I read somewhere that Amon Amarth are like real-life Dethklok. I think it was actually Axl that tweeted it, and it stuck with me. It’s hilarious, and if you’ve ever seen them live, it’s pretty true.

Drummer Fredrik Andersson was kind enough to spare some time to talk about the band’s new album, Surtur Rising, their upcoming tour, and what Amon Amarth is really all about. Disappointing as it may be though, I don’t think they’ll be investing in Amorthsplosion Sauce any time soon.

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If you asked me to make some suggestions for bands Amon Amarth might want to consider covering, well, I don’t think it would ever occur to me include System of a Down on that list. I love both bands (in different ways, obviously), but when I think of giant bearded viking dudes, my mind doesn’t then go right to politically-minded Armenian-American alt-metal.

Which is probably why Amon Amarth wanted to cover SOAD in the first place! Their version of “Aerials,” from the latter band’s nu-classic Toxicity, will be available as a downloadable bonus track when fans purchase AA’s latest release, Surtur Rising, through any FYE outlet in America (here’s an order link in case you wanna get on that). The cover is now available on YouTube, and you can check it out below — it’s pretty sweet. They’ve managed to make the song sound simultaneously like no other Amon Amarth song, and JUST like an Amon Amarth song.

Surtur Rising, which ten different kinds of awesome, by the way, comes out March 29 (a week from today!) on Metal Blade.

-AR

[via Metal Underground]

It must be that time of year, because new metal is seemingly streaming from every orifice of the Internet. So much music, in fact, that it’s increasingly difficult to keep up with it all (first world problems, we know)… so I’ve decided to pool ‘em all together in one handy-dandy post.

Québécois avant-garde metallers Unexpect have a freakishly fervent cult following; within minutes of new song “Orange Vigilantes” going live on Unexpect’s website earlier this week we had a swarm of emails from excited readers. It’s been nearly five years since Unexpect’s last album In a Flesh Aquarium dropped on The End Records, so I can understand why folks are so excited. And then there’s that other thing: this band is awesome. They’re kind of like extreme metal’s answer to Mr. Bungle, but nerdier, or as reader Chris Dávila calls them, “crazy circus metal.” Look for a release date for Unexpect’s new still-untitled album to be announced soon.

The March 29th release of Surtur Rising draws ever closer, but you don’t have to wait any longer to hear another new song by Swedish viking cock-metallers Amon Amarth.

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In lieu of our weekly photo caption contest (for which we’ll announce the winners next week), we’re doing something very special this week; in conjunction with Catstackers.com, we’re hosting our very own Cat Stacking contest!

The premise is startling simple yet insanely fun: Stack your cat with whatever says “metal” to you. Need some ideas? Check out the amazing entries from Catstackers.com. Contestants will be judged according to stacks that show pleasing height and balance, creativity and good use of materials. Please note that putting dumb outfits on your cat doesn’t count as stacking. But if you want to dress your cat up and THEN stack stuff on him, bully for you. Don’t have a cat? Well, you know somebody who does, right?

The cat with the most metal stack will get Amon Amarth’s new album Surtur Rising on CD and a t-shirt from Metalsucks! We’ll choose the winners after the contest ends at midnight on March 24th. U.S. and Canadian residents only on this one, please.

—> ENTER HERE AND MAKE SURE YOU PUT “HEAVY METAL CONTEST” AS THE SUBJECT! <—

Comment entries will not be accepted. Have fun!

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…

So, yesterday on the Deciblog we posted a long-ass Justify Your Shitty Taste on “Guns N’ Roses”’ Chinese Democracy, which your fearless co-leader Axl Rosenberg boldly cosigned, followed by, frankly, a surprising amount of you guys (which is to say, more than one). I’m not trying to be a dick here. I mean, I can get behind about 25 percent of this mess (the ballads), but I have fairly shitty taste in rock music. As in, I still think Eight Arms to Hold You kicks ass. Whatever. It was just interesting surveying our entire staff of about 20 writers in an effort to get Chinese Democracy written up, and the only person that responded with a modicum of enthusiasm was Shawn Macomber. Fair enough. But then, cue a minor avalanche of vehement, assured hell yeahs. That’s probably the most satisfying thing about this series — watching that groundswell of minority voices band together for a day or two with a shared “fuck you, I told you it was good!”

Anyway, scrolling through the new issue’s reviews section, I don’t really see any future JYSTs. (Just wait ’til May’s The Haunted review, though.) April is more about giving credit to things that don’t hopelessly suck. Hence, we gave Jonah Hegg his second solo cover (order here). I don’t think the other four Amon Amarth dudes are sweating it; they get their chance to Vike out (ahem) in the table of contents and the actual story. Elsewhere, if you’re a J. Bennett fan, this is your issue — he goes head to head with Glen Benton (I’ll leave the obvious jokes to him), bros down in Alaska with Every Time I Die and files a long-overdue Hall of Fame on Mercyful Fate’s Melissa. If you’re a fan of any other writer on staff, well, they do stuff, too: features on Trap Them, Drugs of Faith, Primordial, Rotten Sound and Subrosa — the latter of which being almost as good as Veruca Salt in their prime.

-AB

You can buy the April 2011 issue of Decibel here, or just get a full subscription to ensure that you never miss a review of a future “Justify Your Shitty Taste” entry.

Short n’ sweet: there’s this young lady named Alexandra Nicoletti who has been posting videos of herself on YouTube in which she plays piano versions of Amon Amarth songs (and some non-metal stuff, too, like a number from Beauty and the Beast), and she’s really good. Here she is doing the band’s new song, “War of the Gods”:

You can check out more at her YouTube channel. She also has a Facebook fan page if you wanna show your support that way.

The actual studio version of “War of the Gods” will appear on Amon Amarth’s new album, Surtur Rising, which comes out March 29 on Metal Blade.

-AR

Thanks to Mike Manzo for the tip.

Let’s keep this one simple: ANOTHER NEW AMON AMARTH TRACK! WHOO-HOO!!!

It’s called “Slaves of Fear,” and it’s streaming over at The Deciblog. The song’s main riff is insanely catchy, which is not unusual for Amon Amarth, but it’s also got a very buoyant quality, which I do find unusual for this band. It’s almost like a cock rock riff, or something that might appear in a training montage — an awesome, viking metal training montage (I don’t know what that might entail, but I’m guessing it would include lessons in rape, murder, and binge drinking). All of which is totally excellent.

Headbang here. Amon Amarth’s latest, Surtur Rising, comes out March 29 on Metal Blade. As Vince reported last week, the band will start a U.S. tour in April, during which they’ll play the entire new record during their first set and then play a SECOND set of old favorites. Get dates after the jump.

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“Evening With” tours are those rarest of gems done by the rarest of bands; you’ve not only got to have a catalog of good songs worth spreading over two sets but you’ve got to have the fanbase that’ll back that up by coming to see you without any support bands in tow. The only bands I can recall in recent years having done “Evening With” tours are Dream Theater and Opeth… that’s some esteemed company right there. But you can add Amon Amarth to that list; according to a press release, Amon Amarth will embark on a tour this April — by which time our Amon Amarth Viking Beard contest will have just ended — simply dubbed “An Evening With Amarth.” The band will play their new album Surtur Rising in its entirety for the first set and a smattering of Amon Amarth favorites for the second set. Presumably there will be an encore written into the set, as is de rigeur these days… maybe even two! And presumably this format will allow the band to put together a killer stage production with plenty of Viking-inspired eye candy.

If you’d've asked me yesterday to make a short list of bands likely to put together an “Evening With” tour, Amon Amarth would not have been on that list. But I love this decision. It’s bold; not only does it say “We think our new album is great and worthy of playing in full” but it says “We think we’re one of the biggest metal bands in the world right now.” And are they wrong? Amon Amarth have been slogging it out over the course of a 13-year career spanning 8 albums. They’ve never over-saturated the U.S. with constant touring, taking all the right support slots with the very occasional headliner. They’ve never gone for the mainstream by trying to write songs for the radio. Instead they’ve always just done what Amon Amarth do best… which is being fucking Amon Amarth. There is no other band like them.

Dates after the jump.

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So a new Amon Amarth song, “War of the Gods,” debuted on on Full Metal Jackie’s radio show over the weekend, and, of course, is now on the net. The quality isn’t top-notch ’cause it’s a radio rip, but it is good enough for you to hear that Amon Amarth didn’t fuck up and make some boring pussy shit — as though there were any possibility that they might.

“War of the Gods” will appear on Amon Amarth’s new album, Surtur Rising, which comes out March 29 on Metal Blade.

-AR

[via Metal Injection]

Amon Amarth have released the cover art for their latest offering, Surtur Rising, and, uh, it looks like an Amon Amarth album cover. That’s not a criticism, by the way — if they suddenly had, say, an angry vagina on their album cover, it would be way weird — it’s just an observation. In any case, I can think of no image more appropriate for Amon Amarth than a giant dude wielding a lightning sword while a volcano erupts behind him. I almost can’t believe they missed out on the opportunity to make him a minotaur, too… although I guess that’s the wrong culture.

Surtur Rising comes out March 29 on Metal Blade, and the only people not excited are the ones who hate fun.

-AR

In case you haven’t heard, we’re having a fun little contest: grow out your beard in time for the March 29th release of Amon Amarth’s new album Surtur Rising, and you could win a bunch of cool shit including a lock of vocalist Johan Hegg’s beard, a super-deluxe limited edition copy of the album, a signed drum head and a bunch of swag from Metal Blade Records and MetalSucks. Ladies are encouraged to enter as well by growing out their armpit and/or leg hair; one winner will be chosen from the men, and one from the women, selected by Johan Hegg himself!

Instructions for how to enter are posted here! The deadline is 11:59pm EST tomorrow night, Tuesday, January 11th. So send those entries in! Let the hair-growing commence.

I was elated to see all the recommendations for good elephants marching riffs following my love letter to that conceit earlier this week. I was a little less elated to discover that there’s almost as much confusion over what qualifies as an elephants marching riff as is there over what qualifies as a taco riff.

For example, here are some excellent riffs by some excellent bands that some of you excellently suggested but which are, rather unexcellently, not elephants marching riffs:

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There seemed to be quite a bit of outrage in response to the Amon Amarth Viking Beard Contest we announced yesterday. In its original incarnation the contest was only going to be open to men, but in an effort to include women in the fun as well we came up with the pubic hair idea at the last minute. It was well-intentioned but wrongly received, and those of you who expressed anger that men only have to show their face while women have to show their privates are certainly justified in feeling that way. It was sexist of us to request those kinds of entries on an unequal playing field, and we apologize.

We’d still like to keep the contest open to women, though; instead of growing out the hair around your nether regions, women are encouraged to grow and/or style their armpit hair or leg hair to enter this contest! The photo submission guidelines at the beginning and end of the contest remain the same.

Additionally, there were now be two identical prize packages, thus leveling the playing field even more; one for men, one for women.

[UPDATE, Jan 5: New entry instructions for females! Read here.]

We are thrilled to present one of the most fun contests in our short history. Grow a beard, win a bunch of Amon Amarth shit. Interested? Read on.

Reader Jordan Wean actually suggested this idea to us back in November, and we loved it so much we knew we just had to do it. The only question was, “With whom?” And since the beard of Amon Amarth’s Johan Hegg has few rivals, when Amon Amarth announced they’d be releasing their new album Surtur Rising on March 29th, 2011 we knew we’d found the perfect band, so we approached them about the idea and voila, contest!

Females, fret not: this contest is open to you, too! Read on.

The rules:

Step 1) Send us a completely clean-shaven picture of yourself NOW — before Tuesday, January 11th at 11:59pm EST — holding up a sign that says “MetalSucks” and the date. Send all entries to news [at] metalsucks [dot] net with the subject AMON AMARTH VIKING BEARD CONTEST.

Step 2) Grow a beard.

Step 3) On March 29th, the day Surtur Rising comes out, send us a new picture of yourself… same deal: hold up a sign with “MetalSucks” and the date, only this time you’ll also need to write a secret passcode on your sign that will be revealed on MetalSucks on March 29th.

FEMALE RULES: The same as above, but a little more X-rated! Yes, we’re completely serious, and no, we don’t mean your armpits. You can black out / blur out certain parts if you’re so inclined… or not. You must be 18 year of age or older to enter. but for your armpits or leg hair! We’ll be choosing one male winner and one female winner, both with an identical prize pack, so the playing field is equal for everyone.

The prize:

- a lock from Johan Hegg’s beard!
- the “super duper fan edition” of Surtur Rising, of which only a very small limited number will be made.
- a drumhead signed by the whole band
- a Metal Blade Records t-shirt and lanyard
- a MetalSucks t-shirt in the design and size of your choosing

Once we’ve received all the entries during the week of March 29th (Deadline for picture #2: Monday, April 4th, 11:59pm EST), Johan himself will go through all the entries and select a winner. There are no set parameters by which you need to grow your beard — viking style, Abe Lincoln, Rollie Fingers stache, Fu Manchu, or just plain ol’ au naturale… it’s all good by us! Bigger isn’t necessarily better… it’s the motion of the ocean!

Now, get to growing those beards. You’ve got 3 months!

In the early moments of our conversation, I confirmed with busy Atheist frontman Kelly Shaefer that we would limit our interview time to the industry-standard 15 minutes. Shaefer responded amiably, “As much time as you need, man.” To this, I replied jokingly, “Gosh, how much time have you got?” And though we shared a chuckle at this, neither of us could’ve expected our little phone chat to stretch to 2.5 hours over two days. (Of course, it eventually became clear that nothing less should’ve been expected from two lefty pothead metal guitarists who drink a shitload of Mountain Dew and love talking metal.)

Last week, part one found Shaefer and I delving into big, brainy, conceptual stuff, like his approaches to songwriting and singing, the birth of his genre, and the right-on-time return to awesomeness by his classic band (the new record is called Jupiter, but duh you know that).

Today, MetalSucks unsheathes partie deux, in which the tirelessly gracious, funny, and plainspoken Shaeffer (above, right) indulges my questions about more tangible Atheist business, like record label politics, the importance of good packaging, former Atheist guitarist Rand Burkey, current Atheist guitarist Kelly Shaefer (he and his “guitar still are very best friends”), the squashing of inter-band beefs, America’s shameful marijuana policies (I started it, sorry), and so very, very much more. (Spoiler: We do eventually stop talking on the phone.)

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Last week we offered a 10 CD package from Rotting Corpse Records, and a lot of folks entered which is sweet ’cause you’re sure to discover some awesome new music. And the winner is….

• Name Not Applicable: “National Socialist Rap Metal failed to catch on.”

This week we’ve got two packages to give away, each consisting of Lightning Swords of Death‘s latest The Extra Dimensional Wound and a reissue of Amon Amarth’s 2001 release The Crusher, all thanks to Metal Blade Records. Just come up with a funny caption to the below photo and one package shall be yours — remember to comment with a real email address (or include it with your comment if you’re using FB Connect).

It’s kinda metal related, right?

More fun at the expense of other people’s well being after the jump. Hint: it concerns headbanging and Amon Amarth!!!

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Last Thursday here in Philadelphia I had the oppurtunity to shoot Tyr and Amon Amarth for the final date of their US Tour [See that above picture? That alone makes me so sad I missed this tour in NY -Ed.]. Between rushing from school, fighting traffic and my complete inability to find a parking spot I missed opening band Holy Grail, but I arrived just in time for Tyr. Armed with some of the most awesome boots I’ve ever seen, Tyr awoke the Viking in all of us. Though I found some of the choruses pretty brutally obvious and uninspiring (the lyrics of “The Sword in My Hand” for example) they were definitely fun to watch.

Being a virgin Amon Amarth show-goer, I was a little overly excited for this show. As long as I walked away with one image of some synchronized head banging I would be satisfied. They tore through an awesome set, Johan Hegg pausing between songs to speak to all of us, or sometimes to only some of us: “I want to hear all the ladies out there. [pause for screaming women, this photographer included]. This one is for all the ladies!” As they came out for the encore, they had asked their roadie to play bass for them, and being the last date of the tour, all the members from Tyr and Holy Grail joined on stage as well. All in all an awesome night.

Oh, Did I mention all the awesome beards? Yeah, good stuff.

Photos after the jump.

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Last year, my esteemed colleagues Vince Neilstein and Van Arseface covered the New England Metal & Hardcore Festival for this site, resulting in a plethora of posts about their experience and the bands. Pretty good stuff, I’d say. For the 2010 Worcester, MA event, I volunteered to be the official correspondent in my capacity as the resident “hardcore expert” (not to be confused with the resident “hardcore sexpert“). With big names like Cro Mags and Disembodied playing the second stage, how could I not?

So, yeah, throughout the weekend, you can follow all of my witty, ascerbic livetweets here (that is, if you have a Twitter account and a major credit card). Show reports will appear here on MetalSucks next week, with some interviews with select bands following in the subsequent weeks (because monkeys can only transcribe so fast). To answer your lingering questions:

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When it comes to music (and other things really), I tend to play devil’s advocate. If everyone is shitting on a certain band, for some reason, I become more attracted to that band and seek them out. I don’t know what it is about my personality, but I think it stems from the same perspective that inspired me to write the antagonistic blog about rethrash. It may be a character flaw, but I’m sure it has something to do with a need to be an individual. From what I gather, this website is inhabited mainly by “true” metal heads. What I define as “true” are people whom are purists in the realm of metal and usually scoff at any band or trend that reeks of premeditated commercialism or an overt play for popularity, and who usually demand a certain level of musicianship and underground credibility. These fans usually hate every Metallica record after …And Justice For All, and for that matter always prefer any particular band’s older releases, which usually have a more raw and unrefined recording quality, as well as more abstract, less traditional song writing. For example, they will prefer Carcass’s Necrotiscim to Heartwork, or Morbid Angel’s Blessed Are The Sick to Domination. Oh yeah, and these guys gave up on In Flames and Soilwork years ago.

I have a good deal of that purism in my bones, but it always seemed short sighted and close minded. You have no idea how many arguments the Adler brothers from Lamb of God and I have gotten into over the merits of a particluar Metallica or Megadeth record. If you even bring up Disturbed or Limp Bizkit on MetalSucks, it is mocked and disregarded 100% of the time. I think metal heads often have a sheep mentality because of the fear of being viewed by their peers as less credible for liking bands that aren’t considered “true” or “real” enough. We all have guilty pleasures, but the real question is “Why should we feel guilty about something we enjoy?”

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