MetalSucks

In no particular order…

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Bloody Disgusting is one of my favorite horror sites, and they’ve now launched a music blog, which seems to be 100% about metal. One of their inaugural entries is the debut of 3 Inches of Blood’s new video, “Battles and Brotherhood,” and since we a) really like Bloody Disgusting, b) really like 3IOB and c) really like this song and video, it seemed worth re-posting.

So… grab your mead, pull your wench’s chain a lil’ tighter, and enjoy the video!

IF YOU CAN’T GET THE VIDEO TO WORK, WATCH IT HERE.

-AR

You know how I know things aren’t all terrible in the metal world right now? The people who run iTunes think there’s enough money to be made that they’ve now created an entire metal section.

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We loved the last tour blog that Bison B.C.’s Dan And did for us so much, we’re only all-too-happy to present another! Below, please enjoy part 1; check back tomorrow for part 2!

Sep 11 ‘09 (Vancouver BC @ Commodore)

I always love kicking off a tour with a show in Vancouver. It’s great to have one last chance to get completely loser pissed with our friends before we hit the road for however long. This time we were fortunate enough to finally share the stage with local good ‘ol boys The Golers and old pals 3 Inches of Blood. The Golers have been around forever and everyone should fucking hear them. They’re basically Vancouver’s Venomous Concept: relentless, break-neck speed pummeling. Is grind-punk a genre?

Show was fucking fun as all hell. It was 3 Inches record release show for Here Waits Thy Doom (which may or may not feature all of us doing backups on the song “Preacher’s Daughter”) and the place was packed! The cap of the Commodore is somewhere between 950 and 1000 and apparently it was like 15 tickets away from being sold out. Jesse from local grinders Zuckuss pointed out how fucking crazy it is that three local bands brought that many metal heads out of the woodwork. The night was bitter sweet though because not only was our good friend Ian unable to be there because of surgery but that night would also be my last chance to ever set foot in local punk/metal institution the Cobalt. I can’t even describe how awesome that bar and the staff are. The thought that it’s getting shut down by the fucking slum lords that own the building so they can cash in on Olympic fever makes me wanna tear someone’s head off. I’m consoled by the fact that I know bar legend/honcho Wendy 13 will soon enough have a new venue I can crawl out of at 5am reeking of Jager bombs. COBALT FOREVER!
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It was a fuckin’ busy week, no? Either shit was crazy this week or I’ve really got to get outside of the MS Mansion more often. Here’s what went down:

• We announced a Winter U.S. tour featuring four bands TBA, and we revealed them day by day via anonymous interviews. So far we’ve revealed Mutiny Within, Arsis and Exodus (click the band name for the interview). Who will the headliner be? Read the interview here and try to guess.
• Eyal got burnt out on the music he loves and explained the financial realities of being a metal musician.
• We spoke with 3 Inches of Blood’s Shane Clark and White Wizzard’s Erik Kluiber.
• Horse the Band’s Lord Gold blogged about being bored on tour.
• We argued about drum triggering in metal.
• We streamed the asshole-ripping new record by The Destro and a webisode from Steel Panther.
• We said goodbye to Evile bassist Mike Alexander. R.I.P.

Ax and I are going to see 3 Inches of Blood in Brooklyn tonight, so hopefully that’ll provide just the head-clearing I need. See you guys Monday.

-VN

On the eve of the release of their latest banger Here Waits Thy Doom, I spoke with 3 Inches of Blood guitarist Shane Clark. Clark was in the middle of an intense day of interviews promoting the new album but was still sharp enough to tell us all about the writing process of said album, the band’s label jump from Roadrunner to Century Media, the effects of Jamie Hooper’s departure from the band, and where 3 Inches of Blood fit (or not, as it were) into “the scene.” Our chat after the jumper.

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Recording the first album without a previous vocalist is usually a curse on a band’s sound, cred, and whatever dork-speak you want to talk about the guys that spout, “Well, their first X number of records where good at least” (where X equals how awesome you are at liking metal, hardcore, and the heavier side of the musical spectrum), right? With co-vocalist Jamie Hooper sidelined by recurring throat problems and now out of the picture, high-pitcher Cam Pipes is the sole vocalist this time around (aside from guitarist Justin Hagberg’s backup growls). That results in lending 3 Inches of Blood an even more traditional sound on Here Waits Thy Doom, the band’s Century Media debut after a brief few years on Roadrunner. The group no longer has any original members… but their heart (and metal) is still in the right place.

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Even without Jamie Hooper (who, I can assure you, is not returning to 3IOB anytime soon, if ever), 3 Inches of Blood has made another killer album with Here Waits Thy Doom. I mean, it’s just all the metal-as-fuck shit you’ve come to expect from 3IOB. It makes me wanna give a high-pitched scream just typing about it.

The album won’t drop ’til September 8 (one week earlier in Europe), but the band is streaming a new track, “Call of the Hammer,” here. In the words of some tool I used to know, check that shit out, yo. Then come back here and let us know whatcha think.

-AR

When we saw In Flames tour with Gojira last year, there ended up being a kind of major problem: the Frogs blew the Swedes off the stage. See, as much as I love In Flames, their set was kind of A Sense of Purpose-heavy, and, well, they just couldn’t match Gojira for sheer goose-bump-inducingness.

Now the melodeath stars have announced a trek with Between the Buried and Me, The Faceless and 3 Inches of Blood. Holy crap, that’s a great bill – there isn’t a weak band on the tour.  Hopefully BTBAM get a long enough set time to play more than just two or three songs, The Faceless are just a goddamn sight to behold live, and y’know 3IOB will slay. If In Flames don’t bring their A-game, they’re gonna get upstaged by their support bands again.

Announced tour dates can be found here.

-AR

So this is pretty fuckin’ metal:

Here Waits Thy Doom comes out September 8 on Century.

-AR

I went to bed and when I woke up this morning a number of interesting bands had announced album titles and release dates for their new records. Wowza. So… here we go:

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Last month we asked you to tell us which 3 Inches of Blood song best represent the Blood Oncore High sneakers, the band’s new collaboration with Nike 6.0. Today we’re happy to extend our congratulations to the MetalSucks Maniac known only as “epic,” who wrote the winning entry:

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Last year our own David Bee Roth, got to chat with 3 Inches of Blood vocalist Cam Pipes (who has maybe the most appropriate name for a singer ever). One of the topics that came up was the band’s break-up with Roadrunner:

One of the major events this year is that you’ve split with Roadrunner records. What happened to that relationship between the label and the band?

It was time for them to decide if they were going to pick up the option for the next record. They didn’t and we’re happy about it because we didn’t really like being with that label. There was a lot of things inside the label that we didn’t like in terms of how they showed their support for us and how they pushed our band in the press. We really didn’t see eye to eye on a lot of things. They’re a really big corporate label now owned by Warner, so they’re moving strictly in a “We want to make money” direction and we weren’t putting up the numbers that they would have liked to see. We got dropped on the priority list time and time again and then they finally decided that it wasn’t economically viable to keep releasing this band. It’s enabled us to be a lot more creative on where we want to go. We’re not tied down to a long term contract anymore, so we can go explore other options and hopefully we’ll be a little more free to do certain things with a label that’s a lot more focused to promote us in a better way and [is] more geared towards our style.

Well, following in the footsteps of former and now once again current labelmates Daath (who I guess are still kinda sorta on Roadrunner?), it looks like 3IOB have landed on Century. Thus spake Pipes in a statement:

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We’re giving away so much awesome free shit at the MS Mansion right now that I can’t even keep track of all of it, so there’s a good chance you can’t either. To wit, here’s a list of all the current contests we’re running:

• Two pairs of tickets to see Mastodon play Crack the Skye in its entirety in New York City.
• A pair of 3 Inches of Blood Nike Encore High sneakers!
• One pair of tickets to each stop of the Relapse Contamination Tour, featuring Obscura, Graves of Valor and Abysmal Dawn.
• Brutal Truth and Agoraphobic Nosebleed CDs in our (almost)-weekly Photo Caption Contest.
• Two copies of the super-extra-special edition of Machine Head’s The Blackening CD for deciphering a completely unreadable band logo.

Don’t say we never did nothin’ for ya.

-VN

Check it out: Canadian metal masters 3 Inches of Blood have collaborated with Nike 6.0 on these new kicks, the Blood Oncore High. As you can see, they may very well be the most metal sneakers ever created:

The shoes will go on sale at select retailers starting this Friday, May 1, but MetalSucks is teaming up with Nike 6.0 to give away one free pair to one very lucky winner! Here’s all you have to do to win:

IN OUR COMMENTS SECTION BELOW, TELL US WHICH 3 INCHES OF BLOOD SONG BEST REPRESENTS THE BLOOD ONCORE HIGH.

And that’s it! Axl and Vince will choose the best answer and pick a winner, who gets an absolutely free pair of these killer shoes. Please make sure you register for the comments section using a real e-mail address, as the winner will contacted by e-mail. Also, please note that this contest is open to U.S. residents only. This contest ends at midnight EST on Monday, May 4.

You can get more info on this awesome footwear at Nike 6.0’s official website, and don’t forget to check out 3 Inches of Blood’s MySpace page for all the latest info on what 31OB are up to.

After the jump, check out some more photos of this sweet ass sneakers, and then post your entry in our comments section!

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Monday was 2008 Sucks day here at MetalSucks, but we rocked out the rest of the week with some ridiculous shit as per usual:

• We announced our best-of lists for 2008. Check ‘em out.
• Contest: You tell us why you hate the holidays, we send you 100 CDs. Sweet deal.
• PA woman tortures kitties with piercings.
• We spoke with Misery Index’s Jason Netherton and Three Inches of Blood’s Cam Pipes.
• Corporate rock still sells, but Chinese Democracy apparently doesn’t.
• We hated on this band, this band and this band, the latter of whom sent their fans here in droves to hate us back.
• We wondered whether Roadrunner Records actually dropped Amanda Palmer because of her “belly fat” (hint: they didn’t even drop her).
• God Forbid released the cover artwork and tracklisting of Earthsblood, and Pack of Wolves (ex-At All Cost member) released new music.

Tonight it’s new The End Records-signees Hull for Kip and me. Have a good one, everybody.

Some people might laugh at the lyrics of songs about destroying both orcs and the enemies of metal. Others might not appreciate the sounds of the 80’s as much as the amply bearded Canadians in 3 Inches of Blood do, and anyone who’s heard them know that they piss guitar harmonies and spit falsetto like they were nursed at the teat of METAL ITSELF!

Either way, if you were once like me, then chances are you are criminally underrating them. Watching the powder-keg ignite as they took the stage at a sold out home show with Bison B.C. was a site to behold and only increased my esteem for these classic metal warriors. Just before hitting the stage in his distinctive denim vest, vocalist Cam Pipes was able to offer a few words to MetalSucks. For extra fun imagine this gentle beast falsetto singing every response!

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So apparently Fuse has a new show called Excellent Adventure (sans Bill and Ted, sadly) in which the hosts explore different music around the world. While last week’s exploration of Germany’s famous Wacken Open Air Festival certainly wasn’t the first time this gargantuan metal fest has been covered in the mainstream media, such choice nuggets as these from “Nate’s Travelogue,” a recap of the episode on Fuse’s website, are worth the time out of your day for a good laugh:

“They told me how to party like a METAL HEAD (the name used to refer to people who listen to Metal music).”

“Then I watched a METAL band called “Three Inches of Blood”. They were so good that I felt the desire to jump in the middle of a HUGE mosh pit. For those of you who DON’T know what a mosh pit is; it is a circle of guys and girls crashing into each other, while jamming to the music! I had the greatest time. Big guys, small guys, small girls, AND BIG girls were all in the pit crashing and laughing.”

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“Sand and Snow,” the new song by Light this City, is currently streaming on the band’s MySpace.

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So we finally got to meet Crustcake at the Hate Eternal/BDM/3 Inches of Blood show on Wednesday; we also got to meet Crustcake’s friend, the excellent photographer Jesse Angelo (I knew I liked Jesse right away because he was wearing a totally rad Jason Voorhees shirt… so clearly he’s a man after my own heart).

ANYWAY, Crustcake has a write-up of the show and some of Jesse’s pics here. You should check ‘em out, because, well, they’re killer. ‘Nuff said.

-AR