[UPDATE, 1:50pm EST: Low res version of the cover artwork for Eclipse is posted below (Thanks: Jeffrey F.) - Ed.]

Seems like Rob at Metal Injection has caught the entire Metalnets napping by reporting the already two day-old news that Veil of Maya’s third album, Eclipse, will be released on February 28th. How did we all miss the news that one of Sumerian’s biggest non-sucky bands (read: non-Asking Alexandria) is releasing a new album only 6 weeks from now? I’m not sure, but, welp, there it is! The news was announced on Monday via a press release that focused more on VoM’s upcoming tour with In Flames than the new album — hence having glossed over it — which strikes me as a little odd… as does the 6-week release window, which is very short compared to most album marketing plans. But again, there it is. New Veil of Maya on February 28th!

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UPDATED:

Hey, so you what did you guys think of the idea I posited last week for a new band ranking system? Thanks to Jason from IKILLYA for pointing out the existence of NextBigSound.com, a cool site that aggregates a lot of the data I suggested be included in the ranking, namely social network stats and other Internet metrics. While NextBigSound allows account holders to enter their own Soundscan data, I’d love to see all those things — along with torrents, merch sales, etc — combined into a single chart that’s published once a week and accessible to the industry, much like Soundscan is now. The grand picture is so much bigger than album sales now more than ever, and I think that needs to be reflected in the main chart people analyze. For the most part, it seemed like you guys were into the idea even if you questioned its feasibility.

Anyway, this week is pretty depressing sales-wise. One look at the top six records on this week’s Current Hard Music chart should make any metalhead cry. Since there weren’t many notable new albums released last week and you surely don’t wanna just read about Nickelsuck, I also included numbers of some older albums from earlier in 2011 that are experiencing holiday sales bumps.

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We generally use the Reviews category at MetalSucks to highlight lesser known bands that we feel could use the exposure instead of slapping an “official” but ultimately subjective and arbitrary rating on albums and bands we already cover on the site ad nauseam. But sometimes once a big album comes out we kind of forget about it; once the press releases, new track premieres, music videos and random tidbits stop coming at a breakneck pace and the record label is less focused on producing that big first week sales number, suddenly there’s a lot less to post about and certain records get lost in the fray of whatever’s new that’s come along since. Today I want to briefly reviews two of those albums, Animals as Leaders’ Weightless and Mastodon’s The Hunter.

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It was a week of polar opposites: on one hand, butt rock ruled as Disturbed nabbed the #1 spot on the Current Hard Music charts with Five Finger Death Punch and Evanescence firmly entrenched in second and third place. On the other hand Animals as Leaders scored a big debut, a big victory in the name of all that is right in the music world. As I Lay Dying and Rush also sold well. Let’s take a look at those and more after the jump.

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New releases from Animals as Leaders, As I Lay Dying, Beneath Oblivion, Leviathan, Whitechapel and My Dying Bride highlight this week’s packed slate of new releases. Let’s take a look at what’s in store for listeners after the jump.

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Actually, wait. Can you enter a somnarium? “Somnarium” is not, according to my dictionary, a real word… but I’m assuming it would be a place where you go to sleep, or a place for sleepwalkers, or something like that.

In which case, Animals as Leaders should have called their new song — “Somnarium,” duh — something else. Because while it is kinda soothing in places, it is far, far too good to be soporific.

Check out “Somnarium” here, then tell us if the song made you sleepy or not in our comments section. It will appear on Animals as Leaders’ new album, Weightless, which comes out November 8 via Prosthetic.

-AR

Do prog metal bands have a propensity for Noun Preposition Noun band names the way scene bands do for Verb the Noun band names? Someone should really look into that. Are “as” and “of” even prepositions, or are they conjunctions? With a certain big player out of the way (no spoiler!), what will the next season of Breaking Bad be about? Big questions.

Any way you slice it, today is a good day for prog metal fans. Because those of you reading this for Animals as Leaders will click through the jump with your pants already down before even hearing their new track, let’s cover Hammers of Misfortune first in the hopes of gaining them a few new fans; the Bay Area-based prog metal greats have a new track called “The Day the City Died” over at Noisecreep. My personal favorite track from their new album 17th Street is “The Grain,” which you can stream here. “The Grain” is an absolutely captivating song, and truth be told I was a little disappointed upon listening to the full album that the rest of the tracks weren’t as good… but it’s still a really solid listen and “The Day the City Died” is the second best the album has to offer.

Now, new Animals as Leaders:

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Lots of other stuff happened in the metal world while a WWF-style drama unfolded on MetalSucks last Friday, yes? So let’s get right down to it and take a listen to new music from Animals as Leaders, Exmortus and Electro Quarterstaff.

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Anticipation is building for Animals as Leaders’ new album Weightless, set to come out on November 8th via Prosthetic. Sure, it’s only their second album, but so much has changed since 2008 when Prosthetic Records convinced Tosin Abasi to quit his job in a coffee shop and record a solo record. For one, Animals as Leaders are way more popular now; they’ve started a movement. But Animals as Leaders are also now a full band; 8-stringer Javier Reyes and drummer Navene Koperweis have been playing with the band live, and I fully expect their contributions to be felt and heard on the new record.

Above, watch live footage shot in Vienna of a new song the band has been playing live recently called “Isolated Incidents,” by the far the clearest and best footage I’ve seen yet of the many versions on YouTube. There are some great “shred’ shots of Javier and Abasi’s hands, although unfortunately our view of Koperweis is obscured.

After the jump, multi-camera footage of “CAFO” from the same show:

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Let it be said that metalheads cannot thrive on metal alone.

As avid fans of all things chunky and technical we need a break every now and then, you know, just to keep us sharp. A demand for intelligent, intense music that isn’t necessarily “heavy” has surfaced in the metal community, and even readers on this site have come to embrace a number of acts that are hardly BR00TAL. Porcupine Tree, Karnivool, Fair to Midland, and Dredg have all shared the stage with heavier acts and received acclaim from even the most opinionated and stubborn metal snobs. This year Sumerian Records have apparently taken notice, adding Brisbane’s Dead Letter Circus to their once very homogenous roster.

The signing of these left-of-center alt rockers and the recent American release of their debut album This is the Warning marks the label’s first true departure from their infamous Sumeriancore stigma. Stirring a lively dose of surround-sound ambience and percussive programming into their quality brand of Aussie alternative, Dead Letter Circus has continually won favor in progressive and extreme metal circles (the group is currently touring with Animals as Leaders, Intronaut, and Last Chance to Reason).

Playing no small role in the group’s universal appeal is Kim Benzie’s powerhouse tenor that drives the group’s music through numerous emotional twists and turns. I recently had the opportunity to speak with him on the road about how a rock band attracts a metal label, why the Australian music scene differs from our own, and, you guessed it, NICKELBACK!

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I realize that videos like this do nothing but give more ammo to those who say shredders are a dime a dozen, but still, I can’t help but be ridiculously impressed by this kid’s skills. Maybe one day he’ll put them to greater use by writing his own compositions and changing metal for the better like Tosin Abasi has done. You gotta start somewhere.

-VN

Thanks: Matias 

[UPDATE! BTBAM have officially announced the tour and all dates on their Facebook page. Thanks to all who emailed us and commented. Looks like it will be hitting several major markets after all; even our constantly neglected readers in Florida get lucky with three dates. -Ed.]

That rumored BTBAM, Animals as Leaders and Tesseract U.S. tour we mentioned a couple weeks go? No longer a rumor! A Facebook event page has popped up promoting a December 9th date with all three bands at the Northern Lights club in Clifton Park, NY (20 miles north of Albany) which would seem to indicate that a surrounding tour is all but certain: bands don’t just book one-offs in fucking Albany, NY. It would also seem to suggest that this tour is going to focus on secondary and tertiary markets, so if these bands always pass by your town in favor of the big city there’s a good chance they’re coming a lot closer to you this time around while us spoiled folk in NYC, L.A., Chicago, Dallas and the like watch enviously from hundreds of miles away (although ya never know.. sometimes routing needs make certain cities indispensable).

Also of note, the Facebook event page and associated show flyer dub this the Saints and Sinners Tour. The last Saints and Sinners Tour, which went out in 2009, featured Hollywood Undead and Senses Fail… so, uh, I’d say this is a big step up for the Saints and Sinners brand!

We’ll post the rest of the tour dates as soon as we have them.

-VN

Thanks: Remo Apuzzo

Soon enough you won’t need to watch crappy, fan-filmed sideways footage of the new Animals as Leaders song because you’ll be able to watch awesome, right-side-up, pro-shot footage of it: the band is filming a live DVD on their current tour with Intronaut, Dead Letter Circus, Last Chance to Reason and Evan Brewer. Here’s MS reader Mason K. with a personal account of how he found out about the DVD at this past Saturday’s tour stop:

But the reason for this e-mail (besides to remind all that they should go if they still have a chance), is to reveal (if you have not heard already) that AAL was filming for a Live DVD at the show, and was verified by “God-sent” Abasi.

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The commenters at the official BTBAM message board at SMNnews.com make Lambgoat posters look like friendly little teddybears; the volume and ferocity of childlike name-calling, homophobia / racism / <inserthere-ism>, trolling and pointless arguments are unrivaled on the Metalnets, even if their members do have some really entertaining animated .gifs in their sigs.

In other words, take the following rumor with a heaping, giant, overflowing bowlful of salt: BTBAM are rumored to be planning a fall/winter U.S. tour with TesseracT and Animals as Leaders. The only reason I even give this rumor any attention at all instead of dismissing it as a dreamlike BTBAM fanboy wish is that I have it from a good source that BTBAM are indeed taking TesseracT on tour in the U.S. this fall. With that in mind it certainly makes sense that they’d need one more band to fill out the tour bill, preferably as direct support, as I don’t think TesseracT are quite big enough in the U.S. yet for that role.

So, is this tour gonna happen? Can’t say for certain but it’d sure be cool if it does.

-VN

Thanks: Fuzzy Dunlop

Well, here’s a great way to start your morning!

A reader who for some inexplicable reason thought it was cool to choose a variation of the N-bomb as his user name sent us the below video of Animals as Leaders performing a new song at a recent gig in California. The audio quality is actually not completely terrible, and is certainly good enough to let us know that, yes, the new AAL album is probably going to rule. As for the video itself, well, if you watch it lying down, you can see it properly!

Animals as Leaders’ yet-to-be-titled sophomore album should be out later this year.

-AR

If you’re wondering why we’re getting so worked up over a band that hasn’t even released any music yet, look no further than these live videos of T.R.A.M. – the new group featuring Tosin Abasi and Javier Reyes of Animals as Leaders, Adrian Terrazas ex-The Mars Volta and Eric Moore of the Suicidal Tendencies — performing live at SXSW this past March, as if the band’s pedigree wasn’t enough to instantly bonerfy/moistify your privates. But if you’re as horny over T.R.A.M.’s experijazzmetal as we are, you’d best just preemptively calm those blue balls by listening to Animals as Leaders or something ’cause it might be a minute before T.R.A.M.’s first album sees the light of day. Originally scheduled to hit June 28th, Got-djent.com reports via the band’s Facebook page that the release is being pushed back:

Unfortunately we had to push back the release because we had to do some re-tracking. We want everything to sound perfect so we needed to make these necessary changes. We will announce a new release date shortly.

One can assume that the recording of the new Animals as Leaders album could be getting in the way of said re-tracking, given half of T.R.A.M.’s involvement with that band, but again, one can only assume.

More news, of course, as we have it.

-VN

We all already knew that Evan Brewer is a great bass player. But I started to get really, really excited for his new solo album, Alone, after Brewer revealed last month that he’s the only musician to appear on his album, and that “every sound you hear on the album came from a bass guitar.” ‘Cause that sounds like some potentially really interesting, crazy shit.

Now a nearly-two-minute-long teaser for the album has been released, giving us our first real taste of music. The actual song sounds okay — maybe a little too smoove for my own personal tastes, but I’m a cranky old man who just wants to listen to Cannibal Corpse so whatever — but I could really live without that robot voice thinger. I hope that fucker isn’t on the album too much, ’cause that shit could get real irritating real fast.

Evan Brewer’s Alone comes out on Sumerian on June 28. Brewer then heads out on tour with Animals as Leaders, Intronaut, Dead Letter Circus, and Last Chance to Reason, which is a sweet, sweet-ass line-up. Here are tour dates:

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Did you know that Tosin Abasi’s Animals as Leaders cohort and fellow 8-string guitar wielder Javier Reyes auditioned to be in Periphery five years ago? Me neither, but that’s one of many interesting tidbits of information to be gleaned from this excellent video interview Ryan’s Rock Show recently conducted with Abasi (#2 on our Top 25 Modern Metal Guitarists list) and Reyes (equally deserving, no doubt).

Other things you’ll want to know if you don’t have 17 minutes to watch the above interview:

• Tracking for the band’s sophomore album has begun, and everyone in the band is involved in the writing. The album is expected to come out this fall.
• Drummer Navene Koperweis is producing the new album (Misha Mansoor produced the debut).
• The new album will “incorporate whatever we thought was missing from the last album,” will be “more concise,” have “better songs,” and “there will be some new stuff, but it’s definitely Animals as Leaders.”
• Tosin was “freaking out” about the pressure to live up to peoples’ expectations for new music following the success of the first album.

The interview goes on to talk about T.R.A.M., whose debut will come out on June 28th via Sumerian, AAL’s upcoming touring plans and more. Definitely worth a watch if you have the time.

-VN

MetalSucks recently polled its staff to determine who are The Top 25 Modern Metal Guitarists, and after an incredible amount of arguing, name calling, and physical violence, we have finalized that list! The only requirements to be eligible for the list were that the musician in question had to a) play metal (duh), b) play guitar (double-duh), and c) have recorded something in the past five years. Today we continue our countdown with Animals as Leaders’ Tosin Abasi…

It’s only been two years since Abasi released his debut solo effort under the Animals as Leaders moniker, but, oh, how times have since changed. When Prosthetic Records took a risk by releasing an ambient, shreddy metal album with no vocals by a relatively obscure, young guitarist, there’s no way they could’ve known the sea change it would inspire, and that there’d be dozens, if not hundreds, of imitators the world over. To say that Abasi has been a total game-changer for metal would be an understatement, and to say that he’s an immensely talented player deserving of every single accolade he receives doesn’t even really come close to capturing just how good he really is.

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When Evan Brewer announced the impending release of a solo album last month, Vince rightfully pointed out that “The market for these kinds of acts is limited — extremely limited, especially for a bass player.” And I would wager that the market for a solo album from a bass player featuring no other instruments besides the bass is even more limited.

But by golly, I hope I’m wrong, ’cause apparently that’s what Brewer made: not only is the former Animosity/current The Faceless bassist the only musician to appear on his album, appropriately titled Alone, but “every sound you hear on the album came from a bass guitar,” according to the interview with Brewer in the below promotional video. And in the hands of the wrong musician, that kind of gambit could obviously be a total fucking disaster, but Brewer… well, not only is a top-notch bassist, but his motivations for recording such an album sound really fascinating and forward-thinking. We may not know if the record is actually gonna be good or not until Sumerian releases it on June 8, but we do know that Brewer is trying to do something different, and that’s always commendable.

Meanwhile, remember that awesome tour Brewer is doing this summer with Animals as Leaders, Intronaut, Dead Letter Circus, and Last Chance to Reason, and how only some of the tour dates had been released? Well, now we have more dates! So if a town near you wasn’t in the first batch, don’t freak out just yet.

Here’s the new itinerary, courtesy The PRP:

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