If you’re a regular reader of MetalSucks, then you already know how much we love The Human Abstract; their new album, Digital Veil, is surely one of the best of the year so far, and guitarist A.J. Minette’s recurring MS column, “Abstract Theory,” is always a fascinating read.

Which is why we’re so thrilled to be co-sponsoring the band’s first headlining run in support of Veil! With Scale the Summit, This or the Apocalypse, Letlive, Across the Sun, No Bragging Rights, and (on select dates) Elitist all playing support, you just know that these shows are gonna be an awesome time. Seriously, this is the first can’t-miss tour of the spring/summer season, so make sure you get your ass to a show! Dates after the jump…

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That headline doesn’t even make sense. So what? Seven of the Top 10 Hard Music albums on this week’s Soundscam charts are actually new(ish) releases! And only one is a greatest hits! Hallelujah!

Rise Against continued to dominate, while new releases by Soundgarden (sorta), Protest the Hero, Born of Osiris and Tesseract sold well. A bunch of other records came out, too (uhhh… Saliva, uhh…. CKY, uhhh… Straight Line Stitch) and some solid sellers from weeks past remained on the charts. Numbers after the break.

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We’ve been following Augusta, Maine’s Last Chance to Reason since seeing them impress the fuck out of the tiny Charleston in Brooklyn, NY with Iron Thrones, The Binary Code, Meek is Murder and East of the Wall last August (is that a helluva lineup or what?). We liked them so much we invited them to play our CMJ showcase this past fall and were beyond stoked when Prosthetic Records, who have an amazing track record with adventurous prog bands, announced they’d signed the band. With the April 12th release of their Prosthetic debut (and second album overall) Level 2 fast approaching, we reached out to Prosthetic to see if they’d let us give you a preview of Level 2 in the form of a full track from the record. And lucky for you, they agreed.

Stream “Programmed For Battle” below and pre-order the proggy goodness that is Level 2 here.

[this streaming promotion has ended]

I may spend a lot of time bagging on head honcho Digby Pearson, but I gotta hand it to Earache Records: they’re definitely willing to experiment with the power of the Internet more than any other metal label. Exhibit A) Dig’s Ask Earache blog. Exhibit B) That free Gama Bomb album download experiment. Exhibit C) The Stagediving iPhone app. Exhibit D) They’re giving away Wormrot’s unreleased album Dirge away for free over a month ahead of its official release.

Wait, what? Dirge isn’t supposed to be released until May 3rd (May 23rd in Europe) and they’re giving it away for free download now? Zuh???

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I hate writing these so much.

Disfear bassist Henrik Frykman has lost his battle with a cancer. A statement from the band reads as follows:

“It is with heavy hearts we inform you that on Friday the 25th of March Henrik Frykman passed away in his home after a long battle with cancer. Henrik will be greatly missed by family and friends.”

There’s never anything you can really say here, other than that, as always, our thoughts are with Frykman’s family and friends.

This sucks, sucks, sucks.

-AR

Photo by Agnieszka Krysiuk

Seven months is a long time to hold your breath, but that is what metal fans have been doing since late August when Behemoth frontman Adam “Nergal” Darski was diagnosed with leukemia. Nergal, a formidable opponent to religious zealots and their disregard for his human rights, now was no longer fighting for his liberty, but for his survival. For fans, the announcement was a new and debilitating shock coming mercilessly soon after the losses of Peter Steele and Ronnie James Dio. But both Nergal and his supporters rallied, the former undergoing a successful bone marrow transplant in December and the latter staging an awe-inspiring series of leukemia awareness events. (Believe it, metal people: We are capable of awesomeness.)

But another scare came in late January after an infection landed Nergal back in the hospital. Astoundingly, he and I had planned an interview just prior to this episode; no doubt his determination is illustrated by this desire to get back to Behemoth business mere weeks after a physically- and emotionally-taxing medical procedure. And though I’d been unspeakably eager to ask him a million questions, I could have never anticipated the bombshell nature of our discussion once we finally connected on Tuesday morning. He described to me his current condition (good and improving), his lowest days (“I had some shitty moments”), and his reaction to the outpouring of support (“I had tears in my eyes”). But I didn’t have to start holding my jaw in place until he disclosed that Behemoth has tour plans for this year (!) and more tour plans for next year (!!); that he “expects serious changes” to Behemoth’s music (!) and that he doesn’t plan to employ “the same entourage and the same outfits” on tour (!!); and that the two of us agree on Motorhead (duh!) but disagree on Maiden (huh?). Stop what you’re doing and read the words of a man hobbled but still as strong as the most powerful among us. He may not be healthy, but he must be hell-thy. We love the guy — and we have proof. Nergal is back.

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While both The Deciblog’s Shawn Macomber and myself both think that Chinese Democracy is pretty great, two music critics does not a hit album make. The record shit the bed when it came out in 2008, and Best Buy, who paid untold millions of dollars for the exclusive rights to sell physical copies of the album in the United States, were left holding the bag — I can’t find the exact figure right now, but I know they had to buy X million copies outright, and I know they weren’t allowed to return/sell back any copies they failed to get off their shelves. In other words, Axl Rose and Geffen Records ended up making out like bandits despite the album’s colossal commercial failure — they ended up not losing any money on the record’s fifteen year creation process, and they even got to claim that the album went platinum, because it did, technically, ship a million units. (For the record, as of this writing, it’s sold roughly 600,000 copies.) Meanwhile, if you’ve checked the shelves at your local Best Buy recently — and I have, for shits n’ giggles — there will literally be dozens and dozens of untouched Chinese Democracy CDs.

So what the crap is Best Buy gonna do with all those unsold units? Sell ‘em for $1.99, that’s what.

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It’s barely been more than a month since DevilDriver released their fifth studio album, Beast, but bassist Jon Miller has now announced his departure from the band.

His statement doesn’t really tell us anything and makes the split sound perfectly amiable (it’s so vanilla I’m not even gonna print it here, but you can read it at Metal Underground if you’re really curious), but Miller had entered rehab in January of this year, so it’s hard not to speculate that his new-found sobriety had something to do with his decision to leave the group. In case it isn’t obvious, being in a band out on tour isn’t necessarily the environment most conducive to just saying “no” — you will constantly be surrounded by people who are partying, and sitting on the bus by yourself is not a lot of fun.

The band hasn’t announced an official replacement, but apparently some dude named Bubbles, who used to be Bury Your Dead and is now DevilDriver’s tour manager, has been filling in for Miller these past few months, so that should pretty much take care of that.

Yep, DevilDriver now has members named “Dez” and “Bubbles.” Not since the “Izzy/Dizzy” era of Guns N’ Roses has anything been so silly.

-AR

Reader Jonathan Williams brought it to our attention some time ago that we rarely devote coverage to funeral doom. And the man is correct. I’d venture to say it’s because there aren’t that many funeral doom bands making waves these days, but Jonathan would clearly beg to differ based on the list of funeral doom bands he emailed us. In case you haven’t figured it out yet… let’s take a listen to those bands after the wake.

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While a press release assures us that Jeff Hanneman “has amazed his doctors with his speedy recovery from an infection thought to have been caused by a spider bite” and “has already been practicing with his guitar,” the Slayer guitarist apparently isn’t quite ready to step back into the fold yet. And Gary Holt, who has been filling in for Hanneman, has to go back to his own band — some group called Exodus. So, y’know, in case the headline didn’t already spoil the suspense… yep, Cannibal Corpse’s Pat O’Brien is the new temporary guitarist for Slayer.

O’Brien is just as strong a pick as Holt, if ya ask me; if Exodus are one of Slayer’s most revered peers, Cannibal Corpse are one of Slayer’s most accomplished disciples (no reference to the song intended). There can be no doubt that there would be no Cannibal Corpse without Slayer, and O’Brien’s style is a perfect fit for the latter band.

So Holt will continue to play with Slayer ’til April 4, and then O’Brien takes over. Here are the remaining announced tour dates with both axe men…

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In my post-festival coverage of SXSW I raved about the live debut of T.R.A.M. — the new group featuring Tosin Abasi and Javier Reyes of Animals as Leaders, Adrian Terrazas ex-The Mars Volta and Eric Moore of the Suicidal Tendencies — and I even included some lo-fi but passable cell-phone footage of a couple of songs that I found on the Interhole. Leave it up the Metal Injection dudes to out-do my Interhole trawling with legit, three-camera footage and excellent audio of a song called… well, uh, I honestly have no idea what this song is called. And leave it up to Rob to out-do my description of the way the band’s music made me feel with this simple gem: “it massaged my ear-pussy.”

Now you, too, can get your ear-pussy massaged and eagerly anticipate the full-length album due in May on Sumerian along with us. Metal? Barely (especially this tune). Awesome? Absolutely. Watch:

Check out a highly entertaining Metal Injection interview with Abasi, Terrazas and guest interviewer-cum-drummer Eric Moore after the jump.
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Shining’s Jorgen Munkeby with Melissa Auf der Maur

When Melissa Auf der Maur, one of the most metal not-really-metal musicians on the planet today, tipped us off that she was going to be collaborating on a new project with Shining’s Jorgen Munkeby, well, we pretty much got down on our hands and knees and begged her to write a guest blog about the experience. Luckily for us, Melissa is used to having men beg her for things, and she took mercy. And so here are her recollections of how she came to learn about Shining, befriend Munkeby, and the collaboration that ensued. Enjoy!

Belgium, Summer Festival 2010 : My bearded Dutch booking agent friend, Bob, insisted I check a band he works with: SHINING. Since I saw and heard them explode out of that festival tent, they have topped my favorite albums of 2010 list with their one of a fucking kind blend of industrial, metal, and jazz: the phenomenally original Blackjazz. Check this Shining shit out:

We became fast friends, bonding over full-time music making, independent music making, intensity, keeping a hold of wicked band members on top of doing absolutely everything else that needs to be done in a band, and much more. Shining  leader/visionary/detail-oriented hard-ass worker, Jorgen Munkeby, became a friend and peer. Later in the year, Jorgen, his sax, and his snake scream joined us on stage during my Out of Our Minds Tour in Europe, in both Istanbul and Oslo (below):

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Congrats to reader Nick Kitson, who correctly identified last week’s logo as beloning to the band Syny Severa. Nick wins five CDs from the MetalSucks Mansion Archives. Yaaaaaayyyy Nick!

And we’re doin’ it again this week! I’m gonna send the winner FIVE CDs from the MetalSucks archives!!!  And there’s some good shit in here, too. You will be happy to have it (or at least re-sell it on eBay).

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  Kraghen… thanks, duder!

-AR

From both talking to people in person and reading MS comments any time I tackle the issue, I’m hearing more and more folks claiming that as they gradually switch from CDs to digital downloads as their preferred music delivery method they slowly come to realize, “You know what? I guess I don’t need all my new music on CDs after all. I rarely touch the ones I have.” I’ve noticed this happen to even the staunchest of CD/physical medium supporters… including myself. Once you see the incredible time, money and space-saving qualities that digital file ownership has to offer you slowly start to get over your attachment to physical music products (also: don’t be a ninny, and make sure you back-up frequently). You need to experience the difference in order to really know.

Mark my words: the same thing is going to happen with the transition from digital file ownership to “the cloud,” which will offer on-demand music streaming at any time without any files stored on a hard drive, phone or other device. Today marks a big step in that direction, as Amazon has beaten Apple and Google to the punch by launching their digital Cloud Player for music.

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Were you at Meek is Murder’s album release party last Thursday in Brooklyn with East of the Wall? No? You shoulda been… place was packed to the gills and the dudes fucking brought it. Kip W. was moshing and even body-slammed some poor kid into the floor. Axl was moshing, too… in his head.

The 50 super-sweet limited edition, hand-painted CDs Meek is Murder put together for Algorithms — which came out last Tuesday — sold out quickly, but that doesn’t mean you still can’t buy a high-quality 320kbps digital download for just $5. Who sells albums for $5? MetalSucks does, that’s who, because we love you. There are also t-shirt + download packages for just $15 if you’re feeling like being fashionable in the coming weeks, months and years. Order here.

In case $5 is a tough pill to swallow, we offer you a “try before you buy” policy in the form of a free stream of the entire record, below! But only for the next 24 hours. So get to listening before it’s too late.

[sorry, this streaming promo is over. buy the album for just $5!]

Today is the day! The day Amon Amarth’s excellent new album Surtur Rising comes out (order here) and the final day of our Amon Amarth Viking Beard Contest which launched nearly three months ago. Which means today is the day that either 1) you send in pictures of the results of your [attempted] beard growth, or 2) you do not, because you wimped out and decided to shave.

So, if you recall, these are the rules:

1. You already sent in clean-shaven pictures of yourself when we launched the contest in January. If you did not send in a picture then, you can’t enter the contest. Sorry.
2. You grew a beard.
3. Today we give you a code. Take a picture of yourself holding up a sign that says “MetalSucks,” today’s date, and the code. The code is: AA08. Email said picture to news [at] metalsucks [dot] net with “AMON AMARTH VIKING BEARD CONTEST” as the subject.

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Biggest and best metal release day of 2011 so far? It certainly seems that way. New records from Amon Amarth, Becoming the Archetype, Blackguard, Cavalera Conspiracy — are you kidding me? there’s still more? — Goes Cube, Havok, Mercenary, Obscura and a Between the Buried and Me best-of comp (with a brand new release coming next week!) all officially come out today. If you’re a devoted metalhead with varied tastes you better have saved up, else you’ll be very, very poor come tomorrow.

Vic Vaughn takes a look at all those release — and yes, EVEN MORE — after the break.

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“Oy! I can’t believe I joined this band.”

No joke: I played a new Winds of Plague song, called “California,” for Vince awhile back, without telling him what it was. His reaction? “Is this the new Limp Bizkit single?”

It’s easy to see how he could have made such a mistake.

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Shadows Fall’s Paul Romanko: Still without a side project of his own.

So two of the three current Shadows Fall-related side projects both released new music yesterday, and despite the fact that it is not particularly fair to either band, I am lumping these two projects into one post for the sake of my own comfort and convenience. My apologies to all parties involved.

And so…

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Raise your hand if you’re over the age of 25 and don’t remember doing EXACTLY what this kid does in the beginning of the new Becoming The Archetype video below.

<crickets>

Exactly. If anything, this video is flawed in that there’s no WAY any NES set would simply work on the first try. A good friend once told me that Nintendos are like penises — everyone knows how to use their own the best. On my set (WHICH I STILL HAVE, BITCHES!) you’ve got to put the cartridge in, slide it firmly to the left or right, and hold down the restart button while you push “power.” If that doesn’t work, slide the cartridge to the other side and repeat. And repeat. And repeat. We must conclude, then, that this video takes place in 1986 like the game title screen suggests and that the set is brand new. Rad.

This video rules in all sorts of ways, not the least of which is the awesome song “Magnetic Sky” to which it’s set. We’ve been writing about Becoming the Archetype a bunch lately, and with good reason… they rule. So does this video; it’s like real-life Final Fantasy (the first one, you assholes, not Final Fantasy 7,567 or whatever they’re up to now). The best is the look on the kid’s face as he leads his party into the swamp; swamps were always the worst in that game!

Raise your hand if you didn’t ever imagine yourself in a real-life version of this game as you played it.

<crickets>

Carry on. Celestial Completion is out now, and available for order here.