MetalSucks

Lately I have been in close contact with some of the most epic beards I have ever seen in my life. Until now, I never put much thought into the beard.  Its around the scene I associate myself with, but that has been the extent of my true exposure and understanding of the facial shrub. If I can’t grow one, why the fuck would I care? I’m a selfish bitch. Well, I believe I’ve finally found a reason. As a matter of fact, I found many fucking reasons to say this: I FUCKING LOVE BEARDS. YES.

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At some point in the middle of this decade, beards on metal dudes became fashionable. Not goatees, not chin-strips, not ’staches (the latter will never be fashionable in the highly homophobic metal community), but big, bushy, manly beards. But not all was hunky-dory in beard-ville; cries of “hipster!” and “beardo!” resonated through the land, with purists claiming beards are not metal. So…

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Seems like an odd time for Killswitch Engage to release a new video, seeing as they’re reportedly heading into the studio this month to record the follow-up to 2006’s Daylight Dies — but more Killswitch is never a bad thing, so fuck it, right? Live footage / road footage videos are great for record labels because they give the media a reason to continue talking about a band when the prior album cycle is over (touche!) and they don’t cost a penny to make outside of hiring some dude to chop together footage that’s already been filmed. So while there isn’t much new to see here, the live and behind the scenes footage used in this video shows KsE up to their usual backstage shenanigans and at the top of their live game, set to one of my favorite tracks from Daylight Dies, “This Is Absolution.”

Also: Justin’s Foley’s beard. In my now infamous “Beard on Beard” interview with Justin he threatened to be on the verge of shaving off his man-whiskers. Say it ain’t so! This video could be the last glimpse we get of Foley’s monstrous chin pubes.

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Life on the road looks fun, doesn’t it?

In other news, guitarist Tim Millar’s beard is fucking FIERCE, dude! I positively cannot WAIT to see these guys open for Unearth on October 30th in NYC.

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Justin Foley, the fire-maned skinsman for Killswitch Engage, has got one hell of a monstrous beard. You’ve no doubt seen it in the “Holy Diver” video (pictured above), but if you saw the band on tour recently you’d see that Foley’s man-whiskers have grown to catastrophic proportions. As an aspiring beardo myself, I was thrilled to have the opportunity recently to interview Justin — exclusively about his beard — both for the sake of interesting MetalSucks content and for my own beard-growing aspirations. Trust me, these things don’t just take care of themselves; lots of time and effort goes into keeping our face-pubes nice and healthy.

After the jump, Justin shares with us the history and inspiration behind his beard, his beard heroes, the recent trend of beards in metal, beard grooming tips, and a whole lot more. It’s every beard-grower’s dream.

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