We’re back! January 24th marked the first big release date of 2012, and now the numbers are in for the final first-week tallies. As expected, Lamb of God took the top spot in the Current Hard Music Chart (and #3 overall behind Adele [115,972] and Tim McGraw [67,530]), while Lacuna Coil landed at #2. New records by Blessed by a Broken Heart, Aborted, Primal Fear and Abigail Williams also ended up in the Top 100. Check out the numbers after the break.

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Just because this week isn’t as awesome as last week doesn’t mean we don’t have some cool new shit coming out. New releases from Lamb Of God, Lacuna Coil, Dodecahedron, Aborted, Primal Fear and more in this week’s wrap-up after the jump.

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FEATURING MEMBERS OF ARCH ENEMY, THAT METAL SHOW, BLACK ANVIL, ABIGAIL WILLIAMS, AND LEPROUS

Every year year, MetalSucks asks musicians from across the vast spectrum of the metalsphere (or, in a few cases, the almost-metalsphere) what their favorite albums of the year have been. 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 nine to ten musicians at a time two to three times a day for the whole week.

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

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It’s almost the weekend, so it’s time to get tr00ly, tr00ly evil with this shit — like, black metal tr00ly evil. And who’s more tr00 — or evil — than Mayhem?

The band is currently in the midst of a North American headlining run with Keep of Kalessin, Hate, and Abigail Williams (tour dates here). MetalSucks’ own Alyssa Lorenzon attended the tour’s recent stop at the Trocadero, and, HAIL SATAN!, she captured some truly shadowy, scary shit. See all of her awesome photos after the jump!

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Everyone remembers Bob Larson, right? He’s the evangelical radio personality that Glenn Benton used to prank phone call?

Well, that dude somehow got Mayhem bassist Necrobutcher (né Jørn Stubberud) to agree to be the victim beneficiary of an exorcism on Norwegian television, and that footage is now available for your viewing pleasure. Check it out below; it starts around the 22 minute mark. And, yes, it is highly, highly entertaining, in no small part because Larson is a humorless, self-righteous prick, and Necrobutcher is… well, he’s also pretty humorless, but the difference is that he’s, y’know, right.

In case you somehow forgot, Mayhem are headlining tonight’s Metal Suckfest pre-game at the Gramercy Theatre here in NYC; the show also features Keep of Kalessin, Hate, Abigail Williams, and Woe. Tickets are still available! Come see some awesome black metal, hang out with us, and let kick off the weekend’s festivities early. We’ll see ya there!

-AR

[via Metal Insider]

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Welcome to “Question of the Week,” a (not really at all) weekly debate amongst the MetalSucks staff regarding a recent hot button issue.

Inspired by the ongoing disaster that is Lou Reed & Metallica’s Lulu, this week we asked our writers:

BESIDES METALLICA AND LOU REED, WHAT IS THE WORST COLLABORATION BETWEEN A METAL BAND/ARTIST AND A NON-METAL BAND/ARTIST? AND WHAT IS THE WORST ONE YOU COULD POSSIBLY IMAGINE IN YOUR WILDEST NIGHTMARES?

The MS staff’s answers after the jump!

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That’s right! Tickets for The Metal Suckfest — the two day festival with a line-up so ridiculously awesome we can’t believe we actually put this thing together — are ON SALE RIGHT NOW.

You can buy tickets to Day 1 (November 4) or Day 2 (November 5) individually for thirty bucks a pop — that’s just three dollars per band!!! — or, for your best value, buy a THREE DAY PASS! for seventy-five bucks.

“Wait, there’s a THIRD day?” you ask. That’s right! On November 3, the night before the fest officially kicks off, we’re hosting The Metal Suckfest Pre-Game, which will be headlined by legendary black metallers Mayhem and will also feature Keep of Kalessin, Hate, Abigail Williams, and Woe. Individual tickets to that show cost twenty-five dollars, but with your Metal Suckfest 3 Day Pass, you get a ten dollar discount. Pretty sweet, eh?

So GO BUY TICKETS NOW. The full line-up is after the jump, in case you forgot… do not forget that four more bands are still yet to be announced!!!

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Mayhem are one of black metal’s most infamous and legendary bands, but it’s been a hot minute since they toured North America — in fact, I believe the last time they were here, they even had a different line-up.

In any case, they’re returning this fall to fuck your shit up, and they’re bringing Keep of Kalessin, Hate, Abigail Williams, and Woe with ‘em. Regular readers of this site know I’m not so sweet on Abby Will, but otherwise, this is a solid line-up — I’m especially excited about the inclusion of Keep of Kalessin, who I haven’t yet had the opportunity to check out live, but I hear are awesome.

Here are dates, courtesy Lambgoat:

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We can’t believe that this is really happening. To paraphrase John McClane in Die Hard 2, “How can the same shit happen to the same band twice?”

More than two years ago, Winds of Plague’s then-keyboardist, Kristen Randall, took a picture of herself topless — and the picture subsequently found its way onto the internet (you can see it here). Since then, Randall has been replaced not once but twice with different young ladies, presumably because WOP need an attractive woman in the band at all times, lest their fans notice the band’s lack of talent.  The gimmick has gotten so silly that following the announcement of Randall’s latest successor, Alana Potocnik (formerly of The Breathing Process and Abigail Williams) was announced, Vince joked that maybe someday she’d have leaked nudie pics, too.

Well, guess what? Now she does. They were apparently first posted at Is Anyone Up, but were sent to us by an anonymous reader. And because we’re mental midgets who still find both female and male nudity hilarious  (don’t forget that we’ve posted pics of Rose Funeral’s Dusty Boles thrusty pole and Lars’ little Ulrich, too) we find them amusing. Needless to say, they’re NSFW.

There are three pics, but only one of them displays Ms. Potocnik’s face, so the other two could be fakes, but, uh, maybe not. In any case, we’re starting to wonder if Potocnik and Winds of Plague are doing this on-purpose; it’s just too big a coincidence that the female members of Winds of Plague keep enduring the same scandal. ‘Cause if they’re not doing it for the publicity, then, uh, well, that’s just sad.

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So as you’re no doubt aware, Halloween is on Sunday, and as you’re hopefully aware, we’re holding a “Heavy Metal Halloween” contest with SPV. The deadline was announced as being on midnight on Halloween, the logic being that people would snap their photos before they went our partying; but Vince wisely pointed out that people might not get to upload those photos right away. So now we’re extending the deadline to midnight on November 1. Hope that helps! If you need a refresher on the rules, go here.

Here’s what else happened this week:

• We debuted a new music video by Nile.
• We also debuted new music by Havok, White Arms of Athena, and Shred Sean and Allan Tecchio.
• Daath’s Eyal Levi talked about trust issues while The Red Chord’s Greg Weeks talked about football.
• We spoke to J. Randall from Agoraphobic Nosebleed and our old pal Eyal from Daath.
• We checked out the latest release from Kylesa, and a new book by the Cro-Mags’ John Joseph.
• We went on a “Reader’s Choice” local scene binge.
• We prayed for the end of karate mosh pits.
• We watched Abigail Williams lob a dildo at Iwrestledabearonce.
• We defended Phil Labonte’s angelic singing voice.
• Sergeant D. taught you about bands you would have hated/ignored in ’95.

And that’s all she wrote this week. Don’t forget that our own Gary Suarez is playing in a Jesus Lizard cover band on Sunday night. Swing by if you can!

-AR

Worlds collided this past Friday in Austin, TX, as two distinctly different types of metal tours converged upon the famous Emo’s; Immolation, Vader, Abigail Williams and others at the indoor stage and the Iwrestledabearonce-headlined Ghostbustour on the bigger, outdoor stage. Since no genre is quite as petty and immature as metal when it comes to infighting and childish turf wars [ok, maybe hip-hop is worse], there was instant beef between the death metal kids and the swoopy-haired scene kids in a battle for the privilege of being the biggest losers, culminating with a giant dildo being lobbed on stage by one band during another’s set [video after the jump!!]

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A couple of weeks ago, we asked you to listen to an mp3 and guess which band was performing the song. Well, we’re here to give a big ol’ pat on the back to Al Pike, Kenneth Myers, Sanskar Wagley, Aron Tomasi, and Seth Mummel, all of whom correctly identified the mystery band as Abigail Williams. For their troubles, each of these MetalSucks Maniacs wins a prize pack from Candlelight Records. Congrats guys!

And in case you’re wondering, yes, the song does come off of Abigail Williams’ latest, In the Absence of Light, which Candlelight will release on September 28. You can pre-order it here.

Metal Review’s Jeremy Witt has written one of the best, and most creative, pieces of metal criticism I’ve read all year. I don’t really wanna tell you too much else about it, ’cause it’s fucking brilliant and I really just want you to see it. So go read it right now. Then come back and share in the laughter with us.

-AR

Thanks to DaMo for passing this along.

Kirk Windstein is a poet. Of this, there can be no doubt. Since Kingdom of Sorrow took over our site on Tuesday, Vince and I have decided we really, really wanna take a trip to New Orleans and just go eat with the dude (well, probably get high and then go eat with the dude). But secretly, I have aspirations of someday being able to pay the man to teach my children how to speak good. I can dream, can’t I?

Here’s some other shit that went down in the Mansion this week:

• We debuted a clip from The Haunted’s new DVD, Road Kill.
• We also debuted new music by Early Graves.
• We spoke to Stephen Carpenter from Deftones.
• Ken Sorceron from Abigail Williams doesn’t wanna talk shit about Winds of Plague, so instead he just left a comment on our site saying “it its embarrassing to once again see our name next to theirs on another metal news site.” Way to not talk shit, Kenny!
• We checked out a new release by Black Pyramid.
• Sergeant D taught us about the history of metalcore and screamo.
• We engaged in debate about the new Maiden song, the new Maiden setlist, and the old Maiden album art.
• The new Methods of Mayhem song is the worst thing ever.
• Rose Funoral finally spoke out about the Uno Incident.
• Vince thinks the BP oil spill is Korny.

Next week will bring some more streams, interviews with Max Cavalera and Bobby Blotzer, and more self-righteous rage over fairly trivial topics. ‘Til then…

-AR

We love a good feud ’round the Mansion, and since Burton and Dino kissed, made up and had a fancy baby-eating party last year we haven’t really had much to get excited about. Enter Winds of Plague; the deathcore outfit’s constantly rotating arsenal of girls who stand on stage looking pretty female keyboard players is the stuff that’s made of legends (they’ve now had six!) all on its own, and a recent podcast on The Gauntlet has added some fuel to the fire.

The Gauntlet had Abigail Williams singer/guitarist Ken Sorceron and guitarist Ian Jekelis in the studio for their June 6th podcast (available here), and when the interviewer asked what happened with ex-keyboard player Alana Potocnik – who abruptly left Abigail Williams to join Winds of Plague mere hours before a tour in November of 2009 — he got a whole lot more than he’d bargained for with tales of shit-talking, deception and secret love affairs!

Fun! A quick transcription of a portion of the interview after the jump.

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… and the lineup is that much stronger for it, if you ask us, because they were kind of the odd band out on this tour anyway. Seems that drummer Ken Meyers has been injured, but no other details have been released.

The MetalSucks-sponsored U.S. trek also features Krisiun and Dreaming Dead, the latter of whom Axl recently realized are the cats pajamas and then some. The tour kicks off TODAY in Baltimore, so make sure you check the list of dates after the jump to see when it rolls through your town.

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This winter is shaping up to a great incredible one for U.S. metal tours.The European Summer festivals ain’t got nothin’ on us… ok, well yeah they do, but this winter’s U.S. metal tour slate is still most excellent.

There’s the much ballyhooed Between the Buried and Me / Cynic / The Devin Townsend Project / Scale the Summit North American Orgasm Tour, about which Axl shared his man-juice excitement yesterday. On January 15th death metal Egyptologists Nile kick off their mammoth Those Whom the Gods Detest Tour with Immolation, Krisiun, Abigail Williams and Dreaming Dead. Only five days later Arch Enemy embark on the MetalSucks-sponsored Tyrants of Evil Tour with Exodus, Arsis and Mutiny Within. The Pagan/Folk metal tour du jour this Winter is headlined by Korpiklaani with Tyr, Swashbuckle and White Wizzard in tow (the latter of whom are certainly not pagan or folk). And tomorrow The Metal As Art Tour featuring Hypno5e, Revocation and The Binary Code kicks off in Brooklyn and traverses the country for 31 days. Yowza!

Full lists of dates and venues for all four tours are posted after the jump. There’ve been a few venue changes so make sure you double-check… then feel free to bitch about how none of these tours are coming to your city and proceed to blame us.

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Death metal butchers Aborted have launched the title-track of their forthcoming EP, Coronary Reconstruction, at the band’s redesigned MySpace page.

Aborted have recently announced a new line-up, featuring Sven de Caluwe (also of System Divide) on vocals, Dirk Verbeuren (Soilwork) on drums, Eran Segal (ex-They Swarm/Whorecore) and Ken Sorceron (Abigail Williams) on guitar and Cole Martinez (System Divide) on bass…

Wait wait wait wait wait wait. The dude from Abigail Williams is in Aborted now? How the fuck did I miss that?

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Nile, the reigning kings of extreme, technical, historically-themed brutality — and Immolation, New York based disharmonic-blackened-death-metal legends — are about to embark on the “Those Whom The Gods Detest” Tour in the new year! Joining them on the Decibel and MetalSucks-sponsored trek will be Brazilian death metal kings Krisiun, Abigail Williams, and Dreaming Dead.  The 32-date tour commences on January 15th, 2010 in Baltimore, Maryland.

Full list of dates after the jump.

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Hey, lookit that! After their last, incredibly silly video, for “Drowning in Mud,” God Dethroned have returned with a new video “Poison Fog,” that kicks all kinds of ass. It’s not just a dude running around in a field! Hoo-ray!

And just in time for their MetalSucks co-sponsored tour with Augury, Woe of Tyrants and Abigail Williams! SCORE!

God Dethroned’s Passiondale is out now on Metal Blade. It’s killer. Go check it out.

-AR