One of the things that I love most about underground metal is that so many diehard fans fulfill so many roles within the metal community. A lot of the kids that you see at the grind show are also in bands. The dude rockin’ out at the front might own a distro. That girl might run the screenprinting service where all the locals get their band shirts made. Another guy might be taking photographs for his blog, or promoting the show, or running a small label on the side. Extreme music requires extreme commitment.
Filmmaker Kenneth Thomas is one of those extremely committed folks. He’s a filmmaker with 15 years of experience, mostly in documentary work but also in producing music videos and EPK footage for Isis, Neurosis, Queens of the Stone Age and tons more. Back when he was living in Los Angeles, I would see Thomas at most every show I went to. Sometimes he had a film camera with him; sometimes he was just rockin’ out with everyone else. After five years of work, he’s just about to release his latest project, Blood Sweat and Vinyl: DIY in the 21st Century.
Augusta, ME progressive metal outfit Last Chance to Reason just had their official last chance to reason with guitarist Thomas Waterhouse keyboardist Brian Palmer, ’cause apparently both dudes decided to leave the band during the course of their current tour with Animals as Leaders, Intronaut, Dead Letter Circus and Evan Brewer.
MetalSucks first suspected something was up when reader Asher L. reported to us that the band was down two members at their recent show in Orlando, FL (although he said they played “an amazing show” anyway). So we emailed the band’s management for confirmation, and got this official statement from the remaining four band members themselves:
Hello Everyone,
First off we want to thank everyone who has come out to the shows this summer and making this the best year worth of touring we have ever done. The Animals as Leaders tour has been a truly surreal experience, so again thank you to all who came out to share that with us, we are all beyond stoked to be a part of it. We love all of the bands and all of you.
Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011 at 2:00pm by Axl Rosenberg
Aittala’s new video, for the song “Juliet,” is about how the band has to kidnap a groupie, because they’re so terrible that even being in a band can’t get them laid.
But seriously, this is awful. It’s the kind of thing that makes me wanna tease that the band has made the best video and song of 1996, but even in 1996, people had better taste than to listen to this garbage. The lyrics alone make me wanna sic Scott Ian on these dudes, but as a bonus, there’s also the horrendous vocals and embarrassing music, too. Wonderful.
As we mentioned yesterday, this past Friday, Miikka Skaffari, our newest member of the MetalSucks Photo Squad, went to the MetalSucks-sponsored Summer Slaughter tour in San Francisco… and boy oh boy, did Miikka ever deliver for his first-ever MS assignment. Dude captured some really, really awesome pics of a bunch of the bands on the bill, including headliners The Black Dahlia Murder (above), Whitechapel, Darkest Hour, Dying Fetus, Six Feet Under, Oceano, and As Blood Runs Black. Check out all of Miika’s photos after the jump! And don’t forget that Summer Slaughter — which also features Fleshgod Apocalypse, Powerglove, and Within the Ruins — is still making its way across America right now! Get dates here.
If you’re a regular MetalSucks reader and you like Ihsahn — and there’s a good chance you do like Ihsahn very much considering MS readers voted his album After as their collective #1 favorite of 2010 — then you’re already familiar with Leprous whether you know it or not. The entirety of the dudes that make up Leprous are Ihsahn’s live backing band, meaning European readers who’ve been lucky enough to see Ihsahn live have basically already seen Leprous and any Americans attending ProgPower in Atlanta next month will get to see them too. That should be enough to immediately validate Leprous… but we’ve got new music for you too.
No coincidence then that the Leprodudes convinced Ihsahn to lend his trademark vocals to the track “Thorn” on their forthcoming album Bilateral, out August 22nd in Europe and August 23rd in North America via InsideOut Music (pre-order here). Leprous are more outwardly proggy than their work with Ihsahn might suggest, but no less skilled; Bilateral is an engaging and unique listen that’s sure to appeal to progressively minded metal-heads. Check out the worldwide exclusive premiere of “Thorn” below.
One of the great travesties of the Beavis & Butt-Head complete series DVD set released a few years ago was that the scenes of B & B taking the piss out of music videos on MTV were cut out, leaving just the condensed 6-minute animated shorts. Though a small handful of the music videos were crammed into a DVD bonus disc the episodes didn’t have the same flow without them and dozens upon dozens of classic skits were omitted. Something about the licensing for those songs not applying to DVDs meaning new deals with all the rights holders would have to be renegotiated and blah blah blah fuck.
Until the YouTube era. And until MTV decided to resurrect Beavis and Butt-Head (excite! watch a five-minute preview here!), deciding perhaps they could benefit from all the extra exposure. To celebrate, L.A. Weekly’s Jason Roche unearthed his Top 10 favorite Beavis and Butt-Head music video moments of all time. The dudes at The Number of the Blog, who turned us on to the L.A. Weekly piece, posted two additional excellent clips.
Here are a few of my favorites (the infamous Pantera “This Love” classic not withstanding, ’cause duh).
Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011 at 12:00pm by Axl Rosenberg
I know this Jon Lajoie is in no way, shape, or form, metal, but I saw it on No Clean Singing, and it made me laugh so hard I watched it twice in a row. And you know how I hate laughing.
No joke: I’ve been sitting here debating about which event I absolutely do not care about to write up next — A new Kittie song? Camp Kill Yourself kills themselves? Rose Funoral: still a thing? — but this is one-hundred-gazillion percent better than any of those stories, so I’m posting it instead.
“Fuck toast/I don’t need to cook my bread/And fuck coasters/I use a little plate instead” might be the single best lyric of the year, in any genre. There are dudes who could spend literally their entire lives trying to come up something that good, and never, ever succeed.
I’m going to put about as much effort into writing this intro as Axl does into writing his Cinemetal Round-up intros. All you need to know is that by clicking through the jump you’ll be making yourself privy to three excellent and varied unsigned bands.
[UPDATE! BTBAM have officially announced the tour and all dates on their Facebook page. Thanks to all who emailed us and commented. Looks like it will be hitting several major markets after all; even our constantly neglected readers in Florida get lucky with three dates. -Ed.]
That rumored BTBAM, Animals as Leaders and Tesseract U.S. tour we mentioned a couple weeks go? No longer a rumor! A Facebook event page has popped up promoting a December 9th date with all three bands at the Northern Lights club in Clifton Park, NY (20 miles north of Albany) which would seem to indicate that a surrounding tour is all but certain: bands don’t just book one-offs in fucking Albany, NY. It would also seem to suggest that this tour is going to focus on secondary and tertiary markets, so if these bands always pass by your town in favor of the big city there’s a good chance they’re coming a lot closer to you this time around while us spoiled folk in NYC, L.A., Chicago, Dallas and the like watch enviously from hundreds of miles away (although ya never know.. sometimes routing needs make certain cities indispensable).
Also of note, the Facebook event page and associated show flyer dub this the Saints and Sinners Tour. The last Saints and Sinners Tour, which went out in 2009, featured Hollywood Undead and Senses Fail… so, uh, I’d say this is a big step up for the Saints and Sinners brand!
We’ll post the rest of the tour dates as soon as we have them.
Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011 at 10:30am by Axl Rosenberg
Today Metal Blade releases Battlecross’ full-length debut, Pursuit of Honor, and to celebrate, the band has debuted a new video with our bro-bros over at Metal Injection. It’s for the track “Push Pull Destroy,” and it’s basically one of those so-called “warehouse” videos, except that it was filmed “at the Yankee Air Museum, located on the grounds of the historic Willow Run Airport… where Henry Ford mobilized his manufacturing base to contribute to the war efforts by mass producing the B-24 Liberators that provided American Air Power to win WWII for the Allies.”
In other words, for at least part of the video, the band is standing next to a big fucking airplane from World War II, which instantly makes the video cooler than if they were just in a warehouse. In fact, if I had my druthers, all the stuff with the band performing in those ruins (or whatever the hell they are) would have been swapped for more footage of the band with the plane. I don’t even care that Henry Ford was an anti-semite, he’s dead and the plane looks awesome.
Like I was sayin’, Battlecross’ Pursuit of Honor is out today on Metal Blade. Metal Injection also has a pretty cool time-lapse video of the album art being created; check that out here.
Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011 at 10:00am by Axl Rosenberg
Skeletonwitch must be one of the most metal metal bands out there right now; there’s no pretense to their music, no core, nothing about it that’s retro, nothing about it that’s trendy, no way to describe it as anything other than “fucking metal.” Combine this with the fact that Chance Garnette is absolutely one of the most entertaining frontmen on the scene today, and, well, it is absolutely no shock that people love this band. They are worth loving.
So you’ll be happy to know that their just-released new song, “The Infernal Resurrection,” does not disappoint. It is EXACTLY what a new Skeletonwitch song should be. Check it out:
The band has also unveiled the cover art for their new album, Forever Abomination, via that album’s pre-order page. Although it’s at a slight angle for some reason. Still looks pretty fucking cool, though:
My live and recording set-ups are exactly the same, and it is very, very simple. I play a mid-80s G&L SB-1 bass (which is the only piece of equipment I own that I have absolutely no recollection of buying) through a Sunn Beta Bass amp running a Traynor 4×12 speaker cabinet. The only pedals I have are the channel switcher that comes with the amp and a Boss TU-2 tuning pedal.
Let’s take a look at a band that, amazingly enough, doesn’t take itself as seriously as, say, every other band that has originated from the Scandinavian Peninsula. Formed in 2004 by Children of Bodom’s Alexi Laiho, Kylähullut was a silly side-project featuring Tonmi Lillman (Ex- To/Die/For) and Vesku Jokinen (Klamydia). I’ve liked the occasional Bodom song and Laiho was pretty easy on the eyes until he wasn’t, but I gotta say, I much prefer him and Jokinen rasping in a language I don’t understand than anything relating to hate crews. Kylähullut, which means “village idiots,” performs all their songs in Finnish, and they’re all simple thrash/punk metal ditties as easy to digest as your average pop song.
Though their most recent release is 2007’s Peräaukko Sivistyksessä, I prefer the first album, Turpa Täynnä, from 2005. As well as an abundance of umlauts, each song has a delightful name, especially “Scenehuora,” which means, if you couldn’t guess, “scene whore.” I also quite like “…Ja Jeesus ei pysy ristillään!” (“…And Jesus won’t stay on his cross!”) and “Vitun urpo!” (“Fucking idiot!”). The exclamation points are a nice touch.
My favorite song of theirs, though, “Ei pelkoa,” which was also the first Kylähullut song I ever heard. It’s has a touch of the customary Laiho guitars, but without his proclivity to meander endlessly. I think the fact that each song barely hits three minutes really plays up to the trio’s strengths. No frills, just hard, straightforward music. The only song that sort of bugs me is “Kylähullut, ” which features Kimberley Goss, whose voice makes me want to throttle cute, innocent things. It sounds like Andrew WK mated with a Finnish Avril Lavigne. But even that tune has its charm.
Also, if someone could explain to me what the hell is happening in this video, I’d appreciate it. I found it while searching for the song “Kääpiöt.” Far as I can tell, it’s the three dudes on a very special adventure together.
They actually remind me of another silly Finnish act (not in terms of the actual music, but just their general air and attitude), Eläkeläiset. A geriatric band that does heavy metal polka (humppa) covers with the occasional pop or rock song thrown in for good measure. Like. “Smells Like Teen Humppa.” I really don’t know what these bands are drinking, but I would like to try it.
Spurred by a 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 comparably rad 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 ”Land Of Sunshine”
Written by Patton (L); Gould, Bottum (M)
Released 1992
Appears onAngel Dust album
Produced by Matt Wallace
Guitars by Jim Martin
Key lyric ”Do you feel sometimes that age is against you?”
Single? Yes, promo only (preceded by “Midlife Crisis” and followed by “A Small Victory”)
The climate As the opening track of Angel Dust, “Land Of Sunshine” welcomed listeners back to a now bleaker land of Faith No More, in which singer Mike Patton — fresh off recording and touring with Mr. Bungle — began to contribute more than just lyrics.
Awesome song elevated to supra-awesomeness by keyboardist Roddy Bottum’s vertiginous, carnivalesque arpeggios throughout the chorus, which underline the song’s — and the band’s — recurring thread that life is seasickness.
Didja know? According to Wikipedia, “Land”‘s lyrics were inspired by fortune cookies and a Church of Scientology questionnaire. Oh so that’s why Tom Cruise bumps this jam.
I haven’t a clue how the folks (folk?) at Blot Und Eisen convinced Sigh’s Mirai, Faith No More / Mr. Bungle’s Trey Spruance, Eyehategod’s Michael IX Williams, Agalloch’s John Haughm and Ghoul’s Digestor to submit to the Rorschach aka “ink blot” tests… but there you have it, and the results are fascinating! The Rorschach Test, for those unfamiliar, is “a method of psychiatric evaluation created by Hermann Rorschach in 1921. Psychologists use the test to examine the personalities of their patients.”
Here are just a couple of samples:
Spruance: “An orthodox church.”
Haughm: “The sky…as seen from inside a shallow grave.”
Digestor: “Hard to clean mess.”
Williams: “Beard of a sideshow pharmacist on display in East Cambodia.”
Mirai: “Two Rabbits In The Bush.”
Haughm: “Two siamese twin elephant embryos trying to escape each other.
Me, I just see a bunch of vaginas. I won’t ruin the rest for you; check it out at Blot Und Eisen.
Earlier today, Noisecreep published an interview with Insane Clown Posse’s Violent J. (his mommy calls him “Joseph Bruce”) regarding this year’s Gathering of the Juggalos. And while perusing said interview, I came across the below quote… emphasis at the end is my own:
“It’s hard to be a Juggalo. It’s not cool. We are the most hated band in the world. But when you get together with other people all over America, who do the same shit you do, it’s wonderful. I was even reading what reporters said last year, reading stories that came out after The Gathering, where writer were saying that ‘I was so surprised by everyone’s warmth and happiness.’ That’s why there is no reason for cops or tough ass security guards; it’s not on that kind of show.“
And that particular assessment piqued my interest, because in case everyone has forgotten already, at last year’s Gathering, the Juggalos did this to Tila Tequila:
Welcome to the latest edition of “Freeloader,” in which we review albums that you don’t have to feel like a douche for downloading for free. Today Satan Rosenbloom checks out Eschaton’s An Instrument of Darkness EP.
Two thoughts that I had while listening to An Instrument of Darkness, the boss two-song EP by Austrian black metal merchants Eschaton:
1) Maybe two songs are enough!
Think about how perfect a two-song release can be. It challenges the band to sum up its strengths in a far more compacted format than with a full-length, while still providing some element of contrast. The listener is rewarded with a release sans fat, and also some insight into what the band values about itself – I’d argue even more insight than you might get in an EP, which can often be a place to throw a bunch of stuff that a band didn’t think would fit on the new album.
I really do these every year as a way of documenting where my head is mid-year so when December rolls around I can go back and look, not so much as a definitive “Best of the First Half” statement. As such it’s only a half-decent representation on what’ll eventually end up on my final year-end list.
So, here it is, in alphabetical order: my favorite releases of 2011 so far.
Gridlink are one of my favorite grind bands that I almost never have an excuse to write about. And part of the reason I never have an excuse to write about them is because they don’t really tour; the band’s members live in three different locations on two different continents, so it’s not like they can all just hop in a van and do some shows every weekend. A Gridlink concert is a very special thing indeed.
And now the band has announced not one but TWO shows for this month — one on August 13 in Chicago, and one on August 14 in Los Angeles — which will be their only U.S. appearances in 2011.
And to sweeten the deal, Phobia is also on the bill.
And to further sweeten the deal, Maruta is also also on the bill.
And to give you a cavity, THE SHOWS ARE FREE.
That’s a quartet of ridiculously good reasons to go to one of these concerts. In fact, this is one of those situations where I’d posit that if you are in a position to go to one of these gigs and don’t, your must be roughly as intelligent as a Hinder fan.
UPDATE: It looks like this is just temporary for Summer Slaughter, and Burnette is NOT out of Darkest Hour. So that ends me having five minds about this.
Last week, we got an anonymous e-mail from someone claiming that Salome drummer Aaron Deal had found a sweet new gig: bass player for perennial MetalSucks faves Darkest Hour. And at first we thought this tipster must be mistaken; after all, the band had made no announcement about parting with bassist Paul Burnette, who has been on all of their albums since 2003′s classic Hidden Hands of a Sadist Nation. And Burnette was still listed as a member on Darkest Hour’s Facebook page.
But then a Google search brought us to a website called American Aftermath, which in turn directed us to this tweet from Salome’s label, Profound Lore, which also said that Deal was now in Darkest Hour. So it was starting to look like, yes, the Deep Throat of Darkest Hour was telling the truth.
And then we sent our newest member of the MetalSucks Photo Squad, Miikka Skaffari, to shoot some pics for us at Summer Slaughter in San Francisco this past Friday night, and, hey, guess what? He just happened to capture an awesome picture of Deal playing bass for Darkest Hour:
So, we doubt no longer: Mr. Deal has found a new home.
