MetalSucks

Last week one of you accused us of being a “bunch of negative miserable fucks.” I can only assume that this person had never been to this site before, and was somehow unaware that it’s called “MetalSucks.”

Still, this was probably the best worst week ever, because:

• Devin Townsend took over our site for a day!
• We finally got around to making MetalSucks t-shirts and hoodies!
• Vince interviewed Between the Buried and Me’s Dan Briggs for the third time in as many years!
• There’s gonna be a new Pig Destroyer album in 2010!
• There’s a new Sigh song!
• Varg Vikernes came out of the closet!

So, see? LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL!!!

In conclusion:

Have a good weekend.

-AR

Ever heard that Behemoth have breaks built into their set so they can run off stage and do some corpse paint touch-ups? To be fair, I’m not sure if the person who told me that was being honest or just joshin’ me, but it makes sense – the band definitely runs off stage from time to time, leaving the crowd to listen to pre-taped orchestral apocalyptic goodness.

True or not, it doesn’t change the fact that Behemoth absolutely crushed in their too-brief set on this past summer’s Rockstar Mayhem Yadda Yadda tour, or the fact that we were looking forward to seeing them do a proper headlining set. So now they’ve finally announced a tour – with Septic fucking Flesh, no less – and it’s hitting NYC the same night as the BTBAM/Cynic/Devin Townsend/Scale the Summit Orgasm Tour. I don’t know what rocket scientists set that up, but now metal fans in our area will have a tough decision to make. We are going to the Orgasm Tour, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t wish there were multiple mes, like in that awful Michael Keaton movie.

ANYWAY, here are dates for the Behemoth tour. We envy those of you who can make it.

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Between the Buried and Me bassist Dan Briggs currently holds the record for MetalSucks interviews at a healthy 3… which averages out to once a year in the history of this site. It’s no coincidence that we always end up talking to Dan over the rest of his equally talented band mates; the dude’s extremely passionate about his band and has a lot to say about the intricacies of their complex music.

Shortly after the release of their latest opus The Great Misdirect, I spoke with Dan by phone about the new record, how it compares to Colors, how it was written, BTBAM’s upcoming boner-factory tour with Cynic and Devin Townsend, and the band’s pending exit from Victory Records. Our chat, after the jump.

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Tomorrow is Halloween. This is great news, because it means that come Sunday (or Monday) people will finally fucking stop talking about Halloween. So sick of it already. When did I become so curmudgeonly? I’m gonna make a hell of an old man. Here’s what went down this week:

• Danzig drummer Chuck Biscuits died. Oh wait, no he didn’t.
• We debuted a new Mudvayne track and we posted live photos from Satyricon and Goatwhore/Eyehategod shows.
• We analyzed the business models of Earache and Roadrunner Records.
• The Boner Tour 2010 has been announced.
• Bison B.C.’s Dan And wrote two tour blogs for us while Horse the Band’s Lord Gold told us about women in diners.
• We spoke with Jucifer’s Amber Valentine and James Plodkin from Jodis.
• We’re giving away a buncha BTBAM shit and celebrating the release of their new album.
• We got all creative writing on your ass.

Our very own Corey Mitchell is gonna be on TV this weekend; he’ll be appearing on E!’s “20 Most Horrifying Hollywood Murders” on Saturday night at 6:00pm EST/5:00PM CST. In addition to his duties as the resident Mansion old fart, Corey writes books about true crime and is a respected authority on the matter so it should be an interesting (and br00tal) watch. Have a good weekend everyone.

As promised, here are the dates for that whole Between the Buried and Me/Cynic/The Devin Townsend Project/Scale the Summit North American Orgasm Tour 2010, which I’m sure actually has a much more “professional” name, even though calling it the “Orgasm Tour” would really just be truth in advertising.

ANYWAY, the dates. Okay, here we go. Get ready to celebrate or cry, depending on where you live…

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Our inboxes are aflutter with fans celebrating today’s release of The Great Misdirect. Mostly they range in tone anywhere from “jizz” to “splooge” but never anything less.  Here’s a sample, sent in by MS reader Patrick Dorsey:

Hello, Axl and Vince. Longtime reader. First-time e-mailer. After hearing The Great Misdirect, I wanted to shout it from on top of a mountain. But I don’t have a mountain. I have you guys at MetalSucks. So here goes: Between the Buried and Me is the LeBron James of music right now. This is not hyperbole. That is all.

Can’t say I disagree with Partick’s assertion, but for me the verdict on this record is still up in the air. I’m currently just getting started on spin number 3. I mean it’s brilliant, there’s no doubt about that… but a record this dense takes MANY, many listens to fully internalize and it’s going to be a while before I decide how this one stacks up against the band’s prior work and if/how it marks a progression in their evolution.

Until then, smoke ‘em if ya got ‘em… this one’s a doozy for sure.

-VN

Between the Buried and Me’s new opus The Great Misdirect is finally out today! To celebrate, we’re holding a contest offering you the chance to win all of the awesome shit you see listed above. That sweet bass alone is worth the time it’s gonna take you to enter the contest, plus you get all that other gear and BTBAM merch.

You know we like to keep it simple and fun around here for our contests. To enter, simply leave a comment (with an email address you regularly check!!) telling us which BTBAM album is your favorite one and why. We won’t judge based on our own personal tastes, but we will judge based on how clever/funny/interesting/whatever your explanation is. So make ‘em good. We’ll pick a winner on Tuesday, December 8th and notify them via email shortly thereafter.

BTBAM have a whole slew of shows planned for the coming months, including this coming winter’s Orgasm Tour w/ Devin Townsend, Cynic and Scale the Summit that we announced earlier today. They also have a series of headline dates this Fall with Veil of Maya and the very excellent Animals as Leaders; full list after the jump.

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Thanks to MetalSucks uber-Maniac (I’m giving him an upgrade since he actually came to New York and sought us out at a show) Mark Mortiz-Rabson for alerting us to the following incredibly important message on Between the Buried and Me’s MySpace page:

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Though we may question his fashion choices and dubious association with Danzig historicists Born of Osiris we do actually really like guitar wunderkind Tosin Abasi, especially his solo “band” Animals as Leaders. In case you’re averse to good music or just plain ig’nant, Animals as Leaders released their (his?) debut album this past Spring and like yo, that shit is mad good. Check out “On Impulse” from that record above.

SMNnews.com tells me that those of you in Dallas get to see the band perform a headline set in between dates of their limited Fall run with Between the Buried and Me and Veil of Maya. That’s pretty cool and all but can’t the band do a real tour? Come onnnnnnn!

BTBAM tour dates listed after the jump.

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MetalSucks Maniac Corey Scott filmed Between the Buried and Me performing their new song, “Obfuscation,” at a recent gig in Knoxville, TN. The audio and video quality is actually pretty decent, and Corey managed to captured eight of the song’s nine glorious minutes before his camera crapped out. Nice work, Corey!

Of course, nothing matches actually seeing BTBAM live, but it’s pretty thrilling to know that the band can actually pull this shit off.

“Obfuscation” will be on the new BTBAM album, The Great Misdirect, which Victory will release on October 27. The very thought makes me as excited as a little school girl. Some idiot said I was too negative yesterday, so I’d like to say that last part again: The very thought of a new BTBAM album makes me as excited as a little school girl.

-AR

Between the Buried and Me bassist Dan Briggs name-dropped St. Louis, MO experimental metal band Lye by Mistake in one of the first interviews I ever did for this site, back in August of 2007. I asked him what he’d been listening to lately, and he answered thusly:

My buddies from St. Louis, Lye By Mistake. I’ve just been listening to them so much lately. I can’t get enough of them. They’re honestly out of control. They’re, I guess, you know, I hate to… they kind of have the Dillinger really intense, syncopated patterns and they’re really kind of jarring, the most musical fusion crazy stuff. It’s this balance of absolute insanity and really awesome, awesome brutality. They’re one of the newer bands that I’m really stoked on, who hopefully we’ll get something goin’ for them.

Over two years later, it appears that Briggs has been able to “get something goin’ for them” indeed; the band has just signed a deal with Red Chord vocalist Guy Kozowyk’s Black Market Activities label, an imprint of Metal Blade Records.

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Thanks to longtime MS Freak Mark Moritz-Rabson for this one. We aren’t sure of the origin, but it appears to be a leak. Enjoy, and also be sure to check out “Obfuscation,” which Victory Records is streaming for free.

-VN

There’s so much great new metal coming out right now that I’m completely overwhelmed by trying to listen to all of it. New releases from Scar Symmetry, Living Colour and Alice in Chains have dominated my playlist this past week, while I haven’t even really gotten the time to pay proper attention to the latest from Converge and Black Dahlia Murder. New releases from The Destro, Revocation, Dethklok and Devin Townsend are right around the corner, as is Between the Buried and Me’s latest The Great Misdirect. I’m sure I’m forgetting a few, too. Fuck my life. Did I really just say that? Fuck me for saying “fuck my life.” My life rules.

So, BT-fucking-BAM. “Obfuscation,” a song of which we posted a live clip a couple of weeks back, is available in full at VictoryMetal.com or via the nifty widget below. Just enter in your email address, and ye shall have new BTBAM. Bam! (Word to the wise: I had trouble getting the widget to work in Firefox)

One-listen version: everything is more “er” than Colors. Proggier, heavier, melodic-er, ambitious-er. I’ll hold off on saying “better” until I hear the full record. The Great Misdirect drops October 27th.

The video quality sucks, but the audio quality is excellent. The following YouTube video, sent in by MS Maniac Tom Frenette, actually contains 3 clips filmed at the Between the Buried and Me show in Raleigh, NC this past Tuesday. The first clip is from “Obfuscation,” the second one is from another new song which they didn’t name, and the last clip is obviously the end of “Selkies.”

First opinions? These songs sound pretty fuckin’ epic. EPIC, I tells you. Let the debate about whether The Great Misdirect will top Colors rage on. We’ll find out on October 27th.

-VN

As reported earlier, BTBAM announced via their Twitter account last night that they’d be posting an album teaser today for their new record The Great Misdirect (October 27th). Here it is, on their MySpace page. It’s nearly 6 minutes of music sampled from the album’s 6 songs, although since each BTBAM track is like 10 songs in one it’s kinda like getting to hear 60 new BTBAM songs… or something.

First take… it’s awesome, and it sounds like BTBAM. A lot of Dream Theater-y guitar work and a whole lot of other cool shit.

Go listen. Tell us what you think.

-VN

Great way to start the week off: apparently we’re getting new Between the Buried and Me music today. Posted by the band (@btbamofficial) at about 8pm EDT last night:

kcartresaetaraehlliwuoyworromot

… which, when reversed, says:

Tomorrow you will hear a teaser track

Just a teaser, but still, something to look forward to today. Axl and I were just lamenting (1st world problems!) how 2009 is only 3/4 of the way through and it’s already gonna be hard to choose our Top 10 lists, and with The Great Misdirect dropping October 27th it’s not gonna get any easier.

More later today when the track is out. Thanks to MS Maniac Brad Cook for the tip.

-VN

If there’s such a thing as “the North Carolina sound” Seneca have got it; think Between the Buried and Me, Glass Casket, even Bloodjinn. No surprise then that Reflections was produced by fellow North Carolinian Jamie King who also produced the former two of the above three bands. Seneca have actually been around since 2002, but their March release Reflections is their first for Lifeforce Records, and it’s a surprisingly solid listen. Seneca actually sound a whole lot like BTBAM in particular — at times a little bit too much — but manage to modify BTBAM’s prog-core sound just enough to be original. Where BTBAM go big and epic with 8 or soon-to-be 6-song albums full of long songs Seneca somehow manage to cram all of their epic structures, song-changes and shred into much shorter templates, with most songs on Reflections coming in at under 4 minutes and many even under 3. There are a few too many deathcore-skirting breakdowns on Reflections for my tastes, but the band still manages to keep it interesting most of the time. Call them the working man’s Between the Buried and Me.

Check out Seneca on MySpace and let us know what you think.

-VN

I’m extremely amped about the new Between the Buried and Me album The Great Misdirect. Anyone else?

The Great Misdirect also happens to be the last album BTBAM owes Victory Records under their current contract, meaning the only two bands on that label that we give a shit about (the other being Darkest Hour) are both about to be free agents. Without the pressure of having to placate label boss / mafioso Tony Brummel for an advance on the next record, hopefully BTBAM will go all the way and make 100% of the album they want to make; not that they’ve really appeared to hold back in the past anyways.

Here’s their second studio update.

-VN

Cries of “blasphemy!” surrounding the omission of Between the Buried and Me’s 2007 opus Colors from our 21 Best Metal Albums of the 21st Century… So Far list have rung loud and clear in your comments, especially over the past few days as the list winds down and it’s become apparent that it won’t be included. And ya’ll are absolutely right; Colors is a fucking fantastic masterpiece certainly *worthy* of inclusion in The List. But given the methodology used to compile the list… that’s democracy for you. And let me ask you this: how does the omission of Colors from ANY list in any way affect your enjoyment of this great record? Seriously, folks!

The Interwebs must surely be rejoicing today as news of BTBAM’s forthcoming follow-up has sprung forth from a post by vocalist/keyboardist Tommy Rogers on the band’s MySpace page [sent in by MS Maniacs Jesse Z. and Tom F.]:

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When we saw In Flames tour with Gojira last year, there ended up being a kind of major problem: the Frogs blew the Swedes off the stage. See, as much as I love In Flames, their set was kind of A Sense of Purpose-heavy, and, well, they just couldn’t match Gojira for sheer goose-bump-inducingness.

Now the melodeath stars have announced a trek with Between the Buried and Me, The Faceless and 3 Inches of Blood. Holy crap, that’s a great bill – there isn’t a weak band on the tour.  Hopefully BTBAM get a long enough set time to play more than just two or three songs, The Faceless are just a goddamn sight to behold live, and y’know 3IOB will slay. If In Flames don’t bring their A-game, they’re gonna get upstaged by their support bands again.

Announced tour dates can be found here.

-AR