MetalSucks

Monday was 2008 Sucks day here at MetalSucks, but we rocked out the rest of the week with some ridiculous shit as per usual:

• We announced our best-of lists for 2008. Check ‘em out.
• Contest: You tell us why you hate the holidays, we send you 100 CDs. Sweet deal.
• PA woman tortures kitties with piercings.
• We spoke with Misery Index’s Jason Netherton and Three Inches of Blood’s Cam Pipes.
• Corporate rock still sells, but Chinese Democracy apparently doesn’t.
• We hated on this band, this band and this band, the latter of whom sent their fans here in droves to hate us back.
• We wondered whether Roadrunner Records actually dropped Amanda Palmer because of her “belly fat” (hint: they didn’t even drop her).
• God Forbid released the cover artwork and tracklisting of Earthsblood, and Pack of Wolves (ex-At All Cost member) released new music.

Tonight it’s new The End Records-signees Hull for Kip and me. Have a good one, everybody.

It’s the holiday season so there isn’t much to report in the way of new releases, with labels instead opting to cash in on best-of collections, holiday-themed albums and catalog albums (industry speak for albums that aren’t the band’s most recent release). That said, there’s a really interesting subplot happening on the Soundscan Charts this week.

Click to read more…

We don’t always agree here at the MS Mansion. Despite what Axl said on Wednesday in his editorial, I would like to go on record as saying that Chinese Democracy — at least in the commercial sense — is an epic fail. By now you’ve all seen the numbers; despite a 9-day sales week (including Black Friday), a big promotional push from one of the nation’s top electronics retailers and the hype generated from a 17-year wait, Guns Axl N’ Roses’ long-awaited Chinese Democracy shifted a mere 261,191 units in its first week of release, enough to land the album at #3 on the Soundscan charts. That’s approximately one-third the number of albums sold first week by the other legacy rock/metal acts who released albums this year, AC/DC and Metallica, who both debuted at #1.

Ouch.

So what exactly went wrong?

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The album we’ve waited 17 years for has finally arrived (stay put for our own Axl’s review later today). But where the fuck is Axl Rose? Typically when bands have an album coming out they like to do this little thing called “press” to help generate buzz and sell records. But Axl is nowhere to be seen, having not made a single public appearance or even so much as a statement since the album’s release date was announced. No press conferences, no music video, no interviews, no talk shows… NOTHING.

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Dr. Pepper’s website is still not working, but that hasn’t stopped the world from participating in Chinese Democracy mania. I stopped by the Best Buy on 23rd St. (where door signs read “The Most Anticipated Album Release Ever!”) to buy my copy yesterday, and rumors from an unconfirmed source have it that one Axl Rosenberg was there at 9am to watch the doors open. At the moment I’m writing this sentence, Blabbermouth’s most recent 5 headlines are all GNR-centric (see screen cap, above) and TV news outlets in countries around the world are covering GNR mania.

Will the truncated, two-day first week be enough to snag the top spot on the chart? Will it outsell the other two big rock releases of late 2008, Metallica’s Death Magnetic and AC/DC’s Black Ice? Will its second week top its first week, boosted by Black Friday and a full week, and will it sustain enough steam to beat Kanye West and The Killers? Will there ever be democracy in China???

-VN

It’s 11:03 on Sunday night. Earlier today I bought my real, live copy of Chinese Democracy at Best Buy. I want my Dr. Pepper. But it is not to be. EPIC FAIL. Of gargantuan proportions!

It was a crazy week at the MS Mansion. Vince passed out in the bathroom after a 48 hour coke binge only to be awakened by Axl, whom, after coming home that morning from a strip club with The Blogronaut and Dallas, was viciously attacked by a bunch of angry Hinder fans stalking him outside the MS Mansion gates. Actually, none of that happened. But here’s what did:

• Axl offered up a bounty on Hinder’s Austin Winkler.
• Chinese Democracy leaked, and almost two decades of waiting finally ended.
• Whitechapel became the new controversial band du’jour.
• The Faceless killed it on the Soundscan charts.
• Today Is the Day’s Steve Austin’s house almost burned down.
• A video of a fat kid singing along to Dimmu Borgir. Nuff said.
• Vince went Jew on Jew with Genghis Tron’s Mookie Singerman, only to find out he’s not as Jewish as he once claimed.
• Tommy Lee reformed Methods of Mayhem and Vince Neil announced plans for another solo record, sans Steve Stevens. We scratched our heads.

We’ll see you next week, albeit it’ll be an abbreviated one due to the Thanksgiving holiday here in the U.S. Toodles.

Stop fucking emailing us about it already.

Sincerely,
VN & AR

The most anticipated leak since, well, the last time songs from Chinese Democracy leaked, has hit the Internet. Only this time it’s the whole, final, mixed, mastered shebang (albeit in 128kbps MP3s), 6 days ahead of its official release. If you’ve got Google and a brain you should know how to find this, and if you can’t find it this minute just wait until later today — it’ll surely be all over. I wonder if sites like rapidshare, sendspace, megaupload and their ilk will actually notice an uptick in traffic today due to the “Chinese Democracy effect?” I’d say it’s likely. And no, we won’t post a link, so don’t ask.

To those who have it already: thoughts?

We aren’t sure which member of Buffalo, NY metal warriors Every Time I Die wrote the below “official” press release we received today, but we’d like to think it’s axe-slinger Andy Williams, if only because of his ginormous, manlier-than-thou, f’ing awesome beard:

November 3rd, 2008

An Open Letter to Axl Rose Ending With an Impression of Howard Dean,
Thanks a shitload Axl. You haven’t put out a GNR record in 10 years and the month we decide to go out on a tour cleverly named NOVEMBER REIGN, you find it prime time for “Chinese Democracy” to hit shelves. You couldn’t have waited another 3 weeks? We haven’t done a single headlining tour on “The Big Dirty” so this was a really big deal for us. You should have seen Josh’s face light up when he thought of the name. The guys in THE BRONX and STICK TO YOU [sic] GUNS were happier than pigs in shit to be a part of this epic journey across the east coast. But you just couldn’t stand to see us happy.
Buckethead probably wouldn’t have stolen our thunder. And when I met Matt Sorum at House of Guitars like 16 years ago, he came off as a real nice dude
who would be glad to let us have November to ourselves. Well fuck it, we’re doing it anyways. Starting November 1st, we’re going to Quebec City! and
then we’re going to Milwaukee! And then we’re going to JOPLIN AND NASHVILLE AND RICHMOND AND THEN WE’RE GOING TO FARMINGDALE TO TAKE BACK THE
CRAZY DONKEY!!! BEYYYYYAAAWWW!!!!!
love every time i die.
ps. you rock.

Full tour dates, featuring Every Time I Die, The Bronx, and Stick To Your Guns, after the jump.

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So my own cynicism be damned, a new Guns N’ Roses single hit radios this morning – the title track from Chinese Democracy, which, it would now appear, just really might be coming out this year. New York City’s own Q104.3 is currently streaming the song, which has gone through changes since the last leaked version we’ve heard, including new drums, guitars, and, oh yeah, vocals. Seriously, you have to think that a Chinese Democrazy box set with all the various incarnations these songs have gone through over the past fifteen years would be kind of fascinating.

ANYWAY, Vince, myself, and the other inhabitants of the MetalSucks Mansion will have lots and lots of time to weigh-in on new GN’R in the coming month, so for now, we just wanna hear what you think. Check out the song and then weigh in below.

Also, if anyone can explain the lyric “It would take a lot more time than you/ I’ve got more masturbation” to me, it’d be much appreciated.

UPDATE: We just got a press release with comments from GN’R manager Andy Gould, so I guess that settles it; the album is really coming out. Also, producing credit will apparently be split between Axl Rose and someone named Caram Costanzo. I looked up Costanzo on All Music, and while he’s done engineering work for everyone from Rage Against the Machine to Lil’ Kim, it looks like this will be his first producing credit.

Also, check out the band’s official site!

-AR

Is it just me, or is the blogosphere / webernets almost completely mum on the fact that Chinese Democracy, the long awaited Guns N’ Roses Axl Rose album 17 years in the making, is finally set to be released on November 25th? Ladies and gentlemen, do you realize how soon that is??? Seventeen years we’ve been waiting for this. We’ve been misled into believing the album would finally see the light of day so many times before, but never have the facts been as solid as this: Never before has there been a concrete release date; Best Buy announced they’d reached an album exclusive deal to release it; Best Buy has even launched a pre-order page. It would seem that this album is finally going to actually hit the shelves.

And yet, it would seem that no one is talking about it.

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Another week gone in the waning days of summer, another week in the rampant gossip-mill of MetalSucks:

• Wes Borland signed on to be Marilyn Manson’s new guitarist, sans-body paint we hope.
• Lamb of God is recording a new album, tentatively due February 2009, with some producer no one has ever heard of.
• Another Guns N’ Roses song from Chinese Democracy leaks, presumably from the Rock Band camp.
• Jonathan Davis claims he is waving the flag for musicianship; we laugh a lot.
• We gave you lessons in pig squealing.
• We pondered the lack of white t-shirts in metal.
• Metallica played a new song live, and ya’ll argued a lot about it.

It was kind of a slow week in metal but we found useless shit to talk about anyway.

• The FBI paid the leaker of nine Guns N’ Roses Chinese Democracy tracks a visit at work. We got scared.
• We pondered the many incarnations of Arnold Schwarzenegger-themed metal bands.
• Graveyard BBQ debuted a hard partying new video.
• Made Out of Babies released a phenomenal new record; Motley Crue, not so much.
• The reunited Carcass finally announces U.S. dates and a controversy ensues about the opening acts.
• George Carlin died.

Have a great weekend!

-VN

Not really. But that’s the first panicked thought that flashed through my mind when I read the report on RollingStone.com that two FBI agents paid a visit to the office of Kevin Skwerl of AntiQuiet.com, who posted the nine leaked Guns N’ Roses Chinese Democracy tracks on his blog last week:

Yesterday Skwerl was surprised to find himself face to face with two FBI agents who paid a visit to his day job. “It was kind of an ambush,” Skwerl tells Rolling Stone. “When I came back from lunch they were waiting in the lobby for me. It’s a little creepy they know where I work.” Two young FBI officers, who Skwerl describes as “Mulder and Scully types,” questioned him for 15 minutes about where he got the tracks and made plans to visit his house at 7:00 a.m. this morning.

Click to read more…

Seemingly every five minutes there’s a new site popping up that’s willing to trade potential legal ramifications for a massive traffic surge by hosting the latest GN’R Chinese Democracy leaks. And just as quickly, the evil Internet goblins / Axl’s legal team are there to fire off cease and desists demanding they be taken down. Just take a look at the comments in our post yesterday — every “here’s the new link!!” comment is followed by a “fuck, that one’s down” shortly thereafter.

The latest site willing to throw their penis into the line of fire are our good friends at Nonelouder. So head on over there and have a listen to the nine new tracks before it’s too late!

Or just go on a torrent site or something. The Internet, it turns out, is pretty nifty. Or is this whole thing some sort of cleverly orchestrated ploy, complete with lawyers in tow, to orchestrate hype? I wouldn’t put it past ol’ wily Axl.

-VN

Yes, you read that correctly. MetalSucks reader Eventash sent us this link to AntiQuiet, who are hosting 9 mixed, mastered, NEW versions of songs from Guns N’ Roses’ long-awaited Chinese Democracy. This is not a joke, and these are not the versions that leaked last year. GO listen now before the Internet piracy-goblins snatch them down. GO GO GO!

Lots of these are newer versions of songs GN’R nuts like us have been hearing demos of for years. There are also three new songs; we know that #1 is called “Rhiad and Bedouins” from hearing Axl play it live, and #2 is strongly rumored to be titled “If the World,” which is a song title that has been bouncing around for awhile. Enjoy your evening, peoples!

-VN

[As of 6:26pm EDT the player was removed from AntiQuiet. Sorry. But guess who has MP3s?]

Will Chinese Democracy finally hit the shelves in ‘08? According to a report from Classic Rock Magazine, Axl Rose’s longtime personal assistant Beta Lebeis has confirmed that Chinese Democracy, the long-awaited Axl Rose release, was finished before Christmas of 2007.

She added: “Everybody knows that,” and mentioned that Axl is “in negotiations.”

Presumably Axl is figuring out when and how to release the record. Though Geffen pulled the financial plug on Chinese Democracy years ago after the recording costs spiraled above $13 million, the mercurial frontman remains contractually bound to release the album on Geffen.

There are completely unsubstantiated rumors that Axl is considering the Radiohead “pay as you wish” model. While this is purely speculation, I find it highly unlikely that either the label or Axl would agree to this. Firstly, CD sales, though in decline, still make up 80% of all sales (# of units — gross revenue is an even higher percentage). Profit margin is higher on CDs than it is on digital tracks, so I can’t see the label agreeing to a digital-only or digital-first release. Furthermore, by and large GN’R’s fanbase is skewed slightly older, meaning their demographic a) prefers to buy CDs, b) has the income to do so, c) is less likely to illegally download. There’s also the fan element; GN’R is so universal and this album has been delayed for so long that lots of people will probably buy the CD just because.

But most importantly, we’re talking about folks, both in Axl and the record label, who are imbued in the old model; spend, spend, spend on marketing, carpet-bomb the masses, bombard the media, make a big video, push the single heavily at radio. Neither party would ever allow something as risky as a “pay as you wish” model to happen, and would never in a million years allow this pesky Internet thing to do the marketing work on its own.

And you know what? In this case I can’t blame them. This album — if and when it comes out — is going to make bajillions. But no amount of record sales is going to recoup Axl’s ginormous $13 million debt. If I were Axl I’d let the label do their thing and then reap the benefits by the worldwide, two year, sold out stadium tour that will inevitably follow. Perhaps Geffen is trying to strongarm him into a 360 deal?

-VN

Given the usually GN’R-centric nature of this site I usually try to shy away from GN’R-related non-news, but this one is too good to pass up, and with Axl Rosenberg’s day off today I just couldn’t resist. Dizzy Reed, Guns N’ Roses’ keyboardist since 1990, has posted the following message on his MySpace page:

“That’s right, I am still looking for a place to lay my head when I am in L.A. And let me narrow it down so I don’t get the multitude of useless responses I got last time: I want to rent a room FROM someone, not TO someone. It must be in L.A. (so don’t bother resondoing from anywhere else saying you wish or whatever) preferably the Ho, WeHo, NoHo area. And I prefer a female roomate who doesn’t have any crazy-ass drug habits (especially weed, speed) but drinkin Jager and watchin sports is way coolio. No weird ENERGY man!! Contact me if u r for real….. Diz.”

I guess Axl Rose’s retainer ain’t payin’ the bills for Dizzy. I would love to meet the coolio, real, awesome ENERGY chick who ends up shacking up with Diz.

-VN