Horns up for reader Rob Riege! He correctly identified last week’s logo as belonging to the band Grandma! For his troubles, Rob wins five CDs from the MetalSucks Mansion Archives. Enjoy ‘em, my man!

This week we have another awesome prize for you, courtesy of David Hall’s Handshake Inc.: three copies of Die Wege Der Lust, the new full-length from Mexican goregrinders Rottenness. If you watched the creepy-as-fuck, Hall-directed video for the band’s song “As Far as the Fist Can Go” when it debuted on Metal Injection last week, then you already know the kind of sick, sick shit you’re in for with Die Wege Der Lust. The album, which was produced by produced by Cephallic Carnage’s Steve Goldberg, was originally released by Sevared Records, and is currently available  as pay-what-you-can download via Handshake Inc. But if you want a super-awesome free CD copy, will, you best enter this contest son!

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. ALL ENTRIES WITHOUT AN ADDRESS WILL BE DISQUALIFIED. From everyone who gets it right, we’ll randomly select three winners, and announce their names next week.

This week’s logo was suggested by Chris… thanks, dude!

-AR

When I got on email from Cephalic Carnage / Job For A Cowboy bassist Nicholas Schendzielos about a new jam video he’d posted, I expected some kind of metal music dorkery to be contained therein. What I got was something entirely different, no less interesting, and a helluva lot more fucknuts:

So, uh… that was interesting! Strangely, I find myself wanting more; hopefully he makes these into a series or something.

From one bearded guy to another, I can totally relate to Nick on the whole sandwich dilemma: sandwiches are the most difficult food to eat because shit’s ALWAYS getting stuck in the ‘stache! Worst.

-VN

[UPDATE, 4:30pm EDT: As some of you pointed out, Cephalic Carnage have, in fact, dropped off this tour. -Ed.]

Hell fuckin’ yeah, bitches! We are proudly co-presenting death metal masters Exhumed’s North American headlining tour, which, just to make extra-extra-sure you attend, features the unfuckwithable support line-up of Goatwhore (seriously fuck you if you don’t worship Goatwhore), Cephalic Carnage (best Entire Catalog to Get Stoned To ever?), and Havok (one of the only modern thrash band that actually matters). The tour was supposed to begin last night in Gallup, NM, but now that show has been pushed back to the end of the trek; alas, tonight’s gig in Amarillo, TX has been cancelled altogether.

But the tour will officially fo’ realz kick-off tomorrow night in Oklahoma City!!! You can get all the dates on the newly-updated itinerary, plus links to purchase tickets, right here. DO NOT MISS THESE SHOWS! They are guaranteed to be completely brutal and completely unforgettable.

Horns up for readers Alan Jefferson and Julia Burton! They each correctly identified last week’s logoas belonging to the band Obtained Enslavement, and for their troubles, they each win a copy of the CD booklet for Soulfly’s Omen that has been signed by Max Cavalera and company. Yay for Alan and Julia!!!

This week we have another killer prize to give away, courtesy the nice folks at Relapse Records: two copies of the new reissue of Cephalic Carnage’s 2002 release, Lucid Interval. This new edition of the landmark album from the masters of hydrogrind came out today with new repackaging and a bonus track, which means that whether or not you already have it, you pretty much need a new copy — ’cause Cephalic Carnage really are just THAT cool. You can stay up to date with all of Cephalic’s activity by checking out their Facebook page, and then tou can order a copy of the Lucid reissue from Relapse here. Or, of course, just enter this contest.

All you gotta 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. ALL ENTRIES WITHOUT AN ADDRESS WILL BE DISQUALIFIED. From everyone who gets it right, we’ll randomly select two winners and announce their names one week from today.

This week’s logo was sent in by a reader named Joeri… thanks, Joeri!!! ‘Preciate it.

-AR

[UPDATE, 4:30pm EDT, Oct 27: Cephalic Carnage have unfortunately dropped off this tour. -Ed]

MetalSucks is proud to be teaming up with our pals at Metal Injection and Hails & Horns to bring you what we think is gonna be one of the most brutal tours of the year: the incredibly fucking awesome Exhumed are headlining, and support is coming from Goatwhore, Cephalic Carnage, and Havok. This is one of those rare package tours where there isn’t a bad band on the bill — it’s gonna be the kind of show where you’ll wanna get there early to make sure you don’t miss a minute. There’s just absolutely no way that these shows will be anything less than insane.

Seriously, do NOT miss this tour — you’re gonna feel like a damn fool if you do. Dates are after the jump!

Click to read more…

As we mentioned a few weeks ago, Metal Injection has launched this great new video series, “Ask the Artist,” in which they give you helpful tips for getting out tough stains. No, I’m kidding, they ask fucking artists things, that’s why it’s called “Ask the Artist.”

ANYWAY, the latest installment of the series has the MI dudes posing the question “What band got you into metal?” to current and former members of Dying Fetus, Killswitch Engage, Job for a Cowboy, Cephalic Carnage, Revocation, The Ocean, Lazarus A.D., and more.

My personal favorite answer probably comes from A Life Once Lost’s Doug Sabolick, not because I have any special affinity for the album he cites, but because a) it’s a pretty unique answer and b) I remember exactly where I was the first time I heard that album, and I like thinking that while I was rocking out to it with Vince in my parents’ living room, Sabolick was somewhere having his mind blown and his life forever changed. I like that we have that connection now. We’re like Fievel and Tanya from An American Tail, singing “Somewhere Out There.” Only not really at all.

Check out the rest of Metal Injection’s “Ask the Artist” series here. And, hey, while we’re on the topic, feel free to discuss the bands and albums that got you into metal in our comments section below.

-AR

The days when a musician stands a chance of making a living as a musician may very well be coming to a close. It’s one thing for the members of Crowbar Abortion to have to get jobs at the mall when they’re not on tour, but when even the dude from Guns N’ Roses is giving guitar lessons on his down time, you know times are tough.

Which gives a little extra edge to the below video, in which our doppelgängers at Metal Injection ask various musicians what they’d do with their lives if they weren’t in a band. Because that’s a question most metal musicians should probably ask themselves at some point or another.

Best answer comes from Revocation drummer Phil Dubois-Coyne, although I’m down the response A Life Once Lost’s Doug Sabolick and Bob Meadows provide, too.

This video is the first in a new series Metal Injection is doing, called, cleverly enough, “Ask the Artist.” Go here to make sure you stay up-to-date on all future installments, as I’d wager that they will continue to be this entertaining.

-AR

THE WEEKEND IS ALMOST HERE! Are you excited? The weather is finally starting to get nice, at least where we live. I’m gonna need to ahead and try and to defeat Portal 2 ASAP so I don’t spend the entire weekend indoors.

ANYWAY, a good way to get your party started is by watching the below fan-filmed footage of Job for a Cowboy performing a new song, “Signature of Starving Power,” at a recent stop on their MetalSucks-sponsored tour with Between the Buried and Me, The Ocean, and Cephalic Carnage. We’ve already seen some footage of JFAC drummer Jon “The Charn” Rice rehearsing this song, but this is the first time we’ve actually heard it with the whole band and everything. And, of course, it’s a bootleg and the quality ain’t great, but it still sounds pretty good to me. Everyone I know who’s heard JFAC’s new EP, Gloom, says it’s the best thing they’ve ever done, and a new chapter for the band, and based on the two songs we’ve now heard (the other being “Misery Reformatory,” which is already available for download), I’m inclined to believe it.

Gloom should be out sometime in the not-too-distant future on Metal Blade.

And here are remaining dates for that awesome BTBAM/JFAC/The Ocean/Cephalic Carnage tour:

Click to read more…

Am I the only one who thinks that Exhumed really missed an opportunity by not naming their new album No Guts, No Gory? I mean it’s SUCH AN AMAZING PUN and no death metal band has ever used it for some reason, right? They totally should have gotten on top of that shit, don’t you agree?

[crickets]

ANYWAY, the band is now streaming a new track from their forthcoming release. It’s called “As Hammer to Anvil,” and you can check it out here. It fucking rocks. This is the band’s first album in eight years, and this track certainly suggests that the wait will have been worth it. I’m stoked to hear the rest of this beast now.

No Guts, No Gory All Guts, No Glory comes out July 5 on Relapse. Seems like a good way to celebrate Independence Day to me! It’s already available for pre-order (CD, deluxe CD, digital), and the band is touring Europe with Atheist right now, and then they tour the States this summer with some other killer groups, like Cephalic Carnage, Withered, and Macabre. Here are dates for those shows:

Click to read more…

It’s only a matter of time until fancy tech-death metallists Origin release an album of equal awesomeness to their hole-stretching live shows. I mean, my first Origin show took place in a room that could be generously described as decrepit on one of that year’s hottest, stankiest days; further, that tour saw the band taking on the dicey task of seeming cool while right next to Cephalic Carnage, the cuddliest, stoniest, joint-sharingest dudes in extreme metal. But it didn’t matter cuz that night Origin slammed.

But like a hot girl who parties hot but can’t hang in conversation, Origin has yet to deliver the balls-scorching record of which they are surely capable. Origin was embryonic; frustrating were the frantic blasts of sophomore outing Ignominious Intestinal Intricacies (or watevr) and its follow-up, Arpeggios of Decimation. 2009′s Antithesis, too, played like a roller-coaster ride: thrilling while in progress, impossible to recall once concluded. But now is a big time for Origin; fifth album Entity is out in June and then commences a bonery tour with Hate Eternal. So will Paul Ryan and crew put substance and composition before tweedly tech-wanking? Maybe there’s a clue in the band’s new video check-in from the studio (above).

–ADF

Origin’s Entity is out June 7 on Nuclear Blast. A couple weeks after that, Origin joins Hate Eternal, Vital Remains, and Abysmal Dawn on tour (dates here).

…then check out this quote from a recent interview with vocalist Tommy Rogers:

“We have a really exciting set list for everyone this tour. We are going to do the entire new record [The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues] plus a set of old songs.”

Well, I think that’s great fucking news, and based on your reactions from when we debuted the EP last month, you’ll all find it happy-making, too. Plus the album is only thirty minutes, BTBAM are the headliners, and Tommy promised “old” (lulz) songs as well, so it’s not like you won’t get to hear favorites from the rest of the band’s discography.

In other words: this really exciting tour just got that much more exciting.

The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues is out today on Metal Blade, and the tour kicks off Friday! Get dates after the jump — BTBAM alone are enough of a draw, but Job for a Cowboy, The Ocean, and (on select dates) Cephalic Carnage are all on the trek, too, so you’re really gonna feel like a dummy if you don’t go. And also don’t forget to check out our recent “Rigged” column, in which BTBAM axe slingers Paul Waggoner and Dustie Waring take you through their live setups piece by piece. We’ll have another entry from BTBAM drummer Blake Richardson soon!

Click to read more…

Between The Buried and Me are heading out on the road on a MetalSucks-sponsored tour with Job For A Cowboy, The Ocean and, on select dates, Cephalic Carnage. We’ve teamed up with the band to give away one PRS SE Custom 24 guitar in Tobacco Sunburst and one copy of their upcoming album, The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues, due out April 12th on Metal Blade Records (which you can stream here for a limited time!).

Check out a picture of the pretty instrument up for grabs here, but please note the one you get will be in the Tobacco Sunburst color, not the orange shown.

For such a radical prize you’ve got to submit an equally radical entry, and as you know we like to keep things fun and light-hearted here at MS. So, do tell us via the comments: what is your favorite BTBAM song and why? Be creative.

Check out tour dates here, and stream the entire EP right here on MetalSucks!

Let’s keep this one short n’ sweet, ’cause the poster tells you everything you need to know anyway. The might Exhumed are doing their first North American headlining tour in six years this summer, and they’re taking some killer bands out on the road with them — namely Macabre, Cephalic Carnage, and Withered. The shows on this tour will clearly reek of terrible, horrible, almost unbearable nerd body odor, but they will also reek of awesomeness. I wanna go. You wanna go. Everyone should want to go. So let’s all go.

Here are the dates:

Click to read more…

So yeah yeah yeah, Victory is releasing a greatest hits package for Between the Buried and Me on March 29. We have avoided writing about it up ’til now because it’s one of those things where a label goes “We just lost one of our big bands, but we have the contractual right to try and milk some more money from ‘em, so let’s slap something together and get it out there.” (BTBAM recently ankled Victory for Metal Blade.) Sad, but this kind of thing happens all the time — hell, Victory did the same thing when they lost Atreyu a few years back. These collections usually aren’t even approved by the band, who legally have no say in the matter.

But so many of you have e-mailed us about the below video, which shows off the packaging for this compilation, and… yeah, it looks killer. Like, Tool-album-packaging-killer. Even though there’s absolutely no new material on this album (there are two CDs and one DVD, the latter showcasing all the band’s music videos), this is an increasingly-rare instance of a label actually giving fans a good reason to purchase a physical copy of an album. Whether or not you think that makes it worth it to pay for music you already own, well… that’s up to every BTBAM fan to decide for him or herself.

Meanwhile, BTBAM will release a NEW (not just recycled material!) three-song, thirty minute EP, The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues, on April 12 via Metal Blade. Then they’ll headline a MetalSucks-sponsored tour with The Ocean, Job for a Cowboy, and, on select dates, Cephalic Carnage. Get dates for that trek after the jump.

Click to read more…

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:

Click to read more…

Speaking of AP debuts that seemingly caused MetalSucks readers to just completely lose their shit and e-mail us messages to the effect of “YO POST THIS SHIT RIGHT NOW!!!” en masse: Alt Press is streaming an excerpt of the song “Specular Reflection” from Between the Buried and Me’s new EP, The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues.

And before you get sad that they’re not streaming the entire song, be aware that said track’s total running time is nearly eleven-and-a-half minutes, and AP has six-and-a-half of those glorious minutes. Also, Parallax only has three songs, although it’s total running time is roughly thirty minutes. So, really, you’re getting to hear more than 25% of the album with this clip.

Headbang here. The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues comes out April 12 on Metal Blade. And don’t forget that BTBAM will headline the MetalSucks-sponsored Hypersleep Dialogue Trek starting in April, along with Job for a Cowboy, The Ocean, and, on select dates, Cephalic Carnage. It’s gonna be killer. Get dates after the jump.

Click to read more…

Yesterday we got news of a new Between the Buried and Me record and today we get news of a new Between the Buried and Me North American tour! Yippee!

We already kinda knew that Between the Buried and Me would be touring this Spring with The Ocean and Job For A Cowboy based on one leaked date and the fact that all three bands appear atop this year’s New England Metal and Hardcore Fest lineup. In all honesty, though, we already totally knew; in case you haven’t noticed yet, our logo is on that there tour poster above, meaning we’re a sponsor of the tour… and it was killing us not to tell ya’ll these past couple of months because we knew how excited you’d be. But now you know, we all know, EVERYONE knows, and together we’ll revel in this awesome lineup, which also features Cephalic Carnage on select dates!

Full list of dates after the jump.

Click to read more…

In brief: Relapse is offering a free sampler for download to anyone who goes to their Facebook page and hits that little ol’ “like” button. As you can see from the track list below, there’s a ton of good shit on it, including new songs from Abysmal Dawn, Red Fang, and Noisear, plus some remastered Death, plus great stuff from Baroness, Revocation, Cephalic Carnage, Dying Fetus, Misery Index, Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Brutal Truth, Murder Construct… the list goes on and on. This could very easily be the soundtrack for your New Year’s Eve partying.

Go here to download the sampler. Happy fucking new year.

-AR

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

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, which means we’re taking off early today and won’t be back ’til Monday. We’re sorry to leave non-American readers high n’ dry, but PLUS ONE FOR FREEDOM, MOTHERFUCKERS.

ANYWAY, in honor of the holiday, we decided to do a special Turkey Day-themed QOTW designed to make you feel all warm and cuddly inside:

WHAT (IN METAL) ARE YOU THANKFUL FOR?

The MS staff’s answers after the jump.

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I first got into Cephalic Carnage because of the metalcore parody song, “Dying Will Be the Death of Me.” But when I heard the rest of the album on which that song appears, Anomalies, I thought, “Well, this is good, but it’s just too disjointed for me. There are so many styles, it’s just too all over the place.” I couldn’t deal with the randomness. Anomalies felt like more of an outline than anything groundbreaking.

Then Xenosapien came out, and I was floored. It was like all the ideas from Anomalies had been compressed and recycled into a frantic yet undeniably coherent death/grind mass. I felt that it was pretty much Cephalic’s pinnacle performance, and didn’t expect much more than a rehash of its ideas on the band’s next release. I was actually very wrong, as I discovered about a month ago when Misled by Certainty came out.

Click to read more…