Horns up for Ashley Foster, who correctly identified last week’s logo as belonging to the awesome grind band Owen Hart. Ms. Foster wins a copy of 20 Years of Century Media: 1991 -1995, the first of four planned comps celebrating the illustrious label’s anniversary. Congrats, Ashley!

Now, because The Haunted’s new DVD, Road Kill, is coming out in North America a week from today, and because it was such a popular prize the first time we gave some away, we’ve got more two copies to unload this week. In case ya hadn’t heard, 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.

This week’s logo was suggested by MetalSucks Maniac Gerrito Dreher. Thanks, Gerrito!

-AR

While Arms of the Sun are probably best known in metal circles because their low end is provided by Down / ex-Pantera bassist Rex Brown, Rex’s participation is actually somewhat peripheral — the band is the brainchild of guitarist/singer Lance Harvill. But no matter; Arms of the Sun just write great rock songs, and folks really shouldn’t fixate on the fact that Rex is in the band as Arms of the Sun stand up on their own just fine. (And no, the irony that I just spent a paragraph fixating on Rex Brown’s membership in this band is not lost on me.)

Arms of the Sun have a new video for the track “March of The Dolls”; it’s a clip of stitched together live footage and as such it’s not an especially interesting video, but it does provide me with an excuse to plug this excellent band and hopefully turn a few more folks onto their music. So in that regard, mission accomplished. Enjoy the song below.

-VN

I know I mentioned this on Friday, but I also know that a lot of you spent the last three days destroying a vast percentage of your brain, so I just wanted to remind you: as of today, the debut self-titled EP from How to Destroy Angels – a.k.a. “Trent Reznor’s new project with his wife” – is available for free download.

As we’ve been saying all along, it’s basically Nine Inch Nails with female vocals – which isn’t a bad thing. The sad news is that the group has already released half the tracks in some form or another, and, unfortunately, I think we’ve already heard the album’s best material. That’s not to say I don’t like the remaining songs; I had just hoped that HTDA had some ace up their sleeve that they were waiting to unveil. But nothing really tops “A Drowning” and “The Space in Between.”

Of course, you may very vocally disagree with me, as is your right to do so; and one way or the other, the album is free, so you really have nothing to lose by at least checking it out. Download it here.

-AR

Videos like this always make me wonder whether there’s something else going on behind the camera that we can’t see — like, is the cameraman (presumably this young tyke’s father) holding a toy, or making faces or something? and when he shuts off the music is he simultaneously hiding the toy or ceasing to make faces? Who knows, so in this case we’ll have to take this video at face value; Amelia Mae lurrrrvs Nile!

-VN

Thanks: Alex Ford

To celebrate the release of Sick of it All’s awesome new album, Based on a True Story, we asked SOIA vocalist Lou Koller to compile the definitive list of quintessential hardcore albums. Luckily for us and all of you, he agreed! So we’ll be running one entry a day from Lou’s list of the top-ten (+1) hardcore records of all time for the next couple of weeks. You can catch up on previous installments here; the tenth one is after the jump…

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We’ve known that Chimaira and filmmaker Todd Bell were working on a new full-length DVD pretty much since the recording of The Infection – heck, we’ve even seen a small preview of its contents. But now that DVD has a name, a release day, and – bonus! – a CD component: Coming Alive will be released on July 20 via Ferret. In addition to a new four-part, Bell-directed documentary that covers a year and a half in the life of the band, the DVD will feature a concert film of the band’s tenth annual Chimaira Christmas hometown show from this past December, the awesome “Making of Resurrection” doc that was part of the bonus DVD for that album, plus a documentary made up of forty minutes of home video footage. And, oh yeah, then there’s that CD, which is the audio from the Chimaira Christmas concert.

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It’s been more than three years since Watain‘s last album, Sworn to the Dark, was released, but the time is finally upon us for another offering from one of the most exciting black metal bands on the scene today. Lawless Darkness comes out June 8 on Season of Mist, but you can stream it right now on the player below. It’s raw, it’s epic, and it’s sure to be one of the summer’s strongest releases.

Once you’ve given it a listen and heard how awesome it is for yourself, you can pre-order Lawless Darkness in a variety of cool packages right here. And now, without further adieu…

[this promotion has ended]

Although your editors-in-chief couldn’t make it happen for themselves, MS photographic genius Jacqueline Cheng somehow weiseled her way into a very intimate Stone Temple Pilots performance on May 18th at the 600-capacity Gramercy Theater. And though she wasn’t able to bring her usual camera accoutrement, she was able to sneak in a regular ol’ point and shoot and to work her way up to the front to capture some stunning photographs of this most photogenic of bands. Some serious kudos are in order for Jackie!

Her photos, after the jump.

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I couldn’t find an appropriate wedding cake for this story, so this birthday cake will have to do. Sorry.

Earlier this year, Charles Ray proposed on-stage at a Fear Factory concert. And while I don’t like Fear Factory, I know plenty of intelligent people who do, and the fact that he got to pop the question in the middle of the show in front of Dino and God and everyone makes it pretty special.

But if he had just proposed on the floor of the show without any help from the band, well, no one would care. In fact, Charles would probably be considered déclassé for not at least, like, taking his lady to a nice dinner or something and proposing there.

And it is for this reason that I can’t understand why anyone would wanna get married at Ozzfest, unless the wedding was being officiated by Ozzy, or took place on-stage during Ozzy’s set (or someone’s set), or was going to be attended by Ozzy, or in some way, shape, or form,involved Ozzy or another band on the bill.

Yet Melinda Dolezal at Metal Insider tells us that this year Ozzfest is offering an “Unholy Matrimony” VIP package that goes for $266 per person and offers the following not-very-exciting-sounding features:

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I’m not so naive as to think that in any conflict there’s a evil-intentioned, deceitful jerk on one side who’s opposed diametrically by a lily-white innocent on the other. Especially in the entertainment biz, long a haven for those with awful people skills and only a passing acquaintance with reality. So we can all agree that to call hot, steaming bullshit! on Max Cavalera is in no way equivalent to an exoneration or endorsement of his foe and former bandmate Andreas Kisser. All I’m saying is that Cavalera’s latest statement, in which the woefully out-of-touch recovering nu-metalist attempts to turn the divided metal community against Kisser on the thinnest of premises, is embarrassing shit-talk at best and character assassination at worst.

Regardless of personal loyalties (full disclosure: I’m kinda anti-anything that lives in camo cargo shorts) or tastes (again, F.D.: Soulfly reeks), it’s hard to dispute the eye-rolling, head-slapping 8th-grade wackness of Cavalera’s logic. But just to be safe, let’s cart in the 100% impartial MetalSucks Translate-Bot 3000 to help us parse through the accusations in a May interview that Kisser squashed a proposed Sepultura reunion. Sure, even T-B3k emitted a sour wisp of oil fumes and the occasional clank when I began to feed in text that originates from a mega-stoner whose manager/wife has been describing his farts as musical perfume for two decades. But you’ll see that the results are stellar, if not uncannily laser-like in their precision. Take it away T-B3k:

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Yeah, me neither. But MetalSucks Sucaklo “troe” sent us a link to the YouTube page of NAME – that stands for New Acoustic Metal Experiment – a metal-covering brass quartet consisting of students from the University of Northern Iowa, and, well, curiosity got the best of me.

What’s it sound like? Well… like a brass quartet playing “Battery.” But, hey, if that’s your thing… enjoy!

You can check out some more NAME silliness here.

-AR

I’ve never been able to get into Kylesa. For a period there in 2008 and 2009 they were a support act on every tour ever so I got a number of opportunities to see them live, each time hoping that I’d finally see what everyone else sees in this band and suddenly “get it”… but alas, it never happened. My charges against Kylesa are such:

1. With two drummers in the band, I’d hope for something either insanely ridiculous or insanely awesome (or both); the possibilities are limitless. Instead, Kylesa’s two drummers for the most part just double each other or, occasionally, one “fills in the cracks” left by the other’s backbeat. Bo-ring. It just comes off as a cheap gimmick — “hey, that band has TWO drummers up there, WOW!” Phooey. There is so much unchartered territory in two-drummers-ville and this band explores none of it.
2. Kylesa don’t bring very much (or anything) to the table that hasn’t already been done before. By Mastodon. Who do it (much) better. Big stoner taco riffs that have been done over and over and over and over by bands for the past decade? Dalliances with minor time signature shifts? Occasional adventures into psych rock territory? Monotonously shouted half-scream/half-sing vocals? Check, check, check and check.

What’s worse is that beardo Williamsburg hipsters eat this shit up. Kylesa did a U.S. tour with The Ocean (and other awesome bands) a couple of Summers ago that stopped at the old Knitting Factory in Manhattan, and the moment Kylesa finished playing their completely mediocre and average brand of stoner prog the room cleared out. Before the fucking Ocean! Who absolutely destroyed it that night, by the way. I guess the masses would rather hear average joe stoner riffs they’ve already heard a bazillion times before (from other bands) than music that actually takes chances and challenges their intellect. Go figure.

ANYWAY, Kylesa have a new album coming out. My thoughts on this news, after the jump.

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Or that they actually included the lyric “Welcome to the gun show.” Then again, I can’t quite believe that anyone anywhere takes this band seriously in the first place, so I don’t know why I’m so surprised.

ANYWAY, you can listen to the song here. I will say, good for this band for continuing to show some variety in their sound, even if I haven’t liked any of those sounds. Their first album, Beautiful Tragedy, was mostly generic nu-metalcore; their last album, The Dream, was more melodic and power metal-ish; and if this song is any indication, their upcoming A Star-Crossed Wasteland is going to sound like nu-metalcore by way of Black Label Society.Which is about as appealing to me as the thought of pissing on the third rail, but, hey, I know a lot of people like this band, so, y’know. Hip-hip-hooray.

In other news, Maria Brink’s blue dress now has tiger stripes on it. Variety truly is the spice of life.

A Star-Crossed Wasteland comes out July 13 on Century, and will probably outsell any three of your favorite releases of 2010 combined. Cry for our world.

-AR

I tried to land an interview with Slash when his solo album came out, but, alas, it was not to be. (Must be ’cause of all the nice things I’ve said about him over the past couple of years.) But one of the things I wanted to ask him about were how involved, or uninvolved, he was with the lyrics on the album. Each song is sung by a different celebrity singer who would be perfectly capable of writing his or her own lyrics, and the few times Slash has tried to lyrics, the results have been pretty disastrous. (Remember “Be the Ball,” the Slash’s Snakepit song about pinball? Yeah, no reason you would, but did I mention it’s about fucking pinball?) But the lyrics to at least one song in particular – the Ozzy-crooned “Crucify the Dead” – seemed so Slash-specific, I thought he might have had a hand in them.

See, “Crucify the Dead” features such lyrics as “Your ego cursed you till you bled,” “Decisions past leave you alone,” “Someday you look back and you wonder why you let it all slip away,” and a reference to – CAPTAIN OBVIOUS ALERT! – “A loaded gun jammed by a rose.” So, y’know. It seemed pretty clear that the song was aimed at one of Slash’s former collaborators. And I don’t mean Rod Jackson.

Well, Ozzy has answered my question – kind of – in a recent interview with VH1 Radio:

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The Damned Things have been a source of gossip and interest ever since their formation was announced, even though no one had heard any actual music – ’cause when you have a band with members of Anthrax (Scott Ian and Rob Caggiano), Every Time I Die (Keith Buckley and now Josh Newton), and fucking Fall Out Boy (Joe Trohman and Andy Hurley), well, you’re gonna get people’s attention.

It seems that the band are finally ready to unveil themselves to the world right proper, though, as they’ve posted rough-mixes of two tracks, “We’ve Got a Situation Here” and “Ironiclast,” on their MySpace page in advance of kicking off a mini-tour tonight at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn.

So what’s the verdict?

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