MetalSucks

“BAD MONKEYS!!!”

I swear to god, I’ve been woken up so many fuckin days round here by one of the fast-growing number of MetalNotSoGood staff members uncontrollably exclaiming the above, or a far grouchier expletive….for you see, we are always stepping in shit around here — how could you not when there are so many goddamn monkeys bouncing about, flinging all sorts of rancid poo at each other?

However, it is we who be the monkeys today, and here’s why: I recently made the sad discovery that we have never, ever, ever (never) written a single gosh darn post on the totally nutso and crazily unique seminal band Primus.

For shame!!

I was never a kill-dead-die-hard fan of these guys the way that so many became, but there was no denying the sheer talent and originality oozing from every song the band ever played.

Led by uber-bass-maniac Les Claypool, Primus skated a fascinating line between funk and metal, but ultimately there’s no real categorization to be made — the band has always had a sound unique unto themselves.

Clearly Primus sucks even more than metal does.

Dog will hunt…

PRIMUS – “John the Fisherman”, from Suck on This (1989)

PRIMUS – “Too Many Puppies”, from Frizzle Fry (1990)

PRIMUS – “Jerry Was A Race Car Driver”, from Sailing the Seas of Cheese (1991)

PRIMUS – “My Name Is Mud“, from Pork Soda (1993)

Note: the above tunes were some of the band’s more popular singles; to truly experience the insanity that is Primus, one must delve deep into the plasma pit that is each album…..don’t be scared!!!  You can take a leak right here.

Vids after the jumpjumpjumpjump.

Click to read more…

After refusing to battle hour-plus lines in our quest to eat the best of NYC’s dumplings, today I ended up comfortably toasted with Zena Metal and Relapse Bob listening to Ratt’s greatest hits collection, Ratt & Roll 8191. It was the perfect afternoon activity for a rainy Fall day that capped another week of late CMJ Music Marathon nights full of booze, music, and a festival-best performance by Boston shredders Revocation.

A greatest hits collection doesn’t necessarily convey the original artistic intentions and context of a band’s songs as thoroughly as listening to a full album does, but it does provide an interesting look into a band’s career arc. By the late ’80s Ratt had shifted towards the cheesier metal constructs and lighter pop-metal of then-popular bands like Warrant and Poison, and listening to their greatest hits collection underscores that transformation. The fact is, everything after 1986’s Dancing Undercover is doused in heapings of weak sauce, even the moderate hit “Way Cool Jr/” (which Zena Metal pointed out I liked for purely sentimental reasons… the song does kinda blow). But out of all of Ratt’s later material we all agreed that one song matched the edge and swagger of their earlier stuff — “Nobody Rides for Free,” a track that only appeared on the 1991 soundtrack for Point Break.

Stephen Pearcy looks absolutely ridiculous in this video, the first step of his descent into his current status of looking worn-the-fuck-out. Someone needs to add this man to Men Who Look Like Old Lesbians.

-VN

If you’re an asshole like me, then you probably missed New York’s only chance to catch the way-too-minimal St. Vitus reunion tour last night (with baddass Bay Area bandits Saviours opening). But if you’re anything like me, you surely had somewhere much better to be.

Truth is, I never got into St. Vitus in too big a way, but after seeing legendary guitarist Wino absolutely destroy a Valentine’s Day show with his now-defunct excellent trio The Hidden Hand some years ago in the East Village (with up-n-comers Kylesa opening, who nobody had heard of at the time), I’m ready to join forces with and follow the man into battle no matter what the project.

Okay, so Wino’s actually not playing on this track and admittedly this tune is pretty silly, but it’s hard to argue that it’s not a goddamn stonyyyyy song………especially when the weird guitar solo comes in around the 2:10 mark, accompanied by some trippy jump cuts, brah!

And thus, I feel compelled to bestow upon this soon-to-be legendary YouTube video from 1992 all seven possible MS horns — this is clearly gonna change the face of YouTube.

(7 out of 7 horns — top honors for YouTube videos)

Please remember, not only does my post reflect the opinions of every writer here at MetalSucks but each and every one of you readers as well……so no need to disagree.

For the scant handful of remaining St. Vitus reunion dates (in Worcester tonight with The Misfits and Type O Negative (whoa), then Baltimore, LA, and San muthafuckin Fran) and/or to listen to some of their early seminal recordings, check em out on MySpace.

After the jump, a shitty-quality video of Wino’s first ever performance with the band in 1986 at the Palm Springs Community Center, some killer Hidden Hand stuff, and a couple interviews with the man himself.

WUT WUT!!

Click to read more…

When I was a wee lad in 6th grade, a friend’s mother took said friend, his brother, and leel Wingerschmidt to the inaugural Headbanger’s Ball concert featuring Helloween, Exodus (who we’ve just revealed to be on a crazy upcoming tour with Arsis, Mutiny Within, and a mystery headliner who some have guessed will be Arch Enemy), and mighty NYC thrashsters Anthrax, who were touring in support of their awesome 1988 album State of Euphoria.

And unbelievably, my friend’s mother dozed off and fell asleep at the Headbanger’s Ball show.……now that is metal.

Take a look in these here webernet parts for the aforementioned Anthrax album, or feel free to pay some hard-earned dollars for a legitimate copy.

More old-school Anthrax shennanigans here.

-KW

“Metal” or not, I think we can all agree that Jane’s Addiction was a truly awesome and original band, and their seminal 1990 album Ritual de lo Habitual still sounds like nothing I’ve ever heard elsewhere.

If you don’t have this album, go mug an old lady for cash and buy it — yes buy — immediately.

JANE’S ADDICTION — “Three Days”, from Ritual de lo Habitual (1990)

-KW

Ever since energy drinks became the new weed, there are so many goddamn gears to be done grindeded…….and Bethesda, MD’s BULB aka Misha Mansoor aka guitar player for rad tech-prog band/recent-signee-to-Sumerian-Records Periphery (who Vince has raved about previously here and here) is crankin em out left and riggity-right…

This dude Misha seems to be so prolific that one awesome band outputting an ample amount of material is not nearly enough, so under the moniker Bulb (an old defunct band name) he continues to make tons of tracks and give them away for free online…….says-eth the young man himself:

Myspace doesn’t let you download songs for free anymore, and I’m all about
giving away ideas and demos and whatever for free, so you guys can
enjoy the songs, put them on your mp3 player, burn CDs for you and
your friends and just generally enjoy the music I enjoy making!

GO HERE: http://www.soundclick.com/bulb or http://www.soundclick.com/periphery

It’s the same site, but both names work for it in case you forget one!

There are about 130 songs/clips/random ideas up on there now and they are all up for download.

You do have to sign up if you aren’t already registered, but it’s quick
and FREE, and totally worth it since you can have tons of our music to
pick and choose from!

There’s no catch, all I ask is that in exchange you burn a bunch of cds
for your friends and help spread the word about Bulb and Periphery!!

Enjoy!!

-Bulb

I’m not gonna try to pick one that can represent this dude and his cannon, so follow the links above and check out his music.

If you are so inclined, you may also visit Bulb on MySpace, visit Periphery on MySpace, or read about the infamous MetalSucks Mansion Monkeys…….take your pick.

Now go get those gears a grindin!!

-KW

I’m told that up is the new down, polka is the new metal, and energy drinks are the new WEED, but I’m not sure that all those claims are entirely accurate.

Also, Burst is (soon to be was) an awesome band, and if you can catch them on their first/last US tour ever (until a reunion that a scant few of us will actually care about) with Zoroaster and MetalPoops bone-crunching/eco-friendful fave Gojira (for most dates), you shan’t be disappointed. I can safely say that we are all extremely excited to see this bill at a smallish venue in chipster Brooklyn — you’re invited too, so get a ticket before it sells out!

It’s a shame to see Burst go — the albums that they’ve released are all pretty awesome, and I believe that the more they were to tighten their vision, the more they could have crossed over into further popularity/acclaim.

Oh well.

BURST — “Nineteenhundred” from Lazarus Bird (2008)

For US tour dates, visit Burst on YourMySpace.

-KW

Obviously, the style of this song isn’t exactly de rigeur for Converge. Maybe that’s why it’s actually my favorite song off of No Heroes. In any case, I find it to be a very emotional song, and a great song to listen to when you’re high.

There’s some more material that’s kind of along these lines on Axe to Fall, by the way…

-AR

Okay so I’m a little jealous of Axl and Vince manning up and scalping CL tix to go see the always-magnificent TOOL play later today in smelly Jersey…..fumes/Aquanet/festival crowds aside, that shiz is clearly gonna rip.

And in reminiscing back to when that particular band started, I can’t help but think about some other under-the-radar groups that began in the early 90s, and unfortunately didn’t last nearly long enough.

One such act was undoubtedly the extremely artful and powerful underground unit known to those who know as RODAN.

Thankfully bandleader Jeff Mueller has graced our ears over the years with a couple more truly amazing bands, June of 44 and Shipping News (for more mp3s check out my Sunday Spotlight on the man behind the bands here), the latter of which is still active and releasing wonderful albums/touring from time to time…..but there was something about the innate raw energy of Rodan that cemented their sound as seminal to so many fans of the aggressive post-rock scene.

And this track is a perfect example of the runaway freight train meets laid-back dining car melange that the band employed so well.

‘Nuff respect due!

RODAN — “The Everyday World of Bodies”, from Rusty (1994)

-KW

Best money I ever spent.

What a beautiful song.

-AR

So in case you’ve been hiding under a rock lately, or this is simply your first visit to Metal=eh, we’ve been sharing our views on the 21 “best” metal albums of this millennium (according to an esteemed panel of metal industry yahoos), and lo and behold — an amazing album by an amazing band topped the list.

Commencing with arguably the “best” (or at least “most metal”) opening lyrics of any album this century (”I think that someone is trying to kill me….it’s infecting my blood and destroying my mind…”), Mastodon’s epic yet grounded Leviathan ascends above the crop of proto-prog-thrashsters throughout every song, and the range of jamz feels both balanced and diverse, all the while sounding like the same album from start to finish — not an easy feat.

For me, it was always the first and last tunes off this album that exhibit the most, ahehhahem, heart (and of course “Iron Tusk” totally rips……..ROAR).

MASTODON — “Hearts Alive”, from ["best" 21st century album] Leviathan (2004)

-KW

Hardcore often gets a bad rap from the aggressive music community. It’s usually screechier, more grating and abrasive than metal, which can require quite a bit of commitment to get into. However, thanks to countless regional bands and farther-reaching outfits such as Converge and Botch, the genre has become both a lasting movement and an art form.

It took me quite a while to get down with the frenetic off-kilter riffs and bloodcurling high-pitched screams that I consider to be “hardcore-styles” (who fucking knows anymore), but the more I came to understand that this type of music is all about taking those ugly risks and not concerning oneself with the oft-ultimate priority for metallers, almighty technique, the more I could appreciate. And clearly hardcore players almost always have more chops than the punk rockers ever did (at least most of them).

The innovative band Ink and Dagger is straight from the heyday of the gay 90s, starting in 1996 in Philadelphia as a face-painted Vampire-themed punk band (!) and quickly transitioning into what many would call one of the shining kernels of post-hardcore. They only lasted for a few years, announcing their impending break-up in ‘99, and shortly after the group recorded their last album (which became self-titled), 27 year-old singer Patrick McCabe was found dead in a motel room in Indiana.

Who knows where McCabe would’ve taken aggressive music in his next band…

INK AND DAGGER — The Fine Art of Original Sin (1998)
1 — “The Fine Art Of Original Sin”
2 — “Philapsychosis”
3 — “We Live Despite Their Schemes”
4 — “Cut Throat Tactics”
5 — The Six Feet Under Swindle”
6 — “The History In E”
7 — “Vampire Fastcode Ver. 1.5″

[entire album downloadable here]

….but rest assured I did not put this link up, so if the litigious remaining members of the band wish to pursue legal actions, get yr e-tectiving on (i.e., don’t look at me!!)

-KW

…..cause this shit never gets tired.

LED ZEPPELIN — “In My Time of Dying (live)”, from 3/11/75 show at Long Beach

(full concert here)

-KW

This is an epic, classic progressive rock masterpiece that doesn’t even really start til about 3 minutes in! But you’re well off being patient and getting down with this ultra-melodic legend…

Interesting factoid — shortly after the recording of this awesome 3-song album, drummer extraordinaire Bill Bruford left the band to join another little prog outfit known as KING CRIMSON. Yelp!

If you’ve never heard a song by Yes before, get yr head out of yr rectum and be sure to check out “Heart of the Sunrise” as well (which was one of the first-ever Saturday Songs To Get Stoned To).

Now go smoke that weed — just don’t buy any (even though I’m about to).

YES – “Close to the Edge”, from Close to the Edge (1972)

-KW

I can’t find any info online about the untitled EP from Baltimore’s instrumental post-metalists …soihadto… that mysteriously lives in my iTunes library. I’m pretty sure an old friend (the inimitable Dr. Guzaro Zahmeugua, who also introduced me to this amazing band) gave it to me some time back, and I definitely enjoy its raw, stony stylings each time it blasts through my speakers.

The band seems to have taken a more proggy, atmospheric direction, and recently signed to Chicago’s Grape Juice Records, with a full-length to be released in the near future.

You can peruse upcoming tour dates on the band’s MySpace page, including a July 3rd Atlantic City House of Blues show with Clutch, Monster Magnet, and Wino — holy moly!! And you can get more info on the band/download a few more tracks here.

Check these guys out — you just have to…

…SOIHADTO… — “Urotsukidoji”

…SOIHADTO… — “Come And Get Me In My Sleep”

…SOIHADTO… — “Searching For The Cure”

-KW

This new Dysrhythmia track “Festival of the Popular Delusions” is easily the best new song I’ve heard all week. I dare you to prove me wrong, because you can’t. It’s irrefutable, like Chuck Norris Facts. This percocet ain’t hurtin’! But for real, this song is blowing my mind right now… not sure how Dysrhythmia has mostly slid under my radar all this time, but good God is this band the shit.

Check it out on Dysrhythmia’s MySpace page; the song comes from their new album Psychic Maps which drops July 7th on Relapse.

If ya got ‘em, pop ‘em.

-VN

It’s really sad to watch an amazing band cut its career short when there is SO much f’n promise. Gospel were definitely one of those bands — really diverse progressive hardcore sound, with one of the most impressive young drummers I’d seen in ages. Thankfully I had the pleasure of seeing these guys rockit live when they were, well, rockin it live, but jeez I really could’ve used a hell of a lot more.

Why, oh why did this group have to fall? One can only wonder if the band drama that was catalyst for their demise was worth it…

After you get your Saturday lift on, go ahead and check out a couple tracks from their only stunning full-length The Moon Is A Dead World (produced by Kurt Ballou from Converge), and then go buy it — just cause the band is done, doesn’t mean somebody ain’t collecting residuals in order to pay their rent, nawmean?

SUPPORT DEAD BANDS!!!!

(or if you’re a thief, I guess you can go download the album here)

GOSPEL — “Yr Electric Surge is Sweet”

GOSPEL — “A Golden Dawn”

(both from The Moon Is A Dead World (2005))

-KW

Holy moly, those sexy Swedes still dun got it! And they clearly proved so last night at smelly New Jersey’s Starland Ballroom, where they vaguely represented almost every album they’ve ever released — obviously last year’s Watershed, album-before Ghost Reveries, and juggernauts Still Life and Blackwater Park, but also early records Orchid and My Arms, Your Hearse.

This guy was bored a leel by the meandering tunes from those yesteryear albums, and in my not-so-humble-opinion drummer Martin “Axe” Axenrot don’t hold no candle to Opeth-heyday skinsman Martin Lopez, but man o man, did the band rrrrock von rockinstein!

And after a 10-song, 1.7 hour long set that included zero songs from Deliverance, Opeth closed the encore with the title track from said ‘heavy’ album.

Now go smoke a Swede.

OPETH — “Deliverance”, from Deliverance (2002)

-KW

If yesterday was whiskey (n weed), and tomorrow be weed (n weed — 4/20, brah), then what’s on the menu for today?

I just got a new shipment of fooferon, so I will personally be snargling the hell outta that — what’s your pleasure?!?

If you’re dry (or wet), please enjoy this sampling of Dub Trio from their second album New Heavy. One of the tracks features some singer by the name of Mike Patton, who apparently scores action films and I believe used to play in a band or two back in the gay 90s…

DUB TRIO — “Screaming At The Sea”

DUB TRIO — “Cool Out And Coexist”

DUB TRIO (featuring MIKE PATTON) — “Not Alone”

(all from New Heavy; “Not Alone” also on Patton’s Peeping Tom album — both from 2006)

-KW

Me and my advanced reptilian brain (ahem, rather: ‘my advanced reptilian brain and I’) were never the biggest fans of stoner rock mainstays Clutch, but they sure did make it hard to hate on their simple n stony hardcore-flavored early jamz from the beginning of the gay 90s.

These daze the spirited Maryland band is still goin, allbeit in a much blusier thump-rock fashion — currently on the road in Europe and soon back in the States, whilst gearin up to release yet another album this July entitled Strange Cousins From The West. Congrats on th’longevity!

Now pass the ten-footer this way, k?

CLUTCH – “Big News I”, from Clutch (1995)

CLUTCH – “Spacegrass”, from Clutch (1995)

CLUTCH – “Binge and Purge”, from Transnational Speedway League (1993)

“Come on motherfucker, come on motherfucker, come on motherfucker — LET’S THROW DOWN….just try me, just try me — what are you waiting for?!?”

TRIVIA FACTOID: drummer Jean-Paul Gaster played drums on Wino’s recent solo album Punctuated Equilibrium, and has also worked with Opeth keyboardist Per Wiberg on a side project that will hopefully see daylight soon. with the other Clutch dudes too (minus vocals) called The Bakerton Group, which we’ve actually discussed before. Duh.

Clutch (and JP Gaster w/Wino) tour dates after the jump the jump.

-KW

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