I Am War is a new band that features both Atreyu vocalist Alex Varkatzas and Bleeding Through vocalist Brandan Schieppati, and while I’m sure the idea of that dynamic duo really, really excites some people, I am not one of them. That being said, the first song the band has unveiled — a demo entitled “The Poisoning” — is not nearly as intolerable as I would have suspected. For the most part, it’s just generic metallic hardcore; the only parts I out and out hate are the two deathcore breakdowns, the second of which seems to go on for-EVER. But the bottom line is, “The Poisoning” is more sleepy than it is offensive.

ANYWAY, you can check out “The Poisoning” for yourself below and make up your own mind. I Am War just signed with Razor & Tie and are expected to release their debut album in the spring.

-AR

So yeah yeah yeah, Victory is releasing a greatest hits package for Between the Buried and Me on March 29. We have avoided writing about it up ’til now because it’s one of those things where a label goes “We just lost one of our big bands, but we have the contractual right to try and milk some more money from ‘em, so let’s slap something together and get it out there.” (BTBAM recently ankled Victory for Metal Blade.) Sad, but this kind of thing happens all the time — hell, Victory did the same thing when they lost Atreyu a few years back. These collections usually aren’t even approved by the band, who legally have no say in the matter.

But so many of you have e-mailed us about the below video, which shows off the packaging for this compilation, and… yeah, it looks killer. Like, Tool-album-packaging-killer. Even though there’s absolutely no new material on this album (there are two CDs and one DVD, the latter showcasing all the band’s music videos), this is an increasingly-rare instance of a label actually giving fans a good reason to purchase a physical copy of an album. Whether or not you think that makes it worth it to pay for music you already own, well… that’s up to every BTBAM fan to decide for him or herself.

Meanwhile, BTBAM will release a NEW (not just recycled material!) three-song, thirty minute EP, The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues, on April 12 via Metal Blade. Then they’ll headline a MetalSucks-sponsored tour with The Ocean, Job for a Cowboy, and, on select dates, Cephalic Carnage. Get dates for that trek after the jump.

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I know that the guy from Atreyu isn’t really named Alex Fahrvergnügen, but I can never remember how you spell his actual name, and since he can’t be bothered to learn the proper spelling of one of the easiest words in the English language, I’m not sure why I should be expected to learn to spell his name right. I mean, it took me a long time to learn to spell Guy Kozowyk’s last name correctly without double-checking it on the interwebs, but there’s a major difference between Guy and Alex — Guy is talented.

Also, Guy has a band, whereas Alex, it would seem, no longer does.

The following statement from Mr. Fahrvergnügen was pieced together from Twitter:

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Next year’s early contribution to drunk driving accidents and teen pregnancy will come in the form of a headlining tour from Buckcherry, with support in the form of All That Remains (Making their conversion from metal to radio rock official — eat that, Atreyu!), Hellyeah, and The Damned Things.

I know that Vince is a Buckcherry fan, but they always seemed like GN’R Lite to me (vocalist Josh Todd and guitarist Keith Nelson were even in Velvet Revolver for ten seconds — Nelson retains a songwriting credit on the VR track “Dirty Little Thing”). I think I’ve made my feelings about All That Remains and Hellyeah pretty clear on this site before, but in case you wandered here via a search engine, please allow me to reiterate that the facts that I’m not inbred and I expect my singers to be able to sing disqualifies me from joining these bands’ respective fan clubs. And I want to like The Damned Things because of the presence of the Every Time I Have Anthrax dudes, but I also want to understand the appeal of Glee because Jane Lynch was really funny in The 40 Year Old Virgin, and it just doesn’t seem to be in the cards for me.

So this isn’t as lousy as, say, a Hinder tour, but, yeah, I’m gonna pass, thanks.

If you disagree with me, you can get dates here.

-AR

Earlier this week I had a dream that I was working with Atreyu. I don’t know in what capacity I could possibly find myself “working with” Atreyu, since I’m not a manager, nor a publicist, nor a label rep, and they’re about as likely to end up doing a guest column here as I am to give the new In This Moment album a perfect 5-horn review, but, hey, the subconscious works in mysterious ways. Why did I have Atreyu on the brain? Was my mind trying to tell me “The glass is half-full?” Do I have  a hankering to re-watch The Neverending Story? Did I just ingest too many different substances that night? I’ll have to bring it up in therapy next week.

Here’s other shit that happened this week, some of which, believe it or not, is even more terrifying than the thought of working with Atreyu:

• Freddy Madball is counting down his favorite hard and heavy non-hardcore bands of all time, TesseracT’s Acle walked us through the history of djent, The Austerity Program’s Justin Foley spoke to Converge’s Kurt Ballou about Taco Riffs, The Red Chord’s Greg Weeks made some suggestions for losing NFL teams, Intronaut’s Sacha Dunable contemplated the ways in which technology has changed touring, Daath’s Eyal Levi wondered, “Is this it?”, and a wide array of metal stars previewed the just-begun NHL season.
• We spoke to Kirk Windstein from Crowbar/Down/Kingdom of Sorrow, Sean Z. from Daath, Daddy X and Dirtball from Kottonmouth Kings, and Yoshiki Hayashi from X Japan.
• We checked out the latest releases from Abysse and Deafheaven.
• We contemplated trancecore.
• As the headline says, we heard the worst thing ever.
• We reviewed the history of terrible Limp Bizkit cover songs.
• We had fun with misheard song lyrics.
• We bemoaned the signing of another re-thrash band.
• We applauded Slayer fans’ desire to help the physically disabled.
• We had yet another laugh at Winds of Plague’s expense.

We have a special surprise for you next week. I can’t promise you’re going to like it, but I can promise you’re going to have a strong reaction to it. See ya then.

-AR

Man, Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry is having a rough month. First, his arch-frenemy Steven Tyler finalized a spot on that TV show about pre-failures caterwauling hit songs while nervous. And this follows know-it-all beardo John Kalodner’s description of Perry as “completely wrong,” “jealous,” and “ultra-pissed off,” which supposes that Perry hoped that the AI judge seat was to be shared by the Toxic Talkshit Twins. Actually that would’ve been cute, every week Tyler perched gamely on Perry’s lap, stroking his abs while some featureless shriek-droid performs “Don’t Stop Believin’” to a theater of fame-wet spectators. Well, that’s what I dreamt last night anyway. Cough.

Anyhow, when Perry awoke and rolled off a pile of my money this morning, he was probably too crabby to just ignore the announcement that his band is the latest victim of an Atreyu Cover Version attack. It happened to Bon Jovi in 2004, when Atreyu launched an emo-guided missile of Twilight-level corniness at “You Give Love A Bad Name” (I complained all about it on The Deciblog). Then, an unapologetic lameness mine overturned both Faith No More’s “Epic” and “Clean Sheets” by The Descendents in 2008 and holy shit let’s not validate that type of ear-terrorism with discussion of any kind. (It never happened if everyone on Earth denies it. You fuckin’ deny that shit.)

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Life is tough for the modern touring metal band, ’cause when you gotta put gas in the van and the 4-6 members of the group are splitting twenty bucks a night, paying for, say, food can become a real problem-o. So even though I’ll only eat at Taco Bell late at night, after a show, when friends (like, say, Metal Injection‘s Rob Pasbani and awesome metal photographer Justina “English Waffle” Villanueva) drag me, I fully endorse Taco Bell’s annual “Feed the Beat” program, which offers bands free diarrhea via Taco Bell Bucks, which can be redeemed at any one of the chain’s eight gajillion locations.

The fifth annual installment of the program is now accepting applications here, and while you might think Taco Bell would only wanna support wholesome, all-American artists who fit in with their image, filthy, stinky metal bands such as Shadows Fall, Atreyu, Municipal Waste and Iwrestledabearonce have all benefitted in the past. So if you’re in a poor touring group and you’ve got a strong stomach, go apply now.

-AR

[via Metal Insider]

It’s been a while since I actively paid attention about Atreyu. A few years ago it was easy to slag them for venturing headfirst into the pop metal world; not that their sugar-sweet metalcore of yore was breaking boundaries or slaying faces to shreds beforehand, but The Curse and A Deathgrip on Yesterday were solid metalcore albums that were sufficiently heavy and sufficiently catchy, and, I’d venture, pretty good. So when Atreyu left Victory for the major label world and subsequently adapted their music to go for the mainstream gold, they were everyone’s favorite metalcore punching bags for a good hot hour there. But now? They’ve kind of just slipped into “oh yeah, that band” territory every time I see or hear their name somewhere. As Lambgoat commenters might say, “No care ever.”

So, a check-in. They’ve got a new video for a song called “Gallows,” from their latest album. Despite having the trimmings of metal (double bass, twin guitar leads, screaming [sometimes]), it’s pretty clear that Atreyu have continued on with the poppy stuff via a short, concise song structure and cliched catchy chorus. Vocalist Alex Varkatzas is singing [via the help of auto-tune] more than ever, and apparently drummer / backup vocalist Brandon “Ziggy” Saller has shaved his head. Otherwise it’s pretty much business as usual for Atreyu, which, these days, I’m honestly not sure how it is. Do kids still go out to shows to see this band or has their fanbase moved on?

-VN

I think. I can’t be sure. It’s just this vibe I got from watching their new video, for the song “Lonely.” But I could be way off-base here. I dunno. Maybe.

Click the screencap to watch the video, if you must.

-AR

Full confession: until about an hour ago, I had no idea who the hell Ke$ha was. I think I’ve read some shit about her on Stuff You Will Hate, or maybe she just looks like someone I’d read about on Stuff You Will Hate (she’s collaborated with SYWH favorites 3OH!3); in any case, I didn’t really know any of her music.

Then I saw on The Number of the Blog that Metal Hammer played her a bunch of metal songs – including selections by Slayer, Megadeth, Horse the Band, Atreyu, DevilDriver, Steel Panther, and Kiss – to get her opinions, and decided I had better check out her music so I knew how seriously to take her reactions.

Holy shit, is this bitch ever lacking in talent. It’s like she looked at Brittney Spears and Lindsay Lohan and said “Nah, those chicks are too classy and prude for me.” If I ever caught my daughter listening to this garbage, I’d probably send her to a convent. And given that I’m Jewish, you should know if I ever send my daughter to a convent, I mean business.

But as it turns out, Ke$ha (I assumed it was pronounced “kee-sha” but apparently it’s “keh-sha,” which sounds like a dish my mom’ll be making at Passover next week) does not have terrible taste in metal – just kinda mediocre taste in metal. Her assessment of Atreyu pretty much hits the nail on the head, and it’s hard for me to talk too much smack on anyone who has good things to do say about the recent output of Slayer and Megadeth. But Horse the Band, “too emo?” Seriously? How about a nice cold glass of go suck a dick, Ke$ha?

-AR

Yesterday I wrote a pretty harsh criticism of God Save RockandRoll, a new blog written by the wife of Atreyu’s Brandon Saller, Ashley Jean.

Well, I guess word got back to Ashley Jean in record time: as of this morning, she has removed her improper French translation of the phrase “God Save Rock and Roll” (why oh why didn’t I take a screen cap?!?!), and has responded to some of the things I said in my blog – without directly naming MetalSucks, natch. Here’s an excerpt:

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Alright, so reader C.J. Altman follows Atreyu drummer/auto-tuner Brandon Saller on Twitter I guess. And C.J. tipped us off that Saller tweeted about God Save RockandRoll, a blog run by his wife, who is apparently named Ashley Jean and looks kinda like Saller if Saller looked like a dude. But I’m already getting off-topic.

So. Ashley Jean’s blog, God Save RockandRoll. It’s not just a blog – it’s a blog with a purpose, a theme, kinda like this one you’re reading right now. Here’s an excerpt from Ashley Jean’s first post, which is a de facto mission statement:

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So apparently Ozzfest is coming back this summer, and is coming back as a traveling tour again (as opposed to the one-off fest it was in 2008). And that’s all well and good, only… who’s gonna be on the bill?

Mayhem, which is basically Ozzfest 2.0, has already scooped up a lot of big-name bands for the summer, including many who have played multiple past Ozzfests – namely Korn, Rob Zombie, Lamb of God, Atreyu, Shadows Fall and Hatebreed, the latter of whom I think have been on something like 90% of all Ozzfests ever.

Add to that other Ozzfest alum like Chimaira, In This Moment and Norma Jean, and some bands the kids today all seem to like, such as Winds of Plague and They Who Shall Not Be Named, and, well, that’s a whole bunch of potential mainstage and second stage draws right there.

Then there’s the mini-fests like Summer Slaughter. I can’t tell you which bands we already know are booked for some of these tours without betraying a lot of people’s confidence, but I can tell you that some great bands are now no longer available for Ozzfest.

And, oh yeah, Megadeth, Slayer, and Testament are now doing their American Carnage tour in the summer, so they’re out.

So who’s left? After the jump, I’m going to play my favorite game: it’s called “over-think about something incredibly unimportant.”

Before we proceed, it’s worth noting that I’m going to try and be semi-realistic when moving forward with some barely-educated guesses about who’ll be playing Ozzfest. If a band already has summer tour dates booked, I’m going to assume they’re not avail, although I acknowledge that they could cancel those dates in favor of playing for a bigger crowd. And I’m not even going to bother with bands like Pig Destroyer, Sigh, and Salome – bands that will play Ozzfest right around the time Joey Belladonna’s solo band plays four sold-out headlining shows at Giants Stadium. Also, obviously not all of these bands are gonna end up on the bill – these are just bands I think could end up there.

And so, without further bullshit…

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The line-up for the 2010 Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival (Jesus I hate typing all that shit) has been announced. See who’ll be playing one of the summer’s biggest metal tours after the jump, along with my snarky commentary, of course…

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Atreyu drummer / vocalist Brandon Saller has announced he’ll be playing a solo show in Anaheim this January. If badly out-of-key vocals are your thing, then I recommend you attend this show. Exactly what this show will entail, I’m not certain… continuous drum solos? Brandon on an acoustic?

Also, what the fuck is going on in the above photo? Who needs 3 fucking bass drums?

Slow news day.

-VN

Them Crooked Vultures debuted in the Top 20… how ’bout that. Not surprising given the cast of characters, I suppose. MetalSucks guest blogger Devin mothafuckin’ Townsend debuted in the Top 200, while a few other metal releases maintained. It’s all holiday shlock and best-of compilations from hereon out.

[UPDATE: Devin will be calling in to the Metal Injection Livecast tonight at 8pm EST! Make sure you tune in; get details here.]

Soundscan shite after the jump…

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Anyone remember this from a couple of years back?

Well that Taco Bell isn’t too far from the Mansion, and I’m ashamed to admit, but sometimes, in moments of stoned weakness, I purchased food there. But ever since that little incident, I haven’t eaten at a Taco Bell; I can’t. I know that ALL fast food is crap, but come ON, a man has limits.

Still, I guess it’s nice of them to start this whole “Feed the Beat” program, in which they basically give touring bands $500 worth of diarrhea food for free. And now Metal Insider is reporting that a handful of metal bands – including Atreyu, Iwrestledabearonce, Whitechapel, Municipal Waste and Earthless – are rumored to have been selected for the offer.

And as Metal Insider says, “tour support is tour support” – so I don’t blame the bands for participating. And the dudes in The Waste are probably fucked up half the time anyways, so they won’t be able to tell the difference. Meanwhile, Atreyu have been spewing crap forth from their mouths for years, so they might as well put some back into their mouths for a change.

-AR

P.S. I wanna give extra credit to Metal Insider, not just for originally reporting on this story, but for coming up with a headline that is vastly superior to my own. Nice work, Bram!

The hype around Congregation of the Damned is that it’s a return to Atreyu’s older metalcore (excuse me, “metallic rock”) outings. This is bullshit. Congregation is another ham fisted arena rock failure posing as one of Atreyu’s metalcore albums.

Now, inevitably, some punk is gonna come around here and say “Atreyu’s sound could never stay the same forever, and why would they want it to, and blah blah blah, pee.” To which I say: well, I’m not the one going around telling people this album is going to sound nothing like Lead Sails and a Plug-in Vagina. The dudes from Atreyu are.

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Luckily for Five Finger Death Punch, being total assholes who completely lack any musical talent isn’t hurting their record sales: their new album, War is the Answer, is apparently going to sell to somewhere between 35,000 – 40,000 copies in its first week of release… and that’s just here in the U.S. That probably sounds like a lot of units moved, and you’re right. It is a lot of fucking units moved. To put it in perspective with the sales of some awesome albums that came out this week…

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Last week Vince and I guested on Noisecreep‘s “Creep Show” video podcast. You can watch the episode below.

In addition to the regular “Creep Show” gang – Noisecreep editor Seth Werkheiser, news columnist and writer Chris Harris, and Revolver senior writer and Noisecreep scribe Jon Wiederhorn – we joined call-in guests Brandon Saller and Alex Varwhateverthefuck from Atreyu. Because we were guests in someone else’s house, we decided to be polite and play nice with the Atreyu dudes… so apologies to anyone who was hoping we’d get into it with the metalcore (excuse me… “metallic rock”) band.

We had a lot of fun – in fact this was Vince’s second time on the show – and hope to visit with the Noisecreep family again real soon. Enjoy.

-AR