Even though we’re always up in Cosmo Lee’s bidness, it’s worth noting that some other awesome writers also post at Invisible Oranges.

Case in point: Chris Rowella, who has published a list of his Top 5 Metal Moments in Movies over at Invisible Oranges.

He’s included all sorts of great cinemetal moments on the list, but my personal favorite is one I love for sentimental reasons – namely, it takes me back to being a kid, when the Gremlins movies were pretty-much the be-all, end-all of awesomeness. Yes, I’m talking about this immortal sequence from Gremlins 2: The New Batch:

Chris doesn’t mention it and I can’t seem to find a clip online, but some of you may recall that Faith No More’s “Surprise! You’re Dead!” also appears in Gremlins Deuce.

Check out the full list here; then come back and let us know what some of your personal favorite metal movie moments are.

-AR

One bummer about digital advance albums: they don’t come with lyrics, which means you can either understand what the vocalist is saying, or you can’t. Case in point: Through the Eyes of the Dead’s excellent new album, Skepsis (read my review here). I can’t really understand what Danny Rodriguez is screaming most of the time, so I never even took the lyrics into account when writing my review. I did bother to look up the definition of the word “skepsis,” but even that was only gonna tell me so much about what Rodriguez (and the rest of the band?) had in mind in terms of lyrical themes.

Luckily for me, Rodriguez (at least, I’m assuming it’s Rodriguez) has now posted a MySpace blog outlining the concept of the record. Check it out:

Click to read more…

MetalSucks Maniac Dan Wolfson tipped us off to the existence of Hour of Penance, who he described as an “Italian Behemoth.” And, sure enough, this band sounds more or less exactly like Behemoth. In fact, I take exception to Dan’s assertion that HOP vocalist Francesco Paoli “screams waaayyy better than Nergal;” they really sound pretty much identical to me. Not to sound like my mom or anything… I just can’t hear the difference.

If you llllllooovvvvve Behemoth and can’t wait for their next album, check out Hour of Penance here. The chime in below with your thoughts on whether or not Paoli > Nergal.

-AR

We received numerous requests from readers to post the audio of the phone interview I did with Andrew W.K. a couple of weeks back in which I sought to clarify the conspiracy theories surrounding He Who Parties Hard. While some people probably want to compare his voice to other interviews that are floating around online, I think most people are just curious to hear the tone and inflection in his voice, the things that typically get lost on the (e)-printed page.

And that’s what was most interesting about this interview. After reading it, it’d be easy to assume that Andrew is just a dumbass incapable of covering his own sloppy misteps; but when you listen to the audio you’ll find that this is clearly not the case. Andrew is smart, articulate, and his answers are very well-thought out. Which makes everything all that much more baffling.

Without further ado, here’s the interview audio for stream or download. If you have further questions, just show up to Santo’s Party House in NYC on February 23rd and ask the man himself.

[this download is longer available]

-VN

Despite the cloudy weather, I’ve actually found Seattle to be a delightful place. Seriously. I know I’m always down on shit, but I have no ill will towards Seattle. I even forgive them for all the shitty music they put out in the 90s.

In fact, I kinda wish I was living in Seattle right now. ‘Cause then I’d be able to go see Devin Townsend put on a free acoustic show, which will include “never before played music.” Think about that: you could be in the room the first time Devin Townsend tries out new music on an audience. That’s the kind of thing you’ll remember on your death bed.

All the details are in this nifty little poster:

If you can go to this show… well, you should. There’s no doubt in my mind it’s gonna be awesome. And let us know how it is!

-AR

Thanks to Sam Payne for the tip!

So I’m not even sure I know the full story here, but what I do know made me giggle, so it seems addressing.

A lot of you e-mailed me over the past couple of weeks regarding these rumors that fans attending Guns N’ Roses’ recent Canadian tour were forced to remove, or at least turn inside-out, any Slash shirts they might have been wearing. That struck me as a fairly ridiculous story (We really believe that venue security was keeping an eye out for Slash shirts? Was no one wearing a coat or hoodie or whatever when they entered the venue?), and sure enough, it was debunked within a day or two of hitting the net. End of story. Right?

Wrong, I guess. ‘Cause in pretty classic Axl Rose fashion, the Gingered One has hit the message boards of GN’R fan site Mygnrforum.com to speak out against one (un)lucky fan who insists that the story is true. Here’s Axl’s latest rant:

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Gotta love Between the Buried and Me. In case you were too poor, stupid, or lazy to go see them headline on their recent Super Orgasm Tour with Cynic, Devin Townsend and Scale the Summit, they’ve posted their entire set from the Masquerade in Atlanta, GA online. So you can watch it now and see all the hotness you missed.

Guys. This band is really incredible live. If you’re not convinced, I implore you to check out this footage. Then, when you feel stupid for missing them the first time, you can check them out when they tour with Mastodon, Baroness, and Valient Thorr starting in April. Or, if you live in Europe, you can go see them now. Get those dates here.

The rest of the show after the jump!

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Do you like burgers? Do you like bowling? Do you love The Ultimate Warrior and have a strong desire to listen to loud, obnoxious death grind and kill every fucking thing in your fucking way? Well then you’ll love the MetalSucks co-sponsoried Burgers & Bowling tour! It’s being headlined by The Red Chord, who are one of our most favoritest bands in modern metal, and My Children My Bride, Those Who Lie Beneath, and Chelsea Grin are on all on the bill, just to sweeten the deal. Plus, if you don’t go, we’re sending The Ultimate Warrior to your house to fuck your mom and put you in traction. Just throwing that out there. Y’know. No pressure.

Complete list of dates after the jump. These shows are gonna be INSANE.

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LAIR OF THE MINOTAUR. This band is so heavy, just typing their name makes my fingers hurt. This band is so metal they can’t travel by plane, ’cause they set all the alarms off when they try to go through security. True story, that.

ANYWAY, the band has announced the forthcoming release of a new album, Evil Power, which sounds kinda cheesy until you realize how completely fucking metal it is. Some grandma is gonna find a vinyl copy of something called Evil Power with what I’d wager will be some pretty sick cover art, and she’s gonna shit her pants and send her grandson away to church camp or something. Just you watch.

Evil Power is coming out on April 13 via The Grind-House Records, a new label started LOTM (hurts too bad to type the full name!) members Steve Rathbone and Chris Wozniak and Josh Diebel, lately of Alleysweeper Records. Their distro deal is with LOTM’s original label, Southern Lord, so expect this album to be just as tr00 as ever.

-AR

I mean, just watch Dark Tranquillity’s new video, for “Shadow in our Blood,” and tell me I’m wrong. The dude couldn’t even be bothered to stand up to shoot the video! “No, I’m just gonna lie down and you film me,” he must’ve told the director. Amazing that he could even be bothered to lip sync. The nerve!

“Shadow in our Blood” comes off of Dark Tranquillity’s new album, We are the Void, which is out March 9 on Century Media. While you’re waiting, don’t forget that you can ask Mr. Stanne a question right here!

-AR

When it was announced earlier this week that Dave Ellefson is returning to Megadeth, I expressed interest in hearing more of the story of how he and Dave Mustaine patched things up beyond the usual press release “Happy to be back!” bullshit. And look, it only took a couple of days! Jon Wiederhorn interviewed Mustaine about the make-up for Noisecreep. And for once, I feel almost no desire to make fun of Mustaine!

Here’s an excerpt from the interview:

Click to read more…

It’s hard for me to talk smack about Dee Snider, because as far as I can tell, he’s a pretty cool dude.

Unfortunately, being a cool dude doesn’t make you a good filmmaker, and if you ever saw the 1998 horror flick Strangeland, which Snider wrote and co-starred in as the villainous “Captain Howdy” (seriously), you’re probably very aware that Snider is not a good filmmaker. Unless the film has aged incredibly well, which I find hard to believe – it sucked when it was released, so I dunno what twelve years would do for it. The best thing about the movie then, and I suspect now, was the soundtrack, which had a bunch of metal bands on it like Pantera, Megadeth, and, unfortunately, Snot.

I guess Snider’s not giving up the dream of having his own horror franchise, though. Apparently Strangeland spawned a prequel comic (which I somehow missed… oh well), and now C.H.U.D. reports that Snider is making a sequel, Strangeland: Disciple, with a budget of five million dollars.

Who the hell is giving Dee Snider five million dollars to make a sequel to a film no one really seemed to like in the first place? I have no idea, but here’s the plot synopsis:

Click to read more…

Earlier this week, I was pretty down on “Forever Dead,” the new Sevendust song from their forthcoming album, Cold Day Memory. But our pals over at SMN posted this other new Sevendust song, “Unraveling,” last night, and I gotta say, I’m really, really digging it. Maybe it’s because I’m a massive pussy and I’ve always enjoyed Sevendust’s melodic material more than their heavy stuff – “Xmas Day” makes me wanna run as I fast as I can for Lajon Witherspoon every time I hear it – but this song just hits me in the right spot.

Cold Day Memory drops April 20. And now I’m excited to hear it again!

-AR

Even if our relationship with Born of Osiris is a little, uh, strained, that doesn’t mean I can’t dig their music. So here’s their new, David Brodsky-directed video, for “Now Arise.”

My first thought when I saw this was “Oh, great performance footage” – whatever else you wanna say about BOO, you can’t accuse them of being unable to play their instruments – “but I don’t understand the concept behind the animation.” Luckily, I don’t have to, because Tim Kellen, who did the animation for the video, released a statement on the subject!

“The illustrations that materialize in the video show symbols we see everywhere; in advertising, corporate branding, and on legal tender.  Many of these are ancient, sacred symbols used to empower the individual.However, according to some scholars, these symbols have been subverted by those wishing to destroy and dominate the rest of the population.  Some would argue that the eagle is representative of Scorpio, a symbol of money and power;  that the 2 headed eagle is a popular symbol among the Bavarian Illuminati;  The many skulls are symbols revered by brotherhoods of death; and that the all seeing eye represents surveillance.”

Well, alrighty then! Keep all that mind when watching the video…

“Now Arise” comes off of BOO’s latest, A Higher Place, which is out now on Sumerian.

-AR

MAJOR props to MetalSucks Maniac “jwaal,” who e-mailed me about this wwwaaaayyyy back in October. I always meant to write about it but basically completely forgot to, even though it’s a brilliant observation.

So let’s back it up for a minute. When I was a kid, before I discovered metal, I was a HUGE wrestling fan. I guess I always liked big sweaty dudes with long hair and lots of make-up, I dunno. But my two favorite wrestlers were Lex Luger in the WCW – who we named our family dog after (no shit) – and The Ultimate Warrior in the WWF. I guess that’s why I have no problem with the concept of corpse paint.

The Warrior was a madman, capable of bouts of berzerker rage that would annihilate all in his path. The man beat Hulk Hogan, which, believe you me, was a big, big deal at the time. And because I was a young ‘un, I didn’t really realize that very little of what he said actually made any sense. To wit, this highlight reel of some of The Ultimate Warrior’s finest quotes:

How does all of this relate to metal, you ask? Well, I’ll tell you how: because of the brilliant poetic mind of Guy Kozowyk, front man for The Red Chord.

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Two Orphaned Land posts in one day! Oy!

But this isn’t an Orphaned Land post – not really.

See, as part of my Jew on Jew interview with Orphaned Land’s Kobi Farhi, I asked him to recommend some other Israeli metal bands. I haven’t had a chance to go through the list yet, but one of the bands he talked about was Whorecore. And MetalSucks reader “israelizach” recommended that same band to us just last week. And now, lo and behold, the MS Reader Formerly Known As Prince e-mailed us to point out that Whorecore have a new video, for a song called “Whore Baby” that I really think my mother would like. Here’s the video (some parts of it may be considered NSFW, depending on how strick your workplace is):

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So Overkill’s new album, Ironbound, was released yesterday on E1, and they’re pulling out all the stops to promote it: the entire album is streaming here, and the first video from the record, for the song “Bring Me the Night,” is after the jump. I assumed that song was about was about Bobby Blitz being really angry about how terrible The Happening was, but I guess it’s actually about standing in front of a wall of big lights. Which is understandable. I wouldn’t be able to sleep if there was all that light in the room, either.

And so, the clip:

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Like nearly everyone else on this site, I have spent my share of time at shows, both in and out of the pit. How is it that people can come together in a cramped club, run into each other, and stage dive onto one another, but manage to not get sued for any of it? Why are pits and their associated conduct considered acceptable at shows, but not on the subway?

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Not to be confused with that crabcore band we can’t stop making fun of here at MetalSucks, The Attack are a Florida-based group that intentionally straddles the line between classic hardcore and old school melodic street punk. Distinct from the toughguy and metallic sounds dominating the hardcore scene, their catchy throwback-style tunes caught the attention of groups like Cro-Mags, H20, and Leatherface, all of whom have included the band on upcoming live dates. But if the tacit endorsement of such key hardcore acts isn’t enough for you, go ahead and download “Prove It,” [this download is longer available] one of the best tracks from their upcoming full length Of Nostalgia And Rebellion, due out February 16th.

Like what you hear? Good! Be sure to buy a copy of the album and catch the band at one of their upcoming dates. The H20 shows are part of the group’s 15th Anniversary Tour, and other openers for the New York and Philly gigs include Maximum Penalty and Trapped Under Ice, two great hardcore bands I’ve profiled here before. The Attack are in very good company. All dates below.

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Right around this time of year we usually start to see the lineups of all the major music festivals announced. The latest announcement making headlines is that of Bonnaroo, and for the third year in a row the festival has a surprising showing of metal bands on the bill.

Two years ago Metallica headlined Bonnaroo, and last year’s lineup included Nine Inch Nails, Down, and Shadows Fall among others. This year’s lineup is even heavier, with Isis, Baroness, Clutch, Melvins, Gwar and Against Me! all making appearances.

I’m a little baffled by the inclusion of most of these bands on a festival lineup that’s got nothing to do with metal. It strikes me as somewhat odd that anyone who comes to see Dave Matthews headline an event would have any interest in Isis. Surely some of the festival attendees enjoy metal and presumably the metal bands at the past two festivals went over well, otherwise metal bands wouldn’t have been invited back this time around. But I really can’t see any metalheads making the trek to Bonnaroo just because these bands are on the bill; in other words, the festival won’t be attracting a new clientele, just giving its current clientele a little more variety.

So what’s the larger meaning here? Is metal gaining wider acceptance in other music communities? Do these bands all fall into a certain sub-sect of metal that appeals to a more indie rock-centric crowd? Is it simply a case of these bands having the same booking agents? Share your thoughts in the comments.

-VN