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

“Hey guys, why haven’t you posted this yet?!! It only sounds like the single greatest piece of music ever, brah.”
-Drew Webb

“This should give you another Devin boner.”
-Brian Kessler

“MY DICK IS AFLAME WITH SEMEN.”
-Sam Payne

Well don’t hold back, fellas! Let us know how excited you really are about about this latest behind-the-scenes video from Devin Townsend.

Pretty cool, right? But wait! That’s not all. It seems that Devin recently made a love connection with The Dillinger Escape Plan’s Greg Puciato… via Twitter!

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I tried to download Devin Townsend’s free new live EP yesterday but Inside Out’s website was so overloaded with traffic that I couldn’t get through. Kinda a good problem to have if you’re Devin, I suppose; too much popularity can’t be a bad thing. I just tried again and things went much more swimmingly, so if you had problems yesterday I’d recommend you give it another go.

With all the fracas surrounding the new EP, we completely overlooked this latest bit of Devin-related news: Opeth’s Mikael Akerfeldt, BTBAM’s Tommy Rogers and Gojira’s Joe Duplantier are all rumored to be contributing vocals to Devin’s forthcoming Deconstruction record. We say “rumored” because the speculation is only based on a series of Tweets by Devin, such as “Thank you Joe D,” but given Devin’s reputation and relationships I don’t think it’s a stretch to assume these guest spots are indeed happening. This on top of the confirmation earlier this month that Ihsahn will be contributing vocals too: yowza! I, for one, think Devin’s got an amazing voice of his own — often underrated in all the Devin hype — but I’m of course happy he’s enlisted such an A-list cast of characters to help out this time around.

Can’t wait for Destruction. Can’t wait for Ghost. Stoked.

-VN

Today sees the release of Abysmal Dawn’s first new album in more than two years, and Full Blown Chaos’ first new album in more than three; that alone would be cause for celebration, but there’s plenty of other good shit coming out today, too! Our previews of this week’s new releases after the jump.

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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:

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Today sees the release of Abysmal Dawn’s first new album in more than two years, and Full Blown Chaos’ first new album in more than three; that alone would be cause for celebration, but there’s plenty of other good shit coming out today, too! Our previews of this week’s new releases after the jump.

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…

We love Tommy Rogers, we love Owen Hart, and, of course, we love Pantera — so combining all three makes for one awesome metal sandwich.

Rogers recently hopped on-stage with Owen Hart to join them for some Pantera covers, and, of course, someone caught it all on video. The quality’s not 100%, but it’s good enough to know that the bright ray of sunshine you felt on your face today was Dime smiling in approval.

Here’s “Domination…”

…and if you head over to Metal Injection, you can check out “Mouth for the War,” too.

Tommy Rogers will release his new solo album (under the name Thomas Giles), Pulse, tomorrow  on Metal Blade; Owen Hart’s latest, Earth Control, is out now on Vitriol. You can read my review here.

-AR