On Saturday afternoon, ABC No Rio hosted the first-ever NYC show ever by Argonauts, the new band featuring vocalist Dimitri Minakakis (ex-The Dillinger Escape Plan), guitarist John Adubato (Burnt by the Sun), bassist Brett Bamberger (East of the Wall, The Binary Code’s old touring line-up), and drummer Dave Witte (seriously if you don’t know who Dave Witte is stop reading this right now and go do some homework). And for those of us who were lucky/smart enough to be there, the consensus was unanimous: ARGONAUTS. ARE. AWESOME.

If you weren’t lucky/smart enough to be there, though, you don’t have to take my word for it: the always-helpful (((unartig))) was there, and he filmed one of the six songs the group played. This is far superior to the footage of the band’s live debut which we saw last month, and it gives you a much better sense of their sound — although I still don’t think it comes anywhere close to conveying the energy in the room that afternoon, which was postively electric.

Apparently Argonauts’ current live set consists of every completed song they have right now; hopefully they’ll either write s’more and put out a full-length, or otherwise just record an EP, sometime in the very, very near future. I am seriously bummed that I can’t walk around listening to this band on my iPod right now. They fucking RULED. If you’re smart, you’ll keep a very, very close watch on their future activities, ’cause they are the real fucking deal.

-AR

[via The PRP]

There seems to be a firestorm in the metal world regarding the state of the industry, Spotify, illegal downloading, and the philosophical struggle between capitalism and artistic integrity. Lines have been drawn in the sand and it’s getting fucking personal. I have remained rather silent on the sidelines but all of this action has inspired me to enter the fray.

But I’d like to approach this discussion from a different angle than the one that has been taken thus far – one which deals with some issues that are beyond music. Perhaps you could call it a political discussion, or a cultural discussion, or even a philosophical discussion. I want to talk about the idea of ownership, and what exactly that means in our modern, western paradigm, which is one rooted in competition-based capitalism.

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I can’t be the only one who feels like album intro tracks are dumb in 2011. I’m no full-album hater — intro tracks were cool once upon a time when you had little choice but to sit through them, and when listening to music was an activity in and of itself (on your couch in front of your speakers with a friend and a doobie) — it’s just that they seem silly in the context of how music is consumed in modern times. This is especially true for unknown bands who send us albums for review, but even for well-established acts who’ve earned their right to be a little self-indulgent. Am I the only one who just hits “skip” right away so I don’t have to sit through a minute and a half of keyboard swells and bells that are supposed to evoke a feeling of anticipation for something epic? Apparently not; new Invisible Oranges scribe Doug Moore (also the vocalist of MS-approved NYC metallers Pyrrhon) wrote a little bit on the ridiculousness of intro tracks in the modern era in a greater piece about the advantages of digital music.

Metalheads are often first-class nerds. We enjoy sprawling, complex pieces of art. That’s probably why the album format is such a collective hobbyhorse for us.

Unfortunately, nerdy people are often self-indulgent people. It’s a rare metal album that doesn’t involve at least some unnecessary baggage. Witness intro tracks. Almost nobody likes them, but countless bands use them. Worlds Beyond the Veil by Mithras is one of the better death metal albums of the past decade. But it starts with a six-minute intro. In the vinyl days, I would’ve been stuck with that lame intro every time I wanted to listen to the album. Now I can skip it or delete it. Easy peasy.

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Let’s rant about the Revolver’s Hottest Chicks in Hard Rock list some more. God knows they deserve the attention.

The biggest issue at hand seems to be whether or not it’s sexist. It is. As a female and as a metal fan, I do, in fact, find it sexist. Look at the name. Referring to women as “chicks” on a nationally recognized and widely read magazine is sexist. It demeans women. I might be overreacting, I might be overly politically correct, but if you’re going to insist that it’s a celebration of talent, then why is it portraying women as objects right off the bat? I do give you points on being honest, though, Revolver. You could’ve gone with full denial and named it “The Most Talented Chicks in Hard Rock.”

My biggest problem with this issue is that it really has nothing to do with the music. Yes, the women who pose do it by choice, and hope that after all the gawking some reader might actually listen to their music, but ultimately, those readers probably won’t. Why? Because the magazine features bands and musicians who already have a fan base and a clear, set audience. People who know them will still buy their records, but I highly doubt some guy will be like, “Hey, that Amy Lee is quite the looker. I should probably check out her stuff.”

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Despite not being the kind of grim n’ gritty tune Guns N’ Roses were most famous for, and despite having a ridiculous video in which Axl Rose swims with dolphins for no apparent reason and reminds everyone that he has more money than they do, “Estranged” is my favorite GN’R song. And I always thought it would be cool to see Axl’s Nu-GN’R do the track with Buckethead, ’cause I bet that dude could totally rip it.

So, of course, now that Buckethead has already been out of the band for seven years, Axl did the song at last night’s Rock in Rio performance.

Not a shock that it’s a little anticlimactic, ’cause for every one thing the band got right, there’s something else they got wrong: Axl can still sing the low parts pretty well, but not the high parts, and at one point his voice cracks like he was me at my bar mitzvah; Bumblefoot sounds great, but for some reason looks like Robin Finck now; Dj Ashba sounds so-so, but continues to do a ridiculous Slash impersonation, and there’s a much better guitar player who isn’t just aping someone else, Richard Fortus, standing right there on stage, but for some reason Axl won’t let him play the leads; Matt Sorum wasn’t invited, so the drums actually sound right for a change. So I guess ya take the good ya take the bad ya take them both and you still don’t have Slash in the band.

GN’R apparently really are going to a U.S. tour starting at the end of this month; we’ll see if they break out any other oldies but goodies.

-AR

[via Bumblefoot's Twitter]

I’ve always enjoyed hearing demos and unreleased song ideas. It’s fun to hear the riffs and melodies that full songs come from, and it’s especially interesting to learn about how songs you’re already familiar with evolved over time into the forms that you find familiar.

Got-Djent.com tells us that the following three Cloudkicker song ideas come from June 2008, March 2010 and June 2010 respectively. In this context and order it’s also fascinating to witness how Ben Sharp’s songwriting evolved over time from “djent” into “Cloudkicker.” The ending riff of the third clip below should ring a bell for Cloudkicker fans:

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(Photo Credit:  The INCREDIBLE Sahisnu “Nunu” Sadarpo.)

It’s been awesome reading everything you guys have been saying so far.  Obviously some people don’t get the humor/sarcasm…but I love it!

So, as you may have guessed, I’m dedicating one post to my own band, Vestascension.

I’m not gonna say much, I prefer to let the music speak for itself.  It’s definitely not going to be for everyone seeing as how it’s not Djent and all these trolls today have just been BEGGING for more Djent posts-so sorry girls!  If you’re a fan of A Perfect Circle, Dredg, Tool, Porcupine Tree, Karnivool, etc. then you may enjoy some of our stuff, or not.  We were very fortunate to be able to record some of the new stuff with Justin Meldal-Johnsen and John Wesley-which was an honor to say the least.

We cover A LOT of different sounds/styles.  I’m posting just 4 songs here with a short description of each one.  All of our music is FREE and you can download it now in very high quality by CLICKING HERE.

Make sure you “like” us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter!

Enjoy!

-Justin Gosnell

Oh and come on trolls, you’re disappointing me so far-show me what you’ve got!

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Today I’m blessed with the opportunity to have my voice heard by a lot of music fans-which is amazing-and I wanted to spread the love around a little bit.  Once I was announced the winner of the contest a lot of friends/associates/bands hit me up asking me to please write about their own band or a band that they managed, some even offered money.  I feel bad having to say no because if I could I’d help ALL of my friends but I can’t post about all 500 bands that I’m friends with.  For those of you I didn’t post anything about that are pissed off-give me a fucking break!  Besides, these bands agreed to give me a fresh bung-toungue and you didn’t, that’s not it works in the industry.

With that said I decided I’d pick just 5 bands.  I came up with a few guidelines I wanted to follow.  They had to be a band that had never been mentioned on Metalsucks.net before, they had to be great people, and they had to have a professional product.  Lastly, they had to be a band who’s music I personally really like and believe in.

Without further ado:

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I’m goin’ troll huntin’ mah!

Photo Credit:  The INCREDIBLE Sahisnu “Nunu” Sadarpo.

Well well well….hold on a sec here…AHHHHHHH…yeah.  Sorry, just had to get comfortable on my throne here and get my crown on straight-all better!

Today’s the day I get to troll..er..uh…I mean…run Metalsucks.net!  Truth be told I am really fucking happy to be here!  I’m going to take this opportunity and actually put it to good use and hopefully it’ll help out some bands out there today.  There’s not gonna be much time for humor here-sorry-it’s alllll business today ladies.  I sent out a few messenger pigeons who’s sole purpose was to wrangle me up some good interviews and, well, they delivered!  I made it my mission to ask these lovely people all kinds of questions that 1) I don’t think most interviewers ask them and 2) that I think will help out any musicians/bands out there that may be looking for some answers or advice.

Hopefully you’ll come away today being a little more well-versed on how things really run in the industry and perhaps even a better understanding of just how hard it is to “make it” in this industry.

Lastly, it wouldn’t be a proper Gosnell outing unless I created some controversy so you’ll get some of that too!  So, all you trolls out there man your keyboards and get ready to spill your pussy juice all over them because I think you’ll have A LOT to get butt-hurt about today!!

I’m gonna kick the day off here with my debut rap single “Albert Clifford”.  It’s a tribute to my childhood hero A.C. Slater.  I don’t think there’s a person out there who’s life hasn’t been touched/enriched by this man.  My single wasn’t very successful in the U.S. but it did go Aluminum in Yugoslavia so, ya know, there’s that.

Stay tuned-there’s much more to come!

Love your favorite guest writer in Metalsucks history,

Justin Gosnell

During our Big 4 Live Snark on Wednesday, we reported that during Megadeth’s set, Dave Mustaine told the crowd he needed neck surgery, and had been in a hospital as recently as Tuesday; in fact, not only was there a rumor on Monday that Megadeth were gonna miss the show, but word around the campfire was that Exodus had even been approached about possibly taking ‘Deth’s spot should the Davester have to drop out. (Fans offended that Exodus and not Testament were approached should keep in mind in that Gary Holt was already playing with Slayer anyway, so, y’know.)

Now Rolling Drone has scored a non-scoop by getting Mustaine to say in print that which he already said at the concert: he needs neck surgery. So, in case you didn’t believe him the first time he said it, now you should believe him because he told the magazine that gave St. Anger a positive review.

The interesting part of the interview, though, is Mustaine’s claim that G-O-D fixed it so he didn’t have to miss the Yankee Stadium show despite his neck issues:

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Technically, summer isn’t over until September 23. But to hell with that! Days are gonna get shorter, the weather’s gonna get cooler, and everyone will soon celebrate the birth of the one true me. So there’s really no point in hanging on to the last vestiges of summer. Good-bye and good riddance. What better way to hail the moodiest season of them all than with some Blut Aus Nord?

The French “avante-garde” black metal band are, admittedly, a little full of themselves. Refusing to be lumped with other, more popular black metal acts, who they refer to as — and this is the best line ever — “childish Satanic clowns.” Wait, does this make them the original black metal hipsters, then? Oh well. Despite that, I still like them. I didn’t get to listen to 777 – Sect(s) until quite recently, and if I’d heard it sooner, I would’ve considered putting it on my year’s best so far list.  It has everything I’d expect in a Blut Aus Nord record; lots of reverb and that glorious industrial influence that I always appreciate in music, whatever the genre.

And yet, 777 – Sect(s) is a little lackluster, especially compared to some of their earlier stuff.

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Music can have an incredible emotional impact on the listener, at times overwhelming. When you write about music for a living it’s impossible not to be become jaded, and those times when music completely takes you over grow ever farther between. But watching this live performance of “Flying” — Living Colour’s 9/11-inspired song and, IMO, the best 9/11-inspired song ever-written — is sending chills down my spine and had me on the brink of tears for a moment. It’s that powerful.

“Flying” is a moving song on its own, but this performance, filmed in New Jersey on the 8th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, takes it to another level. Cory Glover is one of the most emotional singers in the world; at a private performance of their new album The Chair in the Doorway in 2009, Glover broke down into tears after introducing and then launching into a song about his late mother. You can feel it in this performance of “Flying” too… Living Colour are a true New York band, and the 9/11 attacks affected all of us in a profound way. These lyrics, and the accompanying music — including Vernon Reid’s extended guitar solo — capture the emotions we all feel so perfectly.

I jumped out the window to get to the parking lot
I’m writing this little song on my way down
Never in my life have I felt a heat so hot
I had to get out

Such a lovely day to go flying
The sky’s so clear, the sun is shining
Fate has given me wings
Such a terrible funny thing

I was gathering up my nerve to ask out Carmen
She glanced out the window
Oh my God
The room It went away, now we’re holding hands
Just not the way I planned

There comes a time in the life of any moderately successful band where a decision must be made: to continue writing artistically relevant music or to throw on a cowboy hat and write about beer and puss—

I wonder which is more profitable.

Last week we explored the first of six stylistic pitfalls good bands/musicians so often fall prey to (click here to see part 1!), changes in quality of life. In this edition we will be focusing our attention on a very different, but equally devastating gaffe, and it’s a distinctly American problem at that (provided that Canada is basically America).

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Long-time MetalSucks readers know that Axl and I have an unnaturally high level of love for Sevendust. If you’ve got a problem with that kindly stop reading this post now and spare us your butthurt claims that Sevendust aren’t “metal enough” for a metal blog.

So, it seems as if Sevendust might be getting ready to hang up their cleats for good, or are at least considering it. This wouldn’t be surprising if I believed it were actually going to happen… which I do not.

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Destiny Potato – Demo Preview by David Maxim Micic

This was not supposed to happen. Djent was not supposed to be the next annoying pop-metal trend.

When what would later be termed “djent” started brewing in the message boards frequented by guitar / home-recording nerds in 2002-2003, the genre had so much promise. Players who were passionate about their craft creating songs en masse for everyone to hear; good musicianship; the Meshuggah-revival guitar chug sound that was, at the time, novel; ambient atmospherics; interesting song structures and orchestration. Sure, the elements that caused djent to catch on like wildfire later on — namely catchy guitar hooks — were there in the genre’s infancy… but not to the degree they’re being mined, exploited  and endlessly imitated now.

This was not supposed to happen. For an interesting read, check out a guest blog TesseracT’s Acle Kahney wrote for MetalSucks about the birth of the djent movement. He was there way before you were and will be there long after.

This was not supposed to happen. It was nice knowing you while you were still fun, djent. I bid thee farewell.

-VN

Thanks: Dan Wolfson

How could they—how could they do this?! And to you of all people—

You, who so loyally downloaded each of their album leaks; you, who mobbed them outside their tour bus to plug your band they didn’t want to hear about at 1:45 in the morning; and, of course, you, who left an elitist comment on an MS thread about how KVLT they used to be and how nothing they’ve done recently is worth a damn—What nerve!

Bands change, and as human beings we’re hardwired to resist that. But deep down, in our own girly, paradoxical way, we sort of look for it, too. Ambivalence aside, if you were to investigate the primary reasons as to why the majority of the groups you like head south (not on tour), it would likely come down to the fact that they did actually change things. What you thought wasn’t broken they tried to fix anyway and now you’re left with an annoying buzz and a whole bunch of spare parts.

We go about saying “oh that band ‘sold out’” or “they used to be good, but now they’re just a bunch of pussycats.” But that’s not really all that descriptive. Music nerds love to complain, not explain, and maybe that’s the problem here. In this series we will explore the leading factors in a band’s artistic decline and examine just why it is that your rock gods of yester-year are now the radio slobs you can’t bear to hear.

Without further a do, Part 1!

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Only five releases today, which is fine, because it’s my birthday and my college started classes back up yesterday. We still have a bunch of stuff coming out this fall to get excited about, but this week is highlighted by releases from Leprous and Atriarch, as well as ICS Vortex’s first solo album. To the reviewing!

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We keep getting e-mails regarding the below video of Charlie Sheen at The Gathering of the Juggalos this past weekend, because allegedly it shows how he was booed and pelted with bottles and generally not met with a warm greeting from all the little Ninjas. “How are you guys not all over this?!?!” one reader even asked.

Thing is, it doesn’t really show any of that fun stuff. I think I counted four bottles thrown at Sheen, and he doesn’t seem particularly offended — in fact, he catches two of the bottles, and is met with applause for doing so. There aren’t even any really audible boos until he announces an act and walks off the stage, and it’s not clear if the crowd was booing Sheen or the upcoming performer. So it’s not like this was a repeat of the Tila Tequila incident from last year’s Gathering.

In other words: this video is not that entertaining, but if you wanna see what all the fuss is about, here it is.

-AR

I don’t normally think of Adam Jones(#18 on our list of the Top 25 Modern Metal Guitarists) or Tool as being the kinds of artists who appeal to the Hellyeah/Five Finger Death Punch crowd, but I guess that’s just me being an uptight elitist. Because Jones played “The Star-Spangled Banner” at WWE’s SummerSlam over the weekend, which, let’s be real, is about as white trash as you can get without making an appearance at The Gathering of the Juggalos (and before you get your panties in a knot over that statement, you should know that I once proudly attended SummerSlam, and, yes, I had a blast).

ANYWAY, here’s video of Jones’ performance… needless to say, he did a fantastic job, and if nothing else, it’s always good to hear him playing music, not doing whatever he does while Maynard goes off and makes wine and Puscifer albums.

-AR

[via Metal Injection]

Let’s take a look at a band that, amazingly enough, doesn’t take itself as seriously as, say, every other band that has originated from the Scandinavian Peninsula. Formed in 2004 by Children of Bodom’s Alexi Laiho, Kylähullut was a silly side-project featuring Tonmi Lillman (Ex- To/Die/For) and Vesku Jokinen (Klamydia). I’ve liked the occasional Bodom song and Laiho was pretty easy on the eyes until he wasn’t, but I gotta say, I much prefer him and Jokinen rasping in a language I don’t understand than anything relating to hate crews. Kylähullut, which means “village idiots,” performs all their songs in Finnish, and they’re all simple thrash/punk metal ditties as easy to digest as your average pop song.

Though their most recent release is 2007’s Peräaukko Sivistyksessä, I prefer the first album, Turpa Täynnä, from 2005. As well as an abundance of umlauts, each song has a delightful name, especially “Scenehuora,” which means, if you couldn’t guess, “scene whore.” I also quite like “…Ja Jeesus ei pysy ristillään!” (“…And Jesus won’t stay on his cross!”) and “Vitun urpo!” (“Fucking idiot!”). The exclamation points are a nice touch.

My favorite song of theirs, though, “Ei pelkoa,” which was also the first Kylähullut song I ever heard. It’s has a touch of the customary Laiho guitars, but without his proclivity to meander endlessly. I think the fact that each song barely hits three minutes really plays up to the trio’s strengths. No frills, just hard, straightforward music. The only song that sort of bugs me is “Kylähullut, ” which features Kimberley Goss, whose voice makes me want to throttle cute, innocent things. It sounds like Andrew WK mated with a Finnish Avril Lavigne. But even that tune has its charm.

Also, if someone could explain to me what the hell is happening in this video, I’d appreciate it. I found it while searching for the song “Kääpiöt.” Far as I can tell, it’s the three dudes on a very special adventure together.

They actually remind me of another silly Finnish act (not in terms of the actual music, but just their general air and attitude), Eläkeläiset. A geriatric band that does heavy metal polka (humppa) covers with the occasional pop or rock song thrown in for good measure. Like. “Smells Like Teen Humppa.”  I really don’t know what these bands are drinking, but I would like to try it.

-LF