Few bands with longevity remain with one record label for very long. Grievances, sales underperformance, lineup shakeups, and myriad other issues make stability a lazy, laughable ideal. Chances are, bands who’ve been around for decades will see albums go out of print for one reason or another. The most obvious and welcome remedy is for the rights holder to put out a proper reissue, perhaps tied to an anniversary of some sort. That’s not always as simple as it sounds, and in some cases bands opt to do something far more radical: re-recording.

So then, considerable baggage in tow, comes the arrival of Sick Of It All’s Nonstop. Culling from two-and-a-half decades of material, the NYHC heroes rejigger twenty of their tracks in their current metal-tinged sound, abetted by producer Tue Madsen. The sticker slapped on the cover of the “deluxe” import edition boasts: “MAXIMIZED AND IMPROVED NEW RECORDINGS OF SOIA CLASSICS.” This sort of revisionism can provide disastrous in many cases. There are ethical and even existential questions in play. In a hardcore scene obsessed with multi-colored first pressings, the threat intensifies. Is it right for some kid to hear the 2011 version of “It’s Clobbering Time” before or instead of the original?

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Total bummer: no new album from The Red Chord this year, despite their fact that their last effort, Fed Through the Teeth Machine – my personal favorite release of 2009 – came out more than two years ago. But semi-redemption: the band still managed to play a string of killer shows (including one of my favorite sets of the weekend at The Metal Suckfest), and have apparently been demoing material for their next offering… forty-nine seconds of which they’ve made available via the below video.

The audio quality is miserable, even by demo standards — it seems like someone turned the volume way down — but what I can make out sounds, well, evil, chunky, intimdating… in other words, like awesome new music from The Red Chord. Fingers crossed this means we get a new TRC album sometime in 2012.

-AR

[via The PRP]

Anthrax, Testament, and Death Angel is a great bill for a tour, and according to my man Anso DF, the resulting concert was not a disappointment. (Alyssa Lorenzon captured some killer photos from the tour, too; we’ll post those at some point very soon.) And I guess Anso’s not the only one who felt that way, ’cause now the trio has announced a second leg to the tour, which will kick off in late January.

Only twelve dates have been announced thus far, but more are guaranteed to follow. Here’s the itinerary as of now:

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Those sneaky Satan-worshipping cats over at The Deciblog claim that their streamage of Alcest’s new tune “Autre Temps” isn’t a premiere, but it’s the first opportunity I’ve had to hear any of the French black-shoegaze outfit’s new music so it’s a premiere to my ears. “Autre Temps” gives me reason to think that Alcest’s upcoming,album Les Voyages De L’Âme will be every bit as good as its predecessor, That Album Title Is Also in French. With a January 9th release date in Europe (January 31st in North America, but let’s not kid ourselves… in the Internet age an album is “out” everywhere on the date it’s first released), It’s A Good Thing You Can’t Hear Me Attempt To Pronounce This Album Title Because I’d definitely Botch It will be the first release I’m genuinely excited about in 2012.

This tune is definitely on the more shoegazey / atmospheric side of what Alcest do, but Deciblog scribe Chris Dick — who’s heard Les Voyages De L’Âme in full — assures us there are plenty of heavy moments on the album too. I actually enjoy Alcest the most when they’re in their quieter, more chilled-out and pensive moments, so we’ll see how that manifests on the Vince Neilstein scale of approval once I hear the record. Either way, it’s hard to imagine it won’t be really good.

Stream the new track over at The Deciblog and pre-order this jim-jam (available with two different album covers!) right here.

-VN

… Brandon Ellis. You might recognize the 18-year old (!) Ellis’s name from his run as a touring guitarist with Arsis on their most recent Jim Malone-less tour, or perhaps from his brief stint with North Carolina-based MS-faves Vanisher. Filling in for Jim Fucking Malone in Arsis is pretty dern impressive on its own, but learning a band’s entire live set — let alone a band as technical and precise as Sylosis — in TWO DAYS, then going out on tour with them to open for As I Lay Dying in 1,000+ capacity venues? Mind boggling. This kid’s got my respect.

But the news of Brandon Ellis replacing Alex Bailey — who broke his wrist mere days into Sylosis’ U.S. tour — isn’t new in and of itself, as Ellis started playing with the band late last week and several other sites picked up the news around that time. Mainly I just wanted a reason to post this new live music video of Sylosis playing “A Serpent’s Tongue,” ’cause Sylosis are fan-fucking-tastic and you really ought to pay them attention. I named their 2011 release Edge of the Earth as one of my Top 15 of 2011, so use this as an excuse to catch up on what you missed.

-VN

[via No Clean Singing]

When I watch naked sex videos, I avoid the rough/gross stuff (cuz barf) and the solo dildo stuff (cuz yawn), so it’s weird and confusing that I so enjoy internet video of a dude playing drums to Katatonia (above). Like some porn, it’s gross (drummer) and solo (guy gratifying self), so you see the irony. But even though this stud Chris Anderson wears a cymbal company’s logo across his bosom and describes his performance as rusty, the clip looks and sounds awesome and helps fans to visualize the thoroughly tasty and tasteful drums by Katatonia dude Daniel Liljekvist. It’s, like, educational. So there’s no need to feel like a pervert for watching. So why do I cry in the shower afterwards?

–ADF

Katatonia’s upcoming 20th anniversary show on December 14 in Stockholm will feature former members and other special guests (info here). I hope they do a DVD so I can watch it alone at a motel some night.

After it was announced that director visionary director Darren Aronofsky would be helming a music video for Loutallica’s completely unlistenable piece of shit “The View,” I was optimistic that Aronofsky would come up with something that would be superior to the song itself. I don’t think I was alone in harboring this hope. I haven’t loved all of Aronofsky’s films — The Fountain and Black Swan were both pretty lousy, and, no, I don’t give two fucks how many awards the latter film won — but the guy’s work is usually, at the very least, thought-provoking. He has a unique point of view, and, really, what more can you ask for from an artist? Some people will inevitably love or hate the creator’s work, so, really, the creator’s responsibility is to be, for lack of a better term, interesting. It is, ultimately, the bare minimum we should require of artists, and the single thing so many of them completely fail to do. But whatever you want to say about Aronofsky, you can’t deny that the guy has a vision; he’s got heart, he’s got soul.

That’s why his video for “The View” is such a goddamn bummer. ‘Cause it’s really just a performance video. Is it slightly prettier than most performance videos? Sure. Aronofsky’s regular cinematographer, Matthew Libatique — who has been one of the director’s regular collaborators way back since π — is no slouch. But most of the imagery isn’t really that original or stimulating. Really, the “homemade,” handheld nature of it — that kind of “indie” quality — isn’t that far off from, say, a commercial for Levi’s jeans. Y’know, like this one:

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By the time Resolution comes out on January 24th, 2012 it will have been almost three full years since the release of Lamb of God’s last album of new material, Wrath. Three years is a long time for fans to wait for new music from a band, but Lamb of God aren’t just any band. From their humble beginnings in Richmond, VA in the mid ’90s, Lamb of God grew to become one of the celebrated champions at the top of the budding New Wave of American Heavy Metal scene in the early 2000s. A decade later, thanks to relentless worldwide touring and a dogged devotion to improving their musical chops while staying true to their roots, Lamb of God are inarguably the biggest modern metal band in the world. If you don’t believe us, try this little thought experiment out for size: what other band this side of Metallica (who stopped qualifying for the “modern” tag long before Lamb of God released their first album) whips the metalsphere into such a dizzying fury whenever they release new music? Lamb of God may reach the dreaded/vaunted “legacy” status some day, but that day is not today: one listen to their brand new track “Ghost Walking” should prove that Lamb of God are is vibrant and relevant as ever.

Get your exclusive first listen of “Ghost Walking” below, then pre-order Resolution in one of several different combo packages through Lamb of God’s official webstore.

Now, now, no need to worry — we’ll still be posting on a regular basis until December 16. We just thought it might be convenient for you guys to have all of our awesome year-end coverage gathered in one place. So if you haven’t checked out all the lists yet, well… have at ‘im! And things will be back to normal (well, normal for us at least) next week, when we have a series of awesome music premieres for you guys… get stoked.

And now, the listmania!!!

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Last week we offered up a copy of Butch Walker’s new autobiography Drinking With Strangers. Let me tell y’all, I just finished the book and it’s SUCH a good read; in addition to metalhead-friendly topics related to Butch’s days in SouthGang on the late ’80s sunset strip, there’s a wealth of information about the music industry in general, and, of course, stories from the Marvelous 3 days and the creation of Butch’s solo albums. Highly recommend you buy it here. One guy who certainly won’t have to buy it is our winner:

• Dantera: “Ironic the very child she tried to abort became a Dying Fetus fan.”

White Arms of Athena’s prog-tastic album Astrodrama is now available on vinyl via Eclipsical Records, and we’ve got two copies to give away this week. This week’s photo comes from loyal photo submission expert Jason Solomon; leave a comment with the funniest caption to the photo below. Remember to use a real email address (or post it along with your comment if you’re using FB Connect / Twitter 

Ever since Sanctuary reunited on the inaugural 70,000 Tons of Metal cruise this past January fans have been speculating as to when (and if) they’d get around to doing a few more shows. And, ya know, it’s not as if Nevermore’s busy schedule is providing any conflicts these days. Speculate no longer: the website for NYC’s Gramercy Theatre lists a January 11th, 2012 Sanctuary date, while a search on Ticketbastard turns up another date on January 7th, 2012 at Club Nokia in L.A. With only four days between two shows on opposite coasts, it’s likely those are the only two they’ll be playing this time around, but I wouldn’t be surprised if another major market fly-in such as Chicago or Dallas popped up around the same time-frame.

Pardon me if this old news, but I haven’t seen it announced anywhere yet — the band doesn’t appear to have official web properties of any sort and they haven’t sent out an email blast or press release of any kind either. So this is big news! Sanctuary’s prime came before my time, but I have an immense respect for their legacy and love Warrel Dane as a vocalist. Too bad Jeff Loomis won’t be involved this time around.

-VN

Thanks: The Thrillcall live events widget at the bottom of our sidebar.

FEATURING MEMBERS OF GOATWHORE, AGALLOCH, WARBRINGER, ROSETTA, ZEBULON PIKE, NOCTEM, THE WILL OF A MILLION, EXCOMMUNICATED, AND TRANSLATION LOSS RECORDS

Every year year, MetalSucks asks musicians from across the vast spectrum of the metalsphere (or, in a few cases, the almost-metalsphere) what their favorite albums of the year have been. Death metallers, thrash metallers, black metallers, stoners, grinders, and djenters alike have graciously contributed lists to MS, and we’ve been running them in groups of nine to ten musicians at a time two to three times a day for the whole week.

After the jump, check out the final group… we hope you enjoy seeing what some of metal’s heaviest hitters were into this year as much as we have!

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Welcome to “Question of the Week,” a (not really at all) weekly debate amongst the MetalSucks staff regarding a recent hot button issue.

Inspired by the ongoing disaster that is Lou Reed & Metallica’s Lulu, this week we asked our writers:

WHAT WAS THE WORST METAL ALBUM OF 2011?

The MS staff’s answers after the jump!

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Following last month’s leak in in the Las Vegas Sun and a series of clues posted by the band just this week — including one here on MetalSucks yesterday — yesterday evening, Mötley Crüe confirmed on CNN’s Piers Morgan Tonight that they’ll do a residency at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas this February. Called ”Mötley Crüe in Sin City,” the twelve shows will take place between February 3rd and February 19th.

And you know what? For all the shit I give the Crüe, Vince and I had great time seeing them live this past summer… dudes still know how to put on a show, and Vegas seems like a venue which was pretty much designed specifically for Mötley. So I imagine these shows will be a blast.

Tickets go on sale Saturday, or you can get in on the pre-sale right now using the password “SIN13.” The prices are actually not at all terrible by Vegas standards, too.

-AR

FEATURING MEMBERS OF GWAR, DARKEST HOUR, REVOCATION, INTRONAUT, ABYSMAL DAWN, BRUTAL TRUTH, THE ATLAS MOTH, AND IKILLYA

Every year year, MetalSucks asks musicians from across the vast spectrum of the metalsphere (or, in a few cases, the almost-metalsphere) what their favorite albums of the year have been. Death metallers, thrash metallers, black metallers, stoners, grinders, and djenters alike have graciously contributed lists to MS, and we’ll be running them in groups of nine to ten musicians at a time two to three times a day for the whole week.

After the jump, check out the next group… we hope you enjoy seeing what some of metal’s heaviest hitters were into this year as much as we have!

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That’s obviously a lie, but it’d be hard to blame someone for thinking as much after listening to David Gold’s Steele-esque bellowed croon on the new Woods of Ypres track “Kiss My Ashes (Goodbye).” And I mean that in the best way possible; I loved Type O Negative and I really liked Woods of Ypres last album Woods 4: The GREEN Album, released in 2009 and picked up by Earache for re-release in 2010. With Woods 5: Grey Skies & Electric Light on Earache’s release slate for 2012, the band’s begun teasing tracks out to the public. And I’m really, really liking what I’ve heard so far. First great release of 2012? Maybe.

Check out another new track from Woods 5 at The Number of The Blog; it’s faster, but no less awesome. Think more “I Don’t Want to Be Me” and less “Christian Woman.”

-VN

Earlier this week, Fred Durst tweeted that there would be  “huge Limp Bizkit news” in December. Well, it’s December, and here’s the huge news: Metal Insider reports that during a recent interview on  Poolside with Dean Delray (whatever the hell that is), Durst revealed that the band is no longer with their longtime label –

“One of the things with Gold Cobra was that that was a record, for us, to do for ourselves, for the core fans, for some of the people that we know in the industry — its wasn’t our step forward to make a big pop, smash radio record; we just didn’t wanna make that record at that time… We have been working for awhile now to renavigate where we are going to take Limp Bizkit, and finally we have been able to get off our label and become independent.”

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FEATURING MEMBERS OF KYLESA, INSOMNIUM, ABORTED, MNEMIC, MARUTA, EAST OF THE WALL, BLOODIEST, BROKEN HOPE, AND IN DE GOOT ENTERTAINMENT

Every year year, MetalSucks asks musicians from across the vast spectrum of the metalsphere (or, in a few cases, the almost-metalsphere) what their favorite albums of the year have been. Death metallers, thrash metallers, black metallers, stoners, grinders, and djenters alike have graciously contributed lists to MS, and we’ll be running them in groups of nine to ten musicians at a time two to three times a day for the whole week.

After the jump, check out the next group… we hope you enjoy seeing what some of metal’s heaviest hitters were into this year as much as we have!

Click to read more…

This dude might not be as hot as Katy Perry, djent has most certainly jumped the shark, and I just recently stated that I think covers of pop songs are lame… but this is pretty sweet, I’m not gonna lie. It also happens to be infinitely more tolerable than the original. Come for the sick riffage but stay for Drewsif Stalin’s hilarious lateral head-bobs.

-VN

Thanks: NH

How’s this for shitty timing? Just as Sylosis were poised to begin their first-ever U.S. tour, supporting As I Lay Dying, guitarist Alex Bailey breaks his wrist and will be forced to sit the whole tour out. We haven’t been able to determine how, exactly, Bailey broke his wrist — we’re being told he fell — but apparently he broke it in three places, so it’s a pretty serious injury.

Axl and I went to see a Sylosis headline show the other night in NYC — one of a small handful of dates leading up to the AILD support run — and while we thought the band looked a little funny up there with only three dudes and sounded a little funny with only one guitarist, we weren’t too sure because we’d never seen them before. Things became a little more clear when vocalist/guitarist Josh Middleton announced from the stage that Bailey had broken his wrist, and yesterday we were able to confirm the situation with the band’s publicist. Bailey made it to the U.S., played the first couple of shows, then broke his wrist. So the poor sap is here, in a foreign land for the first time, and he can’t even play to what are presumably some of the biggest audiences Sylosis has ever seen. I can only imagine how pissed and upset he is right now.

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