I love that “Tour Of Italy” sampler at Olive Garden where you get one of all their different appetizers!! I usually end up eating all the Parmesan Calamari Fritters first and being so full I can barely even get to the Tuscan Eggplant Fingers, but the point is that variety is the spice of life. I mean all of their appetizers are so good, how can you pick just one??? Each one is delicious in its own way, and the best way to enjoy them is by having a little bit of everything. And what is the only thing as varied, delicious and universally loved as Olive Garden? That’s right: fucking BREAKDOWNS!

Like the Tour Of Italy, there are a million different kinds of breakdowns, and they are all awesome in their own way. No single genre has a monopoly on it: there are breakdowns in pretty much every kind of music, and they all go hard. I think it’s a beautiful testament to how music brings us all together that whether you are into punk, hardcore, metal or whatever, we can all agree that breakdowns are the best part of every song!

In this post, I will share some of the greatest breakdowns throughout history, like the Tour Of Italy, only for moshing. It is far from a comprehensive list, just a sampler to get the conversation started. Check these out, post your favorite breakdowns in the comments, and help us answer the one of life’s big questions: what is THE BEST BREAKDOWN OF ALL TIME???

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The new version of Six Feet Under — which, in addition to founding and longtime members Chris Barnes and Steve Swanson, now features Chimaira’s Rob Arnold and Matt DeVries and Daath’s Kevin Talley amongst its ranks — made its live debut in Europe over the weekend. So, of course, we now have cell cam footage! Whoo-hoo!

There’s no new material here so the footage doesn’t really tell us that much about this reincarnation of the band, but… they do play killer covers of the Cannibal Corpse classics “Hammer Smashed Faced” and “Stripped, Raped, and Strangled” (which might be my personal favorite Corpse riff of all time).

Six Feet Under will be touring North America as part of the MetalSucks-sponsored Summer Slaughter 2011; dates for that trek will be announced on April 20.

-AR

[via The PRP]

You’ve all read Decibel editor-in-chief Albert Mudrian’s Choosing Death, right? If not, you should get off your ass and do that; it’s the definitive history of death metal and grindcore, and whether you’ve been a fan of those genres since the day of Scum or you’re a youngin’ trying to figure out what the big deal about Carcass is, you are guaranteed to learn something from reading it.

Well, I’m super-stoked to let you know that Mudrian has now penned a second volume of Choosing Death — this one focusing on deathcore. Says Mudrian via press release:

“Deathcore is the definitive form of extreme music in the aughties. As Napalm Death, Carcass, Cannibal Corpse, and Suffocation were to my generation, so will bands like Suicide Silence, Oceano, Emmure, and Winds of Plague be to this generation.These bands are proudly carrying the torch of the brutal music we all love, so it only made sense to see to it that their story was told.”

And the best part is — MetalSucks’ own Sergeant D. wrote the introduction! So now you know you need that shit.

You can pre-order a copy of Albert Mudrian’s Choosing Death II right here — it hits shelves on May 24 via Da Capo Press.

-AR

While a press release assures us that Jeff Hanneman “has amazed his doctors with his speedy recovery from an infection thought to have been caused by a spider bite” and “has already been practicing with his guitar,” the Slayer guitarist apparently isn’t quite ready to step back into the fold yet. And Gary Holt, who has been filling in for Hanneman, has to go back to his own band — some group called Exodus. So, y’know, in case the headline didn’t already spoil the suspense… yep, Cannibal Corpse’s Pat O’Brien is the new temporary guitarist for Slayer.

O’Brien is just as strong a pick as Holt, if ya ask me; if Exodus are one of Slayer’s most revered peers, Cannibal Corpse are one of Slayer’s most accomplished disciples (no reference to the song intended). There can be no doubt that there would be no Cannibal Corpse without Slayer, and O’Brien’s style is a perfect fit for the latter band.

So Holt will continue to play with Slayer ’til April 4, and then O’Brien takes over. Here are the remaining announced tour dates with both axe men…

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“Oy! I can’t believe I joined this band.”

No joke: I played a new Winds of Plague song, called “California,” for Vince awhile back, without telling him what it was. His reaction? “Is this the new Limp Bizkit single?”

It’s easy to see how he could have made such a mistake.

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Photo by Scott Ferrara

Rob Arnold is a busy dude. As lead guitarist and one of the principal songwriters for Chimaira, he’s been one of the leaders of the New Wave of American Heavy Metal for more than a decade now; in 2009, he launched The Elite, a new project, with Bleed the Sky drummer Austin D’Amond; and then, just yesterday, it was announced that he’s the new guitar player for Six Feet Under, original Cannibal Corpse vocalist Chris Barnes’ legendary death metal band that has long been known as one of Arnold’s favorite acts. Phew! Can’t accuse Rob Arnold of slacking off, that’s for sure.

The very first thing I did when I heard that Arnold was the latest addition to SFU (along with new drummer Kevin Talley, who, coincidentally, was in Chimaira from 2004 to 2006) was shoot him an e-mail to see if he’d be down to answer some quick questions about his latest creative endeavor. Luckily for us, he agreed! After the jump, read about how Arnold came to join Six Feet Under, the new material he’s working on with SFU, the band’s future touring plans, and, oh yeah, that new album that Chimaira is currently recording…

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Earlier this month Six Feet Under shed 50% of their line-up, and I cracked wise that they should hire Chimaira’s Rob Arnold as their new guitar player. He’s a known SFU fan (check out the video of him singing “Remains of You” above), and he writes great riffs, so, yeah, I thought he’d be a killer addition to the band’s ranks.

And, hey, guess what? Even though I was just fucking around when I said Arnold should join the band, he has now done just that! Says Six Feet Under vocalist Christ Barnes (who also used to be in some band called Cannibal Corpse):

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Ah, Valentine’s Day. Reviled by most, enjoyed by the smug, and shrugged off by the belligerently ambivalent. But while most of us couldn’t care less about this specific day in February, it’s still an annoyance that comes around every year. Kind of like the common cold.

Now, most places will have shitloads of “quirky” recommendations you can do with your special someone, even if you’re of the metalhead persuasion. You can hold sweaty hands in the privacy of your parents’ basement, pour each other some classy Motorhead wine, and share a blood pudding in the dreamy light of those church candles. It’s all very nice and sweet to be… nice and sweet.

But you know what’s better? DOING IT. With a killer soundtrack. So on this very special day, I’ve made you all a romantically inappropriate mix tape.

Picking “mood” songs is a little too obvious for my taste. I mean yeah, Faith No More’s “Stripsearch” (Actually, that might be more of a stripping song than a sexing one, but ,hmm, “Evidence” maybe? Heh, “Be Aggressive” might work for some. Either way, Patton’s voice = nudity.) and NIN’s “Closer” are both appropriate (for very different reasons), but that’s no fun. Go forth and find that special someone willing to get, get naked to these select songs. There’s a little something for everyone. St. Valentine would’ve wanted it that way.

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So apparently Cannibal Corpse were at the airport in Brussels, and they just spotted the Reverend Jesse Jackson, and, like, went up to him n’ shit, and he was totally cool to them. Oh! And Denise Korycki — who also shot the band’s amazing Centuries of Torment DVD, the documentary portion of God Forbid’s Beneath the Scars of Glory and Progression, and a thousand other awesome things you love — was on-hand to capture it on film. So we can actually watch it now!

Best part: Rob Barrett telling Jackson “I thought that was you!”, as though they were old pals. I mean, I don’t think Barrett intended it to sound that way, but it does, and it’s friggin’ hilarious. I also enjoyed the clearly not-quite-awake-yet Corpsegrinder. (At first I thought he might just be baked, but apparently the dude doesn’t smoke.)

Metal Insider (where I first saw this video) speculates that this clip might “be featured in the behind the scene specials for [Cannibal Corpse's new DVD] Global Evisceration,” and they’re probably 100% correct. We’ll find out when Evisceration is released via Metal Blade on March 15.

-AR

Bassist Terry Butler and drummer Greg Gall have both quit Six Feet Under. Butler told Blabbermouth that he’s off to join Obituary full-time (he’s been playing with them since last year), but no word on where Gall will seek employment. Butler makes it sound like everything ended in a happy place, but I’m always suspicious when multiple band members split at once.

Whatever. Butler and Gall were, along with Chris Barnes, both original members of the band (guitarist Steve Swanson joined in ’98, replacing, coincidentally, ex-Obitchuarian Allen West), but I feel like it really shouldn’t be that hard to fill their shoes; Six Feet Under’s brand of death n’ roll is so easy to write that, once upon a time, a tribute band was able to imitate their sound with enough skill to get Barnes to actually join the group. And Barnes has already revealed that he and Swanson have been working with a new writing partner for the past four months. I dunno who it is (it would be awesome if it was Chimaira’s Rob Arnold, who I think is a big Six Feet Under fan, but that seems unlikely given his commitments to both Cleveland’s Finest and The Elite), but I’m of the opinion that Barnes should just make nice with those Torture Killer dudes now and get them to be the new guys in Six Feet Under.

ANYWAY, here’s a fittingly romantic song by which to remember Butler and Gall — “Remains of You.” True story: for a long time, I thought Barnes was singing “I took my nuts to your head,” not “I took an axe to your head.” I still think my lyric is superior.

-AR

Bassist Terry Butler and drummer Greg Gall have both quit Six Feet Under. Butler told Blabbermouth that he’s off to join Obituary full-time (he’s been playing with them since last year), but no word on where Gall will seek employment. Butler makes it sound like everything ended in a happy place, but I’m always suspicious when multiple band members split at once.

Whatever. Butler and Gall were, along with Chris Barnes, both original members of the band (guitarist Steve Swanson joined in ’98, replacing, coincidentally, ex-Obitchuarian Allen West), but I feel like it really shouldn’t be that hard to fill their shoes; Six Feet Under’s brand of death n’ roll is so easy to write that, once upon a time, a tribute band was able to imitate their sound with enough skill to get Barnes to actually join the group. And Barnes has already revealed that he and Swanson have been working with a new writing partner for the past four months. I dunno who it is (it would be awesome if it was Chimaira’s Rob Arnold, who I think is a big Six Feet Under fan, but that seems unlikely given his commitments to both Cleveland’s Finest and The Elite), but I’m of the opinion that Barnes should just make nice with those Torture Killer dudes now and get them to be the new guys in Six Feet Under.

ANYWAY, here’s a fittingly romantic song by which to remember Butler and Gall — “Remains of You.” True story: for a long time, I thought Barnes was singing “I took my nuts to your head,” not “I took an axe to your head.” I still think my lyric is superior.

-AR

Yesterday I attempted to clarify the meaning of the phrase “elephants marching riff” by pointing out some reader suggestions that, even if they were cool riffs, did not meet the definition for this particular trope. Today, I am going to highlight some of the reader-suggested riffs that I actually think do meet that definition.

Now, these aren’t ALL the riffs that you guys suggested… I’ve cherry picked some in the interest of time. (For example, a lot of you suggested various riffs by Chimaira and Gojira. Since I already pointed out that both of those bands are really good at writing elephants marching riffs, I’m not going to include any additional examples from those bands here.) So don’t have a conniption if your riff didn’t make the list.

And so…

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In the first installment of “OLD BANDS U MIGHT NOT KNOW ABOUT“, I shared a bunch of old bands that I like. Instead of coming up with a new description, I will just reuse the old one:

When I am not trolling simple-minded, entry-level elitists, I enjoy the soothing, dulcet tones of some classic thrash or death metal. I am definitely not any kind of metal encyclopedia or authority on the subject, but I have realized that (sadly) I’m old enough to have heard a few bands that many younger metal fans have not, just because I have been exposed to a lot of bands over the years — sort of like an ancient desert tortoise who is not a historian, but has seen history unfold before his eyes simply because he is old as fuck. Because I enjoy giving back to my community, I will share some of my favorite older bands in case any of you might like them. If you want to hate on me, that’s OK, too, so feel free to tell me I’m a poser, that everybody already knows about these bands, that I got some trivial detail wrong, or whatever else you think makes you “sound like u rly know what ur talking about.”

With that out of the way, here’s volume 2!

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It’s the end of an era for Victory Records; the only two credible metal acts they had on their roster have finished their contracts and are free to sign elsewhere. Darkest Hour ended up on E1, a good fit for a label who has signed a number of already-established metal acts over the past few years (High on Fire, Hatebreed, Black Label Society, Overkill and In Flames, just to name a few). Where will Between the Buried and Me end up? It’s gettin’ to be about that time for them to release an album, whatwith those EP rumors and all.

If I were a betting man I’d put a few fat ones down on the table on BTBAM ending up with Metal Blade. The reason why has nothing to do with the actual music but with the folks behind the scenes. In fact, there’s a good chance the deal is already done, the t’s crossed, the i’s dotted, the ink dried.

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Pizza pizza.

The best description of Domino’s pizza I’ve ever heard came from our friend Jason, who said, “It doesn’t taste like pizza, it tastes like an English muffin with tomato sauce.” And I’ve only eaten at a Little Caesar’s once that I can recall, but my impression of it was more or less the same as my impression of Domino’s (or Pizza Hut, for that matter). Maybe I’m spoiled because we have a lot of good pizza here in New York, but I’ve never been able to understand why anyone would prefer to have McPizza over any number of other Italian dining options.

But I gather (he said with his nose held high in the air) that these places are very popular within the white trash populace — a.k.a., Kid Rock’s bread n’ butter. So when I read the following on MediaPost.com (by way of Metal Insider), I thought, “Gee, that is a brilliant fucking idea.”

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Welcome to “Question of the Week,” a (sometimes) weekly debate amongst the MetalSucks staff regarding a recent hot button issue.

This week, we have our first ever reader-suggested QOTW, coming from MetalSucks Maniac Cougar Party:

WHAT BANDS DO YOU HATE THAT YOU HAVE SEEN LIVE MULTIPLE TIMES BECAUSE THEY ARE ALWAYS OPENING FOR SOMEONE YOU LIKE?

The MS staff’s answers after the jump.

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While these days metal fandom is basically just a contest to see who can fap harder and faster to obscure technical death metal, it wasn’t always that way. In fact, many of the bands that internet metal nerds regard as legendary icons today were either hated or ignored when they were at their peak — fellow oldz will know exactly what I’m talking about. In this post, I will remind us all what fickle, trendy conformists metal fans can be by taking a stroll down memory lane and recalling vintage popular opinion of a few of your pet bands (hint: it wasn’t good!).

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It’s been three years since Blotted Science released their one and only album, the erection-inducing The Machinations of Dementia, and one could be forgiven for fearing that we might never again hear from this actually-as-cool-as-it-sounds supergroup. But fear not, my fellow lovers of extreme music! Metal Injection tells me that Ron Jarzombek has revealed that the band is working on a new, four-song, twenty-two minute EP! And while a full-length would obviously be preferable, at this point I think I speak for all Blotted Science fans when I say, “We’ll take what we can get.”

But wait! There’s more! The group has a new drummer! Says Jarzombek:

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Kind of amazingly, I haven’t seen Cannibal Corpse live since they absolutely wrecked the Rockstar Mayhem Fest’s second stage last summer — but I’m dying to do so. That was just a thirty minute set, after all, and you need way more than a half hour to really enjoy the Corpse.

And I’ll get my shot this fall: the band has just announced another headlining trek, this time with Dying Fetus, Vital Remains, and Devourment in tow. Devourment is the only one of those bands I’ve never seen live before, so I can vouch for Dying Fetus and Vital Remains — those bands put on killer shows. What an excellent line-up. If I close my eyes and think about this tour, I can already feel the stench of dude sweat permeating my nostrils.

Dates after el jumperoo.

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Andy Rehfeldt strikes again!!! The latest from Rehfeldt — a.k.a. “The dude responsible for the jazzercised Lamb of God, the Disneyfied Cannibal Corpse, and metallicized Louis Armstrong videos — is a death metal version of Conway Twitty’s “I See The Want To In Your Eyes.” As always, the syncing is near perfect (The Deciblog — where I first saw this video — notes that guitars and drums don’t match), and is consequently sure to induce giggles amongst bored and stoned metalheads everywhere. Thus… enjoy!

-AR