(click to enlarge)

Oklahoma City gets all the good stuff. Well, maybe not all the good stuff, but five years ago they stole Kevin Durant from a metropolis whose literacy rate is in double digits, and now they pretty much get the one-off metal show of the year. If you’re a proud OKC resident (or reside in the multiple surrounding bumfuck satellites), get pumped.

On Saturday, April 28, the Decibel Magazine Tour with collide with the U.S. Torture Tour at the Big Friendly’s Diamond Ballroom. And when I say “collide,” I mean someone should make an ad with both logos on football helmets crashing together and just fucking exploding, except with freshly decapitated heads inside. This Devastator of a lineup consists of Cannibal Corpse, Behemoth, Watain, Exhumed, the Devil’s Blood, In Solitude, Abysmal Dawn and Arkaik. The cost of such a mega-event must be offensively prohibitive, right? Um, try $23 adv./$26 DOS. Roughly the cost of either package’s standalone shows. Plenty of time to get your flights/carpools organized. Bring me the head of Rumble the Bison.

-AB

The March 2012 issue of Decibel, which features Municipal Waste, Napalm Death, Cattle Decapitation, and an awesome Torche flexi disc, is available for order here. But why not just get a full subscription to ensure that you never miss an issue?

[Updated with official tour poster, 2:16pm EST.]

Prepare to get stangry: we are about to announce the dates of a really sweet tour, and unless you live in or near a major city the chances are pretty high that it’s not coming to your town! If the members of Cannibal Corpse, Exhumed, Abysmal Dawn and Arkaik could speak to you, I’m sure they’d say “We really wish we could visit all of you! We don’t give any fucks about our families, comfortable beds, good meals or regular showers! All we care about is serving YOU, the people of South Dakota! Next time we’ll do a non-stop 150-date U.S. tour and we can all party together!” Or not. Because dudes in bands have lives. Folks of Florida, Montana and Nebraska: deal with it.

Lucky for you, this most brutal of spring tours actually DOES have dates in Florida (two!) and Nebraska. Sorry, Montana, you’re still out of luck. But if it’s any consolation, this tour is not hitting either New York City or Los Angeles, so at least you can revel in that.

Dates after the break [via Noisecreep]:

Click to read more…

Back in May we got all excitebike about the new band formed by Sacha Dunable (Intronaut/Graviton/MetalSucks columnist),  Charles Elliott (Abysmal Dawn), Derek Rydquist (ex-The Faceless), and Derek Donley (National Sunday Law/Graviton), called Bewilderbiest. Then in September they announced they’d changed their name to Bereft and released their first song, causing our helpless minds to swell with heated anticipation.

Now Bereft have announced a record deal with The End Records, which is great news because it also comes with an album name and release date for that album. The debut album Leichenhaus (“Mortuary” in German) is a conceptual album thematically revolving around a waiting mortuary (!), and it’s due on April 24th. You can be SURE you’ll be hearing more about it on MetalSucks as the date draws closer.

Check out the previously released track “Withered Efflorescence” here.

-VN

If it seems like it’s been forever since our last Photo Caption Contest, that’s ’cause it has. But we didn’t forget about all those signed CD booklets from Roadrunner Records, just kept ‘em nice and safe for ya. Here are the winners:

• Grand Prize – Canea: “To be honest, I try not to show my face at Hooters either.”
• Runner-up – thepenismightier: “Since it would last longer than any of them, they took this picture.”

This week we’ve got two copies of the reissued/remastered version of Abysmal Dawn‘s debut album From Ashes, courtesy of Relapse Records (available for pre-order here). You know the deal: leave a comment with the funniest caption to the photo below (sent in once again by Jason Solomon, who continues to make my job easier). Remember to use a real email address (or post it along with your comment if you’re using FB Connect / Twitter etc).

(from Unpopular Opinion Rick Perry)

Whew, what a week. I don’t know where you all are, but here in NYC it’s 5pm and it’s already been completely dark outside for a while. FML. Here’s what happened this week:

• Corey discovered that our “Best of 2011″ lists weren’t as bad as you thought they were with fancy mathematicals to back it up.
• Axl and Vince live-chatted it up with y’all and fielded all your stupid questions… and a few good ones.
• We interviewed Giant Squid’s Aaron Gregory, Porcupine Tree’s Steven Wilson, and Nikki Sixx.
• We premiered new music by Lamb of God, Whores, Abysmal Dawn, and Nothnegal.
• We laughed at the BBC’s distorted view of metal culture not once but twice.
• We announced that we’re retiring some of our older t-shirt designs and that we’re having a fire-sale to get rid of them; get ‘em while you still can!
• Vince pondered a new ranking system that could supercede Soundscan.
• We cracked jokes about another laughable Rolling Stone Top 100 lists of guitarists.
• We introduced Lazarus A.D.’s Jeff Paulick as our new NFL columnist; please direct your hatred of the Packers his way.

Vince out.

-VN

On January 17, 2012, Relapse Records will reissue From Ashes, the debut album from perennial MetalSucks faves Abysmal Dawn. Fully remastered and now featuring three demos for songs from the album, this is THE way to hear the first release from one of the most intense death metal bands of the 21st century. Even if you think you’ve already heard From Ashes, trust us: you ain’t never heard it like this.

MetalSucks is proud to debut both the original demo AND the final, remixed and remastered version of “Blacken the Sky” from this stellar reissue. Since we so enjoy getting insights into the minds of the artists we admire here at MetalSucks, getting to check out the two versions of the song side-by-side is a real treat for us. How did the band originally envision the song? How did it change by the time the final product was complete? What can we learn about the band and their process from those changes? Crank the two versions of “Blacken the Sky” below, pre-order the From Ashes reissue here, and then ponder the answers to those questions in our comments section below!

[this streaming promotion has ended]

FEATURING MEMBERS OF GWAR, DARKEST HOUR, REVOCATION, INTRONAUT, ABYSMAL DAWN, BRUTAL TRUTH, THE ATLAS MOTH, AND IKILLYA

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 have 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!

Click to read more…

Yep, tomorrow is Thanksgiving. So we’re leaving the MetalSucks Mansion now. We’ll be back Monday, at which point we’ll make it up to you with some very special posts… honest Injun!

‘Til then, here’s some shit we did this week:

• We spoke to The Brothers Duplantier from Gojira about their new album, signing with Roadrunner Records, and more.
• Abysmal Dawn’s Charles Elliott gave us a guided tour of his live rig.
• We debuted new-old music by Coalesce.

Y’know. It was a short week.

Okay see ya Monday by-eeeeeee!!!

-AR

Abysmal Dawn are currently touring North American with ze Germans in Obscura, along with Last Chance to Reason and Enfold Darkness on select dates. We figured it would be a good time to ask Abysmal Dawn guitarist/vocalist Charles Elliott to take us through his entire live rig, so that’s exactly what we did. After the jump, Charles gives us a tour of his live setup, piece by piece.

Click to read more…

In case this year’s mind-bending new release from Obscura, Omnivium, wasn’t enough crazy German prog-death for you, the band has now announced the impending release of a demos and rarities collection, Illegimitation. That’s not a real word, and the album won’t come out on a real label, either — the band will self-release the compilation, which will include their earliest recordings from 2003, unreleased songs from 2006′s Cosmogenesis sessions, and covers recorded by their current line-up.

In fact, they’re already accepting pre-orders via Kickstarter. Packages range from five bucks — which will get you an immediate download of the song “Crucified” and a download of the full album two weeks prior to its official release — to fifteen-hundred dollars, which is a lot of money, but gets you a lot of cool shit, including concert tickets, a drum or guitar lesson, and dinner with the band. Other purchase options come with such prizes as stickers, patches, posters, meet n’ greets, and a private tickle fight with Steffen Kummerer. (I may have made one of those things up.) Go here to explore your options and make a pledge.

Meanwhile, the band’s MetalSucks-presented North American headlining tour with Abysmal Dawn, Last Chance to Reason, and Enfold Darkness rolls on! Obscura and LCTR both absolutely slayed at The Metal Suckfest this past weekend, and Abysmal Dawn rule really hard, too; I’ve never seen Enfold Darkness live, but I hear nuthin’ but good things! Get remaining tour dates after the jump.

Click to read more…

Fan-created official music video contests are a big gamble for any band; you could end up with a pro-quality music video for no cost to you, but you could also end up having to select the least stinky nugget from a steaming pile of turds. For Abysmal Dawn, thankfully the former is the case, as the winner for the Metal Injection-led Abysmal Dawn video contest did a bang up job producing a new video for “My Own Savior.” The user known as RobDigital produced the above clip, which does a great job of capturing the dark, somber tones of “My Own Savior” and the rest of Leveling the Plane, Abysmal Dawn’s excellent early-2011 release that’s definitely gonna make my year-end list.

Catch Abysmal Dawn on their MetalSucks-sponsored tour now with Obscura, Last Chance to Reason and Enfold Darkness. Get dates here.

-VN

Fuckin’ A right! MetalSucks is proudly teaming up with Guitar World and Hails & Horns to bring you Obscura’s first ever North American headlining tour!!! Earlier this year, the German tech death masters released Omnivium, possibly their strongest album yet, and now they’re coming to your town to kick your ass so hard the scars will be permanent.

And in case that’s not enough for you, they’re bringing out three totally killer bands for support — Abysmal Dawn, Last Chance to Reason (from November 4 through November 25), and Enfold Darkness (from November 28 through December 7). These gigs are gonna be un-fucking-missable, so make sure you get your ass to a show.

Here’s the full tour schedule:

Click to read more…

We got all hot n’ bothered back in May, when Derek Rydquist (ex-The Faceless), Sacha Dunable (Intronaut/Graviton/MetalSucks columnist),  Charles Elliott (Abysmal Dawn), and Derek Donley (National Sunday Law/Graviton) announced the formation of a new project, Bewilderbiest. But now we’re even MORE hot n’ bothered to learn that not only has the band changed their name to a less schticky moniker, Bereft, but have also debuted a new song, “Withered Efflorescence,” on their Facebook page (“like” required).

The song is positively crushing, and, you should be happy to learn, sounds nothing like any of the bands of which these musicians have previously been members. It’s a long, slow, heavy-as-Dino-giving-Milano-a-piggy-back-ride doom number, which makes the band’s new name seem all the more fitting. Here’s a comment on the tune from Mr. Elliott himself:

Click to read more…

Between the inclusion of Paul Ryan on our Top 25 Modern Metal Guitarists list, the release of their latest album, Entity, and their co-headlining tour with Hate Eternal, which begins tonight, Origin have been crowding the metal spotlight of late. I took some time to talk with Ryan about the new album, the current metal scene, the band’s progress, and the tour. Read our complete conversation after the jump!

Click to read more…

Why, it was just yesterday that we got wind of Origin releasing samples of every song on their new album, Entity, and now the band is already streaming another one of those songs, “Saligia,” in its entirety over at Guitar World. And I am only too happy to write about the band two days in a row, because, well, Origin rule.

So headbang here… actually, it’s kinda hard to headbang to Origin without getting whiplash, so be careful! The post also includes an interview with Paul Ryan (the twenty-fifth top modern metal guitarist today, say we) in which he not only discussed Entity, but talks about his gear, too, which I know is always a popular topic amongst metalheads.

Entity comes out this Tuesday, June 7, on Nuclear Blast. Then, a week later, the the band begins a co-headlining tour with Hate Eternal and support acts Abysmal Dawn and Vital Remains, which is a bill that makes me hard just typing about it. Here are dates for that tour…

Click to read more…

The new Origin album, Entity, comes out this Tuesday, which you already knew, because you know how awesome Origin (and their guitarist, Paul Ryan) are and you’re super excited for the record. But I’m telling you anyway on the off chance it slipped your mind.

I don’t know if the band plans to do a full album stream in advance of Entity‘s release or not, but it doesn’t really matter, because the below video, which features clips from every song on the album, should really be enough to sell you (although you didn’t need to be sold because, again, you already know that Origin rule). It even features my favorite section from my favorite song on the release, “Choosing Death.” That part of the tune has a real sense of, like, derring-do, y’know?

Entity comes out June 7 on Nuclear Blast. Possibly even more exciting is that a week later, the band begins a co-headlining tour with Hate Eternal and support acts Abysmal Dawn and Vital Remains, which is a really, really, REALLY good line-up. Dates after el jumperooni…

Click to read more…

With every bit of bad news come a little bit of good. Last week we suspected and then confirmed that Derek Rydquist had left The Faceless, who are quickly becoming the White Wizzard of progressive death metal, but that he had joined a new project called Bewilderbiest alongside Sacha Dunable of Intronaut/Graviton, Abysmal Dawn’s Charles Elliot, and National Sunday Law’s Derek Donley, who is also Dunable’s bandmate in Graviton. Since Dunable also happens to be a MetalSucks columnist, we emailed him and asked for the skinny on the band. Here’s what we got back:

Derek Donley is mixing it right now and we should be ready to post something in a week or two.  This shit is sounding heavy as fuck, but I’m sure it won’t be for everyone, especially the tech death guys.  It’s basically 45 minutes of crushing doom metal in the vein of old My Dying Bride, Anathema, etc, but maybe a little more “sludgy” sounding and probably with more of a melodic/psychadelic emphasis.  We’re all really stoked on it though.  I basically have had a few of these songs demoed out for an imaginary band for a few years now, and Derek D and I started working on them back in January.  Derek Rydquist was moving down to LA around that time and wanted to jam on something like this, and Charles has been on deck to do guitar/vocals ever since I first demoed the songs back in ’08 or so.

Click to read more…

I was stumbling around YouTube last night when I came across some new fan-filmed videos of The Faceless on their current European tour with Born of Osiris, Veil of Maya, and Gorod. And I’m sitting there watching some shitty cell phone footage of the band performing their new song, “The Eidelon Reality” (listen to a pre-production demo of the track here), and I have this realization –

Hey, that ain’t Derek Rydquist doin’ the vocals.

And so I scrolled down to look at the comments where, indeed, some other dude has asserted “that doesnt look like the vocalist,” and the dude who filmed the above video responded, “I think they got a new one and he´s much better than the old vocalist.”

So, trying to be a good detective, I went over to the band’s Facebook page to see if Rydquist had been removed from their listed line-up. And as of this writing, he hasn’t.

But there is this comment on their wall from some fan who saw them in Plymouth last night:

“incredible tonight, tight as fuck but wheres derek? had no idea he was no longer in the band, never the less the new guy did a stellar job”

Click to read more…

I couldn’t care less about MMA and couldn’t pick “superstar” Josh Barnett out of a lineup of a dozen other Affliction-wearing muscle-bound goons, but I can tell you this: the lineup of Mr. Barnett’s Japanese Benefit Fit show is completely unfuckwithable, it’s for a great cause (all proceeds will go to the Red Cross), and for that I feel compelled to stand up and offer the man a hearty clap. If I lived in the L.A. area I’d definitely be going.

The show will take place on Thursday, May 26th at the House of Blues in Hollywood and will feature All Shall Perish, Animals as Leaders, Cattle Decapitation and Abysmal Dawn, as well as local acts Internal Corrosion and Thrown Into Exile. Like I said, unfuckwithable. Even better, the show is ONLY $15; tickets are on sale now at www.hob.com and www.ticketmaster.com.

Click to read more…

OH SO MUCH YES RIGHT NOW.

There’s a new Origin song in the world right now. I don’t really know what else I need to tell you. If you have even 25% of a functioning brain, you’re no longer reading this but listening to it. So it shouldn’t even matter what I type here. Sometimes Lars Ulrich like to spike his Dunkin’ Donuts Coffee Coolatta and masturbate to pictures of panda bears he has photoshopped to look like fuzzy versions of Randy Rhoads. Karyn Crisis secretly aspires to be more like Cyndi Lauper. Blue bed bugs beg for blumpkins. See, these things I’m typing don’t even make any sense, but it doesn’t matter because no one is reading this right now.

On the off chance you are still reading this for some reason, OMG IT’S SO GOOD STOP READING THIS AND GO LISTEN RIGHT NOW.

Origin’s new album, Entity, comes out June 7 via Nuclear Blast. The band is also doing an incredible summer co-headlining tour with Hate Eternal, and support will come from Abysmal Dawn and Vital Remains. Get dates after the jump.

Click to read more…