I give into peer pressure easily. In no particular order other than alphabetical:

Click to read more…

AC/DC and Metallica are similar in a lot of ways: their creative heyday is behind them, for example, and they, too, have a massive fan base with enough stupid people who will buy anything with their logo on it to ensure that they will never go hungry.

But AC/DC are also different from Metallica in a lot of ways: they don’t ever come across as total dicks, for example, and their live shows are not embarrassing. In fact, AC/DC live is still an awesome experience that every man, woman, and child should experience at least once before they die.

And so: AC/DC, like Metallica, have now released their own version of the classic board game Monopoly, which, like Metallica’s version of the game, is really not at all different from the original Monopoly, save for the pieces are a little different, the names of the properties players need to collect are a little different, and the game is more expensive.

Unlike Metallica, though, AC/DC are only charging about fifty percent more than the “classic” edition’s price for their version of the game, whereas Metallica are charging roughly one-hundred percent more. Unless you want a special edition which comes with a DVD and a t-shirt, but when you toss those items in, the new price actually seems kinda reasonable.

You can order regular AC/DC Monopoly here, or the special edition here. Although, really, don’t order it. Children are starving, y’know?

-AR

[via Metal Underground]

I hope everyone has been stashing loose change in their piggy banks, because it seems like there’s an awesome new tour for the fall being announced every few days recently. There’s the four incredible bills we’re sponsoring — Arch Enemy/DevilDriver/Skeletonwitch/Chtonic, Decapitated/Decrepit Birth/Fleshgod Apocalypse/Rings of Saturn/The Haarp Machine, Toxic Holocaust/Holy Grail/Krum Bums, and Exhumed/Goatwhore/Cephalic Carnage/Havok — plus the incredible bills with which we have no official connection — like Periphery/The Human Abstract/Textures/The Contortionist, and a bunch more you can find by perusing our “Tour de Force” section.

And the season just got that much more exciting: the mighty Immolation have announced a North American headlining tour, with support coming from Jungle Rot and Gigan, just to make the whole affair that much more worthy of your hard-earned dineros. It’s hard for me to imagine these shows won’t be a lot of fun; I mean, they basically had me at “Immolation.”

So, yeah… holy shit. It’s going to be impossible to be bored this fall.

Here are dates:

Click to read more…

Word on that street is that longtime correspondent Oderus Urungus of Gwar was recently dismissed from Fox News Red Eye without any explanation. My working theory: Urungus discovered that Rupert Murdoch was hacking the Cuttlefish of Cthulhu’s cell phone and Fox sent his ass packing as a precautionary measure against cumming boatloads on the television camera while on air.

But Red Eye hasn’t lost its interest in all things heavy: Big Business, whose new Quadruple Single EP is out now, made an appearance on the show last week. Watch as the three men of Big Business give host Bill Schulz a few lessons in how to be metal. The rest of the Fox empire could take a hint.

-VN

I always feel kinda bad for Wayne Static, the same way I feel kinda bad for Marilyn Manson; almost twenty years ago, these dudes decided it was a good idea to style themselves in a completely ridiculous manner, and now they’re pretty much married to that look. I guess the good news is, Static may be single-handidly contributing thousands of dollars to the egg and hair gel industries every year, so, yeah, there’s that.

ANYWAY, Static-X is apparently in some kind of state of flux due to the loss of  a band member or two (I don’t know all the details and I’m not wasting brain power learning them), but I don’t know why that matters since I would imagine that Static-X fans hold Mr. Static in the same regard that Megadeth fans hold Dave Mustaine. Which is to say, as long as Wayne is there, isn’t it Static-X?

I guess metal’s answer to Kid from Kid ‘n Play didn’t feel that way, or otherwise felt he wasn’t getting enough credit in the band he formed, wrote all the music for, and named after himself (or… named before he re-named himself… but… oh, whatever), ’cause he’s releasing a solo album, Pighammer, in October. And now he’s released thirty-four seconds of a song from that album, called “Chrome Nation.” It sounds to me exactly like Static-X, although I’m sure there’s at least one disgruntled fan of that band who has now found this site via a search engine, and would like to tell me to go fuck myself. Hey, noob! Welcome to MetalSucks. Please feel free to go ape shit in the comments section — that’s what it’s there for!

Pighammer is out October 4 on Dirthouse Records.

-AR

[via Metal Insider]

Last month Coheed and Cambria bassist Michael Todd set out to prove that he was the only rockstar in history who doesn’t have a guy whose entire job is just to score drugs for him; this month, he learned the hard way that such self-reliance comes with consequences. Which is to say, he’s no longer in Coheed and Cambria.

A statement from the band explains:

Click to read more…

As part of our coverage of this year’s Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival – currently winding its way through North America — we’re bringing you a series of “Rigged” columns in which several of the tour’s musicians take you on piece-by-piece guides of their current live rig setups. Check out the guitar rigs of Machine Head’s Phil Demmel, Unearth’s Buz McGrath and Ken Susi, Hatebreed’s Wayne Lozinak and Dethklok’s Brendon Small. For you bassists out there, have a look at In Flames’ Peter Iwers‘ and Red Fang’s Aaron Beam‘s rigs. To conclude our Rigged coverage of Mayhem, here’s All Shall Perish shredder Francesco Artusato:

What’s up MetalSucks readers! Francesco Artusato here. I’m going to talk a little bit about my live rig with All Shall Perish that am using at the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival this summer and will be using for future tours.

Click to read more…

Last week’s Caption Contest saw the promise of “an assortment of random metal goodies from around the Mansion,” and I can promise our winner, Ronald Raygun, that I will not disappoint! Here’s his winning entry to the photo at right:

• “Dadzig.”

This week we’re giving away a Dir En Grey prize pack featuring a copy of their new CD Dum Spiro Spero, a t-shirt, a poster and lanyard, all courtesy of The End Records. The record is out now and available here. To win, just leave a comment with the funniest caption to the photo below. Remember to use a real email address (or post it along 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…

Two weeks ago, we not only revealed that this month’s dB flexi disc is Krallice covering Rorschach’s “Traditional,” but that the corresponding Hall of Fame would be the Jersey bruisers’ Protestant (order here). Krallice have been busy churning out covers both kick-ass and poignant lately, but today’s our day to tongue-bathe Rorschach for their influential 1993 ripper.

Resident dB workaholic Kevin Stewart-Panko wrangled Charles Maggio, Keith Huckins, Nick Forte, Thom Rusnak and Andrew Gormley for Q&As, and the guys were unsurprisingly down-to-earth, modest and hilarious. (“I’ve had people for years tell me about how Rorschach [were] responsible for metalcore, and I’m like, ‘Wow, people think I’m partly responsible for a genre, and that genre is only good part of the time.’” —Huckins.) Another thing about Keith, also of natural-born co-worker killers Deadguy: he joins a select group of artists with two HOF entries: Lee Dorrian, Bill Steer, Jimmy Bower, Nocturno Culto, Scott Ian, Danny Lilker and Sal Abruscato. I’d have to guess that out of all those guys, Bower or Lilker has the fastest potential track to three. But you tell us: what triple threat deserves it the most?

-AB

Decibel’s September 2011 issue also features Opeth, Toxic Holocaust, Sepultura, Cradle of Filth, All Shall Perish, Skeletonwitch, and that awesome Krallice flexi disc. That issue is available here, but why not get a full subscription to ensure you never miss an issue?

Spurred by an lazy crossword clue in The Onion (36 down, four letters: “Faith No More’s only hit”), MetalSucks contributor Anso DF dedicates every single day in August to celebration and exploration of the San Francisco alt-metal greats. Here we prove that history’s greatest band landed more than one commercial hit (crossword answer: “Epic” natch), we revel in FNM’s embarrassing wealth of winning album tracks (themselves often fit for chart topping), and we dip into the staggering best of the b-sides (ditto). Along the way, we survey the context of FNM’s big break (amid similarly seminal acts Jane’s Addiction, Nine Inch Nails, and Ween) to post-Nevermind, panic-based music commerce in which the brilliantly versatile, fearless powerhouse band operated until their 1998 demise. It’s a dirty job, but someone’s gotta do it.

Song “Falling To Pieces”

Written by Patton (L); Gould, Bottum, Martin (M)

Released 1989

Appears on The Real Thing album

Produced by Matt Wallace

Guitars by Jim Martin

Key lyric “Because the plot thickens everyday/And the pieces of my puzzle keep crumblin’ away/But I know there’s a picture beneath”

Single? Yes, The Real Thing’s third and final (preceded by “From Out Of Nowhere” and “Epic”)

The climate Faith No More landed a top-10 single with “Epic,” and followed with another brightly melodic, bouncy, rappy jam. It was around this time that unofficial accusations of imitation began to emit from the Red Hot Chili Peppers camp. Lulz.

Awesome song elevated to supra-awesomeness by Mike Patton, boredom-buster: Over three closing choruses (at 3:31) — industry standard for a single — he tweaks the by-then familiar refrain and then just face-rapes it via awesome ad-libs. That final “whoa-ooh-whoa-oooh-whoa-oh-ohhhhhhh-hohhhh-ooh” sent RHCP singer Anthony Kiedis under a bridge to draw some blood.

Didja know? Stupid jerks Faith No More retired “Falling” from live sets by 1993. Okay fine, it must be annoying for bassist Billy Gould to do that one-finger intro riff a billion times but cmonnn. Play the jam.

-ADF

METALSUCKS’ 31 DAYS OF FAITH NO MORE

4 “Falling To Pieces”

3 “Stripsearch” (read)

2 ”Ricochet” (read)

1 ”Land Of Sunshine” (read)

One of my favorite musicians, Ginger, set off on a quest to record a three album masterpiece. Now, this is exciting news, especially to me, but you need money for that sort of thing. He wanted to bypass all that industry red tape and do it on his, and his fans’, terms, but how do you do that with no money of your own and no record company funding? Ginger Wildheart: The Triple Album Project has set up to work through pledges, and offers four options to choose from:

Click to read more…

There’s gonna be a presumably-excellent new Cormorant album called Dwellings later this year, and if that news doesn’t make you happy, you must not know Cormorant. And you should remedy that lack of knowledge right quick.

In fact, Cormorant are only too happy to help you remedy that: “for a very limited time,” the band are giving away their last album, Metazoa, for free. And in a variety of high-quality formats, too, including 320kbps mp3s and FLAC files. So, basically, if you don’t already own this album and you don’t take advantage of this offer, you are a numbskull. You literally have nothing to lose, and lots and lots of awesome metal to gain.

So go download that shit right now. Listen to it. Love it. And hopefully we’ll get a release date for Dwellings real soon.

-AR

Thanks to John for the tip!

Cosmo started it at Invisible Oranges. Then our Axl and Murder Corey got in the mix. Next, Vince wanted some. And on Wednesday, Gary didn’t mind if he did. Now, with your permission, I, Anso DF, will help myself and list 2011′s best jam-parties so farsies.

May I? Thanks!  Click to read more…

Last year, a bunch of teachers took Twisted Sister’s legendary teen rebellion anthem, “We’re Not Gonna Take It,” and used it to teach teenagers to be less rebellious. Now, almost five-hundred people in Marietta, Georgia, are planning to perform a choreographed dance to the song this Saturday evening in order to raise awareness for hunger. Based on the below rehearsal video for the dance, I would guess that this, too, was the brainchild of an old person.

And I’d like to make fun of this for being incredibly lame and caucasian, except it’s SUCH a good cause, and even I’m not THAT jaded. And it’s usage here is certainly truer to the themes of the song than what those teachers did. (Although, besides the chorus, the lyrics really make no sense when discussing this particular issue — no one is starving because they “don’t want nothin’, not a thing from you.” They actually do want something from you: food.)

-AR

[via Metal Insider]

It’s a good day to be an After the Burial fan: the band has released not one but two music videos, plus additional dates for their previously-announced Crush ‘Em All trek with Veil of Maya, Misery Signals, and Within the Ruins.

So, let’s start by considering these videos, “Cinemetal Round-Up” style, shall we?

Click to read more…

MetalSucks is once again sponsoring the Summer Slaughter tour, which is quickly approaching the halfway mark of its annual North American run (dates here). But the fun here at the MS Mansion is just getting started, not because next week’s NYC play is right around the corner but because we’ve been given two ESP guitars to give away by the tour’s organizers! Both guitars are ESP LTD Viper Series models (shown above) and are signed by all the members of this year’s co-headliners, The Black Dahlia Murder and Whitechapel. Woah; you mean to say you can win one of these bad boys for the price of free? Yes, yes you can.

TO WIN — Write a comment below telling us your answer to the following question: “Which Black Dahlia Murder or Whitechapel song is the anthem for your summer?” This is MetalSucks, not your 3rd grade homework assignment, so remember to be funny, interesting, and most of all creative with your answer. Axl and Vince will hand-select their two favorite entries when the tour ends and will notify winners by email shortly thereafter, so be sure to enter your comment with a valid email address you check frequently. Good luck!

File under “things I never thought I’d hear:” Anal Cunt covering Buckckcherry. But apparently now-deceased Anal Cunt frontman Seth Putnam (R.I.P.) was actually a huge Buckcherry fan. Check out this January 2011 interview from Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles:

Q: Fuckin A’ is a straight cock rock glam album… have you always been interested in sleazy glam Sunset Strip music?

A: “We were backstage on tour in 1996 and (guitarist) Josh Martin and I had the idea. We thought of calling the band Fuckin’ A. it’s been on the back burner for like 14 years. I saw MÖTLEY CRÜE in 1984 when they opened for OZZY OSBOURNE on the Shout At The Devil tour. And I liked the second BUCKCHERRY album a lot. I really like the first two Mötley Crüe albums. During a 2001 tour, we bought the second Buckcherry album on tour and listened to it. We’d start listening to it and do a bunch of crystal meth and crank it in the van. It would get us all psyched up to go on stage. The bad songs on Buckcherry albums are really good. In Japan in 2004 we’d crank Buckcherry on headphones and were doing crystal meth the whole time. Every other album Buckcherry has done is pretty terrible. The third album has one good song. The first album isn’t that good. The Buckcherry songs I really like are ‘Whiskey In The Morning’, and ‘Ridin’’.”

So, uh… there you go: Buckcherry, great for doing crystal meth to. Here’s Anal Cunt covering “Whiskey in the Morning.”

-VN

We hate Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On” with such a fiery passion that even the slightest hint of its infernal melody makes us reach for our revolver.

That being said, MetalSucks Maniac/Nevermore contest winner/all-around super-talented dude Ben Robson made this video of him doing a metal cover of the song while wearing one of the awesome, limited edition MetalSucks shirts that comes with our ten dollar FYE fan pack (use this store-finder app to find the location nearest you!), and, well, how could we not post it? Ben continues to display more talent than half the signed artists out there!

Ben is also apparently wrapping up work on an EP, which he hopes to release by the end of the summer. We can’t wait to hear it.

For sending in this video as part of our ongoing Show Us Your MetalSucks contest, we’ve sent Ben a box o’ goodies from the MS Mansion including CDs, posters, stickers, and whatever else we have around that we think might tickle your balls. You, too, can be the recipient of such a box of fun; just send in a pic of yourself donning your MS wear.

In June I saw The Binary Code for the first time since December I think. And me not seeing The Binary Code, one of my absolute favorite bands from this region, for that amount of time is, well, highly unsual.

So when they started playing all this shit I’d never heard before, I was like, “Whoa!” They’ve been demoing new material quite a bit, apparently, and are planning to release their sophomore full-length at the start of next year.

That’s still a little ways off, though, so the band has posted one of their new demos, “Dark Meditations,” on their Facebook page. It doesn’t have any vocals yet, and I have no idea if they’re planning to add vocals to this particular track or not, but one way or the other, it sounds really great — it’s very much in the vein of “Ocean of Light,” the epic instrumental track which opened the band’s Priest EP last year (thus, my speculation that the track might remain vocal-free).

In any case, I can’t wait to hear more — this is a band that should always pique your interest. Check out the “Dark Meditations” demo here, and start getting excited about new Binary Code in 2012…

-AR

Now-bankrupt metal blog Metal Inquisition hired Manowar to play their office party in Moscow back in 2009… and would you just look at the expression of pure joy on the face of Roger from Accounts Payable? Brad from Marketing, in the black shirt to Roger’s right, was none too pleased that Roger spent MI’s entire 2009 ad revenue on hiring Manowar despite multiple warnings that “kids don’t listen to that stuff these days.” And now you know why Metal Inquisition isn’t around anymore and Sergeant D came to write for us.

-VN