Our friends at Metal Insider and Metal Injection both posted the below photo today. In case you’re blind and your computer is, like, reading this to you or something, it’s a picture of Glenn Danzig in a grocery store parking lot, having just purchased, amongst other items, some kitty litter.

And I guess the picture is pretty funny, not least of all because Danzig is either wearing one of his own band shirts, or a shirt that looks one of his band shirts; I’ve seen Doro Pesch out in public rocking her own gear, too, and I don’t really understand the need to call attention to yourself like that, but maybe that’s why I’m an anonymous blogger and not a rock star.

But I don’t find a lot of humor in the simple fact that Glenn Danzig goes shopping. Between getting laid out by that dude from North Side Kings, advising cancer patients not to get chemo, and declaring that The Illuminati secretly run the world, I’d argue that Danzig lost his cool mystery factor a long time ago.

You know what I would find surprising and hilarious? If his cat were any color other than black. Now that would be unexpected.

There was an ebb in excitement levels surrounding Forbidden’s recent return to active status when the Bay Area thrashers unveiled mega-unimpressive cover art for Omega Wave (here), their first record since 1997′s Green. To echo at least one Blabbermouth wiseacre, I’ll ask who smoked up the packaging budget? Cuz despite guitarist Craig Locicero’s endorsement, the art looks cheap and needlessly reminiscent of Forbidden Evil, their debut (here). Imagery is not as huge a deal in the post-interslice age, but this “Where’s the rest of it?”-style art threw at least one fan into a panic (me), causing him or her (me) to wonder if the album’s sound quality would match its unflattering cover. Would Forbidden, once a post-Vio-lence Robb Flynn project and farm system for Testament and Slayer, fail to reclaim its near-fame thanks to penny-pinching and a cover concept that borrows heavily from those sparkly decals you get from gumball machines at the roller rink? Fuck!

I feel foolish now that the band’s Myspace is streaming “Forsaken At The Gates,” the first public taste of Omega Wave. The jam is incredible and its production sounds like a million bucks (even on Myspace). Along with Exhorder and Coroner, Forbidden always had the most deceptively clever (and presciently busy) guitar riffs in thrash metal, and the semi-tangible skill of putting them in order to achieve dynamic, impactful songs — the slapping of the face alternating with the zapping of the nuts, as it were; “Forsaken” is all that! (By the way, is anybody else reminded instantly of “Infinite” at every mention of the word “evil”?) And in retrospect, I should’ve known not to worry cuz the guys in Forbidden all still have good hair (above). That’s the starting point for all good metal.

-ADF

Forbidden’s Omega Wave is slated for an October 22 release on Nuclear Blast.

There must be something in the water out there in Chicago, because they’re churning out ridiculously tight, brutal deathcore bands so fast it makes the American Apparel sweatshop look like it’s in slow motion. Fans of moshing are surely already familiar with Demolisher, Monsters, and Oceano, who are producing some of the best metalcore this side of VOD, Bloodlet or A Life Once Lost. The newest addition to the Chicago moshcore cartel is ROOKS, featuring ex-members of all three bands, and I think they’ll be the most palatable to MetalSucks readers.

Click to read more…

So last night this dude was telling me that no one cares about Monster Magnet anymore, and that dude obviously does not read this website, ’cause both Anso and Bob Cock wrote love letters to the New Jersey quintet just this past August.

But the band has a new album, Mastermind, coming out October 26, so I guess that will be the real gauge of their current popularity. I haven’t heard the record yet, but I did enjoy the first video from the album, “Gods and Punks” which debuted at Noisecreep. The song is pretty good, and the deliberately campy video is very entertaining, if not laugh-out-loud funny. Check it out below, then let us know if you still care about Monster Magnet or not in our comments section.

-AR

While I can’t necessarily attest to Pristina’s claim that their home state of Connecticut is the 5th circle of hell, I can say with certainly that it’s a really fucking weird place. I imagine that Connecticut is one of those states of which most Americans aren’t quite sure of its exact location other than “somewhere in the Northeast,” much the same way us Northeasterners look at a state like Indiana and think “somewhere in the midwest” but we couldn’t tell you which states it borders. Connecticut’s biggest cities are such non-descript gems as Hartford, Danbury, and New Haven. Where now? Exactly my point.

But from amidst all the non-descriptness and ambiguity of The Constitution State comes Pristina, a band we profiled back in August who have their own distinctive sound. Pristina do owe a nod to their homestate brethren in Hatebreed, but their mix of hardcore brawn and metal brutality weighs in on the far, far heavier side than Connecticut’s most famous metal export. On tracks like “Because I Can Kill You v.2″ and “Saltwater Cthulhu” from their brand new record The Drought (ov Salt and Sorrow), Pristina approach Portal-like levels of snarled low-end, churning noise and unequivocal heaviness, while tracks like the psychedelic “Temple of the Morning Star” and the long-form progressive title track — complete with mid-section drum solo — show their more experimental side, proving that the band is capable of more than just raw power and brute force.

The Drought (Ov Salt and Sorrow) dropped this past Tuesday, September 28th on Trendkill Recordings. Order it here.

-VN

So back in July, Iron Maiden released a video for the title track from their latest opus, The Final Frontier, and while the space opera-themed clip looked pretty cool, some dolt decided to include the sound of all the laser guns n’ shit while the song was playing.

Now Rob Halford has released a similar video for the title track from his new album, Made of Metal, and the bad news is, it looks way cheaper and cheesier than Maiden’s clip. The good news is, you can actually, y’know, hear the fucking song. Not that that’s half the point of a music video or anything.

Halford’s Halford IV — Made of Metal is out now.

-AR

I don’t know if you’ll really be able to read my screenshot, so just go here to look at the actual ad.

I honestly don’t care what your religious beliefs are, but I really do not like having them foisted upon me. The idea of starting a Christian blackened death metal band specifically because “Blackend Death metal has a huge underground following world wide” and “That means more people that can be introduced to Christ” just rubs me the wrong way.

But the good news is, if it’s really a blackened death metal band, we won’t be able to understand what the fuck the singer is saying anyway.

-AR

Thanks to Wilson Bales for the tip!

I was just thinking, “Say, we haven’t had a list to argue about in a long time,” and now, voila, it’s The Deciblog to the rescue!

Chris Dick has posted his list of “The Top 5 Thrash Metal Ballads of All Time,” which is a pretty brilliant idea for a list. Will thrash metal fans be offended by the categorization of these songs as “ballads?” These songs are obviously not “Love of a Lifetime” or whatever, but I don’t know what you call, for example, Testament’s “The Ballad” if not, uh, a ballad.

So I obviously just gave away one entry on the list, but I don’t wanna give away the other four. Head over to The Deciblog to check out all the entries, than come back here to fight about it. I actually take no issue with this list whatsoever, other than the fact that Slayer’s “Dead Skin Mask” didn’t make the cut.

-AR

P.S. That last bit about Slayer was a joke, you twits.

Sebastian Bach and, to a somewhat lesser extent, Corey Glover and, to a definitely lesser extent, Paul Stanley have all had some success doing theatrical musicals, be it on Broadway or elsewhere; now Dee Snider wants in on that action, and has joined the cast of Rock of Ages, the hit Broadway jukebox musical that incorporates 80′s music that is still remembered fondly by the bridge and tunnel crowd — e.g., Poison, Journey, etc. He’ll be in the show for eleven weeks, from October 11 through December 24.

And why not? Snider’s vocal talents were never on the level of guys like Glover and Bach, but live videos that I just watched on YouTube (like the one above) tell me that his voice is still in surprisingly good shape. Plus, he already dresses like Liza Manelli, so he’ll fit right in on The Great White Way.

And it’s a genius stroke on the part of the producers; the people who wanna see this show are definitely gonna know who Snider is, and be all the happier to buy a ticket to see him. It makes you wonder why no one thought of this sooner, or if anyone besides Snider was ever approached to be in the show.

Also, if Snider’s eight-shows-a-week (!) commitment to Rock in any way slows the production of Strangeland 2, than it can only be a good thing.

Meanwhile, it was just about a year ago that a Rock of Ages movie adaptation was announced, to be directed by Adam Shankman, the man behind such Cannes Film Festival Palme D’Or winners as Cheaper by the Dozen 2. But there’s been no news of that project since, so it’s either dead or stuck in development hell. Either way, the human race wins… for now.

-AR

It is with a heavy heart that we report the loss of Jason “Plunger” Sica, vocalist for New Jersey death metal band Abacinate. Jason was only 25; he died at the home of one of his friends, in his hometown of Edison, New Jersey, from causes that are unknown as of this time.

It’s a testament to just how strong the NYC-area metal scene is right now that we’ve barely given prior coverage to Abacinate — self-described “working-class beer drinking metal” – a talented group whose recent release Genesis was a huge step forward for the band and easily their best album yet. I caught the band live this summer at the ongoing Monday night Precious Metal series of shows at Lit Lounge and was quite impressed with what I saw; Sica was a great frontman who really knew how to entertain an audience. I also hung out with Jason just two weeks ago when he trekked into the city to catch The Binary Code and Vanisher (Abacinate’s Todd Stern has played second guitar for The Binary Code in the past); I can’t say I knew him well, but it’s eery to think about.

Jason was just too young to die, and it’s such a shame that this band’s career was just taking off. I sincerely hope they decide to continue on.

From their recent album Genesis, here’s the track “Necroplunger”:

ABACINATE – “NECROPLUNGER”

ABACINATE – “NECROPLUNGER”

After the jump, read an official statement from the band regarding Jason’s death.

Click to read more…

Longtime MetalSucks Maniac Shinaain sent us a link to the below, nearly four-minute long trailer for Behemoth’s forthcoming three-disc DVD/CD set, Evangelia Heretika, and it looks like all kinds of fun. People praying for the band’s souls! The pressures of getting your corpse paint on in time! SUBTITLES! When’s the last time you saw subtitles on a band DVD??? Good for these dudes for not speaking in English just because some of their fanbase is probably borderline illiterate.

Here’s a statement from Nergal regarding the release, which was posted on Behemoth’s Facebook page, where they are mysteriously known as “BEHEMOTH!” (Either that, or Nergal was just really, really excited about being on Facebook):

Click to read more…

A little over a year ago, Zakk Wylde was admitted to the hospital due to blood clotting in his leg (pic above); now Black Label Society have been forced to cancel two shows of their current tour due to “a reoccurrence of an issue first diagnosed” at that time. In other words: The poor guy had more clotting in his leg, and had to once again go spend some time in the hospital.

This issue must be at least sorta-kinda under control, though, as the band will resume the tour tomorrow night in Milwaukee.

What else is there to say about this? We hope Zakk is okay. I know we give him and BLS a lot of shit around here, but we obviously don’t wish the dude any ill will. Hopefully this issue is resolved, and Zakk can now continue to do that which he loves: Playing lots and lots of guitar squeals for drunk metal fans.

-AR

I <3 Butch Walker! He’s about as brilliant a songwriter, producer and lyricist as there is in the entire world!

But before he got all indie/modern of late (and way after he was all glammed up in South Gang) he was all about power-crunch guitar pop, and hotdamn was he good at it. Following the breakup of Marvelous 3 in 2001 he released his first solo record Left of Self-Centered in 2002, an album with which I walked hand in hand down memory lane a few days ago. So excellent!

I’d forgotten about the little sketch, above, that opens the album. It’s funny how it’s even more relevant now than it was in 2002 when it was recorded. And for good measure, the album’s first actual song is included in the clip too since there’s a nice little segue there that’d be odd if it was just cut off.

If you’re questioning the validity of this post on a metal site, a) fuck you, b) do some research.

-VN