MetalSucks

We’re up to our eyeballs in work here at the MetalSucks Mansion, which is why we’ve been kind of behind on reviews. To wit: the new Earth Crisis album, To the Death, which we think is totally excellent, and haven’t had any time to give a write-up. Shame on us.

What we do have time to do is post the band’s kick-ass new video, “To Ashes,” which was directed/shot/edited/everything else by our favoritest extreme music auteur, David Brodsky, and his team at My Good Eye (And by “team,” I pretty much mean Allison Woest.).

Is this the first ever hardcore/metal video to be “based on a true story?” I honestly can’t think of another. Maybe Ron Howard will buy the movie rights…

-AR

Headbanger’s Blog just debuted Bleed the Sky’s new video for the song “Sullivan.” They also have lead singer Noah Robinson’s thoughts of the making of the video, which was directed by MetalSucks approved headbanger auteur David Brodsky. Here’s an excerpt from Robinson:

“It was great filming the video with David Brodsky. He kept it very relaxed, not to mention that because we’re seasoned drinkers, he kept us stocked with the three cases of beer and a handle of Captain Morgan. That probably helped a bit!

“A funny thing we noticed was that guitarist Justin Warrick kept ritualistically brushing his hair. All the behind-the-scenes videos we shot for ourselves always had Justin brushing his golden locks somewhere in the background. HE NEVER STOPPED. He even tried to brush his hair between takes, but Brodsky told him no, but that didn’t mean Justin didn’t keep reaching for his brush.”

Head over to Headbanger’s Blog to check out the rest.

Now here’s the video… I’ve mentioned in the past how much I dig the rhythmic editing of Allison Woest, Brodsky’s producer/partner/sometimes editor, and while I’m not 100% certain that Woest edited this clip, it certainly has her fingerprints all over it – note how many of the cuts happen right on the beat every time (the first ten or fifteen seconds of the video are the most obvious example of this technique, but it does repeat throughout).

-AR

Holy crap. After what seems like forever, God Forbid finally released their first DVD, Beneath the Scars of Glory and Progression, earlier this week (trailer and clip above).

And you know what?

It was totally worth the wait. Click to read more…

I’ve never met Matt Fox in person, but reading his answers to this all-too-brief interview I recently conducted with him via e-mail, I really, really want to. Fox comes across as intelligent, funny, and, as his band’s name would suggest, a knowledgeable and opinionated sci-fi geek; in other words, he comes across as exactly the kind of dude I’d wanna be friends with.

Shai Hulud’s latest cock punch of metallicized hardcore, the excellently titled Misanthropy Pure, hits stores today via Metal Blade, and if you haven’t heard it yet, well, you need to: it’s a vicious, wholly unique entry into a genre that seems to be growing more tired by the day, an album that genuinely doesn’t sound like anything else on the market right now. Above, watch Shai Hulud’s David Brodsky-directed video for the title track; after the jump, check out Matt’s thoughts on the writing process, the metalcore genre, and, of course, all things sci-fi.

Click to read more…

Here’s the thing about Ray Mazzola, vocalist for New York’s own Full Blown Chaos: the guy has a natural born gift for storytelling. I learned this back in February, when I was lucky enough to be invited to dinner with the members of Soilent Green, music video auteur extraordinaire David Brodsky, and Allie Woest, Brodsky’s partner/producer/sometimes editor/general right hand. Full Blown Chaos were on a temporary hiatus from touring at the time (a hiatus which, their fans will be pleased to know, is now over), and so Ray joined us, and within seconds of sitting at the table, he was trading war stories from the road with Soilent Green/Crowbar drummer Tommy Buckley. And, as nice a guy as Buckley is and as many good stories as he had to tell, he just couldn’t keep up with Ray; I won’t repeat any of Ray’s stories second hand ’cause I could never do them justice, so I’ll just say that I can never again hear Napalm Death’s “The Code is Red” without bursting into hysterical laughter.

So after dinner I interviewed Soilent Green guitarist Brian Patton (and some of the dudes from Car Bomb, who also showed up at some point), and then Ray was cool enough to sit down and let me pick his brain for a little while – and to share one of his special stories with our readers. To say that the story is a doozy would be to put it mildly. Little wonder this dude is such a charismatic front man.

Above, watch the David Brodsky-directed video for Full Blown Chaos’ “Halos for Heroes,” from their album Heavy Lies the Crown; after the jump, read the full transcript of my conversation with Ray.

Click to read more…

So a couple of weeks back I posted the new Arsis video, “We Are the Nightmare,” without animation. I’m not even gonna link to it, ’cause even though I thought that video was awesome, this new, definitive version, complete with animation by director David Brodsky, is even awesomer.

Seriously: I have been listening to almost nothing but Arsis for about a week. This band rules. This album rules. This video fuckin’ rules.

ARSIS – We Are The Nightmare (Version Two)

After the jump, read what director David Brodsky had to say on Arsis’ MySpace blog about working with the band and the story behind the video!

Click to read more…

Headbanger’s Blog debuted Sworn Enemy’s new video for “A Place of Solace” earlier today, and director/animator/special effects dude/general madman David Brodsky was cool enough to send us his original treatment for the clip, giving us a glimpse not only into the video’s meaning, but the thought process that goes on behind-the-scenes for a project such as this one. Excerpts from the treatment appear below:

“The entire narrative aspect of the video takes place in the ‘minds’ of ‘narrators’… the ‘narrators’ being the Father and the Son. All of the images shown are either ‘recollection’ or ‘metaphorical fantasy’…

“Who is being ‘wronged’ is indicated by B/W slow-mo faces or graphic in the extreme foreground while the ‘action’ is happening in the background ‘projected on a wall.’ The projection helps to indicate ‘recollection’…

“…For instance, when the kid is stealing money, the DAD is the ‘graphic’ because the Dad recalls the kid as being a thief… when the Dad is digging through the drawer, the KID is the ‘graphic’ because the kid is recalling the Dad being a snoop… and when they are BOTH being assholes they are BOTH the graphic…

“We show the family was ‘happy,’ then the dad disrespects the kid, the kid then disrespects the dad, so on and so forth in slightly escalating ways until they come to blows internally – sort of a way to show that both of them feel the same way BUT for two different reasons… and both ‘dream’ of the other one being dominated in order to achieve their personal ‘place of solace’…

“Both of them have legitimate points and both of them react in escalating ways because THEY PERCEIVE that the other one is being the asshole…

“I want to stay away from the terribly obvious and make something that, let’s say, a son could watch and agree with AND a father could watch and agree with… instead of making it clear-cut who was really the asshole, we wanted to make it easy to sympathize with either character…

“It’s a very real possibility that both of these characters are overreacting to small matters, but then again, it’s a very real possibility that we ALL overreact to small matters depending on the context in which we see them.”

Here’s the vid; like the Brodsky-directed video for Suicide Silence’s “Bludgeoned to Death,” it was edited by Allison Woest. After you’ve watched it, don’t forget to visit David Brodsky/MyGoodEye on MySpace.

-AR

MTV banned Suicide Silence’s video for “The Price of Beauty,” so they had to go make another one. The result, “Blugeoned to Death” – geez, that title certainly sounds more violent than “The Price of Beauty” – is pretty sweet… just as epic, energetic, and disturbing as you’d expect from a band called Suicide Silence. In fact, I’d argue that the suggestive nature of this video – particularly the atmospheric animation – makes this video ten times spookier than the last one, which did not acknowledge the “less is more” principle.

So here’s the video. It was directed by David Brodsky (who also did the animation!) and edited by Allison Woest…

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-AR