It feels a little odd reviewing stuff like the Pyramids/Horseback split and the new House of Low Culture release for a site with “metal” right there in the goddamn name. They aren’t “not metal” in the “they’re almost more of a shoegaze band” sense, but are aggressively unconventional in terms of even basic popular music construct. In fact, the only thing even slightly metal about either of these releases is less than two-and-a-half minutes at the beginning of Horseback’s only solo song on the aforementioned split. And theoretically, that’s fine: there’s no rule on the books that says being involved in heavy bands — as members of House of Low Culture have been and are — means you can’t take part in projects that are the antithesis of metal altogether. Or at least there shouldn’t be.

But these two releases pose a very interesting question: does a project’s mere existence in contrast to its creators’ most well-received work make it worthwhile? Or, in this case, does it make it even listenable?

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I was listening to an interview with Sarah Vowell last weekend, in which she proclaimed that, as a writing exercise, she did not allow herself to use any F-bombs in her new book, Unfamiliar Fishes. I decided to do her one better this week — I did not swear at all. Unless you count “crap,” “drek,” or “sucks” as swear words, which I do not.

So that was fun.

ANYWAY, here’s some stuff we did this week:

• We debuted new music from All Shall Perish and Thou.
• We debuted new videos from Valient Thorr and Meek is Murder.
• Unearth’s Buz McGrath, Hatebreed’s Wayne Lozinak, and In Flames’ Peter Iwers told us about their live rigs.
• We spoke to Aaron Turner from Isis and Helms Alee.
• We checked out new releases from The Bronx Casket Co. and Bedlam of Cacophony.
• Even though Dime would never approve, we made fun of some poor kid.
• We continued to sing Spotify’s praises.
• We voted on our favorite album from The Devin Townsend Project.
• We were sexually aroused by the prospect of Disturbed breaking-up.
• We wondered whether or not the return of Megadeth’s Gigantour is a good thing or not.

Alright, we’re out. Have a nice weekend, gang!

-AR

(photo by Seth Ballentine)

It’s been just a little over a year since Isis called it quits, but Aaron Turner has managed to keep busy (which isn’t out of the ordinary): he put out an album with Mamiffer (the band he’s in with his wife, Faith Coloccia) as well as starting up a new record label, SIGE. He’s also been working on posthumous Isis releases as well as reissuing the band’s long out-of-print live albums (heavily culling from Oceanic and Panopticon material, and cool enough to be streamed by Metal Sucks). So even though his highly influential and beloved group is done, he’s not coasting in early retirement (or getting a day job and riding off into the sunset, telling neighborhood kids about the glory days when he toured all over the country for a decade in motherfuckin’ ISIS).

While Turner isn’t know for his stodgy release habits (he’s also a member of House of Low Culture and avant-garde metal supergroups Greymachine and Old Man Gloom), Isis looms largest, and Turner not only seems at peace with that but enthusiastic about it, thankful for the people who have supported him and his art over the years. At the same time, he doesn’t have any reservations about how it ended or that it did, but simply accepts it as the end to a chapter in his life, albeit a chapter he has no problem reminiscing about. In a recent conversation with Metal Sucks, Aaron discussed the demise of his most well-known band, future Isis releases, and how running SIGE compares with running Hydra Head.

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FEATURING MEMBERS OF ISIS, MUNICIPAL WASTE, ELUVEITIE, WORMROT, LAST CHANCE TO REASON, ZAPPA PLAYS ZAPPA, GOD DETHRONED, OWEN HART, NIGHTFALL, HORSEBACK, AND OCTOBER TIDE

For 2010, we decided to do something special as part of our regular end-of-year festivities here at MetalSucks — namely, ask musicians from across the vast spectrum of the metalsphere (or, in a few cases, the almost-metalsphere) what their favorite albums of the year were. Death metallers, thrash metallers, black metallers, stoners, grinders, and djenters alike graciously contributed lists to MS, and we’ll be running them in groups of ten to eleven musicians at a time twice a day for the rest of the week.

After the jump, check out the fourth group… we hope you enjoy seeing what some of metal’s heaviest hitters were into this year as much as we have!

(And please note that these are musicians and that they, um, have a lot on their minds. So some of ‘em named albums that actually came out last year. Please don’t freak out.)

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Yo, fuck James Cameron and his blue-cat-people-fucking-in-the-rain-forest movie. If you released this promo for Backsliders and Apostates Will Burn, the forthcoming four song EP from The Austerity Program, in Imax 3D, it would gross $2,667,907,958. That’s a dollar more than Avatard has made worldwide as of this writing. Suck it, Cameron.

Unfortunately, a Titanic-sized conspiracy is preventing this life-altering film from being seen in the format for which it was intended. Oh, well. At least they stuck it up on YouTube, so all the world could get a little taste.

Backsliders and Apostates Will Burn comes out May 4 on Hydra Head. And if you ask real nice, maybe TAP vocalist/guitarist Justin Foley will write some columns for MetalSucks in the not-too-distant future.

-AR

For awhile now, we’ve been hyping Greymachine, the new project featuring Aaron Turner of Isis and Fighting with Revolver fame and Justin K. Broadrick from Jesu/Godflesh/Naplam Death. And now their debut album, Disconnected, is streaming in full right here.

I actually haven’t had a chance to give it a listen yet, but I’m all about anything and everything with the name “Broadrick” attached. So check out the record and then let us know whatcha think.

-AR

Our friends over at Crustcake tell us that there’s going to a Boris/Torche split a lil’ later this year:

The artwork you see above is from a post on Aaron Turner‘s blog, in which he talks about a new split 10″ between stoner/noise rock kings (and queen) Boris and down-tuned, doom-pop princes Torche. The artwork goes with the split, of course.

No word on a release date, but the album’ll come out here in the US on Hydra Head.

Holy shit, is that some cool artwork.

-AR

Over seven years have gone by since Godflesh disbanded, and as Justin K. Broadrick’s Jesu project has long ceased to fill that void, moving further and further away from its post-metal roots into something suspiciously palatable to a wider audience. As such, many of those curmudgeons (myself included) longing for the man’s return to nasty, vicious industrial metal wait with baited breath for the August 4 release of Disconnected, the debut album from Greymachine, the vicious supergroup that combines Broadrick with Isis dude Aaron Turner.

Clearly, Hydra Head recognizes that a majority of those interested in this project were Godflesh fans back in the swingin’ 90s, and has opted for a marketing campaign that capitalizes on the awesome power of nostalgia. First, the label released a 12″ promo single for “Vultures Descend” that looked straight out of my college radio days. Taking another step down memory lane, Hydra Head has decided to bundle the pre-order for the new CD with a fucking Cassingle!

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Oh, how I do love a good flame war.

Our pal Dan Rodriguez over at Metal Insider has cooked up an interesting story. Seems that Isis’ Aaron Turner was none too pleased with the way this spring’s Revolver Golden Gods Awards went down:

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I first wrote about Greymachine last September, when I foolishly thought the band was called Grey Machine; then Gary Suarez wrote about them again back in May. There wasn’t a lot of actual news to report, though; the supergroup – which includes amongst it ranks Justin Broadrick, Isis’ Aaron Turner, Diarmuid Dalton of Godflesh and Jesu and Dave Cochrane of Head of David – had a free single avail for download or purchase on vinyl, but no release date for their full-length.

Well, now they have a release date. August 4 on Hydra Head. Mark it in your calendars.

That free single, “Vultures Descend,” is trippy as fuck, and if the thought of a Broadrick/Turner team-up doesn’t make your dick hard, you must need viagra. Or, y’know, be a lady.

Here’s “Vultures Descend.” We’ll give you more news on the album as we get it.

Grey Machine, “Vultures Descend” – from Disconnected (out August 4 on Hydra Head) [Download]

-AR

I know we have more than a few vinyl purists reading this column, so you’ll likely be interested to know that the Aaron Turner / Justin Broadrick collaboration Grey Machine (which we first told you about back in September) just released a 12″ single for “Vultures Descend” via beardo metal specialists Hydra Head Records.

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Does Justin Broadrick ever fucking sleep? It would be impressive enough that the guy puts out more music in a single year than most artists do in a five, but even more incredible is that pretty much all of it is awesome. It must just be in the dude’s DNA to make great music.

Broadrick’s latest project is Grey Machine, a collaboration with Isis’ Aaron Turner (Jesu’s Dave Chochrane and Diarmuid Dalton also contribute.). For anyone who misses the days when Broadrick’s music used to be on the heavier side of the spectrum (as opposed to the soothing, repetitive aural waves of Jesu), this is the perfect music for you: it’s obviously not Napalm Death, but it’s definitely more in the vein of Streetcleaner-era Godflesh. Which is not to say it sounds JUST like Godflesh – but that might give you some idea of the direction the group seems to be heading in.

The band has made a free mp3 of their song “Vultures Descend,” off their forthcoming album Disconnected, available for free download. Check it out below.

Grey Machine, “Vultures Descend” – from Disconnected (release date TBA)

Thanks to MetalSucks Maniac Alex for the tip!

-AR

By and large I think that re-mix albums are a total waste of time; only once in a blue moon does anyone manage to come up with anything interesting (or, at least, more interesting than the original track), so they often seem like cash-ins in the vein of “expanded edition” re-releases.

So I am in no way optimistic that Maynard James Keenan has announced an April 29 release of V is for Viagra: The Vagina Remixes, a remix collection (duh) of the songs from V is for Vagina, last year’s Puscifer album. A lot of the participants on the release will be the usual suspect for this sort of Nine Inch Nails-ish affair – former NIN member Danny Lohner, Dave Ogilvie, Telefon Tel Aviv’s Josh Eustis, etc. – but, oddly enough, Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison will also have a track, as will Aaron Turner from Isis and the infamous ambient force known as Lustmord. Which is actually very encouraging.

In any case, I guess we’ll get to find out if this particular release can rise above the usual remix shenanigans next month.

-AR