I was really, really late to It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia; a seemingly endless parade of people told me to check it out, and for whatever reason, I didn’t.

And then this past December I watched every single episode that’s been made thus far, plus that Christmas special thing, in under a week. So, yeah. I guess I should’ve listened to people a lot sooner.

New episodes don’t start until September, but while we wait, reader Hetal Bhatt sent us a link to the below video, which will be enjoyed by my fellow Sunny fans, and will probably not make a lick of sense to anyone else. And to those people, I say: don’t do what I did. Start catching up on Sunny now. You won’t regret it.

This recording is by a band called Triggered Impulse, by the way.

-AR

What could Antagonist possibly have against Sasha Grey? The (freaking gorgeous) porn star seems to be a legitimately intelligent fan of metal, and it’s hard to begrudge her her mainstream success (She starred in Steven Soderbergh’s The Girlfriend Experience, and will apparently be on Entourage this season.). So if I was gonna make fun of a porn star, I’d probably choose an out and out freak, like Jenna Jameson, or maybe Tera Wray, because she married Wayne Static and is therefore a moron.

But why poor Sasha? Did she used to date a member of Antagonist? I can’t figure out why else the band would possibly write a song named after her and featuring lyrics such as, “You sold your soul, congratulations, you’ve made it.” How do they know what’s in Sasha’s soul? Maybe it’s lots and lots of anal. Ever think of that, fellas?

While I ponder this issue some more, you can check out the song here. It comes off of Antagonist’s new album, World in Decline, which comes out August 17 on Prosthetic.

-AR

Thanks: YouTube user / MS Maniac artlimbman

So the rumors are true: Beavis and Butt-Head are returning to MTV! Mike Judge had previously hinted that they’d be working tech support or some such job, but apparently they’re still going to be in high school. Which is fine by me — I don’t ever need to see these dudes grow up. Or, grow up as much as two metal-loving idiots might.

Besides, I can’t really see B&B holding down tech support jobs, can you? In my imagination, they grow up to start a stupid metal blog which, for reasons unknown even to them, people actually read. I mean, I’m no Mike Judge, I’m just sayin’. That seems pretty true-to-life to me.

More info we get it…

-AR

Thanks to Shawn McNamara for the tip.

Is it really possible that there isn’t already a well-regarded (e.g., not your’s cousin’s unsigned) death metal band with a song called “Slaughterhouse?” AMAZING! If genius really is the simple idea that somehow no one has ever thought of before, than the dudes in Malevolent Creation are geniuses. At least, when it comes to naming songs. Maybe not so much in real life.

ANYWAY, “Slaughterhouse” is the first track to be released from Invidious Dominion, Malevolent Creation’s latest. It is a true blue, honest-to-Satan old school death metal song, with no bells and whistles. Stream it here.

Invidious Dominion comes out August 24 on Nuclear Blast and was produced by Erik Rutan, who, at least as far as this metal nerd is concerned, can do no wrong.

-AR

Soilwork’s Peter Wichers doesn’t really know how to disappoint. He’s shepherded his band through a stretch of eight albums in a frenetic 12 years. He’s helmed potentially underwhelming projects like the Nuclear Blast All-Stars (not a softball team) and a career band guy’s first solo record (Warrel Dane’s nifty Praises To The War Machine). On top of that, he’s a thrilling guitarist and songwriter. Dreamy.

But he’s more than all that. Like, did you know that the native Swede doesn’t give a shit about soccer? Have you heard his opinion that Devin Townsend is underrated? Could you tell that he can tell the difference between Soilwork singer Bjorn “Speed” Strid and the chairman Frank Sinatra? Don’t take my word for it. It says so right down there after the jump. Right in and among all the talk about Soilwork’s new album The Panic Broadcast, his new and new-ish bandmates, being a metal tastemaker, and crappy guitar solos.

Click to read more…

For last week’s Photo Caption Contest we offered up two copies of Bison B.C.’s latest stormer Dark Ages. The lucky winners are:

• Bayonetwork: “Amon Afart”
• MeesterDerp: “This is how a real warrior makes soup.”

Congrats, kiddos. This week we’ve got two copies of Mose Giganticus‘ debut release Gift Horse up for grabs from the good folks at Relapse Records. This week’s photo comes from Metal Maniacs head honcho Mike Riddick who says he’s met the guy in the Emperor shirt… whew, I’m sure glad I wasn’t in that crash. Fill in your caption below, and remember to use a real email address or write it in if you’re using FB Connect.

Have you guys heard about this sweet ass fest happening in LA next month? Goatsnake, Animosity-lineup Corrosion Of Conformity, From Ashes Rise, Repulsion, Trap Them, Coliseum, and like 20 more rad bands for FREE, thanks to corporate sponsor Converse. Unfortunately, I will be on tour at the time, but if I was around I’d totally be at this. Goatsnake are the creators of at least six or seven of my favorite heavy riffs ever, Repulsion are like the AC/DC of grind, and even I would most likely be on board with pretending to care about the COC/Animosity thing (Eye For An Eye was way better, in my opinion). I’d probably even get drunk enough to blindly accept that a band like From Ashes Rise are playing a corporate-sponsored “event” like this. If something like this went down in their heyday, I can’t even imagine what the repercussions would be from their ultra-punk fans. I mean sure, I guess Converse All Stars are part of the punk rock non-conformity uniform, but it’s still (unless there’s something I don’t know) a corporation taking advantage of overseas cheap labor so they can make a larger profit off of “subcultures” they’re marketing to (see: this fest’s attendees).

Times must be tough for aging punk bands, where they can only make real money when sponsored by shoe or car companies. Sarcasm aside, I know that times are tough for all bands, and that is why these free, corporate-sponsored shows are starting to pop up more and more. At first, it was cute that Scion would fly bands out to LA every couple months and pay them a few grand to play a show. Lots of us are unemployed, so it’s nice to get a show for free once in a while. Now, the Scion Fest is an annual thing, their shows in L.A. happen every other month, and I’d be willing to bet that this won’t be the last we hear of Converse sponsoring “A free event that honors fans and musicians of ‘heavy music’ of all ages.”

Click to read more…

We ask and we shall receive. According a tweet / Facebook status update posted by the band yesterday, it appears that U.K. Internet darlings TesseracT will finally take their show on the road in the U.S. this fall! Guitar message board nerds are already fapping at their keyboards over the very thought of it (and this blogger dork is pretty excited too).

Now, will there be a new album by year’s end too? If we could only be so lucky…

-VN

Remember when there was a character on the soap opera All My Children who was obsessed with Mike Patton? Well, now that same show has name dropped Genghis Tron. Check it out:

Do we think that Mookie Singerman ever thought in a bajillion years that he’d be kinda-sorta mentioned on a soap opera? I feel like Genghis Tron have arrived!

And, incidentally, I think Mookie is a Mets fan. Just sayin’.

-AR

[via Metal Injection]

We don’t like Carnifex — in fact, we think they’re the only blemish on the otherwise pristine Summer Slaughter line-up — but we know at lot of you do really like Carnifex. Because you e-mail us about them. Constantly.

So here’s the band’s new video, for “Sorrowspell,” which sounds like the name of a pagan metal band but whatever. I think it’s a pretty standard performance clip, but, again, I’m really only posting it to remind you about Summer Slaughter, which is currently underway, also includes Decapitated, The Faceless, All Shall Perish, The Red Chord, Veil of Maya, Cephalic Carnage, Decrepit Birth, Animals as Leaders, and Vital Remains, and is, oh yeah, partially sponsored by us. Get dates here.

-AR

Photo credit: MS photographic wiz Jacqueline Cheng. More pics (including lots of opening act Dream Theater) coming soon!

The setlist of Iron Maiden’s current U.S. tour has been the topic of much debate lately. At first I was bummed to hear that it would consist of mostly material from Brave New World and newer, the album on which Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith rejoined the band. But the more I thought about it the more I realized that it was actually a pretty cool thing for the band to. I LOVED Brave New World so it would be a treat to hear those songs live again after 10 (!) years, and though I couldn’t possibly ever tire of hearing Maiden’s classic songs live, I’d seen them performed on the Somewhere Back in Time World Tour less than two years. Maybe it was time for something different, and maybe it was time for everyone to stop whining and to let the band do their thing. They’ve earned it after all these years.

By the time I was standing at my seat in Madison Square Garden on Monday night I was 100% behind the idea of a Maiden set focusing on new material. And Iron Maiden did a fucking fantastic job with it, putting on a stellar, captivating show as always and giving us, the fans, something just as fun, albeit a bit different, than what we’re used to.

Click to read more…

If I had met Faith No More, or any single member of Faith No More, when I was fifteen, I can tell you exactly what my reaction would have been: first I would have screamed like a girl at a Beatles’ concert, and then I would have peed myself. And then I probably would have screamed some more.

But James Zahn of Kik Axe Music did meet Faith No More when he was fifteen — and he interviewed them for public access television. Amazing (and amazingly cool) that they consented to such an interview — they sure didn’t need the publicity.

James has been posting the eleven-part interview over at Kik Axe. Here’s a taste, in which Mike Bordin discusses the origin of the band’s name. I’ve never heard this story before, and I gotta say, it’s pretty neat.

Watch more here. I used to have the same shirt James is watching in all the videos. I wonder whatever happened to that shirt…

-AR

I kept fast-forwarding through the new Murderdolls video, “My Dark Place Alone,” to see if anything actually happens with the poor old dude in the wheelchair. And I guess something kinda does — but it’s too little, too late. Most of this video is just (bad) performance footage and (boring) shots of the dude and his (not even really hot!) nurse. What’s the fucking point? To make me understand the boredom and agony of the poor schmuck invalid? Why am I even watching this? It’s not ’cause of the song, that’s for sure.

Murderdolls’ new album, Women and Children Last, comes out August 31 on Roadrunner.

-AR

German death metallers Jack Slater certainly aren’t the first band to preview a metal album solely using their voices (that honor famously and hilariously belongs to Killswitch Engage’s a cappella preview of As Daylight Dies), but that doesn’t make their vocal rendition of this song from their 2008 release Blut/Macht/Frei any less funny. Skip to the 0:50 mark unless you wanna hear a bunch of German you can’t understand:

What are these wily Germans up to now? Here’s “Martyr” from their February 2010 release Extinction Aftermath. It’s some pretty tasty DM with a bit of groove and a bit of tech. I like!

I’m baffled by a) the presence of the woman in this video. what’s the point? and b) the drummer’s ski goggles. zuh? But other than that, I’d say we have a winner here with Jack Slater. Go and get you some.

-VN

Thanks: Benjamin Feiner

After the Pig Destroyer girl divorces me, I am totally gonna marry the Suicide Silence booty shake girl. (Warning: I guess this video is technically NSFW, even if there’s no actual nudity.)

Thanks to Cody for the tip!

-AR

Wait, that can’t be right.

As we speculated earlier this week, Enslaved have, indeed, unveiled the title and release date for their new album. It’s called Axioma Ethica Odini, and will join Triptykon’s debut album in providing me with many jokes about not being able to remember its title.

But seriously, I have no fucking idea what the name means. Obviously something about an axiom and ethics, but when I Google “odini,” all I get is the On-Demand Intelligent Network Interface and some shit about mushrooms. Is it possible Enslaved recorded an album about the axiomatic ethics of mushrooms? I guess stranger things have happened — Kalmah wrote a song about a fish, y’know.

Nuclear Blast will release I’m Already Forgetting this Title on September 27 in Europe and a day later in North America. All joking aside, I expect it to be incredible.

-AR

I was feeling a little worried about the quality of the new Avenged Sevenfold album, Nightmare, after hearing its title track; it’s an okay enough song (I know Vince digs it), but it doesn’t quite have the same oomph as the material from their other albums — especially the last one, which was something of a pop metal masterpiece. (Vince compared it to Use Your Illusion II, which is a pretty accurate correlation.)

But I’m really feeling this latest track, “Buried Alive,” which has a kind of first-section-of-”Hollow”-ish feel to it. Check it out for yourself below, and then tell me how lame I am for liking it in our comments section.

Nightmare comes out July 27 on Warner Bros.

Side note: what’s up with this trend of lyric videos? Are people really that desperate for the lyrics? The whole thing seems so weird to me.

-AR

[UPDATE: Dates have now been posted at Stereogum!]

Feels like we’ve been waiting forever for a Nachtmystium headline tour; in my recollection there wasn’t one for the Assassins: Black Meddle Part I album cycle, and as you all [should] know Blake Judd and the crew have released another excellent album since then. Maybe there was a headline run for Assassins but I couldn’t go or something… which makes this new opportunity even sweeter.

Click to read more…

If you didn’t listen to the Metal Injection Livecast last night, well, shame on you. We had a blast. The phones were acting a little wonky, but it was still great to speak to a bunch of readers, including Shinaain, who I think has been leaving comments here for just about forever. It was pretty funny that so many people wanted to talk about Gary Suarez, given that neither of us are Gary Suarez, but, hey, maybe they can wrangle him into being on the show sometime.

In the meantime, you can now download an mp3 of the broadcast here. Thanks to Rob, Noa, Sid and Darren for having us! We’ll come by again sometime soon…

-AR