UPDATE, 2/22, 4:34 pm: Four more dates added. Thanks to Jonathan for sending ‘em in.

Are you guys sick of all these awesome tours being announced yet or what? Yeah, I didn’t think so. You can sleep in September. Maybe. Probably not. Oh whatever.

In case the giant poster at the top of this post didn’t give it away, the next trek about which to get excited will be headlined by the tech-death gods in Origin, with support coming from Cattle Decapitation, Decrepit Birth, Aborted, Rings of Saturn, and Battlecross; some bands I don’t really know are apparently also on the bill, although for what dates I have no idea. Whatever, you were in at Origin and Cattle Decapitation and Decrepit Birth ALONE, right? Everything else is just icing on the cake.

Here are dates, via Battlecross’ Facebook page:

Click to read more…

Earlier this week, you got to check out some sweet live footage of the three support bands (Barn Burner, Turbid North, and Battlecross) from the CMJ showcase we did with Metal Injection and 1000 Knives last Friday night; the MI Junkies tell me they’ll have even sweeter footage of co-headliners Skeletonwitch and Kvelertak sometime in the not-too-distant future. And while you wait for that, we have a good, old-fashioned, not-at-all-glossy audio bootleg of the event from Mr. 1000 Knives himself, Rich Hall. I don’t think I even realized they played for damn near an hour until I saw the running time on this baby. Wow. It honestly felt like ten minutes. I mean, I could have watched them again almost right away. In fact, we did watch them again almost right away — they played at the nearby St. Vitus just a few hours later, and, yes, we did go to see them for the second time that night. Metal Injection has some footage of that gig, including a BRAND NEW SONG!!!, here.

Alas, we don’t have audio of Skeletonwitch, but I promise, they absolutely murdered the joint, too, and if they’d been playing again a few hours later, we surely would have spiked our booze with coffee and gone to see them, too. Lucky for all you cats, the MetalSucks-presented Skeletonwitch/Kvelertak headlining tour is still ongoing, so you, too, can snap your neck rocking out to both bands! Get remaining dates here. Support comes from Zoroaster.

And now, enjoy some livelertak…

1000 KNIVES PRESENTS KVELERTAK 10.21.2011 by 1000-KNIVES

-AR

There’s a major dance party happening right now in the Vince Division of the MetalSucks Mansion! Yeah, it’s cool and all that Metal Injection posted video of the three opening bands from this past Friday’s CMJ showcase, but those motherfuckers interrupted the electro dance grooves of the brand new Justice album. Assholes. I know Rob knows what’s I’m talkin’ about — dude showed off his sick dance moves at the Chromeo jam this past SXSW!

The MetalSucks / Metal Injection / 1000 Knives CMJ Showcase was a fucking blast, though: I headbanged so furiously during Skeletonwitch’s scorching set that I still have a bangover four days later, and I actually stepped up into the pit for Kvelertak, whose riffs are absolutely irresistible. Barn Burner, Turbid North and Battlecross rounded out the ridiculously good bill, and all three bands absolutely killed it. Today we’ve got multi-camera footage of all three, courtesy of Metal Injection. Check out Barn Burner below, and Turbid North and Battlecross after the jump.

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While we’re always game for a crazy Friday night of partying, we are ESPECIALLY excited for tonight. ‘Cause tonight we’re teaming up with our friends at Metal Injection and 1000 Knives for a totally kick-ass CMJ Music Marathon showcase, featuring Skeletonwitch, Kvelertak, Barn Burner, Turbid North, and Battle Cross. Not only is the show guaranteed to be beyond insane, but there’s gonna be FREE BEER between 6 and 7pm courtesy of our friends at eOne Entertainment. Which means we will be totally fershnickered by 7:01 pm.

Come join us! The festivities take place at Club Europa in Brooklyn. You can get more details at the show’s official Facebook page. Tickets are also still on sale here.

See ya tonight!

-Axl & Vince

In case you somehow forgot, the totally kick-ass MetalSucks/ Metal Injection/1000 Knives CMJ Music Marathon showcase at the always-fun Club Europa in Brooklyn will take place one week from tonight, on Friday, October 21. It’s being co-headlined by Kvelertak and Skeletonwitch, a duo whose presence should be more than enough to get you to buy a ticket, but there’s also three young, up-and-coming bands on the bill that are totally worth your time: Barn Burner, Battlecross, and Turbid North.

And in case you don’t believe us when we promise you that those bands may very well comprise a large portion of metal’s future, well, you should check out this awesome Turbid North live footage which recently popped up online. It’s so good it made me aroused and now I need to call my shrink and have some serious discussions about my sexuality.

Check out another vid after the jump.

Click to read more…

For the second year in a row, MetalSucks is proud to be teaming up with our friends at Metal Injection and 1000 Knives for a totally kick-ass CMJ Music Marathon showcase at the always-fun Club Europa in Brooklyn. This year’s edition will take place on Friday, October 21, and will be co-headlined by the unfuckwithable one-two punch of Kvelertak and Skeletonwitch, as part of their MetalSucks-presented U.S. tour with Zoroaster (full itineraryhere, although Zoroaster will not appear at the CMJ showcase). Support will be provided by three up n’ coming bands that we absolutely love and think have big, big, big things in their future: Barn Burner, Turbid North, and Battlecross.

It is going to be a totally fucknuts crazy show and wild-ass party — and now you can win free tickets AND a silk-screened copy of the awesome show poster you see above. Pretty sweet, right?

Head over to the show’s official Facebook page for details on how to win. Of course, if you don’t wanna risk not winning and getting shut of this sure-to-be-unforgettable night, you can always buy tickets here.

-Axl, Vince, and Everyone at MetalSucks

That’s right, kids! For the second year in a row, MetalSucks is proud to be teaming up with our friends at Metal Injection and 1000 Knives for a totally kick-ass CMJ Music Marathon showcase at the always-fun Club Europa in Brooklyn. This year’s edition will take place on Friday, October 21, and will be co-headlined by the unfuckwithable one-two punch of Kvelertak and Skeletonwitch, as part of their MetalSucks-presented U.S. tour with Zoroaster (full itinerary here, although Zoroaster will not appear at the CMJ showcase). Support will be provided by three up n’ coming bands that we absolutely love and think have big, big, big things in their future: Barn Burner, Turbid North, and Battlecross. It is going to be a totally fucknuts crazy show and wild-ass party, so if you live within walking, driving, or swimming distance, please join us!!!

Again, the concert is on Friday, October 21, at Club Europa in Brooklyn, and you can get more details on the show via its Facebook page. Tickets are on sale now for the so-cheap-it’s-silly price of fifteen bucks. Buy ‘em here!

-Axl, Vince, and Everyone at MetalSucks

Sorry for being late this week, as some external problems prevented me from publishing on time. There’s really not a whole lot coming out this week, which is fine, because we’ve had a ton of killer releases over the past few months. Anyways, on to the reviews.

Click to read more…

Today Metal Blade releases Battlecross’ full-length debut, Pursuit of Honor, and to celebrate, the band has debuted a new video with our bro-bros over at Metal Injection. It’s for the track “Push Pull Destroy,” and it’s basically one of those so-called “warehouse” videos, except that it was filmed “at the Yankee Air Museum, located on the grounds of the historic Willow Run Airport… where Henry Ford mobilized his manufacturing base to contribute to the war efforts by mass producing the B-24 Liberators that provided American Air Power to win WWII for the Allies.”

In other words, for at least part of the video, the band is standing next to a big fucking airplane from World War II, which instantly makes the video cooler than if they were just in a warehouse. In fact, if I had my druthers, all the stuff with the band performing in those ruins (or whatever the hell they are) would have been swapped for more footage of the band with the plane. I don’t even care that Henry Ford was an anti-semite, he’s dead and the plane looks awesome.

Like I was sayin’, Battlecross’ Pursuit of Honor is out today on Metal Blade. Metal Injection also has a pretty cool time-lapse video of the album art being created; check that out here.

-AR

First it was my turn to take a vacation and now it’s Axl’s; I haven’t spoken with him since he left for the lake house last Saturday and that’s a good thing, not because I don’t love the dude but because it means he’s having fun instead of stressing about work. Hopefully as I write this he’s stoned out of his gourd and enjoying something tasty from the grill. But guess what? I’m gonna be away again this coming Monday and Tuesday conducting super-top-secret business in L.A., meaning it’ll just be Axl and the rest of our fine contributors for the early part of next week. But don’t worry; come Wednesday things will be back to normal with our usual Axl + Vince full frontal attack.

Meanwhile, here’s what Axl missed this week:

• We premiered new music by ’90s hardcore legends Earth Crisis and new Metal Blade signees Battlecross, and we premiered a new video from Last Chance to Reason
• We spoke with In Flames’ Bjorn Gelotte and IKILLYA’s Jason Lekberg.
• Landphil pondered the best wrestling “shoots” of all time.
• We looked at new releases by After Oblivion, Doctor Midnight and the Mercy Cult and Michael Monroe while Corey Mitchell gave us the rundown of his bleeders and blowers for June.
• We checked out Mastodon’s “different” new album artwork.
• Sergeant D wondered whether or not melody has a place in metal.
• Periphery lost guitarist Alex Bois while Pig Destroyer gained drummer Adam Jarvis.
• The metal world chimed in on the Casey Anthony verdict; we chimed in on the metal world.

Adios.

-VN

Guitarists Tony Asta and Hiran Deraniyagala of Detroit’s Battlecross are childhood friends just like Axl and Vince — ain’t that cute? But for realz, there’s a certain kind of chemistry that comes with knowing someone for so long, and in the case of Battlecross, Metal Blade Records’ latest signees, you can hear it in the tightness, conciseness and stellar riffery of their MB debut Pursuit of Honor. In their more melodic moments Battlecross remind us a lot of another band started by a set of childhood friends, God Forbid (brothers are technically childhood friends, right?) — check out the song “Push Pull Destroy,” available for streaming here — although the song “Breaking You,” which MetalSucks is exclusively premiering below, is one of the fastest, leanest, thrashiest cuts of meat this album has to offer and represents Battlecross at their heaviest and most unique.

Pursuit of Honor comes out on August 2nd; pre-order the record here. Battlecross are definitely a band to keep your eye on… look for them all over the place very soon.

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