Axl wore his most vile death metal shirt in an attempt to avoid being selected as a juror in this great City of New York, but lo and behold, his plan backfired and he was chosen anyway. So it’s been the Vince party over here since Wednesday with plenty of help from all of our most excellent contributors — special big ups to Anso DF for pitching in extra! Here’s what went down:

• We lost Riot guitarist Mark Reale. R.I.P.
• We premiered a new track by Pyscroptic, one by Exotic Animal Petting Zoo and all of Primal Fear’s new album Unbreakable.
• The Rockstar Mayhem Festival announced the first slate of bands on its 2012 lineup. Slipknot later spilled the beans that High on Fire are confirmed too.
• Ihsahn is guesting on the new Jeff Loomis solo joint and Jeff Loomis is guesting on the new Ihsahn solo joint. Will those two get a room already?
• The Dillinger Escape Plan’s Ben Weinman went all anti-drug on our asses.
• Tours and rumours of tours: The Mastodon / Opeth / Ghost tour is really gonna happen, Meshuggah, Decapitated and Baroness will hit the U.S. together (no dates yet), dates were announced for the Decibel Magazine Tour featuring Behemoth, Watain, The Devil’s Blood and In Solitude, while All Shall Perish, Fleshgod Apocalypse and other cool bands announced a tour too.
• Sammy O’Hagar reviewed Lamb of God‘s new album while Gary took a look at new hardcore 7-inches by Daylight, Unholy Majesty and Wrong Answer.
• We realized that Maynard James Keenan poops and pees and eats just like the rest of us.

We’ll be back next week for Axl’s triumphant return to the blogosphere. See you then.

-VN

All Shall Perish have announced their next headlining tour, and my snarky headline aside, the line-up is actually not at all terrible. I’m not a huge fan of The Contortionist or Conducting from the Grave, but I certainly don’t hate those bands, and it was nice of Carnifex to be volunteer to provide an intermission for fans with actual taste. And, really, my desire to support ASP and Fleshgod Apocalypse is such that I can forgive a couple of Between the Babies and Me bands on the bill. (That’s what I call bands who sound kinda like BTBAM but look like they’re eleven years old. In case you were confused.)

So, yeah. Go to this. Really, those two bands alone will make the price of admission totally worth it.

Here are dates, via Lambgoat:

Click to read more…

Before there were blogs there were these things called magazines, and the only metal magazine we still get excited about reading every month is Decibel. Here’s managing editor Andrew Bonazelli…

Decibel Deleted Scenes time. We couldn’t quite cram this into the splattered entrails of January’s Cryptopsy HOF, but Adrien Begrand compiled some stirring None So Vile testimonials from the technical death metal legends’ peers. Here are those musicians’ choice cuts on our latest inductee.

John Longstreth (Gorguts, Origin)

“Slit Your Guts”—what an amazing death metal song, right? That screamy, shrill intro piece—it sounds like they were paying homage to a drill press. The stop at 0:25, the solo is beautiful, the opening lyrics are “Pardon, please…” Holy cow, what went wrong with these guys? Some sort of rotten black brilliance was causing some serious torment in these dudes’ heads. How else could it be written? Definitely a poignant and early representation of how nail-biting, nervous and strung-out death metal would come to sound. A definite influence for me and Origin. Thank you for this song and album! Congratulations, gentlemen! You deserve it!

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I can’t tell you how happy I am that All Shall Perish have opted to make a video for the song “Royalty Into Exile.” This is far and away my favorite track from their most recent release, This is Where it Ends, and if I had to choose one song to try and sell a consumer on the album, it’s the one I’d choose. It’s brutal and it’s got a great hook… it’s just an all-around awesome song.  And the clip makes me wanna go see the band live again ASAP, so that ain’t bad, either. Really, my only complaint is that for some reason, the word “rape” has been muted. It’s 2011 — we seriously can’t all acknowledge the existence of the word “rape?” What the fuck is that shit?

ANYWAY, check out the video below. It debuted on Noisecreep, and was produced in conjunction with Scion A/V, who, the former site tells me, “is unleashing a series of exclusive music videos… [which] will feature videos from artists like Revocation and Pulling Teeth and will begin debuting November 10th and be permanently available” on the Scion A/V’s website. It’s not currently embeddable, so click here to check it out.

All Shall Perish’s This is Where it Ends is out now on Nuclear Blast.

-AR

The “Top Hard Music” Chart I’ve been using for this column for the past couple of years is a mixed bag; on one hand, a lot of the “Top Hard Music” albums are really old albums that continue to sell (Metallica’s Black Album, various greatest hits collections, catalogue albums of whatever big band happens to be on tour at the time, etc) which paints a skewed picture of what I’m really interested in, namely the new stuff. On the other hand, it’s interesting to see how those older albums continue to sell.

I was recently alerted to the existence of a different chart, “Current Hard Music;” I’m not sure what the criteria is for what constitutes “Current” as some albums on this chart have been on for 90+ weeks and some artists are certainly not “current” by any means, but it does seem to paint a much better picture of the sales of newer albums. Without perrenial classics and greatest hits comps hogging up precious chart space, fewer units need to be sold for a band to get into the Top 100 on the “Current” chart. I am contemplating a move to focusing on that chart in the future. For now, I’ll stick with Top Hard Music with some added albums from the bottom of the other chart. What do you guys think?

Anyway, this week we’ve got big debuts from Pearl Jam and Opeth, big second week drops from a number of artists (Anthrax, Dream Theater and more) that still have pretty big sales numbers, and a look at some albums that came out earlier this year (Black Dahlia Murder, All Shall Perish, more).

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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.

This week ‘s question was suggested to us by the reader known as “Cougar Party”:

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE RIFF OF 2011 THUS FAR?

The MS staff’s answers after the jump.

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The latest edition of Metal Injection’s “Ask the Artist” series — in which various artists are asked one uniform question (See what they did there?) —  poses the query “What are the best and worst stage moves in metal?” to various bands that were on this summer’s two biggest metal tours — Mayhem Fest and Summer Slaughter.

And it’s a great question to ask, because it’s certainly one that seems to come up in metallic circles quite a bit. Just recently, a publicist told me she understood that I didn’t like one of her bands because they played too much “breakdowncore,” and I told her the breakdowncore was silly, sure, but not as silly as they choreographed stage moves they used for each and every song. So it’s interesting to hear the thoughts of the musicians who actually have to be extra-conscientious of stage moves themselves.

Not shocking — a lot of the bands, including Trivium and Fleshgod Apocalypse, poke fun at crabcore and general scene-friendly stage moves. More shocking: so do Oceano.

Check out more of Metal Injection’s “Ask the Artist” videos here.

-AR

Last week I wondered aloud how Trivium’s first-week showing for In Waves compared to the first weeks of their past albums, and my secret Soundscam correspondent came through once again. Here’s how their past three albums performed in their first weeks of release:

The Crusade (released October 8, 2006): 31,156
Shogun (released September 28, 2008): 23,577
In Waves: 20,635

A downward trajectory to be sure, but 20,000 is still quite an impressive number in this day and age. I wonder how Roadrunner Records views it?

Onto other matters: Chimaira, Attila and Revocation all had big debuts last week. Let’s take a look.

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Last week wasn’t as big for new releases as this week is going to be, but we did see respectable debuts from Trivium, Adrenaline Mob and Fleshgod Apocalypse. Let’s see how those albums — and more — sold last week, after the jump.

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Mayhem Fest was in Dallas this past Wednesday night, and because Texas was Dime’s home state, and because Dime’s birthday would have been on August 20, headliners Disturbed did a cover of “Walk,” along with members of All Shall Perish, Trivium, and Godsuck.

Aaaannndddd… I thought you guys might wanna see it. So… now you can! Hoo-ray!

-AR

Hopefully you have gotten to see or will soon get to see The Black Dahlia Murder headline this summer’s edition of Summer Slaughter (which we’re sponsoring — dates here), but if not, don’t fret about it too hard. The band has just announced another headlining tour for the fall.

And since BDM always put on a ridiculously fun show, you are probably already hot n’ bothered about this tour. (Even if you did see them on Summer Slaughter. ‘Cause I don’t know what their set length is, but I know it’s not long enough.) But now please allow me to make you hotter and bothereder: support will come from All Shall Perish and Cannabis Corpse*, which pretty much makes these gigs unmissable. So wear comfortable clothes, and be prepared to sweat.

Here are dates for ya:

Click to read more…

It’s been interesting to watch chart patterns change over the past few years; there is so much emphasis on first-week numbers now that it’s considered totally normal for a record to drop between 60% and 70% from week one to week two. I don’t have hard data to back this up, but I’m pretty sure the record execs of the ’70s, ’80s, ’90s and even early ’00s would’ve scoffed at front-loading a record’s sales like that. Why so much initial hype? Why let the ball drop so quickly thereafter? It’s about the long-term career of a band, not making an initial splash; those who burn brightly at the beginning often die off faster anyway.

As the industry moves away from ownership towards streaming with services like Spotify (and the service Apple will surely launch soon), emphasis will move away from that first-week hype. As pointed out by Bob Lefsetz in a recent newsletter, if a track leaks, no big deal… just post it to Spotify and start earning income right away, even before release date. Same if an album leaks. Nothing lost, the leak is nullified. But I digress.

Let’s look at last week’s debuts, second week drops and more after the jump.

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Word to the wise: don’t give up on the above video just ’cause it’s not metal. Stick with it. You will be pleased. Honest Injun.

And after you’ve watched, why not review some of our top stories from this week? For example –

• We debuted new music from Leprous and Ihsahn.
• Daath’s Eyal Levi declared that not all people are created equal.
• Francesco Artusato from All Shall Perish and Aaron Beam from Red Fang told us about their live rigs.
• We checked out the latest releases from Today is the Day and Eschaton.
• Vince, Anso, Gary, and Leyla unveiled their respective favorite albums of 2011 thus far.
• We started celebrating 31 days of Faith No More.
• We got an in-depth analysis of the genius of Crazy Town.
• We suggested that the Insane Clown Posse might wanna re-think their stance on concert security.
• We hired Manowar to play our next office party.
• We broke the news that Last Chance to Reason have parted ways with two members.

Next week we make the biggest announcement of our lives. Be there or be be square.

-AR

As part of our coverage of this year’s Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival – currently winding its way through North America — we’re bringing you a series of “Rigged” columns in which several of the tour’s musicians take you on piece-by-piece guides of their current live rig setups. Check out the guitar rigs of Machine Head’s Phil Demmel, Unearth’s Buz McGrath and Ken Susi, Hatebreed’s Wayne Lozinak and Dethklok’s Brendon Small. For you bassists out there, have a look at In Flames’ Peter Iwers‘ and Red Fang’s Aaron Beam‘s rigs. To conclude our Rigged coverage of Mayhem, here’s All Shall Perish shredder Francesco Artusato:

What’s up MetalSucks readers! Francesco Artusato here. I’m going to talk a little bit about my live rig with All Shall Perish that am using at the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival this summer and will be using for future tours.

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Last week we focused on the complete inertia of modern rock radio over the past 10 years, as manifested in the top ten selling records of the week. Rest assured, all ten of those releases are still selling well… no need to re-hash them in this space again. Instead let’s look at newer records, including debuts from All Shall Perish, Wirestledabearonce, Jamey Jasta’s solo effort and more.

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Man, I really, really hope that some day, some Korean animators see fit to make a short about MetalSucks. And that it is one-eighth as awesome as the above video.

ANYWAY, here’s how we kept ourselves entertained this week:

• We debuted new music by Revocation, White Arms of Athena, Goreaphobia, and Sixx A.M.
• We did not debut, but got really excited about, new music from Mastodon and Opeth.
• Unearth’s Ken Susi and Dethklok’s Brendon Small told us all about their live rigs. BONUS: Brendon Small also gave us the skinny on his new solo album!
• We spoke to All Shall Perish’s Fracesco Artusato and Kaoru and Die from Dir En Grey.
• We checked out the latest releases from All Pigs Must Die and Axel Rudi Pell.
• We were easily able to come up with twenty-five things we’d rather do than listen to the new Five Finger Death Punch song.
• We tried to figure out which label will snag Gojira.
• Gary Suarez urged metalheads to cut the shit and stop supporting Burzum.
• Sergeant D. wondered if breakdowns are the new guitar solos.
• Corey Mitchell discussed his ten favorite albums of the year thus far.

Since we haven’t written about All Shall Perish in like forty-eight hours, it seems worth mentioning that the band has a new, David Brodsky-directed video, for the song “There is Nothing Left.” It’s really just a performance clip, but it’s an above-average performance clip, and Brodsky’s use of negative space is certainly a lot stronger than, say, that of whomever directed this piece of crap. Plus, the song slays, so that’s never a bad thing!

All Shall Perish’s This is Where it Ends is out now on Nuclear Blast. You can read our interview with guitarist Ben Orum here, and/or our interview with other guitarist Francesco Artusato here. We’ll also have a “Rigged” column from Francesco soon, so keep checking back for that!

-AR

Well, this is a strange week. On the one hand, we have some great stuff coming out, including new music from Big Business and Iwrestledabearonce, as well as World Under Blood’s first record, All Shall Perish’s new one and the solo effort from Jamey Jasta. We also have some complete garbage piles from faceless, nameless bands such as As Hell Retreats. Enjoy!

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Francesco Artusato is a busy dude: since attending the Berklee College of Music and graduating in 2005, an impressive feat in and of itself, the Italian-born shredder was tapped to fill the vacant guitarist spot in All Shall Perish and hasn’t looked back since. Despite touring the world several times over with ASP and writing and recording their new album This Is Where It Ends, Artusato somehow found time to write and record a record of his own, Chaos and the Primordial, released June 28th on Sumerian Records (order here). The record is exactly what you’d expect from a guy who grew up worshipping Steve Vai, Joe Satriani and Allan Holdsworth; a searing blend of metal and fusion played at breakneck speed that doesn’t compromise good songwriting for technical showmanship.

I caught up with Artusato on the phone recently to chat about his new solo record, his influences, the role of “shred” guitar in 2011 and how he balances his solo work with his day job in All Shall Perish. Our chat, after the jump.

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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