The most important thing you need to know about an Insane Clown Posse show is that the band (can we even call them a band?) have an entire crew on tour with them — maybe 3 or 4 dudes — whose sole job it is to make sure Shaggy 2 Dope and Violent Jay have several 2 liter bottles of Faygo on stage within arm’s reach at all times. These guys — let’s call them Faygo Stocker Dudes — are essentially the equivalent of guitar and drum techs; with the absence of any real instruments, Faygo essentially IS the instrument, the crucial element of an ICP show. At pre-determined climactic moments, the Faygo Stocker Dudes themselves join in with the soda-spraying madness and drench the audience in diet root beer along with ICP.

That gigantic semi trailer parked outside the venue? No instruments, no stage props, no scrims… JUST FAYGO. Thousands of 2-liter bottles of the stuff. All diet root beer, natch.

Oh, and every wall and speaker cabinet in the entire venue was wrapped in soda-repelling plastic.

Does that set the stage for what I witnessed last Friday in NYC?

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MetalSucks tipsters are the bestest in the whole world. Take for example Fredrik Staavi Ekern who just emailed to let me know that Benea Reach have two brand new demo tracks streaming on their SignMeTo page. Why SignMeTo as opposed to Soundcloud, Facebook, their official website or even MySpace? Beats me… but let’s stop asking questions and start listening, ’cause new Benea Reach is always cause for excitement.

The new stuff seems more atmospheric / post-metally and less djenty than their older material. This is a good thing; in the three years since Alleviat came out in 2008 the market has been flooded with a glut of similar copycat bands from which Benea Reach need to separate themselves. Hopefully we’ll get a new album at some point this year.

-VN

ROTFLOL at the name “AllStars Tour.” HAHAHAHAA hahahaha! I mean, wow. As Metal Insider‘s Zach Shaw states, “I’d look at this tour as more of a farm league tour. It’s not like the majority of the tour is ready to be called up to the majors just yet…” Baaahahaha

Whew. Anyway.

Exactly one band on this tour is worth seeing (After the Burial, who oughtta inspire immediate ball-hair growth amongst the audience’s 12-year old boys). In the contest of any ordinary tour I wouldn’t be that interested in Born of Osiris, but surrounded by such suckitude I guess I’ll give them a mulligan here for “bands worth seeing.” I know Axl would heartily endorse Iwrestledabearonce (me, not so much, but we can still be friends), so let’s just say that together Born of Osiris + IWABO = 1 band worth seeing. But the rest of this lineup? Holy dick on a cake, I wouldn’t piss on this lineup if it was on fire. On the bright side, at least they’re all in one place; none of these bands will be polluting otherwise solid lineups between the dates of July 22nd and August 22nd.

-VN

We’ve been raving about Hate Eternal’s Phoenix Amongst the Ashes for some time now, and as of this coming Tuesday, you can finally own the wooly mammoth of an album for yourself. But if waiting another four days feels like waiting an eternity — and with a record this good, it ought to — well, fret not! Your friends Axl and Vince worked it out nice, so you can hear the album right now. And you MUST hear this album RIGHT NOW. It is a goddamn motherfucking masterpiece of death metal, and will surely end up on every sensible year-end list. But be forewarned, dear readers: this album will crush your skull into dust.

Like we said, Phoenix Amongst the Ashes comes out this Tuesday, May 9, on Metal Blade. You still have time to pre-order it, though! Choose from a variety of physical packages here, or order a digital download from iTunes here.

And if you haven’t done so already, you should definitely check out this interview that MetalSucks’ own Axl Rosenberg and Anso DF conducted with the mighty Erik Rutan. He had all kinds of fascinating things to say about this record’s creation!

Now enjoy Phoenix Amongst the Ashes…

[Sorry, this stream is no longer available!]

Our friends at The Deciblog are killing it today. I could do two separate posts pointing you towards each of the terrific stories they ran just this morning, but I’m a jerk, so I’m just gonna lump ‘em both together:

• Did you know that legendary pretty boy Danny Lilker has a black metal band now? Because he felt that being a current or former member of Brutal Truth, Nuclear Assault, Anthrax, and S.O.D. wasn’t enough to cement his place in the annals of metal history, I guess. Either that, or he just wanted to try something new. In any case, the band is called Nokturnal Hellstorm, and The Deciblog is streaming a new track from the band, “Naan Kadavul,” here. It doesn’t do that much for me but maybe you’ll like it better. They also have an interview with Lilker in which he explains the history of Nokturnal Hellstorm, possibilities for the band’s debut full-length, and, oh yeah, the new Brutal Truth album. Check that shit out.
• The Deciblog also posted footage of a record store in Berkley, Rasputin Music, enjoying a lively in-store performance from Trash Talk (below). And, uh… wow. That ain’t like no in-store performance I’ve ever seen. It doesn’t look like an inventory was actually damaged in the mayhem, but I do have to wonder how many potential customers were scared away as a result of walking in and seeing dudes moshing/figuring out ways to stage dive despite the lack of a stage. I just can’t imagine, for example, Mama Rosenberg putting up with that shit when all she wanted was a copy of the new George Winston album or whatever, y’know?

-AR

The legendary Accept and also-legendary Overkill played the Best Buy Theater right here in New York City last month, and our homegirl/photographic wizard Alyssa Lorenzon was there to snap pictures, so that you, our beloved readers, could live vicariously through the magic of photography. And in case that epically epic photo of Wolf Hoffmann and Herman Frank didn’t give it away, Alyssa fucking killed it dead, as always. Check out her incredible pics after the jump!

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As regular readers are aware, I’m usually dead-set against cover albums, which tend to feature meaningless, generally inferior versions of great songs the listener already owns in their original, classic forms.

But I’m willing to give Dying Fetus the benefit of the doubt that if they’ve made a covers album, it’s worth listening to. They’ve earned that much. Why? BECAUSE THEY’RE DYING FUCKING FETUS, that’s why. Duh.

So. In celebration of both their twentieth anniversary and their stint on the year’s edition of the MetalSucks-sponsored Summer Slaughter tour, this July the  band will release History Repeats…, which will not only feature the band re-imaging tracks from some of death n’ grinds finest (Napalm Death, Cannibal Corpse, Bolt Thrower, etc.), but will also feature “Rohypnol,” a brand new song. You might know rohypnol as “roofies,” or “the date rape drug.” So this tune is probably a charming power ballad in the vein of Bon Jovi’s “Bed of Roses.”

History Repeats… comes out July 19 on Relapse, and is limited to 5,000 copies. You can get it a f.y.e. stores, or just pre-order it directly from Relapse.

The full track list for this bad mother is after the jump, along with those Summer Slaughter dates. Other bands on the bill are The Black Dahlia Murder, Whitechapel, Darkest Hour, Six Feet Under, Oceano, Fleshgod Apocalypse, As Blood Runs Black, Powerglove, and Within the Ruins.

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Alright, fuckers, who’s ready for some new Arch Enemy? It’s been nearly four years since the band’s last release, but in just a few weeks, Arch Enemy will unleash their Khaos Legions. We think it may very well be the legendary melodeath outfit’s finest hour since 2001′s Wages of Sin. And if you don’t believe us, well, you absolutely must listen to this new track we have for ya, “Bloodstained Cross.” It’s basically everything you’d ever want from an Arch Enemy song, or any melodic death metal song, for that matter — equal parts brutal, mammoth, and stuck-in-your-head-for-the-next-week catchy.

Century Media will release Khaos Legions on May 30 in Europe and June 7 in North America. You can pre-order it here in a variety of packages. And to sweeten the deal, all North American pre-orders will receive an autographed Arch Enemy photo, a code for a free bonus download of a live recording of “Dark Insanity” from last year’s Metal Female Voices (code will be sent via email when the album is released), and be entered to win weekly prizes from Altec Lansing’s line of award-winning audio products. So get on that shit!

In a morning quadruple-shot of Revocation espresso, today we have not one but FOUR things to get excited about, all courtesy of Episode 1 of Revocation’s in-studio video report.

1. A release date; Chaos in Forms will come out on August 16th. Jeez, we gotta wait three more months?
2. An album cover; it’s a mini embedded in the video, but I took a screen cap of it which you can view here. It’s got skulls and fire and stuff. (side note: do Revocation have one of the sickest logos in metal or what?)
3. NEW MUSIC! We get a good 15 seconds of a new song at the beginning and a good 30 seconds of another new song at the end of this video. The second bit gets my panties particularly wet; Dave Davidson solo, nom nom nom! I’m normally not one to get excited about song samples, but this is probably my most anticipated record of 2011.
4. A bunch of entertaining footage of the guys recording Chaos in Forms in between said clips of new music. Not shown: the gallons of booze used as inspiration.

It’s interesting that with three months to go ’til record release these videos give the illusion the recording process is happening now, but when we saw the guys in NYC last December they told us everything was all wrapped up already, meaning this thing’s been in the can for nearly half a year. Also interesting is that second guitarist Dan Gargiulo — who joined the band as a “touring guitarist” for the MS-sponsored Metal As Art Tour in January of 2010 — recorded his guitar parts on this record, which is rad, ’cause I love that dude.

Stoked. Revocation will appear on an MS-sponsored tour with Forbidden, White Wizzard and Havok this Spring; get dates here.

-VN

Yesterday Sepultura released a lo-res version of Eric Sayers’ album cover for their forthcoming Kairos, and I was hoping that by now a better version would be available. I was also hoping that by now Grace Perry would have come to her senses and proposed to me, though, so I guess you can shit in one hand and blah blah blah. In any case, here it is… it definitely has a more “old school” vibe than anything the band has released in awhile.

Kairos comes out July 12 in North America and June 24 in Europe via Nuclear Blast.

-AR

Last month Soundgarden announced the first set of dates for their forthcoming North American reunion tour; now they’ve released their full itinerary, and, in case my headline somehow failed to convey this, support acts, too.

Of course, cynical bastard that I am, my immediate concern is that if Chris Cornell’s voice is in poopy shape, these support acts could pretty much end up overshadowing what’s supposed to be one of the biggest reunions in years. Then again, Mastodon’s vocals don’t always sound so good live, either, so maybe it won’t matter. In any case, having this caliber of bands as the opening acts is a smart move on Soundgarden’s part — it could definitely bring in younger fans who are too young to remember SG from the their heyday, and it will definitely incentivize skeptical pricks like me into getting their ass to a tour stop.

Here’s the full tour schedule, including info on which bands are playing which sections of the tour, courtesy Metal Underground:

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Job for a Cowboy are killing it lately. I’ve heard nothing but good things about their performances as part of their current MetalSucks-sponsored tour with Between the Buried and Me and The Ocean, and the two songs we’ve heard from their forthcoming EP, Gloom, both suggest that all the behind-the-scenes folks who have told me that mini-album is the best thing JFAC have ever made aren’t lying. Simply put: shit rocks.

One of those songs, “Misery Reformatory,” has been available on Amazon for nearly a month now, but in case you’re seriously so cheap/broke/whatever that you won’t pay a dollar for this excellent song, the bad is now streaming it online. Check it out below. That guitar solo RIPS, doesn’t it?

The band has just announced a June 7 release date for Gloom, via Metal Blade, natch. I’m seriously stoked to hear the rest of this EP. While we wait, be sure to check out some live footage of another new song, “Signature of Salvation,” which also sounds really promising.

And after the jump, get remaining dates for the aforementioned BTBAM/JFAC/The Ocean tour.

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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 Enslaved’s Ivar Bjørnson…

Enslaved arrive at our feet as a package deal: woozy synths and atmospherics; Pink Floyd-ian touches; Grutle Kjellson’s harsh, phlegmy scream; and the back in forth between prog-flecked black metal and black metal-flecked prog. But considering the band’s individual achievements, none come off better than Ivar Bjørnson, founding axeman. Their metamorphosis into what they are today — a truly great metal band you could at best arguably call “black metal” — would have been impossible without him. The bold steps between Frost — their debut full length — and their latest — the dense masterpiece Axioma Ethica Odini – are like listening to someone grow up, taking in more music and life experience. Along the way Enslaved always flourished, and there isn’t a band in black metal with more interesting, bizarre, and pleasing guitar work than them. Ivar was at the helm for that the whole time.

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Last week we offered up two copies of Zombi’s new album Escape Velocity. A lot of folks entered, which makes me happy because I greatly enjoy seeing other people enjoy good music. On the other hand last week’s photo, right, was like a giant meatball ripe for the taking.

• Eric: “And the grammy for best metal performance goes too…..”
• Zach: “Scientists were compiling empirical evidence that the cloning system failed to produce the desired outcome every 5th sequence.”

By now you guys are surely aware of the super-sweet MetalSucks Fanpacks that are being sold for just 10 bucks at every FYE in the U.S. They contain an exclusive t-shirt designed by Vertebrae 33′s Rodney Githens and a 20-track CD featuring music by Kvelertak, Thomas Giles, Believer, TesseracT, Napalm Death, Trap Them and several other excellent bands. Use the store-finder app to find the FYE location nearest you, or just leave a comment with the funniest caption to the photo below (sent in by Carlos Santos). Remember to use a real email address (or post it with your comment if you’re using FB Connect). We’ll be giving away two Fanpacks this week.

Before there were blogs there were these things called magazines, and the only metal magazine we still get excited about reading every month is Decibel. Here’s managing editor Andrew Bonazelli…

There’s been a lot of buzz about remaking The Crow with Bradley Cooper. Because, you know, nothing conveys goth-punk flair, existential angst and an unyielding appetite for vengeance like the frat guy who probably stuffed fans of the original into lockers. The producers should’ve just gone to Killing Joke mastermind Jaz Coleman. Not only would it at least be novel to see a 50-year-old Crow, but he’s been dressing the part for years.

In 1980, Coleman and his band were bloodthirsty rebels in spirit, not image. Their eponymous E.G. Records debut careened unpredictably between post-punk, metal, prog, disco and what we now know as industrial. Killing Joke influenced, well, pretty much everybody in the interior and exterior of Decibel and MetalSucks’ Venn diagram. (If you’ve never heard them, somehow, drop a jaw at the third paragraph of their Wiki page.) Add incendiary, prophetic, political screeds to taste, and you’ve got a recipe for a wicked Hall of Fame, appearing in our Ghost issue.

As usual, author Chris Dick went above and beyond to make this HOF one of the most thorough Killing Joke interviews ever; hence, we have reams of bonus content. Here’s a little bonus bloodsport to whet your appetite.

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Graveyard rocks, so I was prepared to have a good time with Stormbringer.at‘s video interview with frontmen Jonatan Ramm and Joakim Nilsson. But I didn’t foresee that Reini, the Austrian site’s interviewer, would give me this raging bro-ner. Dude runs a killer Q&A, with sharp Qs to get the unvarnished As, all in his second language. Nuge!

A few of the ten-minute gab’s highlights:

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(Photo by Alyssa Lorenzon. View the full set here.)

Hats off to No Clean Singing contributor BadWolf, conductor of this fascinating interview with Nachtmystium’s Blake Judd, Will Lindsay and Sanford Parker during their winter tour with Cradle of Filth. Among the topics: Blake Judd’s ongoing struggle with heroin addiction (at interview time he claimed to be drug-free), various band members’ opinions of Cradle of Filth, being labeled a “sell out” by black metal purists, the trials and tribulations of being on record label Century Media, the metal scene in Chicago and more. Here’s an excerpt:

Blake Judd- Every record with us is a drug record. Addicts is the record I made while I was a heroin addict—which I have kicked.

No Clean Singing- Congrats on kicking the habit.

Blake Judd- Well, I only did it so these guys would come on tour with me, and I’m not kidding. That album is about hard living. I want to live hard. I don’t want to skip a beat ever. If I can have a good time I will have it, if I can have an experience I am going to indulge in it, and if I die tomorrow I never had a dull moment. That’s how I want to live my life, and how I have done so since I was eighteen years old.

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In February Emmure’s Frankie Palmeri did a track by track breakdown of his band’s latest act of audio torture, Speaker of the Dead, for AP — and the results were nothing short of hilarious. As it turns out, not only is Palmeri stunningly untalented, but he’s also apparently inarticulate, unimaginative, and bizarrely obsessed with Street Fighter. Basically, he has all the makings of someone who will inadvertently provide us with joy for years and years to come.

Now The Human Abstract’s A.J. Minette has done a similar track by track breakdown of his band’s (fucking orgasmically incredible) latest, Digital Veil, for AP. And by “similar,” I mean insofar as they’re both dudes talking about albums on which they performed. Unfortunately, Minette is an intelligent, gifted dude who, at least as far as I can tell, does not believe that video games are spiritualist documents. For example, here is A.J.’s explanation of the song “Antebellum,” which has become my favorite track on the record:

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I never know what kind of reaction I’ll get on these Not Quite Metal? posts. Often I’ll pose a band to the MS Comment Committee that’s just shy of being what most would consider “metal” in 2011 and that band will be rejected outright. Other times I’ll post something that’s far left of the metal center but I happen to dig, certain that the post will be met with cries of,” What the fuck is this doing on a metal site?”… and it’ll be met with near-universal applause. Moving Mountains are a good example of the latter; when I posted a new song by the atmospheric space rock outfit back in March ya’ll really seemed to dig. Moving Mountains are heavy, but certainly not metal. There are as many ambient passages as there are heavy riffs, and though there’s the occasional scream — ala early ’00s screamo [Thursday, ATDI, etc] — the vocals are by and large clean and rather indie-rockish in nature.

The new Moving Mountains album Waves doesn’t come out until May 10th, but Vans Warped Tour is hosting a stream of entire album this week. Here’s to hoping you dig the album as much as you did the single; I, for one, enjoyed the hell out of it this morning and am now heading back for a second pass. If you’re a fan of bands like Dredg, Constants, Junius and Russian Circles, I think there’s a pretty good chance you’ll dig Moving Mountains. Stream Waves here and pre-order it here.

-VN

‘Cause I just found their new singer.

He’s young, he’s talented, and he recognizes that JESUS IS THE LORD, a message which somehow got lost in previous VR tunes like “Pills, Demons & Etc.,” “Dirty Little Thing,” and “Just Sixteen.”

OMG SLASH PLEASE HIRE THIS KID RIGHT NOW HE IS SO FREAKIN’ AWESOME!!!

-AR

[via Badass]