MetalSucks

These are some of my favorite producers and mixers for heavy music… It’s a challenging genre, and these guys are great in my opinion.

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Reader Brandon Fountain sent us a link to the below video of members of At the Gates and Municipal Waste getting drunk and/or high together on ATG’s awesome reunion tour last year. It’s not really all that exciting, but a) it’s a slow news day, b) it gives you the chance to live vicariously through these very talented musicians, and c) it’s a great excuse to remind you that we’re sponsoring The Waste’s “Waste the World” tour with Goatwhore, Brutal Truth, Phobia and Cauldron. Get dates after the jump!

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First of all, for our non-Chosen readers: groyse metsie is Yiddish for a bargain. Don’t say I never taught ya nuthin’.

So. For the month of October (or “Rocktober,” as some clever marketing types are dubbing it), Earache is offering a whole bunch of truly righteous albums from their catalog for download on iTunes at a retardedly low price: $5.99 in the U.S., £4.49 in the U.K., and 4,99EUR in Europe. (The press release tells me that “prices may vary in other regions.” Ha-ha.) Now, I know that most of us music snobs don’t like iTunes because the audio quality isn’t as high as it could be, and there’s a better-than-average chance that a lot of you own most of these albums anyway. But if you can get past the whole “IT’S NOT AS GOOD AS FLAC! Snort snort” thing and/or for some reason DO NOT already own most of these albums, it’s a really, really killer deal.

A complete list of available albums after the jump. At least six or seven of these are classics, and nine or so are still awesome and could be classics, so they’re totally worth the six bucks or whatever.

And then one of them is by Oceano.

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An e-mail I received from long time reader Seveword earlier today:

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I should’ve known that my interview with The Haunted’s Peter Dolving would come off as more of an armchair philosophy session than a by-the-numbers band interview. But that’s where I was hoping the interview would go, and that’s where it went. Dolving is your atypical metal frontman, as anyone who reads his blogs on the regular should be able to infer. Dolving was thoughtful, measured and articulate in his thought, pausing frequently to make sure the words he uttered carried the meaning he intended, and was anything but the macho metal man you might expect if your only exposure was seeing him perform on stage with The Haunted.

Dolving sure had a lot to say. He spoke about why touring musicians are inherently dysfunctional, what he did while the brothers Bjorler toured with the reunited At the Gates (”Cried a lot… I really did spend a lot of time last summer in a little crawled up package whimpering with a lot of snot involved.”), what it was like for him to go through therapy, what he hopes to accomplish via his controversial writing, the interactive nature of the Internet and how that affects communication, the haters on Blabbermouth (”… there is so much ignorance involved in the internet community.”), and the difference between having knowledge and being smart. Like I said, a philosophy session.

I’d eaten a “special” cookie a couple of hours before the interview that took a while to kick in, and I was kind of worried I wouldn’t be able to hold it together… but I think I pulled it off. This was the interview I was most looking forward to at the festival, and I’m quite happy with the results. Read our whole chat, after the jump.

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Our bro-bros at Metal Insider brought up a good point yesterday; what’s the point of saying your band is breaking up or going on hiatus if it don’t mean shit in the end? Srsly wtf lolz! With the pending Faith No More and Cave In reunions this Summer literally every band to ever break up that still has enough living members to do so — and even some without — is doing a reunion in some capacity. Last summer’s roster of reunionites included Carcass and At the Gates, amongst others. And don’t front; the Soundgarden reunion will happen eventually. I’d put money on it.

So I hereby declare a moratorium on breaking up. Artistic differences? Don’t wanna hear it. Tired of touring? Tell me that again in a year when your records ain’t selling, you’re flat broke and you’re tired of flipping burgers. Fucked a band member’s girlfriend? Kiss and make up, then have a threesome. Don’t give me no “on hiatus” crap either ’cause that’s just a way of pussyfooting around the fact that you do plan on eventually playing together again. Just say nothing! Is that so hard? Quietly disappear, then come back years later and take the world by storm. Your lives, and ours, will be henceforth be much more drama-free.

-VN

Set to At the Gates, natch.

-VN

Ohio Deathrashers Brother Von Doom are one of our favorite new metal bands on 2008. They have an awesome new album, Relentless, out now on Deathcote (read David Bee Roth’s review here), and an insanely sweet, metal as fuck new David Brodsky-directed video – with knights!!! – for their merciless single, “Eater of Days” (above). So when the opportunity to e-mail the band some questions arose, of course, I jumped at the chance.

After the jump, find out where the name “Brother Von Doom” comes from and get the band’s thoughts on their songwriting process, working with David Brodsky and producer Andreas Magnusson, the worst trends in metal today, and a whole lot more…

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The Haunted have always offered us, the discerning metal listener, the most reliable fallback we could have hoped for in a post-Slaughter of the Soul world. While some members of that recently reunited band have put their various talents to the fulfillment of crusty grindcore (Skitsystem) or eyeliner goth jams (Dani F.’s Tap-dancing Cadaveret), the Bjorler brothers and co. succeeded in a pedal to the floor, no bullshit approach to heavy metal. They created a group that could both distinguish itself from their previous legacy and still maintain a presence around the world. Twelve years and five albums later, The Haunted have shown beyond any doubt the consistency of their output, both in quality and release schedule.

Now, however, with Versus we, the discerning metal critic, are offered a quake and a fracture in the rock solid foundation that previously seemed unmovable. This autumn offering is unfortunately inconsistent, which is frustrating because it has a lot going for it.

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With a groundswell of jazzy technical metal bands such as Intronaut and Scale the Summit, Cynic just might be the At the Gates of progressive metal. Their only album Focus was released with little to-do by Roadrunner Records in 1993, and shortly thereafter the band split up. But their legacy lived on, and much like At the Gates’ Slaughter of the Soul (which wasn’t their only album but certainly their most significant and refined) the band has gone on to inspire legions of other musicians and cull a cult-like following.

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Ever just wanna listen to new At The Gates-inspired music that doesn’t sound like today’s Swedish melodeath or American metalcore? Ya know, just good ol’ At the Gates, but new stuff? Because the UK’s Dam sound EXACTLY like At the Gates, and I mean this in the best way possible. And since you know that if At the Gates were ever to record and release a new album it wouldn’t be that good and the press would shit all over it (”sacrilege!”), you may as well just listen to this band instead (moreso their 2005 release Purity (The Darwinian Paradox) than their more recent effort).

-VN

[Dam on MySpace]

[Thanks: MS-reader Person J. Nobody]

While everyone is all in a tizzy about the At the Gates reunion, the brothers Bjorler — with our favorite vocalist/ranter Peter Dolving — have also been working on new music for their other band. By now The Haunted have no doubt finished recording the follow-up to 2006’s excellent The Dead Eye; the album is tentatively called Versus and is due in late September via Century Media.

There’s some fan-filmed live footage of the band performing a new song at a festival in Sweden in June. Sounds to me like The Haunted are continuing to travel down the more moody, groove-based trail they set upon with The Dead Eye, which if you ask me is a good thing. Unfortunately the dick-hole who uploaded the video won’t allow embeds, so you’ll have to watch it here.

Also of consequence is that with a new Haunted album comes more philosophical Internet rants from Peter Dolving. Yay!

-VN

Things were a tad slow at the MetalSucks Mansion this week, whatwith a lot of the U.S. still on holiday — but between bong rips and acid trips we somehow still found time to post about some events that went on this week:

• David Lee Roth got pulled over for speeding as he was trying to rush to the hospital for an alleged allergic reaction to nuts; or did he?
• Thousands of dental hygienically challenged guys with mullets are running around Oklahoma wearing Ratt and Ozzy concert shirts from a quarter century ago are at the 2nd annual Rocklahoma festival.
• At the Gates returned to the U.S.
• Act like a Viking, win some cool Amon Amarth stuff!
• Tweeny pop band Gym Class Heroes covered Lamb of God, igniting almost as much controversy as Fall Out Boy covering Pantera.
• Opeth and Amon Amarth announced two amazing U.S. tour lineups.
• All Shall Perish released two new songs from their forthcoming album.
• Ozzy Osbourne decided to toss that last remaining shred of credibility out the window by announcing plans to launch a variety TV show.

Vince, Kip (you remember Kip, doncha?) and I caught At the Gates on their second night of playing NYC’s Irving Plaza (I refuse to call it “The Fillmore”) yesterday, and, as we could only hope, the band slayed (although I wish the guitars had been a little louder in the mix; my heart broke a little when I realized I couldn’t even hear the solo during “Cold”). What was kind of amazing was that it never really felt like we were watching a legendary band, so much as it felt like we were just watching a totally awesome band in their prime. Maybe that’s because these dudes are pretty much all still actively involved in music, so they never lost that fire; maybe it’s because they’ve all aged pretty gracefully since they originally broke-up; maybe it’s just because I was really fucked up. Who knows. In any case, kick yourself if you missed it, pay a scalper whatever you have to if you don’t have a ticket for an upcoming tour stop, or just check out the footage our friends at Metal Injection captured of “Slaughter of the Soul” below:

After the jump, check out the entire setlist for last night if you don’t want to be surprised before you see the band; not only is it pretty much identical to the set the band was playing in Europe last month, but a friend who attended both nights says it was identical to the night before, right down to the stage banter. I’m saying ATG aren’t doing a lot of improvising on this trek. But it’s a good mix of Slaughter of the Soul shit and older material, so…

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Blabbermouth posted the following live vids of a reunited At the Gates playing “Suicide Nation” at the Electric Weekend Festival in Madrid and Cavalera Conspiracy (a.k.a. the semi-reunited Sepultura) performing “Sanctuary” at the Netherlands’ Pinkpop festival this past week. And even though the Cavalera Conspiracy footage is pro-shot and the At the Gates footage is from some dude’s cell phone, I gotta say, I think ATG sound like they have their shit together, while the Cavaleras could use some more practice. I’m all for a punk rock down n’ dirty ethos in metal, but they sound looser than Courtney Love’s vagina.

I guess I’ll know for sure how these bands are live when Vince and I check ‘em out later this summer. In the meantime, feel to free to argue amongst yourselves.

AT THE GATES – “SUICIDE NATION”

CAVALERA CONSPIRACY – “SANCTUARY”

-AR

Aletheian can certainly play their instruments, and there are some pretty cool musical passages on their Ironclad Recordings / Metal Blade debut Dying Vine, out today — but unfortunately their musical ambitions end up being like a gun to the foot. To be sure, the seeming ease at which these four dudes have honed their crafts is pretty impressive; The Pennsylvania-based quartet work their way around a progressive death metal shell, weaving in elements of melodeath, progressive metal, and classic metal into their multi-pronged attack. But despite the quality of the ingredients, 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 ends up equaling something less than four as Dying Vine — which was independently recorded and released in 2005 — falls short in the songs department. The album ends up being a somewhat tedious 40-minute listen, as each of the ten songs suffers from a severe case of ADD that makes it rather difficult to pinpoint any of them as standouts. I totally “get” the idea of not being bound by writing within a traditional song-structure, but the specific way Aletheian have chosen to defy convention is ultimately to their detriment as there is neither much of anything to latch onto or any groundbreaking, new ideas. Some moments offer promise; the solo in “Open Grave,” middle section of “Call to Arms” and Opethian classical acoustics of “How Could I” (among other songs), but those moments are fleeting and far between. Where bands like Opeth and Dream Theater have done this with great success, as have bands like At the Gates and Death on the other side of the coin — all of whom have no doubt influenced Aletheian — Dying Vine just doesn’t hit the right balance and ends up a frustrating, wandering trip in a large, expansive metropolis.

-VN

(one and a half out of five horns)

[Aletheian on MySpace]

Blabbermouth has posted the below footage of At the Gates playing one of their first reunion shows in Japan this past week as part of a tour with Dillinger Escape Plan, Pig Destroyer, Into Eterenity and Mayhem (Holy purple poop, that’s a sweet tour!). At the Gates don’t show up ’til the 6:43 mark, but it’s actually kinda worth it to just sit through the Pig Destroyer and DEP footage.

Obviously this isn’t the highest quality video, but the band sounds pretty killer to me. What do y’all think?

-AR

I was pretty excited that Exhorder’s albums are getting reissued, since I thought it meant a lot of kids who have never heard of Exhorder might now check ‘em out.

And yet, somehow, the news that Exhorder have reunited and are working on new material bums me out. I can’t even really figure out why; part of me thinks it’s that “new material” part. Almost every reunited band puts out a new album at some point, because, well, it’s a good way to make money; but these albums, even if they’re any good, can never, and do never, live up to band’s output from their heyday. At the Gates, at least, admitted as much in Decibel (though they didn’t rule out the possibility of recording under a different name, which, truth be told, is just as shitty an idea as recording under their original name, because anyone with an IQ bigger than his shoe size will still know that it’s At the Gates). So while I’m stoked to be able to catch Exhorder at a not particularly large concert venue in the NYC area sometime real soon, I really wish they would please just not make any new music.

Then again, a couple of new songs might provide the perfect bathroom break during the show.

Anyway, below enjoy a photo of Phil Anselmo in an Exhorder shirt. The photo of a member of Pantera in Exhorder merch should help convince 15 year olds that Exhorder really are important to the history of metal, in case actually listening to the band’s music and realizing that they pre-date Pantera somehow fails to convey this fact.

-AR

“Yes! Boris and Torche will tour together!” I remarked to myself as I read this bit of news on Lambgoat that Japanese sludge/doomsters Boris and doomy, majestic shoegazers Torche would tour together in the U.S. this summer. “July 10th in NYC at Webster Hall… wow, that’s a big venue for them!” I thought inwardly as I flipped through my planner. “Fuck! That’s the same day as the At the Gates reunion hits New York. Guess I’m not going to that one.”

Oh well.

-VN

People don’t talk about Exhorder enough – hell, we don’t don’t talk about Exhorder enough. But they’re hugely influential on the current metal scene – some people have even accused Pantera of ripping them off (which I think is pretty extreme – but Pantera definitely did owe Exhorder a huge debt).

So hopefully all the Hot Topic kids who don’t know this band will get to know them when their two albums, The Law and Slaughter in the Vatican, get re-issued on July 8 (May 19 in Europe… why do the Europeans get so much cool shit before the rest of us?). Seriously, folks: you really should own these albums, ’cause they kick some pretty major ass. If there was any justice in the world, everyone would be clamoring for some sort of Exhorder reunion the same way everyone gets all dizzy about At the Gates getting back together. Exhorder are that fucking good.

-AR