Monday, December 13th, 2010 at 2:00pm by Axl Rosenberg
So Max Cavalera has been running around saying he wants to do the Sepultura reunion, but it ain’t gonna happen because Andreas Kisser is a dick, or, no, wait, Paulo is a dick, or, really, your mom is a dick and it’s all her fault that the reunion isn’t happening. And up ’til now, to the best of my knowledge at least, the remaining Sepulturians have kept their mouths shut about all of Max’s smack-talking.
Well, no more:
Now, of course, you should never say never, but that seems to be pretty definitive, at least for the moment. Maybe if Max points the finger at Igor next, though, he can really make this happen.
Wednesday, December 8th, 2010 at 2:00pm by Axl Rosenberg
This morning I received an e-mail with the subject line “CERBERUS announces reunion show!” Which is great news, if, like me, you are a fan of California deathrashers Cerberus, and if, like me, you had no idea that the band had ever split. I mean, I guess I should have figured as much, since it’s been more than three years since their last release, 2007′s face-melter, Dispute the Truth. But if there was ever an announcement that the group was dunzo, I totally missed it. I guess I just figured that they were one of those bands like Bloodjinn, who hit some rocky roads and will hopefully make their return when they can.
Moot point in Cerberus’ case, though, as “when they can” seems to be “right now.” They’re playing Skumfest on December 18 at the Cobalt Cafe in Canoga Park, CA, along with some other killer bands, like The Funeral Pyre, Black Sheep Wall, and Noriega. The press release didn’t say anything about a new album, but I’m hopeful that more music will be these dudes’ next step.
At the risk of sounding like the sticker on a Victory release, if you enjoy bands like Machine Head and Chimaira and have never checked out Cerberus, you’re depriving yourself. You can hear some music at their MySpace page, natch. I tried to find some good videos on YouTube, but all I found was the below short, not-great-quality footage of them playing (rehearsing, I think) one of the most awesomest songs, “The Filthy Few.” You can check out the studio version here.
And if anyone hits up Skumfest, drop me a line and let me know how Cerberus were.
Monday, November 29th, 2010 at 10:00am by Axl Rosenberg
Were System of a Down the first band to use either the phrase “hiatus” or “indefinite hiatus” instead of the phrase “breaking up?” It certainly seems like they were trend setters in that regard. Now let’s see if they can set a trend of reuniting in a half decade or less.
Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010 at 11:00am by Axl Rosenberg
The first official photo of Kyuss Lives.
I know that everyone and their mother would love to see a Kyuss reunion, but they’re one of those bands where you kinda hafta stop and consider: What would constitute a Kyuss reunion?
Take, for example, Kyuss Lives, a not-really-new band that will reunite 75% of Kyuss’ original Wretch and Blues for the Red Sun line-up. The missing member, in case you couldn’t figure it out right quick, will be Josh Homme, who will be replaced by some dude I’ve never heard of, Bruno Fevery.
But is this exciting news? I mean, it sort of is, right?
Thursday, October 28th, 2010 at 1:30pm by Axl Rosenberg
The interwebs are all aflutter today because Dave Grohl has announced that his former Nirvana bandmate, Krist Novoselic, is going to make a guest appearance on the new Foo Fighters album — which is also being produced by Garbage’s Butch Vig, a.k.a. “The Dude Who Produced Nevermind.” This will mark the first time Grohl and Novoselic have recorded with one another since Kurt Cobain injected himself with enough heroin to kill an elephant, and then stuck a shotgun in his mouth, just to make sure that medical science didn’t get any bright ideas.
Look: I know Nirvana were cool, and I know that Cobain’s premature passing means they get to stay cool forever and ever and ever because the dude didn’t get to grow up to be lame like Billy Corgan and Chris Cornell, but I really don’t see any reason to get excited about this. Novoselic was never a songwriter; he was never even a particularly distinctive bass player. Cobain was Cobain and Grohl certainly beat the ever-lovin’ shit outta his drums, but Nirvana pretty much could have swapped out Novoselic for another bassist at any point and not missed a beat. This song isn’t gonna sound like Nirvana — you’d need to re-animate Cobain to make that happen — it’s just gonna sound like Foo Fighters. I’d wager that the bass lines won’t even be that special, since, like I said, Novoselic’s playing never had much discernible personality. So you’re not even gonna get the “What might that sound like?” curiosity factor that you might get from, say, Dave Lombardo filling in for Lars Ulrich at a Metallica show, or Duff McKagan joining Jane’s Addiction. Creatively speaking, this reunion doesn’t amount to much more than a gimmick.
All of that being said… I’ll take any excuse to post the below video of Novoselic hitting himself in the head with his bass at the 1992 MTV VMAs while Grohl taunts Axl Rose from the stage. This has to be one of the five proudest moments in MTV’s history, right?
Last night at NYC’s Mercury Lounge, after Earthless tore my face open (psychedelically speaking) and I spent the entire duration of Iron Age’s set talking shit at the bar trying to wingman one of the dudes in Priestess with a kinda lame chick, Disembodied stepped up to the plate and took an enormously heavy and dissonant dump all over the crowd. Musically speaking. In a good way.
So Duff McKagan joined Axl Rose and his new Guns N’ Roses on-stage at the 02 Arena in London last night, playing bass for “You Could Be Mine” (video above) and rhythm guitars for “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door” and “Nice Boys.” (You can also see photos here.) Inevitably, this is going to make people ask the question: “Is the original line-up (or something closely resembling the original line-up) of Guns N’ Roses getting back together?” As MetalSucks’ resident GN’R geek, I hereby take it upon myself to provide reckless analysis regarding this blessed event. After the jump, get both sides of the argument, as provided by my drug-addled fanboy brain.
Monday, October 11th, 2010 at 1:00pm by Axl Rosenberg
I would accept an argument that Faith No More are the greatest band of all time. And if I wasn’t lucky enough to see them on their reunion tour (twice!), and then I read that the band had “announced the final date” of said reunion tour, I would probably cry. Like, a lot. It really seems kind of unbelievable that they didn’t end up doing a proper full U.S. tour, doesn’t it? As it stands, there are who even knows how many Faith No More fans who didn’t get to experience that magic that is FNM live in the 21st century.
But if you’re one of the poor bastards who didn’t get to see this most recent trek, fret not! Whereas some bands, like At the Gates, really do just reunite for one last hurrah, bassist Billy Gould has now said in an interview with Consequence of Sound that he believes Faith No More will ride again:
Thursday, September 30th, 2010 at 3:00pm by Gary Suarez
One of the most anticipated sets of this year’s This Is Hardcore fest in Philadelphia came from Sheer Terror, the iconic NYHC act that appealed to both metal and hardcore audiences without pandering to either. Infamous frontman Paul Bearer dissolved the band in the late nineties, and save for two sold-out reunion shows at CBGB’s in 2004, there was no sign of life until this summer’s appearance, which you can stream in full here.
Fortunately, those who couldn’t get into the sold-out Philly show have another chance to experience the brutality and brilliance of Sheer Terror, who headline an all-day “homecoming” show November 28 at New York’s Webster Hall, a space once known to hardcore fans as The Ritz. A stellar selection of openers include former Blackout Records alums Breakdown, up-and-coming fan favorites The Rival Mob, and Agnostic Front guitarist’s Vinnie Stigma’s eponymous street punk project. Black N Blue Productions, the team behind the annual (and essential) Black N Blue Bowl / Superbowl of Hardcore event, are putting this one on and tickets are on sale right now. This will be sick and people will be punching people.
Monday, September 13th, 2010 at 2:30pm by Axl Rosenberg
Kevin Dubrow is dead, and I think that most of us assumed he would take Quiet Riot (the seventh most-often-miscategorized-as-a-hair-metal-band of all time) with him to the grave. Those of us who did make that assumption, however, forgot that desperate times call for desperate measures, and an empty belly holds no room for dignity.
Monday, September 13th, 2010 at 10:14am by Axl Rosenberg
Listen, I don’t think this is gonna come as a galloping shock to anyone given all the talk there’s already been about A Perfect Circle returning from their hiatus/break-up/whatever, but we just got a press release making it official. The band is apparently gonna get this party started with a five-city tour in the fall:
Shows in Phoenix (Marquee Theatre), Los Angeles (Avalon), Seattle (Showbox at The Market) and San Francisco (The Fillmore) will be three-night stops with each night featuring one of A Perfect Circle’s three albums in its entirety (Mer de Noms, Thirteenth Step and eMOTIVe). Las Vegas (The Pearl) will be a two-night outing (Mer de Noms and Thirteenth Step).
The band will also play Jimmy Kimmel on October 27.
KNDD 107.7 FM “The End” out of Seattle just premiered the new Soundgarden track “Black Rain. We didn’t even know there was gonna be a new Soundgarden track until someone at the radio station tipped us off to it yesterday… but hey, there’s a new Soundgarden track!
Now don’t get your hopes up too much — turns out it’s not exactly “new,” as it was recorded during the Badmotorfinger sessions in 1991. But still, it’s new as in it’s the first unreleased Soundgarden we’ve heard since we first slipped Down On the Upside into our boomboxes in 1996, and it’s still pretty exciting. “Black Rain” is one of the unreleased tracks from the Telephantasm retrospective, coming out on September 28th.
Soundgarden made their triumphant live reunion this weekend in Chicago — first at an intimate club show and then at Lollapalooza. If you were there, tell us how it was!
After they reunited with C.C. DeVille circa 2000, one of the most brilliant things Poison ever did, business-wise, was to put together those summer shed tours where they take out three other prominent glam bands (e.g. Cinderella, Warrant, Faster Pussycat,Dokken, Slaughter, etc.) and only charge like thirty bucks a ticket. They were like the Ozzfest main stage, exclusively for hair bands. Talk about playing to your target audience! And I think it’s only a matter of time before Limp Bizkit follow suit. Fuck trying to win over new fans by touring with young, hip bands — just take out a few other bands that sounded kinda like you and were big at roughly the same time as you, and watch the nostalgia dollars roll in.
Why do I mention this? Because Crazy Town are reuniting for this August’s SRH Fest in California, and while I’d never heard of SRH Fest before, once I had a glance at the line-up, I realized that this basically was the shed tour of my nightmares. Kottonmouth Kings? (hed) p.e.? Unwritten Law? Did the promoter lose a bet or what? (I’ve never heard of a bunch of the other bands on the bill, but based on their names — Zero Authority, Big B., etc. — I assume that I’d hate them, too.)
How long can it be before some clever industry peeps put together a full tour with some of these bands? I bet with the right headliner, a (hed) p.e./Crazy Town bill would attract every High-School-Bully-turned-Gas-Station-Attendant within driving distance.
So the rumors are true: Beavis and Butt-Head are returning to MTV! Mike Judge had previously hinted that they’d be working tech support or some such job, but apparently they’re still going to be in high school. Which is fine by me — I don’t ever need to see these dudes grow up. Or, grow up as much as two metal-loving idiots might.
Besides, I can’t really see B&B holding down tech support jobs, can you? In my imagination, they grow up to start a stupid metal blog which, for reasons unknown even to them, people actually read. I mean, I’m no Mike Judge, I’m just sayin’. That seems pretty true-to-life to me.
Damn you, Byzantine. You broke up 4 days after releasing the masterwork that is Oblivion Beckons without touring in support of it at all, then you re-united two years later and have since only played a series of 3 shows (live footage!) in your home state of West Virginia. And now you’re playing yet another one I can’t and won’t go to, X-Fest, in West Virginia once again. Damn you, Byzantine, DAMN YOU!
Buried in a press release about Whitfield Crane doing a guest gig/Dio/Peter Steele/Paul Gray multi-dead-musican tribute show with Costa Rica’s Sight of Emptiness* was this awesome news from Mr. Crane:
“It’s ON — UGLY KID JOE is back. We are talking about doing shows next year, in addition to studio time. I’m stoked.”
I don’t know what’s up with burying reunion news in press releases about other shit, but all I can say about this particular reconciliation is: YES!!! (Note: Apparently this news has been on the band’s MySpace page since May. I’d like to thank every one of you fuckers who e-mails me every day to tell me about your friend’s awful unsigned band, to tell us to post about something we’ve already posted about, or to express anger over my hatred towards Parkway Drive for not making any mention of this news. Sheesh.)
I could’ve sworn I saw posters online claiming that Godflesh’s reunion gig at France’s Hellfest last week would be their only European show for the summer, or maybe even just their only show for the year, but now I can’t find those posters and the band has already announced a second show, at this October’s Supersonic Festival in Birmingham.
Not that I’m complaining. I’d love for this to turn into a full-blown reunion, complete with, oh, I dunno, maybe some gigs here in the States? Justin? Benny? Whadda ya say? We’ll show you a good time, I promise!
While we wait with baited breath, here’s footage of “Crush My Soul” from Hellfest. Band still sounds good to me!
Following months of speculation, reunited doom metal gods Sleep have announced a string of dates following their appearance at the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival in upstate New York. I guess someone’s puttin’ up a big stack of bills for Sleep to do this, because all of those dates fall in a row without any days off: in other words, they’ll be flying from show to show and backlining gear. That costs mucho moolah. Between this Sleep reunion and the recent success of High on Fire, it sure is a good year to be Matt Pike (or one of his fans). Neurosis drummer Jason Roeder will be replacing original drummer Chris Hakius on these shows; no exact reason is given for Hakius’ absence. Check out Metal Insider for details about the additional six dates in Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, Austin, Portland and San Francisco.
Meanwhile, following a stellar return to form in their early 2009 release Ox, Lambgoat is reporting that recently reunited post-metallers Coalesce will return to hibernation after a fun-filled two years of recording, releasing not one but two records, and a ton of touring. In a public statement, bassist Nathan Ellis was very careful in his choice of words — “This is a good time for a break,” as in a break, not a break-up — so all you Coalesce freaks out there shouldn’t get your panties up in a bunch. I’m sure they’ll be back at some point. In the meantime the members will be working on their new homes and businesses, finishing their PhDs and lying supine on the couch.
The lord giveth and the lord taketh away. You win some, you lose some. Yin and yang. Sleep and Coalesce.
Reign in Blonde’s Elise reminded me of my love of heavy space rock pioneers Failure with a post this morning about the vinyl re-release of their album Fantastic Planet. Never heard of Failure? If you’re a fan of Jupiter-era Cave In and, by extension, the whole Caspian/Constants/Junius axis of spaced-out heavy rock, then you definitely owe Failure a listen at the very least. And if you also dig the Quicksand/Helmet/[early]Deftones axis of heavy pseudo post-hardcore, this’ll be right up your alley.
Does the re-release of Fantastic Planet mean Failure will reunite? Who knows, but it’s certainly a possibility. Ken Andrews is doing quite fine for himself as a successful producer and mixer, so if a Failure reunion happens it’ll presumably be for the fun of it… which is a good thing.
Magnified is actually the Failure album with which I’m most familiar. I dig the title track, which Cave In actually covered at some point.
I don’t like to talk too much smack on Andreas Kisser, because he’s a terrific guitar player and I have no real evidence that he’s a jerk or whatever; I’ve never really seen or heard about him doing anything super-douchey, unless you consider his part in the dissolution of the classic Sepultura line-up super-douchey, which you might. It does seem awfully funny that Max Cavalera left and the band basically never made anything good again, but that really just suggests that Max was the driving creative force behind the Sepulturawesomeness, not necessarily that Andreas Kisser should suck it.
But awhile back there was a rumor that there was gonna be a Sepultureunion, and now Max has told AltSounds that it almost happened – except a certain guitar player ended up mucking up the works:
