No, that’s not a reference to Steve Brooks’s sexual preferences. But it is the title of a new Torche song, the first they’ve recorded since guitarist Juan Montoya’s departure from the band in late 2008. The genetic makeup of the band isn’t the only way in which Torche are different today than they were on Meanderthal; “King Beef,” which the good folks at The Deciblog are premiering at the moment, is darker in tone, heavier, and way more experimental than anything on that album. “Stoner pop” no more…

We at MetalSucks don’t have nearly the undiscriminating boner for the band that Decibel does, and I certainly don’t think this band deserves all of the OH MY GOD TORCHE priase they seem to get (much like, ahem, Converge). But they’re definitely a good band; in fact, Meanderthal nabbed an honorable mention on my own Best of 2008 list. I hope Torche’s next record is as good as Meanderthal, but if “King Beef” is any indication it’s gonna be a totally different beast. And as well it should be; when I saw Torche live as a 3 piece it was clear that those songs — penned for two guitarist — just didn’t work as well without Montoya.

“King Beef” is taken from Torche’s upcoming split 10-inch with Boris, due out on Hydra Head in February. Hydra Head bossman Mark Thompson says a Torche full-length will follow in June.

-VN

Torche – King Beef from Scion A/V on Vimeo.

Holy shit, do I wanna see The Red Chord play a full headlining set. If you ask me, Fed Through the Teeth Machine was the best album of 2009, and I wanna hear them play a substantial portion of it – but I also wanna hear them play a substantial portion of their other records, too. That’s gonna take more than thirty minutes I think.

Luckily, the band has announced a headlining trek: the Burgers & Bowling tour will find TRC with support from Mychildren Mybride, Those Who Lie Beneath, and Chelsea Grin, who, for better or worse, I once made fun of while playing “Thrash It or Trash It” on the Metal Injection Livecast. Oh well.

The tour doesn’t seem to have any dates especially close to the Mansion, so I’m considering driving to South Hackensack, NJ. SOUTH HACKENSACK. The Red Chord will make a man do crazy things.

Complete list of dates after the jump.

Click to read more…

After more than a year of procrastinating, this week I finally fixed my record player (which I bought in Fall 2008 simply needing a new needle) and I am so so so so happy! Before that, it’d been four years before I lived with anyone who had a record player and my vinyl collection just sat on a shelf, sad, lonely. It’s been a LONG time since I got to spend any quality time with my records (save that one time Axl and I used my copy of Shout at the Devil for, um, illicit purposes) and part of the fun has been rediscovering just which records I even have.

Apparently one of those records is Extreme’s Pornograffiti with which I had an extensive bonding dancing session last night. Extreme always manage to get my hips shakin’ and my feet movin’; Nuno and Gary may have been the poster boys for Extreme, but more credit is really due to their rock solid rhythm section of Pat Badger (bass) and Paul Geary (drums). And not for nothin’, I’ve always felt Nuno’s excellent rhythm guitar work was way, way, way overshadowed by his flashy leads. That rhythm section is what made this band pulsate, rock and groove… unstoppable, no doubt one of the best ever. When Extreme reunited in 2008 and toured without Geary the difference was noticeable.

Extreme hasn’t done anything in the past year, but fear not: Nuno is currently utilizing those scintillating rhythm (and hey, lead too) skills with… Rihanna. Get the funk out.

-VN

So I’m sitting here watching HIM’s new video for “Heartkiller” and I’m thinking “Okay. This isn’t exactly memorable or anything, but red and blue lights, a woman posing for no real reason, the word ‘love,’ lots of close-ups of Ville Valo. I get it. It serves its purpose.”

And the fucking Bambi shows up on-screen.

And it’s not even a live deer – it looks stuffed to me, although I suppose it could just be completely fake.

AND THEN THERE’S THUMPER, TOO.

And then a bunch OTHER animals.

Seriously, what the fuck is going on in this video? What was the thought process behind this? Someone smarter than me please explain, ’cause all I can keep thinking is “HUH?”

HIM’s new album, Screamworks: Love In Theory And Practice, comes out February 9 on Sire.

-AR

UPDATE: Booking agents for both Slayer and Megadeth are already hard at work to see if these dates can be rescheduled, so those holding tickets are asked to sit tight as more info will be announced as progress is made.

Well, it didn’t take long for the long awaited American Carnage Tour to fall apart… it didn’t even have a chance to start. What’s falling apart is actually Slayer bassist/vocalist Tom Araya’s back; according to Lambgoat, Araya’s condition has worsened to the point where he needs to undergo surgery. His back problems previously forced the rescheduling of the Canadian Carnage dates with the same bands, which will now once again need to be rescheduled too.

Ah well… what can you do other than wish Mr. Araya a healthy and speedy recovery? When we interviewed Araya last summer he seemed like a really chill guy who genuinely loves what he does, and I highly doubt there’s any tomfoolery or cover-ups happening here. Best of luck, Tom, and get well.

-VN

In case you missed the memo, Revolver Magazine has switched things up a little bit. They’re now publishing only 6 issue per year instead of 12, but each issue is thicker, better, and comes with extra goodies. The very first issue in the new format has a lengthy look back on Pantera’s classic Vulgar Display of Power, including interviews with all the living band members and others close to the inner circle of the band members. It also comes with a nifty swag package that includes a mock ticket, flyer and tour laminate.

Naturally I’m mentioning this for a reason… we’ve got three copies to give away this week! But first let’s announce the winner from our last funny photo caption contest of 2009, in which one lucky chap wins everything that Ferret Records released all year:

• Pete: “Even in his youth, Matt Pike refused to wear a shirt to any event, including Christmas Dinner.”

Well played, sir! About those Revolver Pantera issue copies… just come up with a zinger to the below photo and they shall be yours. Remember to use a real email address instead of Facebook Connect so we can contact the winners (you may have to log out of Facebook).

[MetalSucks will be involved in this very cool contest for unsigned bands, brought to you by Scion and Metal Insider. We hope you like what we have in store... it's going to be really cool and we're quite excited. -Ed.]

Your band shows tremendous promise. You have accumulated a solid following, written memorable songs, put together a great live show and have real momentum. With help from MetalInsider – including advice from industry professionals including a mentoring session with Shadows Fall and the opportunity to record with super-producer, Machine – you’ll be well on your way to the next level.

The No Label Needed Contest and Series presented by Scion in collaboration with MetalInsider will help one band leave labels behind and take on the industry all on their own.  The series will show readers how it’s done, all while helping one special contest-winning band get ahead in a spectacular way.

From 1/18 through 2/1, unsigned acts can submit demo packages at www.metalinsider.net/nolabelneeded. Twenty finalists will be selected and one winner will be voted on by a panel of label heads, A&R executives, writers, and site readers to win all the help and education they need to become a truly self-sufficient artist without having to sign a traditional record deal.

Click to read more…

Because we at the MS Mansion keep no secrets about our un-ironic love of ’80s hair/glam and because we can never seem to resist a Carlos Ramirez-penned Top <insert here> list at Noisecreep, we give you The Top Ten Musicians with Hair Metal Pasts.

There are a few usual suspects whose Aqua Net pasts have been well-documented here and elsewhere (hiya Rivers Cuomo and studly stud Butch Walker) but there are a few surprises in there as well. Like Disturbed’s Dan Donegan… what I wouldn’t give to hear a Vandal recording! In fact, if someone wants to email those to us I’ll gladly post them for all of us to laugh / sneer at / enjoy.

Take a look at the list, then come back here and tell us why hair metal sucks.

-VN

Chronic Youth, which is an awesome website you should definitely familiarize yourself, has been singing the praises of Ringworm as of late, and so, for the second or third time over the course of the past ten years or so, I have made an effort to understand what the big deal is about Ringworm. And I just don’t get it. Sorry.

So someone explain it to me. ‘Cause it sounds fairly generic to these ears. Was the band just part of a moment in time that I missed, or is there something legitimately awesome about their sound I’m just not picking up on?

-AR

It’s been a while since our bro-bros at Metal Injection posted any solid live footage, but now they’re kicking off the new year with a plethora of sick clips featuring Skeletonwitch, Municipal Waste, and Coliseum.

Here’s a sample… Skeletonwitch doing “Fire from the Sky.” I think this footage does a pretty good job of conveying why Skeletonwitch are one of the most fun live bands out there right now:

Head over to Metal Injection for more excellent footage of Skeletonwitch, plus Municipal Waste and Coliseum!

-AR

Here’s the new video for Dying Fetus’ “Your Treachery Will Die With You,” from their album Descend Into Depravity.

The short version is this: great band (with a KILLER live show), great song, great album, boring video.

Oh well. You should check out Descend Into Depravity, which is out now on Relapse.

-AR

While I love New York City 364 days out of the year, it is the last place I want to be on New Years Eve. Restaurants jack up their already steep prices, clubs overcharge for the privilege of waiting interminably for a drink at their open bars, and the streets are full of intolerable amateurs, bewildered tourists, and lapsed teetotalers. Typically, I stay at home and watch the ball drop in the comfort of my Park Avenue penthouse. Yet this time I was almost tempted to break with tradition when I read that Courtney Love would be playing a black tie event at The Standard Hotel’s Boom Boom Room. The exorbitant ticket prices, which started in the high hundreds and went well into the thousands, were prohibitive enough to keep me away, but fortunately Love has graced the IntarWebs with some candid footage of her rehearsing for the show (in what appears to be a hotel room) with Micko Larkin, a member of the reconstituted Hole. The track is a difficult-to-recognize cover of The Replacements’ “Unsatisfied” and, speaking as a longtime fan of the group, it is extremely, well, unsatisfactory.

Click to read more…

Apparently I’ve listened to Mutiny Within’s Roadrunner Records self-titled debut a whole lot because I’m already at that point where I hear the opening notes of the next song in my head the moment the prior song ends. iTunes tells me I’ve listened to the record’s second track “Images” 16 times already… yikers! I’m like a heart-broken high schooler (minus the heartbreak, minus the high school, plus a few gray hairs and a little bit of agita) listening to that song over and over again in my bedroom (minus the bedroom, plus the dilapidated MetalSucks Mansion flophouse).

So when Roadrunner sent us the final cut of the band’s very-first-ever music video this morning — for the album’s opening track “Awake” — after I watched I just had to follow it up with the rest of the record (hello listen #17 for “Images”). There really haven’t been very many metal records with mainstream appeal that I’ve really gotten into over the past couple of years, but Mutiny Within was an easy early favorite of mine for 2010 the first time I heard it a few months back. These fine New Jersey gentlemen (and a Brit who hilariously announces “We’re from New Jersey” at their live shows) are one of the best new bands being catapulted into the scene today, America’s non-cheesy answer to so much Euro power metal gruyere.

About that video, it’s posted below. Listen to “Awake” and two other songs from the album at Mutiny Within’s MySpace page, and make sure you pick it up when it comes out on February 23rd. The band is virgin-tight live, led by the super-talented Chris Clancy’s soaring vocals, as you’ll find out when they open for the MetalSucks-sponsored Arch Enemy tour (with Exodus and Arsis).

-VN

[This exclusive has now ended.]

You know we have nothing but respect for Dave Lombardo, but he just did this video interview with our friends at Noisecreep, and he said some disparaging things about two of metal’s greatest icons. Check it out:

Click to read more…

Yesterday a little fight broke out in the comments section of our bit on the mysteries of Andrew W.K., and not that a little fight breaking out in our comments section is unusual, but this fight wasn’t really about Andrew W.K. – it was about the piano, which AWK plays.

And the piano is awesome. There should be doubt of this. Good pianists should be respected, even if the phrase “good pianist” sounds kinda funny.

As if to prove this point for us, Maniac “musicalsnob” posted a link to a YouTube user going by the handle “vkgoeswild.” She does some pretty rad piano covers of metal songs. Check out her take on Carcass’ “Corporal Jigsore Quandar,” for example:

After the jump, check out vkgoeswild as she does Slayer’s “Raining Blood,” and actually makes Marilyn Manson sound pretty.

Click to read more…

Though undeniably influential, Killing Time haven’t exactly been the most prolific NYHC band, thanks to a career interrupted by several hiatuses. Thankfully, the seminal “second wave” hardcore group, which reunited for the third time in 2006, will rectify that this year with their first record since 1997′s The Method. Three Steps Back drops February 9 on Dead City Records, a New York-based label which boasts releases from No Redeeming Social Value and Billy Club Sandwich in its discography. Recorded in the same garage that yielded their debut Brightside, this new album includes the same classic lineup as on that full-length, with bassist Christopher Skowronski (who joined in 2006) filling the place of former bassist/now-second guitarist Rich McLoughlin.

Peep the promotional clip above for a preview of some of the music off Three Steps Back. If you dig what you hear and you live anywhere near New York City, you’re definitely going to want to check out Killing Time when they headline their record release show on February 27th at The Knitting Factory – Brooklyn. Openers include New Jersey’s Suburban Scum and fellow second-wavers Maximum Penalty.

-GS

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

2008 was something of a banner year for psychedelic black metal. The obvious breakthrough was Nachtmystium’s Pink Floyd-worship piece Assassins: Black Meddle, Pt. 1, the reverberations of which are still being felt with a slew of decade-best list inclusions. Norway’s Enslaved also released the very excellent Vertebrae in 2008, continuing the band’s progression from traditional black metal into psychedelia and landing the album a slew of “best of” nods for the year as well. Keep of Kalessin, a lesser known band from Norway, also made waves ripples in 2008 with their Nuclear Blast release Kolossus, another excellent record. Kolossus was neither overlooked or overhyped — it got precisely the amount of attention it deserved, garnering attention in all the right places and allowing the band to grow, develop and spread their worldwide reach organically.

Here we are in 2010. Nachtmystium are reportedly working on Black Meddle Part 2, tentatively due for release this Spring. No word from Enslaved yet, but one can only hope. And according to Blabbermouth Keep of Kalessin are working on a new album called Reptilian tentatively due in “early 2010″ to which my reaction is yes yes yes yes YES!! It’s unclear whether they’ve finished recording the album yet, but they’ve at least finished one song, “The Dragontower,” for inclusion in the Eurovision contest Melodi Grand Prix. “The Dragontower” has more of a black n’ roll flavor than anything from Kolossus, and at only 3 minutes it’s also shorter, both qualities I’d attribute to the nature of the contest they’re entering (Bmouth tells us that the full, 5-minute version of the song will appear on Reptilian). If Rage Against the Machine can beat out UK pop in sales, maybe an extreme metal band can win a national TV competition in Norway? Stranger things have happened.

Stream the shortened version of “The Dragontower” below. We’ll keep you apprised of further developments related to Reptilian and try not to blatantly gush.

-VN

It was back in December of ’08 that my man Vince first observed that E1 (then still called Koch) was signing every fucking metal band in the world. At that point, the label had recently made deals with or released albums by In Flames, Hatebreed, High On Fire, Satyricon, Otep, Throwdown and Straight Line Stitch; now there’s a rumor that they’ve added Black Label Society to their roster, too.

Click to read more…

Upon listening to Emperor for the first time in a little while when prepping for an interview with Ihsahn (coming soon!), I found it remarkable how the Emperor of In the Nightside Eclipse is a completely different band from that on their ridiculously dense blackened death prog swan song, Prometheus: The Discipline of Fire and Demise. Though one could argue that some of this had to do with the band’s multiple line-up changes, the band’s core – Ihsahn and guitarist Samoth – were present throughout. Using “evolution” in terms of the lifespan of a band was pretty much coined for groups like Emperor, seeing as they progressed from a scrappy True Norwegian black metal upstart to something beyond that altogether, becoming so different from their origin that they had to split up to pursue different avenues (Samoth with blackened death kingpins Zyklon and Ihsahn with his more expansive, prog-minded solo material). Emperor bucked the trend of picking a sound and sticking to it (and the genre’s general hypocrisy of staunchly preaching individuality while decrying any band that deviates from a certain set of rules as to what a black metal band is supposed to sound like) by being the band they needed to be, and though their reliance on keyboards and operatic singing may sound silly at first, Ihsahn’s compositional prowess (he composed all of Prometheus himself on top of working with Samoth for the rest of the band’s albums) would be a shame to ignore.

Which was what I always found disappointing about his solo work: while always quite enjoyable, it never really emerged from the shadow of Emperor. For every great, kinda-interesting-on-its-own moment, there’s been a riff that could have wound up on one of Emperor’s late-period works. The sense of constant evolution that drove the band has been sadly missing from Ihsahn’s solo material. Fortunately, on After, his latest, he emerges bravely with nothing reminiscent of his past. And while this will bring a tear to the eye of the dudes who shelled out a few hundred dollars to see Emperor play stateside a few years ago, the album is often exciting and brilliantly complex while being almost completely devoid of black metal. Closing out a trilogy of albums recorded under his own moniker, Ihsahn has made what is, at the very least, his most interesting album of solo material to date, if not (very easily) his best. Scoff at its lack of true-ness if you must, but After is an excellent album. Almost a decade after the dissolution of Emperor, the man has finally come into his own.

Click to read more…

Satan Rosenbloom strikes again. If Axl’s pick for “album I stupidly missed in 2009″ was Dreaming Dead’s Within One then mine is Secrets of the Moon‘s Privilegivm, Señor Rosenbloom’s #20 pick. While Rosenbloom praises the album as a “potent, blackened brew” I’d be hesitant to call it black metal at all because it’s so outside the box. Priveligivm stirs and stews in darkened grimness while it bobs and weaves through 10 tracks of oppressive epics that easily touch the 7, 8, 9 and even 13-minute marks. As Satan points out it’s hard to believe an album so dark can be so catchy, but Secrets of the Moon have done just that despite their ambitious approach to songwriting. Priveligivm will leave you wondering what you just heard, yearning to go right back and do it all over again.

-VN