This is Alice in Chains performing “A Looking in View” live in Detroit last week. Note that not only does the band sound great, but that William DuVall and Jerry Cantrell both sound more or less the way they do on the recording of the track. In other words: they can actually sing. Without autotune. Amazing, right?

And the moral of the story is: if you can’t do it live, don’t do it on record. Because I’ll just make fun of you later. I’m talking to you, Brandon Saller. Get it together.

If you haven’t already read Vince’s track-by-track breakdown of the new AIC album, Black Gives Way to Blue, well, you should really check it out now.

-AR

[via Blabbermouth]

UPDATE: Elise at Reign in Blonde points out that this pic is, indeed, Photoshopped. Oh well.

Hornsup editor Matheus Moura sent me the below picture this morning of the suddenly-quite-popular-amongst-pedophilic-metalheads Demi Lovato.

And I’m all for welcoming new people into the metal community and I understand that the children are our future who will keep metal alive and blah blah blah, but this is just… wrong. And not in a good way.

-AR

It seems like every few months now, Blabbermouth has another story about Machine Head’s Phil Demmel passing out on-stage. Demmel, you see, suffers from something called cardiogenic syncope. “Syncope” is just a fancy medical term for fainting, and when it’s cardiogenic, it’s ’cause – you guessed it – the heart isn’t getting enough blood to the brain.

That sounds pretty scary, and watching video of one such incident that took place in Finland over the weekend, it looks pretty scary. But I’m (obviously, and despite the wishes of my mother) not a doctor, and the internet research I’ve been doing doesn’t give me a clear idea of what the condition means for Demmel in the long-term. In any case, we obviously hope the dude is alright. I like to think that it’s not just coincedence that Demmel’s addition to MH marked the start of their artistic renaissance.

-AR

Let’s cut right to the quick: there’s a new Slayer song, the snappily titled “Hate Worldwide,” which you can listen to here. My first impression of the track, which was written by Kerry King, is that it’s an awfully good Slayer song, although not as good as “Psychopathy Red,” which blew the fucking flesh off of my face the very first time I heard it. Still, that’s an evil fucking riff in this new track, so it even if I think its the inferior of the two, it doesn’t exactly take the wind out of my sails in terms of my high, high hopes for the new Slayer album, World Painted Blood.

Click to read more…

Dis mornings I learns the hards ways: turkey saugsages don’t tastes like reals saugsages, y’knows?

-NC

Best money I ever spent.

What a beautiful song.

-AR

I’ve gotten a few e-mails today from people asking me where Vince is. Well, the truth is, Vince can’t write because he’s ill. And he’s quitting the site. No, really, he quit. We didn’t fire him. Swear it. We stand by that statement.

Here’s some other shit that happened in the world of metal this week:

• We’ve heard the new Alice in Chains album, and it is good.
• Gwar’s Oderus Urungus answered some of your questions, and will answer more in the future.
• John Bush is coming back to Anthrax because Dan Nelson quit. Oh, wait, no he didn’t. Yes he did. He probably didn’t, though.
• We spoke with Poison the Well’s Ryan Primack and Sunn O)))’s Greg Anderson.
• We checked out the latest releases from He Is Legend, Magrudergrind, Novembers Doom, and Clutch.
• Unfortunately, the 10th Annual Gathering of the Juggalos really is a real thing.
• Baby-eater Dino Cazares must be stopped!!!

Alright. Time to go buy a vaporizer of my very own. See ya Monday.

-AR

A few weeks back, on the Metal Injection Livecast (still shilling!!!)Rob Pasbani and company played me Ja Rule’s “We Did it Again,” a song using Metallica outtakes from St. Anger (including some truly ridiculous Hetfield vox that sound totally out of step with the rest of the song) that I had successfully managed to avoid these past few years.

Problem is, ever since I heard it, I often wake up in a cold sweat, screaming “YEAH WE DID IT DID IT DID IT!” This is what it must have been like to survive ‘Nam.

In all seriousness: gotta love* how Metallica keep thinking up new ways to shit all over their legacy.

You can listen to the song here, assuming you don’t value your sanity. In the meantime, here’s some behind-the-scenes shit about the track, which appears as one of the deleted scenes on the Some Kind of Monster (a.k.a. Live Action Metalocalypse) DVD.

-AR

*And by “love,” I mean “loathe.”

I debated between using the above headline, or the headline “BURST GOES POP.” But I was afraid the latter might make people think Burst was pulling a DEP or something.

ANYWAYS, I’m sure by now you see where I’m going with this (especially with the inclusion of the above graphic). But in case you don’t, here’s a statement from Burst’s MySpace blog… I’m going to re-print it in its entirety for you:

Click to read more…

Our friends at SMN tell us that the folks at AOL Radio have compiled a list of the “10 Best Death Metal Bands” (note the lack of the phrase “of all time,” so, uh, yeah). I don’t think I can get behind any such list that includes Six Feet Under but not Carcass; that being said, the other nine bands that did make the cut are all good bands, even if I’m not sure if they deserve a spot on the list.

Also, they selected each band’s “best album,” and I almost universally disagree with all of their choices (and please note that I said “almost” before you flip your shit).

Go here to check it out, debate about whether or not all of the bands are really death metal or not, etc. Or, better yet, just fight with one another about it in our comments section below. It amuses us.

-AR

Perennial MetalSucks faves Doomriders – the punk/noise/metal/blues-rawk band featuring Nate Newton of Converge and John-Robert Connors of Cave In -  have a new album, Darkness Comes Alive, coming out September 29 on Deathwish. But if you’re like us and you can’t wait to get a taste, well, wait no longer – there’s now an audio player on the Deathwish website playing two tracks, “Come Alive” and “Bear Witness” (click on the top left album art to launch the player).

And guess what? They both rule. Not that that’s shocking or anything, but, y’know, it’s always great when a band you love doesn’t disappoint.

I cannot wait to hear the whole record. Definitely go check the tracks out.

-AR

A friend sent us the below clip of Demi Lovato talking about her appreciation of Job for a Cowboy, Abigail Williams and Maylene and the Sons of Disaster (go to 3:16 in the clip). Of course, I had to use Wikipedia to figure out who the fuck Demi Lovato is, and turns out she has exactly the kind of career you’d expect her to based on her appearance. Still, I guess if she can get some twelve year old girls into JFAC, it’s all good… right?

In other news, good to see that Jimmy Fallon is still a massive tool.

-AR

Vince was pretty put-off by pop duo Tegan & Sara’s metal shirt earlier this year, but I’m inclined to give The Donnas a pass for pulling a similar stunt. Why? ‘Cause they’ve always been upfront about their love of hair metal (which is close enough, I guess), and I actually enjoyed their Butch Walker-produced album Spend the Night. Judge me if you must.

What do y’all think? Is this a cool tip of the hat to all things metal, or a needless co-opting of our culture on par with Lindsay Lohan wearing a Maiden shirt?

-AR

[via The Deciblog]

I guess it’s just that kinda week.

Anyways, this one is definitely my favorite thus far.

-AR

[via Metal Inquisition]

Thanks to Ms Maniac Amanda Dobbs for me sending me a link to The Metal Shakespeare Company, a band that – you guessed it – uses Shakespeare text as the lyrics to their metal songs. They also dress like they’re going to a Renaissance fair.

Anyways, there is something kinda funny about this… but not the way I think the band probably hoped for.

-AR

I’m not really that familiar with Orphaned Land… but this video certainly makes me wanna do some homework.

Orphaned Land are in the studio right now with producer Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree fame; expect their new album around October or November on Century.

-AR

Born of Osiris are making it very hard for those of us who like their music to defend them against the tr00est of the tr00. Next week we’re going to run an interview in which many members of the band admit to some pretty serious lapses in basical Metal 101 knowledge; now New York Magazine, of all fucking publications, has a video of guitarist Tosin Abasi (also of Animals as Leaders), well… just read for yourself:

Tosin Abasi is on tour with the heavy metal band he plays in, Born of Osiris. On stage he wears all-black, but when he’s not working, he likes classic men’s formalwear. The day our Video Look Book cameras caught him he wore a fitted vest from a thrift store and carried a camel leather bag he bought for half-price at Marshall’s. He also wore women’s shorts from Banana Republic and a vintage Schiaparelli hat his girlfriend gave him. “Actually I had dreadlocks and I cut them and I was like, ‘What the fuck do I do with my hair now?’ And she was like, ‘You should have this hat.’ So I’ve been wearing it every day.” Watch the Video Look Book to find out where he got his pink paisley scarf.

I really, really don’t like to judge people solely for what they wear, but… what the fucking fuck dude. Women’s shorts? I’m at a loss for words. Truly.

Click on the screencap below to watch the video. It’s supposed to be embeddable, but New York Magazine is essentially a douchie tabloid for rich people who like to pretend they’re above reading tabloids, and whomever runs their website obviously has no fucking clue what he or she is doing.

-AR

Momma always told me that if I ever met “the one,” I’d know right away. Even my father – who makes me look like a sunny, optimistic, outgoing person – said that he knew right away he wanted to spend the rest of his life with my mom. But I never really believed it, and definitely never thought it would happen to me.

But then last night changed everything. I knew within minutes, if not seconds, that I had found “the one.”

‘Cause last night I smoked out of a vaporizer for the first time. And my life will never, ever be the same. I’m just not going to be able to go back to bongs and pipes. This is it. I am now a one drug-apparatus man.

Thanks to Sean Z. from Daath for hooking that shit up. There weren’t nearly enough people at the show last night, and Sean had some mic/monitor issues, but Daath still played like they were headlining Madison fucking Square Garden (and Sean managed to sing while doing windmills, which I’ve never seen before). Eyal Levi has fucking pneumonia and a cracked rib, and he was still jumping all over the place. And Emil “Things Go Better with Coke” Werstler is almost spastic enough to be in a mathcore band. Plus, his solos are the shit.

Goatwhore killed it, too. I really can’t say enough good things about these bands. You can find remaining tour dates here; definitely go check ‘em out if you can. And bring your vaporizer.

Here’s some Daath and Goatwhore videos to kick off your morning.

-AR

Click to read more…

I appreciate what Otep Shamaya is trying to accomplish as a human being far more than I appreciate what she does accomplish as an artist. I’m all for trying to get metal fans to take a political stance. I’m glad that she’s continuing the tradition of using metal as protest music. Good for her. Seriously. I’m not being sarcastic.

But “Rise, Rebel, Resist,” the new song currently streaming on Otep’s MySpace page, sounds exactly like every other Otep song I’ve ever heard. I guess that will please her old fans, but I don’t think it will make her any new ones.

The song comes off of Smash the Control Machine, which Victory will release on August 18.

Anyone else think it’s weird that Otep is on Victory now?

-AR

I can’t speak for the other inhabitants of the MS Mansion (especially Kip, who’s been cuddled away in the Wingerschmidt Wing for weeks now), but I, for one, am very much enjoying the new Behemoth record Evangelion. This shit slays, crushes, destroys, kills, insert your choice metal cliche adjective here and that’s what it does. The songwriting is great, and ultimately that’s what makes it good; but what strikes me most is the quality of mixing compared to past Behemoth efforts (that I’ve heard, anyway. Admittedly, I’ve never much listened to this band before, as ridiculous as that seems). The tones on this record are positively crushing. So upon a little Googling I was able to determine that it was Colin Richardson who twiddled the knobs to such delicious effect this time around — duh, should’ve known.

Check out the brand new track “Shemhamforash” currently streaming on Behemoth’s MySpace page. The album drops August 11th in the U.S. (and August 7th in Europe).

-VN