If The Album Isn’t Dead Then We Should Kill It!

A lot of people take it as an insult to albums when I make that statement. But that’s just not the case. Albums will always be awesome. They are most awesome when you get one that’s actually filled with good music from front to back. It is very difficult to write a good album so I’m not dissing the actuality of the album being an artform or a statement or whatever the fuck. But…

Bands shouldn’t make albums anymore.

How often do you hear bands complaining about losing money or not being able to tour because of the internet and people ‘stealing’ their records? If you are one of those bands than I say you deserve to get your shit stolen because you keep making albums. I’m not shitting on bands for making albums. Let’s be clear. I’m just trying to shed light on this whole ‘album’ idea considering the time we live in.

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You act as if there’s this big, massive success around each corner. The one fact is: you’re not enjoying the success you’ve had so far… So how will you enjoy the success you have in the future?

-DCC

It’s hard to believe I wrote my first blog for Metalsucks on February 21st, 2008. I really don’t know what happened to that time. So much has happened to me since then that it’s hard for me to believe life has gone by this quickly.

And I left the only thing I ever knew behind me. I bowed out of the most rewarding and troubling journey I’ve ever experienced.

Believe it or not, my decision to leave God Forbid wasn’t a decision. My quitting the band stemmed from a stupid argument (the last straw) I had with my brother involving me getting a ride from New York City to the band’s van in Pennsylvania. This argument consisted of screaming about money, respect, being a “star,” big opportunities, etc. The argument ended with me screaming to my brother, “Fuck YOUR band.” I’ve never leveled an attack at my brother in that way. The band was never “his” or “mine.” It was always “ours.” That statement was really “I quit,” and we both knew it.

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Congrats to Ziltoid and Grover XIII for entering the blogger world. Check out their new blog, The Number of the Blog!  It takes balls to work on something and put it out there for people (the world) to ingest. I’m sure they will get a good following. The Internet is such a specific place so a different perspective goes a long way. If there is humor involved, even better!

Your success is dependent on you and no one else. There are people out there who believe you need to fail for them to succeed. That’s bullshit. There’s room for everyone to step up. Get out there and do what Ziltoid and Grover XIII did. Start something. Congratulations again guys. I’ll check it out as much as I can.

Let’s get your band closer to the success you want, need and deserve. There are so many tools at your disposal to get your band noticed. Networking, playing shows, making merchandise, recording albums, making webisodes, etc. But one of the most important aspects of moving forward in music is one of the most overlooked.

Positive thinking. Yeah, I said it. On the big, bad metal blog. Sue me.

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I really hate the end of the year during Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. I don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s seasonal depression, or maybe it’s because I’m still coming to grips with the fact that Satan Clause doesn’t exist. I always get loopy during that time of the year. My last two blogs were extensions of that, and if I offended any of you guys, I apologize. I really appreciate every person who comes to MetalSucks and contributes to making this place the best metal site on the interwebz. When I called some of you “faggots” and “assholes” it was out of love. Honestly!

I’ve been an angry, bitter fuck these last couple of months. I don’t need to tell you guys. And I appreciate you being good sports throughout this whole ordeal. It’s 2010 and it’s time to move on.

From leaving God Forbid to my personal life completely falling apart, I’ve been dealing with some wild bullshit. I’m thirty years old now and for you young bucks out there, take it from me: life gets harder. But that’s okay. It has to get harder, or else we wouldn’t get stronger.

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My last blog was fucking hilarious. I mean, really. It was good. No, it was better than good. It was great. Besides some of my blogs that have nothing to do with metal (Susan Boyle) I was able to write something that wasn’t serious at all. And again, it was completely hilarious. The best part of the blog was -

Half of you mother-fuckos didn’t even get it!

And Jesus, it was sad. I mean, come the fuck on. What are you guys paying attention to? One of my choices for my year end list was Joe Duplantier  – For being ‘better than everyone else.’ Oh… and one of my favorites: Ivan Moody’s ‘VOICE’ from FFDP. His voice! His god damn voice?

Wake up, you assholes!
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I’ve lost interest in metal. Playing it that is. I LOVE listening though. I listened to Chimaira’s Resurrection in it’s entirety and didn’t even realize it was in its entirety. Bad ass record! Born Of Osiris has been in my play list lately as well. But Dallas Coyle’s (yes, third person) output/creation of metal music has been nil on the metal front. I’ve written some rock, some trip hop, some electronica — But no metal.

I haven’t done a blog in a while because I don’t have the passion to write about metal either. There are an alleged amount of reasons I suspect are contributing to my lack of metal inspiration, none of which I can say is a direct culprit. None of which is the sole reason I’m not ‘metaled’ up right now.

Reason #1

This site is becoming more popular and I feel obligated to write something that relates to the metal scene. Since there is more of a demand for metal blogomania at Metalsucks I feel I shouldn’t talk about Susan Boyle or Tiger Woods. BUT, when the election was happening I didn’t mind talking shit about McCain or Hillary Clinton? Weird right? But the site didn’t have the traffic it does now. I don’t get it myself. Shouldn’t I want MORE people to read what I write? Like I said, I have no idea! I’m an enigma wrapped in a shitty cooked grilled onion. The enigma stinks and so does the onion :) My brother’s latest blog about Killswitch was better than anything I’ve ever written for my blog so maybe I’m waiting for him to step in. Wait. I’m not in God Forbid anymore so I should stop expecting Doc to cover for me. Dammit. I never should have quit!
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Thanks to everyone who downloaded the package of Graphic Novel [GN] songs last week. I’m happy most of you enjoyed the tracks. It’s cool to know people will take the time to check out the music with an open mind. I never said I was the best composer or song writer out there, but I feel I do have a style. I’m always doing my best to refine it. The older you get means the more experiences you have which means your music should evolve into something you can control, as opposed to letting it control you. These particular songs were all composed in a day. Through experimentation, trial and error, and plain passion, you got that download.

I’m working on getting a more professional studio going at some point. Let’s be clear: my recording skills are not my strong side. I’m no Misha Mansoor from Periphery, so I apologize for the (lack of) recording quality.

The songs for the [GN] project are just a color of the ‘voice’ I’ve been spending my whole career trying to perfect. Don’t worry metal heads, I still play metal, just now right now. Which brings me to the subject I’ve wanted to discuss here for a while.

The Evolution Of Deathcore And Why it’s Sweet As Hell

I know the response here for deathcore is a love it or hate it sort of thing. I don’t want to get into that. I’d like to talk about my feelings towards the genre. To say it simply: I fucking LOVE deathcore. I can’t get enough of it.

Seriously.

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I haven’t had much time to write my blog as much as I would like. To apologize I wanted to give you guys a free download of a small amount of music I’ve done since I’ve left God Forbid. This music is under my moniker Graphic Novel or [GN]. I scored a film a couple of months back and this is a sample of that ‘style’ of music I like to create. [GN] definitely is not metal by any stretch but it is some interesting stuff. I hope you kids here can appreciate something besides metal music.

Here’s the tracklisting for the songs cause I’m not sure they will go into your music player in the right order.

1. The Vultures Titles
2. Voices – Score
3. Settle The Score (Inst)
4. Fate-ality
5. Warren’s Fate
6. The Baron’s Theme
7. Push, Shove
8. Death Dance
9. Whistle Blower

The music ranges from horror score to electronica to weird remixes. It will only be up for three days so get it while it lasts you crazy fuckers.

[download is no longer available]

–D

I haven’t done a blog in a while because the last blog I did really got me thinking about the mentality of people in the metal scene. Most particularly, the mentality of shit talking. We’re all guilty of it. I admitted to shit talking Bring Me The Horizon in magazines over in Europe when I was in God Forbid. I never heard them at that point. But now, I dig them and I feel pretty stupid for slagging them.

In my last blog I mentioned my excitement for the band Eryn Non Dae and how I was going to “borrow” some of their ideas for my new project. First of all, my last blog was PACKED with information about band business, touring and juicy tidbits of amazing knowledge :) But, the funny thing about the last blog was this guy ‘Jamie.’ Out of a five hundred word blog, he took the phrase “borrow ideas” and accused me and God Forbid of riding the coat tails of other popular bands. Killswitch was his biggest gripe. Then it was Opeth.

He claimed Gone Forever (2004) was a Killswitch rip and Earthsblood (2009) was an Opeth rip. This type of thing usually doesn’t bother me. In this instance I was fucking bothered. Jamie and I entered into a written brawl about the history of God Forbid and the intentions of our song writing for the last ten fucking years. Why would I waste my time to defend myself from this sort of claim?

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Let’s start this off by saying I most likely WILL NOT listen to your band. When you post your link to your band I will ignore it. Unless you have some amazing pitch as to why I should listen to your music. If you’re my friend on Facebook I will listen to your shit. Otherwise, don’t post links in the comments section for me to hear. Right now, this blog is to answer serious questions.  Not pipe dreams about me passing on your amazing music to a record label. Most of them are on a signing freeze anyway. I understand the need to post your link in the comments for people to check out your band. Knock yourself out. Just don’t expect me to give my two cents.

OK, now that we got that out of the way, I wanted to turn you guys on to some new music I’ve been rocking…  drum roll…  Eryn Non Dae from France.

I found out about these fucks through this site. I’ll tell you, this shit is great. I listened to it three times in one day. It’s like Neurosis, Meshuggah, and Coalesce. I’m loving it. My new project will definitely be borrowing some of their ideas.

The new Behemoth. Nuff said. It’s Behemoth. The whole album kicks ass. Also, Colin Richardson killed on the mix. It sounds amazing and ferocious.

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For my last blog, I decided to do a question and answer session with “The Hard R.” I thought I was going to get a couple of questions, but the amount that came in were pretty mind-blowing. The cool thing is you have real questions about the business, and I think I can shed some light on certain things. I never said I’m an expert but I can use my experiences to shed light on some of these questions. As far as my boy Sven asking about Coyle Media, I’ll break it down for you.

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I hope you guys enjoyed the 21 Best Metal Albums of the 21st Century… So Far. I thought it was awesome that it got so much feedback, and shows that the site is really picking up steam. I was drawn to this site because of the humor and I think it’s coming into it’s own. I called to ask them for the blog and they were gracious enough to say, ‘yes.’ Now that I’m not in God Forbid, they may feel gyped!

With that said, a lot of my blogs have been controversial, and with me leaving God Forbid, everyone is wondering why I still have a blog here. I’ve wondered the same thing. I want to help people out in the biz the best way I can. So for a while I’m going to make this blog a question and answer sort of thing. You can ask any question but if it’s stupid, I won’t answer. If it asks about my decision to leave GF, I won’t answer. Those questions don’t help anyone. Post your questions in the comments section and I’ll try and answer as many relevant ones as possible. I will keep it up weekly if the questions keep coming.

On a side note, I am working on new music that is turning out to be pretty bad ass. Axl and Vince have heard some of the stuff, although rough, and it’s pretty heavy. The vocals are all singing. Think Gojira mixed with Alice In Chains. I’m diggin’ it, bigtime!

OK, on to some questions.

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Why Should We Shut Up?

When I say ‘We’ I’m talking about the people out there who take their blood and put it to paper, celluloid or a digital hard drive. Seriously, why should we stop putting creations out there for everyone to judge? Do you honestly think that an artist doesn’t have any other thoughts or opinions but their art? It’s unfair, it’s nasty and I’m here to tell you we’ve got shit to say. It’s just sad that artists, musicians and filmmakers are maligned when they have something real to say. It may not be right but it’s as much from the heart as the art we create.

It’s about time the mentality of ‘entertain me and that’s it’ stops. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m wrong a lot of the time. I’ve predicted things right and I’ve predicted things wrong. But here’s the rub, when you put yourself out there you’re bound to fuck up more times than not. I learn more from my failures than I do from my successes. When you fail you realize your shit DOES stink, badly.

Look at my Terminator Salvation blog: I was wrong! Dead wrong! I didn’t see the movie but I don’t want to from the feedback I’ve seen. At least I had the balls to say what I thought. It was about a movie, but I said it, I lived with it, and I now admit I was wrong. It takes more to do that than to sit silent. I don’t mind being the butt of jokes or insults. It keeps me grounded to know I am flawed.

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The Rise Of Extremism and Terminator Salvation

A lot of you complained about my last blog and how I didn’t talk about metal and my decision to leave God Forbid. Unfortunately, some people just don’t get how certain things relate to each other and it’s not my job to help the short bus kids along. Don’t look in the mirror. I don’t want you to think I’m talking about you. You’re not that important. With that said, my Susan Boyle blog was completely metal and did relate to me exiting God Forbid even if I left before Susan Boyle became famous. It like Tupac making videos and albums after he was shot to death. We all know Tupac lives. He really does!

I’m going to talk about the most metal thing ever. Extremism and Terminator Salvation. If you saw the Terminator Salvation trailer before it was rated PG-13 you probably thought it was going to be the best movie ever. That trailer is absolutely bad-ass.

Here it is:

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Let’s be honest everyone: Susan Boyle ain’t very pretty!

I’m sick of the PC bullshit we see all over the news shows these days. When you first saw this story all of the beautiful anchors would say the same thing: “This woman, Susan Boyle, a person you might not expect, just blew everyone’s minds with her rendition of blah blah blah.” Let’s look at the phrase in question here. “A person you might not expect.” Short for U.A.F.

Ugly. As. Fuck.

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What’s up everyone? Today is the day Earthsblood comes out and I’d like to thank MetalSucks for supporting the band and this record from even before they had a chance to hear it. What to say about Earthsblood? 1) The album kicks ass. 2) It’s getting great reviews across the board even though I requested that not to happen. 3) Don’t listen to me because I’m just a musician trying to create waves! I don’t know shit.

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I bet a lot of you are wondering why I haven’t been doing my blog lately. Well, let me tell you. Our album comes out very soon and I say a LOT of fucked up shit when I’m writing these blogs. I guess it’s not as fucked up as what the BlabberBitches say but I guess I can get people all riled up. Maybe they have no lives. Maybe their user name handle is out of date and they just can’t change it because their anxiety of being un-”famous” prevents them from doing so. I don’t know.

I slowed down on the blogs for a bunch of reasons. 1) I had a baby. 2) I got a job. 3) I wanted to quiet myself before the album came out so you can pay attention to the music. Of all the shit I say, in the end, none of you would know me if it weren’t for God Forbid so I think it’s respectful to let GF have the spotlight while the record is set to be released.

Now that the record is about to come out [pre-order here. -Ed.] there’s been some press, you’ve heard some songs and you’ve seen the artwork. Most of you are probably familiar with the fact that we’re touring with Ill Nino in Europe in March, Lamb Of God in the states in April, doing the festivals in Europe in June and doing MAYHEM in July and August. That is a lot of touring. And to the BlabberGrundles who said we’re washed up: Yeah, we also got fabric softener with our sick tours… Fuck off.

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