here. And don’t forget that AGATG are tour right now; go to their MySpace page for a complete list of dates.

[This exclusive has now ended.]

I’m not in the mood for fine prose right now, so let’s just do this thing.

Metal Nick at Metal Injection captured the below footage of Necrophagist playing a new song, “Dawn and Demise,” on the recently completed, MetalSucks co-sponsored Summer Slaughter tour. Because it was captured with one camera, no soundboard, etc., it’s not exactly up to the usual high standards of Metal Injection, but it should keep all the Necrophreaks satisfied for the time being.

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One of my favorite videos of the year thus far is the trippy, creepy, effects laden clip that David Brodsky directed for Suicide Silence’s “Wake Up.”

I was invited to the shoot and couldn’t make it, but luckily, our friends at Metal Injection did make it, and just posted this behind-the-scenes report. Check it out below.

-AR

A tweet from The Syndicate alerted me to this story about the recent re-launch of Buddyhead.com, “the original snarky music website.” Seems that Buddyhead founder Travis Keller made some off-the-cuff comments about Manson’s fashion sense (or lack thereof). Manson, in turn, decided to take the high road but issuing an open challenge to bloggers everywhere:

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I’ve of two minds with regards to the just-released album art for Megadeth’s Endgame. On the one hand, it looks pretty cool. I on the other hand, I have no idea what the fuck I’m looking at. It appears to be a bunch of dudes… with mohawks… in prison jumpsuits… walking amongst rows of books… surrounded by flowers… in outer space. If you told me that Dave Mustaine was about to ask us all to drink some very special Kool Aid, I’d believe you.

No matter. Endgame is a very good album, and I’m all for anything that isn’t the cover to United Abominations. Yech!

Endgame comes out September 15 on Roadrunner.

-AR

Well I dunno about you guys, but I had a shit Monday. That led me to waking up on the wrong side of the bed, and now it’s probably only a matter of time until I push an old lady or something.

Luckily, “Coast,” the new video from The Devin Townsend Project, is a) pretty cool, and b) pretty mellow. Hopefully this will prevent me from going from Banner to Hulk in sixty seconds. But no promises.

And with a little luck, there will be some chances to see Townsend play live sometime in 2010.

-AR

For my last blog, I decided to do a question and answer session with “The Hard R.” I thought I was going to get a couple of questions, but the amount that came in were pretty mind-blowing. The cool thing is you have real questions about the business, and I think I can shed some light on certain things. I never said I’m an expert but I can use my experiences to shed light on some of these questions. As far as my boy Sven asking about Coyle Media, I’ll break it down for you.

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1. They’re called Pig Destroyer.

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Sgt. D’s Stuff You Will Hate continues to live up to its name, now by profiling Indiana’s Dropping A Popped Locket. Not being from Indiana, I’ve never huffed or gotten drunk off of cough syrup because I’ve always had access to actual drugs and actual alcohol. So I don’t understand what the fuck the band name means. I do understand that this is simultaneously hilarious, pathetic, and hilariously pathetic.

The best part, of course, is that when the “show” was over, those two dudes doing the wheelbarrow went home together and did the wheelbarrow some more. Naked.

I’m saying they fucked.

-AR

Over seven years have gone by since Godflesh disbanded, and as Justin K. Broadrick’s Jesu project has long ceased to fill that void, moving further and further away from its post-metal roots into something suspiciously palatable to a wider audience. As such, many of those curmudgeons (myself included) longing for the man’s return to nasty, vicious industrial metal wait with baited breath for the August 4 release of Disconnected, the debut album from Greymachine, the vicious supergroup that combines Broadrick with Isis dude Aaron Turner.

Clearly, Hydra Head recognizes that a majority of those interested in this project were Godflesh fans back in the swingin’ 90s, and has opted for a marketing campaign that capitalizes on the awesome power of nostalgia. First, the label released a 12″ promo single for “Vultures Descend” that looked straight out of my college radio days. Taking another step down memory lane, Hydra Head has decided to bundle the pre-order for the new CD with a fucking Cassingle!

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I remember getting to Ozzfest 2003 early enough to catch some key bands on the second stage – specifically, Voivod, Killswitch Engage, Chimaira and Shadows Fall – and I have some vague memories of some other band that played during the day whilst adorned in sub-Wes Borland grease paint that gave them the appearance of a group of Mushroomhead rejects. For years I’ve dismissed it as a false memory, born of my Jewish psychosis and too much drugs and alcohol, but, no, as it turns out, this wasn’t just some fever dream: the horrible, horrible band was called Motorgrater, and they are very, very real.

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Reader Ben Keegan has shit all over my day by alerting to me to the fact that Megadeth and Slayer are teaming up for another tour… not, once again, not in the States.

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Last night I dragged myself out of the comfort of my air-conditioned home and into the stinking epicenter of trustafarian hipsterdom known as Williamsburg to attend the Torche / Harvey Milk show. While ultimately I had to cut out early to get some deserved rest and a reprieve from the stench of unwashed beardos, I was able to catch loud sets from enjoyable locals Pollution and the aforementioned gay rights icon / noise rock band. I was particularly pleased to get my grubby little hands on a copy of the limited 2xLP of Harvey Milk’s first, previously unreleased album.

According to the back of the record sleeve, this self-titled release was funded by an unnamed record label owner, who received the masters from these sessions but never did anything with them nor contacted the band ever again. Of particular note for noise rock fans is that these ten tracks were recorded by noneother than Bob Weston of the legendary Shellac! Hydra Head promises to put out a proper release of this lost Harvey Milk debut at some point, but for now the only place you’re going to find this is at the band’s remaining shows with Torche. In the meantime you can keep playing your worn out copy of Life…The Best Game In Town, which is now available on vinyl!

-GS

[Gary Suarez is counting the days. He also writes for Brainwashed and usually manages the consistently off-topic No Yoko No. Say, why don't you follow him on Twitter?]

Okay. I get it. The boys in Born of Osiris are young. Real young.  And judging by the brand-spanking-new tour bus they were ghost riding in, someone has really big plans for their future. And, honestly, so do I. Those kids can play. They can play real well, and I have honestly been a fan of theirs for some time now.

But I’d suggest that someone tutors them a bit about the history of the music they are making. Also about giving good interview: despite there being obvious differences between their Sumerian debut, A New Reign, and their recently released follow-up, A Higher Place, the boys think the biggest difference is that the latter is… longer. Seriously.

I could explain more, but… it’s probably best that you just read the interview. Full transcript after the jump.

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I don’t know if Willie Gardner is officially associated with a band known as The Douche Lords or not, but he has their name in his e-mail address and sent me a link to the band’s MySpace page this morning.

Why is this band of interest? As it turns out, they were Dino Cazares’ first band (In case ya haven’t figured it out by now, that’s Dino above).

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