I am an ignorant slut.

Even though both Ryan Butler and Matt Martinez from Landmine Marathon put Vastum’s Carnal Law on their 2011 year-end lists, and even though MetalSucks’ own Satan Rosenbloom was strongly considering the album for his own list, and even though Corey Mitchell… well, actually, Corey thought it was “meh.” But he “almost thought” it was good, so that’s something!

And yet, I never checked out Carnal Law until this afternoon, when Brad Fickeisen, former drummer for The Red Chord, recommended it to me via Twitter.

For shame, Axl. For shame. Carnal Law is ugly, raw death metal, but what sets it apart is the pace and the quality of the riffs. Everything — including the guitar solos, which are never unstructured King/Hanneman stuff — is catchy as hell, and played at a… well, maybe not quite an elephants marching speed, but certainly an elephants galloping speed. The combination of these two elements pretty much ensures that, yes, you will be bouncing your head in time with the music. Seriously. Don’t try to fight it — you’ll lose.

Vastum’s Carnal Law is out now on 20 Buck Spin. You can stream and/or purchase the entire thing here. The cost of legally downloading the album is $6.66, which should really be the cost of all heavy metal mp3 downloads from now on.

In the event you’re too lazy to click a fucking link, here’s “Devoid,” the track which Brad recommended, and which sold me on the whole thing in the first place.

Also, if you’re not already, you should be following Brad Fickeisen on Twitter.

-AR

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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Last night it was announced that drummer Brad Fickeisen is out of The Red Chord, but we had no idea why he was out of The Red Chord. Well, Brad just e-mailed us the following statement explaining the split:

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For reasons I do not currently know, drummer Brad Fickeisen is out of The Red Chord. That’s a bummer, ’cause the dude is a good drummer, and played on Clients, Prey for Eyes, and Fed Through the Teeth Machine.

The good news is that Mike Justian, the band’s original drummer who played on Fused Together in Revolving Doors, has re-joined the band, at least for now. And anyone associated with Fused is okay in my book.

None of this will effect the band’s upcoming MetalSucks-sponsored Burgers & Bowling Tour, which will start kicking ass and taking names this Thursday. So get out to one of those shows if you can and help welcome Mr. Justian back to the band!

-AR

Last week we gave Fed Through the Teeth Machine, the incredible new album from death/grind/prog pioneers The Red Chord, four out of five horns, and, honestly, we’re not even sure that that’s a high enough rating. Certain to make many year-end lists, Fed Through the Teeth Machine displays The Red Chord doing what they do best: defying expectations, breaking genre conventions, and tearing the listener a new asshole.

Metal Blade will release Fed Through the Teeth Machine this coming Tuesday, October 27, but as always, MetalSucks has ya covered: we’re streaming the entire album now through Monday, so you can hear how awesome it is before you buy it. We hope you love it as much as we do.

And while we’re on the topic, why you don’t read our interview with The Red Chord’s Gunface about the making of the album?

[This promotion has ended. -Ed.]

If there’s any justice in the world, The Red Chord’s excellent new album, Fed Through the Teeth Machine (read my four out of five horns review here), will cement Mike “Gunface” McKenzie’s status as one of his generation’s great guitar gods while introducing his truly unique playing to scores of new fans. Now The Red Chord’s sole axe slinger, Gunface really steps up his game on Teeth – the riffs and solos on this album are easily some of the year’s very best.

That being the case, I was very, very excited to have the opportunity to e-mail some questions to Gunface earlier this week. He follows bassist Greg Weeks and vocalist Guy Kozowyk as the latest member of The Red Chord to humor me by answering some truly idiotic (and hopefully a few intelligent) questions (I’m sure we’ll get to drummer Brad Fickeisen sooner or later). After the jump, get Gunface’s thoughts on the creation of Fed Through the Teeth Machine, writing solos, his various side projects, the value of the Death Star, and more.

Fed Through the Teeth Machine is out October 27 on Metal Blade.

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Only history will tell us for sure, but I suspect that The Red Chord’s 2002 debut, Fused Together in Revolving Doors, will end up being regarded as one of the most influential metal records of its time. Its title is truly appropriate; it’s not a death album, it’s not a grind album, it’s not a hardcore album, it’s basically just a “play whatever the fuck we want album.” There are now hordes of bands aping it, and most of them are doing a shit job.

Meanwhile, three albums, seven years, and a whole bunch of line-up changes later, The Red Chord are just as uncompromising and self-assured in their vision. I have no idea what a teeth machine is – apparently it has something to do with zippers – but Fed Through the Teeth Machine certainly makes me feel as though that’s exactly what I’ve experienced.

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Axe to Fall, Converge’s once-again excellent new album, is yet another stylistic shift: the majority of it is devoted to the band playing harder and more technically than they have in their post-Jane Doe era, while the closing two songs finding them venturing further away from their comfort zone than they ever have before. But even though guitarist Kurt Ballou darts all over the fretboard more than usual, vocalist Jacob Bannon changes nothing about his performance, from the breathless rambling on opener “Dark Horse” to his trademark pterodactyl-like shriek over the course of the album. But this isn’t to say that he’s in a state of creative stasis while the rest of the band moves outwards: Bannon’s hellacious scream is just as much a part of Converge’s uniqueness as is Ballou’s nimble riffing. Bannon’s work on Axe to Fall is as savage as it’s ever been, and once again adds weight and disturbing depth to the album’s metallic hardcore-fueled chaos.

Jacob Bannon’s place in metal, hardcore, and—for better or worse—metalcore is massive, with his trademark vocals incalculably influential and lyrics favoring the abstract over the melodramatic. Even outside of Converge, Bannon manages to be prominent, with a successful visual art career and running hardcore label Deathwish Inc. A surprisingly normal sounding (at least in terms of how he sounds on record), introspective guy, Bannon comes off as both wise about the metal and hardcore world while still impressed by and interested in it. In a lengthy interview with MetalSucks, he discussed the musical and lyrical intricacies of Axe to Fall, his approach to artwork in comparison to his vocal work, and people’s changing attitudes toward heavy music as they age.

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