Ye asked… and ye shall get answers. We solicited reader questions for frontman Mikael Stanne of Dark Tranquillity — whose new album We Are the Void comes out today – and in turn Mikael has answered them for you in equal helpings of funny and serious.

Your questions, his answers; does he ever get mistaken for Chad Kroeger? how does he write lyrics? what’s the new album like? what does he think of modern-day In Flames?

After the jump.

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Axl and I have something of a fascinating with hard pop-metal band Depswa. Or more like I have a serious infatuation and Axl just humors me. But we’re both at the very least happy that Depswa are finally about to release their second album Distorted American Dream; it only took them seven years!

Depswa have the entire record streaming this week on their ReverbNation page in advance of next week’s March 16th album release. Nothing’s as immediately catchy as “This Time,” “From the Inside” or any number of songs from 2003′s Two Angels and a Dream, but everything here is good and in keeping with what you’d expect from Depswa; infectious hard pop-metal with soaring vocal melodies. A couple of these songs have appeared on Depswa’s MySpace page over the years as demos in various states of completion, but it’s good to finally hear those tracks in their finished form as well as all the new material. Toby Wright (Alice in Chains, Korn, etc.) and Logan Mader (Five Finger Death Punch, DevilDriver, etc) mixed 11 of the 13 on the new album so everything sounds top-notch. Mostly it’s just really satisfying to finally get to hear what the band’s been up to all this time.

Distorted American Dream will be available next week at most major digital retailers and shortly thereafter on CD via the band’s various web properties. The album is being released on the band’s own Tears & Smiles Recordings. Listen to the full album stream now on ReverbNation. Expect a string of west coast tour dates to be announced soon.

-VN

Thanks: SMNnews.com

Back in January, Mayhem announced a tour with some ridiculously awesome support acts, including Ludicra, Krallice, and Tombs; then, in true Mayhem fashion, they cancelled the tour just a couple of weeks later. And I think pretty much everyone had the same reaction: “Ludicra, Krallice, and Tombs should just tour without Mayhem.” Because it was still an incredibly strong bill even without the black metal legends.

Well, hey, guess what? Ludicra are doing just that! They’ve announced the wittily monikered “De-Cancellation Tour 2010,” which will find Krallice doing even more dates than they were scheduled to play with Mayhem, and even has Tombs tagging along for a handful of shows. Various shows will also feature support from a diverse line-up of other kick-ass bands, including Lair of the Minotaur, Slough Feg, Ocean (not The Ocean, but still a great band), and Kowloon Walled City, so I’d say “To hell with Attila.”

Get dates after the jump. And it’s worth noting that Ludicra’s excellent new record, The Tenant, is available now on Profound Lore Records via the label’s website. Sooner or later I’ll try to write something a little more proper about that album, but for now I’ll just say “Buy it.” It has the MS seal of approval.

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MARCH IS METAL MONTH IS UNDERWAY!!! And as Vince promised last week, there’s a free sampler now avail featuring artists from many of the participating labels. That means you can download tracks by Fear Factory, Ihsahn, Triptykon, Suicide Silence, Lacuna Coil, Queensryche, White Wizzard, and more, all for the cost of breathing. Head over to Amazon to get the absolutely free download.

We’ll also have lots more March is Metal Month goodness in the coming weeks, including additional interviews and contests. Keep checking back here, or head over to MarchIsMetalMonth.com for all the latest.

Once-upon-a-long-time-ago a band called Rhapsody were partially responsible for getting me back into metal after a hiatus that lasted through the early part of the nu-metal fad. It was the heyday of Napster, and my college roommate and I were downloading non-stop on our totally awesome T3 connection. Inevitably we landed on ’80s metal cheese, and my roommate countered by offering a modern band with many of the same influences, the Italian power metal outfit then known simply as Rhapsody. This was the song. Mind = blown.

That band has since changed their name to Rhapsody of Fire and released a bunch of albums, none of which I’ve really paid attention to. But Suckalo Robin Haigh sent us an email over the weekend to alert us that Rhapsody have a new song called “Sea of Fate” up for streaming and free download on their official website, with the album The Frozen Tears of Angels coming on April 30th (the horribly awesome cover you see at right belongs to that album).

The new song is honestly kind of meh and I prefer the band’s older stuff, but maybe some of my fellow power metal revelers will like it more than I. This is just way too straight-forward… I like my power metal much cheesier and way more outlandish.

-VN

The release of David Lee Roth’s isolated vocal track from “Runnin’ With the Devil” was an Internet goldmine resulting in one of the most entertaining soundboards in the history of ever and countless mash-ups, some good and some not-so-good. While the surfacing of what appears to be Randy Rhoads’ isolated guitar tracks from “Crazy Train” might not be as hilarious, it’s sure to provide guitar nerds with plenty of masturbatory material and will undoubtedly result in more mash-ups than a sack of potatoes.

I suppose we have no way of knowing whether the audio, posted by MetalDen.com, is actually the Randy Rhoads original or some imposter with too much time on their hands, but let’s assume for the moment that it is in fact the real deal. I love love love how not everything is perfect; you can hear accidental pick scrapes and a couple of slightly rough transitions. According to MetalDen.com there are absolutely no effects on the guitars, just one track panned hard right and a separately-recorded double panned hard-left, resulting in the chorus-y effect you’re hearing. I also dig how you can hear two distinct tracks during the guitar solo, which definitely adds character.

Listen below.

-VN

On October 26, 1984, John McCollum killed himself after having listened to Ozzy Osbourne’s Blizzard of Ozz, Diary of a Madman, and Speak of the Devil.  While playing the latter, McCollum put a gun to his temple and killed himself. Two years later, his parents filed suit in California against Ozzy and his label, CBS Records. His parents claimed that Ozzy’s music, in particular the lyrics from “Suicide Solution” on Blizzard of Ozz, caused their son to commit suicide.

Judas Priest was involved in a similar trial in 1990.  On December 23, 1985, James Vance and Raymond Belknap shot themselves after allegedly listening Judas Priest.  While Belknap died instantly, Vance survived for three years before finally succumbing to his injuries.  Their parents alleged that subliminal messages placed in “Better By You, Better Than Me” were responsible for their sons’ actions.

In both cases, families filed suit against the bands because their music had the effect of pushing their sons over the edge, resulting in the deaths of the three young men. The various causes of action brought in both cases were based on the notion that the music of both bands was negligently produced, and that the music encouraged the self-destructive behavior that resulted in the three suicides.

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The release of The Dillinger Escape Plan’s Option Paralysis, their first album in more than two years, is just weeks away. If that’s not cause for rejoicing amongst metalheads everywhere, than nothing is. Few bands have pushed the envelope or influenced the scene this past decade as much as DEP, and Option Paralysis continues that proud tradition; it’s both a logical extension of and necessary evolution from Ire Works. Or, put more simply: it rules.

MetalSucks is proud to present the online debut of “Chinese Whispers,” one our most favoritest tracks from Option Paralysis. It’s melodic, aggressive, catchy, and off-the-wall fucknuts in a way that only Dillinger can be. (Tip: listen with a good pair of headphones.) We hope you dig it as much as we do.

Option Paralysis comes out March 23 on the band’s own Party Smasher Inc. in conjunction with Season of Mist.

[this promotion has ended]

I’ve updated the official MetalSucks SXSW 2010 Metal Guide to include shows suggested by our readers. Thanks to everyone who contributed!

DOWNLOAD THE UPDATED SXSW METAL SCHEDULE HERE.

As before, if you know about any shows we missed please let us know.

-VN

I enjoyed a handful of tracks off of Silent Civilian’s 2006 debut, Rebirth of the Temple; I seem to recall “Bitter Pill” having a pretty cool guitar solo and a catchy chorus. It was certainly better than front man Jonny Santos’ other, more famous band, Spineshuck. So we were stoked to hear what SC came up with for their sophomore effort.

Unfortunately, the new song they debuted last April, “The Last One Standing,” was, in Vince’s words, “a little bit meh.” And a new track the band has just debuted at Revolver, “Atonement,” is pretty much more of the same.

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Somebody call Antonin Skullia.

Nergal has been formally charged with insulting Roman Catholics after he called the Catholic Church “the most murderous cult on the planet” and destroyed a copy of the Bible on-stage during a 2007 concert (video above). This is possible because offending someone with regards to their religion is apparently a criminal act in Poland, and I guess freedom of speech laws are either non-existent or not as high of a priority there. Ryszard Nowak, head of the All-Polish Committee for Defense Against Sects (which sounds like one of those awful religious groups we have here in the U.S. that always have a nice name to cover uptheir bigoted agenda – e.g., “People Who Love Families” would be code for “Fuck the Fags”), tried to sue Mr. Nergal (né Adam Darski) for promoting Satanism immediately following the incident. Unfortunately for Nowak, Polish law apparently dictates that there must be multiple complaints for charges to be filed, so the case was dismissed after an initial hearing. Fortunately for Nowak, it was only a matter of time before he was able to find some cronies to join his suit, and so now here we are.

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The reactions to yesterday’s post about the Rival Schools reunion record were much to my surprise mostly positive, which I guess could just indicate that those who didn’t know the band chose to skip over the post. But I’m guessing that even more of you were/are fans of Quicksand, Walter Schreifels’ main post-Gorilla Biscuits squeeze. I discovered Quicksand after their time in the sun had come and gone, but I still find myself wishing for a reunion. As cool as the new Rival Schools record could be, I think a new Quicksand record would smoke it.

Here’s the video for “Dine Alone” from 1993′s Slip. The video is so… ’90s. I love it.

-VN

DragnForce have parted ways with vocalist ZP Theart “due to insurmountable differences of musical opinion.” I’m not sure what qualifies as “insurmountable differences of musical opinion” in DragonForceland; did Theart want the music to get even faster? Slower? More keyboards? Fewer guitar solos? A horn section?

Who knows, and, more to the point, who cares? Metalheads seem to fall into one of two categories: people who hate DragonForce with every ounce of their very being, and people who don’t give a shit about ZP Theart. The singer in DF could not be a less important element of their music if his name were “James LaBrie.” Any eunuch can sing about wizards and video games and dying a virgin; what matters in this band is the ridiculousness of their musicianship, not the transvestite standing near the front of the stage.

In other words: I think DragonForce are gonna make it through this, kids.

-AR

I’m patting myself on the back today. I opened a link from a trusted publicist about a band called Native, and after pressing play the first thing I thought was “Gee, this drummer sounds a lot like These Arms Are Snakes’ Chris Common.” And while Chris Common is unfortunately not the drummer for Native, when I scrolled down I discovered that Chris Common produced the fucking record. Go me! I rule. But Chris Common rules even more than I do… dude’s one of the buttery-est, smoothest finesse drummers on the planet. Watching him play live is like watching two lovers make sweet, sweet romantic love.

I always dig when musicians take on production projects reminiscent of their own bands (or in this case former band). It’s a stamp of approval but it’s also a sign that if you like band X you’re very very likely to enjoy band Y too.

Oh, so, Native. You can stream their entire record Wrestling Moves on their BandCamp page and buy it for only $6.99. The drumming isn’t the only thing that reminds me of These Arms are Snakes; fans of that band will definitely dig Native too.

-VN

Exactly two people will be really psyched to know that MetalGF and I celebrated Ratturday in full force this past weekend whilst riding in the Vincemobile, a ravishing 1988 Honda Accord (for full mood effect… yeah… that’s the reason for the shitty car…). The rest of you should join in on the party. It’s really easy; just listen to Ratt on Saturday!

Unfortunately we had to make do with Ratt’s greatest hits collection 8191. Not that that’s so bad or anything but ya know, “Round and Round,” been there done that. What I really wanted was to listen to Ratt’s latest masterpiece Infestation which the kind folks at Roadrunner Records have bestowed upon me as a stream I need to sit in front of my computer to listen to. I’ve been tweeting about Infestation for the past couple of weeks, but please allow me to reiterate for the non-Twitterati:

Ratt’s new album is easily the best release by a hair metal band in the past 15 years!

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WE SURE ARE!

We won’t be unveiling the list until next week, but in the meantime, here are some teasers to annoy you:

• No industry folks voted in this one – just the editors and staff of MetalSucks. That means if you hate the list, you have no one to blame but us!
• The list spans metal’s entire history this time – not just the 21st century.
• The list is ten deep and only ten deep.
• Yes, we will be unveiling one entry a day for ten days.
• It is not a list of the “best” anything.
• It is not a list of the “worst” anything.
• Mastodon are not on the list.

More to follow…

-Axl, Vince, and Everyone at MetalSucks

As part of our ongoing effort to bring brutal metal tours to you, our deserving (sometimes) readership, MetalSucks and Decibel are proud to present a Spring headline run featuring technical death metal legends Pestilence, their first US tour in over 16 years! The 17-date journey will kick off in Baltimore as part of the Maryland Deathfest on May 30th and close at the Gramercy Theater in New York City on June 17. Support will be provided by Warbringer, Vital Remains, Enfold Darkness and Sacrificial Slaughter. Advance tickets will go on sale for all shows via http://enterthevault.com starting today.

That’s a killer lineup. All dates are posted after the jump. Before you Floridians bitch about how there aren’t any Florida dates, you should know two things: 1) we have zero control over the cities and venues that the tours we sponsor play, and 2) face it, Florida is out of the way, dude.

Onwards…

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If you weren’t already excited for Iron Man 2, this oughta do the trick: our friends at Metal Insider report that Tom Morello has revealed via Twitter that none other than Tom Morello is working on the score for the film in conjunction with composer John Debney (who also did the music for director Jon Favreau’s Elf, Sin City, and a whole lotta other crap). They replace Ramin Djawadi, whose score for the original Iron Man was one of the least memorable things about that flick. (MI also points out that Morello played guitar on Djawadi’s score, and had a cameo as one of the terrorists Tony Stark offs in the cave scene. There’s something kinda ironic about that, given Morello’s political views, and the fact that the portrayal of said terrorists was cartoonish to be the point of being borderline racist, but I guess that’s a different conversation for a different time.)

This is in addition to the already-announced utilization of AC/DC on the IM2 soundtrack, as well as Lamb of God’s contribution of a new song to the movie tie-in video game. If there’s gonna be a more metal-friendly mainstream movie this year, I don’t know what it is.

Here’s the new trailer for Iron Man 2, which makes it look like it’s gonna kick all kinds of ass:

-AR

How time flies. Seems like I was just writing about the return of Byzantine for 3 reunion shows in their home state of West Virginia, and here we are 4 months later and those shows have come and gone. According to our readers the reunion shows were as great as everyone anticipated they would be, allowing the band to finally play material from 2008′s incredible Oblivion Beckons live as well as songs from 2005′s …And They Shall Take Up Serpents and their first album The Fundamental Component. Suckalo DR4331 sent us videos he shot of the band tearing it up in Huntington, WV on Saturday night and promises more from last night’s Morgantown show.

Check out “Hatfield” from the first album below and “Nadir” from Oblivion Beckons after the jump. They sound tight as hell (despite a flub or two), especially considering the band only rehearsed once as a full unit in preparation for these shows. Really wish I could’ve gone down to witness at least one of these performances, as it’ll likely be the last chance I have to see material from Oblivion Beckons performed live… and I love that album so, so much. I love watching footage of reunion shows like this because the band — and the audience — are visibly SO PSYCHED.

-VN

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“Why would you do a Raddest Teeth In Metal list? I mean, who thinks about that stuff? Isn’t this kind of lame?”

Yes it is! Let’s do this! [Perhaps our article on Ben Falgoust's chompers subliminally inspired him. -Ed.]

5th place – The douchebag singer from that vampire band

I’m almost ashamed to admit that this guy was the inspiration for this blog entry (and I won’t even give them the extra google search result by printing his or his band’s name here), but will you just look at those pearly whites? Before mommy and daddy bought him his first rackmount auto-tune processor and showered him with enough love and self-confidence to make such embarrassing music, they must have spent a fortune on braces and regular dental visits. At least he might make up for his band’s crimes against humanity’s eardrums by promoting good dental hygiene to the 5th graders who make up his fanbase.

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