Alex Winter is best known to metal fans as the guy from the Bill & Ted movies who isn’t Keanu Reeves, but for the past twenty years, he’s actually been maintaing a successful career as a director; he’s helmed some not-very-well-known indie movies, like the cult comedy Freaked and the psychological thriller Fever, but also lots of television, including episodes of Jimmy Kimmel Live! and two of the Ben 10 T.V. movies (which, if you have kids, you may be familiar with). And in 2002, he acquired the life rights to Napster co-founder Shawn Fanning, and announced plans to write and direct a feature film about Napster. Unfortunately, The Social Network kinda-sorta beat him to the punch last year — even though that film wasn’t really about Napster, it now seems clear that Justin Timerberlake’s portrayal of a Napster’s other co-founder, Sean Parker, is going to stick in audiences’ minds for some time to come.

But Winter isn’t giving up on the story just yet! He’s gotten VH1 to finance a documentary on the topic. And before you think “Oh, well, so it will be some shitty, low-budget Behind the Music affair,” remember that VH1 also backed a little documentary called Anvil: The Story of Anvil.

Winter tells Deadline why he finds this whole Napster debacle so fascinating:

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This article is mainly for all of you who are in a band(s) or are attempting to be. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a bunch of you misconstrue this article as a rant or a tool for me to vent about reactions to Periphery. To those of you who still believe that is my goal by the end of this, I would like to thank you. Although it is sad to see you miss the point entirely, perhaps you weren’t intended to understand this concept to begin with. And with this industry being about survival of the fittest, you are only going to make the lives of other professional musicians that much easier!

Let us start with a few things we know about the music industry:

1) It is hard to break into. Everyone wants to be in a band, and now that anyone can make music on a laptop, the industry is more saturated than ever. There are subgenres with absurd names popping up every day (for example the one that begins with the letters “Dj”). So as you start thinking about forming your first band and/or project, the odds are already highly stacked against you.

2) There are two main groups of factors that affect how successful a band is: factors you have control over like conducting good/smart business, and factors you don’t have control over such as being in the right place at the right time, and whether your music will be liked or not. This article is going to focus on one aspect that you DO have control over.

3) Everyone is on the Internet. People’s dogs have Facebook pages. And just because some people don’t post on forums or comment on blogs doesn’t mean they don’t read what is said. The grand majority of your favorite bands and musicians read a lot of the same sites you do, and lurk on a lot of the forums and blogs you frequent and perhaps post on as well.

4) At the end of the day, like it or not, this industry is a business. And the most successful bands usually get as far as they do by treating it like one. Sure you can have fun with it, but if you have ever wondered “Why did Band X make it and Band Y didn’t?” chances are Band X was better at the business side of things. That is the difference between making some noise for a few years and making a career.

With these four points in mind, perhaps you can see what I’m getting at.

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Terror’s new video, for “You’re Caught,” isn’t, like, the greatest thing ever or anything, but it is a nice change of pace from the same ol’ same ol’. In fact, that was the band’s intention, according to front man/hardcore Buddha Scott Vogel, who tells Bloody Disgusting, where the clip debuted –

“TERROR is always known for the generic hardcore video, and we wanted to do something different—something that had nothing to do with us playing instruments or jumping around all mad. I don’t think this is brutal or disturbing—it should make you laugh at us and see a new side to us. Come on, can you really take this thing seriously?? “

The video is, indeed, pretty funny… assuming, like me, you find pain and violence hilarious.

Check out the clip below… but be forewarned that it’s NSFW due to the aforementioned pain and violence. Terror will be part of The God Damn Tour with The Acacia Strain starting in October; get dates here.

-AR

Charts are a dime a dozen and often don’t tell you much you already didn’t know. But every now and then one comes along that really puts things into perspective. This animated .gif shows the sales of various formats of music by year. You can see the shift from the LP era to tape cassettes to CD and so on and so forth. The narrative here is of course very familiar already, but it’s the way it’s presented that makes the difference. Commentary from Fastcodesign.com:

… somehow, just the simple fact of stringing all these pie charts together tells you about the nature of music-format innovation. Here, the industry’s change appears inevitable, and the only surprising thing about it is how long the CD enjoyed a period of utter and total dominance. The CD ruled for far longer than most formats — and with extremely high margins, due to cheap production costs — but it was always doomed to be overturned.

Put another way: If you were a music executive sitting in a presentation 10 years ago and you’d been presented this chart, would you have any doubt that your CD business was going to die? Moreover, wouldn’t you have seen that in a historical context, the invention of the CD was an effervescent bit of luck? This ugly, animated gif carries a force that you can’t summon in a static line chart.

You can’t look at this chart without thinking, “What next?” This chart doesn’t take into account that the very idea that all people need to own music to consume it is quickly becoming outdated. MP3s as a dominant format have been around for a decade now (more if you start counting years when Napster first emerged), so perhaps the next shift is right around the corner: all-you-can-eat streaming services like Spotify, MOG, Rdio. If you’re a record exec right now, do you see it coming? Whether you see it or not… it’s definitely coming.

-VN

Thanks: Justin Reich

Just yesterday I was all happy because Rwake released previews of every song on their new album, Rest. And I was also sad, because those previews left me with an unpleasant coitus interruptus feeling. But now the band has unveiled a new song, “An Invisible Thread,” in its entirety, and so, yes, it is time to break out the tissues and finish what was started yesterday.

Here’s how vocalist CT describes the tune:

“‘An Invisible Thread’ is an anthemic song about the devil’s music, wife abuse, dreamscapes, and the ability to ’out of body experience’ your very own suicide. It is the ‘upper’ on the album. Not so much uplifting, just more of an all around upper.”

Indeed, once you read the lyrics, which have been included with the song’s debut, you’ll realize that the track isn’t “uplifting” — for example, the phrase “it’s a haunting and the sickness is the demon” doesn’t exactly make me wanna get my It’s a Wonderful Life on, y’know?

ANYWAY, the song is fucking great, and you need to check it out. Rest comes out on September 27 via Relapse.

-AR

There are two concepts that everyone in every genre or music today needs to get into their heads — and even more so if, say, you’re an unknown band that does not already have a significant following:

• Physical media is dead.
• It’s all about the music, stupid. Get your material out to the masses. If they like it, you will develop a fan base.

Pretty simple, right?

Now, keep this mind as you consider Moira’s Lake, the new album from Envinity, a band whose name means nothing in both the literal sense (“envinity” is not a real word) and figurative sense (you’ve never heard of this band before — this is the first thing that comes up when you Google their band moniker).

Here’s the first thing you will see if you go to the official web page for Moira’s Lake:

That’s right: for the low, low cost of fifty bucks — or twenty-seven bucks, if you pledge to get “at least one friend or family member to buy this” — you can get the album (“completely remixed and remastered,” although why anyone would give a shit about a remastered edition of a record they’ve never heard in the first place is completely beyond me), a running “creator’s commentary” (in case you’ve ever wanted to listen to people talk over music so you can’t actually hear that music), a two-hour making-of documentary, two twenty minute making-of featurettes (in case you didn’t feel that everything was sufficiently covered in the two-hour making-of documentary), the short story for Moira’s Lake (WTF?), the “never before released” lyrics to the album (nope, I have no clue when they would ever have been released previously), five desktop wallpapers (’cause those are worth money), and, oh yeah, A MOTHERFUCKING GAG REEL, because, as we all know, what most great records are missing is a gag reel.

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I somehow completely failed to realize that 3, one of the non-metal bands most appreciated by metal fans, were working on a new album… until I received my promo copy of that album, The Ghost You Gave to Me, last week. And, yes, that was a totally awesome, totally pleasant surprise. And, yes, the album is fantastic. These dudes do not disappoint.

Now you have your chance to get a taste of Ghost, too — the band is streaming the new song “Numbers” right here. And I know I was just saying how 3 aren’t a metal band, but it actually IS kind of a metallic song — I mean, there’s some real rockin’ sections that would not seem out of place on an album released by any number of the band’s Metal Blade label mates.

Check out the song for yourself and let us know what you think in the comments section below. The Ghost You Gave to Me comes out October 11 via the aforementioned Metal Blade.

-AR

Last week I wondered aloud how Trivium’s first-week showing for In Waves compared to the first weeks of their past albums, and my secret Soundscam correspondent came through once again. Here’s how their past three albums performed in their first weeks of release:

The Crusade (released October 8, 2006): 31,156
Shogun (released September 28, 2008): 23,577
In Waves: 20,635

A downward trajectory to be sure, but 20,000 is still quite an impressive number in this day and age. I wonder how Roadrunner Records views it?

Onto other matters: Chimaira, Attila and Revocation all had big debuts last week. Let’s take a look.

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Any boxing buffs in the MS readership? If the name Tiger Flowers sounds familiar to you that’s because Theodore “Tiger” Flowers was the first African American heavyweight boxing champ. But for the rest of you it’s probably because NYC band Tiger Flowers and their heavyweight riffs appeared on Volume 1 of our completely free NYC Sucks compilation released this past winter. The song on the comp, “Cuts,” was just a sample of the visceral carnage this band has in store; now armed with a freshly inked deal with The Path Less Traveled Records, Tiger Flowers are set to unveil their self-titled EP on September 20th.

“Drag,” a nine-minute epic of crushing intensity at both breakneck and plodding paces, is now available for streaming at Gun Shy Assassin. The song perfectly encapsulates what this band is about; dragging you through the dirt with their jarring, angular, post-hardcore inspired attack, first fast, then slow, then fast again, then slow again… just to fuck with you. This music is straight up mean.

Stream “Drag” at Gun Shy Assassin then come back here and tell us what you think. The Tiger Flowers EP comes out on September 20th as a digital release only.

-VN

Early this month, MetalSucks writers teamed for a series listing 2011′s excellentest records so far. And I tried to protest the usefulness of any best-albums list that’s been compiled ahead of releases by Steel Panther (Oct. 18) and The Devil’s Blood (Nov. 11). I’m a confident super-journalist so my stand was firm, but MS co-chief Axl Rosenberg (here) made a show of not listening to me as he flashed a knife all casually, like “Hey check out the ease with which this slices through a package of hot dogs.” Gulp. Message received, half-year’s best list submitted.

For now, The Devil’s Blood is on that list in pencil, but today brings us a step closer to uncapping a marker for their forthcoming record The Thousandfold Epicentre cuz pre-sale is now open at Ván Records. The art is rad (above) and fat-wallet types will love fancy-schmancy LP and CD editions (here). The Ván site also announces that a “Fire Burning” 7″ (b/w an exclusive acoustic version) will be available October 11. And you’re jamming!

-ADF

Get The Devil’s Blood’s irresistible 2009 album The Time Of No Time Evermore here cuz you love awesome shit. The Thousandfold Epicentre is out November 11 on Ván Records. 

Mazel tov to readers Kevin Castaneda and Lucy Martin. They correctly identified last week’s logo as belonging to the band Klizmatorture, and for their troubles, they each win a copy of the CD booklet for Times of Grace’s The Hymn of a Broken Man that has been signed by both Adam Dutkiewicz and Jesse Leach. I hope you kids take those booklets all up and down your block, gloating to your friends about how awesome you are for having those, Kevin and Lucy!

This week, we have another chance for you to win some killer swag, this time courtesy of SHP Records: in celebration of the August 30 release of Brazilian melodic power metaller’s third studio album, Inner Monster Out, we’re giving one grand prize winner a copy of the CD PLUS a sweet Shadowside t-shirt, and one runner-up a copy of the CD. Pretty frickin’ cool, right? You can get more info on Shadowside and pre-order the album here, or, of course, just enter this contest!

All you gotta 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 a grand prize winner and a runner-up, and announce their names one week from today.

This week’s logo was suggested by reader Melissa Stern… and hol-ee shit, is it ever hard. Best of luck to ya!

-AR

(TesseracT 2k11! Official photo with new vocalist Elliot Coleman.)

Yesterday the metalsphere with abuzz with the news that TesseracT had parted ways with vocalist Daniel Tompkins and had replaced him with Sky Eats Airplane / Of Legends vocalist Elliot Coleman. Instead of opting for the traditional route of announcing a band member swap with much media to-do, TesseracT just went and showed up for a gig in Milton Keynes, UK with Coleman holding the mic, didn’t say a word, and let the Internet do all the dirty work for them. Today TesseracT came out with an official announcement featuring quotes from various involved parties, but we’ve up and done you one better: an interview with bassist / main band-businessman Amos Williams.

Amos shared with us his thoughts on new vocalist Elliot Coleman, how it came to pass that Tompkins and the band parted ways, future U.S. tour plans, a new album and what the band members do when they’re not touring

Our chat after the jump. Later this week we’ll unveil Part 2 of the interview, in which we talk about… well, just wait.

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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 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 ”Home Sick Home”

Written by Patton (L); Patton (M)

Released 1997

Appears on Album Of The Year album

Produced by Roli Mosimann (Swans, Wiseblood), Billy Gould

Guitars by Jon Hudson

Key lyric ”Come home/It’s been so long/Can’t hide no more.”

Single? No.

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Landmine Marathon are a competent death metal band. To their fans, that may sound blasphemous; to casual admirers, it may sound like I’m underselling them. But, really, isn’t that a compliment? To be a band that a) can play their instruments, b) can play their instruments without Pro-Tools tinkering, c) leave something of an impression all while d) still playing ball in the rigid rules and orthodoxies of death metal is quite a feat; we’re so conditioned to seek out the BEST OF THE BEST that sometimes it’s easy to forget that there are competent bands out there doing great work. So while I don’t think the metal world would be any different if Landmine Marathon weren’t in it, I’m certainly glad they’re around to roundhouse kicking motherfuckers in the face. And Gallows, their latest, is a great front-to-back listen of gruff, unpretentious death metal. Nothing more, and that’s for the best.

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Seems like Ocean mastermind Robin Staps took this piece about how to tour in China to heart; dude done gone and booked a 10-date Chinese tour for The Ocean! Having met and talked with Staps, I can say the man definitely loves traveling. I’ll bet he set up this tour more as a way to travel across China than as a promotional vehicle for The Ocean… although he’s certainly gotta make ends meet and this tour can’t be cheap. Who knows, perhaps The Ocean have a huge fanbase there?

Of more immediate import to the majority of MetalSucks readers is this: The Ocean are reportedly returning to the U.S. from mid-October through the end of November in a direct support slot for a band that hasn’t yet been named. From The Ocean’s Facebook [via Heavy Blog]:

Right after these dates, mid-October until end of November, we will be returning to the US for the 2nd time this year. We will be direct support this time, playing a 40 minutes set, for a band that we can’t name just yet. We know how much you like speculating about these kinda things, so bring on those rumors…

So. Any ideas? Who will The Ocean be opening for on their U.S. tour? My guess would be it’s a tour that’s already been announced in some capacity.

-VN

Charred Walls of the Damned are a rarity in the metal world — a supergroup that’s actually super. And because I’m a big dumb idiot, I didn’t really get that into their eponymous debut last year; but now that I’ve heard their sophomore effort, Cold Winds on Timeless Days, I know I’m a big dumb idiot, and I can now remedy my previous blunder.

Case in point re: me being a big dumb idiot and CWotD owning every and all asses: their new single, “Zerospan,” which you can check out below. I defy you to listen to it and not raise a pair of invisible elephantiasis-afflicted nuts towards the sky. It’s impossible. It just can’t be done.

Cold Winds on Timeless Days comes out October 11 on Metal Blade, and was produced by guitarist Jason Suecof. The rest of the band, in case you somehow don’t know, consists of legendary drummer Richard Christy, vocalist Tim “Ripper” Owens, and bassist Steve DiGiorgio.

-AR

We really cannot wait to share with you the entire lineup of the inaugural Metal Suckfest, our very own metal festival in New York City featuring 20 bands over the course of two full days; you will like, very, very much!

Last week we unveiled Cynic and Municipal Waste as the headliners. You’re gonna have to wait a little longer to see what the entire bill will look like, but for now you can get a sneak peak via the sleuths at Brooklyn Vegan. First they noticed a post on The Red Chord‘s Facebook page announcing themselves and Obscura on the same day as Cynic, and then they got a tip from a reader that Rosetta will be playing that very same day. All true; we can’t deny it.

November 5th: Cynic, Obscura, The Red Chord, Rosetta + 6 TBA
November 4th: Municipal Waste + 9 TBA

Stay tuned for the rest of the lineup.

Legendary thrashers Forbidden parted ways with drummer Mark Hernandez last week, a happening we failed to report upon because, Jesus Holy Christ, there’s basically two of us and it’s just not feasible that we’re going to be able to write about everything that happens ever, especially given that this entire site is editorials, which actually take some time to write, as opposed to, say, just cutting and pasting press releases.

ANYWAY, Forbidden. Down a drummer. They’re snagged some dude named Gene Hoglan to fill-in for a few dates — namely, the upcoming Alcatraz Festival in Belgium and the ProgPower Festival in Atlanta — but, of course, they’re going to need a permanent replacement. And thus, the band has decided to scour the land so full of undiscovered and unappreciated talent: the internet.

Here are the details, direct from the mouth of guitarist Craig Locicero:

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We’ve been excited about new East of the Wall music since… well, pretty much since several MS staffers enjoyed their last album Ressentiment so much that they named it as one of their favorite records of 2010. That excitement continued as news of a brand new album began to bubble up earlier this year and culminates right now in the form of our very first musical taste of what said new album, The Apologist, has in store.

In short, The Apologist is the same but different; the same wonky, jazzy, proggy via post-hardcore East of the Wall-isms that made Ressentiment (and its predecessor Farmer’s Almanac) so endearing, but done in new ways, evolved to the next level, more ambitious. Which is exactly what you want from a new album by a favorite band of yours; to do the same thing all over again would just be boring. One thing that immediately jumps out as different from Ressentiment is the rawer, more organic production quality, courtesy producer Andrew Schneider, renowned for his work with Cave In, Pelican, Keelhaul, Rosetta and many others. Ressentiment was actually recorded as a different band featuring mostly the same members (the now defunct Biclops) so perhaps the change in sonic aesthetic is a reaction to that; either way, worry not, for it still sounds fucking phenomenal and all the instruments are crystal clear in the mix.

Stream “Whiskey Sipper” from The Apologist below. The album comes out on October 25th and is available for pre-order now on both vinyl and CD (with slightly different cover artwork… so get both!!). East of the Wall will be on tour in October and November with an assortment of merry gentlemen, including Tidal Arms, Iron Thrones, Meek is Murder, Goes Cube and White Arms of Athena on various dates. See when they’re coming to your town after the jump.

[this streaming promotion has ended]

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Only five releases today, which is fine, because it’s my birthday and my college started classes back up yesterday. We still have a bunch of stuff coming out this fall to get excited about, but this week is highlighted by releases from Leprous and Atriarch, as well as ICS Vortex’s first solo album. To the reviewing!

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