We heard you missed us… we’re back! After a three-week hiatus, Photo Caption Contest returns to offer you up your weekly dose of metal swag in exchange for your pathetic attempts at witty comments. Last time we offered a limited edition test-pressing vinyl of the new Dark Castle album Surrender to All Life Beyond Form, which is being released by Brutal Panda Records and is out now. The winner is longtime MS reader / Caption Contest commenter Kuranes, with this gem:

• “Invoking In The Boys Room.”

Well played, avoiding the obvious! This week I didn’t have a chance to set up a cool and unique prize, so instead I’ll offer a big box o’ goodies from the MS Mansion including promo copies of recently released CDs, stickers, posters, and who knows what else. Just do your thang: leave a comment with the funniest caption to the photo below (sent in by reader Jake Haras). Remember to use a real email address (or post it with your comment if you’re using FB Connect).

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…

Say what you will about Cradle of Filth — and I’m sure there will be plenty in the comments below — but they’re responsible for one of the greatest t-shirts of all time. You know the one: topless nun fingering herself on front, massive all-caps “JESUS IS A CUNT” unmistakably stamped on the back. I have fond memories of goth kids shuffling around the mall in the mid-’90s wearing that thing, about to get thrown out by security, and thinking, “Hmmm… not quite as thought-provoking as my ‘9 out of 10 kids prefer crayons to guns’ Pearl Jam shirt, but intriguing nonetheless!”

The accompanying record, of course, was The Principle of Evil Made Flesh, and this month it’s a Decibel Hall of Fame inductee. Other than seeing them live at Download four years ago and laughing for like an hour straight, I don’t have anything productive to add about this band. So, I’ll leave you with not only some outtake action, courtesy of scribe Chris Dick, but a trivia question that will not result in you winning a shirt or subscription: What current Decibel writer is a former member of Cradle of Filth?

And here’s your bonus footage:

Click to read more…

IT’S HANUKKAH IN ALMOST-JULY!!!

After two weeks of salivating over the mere thought, dates for Periphery’s first-ever headlining tour — which will feature support from The Human Abstract, The Contortionist, and, playing for the first time ever in North America, Textures — have been announced. This is certainly one of the can’t-miss tours of the fall; pretty much any one of these bands alone would be sufficient reason to buy a ticket, but together, they’re like one mighty, proggy, Voltron of modern metal.

I cannot wait.

Here’s the itinerary:

Click to read more…

Alright, so not to sound like a total dick, but people send us link to a lot of other metal blogs — and I do mean a LOT of other metal blogs — and, frankly, the vast majority of them are fucking terrible. I mean, I often can’t even make it through an entire single article, either because the writing is so bland, or because calling the writing “writing” is like calling lettuce “steak,” or both.

So I do not mean it as small praise to say that I am in-fucking-love with The Angry Black Metal Elitist (Slogan: “FUCK YOUR MALLCORE MUSICAL TASTES!”).

Here’s The Angry Black Metal Elitist on…

Click to read more…

Did you miss me on last night’s Metal Injection Livecast? Well, don’t cry about it — the episode is now available for download right here.

And we had a great time! Or, at least, I did. I dunno about the Livecast team. I mean, fuck those guys, right? It’s only their show.

ANYWAY, topics of discussion included my sexual proclivities, why I care so damn much about the quality of music videos, Rob’s mad interviewing skills, a Jewish holiday most Jews haven’t even heard of, and, oh yeah, we listened to some MUTHAFUCKIN’ BODY COUNT. Download the episode and revel in the fun.

-AR

A year ago, this site published my review of Rohnert Park, the then-new album from San Francisco based hardcore act Ceremony. I cited the similarities of that record with those of comparatively more popular acts Fucked Up and Pissed Jeans, two groups that record for “indie” labels that are distinct from those owned by the hardcore subculture. It appears I was not alone in that observation, as Matador Records has announced Ceremony has signed with them, effectively leaving hardcore imprint Bridge Nine. Artists leave smaller labels for bigger ones all the time, but this instance potentially signals a nascent trend in indie music: “popular” hardcore.

Unlike pop punk, so peppy and easy-to-digest, the kind of hardcore I’m referring to here is often scowling and anti-social, taking cues from both the subgenre’s unglamorous seventies/eighties originators as well as that same period’s “no wave” artisans. King Of Jeans, Pissed Jeans’ exceptional 2009 album for Sub Pop–yes, that Sub Pop–, was a dark and furious romp showered with #whitepeopleproblems galore (Pitchfork ranking: 8.3). Ceremony’s Matador labelmates Fucked Up just unveiled a rock opera (8.6, with “best new music” status) that has been received by discerning listeners as positively as their breakthrough The Chemistry Of Common Life (8.8, “best new music”). Even oldtimers are getting a second chance, as Black Flag/Circle Jerks alum Keith Morris is experiencing with OFF!, an invigorating quartet that dropped the SST-referencing The First Four EPs compilation (, “best new music”) on snarlingly irreverent and hipster-centric Vice Records. The latest act that Pitchfork is fawning over? Scandinavian punk teens Iceage (8.4, best new music). Taking all that in account, Matador’s snapping up Ceremony makes logical business sense.

Click to read more…

If you’re wondering why we’re getting so worked up over a band that hasn’t even released any music yet, look no further than these live videos of T.R.A.M. – the new group featuring Tosin Abasi and Javier Reyes of Animals as Leaders, Adrian Terrazas ex-The Mars Volta and Eric Moore of the Suicidal Tendencies — performing live at SXSW this past March, as if the band’s pedigree wasn’t enough to instantly bonerfy/moistify your privates. But if you’re as horny over T.R.A.M.’s experijazzmetal as we are, you’d best just preemptively calm those blue balls by listening to Animals as Leaders or something ’cause it might be a minute before T.R.A.M.’s first album sees the light of day. Originally scheduled to hit June 28th, Got-djent.com reports via the band’s Facebook page that the release is being pushed back:

Unfortunately we had to push back the release because we had to do some re-tracking. We want everything to sound perfect so we needed to make these necessary changes. We will announce a new release date shortly.

One can assume that the recording of the new Animals as Leaders album could be getting in the way of said re-tracking, given half of T.R.A.M.’s involvement with that band, but again, one can only assume.

More news, of course, as we have it.

-VN

Alright, so I don’t know if anyone remembers this — hell, I didn’t remember it until I did search of the MS archives — but more than three years ago, Korn “guitarist” Munky announced the formation of Fear and the Nervous System, a new supergroup featuring Bad4Good‘s Brooks Wackerman and, INCREDIBLY DISAPPOINTINGLY, Faith No More’s Billy Gould.

So. I’ve actually been listening to a LOT of Faith No More for the past week. I couldn’t figure out the origin of the sudden, uncontrollable urge to just put my FNM on “shuffle” and revel in its genius, until I realized it’s almost the one year anniversary of last summer’s glorious FNM reunion shows in Brooklyn. My brain is funny like that; it always recalls anniversaries, even if I’m not consciously aware of them.

And now Fear and the Nervous System have actually released a song, “Choking Victim.” And it’s fucking terrible. So my week has now been like the equivalent of Billy Gould taking me to a secluded private getaway for a long, romantic weekend, and then, right be fore we leave, spitting in my eye, grabbing me, shoved my nose directly into his ass, and farted.

Click to read more…

Someone in the High on Fire camp might be taking #13 of my Cardinal Rules of Running a Metal Record Label list a little too seriously. When I suggested labels and bands shouldn’t throw away money on a fancy .com band website I didn’t mean to suggest those sites should be completely neglected for 12 years; I just meant to say that super-pretty designs, deep content and bells and whistles are completely unnecessary. Ya know, just the basics, in case anyone happens to stumble through.

So either High on Fire don’t give two shits about their official website, Matt Pike is taking the piss, or he just got reeeeeeeally stoned and forgot to update it, ’cause the official High on Fire website is like a living shrine to GeoAngelfireTripodCities and hasn’t been updated since 1999 (2002 if you count some tour dates, half of which were cancelled). Check out the website and all of its beautiful, flame-laden animated .gifs before the band gets hip and pulls it down. This kind of old-school Internet gold doesn’t come around too much anymore; even Ace Frehley’s website is roughly up to 2004 standards these days. At least there’s always Waybackmachine.

Thanks to Metal Injection for this ace find.

-VN

An anonymous reader sent us the below video, which is actually an audio recording of A Perfect Circle playing a new song, apparently called “By and Down,” at their show in Portland, Oregon last night. The quality isn’t very good, but as far as I can tell, it sounds like it could come right off of Thirteenth Step… which is fine by me! I fucking love that album.

Check out the song, then weigh in with your thoughts in the comments section. Hopefully we’ll get news of some new APC studio recordings soon.

-AR

OMFG HE’S SO CUTE I JUST WANNA PUT HIS HEAD THROUGH THE FUCKING TABLE!!!!

-AR

[via Metal Injection]

In the mere year-and-a-half I worked at Atlantic Records I witnessed more than enough facepalm-inducing behavior to compile at least two sequels to Dan Kennedy’s brilliant, true-story account of the foibles of a major record label in the digital age. (Side note: if you work or have ever worked in the music industry, his book — Rock On! — is an absolute must read! hilarious hilarious hilarious. Buy here.)

One of my favorite and most telling moments at the company came when Staind were on the verge of releasing a new album, their umpteenth since becoming adult contemporary radio schlock, and we, the lucky attendees of the weekly marketing meeting, got to hear the brand new single, hot off the presses! New Staind! Easy-riding, units moving through retail! A surefire radio smash! The sparkling energy of the label personnel amping up to do what they do best — peddling shit music to people who live in Red States — was palpable under the uniform glow of the conference room’s flourescent lights.

Click to read more…

Hello, wrestling fans!

Sometimes in the world of wrestling things can happen that are not a part of the “script.” These rare moments are some of the greatest things that can happen on live TV, because the audience gets to see something “real” instead of the same old boring fake wrestling crap. There have been a couple of times over the years when a wrestler will take advantage of the fact that it is live television and say something on the mic that wasn’t planned. In the wrestling world it is know as a “shoot.”

Such a moment occurred this past Monday on Raw. A wrestler called CM Punk came out on TV and said some pretty crazy things about Vince McMahon (video above). Some people are saying he is trying to get fired. I think it is very entertaining for sure. I love it when someone has the balls to shake things up a bit in the stale world of WWE.

Click to read more…

There isn’t much I can tell you about the Intonation Network — a new social network designed exclusively for musicians and music industry peeps that was created by Unearth guitarist Ken Susi and his brother, Paul — that you can’t learn from watching the below orientation video. And, besides, there’s something incredibly fun about observing Susi — a dude who routinely spits in the air, catches that spit, and then rubs it through his hair, all mid-performance — play the role of a heavy metal Mr. Rogers.

I will say this: I think it’s a terrific idea, and it sounds like the Super Susi Bros. have made it as convenient and user-friendly as possible. Will it catch on? I guess we’ll find out…

-AR

Thanks: Andrew Griffiths

I jock Behemoth frontman Adam “Nergal” Darski quite hard always (eg. here and here), but even I neglected to notice that his defamation case was headed back to court on appeal. Last year the case against Nergal was dismissed upon the finding that no crime took place when the adult, human person tore up a religious text in front of an audience of paying, consenting people in 2007. Tough call not really.

But yeah as implied, the case has been appealed up to the Gdansk regional court and today our brah Nergal was again compelled to explain that he shouldn’t be imprisoned for expressing his personal views to people who implicitly requested that he do so. For 90 minutes. On stage and into a microphone. And fuck regardless where the bible-dissing happened, a finding against Nergal is tantamount to religious persecution and I hereby call on world governments and humanitarian organizations to threaten an international boycott of Poland in the event that this horseshit costs Nergal even a minute in jail or a single zloty.

Think about it, Gdansk regional judicial system. You do not want to be the cause of a global halt to your entire nation’s trade of sausages, spring water, and jokes about dumb people. (Behemoth and other metal merchants are exempt from sanction, natch.) Check out Nergal’s finely articulated counterpunches on this crock:

Click to read more…

Yep: I am going to be one the Metal Injection Livecast again tonight at 8 pm eastern/7 pm central! I think this is my… fourth? maybe fifth? time on the show, and we always have a blast. Basically, we get pretty fucked up, and then we talk about lots of random shit, some of it metal-related, some of it not, and then, hopefully, you guys are at home, also getting fucked up, listening in.

In fact, you can call in at 646-929-1357 if you wanna talk to us, or tell us how bad we suck, or whatever. The callers are usually the best part of the show, so definitely pick up that phone and give us a buzz.

It’s a Wednesday night in the summer. There’s nothing good on television, and let me spoil the end of Transformers 3 for you: the movie sucks, you get ripped off, and Heath Ledger dies at the end. There. Now you can listen to the Livecast for free instead of wasting money to see that piece of shit.

Listen here, tonight at 8 pm eastern/7 pm central. I promise some awesomeness.

-AR

Vince will be back soon, but for now, “Neilstein SoundScam” is still in my evil hands. There were a lot of big debuts last week, so we’re gonna concentrate solely on those for this outing. After the jump, check out some of the more noteworthy sales stats from the latest Top Hard Music charts, including albums by August Burns Red, In Flames, The Black Dahlia Murder, Symphony X, Devin Townsend, and more!

Click to read more…

Two weeks ago, I reported on the controversy surrounding Jello Biafra and his plan to bring his band The Guantanamo School of Medicine to Tel Aviv for a concert. Supporters of the academic and cultural boycott of Israel seem to have prevailed, as the former Dead Kennedys frontman announced that the show now will not happen:

Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medicine are not going through with the July 2 date in Tel Aviv.

This does not mean I or anyone else in the band are endorsing or joining lockstep with the boycott of all things Israel….

The toll and stress on the band members and myself has been huge, both logistically and as a matter of conscience. I can’t drag anyone any further into rough waters without being better prepared than some of us thought we were. A responsible leader does not go, ‘Hey, check out the storm at the top of Mount Everest. Let’s go up anyway just in case we don’t die.’ Some members are angry with me for this decision, let alone how long it took me. I don’t blame them.

Click to read more…

A reader calling himself “J.A.M.” sent us the below video, the #1 Top Modern Metal Guitarist, Revocation’s Dave Davidson, and the not-rated-but-still-totally-wicked Dan Gargiulo, also of Revocation, stopping by the Jackson Showroom recently. And… they basically just play some Revocation tunes and discuss their guitars, but a) it makes a nice companion piece to the “Rigged” gear columns they recently wrote for us (read Dave’s here and Dan’s here), and b) that’s like saying “I hung out with Michelangelo today, he basically just painted and told me about the brushes he uses.”

In other words, this is worth watching.

Revocation are currently wrapping-up their MetalSucks-sponsored tour with Forbidden, Havok, and White Wizzard, but if you live in Denver, Albuquerque, Tempe, or Escondido, you haven’t missed out on this great bill yet! Get remaining dates after the jump. And don’t forget that Revocation’s incredible new album, Chaos of Forms, comes out August 16 on Relapse.

Click to read more…

At first, you may feel hostility to heavy rock bands like Lacuna Coil, but fuck that. You don’t settle for the easiest, most immediate appraisal of stuff — especially stuff as nebulous as rock music. So after two more seconds of thought, you see that it’s allegiance that we owe to Lacuna Coil and their skilled ilk. Without them and their complicated shirts, our only sources for pure, habit-forming pop hooks would be Billboard’s top 100, that one Cave In album, and Faith No More. Surely don’t go to Lacuna Coil for metal, but rather when you desire ace pop delivered in metal vernacular. In this capacity, their jamz save us from mainstream radio, where every song is about doin’ ya/refusing to do ya/doin’ your friend/choking a stripper. Shudder.

Click to read more…