Larry Herweg’s role in Pelican is arguably its most distinctive and most controversial. Some say his on-par-with-AC/DC beats allow the winding guitar lines to breathe; others argue that his drumming is sub-par and holds the band back from greatness. What’s harder to argue is that Pelican’s latest, last year’s What We Come to Need, isn’t one of their best, a welcome return to evocative, slightly dark riffs after the stylistic shift of 2007′s City of Echoes. Some even thought highly enough of it to throw it on their year end list. And Herweg seems happy with the record, as well as sympathetic to those who found fault with the band’s previous album. In an interview with Metal Sucks, he discusses the meaning WWACTN‘s title and creation, “Final Breath”‘s controversial use of vocals and whether there will be more of them, and one reviewer’s nasty attack on his drumming technique.

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Let’s get this out of the way right off the bat: System of a Down never broke up. The band members made it pretty clear that their break following 2006′s Ozzfest headline run (and 2+ year touring cycle prior) was just that, a break. If and when the band regrouped for another album and/on tour it would be when they were ready to do so, not because of outside pressures such as record label and/or fan demands. Bands do this all the time, only they don’t say things like “going on hiatus” that get press retards and all sorts of other idiots up in a tizzy. It’s perfectly normal to want some time off — to relax or pursue other endeavors — after having been on the road for over two years straight, don’t you think?

So. A Tweet by System of a Down bassist Shavo Odajian last night has the metal blogosphere shitting its panties. Dug up by Metal Insider:

“Are you guys ready for System???”

This could mean that System are getting ready for another tour and/or album… it could also mean that the band are releasing some kind of box set, rarities collection, or best-of compilation, as very likely could end up being the case with last week’s Soundgarden “reunion” frenzy. It could mean any number of things. Singer Serj Tankian recently spoke about working on his 2nd solo record, but that could certainly be pushed aside for now if he’d rather do System.

For now it’s too early to say. I suppose the truth will come out in the next few weeks. Metal kvltists/tr00ists/elitists will surely disagree, but I’m certainly excited about a potential new SOAD album.

-VN

According to an official press release from These Arms Are Snakes’ record label Suicide Squeeze, the Seattle based four-piece post-metallers have broken up:

“It’s with a heavy heart we tell you that These Arms Are Snakes is no more. It’s been a great run and we’d like to send out a very hearty “Thank You” to everyone that we’ve worked with or anyone that we’ve toured with; anyone that lent us a floor, towed our van and/or trailer, lent a van, given us a listen, downloaded our records prior to their coming out, bought our shit, or asked us where our band name came from; everyone who cooked us food, made habanero-infused tequila, had a safety meeting with us, let Steve gyrate all over you, had to live with any of us, made us pay shitloads of money to get off your punk label, got us into LOST, found Steve drunkenly wandering the streets of Tokyo alone, played Madlibs in the van (plural nouns), lost money promoting one of our shows, took Chris to the hospital, put up with our drunken sorry asses, got into a fight with us, etc. etc.”

This band could not have been possible without all of you. We sincerely thank you.

Much love,

TAAS 2002 – 2009

Well, umm… this sucks. I’ve never been a huge fan of any one These Arms are Snakes record, but in a live setting the band absolutely smokes. Like, makes other bands look like absolute amateurs they are [were] so fucking good. These Arms Are Snakes ripping first-night performance was a highlight of my 2009 SXSW festival, and I had the privilege of seeing them again this Fall in a Bushwick loft.

The band hasn’t given any reasons for their breakup, but I suppose it’s some combination of the usual suspects… creative differences, dudes wanting to move on and do other things, dudes getting tired of the touring lifestyle, dudes wanting to settle down, dudes getting tired of smelling each others’ farts, dudes hating each other’s guts… etc. In the immediate future I suppose this means bassist Brian Cook will have more time to devote to Russian Circles who seem to be doing quite well for themselves lately (nearly packed NYC’s Bowery Ballroom last month). I’m not aware if guitarist Ryan Frederiksen is involved with other projects, but the dude can play. And as for snake-like frontman Steve Snere and uber-finesse drummer Chris Common… lord oh lord would it be an incredible waste of talent if those dudes didn’t join other bands.

So why the fuck were they called These Arms Are Snakes anyway? R.I.P.

-VN

Halfway between the classic stoner rock of Baroness and the progged-out, furious rolling soundscapes of Mastodon lies Blood of the Tyrant, a Chicago-based band that’s good enough to have a burger named after them at famed heavy metal eatery Kuma’s Corner (and with a name like The Blood of the Tyrant Burger… that shit better be ordered none other than bloody RARE).

“Helena,” from their self-titled four-song EP, is the longest, most involved and most impressive track on the record, recalling elements of both of the aforementioned bands while creating something all their own. The band has given us “Helena” to offer to you for free; stream or download it below, and let us know what you think.

With a merciless touring history that includes shared stages with the likes of Minsk, Yakuza, Battlefields, Kongh, The Atlas Moth, Javelina and more, I’d be mighty curious to see these guys live next time they roll through NYC.

[this download is longer available]

-VN

Today, I’m looking at Ravenscry, a “melodic metal” band from Italy that claims to be influenced by Evanescence, Soilwork, and Within Temptation. But, to be honest, all I can hear is Evanescence. The songs are drawn-out pop metal… uh… anthems. They attempt to be “different” from all the other melodic metal bands out there by using – gasp – classical instruments. Yeah, nice try. It mostly sounds like the violin setting on a keyboard. The simple and repetitive manner in which these elements are used doesn’t help, either.

Click to read more…

Despite what you may think, I don’t have a problem with Christian metal as long as any religious message isn’t too overt. If you’d never told me that As I Lay Dying and Norma Jean were Christians, I’d have no idea. They don’t let their personal beliefs distract from the music.

But Sergeant D. posted the below Underoath song on Stuff You Will Hate this morning, and… wow. I don’t know Underoath that well and apparently this isn’t really how they sound anymore, so I guess I can give them a pass for how fucking horrible this song is. But the pro-life lyrics – which includes such poetic gems as “Babies die everyday because of a pro-choice made” – really rub me the wrong way. Big time.

You can read all the lyrics over at Stuff You Will Hate. Then come back and tell me why I’m an asshole for being pro-choice, or how politics have no place in metal, or whaaaaa whaaaaa whaaaa.

-AR

Professor Cosmo Lee at Invisible Oranges, ever the metal theologian, asks in this morning’s blog post what, exactly, the appeal of modern power metal is:

Seriously, though — can anyone explain modern power metal to me? I like the ’80s stuff. Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Accept — that’s good, strong music (given the right albums). But at what point did power metal become so saccharine, synthed-out, and bloody ridiculous? The only “power” it has is in making me laugh.

In response to his own question, Lee posits the following:

Modern power metal is pop music with everything turned up.

… but then proceeds to attempt to explain away this theory by over-intellectualizing. And therein lies the problem, Cosmo; I’d like to suggest that power metal ought to be subject to zero intellectualization, rationalization or any kind of deep thought. It’s cheesy and it’s ridiculous but it sure is fun, and that’s the end of it. Any attempt to invoke European history as inspiration — while this might explain why American metal musicians aren’t as willing to be so overtly corny — is already taking things too far. Power metal is big, dumb, and goofy in just about every way but if you take your brain out of the equation and just let the music flow directly into your ears it sure is really fucking fun. Less intellectualization, more listening.

And not for nothin’, all metal is pretty damned ridiculous when you take a step back and look in from the outside. Black metal? Come on. It doesn’t get any sillier.

-VN

Allyson at Bring Back Glam wrote a piece today singing the praises of Las Vegas’ Taking Dawn, whose new album, Time to Burn, comes out January 26 on Roadrunner. And while I’m all for a new hair metal(ish) band that makes huge, infectious metal anthems, I don’t think this band is it.

Check out the video for the title track below. Putting cute girls in your merch? A Kanye West joke? A bandana? For real?

Oh well. If the lead singer can really hit those high notes, I’ll give him props. And no matter what, this band is still better than Hinder. Then again, Montezuma’s Revenge is better than Hinder, so…

-AR

The last few Ozzy tours have basically been a joke. Even if the guy had any moves left in his repetoire that weren’t just the frog stomp, yelling “GO FUCKING CRAZY!”, or spraying the audience down with a hose, and even if his voice wasn’t shot – Ozzy is an old man, and not in particularly great shape. It seems like he cancels at least one outta every four or five gigs, which I don’t think is entirely his fault – the dude is, by metal standards, as old as dirt, and Team Sharon schedules his dates really close together, as though Ozzy were a man half his age, and he just can’t handle it. I can’t tell you how many people I know who have attended Ozzfest the past few years only to find that Ozzy wasn’t even playing. It’s how namesake festival, for cryin’ out loud, and the dude can’t get it together to put on a show. If he really had retired following the “No More Tours” trek back in ’92 Ozzy might still be standing on a pedestal in our mind’s eye; instead he’s just another aging rock god pissing and shitting all over his legacy.

But The Metal Den is reporting that the Ozzman “plans to set out… on a massive 18 month world tour cycle” following the release of his upcoming album, the infuriatingly titled Trend Chasa Soul Sucka. And why not, I guess? It seems like old sentimentalists and curious young ‘uns alike are still willing to pay exorbitant ticket fees to see him play the classics. And if by some miracle Gus G. helps turn this into the first good Ozzy album since Steve Clark was alive, then a decent single would only propel ticket sales.

But don’t be sad if you buy your ticket and Ozzy doesn’t show up – ’cause we warned you. Just try not to buy that ticket through Ticket Bastard, so that when you get your refund, you don’t forfeit all the stupid fees.

-AR

In February of ’07, while he was absolutely not just biding his time until Limp Bizkit got back together, Wes Borland taught a series of guitar clinics in such glamorous locales as Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Jakarta and Bangalore. And while I kid about those places, it’s as reassuring to me to learn there is some kind of metal scene in Jakarta as it was to learn that I have a distant cousin who is a rabbi in Dublin (I’m not making that up, by the way.). Peeps get around, yo.

So here’s a Jakartan (is that right?) band called Vendetta, doing a cover of Lamb of God’s “Now You’ve Got Something to Die For.” It’s serviceable but not great, but like I said, it’s cool that there are kids are trying to get shit done in Jakarta, and it’s cool that 75% of this group consists of chicks. At least, I think they’re chicks.

-AR

Thanks to Will Morley for the tip!

Because my mother told me if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.

Oh, fuck it, this is MetalSucks, so: this video is boring as fuck. I feel like we’ve been seeing a lot of boring as fuck videos for perfectly good songs as of late. I understand that music video budgets ain’t what they used to be, but it seems as though rather than forcing the directors (in this case, an Italian dude with an Asian-souding name, Saku) to get more creative, they’re all just farting out footage.

Lacuna Coil deserve better than this. All good metal bands deserve better than this.

-AR

Yesterday I had an experience that actually gave me some hope for the metal.

After some all out insanity caused by the arctic blast that came all over this country’s face I actually made it out to a show last night. Me going to a show isn’t what gave me hope by the way. I’ll get to that. Even though I don’t go to many shows anymore (try giving a shit about shows when you are involved with three digits worth of them every year), I went last night because Cynic were playing and I was basically helping them make sure that the first week of their tour wasn’t absolutely jacked for them.

What I mean by that is just that they got completely fucked on the travel due to weather. Three of them got stranded in LA, three of them got stranded in Chicago, their merch was never delivered, etc. See, it snows once a year in Atlanta and when it does this city goes to total shit.  Roads shut down, the airport shuts down, emergency services get stretched to the limit, businesses shut down, it straight goes to hell.  This place is not equipped to handle any sort of freezing winter weather incidents. Originally the idea was that Cynic would arrive on Friday and I would pick them up and we’d hang out a bit then they’d play a show on Saturday.

It turned into their management calling me Friday afternoon in the middle of a very professional freakout and telling me that on top of nobody knowing when the band was going to arrive into Atlanta, if at all, that UPS suspended all shipments that day and could I please go to the UPS headquarters and pick up 14 boxes of merch or they will not have any merch for who knows how many days into the tour. And by the way, the dudes are landing at midnight maybe, and by the way more of the dudes are landing tomorrow at noon possibly. None of this would be a big deal at all if the Atlanta roadways weren’t completely covered with ice. I mean sheets of ice. It’s not fun. I almost wrecked a few times. At one point the DAATH van did a 360 on ice and I promise I was going 10 mph.

Click to read more…

More than any other band we seem to get tons and tons of emails telling us how awesome Ulcerate are and that we should really write about them. And they are in fact pretty great, something I realize each time we get an email about them. My only excuse for not writing about them yet is… well, I haven’t gotten an excuse.

So here’s a post about Ulcerate. They play techy, grindy, brutal death metal (no breakdowns). They rule. So now you can stop emailing us about them. OK?

Thanks to Suckalo Shane Witherup for the most recent reminder of Ulcerate’s ruleage.

-VN

MS Maniac King Cheezit just sent us the following e-mail:

Dear the merry gentlefucks at Metalsucks,

I come to you as a fellow metalhead and enjoyer of the reefer. If you enjoy watching The Wizard of Oz while listening to Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon, then boy oh boy do I have a suggestion for you! I just got out of Avatar in IMAX 3-D while completely stoned out of my mind, and there was only one ingredient missing (for me) and that was the sounds of Gojira. What a perfect way to blend such beautifully heavy progressive metal such as theirs with the intensely spiritual creation from Jame’s Cameron? Can you imagine the power of “From The Sky” during the fight scene in the end, or…well I won’t make any more suggestions to protect from spoiling said experience for anyone else, but I highly suggest the mixture of the three. Any other crazy interesting ideas to mix metal and weed besides just going to a show? I’d love to know, now that I’ve discovered this gem of an idea.

Thank you,

King Cheezit

Now, I actually hated Avatar. I know everyone loves it, but I was stoned outta my skull when I saw it, and I was still as bored as fuck. They really should have called it Avatard.

But His Majesty has a point: what are some good ways to mix metal and weed, besides just going to a show?

Click to read more…

If all Richard Christy ever did was play drums on Death’s phenomenal final album The Sound of Perseverance, it would be enough to secure his place in heavy metal Valhalla. That death metal classic gained so much from Christy’s nuanced performance that it’s almost criminal that he isn’t mentioned alongside your Lombardos, Reinerts and Dailors as one of the most creative drummers in extreme music. But you won’t find Christy complaining about lack of recognition, especially since he’s been so busy in the decade since Death’s demise. To fill in the gaps between his film directing and acting gigs (Christy played a Ku Klux Klansman in Harold and Kumar Go To Guantanamo), Christy has drummed for Iced Earth, Incantation, Acheron and Demons and Wizards. Of course that was all before he began his tenure as the resident prank caller on The Howard Stern Show. In fact, the only thing missing on Christy’s CV is a successful musical project of his own. That’s all looking to change with the forthcoming debut album by Charred Walls of the Damned, his new metal band with the ridiculous lineup of guitarist Jason Suecof (member of Capharnaum; producer/mixer for The Black Dahlia Murder/Trivium/All That Remains), bass god Steve DiGiorgio (Sadus/Death/Autopsy) and caterwauling vocalist Tim “Ripper” Owens (Judas Priest/Iced Earth). Christy took some time to yak with MetalSucks about his many career paths and the truly bizarre genesis of that band name.

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A lot has been made of the “big four” shows happening this Summer in Europe, and with good reason: Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax were some of the biggest and most influential metal bands of their era. Somewhat miraculously they’re all still around touring and making new music today.

While seeing old favorites live is a no-brainer, new music from legacy acts isn’t necessarily. Anthrax haven’t released new music since 2003, so for the sake of this poll we’re going to include Testament as an honorary “big four” member (and really, shouldn’t they be part of a “big five”?). So, of Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer and Testament, consider which band is still putting out the best music today.

Of the aforementioned bands’ most recent releases, which is the best?

From time to time, new MetalSucks editorial intern Dave Mustein will be doing some short reviews of unsigned and lesser-known bands for us. We hope you enjoy…

The MS Mansion recently received a an album entitled Cleansed Through Fire and Blood from a Portland, Oregon band called Salvador. Although I would expect a band with that moniker to play Spanish-themed deathcore or something, Salvador actually plays some excellent stoner rock/metal à la sludgier Baroness and early-to-middle Mastodon.

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MS Maniac Samuel A. Favata sent us this. I don’t think this requires any further explanation…

Holy crap, that is so much better than Attack Attack! it’s not even funny.

Metal Insider also has a slightly different version, if you’re interested. And you are. I mean, let’s be real: it’s not like you’re working right now. You should be, but you’re not.

-AR

As some of you might know, I have a Twitter account. I find the microblogging site to be a useful tool for making pithy comments about the state of metal as well as for catching up on the activities of some of my favorite bands (such as Emmure, Kingdom Of Sorrow, and Jucifer). But, man, the following tweet from Agnostic Front serves as the clearest reminder of why everyone should be using this invaluable social networking service:

Upcoming Victim In Pain Tour, AF will be playing the WHOLE VIP record!! This will never happen again!!

That’s right: Agnostic Front will play Victim In Pain, the definitive NYHC album (rivaled perhaps only by Cro-Mags’ The Age Of Quarrel), live in its entirety on a tour that kicks off this week. And on one date in particular, audiences will be treated to a rare performance from the classic lineup that recorded that album.

Click to read more…

Back in 2007, DevilDriver attempted to get in the Guiness Book of World Records for creating the largest circle pit ever (see video above). Guiness ultimately shot them down on the basis that there was no way to measure a circle pit, which is ridiculous. Where a circle pit begins and ends is pretty clear to anyone looking at it. It seems to me that Guiness was pretty much just prejudiced against metal, which should surprise absolutely no one.

Which I why I think the aspiration of South Africa’s MotherFUDD Festival – the fest with the worst name of any one that’s not Gathering of the Juggalos – to get in Guiness for the most number of people simultaneously headbanging ever is already a lost cause. Maybe I’m just cynical, but I can easily see Guiness shooting MotherFUDD down on the basis of being unable to define “headbanging,” since there are so many different styles of headbanging (windmilling, Meshuggah-bobbing, etc.). Or maybe they’ll just come up with some bullshit excuse I can’t even anticipate. Point being, I’ll be pleasantly surprised if Guiness recognizes MotherFUDD’s claim.

MotherFUDD will take place from March 12 – 14 in at Malonjeni Guest Resort, South Africa. I haven’t heard of a single band on the bill, so someone let me know if any of these artists are worth checking out.

-AR