ROSVO – Seasick from Rosvo on Vimeo.

If I saw this crazy-looking dude running through the streets with headphones on, dancing and making weird faces, I’d probably call the cops. Or at least the insane asylum. But relax! It’s just the lovable, huggable Haunted frontman Peter Dolving having fun at the expense of the unsuspecting Japanese public. Because Japanese people are intrinsically funny!

The video is for the song “Seasick” by Dolving’s side-project Rosvo. Says Dolving, “We shot this video in 45 minutes. Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Anders Björler and Peter Dolving, one iPhone and a bunch of people on their way somewhere wondering what the hell the guy wit the beard was going on about. Anders edited it in a couple of hours when we got home and here we have it.”

Anders Björler for music video director of the year?

-VN

Even though I thought A Sense of Purpose was pretty lame, I’m not ready to feel too cynical about In Flames’ new album, Sounds of a Playground Fading. Soundtrack to Your Escape wasn’t exactly a masterpiece, either, but the band followed it up with Come Clarity, an album I really like (power ballad and all!)… my point being that IF can still turn it around. They’re not in Metallica/”Why even bother getting your hopes up?” territory yet.

Unfortunately, their new, in-the-studio video only has a little bit of new music, and while the riff sounds cool enough, it’s not nearly enough to make even a snap judgment upon. But go ahead and check it out and see what you think — the music shows up around the 3:20 mark. The rest of the video is pretty standard stuff which I didn’t find that exciting, but of course you’re free to watch the whole thing, too.

Oh, and apparently this was made by Anders Bjorler, which explains why he was in the studio with In Flames that time we got excited that he might be their new guitar player.

Sounds of a Playground Fading comes out June 21 on Century.

-AR

Yeah, that Anders Bjorler, of At The Gates and The Haunted. Could it be that In Flames now has two men named Anders amongst their ranks?

That what the above picture, posted today on In Flames’ Facebook page, would seem to imply, as first reported by the stealthy Heavy Blog is Heavy. A cryptic but not really all that cryptic caption accompanied the photo:

Who’s this guy?

Now, we’re not ones to recklessly speculate… oh who am I kidding, of course we are! You may recall that longtime guitarist and founding member Jesper Stromblad departed In Flames last year to focus on treating his alcohol addiction, and that In Flames are currently in the studio recording a follow-up to 2008′s underwhelming A Sense of Purpose. So while it’s possible that Bjorler was just stopping into the studio to say hi, or just lent a guest solo to one track, it’s a lot more fun to think about the possibility of one legendary Swedish guitar player replacing another.

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If you read MetalSucks regularly, then you already know how much we love The Haunted. Which is why we’re stoked to bring you this exclusive clip from their new DVD/CD, Road Kill, which was released in North America yesterday via Century. In case ya hadn’t heard, this two-disc set comes with On the Road with The Haunted, a 65-minute documentary directed by guitarist Anders Bjorler; a 40-minute live set from Amsterdam; six music videos; and a CD with the audio from the Amsterdam show, plus five bonus tracks. If you’re a fan of awesome Swedish metal (and who isn’t?), then you need a copy of this. Order a copy here.

And now, without further adieu, enjoy the clip…

[This exclusive has now ended.]

Horns up for Ashley Foster, who correctly identified last week’s logo as belonging to the awesome grind band Owen Hart. Ms. Foster wins a copy of 20 Years of Century Media: 1991 -1995, the first of four planned comps celebrating the illustrious label’s anniversary. Congrats, Ashley!

Now, because The Haunted’s new DVD, Road Kill, is coming out in North America a week from today, and because it was such a popular prize the first time we gave some away, we’ve got more two copies to unload this week. In case ya hadn’t heard, this two-disc set comes with On the Road with The Haunted, a 65-minute documentary directed by guitarist Anders Bjorler; a 40-minute live set from Amsterdam; six music videos; and CD with the audio from the Amsterdam show, plus five bonus tracks. If you’re a fan of awesome Swedish metal (and who isn’t?), then you need a copy of this.

All you have to do to win is identify the name of the band whose logo appears below, then shoot me an e-mail at axl AT metalsucks DOT net with your answer, your name, and your address. From everyone who gets it right, we’ll randomly select two winners and announce his or her names next week.

This week’s logo was suggested by MetalSucks Maniac Gerrito Dreher. Thanks, Gerrito!

-AR

At the Gates’ new, triple-disc DVD, The Flames of the End, was released in Europe earlier this year, but we finally get it here in North America tomorrow. And I can tell you, it’s a must-own: the first disc consists of an incredible feature-length documentary, Under a Serpent Sun: The Story of At the Gates, which was directed by guitarist Anders Bjorler ; the second disc is the band’s complete reunion performance from Wacken ’08 (clip above); and the final disc is a whole heap of other live footage, some of it dating as far back as 1991. It’s an amazingly comprehensive package that no At the Gates fan can afford to miss.

Back in February, Bjorler actually flew to New York for a special screening of the Serpent Sun documentary, and a few hours prior to said screening, I got to meet Bjorler at his hotel for an interview. As I said, I hadn’t actually seen the film yet at this point, so I was only able to get so specific with the questions. Still, Bjorler turned out to be an honest, interesting, and deeply sarcastic (and deadpan) interview subject. Read the full transcript of our chat after the jump…

Click to read more…

I know that some people were hoping that the At the Gates reunion tour would be followed by an At the Gates reunion album, but that was never gonna happen; the band said they didn’t wanna risk ruining their legacy with an album that could never really live up to expectations, and I think that’s a smart move. Bands like Alice in Chains are the exception, not the rule, and At the Gates would be trying to follow-up one of the most influential metal albums of all time, so I don’t think that would go too well for them.

Still, we are getting some new At the Gates product in the form of a new three-disc DVD, The Flames of the End, which Earache will release on February 22. Here’s what’s in the set:

Click to read more…