MetalSucks

Though we may question his fashion choices and dubious association with Danzig historicists Born of Osiris we do actually really like guitar wunderkind Tosin Abasi, especially his solo “band” Animals as Leaders. In case you’re averse to good music or just plain ig’nant, Animals as Leaders released their (his?) debut album this past Spring and like yo, that shit is mad good. Check out “On Impulse” from that record above.

SMNnews.com tells me that those of you in Dallas get to see the band perform a headline set in between dates of their limited Fall run with Between the Buried and Me and Veil of Maya. That’s pretty cool and all but can’t the band do a real tour? Come onnnnnnn!

BTBAM tour dates listed after the jump.

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The CMJ Music Marathon — aka the slightly tamer, lamer, older brother of SXSW who moved to NYC to pursue his dreams but fell slightly flat — is now upon us. Here’s my wrap of metal-worthy events happening this week, of which there are fewer than last year. Feel free to add others in the comments.

• Thur. Oct 22: Chuck Mosley @ Fat Baby
• Thur. Oct 22: Tee Pee Records Day Party (12pm-6pm) @ Cake Shop: Priestess, Nebula, Naam, Barnburner, Kreisor, and Hull. Free!
• Fri. Oct 23: MetalInsider.net Slayer World Painted Blood listening party @ Webster Hall. 3-6pm. RSVP here.
• Fri, Oct 23: Tee Pee Records Showcase @ Union Pool, featuring Priestess, Nebula, Naam, Hopewell, Quest For Fire, Kreisor, Imaad Wasif with Two Part Beast, and Weird Owl.
• Fri, Oct 23: Relapse Records / Brooklyn Vegan Showcase @ Fontana’s, featuring Revocation, Misery Index, Salome, Howl, Black Anvil, Complete Failure and Gloominous Doom.

See. We told you not to worry.

-AR

So not only is Rose and whatever four to sixty-two musicians he’s calling “Guns N’ Roses” these days really returning to wreak more havoc upon Canada, but it looks like one of the tour stops will be Montreal.

Anyone remember what happened the last time GN’R played Montreal?

The above news report is completely correct, of course. The rioting was caused by the injuries sustained by James Hatfield (NOT Hetfield), and not because after Hatfield sustained said injuries, Axl Rose failed to play a complete show. Sure sure.

Anyway, dates after the jump. Here Today… Gone to Hell, which is about as close to an official fan site as GN’R has these days, says the band currently consists of guitarists Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal, Dj Ashba, and Richard Fortus, bassist Tommy Stinson, drummer Frank Ferrer, and keyboardists Dizzy Reed and Chris Pitman. Hey, some of those dudes have actually played on a Guns N’ Rose record!

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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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We’re all about supporting local / unsigned bands here at MetalSucks. In our ongoing effort to support your local scenes, we’re sponsoring The 2009 Blue Skies Tour headlined by the Canadian band Endast. For a portion of the tour Faceless Hulk will join as direct support. The 36-date tour kicked off last week and runs through mid-November, traversing the entire Canadian landscape. Make sure you check out Endast’s MySpace page to listen to their music and for a full list of tour dates.

If you read this site regularly you know I’m fascinated with temporary team-ups, like Dave Lombardo playing drums for Metallica or Doc Coyle playing guitar for Lamb of God. I just love these little glimpses into some alternate reality where great bands traded great musicians.

So here’s a good one: according to Metal Underground, Children of Bodom’s Alexi Laiho will be playing guitar with Hypocrisy on their upcoming North American tour.

Says Hypocrisy mastermind Peter Tagtgren:

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The MetalSucks sponsored Night Eternal Above America Tour featuring Moonspell, Divine Heresy and Secrets of the Moon launched yesterday in Tampa, FL and will be winding its way through the US until November 6th in San Antonio. We’re bummed that Book of Black Earth had to drop off the tour but there’s still a solid lineup in place. Who knows, you may even be able to see Dino eat a baby!

Full list of tour dates and venues after the jump. Please note that the October 31st show in San Marcos, CA has been moved to the Ramona Mainstage in Ramona, CA, despite what the above poster says.

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…but apparently she’s going to be the new keyboardist in Winds of Plague, at least for their upcoming tour. A press release tells us that she used to be in Kittie and Day of Contempt, if that means anything to anyone.

Here’s what I’d like to know: do you think they ever even for a second considered getting a dude keyboard player? I’m not at all opposed to chicks in metal bands, but it’s not like Kristen Randall did backing vocals or whatever – literally any capable keyboard player should, theoretically, be able to fill Randall’s shoes. If a woman happens to be the best musician for the job, swell. But if you’re just swapping out one pretty face for another…

Get WOP tour dates here.

-AR

Why oh why are By Any Means Necessary still unsigned? Their three-song demo/EP or whatever rocked. I know they’re young, but so are half the bands out there right now. And most of them aren’t as good as BAMN (there’s an awesome abbreviation if ever there was one).

Hopefully this news will lead to good things, though: the band will be playing support for Divine Heresy and Gigan (featuring former members of Hate Eternal) on six tour dates next month. I’ve still never seen this band live, but if their shows are as good as their songs, I’d wager it’ll be a lot of fun – way more fun that, say, Divine Heresy.

By Any Means Necessary recently completed tracking for their new EP and are currently mixing those songs. Hopefully we’ll more updates on that soon; in the meantime, get tour dates after the jump, and please check these guys out if you can.

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As many of you successfully guessed on Friday, the headliner to the MetalSucks-sponsored mystery tour is none other than Arch Enemy. They join the already super sweet bill of Exodus, Arsis and Mutiny Within for the Tyrants of Evil North American Tour.

Arch Enemy just released The Root of All Evil, a recording of some of their best songs from the pre-Angela Gossow era, with Gossow now handling vocals. We have seen AE lay to waste many a venue full of unsuspecting metal heads, and having an extra dose of their classics in the arsenal ain’t gonna save any lives. Add the aforementioned three generations of awesome metal bands, and you’ve got the kick-ass tour of the winter. You will not wanna miss this.

Get tour dates after the jump!

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2009 was a banner year for metal festivals in the U.S., but one extreme music festival has outlived and out-brutaled all the rest: Maryland Deathfest. Now going into its 8th year, Maryland Deathfest is the flagship metal festival in the U.S. bar none, the closest we have to anything resembling the myriad European Summer festivals. The next iteration is still 7 months away, but already the lineup is well on its way to continuing the excellent tradition of past Deathfests.

Confirmed bands for 2010 that I’d be interested in seeing: Sodom, Obituary, Possessed, Pentagram, Gorguts, Entombed, Eyehategod, Converge, Melechesh, Gorod, 16 and Howl. And that’s only a portion of the whole list of bands who have been confirmed.

Rumors have been a swirlin’ about a reprise of last year’s highly successful Scion Rock Fest in Atlanta, but as of yet nothing has been announced. Either way, MDF 2010 is gonna be hard to beat.

-VN

On Tuesday we told you that we’re sponsoring an AWESOME tour this winter with a four band bill, and while we can’t tell you all the bands on the bill just yet, we can tease that info out for you. So every day for the rest of this week, we’ll be posting an interview with a member of each band on the bill, featuring questions designed to help you guess who they are without spoiling the surprise. Then, this Monday, October 12, we’ll reveal the complete line-up for the tour!

The first bands announced were Mutiny Within and Arsis. Yesterday, many of you correctly guessed that the third band is none other than the legendary Exodus! The band just announced a January 15 release date for their sure-to-be killer new DVD/CD set, Shovel Headed Tour Machine (Live At Wacken And Other Assorted Atrocities), and with a little luck, 2010 will also bring us the release of The Atrocity Exhibition – Exhibit B. These guys are true pioneers, a band that pretty much every metal band since has owed some debt to, and they absolutely SLAY live.

After the jump, check out the interview with a member of the headlining band. See if you can guess who it is just based on his or her answers!!!

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MetalSucks is sponsoring the “WASTE THE WORLD TOUR 2009″ featuring none other than our favorite party thrashers Municipal Waste.  Providing direct support on the tour will be Goatwhore from 11/06-11/16, The Accused from 11/18-12/03, and Brutal Truth from 12/04-12/11.  Appearing on all shows will be Phobia and Cauldron. No matter which direct support band is playing when this tour rolls through your town, this show promises to be a great, fun, drunken time.

Stay tuned to MetalSucks for your chance to win tour tickets as well as other MU swag. Check out Municipal Waste’s hilarious new video for “Wrong Answer” and pick up their 3.5-out-of-5 horns rated new album Massive Aggressive, out now on Earache.

Full list of tour dates after the jump.

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On Tuesday we told you that we’re sponsoring an AWESOME tour this winter with a four band bill, and while we can’t tell you all the bands on the bill just yet, we can tease that info out for you. So every day for the rest of this week, we’ll be posting an interview with a member of each band on the bill, featuring questions designed to help you guess who they are without spoiling the surprise. Then, this Monday, October 12, we’ll reveal the complete line-up for the tour!

As many of you guessed yesterday, Arsis will join Mutiny Within to be the second band on the bill. Their new album, Starve for the Devil, comes out January 15 on Nuclear Blast, and if the band’s last four albums are any indication, it’s gonna be the new year’s first contender for Best Album of 2010.

After the jump, check out the interview with a member of the third band on the bill. See if you can guess who it is just based on his or her answers!!!

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Photo by Laura DeSantis-Olsson [http://www.ldophoto.net/]

Yesterday we told you that we’re sponsoring an AWESOME tour this winter with a four band bill, and while we can’t tell you all the bands on the bill just yet, we can tease that info out for you. So every day for the rest of this week, we’ll be posting an interview with a member of each band on the bill, featuring questions designed to help you guess who they are without spoiling the surprise. Then, this Monday, October 12, we’ll reveal the complete line-up for the tour!

As many of you successfully guessed yesterday, the first band on the bill is Mutiny Within (pictured above). We’ve seen this young band several times in the past couple of years, and there’s little doubt in our minds that they are going to be really, really big. Their debut album drops next year on Roadrunner, and we’re insanely excited to have them on this tour!

After the jump, check out the interview with a member of the second band on the bill. See if you can guess who it is just based on his or her answers!!!

Click to read more…

Okay, so here’s the deal: MetalSucks is sponsoring an AWESOME tour this winter. And when we say “AWESOME,” we mean AWESOME. We’re so stoked. We can’t wait to tell you which bands are playing.

The thing is, we can’t. Not yet.

We can tell you that a) there are four bands on the bill, and b) they are all, as we said, friggin’ AWESOME.

The full tour announcement is coming this Monday, October 12. In the meantime, to get you all hot n’ bothered, we’ve conducted a interview with a member of each band, providing them with questions designed to help you guess who they are without spoiling the surprise. Today we present the first interview, with the first band on the bill, natch. After the jump, read his or her interview, then try to guess which band he’s from! Tomorrow we’ll present the interview with second band on the bill, Thursday the third band, and Friday the headliners, before making the official announcement on Monday.

Enjoy, kiddies…

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I am wearing pants, and it is before 2pm. No, I haven’t traded in my blogger boxers for a corporate suit and tie… I just reallllly wanted a bacon, egg & cheese sandwich to help my hungover ass get going this morning. I trudged to the corner bodega (right past the chi-chi hipster coffee shop) in my sweet new Burst hoodie, where a dirty old Indian man proceeded to make me a sloppy, greasy bacon, egg & cheese after dropping the spatula on the floor in plain sight… and boy it is fucking good. Totally hits the spot. For a hangover when you have to work, there is nothing better. Period.

What’s this got to do with St. Vitus? Nothing. Nothing at all. A fan of the site pointed out that we never cover this seminal stoner rock band, and it’s true. The band has 5 reunion shows in the U.S. in the coming months — 3 on the East Coast in October and 2 in California in January — and we haven’t even mentioned them. For shame.

Here’s a live vid of St. Vitus — apparently it’s Wino’s first gig with the band. After the jump, details on the U.S. tour dates.

-VN

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I am SO PISSED that I missed Chimaira’s most recent tour (with Hatebreed), because a) Chimaira slay live and b) I’m fucking dying to hear some more material from The Infection in a live setting – when I saw the band on this spring’s Music as a Weapon tour, the album had literally just come out that day and the band were, consequently, only playing two new songs.

So. Rhythm guitarist Matt DeVries had to pull a Mark Morton and leave the tour early so he could get home for the birth of his new child, Austin (Mazel tov, Matt!); filling in for him is Daath co-guitarist/all around cool dude Emil Werstler. I am using this little fact as an excuse to post this video I saw on Blabbermouth of the Wersterful Chimaira performing “The Venom Inside.” Also, to point out that bassist Jim LaMarca seems to have shed his signature locks. That leaves DeVries as the only dude in Chimaira capable of windmilling. Just sayin’.

Chimaira continue to decimate Europe alongside Unearth, Throwdown, and our friends in Daath through October 12; then, at the end of the month, they hit the States again with Trivium, Whitechapel and Dirge Within. Get dates here.

-AR

MetalSucks is sponsoring the return of the Smokeout Festival, which is being billed as “a two day mind-opening music festival and Cannabis Cup expo.” Sound interesting? Read on.

The event is taking place on October 23rd and 24th at the San Manuel Amphitheatre in San Bernadino, CA. Day one probably won’t be of much interest to most of our readers, headlined by Cypress Hill (the event’s curators) and featuring mostly hip-hop acts throughout the day; but day two is headlined by Slipknot with immediate support from The Deftones and also features Bad Brains, Pennywise and others interspersed throughout the day. Both days will feature all sorts of ganja-related madness; hemp industry exhibits, a glass art showcase, legal workshops and grow tip seminars, and a 4:20 movie night.

The best part: tickets start at only $29.50 for a two day ticket! Check back here soon, as we’ll be giving away a pair of tickets.