We last talked to Ihsahn right after After had been released, a record that eventually showed up on three of our year end lists for 2010 and you MetalSucks readers chose as your collective favorite of that year. It was a record that shattered common perceptions of black metal and invited thousands of listeners to access a hauntingly powerful kind of experimental music.

Ihsahn’s upcoming release Eremita is his first outside of the “A” trilogy of Adversary, angL, and After. Ihsahn called in from his home in Norway last Wednesday to tell me about the new album, and he sounds just as satisfied with Eremita as he did about After. Rightfully so — Eremita is so distinctly Ihsahn, a uniquely twisting and turning symphony, yet it still sounds like nothing we’ve heard before, and it even manages to be catchy for part of the ride. Ihsahn told me about the symbolism behind Eremita, his experiences working with the other musicians on the album, the story behind his decision to introduce 8-string guitars and the reason Friedrich Nietzsche’s face is on Eremita‘s cover.

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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 Tool’s Danny Carey, who also appeared on Collide’s 2008 album, Two Headed Monster – thus making him eligible for this list!

Tool are not a band people turn to when they’re trying to think of crazily talented technical metal acts. Not to say that the guys aren’t talented — but that’s just not the Tool image. Rather, the Tool image is one of immense songwriting — thunderous buildups, long, grindy intro passages, and slamming riffs and drum beats. We don’t think of Tool as theatrical musicians the same way we do, say, The Dillinger Escape Plan. I don’t even think of Tool as a group of individual people when I think of the band; I can’t picture any of the members without each other.

But Danny Carey is the rock behind all of Tool’s immensity, and has been since he started playing with the band in 1990.

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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 Navene Koperweis, currently of Animals as Leaders and formerly of Animosity…

Few people really viewed Animosity as pioneers of metal, even in their prime, but drummer Navene Koperweis has been influencing the extreme music world since he sat down at the drum kit when he was just eleven years old. He was just fifteen when he recorded Shut It Down with Animosity, and now, at the ripe old age of twenty-six, he’s making huge waves as the drummer of Animals as Leaders. And his musical expertise goes way beyond blast beats and double kicks, and even way beyond drumming — Koperweis performed all of the instruments, except the vocals, on Fleshwrought’s 2010 debut Dementia/Dyslexia.

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Cannibal Corpse have been the face of death metal for almost twenty-five years. Since their debut full-length Eaten Back to Life was released in 1990, they’ve dominated the scene with their brand of in-your-face brutal lyrics and slamming death metal. They’ve also managed to make a name for themselves as one of the most commercially successful death metal bands on the planet. Metal Blade will release their latest offering, Torture, on March 12 — you can pre-order it here.

I  recently spoke with bassist/founding memeber Alex Webster about the new album and the band’s upcoming twenty-fifth anniversary, as well as tons of other Cannibal-related activities. Read our full chat after the jump!

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Hypno5e
Acid Mist Tomorrow
Label – Season of Mist
Release date – early 2012

Hypno5e kind of made an impact on the U.S. metal scene when they were support on the Metal as Art tour way back in the winter of 2009/2010, but they’ve made very few waves since then. That’s about to change. Hypno5e were on the tiny label Overcome Distribution, and they haven’t even released an album since 2007, but they’re now on Season Of Mist. Their next release, Acid Mist Tomorrow, is scheduled to come out this year.Check out the title track from the new album below:

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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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Making this list in 2011 seemed like a much bigger…. thing, I guess, than making this list in 2010 was. Maybe it’s because one specific album didn’t really stick out to me the same way things like Ihsahn’s After or Anaal Nathrakh’s In the Constellation of the Black Widow did in previous years. But the thing I really did notice this year was the hideous amount of catchiness in the music I enjoyed. So much of what I listened to felt samey and generic, but the things that really made an impression primarily capitalized on hooks, memorable riffs, and headbanging choruses. Technicality stopped being as impressive to me as it used to be.

Which is probably why the albums on my list are generally a bit weird, and also why the majority of readers are going to hate the albums I put on my “disappointments” list. Please feel free to express your overly self-righteous rage in the comments. Hooray for the evolution and adaptation of musical tastes.

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Ron Jarzombek is a name that’s too seldom heard outside of progressive metal circles, despite his extensive metal legacy. Sure, a handful of people may be familiar with Blotted Science — the so-called “supergroup” of which he is a part — but by and large, even those who know Blotted Science are unfamiliar with the man himself.

Jarzombek began his musical work with the underrated-yet-incredibly-influential prog band Watchtower in the 80s, then delved into the realm of technical instrumental music with Spastic Ink in the 90s and 2000s. Blotted Science’s debut, The Machinations of Dementia, was released in 2007, and  also featured Cannibal Corpse’s Alex Webster (who is still in the band) and Behold… The Arctopus’ Charlie Zeleny (who is not).

That band is now back after four years (with a new drummer, Obscura’s Hannes Grossman, to boot!) to release The Animation of Entomology, an EP centered around bugs and horror — so much that the songs were actually written to already-existing videos as kind of horror movie scores. You can see the video for the first one, “Cretaceous Chasm,” here; the second one, “Vermicular Asphixiation,” is here.

I Skyped with Ron last week to discuss the new EP and ended up learning a lot about Jarzombek’s musical history, Blotted Science, Jarzombek’s views on the current metal scene, and ESPN exercise videos.

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[UPDATE, 10/28, 10:45am EDT]: Here is an updated itinerary with dates needed marked in bold:

10/31/2011 Boise, ID @ The Shredder TBC
11/01/2011 Ogden, UT @ Mojo’s (+ White Arms of Athena)
11/02/2011 Denver, CO @ Casselman’s
11/03/2011 Omaha, NE @ 5810 Grover St (house show!)
11/04/2011 Saint Paul, MN @ Station 4
11/05/2011 Indianapolis, IN @ Indy’s Jukebox (note: venue upgrade!!!)
11/06/2011 OHIO DATE – FILL
11/07/2011 Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr Roboto Project
11/08/2011 DC area or BUFFALO OR SYRACUSE or NYC / NJ – FILL
11/09/2011 BUFFALO OR SYRACUSE – FILL
11/10/2011 CAN – Toronto, ONT @ Wreckroom (+ Cynic, 3, Scale The Summit)
11/11/2011 NYC area / LONG ISLAND – FILL
11/12/2011 CT / RI / MA / NH – FILL

Original post:

Some of you may have recently attended the currently ongoing Devin Townsend tour with The Ocean as support. Fortunately, unlike the band’s last few tours, this time the band hasn’t had to deal with any theft or broken vans or other calamities. But they’re definitely not rolling in it yet despite the current tour’s success.

We’re encouraging any Ocean fans with connections to venues on the East Coast to try and contact those venues; The Ocean have a short window of time in early November where they’re still in the states, but not touring. And they could really use some extra money before they head back to Europe, especially considering the events that occurred earlier in the year. Here’s what they’ve got so far:

11/03/2011 Omaha, NE @ 5810 Grover St (house show!)
11/04/2011 Saint Paul, MN @ Station 4
11/05/2011 Indianapolis, IN @ The Ugly Monkey
11/07/2011 Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr. Roboto Project

Check out the Ocean’s Facebook page for more details. They’re looking to get any shows in the Northeast on November 8, 10, 11, and 12. Here’s their original post:

WE ARE LOOKING FOR SHOWS IN THE NORTHEAST, Nov 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 — NY, CT, RI, MA, Toronto, NJ, PA area… venues, houses, tree-huts, boats, churches… we do it all. email info@theoceancollective.com!

-DM

Given the unprecedented amount of bands that are getting their starts via the Internet these days, it’s somewhat remarkable that any of them manage to make a name for themselves. Animals as Leaders, Periphery, Cloudkicker, and a fair number of similar projects have been getting the majority of the recent buzz, but Threat Signal were among the first to put music online and get a record deal from it.

All the way back in 2004, Jon Howard, Rich Howard, Kyle McKnight, and Adam Matthews wrote and posted the song “Rational Eyes” on GarageBand.com, leading to the eventual formation of a permanent band and the 2005 release of Under Reprisal. In 2009 they released the album Vigilance, which was received rather poorly.

The band is back with a self-titled new release that blends the brutality of their first release with the much-criticized and (now much-improved) melodic tendencies of Vigilance. I talked with extremely stoked vocalist Jon Howard last week about everything from the TS writing process to the band’s recent lineup changes and the state of the current metal scene.

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You guys know that really good band that got fucked over a bunch of times over their last few tours in recent memory? Well, somehow, it actually happened again. I received the following unfortunate email from The Ocean’s Robin Staps:

 ”Today is a shit day. Our upcoming US tour just fell apart. We had been confirmed for weeks for a direct support slot on a good 6-weeks US tour in October and November, and yesterday it was decided that this tour is now being postponed to late November into December. We are not available at that time because we have tours booked in Europe for months. Our flights to the US have already been booked for weeks, and we’ve been left high and dry again… somehow we’re just not lucky over there it seems!

If anyone has a tour to offer us between October 9th and November 20th, we’re all ears :-) Hope we can still make it over somehow.”

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Every year seems to either be hailed as the “best year for metal in ever” or discarded as “the year Morbid Angel and everyone else sucked really badly,” and this year has been no different. I’ve heard everything across the board from praise to condemnation, but I think that so far, 2011′s been pretty good — we got long-awaited albums from old favorites, surprising returns, and some awesome breakout albums. I admit I haven’t heard everything I should’ve yet, but I have managed to plow through a significant stack of music, and found the following to be really standout releases so far:

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If anyone remembers the Completely Unreadable Logo of the Week for July 6, 2007, then you’ll actually know who Misericordiam already. I hadn’t started writing for MS at that point, but I was thrilled to see the band represented on the site when I later went looking through the archives. Unfortunately, the group then proceeded to break up; fortunately, they’ve been back together for a while now (albeit with a completely different lineup). So I thought it would be prudent to rewind back to their most recent EP, 2007′s Unanimity and the Cessation of Hostility.

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Between the inclusion of Paul Ryan on our Top 25 Modern Metal Guitarists list, the release of their latest album, Entity, and their co-headlining tour with Hate Eternal, which begins tonight, Origin have been crowding the metal spotlight of late. I took some time to talk with Ryan about the new album, the current metal scene, the band’s progress, and the tour. Read our complete conversation after the jump!

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Remember when I reviewed Nekrogoblikon’s newest release, Stench? Some of you were upset when you couldn’t hear the album due to the band’s record label suffering financial difficulties. But now the group has gotten it together and pressed Stench for an expected July 19 release date. And they need help to buy a van so they can finally start spreading the goblin metal gospel. Go here to pledge enough money to get Nekrogoblikon going as a major part of the metal world.

But the band knows that you really don’t care about anyone besides yourself, so they’ve cleverly included rewards corresponding to how much you pledge, ranging from a pre-ordered CD to full studio involvement, specially written songs, and touring with the band. The rewards are cumulative, so the more you donate, the more you get. The band currently has only received $800 in pledges, and their goal is $9,000. So donate money and get yourself some nice shit in the process.

Note: If the band’s goal of $9,000 is not met, your credit card won’t be charged.

-DM

MetalSucks recently polled its staff to determine who are The Top 25 Modern Metal Guitarists, 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 guitar (double-duh), and c) have recorded something in the past five years. Today we continue our countdown with Opeth’s Mikael  Åkerfeldt…

Everyone knows Mikael Åkerfeldt as the leader of Opeth, as well as the vocalist and contributor to countless other widely regarded musical projects, like Bloodbath and Katatonia. But really, Akerfeldt isn’t just a superior songwriter and all-around musician — first and foremost, he’s a ridiculous talented, incredibly versatile guitarist, and is far and away one of my favorite modern players.

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Earthship‘s name is a funny thing, because the music the band makes takes us exactly away from Earth, not towards it. It’s strange to hear such otherworldly sounds these days, but it’s also quite refreshing. Like the best music should do, it creates vivid mental images. And that’s not something I often hear.

Exit Eden is one of numerous recent projects involving The Ocean mastermind Robin Staps, present in this band as rhythm guitarist. Like most of Staps’ projects, Eden is really good; in this case, however, the entirety of the songwriting is done by his bandmate, Jan Orberg (former drummer for The Ocean.) Orberg emplys a wide variety of techniques for his compositions. His style is far removed from Staps’ musical tendencies, even though there are definite similarities. Sadly, the album doesn’t have a whole lot to offer vocally — Orberg and drummer Dennis Bottcher sound an awful lot like The Ocean’s Mike Pilat used to sound — but that’s almost insignificant considering the musical prowess of the rest of the record.

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MetalSucks recently polled its staff to determine who are The Top 25 Modern Metal Guitarists, 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 guitar (double-duh), and c) have recorded something in the past five years. Today we kick off our countdown with Origin’s Paul Ryan…

Tragically, it seems like there are a lot of people don’t even know who Paul Ryan is, and a lot of those who do know who he is dismiss him as just another trend-following guitarist — albeit a talented one — in the death metal scene. An awfully large amount of metal fans just view Origin as “that tech death band with that really fat vocalist and crazy sweeps,” but James Lee’s recent departure should hopefully clear shit up for people.

Paul Ryan is actually one of the most skilled pioneers of the tech death scene, primarily because he doesn’t just use technicality to create mindless and forgettable wankery (see: Brain Drill et al.) and because he doesn’t just use heaviness to create mindless and forgettable breakdowns (see: Oceano et al.) It’s pretty sad that the majority of other bands these days are so bad, but it’s great for Ryan — his skill stands out from among the masses.

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Rotten Sound’s Cursed was the last place I expected to find flow. I’m more used to grindcore of the Napalm Death Smear Campaign variety, which is pretty much just death metal at this point, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect besides blisteringly fast riffing, extremely short songs, and all-around chaos. I did find plenty of that chaos (reminiscent of Anaal Nathrakh in both their wall-of-sound and ferocious riffing) on Cursed, but I also found a more structured presence in the album, which was completely unexpected.

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Sludge metal is a strange beast. On one end of the spectrum, you’ve got the Mastodon/High On Fire stoner crew, and on the other end you’ve got things like Cult of Luna, Pelican, Neurosis, and Giant Squid. So while I wasn’t really sure what to expect, I knew I was in for a strangely fruitful listen when I opened Abraham’s first release on Pelagic Records and saw the song titles “Saloon Bizarre,” “Coyote vs. Machete,” and “Astro Zombies.” Abraham make sludge that bridges between stoner rock, drone, and even melodic death metal.

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