Will Vince murder me if I compare Star One, the new project from multi-instrumentalist and Ayreon mastermind Arjen Lucassen, to Dream Theater? ‘Cause I can’t really think of a more apt comparison. Classically infectious main riff? Check. Vocals sure to elicit homophobic epithets? Check. Super proggy guitar solo interspersed with an equally proggy synth solo played in a keyboard tone that is awesome even as it somehow conveys years of chronic masturbation in the face of a complete inability to lose one’s virginity? Check. Dorkiness out the wazoo? My fellow Firefly nerds (I still have just enough dignity left not to refer to myself as a “browncoat”) will recognize the title of Star One’s new song, “Earth That Was,” as a reference to Joss Whedon’s cult show. So, yeah, big 10-4 on that last one.

But as is the case with Dream Theater, I kid because I love. I mean, this shit really is as geeky as geeky gets, but that doesn’t negate the fact that it’s also really fun. In other words: Maybe a more apt comparison than Dream Theater would just be Ayreon.

“Earth That Was” is streaming at Noisecreep. It features vocals by Russell Allen (Symphony X), Damian Wilson (Headspace, Threshold), Floor Jansen (ReVamp, ex-After Forever), and Dan Swano (duh), in case my witticisms didn’t already have you foaming at the mouth. And it comes off of Star One’s new album, Victims of the Modern Age, which is out October 26th via InsideOut Music.

-AR

Nucleus is not Dawnbringer’s first album, but because I’m a no good stoopid dumb shit, it’s the first time I’ve heard them. In my defense, I just checked my “Reader’s Choice” e-mail folder, and none of you ever wrote to tell me how awesome they are. (What, you expect me to just know this shit myself?) And in your defense, a press release from Profound Lore refers to Dawnbringer as “one of the best American metal bands you haven’t heard,” so I guess all parties involved are aware that the band isn’t exactly famous.

But assuming the rest of their output is as good as Nucleus, they probably should be.

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Hard to believe, but TesseracT’s first official release is a mere two weeks away. Weren’t we just saying that it seemed like this band would never get around to releasing anything? And so, as is so often the case, the closer the release date draws the more new music we get to hear for free.

The latest free track du jour from TesseracT is a jam called “iv – Perfection” which is, duh, the fourth track from their upcoming Concealing Fate EP, due October 12th. I’m not really sure what else to say about it other than that it sounds like TesseracT; it’s the fix long-time Internet followers of this band have been waiting for for years. Of course the real fix is the U.S. Nerdfest Tour with Devin Townsend, but that’s right around the corner too.

Stream and download it above or here, and since recording budgets don’t grow on trees pre-order the sweet t-shirt + cd combo here for only $15.

-VN

During a recent interview, Lars Ulrich stated that Metallica “did not take advantage of everything that [Jason Newsted] had to give.” Which strikes me as Ulrich being too hard on himself. I mean, really, you’re telling me that Jason Newsted’s talents can be better utilized than they were in this song?

I mean, that’s a classic right there! The first time I heard it, I was all, “Master of Whatits?”

Still, I was curious what Newsted thought of Ulrich’s apparent admission of guilt. Here’s what Newsted told me*:

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As far as I can tell, intellectual racist types just love to lure accommodating non-idiots into passionate arguments. Forever citing research both arcane and mainstream, these misguided lunkheads are awesome at wearing down the most patient conversant. It’s always “Oh you don’t get it, man. The Jews are responsible for this. The Blacks are more likely to that. Illegals from Mexico are just waiting for the right moment to blah blah blah. You don’t even know!” Yawn. Why subscribe to a belief system that could be logically disproved by a reasonably sober pre-teen and then act all civilized about it? That’s like doing a PhD thesis on your shameful third-grade pants-shitting episode. What a waste. To disarm these fools, who seem goofy even compared to their frothing toothless hillbilly counterparts, the most effective weapon is laughter. Howling, sputtering laughter. I’m giggling even now!

And that’s why I hope someone has acquainted silly-billy Varg Vikernes of Burzum with the “Burzum Marley” split by Brazil’s Mukeka Di Rato (with Hero Dishonest of Finland). I haven’t tracked down the tune  – a bud in Brazil assures me it’s both black metal and reggae — but the cover art (above) is like freakin’ Nobel Prize-level awesomeness. It’s a total negation of Vikernes’ entire life right there on one obscure 7″, and a reminder that, in the proper context, his imbecilic mission is a farty squeak lost amid the thunderous roar of peace-lovers like Bob Marley. Politics aside, the track also makes you wish for some more philosophically compatible musical collisions: How about some sweaty Afro-beat folk metal from EnsiFela? Or the no-justice-no-peace rage of SepulTosh? Shit, I’d kill for some Sade-dle of Filth about now.

-ADF

Mega-hugs to CSS for the tip!

Alice in Chains must really want to make sure you all go see them on their current BlackDiamondSkye tour with Deftones and Mastodon, ’cause they’ve released a video for the song “Lesson Learned” not even one full week after they released a video for the song “Acid Bubble.”

Not that I’m complaining — I actually think this is a really cool video, and certainly much better than the “Acid Bubble” one. It was directed by Paul Matthaeus, whose background is serving as (an often uncredited) “creative director” on risqué television shows like Six Feet Under, Dexter, True Blood, and Nip/Tuck. I’m not really sure what the heck a “creative director” does on such shows, but whatever it is, I guess it made Matthaeus the perfect choice to helm a metal vid.

Get tour dates for the BlackDiamondSkye trek here.

-AR

A Day To Remember’s Homesick was hands-down my favorite album of 2009, and a big success for leading independent label VICTORY RECORDS. Combining the soaring melodies, giant hooks, and accessibility of pop-punk with the cock-smashing brutality and downtuned breakdowns of deathcore, their brand of easycore has shot them to the top of charts everywhere from Seattle to San Antonio!

In their latest video, the third single from Homesick, the members of ADTR take a more serious turn, departing from the carefree anthems and odes to suburban post-teenager fun that defines their previous singles. It depicts an alternative couple dealing with the struggles of a young relationship, doing their best to find themselves as individuals while maintaining their identity as a couple. Now that they are all 21 or 22 years old, you can see that they are about more than just having fun and moshing it up. I feel like they are showing everybody that they’re not just a one-trick pony, that they have some serious depth as both musicians and human beings — kind of like when Blink-192 came out with “Adam’s Song” and tackled the issue of teen suicide.

Pick up Homesick on iTunes, and stay tuned for their next album, What Separates Me from You, coming November 16 on leading independent label VICTORY RECORDS! Check out the cover art here.

-Sergeant D.

“One Step Away,” from The Stings of Conscience, featuring Chris “Rover” Rybicki on bass

Unearth’s original bassist, Chris “Rover” Rybicki, passed away yesterday. The cause was injuries sustained from a traffic accident three weeks ago, in which Rybicki, who was all of 39 years old, was riding a scooter when an allegedly drunk driver, 25 year-old Beth MacGillivary, hit him with her car.

A statement from Unearth reads as follows:

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Whether you realize it or not, you probably own an album that Mark Lewis has worked on. He started working with Jason Suecof at the already-legendary Audiohammer Studios for 2005′s Roadrunner United collection; since then, either working with Suecof or on his own, he has produced, engineered, and/or mixed a ridiculous number of major metal releases, including albums by Death Angel, Chimaira, The Black Dahlia Murder, DevilDriver, Trivium, Six Feet Under, Whitechapel, Demon Hunter, Charred Walls of the Damned, The Autumn Offering, and more. Hell, just last week we debuted a Holy Grail track, and didn’t even realize that Mark mixed the song until after the fact!

Mark is obviously ridiculously good at what he does, but he also happens to be a super cool dude — which is probably why artists are so ready to work him over and over again. In fact, Daath’s self-titled album, which Century Media will release on October 25 (pre-order it here), is his second time working with guitarists Emil Werstler and Eyal Levi (who co-produced and co-engineered the album with Lewis) just this year — he was also on-board for their excellent Avalanche of Worms album (and wrote a great guest blog for MetalSucks upon that album’s release).

When I was in Atlanta for a few days this past June visiting Daath in the studio (read my report here), I managed to pull Mark away from his console for a little while to pick his brain on the creation of this ridiculously good album. Read the full transcript of our chat after the jump.

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Congrats to MetalSucks Maniacs Matt Fields, Daniel Agundiz, Lance Perkins, Ken Wells, and Terry Baldwin; they each correctly identified last week’s logo as belonging to the band Massive Aggressive, and they each consequently win a copy of Megadeth’s new DVD, Rust in Peace Live. Hope you fellas all have screens large enough to capture the epic live beast that is Megadeth!

This week we have a really cool surprise from one of NYC’s best local death metal bands, Mutant Supremacy: a copy of their anus-rupturing new album, Infinite Suffering, PLUS a t-shirt. Pretty frickin’ sweet, right?

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 a winner and announce his or her name next week.

And if you live in or near NYC, Mutant Supremacy have some gigs coming up in October, including one with the mighty Wormrot; check out Mutant Supremacy’s MySpace page for all the details.

A big high-five to reader Richard Liew for suggesting this week’s logo!

-AR

I may be the only journalist still covering Byzantine’s every move, but quite frankly it’s everyone else’s loss. What you all are missing out on is one of 2008′s best albums in Oblivion Beckons.

Guitarist and vocalist Chris “OJ” Ojeda” apparently doesn’t agree with my assessment; according to reader Rob K, who was at the band’s show in Morgantown, WV this past weekend, Ojeda claimed* the band will soon be recording a new record and that they didn’t have fun making Oblivion Beckons. According to Rob, the band does not wish to deal with any record labels this time around and will be perfectly content selling CDs out of their cars.

So apparently Byzantine’s future won’t be limited to sporadic shows in their home state as previously offered, which is great news by me since I plan on going to see them in West Virginia right about never. I can’t say what effect co-founder/guitarist Tony Rohrbough’s departure from the band will have on their material, but the band seems to have settled on a replacement in ex-Split Nixon axeman Brian Henderson.

Naturally you can expect more Byzantine news on MetalSucks as it comes our way.

-VN

*Whether he said this to Rob in person or announced it to the audience isn’t clear.

Some months back, upon learning that Madball had recruited Jay Weinberg (a.k.a. the son of E Street Band member Max Weinberg) as their new drummer, I kept my mouth shut while others in the metal and hardcore community latched on to the novelty of it. I saw his inclusion in the band as somewhat negligible, considering the NYHC act’s long tenure. Founder/frontman Freddy Cricien, longtime bassist Hoya Roc, and guitarist Mitts have honed the band’s metallic hardcore sound, and no drummer — no matter what his pedigree — was going to dramatically impact Madball. Apparently though, Weinberg hasn’t been a great fit with the respect-centric act and, according to a press release, his membership has been revoked — in the middle of a Canadian tour, no less!

In the words of Freddy Cricien himself:

“I’m letting Jay go in Canada because I just feel he doesn’t represent this band well on a character level. It would go against my own code of ethics to keep him around. Not saying he’s a bad drummer. I won’t take that away from him. But the reality is – he has a lot to learn about paying dues, and about life in general. Granted, he is a kid, but I’m not sure that he’ll ever be built for this particular lifestyle. I wish him the best of luck, but the MADBALL machine rolls on!”

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All signs point to “me likey.” Merkaba have their roots in Tulsa, Oklahoma, just like the supremely awesome (and very non-metal) J.J. Cale and Leon Russell. Their lyrics engage Kabbalistic thought and the limits of perception, both non-standard tropes in metal. Their design aesthetic and nomenclature bizarrely combine commie symbols with kabbalistic and occult insignia – rad! Their website provides total transparency through dorky “making of” videos, outspoken diatribes on a variety of social/political/environmental causes, and spiritual manifestos. The four men of Merkaba are nice, smart guys, and they want you to get to know them. They’ve posted their ambitious The People’s EP for free. And why not? Merkaba’s music is their message, and why would you charge for something that you want to disseminate as far as possible?

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I saw Meek is Murder again on Sunday night; I think this is the fifth or sixth time I’ve seen them this year, although it might be more like the seventh. In any case, I’ve seen them perform a lot in 2010, and the gigs really never get old. There’s a fun drinking game to be had in doing a shot every time Frank Godla breaks a drum stick, or bassist Sam Brodsky crashes into the audience; this band feels truly spontaneous and unpredictable in a way most modern extreme music outfits do not. I am determined that as many Suckalos as possible will see this band live, or, at the very least, start listening to them.

The group guest-hosted the latest edition of “The Fix,” Metal Injection’s weekly video podcast, and you should all watch it below, ’cause, surprise surprise, they have great taste. Frank told me that this is the most number of videos to have ever been selected for an episode of “The Fix,” and, yet, it is still the shortest episode in the series’ history; that should surprise absolutely no one, given that MiM’s sets are so short (roughly twenty minutes, maybe even less), and a cover of Botch’s “Japam” is usually the longest song.

Watch more episodes of “The Fix” right here. And for the third time this article, in case you still haven’t clicked through, Meek is Murder on MySpace.

-AR

Nevermore’s MetalSucks-presented North American tour kicks off this Thursday in Vancouver. With support coming from Warbringer, Hatesphere, and Blackguard, these shows promise to kick all kinds of ass. And to celebrate, we’re giving away five pairs of VIP tickets to the tour! Here’s how to win:

• In the comments section below, tell us why you wanna see Nevermore live. Vince and Axl will choose their five favorite answers, and the writers of those entries will win a pair of VIP tickets to the show of their choice! Remember that this is MetalSucks, not Reader’s Digest, so the more entertaining your answer, the more likely you are to win.
• Make sure you specify which show you’d like to attend if you win. We can’t help you with transportation, so if you can’t actually get to one of these shows, don’t waste our time, okay?
• Make sure you register for the comments section with a real e-mail address, as all winners will be contacted via e-mail. If you connect to the MS comments section via Facebook, please leave your e-mail address in your comment, as we cannot contact winners via the social network.

And that’s it! Get a complete list of tour dates after the jump… and good luck!

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I could say that Alice in Chains’ Unplugged album is my favorite Unplugged album, but that wouldn’t be saying much. Higher praise comes from a declaration just as truthful: It’s one my favorite, if not my absolute favorite, live albums of all time, and possibly the only example of a live album I actually listen to more frequently than the band’s studio catalog. That’s not a knock on AiC’s studio albums, which are obviously brilliant; but their Unplugged performance is painfully beautiful and haunting, and made even more so by the fact that it was the last time Staley performed before he passed away. An Alice in Chains fan can ask for no greater farewell.

And I’d wager that Sully Erna agrees with me. Every time I write about how badly Godsuck wanna be Alice in Chains, some smart-ass defender of awful music comes around and argues that Erna and company sound nothing like AiC, despite the fact that Erna’s moose rock vocals obviously owe a huge debt to Staley, and that “Godsmack” is the title of an AiC song, and that, oh yeah, Godsuck started out as an AiC cover band. So, clearly, my comparison is completely wrong-headed and unfounded.

In all fairness, the Erna solo track in the below video, “Sinner’s Prayer,” sounds nothing like Alice in Chains; instead it just sounds pretentious and self-important. (Are these idiots literally singing the phrase “mumbo jumbo?” This feels like the gang from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia trying to compete in an African folk song competition. Not helping is that there isn’t a single minority face on that stage.) But the set seems so clearly modled on the one AiC used for Unplugged that it’s hard for me to believe it’s just a coincidence — I mean, even the lighting scheme is the same. The only discernable difference is that Erna’s set has twinkly lights in addition to all the candles. If you told me that Erna was deliberately trying to duplicate some of the Alice Unplugged magic, I would not be at all surprised.

Erna’s solo album is called blah blah blah and is blah blah blah who cares.

And here’s some of Alice in Chains’ Unplugged to wash the bad taste out of your mouth:

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I guess I’m not a big fan of either Neaera or Cataract, ’cause I don’t remember their respective last releases* for Metal Blade, Armamentarium and Cataract, but a quick search of MS tells me I didn’t give either one a glowing review (Neaera here, Cataract here). But both bands are now streaming new songs from their upcoming offerings, and, not at all amazingly, I feel exactly the same way about each group as I did two years ago. So I’m going to be super-lazy and cut-and-paste passages from my old reviews to describe these new songs. Three cheers for mature and well thought-out music criticism… whoop-whoop!

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Some day Textures, Benea Reach and Celice will all come to the U.S. together on a tour that will go down in metal history as beyond legendary. That day is not today, but hey, it could happen soon; Textures are currently in the studio recording a new record with new vocalist Daniel de Jongh, Benea Reach are about due for a followup to 2008′s stunning Alleviat, and Celice… well, they’ve got some work to do as they’re in need of a new vocalist following de Jongh’s departure. But hey, a man can hope, and I’d like to extend a helping hand on behalf of MetalSucks to all of those bands if they ever do make it stateside.

Until then, I’ll have to live vicariously through live footage like the video of Benea Reach at Frizon Festival in Örebro, Sweden last month posted by Got-Djent. It’s always fascinating to me how a band like this can bring a full on stage production to play in front of thousands in their home country, but over here they’d probably play stripped down 500-cap venues.

Also, apparently even metal musicians in Sweden aren’t above singing along to A Ha.

-VN

Profound Lore will (I guess I should say “presumably”) continue their unfuckwithable streak with the November 23 release of Marrow of the Spirit, Agalloch’s fourth full-length, and first since 2006’s Ashes Against The Grain. Here’s the album art:

Unfortunately they haven’t released any songs off the album yet, but, hey, an announcement of a new Agalloch album alone should be enough to get you rock hard.

The band is also doing four tour dates Allerseelen in December. Dates are as follows:

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In case you aren’t yet privy to the insanity that is Valient Thorr’s live show, most Earth citizens will have a chance to catch this monolithic act this fall when VT rolls through your city on their mammoth 7-week tour (already underway). VT must absolutely be experienced live to be experienced at all; in fact, I’m so sure you’ll have a good time that I’ll pay you back for your ticket if you go to a show and somehow don’t have the best time ever. That’s how sure I am that Valient Thorr will rock your buttocks. Take this excerpt from Valient Himself’s tour blog on The Deciblog:

Rocked hard every night.  Just treating my wardrobe poorly.  It’s just disrespectful.  I am gonna be so tough after this tour.  It’s true, you can always be tougher.  Because I am tough, and sometimes I say, how can I get any tougher?  And then suddenly, I’m like 30 percent tougher than I was before.  I’m not sure, but I think this may be an infinite process (if you work hard enough).  I’ll let you know how its coming.

Would you expect any less than full on rockitude from a man who makes such a statement? No, no you wouldn’t, because Valient Himself would not lie to you.

We’ll be getting tougher with Valient Thorr (and Junius and Howl) this Thursday at Brooklyn’s Southpaw. Will you? Remaining tour dates after the jump.

-VN

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