Without question, Trapped Under Ice is one of the biggest bands in hardcore today, an impressive coup given their relative newcomer status compared with established scene leaders like Hatebreed, Madball, and Terror. Through hard work, hard touring, and undeniable talent, the Baltimore band have somehow managed to fight their way to the top riding the wave of their 2009 game-changing LP Secrets Of The World. Their forthcoming follow-up, the ominously titled Big Kiss Goodnight, has already garnered considerable excitement among hardcore fans. A few days prior to this past weekend’s This Is Hardcore festival (review here), I seized the opportunity to speak in depth with TUI frontman Justice Tripp about the new album. That interview is available for your enjoyment below the cut.

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Not only has Revolver just debuted a terrific new Textures ditty called “Reaching Home,” but they’ve got an interview with drummer Stef Broks about the song, too. Which means you need to get your ass to Revolver.

And, like I was sayin’, “Reaching Home” is awesome — and you can rest assured that so is the rest of Textures’ new album, Dualism. It’s diverse, too — “Reaching Home” is quite melodic and there’s obviously nothing wrong with that, but if you’re a cranky dude like me, I can assure fans that there’s some way, way heavier shit on the record, too.

Dualism comes out September 23 on Nuclear Blast. You can pre-order it here for U.S. headbangers and here for those in Europe. As if you needed any more incentive to buy the album, you should know that all Indie Merch pre-orders will be automatically entered into a raffle to win a Textures Mayones guitar, which is obviously way sweet.

And don’t forget that Textures will be touring North America for the first time ever this fall, and with Periphery, The Human Abstract, and The Contortionist, no less. Get dates here.

-AR

Those arguing that streaming services like Spotify spell the death of the music business and therefore good music should take a look at our archive of Unsigned and Unholy posts. We could feed an army of metal-starved heshers for years with all the good shit we’ve unearthed (and bands have sent us) over the years. To that end, this week’s sounds for bleeding ears:

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[UPDATE, 3pm EDT: Now including Thrice track embed.]

MetalSucks is nothing if not diverse in our taste in metal, so much so that it’s not uncommon to see comments calling us hipster douchebags and mainstream panderers in the very same post. Hey, we can’t help it if we enjoy all sorts of metal. We also enjoy chicken, red meat, vegetables, fruit AND seafood: go figure!!

In order from least to most heavy, let’s listen to brand new tracks from Thrice, Saviours and Century:

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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…

This month’s Decibel Flexi artist is Skeletonwitch, who have forever endeared themselves to me by picking vintage SuperSonics gold on green as their color scheme. (Note: Skeletonwitch are not from Seattle and didn’t have shit to do with the colors.) Anyway, the music on it is pretty choice, too, especially if you’re an O.G. Witch fan. And I’m talking really O.G.—like, say, the Garnette boys’ (probably nonexistent) little sister. “Tragedy of Days” was the closing instrumental to their 2004 debut At One With the Shadows. You won’t find a review in the first couple issues of Decibel because AOWTS came out on Shredded Records (someone might wanna update the actual album’s Wiki page), and sells for a handsome $80 on eBay today. Anyway, the Flexi version of “Tragedy of Days” has full vocals, so it’s essentially a brand new song. Pretty cool move on their part. You can preview it here to make sure they didn’t ruin the jam you haven’t heard—they didn’t:

Skeletonwitch “Tragedy Of Days (dB010)” by Decibel Magazine

Then secure this gem by ordering the new issue in our webstore pronto.

-AB

Decibel’s October 2011 issue also features Mastodon, The Black Dahlia Murder, YOB, Today is the Day, and a Queensrÿche/Operation: Mindcrime Hall of Fame. But the only way to ensure that you get one of these awesome flexi discs is to get a full subscription.

I can’t believe that this has been going on for as long as it has, but to review:

• Nergal tore up a Bible on-stage during a performance in his native Poland.
• A conservative Christian sect consequently took Nergal to court, ’cause insulting someone’s religion is actually illegal in Poland.
• Nergal was acquitted of all charges.
• The group appealed and took Nergal back to court.
• And now Nergal has been acquitted again.

And, hopefully, that’s finally the end of this nonsense. Metal Insider points out that the case could be appealed again, but if that happens, I say we invade Poland and take shit over. We’ve done more damage to a foreign country for lesser offenses, so why the fuck not? Everyone needs to get the fuck off of Nergal’s nuts so he can concentrate on important shit, like, y’know, getting one of the best bands in metal today back up and running.

I pray (joke intended) that we never have to write about this BS again, but I guess we’ll wait and see what happens.

-AR

Ridiculously awesome Canadian grind quintet Fuck the Facts have released the album art for their upcoming offering Die Miserable*, and in the words of the anonymous reader who tipped us off to the event, “I have no idea what is on that cover.” I have made my screen as bright as I possibly can in order to try and make it out, and I just can’t.

And yet… I get this feeling from looking at it… so maybe that’s the point. Maybe you’re just supposed to let the image wash over you. Maybe you’re just supposed to look at it and really feel as though you’re going to die. Miserable.

Whatever the fuck is going here, I’m sure the album is gonna be great.

Die Miserable comes out October 11 on Relapse.

-AR

*I would really like to be a family gathering with a member of Fuck the Facts, preferably when they are meeting someone’s new significant other for the first time. “And what do you do?” “I sell insurance.” “Really?” “No, I’m in a band called Fuck the Facts.” “Called Fu…?” “Yeah, and our new album is called Die Miserable.” “Oh… oh…”

Remember when we told you last week that Chimaira were gonna do a U.S. headlining tour in the fall with Impending Doom, Revocation, and Rise to Remain? Well, dates have been announced! And I don’t really know what else to say, other than that you should look at those dates after the jump, figure out which one is closest to you, and go. Because Chimaira + Revocation = massive amounts of fun. You should also read this interview I just did with Chimaira vocalist Mark Hunter. And if you haven’t bought Chimaira and Revocation’s respective new albums, The Age of Hell (out now on eOne) and Chaos of Forms (out now on Relapse), you should do that, too.

And now, the tour dates:

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The official website for the upcoming Metallica/Lou Reed collaboration has launched, although right now there is absolutely nothing of interest there save for this picture of the old bass player for Suicidal Tendencies and four terminal cancer patients.

Still, I thought you might wanna know that the project is moving forward; presumably the next step is either to release some actual music, or a photo of Trujillo with a bunch of burn victims.

-AR

Italy’s Fleshgod Apocalypse are the current winners of the Band I Had No Idea Was So Popular Award.  Every time they sneeze, we get a cavalcade of e-mails about it. And when they played as part of the MetalSucks-sponsored Summer Slaughter tour (remaining dates here) in New York last week, the venue was packed when they went on despite the fact that it was 3:30 in the afternoon on a Thursday and they were only the second band on the bill — and the crowd knew every song. I was, frankly, shocked.

But pleasantly so! Fleshgod Apocalypse are fucking great, and they deserve all of the success they’ve been experiencing as of late. I suspect that their new full-length, Agony (out now on Nuclear Blast), is going to wind up on a lot of year-end lists, and their live show absolutely does not disappoint. These dudes are the real deal.

So I was stoked to get to speak with guitarist/vocalist Tommaso Riccardi, guitarist/vocalist Cristiano Trionfera, and drummer Francesco Paoli a couple of hours after their Summer Slaughter set. After the jump, check out our chat about touring the U.S., breaking out of the Italian metal scene, the differences between American crowds and European crowds, their upcoming MetalSucks-sponsored tour with Decapitated, Decrepit Birth, The HAARP Machine, and Rings of Saturn, and more.

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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 ”Collision”

Written by Patton (L); Hudson, 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 ”All the day’s plans/All the shaking hands/Beepers and suntans.”

Single? No. “Collision” starts FNM’s final album (as of this writing).

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Germany’s o.68 (short for Odpörovät 1968) make metal I could fall asleep to, and I mean that as a compliment. Sometimes I want metal to wake me up and sometimes I want metal to put me to sleep, ya know? If you were under the impression that gloom, doom and despair with growled vocals would prevent you from reaching dreamy-dream land, you probably haven’t heard o.68 yet. Their slow and soothing brand of funeral death-doom lulls me into a subdued state of relaxation and would have me dreaming of a mystical land of heavy metal vikings and princesses in no time.

While o.68 are technically signed to Ominous Silence, without the backing of a major metal label I feel they’re still a good fit for this column. Check out o.68′s new album Elend on Bandcamp; it’s good stuff!

-VN

-AR

[via Explosm.net]

I don’t really know enough about Stray from the Path and Harm’s Way to talk about them in either a positive or negative light, but I do know that The Acacia Strain and Terror are good bands who put on really fun live shows. And so I am here to tell you that all four bands will be touring together this fall, under the moniker of the “God Damn Tour.” Which isn’t the funniest name for an Acacia Strain tour ever, but is still pretty good.

ANYWAY, seriously, go check out TAS and Terror if you can. And if I need to know who Stray From the Path and Harm’s Way are, someone feel free to tell me.

Here are tour dates, courtesy of The PRP:

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Lesson #1: Do not wear a Black Tusk shirt on Christopher Street in the West Village. People get the wrong idea.

Lesson #2: Hiring John Baizley to do your album art is still a good decision. I know some people feel his distinctive style has worn out its welcome, but those people are wrong. Case in point: the cover for Black Tusk’s Set the Dial, which is pretty frickin’ sweet.

Set the Dial comes out October 25 via Relapse.

-AR

Look up “bad business” in the dictionary and you’ll find two pictures of L.A. Guns, both current incarnations of the band side-by-side. Phil Lewis L.A. Guns and Tracii Guns L.A. Guns have been cannibalizing each others’ income, confusing fans and making complete assholes out of themselves in the press for years. Which version is the real L.A. Guns? Does anyone besides Lewis and Guns really give a fuck?

Italian power metallers Rhapsody of Fire are about to go the same route. Rhapsody of Fire hold an important spot in the power metal canon, and truth be told I’m a casual fan. The group has released eight studio albums over their 18-year career and stayed the course despite power metal’s perpetual un-coolness; no one can deny them that. But now they’re making a complete circus out of themselves by pulling an L.A. Guns and splitting into two versions, both of dubious credibility.

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Primus have always been a band I respected more than I liked; I mean, I’ve never heard a Primus song and thought “Oh, this band is terrible,” but I’ve never gotten really into a Primus album, either. People love Primus, and I get it. Les Claypool is a talented dude.

So. Primus have released “Tragedy’s A’Comin,” the debut track from Green Naugahyde, which is their first new studio album in over a decade. And, befitting a band that was last active in the late 90s/early aughties, they’ve released the song to Spin. Friggin’ adorable, right? Makes me wanna pinch Claypool’s cheeks.

ANYWAY, you can check out the track here. Sounds like Primus to me, but I’ll leave it to the experts to decide.

-AR

Thanks to Tim for the tip.

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 Wizard Smoke’s The Speed of Smoke.

I have neither the proper subwoofer nor the proper, y’know, glassware to fully appreciate the bong resin-saturated heaviness of Wizard Smoke’s second album, The Speed of Smoke. To my totally non-high ass though, listening to this album is every bit as enjoyable as burning a fatty, and totally holds up without one.

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photo by Kathleen Weishaar

Yes, it is indeed time for another edition of “Readers’ Choice Randoms,” in which I attempt to clear some space in my inbox by listening to a few random bands suggested by you, our beloved and most valued readers. So take my hand and join me on this fantastic adventure, won’t you?

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Last week wasn’t as big for new releases as this week is going to be, but we did see respectable debuts from Trivium, Adrenaline Mob and Fleshgod Apocalypse. Let’s see how those albums — and more — sold last week, after the jump.

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