MetalSucks

Winds of Plague = really good people. Not only did they know their shit, they also had a sense of humor that wasn’t consistent with that of an inbred southern hick. Vocalist Johnny Plague can bench-press 5,000 lbs a day and keyboardist Kristen Randall may or may not be into making out with chicks – maybe I read too far into some things she said, or maybe I just automatically assume everyone is gay until proven straight, or maybe I just was hoping to make-out with Kristin because, let me tell you, she is pretty smokin’ in person. As a matter of fact, there isn’t one unattractive person in the band. That has nothing to do with their music, and everything to do with being horny. All the time.

ANYWAYS, Johnny’s idea (which may or may not have been plagiarized) for The Great Stone War is pretty nifty. Yeah, it’s yet ANOTHER concept album. But from what I have heard thus far, it’s a solid fucking record. If you weren’t a fan of Decimate The Weak, do yourself a favor and check out The Great Stone War.  If for some reason you’re not into it, at least you have a bunch of sweet artwork from the album sleeve to peep at from time to time.

For the most part, these guys (and gal) are going to be pretty busy the rest of 2009. Rumor has it they will be touring with Unearth in November, so make sure to keep an eye out for an official press release. Below is my slightly awkward interview.

P.S. – Enough with the WOP basketball jerseys. Please. That shit needs to stop. Seriously, this is just silly already.

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Ahh, Michigan. We have lakes. Big fucking lakes. We used to have a booming car industry, but unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past six months, you need not an explanation of why I won’t be speaking of that in this article. Besides, we harbor a little music festival every summer called Dirt Fest, a metal get together a few hours outside of Detroit, founded by two dudes looking to showcase their own band. Dirt Fest quickly became the summer festival for local bands looking for recognition and inspiration. It wound up becoming comparable to the one hot chick at the party which turned out to be a sausage fest – she ends up having such a good time that she lets everyone have a turn.

Anyhoo, thirteen lucky summers later and Dirt Fest is rocking a roster that has, in the past, included bands like The Dillinger Escape Plan and The Black Dahlia Murder. Obviously something is working if these bands are rolling through, so I decided to finally go check it out this year. Armed with nothing but a delicious bottle of Jagermeister and a set of tits everyone at the MetalSucks Mansion is dying to get a look at, I embarked on what turned out to be a very interesting day. My mouth already tasted like booze before noon…

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Axl’s gotten his panties all up in a bunch (and justifiably so) several times in the past about bands re-recording, re-mixing and re-releasing their classic albums (see: Exodus, Arch Enemy, etc) as a gluttonous cash-grab. But After the Burial, one of my favoritest Sumeriancore bands, might be the one rare case in which I fully support their decision to re-record, re-release and re-master one of their prior albums.

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Metal band names are funny. I mean, sooner or later there just aren’t going to be any new ways to come up with variations of “death,” “dead,” “dying,” etc etc, right? And it doesn’t seem like a metal band is going to name themselves “Riding my pony through a field of daisies” any time soon, although admittedly that would be the most br00tal / tr00 name for a metal band EVARRR!

So, Malefice. They haven’t reinvented the wheel band-name wise and they haven’t done so music-wise either, but both their band name and music are pretty fucking cool if you ask me (and by visiting this here webernet site you did ask me, thankyouverymuch). Think the neo-classical-cum-American-new-wave riffage of The Absence or After the Burial mixed with the groove and swagger of God Forbid, and you’ve got a close approximation of what Malefice sound like. Their Metal Blade Records debut (and 2nd album overall) Dawn of Reprisal is out now, and it’s really fucking solid. These Brits have chops, but they know how to use them to write songs rather than just wank around. Recommended if you like any of the aforementioned bands.

-VN

(three out of five horns)

[Malefice on MySpace]

So the line-up for Summer Slaughter – a.k.a. the big summer package tour that isn’t Ozzfest, Mayhem, Warped, or Sounds of the Underground (R.I.P.) – has been announced, and, pretty much as expected, it’s totally solid. Yes, there are a few bands on the bill I don’t care for (I’m looking at you, Winds of Plague), but the presence of co-headliners Suffocation and Necrophagist, plus Darkest Hour, Origin, Born of Osiris, Dying Fetus and Blackguard pretty much guarantees this will be a day (well, late afternoon at least) worth your time and money. Especially since, unlike the aforementioned summer fests, this one plays smaller venues and comes at a cheaper price.

Also kind of advantageous: you’re basically just dealing with death metal on this tour. So… you pretty much know if you’re the audience or not for this tour.

No dates yet… stay tuned for more details.

-AR

2008 has been a fucking great year for metal, and in due time — Monday, Dec. 15, to be exact — Axl, myself and the rest of the writers of MetalSucks will all release our Top 10 year-end lists so you can incessantly argue over which great album was left off or tell us we’re assholes for ranking a certain album higher than it should’ve been.

But for now, ya’ll can argue about something else: here’s my personal short/working list for said year-end list containing all of my favorite metal releases from this year as well as a few that aren’t likely to make my own list but will surely be appearing on others’. Feel free to pipe in with your thoughts or to notify us of any egregious omissions before we put together our final, ordered lists. Regardless, it is going to be really fucking hard to pick just 10 of these and put them in order of awesomeness.

And, my favorite metal records of 2008 in no particular order are…

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It may slow in the doldrums of summer, but it’s always hot here at the MetalSucks Mansion. This week in metal:

• You all argued about the merits of booze vs. drugs vs. soberness at shows.
• Ladder Up An Ass stole the show at Rockstar Mayhem Fest; best supergroup EVAR!
• At All Cost went on hiatus. We cried.
• You asked Anton OyVey, and the MetalSucks Mansion resident Reb responded.
• Math dorks After the Burial get super-dorky with math dorkfest.
• Axl uses the phrase “Snore de Force” to describe Norma Jean’s new album.

See you Monday. Have a good one.

If you aren’t a complete musician dork, stop reading right now. If you are… keep reading, and you’re in for a real treat. Especially if you’re a drummer, or dig on metal drumming in general.

Still with me? Alrighty then, because this is some seriously intense, heady shit. MetalSucks Maniac Fantasyoosh alerted us to an awesomely intricate description of the music theory behind the crazy Meshuggah-esque After the Burial track “Pi (The Mercury of Infinity)” from their album Forging a Future Self. The description is posted in the “more info” section of a YouTube stills video for the song and explains exactly how the band wrote the crazy technical drum patterns… Based on the number Pi!

Pi was written and recorded only a few days before the completion of the Master copy, at around 10 am, with a couple of serious hangovers. Justin and I had talked about having a classical guitar intro into some sort of heavier riffage, but we weren’t quite sure what that was exactly going to be.

We remembered back to a few weeks prior, when we were throwing around an idea of using the mathematical constant Pi, and incorporating it into some sort of complex breakdown pattern where the kick drum corresponded to each number as the figure progressed. Kinda creating the ultimate mind boggler of a riff. The complexity of the intro is often overheard, because it’s hard to discern what is actually going on within the track, UNTIL NOW!!

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So I totally snoozed yesterday on the fact that After The Burial’s new album Rareform was finally released. If you guys haven’t checked out After the Burial yet, I highly recommend you do so this instant; it’s like Meshuggah’s rhythm section decided to have a three-way with John Petrucci and Bloodjinn vocalist Joel Collins. The results are phenomenal, striking that ever-delicate balance of musicianship and songwriting. It’s some truly invigorating shit! Seriously; more bands should be this good.

After the Burial will be out on this summer’s Thrash and Burn Tour (with Darkest Hour), so if you’re planning on hitting that up be sure to get there early… And let us know how they are live. In the meantime listen to the three songs from Rareform posted on their MySpace, and prepare to be be bludgeoned.

-VN

[After the Burial on MySpace]

Sometimes when you’re not expecting to like a band (jaded journalists, anyone?) but you’re caught off guard and end up liking what you hear, it’s all that much sweeter. Such is the case with Minnesota’s After the Burial, whom a MetalSucks reader suggested a couple of weeks ago.

Check out the new track “Cursing Akhenaten” from their forthcoming album Rareform, due July 22nd on Sumerian Records, on After the Burial’s MySpace. I mean, like, woah. Neo-classical/Slayer-esque shred combined with core chugga-chugga; if “metalcore” hadn’t become such a bad word referring to a certain sound, I might call this metalcore as it really is a mix of metal and hardcore — but that would be doing it a severe disservice.

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Just go listen! This is really good stuff that isn’t derivative — a rarity these days.

-VN