MetalSucks

Last night Vince and I hit up the Trivium/Chimaira/Whitechapel/Dirge Within show at Irving Plaza here in NYC. I will never ever get sick of watching Chimaira live. They have a forty-five minute set on this tour, and they really make the most of it by basically segueing directly from one song to the next with a minimum of on-stage banter, presumably in order to allow a maximum of brutality. To top it off, the set-list was pretty much perfect – they played at least one or two songs from each of their albums (This Present Darkness excluded), and not always they song(s) you’d expect, either. Definitely go check ‘em out!

Here they are doing “Severed” at the Download Festival in 2007. They played this song last night and the pit just went insane – I think this has to be the heaviest track on Pass Out of Existence, no?

-AR

I know what you’re thinking: Two juggalo posts in one day? What did we do to deserve such treats?!?!

Well, I definitely didn’t wake up this morning and say “Let’s do two ICP articles in one day,” but then Dan And from Bison B.C. e-mailed me these AWESOME photos of the band playing a Halloween gig while dressed as Juggalos, and I just had to share…

More after the jump…

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Leaves’ Eyes vocalist Liv Kristine has written another ridiculous top five list for The Deciblog – this one about the best “vegetarian eats” – but it’s not really offensive, and it would just be petty of me to respond with a top five “meat eats” or whatever (although there’s some obvious humor to be had there).

No, instead I’d like to concentrate on this morning’s Invisible Oranges post by Cosmo Lee regarding  “the new breed of female metallers,” which seems to have been inspired, at least in part, by Kristine’s initial list about why women in metal rule, and my (admittedly sophomoric) response.

As is usually the case, Mr. Lee makes some excellent recommendations, my favorite of which is a Russian band, Tantal. Here’s their video for a song called “Suicide.” I suggest you stick with it through the entire six minutes, even if you don’t dig the beginning – as Cosmo writes, “It starts off cheesy but gets better and better, with an amazing Between the Buried and Me-style outro.”

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It’s election day here in the States, and like many election days, I basically wasted a vote on a candidate who has no chance of winning whatsoever because his opponent had more money and therefore was able to buy more television ads. Gotta love democracy.

So. Here are some old “Rock the Vote” spots with Dave Mustaine and Megadeth. (Young ones who don’t recognize anyone in Megadeth besides Mustaine: that the old, definitive line-up of the band. Do not be frightened.) I seem to recall that Mustaine was also a correspondent for MTV at one of the conventions – Democratic or Republican, I can’t recall – but I can’t find any clips of that.

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Here’s a funny story: earlier this year Daath’s Emil Werstler made one of those “Betcha Can’t Play This” instructional videos for Guitar World. Said video showed him playing so fast that some of the staff of that publication actually accused him of speeding up the video. Once he did another video, showing him at PRS clinic proving he could actually play that fast, was released, all was forgiven, and he’s now made a second “Betcha” vid.

It’s good to Werstler getting the credit he deserves. When Daath’s first album, The Hinderers, was released, none of the press concentrated on the dude’s prowess as a guitar player; now that all that shit about the band allegedly being Kabbalah obsessed mystics or whatever has subsided, it seems like people are more willing to focus on the things that actually make Daath worth listening to: great musicianship and excellent song writing skills.

Here’s the more recent “Betcha” segment; after the jump, check out the older one that got Emil accused of cheating, as well the PRS clip that proves that he is, in fact, just a supreme bad-ass.

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I’m posting this video interview our friends at Noisecreep conducted with Baroness’ John Baizley for two reasons:

1. Baroness is awesome and their new album, The Blue Record, is the cat’s pajamas.
2. It was edited by our friend Tommy Wee. Tommy’s not even really that big a metal guy, but even he thinks The Blue Record is frickin’ sweet.

Enjoy.

-AR

Well, the headline pretty much says it all. It was pretty brave (or stupid, I guess, depending on your point of view) for this dude to do this, but you gotta love that everyone goes nuts as soon as he starts headbanging. I assume most of them are applauding the act of doing something so outrageous (at least by high school standards) for a talent show and not the actual music, but, hey, support is support.

-AR

Thanks to our friend Bob for the video!

Shame on me for having never heard of Australia’s Portal before. I just got their new album, Swarth (which apparently means “land covered with grassy turf”… metal teaches me a new word again!), last week, and it’s blowing my mind. I don’t even know how to describe it; it’s death metal, I guess, but it’s really pushing the limits of what “music” as a concept is. It almost reminds me of Hate Eternal, but that’s not really fair to Portal or Erik Rutan. They are just a really, really unique monster.

And I do mean “monster.” Like I said, this is really pushing the boundaries between music and noise. It’s just fucking evil, man. I’ll try to write a review one of these days, but in the meantime, I implore you to check out Portal on MySpace and buy Swarth for yourself – it just came out this week on Profound Lore.

And, oh yeah, apparently they wear costumes. Here they are doing the song “Glumurphonel” from their 2003 debut, Seepia.

For the time being it seems that Portal live shows are restricted to their native land, but they have been added to the already amazing Maryland Deathfest 2010 line-up, which will also include Converge, Eyehategod, Melechesh, Obituary, and grind gods Gridlink.

-AR

Thus spake MS Maniac Michael Arose.

Ask, and ye shall receive.

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Oh Anso, you so silly with your band acronyms. You also so dead-on with your praise of One Man Army and the Undead Quartet. Like Stratovarius, 1MA+U4 are one of those bands whose name constantly graces Blabbermouth headlines but to whom I’ve never actually listened. How could that be given they’re fronted by ex-The Crown singer Johan Lindstrom? I do not know.

On a complete unrelated note in the same article, Anso (who’s also an MS contributor, you ninnies) chimes in with this truth about French tech-deathsters Gorod (whose 2009 album Process of a New Decline we’ve praised endlessly here on MS):

I learned that in Gorod, technical metal is being wrested away from clever East Coast hipsters and back into the domain of heshers thank you Europe. Like any good pursuit, it is improving itself and less and less frequently being comprised of five guys wanking in unison.

I <3 Anso.

Hugz,
VN

I haven’t gotten to write a review of Brutal Legend yet because, well, I just haven’t had time to play all the way through the game, and it seems like writing a review of half a game or whatever isn’t fair. But I’ve enjoyed what I’ve played so far.

And it seems like the game owes a debt to Metalocalypse. Besides some similarities in general tone, style of humor, and a love of violence, there’s the fact that Legend takes place in a magical, faraway land where everything is related to metal and everything looks more or less like it belongs in Mordhaus. Obviously Metalocalypse already owes a debt to metal imagery as old as Sabbath itself, but… there’s definitely a connection between Dethklok and Brutal Legend.

So kudos to the fan who made the below video. At some point it might get yanked for copyright infringement, so enjoy it while you can… I have to say, it seems pretty impressive for something fan-made. And wouldn’t be awesome if there really WAS a Dethklok/Eddie Riggs crossover?

Major props to Christopher Silverio for sending this in… thanks, dude!

-AR

We haven’t done much writing about Rodrigo y Gabriella, the acoustic guitarist duo sweeping the metal world. But Metal Insider just posted this video of them jamming with Metallica’s Rob Trujillo, so, y’know. That seems maybe worth posting. I dunno. It’s kind of a slow news day.

So here they are doing “Orion”…

…and you can watch more video at Metal Insider.

-AR

3, one of the best not-really-a-metal-band to ever be signed to a metal label (Metal Blade) and tour with metal bands (Opeth, etc.), are going to make a video for the song “Rabid Animals” from their new album, Revisions. And that’s all well good, but here’s the really groovy part – they’re giving their fans a chance to be in the video. And you don’t have to spend any money, or win a contest, or anything like that.

Here’s a statement from the band:

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I first wrote about Crystal Viper back in March, and they’re still one of the most amazing discoveries I’ve made this year. Now they have a new video and… I mean… Have you ever seen a video more metal than this?!?!? I mean, more metal and also made for two dollars U.S. and the band’s best ass. ‘Cause I think that’s what they traded for the pyro.

-AR

MetalSucks Maniac The Ghost of D. Boon e-mailed us in response to that video we posted yesterday of Steel Panther guitarist Satchel playing drums while taking a guitar solo to make sure we knew about Gull… and we didn’t. So thanks, Ghost!

Gull is a one-man project from Richmond, VA who not only plays guitar and drums simultaneously (and wwwaaayyy better than Satchel), but also sings! Ghost says that mask he’s wearing has a mic in it, which is hooked up to reverb pedal. Check it out:

You can get more info on Gull here.

And while we’re talking about one man bands… this suddenly got me thinking about Corn Mo, this dude I used to see play local clubs and bars here in New York from time to time. He’s not really metal, but he used to host gigs for metal cover bands and obviously has some knowledge of metal, so it seemed worth posting. Plus, if you’re drunk enough, he can be fun to watch live. Check out the drum stick coming out of his pants!

Here’s Corn Mo, both doing his solo thing and playing with Gary Suarez’s hero, Andrew WK:

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I really, really, sincerely, with all my heart and all my soul, wish that there was a version of this video with running audio commentary by the director.

My sincerest thanks to djabthrash. You changed my life… forever.

I’m having a hard time finding anything else about this band on the internet. If anyone has any leads, please let me know. I must know more. I MUST.

-AR

First of all, for our non-Chosen readers: groyse metsie is Yiddish for a bargain. Don’t say I never taught ya nuthin’.

So. For the month of October (or “Rocktober,” as some clever marketing types are dubbing it), Earache is offering a whole bunch of truly righteous albums from their catalog for download on iTunes at a retardedly low price: $5.99 in the U.S., £4.49 in the U.K., and 4,99EUR in Europe. (The press release tells me that “prices may vary in other regions.” Ha-ha.) Now, I know that most of us music snobs don’t like iTunes because the audio quality isn’t as high as it could be, and there’s a better-than-average chance that a lot of you own most of these albums anyway. But if you can get past the whole “IT’S NOT AS GOOD AS FLAC! Snort snort” thing and/or for some reason DO NOT already own most of these albums, it’s a really, really killer deal.

A complete list of available albums after the jump. At least six or seven of these are classics, and nine or so are still awesome and could be classics, so they’re totally worth the six bucks or whatever.

And then one of them is by Oceano.

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Good morning, our fellow Metalocalypse and Dethklok lovers! So here’s the sitch. Vince is getting on the phone with Brendon Small in just a few hours, and he needs YOUR help getting some juicy questions for Brendon. Post a question in the comments section below by 3:30 pm EST today, and Vince will cherry-pick the best ones to pass onto Brendon. And if he chooses your question, well, maybe we’ll send you some banana stickers or something.

In case, for some inexplicable reason, you don’t know who Brendon Small is: the man – nay, genius – is the co-creator of Metalocalypse (as well as the equally awesome Home Movies), voices the characters of Skwisgaar Skwigelf, Pickles the Drummer, and Nathan Explosion, and will be the dude you see front n’ center when you go see Dethklok live. In other words, Brendon is the shit.

Dethklok’s Dethalbum II is out now on Williams Street Records, and the band is currently on tour with Mastodon, Converge, and High on Fire. Get a complete list of tour dates here.

The new season of Metalocalypse starts November 8 on Adult Swim. And the episodes are gonna be thirty minutes long now! Niiiiice.

-Axl & Vince

This summer’s ridiculously hot but still awesome Blackened Music Series show with Brutal Truth, Pig Destroyer and Repulsion was, technically speaking, a book release party for Precious Metal, a book collected Decibel’s awesome Hall of Fame series in one classy edition. That fact got kind of overlooked as the world celebrated such an incredible grind show taking place, but there ya have it. It’s a really cool book and you should buy it.

So. Our friends from Metal Injection were on hand, and not only did they interview the dudes gods from Pig Destroyer, but they also snagged an interview with Albert Mudrian. In addition to being the editor-of-chief of the Decibel, Albert wrote Choosing Death, which is pretty much the definitive history of death and grind. In other words: the guy knows his shit.

Here’s MI’s interview with Albert. As a metal-writing nerd, I found it fascinating. And don’t forget to head over to Metal Injection to watch the Pig Destroyer interview, too (they also have plenty of ass-rippingly good live footage from the show). ‘Cause, y’know. It’s fucking PIG DESTROYER.

-AR

MS Maniac John Devos tipped us off to the existence of Vivian Black, with whom I was previously unfamiliar. And, honestly, I feel deeply, deeply ashamed. For Ms. Black is a true artiste, a creative genius of the highest order. Her thinking is just on an whole other level from most people. We can barely comprehend the ways in which she is pushing the envelope.

Here’s some background of Ms. Black, from the bio on her official website, which identifies Vivian as a “Vocalist & Author,” “Actress,” “Proucer & Director,” “Author” (but not vocalist this time!), and “Occultist“:

Vivian Black, is a multifaceted artist: actress of the horror genre, female Metal solo singer, creator of black metal performances, composer, screenwriter, writer, artistic producer and director. A talented woman, whose potential has not been recognized by show business, nor by most of the public of her native country.

This website will clarify, for the first time, who Vivian Black really is; her attributes and virtues, her artistic work, her talent spread out one hundred per cent, her real aims, her mythical and enigmatic personality, and the limit between reality and fiction, the character (or not) of the addressed by many “Witch of metal”, “Princess of darkness”, “Black witch”, or “Satanic singer”.

Is your mind blown yet? No? Well how about now?

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