Total Fucking Destruction is whatever it wants to be, which is both its greatest asset and downfall. On the one hand, it’s a perfect outlet for Brutal Truth drummer Rich Hoak’s spastic, jazzy grind drumming: It’s got the flexibility to be a world-scorching grind band, a punky/hardcore bunch of dudes, or a group with an ADD attitude toward time signatures at any point in time. I’ve always posited that they resemble what a grind band started by Devin Townshend would sound like. But like that prospect, its inherent absurdity sometimes undoes the weight the band strives for. TFD sound like no other band out there, but depending on your mood, that can mean either, “Oh!” or “Ugh.” And Hater, their latest (and also their first full length not to feature their name in the title, unfortunately), elicits the same reaction: a patient, tolerant mood lets Hoak’s schizophrenic, speed-addled grind wash over you with the album’s 27 minutes zipping by like nothing, but a testy, irritated one can make the record’s every moment a long one, it’s many dalliances impossible to keep track of. Either way, though, it sounds like little else in metal, and especially grindcore. Total Fucking Destruction’s versatility is most welcome, even if it can grate on some.

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MUSICAL GENRES ARE DEAD // LONG LIVE POST-GENRE EXPERIMENTAL GENRES OF MUSIC

Most of you probably know BIG CHOCOLATE aka Cam Argon for his work as the world’s finest guttural vocalist, but that’s only one of the many facets of the guttural slam/dubstep/drum n bass/deathcore artist known as BIG C. Say what you want about him, but this cat is prolific —  if the 5 zillion EPs and demos he’s released with Perforate Carcass, Commissioner, Disfiguring The Goddess, Malodorous, and so forth weren’t enough to satisfy your craving for MOAR BIG C, he just dropped a new EP of dubstep/dnb/deathcore tracks (check it out here on Soundcloud)!

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We’ve been raving about Pack of Wolves for nearly three years now, and if you’re still not familiar with their unique brand of… uh… y’know, I don’t know what to call it… blackened deathrash?… ANYWAY, you should know this band. And if you don’t know this band and you live in Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, or Arkansas, you’re about to have your chance to get to know them — they’re doing an eight-show mini tour starting this Friday in Austin and continuing through March 28.

Like Meek is Murder, Pack of Wolves is one of those bands whose shit just goes to a whole ‘nother level live. They came all the way from Austin to play our CMJ showcase last fall, and they absolutely blew everyone away — dudes in other bands, dudes in the industry, and just plain old fans all raved to me about their performance at various points during the afternoon. So, yeah, go see ‘em go see ‘em go seem ‘em for the love of all things holy go see ‘em.

(And if you still feel like you need to get to know ‘em first, you can download their EP, Penance of Pestilence, for just six bucks right here. It’s totally worth it. I know they’re working on some new stuff, too, and while I’ve only heard one song so far, it might be my favorite PoW song yet.)

BONUS: Starting at Friday’s show, they’ll be selling the above t-shirt, “Crucidix,” which was designed by Eric Benton. Yes, it is an inverted cross made of penises. Yes, each and every penis is unique, like a snow flake. Yes, you need to own one.

Here are those tour dates:

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It’s two weeks before the official release of the new album by your favorite band. Word starts spreading via .rar blogs, torrents, or word of mouth that the album has leaked. You haven’t pre-ordered the album and you’re curious… you stare at that link in your inbox… do you click??? Can you wait???

No, we are not tracking your IP and this is not some covert operation on behalf of record labels to hunt you down (although I’ll bet they’ll be curious to see the results of the poll). We’re just curious.

Do you download leaked albums???

Typically when a four year old boy starts singing a song about how he’s “gotta go”, that’s the cue to get him to the potty A.S.A.P. or face the soggy consequences. But in this instance, it’s just his way of showing love for Agnostic Front. (Here’s the original.)

Boy, hardcore fans just get younger and younger, no?

-GS

On March 1, MetalSucks photographer extraordinaire once again braved the savage, stinky pits of the Trocadero in Philadelphia, all so she could capture these absolutely killer pics from the Finnish Metal Tour, featuring Finntroll, Ensiferum, and Rotten Sound. Bow down before Alyssa’s superior prowess with her weapon of choice — the camera. You are not worthy of photos so awesome, scum. But you get to enjoy them (after the jump) anyway.

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(Sensory Amusia)

Reader Dan Wolfson is so passionate about Anomalous and their new album, Ohmnivalent, that he e-mailed us about the below song multiple times. Now, I hate to reward that kind of behavior, because GUYS I PROMISE WE GOT YOUR E-MAILS BUT PLEASE UNDERSTAND WE GET A LOT OF E-MAILS AND WE CAN’T DO EVERYTHING AT ONCE SO JUST CHILL THE FUCK OUT, but I made an exception this time, because I was in a giving mood.

So, yeah, this band sounds like they can play. You know who else sounds like they can play? EVERY TECH DEATH BAND ON THE PLANET. I know it’s a cliché, but just being good is no longer good enough. The technology has made it too easy to create and spread art; perhaps now more than ever, you need to do something to distinguish yourself from the pack.

Writing good songs would be a step in the right direction. I’ve listened to the below three times now, and I still can’t remember any of it. But pretty much any riff from any song off of Origin’s Antithesis will get stuck in my head pretty much right away — and those dudes can play.

I feel like I’ve been writing the words “this band is by no means terrible” an awful lot lately, but it applies here. They’re good. But they need to be better than that.

-AR

-AR

Thanks: Elijah Bliss

Oh, hey, it’s St. Patty’s Day! Like so many holidays, it’s an excuse for people to get totally fucked up… as though anyone needed an excuse to get totally fucked up. Still, I hope everyone has fun today.

Man, it seems like there is a serious dearth Irish metal bands. There’s Thin Lizzy (if you consider them metal at all) and Primordial and Altar of Plagues and… that’s it. Even most of the famous celtic metal bands aren’t actually from Ireland. Bizarre. You’d think people who liked to drink and fight so much would make a lot of angry music, but I guess they’re too busy, uh, drinking and fighting.

Now, I’m not a Primordial fan, and I know there’s a new Altar of Plagues album coming out, but they haven’t officially released any new music yet, so we’re shit outta luck there. And I already used Thin Lizzy for this holiday back in 2009.

So I’m going with the Dropkick Murphys. Yeah, they’re not metal, and they’re not actually from Ireland, but they do rock, and I am reasonably certain that they could kick everyone in Primordial’s ass without breaking a sweat.

Now who’s got my Shamrock Shake?

-AR

P.S. If anyone knows of any other good Irish metal bands, by all means, please feel free to leave suggestions in the comments section.

It once was a source of humor for me that I might’ve never heard the great He Is Legend if not for a longtime friend’s occasional visits to a Christian goods shop. It was there that said bud — a thick, bruiser-type death-metallist ironically nicknamed “Bubbles” — picked up I Am Hollywood and later, with no regard for my protests and allergies to Solid State bands, blared it into my face. I was won over instantly. He Is Legend had everything — licks, hooks, and muscle. Major skillz!

But as I went from HiL doubter to HiL evangelist, it seemed less funny that these were the circumstances of my acquaintance with such superlative jamz. This is the band, I reasoned, that deserved the Rolling Stone covers and the marquee MTV performances then reserved for shrill pap-peddlers with cute bass players and wacky hats; it seemed unconscionable that the eminently marketable He Is Legend was light years off my radar. I mean, come the fuck on.

Alas, my hopes for He Is Legend were dealt another blow in 2006 when their thudding, misshapen sophomore album Suck Out The Poison helped to conspire against even a medium-sized breakthrough. That year, my puzzlement turned to frustration as the band’s nearby tour stop nearly slipped by without my knowledge; after a barely-attended but face-fuckingly awesome headline set, I was left to rage and wonder: Who is responsible for promoting this hunky, mega-talented band? And to what extent are they brain-damaged?

Comfort came in 2009 with He Is Legend’s second masterpiece, It Hates You, their first for Tragic Hero Records. But again, traction seemed to elude He Is Legend, and rumors of imminent break-up followed the announcement of singer Schuylar Croom’s temporary gig fronting Maylene & The Sons of Disaster — mere months after It Hates You came out. Was there a falling out among HiL guys? Were they no longer into it? Would It Hates You be left to sink without a trace? What the motherfuck?

But here’s the thing: No matter how vital, success and solvency remain secondary to He Is Legend’s awesomeness. In this sense, the band is prisoner of their own rare genius. And in my crusade to ensure that they continue to share it no matter the cost, my allies are HiL fans like Bubbles, other would-be lovers of awesome shit, and, most recently, HiL manager Zach Neil, who graciously took time to take me behind the scenes of He Is Legend’s amazing creative output, past industry woes, current status, and tenuous future.

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IDK much about black metal (I stopped being interested in 1995 when I’d read all the gossip on Usenet about Euronymous getting killed) but if there are more bands like LITURGY, maybe I should get back into it?? What other bands should I check out if I am into these guys????

Again, I fully admit I don’t know much about this stuff so feel free to correct me but I was always a big fan of 90s post-rock/math-rock/etc like Orthrelm, Trans Am, Panasonic, and Don Caballero and I kind of feel like this is what Steve Albini would do if he was commissioned to do a BM record?? Like, what if he got Demon Che to play with Darkthrone? How sweet would that be?!?

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Writing songs. That long forgotten musical artform that transcends what’s actually being played and consists of memorable hooks. Remember that? Let’s check out a few unsigned bands rocking my speakers lately who write great songs but are no less heavy for it, Wage Slave, Idol and the Whip and Shroud Eater.

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So as you know, the week before last Vince and I took our annual trip to Thailand to shtup ladyboys went on a business trip. We flew JetBlue. There was nothing metal about it. I mean I listened to the new Anaal Nathrakh album on the flight home and Vince stunk of all-night partying, but that was just the metalness that we ourselves brought to the flight — the airline itself provided no metal whatsoever.

Well, apparently, we just chose the wrong airline.

See, Jeanne Fury at The Deciblog took her own trip that week, and flew Virgin America Airlines. On the flight, she made the following awesome discovery:

“Instead of having a steward or stewardess go through the whole ‘what to do in case of an emergency and a dude named Sully isn’t flying the plane’ shpeel, Virgin shows its passengers a little cartoon video. A couple of seconds into the video, a black metal character looking suspiciously like Abbath appears. You can imagine my delight/surprise/utter disbelief.”

Ms. Fury was even able to find the video online so that we can all enjoy what does, indeed, appear to be an Abbath cameo:

The best part of this is the assumption that black metallers don’t remove their corpse paint before flying — y’know, because they’re just that fucking tr00. I wonder if they get picked for “random” security checks a lot?

-AR

I love interviews with producers and mixers. They’re the dudes behind the scenes who are rarely talked about or given much credit but whose skills and personality are SO important to the sound of the records we love… and those we hate too. In January we got a “behind the scenes” video with Colin Marston, in February we got a Q&A session with Sanford Parker and today we get a Metal Injection interview with Jason Suecof, the man behind albums by Atheist, Death Angel, Born of Osiris, Chimaira, Trivium and 10 gajillion other bands whose records you own. Lucky for me, and for you, too, if you’re a production nerd like I am.

Suecof is a character, as anyone who’s watched behind-the-scenes bonus footage connected to records he’s worked on surely knows. In the above interview he talks about his differing approaches to producing and mixing, how he got his start, his dog “Stinky” (yes, really), the possibility of doing a new Crotchduster record, and more. This one’s for Dime, bra.

-VN

How does she do it? Jacqueline Cheng strikes again with another set of positively epic photos. The subjects: Times of Grace — featuring ex-Killswitch Engage vocalist Jesse Leach and current KsE guitarist Adam D., along with fellow KsE guitarist Joel Stroetzel on live guitar — at New York City’s Gramercy Theater on February 22, 2011. We weren’t in attendance, but these photos make us wish we were. Check them out after the jump.

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I was not aware of the existence of Singlish until just now, when I watched the below video interview that Invisible Oranges‘ Cosmo Lee conducted recently with Wormrot — but I’m not at all surprised that it exists. Are the band’s lyrics in Singlish? I’ve honestly never really paid attention to what front man Arif was screeching, and, kind of unbelievably, I can’t seem to find any of the band’s lyrics online. One way or the other, though, this is pretty interesting stuff.

While we’re on the topic of Wormrot: if you’re at SXSW this week don’t forget that they’re playing MetalSucks’ ABSOLUTELY FREE South by Southdeath party at Headhunters, at 720 Red River, from 2-6pm this Friday, March 18th. Kvelertak, Havok, Red Fang, and Meek is Murder are also on the bill, and Full Blown Chaos’ Ray Mazzola is MCing. It’s gonna be a killer time so be there. And bring some weed for Vince — he does so much for you!

Wormort’s new album, Dirge, will be out May 3 on Earache. I’ve heard it. It will not disappoint you.

-AR

As you are aware, Vince is at SXSW this week, and is probably drunk and laughing and/or headbanging even as I type this. So in his honor, it is my duty to tell you that Sylosis’ Edge of the Earth – Mr. Neilstein’s pick for Album That Will Fuck Your Face Off in 2011 — is now streaming on the band’s Facebook page.

I’m listening to the album as I type this, and while I don’t always agree with Vince (and he doesn’t always agree with me!), I gotta say, he nailed it this time — this album rocks. I mean, I can feel my face coming off from all the fucking its getting. Awesome. Totally awesome.

Headbang here, then come back and let us know what you think. Edge of the Earth came out on March 11 in Europe via Nuclear Blast; still not sure when it’s getting released elsewhere, but at least you can hear it now no matter where you live!

-AR

Last month, I told you about S.O.S., a bonafide hardcore supergroup featuring current and former members of Agnostic Front, Hatebreed, Madball, Terror, and Trapped Under Ice. Obviously, a band with that sort of pedigree surely couldn’t stay unsigned for very long. You’ll read it here first, folks: S.O.S. has partnered with Good Fight Entertainment, home to The Chariot, Disembodied, and, oh yeah, Madball.

Sometime in late Spring/early Summer, Good Fight will drop S.O.S.’s first release, an as-yet untitled CD-EP. (Hardcore elitists, fear not, Reaper Records will cover the vinyl.) But you can finally hear what the band sounds like in this awesome (and yes, exclusive) video below featuring the band recording with producer Dean Baltulonis (Goes Cube, Madball, Sick Of It All) at Wild Arctic Studios in Queens, NY. This short preview should leave no doubt in the hearts and minds of hardcore fans that this is going to be fucking solid.

-GS

Vince wondered about the fate of poor TesseracT last week, pondering their place in a scene that might mistake them for followers of a trend that they actually helped start.

Well, as someone who believes that it is actually still important to have a cool music video as part of your promotional cycle, I hope that a lot of people see TesseracT’s new Tim Fox-directed video, for the song “Nascent.” It doesn’t prove that TesseracT aren’t really Johnny Come Latelys, but in a perfect world, its quality would make the issue moot (or, as they say on St. Charles, would mooten the issue). I’m not stoned right now so I’m not gonna posit a theory as to what the what is going on in this thing, but I will say that it’s memorable, it looks good, and the fact that it will require a couple of viewings to “get” it will hopefully work in the band’s favor.

“Nascent” comes off of TesseracT’s One, which comes out this Tuesday on Century Media.

-AR