Ryan Adams’ already-well-documented metal fandom continues to rear its head in the below video, which is meant in part to celebrate Halloween, but really to promote his new album, Ashes & Fire. I’m still not quite convinced that Adams’ love of the genre isn’t just ironic hipster posturing (…says the dude who runs a website called “MetalSucks”), and the joke in the clip gets old kinda fast, but maybe you’ll at least enjoy it for a minute or two? And if not, well, leave me alone, I’m just trying to keep you guys entertained, alright? Sheesh.

-AR

Thanks to my cousin, Jeff, for his ongoing efforts to turn me on to the work of Mr. Adams.

Is Lulu just the world’s greatest troll? Even if it wasn’t, if I were a member of Loutallica, I’d probably start telling people that it is. It would really be the only logical explanation for anyone thinking that crap was listenable.

And the below video suggests that at least one member of Metallica really might have intended it as a troll. I’m not entirely clear on how recent the clip of James Hetfield fucking with a security guard was filmed. But it just may be Hetfield’s best work this century.

In other Metallica news, Rob Trujillo — who, as everyone knows, is the real big man calling the shots behind-the-scenes in Metallica — recently told  GulfNews.com that “the writing process for the new Metallica album has begun,” according to NME. Reading from a memo sent to him by Lars Ulrich’s assistant, the bassist announced that “We’ve been in the studio with Rick Rubin, working on a couple of things, and we’re going to be recording during the most of next year.” I can’t remember the last time Metallica spent less than two years in the studio, so I’m think we should have a fresh new disappointment to make fun of sometime around 2013/2014.

-AR

Thanks to Csantos and J.A.M. for the tips!

We all go to shows. Shows are fun! But like all matters of civilized participation, there are certain unspoken rules. Well, I’m going to speak about them. Let’s make shows fun for everyone!

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Horns up for readers Stacey Heath and Storm Smith (coolest name ever?); they correctly identified last week’s logo as belonging to the band Battle Pig, and for their troubles, they each win a copy of Die Miserable, the anus-tearing new album from Fuck the Facts. Congrats, Stacey and Storm!

This week I’m unloading another five CDs from MS Mansion Archives. So, yeah, enter this shit.

All you gots to 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 one winner and announce his or her name a week from today.

This week’s logo was once again suggested by Josh. Thanks, dude!

-AR

It is no secret that we love and look up to the fine folks over at Decibel. And so when they deem an album worthy to be streamed on The Deciblog, well, I will at the very least give it a listen. After all, Decibel reviews and features have provided me with hours and hours of great listening that might have otherwise escaped my attention, so, yeah, of COURSE I listen to whatever they stream on their blog.

But the Decidudes are, like, both way tr00er and way more smarterer than I am, so sometimes they stream shit the appeal of which is completely lost on me. Like Wold’s Badb, which they are streaming right now.

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The Inaugural Metal Suckfest is almost here!!!! Twenty bands will DESTROY The Gramercy Theatre on November 4 and 5, PLUS there’s an awesome, five-band pre-party at the venue the night before, making this THE can’t-miss hang of the year.

Tickets are on sale now right here, and you can hit up the fest’s official website for more info on the shows, including the complete line-up. In the meantime, we’re counting down to this weekend of chaos and debauchery by speaking to one member from each band on the bill. We continue today with guitarist R.J. Ober of Magrudergrind, whose most recent release, the EP Crusher, was released last year via Scion A/V.

Read our chat after the jump. And don’t forget to check back in the coming days and weeks for interviews with more of the musicians participating in this awesome event!!!

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There’s a major dance party happening right now in the Vince Division of the MetalSucks Mansion! Yeah, it’s cool and all that Metal Injection posted video of the three opening bands from this past Friday’s CMJ showcase, but those motherfuckers interrupted the electro dance grooves of the brand new Justice album. Assholes. I know Rob knows what’s I’m talkin’ about — dude showed off his sick dance moves at the Chromeo jam this past SXSW!

The MetalSucks / Metal Injection / 1000 Knives CMJ Showcase was a fucking blast, though: I headbanged so furiously during Skeletonwitch’s scorching set that I still have a bangover four days later, and I actually stepped up into the pit for Kvelertak, whose riffs are absolutely irresistible. Barn Burner, Turbid North and Battlecross rounded out the ridiculously good bill, and all three bands absolutely killed it. Today we’ve got multi-camera footage of all three, courtesy of Metal Injection. Check out Barn Burner below, and Turbid North and Battlecross after the jump.

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We were lucky enough to have the legendary Richard Christy do a signing for the excellent new Charred Walls of the Damned album, Cold Winds on Timeless Days, at  the MetalSucks/Vertebrae 33 booth at New York Comic Con last weekend. And, no shock, the signing was a big success. A whole lotta peeps swung by to hang out with Richard, who very graciously chatted with each and every one, took photos, signed CDs, and even autographed some dude’s prosthetic leg. No, I’m not kidding. It was fucking nuts.

We also had ANOTHER signing at the booth, though, and I’m sad to report that this one didn’t go so well: self-proclaimed “guitar god” Thor Shredsteen attracted a total of zero fans. Thor complained it was because of the placement of our booth, but that makes no sense since a) like I said, Mr. Christy managed to attract plenty of fans, and b) we were literally right by the front entrance. So, yeah, uh, Thor probably won’t be invited back next year.

ANYWAY, Metal Injection captured the entire horrific (and embarrassing) experience on video… check it out and laugh at the poor bastard below.

-AR

Although there are definitely way worse gateway bands than Dragonforce, we haven’t written about the band since March, when they announced Marc Hudson as their new vocalist. And I didn’t even realize they were on tour right now. So I guess that tells you how much I care.

ANYWAY, they’re performing some new songs, “Cry Thunder” and “Last Fallen World,” on said tour, and now of course there are shitty fan-filmed videos of those songs, which you are free to check out below. Only one of them is cocaine-fast and neither clip features the band jumping around on trampolines, which means that they have by and large abandoned the elements which made them memorable in the first place.

“Last Fallen Word” is after the jump, in case you’re too dumb to figure that out yourself.

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As of this writing, I’ve listened to Megadeth’s TH1RT3EN all the way through only once, but I’m kinda sad to say I think it’s good but not great. The problem is that, frankly, there just aren’t enough good songs — basically, the same problem I had with United Abominations. By count, more than half of the album is pretty boring; Endgame‘s track record was far superior. (I’m not even gonna get into classic ‘Deth.)

So I understand why the band has now released “Black Swan” — it’s definitely one of the best songs on TH1RT3EN. In fact, I’d say with its unveiling, you have now heard all but one of the best numbers on the record: “Sudden Death,” “Public Enemy No. 1,” and “Never Dead” were all previously released. If you don’t dig these lil’ ditties, well, I doubt the rest of TH1RT3EN will win you over.

Check out “Black Swan” below and let us know what you think in the comments section. Roadrunner will release TH1RT3EN on November 1.

-AR

[via Metal Injection]

What was the best debut metal album of the past 25 years?? Metal Hammer wanted to know, so they asked their readers… and over 16,000 responded.

Now, if there’s anything my otherwise worthless Communications Studies college degree taught me, it’s how to parse survey results. Any survey conducted in the manner of Metal Hammer’s is obviously going to have skewed results; a poll held online is probably going to skew younger, the magazine’s readers probably skew younger to begin with, the magazine’s coverage choices might be biased thereby attracting readers with certain tastes, newer albums are likely to be remembered more freshly than older ones, UK metalheads might have different tastes than those elsewhere, the questions were probably not posed in a scientific manner, and on and on and on. But that doesn’t mean this survey isn’t worth something: while it might not show how the general world populace views all metal debuts released in the past 25 years, it does show what a large group of Metal Hammer readers think. And that is certainly interesting!

My point is this: don’t get too butthurt when you see that Korn’s debut was named #2, above GN’R's Appetite for Destruction no less. Or that Linkin Park’s Hybrid Theory appears far above Rage Against the Machine’s self-titled. But man… that does kinda sting.

View the rest of the list here — including the shocking-but-not-really #1 choice — then come back to MS for some good old-fashioned name-calling and flame-warring.

-VN

Thanks: Mat Bourbon

Last week we posted a really cool, and really, really gross trailer for Aborted’s new album, Global Flatline; now the title track from the album has been released as the first single. I think it’s pretty good, although I’m not in love with it or anything. But judging by the comments section on our last post, a lot of you are way more into this band than me, and I’m certainly not about to give them an undeserved hard time or anything.

Check out “Global Flatline” below. And if you love it, it’s available on iTunes for just a buck, so you can rock that shit all day and night.

The entire Global Flatline album comes out January 24 via Century Media.

-AR

[via Metal Underground]

I have great news, less-great news, and more great news. The great news is, like the headline says, Obituary are touring. The less-great news is, it’s only a small tour — seven dates, all on the east coast — so you may be shit outta luck this time. And the more great news is, they’re apparently in the midst of writing a new album, and guitarist Trevor Peres says that “Our goal is to be in the studio by January or February and to release the album in May or June of 2012,” and promises that “the album will be followed up by a ton of tour dates,” starting with hitting the European festival circuit, followed by a proper Euro tour, followed by a proper North American trek in the fall of 2012. So, assuming the world hasn’t ended by then, you should get these death metal legends live one way or the other sometime within the next year.

In the meantime, you get dates for this brief tour after the jump. Support will come from Denial Fiend, whose most recent album, Horror Holocaust, made our own Satan Rosenbloom’s Best of 2011… So Far list back in August. In other words, these shows should be a blast from start to finish.

And so:

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No I’m totally kidding. I don’t even know if there is gonna be any touring or live performances in support of Lulu; at this point, I think it’s safe to assume there will not be, since the amount of security guards it would take to protect the musicians from the “fans” would probably be greater than the number of people who would actually pay to see Loutallica perform that crap. (Although if they included free rotten eggs to throw at the band with every ticket purchase, I would happily shell out some cash to attend.)

And even if there was a tour, Danko Jones most certainly would not be the opener — ’cause over the weekend, the singer/guitarist took to his Twitter account and likened Lulu to some of cinema’s great financial and creative disasters, including Ishtar, Waterworld, and Battlefield Earth. And, oh yeah, then he tweeted the below:

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This week’s list of releases covers a lot of ground, between the sludge punk of Black Tusk, Noctem’s blackened thrash, a heavier side of Russian Circles, East of the Wall, Carnifex, Hammers of Misfortune and much more. Check it all out by clicking below.

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Ever since Jim Malone announced that Arsis would be touring without him — the Dave Mustaine of Megadeth, the Trent Reznor of NIN, etc — we’ve been scratching our heads. Would it be weird? Would it be good? Would it still even be Arsis? If you were to replace all the boards of a ship one at time, would it still be the same ship? If not, at what exact point does it cease to be the same ship?

I saw Arsis Without Arsis open for Firewind in NYC a couple weeks ago, and although the band was ridiculously tight and sounded fantastic it was definitely really fucking weird to watch. I’m sure a few kids there had no idea anything was amiss — perhaps those kids will go on to become huge Arsis fans — but to me it was a strange sight. On a night where Arsis played without Arsis, Firewind were great but played in a venue way too big for them, and the crowd seemed disinterested in Nightrage, White Wizzard — whoever the fuck is in the band this week — were actually the most normal / best thing about the entire night. How crazy is that?

Anyway, here’s Arsis Without Arsis performing a new song called “Sense the Shadows” in St. Paul, Minnesota, earlier this month. Like I said before, really tight, sounds great… just weird to look at.

-VN

Thanks: Fuzzy Dunlop

It was a weekend of big changes at the quarterback position all around the league, and Sunday’s games gave the first good indication of what the rest of the season might be like for the unfortunate teams that are still struggling for consistency at what is undoubtedly the most important position on the field. Picking the players, especially the QB, is one of the most important jobs coaches have, and the strength of their decisions decides all kinds of things… like who wins the Super Bowl, and who gets to keep their job. Injuries and crummy play have forced several coaches to change their plans, and the fate of the season hangs in the balance for a few teams. This weekend’s action gave us the clearest evidence yet as to how it’s all going to turn out, and while it’s too early to start talking about certain coaches (or their relatives) getting canned, you can bet the whispering has begun.

Just look at the horrific blow-out the New Orleans Saints laid on the Indianapolis Colts, 62-7. The Colts season ended before it even got started with top QB Peyton Manning’s neck injury, and the Saints, behind the notoriously bad-hair of QB Drew Brees, are playing at their highest level since winning the Super Bowl a couple of years back. Like those people in New Orleans need another excuse to party!

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Everybody knows that whatever’s currently popular in the hardcore scene basically = copying whatever metal bands were doing 10-15 years earlier. 80s bands like DRI and Leeway were basically just little kids screaming over the “choppa-choppa” riffs of dinosaur thrash like Megadeth or Exodus (leading to an epidemic of chopaholism that ultimately killed the crossover scene), and 90s hardcore was essentially one big tribute to Slayer and Pantera, only with lyrics about animal rights instead of wizards and pot.

By the 00s, hardcore moved on to stealing from At The Gates, and the 2K10s are all about blast beats and gutturals, with even seemingly hardcore-proof genres like djent being raided for riffs by bros in skinny jeans with stretched ears. At first glance, you might think that means moshbros have stolen everything there is to steal from metal. I mean, if they’re jocking relatively extreme, tr00 bands like Nile and Dying Fetus, what’s left?? What’s the next frontier for hardcore bands who are out of ideas???

The answer is deceptively simple: it’s been 15 years since Cannibal Corpse put out Vile and Korn released Life Is Peachy. Put the two together, add in a pinch of neck tattoos and a healthy dose of lyrics that look sweet on the back of a shirt in Impact font and you have what is officially The Next Big Thing: NU-DETHCORE.

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According to The Hollywood Reporter, two dudes named Billy McCarthy and James Stonich, who were members of a Chicago band called Kid Rocker, are now suing Poison, Capital Records and EMI Music  – because they claim that C.C. DeVille tried out for their band in 1984, heard a bunch of their demos, and then stole those songs, which include the Poison hits ”Talk Dirty To Me,” “I Won’t Forget You,” “Fallen Angel” and “Ride the Wind.”  THR reports that “The plaintiffs are demanding disgorgement of all profits from the songs in question, statutory damages for willful infringement, and an injunction that prevents Poison and [Bret] Michaels from performing this allegedly stolen material.”

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I continue to be more or less completely baffled by the popularity of Carnifex, who, as far as I can tell, are no different from a million other deathcore bands. But I know a substantial number of you seem to dig ‘em, and their new video, for the track “I Feel Nothing,” is actually not at all terrible, even if it would obviously be better with a Suffocation song. So here’s the clip, if you dig this kind of thing. If not… seen the new Jucifer video yet?

“I Feel Nothing” is the title track for Carnifex’s new album, which comes out tomorrow via  leading independent music retailer VICTORY RECORDS.

-AR