MetalSucks

In case you, like me, are still sour about not being able to attend any of the three Byzantine reunion shows in their home stage of West Virginia — or even if you did attend and had an out-of-body experience — here are a couple of more fan-filmed live videos. These two were shot at the 3rd and final show in Morgantown, WV on Sunday, March 7th, and were filmed and sent in by MS Reader Josh Hoversten who traveled all the way from fucking Madison, WI to catch two of the three gigs!! Says Josh:

The Huntington show was flawless, the Morgantown show they were playing without monitors and when I spoke to them before the gig they mentioned being really tired.  Still, amazing live band.  I can see why they had promotional issues, there’s no way in hell I’d go on stage after them.  Also, very nice guys all around.

Josh’s videos after the jump. You can also check out previously posted footage from the Huntington show on Saturday, March 6th here.

Click to read more…

Well, after the official Coachella announcement, we’ve all been impatiently waiting for the reunited Faith No More to announce some more U.S dates. Sure enough, keyboardist and active Twitterer Roddy Bottum revealed this week that a New York show would take place on Monday July 5th. Unfortunately, it’s happening at the Williamsburg Waterfront. Yes, friends, it appears that if you want to hear the band run through hits like “Epic” and “Falling To Pieces,” you’ll have to venture into the stank humid heart of hipsterdom. Tickets go on “special presale” on March 16, with a password to be provided by Mr. Bottum. So you might wanna start following him on Twitter.

Maybe it’s just me — but I suspect not — but outdoor metal shows in the summer in cities with high humidity are about as much fun as gluing your testicles to your anus. Essentially, that’s what it feels like when you’re pressed in with sweating fans of varying grasps of the benefits of personal hygiene. Combine that with obnoxious hipsters and limited access to (filthy) portable bathrooms, and you’ve got the least satisfying concert experience ever.

My only hope is that Old Spice will sponsor. Then I’ll consider going.

-GS

How time flies. Seems like I was just writing about the return of Byzantine for 3 reunion shows in their home state of West Virginia, and here we are 4 months later and those shows have come and gone. According to our readers the reunion shows were as great as everyone anticipated they would be, allowing the band to finally play material from 2008’s incredible Oblivion Beckons live as well as songs from 2005’s …And They Shall Take Up Serpents and their first album The Fundamental Component. Suckalo DR4331 sent us videos he shot of the band tearing it up in Huntington, WV on Saturday night and promises more from last night’s Morgantown show.

Check out “Hatfield” from the first album below and “Nadir” from Oblivion Beckons after the jump. They sound tight as hell (despite a flub or two), especially considering the band only rehearsed once as a full unit in preparation for these shows. Really wish I could’ve gone down to witness at least one of these performances, as it’ll likely be the last chance I have to see material from Oblivion Beckons performed live… and I love that album so, so much. I love watching footage of reunion shows like this because the band — and the audience — are visibly SO PSYCHED.

-VN

Click to read more…

Recently reunited post-hardcore vets Rival Schools have a new album on the way via Photo Finish Records, report our metal cohorts at SMNnews.com. The dudes in Rival Schools are hardcore and post-hardcore royalty: Walter Schreifels (Quicksand, Gorilla Biscuits, Walking Concert), Sammy Siegler (Youth of Today, Judge, CIV), Ian Love (Burn, Cardia), and Cache Tolman (Iceburn, Institute).

When I saw Rival Schools at CMJ in 2008 they seemed a bit rusty, but that doesn’t deter my excitement for a new album. Here’s “Used for Glue” from their one and only album, 2001’s United by Fate. I’m guessing that a good portion of our readership is too young to know/appreciate the importance of this band and their members, but now’s as good a time to learn as any.

-VN

When Byzantine announced a string of three proper “farewell” shows last year to take place in March of 2010, those dates seemed impossibly far away. Suddenly March 2010 is upon us and those three West Virginia shows are this week; an email from self-professed “loyal Suckalo” Rob McGinnis containing a link to an interview with the band made me that much more bummed I can’t attend, especially given the fact that I own property just across the state line in Carter County, KY. But I’ve yet to build my house there and the current cold weather means camping is not an option. Motherfucker.

I recently went back and listened to Byzantine’s swan song, Oblivion Beckons… and it’s lost absolutely none of its muster. That album is just so fucking good all the way through and I stand by it as my pick as the #3 best metal album of 2008.

Click to read more…

I’m a Paul Baloff guy myself, but Steve “Zetro” Souza is still a legend – with all due respect to Rob Dukes, Souza is really the only guy besides Paul Baloff who could ever be thought of as the singer Exodus. I don’t know much about the circumstances surrounding his departure from the band (either time), but I guess it was amicable, ’cause he jumped on stage to do “Toxic Waltz” with the band last week in San Francisco. Check it out:

Souza’s last album with the band was 2004’s Tempo of the Damned. I’m sure this will start rumors that he’s about to come back again (again), but I wouldn’t get my hopes up.

-AR

Thanks to all the old men who figured out how to use their grandson’s e-mail just so they could tell me about this.

Earlier this week Howard Jones had to drop off of Killswitch Engage’s current headlining tour, apparently due to illness. All That Remains’ Phil LaBonte has been filling in for Jones – The PRP has been referring to this incarnation of the band as “Philswitch Engage” (cute) – but now MS Suckalo has done some investigative reporting and it seems that original KSE front man Jesse Leach may be returning to the band for their NYC shows next month. Have a look at this recent Facebook exchange (Yes, Facebook. I know, we’re not exactly Woodward and Bernstein.):

Click to read more…

When it was announced earlier this week that Dave Ellefson is returning to Megadeth, I expressed interest in hearing more of the story of how he and Dave Mustaine patched things up beyond the usual press release “Happy to be back!” bullshit. And look, it only took a couple of days! Jon Wiederhorn interviewed Mustaine about the make-up for Noisecreep. And for once, I feel almost no desire to make fun of Mustaine!

Here’s an excerpt from the interview:

Click to read more…

For reasons I do not currently know, drummer Brad Fickeisen is out of The Red Chord. That’s a bummer, ’cause the dude is a good drummer, and played on Clients, Prey for Eyes, and Fed Through the Teeth Machine.

The good news is that Mike Justian, the band’s original drummer who played on Fused Together in Revolving Doors, has re-joined the band, at least for now. And anyone associated with Fused is okay in my book.

None of this will effect the band’s upcoming MetalSucks-sponsored Burgers & Bowling Tour, which will start kicking ass and taking names this Thursday. So get out to one of those shows if you can and help welcome Mr. Justian back to the band!

-AR

Here’s a nice little “HOLY SHITBALLS!” moment to cap off your Monday: after a seven year absence, Dave Ellefson has returned to Megadeth. And to think, not that long ago, these two were suing one another. Hilarious.

Old-school Megadeth fans will remember that Ellefson survived through various incarnations of ‘Deth, and for many years appeared to be on the only person on earth who could actually stomach Mustaine. He was the bass player for basically every Megadeth classic ever.

You can read some statements from the band at SMN, but to be honest, it’s all the usual bullshit that you’ve heard a million times before. Hopefully these two will get deeper into their rift and reunion when they start doing press for Megadeth’s upcoming tour.

And you know what? I could not find a picture of these two together without the rest of the band around. Twenty years as partners, and they never snapped a photo just the two of them. Good times.

-AR

The amazing band Gospel broke up a few years ago, and a number of us have felt the loss. So when it was recently announced that not only has the band reformed, but they have an album’s worth of new material ready to go and they will be playing their first show in three years tomorrow night (for a benefit to help a friend get a new liver) at Union Pool in Brooklyn bloody Brooklyn….well, that was quite the pleasant surprise. Spaketh band member Adam Dooling:

Our original plan was to keep quiet, record the album and just release it quietly. We’ve actually been “reformed” now for about a year. It was important for us to move forward musically and concentrate on writing new material. We didn’t want to put any pressure on ourselves or have anything expected of us. We also didn’t think anyone would really care. So when Matty No-Times (our old roadie and owner of Three Kings Tattoo) got sick, our plans changed to play this benefit show on his behalf. We hope to be recording our next release sometime this March. It will not be on Level-Plane.

You can check out some of Gospel’s mastery here, and info on tomorrow night’s show here.

See ya there!

-KW

According to a tip sent in by Suckalo Leanne Fischler, legendary dope smokers Sleep appear to be looking to do a U.S. tour in 2010. The tip comes from a blog announcement on Sleep’s MySpace’s page titled “Booking info,” in which the text simply reads”

“Sleep booking inquiries can be sent to: john@groundcontroltouring.com”

Which would seem to indicate that the band is looking to tour… right? The text sits on top of the above flyer for the band’s appearance at All Tomorrow’s Parties New York, a 3-day festival to be held in upstate New York this coming September. So while it’d be a stretch to say a Sleep tour is definitely happening, it’s certainly not a stretch at all to say it’s quite likely.

I’m not sure whether the ATP appearance was already announced before this blog, but it’d definitely make sense for Sleep to do a bigger tour surrounding their ATP date. It’s worth noting, though, that with a new High on Fire album on the way Matt Pike might have touring commitments to take care of with his main squeeze.

-VN

Unless your New Years Eve revelry landed you in county lock-up or somewhere else without Internet access (or you just own an iPhone), you’ve likely heard the fantastic albeit unsurprising news that SOUNDGARDEN HAS REUNITED. Chris Cornell announced it precisely at the stroke of midnight (Eastern Standard Time) via his often bizarre and unintentionally hilarious Twitter account:

The 12 year break is over & school is back in session. Sign up now. Knights of the Soundtable ride again! www.soundgardenworld.com

So Soundgarden’s back together. What the hell does that mean?

Click to read more…

When picturing The Crown in my mind, I don’t see a hard-working death metal band quietly grinding out classic albums. Nah, it’s more like a sequence from The Wonder Years set to “You’re All I Need To Get By” where everything goes blurry except for five frowning Swedish dudes. Sometimes it’s closer to Beatlemania as the quintet presides over a rabid press corps at JFK. I also like to think that when eventually I am imprisoned by drug lords in the jungle, the guys in The Crown will grenade their way through the gates in a daring pre-dawn raid. One could say that they are the house band in the dive bar of my heart. Ahem. So you could see how the announcement of their reformation — plus singer Jonas Stålhammar and minus Johan Lindstrand (One Man Army & The Undead Quartet) — would cause me to do the journalist equivalent of lunging for their bra strap. I begged for an interview.

And so in a Metal Sucks Universe Exclusive after the jump, guitarist Marko Tervonen explains how most of the Crown became Dobermann, how Dobermann became The Crown, the making of their “stunning” seventh album, and of course, the past, present, and future of The Crown.

Click to read more…

Not much to say. Exhorder have reunited, and we finally have some moving images to prove it. Enjoy.

-AR

[via Blabbermouth]

At All Cost may have broken up last year, but there ain’t no sex quite like break-up sex; the Austin, TX quintet will play two final “farewell” shows in their hometown and in Houston just a couple of weeks from now, offering fans of the band a chance to say a final goodbye. AAC were one of the very first bands MetalSucks really got behind, and their Century Media debut Circle of Demons ended up on both mine and Axl’s year-end lists for 2007.

There was some confusion about which members would be participating in these final two shows, as AAC had quite the rotating cast of characters over the years. Fittingly, the final shows will also feature a rotating cast of characters; according to bassist CleanBobby, he and singer Andrew Collins will both play the entire set, while the rest of the members take turns rotating in around them, presumably to play the songs they originally played on. That’s a pretty fucking cool way to thank everyone who contributed to the band over the years, and it’s a great way for such an awesome band to go out.

As it turns out, these two shows are also the last for The Jonbenet, a Texas band I’ve heard some folks rave about but I haven’t ever been able to dig.

The two final gigs are December 18th at Red 7 in Austin and December 19th at Walter’s in Houston. It’s a shame we can’t make it, but we know AAC will bring their A-game; they always do.

-VN

When we interviewed Howard Jones about the new Killswitch Engage album earlier this year, we couldn’t help but ask about the rumored new offering from Blood Has Been Shed, too. Here’s what Howard told us:

There was some news a little while ago that there might be another Blood Has Been Shed album.  Are you involved in that still in any capacity?

Howard Jones:    Well… yeah [laughs].

They made it sound like you might not be coming back…

HJ:   We’re just trying to figure out what exactly it is that we’re going to do.  Blood Has Been Shed is just one of those things where none of us do it full time, barely part time.  We’ll get something out.

Of course, for any BHBS fan, this was fantastic news. A new album was really in the works! Howard was still on-board! What could possibly go wrong?

Well, for starters, it could turn out that Howard isn’t really involved.

Click to read more…

How the fuck did I completely miss the news that Godflesh are reuniting? Over the weekend, reader Nicholas Antonio alerted us to a tweet by Earache Records head honcho Digby Pearson making the announcement that the industrial legends would play this coming summer’s edition of Hellfest; the tweet is apparently from late fucking October, but I don’t remember reading anything about it or receiving any other e-mails about it. Is that just a technical error – did Pearson really send the tweet just a few days ago?

No matter – Hellfest’s official website confirms that Godflesh are, indeed, playing the fest, in what is being dubbed their “only show in Europe.” Assuming that’s true, it might be worth the trip to France, where the festival will take place in June. Vince and I almost went to Hellfest a few years back anyway – and there’s a bunch of other awesome bands playing. Plus, bonus: Kiss are the headliners, which means we can leave early! Hoo-ray!

Anyways, hopefully this show isn’t just a one-off, and will lead to a full tour. More details as we get ‘em. In the meantime, here’s a silly video someone made using one of my favorite Godflesh tunes, “Anthem,” and footage from Jesus Christ Superstar.

-AR

So the first Exhorder reunion show went off, apparently without a hitch, this past weekend in Jefferson, Louisiana. We weren’t there, unfortunately, but hopefully there will be a full tour soon – the band is working on new material, after all, and I assume they plan to promote it.

After the jump are a couple of photos, from some named “firebaugh” at NolaUnderground.com. There are also a bunch more at Blabbermouth. Kind of amazingly, I can’t find any footage on YouTube – if anyone comes across any, please let us know!

Click to read more…

While the members of Anthrax continue to try and convince the world that John Bush is definitely returning to the fold, Mr. Bush continues to pursue a new studio album with Armored Saint – and now video footage of them in the studio has emerged.

What that means is that there will be a new Armored Saint album – and presumably a tour – in 2010. Even though I think it’s looking better and better than Bush will indeed return to Anthrax, he continues to decline to make a firm commitment, and this video serves as a reminder that he has other priorities, too. Because while he’s not actually in this video, I’d be very surprised if he turned around and just left the band high n’ dry – that’s the kind of thing the members of Anthrax do to him, not the kind of thing he does to other dudes.

-AR