MetalSucks

Over the weekend we got a couple of emails about a benefit project for ailing Deftones bassist Chi Cheng, helmed by Korn bassist Fieldy Arvizu. Fieldy has recorded a song with a star-studded cast of characters to help raise money for Cheng, whose medical costs continue piling up as he enters year two (!!!) of his coma induced by a car accident. The song, simply called “A Song For Chi,” is available for free download — although donations of any amount at all are encouraged — features members of Machine Head, Metallica, Killswitch Engage, Slipknot, Sevendust and a whole bunch of others.

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An e-mail I received from long time reader Seveword earlier today:

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Cosmo Lee of Invisible Oranges has written up a thought-provoking editorial (inspired by Metal As Fuck) that takes a look at the differences between metal culture in the U.S. and in Europe. We’ve touched on this topic before here, but never really delved into it.

Take a look at Sammy O’Hagar’s recent review of Skyfire, Satan Rosenbloom’s interview with Kellhaul drummer Will Scharf (in which Scharf laments, “I don’t know if it’s a cultural difference or there’s less Clear Channel over there so people actually have to seek out shit for themselves, but it seems like Europe embraces weird bands like us more than the States.”) or my writeup of unsigned band Dynahead (from Brazil, but the point stands); there is a tangible difference between metal culture in U.S. and the rest of the world. When Axl and I went to Download Festival in 2006 is was readily apparent; any local metalhead we talked to was likely to be a big fan of both Korn and Opeth and think nothing of it.

Here’s a sample from Cosmo Lee’s breakdown of the differences:

Epicness/tolerance for cheese

Bands like Sonata Arctica and Hammerfall don’t come from the States. Being a secondhand culture, US metal is too self-conscious to engage in the unabashed frilly shirt-ery that pegs bands as “European, probably on Nuclear Blast.” American bands like Pharaoh and Symphony X that have a European sound are usually more serious. This doesn’t just apply to happy power metal. Even a “death metal” band like Arch Enemy has blatant “billowing hair/wind machine on 11″ moments that are patently European. Americans are too busy grinding on one note and cursing their lack of health care.

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Way back in December on the eve of the brand new Bronx record Bronx III, frontman Matt Caughthran told me in an interview about a mariachi record the band had recorded concurrently with Bronx III. At SXSW this past March, Kip and I witnessed a very special Mariachi El Bronx performance in which the band performed a full mariachi set in full mariachi garb, and it was nothing short of spectacular. And finally 5 months later we get to hear said mariachi record (listen on MySpace), which came out yesterday. Reports Noisecreep:

The idea to release an entire album’s worth of authentic mariachi music came to the Bronx following an on-air appearance they did for Fuel TV. “It was kind of an acoustic thing,” says Caughthran. “The treatment for rock bands doing acoustic music is so horrible, and so generic. And it was something that we really wanted to stray away from. So we got some friends involved and did a mariachi version of ‘Dirty Leaves.’ And when we did that — the transformation, creatively — it was super inspiring, and it was something that we wanted to explore further.”

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MS Maniac Allan Petteruto sent us the below. It’s actually very sad. So sad that I have no desire whatsoever to make fun of the people involved. Just watch it first, then get my thoughts after the jump.

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It’s no secret that Metallica is the exception to the rule, and that being a touring musician in a metal band does not make for a very glamorous lifestyle. Your stinky fart-box of a van often serves as your bed, unless you’re lucky enough to be able to find a floor or couch or something to sleep on. And that would require that you either a) know someone near the tour stop, b) make a friend at said tour stop, and/or c) actually have time to sleep (as opposed to driving all night to make the next gig). You might like to think that these problems only plague smaller bands, but guess again – plenty of well established bands have made a van seat their bed time and again. These facts serve me personally as a constant reminder that I could never be a touring musician – I’m a spoiled brat and I need a fucking bed.

Well, AdFreak.com reports that Motel 6, that classiest of motel chains, is now doing something to try and help out:

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Seems some beef’s been abrewin’ around Otep Shamaya’s politics over at The Gauntlet. Surprising, right? Here’s the short version:

1. Otep blogs about healthcare reform, blasts Republicans for spreading anti-healthcare reform propaganda (i.e. “death panels”)
2. Gauntlet commenter “CM” responds, accusing Otep of only “smashing the control machine” when Republicans are in office, thereby rendering her points moot.
3. Otep responds to CM saying she often criticizes Obama (i.e. marriage equality, indefinite detention), attacks credibility of anonymous Internet poster.

Generally speaking, I agree with Otep. I actually find Otep Shamaya to be an incredibly charming, intelligent and thoughtful, articulate person. I can’t stand her music, but that’s besides the point — Otep’s the kind of person who, if she were my upstairs neighbor or something, we’d probably hang out a lot, you know? I also have the utmost respect for what she represents as an outspoken woman in rock and roll. However, I wish she’d stop using hyperbole to emphasize her points. There’s no need to call Republicans “colostomy bags” (for example); this will only infuriate the opposition and draw attention away from the true issues at hand. Dear Otep: if you’re reading this, please try and stay away from these kinds of thin insults. It dilutes the issues and paints you as an angry liberal when you seem to be able to transcend this stereotype using ordinary words, logic and reason. You’re above that kind of name-calling, I know it.

Oh hey, and since this is a music website, Otep’s got a new album out this week that is apparently on track to sell nearly 15,000 copies. Holy crap!

-VN

One week ago today Axl ran a post about Boston up-and-comers Revocation, quoting Cosmo Lee’s high regard for the band and asking the opinions of the MS faithful. “The Next Great Metal Band”? I’d heard the two new songs they’d posted on their MySpace page and I really dug them, but that’s certainly a lofty claim for a band whose Relapse Records debut hasn’t even dropped yet.

That was until Relapse sent me a stream of the entire new album. HOLY FUCKING SHIT, YOU GUYS!!! HOLY SHIT!@&*#$%^&*@$^

asvydbuihykej.ht5!!!!!!

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Lately I have been in close contact with some of the most epic beards I have ever seen in my life. Until now, I never put much thought into the beard.  Its around the scene I associate myself with, but that has been the extent of my true exposure and understanding of the facial shrub. If I can’t grow one, why the fuck would I care? I’m a selfish bitch. Well, I believe I’ve finally found a reason. As a matter of fact, I found many fucking reasons to say this: I FUCKING LOVE BEARDS. YES.

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This live footage of Morgan Rose filling in for the injured Tommy Lee on drums with Motley Crue this past weekend is really entertaining. I mean, you get to see Vince Neil, who still can’t remember all the words to his own songs / gets winded after about two lines, and that in itself is always funny. And you get to see Mick Mars, who despite his status as the walking dead can still wail out those solos pretty well. But best of all, you get to see Morgan Rose, one of the greatest drummers on the planet in terms of pure, raw talent, rock through a set of songs he hadn’t heard in years for which he had zero time to prepare.

It seems that Tommy Lee burned his hand and couldn’t play. There’s video floating around of Tommy coming out on stage at this show and explaining the situation to the audience; as usual, he sounds like a total idiot. So the band flew out Sevendust’s Morgan Rose from Atlanta last minute, day of the fucking show, to fill in on drums. I know what you’re thinking… Motley songs ain’t too complicated drum-wise and they just play all the hits anyway. VRONG. This is the Dr. Feelgood tour in which the band plays the entire album start to finish, deep cuts and all, plus the usual smattering of greatest hits. Rose comes out and fucking nails it all. I love how in these clips you can see Nikki Sixx communicating with Rose about when the changes happen in the song, or when to end, or when to begin. THAT is fucking pure musicianship that can’t be taught. You either have it or you don’t. And Rose most certainly has it.

Check out “Same ol’ Situation” below and “Dr. Feelgood” after the jump.

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In case you couldn’t tell, I really enjoy reading Cosmo Lee’s Invisible Oranges, even if I don’t always agree with him (The Real Thing does still pwn, dude!). This morning, Cosmo ponders the search for “the next great metal band” – what he compares to a first-round draft pick in sports – and posits that it could be Relapse artists, Revocation:

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Our favorite “old school brutal style” Texas metallers The Destro — recipients of my unofficial “best performance of New England Metalfest ‘09” award — are fucking back, baby. MetalSucks is thrilled to be able to reveal the cover artwork for their new record Harmony of Discord, which will be released on October 13th through Ironclad Recordings. The band hired an all-star cast of characters to assist in the studio this time around; Harmony of Discord was produced & mixed by Unearth’s Ken Susi and was mastered by the infamous James Murphy (Death, Obituary, Testament). The brutal artwork you see above was created by Joe Hickman @ Dreams Like Fire Design.

We haven’t heard anything from the record yet, but it promises to be groovy and brutal. Brush up on old Destro material on their newly revamped MySpace page.

[After we completed our much ballyhooed 21 Best Metal Albums of the 21st Century... So Far countdown last month, we invited all of the inhabitants of the MS Mansion to submit an "Albums We Wish Made the List" piece. Former Roadrunner Records A&R guru Mike Gitter, who was a member of the voting panel that constructed the list, asked us if he could submit an album he wished made the list as well, and we've posted his writeup below. Whether taken as part of our "21 Best" list or on its own as a regular editorial piece, it's a great look into a great album. Enjoy. -Ed.]

Boys will be boys…and boys get fucked over. And they hate girls. And instead of acting like a buncha homos, ‘writing love on their arms’ or any of those slogans you seen them pussies flagging t-shirts for at Bamboozle, Glassjaw laid down the bitchslap in-extremis. Everything You Ever Want To Know About Silence is a friggin’ landmark. A record that broke with their local Long Island hardcore tradition – counting lurvely lads from the likes of Silent Majority and that little know Jew Crew Sons of Abraham – and staked out some entirely new sonic turf. Think Bad Brains rapturous riff-o-rama, V.O.D.’s blazing intensity and a razor sharp lyrical sense from not-so-sucka MC Darryl Palumbo, now of dance-rockers Head Automatica.
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To clarify my comments on Jake E. Lee yesterday: I wasn’t attacking  Mr. Lee’s technical skill. But, with all due respect to my man Vince, I’m not a fan of “Bark at the Moon” or anything else from the Lee era, for that matter. Yes, it sucks that Sharon fired him by telegram, but I actually think Zakk got it worse – ’cause Zakk’s humiliation was public. Just sayin’.

ANYWAY, I don’t make apologies for my slight to Joe Holmes. Holmes replaced Zakk Wylde after the release of Ozzmosis ’cause Zakk was off chasing a potential gig with Guns N’ Roses (Somewhere there are demos of a GN’R featuring co-leads by Slash and Zakk, and although I’m sure that music had guitar-masturbation overload, I’d still love to hear them some day. Fat chance, I know.). The big stink about Holmes at the time was that he’d been a student of Randy Rhodes and was therefore supposed to be the second coming or something.

No such luck – poor dude stayed with Ozzy until Zakk returned in 2000, and never even got to record with Ozzy… actually, as far as I know, he’s the only person to be in Ozzy’s band for so long and not get to make an album. He did get to play on the song “Walk on Water” from the movie Beavies and Butthead Do America, and worked on Down to Earth – in fact, several songs he co-wrote remain on that record, although none of them are memorable (and Earth pretty much blows, although I blame producer Tim Palmer as much as anyone).

I never saw Holmes live with Ozzy, but I did manage to find this video of him playing “Perry Mason” on Ozzfest. It’s edited all to fuck but it does give you a sense of what Holmes must’ve been like live. He’s a scrawny motherfucker, but otherwise seems to have “the look” down, at least. Also, the video has some boobies as an added bonus.

Side note: Holmes also played with Lizzy Borden for awhile, but, if I’m not mistaken, never got to play on a Borden album. It’s like the dude was cursed or something.

-AR

Several of you justifiably called out Axl yesterday for dissing Jake E. Lee in his post about Ozzy’s probable new guitar player, Firewind’s Gus G. Lee could definitely shred, and although his  contribution to the Ozzy legacy ultimately doesn’t stack up against Rhoads or Wylde, he did write the killer riff for “Bark at the Moon” which is actually one of my favorite Ozzy riffs ever.

So whilst making sure I had my historical facts straight here, I managed to turn up this nugget from the Wikipedia page for Badlands, the band Jake E. Lee formed after being fired by Ozzy:

After touring with Ozzy Osbourne in support of the Ultimate Sin album, Lee was fired in a telegram from Sharon Osborne while working on one of his muscle cars back in Los Angeles. Lee was completely caught off guard at the time of his firing and was under the impression he had a solid working gig with the Osborne camp.

Heyo! Sound familiar? Maybe Sharon will officially lay the gauntlet down on Wylde via Twitter. That’d be classy.

Here are Badlands performing “Highwire” live. Lee shreds. And that’s Ray Gillen on the mic, who’d just been let go from Black Sabbath upon forming Badlands with Lee.

-VN

Here’s something else Zakk Wylde can hear about for the first time over the internet.

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Per a posting on their MySpace blog, Decapitated have named Kerim “Krimh” Lechner from Thorns of Ivy as their new drummer.

As you probably recall, the band’s previous drummer, Witold “Vitek” Kieltyka was killed in a tragic car collision back in 2007. He was only 23 years old. Vocalist Adrian “Covan” Kowanek also sustained serious injuries in the accident – injuries which, as far I know, he still has not fully recovered.

Shortly after the accident, the band announced plans to soldier on and signed with Nuclear Blast. Then, earlier this, guitarist Waclaw “Vogg” Kieltyka announced that he was soldiering on with the Decapitated name, even if it meant hiring a new vocalist. At the time I questioned the logic of such a move, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t at least curious to hear a new Decapitated album.

Here’s some footage of Krimh playing. The dude certainly has chops, even if it is going to be hard to shake the memory of Vitek, whose drumming was a huge part of Decapitated’s sound.

-AR

Thanks to Tom Fassnidge for the tip.

It seems like the entire metal world has gone kuh-rayzee with mash-up fever. The latest come from Nick Green at The Deciblog…

First up we have Nuclear Assault mashed up with Snoop Doggy Dogg, or Snopp Dogg, or Snopp, or Calvin, or whatever the fuck he’s calling himself these days. And, kinda oddly, this mash-up doesn’t bother me so much. Maybe it’s just my fond memories of Doggystyle (1993 woot-woot!) and the pornographic cartoon that came with it, or maybe it’s just because, against all odds, the visibly stoned-out-of-his-gourd Snoop ended up being far and away the most entertaining act at Metallica’s MTV Icon thing (including Metallica). But this somehow works for me:

If you head over to The Deciblog, Mr. Green has also posted a mash-up of Meshuggah and Lil’ Wayne. I hate that one, although it does make me wanna listen to the actual “Bleed.”

-AR

I’ve of two minds with regards to the just-released album art for Megadeth’s Endgame. On the one hand, it looks pretty cool. I on the other hand, I have no idea what the fuck I’m looking at. It appears to be a bunch of dudes… with mohawks… in prison jumpsuits… walking amongst rows of books… surrounded by flowers… in outer space. If you told me that Dave Mustaine was about to ask us all to drink some very special Kool Aid, I’d believe you.

No matter. Endgame is a very good album, and I’m all for anything that isn’t the cover to United Abominations. Yech!

Endgame comes out September 15 on Roadrunner.

-AR

I don’t know if Willie Gardner is officially associated with a band known as The Douche Lords or not, but he has their name in his e-mail address and sent me a link to the band’s MySpace page this morning.

Why is this band of interest? As it turns out, they were Dino Cazares’ first band (In case ya haven’t figured it out by now, that’s Dino above).

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