MetalSucks

As I mentioned earlier this week, a little while back I got an e-mail from The Autumn Offering vocalist Matt McChesney to discuss an extremely negative review I’d given the band’s last album, Fear Will Cast No Shadow. McChesney could have been a total dick about the whole thing, but as it turns out, he’s a very even headed, intelligent, and cool dude. So what else was there to do but interview him about the band’s new album, Requiem, which will come out June 9 on Victory. McChesney was even good enough to let us debut the first single off of that album, “The Curtain Hits The Cast,” for which the band will shoot a video in the coming weeks.

I still haven’t heard the new album, but I do already like this song way, way more than anything from Fear Will Cast No Shadow; it’s catchy and it doesn’t sound overly processed, which, I think, is what The Autumn Offering were striving for. Check out the song below, and then my conversation with Matt McChesney after the jump! (FYI – for fear that this was all a set-up for Matt to have me murdered, the interview was conducted by e-mail.)

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Someday I’d like to try and work out some sort of mathematical formula to determine which bands actually do have the most brutal pits. You might think there’d be some correlation between pit violence and aural weight, but that doesn’t explain why, say, Napalm Death pits are, though nothing to scoff at, a fly on the ass of a Slayer pit. Fascinating.

Two bands that generally do have big, scary fucking pits: Hatebreed and Chimaira. And now Lambgoat reports that they’ll spend the late summer touring together. I know I sometimes give Jamey Jasta and company shit on this site, but, really, Hatebreed are best enjoyed in a live setting, where they pretty much manage to destroy each and every time they take the stage. And my feelings on Chimaira are, by now, I think pretty well documented.

Does the tour rider include provisions for multiple on-site ambulances? I sure hope so. Get tour dates after the jump.

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Last week in the comments on my review of Chimaira’s The Infection, someone used the phrase “I’ve got an erection for The Infection,” and I’ve been saying it ever since. Good work, whomever you are.

So. A couple of weeks back, we asked you to answer this trivia question…

CHIMAIRA BASSIST JIM LAMARCA’S FAMILY OWNS A PIZZA SHOP IN CLEVELAND. WHAT IS THE NAME OF THAT SHOP?

…and promised that everyone who answered correctly would be entered in a drawing to win limited deluxe fan edition of Chimaira’s awesome new album, The Infection, signed by all six members of the band (pictured above). And while a whole lot of you correctly identified Master Pizza as the pizzeria owned by Jim LaMarca’s family, there can be only winner. And that winner is…

Olivia Major from Naples, ME!

Congrats, Olivia. This baby is friggin’ sweet.

Don’t be too sad if you didn’t win: you can still order one directly from Ferret. It’s worth every penny you’ll pay for it!

And don’t forget to check out Chimaira’s MySpace page for all the latest info on the band!

-AR

Actually, we don’t have to pirate our own articles. Plenty of other websites do that for us, often without giving us credit or linking back to us. Once upon a time someone even accidentally included one of our bylines in their cut and paste job. Said “writer” apologized but then went on to shamelessly rip us off many more times, which was nice, because it shows his apology was sincere. You know who else tried to pass off someone else’s work as their own? The guy who went on to shoot Dimebag. So good company you keep, fellas.

Here are other ethically questionable decisions people made in the metal world this week:

• Hasidim moshed, we made punny jokes.
• Matt Heafy and Paolo Gregoletto of Trivium asked fans to illegally burn and share the band’s music.
• We’re streaming God Dethroned’s entire new album until Tuesday; listen now! We also debuted new tracks from Animals as Leaders and Burning Human.
• Arch Enemy choose to re-record old material; we choose to stop talking about this project from hereon out (starting… now!).
• Tyson vs. Holyfield 3 Underoath vs. Avenged Sevenfold! We love this kind of shit.
• Some Russian high school black metallers headbanged for show and tell, and we pondered how to improve our corpsepaint skillz.
• The Dillinger Escape Plan’s Greg Puciato sounded off against President Barack Obama. You sounded off against each other.
• We looked at new releases from Chimaira, God Dethroned and Goes Cube.

Next week brings more contests, more interviews, more new music streams you won’t be able to hear anywhere else, and at least one confrontation with a singer Axl once gave a terrible review. Come back and read more. You know you want to.

-Vince and Axl

When @AlishaThrashion tweeted from the Music As a Weapon tour stop in New Jersey on Wednesday that there was a Hasid in the moshpit, I responded with what any skeptical Jew like myself would: “pics or it didn’t happen.” And within a few minutes, I had the above in my inbox.

Pretty awesome (moshpit dude, if you’re reading this — you rule). Metal knows no religious boundaries! So I got to thinkin’… what are some funny Music As A Weapon-related puns we can connect to Jewish themes? (For those who don’t know, your editors are Jewish, so we can make these jokes guilt-free). Bands on the tour are Disturbed, Killswitch Engage, Lacuna Coil and Chimaira. Examples:

Gifiltefish Engage
The Impossibility of Kvetching
Alice or Just Shvitzing
Down With the 10 Plagues

Winner gets some cool posters and stickers in the mail. Go!

For some reason it makes sense that Mark Hunter from Chimaira is a martial artist and fan of MMA. Furthermore it also makes sense that one of his favorite fighters is the one and only Wanderlei “The Axe Murderer” Silva, who is known for being both aggressive and technical. Mark had this to say to MMA Insider about “The Axe Murderer”:

“When I watch him, I try to emulate him quite a bit. He’s got the staredown to end all staredowns.”
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Chimaira have never made the same exact album twice, so the only thing a listener can assume about a new Chimaira record is this: it’s going to be crushingly heavy. This band makes truly unpleasant, misanthropic Metal with a capital fucking “M.” Fuck, their most famous song is all about how they don’t like you very much.

The Infection is no exception. It sounds at once both distinctly like Chimaira and yet not precisely like anything the band has ever made before. The dichotomy of it, though, is that the vitriol is wrapped the catchiest and, in some ways, most optimistic music the Cleveland sextet has ever created.

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I’m glad you guys and girls are enjoying our current Chimaira contest. I’d like to give a special shout out to Matt Wixson, who entered 67 times in 24 minutes. So, y’know, that dude really likes Chimaira.

I’m sure Matt is super excited about the fact that the band’s new album, The Infection, is now streaming in its entirety. Listen to it here. Then come back and let us know what you think!

-AR

The release of Chimaira’s new skull crushing, testicle tearing album, The Infection, is now less than a week away, and will be streaming in its entirety on the band’s MySpace page as of tomorrow! To celebrate, we’re teaming up with the band and Ferret Music to give you the opportunity to win a limited deluxe fan edition of the album, signed by all six members of the band!

Here’s what’s in this ridiculously cool box set:

Metal Briefcase packaging (pictured above)
Chimaira Infection Logo Flag (pictured above)
CD/DVD Edition of the album (Features the bonus track “Revenge” and a “Making of” DVD)
“Syringe” USB in metal box featuring the bonus tracks “Convictions” and “Warpath”, The Infection demos, Wallpapers, Buddy Icons and more (pictured above)
Guitar Pick Pack featuring signature picks of all guitarists (pictured above)
Booklet featuring never before seen photos of the band in studio (NOT pictured above)
Laminate (NOT pictured above)

How friggin’ cool is that?

All you have to do to win is answer the following Chimaira trivia question:

CHIMAIRA BASSIST JIM LAMARCA’S FAMILY OWNS A PIZZA SHOP IN CLEVELAND. WHAT IS THE NAME OF THAT SHOP?

E-mail your answer as well as your name and mailing address to axl AT metalsucks DOT net by midnight EST on April 21, and be sure to put CHIMAIRA CONTEST in the subject line. We’ll randomly select one (1) winner from everyone who correctly answers the question, and that lucky son of a bitch will win the box set. Please note that this contest is open to U.S. residents only, as shipping costs are a bitch.

And don’t be too sad if you don’t win – you can always order one directly from Ferret!

After the jump, be sure to check out some awesome photos of the box set being assembled! And good luck everyone!

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Alright. First thing’s first: we have heard The Infection. It slays. Fucking SLAYS, dude. I’ll post a full review real soon, but for now, just know that listening to this record might kill your grandma.

As with Chimaira’s last album, Resurrection, there will be a special edition of The Infection that comes with a making of DVD directed by Todd Bell (who also directed the band’s excellent documentary The Dehumanizing Process). Here’s  a quick tease:

Now, obviously, that’s just a taste, but I already dig that guitarist Rob Arnold is being so straight-forward: yes, he thinks this is their best album yet, but, yes, he admits he always feels that way – so this isn’t your typical “THIS IS OUR MOST BR00TAL ALBUM EVER!” hype.

The Infection comes out one week from today on Ferret in North America and Nuclear Blast everywhere else.

-AR

I still haven’t heard Chimaira’s The Infection. But because I’m a Chimaira dork, it was with great excitement that I listened to the fifteen second samples of each of the album’s ten songs on Amazon this morning. After the jump, my completely unfair snap judgement on thsi 150 seconds of new Chimaira music.

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I was kinda wondering whatever happened to Uranium, Fuse’s answer to Headbanger’s Ball. As it turns out, it’s still around – it just airs on Fuse on Demand. Which is good to know, especially since throughout April they have a special on the making of Chimaira’s The Infection, which is one of the 2009 releases that I am personally most excited about it. In case you couldn’t tell by my constant posting about the record.

ANYWAY, here’s a clip to get you all hot n’ bothered. Don’t you just wanna pinch Jim LaMarca’s cheeks?

Like I said, you can watch the entire thing on Fuse on Demand all month.

-AR

Have you heard the good news, brother? The New England Metal and Hardcore Fest has added a third stage for younger bands with whom concert goers might be less familiar.

Looking over the list, I already know  one terrible band that will be on this stage (Oceano) and two excellent bands that will be on this stage (Brother Von Doom and The Destro), but there are a lot of names here I’m not familiar with. Thus, I am now going to listen to some of those bands via various channels (really just one channel – MySpace) and make some snap judgements. So, in no particular order:

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As I Lay Dying have a new DVD, This is Who We Are, coming out April 14 on Metal Blade. I’m extremely curious to see it because, for whatever reason, I don’t feel like I know very much about these dudes as people. And that’s why I love these documentaries that are getting release so frequently these days; as much as I love, say, Chimaira’s music, watching their DVD The Dehumanizing Process made me feel like I really understood each member as a unique personality. And I think that’s invaluble – and a definite advantage that this generation of bands has over their elders, who didn’t come up in a time when making these sorts of things was easy and cost effective as it is today.

But back to that As I Lay Dying DVD: here’s a clip, where the band discusses one of their first big tours, as support for the aforementioned Chimaira (remember when Mark Hunter had dreads?). Consider me enticed…

-AR

Few children’s authors are more metal than Roald Dahl. Think about it: besides perhaps The Brothers Grimm, what other writer of stories for young ‘uns are as full of violent death? More fucked up things happen in The Witches than every work by Shel Silverstein and Dr. Seuss combined.

(Roald Dahl was also a raging anti-semite. Which puts a whole other spin on things. But I digress.)

I mention it because of this nifty give away that Chimaira are doing as part of the release of their new album, The Infection:

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“Secrets of the Dead” is so fucking good that it’s just made us that much hungrier for Chimaira’s for new album, The Infection. So hungry, in fact, that last week we posted crappy-quality fan filmed footage of another new song, “Destroy and Dominate” – footage so weak that you could barely hear the actual music.

Well, no need to stick your ear up to the computer speaker anymore: after teasing fans earlier today with the cryptic message “3 pm EST,” the band just posted a link to a free download of the mp3 for the actual studio version of “Destroy and Dominate” on Twitter. You can download the song right now, right here. [UPDATE: Looks like the song is down now. I'm sure clever Chimaira fans will be able to seek it out from their peers - Ed.]

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Holy crap, people are getting The Infection tats already? That’s fucking devotion.

ANYWAY, here’s some cool Chimaira shit you should know about:

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Last week I did three posts about Chimaira in a single day, which I don’t think we’ve ever done here before at MetalSucks. So you know that I’m sincerely stoked about the band’s new album, The Infection.

So stoked that I just spent five minutes watching this awful-quality footage of the band performing a new song, “Destroy and Dominate,” at this past Thursday’s Dubai Desert Rock Festival in – duh – Dubai.

Seriously, though: the quality of this footage is so poor that making any judgement about the song would be beyond fucktarded. This is just for the people who, like myself, really, really need a Chimaira fix.

The band shot a video for this song in their home town of Cleveland a week or two back, so hopefully we’ll get to hear the real thing soon. And, in any case, The Infection will be released on April 21.

After the jump, you can check out 52 seconds of ever-so-slightly higher quality footage of the band playing their new single, “Secrets of the Dead,” at the same performance. I think I’ve listened to this song about one hundred times already since it’s release last Tuesday.

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It snowed 8 inches in NYC on Monday, but we got back from the Scion Rock Fest in Atlanta just in time to deliver you our usual drudge report. Can you imagine if we’d been stranded? No MetalSucks for two days. What would you have done? Contemplate these noteworthy events of the week as you get ready to enjoy your weekend (65 degrees Sunday in NYC!):

• Mastodon release early contender for best metal video of ‘09.
• Watchmen got metal… or not.
• We spoke with NEMHF founder Scott Lee.
• Lamb of God and God Forbid make strong Soundscan debuts.
• We looked at new releases from Hatesphere, Wolves in the Throne Room, Abacabb, Centaurus-A and General Surgery.
• Chimaira released a new single and a super-duper-deluxe pre-order.
• We waxed ecstatic about the weed in Atlanta… oh yeah, and some bands played at the Scion Rock Fest too.
• Doc Coyle struck back at the Internet.
• MetalSucks got nominated for a Metal Hammer “Web of Death” Award!

…that the album is available for pre-order! Hoo-ray!

Yes, it may seem slightly anti-climatic after the release of some actual new music a little earlier today, but the album will be available in a variety of editions, including this bad-ass mofo:

After the jump, get details on what comes in the super duper deluxe awesome happy good time edition.

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