Not a bad week of releases immediately following Devil’s Night and some holiday called Halloween. This week is heavy on the awesome black metal, with Taake and Throne of Katharsis releasing sweet records today, as well as new shit from Megadeth, Steel Panther, Sick of It All, Dreaming Dead, Krisiun and more. Check it all out after the jump.
Last year (and the year before) I got way too busy with this thing called life and missed out on a lot of quality music. I am here to rectify the error of my ways, month by month.
Sorry for the delay. Been extra busy writing books, covering film festivals for Bloody Disgusting, and watching zee American football (Go Steelers!). Also, my listening tally (165 releases for September alone!!) practically quadrupled with the introduction of Spotify into my home.
I won’t have another Bleeders’ list until December as I am fast approaching a deadline on my next true crime book, Teach Me To Kill. I will, however, be contributing my Top 15 picks of the year before I resume the Bleeders’ lists.
Last month it was confirmed that Gigantour would be back for a 2012 go-round shortly after Dave Mustaine let it slip that Megadeth would be touring with Motorhead, Volbeat and Lacuna Coil. Dates for the trek were released today, which you will find after the jump. But I’m still not sold on the idea of this tour as “Gigantour,” though; what’s so “gigantic” about it?
In 2005 and 2006, Gigantour’s first two years, the fest featured a two-stage / all-day format, not dissimilar to what Rockstar Mayhem does now and Ozzfest did back then. So how is the 2012 Gigantour any different than any Megadeth + special guests tour? The lineup is sweet, sure, but there’s nothing gigantic about this tour. As Axl claimed all the way back in January of 2008 when the Megadeth / In Flames / Bodom / High on Fire / Job For A Cowboy edition of Gigantour was announced, calling this thing “Gigantour” is false advertising. One’s thing for certain: with those bands on the bill the ticket price is certainly going to be gigantic.
I guess it all comes down to marketing; perhaps Mustaine and his handlers have discovered that they can sell more tickets with the Gigantour brand than they can with the Megadeth name atop a show flyer. If that’s the case, well, I guess they deserve a pat on the back for finding a clever way to get their fans to plunk down their hard-earned Benjamins when they otherwise might not.
Those tour dates after the jump:
Actually, wait. Can you enter a somnarium? “Somnarium” is not, according to my dictionary, a real word… but I’m assuming it would be a place where you go to sleep, or a place for sleepwalkers, or something like that.
In which case, Animals as Leaders should have called their new song — “Somnarium,” duh — something else. Because while it is kinda soothing in places, it is far, far too good to be soporific.
Check out “Somnarium” here, then tell us if the song made you sleepy or not in our comments section. It will appear on Animals as Leaders’ new album, Weightless, which comes out November 8 via Prosthetic.
-AR
Guys, I have to admit, I am enthralled by the new Bring Me the Horizon video, for the song “Alligator Blood” (above). Not because I think the song or video are especially good — the song, like all BMTH, is generic metalcore, and the video is above-average but not at all mind-blowing or anything. No, I am enthralled mostly because there are so many different metaphors at play in the song and video that I have no clue what concept the band was actually trying to express, and I’m not convinced that they did, either.
Following in the footsteps of their greatest influences, including Marilyn Manson, Static-X, and Orgy, Morbid Angel have announced plans to release a remix companion album to this year’s critically-acclaimed Illud Divinum Insanus in early 2012. MetalSucks has now exclusively obtained a transcript of the recent band meeting in which the decision to create said remix album was made. Check it out after the jump!
pic via
Why, it was just last week that Insomnium bassist/vocalist Niilo Sevänen told our own Leyla Ford that all the members of the band have other careers, including guitarist Ville Vänni, who — watch out, single Jewish ladies!!! — is a doctor. The advantage of having a second, better-paying source of income, Sevänen pointed out, is that Insomnium “don’t need to make music as our living… We can do exactly the kind of music we want, because there’s not so much commercial pressure that we need to sell thousands and thousands of copies to pay our mortgages or rent.” Which makes perfect sense! Plenty of bands employ a similar strategy.
But the disadvantage, it seems, is that having two careers means there won’t be much time for anything but those careers, and that’s bound to take a toll, too. And so now Vänni, apparently exhausted from years of double-duty, has decided to exit the band. He explains on Insomnium’s official website:
It’s been a minute since we heard from MetalSucks faves The Absence, but thanks to a new interview with Rock My Monkey we now have an update on the band: they’ve parted ways with Metal Blade, who released all three of their full-lengths (those would be 2005′s From Your Grave, 2007′s Riders of the Plague, and last year’s Enemy Unbound), apparently (or maybe I should say “presumably”) because their recording budget exceeds the amont of money to be made from their album sales. Which makes sense. ‘Cause though we all hate to admit it, there is a business to this thing we love.
Of course, splitting with a label — even a cool label like Metal Blade — is not necessarily the end of the world, and the band is persevering: they also say they’re working on a new EP “with a couple of cover songs,” although I’m not clear if that will be in addition to some new material or just covers. In either case, it sounds like they’re gonna release it DIY-style.
Check out the interview above. More updates on The Absence as we get ‘em.
-AR
Thanks: Andreas Weissenborn
Didja hear? I created a page for myself on Facebook! So did Axl. Now you can all stalk both of us individually instead of just stalking us through the general MetalSucks FB page. Fun!
Of course, within minutes of signing up, I was inundated with requests to check out your shitty deathcore band band with an unclassifiable sound. Mr. Vincent Jackson Jones made me promise to “write about how much [his] band sucks” if he uploaded a picture of himself in his MetalSucks hoodie, and lookit, I’m a man of my word. Thing is, Vincent’s band Aether Realm don’t suck; they’re actually pretty good! They’re kind of on the folk/pagan side of the spectrum, but their music isn’t gimmicky, doesn’t feature any weird instruments and certainly doesn’t lack balls. Think more Amon Amarth, less Korpiklaani. Check them out for yourself below:
Vincent’s fine taste in fashion means he’s also the latest entrant/winner of our ongoing Show Us Your MetalSucks contest, in which all you need to do to get a box o’ free metal shit from the MS Mansion is send in a photo of yourself donning MS merch. Pretty easy. Keep it sleazy.
-VN
Someone please tell Protest the Hero to stop making such ridiculously entertaining music videos. Seriously, they’re sucking up all the fun juice and they’re just making all other metal bands look bad. They’re kinda like the OK Go of metal; before we know it they’ll be jumping around on treadmills and building elaborate Rube Golberg machines. It just isn’t really even fair anymore… any time Protest release a new video it’s all but guaranteed to mop the floor with all other metal videos.
Best of all, they’re always having FUN (metal is fun!): as with everything they do, it looks as if our favorite Canadians this side of Devin Townsend had as much fun making this video as I just did watching it. Somewhere there’s gotta be a collection of out-takes where they’re all just laughing hysterically at each others’ calamitous expense, but at least we’ve got guitarist Tim Millar biting the dust HARD on a pair of roller skates around the 1:50 mark (glad they left that in!). Baby carriages, tandem bicycles, the aforementioned roller skates, Go Karts… friggin’ GO KARTS! I can not imagine a more fun day. And these guys get to do it for a living. Fuck all.
-VN
