When word spread that Burzum only-man Varg Vikernes was doing a limited number of interviews — via email only — to support his latest work Fallen (out on March 7th), we knew we couldn’t pass up the opportunity. “Grim” Kim Kelly took charge and put together a batch of thoughtful questions about Burzum’s legacy, the lyrical and musical themes of Fallen, the current black metal scene, Varg’s relationship with classical music and more. Vikernes’ answers are, well… you’ll have to read them to find out.

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I wasn’t really familiar with Eden’s Curse before today, but I assumed they were a dork metal band. I made this deduction based on the following facts:

• They’re called “Eden’s Curse.”
• They recruited Dream Theater’s James LaBrie (Fun fact: his name is French for “the cheese”) to do vocals for their new single, “No Holy Man.”

Luckily, the band has now released the shittiest animated video this side of Motley Crue’s “Hell on High Heels” for that song. So, y’know, that should totally disprove naysayers like me. Yep, no reason for the band to feel embarrassed by this high quality promotional clip!

-AR

So our home girl Leyla Ford chose Vicious Rumors’ Razorback Killers as the 2011 album that will fuck your face off… but the appeal is generally lost on me. Granted, we like to work with smart writers whose taste often deviates from our own (What, you think Vince and I actually like half the bands Sergeant D. writes about?), but, uh, yeah, Vicious Rumors ain’t for me.

But maybe it’s for you! The Deciblog is streaming a new song from Razorback Killers, called “Razorback Blade.” Fuck, does this band just not write shit without the word “razorback” in the title?

ANYWAY, go here to listen, then come back and choose a side: me or Leyla. YOU MUST CHOOSE. You can’t go with mommy and daddy. And, yes, whomever you don’t choose won’t love you anymore.

Razorback Killers comes out April 5 on SPV. Leyla just interviewed Vicious Rumors, and we’ll run that soonish.

-AR

On February 15th, the Jagermeister Music Tour featuring All That Remains, Buckcherry and Hellyeah rolled through NYC’s Best Buy Theater. Gary Suarez published his controversial but hilarious thoughts on the show shortly thereafter, and now it’s Jacqueline Cheng’s turn… with her lens. One comment from the peanut gallery, then the pics: ATR frontman Phil Labonte has an American Flag tattooed on his entire upper right arm with “Liberty” spelled out in gothic lettering down the length of his tricep. Are you kidding me? Who the fuck is this guy?

Anyway, the pics:

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An anonymous reader sent me the below video, and I didn’t look at the title before I clicked the link. So my first thought was that the band in the clip was Sonic Syndicate. (My second thought was, “Edsel Dope is in Sonic Syndicate now?”) This band is not Sonic Syndicate, though — they’re called Amaranthe, because there’s nothing more metal than purple flowers. But can you blame me for my mistake? Like Sonic Syndicate, Amaranthe play terrible re-swede that makes me wish the members of In Flames had never been born; like Sonic Syndicate, Amaranthe clearly have more interest in fashion than originality; and like Sonic Syndicate’s last horrendous video, this was directed with sleek Hasbro movie visuals by Patric Ullaeus.

Anyways, this is something of a super group. Drummer Morten Løwe used to be in The Arcane Order, and plays on the new Mercenary album, which is not as bad as I thought it would it be but isn’t very memorable, either; clean vocalist Jake E. Lundberg (the Dope-y looking one) was in Dream Evil (although after Gus G. left the band — in other words, after I stopped paying attention to Dream Evil); and female vocalist Celine Dion, of course, previously appeared in the movie Titanic, where she starred as the iceberg that sinks the ship. I don’t know why I needed to tell you that these people have done other things during their careers, I just thought I should point it out before some smart-ass in the comments section did.

-AR

It turns out that some of our readers have pretty good taste. Ssome of them even have VARIED taste, which is always a shocker; more often than not we get emails full of tech-death bands, or full of black metal bands, or whathaveyou. But not Ron Deuce. Dude is right on, and like us, his taste within metal are pretty all over the place but they’re consistently good. Let’s take a look at his picks: Yog, Severed Savior, Loom and Celestine.

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I somehow completely missed this until I read about it on Metal Injection, but it seems that Sebastian Bach will be performing “Youth Gone Wild” with Asking Alexandria as his backing band at the Revolver Golden Gods Awards next month. (DevilDriver and Jamey Jasta will also be doing a tribute to Black Flag, but I have nothing funny to say about that.)

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I don’t know what to say about this tour that you wouldn’t be able to guess I’d say if you read this site on a regular basis. Black Label Society are boring and all their songs sound the same and Zakk Wylde seems to be going out of his way to prove my thirteen year-old self wrong and demonstrate that, yes, there is such a thing as too many guitar squeals. And Phil LaBonte can’t sing, and that’s a problem when half your songs require you to do just that. So, uh, yeah.

What I can tell you that I’ve never told you before is that Hail the Villain, the world’s 72-millionth Verb the Noun band, are pretty bad, too. Take, for example, their song “Runaway.” Now, this would be a fairly generic radio-friendly alt-metal song one way or the other, but it happens to be doubly offensive because it proves that Hail the Villain (who will hitherto be known as “H the V” for the sake of my developing CTS) do not know how to spell good. The spelling of the song’s title would suggest that the band is concerned about the fate of someone who has fled his or her home, but the words to the chorus are, “When I say ‘Go’/ run away, run away” — “run away,” in this instance, being two words, because you don’t “runaway” from someone, you “run away” from them.

Also, I dunno if they’re all wearing contacts in the video for the song, or if whatever is going on with their eyes was done after the fact in post-production, but either way, it’s dumb.

In any case, if you recently pledged a frat and would like to attend one of the stops on this tour, dates are after the jump, courtesy of Metal Injection. It looks like Rev Theory are playing some of these shows, too, just to make them extra-not-worthwhile.

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This post is about the Russian-singing Finnish funeral doom band Kypck. Sorry, but “Kypck” as read with phonetic English letter pronunciations just doesn’t have the same shout-it-out-loud ring to it…. the actual pronunciation spelled out phonetically is much better suited for yelling at concerts and for blog headlines. Kuuuuuuurrrrrrrrsk! It’s like the new Meshuuuuuuugahhhh which was the new Slaaaaaayyyyeeeerrrrr! Except Finnish. Or, um, Russian.

Some day perhaps Kypck will make it to the U.S. But for now we’ll have to settle for a video for the song “Alleya Stalina” from their new album Lower, which is out now but I’ve yet to hear. Fuck, this song is so heavy! And uh, what the fuck is going on in this video? A guy masturbating furiously, Santa dancing with some broad, an old man killing himself with some fluid called Sinol (?)… wow. I have no idea what I just saw.

-VN

Like Axl said we’re getting on a plane shortly, so let’s make this shit quick. Some emo haircut band called D.R.U.G.S. (just typing that makes me queasy) sold a lot of records, and Devildriver and Darkest Hour did pretty well too. Numbers and commentary after the jump:

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About a month ago, I read a Noisecreep article announcing the impending release of SIN-atra, a metal-themed tribute to Ol’ Blue Eyes that, the article told me, would feature ““members of Anthrax, Twisted Sister, Deep Purple, Queensryche, Warrant and other groups.” And I denounced the album, ’cause most of the bands (or at least their current incarnations) ain’t fit to wash Frankie’s shorts.

Obviously, I did not know at the time that “other groups” would include Devin Townsend.

And I certainly had no way of know what a kick-ass job he’d do with Sinatra’s famous “New York, New York.”

But Heavy Devy killed it. The song does what ever cover absolutely ought to do: it stays true to the spirit of the original, while adding its own twist. Devin has made the song unmistakably his own, even changing the lyrics in one spot to ensure that the track has his unique brand of humor. I love this. I really, really hope the rest of the album is this good.

And I really, really hope Devin plays it the next time he has a gig here in NYC.

Here’s the track:

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Either you can be sour about the fact that this guy is a better musician than you by insisting that no one cares about some dude wanking on two basses at once, or you can just admit that this is awesome and enjoy it. I choose the later, because seriously… look at him go! That the resulting music is beautiful and actually appears to be a coherent song is the best part, though; I’d totally listen to a whole record of this. Metal Injection tells me I’ll get that chance when ex-Animosity / ex-Reflux bassist Evan Brewer, the man with two basses, releases his solo album -Alone- later this year. If it’s anything like what we hear above, I look forward to it.

-VN

Fun fact: I put the Mötley Crüe/Poison/New York Dolls tour date I wanna hit up (I’ve considered it and I’m ready to forgive Vince Neil as long as he promises to remain pathetic) in the calendar on my iPhone, AND THE PHONE AUTOMATICALLY ADDED UMLAUTS. It really is the future, guys. 2001 was just a misprint. I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords.

ANYWAY, I know a lot of you are pretty down on this tour, and I’ll try to keep that in mind when Vince and I are having an amazing time at the show. Actually, I’ll probably be way too coked up to care. Nevvvverrrrr mind.

Here are the dates:

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Guys, Vince and I have to get on a plane in a couple of hours, which means we have to leave for the airport now, which means I don’t really have time to write anything about this. (Everything you read today will have been pre-programmed; Anso is running the site while we’re away Thursday and Friday.) But I know if we don’t post the news there will be a thousand cranky reader e-mails when we land. So today I’m going to pretend that I work for Blabbermouth, and just cut and paste the press release announcing Marc Hudson as the new singer of Dragonforce. Please accept my most sincere apologies for my total lack of creativity.

But in case you don’t wanna read the press release, the short version is: Marc Hudson is not famous from some other band. He’s a 23 year-old who Dragonforce plucked from obscurity. So, there ya have it.

And now that press release:

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Photo by Scott Ferrara

Rob Arnold is a busy dude. As lead guitarist and one of the principal songwriters for Chimaira, he’s been one of the leaders of the New Wave of American Heavy Metal for more than a decade now; in 2009, he launched The Elite, a new project, with Bleed the Sky drummer Austin D’Amond; and then, just yesterday, it was announced that he’s the new guitar player for Six Feet Under, original Cannibal Corpse vocalist Chris Barnes’ legendary death metal band that has long been known as one of Arnold’s favorite acts. Phew! Can’t accuse Rob Arnold of slacking off, that’s for sure.

The very first thing I did when I heard that Arnold was the latest addition to SFU (along with new drummer Kevin Talley, who, coincidentally, was in Chimaira from 2004 to 2006) was shoot him an e-mail to see if he’d be down to answer some quick questions about his latest creative endeavor. Luckily for us, he agreed! After the jump, read about how Arnold came to join Six Feet Under, the new material he’s working on with SFU, the band’s future touring plans, and, oh yeah, that new album that Chimaira is currently recording…

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Congrats to reader Andrew Sares, who correctly identified last week’s logo as beloning to the band Lacerated Entrails. For his troubles, Andrew wins a blu-ray copy of Lemmy: The Motion Picture. Enjoy it, Andrew!

This week I’m back to trying to clear space from the over-stuffed shelves here at the MetalSucks Mansion. So, once again, I’ll e-mail the winner and give him or her a list of whatever CDs and/or DVDs we happen to have here at the Mansion, and said winner can take his or her pick of any THREE items.

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 one winner and announce his or her name next week.

This week’s logo was suggested by reader Gerry Dreher. Thanks, Gerry!

-AR

Volume 2 of NYC Sucks, the completely free compilation we’ve put together to spotlight some of the best metal bands currently dominating the New York metal scene, is getting rave reviews! Just ask your fellow MetalSucks commenters:

• D: “First Girl Scout cookies now this! Best day ever!”
• Mordecai 9000: “You guys should do this every fucking month.” Reply from Milkman: “upvoted x904594375927345284736772346230894″
• CultureVulture: “This comp is like X-mas in July. Goddamn I love this site.”
• Baron: “Not a bad song in the bunch. Both volumes are awesome and introduced me to some bands I hadn’t heard before. Thanks MS!”

Believe everything you hear, and download this puppy for free below. And don’t forget that Volume 1, featuring fourteen more great bands and songs, is already out and available for free download here!

—> DOWNLOAD NYC SUCKS VOLUME 2 HERE <—
(includes 320kbps MP3 files, Album Cover, PDF Liner Notes)

1. Wetnurse – “Not Your Choice”
2. Tombs – “The Great Silence”
3. Moth Eater – “Aftermath”
4. Hull – “Healer”
5. The Austerity Program – “Song 6″
6. Defeatist – “Dawn of No Light”
7. Goes Cube – “Year of the Human”
8. Krallice – “Autochthon”
9. Empyreon – “Beyond Perception”
10. Abacinate – “The Bundy Curse”
11. IKILLYA – “Godsize”
12. Atakke – “Fight Makes Right”
13. The Ghost in Black and White – “Restraint Impalement”

Are the dudes at Heavy Blog is Heavy killing it lately or what? First they single-handedly got Devin Townsend to add Greg Puciato to the list of vocal collaborators on Deconstruction, all through the power of Twitter. Now they’ve done some bonafide real-deal journalism and picked up on the fact that Early Graves — whose vocalist Makh Daniels tragically passed away last August in a van accident – are back in the studio.

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Last month we announced our SignMeTo Roadrunner Records contest, in which we’re offering one unsigned band per month the opportunity to have a featured article on MetalSucks in conjunction with Roadrunner’s SignMeTo platform. With today’s “thank fucking god winter is almost over” arrival of March 1st, so also marks our first contest winner.

Last Vegas, NV four-piece Spun In Darkness describe themselves as “old school death metal,” but that’s only part of the picture; what makes Spun in Darkness unique is the way they blend said old school DM with slow, crushing doom that’ll make your bones rattle and your brain quake. It’s like these dudes consciously took the best parts of both genres and blended them into one seamless package, although I’m sure the genesis of the band’s sound was a lot more organic than that; the slow, funeral march pace of doom mixed with the demon spawn riffs and clear production aesthetic of death metal is a winning combination if you ask me. Even when Spun in Darkness speed things up a bit they’re not chugging along at your typical death metal gallop, and just when you start to think “maybe these guys are really just a slightly slow death metal band” they take the tempo down to a near crawl for a monolithic Sabbath-inspired break. Check out “Black Castle” at their SignMeTo page; it’s my favorite of the bunch.

Want to enter your band for next month’s competition? It’s easy; just sign your band up for a profile at SignMeTo and tag the profile with “metalsucks.” Read the instructions here.

-VN

The change was imperceptible to those not paying attention. The rugged MF Doom-dominated hip-hop soundtrack that had prevailed in-between opening sets shifted abruptly as the opening squall of The Afghan Whigs’ “Honky’s Ladder” unexpectedly burst from above, signaling the imminent onstage arrival of Baltimore’s Trapped Under Ice. Members milled about onstage giving the gear last minute strums and bangs as Greg Dulli’s menacing lyrics poured from Santos Party House’s booming PA system. The crowd, most of whom in 1996 would have been watching Barney And Friends rather than appreciating the raucous yet soulful sounds of the Whigs, hardly seemed to notice. During the final minute of the song, frontman Justice Tripp emerged, goading audience to move up and fill the wide-open space near the front of the stage.

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