Brutal Truth have unveiled another new song from their upcoming album End Time, and it may be my favorite one yet. It’s called “Fuck Cancer,” but I don’t just like it because it displays BT’s more philanthropic side — it’s also a really, really crazy-freaky good grind song. BONUS! It has been medically proven* to prevent tumors, and it’s less than a minute long. So, really, you should give it a listen… it could save your life**

End Time comes out September 27 on Relapse.

-AR

*Or so we were told by a man claiming to be a doctor who was seeing patients in his van outside the A&P. MetalSucks is not legally responsible for any tumors you may acquire despite listening to the song.
**See above.

Metal Insider‘s Bram Teitelman just keeps bringing it with the golden oldies of embarrassing “before they were famous” videos; this chili dog commercial starring Cinderella and this ad for Warrant’s 1-900 number were bonafide gems. Where does he find this stuff? I’m convinced Bram just sits at home on YouTube all night scrolling through search pages for “metal ’80s funny” until he strikes paydirt. Oh, he actually found this via The Daily Swarm? Nevermind.

Today’s laugher comes courtesy of one-time goth idol Trent Reznor, who apparently wasn’t always so dark and angry. Here’s a video of him covering Billy Idol’s “Eyes Without a Face” with a band called The Urge in the early-mid ’80s Cleveland club scene. THAT SHIRT! THAT HAIR! Trent’s always been forward-thinking and “with it” as far as technology goes, but I’ll bet today he wishes YouTube were never invented.

-VN

BREAKING NEWS: Victory Records sensations DESIGN THE SKYLINE have parted ways with their bassist, Ethan. Information is sketchy thusfar, but here’s what we know via his Tumblr (lulzy parts highlighted in bold):

So my asshole band members just kicked me out because im 16. Ive worked so hard in this band ive done alot i drove all the way to chicago with them to get signed i made 2 music videos with them i do nothing wrong. And were going on our first tour in about 2 weeks. And there just dropping me like that. Nothing ever goes well for me in my life not school not relationships and finially i get in a band ive loved music my whole life and we finially get signed a dream come true and now ive lost that. I feel like that once in a life time chance had finally come and now its just gone like that cause my band members are fucking heartless. They know what shit ive been through but there just selfish. Now i feel like my life isnt worth living im just a normal ass person like ive always been and that sucks, i was so excited to see what tour is like and get to go to europe and see beautiful places on this earth. I cant even type right right now im shaking im so scared and mad and idk its an intense feeling i just broke a mirror with my hand and im bleeding i feel stupid. wtf is wrong with me. nothing goes well for me and this is just like assuring me nothing else ever will.. omg im freaking out. a;sdkjf;f FUCK man. i hope NONE of you guys have problems like this in yalls lives i hope you all live amazing wonderful happy lives no one deserves this but apparently i do for some fucked up reason..

AFTER THE BREAK, the tl;dr version…

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Let it not be said that Relapse Record is fighting the future like some metal record labels; the long-standing bastion of quality metal has announced a partnership with Moshpit Tragedy to release what they’re billing a ”sliding-payment download series.” Each week for the next 24 weeks, one new title from the Relapse catalog will be released digitally at MoshpitTragedy.com for a price of the buyer’s choosing, starting at only $2.99.

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If I’m not mistaken, Chimaira vocalist Mark Hunter has now been interviewed for MetalSucks more times than any other musician — which is fine by me. Not only is he one of my favorite front men all of modern metal, but I always come away from these interviews feeling like I actually learned something about a band I love. In a world where it increasingly feels like too many folks are giving what I’d call “paint by numbers” answers to interview questions, Hunter’s willingness to be so sincere is always refreshing.

And, besides, Chimaira’s new album, The Age of Hell (out today on eOne — stream it here, buy physical copies here, or download it from iTunes here), is not only totally awesome, but it arrives admist a flurry of drama and controversy, as the band changed fifty percent of the line-up in the intervening years since 2009′s The Infection. So there was certainly plenty to discuss this go-’round!

After the jump, read the full transcript of my most recent chat with Hunter, in which he discusses those line-up changes, Hell‘s creation, the band’s upcoming tour plans, and much, much more.

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Tony Iommi just posted the below message on his official website. It’s not exactly a denial that there’s no Sabbath reunion going on, but it is a denial that Iommi has confirmed the reunion, so, uh… yeah, I guess let’s see how this one plays out.

Here’s the statement:

“I’m saddened that a Birmingham journalist whom I trusted has chosen this point in time to take a conversation we had back in June and make it sound like we spoke yesterday about a Black Sabbath reunion.

“At the time I was supporting the Home of Metal exhibition and was merely speculating, shooting the breeze, on something all of us get asked constantly, ‘Are you getting back together?’

“Thanks to the internet it’s gone round the world as some sort of ‘official’ statement on my part, absolute nonsense.  I hope he’s enjoyed his moment of glory, he won’t have another at my expense.

“to my old pals, Ozzy, Geezer and Bill, sorry about this, I should have known better.

“All the best, Tony “

-AR

Thanks to Cody Daniels for the heads up.

Horns up for reader Kimberly De Simone. She correctly identified last week’s logo as belonging to the band Introrectalgestation. For her efforts, Kimberly wins  a copy of the CD booklet for Opeth’s Watershed that has been signed by the entire band. I hope you get that framed, Kimberly!

This week, we have another awesome prize, again courtesy of the nice folks at Roadrunner Records:  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. Pretty sweet, right? And we’ve got TWO of ‘em to give away!

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 two winners and announce their names one week from today.

This week’s logo was suggested by the reader known as “Utmu,” and it is a fucking doozy… best of luck reading it, ’cause I sure as shit can’t!

-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 Last To Know”

Written by Patton (L); Gould, Patton, Bordin (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 ”Where it grows on trees/But never blooms/Where it hurts the least for whoever/Saw it first.”

Single? No.

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A 100% accurate portrayal of the research discussed in this article.

In college, I once took a course on literary representations of New York City, and one the texts utilized was Frank Miller’s graphic novel, The Dark Knight Returns.

My point being simply that it was only a matter of time until academia turned its eye towards extreme music.

From an official press release:

“A research group of a faculty member and graduate students in the University of North Carolina system and in the university of Oulu, Finland, are conducting a multi-year international study of the meaning of metal music. The research project was started in summer 2008 and its main data consists of questionnaires and interviews on the meaning of metal to the different participants of the global metal scene. So far, the researchers have received 370 survey responses, representing a diverse community of Metal fans—men and women between the ages of 13 and 70 from 25 different countries have participated in the research project thus far. Some of the artists interviewed in the project include members from Amorphis, Dark Tranquillity, Disturbed, Nonpoint, Swallow the Sun, Katatonia, The Black Dahlia Murder, Kreator, Epica, Scar Symmetry, As I Lay Dying, Barren Earth, Rotten Sound, and Cannibal Corpse.”

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Deftones videos sometimes feature smokin’ scene chicks (here and here), but I even dig the ones in which singer/non-actor Chino Moreno stars awkwardly (here) and the ones comprised wholly of concert footage. And I endorse the latter as an ace advertisement for Deftones’ always-killer live shows and the hot Mexican emo girls who attend them. And that’s just what we have for Diamond Eyes‘ fifth official video, “Beauty School” (above), with bonus backstage peeks and a few choice shout-outs by drummer Abe Cunningham: He flashes a DVD of Abel Ferrera’s King Of New York and dons a T-shirt from Minneapolis venue First Avenue (as he did two Fridays ago at Lollapalooza). That shirt + Cunningham makes me flashback to a 1996 Deftones show at First Avenue after which my face was punched into a different area code. I’ll never again cooperate when an angry jerk asks me to allow him a running start.

-ADF

The Deftones tour is now winding through Europe and winding up in Russia, where the scene chicks are super-hot and, according to porn, will do anal with little cajoling. Cough dates here.

Ever since Anso DF raved about Xerath when he took over the site for a couple of days while Axl and I were off cavorting with Colombian druglords out of town in April, I’ve been hooked. Here’s Sir Studliness DF himself on the stealth, baby aardvark-impaling qualities of their new album II:

Xerath [fuse] slamming prog-tinged death metal with soaring, tasteful film score symphonics. For some bands, this melange may stay a gimmick, an excuse to be so-so on the strength of their slick band concept. Not here. Xerath is awesome at it, and II is equal parts high drama and snug, well-built riffage.

No Clean Singing’s always dependable Islander agrees, likening his Xerath listening experience to “scaling the fence at a commercial airport, dashing out onto the tarmac, leaping up behind a big plane, and sticking your head in the back end of a jet engine just as the aircraft takes off.” I’m not sure I share Islander’s fantasy of being burnt to a crisp, but I do share his love of Xerath’s new video for “Reform III.” The video itself isn’t anything amazing — I could’ve done with less storyline and more shred footage — but it’s engaging enough as a cinematic piece and serves as the perfect excuse to post about and listen to the band’s music.

Amazingly, all of Xerath’s new album II is still streaming for full here. Get on it before they read this and it’s pulled!

-VN

I’ve left this blog alone for a while because I feel like artistry and punditry shouldn’t come from the same place, but I’d like to chime in here as someone who is actually affected by this whole Spotify issue.

First off, I am a paid premium subscriber to their service and absolutely love it. This is definitely the beginning of the end for tangible musical product. Once they have literally everything ever legally recorded on there, what use will your iTunes library, CDs, etc have? I think it’s the next logical step to find middle ground between the consumers who want everything to be immediate and for little or no money, and for the people who provide the product (music), who need consumer support in order to be sustainable. Of course, there is still some evolving and adapting to do. I’m sure that as this method of consumption grows in popularity, there will be more services like Spotify who make it even more simple to use, add more features and integrate more social networking, and as that grows, I’m sure there will be more money to split up to the people who actually provide the content (a single stream currently earns you something like three thousandths of a cent).

Having said that, I’m going to stand up for Century Media in this case.

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Although it’s boring as fuck. It might be slightly less boring if you’re stoned, I dunno, I haven’t tried watching it that way (yet). But really it’s just shaky cam footage of the wilderness, kinda like that also-boring-as-fuck video Times of Grace released last year.

Also, it’s apparently supposed to be “found footage” in the video, although I ain’t never heard of no found footage that has kaleidoscope effects n’ shit.

Not that it matters. The song is great, and I’m pretty confident that the band’s new album, The Hunter, is gonna be great, too. And whenever the band gets around to making a real video… well, they’ve certainly had good luck with that in the past!

The Hunter will be out September 27 via Reprise. “Curl of the Burl” is available for digital purchase now.

-AR

We’re extremely excited about MonstrO, the new band featuring ex-Torche guitarist Juan Montoya, bassist Kyle Sanders (Skrew, Bloodsimple, brother of Mastodon’s Troy Sanders), drummer Bevan Davies (Danzig, Comes With the Fall), and vocalist and guitarist Charlie Suarez (Sunday Driver, no relation to Gary). Modern-day Torche is fantastic, but if you ask us they haven’t been the same since 2008′s infectious Meanderthal, the last album to feature Montoya. That’s where MonstrO comes into play.

No disrespect meant to the other three musicians in this band, all quite established in their own right, but Montoya’s hefty stoner-pop paws are all over this band. Fans of Torche are really gonna love MonstrO’s forthcoming William DuVall-produced (Alice In Chains, Comes With the Fall) album. Shit, all fans of good music are gonna like it; it’s heavy, fun, and easy to get into without being cheesy in the slightest. Preview the track “Stallone” below, “Anchors Up!” on the band’s Facebook page, and pick up the album when it comes out on September 6th via Vagrant Records.

[this streaming promotion has ended]

MonstrO will be in tour in September and October with Kyuss Lives. Dates after the jump:

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Our friends over at Metal Injection have premiered “Let the Sin Begin,” the new video from Five Finger Death Punch Hinder Godsmack Drowning Pool, and let me tell you, the clip is, no sarcasm, a must-watch. Because there’s hot girls in it. And it’s not like there are other places on the internet where you can see hot girls. I mean, it would be even better if these chicks got nekkid, but, again, it’s not like there are just sites all over the internet where you can see hot nekkid girls. Certainly, no such sites exist where you can see hot nekkid girls without irritating monster truck show rawk playing in the background.

So until that time when someone finally, finally, FINALLY launches a website with lots of hot nekkid girls, this video is a must-watch. But if such a site existed, then, yeah, I probably would tell you not to even bother with this.

-AR

We keep getting e-mails regarding the below video of Charlie Sheen at The Gathering of the Juggalos this past weekend, because allegedly it shows how he was booed and pelted with bottles and generally not met with a warm greeting from all the little Ninjas. “How are you guys not all over this?!?!” one reader even asked.

Thing is, it doesn’t really show any of that fun stuff. I think I counted four bottles thrown at Sheen, and he doesn’t seem particularly offended — in fact, he catches two of the bottles, and is met with applause for doing so. There aren’t even any really audible boos until he announces an act and walks off the stage, and it’s not clear if the crowd was booing Sheen or the upcoming performer. So it’s not like this was a repeat of the Tila Tequila incident from last year’s Gathering.

In other words: this video is not that entertaining, but if you wanna see what all the fuss is about, here it is.

-AR

I may not be a huge Puscifer fan, but nothing is going to top this this year. Not even Opeth’s heads in a tree.

Conditions of My Parole is out October 18.

-AR

[via The PRP, who think it may be the best album art of the decade]

Getting back into the flow of things this week we have a good number of new releases to listen to as we head out of the summer release season. New stuff from Yob, Chimaira, Revocation and Today Is The Day are probably the biggest releases this week, with some lesser-known gems in the herd as well.

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UPDATE: Uh, maybe this isn’t happening — check out Tony Iommi’s official statement.

They are, according to  MetalTalk.net, who broke the news yesterday, and now the Birmingham Mail, who have gotten a confirmation from Tony Iommi.

It’s not exactly shocking news; after Dio passed away, putting an end to Heaven and Hell (which was really just a reunion of a different era of Sabbath), it seemed like an inevitability. And it’s not exactly bad news, either; last time I saw this reunited line-up, at Ozzfest 2005, they put on a fun enough show, even if Ozzy is Ozzy and none of these guys are exactly vibrant and youthful. But it’s the kind of thing where I’d say if you’re either a huge Sabbath fan or you’ve never gotten to see them before, it’s worth checking out a show.

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