It’s good to see that the Stone Temple Pilot tooks of all ten seconds to come up with this:

STP’s new, self-titled release comes out May 25 on Atlantic.

-AR

“Black Sabbath,” the first song off the first album by Black Sabbath, Black Sabbath, perfectly drew up the blueprint for metal. It was gloomy, disturbing, and fucking HEAVY. It was music for outsiders, those ranging from annoyed to enraged at having to exist on the fringes of society because they were too fat/lanky/socially retarded to listen to Three Dog Night and get laid all the time. Eights years later — almost to the day — Van Halen released their eponymous debut. “Runnin’ With the Devil,” that album’s first song, is also heavy in its own right, but the near-decade length of time between the two couldn’t be more apparent. While its one-note bassline and massive riff was undeniably fucking great, it wasn’t dark anymore. In fact, it was kind of fun and incredibly catchy. It was pop music with heavy guitars.

Suddenly, things were different. Metal wasn’t frightening anymore, but a good time, and inviting. It wasn’t just for weird guys and bad girls, but for regular, well-adjusted guys and not-just-regular but pretty girls. Van Halen were unquestionably heavy on their debut, and the album was filled with songs that were not only catchy, but perhaps some of the best-crafted in rock thus far. It sold a shit-ton of copies, and metal slowly moved from being dangerous to being a blast for the better part of a decade.

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I am going to assume that a decent portion of the followers of this site are themselves musicians with bands of their own. That is generally how it goes with metal. There are seamless lines blurred between the “fans” and the “bands” because, like myself, many metal patrons represent both categories. Without this large sector of musician fans, technically proficient bands that cater directly to this base (like Dream Theater, Meshuggah, and Necrophagiast) would be much less successful. So to those musicians, I would like to use this blog to shine a light on one of the harsh truths in all music and entertainment that many musicians choose to ignore -

Image matters a lot in this industry. In fact, it’s probably just as important as the music.
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I’ve been getting a lot reader e-mails this week about the various goings-on with GN’R's current South American tour, but I just can’t seem to bring myself to write about them. It’s all the usual bullshit that seems to follow Axl Rose wherever he goes: he doesn’t show up for a gig, and chaos ensues; he does show up, but stops the show and threatens to leave because some attention-starved fan throws a bottle at him; he cancels a show because his precious stage collapses during a storm. Okay, so that last one is actually pretty unusual and obviously not at all Rose’s fault, but the fact remains that this dude is some kind of drama magnet, and for whatever reason, I’m just not feeling it this week. (Good to know that “Rage” is getting plenty of good photos out of the whole thing, though.)

What does interest me about this tour is the series of video diaries that two of its members, bassist Tommy Stinson and guitarist Dj Ashba, have released.

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In case you, like me, are still sour about not being able to attend any of the three Byzantine reunion shows in their home stage of West Virginia — or even if you did attend and had an out-of-body experience — here are a couple of more fan-filmed live videos. These two were shot at the 3rd and final show in Morgantown, WV on Sunday, March 7th, and were filmed and sent in by MS Reader Josh Hoversten who traveled all the way from fucking Madison, WI to catch two of the three gigs!! Says Josh:

The Huntington show was flawless, the Morgantown show they were playing without monitors and when I spoke to them before the gig they mentioned being really tired.  Still, amazing live band.  I can see why they had promotional issues, there’s no way in hell I’d go on stage after them.  Also, very nice guys all around.

Josh’s videos after the jump. You can also check out previously posted footage from the Huntington show on Saturday, March 6th here.

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I originally saw “Make a Move” at The Deciblog, where Chris Dick rightly notes that “At War get all Adam Jones” for this video. And this is a rare instance where I think the video is better than the song. The animation is sweet, but I can’t stand the vocals.

Watch for yourself and let us know what you think…

-AR

I’m always fascinated when dudes with genuine musical talented take gigs with bands that are far below their level. I mean, it makes perfect sense; band needs a fill-in member or hired gun and someone else in the band / their label / their management knows someone who knows someone who can learn the material fast and play it well. Dude takes the gig because it pays crazy loot. I guess mostly I’m just disappointed that someone with such obvious talent isn’t doing something that really puts their skills to full use. Last week I ended up drinking beers with the keyboard player for Kanye West and Lady Gaga’s live bands; dude’s all sorts of talented but instead is relegated to playing little pop ditties. I guess we all have bills to pay, right? And on the brightside, those endeavors can certainly fund more interesting ones later on.

This is all a very long-winded introduction to MS Maniac Mark Moritz-Rabson’s discovery that Korn’s current fill-in guitarist Shane Gibson turns out to be quite a musician. He certainly doesn’t make Korn’s shit-tastic music sound any better, but on his own he’s a talented player. His style really reminds me of Animals As Leaders’ Tosin Abasi.

-VN

Photos by Adam Haussman

My bosses at MetalSucks love me for my looks, but by now Vince (pictured here) and Axl (here) know that my dazzling physical gifts are accompanied by a lot of blown deadlines and indecipherable twaddle about the band Junkyard and drugs. To compensate, I help out with dropped assignments and try to do a really super job on the big stories that fall to the MS L.A. Bureau. Well I direct your attention to the word try in the previous sentence cuz for the last month or so [Seven weeks, Anso. But who's counting. -Ed.], I have been failing to produce even a coherent thought about the Between The Buried and Me/Cynic/Devin Townsend show back in January. I got zilch.

But it’s not my fucking fault. Stupid tour. It was too good.

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Reader Jon Leone just pointed us towards this post on the blog of the legendary Justin Broadrick, announcing yet another project in the works – this one called Pale Sketcher. Broadrick writes:

“Pale Sketcher is intended as a vehicle for me to explore, exclusively and in more detail, the ‘electronica’ side of jesu [sic].

“It occurred to me during the writing of the last Jesu EP ‘Opiate Sun’ in early 2009, that Jesu, first and foremost, was intended to be a guitar oriented project. The ‘electronica’ side of Jesu was just an inevitable direction for me, but never satisfied with this battle between guitars and electronica with Jesu, I decided to separate the two directions – Jesu, now, and for the forseeable future, being guitar based exclusively, with Pale Sketcher being the project where I can focus and develop further, the Jesu ‘electronica’ sound, without need for further fusion or compromise.”

Broadrick says that the project’s first release will be “the entire out of print Jesu release ‘Pale Sketches’ demixed by Pale Sketcher,” as well as some additional remixes by King Midas Sound and Tower Of Light (not that I have any idea who either of those people/groups/whatever are). It’ll be out July of this year on Ghostly International. You can hear a sample of a Pale Sketcher “demix,” entitled “Plans That Fade (Faded Dub),” here. It sounds pretty cool, though (obviously) not at all metal.

Meanwhile, Broadrick ends the post by saying he hopes to record a new Jesu LP in August, to see eventual release through Caldo Verde. I’ve heard very little of Broadrick’s work that I didn’t think was capital-”B” Brilliant, so I’m stoked to get as much new music from the guy as possible.

-AR

What the hell does this interview have to do with March is Metal Month? We’re not entirely sure, to be honest. But it was offered to us as part of that ongoing event, and we wanted to do it! So we hope you enjoy. – Eds.

Deströyer 666 put out one of the best thrash/death/black/whatever you want to call it (how about “balls-to-the-wall riff fests?”) of 2009 with their fourth full-length, Defiance (which made my top twenty albums of 2009 list). The record marked the band’s return after some six years’ absence, as well as a tour of their homeland, Australia. Sure, that might not be a long time for Tool or Metallica, but Deströyer always seemed to fill time between LPs with a slathering of EPs throughout the band’s fifteen-year career arc.

Deströyer 666 were originally formed by guitarist/vocalist K.K. Warslut as more of an outlet for riffs that were thrashier than those he could utilize in Bestial Warslut, his then-main project. Fast forward, though, and it seems Deströyer 666’s priorities have shifted a bit over the years… and so have the members. Literally.

I recently spoke with lead guitarist Ian Shrapnel about all things Deströyer 666. Read our full chat after the jump.

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Danko Jones are one of those bands where people say to me sometimes, “Hey, Axl, I think you’d really like Danko Jones,” and then I go and listen to the band and I think, “Gee, that person must not know me very well.” They’re not terrible, but there are some wwwwaaaaayyyy better hard rock bands out there right now.

ANYWAY, the band has a new album, Below the Belt, coming out in May, and now they’ve released the first single, “Full of Regret.” You can listen below, and then tell me if I’m right or wrong about these cats.

-AR

You all know who Jeremy Saffer’s work, whether your realize it or not. He’s one of the most successful photographers in the metal world. You should visit his website if the name isn’t ringing any bells. You can also follow him on Twitter.

I mention Saffer now because I just read on Blabbermouth that his latest project – which I don’t think has an official title yet – is going to be a book and calendar series that will combine Saffer’s “favorite sub genre of metal (black metal), along with his career-long work in fine art nude photography.” That’s right: naked chicks in corpse paint. Actually, he should just call it that: Naked Chicks in Corpse Paint. It practically sells itself.

Annnnndddd… I’m not quite sure what to make of this just yet. It certainly doesn’t appeal to me sexually – I’ve never seen a really hot chick and thought “Gee, I wish she had corpse paint on” – but I think (and I may be over-thinking this – shocker) that there’s something to be said for it, artistically. I mean, there’s some grand statement here about beauty and society, isn’t there? I think there is. I can’t quite articulate it yet. Let me get high and mull it over.

While I do that, you can check out more photos, most of which are very NSFW, here.

-AR

Reader Shane Gillis sent in this video, which appears to be a bunch of clips strung together of an obviously overcaffeinated Dave Grohl in the studio with Them Crooked Vultures (who are pretty “meh” even by “meh” supergroup standards). And while, on the one hand, it’s pretty funny, on the other hand, I know that in real life I hate being around people this loud and obnoxious. Guess it’s a good thing that Grohl is a rock star and we’ll never be friends. I didn’t wanna be friends with him anyway…

-AR

There’s a lyric in this song that goes “I feel uninspired,” and watching the video, I know what Otep means. I really, really want to like her music as much as I like her (our politics are very similar, although I suspect she’s even further left than I am), but what a mess of metal video clichés, and what a lousy song.

And no one hates Sarah Palin more than I do, but… really? A revenge fantasy? Couldn’t they at least of hired someone who actually does look kinda like Palin, like Tina Fey (okay that may not be realistic) or that chick who played Palin in the porn parodies (I have a feeling she would have been available)? If you were gonna give her a facial anyway, might as well have had someone who does those for a living!

-AR

Reader Cody Barrick sent in the side-by-side comparison from totallylookslike.com, which shows that the cover of Sabbath’s 1994 album Cross Purposes is nearly identical to that of Scorpions’ 1991 single, “Send Me an Angel.”

And… sheesh. It really is a straight-up ripoff, isn’t it? Of course, it’s entirely possible that Sabbath had never seen the Scorpions cover when they approved it, but at some point after the fact, someone had to make them aware, right? It’s not like the whole world is just noticing now, sixteen years after the fact, is it? ‘Cause this is ridiculous.

You can see larger versions of the covers here and here.

-AR

So the Australian branch of iTunes has apparently uploaded thirty-second clips of all the songs from Slash’s forthcoming, self-titled solo album, and, of course, someone has uploaded all of those clips to YouTube. Gotta love the internet! So I thought we’d play one of our favorite games here at MetalSucks. It’s called “Let’s make premature judgments based on not very much actual music at all.” Listen to the clips in the video below, and then get my thoughts after the jump.

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To call Burzum’s new album, Belus, “controversial” would be an understatement. The metal community seems divided between those who love it, those who hate it, those who think Varg Vikernes doesn’t deserve due consideration because he’s a bigoted asshole, those who recognize he’s a bigoted asshole but think he’s talented anyway (like our own Sammy O’Hagar), and people who just don’t give a shit one way or the other. This record’s place in metal history is consequently already secured; regardless of what you think of Vikernes, he’s pretty much achieved the highest possible goal any artist can aspire to, which is to have people consider and discuss his work.

But no one has considered and discussed his work quite like this.

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When it comes to mixing rap and metal there were obviously bands that did it before Rage Against the Machine, but those bands shouldn’t be credited/blamed for fucking up metal as much as Rage Against the Machine did for the following reasons:

1. They did it on a one-off basis instead of making a career of it.
2. They precipitated the rap metal fad by way too many years to be considered true progenitors.
3. They didn’t do it nearly as fucking well.

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Hoo-ray for reader Dave Kaminsky, who correctly identified last week’s logo as belonging to the charmingly monikered band, Sphinctral Impalement. Dave wins an autographed copy of Shovel Headed Tour Machine, the excellent new two DVD/CD set from legendary thrashers, Exodus! Cherish it forever, Dave.

March is Metal Month rolls on! This week we have a nice little piece of metal memorabilia in the form of this neat DEP Option Paralysis cube thingie. This is a nice tchake to play with when you’re high, no?

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 one winner and announce his or her name next week.

For the third week in a row, we have a logo suggested by reader Isaac Schwarz. Please keep doing my job for me, Isaac, it makes my life so much easier.

-AR

Fellow followers of L O S T,

So how was everyone feeling about last week’s episode, “Dr. Linus?” I was certain the writer’s blew a good portion of their load on the previous week’s action-packed “Sundown,” and that with a Ben-centric story, we were just going to get little tidbits of clues regarding the Island and the Nemsis vs. Jacob conflict…  But I was wrong!  Lindelof and company have temporarily abandoned their prime time penchant for mid-season filler to deliver what I view as my favorite episode of the season so far! Aside from an Emmy award worthy performance from Michael Emerson, a surprise cameo from Dude from Real Genius, and a crucial beach side reunion montage back on The Island, we were given nugget after nugget of valuable information throughout the entire episode that either completely answered or brought us closer to answering many questions, such as:

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