How much you wanna bet those shots of Battersea Power Station at the beginning of the new Ocean video for “She Was The Universe” were included as a tribute to Pink Floyd? I’d put money on it. I mean, you’ve listened to The Ocean’s music, right?

To be honest I’m not sure what the fuck is going on in the rest of this video, but judging from the lengthy analysis on Noisecreep – who debuted the video yesterday — I’d guess it has something to do with the song’s lyrics and the themes on Anthropocentric as a whole. At the very least it’s a great excuse to give The Ocean some exposure and to listen to this excellent song again, and I’m only too happy to oblige.

-VN

Anyone alive and old enough to be aware of pop culture in the ’90s has a very special connection with MTV’s Unplugged series. The idea seemed revolutionary at the time — although in hindsight I’m sure it wasn’t — because there was something about stripping all the distortion away that was charming, leaving just the bare-bones music for analysis: are they good sequences of notes, or are they not?

Metal Injection is bringing Unplugged back, but for metal. At least I hope they are, because the results of their very first episode of Metal De-Injection (or whatevs) featuring TesseracT are pretty fucking great. Of course, TesseracT, whose vocals are mostly clean, are the ideal band for this kind of setup; it’s hard to imagine this working out well for Randy Blythe or any other screamer. But it’s a great concept, and it’s done right with multiple cameras and sound-board audio, all recorded in a pro studio. Watch Part 1 below then watch Part 2 and Part 3 over at Metal Injection.

-VN

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 The Human Abstract’s A.J. Minette…

Listening to The Human Abstract is like listening to a full classical symphony arranged for metal band instrumentation — it’s musical poetry where every note is a metaphor, every phrase an eloquent sentence, every song a story without the need for any lyrics at all. Sure, A.J. Minette can shred circles around plenty of players, and he can do so in a manner that’s instantly more tasteful, artful, and, most importantly, more purposeful than your garden variety shredder. But that’s not what makes Minette stand out; if you see The Human Abstract live, or even listen to them on record, you probably won’t be that impressed with his technical skills as a guitarist (though, to be sure, they do exist). Rather, what makes Minette our #8 Top Modern Metal Guitarist is his ear for composition and arrangement, his knack for making The Human Abstract’s songs into expertly constructed embodiments of melody and feeling that don’t rely on technicality to impress. He’s a master architect, a skilled carpenter, the subtle behind-the-scenes engineer of all that is The Human Abstract.

Click to read more…

So, hey, anyone remember when we sponsored that awesome Arch Enemy tour a couple of years ago? And we unveiled the line-up by giving you clues regarding each band on the bill every couple of days, until we had finally revealed exactly who was playing the tour?

Well, we had so much fun doing that, we’re doing it again! This tour features a different line-up, obviously, but, once again, it will have four awesome bands coming together to do one awesome trek, and you’re going to want to be there. So just consider this foreplay.

Here’s how it’s gonna work: one day we’ll give you three clues as to the identity of one of the bands on the bill, and then you guys will have a chance to guess the band, and then a couple of days later we’ll tell the answer, as well as provide clues regarding the identity of the next band in the line-up, before we finally unveil the headliners on June 7. Make sense?

Okay, here we go! These are clues regarding the identity of the first band on the bill:

• This year they will release their sixth studio album.
• Their most recent album was produced by a member of Anthrax.
• They have been banned in parts of China due to their political views.

Alright, start yer guessin’! We’ll tell who the name of the band in question this Friday, May 27.

-Axl, Vince, and Everyone at MetalSucks

You may agree with MetalSucks stud Axl Rosenberg (pictured here), who expressed today his waning respect for the totally petering-out Judass Priest. He’s right that there’s too much silliness — K.K. Downing’s departure, the half-committal end of major touring (whatever that means), crappy albums like Nostradamus — for all but superfans to maintain any reasonable level of excitement for this, the final act in the Priest saga. Surely, Judass Priest is one of metal’s first and finest; sadly, few tours have less juice than their newly-announced/unpromotable trek with BBQ-core bores Black Label Society and that Thin Lizzy cover band.

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In 2006, Axl Rose’s Nu-GN’R played what was then their first show in almost four years at the Hammerstein Ballroom in NYC. Rose had recently made a surprise appearance on The Eddie Trunk Show*, dropping in after a texting session with Bach, whom he had not seen in many years. So at this first Hammerstein show, Rose brought out Bach, and they did a duet of “My Michelle,” and, of course, the crowd went totally apeshit.

Then they did it again for the next three nights the band played at the same venue. And then they did it again at almost every single Guns N’ Roses show since. And then Axl Rose made a guest appearance on Bach’s album, and then Bach made a guest appearance on Chinese Democracy. I mean, these guys sure did beat that gimmick until it was dead, and then they continued to beat it, just so its mother wouldn’t be able to give it an open casket funeral.

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Star Wars and Guns N’ Roses both have a special spot reserved in my geekiest of geeky heart, and probably for similar reasons: Return of the Jedi was the first movie I ever saw in theaters (and I was obsessed with/sympathetic to Darth Vader, not Luke Skywalker or Han Solo, it will shock exactly no one one to learn), and GN’R were my gateway into metal. In other words, seeing Jedi and hearing “It’s So Easy” were both major contributing factors to ruining my mother’s dreams of me ever going to medical school.

So. Now our friends over at Metal Insider have discovered the below video, filmed at Disney’s Hollywood studios’ “Star Wars Weekends” show, in which Chewbacca… and then an ewok… well, just watch. It is fucking strange, and I have no idea what the crap it has to do with Star Wars, although the audience does seem to be pretty into it.

Yep. ‘Cause I always thought that was “Welcome to the Jungle” was missing was a Jawa shouting “Wootini!” at just the right moment.

But wait, there’s more! They also had Lord Vader gettin’ jiggy wit… Metallica?

Click to read more…

Judas Priest are probably one of the best metal bands in the history of the genre, and certainly one of the most important. And, sure, their post-reunion-with-Halford studio albums haven’t been so great, but they haven’t been unbearably terrible, either, and the band still puts on a really, really fun show live.

So why am I feeling so over it with them? Well, let’s begin by going over all the drama that has surrounded the group just in the past seven months.

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Only a couple of days are left in Amazon’s latest $5 album sale, so get in while the going’s good and download a bunch of metal for less than the cost of a beer at most New York City bars! Whether you’re looking for new music or to plug the gaping holes a few missing classics have left in your collection, surely there’s something for you amongst the 51 metal albums (1,500+ overall) available for $5:

• Amon Amarth’s Surtur Rising
• Obscura’s Omnivium
• Iron Maiden’s A Matter of Life and Death
• A Perfect Circle’s Thirteenth Step
• Deftones’ White Pony
• Dio’s Holy Diver
• Kingdom of Sorrow’s Behind the Blackest Tears
• Between the Buried and Me’s The Great Misdirect

And many, many more. So do it to it before it’s too late. Deals like this don’t come around too often.

-VN

The intrepid sleuths / social media stalkers at Heavy Blog is Heavy have done it again, this time in the way of noticing a Facebook post by the legendary Opeth:

Even amongst the naysayers and trolls that comprise the MetalSucks commenter base I think we’re gonna be hard pressed to find someone not excited by this news (although of course the act of saying so will surely incite someone). Needless to say, everyone at the MS Mansion is bananas over Opeth. Mastermind Mikael Akerfeldt ranked #11 on our Top 25 Modern Metal Guitarists list, and for good reason: he and his Opeth co-conspirators are still pumping out metal jams of startlingly high quality some nine albums into their career (Heritage will be their 10th). 2008′s Watershed as as good as anything the band’s ever done. We’ll see what Opeth have left in the tanks come September.

-VN

Job for a Cowboy’s first EP was called Doom, and their new EP is called Gloom, and, obviously, when you put those things together, you get… well, y’know. But it’s not all doom n’ gloom for JFAC — quite the contrary, in fact. It’s fitting that they’re re-introducing themselves into the world with another EP as they begin this new chapter in their careers, because the four songs on the Jason Suecof-produced Gloom — the band’s first release with a revamped line-up — are the best they’ve ever written or recorded. We don’t even think there can any argument against that statement. Their transition from deathcore band into a straight-up death metal band is now complete. JFAC are firing on all cylinders, baby.

But don’t just take our word for it. Metal Blade won’t release Gloom until June 7, but we worked it our special for you so you can hear all its brutal glory for yourself right this very second. No need to thank us, it’s just the kind of cool dudes we are.

So listen below, and then, afterwards, when you’ve managed to catch your breath, pre-order Gloom here.

[this streaming promotion has ended]

Say, are you one of the three people in the world who not only thought that metal needed another supergroup, but also thought that metal needed another supergroup featuring Anthrax/The Damned Things guitarist Rob Caggiano? If so, have we got a band for you!

They’re called Temple of the Black Moon, and in addition to Caggiano, the group features Cradle of Filth vocalist Dani Filth, former Gorgoroth bassist King ov Hell, and drummer John Tempesta, who has played a gajillion different bands, including both White Zombie and Rob Zombie’s solo group, Exodus, Testament, The Cult, and Helmet. It seems safe to assume that Caggiano played a significant role in putting this project together — not only did he produce two Cradle of Filth releases (2004′s Nymphetamine and 2006′s Thornography), but Tempesta has also worked as a drum tech for ‘Thrax — but between the two bands he’s already in and the producing he does, I can’t believe he felt like he had too much free time. Maybe Worship Music is seriously never coming out.

Click to read more…

Remember when I reviewed Nekrogoblikon’s newest release, Stench? Some of you were upset when you couldn’t hear the album due to the band’s record label suffering financial difficulties. But now the group has gotten it together and pressed Stench for an expected July 19 release date. And they need help to buy a van so they can finally start spreading the goblin metal gospel. Go here to pledge enough money to get Nekrogoblikon going as a major part of the metal world.

But the band knows that you really don’t care about anyone besides yourself, so they’ve cleverly included rewards corresponding to how much you pledge, ranging from a pre-ordered CD to full studio involvement, specially written songs, and touring with the band. The rewards are cumulative, so the more you donate, the more you get. The band currently has only received $800 in pledges, and their goal is $9,000. So donate money and get yourself some nice shit in the process.

Note: If the band’s goal of $9,000 is not met, your credit card won’t be charged.

-DM

Seether are still around? Apparently they are, and apparently they still sell buttloads of records. While Seether nabbed the top spot on the Top Hard Music chart, Scar Symmetry also had a good debut, as did, um, Vampires Everywhere. Foo Fighters, Hollywood Undead, Black Label Society and others are still selling lots of records too. Numbers after the jump.

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Here’s some sexcellent news: Baroness are currently working on the follow-up to one of my favorite releases of 2009, Blue Record, and they’ve already started posting some demos on their official website (scroll about halfway down the page to watch the videos/teasers). The not-great news is the band is still so early in their process (writing, etc.) and those teasers are so brief and seemingly incomplete that they don’t actually tell us that much about the new music, but presumably something more substantial will follow after the band enters the studio, which we’re told should be sometime this summer.

Go here to check this shit out… more news as we get it.

-AR

Thanks to Joe Caperon for the tip!

Would Kurt Vonnegut have appreciated Bury Your Dead naming their new song, “Slaughterhouse Five,” after his legendary novel? I have a hard time believing he would. Vonnegut’s writing was punctuated by wit, imagination, and a healthy dose of wry cynicism; BYD’s music is punctuated by the desire to make breakdowns even more prevalent, and somehow simpler, than they already were. In other words, they are neither imaginative nor witty. Their version of “Slaughterhouse Five” sounds exactly like every other song they’ve written, except the riff isn’t even as catchy as some of their more tolerable material.

I know that lots of people are excited about this new material, especially in light of the fact that vocalist Mat Bruso has now returned to the fold; you’re gonna hafta explain to me in the comments section why you’re so excited though, just this just sounds like the same ol’ same ol’ generic metalcore to me. I’ve been told by people who know what they’re talking about that Brendan “Slim” MacDonald is a really talented rhythm guitarist who can actually play all this staccato shit like a machine, without the aid of in-studio chicanery, and that’s great for him. Now if he’d just take some songwriting lessons…

Bury Your Dead’s new album, Mosh N’ Roll, comes out August 2 on Mediaskare, the label where boring core music goes to die.

-AR

Earlier this month, From Exile released Just Like You Imagined, a free Nine Inch Nails covers EP (read my review here); now they’ve released a video for the final song on that EP, “A Warm Place.”

Directed by Michael Corrigan and shot by Sidarth Kantamneni, the video, like the song, is understated and elegant; it was wise of them to focus on guest guitarist (and #14 on our list of The Top 25 Modern Metal Guitarists) beautiful playing. This is a really nice, soothing way to start your day, no?

You can stream, or, better still, download Just Like You Imagined in mp3 or FLAC format here.

-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 John Petrucci from Dream Theater and Liquid Tension Experiment…

Whether it’s the emotional David Gilmour-inspired bends, Hetfield-esque machine gun riffing or flat out blistering speed-sweeping, John Petrucci has always been not just a guitarist’s guitar player but a dynamic and engaging musician and composer with a wide array of styles. Whether it is within the confines of Dream Theater, Liquid Tension Experiment, or his solo material, Petrucci’s chops have consistently varied greatly across the prog-metal spectrum, while also standing out amongst his shredding peers on multiple G3 Tours alongside the likes of fellow guitar gods Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Paul Gilbert, and Eric Johnson.

Click to read more…

Mazel tov to reader Chris Schott, who correctly identified last week’s logo as belonging to the band Jenovavirus. For being such a smart fella, Chris wins a package from Black Market Activities, featuring vinyl test presses (pic here) of three of the label’s most highly anticipated forthcoming releases — Engineer’s Crooked Voices (out June 7), Khann’s Erode (also out June 7), and Ed Gein’s Bad Luck (out June 21). Chris, those are going to be serious collector’s items, brutha — cherish ‘em. Or hock ‘em for heroin money. Whatever you need, duder.

This week we’re back to emptying our coffers, so to speak. The winner will get five CDs from the MetalSucks Mansion Archives. The winner will be happy.

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 a week from today.

This week’s logo was suggested by a reader with a kind of racist user name that I’d rather not repeat. But it’s a good logo.

-AR

I love music, but I am first and foremost a fan of comedy. If you were to spy on my iPod, you’d see that I spend 90% of my time listening to Joe Rogan and Adam Carolla’s podcasts. Music is cool and all, but you can only hear so much before the novelty wears off and you just want to hear an insecure nerd droning on and on about airport security, his nagging wife, or whatever comedians talk about these days.

With that in mind, I am a huge fan of bands who combine both worlds: COMEDY METAL, although the subgenre is (to say the least) a mixed bag. Bands like Gwar, Ugly Kid Joe, and Shat are geniuses, while others deliver, uh, less than satisfactory results.

In this post, we will attempt to answer this question: Lots of bands try to be funny, but which ones succeed, and which ones suck eggs???

Click to read more…