If I were in Cancer Bats the only thing I’d really be scared to death about is my band’s inability to fit clearly into any one scene. But that’s a good thing. I wouldn’t be too scared of rocking because my band would do that really fucking well, and my band’s new track “Scared to Death” would be no exception.

Cancer Bats’ 2008 album Hail Destroyer was an aggressive, punchy, ass-kicking affair that I listened to more than any “hardcore” record in recent memory. I put hardcore in quotes because it’s hard to classify Cancer Bats as straight up hardcore, though their roots are clearly on display; their riffs are too metallified, their chord voicings too complex, they play guitar solos and they use way too many pinched harmonics to be lumped in with a lot of the bands our own Gary Suarez has been writing about lately. But it really doesn’t matter what the fuck you call Cancer Bats because they kick ass.

Cancer Bats release a digital EP called Sabotage on March 1st. I’m definitely psyched for this one. Look for them on tour soon with a bunch of bands that don’t sound anything like them and that you don’t like at all.

-VN

No one can fault Dave Mustaine for putting together a tour in lieu of the stillborn American Carnage trek. But as always the Megadeth frontman aims for maximum annoyance and as such his new tour is a brazen approximation of Carnage minus Slayer. As a member of Slayer, Kerry King must be distressed to find that there’s a nearly identical alternative to his tour on the market — complete with Testament and Exodus, for a total of three thrash metal greats, just like Carnage — that’s sure to distract ticket-buyers and cool walk-up sales. And in light of the recent King-Mustaine cuddlefest at T.G.I.Friday’s, one could argue it’s yet another of Mustaine’s unconscionable and self-destructive backstabbings, at which he is only second to Eddie Van Halen in proficiency. (Unlike lead guitar playing, at which Mustaine is second in proficiency to dozens. Cheap shot alert!)

To make matters worse, ‘Staine and Megadeth will use the new tour to celebrate their last great record, Rust In Peace, y’know, to add a sack-tap to this already historic cockblock. So it was already getting silly by the time the announcement came yesterday that Megadeth’s only other real member, the embittered former Mustaine bum chum David Ellefson, he of history’s greatest metal bass performance and reams of anti-Mustaine bitching, would return to the pasty creases of the Mus-taint for bass duties on the big tour. Yet more juice for the non-Slayer shows. What’s next, the return of RiP guitarist Marty Friedman? (Um please?)

Click to read more…

MS Maniac Brian sent us a link to the below video with the message “Better than actual Nickelback?” I’ve appropriated that message for my headline, but I removed the question-mark, because, let’s face it, there is no question: this is, in literally every way, superior to actual Nickelback. Sure, it outstays its welcome a little, but so have Nickelback, and it’s still way shorter than their entire discography, so it’s still way better than actual Nickelback.

Anyway I don’t know who these dudes are, but I’d like to buy them a congratulatory beer. This made me giggle so.

What this might not be better than, however, is Pickleback. Which is clearly just the greatest dill ever.

-AR

MS reader Mike Morreale sent us an email yesterday about the Polish band Indukti, and as it turns out Z. Kirill sent us one back in October too but we snoozed on it. Second time’s a charm, I guess, because I’m really digging the proggy metal ambiance of Indukti’s sound. If you enjoyed yesterday’s recommendation of Cloudkicker I’m betting there’s a good chance you’ll like this too; though the two bands are markedly different in composition and Indukti are way more… far out… they do share a certain aesthetic.

Here’s their track “Ninth Wave.” Check out more music from Indukti on their MySpace page if you’re so inclined.

-VN

For reasons I do not currently know, drummer Brad Fickeisen is out of The Red Chord. That’s a bummer, ’cause the dude is a good drummer, and played on Clients, Prey for Eyes, and Fed Through the Teeth Machine.

The good news is that Mike Justian, the band’s original drummer who played on Fused Together in Revolving Doors, has re-joined the band, at least for now. And anyone associated with Fused is okay in my book.

None of this will effect the band’s upcoming MetalSucks-sponsored Burgers & Bowling Tour, which will start kicking ass and taking names this Thursday. So get out to one of those shows if you can and help welcome Mr. Justian back to the band!

-AR

Here’s a nice little “HOLY SHITBALLS!” moment to cap off your Monday: after a seven year absence, Dave Ellefson has returned to Megadeth. And to think, not that long ago, these two were suing one another. Hilarious.

Old-school Megadeth fans will remember that Ellefson survived through various incarnations of ‘Deth, and for many years appeared to be on the only person on earth who could actually stomach Mustaine. He was the bass player for basically every Megadeth classic ever.

You can read some statements from the band at SMN, but to be honest, it’s all the usual bullshit that you’ve heard a million times before. Hopefully these two will get deeper into their rift and reunion when they start doing press for Megadeth’s upcoming tour.

And you know what? I could not find a picture of these two together without the rest of the band around. Twenty years as partners, and they never snapped a photo just the two of them. Good times.

-AR

…..AS some of you may or may not have heard, Guitarist, Andrew has parted ways with Oceano. This decision was reached through personal as well as minor quarrels amongst the band. We wont go too much further into detail as it seemingly is not a band issue any longer.

If we’re to use MySpace blog comments as our guide, the fan reaction to last week’s news of Andrew Mikhail’s less-than-amicable departure from self-proclaimed deathcore beef-bringers Oceano was generally postive. In a post marked “Andrew Leaves Oceano” the band acknowledged their former guitarist’s public denouncement of the group before assuring fans that tour plans were not changing in spite of this. Scrolling down the page, however, it seems Mikhail wasn’t entirely happy with the comments being made. Using the presumably Outkast-referencing handle “andrew3000.” he replied directly to Oceano saying:

Click to read more…

How about this band, who have concocted a song so fucking irritating it could defeat killer tomatoes?

By the way, if you want to torture a small animal, just play it the vocals at 1:24.

-AR

Despite their inclusion at MetalSucks’ 2008 CMJ showcase, Trash Talk haven’t received much in the way of coverage here. Consider this the first step towards remedying that unintentional failing. I mean, it’s not every day that one of the most insane modern hardcore bands neatly and conveniently re-releases its entire discography on vinyl–one record to be exact. Roughly thirty minutes long, the 180g vinyl edition Shame compiles four of the Trash Talk’s increasingly difficult-to-find releases (Walking Disease, Plagues, East Of Eden/Son Of A Bitch, and self-titled full-length).

This is a great introduction to a great band and packed with loads of neat extras like a full-sized poster and footnotes. Pre-order it direct from the band. The turntable-deprived can also snag a CD copy of Shame through the U.K.’s Hassle Records as a confounding double-disc set, with each disc averaging about 15 minutes of music. Lyrics are included for those who care to scream along.

-GS

[Gary Suarez usually manages the consistently off-topic No Yoko No. He recently quit Twitter.]

I’d normally never use a word like “divine” or “glorious” without a hint of irony, since people who do use those words without a hint a irony turn out to be annoying ten out of ten times, and life is just too short.

So let’s just take a page from the Bob Cock playbook and call “Snakes for the Divine,” the title track from the forthcoming new High on Fire offering, AWESOME. I totally forgot to eat lunch today, so I’ve been trying to get outside for twenty minutes to grab some food; unfortunately, my desire to listen to this song on repeat got the best of me, and before I knew it, I was sitting here in my chair, coat on, just rocking out for an extended period of time. And I’m not even high. If my tummy hadn’t suddenly growled, I’d probably have forgotten to get some lunch yet again.

I generally think of Spin Magazine as being about as metal-friendly as rust, but they’ve got the stream of the song, so whatever. I’d visit the website of a male Patti LuPone impersonator if they were streaming a new High on Fire song.

Snakes for the Divine comes out February 23 on E1.

-AR

I love it when budding musicians and bands give away their recorded music for free. Rather than trying to charge $10 (or however much) to collect money from the few diehard fans you have that are willing to spring some dough for your product, you make a potential fan out of anyone who’s willing to download the album for the price of a click and the time it takes to do so. Rather than selling 10 or 100 copies for money, your music reaches hundreds or thousands of people willing to give it a shot, people who will later come to your show or buy a t-shirt if they like the music enough. This, my friends, is smart business.

Enter Cloudkicker, the excellent 1-man band led by Ben Sharp, whose new EP ]]][[[ is currently available for free (along with the rest of his entire catalog). The punctuation-monikered EP only has 3 songs, but they're jam-packed with a variety of different instru-metal styles that fit together well into one cohesive whole. For the most part Cloudkicker lives in the ambient instru-metal realm but occasionally ventures into other territories. His music is lush, big and complex, but it's the kind of metal that doesn't make your head spin or require a lot of listening attention to enjoy. Think the instrumentation of Animals of Leaders with the musicality of Scale the Summit, but with dense layering similar to Jesu... and you're close to what Cloudkicker sounds like. Download ]]][[[ for free here.

-VN

Thanks: Peter Butter, Josh S.

Armour is 80s metal, man. Get used to it right now, before you check them out. But FUCK if it isn’t AWESOME at the same time. The song titles, the solos, the cover art – EVERYTHING is there on the Finns’ self-titled album, and it’s all really, really AWESOME. Well… the lyrics are kind of stupid, but who needs lyrics when you’ve got riffs and fist-pumping anthems, anyway?

Click to read more…

Late last December, I braved some bitter winter weather to catch NYHC pioneers Cro-Mags play an almost intolerably crowded gig at Andrew W.K.’s Santos Party Haus. And boy, was it worth it! With original vocalist John Joseph and drummer Mackie Jayson, alongside members of Leeway and Sick Of It All, the current incarnation–previously touring as Cro-Mags(Jam)–ripped through so many classic Age Of Quarrel cuts to the evident delight of a flailing, furious crowd of devotees. Thanks to the Intarwebz (and a courageous soul willing risk injury to record it), you can actually watch a full set from a couple days prior in Philadelphia here. But even such great footage isn’t the same as actually experiencing the band live. Well, thankfully, many of you will get the chance now that a number of Cro-Mags gigs have been announced.

Click to read more…

So this couple was caught fucking at a Motley Crue concert in Winnipeg last week, and were promptly ejected from the concert. There was video of the incident, which has now been taken off of YouTube, I guess because it’s “obscene” or whatever. But I’m not sure what the big deal is. Motley Crue songs are pretty much all about fucking, even when they’re technically not (“Dr. Feelgood,” etc.), so I’d imagine there’s one drunk couple gettin’ it on at pretty much EVERY Motley Crue concert. In fact, here are ten things I’d find more surprising to see at a Crue show:

Click to read more…

Do we simply dismiss them because they play symphonic black metal, which Cosmo Lee posits might be “the worst kind of metal ever invented”? Or do we give them a shot to prove their own artistic merit independent of any pre-conceived genre restrictions or notions? I, for one, have no problems with symphonic black metal, especially the less cheesy variety proffered by Sothis. On a completely superficial level I also happen to dig their combination of corpse paint and giant beards.

But what the fuck does it matter what I think? What do YOU think? Watch their new video for “Of Night and Silence” and let us know.

-VN

Thanks: Chris Vanderwerf

My good friend Rob at Metal Injection thinks that “SNL was actually pretty good this week,” and while I love Rob, I have to violently disagree: a friend and I watched the show when we were so blitzed that watching SNL actually seemed like a good idea, and I think we still only laughed two or three times. And I’m sorry, but Them Crooked Vultures are lame.

One of the better sketches, though, was the below, which… well, the less you know about it beyond that fact that Dave Grohl is in it, the better. Suffice it to say, the evidence is growing that there’s at least one writer at SNL who knows what’s up. If anyone knows who that writer is, please drop me a line. I’d love to interview him or her and ask if they think the show might ever actually be good again.

NOTE: I don’t know what the fuck is wrong with the video embed, but you can watch the skit here.

-AR

Don’t ever say the chicks at Reign in Blonde aren’t lookin’ out for ya, because Elise has combed through Amazon’s monthly 100 Albums for $5 deal to pick out the albums that you, broke metalhead, would be most interested in. There’s a good chance you already own all or most of these albums, but if not here’s your chance to get them on the cheap (and since it’s on Amazon, without DRM):

• Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin IV
• The Melvins - A Senile Animal
• Meshuggah - ObZen
• Muse - Black Holes and Revelations
• Sevendust – Best of (1997-2004)
  

There are also a whole bunch of other albums worth your while that aren’t metal or hard rock. ‘Cause, ya know, sometimes other music is pretty cool too. Just a few: albums by The Delfonics, Cannibal Ox, Duke Ellington, Thelonius Monk, Billie Holiday… all for only $5 each.

-VN

So let’s say you’re Fear Factory. You’re in the headlines a lot these days because your founding guitar player has returned to the fold and you’ve recorded an album that ranks with your best. You have to go do your first big U.S. comeback tour. Who do you announce as your support acts? How about Winds of Plague, Dirge Within, and Periphery?

Wait… what?

Click to read more…

There’s a really awesome metal song called “Anti-Hero.” A song that makes me wanna jump in the pit and hit someone smaller than me every time I listen to it. A song that helped make the band who recorded it one of my favorite in modern metal.

Wanna hear the song? Here ya go!

Oh, yeah. Bleeding Through’s new song is also called “Anti-Hero.” The lyrics include the line “I’ve heard enough of you!/Fucking go away,” which pretty much sums up my feelings about the track. But if you really care, you can listen here. The song will be on the band’s new, self-titled album, which comes out April 13 on Rise.

In conclusion, this:

Click to read more…

2003′s Seasons, the last Sevendust album to feature co-guitarist Clint Lowery, was also the last really good Sevendust album. During Lowery’s absence, the band released three offerings, all of which had a few good tracks but none of which were really satisfying overall. The natural conclusion, then, was that Lowery played a really, really key role in Sevendust’s songwriting process, and his return to the fold should ensure that the band’s forthcoming Cold Day Memory will be a return to form for the band. Right?

Wrong, if the group’s new single, “Forever Dead,” is any indication.

Click to read more…