In the last few years, something seemed to happen and I barely noticed. Suddenly, I’m no longer the young kid at the show. I’m one of the guys hiding out by the bar. I’m not crowd surfing, not covered in sweat with my shirt off, and I’m certainly not moshing. I’m also not randomly yelling “Slayer!”, but that seems to span all demographics. I became… (gulp)… an adult. I don’t know what the range is in the ages of the followers of MetalSucks, but I’ll assume that it’s a mix of younger and older metal fans. I am 29 years old, but I still feel relatively young and energetic considering my opening salvo. I’m the youngest member of my band, and younger than a good majority of my friends in bands and the industry.

With that said, I think there comes a time for all metal heads, and probably all adults for that matter, when you look at what is popular amongst the true youth culture (16-24), and you feel as if not only do you not relate to it, but it feels alien, as if it’s creation was not meant for your consumption (which it wasn’t) – and it also seems inferior to music that you grew up with. I’m only 29, and I’m already having “back in my day” moments. It kind of scared me, and I began to wonder if I was being obtuse and a little too set in my ways, or if my analysis was accurate.

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We’re just a couple of weeks away from Maryland Deathfest 2010, which will take place from May 28-30 in (duh) Baltimore, Maryland. This year’s edition of the annual fest promises to be the best one yet, with a line-up that includes Gorguts, Autopsy, Obituary, Entombed, Sodom, Repulsion, D.R.I., and a ton of other kick-ass bands. In anticipation of the event, we thought it would be fun to get some recollections of past MDFs from artists who were there. So we’re teaming up with Relapse Records to do just that! Read the raucous inaugural entry by Matt from Rumpelstiltskin Grinder, and the latest from Tomas Lindberg of Disfear (and At the Gates) below. We’ll continue to post more MDF Memories from other metal dudes as the event draws closer. Enjoy…

In 2008 it was time once again for us happy chaps in Disfear to get the chance to (as Kevin Sharp recently put it) “do our song and dance at the MDF.” We had a good time there a couple of years earlier (2006), even though we had to rush out to play a show in Philly the same night (with our friends in Tragedy/ Forward/ Warhead). Great times! This time the scene is somehow similar; we have a show booked in Philly later on in the evening, in the same club even. We play with Kylesa, Trap Them, Straightjacket Nation and Thrones (!!!), so once again we have a long day ahead of us (and no room for hotel thrashing/late night sessions in Baltimore).

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The Metal Sucks staff may have more “-stein” and “-berg” surnames than the trading floor of a Wall Street investment bank, but I know Axl and Vince are open to exploring the entire spectrum of global faiths. I am sure we can also agree that music is the one common thread that unites all of us, so what better way to learn about Jesus Christ than through my favorite thing: BREAKDOWNS!

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Congrats to MetalSucks uber-Maniac Mark Moritz Rabson, who correctly identified From Beyond Death as the band from last week’s logo. Mark wins a sweet copy of copy of Suicide Silence’s “Disengage” 7″ blue vinyl. I know Mark is pretty youngish, so I hope he either has a record player, or just really, really likes looking at pretty colored vinyls.

This week we’re teaming up with the very nice people at Earache to give away a copy of At the Gates’ new DVD, The Flames of the End. This three-disc set is a must-own: the first disc consists of an incredible feature-length documentary, Under a Serpent Sun: The Story of At the Gates, which was directed by guitarist Anders Bjorler; the second disc is the band’s complete reunion performance from Wacken ‘08 (clip above); and the final disc is a whole heap of other live footage, some of it dating as far back as 1991. It’s an amazingly comprehensive package that no At the Gates fan can afford to miss.

All you have to do to win is identify the name of the band whose logo appears below, then shoot me an e-mail at axl AT metalsucks DOT net with your answer, your name, and your address. From everyone who gets it right, we’ll randomly select one winner and announce his or her name next week. And while we’re on the topic of At the Gates and this awesome DVD, don’t forget to read my interview with Anders Bjorler about the making of Under a Serpent Sun!

Even though Unreadable VIP Isaac Schwarz sent me another great logo to use this week, I’m actually gonna give the guy a vacation and use a logo that was suggested by reader David Foust instead. Thanks, David! And don’t worry, Isaac, I still love you.

Good luck everyone…

-AR

At the Gates’ new, triple-disc DVD, The Flames of the End, was released in Europe earlier this year, but we finally get it here in North America tomorrow. And I can tell you, it’s a must-own: the first disc consists of an incredible feature-length documentary, Under a Serpent Sun: The Story of At the Gates, which was directed by guitarist Anders Bjorler ; the second disc is the band’s complete reunion performance from Wacken ’08 (clip above); and the final disc is a whole heap of other live footage, some of it dating as far back as 1991. It’s an amazingly comprehensive package that no At the Gates fan can afford to miss.

Back in February, Bjorler actually flew to New York for a special screening of the Serpent Sun documentary, and a few hours prior to said screening, I got to meet Bjorler at his hotel for an interview. As I said, I hadn’t actually seen the film yet at this point, so I was only able to get so specific with the questions. Still, Bjorler turned out to be an honest, interesting, and deeply sarcastic (and deadpan) interview subject. Read the full transcript of our chat after the jump…

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Soundgarden reunion rumors have been flying around almost as long as Soundgarden have been broken up. (And in case you lost count, this Friday will be the thirteenth anniversary of the break-up. Someone will have been born and bar mitzvahed in the time since Soundgarden were last together! Egads!) Chris Cornell pretty much let the cat out of the bag that the band is reuniting back in January, and now they’ve announced that they’re headlining Lollapalooza in August. (Unfortunately, the rest of the line-up for that festival is pretty blech, especially from a fan of half-way decent rock; there’s Social Distortion and, uh, that’s it. If the artist on the bill I’d be most excited to see that isn’t Soundgarden is Erykah Badu, well, that’s a festival I won’t be attending.)

And, as usual, my enthusiasm is tempered with cynicism.

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At the Gates recorded two albums of disruptive, grind-influenced Swedish death metal before they found the sound that would launch a thousand shitty metal bands. Beginning with their third album Terminal Spirit Disease, and climaxing with their stunning swansong Slaughter of the Soul, At the Gates melodicized brutality (and brutalized melody) with heretofore-unmatched cohesion. While the band developed their harmonically pleasing sound at the same time that Gothenburg compatriots In Flames and Dark Tranquillity were honing similarly tuneful death metal aesthetics, it was At the Gates that arguably stayed truest to the filthy spirit of underground death metal. This, even as Slaughter of the Soul yielded minor MTV hits and was nominated for a Swedish Grammy. Un-dissonant and streamlined as the album is, Slaughter of the Soul’s guitar tone is just beastly, and every aspect of its execution, from Adrian Erlandsson’s rock steady thrash oompah to Tomas Lindberg’s iconic roar, seethes with conviction. And my god, the songs – by career’s end, At the Gates were churning out compact three-minute death metal classics as if by will. As their song structures got less complicated, At the Gates’s mastery of “melodeath” became ever more apparent. The band secured their place in heavy metal Valhalla by disbanding on a high note.

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Tongue-in-cheek covers are kind of lame which is why I find Slaughter of the Bluegrass so entertaining; these guys aren’t being ironic at all. These Swedes love their metal but they also love their bluegrass, having already done bluegrass cover versions of At the Gates and Dark Tranquillity songs. The Deciblog alerted us to the latest Slaughter of the Bluegrass cover of Amon Amarth’s “Twilight of the Thunder God.” While bluegrass and viking metal might seem to be at odds, in a way it makes perfect sense: Swedish “redneck” music done in the style of another country’s redneck music. A perfect fit.

Listen to the track above and download it here if you feel so inclined.

-VN

We’ve all been there. Tensions are high in some packed, sweaty venue, sparked by feverish excitement and the potential for violence. These people paid good money to enjoy some type of cathartic release. The frontman for whatever hard-nu-death-crab-metal-core outfit is brazen and demanding. Can you believe this shit? You PAID to be entertained, and this guy is telling YOU what to do! The speech goes something like this: “I want everybody in this room moving! Front to back, side to side, NO ONE STANDS STILL! When this part kicks in, I want total [Insert destructive word here like "chaos," "mayhem," or "bedlam" if you're witty]. If the person next to you isn’t moving, MAKE THEM MOVE!” Than, if the action is not adequate, this screamer/pep rally organizer calls YOU some variation of “pussy” or “faggot” or really anything to make you feel like a soft, womanly bitch of a man in order to get in that pit and kick another grown man in the face, all in the spirit of making this band look like they are awesome. But then something happens, as if the air is sucked out of the room at the moment of impact – when those glorious staccato chugs kick in, the crowd is almost always powerless to its charms regardless of the obvious lack of substance. Like junk food and reality TV, we have a love affair with breakdowns.

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At The Gates were a great band and undeniably influenced hordes upon hordes of melodic death metal and metalcore followers. The band’s legacy has been celebrated at length in recent years culminating with their 2008 reunion tour. But at what point does celebrating this band just get to be too much?

In what Earache promises to be *the definitive* At the Gates collection, a press release from the label (also posted by Blabbermouth) tells us that the band will be releasing a 3-disc DVD set called The Flames of the End on February 22nd. The Flames of the End will feature:

Disc 1 ‘Under A Serpent Sun – The Story of At The Gates’ – a brand new documentary with a running time of over 2 hours, detailing the band’s entire career with exclusive interviews and footage, filmed and directed by guitarist Anders Bjorler.

Disc 2 ‘Purgatory Unleashed – Live at Wacken’ – a 75-minute live set from the band’s reunion set at the Wacken festival in 2008 in front of 100,000 people.

Disc 3 ‘Only the Dead Are Smiling’ – 26 rare and archive live performances of the band playing in locations around the globe from 1991 – 2008.

So while this DVD set will have very limited appeal to anyone other than At the Gates die-hards, at least it’s not just another remaster, “special edition” or compilation… in other words, there’s actually a whole lot of new stuff here that should be quite interesting, even if it isn’t new music.

-VN

I know that some people were hoping that the At the Gates reunion tour would be followed by an At the Gates reunion album, but that was never gonna happen; the band said they didn’t wanna risk ruining their legacy with an album that could never really live up to expectations, and I think that’s a smart move. Bands like Alice in Chains are the exception, not the rule, and At the Gates would be trying to follow-up one of the most influential metal albums of all time, so I don’t think that would go too well for them.

Still, we are getting some new At the Gates product in the form of a new three-disc DVD, The Flames of the End, which Earache will release on February 22. Here’s what’s in the set:

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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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