I’m boycotting Halloween this year. I’m just over it. All the effort that goes into planning out your costume, procuring it and dressing up… and worst of all the constant TALK with EVERYONE about “what are you wearing?” and “what are you doing this year?” It’s like the obligatory weather-related elevator conversation… cringe-inducing. So over it.

But I’m most certainly not boycotting German power metallers Helloween, who have posted their brand new album 7 Sinners in its entirety on MySpace just in time for today’s festivities. We all know how I feel about bands that sing about METAL and this album’s got a song called “Are You Metal?” so it’s an automatic win in my book. Raise your fist in the air this Halloween with some tasty new Helloween as you go out dressed up as Snooki / The Situation or whatever the hot costume is this year.

-VN

Thanks: Captain Wookie

It’s the eve of All Hallow’s, and Satan himself is fearful for his life tonight.  Saturday night’s alright for fighting, but this one is gonna be different.  This one is gonna be murderful.  This one is gonna be spookalicious.  This one is gonna be naughty and nice and brutal and beautiful.  This one is gonna be forrrrreals.

This is the night to say goodbye to decency and sanity and all things fuzzy and warm, and make way for the reality and danger of ghouls and goblins and dark things that go bump in the night when no one is there to hide behind…

Yes, I’m talking to YOU.

-KW aka The Last Monster

So as you’re no doubt aware, Halloween is on Sunday, and as you’re hopefully aware, we’re holding a “Heavy Metal Halloween” contest with SPV. The deadline was announced as being on midnight on Halloween, the logic being that people would snap their photos before they went our partying; but Vince wisely pointed out that people might not get to upload those photos right away. So now we’re extending the deadline to midnight on November 1. Hope that helps! If you need a refresher on the rules, go here.

Here’s what else happened this week:

• We debuted a new music video by Nile.
• We also debuted new music by Havok, White Arms of Athena, and Shred Sean and Allan Tecchio.
• Daath’s Eyal Levi talked about trust issues while The Red Chord’s Greg Weeks talked about football.
• We spoke to J. Randall from Agoraphobic Nosebleed and our old pal Eyal from Daath.
• We checked out the latest release from Kylesa, and a new book by the Cro-Mags’ John Joseph.
• We went on a “Reader’s Choice” local scene binge.
• We prayed for the end of karate mosh pits.
• We watched Abigail Williams lob a dildo at Iwrestledabearonce.
• We defended Phil Labonte’s angelic singing voice.
• Sergeant D. taught you about bands you would have hated/ignored in ’95.

And that’s all she wrote this week. Don’t forget that our own Gary Suarez is playing in a Jesus Lizard cover band on Sunday night. Swing by if you can!

-AR

Raise your hand if you’ve got trust issues.

I’m sure that at least ten thousand of you readers raised your hands. And I’m sure that those of you who didn’t are either living in denial or just have figured out the key to trust. I think I figured out the key to trust, and while it’s one of those “Easier said than done” types of things, at least I have it now. It makes sense to me.

Have you ever had a friend who stabbed you in the back? I’m sure you have. Check out this situation from when I was nineteen. I’m sure this is fairly typical, but it doesn’t diminish how terrible it feels. I had a girlfriend. We were in young love. I then went off to college and tried to keep it going with her. She visited a few times. We had a fantastic time the first time, but a horrible time the second. Bad vibe central. Anyhow, I started to suspect that something was amiss. When I got home for Christmas break, I realized that my intuition was right-on. She had been sleeping with one of my very best friends.

Click to read more…

So after yesterday’s latest geographically themed edition of “Reader’s Choice,” I got three more helpful e-mails from readers suggesting bands from their local scene. I picked Louis Steffen’s e-mail pertaining to Seattle because of the three locations, it’s the one I most want to visit — I’ve been there and have family there and like it there, and besides, at this point in my life, it’s hard to get excited about Vancouver or Peoria.

So we’ll do Seattle today, and then hopefully I’ll get to the other two next week. Sound good? Great. Here we go.

Click to read more…

Loyal reader Marc Sabo [no relation to Chris or Snake, as far as we know] is the latest to enter our ongoing Show Us Your MetalSucks contest in which you take noodz pics of yourselves doing fun things in your MetalSucks merch in exchange for a box o’ free shit from the Mansion. Marc’s photos are of particular interest to me because they were shot on his vacation to France, where I’ll be going in just two months time.

That’s Napoleon’s tomb behind Marc in the above shot; dead short French dudes are metal! So are the pictures of him eating raw meat, standing by the Eiffel Tower and everything else you’ll find over at his Facebook photo album. Thanks, Marc! I hope I can make my French vacation as metal as yours.

Keep sending in your photos and we’ll keep posting ‘em. There’s free stuff in it for you, too. Get to it.

-VN

When I fulfilled an adolescent dream and interviewed Jackyl’s Jesse James Dupree earlier this year, he told me that he was anticipating some controversy for the band’s cover of Mother’s Finest’s song “Just Like a Negro.” It’s obviously a little weird to have a bunch of white dudes doing a track with that title, and doubly so when you consider that Jackyl are southern and might be seen as, um, I think the correct terms are “crackers” and “honkeys.”

But Dupree felt confident that anyone who knew the facts behind the cover would realize Jackyl aren’t a bunch of redneck racists. He even re-wrote the lyrics with Mother’s Finest bassist Wyzard so that they’d make sense for a caucasian to sing:

“…the lyrics basically say that music makes all the colors run together and that it was the brothers who invented rock n’ roll – Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Fats Domino…  That’s all the song is – a tribute to that, and the fact that music breaks down the barriers.”

He also told me that he had hoped to get Sevendust’s Lajon Witherspoon to do some guest vocals on the track, but it didn’t work out for whatever reason. What he didn’t tell me, and what I didn’t know at that time ’cause I hadn’t heard the album yet, was that he did end up getting a guest for the track — the “DMC” from Run DMC, Darryl Matthews McDaniels.

And, honestly, this song is still pretty awful. I mean, watching Dupree try to dance while DMC raps is kinda funny, but I’d never actively listen to this track. That being said, I’d still argue that it’s the least worst rap metal song of the century so far. I’ll take Jackyl over Limp Bizkit and their ilk any day of the week and twice on Sundays.

Jackyl’s latest, When Moonshine and Dynamite Collide, is out now.

-AR

Hey, remember a couple of weeks ago when Schmucky Erna from Godsuck called Scott Stapp from Suck* a “faggot,” and then called a guy who likes Stapp’s band a “faggot?” Well, he’s apologized. Sort of. But not really.

Here’s the first part of the apology:

“I would like to send my sincerest apologies to the members of Creed, Scott Stapp and any of our fans that I may have offended for an insulting and disrespectful comment I had made towards Scott Stapp and Creed at a show Godsmack recently played in Connecticut at Mohegan Sun. I have no excuses whatsoever.”

Okay, that’s not the best apology ever, but at least it’s on-topic. Maybe add a comment about you realize now that only children use slurs against homosexuals as an insult, and we can put all this nonsense behind us, right?

Except that’s not what Erna does in the next part of his apology. Instead, he shifts the blame back to Scott Stapp:

Click to read more…

I care about as much about sports as you folks come to this website to read about carpentry tips*, but reader Bryce Evans sent us this highly professional photo of the Melvins’ King Buzzo at game two of the World Series last night, and it’s just too funny not to share.

Can’t you just hear the sad trombone as you look at this? I’d guess Mr. Osborne was so upset ’cause he was a Rangers fan, but at the time this photo was taken, it looks like the score was still 0-0. (I say “looks like,” ’cause, again, no care ever. I was at a Devin Townsend show last night. Devy > pretty much anything else.) Plus, he’s surrounded by Giants fans, and the Giants are, geographically speaking, closer to his home state of Washington, so one might deduce that he was, in fact, rooting for that team and not the Rangers. So maybe he’s sad ’cause he’s a Giants fan and he can’t wear hats with that hair?

-AR

*NOTE TO SELF: Get bassist from Liturgy to start MetalSucks carpentry column.

Seems like every few months an interview with Muhammed Suiçmez surfaces in which the Necrophagist mastermind promises a new record will be released soon. Suiçmez wasn’t off-base when he said in July that new music would be released before the end of the year, only he’s got nothing to do with said music: guitarist Sami Raatikainen has beat him to the punch with a new solo album of his own under the Radiance moniker.

The album is 49 minutes and a mish-mash of genres, seamlessly morphing from djent to ambient to electronic to power metal to rock, and featuring a variety of vocal styles. It’s quite an interesting listen, which you can find out by streaming the entire thing for free below, and it’s a cool look into the mind of a guitarist whose input we probably don’t hear much of in his main project.

-VN

You may be familiar with guitar whiz/Carvin-endorsee SHRED SEAN from our earlier interview with him, guest spots with bands like Into Eternity, his solo work, or as the lead guitarist for Blessed by a Broken Heart. Sean clearly possesses a work ethic that would put a sharecropper to shame, because it doesn’t stop there. The latest addition to his resume is a DIO cover/tribute, featuring his bro Alan Tecchio of Watchtower, Hades, and some other bands I don’t know about. Only MetalSucks has the industry clout to bring you this EXCLUSIVE TRACK!!!

Shred Sean and Alan Tecchio – “Rainbow in the Dark”

Shred Sean and Allan Tecchio – Rainbow in the Dark

This is a DIY Garageband recording, so please don’t get all butthurt about the snare sound or whatever trivial detail you want to bitch about in a futile attempt at “sounding like you really know what you are talking about.” Nobody will think you are cool.

Check out Shred Sean on MySpace and look for some exciting news from Blessed by a Broken Heart soon!

-Sergeant D.

The state of the concert film industry is sad. Over the last decade or so concert DVDs have become a last ditch effort by record labels to milk one last bit of money out of each album cycle. It used to be that a concert video was a special thing that came around only once or twice in a band’s lifespan while these days it’s a predictable part of the cycle that follows every proper album: Album Release –> “Deluxe Edition” Re-Release –> Live DVD. Inevitably all the superfans go out and buy it right away. Perhaps a few stragglers pick up copies in record stores, if record stores even stock metal concert DVDs anymore. But really the concert DVD is a surefire way to capitalize on the fact that superfans will buy anything and everything having to do with a band; for a label, it’s a relatively predictable way to make a certain amount of money, no more, no less. I’d wager that bands themselves rarely if ever actually recoup and earn royalties on concert films these days.

Fittingly, there seems to be less interest than ever in concert DVDs from the fan side. The “long awaited” concert DVD finally comes out; the superfan gets home, smokes a bowl or whips out a 6-pack, and watches; and then onto the shelf it goes, never to be seen again. Of the two dozen or so concert DVDs I own I can honestly say I’ve only ever watched two of them more than once, and one of them more than twice. That one is Alice in Chains’ haunting unplugged concert, because it was a special show. Today’s concert DVDs may have better production value but do they really posses the same magic? With every band ever to exist touring constantly these days you may as well just wait to see the real thing in person anyway.

So: Do you watch concert DVDs more than once? BE HONEST! Note that we’re only taking about the concert portion of DVDs here and not the documentaries, music video collections or other extras.

So MetalSucks Mega-Maniac Shinaain tried to send us this video earlier in the week, but it had been taken off of YouTube. She was good enough to tell us when it magically re-appeared; apparently, some people didn’t like the way it was edited originally (there’s now an alternate version here), and objected to its original title, “Eleven Things You Didn’t Know About” blah blah blah, because Bodom’s hardcore fans (Hate Crew Deathrollers, or whatever they’re called) knew a lot of this stuff already.

But if you’re like me, and you’re a Bodom fan but you haven’t been hanging on Laiho’s every word for the past thirteen years, this is pretty fun. Hey, my first guitar was a Strat, too! And I was eleven years old when I got it, also! Alexi and I have so much in common. Besides my total lack of musical talent, I mean. But still!!! Maybe we can be besties.

-AR

Last week we offered up an autographed copy of Shadows Fall’s recently released Madness in Manila Live CD/DVD and a nifty Zoom Q3 Handy Video Recorder, all in exchange for coming up with the funniest caption to the Shadows Fall photo at right. The winner is Jewers [I swear I didn't pick him because of his name], with this little nugget of lulz:

• Jewers: “I’m telling you guys, Shadows Fall’s experimental NWNAHM album Reds of Life was the seminole record of the genre.”

Multiple points for multiple puns! Or “+1″ as the kids these days say.

This week we’re giving away a copy of the Tour Edition of Ozzy’s latest album Scream, autographed by the Prince of Darkness himself! You know the rules: to win, just come up with the funniest caption to the below photo, and remember to use a real email address (or post it with your comment if you’re using FB Connect)! Thanks to John Pewo of the U.S. Air Force for sending it in.

Before there were blogs there were these things called magazines, and the only metal magazine we still get excited about reading every month is Decibel. Here’s editor-in-chief Albert Mudrian.

Your good pal Andrew is on vacation this week, so it looks like I need to sort out this month’s contest. What is it we do here again? Hall of Fame related, right? Is it “guess the number of times each month someone asks me why we haven’t inducted a Death album into the Hall of Fame?”

OK, I remember now: It’s the guess the next Hall of Fame thingie and win a free six-month subscription. Got it. This month you’re in luck, as you get a better hint than usual when our interview subject actually mentions “black metal” in our excerpt. And I’m 99% sure it’s not this guy who is doing the talking.

As always, you need album and artist for the win. But be definitive, because guessing, for example, “welcome to hell or black metal”  – as someone did last month —  just ain’t gonna cut it. Lots of luck, everyone.

DECIBEL HALL OF FAME JANUARY 2011

DECIBEL HALL OF FAME JANUARY 2011

-AM

Buy yourself a copy of the December 2010 issue of Decibel or, better yet, buy yourself a full subscription, so you can count how many times J. Bennett and Jeanne Fury utilize the word “tits” this month,  and every month.

If you are making a list of the most charismatic personalities and tastemaking opinion leaders within the screamo/metalcore scene, you are definitely going to have Austin Carlile in the #1 spot. Whether it is his work with Christian crabcore pioneers Attack Attack!, vocalist for groundbreaking metalcore artists Of Mice & Men, or his upcoming solo material, it seems like everything Austin touches turns to solid gold (he got kicked out of both of those bands, but I think it was just because they were jealous of his charisma)! And if you are like me, you are always hungry for more information on what he is doing, even if it is the most mundane, trivial details of his life. Lucky for us fans, he has been video blogging a lot, giving us a peek behind the scenes at what it is like to be one of Rise Records hottest new artists — here’s the latest!

I LOLed so hard at all the silly things his dog did at the beach!!! LOL it was all “I’m a dog, IDK how to act at the beach!!!”

Click to read more…

BOO-YA! We have a real treat for you today, kiddies: a brand-spankin’-new track from Havok‘s forthcoming Candlelight Records release, Time is Up. We give re-thrash bands a lot of shit here on MetalSucks, but Havok are no ordinary re-thrash band — sure, their music is distinctly old-school style thrash, but their songwriting skills and musicianship are a notch above the competition. And they put on a killer live show, too! Vocalist/guitarist Dave Sanchez assures us that Time is Up is “SO THICK IT’S GONNA GIVE YOU DIAREHHA,” and if “Fatal Intervention” is any indication, he ain’t lyin’! Like all of Havok’s music, it is, simply put, smokin’. Check it out below!

Time is Up will feature album art by Halsey Caust, who also did the cover for Havok’s last album, Burn, as well as multiple records for Toxic Holocaust. We’ll give you more details on the album’s release as we get ‘em. In the meantime, the band is still on tour with Wretched and Armed for Apocalypse through November 16; get dates after the jump!

[this streaming promotion has ended]

Click to read more…

Man oh man, do I feel bad for the poor Roadrunner employee who was in charge of making this video interview with Tommy Lee. Forget inarticulate; this guy can’t even speak English. Take, for example, his answer to the question “How important are visual arts to you?”

“Um… God, they’re so important. They’re like… a car with gasoline. And I can be like… it’s like the other part of music that I think brings it all together. Like when you’re making videos for songs, it’s, it’s like a necessity. And it helps somebody who maybe doesn’t have a vision, or can’t hear what the song is maybe about. Kind of take ‘em down what you think it is.”

“Kind of take ‘em down what you think it is?” “KIND OF TAKE ‘EM DOWN WHAT YOU THINK IT IS?!?!” That fucking doesn’t mean anything!!! Why is Tommy Lee talking like an Injun Chief?!?

Once you’ve recovered from your aneurysm, you can watch the rest of the interview below. It includes a part where Tommy tells aspiring artists not to think too much, which is a skill that I’m sure comes very easily to him.

-AR

[via SMN]

When I interviewed Phil Anselmo about his Housecore Records label back in March, one of the bands he was most excited about signing was Nawlins outfit haarp. Here’s what Mr. Anselmo had to say about the band… try to picture it in his drawl to get the full effect:

“…they’re definitely classified as ‘metal.’ But they transcend the genre. They come up with such different concepts and whatnot. They’re a very different, different band – kind of in their own category, I would say. They play slow, but to call them ‘a slow band’ is absolutely unfair. They’re crushing. They are resolute. It’s a beating. They’re fucking onto something.”

A few weeks later, Vince sang their praises in an edition of “Reader’s Choice,” too, calling haarp “a less technical and more straight-up American metal sounding version of SiKth.”

So by now, you surely wanna check these dudes out, right?

Here’s your chance: haarp are streaming a new song, “All, Alone,” right here. It comes off the band’s new album, The Filth, which was produced by — you guessed it! — Anselmo himself. And it certainly sounds like something he would dig/make.

So give it a listen, then let us know what you think. Housecore will release The Filth on November 23.

-AR

One of the best things about the public library is the nerd-calming intimacy of ceiling-high bookshelves. It’s easy to feel calm and invisible amid the stacks, and therefore free to pursue the solitary nerdiness of books in, um, nerdy solitary. It’s a calming opposite of snooty record stores, where insecure dorkwads feel spotlit and browbeaten when, say, searching for a uncensored edition of Brandy’s Afrodisiac or buying a third copy of It’s Complicated.

So, yeah, the public library is actually quite private. Especially the unpoliced expanses of a major city’s main branch. That’s why so many times I’ve whirled around a corner to encounter a uppity homeless guy brushing his teeth (Honolulu), or a pair of crack bums in the throes of a mutual jack-off (Minneapolis), or a frazzled nanny stashing a soiled diaper in the Danielle Steel section (Santa Monica), or a teenaged Olivia Munn‘s whispered offers of a meth-for-homework swap (Shinjuku). You gotta stay on your toes. That doesn’t even count the everyday stuff, like the ever-present soiled condoms/female products, angry smears of feces, and seniors bickering with newspaper racks.

So to me, there is no more gratifying a fantasy than the new Deftones video for “You’ve Seen The Butcher” (below) off their horny Diamond Eyes record. It’s got a cozy library, some slamming pop metal, and buckets of blood where it belongs: coating the skin of four dozen sexy underwear chicks. And afterwards, there’s no need to blast yourself with a Purell canon. The only thing missing from the clip is a ZZ Top-style fool-to-cool resolution where I stumble upon the band and babes, drop my stack of stalker novels, and begin to twitch and sweat before being escorted into the band’s magical super-car for a full fashion makeover. Then straight back to the library to romance some bloody underwear hotties!

-ADF

The Deftones bring Diamond Eyes live to Europe in November/December then Australia in January. Dates here. Help Chi Cheng here.