Another week of football, another week of amazing finishes and blowouts. Indy lost, the Packers won, and that seems to be the only constant this year. After starting the season strong, the Chiefs, Bills, and Bucs can’t seem to win anymore, all getting blown out on Sunday. But these are relatively young teams, and it takes getting through years like this one to gel. Pretty much every other game was a nail biter at the end, so let’s dissect.

The Vikings looked straight terrible against the Lions on Sunday. Rookie QB Christian Ponder threw three INT’s and lost a fumble, and he was ultimately pulled in the 3rd quarter for second year man Joe Webb. He led the Vikings back into the game by throwing two touchdowns, and almost won it on the final drive of the game. On the last play of the game, Webb was flushed out of the pocket and fumbled; the Lions scooped it up and the game was over. However, there was a blatant no-call — a facemask –which would have given the Vikes 1st and goal with no time left, but a game can’t end on a penalty. I would have loved to see them try one more play; the refs screwed them out of a win — more importantly a Lions loss — that shouldn’t have been missed.

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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 a bunch of stuff from Australia.

It’s been fucking FREEZING in Los Angeles this past week. And as usually happens when it gets lower than sixty degrees, I put on me long johns, drink some cocoa and turn my ears towards warmer climes. Like Australia, for whom it’s the dead of summer right now. Except it’s been raining dingos and wallabies there recently. Oh well. Here’s some free shit from Australia.

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-VN

Thanks: Andrew McCann

Back in August, I wrote about Envinity, a band whose marketing plan for their self-released album Moira’s Lake was to charge fifty bucks for a special edition — complete with such “there’s a reason no one in music has ever done this before” features as a gag reel — despite the fact that no one has ever heard of them (check out the photo above, and remember that this is an unsigned, not at all famous band). I was pretty merciless with the group, and some other websites soon followed — I even got word of a special “make fun of Moira’s Lake” listening party organized by a group of “fans.” And that may sound pretty mean, but in our defense, a) this website is called MetalSucks, and b) the web page and sales pitch for Moira’s Lake really were pretty much the dumbest things I’ve ever seen.

Well, hey, guess what? The band seems to have realized the errors of their ways, and have now posted the below apology on their website (click to enlarge):

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I was a teenager when singer Bruce Dickinson departed Iron Maiden. It was 1993 and years away from the internet, soon to be our tool for crawling up the asses of any celebrity, even a metal musician. So at the time, I was left to make sense of his resignation using only his words and those of his former bandmates, i.e. official sources.

So I could only speculate about the real story: To me, the culprits were probably burn-out (due to Maiden’s relentless schedule) and bassist Steve Harris’ tight control of Maiden’s creativity. I also suspected that Harris harbored a belief that his Maiden could prosper regardless of personnel; after all, he and manager Rod Smallwood had unflinchingly replaced guitarist Dennis Stratton, singer Paul Di’Anno, drummer Clive Burr, and then-guitarist Adrian Smith just in the band’s first decade as recording artists. My friends called this ‘Arrygance.

But what I didn’t know until now was that Bruce Dickinson had gone slightly, charmingly bonkers. Click to read more…

An unfortunate number of you probably remember Wes Scantlin, who is the guitarist/vocalist from Puddle of Mudd, and a dude whose genius was to realize that there was a market for frat boys who liked Nirvana, but just wished that Kurt Cobain had worn a backwards baseball cap instead of flannel shirts. The band was fucking horrible, so of course they were signed by Fred Durst, released a bunch of whiney songs about girls are so mean! n’ feelings are hard! n’ stuff, and became huge.

But hopefully now Scantlin will be most famous not for his awful music and horrible sense of fashion, but, rather, for being a crook. From TMZ:

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Vancouver’s Nylithia have become one of my favorite unsigned metal acts since I first discovered them a little over two years ago. Beyond their raw talent and their ability to take a thrash base and make it sound completely fresh and new (qualities they share with Revocation), over the two years and two albums I’ve been following them Nylithia have displayed that they know exactly what it is they want to be. In other words, Nylithia sounds like Nylithia and no one else; their sound is instantly recognizable and assignable to them, and they’re incredibly consistent.

So it’s with great pleasure that MetalSucks is premiering “Vein of Creation,” the third song to be released from Nylithia’s new album Hyperthrash. Nylithia are releasing one song at a time from the album for free download, and they’ll be releasing the full album in physical formats once they’ve cycled through all the tracks. They’re promising a music video with each song too — check out the first two vids here and here, both incredibly entertaining — so presumably we’ve got a video for “Vein of Creation” to look forward to in the near future.

More info at Nylithia’s official website.

Nylithia – Vein of Creation by MetalSucks

So the young ‘uns might not remember this, but back in 1995, following the release of Ozzmosis, Zakk Wylde actually had to bow out of Ozzy Osbourne’s touring group. The reason? ‘Cause Mr. Wylde was busy waiting to see if he got the second guitarist spot in the then-biggest band in the world, Guns N’ Roses. GN’R's original rhythm guitarist, Izzy Stradlin, had quit in ’91, and his replacement, Gilby Clarke, was fired in ’94; the band was having a hard time filling the slot (an issue which apparently ended up being a major factor in Slash’s eventual decision to leave the group), and Axl Rose got it into his head that having a second lead guitarist would be a great idea, and would “push” the two axe slingers to challenge themselves in new and interesting ways (a theory Rose continues to test in his current version of Guns). In hindsight, this was probably a terrible idea, but at the time, when word got out that Wylde was jamming with GN’R, everyone was all excited by the possibility.

I’m not quite sure why it didn’t work out between Wylde and GN’R (Rose says that Slash refused to share the spotlight with a second lead guitarist, Slash says that Wylde was too impatient to wait for Rose to get his shit together), but last week fans got a kinda-sorta glimpse of a what a Wylde GN’R might have sounded like when the guitarist, whose Black Label Society was opening for Rose and company, hopped up on stage with the band to perform a cover of AC/DC’s “Whole Lotta Rosie.” Metal Insider has found multiple fan-filmed videos of the event, one of which I’ve re-posted below; it’s actually pretty amazing, ’cause Wylde doesn’t use a single guitar squeal the entire time. I wonder if that was one of Rose’s conditions when allowing him to perform with GN’R?

And since we’re on the topic of Zakk Wylde almost joining Guns N’ Roses in the mid-90s, here’s a video of Wylde and Slash jamming on Jimi Hendrix’s “Voodoo Child” from roughly that same time period. Hearing the way these two trade licks and interact with one another might actually give you a better sense of how GN’R could have sounded had Wylde actually ended up in the band. Enjoy:

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It’s been a long while since Roadrunner signed a reputable metal band on the up and up. Megadeth, Dream Theater, Rush and Opeth, some of their most recent signees, are all great bands to be sure, but all four were many albums into their career before moving over to Roadrunner. You’ve got to go all the way back to Trivium or possibly Killswitch Engage to find a metal band that Roadrunner scooped up from the underground and turned into a household name. Gojira are already established to some degree, sure, but while they’re loved and adored by the metal underground (relatively speaking), they’re not as well-known to mainstream metal crowds. Signing with Roadrunner signifies that both parties are ready to change that.

Can Gojira be the next household name in metal? They’re certainly good enough and have all the good-will of the metal underground backing them. Signing with a major label worked for Lamb of God and it sorta worked for Mastodon, but it was disastrous for Shadows Fall.

Anyway, Axl totally knocked it out of the park with an incredibly informative in-studio interview with Joe and Mario Duplantier last month; if you haven’t read it yet and you’re a Gojira fan, you owe it to yourself to do so right now. Decibel Magazine recently checked in with the latter, too, and got a juicy tidbit out of him about Gojira’s writing process. Unlike most bands these days who live in different cities and send files back and forth to write, Gojira actually still assemble in a room and jam everything out the old fashioned way! Quote:

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Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo score was released this past Friday, and I spent a good chunk of my weekend listening to it; I’m glad to report that, yes, it’s pretty fuckin’ great. But if, for some reason, you’re still not sold, here are two more things which will hopefully entice you:

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This is pretty crazy if it’s true, but I can’t say I’m surprised; Yngwie Malmsteen is using copyright infringement as an excuse to force YouTube into pulling down videos that poke fun at his weight.

From a forum thread written by YouTube user “adam02″ on Ultimate Guitar:

Yngwie malmsteen, has issued a DMCA copyright infringement takedown notice against a video I recently uploaded on youtube, as a result YouTube automatically remove the video and email you that it’s been removed: You are essentially guilty until proven innocent. Which is unfair.

Now here’s the real clincher! All the video contains is a recording I made of my right hand drawing a cartoon image of Yngwie Malmsteen in my room. No music apart from a cheesy silly intro which I made.

It doesn’t take an experienced solicitor to realise that there is no copyright infringement going on whatsoever. Here is a thumbnail from the video: you be the judge!

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UPDATE: I know the links keep getting pulled. I’ll try to re-update the vids as often as possible. Sometimes I might have to use live vids instead of studio recordings, depending on what’s available. Apologies.

If my headline seems oddly dry and straightforward, it’s because I’m running out of things to say about these mediocre new songs from the mediocre Death Magnetic that Metallica played as part of their four-night  thirtieth anniversary celebration at the Fillmore in San Francisco. (You can listen to the first two here and here.) I guess it’s good to know Metallica wrote four extra songs in the gajillion years it took them to make Death Magnetic, because, uh, at least they were being productive.

Anyway, these both suck, but if you care –

“Hell and Back”

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It’s Monday. Rather than whining about another 5 days of rank and file, start your week off by opening your mind and listening to something you’ve never heard before. At best you’ll find your new favorite band and your week will jump off to a great start; at worst… let’s not even talk about at worst, ’cause that ain’t gonna happen.

“Unsigned and Unholy” vets Morito Ergo Sum are back with the Moonchild EP, another slab of brutally depressing funeral doom dirges. These Swedes boldly boast that they only employ clean singing, which not only flies in the face of the race to be the most extreme but also creates a stark contrast that serves to make the music all that much more heavy, dark and creepy. Purchase the Moonchild EP on their Bandcamp and stream it below.

It shouldn’t come as any surprise that we’re writing about yet another French band, but we just can’t help it; France is absolutely killing it these days. In Trails are half Black Dahlia Murder-style maxed-out melodeath bludgeoning and half mechanized face stomping ala Mnemic or The Amenta; the sum of those parts is 100% awesome. Stream “Kingdom of Pit,” from their forthcoming record Triumph in Suffering, below. The record comes out December 19th via Rogue Records America.

KOP (Kingdom of Pit) by RogueRecordsAmerica

-VN

Heyyo y’all & happy impending-end-of-the-year!!!!  Sure, life sucks and you’re smelly/ugly, but things are looking up in 2012, I swear!

So if you’re one of those woe-is-me/the-world-owes-you-something negative Nancys, turn that frickin frown inside out and get positive for once.  Maybe you’ll meet the love of your life tomorrow……maybe a suitcase of cash will cross your path…….maybe you WON’T have herpes after all….  Anything is possible, and while we of course need to be prepared for the worst, let’s also not rule out the best.

This Kansas classic contains some of my favorite riffs of all time….

Holy G.I.Joe!!  Prog-thrashsters Carrion Sun have a ridiculous video for a ripping song that will give you one to grow on….  (check em out on Facebook for more music & details on their 12/17 Record Release Show at the House of Blues in Houston, Tejas)

Follow me past the jump for some more musical reasons to simply carry on, son….

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(from Unpopular Opinion Rick Perry)

Whew, what a week. I don’t know where you all are, but here in NYC it’s 5pm and it’s already been completely dark outside for a while. FML. Here’s what happened this week:

• Corey discovered that our “Best of 2011″ lists weren’t as bad as you thought they were with fancy mathematicals to back it up.
• Axl and Vince live-chatted it up with y’all and fielded all your stupid questions… and a few good ones.
• We interviewed Giant Squid’s Aaron Gregory, Porcupine Tree’s Steven Wilson, and Nikki Sixx.
• We premiered new music by Lamb of God, Whores, Abysmal Dawn, and Nothnegal.
• We laughed at the BBC’s distorted view of metal culture not once but twice.
• We announced that we’re retiring some of our older t-shirt designs and that we’re having a fire-sale to get rid of them; get ‘em while you still can!
• Vince pondered a new ranking system that could supercede Soundscan.
• We cracked jokes about another laughable Rolling Stone Top 100 lists of guitarists.
• We introduced Lazarus A.D.’s Jeff Paulick as our new NFL columnist; please direct your hatred of the Packers his way.

Vince out.

-VN

If you read my year-end list, you were probably moderately surprised that you’d never heard of, let alone listened to, my #1 pick for the year, The Project Hate MCMXCIX’s masterpiece Bleeding the New Apocalypse. The band hail from Sweden and play a unique form of death metal mixed with all sorts of strange progressions and varied influences, culminating in a titanic swath of metal dominance. Recently, we received an email from the band asking for donations, with a link to a statement on the band’s home page detailing the band’s recent split from their previous label, Season of Mist. Here’s a section of the band’s statement:

“The simple truth is – we sell 1/10 of what we used to do some 5-10 years back. And we’re not the only ones in this situation, unfortunately. And what’s the cause for this? You already know what it is – illegal downloading. The majority of people simply do not give a fuck about buying actual albums anymore, meaning the bands sell less, the labels don’t get their invested money back and ultimately this leads to said labels not being able to take chances since they know they’ll lose money.

“So, will there be another TPH album in actual physical format? As it looks, I don’t think so. After all these years that we have been putting out albums I can safely say that I have had it with chasing labels and proving we’re worth a deal.”

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Metal Injection has premiered “Sleeping God,” a new video by a German band with whom I was previously unfamiliar, The Intersphere. And while I don’t think the video itself is especially noteworthy (unless you have a fetish for scared-looking Asians), the song is really, really catchy. It has kind of a proggy quality, but I dunno if it’s fair to call it prog; it kind of reminds of Dredg for some reason, although it’s a little more metal than that. And it gets bonus points for featuring clean vocals that don’t sound over-produced or autoLabonted. Check it out below…

“Sleeping God” will appear on The Intersphere’s Hold On, Liberty, which comes out January 31 via Long Branch/SPV.

-AR

Damone drummer Dustin Hengst has passed away, according to Metal Insider (citing other band members’ Facebook pages as sources). Metalheads probably know Damone best for their acoustic cover of Iron Maiden’s “Wasted Years” (above), but the fact is that their 2006 self-titled album was a hard rockin’ good time; check out the title track, also posted above. Out Here All Night was a really solid album through and through that I listened to quite a bit when it came out, so this news bums me out in a personal way. Very sad.

Out Here All Night and Damone’s 2009 swan-song Roll the Dice are both available in full on Spotify; check them out here.

-VN

I am a goofy stats and numbers geek and have been ever since I was a kid, starting when I created my own NFL board game using an NFL Strategy football field and hundreds of 1974 Topps Football cards with plays printed on the back.

Yesterday, I was reading the comments in the compilation of our Year End Top 15 lists and stumbled across “You”‘s request that someone should tabulate and collate our lists. This, of course, appealed to the stat geek in me.

In addition, another reader named “Agschwarzer” created the internet meme you see up top.

So, I was curious. What did the writers at MetalSucks like the most in 2011 and, more importantly, did we completely ignore Mastodon?

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Anthrax, Testament, and Death Angel recently wrapped what was, by all accounts, an awesome, awesome tour. But if you missed it, don’t be too sad — all three bands are hitting the road together again in January! You can dates here.

Of course, you can also live vicariously via some typically killer photos our own Alyssa Lorenzon took of ‘Thrax and Testament at the Electric Factory in Philly last month (alas, due to circumstances beyond our control, we weren’t able to get any Death Angel pics). Get caught in a mosh with our full gallery after the jump!

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