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 Unmothered’s self-titled debut.

For the two of you who are big fans of Austin’s incredibly bitching metal band Lions of Tsavo, Unmothered is what happened to guitarist/vocalist Matt Walker after he left Lions of Tsavo post-Swarm of the Unholy. For the rest of you, just know that Unmothered are an incredibly bitching metal band from Austin. And they’re releasing their eponymous debut EP for free. If you still aren’t convinced that you need to download this pronto, it’s probably because you’re bugged by Unmothered’s name due to some severe childhood abandonment issues. Unmothered can’t help you there. But they can help cure your case of All-Metal-Sounds-the-Same-Itis and Unable-to-Headbang Syndrome.

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Damn. After a few slow weeks of new releases, we have a ton of new stuff coming out this week, including new stuff from Anthrax, Dream Theater, Wolves in the Throne Room, Haste the Day, Vader, Primus and my personal favorite, Elks, plus many more. We have officially entered the fall new release season!

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Whether you’re going to the Big Four show at Yankee Stadium tomorrow and wanna start pre-gaming early or you’re just in the NYC area and looking for something fun to do this evening, do not forget: we’re teaming up with  Metal Injection, Metal Insider, and Metal Army to throw a massive Big 4 pre-party at our favorite bar, Idle Hands. John Jospeh from Cro-Mags is DJing, and there are gonna be some other metal celebs in attendance, although if you wanna know who… we’ll, you’ll just have to be there, won’t you?

$4 drafts starting at 7 pm; you can get even more details from Idle Hands’ website. See ya there!!!

-Axl & Vince

For the latest edition of their ongoing series “The Fix,” our number one homies over at Metal Injection got Michael Amott and Sharlee D’Angelo to pick out some of their favorite videos, including clips from Fates Warning, King Diamond, Savatage, Queensrÿche, and Crimson Glory. Check that shit out below, ’cause it’s, like, way entertaining.

Don’t forget that Arch Enemy is currently headlining the North American Khaos tour, which we’re proudly co-presenting with  Full Metal Jackie. Support comes from DevilDriver, Skeletonwitch, and Chthonic. You can get dates here.

And, of course, you can and should check out more episodes of “The Fix” over at Metal Injection.

-AR

It’s no secret that I love Ugly Kid Joe, and got totally excited when the band announced their reunion last year. And so it was with great excitement this morning that I learned that UKJ have not only recorded a new six song EP, but that one of the songs from said EP, “Love Ain’t True,” has now been played on the radio, which, of course, means it’s now on the internet (above).

And then I actually listened to the song, and then I wept.

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If you’re not a musician, last night’s Metal Masters Clinic 2 — held prior to Anthrax’s so-secret-everyone-knew-about-it show at the Best Buy Theater in NYC — was probably a massive bore. But to everyone else (like me!) it was a wet dream come true; Mike Portnoy having a drum-off with Charlie Benante, Ellefson talking about famous Megadeth bass riffs, Frankie Bello talking about watching porn and playing bass at the same time, all of them jamming on some classic tunes together, and, most notably, this:

Ian, Bello, Benante, Ellefson, Portnoy, Kerry King and Phil Anselmo performing two Pantera cuts. It’s the kind of staged event that might otherwise be cringe-worthy in its attempt at spontaneity, but who gives a shit? As a fan it was really cool to see all those guys jamming up there at once. It was also my first time seeing Anselmo perform Pantera songs live.

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No joke: With a single image, Nightfall’s completely fucking crazy clip for “Astron Black” becomes a contender for Best Video of 2011. And that image is this:

This is really the only moment of overt humor in the clip, which basically plays like 300 by way of a Mastodon video. So I’m not sure if Nightfall and director Achilleas Gatsopoulos intended it to be hilarious, or if they think they’re saying something like, way profound — in Greek mythology, Gaia is like the Earth Mother who gives birth to everything, so I suspect they may have indeed been aiming for profundity. But even if that is the case, you should totally watch the whole video after the jump, because even without the above image, there’s a lot of really, really cool imagery.

There’s another lady in the video who’s basically naked the whole time, so consider it NSFW.

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Say! Have you ever wanted to be able to look at your computer monitor and see yourself as some kind of freaky animal thinger? Like, for example, the freaky animal thinger on the cover of the new Mastodon album, The Hunter? Of course you have! I mean, who hasn’t?!? Amiriteoramiriteoramirite?

Well, hey, guess what? I have GREAT NEWS for you. Physical copies of The Hunter will allow you to do just that! Seriously! I’m not teasing! Check out the video below if you don’t believe me.

And the best part is, there’s absolutely no chance that this is only going to be cool for thirty seconds and then immediately lose all its novelty value! You could definitely just sit in front of your computer for hours and hours and hours, seeing the head of the thing from The Hunter cover on your own head, and it would be totally fun, productive, and relatable use of your time! Yep. Totally worth it.

The Hunter comes out September 27 via Reprise.

-AR

[via The PRP]

If you’ve ever told someone that BETWEEN THE BURIED AND ME is better than HATEBREED… you just might be an internet metal nerd. If you’ve ever pretended you don’t like a band because they played Warped Tour and you were afraid your friends would call you a poser… well, you’re probably an internet metal nerd. If you actually think Decrepit Birth has gotten better, not worse, it’s pretty safe to say you just might be an internet metal nerd. And if you’ve ever had a nerdrage tantrum when someone calls your pet band deathcore, there’s no two ways about it: YOU’RE DEFINITELY AN INTERNET METAL NERD!

An IMN is more than simply a metal fan who also uses the internet: being an IMN is a lifestyle. And unfortunately, it’s not a recipe for success as a human being. In fact, it’s the fast track to ending up a lonely, miserable weirdo who alienates everybody but other lonely, miserable weirdos. I know this because I speak from experience: it’s not easy for me to say this publicly, but the truth is that I was once a metal nerd :(

But I’m not here to hate. As a former metal nerd who knows your pain, I am here to help: THIS POST IS A SAFE SPACE! We can be honest with each other here. There is no judgement, only real talk. Want to know if YOU are an internet metal nerd, and what to do if you are?? Find out after the break!

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Remember Motley Crue’s The Dirt? Of course you do, it’s like the single greatest thing ever written by anyone anywhere in the history of writing or even conveying stories via grunts and finger painting on cave walls. And Neil Strauss, the guy who put it together, clearly understands storytelling as an art form; for one of the cardinal rules of telling a story is “Grab your reader right from the start,” and Strauss certainly accomplished that. Here’s the entire first paragraph of The Dirt, told from the point of view of Vince Neil:

“Her name was Bullwinkle. We called her that because she had a face like a moose. But Tommy, even though he could get any girl he wanted on the Sunset Strip, would not break up with her. He loved her and wanted to marry her, he kept telling us, because she could spray her cum across the room.”

BRILLIANT. A++++ WDBWA. In just four sentences, Strauss has pretty much assured that you will read the rest of The Dirt. This paragraph has sex, it has humor, it makes immediate reference to other members of Motley Crue, and it offers a “Psst! Wanna hear some gossip?” tone that allows the reader to feel secure that he or she did not waste his or her money. No wonder this thing was such a high seller.

Now, let’s contrast this with the opening paragraph of It’s So Easy and Other Lies, Duff McKagan’s new autobiography, the first eighty pages of which are now available for free download here:

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I had never heard of The Raid before last week, when it debuted at the currently-in-progress Toronto International Film Festival to rave word of mouth. I’ve seen a lot of comparisons online to John Woo’s Hard Boiled, which is high praise indeed. And the trailer (below) certainly looks quite kick-ass. (And very violent. I guess that makes is NSFW. Fair warning.)

Unfortunately, The PRP tells me that — as the above headline states — Linkin Suck’s Mike Shitoda is scoring the film. I don’t know if that’s his music in the trailer or temp music, but it certainly sounds Linkin Suck-ish, which is a bummer. Hopefully, Shitoda’s musc will be innocuous in the final film, and therefore won’t distract from all the ridiculous gore that I’ll be paying to see.

No word yet on when The Raid is getting a wide release, but here’s the official synopsis of the film, courtesy Collider:

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If you live in North America, it can be easy to forget (assuming you ever even knew) that metal is, like, 1,000,000% bigger in Europe than it is here. Case in point is Nergal, who has not only been the victim of multiple baseless, Tipper Gore-esque attacks from the religious right in Poland, but is also going to be a judge on the Polish version of The Voice,  and now graces the cover of that country’s edition of Newsweek.

I don’t speak Polish, of course, but the always helpful Google Translate tells me the literal translation of the headline is “GOD HORROR HOME*, Polish the Face of the Unknown Devil.” Actually, that “unknown” bit may be the site telling me it doesn’t understand a word. But it’s clear that the story is about Nergal’s aforementioned persecution from uptight Christians. If any of you Polish readers out there (and I know there are a few of you) can offer us a better translation, we’d be much obliged. Also, please tell us what Kate Winslet has to say about Roman Polanski! Sounds juicy.

-AR

*I first saw this on Metal Injection, where one of the MI Junkies says that it’s “Homeland,” not “Home.” SO FUCK YOU, GOOGLE TRANSLATE!!!

Few records could be as intrinsically polarizing as Anthrax’s Worship Music, the thirteen-song set whose release tomorrow ends a maddening period of band tumult while launching a new era with singer Joey Belladonna. It’s an album with history, having been completed with a new vocalist, imperiled by the new vocalist, shelved, shuffled, completed again by Belladonna and producer Jay Ruston, and now, at least, unveiled for the world to hear. In other words, Worship Music has arrived with baggage; how much of it will fit in your trunk?

Representing at least two attitudes toward Anthrax 2011, our MetalSucks official roundtable review of Worship Music is co-authored by a John Bush era devotee (MS Co-Editor-In-Chief Axl Rosenberg) and a long-suffering Belladonna booster (MS Senior Editor Anso DF). On the fence about Worship Music? Sick of one-sided, insight-free criticism? Bemused by the way MetalSucks disagrees with itself? Then join Axl and Anso as they grapple with the meaning of this year’s most dangerous album.

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My own fragile sense of mortality means that I’m still adjusting to the fact that the original bands from the New Wave of American Heavy Metal — commonly mislabeled as “metalcore” — are now hovering somewhere around their tenth year of existence. As I Lay Dying are the latest band to hit the one decade mark, and while I can’t say I was one of the cool kids who has known about them since the release of Beneath the Encasing of Ashes, I do remember when I first heard Frail Words Collapse, and it really seems like it was just last week.

But enough about my own neurosis. The story here is As I Lay Dying’s tenth anniversary, which they’ll celebrate by releasing an album entitled Decas. Mercifully, it’s not just a lame greatest hits collection — instead, it will feature three new songs, covers of classics by Slayer, Judas Priest, and Descendents, and remixes of old AILD tunes by the likes of The Dillinger Escape Plan’s Ben Weinman, Big Chocolate, and Kelly “Carnage” Cairns. You can check out the first new tune, “Paralyzed,” below. It’s equal parts heavy and catchy, which is to say, it’s an As I Lay Dying song, and a good reminder of why the band grew to be so popular in the first place.

Decas will come out November 8 on Metal Blade, and you can already pre-order it here. And if that isn’t enough to give you your As I Lay Dying fix, the band will continue the celebration of their birthday with the ”A Decade of Destruction,” which starts at the end of November and will feature support from Of Mice & Men, The Ghost Inside, Iwrestledabearonce, and, maybe best of all, Sylosis, who I personally am absolutely dying (no pun intended) to see. Here are dates, courtesy of AP:

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Greetings sports and metal fans everywhere, and welcome back to the glory of football! That’s right, the world’s greatest sport is back and men everywhere are heaving a collective sigh of relief. No more Sundays at the mall, or like, hanging out with your family or something. NO! Our butts are attached to our favorite butt-supporting device, and we will not be moved! Bring me chips, woman! Honey? Where did you go?

Before we start our coverage let me first of all say that football is so awesome that we stole the name of the world’s most popular sport and used it for ours, and then insisted they were wrong. That makes Europeans mad. Well, let them be mad! They can go fight it out at the gay SOCCER match. And actually they do, as some of those European soccer hooligans can be pretty nasty. Isn’t it funny that a sport that is so gay (soccer), and has such a gay name (soccer), attracts such violent followers? Over compensation, I do believe. But on to American FOOTBALL.

Anybody who knows me knows I am a big Redskins fan. But when they asked me to do this column they were very clear… I have to cover the whole league! Shit, that’s a lot of teams, and I hate most of them. Generally speaking, the further west you go, the more I hate the team, with the exception of the Raiders, who I always liked (because of the cool uniform). But I don’t have another “favorite team” or even a second favorite… I believe you get one team and you stick with them ’til the end! And considering that I am a Skins fan, those are not easy words to live by. OK, lets get to the action!

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When I think of the act of drifting — and I mean, like, while relaxing on a lake or whatever, not that thing that street racers do — I think of soothing relaxation, letting my muscles go limp, and generally putting no effort whatsoever into what I’m doing. And the new Fuck the Facts song, “Drift” — which our friends at Brooklyn Vegan are streaming right now — certainly does not seem like the sound of soothing relaxation and limp muscles.

It does, however, seem like the sound of awesome, furious, face-melting grind. Which is probably a good thing, because if Fuck the Facts released something that sounded like, say, Buckethead’s “Whitewash” — let alone released such a track on an album called Die Miserable — we would all probably feel kinda confused.

Jump in the pit here, then come back and let us know what you think (as though you needed an invitation). Relapse will release Die Miserable on October 11.

-AR

Last week, we launched our third annual “Run MetalSucks for a Day” contest, in which we challenged you, our beloved readers, to tell us why we suck for a chance to take over the site on Friday, September 23. As always, we got some really funny answers, and now we’ve narrowed it down to six finalists. In alphabetical order, they are Blacky, The Flying Scotsman, Justin Gosnell, HessianHunter, Tim, and Vakarm.

What happens next is up to you guys! You can read all the finalists’ entries after the jump; then, anytime between now and  midnight EST on Friday, September 16, vote for who you think should take over MetalSucks for a day. We’ll announce the winner on Saturday, September 17, and then it’s up to that winner to, y’know, do our job for us for twenty-four hours.

Here’s the ballot and the finalists’ entries… good luck to you all!

-Axl & Vince

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While we continue to wait for that Killcorpse Murder project with Adam D., Corpsegrinder, and Shannon Lucas to get off the ground, here’s another newly-teased supergroup to get you all hot under the collar.

Noisecreep noticed on Friday afternoon that DevilDriver vocalist Dez Fafara and Lamb of God guitarist Mark Morton announced — via their respective Twitter accounts, natch — that they were collaborating on “a bunch of KILLER tunes,” with Circus of Power, Soundgarden, and Trouble being cited as influences. And, uh, I really have no idea what that would sound like. I hear the aural relationship between Trouble and Soundgarden, but Circus of Power is where I get thrown for a loop.

ANYWAY, on Saturday The PRP strung together a bunch more of Fafara’s tweets, which seek to clarify/update the news:

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If you live in the U.S. and you didn’t get to see one of Ghost’s first two North American shows this past May/June (like the one I reviewed), now would be a good time to start weeping. ‘Cause the band has been forced to pull the plug on their previously announced stint touring with Enslaved and Alcest later this month.

The culprit, according to a press release, is “last minute complications with the Ghouls’ visas.” Sigh. Ghost may be able to rise above the metal pack, but they can’t rise above red tape. Bummer bummer bummer.

The band is hoping to come back and do a full U.S. tour soon, and we will definitely let you know when/if those hopes become realities. In the meantime, take solace knowing that an Enslaved/Alcest tour is still totally worth your time, even if having Ghost on the bill would have made it that much more awesome. You can get tour dates here.

-AR

Fall has become the de-facto touring high season for metal bands in the U.S. Aside from a small handful of medium-sized tours, there’s rarely much to go see during the summer: bands spend May, June, and part of July touring the European festival circuit, and no one wants to compete with the big package tours like Mayhem and Warped during July and August. By the time September rolls around bands are chomping at the bit to hit the road, and this year is no different. Holy shit. So many shows. I’m overwhelmed. First World Problems.

To start: Arch Enemy, Anthrax, Opeth, Periphery, Enslaved, Kvelertak, Immolation, Dream Theater, Firewind, Devin Townsend, The Atlas Moth, Warbringer and Decapitated are all out now or about to head out. Those are only the headliners, and those are only the dates I actually bothered to put into my calendar or can remember off the top of my head. To say nothing of our very own Metal Suckfest, 3 days of madness. Add this blockbuster bill to the list: Mastodon, The Dillinger Escape Plan and Red Fang. The fall touring season just got that much more awesomer. Full list of dates, via The PRP, after the jump:

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