Good Wednesday to you all,

It was good to see a complete backstory sans flashways episode last night in “Across the Sea.” Much like Richard’s “Ab Aeterno,” the result of seeing a world that once was – as opposed to a world that could quite possibly be, is currently being, or will currently become – is that we are left more informed than questioned… well, kinda. Jacob and Nemesis’ history was finally explained, the mysterious kid we’ve been seeing around the Original Timeline has been identified as Jacob (or at least an apparition of him), and last but certainly not least: we now know who Adam and Eve are. In spite of the overly blatant use of recycled season one footage to let the most obtuse of L O S T fans know that a major question was being answered, I’m happy with who it turned out to be and how it became.

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I really, really dug the original Lost Planet game. I don’t really remember the “story” of the game, probably because I care about story in video games about as much as I care about story in porn, but basically you’re on a big frozen planet and there are these giant alien bug things and you run around killing them. So it’s like Starship Troopers on Hoth.

Yep. “Like Starship Troopers on Hoth.” I am one cool dude.

ANYWAY, the game had no metal in it – in fact, I have fond memories of cranking metal while playing, just to make the experience extra-fun – but maybe its upcoming sequel will be different: this trailer featuring a new Kingdom of Sorrow track, entitled “Enlightened To Extinction,” has just been released. It’s basically just a music video with footage from the game, but if metal + killing aliens ≠ fun, then I don’t know what does.

Kingdom of Sorrow’s sophomore effort, Behind The Blackest Tears, comes out June 8 on Relapse. Lost Planet 2 comes out May 11 on various platforms.

-AR

[via Metal Underground]

Swedish metal kings Dark Tranquillity have been around for a long time; the number of members that have been in other successful (and not so successful) bands — and the number of other bands with whom those bands share members — simply boggles the mind. DT are like the godfathers of Gothenburg, the lynchpin of the whole damn thing. So to celebrate our sponsorship of Dark Tranquillity’s current tour with Threat Signal and Mutiny Within (dates here) — and their new album We Are The Void — we’re having a contest in which we’re asking you to put it all down on (e-)paper.

So here’s what you’ve got to do: come up with the best and most creative Dark Tranquility “family tree” and create some kind of image or document charting the whole thing; it can be a traditional family tree, a venn diagram, a spreadsheet, pretty much anything that shows the relationships between all the various bands and members. All roads lead to Dark Tranquility, so remember to include as much as you can (i.e. In Flames, Soilwork, Scarve, Dimension Zero, etc etc etc). Simply email your image or document to news [at] metalsucks [dot] net with DARK TRANQUILLITY FAMILY TREE as the subject.

The deadline for entry is June 1st, the final date of the U.S. tour. The winner will be rewarded handsomely with a load of DT gear: CDs, special editions, DVDs, posters, shirts, basically anything the band and Century Media can find. This one should be a lot of fun for you Wikinerds, so let’s see what you’ve got. Good luck!

Of all the cool shit I’ve heard so far this year, not much of it has been of the reasonably-straight-forward rock variety. But Norway’s Kvelertak just changed all that. The band – whose debut album features John Baizley art, in case you couldn’t tell – is streaming a new song, “Offernatt,” on their MySpace page, and it rocks n’ rolls like Fred Flintstone’s car.

Musically, I’m not even sure if it’s fair to call this metal – it’s very much along the lines of harder-edged Baroness. But the vocals are definitely metal. So maybe think about what it might be like if Tomas Lindberg fronted Baroness. And it’s insanely catchy – this might be that good weather music I was looking for. (So, of course, it’s fucking freezing out today.)

As a bonus, the song also comes with guest vocals from Trap Them’s Ryan McKenney. I’m not a big Trap Them fan, but I know a lot of you folks are, and if his presence gets more of you to check this band out, I’m all for it.

Seriously, give this song a listen – it’s pretty cool. Kvelertak’s debut album (which I’m assuming is self-titled, since I can’t find the name listed anywhere and there’s no mention of it in the press release) comes out in Europe on June 21 on Indie Recordings, and… I guess the rest of us will just have to go fuck ourselves. No, I kid. I’m sure it will, ahem, somehow find its ways to our shores sooner rather than later. The band is also touring Europe with Converge and Kylesa, which makes perfect sense.

-AR

We’ve been wondering for a long time if Gus G. was actually gonna get to write anything for Ozzy Osbourne’s new offering, Scream, or if he was basically just a session player; we knew he came in fairly late in the process since Zakk Wylde had already done a bunch of recording for the album, but we hoped against hope that Gus would actually get to do something a little more substantial. The problem with the last however many Ozzy albums has been lackluster songwriting, and that hasn’t really been a problem for Firewind; it seemed like Gus could be just the shot of adrenaline Ozzy needed to pull a Megadeth and remind us all why we ever loved him so much in the first place.

But now Blabbermouth is exclusively hosting an EPK (that’s “electronic press kit,” in case ya don’t know) for Scream, and it contains the following quote regarding the song “Soul Sucker” from producer Kevin Churko:

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I’m all for the divergent convergent [thanks, Steve B.!] theory of evolution, which is to say it’s entirely possible that Madder Mortem had no idea they were basically ripping off Dream Theater’s debut album When Dream and Day Unite when they decided to name their new EP Where Dream and Day Collide. That’s a bit too close for comfort when it comes to prog rock royalty, but given the fact that these Norwegians sound absolutely nothing like the aforementioned Lawngislanders (plus eventually a Canadian), I guess we can give them a pass. Maybe.

If you’re wondering what Madder Mortem are doing on a metal site, make sure you stick with it ’til the 2:50 mark or so. Good stuff.

Where Dream and Day Collide is out now on Peaceville.

-VN

I can’t be the only one who was a tad bit disappointed with Doomriders’ 2009 album Darkness Comes Alive. It certainly wasn’t bad — au contraire, it was just fine, but I found it to be a bit long and lacking the hooks that made Black Thunder (and in particular its title track) so special. Truth is I just wanted every song to be a new version of “Black Thunder,” but that didn’t work out so well for me. And let’s be honest; any project that in some way involves a member of Converge will always have the metal blogosphere swinging from its nuts like a baboon in a banana factory, but this most recent Doomriders affair just wasn’t worth the hype.

Enter Chambers, a New Jersey outfit who remind me a whole lot of Doomriders’ blend of blues rawk boogie and hardcore energy. Noisecreep is streaming the Chambers song “Ripper” and it’s a doozy; Chambers don’t invoke the blatant Thin Lizzy twin-lead attack that’s a benchmark of Doomriders’ sound (at least not on this track) but they do use a scorching guitar solo as a critical piece of the song in a way that Doomriders don’t. The track is barely 2 minutes long, but it’s a pure shot of adrenaline delivered quickly and in just the right dose.

“Ripper” gets me all sorts of pumped to hear what else Chambers’ new record Old Love has to offer; I’ll find out on June 22nd when the record drops as a digital-only release (hooray future!). Listen to more Chambers at their official website.

-VN

In a way, Testament is like The Small Faces to Metallica’s Beatles and Slayer’s Rolling Stones: a band as virtuosic, productive, and creatively astute as their deified peers, but hamstrung by bad business breaks. Another factor is the absence of an outspoken know-it-all (Slayer, Metallica), a gimmicky mascot (Anthrax), or a Mustaine-esque diva (duh) to which Testament’s marketing efforts could be anchored. Aside from singer Chuck Billy’s serious illness a decade ago, the Testament story’s most noteworthy turns include little more than the defection of a jazz-crazy guitarist and a dickish but minor betrayal by metal’s most corpulent drummer.

Even if a hypothetical Testament: Behind The Music would clock in at about six minutes, an All-Star Tribute To Testament concert event could stretch across days to cover just the highlights of their dudless catalogue. (My personal best-of runs 175 minutes. Yeah baby.) And while the band is enjoying what guitarist Eric Peterson calls “a second wind” since the return of uber-guitarist Alex Skolnick and bassist Greg Peterson for the magnificent 2008 outing The Formation of Damnation, Testament remains supplicant to sexier tourmates Slayer and Megadeth in the opening slot on this summer’s rescheduled American Carnage Tour. That seems fine by the surprisingly affable (and occasionally merry) Chuck Billy, who spoke exclusively to MetalSucks about getting hammered in Europe, how Dave Lombardo’s enabled the awesomeness of The Gathering, the quest to control their back catalogue, and their exciting-as-fuck new setlist. Emphasis on “new.”

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As I understand it, Family Jewels, the show about Gene Simmons, pushover softcore porn star Shannon Tweed, their plagiarizing son Nick, and their daughter Sophie (who, amazingly, I currently can find no ways to insult), is still going strong – but I guess the execs at A&E thought that if one show about a grown man who plays dress-up for a living was a hit, a second would be twice as nice. ‘Cause Blabs is saying that Dee Snider and his family are getting their own A&E reality program, to be called Growing Up Twisted.

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Three cheers for MetalSucks Maniac Andreas Weissenborn, who just sent us a link to the below video of The Absence playing the title track from their new album, Enemy Unbound, at a show in Tampa last Friday. It’s the first song off the band’s new album that we’ve gotten to hear, and it bodes very, very well for the finished product.

And – BONUS! – the band held a stage-diving contest while they performed the lil’ ditty. Gotta love it.

Enemy Unbound will be out later this year on Metal Blade.

-AR

If you’re gonna sound like another band, Gojira aren’t such a bad band to choose — unlike so many other oft-worshipped bands (At the Gates, Meshuggah, etc), Gojira haven’t quite reached the level of ubiquity where imitation has become widespread and annoying. At least not yet. Here are three decent Gojira-inspired bands sent in by our readers:

• Trepalium: Like Gojira but with more of a hip-shaking swagger. If Gojira sound like “elephants marching” as Axl likes to say, than Trepalium are something like elephants skipping in unison (but no less heavy). They even toured with Gojira in France last year. [Thanks: Gideon, for a hilariously stoned email]
• Grenouer: Gojira-meets-Meshuggah death metal from Russia played with surprising aptitude.
• Aabsinthe: The production, guitar riffs and vocal delivery remind me a whole lot of Gojira, and though Aabsinthe are pretty damn good they’re not quite as intricate/interesting as the original. I swear I thought up the Gojira comparison before I realized these dudes were from France. [Thanks: Vegard]

-VN

Last night, Vince and I attended a listening party for Korn’s latest earth-shattering masterpiece, Korn III: Remember Who You Are. “But Axl,” you ask, “if you and Vince hate Korn so much, why did you go?” Well, three reasons:

1. We were told there’d be free drinks.
2. We thought it would be really funny.
3. We were told there’d be free drinks.

And there were free drinks! Unfortunately, there wasn’t much humor to be had.

ANYWAY, as part of the presentation, three-fifths of the band got up – Fieldy and whomever is playing the second guitar with the group these days were absent – and said a few words, none of which made any impression on me. Then they played the album. Herewith, my thoughts on said album, track-by-track.

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I haven’t listened to NPR since I made the mistake of taking out Jonathan “I Am Boring as Fuck” Schwartz’s daughter once in college, because, well, Patton Oswalt pretty much nails in the above clip: it is true insomniac radio. But as Metal Insider points out, NPR just took an evolutionary leap in coolness by streaming Harvey Milk’s new album, A Small Turn of Human Kindness, in its entirety. Give it a listen here.

I know I seriously endanger my beardo cred (Do I even have any beardo cred? I haven’t had a beard since last September.) every time I admit that “I don’t get Harvey Milk,” but I don’t get Harvey Milk. Still, I’m sure that everyone cooler than me is jizzing all over themselves about this one. So after you’ve listened to the album, please explain to me what I’m not hearing. Or just stroke my ego by telling me I’m right. Y’know. Whatever.

A Small Turn of Human Kindness comes out May 18 on Hydra Head.

-AR

We might’ve suspected that Nevermore’s Warrel Dane had been experiencing wistful fondness for his former band, Sanctuary. The hint came back in December, when Dane devoted a healthy chunk of a solo set in Seattle to revisiting the shriek-metal quintet’s catalogue; I crinkled an eyebrow and wondered why Dane would distract from his then-recent solo record and Nevermore’s forthcoming album The Obsidian Conspiracy with talk of the under-loved, little-missed Sanctuary. Weird timing, right?

Seven months later, it’s the eve of The Obsidian Conspiracy‘s release and Dane unloads an even more distracting announcement: After 20 years, Sanctuary is back together! And recording an album!! Holy fuckballs!!!

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I mean, how did they come up with this? There’s no gold cobra, no suggestion that the phrase “gold cobra” is a euphemism for cock, and no indication that this is a music CD. Thank God someone thought to put the band’s name and the album title on there somewhere (it’s in the center of the image, but it’s blended-in pretty well – look carefully and you should be able to see it), or otherwise I think people might have seen the sword and the girl in the Princess Leia bikini touching herself and assumed that this was the new High on Fire record.

To the dudes in Limp Bizkit: I applaud you. This is some really abstract, thought-provoking shit right here.

-AR

“In times of trouble, go with what you know.”
- Red Tank, Scorched Earth

A few weeks back, I spent some time sketching out an idea about discovering the greatest Taco Riff in the world. My friend Lao Tzo is wont to say that a journey of a thousand miles begins with a step right over to your music collection, so that seems a prudent place to start. I’ve been spending time with some favorite records and, as with most metal types, I keep coming back to the Big Four. So let’s just get into it – the Big Four Taco Riff records.

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Horns up for MetalSucks Maniac Alec Goldberg, who correctly identified last week’s logo as belonging to the band Excrement Cultivation. I don’t know why you’d wanna cultivate excrement, but, uh, there ya have it. Alec wins a copy of Brian Posehn’s awesome new Relapse release, Fart and Wiener Jokes. Don’t hurt yourself laughing, Alec – that CD is dangerous.

This week our friends at Century Media have donated a couple of copies of The Haunted’s upcoming DVD, Road Kill, to give away! This two-disc set comes with On the Road with The Haunted, a 65-minute documentary directed by guitarist Anders Bjorler; a 40-minute live set from Amsterdam; six music videos; and CD with the audio from the Amsterdam show, plus five bonus tracks. If you’re a fan of awesome Swedish metal (and who isn’t?), then you need a copy of this.

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 two winners and announce his or her names next week. Even though Road Kill is already out in Europe, it doesn’t come in North America ’til June 8, so please note that the prizes won’t ship until a week prior to that date.

This week’s logo once again comes from Mr. David Foust…

-AR

Well, this is certainly a historic moment in metal history. MetalSucks’ own guru of love, Rich Hallford – who is heavily rumored to be 1000 Knives‘ Rich Hall – is on this week’s Noisecreep “Creep Show” podcast, where the special guest of honor was none other than Judas Priest’s Rob Halford. “Nights with Alice Cooper”‘ syndicated radio show producer Katherine Turman and Noisecreep scribes Jon Wiederhorn and Amy Sciarretto round out the panel.

But who cares about them?!?! You wanna hear Rob talk, and you wanna look at Rich’s pretty face. He’s so handsome, I just wanna pinch his cheeks. Face or buns, I don’t care.

Check out the episode below.

-AR

We’re just a couple of weeks away from Maryland Deathfest 2010, which will take place from May 28-30 in (duh) Baltimore, Maryland. This year’s edition of the annual fest promises to be the best one yet, with a line-up that includes Gorguts, Autopsy, Obituary, Entombed, Sodom, Repulsion, D.R.I., and a ton of other kick-ass bands. In anticipation of the event, we thought it would be fun to get some recollections of past MDFs from artists who were there. So we’re teaming up with Relapse Records to do just that! Read the raucous inaugural entry by Matt from Rumpelstiltskin Grinder, and the latest from Tomas Lindberg of Disfear (and At the Gates) below. We’ll continue to post more MDF Memories from other metal dudes as the event draws closer. Enjoy…

In 2008 it was time once again for us happy chaps in Disfear to get the chance to (as Kevin Sharp recently put it) “do our song and dance at the MDF.” We had a good time there a couple of years earlier (2006), even though we had to rush out to play a show in Philly the same night (with our friends in Tragedy/ Forward/ Warhead). Great times! This time the scene is somehow similar; we have a show booked in Philly later on in the evening, in the same club even. We play with Kylesa, Trap Them, Straightjacket Nation and Thrones (!!!), so once again we have a long day ahead of us (and no room for hotel thrashing/late night sessions in Baltimore).

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Metal critics with boners for post-metal are a dime a dozen. The genre’s like the Coen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men: fairly popular with the masses, immensely popular with us ivory tower folk. Though for those that grow sick of blastbeats, slams, and breakdowns (and especially those who listen to the music post-metallers crib from for their expansiveness), Isis, Neurosis, and the like can sound like a welcome departure from the norm, a patient and cerebral way to arrive at heaviness that, when properly appreciated, can be twice as rewarding as a bunch of hit-it-and-quit 19 year olds only aiming to make kids mosh. The downside, though, are those who don’t grasp what makes post-metal (or ambient sludge or metalgaze or whatever the goddamn fuck I’m supposed to call it) so great, opting to instead meander around for ten- and sometimes twenty-plus minutes, mistaking “long” for “epic” and producing a self-indulgent mess detractors most likely “just doesn’t get,” the sort of pomposity that drove so many people to metal in the first place. Of course, the latter is where most of the genre’s bands fall — especially in the Internet Ag e– and can thusly overshadow the subtle brilliance of post-metal’s most essential works (Isis’ Oceanic, Cult of Luna’s Eternal Kingdom, Pelican’s The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon the Thaw, to name a few). Like any other genre, when an album goes wrong, man, does it go wrong hard.

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