In case you missed it, I’m giving away a shitload of CDs. Probably 300 or 400 of them, mostly metal, from my personal collection and from 2010 promo.

All I want in return is something via creative barter; offer me something weird, something cool, something crazy, something I might find useful (or, conversely, completely useless). I do not want money, and I do not want other CDs.

So far I’ve gotten some pretty tantalizing offers… so this is your list chance to attempt to be the best! I will choose the winner at the end of this week. Send your offers to vince [at] metalsucks [dot] net with CD GIVEAWAY in the subject line and let me know what you’ve got!

-VN

I haven’t enjoyed an All That Remains album since This Darkened Heart, and that was in 2004, which is like a millenia in blogger years. The problem, I think, is that I saw them live, and realized that Phil LaBonte can’t sing and the rest of the band apparently looks to 21st century Mick Mars as their model of how much to move on-stage. Once I know I’m never gonna be able to enjoy a band in concert, who gives a flying fuck about their records? Especially when their records sound like Overcome.

But ATR’s popularity seems to be ever-increasing, and I’m nothing if not a people pleaser, so here I present the cover for their forthcoming …For We Are Many. The art, by the very talented Travis Smith, makes almost no sense to me as a concept, because while there are “many” people on the cover, only three of them seem to be emitting light from their heads. So unless ATR are suggesting that they and/or their fans are faceless dim bulbs, it kinda seems like the release should be called …For We Are Few. But, hey, what do I know? I’m just a guy who enjoys the act of thinking.

All That Remains’ latest Adam Dutkiewicz-produced affair comes out October 12 on Prosthetic/Razor & Tie.

-AR

[via Noisecreep]

It’s a slow news day. And it’s gonna be a slow news week, and subsequently a slow news month. Ain’t much gonna happen until after Labor Day hits and people get back to working, because that’s just how this industry runs.

But bedroom djenters don’t give a fuck about the ebb and flow of the music industry news cycle! To wit, two new djent djams to hit the webernets this weekend:

• Tre Watson, who we’ve featured on MS before, has a new song out called “His Name Is Clover J. Fields And He Hates Babies.” If you can get over the ridiculous name you’ll find an awesome song full of groove, a dark sense of melody and plenty of aggressive brutality. Stream it over at Heavy Blog is Heavy, and expect to be able to get the song on his upcoming album Empirical Dichotomy, due out later this year.
• Jakub Żytecki, Polish djenter extraordinaire, has a new song up on his MySpace page called “AUM,” as reported by Got Djent. Jakub’s djent is more of the atmospheric variety, like a less flashy Animals as Leaders with plenty of keyboards filling in the cracks between jagged, groovy guitar riffs.

So get to listenin’ if you know what’s good for ya. Those new jams ain’t gonna listen to themselves.

-VN

Blacklisted crept up on me at the tail end of 2009 with the surprise release of a then-vinyl only album called No One Deserves To Be Here More Than Me. Noticeably more eclectic than its balls-to-the-wall predecessor Heavier Than Heaven, Lonelier Than God, that release was reissued a few months ago in CD format with a few bonus tracks. They’re approaching more Fucked Up sorta territory now, which I welcome since not enough hardcore bands demonstrate a willingness to experiment in the genre. You can get a taste of their current sound–which is still gritty as fuck–by watching the above footage of their set at this past March’s United Blood festival. If you’re one of the lucky sonsofbitches that scored a ticket to the sold out This Is Hardcore happening in Philly this past weekend, they played the fest this Sunday alongside the reunited Ink And Dagger, along with a ton of other killer bands. If you happen to reside in Europe, catch them live on their upcoming tour. Dates after the jump.

Click to read more…

Tila Tequila is one of these ladies who is famous for reasons I don’t really understand. I’m reading her Wikipedia page right now, and it looks like she got her start posing for Playboy, because I guess some guys like any woman who will take her clothes off, even if she looks like Gollum with fake tits. Then she did some acting, by which I mean she played “Hooters Girl #3″ in the unwatchable I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry. And then she got a VH1 reality dating show, because VH1 is where people with VD go to find true love, or, at least, someone to fuck until next season. And I guess she put out some music, too, because that sort of thing is no longer based on talent, but, rather, access to a computer, and every famous-for-no-particular-reason person in the world now puts out an album sooner or later.

So. The Eleventh Annual Gathering of the Juggalos took place this past weekend, and I don’t know who books/curates/whatever that event, but my impression is that they’ll take anyone. If you’re moderately famous and willing to play their festival, the organizers will gladly have you. And I guess it didn’t occur to anyone that Juggalos are used to fucking girls who looks like this and, thus, would probably get overly excited by the site of a woman who looks like Tila Tequila. And so Tequila took the stage at said Gathering… and was promptly attacked by the crowd of rabid horny mongoloids.

She told TMZ, an institution that represents everything right with the world:

Click to read more…

This mornings, Is wants tos eats somethings Is cannots pronounce. Is wants Naglfar.

-NC

Seattle’s Akimbo seem like they should be easy to classify, but many subtle elements of various aggressive sub-genres find their way into the band’s crushing sound and offer inviting ears a few curve-balls along the way. Guitarist Aaron Walters [one of ELEVEN axe-slingers over the band's career (!)] claims in the below interview that the explanation started out as “Black Sabbath meets Black Flag meets The Melvins”, which is pretty spot-on in representing the stony thump-grooves/rawkish punk asthetic/noiseful attributes, but I feel compelled to throw a couple more names in the hat, most notably Motorhead (so many parts are teeming with Lemmy’s uptempo forward-thrusting momentum) and local angular heart-core heros Botch [whose bassist Brian Cook went on to pummel in MS faves These Arms Are Snakes (RIP) and space-proggateers Russian Circles]. Bluesy, fuzzed-out Zeppelin-y jamouts meld with abrasive sludge to forge a style that is instantly familiar but somehow unexpectedly original in the songwriting.

These daze Akimbo has refined their sound and create a more soothing heavy-scape, as exemplified by their most recent 2008 album Jersey Shores, “a concept album inspired by a series of mysterious shark attacks which occurred on the beaches of New Jersey in 1916. This latest effort showed a substantial deviation in style from previous recordings, which can be attributed in part to Aaron Walters’ contributions as a guitarist/writer.” (Wiki) Original founding members Jon Weisnewski (bass, vocals) and Nat Damm (drums) continue to sustain a furious and punishing rhythm section while exploring new textures throughout.

Funny that they released this album the year before another Jersey Shore became such a huge worldwide phenomenon — I’m sure Akimbo has been hearing all about that for quite some time now, probably both to their amusement and chagrin.

Speaking of which, have you seen poof’d tanster tits Snooki get punched in the face from last season? Now that’s metal.

Visit Akimbo on Everyone’sSpace

Read previous Akimbo posts by Vince and moi, and Christopher Roddy’s review of Jersey Shores

Let’s all sludge past the, whatchamacallit……oh yeah, jumpppp, for more Akimbo live videos and an interview.

Click to read more…

FRIENDLY REMINDER: Vince and I are taking over WSOU tomorrow from 4 -8! It’s the only radio station on the eastern seaboard that’s actually worth a damn, and it’s gonna have the awesomeness that is US, so listen in!!! We’ll be taking callers, too. If you live in the area, it’s 89.5 FM on your radio; everyone else can listen on the Internet right here.

And now here’s some things we did this week:

• We spoke to Decapitated’s Vogg, All Shall Perish’s Ben Orum, Within the Ruins’ Tim Goergen and Joe Cocchi, and Iron Thrones’ Steve Henningsgard.
• We debuted a new track by Moth Eater.
• We wondered, “What’s the big deal about Lady Gaga?” as she danced to Metallica.
• We rocked out to a newly-released Soundgarden song, and we couldn’t believe that the new Limp Bizkit song has a guitar solo!
• We commended Australia for its populations’ collective child-rearing skills.
• We marveled at this nine year’s old review of Reign in Blood.
• We sang Monster Magnet’s praises.
• We asked you to help us complete this Metal Map of America.
• We watched Kiss put the “ass” in “Massachusetts.”
• We wished Behemoth’s Nergal a speedy recovery.

Okay. I hope to hear some of your voices tomorrow! Seriously, guys. Listen. Call. Don’t make me sad. If you do, we’ll schedule Nu Metal Week to take place ASAP.

-AR

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Welcome to “Question of the Week,” a (sometimes) weekly debate amongst the MetalSucks staff regarding a recent hot button issue.

Inspired this week by Vince’s response to Earache head honcho Digby Pearson’s assertion that the effects that social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook have been detrimental to metal, we decided to ask the rest of our writers:

HAVE SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES ALTERED THE METAL SCENE FOR THE WORSE?

The MS staff’s answers after the jump.

Click to read more…

We’ll announce the winner of the Decibel Hall of Fame contest next week; in the meantime, here’s the latest installment of “Fear, Emptiness, Decibel,” the new MetalSucks column from the editors of our favorite magazine — duh — Decibel.

So, right around this time last year, we had a release party for our Hall of Fame compilation Precious Metal (working title: It Puts the Metal in the Basket or Don’t You Make Me Hurt Your Dog, Mister!). For those of you lucky enough to live in or around Brooklyn, you probably had multiple chances to clothesline hipsters en route to the Masonic Temple, where Brutal Truth and Pig Destroyer opened for Repulsion, who were gnarly enough to play their unfuckwithable inductee Horrified in its entirety. Rad times were had by all but yours truly, as I stayed home to knit and discover the subtle wonders of my Enya box set.

Obviously, we’re not the first magazine to think that great bands playing great records in sequence is a sweet idea (although I’m the first managing editor that would endorse Waking the Cadaver playing Perverse Recollection of a Necromangler in Sergeant D’s driveway), but we’re the only one making it happen on a semi-charmed kind of regular basis. Hence the shunniest of the shunners, the mighty Incantation, will be riveting 1992 death metal masterpiece Onward to Golgotha into NYC’s collective dickhead on November 20. The br00tality will commence at Rebel (251 W. 30^th), and if that isn’t cool enough, Relapse will release a limited Decibel Hall of Fame edition of OTG to coincide with the show. Expect two additional Golgotha shows to be announced soon, as well as ticket info. Yeah, you’re fucking welcome. (I had nothing to do with this, as usual.)

-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 that cream you need.

All Shall Perish have seen, in the words of guitarist Ben Orum, some “dark” times as of late: multiple lineup changes, creative challenges, touring drama, and, about a week and a half after we interviewed Orum, a van accident that threatened to derail their current stint on the MetalSucks co-sponsored Summer Slaughter Tour (the band has since re-joined the trek).

And like any good metal band, they’ve persevered despite all the bullshit. When we spoke to Orum just hours before Summer Slaughter’s recent stop in NYC kicked off, he seemed to be in high spirits. He says that this latest incarnation of the band is the best yet, and will return to the studio next year to make a record more in line with2006′s heavy-as-fuck The Price of Existence than 2008′s more melodious and noodlily Awaken the Dreamers. And when we saw the band play later that night, well… they killed it, and the crowd ate them up. A lot of the time you hear bands say “Well, this is our strongest line-up ever,” and it’s just hype; but Orum speaks the truth. This is All Shall Perish, and they’re better than ever.

Read the full transcript of our chat with Orum after the jump.

Click to read more…

Hard to believe that it’s been almost a year since Ziltoid won the “Run MetalSucks for a Day” contest and was named MS’ new editor-in-chief for twenty-four hours. But we had a lot of fun with that, so we’re bringing the contest back this year! Here’s how it works:

• TELL US WHY WE SUCK IN THE COMMENTS SECTION BELOW. Anytime between now and midnight EST this Tuesday, August 17, leave a comment below saying why MetalSucks, y’know, sucks. It can be as long or short as you want – it just has to be funny. And we mean actually funny. Axl and Vince will choose five to ten of their favorites to move onto round 2. Please note that YOU MUST REGISTER FOR THE COMMENTS WITH A REAL E-MAIL ADDRESS, as all finalists will be contacted by e-mail.
• VOTE FOR WHO YOU THINK SHOULD WIN. Those selected by Axl and Vince will then be announced next Wednesday, August 18, at which point you, the readers, will vote for your favorites. The poll will close at midnight EST on Sunday, August 22. And whomever wins gets to…
• TAKE OVER METALSUCKS ON FRIDAY, AUGUST 27. All your stories must be turned in on Thursday, August 26 to be readied for publication. This is not because we want to look them over or edit them; on the contrary, we will be not be doing any editing or proofreading of any kind. You can say anything you want about anyone you want – you will be completely uncensored. You’ll need to provide the site slogan for that day. And if you want graphic(s) or video(s) to accompany a post, you will need to provide those, too.  We just need the stories handed in a day early so we can program them to publish the following day. That’s because, unfortunately, we can’t give you an administrative MetalSucks account, as that would allow you to delete previous posts, fuck up years of hard work, etc. But every story we run that day will be written by you, with your name on the byline. MetalSucks will be your site for one day. But there is one other catch:
• IF YOU WIN, YOU HAVE TO MEET YOUR DEADLINE. Failure to claim your prize or do your job as sole editor/blogger for the day will result in your name being published on your takeover day so all the world knows you were too lazy/pussy/whatever to follow through. And that will be the only story that runs that day. Also –
• THE FOLLOWING PEOPLE ARE INELIGIBLE TO WIN: Last year’s winner (in this case, Ziltoid), anyone who is a writer for a blog that we have linked to in the past, and anyone who has ever written or worked for MetalSucks in the past. Part of the point of this contest is to give a voice to voiceless, so fair’s fair.

And that’s that.

Good luck, everyone. Now make us laugh.

-Axl & Vince

Axl already alerted you to the level of kick-ass brought by NYC-based thunder metallers Moth Eater, whose album-opening track “Aftermath” you hopefully heard when he told you do so at LoudTrax. If you missed it, fret not, for we’ve got another track from Moth Eater’s new EP The Thunder God of Monster Island, out now. “Rocking Is My Business” is the 4th and final track of the EP, and it sure does rock — hard — like it’s the band’s business to do so. And it is the band’s business to rock. So, a job well-done, guys! Even the hurdy gurdy in this track rocks, no easy feat unless your Eluveitie.

Moth Eater – “Rocking Is My Business” [mp3]

-VN

Atheist 2010 (minus hoodie guy)

For fans, it’s been one awesome development after another in the tale of Atheist’s rebirth. What began in 2006 as a few live dates turned into a few summers of Euro festivals, and in 2010 the Atheist machine has pooled enough juice to justify a new album! Just what the often tight-assed prog-metal genre needs: doob-smokin’ jazz-heshers from Florida! Dreams really can come true.

I imagine the dudes of Atheist themselves are similarly psyched about demand for precious Atheist tours and records. It’s a lesson to far-out young bands: Sure, Atheist got to the party at an unfashionably early hour, way before Dillinger and other smug calculator metal bands could sexy up the prog-jazz-soft interlude metal genre (with their fancy haircuts and muscles and shit). And now Atheist is popping back in after midnight as the party has gathered steam and some chicks have arrived and, okay, you get the metaphor already: Atheist has a chance to record a big modern classic and absolutely school some ignorant nerds! Um, again!! And this time, people are paying attention!!!

Click to read more…

I like Twisted Sister as much as the next guy dressed like a girl in football pads, but would I ever consider naming a village after Dee Snider? No. No, I would not. I’m sorry, but the mind behind the Strangeland franchise is just not worthy of commemorated in such a way. You wanna settle The Township of Townsend? Fine, I’m all for it. Turn Osborne, Australia into Osbourne, Australia? I’ll get behind that just ’cause of Ozzy’s legacy. Dimebagopolis? I will happily attend the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

But Dee Snider? Fuck would I name someplace after Dee Snider for?

And yet, that’s exactly what one small community in Ohio is doing:

Cridersville, Ohio, a village near Lima, plans to change its name for a day in honor of Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider, who is visiting town to host a March of Dimes Bikers for Babies ride.

At least it’s only for the day I guess. ‘Cause I understand that Dee Snider is probably the biggest celebrity ever to willfully come to Cridersville, but, y’know. Have some PRIDE, people.

Come up with your favorite metal-musician’s-name-turned-into-a-town-name pun in the comments section below.

-AR

Additional reporting by Satan Rosenbloom.

So I feel like we’ve been talking about this Slayer/Megadeth tour FOR-EV-ER, and last night I finally got to see it. And despite my usual cynical instincts telling me that it might very well end up being a major disappointment, I gotta say… I had a really, really fun time.

Testament were great. That’s not really a surprise or anything — Testament have been great, Testament will be great, and if all else failed, I never really doubted for a second that they’d put on a killer show. If I don’t have much else to say about them, it’s because there was never really any suspense with regards to whether or not they’d be good. (But be advised: they went on shortly before 7 pm, so get to the venue early to make sure you don’t miss ‘em. There were far too many people not yet at the venue when they played, which was a damn shame.)

Megadeth… well, there’s really only one problem with Megadeth: Mustaine’s voice sucks. Like, at a James Hetfield level of suckitude — actually, he might sound worse than Hetfield, who can at least stay on-key or close-enough for 60% of the time. (Mustaine was almost on-key during an encore of “A Tout Le Monde,” and that was about it.) I seriously had to tune out Mustaine’s voice just to enjoy the music. He can still play guitar like nobody’s business, it’s great to have Ellefson back, and if we’re not gonna have Marty Friedman and Nick Menza in the band, than Shawn Drover and Chris Broderick are about as good as it’s gonna get, replacement-wise. But Mustaine’s vocals… it’s just embarrassing, man.

And then there was Slayer.

Click to read more…

Glassjaw’s place in the pantheon of rawwrrr metal is certainly up for debate, but there isn’t any doubt that they’ve had a huge impact on today’s music scene. When our own Sergeant D wrote an extensive history of metalcore/screamo he omitted Glassjaw, an important band to both scenes indeed, but once upon a time ex-Roadrunner / current Century Media A&R honcho Mike Gitter wrote a guest column for us in which he praised the band and their seminal album Everything You Ever Want to Know About Silence.

Glassjaw have been working on their third album, the first since 2002′s Worship and Tribute, for what seems like forever. Rumors have been circulating since 2006 and the band has done occasional tours in the meantime, but until now there hasn’t been any new music; Metal Insider alerted us to the fact that the new song “All Good Junkies Go To Heaven” is now circulating online. The ever-reliable Wikipedia tells me that the band released a 7″ vinyl single forthe song at the UK’s Hevy Fest on August 8th and that it will ship everywhere else on August 20, 2010 via Merch Direct.

So, check it out and let us know what you think. I’ve never been huge on Glassjaw but I’ve always respect them, and I love Daryl Palumbo’s voice.

-VN

When it comes to writing metal songs about metal, no one beats the Germans (with one exception: Manowar). It’s like there’s a giant bubble floating above Germany, one that only covers metalheads and prevents them from taking influence from any outside factors. When Axl and my grandchildren are throwing the horns together in the playpen 60 years from now, Germany will still be churning out hordes of cheesy power metal bands that constantly name-check themselves and sing about how great metal is.

Meet Kissin’ Dynamite, the terribly named (or greatly named?) newcomers to the German cheese scene. They’re addicted to metal (and steel!), just like you and me, and they want us to know it. They’ve even tapped their fellow German friend and cheese progenitor Udo Dirkschneider for an assist with their message. The minute I popped this tune on — from their new album of the same name — it was an instant classic in the Neilstein library and had to be shared with the masses. You can closely guess what the rest of the album sounds like… there’s even a power cover of Damn Yankees’ “High Enough”! Pure gold.

-VN

SXSW is, by far, the coolest music festival on the planet. Up until the last few years, however, heavy metal has always been the unwanted step-child.

I remember fighting with the SXSW organizers back in the late 80′s/early ’90s about bringing more metal to the fest. Their seeming non-interest in our favorite genre led to me and my best friend and fellow college radio metal show DJ Ray Seggern to host our own non-fest showcase at the old Riverside Drive Dollar Theater, featuring bands such as dead horse, Agony Column, and Sedition, long before non-fest showcases became the norm. The show was a huge success and even led to dead horse signing with Big Chief Records. SXSW, however, would not budge, and the metal pickings remained paltry over the next several years.

I was finally able to crack through SXSW’s anti-metal stance in 1996 when I brought one of the bands I managed, 16Volt, to the Backroom, along with Burn (which featured several ex-members of Skrew), Fear Factory, and Earth Crisis for an officially SXSW-sanctioned showcase. The concert was a huge success, and the presence of metal at the conference has slowly grown ever since. The metal pinnacle (or nadir depending on your perspective) culminated with the 2009 appearance of Metallica at Stubbs’ BBQ.

Now, you can help bring even more metal to SXSW by voting on which panels will be represented at next year’s music festival. I have been kind enough to peruse the 298 panel idea submissions and found three (yep, only three) that might be worth your headbangin’ time. Take a gander at these ideas, sign up (it’s free!), vote, and feel good about spreading the disease.

ARE METALHEADS SMART ENOUGH TO BE ONLINE?

This was submitted by Canadian metal blogger Laina Davis of Hellbound and will focus on the online community of metalheads. Hopefully, our very own Monkey Wranglers, Axl and Vince, will be on board.

Click to read more…

The funny thing about the photo for last week’s photo caption contest was that it really did look like either Fenriz or Kid Rock. Has anyone ever pointed out how similar those two dudes look? Anyway, our two winners — who each get a copy of Lightning Swords of Death’s latest The Extra Dimensional Wound and a reissue of Amon Amarth’s 2001 release The Crusher – each posted entries that reflect the duality of the photo’s subject:

• BruisedMetal: “Kid Rock blows”
• BubbaBu: “Darkblown.”

Well done, kids. This week we’re giving away a FOUR-pack of Metal Blade CDs; the latest releases from Woe of Tyrants, As I Lay Dying, Arma Gathas and Impious. Just come up with a funny caption to the below photo (sent in by James Finch) and the CDs shall all be yours — remember to comment with a real email address (or include it with your comment if you’re using FB Connect).