I’ve been listening to Graf Orlock’s Doombox EP so much these past couple of weeks that I can now recite a movie quote from a movie I’ve never seen (that would be Harsh Times). The whole thing is under twelve minutes long (read Sammy O’Hagar’s rightfully-glowing review here), so it’s easy to listen to as an aid for short bursts of disrupted internet service/”FUCK YOU TIME WARNER CUSTOMER SERVICE!!!”-inspired rage. I’m so obsessed with the EP, in fact, that I now outright hate the people of Tacoma, Vancouver, and Portland, as those are the only three towns Graf Orlock will be hitting up on their upcoming mini-tour with the also-awesomeOwen Hart (whose contributions to this year’s second edition of Scott Hull-curated This Comp Kills Fascists were two of the highlights of that collection). Hopefully these dudes make it to other parts of the country in the not-too-distant future, ’cause I’m dying to see this shit played live.

So while we usually try not to cover regional tours ’cause so few of you will ever get to go, my envy of people who can attend these shows is such that I am going to post all three dates:

Dec 17 – Tacoma, WA @ The Redroom
Dec 18 – Vancouver, BC @ Garbage Mountain
Dec 19 – Portland, OR @ Branx

Go if you’re lucky enough to live in that part of the country.

Meanwhile, The PRP tells me that Scott Kelly and Wino are gonna be doing some shows together next year. They call the itinerary after the jump the “initial dates,” so hopefully there will be more soon, ’cause that sounds like a show that many of you might enjoy.

The aforementioned “initial dates” are…

Click to read more…

Alright, let’s get our Headbanger’s Ball on.

First up today we have “Get Back in Line,” Motörhead’s first video in support of their new album, The Wörld is Yours. That album title, in case you don’t know, is a Scarface reference, and the title of this year’s offering from Upon a Burning Body — although my gut tells me Motörhead’s album will probably make a much stronger impression on the world at large. I dunno, call it a hunch.

But I digress.

The video is pretty cheap and definitely trite, but it’s Motörhead, so I don’t think anyone will care. I don’t know why this band even feels the need to make videos anymore — I would imagine that, at this point, Motörhead’s following will buy their new album pretty much no matter what, and that new generations of Motörhead fans will be created the same way they have been for years: via cool older brothers, cousins, uncles, and other terrible role models who pass the music down to the next generation. But even if I’m wrong and this band still needs new videos to sell their wares, well, I don’t really care so much that the video is a little lame, ’cause the song made me grab a MetalSucks Mansion Monkey by the tail and swing him around over my head for three-and-a-half straight minutes.

Click to read more…

Dave Mustaine tweeted the below message yesterday, just a day after promising fans that “a huge announcement is coming for next summer in the States and in Europe and the U.K.” (I guess the U.K. isn’t part of Europe.) And it’s about as subtle a “hint” as when I got home that time and my then-girlfriend had left all my shit out on the sidewalk in boxes.

I’m gonna do any analysis because there’s none to be done here — Davey even capitalized the word “Big” in case any Slayer fans were too dumb to get it.

So the Big Four tour is clearly on for Summer 2011. That either makes you excited, or it doesn’t. But either way, it’s going to be one the biggest events in metal history. Discuss in the comments section below.

-AR

[via Metal Insider]

One final “Whip My Hair” video remix and then I promise to shut up about Will and Jada’s 9-year old offspring and her headbanging ways. For what it’s worth, this is definitely the best one I’ve seen yet.

Thanks to Bobby Tims for sending this one in.

-VN

So all this “We’re making a new album!”/”No we’re not!” back-and-forth between the members of Slipknot — specifically, drummer Joey Jordison (pro-new album) and vocalist Corey Taylor (anti-new album) — was already pretty baffling before the band started announcing tour dates for next summer, especially given that these announcements came roughly 24 hours after Taylor’s latest assertion that there’s no new ‘Knot on the horizon. ‘Cause if the band is booking gigs, then there MUST be at least SOME communication either between the band members or directly or at least via their handlers, which would suggest that someone could either tell Jordison to shut up, or tell Taylor to shut up, or tell them both to shut up.

But that doesn’t seem to be the case. Over the weekend, Taylor once again took to Twitter to try and clear things up for his fans, and, in doing so, once again only made things muddier:

Click to read more…

If you thought Cryptopsy stunk up the house with their last record, 2007′s The Unspoken King, then wait until you hear what drummer Flo Mournier’s been up to since.

Mournier’s new project is called Digital Doomzday — yes, that’s a Z (not a typo) and no, you haven’t suddenly been time-warped back to 1998 (it’s still 2010) — and there’s no two ways about it: this is rap-metal.

The drums are… ok, I guess. The guitar riffs are like second-rate Rich Ward riffs and the vocalist is like a white third-rate version of Bonz. What is going on here??? Did everyone who trash-talked rap-metal have a seriously closet case of love for the much-maligned genre all along?

Thanks to Metal Injection for tipping us off to this craptastic suckfest.

-VN

Actually, I don’t think so, despite what this tweet that Morton sent out over the weekend might lead you to believe:

Click to read more…

(click to enlarge)

The above photo is of Darkest Hour, Veil of Maya and their respective crews after being booted from their own tour bus early Saturday morning; apparently an overbearing bus driver had had enough of their hard-partying ways, booted the bands, and drove his bus home. Thankfully they were already in Dallas for Saturday night’s show so they continued the party by setting up their own shanty town in the venue parking lot until show time. At present time we’re not sure whether the bands were successful in finding another bus to complete the tour in time for the next show.

Gossipy details to follow as soon as we have ‘em!

Remaining tour dates are posted here.

Yep yep! Before we start bitching about the all the shit that’s wrong in the metal world this week, we can take a moment to appreciate something that’s oh-so-right: the slipcase art for Ghost, the final album in The Devin Townsend Project’s four album cycle. In case the rain drops against a leaf didn’t tip you off, this is the mellow album.

There’s still no release date for Ghost, or for Deconstruction, the third album in the cycle and the one that’s supposed to be heavy as a really heavy thing. But both releases are expected next year… so you have another reason not to jump off that bridge just yet!

-AR

Thanks to everyone who e-mailed us the image!

Three cheers for reader SeanN, who correctly answered last night’s trivia question — yep, Dan Lilker is Jewish. Several of you pointed out that he’s not a practicing Jew, but, alas, that’s not what I asked! So SeanN wins a mystery prize courtesy of Century Media, and a dreidel, courtesy of us. Hoo-ray for SeanN!

And now, onto tonight’s question:

• True or false: Periphery have at least one member who is Jewish.

E-mail your answer to axl [at] metalsucks.net with the phrase “HEAVY METAL HANNUKKAH – NIGHT 5″ in the subject line. All entries should include your name and mailing address in addition to your answer, and are due by 5 pm tomorrow (Monday, December 6) evening. Shortly thereafter we’ll announce the winner and post night 6’s trivia question. And while you don’t have to be Jewish to enter the contest, you do have to live in the U.S., ’cause unfortunately, there’s no such thing as a shipping mitsieh.

-AR

First of all, my apologies to Michael Beem and Doug Gross, who also correctly answered night 2′s trivia question. Your e-mails got stuck in my junk mail folder, fellas. I’ll obviously be checking that before choosing a winner from here on out. But three people actually got night 2′s trivia question, so you all did ever-so-slightly better than I initially thought.

But onward and upward: yarmulkes off to reader Jeff Bilello, who correctly identified The Metal Shop as Tel Aviv’s premiere retailer of metal music. I’ve only gotten to visit that place once, but it was like I died and went to heaven. So awesome. ANYWAY, Jeff wins a mystery prize courtesy of Century Media, and a dreidel, courtesy of us. Mazel tov, Jeff!

Here’s the question for night four:

• Dan Lilker: Jewish or not?

E-mail your answer to axl [at] metalsucks.net with the phrase “HEAVY METAL HANNUKKAH – NIGHT 4″ in the subject line. All entries should include your name and mailing address in addition to your answer, and are due by 5 pm tomorrow (Sunday, December 5) evening. Shortly thereafter we’ll announce the winner and post night 5’s trivia question. And while you don’t have to be Jewish to enter the contest, you do have to live in the U.S. Dreidels are surprisingly costly to ship.

-AR

We’ve talked a fair amount as of late about the side projects/comings & goings of the riconkulonk Dutch band Textures and its offshoots.

First we got sexually excited about the proggalicious side project Exivious featuring members of Textures and Cynic…..then we lamented the demise of said side project.

Said side project.

Said side project.

Said side project.

Then we got saddy-poos about Textures’ stellar vocalist Eric Kalsbeek leaving the band…..then we rejoiced in the news of a new vocal stylist entering the fold.

Then we empathized over the trials & tribulations of CiliCe, whose vocalist Daniël De Jongh left the band to join Textures.  Some time passed, and then they found a new frontman.

But where does all of our love for this extended musical family come from, you ask?

Right here:

-KW

So last night’s question was tricky — so tricky, in fact, that only one person got it right! Necro’s real name is Ron Braunstein, and, yep, he’s Jewish. And despite his name, Darkest Hour’s Mike “Lonestar” Carrigan is, indeed, half-Jewish. I was caught off-guard when I saw Igor Cavalera included in this article at The Gauntlet (where a picture of From Exile’s Eric Guenther, who is not Jewish, is used for the entry on Daath’s Eyal Levi, who is… but I digress), but some research unearthed that fact that the former Sepultura drummer apparently converted when he got married. His brother Max also married a Jew, although I don’t think he converted. In any case, that just leaves Poison’s C.C. DeVille.

I understand why people would think that C.C. DeVille (né Bruce Johannesson) is Jewish, given that he’s loud, from Brooklyn, and has a big schnozz — hell, I used to assume that he was Jewish — but, alas, he’s not. So mazel tov to reader Joe Caperon, the only entrant who correctly answered the question. Joe wins a mystery prize courtesy of Century Media, and a dreidel, courtesy of us. Go Joe!

Here’s the question for night three:

• What is the name of infamous metal-themed music retailer in Tel Aviv?

E-mail your answer to axl [at] metalsucks.net with the phrase “HEAVY METAL HANNUKKAH – NIGHT 2″ in the subject line. All entries should include your name and mailing address in addition to your answer, and are due by 5 pm tomorrow (Saturday, December 4) evening. Shortly thereafter we’ll announce the winner and post night 4’s trivia question. And while you don’t have to be Jewish to enter the contest, you do have to live in the U.S. We need to conserve moolah to get all the MetalSucks Mansion Monkeys their Hanukkah gifts!!!

-AR

At least, it was my last time. I feel like I shaved years off my life drinking that crud. Yucky!

Here’s what else we did this week:

• The Human Abstract’s A.J. Minette kicked off his new MetalSucks column, Periphery’s Misha Mansoor checked in from The Legacy Tour, and The Red Chord’s Greg Weeks thinks that Scott Stapp will sore.
• We spoke to R. Loren of Sailors with Wax Wings and White Moth fame.
• We checked out the latest offerings from Deathspell Omega and Nekorgoblikon.
• Speaking of The Legacy Tour: if you’ve ever wanted to see what the blood in Revocation front man Dave Davidson’s head looks like, well, here’s your chance!
• We did our annual bitchfest about the Grammy noms.
• We got lost in a Map of Metal.
• We speculated about which label will land Between the Buried and Me.
• We were envious of the music criticism skills of The Dillinger Escape Plan’s Jeff Tuttle.
• System of a Down are getting back together! Just don’t call it a reunion.
• We spent way too much time talking about Slipknot.

The third night of Heavy Metal Hanukkah is coming a little after 5 pm. Have a good weekend, folks.

-AR

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Welcome to “Question of the Week,” a (sometimes) weekly debate amongst the MetalSucks staff regarding a recent hot button issue.

This week, Anso DF suggested the Question of the Week; unfortunately, he did so before Slipknot announced that they’re headlining the Sonisphere Festival this year, so it doesn’t seem quite as relevant anymore. Still, it was a fun question to answer, so:

TO WHAT EXTENT WOULD A SLIPKNOT BREAK-UP BE BAD FOR METAL?

The MS staff’s answers after the jump.

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For some reason, internet metal nerds love to talk about drummers, even if they themselves do not play drums. Whether it’s “Who has the fastest double bass/blastbeats?”, “Should I use one bass drum or two?” or “What does Pete Sandoval’s drum throne smell like?”, there are few things more tiresome than the topic of metal drumming. What that in mind, in this post I will put the discussion of this topic to rest forever by conclusively saying all that there is to say about metal drumming. After this post has been published, anyone who still debates these points is as foolish, ignorant and stubborn as people who believe the Earth is flat or that God exists. So if you have anything to say, say it now, because this is it — this is your chance to become part of the moment in which we closed the door on dorky, redundant debates about metal drumming.

This is THE FINAL WORD on metal drumming!!!!

Click to read more…

Yes, I know it’s goofy. No, I don’t love the song. But it was directed by Brendon Small, and it seems like these dudes were all having a lot of fun when they made it, and I found myself grinning as I watched. So, like, blow me, okay?

The Damned Things’ debut, Ironiclast, comes out December 14 on Island/Def Jam.

-AR

Even though Iron Thrones were the winners of the FordChevyHondaMazda No Label Needed Contest earlier this year there were a bunch of other really sweet bands selected as finalists too, and a few of them have already released or are about to release new music. Here’s our own Anso DF on the magic of the No Label Needed Contest:

The great thing about the No Label Needed contest is how it answers the question that we’ve all asked ourselves and each other about countless bands: “How on earth did these wankers get a record deal?” Sometimes the band seems too shitty to interest fiscally-minded music businesspeople. Just as often, I ask that when I’m just wondering why one featureless, unoriginal band landed a contract as opposed to the forty other turd merchants clad in identical clothes and writing the exact same retarded songs. But of course everybody knows that the answer, in each case ,is blowjobs. That’s how crappy/pointless bands get their chance at the big time. B to the lowjobs, people. Don’t look so surprised.

Our rebellious asses chose some pretty nifty bands for the contest, though, and I’m glad to see some of them putting out new music so soon. After the jump, let’s take a look at new shit from Hemoptysis, Hammerlord, and Scorched-Earth Policy.

Click to read more…

Well, here’s a story that should make everyone happy: It looks like next year may see the release of a new Dio song — the last one the legendary vocalist got to record before he passed away earlier this year. It’s not official yet, but Dio guitarist Craig Goldy tells Classic Rock:

Click to read more…

I’ve never been nearly as big of a fan of Stone Temple Pilots as my main man Vince is, but I do, by and large, like their music, and their debut, Core, remains my favorite STP album. And while I never would have seen this coming in a million years, now The Binary Code have recorded a cover of a song off of that very album, “Wicked Garden” — with ex-Periphery front man Chris Barretto handling vocal duties, no less.

Noisecreep has the exclusive stream of the song, along with an interview with guitarist Jesse Zuretti. And lest you think STP is for pussies and The Binary Code should have covered Death or something instead, allow Zuretti to school yo’ ass:

“Stone Temple Pilots are just as important, if not more important, than most of my metal influences when writing music. The chord vocabulary Dean DeLeo built with each album they put out blows my mind. More than any flashy, 32nd-note, legato-filled, eight-string guitar solo I’ve ever listened to.”

BOO-YAH! He said “chord vocabulary.” Take that, son.

Like I said, you can stream the track at Noisecreep. In the meantime, here’s a still from the upcoming music video for the song, which is gonna blow up TRL like a motherfucker:

-AR