There’s still no official release date for Gold Cobra, the most heavily anticipated recording in the history of music and sure to be the highest selling release of all time — or, at least, since Chinese Democracy. (I’ve heard that executives throughout the industry feel confident that Cobra will single-handedly revive CD sales. “There’s nothing out there right now with this kind of scope,” an unpaid intern who just started in the Interscope mailroom, and thinks he has a really bright future with the label, told me.) And while the anticipation is killing me, at least I know when I can run to Walmart and get my hands on the new Linkin Park album: the band has announced a September 14 release date for their latest offering, A Thousand Suns. It was produced by Rick Rubin, the man who made Metallica totally cool and relevant again.

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Last week we offered up CD copies of Ozzy’s entire solo discography along with an autographed copy of his latest, Scream. After much deliberation, here is the winner I’ve chosen:

• Haws: “The Russian Sailor and Tim Lincecum official band photo.”

+1 for the baseball reference! [Side note: Let's Go Mets!] A shout-out is also in order for Christian Voltaggio who chimed in with another excellent entry: “Hair Iron Dissonance.” But alas, there can only be one winner. Christian, if you’re reading this, email your address to me at vince [at] metalsucks [dot] net and I’ll hook you up with a box of goodies just because.

This week’s curious photo comes from reader Neil Pretorius. In exchange for coming up with a funny photo for it, we’ll give you a copy of Bison B.C.’s latest face-ripper-offer Dark Ages courtesy our friends at Metal Blade Records. Remember to comment with a real email address so we can contact the winners, or to write your email address into the comment if you’re using FB Connect.

Alight guys, sorry I haven’t posted an article in a while, but I’m here now with something I think is kinda cool and rarely gets talked about in the metal world: Groove.

Some of you guys may know just how much I love a rhythm that grooves, something that just makes you want to bob your head to it, and there’s more to it than just getting playful with the accents or syncopating a beat. There are the more subtle aspects, the kind that sometimes don’t translate so well to recordings. I mean, what is groove exactly and what gives it that “feel”? Who in the band really affects the level of groove — is it just the drummer, the drummer and the bassist, or the band as a whole?

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Andee Connors and Allan Horrocks run Aquarius Records in San Francisco. Their bi-weekly mailing list is simply one of the greatest things on the Internet – an opinionated, enthusiastic and overwhelming review of the latest releases and reissues that includes sound samples. From major pop releases to the absolutely most obscure/limited/cassette-only cave dweller metal, if it’s good the list will be championing it (and probably calling it out for sucking if it does suck). Any metal fan – any music fan – must sign up for it (and, duh, buy from them if they like it).

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This has to my favorite entry yet into our ongoing Show Us Your MetalSucks contest, in which you send in pics of yourself in some fun/funny setting donning your MS t-shirt or hoodie in exchange for a buncha free shit. MS Maniac Daniel Toth spotted Zappa Plays Zappa bassist Pete Griffin (not to be confused with the character from Family Guy) wearing one of our shirts at a recent gig, and sent us a link to the below video. And now I can say that I almost kinda sorta have a connection to the Zappa family! Which is amazing. We’re so cool.

And while Zappa Plays Zappa might not be a metal band, they are a good band, and Pete sure is rockin’ the fuck out in that stylin’ shirt.

So I guess our merch is really popular with bassists. Singers, guitarists, drummers, and keyboardists: it’s okay for you to wear our shit, too. It doesn’t bite!

-AR

It would be wrong to make fun of homeless kids, so I’m not gonna do that. I’m just gonna ask what ICP is doing to help these young fans get off the streets. Is there a clown outreach program or something? Wouldn’t it be a miracle to contribute to getting these youths back on their feet? Charity — how the fuck does it work?

-AR

Thanks to everyone who e-mailed this to us.

Loyal MS Band Suggester Samuel A Favata stumbled upon Italian death metallers Embryo via the YouTube “Related Videos” function, and based I’m what I’m hearing (and seeing) in their new video for “Flatterer of Indifference” I’d have to say that the YouTube recommendation engine has done a damn fine job. It’s like the best of proggy, brutal DM with a hint of thrash and a pinch of Gothenburg. A+++ highly recommend would do business with again fast shipping!

I can’t get enough of this song. It’s so good it makes me want to listen to more of their songs or go and buy their new album No God Slave right now.

Side note: people who say keyboards have no place in metal should listen to this song then go fuck themselves.

-VN

I know I gave Earache head honcho Digby Pearson some not-so-gentle ribbing a couple of weeks ago with regards to his defense of the indefensible re-thrash fad, but I still appreciate what he’s doing with his “straight talk” blog Ask Earache. In his latest entry, Pearson answers a reader question about the £25,000 budget the label spent on a music video for Cathedral in the early ’90s, a sum that would be considered ludicrous by today’s standards.

Pearson’s answer basically boils down to this: a) those were different days, b) equipment was way more expensive back then, c) there was major label money involved from Sony/Columbia. But I’d like to focus on (a), namely the role of the music video today vs. the ’80s, ’90s, and early ’00s. My argument: in these different times, who really needs a fancy-shmancy music video?

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I’ve never read an interview with Sonic Syndicate and there’s a better-than-average chance that I never will, but if I did and one of them said that they counted Take That or the Backstreet Boys as a key influence, I would not be at all surprised. How else to explain this garbage? “My Own Life” isn’t a metal song, and I’d argue that it’s not even a rock song — it’s pop music, plain and simple. And bad pop music. And the video is awful — and comes just two months since the band last released an awful video.

The highlight? Bassist Karin Axelsson, who advocates feminism by showing her boobs, but demonstrating that she’s, y’know, really upset up about it.

I heard a rumor that Sonic Syndicate sell dysentery at their shows instead of t-shirts, but I’ve yet to be able to confirm that. Sounds about right, though.

-AR

Here’s a fun pull-quote from a recent Zakk Wylde interview, regarding the blood clots doctors found in his leg last year:

“The doc was like, ‘You have, what, a drink a day?’ Six? 12? A case?’ I’m like, ‘It’s a liquid diet’… I mean, I’d drink beer while lifting weights. That’s Black Label Society style for you right there. But the doc told me if I kept this up, I’d be dead by the time I was 50. So I stopped drinking. No big deal.”

Wow, dude. You really needed a doctor to tell you you can’t subsist on a liquid diet? When my doctor walks into the room, I can pretty much hit all the high points before he even opens his mouth — lower your cholesterol, exercise more, stop playing with yourself so much, etc. (Oddly enough, my doctor has never ever been expressed concern over my weed intake. Neither has my shrink. Go figure.) Back when my diet consisted of bacon for breakfast, burgers for lunch, and cheese steak for dinner, I was never like, “Mm, this is good health food!” I was 110% aware that I was slowly killing myself with the delicious tastes of clogged arteries.

I’m glad Zakk has sobered up and is gonna live past 50, but… sheesh, dude!

-AR

[via Blabbermouf]

Once again, Ms. Jacqueline Cheng has come through with a stellar batch of photos for MetalSucks. This time the task at hand — as if this could even be considered a chore — was Faith No More’s first East Coast show in who knows how many years on the night of Friday, July 2nd in Brooklyn, NY, over-looking the Manhattan skyline sunset. Jackie’s lens perfectly captured the feeling of what it was like to be there, and although we’re a bit jealous of her photo pit and side-stage views we had plenty of fun up in the pit with everyone else.

Her photos of this most epic of nights after the jump.

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Last week, I wrote an open letter to metalcore discussing our falling out (and tipping my hat to excellent metalcore dudes Mercury Switch). What this glazed over was my main beef with it and why I’ve walked away in the first place: it’s caused me to dislike the good things it’s borrowed from, specifically melodic death metal. Not that I’ve gotten rid of Heartwork or my At the Gates albums or anything, but there’s a knee-jerk reaction any time I hear harmonized guitars galloping along. In my defense, the genre’s worn out. There are only so many notes and so many patterns one can combine before they’re all used up, and with the glut of metalcore bands biting Sweden’s finest over the last decade, it’s pretty much mathematically impossible that one wouldn’t be at least slightly bored with dudes mining minor keys for filler between breakdowns.

This is a shame, really, when it comes to bands like Allegaeon, an almost hilariously talented group of dudes from Colorado making the most of their Arch Enemy crush on Fragments of Form and Function, their debut album. Though in theory it’s tired, they do it so goddamn well that it’s hard to really hate them for it. They do bring some new(ish) and interesting elements to the mix, but the thrill is hearing melodic riffs and not rolling your eyes right away. It’s an uphill battle right out the of the gate for them, and I’ll be damned if they don’t climb the shit out of that hill.

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This one’s for all the nerdy prog-metal fiends of the world. Dorks, recognize!

• Gladiator: Up-beat, driving instrumental prog metal in the vein of Scale the Summit meets Dream Theater, with a tad bit of Intronaut jazziness thrown in (especially in the bass department… heyo Joe Lester). If you like any of those bands, Gladiator are a sure hit for you. Listen to their entire Circular Reasoning record on their Bandcamp page.
• Distributor: So I’m listening to this and thinking “Wow, this is really good, it’s like the best parts of Meshuggah, Dream Theater and Devin Townsend mixed together!” and then the song changes and the vocals start around 2:20 and I’m all “whhhaaaaa???” I’m not gonna lie, that part definitely turned me off — as do the female vocals in the second verse — but when the rest of the instruments come back in it kind of redeems itself. I realize this band isn’t for everyone, but I happen to think they’re pretty decent. [Thanks: Lance Zeran]
• Heironymus Bosch: Progressive death metal from Russia in the vein of Obscura, but a tad less technical and more melodic. [Thanks: Jack Low]
• Drewsif Stalin: Brutal tech-death that doesn’t make any apologies about being weedily weedily tech-death. Great stuff, though; I’d say it’s some of the very best I’ve heard, up there with Gorod and Obscura! [Thanks: Tre Watson]

-VN

I can’t claim to be a Pathology fan like our resident slamz expert, Sergeant D; hell, I can’t even really claim to like the band. (Although, in all fairness, I haven’t given their new album, Legacy of the Ancients, a listen yet.) So I wouldn’t presume to know what the Sarge would make of this video for the song “Code Injection,” although I know he really likes the song.

I can, however, echo the Sarge’s sentiments that I can’t believe this band is on Victory. Tres bizarre, non? This isn’t exactly Taking Back Sunday.

Legacy of the Ancients is out now. If you need me to tell you which label they’re on, you’re even higher than I am.

-AR

It’s funny how two different sets of human ears can hear the exact same thing and their associated brains can interpret the sounds so completely differently. Our favorite MS troll Ziltoid once commented that he couldn’t stand Gorod even more than he couldn’t stand all the other “weedily weedily” tech-death bands, claiming they had no grasp on melody whatsoever. Meanwhile, both Axl and myself (and many others I’ve talked to and read) are in agreement that Gorod are at the very top of the tech-death pack precisely because they’ve got such a great handle on melody without sacrificing their technicality or deathiness. Diff’rent strokes, I s’pose.

In case ya haven’t heard, Gorod have promised a new EP in 2010 featuring, among other songs, a 14-minute epic and a Cynic cover. In April they posted some studio video footage of the drums being recorded, and they’ve just posted a similar clip of the guitar tracking process, embedded above. Never have my balls tingled this much for an acoustic tech-death song, but man, how can any self-respecting metal fan not be excited about this EP? It’s gonna be the bees knees.

-VN

Thanks: Pascal Baseprod

Mastic Scum’s new video for “Constructdead” isn’t terrifically terrible — really, it’s just plain ol’ run of the mill bad. But it does have lesbians, titties and cocaine — and given your enthusiastic response to the other day’s Heavenly video and it’s own use of the female form, I thought you’d enjoy this. In other words: TRAFFIC GRAB!!!

-AR

Thanks: Juggalo Bob

Remember Sean Farber, Daath’s old singer? I’ve never met the dude since his tenure with the band ended before we had any relationship with them, so for all I know the guy is a real sweetheart. But he infamously left Daath, “for all intensive purposes,” to pursue other dreams, including starting his own religion. And while I have no idea how that quest is going, the fact that I haven’t read about “Farbertology” or whatever somewhere leads me to believe that the answer is, “Not very well.”

So Sean Farber is probably pretty pissed there’s a thread on Century Media’s YouTube page in which people are positing that his successor, Sean Z.,  looks like Jesus Christ.

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Bad luck and terrible timing are the culprits responsible for the fact that I’ve yet to see Landmine Marathon live, but all that’s gonna change when they play Union Pool in Brooklyn with the equally-excellent Salome and Wetnurse next Tuesday. And as if I wasn’t stoked enough already, now here comes the band’s new, David Brodsky-directed video, for “Shadows Fed to Tyrants,” which portrays what appears to be pretty much the best house show ever.

Of course, Union Pool is way more chill (and possibly even smaller?) than this party; I’ve never really seen a pit there, for example. Still, I expect to have a lot of fun, or leave incredibly disappointed.

“Shadows Fed to Tyrants” comes off of Landmine Marathon’s latest, Sovereign Descent, which is out now on Prosthetic.

-AR

Last week I debated the merits of a rumored new Van Halen/David Lee Roth reunion studio album in 2011, but it looks like that debate might be a moot point. For VH publicist/Eddie shtupper Janie Van Halen has told Rolling Stone that “What is going around is exactly that, rumors. I don’t have any updates at this time.”

Is this happy news or sad news? I  think it’s probably for the best, although I know that a lot of you (including our own Anso DF, who admonished me via e-mail for slagging “Me Wise Magic”) feel differently and would love a new Van Halen studio album, even if it did include Fatty Ding Dongs on bass.

Of course, Janie is a publicist, so it’s entirely possible she’s just completely full of shit and the new album is coming down the pipeline. I guess time will tell.

-AR