Y’know what’s not annoying? Wormrot. In less than two years, the Singaporean trio has become one of THE premiere grind bands in the world, and with good reason — their albums are absolutely disgusting (and we mean that as a compliment), and their live show is so hot it can cause scalding. Simply put, this band is the shit.

And this Tuesday, September 20, they have a new, 100% FREE five-song digital EP coming out —  Scion A/V Presents: WORMROT-NOISE. That’s right, we said FREE. You’ll be able to download it right here for nothing, zip, zilch, zero, nada.

But if you can’t wait ’til Tuesday — and we couldn’t blame ya if that’s the case — then we have some good news for you: MetalSucks is giving away a track from the EP, entitled “Outburst of Annoyance,” right now! You can stream it or download it via the below widget. So turn you speakers WAY THE FUCK UP and get ready for some of the sickest shit you’ll hear all year, courtesy of the on-their-way-to-being-legendary Wormrot.

Lotsa new metal hit the interwebs this week that we didn’t have a chance to report on because there was just so much going on. Make sure you’ve got plenty of time to crank this new stuff before continuing, because it’s all great! Let’s go:

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As the media can’t help but remind us, September marks the 20th anniversary of Nirvana’s Nevermind. Too many journos and players have spilled ink on this topic over the past month that I’m not even going to waste my energies doing the same. That record has been essentially IGNORED for half of its lifetime, and the commentary has been cheap and useless, so why bother?

Still, one can typically find a few kernels of corn in their shit, and indeed deep inside the crappy coverage lies the opinion of none other than Meatmen mastermind Tesco Vee, who had this to say on this momentous occasion:

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I don’t listen to nearly as much as hardcore as I did even just a few years ago, but our own resident hardcore expert, Gary Suarez, recently turned us on to This is Hell, and I gotta say… these dudes ROCK. They’re one of the first new hardcore bands I’ve heard in the 21st century that don’t strike me as just shameless rip-offs of either Converge or Hatebreed, and yet, they still give me that same Jane Doe/Satisfaction is the Death of Desire feeling of wanting to jump in the pit while simultaneously jabbing people with a shard of broken glass.

And now would be a good time for you to get to know the band if you don’t already, ’cause their new album, Black Mass, is coming out next month. You can stream a new song from that album, “Salt the Earth,” here. But be forewarned — you oughta wait until you’re somewhere with a big open space before cranking that shit. ‘Cause as Sergeant D. would say, This is Hell = YOU’RE MOSHING!

Mosh here, then let us know us know what you think in the comments section below. Black Mass comes out October 11 on Rise.

-AR

Today in news that will surely make Grim Kim happy: The Church Within-era line-up of The Obsessed (That would be Wino and future Goatsnakers Guy Pinhas and Greg Rogers) will reunite to play next year’s Roadburn Festival in Tilburg, Holland. I don’t really have anything clever to say about this, other than I wonder why poor Scott Reeder keeps getting left out of reunions. Nick Oliveri had to be dragged away by a SWAT team for Reeder to get invited to play with Not Kyuss!, and now this. And that’s like ten years after Lars Ulrich implied that he wasn’t a skilled enough bassist to be in Metallica in Some Kind of Monster. I mean, sheesh.

ANWAY, the fest takes places from April 12 – April 15; The Obsessed with play on April 14. I always tend to believe that these reunions are never really one-off deals, and that we’ll see the band announce some more appearances soon. But of course I don’t know that for a fact, so… if you’re dying to see these dudes, I’d start making travel plans.

-AR

Thanks to everyone who e-mailed us about this!

The above pic of loyal MS reader Matt Steele was taken in the pit of this week’s Big 4 show at Yankee Stadium immediately prior to Slayer’s set! Nice shirt, Matt. For your excellent choice in style and for showing off MetalSucks to 41,000 strong we’ll be rewarding you with with a box o’ goodies from the MS Mansion; CDs, posters, stickers and the like, and you will not be disappointed.

All MS readers are invited to don their MS merch in exchange for free metal goodies, just like Matt; simply send in a fun picture of yourself to news[at]metalsucks[dot]net as part of our ongoing Show Us Your MetalSucks contest. That’s the limited edition “Appetite for Deconstruction” shirt Matt is wearing, featuring animated versions of our own faces in the classic GN’R style. We’ve got several other designs in our standard line of MetalSucks shirts (and hoodie!) too. Don’t be the last person on your block without one; buy a MetalSucks t-shirt today!

When I contacted Dream Theater’s press folks for a Rigged interview with new drummer Mike Mangini about his new kit, I didn’t realize I’d end up publishing a book.

But that’s the kind of dude Mangini is; incredibly passionate, earnest, easy-going, and without a doubt one of the nicest guys I’ve ever spoken with on record. He’s also a gear nerd of the highest order, and the drum kit he’s hauling around with him on tour with Dream Theater is no joke. Mangini’s set up is so complexand his explanations so detailed, we’ve decided to split up this Rigged feature into three parts to avoid the dreaded wall of text. Drummers in the MetalSucks readership are gonna LOVE what we’ve got in store for you.

Up first: Mike takes us through his quadruple kick set-up, his pedals (8 total), hi-hats and snares. He also talks a good bit about technique as it relates to his drum setup and playing ambidextrously. Here’s Mike:

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Last week the Myelene Sheath bestowed upon us two prize packages from doom/sludgesters Beneath Oblivion to give away. And the winners are:

• Grand Prize, Chris Berseth: “Oh, I just can’t wait to be King…Diamond.”
• Runner Up, feegore: “Tune in to MTV for next week’s episode of Norwegian Shore…”

This week we’ve got something a little outside the realm of what we usually have for contests, but holy shit, it’s quite possibly the coolest / most fun thing we’ve ever given away here: the Helo TC, a remote-controlled helicopter you control with your iPhone! Griffin sent one of these bad boys over the Mansion for us to play with, and good God, things have never been the same; this thing fucking rules, and we’ve got two more just for you guys. Watch the trailer:

Pretty fucking cool, right? To win, leave a comment with the funniest caption to the photo below (sent in by loyal reader Jake Haras). Remember to use a real email address (or post it along with your comment if you’re using FB Connect / Twitter etc).

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…

Today’s “Fear, Emptiness, Decibel” is basically a bulletin informing you about our Anaal Nathrakh Flexi Series stream. Or, as the editor-in-chief just referred to it via IM, our “anaal stream.” Being a five-year-old boy (in a 12-year-old girl’s body), I promptly hit Google for more “anal/anaal” puns to annoy you with, but forgot that their autocomplete is totally PG-13; their two options for anal (“anal cancer treatment” and “anal cancer staging”) aren’t exactly knee-slappers.

So, in lieu of buttplay humor, let’s just acknowledge the many blackened-grind merits of AN. Which are precisely what allow Irrumator and V.I.T.R.I.O.L. to do totally back-of-the-left-field-bleachers shit, like cover the Specials for the Flexi Series. Their interpretation of the checkered icons’ “Man at C&A” is just the right blend of WTF and gnarly that we were hoping for when this series launched. It’s streaming right here:

Anaal Nathrakh “Man at C&A” (dB011) by Decibel Magazine

It appears in silver on yellow glory in the November Decibel—for subscribers only—but there are a limited number of copies available in the webstore, so get there pronto.

-AB

Decibel’s November 2011 issue also features Skeletonwitch, Alice Cooper, Brutal Truth, Machine Head, Chimaira,  and a Ministry Hall of Fame. But why not just get a full subscription to ensure that you never miss an issue?

Hey-o!!! If you’re not sick of listening to us ramble on and on about The Big Four yet, I’m gonna be on the Metal Injection Livecast tonight at 8 pm eastern/7 pm central to continue to discuss the show. You can even call in at 646-929-1357 if you wanna ask a specific question, or tell us what assholes we are for not saying unconditionally nice things about each and every band and daring to have an opinion. (I know one of you left a comment under our live snark yesterday saying you hope I die in front of my parents, which seems like a pretty reasonable punishment for daring to suggest that Metallica in 2011 might not be the best thing ever.)

Listen here. The fun starts at 8 pm eastern/7 pm central.

-AR

I am a massive David Cross fan, but this is the first time I’ve ever heard his story about the time he was in a celebrity poker tournament with Creed vocalist/wife beater Scott Stapp. I really don’t wanna give it away, because the less you know going into it, the funnier it is… so just listen. The entire clip is about five and a half minutes long, and every second is delicious.

Bonus: Cross also takes shots at Evanescence and P.O.D.

-AR

Thanks to The Binary Code‘s Jesse Zuretti for sending this to us!

Yesterday, Eric Jarrin, who as the guitar player for Despised Icon until they broke up last year, e-mailed Vince to announce that he was re-joining the newly re-formed band Heaven’s Cry, who themselves broke up back in 2004. And Vince forwarded the e-mail to me, ’cause I’m the resident Despised Icon fan at MetalSucks.

But now I’m going to forward that e-mail back to Vince — or, y’know, maybe just wait for him to see this article — ’cause Heaven’s Cry really sounds nothing like Despised Icon, and are not my cup of tea at all: They’re a prog metal band with elements of power metal. In other words, they sound exactly the way you’d expect a band called “Heaven’s Cry” to sound.

I know that it must seem like I’m knocking them, but I’m not; like I said, this particular style of metal is, generally speaking, just not for me. I’ll leave it to the fans of this kind of stuff to weigh in on the worthiness, or lack thereof, of Heaven’s Cry.

You can see some old videos of the band performing on their official website, or listen to some old recordings on their MySpace page. The band will record a new album next year; in the meantime, Canadian fans can check them out when they open for Katatonia on September 18 at  Les Foufounes Electriques in Montreal.

-AR

I was just talking with a friend earlier this week about how much I miss Howard Stern. See, I used to wake up to his voice each and every morning while we were living together before he left me for that bitch Beth Ostrosky before he made the move to satellite radio, which, to this day, I do not have. As it stands, it’s literally been years since I’ve heard Howard’s show.

And I miss Stern all the more now that I’ve gotten to listen to the interview he did with Lars Ulrich this past Tuesday. It’s a great interview, even if it requires you to ignore Stern’s over-appraisal of Ulrich’s drumming skills. (The funniest part of The New York Times‘ review of yesterday’s Big Four show: “Rhythmically, [Slayer] swung, unlike Metallica, whose rhythm often grew unstable and plodding.”] There’s lots of juicy gossip in here, including how Ulrich is self-taught (shocking!) and had to take drum lessons for six months in-between Kill ‘Em All and Ride the Lightning, how he stole Dave Mustaine’s woman, how his wife left him, and how Hetfield isn’t exactly a social animal. Bonus: the great Richard Christy (Charred Walls of the Damned, Death, Iced Earth) — a drummer with, like, a gajillion times more skill than Ulrich — even gets to chime in.

Here’s part one…

…and you can listen to the rest after the jump.

Click to read more…

Well, this is good news. Perennial MetalSucks faves The Ocean filmed their set at the Summer Breeze festival in Germany this past summer for an upcoming live DVD. And while we still don’t know when that DVD will be released or even what it will be called, we can now watch some footage of the band performing “The Origin of God” as a special preview. Check it out below:

The DVD will apparently also include lots more footage not just from this performance, but from several other shows as well, PLUS the now-required-on-every-DVD band documentary, which should be fun, as the cats in The Ocean are some really, really interesting dudes. More details as we get ‘em.

Also, this seems like a good time of offer a friendly reminder that The Ocean will be support on Devin Townsend’s upcoming North American headlining tour, which is a sweet, sweet bill. Get dates here.

-AR

[via Heavy Blog is Heavy]

Discussing Dream Theater’s new album, A Dramatic Turn of Events, last week, Vince wrote that the release “sounds just like Dream Theater,” even without longtime drummer Mike Portnoy. And Vince is a way, way, WAY bigger Dream Theater fan than I am, so if he can’t hear any discernible difference, I sure as fuck ain’t gonna be able to.

So. While I still haven’t heard the entire album, mostly because I just do not care, but listening to the song in the band’s new video, “On The Backs Of Angels,” I am inclined to agree with Vince, that, yes, Portnoy-less DT sounds exactly like Portnoy-full DT. Which is to say, the song is pretty cool until James LaBrie opens his stupid mouth. Holy shit, that dude’s voice is irritating.

ANYWAY, check out the video below, courtesy of Yahoo. At first it seems like a pretty cool clip, until you realize it’s really just a bunch of graphics that don’t do anything especially interesting, intercut with some admittedly very good performance footage. So I guess I’d say this is a good video, but not the best video you’ll see today or even this week.

A Dramatic Turn of Events is out now on Roadrunner, but based on the initial sales figures that have gotten out, you already knew that.

-AR

I am unbelievably excited by the news that Lamb of God have completed recording for their new, yet-to-be titled album. And now Randy Blythe himself has posted a video from the vocal sessions, which is SWEET, because it gives us a chance to hear some new music! Speaking of the clip, Mr. Blythe himself had this to say: “The lyrics are MY BEST yet. PURE GENIUS.”

Check out the video below:

AMAZING, right?!?! This album is gonna rule so hard.

Lamb of God’s latest, which Blythe also promises is “WAAAAY better than Wrath,” is expected to be released early next year.

-AR

[via The PRP]

Last night, Cormorant sent out an e-mail to anyone who has ever purchased something from their online merch store or Bandcamp page unveiling the album art for their forthcoming release, Dwellings. And you will notice right away that it’s pretty, uh, unique. It’s too massive to fit on the front page, so please click on the image to make it bigger:

Never mind the fact that I can’t remember ever seeing album art that’s totally vertical like this before; shit gets even more impressive once you actually look at all the detail, and read the band’s description of the work:

Click to read more…

Technically, summer isn’t over until September 23. But to hell with that! Days are gonna get shorter, the weather’s gonna get cooler, and everyone will soon celebrate the birth of the one true me. So there’s really no point in hanging on to the last vestiges of summer. Good-bye and good riddance. What better way to hail the moodiest season of them all than with some Blut Aus Nord?

The French “avante-garde” black metal band are, admittedly, a little full of themselves. Refusing to be lumped with other, more popular black metal acts, who they refer to as — and this is the best line ever — “childish Satanic clowns.” Wait, does this make them the original black metal hipsters, then? Oh well. Despite that, I still like them. I didn’t get to listen to 777 – Sect(s) until quite recently, and if I’d heard it sooner, I would’ve considered putting it on my year’s best so far list.  It has everything I’d expect in a Blut Aus Nord record; lots of reverb and that glorious industrial influence that I always appreciate in music, whatever the genre.

And yet, 777 – Sect(s) is a little lackluster, especially compared to some of their earlier stuff.

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I don’t know who directed Insomnium’s new video, “Through the Shadows,” which debuted yesterday afternoon on Metal Injection; but whomever it was, he or she deserves a big pat on the back. This could have been as boring and clichéd as metal performance videos get these days, but the way its shot and edited, it always feels appropriately GODDAMN EPIC for this band… even though huge chunks of it are tight close-ups and shots of spiders doing really not very much in particular. This is the video Insomnium, Knights of Awesome Awesomeness, totally deserve.

Insomnium’s new album, One for the Sorrow, comes out October 18 on Century. A plague on your house if you don’t get it.

-AR

As Axl mentioned during last night’s Big 4 Live Snark, Rob and I headed down into the bowels of Yankee Stadium after Megadeth’s set to attend the Anthrax press conference. It was in the very same room we see on TV after every game, where Joe Girardi has to explain why he’s still sticking with A.J. Burnett, why Mo melted down in the 9th or why A-Rod failed in the clutch again, Yankees backdrop behind the band and everything. In the bubble that is MetalSucks World, “press conference” usually just consists of interviewing a band member one-on-one in some smokey, puke-infested backstage area, or on rare occasions on a tour bus, so this was a pretty unique experience for us.

Click to read more…