On Thursday night Vince and I got to go see Living Colour perform their soon-to-be-released new album, The Chair in the Doorway, in its entirety, for an audience of maybe fifty people in a small rehearsal space in Brooklyn.
Needless to say, it was friggin’ awesome.
It’s a well known fact that Weezer mastermind River Cuomo is a metalhead (see ridiculous photo above). But I’ve read numerous interviews with the guy over the years where he promised (or threatened, depending on your point of view) to a metal album – even going so far as to claim that Maladroit was Weezer’s metal album – and the thing never seems to materialize.
Well, as it turns out, Weezer might have already made their contribution to metal, and I just wasn’t paying very close attention. SMN News pointed us to this interview with Weezer mastermind River Cuomo, in which he admits to biting off Metallica:
“‘The Sweater Song’ was the first Weezer song I ever wrote, back in 1991… I was trying to write a Velvet Underground-type song because I was super into them, and I came up with that guitar riff… It wasn’t until years after I wrote it that I realized it’s almost a complete rip-off of ‘Sanitarium’ by Metallica. It just perfectly encapsulates Weezer to me — you’re trying to be cool like Velvet Underground but your metal roots just pump through unconsciously.”
Oddly enough, I’d never really noticed the similarities between the two songs in the past. Hm.
Check out both songs after the jump and decide for yourself whether or not Cuomo really owes Metallica a royalty check or ten.
I didn’t think it was possible that Rob Zombie’s Halloween X II could be any worse than Rob Zombie’s Halloween IX I*, and yet there I was, sitting in the theater, wishing that someone had slipped cyanide into my slushie. That someone could (allegedly) so revere John Carpenter’s original classic and yet (seemingly) have no understanding whatsoever of what made that movie so fucking great is a kind of a head-scratcher to me; I mean, Zombie’s Halloween movies are really just unwatchable drek. The nicest thing I can think to say about Zombie’s film is that it moves at twenty-four frames per second, giving the illusion of motion. That’s about it.
Now Zombie has set his sights remaking on another horror classic: The Blob.
I wasn’t really a fan of by-the-numbers metalcore outfit A Girl A Gun A Ghost, but I just read singer Matte Wagner’s statement regarding the group’s break-up on Lambgoat, and it’s so fucking honest and funny that I just had to share it with you all:
“Not that anyone cares, but A Girl A Gun A Ghost is officially totally done. After a year of never announcing I was kicked out, they decided to not announce that they were folding as a group. I just wanted anyone who still may care to know this. Thanks.”
At this point in time, unless you’ve lived in a cave for the past few years, you know that Municipal Waste’s previous three albums (and an EP) have been steeped in thrash, beer, and partying… in no particular order. In that brief time, Municipal Waste’s impending retro-thrash throwback almost single-handedly inspired a plethora of seventeen year-old kids to buy Reeboks and shamelessly – and unfortunately – unintelligently “borrow” Kreator, Exodus, and D.R.I. riffs coupled with an emphasis on party-centric lyrics and sharp, speedy riffs.
To The Waste’s credit, though, they’re one of the few bands that manages to bring something new to the table on a consistent basis. Over the course of the band’s brief history, Municipal Waste has shown evolution and gradual, albeit slight, updates and innovations to their sound, culminating in Massive Aggressive, which – as cheesy and clichéd as it is dub it this – is probably the band’s most mature offering to date.
Having recently spoken with Trivium’s Matt Heafy and Corey Beaulieu, we hadn’t scheduled an interview with the band during our trip to scary Camden, NJ for this year’s Rockstar Mayhem Festival. But upon arriving we ran into Heafy in the lobby, and since he was between interviews at the moment we decided to roll the tape and do a quick impromptu update interview. And not for nothin’, Heafy’s such a nice guy, a great interviewee, and his band’s set was one of the most energetic of the day.
Heafy told us about how the Rockstar Mayhem Tour had been going for them so far, the karaoke and dance music parties that have ensued after hours, the band’s upcoming touring plans, and the songs he’s been working on for the next Trivium album. Our quick chat, after the jump.
I had a total stoner moment on Thursday; in my haste rushing out of the MS Mansion to attend a private, live performance of Living Colour’s entire new album Chair in the Doorway (Axl’s gonna write about this later today) I prepped our Funny Photo Caption Contest post ahead of time, leaving blank spaces for the winning entries which I intended to fill in later… only I forgot to choose winners before the post automatically ran at 5pm. Oops! What’s more, only like two of you actually noticed / cared enough to comment about this omission, instead entering a new caption and opting in favor “free stuff!! free stuff!! free stuff!!” like that juggalo bitch who drugged her baby to death but all she could do was bitch about a missing ICP poster. Yeah, I called you all juggalo bitches. Deal with it.
So, here are last week’s winners, each of whom receive a copy of Burnt by the Sun’s Heart of Darkness:
Uglymicrowave “shreks upset because he didn’t get to go to the gathering”
Anselmowitz: “Faygo troll guards entrance to Area 51.”
This week I’ll try and do better. In the meantime, enter this week’s contest: the winner gets a signed CD and a tour t-shirt from prog masters Bigelf. Get on it!
A couple of weeks back we debuted a new, sleekened iPhone compatible version of MetalSucks, and now we’re pleased to announce that you can access MetalSucks on your Blackberry via the Viigo Rock! app. Viigo is a leader in the Blackberry application space, and we’re pleased to have them on board as our Blackberry mobile solution. Included in the Rock! module in addition to MetalSucks: DeafLeftEar.com, DrivenFarOff.com, MetalInjection.net, MetalInsider.net, MetalUnderground.com, PureGrainAudio.com and SMNnews.com. All you need, really. The Rock! build is immediately available for download at http://getviigo.com/rock.
Here’s an interesting little piece that Noisecreep ran last week:
“For some reason, Skid Row fans or my fans are so hung up on these three or four tunes that I did a billion years ago,” says Bach, on the phone from the airport, while on his way to a gig tonight (Aug. 25) in front of 20,000 people at Telus Field in Edmonton, Alberta — where he will join country music duo Big and Rich onstage.
“I don’t get it. I completely don’t understand it because when I made it in rock, I said, ‘This is f—ing great. Now I can make music the rest of my life.’ Some people just wanna make the same record over and over again for the rest of their life, and that’s just not me. That’s totally not me.”
And here’s the performance Bach gave with Big and Rich that very night:
When Sigh mainman Mirai Kawashima offered to do a series of blogs from the studio where the band is recording their new album, Scenes from Hell, it was an opportunity too cool for us to pass up. Below find Mirai’s final report; here are links to his previous entries:
PART 1
PART 2
PART 3
PART 4
PART 5
Enjoy!
I’d like to start the final studio report by announcing the great contribution to Scenes from Hell by David Tibet from Current 93. Not only did he write the excellent text for us, but he also recorded the spoken words for the record. It gives a truly amazing atmosphere to the album.
The album has finally been mixed and mastered. We were supposed to finish mixing it by the end of June, but it was not easy at all. Of course I knew it’d be tough to mix all those orchestral instruments properly, but it was much harder than expected.
MS Maniac Leo Kannaly sent us an e-mail over the weekend where he wondered if this was the worst pit ever:
Leo, to answer your question, I don’t think that this is the worst pit ever, because I think to call this a pit would be an insult to pits everywhere. That being said, I do think it’s incredibly silly… but at least it doesn’t involve any karate moves.
-AR
As reported earlier, BTBAM announced via their Twitter account last night that they’d be posting an album teaser today for their new record The Great Misdirect (October 27th). Here it is, on their MySpace page. It’s nearly 6 minutes of music sampled from the album’s 6 songs, although since each BTBAM track is like 10 songs in one it’s kinda like getting to hear 60 new BTBAM songs… or something.
First take… it’s awesome, and it sounds like BTBAM. A lot of Dream Theater-y guitar work and a whole lot of other cool shit.
Go listen. Tell us what you think.
-VN
In July we reported that the shuttered Metal Maniacs magazine would soon to be relaunching as a web-only publication, and today we’re pleased to announce that the brand new MetalManiacs.com is now live.
Resurrected by the owner of Metalhit.com, the new Metal Maniacs features regularly updated content and features from the latest in underground metal. The site boasts an exhaustive Mp3 store featuring more than 13,000 songs available for preview and purchase as well as a new forum, monthly contests, a weekly “deadly discovery” showcasing up and coming bands and a monthly free digital music compilation. The debut launch features a 24 song compilation with free downloads from bands like Asphyx, Augury, Black Anvil, Daath, Hands, Impending Doom, Leaves’ Eyes, Merauder, Séance, Skeletonwitch, Suicide Silence, Vader and more!
Head on over to MetalManiacs.com and let us know what you think.
-VN
So in case ya didn’t hear, Dimmu Borgir fired their bassist/clean vocalist, ICS Vortex, and their keyboard player, Mustis, over the weekend. Well, I guess technically the band “parted ways” with those members, but by all accounts, it wasn’t a break-up reached by mutual decision.
To wit: Mustis briefly changed his MySpace status to “betrayed” before revealing this little nugget of information:
If you’re famous, one of the biggest problems with being dead is that you lose all control over how your “estate” (read: family that needs money) uses abuses your legacy. Case in point: Kurt Cobain is apparently going to be in Guitar Hero 5.
Now, I’m not one of these people who has a problem with Guitar Hero or rhythm games in general – I find them entertaining, and I’m not an alarmist who thinks they mean kids are gonna stop learning to play real instruments.
But I feel like Cobain is definitely the kind of stick-up-his-ass dude who would have a problem with Guitar Hero. Still, Francis Bean gotta eat Courtney Love gotta shoot up, so there’s Kurt in all his pixelated glory.
I’m shocked that Dimebag hasn’t been included in a rhythm game yet. I’d wager that his estate is working on that right about now.
-AR
Over the weekend we got a couple of emails about a benefit project for ailing Deftones bassist Chi Cheng, helmed by Korn bassist Fieldy Arvizu. Fieldy has recorded a song with a star-studded cast of characters to help raise money for Cheng, whose medical costs continue piling up as he enters year two (!!!) of his coma induced by a car accident. The song, simply called “A Song For Chi,” is available for free download — although donations of any amount at all are encouraged — features members of Machine Head, Metallica, Killswitch Engage, Slipknot, Sevendust and a whole bunch of others.
Great way to start the week off: apparently we’re getting new Between the Buried and Me music today. Posted by the band (@btbamofficial) at about 8pm EDT last night:
kcartresaetaraehlliwuoyworromot
… which, when reversed, says:
Tomorrow you will hear a teaser track
Just a teaser, but still, something to look forward to today. Axl and I were just lamenting (1st world problems!) how 2009 is only 3/4 of the way through and it’s already gonna be hard to choose our Top 10 lists, and with The Great Misdirect dropping October 27th it’s not gonna get any easier.
More later today when the track is out. Thanks to MS Maniac Brad Cook for the tip.
-VN
This mornings I wants tartines. Tartines with mustards. And crepes with nutellas. Yums yums.
-NC
I’m told that up is the new down, polka is the new metal, and energy drinks are the new WEED, but I’m not sure that all those claims are entirely accurate.
Also, Burst is (soon to be was) an awesome band, and if you can catch them on their first/last US tour ever (until a reunion that a scant few of us will actually care about) with Zoroaster and MetalPoops bone-crunching/eco-friendful fave Gojira (for most dates), you shan’t be disappointed. I can safely say that we are all extremely excited to see this bill at a smallish venue in chipster Brooklyn — you’re invited too, so get a ticket before it sells out!
It’s a shame to see Burst go — the albums that they’ve released are all pretty awesome, and I believe that the more they were to tighten their vision, the more they could have crossed over into further popularity/acclaim.
Oh well.
BURST — “Nineteenhundred” from Lazarus Bird (2008)
For US tour dates, visit Burst on YourMySpace.
-KW
Once the polls indicated that I was practically guaranteed to win this little contest, I decided that one thing that I really wanted for this site was an interview. But I didn’t want an ordinary interview—I wanted a killer interview. Luckily, bassist/vocalist Arthur von Nagel of the band Cormorant was more than happy to provide this interview. In fact, Arthur went way beyond anything I expected!
For starters, Cormorant is a band that is very hard to categorize. Some might be very general and say “extreme progressive metal,” while others might just be up to the task of labeling them using every subgenre that Cormorant integrates into their music (an arduous task if I do say so myself). Regardless, these guys bring an incredibly unique and diverse sound into the metal scene. Based on what I’ve heard so far, their new album Metazoa is definitely looking like it’ll be one of my top albums of the year.
Besides being a great bassist, Arthur is just a genuinely classy guy and quite the intellectual as you’ll see in the interview after the jump.
Read the interview after the jump.
