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 ”A Small Victory”

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

Released 1992

Appears on Angel Dust album

Produced by Matt Wallace

Guitars by Jim Martin

Key lyric ”A cracking portrait/The fondling of trophies/The null of losing/Can you afford that luxury?”

Single? Yes. Best single ever!

Click to read more…

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 ”King For A Day”

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

Released 1995

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

Produced by Andy Wallace

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

Key lyric ”Don’t let me die with that silly look in my eyes.”

Single? No. But I heard it on college radio once. I was about to phone the DJ with compliments until he came back on air to say that he’d played the longish “King For A Day” only to enable a bathroom break. Compliment retracted.

Click to read more…

via Badass

Reading the comments under our announcement of The Metal Suckfest has been a lot of fun — mostly because the predictions regarding which other bands will be on the bill have been so very, very wrong. Hopefully we’ll get to announce a few more bands next week, but in the meantime, you cats need to try harder and be a little more imaginative when speculating.

And while you do that, here’s how we kept ourselves amused this week:

• We debuted new music by Today is the Day, Monstro, and, thanks to our friends at Decibel, Skeletonwitch.
• We also debuted a new video by Venia.
• Intronaut’s Sacha Dunable and Borknagar’s Jens Ryland both weighed in on the Century Media/Spotify drama.
• We spoke to Chimaira’s Mark Hunter, Dead Letter Circus’ Kim Benzie, Trapped Under Ice’s Justice Tripp, and three of the dudes from Fleshgod Apocalypse.
• We checked out the latest release from Wizard Smoke.
• We examined the evolution of deathcore.
• We felt bad for the sixteen year old who just got fired from Design the Skyline.
• We got excited about the Black Sabbath reunion, until we found out that it’s not confirmed yet.
• We carefully examined the first promo photo of Metallica with Lou Reed.
• We continued to count down  31 Days of Faith No More.

Until next week… eat your vegetables, stay in school, don’t drink and drive.

-AR

I don’t know very much about French death metallers Necroblashpheme, but I do know that they’re getting ready to release an EP called XXVI : The Deeper – The Better, and I know that the title track — which you can stream below — is FUCKING AWESOME. If the section that starts at the 1:03 mark doesn’t get you bangin’ your noggin, you must not have a pulse.

How much do I like this song? First I listened to it four times, and then I downloaded the band’s last EP, Destination: Nulle Part, without even hearing it first.
XXVI by Necroblaspheme

I don’t have a release date yet, but I do know it’s coming out on Agonia Records… more info as soon as I have it.

-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 ”The World Is Yours”

Written by Patton (L); Faith No More (M). Again, detail-knowers please internet me @AnsoDF? Cheerz!

Released 1998

Appears on the Who Cares A Lot? bonus disc and the recent UK collection.

Produced by Matt Wallace

Guitars by Jim Martin

Key lyric ”Faces on top of more faces/This bullet in your chest/The world is yours.”

Single? No. Outtake from Angel Dust sessions.

Click to read more…

One of the great things about Portal — the intimidatingly intense death metal band from Australia, not the highly addictive video game – is their mystique. Moreso than perhaps any other band — including Ghost — they have done a terrific job of keeping their actual identities a secret, and they’re all the more alluring for it. (Trust me. What little we know about them as real dudes is already disappointing.)

Now Metal Injection reader Keith Carlson has done a comic strip for Orlandooom which hypothesizes as to the origins of Portal’s vocalist, known only as “The Curator.” And while I’m not a shrink, I did take a psych class in school once, and it is my professional opinion that this is a 100% plausible scenario. In fact, just treat it like you saw it on Fox News and accept it as the unquestionable truth.

-AR

Though some of you may be tired of me writing about it, This Is Hardcore was awesome this year. One of the festival’s highlights was Deathwish recording artists Bitter End, a San Antonio, TX act with a penchant for New York style hardcore. I already knew that their latest record Guilty As Charged was one of my favorites from last year, but when during their set I found myself shouting along with the majority of the lyrics, I realized just how much it had stuck with me. I was originally scheduled to interview the band in person after their set, but in all the chaos and fun that didn’t happen. Fortunately, guitarist Jacob Henderson answered a few of my questions via email while on the way to their next gig.

Click to read more…

Yesterday was a big day for new music; amidst new tracks from Hull, Textures, Landmine Marathon and Skeletonwitch we had an embarrassment of riches. Hopefully you can forgive us for missing a couple of important new debuts from The Fucking Wrath and The Atlas Moth, as we’re back today to right our wrongs. Just because we didn’t get to these yesterday doesn’t mean we think they’re less important; you need to listen to these two new tracks!

Click to read more…

From The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette:

“Three men convicted of the murder of three West Memphis boys have pleaded guilty to lesser charges in a deal with prosecutors that will have them released from prison with time already served.”

This is obviously GREAT news. There’s really nothing else to say… it’s been a long, hard road for these fellas, and we’re elated that they’re now out of jail.

Celebrate in the comments section.

-AR

I’m not the resident Pathology fan around here, and I have no idea what Sergeant D. would make of the band’s new song, “Media Consumption,” which is now streaming on Lambgoat. But I actually really dig it, so I’m guessing he would hate it.

Click to read more…

You’ve already had the opportunity to hear two songs from Textures’ forthcoming release Dualism, but there’s no way you could have any idea of what the entire album has in store; it’s expansive, it’s forward thinking, it’s technical, it’s delicate, it’s heavy, it’s atmospheric… it’s all the things you love about Textures, but all in greater doses than ever before.

Lucky for you, MetalSucks is hosting an exclusive NYC listening party on August 31st at our most favoritest bourbon/beer/rock joint Idle Hands Bar. The entire band will be in attendance chatting, signing autographs and sipping whiskey, fresh off the plane from the Netherlands a couple of days in advance of their first ever U.S. tour (with Periphery, The Human Abstract and The Contortionist; dates here). This will be your first chance to hear Dualism in full, almost a month before its release (September 27th in the U.S., September 23rd everywhere else via Nuclear Blast), so don’t miss out!

Idle Hands is at 25 Avenue B, between 2nd and 3rd streets, downstairs. The listening party starts at 9pm and is only open to those 21 and over.

The Faceless are back in the studio recording their follow-up to 2008′s genre-expanding Planetary Duality — with the way bands release “studio videos” after the fact these days the album could even be in the can by now — providing new bassist Evan Brewer with his first opportunity to put his sick low-end skillz down on tape for his new band.

Not deterred one bit by guitarist/producer/mixer/band-mastermind (and #12 on our Top 25 Modern Metal Guitarists list!) Michael Keene’s past propensity to bury the bass in the mix below a volume level perceptible by humans, Brewer’s doing his damndest to prove that bass is worth hearing, darnit (as if his recently released solo album Alone didn’t already make a pretty good case). Here’s the most recent Faceless studio update video, in which Brewer discusses finding the right bass equipment and tone:

Hopefully we can expect the album to be released in early 2012. In the meantime, enjoy “The Eidolon Reality,” a pre-pro track the band posted a couple of months back, after the jump:

Click to read more…

As has been widely reported elsewhere, it looks like The West Memphis Three — Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley Jr., and Jason Baldwin – may be about to catch a break: there’s rumored to be a plea deal in the works which could finally see the men freed as early as today.

Which is obviously great news! According to Deadline, documentary filmmakers Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky*  – whose two Paradise Lost films have been instrumental in both raising awareness of the case and making a strong argument for The Three’s innocence — are apparently present in Arkansas for the hearing today, hoping to be able to stick a new, triumphant ending onto Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory, which will debut at the Toronto International Film Festival next month, and that would also be pretty amazing.

But here’s the story takes a weird/funny twist: Deadline also reports that Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh — the happily unmarried duo responsible for some little trilogy of indie movies called The Lord of the Rings (amongst other films) — apparently “‘played a leading role’ financially and legally behind seven years of efforts to get justice” for the trio:

Click to read more…

Times of Grace’s new video, for the song “Live in Love,” is like an odd hybrid of The Verve’s “Bittersweet Symphony” video and Soul Asylum’s video for “Runaway Train” — it’s basically just the band walking, intercut with various facts pertaining to a particular social issue.

But I have nothing bad to say about it, ’cause the social issue is abused children, and the video is meant to support the Rise Above Foundation, “a nonprofit dedicated to providing Massachusetts children in foster care with enriching activities, opportunities and experiences.” Which is, obviously, a very, very good cause.

Check out the video below, then head over to the Rise Above Foundation to learn how you can help. Times of Grace’s The Hymn of a Fallen Man is out now on Roadrunner, and we’re giving away some autographed copies of the CD booklet for this week’s Completely Unreadable Band Logo competition.

NOPE, THEY TOOK THE VIDEO DOWN. OH WELL. GO HELP THE KIDS ANYWAY.

-AR

[via The PRP]

You guys have all seen Wet Hot American Summer, right? Well, remember this scene?

Okay, now read this.

Then close your eyes for a moment and imagine the scene above, only Sergeant D. is the popular girls (it won’t be hard), and Frankie Palmeri is the D&D dork (it won’t be hard).

Got that image in your mind’s eye?

Great. Now check this out:

Click to read more…

Last week we offered a MetalSucks t-shirt of your choice and a grab bag of other swag from around the MS Mansion as the prize for our Photo Caption Contest, a mighty fine haul if you ask me. Here’s our winner:

• Chris: “How nice of James and Ricky to spend some time with a handicapped Danish boy through the Make-A-Wish Foundation.”

This week we’re giving away a copy of the most excellent book Mean Deviation, a detailed history of the four decades (!) progressive heavy metal has graced this planet. The book was written by Jeff Wagner with a forward from Porcupine Tree’s Steven Wilson. To win, simply do what you always do so well: leave a comment with the funniest caption to the photo below (sent in by MS reader Kyle Palmer). Man, that shit reminds me of high school… do kids still take tests on Scantrons these days? Remember to use a real email address (or post it along with your comment if you’re using FB Connect / Twitter etc).

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 ”Absolute Zero”

Written by Patton (L); Patton (M)

Released 1995

Appears on ”Digging The Grave” single; some Australia and Japan editions of King For A Day, Fool For A Lifetime album

Produced by Andy Wallace

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

Key lyric ”The clock is ticking/You have no authority here.”

Single? B-side.

Click to read more…

It seems like we’re getting a ridiculous amount of good new music today, doesn’t it? It’s almost overwhelming. It’s also pretty much, like, the best problem to have ever.

So. Next up on the docket is “Beyond the Lightless Sky,” the title track for the new album from Brooklyn’s own Hull. And, yeah, it’s fucking great. As the cover art suggests, it’s totally off-the-wall stoner metal that’s somehow fun and scary at the same time. In fact, if you get stoned, put the song on repeat, and just stare at that cover art, you could totally get lost in it and suddenly realize you’ve been trying to write about it for the past half-hour. I’m not speaking from experience or anything. My, uh, friend, who is also a blogger, told me that.

So yeah what were we talking about? Right. Hull’s “Beyond the Lightless Sky.” Check it out here. The album comes out October 11 on The End. It has guest appearances from Jarboe and Batillus’ Fade Kainer, so be twice as excited as you already were.

-AR

East of the Wall, an intimidatingly, almost depressingly good band that you absolutely need to get into if you’re not already, have unveiled the album art for the forthcoming release, The Apologist. You’ll notice right away that it is nothing like most metal album art, which is wholly appropriate, seeing as East of the Wall are nothing like most metal bands.

Why does an album called The Apologist have an old-fashioned looking image of a giant factory pumping Christ knows what into our atmosphere? I feel like this hints at some of the deeper meanings behind the record as a whole. It makes me even more stoked to hear this bad boy.

 The Apologist comes out October 25 on Translation Loss.

-AR

[via The PRP]

Can I say something that might sound kinda weird, but I mean as a total compliment? Listening to the new Landmine Marathon album, Gallows, is fucking exhausting. It’s short — like just under thirty minutes — and yet, each song so is such a whirlwind of fury, by the time you’ve completed the record, you feel like you’ve just run a… well… y’know.

Now the band has unveiled another new track from the album, “Three Snake Leaves,” right here. There’s been a live bootleg of the tune online since July, but the quality of this recording is obviously much higher, and also, like I was just saying, Landmine Marathon are fucking great, so you really check it out.

Gallows comes out September 27 on Prosthetic. Shortly thereafter, the band will start a tour with Warbringer, Lazarus A.D., and Diamond Plate, and if you’ve never seen Landmine Marathon live, holy shit do you ever need to do that. I’ve never seen them play a really big room before but I assume they’ll just be fucking shit up on a much more massive and potentially life-threatening scale, which will be SO MUCH FUN to watch/be an accidental participant. Get dates here.

-AR