Originally, I had planned on livetweeting this year’s New England Metal and Hardcore Festival for the purposes of turning my pithy comments into some sort of proper show report. Looking back on some of those 140-characters-or-less entries, I realized that there was really no need to do so. Instead, below you’ll find a selection of my most poignant tweets from the two day weekender. Enjoy!

DAY ONE
So nice of @metalsucks to have this limo waiting for me at Union Station. My driver Tito has already taken a shine to me. #nemhf 12:42 PM Apr 23rd

My limo driver Tito and I stopped at Uno’s for a quick bite. I wonder if Rose Funeral refuse to eat here on principle. #nemhf 12:52 PM Apr 23rd

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The musical fate of former Oceano guitarist Andrew Mikhail has at last been revealed! After parting ways with the Chicago-area deathcore noisemakers earlier this year, he’s gone on to sunnier climes with Miami’s metalcore maniacs Thick As Blood. He replaces second guitarist Leonardo “Lenny” Lombardo mere weeks before the band gear up for the North American “Wrath Of Sanity” tour opening for hardcore heavies Earth Crisis and First Blood. It’s a plum job for Mikhail, to say the least, and on behalf of our site I wish him all the best with the group.

If you’re unfamiliar with Thick As Blood, check out the video for “Raising Hell” from their 2009 Eulogy Recordings album Embrace below. Tour dates (including one at the New England Metal/Hardcore Festival) are down there too.

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…..AS some of you may or may not have heard, Guitarist, Andrew has parted ways with Oceano. This decision was reached through personal as well as minor quarrels amongst the band. We wont go too much further into detail as it seemingly is not a band issue any longer.

If we’re to use MySpace blog comments as our guide, the fan reaction to last week’s news of Andrew Mikhail’s less-than-amicable departure from self-proclaimed deathcore beef-bringers Oceano was generally postive. In a post marked “Andrew Leaves Oceano” the band acknowledged their former guitarist’s public denouncement of the group before assuring fans that tour plans were not changing in spite of this. Scrolling down the page, however, it seems Mikhail wasn’t entirely happy with the comments being made. Using the presumably Outkast-referencing handle “andrew3000.” he replied directly to Oceano saying:

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Guitarist Andrew Mikhail (who spoke with our own Oceano-loving fiend, Gary Suarez, back in October) has left Oceano. The guitarist revealed his departure in a series of Tweets, each more revealing than the last, starting 2 days ago:

“dawn of a new day” 6:52 PM Feb 1st from mobile web

decided it was time to get out of the water. 7:24 AM Feb 2nd from mobile web

for personal reasons, i left oceano yesterday. wanted to say thanks to everyone who has supported what i’ve done. see you soon, for sure. about 20 hours ago from web

The inevitable Lambgoat post followed as did a barrage of unusually non-offensive comments (one of which is my headline – thanks “the_smile_that_kills”!). The statement Mikhail released to Lambgoat is cryptic and doesn’t say much, but it seems — understandably so — that Mikhail was just tired of playing shitty deathcore.

We look forward to bashing Oceano’s forthcoming Zeuss-produced album when it comes out later this year. That sound you hear is Gary Suarez whimpering in the corner.

-VN

Thanks: Pete Arado.

There’s a lyric in the song “Hour of Rats” from Fed Through the Teeth Machine, the album by The Red Chord, and this particular lyric has really taken hold in my brain as of late: “WE’VE KNOWN EACH OTHER TOO LONG TO BE FRIENDS.” What a simple, beautiful statement that I can 110% relate to these days. Hm.

Speaking of The Red Chord…

• We’re streaming The Red Chord’s new album, Fed Through the Teeth Machine, through Monday! It’s awesome, so definitely give it a listen, then go buy it when Metal Blade releases it on Tuesday, October 27! We also spoke to The Red Chord’s Mike “Gunface” McKenzie.
• We got a European tour wrap-up from Chimaira’s Mark Hunter, had a nice chat with Kowloon Walled City’s Jason Pace, and even played nice with Oceano’s Andrew Mikhail.
• Lord Gold from Horse the Band graced us with another awesome tour blog, Eyal discussed physical CDs, and Dallas explored the evolution and importance of deathcore.
• We checked out new releases from Converge, Ancestors, and Smite the Righteous.
• Janet Reno quit Attack Attack!
• We’re fairly certain that Dave Mustaine is still a Megadick. Actually, we’re positive.

Have a good weekend everyone…

-AR