Welcome to the latest edition of “Freeloader” in which we review albums that you don’t have to feel like a douche for downloading for free. Today Satan Rosenbloom checks out the debut release from Derek Roddy’s Serpents Rise.

It seems like only yesterday that MetalSucks posted the he said/he said account of journeyman drummer Derek Roddy’s departure from Today Is the Day. We know from Steve Austin’s marathon bitch session with Axl back in 2008 that the TITD frontman found Roddy to be a whiny, egomaniacal toolbag that hated his fans and only cared about money.

While I don’t know enough about Roddy to confirm or deny those accusations, the distribution plan for the long-awaited debut by his instrumental Serpents Rise project paints Roddy as a lot more fan-friendly than Austin’s criticisms would suggest. Roddy’s talked to the press about his intention to release the album for free since 2006, the same year he left Hate Eternal; he released a number of free demo tracks via his website in 2008, and followed through with a free finished product in late 2010. And he’s also up-front about involving fans in the project. Quoth the Rowdy Roddy on his website forum: “Serpents Rise….is an instrumental entity…But, this does not mean that we are opposed to hearing what vocal possibilities exist….Whether in your car, in your bedroom, on stage covering one of our songs, posting clips of you singing our tunes on YouTube OR….in the event that we show up in your town…..you sing with us on stage! Have fun…create!” Does that sound like the sentiment of an egomaniacal toolbag?

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We haven’t bugged you about Meek is Murder’s new album, the Kurt Ballou-produced Algorithms, in awhile, but now’s a good time — ’cause Brooklyn Vegan is streaming a brand new track, “(null),” right now. And it’s AWESOME — furious and raw and larger than life… basically, it epitomizes everything Vince and I love about Meek is Murder. So go listen to it right fucking now. They’ve also posted some pretty killer (and totally hilarious) behind-the-scenes studio footage, which originally debuted on The Deciblog and Noisecreep.

And, oh yeah, don’t forget that you can download a demo of MiM’s song “Sundowners” as part of Volume 1 of NYC Sucks! And it’s FREE!!! The finished version is even kick-assier, but this will at least give you some sense of the awesome roller coaster ride that is Algorithms.

MetalSucks is proud to be releasing this bad boy on March 22. And we’re now accepting pre-orders here! You can get a high quality digital download for five bucks, a download and a t-shirt (in one of two stylish, uh, styles) for fifteen bucks, or a special, super-limited edition (only fifty pressed!), hand-made, autographed CD for just ten bucks. Check that shit out and see what tickles your fancy.

And, finally, keep in mind that the band is gonna be on tour all next month. You really, really need to see these dudes live — that’s how they made me fall in love with them. Here are dates:

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Roughly a year ago Roadrunner Records launched a beta of SignMeTo, a digital platform that allows bands to create artist profiles with streaming music, photos, videos, tour dates, a bio and all that jazz, with the added allure of the promise that actual living, breathing A&R reps for Roadrunner peruse the site regularly for the best in unsigned talent. Since then the Roadrunner tech team has made a number of modifications to the site to roll it out into the big time, and it’s bigger and better than ever.

Why am I telling you this now? In our ongoing quest to find the best unsigned metal talent the world has to offer (Exhibit A: our Unsigned and Unholy column), MetalSucks has teamed up with SignMeTo to run a contest. Once a month, I’ll be picking my favorite unsigned band from SignMeTo and writing up an article about them here on MetalSucks. That lucky chosen band will also be featured on the main page of RoadrunnerRecords.com (!) and receive a MetalSucks badge on their SignMeTo profile.

Here’s how to enter:

Click to read more…

I kind of assumed that Tommy Rogers (a.k.a. “Thomas Giles”) wouldn’t be doing any touring behind his awesome new solo album, Pulse; for one thing, he plays all the instruments on the record himself, so he’d need to go recruit a band, and for another thing I thought he’d be too busy with his other project, some group called Between the Buried and Me.

But, hey, guess what? I was wrong! And happy to be. Rogers has announced a mini-tour (only five dates, sadly). Which would already be good news, but he’s also gonna have Cave In’s Stephen Brodsky doing support. So these shows should be fun.

Additional support comes from a band called Braveyoung, with whom I am not familiar (Vince tells me they used to be called Giants). But Rogers is obviously a big fan — he named their album We Are The Lonely Animals one of his favorites of 2010. So I’m gonna assume they’re good.

Here are dates:

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I wasn’t so hot on “Killing Inside,” which was the first official tack debut from Cavalera Conspiracy’s new album, Blunt Force Trauma; but now the band has released the title track, and it’s wwwwaaaayyyyy better. It basically starts off like an old Sepultura song, which is FANTASTIC, but even when it gets more modern and Gothenburgy, it’s still really, really cool. Check it out below and see what you think.

Blunt Force Trauma comes out March 28 via Roadrunner.

-AR

We first featured Wyoming’s Picture It in Ruins in our “For Fans of BTBAM” Edition of Readers’ Choice last August, but it’s clear from their new stuff that these guys have evolved leaps and bounds in just six months. Luke from the band sent me an update last week with a stream of Picture It In Ruins’ new song “Mass Affect” and I’m positively floored; not only has the band apparently broken their BTBAM-worship shackles but they’ve evolved into something wholly original and stunning, still progressive, but in their own unique way. Stream it below:

Mass Affect by pictureitinruins

Someone please sign this band ASAP! They’ve been together for 11 years — in fucking Wyoming, where the metal scene can’t be all that — and are only getting better and better. It’s an utter injustice that bands like System Divide have record deals and these guys have nothing. West coasters can catch them on tour in March with Antagonist (dates here).

-VN

(this photo comes from Egality’s MySpace page. I have no idea what the significance of it is, although they really want to let you know they mean business.)

You like your metal raw and dirty. Sometimes you just wanna jump into a pile of mud and roll around in it with the ugliest human beings imaginable — possibly while being shat on by a pig — all the while with the loudest, noisiest metal you can find blasting away at top volume. This Unsigned and Unholy column is for you.

• Egality: This is some nasty, nasty, brutally NASTY shit! Like a slowed down Portal that isn’t afraid to lock into a groove, spazz out, or just absolutely crush with skull-splitting death metal noise. The vocalist makes me feel like I have to go take a shit… now.
• Razorhoof: Razorhood are what hard rock could’ve become if it hadn’t gone off the rails into butt-rock / red state radio oblivion. Dark, dirty, and raw, these guys have Drop-D riffs up the wazoo (at least in sole song “The World Needs More Dentists” posted on their Bandcamp page) but aren’t afraid to rough them up with raw production and a healthy heaping of dissonance. Fucking gnarly. Download the Razorhood / Boarhunter 12″ vinyl split here completely for free.
• Jvlith Krishvn: MS Maniac Dan Wolfson used to send us a non-stop barrage of emails with links to second-rate Sumeriancore bands, and now he’s sending us the noisiest shit imaginable… huh, whouldathunkit. Is little Dannyboy all growed up now? In any case, Jvlith Krishvn are incredibly heavy and incredibly noisy, a mid-paced version hardcore-leaning grindcore. Definitely worth checking out if you like your metal ugly.
• Haust: Another Dan Wolfson pick, the email about Haust came with the subject line “hop off Kvelertak’s dick.” No thanks, Dan, we like Kvelertak’s dick just fine. But Haust are pretty good too, if not all that similar to Kvelertak save for maybe some shared hardcore influences. Haust are decidedly more angry and less rawk than Kvelertak, but they’ve got that same kinda swing n’ swagger so I can see where Dan is coming from. Watch the insane video for “Anti-Reproductive” below, featuring some glory-hole action by the guy in the cover of Therapy?’s Troublegum (NSFW):

I did a Google image search for “Frankie Palmeri” and this was one of the first pics to come up. Hey, works for me.

Alright, so multiple readers sent us a link to this track by track breakdown of the new Emmure album, Speaker of the Dead, that the band’s vocalist, Frankie Palmeri, just did for AP. Now, we already knew that Frankie was into some pretty weird shit, but this just takes that weird shit to a whole new level.

It would also seem to prove that this guy is mentally handicapped and should probably not be allowed to talk to small children or operate heavy machinery.

And so, after the jump, read all of Frankie’s thoughts on the new Emmure album, as well as my thoughts on those thoughts, natch.

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Last week we offered 5 full-access memberships at GuitarMasterClass.net for any guitar players looking to better their game who also happen to be good at coming up with entertaining captions to silly metal photos. The winning entries to the photo at right are:

• Brock Stearns: “Old Man’s Child”
• Sacajawea: “In recent news it appears that Bret Michaels is dating a 30 foot tall black metal musician.”
• trence75: “Trust me lars, these drum lessons will be good for you. I’ll just stand outside and play blackened, where nobody can hear me. Then we’ll go get you that bicycle like I promised you.”
• gnarlatron: “In an effort to thwart yet another topless photo leak, Winds of Plague hire a keyboardist who’s [sic] nude photos are illegal to distribute.”
• Nick: “black metal busking gets real when there is a tiny mouth to feed.”

This week we’re giving away two Metal Blade prize packs each containing a copy of Fleshwrought’s Dementia Dyslexia and Allegaeon’s Fragments of Form and Function. You best know what to do by now: come up with the funniest captions to the below photo (sent in by reader Joleen) and remember to use a real email address (or post it with your comment if you’re using FB Connect).

A highly reliable anonymous tipster has informed MetalSucks that System of a Down are indeed planning a U.S. tour this year — as we all speculated they would — and has provided us with a list of tentative dates. In other words, the tour is definitely happening (barring any unforeseen circumstances) in roughly this order and during this timeframe, although some cities/venues could still be changed. Count on it happening, though… like I said, our source is reliable. You heard it here first.

And now, exclusively here at MetalSucks, System Of A Down 2011 U.S. Tour Dates, after the jump:

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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…

Will this generation have its own Big 4? In the way that most of us grew up understanding that term, eh, doubt it. Metal at large — much less thrash — is probably too willfully hybridized now for a wolfpack of similar-minded, crazy-popular, dominant bands to emerge. That said, 10 years from now, will The Kids Today have three or four universally-agreed-upon bands that defined their youth? Sure. It’ll just be called Generation Pornogrind or the TechDeath Twelve.

I’m surely not alone in thinking Lamb of God were gonna be part of a Big… Something a few years ago — along with Shadows Fall, Mastodon and anyone else who miraculously (it seemed miracle-esque back then) got onto a major. They still could be. As grizzled as these dudes are, they maintain a young audience while slightly tweaking their sound each album. (See: Amon Amarth.) They’re talented, they rip, they seem humble and driven. Good shit.

No matter what the future holds, LOG are huge today, and now they’re the hugest band in the Decibel Flexi Series. This month’s exclusive submission is “Hit the Wall,” which was created for last year’s Iron Man 2 video game, although only parts of the track (sans vocals) appeared. (We can assure you that blasting this jam on repeat for two hours beats the shit out of sitting through the actual movie.) Anyway, we’ve got the full version with Randy’s unmistakable vocals, which has never been available until now.

Sony has made the track available digitally, but this month’s flexi is the only physical format the song will appear on.

A super-limited number of issues containing the flexi are now available here. Bonus: most realistic cover blood ever. In retrospect, I should’ve pushed for chunks of brain in the beard.

-AB

You can buy the April 2011 issue of Decibel here, or get a full subscription to ensure you never miss one of these awesome flexi discs!

We were overjoyed at the positive reaction you folks had towards Volume 1 of NYC Sucks, our very own FREE digital compilation of the best bands in NYC’s roaring metal scene (which you can still download for 100% FREE right here). So we just wanted to remind you that Volume 2, featuring thirteen more awesome bands from the New York area, is coming out this Tuesday!!! You’ll be able to download it — once again for a cost of $0.00 — right here at MetalSucks.

The download will come as a .zip package with 320kbps MP3 files and a .pdf of liner notes with info about all of the bands — and will include brand new, never-before-heard music from Goes Cube, The Austerity Program, and IKILLYA, in addition to ten other insanely good tunes from bands we love. Here’s the complete track listing…

1. Wetnurse
2. Tombs
3. Moth Eater
4. Hull
5. The Austerity Program
6. Defeatist
7. Goes Cube
8. Krallice
9. Empyreon
10. Abacinate
11. IKILLYA
12. Atakke
13. The Ghost in Black and White

So come back Tuesday and get that shit!!!

Not as painful as missing this tour.

Speaking of NYC Sucks: two of the bands appearing on that collection, proggy stoner rockers Hull and crushing doomsters Batillus, are doing a tour together starting next month. If you read MetalSucks on the regular, you already know that we love these bands. And I’d wager that these shows will result in lots and lots of broken bones. Not so much from the moshing, ’cause I don’t think these are really mosh bands, but just from the sheer fucking weight of the music.

And as if the fact that the shows themselves are gonna be killer wasn’t enough to get you off your ass, know this: Batillus will be selling a special tour-only vinyl pressing of their new album, Furnace, limited to 55 copies, each with with a silk-screened jacket. And these shows will be the only place you can get ‘em.

And as if the the fact that the shows themselves are gonna be killer AND Batillus will be selling the Furnace vinyl STILL isn’t enough to entice you, well, know THIS, friends: Hull have just announced a vinyl release of their abso-fucking-lutely EPIC 2005 EP, Viking Funeral, via Science of Sleep Records, and they’ll be selling that on the tour as well. That will feature a blood red/black swirl vinyl with the song on one side, and a laser etched image on the other, PLUS parchment insert with the detailed Viking Funeral saga, PLUS a sticker and digital download info, PLUS a Viking Funeral poster, AND it will be wax-stamped with the band’s logo. Phew!

So, yeah. Go to these shows. And bring your wallets, motherfuckers.

Here are dates…

Click to read more…

Okay, so following the posting of yesterday’s humorous cartoon strip, reader Tim Meyer sent us a link to the below comic. Thing is, I know I’ve seen it before, and part of thinks we’ve even run it before. But I can’t actually find it on the site. So this might be a massive fail on my part.

But, uh, hopefully one way or the other, it’s new to you! Check it out after the jump.

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Back in 2008, legendary metalcore pioneers Overcast — who went on to be in a couple ofsmaller bands you may have heard of, like Shadows Fall and Killswitch Engage — got back together to re-record some old tunes for a collection called Reborn to Kill Again. When that album was released, I interviewed vocalist Brian Fair (also of the aforementioned Shadows Fall), and I asked him if Overcast might ever write some new music together. His answer?

“We’ve actually talked about it because Pete [Cortese, guitarist] and Mike [D'Antonio, bassist] definitely have ideas for songs. We just have to make sure that they’re Overcast songs, you know? And not just a Pete song. Like I said, it has to be tuned to E and there has to be a mosh part that goes nowhere and there has to be random time changes for no reason. All those things have to be there in order to make it an Overcast song. We’re definitely not opposed to [writing and recording new material]. It may or may not happen, it depends on if the songs are quality.”

Well, I guess somewhere along the way these dudes either decided that these songs are not “Overcast songs,” or otherwise decided that it just wasn’t Overcast without guitarist Scott McCooe and drummer Jay Fitzgerald, or, uh, something else — because the band’s three most famous alumni (In case you’re dumb: D’Antonio went on to join KsE, Cortese went on to join Seemless) are now reuniting to form a new band called Death Ray Vision.

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A couple of weeks ago, we posted news of the impending return of Beavis and Butt-Head, which is, obviously, terrific news. But reader Josh Kruk brought up a terrific point in the comments section when he wondered “How will they do video roasts since the music video is a dying (dead?) medium?” Now that MTV doesn’t really show music videos anymore, you had to wonder what B&B would be watching while engaging in their own unique brand of media criticism. (If you somehow have no idea what I’m talking about, please check out the above classic clip of Beavis and Butt-Head enjoying Pantera’s video for “This Love.”)

Well, now MTV president Van Toffler has provided an answer. Speaking to Rolling Drone, Toffler had this to say on the matter:

Click to read more…

Kudos to longtime reader Kuranes for picking up on this \m/ tidbit: it appears that Google now thinks heavy metal is more important than those substances sharing the same name which are good conductors of heat and electricity. Just search Google with the simple word “metal,” as shown above, and see for yourself.

As Kuranes so eloquently put it, “IN YOUR FACE SCIENCE.”

\m/

-VN

Well, we haven’t done one of these in awhile. Let’s see if any of this shit isn’t shit.

First up is Rotten Sound’s video for “Hollow,” which had its premiere on The Deciblog. Now THIS is a great fucking video. Not only is the song br00tal, but the clip is just… well, I don’t give anything away because I was kinda blindsided by it myself, and I’d like to duplicate that experience for you. So just watch it.

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When I interviewed Kobi Farhi, vocalist for the Israeli metal band Orphaned Land, last year, he had some really interesting things to say about the ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians: he claimed that Orphaned Land “has a legion of Arab fans,” some of whom “have been thrown in jail” for liking a Jewish band. He also expressed an idealistic notion that music can transcend prejudices:

“We believe that music is the strongest tool to get people closer. For example, you and your worst enemy, you could both love the same band without knowing it. Once you realize this, then you see that it’s possible to have at least one thing in common with each other. That is nothing but a door for a dialog between the both of you.”

Now Farhi and company are putting these thoughts into action — they’re giving away their latest album, The Never Ending Way of ORwarriOR, for free, legal download to fans in Arabic countries.

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Saw this unsettling bit of news towards the end of the day yesterday via Metal Underground: Nevermore bassist Jim Sheppard underwent brain surgery yesterday to remove a benign brain tumor. Jim’s ongoing struggle with Crohn’s disease is fairly well-documented, but this is the first we’ve heard of a brain tumor. Just two weeks ago he was aboard the 70,000 Tons of Metal cruise rocking the bass for Sanctuary (but not Nevermore, interestingly), not something you’d expect someone who knows they have a serious medical issue to do; seems like the kind of thing that was recently discovered and action needed to be taken immediately.

Click to read more…