If any of you read my interview with Within the Ruins this past summer you probably watched the music video for their song “Invade.” I’m happy to say that Within the Ruins have just released another awesome music video, this one a live clip for their song “Red Flagged.” And I’m also glad to find that WTR don’t suck live; their performance is nearly as good as on record, which is pleasantly surprising due to the ferocious technicality of their music.

[this streaming promotion has ended]

WTR also have a proper music video for the studio version of the song “Versus” being shot on January 29th. After the jump, read what the band has to say about the video and song:

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Iskald
The Sun I Carried Alone
Label – Indie Recordings
Release Date – January 17th, 2011

I’m glad when I can finally, finally find black metal bands that don’t simply focus on one idea, run with it, and make an albums full of songs that each sound more or less the same. Be it reclusive depressives (the legions of Darkthrone imitators) or experimental hipsters making something that is classified as BM but doesn’t really resemble it in any way (Nachtmystium), I can’t get into most of it.

Then, in 2006, I found Iskald. The band had just released Shades of Misery, which I was fully prepared to write off as another black metal horde band, until I stumbled upon one word in a review of the album: “uplifting.” Well, shit. I’ve never heard a black metal band be positively uplifting. So I had to check them out. What I found was a mixture of traditional melodic black metal and the bitter ferocity of traditional kvlt BM. And it’s awesome — especially considering how the band is only a two-piece, the complexity of the music and songwriting (yes, complexity in black metal) is astounding. The band describes their approach on the new album thusly:

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Because I enjoy playing Magic: The Gathering. Yup. Uber nerd status.

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Back in October, I took the time to chat via Skype with Robin Staps, founder and main songwriter of the Ocean Collective. We talked about the band’s new album Anthropocentric, discussed the unfortunate theft the band experienced while on tour, the band’s plans for U.S. touring in 2011, and more.

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It’s been over four years since Nekrogoblikon‘s Goblin Island came out. That album was produced by just two of the band’s current members, and it was essentially no more than a big preproduction release. So Stench, the group’s latest offering, represents an entirely new Nekrogoblikon, and along with the change in members comes a remarkable change in every other aspect of the band’s music and image: the melodies, the technicality, and, of course, the art.

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Photo credit: Taija Lynn for Brooklyn Vegan.

Last Saturday I attended the California Blood Tour in San Francisco, featuring Son of Aurelius, Burning the Masses, Knights of the Abyss, Devourment, and Cattle Decapitation. I had mixed expectations of almost all the bands on the tour, but many of them ended up being proven wrong.

First up were Son of Aurelius (most of you probably know them by now, since we’ve done quite a few articles on them). They opened with a shreddy, breakdowny intro song that even incorporated power metal vocals, so I think a lot of the crowd were a little confused. But once the band started playing songs like “Myocardial Infarction” and “A Good Death”, the crowd warmed up to them, spawning some of the biggest pits of the first three bands. They definitely wowed me. Even though they had a different vocalist for this tour, he still performed admirably, and their mix was fantastic; both shredding solos and brutal breakdowns were perfectly audible. Great opening band for this tour.

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A lot of you commented on yesterday’s article about The Ocean robbery saying that you wanted to donate, but had already preordered the album — or that you didn’t want the album but still wanted to make a donation. So we sent Metal Blade an email asking for a PayPal address so those of you who still want to donate can just send some money. You should send all donations via PayPal to:

info [at] theoceancollective.com

Include a note like “robbery donation” so The Ocean knows what it’s for. You can also still include a donation if you pre-order Anthropocentric. Thanks again to everyone for helping out a great band in a time of need.

-DM

Yes, another theft. Again. I was already fairly disturbed by the fact that both Katatonia and Periphery have had their gear stolen in recent days, especially since I love Katatonia a lot and quite enjoy Periphery. Fortunately Katatonia did get their stuff back and it’s only a matter of time before Periphery does too, since their gear was a) instruments and b) completely custom-made. So I was slightly placated. That is, until I opened my email today and read Robin Staps’ Ocean fan subscriber email, which opened with the following under the heading “THE OCEAN Robbed in Spain”:

On Wednesday October 20th, we were robbed on the highway, 30 km from Madrid. 2 guys in a black BMW pulled us over with fake police IDs. They asked for our van papers and IDs and wanted to know if we had any money to declare. We were not skeptical at this point, as it is normal in Europe that you have to declare larger amounts of money when you’re crossing borders, so we told them we had merch money with us, and the guy wanted to see it. When we showed them the merch wallet, the guy reached through the open window, seized it and ran back to the BMW in front of us, where his colleague was waiting with running engine. Unfortunately our van and trailer don’t match the speed of a BMW, but fortunately it’s not allowed to carry guns in Europe, as otherwise we would be in jail now for shooting the guy in the face.

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I first got into Cephalic Carnage because of the metalcore parody song, “Dying Will Be the Death of Me.” But when I heard the rest of the album on which that song appears, Anomalies, I thought, “Well, this is good, but it’s just too disjointed for me. There are so many styles, it’s just too all over the place.” I couldn’t deal with the randomness. Anomalies felt like more of an outline than anything groundbreaking.

Then Xenosapien came out, and I was floored. It was like all the ideas from Anomalies had been compressed and recycled into a frantic yet undeniably coherent death/grind mass. I felt that it was pretty much Cephalic’s pinnacle performance, and didn’t expect much more than a rehash of its ideas on the band’s next release. I was actually very wrong, as I discovered about a month ago when Misled by Certainty came out.

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It’s rare when I hear a black metal band these days that really makes me sit up straight and listen intently; so many recent bands in the genre are repetitive and boring. I’m not even a particularly big of a fan of black metal. However, Sear Bliss‘ performance on The Arcane Odyssey certainly has rekindled my hope and love of black metal. It combines symphonic, melodic, and raw elements to create a truly epic album – in terms of both songwriting and expert instrumentation.

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Within the Ruins’ new video for “Invade.”

New England deathcore band Within the Ruins have been a favorite of mine for a little less than a year now. I though that their 2009 release Creature had a fresh new feel, especially when compared to the boring deathcore masses. It was technical and catchy at the same time without being overly repetitive. The band has always been fairly unknown, but their popularity recently started to increase coinciding with the pending release of their new album, from which two killer new songs have been posted. I recently talked with Tim Goergen, the band’s new vocalist (first half), and Joe Cocchi, the lead guitarist (second half), about their upcoming release.

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I was pretty skeptical when I first saw the Cool Tour lineup. Actually, I was more than skeptical: I was pretty much positive that I wasn’t going to attend. It seemed to break down as 50% Christian screamo, 25% hardcore, and 25% good bands, which meant that there would be a lot of obnoxious hardcore, scene, and straightedge kids. But when the opportunity arose to go to the tour, I just decided to do it despite the high scene-kid-to-normal-metalhead ratio, because I had never seen either BTBAM or As I Lay Dying live.

As it turned out, I made the right decision. Although I did skip the first four bands (War of Ages, Cancer Bats, Architects, and The Acacia Strain) because I’m not a fan of any of them besides Architects, I hear that all of them save for War of Ages put on a pretty solid showing. The Acacia Strain apparently managed to work the crowd into more of a frenzy than any other band, probably because it was a hometown show for them.

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I’ve never really understood the whole “modern raw black metal” trend. I mean, I do understand where the original “kvlt tr00″ bands like Darkthrone and Mayhem were coming from… in the 90s. After all, it’s fun to dress up in ridiculous costumes, paint faces, and make hilariously bad quality metal – it’s like Halloween. But I don’t understand how it’s persisted until now. It’s 2010, and I have to ask – WHY IS THIS TREND STILL GOING ON? I appreciate bands like Ihsahn, Lyfthrasyr, and Sear Bliss, who use black metal as a base for their music, a guide so they can later inject more experimental, unconventional aspects into their albums like saxophones, trombones, and lots of other musical stylings that are really fairly unblack. But can somebody explain to me the allure of creating music that sounds like three guys jamming it out in a broom closet in Brazil into an 8-track tape recorder?

Fine, I’m exaggerating. Lightning Swords of Death‘s The Extra Dimensional Wound doesn’t quite approach Brazilian bedroom quality — the production has quite improved from the band’s last album. But it still sucks, and the instruments – particularly the drums – are mixed really poorly. Thrudvang’s (Really? Thrudvang?) drums are clicky, tinny, and obnoxious, Autarch/Farron Loathing’s vocals get staticy and distorted as they get louder, Roskva/Jeremy Stramaglio’s guitar tone is trebly and screechy, and Menno’s bass is, of course, inaudible.

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As a writer for MetalSucks, I find it pretty shocking that there are pretty much no mentions at all of Ron Jarzombek. Many of you probably don’t even know who he is. So I feel that it’s my duty to enlighten those who don’t. You may have heard of Blotted Science, the supergroup composed of Alex Webster from Cannibal Corpse on bass, Chris Adler from Lamb of God on drums (who was later replaced by Charlie Zeleny of Behold…the Arctopus), and Ron Jarzombek on guitar. They’ve only released one album, The Machinations of Dementia, but it received a lot of praise and the band has said that they’re in the process of writing another album. But even though Blotted Science is the least prolific of Jarzombek’s projects, it’s the most well-known and the most recent.

Jarzombek has been making insane shred-tastic metal albums as a solo artist as well as in the bands Spastic Ink and Watchtower (among others) since 1987. He’s guested on albums by Obscura, Jeff Loomis, and Gordian Knot. Yet still, people don’t know about him. This has to change. Just watch some of the videos below if you don’t believe me – I’ve provided a few from his various projects.

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I usually try not to judge bands by their names. Even if a name is the most cliché thing I’ve ever heard (The Red Death, Within the Ruins, etc.), the bands that have those names can still sometimes manage to serve up some quality metal. With Chambers, my judgment ended up being a bit different. Chambers isn’t necessarily a BAD name… it just seems too simple, and honestly, a bit commonplace and lacking “zazz.” Now, I don’t really think that Chambers’ name affected how I feel about their music in a negative way. But it sure didn’t make me feel optimistic or confident about their musical style.

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Although the editors of MetalSucks get a vote in he Scion No Label Needed Contest, the staff of MetalSucks, alas, does not. Thus, over the course of the next few days, each MetalSucks writer will post an endorsement for his favorite finalist for the contest. You can check out all the finalists, and vote for your personal favorite, here.

It goes without saying that there’s a reason most of the bands in the No Label Needed Contest are unsigned at the moment. Now, that’s not to say that they’re all bad; several bands caught my attention immediately. However, the one band that I found most interesting and worthy of a record contract was Lorus. I first noticed them because they’re clearly the oddball in this contest. While every other band plays (mostly boring) fairly standard styles of metal ranging from hardcore to death, Lorus plays experimental progressive rock reminiscent of a heavier version of Maserati, a band I fell in love with the instant MetalSucks presented them.  But they’ve also got their own distinctive metal flavor. Lorus is by far the worthiest band of a record contract on the list, so go vote!

-DM

Listen to and vote for Lorus here. You can also visit them on MySpace.

Into the Storm, an experimental band from Seattle, are undoubtedly skilled. Most of the riffs are excellent, and Matt Jahn’s leads on songs like “Excalibur III” are pretty inspiring. James Reeves’s drumming, while mixed badly, is clearly solid, and Brant Kay’s bass playing provides some much-needed backing power, seeing as the band only has one guitarist.

Unfortunately, the band has two serious problems:

1. Vocalist Oliver Reeves. His pipes aren’t very powerful; most of the time he just yells in a fairly generic over-the-top manner, and he doesn’t seem to possess a sense of time or rhythm. He is the weakest link in this band.
2. They have a lot of good ideas but can’t articulate them very well.

Allow me to explain further…

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My focus today is going to be on Creator Destroyer, a self-proclaimed “progressive death metal” band from Florida. Now, there might not be anything wrong with that description, except that the band doesn’t have a single progressive element to their music. Their EP, Unintelligent Design, is an entirely straightforward deathcore album, complete with Job For a Cowboy-esque vocals (midrange and layered a lot) and tons of breakdowns. There is a noticeable Born of Osiris influence; guitarist Nick Capp uses a LOT of those odd-timed chugging riffs that follow no noticeable pattern.

All in all, Creator Destroyer like your pretty generic deathcore band. The constant breakdowns really piss me off and the guitar riffs are almost as simple as Whitechapel’s. The drumming is boring and mechanical, and the vocals sound like Oceano. I hate Oceano.

Also, look at this picture of the band:

Now, I have dreadlocks myself. But this is fucking retarded. Unintelligent Design is right.

-DM

Today, I’m looking at Ravenscry, a “melodic metal” band from Italy that claims to be influenced by Evanescence, Soilwork, and Within Temptation. But, to be honest, all I can hear is Evanescence. The songs are drawn-out pop metal… uh… anthems. They attempt to be “different” from all the other melodic metal bands out there by using – gasp – classical instruments. Yeah, nice try. It mostly sounds like the violin setting on a keyboard. The simple and repetitive manner in which these elements are used doesn’t help, either.

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