MetalSucks

The Starbucks Incident

Yes, I am going to continue to bitch about Slash. I understand that Slash is not Jimi Hendrix but this might be the single biggest betrayal to my formative years since Metallica released everything they’ve released from Load on, and I need to mourn.

So. Some lady says that the following singers are all on Slash’s new solo album, How Could Taking My Cues from Carlos Santana Possibly Go Wrong? I have added my own thoughts because that’s what we do around here. Click to read more…

Suck. Embarrasing. Awful. Ear-raping. This is just… wow. Yes, it’s real, and you can read the story behind it on YouTube user StudioZeeber’s video page.

Perhaps even more mindblowing is that there are literally dozens of videos just like this one of young kids covering “Unholy Confessions” in basements and high school gymnasiums. I’ve assembled some choice cuts after the jump for your enjoyment / bewilderment.

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Even if you’re one of those people who only listen to metal, hardcore, or other such heavy music styles, you have to concede the fact that many of the musicians you love do not share that singular devotion to one genre. Some artists go even further and apply their broad tastes to the music they make. (Mike Patton might be one of the best examples of this.) That being said, I was admittedly quite surprised to learn that Melvins drummer Dale Crover plays on indie rocker Lou Barlow’s forthcoming solo album Goodnight Unknown. And not just on one track…

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As a part of goth metal OGs Type O Negative, drummer Johnny Kelley’s talents are often overshadowed by the low end sultriness and antics of bassist/frontman/nude model Peter Steele. But his graceful stickwork has been holding the band together since 1995’s October Rust, and the string of Type O albums that have come out since have stood shoulder to shoulder with the band’s prior material. Along with being Danzig’s drummer, Kelly plays in Seventh Void, a stoner/trad metal outfit with Type O Negative guitarist Kenny Hickey. The latter band released their debut on Vinnie Paul’s Big Vin Records in April. In an interview with MetalSucks, Kelly discusses Type O Negative’s future, working with Glenn Danzig, and his thoughts on modern drummers.

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Actually, we don’t have to pirate our own articles. Plenty of other websites do that for us, often without giving us credit or linking back to us. Once upon a time someone even accidentally included one of our bylines in their cut and paste job. Said “writer” apologized but then went on to shamelessly rip us off many more times, which was nice, because it shows his apology was sincere. You know who else tried to pass off someone else’s work as their own? The guy who went on to shoot Dimebag. So good company you keep, fellas.

Here are other ethically questionable decisions people made in the metal world this week:

• Hasidim moshed, we made punny jokes.
• Matt Heafy and Paolo Gregoletto of Trivium asked fans to illegally burn and share the band’s music.
• We’re streaming God Dethroned’s entire new album until Tuesday; listen now! We also debuted new tracks from Animals as Leaders and Burning Human.
• Arch Enemy choose to re-record old material; we choose to stop talking about this project from hereon out (starting… now!).
• Tyson vs. Holyfield 3 Underoath vs. Avenged Sevenfold! We love this kind of shit.
• Some Russian high school black metallers headbanged for show and tell, and we pondered how to improve our corpsepaint skillz.
• The Dillinger Escape Plan’s Greg Puciato sounded off against President Barack Obama. You sounded off against each other.
• We looked at new releases from Chimaira, God Dethroned and Goes Cube.

Next week brings more contests, more interviews, more new music streams you won’t be able to hear anywhere else, and at least one confrontation with a singer Axl once gave a terrible review. Come back and read more. You know you want to.

-Vince and Axl

I really couldn’t give a fuck what some dude in Underoath says about Avenged Sevenfold, but lots of you have been emailing us about this and besides, this is the kind of shit-kicking we specialize in around here, no? So apparently Metal Hammer was out with Underoath in Austria and Italy and got this choice nugget out of guitarist Tim McTague:

“People might associate us with Avenged Sevenfold because they’re pissed republicans and ‘so metal’, but they’re a gimmick, they’re a circus. They can play [corrected] but they can’t write songs. What’s worse is the way they look. If you need to have make-up and crappy names like Synyster Gates to sell records, then you shouldn’t be here.

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If you go here you can watch a video of Avenged Sevenfold’s M. Shadows being interviewed about the whole nu-GN’R/Velvet Revolver rivalry. I can’t embed it because the people at Artisan News Service, who conducted the interview, are no good smelly fuck faces, but here’s a transcription of the relevant part:

“I go more towards the Use Your Illusion records, and I know that [Axl Rose] had a major part in those. You listen to the Velvet Revolver records and you can tell that it’s more of a straight-ahead rock band. And a lot of people like that… and it’s not a diss on them, but they have a short attention span… From the new stuff I’ve heard and the demos, I can tell that Axl had the biggest part in [the Illusion albums]… the lyrics… the vocal stylings… that to me was the major part of Guns N’ Roses. Even though you can’t have Guns N’ Roses without Slash and those guys, but… just, to me, Axl was the most important part of that.”

Now, that’s not exactly an inflammatory comment – in fact, it’s pretty even handed – but it’s still hard to imagine, say, Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum (to say nothing of Izzy Stradlin) not taking serious issue with Shadows giving Axl so much credit and saying Velvet Revolver is for people with short attention spans.

So, I gotta wonder: did Shadows and Slash discuss Axl being the most important part of GN’R when Slash played with A7X last night?

-AR

[via Blabbermouth]

The infamous Now That’s What They Call Music comp, now it’s thirtieth iteration (!), will never stop selling. Nor will Hannah Montana. Given, it’s tough for any true metal band to crack the Billboard 200, but Mastodon did just once again that by notching a #11 debut with Crack the Skye, beat out metal-wise only by Papa Roach (ugh). Elsewhere, we got some surprises from Chris Cornell, Twiztid (!?) and others. Sales figures for those and other notable hard rock and metal releases after the jump.

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By now a lot of you have had a chance to hear some of our new shit floating around, or you’ve had the chance to hear the whole album if you’ve been SO LUCKY… I can say that I’m very excited to have this record come out on February 24th 2009. By the way, February 24th will be a huge day for metal. Us and Lamb Of God have our records coming out the same day. The coolest thing about this is every one can see how far metal has progressed from each of our first albums to our latest. We’ve come a long way. And I think both of our bands haven’t compromised. I also think we’ve produced quality material through our respective careers. So big ups to us and them!!! Big ups to metal!!!

I keep saying big ups because this blog is going to be all about one thing: Haterade. The big ups is a precursor to the new words or phrases that come out over time. Yeah, maybe being in a metal band makes it harder to say things like true dat, big ups or haterade but I’m gonna say that shit anyway. I am in a metal band but I am also from the streets so I have carte blanche to say all that ghetto shit.

Seriously, I’m talking about haterade because I think bands that get hated on generally become more successful. Right now, I’m hoping, pleading and wishing for this album to be panned by critics, internet trolls and whoever wants to shit on it. You may ask me, “Why Dallas? Why dost thou-eth needest us to protesteth soeth mucheth?” Because we need some boiling water in our career. We need people to hate. We need people to defend. We need to fight a fucking war for this record to push us to another place. We are a successful band. I want to be more successful. I want anyone out there who hates God Forbid to say they hate us. I don’t want reasons. I don’t want debates. I want hate!!!

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If I were Avenged Sevenfold I’m not sure whether I’d be ecstatic or downtrodden about the use of my band’s song during a college marching band’s half-time show. Ecstatic, I think.

-VN

[Thanks: Hegy]

While we were busy paying homage to the world’s biggest metal band yesterday, turns out some other kind of important stuff actually happened too. Who’d've thunk it?

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Get your arguing pants on, ’cause this band always inspires the best in our readers’ ability to result to childish name-calling and derogatory insults have intelligent, thoughtful conversation. A press release sent over the weekend has alerted us that there’s a new official trailer for the forthcoming Avenged Sevenfold DVD Live in the LBC & Diamonds in the Rough, which will feature a full live performance shot in HD and a CD full of unreleased music, covers and more.

We say “awesome.” But we’re sure a lot of you will think otherwise.

-VN

Just in time for Vince’s birthday on Valentine’s Day (which explains why he’s so darn sexy), Lamb of God will release a new album this February, according to a press release that just arrived here at the MetalSucks Mansion.

The band is working with producer Josh Wilbur (pictured above) this time.

Wait… who the fuck is Josh Wilbur?

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Posts about Avenged Sevenfold used to be the best way for us to get ya’ll riled up in the comments sections around here; that is, until Disturbed started creeping their way into headlines again (thanks Revrant and Jaime!). But hey — there’s some new Avenged Sevenfold news!

Longtime MetalSucks Maniac Kye sent us a link to Buzznet, where live footage of the full song “Afterlife” is posted from the band’s upcoming Live DVD (name and release date TBA). Pretty fuckin’ cool if you ask me. But then again, what does my opinion count for? I’m just some douchebag with a website.

-VN

Axl and I haven’t been shy about our love for Avenged Sevenfold, and pretty much all of you haven’t been shy about your hate, either. This one is for you haters out there… this video of A7X, um, “performing” their song “Unholy Confessions” should nicely sum up how you feel. Enjoy it as you bask in your glory. Even I can see the humor here… after all, metal does suck, right?

Thanks to MetalSucks reader Gerald L. for the tip.

-VN

We have a treat for our Boston-area readers; well, some of you will surely consider it a treat anyways… others, a death sentence. ANYWAY, we’re giving away two pairs of free tickets (that’s two sets of two tickets each, for those who aren’t hip to the meaning of the word “pair”) for this Friday’s (March 21st) Taste of Chaos show at Tsongas Arena in Boston. The tour features Avenged Sevenfold, Atreyu, Bullet for My Valentine and newcomers Idiot Pilot.

All you have to do to win is email vince [at] metalsucks.net with “TASTE OF CHAOS CONTEST” in the subject line, and tell us who your favorite band is on Taste of Chaos and why. Make your answers funny. Also do not forget to include your full name and address. Winners will be notified tomorrow morning, and will receive their tickets in the mail Thursday via FedEx.

Since most of you probably don’t know who Idiot Pilot is, here’s their video for “Planted in the Dark” to give you a taste… of chaos… ba-dum-ching! I’ll be here all day, folks.

-VN

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Well damn, now they’ve gone and done it. The editors at Nonelouder have challenged yours truly — Axl, Vince & Kip — to a drinking contest. The winner gets bragging rights about whether or not Avenged Sevenfold sucks (you know where we stand on the issue). Go on over to Nonelouder and tell ‘em what you think.

Axl’s a light drinker, but Kip could cover ground with his affinity for whiskey. I’m somewhere in the middle. But don’t you think a smoking contest would be way more appropriate for the editors of this site?

-VN

Avenged Sevenfold have apparently just offered up the “U.S. Premiere” of their new video for “Afterlife,” even though it appeared on YouTube and we posted it here a month ago. Apparently the powers that be (aka Warner Bros.) are trying to sabotage their own record sales and they yanked that video. Whatever. In any case, everything I said about the video 1 month ago still applies (or are we supposed to pretend that didn’t happen?), so, uh, enjoy.

-VN

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Love ‘em or hate ‘em, Avenged Sevenfold are a permanent fixture in today’s metal scene so you better get used to hearing about them. Here’s the new video for the song “Afterlife,” a song which always stirs up mixed emotions for me. On one hand, the guitar riff that comprises the main part of the verses is, like, the coolest fucking riff ever. On the other hand, the chorus is the biggest cop out on the entire Avenged Sevenfold record; come on guys, we know you’re capable of writing catchy choruses that aren’t as simplistic and predictable as this one. And there’s no producer to blame either, since the band produced the album themselves.

Anyway, here’s the new video. It’s pretty much metal-by-numbers video making, but we get to see the Rev do some sweet stick flips and Synyster Gates’ hands up-close during the lightning fast solo.

-VN

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Thanks to MetalSucks reader Devin Kelly for bringing this one to our attention…

The Confession, the melodic pop metal band whose album Requiem was produced by Avenged Sevenfold’s M. Shadows (and whose sound bore more than a passing resemblance to A7X), have apparently called it quits. A posting on the band’s MySpace page reads as follows:

Click to read more…