Photo by Robert Escue.

Lazarus A.D. bassist/vocalist Jeff Paulick is the latest to join the ranks of musicians we’ve interviewed more than once (see Axl’s March 2009 interview with him here). Perhaps it’s because he agrees with our assessment that his band has been unfairly lumped in with the re-thrash movement; “I never wore a jean jacket in my life and I’ve never bought a patch in my life. Last time I wore hightops, I was in kindergarten or I was playing basketball. We’re not part of that crew and a lot of bands are from California and whatnot. We’re from Wisconsin. It just doesn’t exist here.” He also has nothing but great things to say about Revocation and Sylosis, a good barometer for how he approaches his own thrash-influenced — but not thrash rip-off — music. More than anything else during the course of my interview with Jeff a couple of weeks back, he stressed how he feels it’s important for bands to grow musically from release to release rather than simply writing the same record over and over.

Lazarus A.D.’s new album Black Rivers Flow is certainly a change for the band, which you can find out for yourself before its February 1st release by streaming the entire thing on Metal Underground this week. During my interview with Jeff we spoke at length about the new record, the reality of dudes in metal bands having day jobs when they’re not on tour,

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Word of who was gonna be on the bill for this year’s Scion Rock Fest, the totally free annual metal super-show, got out yesterday — hell, Wormrot even decided to just go ahead and confirm their presence at the festival. So in that regard, the official announcement of this year’s fest is a little anti-climactic.

Until you realize, holy shit — there really is gonna be a free festival with Morbid Angel, Obituary, Death Angel, Municipal Waste, Agalloch, Wormrot, Kvelertak, Atheist, Black Breath, Nails, Fuck the Facts, and tons more awesome bands. That is a fact about which one ought never to complain.

You can RSVP for the event here starting tomorrow. In the meantime, enjoy the finalized poster:

-AR

FEATURING MEMBERS OF FIREWIND, THROUGH THE EYES OF THE DEAD, TESSERACT, BISON B.C., BONDED BY BLOOD, HAARP, THE UNGUIDED, AND ANNEX THEORY

For 2010, we decided to do something special as part of our regular end-of-year festivities here at MetalSucks — namely, ask musicians from across the vast spectrum of the metalsphere (or, in a few cases, the almost-metalsphere) what their favorite albums of the year were. Death metallers, thrash metallers, black metallers, stoners, grinders, and djenters alike graciously contributed lists to MS, and we’ll be running them in groups of ten to eleven musicians at a time twice a day for the rest of the week.

After the jump, check out the second group… we hope you enjoy seeing what some of metal’s heaviest hitters were into this year as much as we have!

(And please note that these are musicians and that they, um, have a lot on their minds. So some of ‘em named albums that actually came out last year. Please don’t freak out.)

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Earlier today, I downloaded Earache’s new, completely free Extreme Stage Diving app, a video game in which “you take control of a burly bouncer and throw the pesky stage invader as far into the crowd as possible.” And I’m happy to report that it’s going to make an excellent time waster (that’s a compliment), and may soon usurp Slayer Pinball (or whatever the fuck it’s called) as my favorite metal-themed smartphone procrastination tool. It’s simple yet challenging, it appeals to my 8-bit sensibilities, there’s plenty of blood, and, oh yeah, the soundtrack is killer.

Yes, of course, this is meant to help Earache promote their shit. But the game features a bare minimum of songs by Earache bands I don’t like (cough, Oceano, cough cough), and those songs are more than offset by the inclusion of groups like At the Gates, Deicide, Brutal Truth, Decapitated, and Wormrot. And whomever designed the game was smart/cool enough to make it so that you can skip to whichever of the ten featured songs you like — in other words, if Bonded by Blood comes up and you don’t like Bonded by Blood, you can easily move along to The Haunted or whatever your particular cup of tea might be. (And apparently there’s a bonus track that you can unlock, but I haven’t gotten that far yet. I’m hoping it’s a Godflesh song, even though that would make no mothertruckin’ sense whatsoever.)

Check out a sample video below…

If you go here and give Earache your e-mail address, you can also potentially win the helmet the charcter in the game wears, although I think the game itself is a much cooler prize, and you don’t need to enter no contest to get it.

You can download the game here. Like I said, it’s totally free, so you really have nothing to lose by trying it out (other than the time you’re going to spend playing this instead of doing something productive). And you can get the full track list after the jump.

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On Wednesday, we broke the news that drummer Adam Bennati and bassist Tim Rampage have departed Early Man due to an unspecified “incident.” Now vocalist/guitarist Mike Conte has released his own statement on the matter, and while it also doesn’t specify the details of the split with 50% of the band, it doesn’t basically emphasize what we said earlier this week — that as long as Conte is at the helm, there will be an Early Man.

Here’s Conte’s statement in full:

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All these bands decided to release new videos within the past twenty-four hours. So I’m just lumping them all together in one post, the same way my mom lumps any music with loud guitars together under the heading, “Things I assume my degenerate son must like.”

First up we have this pretty amazing video for “Tres Brujas” from The Sword. I’m not even, like, the biggest The Sword fan in the world, but I gotta hand it to them, they have definitely made the nerdiest stoner metal video I’ve ever seen by a band that isn’t Mastodon. The thirteen year-old zit faced virgin in me thinks that this video is incredible, and the eight year-old autistic kid who’s never heard of Sabbath in me thinks the music is pretty great, too.

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Congrats to MetalSucks Maniac Devin Garvin, who not only correctly identified last week’s logo as beloning to the band Gutted with Broken Glass, but, per my weekly instructions, included his mailing address with his entry, because he’s not a total ree-ree who either doesn’t know how to read, or who thinks that I can somehow intuit his address, or who thinks that I’ll e-mail him to get his address even though plenty of other entrants were smart enough to follow the rules and include their address with their entry. For getting the answer right AND not being an idiot, Devin wins any two CDs and/or DVDs from whatever the hell we have lying around the mansion this week. Devin, please check your e-mail for your list of choices!

This week we have a really, really awesome prize, courtesy the nice folks at Earache Records: a prize pack featuring every Earache artist currently on tour in North America! That’s includes a two CD import copy of Wormrot‘s Abuse, a copy of Order of Ennead‘s An Examination of Being WITH a t-shirt, a copy of Bonded by Blood‘s Exiled to Earth, a copy of Oceano‘s Depths, and a copy of And Hell Followed With‘s Proprioception. That’s a whole lotta free shit!

All you gots to do to win is identify the name of the band whose logo appears below, then shoot me an e-mail at axl AT metalsucks DOT net with your answer, your name, and your address. FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS HOLY, ALL ENTRIES WITHOUT AN ADDRESS WILL BE DISQUALIFIED. From everyone who gets it right, we’ll randomly select one winner and announce his or her name next week.

This week’s logo was suggested by reader Steve Wigmore…

-AR

Since Axl and I are very patriotic types (couldn’t you tell?) we’ve decide to close the Mansion a bit early this holiday weekend so we can get to the flag-waving festivities as soon as possible.

Kidding! We’re closing early so we can get hiiiiigh and then go see FAITH NO FUCKING MORE! Neither one of us having seen FNM before (although I had a chance to in 1997 and, for some reason, didn’t), we’ve literally been waiting for this moment for most of our lives. We will not be schmoozing with the industry types at a bar in the back, nor will we be politely bobbing our heads on the periphery somewhere… we’ll be right up fucking front, rocking the fuck out as hard as possible (old fashioned push-pit? I hope). To that end, I’m pretty sure we won’t even be drinking tonight; me because I want to remember this night perfectly, and Axl because he doesn’t wanna have to go pee-pee during the show. The man is smart, I tell you.

Here’s what happened this week in the world of metal:

• Van Halen announced plans for a DLR-fronted album in early 2011. Axl is — shockingly — skeptical.
• As part of “Be Nice Day” at the MS Mansion, we said nothing mean about new videos from Hellyeah and Papa Roach.
• We looked at new releases by Bonded by Blood (as part of “Be Nice Day”!), Ceremony and The Ghost Inside, Mastodon, Chambers, and Nattsol.
• We premiered a new track by NJ progressive post-hardcore mind-fuckers East of the Wall.
• We spoke with Warrel Dane of Nevermore and Sanctuary, and Jon Fine about Taco Riffs.
• We sat in on the meeting in which Disturbed brainstormed the artwork for their new album.
• Glenn Danzig is a crappy driver, but Vince Neil is an even crappier one.

Since July 4th falls on a Sunday this year, the gates of the Mansion will be shuttered on Monday, July 5th — like most U.S. businesses — so we can extend the partying by an extra day. See you Tuesday, Suckers.

-VN

Bonded by Blood like Exodus. I like Exodus, too! Specifically, Bonded by Blood like old Exodus — in fact, if I was a betting man, I’d wager that they love the album Bonded by Blood. I love that album, too!

To that end, Bonded by Blood’s sophomore Earache release, Exiled to Earth, really does sound like an old thrash record. I assume this was the goal of the band, in which case, mission accomplished! The album does not sound modern. It also does not sound like death metal, any kind of “core metal,” or hip-hop.

Jose Barrales is their singer. He has a voice.

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Or, as Kip would say, “The Drums Are Cool, especially when you’re Sebastian Lanser of Panzerballet.”

Digby, how can you constantly rep re-thrash with a straight face when there’s great shit out there like this that pushes the limits of music? If you’re talking the ability to sell a product, well then of course stuff like Evile and Bonded by Blood stands a much better shot at commercial success than this jazz-metal wankery… but if sellability is what you’re talking about, well then just come straight out and say it instead of arguing that Enforcer “pushes the metallica envelope.” I mean, come ON!

-VN

Thanks: YildunDave

Exodus are hitting the road for a North American headlining tour this August, and that’s all well and good ’cause Exodus are swell and are one of those veteran bands currently enjoying a renaissance of sorts. That being said, I do think the support acts could be stronger -

• Malevolent Creation – Of course this is a veteran band that has a large fan base of their own, and the fact that Erik Rutan produced their new album means I’ll be obligated to check it out. But they’re never gonna live down that whole “The guitar player claims he shot a robber in the face and was rewared with a lifetime supply of chocolate milk but then it turns out he was completely lying” thing. Just sayin’.
• Holy Grail – Strike me as a pretty typical re-thrash band. Sure, they’ve got awesome Ed Repka cover art, but so what?
• Bonded by Blood – This is what it’s come to: Exodus touring with a young band named after an Exodus album. The mind boggles.

Still, this tour might very well be worth hitting up just to see Exodus. And at least there won’t be any karate kicking in the pit.

Get dates after the jump.

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First of all, for our non-Chosen readers: groyse metsie is Yiddish for a bargain. Don’t say I never taught ya nuthin’.

So. For the month of October (or “Rocktober,” as some clever marketing types are dubbing it), Earache is offering a whole bunch of truly righteous albums from their catalog for download on iTunes at a retardedly low price: $5.99 in the U.S., £4.49 in the U.K., and 4,99EUR in Europe. (The press release tells me that “prices may vary in other regions.” Ha-ha.) Now, I know that most of us music snobs don’t like iTunes because the audio quality isn’t as high as it could be, and there’s a better-than-average chance that a lot of you own most of these albums anyway. But if you can get past the whole “IT’S NOT AS GOOD AS FLAC! Snort snort” thing and/or for some reason DO NOT already own most of these albums, it’s a really, really killer deal.

A complete list of available albums after the jump. At least six or seven of these are classics, and nine or so are still awesome and could be classics, so they’re totally worth the six bucks or whatever.

And then one of them is by Oceano.

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This is getting silly.

Here are the new new details for tomorrow’s night’s Bonded by Blood/Exmortus/Witchaven show:

Maric Lanes
1945 49TH St
Long Island City, NY 11105

-AR

Some good news for thrash fans:

1. Warbringer have posted “Severed Reality,” the first single from their new album Waking Into Nightmares, on their MySpace page. The song sounds more or less like Warbringer – which is a good thing. ‘Cause you don’t throw on a Warbringer album when you’re in the mood for Jesu, y’know? Anyways, the band apparently just filmed a video for the track with perennial MetalSucks fave David Brodsky, and Nightmares was produced by Gary Holt (yes, that Gary Holt), so expect more Warbringery goodness in the near future. Waking Into Nightmares drops May 19 on Century – but you can see the band live as they wrap up their MetalSucks sponsored trek with Soilwork, Darkane and Swallow the Sun, or their upcoming tour with Exodus. Get dates here.
2. Bonded by Blood and their Masters of Disasters tourmates, Exmortus and Witchhaven, will be playing a FREE gig at The Water Grill in Brooklyn next Saturday, March 28. It’s thrash! It’s free! You live in America in 2009 and listen to metal so you’re probably poor! What’s not to love about a free thrash show? Details after the jump.

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There’s lots of talk about thrash these days. Amidst killer “comeback” records by the likes of old-schoolers Testament, Exodus, and Death Angel, there’s been a spate of signings of young up and comers who hawk the thrash sound. Muncipal Waste, Warbringer, Bonded By Blood, Evile, etc are all young bands that ape the classic thrash sound to some degree. Not to take anything away from these bands, because they’re certainly talented — but the mass signing of old-school sounding thrash bands begs the question: is this a true revival, or a passing trend?

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