My own fragile sense of mortality means that I’m still adjusting to the fact that the original bands from the New Wave of American Heavy Metal — commonly mislabeled as “metalcore” — are now hovering somewhere around their tenth year of existence. As I Lay Dying are the latest band to hit the one decade mark, and while I can’t say I was one of the cool kids who has known about them since the release of Beneath the Encasing of Ashes, I do remember when I first heard Frail Words Collapse, and it really seems like it was just last week.

But enough about my own neurosis. The story here is As I Lay Dying’s tenth anniversary, which they’ll celebrate by releasing an album entitled Decas. Mercifully, it’s not just a lame greatest hits collection — instead, it will feature three new songs, covers of classics by Slayer, Judas Priest, and Descendents, and remixes of old AILD tunes by the likes of The Dillinger Escape Plan’s Ben Weinman, Big Chocolate, and Kelly “Carnage” Cairns. You can check out the first new tune, “Paralyzed,” below. It’s equal parts heavy and catchy, which is to say, it’s an As I Lay Dying song, and a good reminder of why the band grew to be so popular in the first place.

Decas will come out November 8 on Metal Blade, and you can already pre-order it here. And if that isn’t enough to give you your As I Lay Dying fix, the band will continue the celebration of their birthday with the ”A Decade of Destruction,” which starts at the end of November and will feature support from Of Mice & Men, The Ghost Inside, Iwrestledabearonce, and, maybe best of all, Sylosis, who I personally am absolutely dying (no pun intended) to see. Here are dates, courtesy of AP:

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I’m going to put approximately as much work into this introduction as Zakk Wylde did the writing of the last BLS album.

I’m actually going to begin today with a video that I think is legitimately good, because I need to wash the taste of so much cinemetallic poo out of my mouth. The band is called Montezuma’s Revenge (you’d expect them to be of Aztec descent, but they’re actually Russian), the song is called “Dead Frost,” Vince suggested I watch it, and I’m glad he did. The animation isn’t amazing, but it still puts this clip way ahead of the pack.

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Reader Dan Metcalfe e-mailed me last night to let me know that Big Chocolate — who is already one of the busiest men in metal, even though I think he’s only like an ass hair older than the dudes in Black Tide — has started yet another project, this one with Suicide Silence vocalist Mitch Lucker. It’s called Commissioner, and they’re streaming their first track, “Consume,” right here.

And, uhhh… I don’t think this is anything I’d ever listen to. I don’t even know what the fuck you’d call this; it’s, like, death crunkcore, or something. It basically sounds like Nine Inch Nails if Nine Inch Nails was in no way, shape, or form melodic or radio friendly. So some of you may really dig this. And I’d give it another listen when there’s more of it… but my initial thought when playing the track was, “Ah-ha! I am finally an old man, for this makes almost no sense to me. Now why did I come into this room again?”

Check out Commissioner here. They don’t have any label deal or anything like that in place yet, so who knows what their future plans are.

-AR

Cam Argon, a.k.a. “Big Chocolate,” is nineteen years old, and meanwhile, he’s the vocalist for at least three different projects, he’s a DJ, he’s in college getting his degree, and, oh yeah, now he’s directed the new Annotations of an Autopsy video, for the song “Bone Crown.” I mean, Vince and I have both been keeping really busy lately, working ridiculously long hours on a lot of projects both related to MetalSucks and not really related to MetalSucks, and this kid makes us look lazy. Cut it out with the being so productive, Cam! Slack off, watch some internet porn, take a nap for no good reason. Sheesh!

Don’t forget that AOAA are part of the <shameless plug>MetalSucks-sponsored Facemelter Tour with Dying Fetus, Arsis, Misery Index, and Conducting from the Grave. Get dates here. </shamelessplug>

-AR

As some of you may know, my favorite 19 year-old hottie isn’t Demi Lovato, it’s the internet’s own Cam Argon, better known as Big Chocolate. He’s the vocalist for Disfiguring the Goddess, Abominable Putridity, Burning The Masses, a DJ, and a criminal justice major. For more background on Big C, check out the interview I did with him on Metal Inquisition a while ago — otherwise, here’s some stuff off his YouTube channel.

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