I am still trying to figure out what kind of column this should be. I have found that a general blurb is too limiting. I can’t cover anything in the depth I want to, and I always leave out somebody who feels their team is deserving of notice. I am reminded of watching Monday Night Football as a child, desperately hoping that my team would make the halftime highlights reel, and being horribly offended when they didn’t. Plus there is the stone-cold fact that I just don’t care about a lot of teams in the league. Reporting on them is boring. So after considering my options carefully, I decided to write about WHATEVER THE FUCK I WANTED.

Week Three in the N.F.L. saw a couple of perennial loser teams continue their winning ways, a couple of big-time QB’s continuing their slides towards oblivion, and left a couple million guys like me trying to figure it out. But why? Because football, and sports in general, offers one of the last true escapes from this crazy modern world, and the fact that all of your friends are doing it makes it even more acceptable. It’s kinda like having a one-day vacation once a week, and if your team is playing on Monday night, it even comes back again for a little while. But damn… never has a vacation been so vulnerable to fate’s whimsy. Interceptions, penalties, and especially potentially career-ending injuries to franchise players that your team then lies to you (the fan) about can really screw up your fun. But that’s OK, it’s not like you flew the family to Disneyworld. No matter how bad it gets, the fridge is full of beer.

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The always-excellent Clutch recently launched their own line of beer with New Belgium Brewery, and to celebrate they had a party, and of course they played at that party, and one of the songs they played at that party was a new tune called “Newt,” and so now of course there is video of that new song on the internet. (Author takes a sec ’cause he’s winded.) And it’s a neo-Clutch song, which is to say, it’s bluesy and it’s catchy and it makes me wanna dance dance dance despite the fact that I am as caucasian as caucasian comes. Check it out below:

No word on when a new Clutch album, which will presumably include “Newt,” is coming out, but in case you had any doubt, at least now you can rest assured that it will most likely be good.

-AR

[DC Heavy Metal by way of Metal Insider]

That’s right, kids! For the second year in a row, MetalSucks is proud to be teaming up with our friends at Metal Injection and 1000 Knives for a totally kick-ass CMJ Music Marathon showcase at the always-fun Club Europa in Brooklyn. This year’s edition will take place on Friday, October 21, and will be co-headlined by the unfuckwithable one-two punch of Kvelertak and Skeletonwitch, as part of their MetalSucks-presented U.S. tour with Zoroaster (full itinerary here, although Zoroaster will not appear at the CMJ showcase). Support will be provided by three up n’ coming bands that we absolutely love and think have big, big, big things in their future: Barn Burner, Turbid North, and Battlecross. It is going to be a totally fucknuts crazy show and wild-ass party, so if you live within walking, driving, or swimming distance, please join us!!!

Again, the concert is on Friday, October 21, at Club Europa in Brooklyn, and you can get more details on the show via its Facebook page. Tickets are on sale now for the so-cheap-it’s-silly price of fifteen bucks. Buy ‘em here!

-Axl, Vince, and Everyone at MetalSucks

… so we put a Spotify on your Facebook, so you can Spotify while you Facebook!

If you’ve logged onto Facebook over the past couple of days you’ve no doubt noticed the LOL-inducing new sidebar feed, so poignantly repped by our good friend Xzibit. You’ve also probably noticed that Facebook now allows Spotify users to directly integrate a music feed of what they’re listening to in real time into their status updates, similar to the way Last.fm users can automatically post their live playlists to Twitter (and FB too if I’m not mistaken). It all happens automatically once you link your FB and Spotify accounts; you don’t have to manually enter each song you’re listening to. The Facebook/Spotify integration goes one step further, too, by allowing Spotify members to click “play” and listen to the same songs as their friends from within their Facebook feeds:

Even if you’re anti-Spotify, it’s incredibly hard to deny how valuable this integration will be for bands and their record labels. Let’s break it down:

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And I bet some of those girls were really, really sore by the end.

ANYWAY, lest you think my headline is just my usual crude B.S., you should know that “17 Girls in a Row”* is the title of the new Steel Panther song (below), and the bit about never going flaccid is an actual lyric from said song. More importantly, though, you should be asking yourself this question: How come actual vintage hair metal bands that are still recording and touring, like Mötley Crüe, Poison, and both versions of L.A. Guns, can’t come up with anything this good?

“17 Girls in a Row” comes off of Steel Panther’s latest, Balls Out, which will be released on November 1.

-AR

*I can’t type that song title and not think of this scene from Clerks. It’s the “in a row” part that gets me every time.

[via Bring Back Glam!]

In all honesty, I had never heard of The Bailey Hounds before out pals at Metal Insider posted the below video of the alt-country outfit doing an acoustic cover of Pantera’s “The Great Southern Trendkill” earlier today. That probably has something to do with the fact that I don’t listen to a lot of alt-country, or really any alt-country at all. But said acoustic cover is really pretty good…

…except it isn’t really a cover so much as a complete reinterpretation, which is to say, it uses the lyrics from that Pantera classic and really nothing else. That’s not a criticism; “Trendkill” is the title track from what might Pantera’s least melodious album ever, and I have no idea how one might ever do a straight-forward translation of the song on acoustic instruments anyway, unless maybe you were just went all John-Belushi-in-Animal-House and smashed the guitar against a wall. In fact, the only song from that album that jumps out as me as an even semi-obvious choice for non-electric treatment is “Floods,” but maybe that woulda been too obvious for these Bailey Hounds fellas.

ANYWAY, check out the performance below, and then cry blasphemy or have some appreciation for sumthin’ a lil’ bit different from our usual fare in the comments section below.

-AR

Not that art is a competition or anything, but just you so know where I stand as a Machine Head fan and how your own tastes may or may not match up with my own, here are my three favorite pre-Unto the Locust MH releases, in descending order of preference:

• The Blackening
• Burn My Eyes
• Through the Ashes of Empires

So.

Machine Head’s The Blackening was some kind of goddamn masterpiece, an album that rightfully met with near-universal acclaim. And that acclaim wasn’t just hype, or critics and fans being swept up in the moment; the four-and-a-half years since its release haven’t diminished The Blackening‘s power any. There are few, if any, bands on earth that could make something that friggin’ good, and then follow it up with a record of equal, or even greater, quality.

And the bad news is, that Machine Head have not achieved this near-impossible task. Unto the Locust is not as good as The Blackening. But it is as good as Through the Ashes of Empires, and totally worth the nearly half-decade fans have had to wait for it — and that ain’t nuthin’ to sneeze at.

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It’s been a while since we heard anything from Early Man, the Brooklyn-turned-L.A. outfit who were one of the very first bands to usher in the current thrash revival. What have they been up to since the release of Death Potion, which came out last year? Why no extensive touring?

Turns out band mastermind Mike Conte has been up to something else entirely: writing the score for a brand new cartoon series on Cartoon Network called Secret Mountain Fort Awesome. Conte tells MetalSucks that “The score is very metal, lots of riffage, and the cartoon is also very metal, lots of classic toilet humor.” Sounds fun! He adds:

The creator of the show is a huge Garbage Pail Kids and Don Martin/MAD Magazine fan and the influences are clearly there but the show is definitely it’s own thing. There’s some killer guest voice appearances (Dee Snider plays a tooth fairy in one episode). There is a character called “The Fart” who steals the show in every episode. It’s technically a kids show but metalheads of all ages should be on the lookout, they’ll dig it.

Secret Mountain Fort Awesome premieres tonight on the Cartoon Network at 8:30pm. Check out a preview of the series premiere featuring Conte’s riffage here and the very metal end-credit music here.

-VN

When it comes to deathcore, there’s a pretty clear hierarchy: You’ve got the first-string bands like Suiside Silence, Whitechapel, BMTH and Winds of Plague at the top of the heap, the junior varsity, like, say, Chelsea Grin rounding out the middle, and then the 5 zillion generic also-rans/no-hopers at the bottom of the pile. Carnifex is an interesting one though, because I’m not quite sure where to put them, the bottom of the first string or the top of the JV team. I kind of feel like they are just floating out there, with no real clear sense of where they belong.

With that said, they have a new album on leading independent music retailer VICTORY RECORDS coming out next month and just released a lyric video for the first single (above). Although it pretty much sounds exactly like their old stuff, I think that kind answers most of my questions about where they fit into the deathcore hierarchy. Is this style still a thing?? Seems very deathcore 2.0 to me — I expected them to copy Meshuggah and Korn like all the first-tier started doing last year. Also, the video itself is pretty facepalm inducing… if you feel like making your own DEATHCORE LYRIC VIDEO, apparently all you need is a torrent of After Effects and some freeware grunge fonts!

Anyway, if you are on the West coast, check them out on tour next month with Suffokate and the highly underrated FIRST FUCKING BLOOD! Hit them up on Facebook for a complete list of dates.

-Sergeant D.

Sergeant D. is a first-stringer every day on Stuff You Will Hate.

A headline like “Tori Amos Issues Challenge to Metal Bands” is hard to ignore.  So I went over to Spinner.com to read this interview with Ms Amos, and this is what she had to say:

“Well, look, sometimes you don’t know how music affects people. I embrace that because I don’t think that just because I talk about emotional stuff that it’s not mother—er stuff. I’ll stand next to the hardest f—ing heavy metal band on any stage in the world and take them down, alone, by myself. Gauntlet laid down, see who steps up. See who steps up! I’ll take them down at 48. And they know I will. Because emotion has power that the metal guys know is just you can’t touch it. Insanity can’t touch the soul. It’s going to win every f—ing time.”

Before we get too riled up, it’d be smart to remember that homegirl has a new album to promote, and will spout any number of ridiculous soundbites to sell some plastic. Also, the offending paragraph showed up at the end of the interview, and feels like an offhand remark. Metal news sites went apeshit over it, though, so here we are. I sincerely doubt that Ms. Amos really intends to stand onstage next to Iron Maiden (or Manowar!) and “blow them off the stage.” Unless she’s got about sixteen Orange amps to blast her whispery, piano-driven poem-songs through and 4/5 of Vader providing backup, she ain’t gonna have much luck.

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We missed a whole lotta new videos while we were out on Friday, so I’m gonna post ‘em — and my snarky and not-so-snarky commentary, of course — now. Please excuse my lack of a traditional introduction about little effort I am going to put into this introduction.

First up, we have The Devin Townsend Project’s video for “Juular,” which was directed by David Brodsky. And holy poo, this video is GREAT. The animation is fantastic, and the way the camera moves, swooping in and out of shots… it’s just a totally epic visual expression of an awesome, awesome, awesome song. Also, anything where an old man is blowing something phallic is a-okay in my book. This is definitely a contender for Video of the Year.

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Lots of other stuff happened in the metal world while a WWF-style drama unfolded on MetalSucks last Friday, yes? So let’s get right down to it and take a listen to new music from Animals as Leaders, Exmortus and Electro Quarterstaff.

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I really liked “Public Enemy No. 1,” the first single from Megadeth’s forthcoming TH1RT3EN, and I liked it even more after I heard the band perform it live at the Big Four show earlier this month. But based on the comments below our story about that song, it seems like you guys really weren’t feeling it.

Hopefully, you’ll dig the second song released from that album, “Never Dead,” more. It has a really classic-sounding Mustaine riff, and while I think the hook could be a little stronger, it still beats the heck outta anything on United Abominations. BONUS: There is no spoken-word poetry to be heard on the whole thing.

TH1RT3EN comes out November 1 via Roadrunner.

-AR

A week and a half ago, I totally fucked up and said that Unearth would be one of the support bands on the second leg of Chimaira’s upcoming “The Age of Hell” tour. I repeated this mistake last week, too, ’cause I’m a big dummy. In fact, while Chimaira will, obviously, still be touring in support of The Age of Hell, Unearth are NOT support — they’re co-headliners. Which makes total sense.

My apologies to Unearth, a band I love and respect, for my most grievous error.

Get the full set of dates for this awesome, awesome tour after the jump. Actual support will come from Skeletonwitch and Molotov Solution.

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Loutallica, left to right: Rob Trujillo, Lars Ulrich, James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, Lou Reed

I said I was over it with this Metallicrap when we first heard a thirty second sample of “The View,” the first single off their upcoming collaboration with Lou Reed, Lulu; I’m still over with it this Metallicrap. I have finally come to a good place in my life, a place where I realize that the only thing which will ever remind me of why I used to so worship Metallica is listening to the old Metallica albums that made me fall in love with them back in the day. They are not ever going to release something new and good again.

But let’s face it, MetalSucks ain’t a news site, exactly, but it is a site that discusses the news, and the fact that the full song has now been released is news, so, y’know, I’m posting it. I really have nothing to say about it, other than the fact that the song shares a title with a television show in which four old ladies and one obligatory young woman sit around and talk about nothing of interest seems totally appropriate. Also, I think Whoopi Goldberg and Lars Ulrich have both shtupped Frank Langella, so there’s that.

ANYWAY, the full song is after the jump if you wanna hear it. Lulu comes out November 1 on Warner Bros.

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I done been a fan of Vancouver, Canada’s Black Mountain for quite some time now. The band’s shuffle-y stoner rock stylings fuse the best elements of ethereal 70s classic prog rock with melodic Zeppelin fare and heavy Sabbath-esque riffage, and the blend makes for one hell of an exploratory journey of psychedelic balls-deep rawk.

Take a long, strange trip with these samples from Black Mountain’s three excellent albums…

-KW

By now, many of you are aware of the things Ash Avildsen said about myself and MetalSucks a few weeks ago; yesterday, reader and “Run MetalSucks for a Day” winner Justin Gosnell even posted an interview with Ash on the subject. And I know that many of you are disappointed that I did not initially respond.

I think it is important that you understand that the reason I did not respond has nothing to do with the fact that Ash said “mean” things about me and or any of the other writers at MetalSucks. We understand that if you say unkind words about people in a public forum such as the internet, some of those people will inevitably be offended, and may say unkind words in response. That goes with the territory, and we can handle it. That’s why I was game to engage in a public debate with Century Media owner Oliver Withöft. (And it may be worth noting that, yes, we are still on great terms with Century Media. We also have yet to receive any cease and desist from Axl Rose about our “Appetite for Deconstruction” shirts… but I digress.)

The reason we didn’t respond is because Ash’s tirade had nothing to do with the subject at hand — namely, Spotify. Instead, he used Spotify and my comments on the current state and future of the music industry as an excuse and a veil to attack my personal character, credibility and that of MetalSucks. Consequently, the post did not warrant a response.

But his tirade against myself and MetalSucks was also full of several factual inaccuracies. And while we have communicated with Ash via e-mail since his post went up, and he is fully aware of the factual errors of his allegations, in yesterday’s interview, he failed to re-address those errors. So now we would like to clear them up.

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Well, we’ve arrived at my last post I’ll be making here during my 24 hour take over of Metalsucks.net and this one’s gonna be a doozy.

Before I get started I’d like to extend a sincere thanks to Vince and Axl for allowing me to come into their home and ruin it A.C. Slater style. I really appreciate the opportunity and I hope I didn’t do too shitty of a job.

The contest rules said I could post any-fucking-thing I want but I’m really wondering if this last post will be the “exception” to that rule?!  I will say this, if this is posted in full I will have the utmost respect for Ben Umanov (a.k.a. Vince Neilstein) because he’s gonna have to swallow some pride by allowing it to happen.

Just to be clear I mean no disrespect by anything that follows, it’s just something I personally feel needs to be addressed.

On July 25th, Ash Avildsen-the owner of Sumerian Records-posted a blog expressing his opinion on the whole Spotify/Metalsucks situation that’s been brewing on this site as of late while also taking some pretty strong shots at Metalsucks.net’s owner, Vince Neilstein.  Readers of this site have continually asked for a response from Vince, yet he’s remained silent; something that’s completely unlike him to do.  I strongly feel that Ash’s opinion should be made available to as many people as possible though.  Why?  Because we’re in a time where label after label is failing along with hundreds of thousands of bands and management companies.  Not Sumerian though.  They continue to grow at a pretty alarming rate and I think there is something to be said for that; they must be doing something right.

As an avid reader/loyal fan of Metalsucks I used to dig how Vince would post on a certain topic and give his well thought-out opinion in a calm and collected manor.  A great example of this was when Ash created a video sharing his opinion on music piracy.  Metalsucks featured it in a story along with a very fair analysis of it by Vince where he shared his opinion on what he agreed with along with what he didn’t-all while maintaining a certain level of respect.  That’s what get’s my respect and is a HUGE reason why I love Bob Lefsetz.  He’ll voice his opinion on a topic then when he does his follow up “Mailbag” newsletter he is pretty 50/50 in including ones from readers fully on his side all the way to ones totally tearing him apart; even ones where they say he’s an asshole that doesn’t have a clue what he’s talking about.

With that said I think the whole Spotify debate that’s been raging on this site as of late has gotten really out of hand.  Vince almost seems to become enraged if someone doesn’t agree with his opinion on Spotify.  As the whole has progressed it’s seemed to be getting worse and I’ve started to think that he’s only posting interviews/opinions of others that are inline with his.  Yes, he’s posted responses from parties that disagree with him on the matter but they always seem to be ones that are really weak and easy for him to pick apart which of course makes it easy for him to come out looking completely right in the matter. With that said I think Ash’s blog was VERY well written and really provided some great insights into why it is important for labels to get revenue off of their bands music sales.  It was strong, concise, to the point, and was presented in a very easy to understand manor and I have a feeling that’s why Vince didn’t respond-it really called him out. Keep in mind they had no problem posting Ash’s response when it was attacking The Gauntlet.  Personally, I was anxiously awaiting what he’d have to say and was pretty bummed out when a response never came.

I do realize this is Vince’s site and he can do whatever the fuck he pleases but I also feel like there’s a certain responsibility that should be carried so you don’t come out looking like Fox News.  For many readers this is the ONLY site where they’re getting information on this whole Spotify thing and I strongly feel that they should be able to hear both sides perspectives so they can fairly form their own opinion on the matter.  After all, when a jury’s deciding which side to take in a trial wouldn’t it be a little unfair to the defense if the prosecution were the only ones allowed to make their case?

So first check out Ash’s entire blog which I’ve reposted below and after that you’ll find an interview I conducted with the man himself this week.  I had so many things I wanted to get his in-depth opinion on and he was kind enough to answer everything in full!

As for me, as I said in the beginning it’s my last post-I hope you enjoy it as well as everything else I posted today!  As for this post you may be asking yourself: is this the ultimate troll, a statement on unbiasedness, or a loving attempt at putting out the fire on those bridges?  I’ll let you decide…

Love your favorite guest writer in Metalsucks history,

Justin Gosnell

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Chris Adler is a man that needs no introduction.  He’s revered worldwide for his skills behind the drum kit and his band-Lamb of God-is absolutely one of the biggest metal bands in America today.  You’d think after becoming so renowned as a drummer and having his band take part in such huge events (world tour as direct support for Metallica anyone?!) he’d take it easy and just rest on his laurels.  That’s completely the opposite of the truth.

Chris continues to work harder than ever to this day to not only refine his craft but to also keep up with what’s going on in the metal world today.  Chris was gracious enough to spend some time with me where we discussed everything from his decision to switch from bass to drums, all the way to the details on his drum clinics, as well as his thoughts on Bandhappy.com.  

Check it out and troll away in the comments section.  For more info on Chris Adler and all his current actives be sure to check out his website by clicking here.  

-Justin Gosnell

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John Wesley has had quite a career in his life.  I could tell you about it myself but I think he does a better job of it in this interview than I ever could do on my own.

I’ve been very fortunate to get to know Wes pretty well over the last couple of years and was even blessed with the opportunity to record some Vestascension material with him down at his studio in Florida.  One thing I’ve found out about the guy is that he is real.  He’s just an all around great person that has a great heart.

Seeing as how he’s been touring since I was a baby-and he’s slowly worked his way up through the industry while facing MANY hardships and overcoming many obstacles-I jumped at the chance to discuss all of this with him at length.

Check out the interview below and make sure you go check out his latest EP calling The Lilypad Suite by clicking here.  

-Justin Gosnell

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