MetalSucks Maniac K-milo just sent us a link to the below video of Jane’s Addiction performing a new track, “Soulmate.” We can assume it marks the co-writing debut of one Mr. Duff McKagan, who is now the bass player for the band.
And, um… y’know, it’s hard to judge ’cause it’s not the highest-quality recording, but it doesn’t do much for me. I dunno. I think it needs a stronger hook or something. But check it out and let us know what you think…
-AR
…the paramecium senses no more of the flute’s sweet warble than we do of the radio waves that pass through our bodies. It spends its life in silence, or more correctly, in soundlessness, for silence is the delicious muffle of an auditory system in repose, and an animal lacking an auditory system can no more know silence than one born blind can know darkness.
—from Music, the Brain, and Ecstasy by Robert Jourdain
I’m back at it with a particular tune, noticing how the space of silence is critical to the ebb and flow of a song’s evolution and ultimately, the shape of its birth.
Silence is not just about absence, subtraction, or less than. In any arrangement, silence can be performed in the service of contraction or expansion, very much like inhales and exhales. Silence also has a resonant quality because only in the vibrational space of silence can we better feel the parts composed of sound.
I was thinking about this spatial-songwriting concept on the way to rehearsal today and realized that, at present, I’m inside this particular tune as its shape evolves subtly and I’m hurling myself into a modus operandi that I have little control over. My only job here is to maintain a slow, nurturing cultivation….way more detached than smothering. A disciplined patience that sits, waiting for nothing to happen. Calmly active and nowhere to go. Just radiating simple “IS-ness” through the creative process.
Hoooooly Shizer! “The Candidate” last night was sick! This is my personal opinion, of course, but the culmination of action and character revelation/decimation should have been more than enough to get all of you juiced up as well!
In the Original Timeline, all suspicion of Nemesis Dude’s intentions towards the remaining candidates can now be tossed aside. That electromagnetic-flurry-of-scheminess is straight up trying to kill fools. He is NOT trying to get them off the Island because (just as Jack suspected during “The Last Recruit”) he is more concerned with what would happen if they DIDN’T. Most of us accepted this already, but like the Whispers, Tawaret, and the Black Rock, we now have absolute confirmation that his objective is to eradicate all Candidates who could serve to become his proverbial cork. Regardless of him being depicted as “the bad guy,” I thought it was genius how his manipulating of the Candidates in a submerged submarine with C4 almost unfolded flawlessly. Sayid’s heroism, although uncharacteristic of his recently infected self, ended the story line of my personal favorite and debatably most metal character of the show for the sake of who he feels is the “chosen” one: Jack.
We’re just a few 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! The inaugural edition, by Matt from Rumpelstiltskin Grinder, is below; in the coming weeks, we’ll also present entries by members of Brutal Truth, Disfear, and more. Enjoy…
Day 1
I forget what year it was exactly… but it was the time Municipal Waste played… Eli (Relapse Sales Manager, XXX Maniak) and I (Rumpelstiltskin Grinder, Absu, Woe, XXX Maniak, Creeping Vine Productions) drove down to MDF in one of our shitty cars… we were hoping to get there in time to see Municipal Waste. We get to the parking lot, and the only spot there is too small because some jerk-off parked between two spots. We yell at two nearby dudes to come help us and the four of us lift up this loser’s car and move it out of the way so we can park. High fives and last car-beers finished…
We scam our way inside somehow and Municipal just started… we each grab two beers from the bar and get involved in the circle pit. I forget much of the rest of the day but here are some recollections:
Six albums and ten years after signing with Victory Records, Darkest Hour found themselves free agents after their most recent release, 2009′s The Eternal Return. Last month’s announcement that Darkest Hour had signed with E1 (formerly Koch) came as a surprise to many who thought they’d end up on a more established metal label but makes perfect sense given E1′s recent track record of signing already established metal acts.
Shortly after the band announced their new label, I caught up with Darkest Hour guitarist, occasional MS columnist, fellow member of The Tribe and MS interview alum Mike Schleibaum to chat about the band’s career, their recent label move, and what to expect on the next record (it’s already being written). Darkest Hour were doing a short string of headline dates on their way back from their U.S. tour with Dillinger Escape Plan, Animals as Leaders and Iwrestledabearonce, and though a slight snafu prevented us from talking the day we’d originally planned on, we hooked up the next afternoon. Our chat after the cut.
Canadian MetalSucks Maniac Matt Poulter e-mailed us in the wee hours this morning, after returning from a 3 Inches of Blood/Goatwhore show in Ottawa. He couldn’t wait ’til a decent hour, I guess, ’cause he was so excited:
“The unthinkable happened: for the first time in my life, a local opening act not only didn’t suck, but kicked a fair amount of ass themselves.”
The band in question is called Immersed, and based on the two demo tracks they have posted on their MySpace page, we’re inclined to agree with Matt: they do, indeed, kick a fair amount of ass.
The band counts Origin, Suffocation, Decapitated and Behemoth amongst their influences; that right there should give you a pretty good idea of what they sound like. Mr. Poulter describes them “as sounding like a more death-y Black Dahlia Murder with the occaisional Cephalic Carnage tinge,” which is accurate enough. In any case, they’ve got a lot of potential.
Apparently they’re recording an album with Beneath the Massacre guitarist Chris Bradley right now, so hopefully we’ll get to hear more for these dudes in the not-too-distant future. In the meantime, check ‘em out and let us know what you think in the comments section below.
-AR
In March, to help celebrate Job for a Cowboy kicking off their Runation North American Tour 2010, we asked you to tell us what is the scariest possible headline you could ever imagine seeing on MetalSucks. A lot of you suggested some pretty heinous shit, but ultimately MS Maniac \m/Eluveitie\m/ is the winner. Here’s the nightmarish headline he suggested:
DINO GOES NUDE FOR PETA: “EAT BABIES, NOT ANIMALS” (NSFW PICTURES AFTER THE JUMP)
Yep, that is some scary shit right there!
Congrats to \m/Eluveitie\m/. He wins the super-sweet guitar Ibanez pictured above, plus a copy of the band’s latest and greatest, Ruination!
Thanks to everyone who entered. JFAC’s Runation North American Tour 2010 is going on right now! Get dates here.
Slayer fans are not always the brightest people on the planet. You can say that of any number of fans of any number of bands, metal or otherwise – I actually happen to think that most people in the world are pretty dumb, period – but the mo’ron quotient definitely goes up at a Slayer show. I know it, you know, Brian Posehn knows it. As much fun as Vince and I have had at Slayer shows over the years, we’ve taken just as much enjoyment from watching the Special Olympics gathering that is Slayer’s fan base. (NJ Slayer fan upon learning the venue is done serving alcohol for the night: “NO MOAH BEE-AH?!?!”)
So props to MS Suckalo Stefan Smiljanoski, who sent us the below video of “The Ultimate Slayer Fan.” On the one hand, I understand and agree with everything he’s saying; on the other hand, just look at the guy. If your daughter brought him home, I bet you’d run and get your shotgun faster than you can say “Hallowed Point.”
-AR
Carlos “Master of Lists” Ramirez strikes again! This time our friend and favorite Zakk Wylde’s guitar squeal impersonator has compiled a list of the “Top 10 Heavy Metal Books” for Noisecreep. Check it out here.
It’s a very good list (and includes an entry by a sometimes-MS contributor!), but I am a little bummed that Chuck Klosterman’s Fargo Rock City didn’t make the cut. To be fair, that book is primarily about hair metal (Klosterman writes briefly about Slayer, and his complete lack of understanding of that band’s work borders on embarrassing) and has a Kiss cow on the cover of more recent editions (as though Gene Simmons didn’t look bovine enough already), so it’s possible Carlos didn’t consider it a “metal book;” still, it’s a great read and I think deserves it’s moment in the “top ten list” sun.
So what would I bump from Carlos’ otherwise excellent compilation? Probably Garry Sharpe-Young’s Metal: The Definitive Guide. Not because it’s a bad book, but because I’ve never read it. Not the best reasoning, I know, but, hey. Blow me.
There are some other famous metal tomes missing from the list, but… for the most part, I think Carlos nailed it. Slash’s autobiography, for example, really does not deserve a spot here.
Check out the rest of Carlos’ list here, then come back and argue about which books, if any, he missed.
-AR
It’s a long way from loving a band’s record to loving the band. There are records I’ve listened to eight-hundred times whose authors, if ever set on fire, would die at my feet as I arch a stream of tinkle just past their twitching, smoldering carcasses. Hate their guts. On the other hand, there are terrible, mega-awful bands staffed by funny guys who don’t dress like dogfuckers and are fans of your favorite records, too. Isn’t that a bummer.
Occasionally, you luck out and like the band as much as the band’s music. I love that! The best case scenario in my book is Faith No More, but a deceptively close second goes to the Deftones guys. It’s so easy to like bands that can select and execute cover songs so well. As a fan, I worry that either band might appear to be a purveyor of the dreaded Wacky Cover Song, or worse, the Pretentious Cover Song that’s actually a demand for respect in disguise, as if to say “Man, look at all the cool shit we listen to!!!”
Anyone who reads this site know that we — and in particular me — have a particular fondness for shred. There’s lots of clowns out there who just play a mile a minute without any sense of song structure or melody, and I’m not even talking about those guys — ok maybe I like them too sometimes — but there’s just something about shred that tugs at my heartstrings. It’s probably because the very first music video I ever saw on MTV was by Van Halen and I was instantly transfixed.
But if guys like Constantine are the future of shred, I want nothing to do with it.
I mean, look at this ass-clown with his dyed jet-black, flat-ironed hair and his flaming guitars. Are you fucking KIDDING me, dude? Shred already gets a bad enough name, and the last thing we need is a cartoon character like this guy giving its detractors more ammunition. “Official Shredspace page?” “Shredcore”? Are you serious?? (PS: “Shredcore” has been done before).
The guy’s got plenty of chops, but so do a lot of other players these days. Who needs this? Not me.
-VN
The other day this rumor started to spread that Joey Belladonna is reuniting with Anthrax yet again, and I expressed displeasure. And a lot of you expressed displeasure with my displeasure. And there seemed to be some confusion over why I actually dislike Joey B. So I thought I’d try to present a semi-rational argument explaining why I so greatly prefer John Bush.
I have so much shit to listen to that I haven’t even gotten to Howl’s Full of Hell yet. It’s not that I don’t like Howl, or that I’m not impressed by what we’ve heard so far; I do like Howl and I have been impressed by what we’ve heard so far (and Vince thinks they rock, too). It’s just that there are only so many hours in the day, and I have this stupid need to eat and sleep and poop at the toilet instead of at my desk. I’m a real dummy, I know.
Luckily, you don’t really need to know what I think of the record, and it’s now streaming in full at Stereogum. So you can just listen to the whole thing and then make up your own mind.
But I’m pretty sure it’s gonna be awesome.
Full of Hell comes out on Relapse on May 11.
-AR
I don’t remember which show it was at, but Vince and I recently saw the ridiculous amount of cell phones snapping photos and video at a concert and started to reminiscence about that time in 1991 when Axl Rose jumped into a crowd in St. Louis to punch some dude who taking unauthorized photos of the show, thus inciting a riot (Rose’s first of at least four). If he pulled that shit today, it would seem even more ridiculous. Hell, before I ever saw Metallica live, I had some bootleg cassette of one of their shows that I bought off some dude at a flea market (seriously) for ten bucks. The audio quality was atrocious, but I still listened to the thing like eighteen-thousand times. Today, bootlegs of live shows are just a given; security doesn’t try and stop anyone from recording the show, because seemingly everyone is recording the show. Even if they find an audio recorder on me during the traditional pat-down, just saying “I’m interviewing the band” is sufficient to get them to ignore it. But they never ask to see my press credentials or anything, ’cause they don’t really care – they can’t take away every cell phone that comes through the place.
Which is all just a long-winded introduction for the very good quality fan-filmed footage of Pestilence playing at Neurotic Deathfest last week. We would have killed to have such easy access to this kind of footage when I was younger; now it’s pretty much expected that if you play a show, it’ll be all over YouTube within a matter of hours. Check out a clip below; you can watch more at Shut Yo’ Mouth.
And if that footage makes you feel all warm and tingly where your bathing suit covers, then don’t forget that MetalSucks and Decibel are teaming up to bring you Pestilence’s first U.S. tour in sixteen years (!) starting at the end of May; Warbringer, Vital Remains, Enfold Darkness and Sacrificial Slaughter are also on the bill, so you know it’s gonna be a good time. Get dates here.
-AR
It was just last week that we first heard about How to Destroy Angels, the new outfit from Trent Reznor and his wife, Mariqueen Maandig; and now here we are, and Pitchfuck already has the group’s debut song, “A Drowning.”
So what do we think? Personally, I fucking love this song. I predicted that HTDA would “sound more or less like late-era NIN,” and it does; swap out Maandig’s vocals for Reznor’s, and this basically sounds like a hybrid of “All the Love in the World” and “The Line Begins to Blur” from With Teeth.
In case you’re just joining us, here’s the story thus far: The Rev died, Avenged Sevenfold announced that Mike Portnoy would be playing drums on their new album, and I wondered aloud, “Who will be the new permanent drummer for A7X?” Well, looks like the band can put off answering that last question for awhile, and Portnoy will now tour with M. Shadows and company “through the end of 2010.”
Congrats to MetalSucks Maniacs Aric Robles, Tre Winchester, John Pewo, Keith Carbaugh, John Whitley, and Frank Rodriguez. They all correctly identified last week’s logo as belonging to the band Guttural Intoxication, and all win a CD/t-shirt combo back from Hatefor their troubles. Enjoy those, dudes! And don’t forget that Hate are about to embark on their first U.S. trek as part of the MetalSucks/Metal Injection co-sponsored A Taste of Extreme Divinity North American Tour 2010, which also features Hypocrisy, Scar Symmetry, Blackguard and Swashbuckle. Visit Hate on MySpace to get all the dates!
This week the folks at Relapse Records have supplied us with an awesome prize to give away: a copy of Brian Posehn’s new album, Fart and Wiener Jokes! It not only features recordings of Posehn’s brilliant stand-up, but also an original song he co-wrote with Anthrax’s Scott Ian (“More Metal Than You”) and a metal cover of Kenny Rogers’ “The Gambler” with guest appearances by such all-stars as Jamey Jasta, Mark Morton, Mark Oseguenda, John Tempesta, and Russ Parrish. This album rules!
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 a winner and announce his or her name next week. But don’t forget that you can always order a copy of Fart and Wiener Jokes here. And if you haven’t yet read my interview with Brian Posehn, well, go do it now!!!
Reader David Foust once again provided this week’s logo…
-AR
Now obviously most folks associate Amsterdam with puffin some serious dank, but it’s important to mention that there is actually a pretty decent music scene there too if you’re lookin for it…
While being stuck in A-dam for the week I sought out plenty of live musical goodness; some of my favorite spots after the *cough cough* jump.
MS Suckalo Spwee1494 e-mailed us Japan’s Mankolover, who he classified as “popporngrind.” (“Manko” is apparently Japanese slang for “vagina.”) Well, that certainly sounded interesting, so I decided to head on over to their MySpace page and check them out tout de suite. And I thought things were off to a pretty good start when I saw song titles such as “Sperm Terror,” “Stinkpussy” and “Milky Lotion Shower.” Clearly, the band had the “porno” part down.
Plus, I immediately fell in love with their band bio. Please excuse me while I make fun of some guys who don’t speak English as their first language:
- Wanna shout “cock” and “pussy” with blast beats!! – With this strong urge, the prototype of the band started in 2002.
Unfortunately the music is pretty sub-par. I’m also not sure where Spwee1494 is hearing any pop; the only song that’s poppy in the slightest is “Zero Gravity Masturbation.” In all fairness, I have no idea how you’d ever write pop-grind; the two genres just strike me as being mutually exclusive. If you told me that some band was going to play grind but with a lot of synths and really polished production – like Pig Destroyer covering Devin Townsend’s Addicted or something – I’d be super curious to hear it. Alas, Mankolover ain’t that band.
But check ‘em out and let Spwee1494 know what you think in the comments section. Maybe some of you will hear the innovative genius that I do not.
-AR
If you’re a fan of metallic hardcore and you’ve yet to catch a Reign Supreme show, you’ve been missing the fuck out, buddy. Frontman Jay Pepito, tattooed and brawny, stalks the stage with a startling amount of energy rivaled only by that of the band’s passionate fans. And boy, are those dudes into it. It’s actually pretty impressive given that Reign Supreme only just released its full-length debut Testing The Limits Of Infinite last year. Signed to Converge vocalist Jacob Bannon’s Deathwish Inc. label, the group have previously built a reputation based on a limited number of short form releases and, as I said before, one hell of a live show.
As I recounted in a review of a recent Killing Time show, Pepito knocked out an unruly attendee during Reign Supreme’s opening set. So naturally, given the opportunity to chat with him mere hours before they were to play this year’s New England Metal/Hardcore Festival, my quasi-journo music blogger integrity compelled me to ask about that incident at the outset. Check out his response below.
