MetalSucks

Metal fans, let’s take a collective moment to consider ourselves blessed with some big Peters. Peters who will take you firmly from both sides of the mixing board with confidence and expertise. Sweaty, bulging-veined Peters whose live shows leave willing multitudes spent, sated, slack – and more than a bit bruised. These Peters, thanks to generous endowments of talent, stand fully erect as superstars in real metal. Each of metal’s hugest Peters share a rock hard work ethic, hardly pausing for rest between releases captured on tape and performances in the flesh, after which they simply move on to violate again in another city.

In the premiere installment of MetalSucks’ Metal’s Biggest Peters, I spoke by phone with Peter Tagtgren of Hypocrisy, who recently added a third instant classic to his resume with A Taste of Extreme Divinity (buy it now, DBAA). Tagtgren is a death metal household name and represents the rare quintuple-threat (guitar, vocals, production, songwriting, hair). With his feet up on the mixing board (awesome!) and in good humor, Tagtgren spoke at length about crappy production, freaking out metal fans, and why his bands Hypocrisy and Pain are ‘guinea pigs’ for the benefit of others.

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Instru-metallers Russian Circles’ new album Geneva is out now. Even Axl, who usually doesn’t get into all of the same instrumental / trippy / wank stuff that I do, is enjoying the album and described it as “really cinematic.” If you’ve yet to experience this amazing band, be sure to listen to a few tracks on their MySpace page and catch them on their current tour with Young Widows and Coliseum.

Current These Arms Are Snakes / ex-Botch bassist Brian Cook recently became a full-time member of Russian Circles after having recorded and toured with them on their last record Station. I recently emailed Brian a batch of questions about joining the band, recording the new album, balancing the workload between all of his projects, and what the future holds for Russian Circles, to which he was more than happy to respond in detail. My questions, his answers… after the jump.

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Since 1993, the furious duo of Amber Valentine and Edgar Livengood have been confounding and entertaining with their eclectic musical mix that frequently and wantonly crosses the boundaries between metal and rock. Jucifer’s unrestrained artistry has led to some pretty impressive albums, including two for Relapse Records: 2006’s If Thine Enemy Hunger and last year’s L’Autrichienne. As the band wraps up the latest round of its unending tour, I recently took the chance to pry a few answers out of the loquacious Mrs. Valentine.

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James Plotkin is that rare extreme music creator that denies no creative impulse. His back catalog matches the industrial sonic terrorism of OLD with the hollowed-out doom of Khanate, the Lotus Eaters’ cavernous, electro-acoustic drones with Phantomsmasher’s calculated digital brutality. Not to mention his dozens of solo guitar and ambient releases. The thin grey thread that runs through all of Plotkin’s projects? Restless experimentation, a trait that’s found him dissolving and expanding the boundaries of extreme music for two decades. Experimentation is at the heart of Plotkin’s newest group Jodis, an open-ended collaboration with vocalist Aaron Turner (Isis/Old Man Gloom) and drummer Tim Wyskida (Khanate/Khlyst). Plotkin recently sat down with MetalSucks to talk about Jodis’s new Hydra Head release Secret House. As you’ll read, his reflections on his own creative process are just as wide-ranging and thoughtful as his discography.
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By now, it should be crystal clear to everyone just how I feel about Oceano. Considering the response to my 5/5 review of the Chicago band’s debut Depths, it seems only fitting that the day I take over MetalSucks is the day I get to share with you my interview with guitarist Andrew Mikhail, who opens up about illegal downloading, being labeled “deathcore”, and CDs as art.

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San Francisco’s Kowloon Walled City are an integral part of the short history of Scraping Genius Off The Wheel. One of the reasons why I started this here blog column at MetalSucks was to document what I recognized as a New Wave Of American Noise Rock. The band’s 2008 Turk Street EP turned me on to their sound, which was like Unsane and Zozobra locked in some sort of mutually gratifying sexual position. Since then I have spent a fair amount of virtual ink extolling the virtues of this vile bunch of sonic sludge slingers. To mark the arrival of Kowloon Walled City’s debut full-length, I managed to squeeze some answers out of guitarist Jason Pace.

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If there’s any justice in the world, The Red Chord’s excellent new album, Fed Through the Teeth Machine (read my four out of five horns review here), will cement Mike “Gunface” McKenzie’s status as one of his generation’s great guitar gods while introducing his truly unique playing to scores of new fans. Now The Red Chord’s sole axe slinger, Gunface really steps up his game on Teeth – the riffs and solos on this album are easily some of the year’s very best.

That being the case, I was very, very excited to have the opportunity to e-mail some questions to Gunface earlier this week. He follows bassist Greg Weeks and vocalist Guy Kozowyk as the latest member of The Red Chord to humor me by answering some truly idiotic (and hopefully a few intelligent) questions (I’m sure we’ll get to drummer Brad Fickeisen sooner or later). After the jump, get Gunface’s thoughts on the creation of Fed Through the Teeth Machine, writing solos, his various side projects, the value of the Death Star, and more.

Fed Through the Teeth Machine is out October 27 on Metal Blade.

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Photo by Mart Reinson

While winding down their recent European trek with Unearth, Daath and Throwdown, Mark Hunter, vocalist of perennial MetalSucks favorites Chimaira, was cool enough to answer some questions via e-mail. After the jump, get Mark’s thoughts on European audiences versus American audiences, eating at McDonald’s abroad, the joys of Don “The Dragon” Wilson, showers in Germany, and more.

And by the way, there’s a NSFW image in this interview. You were warned.

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Photo by Ben Shapiro

With its intertwining, trebly guitar lines, smeary blurs of percussion and peculiar chanted interludes, the debut full-length Renihilation by Brooklyn’s Liturgy was one of this year’s more intriguing black metal releases. In sound, it split the difference between the buzzing rawness of early Ulver and Krallice’s recent experiments (Krallice’s Colin Marston produced the album). And while one could easily be satisfied by the overwhelming, majestic crackle of the “Pure Transcendetal Black Metal” on Renihilation, just as important to the effect is the transcendentalist philosophy of Liturgy’s leader, Hunter Hunt-Hendrix. As you’ll see by Hunt-Hendrix’s answers, graciously composed while the band was on the road, Liturgy is a band consumed by ideas as profound as its music.

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Axe to Fall, Converge’s once-again excellent new album, is yet another stylistic shift: the majority of it is devoted to the band playing harder and more technically than they have in their post-Jane Doe era, while the closing two songs finding them venturing further away from their comfort zone than they ever have before. But even though guitarist Kurt Ballou darts all over the fretboard more than usual, vocalist Jacob Bannon changes nothing about his performance, from the breathless rambling on opener “Dark Horse” to his trademark pterodactyl-like shriek over the course of the album. But this isn’t to say that he’s in a state of creative stasis while the rest of the band moves outwards: Bannon’s hellacious scream is just as much a part of Converge’s uniqueness as is Ballou’s nimble riffing. Bannon’s work on Axe to Fall is as savage as it’s ever been, and once again adds weight and disturbing depth to the album’s metallic hardcore-fueled chaos.

Jacob Bannon’s place in metal, hardcore, and—for better or worse—metalcore is massive, with his trademark vocals incalculably influential and lyrics favoring the abstract over the melodramatic. Even outside of Converge, Bannon manages to be prominent, with a successful visual art career and running hardcore label Deathwish Inc. A surprisingly normal sounding (at least in terms of how he sounds on record), introspective guy, Bannon comes off as both wise about the metal and hardcore world while still impressed by and interested in it. In a lengthy interview with MetalSucks, he discussed the musical and lyrical intricacies of Axe to Fall, his approach to artwork in comparison to his vocal work, and people’s changing attitudes toward heavy music as they age.

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When I last spoke with Gojira’s Joe Duplantier about a year ago, the tone of the conversation was overwhelmingly positive; The Way of All Flesh had just been released to critical acclaim, the band had just come over to the U.S. for their biggest tour here to date (supporting In Flames) and everything was hunky-dory in Gojiraland. Fast forward a year, and the conversation is markedly different. Things are still fantastic for the band; The Way of All Flesh continues to sell and to be loved and they’ve toured non-stop all over the world with the likes of Metallica, Slayer and Lamb of God — but all this work has left the band exhausted.

In my recent chat with Joe before their headline show in Brooklyn last month, he explained the double-edged sword of the band’s newfound success — seeing the world, playing to sold-out audiences and opening for childhood heroes Metallica, while at the same time facing the realities of the constant grind of the road, living without a home and the hardships that come with being in a bus with the same 3 other dudes year-round.

Read my full chat with Joe after the jump, and also be sure to check out Axl’s show writeup (summary: they were FUCKING AWESOME!)

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Last week we posted a call for questions to ask Metalocalypse creator / Dethklok frontman Brendon Small, and you all gave us your best questions in the comments. Later that day we hand-picked our favorite ones and got on the phone with Brendon to pass them along. Your questions his answers, below.

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On Tuesday we told you that we’re sponsoring an AWESOME tour this winter with a four band bill, and while we can’t tell you all the bands on the bill just yet, we can tease that info out for you. So every day for the rest of this week, we’ll be posting an interview with a member of each band on the bill, featuring questions designed to help you guess who they are without spoiling the surprise. Then, this Monday, October 12, we’ll reveal the complete line-up for the tour!

The first bands announced were Mutiny Within and Arsis. Yesterday, many of you correctly guessed that the third band is none other than the legendary Exodus! The band just announced a January 15 release date for their sure-to-be killer new DVD/CD set, Shovel Headed Tour Machine (Live At Wacken And Other Assorted Atrocities), and with a little luck, 2010 will also bring us the release of The Atrocity Exhibition – Exhibit B. These guys are true pioneers, a band that pretty much every metal band since has owed some debt to, and they absolutely SLAY live.

After the jump, check out the interview with a member of the headlining band. See if you can guess who it is just based on his or her answers!!!

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On the eve of the release of their latest banger Here Waits Thy Doom, I spoke with 3 Inches of Blood guitarist Shane Clark. Clark was in the middle of an intense day of interviews promoting the new album but was still sharp enough to tell us all about the writing process of said album, the band’s label jump from Roadrunner to Century Media, the effects of Jamie Hooper’s departure from the band, and where 3 Inches of Blood fit (or not, as it were) into “the scene.” Our chat after the jumper.

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On Tuesday we told you that we’re sponsoring an AWESOME tour this winter with a four band bill, and while we can’t tell you all the bands on the bill just yet, we can tease that info out for you. So every day for the rest of this week, we’ll be posting an interview with a member of each band on the bill, featuring questions designed to help you guess who they are without spoiling the surprise. Then, this Monday, October 12, we’ll reveal the complete line-up for the tour!

As many of you guessed yesterday, Arsis will join Mutiny Within to be the second band on the bill. Their new album, Starve for the Devil, comes out January 15 on Nuclear Blast, and if the band’s last four albums are any indication, it’s gonna be the new year’s first contender for Best Album of 2010.

After the jump, check out the interview with a member of the third band on the bill. See if you can guess who it is just based on his or her answers!!!

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Photo by Laura DeSantis-Olsson [http://www.ldophoto.net/]

Yesterday we told you that we’re sponsoring an AWESOME tour this winter with a four band bill, and while we can’t tell you all the bands on the bill just yet, we can tease that info out for you. So every day for the rest of this week, we’ll be posting an interview with a member of each band on the bill, featuring questions designed to help you guess who they are without spoiling the surprise. Then, this Monday, October 12, we’ll reveal the complete line-up for the tour!

As many of you successfully guessed yesterday, the first band on the bill is Mutiny Within (pictured above). We’ve seen this young band several times in the past couple of years, and there’s little doubt in our minds that they are going to be really, really big. Their debut album drops next year on Roadrunner, and we’re insanely excited to have them on this tour!

After the jump, check out the interview with a member of the second band on the bill. See if you can guess who it is just based on his or her answers!!!

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Okay, so here’s the deal: MetalSucks is sponsoring an AWESOME tour this winter. And when we say “AWESOME,” we mean AWESOME. We’re so stoked. We can’t wait to tell you which bands are playing.

The thing is, we can’t. Not yet.

We can tell you that a) there are four bands on the bill, and b) they are all, as we said, friggin’ AWESOME.

The full tour announcement is coming this Monday, October 12. In the meantime, to get you all hot n’ bothered, we’ve conducted a interview with a member of each band, providing them with questions designed to help you guess who they are without spoiling the surprise. Today we present the first interview, with the first band on the bill, natch. After the jump, read his or her interview, then try to guess which band he’s from! Tomorrow we’ll present the interview with second band on the bill, Thursday the third band, and Friday the headliners, before making the official announcement on Monday.

Enjoy, kiddies…

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With a new album, From Afar, in stores now, and a U.S. tour just about a month away, now seemed like a perfect time for a chat with bassist/lyricist Sami Hinka. New MetalSucks correspondent Joseph Strombladder got on the phone with the pagan metaller to discuss the process of writing the band’s music and lyrics, the differences between metal fans in the U.S. and abroad, making music videos, and more. Full transcript after the jump.

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I’ve known White Wizzard guitarist Erik Kluiber since 2001 or so, when his old-old band Inner Recipe was working the club circuit in Southeast Michigan. When that band changed their sound to an ’80s metal throwback (way before it was popular to do so), they also changed their name to Overloaded and did quite a few gigs with my own band (”Vince Neilstein was in a band?” I hear you asking. Yes, kids. We’ll get to that another time.). Kluiber was also one of MetalSucks’ earliest supporters (oldschool commenters like Sammy, Wayne and hibernum should know him as “ERiK”).

Now Kluiber is all big-time, having moved to L.A. to join White Wizzard whose MetalSucks-approved High Speed GTO EP dropped on September 8th on Earache Records. I caught up with Kluiber at the band’s recent show in Brooklyn supporting Ross the Boss; we talked about how he came to be a member of White Wizzard, moving to L.A., finally having the support of a record label after years of grinding it out, recording the band’s first full-length record, and what the future holds.

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As one of the chief riff providers for swaggercore titans Every Time I Die, Andy Williams takes pride in making the discordant into catchy. For a perfect example of this, look no further than the band’s latest (MetalSucks-approved) album, New Junk Aesthetic. Distilling the band’s decade-plus essence into a tight half hour, it’s a satisfying mix of thunderous heaviness and easily the most appealing material the band have put to tape. But while he’s often overshadowed by vocalist Keith Buckley’s relentless wiseassery, it’s his and Jordan Buckley’s Skynard-by-way-of-Dillinger-Escape-Plan guitar work that make the band stand out and ultimately worthwhile.

A self-described “chatty Cathy,” Andy Williams was remarkably frank and refreshingly earnest in a recent interview with MetalSucks on the eve of the release of New Junk Aesthetic. Among other things, he discussed why he can listen to the new album and none of the band’s other material, his thoughts on the new Converge record, the changing landscape of the scene he came up in, and life over at ETID’s new label, Epitaph.

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