UPDATE: Yep, this is official. An industry insider just sent us the details. It will be 12-song CD/78 minute DVD set, featuring Crack The Skye in its entirety, plus performances of songs from Blood Mountain and Leviathan. It will also contain a live cover of ‘The Bit’ by Melvins. Get stoked!!!

Well, this is interesting. You may recall that back in 2009, Mastodon announced that they were recording their performance at Chicago, Illinois’ Aragon Ballroom, presumably for a future live release; now Interpunk.com says that release has a title, the very creative and potentially misleading Live at The Aragon, and a release date of March 15.

Click to read more…

The limited edition The Chariot 7″ we offered as the prize for last week’s Photo Caption Contest was a hot item, but only one of you scores the gold. And that one of you is Mark Wakters, who chimed in with the following caption to the photo at right:

• “Man, it sure is great to get that mountain removed from my arm!!!”

This week we’ve got a super-duper special prize pack from Chicago death metal merchants / pulverizers of human flesh Macabre. Two winners will receive a prize pack consisting of Macabre’s new album Grim Scary Tales (out February 8th via Willowtip… listen to a track for free and pre-order for only $10 here) and 1 can of the unique and very sought-after Jeff Boyardee Human Stew. Check out the gnarly pics of this delicious-looking concoction:

You know the drill… come up with the funniest caption to the below photo (sent in by reader “Vomitorium”) and remember to use a real email address (or post it with your comment if you’re using FB Connect)!

Well, this is just fucking amazing. Seriously. I’m not kidding. This just made my day in a way nothing else possibly could. Sometimes, something happens to restore your faith in life. This is one of these times.

Let’s start here… and keep in mind that this is a really real thing:

“The City of Austin is renaming the Solid Waste Services Department to better reflect all of the services the Department provides, including recycling, garbage collection, yard trimmings pick-up, street sweeping, litter abatement and litter control, household hazardous waste disposal, storm debris clean-up, Zero Waste initiatives and community outreach & education.”

Okay, so that’s pretty boring and whatever, right? But here’s where it gets interesting: the city is actually holding a poll, open to the public, to choose a new name for the Solid Waste Services Department. And guess which citizen-selected name is currently winning that poll in a fucking landslide?

Click to read more…

Before there were blogs there were these things called magazines, and the only metal magazine we still get excited about reading every month is Decibel. Here’s managing editor Andrew Bonazelli…

Transcribing sucks. I mean, I know, having a job is great, and having that job entailS working for a metal magazine and not flipping burgers or being the fourth president of Egypt is even better. Interviewing legends and/or friends and colleagues of legends is by far the best part about working for a metal magazine, but — this can’t be stressed enough — transcribing the resulting exchanges sucks. We’ve yet to program Decibot to handle this most mundane of tasks, and intern slavery is more enticing in theory than practice.

The thing is, I’m not complaining about my job here — I’m complaining for Chris Dick, who doesn’t even complain at all about this stuff. He’s the mastermind behind our March cover story, an authoritative 12-page oral history of Death, which is available now. This band is, without question, our top three Hall of Fame white whales, and since Chuck Schuldiner’s passing has rendered such a piece impossible, Chris did the next best thing: interviewing 16 of Chuck’s ex-bandmates, two former producers, Borivoj Krgin from back-in-the-day tape-trading lore, and even Chuck’s folks. We’re talking 11 hours on the phone with sources, for an unedited word count of 21,000. That’s a fucking novella right there, people. So, check this thing out — if you’re not already a Chuck fan, it’s hard to imagine anything but newfound slavish devotion after absorbing this monster.

As far as last week’s Hall of Fame contest goes, congratulations to last week’s winner, Phil Freeman, who will receive a free six-month subscription to Decibel. You can tell us if you think The Jesus Lizard’s 1991 noisestepiece Goat deserves a place in our hallowed Hall of Fame.

-AB

You can buy the March 2011 issue of Decibel here, but the only way to ensure that you never miss a Hall of Fame entry is to subscribe to Decibel, so how about you get off your ass and do that?

Invisible Oranges reminds us that yesterday marked the thirtieth anniversary of the release of Iron Maiden’s sophomore album (and final release with vocalist Paul Di’Anno), Killers.

When reached for comment, Killers told MetalSucks, “Holy shit, dude, I can’t believe I’m thirty. Where did my twenties go? There’s so much I wanted to do that I didn’t get to… I think I’m having a quarter-life crisis.” We tried to reassure Killers that its thirties would be better than its twenties, as it became more self-confident and aware of its abilities and its place in the world, but all it said in reply was, “Easy for you to say, dude, you’re not another year closer to death!”

Geez. For an album with a dude getting butchered on the cover, Killers sure is a whiny pussy.

Click to read more…

With an exception, my 2010 best albums could’ve been predicted months in advance. To me, last year was all about reliable, established bands and their awesome but journalistically unsexy jams. But elsewhere than my best-loved albums, 2010 had a few saucy surprises up its tattered sleeve. For one, it was shocking to find that the best melody record of the year was made by a fake band for a suckass movie; nope, did not expect to love that shit. Also, I didn’t remotely foresee announcements of Judass Priest’s final tour (bummer), Adrian Smith’s pairing with members of Sikth (wtf/awesome), the Mike Portnoy saga (over it), or the slight return of Coroner (full bonerz). Again and again, I was surprised!

But in a couple cases, my mere surprise was no longer adequate; I was forced to upgrade to astonishment. Example? Okay here’s one: It turns out that I really like Silent Civilian’s Ghost Stories, a surprisingly unshitty 2010 metalcore outing led by the surprisingly huge-gutted Jonny Santos of Spineshank. I mean, it’s metalcore that isn’t total garbage! Wild, huh?

But that shit was nothing compared to the brain-blasting shock that awaited me the late December evening that I first laid ears on Flotsam And Jetsam’s The Cold. Goddamn! Those guys haven’t made a listenable jam since the Troy Gregory-heavy 1990 gem When The Storm Comes Down and that was um two decades ago. So my low expectations were primed to be vaulted over by a good Flots album. Well, forget “good;” The Cold is awesome — like, freaking Nevermore awesome! By the second song (below), my bowtie was spinning so hard that it detached itself and beheaded my best geraniums.

-ADF

Order Flotsam And Jetsam’s The Cold here and then glue your socks on. Safety first.

Well, it’s been delayed a week. From Mr. Townsend’s Twitter (which sounds like the name of a delightful British farce and/or gay porno movie):

So, obviously not the biggest deal in the world, since we’re still getting the EP and it’s still free, but, uh, if you were wondering why it’s almost the end of the week and you’re not currently listening to it, well, now you know.

-AR

Thanks: Saul Hudson

Gary Suarez isn’t the only MS staffer allowed to hastily swap cables between two iPods while New York City’s metal elite get their post-work-week happy hour drink on; this Friday (tomorrow!), February 4th, DJ Vince Neilstein will be clicking the ones and twos at Idle Hands Bar from 7 to 10pm.

Idle Hands boasts the slogan “Bourbon. Beer. Rock.” which should be enough to sell you on the bar’s general awesomeness; where else in Manhattan can you sip a fine glass of Jefferson Reserve whilst jamming to the grooves of Meshuggah? Nowhere; nowhere at all, I tell you. You also never know who’s gonna show up at Idle Hands; just in the last week alone I’ve seen members of Charred Walls of the Damned, Coheed & Cambria and God Forbid palling around, and it’s become a go-to after-show hang for touring metal bands playing NYC.

So join me during happy hour tomorrow, from 7-10pm, as I provide you with the opportunity to do just that. There will be some happy hour specials TBA, but those usually end at 8 so get there early.

Idle Hands is at 25 Avenue B (between 2nd and 3rd streets), located downstairs through a separate entrance under the very fratty Billy Hurricane’s.

-VN

The long waiting game that began all the way back in September with Protest the Hero’s first studio update finally comes to an end… or the beginning of the end, anyway, the real end being when Scurrilous and its funky artwork finally comes out on March 22nd. But at least there’s some immediate gratification RIGHT NOW in the form of the brand new song “C’est La Vie,” posted on the band’s Facebook page and official website, and lookit that, in the nifty embeddable Soundcloud player posted after the jump:

Click to read more…

Boy oh boy oh boy oh boy oh boy am I excited to bring you this, an exclusive premiere of the very first publicly available track from Scale the Summit’s forthcoming album The Collective (which I’ve been raving about for weeks)!! The track is called “Whales,” it’s the second song on the album, and it pretty much encapsulates everything Scale the Summit and The Collective are all about. It’s expertly orchestrated and arranged, soulfully played, alternatingly heavy and soothing, metallic and not-so-metallic, atmospheric and grooving… and since it’s Scale the Summit, there are no fucking vocals, praise the lord. These guys are experts at their instruments but they don’t barrage you with endless passages of shred and blast-beats; what makes Scale the Summit so great has always been their ability to craft songs with extremely memorable melodies. The crisp, clear production courtesy of Mark Lewis (Black Dahlia Murder, Devildriver, Holy Grail) only serves to underscore those songs.

Here’s STS guitarist Chris Letchford on new track “Whales:”

We’re all very proud to be releasing a new song and not only just any but our personal favorite from the record, “Whales”. This song was already all of ours personal favorite during the final stages of writing The Collective. We felt this song was a great first release since it has a little of everything; melodic, aggression, great solos, clean jazzy vibe, and a very chill outro. Hope a lot of you out there really enjoy it and that it gets you guys even more excited for the release of The Collective!

Expect big, big things from this band in 2011; I’m telling you right now, it’s an early pick for one of my favorite records of the year. Expect them to do a whole bunch of touring this year, too: they’ve already announced a string of dates with Periphery and Fair to Midland running March 3rd through April 15th.

Stream “Whales” below. The Collective comes out March 1st. Pre-order it here with a sweet t-shirt design based on the album cover.

[this streaming promotion has ended]

Well oh-KAY! Here’s a tour I can get behind. According to The PRP, The Red Chord will hit the road this march with Gaza and Trap them in tow.

If you read MS on a regular basis, you already know we’re huge fans of The Red Chord, and I’ve yet to see them give a bad performance. Gaza — who are signed to TRC front man Guy Kozowyk’s label, Black Market Activities — are also what the kids call “devastating” in the live arena. And while I seem to be one of five people who doesn’t cream his pants at the mere mention of Trap Them, I do enjoy their shows more than I do their records; in concert, they feel legitimately dangerous, like either a member of the band or a member of the audience could actually get hurt at any moment. (Just a few weeks ago, I saw TT vocalist/one-time MetalSucks contributor Ryan McKenney kick off a show by throwing his mic stand right into the crowd, hard; just a few songs later, he bashed himself in the skull with his mic, and spent the rest of the performance bleeding from the head.) And that’s an increasingly rare, and thus increasingly exhilarating, feeling.

So, yeah, these shows should take that lil’ critter you see above and just push a spike right through its guts. Take that, you huge-eared freak.

The PRP only has three dates right now, but says that the tour is scheduled to run through March 25, so sit tight for a complete itinerary. In the meantime, those initial dates are as follows:

Click to read more…

The idea of February as Black Metal History Month is hilarious. I’m sure there will be plenty of knee-jerkers who claim that it’s offensive and insulting to Black History Month, whatwith the original version celebrating the history of a persecuted and enslaved people and the metal version glorifying a bunch of church-burning bigots.

So if “knee-jerker” applies or might-apply to you (feel a sudden and uncontrollable urge to chime in with a comment? that’s you), kindly direct your ire at Metal Injection, as they came up with the hilarious and brilliant idea to celebrate Black Metal History Month throughout February:

Join us throughout February, the grimmest month of all, as Metal Injection celebrates Black Metal History Month. Be on the lookout for black metal related history write-ups, reviews, podcasts and more all month long!

Click to read more…

I always enjoy hearing interpretations of metal songs done in other styles of music. When you take away all the distortion, the abrasive drums and the vocals, what’s left? Especially with classical renditions, the emphasis shifts from the overall feeling the song gives you to what’s actually happening in the song compositionally and harmonically. You’re left with a stripped-down shell that’s a much truer representation of what the song is really all about.

U.K. violinist Oliver Lewis’ rendition of Faith No More’s “Woodpecker from Mars” isn’t really a whole new take on the song, per se — he’s simply improvising over the recorded version of the track — but it’s interesting to hear how his chosen violin melodies weave in and out of what the band is doing and create a unique texture of their own. With a little bit of imagination you can almost envision what a full-on orchestra rendition of this song would sound like… and I think it’d sound pretty rad.

Lewis, by the way, is the Guinness World Record holder for “fastest violinist;” he performed “Flight of the Bumblebee” live on BBC1’s Blue Peter in 1 minute 3.356 seconds. Interesting that he choses not to show off those skills in this video, instead choosing to play what fits best with the song.

-VN

Why, it was just a couple of days ago that we learned that bassist Terry Butler and drummer Greg Gall have both quit Six Feet Under, and already, the band has announced a replacement for Gall: Kevin Talley, who is joining the group as part of his apparent bid to play with every band ever at least once. (Already on his resumé: Daath, Chimaira, Misery Index, Dying Fetus, Hate Eternal, Suffocation, The Black Dahlia Murder, The Red Chord, and probably fifteen other bands I’m forgetting about.)

Click to read more…

I’m really over it with the cold, the dark, the snow, the ice, the sludge, the wind, and the retreating penis. It’s time for warm weather already. I know, I know, the groundhog didn’t see his shadow yesterday, spring is coming sooner rather than later, hoo-ray. But it needs to be sooner, and it needed to be sooner yesterday. Warm weather means long walks, outdoor beers, ladies in skimpy outfits, and, oh yeah — the return of two of metal’s greatest icons.

Yep yep yep — after telling the world this past summer that creator Mike Judge was working on new episodes of Beavis and Butt-Head, yesterday MTV announced at their upfronts (a presentation of upcoming programming for potential advertisers) that the animated series would return “this summer.” A more specific date was not provided.

The announcement was made by the cast of the controversial kiddie porn show Skins, and then, as part of what must be the ultimate media coup, tweeted by Justin Bieber:

Click to read more…

By some incredible combination of having my head up my ass and just being too busy, until this past Saturday I’d never witnessed NYC’s Castevet play live (though I’d enjoyed their wares online). But the minute they started playing I immediately knew why Decibel Magazine, our own Kip Wingerschmidt and countless friends had been so excited about them… they’re an astonishingly tight live band.

Please believe me when I say “astonishingly tight” — that’s probably even an understatement. More like 3-year-old’s-asshole / hipster-jeans / Riker’s Island security tight — so, so, so tight.

Click to read more…

So there are a lot of things that differentiate Frank Sinatra from most modern metal musicians, but I’d like to concentrate on two:

• He could actually sing.
• He was an honest-to-goodness, not-to-be-fucked-with badass.

And so it makes no sense to me that, according to Noisecreep, “members of Anthrax, Twisted Sister, Deep Purple, Queensryche, Warrant and other groups have recorded their own metallic versions of some of Sinatra’s standards and classics for an album called SIN-atra.”

Click to read more…

Grayceon’s Jackie Perez Gratz auditions for the new Whitesnake video.

I’d be super curious to see Grayceon live; as Cosmo Lee points out at Invisible Oranges, since the trio consists of a cellist/vocalist (Jackie Perez Gratz, who’s also a member of Giant Squid, and played on Agalloch’s Marrow of the Spirit), a guitarist, and a drummer (Max Doyle and Zack Farwell, respectively), so “Two-thirds of the band performs sitting down.” That might make for a low energy show when compared to the live act of most metal bands, who thrive on getting physical, physical on stage.

But if any band can pull it off, it’s probably Grayceon. Their new album, All We Destroy, was our own Satan Rosenbloom’s pick for 2011′s edition of “Albums That Will Fuck Your Face Off,” and that dude has good taste.

Now you can preview the album for yourself: the aforementioned Invisible Oranges is streaming the track “A Road Less Traveled.”

Click to read more…

Forget all labels of dorkiness / loserness / awesomeness you’ve previously bestowed upon yourself. World of Warcraft all-nighters? No biggee. Masturbating 5 times in a day? Child’s play. Practicing guitar scales in your bedroom for hours? That ain’t got nothing on this 11 year-old girl who taught herself to play Rush’s already insane “YYZ” on piano, by herself, USING HER FEET TO PLAY GEDDY’S BASS LINES. I’ll let MS Maniac Steve Stamopolous take it from here:

HOLY FUCKING SHIT

Is Steve right, or what? This is so nerdy / awesome that I don’t know what else to say, so I’ll let the video do the talking:

I’m not sure which is more mind-blowing: this performance, or the fact that the audience could barely muster a few claps afterwards.

Speaking of Rush, here’s 3 Inches of Blood covering Rush’s “Anthem” on their current tour with Eluveitie, Holy Grail and System Divide:

Click to read more…