Me BIG PIMPIN with a couple of my biatches at school lol, not everybody who listens to metal is a nerd!

Hey guys what’s up, thanks to Axle and Vince from Metal Sucks (link to their site) for letting me introduce myself to you guys!  I am a Junior in High School at Canyon Ridge High in Hesperia California, and pretty much just getting into metal. My uncle introduced me to these psyhcos of metal, he was in “Axle”s wedding (Axel isn’t his real name haha but I’m not telling you what his real name is you will have to find out!) and he has always been into metal, so I guess it runs in the family that we like Metal! I have been listening to metal of all kinds for like a year and a half now but I know there are a lot of bands I should check out but don’t know about and wanted to ask you guys for some ideas about what bands you think I should check out. I know you all are the experts lol!

BTW I only have dial-up 56K internet so I can’t use MySpace, Youtube, or BitTorrid or any of that so if you can just tell me stuff to buy that is what I’m looking for. My town doesn’t have a Hot Topics but they have a lot of stuff at Walmart so anything they have there they should also have at Walmart.

I like pretty much anything that is cool and heavy, so if there is anything you guys think I should check out just let me know (you can send an email to the comments and I will see it when I look at this), here is what metal bands I already like:

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If The Album Isn’t Dead Then We Should Kill It!

A lot of people take it as an insult to albums when I make that statement. But that’s just not the case. Albums will always be awesome. They are most awesome when you get one that’s actually filled with good music from front to back. It is very difficult to write a good album so I’m not dissing the actuality of the album being an artform or a statement or whatever the fuck. But…

Bands shouldn’t make albums anymore.

How often do you hear bands complaining about losing money or not being able to tour because of the internet and people ‘stealing’ their records? If you are one of those bands than I say you deserve to get your shit stolen because you keep making albums. I’m not shitting on bands for making albums. Let’s be clear. I’m just trying to shed light on this whole ‘album’ idea considering the time we live in.

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One of the most thrilling performances at this year’s New England Metal/Hardcore Fest came from a reunited Disembodied. Having arrived at the venue mere minutes before their scheduled start time, the Minneapolis band rushed their gear onstage and put on a cathartic, vicious performance of their savage, noisy brand of sludgy hardcore. I stood up front for the entire set, stunned and delighted by how intrinsically menacing they managed to be compared to the fest’s largely toughguy-heavy lineup.

After their set, I managed to get some time in with bassist Tara Johnson, who confirmed that they were working on new material. Finally, the first of these new tracks has been revealed, as the above exclusive video shows. Entitled “Caveat”, it wont come as any surprise to those familiar with Disembodied’s slow, crushing sound — and it gives a great deal of hope to fans that their next, as yet untitled album will slay. Perhaps this will be part of their set tonight at New York’s Mercury Lounge, where they open for the recently reunited hardcore act Strife.

-GS

Reader Patrick Lukens sent in this video of little kids beating the shit out of each other and generally doing silly things while they play sports — set to metal — last week, but we snoozed on it and our brotosaurii over at The Number of the Blog picked it up first. Which is probably for the best, since they realized that Patrick is a member of Cut Your Teeth, the band that provided the video’s soundtrack. It’s kind of lame that Patrick didn’t fess up to that from the get-go instead claiming to be sending us “the most metal video of all-time,” but here we are posting it anyway; hopefully the embarrassment of being called out publicly will be enough for him not to do it again. Patrick: tsk tsk! Be a mensch next time.

-VN

My family likes to travel. My first time on a plane was when I was 3 months old, and I’m told I had the decency to pass out and not make one peep on a trans-Atlantic flight. Traveling is fun in and of itself but traveling for music is a perfectly legitimate reason as far as we’re concerned. My mom and I set a record this summer as we took about four 24-hour trips to cities to see concerts, from Brussels (good beer) to Salzburg (good beer) to Istanbul (good beer. Unless it’s Turkish.) Various other friends and family participated in these trips here and there, but she and I did it all. They weren’t metal shows so I won’t elaborate too much except they ranged from Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood, (oh like you need to wonder. I totally heckled them when they sang, “Layla.” I was the obnoxious loud one during a beautiful, melodic number, screeching, “THAT’S MEEEE!”) to a DJ that mixed traditional Anatolian sounds and dance paired with readings from a Turkish author, to a philharmonic orchestra. I did top off the summer by coming back from Europe in time to see KISS in Boston, though. Music is important to us and we’re pretty dedicated when it comes to showing our support.

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I’m tired of posting the same old high-charting consistent sellers (heyo Disturbed, Linkin Suck, etc) and I’m sure you’re even more tired of reading about them, so this week I’d like to focus on the Top Hard Music Albums charts with a special emphasis on debuts. This week’s notable sales numbers with my own snarky comments (natch) after the flip.

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Ayreon mastermind Arjen Anthony Lucassen is always keeping busy, and 2010 is no exception: Next week InsideOut will release Victims of the Modern Age, the second album from his Star One project. Featuring vocals by Russell Allen (Symphony X), Damian Wilson (Headspace, Threshold), Floor Jansen (ReVamp, ex-After Forever), and Dan Swanö (ex-Bloodbath, Nightingale, Edge of Sanity) and lyrics based on a series of classic, post-apocalyptic sci-fi films and television series — including A Clockwork Orange, Blade Runner, and Firefly — Victims of the Modern Age is a must-have for fans of edgy-yet-melodic metal. MetalSucks is proud to debut the track “24 Hours,” which you can stream below. Once you hear how awesome it is, pre-order Victims of the Modern Age here.

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And after the jump, read my exclusive chat with Lucassen about the differences between Star One and all his other various projects, how he goes about collaborating with these legendary singers, Star One’s lyrical content, and what he has in store for fans after Star One…

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If you don’t know Dawn of Ashes, you should familiarize yourself with them right quick: The blackened death quartet recently released their excellent Metal Blade debut, Genocide Chapters, and will provide support for Dimmu Borgir on their upcoming North American tour. This band’s music is heavy as fuck and catchy as hell, and they’re poised for big things.

And if you don’t know Robert Kurtzman, well, shame on you. The guy is a legend in the horror movie game. As the “K” in K.N.B. EFX Group, he did special make-up effects for such classics as Evil Dead II, Predator, Night of the Creeps, Scream, Cabin Fever, and entries in the A Nightmare on Elm Street and Halloween franchises (amongst many, many more). He also came up with the story for, and co-produced, From Dusk ‘Til Dawn, and went on to direct such films as the original Wishmaster. In 2002, he left K.N.B., and has since formed Robert Kurtzman’s Creature Corps, continuing his incredible work in the world of things that go bump in the night.

Last week, Robert Kurtzman’s Creature Corps took over one of Ohio’s most notoriously haunted locations – The Bissman Building in Mansfield — for the filming of Dawn of Ashes’ new video, “Transformation Within Fictional Mutation.” Kurtzman produced the video along with Scott Licina and Tim Smith, and David H. Greathouse directed. As big fans of both Kurtzman’s work and Dawn of Ashes, MetalSucks was only too-happy when the Creature Corps approached us about debuting some exclusive behind-the-scenes pics from the shoot. Check ‘em out after the jump, but be warned: THEY ARE GORY AS HELL and definitely NSFW.

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We regret to inform you that unfortunately recent Roadrunner signees Baptized in Blood will not be able to make their scheduled appearance at tonight’s MetalSucks / Metal Injection / 1000 Knives CMJ showcase at Club Europa in Brooklyn. According to a representative from Roadrunner, the band was denied entry to the United States at the border despite the fact that this show is a promotional appearance and not for pay.

But the show will go on! Last Chance to Reason, This or the Apocalypse, Car Bomb and A Life Once Lost will just have to step up their game, as if there was ever any worry that they wouldn’t bring it 110% anyway. Comedian Big Jay Oakerson, who is hosting the event, will be doing a little extra stand-up between bands as well. See you all out there! The show starts at 7pm and is All Ages.

This morning I walked by the Axl Annex of the Mansion to the smell of piss, shit and vomit emanating from his quarters. My knock on the door was returned by a grunt, which is at least improved from last night when Axl was so sick he couldn’t even stay out to catch Nevermore completely own New York’s Gramercy Theater. You know the guy’s gotta be in bad condition if he’s skipping Nevermore; I know he’d been looking forward to that show for a while. And it’s really too bad, because Nevermore were absolutely phenomenal.

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Some thoughts about the above video by Willow Smith, Will’s 9-year old daughter:

• In case there was any doubt, that is definitely the daughter of The Fresh Prince. Look at those ears!
• Those are some vicious fucking windmills! Way better than I could ever do, even when I had long hair. I nominate Willow to take Jesper Stromblad’s vacated spot in In Flames.
• This song is going to be huge.

Is not headbanging going to become to the new headbanging when the latter becomes popular at da club?

-VN

Thanks: MetalGF

As much crap as I’ve given Earache head honcho Digby Pearson in the past for topics such as signing generic re-thrash bands and poo-pooing the effect of Facebook and the Internet on local metal scenes, I really do appreciate that he’s letting it all hang out on his Ask Earache blog in an honest fashion even if I don’t always agree with the guy. I seriously doubt the founder of one of the most well-known metal labels in the world gives a shit what some Jewish blogger in Brooklyn thinks, but for what it’s worth I actually agree with Dig’s latest rant.

A reader question posed to Pearson asks Earache’s founder what he thinks of the idea of heavily discounting CDs to £l each [remember Earache is based in the U.K.] to boost lagging sales, and positions that idea against investing in trying to get customers to embace streaming services like Spotify. Since Spotify isn’t available in the States yet, a quick synopsis: any music you could ever want streaming from your computer or mobile device without any file ownership for a low monthly fee. I’ve tested a preview of it and it is AMAZING; it works flawlessly. Where does Pearson stand in the streaming service vs. ownership debate?

Pearson is surprisingly unattached to physical music formats — a rare thing for ANY label executive to admit — and goes on record as saying CDs and even vinyls are outdated:

People who use Spotify, like yourself, have made the culturally significant transition from the old download & ownership model to listening to music streaming from the “Cloud”. This is an important distinction. Many of my friends still insist on owning something, be it the Vinyl LP, CD or even Mp3 files on a hard drive. If its not firmly in their possession, showed off in their collection, then they don’t really feel like a proper music fan. Personally, my Cd & LP collection just collects dust now.

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I’m enjoying doing these “Cinemetal Round-Up” things, and hopefully you are, too. Actually, I don’t care if you’re enjoying them or not, I’m the one who has to write them and I don’t really know you anyway.

SO, here we go with the latest batch of clips intended to sell you some music.

First up, we have “Bow” from Julie Christmas. The video originally premiered on Stereogum, and the song comes from her new album, The Bad Wife. It’s Julie’s first solo album, although you’d never really know to listen to it — possibly because her Made Out of Babies bandmates apparently helped her write some of the music.

ANYWAY, if you watched this video with the sound off, you’d probably think it was for some viking metal band, ’cause Ms. Christmas and this Sasquatch are running around the woods. Luckily the song is pretty good so you don’t have to watch it with the sound off.

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We’re just a week away from the release of Dååth’s new, self-titled album (pre-order it here!), and so we’re nearing the end of this almost two-month long look into the making of the record. I’m honestly kinda sad about that.

Today’s penultimate interview is with guitarist Emil Werstler. There was some web-nerd rage back in August when Dååth co-producer/co-engineer/mixer Mark Lewis called Werstler “the best guitar player in metal,” and while I tend to agree with Werstler’s band mate, one Mr. Eyal Levi, that the word “best” is basically impossible to define, I do think there’s a strong argument to be made that Lewis’ assessment is correct. During my brief time in the studio watching Werstler record, I saw him pull off ridiculously sick move after ridiculously sick move — I mean, the guy plays some really, really mind-blowing shit on this album. And little wonder he’s so good: Werstler professes himself to be a “learning addict” and is a tireless perfectionist. I watched him get so wrapped up in his work that he quite literally forgot to take breaks or make sure he was taking care of some of his basic human necessities, like eating.

After the jump, get Werstler’s thoughts on the recording of Dååth, how the band has evolved, his ongoing creative relationship with Eyal Levi, why he enjoys teaching guitar lessons when he’s not busy with the group, and more.

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Wow, guys. I am honestly shocked. A couple of weeks ago six of you were able to successfully identify the most unreadable band logo we’ve ever run — but not a single one of you got last week’s logo, which belongs to the band Spermtomitosis. Way to let me down.

So: that means we still have three copies of Iron Thrones‘ latest, The Wretched Sun, to give away! This band rules. They won the Scion “No Label Needed” contest, which we participated in, and I’m very happy to report that this resulting record kicks ass all up and down the boulevard. And the band is just about to start a tour with Hero Destroyed (poster to your right — click to enlarge and get dates!), so now is a great opportunity for you to get hip to a really talented band… assuming you’re not hip to them already.

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. And a very special thanks to longtime MetalSucks Maniac Pokesmot for setting up this week’s prize!

This week’s logo was suggested by reader Jordan Amandes. Hopefully you’ll do better with it than you did the last one…

-AR

Once upon a time in the magical land of Roadrunner, there was a sweet death metal band called Gorguts. While the gods did not smile upon them enough to make them very popular, their first two albums were masterpieces of 90s death metal– especially their second LP, Erosion of Sanity. Nobody would accuse them of being the most original band, but all of the good people throughout the land of Roadrunner agreed that these albums were full of sick pitt riffment, and we asked the Lord to bless them for providing us with these two archives of brutality.

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I first got into Cephalic Carnage because of the metalcore parody song, “Dying Will Be the Death of Me.” But when I heard the rest of the album on which that song appears, Anomalies, I thought, “Well, this is good, but it’s just too disjointed for me. There are so many styles, it’s just too all over the place.” I couldn’t deal with the randomness. Anomalies felt like more of an outline than anything groundbreaking.

Then Xenosapien came out, and I was floored. It was like all the ideas from Anomalies had been compressed and recycled into a frantic yet undeniably coherent death/grind mass. I felt that it was pretty much Cephalic’s pinnacle performance, and didn’t expect much more than a rehash of its ideas on the band’s next release. I was actually very wrong, as I discovered about a month ago when Misled by Certainty came out.

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A little under a year ago we started hearing about a start-up food truck in Los Angeles called “Grill ‘Em All” that served gourmet metal-themed burgers. Between then and now Grill ‘Em All’s mythos and popularity have exploded beyond the grimey streets of L.A. where they serve up burgers daily to the rest of the U.S. and even the world. Their latest adventures saw them face off against another L.A. burger truck on The Travel Channel’s Food Wars and endure a 6-week cross-country marathon to come out victorious on the The Food Network’s The Great Food Truck Race. It’s safe to say that the duo of Chef Ryan Harkins and Matt Chernus are now burger — and metal — royalty, right up there with Kuma’s Korner in Chicago.

To celebrate their recent victory on The Great Food Truck Race, the Grill ‘Em All dudes are taking a “Victory Lap” in New York City this coming week, where they’ll be taking over the kitchens of various area restaurants and serving limited numbers of their patented metal burgers. You can get details about each of those events at Grill ‘Em All’s official website, right on the front page.

What’s this crazy whirlwind of burgers and metal and cross-country journeys in the name of both been like for Chef Ryan? Ryan indulged me with a leisurely phone chat this past Saturday; he spoke about the experiences of both shows, the brotherhood of metal, the brotherhood of food, and told us about the mouth-watering
“Pantera” burger he’ll be serving up this week in NYC. A Grill ‘Em All brick-and-mortar restaurant on the horizon?? A Grill ‘Em All fan club?? Could be in the very near future. Our chat, along with Grill ‘Em All manager and Burger Conquest maestro The Rev, after the bite.

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Longtime reader “RB” sent us the below clip from Brazilian MTV’s 2009 documentary about the country’s metal scene, Ruído das Minas (Noise from the Mines). I’ve never seen (or even heard of) the doc before (and without subtitles I wouldn’t be able to learn much from it anyway), but the clip shows Sepultura performing the song “Antichrist” live in 1985, the same year the song was including on their EP, Beastial Devastation. The thing is, the band is wearing corpse paint during the performance!

Although I’ve never seen footage of the band in corpse paint, the fact that Sepultura experimented with the stuff in their earliest days isn’t a exactly secret — in fact, I thought this footage might actually be of the band with their original vocalist, Wagner “Antichrist” Lamounier (later of Sarcófago fame)… and I’m honestly still not sure that it isn’t. That sure does look more like Lamounier than Max Cavalera to me, and, given his nick name, I’ve always assumed that Lamounier had something to do with “Antichrist.” But some investigation shows that he has no songwriting credit on the track, whereas Cavalera does, sooooooo… maybe someone with more knowledge than myself regarding Sep’s pre-Morbid Visions days can clear this up.

In any case, the footage sure is interesting!

And here’s what is apparently Sepultura’s first promo pic, with Lamounier:

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BADABOOM! We promised you more awesomeness from Triptykon today, and here it is: an exclusive stream of Shatter: Eparistera Daimones Accompanied, the new EP from the legendary Tom G. Warrior’s incredible new band, a full week before its October 26 release via Century Media. Featuring three previously-unreleased songs from the Eparistera Daimones studio sessions, plus two covers of classic Celtic Frost tracks recorded live during the band’s headlining set at The Netherlands’ Roadburn Festival this past April, Shatter is just more proof that Triptykon are now a major creative force in the metal world.

Stream the EP below, and then go pre-order yourself a copy. You can also check out the killer video for the title track here. And don’t forget that Triptykon are continuing their U.S. tour with 1349 and Yakuza through the end of the month; get remaining dates here.

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