A dude could be kinda defeated and detached about AIDS, as prevention is continually undermined by ignorance (cough religion) and poverty, and a cynic might imagine a potential cure getting suppressed or likewise manipulated for profit. After all, eviler shit has happened before. But Faith No More/Imperial Teen superstud Roddy Bottum does not share your shameful cop-out attitude, you apathetic fuckbag, and is pumping hard against HIV in a bicycle ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Holy shitballz that’s 545 miles by bike!

As a lover of life, you can ride 545 nanometers to Bottum’s AIDS/Lifecycle page to help out. Our man is more than halfway to his goal of $25,000 and accepts support in any amount. Shit, bands chisel more than that on Kickstarter to fund their silly records! Even if you chip in a penny per FNM-related smile, that’s at least $15, which in turn will make Bottum smile and shout you out on his Twitter in recognition of your smile-for-smile action. Crank this while you contribute for extra fun!

-ADF

Read Roddy Bottum’s twitter feed and his AIDS/Lifecycle page for more details and fun. Get Imperial Teen’s new jam Feel The Sound here and wack it to Faith No More tourdates here.

Photos by kind permission of Daniel Falk // FramedNoise.com

This isn’t the classiest thing to write, but the re-return of awesome Sweden death-thrashers The Crown causes my pants to fly off and my hands to, y’know, go to town down there. It’s been a weekly occurrence since their reformation with a new screamer (for 2009′s Doomsday King), and only got more sweaty and compulsive upon the return of original frontman Johan Lindstrand (One Man Army & The Undead Quartet). Upon Lindstrand’s re-enlistment in September, guitarist/producer Marko Tervonen told me of plans to again write songs, record, and maybe tour a bit; fans like me prepared to stand by and hope for what we now can call a Refused-style collection of overdue super-acclaim. Fucking awesome band! Holy shit!

And it now has begun: A couple Saturdays ago, The Crown played their first show with Lindstrand at stage center since like 2004. At that point it seemed like justifiably tardy superfans would never get a chance to party with these awesomes: Band members alluded to screwed-up tours, shitty pay, and fatigue. But here in 2012 we are grinding ever closer to redemption! They’re back! It’s a wonder we ever lived without them.

I wanted to hear all about this first “proper reunion” show for The Crown, and a cheery, chill Johan Lindstrand, once-again the newest member of The Crown lol, commented generously via email. He also detailed his vibe on this new phase for his band, about the coming album for which Tervonen predicted awesome results, and the fate of his post-Crown band, One Man Army & The Undead Quartet.

Last week I saw this tweet: ”Where the fuck are Mantic Ritual at? @AnsoDF? Help?” The question came from a rad L.A. metal dude and is a good one: Where the fuck indeed are the authors of the rave-reviewed 2009 debut Executioner? Are they not overdue for its follow-up and then for another choice slot on a cool tour? Why haven’t we heard a peep from the Pittsburgh thrashers since Executioner landed on two MetalSucks lists of 2009′s best albums (here, here)? Are they still on Nuclear Blast Records? Can fans start looking forward to this little-for-now band’s next album or what?

The answers to these questions are as follows: Los Angeles, yes, long story, no, and kinda. We learned these answers in fun exchange of emails with Mantic guitarist and delightful guy Jeff Potts, who, with great cheer and pristine sentence construction, stated the reasons for Mantic’s recent silence, the fate of Mantic’s near-complete second album, and the status of bassist Ben Mottsman and guitarist/singer Dave Watson (Icarus Witch). Check out Potts’ update and more after the jump.

Click to read more…

I got into Lostprophets’ heavy first album cuz from its opening seconds, I was transported back to my high school buds’ old living room where snowboard and skate videos played on a steady loop. LP just had that vibe, like the random, slightly out-of-tune bands that soundtracked videos of Danny Way calmly vaulting the goddamn Gulf Of Mexico or whatever, bands with half-clever names like Alligator Gun or Hammerbox, bands which you’d find out had only one good song after tracking down their EP on Go-Kart or Cruz.

Click to read more…

It freaks me out when dudes are just against new thrash metal bands. Like, across the board, no exceptions, fuck retro-thrash, they say. And often they’re super-buttsore, as if being forced to relive the clear beverage craze or some other cynical ’80s thing. Weird.

But some new thrash bands kinda invite scorn. Take Bonded By Blood, a solid band that screwed up a bit by taking the name of a classic thrash album. To many, it’s cheating to associate your band so plainly with something beloved, and a use of Exodus’ work as a shortcut — intentional or not. I mean, it’s like if Paramore had choosen the name Twilight. Or if Ben & Jerry’s unveiled a flavor called Fat Is Beautiful You’ll Find Someone Special Soon. Pandering, right?

So Bonded By Blood might have to work harder to earn our attention. But their new jam “Restless Mind” jams pretty hard! The post-Death Magnetic sonics make my vagina cry — so clamped down — but maybe drugz will make it easy to ignore that. What u think?

–ADF

“Restless Mind” from Bonded By Blood’s forthcoming third album The Aftermath can be downloaded free here (email address required boooo). The Aftermath is out July 3 on Earache Records. Pre-order it here.

In entertainment, expectation can be dangerous. And no expectations could be higher than mine for Decibel Magazine’s awesome tour. Behemoth. Watain. The Devil’s Blood. Assassins. Comrades. Favorites. How did each band fare last week at a venue packed with the metal mad in West Hollywood? Did everybody have an awesome time? Should fans east of Texas drop everything to get tickets for the tour’s second half? End the suspense after the jump.

Click to read more…

The Devil’s Blood are third on the awesome Decibel Magazine tour bill, and it’s my dream that their next trek will be atop a huge stadium tour. Sure, that would require a massive and improbable surge in popularity for their Heart-on-acid-and-fronted-by-Lucifer masterpiece, The Thousandfold Epicentre, but hey I dream big. It would be so awesome: the fury of 50,000 fans, massive banks of speakers, pyro/lasers, horny chicks everywhere, police escorts, news choppers, blood canons, special dedications to me before the final song, drugz, abs, madness!

Most importantly, it’d also mean that The Devil’s Blood would have a crack tour staff, including drivers who don’t bail mid-tour in Texas. Cuz that’s what their driver just did Sunday night. From a band statement:

Click to read more…

Most internet-heroes harness the power of modern connectivity to make us laugh, show us naked pictures, and aware travelers to reliable drug spots in unfamiliar cities. But to a guitar player, the most valuable and least acclaimed cyber-saint is an author of internet guitar tabs. Really! It’s a painstaking, thankless chore to discern tricky guitar parts and then, like, transcribe them in that screwy makeshift staff made of dashes and shit. Worst of all, those efforts are compensated with bitchy comments from buttmad basement shredders, all disputing bends and harmonics. Ugh.

But let’s take this moment to hoist to our shoulders my personal god, a tabber with the name ClankTheRobot. Here’s why: Despite worshipping Voivod’s Dennis “Piggy” D’Amour for like two decades, and wanting to learn from his guitarage, I never fucked with Voivod jamz. Really, I was waiting for an official book cuz to play Piggy’s stuff incorrectly would be roughly equivalent to sexing a girl in her nose: Kinda in the ballpark, but not really. And liable to cause major frustration. And screams of pain.  What an unfortunate analogy. Sorry.

Click to read more…

I’m totally blown away by Cyclone Temple’s I Hate Therefore I Am, a sparkling thrash metal masterpiece from 1991. Powered by mega-riffist Greg Fulton (above, second from left) and two of his former Znöwhite bandmates, I Hate was ripped like a steroid-amped Anthrax and equally as impressive for its presciently personal lyrics. In fact, when we think of the acts that primed the pump for pity-partyers like Korn, we must place Cyclone Temple alongside Suicidal Tendencies and Nine Inch Nails. In a good way. I so love!

But I was one of few fans: Cyclone Temple, their bugfuck-awesome guitarist, and I Hate didn’t reach many ears. Worse, the band’s scant momentum was sapped by key line-up changes and the loss of their record company home. Their next releases were hardly available, then Cyclone Temple disappeared. Bummer.

Flash forward a million years: Last month Divebomb Records announced plans to remaster and rerelease I Hate‘s follow-up My Friend Lonely on a single disc with the Building Errors In The Machine EP, and that its liner notes were authored by awesome Carlos Ramirez, editor of AOL’s Noisecreep. Awesome! I contacted Ramirez to gab with a fellow fan about Cyclone Temple’s awesomeness, his involvement in the reissue, his thoughts on the band’s bad luck, the current status of Fulton and bassist Scott Schaefer, and the chances for an I Hate-era line-up reunion.

Click to read more…

Last week, Atheist frontman Kelly Shaefer kindly checked in with us to talk about his band’s addition to dates on the awesome Death To All tour. And just like he does with Atheist’s deceptively catchy jamz, Shaefer snuck into our gab a tantalizing detail for the attentive fan: Atheist is now preparing a follow-up to their first post-reactivation classic, Jupiter.

So I fired back to Shaefer a request to elaborate on that tidbit: Is this happening soon? With Jupiter as a jumping-off point, what are his expectations for this fifth record? How excited is he? Can I play on any/all of the songs? Ever the generous dude, Shaefer replied thusly:

Click to read more…

Saturday is Record Store Day, which is awesome cuz neat bands release neat records exclusively to stores. Best of all are the super-neat cover songs. For example, last year the Deftones collected their many remakes for the vinyl collection Covers. This year’s special third Saturday in April will see Mastodon unveiling a Flaming Lips cover 7” and teaming with pop chanteuse Feist for a mutual-cover song mini-project (above). I love these fun, limited releases and the glimpse into the history of record-shopping that they enable: You have to go buy them before they’re sold out! Memories.

So, in a few days, music-shoppers can vote with their wallets for metal cover song projects and cross-genre collaborations. But here and now on MetalSucks, let’s freely spitball some ideas for next year’s Record Store Day: What pop-ish jamz do you think are perfect for a loud upgrade? What killer metal bands should undertake the upgrading? Why and how? Check out my fantastical ideas after the jump!

Click to read more…

A recent tweet from Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo implies that for their 12th album, the metal titans will re-team with Death Magnetic producer Greg Fidelmann. This might be bummer news for those not blown away by 2009′s World Painted Blood, an ace Slayer songwriting effort marred by a flat, bubbly sound. It’s a double-bummer when considering that vital, violent production was once one of Slayer’s many weapons.

But maybe it’s not too late for Slayer’s next classic, for which Lombardo has stated that nine songs have been written. So just maybe the sessions referred to by Lombardo were only for pre-production (unlikely in light of Fidelmann’s fees and schedule?); maybe the band will reverse course once they snap to the fact that World was the first Slayer record whose jamz failed to exit your speakers like the bullets from guns and the knives into wounds described in their lyrics (who’s got the ballz to tell Slayer anything?); maybe Fidelmann’s mouse hand will go on strike in an effort to preserve  Slayer’s legacy (or to protest its duty of wiping drool off Rick Rubin’s chin?).

If any/all of that happened, what producer do you want to helm a 2012 album from America’s Metal Band? Let’s have a look:

Click to read more…

The Revolver Golden Gods Awards event is totally fun, so it’s a bummer that every metalhead — from the most cynical tr00ist to the cheeriest rock animal — can’t attend to party among our heavy metal heavyweights. But hurrah! this year’s celebration and performances are beaming to your home via livecast (here)! Fuck yeah, dude!

On the slate are live jamz from Trivium, Sixx: A.M., Slash, Marilyn Manson, Korn, and Yngwie Malmsteen, as well as appearances by Alice Cooper, Tenacious D, Lemmy, Anthrax, and motherfucking RUSH. Oh yeah, and the Best Vocalist, Guitarist, Drummer, Bassist, Live Band, Comeback, and International Band awards presentations! It’s hours of heavy metal fun, back-patting, fun-patting, backs, buns, and fatties! Believe it!

So link up with the simulcast and join me, Anso DF, after the jump as I live-blog from the comfort of my totally not court-ordered drug counseling retreat just minutes from the Golden Gods blast. Click the shit out of your refresh button to follow along!

Click to read more…

A tribute to late Death frontman Chuck Schuldiner and a fund-raiser for Sweet Relief Musicians Fund, the Death To All Tour also represents a convergence of tech-metal all-stars from Cynic, Death, and Sadus. And that was before last week’s announcement that opening duties on the short trek will be split between Atheist and Gorguts. So the tour accounts for nearly all of the now-ubiquitous genre’s godfathers and provides about a million incredible reasons to attend. And we found no disagreement from Atheist’s Kelly Shaefer, who kindly commented via email on his excitement for the historic tour, his hopes for an Extreme Metal Hall Of Fame, his new Stones Of Madness project, and more.

Click to read more…

Layne Staley only recorded six studio albums in five years — and yet his inimitable voice influenced an entire generation of singers. To commemorate his death ten years ago, members of the MetalSucks staff will be discussing their favorite Staley performances throughout the day.

Frayed after massive touring for their blockbuster Dirt album, Alice In Chains entered a studio for a low-pressure session with new bassist Mike Inez, acoustic guitars, and no producer. What resulted was the predictably and pleasantly undercooked Jar Of Flies EP, an antidote to the ball-crushing weight of Dirt.

Though undertaken with no commercial expectations, Flies was released in 1994 and landed atop the album charts — one of only two EPs to do so. On it, Layne Staley despairs throughout his four songs for solitude and peace, but the Jerry Cantrell-penned “No Excuses” warmly pledges unwavering loyalty to an unnamed friend, no matter his choices and tragedies. We can’t conclude that friend is Staley, but a few years later, few could resist the urge to retrofit the smash single to the guy who spent most time since Flies in rehab, lost to hard drugs, or otherwise stunting the momentum of one of Earth’s best-loved rock bands.

Click to read more…

In quiet moments, I consider what songs to sing at karaoke with chicks (Journey, Aerosmith), with bros (David Lee Roth, Motley Crue), and with my fancy sister (Puffy, Garbage). It pays to think ahead cuz once you’re there, mic in hand and half in-the-bag, it’s easy to blank on ace jams; then you get stuck fumbling through some Green Day bullshit. And then chicks lulz, bros wince, and sister ditches on the bill. Never again.

Click to read more…

It’s awesome when an awesome band makes awesome record. Then, it’s super-awesome when they combat dangerous expectations for its follow-up via an awesome addition (another guitarist!) and a move to spotlight their frontman’s awesome songwriting skillz (producing the album themselves!). That’s smart awesome!

And that is Crazy Lixx, whose 2010 record New Religion totally ripped in that hyper-slick Adrenalize way. So for the rawer Riot Avenue (out April 24) and its first single “In The Night” (above) fans must be pumped! I sure am, cuz the new jam is great — but I’m also not, Click to read more…

Beginning on Wednesday, Aerosmith singer Steven Tyler (above, with Lara Logan of CBS’ 60 Minutes) internetted a series of public invitations to some sort of Aerosmith action at The Grove in L.A. on  Wednesday, March 28. It appeared that this event would be the unveiling of Aerosmith US tourdates, and I spent my wknd explaining away a throbbing boner of anticipation. And I was set for another couple days of misunderstanding ladies, angry husbands, and painful neck-punchings before the big announcement. But lucky us, this very morning both Aerosmith and tour openers Cheap Trick set out the tour itinerary.

Click to read more…

MetalSucks recently polled its staff to determine The Top 25 Modern Metal Drummers, and after an incredible amount of arguing, name calling, and physical violence, we have finalized that list! The only requirements to be eligible for the list were that the musician in question had to a) play metal (duh), b) play drums (double-duh), and c) have recorded something in the past five years. Today we continue our countdown with Gene Hoglan…

To many, Gene Hoglan is extreme metal drumming’s first superhero. Sure, somebody else invented flying and capes, but Superman was the first to whiz by our windows en route to save an imperiled babe in a business suit. And extreme metal needed its saviors in the mid-‘90s, when the genre was dangling out the window of a burning building, legs kicking and eyes bulged at the drop to the grungy pavement below. In swooped Hoglan, once of not-amazing thrashers Dark Angel, on a pair of thrilling, evolutionary albums from Death, and then, in 1997 alone, Strapping Young Lad’s pivotal City and Testament’s foray into brutality, Demonic.

Click to read more…

There’s this awesome novel The Kindly Ones told from the viewpoint of a holocaust bureaucrat in the Nazi regime. Taking in its measured, unshrill account of total horror is a workout for the concentration and emotions, so I had to crank tons of brain-searing metal to stay sharp — y’know, just like during actual workouts of my buns and guns. Same deal. And y’know what best soundtracks a mind-trip into humankind’s lowest depravity? Fucking awesome Marduk, dude! Their shit is harrowing!

Click to read more…