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It was fun to speculate last about with whom Slayer might spend the summer touring, but now we have an official answer: as rumored, they’ll be co-headlining the Rockstar Energey Mayhem Festival with their ‘07 tourmates, Marilyn Manson.
By now a lot of you have had a chance to hear some of our new shit floating around, or you’ve had the chance to hear the whole album if you’ve been SO LUCKY… I can say that I’m very excited to have this record come out on February 24th 2009. By the way, February 24th will be a huge day for metal. Us and Lamb Of God have our records coming out the same day. The coolest thing about this is every one can see how far metal has progressed from each of our first albums to our latest. We’ve come a long way. And I think both of our bands haven’t compromised. I also think we’ve produced quality material through our respective careers. So big ups to us and them!!! Big ups to metal!!!
I keep saying big ups because this blog is going to be all about one thing: Haterade. The big ups is a precursor to the new words or phrases that come out over time. Yeah, maybe being in a metal band makes it harder to say things like true dat, big ups or haterade but I’m gonna say that shit anyway. I am in a metal band but I am also from the streets so I have carte blanche to say all that ghetto shit.
Seriously, I’m talking about haterade because I think bands that get hated on generally become more successful. Right now, I’m hoping, pleading and wishing for this album to be panned by critics, internet trolls and whoever wants to shit on it. You may ask me, “Why Dallas? Why dost thou-eth needest us to protesteth soeth mucheth?” Because we need some boiling water in our career. We need people to hate. We need people to defend. We need to fight a fucking war for this record to push us to another place. We are a successful band. I want to be more successful. I want anyone out there who hates God Forbid to say they hate us. I don’t want reasons. I don’t want debates. I want hate!!!
We have a treat for our Boston-area readers; well, some of you will surely consider it a treat anyways… others, a death sentence. ANYWAY, we’re giving away two pairs of free tickets (that’s two sets of two tickets each, for those who aren’t hip to the meaning of the word “pair”) for this Friday’s (March 21st) Taste of Chaos show at Tsongas Arena in Boston. The tour features Avenged Sevenfold, Atreyu, Bullet for My Valentine and newcomers Idiot Pilot.
All you have to do to win is email vince [at] metalsucks.net with “TASTE OF CHAOS CONTEST” in the subject line, and tell us who your favorite band is on Taste of Chaos and why. Make your answers funny. Also do not forget to include your full name and address. Winners will be notified tomorrow morning, and will receive their tickets in the mail Thursday via FedEx.
Since most of you probably don’t know who Idiot Pilot is, here’s their video for “Planted in the Dark” to give you a taste… of chaos… ba-dum-ching! I’ll be here all day, folks.
-VN
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Thanks to MetalSucks reader John K. for sending us this link to what is perhaps the most retarded contest ever; Buzznet and Bullet For My Valentine are teaming up to award a gift certificate and signed guitar to the fan who has “the best scream.” Would-be screamers are to submit videos of themselves screaming, no more than 30 seconds in length. Here’s where it gets good — the criteria for judging the winner:
- The uniqueness of your scream
- How extreme is your scream?
- The passion you put into your scream
- The conditions and surroundings in which you are screaming in?
For the love of God… my ears are already bleeding. Do videos of me shtupping Axl’s mom last night count? Cause lord knows her scream was unique, extreme, passionate, and the conditions surrounding it were nothing short of brutal.
Maybe this guy should enter [via Metal Inquisition]:
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/DkiiBd800GQ" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]
-VN
The Soundscan charts for last week have been released, and the Super-Duper Metal Tuesday releases charted extremely well. The Mars Volta’s Bedlam in Goliath edged out Bullet For My Valentine’s Scream, Aim Fire by a mere 700 copies for the #3 spot, while MetalSucks faves Protest the Hero debuted at #95 with Fortress, a feat for a band whose music is so challenging and intricate. Australian AC/DC-revivalists Airbourne just missed the Top 100 coming in at 106. Full list of charting metal and hard rock releases, plus sales figures and our commentary, after the jump.
The big Tuesday for politics may be next week, but today is the first important release date of the year for metal. Let’s take a look at what you can now easily pirate buy at your local record store on this fine day:
Invariably in the evolution of a musical genre there falls a pattern. The first wave of bands to pioneer a sound do so by combining their influences to form something new and unique. In the wake of success that follows these pioneering bands, there is invariably a glut of bands that, themselves drawing on the first-wave bands as direct influences instead of the bands that spawned the first wave, create a watered down copy of the original. Regardless of the commercial success of these second-wave bands, there is always a boom of them two to three years after the explosion of the original, and the record labels are more than complicit in snatching them up in the hopes of cashing in on the sound. Regardless of the commercial success of said second wave bands, they never ring as true as the first wave nor does history shine as kindly upon them; there is a Bush to every Nirvana, a Poison to every Motley Crue, a Limp Bizkit to every Candiria. Unfortunately for Bullet for My Valentine, the Welsh quartet are not doing much to disprove this rule. The band members are certainly proficient musicians and able songwriters, but there’s nothing here that hasn’t already been done before and done better in the peaking sub-genre of metalcore. While the band’s debut album The Poison wasn’t earth-shattering either, it at least had instantly gratifying hooks-a-plenty that made listening rewarding and enjoyable, even if in the simplest ways (nothing wrong with a great hook!). While Scream, Aim, Fire lacks in the innovation department, for the most part it also lacks in the hook department, making it an album that should prove largely forgotten once the sun has set on the burgeoning metalcore trend.
MetalSucks recently had the opportunity to speak with Bullet For My Valentine drummer Michael “Moose” Thomas. The band’s new album Scream, Aim, Fire comes out in North America on January 29th; meanwhile the band is readying themselves for a European headline run, followed by the Taste of Chaos tour in North America with Avenged Sevenfold and Atreyu. Moose told us all about the writing and recording of the new record, getting heckled while opening for childhood heroes Iron Maiden and Guns N’ Roses, what it’s like to read negative press about themselves, and the band’s plans for the year. Click through for the whole chat transcript. Click to read more…
Having now heard a new track from Hate Eternal’s forthcoming Fury and Flames, I’m even more excited than I already was for the latest offering from Erik Rutan – I mean, the song is just fucking BRUTAL. My newly quadrupled enthusiasm works out pretty well, since Vince and I are going to see Hate Eternal’s show with The Black Dahlia Murder and 3 Inches of Blood tonight at BB King’s in Times Square tonight (NY readers – seek us out and buy us a drink… Vince is the dude with the huge beard, I’ll be the guy in the Lamb of God shirt who looks fucking miserable and totally unapproachable)… and, if everything works out, we’ll get to interview the dude sometime in the wee hours of the morning, after the gig.*
ANYWAY, here’s a clip of Hate Eternal playing “I, Monarch” from their DVD, The Perilous Flight. They sound pretty MASSIVE, if you ask me…
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-AR
*By the way, as I type this, I think Vince is doing a phoner with one of the dudes from Bullet for My Valentine. And, yes, I am aware of the humor in the fact that we may interview Hate Eternal and BFMV in the same 24 hour period, given that those bands’ respective fan bases would probably kill one another if given half a chance.
Oh, how sweet it is. This is akin to to when Metal Sludge unearthed photos of the members of Korn in their prior bands with blown out hair and spandex. Yup, Bullet For My Valentine, the controversial metalcore outfit from South Wales, UK, used to be in a shitty nu-mteal band — and boy do we mean shitty. Matt Tuck sounds like an off-key Stephen Richards, the drummer speeds things way up during the pre-choruses, and wow, this is just terrible. Change their name, haircuts, clothes, and bass player and presto, Bullet For My Valentine was born. Blabbermouth commenter Aggroculture summed it up best: “so they were sub Lostprophets nu-metal mooks. no surprise there.”
Here they are, jumping around like goons, in all their glory: Jeff Killed John.
-VN
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MetalSucks and Bullet For My Valentine are teaming up to give away a free ESP guitar. All you have to do to win is sign up. It’s really that easy. Neat, eh?
Bullet For My Valentine’s new album Scream, Aim, Fire drops January 29, 2008. It’ll surely be one of the more talked about metal releases of early 2008, and it’s already got you folks up in a tizzy in the comments sections. They’re also touring on the Taste of Chaos tour with Avenged Sevenfold and Atreyu. If that’s not a lineup to spark some controversy, I don’t know what is.
Sign up for the contest here. While you’re at it, check the band’s new song out on MySpace too.
-VN
So they’ve announced the tour dates and line-up for next year’s edition of the Taste of Chaos tour, and all we can can say is: holy SHIT. Avenged Sevenfold AND Atreyu AND Bullet for My Valentine? All on one tour? I hope they’re gonna be traveling in bullet proof buses with fuck loads of big SWAT team-type security dudes, because every Slayer and Watain fan from here to Gibraltar is gonna be trying to wipe out their three most loathed bands with one fell swoop. I’m serious: Nergal just called me to say he’s pretty sure this tour will bring about the Armageddon, and he didn’t mean it in a cool, “tr00″ kinda way.
While you ponder whether or not you plan to vote for this tour as “Suckiest” or “Least Sucky” in the 2008 Suckie Awards, check out tour dates after the jump.
I hate to say “I told you so,” but I told you so. You guys LOVE arguing about Bullet For My Valentine as much as you do about Avenged Sevenfold, maybe even more so. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, Bullet For My Valentine are certainly poised for a big 2008 with their new album Scream, Aim, Fire due January 29 on Trustkill, and we’ve got the second of two tracks to hit the ‘net so you can judge for yourself.
ZME Music has the new Bullet for My Valentine song “Eye of the Storm” — actually the b-side on the “Scream, Aim, Fire” single — posted for your listening pleasure via a fake YouTube video, which we’ve conveniently reposted for you below. The track is available for free, legit download from metal culture co-opting kings Hot Topic; but we’re too lazy to register.
Sounds like more of the same regurgitated thrash filtered through generic metalcore to me.
-VN
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Don’t say you didn’t see it coming; with the band’s surprise breakthrough success of The Poison in 2006, Welsh metallers Bullet For My Valentine are poised for a huge year in 2008 with their new record Scream, Aim, Fire. Much like Avenged Sevenfold, Bullet For My Valentine are one of those bands that really get metal fans riled up; you either love them or you hate them, and whichever you do, you do it vehemently.
Metal purists will claim the band are another in a long line of growled-verse / clean-chorus cookie cutter “chugga chugga” metalcore bands. Fans will point out the band’s songwriting ability and the fact that they have actually been a band for a long time. It’ll surely be one of the most hotly debated topics here on MetalSucks, and certainly one of the most divisive bands to have a record out in ‘08. But whatever you think about BFMV, one thing is certain; with the self-titled first single already making huge waves at radio (according to a press release), Scream, Aim, Fire will sell a ton of records, and the band will continue to do well on the road, worldwide.
-VN
Here’s the new metal-video-by-numbers video (warehouse? check. wall of amp cabinets? check. ok, let’s roll!) for “Scream, Aim, Fire”:
Are Bullet for My Valentine the future of metal? They’re certainly one of those bands – like Trivium and Avenged Sevenfold – that seem to have captured the attention of the metal community in record time; I mean, I thought they were pretty big here in the States, where they’ve done opening stints for Guns N’ Roses and Rob Zombie, but when Vince and I saw ‘em at Download last year – well, paint me green and call me Gumby, they’re HUGE.
Their first full length release, The Poison, has sold over a million copies worldwide, and now their follow-up offering, Scream Aim Fire, is set to drop January 29 and cement their status as one of the most important, can’t-be-ignored metal acts of their generation. If that news makes you feel all tingly, then this should really get your heart pumping: you can stream the band’s new single, also entitled “Scream Aim Fire,” right now in both Real and Windows Media formats. You can also hear it on the Bullet for My Valentine’s MySpace page, natch.
Scream Aim Fire drops January 29 on Trustkill.
-AR
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