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In the absence of actual new music or substantial information of some kind, I find it kinda hard to get psyched up about the announcement of an album release date in all but a few special cases. But there have been a number of big release date announcements and rumors in the past few days, so I figured I’d lump ‘em all together and, as if you expected anything else, share my thoughts, hopes and dreams for each. Here we go:
“The ’90s were a challenging decade for metal,” opens Loudwire writer Joe Robinson. You got that right! ’90s nostalgia hasn’t firmly set in for metal yet; Limp Bizkit’s new record tanked, less people are interested in Korn than ever, and some of the more credible ’90s acts from Europe never even stopped to take a drink of water. But that hasn’t stopped Loudwire from publishing a “Top 11 Metal Albums of the ’90s” list. For once, I think this topic is quite ripe for list-making given metal’s widespread unpopularity during the decade. Sure, decades themselves are artificial constructs with which musical trends don’t neatly align (hair metal was still huge in ’90 and ’91 and the true stuff was already filtering back in by the end), but they do provide convenient language for discourse, much like metal sub-genres aren’t always perfect but give us some kind of approximation of what a band sounds like.
Loudwire’s list is actually pretty solid; it’s hard to argue that any of these albums shouldn’t be included on a best-of-the-’90s metal list, and I love the inclusion of Alice in Chains and Tool. I could do without Korn’s debut, but I know it was important to a lot of people and it certainly left its mark on the metal landscape. I have a hard time believing Anthrax’s Persistence of Time would’ve appeared on this list had the band not just released a new album. The list completely omits European bands, and I think In Flames’ The Jester Race, Whoracle or Colony — any one of ‘em — deserve a nod for all the impact they had on metal to come. For that matter, how about At the Gates? Or Refused’s Shape of Punk to Come? And what ’90s metal list is complete without Nevermore or Iced Earth, two bands that essentially flied in the face of “cool” and held up giant middle fingers?
But whatevs… it’s a list, and therefore cannot be perfect. Go check it out here, then come back here with your arguin’ pants on and tell us what you think the comments.
-VN
Thanks: Andrew Robbins
I’m gonna tell you right now – I don’t usually get all “fan-girl” and nervous talking to people, even those I greatly admire on an artistic level. When I was told I was going to be interviewing Rex Brown, the fact that I was going to be talking to someone who helped mold my musical tastes as a kid didn’t hit me until probably an hour or so beforehand, and that’s when, admittedly, I started to get a bit weak in the knees. I started to remember so vividly hearing Pantera’s “Floods” for the first time on a family road trip to the Midwest, how it chilled me like nothing else ever had, and those days speeding down 95 in my first car blasting Cowboys from Hell. As one of the founding members of Pantera – up until their unfortunate end – he helped open the gates for a great deal of us to the world of metal. With his involvement in Down, as well as Crowbar, that love for many of us was kept alive.
Of course, with his recent departure from Down, some may have been wondering what else, if anything, Rex had next up his sleeves. Thankfully, there’s plenty.
As soon as I answered the phone, one of the first things Rex said to me (with a laugh) was that he’d been “giving interviews all day.” That in itself I thought was a true testament to someone who, even after over two decades working at it, is not looking to give up anytime soon – a fact that’s emphasized by his enthusiastic involvement with his new band Kill Devil Hill. The new project, featuring Vinny Appice (Heaven and Hell, Dio, Black Sabbath) on drums, Mark Zavon (Ratt, 40 Cycle Hum) on guitar and Jason “Dewey” Bragg (Pissing Razors) on vocals, is currently on tour and looking forward to releasing their yet-to-be-named debut album early next year on SPV/Steamhammer Records.
Talking with Rex was not only an experience in that he’s someone I have long admired; it was something getting to speak with someone so excited and hopeful about his current conquest. After over two decades playing music – through the triumphs as well as the hardships – to be as enthusiastic and passionate is not an incredibly common thing. I think that’s something that all of us can not only appreciate, but hopefully aspire to.
I’m an irresponsible jerk who is way behind on my RSS reading, so I didn’t get to The Deciblog’s new interview with one mister Justin Broadrick until today. And fuck me naked with a spoon, because if I had gotten to it sooner, I would have been aware of this part of the chat:
Have you been writing for Godflesh?
JB: Really, really slowly. I guess because I’ve had my son, it’s slowed things down a bit for us. I mean, Ben Green got married last year and he still holds a very good job, so he’s very busy, we’re both very busy but we have a lot of ideas. Also, there’s no way we’d approach a new record just to milk the new-found popularity of Godflesh. I mean, it could take another year before we release something, and even the intitial impact of the reformation could have subsided by then, but that’s kind of meaningless, really, it’s just making another really good, cold and bleak record. And it’s more than in us, it’s in me, it still translates the same emotions that I’ve been struggling with all my life.
And news of new Godflesh is simultaneously profoundly excellent and profoundly anxiety-inducing.
If you’re immediately struck by MonstrO’s musical resemblance to Torche, don’t be: that’s ex-Torche guitarist Juan Montoya’s electro-fried “stoner pop” tones you’re hearing in the Atlanta quartet’s debut song “Anchors Up!”
And it sounds damn good, doesn’t it? I wasn’t among the Torche fanboys that endlessly bemoaned Montoya’s exit from the group in 2008, but there’s no question that Montoya was integral to Torche’s sound and the band hasn’t been the same since. Good news, then, that he’s formed a new band as his musical outlet with an equally compelling cast of characters: bassist Kyle Sanders (Skrew, Bloodsimple, brother of Mastodon’s Troy Sanders), drummer Bevan Davies (Danzig, Comes With the Fall), and vocalist and guitarist Charlie Suarez (Sunday Driver, no relation to Gary).
MonstrO have already recorded their self-titled debut with producer and Alice in Chains vocalist William DuVall, who was Bevan Davies’ bandmate in Madfly and Comes With the Fall. Expect it on September 6th via Vagrant Records.
-VN
Of course when you set out to make a list like, say, the one we’re doing right now, of The Top 25 Modern Metal Guitarists, you are bound to piss a lot of people off — that just comes with the job.
But I always find it hilarious HOW those people get pissed off. For example, this week I saw a lot of complaints that the guitar players we’ve been selecting aren’t “modern.” And I can’t believe we have to fucking define the word “modern” for some of you idiots, but apparently we do. So:
mod·ern
–adjective
1. of or pertaining to present and recent time; not ancient or remote: modern city life.2. characteristic of present and recent time; contemporary; notantiquated or obsolete: modern viewpoints.
So… which one of you jackasses would like to call up Alex Skolnick or Vernon Reid or Adam Jones and let them know they’re antiquated and obsolete? ‘Cause I saw Testament and Living Colour and Tool live just last year, and I would not want to make that call. Just because those dudes have been playing this game for awhile doesn’t mean their best days are behind them.
My point simply being: I don’t care if you hate our choices. That’s fine. But at least try to hate our choices based on an argument that makes sense, y’know?
And on that note, here are other ways we entertained ourselves this week:
Next week we unveil numbers fifteen through eleven on our guitar player list; the average age of those five musicians is thirty-one, whereas the average age of this week’s selections was forty-two. So maybe you can go back to being upset because you think they suck, not because you think they’re too old to be “modern.”
-AR
MetalSucks recently polled its staff to determine who are The Top 25 Modern Metal Guitarists, and after an incredible amount of arguing, name calling, and physical violence, we have finalized that list! The only requirements to be eligible for the list were that the musician in question had to a) play metal (duh), b) play guitar (double-duh), and c) have recorded something in the past five years. Today we continue our countdown with Alice in Chains’ Jerry Cantrell…
I held off on listening to Alice in Chains for a really long time. Mainly because all the ‘90s grungy metal I’d heard previously made me go meh, and that’s the genre with which I associated AiC. But when countless people told me I was stupid for thinking so and all but bullied me into listening to them, I thought maybe I should stop making assumptions. Hey, I can admit when I’m wrong.
Jerry Cantrell played a big part in changing my mind. His style is what distinguishes Alice in Chains from just another grunge band. In his words, “We’re a lot of different things… I don’t quite know what the mixture is, but there’s definitely metal, blues, rock and roll, maybe a touch of punk. The metal part will never leave, and I never want it to,” and it’s those extra elements that make Alice in Chains such a, I hesitate to say this but really there’s no better word, unique band. His riffs are often punishing, loud, and harsh but expand into slower moodier grinds that blend so well with the dual harmonizing vocals. The dark, almost nihilistic themes are always present even in the seemingly simple acoustic numbers.
The Revolver Golden Gods Awards will air on VH1 later this month (or something… I know we got a press release but I was too lazy to read it), and it will be interesting to see that, because I was there, but I didn’t actually see very much of the show. I saw the schmuck from Asking Alexandria drop his mic two seconds into “Youth Gone Wild,” and I saw some of Avenged Sevenfold’s performances with Duff McKagan and Vinnie Paul, and I saw enough of Chris Jericho performing “For Whom the Bell Tolls” to consider throwing myself over the balcony and ending the awards in spectacular fashion (sometimes, sacrifices must be made for the greater good). But by and large I was too busy snorting coke in the bathroom with a girl who fucking swore to me that it wasn’t a herpes sore that lying bitch! to be bothered.
So one thing I had absolutely no idea even transpired was the below montage paying tribute to the five guys who died in the past year that are relevant to the readers of Revolver, which is to say, not Phil Vane or Frankie Sparcello.
But I shouldn’t be a jerk about it, it’s really a very touching video.
-AR
[via Metal Underground]
I still get chills watching this.
Alice In Chains announced this morning that they’d be making a “special concert announcement” on Monday, April 11th. What could this special concert be? Allow me to recklessly speculate, ’cause that’s what we do here at MS:
That’s all I got… any other ideas?
Share your memories of Layne in the comments.
-VN
I like doing MetalSucks, in part, because I really do learn something new each and every week. You know what I learned this week, for example?
Here are some other things we learned this week:
I’ll be flying solo for much of next week as Vince and Kip head down to Austin for SXSW and I stay behind to ensure you are as irritated as possible. Won’t you come back and learn some more with me?
-AR
Mike Starr, the original bass player for Alice in Chains, has been found dead, TMZ reports. He was just a month away from his 45th birthday.
Starr left Alice in Chains in 1993 after appearing on the albums Facelift and Dirt, as well as the Sap EP. Like the other members of the band, his struggles with drug addiction have been legendary — he even appeared on Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew in 2009 (a show his former AIC bandmates Jerry Cantrell and Sean Kinney have called “disgusting”). Apparently his efforts to kick his habit were to no avail, however, as in February he was arrested for possession. So while the cause of Starr’s death has yet to be announced, one could reasonably assume that this is another tragic loss of a talented artist to drugs.
Assuming that’s correct, Starr would, of course, be the second founding member of Alice in Chains to fall to substance abuse, after vocalist Layne Staley. Lamentable though is, there is something undeniable about the fact that the band’s actual addictions are part of what gave them their power during their heyday — the textures and lyrics of those albums feel authentic because they are authentic. Unfortunately, it seems as though Starr and Staley were never able to get away from all that.
Our thoughts are with Starr’s family and friends. Here’s “Rain When I Die” — a song he co-wrote, and which features one of his most famous bass lines — in his honor. I wish it didn’t suddenly seem eerily fitting.
-AR
Round Two of Heavy Metal Blunders brings us, who else? Vince Neil! Yes, the official MS Mansion punching monkey got shipped off to the can last week. At this point, I don’t really care. But I did get a chuckle out of his girlfriend, Alicia Jacobs, who was concerned for her bank account, err… boyfriend. Jacobs claimed Neil was “not eating much other than peanut butter, Doritos and stuff like that. He had a baloney sandwich one day. It’s not optimal conditions.” I wonder what Razzle thinks about dem apples?
Once again, the only hard rock and metal albums shifting units* are classics, red state rock, and greatest hits packages. Just look at this screen cap from this week’s Top Hard Music chart:
With all due respect to Avenged Sevenfold, Times of Grace and All That Remains — the only bands with newish albums on that list with some level of modern metal legitimacy (whether you like those bands or hate ‘em) — the above screen cap is proof that album sales are not just tanking, but taking a vertical nosedive straight into oblivion.
In any case, all wasn’t lost last week. Motorhead and Crowbar made decent debuts, while Red continued their dominance. And, uh… Mr. Big.
…Iron Maiden, for the song “El Dorado,” and Them Crooked Vultures, for the song “SERIOUSLY WHO GIVE A FUCK ABOUT THEM CROOKED VULTURES YOU OLD FAT FILTHY FUCKS?”
So the thing is, if you look up the word “meaningless” in the dictionary, you will find a picture of a Grammy. There’s really no reason to be bummed about this. And while I don’t think “El Dorado” is a very good song, I’m glad that Maiden won as opposed to, say, Korn. Actually, I would have been okay with any of the nominees that weren’t Korn winning.
But for Them Crooked Vultures — or, really, any of the bands that weren’t Alice in Chains — to win just proves what a joke these awards are. I don’t even feel like I have to type anything else to prove my point — just the words “Them Crooked Vultures” should make you automatically say through your yawn, “Next!”
-AR
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Welcome to “Question of the Week,” a (sometimes) weekly debate amongst the MetalSucks staff regarding a recent hot button issue.
This week’s question was once again suggested by “Hipsters Out of Metal!” columnist Anso DF, and even though the Grammy nominations were actually announced last week, it still seemed like a fun debate to have. So:
WHAT ARE YOUR NOMINATIONS FOR BEST METAL GRAMMY?
The MS staff’s answers after the jump.
The Grammy nominations have been announced, and, as per usual, they’ve got nuthin’ to do with nuthin’. This isn’t a shock; the Grammys have been a meaningless award, and will remain a meaningless award. But if you’re morbidly curious, as I am, as to who old white dudes think are the créme de la créme of our music of choice, the nominees, and some more snarky commentary from yours truly, are after the jump.
Until recently I didn’t realize this was filmed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, a stone’s throw from the Vince Division of the Mansion. I still get chills every single time I watch this footage… I can’t help it. It’s just so… chilling… when Layne walks out on stage. Brrrr.
“Desert Island 5″ album for sure.
-VN
After tonight’s Mastodwho/Defwhats/AIC show at MSG, I’m feeling inspired to dust off an oldie-but-goodie…
Back when I was a 16 year-old pothead growing up in New York Fucking City, I used to put on this song, lean out my bedroom window, puff the fattest of bowls, and wonder what heroin felt like. I guess it had a lot to do with Layne Staley’s infamous addiction to the drug, and a little to do with my own self-destructive leanings, but more than all that, the song itself reeked of smack. And not just snorting or smoking heroin, but some serious needle-jabbin’ hijinx.
Now I ain’t never shot nothin’ into my veins, but after revisiting this song for the first time in over a decade, I would still put it on my perfect heroin mixtape (along with “Venus In Furs” by The Velvet Underground, “Riders On The Storm” by The Doors, and “My Favorite Things” by Coltrane). Y’know — if it ever comes to that.
Keep yr fingers crossed for me!
…and while I’m hyping this album, I find it very hard not to post its fiery opening track:
Okay, fine — let’s just go for the hat trick with Dirt closer “Would?” (although th’old-school among us may better remember this one from the Singles soundtrack…)
-KW
Alice in Chains must really want to make sure you all go see them on their current BlackDiamondSkye tour with Deftones and Mastodon, ’cause they’ve released a video for the song “Lesson Learned” not even one full week after they released a video for the song “Acid Bubble.”
Not that I’m complaining — I actually think this is a really cool video, and certainly much better than the “Acid Bubble” one. It was directed by Paul Matthaeus, whose background is serving as (an often uncredited) “creative director” on risqué television shows like Six Feet Under, Dexter, True Blood, and Nip/Tuck. I’m not really sure what the heck a “creative director” does on such shows, but whatever it is, I guess it made Matthaeus the perfect choice to helm a metal vid.
Get tour dates for the BlackDiamondSkye trek here.
-AR
I could say that Alice in Chains’ Unplugged album is my favorite Unplugged album, but that wouldn’t be saying much. Higher praise comes from a declaration just as truthful: It’s one my favorite, if not my absolute favorite, live albums of all time, and possibly the only example of a live album I actually listen to more frequently than the band’s studio catalog. That’s not a knock on AiC’s studio albums, which are obviously brilliant; but their Unplugged performance is painfully beautiful and haunting, and made even more so by the fact that it was the last time Staley performed before he passed away. An Alice in Chains fan can ask for no greater farewell.
And I’d wager that Sully Erna agrees with me. Every time I write about how badly Godsuck wanna be Alice in Chains, some smart-ass defender of awful music comes around and argues that Erna and company sound nothing like AiC, despite the fact that Erna’s moose rock vocals obviously owe a huge debt to Staley, and that “Godsmack” is the title of an AiC song, and that, oh yeah, Godsuck started out as an AiC cover band. So, clearly, my comparison is completely wrong-headed and unfounded.
In all fairness, the Erna solo track in the below video, “Sinner’s Prayer,” sounds nothing like Alice in Chains; instead it just sounds pretentious and self-important. (Are these idiots literally singing the phrase “mumbo jumbo?” This feels like the gang from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia trying to compete in an African folk song competition. Not helping is that there isn’t a single minority face on that stage.) But the set seems so clearly modled on the one AiC used for Unplugged that it’s hard for me to believe it’s just a coincidence — I mean, even the lighting scheme is the same. The only discernable difference is that Erna’s set has twinkly lights in addition to all the candles. If you told me that Erna was deliberately trying to duplicate some of the Alice Unplugged magic, I would not be at all surprised.
Erna’s solo album is called blah blah blah and is blah blah blah who cares.
And here’s some of Alice in Chains’ Unplugged to wash the bad taste out of your mouth:
