Monday’s post on Misery Signals’ pending new album led me into YouTubeLand where I proceded to spend too much time listening to old Misery Signals tracks. But it also led me to discover something I wasn’t expecting at all. I was aware of the free metal soundtrack to the Homefront video game released earlier this year, but I honestly didn’t pay it much attention because it was a covers album. Shame on me, because I just discovered Misery Signals’ cover of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon classic cut “Us and Them” and my socks have been knocked all the way into New Jersey. Like all truly great covers, Misery Signals have made this song their own while still managing to stay true to the original spirit of the song; it starts off similar to the original but all that goes out the window when the chorus kicks in just before the 2-minute mark. Holy fuck, I’ve never heard Pink Floyd sound so heavy and epic! Misery Signals also introduce some rhythmic and harmonic variations throughout, presented a marked contrast to the original that somehow just works.

I’ve always wanted to put together a comp of famous metal bands covering Floyd. Shadows Fall did that cover of “Welcome to the Machine” a while back (that was actually my introduction to SF!), Nachtmystium’s past two albums have basically been giant tributes to Floyd, Foo Fighters and Brian May did “Have a Cigar” and tons of other bands have covered Floyd throughout the years… but to my knowledge there’s never been one cohesive Metal Pink Floyd comp. “Us and Them” wouldn’t've been on my short list of songs ripe for metal covers, but I absolutely love this version. I always thought “Fearless” would be perfect (Junius would tear that song a new arsehole!), maybe “Hey You” (Queensryche!), something from The Final Cut by Opeth, any of the middle three tracks from Animals (heyo BTBAM!)… we could skip “Another Brick in the Wall” and “Money” (too obvious and Korn already butchered the former). Any other ideas?

-VN

Post-script: A forum thread from 2006 on Ultimate Metal turned up this version of “Run Like Hell” by Kittie! Best thing they’ve ever recorded. Go figure.

Ever wonder what Slayer’s rider looks like? Well, now we have the answers: The Most Metal Metal Band of All Time apparently loves Gogurt, Bowflex, Hogan’s Heroes, hand sanitizer, and hand satanizer.

And the craziest part about this document is that it’s apparently 100% real — Transmission Entertainment is the company that puts on FunFunFun Fest, at which Slayer appeared this year. AND the band apparently sent it out BEFORE Danzig had his little bitch fit at the fest, so it’s not yet another example of Slayer having fun at Danzig’s expense.

That being said, we can safely assume that it’s meant as a joke. We hope.

Check it out below… click to enlarge:

In other news, Slayer are still cooler than every other band in the Big Four combined.

-AR

[via Hard Rock Chick by way of Corey Mitchell]

We give Metallica a lot of shit ’round these parts. A LOT of shit. As if anyone could blame us after Lulu… but I digress. Today we’ll take a breather from our morning dose of haterade with a video of the Metallicats actually earning some points back by watching and responding to that video of a band comprised of eight year-old kids covering “Enter Sandman.” James, Kirk, Rob and Lars even call out the band members by name and invite them to come jam, meaning these kids are gonna save this video for ever and ever and ever and ever. Do folks even “save” videos these days? It’s not like you can just pop in a blank VHS and press record from YouTube.

-VN

[via Metal Injection]

As previously announced, Faith No More performed their album King for a Day… Fool for a Lifetime in its entirety at a show in Santiago, Chile this past weekend. King/Mr. Bungle guitarist Trey Spruance and post-King guitarist Jon Hudson were both in attendance, and the show included, according to The PRP, “what is thought to be the first live performances of the album’s track ‘Star A.D.’ and its b-side, ‘Absolute Zero’,” as well as the previously unreleased track from the King sessions that the band first performed live last week. I’m obviously a huge FNM fan, but I guess not enough of a fan to know that these songs had never been played live before, so that’s exciting.

Don’t be too down if you weren’t at the show, though, ’cause nowadays we have these things called cell phones, and those cell phones and have cameras, and those cameras have video capabilities, and so now you can watch some semi-decent footage below. Enjoy!

“Star A.D.”

More after the jump…

Click to read more…

Talk about a band that refuses to let down their fans: GWAR have missed the bare minimum amount of shows since the untimely passing of guitarist Cory Smoot (a.k.a. “Flattus Maximus”) a couple of weeks ago — and those shows were cancelled only so that the band could attend Smoot’s memorial service in Virginia this past Friday. Those dudes are troopers, huh?

I’m sure Smoot continues to loom large in the band’s mind, though. Case in point: Metal Insider reports that this past Thursday, November 9, during a performance in Portland, OR, the members of GWAR spontaneously ripped off their masks and held up Smoot’s guitar to honor their fallen bandmate. Check out video of that performance below; it’s kinda weird to see GWAR break character like this, but, obviously, the occasion called for it…

The band’s ongoing tribute to Smoot continued on Saturday, when they announced plans for both the Smoot Family Foundation and some Smoot memorial shows via their Facebook page:

Click to read more…

A week ago, just a few days before they closed the The Metal Suckfest and a mere twenty-fours before their first proper performance with their new line-up, Cynic performed an extremely rare, extremely intimate acoustic set at one of our favorite NYC haunts, Idle Hands. I have no idea what the final head count in the bar was, but I know that the vast majority of the world’s Cynic devotees did not get to experience this truly special event.

Luckily, our friends from Metal Injection were there, and they caught it on video! You can check out the performance of “Veil of Maya” and “Evolutionary Sleeper” below; if you head over to Metal Injection, you can also check out a new interview with Cynic’s Paul Masvidal and Sean Reinert, which was conducted outside of a synagogue. Just a fun fact for ya!

Cynic’s new EP, Carbon-Based Anatomy, comes out on November 15 via Season of Mist; if you don’t buy it, you’re a loser. Just sayin’.

-AR

Axl and I couldn’t stop raving about the Rammstein show we saw this past May for weeks afterward. The lights! The FIRE! The PYRO! The dude who gets lit on fire and runs across the stage! Everything about the whole damned show! Many would argue that Rammstein employ these gimmicks to distract attention away from their music, but they still put on one of the best shows I’ve ever seen and I think they happen to have some super-catchy shout-along anthems as well. Like, Korn could put on a show like this and they’d still suck.

But that was May. And now it’s November. Meaning Rammstein have had six whole month to up the “holy shit” factor in their live show to even greater heights. Here they are opening Sunday night’s show in Bratislava, Slovakia; a bridge drops down from the arena ceiling connecting the venue’s two (!) stages and… holy shit, just watch. Here’s to hoping they’re bringing this show to the U.S. soon; A+++ would DEFINITELY do business with again.

-VN

Thanks: Luis Fernando Pizano Escalante

Over the weekend, we got an e-mail from Ron Blackwell — the vocalist for Danny Lilker’s black metal project, Nokturnal Hellstorm — informing us that he had recently proposed to his girlfriend onstage during an Exhumed show. I didn’t get to watch the video of the most romantic thing in the history of love until this morning because I was, y’know, kinda busy, but now that I’ve actually seen it, all I can is, holy shit, this is twice as beautiful as I imagined it would be.

I just cried a little. Anyone else just cry a little? I mean, that was fucking beautiful.

If you need a little romance in your life, don’t forget that Exhumed’s North American headlining tour with Goatwhore and Havok — which, hey!, we happen to be presenting — is ongoing through November 20. Get dates and links to purchase tickets right here.

-AR

If, like me, you were hopeful that Opeth and Katatonia would use their recent U.S. tour as an opportunity to get up on stage and play some Bloodbath shit (since members of both bands are in Bloodbath — duh), you were probably disappointed… unless you live in Baltimore, where the two bands did, indeed, play some Bloodbath shit on the final night of the tour. But I forgive them for not doing the same when they performed here in New York. The bummer for people in Baltimore is that they have to live in Baltimore, so they deserve a special treat every now and then.

Here’s the de rigeur cell phone footage of the blessed event:

-AR

[via Metal Insider]

When Ben Weinman revealed in September that he was collaborating on a new project with Mike Patton, I proclaimed my love for Irony is a Dead Scene, the EP that Dillinger recorded with Patton while they were in-between former vocalist Dimitri Minakakis and current vocalist Greg Puciato. So you can imagine how jealous I am of San Francisco DEP fans, who got to see Patton actually hop up on stage with the band this past Friday night to perform a song from that release, “When Good Dogs Do Bad Things.” Luckily, in 2011 every single electronic device in the world comes equipped with a camera, so we have some fan-filmed footage of the event. Check it out below.

Say, here’s the best idea ever: how about a FNM/DEP tour? If it ever happened, I might actually drop everything and follow that shit around the country, like some stupid Dead Head or whatever.

-AR

[via Metal Injection]

We hope that you all get really drunk tonight, that your costume is the hit of the party, and that you find a small child whose mother is too dumb to have taught him not to accept candy from strangers. If you’re having a hard time figuring out how to conceal the razor inside the candy apple, remember that you should dip the apple in candy AFTER you slide the razor in, so that the sauce covers up the gap.

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Thanks to Jay from All Hallow’s Evil for making and sending in the above video!

I’ve been a fan of Portland’s Danava for some time now…..the band fuses heavy rawk riffage, ripping guitar solos, tripped-out keyboard mayhem, thumping boogie-stomp grooves and more together into an amalgam of awesome.  Bringing a new sensibility to yesteryear’s sounds in spades, Danava’s new Kemado Records album Hemisphere of Shadows is a scorcher that knows when to wail and when to lay back, with guitarmonies, fuzz and moogs aplenty.  Think Hawkwind, Thin Lizzy, Zeppelin, Deep Purple……..but don’t think, just rock out.

The band has old stuff on its TheirSpace page, and a few new tracks can be found on MeTube:

The band is currently on the road; remaining tour dates (with Thrones) after the jump.

Click to read more…

…I would have ordered the deluxe edition of The Hunter.

-AR

[via Metal Injection; comic by Garrett of Peanut Butter on The Brain]

Forget for a minute that Tom Morello is a very famous musician, and put aside your views on whether or not musicians should use their music as a platform to express political views. Now watch and listen to this interview with Tom Morello at the Occupy Wall Street protests — where he serenaded protestors last week — and as you’re doing so think of him of just one of 300-some-odd million U.S. citizens with an opinion to express, just like everyone else:

I don’t care who the guy in the above video is; his are some of the most well-articulated, smart, and reasoned opinions of the whole “Occupy” campaign I’ve encountered to date. Best of all, Morello does a great job of framing the issue not as Republican vs. Democrat — because it’s really not a partisaned issue at all — but as regular people vs. the entire government/corporation complex, regardless of party lines. Sure, Morello’s history leans very far left, but the “Occupy” movement is gaining steam precisely because it doesn’t recognize political affiliation. Tea Partiers should really be able to back its message too. Sure, certain groups are trying to co-opt the message, but Morello addresses that issue in the above interview too.

Now feel free to once again remember how famous Tom Morello is, how many people he can influence, that the guy’s a pretty fantastic musician and, oh yeah, has a degree in Political Science from Harvard. I’d say this is fairly important, wouldn’t you?

For more on Occupy Wall Street re: metal: check out Valient Himself of Valient Thorr’s thought on the matter in an exclusive MetalSucks guest blog.

-VN

Yesterday word got out that Tom Morello was in New York to perform for the Occupy Wall Street protestors, and now, of course, there is video of that event, which you can check out below. There isn’t really all that much I can say about this, so I’ll just echo Vince’s words from yesterday: “God bless Tom Morello and the rest of the Ragers for never compromising their ideals.”

More after the jump.

Click to read more…

Holy shit, this is at least the second funniest thing I’ve seen all day. I have no idea where these old interviews are from or exactly what year they were conducted (I mean clearly it’s the early 90s sometime but I don’t know the precise dates or anything), but they are absolutely priceless, and definitely a must-watch. Highlights include:

• James Hetfield when he was still drunk, mean, and inarticulate.
• Scott Ian discussing offering to help a friend kill Joey Belladonna “and his chick and then bury them in one of his unused wells where they’ve been digging for water.” (Ian and Belladonna obviously get along much better now.)
• Kirk Hammett saying that if Dave Mustaine had never been fired from Metallica, “I would be playing with Megadeth… well, with better vocals, though. ‘Cause I can sing better than that guy.”
• Someone massacring a copy of So Far, So Good… So What? with a shotgun.
• Interviews with some of the smartest metal fans in the history of the genre.

Seriously, drop what you’re doing and watch this, you will not regret it.

-AR

Major props to Shane Gillis for sending this in!!!

Mornin’! Anyone else have trouble sleeping last night? I sure did for some reason. And then I had that horrible thing happen where I finally did fall asleep, and then my alarm went off, and it was like, “FUCK!” I just wanted to roll over and go back to bed, y’know?

Luckily, the below video of a couple of dudes doing the best Dragonforce cover I could ever possibly imagine for their high school talent show (or some shit) was in my inbox, and that shit put the perk back in me right quick. Do yourself a favor and watch this ASAP… it’ll put hair on your chest.

Yep yep! You’re awake and ready to face the day now, aintcha?

-AR

Thanks: Saul Hudson

This video has been making the rounds on the ‘net since Metal Injection discovered it a few days ago, but like I was sayin’ yesterday, I’m a few days behind on my RSS reading, so I just got to it now.

But if you haven’t seen it yet, you absolutely MUST check it out, because it is adorable, priceless, and totally awesome all at once.

In conclusion, your kid is probably not this cool.

-AR

From the “News So Good I Still Can’t Believe it’s True” department: Behemoth played their first show since Nergal was diagnosed with, and subsequently defeated, leukemia last year. And while no one from the MetalSucks staff was there, because none of us live in Poland and what are we, made outta money?, but a Polish reader did e-mail us to say “Nie wierzę, że to nie jest masło!” which I think translates to “IT WAS GREAT!” And the pics and cell phone vids that have emerged suggest that the band returned with full mother-effin’ force.

You can check out said pics over at Metal Injection; I’ve posted some videos for ya below and after the jump.

Click to read more…

We got like a gajillion e-mails yesterday about The Mini Band, a sextet that consists of four eight year-olds and two ten year-olds who recently covered Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” and Guns N’ Roses’ “Sweet Child O’ Mine.” And when I say “a gajillion e-mails,” I am exaggerating only slightly. My own personal e-mail was flooded with “tips” from friends and family members who don’t even give a shit about metal.

It’s not surprising, though, ’cause these lil’ tykes are adorable, and actually sound really good, especially when you take their ages into consideration. And given how the actual Metallica and Axl Rose’s pseudo-GN’R sound these days, well…

Click to read more…