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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Tongue-in-cheek covers are kind of lame which is why I find Slaughter of the Bluegrass so entertaining; these guys aren’t being ironic at all. These Swedes love their metal but they also love their bluegrass, having already done bluegrass cover versions of At the Gates and Dark Tranquillity songs. The Deciblog alerted us to the latest Slaughter of the Bluegrass cover of Amon Amarth’s “Twilight of the Thunder God.” While bluegrass and viking metal might seem to be at odds, in a way it makes perfect sense: Swedish “redneck” music done in the style of another country’s redneck music. A perfect fit.

Listen to the track above and download it here if you feel so inclined.

-VN

YESSSSSSS.

Amon Amarth have announced a North American tour for this spring. If you’ve never seen Amon Amarth,well, get off your ass and go.

It was at a Children of Bodom/Amon Amarth show in 2006 that Vince and I first decided to start MetalSucks. We were, it should go without saying, really, really baked. But it’s worth noting that at that particular moment, Bodom hadn’t taken the stage yet. So I’d like to think that the idea was born not just of weed and anticipation for COB, but, rather, from weed and the mighty creative juices of Amon Amarth. Thanks, dudes!

Eluveitie and Holy Grail are acting as support; I don’t know Holy Grail, but Amon Amarth and Eluveitie should really be enough to get you off your lazy ass.

Dates after the jump.

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The Monkeys are cranky today so let’s make this quick. The winner of last week’s funny photo caption contest and proud new owner of 10 random CDs from Prosthetic Records:

Devin Townsend Sr.: “ALL OUR DICKS COMBINED ARE THIS BIG.”

I actually LOLed at that one. This week we’re giving away a three-pack of CDs from Metal Blade Records: Amon Amarth’s The Avenger (reissue, 2CD Digipak), Ravage’s The End of Tomorrow, and Gwar’s latest, Lust in Space. Just come up with a funny caption to the below photo [sent in by MS reader Pelin] and they’ll be yours.

MS Maniac Leo Kannaly sent us an e-mail over the weekend where he wondered if this was the worst pit ever:

Leo, to answer your question, I don’t think that this is the worst pit ever, because I think to call this a pit would be an insult to pits everywhere. That being said, I do think it’s incredibly silly… but at least it doesn’t involve any karate moves.

-AR

ROOOOAAAAARRRR!!!!

For the raping and pillaging:

Amon Amarth, “Guardians of Asgaard”

For the post-raping and pillaging cuddling:

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Even before we were an “industry type” (I think we can safely call ourselves that now), I loved the fact that Roadrunner Records posts their staffers and some of the artists “best of” lists every year; these people work at/with one of the biggest metal labels out there, so it’s pretty interesting to see what they were grooving on from year to year.

The 2008 lists are on Roadrunner’s website now. Here are some highlights:

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The Absence, who are quickly becoming one my favorite new American metal bands, have released a new video for the song “Dead and Gone” from their excellent 2007 release Riders of the Plague. The video showcases just how hard the band rips live, as I found out last month when I saw them open for Amon Amarth.

In other news, there is nothing more metal than a pink guitar.

-VN

Congrats to MetalSucks devotee Joel V. who proved himself worthy of metal god status by photoshopping corpsepaint on his own photo to win last week’s contest. For your troubles, you’ll receive that awesome Early Man prize package; a limited edition gatefold colored vinyl of Beware the Circling Fin, said album on CD, and an Early Man t-shirt (aka this package).

This week we’re going back to the good ol’ photo caption contest, and we’re giving away one copy of Amon Amarth’s latest Viking onslaught Twilight of the Thunder God and one copy of Massachusetts metallers Unearth’s new record The March, courtesy our friends at Metal Blade Records. Just come up with a funny caption to the below photo and post it in the comments, and one of them is yours.

When you’re a melodic death metal band from Finland what you really need are the multi-faceted talents of a producer such as Dan Swanö to bring out all the best elements of your music. Sure, an ability to write and play well are necessities but the proper direction and production can elevate your music from the ranks of the fledgling many to the proven few. Omnium Gatherum are an act with which you may not yet be familiar but, given the strength of The Redshift, you should be made aware. The reason? This release deftly surpasses the mediocrity of their past couple and even trumps their impressive 2003 debut, Spirits And August Light. The band have finally brought all the pieces together in a synergistic manner creating a cohesive and impressive work that should make their name more accessible to the larger community of metal brethren the world over. And their music will even appeal to our Sisters in Metal as well, so let’s not pretend this is all part of a special, masculine group. We can’t even get the handshake down.

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As my good friend Axl noted this past May, The Absence are one hell of a fucking good metal band. I’ve been highly digging on their Spring release Riders of the Plague but perhaps I haven’t written about them here enough, so let me just put it bluntly: THIS BAND FUCKING RULES AND YOU OUGHT TO PAY ATTENTION.

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At long last, we are pleased to announce the winner of our Amon Amarth Viking Video Contest in which we asked you to make a one minute-long video interpretation of a scene or tale from Viking lore. The contest’s winner is Christian Madsen with his incredible animated short “The Wild Hunt,” below:

Read all about the story and inspiration behind Christian’s video here.

Congrats to Christian! He’ll be receiving the the ultimate Amon Amarth prize package featuring the band’s entire Metal Blade discography and recent DVD set (including their new record Twilight of the Thunder God, out now!)

Watch all of the entries for the contest (some better than others, to say the least) at the Amon Amarth Viking Video Contest page on Metal Injection. Special props to Looka’s “The Dragons’ Flight Across the Waves” as well.

Aspiring video directors, don’t forget to enter our latest video contest, in which your video could become the official music video for Krisiun’s “Slaying Steel.”

At this point, I really don’t imagine Slayer need any bait to lure fans to their concerts; I’ve seen them live quite a few times in my lifetime, and I’ve never seen the show be anything less than packed. Regardless of whether or not Slayer actually have anything to promote, if they play it, the fans will come.

Still, they’re trying out a little experiment, as explained in a press release:

“A brand-new Slayer album is expected in 2009, but some fans won’t have to wait that long to get an early listen to some of the new music.

“Fans who attend any of the upcoming European ‘Unholy Alliance Tour, Chapter III’ dates, will receive the new Slayer song via an exclusive download card that will also include special material from the entire tour’s line-up – Slayer, Mastodon, Trivium and Amon Amarth. The download card, along with a limited edition ‘Unholy Alliance Tour’ clothing patch, will be given away free only to ticket holders when they arrive at their local venue the night of the show.”

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As MetalSucks pensman Sammy O’Hagar so eloquently stated in his review of Amon Amarth’s latest album Twilight of the Thunder God (which comes out tomorrow in the U.S.), the kings of Swedish viking death metal have always justified their outward ridiculousness by backing it up with skull-crushing, top-notch metal. And when it comes to making music videos things are no different; with their epic new video for the album’s title track — which has a full Viking battle reenactment and lots of synchronized head-banging, natch — Amon have created one of the most visually striking and cinematically beautiful videos released in ages, at least to these untrained eyes. Even if frontman Johan Hegg isn’t sporting his usual bare-chested metal chub this time around, at least he’s got his own band’s shirt on, the very definition of epic if you ask me. And oh yeah, did I mention Viking battles? Viking battles!

Speaking of Viking battles, time is running out (as in tomorrow is the deadline) for our Amon Amarth Viking Video Contest, co-sponsored by Metal Injection and Metal Blade. Create your own minute-long Viking reenacement, and a giant stash of Amon swag and booty could be yours. Enter and read the rules here.

Lastly, don’t miss the epicness when it rapes and pillages the shores of North America starting October 1st; catch the MetalSucks co-sponsored Amon Amarth tour with the unfuckwithable lineup of Ensiferum, Belphegor, and The Absence in tow. Dates after the jump. See you there, beer steins in hand. This might actually be the night where I finally where my viking helmet.

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In theory, Amon Amarth are worth loathing: they’re thematically about as dopey as a band can get and as anyone who’s seen Headbanger’s Ball in the last 2 years can attest to, they’re prone to synchronized headbanging and often appearing shirtless though clearly a decade or so past their physical prime. So then why are Amon Amarth worth our time? The answer, obvious to anyone who’s ever heard Amon Amarth, is the bottomless gauntlet of riffs that the band endlessly takes gargantuan swigs from, sounding both lush and emotive as well as skull crushingly heavy. And for those that have fallen for the band’s dopey big riff attack before, there’s little to dislike on Twilight of the Thunder God, their latest. Though some things have shifted slightly, very little has changed, and the album is a little-to-no bullshit slab of brute melodic death metal in a time where melodic death metal has been seemingly sucked dry and left for dead. Amon Amarth are still Amon Amarth, and there is absolutely fucking nothing wrong with that.

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The chill of fall is in the air but the gossip mill never cools off at the MetalSucks Mansion. This week’s notables and quotables included:

• Original guitarist Peter Wichers returned to Soilwork and ex-At All Cost guitarist Mike Carrigan replaced Kris Norris in Darkest Hour; we rejoiced that great Soilwork music will once again be made and that Mike’s got a job. But the good was tempered by the bad as Christian Alvestam left Scar Symmetry and Spineshank reunited. There is no justice.
• Winds of Plague’s Kristen Randall showed the world her bewbs!
• We reviewed solid new albums by Into Eternity, Enslaved and All Shall Perish, and waxed ecstatic about Burst, Vince’s new proverbial wet dream.
• New videos from The Human Abstract and Amon Amarth are unbelievably epic.
• A scandal erupted involving the audio quality of Death Magnetic, alternate Guitar Hero mixes, and the now infamous “Better, Shorter, Cut” abridged edition.
• Vince & Axl [almost] reveal their true identities.

See ya next week.

This week saw the release of two delectable new videos from Swedish metal notables Amon Amarth and Scar Symmetry. Those videos, with our cheeky analysis (natch), after the jump.

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Don’t let the post-weekend hangover get you down; start your week off right by listening a new track from Sweden’s kings of viking metal, Amon Amarth. “Guardians of Asgaard” comes from their new album Twilight of the Thunder God due September 30th on Metal Blade, and the band will kick off a massive North American tour the very next day, which MetalSucks is proud to be sponsoring. Ensiferum, Belphegor, and The Absence will be opening – so ready your beer steins and viking helmets, and check out the full tour routing after the jump. And while you’re at it, don’t forget to enter our Amon Amarth Viking Video Contest to win a huge prize package of Amon Amarth swag.

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[MetalSucks writer Corey Mitchell recently had the opportunity to email some questions to Belphegor vocalist/guitarist Helmuth. Read his replies after the jump -- about bondage, Satanism, Zombies, the band's new album Bondage Goat Zombie, eternally keeping it br00tal, and more. - Ed.]

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Amon Amarth have a new album on the way September 30th called Twilight of the Thunder God (via Metal Blade), and they’ve just posted the title-track from that album on their MySpace page! It contains all the epic glory you’ve come to expect from Amon; if the MySpace music player had hair and was able to do windmills, you’d bet your ass it’d be doing them furiously along to this song.

Which reminds us — the clock is ticking down for you to submit entries to our epic Amon Amarth Viking Video Contest. MetalSucks, Metal Injection and Metal Blade Records are teaming up to give you an awesome Amon Amarth prize package (like, their entire discography), in celebration of the release of the new album. Upload your own Viking-inspired video and win big!

Think you can do better than the below entry posted by “Looka”? Click here to enter and read the official contest rules.