Do you guys have any issues with cops? Ever been unfairly treated by one or many? No, this isn’t a defense attorney ad, but I’m just curious. You see, prior to one thing that happened on the last tour DAATH did (and, granted, it wasn’t HUGE), I had never ever been messed with by a cop. I’ve always treated them with respect, and somehow they’ve always treated me that way. And I KNOW that is a rare situation because I hear from so many people about how they’ve been brutalized or fucked with or just not treated right by some cops.

My thought has always been, who you gonna call at 5 a.m. if someone is rummaging through your house and you don’t own a gun? They’ll risk their lives for you, so with me, there’s always a baseline of respect. But this thing that happened to us sure did shatter that respect for at least one cop.

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Here’s the band’s video for the title track from their new album, Wanderlust.

Am the only one who found The Big Dirty kinda disappointing? Gutter Phenomenon was awesome and I really liked Hot Damn!, but… I dunno. There was just something missing from Dirty – that certain “oomph!” that’s really made this band pop for me in the past. Hopefully Wanderlust will be a return to form.

Wanderlust comes out September 15 on Epitaph.

-AR

I guess it’s an NIN kinda day around here. Check out this Brat-produced mash-up sent in by reader Travis Palano of Nine Inch Nails’ “The Hand That Feeds” and Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up.” Of all the mash-ups we’ve posted, this is one of the best in terms of the key and pitch of the vocal track actually consistently matching up with the key and pitch of the instrumental. The chorus ends up sounding anti-climactic as compared to either of the two originals, but it’s still a pretty bangin’ mix.

-VN

Metal faithful, perhaps you can explain to me how a genre more rooted in classical music than most rock – from the lower-than-low register compositions and general epicness of Wagner and Mahler to the virtuosity of Bach, Vivaldi, and Paganini – so often lends itself to mangled attempts at integrating keyboards into the mix. Whether it’s the silly attempts to nudge metalcore hacks like Bleeding Through and Winds of Plague into grandiosity, trying to create a macabre atmosphere that just winds up sounding like a Wal-Mart Halloween display like Abigail Williams or latter day Dimmu Borgir, or the occasional yet still sad missteps of Emperor and early Dimmu Borgir, incorporating synthesized orchestration into extreme metal more often than not results in over-the-top wanking for wanking’s sake and/or keyboard effects that sound embarrassingly dated before they’re even put to tape. Whether it’s interludes or providing a counterpoint to the rest of the band, it more often than not comes off more Danny Elfman than Beethoven. I can’t understand how one can think keyboard acrobatics sound remotely metal.

That being said, when presented in the context of metal with extra cheese, they usually put whatever band that’s employing them over the top, launching them into a land considered either fun or grating (see: Dragonforce). This is the case for the inclusion of keyboards in Swedish melodic power/prog/death metallers Skyfire, who are often swallowed up by cheesiness in both the good and bad senses on Esoteric, their latest.

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Candiria needs no introduction, but even those familiar with the band might not know that guitarist John LaMacchia is one of the most hard-working men in underground metal. In addition to his work with Candiria — who are releasing Toying With the Insanities Volumes 1 and 2 this September — LaMacchia runs Rising Pulse Records, the label that will be releasing the aforementioned new Candiria albums. He’s also a member of Spylacopa together with members of The Dillinger Escape Plan, Isis and Made out of Babies, and and he’s co-writing and producing a solo album with Julie Christmas of the latter. In a phone conversation earlier this month, I chatted with John about the new Candiria sets, the aforementioned side projects (which are only the tip of the iceberg), the current status of Candiria, and some local bands he digs. Our chat, after the jump.

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MetalSucks Maniac Jessica Kriplean sent this in. I’m not sure if it’s actually the worst metal video ever made, but it has to at least be a candidate to be reckoned with, no?

Bonus: hilarious misheard lyrics.

-AR

Not all of us were lucky enough to join Mr. Suarez at Webster Hall this past Sunday to watch Nine Inch Nails perform The Downward Spiral in its entirety as part of their farewell tour (Which I don’t really believe is a farewell tour anymore than the countless Ozzy or Rolling Stones farewell tours were really farewell tours, but whatever. I guess if anyone is cool enough to keep his word, it’s Trent Reznor.).

Luckily, this is 2009, and there are now bootlegs of the performance all-over the web. So I sniffed around YouTube and have constructed the Downward part of the concert as best I can (I didn’t seek out the other songs the band did ’cause, frankly, I’m just too lazy). A few exceptions: I could only find an abbreviated version of the title track, and can’t seem to find “I Do Not Want This” at all for some reason. So this will have to do.

Please join me now in living vicariously through some lucky fan’s cell phone camera…

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I’ve really been enjoying Frank Godla’s “Frank’s Favorite Drummers” series on Metal Injection over the past few weeks; I’ve gotten to see live footage of some of my own favorite drummers and I’ve also learned about incredibly skilled skinsmen I’d never heard of before. Today’s entry focuses on Kenneth Schalk of Candiria, a man who proves that you really only need a 4-piece kit to kick fucking ass on the drums. Mike Portnoy’s 10,765-piece monster? Psssshhh.

-VN

I won’t profess to having been a longtime Cable fan. Honestly, until recently I hadn’t even heard of the Connecticut-based noise-rock-meets-post-hardcore group, which is odd given that over the last fifteen years they’ve put out records with some pretty great labels, including Hydra Head and Translation Loss. But one listen to their breathtakingly bluesy new album The Failed Convict during a recent cardio workout made it impossible for me to ignore them anymore. I’m not exaggerating when I say this is one of my favorite records of 2009.

Peep the video above of their record release show at Brooklyn’s Union Pool, which features several cuts from The Failed Convict, available now from The End Records. If you like what you hear/see, be sure to catch the band play select Northeast U.S. dates next month (September 17 at Europa in Brooklyn, September 18 at 242 Main in Burlington, Vermont).

-GS

[Gary Suarez fought the Lord and the Lord won. He usually manages the consistently off-topic No Yoko No. Say, why don't you follow him on Twitter?]

Even for myself, Axl and the highly skilled MetalSucks Mansion Monkeys, keeping up with what’s going on in the metal world of Twitter can be difficult. That’s why some friends of ours have launched CircleTwitt.com, a Twitter aggregator for everything metal; bands to record labels to metal celebrities to websites and more. If you’re Twitter-holics like us (follow @metalsucks!) a site like this is a great place to find out about those of us in the metal world who are needlessly wasting our time trying to summarize our lives to an indifferent public in bits of 140 characters or less. Hooray!

-VN

Who knew that a delicious kernel-laden, summer treat was also the name of an up and coming new-metal band? Sergeant D of Metal Inquisition has posted another journalistic masterpiece that sheds light upon a band of unique, take-no-prisoners upstarts from California. Excerpt:

But they also seem like they like metal, because a lot of the songs are really dissonant and heavy. I feel like they are probably big noisecore fans because on the record there isn’t even a bass player. In the parts where most bands would have the bass, they just have these weird sounds that remind me of pieces of metal clanking together. It seems like something 7 Minutes of Nausea would do. They have a guy who plays with them live and does “noise/effects” and sometimes uses a bass to make the clanking sounds, I don’t know how he does it. He’s probably into circuitbending or whatever and rewired the whole bass.

If you didn’t enjoy Sergeant D’s piece on Brooklyn genre-benders Biohazard, you a) are an idiot, b) ought to check this one out. Highly recommend A+++ would do business with again, fast shipping!!

-VN

The headline says it all; isn’t that lineup awesome? It’s kind of like Paganfest except slightly less dorky / more evil (nothing against Paganfest — we love that tour too). We were bummed Eluveitie canceled this year’s Paganfest II appearance so we’re excited to see them again, and we’re all for a tour that includes blackened death metallers Belphegor and the better-of-the-two pirate metal bands, Alestorm. Kivimetsan Druidi and Vreid are mostly new to me but they seem like they’ll fit right in on this tour.

Honestly, this year’s Paganfest was a bit underwhelming so perhaps this is a chance for redemption. Korpiklaani shouldn’t have been headliners, and while the lineup was solid it wasn’t strong enough to bring out all the crazy pagan-metal partiers: I was the only douchebag in the entire place wearing a viking helmet, for realz. Seeing as Heathenfest kicks off in the dark, dim early days of November, maybe it’ll provide a good excuse for sun-deprived metalheads to go and get rowdy with some frosty brews and pagan metal. Psyched!

-VN

…since apparently Perez Hilton is the Perez Hilton of metal. Check out his new t-shirts, which I saw this morning on Reign in Blonde. They’re the latest signs of the mainstream’s attempt to co-opt metal culture:

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Well, it’s not like we didn’t see this coming.

Ziltoid, who might be MetalSucks’ #1 hater, won the contest to take over the site for a day by an overwhelming landslide, claiming more than half of all the votes.

He’ll be running the show this Friday, August 28.

Thanks to all those who participated. And best of luck to Zilty…

-Axl, Vince, and Everyone at MetalSucks

The local band weekend tour. We used to do these back in our DIY days and I recommend that any band that aspires to touring full-time do some of these as well. The point is to get you ready for what you’ll encounter out there on a real tour. So you start with a weekend tour. If that goes well, see if you can handle a week. If that goes well, see if you can handle a week and a half. All this time keep doing little weekend runs in your region.

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Have you ever listened to Tool? Have you ever listened to Tool… on weed??? Have you ever listened to Tool played on a piano by one man… on weed???

This is pretty fucking incredible. The fact that composer Adam Monroe was able to create a piano rendition of “Lateralus” is pretty impressive. That his version doesn’t just ape the original but includes a whole lot of his own flair is really fucking impressive. And the fact that he sings on top of it and nails the performance of this epic song is just… wow. I really can’t fathom how he stays on top of three different rhythms and melody lines all at once — left hand, right hand, vocals. This is no small feat given Tool’s penchant for having each instrument do its own thing, only each guy in Tool only has to focus on his own part while this guy is doing everything at once. You know those crazy buskers you see on the street sometimes who play drums with their feet, sing, and play two different instruments with their hands? It’s like that. Unbelievable.

-VN

MS Maniac Allan Petteruto sent us the below. It’s actually very sad. So sad that I have no desire whatsoever to make fun of the people involved. Just watch it first, then get my thoughts after the jump.

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If there’s such a thing as “the North Carolina sound” Seneca have got it; think Between the Buried and Me, Glass Casket, even Bloodjinn. No surprise then that Reflections was produced by fellow North Carolinian Jamie King who also produced the former two of the above three bands. Seneca have actually been around since 2002, but their March release Reflections is their first for Lifeforce Records, and it’s a surprisingly solid listen. Seneca actually sound a whole lot like BTBAM in particular — at times a little bit too much — but manage to modify BTBAM’s prog-core sound just enough to be original. Where BTBAM go big and epic with 8 or soon-to-be 6-song albums full of long songs Seneca somehow manage to cram all of their epic structures, song-changes and shred into much shorter templates, with most songs on Reflections coming in at under 4 minutes and many even under 3. There are a few too many deathcore-skirting breakdowns on Reflections for my tastes, but the band still manages to keep it interesting most of the time. Call them the working man’s Between the Buried and Me.

Check out Seneca on MySpace and let us know what you think.

-VN

“In the Ashes They Shall Reap,” the first song we’ve gotten to hear off of Hatebreed’s new, self-titled album, is streaming here.

I have a distinct opinion about this song – but I’m not going to share it. No. Because we’ve been enjoying you kids duke it out so much, I wanna keep my nose out of it… at least for now. I just wanna hear what you guys think.

Weigh in with your thoughts below. Hatebreed comes out September 29 on E1.

-AR

The second-to-last night of Summer Slaughter — the first of two nights at NYC’s Irving Plaza — was a fucking party. Axl and Vince arrived before doors opened to interview Darkest Hour mastermind Mike Schleibaum and were summarily handed beers. “New York City . . . oh god. Suffocation, and also sharing your dressing room [with Suffocation]. . . there’s going to be a lot of drinking. Beer is going to be hard to get. We should really start right after this interview!” mused Schleibaum before handing us a couple of Bud Lights to get things started off right. “It’s just a Bud Light, my friends,” he responded after we thanked him for the hospitality; true, but somehow “just a Bud Light” turned into “just a bottle of Jack Daniels” being completely polished off in the DH / Suffocation dressing room shortly thereafter. “The thing is – it’s going to get all drank by the time Blackguard’s finished,” prophecized Schleibaum. And so it went. The men of DH like their Jack (and their weed) and the endless stream of Suffocation ladies — 40-something Lawngisland bleach blondes with giant, fake tits — that paraded through the room all night provided much amusement for our chemically altered brains.

But before all of the shenanigans went down we sat with Mr. Schleibaum and chatted about the Summer Slaughter tour, the band’s new album The Eternal Return, the end of Darkest Hour’s deal with Victory Records and what that means for the band, the departure of guitarist Kris Norris and subsequent replacement with ex-At All Cost axeman Mike “Lonestar” Carrigan, working with producer Devin Townsend in the past, and a slew of other topics. Our chat, after the jump.

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