Sorry. There’s no pun to be made with the title of Beneath the Massacre’s new song, “Symptoms,” that isn’t dumb even by my standards. So I went with “search-engine friendly” instead.

ANYWAY, Beneath the Massacre are one of the rarities in the metal world — a good tech-deathcore band. And I know this song is cool, because I am really, really over it with tech-deathcore right now, and yet “Symptoms” still got my foot tappin’. Like, really tap-tap-tappin’. Like, I am now 100% more stoked to hear the rest of the band’s new EP, Incongruous, now. So crank this shit:

Incongruous comes out February 14 on Prosthetic.

-AR

[via Terrorizer]

Well, the line-up for this year’s New England Metal & Hardcore Festival — one of the oldest and most revered extreme music fests in the U.S. — has been announced, and it’s… interesting. The fest returns to a three-day format after being only two days last year, but if I’m not mistaken, this is the first time that the initial day will be a Thursday, not a Friday. And as reader Brian Kessler pointed out to us via e-mail, there are two noteworthy aspects to the lineup:

• It seems like metal and hardcore have been further segregated on the bill — Thursday appears to be almost entirely dedicated to deathcore and crabcore bands, Friday seems to be entirely devoted to hardcore bands, and Saturday is dominated by metal bands. There are pros and cons to this approach — the pro being that if you’re only a fan of one particular style of extreme music, you can cherry pick which day you’re going to attend, and the con being that new fans are less likely to be exposed to bands with whom they were not already familiar.
• There seem to be fewer “big name” acts. Sure, Hatebreed and Biohazard are on there, but that’s still a far cry from years’ past. In fact, plenty of big name who have new albums scheduled to come out this year — like Amon Amarth, DevilDriver, Arch Enemy, In Flames, and Children of Bodom — aren’t playing the fest.

Please note that I’m not knocking the fest — in fact, I think Saturday, April 16 is full of killer bands — and I don’t think every fest needs to be headlined by a band of Megadeth’s stature. I just think this particular line-up is… interesting.

Anyway, here’s the full bill:

Click to read more…

Well, the line-up for this year’s New England Metal & Hardcore Festival — one of the oldest and most revered extreme music fests in the U.S. — has been announced, and it’s… interesting. The fest returns to a three-day format after being only two days last year, but if I’m not mistaken, this is the first time that the initial day will be a Thursday, not a Friday. And as reader Brian Kessler pointed out to us via e-mail, there are two noteworthy aspects to the lineup:

• It seems like metal and hardcore have been further segregated on the bill — Thursday appears to be almost entirely dedicated to deathcore and crabcore bands, Friday seems to be entirely devoted to hardcore bands, and Saturday is dominated by metal bands. There are pros and cons to this approach — the pro being that if you’re only a fan of one particular style of extreme music, you can cherry pick which day you’re going to attend, and the con being that new fans are less likely to be exposed to bands with whom they were not already familiar.
• There seem to be fewer “big name” acts. Sure, Hatebreed and Biohazard are on there, but that’s still a far cry from years’ past. In fact, plenty of big name who have new albums scheduled to come out this year — like Amon Amarth, DevilDriver, Arch Enemy, In Flames, and Children of Bodom — aren’t playing the fest.

Please note that I’m not knocking the fest — in fact, I think Saturday, April 16 is full of killer bands — and I don’t think every fest needs to be headlined by a band of Megadeth’s stature. I just think this particular line-up is… interesting.

Anyway, here’s the full bill:

Click to read more…

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Welcome to “Question of the Week,” a (sometimes) weekly debate amongst the MetalSucks staff regarding a recent hot button issue.

This week, we have our first ever reader-suggested QOTW, coming from MetalSucks Maniac Cougar Party:

WHAT BANDS DO YOU HATE THAT YOU HAVE SEEN LIVE MULTIPLE TIMES BECAUSE THEY ARE ALWAYS OPENING FOR SOMEONE YOU LIKE?

The MS staff’s answers after the jump.

Click to read more…

It is no mystery that I generally hate tech-death and deathcore, and ESPECIALLY bands who combine the two like Faceless, Braindrill, BTBAM, and so forth. It’s possible that the genres bore the fuck out of me because I’ve been listening to this shit for 20+ years and blast beats stopped being novel to me sometime in the mid 90s, but it’s also possible that I’m just not a beardo who thinks that a metronome is worth fapping over.

I guess there is something in the water up in Canada, or maybe there’s just nothing better to do there than sit in your room and practice your instrument, because there sure are a lot of tech-deathcore bands from up there. I can’t get into that stuff for the most part, but I was pretty pleasantly surprised by the new track from BENEATH THE MASSACRE. Despite having an “X the Y” name and playing a lot of notes, this band is pretty sick– check them out if you are fiending for some Ion Dissonance/The Faceless type shit. I think they have a recording out now on Prosthetic or something.

-Sergeant D.

Canadian MetalSucks Maniac Matt Poulter e-mailed us in the wee hours this morning, after returning from a 3 Inches of Blood/Goatwhore show in Ottawa. He couldn’t wait ’til a decent hour, I guess, ’cause he was so excited:

“The unthinkable happened: for the first time in my life, a local opening act not only didn’t suck, but kicked a fair amount of ass themselves.”

The band in question is called Immersed, and based on the two demo tracks they have posted on their MySpace page, we’re inclined to agree with Matt: they do, indeed, kick a fair amount of ass.

The band counts Origin, Suffocation, Decapitated and Behemoth amongst their influences; that right there should give you a pretty good idea of what they sound like. Mr. Poulter describes them “as sounding like a more death-y Black Dahlia Murder with the occaisional Cephalic Carnage tinge,” which is accurate enough. In any case, they’ve got a lot of potential.

Apparently they’re recording an album with Beneath the Massacre guitarist Chris Bradley right now, so hopefully we’ll get to hear more for these dudes in the not-too-distant future. In the meantime, check ‘em out and let us know what you think in the comments section below.

-AR

One of the most prolific artists in the metal scene is Mark Riddick. He has created a tremendous amount of art for such bands as Beneath the Massacre, The Black Dahlia Murder, Gravehill, Internal Bleeding, and hundreds of others. He could quite possibly be the Norman Rockwell of zombie art. His lavish black and white illustrations take the viewer to a twisted land of corpses, demons and intestines. But what his work does not tell you is that he is a really nice guy, who is very supportive of other artists and a devoted family man. This interview was conducted via email, and I am astounded that he got back to me so fast, especially after hearing the rundown of an average day for Riddick.

Click to read more…

These are some of my favorite producers and mixers for heavy music… It’s a challenging genre, and these guys are great in my opinion.

Click to read more…

So the line-up for Summer Slaughter – a.k.a. the big summer package tour that isn’t Ozzfest, Mayhem, Warped, or Sounds of the Underground (R.I.P.) – has been announced, and, pretty much as expected, it’s totally solid. Yes, there are a few bands on the bill I don’t care for (I’m looking at you, Winds of Plague), but the presence of co-headliners Suffocation and Necrophagist, plus Darkest Hour, Origin, Born of Osiris, Dying Fetus and Blackguard pretty much guarantees this will be a day (well, late afternoon at least) worth your time and money. Especially since, unlike the aforementioned summer fests, this one plays smaller venues and comes at a cheaper price.

Also kind of advantageous: you’re basically just dealing with death metal on this tour. So… you pretty much know if you’re the audience or not for this tour.

No dates yet… stay tuned for more details.

-AR