Horse The Band are growing up. They’ve long since distanced themselves from the “nintendo-core” label of the past, and from what we’ve heard of their new album Desperate Living — the new song “Rape Escape” and now “Shapeshift” in the video below — it seems like this album is another big step forward for them. HtB still combine influences from all over the map and their music is still anything but straight ahead rock or metal, but they present it in a much more mature fashion than, say, Iwrestledabearonce (I know Axl thinks this band is the cat’s pajamas, but I’m not sold yet). From what I can tell of the new record so far, Horse the Band seem to be taking themselves a lot more seriously this time around, and it shows in the presentation and composition of their music.

Watch the new (and weird!) video for “Shapeshift” below. Tomorrow, we’re going to have the full exclusive stream for Desperate Living; get psyched.

-VN

Despite being such a huge fan of Big Business’ Here Come The Waterworks, 2009′s Mind The Drift honestly doesn’t stand much of a chance of making it into my year-end Top 10 list. The same cannot be said, however, for Sculpted Beef, the brief vinyl (and digital) debut from White Shit, Jared Warren and Coady Willis’ side-project with Andy Coronado of Wrangler Brutes and Monorchid. Contrasting significantly with the slightly proggy art-metal Warren and Willis explore with their other bands, White Shit make brash, lo-fi hardcore in the Black Flag/Minor Threat tradition. Here, sprawling riffage and avant-garde percussion is violently tossed aside and replaced with filth, fury, and snot-nosed wit. And it’s all done pretty fucking well.

Click to read more…

Tonights starts Yom Kippurs. I was gonna plays some Jewish black metals, but the onlys Jewish black metals bands I knows is Bishop of Hexen, and they sucks major matzos balls. So I am cheatings with Melechesh. They ares not Jewish, but they is Israeli. And they rules.

-NC

Monday (actually sun down Sunday, but whatever) is Yom Kippur, which is the Jewish day of repentance. As you can imagine, I have a lot to repent for, so I won’t be doing any writing. Vince may or may not be here to give all the goy their bored-at-work dose of entertainment.

In the meantime, here are some fun things that happened this week:

• Dallas Coyle talked about “borrowing ideas” and talking shit, while Eyal Levi contemplated greener grass (not that kind of grass).
• We spoke to Every Time I Die’s Andy Williams and some of the dudes from Periphery.
• We suffered through the worst Metallica cover ever recorded.
• We wondered if Juggalos should be considered a gang.
• And it’s Gojira and Burst live FTW.

See ya Tuesday.

-AR

Earlier today in response to my Scar Symmetry post, MS commenter “cougar party” asked:

Could someone explain the reason release dates are always different in the US and Europe? I don’t see the logic behind two different dates.

The reason is that bands often have different record labels in different territories. A band may be signed to Nuclear Blast in Europe, but a different label in the U.S.; even when a band is signed to the same label in two territories, the European office often operates differently than the U.S. office. The reason for this is pretty simple; a local label has a much better understanding of how their own market and scene work and can more effectively work a band there, get them in the right press outlets, get them on the right tours, pitch them to the correct radio stations, etc. When it comes to marketing and setting up a record for release, it’s much easier to do a focused, territorial campaign than one that attempts to satisfy all the varying needs of the different regions of the world. A band could be hugely popular in Europe but have little to no following in the U.S., so it could make sense to wait to “release” it in the U.S. until a proper label can get behind it here and spread the word to the masses.

This was all well and good for many decades. Then the Internet came along and fucked everything up.

Click to read more…

I just saw Rev Theory in a magazine ad. They looked pretty ridiculous so I decided to look up their video, and, yep. They’re not good. I mean, I can think of far worse bands, but just because it’s less painful to shot in the brain than to get shot in the foot doesn’t mean you’d wanna get shot in the foot.

On the other hand, their video has busty chicks fighting. So there’s that.

-AR

Actually, I’d wager they have several. But this song is just about one. I think. I haven’t actually read the lyrics. Or ever listened to Susperia before. I’ll stop typing now.

-AR

Here’s a picture of Ryan Adams, who would irritate the living shit out of me even if he wasn’t married to the equally annoying Mandy Moore, wearing a Kreator shirt at a recent art show:

If Ryan Adams can tell me the name of one Kreator song, I’ll suck his cock and film it for the site. Go for it, Ryan. I’m waiting.

See more photos here. Formerly cool D-Generation singer turned hipster tool bag Jesse Malin was there, too.

-AR

[via SMN]

“… so we’ll celebrate by charging $154 for an ugly t-shirt made by teens in a sweat-shop in Taiwan, to be worn by privileged suburban white males who wear supposed ‘punk’ clothing as a badge of identity.” – Ed Hardy [via Metal Insider]

Punk is officially dead.

-VN

I’ve been living with the new Scar Symmetry album Dark Matter Dimensions for about two weeks now, trying to determine what I think of it. Finally the rest of you can hear it in full on the band’s MySpace page and just for yourselves. In no particular order, here are my thoughts on the album and the new singer(s) situation:

• The songwriting core of the band is definitely intact. They still bring the Death Jovi goods, unaffected by Christian Alvestam’s departure.
• Production-wise, the band have done a lot to make new clean vocalist Lars Palmqvist sound just like Alvestam. At times, I even forget Alvestam is gone. The verdict on whether he’s going to work or not will ultimately come down to how he sounds live, but from the footage I’ve seen so far I’m not convinced. On record, the guy certainly sounds good.
• New growl vocalist Roberth Karlsson is pretty much interchangeable with Alvestam.
• The album is front-loaded, with the first three songs being the best. The rest just kind of seem to blend together for me, but perhaps I just need more time to learn them.

So go on and stream the new album and tell us what you think. The album comes out officially on October 2nd in Europe and October 20th in the States… though you know how silly we think staggered release dates are in the Internet age.

-VN

Last week Axl posted a metal cover of the Super Mario Bros. theme song; it was pretty fuckin’ cool, but with all due respect I think Nylithia‘s metal cover of the “castle” music theme, sent in by MS Maniac Scott Bahash, blows it away. You’ve got shred, you’ve got real drums (as opposed to programmed), you’ve got live video of the band playing, and I like that this version is way more interpretive as opposed to just a straight cover. The ending is absolutely epic, too:

MS Maniac Will Mellor sent in this 8-bit cover of Slayer’s “Angel of Death,” which is also pretty good:

Click to read more…

If I had a biological clock, I’d worry that’s it’s ticking. Because this is my second story about little kids today.

Reign in Blonde has made the awesome discovery of Jonah Rocks, who is a) the only four year old I’ve ever seen that can play the drums, and b) the only four year old I’m aware of that already has a stage name. He also seems to have an endorsement deal with Vic Firth. Holy poop.

For reasons that are totally beyond me, the videos of this lil’ tyke rockin’ out are not embeddable, but if you go here, you can watch Jonah play “Harvester of Sorrow” with more skill and passion than Lars Ulrich has displayed in years.

After the jump are some more links to Jonah playing. Some of these videos were made when he was only three years old!!!

Click to read more…

“Reliable news source” Lambgoat is reporting that San Diego, CA-based deathcore-ish band Sea of Treachery have either been booted from or left Sumerian Records, depending on who you ask. I’d never heard of this band, so in due journalistic diligence I did my research. I’d like to posit the following theories for why Sumerian kicked the band to the curb (because, really, why would any band leave a label with as much current clout as Sumerian?):

1. They suck.
2. They aren’t Sumeriancore.
3. The most popular song (by far) on their MySpace page is a cover of Paramore’s “Misery Business.”

Apparently the band is un-phased, as they’re currently recording a new album and have a mammoth U.S. tour booked for the fall.

Less bands like this and more bands like Periphery k thx.

-VN

It’s hard to believe the Foo Fighters have released 6 albums already. That in and of itself would be impressive for any band, but toss in the fact that Dave Grohl has aligned himself with umpteen side projects (Probot, Queens of the Stone Age, Them Crooked Vultures, etc) and has continued to crank out hit after hit for the Foos, and it’s pretty damn astonishing. Here we are 13 years later, and the frickin’ drummer from Nirvana has penned so many hits that he probably had to make some pretty tough choices whilst whittling down tracks to be included on the band’s Greatest Hits package, coming November 3. AND the compilation has two new songs on it.

The Foo Fighters certainly aren’t metal, but Grohl’s got undeniable metal cred and an un-fuck-withable level of bad-assery. Even when he’s singing pure pop anthems like the new track “Wheels,” which I just streamed on the band’s MySpace page for the third fucking time in a row because it’s so good.

All hail Dave Grohl.

-VN

Sebastian Bach, who is perpetually the most entertaining former rock star in all of hair metaldom, is going to be on yet another fucking reality show – this time VH1′s Celebrity Fit Club, where former “stars” purportedly go to shed some weight, but actually go because their parents didn’t love them enough, causing them to have no sense of self-worth whatsoever if they’re not constantly in the spotlight. Although a VH1 reality show strikes me as a pretty dim spotlight. But whatever.

Bach will be joined by that dude who knocked up Britney Spears, that chick from Charles in Charge I always used to think about while jerking off, crackhead Bobby Brown, and a bunch of people I’ve never heard of.

I guess the last time I actually saw Bach up close was in 2006 when he was hanging from Axl Rose’s nuts all over the world, but in all honesty, the guy looked like he was in pretty good shape. I mean, I’m sure his liver is failing and his septum has been burned-through with coke, but he wasn’t fat or anything. If anyone has seen him more recently and can tell me I’m wrong, please do so. Nothing would make me happier than to learn that Baz had pulled a Brando.

Celebrity Fit Club will start airing in February 2010, by which time I will most certainly have forgotten about it.

-AR

MetalSucks Maniac Steve Hamlin sent us the link to this 24 minute documentary, Heavy Metal Jr., which follows six tween boys and their band, Hatred. Inevitably, a few of you will criticize these kids for, I dunno, like Marilyn Manson or whatever. But you know what? If you do, you’re an asshole. These kids are keeping the dream alive, and clearly, they’re pretty committed. Also, I already like them better than Black Tide, or Bad 4 Good, or whatever adolescent metal band you wanna name.

Watch this when you can – all of it. It’s totally worth it.

-AR

Hull, one of our very favorite New York metal bands, have been robbed at gunpoint while on tour with Batillus and Salome. No one was hurt, but the band did lose their wallets and now need to figure out some way to get home. Donations can be sent via PayPal to hullsounds AT gmail DOT com.

Hull aren’t just a great band – they’re also a great bunch of dudes, and totally undeserving of such a fucked-up occurrence. If you can afford to speare a few dollars to help them out, please do so. It is the very definition of “a good cause.”

-AR

Wednesday night Vince and I went to Metal Insider’s totally bitchin’ Dethklok/Dethalbum II listening party, and while we did drink a lot of dollar beers and mack mad bitches (and by “mack mad bitches,” I mean “speak very politely to platonic friends of both sexes”), we could barely hear the album ’cause, y’know. It was in a loud bar and we were talking to people.

So we get to hear Dethalbum II for the first time with the rest of you. But I’m 99.9% sure it’s gonna rock.

It’s streaming right here. Give it a listen. It comes out this Tuesday on Williams Street Records.

-AR

Last week we offered up a killer Metal Blade combo pack featuring the new releases from Goatwhore, Behemoth and Valkyrja. The winning caption to the photo at right is….

Manfred Nuggets:
“Dude, after this wedding, I wanna show the bride my Whitesnake.”
“Dude! That’ll totally Slay ‘er!”

Onto bigger and better things: this week we’re giving away 2 copies of Revocation’s face-rippingly awesome Relapse Records debut Existence is Futile (stream the whole thing here for a limited time). Just come up with a funny caption to the below photo. And, if ya got ‘em, send in your own funny photos to vince [at] metalsucks [dot] net so I can be lazy in the coming weeks.