MetalSucks

I really like the Rockstar Mayhem Festival – it’s like someone went to Ozzfest and figured out a way to make it way better. Having two side-by-side second stages was a stroke of genius; there’s no downtime in-between bands, because one act can set up while another plays. The mainstage has been solid, too, although there’s always one co-headliner that’s totally missable – in other words, Disturbed and Marilyn Manson played those slots. But so have Slayer, Mastodon, and a bunch of other great bands, so there’s that.

Well, our pals at Metal Insider are reporting a few rumors as to whom might be on this year’s fest, and it looks as though the skipable band this year may very well be Korn.

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I mean, come ON! Does anyone, including Perry and Tyler themselves, actually believe that a) Aerosmith will continue on with a different singer, and b) Tyler won’t eventually go back to the band again? For fuck’s sake, what a load of horseshit. Tyler will go off and do his own thing for a year or two and then there’ll be an inevitable “OMG!! Aerosmith is back!! For possibly the last time ever!!!” reunion tour. Can we please just skip the bullshit and stop pretending like this won’t happen?

Shut the fuck up already. For the love of God. Have some damn class. Not like they’ve had a decent album in nearly 20 years anyway.

-VN

UPDATE: Crisis averted! Apparently Steven Tyler made a guest appearance at a Joe Perry gig last night and announced “I am not leaving Aerosmith.” I win! Thanks to Mr. Suarez for the below video.

I always forget that current Megadeth bassist James Lomenzo used to be in White Lion. I guess I can accept that he was in Black Label Society (and David Lee Roth), since Zakk Wylde usta use an awful lotta hairspray, but Megadeth? Doesn’t that seem kinda like if Metallica hired the dude from Dangerous Toys or something?

Anyways, I mention it because the “Oh Don Piano!” moment of the day is Lomenzo saying he’d be open to a White Lion reunion. I’m sure the five White Lion fans left the world are all very excited. But I don’t think anyone should get their hopes up. And I can’t be the only one who’d rather hear Lomenzo play tracks from Endgame or pretend to be Dave Ellefson, can I?

-AR

I’ve been aware since the release of The Ashes of the Wake that Metallica’s Kirk Hammett is a Lamb of God fan – Kirk was spotted at that album’s release show at the Roseland Ballroom here in NYC – and I’ve wondered in the past if he wasn’t responsible for LoG suddenly becoming a go-to support act for Metallica.

And, hey, lookit: the above screenshot was taken from Chris Adler’s Facebook page, and reveals that Hammet and Adler are now working together on… something.

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I know that with the postponement of the latest round of Megadeth/Slayer Canadian tour dates it’s tempting to say that the Mustaine-Slayer feud has finally reached critical mass, but I don’t actually believe that; we’ve been hearing rumors that the tour would finally come to America some time next year, and I think this is a case of some people who don’t really like each other realizing there’s more money to be made if they can keep their shit together. Or, put more simply: I actually believe that Tom Araya is sick, and that’s why the dates were postponed.

Which is why I also believe the Blabbermouth-reported rumor that not only is the MegaSlayer tour coming to the States in February, but that it will feature Testament and High on Fire, as well.

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Depending on who you believe, Axl Rose has been directly or indirectly responsible for four riots during the course of his career, and two of them were in Canada – one in Montreal and one in Vancouver.

So the news that Rose may announce Canadian tour dates (or at least a date) this Monday is somewhat unsettling.

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Yeah. That was pretty cool. (NSFW!)

In other news, a press release tells us that Randall has left Winds of Plague and is going to be on an episode of L.A. Ink. Whoop-de-do.

-VN

According to Lambgoat (who MS tipster Kye says “are about as reliable as my dog when it comes to news”), trouble is a brewin’ in the He Is Legend camp. Says Lambgoat:

Word on the street is that Wilmington, North Carolina group He Is Legend has disbanded. This could very well be the reason that singer Schuylar Croom was available to fill in for Dallas Taylor on the current Maylene and the Sons of Disaster tour. In any case, this news is unconfirmed, so don’t call your mom just yet.

He Is Legend supported their latest album It Hates You (which our own Anso DF awarded a four-out-of-five horns rating) with just one tour, and there’s nothing currently listed for the future on their MySpace page. At this point any reports of the band’s break up are purely rumors, but there is certainly cause for speculation. We encourage any MetalSucks readers with insider knowledge on the situation to email us at news [at] metalsucks [dot] net.

-VN

UPDATE: Directly from Megaforce: “No truth to it.” Sorry, kids.

Reader Greg Heerdt has helpfully pointed out that Amazon is now listing an October 20, 2009 release date for Anthrax’s Worship Music (or, at least, some import version of Worship Music - the previously announced European release date was October 23). I’ve reached out to the band’s label, Megaforce, to see if there’s any truth to the date or not…

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Partway through Gojira’s set last night, my knees got wobbly. At first I thought it was just a natural reaction the awesomeness of the French metaller’s ball-rattling live show, but then I realized: “Nope, nope. I’m just really fucked up.” So fucked up that I turned down weed – and I never turn down weed. I went back to the Mansion at a fairly reasonable hour (whereas Vince and Kip were still out partyin’), but since I woke up this morning, I’ve still been feeling the effects of last night’s debauchery. My head fuckin’ hurts, dude.

So with all due respect to you, my loyal readers, who I love and who ensure that we continue to have the best job in the world: I did not want to start my day by calling you “nitwits.” But you’ve left me no choice.

We got a whole bunch of e-mails this morning from people who were concerned because Mark Morton didn’t play with Lamb of God at last night’s LoG/GWAR/JFAC show. There seems to be some serious concern from these fans that the lead guitarist has quit the band.

And that would suck… if it were true. But Morton’s absence from this tour was announced over a month ago. He’s at home with his woman and their new baby, being a dutiful daddy. God Forbid’s Doc Coyle is filling in for him. In fact, here’s a video of Doc playing with the band that Blabbermouth posted yesterday:

So, everyone should remain calm. Mark Morton is still very much a member of Lamb of God. I’m sure he’ll back for the band’s next tour.

More disconcerting: a number of you who wrote in didn’t know who Doc Coyle is. Seriously people: God Forbid. Listen to them. They’re awesome and it’s good for you.

-AR

Are we even on Five Finger Death Punch’s press release list anymore? I haven’t seen anything from them in a long time. I guess they don’t come from the “there’s no such thing as bad publicity” school of thought.

So I just read this statement from the band on Blabbermouth:

“We have not been able to locate Zoltan [Bathory, guitar] from FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH since Friday night’s [September 18] show in Las Vegas. He has not responded to calls, text messages, or emails, and he was last seen around 2:00 a.m. Friday night at Wasted Space in the Hard Rock Casino, taking tequila shots at the bar with a group of guys from a bachelor party who came to the show.

“If anybody has any information as to the whereabouts of Zoltan, please email ffdp AT prospectpk DOT com immediately. This is not like him and the band needs to prepare for the upcoming tour. We have already notified the appropriate authorities, but any help Vegas fans might be able to provide is very much appreciated.”

Now… that would be sad news, not worthy of being made fun of, even by someone who hates this band as much as I do (and there are few currently active metal bands I loathe more than FFDP). But Blabbermouth did some good snoopin’ and included this note with the statement:

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It was a mere two weeks ago that I was feeling pretty cynical about the prospects of a rumored Big Four tour becoming a reality. It just seems like there’s too much bad blood between too many of the bands for everyone to hit the road together.

But there’s also a lot of money to be made there, and in 2009 money wins every fight, even in the world of metal.

So here comes Robert Trujillo to get the rumor pot a-stirrin’ again. In a recent interview, the man/crab hybrid had this to say:

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Yesterday, Scott Ian tweeted a response to Kerry King’s accusation that Anthrax have “been in pieces for quite some time.” The tweet pointed towards a recent, possible one-off reunion show with John Bush; I eagerly hoped it was a sign that Bush is coming back to the band for good.

Well, we still don’t know if he is or not. But we do know that he’s gonna do another gig with the ‘Thrax, this time at the Loud Park festival in Japan this October. (Interestingly enough, Slayer and Megadeth are also on the bill.)

I take that as a good sign that Bush is, indeed, negotiating (or something) to re-join Anthrax. But obviously we need to wait for some kind of official confirmation from the group.

Fingers crossed…

-AR

If any two of the big four bands tour together, I think it’d be a pretty sweet show. Any three? Fucking amazing. But all four? That would have to be some kind of miracle, right? I mean, half these dudes hate each other. King and Mustaine practically make their living talking shit about Metallica – and one another, for that matter. So it’ll never happen, right?

Well, King now tells Metal Hammer otherwise. Sort of.

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I wasn’t even gonna report on this because, at this point, it’s barely news – I mean, we’ve known for awhile now that Gus G. from Firewind is Ozzy’s new guitarist. But so many of you e-mailed us this morning that I guess I have to write about this.

Randall Amps has jumped the gun somewhat by announcing that, yes, Gus G. is Ozzy’s new guitar player, and, yes, he will make his debut with Ozzy tomorrow at Blizzcon. Here are some random, uncollected thoughts:

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Right after John Bush played what might or might not be a one-off reunion show with Anthrax, I wrote, “I’d love to post some footage of Bush performing a Bush-era song, but can’t seem to find any.” Well, the metal gods heard my prayers, and SMN News posted the below footage of the band doing “Safe Home.” And the quality of the footage is actually perfect – it’s not just some shit a fan captured on his or her cell phone! Band sounds good, too.

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We got to interview Tom Araya at Mayhem this past Friday, and once we got past the initial fanboy “HOLY SHIT IT’S TOM ARAYA PEE” shakes, I think we actually got some pretty decent questions in – including asking Mr. Araya when the Slayer/Megadeth tour that’s already played Canada and will soon be decimating Australia and New Zealand is coming to America. His response?

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Alright, so just to play catch-up: last week Anthrax canceled some European dates because new vocalist Dan Nelson was apparently ill. We didn’t report on that because, well, it’s not, like, exciting news or anything. People get sick. Sometimes those people are performers who consequently have to miss performances. It sucks for the fans but it happens. Whatever.

But now Blabbermouth has made an interesting observation, one which suggests that all might not be well in Anthrax-land:

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Metal Injection tells me that Zakk Wylde has once again utilized Twitter to try and reassure the BLS Berserkers that’s everything is gravy between him and his main meal ticket. Twoth Zakk:

Hey Berserkers, everything is great with Ozzy/Dad. See you at the Blizzcon convention in Anaheim August 22nd or before with BLS about 14 hours ago from web

Okey dokey. Unless he means “everything is great with Ozzy/Dad and his new guitar player,” I call bullshit. Because all the behind-the-scenes rumblings suggest that someone else already has an offer for Zakk’s job (or I guess his old job, as the case may be). I don’t have enough confirmation to call it official, but I don’t want anyone to be shocked if Ozzy officially announces a new axe slinger in the coming weeks.

One way or another, this should continue to provide some entertainment for a little while longer at least.

-AR

So my buddy San Carlos, who comes a long line of depression-era rum-runners and later micro-brewers, was recently in port at Kingston, Jamaica where he got into a rather heated discussion with a polish backpacker over a game of billiards at a shady pub called The Prickhouse (actually Brickhouse, but vandals had recently improved its title). While the original discussion was an argument over the general superiority of Afghan bubble hash versus B.C. hydroponic cannabis, the tensions were soon eased when the Polack began to tell a naughty yarn regarding himself, a Swedish accomplice and a rather sizable number of seasoned Amsterdam prostitutes. While much of that story was lost in translation (San Carlos only communicates through Creole Sign language), the Swede had reported to the Polish gentleman who had passed it on later to San Carlos that one particular prostitute with Pete Steele-esque vampire fang implants had relations in Canada, specifically a sister who had heard from bar tender who had in turn heard from East-side Vancouver street dweller that Sammy Duet (Goatwhore, ex-Acid Bath) had been paraphrased as having said to an interested fan: “If you like Acid Bath, you should try to get to Louisiana next year, but you didn’t hear that from me.”

And you didn’t hear it here first.

Above, check out the video for “Toubabo Koomi,” which is a phrase so filthy, San Carlos refuses to translate it for me. I’m absolutely going crazy for even the possibility of one of the greatest New Orleans scene bands ever reuniting, or maybe I’m just a big bucket of crazy anyway.

-DBR