When DevilDriver front man Dez Fafara called me this past Friday following a tumultuous, multi-day bus ride between stops on the band’s current tour with Suffocation, Goatwhore and Thy Will Be Done, I was expecting him to be an exhausted mess. But a decade and half of the touring life has made him a hardened veteran, and he clearly hasn’t lost any of his passion for playing live – clearly still riding high on the success of 2009′s Pray for Villains, Dez sounded like he was ready to jump on stage at any second. DevilDriver shows are a full-contact sport with Fafara presiding as the main instigator, and it’s clear that the man loves his job.

After the jump, get Dez’s thoughts on this tour, being away from his family while he’s on the road, a preview of the band’s current set list, and some news on the next DevilDriver album,which he hopes to have out by this time next year at latest. Phew!

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Born Low
Reincarnage
Label – Reaper Records
Release date – Out Now

As some of you have begun to notice, my Scraping Genius Off The Wheel column has evolved somewhat, with an increased focus on hardcore. The rationale behind this change is twofold. Firstly, while the inimitable MetalSucks staff cover a fair range of heavy music subgenres, there is a general dearth of coverage of hardcore, save for certain breakout artists like Converge and Coalesce. Secondly, several of my favorite albums of 2009 are classifiable as either hardcore or post-hardcore, or otherwise influenced by those sounds. So, yes, in addition to my continued devotional noise rock ravings and totally serious Oceano coverage, expect to read a lot about hardcore from me in 2010, including music from formidable newcomers like Born Low.

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Between The Buried And Me have been selling out most dates on their 2010 headline tour with Cynic, Devin Townsend & Scale The Summit. On February 5th, BTBAM will play their first ever theatre show, when they take over the historic Bijou Theatre in Knoxville, TN. This event will be a highlight of the tour; not only does the Bijou feature unparalleled acoustics, but also has a history of being haunted. (Check out more about the theatre here.) Special surprises will be in store for fans at this show!

To celebrate this very special event, MetalSucks is giving away an awesome BTBAM prize package which includes the following:

• Two tickets to see BTBAM at Bijou Theatre on Feb. 5th.
• Two meet and greet passes for the same show.
• A BTBAM hoodie.
• A BTBAM t-shirt
• A copy of BTBAM’s new album, The Great Misdirect, which you can have the band sign at the meet and greet.

Please note that there is no travel provided for this prize package – so if you don’t live in or near Knoxville, move along. The meet and greet will take place at 4:30, winner will be requested to arrive to the venue by 4:15PM. Valid photo ID will be required to pick up tickets and passes.

All you have to do to win is tell us why you get this awesome prize package in our comments section below. Remember that this is MetalSucks, so make it entertaining if you want a real shot at winning. Please make sure that you register for the prize package with a valid e-mail address, as the winner will be contacted by e-mail. The winner will be announced on Tuesday, February 2.

Good luck everyone!

-Axl, Vince and Everyone at MetalSucks

Vince is living it up in sunny Los Angeles this week, but he just sent me this:

We’ve known since October that the Faith No More reunion would finally be hitting the U.S. this year, but now it’s extra-super-duper-official. I’m assuming this will part of a full tour – but if it’s not, I guess I’m going to Coachella in April…

-AR

Vince and I used to know a guy who believed that the price of CDs had nothing to do with music industry woes. He believed that lowering retail prices would have no effect on music sales one way or the other. And while I’m not sure slashing prices could really save the record industry, I do know that I’m way more likely to check something out if it costs ten bucks than if it costs twenty.

Which brings me to this super-sweet deal.

Metalhit.com is now offering legal downloads of metal albums for a whopping $5.25. These are high-quality, legal downloads of almost fifteen hundred titles in all sorts of various subgenres, and they now cost less than that Big Mac meal that’s killing you right now.

Check out the store and see what tickles your fancy. You can afford $5.25, so what have you got to lose?

-AR

Time for another look at an existing rock biography that may have escaped your literary radar. Last time, I reviewed Mötley Crüe’s Nikki Sixx’s excellent paean to self-pity and self-destruction, The Heroin Diaries. This time around, it’s his band mate, drug buddy, and human puppet toy, Tommy Lee’s 2004 autobiography Tommyland.

First off, Tommy Lee is a dick.

Or, rather, I should say; first off, Tommy Lee’s dick shoots off the festivities.

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No, seriously, what the fuck is that? I honestly can’t tell.

I can’t wait to see this up close, or at least a higher-res scan… ’cause it looks to me like that picture is one of those pictures made up of lots of smaller pictures, and I’m dying to see what all those small pictures are of.

ANYWAY, Option Paralysis comes out March 23 on Party Smasher/Season of Mist. But the first single/opening track, “Farewell, Mona Lisa,” is available for download on iTunes as of today. I’ve been listening to a shitty bootleg radio-rip of the song for the past few weeks, but hearing it in considerably better audio quality… well, it’s like a whole new song. I love it so much. It’s like a perfect combination of crazy mathcore DEP and melodious FNM-esque DEP. I’ve just been listening to it on repeat all morning.

It’ll hafta tide me over ’til March…

-AR

Exhausted Prayer
Worst of All Possible Worlds
Label – TBD
Release date – TBD

It’s not much of a stretch to say that Exhausted Prayer are the only black metal band I know that sound like their home city of Los Angeles. The lengthy tracks on their 2005 EP Looks Down in the Gathering Shadow shifted from dissonance to wide-open “tall” harmonies, sounding like a brakeless car ride over L.A.’s cracked mess of freeways onwards to an endless sunset. Swansong and Heist’s guitars worked in gauzy textures and criss-crossing melodies even at their most furious, often breaking out into tasteful solo breaks; drummer Mike Caffell (also in Dreaming Dead, whose debut Within One was my favorite album of last year) kept the gears shifting relentlessly, investing his deft blasts with the deep pocket that so many of his trigger-happy black metal peers can’t muster. Like Ludicra or recent Enslaved, Exhausted Prayer’s black metal grows and consumes us gradually rather than than mowing us down with static blasting. As much as I adore Exhausted Prayer’s three-part vocal attack, this is one of the few black metal bands that could probably do fine as an instrumental group.

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So we’ve gotten some requests from readers for some kind of 2010 preview, but here’s the thing: is there really anyone who doesn’t know that bands like The Dillinger Escape Plan, Pig Destroyer, and Nachtmystium have new albums coming out this year? There’s nothing we can really tell you about those releases that either a) we haven’t already told you or b) you couldn’t read in any other number of places.

Still, we wanted to do something… And so the brilliant Gary Suarez came up with the excellent idea for Albums That Will Fuck Your Face Off in 2010: today, various inhabitants of the MetalSucks Mansion will post short write-ups spotlighting albums by bands that, even if they aren’t exactly new or unknown, haven’t yet had their break-out release. We believe these albums could be those break-outs.

Oh, except that Bob Cock doesn’t take direction very well, and he just wrote about a bunch of albums he excited for this year. But that’s okay, because we love Cock so much, we could never stay mad for that long.

ANYWAY, we’ll be posting these throughout the day. We hope you enjoy them.

-Axl, Vince, and Everyone at MetalSucks

Today is Martin Luther King., Jr. day here in the States, which means that even though the world is a total mess that looks little to nothing like that great man’s dream, everyone gets a day off from work. Including us.

Here is literally the only even vaguely-MLK-related piece of kinda-sorta metal I could find. Fuck does this song by an artist who once casually dropped the “N” bomb in an acoustic ballad have to do with Martin Luther King? I don’t think anyone knows for sure.

Regular posting will resume tomorrow. Our sincerest apologies to those of you who do have work today and will now actually have to do said work instead of wasting time on our site.

-AR

Once upon a time I was totally bowled over by this album…..instrumental groovin heavy-at-times artful guitar playin ROCK — what’s not to like?

Unfortunately the record mysteriously disappeared from my collection for quite a while, and from time to time over the years I have certainly felt the loss…….leave it to Mr. Wizard himself to recently re-introduce me to the sound I’ve been missing — thanks brah!!

HEROIC DOSES — “Crystals”

HEROIC DOSES — “Heroic Theme Song”

HEROIC DOSES — “The Mad Spackler”

(all from their self-titled album, 1998)

-KW

Alright! After an initial slow news week, 2010 is finally start to get back into the swing of things. Here are some highlights from this week:

• Vince got an exclusive interview with Obituary/ex-Andrew W.K. drummer Donald Tardy about the AWK conspiracy mystery. We also spoke to Richard Christy and Pelican’s Larry Herwig.
• We debuted new music by The Tony Danza Tap Dance Extravaganza, Karnivool, and Blood of the Tyrant.
• Dallas is giving away free music, Eyal’s faith in metalheads has been restored, and Justin pontificated on the format wars.
• These Arms Are Snakes are done…
• …but System of a Down are reuniting! Or maybe not. But maybe.
• The dude from Weedeater shot himself in the foot. Literally.
• We’re sponsoring The Red Chord’s Burgers & Bowling tour!
• Underoath don’t like abortions.

Next week we’ll have some previews of 2010 releases we’re stoked on for you. And Vince is gonna be in sunny Los Angeles, so you poor-ass muthafuckas is stuck with me. BWA-HA-HA-HA!!!

-AR

I really hate the end of the year during Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. I don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s seasonal depression, or maybe it’s because I’m still coming to grips with the fact that Satan Clause doesn’t exist. I always get loopy during that time of the year. My last two blogs were extensions of that, and if I offended any of you guys, I apologize. I really appreciate every person who comes to MetalSucks and contributes to making this place the best metal site on the interwebz. When I called some of you “faggots” and “assholes” it was out of love. Honestly!

I’ve been an angry, bitter fuck these last couple of months. I don’t need to tell you guys. And I appreciate you being good sports throughout this whole ordeal. It’s 2010 and it’s time to move on.

From leaving God Forbid to my personal life completely falling apart, I’ve been dealing with some wild bullshit. I’m thirty years old now and for you young bucks out there, take it from me: life gets harder. But that’s okay. It has to get harder, or else we wouldn’t get stronger.

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It’s 2009… even if you find yourself in the unfortunate position of being a DJ in a rock/metal band long after it was considered cool (if it ever even was), you’ve pretty much been relegated to the role of the kid who was always picked last in schoolyard kickball games. They’ll try and find a role for you out of pity, but really no one gives a fuck. So here we are 10 years after Incubus’ sound has featured a DJ in any prominent way, and former DJ Gavin Koppell (aka DJ Lyfe) is threatening to kill current DJ Chris Kilmore.

Koppell was ousted in 1998 after the S.C.I.E.N.C.E. record, well before the band’s 2000 breakout Make Yourself (and by the way fuck you if you don’t think the latter is a great album). In court papers filed last week in L.A. County Superior Court, Kilmore says Koppel threatened to kill him last month over an incident that took place back in 2003. Kilmore secured a restraining order against Koppell in 2003 after the latter spit in his face. Court papers claim Koppell has been ordered to stay at least 100 yards from Kilmore and his girlfriend. Read the nitty gritty details and case history at Noisecreep.

This is like a fight between the dude who was picked last in kickball and the dude was picked second to last. It’s a battle not to be the worst. Incubus’ sound hasn’t utilized a DJ in years… whenever I hear new music from Incubus I wonder why they even keep the guy in the band, kind of like the way Lacuna Coil keeps Andrea Ferro around because… why? Also, new Incubus sucks; they pulled a Chili Peppers and went all Adult Contemporary in their [not even that]-old age.

-VN

Y’know, considering how many of you bitch about me writing about Guns N’ Roses too much, I sure do get a lot of GN’R-related e-mails.

Case in point: Axl Rose and company kicked off their Canadian tour earlier this week, and my inbox is suddenly flooded with messages that all say something to the effect of “OMG AXL IS SO FAT NOW LULZ!!!” And while I don’t know if “fat” is the word I’d use for how Axl’s looking this tour, I do know that I would never use the word “good,” either. Check out this photo from Rolling Drone:

Who does he look like these days? That’s right, you guessed it. He looks like -

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I don’t know what, if any, kind of persecution Gaahl has faced since coming out, but even if he’s been met with nothing but kindness and tolerance, I’d imagine he’s aware of the poor treatment homosexual receive all over the world. I mean, he met his partner, modeling agent Dan DeVero, approximately a year and a half before he came out, and common sense tells us that he was gay long before that – so why didn’t he come out sooner? Even if he wasn’t afraid of how people might react, he has said that DeVero was. So it’s not like he thinks there aren’t homophobes in the world, many of whom commit violent acts against gay men and women.

So mightn’t one assume that awareness of the effects of persecution would give Gaahl a new perspective on violent attacks against those whose beliefs and preferences are different from his own? You’d think so, wouldn’t you? Well, you’d think wrong. Chris Harris at Noiscreep reports:

Click to read more…

…..for poop’s sake.

-KW

I’ve been following the NYTimes.com coverage of the crisis in Haiti and… I’m just horrified. I’ve watched video footage of people trapped under thousands of pounds of concrete screaming for their lives, browsed photos of stacks of dead bodies and over-flowing hospitals, and of course I’ve been reading the ongoing reports of how Port-au-Prince’s infrastructure is so crippled that even if suitable aid were to be available it couldn’t reach those who desperately need it.

California label Sargent House (whose roster includes Russian Circles, Red Fang, Red Sparowes and others) and Rodriguez Lopez Productions have teamed up to rally support from the metal community for those stricken by the disaster in Haiti. They’re offering a sampler of Sargent House artists that includes 18 full tracks — for the price of whatever you want to donate — as an instant download “in your choice of 320k mp3, FLAC, or just about any other format you could possibly desire.” ALL proceeds go directly to the Haiti Relief effort spearheaded by Doctors Without Borders, a group that even my Mom recommended I donate to.

DOWNLOAD THE SAMPLER AND DONATE TO THE HAITI RELIEF EFFORT HERE.

Even if you’re broke as fuck, I hope you can afford to give just a little bit to people who need it way more than you do. Every little bit counts. And hey, as if you should need any reason other than that… you get some free music with it too.

-VN

Thanks to Sean Williams for sending in this link.

Just in time for their stint on the MetalSucks sponsored Tyrants of Evil North American Tour 2010, Exodus have unveiled their new DVD/CD, Shovel Headed Tour Machine: Live At Wacken & Other Assorted Atrocities. I haven’t gotten to check out the video portion of this multidisc set yet, but the live album is killer, a terrific snapshot of a legendary band who are now firmly back at the top of their game.

Last Friday in Los Angeles, Metalocalpyse‘s Brendon Small hosted an advanced screening of the concert film and documentary that are included in the set, and then moderated an q&a with the band. If you couldn’t make it, you can – and should – check out video of the event below:

Shovel Headed Tour Machine: Live At Wacken & Other Assorted Atrocities is out now on Nuclear Blast – and it should whet your appetite for the MetalSucks sponsored Tyrants of Evil North American Tour 2010 with Arch Enemy, Exodus, Arsis and Mutiny Within. It starts next week! Get dates here.

-AR

Extreme experimental metallers Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza posted a new song called “Yippiekayay Motherfucker” on their MySpace page back in October, but that was just the tip of the iceberg. The Danza have a full new record on the way later this year via Guy Kozowyk’s Black Market Activities label titled Danza III: The Series Of Unfortunate Events, and while we haven’t heard anything from that album just yet (unless the aforementioned Bruce Willis-inspired track will make it onto the record) we do have something to tide you over in the meantime. Here’s a statement from frontman Jessie Freeland:

Soooo, basically we were just getting bored and wanted to post a song. We can’t post any of the new stuff at this time so we decided, what the hell, let’s do a cover. The first thing that jumped into our heads was ‘Teen Spirit.’ There’s nothing special about the song to us – we basically just wanted to see if we could pull it off. So, with a little help from Jack Daniels we got it done and here it is.

It’s a pretty straight cover of a song we all grew up on, but that makes it no less awesome; as one might expect, Freeland absolutely lets loose during the choruses, screaming his guts out on Kurt Cobain’s famous lyrics. Stream and download the track below.

[this promotion has ended]

-VN