MetalSucks

I’m all for break-up sex. Yeah, the relationship is over, and yeah, it might be kinda bittersweet, but you were into each once, so why not enjoy one last fuck, right?

To that end: I really appreciate it when a band announces that they are going to break-up, and plays a few last shows to give the fans a chance to say good-bye. Burst have done it, and now another long-standing MetalSucks favorite are doing it: At All Cost.

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In December we told you about Pack of Wolves, the new(ish) project from former At All Cost guitarist Trey Ramirez; well, their debut album, Betrayer, is being released this coming Tuesday, March 10 on vinyl, and the band has announced its arrival in grand style – with a new video for the track “Concession.”

Only 350 copies of Betrayer will be pressed, and each one comes with a free digital download of the record, so you can listen to even if you’re not close to your turntable.

The band will also be playing this year’s SXSW; if you go the fest, make sure you check ‘em out!

-AR

Monday was 2008 Sucks day here at MetalSucks, but we rocked out the rest of the week with some ridiculous shit as per usual:

• We announced our best-of lists for 2008. Check ‘em out.
• Contest: You tell us why you hate the holidays, we send you 100 CDs. Sweet deal.
• PA woman tortures kitties with piercings.
• We spoke with Misery Index’s Jason Netherton and Three Inches of Blood’s Cam Pipes.
• Corporate rock still sells, but Chinese Democracy apparently doesn’t.
• We hated on this band, this band and this band, the latter of whom sent their fans here in droves to hate us back.
• We wondered whether Roadrunner Records actually dropped Amanda Palmer because of her “belly fat” (hint: they didn’t even drop her).
• God Forbid released the cover artwork and tracklisting of Earthsblood, and Pack of Wolves (ex-At All Cost member) released new music.

Tonight it’s new The End Records-signees Hull for Kip and me. Have a good one, everybody.

Back in April we told you about Pack of Wolves, a new project from guitarist Trey Ramirez, late of MetalSucks’ most favoritest totally underrated (and now, sadly, defunct) band, At All Cost. At the time POW (how’s that for band initials?) were unsigned…

…but Ramirez just e-mailed us to say that the group will be releasing their new album, Betrayer, on vinyl through Arclight Records on March 10. Three tracks from the album, “Walking Dead,” “Concession” and “The Death of my Old Self,” are currently streaming on the band’s MySpace page.

If you dug At All Cost, it’s hard for me to imagine you won’t dig Pack of Wolves; they’re not as druggy/experimental/whatever as AAC, but their riffs are just as tasty.

More info as we get it…

-AR

According to a recent post on SMNnews.com, ex-Darkest Hour guitarist Kris Norris will now be pursuing a career in producing in addition to putting out his recently completed solo album. While we certainly wish him all the best, the realist in me is privy to think that Norris’ career arc as a producer will closely follow that of Peter Wichers’, who left Soilwork in ‘05 in favor of the producer’s chair only to rejoin Soilwork last month. Not that it can’t be done — Fear Factory’s Christian Olde Wolbers is someone who comes to mind as an example of a metal musician who’s made the successful switch — it’s just that the paycheck ain’t as reliable as the perpetual cycle of touring, merch and album advances (then again, Darkest Hour are on Victory Records, so all bets are off in the advances department). And it certainly isn’t as much fun!

The idealist in me, however, really hopes Norris succeeds, not just because of the warmth in our collective hearts but because ex-At All Cost guitarist and friend of MetalSucks Michael Carrigan (ex-Throeald) has been tapped as Norris’ replacement in DH, and that motherfucker is a sick guitarist deserving of his call up to the big leagues.

-VN

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.

We’re late to the party on this one, but Darkest Hour have parted ways with guitarist Kris Norris. It’s very sad and blah blah blah and honestly, I don’t care that much. I like Darkest Hour but I’m just not emotionally involved enough in the idea of Norris remaining in the band for this to phase me the way, for example, news of Mark Morton leaving Lamb of God might.

What I do care about is that Norris’ replacement is Mike Carrigan (pictured above), a.k.a. lead guitarist for MetalSucks’ favorite underappreciated geniuses, At All Cost.

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MetalSucks reader David A. has alerted us to the fact that one of our collective favorite bands, At All Cost, have possibly broken up. In a blog posted yesterday on the band’s MySpace page, singer Andrew Collins revealed the news that we can’t say we didn’t see coming, which is that the band is taking some time off to collect themselves and figure out what’s next (without using the words “break” and “up”). After guitarist Trey Ramirez departed last fall for Pack of Wolves, bassist Clean Bobby left after the Hatebreed tour to pursue other interests, and drummer Johnny Oswald put up a message on his own MySpace blog announcing his drum kit was for sale… things didn’t look too good. Apparently Century Media dropped the band in the meantime after just one album, and it all went downhill from there.

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It’s been a while since we’ve written about At All Cost, the Austin, Texas metal quintet whom we wouldn’t shut up about last summer and whose phenomenal 2007 Century Media debut Circle of Demons placed close to the top of both mine and Axl’s year-end Top 10 lists.

Since we last saw them this past Christmas as part of Hatebreed’s Stillborn Fest (also featuring God Forbid, Agnostic Front and others), there have been some changes within the band. By that time guitarist Trey Ramirez had already departed (we’ve since written about his new outfit Pack of Wolves) and had been replaced by new guitarist Ryan (above, second from right). In an interview conducted that night that we never published, bassist CleanBobby told us he would be leaving the band and that’s exactly what happened, to be replaced by the dude above, middle, whom MySpace tells us is named Liam. We are also sad to report that the band also lost their unofficial sixth member, the collosal beard of lead guitarist Michael Garrison Throeald.

At All Cost has a couple of Texas dates posted on their MySpace page, and we can assume they’re working on new material in their down time. In the aforementioned interview Throeald told us the band was working on new stuff that was stonier and trippier than their past efforts. Color us interested.

-VN

So this Texas band Pack of Wolves are going to act as support, alongside Time of Cholera, on a brief upcoming tour headlined by Century. Now, the reason Pack of Wolves are worth paying attention to is because their guitarist, Trey Ramirez, used to be a member of At All Cost, one of MetalSucks’ most favoritest young bands in the whole wide world. Listen to the demos on Pack of Wolves’ MySpace page, and it’s easy to hear some AAC in there; in fact, the band often sounds like a more straight-forward, meat n’ taters, less trippy version of At All Cost.

Pack of Wolves are still without a label and the tour is coming nowhere near NYC, so I won’t be able to check ‘em out live; but I encourage anyone in the vicinity of this tour to go and let us know how the show was. All dates after the jump.

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[Better late than never. This is the 6th and final installment of new MetalSucks contributor Corey Mitchell's reporting from South by Southwest 2008 in Austin, TX. Be on the lookout for more show reviews in the future from Corey. - Ed.]

BLACK TIDE/AT ALL COST/IN THIS MOMENT/JASTA @ RED 7 PATIO – Saturday, March 15, 2008 – 2:20 P.M. – 6:00 P.M.

Not feeling any older despite tossing back a few too many rum ‘n Cokes the night before, I ventured out one last time for my final metal fix of the 2008 SXSW Music Conference. Once again, I was headed toward another free show over at Red 7. The sun was scorching hot, not a cloud in the sky, and I was semi-interested in seeing teenage sensations…

BLACK TIDE
Okay, I’m sure you know all the hype. Every band member under the age of twenty, ridiculously good looking, led by frontman 14-year-old Gabriel, and signed to Interscope Records. It all sounds a little too Light of Doom-ish for my taste. In fact, it’s enough to make you wanna puke. But, again, I approached their set with an open mind, and again, I was pleasantly surprised.

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I have no idea if this is true or not, but someone recently told me that Steve Austin (the legendary musician, NOT the pro-wrestler and NOT the Six Million Dollar Man) made current Today is the Day drummer Derek Roddy wear a bullet proof vest during his audition for the band so that Austin could shoot him as he played in order to test his skill under pressure. That seems incredibly extreme and totally fucking fuck nuts if it’s true, especially since Roddy’s skills have already been tested in Hate Eternal, but, uh, hey, it’s still a pretty cool story.

ANYWAY, Austin taking his band out on the road is always cause for excitement, but the fact that’s he taking a rotating support line-up of some of our favorite bands out there right now with him – including Rwake, Lair of the Minotaur, Fuck the Facts, and our friends in the most excellent At All fucking Cost – just makes this tour that much more worthy of your time and money.

After the jump, get a complete list of tour dates, along with a list of which bands will playing which shows.

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I seriously want to punch these kids to a pulp whenever I see them at shows. Maybe the problem is that I’m going to the wrong shows? Alas… at the At All Cost show last Friday in New Jersey, Axl and I saw a couple of assclowns doing gymnastic moves in the pit during one of the opening bands’ sets. Gymnastics at a fucking metal show??? Someone please pass the Pepto-Bismol…

And now, please enjoy this video of more assclowns. [See this and more ridiculous hardcore dancing videos at The Deciblog]

“Your parents paid money to send you to a dance studio for this?”

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/X0ygBDvo13U" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

-VN

You guys own Circle of Demons, the latest from Texas’ At All Cost, right? ‘Cause if you don’t, you’re lame. I mean, seriously, it’s easily one of the best albums of the year (read our review here), and it costs all of eight bucks on iTunes. EIGHT BUCKS! Even you can afford that. Do yourself a favor: go get this fuckin’ album already. I’m sick of everyone trying to tell me how awesome As I Lay Dying are and not giving these dudes their due. ‘Cause if you don’t support this band now, in a few years you’re gonna feel like one of those idiots who weren’t into Faith No More. AAC are that hard to categorize, and that fucking good.

Here’s a little mini-doc on the making the video for the album’s title track.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://youtube.com/v/1Jdi3P4qBn8" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Watch the completed video here.

At All Cost are on tour right now with Dead to Fall and some other cool bands. They’re awesome live (read a review here). Get tour dates on their MySpace page.

-AR