Despised Icon are breaking up, and that’s a bummer, but at least they’re giving their fans one last chance to check ‘em out live before they call it quits. And if you’ve never seen Despised Icon in concert before, well, you really ought to — these dudes know how to bring it. And my recommendation should seem doubly impressive to you given that Despised Icon are basically French-Canadian wiggers, which, in theory, should really piss me off.

They’re bringing along Misery Index and Revocation, too — and both those bands absolutely slay live. These shows are gonna be fun, man.

Here are dates, courtesy of Lambgoat:

Click to read more…

I don’t hate Lordi, but I really don’t see the appeal. They play generic, unremarkable hard rock, and dress kinda like Gwar. Okay. Swell.

That being said, I really, really like the cover for their new album, Babez for Breakfast, even as I acknowledge that substituting a “z” for an “s” is about as cool Fear Factory’s tour bus.  This album cover is simple, it’s stupid, it will offend all the right people, and it’s kind of cheap looking, which gives it just the right 80′s slasher flick feel. If I’d seen it as as VHS cover at the video store when I was a kid, Vince and I would have rented it in secret and watched it at a sleepover, as part of a Sleepway Camp trilogy/Slumber Party Massacre marathon.

Babez for Breakfast comes out September 14 on The End.

-AR

Last week we offered a 10 CD package from Rotting Corpse Records, and a lot of folks entered which is sweet ’cause you’re sure to discover some awesome new music. And the winner is….

• Name Not Applicable: “National Socialist Rap Metal failed to catch on.”

This week we’ve got two packages to give away, each consisting of Lightning Swords of Death‘s latest The Extra Dimensional Wound and a reissue of Amon Amarth’s 2001 release The Crusher, all thanks to Metal Blade Records. Just come up with a funny caption to the below photo and one package shall be yours — remember to comment with a real email address (or include it with your comment if you’re using FB Connect).

Well here’s some good news.

You know Chris Goss whether or not you know you know Chris Goss — he’s “The Godfather of Stoner Rock,” and has produced/engineered/otherwise worked with everyone from Queens of the Stone Age to Screaming Trees to Kyuss to Stone Temple Pilots to Auf der Maur to Kik Tracee (!!!). He’s also the singer/guitarist for Masters of Reality, a band which, although they’ve been releasing albums pretty consistently since the late 80′s, have been woefully underrepresented in America since 1992, the last time one of their new albums was actually released here. (At least in a timely fashion… I think Spitfire maybe got around to finally putting some of their stuff out here, like, years after the fact.)

Which is all about to change: MetalSucks can now exclusively reveal to you that Masters of Reality will release a new album, Pine/Cross Dover, via Cool Green Recordings on September 14.

So while the album was released in Europe last year, now you’ll be able to get it without breaking any laws, or taking out another mortgage on your home so you can purchase the import. John Leamy (Surgery, Dr. Mars) plays drums on the record, which also features contributions from Queens of the Stone Age’s Brendon McNichol, Eagles of Death Metal’s Brian O’Connor and Dave Catching, and Merle Jagger’s Mark Christian. And, oh yeah, actresses Missi Pyle and Shawnee Smith (who I had the most unbelievable crush on in her Who’s Harry Crumb?/Summer School/The Blob days) are doing some backing vocals. Sweeeeet.

There’s already a video for one song, “Always,” which Leamy made, apparently using an iPhone app, “PhotoSpeak.” Do you hear that, Slayer? John Leamy made a better video than you using a goddamn iPhone app!!!

-AR

Before there were blogs there were these things called magazines, and the only metal magazine we still get excited about reading every month is Decibel. Smart, funny, insightful, and honest, Decibel is the reason our bookshelf needs a permanent “magazine” section; the reason people on the subway look at us funny; the reason we’re embarrassed to admit we like Sevendust but don’t get Sunn O))). Here’s managing editor Andrew Bonazelli.

Good day, fellow pornogrind enthusiasts. Last week I was ordered overjoyed to solicit your opinions about inducting Refused’s skinny-tie party program into our vaunted, otherwise face-stomping Hall of Fame. This week, I’m struggling with solid bowel movements. It’s probably the cheddar cheese Pringles I deep-throated last night.

No no, but seriously, this week we’re going to play a game. That game is called “Guess the New Decibel Hall of Fame.” If you don’t participate, and find yourself strapped to a carousel with a shotgun pointed at you, please direct the authorities to my ex-girlfriend’s apartment.

Anyway, the MP3 below contains a minute-long snippet of an interview with a member of our next HOF honoree. I’ll even throw you a bone(r): the man speaking is not American. So, we can rule out Three Dollar Bill Y’All for one more month, at least. First person to get both artist and title correct in the comments below wins a free six-month subscription to Decibel. We won’t even wipe ourselves with them prior to mail-out, pinkie swear! Now get listening.

Decibel Hall of Fame October 2010

-AB

Buy yourself a copy of the September 2010 issue of Decibel here, or just go ahead and buy yourself a full subscription here. It comes down to about two bucks an issue for a one-year subscription, which is roughly thirty-six dollars more a year you could be spending on the lawyer defending you for violating your restraining order.

Last week I announced I’m giving away a large portion of my CD collection as well as a shitload of promos we’ve received at the Mansion in 2010, and that I wanted to give them away to one of you all for creative barter… whatever random items or services you have that you think I might be interested in.

Well, unsurprisingly I got a shit-ton of offers… some great, some not so much. Here are some highlights:

• A bear mask made out of the face of a teddy bear, a wooden dragon statuette, and a jar of Nutella.
• Lots of folks offering me baked goods. Lots of folks.
• Guitars. Especially B.C. Rich Warlocks; apparently this was a popular guitar to buy, but not so much anymore. And one Gibson Melody Maker “with a missing headstock but it can be easily replaced, I’m sure.” (lolz at that last one!)
• Offers to tattoo my face / MetalSucks logo on various body parts. Creepy!
• Your shitty CDs in exchange for my good ones. The whole point is I’m trying to get rid of CDs, you ninnies!
• Offers to write a metal song about me / MetalSucks.
• Maria Brink’s blue dress
• A Vince Neilstein character written into a videogame.
• A potato
• An ear of corn
• Housecleaning / chauffeur / general bitch services.
• Lots of offers for your souls.
• Offers to stay at readers’ places when I’m next in city X.
• An offer to make me forget Metallica existed after the Black Album.
• etc etc etc etc etc!

There are some mighty fine offers, some of which I’ve listed above and some of which I haven’t. Nothing’s really struck my fancy yet as “wow I MUST have that!” but I’m definitely considering a few. So, keep ‘em coming! Send your offers to vince [at] metalsucks [dot] net with CD GIVEAWAY in the subject. I’ll choose the winner next week!

-VN

Peer review is at the heart of good science. Without the scrutiny of a diverse panel of experts, one cannot hope to hone one’s research into a body of knowledge whose integrity is above reproach — as Randy Couture says, “iron sharpens iron.” I actually don’t think that’s true (I think you use some kind of rock to do it?), but you get the point. With our methods clear, we turn to the matter at hand: CRUSHING SLAMZ!

In any case, while most think of Devourment as the first band to play slam metal, many scholars (including me) believe that there is more to the story. While perusing a few of my journals this morning, I uncovered a few examples of bands who arguably beat them to the slam punch. In this post, I will share my finds and ask you, our readers, “WHO WAS THE FIRST 2 SLAM???”

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The bands I love most tend to be a love or hate prospect, ones that garner only a strong reaction from a person. Neurosis are either a band you get or a band that bores you. Darkthrone either shook something deep in you or they’re way too kvlt for your tastes. And Clutch, well… Clutch don’t seem to fit into that category. I find it hard to believe that if you like music, you can truly dislike Clutch. There’s so much there to dig and nothing really that offensive about them (unless you have a problem with beards, in which case… what the fuck is wrong with you?). So, in theory, they’re almost too accessible, and perhaps not necessarily a band to love. But even a cursory glance below the surface reveals complexities to lose yourself in: clever and occasionally out-there lyrics, stellar musicianship, and a decade and a half’s worth of remarkably-solid-to-staggeringly-excellent material. In a way, Clutch’s tendency to make you want to grab a beer and start bellowing your best Neil Fallon impression with nine of your closest friends works to their disadvantage. They’re too good to be true, but are, in fact, true.

Clutch’s new double DVD set, Live at the 9:30, ably (and occasionally exhaustively) documents this. With one disc of a spectacular show and another of an hour and a half’s worth of rare footage, fan interviews, and history from the band themselves, it’s enough for a Clutch fan to sport — at the very least — a semi under their gargantuan belt buckle. Though occasionally veering a little too much into just-for-obsessives territory, Live at the 9:30 is illustrative of how people really, really love Clutch, and, more importantly, why people really, really love Clutch.

Click to read more…

You act as if there’s this big, massive success around each corner. The one fact is: you’re not enjoying the success you’ve had so far… So how will you enjoy the success you have in the future?

-DCC

From left to right: Weatherman, Mullin, and Dean. Pic courtesy C.O.C.

C.O.C. is not only one of the best bands to come out of the old-school 1980s hardcore movement; technically, it’s at least five of the best groups to emerge from the scene. Over 28 years, every release – and later, every other album – has found the veterans with a new lineup and an all-new sound.

The band launched in North Carolina in 1982 as Corrosion of Conformity. In its first incarnation, the band played crusty, heavy, speedy hardcore. In 1984, the Eye for an Eye LP introduced the punk world to the group’s spiky skull mascot, one of the great extreme-music icons.

The lineup and sound reshuffled by 1985’s Animosity LP. The crossover disc was released on Metal Blade imprint Death Records, where they held their own against labelmates D.R.I. and the Ugly Americans. (The latter band featured singer Simon “Simon Bob Sinister” Bob, who would step as vocalist for C.O.C.’s 1987 Technocracy EP.)

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Reader Dalton Stauffer sent us a link to the below sketch from a 1995 episode of Late Night with Conan O’Brien, and I can’t believe we’ve never seen/posted it before. It’s short and there’s really no way to talk about it without giving away the gag… so just watch…

-AR

A benefit and memorial show has been planned for Makh Daniels, vocalist of Early Graves, who tragically passed away on Monday in a van accident while on tour in Oregon. Everyone is encouraged to come and show support for someone who dedicated his life to touring and the metal scene, and to help his family with the costs involved with this tragedy. All proceeds from the door and a percentage of profits from the bar will be donated to Makh’s family.

MAKH DANIELS BENEFIT & MEMORIAL SHOW
Friday, August 6th @ The Bamboo Lounge
14308 Telegraph Road
Whittier, CA 90604
21+ over – $5 donation – 8pm-2am

Live performances from:
ANTAGONIST
EXHAUSTED PRAYER
DESTROY JUDAS
+ 2 more special guests

For those of you who can’t make it or are from another part of the country and would still like to contribute to the family, can make a donation here.

- MS dudes

So I’m really, really, really excited for Melechesh’s new album, The Epigenesis, which comes out October 26, and which has album art now. I don’t feel like I really “understand” that album art, though, and then I realized that I don’t even really know what “epigenesis” means, so I decided to Google that shit and see if I could make heads or tails of this cover.

So as it turns out, there are actually multiple definitions of “epigenesis” –

Click to read more…

Amazon’s MP3 store — my personal online music retailer of choice* — is having an August sale in which they’re selling 1,000 albums for only $5 each. And no longer is metal getting the shit end of the stick; 100 of the 1,000 albums are metal!

With records by Mastodon, Baroness, Misery Index, High on Fire, Intronaut, Suicide Silence, Halford, Portal, Nachtmystium and SO MANY MORE available for only $5 each, there’s really no excuse not to fill in a few holes in your collection or try something new that you’ve been hearing about. And since it’s all digital you won’t end up cluttering your bedroom or having to pay shipping. I can’t think of a sweeter deal.

Check it out on Amazon here to see what tickles your fancy. If you’re feeling adventurous and want some normal music mixed in with your br00tal-O’s, check out the rest of the full 1,000 non-metal (and metal) titles available for $5 here.

-VN

*No, Amazon did not pay me to say that. I prefer Amazon over iTunes because of the MP3 format (instead of AAC) and comparable ease of use.

Like my artistic forebearer and Jewish friend, Mel Gibson, I have a hard time telling the difference between the Mayans and the Aztecs, even though they were both subjects of my junior high school social studies class. (Gibson’s film Apocalypto depicts the Mayans, but ends with the arrival of the Spanish a good five hundred years before they were due.)

But I retained enough about both cultures to be 110% certain of this fact: neither the Mayans nor the Aztecs were white.

So. I don’t know if the new Blind Guardian video, “A Voice in the Dark,” is supposed to be portraying the Mayans or the Aztecs, but I do know that the dudes in Blind Guardian apparently don’t know anyone descended from either culture, or even anyone with a decent sun tan. This video is incredibly epic, and good for Blind Guardian and all that, but it really takes you out of it when it looks like the band hired their Uncle Helmut and Cousin Werner to play the high priest and human sacrifice, y’know?

“A Voice in the Dark” comes off of Blind Guardian’s latest album, At the Edge of Time, which comes out August 24 on Nuclear Blast.

-AR

WARNING: Bobbi sent us a new portrait of herself to use this month, and while we’re very excited about the picture (in more ways than one), it is very much NSFW, so we’ve had to put it after the jump. Enjoy, you horn dogs.

Nathan Explosion, the always ironic, always self-parodying, and always cool animated front man of Dethklok, once resolved to make the most metal coffee the world would ever see. What would make it metal? By making it blacker than the blackest black, times infinity.

In the same way, I am looking to make porn metal by making it harder than the hardest hardcore, times infinity. Admittedly, it’s a much easier job than making coffee metal, since porn easily fits into one — or two, depending on the performer we’re talking about — of the holy triumvirate pantheon of sex, drugs and rock n’ roll. (Though if you’re a Mormon, coffee would be a drug, and therefore metal. But being a Mormon would not be metal, so the two would cancel each other out. Therefore you’d have to do nasty, filthy porn like Belladonna to be metal. but I digress.)

In fact, AVN, the trade magazine of the porn industry, was eagerly anticipating the crossover of rock and porn for most of the ’90s, like a crazed Christian fundamentalist convinced that Jesus was due back any day now. This anticipation was replaced in the 2000s by the crossover of rap and porn that was going to happen any day, which, strangely enough, also did not happen. (My publicist is eagerly awaiting the inevitable madrigal/porn crossover that will happen this decade. Hey nonny nonny, indeed.)

Click to read more…

“Dead and Left,” the ripping new song “Dead and Left” from Black Anvil‘s forthcoming Relapse release Triumvirate, has restored my faith in this three-pronged NYC metal troupe!

Call it Black Anvil fatigue, but over the past year or year-and-a-half it seems like Black Anvil have been an opening band on every show EVER to play NYC. Not that I can fault the guys for trying to hawk their wares wherever possible, but it just grew tiresome. So when a press release from Relapse announced they’d posted a new song, my thoughts of “meh” were quickly converted to “sweet!” as soon as I actually took a listen. Now I’ll actually be psyched to see them when they open for Behemoth, Watain and Withered this coming winter.

“Dead and Left” shows a much groovier, stonier, slower side to a band that’s known for up-beat, energy-filled black metal. I really like the change in direction, though of course it’d be premature to judge an entire album based on one song; I’m relatively certain Triumvirate won’t throw the band’s blackened roots by the wayside. We’ll find out when it’s released on September 28th. In the meantime, listen to “Dead and Left” here.

-VN

This Saturday marks the first GWAR-B-Q at Gwar’s Slave Pit in more than ten years. Neither Vince nor myself will be there ’cause it’s in Richmond, VA, but it sounds frickin’ sweet: there’s gonna be a performance from RAWG, a musical history of GWAR featuring members that have been in the band throughout their 25 year career, PLUS performances from Cannabis Corpse, Mobile Death Camp, Supression, Mensrea, and others, PLUS karaoke, skating, tattooing, and the spew-Olympics… whatever the fuck that is. In any case, it sounds like a typically GWARian awesome disgusting time.

When reached for comment, GWAR’s vocalist and notorious baby-crusher, Oderus Urungus, had this to say:

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Singapore grind bastards Wormrot are pretty much everyone’s favorite new discovery this year — our own Sammy O’Hagar raved about their album, Abuse (out now on Earache), and then did a great interview with their guitar player, Rasyid. But I kind of assumed that we might never get to see them live, since, like I said, they’re from Singapore, and it’s not like there’s tons of cash to be made from travelling all that way to play grindcore.

Luckily, I was wrong! Reader Chris Halbert has alerted us to the fact that band are, indeed, doing a U.S. tour this fall, including two weeks with Phobia and Maruta. These shows should be CRAZY, and you definitely don’t wanna miss ‘em, ’cause who knows when/if Wormrot will return to the States.

All the dates are on the poster above, or you can get ‘em on Wormrot’s MySpace page.

-AR

Before reading on, allow yourself to get a good grasp on where the Maldives are. Look at that map. The Maldives are a remote island chain a good 300-400 miles off the southernmost tip of India. They’re isolated as all fuck.

Now imagine what it’s like for those of you who live in small American towns; no record stores that carry metal CDs, a long way from any music stores that carry adequate equipment at best, no touring bands come through your town, metalheads few and far between (let alone ones you’d see eye to eye with in a band). Now multiply that by 10 and imagine how tough it must be to be in a metal band in the fucking Maldives where your nearest neighbor is India, not exactly a bastion of metal itself. Of course the Internet has made it much easier for fans in remote locales to discover obscure music, but you can’t email a guitar or the gear it costs to record one; shit must be expensive, yo!

Yet in the face of all that, the gentlemen in Serenity Dies have managed to put together a mighty fine metal band.

Click to read more…