If Horatio Alger were alive today, he’d be tempted to write about Slayer. Defying logic, popular fads and the moral majority, the band is an American thrash-to-riches story, having not just survived, but thrived on a regimen of non-compromise. Future musicologists will no doubt struggle to explain how four guys from Huntington Park forced Reign in Blood down the world’s collective throat, then went on to sell millions of records, win two Grammys, and amass a huge, rabid fanbase. And does any other band have a holiday dedicated to them?
As the curtain closes on their third decade in the music business, Slayer’s Dave Lombardo was good enough to shoot the proverbial shit with MetalSucks when the American Carnage Tour stopped in St. Paul, MN. Read the full transcript of our chat after the jump.
Tuesday, August 31st, 2010 at 4:30pm by Axl Rosenberg
Congrats to MetalSucks Suckalo Leah Ciccolella. She correctly identified last week’s logo as beloning to the band Rotten Pork. For her troubles, she wins an awesome prize pack from Earache Records. Crank that shit, Leah!
This week we’re back to giving away some extra goodies we have laying around the Mansion, ’cause these contests have proven to be really, really popular in the past. The first time we did it I e-mailed the winner a list of potential prizes and allowed her to select any one of her choice; the last time I did it, I let the winner select any two of his choice; and this time I’m gonna let the winner select any THREE of his or her choice. That’s right: three CDs and/or DVDs, you choose. Don’t say I was never nice to you.
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 one winner and announce his or her name next week.
Longtime reader Kasper Maigaard suggested this week’s logo, and it’s a doozy…
Tuesday, August 31st, 2010 at 4:00pm by Axl Rosenberg
As of last week, it has been three years since the release of Full Blown Chaos’ last album, Heavy Lies the Crown; on that very same anniversary date a year ago, front man/incredibly awesome and hilarious orator Ray Mazzola tweeted that the band, now a quintet, was working on a new album to come sometime in 2010. That’s obviously not gonna happen now, but Gun Shy Assassin reports that the group has found a new label home with Unearth vocalist Trevor Phipps’ Ironclad Recordings*, and is hoping to finally get some new music out to the fans in January of 2011:
You guys have been e-mailing us about this one for days, but in case you somehow didn’t hear, here’s the gist of it, via Metal Insider:
Heard of NYC death metal band Divine Infamy? You will soon. Their vocalist, Purgatory (or Shanna Spalding), has just been arrested for several robberies, one of which was done while she was wearing a cat mask. She was arrested in Manhattan yesterday after walking into a store in SoHo with a gun and demanding cash while wearing a burqa as a disguise.
This is obviously more press than Divine Infamy have ever gotten before, but I’m not including a link to their webpage — they’re easy enough to find if you’re so inclined. But this is the kind of shit that only fortifies metal’s terrible reputation as the music of idiots and degenerates (which is one of the reasons I was so hesitant to even write about it in the first place… an overwhelming number of reader e-mails ultimate swayed me). There’s obviously no actual connection between the poor life decisions of Ms. Spalding and her music of choice, but every conservative nitwit in the world will say otherwise — I mean, Tipper Gore probably read this story in the newspaper and thought, “I told you so!”
I hope some greedy asshole at a record label doesn’t sign this band and try to sell Spalding’s arrest record as a proud badge of how “tr00″ and “street” this Divine Infamy are. Her behavior obviously isn’t as bad as burning down a church or murdering a bandmate, but it’s definitely not commendable, either.
Tuesday, August 31st, 2010 at 3:00pm by Axl Rosenberg
I don’t think reverends that are also ladies are so rare today — my high school girlfriend’s mother was a reverend (actually, both of her parents were reverends, believe it or not). But I have to think there’s some connection between a woman who holds a position that some tight-asses would consider “unorthodox,” and the fact that that same woman has now publicly declared that “the Church, especially at this agonized time, has a serious gospel lesson to learn from this darkest and heaviest music.”
In article in British newspaper The Telegraph, Reverend Rachel Mann has this to say about metal:
Tuesday, August 31st, 2010 at 2:30pm by Sergeant D
Like I said in my earlier post “VICTORY RECORDS DEFINED 90s HARDCORE,” I am a big fan of this leading independent label. With that in mind, I am very excited to share the latest episode of their branded video content product VICTORV. In their words:
Tuesday, August 31st, 2010 at 2:00pm by MetalSucks
The release of Triumvirate, the new album from New York’s own Black Anvil, is still a month away. But because your uncles Vince and Axl love you so much, we’re giving you a taste of the album right now, in the form of the track “Scalping,” which you can stream below. Black Anvil are perhaps that rarest of commodities — an American band that makes actual, Honest-to-Satan black metal on par with any European band. And since they first started to really work their way into the spotlight last year, they’ve become one of those bands that EVERYONE talks about. Before we ever heard a single note, we had people coming up to us and e-mailing us and telling us how awesome this band is. If for some reason you still haven’t experienced them for yourself, now’s a good time to get started — ’cause “Scalping” will scalp you.
Triumvirate will be released via Relapse on September 28. Pre-order it here.
First things first: I disqualified almost anyone who selected Henry Rollins because, essentially, most of you who picked him don’t seem to know the name of any other guy in hardcore with muscles and an attitude. It’s not that I don’t agree that he’s tough-as-fuck and an icon, but I was looking for “thoughtful/interesting/funny/brilliant” answers. Those who picked someone that was on a hardcore album released in the past, oh, fifteen years were given serious consideration, as I was looking for some good candidates in contemporary hardcore. And really, nobody picked any member of Terror? It’s a Terror giveaway… you coulda scored some brownie points for sucking up. Sheesh!
So anyway, though there were several great entries, in the end only one person could win the prize. And that winner is… Andrew Sterner, for his long-winded but well-put defense of Rollins:
Tuesday, August 31st, 2010 at 1:00pm by Axl Rosenberg
Back in July we found out that Trent Reznor and his longtime collaborator, Atticus Ross, were composing the score for the upcoming, completely awesome-looking drama, The Social Network; now the movie’s website is live, and there’s some weird, ambient, uh… well, it’s more like buzzing than music, but I know that some people are speculating that it’s part of Reznor and Ross’ contribution to the film. And while we can’t confirm this just yet, it certainly sounds like something Reznor might do. And if it is part of the score for the film, well… holy shit. I guess Reznor wasn’t kidding when he said that the film was really “dark.”
Check it out here and let us know what you think. The Social Network opens October 1 in the U.S.
Tuesday, August 31st, 2010 at 12:30pm by Axl Rosenberg
Remember a couple of weeks ago, when we told you that Great White vocalist Jack Russell needs a colostomy bag now ’cause he has a perforated bowel, which basically means his intestines ripped open and shit starting spilling into places it ain’t s’posed ta spill? Well even though that colostomy bag is only supposed to be a temporary situation, it’s bad enough that Russell can’t participate in an upcoming Great White tour. That news might disappoint aging former cheerleaders who let the quarterback knock ‘er up at senior prom ’87 and have wished they’d had the pregnancy “taken care of” ever since, but Great White are true professionals, and those dicks ain’t gonna suck themselves, so the show must go on.
The solution? Our number one homegirl, Allyson B. Crawford at Bring Back Glam, reports that Great White have hired Jani Lane to fill in on ten upcoming tour dates — at least one of which will feature Warrant as a support act. Warrant. The band that Lane has either quit or been fired from at least ten thousand times now. Awk-ward.
If I’m not mistaken, this will be Lane’s first gig since being released from a brief prison term for DUI. I don’t know if the man who apparently forever regrets having written “Cherry Pie” is still drinking (I’d wager he is), and I don’t know if Great White are still using pyro (I wouldn’t be surprised if they are), but if both of those things are the case, let’s just hope that Jani’s breath doesn’t cause any unfortunate incidents.
Here’s a video Ms. Crawford posted of Jani performing while not three but apparently nine sheets to the wind. This dude makes Vince Neil look like a classy dude who always stays on key and is never winded.
And here are tour dates, in case you wanna witness this sure-to-be-hilarious spectacle:
Tuesday, August 31st, 2010 at 12:00pm by Axl Rosenberg
We first told you about The Acacia Strain’s fall headlining run with The Red Chord and The Contortionist a few weeks ago, and you certainly seemed excited by the news; so you should be stoked to know that there are now dates for that tour.
The tour, by the way, is called “To Catch a Predatour,” which has to be one of the best names for a tour I’ve ever heard. In fact, I can’t believe no one has ever used it up ’til now. If genius is, as they say, the simple idea that no one has ever thought of before, well, whomever thought of this is truly a genius, and I would like buy him a donut.
ANYWAY, this is gonna be a killer tour. Of course, I’ll have to drive to Poughkeepsie if I wanna see it, which means I probably won’t be seeing it. See, all you people who think we have anything to do with tour routing? We have less than no power when it comes to that shit, or I would have been on the phone hours ago demanding that someone schedule a NYC date.
Tuesday, August 31st, 2010 at 11:20am by Axl Rosenberg
The headline pretty much says it all. At the conclusion of their reason stint playing support for Converge’s European tour, our favorite emerging Norwegian band of 2010 decided to have a little fun and run out on stage naked. They didn’t put a sock over their junk the way, for example, Corey Taylor did when he pulled a similar stunt during a Slipknot tour with Chimaira six or seven years ago, either; the members of Kvelertak let their kvelertaks fly.
But the best part might be the look on Jacob Bannon’s face. Priceless.
Skip to roughly the :36 mark to see more Kvelertak than you ever hoped you might.
Tuesday, August 31st, 2010 at 10:40am by Axl Rosenberg
We’re getting closer and closer to the Septmeber 14 release of The Absence’s third album, Enemy Unbound (Metal Blade). We’ve now heard the album, and can happily report that it’s really, really good, which should shock no one. Lots of bands try to play this particular style of metal, but most of them fuck it up; The Absence, on the other hand, make it look easy. This is the metal equivalent of a good blowjob: all you have to do is lie back, close your eyes, and enjoy yourself.
Our homies at Metal Underground have now debuted a new track from the album, “Maelstrom.” I don’t really know how to top my BJ metaphor, so I’m just gonna provide another link and instruct you to give the song a listen.
And we’ll keep reminding you about this one in the coming weeks, as it is surely one of September’s strongest releases.
Diffuser’s brand of heavy pop rock was very specific to a time and a place, their mix of hard rock riffs with pure pop-punk songwriting and attitude something that could only exist in the late ’90s / early 2000s when both genres were peaking and could only be spawned in a prototypically homogenized suburban place like Long Island. While this blend has undoubtedly caused 75% of the MetalSucks readership to stop reading this article immediately, Diffuser wrote positively perfect songs that could get your head banging, get your girlfriend singing along and get lodged in your head instantly. I suppose in a way they were proto-emo; these days they’d definitely be labeled emo, but 10 years ago no one really used that term, certainly not in reference to music with this much balls.
Welcome to the fourth installment of Cooking Contaminated, the heavy metal cooking show hosted by the one and only Eli Shaika and brought to you by MetalSucks! This episode features a special recipe of spicy mixed vegetables concocted by vocalist Mike Armine of Rosetta, stuffed into Eli’s roasted poblano peppers. Seriously, Mike and Eli are welcome over to the MS Mansion to cook these for us anytime; they look amazing.
After the jump you’ll find a list of ingredients so you can follow along at home. Also be sure to check out the previous three episodes of Cooking Contaminated, featuring a variety of delicious concoctions brought to Eli’s kitchen by the members of Hate Eternal and Monstrosity, Black Tusk, and Misery Index.
Monday, August 30th, 2010 at 4:30pm by Axl Rosenberg
I didn’t know Kill the Client before they were on Scott Hull’s super-duper special This Comp Kill Fascists (that would be the original, not the recent Vol. 2), but I know them now. They are a dirty, filthy grind band, the kind that would make you glad you’re grand ma is already incontinent and therefore already wearing a diaper, ’cause if she wasn’t and she heard you blasting this, she’d crap her panties. In other words, you should listen to them.
The band have a new album, Set for Extinction, coming out via Relapse on October 26 — a.k.a. “The day every fucking album in the world is coming out” — and are now streaming a new song from that album, “As Roaches,” on their MySpace page. It’s only eighty seconds long, so don’t tell me you’re too busy to give it a listen ’cause I don’t wanna hear that shit, okay? Just fucking listen. If you’re not gonna do it for me, do it for Scott Hull, okay?
Monday, August 30th, 2010 at 4:00pm by Axl Rosenberg
I mean, the Osbournes are all pasty n’ shit ’cause they’re from the U.K. where there’s no sun, but otherwise, Snooki could totally be an Osbourne. I mean, look at that pudgy broad!
I mention it ’cause of this: unfortunately, pretty much the best part of any Ozzy show these days is the traditional pre-concert movie, in which Ozzy is semi-convincingly inserted into a scene from a famous movie or television show. (My favorite is still the one where Forest Gump offers Ozzy a chocolate, and Ozzy asks him, “Are you fucking retarded?!?”) And I guess part of the most recent pre-concert video is Ozzy as a cast member of Jersey Shore. Up ’til now, the longest clip I’ve ever seen of that show is that little snippet of Snooki getting punched in the face; having now a little more, I can understand why the guy punched her.
No, no. That’s not funny. It’s not nice to hit girls, fellas. Seriously. I don’t care what Sean Connery says. Don’t do it.
ANYWAY, Metal Injection has the video of Ozzy Shore, or Jersey Ozzy, or whatever. Check it out below.
Monday, August 30th, 2010 at 3:30pm by Axl Rosenberg
So last week Snowy Shaw officially joined and then officially quit Dimmu Borgir, all within twenty-four hours. And now Shagrath says the band is going to remain a three-piece consisting of the “core” members of himself and guitarists Sneezy and Grumpy — uh, I mean, Silenoz and Galder — with some touring members so the band doesn’t just become the equivalent of a black metal karaoke band. That’s not the first time a band has made the decision to never hire a permanent replacement — metal and non-metal bands from The Rolling Stones to R.E.M. to Korn have all done it, presumably because a) they don’t think anyone else has anything to bring to the table creatively and b) it’s cheaper. It will be the first time I’ve ever heard of a co-lead vocalist being just a hired gun, though, so that will probably be kinda weird.
So while we wait to see which poor bastards are the new not-really members of Dimmu Borgir, we can listen to a new song, “Gateways,” with vocals by Snowy Shaw, and dream of what could have been — namely, a world in which there was a band features members named both “Silenoz” and “Snowy.”
At least, I assume that’s Snowy doing the clean vocals. Whomever that is at the 1:32 mark, he or she should be shot in the throat. Holy shit, that is the ugliest sound I have ever heard not coming from an overweight octogenarian. It’s like they hired an eunuch, and then made that eunuch inhale helium before singing. I imagine that what’s a cockroach sounds like when it sings. Luckily, some chick comes in at the end and doesn’t sound like a member of the cast of Joe’s Apartment.
Photo by Ms. Jacqueline Cheng. See the whole photo set from MSG here.
Are Iron Maiden more popular now than at any time over the past two decades?
They just might be; in fact, they might even be at the peak of popularity in their entire career.
Metal Insider is reporting that The Final Frontier sold 63,000 copies in the U.S. in its first of release, good enough for a #4 spot on the charts. Though I don’t have data to support this, I’d wager that they’ve had bigger single weeks in their career; but relatively speaking — adjusting for an industry-wide decline over the years/decades — a #4 debut is by far the highest they’ve ever reached. And their 63,000 copies scanned is the most since Bruce returned to the band, too:
Brave New World (2000): 38,000
Dance of Death (2003): 40,000
A Matter of Life and Death (2006): 56,000
The Final Frontier (2010): 63,000
Meanwhile, veteran and newer bands alike are canceling tours and playing to half-filled rooms nationwide, but Maiden are still packing fucking arenas and stadiums. How to explain this phenomenon?
Looks like Old Man Bruce was right after all… because they continue to release new music — and play it live, rather than just going through the album motions — they’re able to stay fresh, relevant, attract new fans and remain monetarily flush.
Monday, August 30th, 2010 at 2:27pm by Axl Rosenberg
So last week Vince told you that “The Will to Survive,” a “new” Pantera song — actually a previously unreleased track from the Cowboys from Hell sessions — would be debuting today on the band’s Facebook page in order to promote the upcoming Cowboys anniversary reissue… and it’s here! (You have to agree to make your love for Pantera public by hitting the “I Like” thinger, but it’s Pantera, so you shouldn’t be afraid to let the world know how you feel anyway.) It was s’posed to go live at noon EST today, but technical difficulties seem to have delayed its arrival. But fuck it, it’s metal, who’s wearing a watch, y’know?
ANYWAY, so the song. Bram Teitlelman at Metal Insider pretty much slapped the wench on the ass with his assessment of the track, so I’m just gonna quote him here:
“…it definitely sounds like the bridge between the Power Metal-era Pantera and the crushingly heavy band they became on Cowboys From Hellonward. You can definitely tell it’s the late ’80s, and the band dug Judas Priest, but it’s still riffy as hell, and dammit, Phil could really scream if he wanted to!”
Which is as accurate a description as you’re gonna get. But what Bram did not point out — and what I’ve yet to see anyone point out, if I may wax my own car for a moment — is that the song, at least to my ears, features a riff which also appears in “This Love.” I assume that even after “Survival” didn’t make the Cowboys cut, the band still recognized the coolness of the riff in question, and thus folded it into Vulgar Display. I’m actually shocked that no one has mentioned this up ’til now, unless either a) they did and I just missed it somehow, or b) I’m crazy and the riffs aren’t the same, which I don’t think is the case. (UPDATE: The answer is apparently “a.” Thanks to OBEY1019 for letting me know!)
The riff begins at roughly the :35 second mark in “Survive,” and then the 2:48 mark in “This Love.” Compare the two and let me know what you think.
The Cowboys reissue comes out September 14, by the way.
You guys have had over two weeks to answer the question: 
