OZZY OSBOURNE

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On June 19, Whitechapel will release their new, self-titled album. Punishing, massive, and full of infectious anthems, Whitechapel is without a doubt, the band’s strongest work to date (pre-order it here). And we’re teaming up with Metal Blade Records and Silver Surfer Vaporizers to celebrate in the most MetalSucks-appropriate way we can think of: by giving one lucky MS reader a totally rad Whitechapel vaporizer!!!

To win, just answer the following question in the comments section:

WHICH WHITECHAPEL SONG IS THE BEST TO SMOKE TO, AND WHY?

Axl and Vince will review all the entries and pick their favorite, and that person will be the winner. Remember that this is MetalSucks, not Home & Garden, so make sure your answer is entertaining if you want a shot at the prize! And make sure you register for the comments section with a valid e-mail address, as the winner will be contacted via e-mail. Please note that this contest is open to United States residents only and that you must be eighteen or older to win. We will be asking for proof of age, so don’t try to lie!!!

Good luck! And don’t forget that Whitechapel will be part of this summer’s Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival along with Slipknot, Slayer, Anthrax, As I Lay Dying, The Devil Wears Prada, and High on Fire. Get dates here, and enter a chance to win VIP tickets here.

This year’s Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival brings the best lineup the fest has seen in some time; Slipknot, Slayer, Motorhead, Anthrax and High on Fire top the list of bands MetalSucks readers are gonna be the most excitebike about. Since we’re always looking out for you, we’ve teamed up with the fest to offer one lucky winner a pair of VIP tickets to a show of their choice (dates here) and a Mayhem Festival merch package. A full day of metal and a lot of cool stuff for the price of free; great deal!

Here’s what you’ve gotta do to win: tell us which band on this year’s lineup you’re most excited to see and why via the comments section below. This is MetalSucks, not your SAT, so make your entry as interesting and/or funny as possible. Axl and Vince will choose their favorite entry and announce the winner on June 24th.

That’s it. Good luck!

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Hi hi hi it’s the new MetalSucks Question Of The Week, a (sorta) weekly survey of our staff on a recent hot-button issue that’s rocking our metal planet.

Fearless. Controversial. Half-baked. We give it to you straight every Friday afternoon. Okay not that straight. Here’s this week’s topic:

Inspired by the latest bummer in Black Sabbath business on Wednesday, we asked our writers:

Drummer Bill Ward will not be a part of Black Sabbath’s upcoming reunion concerts.
Are u pissed?

Wat u think? The MS staff’s answers after the jump!

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Yesterday, we posted a pictorial comparing old photos of metal musicians to more recent ones, because people get older and closer to death with every passing second, and as nihilists, we find that hilarious.

Today we thought we’d do basically the same thing, only with videos, because people sound different as the years pass and they get older and closer to death, and that’s funny to us, too. (And we didn’t use the same fifteen artists we used yesterday. Just a heads up.)

So watch these and see if you think the bands sounded better now or then…

JUDAS PRIEST, “PAINKILLER” IN 1990…

…AND 2011.

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ROB HALFORD

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As you’ve no doubt heard, Byzantine are back; our favorite West Virginian metallers reunited two years after breaking up immediately following the release of Oblivion Beckons, launched a successful Kickstarter campaign this past winter to fund their new album, then signed to start-up label Gravedancer Records to release it. And now they’re giving you, their fans, a chance to participate in the making of their new album in a very real way: by designing the artwork. Not just the cover — the entire thing, liner notes and all. And to prove they’re for real, Byzantine have pledged that the winner of this contest WILL have his or her artwork used for the new album, no ifs, ands or buts; Byzantine are that committed.

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Welcome to the new MetalSucks Question Of The Week, a (sorta) weekly survey of our staff on a recent hot-button issue that’s rocking our metal planet.

Fearless. Controversial. Half-baked. We give it to you straight every Friday afternoon. Okay not that straight. Here’s this week’s topic:

Inspired by LA Weekly‘s list of the top ten metal frontmen (and two women) under the age of 30, we asked our writers the following question:

WHO IS THE NEXT BIG METAL FRONT(WO)MAN? 

Wat u think? The MS staff’s answers after the jump!

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Lest there be any doubts regarding the value of rhythmic editing, check out Ringworm‘s new video for “Used Up, Spit Out,” from their current Victory Records release, Scars. What could easily have been just another so-called “warehouse” video instead fully captures these hardcore stalwarts in all their vitriolic glory, thanks largely to the way the editing emphasizes the impact of the music. Of course, the fact that Ringworm’s tunes kick ass so hard you might actually have the Human Furnace’s bootprint on your cheeks for months doesn’t hurt any!

MetalSucks is proud to debut the video for “Used Up, Spit Out” below. We hope you dig it as much as we do. Like we said, the band’s most recent album, Scars, is out now via Victory. The group will be touring all of May and into June; you can get dates here.

The lads in Aether Realm are smart dudes; members of the band have emailed us with pictures of themselves wearing MetalSucks merch not once, but twice, because hey, guess what, when you send us pics of yourself in MetalSucks garb we post them! Easy peasy: free promo for you band, excellent threads, free box of metal swag in the mail. It’s a win/win/win for you! And in case there’s any doubt that Aether Realm are gaming the system by simply swapping shirts with each other, guess again; guitarist Jack Rodriguez-Dougherty, above, is wearing a completely different item than the [now totally sold out] “Completely Unreadable” hoodie Vincent Jackson Jones was seen sporting several months back.

So buck up, kiddos: you, too, can participate in our Show Us Your MetalSucks contest, get your band featured on MetalSucks and get some free metal shit in the mail by sending us photos of yourself sporting MS gear. Keep ‘em coming and we’ll keep on posting ‘em.

And don’t forget, our very hip, new STUFF YOU WILL HATE t-shirt designed by Sergeant D himself is now for sale. Get one.

Calling a band’s first album on a proper record label their official “debut” seems to be commonplace, but with NYC’s Hung it just feels wrong; our history with the band goes back nearly as far as the creation of MetalSucks, and their actual debut, the self-released Progeny, garnered quite a bit of coverage here. They appeared on Volume 1 of our free NYC Sucks compilation last year, too. And we’ve seen them kick ass live in NYC like a zillion times.

Still, we suppose their self-titled album — which comes out tomorrow via ReThink / The End — is effectively their “debut” for most of the world. And so, for most of the world we are legitimately stoked for you to be introduced to Hung via a full album stream of their new album. Check it out in all its proggy, classical-infused, Opethian death metal goodness below.

Hung have a few dates left on their East Coast tour; get dates here.

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Welcome to the return of MetalSucks Question Of The Week, a (sorta) weekly survey of our staff on a recent hot-button issue that’s rocking our metal planet.

Fearless. Controversial. Half-baked. We give it to you straight every Friday afternoon. Okay not that straight. Here’s this week’s topic:

Inspired by Terror frontman Scott Vogel’s slamming of reunited Refused as a “fake shell” in the face of wildly positive fan and media reaction to recent Refused shows, we asked our writers the following question:

THE REFUSED REUNION ISN’T BULLSHIT … IS IT?

Wat u think? The MS staff’s answers after the jump!

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Adam Yauch of the Beastie Boys, aka MCA, has died at the age of 47. He had been fighting cancer of the salivary gland since 2009.

The Beastie Boys were obviously not a metal band, but they were incredibly important to pretty much any music fan born before 1990 or so, including all of us at MetalSucks. The Beastie Boys heavier material bordered on hard rock and even had elements of metal, and their ultimate party anthem certainly embodied the spirit of metal to the fullest.

R.I.P.

- The staff at MetalSucks

If you wanna hear one of the best death-grind albums of the year, get your ass in here: Metal Blade won’t release Monolith of Inhumanity – Cattle Decapitation‘s latest, and strongest, release to date — until May 8, but you can listen to the entire thing right now, right here on MetalSucks. The band has really stepped up their efforts here as both songwriters and musicians, crafting songs that are pummeling, visceral, and epic. And let there be no doubt: Travis Ryan may very well deliver the diverse and elastic death metal vocal performance of the year on Monolith of Inhumanity, switching between styles the way a schizophrenic switches personalities. His work on this album is, in a word, stupendous.

Listen to Monolith of Inhumanity below, then pre-order it in advance of next week’s release here. Cattle Decapitation are currently on tour with Origin, Decrepit Birth, Aborted, Rings of Saturn, and Battlecross; get dates here. They’ll also be a part of this summer’s Shockwave Festival along with Fear Factory, Voivod, Misery Index, Revocation, Havok, Last Chance to Reason, Vildhjarta, The Browning, and Forged in Flame; you can get dates for that tour here.

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Welp, um, this is probably the most morbid Show Us Your MetalSucks contest entry we’ve received to date. We’re not sure whether to feel flattered or insulted that Alannah W. from Australia would think of us when she happened upon a dead Magpie, but we’ll opt for the former by surmising that when Alannah thinks of brutal, she think of MetalSucks. And that dead bird is pretty f’n brutal. Thanks, Alannah! You’ll be receiving that goodie package of metal swag in the mail soon.

The rest of you out there shouldn’t be shy; get to buying a MetalSucks t-shirt for yourself so you, too, can get a swell box of metal goodies. $14 for some sweet threads is already a pretty great deal, but when you factor in all the free stuff you’ll be getting by simply sending us a photo afterwards it becomes impossible to turn down! Do it.

And don’t forget that Sergeant D’s brand new STUFF YOU WILL HATE t-shirts are now available! Sup bro.

When ex-Made Out of Babies singer Julie Christmas released a one-minute preview of a new song called “Scalps” six months ago, Axl pined, “I wanna hear the rest of this, and I wanna hear it now.” Ms. Christmas made us wait quite a while, that rat bastid, but great things come to those who wait: MetalSucks is thrilled to premiere “Scalps” in its entirety today. Stream it below:

“Scalps” is exclusively available on a compilation 2xCD set called Falling Down IIV, the third in a series of comps equally as awesome as this one. Falling Down IIV also includes tracks from Hopewell, Ocoai, Vespero, Mouth of the Architect and many, many more. Watch the trailer and get the complete tracklisting of this excellent compilation below, and be sure to order yourself a copy here; only 1,000 CD copies were made and a VERY limited number of vinyls were pressed, so these are definitely going to sell out quickly.

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Boy oh boy, do we have a special treat for you today, kiddies: “Repossession,” the latest ridiculously funny, ridiculously entertaining, all-around-ridiculous video from the mighty Municipal Waste and director David Brodsky. With so many bands struggling to come up with cool ideas for videos, we do have to wonder how these dudes do it again and again and again. Not that we’re complaining — we’re laughing way too hard for that. Enjoy:

“Repossession” appears not only on Municipal Waste’s new album, The Fatal Feast (out now via Nuclear Blast), but also on their new, limited-edition 7″ (limited to 1,700 copies in five different colors) that the band has made in conjunction with Scion A/V. In addition to “Repossession,” the 7″ features two re-recordings of classic Waste tunes from their earliest, now-out-of-print releases. You can download the EP, and get more details on the 7″, here.

And as if all that wasn’t enough for ya, Scion A/V is also sponsoring Municipal Waste’s next North American headlining tour, which kicks off in May. Featuring support from 3 Inches of Blood and Black Tusk, it’s guaran-fuckin’-teed to be a great time. Get dates after the jump!

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Tomorrow night, All Shall Perish will conclude their headlining run with Carnifex, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Conducting from the Grave, and The Contortionist. But if you missed ‘em — or just wanna re-live the br00tality — MetalSucks has got your back: our expert photographer Mariel Pietrykoski was the tour’s NYC stop last week the latter to capture all the action. Check out her epic photos after the jump!

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Aborted kicked off their latest North American tour last week with Origin, Cattle Decapitation, Decrepit Birth, Rings of Saturn, and Battlecross (dates here), and MetalSucks is teaming up with the Belgian death metal lunatics and Century Media to celebrate the trek in style: we’re giving not one, not two, but THREE lucky winners the chance to win this kick-ass prize package –

• One bloody apron signed by the band (photo sample above)
• The band’s entire Century Media catalog: Slaughter & Apparatus: A Methodical Overture (2007), Strychnine.213 (2008), and this year’s Global Flatline.
• One Aborted t-shirt.

Pretty frickin’ cool, right?

To win, just tell us your which Aborted song is your favorite and why in the comments section below. Please make sure you register for the comments section using a real e-mail address, as all winners will be contacted via e-mail. Please note that this contest is open to U.S. residents only. Axl and Vince will review all the entries, and the authors of their three favorites will get this incredible prize package. Remember, this is MetalSucks, not Reader’s Digest, so keep your answer entertaining!

Best of luck…

-Axl, Vince, and Everyone at MetalSucks

Believe the hype: Huntress is the real deal, a no-frills, totally occult, totally awesome heavy metal act that reminds you why you ever fell in love with extreme music in the first place. If hotter-than-hell vocals, guitars so crunchy you could break a tooth on ‘em, and capital-”M” Massive drums are your thing, you will love Huntress. And if they’re not your thing, well… fuck are you doing call yourself a metal fan anyway?

MetalSucks is beyond stoked to debut the video for the title track from Huntress’ new album, Spell Eater. Check it out below! The album drops May 8 on Napalm Records; you can, and should, pre-order it here. You should also follow Huntress on Facebook and Twitter for all the latest news.

And now, without any further BS, we present Huntress’ “Spell Eater”…