So the answer to the last logo was, of course, Slipknot. Some of you tried to be clever and make sarcastic comments and pretend it was another band. None of those people won, because I don’t like smart asses. One of you also criticized me for choosing a logo that was too easy; that person is obviously a) incapable of reading, and b) a total waste of sperm and egg.

ANYWAY, the winners of the CKY Carver City CDs are Arianna Askew and Jim Dahlin. I have a hard time believing that those are these readers’ real names, but whatever, not my problem.

This week I have one copy of Coal Chamber’s self-titled debut to give away, courtesy the too-kind folks at Roadrunner. In case for some reason you don’t know, Coal Chamber was Dez Fafara’s band before he started DevilDriver. Dude likes his alliterations I guess.

All you have to do to win is identify the name of the band whose logo appears below, then shoot me an e-mail with your answer, your name and address at axl AT metalsucks DOT net. We’ll randomly select a winner from everyone who gets it right, and announce his or her name next week.

Back to the real shit this time, courtesy of MS Maniac Kirsten Hogenson. Thanks, Kirsten!

-AR

Here’s the new Shadows Fall video, for the song “Still I Rise.” It’s full of dudes working out and running and fighting and stuff. Mostly, though, it’s just a good chance to hear a new Shadows Fall song.

The band’s latest, Retribution, comes out September 15. A little birdie told me it’s heavy as fuck.

Shadows Fall just announced a tour with Five Finger Death Punch. Well, nobody’s perfect.

-AR

It’s been a doozy of a year for metal releases already, hasn’t it?

After the jump, the records I’ve been jamming the most so far that might or might not end up on my year-end Top 10.

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Where the hell does the time go? The year is more than half over already! Sheesh.

ANYWAY, here are, in alphabetical order, albums that have really knocked my socks off so far this year…

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It’s no secret that pretty much every band in metal wants to open for Metallica, even if that band’s best days are behind them – and God Forbid are no exception. Since we consider GF like family around the mansion, seeing them fulfill one of their ambitions and get to open for ‘Tallica would be pretty swell.

For better or worse, for right now we’re going to have to settle for Doc Coyle opening for Metallica.

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MEGADETH, RUST IN PEACE

Ok, I was like, what, eleven when this shit came out? More like thirteen when I discovered it. Back then, Dave Mustaine was almost like a political figure as far as metal goes. Who knows how I’d look at his role now, but back then, he was a hero.

And then there was the songwriting. Nobody was writing music as creative as them. Listen to the guitar breaks in songs like “Five Magics” or the entire masterpiece, “Rust in Peace.” Nobody was writing stuff like that, and for the time, I felt like the lyrics actually meant something. And the solos – try playing a Marty Friedman solo when you’re thirteen. Try playing one now. The dude is/was/ and will forever be untouchable.

This band meant the world to me back then. I’m not crazy about the new directions the band has gone in, but that doesn’t diminish that they changed my life back when I was younger. I always felt like their rival bands were playing it safe, and that Megadeth was taking all the musical risks. I definitely think that this would be the musician’s choice for those of us who are and were still into real metal with real songs. Not just shred wankery.

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In an episode of The Cosby Show, perhaps one of the least metal sitcoms the ‘80s produced, Bill Cosby’s Heathcliff Huxtable tells his learning disabled son, Theo, that he would rather see him bring home a “hard C” instead of an “easy A” after he struggled with a particular assignment. What this potentially says about black America in the Reagan era – results don’t matter, so long as you’re working hard toward them – is possibly troubling, but when applied to California blackened metalcore band Winds of Plague, it’s surprisingly complementary. Though pulling out all the stops all the time fails more often than it succeeds, the band manage to make their latest album, The Great Stone War, a really, really fun and interesting mess. Their hodgepodge of riffs and motifs doesn’t reach an iwrestledabearonce-level of drek, but also doesn’t display the cohesiveness and songwriting prowess of, well, a solid band. But in terms of the latter, in a genre as flogged beyond death and into bone dust as metalcore, mixing it up by any means necessary has more potential to yield results than keeping your cookie dough inside a Poison the Well-shaped cutter. Complain about Winds of Plague’s melodramatic breakdown-o-rama as much as you like: at least they’re trying something different. Or, at least, different enough to stand out for the time being.

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Lazy journalism comparisons to Gojira be damned, there is some damn fine metal coming out of France these days. Whether or not that has anything to do with Gojira laying the groundwork for French bands to gain wider recognition in America is up for debate, but the facts are the facts: good metal = happy Vince.

• Gorod: I’ve chronicled my love of this band in this space before. If you like tech-death firestorms, you oughtta check this band out; their new record Process of a New Decline is a juicy, explosion of head-dizzying technical death metal.
• Hacride: More in the progressive/Opethian veign of the death metal spectrum, Hacride blend Meshuggian groove with the melody and aggression of the aforementioned Swedish death metal kings. Their new album Lazarus is available now.
• Eryn Non Dae: END.’s is certainly influenced by Meshuggah as well, but theirs is a more raw, visceral, dissonant, groove-laden take on what Hacride do. Axl just posted a trippy video of theirs last week which you should check out.

So that’s that. Get your France on.

-VN

We got to interview Tom Araya at Mayhem this past Friday, and once we got past the initial fanboy “HOLY SHIT IT’S TOM ARAYA PEE” shakes, I think we actually got some pretty decent questions in – including asking Mr. Araya when the Slayer/Megadeth tour that’s already played Canada and will soon be decimating Australia and New Zealand is coming to America. His response?

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While a seemingly endless amount of terrible nu-metal bands are reuniting, one has decided to do us all a favor and call it quits: American Head Charge have broken up… sort of. See, it seems that vocalist Cameron Heacock is leaving the band, who will hire a new singer and change their name, in what I can only imagine is an attempt to make people forget that they’re American Head Charge. As though you’d forget that bitch who bit your cock during a BJ just ’cause she changed her hair color or something.

AHC’s first album, 2001′s <sarcasm>cleverly</sarcasm> titled The War of Art*, was produced by Rick Rubin, and the band had more than their fair shot at the big leagues: they opened for System of a Down and Slipknot, played Ozzfest, got played on Return of the Rock, etc. Unfortunately, they never took off, probably because they were just that terrible. Their subsequent albums… well, I wasn’t even positive they had subsequent albums. So there ya have it.

This song is called “Seamless.” To review: it is produced by the same guy who produced Reign in Blood.

Expect the remaining members of American Head Charge to announce a “reunion” after they realize that they can make more money using their original moniker sometime in the next six to twelve months.

-AR

*Almost as clever a title as Otep’s Sevas Tra. No wonder the two acts shared a guitar player.

You can really tell that Nergal loves his job. During our thirty minute conversation, the Behemoth frontman’s enthusiasm bordered on breathlessness when discussing Evangelion, the band’s ninth, and best, album. He was hopeful when subtly inciting wilder behavior from Behemoth audiences and deferential when praised. It would pollute the eye to indicate more than the major outbursts of laughter, but I was chuckling throughout the discussion, if only at Nergal’s undisguised joy. Needing little prompting, he oscillated between cheerful appreciation of his band’s success and mortally serious respect for good metal and its constituents. He deflated only momentarily upon mention of his political adversaries in Poland and their abuse of his rights (Nergal 1, Assholes 0). From a distance, our chat may have resembled a pitch meeting for a Curb-esque improvedy in which Nergal by day walks a puppy around the sidewalks of Santa Monica, pinching the bottoms of giggling old ladies and high-fiving homeless guys. And by night, his band is one of the best reasons to attend the Mayhem Festival and authors of this year’s heaviest, most violent record.

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According to Blabbermouth, Elton John plays on the title track to Alice in Chains’ forthcoming Black Gives Way to Blue, which is described as “a heart-stirring tribute” to late vocalist Layne Staley.

Apparently John’s contribution comes solely in the form of piano playing and not vocals, which must be why Vince made no note of it when he reported on the album’s listening party (although he did make note of the “melancholy piano” and the lyrics “I remember you,” which he suspected at the time was a tribute to Staley); at the same time, I can’t believe they’ve kept the collaboration with John a secret this long.

So… anyone wanna get pissy about this? Honestly, like our friend Eyal Levi, I need some non-metal sometimes, and vintage Elton John often hits the spot. Plus, this isn’t the first time he’s worked with a near-metal band:

Black Gives Way to Blue comes out September 29.

-AR

I’m not sure why I’ve never posted about TesseracT before. At least a dozen of you have emailed us about this awesome band and I knew about and dug them even before then. Considering they’re in the Sikth/Meshuggah/Textures/Animals as Leaders/Periphery axis (Sumeriancore before there was such a thing, before Sumerian Records even existed) it’s pretty surprising I’ve not once written about them. But that changes… now, thanks to an email from MS Maniac Dan Wolfson.

Says the YouTube description: “A tribute to Mission Oaks (Metal) Subway’s favorite band. We listen to the Tesseract Demo just about every night while we close! Check them out, they are the grooviest metal band out there.”

This video is fucking hysterical, even independent of the soundtrack. If you want more TesseeracT, check ‘em out here.

-VN

Sometime during Mayhem on Friday, Vince and I had the heartbreaking realization that we were missing the 10th Annual Gathering of the Juggalos. I mean, FUCK, man. I was interviewing those pussies from Slayer and The Black Dahlia Murder and JFAC when I could have been watching some real performances by real musicians? Not to mention the late-night comedy in the middle of the woods with Pauly Shore. And the HELICOPTER RIDES! Oh, the helicopter rides. I don’t think I’ll ever get over missing this one. I’m weeping as I type this.

Luckily, Stuff You Will Hate‘s Sergeant D – a.k.a. the only wigger that doesn’t make me wanna vomit all over myself – has found the below video wrap-up of this weekend’s activities. So at least I can live vicariously through these fine men and women:

Anton OyVey also discovered an entire page of photos chronicling the weekend-long celebration of the arts, created by the same people who filmed the above video. Check those out here.

-AR

Actually, I’m pretty sure it’s just sad. Sad that this band, The Flood, thinks they’re actually doing something original. Sad that they don’t realize they’re ripping off Tool in every way except they aren’t nearly as good. The press release I got about this band says they just wrapped up a tour Static X… hopefully they’ll go right out on another one so I don’t have to ever cross paths with either shitty band again. Jeez. This band is just downright offensive.

-VN

At the risk of sounding like Eric Cartman after having just seen the Terrence and Philip movie (“Who Wants to Fucking Touch Me?!”), I got to hear Baroness’ Blue Record last night and I just need to say: holy shit, dude.

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The second annual Progressive Nation Tour — featuring a re-jiggered and suddenly worth seeing lineup of Scale the Summit, Bigelf and Zappa Plays Zappa supporting Dream Theater — hit New York’s historic Beacon Theater on Sunday night. This year’s proggier leaning lineup (last year’s had Opeth, BTBAM and 3 in the support slots) brought out an older-skewed audience, but as is always remarkably the case with Dream Theater there were plenty of youngins in attendance. In fact, the most frequently spotted band t-shirt I saw all night was for The Faceless; stew on that one for a second.

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We all love metal. That goes without saying. That’s why we all read this site and keep up with what our favorite, and not so favorite, bands are doing. From people in bands to fans, we all pretty much live, breathe, sleep, and bleed metal.

So I guess what I’m wondering is: does it ever get old to any of you?

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Miss the much celebrated Cave In reunion show in Boston last month? No problem. MS Maniac Joel L. has assembled several of the best video captures from the performance and sent them in for posting. Enjoy the first one below, and a whole bunch more after the jump.

“Luminance” (semi-professional, multi camera, good quality):

Click through for the rest…

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The first time I heard Tombs‘ Relapse Records debut Winterhours was on the New York subway with iPod earbuds, which are clearly not the ideal conditions for developing an accurate initial impression of a band. I wasn’t impressed and turned it off after a few songs, likely in favor of something more familiar such as The Jonas Brothers. Recently though, I’ve given the record some undivided attention at home, where the sound is hardly state-of-the-art but at least it isn’t subject to train noises and obnoxious interruptions by my fellow passengers. Much to my surprise and delight, I fucking love Winterhours.

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