Hate is a train
That thunders aimless through my head
And hate is the fame
Chained to the wheel until I’m dead

And with these words, so begins “Hate Train,” a previously unreleased song from the Death Magnetic sessions that the band performed last night as part of their four-night thirtieth anniversary celebration at the Fillmore in San Francisco, and a rough mix of which has subsequently been e-mailed to Metallica fan club members (audio below). They’re the most achingly poetic, not-at-all trite lyrics the band has penned since “My lifestyle determines my deathstyle.” And I don’t care what anyone says, the main riff is absolutely not just a recycled version of the one from “Fuel,” the song from the Load albums that everyone tolerates because at least it’s not “Unforgiven II.” Furthermore, “Hate Train”‘s seven-minute-plus runtime is the very definition of “warranted,” and I’m really sick of people giving James Hetfield’s vocals a hard time, because, hey, can your dog sing this well? No? Then shut up.

I guess what I’m saying is, this song is so perfect in every way that I just can’t believe it didn’t end up on Death Magnetic. Surely, it was blessed by the hand of Cliff Burton himself.

-AR

[via Blabbermouth]

Today is the twenty-fifth anniversary of the death of Cliff Burton, who remains one of the most influential and innovative bassists in the history of metal. And while we’re aware that normally you’d have a moment of silence to commemorate a loved one’s passing, well, we don’t think Cliff would want a moment of silence at all. The dude devoted his life to METAL — clearly, he’d want us all to make as much noise in his honor as possible.

So here’s all of Cliff’s bass solos from the Cliff ‘Em All DVD. This might truly be the most glorious racket we can imagine. R.I.P., Cliff.

We have successfully arrived at Yankee Stadium and are sitting in the press box. We feel so professional!

We’re gonna put the live blog after the jump so it doesn’t eat up the entire page. You’ll hafta refresh to get updates. Sorry.

And now, enjoy the snark…

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One of the quirkiest and most unapologetically uncompromising films to be released this year was writer/director Spencer Susser’s Sundance hit Hesher. The anarchic dark comedy stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Hey, we were just talking about that dude!) as the title character, a sort of heavy metal Mary Poppins who helps a grieving father (The Office‘s Rainn Wilson) and son (Devon Brochu) overcome a recent family tragedy. And while that might sounda kinda saccharine,  Hesher — the movie and the character — is metal as fuck. Not only did Gordon-Levitt base his character on Cliff Burton, but his entrance music for every scene is Metallica’s “The Shortest Straw.” The band was even cool enough to lend the film their music and logo design.

If you missed Hesher in theaters this past spring, fret not — Lionsgate will release movie on DVD, Blu-ray, Digital Download and On Demand this coming Tuesday, September 13. To celebrate, MetalSucks is proudly debuting the below clip, a special feature from the DVD/Blu-ray release. It’s an outtake of one of the funniest scenes in the movie, in which Hesher, with no regard for manners or his present company, tells a graphic story about… well, you’ll see. As it turns out, the actors couldn’t get through the scene without cracking up, and it’s hard to blame ‘em!

You can pre-order Hesher, which also stars Natalie Portman and Piper Laurie, on DVD here, and Blu-ray here.

Remember how that slowed-down Justin Bieber track inspired our very good friend D.X. Ferris to slow down C.O.C. and D.R.I.? Well, now Cosmic Hearse have, rather brilliantly, slowed Metallica’s Ride the Lightning down to 33rpm. And guess what? It actually sounds AWESOME. Like, I’m listening to “For Whom the Bell Tolls” right now, and it’s blowing my mind.

It’s so awesome that it makes wonder what other Metallica albums would sound good at this pace. Having heard this, I wouldn’t be surprised if all the pre-Black Albums releases sounded good this way, but wouldn’t it be crazy if Death Magnetic suddenly sounded killer at 33rpm?

This is seriously really, really good, and you should go download it from Cosmic Hearse before Lars Ulrich makes them take it down.

-AR

Thanks to Pick-Axe Bobby for the tip!!!

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

For no particular reason whatsoever other than we thought it would be fun, this week we asked our writers:

IF YOU COULD HAVE BEEN PRESENT FOR THE CREATION OF ANY SINGLE METAL ALBUM, WHICH ONE WOULD IT BE AND WHY?

The MS staff’s answers after the jump.

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

There weren’t any real hot button topics this week, so we decided to just play a fun game that used to keep Vince and Axl occupied for many a lunch period when they were kids:

The MS staff’s answers after the jump.

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So we had a lot of fun hanging out Nevermore’s Jeff Loomis last night – definitely a very laid back and humble dude, considering that he could probably kill us all with his guitar playing. Attendees included MetalSucks’ own Anton OyVey and Antonin Skullia, Esq., as well as Empyreon drummer Frank Godla (who, despite one of my poorly phrased tweets, has not replaced Van Williams in Nevermore.). When we weren’t passing my iPhone around, enjoying the entries for the Nevermore/MetalSucks “Create Your Own Conspiracy” contest (it ends Friday and there is definitely a front runner already – so enter now if you’re gonna!!!), it should surprise no one to learn that significant portion of the evening was devoted to music dorkery; so while I can’t remember exactly how it came up, at some point Mr. Loomis recommended we all check out MasterTracks18, a YouTube user who has uploaded literally hundreds of individual tracks from various well-known songs spanning different genres – metal and hard rock being primary amongst them.

Of course, it’s all pretty fascinating; you could lose hours of your day listening to all of these. I’ve only listened to a handful myself so far, and I already feel like I’m about to lose hours of my day listening to these. I’m sure all you instrument nerds can are gonna love really getting into the nitty gritty of the various tracks, but even if you’re not an instrument nerd… it’s just a really, really awesome look behind the curtain, so to speak.

You can check them all out at MasterTracks18′s YouTube page, which now, for legal reasons, is segueing to page for MasterTracks19. But in the meantime, here are just a few of my favorites…

“Crazy Train,” Guitar Track

Some more after the jump.

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Cosmo Lee has really outdone himself this time. Invisible Oranges has Metallica’s two-song Megaforce demo – their first recording with Cliff Burton and their only one with Burton and Dave Mustaine – for free download.

If you’re a metal dork – and I assume you are if you’re reading this site – this is a must-have. Not only is it a glimpse at a legendary band in one of their earliest incarnations, but it’s also a chance to compare and contrast early versions of two ‘Tallica faves, “No Remorse” and “Whiplash,” with their final incarnations. Here’s a sample of Cosmo’s analysis of “No Remorse”:

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Hulk Hogan was never my favorite pro-wrestler when I was a young ‘un, but he was pretty close. Anyone remember that Wrestlemania where he and The Ultimate Warrior (pretended to) beat the ever-lovin’ shit outta one another? EPIC. Vince and I used to debate if the Warrior had really robbed the Hulkster of his belt ’cause the ref was knocked out when Hogan pinned him, or if he would have won anyway. Then we discovered metal, grew pubes, and stopped caring about big sweaty half-naked dudes in silly costumes.

Oh, wait. Shit.

ANYWAY, a reader known only as “deanerhead” sent us this article earlier today. It’s mostly just Hulk Hogan hocking his new book, My Life Outside the Ring, but it does reveal this interesting tidbit:

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The reader known only as “Derrick” sent us a link to Dying 2 Meet You, a website that offers the “cheap gag gift” of selling customers a meeting with the dead celebrity of their choice (they even only have certain celebrities, so as to better sell the illusion that these are official meetings, I guess). Of course, there’s an entire package devoted to “Metal Legends,” including Chuck Schuldiner, Cliff Burton, and, naturally, Dimebag.

I get that this is a “gag gift” so I’m not too offended by the whole stupid idea – it’s not like you’re actually getting ripped off by, say, being so dumb you think you’re having a star named after a loved one – but taking five bucks and putting it towards a “meeting” with Layne Staley or Bon Scott or Randy Rhodes or whomever strikes me as… well… a complete and utter waste of five bucks. No, it’s not really a lot of money in the scheme of things, but it is money.

So purchasing one of these “gag gifts” is literally like wiping your ass with that Abe Lincoln. Somewhere, there’s a starving homeless person who would kill for a slice of pizza or two, but, no, that money would be better spent on a fake meeting with a dead person.

Swell.

-AR

So what was your entre into the world where denim, leather n’ demonology reign supreme? Where you adore the goat and sway to the symphony of deee-struction? Every man (or woman) has a tale to tell. Here’s mine. You’re gonna hear a lot of names you might be unfamiliar with, especially if you’re a member of Attack Attack! (Or just plain anyone under 23!) You’re gonna be thinking, “Damn, this fucker is old!” Yeah, well just remember that I’ve seen seen stuff that would make you shit Perrier with jealousy. I’m definitely old enough to have seen Minor Threat, Cliff Burton-era Metallica… the list goes on… before most of you were a tadpole in yer pappy’s population paste.

Let’s start at Discharge. I could go back and trace the whole history of early 80’s hardcore for you, but neither of us have the time or attention span. Let’s just say, the minute I heard these Stroke-on-Trent monsters of the nuclear reactor riff on the monstrous Hear Nothing, See Nothing, Say Nothing album, I nearly pissed my pants. It was the gateway to something far heavier than I had ever heard on a scratchy 7” from the new record store that had opened in Boston called Newbury Comics.

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Love ‘em or hate ‘em, everyone reading this blog has something to say about Metallica. Naturally, Eric Smith, vocalist/guitarist for Virginia’s noise-rock-by-way-of-hardcore act The Catalyst, has an opinion as well, one that some of you may very well share. Essentially, he thinks the wrong guy died in that tragic 1986 tour bus crash, as made abundantly clear by one of the tracks off the band’s fantastic forthcoming album Swallow Your Teeth. That track, which we’re offering to you as an exclusive free download, is called “Lars Ulrich’s 1986 Funeral”.

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And a rare radio interview with an extremely stoned and/or drunk Cliff in 1984, after the jump:

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On August 25, 1988, Metallica released what many consider to be their last great album, …And Justice for All. To my ears, this would probably be my favorite Metallica album of all time if not for the lack of bass (Which, to this day, I think was an idiotic way to haze then-new-now-former bassist Jason Newstead – I mean, why would the band punish themselves by damaging their own album? How does that pay tribute to the memory of Cliff Burton? It doesn’t). Justice features Metallica at their heaviest, and, often, their proggiest. I’ve been trying all week-end to think of words that could do Justice, um, justice – but I just can’t. And I probably don’t need to to: I’m sure you all have your own feelings on this classic recording.

So here’s Metallica performing the title track on the Justice tour in ’89. After the jump, keep the celebration going with more live clips, the now classic video for “One,” and some other cool shit.

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