That yer Uncle Vince is a big King’s X superfan must be pretty well-known ’round these parts by now, because any time Ty Tabor so much as farts my inbox erupts with a cavalcade of “didjahear???” emails on the matter. Which is just fine by me, because Ty Tabor lays some pretty delicious-smelling farts. I hear that the three members of King’s X actually fart in three-part harmony during rehearsals. True story.

The latest is the forthcoming double-disc King’s X Live CD/DVD Live Love in London, recorded in January 2009 at the Electric Ballroom in London (duh) and featuring all the King’s X classics both new and old that we all love so much. The set won’t be officially released until October 25th, but we’ve got our first taste of it in the form of the audio portion of “Alright,” one of my favorite latter day King’s X jams. It’s streaming over at Guitar World and can be pre-ordered here.

I loved the rawness of King’s X’s last live record, 2004′s double-disc Live All Over the Place; the band kept the editing to an absolute minimum, so what you heard on that record was actually what was played, flubs, messups and all. Sounds like Live Love in London is gonna be more of the same; no cheesy overdubs here. Alright!

-VN

The 2010 incarnation of the CMJ Music Marathon is almost upon us! A solid week of booze, partying and music in the streets and clubs of New York City makes us all just a little bit crazy every year, but there’s just so much fun shit happening all week that impossible not to heed its beck and call. Fortunately for you and for us, there’s plenty of metal at this year’s festival including some killer shows that aren’t even officially sanctioned by CMJ. Here’s a list of MetalSucks-approved events happening next week:

• Mon, Oct. 18: The Syndicate Conflict of Interest Party feat. Nada Surf, Reggie Watts, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. and more. Drink specials. 7pm at Club Rebel. RSVP only.
• Mon, Oct. 18: Cattle Decapitation, Son of Aurelius, Devourment, Knights of the Abyss and Burning the Masses at Santo’s Party House. 7pm, $13 advance, 18+. This is not a CMJ-sanctioned event.
• Tues, Oct. 19: Nevermore, Warbringer, Blackguard and Hatesphere at The Gramercy Theater. 6pm Doors, $32.25, tickets available here. This is not a CMJ-sanctioned event.
• Wed, Oct 20: The MetalSucks / Metal Injection / 1000 Knives Official CMJ 2010 Showcase! Featuring A Life Once Lost, Car Bomb, This or the Apocalypse, Baptized in Blood and Last Chance to Reason at Club Europa, Brooklyn. 7pm, All Ages, and tickets are only $10 (buy them here).
• Thur, Oct 21: Metal Insider’s Mosh Potatoes book release party! Release party for the forthcoming metal cookbook Mosh Potatoes and listening party for the new The Damned Things album Ironoclast, with drink specials and yummy treats of recipes from the book. Idle Hands Bar, 5-8pm. Private event (if you think you should be invited, you should know who to contact).
• Thur, Oct 21: Skateboard Marketing / Nova Entertainment CMJ Showcase featuring SuperMetal Records / Megaforce artists Misery. 5:30-7:30pm, Bowery Poetry Club. Budweiser and Jaeger drink specials. First hour is RSVP only, second hour is open to the public and CMJ badges.
• Thur, Oct 21: Doomsday Mourning, Hivesmasher, The Judas Syndrome, Fin’amor at the Charleston in Brooklyn. 7:30pm doors, show starts at 8:30pm, 21+. This is not a CMJ-sanctioned event.
• Thur, Oct 21 – Sunday, Oct 24: The Grill ‘Em All burger truck guys will be here all the way from L.A. without their truck, making special guest chef appearances at area restaurants!! Get details here.
• Fri, Oct 22: Smell the Glove Party / Holy Grail Crisis in Utopia CD Release Party at St. Jerome’s (155 Rivington). No cover, 21+, 9pm.
• Fri, Oct 22: Tee Pee Records / Metal Insider Showcase: Naam, Priestess, Quest for Fire, The Atomic Bitchwax, Mirror Queen, Hopewell, and Weird Owl. 6pm, Union Pool, Brooklyn, $10/adv and $12/dos. Tickets available here.
• Sat, Oct 23: MetalSucks and 1000 Knives present: Powerglove, Wetnurse, The Binary Code, Pack of Wolves, Meek is Murder and Batillus. Free drinks courtesy of Sailor Jerry Rum from 4-5pm, and $3 drinks after that ’til they run out! 4pm, $10, 21+.
• Sat, Oct 23: Helmet, Intronaut and Fight Amp at the Gramercy Theater. 7pm, 16+, $29 (tickets available here). This is not a CMJ-sanctioned event.
• Sat, Oct 23: Brooklyn Vegan / Black Bubblegum CMJ Showcase featuring The Body, Cough, Inter Arma, Royal Thunder + more TBA. Union Pool, Brooklyn, 7pm, $5, 21+.

Whew… it’s going to be a punishing week! See you out there.

MetalSucks Maniac Fantasyoosh apparently hates us, ’cause he sent us this video a dude who calls himself Etienne Sin (he’s a solo artist… those other two cool bros are his backing band, I guess), and who boast of being “the leader of independent Post-hardcore music and the First and Only artist to bring you ‘Acoustic Post-hardcore music.’” (Why are the words “post,” “first,” “only,” and “acoustic” capitalized in that sentence? Don’t ask.) Of course, no one has ever done an acoustic version of an Attack Attack! song before because it’s an awful fucking idea. But, hey, this dude got a post on MetalSucks, so I guess his gimmick worked at least a little.

If you can’t sit through the whole thing — and I certainly can’t blame you if you don’t — just skip to the 54 second mark. Yep. They kept the synchronized guitar swing. It’s amazing that to people who hate this band and people who love this band, that moment from the video is what sticks out.

-AR

Back in the ‘80s, they clogged the racks of nearly every record store: private press metal albums by local yokels attempting to cash in on whatever the current trend in heavy music was. There were bands that looked like Metallica and bands that looked like Stryper; there were Yngwie-biters and mock Maidens. They were, for the most part, completely unremarkable, especially the further one got from New York/L.A./London.

The town where I grew up – Columbia, South Carolina. – was pretty far from New York and Los Angeles and London, if not geographically, then definitely culturally. Despite – or perhaps due to – being the state’s capitol, the city marinated in a particularly Southern stew of backwardness, false purity, suburban sameness, and good ol’ boy judgment.

Yet, like most other mid-sized shitburgs spread across this country, it was (and is) home to a surprising number of very, very cool people. And most of those cool people made ritualistic visits to a tiny downtown record shop known as Manifest. The store jammed a ton of cool shit into its limited real estate, but despite the variety of material in those racks, the store beat with the cold, black heart of heavy metal. The owner hosted the college radio station’s weekly “Massive Metal” show and lived, it seemed for exactly three things: beer, money, and Motorhead. He ran his store pretty damn tight, and with the help of a staff of specialists, Manifest always managed to get exactly the right record into the right hands.

As Columbia metal fans can attest, though, there was one album in those racks that never seemed to make it into anyone’s hands. It was one of those aforementioned private press metal albums, adorned with hand-drawn artwork that split the difference between Planet of the Apes and some psycho-vaginal art-class nightmare. It was Animals, an album by local guitar-slinger Dwayne Warr, known on his albums as DWARR.

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As always, I have to preface any judgment made based on a bootleg by pointing that any unofficial (and in this case probably illegal) release is not the best work by which to judge an artist.

But this audio recording of Cavalera Conspiracy performing a new song, “Warlord,” is not hitting my g-spot.

What I — and I think most people — liked about Inflikted was that it sounded an awful lot like pre-Roots Sepultura. And awesome pre-Roots Sepultura at that. If the Cavaleras had actually reunited with Sepultura, we really couldn’t hope for anything better. Not only did it blow every post-Max Sepultura release out of the water, it blew every Soulfly release out of the water, too.

And this song sounds a lot more like Soulfly than it does anything on Beneath the Remains.

Listen to it and tell me I’m wrong. I actually WANT to be wrong about this. I want the new Cavalera Conspiracy album to come out and make me eat my hat. I actually don’t own a hat right now (weird, right?), but I would happily purchase one specifically for the purposes of Cavalera-inflikted consumption.

-AR

[via]

After returning Sunday night from my final jaunt of 2010 down to the MS Mansion Kentucky Korner, I logged onto Decibel Magazine‘s Deciblog for some late night bloggery… and lo and behold, it looks all purdy and shit! Not that the website of our favorite metal magazine wasn’t looking mighty fine before, but their new site design is like the equivalent of that time early this summer that Axl showed up to a hangout in his spiffy new pinstripe shorts; all that much sexier! And as always, Decibel’s talented writers are infinitely more clever than we are.

In addition to their fancy-shmancy new layout, The Deciblog is ablaze with new contest; Kylesa’s Laura Pleasants lists her Top 5 Albums That Remind Her of High School, Alex Lee from Bonded by Blood’s mad yoyo skillz (with video!), an interview with Laethora’s Niklas Sundin and the latest on Landmine Marathon frontwoman Grace Perry’s side project Osama Bin SARS. Check it, add it to your bookmarks / RSS and be merry.

-VN

Questions to ponder as you watch this video:

• Why is this band so obsessed with dudes in wheel chairs?
• Why is the gimp singing?
• Have any of these goth bands seen any movies besides Blade Runner?

Oh, yeah. Apparently they’ve seen Grindhouse, too.

“Chapel of Blood” comes off the Murderdolls’ latest, Women and Children Last, which is out now on Roadrunner.

-AR

Speaking of Stereogum: They’ve just debuted Kylesa’s new, David Brodsky-helmed video, for the song “Tired Climb,” and it’s all kinds of awesome. I’m gonna hafta smoke some drugs and watch it four or five more times before I’ll be able to to really theorize about the meaning of the clip. But for now, I can tell you that it looks really, really cool (the colors alone are frickin’ gorgeous), and totally augments the song, which is basically the music video’s primary function anyway. Check it out below.

“Tired Climb” comes off of Kylesa’s latest, Spiral Shadow, which will be released via Season of Mist on October 26.

-AR

So last week Rob from Metal Injection stopped by the MetalSucks Mansion for a hang sesh, and as we were sitting around, shaving years off of our lives (and that was the first night in a long time when I seriously thought I might die), we decided we needed to listen to something a little on the mellower side. So I threw on some Jesu.

Now, I fucking love Jesu, but as I was sitting there listening to the song “Silver” (sample of the upbeat lyrics: “I don’t understand the pain” and “Silver’s just another gold/When you’re bitter and you’re old”), I started thinking: Why is Justin Broadrick so sad? The guy has been a professional musician since he was like fifteen or something. He co-founded Napalm Death. He co-founded Godflesh. He’s universally acknowledged as a major talent. Apparently he smokes massive amounts of weed. I know he’s not like a rich dude or anything, but still, he’s got it pretty good. And so before you knew it, Rob and I adopted the Mr. Plinkett voice and started saying, over and over again, “WHY ARE YOU SO SAD, JUSTIN BROADRICK???”

I mention all of this because Jesu’s first EP, 2004′s Heart Ache (which never got an official release in the U.S.), has now been combined with another Jesu EP, Dethroned, which Broadrick also started working on in 2004 but only recently completed. And there’s a track from Dethroned, entitled “Annul,” streaming over at Stereogum. And even though the music is way heavier than most recent Jesu, it still seems kinda glum. I’m not complaining, or criticizing; I love Jesu, and I think “Annul” is great. I guess I’m just saying, I’d like to give Justin Broadrick a hug.

Go listen to “Annul,” and then come back here and tell us if you’d like to help Justin cheer up, too. Heart Ache and Dethroned will come out November 16 on Hydra Head, and can now be pre-ordered here.

-AR

It feels wrong to root for someone at the Special Olympics; I mean, all the kids are trying so hard, so no matter who the victor is, everybody wins, y’know? And that kind of how I feel about Sully Erna going out of his way to insult Scott Stapp, and people who like Creed. I appreciate the effort, but I can’t take a side.

So. Blabbermouth, correctly assessing the intelligence and vocabulary skills of your average Godsmack and/or Creed fan, explains that Erna “used a derogatory term for a homosexual male to describe Creed singer Scott Stapp” during a concert at the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut this past weekend. (Actually, “faggot” might be that rare multi-syllabic word that Godsmack and Creed fans all know, but I appreciate Blabbermouth’s efforts to keep the playing field even.) Apparently, Erna wanted all the fans to mosh during the band’s final song, and I guess for some reason he decided referencing Creed was the best way to motivate the crowd, telling them that if they didn’t make a big enough ruckus, he would tell subsequent audiences who came to the tour “that Mohegan Sun had a bunch of fucking dead-ass pussies on the fucking floor and maybe you should be going to see a Creed show or some shit like that.” Then, spotting a fan who I guess likes Godsmack AND Creed (holy shit am I glad I’m not friends what that guy), Erna taunted him, “You’re flipping me off? What, you like Creed? You like Scott Stapp? He’s a faggot. Faggot.”

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A frenzy is building around The Ocean; the buzz is palpable. Look no further than the comments here last week when we posted the news that “She Was the Universe,” the first song from their forthcoming album Anthropocentric, had been released.

Now it’s time for our second dose in the form of new song “The Grand Inquisitor II: Roots and Locusts” available on Stereogum. Wait a minute… Stereogum is posting about The Ocean?? I’m just as confused as you are; aren’t The Ocean, like, too well-produced, or too progressive, or too mainstream or too something for Stereogum to bother with? Well, I guess not, and I shouldn’t be complaining; it’s about fucking time this band got some recognition in circles other than… um… MetalSucks and prog dork message boards. That a blog like Stereogum — that normally traffics in the way more “indie,” black and hardcore sides of metal (when it comes to the heavy stuff) — is posting about these German geniuses really underscores the groundswell of word of mouth that The Ocean are receiving here in the U.S. right now. And this is fucking fantastic. Thank you, Brandon, for recognizing!

As for the song “The Grand Inquisitor II: Roots and Locusts,” a few seconds were all I needed to hear to know it would be one of the best tracks from Heliocentric or Anthropocentric. It’s amazing. It’s everything I want from this band and this album. And yeah, it’s heavy. Head on over to Stereogum to hear it and to read an interesting description of the song’s topical matter written by Ocean main-brain Robin Staps.

-VN

As today would never have been possible without Oceano, it’s only right that we hear directly from the voice of that band, Adam Warren. Below, check out his comments on the response to Depths, the concept behind the upcoming Contagion album, and labeling his music “deathcore.”

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That’s not a hypothetical question: this show is actually fucking happening!. Biohazard, Life of Agony, and the recently reunited Vision of Disorder, three of the finest heavy acts to come out of New York in the 1990s, have just announced a hometown show on December 16 at the Best Buy Theater in Times Square. Tickets go on sale next Friday (October 22), and I wont be surprised if this sells-the-fuck-out shortly thereafter.

A few months back, I Scream Records dropped a solid CD/DVD set of Life Of Agony performing the classic River Runs Red album live in its entirety. No word yet on whether or not the December gig will feature a similar River Runs Red performance, but it’s pretty safe to say that the record will at least feature heavily. Peep the trailer above and get psyched for the gig!

-GS

As we work through this final quarter of 2010, thoughts go to Halloween costumes, Thanksgiving turkeys, Christmas gifts and, if you’re a music journo, year-end lists! Two young acts that blew me away with new albums this year are Bitter End and Cruel Hand, on the Deathwish and Bridge Nine imprints respectively.

Bitter End’s Guilty As Charged is the sort of album Madball might have written if they weren’t as set in their ways soundwise. Fierce and tough-as-fuck, the record encompasses–as well as builds upon–their NYHC influences like Agnostic Front, Biohazard, and Killing Time. Cruel Hand’s Lock And Key has a different sort of metal feel to it, a thrashy one to be specific. Taking cues from crossover acts like D.R.I. and Suicidal Tendencies as much as Hatebreed and Converge, the album makes thrash more palatable for modern hardcore fans. Save for one date in Bitter End’s hometown of San Antonio, the two wont be touring together, though they are out on the road separately and hitting up cities across the U.S. with bands like Madball, Backtrack, and Alpha & Omega. All dates below.

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Those conspiracy theorists over at Hardtimes.ca have provided the hardcore scene with some of the most interesting and even bemusing interviews, not the least of these being with Frankie Palmeri of Emmure. Now, however, the site has debuted some brand new music from First Blood. Taken from their sophomore LP Silence Is Betrayal, “Confront” is hard-hitting both musically as well as lyrically. Frontman Carl Schwartz (ex-Terror) delivers a call to arms, railing against “crimes against humanity” over chugging guitars and militant drums.

Silence Is Betrayal drops November 9th on Bullet Tooth Records. The album is fucking slamming and you oughta pre-order it. First Blood is also headed out on the road with The Ghost Inside and Evergreen Terrace to support the record, so make sure to catch one of these dates.

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Arson Anthem, “Insecurity Notoriety”
I tried, man. Believe me. Given its membership, Arson Anthem should be one of my favorite bands. Yet the combined forces of Eyehategod’s Mike Williams, Hank III, Colin Yeo and Phil Anselmo can’t seem to salvage this intended tribute to crusty hardcore punk that plays more like a D-list D-beat disaster. Discharge and their Swedish ilk put out some awesome lo-fi, nasty records in their day, yet Insecurity Notoriety is a one-trick pony that has seen better days, paling in comparison to contemporary shitkickers like Disfear. By American hardcore standards, this is pretty dreadful. Specifically, this is the worst thing Anselmo has done — save for Christ Inversion. Arson Anthem should acknowledge the mediocrity of this vanity project and leave hardcore to the hardcore.

(1.5 out of 5 horns)

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Though we’ve known about it for a few months and had ample opportunity to pre-grieve, hardcore fans finally have to come to terms with the fact that Ruiner, the five-piece Baltimore beast, has officially broken up. After six years and two solid albums for Bridge Nine Records, the band played one final hometown show this weekend as a proper send-off, with openers including Defeater, Killing The Dream, and surprise guests Strike Anywhere.

While quality footage of Ruiner’s set from the show is not yet online, hate5six Productions has already posted some of the other band’s sets here, so you may want to watch that space. In the meantime, watch this video of their full set at This Is Hardcore 2010 and check out the gorgeous poster that marked the final gig.

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A couple months ago, I came across a concert listing online that the Dead Kennedys were playing a show in New York City. Fully aware of the band’s tumultuous and litigious history, as well as from my conversation with him earlier in the year, I knew that verbose, charismatic frontman Jello Biafra was not going to (be permitted to) participate. On that basis alone, I saw little reason beyond perverse curiosity to actually go see this any more than I’d want to see The New Cars. Now, according to esteemed Boston indie newspaper The Phoenix, bassist Klaus Flouride isn’t even participating. So it’s co-founder East Bay Ray, D.H. Peligro, and two guys nobody gives a crap about, banking on DK’s name recognition to con some kids and unawares into shelling out hard earned money for glorified karaoke.

Anyway, tour dates are below if you’re interested in being completely underwhelmed. I’ll stick with Jello’s current band, the Guantanamo School of Medicine, who happen to have some Western Canada shows coming up.

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Every metalhead has a favorite Slayer album. Mine just so happens to be Undisputed Attitude, the band’s 1996 tribute to their undeniable hardcore influences. Featuring resurrected material from Jeff Hanneman and Dave Lombardo’s Pap Smear project alongside covers of songs from artists like D.R.I., Minor Threat, and Verbal Abuse, the release met with considerable controversy and even disdain from longtime fans and critics alike for being such an anomaly in the band’s catalog. Yet nearly fifteen years later, the record sounds like it could have come out yesterday, a testament to the quality of the covers and of the production value. (“Gemini”, the sole Tom Araya/Kerry King original, still feels oddly tacked on and out-of-place.) The prospect of owning it on “180 gram audiophile vinyl” as part of the now-available boxset The Vinyl Conflict – collecting all of their American Recordings studio LPs and Live Decade Of Aggression–seems too delicious to pass up, even at the roughly $150 price point.

Hop in the Slayer Wayback Machine, watch the simple yet effective video for “I Hate You” (originally by Verbal Abuse) above and weigh in on the record below. How do you feel about Undisputed Attitude? An underrated gem in the catalog? A failed experiment that never should have been?

-GS

Started as a sort of Agnostic Front side-project, Madball quickly morphed into a full-blown band with engaged and enraged vocalist Freddy Cricien at the helm. Those who can recall the days when Roadrunner was still a reliable imprint will no doubt have heard 1994′s Set It Off and 1996′s Demonstrating My Style, two of the finest metallic hardcore records of the 90s. Since then, lineup changes to the guitar and drum positions haven’t drastically altered the reliable, resilient Madball style or ethos. And while the Erik Rutan produced Empire is generally on par with the group’s heavier output of the last decade, this new album’s highlights put it more than a few steps ahead of Infiltrate The System and Legacy.

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