When he’s not fucking up Halloween, I’ve actually enjoyed some of Rob Zombie’s cinematic work in the past – particularly The Devil’s Rejects. And these 34 seconds of his new, R-rated cartoon, The Haunted World of El Superbeasto, look potentially promising – although knowing that Paul Giamatti (as “Dr. Satan” – aka the main villain from House of 1,000 Corpses), Rosario Dawson, Danny Trejo, and comedian/metalhead Brian Posehn all contributed voice work definitely helps.

Less helpful is knowing that the film has been completed and sitting on a shelf for awhile now. That could mean the movie just isn’t that commercial, or it could mean the movie licks bear balls. I guess we’ll find out when Anchor Bay finally releases the movie on DVD next month.

Meanwhile, Shock ‘TIl You Drop is reporting that Zombie is now returning to his mysterious (and apparently dinosaur-free) Tyrannosaurus Rex project now that Halloween II is complete. More to follow…

-AR

As ’90s nu-metal nostalgia reaches its peak (I FUCKING CALLED IT!), the parade of cash-grab nu-metal reunions continues. Joining the ranks of Limp Bizkit, E-Town Concrete, Crazytown, Snot, Cold, Slaves on Dope, and other terrible ear-raping bands I’m surely forgetting, TuneLab.com is reporting that Adema are reuniting and releasing a new DVD. Adema was never really known for much other from a) sucking, b) lead singer Marky Chavez being the half-brother of Korn’s Jonathan Davis. A guy I know once referred to Adema as “Pop-Korn” in casual conversation, and that’s pretty much the most hilarious / accurate thing that could ever be uttered about the band. Not to imply that Korn are genre-bending revolutionaries or anything… but, ya know.

Here’s Adema’s music video for “The Way You Like It” in case you need to be reminded of just how awful they were. I’d completely forgotten about this song… for the better.

At least American Head Charge just called it quits.

-VN

Les Paul has passed away from complications from pneumonia. He was 94.

Obviously, Paul didn’t play metal music – but as an innovator of multi-track recording and solid body guitars (he was – duh – the creator of the Les Paul model Gibson), he definitely had an effect on metal. Also, he was an all-around awesome guitar player.

I’m not sure about the past few years, but when I was a kid he used to play weekly gigs at a now-defunct club called Fat Tuesday’s. I went to see him several times, and he always blew me away. Once, when I was about thirteen, I was leaving the gig when he actually stopped me – he seemed surprised that someone so young had come out to see him. He was incredibly nice, and it made my year to get to speak with him, however briefly.

I know that Paul used to jam with some metal-types, including Slash (who, of course, plays a Les Paul model nine times outta ten). I can’t seem to find any videos of such a jam session. But here he is back in the day with his also-departed wife, Mary Ford.

-AR

Rob and Frank from Metal Injection are in Amsterdam right about now, probably sitting in some cafe smoking a fucking giant spliff. But they wouldn’t leave you guys hangin… so they’ve got a bunch of content auto-programmed content to keep ya’ll entertained this week (should I have spilled the beans on that one? Ah well, whatever). As part of their programmed content, they’ve gone and hand-picked the five favorite interviews that they’ve ever done. Today’s entry is an interview they did with A Life Once Lost; part 1 is a perfectly normal, albeit hilarious band interview, and part 2 (after the jump)… takes you to a higher place.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Click to read more…

I love horror movies. Especially cheap-o horror movies. Sleepaway Camp is like my Citizen Kane; fuck, I even love Sleepaway Camp 2 & 3, where Bruce Springsteen’s kid sister, Pamela, played the killer.

So it says something that even I think that The Graves, a new horror film which will feature an appearance by Lamb of God’s Randy Blythe (here billed as “D. Randall Blythe”), looks like crap. I mean, I obviously really like all the cleavage at the start of the trailer, but otherwise, this looks just awful. Not funny-awful, like Sleepaway Camp, but awful-awful, like any Halloween movie that wasn’t directed by John Carpenter. In other words: VO work for Cradle of Filth is still the best thing Tony Todd has done in years.

Metal Insider – which is where I first saw this trailer – also has footage of an on-set interview with Blythe, where it’s revealed that he plays a deacon. Oh, the irony! I wonder if he eventually gets set on fire?

-AR

In case you’re blind or something, Howard Jones is a big dude. I mean, a big dude. He’s not, like, the tallest motherfucker you’ve ever met, but he’s definitely ripped, and he has a kung-fu grip handshake. And even though he’s an incredibly nice guy, I just would not ever dick around with him. There is no doubt in my mind that he could break me like Drago broke Apollo.

But the, I’m not the guy in this video, who is obviously way braver dumber than I am:

Click to read more…

This video by The Psyke Project, sent in by MS Maniac Kris K., certainly starts off innocently enough… and then devolved into one of the weirdest fucking videos I’ve ever seen. I can imagine how the initial production meeting for this video went: “So, like, we wanna be in the woods, naked, covered in black mud.” “You mean clothed in a warehouse with lots of lights flashing?” “No, in the woods, naked, covered in black mud.”

According to The Psyke Project’s MySpace, the video is just a microcosm of their entire new album Dead Storm (out August 28th on Lifeforce):

”Dead Storm” is a rendition of Scandinavian nature and narratives of the world that THE PSYKE PROJECT belong to. The album is a sound scape influenced by the frailty and authenticity of traditional Nordic music and at the same time there’s a presence of pristine landscapes throughout the songs. The honesty of Nordic narratives – be it nature, myths or music – has made an deep impact on how we wanted to record the album and the emotions that should be conveyed through ”Dead Storm.” It has been paramount to us that all studio recordings were done live and within a short time span in order to stay honest to the song writing and to convey a sense of authenticity and unpredictability on the album.

Pretty cool if you ask me. Enjoy the Danish nudity below.

In case you couldn’t tell, I really enjoy reading Cosmo Lee’s Invisible Oranges, even if I don’t always agree with him (The Real Thing does still pwn, dude!). This morning, Cosmo ponders the search for “the next great metal band” – what he compares to a first-round draft pick in sports – and posits that it could be Relapse artists, Revocation:

Click to read more…

In June I ran an article simply entitled Brutal (Pt. 2) in which I extolled the virtues of a then-newly released Burnt by the Sun track “F Unit.” Only I cheated, ’cause I knew the entire record was just as brutal/awesome to follow it up — and now’s your chance to challenge me on that assertion. Burnt by the Sun have their entire new record Heart of Darkness, due to come out next Tuesday August 18th, streaming in its entirety at HeartOfDarkness.info. I really ought to have included this record on my list of early picks for my year-end Top 10, because really, Heart of Darkness is just impressing me that much.

Stream the whole record here, then report back and tell us what you think. Even that bastion of metal credibility The Village Voice loves it so you know it’s got to be good.

-VN

The heart image seems fitting somehow, ’cause… I dunno… Layne is dead… but out hearts still beat for him… or… whatever.

Actually, it seems like the band has some kind of heart-fetish for awhile now; a couple of years back, Vince bought this shirt:

Click to read more…

Last week was somewhat of a slow one for metal record sales. There weren’t a whole lot of new releases, but a few records that have been out for a while hung onto their spots in the Top 200 and Hank III’s Assjack project had a solid debut. Click through for chart positions and sales numbers.

Click to read more…

When a band names its debut full-length Gambling On The Richter Scale, you pretty much expect it to be heavy as fuck. If San Francisco’s own Kowloon Walled City’s two new tracks (now streaming here) from said forthcoming record are any indication, you’d be goddamn right.

Click to read more…

I don’t want to spoil the surprise… just keep in mind that this is Attack Attack!, and then fast-forward to 1:05.

Whomever threw that shit, please e-mail me to claim a prize.

-AR

Thanks to Elise at Reign in Blonde for the tip!

”The most beautiful words in the English language aren’t ‘I love you’ but ‘It’s benign.’ ”
-Deconstructing Harry

The Osbournes: Reloaded variety show got cancelled after like half an episode, Sharon literally can’t give away tickets to Ozzfest anymore, and the only times the singer makes headlines anymore are when he’s suing someone or getting a new guitarist. Why the fucking fuck would anyone want to get into the Ozzy business right now?

Ask MTV. According to Dan Rodriguez at Metal Insider, their famed reality show, The Osbournes, is coming back, “this time focusing mostly on Kelly and her bizarre, 19 year-old, Powder-esque shithead of a fiancee.”

Click to read more…

Our bro-bros at Metal Insider have the exclusive debut of the new Burning Human video, “Tormented Minds.” Lucky bastards.

The video was apparently banned by MTV, because, uhhh, I’m not really sure. Nothing about it strikes me as being particularly offensive. Oh well. Another great call from the geniuses at Headbanger’s Ball.

Click on the screencap below to check out the video.

-AR

Well, I don’t know that the original Faith No More vocalist is back on smack, but I can’t think of any other way to explain this statement from a recent Rolling Stone interview:

“I thought [firing guitarist Jim Martin] was as big if not bigger a mistake than getting rid of me — just because he had a lot of pull with the big part of their crowd at the time. And he was ‘the personality,’ y’know? There was something people could identify to. After Jim, they were going through a string of different guitar players, and I couldn’t name one of them. That Jagger/Richards, Plant/Page thing was gone.”

Alright, I love Jim Martin as much as the next guy, but come on, dude. Let’s look at some facts:

Click to read more…

Black Anvil’s much anticipated record Time Insults the Mind doesn’t come out until September 1st, but we’ve got a brand new track available for free download today, right here. Black Anvil are from right here in NYC and recently signed with Philly-based Relapse Records. Their brand of blackened, crusty, punk-influenced metal is captured perfectly in the new recording; it’s raw, dingy and full of unbridled energy, but with enough clarity to allow a bit of breathing room between instruments.

The band has a string of dates this weekend with Marduk and Withered, starting today in Baltimore, hitting Philly tomorrow and NYC on Saturday. Details and more music on Black Anvil’s MySpace page.

Enjoy.

[this promotion has ended]

Last month I reported on the tantalizing supergroup combo of Dave Grohl, Josh Homme and John Paul Jones. In the past few days that post has become tremendously popular, either because ya’ll really want to know about this group or because my headline of HOMME + GROHL + JOHN PAUL JONES = BONER is attracting people curious about the dick size of the aforementioned men. But we’re pretty sure it’s the latter, because the supergroup, now dubbed Them Crooked Vultures (how fucking perfect is that??) made their live debut this past Saturday evening at a Lollapalooza afterparty to a sold out crowd at the Metro in Chicago.

The Internet’s a buzzin’ with news and speculation about the band. I’ve seen no less than a dozen Facebook/Twitter posts; Spin.com has a list of funny things overheard at the show; Blabbermouth has a 30-second teaser of the song “Nobody Loves Me And Neither Do I” which I’ve re-posted below. Pretty much any excuse to talk about this band… oh wait.

No word yet on a release date for an album. Check out the teaser clip below… it sounds pretty much like you’d expect it to, which is a great thing.

-VN

I went to the MetalSucks co-sponsored Thrash & Burn Tour last night. Show highlight: Periphery, easily, no contest.

Periphery have been “Internet popular” for years. I first wrote about them over a year ago as a band for fans of Meshuggah, Sikth, Textures, etc. At the time they were looking for a singer but apparently they’ve found one, the tremendously talented NYC-native Chris Barretto, who pretty much dropped my jaw to the floor last night with both his vocal skills and stage performance. Periphery were absolutely just virgin fucking tight and had the crowd in a frenzy, no small feat for the 2nd band on a 10-or-so band bill. I’m very happy for Periphery that they landed this Thrash & Burn slot and can begin the long journey from “Internet popular” to “actually popular.” They totally deserve it.

So, why aren’t Periphery signed to Sumerian Records yet? Beats me; after all they are the very epitomy of Sumeriancore, our favorite new micro-genre. Count down on that shit… 3… 2… 1…

Check out Periphery on MySpace. Don’t let that auto-tune in the opening of the first song fool you.

-VN

I have had the distinct pleasure of seeing Brooklyn, NY-based Wizardry twice in the past several months within the extremely cramped confines of the dirty, dank, dingy basement of the Lit Lounge (for those not familiar, imagine a dimly lit basement performance space no more than 15 feet wide, walls made entirely of stone, dirty couches in the corners, and a stage big enough to hold just the drummer for most bands… the whole place kind of resembles a medieval torture chamber).  Both times, pretty ordinary dudes came in to set up the band’s equipment, left the stage, and less than 5 minutes later were back in the FULL accoutrement you see in this video — furs, robes, makeup, everything. In fact, I completely seriously remarked to the show promoter last week how I thought Wizardry were awesome for having their own roadies; man, that made me look like an idiot.

In any case their live show absolutely stunned all those in attendance; for all the possible ridiculousness a band that looks like this could bring, these guys are completely serious and totally pull it off. More people ought to know about this band, so hopefully posting their new video for “Under the Wizard’s Sleeve” will help. When you’re done, check out some of their heavier tunes on their MySpace page. Remember — completely serious. Seriously.

NYers can catch Wizardry at Union Pool in Brooklyn on August 23.

-VN