[Welcome back to Rigged! Last week Between the Buried and Me guitarists Paul Waggoner and Dustie Waring walked you through their live setups piece by piece. This week it's The Ocean mastermind Robin Stap's turn to show you his, um, "gear." Next week BTBAM drummer Blake Richardson breaks down his kit, and the week after that Robin Staps will be back for round 2. Between the Buried and Me and The Ocean begin their MS-sponsored tour with Job For A Cowboy (and on select dates Cephalic Carnage) this week. Get dates here.]

Hey everyone, happy to introduce you all to my rig and to some of the gear I use.

Let me start with the amp. My amp’s a classic 5150, don’t need to say much about it I guess… all tubes, nice fat tone, good attack and definition. I installed 2 pressure gauges in the front panel: they’re always telling me how much pressure is left in the air tank that’s behind the amp, so in case Loic farts too heavily and I need to inhale oxygen on stage, I never run out! Our live show is pretty sudorific anyway, ya know, gotta be prepared!
The outside is cobra leather. I killed that snake with my bare hands last summer, during our headlining tour in Burkina Faso. Had to smuggle it back to Germany, not an easy undertaking!

The wood is actually 100% mahagony which I intentionally made look like laminated fibre, because I felt the mahagony look would have compromised the cobra leather finish.

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This week sees new releases by Believer, Between the Buried and Me, Indian, Last Chance to Reason, Pentagram, Red Fang, Young Widows and more. MS new release expert Vic Vaughn takes a looksee at each after the jump!

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…then check out this quote from a recent interview with vocalist Tommy Rogers:

“We have a really exciting set list for everyone this tour. We are going to do the entire new record [The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues] plus a set of old songs.”

Well, I think that’s great fucking news, and based on your reactions from when we debuted the EP last month, you’ll all find it happy-making, too. Plus the album is only thirty minutes, BTBAM are the headliners, and Tommy promised “old” (lulz) songs as well, so it’s not like you won’t get to hear favorites from the rest of the band’s discography.

In other words: this really exciting tour just got that much more exciting.

The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues is out today on Metal Blade, and the tour kicks off Friday! Get dates after the jump — BTBAM alone are enough of a draw, but Job for a Cowboy, The Ocean, and (on select dates) Cephalic Carnage are all on the trek, too, so you’re really gonna feel like a dummy if you don’t go. And also don’t forget to check out our recent “Rigged” column, in which BTBAM axe slingers Paul Waggoner and Dustie Waring take you through their live setups piece by piece. We’ll have another entry from BTBAM drummer Blake Richardson soon!

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[The live rig rundown Veil of Maya's Marc Okubo did for us last year was so popular that we've decided to make it into a regular column! Welcome to Rigged. In this inaugural edition, Between the Buried and Me guitarists Paul Waggoner and Dustie Waring take you through their live setups piece by piece. Coming soon, BTBAM drummer Blake Richardson and The Ocean's Robin Staps. Between the Buried and Me and The Ocean begin their MS-sponsored tour with Job For A Cowboy (and on select dates Cephalic Carnage) next week. Get dates here.]

To all our fellow string pluckin’ heavy metal headbangers, howdy! This is Paul Waggoner and Dustie Waring, and together we are the guitar duo for Between the Buried and Me. It’s come to our attention that there are some folks out there speculatin’ on what sorts of gear we put to use in conjurin’ up all these rowdy sounds. Well, here we are, to do right by all who take up an interest in such matters.

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Last weekend Thomas Giles (aka BTBAM’s Tommy Rogers) came through town on a little mini-tour to promote his latest solo release Pulse, with Cave In’s Steven Brodsky in tow. I couldn’t go because, ya know, life happens, and watching this video from SMN News of Giles perform “Sleep Shake” makes me all that much more sour about it.

As opposed to the full-out bombast of a BTBAM show, the Thomas Giles performance is intimate and bare-bones. It’s the kind of show I could see playing a coffee shop or small performance space with tables scattered throughout; I’d get hella stoned beforehand, sit, order a cocktail, and enjoy. The complete opposite of the usual metal experience, much like the album itself.

-VN

I know it’s arrogant for us to pat ourselves on the back, but holy shit, did we kill it this week or what?

Here’s what we did:

• We brought you the first interview with Behemoth frontman Nergal since he was diagnosed with leukemia in August.
• We got the exclusive scoop on Melissa Auf der Maur’s collaboration with Shining’s Jorgen Munkeby.
• We debuted new music by Between the Buried and Me, Last Chance to Reason, and Havok.
• We debuted new videos by Protest the Hero and Becoming the Archetype.
• We also spoke to the legendary David Coverdale from Whitesnake.
• We checked out the latest release from Anthrax and Until Your Heart Stops.
• We told you what your favorite metal band says about you… and then we told you again!
• We got excited about the line-up for Summer Slaughter 2011.
• We wondered if Winds of Plague are the new Limp Bizkit.
• We protested shitty metal vocalists.

We aspire to make next week even biggerer and betterer! Check back then to see if we succeeded or not… ’til then, have a great weekend!

-AR

Between The Buried and Me are heading out on the road on a MetalSucks-sponsored tour with Job For A Cowboy, The Ocean and, on select dates, Cephalic Carnage. We’ve teamed up with the band to give away one PRS SE Custom 24 guitar in Tobacco Sunburst and one copy of their upcoming album, The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues, due out April 12th on Metal Blade Records (which you can stream here for a limited time!).

Check out a picture of the pretty instrument up for grabs here, but please note the one you get will be in the Tobacco Sunburst color, not the orange shown.

For such a radical prize you’ve got to submit an equally radical entry, and as you know we like to keep things fun and light-hearted here at MS. So, do tell us via the comments: what is your favorite BTBAM song and why? Be creative.

Check out tour dates here, and stream the entire EP right here on MetalSucks!

Awwwww, yeah!!! Between the Buried and Me, serious candidates for best band in the history of ears, are releasing their new EP (which is longer than some LPs, and we’re not complaining), The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues, on April 12 via Metal Blade — but you can hear the entire thing right now, in its entirety, courtesy your Uncle Axl and your Uncle Vince. No need to thank us. Just let your mind go, and your body will follow.

You can pre-order this bad boy right here. And don’t forget that BTBAM will headline the MetalSucks-sponsored “Hypersleep Dialogues Trek” starting April 15; support will come from The Ocean, Job For A Cowboy, and (on select dates) Cephalic Carnage, so, yeah, your ass = there. Dates are after the jump!

[this streaming promotion has ended]

And here are those tour dates…

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Biggest and best metal release day of 2011 so far? It certainly seems that way. New records from Amon Amarth, Becoming the Archetype, Blackguard, Cavalera Conspiracy — are you kidding me? there’s still more? — Goes Cube, Havok, Mercenary, Obscura and a Between the Buried and Me best-of comp (with a brand new release coming next week!) all officially come out today. If you’re a devoted metalhead with varied tastes you better have saved up, else you’ll be very, very poor come tomorrow.

Vic Vaughn takes a look at all those release — and yes, EVEN MORE — after the break.

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Metal Blade’s latest sign is a band called Intensus, and by “band” I mean “one man project” — the man being  Eli Litwin, drummer of Knife the Glitter, Burden, Normal Love, and some other bands with whom I’m not really familiar (although I know that Gary Suarez is a KTG fan). The only piece of Intensus music I’ve been able to locate thus far is the above track, “Time Killer Shitter,” which features vocals by Jesse Korman from The Number Twelve Looks Like You — and it doesn’t really do that much for me. I mean, it’s fine, but if not for the pedigree, I don’t know that I’d ever have given it a second listen. (There are some other tracks that are allegedly available on Intensus’ MySpace page, but I can’t get the player to work!)

But I still think this album is, at the very least, going to be worth your attention, for the following reasons: a) Litwin has recruited some awesome guest vocalists, including Between the Buried and Me’s Tommy Rogers, A Life Once Lost’s Robbert Meadows, and East of the Wall’s Chris Alfano, to appear on the album, and b) even though process shouldn’t really be considered when evaluating a piece of art, the process for the creation of this particular record, as explained in the press release announcing the signing, sounds pretty cool:

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So yeah yeah yeah, Victory is releasing a greatest hits package for Between the Buried and Me on March 29. We have avoided writing about it up ’til now because it’s one of those things where a label goes “We just lost one of our big bands, but we have the contractual right to try and milk some more money from ‘em, so let’s slap something together and get it out there.” (BTBAM recently ankled Victory for Metal Blade.) Sad, but this kind of thing happens all the time — hell, Victory did the same thing when they lost Atreyu a few years back. These collections usually aren’t even approved by the band, who legally have no say in the matter.

But so many of you have e-mailed us about the below video, which shows off the packaging for this compilation, and… yeah, it looks killer. Like, Tool-album-packaging-killer. Even though there’s absolutely no new material on this album (there are two CDs and one DVD, the latter showcasing all the band’s music videos), this is an increasingly-rare instance of a label actually giving fans a good reason to purchase a physical copy of an album. Whether or not you think that makes it worth it to pay for music you already own, well… that’s up to every BTBAM fan to decide for him or herself.

Meanwhile, BTBAM will release a NEW (not just recycled material!) three-song, thirty minute EP, The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues, on April 12 via Metal Blade. Then they’ll headline a MetalSucks-sponsored tour with The Ocean, Job for a Cowboy, and, on select dates, Cephalic Carnage. Get dates for that trek after the jump.

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Drummer Mike Justian is out of The Red Chord… again. I guess in all fairness, it was never really clear if this founding member was re-joining the band on a permanent basis, or if he was just filling-in after Brad Fickeisen split with the group last year. Then again, Justian’s been back in TRC for over a year, which seems like a long-ass time to just be filling-in. And even as a massive fan of the band, it’s certainly funnier to think of Red Chord skinsmen in Spinal Tap terms, spontaneously combusting at random intervals.

But fuck do I know? A statement from the band certainly makes the split sound amicable:

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Not you after today

In the past few years, my group of friends has come to include a bunch of fancy-pants musicians-for-hire. They get majorly paid for backing gigs and session work cuz they execute on their instruments with nuclear precision. And it’s great hanging out with them for their big shot habits of picking up every check and throwing exquisite summer parties. You want that — we all do. But maybe you don’t have the time to, say, top your class at Juilliard or grind out a degree from Berklee. Hey, even if you did, you’d just as soon end up posting internet clips of yourself blasting through BTBAM runs and Hammerfall solos unless you move to West Hollywood and starve for two years. Meh.

Well, here’s good news! You can still get chicks horny and sound good enough for Youtube and hold up to passing scrutiny and possibly even land a gig in a million-selling metal band! Unlike violin, for example, guitar isn’t that hard to fake provided you master picking fast and good pitch on bends. To play Steve Vai, you’d have to match his regimen of 23 daily practice hours; for the following face-melters — ear-friendly, multi-leveled solos every one — all that’s required is like 23 total minutes. Let’s call it the Hammett Workout. Not everybody is “Under A Glass Moon” material, but just approximate these imprecise, jabby solos and I swear you’ll look cool! Check it:

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Speaking of AP debuts that seemingly caused MetalSucks readers to just completely lose their shit and e-mail us messages to the effect of “YO POST THIS SHIT RIGHT NOW!!!” en masse: Alt Press is streaming an excerpt of the song “Specular Reflection” from Between the Buried and Me’s new EP, The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues.

And before you get sad that they’re not streaming the entire song, be aware that said track’s total running time is nearly eleven-and-a-half minutes, and AP has six-and-a-half of those glorious minutes. Also, Parallax only has three songs, although it’s total running time is roughly thirty minutes. So, really, you’re getting to hear more than 25% of the album with this clip.

Headbang here. The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues comes out April 12 on Metal Blade. And don’t forget that BTBAM will headline the MetalSucks-sponsored Hypersleep Dialogue Trek starting in April, along with Job for a Cowboy, The Ocean, and, on select dates, Cephalic Carnage. It’s gonna be killer. Get dates after the jump.

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I mean, talk about a snub, right?!?

ANYWAY, tomorrow afternoon, Vince and I will attend the wedding of one of our oldest friends. A guy I have known since I was two years old. The very dude who was by my side the first time I heard Guns N’ Roses. I don’t think he had any idea at the time that I had just headed down a path from which I would never return. He works for a classy magazine now, and wears a suit and tie to work. I do this, and usually do it in boxers and a stinky shirt with some metal band on it.

I don’t have a point or anything. I’m just feeling reflective right now.

And now that I got that out of my system, here’s the rundown of things we did this week:

• We got a tour update from Valient Thorr’s Valient Himself.
• We spoke to Tommy Rogers from Between the Buried and Me, Oppu Laine and Mikko Kotomäki from Barren Earth, Kenn Nardi from Anacrusis, and Mike Riley and Dom Romeo from Pulling Teeth.
• We checked out new releases from As Blood Runs Black, Capsule, and Crucified Mortals and Nunslaughter.
• We checked out the newest lucky band to sign to leading independent music retailer VICTORY RECORDS.
• We made the mistake of following Vinnie Paul onto his tour bus.
• We helped our friends at the Deciblog defend Guns N’ Roses’ Chinese Democracy.
• We listened to the worst dubstep metal bastardization yet.
• We got excited about the new Scar Symmetry album.
• We sent out well wishes to Vince Neil while he’s in prison.
• We read some fan mail.

Okay now I’m gonna go pick up my new suit for tomorrow! WHOO-HOO TO BEIN’ A BIG KID! See you peeps Monday.

-AR

I recently got on the phone with Tommy Rogers, aka Thomas Giles, to talk with the BTBAM vocalist about his new solo record Pulse. Tommy had some interesting things to say about his new solo record, the record industry in general, his thoughts on being a “career band” as opposed to a flash in the pan, and how a band can never really be sure of their standing with fans.

Of course we got to talking all things BTBAM as well, not the least of which was their forthcoming EP The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues (which as of interview time had not yet been announced); Tommy tells us the EP is actually Part 1 of a two-part album suite, Part 2 of which will be a full album! Excite.

Read our chat after the jump.

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Yesterday we got news of a new Between the Buried and Me record and today we get news of a new Between the Buried and Me North American tour! Yippee!

We already kinda knew that Between the Buried and Me would be touring this Spring with The Ocean and Job For A Cowboy based on one leaked date and the fact that all three bands appear atop this year’s New England Metal and Hardcore Fest lineup. In all honesty, though, we already totally knew; in case you haven’t noticed yet, our logo is on that there tour poster above, meaning we’re a sponsor of the tour… and it was killing us not to tell ya’ll these past couple of months because we knew how excited you’d be. But now you know, we all know, EVERYONE knows, and together we’ll revel in this awesome lineup, which also features Cephalic Carnage on select dates!

Full list of dates after the jump.

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For months and months and months and months we’ve speculated endlessly, tossed and turned at night and pulled our hair out in frustration, wondering what label Between the Buried and Me would end up on now that their contract with Victory is over. OK, not really… we’ve known it was Metal Blade all along. But now it’s official: Metal Blade has posted the below trailer announcing not only their signing of Between the Buried and Me, but the release date for The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues EP the band has been working on for some time:

April 12th. Get ready.

-VN

I kind of assumed that Tommy Rogers (a.k.a. “Thomas Giles”) wouldn’t be doing any touring behind his awesome new solo album, Pulse; for one thing, he plays all the instruments on the record himself, so he’d need to go recruit a band, and for another thing I thought he’d be too busy with his other project, some group called Between the Buried and Me.

But, hey, guess what? I was wrong! And happy to be. Rogers has announced a mini-tour (only five dates, sadly). Which would already be good news, but he’s also gonna have Cave In’s Stephen Brodsky doing support. So these shows should be fun.

Additional support comes from a band called Braveyoung, with whom I am not familiar (Vince tells me they used to be called Giants). But Rogers is obviously a big fan — he named their album We Are The Lonely Animals one of his favorites of 2010. So I’m gonna assume they’re good.

Here are dates:

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It’s been a long three years since The Ocean toured the U.S.; Precambrian had just come out, and they came to the States for a headlining run — perhaps a bit prematurely — with Withered, Lair of the Minotaur and Kylesa, an awesome bill but perhaps not the right one for The Ocean at that time. Their live show was stunning and left me wanting more, but The Ocean weren’t quite at the popularity level they are now and, at least in NYC, the room had mostly cleared out by the time they want on. Three years and two albums later it appears The Ocean appear to be finally headed back… with Between the Buried and Me and Job For A Cowboy (or whoever is playing in the latter these days), in a support role that’s much better suited for them.

ThePRP.com has picked up on an April 29th date for all three bands at The Rickshaw Theater in Vancouver, B.C., and as we already know all three bands sit atop Saturday’s bill at The New England Metal and Hardcore Fest on April 16th. As we learned in high school geometry, two points make a line; I think it’s pretty safe to assume there will be a full U.S. (North American, really) tour featuring all three bands.

Until then, enjoy this live music video (with album audio) of The Ocean playing the Heliocentric track “The Firmament,” one of my faves from that record. Thanks to TNOTB for alerting me to its existence.

-VN