MetalSucks tipsters are the bestest in the whole world. Take for example Fredrik Staavi Ekern who just emailed to let me know that Benea Reach have two brand new demo tracks streaming on their SignMeTo page. Why SignMeTo as opposed to Soundcloud, Facebook, their official website or even MySpace? Beats me… but let’s stop asking questions and start listening, ’cause new Benea Reach is always cause for excitement.

The new stuff seems more atmospheric / post-metally and less djenty than their older material. This is a good thing; in the three years since Alleviat came out in 2008 the market has been flooded with a glut of similar copycat bands from which Benea Reach need to separate themselves. Hopefully we’ll get a new album at some point this year.

-VN

Trying to keep up with the changes at a music festival is like trying to herd a pack of rabid cats. The South by Southwest (SXSW) Music Festival is the biggest musical kitty corral of them all. That’s why you have me here to help you make heads or tails of all your SXSW metallic/hard rock/punk rock/experimental/etc. needs.

There have been plenty of line-up changes since my last SXSW music post over a week ago. First on the list is the welcome news that NOLA-sludgekings eyehategod will team up with doom metal pioneers Pentagram to close out the conference on Saturday, March 19 (both bands will be going on after midnight, so, technically, they are playing on March 20) at the Scoot Inn. They’ll be joined by a stellar group of bands including Cough and Naam.

Other notable additions include YOB, Slough Feg, and Zoroaster.

Click to read more…

Let the rumor mill for SXSW begin churning!

MS tipster Fredrik Staavi Ekern has it on good faith that Norwegian black-punksters Kvelertak will be appearing at this year’s SXSW festival in Austin, TX (March 16-20) along “with 18 other Norwegian bands,” of which Benea Reach is one. Kip and I have been raving about Benea Reach for years so it’s only fitting that this year’s MS contingent at the festival will get to experience the band together (whilst masturbating in the corner) during their first ever U.S. tour. And Kvelertak… well, you all know how we feel about Kvelvertak, having included their 2010 self-titled opus on a number of our year-end lists and having been chosen by you, our faithful readers, as your #2 favorite album of the year.  Though our tipster claims to be in the know, these rumors should still be treated as just those — rumors — until we have some sort of official confirmation.

With a few metal events already announced (C.O.C., Dredg, Coliseum, Dawn of Ashes, Horse the Band, Novembers Doom and many others, as highlighted by our own Corey Mitchell), another Full Metal Texas event in the works and a super-duper top-secret MetalSucks showcase also in the works, 2011 is shaping up to be a mighty fine year for metal at SXSW. Here’s what we can look forward to:

-VN

Some day Textures, Benea Reach and Celice will all come to the U.S. together on a tour that will go down in metal history as beyond legendary. That day is not today, but hey, it could happen soon; Textures are currently in the studio recording a new record with new vocalist Daniel de Jongh, Benea Reach are about due for a followup to 2008′s stunning Alleviat, and Celice… well, they’ve got some work to do as they’re in need of a new vocalist following de Jongh’s departure. But hey, a man can hope, and I’d like to extend a helping hand on behalf of MetalSucks to all of those bands if they ever do make it stateside.

Until then, I’ll have to live vicariously through live footage like the video of Benea Reach at Frizon Festival in Örebro, Sweden last month posted by Got-Djent. It’s always fascinating to me how a band like this can bring a full on stage production to play in front of thousands in their home country, but over here they’d probably play stripped down 500-cap venues.

Also, apparently even metal musicians in Sweden aren’t above singing along to A Ha.

-VN

Round about the time this site was jocking the wares of avant-garde prog metallers Sikth and Textures, several of you emailed us about the French band Hacride. And as usual, you were right on the money. While Hacride don’t have the frenetic nature of Sikth nor the epic sense of melody of Textures, they do have the technicality and the brutal grooves of both, which naturally just means they all have a common influence in Meshuggah. But theirs is a slower, more raw version of any of the above; in fact, the band I’d most liken Hacride to is Norway’s Benea Reach — punishing, grooving, articulate, deliberate and beautiful all the same. This is Meshuggah strung out on heroin, lounging back in a dirty old armchair with a cigarette burnt to the filter in one hand and the TV remote control in the other.

The band’s got a new album Lazarus coming out on April 20th, and they’ve posted the song “My Enemy” (all 10 minutes of it!) on their MySpace page. Go listen to that shit! It’s some of the best material Hacride have written to date. And if you like it, pre-order the record with a limited edition Hacride t-shirt on Listenable Records’ MySpace.

-VN

January 16th and 17th will be the final shows ever for Norwegian rockers Stonegard. Though they apparently split-up in October 2008 and I’ve known about these Farewell concerts in Oslo for a while, I still can’t shake my disappointment at having such a great act not being able to hold itself together. I’m even more upset that they will most likely be entirely forgotten.

Click to read more…

So a lot of you have been emailing us lately about this band Hacride, a really solid French progressive metal band very much in the Meshuggah / Textures / Benea Reach school. I think they’re pretty F’n cool, even if not entirely original (see also: those bands). Here’s the trippy Aronofsky-esque video for their song “Perturbed.”

-VN

So if you’ve previously traversed these here interweb waters before, chances are you prolly know who our-very-favorite-first-half-of-2008-discovered-math-metal band is; that said, the dudes in Benea Reach are bringing the progressive aggressive strength in a major way as well, Nordic styles…and whoah, look at that — their recently-released album Alleviat, just officially made my top-10 list of 2008!! How thpecial…

The vocal (screaming) style is often Meshuggah-reminiscent (with a throaty hardcore backbone, especially on their 2006 debut album, Monument Bineothan), and there is indeed singing here and there as well, allbeit predominantly ambient and in the background…but the music itself feels a bit more straightforward and organic than the aforementioned Swedish metal maniacs — before you cry boring, let me remind you that while simplistic is almost always a disappointing attribute of a band, simple is most definitely not.

Click to read more…