MetalSucks

Next week the U.S. gets a new President, thank fucking God, and Relapse Records is celebrating by issuing a 7″ box set of their This Comp Kills Fascists compilation. How fucking awesome is that? Until then, here’s what we’ll mull over during the long weekend (MLK day in the U.S.):

• Would you like to suck my cock, Berzerker? Or would you just like to look at some bloody titties, Berzerker?
• Lamb of God announce most awesomest tour ever with As I Lay Dying (meh), Children of Bodom, God Forbid and Municipal Waste, while Killswitch Engage, Chimaira and Lacuna Coil will be worth the ticket price as long as we leave before Disturbed goes on.
• Best soundboard ever. (Hint: fun with David Lee Roth sound bites)
• Bring Me The Hair Irons Horizon continued being boring.
• We spoke with Gojira’s Joe Duplantier and Animosity’s Leo Miller.
• Behemoth’s Nergal showed his face, while this dude just buried his in a bunch of watermelons.

The rumors you’ve heard are now officially not rumors any more: Lamb of God are doing a headlining trek this spring, with As I Lay Dying, Children of Bodom, God Forbid and Municipal Waste as support.

There isn’t really a whole lot to say here; this tour is awesome, Lamb of God’s new album is awesome, God Forbid’s new album is awesome, and you’re all going to try your hardest to attend one way or the other. So let’s just go to the part where you get tour dates after the jump, m’kay?

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Shortly after the band finished their mind-bending set opening for The Black Dahlia Murder, Testament and Children of Bodom at New York City’s Hammerstein Ballroom, I had the chance to talk with Between the Buried and Me singer Tommy Rogers and bassist Dan Briggs. The guys spoke about the band’s new DVD Colors Live, their rigorous touring schedule in support of Colors, sharing the stage with their heroes in Dream Theater on the summer’s Prog Nation tour, and what the next Between the Buried and Me record is going to sound like. The full interview transcript, after the jump.

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After fellating Protest the Hero’s incredible early-2008 release Fortress for two months solid (culminating in my first ever 5 of 5 horns review), I was immediately let down by successive announcements that the band would be touring with shit emo bands through the entire summer. Finally someone in the band’s camp has come to their senses and packaged them with a lineup that will put them in front of the metal audience that NEEDS to know about this band. And finally, I will be able to go see them live. Lambgoat is reporting a fall tour with Protest playing direct support for Unearth, with The Acacia Strain, Whitechapel and Gwen Stacy also on the bill.

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Congrats to MetalSucks reader and multi-time champion d.o.g.o.b.g.y.n. for winning last week’s Funny Photo Caption Contest; a copy of Unearth’s new DVD Alive From the Apocalypse is on its way to you in the mail for coming up with this caption for the picture at right:

“…well you’ll have plenty of time to call yourself Revrant and hold toy guns when you’re living IN A VAN DOWN BY THE RIVER!”

Revrant, we love you buddy. That caption would’ve been funny with anyone’s name — Chris Farley never fails! This week we’re giving away a special Gothenburg package featuring Scar Symmetry’s new album — the phenomenal Holographic Universe — and Children of Bodom’s latest, Blooddrunk. All you have to do is come up with a funny caption for the below photo and post it in the comments.

Back in 2001 when technical metal was completely out of style and no American guitarist would be caught dead playing a guitar solo, Finland’s Children of Bodom were waving the flag and somehow achieving modest success doing it. Let this live video from that year serve as a reminder to the countless metalcore bands that have ripped them off since that Children of Bodom did technical metal with hooks better, and they still do. So fuck all ya’ll.

-VN

Axl and Vince recently had the opportunity to sit down with In Flames bassist Peter Iwers hours before the second of two Gigantour shows at New York City’s Hammerstein Ballroom (also featuring Megadeth, Children of Bodom, High on Fire, and Job For a Cowboy). Peter shared his thoughts about In Flames’ new album A Sense of Purpose, its success in America, the band’s writing and recording process, and the band’s mysterious guitar-tech/personal assistant Biffin (the truth is shocking!). Read the entire chat transcript after the fold.

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“Hellhounds on My Trail” is a pretty killer song, but the video isn’t the best thing in the world. I mean, I guess you do what you can on a budget. But mostly it seems like the band let some five year old just go nuts on the lighting board while some dude filmed it. Maybe next time they’ll at least bring back the chick from the “Are You Dead Yet?” video.

Whatever. Like I said, at least the song is killer.

-AR

Today is the third big Tuesday in a row, and it’ll be the last for a while; new releases in the metal world are at a minimum over the coming weeks with a few notable exceptions (among them Textures). But fear not, because some truly awesome music came out today.

It’s a big day for death metal; to start, we have Arsis with their long-awaited We are the Nightmare (read our interview with bassist Noah Martin) and Soilent Green’s Katrina-inspired Inevitable Collapse in the Presence of Conviction (read Axl’s interview with Soilent Green’s Brian Patton). Embrace the End released Ley Lines, and Thine Eyes Bleed released their self-titled disc (read Axl’s review). In the melodic death category we have Blooddrunk from Children of Bodom, which is as solid a Bodom album as any (read my review).

Apocalyptica, the cello metal band who cut their teeth covering Metallica, put out their first album of all originals (minus one), Worlds Collide, with the single “I’m Not Jesus” featuring Corey Taylor; the song is apparently the #6 charting song on Active Rock radio (who knew?). Emo-turned-metal-turned-avant-garde-rockers Thrice released the third and fourth parts (Earth & Air) of their Alchemy Index concept album suite, and the results are exceptional.

Some of you might also like to know that Rush released their double live-disc Snakes & Arrows Live as well. Yee-haw.

What’s your favorite release to come out today?

-VN

Children of Bodom are one of those bands, like Slayer, from whom you know more or less exactly what to expect from one release to another. Blooddrunk — out April 15 on Spinefarm Records — is no exception, offering up nine melodic death metal gems full of pounding rhythms, guitar acrobatics, gothic keyboards, and Alexi Laiho’s blood-curdling growls all wrapped up in concise songs that don’t waste any time getting to the point or getting on with life. Though Blooddrunk doesn’t do much to expand the band’s repertoire nor does it offer much in the way of the unexpected, it further solidifies Children of Bodom’s reign atop the European metal pyramid with their undeniable mixture of technical metal and pointed songwriting.
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Children of Bodom are one of those bands I’d classify as “consistently reliable.” Sure, some of their material is better than the rest, but by and large, you pretty much always know what you’re getting into with COB.

So it’s no surprise that the band’s new song, “Banned from Heaven,” sounds exactly like pretty much every other COB song, ever. Not that there’s anything wrong with that: we happen to like COB a whole lot here at MetalSucks. In fact, our website was conceived at a COB/Amon Amarth show, so we have a soft spot for ‘em.

“Banned from Heaven” comes from the band’s forthcoming Blooddrunk. You can hear it at COB’s MySpace page.

-AR

I’ve been away and kind of out of the loop, so I apologize that this is kind of old news, but the line-up for the 2008 edition of Gigantour (a.k.a. Megadethfest) has been announed, and besides the ‘Deth, it will feature In Flames, Children of Bodom, Job for a Cowboy, and High on Fire. Yes, you read that right: Job for a Cowboy are going on after High on Fire.

So: you may notice that this is a smaller Gigantour line-up than usual, which Mustaine explains, in a statement, as being “based on timing, set lengths, stage sizes, unions, and most importantly allowing ‘us’ — the musicians — to deliver to ‘you’ — the fans — the best shows we can.” I think that actually means that he just wanted to share the pot with fewer people, which is perfectly reasonable, but really, calling it “Gigantour” is now officially just a form of false advertising. I mean, this tour was never as big as Ozzfest, but now it’s only as big as Summer Sanitarium*. At least Limp Bizkit aren’t playing.

ANYWAY, my only real concern about this line-up is that I’m not convinced modern day Megadeth can follow In Flames, who have been really on their shit live pretty much every time I’ve ever seen them. Then again, last year Mustaine put out an album I actually listened to more than once, so I guess anything is possible.

-AR

*And by “big,” I mean in the sense that both tours have the same number of bands – not that both tours will play the same sized venues. ‘Cause they won’t. ‘Cause Metallica are bigger than Megadeth. A LOT bigger than Megadeth. Dave Mustaine cries about it sometimes. Seriously! They have footage of him weeping in Some Kind of Monster. Check it out sometime, it’s pretty rad.

Gotta love COB. They’re drunk at least 93.5% of the time, they love Slayer and Skid Row in equal measures, and, hey, Vince and I decided to start MetalSucks at a COB show!

So now their new album has a title: Blooddrunk. A little awkward, sure, but hopefully it will grow on me (then again, I said the same the same thing about The Phantom Menace, and we all know how that turned out). And it fits in with the band’s aforementioned dual death/hair metal fetish.

As previously reported, this album already has a release date of April 7, 2008. Let’s hope you don’t have to be actualdrunk to enjoy it.

-AR

Children of Bodom only just entered a studio in their native Finland to record their follow-up to 2005’s excellent Are You Dead Yet?, but their label, Spinefarm Records, has already announced the new album’s release date: April 7, 2008 (so, presumably, April 8, 2008 here in the States – unless they learned nothing from the debacle that was the month-apart release dates for DevilDriver’s The Last Kind Words), with the first single to drop on March 3.

Of course, if something goes wrong, the label can always move the date – but still, announcing the release date so far in advance clearly shows what high hopes Spinefarm have for this album. You don’t do something like this unless you want your album to be a true Event with a capital “E.”

Question is: can the album live up to the hype? Guess we’ll find out in April.

-AR