Demon Hunter to good taste: “Hey, let’s take a little walk in the woods, whadda ya say? Oh, these shovels? They’re just, uh, our walking sticks. Yeah, that’s the ticket.”

Demon Hunter, one of approximately eighteen thousand insanely successful metal bands whose appeal is completely lost on me, are streaming a new song, “The Wind,” here. It comes off of Happy Christmas Volume 5, a Tooth & Nail comp consisting almost entirely of bands I’ve never heard of. (Ivoryline? Sent By Ravens? Thousand Foot Krutch? Who are you people???)

And the song sounds an awful lot like a song that I myself wrote about fifteen years ago, right around the time I realized I had no talent and I would never punish the world with my crappy guitar playing and sub-par song composition skills again. But I guess Demon Hunter has no conscience, so they went ahead and made a career out of this. Swell.

Side note: when I googled the words “demon hunter the wind” to try and get more details of the song, the first website to come up was called jesusfreakhideout.com. Then my computer started to burn up and cry out “I’m melting! I’M MELTING!!!”

-AR

As if the news that Decibel are kicking off their new flexi disc series with some previously-unreleased music from Brutal Truth wasn’t enough, The Deciblog has now debuted the legendary grindsters’ new video, “Semi-Automatic Carnation,” too. Stop hogging all the Brutal Truth, Decidudes! There’s enough to go around!

Actually, I guess there isn’t. Even though the running time of the track on the album is 2:55, the running time of the video is only 2:05. Only a grind band would look at a three-minute track and go, “Yeah, that song is too long, let’s cut a third of it out for the video.” The only explanation I can come up is that since “Semi-Automatic Carnation” isn’t really a song so much it’s an interlude (making it kind of a bizarre choice for video treatment in the first place), maybe BT just didn’t think anyone would wanna watch this for additional fifty seconds?

“Semi-Automatic Carnation” come off of Brutal’s Truth’s latest, Evolution Through Revolution, which is out now on Relapse.

-AR

It’s interesting how small the world becomes after you’ve been around it a few times. This is becoming the case for me in North America. Intronaut just finished what might be our seventh or eighth go ‘round of the US and Canada, and I’m really noticing a change in my perspective in the traveling aspect of touring. 3,000 miles away from home doesn’t feel as far as it used to. The roads, clubs, and people are all so familiar at this point that I might as well be at home in Los Angeles.

On the last tour I thought it would be interesting to write a little something about each of my favorite and least favorite drives that we have made over and over again. I do a lot of driving on tour, mostly because I get car sick if I don’t, but also because I enjoy taking in the scenery. That being said, I also have to take in plenty of dull scenery  with the good. And before I come off as too much of a hater, I should say that there is beauty to be found in just about every part of our country, but sometimes we’re a little too tired and cranky to let ourselves see it. Enjoy….

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That’s right, kiddies! MetalSucks is teaming up with IndieMerch to live out our adolescent fantasies of being on the cover of one of the most classic and recognizable metal album covers of all time. (That would be Guns N’ Roses’ Appetite for Destruction… duh.) This is an EXTREMELY LIMITED EDITION t-shirt — we’re only making 84 of them, and once they’re gone, they’re gone! So go get yours now.

And while you’re at IndieMerch, you can also check out Vince’s picks for five other super-sweet metal shirts, plus some smokin’ stuff from our bro-bros at Metal Injection, included a limited edition shirt of their own (the design of which we shan’t give away here).

And, yeah, we’re a little bummed we were only able to fit the senior-most MetalSucks staffers on the shirt… maybe next time we’ll do a Slipknot parody or something to try and get everyone in there. For now, the shirt features Axl Rosenberg (center), Vince Neilstein (bottom), Kip Wingerschmidt (top), Anso DF (left), Sammy O’Hagar (right), and Gary Suarez (in between Axl and Vince). We hope you think it’s as bad-assed as we do!!!

photo by Nathaniel Shannon

Pentagram has long since been regarded as one of the foremost pioneers of doom metal, but its history has been less clear-cut. Founder and lead singer Bobby Liebling took the time to answer some questions and discuss everything from the upcoming record Last Rites to his newborn son. I just sat back and let one of the most frank and personable musicians I’ve ever talked to tell his story..

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Seeing Holy Grail’s new video for “My Last Attack” only makes me that much more excited about seeing these dudes live. A “live” video like this is the perfect introduction to a new band as this is the first chance most folks have gotten to see what the band looks like, and by all accounts these guys fucking smoke in the live setting. Whereas in the ’80s and ’90s metal bands filmed “fake live” videos on big stages in giant arenas, we all know that in 2010 metal bands don’t play in arenas; they play in dirty, cramped clubs. And though the audio in this music video is obviously the album version of the track, it sure looks like Holy Grail are loads and loads of fun to watch live. Shred! Hair! Fist pumping! I’m so in. These dudes are on tour now with Blind Guardian, but I think I’ll wait to catch ‘em in a more proper, metal setting like the one in this video.

Holy Grail‘s absolutely stellar debut Crisis in Utopia is out now on Prosthetic Records. If you don’t like good music, don’t check it out.

-VN

With under two months to go before 2010 hits the showers, now is the time to highlight a few albums that might have flown under the radar throughout the year, but may very well be worth giving a listen. First up is the debut from Riotgod, a new band comprised of longtime Monster Magnet members Bob Pantella (drums) and Jim Baglino (bass), as well as Mark Sunshine (vocals) Garrett Sweeny (guitars) — the latter of whom filled-in for Monster Magnet following Ed Mundell’s departure after almost twenty years ago.

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A couple of weeks ago I asked you to answer the question “What is the worst possible way you could imagine to meet your end, and why?” for a chance to win some cool shit from The End Records. Well, we got a lot of good entries, but there can be only four winners. Here are the ones that made me laugh the loudest:

• jadedkid: “Hit by a rogue dildo at an IWABO show.”
• AetherJake: “Forced into a baby costume and eaten by Dino.”
• Carly Park: “Getting beaten to death by Vince Neil for not recognizing him in an elevator.”
• Slaughterhouse: “My end wouldn’t mean death. It would simply mean having my hands removed so I couldn’t play my guitar. As well as going deaf so I couldn’t not hear music. At that point, the end has came.”

These four readers all win a prize pack from The End, including the following:

• A copy of These Are They‘s new album, Disposing of Betrayers, signed by Paul Kuhr, vocalist for both These Are They and Novembers Doom.
• A copy of Lordi‘s new album, Babez For Breakfast.
• A copy of original Nightwish vocalist Tarja Turunen‘s new solo album, What Lies Beneath.

Congrats to the winners! If you’re reading this, please check your e-mails and get back to me with your mailing addresses so The End can send you your prizes.

And don’t forget, all of these albums are out now on The End and can be purchased from The Omega Order.

-AR

It’s a rare that a supergroup ends up being more than the sum of its parts — and yet, miraculously, such is the case with Murder Construct, a new deathgrind outfit featuring Cattle Decapitation’s Travis Ryan on vocals, Exhumed/Phobia/Impaled’s Leon del Muerte on guitar and vocals, Intronaut/Uphill Battle’s Danny Walker on drums, Bad Acid Trip’s Caleb Schneider on bass, and Fetus Eaters/Watch Me Burn’s Kevin Fetus also on guitar. With a pedigree like that, your expectations for the band are pretty high. And guess what? Murder Construct do not disappoint.

But don’t take our word for it — give the group’s debut album a listen in its entirety below. Once you’ve felt its awesome power, you’ll wanna pre-order it here. Relapse will release the album next Tuesday, November 23. Enjoy it, fuckers!

I’m pretty bummed I missed Immortal when they played North America earlier this year. Luckily, I’ll have another chance come February, when the band are returning to this continent — with Absu in tow, no less.

Alas, they’re only playing six dates, so if you don’t live within convenient traveling distance of NYC, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Denver, or San Antonio, you’re shit outta luck. For the rest of us, though… time to throw on some corpsepaint and shake our booties, “All Shall Fall” video-style.

Dates after the jump.

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I really liked Onslaught’s last album, 2007′s Killing Peace, but judging by a lot of the reviews I read, I was in the minority. Whatever. I was still stoked to hear their new album, Sounds of Violence.

But now I’ve seen the album art, and all I can say is… “Huh?”

Look familiar? It should. The design is a very clear play on the Nazi eagle:

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Abysmal Dawn always have friggin’ sweet album art, and it looks like their forthcoming release, Leveling the Plane of Existence, is no exception. But then, it was done by Pär Olofsson (The Faceless’ Planetary Duality, Immolation’s Majesty and Decay, etc.), so this should come as a surprise to no one. Check out this epic epicness:

Leveling the Plane of Existence will be rockin’ balls off when Relapse releases it on February 1 here in North America, and slightly later in other parts of the world.

-AR

With the holidays right around the corner — and all the best of, greatest hits and holiday comps that come therewith — this past Tuesday was the last big date for new album releases in 2010, though there are still a few stragglers coming down the pipe. The world of hard rock and metal made a big showing last week, with new releases from Underoath, Dio, Cradle of Filth, Oceano, Gwar, Helloween, Volbeat and a smattering of others making the Soundscan charts. Rankings, sales figures and commentary after the jump.

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I’m so legitimately happy for the dudes in Ratt; not only did they write the most ass-kicking metal album of the year in Infestation, but they were able to follow it up with a legit club headline tour thanks to all the praise and press they received because of it. No more lame-o fairs and festivals or shitty dive bars for these Ratt N’ Rollers — actual, real-deal clubs, with big stages and enough room for their own production. I’d imagine it felt really good after slogging it out in the dregs of the live music circuit for well over a decade; especially so for DeMartini, Blotzer and Crane, who finally got Stephen Pearcy back in the fold (a big part of the band’s newfound success, to be sure). Fitting then that Ratt’s new video for Infestation opening slammer “Eat Me Up Alive” chronicles that experience; if you missed Ratt in 2010, well, too bad for you ’cause they ain’t gonna be back on the road for a while… but at least you can live vicariously through this video.

-VN

According to Lambgoat, Emmure’s Frankie Palmeri is starting his own record label. I was hoping it would be called “Raptor Jesus Records,” but it’s actually gonna be called “False Prophet Records,” which is close enough, I guess.

Palmeri’s fist sign is a band called Monsters (There really wasn’t already a metal band called Monsters?), their moniker apparently referring to the way they terrorize good taste. Look at this photo of the band:

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Does Tommy Lee WANT me to hate him? When rumors of a Motley Crue/Poison tour in 2011 started to circulate earlier this week, I got all excited, both for the shows themselves, and for the rampant idiocy that would no doubt accompany those shows. Alas, Long Dong Tommy took to Twitter late Monday afternoon to put an end to my fantasies of Aqua Net and unprotected sex with strangers:

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When I wrote about the recent Kirk Hammett kid-kicking incident earlier this week, I bemoaned the fact that the resulting video wasn’t “in slow-motion on a loop, so you can’t watch it and laugh over and over and over again without rewinding.”

Well I guess our number one homie, Rob at Metal Injection, wanted to get me an early Hanukkah present, ’cause he has now made such a video.  And it is every bit as uproarious as I was hoping it would be. Rob even added sound effects and multiple angles!!! This might be the best film of the year. Someone let me know how I can go about submitting it for an Oscar in the “Best Documentary Short Subject” category.

-AR

We couldn’t attend this year’s annual Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin, TX. But “The Most Fun Live Band In The World” Valient Thorr had an appearance at the 3-day event, so frontman Valient Himself decided to make a vacation of it by hanging out at the entire 3-day festival as a regular old fan and soaking in the fun (fun fun). Burgertime at the arcade, a Queen cover band, Weird Al, The Dwarves, a Sarah Palin decapitation by Gwar, High on Fire, getting in the pit for Suicidal Tendencies, tons and tons of beer… all in a weekend’s worth of fun (fun fun) for Valient Himself. Check out his recap of the weekend below.

by Valient Himself

Alahoyus, everyone.  This is Valient Himself.  I just got back from Texas, and I had such a blast, I thought I’d share my experience with you.  I’m writing to you on my brand new computer.  This is the first thing I’m typing on it, so I’m very excited.  So, finally our US tour in support of our new record has come to an end.  Last weekend we flew to Austin for the final show, and it was an honor to be asked to play amidst so many awesome bands at this year’s FUN FUN FUN FEST.  Ever since we were asked, we’ve had a collective boner about the lineup.  To our dismay the week before last, my favorite band of all time, DEVO, unfortunately had to cancel because Bob Mothersbaugh almost cut his thumb off or something like that.  Apparently it was pretty bad.  HOWEVER, we were not gonna let that deter us from having an awesome time, anyway there were a hundred other bands that were gonna rock as well.  And then, bang a few hours later, word comes through that the O.G. lineup of the Descendants were going to fill in for DEVO, playing their first show together in 8 years.  We’ll take it!  Awesome!

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Congrats to reader David Toohey, who correctly identified last week’s logo as belonging to the band Beatus. David wins a signed copy of Mosh Potatoes: Recipes, Anecdotes, and Mayhem from the Heavyweights of Heavy Metal, the incredible new metal-themed cookbook from Moth Eater bassist Steve Seabury. Congrats, David!

This week we have another awesome prize to give away: two (2) copies of Metalocalypse season 3 on DVD, and one (1) copy on Blu-Ray. This shit needs no introduction. It’s Metalocalypse, one of the best shows on television and one of the greatest feats of cinemetal in history. You know you want this!!! So get crack-a-lack-a-lackin’ on figuring out this week’s logo.

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. Also, PLEASE BE SURE TO SPECIFY IN YOUR E-MAIL IF YOU WANT A DVD COPY OR A BLU-RAY COPY SHOULD YOU WIN, as we obviously don’t have enough Blu-Rays to go around. From everyone who gets it right, we’ll randomly select three winners announce his or her name next week.

This week’s logo was suggested by reader Eamon Scarbrough, and it’s a doozy…

-AR

I could eat a peach for hours.

Let’s see what Georgia has to offer us, courtesy Matt Cooper. I chose Matt’s e-mail ’cause he says that “Georgia has a lot of scenecore/deathcore right now, not too many actual good bands anymore,” which leads me to believe that none of the following bands will make me wanna stab myself in the ear with a needle.  Also, he only included three bands in his e-mail, so even if they do suck, at least my death will quick and relatively painless. But we’ve had obviously had some pretty good luck with bands from Georgia before (see: Mastodon, Daath, From Exile, and depending on whether or not you appreciate pop metal, Sevendust).

Aight, let’s get this do this thang.

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