To call Wormrot’s killer debut, Abuse, a splash of cold water to the face in the midst of a growingly samey genre wouldn’t be giving it enough credit: it’s like being woken from a nap by a beating from a claw hammer. It pleased newbies and purists alike: filthy, Repulsion-style grind with a rawness and energy that could only be provided by guys who genuinely loved the stuff. The fact that Earache scooped them up off an mp3 blog and introduced the rest of the world to them is the sort of Cinderella story that overshadows how plain-and-simple great they are. In theory, the fact that they so ably school Western world grindsters while calling Singapore home illustrates how the internet has made the globe a much smaller place, that distance is only physical for the most part now, and that technology has brought us and our love of metal together. In fact, shut up, Abuse is just a really, really, really, really very good grindcore album, and everything else is just background noise.

Guitarist Rasyid is a pretty big part of the band’s overall effectiveness. His barbed, punk-infused grind riffs cut right to the center of any grindcore-sympathetic metalhead: they have substance as well as speed. He maintains the necessary skill behind what sounds like a dervish of barely reined-in chaos. In an email interview with MetalSucks, Rasyid discusses Wormrot’s beginnings and rise to prominence, their decision to cover a Yeah Yeah Yeahs song, and how Singapore is a “country of poseurs.”

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The Panic Broadcast, Soilwork’s new album marking the return of guitarist/producer Peter Wichers, dropped on July 2nd in Europe… meaning by now most of you have likely heard the whole thing regardless of the “North American release date” of July 13th. But whether you have or haven’t heard it, I figured I’d share my thoughts with ya’ll since that’s why you visit MetalSucks, isn’t it?

Soilwork embark on the MetalSucks-sponsored Panic Over North America tour with Death Angel, Augury, Mutiny Within and Swashbuckle starting on July 14th. Get dates here then get stoked, ’cause we sure are.

My thoughts on The Panic Broadcast after the jump.
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Who doesn’t love metallic hardcore? Still, it’s always nice to take a break from the chugga chugga guitars and toughguy grunts for something with more of a classic hardcore feel. This is why I’m thoroughly enjoying Ashers, a Boston based band that doesn’t shy away from the sound’s punk roots. Now, I’m not saying the group is simply mining the old school, and if you listen to “Vanished” from their forthcoming debut Kill Your Master you’d get a better sense of that. Featuring Marc Civitarese of The Unseen and A Global Threat on vocals, Ashers deftly mix the fury of early Agnostic Front with the punktastic energy of Fat Wreck Chords era Sick Of It All. But don’t just take my word for it; TAKE A LEAK!

DOWNLOAD: ASHERS – “VANISHED”

Kill Your Master is out July 13th via Thorp Records. Pre-order your copy here.

-GS

Here’s something interesting I just read on Blabbermouth. This is Ozzy Osbourne talking about the decision to remove Bob Daisley and Lee Kerslake’s tracks from the 2002  reissues of Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman and have them replaced with new recordings by Robert Trujillo and Mike Bordin:

Ozzy told The Pulse of Radio he was against the idea of replacing the original tracks when he found out about it. “Believe me, it wasn’t my doing,” he said. “I mean, I didn’t know that was being done, ’cause Sharon was fighting all the legal things that were going down at the time. I said, ‘What did you do that for?’ And she said, ‘The only way I could stop everything was if it went to that level.’ And I said, ‘You know what, whatever the circumstances were, I want the original thing back.’ I mean, I wouldn’t have done that.”

It’s pretty funny to see Ozzy place all the blame on his wife, although it isn’t hard to imagine that he’s telling the truth. Still, this is why you have to pay attention to what your handlers are doing. If he was against it, how did it ever get so far as to have the re-recordings done without his knowledge? Why not just cancel the reissues? Maybe if your brain was functioning properly, dude, it never would have gone down that way.

In any case, the original, proper recordings of those classic albums are getting another reissue sometime this year. I can already tell you that they will be both be better than Scream.

-AR

I quite enjoyed Carnal Forge’s 2007 release Testify For My Vicitims; it didn’t reinvent the thrashy melodeth wheel or anything, but the band’s got their own little twist on things and Testify was a marked improvement in the songwriting department, IMO.

From what I understand, 3/5ths of the band’s lineup has changed since that album was recorded… but it doesn’t sound like all that much has changed on their new track “Blood War,” not that that’s a bad thing. The band self-recorded and produced the track independent of any album, and they filmed a new video for it too. Why they bothered filming a video without an album to promote in this day and age is a bit of a head-scratcher, but hey, here I am posting about it (though I’d have done the same if they simply posted the track on their MySpace). Check it out below.

-VN

I don’t really have anything against Phish, beyond the fact that their fans are some of the most annoying people I’ve ever encountered. But whatever. Frequent MS tipster Hetal Bhatt sent us a link to this video of the band covering Rage Against the Machine’s “Killing in the Name” at their July 4 show this past weekend, and while the cover doesn’t sound that great, it doesn’t sound awful, either. And I guess we should applaud all the hippies for getting down with such angry music. So I guess Eric Cartman had it all wrong.

Trey Not Jerry Garcia rants for the first half of this video; skip to the 4:45 mark to hear the cover.

-AR

Empyreon is one of New York’s best unsigned acts, a band so metal that their music will make you shit nuts and bolts for a week. They haven’t necessarily gotten the amount of attention they deserve in the past, but hopefully all that’s about to change, in part thanks to this excellent, David Brodsky-directed video they just released for the title track to their 2009 album,  Beyond Perception. It’s basically just a performance clip, but it’s a really excellent performance clip, unlike some recent videos.

Empyreon’s Beyond Perception is out now; you can download it from iTunes, or you can order a copy in Empyreon’s merch store. It was produced by the great Anssi Kippo, who has also worked with everyone from Children of Bodom to Insomnium to Rotten Sound. Good shit.

On a semi-related note: Empyeron drummer Frank Godla’s other band, experimental grind freaks Meek is Murder (who sound nothing like Empyreon), are playing at the Charleston in Brooklyn tonight. And they are so much fucking fun live, I can’t begin to tell you. If you live in the NYC area, don’t miss it.

-AR

[via Metal Injection]

West Coast be damned, I’ll be mighty disappointed if Devin “Poopy McNuggeteer” Towsend doesn’t end up announcing East Coast dates for his October U.S. tour. But whether he does or does not, it seems fairly certain that we won’t be treated to a special performance of Ziltoid in its entirety the way our Finnish compadres at the Tuska Open Air Metal Festival were. And even if the power of the skullet — now the hairdo of choice of the mighty Ziltoid himself — by some miraculous intervention decides to bestow the entirety of the Ziltoid album upon us, there’s no way Testament’s Chuck Fucking Billy will come out to do guest vocals as the Planet Smasher character on the song “Planet Smasher.” And hot damn, does Billy sound scarier than ever or what?

But hey, if that happened that’d really be something. Regardless, we’re pretty sure any Devin Townsend set brought east will tickle our testicles just fine.

-VN

Thanks: TNOTB

Vince and I are huge Beavis and Butt-Head fans, as any intelligent, self-respecting metalheads should be. The show was hilarious, deceptively intelligent, and a reflection of pretty much every great male friendship ever. (In our relationship, Vince and I are in agreement that he’s the Beavis and I’m the Butt-Head. Which one are you?) So this news from REVIEWniverse is potentially very exciting:

REVIEWniverse has exclusively learned from an anonymous source that Mike Judge is currently outlining 30 new episodes of his iconic animated comedy Beavis and Butt-Head for its native network.

The source conceded that plans for actual broadcast are not yet cemented, or even a given, but confirmed that the King of the Hill/Office Space/Idiocracy maestro is definitely in the midst of writing new B and B material with the hopes of a full-throttle return.

Even better news for fans is that, should this come to pass, Judge plans on retaining the show’s original ghetto-tech aesthetic, right down to the faded color palatte. The source also reveals that the Extract director intends on keeping B and B‘s format identical to its original sketch-videos-sketch incarnation, but with more contemporary music clips for the cartoon slacker-duo to skewer.

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Did you know that Slipknot/Stone Sour vocalist Corey Taylor has a Facebook page? And that he’ll accept virtually anyone as his friend? And that he’s really, really bummed about the recent line-up change in Mutiny Within?

So, uh, like, Corey’s on tour in Europe right now with Stone Sour, and his bandmate and very good friend recently passed away, but he’s concerned about who’s playing drums for Mutiny Within? Why? ‘Cause he’s never seen bands change members before? ‘Cause they’re his labelmates? Or is he just a really big MW fan?

Or could it be because there is no fucking way that this is actually Corey Taylor?

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The prospect of a Big Four tour is titillating mostly for reasons of nostalgia; it’s exciting to think about seeing all these bands live together, but not as exciting as it is to think about seeing all these bands live together twenty years ago. (Or maybe even twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four years ago.) Different people, of course, have different opinions about which of these bands can still bring it live, but the most obvious weak spot that 99% of all metal fans will be able to agree are well past their prime are Metallica. I’ve seen Trujillo-era Metallica live and I’ve cheered for Trujillo-era Metallica live and I won’t pretend you can’t have fun at a ‘Tallica gig; but you should never listen to the live recording after, because you’ll surely realize that beer, adrenaline, and sentimentality played a big part in your enjoyment.

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Horns up for MS reader Zach Shrock, who correctly identified last week’s logo as belonging to the band Black Past. Zach wins a Blu-Ray copy of Eagle Rock Entertainment’s Classic Albums: Black Sabbath, Paranoid (which, if you’re sad you didn’t win, you can order on DVD here or Blu-Ray here). Someone was just telling me that this documentary is a lot of fun… enjoy that, Zach!

This week I have three, yes three, copies of Scorpion’s latest (and last?) album, Sting in the Tail to give away. They’re one of Jamey Jasta’s five favorite German metal bands of all time! So do like Jamey would and enter this contest.

All you gots 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. ALL ENTRIES WITHOUT AN ADDRESS WILL BE DISQUALIFIED. From everyone who gets it right, we’ll randomly select three winners and announce his or her names next week.

This week’s logo was suggested by Islander from No Clean Singing. Thanks, Islander!

-AR

Well… it does.

Audio Secrecy comes out September 7 on Roadrunner. Despite the gentle ribbing I give this band, I really, sincerely hope that Corey Taylor becomes the next singer for Anthrax.

-AR

Vince is still traveling back to the Mansion from his big Fourth of Jew-ly celebration at our Kentucky Division, but if he were here, I bet he’d be really, really excited about this audio of Cave In performing a new song, “Centered,” in Maine last month. After all, my man Vince is a huge fan of Cave In (most of the time at least). I’m not gonna try and do that thing that that Vince did a couple of weeks ago where he pretty much impersonated me with scary accuracy, because, well, Vince is not a pretentious prick the way I am, and is therefore harder to impersonate. I mean, I could write some latently homoerotic stuff about ejaculation and blah blah blah, but we both do that, so it wouldn’t really count. If this were a studio recording or a live review he’d probably make references to mixing and midrange and all this other shit I only know a little about, so it’s just a bootleg so Cave In get a free pass.

But whatever! A new Cave In song! Whoo-hoo!

Weigh in with your thoughts below. If anyone CAN do a good Vince impersonation, now’s your time to shine.

-AR

If you’re the kind of guy who gets excited when girls in thongs are somehow unaware that top half of their ass is hanging out (and by “unaware,” I mean “Jesus H. Christ, fathers, hug your daughters more because they’re all growing up to be whores and that’s totally okay with sleaze bags like me but let’s be real here you probably don’t want your daughter bringing home a sleaze bag like me”), then you will probably be excited by the news that Dimmu Borgir are unveiling the album art for their latest, still to-be-titled offering in four pieces, the first of which you can see here.

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So Ozzy Osbourne’s memoir, I Am Ozzy, may soon get the big screen treatment, and with that news, of course, comes the inevitable casting speculations. Robert Downey, Jr.’s name has already been bandied about by people who will have absolutely no say in the casting process; now the latest rumor to spread across the interwebs like an STD is that Colin Farrell’s name has been thrown into the hat. From Cinematical:

According to IrishCentral.com, Paramount and MTV Films’ execs have revealed that the notorious Irish actor would be their top choice to play the hard-partying wild man of heavy metal. One source offered up the following justification, “Colin drinks, he smokes, he womanizes. He’s just a sleeve tattoo away from being a real rock star.”

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Katatonia are awesome, and we’re pretty awesome, so when they were like, “We’re gonna do this awesome North American tour with two other awesome bands, Swallow the Sun and Orphaned Land, do you wanna sponsor it?”, we were like, “AWESOME!” And thus it was so.

And now the band has released an awesome trailer for the tour! I know, I know, tour trailers are not usually awesome, but this one is — ’cause it features critical praise from both us and — wait for it — Mikael motherfucking Åkerfeldt. And if you don’t take us seriously for some reason, well, Mr. Åkerfeldt is what the kids call “unfuckwithable.” Awesome!

If you don’t go to this tour, you’ll never have sex again. Get dates here.

-AR

See, Suicide Silence? Now this is how you make a bad video!

It seems like there were just a Hoglan-load of new videos released over the long weekend, and most of them are pretty frickin’ weak. That’s not really a shock, ’cause everyone knows that at least 99% of all music videos will make you wish you were Helen Keller. What is a shock is how terrifically terrible they are — in other words, that they are sure to engage your tickley parts. (The last one of these is kinda NSFW, I guess, depending on where you W. Fair warning.)

First up we have this band Magica. Like Suicide Silence, they have lots of boring footage of the band standing in front of a white backdrop, — but unlike SS, they intercut it with this way engrossing story about the lead singer getting purse snatched and then, like, going to the doctor and the priest and stuff. And when’s the last time you saw a metal video — or any kind of music video, for that matter — about a lady getting her bag stolen? This shit is original, son.

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You may remember MS reader Shane Gillis as the man who won our Behemoth Vocal Cover Contest a few months back. Check out what Shane had to say when he entered the contest with regards to the extreme measures he took to shoot the video:

Just became a first time father on December 28th. I was so obsessed with this contest that I filmed my wife two days before she had the baby so that I could get video of her pregnant, and then later handing my son to me (just like in the Behemoth video). That takes dedication folks! I worked very hard to make this different than all the others I’ve seen. I wanted to give you something extra, especially during the parts where there are no vocals. I spent many hours on this, so I hope you find it worthy of this amazing contest.

For his troubles, Shane took him an awesome guitar that some day he’ll hopefully give to the son that helped him win it. But why are we even bringing this up again all these months later? Well, here’s Shane with his son… 6 months later… and already getting the next generation of MS Maniacs on the right track. Says Shane, “I know. I know. But you guys are like family.” Cheers, Shane, you too (awwwwww!). We really gotta make MetalSucks t-shirts in baby sizes.

-VN