(Photo by Fiaz Farrelly)

Greetings to all you MetalSuckahs from Reno, Nevada where Machine Head are doing a warm-up show before the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival starts in two days. My name’s Phil Demmel, I’ve been playing guitar with these guys for the past nine years and I’m stoked to share with you gear-heads the rig that I’m currently using.

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I wasn’t really feeling it with “In Waves,” the title track from Trivium’s new album — but I think “Inception of the End” is way, way betterer. It sounds to me like it could have come off of Ascendancy; I’m sure there are fans who argue that this fact makes the song a step backwards from Shogun, but I really don’t mind one bit. Ascendancy is probably still my favorite Trivium album.

Check out “Inception of the End” below and let us know what you think in the comments section. In Waves comes out August 9 on Roadrunner.

-AR

You know what your summer has been lacking? Some hair metal! I’m a little bummed I’m missing the shit show that is sure to be the Motley Crue/Poison/New York Dolls tour, but, luckily, I’ve got another gem of concert. Continuing with my summer of nostalgic shame, I recently saw Bon Jovi in Istanbul. Yep, Bon Jovi. First Slipknot, and now Jersey’s finest. God, throw in some KMFDM or the Mortal Kombat soundtrack and we’ll complete the trifecta of my youthful metal faux pas: nu-industrial-hair. Doesn’t that sound like a terrible, terrible fashion subculture? I’m sure it already exists in Japan.

Anyways, I’ve been in and out of love with Bon Jovi for as long as I can remember. The past few years I’ve unfortunately let my love turn into hate (whooaa-hooo [I didn’t] keep the faith), but I think this show has pushed me back into neutral territory, bordering on affection. Apparently, I just can’t quit the on-going story of Tommy and Gina.

Now, a lot of you might consider attending a Bon Jovi concert lame. I’m not here to dissuade you. But I do think that I ventured so totally into lameness at this show that at one point it became ironic and, thus, really cool. Maybe. I don’t know how these things work.

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Dave Grohl has been known time and again to be part of the endangered species known as “The Cool Rockstar.” Dude is a household name and could probably buy and sell this website and everyone who reads it ten times over, but time and again he manages to convey one simple idea — that he is awesome.

Well, he’s done it again.

And now I’m just that much more excited to see Grohl and his Foo Fighters live in September. HIGH-FIVES!

-AR

MS staffers have lives too, and as such we can’t always get to the record store the very day new releases come out. We’re guessing it’s the same for you guys, too, but that doesn’t mean you’re not interested in the week’s new releases, right? With that in mind, here’s Vic Vaughn on all the shit that came out yesterday including new records from Decapitated and Suicide Silence.

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Last week Mastodon broke out the cover art for their new album, The Hunter; now they’ve released a one-minute trailer for the album, which is one complete minute of a new song, “Black Tongue.” Man, Brent Hinds is way into weird tongues, huh?

And I gotta say, it sounds fucking awesome to me. Maybe you won’t dig it if you’re still hoping that the band is gonna go back to their Remission sound, but that would make you dumb, ’cause that ain’t gonna happen. For those of us who appreciate how the band has matured over the years (even if they can’t really pull the vocals off live), well… doesn’t this rock?

The Hunter is supposed to be out sometime in October.

-AR

Thanks to Jon for the tip!

We couldn’t quite blame you if you’re not familiar with Krum Bums; technically speaking, they’re really more punk than metal.

But you SHOULD know them, because they play AWESOME punk, and are clearly metal-friendly: they’ll be part of the upcoming MetalSucks/Metal Injection-sponsored tour with Toxic Holocaust and Holy Grail (dates here). Which is all the metallic recommendation you should need.

But if you need more, well, now you can allow your ears to feast for themselves: MetalSucks is proud to debut “Starving Wolves,” a new cut from the band’s forthcoming album Cut the Noose, out August 23on People Like You Records. It’s loud, it’s fast, it’s obnoxious… it’s everything you want from extreme music.

Check out “Starving Wolves” below; pre-orders of Cut the Noose will be available soon via CM Distro.

[this streaming promotion has ended]

OH MY FUCKING GOD YES.

Rwake, one of our absolute most favoritest bands here at MetalSucks, haven’t released an album since 2007′s Voices of Omens. They never broke up — they’ve been playing shows somewhat-steadily the whole time — and earlier this year, we got word that the band had FINALLY entered a studio with producer Sanford Parker to record a new album.

Well, that album now has a name — Rest — a release date — September 27 — and album art — which you can see below:

There’s no music available yet, but whatever, if Rest doesn’t turn out to be awesome, I’ll eat my socks. (I will also cry. A LOT.) You can, absolutely fucking should, pre-order the album from Relapse, though, in a variety of CD and vinyl editions. This band is FILTHY FILTHY FILTHY, so I bet that shit sounds super-extra-evil on vinyl.

And hopefully there will be a new Rwake jam for us to jizz all over real soon.

-AR

You will be happy to know that Limp Bizkit did not claim the #1 spot on the Top Hard Music charts again this week. That spot belongs to… Pop Evil. Who? Not Limp Bizkit, that’s who.

Aside from Unearth, there weren’t any notable debuts to chart last week. After the jump, a look at how the latest records from Black Dahlia Murder, In Flames, and many more fared on the marketplace of over-priced pieces of plastic and soon-to-be-obsolete digital files.

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Well this is pretty funny.

Reader Zach Gates e-mailed us to say that his friend had actually made a Devin Townsend skullet wig: “It took him forever to MAKE the wig by hand. He got a bald cap and a regular wig and spent a few days cutting, dreadlocking, and gluing the whole thing together.” And while that probably sounds like an insane amount of work for no real reason, Zach’s buddy did get some payoff in the end:

So, yeah, WORTH IT.

In case you somehow forgot, Devin (the real one, not the dude in the wig) is currently on tour with Children of Bodom, Obscura, and Septicflesh. Get remaining dates here. If you do something as awesome as Zach’s friend, maybe you can get yer picher taken with Devy, too!

-AR

So on Monday I said I was gonna try and catch up with some of the reader suggestions you fine folks have been sending us, and then yesterday I didn’t get to do one because there was, like, actual news to write about. But now we get back down to the business of listening to music that you guys swear up and down is awesome!

And so, once upon (really in the last week or so) in galaxy far, far away (really just this galaxy)…

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In case Coheen and Cambria bassist Michael Todd’s arrest on Sunday for threatening to blow-up a drug store unless they gave him six bottles full of prescription meds and Jeroen Paul Thessling’s decision to quit Obscura didn’t already make bassists the least popular people in all of metaldom this week: TMZ is now reporting that former Queens of the Stone Age/current Not Kyuss! bassist Nick Oliveri has now been arrested on charges of felony domestic violence. Which is bad enough, but it’s not the part of the story that’s really interesting. This is:

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I’m going to put about much effort into this introduction as Vince Neil puts into having a designated driver.

First up today is Weedeater’s new video, for ”Mancoon/Turkey Warlock,” which debuted over at Brooklyn Vegan. Guys, this is probably the best video you’re going to see today. It’s done in the style of a silent film, which isn’t a new idea, but the execution is great. And the storyline to the video is funny — basically, there’s a giant racoon (Mancoon) who wants the band to… eat large sandwiches. Hm. Anyways, clip ain’t embeddable, but you can check it out by clicking on the below screen cap.

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Anthrax have released the cover art for their seemingly-forever-in-the-making Worship Music, and while the brilliant Alex Ross certainly did a better job with the assignment than I did, it’s hard not to feel that the cover is somehow, I dunno, familiar… hmm….

Oh, right, THAT’S why it looks familiar:

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As anyone else over 30 knows, there was once a time in which it was definitely not cool for hardcore bands to be into metal. It’s probably hard to imagine, but back in the early 90s hardcore and metal didn’t mix all that much, at least not to the extent that they do these days. I’m not sure they get the credit they deserve for it, but RINGWORM were true pioneers who blurred the boundaries between the two genres: they were one of the first overtly metal bands in the early 90s hardcore scene, or one of the few metal bands who had such overt hardcore influences, I’m not sure.

But that’s all nerdy bullshit for record collectors to argue about. The truth is that the only album of theirs I have ever owned or listened to is “The Promise,” which came out in 1993 (although I did get tattooed once by Human Furnace about 15 years ago). We are here to talk about something way more interesting.   These guys are no strangers to poor life choices, and since most of the readers here seem to be more interested in what kind of guitar strings the guy from Periphery uses than getting laid, I figured we should talk about getting wasted, banging strippers and other elements of HOW TO PARTY, RINGWORM STYLE!

Details on how to rage like it’s a Nunslaughter show at The Phantasy after the break!

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Invisible Oranges way the fuck up for readers Kassandra Aguero and Jeanene Maddox. They were two of only three people to correctly guess the logo for the week of June 28, which belongs to the charmingly monikered band, Anal. For their troubles, Kassandra and Jeanene each win ultra-limited edition (only 150 copies pressed!) white-vinyl-with-a-black-swirl copies of Based on a True Story, the latest album from legendary hardcore band Sick of it All. Enjoy those,you crazy kids!

This week we have another super-duper-awesome prize for you, this time courtesy the very nice folks at Metal Blade: a copy of Unearth’s moshtacular new CD, Darkness in the Light, AND one of those special Unearth beer bongs I raved about awhile back. They are frickin’ SWEET, dude. You can still order both the album and the beer bong (NOPE! The beer bongs were super-limited-edition, made just for pre-orders of the album, so you’re shit outta luck there. Sorry!) for yourself here, or, of course, just enter this contest and keep your fingers crossed!

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 select one winner and announce his or her name a week from today.

This week’s logo was suggested by a reader named Aaron. It always makes my life easier when you nice people send logos in, so keep ‘em comin’!

-AR

Ever since Jeff Loomis and Van Williams — a.k.a. “The Important Members” — split with Nevermore back in April, Nevermaniacs around the world have been wondering: “What the fucking fuck happened?” The band’s statement regarding the parting of ways was vague, blaming the decision simply on “internal struggles and ongoing issues within the band,” which answers absolutely zero questions about what actually went down.

Now Warrel Dane — who announced last week, via Twitter, that Nevermore will go on with Loomis and Williams (But WHY?!?!) — has given an interview to ProgPower USA, in which he attempts to explain a little more about what caused the rift. And it ain’t pretty: he declares Nevermore to be “the greatest band that alcohol ever ruined,” and says that “those guys [presumbaly Loomis and Williams] decided that they didn’t have as bad of an alcohol problem as I did.”

So, one might naturally deduce that the divorce was caused by Loomis and Williams drinking too much, right? I mean, there’s really no other way to interpret that statement.

Thing is, I can’t for the life of me figure out what the hell Dane is talking about.

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The Acacia Strain have released their latest video, for “The Impaler,” and man oh man, it is like no other video this band has ever made. Other than a brief prologue which makes the whacky implication that the entire clip is taking place in some dude’s (totally epic) beard, there’s nothing humorous about the David Brodsky-directed clip; it’s just moody and evil and much more in line with the way I feel when I listen to TAS. I’m not saying I hope they’re done with funny videos — on the contrary, I like that TAS aren’t afraid to embrace their goofy side — I’m just saying, this is not a terrible change of pace for the band.

“The Impaler” comes off of The Acacia Strain’s latest, Wormwood, which is out now on Prosthetic. The band is on the Vans Warped tour this summer; get dates here.

-AR

My love of Tombs’ last album, Winter Hours, is well documented. It was my #4 album of the year in ’09, and I proudly displayed my critical hard-on for it for all the world to see in my initial review of the record. And yet, there was something holding it back from being an all-out classic: it was too short. And not in a “IT WAS SO GOOD I JUST WANTED MOOOOOORE!” way, but after “Seven Stars The Angel of Death,” there was a brief instrumental (“Old Dominion”) then it just… stopped. The arc of the album felt like it was setting you up for another song or two, then a big finish, but Winter Hours was ultimately a collection of (admittedly excellent) songs that petered out after about a half hour. Which in its own way is fine — better to understay your welcome than overstay it in terms of the eighty minutes a CD provides — but Tombs seemed to be reaching for so much more. Winter Hours was as frustrating as it was satisfying.

So despite the fact that Winter Hours was the band’s full length debut, Paths of Totality, their latest, feels like their first proper album. It’s significantly longer, yes, but instead of a collection of songs, it feels like a statement of purpose. They delve more deeply into testosterone-fueled blackened hardcore and (good) goth-y/post-punk avenues, as well as explore the relationship between the two. There’s plenty of the charm from Winter Hours still present, but Tombs also make good on the potential they showed on that album as well as fostering more to come. Their workmanlike soul and penchant for brashness remain intact, making them already one of the more interesting and satisfying bands in heavy music. But even though they’ve never a band that were wrapped up in shallowness or gimmicks in their brief existence, Totality feels more mature.

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We’ve been excited about Aliases — the new project featuring guitarist Pin, formerly the much beloved, now departed MetalSucks proverbial wet dream band SikTh — pretty much since we first heard about them back in April of last year. Now the band’s debut album, Safer than Reality, is finally on the verge of release, and our bro-bros at Metal Injection have premiered the band’s first video, for the song “What’s Left For Us” (below). And while it’s not a ground-breaking video, it is a very good video — it’s amazing what some decent editing and a little bit of glow-in-the-dark liquid can do for a clip like this, ain’t it? — bolstered by the fact that the song is excellent, and, as Vince would put it, “appropriately SikTh-y.”

Safer than Reality comes out August 15 on Basick. We’re really stoked to hear the rest of this album.

-AR