Sick Drummer is streaming a new Brutal Truth song, called “Echo Friendly Discharge,” and it’s some crazy, crazy fucking shit, but that’s not really news, ’cause Rich Hoak sneezes and produces crazy fucking shit.

What IS news is that the band is also doing a limited edition (only 500 copies) box set of the album, which, in addition to the usual bonus goodies (a CD with extra tracks on it, six mini art poster flats, etc.), also contains a weed scented CD card. I’m not even sure I know what that means, but you pretty much had me at “Brutal Truth” and “weed.” Really, these dudes should just release an album called “Brutal Truth’s Weed Grind,” because I alone would buy ten copies.

Check out “Echo Friendly Discharge” here, then order one of those sweet box sets for just twenty bucks here. End Time comes out September 27 on Relapse.

-AR

During the summer of 2001 I interned at an NYC-based startup called Clickradio. It was a part of the original dot-com boom, only by mid-2001 the dot-coms had most certainly stopped booming and shit was hitting the fan. The tanking economy was unfortunate for Clickradio, a service that did exactly what Pandora did before Pandora did it; in better times the company surely would’ve made it.

I spent that summer driving around Manhattan in a pimped-out promo truck with external computers and speaker bays adorned with Clickradio signage, parking in dense pedestrian areas and demoing our product to the masses. Preaching the benefits of an Internet radio station you could customize to fit your own tastes in 2001 — when broadband wasn’t even widespread yet — was kinda like preaching the benefits of a monthly fee / all-you-can-stream music service is in 2011 — when people are still obsessed with physical / file ownership. But I digress.

The reason I bring this all up: for some reason we had some kind of promo deal with Bay Area nu-metallers Systematic. We were always giving out Systematic stickers and sampler CDs from our truck to confused midtown businessmen whose definition of metal might be AC/DC. Systematic songs always came up on the Clickradio “metal” channel, so I got pretty familiar with the band. All things considered, I guess this band wasn’t really that bad… but they also weren’t really that good. Apparently Systematic got back together and did a reunion gig this past weekend. Click “Thumbs Up” if you like it and “Thumbs Down” if you don’t, and your Clickradio station will be customized to fit your own tastes!

-VN

Arch Enemy’s North American Khaos headlining tour — which we’re co-presenting with Full Metal Jackie and which also features DevilDriver, Skeletonwitch, and Chthonic — starts next week!!! I’m so goddamned excited I can’t even tell you. I haven’t seen Arch Enemy live in, like, I dunno, two years I think? And they ALWAYS MURDER in concert.

The band’s new video, for “Bloodstained Cross,” isn’t doing anything to lessen my enthusiasm, either. It’s a collection of live footage — I’m assuming filmed at the band’s recent appearances at various summer European festivals, although don’t quote me on that — and just seeing how rabid those crowds are… man. Can I go see Arch Enemy tomorrow, pretty please?

“Bloodstained Cross” comes off of Arch Enemy’s latest, Khaos Legions, which is out now on Century Media. You can get dates for their upcoming tour right here.

-AR

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 similarly seminal acts Jane’s Addiction, Nine Inch Nails, and Ween) to the 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 ”What A Day”

Written by Patton (L); Patton, Spruance (M)

Released 1995

Appears on King For A Day, Fool For A Lifetime album

Produced by Andy Wallace

Guitars by Trey Spruance (Secret Chiefs 3, Mr. Bungle)

Key lyric ”‘Kill the body and the head will die.’”

Single? No.

Click to read more…

Here in NYC, we’re on the brink of a hurricane (!), and the impending storm has everyone in a frenzy…..lines have been out the door at supermarkets, the entire transit system just closed down at noon (unprecedented), and bridges and tunnels will surely be next.

If you’re in the area, stay inside with some ganja, a loved one, movies/tv/video games/internet porn, and ride this puppy out for the next 36 hours…

And during said natural disaster, don’t be afraid to pick up that instrument or paintbrush or put pen to paper and officially begin/continue that opus you’ve been procrastinating on.

Life’s too short, and Mother Nature is getting impatient!

-KW

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 similarly seminal acts Jane’s Addiction, Nine Inch Nails, and Ween) to the post-Nevermind, panic-based recording industry 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 “Epic”

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

Released 1989

Appears on The Real Thing album

Produced by Matt Wallace

Guitars by Jim Martin

Key lyric ”It’s in your face but you can’t grab it.”

Single? FUCKIN A!

Click to read more…

Earthquakes. Hurricanes. New records by The Devil Wears Prada. Come at us, brah! We can survive anything.

Here’s what we did while shit conspired to kill us:

• We debuted new music by East of the Wall and 400 Blows.
• We spoke to Amos Williams from TesseracT about the band’s recent vocalist swap.
• We checked out the latest release from Landmine Marathon.
• We wondered: Which is better, grindcore or doom metal?
• We also wondered: Is it better to make great albums but suck live, or to be great live but put out sucky albums?
• We also also wondered: Who are the top ten metal lyricists?
• We learned what not to do if you’re in an unknown band.
• We were bummed to learn that vocalist Travis Richter has split with The Human Abstract.
• We continued to count down 31 Days of Faith No More.
• We confirmed The Red Chord, Obscura, and Rosetta for The Metal Suckfest.

Alright, I’m gonna go set up my slip n’ slide and get ready for the rain. Come hell or high water (pun intended), I promise you we will be back on Monday. See ya then.

-AR

I somehow missed this when The PRP posted it earlier this month, but caught it yesterday on Metal Injection: a video of the first time Rage Against the Machine ever played in front of a public audience. (According to Tom Morello, the band “had done one show previously but that was a living room party,” so I guess it doesn’t count.) It’s not just a clip, either — it’s the whole damned show.

And I think it’s worth watching, not just because it’s a fun look at the earliest days of a now-legendary band — but because the band was okay but not great, and because most of the crowd, clearly, does not give a hoot about them. People routinely just walk on by the stage, with no idea that they’re missing out on a seminal moment in rock history. (Not that it’s their fault; how could they possibly have known?) And I think that’s a valuable thing for young bands to see: EVERYBODY HAS TO START SOMEWHERE. Once upon a time, Rage Against the Machine were just some local band, playing to an audience of three people, just like every other group in the history of ever. Don’t you find that, I dunno, encouraging?

-AR

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 similarly seminal acts Jane’s Addiction, Nine Inch Nails, and Ween) to the 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 ”Everything’s Ruined”

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

Released 1992

Appears on Angel Dust album

Produced by Matt Wallace

Guitars by Jim Martin

Key lyric ”And he made us proud/He made us rich/And how were we to know/He’s counterfeit.”

Single? Yes. Swish!!

Click to read more…

Imagine a world in which Chris DeGarmo never left Queensryche and the band kept writing awesome albums into their sunset years instead of veritable suckfests like Dedicated to Chaos (I’ll even give them the benefit of the doubt by including Promised Land in the “awesome album” list). Fortunately you don’t really need to try very hard to imagine such a world, because Anubis Gate exist and are pretty much single-handedly carrying the Queensryche torch into a new era, only faster, heavier and more modern-sounding. The new self-titled album by infamous MS troll Ziltoid’s favorite band is full of delicious riffs, proggy but not overly bloated songs, sharp musicianship and a general sense of Queensryche-ness that had me hooked from the very first time I listened to it. I was expecting nothing at all going on, but I’ve listened at least 5 times since; it’s that good!

Carlos Ramirez at Noisecreep knows exactly what I’m talking about. “Golden Days” wouldn’t have been my first choice of songs to premiere; it’s good but not necessarily representative of the album as a whole, so think of it as the “Silent Lucidity” to the band’s usual diet of “Jet City Woman”s and “Revolution Calling”s. But it’s still a solid tune. Check it out at Noisecreep, then come back here and commiserrate the state of modern-day Queensryche in our comments section.

-VN

Slayer now sell condoms in their webstore — “For when you’re going South of Heaven.” Seriously.

They come in packs of three or six; a three pack of Durex condoms with no Slayer logo on it will run you about two bucks, so, of course, a three pack of Durex condoms with a Slayer logo will cost you about thirteen bucks. Makes sense. Like charging twice as much for Monopoly because Metallica’s logo is on it.

And it’s worth noting that, unlike Kiss Kondoms, the band’s logo/likeness/whatever isn’t on the condom itself — so you’re literally paying more than six times what the things usually go for just to have the band’s emblem on the package you’re going to open (very likely in the dark, where you can’t see it too well anyway) and then discard.

So. Fucking. Lame.

-AR

[Via Metal Insider, who came up with a pretty joke about menstruation, too!]

Vince and I saw that super-duper-sweet Toxic Holocaust/Holy “So Much Hair” Grail/Krum Bums tour last week, and, as expected, all three bands brought the FUCKING ROCK. Hopefully, you’ve either caught one of these shows, or are able to catch one of the remaining ones (get dates here); one way or the other, the band’s new, handsomely filmed performance video, for the song “Judgment Awaits You,” may be the next best thing to actually moshing mere inches for the real-live band.

“Judgment Awaits You” comes off of Toxic Holocaust’s latest album, Conjure and Command, which is out now on Relapse.

-AR

[via Blank TV]

The only member of the original Skid Row that Sebastian Bach is still on speaking terms with is drummer Rob Affuso, probably because he, like Baz, was sacked from the band at some point in-between Subhuman Race and Whatever the Album After Subhuman Race Was Called. But whatever the reason, Affuso hopped up on stage with Bach last night during the singer’s solo show in Poughkeepsie. And while they had the good sense not to perform “Youth Gone Wild,” they did not have the good sense to have Rachel Bolan, Scotti Hill, and Dave Sabo on stage, too.

-AR

[via Classic Rock]

What Would Mike Portnoy Have Done? Certainly not put clip art on his band’s album cover or subject his fans to this “snippet” bullcrap they’ve been pulling for weeks now. This is 2011, not 2005; you release full songs, not snippets. No one gives a shit about snippets.

As for the actual music in the post-Portnoy era I wouldn’t know ’cause you can’t tell dick from snippets, especially with a band like DT whose songs are 14 minutes long. The one full song they posted was swell, though (and holy crap, it has nearly 1.5 million plays!)

In other news, I heard Dream Theater signed up for a Friendster profile. Check it out here.

-VN

Maynard James Keenan has released two new video teasers for Conditions of My Parole, the new album from his Puscifer project. And I have almost no idea what the what is going on in these clips — called The Book Of Douche Bag, Volumes 1 & 2 — I do know that I found them entertaining. In fact, I wish Puscifer’s music was this much fun… it’s a real bummer to enjoy the promotions for an album more than the album itself.

Click to read more…

I would not have expected a French black metal band to have a sense of humor, but I also wouldn’t have expected there be an earthquake in New York this week, so fuck expectations, I guess.

For their new video, “They Call Me Black Devil,” Glorior Belli have truly made a virtue of having no real budget of substance, simply by calling attention to their lack of funds, and doing so in a very funny way. My favorite part of this clip isn’t the letter from the band’s label, Metal Blade, at the start; it’s the guitar the dude is playing. I don’t wanna spoil the joke, I just want you to keep an eye on that instrument.

“They Call Me Black Devil” comes off of Glorior Belli’s The Great Southern Darkness, which Metal Blade will release on September 27.

-AR

Skeletonwitch have released the first in a series of webisodes chronicling the making of their new album, Forever Abomination. And I know there’s a real glut of in-studio webisodes being released in this day and age of flip cams and iMovie, but you should seriously check this one out, ’cause a) Skeletonwitch rules, b) you get to hear a little bit of new music, c) you actually do get some really good dish on the album, d) you get to learn a lot about new drummer Dustin Boltjes, e) it looks like it was shot by the people who made that movie Bellflower, and f) all of the above.

Forever Abomination comes out October 11 on Prosthetic. Skeletonwitch are going to be one of the support bands on Arch Enemy’s upcoming North American headlining tour, which we’re co-presenting with Full Metal Jackie; DevilDriver and Chthonic are also on the bill. You can get dates for that tour here. Skeletonwitch are also doing a bunch of off-dates with DevilDriver, and a bunch of headlining shows in the Midwest; you can get those dates here.

-AR

Metal Insider tells me that both Rob Halford and חיים ויץ‎ turned sixty yesterday, which isn’t really that old in the scheme of things, but is still most certainly a reminder that Metal’s Founding Generation is getting closer and closer to death. Then again, you know who isn’t getting closer and closer to death? Dead people. So, yeah.

ANYWAY, I remember when Mick Jagger turned fifty, The New York Times did a big article about it, ’cause I guess it was unfathomable that a rock star sex symbol would ever turn fifty. And sixty is obviously older than fifty. So I kinda feel like we should be writing some monumental piece about these two. Only, no fucking way am I spending time doing that. Instead, I think I’ll just prepare their obituaries, so we have ‘em ready for publication when these dudes finally go the way of Joey Bellardini’s voice. That seems like a much more constructive use of my time.

In conclusion: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ROB AND CHAIM!!!

-AR

Last week we gave away a copy of the book Mean Deviation, an awesome history lesson in the four decades of progressive heavy metal. And the winner is:

• Chief: “Countdown to Expulsion.”