Soilwork are still on their MetalSucks-sponsored Panic Across North America Tour but that isn’t stopping our favorite Swedes from stooping to the level of good ol’ Internet warfare with the rest of us; they’ll be taking over SMNnews.com all day today! The band will be posting their thoughts and pictures from the road, providing their own unique insight throughout the day, and they’ll be participating in an hour-long live chat at 3:30 EDT (12:30 PDT). If you’ve ever wanted to ask Speed Strid whether he uses Bic or Gillette to shave that shiny dome of his, now’s your chance!

Head on over to SMNNews.com to check out the action.

-VN

Surely one of the most anticipated books in the history of heavy metal, Dave Mustaine’s Mustaine: A Heavy Metal Memoir was released by HarperCollins’s It Books imprint yesterday. And guess what? We’ve got an exclusive excerpt for you! And it’s a juicy one, too, involving a fight between Mustaine and his then-bandmates, James Hetfield and original Metallica bassist Ron McGovney. If you weren’t already dying to read the book, we suspect you will be now!

And as if that wasn’t enough, MetalSucks is also giving one lucky NYC-area reader a chance to get five minutes alone with Dave Mustaine before his book signing this coming Tuesday, August 10 at Barnes and Noble Fifth Avenue!!! Five runners-up will also received autographed copies of the book. All you have to do to win is a leave a comment below telling us why we should pick you. Please make sure you register for the comments section with a real e-mail address, as the winner will be notified via e-mail. And it should go without saying, but if you don’t live in New York and can’t get here by Tuesday, don’t enter the contest!

The awesome, exclusive excerpt from Mustaine: A Heavy Metal Memoir is after the jump. Check it out, then enter the contest for your chance to hang with Dave Mustaine! Good luck!!!

Click to read more…

Ugh, I absorb a lot of insults from my elitist friends for loving Aerosmith. But the scary thing to consider is how often strangers casually slam Aerosmith. Anti-Aerosmith vibe is everywhere! Like, my Pump tee might as well read Who Farted? judging from the eye-rolls I got at the library yesterday. At the bar the day before, I rocked “Deuces Are Wild” on the jukebox and when I returned to punch in “Rag Doll,” it was requested that I not wreck a perfectly nice Sunday afternoon with, ahem, “faggot music”. (I face-blasted that guy with Boston’s “Foreplay/Long Time.”)

But please, good people, you don’t need to put me down for lovvvvvvvving Aerosmith with my entire being across space and time; I already feel pretty bad about it. Everybody everywhere holds you responsible for how they’ve overstayed their welcome by, um, two decades! They say the band is so corny and hideously dressed. And their songs are not theirs. And by the way what in the motherfuck is an aerosmith?

I know all that! And don’t bother pointing out that Aerosmith may reach a new apex in annoying if Steven Tyler is indeed to be a regular on American Idol. You non-fans think you’re annoyed by this new way Tyler has discovered to tunnel into your life, but the major beef belongs to fans like me, who squirm whenever Tyler devotes energy to non-Aerosmith activities. His resources are finite in an very real and very immediate way. This is a fact: Our days are numbered. So please, Steven Tyler, just make one last great fucking Aerosmith record, then go on and sack-tickle Randy Jackson under the table all you want. Eye on the ball, please, Steven Tyler.

-ADF

Unsane’s 1995 LP Scattered, Smothered and Covered is a classic in the Amphetamine Reptile discography, and one of the truly essential noise rock recordings. Surely you remember the “Scrape” music video! So when the band announced they’d be performing the album live in its entirety for a select series of North American shows, I finished in my pants. Having witnessed Unsane decimate a sold out Union Pool in Brooklyn some months back, I can’t stress enough how powerful and loud this savage trio are after all these years.

Even better, Keelhaul open nearly all the dates, which is awesome since their latest Hydra Head album Keelhaul’s Triumphant Return To Obscurity fucking rules nations. (If you like aggressive and slightly weird metal, this is your bag, baby!) Other openers (depending on the date) include Unsane member Dave Curran’s side-project Pigs, and fellow noise rock legends Today Is The Day. The New York City date, which takes place on Thursday August 5 at Andrew W.K.’s Santos Party House (tickets here) also features a set from Disappearer, the band that topped my Top 20 Albums of 2009. The tour culminates in an appearance at the opening night party that precedes the sold-the-fuck-out Amphetamine Reptile festival in Minneapolis. Dates and details are below.

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A remarkable number of people I’ve told about this Friday’s pending Cynic / Dysrhythmia / Intronaut tour stop in NYC have greeted me with quizzical looks of “Really? THIS Friday? Cynic?” which is pretty crazy because the tour’s been announced for months, Cynic are playing Focus in full, those support bands are killer and… come on man, really? You’d rather see Torche and Boris in Brooklyn that night? I mean, those are mighty fine bands too… but c’mon! Well, whatever, the Bowery Ballroom will surely be sold out and it’s gonna be a helluva night and you’re gonna miss it. Too bad for you.

I mention this right now not just because I’m excited for Friday but because Sacha “Blogronaut” Dunable wrote up a fun post for Decibel in which he lists and discusses the four best things about touring with Cynic. I won’t give away Sacha’s bag o’ tricks, but I will tell you that if you know what a Steinberger guitar is you’ll find the post very funny.

While we’re on the Intronaut tip, check out their new song “Elegy” over at Invisible Oranges; it’s highly worthy of the hand gesture after which the blog hosting the song is named.

-VN

I could have sworn that when I was a kid I read somewhere that The Kinks had no problem with Van Halen’s cover of “You Really Got Me,” and, in fact, thought it superior to their own version. But I can’t remember where I read it (I’m assuming a full-color glossy crap magazine), I can’t find the quote online, and it was probably all propaganda, the way pretty much everything in magazines like Hit Parader and Circus was propaganda. (And the Gerri Miller years of Metal Edge weren’t exactly a bastion of journalistic integrity, either.)

And so here we are, decades after the fact, and The Kinks’ Dave Davies is bitching about the cover, telling Classic Rock that “I’m sure Eddie Van Halen played better when he was drunk,” and that VH’s version of the song “was very Middle America. It was like, ‘Hey man, look at me with my tight trousers! Here’s our version of You Really Got Me!’”

And if you’re wondering what crawled up Davies’ ass, well, the next part of his quote is actually very telling:

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There’s really almost nothing to say about a tour headlined by Suffocation and featuring The Faceless, Through the Eyes of the Dead, Decrepit Birth, and Fleshgod Apocalypse, other than, “Where can I buy a ticket?” Kind of amazingly, I still haven’t seen TTEOTD live yet, and I’m not even sure that Fleshgod Apocalypse, who are Eye-talian, have ever played North America before; but I can vouch that the other three bands all crush testicles live, and based on how much I enjoy their recordings, I’d like to believe that the other two bands will as well.

This is pretty much a perfect line-up. No dates have been announced yet, but you should fall to your knees and pray that the tour is coming to your town.

More as we get it.

-AR

Mazel tov to Katherine Hsueh, who correctly identified last week’s logo as belonging to Aborted Jesus Milkshake. (How do you like your aborted Jesus milkshake? I like mine with just a little bit of peanut butter mixed in.) Katherine wins her choice of whatever the fuck we have lying around the Mansion right now. Check your e-mail for a list of choices, Katherine!

This week we’re back to giving away a really real prize — specifically, five (!) copies of Decrepit Birth‘s kick-ass new album, Polarity, courtesy the nice people at Nuclear Blast. In his review, my colleague Sammy O’Hagar said that Decrepit Birth are “like no other band I’ve heard before,” which is high praise indeed. You can order the album here, or, of course, you can just try your luck with 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 five winners and announce their names next week.

This week’s logo was suggested by longtime reader David Foust, and is pretty hard I think. But the prize is really sweet, so I felt like y’all had to earn it. Sorry!

-AR

In case there was any doubt, Living Colour are still one of the coolest bands on the planet.

Shortly before they were set to take the stage for a sold-out show in New Hampshire on Sunday night, they realized that vocalist Corey Glover had laryngitis, and couldn’t risk using his voice, lest he do serious damage and endanger the group’s upcoming European tour.

At this point, most bands probably would have cancelled, even if the venue was already full. But not Living Colour: according to Union Leader, they took the stage anyway, playing as a three-piece, and — apparently as a joke — invited fans to come up on stage and take Glover’s spot.

And guess what? Three fans — Nick David, Charles Davis and Dan Swanson — took them up on their offer:

“I’ve never heard of anything like it, not in my experience. It was like an open mic night, only with Living Colour as your backup musicians,” said [venue owner Scott] Hayward.

You may recall that Machine Head did something similar back in February; as in that instance, I’m sure Living Colour made these dudes’ lives. Hell, I can’t sing worth a shit, but I know all the words to every LC song and I probably would have jumped on stage given half a chance.

Here’s video of LC doing “Love Rears Its Ugly Head” with Nick David on vocals. He’s no Corey Glover, but then, who is?

Living Colour’s latest, The Chair in the Doorway, is out now on Megaforce.

-AR

I don’t really like Sabaton, and I think this song, “Uprising,” stinks as a piece of music. But it’s hard for me not to appreciate this video, for the following reasons:

• I don’t think I’ve ever seen the Warsaw uprising portrayed in a metal video before, and I’m inclined to believe that I never will again.
• The band somehow got Peter Stormare from Fargo and Bad Boys II (and a million other movies) to play a Nazi officer. Stormare is Swedish, so maybe he’s friends with the band (everyone in Sweden knows everyone else in Sweden, right?), or maybe he just needed a free lunch. Either way, score for Sabaton.

Maybe the History Channel could start a metal program where they show this video along with some God Dethroned clips and maybe some Iced Earth or whatever. I’d watch that.

“Uprising” comes off of Sabaton’s latest, Coat of Arms, which is out now on Nuclear Blast.

-AR

That’s right, kiddies… Behemoth are gonna heat up your winter with some blazing hot metal forged deep in the fires of Hell! (Actually, Poland. But still.) If you’ve seen Behemoth live before, you know what a, well, behemoth of a show they put on; if you haven’t, you must hate yourself or something, and here’s your chance to remedy the situation. Plus they’re bringing Watain, Withered, and Black Anvil out with them! This is the kind of tour you dream about: four of the dingiest, dirtiest, most evil-sounding bands on the planet, all on one bill. We are so proud to be associated with this tour, we can’t even begin to tell you.

And as if that wasn’t great news in and of itself, Behemoth have also just revealed to MetalSucks that they’ll be releasing a live DVD called Evangelia Heretika this fall (date to be announced soon) so even those who aren’t able to attend the tour can get their fix of live Behemoth. A special pre-order package is available now for only $66.60 that includes 1 ticket to the show, 1 copy of the DVD, a tour poster, and a meet and greet with the band at the show; order here!

Dates and links to buy tickets, along with the album cover for Evangelia Heretika, after the jump!

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So I guess one of the dudes in Insane Clown Posse is named Violent J, and he has a kid, named — wait for it –Violent JJ. And Violent JJ has now released a music video, “Bad Bad Man.” He seems to be the man of the title, even though this morning I took a crap that was bigger than he is.

I know it’s not nice to make fun of a little kid, especially when he had absolutely zero chance in this world; I mean, he’s basically stuck in a real-life version of I Am Sam, except that for some reason, no one is trying to take him away from his mongoloid father. Still, for that same reason, I predict that this kid will grow to be an increasingly large waste of resources, and therefore I have the right to give him shit preemptively.

By the way, remember in the “Miracles” video when the ICP dudes were, like, all freaked out ’cause each of them has a kid that looks like them, and that’s somehow a miracle and not just the way genetics work? Well, I actually think this kid looks more like the other guy, Shaggy 2 Dope. Is it possible Violent JJ should really be named “Shaggy 3 Dope?” Do you realize how funny it would be if it turned out his was dipping his clown popcicle in his partner’s Juggalette’s cotton candy*?Now that would be a fucking miracle.

-AR

*By the way, these are real terms Juggalos use for “penis” and “vagina.” I looked it up. In case you needed any further proof that these people are emotionally stunted, they need to use confection names because they can’t say “penis” or “vagina” without laughing.

Will you people stop sending us really good bands? There are too damned many to keep up with. Jeez.

• Sentinel: Deliciously tasty death metal that’s equal parts Morbid Angel / Gojira-style rhythmic DM and Dying Fetus / Suffocation-style groove/stomp DM. But with a sense for great riffs that’s close to something like Decapitated or even Lamb of God. The crisp, punchy, heavy production comes from Cannae’s Shane Frisby. I’m loving the two new songs they have posted!
• Raw In Sect: Really solid American death metal-inspired thrash (from Greece!) with a blatantly raging boner for Machine Head. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
• Viraemia (pictured) This is pretty much the epitomy of what Ziltoid would call “weedily weedily” tech-death. In more musical terms: it’s really fast, technical death metal with a ton of sweep-picking matched up with tight bass and razor-sharp drums via clean, pristine production for that super-precise tech-death feel. If you enjoy bands like Origin this is a surefire hit for you, but if you’re not into tech-death you’re just gonna think this is a bunch of wank. Count me in the former category… this is extremely well-done! [Thanks: "slowmotion" via comment. See? we do read 'em (sometimes).] Apparently last year I posted a video of Viraemia’s bass player showing off — sweet.
• Enabler: It’d be easy to call this beard metal, but it’s more than that; it’s beard metal with balls. Big, fat, giant, droopy balls that swing to and fro between a bulldog’s legs. Big, powerful, fuzzed-out guitar riffs mix with hard-hitting drums to match and are punctuated by a couple of other influences. This is music to drink a lot of beer to in a dark, damp basement. [Thanks: Dan Burton]

-VN

Axl and I finally got to hit up this year’s Summer Slaughter tour here in NYC on Sunday, and in person the lineup of bands was even better than on paper — and we’ve been raving about it on (i-)paper for months. Every band was just so good and they kept coming one right after the next; even Carnifex, to whom we’ve devoted a fair amount of time to slagging, weren’t bad… they’re a perfectly serviceable band but their music just happens to be really generic and uninteresting when compared to all the other bands on the bill.

Of all the bands I was seeing live for the first time — which was a lot of them — Veil of Maya are my pick for “best new/young band discovery.” I know they aren’t exactly a new band anymore, but the last several times they’ve come through town they’ve either been on crappy bills or I haven’t been able to go. Dudes really know how to pump up the crowd and give a razor-tight, energy-filled performance at the same time; from our view in the balcony we had an amazing view of the pit, and I gotta tell ya, shit was insanely brutal. Our birds’ eye view also afforded us a look at guitarist Marc Okubo’s fancy footwork; he uses a sampling pedal to live-record the creepy lead lines you hear in a lot of the band’s songs, then loops them on repeat while he plays the rhythm parts live and rocks out. I know plenty of guitarists do this but I think the way Okubo does it is unique, and it was cool to see it from atop.

Here’s VoM playing “[id]” and “Unbreakable” live on Sunday in NYC.

-VN

… sort of!

The above photo was sent in by Zappa Plays Zappa bassist Pete Griffin, who’s already been featured in our ongoing Show Us Your MetalSucks contest series — in which you send in a fun/funny picture of yourself donning your MetalSucks merch and in return we send you a buncha free shit.

Griffin befriended Portnoy on last year’s Progressive Nation tour and the two have been buds since. The above photo was snapped after the ZPZ set at the High Voltage Festival in London, where Portnoy was playing with Transatlantic and then immediately flying back to the US to do the first gig with Avenged Sevenfold the next night. Says Griffin, “He once again sat and watched our entire set, singing and air drumming along.” The dude on the left is ZPZ drummer Joe Travers and the dude on the right is ZPZ guitarist Jamie Kime, both of whom are in Griffin’s other project Gryphon Labs.

So, while Portnoy might not be wearing that bad-ass Jewified MetalSucks shirt… it’s probably the closest he’ll ever get to doing so. Thanks, Pete!

-VN

Photo by the esteemed Ms. Jacqueline Cheng. More from their Central Park performance here.

If you’re a prog nerd and this lineup doesn’t get your balls tingling, I’m not sure what will. Circa Survive are a contentious band ’round these parts — you’d be right to say they aren’t really metal (and hey fuck you it’s my website i’ll write about what I want to) but wrong to say they aren’t really good – will embark on a headlining tour in October and November with fellow weirdos in excellence Dredg, the recently reunited Codeseven, and… wait for it… Animals as Leaders!

Click to read more…

IT’S SO GREAT TO BE LIV KRISTINE!!! How great? Her new video, for the song “Skintight,” is like one of those classy L’Oréal ads all those famous women like Scarlett Johanson and Penelope Cruz and Béyonce did. Only it’s not a famous woman, it’s Liv Kristine, and she’s not selling make-up, she’s selling an album no one gives a shit about.

-AR

The good news is that Linkin Park’s new single, “The Catalyst,” doesn’t sound exactly like every other song the band has ever recorded; the bad news is, it might actually be worse. Zach Shaw at Metal Insider points out that the tune has an uncanny resemblance to Turkey’s entry in the 2010 Eurovision contest, which is to say, Linkin Park now sound like a terrible disco rock band that might be enjoyed by a Sacha Baron Cohen character. This might even ruin the new Medal of Honor for me, if I didn’t already know that I’m just gonna turn the sound off and crank Prostitute Disfigurement while I kill things anyway.

-AR

Iwrestledabearonce and director Justin Beasley are in something of a tight spot; topping their video for “See You in Shell,” which featured a performance by Dennis Haskins, was going to be near-impossible pretty much no matter what. I mean, maybe if they had somehow snagged Mr. T or Gary Coleman’s corpse for “Danger in the Manger,” they would have erased all memory of having Mr. Fucking Belding in their last video, but as it stands, they have not quite outdone themselves.

“Manger” is still very cool, though — it certainly has no shortage of that wonderful IWABO “What the fuck is happening here?” magic. And it’s probably vastly superior to the actual View-Master movie the writers of Transformers are making. That film won’t have two euphemisms for “vagina” stuffed (pun intended) into one deliriously random sight gag, that’s for damn sure.

“Danger in the Manger” comes off of It’s All Happening, which is out now on Century Media. IWABO have just announced a tour with The Chariot and some bands I don’t personally care for, but you should still go, ’cause IWABO are sweet. Get dates here.

-AR

As I’ve mentioned before, earlier this summer I spent a few days in Atlanta hanging out with Daath as they recorded their new album; starting in September I’m going to unveil a massive, multi-part behind-the-scenes series, which will include a studio report, some video footage, and extremely in-depth interviews with most of the band, as well as producer Mark Lewis.

While you’re waiting for that sure-to-be-awesome series to begin, Metal Mark at Skulls N Bones has compiled his own behind-the-scenes videos, the first part of which you can check out below. At the end you can hear a little bit of a new song, which still didn’t have a title (or vocals, for that matter) when I was there — but it’s a really groovy number that demands you bob your head in time with the beat. But the entire album is really diverse, and unless Daath have added a turn tablist or something since I visited with them, I can pretty guarantee you it’s gonna kick all kinds of ass.

The video also says there’s an October 26 release date); I’m 99.9% sure that’s accurate, although you might wanna wait for an official statement from the band and/or Century Media before marking it down in your calendar.

-AR