Jamey Jasta has a solo album, simply entitled Jasta (I wish it were called Jasta! for some reason but okay), out on July 26 via eOne, I guess because he’s getting restless on account of the fact that it’s been five minutes since he released anything with Hatebreed, Kingdom of Sorrow, or Icepick, or started a clothing line, or a record label, or a festival tour, or hosted a television show, or pulled a lttle girl from burning wreckage while simultaneously delivering a brood of puppies and curing herpes. (I’m saying the dude keeps busy.) And now there’s a track from that album, “Mourn the Illusion,” streaming here.

It’s definitely a catchy song and I have a ton of respect for Jasta. Thing is, Jasta said he’s doing a solo album because “these are all songs that… didn’t really fit with Hatebreed or Kingdom of Sorrow. Plus, those recipes are so successful that I wouldn’t want to change it or switch it up.” And I’m really not convinced that this couldn’t, or shouldn’t, have been a Hatebreed song.

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Nnnnnnooooo, I’m just kidding, of course. They did, however, write a song called “Nevermore,” which is now streaming at The Deciblog.

I’m dying to hear what you folks think, too. Season of Mist sent out a digital promo of the new Morbid Angel album, llud Divinum Insanus, last week, and while it was kinda hard to listen to given that the label inserted the sounds of an old telephone ringing every however many seconds (this is meant to prevent piracy, but I think it mostly prevents music writers from doing their jobs), I can tell you that, generally speaking, I was not bowled over. Maybe that’s because anticipation for this record has been so high that it could never live up to expectations; maybe it’s ’cause it’s already been such a strong year for death metal that, positioned amongst albums like Hate Eternal’s Phoenix Amongst the Ashes and The Black Dahlia Murder’s Ritual, Ilud was always going to pale in comparison; or maybe it’s just ’cause it’s been sixteen years since Domination, and shit happens. I’ll have to listen more when I have the ring-less version to really articulate why the album just wasn’t gelling for me.

In any case, headbang here, then sound off in the comments section below. Illud Divinum Insanus, comes out June 7 on Season of Mist.

-AR

MetalSucks recently polled its staff to determine who are The Top 25 Modern Metal Guitarists, and after an incredible amount of arguing, name calling, and physical violence, we have finalized that list! The only requirements to be eligible for the list were that the musician in question had to a) play metal (duh), b) play guitar (double-duh), and c) have recorded something in the past five years. Today we continue our countdown with Periphery’s Misha Mansoor…

I feel like telling the readers of MetalSucks why Misha Mansoor is worthy of this list is a little like telling a cardiologist why the heart is an essential organ, but I’m gonna try and do it anyway.

In a relatively short amount of time, Mansoor has become an icon in the metal scene, and if he’s not higher on this list for whatever semi-arbitrary reason, it doesn’t change the fact that he is arguably the musician who currently best personifies the phrase “modern metal.” This assertion is based on the following inarguable facts:

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Axl and I went to Rammstein last Thursday at the Meadowlands Arena (now “Izod Center”) in New Jersey, a surprisingly bearable 45-minute public transit ride from Manhattan. Axl had seen Rammstein when they played Madison Square Garden last fall; me, I was a Rammstein noob. I had an inkling of what was in store, but nothing could possibly have prepared me for the spectacle that is a Rammstein show.

So, I think I can speak for Axl too when I present to you my thoughts on the show:

FIRE!

FIRE! (starts at 1:10… then be patient):

After the jump, guess what? More FIRE!

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Last December Dave Mustaine shocked anyone who was under the impression that he had relevant taste in modern metal by not only endorsing, but announcing his own collaboration with, DeuxMonkey, former Anthrax guitarist Dan Spitz’s horrendous new project.

And now we have good news, bad news, really bad news, and really, really bad news concerning these events:

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As you are no doubt aware, metal is constantly being scapegoated for violent acts, be it attempted suicides, high school shootings, college shootings, or political assassinations. And soon we will no doubt be able to add another heinous crime to that list — namely terrorism.

See, with Osama bin Laden out of the way, one of the big questions on everyone’s mind is: “Who’s gonna step up and be the new leader of Al-Qaeda?” And one of the leading candidates is Adam Gadahn, né Adam Pearlstein (yep, another guy giving Jews a good name!), an American currently living in Pakistan who not only used to write for the death metal zine Xenocide, but also had his one one-man metal band, Aphasia. After converting to Islam at age seventeen and eventually fleeing the country after he assaulted the head of his mosque, Haitham Bundakji, he went to Pakistan, and was apparently intimately involved with the creation of bin Laden’s terror videos.

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WHAT AN EMBARRASSMENT OF RICHES!

As if a new Revocation song wasn’t enough to make your day, our Big Lebroski’s over at Metal Injection are now streaming “Heimvegen,” the latest unpronounceable song from Enslaved, the band which features Ivar Bjørnson, a.k.a. the twenty-second top modern metal guitarist. It’s catchy and heavy and beautiful and epic and dreamy all at once — in other words, it’s an Enslaved song. Check it out here.

“Heimvegen” will appear on Enslaved’s The Sleeping Gods EP, which Scion A/V will release for *free* download sometime in the not-too-distant future. Okay now Enslaved are just going out of their way to piss off tr00 kvltists, right?

-AR

On Friday, Vince rightfully splooged all over this in-the-studio video of Revocation recording their new album, Chaos of Forms (metal as fuck cover art above); now I need to send a MetalSucks Mansion Monkey out to go buy twelve more boxes of tissues, because the band is streaming a new song, “Cradle Robber,” on their official Facebook page.

Needless to say, the song is awesome. That guitar solo is just… orgasmic. So. Fucking. Good. I wish I had the rest of the album already, because I’m gonna get kinda bored of this song after I’ve listened to it 3,984,503 times.

Actually, I may not.

ANYWAY, headbang here. You can pre-order Chaos of Forms here. Relapse will release it on August 16, which is too fucking far away.

And don’t forget that Revocation will appear on an MS-sponsored tour with Forbidden, White Wizzard and Havok this Spring; get dates here.

-AR

Metal drummers put off by our current Top 25 Modern Metal Guitarists countdown, don’t be distraught; today we’ve got something just for you.

Just in time for the MS-sponsored 2011 version of Summer Slaughter, our hip-bro-potami over at Sick Drummer [via Got-Djent.com] have unveiled some multi-angle drum-cam footage from last year’s festival that will either inspire young metal drummers to better their craft through endless practice or immediately discourage them from ever picking up their sticks again. Don’t be discouraged, though; Navene Koperweis and Sam Applebaum are two of the best in the biz and got to where they are through years of hard work. Just because I can’t throw a knuckleball like R.A. Dickey doesn’t mean I’m gonna quit trying. OK, so maybe it does.

The clips feature a couple of songs each of Animals as Leaders’ and Veil of Maya’s sets. Watch AAL’s Koperweis below, and Veil of Maya’s Sam Applebaum after the jump.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDn7TnBqXhE

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Well, this news is a real boner-killer.

Last week we got all excited because the above photo of Dave Grohl in the studio with Mastodon appeared online, and, of course, all of our minds went right to “DAVE GROHL IS GONNA MAKE AN APPEARANCE ON THE NEW MASTODON ALBUM!”

Alas, it’s not to be, says Rocksound.tv, who got official word from Camp Mastodon that “the Foo Fighters frontman popped into the studio to say hello – and not to record on the new album.”

So that blows.

Bitch and moan that everything doesn’t go exactly the way we want it to with us in the comments section.

-AR

[via The PRP]

The very much NSFW Danzig video (which the man himself apparently co-directed), “Ju Ju Bone,” features enough silicone to fashion a new spatula for Devin Townsend. Somehow while watching it I got distracted and was not actually paying attention to the lyrics of the song, so I don’t know if fake boobs are somehow thematically relevant to its content, or if Danzig is really just plum out of ways to get attention. Either way, though, I promise you that if you are twelve years old, have never before seen a breast that wasn’t about to feed you, and don’t know how to use the internet, this video will supply you with an erection.

“Ju Ju Bone” on Danzig’s latest, Deth Red Sabaoth, which is out now.

-AR

In an apparent effort to weed out his most King of Comedy-fucknuts fan (Hey, it’s actually not me!), Devin Townsend is selling his old spatula on eBay.

As of this writing, bidding on this most prized of kitchen utensils is up to a hundred bucks. That’s a hundred bucks for a used, burned spatula. About ninety-five dollars more than anyone would ever pay for a new spatula. Just because Devin Townsend, like, touched it.

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So in October, Behemoth will kick off their first tour since Nergal was diagnosed with, a subsequently successfully completed treatment for, leukemia (read Anso DF’s incredible interview with the singer/guitarist — his first since his diagnosis — here). But as it turns out, those performances will not be Nergal’s very first time back on stage — ’cause that event has this past Friday night, when he did a guest spot with a band I’m not familiar with, Fields of the Nephilim, in Katowice, Poland (video above). Which is obviously GREAT FUCKING NEWS.

Here’s what the man himself had to say about his first time back in front of a crowd:

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Sixx A.M.’s new album This is Gonna Hurt is on track to sell about a billion copies, in today’s relative terms, in its first week of release. Better yet, the album is actually good; like it’s predecessor The Heroin Diaries, the new album is full of big hard rock riffs that don’t evoke Theory of a Nickelsuck mook, catchy hooks throughout and James Michael’s clear, strong tenor. In short: good songs. Sixx has been a master of good songwriting throughout his 30-year career.

What, then, prevents Nikki Sixx from writing new albums this good for his day job with Motley Crue? Does anyone actually believe that perennial GN’R optimist / ex-Beautiful Cratures axeman DJ Ashba is the difference-maker? I’ll leave you to ponder that as you listen to “Lies of the Beautiful People” above.

This is Gonna Hurt is available on CD for $10 and MP3 for just $8 at Amazon.

-VN

Do I seriously need to write an intro? The headline just told you what this article is gonna be about, right? If any of you are thinking this might this piece might contain information about who’s producing the new Megadeth album or whatever, off yourself.

So. Here is the album art for Unearth’s latest, Darkness in the Light, which now has a July 4 European release date via Metal Blade — which, presumably, means the album will be out sometime around then here in the States, too. I don’t love this album art but I don’t hate it, and now that I think about it, I don’t know that I’ve ever out and out loved an Unearth album cover. But that doesn’t matter, because the music contained on the album is usually very good.

And here’s the album art for Job for a Cowboy’s new EP, Gloom, which will also come out on Metal Blade, albeit on the less-patriotic date of June 7. I really like this art, although I’m a little sad to see that Demonic Antelope Skull dude seems to have been the victim of some sort of uprising. Although he’s usually portrayed as a slimey politician or a slimey king or whatever slimey thing this is, so maybe that’s a good thing. But the album is called Gloom, so maybe it’s bad! I dunno, I dunno, I gotta think about it some more.

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Just last week we premiered a new episode of Cooking Contaminated with Deceased’s King Fowley (pepperoni dip and baked pretzels, yum!), so it’s only fitting that today we get two brand new songs from their forthcoming record Surreal Overdose. Fowley told CC host Eli Shaika that this is the first record since 2000′s Supernatural Addiction on which he plays drums in addition to doing all the vocals, which is something extra to be excited about if new Deceased music alone isn’t enough for you

Stream the two new tracks below; they get me pretty dern excited for the new album, especially the rip and gallop of “The Traumatic.” Surreal Overdose comes out on May 13th via Shrieks From The Hearse Records.

-VN

Happy Monday. Only five days to go until the weekend!

Yeah, it sucks — I mean I actually like my job, but it probably sucks for you — but hopefully this will relieve your stress: there are clips from each and every song on Ritual, the new album from The Black Dahlia Murder, streaming here, and clips from each and every song on This is Where it Ends, the new album from All Shall Perish, in the video below. Hey, a couple of minutes of new music from these bands is better than nothing, y’know?

Ritual is really, really incredible, and I wish you guys could hear it all right now. Highlights from these clips include the intro to the opening track, “A Shrine to Madness,” and the oh-so-catchy riff from “Malenchantments of the Necrosphere,” which Vince has already proclaimed to be his favorite song on the album. It comes out June 21 on Metal Blade.

As for This is Where it Ends, we haven’t heard it yet save for a couple of songs, so at this point you guys basically have as much information as we do with which to make premature judgments. That being said, if your premature judgment isn’t “This album is gonna fuck my face off,” I don’t really understand you. I mean, this shit sounds crazy promising, doesn’t it? Alas, it’s a little further away than Ritual — it coms out July 26 on Nuclear Blast.

Now seems like a good time to remind you that The Black Dahlia Murder will spend their summer headlining the MetalSucks-sponsored Summer Slaughter tour, which will also feature Whitechapel, Darkest Hour, Dying Fetus, Six Feet Under, Oceano, Fleshgod Apocalypse, As Blood Runs Black, Powerglove, and Within the Ruins. You can get dates here.

Meanwhile, All Shall Perish will spend their summer on the not-MetalSucks-sponsored-but-still-pretty-cool Rockstar Mayhem Festival, along with Megadeth, Machine Head, In Flames, Trivium, Unearth, Suicide Silence, Kingdom of Sorrow, Red Fang, and some shitty nu-metal bands you don’t have to worry about. You can get dates for that trek here.

-AR

So we’re now five axe slingers deep into out list of The Top 25 Modern Metal Guitarists. We predicted that the list would get a lot of you angry, and, no shock, it has. Funny thing is, reading the comments, as of yet not one of you has correctly predicted which guitar player is gonna be #1. So, just lettin’ you know… you may be even angrier in the coming weeks, or maybe you’ll be less angry, but so far, it seems like you guys just do not see it comin’.

While you chew on that, here’s some other fun things we did this week:

• We premiered new music from Hate Eternal, Arch Enemy, and Nader Sadek.
• We enjoyed a new episode of “Cooking Contaminated,” this one featuring King Fowley of Deceased.
• We checked out the latest releases from Benighted and Zubrowska.
• We wondered if Metallica and friends have gone too far in their quest for the Big Fortune.
• We checked out some *real* hardcore.
• We weighed Donald Trump’s claim that President Obama was the first drummer for Overkill.
• We wondered why talent can’t be passed down via genetics.
• We weighed, compared and contrasted multiple metal concerts showcasing female-fronted bands.
• We prayed for Kurt Cobain to rise from his grave and off Miley Cyrus.
• We wondered whether or not Dave Grohl is gonna be on the new Mastodon album.

And so, in conclusion… I am going to get a slice of pizza now.

See ya next week.

-AR

MetalSucks recently polled its staff to determine who are The Top 25 Modern Metal Guitarists, and after an incredible amount of arguing, name calling, and physical violence, we have finalized that list! The only requirements to be eligible for the list were that the musician in question had to a) play metal (duh), b) play guitar (double-duh), and c) have recorded something in the past five years. Today we continue our countdown with Testament’s Alex Skolnick…

If there’s one dude that has fused jazz and metal together by way of guitar better than Alex Sknolnick, I don’t think I’ve heard him yet. It probably doesn’t hurt that Skolnick studied under Joe Satriani. But when the then fifteen year old Alex Skolnick joined Legacy, the band that would go on to become Testament, he couldn’t have possibly imagined the kind of guitar icon he would become as one of thrash’s signature soloists, a touring part of Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s annual arena sell-out showcase, and his own acoustic jazz-metal hybrid band, The Alex Skolnick Trio.

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Don’t you love classic Van Halen? It’s amazing how that band’s music can just save your day. It’s been my go-to cure for post-American Idol misery; it’s Listerine for the ear, and a reminder of what true excellence sounds like. It’s Prozac for PISD (Post Idol Stress Disorder) and a reset button on any mood soured by three phony-ass judges slinging horseshit like stableboys late for a date. See, David Lee Roth and Eddie Van Halen can drown out even the echoes of judge Jennifer Lopez’s barbed whine as she pays lip service to “finding your voice” — yeah like she’s done with her wack new single about ballin’ up in da club, the dick-biting hack — and her more-than-occasional retorts to fellow judge Randy Jackson. (I don’t get that. She already had her turn, so like shut it, harpee!).

While we’re talking VH, can we all agree to end this silly farce already with the new bass player? I don’t give a fuck who he is; whether he’s Ed’s high school-aged son or fucking Jesus Christ, it is a side issue; Michael Anthony is Van Halen. His and Ed’s backing vocals absolutely jam on those records (like here), each of which is way better than what Idol judges can’t stop calling true creativity and great artistry. Those duo vox comprise, like, 35% of the band’s appeal, so the Van Halens should put that shit back together. We, the fans, declare amnesty; we want only what is right. Plus, if the young Van Halen is as brilliant as Ed thinks, he will earn his own chances. (Same goes for these “beautiful, perfect” Idol singers.) Van Halen just is not Wolfgang’s band. It’s Michael Anthony’s, the brothers’, and Dave’s. Period. Get Michael and pay him. And Ted Templeman too. That would counteract any and all effects of American Idol, cancerous shitpile of ear-AIDS.

Okay thanks for sticking around for paragraph #3, by which point I think we’ve established that thinking about/listening to the music of Van Halen is serving as a defense mechanism to prevent my re-living the mind-blowingly stupid, untrue nonsense spewed this week by Steven Tyler (the high preist of hooey), ‘Fer-‘Pez (SYFF), Randy Jackson (how much does it cost Idol to lease your honesty, dog?), guest fucktard Sheryl Crow (want a salt lick, girl?), and each blubbering, fam’ly-lovin’, Bin Laden-hatin’ individualist genius contestant who these days would happily agree to be shat on in exchange for the Idol crown. And because of the show’s near-total resistance to real, useful critique by “your Idol judges,” I’m counteracting this you’re-all-winners jive with a nudge upwards on my assholo-stat. So here comes your stabbiest Idol Remains shitcard ever! We measure in Danzigs ‘round here!

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