Somone is inevitably going to read the critique I am about to write of Fear Factory’s new video, “Fear Campaign,” and write off everything I say as the ramblings of a Jew who is overly sensitive about the use of Nazi imagery. If you are that person, congratulations, you’re an imbecile and I think you’d be much more comfortable reading this website instead.

Now, onto the video…

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Say what you will about Fear Factory – you’re probably correct. Their faux-industrial flourishes of synths are ignorable at best and ridiculous at worst, Dino Cazares’ stop-start riffs blend together after a song or two, their sci-fi themes cover the spectrum of cheesy to horribly cringe-worthy, Burton C. Bell’s singing sounds like Justin Broadrick’s slow brother moaning in a karaoke contest, that their whole approach could be interpreted as watered down extreme metal for the Hot Topic goth set… they’re all pretty apt if they’re not a band you grew up with (I’m looking at you, Axl Q. Rosenberg). But say you’re sixteen years old, the oldest sibling and cousin on both sides of your parents’ families, don’t have any cool uncles with Overkill patches on their denim jackets or exhaustive NWOBHM collections, don’t have any friends that are into Cannibal Corpse or Slayer or Napalm Death (or a whole lot of friends at all, really), and your parents bond over their love for James Taylor. You can’t just go from zero to Carcass. Thus, bands like Fear Factory exist: to ease the transition between Nine Inch Nails and the wealth of perverted delight death, black, and doom metal have to offer. For that reason and really that reason alone, I can never hate on Fear Factory. They don’t stand up to a lot of scrutiny, but they do what they do well, and serve as an excellent gateway into extreme metal for the unsure and uninitiated. From Fear Factory I moved to Slipknot’s first album, and from there I moved to Reign in Blood. From there, it was all downhill very, very fast.

So I was delighted to hear that Dino had waddled his way back into the FF fold; admittedly, the only thing that kept me from completely hating (as opposed to just mostly hating) Divine Heresy was Cazares’ riffing, even if it did have a tendency to grow stale in that confines of that shitty, shitty band. I stopped following Fear Factory with Digimortal (B-Real guest verse = I’m all set with your band. That even goes for Outkast, as far as I’m concerned.) and have since only thrown Demanufacture or Obsolete on every now and again for some healthy nostalgia. I’ve obviously moved on to heavier and/or more esoteric metal, and thus didn’t need the band anymore to satisfy my heaviness quotient. And oddly enough, Mechanize, the band’s reboot after two Dino-less records, is an album exactly for that audience: while still undoubtedly a Fear Factory album, for better or worse, it’s full of embellishments those familiar with and fond of metal outside the realm of Fear Factory will recognize. In doing so, the band may have made the most satisfying album of their career, and quite possibly their heaviest. Though half the original lineup is gone, the spirit remains the same, if not drastically improved.

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Congratulations to Miss Alicia Jarrell of Quincy, MA. Alicia correctly identified last week’s logo as belonging to the band A Sunset Mourning, and for her troubles, she wins a copy of Heaven Shall Burn’s DVD, Bildersturm – Iconoclast II (The Visual Resistance). Enjoy it, Alicia!

This week the nice people at Century Media have provided us a copy of Lacuna Coil’s DVD, Visual Karma, to give away. This two-disc set features the band’s complete performances from both Wacken ’07 and Loudpark ’07, four music videos, band member profiles, behind-the-scenes tour footage, and much more. So even though Cristina Scabbia hates me and is in total denial about the fact that I am someday going to marry her granddaughter, I think this is a pretty cool DVD and you should definitely fight for this freebie.

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 was suggested by reader Alex Carter… thanks, Alex! You guys have been sending me a lot of great suggestions lately, but please keep ‘em comin’! I have to do this contest every week for the rest of my fucking life!!!

-AR

Last year As I Lay Dying guitarist Nick Hipa mentioned to Axl that, like the editors of MetalSucks, he is a huge fan of the show L O S T (cue dying giraffe noise).With the final season of one of television’s great serialized mysteries debuting tonight on ABC, Axl and Vince thought, “Hey, why not ask Nick to do a series of columns about the show’s final episodes?” Luckily, Nick agreed! And so, without further adieu…

Hello fans of extreme metal music. My written word appears before you for one sole purpose: to share information, ideas, insight, and theories on ABC’s mind-melting TV show, LOST. In many circles, LOST is regarded as the Master of Puppets of prime-time television; hence, it is worth discussing on a metal blog.

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Any time a press release concerning The Ocean arrives at the MetalSucks Mansion work immediately stops and masturbation commences. Today’s mind-pornography comes from the band’s U.S. label Metal Blade, giving us plenty of new information about what the TWO forthcoming 2010 Ocean albums, Heliocentric and Anthropocentric, will contain:

The concept at the base of both albums is a critique of Christianity from different philosophical and personal angles.

While the songs, art and lyrics of Heliocentric tell the story of the rise of the heliocentric world view and its effects on Christian belief from medieval times to Darwin and Dawkins, “Anthropocentric” challenges the views of creationists and other modern fundamentalists who still believe that the earth is at the center of the universe.

The tracklisting of Heliocentric is as follows:

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After last week’s introduction, I’m going to use this column to go through the the three main requirements of copyright protection in a little more detail. For those of you looking ahead, the next few columns will have nothing to do with copyright at all.

Requirement number one is that the work must be an item that can be copyrightable. Though there are many different types of works, not everything can receive copyright protection. Copyright will only be available to original works of authorship. The US Code provides several examples of items that can be protected, such as

• Literary Works (books, articles, class notes, emails)

• Pictorial, Graphic & Sculptural works (Photographs, music videos, movies)

• Musical works & sound recordings (full albums, individual songs)

Also, while facts are not copyrightable, compilations of facts generally are, but only to the extent that the author has infused it with his creativity. Where his creativity ends, so, too, does the copyright.

While this list is broad, many items are not protected, such as procedures, processes, systems, ideas, words or short phrases, and US government works. Protection might be available under trademark or patent law for these, but not under copyright.

Requirement number two is that each item must be independently created. If two people author the same work and have arrived at that work independently, both will be afforded copyright protection for their work. Granted, this doesn’t happen that often.

The independent creation requirement leaves out several concepts that you might consider important to receiving copyright protection, such as:

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I have a theory that there are two periods in which no one – and I mean absolutely no one – looked cool:

1. High school.
2. The 80s.

Lamb of God’s Chris Adler, who I think is a fantastic drummer and an insanely cool and down to earth guy, was born in 1972, which means he had the unfortunate luck of being in high school in the 80s, which a double whammy of awful.

So. After the jump we have an old yearbook photo of Chris’, sent to us by reader Norm Burt, who apparently has a buddy that went to high school with Chris. Yes, it is a bad photo, and yes, it is bad in a very funny way. But Chris, if you’re reading this, know it’s nothing personal. I looked pretty dorky in high school, too.

Here it is…

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Almost a year ago our own Satan Rosenbloom interviewed Wolves in the Throne Room frontman Aaron Weaver. Ever the articulate and intelligent gentleman, Weaver shared his thoughts about black metal, the commercialization of music, the ideologies behind his band and a whole slew of other topics; it was definitely one of the more in-depth and intriguing interviews we’ve run in the history of this site.

Our Bro-jiras over at Decibel just posted an exclusive Wolves in the Throne Room video from Scion A/V. The video features in an interview with Weaver intercut with live footage of the band performing at last year’s Scion Rock Fest in Atlanta. Though the interview focuses on many of the same topics as our own chat with Weaver, listening to this man talk is never boring; the guy’s got so much to say and his outlook on life is so unique that I actually wish there was more interview footage in the nearly 17-minute clip.

Check it out over at Decibel.

-VN

I recently contacted Bazillion Points book publisher and heavy metal author Ian Christe about reviewing his books for MetalSucks. Bazillion Points is best known as the home of Daniel Ekeroth’s excellent tome, Swedish Death Metal.

Ian was kind enough to send me a hardcover of Hanoi Rocks guitarist Andy McCoy’s autobiography Sheriff McCoy. I was not able to start on that book as I was neck-deep into Slash’s autobiography. Luckily for me, Ian also enclosed a DVD of a feature-length documentary, Mellodrama.

During one of my reading breaks I decided to pop in this film and am I glad I did. Mellodrama is easily one of the most entertaining, informative, and educational music documentaries I have seen in ages. It even has a little something for you metalheads, prog rock types, and horror film score fans in MetalSuckistan.

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Reader Remi S. Langseth sent us this video of a band I’ve never heard of before, Like Rats from a Sinking Ship, playing on a boat at the Norwegian tundra. But you can’t really tell that they’re at the tundra. Or on a boat. That’s not what makes this video interesting.

What happens about three seconds in is what makes this video interesting.

I don’t think this band is my cup of tea, but in appreciation of the vocalist’s sacrifice to the comedy gods, here’s a link to their MySpace.

-AR

My never-ending pursuit of rock star book excellence continues. This week it’s Saul Hudson of Guns N’ Roses fame with his 2007 autobiography Slash, co-authored by Anthony Bozza, and it is the epitome of a killer rock star autobiography.

I had serious doubts about whether or not I was going to like this book. First off, I have no love for Guns N’ Roses beyond Appetite for Destruction. I was one of the band’s biggest fans behind the strength of their Live ?!*@ Like a Suicide EP and AFD. Once Lies came out though, I was done. Couldn’t stand it (the non-Suicide tracks, that is) or them. So that was strike one.

Strike two came in the form of co-author Anthony Bozza, who also performed the same chores on Tommy Lee’s horrendous autobiography Tommyland (read my review here). What a terrible book that was; I lay much of the blame on Bozza’s shoulders.

Obviously, I was skeptical about reading Slash.

I’m happy to report that my skepticism was unfounded. Slash kicks ass!

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Now’s your chance to have a listen to what might be my favorite album of 2010 so far, former Emperor frontman Ihsahn’s second solo album After. The entire album is streaming for free at Plugd. I’m really excited for you all to hear this record so you can tell me whether it’s just me or it really is fucking brilliant.

If you’re expecting the black metal drone of Emperor, don’t; Ihsahn’s solo work is something completely different, made to be judged on its own accord. After is a veritable melting pot of influences both from within metal and without, and while some black metal overtones occasionally make themselves known there is no mistaking that this is not a black metal record at all. It’s stylistically all over the map, yet it somehow holds together in one cohesive whole.

Stream After on Plugd. You’ll need to have a Facebook account to login.

-VN

Well, you’ve done it! Once again, you guys have shown that when it comes down to it, metal is still about spreading the word.

So most of you know about some bands out there that you feel should have a shot for whatever reason. Some more legitimate than others. I’m sure some girlfriends posted about their boyfriend’s band. I KNOW of some band members that posted links to their own band even though I said not to do that. Hey, it’s a free world and all, but c’mon dudes and one dudette I know of. Can you hang up the self-promotion for one night? The idea was to let OTHER PEOPLE promote you.

Regardless of that, I also know that a good majority of these links are genuine recommendations. And that fucking rules. I gave this list to some A&R dudes at some labels and whether or not they listen is up to them but hey, they have the list and its mostly based on people’s recommendations. Over the course of the next few weeks I’m going to go down the list, and every band that is up there due to a legit posting is going to get a listen. And when I’m done I’m going to figure out if there’s any way possible to help spread the word further about them.

In the meantime, those of you who posted links to your friend’s band should take it a step further. Send your favorite tracks to ten of your friends. Burn some CDs for friends of yours. Whatever. Just help go beyond this list. This list is staggering to people because its so long, and I guarantee you that outside the music industry most people won’t check out every band (i.e., potential fans). Therefore, if you really care, you will put this in some people’s hands and help open their minds to it. Talk to you all soon.

-EL

Visit Daath on MySpace and become their fan on Facebook.

The MetalSucks sponsored Tyrants of Evil Tour, featuring Arch Enemy, Exodus, Arsis and Mutiny Within, is currently winding its way out west through Canada en route to its final stop in Hollywood on February 9th. MetalSucks photographer Jacqueline Cheng was on hand to catch the madness at the new York City stop on January 22nd — as was Axl — and her stunning photographs of all four bands are posted after the jump.

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I love videos like this, because they illustrate that being successful in the music business and being a good person don’t have to be mutually exclusive.

So. MS Suckalo Santi sent us the below vid of DevilDriver front man Dez Fafara bitching out a security guard at a show in Vancouver on January 13. You can’t see how the whole thing started, but it seems pretty clear that a kid near the front was hurt, and the security guard wasn’t helping him. So Dez takes matters into his own hands…

And, hey, while we’re on the topic of Dez, have you read my interview with him yet?

-AR

Everything about “Gold Dust,” the new video by a band I’m not familiar with called Shadow Gallery, is so cheesy that just watching it will clog your arteries a little.

But that doesn’t mean I don’t kinda love it. It’s like Dream Theater, only with a less effeminate singer.

And, oh yeah, Will Smith’s dad is in it, which means that Will Smith’s dad has now been in a better metal video than Will Smith’s wife ever has.

-AR

The title of this post is sort of a puzzle in secret code, but I’m sure most of you can figure it out. Right? Take a minute. It’s not that difficult. Really? You can’t figure it out. I know headbanging can cause brain damage, but come on, man. This isn’t that hard.

OK fine. If you’re really that stumped, click below and I’ll explain.

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If you’re a fan of Through the Eyes of the Dead – and I don’t mind telling you that I am – you were probably deeply worried about Skepsis, the band’s first album in more than two years. Hell, it’s 3/5ths of a different band now than it was when 2007′s excellent Malice was released! But you can relax: the album, which comes out today on Prosthetic, is a direct sequel to that record, both in style and quality.

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When I wrote my last blog, I wasn’t expecting a huge response. I was expecting pretty much what I got. A few people sharing their experiences at NAMM, and a few people calling me a negative nancy mainly because they weren’t there so they had no real concept of what I was getting at. I know it sounds negative and whiney but, hey, I call things like I see them. Not everything in life is fucking awesome, and some things are downright annoying. I illustrated a few of those things.

One of the things I touched on in my last blog was the inefficiency of handing out demo CDs at an event like that. What’s the point of giving out your music to people? Obviously it’s to get them to listen to it. To spread the word, if you will. If you play a numbers game, obviously the more you give out, the more people will hear and possibly listen to your music. The more that actually listen, the more that may possibly like it, and will be that much closer to becoming a fan.

I’m not claiming to be a master of statistics, but it seems to me like that numbers game will be slanted in your favor more if you hand those demos out to a group of people who want to hear new music in the genre you are closest to. For instance… if you play in a black metal band and you hand demos out to the crowd after a Behemoth show, there’s a decent chance that if you are good that somebody will pay attention. That’s a target market. If you are just handing out demos to people at an industry trade show, you are basically just taking shots in the dark. What use does an A&R rep at a huge amp company who doesn’t listen to metal have for your black metal CD? Coaster. If that.

That’s not the way to go about getting your music heard.

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