MetalSucks

Dude, I haven’t played Guitar Hero (or Rock Band, for that matter) in for-ever. But apparently their song “Graves of Opportunity” is available as part of a track pack for Guitar Hero world tour, alongside an awesome Chimaira song (”Walking On Broken Glass”) and something by a band I don’t care to mention who are named after a Meryl Streep movie, so maybe it’s time I picked up my plastic guitar and rocked out again.

The “Graves of Opportunity” certainly gives me the desire to do so – I mean, it looks like it was more fun to film than it is to watch. Phil Labonte looks like he’s having a good time, at least.

If there really were Unearth avatars for Guitar Hero, it would be awesome if when you hit “overdrive” or whatever the fuck it’s called, the digital Ken Susi would spit in the air, catch it in his hand, and then run it through his hair. Ah. I can dream, can’t I?

“Graves of Opportunity” comes off of Unearth’s excellent album The March, which is out on Metal Blade now.

-AR

The big beef on the Webernets this weekend concerned a Twitter fight between Shadows Fall frontman Brian Fair and All That Remains frontman Phil Labonte over the latter’s girlfriend. Yup, a Twitter fight. In the end it can most likely be chalked up to a bunch of drunks quibbling, but it sure is funny! Have a look at the Twitter war play by play over at Metal Injection.

Turns out All That Remains have a new video too, for the track “Forever in Your Hands.” I’ve been over All That Remains since the first time I saw them live and realized Labonte couldn’t touch those high notes he hits on record with the assistance of ProTools. Not that I was ever really into the band in the first place. But, ya know, some of you may dig this band… so here’s the video, which features cameos by God Forbid’s Byron Davis, Killswitch’s Adam D. and others.

-VN

It’s Labor Day weekend here in the U.S., which means we’re shuttering the Mansion early this week, and won’t be back ’til Tuesday. We’re sure you’ll find some way to live without us.

Here’s some shit that happened this week:

• We debuted a new track from Salome.
• Sigh’s Mirai Kawashima sent in his final guest-blog from the studio, and revealed the track listing for the band’s upcoming album, Scenes from Hell.
• We chatted with Trivium’s Matt Heafy, The Black Dahlia Murder’s Trevor Strnad, Job for a Cowboy’s Brent Riggs, and All That Remains’ Phil LaBonte.
• We celebrated the triumphant return of Beavis & Butt-Head, and decided that in their particular relationship, Vince is the Beavis to Axl’s Butt-Head.
• Tom Araya thinks Dave Mustaine is a dick, Kerry King thinks Dave Mustaine is a dick, Scott Ian thinks Kerry King is a dick, and everyone in Dimmu Borgir thinks that everyone else in Dimmu Borgir is a dick.

Alright. I’m going to enjoy a little sunshine while I still can. See ya Tuesday!

-AR

Sitting down with All That Remains frontman / Affliction-wearer Phil Labonte was a tad bit uncomfortable, for all the not-so-nice things (but not terribly offensive, either, comparatively speaking) we’ve said about his band. I’m actually not even sure that Phil knew with whom he was conducting an interview — the on-site press coordinator at the Rockstar Mayhem Festival simply introduced me by my birth-given first name, Phil said, “Hi, I’m Phil,” we sat down at a table and that was that. It’s probably a good thing too, since Phil is really into his iPhone, Twitter (which I asked him about) and claims to “read a lot of stuff on the Internet.”

So, whether he knew who I was or not, Phil and I chatted mostly about the band’s newfound mainstream success. What’s it been like? Has he seen a change in the audience at shows? Will it change the band’s approach on the next record? Has it alienated the core fans? Despite my best attempts to get some kind of averse reaction out of Labonte, he held his ground quite well and insisted that for the most part nothing about the band has really changed all that much. Phil was a nice chap and certainly seemed earnest about his answers.

Our chat, after the jump.

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As I mentioned earlier this week, a little while back I got an e-mail from The Autumn Offering vocalist Matt McChesney to discuss an extremely negative review I’d given the band’s last album, Fear Will Cast No Shadow. McChesney could have been a total dick about the whole thing, but as it turns out, he’s a very even headed, intelligent, and cool dude. So what else was there to do but interview him about the band’s new album, Requiem, which will come out June 9 on Victory. McChesney was even good enough to let us debut the first single off of that album, “The Curtain Hits The Cast,” for which the band will shoot a video in the coming weeks.

I still haven’t heard the new album, but I do already like this song way, way more than anything from Fear Will Cast No Shadow; it’s catchy and it doesn’t sound overly processed, which, I think, is what The Autumn Offering were striving for. Check out the song below, and then my conversation with Matt McChesney after the jump! (FYI – for fear that this was all a set-up for Matt to have me murdered, the interview was conducted by e-mail.)

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It was fun to speculate last about with whom Slayer might spend the summer touring, but now we have an official answer: as rumored, they’ll be co-headlining the Rockstar Energey Mayhem Festival with their ‘07 tourmates, Marilyn Manson.

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All is not lost in the world of metal; in fact, this past week brought some nice surprises, along with the usual mish-mash of shitty radio rock bands. Last week’s sales numbers, with our usual sardonic commentary, after the jump. (Hint: look at the tags below, and click “read more” if any of those bands interest you!).

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Lord knows we are completely sick of talking about Metallica here at the MS Mansion despite the fact that a Metallica post is automatically good for 50-100 comments and we love watching you all duke it out. But damn, the fact that Metallica’s Death Magnetic sits atop the Soundscan charts for the 3rd week in a row, having moved over 130,000 units this week and 500,000 units in its abridged first week (due to a Friday release date), is certainly worth breaking our self-imposed Metallica hiatus for. In other weeks this year 131,000 wouldn’t be enough to tally a #1, but that’s part of the game; this week’s #2 Demi Lovato (who???) shifted only 88,000 copies. And any way you slice it, 131,000 is a damn respectable number.

Apparently Metallica is still relevant. And apparently nearly 1 million people think Death Magnetic is good enough to pay for it. Shitty mixing job be damned.

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“I’d hate to be in one of those bands where every song has screamed verses and sung choruses. We’re averse to writing songs with any kind of formula.”

-Phil Labonte, Decibel, October 2008

Ladies and gentlemen, seven of the eleven songs on All That Remains’ latest, Overcome, follow this exact formula.

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Even though I’m not such a fan of In Flames’ latest album A Sense of Purpose, I will always love this band to death. The album wasn’t bad by any means, but it definitely falls well below the level of metal the band are capable of making, and ultimately when I’m fixin’ for the kings of Swedish melodeath I’m gonna grab Clayman, Colony or even Come Clarity before I grab this one.

But anyway, the band just released a video for the song “Alias” from that album; like the song itself, the video gets a solid “meh” from me. But like I said, I love this band, and I’ll listen to/watch anything they do. Including going to see them live; for my money they’re one of the best live bands of the past 15 years, hands down. You can bet your ass I’ll be rockin’ out hard fan-boy style when they tour the U.S. with All That Remains, Gojira, and 36 Crazyfists this winter (full list of tour dates after the jump).

-VN

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Here’s what it told me:

“In Greek mythology, Chiron or Cheiron (’hand’) was held as the superlative centaur among his brethren. Like the satyrs, centaurs were notorious for being overly indulgent drinkers and carousers, given to violence when intoxicated, and generally uncultured delinquents. Chiron, by contrast, was intelligent, civilized and kind. He was known for his knowledge and skill with medicine.”

What’s that got to do with the new All That Remains single of the same name? Who the fuck knows? Watch the video and decide for yourself:

-AR

It’s been kind of a roller coaster ride for Trivium, hasn’t it? Their debut LP, Ember to Inferno, caught the attention of Roadrunner Records’ legendary A&R man Monte Connor. Roadrunner subsequently released the band’s sophomore album Ascendancy to nearly-unanimous raves from critics and fans alike. Trivium, it seemed, were the future of metal incarnate.

Then came The Crusade. The album introduced some radically different sounds into the band’s repertoire, and seemed to divide their fan base.

So it’s little wonder that Trivium’s dynamic duo, Matt Heafy and Corey Beaulieu, feel that the band’s latest offering, Shogun (out September 30 on Roadrunner), is the band’s “make or break album.” But they’re insanely excited about the record, and with good reason – following the interview, Heafy personally commandeered a conference room in Roadrunner’s Manhattan offices so he could give the MetalSucks Masterminds a taste of what Shogun has to offer. What we heard that day was technical, heavy, and catchy all at once, a true hybrid of everything that made the band’s previous albums worth your time. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, Shogun pretty much guarantees Trivium will remain atop the modern metal heap for some time to come.

And so, in the middle of a discussion about God Forbid guitarist/MetalSucks blogger Dallas Coyle, Axl and Vince roll tape on the interview…

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After fellating Protest the Hero’s incredible early-2008 release Fortress for two months solid (culminating in my first ever 5 of 5 horns review), I was immediately let down by successive announcements that the band would be touring with shit emo bands through the entire summer. Finally someone in the band’s camp has come to their senses and packaged them with a lineup that will put them in front of the metal audience that NEEDS to know about this band. And finally, I will be able to go see them live. Lambgoat is reporting a fall tour with Protest playing direct support for Unearth, with The Acacia Strain, Whitechapel and Gwen Stacy also on the bill.

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I know some people that are absolutely fuckin’ fanatical about All That Remains, the Masshole group fronted by former Shadows Fall front dude/devout Christian/self-professed porn addict Phil Labonte (who actually seems to have found a fairly stable line-up for the band after years of constant member changes). I’ve always had a lot of respect for the band, but never quite got to a point where I was as into them as some of their American New Wave peers; maybe that’s because, as much as I’ve enjoyed their albums (particularly 2004’s This Darkened Heart), I’ve seen them live a few times and they never exactly knocked my socks off. Still, I’ll take them over As I Lay Dying any day of the week.

ANYWAY, ATR have a new album, Overcome, coming out on Prosthetic on September 16, and now two new songs from said album, entitled “Before the Damned” and “Relinquish,” have made their way onto the band’s MySpace page.

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All That Remains will tour next year with Chimaira (pictured above left in winter coats). That’s a pretty good bill – I’d say you should never, ever, under any circumstances miss a chance to see Chimaira live, and I’m told that All That Remains are good live, too, except that I’ve seen them twice and they haven’t been that great either time. But I guess I’d give them a third chance.

Alas, Five Finger Death Suck will be the openers. I guess we can at least be grateful that since they’re going on first, it will be easy to miss them.

Meanwhile, Throwdown (pictured above right, also in winter coats – be proud of me for choosing a theme and sticking with it) are doing a tour with Soilwork and Through the Eyes of the Dead. War of Ages will be the openers; for anyone unfamiliar with them, they’re an above average metalcore band and probably the best Christian metal band this side of post-Luti-Kriss, pre-Ross Robinson Norma Jean.

ANYWAY, I’m sure you can find tour dates through the usual channels, as I’m way too lazy to post them here.

-AR

Thanks to a semi-anonymous tipster / MetalSucks commenter close to the Living Colour camp, we’ve been made aware that the band has video of them performing “Cult of Persnality” from their recently released live DVD on their official MySpace page. One thing immediately apparent from the video — reposted below — is that Corey Glover can fucking SING his balls off (no disrespect to the other band members, all of whom are tremendously talented as well). He nails every note with barely any effort; and it’s the last song of the night to boot!

Compare this to a clip of Massachusetts metalcore outfit All That Remains performing the song “Six” which is also from a live DVD, which came out last week. Frontman Phil Labonte growls through the screaming parts just fine (as if this requires massive talent), but when he gets to the singing parts… oy vey. Dude should take a lesson from Corey Glover, or else undergo a reverse-Michael Jackson operation to make himself black.

“Cult of Personality” below, and All That Remains’ “Six” after the jump:

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