There’s something really remarkable about following a band from inception to record. What we so often see and hear as listeners is a finished product, spontaneously available, without any history or sign of the trials and challenges the band faced while getting there. I can’t claim to be one of the group’s earliest fans, but for the last year I have had the unique opportunity to watch Fairfax, Virginia native Chris Purvis’ experimental metal project, Friend for a Foe, grow and evolve.

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Something must be in the water; metal bands are losing vocalist left and right.

A few months ago we heard rumors that The Human Abstract and vocalist Travis Richter had parted ways. Being the occasional good journalists that we are, before running said rumors as truth we contacted the dudes in the band who quickly got back to us and essentially said, “Nope, it’s BS. Things are fine with Travis.” The band made good on that promise by going out and kicking ass on tour with him in May and June.

So when this piece surfaced last week claiming that an “anonymous source” says Richter and the band have parted ways, we were instantly suspicious and once again contacted various authorities for comment (including not only members of THA but their manager). Only this time no one responded to us.

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[UPDATE: And a new Crowbar song!! Listen to "Let Me Mourn" here.]

I know we told you that we’re done bloggingg for 2010, but the metal train keeps on a rollin’ and there’s some killer new music out there you need to hear!

Ex-Periphery frontman Chris Barretto — who recently recorded a cover of STP’s “Wicked Garden” with The Binary Code — has a new band called Ever Forthright. One listen to Ever Forthright and you won’t be surprised that they chose a former member of Periphery to front their band, as they’ve certainly got a shared sonic template, but Ever Forthright are a whole lot more experimental in their harmonic choices than Periphery. There’s some really legit jazz-ish noodling, dissonance, and chaos here. Think djent meets Dillinger Escape Plan. Ever Forthright have two new songs available for streaming on their Soundcloud page, and some other ones at MySpace. For what it’s worth I think Barretto was a great choice for this band, and it’s good to hear his voice again. [Thanks: Randy Gatto,

One of the few pagan/folk metal bands worth caring about, Turisas, are giving away a free download of the title track from their forthcoming record Stand Up and Fight. Turisas (or, more accurately, probably Century Media) really want you to spread the word about the track and are requiring a Tweet or Facebook update on your part to download it which is super annoying, but I’m guessing the track’s already up on YouTube — as is par for the course these days – if you want to bypass that step. The track isn’t full of the over-the-top madness I’ve come to expect from Turisas but is absolutely solid; Turisas are one of those bands that are best experienced live anyway. Stand Up and Fight comes out on March 8th in North America and in late February most everywhere else (aka it’ll be available on the Internet by late February, latest).

Brooklyn alt/post-metal trio Goes Cube — who are appearing on our free NYC Sucks digital compilation to be released in January and February — have released two slammin’ new songs. I haven’t actually listened to the new songs yet but I assume they’re slammin’ because their 2009 The End Records debut Another Day Has Passed kicked all kinds of ass. The songs are available via Coextinction Recordings for a total of $2.99 where you can also hear samples of both. Look for a new Goes Cube record via The End in 2011.

-VN

I’ve never been nearly as big of a fan of Stone Temple Pilots as my main man Vince is, but I do, by and large, like their music, and their debut, Core, remains my favorite STP album. And while I never would have seen this coming in a million years, now The Binary Code have recorded a cover of a song off of that very album, “Wicked Garden” — with ex-Periphery front man Chris Barretto handling vocal duties, no less.

Noisecreep has the exclusive stream of the song, along with an interview with guitarist Jesse Zuretti. And lest you think STP is for pussies and The Binary Code should have covered Death or something instead, allow Zuretti to school yo’ ass:

“Stone Temple Pilots are just as important, if not more important, than most of my metal influences when writing music. The chord vocabulary Dean DeLeo built with each album they put out blows my mind. More than any flashy, 32nd-note, legato-filled, eight-string guitar solo I’ve ever listened to.”

BOO-YAH! He said “chord vocabulary.” Take that, son.

Like I said, you can stream the track at Noisecreep. In the meantime, here’s a still from the upcoming music video for the song, which is gonna blow up TRL like a motherfucker:

-AR

Super-Internet phenoms Periphery came under intense fire by fans earlier this year when, as their debut album release was finally drawing near, they booted popular vocalist Chris Barretto in favor of Spencer Sotelo who many fans perceived to be too soft and emo-y. When the album came out with Sotelo’s re-recorded vocals, many longtime followers rebelled against Sotelo and claimed that the album was the aural equivalent of a butterface — great band, bad vocals. Then, in a somewhat surprising move that was something of a slap in the face to Sotelo, Misha and co. decided to release an entirely instrumental version of the album giving said fans their wish.

Now Sotelo is fighting back. Got-Djent.com is reporting that Sotelo has posted a re-worked version of the song “The Walk” on his personal MySpace page featuring harsher vocals.

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Another day at Harpo’s Theatre in Detroit: white metal bands, black neighborhood, beefed-up security, and glaring eyes – nothing says “Welcome to Michigan” like playing here. Although forward-thinking on the racial front is lackluster at best, we still have a very prominent and devoted metal crowd ready to use the few dollars they have left to buy a ticket and get shit-faced.

It is here, during the MetalSucks co-sponsored Thrash & Burn tour, that I recently had the opportunity to interview a band that seemingly everyone at MS has been jizzing their pants over: Periphery.These guys just got signed with Sumerian, and THANK GOD. They can absolutely shred, and even if you’re not too keen on clean vocals, I think you need to get the stick out of your ass and check these guys out ASAP.

Their soon-to-be “mass appeal” is more then I would normally advocate. Nonetheless, just because they will most likely be your younger sister or brother’s favorite new band (if your sister of brother is totally bad-ass), they may also be yours as well. There is no way you can deny their talent. Everything about this band is correct. Everything is in motion. They are insoluble. They are the lime in your tequila. They just… work.

The band’s founder, Misha Mansoor, is not only super-talented, but also gives his music away. For free, as Kip Wingerschmidt recently informed us. And not just one or two songs, either – over one-hundred tracks, in studio-quality audio. If that doesn’t convince you to check them out, then you need to check yourself off. Get it?

Either way, Misha and go-guitarist Alex Bois were so very gracious to sit down with me in their conversion van and tell me all about how they got to where they are now, and where they are going to go. I would assume they might dominate most of the Sound Scan posts here at MS in 2010. But hey, to be fair, so will Miley Cyrus. So don’t listen to me, I just have a vagina and I am really, really cool and super smart.

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