2008′s Scott Hull-compiled This Comp Kills Fascists was pretty much the best thing ever; it seemed to feature half the world’s best grind/powerviolence/hardcore/whateverthefuck bands (Brutal Truth, Magrudergrind, Insect Warfare, etc.), and even introduced me to at least one awesome band with whom I was not previously familiar (Weekend Nachos). Also, the album art had a picture of George W. Bush with a swastika made out of cocks coming out of his head, so it’s hard not to get behind that as one of the greatest artistic achievements of the modern age, or possibly just recorded history in general.

Now Hull is curating (can you curate a metal comp?) a second volume, which Relapse will release in North America on June 22, and in Europe on June 28. You can pre-order a copy here. The tracklist hasn’t been released just yet, but announced bands include Lack of Interest, Noisear, Drugs of Faith, Apartment 213, Despise You, Triac, Social Infestation, and Crom. Some of those bands I already know and some I don’t, but it doesn’t matter – Scott Hull has impeccable taste. This comp is going to kill a lot more than just fascists.

No word on which political figures will be getting the genitalia treatment this time out.

-AR

Dudes like Misha Mansoor are the future of the music industry. For the time being let’s not even talk about his band Periphery (who we happen to like very much), but the manner in which he’s making things happen for himself. Mansoor recorded his band’s album in his apartment — aka cheap — and because he spent years honing his recording skills, it sounds fantastic. Then he took the finished product and got it signed to five different record labels worldwide, yet he retains the ownership of his masters. That’s called smart business whether you like his band or not, and as new technology and the Internet make business models like this possible, expect more bands to follow suit in the very near future.

In my 20-minute phone chat with Misha on the eve of Periphery’s album release, we talked all about how he created his own little empire and what the implications may be, both for Periphery and the music industry as a whole. What you’ll find is a dude that “gets it” and whose expectations are firmly rooted in reality despite the fact that his band is blowing the fuck up. Our chat after the jump.

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Of course members of glorified solo bands comes and go, but we’ve given Winds of Plague a lot of shit over the past seven months or so because of their insistence that their keyboard player slot be filled by a cute chick at all times. It’s the very definition of “gimmick” – it doesn’t matter who the best person for the job is. That job must be held by a woman at all times, lest adolescent boys’ interest in the music wane with their diminishing hard-on.

But then today I saw that The Smashing Pumpkins have a new bass player, Nicole Fiorentino (pictured above). And it hit me: “Holy crap, The Smashing Pumpkins are the Winds of Plague of their day.”

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Usually I don’t like Euro-metal, but sometimes I make exceptions — for example Gut, Female Nose Breaker, and Mercyful Fate. You can add Germany’s cleverly-named Cunthunt777 to the list of Euro bands who get a pass from me (via our bros at Weedsteeler). In the groundbreaking video below, these angry bros in sweatpants walk around menacingly in what appears to be a shabby warehouse while  hardcore dancing and making wiggerish arm movements at the camera.

As you can see, there are enough puffy jackets to make Johnny Plague jealous, and nothing goes together quite as well as generic breakdowns and puffy outerwear! I suppose there is an outside chance this song is a joke (the band lists their genre on Myspace as “death metal/concrete/rap”), but in my experience Euros are far too simple and dimwitted to pull off something as sublime as this video for a joke. As evidenced by the existence of Manowar, All Around The World, Scooter, and jumpstyle, they seem to be completely lacking any sense of self-awareness, and are therefore incapable of irony. But if this is a joke, then hats off– you fooled me!

What is your favorite part of this video? Is this the ultimate expression of deathcore steez??? Do you think Johnny Plague is fuming with jealousy right now??? Can any of our German readers translate the lyrics???

-Sergeant D

If the rumor that he didn’t wanna tour anymore is true, then perhaps John Bush has the right idea.

Our pal Allyson Crawford from Bring Back Glam recently conducted an interview with Twisted Sister guitarist Jay Jay French for Noisecreep. (Got all that?) And the big scoop of the interview is that while Twisted Sister will probably continue to play live in some capacity, they won’t be doing anymore full tours. Why? Mr. French explains:

“I know what these [other legacy] bands make, I know their lifestyle, I know what they do,” continues French. “I can’t function that way. I don’t believe it’s viable for them. I believe they [tour] because they really have no other options on this planet. And by going out on the road constantly, they devalue themselves because they’re out there all the time. We work in a completely separate business model. If I don’t play, guess what? My value increases, doesn’t it? So the less I play, the more valuable I become. So I work completely opposite. I’ll bet you I make more money playing 12 shows than most [other] bands make playing 50 shows.”

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Through amazing mind-reading technology created by the MetalSucks Mansion Monkey affectionately known as “You Worthless Retard,” MetalSucks was exclusively able to listen-in on Joey Belladonna’s most private thoughts while he contemplated whether or not to return to Anthrax.* What follows is a transcript of those thoughts…

Okay, Joey. Now, let’s be rational. Let’s think this all the way through. Let’s not make any brash decisions this time.

I mean, these dudes have not been cool to me. Remember when they fired me in 1992 for no apparent reason? And they hired me back to do that reunion tour. And then they, uh, y’know. Fired me again. And this time, I found out about it over the internet. They weren’t even good enough to give me a phone call! And then Scott and Charlie talked an awful lot of shit about me in the press, and said that I should “Grow up and be a man. Take responsibility for your life.” And I had, like, no idea what they were talking about. Just a couple of months ago, Scott made fun of me on television! I kinda think it might be because the reunion was less financially successful than we’d hoped. But I don’t really know, ’cause I never actually spoke to them about it.

And now they wanna hire me back! Again! And they want me to sing some other dude’s parts on a new album, without actually contributing anything myself! And the guy is some kid they hired because when John Bush showed a little backbone and refused to come back to the band after I was re-fired, they decided they’d rather work with pretty much anyone but me. Actually, they decided they’d rather work with Corey Taylor than me. But Corey’s business manager had more sense than that, and then they decided they’d rather work with pretty much anyone but me. The nerve!

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Let me begin by saying that this should be treated as hearsay until further notice. There’s been no official statement by the band, so we’re really just going on a reader e-mail here. And while we love you guys, y’know. We also love not reporting false information and/or getting sued.

So ANYWAY, MS Maniac Brutal Jay e-mailed us about the MetalSucks-sponsored Facemelter Tour‘s recent stop in Spartanburg, SC – and, specifically, the fact that the band now seems to be a member short. Says Brutal Jay:

“When Arsis took the stage the first thing I noticed was the absence of a bass player. Now, on stage Jim [Malone, guitarist/vocalist] tried to play it off by saying ‘We had a bass player last night but… I guess his face melted… or something.’ So of course after their set I went up to Nick [Cordle, guitarist] to see what actually happened. And Nick said ‘[Bassist Nathanial Carter] smelled pot on the bus and got all pissed off. We didn’t know this but apparently he’s real militant about this sorta thing. He pulled his cell phone out and was threatening to call the cops and shit. So we got him a plane ticket back to Texas and I guess we’ll be without a bass player for a few shows.’”

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Please get back together, record a new album and bring your granite state destroying asses down to NYC for a show.

Sincerely,
Vince Neilstein

If you can get past the painful minute and a half of rambling, this guy’s got a good point — why is metal the only genre of music that touches on evil subject matter? If you ever wondered what a country song would sound like with Cannibal Corpse-like lyrics, now’s your chance to find out.

-VN

Thanks: Cody Barrick

After I actually shaved a decade off my life by listening to the new Limp Bizkit song last week, a lot of you e-mailed me to indulge in major LULZ about Limp Bizkit’s announced tour with Snoop Dogg. And I didn’t write anything about it ’cause, y’know. It’s Limp Bizkit and Snoop Dogg.

But then yesterday Snoop put down the pipe just long enough to come to his senses and drop off the tour, and today it was announced that he’ll be replaced by… Ice Cube.

In case anyone has forgotten, here’s what came of the last collaboration between Fred Durst and Mr. Cube:

According to Box Office Mojo, The Longshots made a little less than $12 million dollars worldwide. I don’t know what the production budget was on that movie, but I’d wager it was higher than that. So, y’know. Somebody lost their job over that little investment.

Still, that was a shitty kids’ film and this is a shitty grown-men-who-act-like-kids’ tour, so things will probably run much more smoothly this time.

-AR

I haven’t been doing much tweeting lately (obligatory plea to follow us) - any tweets you’ve seen recently have most likely come from Vince  - but apparently yesterday for a little while the whole tweetin’ system went tweetin’ nuts, and tweet it all to hell if everyone’s follow numbers didn’t drop to zero. I guess this was a big deal if you’re the kind of person who measures your self-worth based on how many friends you have on your various social networks. For everyone else with a healthy ego, the day just kinda went on, as it tends to do.

ANYWAY, it turns out that Accept were entirely at fault for the whole thing. Okay, so it wasn’t really their fault, but it kinda sorta was. See, a Turkish tweeter named Bora Kırca is apparently a really big fan of the band’s, and tweeted the phrase “Accept pwns” – at which point he realized that typing the word “accept” followed by the name of any Twitter user (in this case, someone calling him or herself , but probably himself, “@pwns”) will automatically make said Twitter user one of your followers. (If only there was such a trick for getting girls follow you home!) Then, according to Gizmodo, Kirca “told his girlfriend, and together they started doing exactly what anyone else would have: They made famous people follow them.” And then the whole system went to shit.

Of course everything is corrected now and this story ended up being even less relevant to real life than the stories we usually post. If you’re really interested in all the technical dorkery of the entire ordeal, you can read more at Gizmodo.

Meanwhile, MetalSucks’ Twitter avatar/icon thingie is… the band Accept. (The real Accept, with Udo and everything). But seeing as they just became the most dangerous band on Twitter, that may have to change. Personally, I’d like to see it be Naughty by Nature, but I may get voted down on that one.

-AR

Thanks to everyone who e-mailed us about this!

There really aren’t any ’80s bands that are still making relevant music in 2010, and Ratt managed to do just that with Infestation… but I’ve waxed ecstatic about that album enough already. While other ’80s hair bands have been relegated to either the fair and festival circuit or nostalgia package tours, it’s fitting that Ratt commemorated their album release with a good old fashioned tour of sweaty clubs. And in Philadelphia on Saturday night — the ultimate Ratturday celebration — Ratt dazzled with a captivating performance that served to remind why this band is experiencing such an unlikely renaissance.

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If you haven’t read Part One of my interview with Melvins frontman Buzz Osborne, you might want to check it out before you go any further. In this second and final installment of that conversation, King Buzzo pulls no punches. See below to learn his thoughts on grunge, crabcore, and why he’d rather open for Madonna than ever play Ozzfest again.

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I know that many of our musician bloggers have discussed the importance of presentation for unsigned bands that want to get noticed – whether that’s the quality of the group’s demo, or the way they look, or whatever. You only get one chance to make a first impression and all that jazz, right?

So, let’s say, for example, that you’re in a band. And by “in a band,” I mean that you and a few of your buddies want to start a band, but you’re missing some key elements – like a complete line-up, for example. So you decide to put together a flyer soliciting other like-minded musicians to join your outfit, and you pass said flyers around at a show – which is good thinking, ’cause a gig with some bands you like is probably a pretty decent place to meet some other people who like the same kind of metal you do, and who harbor dreams of being professional musicians themselves some day.

Still, wouldn’t you greatly prefer that your flyer not give you the appearance of being a total tool, so that you don’t potentially alienate anyone in the crowd who might actually be talented?

Case in point: the below, which was being handed out at a show here in New York awhile back, and which our friend Stabitha Christie lost somewhere in the abyss of her purse for many weeks, until it recently turned up again. To our delight, it’s just as funny now as it was when we first saw it. Good times. Good times.

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-AR

According to a couple of eyewitness accounts the latest trouble in the Mastodon camp has been caused not by ailing (but recently recovered!) guitarist Bill Kelliher, but by the Tasmanian devil himself, Brent Hinds. Seems that Hinds sabotaged the band’s performance in Oakland, CA over the weekend by appearing to be incredibly intoxicated (shocker), fucking up songs intentionally, and eventually storming off the stage leaving the rest of the band stranded. I’ll let MS Maniac “The Big Chazboski” take it from here:

Brent seemed off from the beginning, staggering a bit and not stepping up to sing his lines. I’m pretty sure he damn near collapsed at least once.  Troy once ran to the mic, nearly pushing Brent over, in an effort to sing Brent’s lines.  Brent continued to throw in wild solos where there should be words, throwing his guitar around and running off stage.While there seemed to be major technical issues, mostly with his monitor from what I could tell, he became less and less involved in the performance to the point where he even stopped playing and simply yelled in to the mic something around the lines of “I love heavy metal…..No I don’t.” Even more telling, he managed to screw up the intro to a song (that I can’t remember right now) to the point where Brann was looking through his cymbals in hopes of figuring out what was happening. He eventually completely lost his composure, throwing down a mic stand and storming off stage.

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Bring Back Glam tells me that the new Bret Michaels song is called “Wasted Time.” I haven’t heard it yet, and I don’t really care to. I just wanted to point out that one of Michaels’ peers in cock rockdom has already written and recorded a song called “Wasted Time,” and that this song was, is, and forever will be the only “Wasted Time” with which glam fans should waste time.

Now somebody get Baz and the band to kiss and make-up already. I’m tired of this Johnny whasshisname shit already.

-AR

When we got an email titled “Lots of Slayer T-shirts” with a link to a blog at indie music herald Vice, we fully expected to see lots of Slayer shirts on the other end of the click. What we didn’t expect was a virtual museum full of hundreds of shirts of the most satanic band of all time.

The article hosts images and descriptions of Slayer t-shirts from the personal collections of author Jonathan Rockwell and his friends. “Lots of Slayer T-Shirts” is the Endless Blockade of the Slayer universe, a near exhaustive collection of black and red on cotton. They’ve got everything; beat-up as fuck Show No Mercy-era shirts, Slaytanic Wehrmacht shirts with a grinning Nazi metal maniac, white and stone-washed South of Heaven tees… just Slayer shirt after Slayer shirt after Slayer shirt. The madness goes through the Decade of Aggression era, about which the author proclaims, “There was maybe one good shirt after the Decade Of Aggression one, but like their music, it was mostly downhill from there.”

Check out Lots of Slayer T-Shirts and share your own with us in the comments.

-VN

When we heard that our friends in Brooklyn doom-crew Batillus were heading into the studio to record a new album,  we were all, “Dudes, do a studio blog for us!!!” And they were all, “Okay!!!” And so here we are! Below, find the second installment, which was written by drummer Geoff Summers; read the inaugural entry by bassist Willi Stabenau here and expect two more entries by the band’s guitarist and vocalist in the coming days.

Day five. Overdubs are nearly done for all but two songs. It’s nice not to feel rushed for once—for each of our last two recording sessions we tracked and mixed 60 minutes and 25 minutes of music in two days, respectively. This time we have ten days to track and mix seven songs, and we’re taking our time and paying more attention to detail and allowing the creative process to flow a bit more freely. It’s a good feeling.

Having not much to do, I cooked up a stir-fry yesterday with snap peas, bell peppers, onion, corn, and broccoli with rice noodles. It was damn good, if I do say so myself, and rather spicy.

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I know it’s unusual for us to post about one particular piece of news twice in the same day, but it seems like there’s fuck-all happening this afternoon, and I just this on Blabbermouth, and it is SO GODDAMN MOTHERFUCKING HILARIOUS that I just had to say something about it. It’s a segment from VH1′s That Metal Show (which, I admit, I’ve never actually seen before) that aired in March (and was filmed in January). It’s a “Belladonna Vs. Bush” debate, that includes Scott Ian and his wife, Pearl Aday (a.k.a. “Meatloaf’s Daughter.”)

Needless to say, Mr. and Mrs. Ian both side with Bush – in fact, with regards to the Belladonna-Bush switch, Scott even goes so far as to say, “We didn’t need a bird, we needed a lion.”

And this just proves my point: regardless of whether or not you agree with Vince and myself that John Bush r00lz and Joey Belladonna dr00lz, there’s no arguing that they went back to Belladonna for any reason other than they had no choice. This is not some grand artistic move meant to do what was best for the band as a creative entity; it’s a last-ditch act of desperation. Sad, sad, sad.

-AR