Here’s a funny story: earlier this year Daath’s Emil Werstler made one of those “Betcha Can’t Play This” instructional videos for Guitar World. Said video showed him playing so fast that some of the staff of that publication actually accused him of speeding up the video. Once he did another video, showing him at PRS clinic proving he could actually play that fast, was released, all was forgiven, and he’s now made a second “Betcha” vid.

It’s good to Werstler getting the credit he deserves. When Daath’s first album, The Hinderers, was released, none of the press concentrated on the dude’s prowess as a guitar player; now that all that shit about the band allegedly being Kabbalah obsessed mystics or whatever has subsided, it seems like people are more willing to focus on the things that actually make Daath worth listening to: great musicianship and excellent song writing skills.

Here’s the more recent “Betcha” segment; after the jump, check out the older one that got Emil accused of cheating, as well the PRS clip that proves that he is, in fact, just a supreme bad-ass.

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Upon first hearing that Eyehategod would be performing a New York City show on a boat, my immediate thought was, “That fucker is gonna sink.” My subsequent thought was, “I want to go to this.” And so I did. With a considerably steep $40 ticket price, one might think that attendees paid for the novelty of the experience, and to an extent, they’d be right. Yet coupled with headliner-quality openers like Pig Destroyer and Goatwhore, it was actually quite a bargain.

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Hey all, in case we didn’t already cram this news down your throat over the past month, Intronaut went to India this past weekend to perform at two dates of the Great Indian Rock Festival, put on by India’s biggest rock/metal magazine Rock Street Journal. Here’s a little recap.

I think one of the most amazing things about this trip is that it actually happened. Just days before we were scheduled to fly out, we still weren’t sure if our visas were going to arrive in time. They showed up literally the morning before our flight, which relieved us, because now we wouldn’t be wasting thousands and thousands of someone else’s dollars. We flew out Thursday morning from L.A. to Newark, which is about five hours, and then to Delhi, which is like fourteen hours. I think that if you looked at a globe, Delhi is literally on the other side of the planet from Los Angeles. We spent like twenty something hours on travel each way. Brutal, since we’d be there for only three days. Obviously we took a shitload of xanax and passed out hard.

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Hulk Hogan was never my favorite pro-wrestler when I was a young ‘un, but he was pretty close. Anyone remember that Wrestlemania where he and The Ultimate Warrior (pretended to) beat the ever-lovin’ shit outta one another? EPIC. Vince and I used to debate if the Warrior had really robbed the Hulkster of his belt ’cause the ref was knocked out when Hogan pinned him, or if he would have won anyway. Then we discovered metal, grew pubes, and stopped caring about big sweaty half-naked dudes in silly costumes.

Oh, wait. Shit.

ANYWAY, a reader known only as “deanerhead” sent us this article earlier today. It’s mostly just Hulk Hogan hocking his new book, My Life Outside the Ring, but it does reveal this interesting tidbit:

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Katatonia’s Night Is the New Day comes out in the U.S. next Tuesday, November 10th and the rest of the world today… which basically means it’s out today! To celebrate, we’re offering the band’s first single “Forsaker” as a free download. If you like it (which you ought to if you know what’s good for you), believe you me when I say that the rest of the record has a lot more in store for you. Order Night Is the New Day here.

[this promotion has ended]

Thanks to “Adam Adams” for sending the below preview footage from new Todd Bell-directed Chimaira DVD, which is set to be released in 2010. It’s the second preview we’ve gotten, after last week’s awesome footage of the band performing “The Disappearing Sun.” This time we get to see the band prepping just before they take the stage in Belgium, and then we get some “The Venom Inside” live footage. Nice.

Chimaira are on tour right now with Trivium, Whitechapel and Dirge Within; you can get dates here. Vince and I are going Thursday. It should go without saying that we’re very excited.

-AR

I have had Mutiny Within’s self-titled debut at the Mansion for about two weeks now, and I’m absolutely loving it. Loving it! Now’s your chance to experience a taste of what I’ve been jamming with a free download of album-opener “Awake,” available today only as a free download at RoadrunnerRecords.com.

This is the best “commercial” — for lack of a better word — metal record that I’ve heard in quite some time. While the mainstream metal canon has mostly stagnated over the past few years with rehash after rehash of umpteenth generation metalcore or breakdown-dominated deathcore, Mutiny Within have come along and finally added something different to the mix, adding a power Euro touch to their brand of American metal. The songs are top-notch, fist in the sky productions, led by the band’s razor-tight attack and Chris Clancy’s operatic vocals (for a sample of his vocal talents, check out this video). These songs aren’t catchy because the band are trying to write overtly catchy melodies… they’re catchy because they come from a genuine place (or at least I can surmise… who am I to make assumptions?).

Check out the free download of “Awake” while you still can, then come back here and let us know what you think. The band is currently on tour with Soulfly and will be making the rounds on the MetalSucks-sponsored Arch Enemy / Exodus / Arsis tour in early 2010. We’ve seen them locally here in NYC for years now, and they are not to be missed… that big sound you hear on “Awake” is not studio chicanery; it’s real.

-VN

Every now and then, something happens to make me feel like there really is some justice in the world.

So while it looks Limp Bizkit are going right back to being the mega-stars they never deserved to be in the first place, at least Creed – possibly one of the most worthless musical acts, like, ever – aren’t doing so hot.

From a recent news report on the band’s recent concert in Birmingham, Alabama:

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I’m all for heavy bands throwing ballads into the mix from time to time, but this performance of Slipknot playing “Snuff” on Jimmy Kimmel Live… bzzzzt, does not compute! I like the song, but this performance is just extremely weak. Nine dudes in scary tough guy masks playing a pretty love song causes all sorts of cognitive dissonance.

Side note: Kimmel really seems to be waving the heavy flag as of late. Of this, I approve.

-VN

[Thanks: Josh Kidd]

I was never super into patches; I had a Guns N’ Roses patch on my backpack in high school, but that was it. But the proprietor of Endless Blockade — also of metal blog No Gods, No Vegetables — must’ve been really into patches. Endless Blockade is devoted entirely to patches; backpatches, regular patches, patches on pants… metal patches, punk patches, nature patches, nazi patches… patches, patches, patches… thousands of them. Worth a few minutes of perusal, as much for the history lesson as the lulz.

-VN

[Thanks: Double D]

The first press release into the MS Mansion inbox this morning bore a bit of bad news, at least for Canadian Slayer and Megadeth fans; Slayer have pulled out of the “Canadian Carnage Tour” with Megadeth, which was due to begin November 8th. The press release cites health concerns about bassist/vocalist Tom Araya as the reason for cancellation:

Slayer’s Tom Araya is currently under the care of a specialist for a back injury, thought to be related to his on-stage activity, and the physician has ordered an immediate surgical procedure to take place in Texas tomorrow (Tuesday) morning.

The press release doesn’t specifically say whether the tour — which also includes Machine Head and Suicide Silence — will continue on without Slayer, but it’s implied, saying more information regarding rescheduled dates will be release soon.

It’d be awfully easy to make a Dave Mustaine vs. Kerry King jab here, but instead I’ll take the high road and simply offer this: get well, Tom.

-VN

I guess I don’t really mind Atreyu wrecking the legacy of The Neverending Story so much; when I was a kid I thought it was a cool movie, but I haven’t watched it in years, and I don’t have any real desire to, which tells me something, y’know?

On the other hand, the original Ghostbusters is surely one of the best Hollywood movies ever made, a truly retarded idea executed with such perfection as to seem not quite so idiotic.

So I’d just like to tell the members of the band Zuul to go fuck themselves. They’re a second-rate retro metal band, and not at all worthy of tainting my pre-adolescent memories of the tingly feeling caused by Sigourney Weaver in a flowing red dress, barking like a dog. Please change your name to Leonard Part 6, or a reference to some other 80s movie I don’t give a shit about.

That is all.

-AR

So of course I’m loving Slayer’s latest, World Painted Blood. But I won’t be eating a bag of crow over my prediction that the accompanying bonus DVD, “Playing with Dolls,” was going to suck. I’ve seen it now (well, some of it – I couldn’t make it all the way through out of sheer boredom), and despite the involvement of Metalocalypse director Mark Brooks, it is, indeed, lamer than Jason Suecof’s legs.

Are the people who made this aware that in 2009 we can give the illusion of actual movement through pictures that pass by at a fairly quick rate – say, twenty-four frames per second? I have to assume that this news someone never reached them – or that they thought this whole “video-graphic novel” style would somehow make the whole thing spookier. In which they were just wrong. Also, I don’t know if the music from World Painted Blood could have been any more awkwardly shoe-horned into this thing.

Watch it below, if the two previous paragraphs didn’t deter you. It was only s’posed to be on MySpace for a weekend, but of course someone got it up on YouTube – so check it out right quick, before the Slawyers get involved.

Part two is after the jump. And then tomorrow I’ll have my review of World Painted Blood.

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