Congrats to reader Nick Lynn, who correctly identified last week’s logo as belonging to the band  Rotten Stigmatosis. Nick wins any two CDs and/or DVDs from whatever the hell we have lying around the mansion this week. Nick, please check your e-mail for your list of choices!

This week we’re teaming up with the folks at SPV to give away three copies of a super-duper awesome double gatefold vinyl LP of Better Off Dead, the classic album from teutonic thrash titans Sodom. In addition to featuring the original record, this vinyl includes three bonus tracks — “The Saw is the Law (Splattling Version),” “The Kids Wanna Rock,” and a live recording of “Stalinhagel.” Pretty rad, no?

(And don’t forget that Sodom recently released a DVD, Lords of Depravity, Part 2, and reissued their album Agent Orange. So while we’re on the topic, you might as well just go ahead and order those here and here.)

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 three winners and announce their names next week.

This week’s logo comes from Completely Unreadable Uber-recommender David Foust…

-AR

Incredibly unprofessional photo courtesy my iPhone and PBR.

Rarely have I felt as close to a room full of mostly strangers as I did at Wormrot‘s first show of their U.S. tour this past Sunday evening at the Bowery Electric. As you’ve probably heard, the band missed the first few dates of the tour due to visa issues, and almost didn’t make it to the States at all; once it became clear that they were going to make it across the ocean, the promoters of this bill — which also included Evoken and Wizardy, both of whom are worth checking out if you’ve yet to do so — were able to slide Wormrot in at the last minute. This combination of “Awesome Cinderella story band from Singapore almost didn’t make it and then did and scheduled this show at literally the last possible moment” made the entire thing feel that much more special, and the fans in attendance behaved accordingly.

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I’ve always thought that ESCAPE THE FATE were a solid band, but to me they were kind of doing the same thing as Blessed By a Broken Heart, only not quite as polished or interesting. That’s not a bad thing by any means, but I’m excited to see that their new song takes things in a different direction, more along the lines of mid-period Linkin Park (before they started listening to too much indie rock) or the post-18 Visions band N3V3R EN0U6H. If you ask me, there are not nearly enough industrial-metal glam-goth bands out there these days, so I am stoked to see these youngsters carrying the torch!

Will ETF alienate their core fanbase of teenage girls who weren’t born when hair metal was relevant?? Will industrial nu-metal make a comeback this decade???? Will Blessed By a Broken Heart ever get the credit they deserve?? When (if ever) will post-hair metal become passe??

-Sergeant D.

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Quebec quintet The Last Felony sound so much like Through the Eyes of the Dead that if you had told me that their new album, Too Many Humans, was, in fact, Through the Eyes of the Dead, I might very well have believed it. This fact highlights Too Many Humans‘ greatest strength, as well as its greatest weakness: it rocks really hard, and it’s completely lacking in originality.

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How did I miss this? Oh, right… I was too busy giving away hundreds of CDs in the best trade EVER! (more on that soon).

But while I was busy packing up boxes in exchange for water foul (!?), our pals at Crustcake premiered a new Fight Amp song. For those unawares, Fight Amp are one rip-roaring beast of a virgin-tight live band (and Cosmo Lee thinks so too) that absolutely must not be missed whenever the chance presents itself. But in the meantime we’ve got “Thankless,” a new track from the upcoming three-way 12″ split with Gary Suarez ball-tinglers Kowloon Walled City and Ladder Devils entitled Lose Lose Lose. The record will be available from Brutal Panda Records and is available for pre-order now, but the release is limited to only 300 copies so be sure to get your order in.

“Thankless” is a ripper of a track that brings the trademark powerful yet fuzzy bass and crushing, jagged rhythms that fans of this band have come to expect. The mix is a little bizarre and the drums are curiously low, but Fight Amp are a band that’s all about POWER, and the mix does a fine job of capturing that. Check out “Thankless” over at Crustcake.

-VN

I’m not really the resident Deftones fan here at MetalSucks, but my-oh-my do I like their new video, for the song “Sex Tape.” I have no idea what, if anything, the footage “means” in relationship to the song, but it sure is gorgeous to look at.

Oddly enough, it’s only the second-best underwater romp amongst pretty girls I’ve seen in the past month; the extended lesbian ballet in Piranha 3D still has this beat. Sorry, Deftones. Next time get some nudity.

“Sex Tape” comes off of Deftones’ latest, Diamond Eyes, which is out now on Reprise/Warner Bros.

-AR

I kid, I kid. There’s really no reason for me to be so down on Dimmu Borgir; I enjoyed that song in the Hellboy trailer as much as the next guy.

But I can’t understand why anyone would be more excited to see Dimmu Borgir than Enslaved. It’s just, like, over my head.

So. Dimmu are doing a U.S. headlining tour starting in November, with support coming from Enslaved, Blood Red Throne, and Dawn of Ashes. I don’t really like Blood Red Throne but Dawn of Ashes’ new album, Genocide Chapters, is a lot of fun for a record with the word “genocide” in the title. So I’ll give Dimmu Borgir some credit and predict that this tour will ultimately be at least 62.5% awesome (that’s 25% for Enslaved, 25% for Dawn of Ashses, and 12.5% for Dimmu Borgir). Is that enough awesome to make you buy a ticket? That’s your own decision, but I think if you have a chance to go see Enslaved live and you pass it up, you’re a dope.

Here are dates:

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If  ”Vertigo,” the EVH-meets-Dimebag instrumental album intro of The Absence‘s new album Enemy Unbound, isn’t enough to get you to listen to the whole thing… how about the promise of the hundred or so absolutely top-notch riffs contained therein? And plenty of killer riffs I do promise; riff after riff after riff after riff. Of both the singular and harmonized-lead variety, both in spades, every single one of ‘em headbang and fist-pump worthy. If that’s still not enough to get you to listen, how about the promise of expertly crafted scorching solos? Or of that lost art — actual songwriting? If that’s still not enough for you… it’s fucking free! Just press the damn “play” button below and let ‘er rip.

Enemy Unbound drops September 14th via Metal Blade. Pre-order that shizz here.

[this promotion has ended]

Even if Immortal’s All Shall Fall ultimately didn’t make my personal year-end list in ’09, it came pretty damn close. You’d have to be deaf not to hear it kicking your ass all around the room. And the title track makes me wanna run through the woods on all-fours and eat adorable still-living bunnies every time I hear it.

So now there’s a video for said title track, and while I wish it was a little more Behemoth-y in scope, it is certainly frostbitten and grim, so I’m not gonna bust its balls too much. I might, however, go apply a corpsepaint frown to my face, just to ensure that no one ever, under any circumstances, thinks they saw me smiling once.

All Shall Fall is out now on Nuclear Blast.

-AR

I’m not, generally speaking, a huge power metal fan, but I love Firewind, and I love their new album, Days of Defiance. Does that mean that Firewind are a very, very good power metal band, and my tastes in the subgenre are highly discerning, or does that mean that Firewind are a very, very bad power metal band, and they appeal to me because they’re so unlike most of their peers?

I don’t know and I don’t care. You could call this “poopy metal” and I’d still listen to it. The music kicks all kinds of ass, Gus G. is the man, and for all the silliness and melodrama usually associated with power metal, it features the single most pithy lyric I’ve heard so far this year, in the song “Embrace the Sun”: “You can’t change the world, but you can change yourself.” Maybe that sentiment seems cheesy, but when I first heard it, I was like, “Whoa. That is some mind-blowing shit. And if we all changed ourselves, we’d change the world, man!!!” And I wasn’t even high when I heard it!

Here’s the newly released cover art for Days of Defiance, which comes out October 26 on Century. It’s pretty much exactly the cover art you’d expect for a new release from this band, but that doesn’t make the music it contains any less rockin’.

And I’ll have an interview with Gus G. soon.

-AR

You should all know who the artist Vincent Castiglia is. Earlier this year, he collaborated with no less a legend than H.R. Giger on the album art for Triptykon’s Eparistera Daimones, and anyone who has the approval of Giger and Tom G. Warrior should be aces in your book. But in case that’s not enough proof of Castiglia’s metal cred for you, check this out: dude paints exclusively in his own blood. I can’t think of anything more metal.

Of course, Castiglia’s choice of materials would just be a gimmick if he wasn’t also really, really talented. Castiglia’s work is insanely detailed — you have to get right up close to really appreciate it — really beautiful, and really, really fucked up. And I mean that as high praise.

If you live in or near Toronto, Castiglia is getting his first Canadian exhibition, Sacrifices For The Sanguinary Age, from September 10 through October 10 at Meta Gallery. He’ll also be giving a talk at the gallery this Saturday, September 11, from 1 – 3 pm. Like I said, the guy’s work is really stellar, so if you’re in a position to go, you totally should. This is a rare moment when I wished I lived in Toronto.

To be put on the preview list for this exhibition or for further information, email Jody Polishchuk at jp@metagallery.com.

-AR

‘Cause apparently he’s out. No word yet on whether he was quit or fired, but either way, this news should be about as shocking as the fact that Axl Rose walked off-stage during a show in Dublin last week. Why? ‘Cause Jane’s Addiction have had four bass players just since 2001. Either these dudes are really hard to get along with, or they have terrible luck. And I don’t believe in luck.

And it’s too bad, really, ’cause for people like me, who basically gave up on Jane’s Addiction when they heard Strays (y’know, from the band’s second reunion), having McKagan in the group was probably a good incentive to pay attention again. And McKagan seemed like a good fit for Jane’s Addicition, ’cause Jane’s and GN’R are similar in that they’re both bands that released a couple of killer records forever ago, and whose members manage to milk those records’ popularity to remain in the spotlight even as their work becomes increasingly lackluster.

No word on who Jane’s Addiction’s next soon-to-be-former bassist will be, although I’m really pulling for Jason Newsted. Meanwhile, I imagine McKagan will now go back to his non-solo solo project, Loaded, and calling Slash at all hours of the night, asking when Velvet Revolver can get back together.

-AR

Dudes like Navene Koperweis — drummer of Animals as Leaders, ex-Animosity, and multi-instrumentalist/mastermind of Fleshwrought — are the reason I put down my guitar and picked up my blogger e-pen instead. Dude is so insanely talented it’s like why would I even waste my time? Instead I’m a keyboard jockey, a supposed pimply-faced teenager crapping my pants in my mom’s basement, hiding behind my screen while I hurl insults at bands infinitely more talented than I could ever be. But hey, wait a minute now… today I’m heaping praise upon someone and using my bully pulpit for good. Hallelujah!

Islander over at No Clean Singing has put together a retrospective of sorts covering Navene Koperweis’ career in metal, short but prolific, and I can’t help but be in awe. It’s a collection of clips paired with a little biographical blurb along each step of the road, and it covers Koperweis from his work with Animosity several years back through this year’s compelling Fleshwrought record Dementia/Dyslexia (which we liked so much we decided to stream the whole thing) of which he was the main creative force.

I was never into Animosity but I can certainly appreciate good drumming when I see it. Anyone who reads this site knows how I feel about Animals as Leaders, so there’s no need to re-hash the ball-fondling here. The most interesting part of the post is a video of Koperweis playing guitar along to the recorded version of the Fleshwrought track “Inner Thoughts.” Koperweis wrote and recorded the album — as in, played all of the instruments — himself, brought in his friend Johnny Davy of Job For a Cowboy to handle vocals, and had a smattering of guest musicians visit the studio for select parts. One of those guest musicians is Alex Rudinger of unsigned Maryland band Ordinance, who you see tracking drums below.

Yeah, Koperweis is that good at guitar too.* Sigh.

-VN

*To the inevitable troll who will say he’s not that good of a guitarist… fuck you.

This propulsively driving, tribally beating sludge monster slays me from the first track, and won’t let go the whole way through.  Bombastic rhythm section, piercing guitars, thick manly screaming (rawr), and melodic singing sections set the stage for a no-bullshit, ass-kickin frenzy of wonderfully simple songwriting that blends together seamlessly with the thunderous production.  I don’t love their second album (although it’s definitely time for a re-listen), but this one is truly a winner.

-KW

How does it feeeel?

The Rolling Stone I read at the gym the other day sure taught me quite a lot:

-the new John Lennon documentary focusing on Lennon’s life in New York, LENNONYC, will premiere on PBS on November 22nd.  This year would have been his 70th birthday (and is sadly the 30th anniversary of his death), and the film serves to trace the final decade of the artist’s life.  Of Lennon’s relationship with New York, Yoko Ono says, “It is a very strange city….it was his love and it was his death.”

-George Clinton is making an album with reclusive soul legend Sly Stone that will be released by Christmas.  Clinton’s proposed title: Beat the Pink Up: Hump It Till It Hiccup. Classy!!  Clinton persuaded Stone to return to the studio after Sly appeared at a couple P-Funk gigs in 2008 and 2009, and the duo recorded with members of P-Funk and the Family Stone in L.A. and Sly’s home in San Francisco.  As a lifelong funkhead, I am extremely curious to see what this collaboration yields, but given Clinton’s output in the last decade, it’s hard not to be somewhat skeptical.  Sly coming back is a big one though.

-Jason Bonham will hit the road in October with a Zeppelin tribute band.  Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Experience will be a combination of Jason playing his father’s music with a yet-to-be-announced group of musicians and the drummer sharing stories about touring with Zeppelin as a kid.  This comes three years after Jason played drums at the 2007 Zeppelin reunion concert, which I wish I could have been at.  Still the best rock n’ roll band of all time.

-Rolling Stone praises Queens of the Stone Age’s reissue of Rated R excessively.  Something to the effect of this album saved/resurrected 2000s metal, which is highly debatable but okay Rolling Stone, dare to pretend like you know something about heavy music.  Apparently with this record filled with “refined stuff”, “Josh Homme introduced excess to a metal landscape lousy with mook thumb-suckers”, and thus “many winking headbangers owe QOTSA a bump.”  You mean a fist bump?  I don’t get it, Rolling Stone….you’re too cool for this winking headbanger.

All sycophanterie aside that is a pretty damn good album and was a pretty damn good band, so let’s check out the first and last tracks, shall we?

-KW

Yesterday Sergeant D. made a joke about MetalSucks being 25% owned by Epitaph Records. I don’t know why we always foolishly assume that people will understand jokes like that, but they often don’t. And so we saw some comments where people were confused, and we got some e-mails from readers, and even a few from industry types who thought we had sold part of MetalSucks. So it may or may not please you to know that MetalSucks is still 100% owned by Vince and myself. And in the future, if you see something on here that seems kinda weird and ridiculous — e.g., that we’re not partially owned by a record label, or Gary Suarez taking all the credit for a band’s success, or whatever — please just take a moment to ask yourself, “Hey, could these dudes be kidding around?” ‘Cause, y’know. We’re very rarely serious. Except about Valtrex. We’re deadly serious about that.

Speaking of herpes, we’re shutting down early today to go enjoy the long Labor Day weekend. We’ll be closed Monday, but we’ll resume our usual suckiness on Tuesday. We have a whole heap of more premieres, cool contests, and interviews, and all manners of sarcastic assholism, so don’t drink so much this weekend that you forget about us, okay? And in the meantime, here’s a run-down of some fun we had this week:

• We debuted a new song by Daath, and a new song by Black Anvil, and a new video by Insidious Disease.
• Cooking Contaminated is back, y’all! Now with 100% more Rosetta.
• We spoke to Slayer’s Dave Lombardo, Saviours’ Scott Batiste, and everyone in Eyes Set to Kill.
• We checked out new releases by Stargazer, and Turbid North and Otargos.
• They say there are no atheists in the foxholes, but there is Nergal.
• Speaking of religion, this nice lady reverend thinks churchgoers could learn from metal.
• We pondered the meaning of Iron Maiden breaking their sales record.
• Dave Mustaine announced a Big Four U.S. tour from the stage.
• Even though, in the words of Anso, metalheads are “supposed to intimidate and discomfit the squares,” we think the death metal cat burglar went a little too far.
• We saw Kvelertak’s kvelertaks.

Now…TO THE BAR!

-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.

This week, in honor of Labor Day, we asked our writers:

WHAT’S THE ULTIMATE HEAVY METAL BBQ MUSIC?

The MS staff’s answers after the jump.

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Legendary stonebags Sleep are resurrecting their monolithic Holy Mountain this weekend here in the NYC metro area. That record is pretty amazing – less a collection of songs and more a riff delivery program. As is the trend these days, those who didn’t hear them tour on the record in the mid-90s will get a second chance to drink it all in. It will be a moment: everyone in the room will know the songs, the band isn’t going to be too stoned to play and even the opening bands will be watching from the side of the stage, happy to finally hear these songs the way they’ve always hoped to hear them – live, loud and in front of them.

This reunion stuff… I’ve got mixed feelings about it, like lots of folks. I guess it’s better to happen than not to happen. I guess. But bands performing dated works has a sense of nostalgia to it that doesn’t give the charge it did when it was all first going on. This itself may be a fiction – appreciation for a band may grow after they’ve decided to call it quits, and maybe they just weren’t that good a live band when they came up with their classic material. Sleep, for example, was opening for Cathedral at the goddam Limelight (a Mid-town cocaine dance club for those who aren’t familiar) when they were touring Holy Mountain. Still, the thrill of hearing Al Cisneros roll through the opening lines “Dragonaut” just can’t be the same as when it was all happening the first time.

Which is funny for us here in NYC. Because that exact thrill of a totally amazing, mindblowing show happening in a cramped basement by sweaty bands surely at their peak will also be happening Monday night. As 1,000 joints of light are ignited uptown, those lucky enough to cram into the basement of the Lower East Side’s Cake Shop to see Young Widows and Helms Alee are going to be there as it’s all happening for the first time. Each band has put out an underappreciated classic records in the past few years, reports on the new stuff for both say they’re even better and they can each fully fucking bring it live.

Young Widows is a blistering three piece. I guess you could describe them as a rock band, the same way you can describe cheese grater as a kind of loofa. Maybe someone has a complaint with their twin fridge-amp/light show presentation, but not me. It all gives them the visual appearance and sonic presentation of the business end of a Peterbilt truck on a midnight Interstate. I haven’t heard the new shit they will be playing so I’ll hold off on raving about that, but if they’re still ending their set with the transcendently awesome “Swamped and Agitated” from their last record, we will all be leaving that room changed for the better.

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With a close sect of the Wingerschmidt clan having settled years ago out in Seattle, I have spent a week or two out in (coffee)Beantown almost every Summer for as long as I can remember. And this week or two is always in August, and I never stick around town long enough to experience this “amazing outdoor music festival, brah” known simply as Bumbershoot.

Each year I peruse the schedule, and each year there are plenty of bands I would love to see, especially all in one place. But alas no — clearly I’m a masochist to some extent — I never allow myself the scheduling openness to get my B-shoot on.

This year is no different. I recently spent a week in the rainy city (and brought the sunshine with me from NYC to boot), and noticed that the lineup for this year’s fest included such greats as soulfunkafrobeatposse The Budos Band, Portland emo-punksters The Thermals, countrified poppy sweetie-pants Neko Case, world-music party brigade Ozomatli, plenty of unexpected legends (Bob Dylan, Solomon Burke, Meat Puppets), and…..BARONESS????? Those dudes gon stick out like a dismembered thumb.

I would imagine it’s quite the double-edged sword to be the only heavy band on such a lineup — on one hand, it’s amazing to reach a whole new audience. On the other hand, it must be frustrating to play to a crowd that surely doesn’t wanna hear yr man-scream. And on a third hand (!) any opposition or wincing due to heaviness/volume/RAWK can also stir up feelings of indignation, which might make for a powerful set. (i.e., “Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me!”)

In any case, if you’re in the Seattle area, be sure to check out some of these bands and more (movies too!); Bumbershoot runs from 9/4-9/6 at the Seattle Center.

More info on their website.

-KW