Agalloch are currently criss-crossing the country, playing some cities for the first time ever (like New York, where we saw them slay on Tuesday night… more on that at a later date). They’re selling a tour-only 2xLP called whitedivisiongrey — a combo of 2008′s The White EP and 2004′s The Grey EP — for $30, limited to just 500 copies. Agalloch followers are completely fanatical about their merch, especially vinyl, so I’m quite honestly shocked that there are even any left at this stage of the tour. As usual, they’re already going on eBay for absolutely insane prices:

I mean… WOW, right?

Here’s the thing: tour-only vinyls by some metal band aren’t exactly Hannah Montana tickets. In other words, you’ve got to be a fan to even know they exist, and you’ve got to pay for a ticket to the show and attend that show to even have access. Street scalpers ain’t exactly in on this scheme. Which means the people selling these items online (not just this tour vinyl… this happens EVERY TIME Agalloch release ANYTHING) are big fans of the band who are looking to make a buck (or $150, as it were) on the backs of their heroes. What do we think of this??

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In the deluge of already-released great grind (Total Fucking Destruction, Rotten Sound, and more) and great grind to come (Wormrot, Napalm Death, come oooooooon Pig Destroyer), 2011 is shaping up to be a hell of a year for it. So it makes sense for Drugs of Faith to drop their debut full length — Corroded – into our laps right around now and to have it be a bruiser and a half. A genre-scorching nail bomb, it ably handles punky speed, avant-garde guitar chords, and abrasive slow parts with equal aplomb. In fact, the only thing keeping it from being a truly great grind album is that I’m not really sure it’s a grind album.

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I’m a little less excited about this one… but, still, gold, right?

-AR

IF SOMEONE CAN MAKE THIS HAPPEN I WILL HAVE A UTERUS SURGICALLY INSTALLED IN MY OWN BODY AND HAVE YOUR BABY.

-AR

It’s Alyssa Lorenzon for the win… again! This time the MetalSucks Goddess of Photography captured some killer pics of Cradle of Filth, Nachtmystium, and Turisas when they played the Starland Ballroom in New Jersey earlier this month. As always, Alyssa’s photos will make you feel like you were at the show, even if — sad for you! — you weren’t. Check ‘em out after the jump…

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I would be probably be okay with becoming a crazy cat lady in my later years. Kitties are awesome. Dogs are great too, but they have to be dog-sized. When a healthy rat can take it on, it’s not a dog.

I have a cat. She’s big and black and indulges in brutal behavior, like pissing on my rug for no reason, and nonchalantly falling asleep to Gojira. I call her Blackie Lawless when she’s being a particularly fat bastard.

I know I’m not the only metalhead with a secret love for the little, fuzzy creatures and discovering this blog was the highlight of my week so far. It’s just delightful for anyone who enjoys a side of kvult with their kitties.

-LF

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In other news that proves there is no God, THERE’S STILL NO GODDAMN RELEASE DATE FOR THE NEW MOTHERFUCKING PIG DESTROYER ALBUM.

-AR

Periphery’s Icarus Lives EP, which drops April 19th, is kinda like their self-titled debut album’s v1.5; it takes one of the album’s biggest hits, “Icarus Lives,” (duh) and spiffies it all up with a bunch of remixes and a few additional tracks. The Icarus Lives EP has three remixes of the title track — one by Bulb himself, one by a friend of the band and one by a contest-winning fan — as well as the original version of the song, its music video, two songs that were previously released digitally but never on CD (“Captain On” and “Eureka!”), a new snippet called “New Groove,” a re-jiggered version of the album track “Jetpacks Was Yes!”  and…. one entirely brand new song!

That new song, “Frak the Gods,” is ripe for the streaming below via your ever-caring friends at MS and Sumerian Records. Pre-order the Icarus Lives EP here. Check Periphery out on tour now with Scale the Summit and Fair to Midland; remaining dates after the jump.

[this streaming promotion has ended]

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“Honestly, I’m not thinking about how to be relevant when writing and recording new songs.”
-Ozzy Osbourne

-AR

Metalheads are stereotyped as a homophobic bunch, but I’d love to prove the nay-sayers wrong. There’s an intelligent, thoughtful conscientious community of metalheads whose opinions are often drowned out by the knuckle-dragging, trenchcoat-wearing, redneck image the media portrays.

If you’re one of the many metalheads who believes in the rights of gay people to marry, I encourage you to sign the Freedom To Marry petition, a letter to President Obama urging him to end the exclusion of gays from legal marriage.

Let’s see how far we can take this. Tell your friends in bands, and have them tell their friends in bands. It’d be incredible to see the names of some metal “celebrities” alongside the likes of Rufus Wainwright, Mya and Melissa Etheridge on the list of famous people who have already signed the petition. And who knows, that might just help a little bit in lifting the homophobic stigma associated with metal.

As if you needed to be invited, tell us what you think on these issues in the comments.

-VN

Allow me to get real cereal for a moment. There are hundreds of thousands of foster kids in the U.S. whose lives have been disrupted by irresponsible parents. Wouldn’t it be great to be be able to donate to an organization that specializes in providing foster children a sense of normalcy by funding, among many other things, individual wishes for music lessons? And potentially altering a few lives for the better with the power of metal?

Rise Above is an organization that does just that, and through a partnership with New England Metal and Hardcore fest, Rise Above will be raising funds to help provide foster children in Massachusetts with the funds to do things kids do, like play little league and take music lessons. NEMHF has generously donated tickets to this year’s festival April 14th-16th in Worcester, MA for area foster children; that is beyond awesome. If just one kid is swayed by the magic of metal, it’ll all be worth it. More info after the jump.

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A BON JOVI GREATEST HITS ALBUM IS STILL THE #2 “HARD MUSIC” ALBUM IN ALL THE LAND. What the fuck, people?!

Thankfully the #1 spot belongs to Rise Against, a band I don’t particularly care for but whom people seem to dig and at least seem legit. The huge number of units their new album shifted was good enough for #2 on the overall Soundscan charts too, behind Adele.

Mastodon’s live album and As Blood Runs Black’s new one had pretty solid debuts, while Devildriver and Children of Bodom continued to sell respectably.

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From Devin’s Twitter feed, via MS readers Jonathan Delarosa and Sean Williams. Puuuuurdy.

Carry on.

-VN

A Hollywood shrink recently told The New Yorker that procrastination is “spurious form of immortality,” because it is “the ego’s way of claiming that it has all the time in the world.”

So I guess that the good folks at Noisecreep are living in the now, man, ’cause the year isn’t even 25% over yet, and they’re already compiling year-end lists.

The site has unveiled the first four songs on their “Top Metal and Hard Rock Songs of 2011 (So Far)” list, which they promise to continue to update throughout the year. And, uh, with all due respect to all of my friends who write for The ‘Creep, I’d say if these are the four best metal songs you’ve heard so far in 2011, you haven’t heard enough metal songs this year. I mean, don’t get me wrong, most of these songs are really good and they all come from respectable bands, but the best songs of the year so far? No, I don’t think so.

I won’t spoil the list for you, but you can check it out here. Then, of course, you should come back and argue about it. Just to get the ball rolling, I’ve posted my own personal list of five songs (I couldn’t keep to Noisecreep’s limit, sorry) after the jump.

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But only so you all stop e-mailing us about it. Sheesh. It’s not even that funny. It sounds way, way too real to be funny — like, it could seriously be a Dr. Acula song or something.

Keyboard flip.

-AR

[Read my recaps of Day One and Day Two. -Ed.]

The always-wise Antonin Skullia Esq. said to me on Friday that there’s no such thing as a “first annual,” just a “first ever.” Indeed. So please don’t think I’m gloating when I say that the first ever MetalSucks SXSW event South by South Death was a big success and surely worthy of creating a “second annual.” Meek is Murder, Wormrot, Red Fang, Havok and Kvelertak teamed up for for an excellent day of headbanging, beer-swilling, and sweaty, dirty metal in the cramped punk-rock confines of Headhunters.

And for the night-cap, the definitive most metal of non-metal bands: Chrome-E-Oh. Ohhhhh ohhh!

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Okay, so first of all, GOD BLESS METAL INJECTION for finding this amazing IM conversation between some dude and some other dude who is allegedly Danzig’s neighbor. Obviously it could be total bullshit, BUT OMG IT HAS TO BE TRUE RIGHT?!?!

Second of all, what the fuck has happened to Glenn Danzig? Was he always a total nutjob, or has this just happened in the past ten years? Between the North Side Kings thing and the doctor thing and the conspiracy theory thing and the cat food thing, I just don’t know how to take him seriously anymore; he’s like the really hostile senile dude at the old folks’ home who keeps yelling at all the nurses for no apparent reason. I’m about ready to add him to this ever-growing list.

-AR

You’d think with all the shit talking and back tracking Nikki Sixx has been doing about this whole Motley Crue/Poison tour, putting him in a room with Bret Michaels to do some terrible morning television (because Motley Crue and Poison fans are now so old that the media outlet they are most likely to get their rock news from is a morning show) would an awful idea. And by “awful,” I mean for those poor bastards. You’d think it would be a great idea for us drama enthusiasts.

But no. Sixx and Michaels have been making the morning show rounds, and not only do they appear to be getting along, but they are about as exciting a comedy team as Death and Taxes. I mean, holy shit, are these interviews boring. The only thing even remotely interesting about them is the fact that Michaels is now more media-savvy than Sixx. Sixx’s exploits with Kat Von D. have kept him in the tabloids, but Rock of Love, Celebrity Apprentice, the Tony Awards, Miley Cyrus, and a giant middle finger to the desires of The Almighty have made Michaels famous in a much bigger way — a “Sheesh even my grandmother knows who Bret Michaels is” kinda way — and he’s gotten good at giving these very bland talk show interviews.

ANYWAY, if you do wanna watch these, here’s the video I prefer, if for no other reason than because I thought the lady was saying “Yep, that’s my sexual future” at the beginning, and I was like, “Whuh-huh?” (she’s actually saying “my six year old’s future”). But Metal Insider, who first brought these interviews to my attention, have another one, too.

-AR

Let’s keep this one short n’ sweet, ’cause the poster tells you everything you need to know anyway. The might Exhumed are doing their first North American headlining tour in six years this summer, and they’re taking some killer bands out on the road with them — namely Macabre, Cephalic Carnage, and Withered. The shows on this tour will clearly reek of terrible, horrible, almost unbearable nerd body odor, but they will also reek of awesomeness. I wanna go. You wanna go. Everyone should want to go. So let’s all go.

Here are the dates:

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MS photographic whiz Jacqueline Cheng was on-hand at NYC’s Best Buy Theater to shoot Motorhead on the fine evening of February 28th. Of course she was there… where else would she be on such a glorious night of rockage? Check her shots after the jump.

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