Figures that one of the few good / non-BS bands on Solid State Records would go and break up. Right after they released a really good album, no less.

But so it is for The Famine, whose album The Architects of Guilt — released earlier this year — was a solid slab of chunky, riffy, complex death metal that I finally checked out at the urging of many readers and was very glad I did. Here’s vocalist Nick Nowell, as relayed by MS reader Ryan Benjamin, on the split of the band:

The Famine never should have existed.  I don’t mean that like when a jealous brother screams “I wish you were never born!” at his little sister.  What I mean is that we came together as a group of married thirty-somethings with kids and small businesses.  Our singer lived on the other side of the country.  It was a cumbersome proposition, but we made it work.  Most of you are familiar with the fire that claimed most of our equipment and the departure of our vocalist about a year ago.  We should have never been able to make our last record, but we did.  This brings us to the present day.

Click to read more…

So Job for a Cowboy have a new EP coming out sometime this year. It’s called Gloom, and there’s one new song, “Misery Reformatory,” already available for download, although it’s not streaming anywhere yet. I am listening to it right now, though, and I can tell you that’s it’s good stuff. It definitely has the best guitar solo I’ve ever heard in a JFAC song. Check it out.

Meanwhile, the band has also posted footage of Jon “The Charn” Rice rehearsing another new track, “Signature Of Starving Power,” which also sounds promising. Hopefully the band will debut some of this material on their upcoming MetalSucks-sponsored tour with Between the Buried and Me, The Ocean, and Cephalic Carnage.

Hey, speaking of that tour, here are dates!

Click to read more…

I’m going to put approximately as much work into this introduction as Billy Milano does into staying in shape.

We begin today with The Dillinger Escape Plan’s new video, for “Gold Teeth on a Bum.” I really love this song, so I wish I really loved this video. Unfortunately, whomever shot this live footage decided to use the same camera move over and over again starting at roughly the fifteen second mark, and by the thirty second mark, it has become insanely annoying. Rapid zoom in/zoom out. I mean it works the first go-round because it’s in time with the music. Rapid zoom in/zoom out. But then it just keeps happening over and over and over again for no discernible reason. Rapid zoom in/zoom out. Seriously, go get a bottle of something, not even something all that strong, and take a shot every time there’s a rapid zoom in/zoom out. You’ll be dead from alcohol poisoning before the halfway mark.

Click to read more…

A quick recap: Sumerian Records founder Ash Avildsen recently published a video lambasting music pirates, generating quite a bit of Internet chatter. The Gauntlet’s Jason Fisher wrote up a lengthy response in which he accused Ash of being a hypocrite, having run in the same IRC software pirating circles in the early/mid ’90s. And now Ash has fired back at Jason with the below response, sent in to MetalSucks by Ash late last night:

Dear Jason @ The Gauntlet,

Congratulations on bringing traffic to your site by exploiting my name and childhood. I like the House of Blues Ad  you have there next to my name. Yes, from ages 11-15 in the days of dial-up modems, BBS and IRC, before cell phones and websites, I pirated PC video games.  I also stole cigarettes from convenience stores when I was 13, but later realized smoking cigarettes was bad for my health and that stealing is stupid. Care to do an article on that?

Click to read more…

If you’re not excited about the new Hate Eternal album, Phoenix Amongst the Ashes, lick my calloused heel. Lick it with spicy mustard. I don’t even really know what the hell that last thing I wrote means, but, seriously, GET EXCITED BECAUSE IT’S SO GOOD.

I don’t have a good segue, but, knowing now, as you do, that this record rips, you should watch the below video, the first in a series of behind-the-scenes studio clips that the eternal haters over at Metal Injection are going to be running over the course of the next several weeks. Not only does it contain footage of the mighty Erik Rutan recording my favorite part of my favorite song on the album (that would be “Haunting Abound”), but it demonstrates that the atmosphere in the studio during the making of a Hate Eternal is really, really not what you’d expect based on the resulting music. I mean I would have guessed  that these guys all sit in complete silence on beds of nails in a windowless room with walls made of stone and lit only by candles resting atop human skulls, but, surprisingly, this is not actually the case.

Phoenix Amongst the Ashes comes out May 10 on Metal Blade. Seriously, my heel is now dipped in spicy mustard and awaiting licks from any who doubt its epic epicness.

-AR

I was mindlessly channel surfing, as you do at the end of a long day, when I saw a flash of blond hair that could only be Sebastian Bach. Naturally, I had to go back to see if it was true. Lo and behold, I was right. Now, I don’t know what’s sadder; that I recognized him in a split second or that he was on… GILMORE GIRLS. Yep, old Sebastian was part of some cool indie band on the show, and he was singing, uh, “Holla Back Girl.” My reaction was threefold; 1) Why did no one tell me this existed? 2) What the fuck is he doing?! 3) Man, how good was old Skid Row?

Though I do enjoy Slave to the Grind as the heavier follow-up, 1989’s Skid Row is, in my humble opinion, the best Skid Row release. For a first album, just look at all the amazing songs that came out of it.

Click to read more…

It’s here! Graviton, the band guitarist Sacha Dunable (also of MS faves Intronaut) named because of an MS commenter, will release their full-length debut album Massless via Translation Loss on April 26th, but this being MetalSucks (toot toot!) we’ve got the whole thing for you here two weeks early. The album is as psychy, droney and proggy as you’d expect a band featuring three members of National Sunday Law (one of whom is also in Intronaut) to be, but a whole lot more mellow… which is to say it rules.

In case you’re wondering what on earth (or elsewhere) a Graviton is and why this album has been named Massless, look no further than the first sentence of the graviton (the thing, not the band) Wikipedia entry:

In physics, the graviton is a hypothetical elementary particle that mediates the force of gravitation in the framework of quantum field theory. If it exists, the graviton must be massless (because the gravitational force has unlimited range) and must have a spin of 2.

Well, gee… that might explain song titles such as “Hadron,” “Quarks,” “Photon,” and “Tachyon,” the latter of which I’d thought only existed on Star Trek.

Listen to Massless below. Tune into WCUR on the web tomorrow at 5:30 EDT to listen to an interview with Graviton’s Darin Tambascio.

[this streaming promotion has ended]

Congrats to readers Kenn Garza and Kirby Aquino; they each identified last week’s logo as belonging to the band Slechtvalk, and for their troubles, they each win a copy of Red Fang’s new album, , which is out today on Relapse. Congrats, fellas! Make sure you crank that shit when you play it, it really does just sound better when you’re pissing off the neighbors.

Which brings us to this week’s competition! Vince and I are actually taking another bidness trip next week, which means there will be no unreadable band logo (two other inhabitants of the MetalSucks Mansion will be running the site in our absence). That means that this week’s contest will actually end on 4/26! And to really make the extended deadline count, I’m giving away TEN CDs from the MetalSucks Mansion Archives! Who loves ya, baby?

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 one winner and announce his or her name on April 26.

This week’s logo was suggested to us by reader Andreas Kragh Jacobsen, and while I (obviously) know what it says, I still can’t believe that it says that. So, yeah, this is a hard one. Hey, I gotta make those ten CDs count, y’know?

-AR

It’s easy to see why youngins and metal noobz might think Skindred are 3rd-gen nu-metal drek, but despite what MS commenters will surely tell you following this post that couldn’t be further from the truth. Know your metal history, brah. Benji Webbe was doing this shit way before Durst ever stumbled into his first piece of nookie, and he still does it better than anyone. Plus, reggae = instant cred…. prove me wrong. Let’s ignore the identity of the other man singing in this song… yes, let’s just ignore that.

As Sergeant D would say (although about this band, I don’t know): Skindred = you’re moshing! Sarge, advance apologies if I just desecrated the piety of the mosh.

Warning comes from the new Skindred album Union Black, out April 25th.

-VN

Last month Heavy Devy unveiled the album art for Ghost, the soft, purdy, tongue-bath-from-a-tall-Canandian album in The Devin Townsend Project’s four-record cycle; now he’s unveiled the cover art for Deconstruction, its heavier-than-a-really-heavy-thing counterpart. It’s some real nutty shit, but that’s totally appropriate for the album, which is also completely fucking bonkers. Check it out below…

Both Ghost and Deconstruction come out June 20 on InsideOut Music. I don’t know why it’s taken us so long to gloat, but, yes, we’ve heard them, and, yes, you are going to need a mammoth box of tissues to clean up all the splooge.

-AR

This week sees new releases by Believer, Between the Buried and Me, Indian, Last Chance to Reason, Pentagram, Red Fang, Young Widows and more. MS new release expert Vic Vaughn takes a looksee at each after the jump!

Click to read more…

And you thought those Dio Chrismas cards were awesome.

A new company, Dark & Somber Greetings, is now apparently manufacturing black metal-themed greeting cards. That’s a terrific idea, and the execution (no BM joke intended) of said cards is also pretty righteous. For example:

Pretty funny stuff, right?

You can go here to check out more cards and even order some for your own. Mother’s Day is just around the corner, after all…

-AR

[via L.A. Weekly]

I was recently very surprised to learn that Believer are an amazing band, and not at all what you might expect them to sound like; they’ve been around since 1989, I know, but have just now made it onto my radar through their reunion and subsequent two Metal Blade releases. I made good on my promise of listening to their new album Transhuman last week, and I was so taken by it that I’ve since listened to it several times through… in a row! It’s worked its way onto my “favorite of 2011 so far” list, and I could definitely see it staying there all year. This album is worthy of the attention of just about any metal fan. It’s all over the map stylistically, but it’s got a unifying musical quality that ties it all together… its Believer-ness, if you will.

Transhuman comes out today; order a physical copy here or a digital copy here (only $7.99!). But first, jam these three tunes that’ve already been released so you know I’m not full of shit:

Believer “Mindsteps” by Metal Blade Records

Click to read more…

How would I like to die? I don’t know. It wouldn’t really matter so long as I thought I’d made a difference in the world.

– Peter Steele, 1962-2010

***

Peter Steele was 48 when he passed away on April 14, 2010. His instantly-recognizable baritone graced nine albums with his bands Type O Negative and Carnivore. As did his rusty, fuzzy bass tone, which seemed to represent the man himself: big, soulful, and unfiltered. And in his lyrics, the giant was revealed to be gentle, wounded but smirking, and a little paranoid. Best of all, these were sung to melodies and harmonies only rivaled in awesomeness by Gram Parsons, Jerry Cantrell, and freaking Paul McCartney. He was equally known for his humor and accessibility, the common rave being that Peter took pains to make people feel good. Or bad, like when trading brotherly zings with his bandmates on the commentary track for Type O’s video collection DVD, After Dark. In some measure, it felt empowering for us outsiders to have Peter Steele on our team. The world could keep its superhero fantasies. We have a real one.

So we miss the guy. His departure was sudden and, typical of Peter, ironically timed: A long period of turmoil had come to an end, say his friends and family, and a sober, focussed Peter was days away from a return from seclusion in Pennsylvania to his native New York. A late 2009 string of Type O concerts — which turned out to be his final shows — had marked the best Pete performances in years. Further, the band had just signed a new record deal with Napalm Records and booked a Staten Island rehearsal studio to undertake writing a new album. Nearby, an apartment had been found for Peter, also minutes from two of his bandmates’ homes. He was coming back; he was going to write songs to tell us where he’d been. His death seemed so cruel. It was hard to process.

A year has nearly passed, and we reached out to a few of Peter’s family, friends, and Type O Negative bandmates, who generously shared their thoughts, remembrances, and regrets. A massive round of applause for them, please, as it was an emotional task. In their speech, there often were just-perceptible sighs, shrugging intonations, and pauses to accomodate rushes of emotion. This has not been an easy 12 months for them. There was no shortage of topics either, from Peter’s flirtation with a law enforcement career to his legal peril, from his life as the 6’8″ baby brother to five sisters to his creative partnerships with three metal guys from Brooklyn, from the sophistication of his mind to the humility in his heart. With these words, we salute Peter Steele, we express our support to those devastated by the loss of a friend, brother, foil, confidant, co-worker, and co-goofer, and we share a community-wide hug for enduring negative year one.

***

Click to read more…

As is the case with a lot of their peers, I am always, always, always going to check out the new Def Leppard song/album/whatever, even if my expectations aren’t very high. But the truth is, even though I have really enjoyed a new Def Lep offering since 1999′s Euphoria, these dudes have done a much better job of keeping their eye on the ball than, say, Motley Crue. Fact of the matter is, The Nine Armed Beast from Britain will probably never write a song as good as “Love Bites” or “Pour Some Sugar on Me” or even “Let’s Get Rocked” again, but at least they’re not running around writing songs with the dudes from A Simple Plan, y’know?

So. Def Leppard’s new song is called “Undefeated,” and I guess it got played on the radio, which these days is just another way of saying it’s now on YouTube. The lyrics are, as usual, completely ridiculous (“Look in these eyes, these eyes don’t lie/ And they say that if you don’t blink, then you don’t die.” That makes about as much sense as the fact that a certain one-armed drummer once beat his wife.), but if you ever enjoyed vintage Def Lep, it’s hard for me to imagine that you won’t at least tap your foot along with this sucker.

Def Leppard’s new album is actually a live album with three new studio tracks tossed in an effort to get people who don’t care about a Def Leppard live recording to purchase the thing anyway. It’s called Mirrorball and it will be out on Mercury, uh… well, I can’t find a release date, but sometime soon I imagine.

-AR

Thanks to Nikki Fixx for the tip!

It’s been almost a month since Devin Townsend spilled the beans that he was doing a summer tour with Children of Bodom — and now that tour has finally and officially been announced. That’s already a super-sexy package, but Obscura and Septicflesh are on the bill, too, which makes these shows downright unmissable.

And there’s really not much else to say, is there? It’s almost impossible for me to believe that any metal fan doesn’t love at least 75% of this bill.

Here are dates…

Click to read more…

Last week we told you about the MetalSucks Fan Pack, our awesome new limited edition package (created in association with RED Distribution) that comes with a CD featuring twenty killer tracks (including brand new music by Believer and Last Chance to Reason in addition to tracks by Kvelertak, Trap Them, Believer, Napalm Death, TesseracT, Thomas Giles, Deicide, and a bunch more) plus a super-stylish t-shirt designed by our friend Rodney Githens from Vertebrae 33… and hey, guess what? IT’S OUT TODAY! You can pick one up exclusively at any f.y.e. store, which are all listed via the nifty store-finder here. AND THEY’RE JUST TEN BUCKS!!! Or seven bucks with this coupon!  We’re practically giving this sucker away!!!

And here’s another incentive to buy this thing ASAP: MetalSucks is registered as the artist with SoundScan, which means if it charts, METALSUCKS WILL BE ON THE BILLBOARD CHARTS. Estimates/past sales tell us we need to move about 400 units to make it on the Billboard Heatseekers chart for new or developing acts. If you’re like us and you think it would be awesome/hilarious/a giant middle finger to The Man to see MetalSucks make it onto the charts, please please please do us a massive solid and go buy a MetalSucks Fan Pack this week.

So go here to get a complete track list of all the bands on the comp, and to use the nifty store-finder to locate the f.y.e. nearest to you. And don’t forget that you can also enter to win this custom guitar!

-Axl & Vince

I have never listened to Born Again, the first and only Black Sabbath album featuring Ian Gillan. Nothing against Gillan or Sabbath, there’s just only so much time in my day and there are/were other Sabbath albums higher up on the list, ya know? I was about to suggest that someone at Decibel do up one of those “Justify Your Shitty Taste” columns that’ve got us all so hot and bothered, until I searched Decibel’s site (MetalSucks readers: take note) and discovered that Greg Moffitt wrote up Born Again just last week! Said post might’ve inspired MS reader Bonytown to write in to us about the album, but we can only guess.

Listening to the two Born Again songs that Bonytown sent in isn’t really making me reconsider my decision to skip this “classic,” but watching the videos is another story entirely. They’re completely ridiculous in that way that only ’80s heavy metal videos (and modern White Wizzard videos) can be; simultaneously cheesy and completely serious with an entirely non-sensical plot (at least WW have Black Sabbath beat there), and absolute, utter hilarity. Like this video for “Trashed;” what the fuck did I just watch? And what in the fuckity fuck is that one clip of a Formula 1 race car wreck doing at the 1:17 mark???

“Zero the Hour” isn’t any better. There’s some chickens… and some rats… and some live footage of the band… and some of the same wonky zombies from the first clip… and ketchup??? ok, I give up:

Click to read more…

So demandeth MS band-suggester Dan Wolfson, who first alerted us to Wormed back in August of last year. Back then I was inclined to agree with Dan that Wormed are “the most brutal and fucked up band ever,” and listening to Wormed now for the first time since then, I’m once again on board the Wormed train. Dan sent in the above track, “Tunnel of Ions.” Brutal and fucked up indeed.

-VN

First The Number of the Blog goes all “we’re gonna make a ‘Best of the 21st Century’ list just like MetalSucks,” and we’re all “What the fuck dudes?” Now they’re all “we’re gonna make a compilation of our favorite unsigned bands and give it away for free just like MetalSucks,” and we’re all… come on dudes, really???

But just like last time, we’re actually like “We kid, we kid… that rocks!” ’cause it does. Just look at the tracklisting they’ve compiled for The Sampler of the Blog Volume 1, which they’ll release this coming Friday. I mean, we’ve written about 10 of the 18 featured artists, so it must be good!

1 – Cormorant – ‘Scavengers Feast’
2 – Returning We Hear The Larks – ‘Uprising’
3 – Enditol – ‘Monoculture’
4 – Tre Watson – ‘Spack Jarrow’ (previously unreleased)
5 – Iron Thrones – ‘Against The Grain’
6 – Robots Pulling Levers – ‘Sumati II’ (previously unreleased) (featuring George Richman of Hypnorock)
7 – A Walk With The Wicked – ‘Architects Of Sadism’
8 – Cloudkicker – ‘We’re Goin’ In. We’re Going Down.’
9 – Shades Of Devastation – ‘Art Of Agony’ (previously unreleased)
10 – Amogh Symphony – ‘Osiris 1′
11 – Giant Of The Mountain – ‘Awakening’ (previously unreleased)
12 – Keith Merrow – ‘Heart Of The Sea Nymph’ (featuring Jeff Loomis of Nevermore)
13 – Shaidar Logoth – ‘Mashiara Shai’tan’
14 – I’ll Eat Your Face – ‘Dr. Pancake’s Luxurious Ratskin Housecoat’
15 – Soul Cycle – ‘Rising Defiant’
16 – Cut Your Teeth – ‘T.W.H.W.Y.T.B.’
17 – Assimilated Mind Phase – ‘Breeding Insanity 2.0′ (previously unreleased remix)
18 – Brent A. Petrie – ‘Collapse/Conquer’ (previously unreleased)

As for the 8 of the artists we haven’t listened to, well, color me curious ’cause that GroverXIII’s got pretty good taste in metal. I mean, he reads this site, so he must, right?

-VN