Our friends in The Austerity Program have an awesome new EP, Backsliders and Apostates Will Burn, coming out this Tuesday (read Gary Suarez’s five-outta-five horns review here), and to celebrate, they’re having an awesome contest. And these dudes know how to throw an awesome contest – as memory serves, the one they did for Black Madonna involved writing a new song specifically customized to the specifications of the winner in exchange for shaving the band’s initials into your pubic hair.

The Backsliders contest doesn’t require any creative grooming for you to win, but it does require you to get creative. It also offers a variety of awesome prizes to be selected by the winner: you can either have a merch pack, or a poster pack, or download all of TAP’s songs, or have the band cover the song of your choice (personally I’d choose something by Slunt just ’cause I know it would annoy the ever-lovin’ shit outta Foley, but that’s just me), or have the band come play a show at your house. Holy crap, that’s awesome.

Get complete details of the contest after the jump. We actually have nothing to do with this one, so I’m just telling you ’cause I think it’s so frickin’ cool.

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No, they didn’t break-up; the band – which features members of Bloodjinn and Glass Casket – has just changed their name to Vanisher. They’ve also announced an August 10 release date for their new full-length, The History of Saints.

Is the name change good or bad? Vanisher strikes me a slightly more generic, but at least kids won’t ask what it means. (On the other hand, I’d wager nine out of ten Misery Index fans have no idea what a “misery index” is, but whatever.) Still, the band seems to have some good reasoning behind the name switch. Says vocalist/bassist Justin Reich:

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Don’t think I haven’t noticed how that rotten Paul Masvidal (armed with his lousy awesome columns about happiness) has raised the intellectual level of MetalSucks to at least high school. And I must protest. Yes, Masvidal is wonderful, but c’mon dude! We’re trying to bicker about Mustaine and boobs here, man.

It’s like his guileless insights, so eloquently stated, render sub-retards like me too self-conscious to, say, publish 6,800 words about the hand-hug from Ronnie James Dio a fortnight ago that has changed my life. And suddenly, after I complete a second extended harangue about Stephen Pearcy, my finger hovers over the button that reads SUBMIT FOR REVIEW ‘cuz I’m thinking, “Will Paul think this is bullshit? Wait a minute. This is bullshit!’ It’s like I have another editor. A silent, invisible editor by remote suggestion!

MASVIDAL!!!!!!!

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In a recent editorial on Invisible Oranges, Cosmo Lee (and yes, it was actually Cosmo who wrote this one… I triple-checked!) used the recent success of High on Fire as a case study to discuss why metal fans hate it when their favorite bands become successful. Cosmo posits three theories and they’re all on point (as usual), but I’ll let you check out Invisible Oranges for that because that’s not really what I’d like to discuss today. I’d like to explore when the fuck High on Fire suddenly became such a big deal.

I’ve never been a huge High on Fire fan, but I haven’t got anything against the band. To me they’ve always been a sweet bonus, that band that’s opening on tour with a bigger, cooler band — “Ah, nice, High on Fire’s on that tour… cool, we get to see Matt Pike rock the fuck out with his shirt off!” — but they didn’t really warrant much attention individually. No doubt, the band has a rich history (hi Sleep) and had a core of die-hard fans, but by and large they lived in the underground. They were always that band that were either a) supporting a bigger band, or b) playing in small, cramped sweaty bars.

There’s a ton of hype around their new album Snakes for the Divine which had a HUGE first week with almost 9k copies sold but, by and large, isn’t all that different from their past work. All of a sudden they’re on the cover of Decibel right out of the gate, with a snake-adorned Matt Pike wearing more makeup than a 50 year-old stripper. And they’re on their own headlining tour of decent-sized legit venues, selling them out across the country. Make no mistake about it; like Cosmo points out, High on Fire are a big band now. They’re in the mainstream metal consciousness.

So when did this sudden transformation happen?

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According to various eyewitness accounts, Mastodon’s show on Tuesday, April 27th at the Water Street Music Hall in Rochester, NY (with Between the Buried and Me, Baroness and Valient Thorr) was canceled due to guitarist Bill Kelliher’s hospitalization. The show was originally going to be moved to Wednesday, April 28th — an off-date on the tour — but according to the venue website has now been postponed until May due to “ongoing illness with Mastodon guitarist Bill Kelliher.” While Mastodon’s own official site confirms the initial rescheduling to April 28th, it does not comment on the most recent postponement or Bill Kelliher’s condition.

No other information is available. The hospitalization could be linked to the alcohol-related illness that forced Kelliher to sit out the band’s European dates in 2008, but there’s no evidence available to either support or shoot down any such rumors. All we can really do right now is wish Bill a speedy recovery and hope that he’s well enough to continue the tour tonight in Grand Rapids, MI — the band’s just not the same without him.

-VN

Thanks: Bryan Kemp, Alex Johnson

Fresh off of unveiling their list of the “Ten Greatest Album Covers” in Roadrunner Records’ history, the label has now started to count down their “Ten Greatest Music Videos” – and, as is pretty much always the case with these sorts of lists, the results are pretty much guaranteed to cause a stir.

Case in point: Sepultura’s clip for “Ratamahatta” has come in at number ten. Now, I seem to be pretty much the only Sepultura fan in history who doesn’t absolutely adore Roots, but I still think this video, which is like a Brazilian version of something Tool might do, is awesome – certainly more so than any other video on the list so far (they’ve already unveiled the bottom five).

You can check out the rest of the list so far here.

Meanwhile, Cradle of Filth have ankled the label and signed with Peaceville. So that’s another metal band that’s no longer on Roadrunner. I wonder if any of their videos will end up making the list anyway?

-AR

November seems like an eternity from now given that April is almost over but it’s still blustery and cold outside, but when you’re a foreign band trying to tour the U.S. it’s never too early to book a tour; just ask any of the countless bands who’ve been denied entry to the U.S. because they couldn’t get their visa papers together in time. So although it’s more than 6 months away, Egypt-themed (but U.S. born) death metallers Nile — who recently wrapped up their MetalSucks sponsored Those Whom the Gods Detest Tour — have announced a Fall U.S. tour with Ex Deo, Psycroptic and Keep of Kalessin in tow. That’s a damn solid lineup, and at this early juncture I proclaim it the best Fall tour to be announced so far!

Nile are Nile, and I’ve actually never seen ‘em live; I look forward to getting pummeled live by the soundtrack that guided my camel journey to the Pyramids of Giza. I dig Maurizio Iacono’s Roman-themed Ex Deo project a whole lot more than I do his main squeeze Kataklysm, and ever since seeing the beyond-epic music video for “Romulus” I’ve wanted to see the band play live. Psycroptic are one of my absolute favoritest tech-death bands; their 2008 release Ob(servant) was one of my favorites of the year, and since they’re from Tasmania it’s rare for them to visit the U.S. And I’ve already waxed ecstatic about Keep of Kalessin enough in recent months for you all to know that I’d be stoked to see them live, especially since last time they reminded me of a troupe of Legolas look-a-likes.

Tour dates for the Those Whom the Gods Detest Tour II after the jump.

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Weekend Nachos’ MySpace page describes the band’s music as “Zouk/Chinese traditional,” and while that’s (obviously) not accurate, as Crustcake notes, it wouldn’t be accurate to call the band “hardcore” anymore, either: “this shit sounds more like Goatsnake than it does Crossed Out.” The band has a new 12″ EP, Bleed, and they’re “hoping it will be out by June sometime.”

While we wait for an official release date, the band is streaming the title track here. This is the kind of thing which’ll put hair on your chest. Definitely give it a listen and let us know what you think.

-AR

The fact that anyone was treating the Alice in Chains/Deftones/Mastodon “BlackDiamondSkye” tour as a rumor was always pretty ridiculous; the three bands’ “hints” that the tour was coming were about as subtle as Cannibal Corpse lyrics. Still, I’m sure everyone will be elated to know that the tour has been officially announced.

I know I am! I’m not even that big a Deftones fan or anything, but they put on a killer show. An Alice in Chains and Mastodon obviously pwn live. I guess the only question now is, “Will tickets cost a fucking fortune?” Based on the size of the venues the tour is hitting – which, I gots to admit, are bigger than I would have guessed (with the exception of The Joint in Vegas, which will still probably charge an arm and a leg) – I would wager that they will. But the tour doesn’t even start ’til September, so you’ve got time to start saving now.

Here’s the first batch of dates; more will follow soon…

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2010 is shaping up to be a great year for black metal; Ludicra’s fantastic The Tenant and Burzum’s comeback album Belus (love Varg or hate him) have already impressed and ex-Emperor frontman Ihsahn released a stellar new solo album in After (which admittedly isn’t very black metal at all). Much-hyped new releases from Nachtmsytium and Keep of Kalessin are on the way, Krallice are keeping busy on the road, and then there’s this: a rousing new track by New York City newcomers Castevet.

Castevet are new to me, although they released a 7″ in 2009; thanks to the gents at Crustcake for putting me onto them, both in person (thanks Gerf) and on the blog. Like Crustcake, new song “Grey Matter” has piqued my interest in new album Mounds of Ash, recorded by Krallice’s Colin Marston and scheduled to see the darkness of night on May 25th. The Marston matching is definitely a good fit; like Krallice, Castevet bring a certain amount of technicality to the table that isn’t usually present in black metal and mix it with blackened psychedelia. Maybe we’re witnessing the birth of progressive black metal first hand.

Check out “Grey Matter” below, courtesy of the band’s label Profound Lore.

Castevet – “Grey Matter”

-VN

I wasn’t gonna say anything about this because it seemed like there really wasn’t that much to say, but fuck it – the whole situation is starting to get out of control, which is to say, it amuses me.

So Hole released a new album this week, entitled Nobody’s Daughter - which is either a hilarious reference to the fact that Courtney Love (who apparently now wants to be known as “Courtney Michelle,” because changing monikers after twenty years worked out so well for Prince) lost custody of her daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, last year, or is supposed to be profound in some way I don’t give a shit about. I haven’t heard the album and really don’t care to; if Gary Suarez had never written about it, I don’t think I’d even be aware of its existence.

ANYWAY, Billy Corgan, who was once friends with Love/Michelle and may or may not have helped her write some songs which may or may not actually be on Nobody’s Daughter, responded to the record release with a Twitter tirade telling us a lot of shit we already knew – namely, that Love can’t write music on her own, that nobody would ever have given a shit about her if she hadn’t somehow tricked Kurt Cobain into squirting his baby-making juice into her, and that she’s a terrible mother. From Classic Rock:

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Mr. Ozzman has revealed the cover art to his new album, Scream, and, uh, it’s not that great. Which doesn’t really bother me, because Ozzy’s solo career has never really been marked by great cover art – maybe because he (or his handlers at least) have always insisted that he be on it? When I think about metal’s awesomest album covers, they’re generally not representations of the band/artist (although I can think of at least one exception). But I’m not that bummed out that the cover art is pretty meh, ’cause like I said, that’s pretty par for the course of Ozzy. I do think that Zach Shaw at Metal Insider makes a pretty funny point when he wonders why Ozzy “appears on the cover NOT screaming?”

Meanwhile, an official announcement regarding Ozzfest is supposed to be issued this Friday. The rumors I’ve heard are that it’s going to be a somewhat scaled back version of the tour which will last just a couple of weeks. I’ve also heard some rumors about the line-up, which were pretty anticlimactic. Hopefully my source was way off-base. I guess we’ll find out tomorrow!

-AR

Moms, Magic, and a Little Legwork

I started writing lyrics for a new song this week. For me, each song has its own story or feeling that it’s trying to share, and my job is to discover the song’s truth, or, get as close to articulating what it’s trying to say. The vibe of this new tune is reflective and assertive at the same time, kind of like being gently nudged into a river, knowing that we won’t drown, but that we’ll have to learn how to swim ourselves. After finishing a first draft of the lyrics, I realized the story of this song would also lend itself well to the next column, so here we are:

Between the ages of seven and ten, we lived in a house that had a big trampoline in the backyard. My friend Anna was over one day and we did our usual jumping routine. One of our favorite games was double-jumping each other to see who could go higher. It’s a trick where one jumps a split second before the other and it causes the second jumper to multiply the strength of their bounce by fifty percent or more. During one of these double jumps, I found myself soaring higher than I’d ever been, but on my way down, something didn’t look right. As gravity had its way, and with the trampoline no longer beneath me, I watched my legs hurtle toward the metal rails that framed the trampoline’s edge. My left leg slid perfectly into the narrow space between the two rails, but too narrow for my knee. I heard a loud “Crunch!”

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Hey dudes,

As most of you know last night was a rerun of “Ab Aeterno,” the awesome-answer-filled-brilliantly-acted-question-answering-Richard-centric episode that rocked our drawers several weeks ago. I didn’t end up watching it but lurked about the internet to find out what the “Enhanced” rerun disclosed; these are some of the things that they confirmed:

- Isabella on the Black Rock was confirmed to be Nemesis (something we suspected and agreed on already)
- Nemesis’s manipulation of Richard was his first attempt at finding his crease
- Jacob’s touch to Richard while discussing the wine analogy is definitely what brought him agelessness (thereby implying that other gifts were given to our LOSTIES (i.e. Hugo talking to dead people))
- MIB is not able to leave the Island after killing Jacob because of the potential candidates
- The Doctor was conning Richard for money because Isabella had TB and antibiotics weren’t commonly used until after WWII (especially in the Canary Islands)
- Richard is another person brought to the island who has been directly or indirectly responsible for the death of someone.

A lot of this stuff we’ve already assumed but at least it was nice to have it absolutely validated. On the topic of being rewarded with answers for quite possibly hundreds of hours of our lives being invested into the shows’ many mysteries and questions; I’m sad to say that we will definitely be left hanging.

This is probably the most un-credible and illegitimate form of making such a claim, but here is my reasoning…

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Slash’s video for “By the Sword” looks pretty cool. I’m not sure who the director was, but he or she did a pretty good job of capturing the western-y feel of the song; I mean, George Miller’s Mad Max franchise seems to have been a bigger touchstone for the visuals than, say, a Sergio Leone movie, but that’s fine. The Mad Max movies were basically westerns, anyway. I’ve thus far interpreted Andrew Stockdale’s lyrics as being a metaphor for the life of a touring musician, and the “story” in this video clearly has nothing to do with that; in fact, the story doesn’t really seem to have anything to do with the song’s content at all – I certainly have no idea why Slash would make a video where he kills his entire audience at the end, unless he was actually trying to impart the thought “Slash slays live” in the most literal sense – but whatever. That’s not really what bothers me about the clip.

You know what? I was pretty stoked to hear that Extreme were getting back together, and then I never even sought out their reunion album, Saudades de Rock. Why? I have no clue. We even ran a positive review of the damn thing, and I still didn’t listen to the record. But I can’t for the life of me remember what my thought process was behind that decision. Huh.

Well, Noisecreep have now debuted the band’s new video, for “King of the Ladies,” and suddenly I kinda wanna hear the album. The song is catchy but silly, and certainly better than anything from Van Halen III, or that Rihanna has ever recorded. But the clip… I guess I’d describe it as “charming.” It was clearly made by dudes who are, um, of a certain era, let’s say, but I can get behind that. I think if I was twelve years old, this would probably be my favorite video of the year.

-AR

Soon enough we’re going to debut a metal cooking show that MetalSucks is involved with; we’re not going to tell you anything else about it other than that it’s definitely going to rule.

Until then, you can enjoy this video of Ion Dissonance tearing it up in some dude’s kitchen. I’m not really sure how this show came to pass: was this basically just the kitchen equivalent of your classic basement show? or is it just the dudes jamming out for some friends? Whatever it is, it’s pretty damn cool… even with the distorted audio.

-VN

Thanks: Ryan Schutte

Though the infamous Rose Funoral Incident transpired more than two months ago, the original post announcing the card game / deathcore fracas remains one of the most-visited single posts on MetalSucks. And though I’m sure those involved in the incident are way past over it, it’s never too late for a little friendly joshing.

Suckalo “Randy Blythe’s Illegitimate Child” and some of his buds snuck in a deck of Uno cards to Rose Funoral’s performance at New England Metal & Hardcore fest this past weekend. What our own Gary Suarez missed, the cameras of ReturnToThePit.com did not: our friends with their Uno cards held high. See the picture above, and one more after the jump.

As far as we know, Rose Funoral took it in stride. Look at that… menches!

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Heard Sick of it All’s Based on a True Story yet? I’m not even a NYHC expert like our own Mr. Gary Suarez is or anything, and I think it’s a pretty rad. Simple, straight-forward, aggressive, makes me wanna punch someone in the teeth… what else could you possibly want from a Sick of it All album?

The band has released a new video for a track from the album, “Death or Jail.” I’d be lying if I said the title didn’t always make me think of that Eddie Izzard Spanish Inquisition bit (“Death or cake?”), but the song kicks all kinds of ass.

Based on a True Story is out now on Century. We’re still giving away a free mp3 of the track “Bent Outta Shape” here. Gary will have an interview with SOIA vocalist Lou Koller soon, and then next month we should have a special surprise from the band for you…

-AR

The Binary Code just released Suspension of Disbelief back in December (through this very website, no less!), but I guess they’re some prolific motherfuckers, ’cause they’ve already announced plans for a new, three-song EP, Priest. (And if you think the title makes them a Christian band, well, go punch yourself in the dick.) If you go check out the band on their upcoming tour with The Gloominous Doom, they’ll be giving the EP away for FREE with the purchase of any t-shirt – and The Binary Code make some awesome t-shirts (they’re all designed by guitarist Jesse Zuretti, who also designed this awesome t-shirt and hoodie for MetalSucks). You can also get one “for creative barter” – use your imagination there, but I imagine weed/alcohol/your girlfriend would probably be a step in the right direction. Then, sometime after the tour, the band will make the EP available for digital download.

I haven’t heard the Priest EP yet, but it’s The Binary Code, one of our favorite young up n’ coming bands out there, so I’d wager it’s awesome; the samples in the below video teaser certainly suggest this to be the case. Check out the clip, and then get tour dates for The Binary Code’s trek with The Gloominous Doom after el jumperoo.

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