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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Since Dead Letter Circus have been in the news lately — they just signed to Sumerian Records and they’ll be touring with Intronaut and Animals as Leaders this Summer — I thought I’d take a moment to get ya’ll familiar with their maximum rockage. They’re Australian, which is why you likely haven’t heard of them despite one EP and one album release since their inception in 2005, and to be honest they’re not really metal at all. So if the lack of growled vocals, chugga-chug or sweep-picking bothers you, probably best to stop reading right now.

For the rest of you fans of good music, let’s listen to some of the bands choice cuts. Dead Letter Circus remind me a lot of Karnivool, and not just because the two bands share a home country; their rock-based sound is steeped in hard-driving rhythms, delay-soaked atmospheric guitars and soaring vocals. I’d also throw Dredg and A Perfect Circle into the influences pile, so if those bands mean anything to you then Dead Letter Circus will likely resonate.

Here’s “Big” from their 2010 full-length This Is the Warning:

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The other day I was bellyachin’ that while this awesome tour with Animals as Leaders, Intronaut, Dead Letter Circus, Last Chance to Reason, and Evan Brewer had been announced, there were no dates available; well, now Intronaut have posted the “first half of the dates” on their Facebook page. So that’s a start!

Anyway, what else is there to say? If you can go to one of these shows, you obviously should — the only artist I can’t really vouch for is Dead Letter Circus, just because I don’t really know them well enough to have an opinion one way or the other. But even if they turn out to be terrible (and given the rest of this bill, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they were actually really fantastic), the other peeps playing this show are so killer that you should really go anyway.

And here are those initial dates:

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I couldn’t care less about MMA and couldn’t pick “superstar” Josh Barnett out of a lineup of a dozen other Affliction-wearing muscle-bound goons, but I can tell you this: the lineup of Mr. Barnett’s Japanese Benefit Fit show is completely unfuckwithable, it’s for a great cause (all proceeds will go to the Red Cross), and for that I feel compelled to stand up and offer the man a hearty clap. If I lived in the L.A. area I’d definitely be going.

The show will take place on Thursday, May 26th at the House of Blues in Hollywood and will feature All Shall Perish, Animals as Leaders, Cattle Decapitation and Abysmal Dawn, as well as local acts Internal Corrosion and Thrown Into Exile. Like I said, unfuckwithable. Even better, the show is ONLY $15; tickets are on sale now at www.hob.com and www.ticketmaster.com.

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A week or two ago word got out that Animals as Leaders, Intronaut, Last Chance to Reason, Dead Letter Circus (who I don’t really know but who just signed with Sumerian… and apparently Textures’ Stef Broks is a fan, which ain’t a bad sign), and Evan Brewer were gonna do a tour together; we didn’t write anything at the time because, well, we just told you everything there was to write. There were no other details to give!

There are still no other details to give, except now Animals as Leaders have put the tour poster up on their Facebook page, which I guess is something. I mean, if you thought this tour was just a rumor, now you know it’s a really real thing. You don’t know when/where they’re playing or whether or not you can go, but, hey, you do know that they’ll all be on the road together.

Hopefully information that is actually of some use, like tour dates, will be released soon, too.

In the meantime, uh… enjoy this poster I guess?

-AR

Thanks to everyone who e-mailed us about this! Feel free to e-mail us again when dates are released.

Metal drummers put off by our current Top 25 Modern Metal Guitarists countdown, don’t be distraught; today we’ve got something just for you.

Just in time for the MS-sponsored 2011 version of Summer Slaughter, our hip-bro-potami over at Sick Drummer [via Got-Djent.com] have unveiled some multi-angle drum-cam footage from last year’s festival that will either inspire young metal drummers to better their craft through endless practice or immediately discourage them from ever picking up their sticks again. Don’t be discouraged, though; Navene Koperweis and Sam Applebaum are two of the best in the biz and got to where they are through years of hard work. Just because I can’t throw a knuckleball like R.A. Dickey doesn’t mean I’m gonna quit trying. OK, so maybe it does.

The clips feature a couple of songs each of Animals as Leaders’ and Veil of Maya’s sets. Watch AAL’s Koperweis below, and Veil of Maya’s Sam Applebaum after the jump.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDn7TnBqXhE

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When Tosin Abasi announced from the stage at the SXSW Sumerian Showcase that Animals as Leaders “aren’t on Sumerian Records… yet… undisclosed information,” we took that to mean the band’s next record would be released through Sumerian. Wouldn’t you? Not the case, says a press release that landed on the MS doorstep last night; the band’s next record will be released through Prosthetic, the label that put out their self-titled debut. And you know what? I’m kinda glad. That’s not a knock on Sumerian at all — but Prosthetic took a risk by releasing a wonky instrumental record by a band no one had heard of, and now that shit’s blowing up for AAL they deserve to reap the benefits for at least another album.

Speaking of said wonky instrumental record, the same press release tells us that Animals as Leaders will be released on vinyl in June! Bonertime. The 180-gram double-LP set, which includes the song “Wave of Babies” (previously an iTunes exclusive) as a bonus track, will feature a high-quality Stoughton gatefold jacket with enhanced album artwork that includes 3D imagery and custom AAL 3D glasses (!!!!!). The set is available in three different color combinations and is limited to 1,000 pieces total. There will also be a brand new, exclusive T-shirt available on its own or in a bundle with the LPs.

So, um, what are you waiting for? Pre-order yours here. I just did. The colored version, natch.

-VN

In my post-festival coverage of SXSW I raved about the live debut 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 — and I even included some lo-fi but passable cell-phone footage of a couple of songs that I found on the Interhole. Leave it up the Metal Injection dudes to out-do my Interhole trawling with legit, three-camera footage and excellent audio of a song called… well, uh, I honestly have no idea what this song is called. And leave it up to Rob to out-do my description of the way the band’s music made me feel with this simple gem: “it massaged my ear-pussy.”

Now you, too, can get your ear-pussy massaged and eagerly anticipate the full-length album due in May on Sumerian along with us. Metal? Barely (especially this tune). Awesome? Absolutely. Watch:

Check out a highly entertaining Metal Injection interview with Abasi, Terrazas and guest interviewer-cum-drummer Eric Moore after the jump.
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Props to Heavy Blog is Heavy for catching this interesting update from Sumerian Records’ official Facebook page:

As HBiH notes, this sounds like it’s going to be a release (or releases) in the vein of Roadrunner United and Nuclear Blast All-Stars — basically a “who’s who” team-up of musicians signed to the label. Those offerings actually ended up being, by and large, pretty cool (I mean, of course there were some missteps, but I don’t look back at those albums and think, “Well, that was ill-advised”), and Sumerian’s current roster is one of the strongest in metal (The Faceless, Animals as Leaders, Periphery, Veil of Maya, After the Burial, etc., pretty much make up for their creatively vapid bands like Asking Alexandria and Upon a Burning Body), so it makes sense that they’d wanna do something like this.

Question is… what form, exactly, will it take? I almost don’t care, as long as Bizzy Bone is involved. Hey, it could happen.

-AR

Kip W. and I arrived in Austin, TX the night of Tuesday, March 15th. We’ve never flown in before Wednesday, the official start of the music portion of the festival, but that we felt compelled to be there for all of Wednesday’s day-time activities speaks to the volume of metal at this year’s festival. It was amazing and even overwhelming at times, but too much metal is never a bad problem to have. After a tasty burger at the Jackalope and some delicious but incredibly spicy chicken-wings that would leave our arseholes tingling the following morning, we headed to bed to rest up for the madness to follow. Sleeping is metal. Kip’s righteous snore is definitely not metal, but thank Odin for earplugs.

There was a lot of action on the first day of SXSW: face-punching hardcore via the Brooklyn Vegan day party, a ripping set by recent Ironclad signees Turbid North, and of course the MetalSucks-sponsored Sumerian Records showcase featuring Animals as Leaders, Veil of Maya, The Faceless and more. There was even the somewhat odd but nonetheless fun sight of watching Phil Anselmo play a guitar in his old-school hardcore project Arson Anthem. Deetz and videos after the jump.

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