The cover of Landmine Marathon’s last album, Rusted Eyes Awake, looked kind of like an old EC Comic. It was definitely all-caps FUCKING METAL, and the non-polished quality of it matched the music perfectly.

The band has gone in a new direction for the cover of the new record, Sovereign Descent, hiring the legendary Dan Seagrave, and while it’s definitely still all-caps FUCKING METAL, the style and atmosphere are completely different. And not “bad” different – just different.

Does the tonal difference from the last cover foretell of a tonal difference in the music, too? I guess we’ll find out when Prosthetic releases the album on March 16.

-AR

I also haven’t had sex in over a week but that’s besides the point.

One of the highlights of my time in Los Angeles last week was getting to hear the new Ocean record at the Metal Blade offices. The record, Heliocentric, is actually the first of two records The Ocean will release this year, and let me be the first to tell you… what I heard sounds fucking amazing! New vocalist Loic Rossetti sounds just as good as Precambrian vocalist Mike Pilat did, if not better — he definitely displays a wider range on this record, bringing quite a bit of clean singing (no, not in that way) to the table. The record is heavy, intricate, atmospheric, proggy… you know, it’s The fucking Ocean!

But you don’t have to take my word for it anymore. The Ocean have launched a brand new website for Heliocentric with a planetary-based design fitting of the album’s title. Clicking on each orbiting planet gets you a clip of new music and a full lyric sheet. Leave it open to the genius of Robin Staps to put together a website and concept this cool and cohesive. The artwork that accompanies each track sample is the bomb too — I wonder who drew these pieces and whether they’re part of the album artwork or not?

These new clips sound fucking incredible and you really need to listen to them right this second. I am so fucking stoked on this record I can’t even contain myself!

-VN

[Thanks: Lorenzo and Ocean super-fan / Uber-Suckalo Mark Moritz-Rabson]

Self-aware metal songs always hit that sweet spot for me. Manowar? Come on. Nothing beats a rousing singalong of “Fighting the World” (see also: every other Manowar song ever).

So when Suckalo “Clockwise Music” sent us a link to Toehider‘s “The Most Metal Song in The World” it was pretty much a no-brainer from the get-go that it was gonna be awesome. The unfortunately named Australians in Toehider are apparently releasing 12 EPs in as many months; I’m all for new and creative ways of releasing music, but that seems like a bit much, no? In any case it matters not, because this song rules. Check it:

Toehider are made of steel, not clay.

-VN

This ain’t exactly new news anymore, but I’ve been away for over a week so cut me some slack ok? NYC death metal OGs Immolation have a new song called “The Purge” posted on their MySpace page and it absolutely rips assholes, scrotums and vaginas. Sonically it sounds much better than anything they’ve done in the past and the playing is cleaner too — I haven’t heard their whole new record Majesty and Decay yet, but if the rest of it is this good then consider my psyched.

Majesty and Decay comes to the U.S. March 9th (and March 5th everywhere else), so we’ve only got to wait a little under 2 months to hear the rest of the Immolation pummeling. Immolation are currently bruising bodies all across the U.S. on the MetalSucks-sponsored Those Whom the Gods Detest Tour alongside Nile, Krisiun and Dreaming Dead (click for dates).

-VN

* I had to look up the meaning of “immolate” on Dictionary.com before writing this headline. True story.

I have seen The Acacia Strain’s new DVD, The Most Known Unknown, and it is good. Honestly, I’ve never been a huge TAS fan – I’ve always respected them and liked them, but I don’t spend a lot of my free time listening to them. But this DVD made me like them a whole lot more. I shouldn’t have to tell you that David Brodsky did a great job with the live footage. But the band also just sounds so good. “Whoa! Shut it Down” and “Skynet” have never sounded so heavy. Now I really wanna go to a TAS concert.

While I wait for that to happen, you can check out a clip from the DVD, of the song “Dr. Doom.” Unfortunately it’s not embeddable, but clicking on the pretty screen cap below will take you there.

The Most Known Unknown comes out February 16 on Prosthetic.

-AR

Holy crap, has it really been three years (almost to the day!) since Melechesh released their last album, Emissaries? That’s too long, man. Way too long.

Hopefully, it looks like the band is finally working on something new: Blabbermouth posted the below footage of them performing a new song, cleverly titled “New Song” (make sure Metallica doesn’t sue you, Ashmedi!), in Rotterdam this past weekend. I’m assuming Ashmedi is going to put lyrics and vocals over it at a later date, but maybe it’s an instrumental? In any case, it sounds pretty awesome. I really, really hope this band gets a new album out this year.

-AR

Monday’s Jumping Darkness Parade post in which Eyal shared his gripes about the 2010 NAMM show was spot on; I’ve done NAMM several times (though not this year) and the level of wankery and hang-on-ery is indeed at an insanely intolerable level. But my favorite part of NAMM is always watching Michael Angelo Batio shred it up at the Dean Guitars booth. I’d use Michael Angelo Batio as an example to challenge Eyal’s assertion that “if you’re a guitar shredder, and that’s all you do, you better prioritize finding yourself a badass songwriter, or you are doomed. Accept reality now and suffer less later.” Because while Mr. Batio certainly isn’t a huge rock star he seems to have made a fine career  for himself out of his completely ridiculous guitar tomfoolery. Dudes like this LIVE for NAMM.

I luuurrrvvv Michael Angel Batio in a completely un-ironic way and I think Axl does too, albeit perhaps to a lesser degree. The double-neck guitar bit gets me every single time. Suckalo Hammer_Smashed_Hurtt surely wouldn’t approve, but I love Batio unconditionally. Dude can rip! Here’s his 2010 NAMM performance.

Oh, and that wig? Priceless. Total A+ material.

-VN

So yeah, I’ve been gone, like, forever. Here’s what I’ve been up to:

• I spent four days in Los Angeles, where the heavens proceeded to dump ridiculous amounts of rain upon this usually-sunny city every single day. And it was cold. What the fuck?
• I begged metal record labels to keep giving us ad money so I can continue to work in my underwear every day.
• I finally met Satan Rosenbloom, Anso DF and Bob Cock. They rulez!
• I went to an L.A. Kings game in which the home team got stomped by their in-state rivals from San Jose. It was a no contest, but the beer was flowin’ and the times were fun. Thanks for the hook-up, you know who you are.
• I went on tour with The Metal As Art Tour featuring Hypno5e, Revocation and The Binary Code. Getting to see all three bands every night was such a treat… goddamn, they are all so fucking tight right now it’s ridiculous. Total road warriors.
• Made lots of poop and fart jokes in the van.
• Partied a lot and enjoyed the unbelievably high quality herbals the west coast has to offer! That medical shit is everywhere.
• Saw some of the most amazing scenery the U.S has to offer including all of California’s Central Valley, the Sierra Mountains, Shasta National Park and the wilds of the Pacific Northwest. Battled through several snowstorms in the process.
• Got stupid in San Diego, stoned in Oakland, freaked out about the rampant and obvious meth use in Reno, NV.
• Hung out in San Francisco and Portland, OR. Got shat on by a bird in the former and enjoyed the delicious food trucks in the latter.
• Drove up to Seattle and flew home on the red eye from there…

And now I’m back at the Mansion. About that no pants thing, I’m actually wearing pants at the moment. Fixing that situation right… now!

-VN

Sweden’s Skeletal Spectre proudly sport a certain level of griminess sadly missing in modern metal. And not like that found in muddy death metal production or absolutely depraved lyrical content; nor a recorded-in-a-basement-with-a-sock-over-the-mic black metal variety; nor a glowering, whiskey-soaked doom filth. On their debut, Tomb Coven, the band liberally borrow from crusty old school hardcore, the chunkiest grooves of death metal, and doom’s catchiest plodding riffs to form a positively vile amalgamation that manages to intrigue as much as repulse. With modern death metal’s emphasis on technicality often leading to sadly sterile production and metalcore and deathcore’s insistence on fostering a generation of kids who think who think slickness is more important than songwriting, Skeletal Spectre’s just-barely-giving-a-fuck appeal is a welcome change from the norm, like the Marx Brothers terrorizing a wealthy dowager. Tomb Coven is uncompromising, mean, and filthy, bordering on unhygienic. It’s also a fucking blast.

Click to read more…

Last night reader Antipope Zosimus e-mailed us the simple message “You know about the feature length Insane Clown Posse western, right?” And I don’t know about Vince, but, no, I most certainly did not know that ICP made a feature length western, entitled Big Money Rustlas. (Un)Luckily, Antipope included a link to a trailer… which is pretty much the funniest thing ever. What’s the logic here? Why are some people dressed as clowns and others aren’t? Do Juggalos really wanna see one of their beloved play the hero while the other plays the villain – mightn’t they rather see a Lethal Weapon-style buddy cop comedy team-up? IS THAT JIMMY HART?!?

BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE!

Click to read more…

Congrats to grand-prize winner Denton Alford and runner-up Matt Arendse. They each correctly identified last week’s logo as that of the band Abbadons Breed. They each win a limited edition vinyl copy of All Shall Perish’s Awaken the Dreamers – Denton gets one that’s clear with blood splatter, and Matt gets one that’s red and black. And if you didn’t win one, you can always order yourself a copy here – although you best do so quickly, since there are very, very few of these being pressed.

This week  the nice people at Century Media have supplied us with a copy of Heaven Shall Burn’s DVD, Bildersturm – Iconoclast II (The Visual Resistance) to give away. This multi-disc set comes with two complete live performances, a documentary, music videos, a “Metal Cooking” segment, band rehearsal footage, European and U.S. video tour diaries, and more. Heaven Shall Burn as heavy as fuck and hooky as hell, so study this logo hard, friends.

All you have to do to win is identify the name of the band whose logo appears below, then shoot me an e-mail at axl AT metalsucks DOT net with your answer, your name, and your address. From everyone who gets it right, we’ll randomly select a winner and announce his or her name next week.

This week’s logo comes to us by way of reader Sam Morton… keep sending those suggestions everyone, I really appreciate ‘em!

-AR

As if you didn’t already have big plans for 4/20, Periphery have marked that date for the release of their Sumerian debut, which I’m assuming is self-titled.

That’s already good news, but, interestingly enough, I also just so happen to be aware of another awesome new record that’s coming out on 4/20. I’m gonna have to conceal the identity of that album right now because I don’t think they’ve announced the release date and I don’t want to be a hindrance to whatever they have planned, but trust me when I say there’s no need for cynicism – it’s gonna be awesome.

Thanks to Jeff Bairely for the tip about Periphery. Smoke ‘em if ya got ‘em!

-AR

Suckalo Adam Ellsworth sent us the below photo of a painting a friend made for him. That’s a good friend – the painting is apparently an EPIC 30” x 30” without the frame. It portrays, in Adam’s words, “Dave Mustaine fighting a manticore with James Hetfield’s face while Vic Rattlehead cuts off Kirk Hammett’s hair in the background.”

And there’s the Metallica/Megadeth feud summed up in a nutshell. A beautifully rendered, absolutely haunting nutshell.

If Dave Mustaine doesn’t make that the cover of the next Megadeth album, then he must be high.

-AR

I’m sorry, but a reader named Mike Garba sent this to us over the weekend, and I just got around to looking at it, and it’s fucking hilarious. And while I happen to be fortunate enough to have a blog that people read, I am going to use it to share this with as many people as I can. Because this is love. Pure love, all over your face.

So much better than Mike Shinoda.

-AR

A reader known only as “Jonas” sent us the below video of 55 Escape, a Norwegian band whose biggest influences seem to be Korn and Linkin Park, not Enslaved and Immortal.

Here’s why I find this band kind of interesting. (And moving forward, please be aware that “interesting” and “good” are not the same word.) When you think about it for a second, nu-metal seems to be a predominantly American phenomenon. Off the top of my head, I’m having a hard time even naming a nu-metal band from any part of Europe, never mind Norway. Jeff Killed John were British, but they didn’t get famous ’til they swapped the nu for core and rechristened themselves Bullet for My Valentine. Am I forgetting a really, really obvious band? Korn, Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, Disturbed, Godsmack, Evanescence, Staind, Static-X, Creed, Hed P.E., Snot, P.O.D., Puddle of Mudd, Drowning Pool, Saliva, Coal Chamber, Methods of Mayhem, 40 Below Summer, Sevendust, Ill Nino, Dope, Papa Roach, Soil, The Union Undergound… ALL AMERICAN. What the hell? No wonder the terrorists hate us.

Anyway, thanks to these sperm clots for doing their part in making America look good. Hoo-rah.

-AR

Here’s a scenario about which I often wonder. Let’s say there’s a fan. And said fan thinks that Artist A is a capital-”G” Genius, and Artist B represents everything that’s wrong with the world. The fan screams this opinion to anyone who listen, and maybe even goes so far as to make it an intelligence issue – e.g., “Only a moron could ever like Artist B.” Now… how does reconcile this conflict when Artist A in someway associates himself with Artist B? We’ve seen that on this very site – everyone’s favorite MS reader, Ziltoid, has made endlessly disparaging marks about certain artists, and insisted only ree-rees like those artists, but then his hero, Devin Townsend, has praised some of those same artists. So does Ziltoid therefore think that Devin is a pea-brained man child, or does he shrug and say “Well, there’s room for gray area?”

I raise the issue because, according to The PRP, The Dillinger Escape Plan will tour this year with Iwrestledabearonce. That’s a great tour, if you ask me, but I know that a lot DEP fans think that that band is the second coming and the IWABO kids are the collective Antichrist. Of course, someone will say “Well, DEP have little to no control over which bands they tour with,” except that a) it’s my understanding that that’s not really true and b) DEP guitarist Ben Weinman has already worked with IWABO once before, on a remix for the iTunes version of their album, It’s All Happening. So clearly the guy doesn’t mind rubbing shoulders with these kids who are supposed to spell the end of good metal music as we know it.

I’m not looking for DEP to validate my opinion that IWABO are a good band. That would be ridiculous. But the announcement of this tour did me get thinking about the problems with making blanket statements like “Only assholes enjoy such and such a band.” And, yes, I’m fully aware I’ve made statements like that before. But I know good, smart people who enjoy or have enjoyed Limp Bizkit and ICP, and I know good, smart people who don’t see what the big deal is about Pig Destroyer, and while I do question these friends’ sanity, I’m not about to stop being friends with them just we disagree about whether or not Fred Durst is Adolf Hitler reincarnate.

So. DEP and IWABO. Two very forward-thinking bands, part of a package that makes perfect sense to me. I’m stoked for this one. There’s only two confirmed dates so far, but you can get those after jump.

Click to read more…

Iron Man was a fun movie. It wasn’t great, but I had a nice time watching it, and I will see Iron Man 2. But if you’re one of those people who thought that Iron Man was the greatest goddamn thing ever and get even think about Iron Man 2 without pissing yourself with excitement, well, then do I have a treat for you: some Iron Man 2 footage appears in a new AC/DC video for an old song, “Shoot to Thrill.” According to Nikki Finke, this is just the tip of the iceberg for the band and the armored hero, as “Columbia Records will release the album AC/DC: Iron Man 2 on Monday, April 19th, featuring 15 classic AC/DC songs selected from 1976 to 2008.”

This doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. Why start promoting an album that doesn’t come out ’til April and a movie that doesn’t come out ’til May now? Will people really remember this in four to five months? Also, since every AC/DC song basically sounds the same, would it really have been so hard for Angus Young to at least whip up a new single for this thing, rather than just offer another rehash of the band’s back catalog?

In any case, here’s the video. Watch it, don’t watch it, whatever. There’ll be plenty of more opportunities to see Iron Man 2 footage between now and its release date, I’m sure.

Meanwhile, the dude who just got hired to direct the new Spider-Man movie has directed videos for Hatebreed and Disturbed. So maybe Marvel is really metal after all.

-AR

When you’re a fickle, pouting drama queen, you’re going to leave a long list of ex-associates over a nearly 30-year career in metal. So it’s not numerically unlikely that lord of all paranoiacs Dave Mustaine would end up on tour with one of his many former-”best guitarist I’ve hired yet”s. In this case, it’s his most recent ex-not Marty Friedman, Glen Drover, whom Testament is enlisting for the just-announced Megatestodus tour. From Blabbermouth:

Click to read more…

Black metal legends Mayhem have announced another North American tour, and while that might be good news in and of itself, I’m actually more excited about their announced support acts for this trek: Ludicra and Krallice. I’ve never seen Ludicra live but I’ve been listening to them a lot as of late, and Krallice put on a truly transcendental show. Even if Mayhem somehow ended up sucking the big one, you’d probably get your money’s worth just from these first two bands alone.

This is gonna be a solid tour. Get dates after the jump…

Click to read more…

Disney has been canceling metal shows scheduled to take place on their property since 2007, apparently because they don’t like the riff-raff that comes with said shows. And I don’t exactly blame them, I guess – I mean, I wouldn’t want a bunch of drunken Machine Head fans sniffing around my place, either. That being said, I thought this meant a nice, clean break for metal and Disney. We won’t bother you with our loud music, you don’t bother us with your Nazism*.

But no! Disney doesn’t like metal… unless there’s money to be made from it! A reader calling herself La Chupacabra  has tipped us off to the existence of a a sitcom on Disney XD, entitled I’m in the Band. La Chupacabra describes the show thusly:

“The gist of this show is a pretend 1980′s metal band who can’t make a comeback and hire a teenager as their newest guitarist after the teen lets them stay in their house.”

Well, that certainly sounds fucking awful! It’s like The Rocker in reverse. And guess what? I turned The Rocker off after ten minutes, too.

But I did my due diligence and found the below clip so I could at least know my enemy. And, yeah, fuck this show. Even the presence of former The Daily Show correspondent Beth Littleford doesn’t help. I hope there’s a cross-over with Metalocalypse so that Dethklok can just kill everyone from this show. Slowly and painfully.

-AR

*Unless we’re talking about Pixar movies. Anyone who doesn’t love Pixar movies can eat out my dirty shithole.