Yep, tomorrow is Thanksgiving. So we’re leaving the MetalSucks Mansion now. We’ll be back Monday, at which point we’ll make it up to you with some very special posts… honest Injun!

‘Til then, here’s some shit we did this week:

• We spoke to The Brothers Duplantier from Gojira about their new album, signing with Roadrunner Records, and more.
• Abysmal Dawn’s Charles Elliott gave us a guided tour of his live rig.
• We debuted new-old music by Coalesce.

Y’know. It was a short week.

Okay see ya Monday by-eeeeeee!!!

-AR

There are only four relevant releases this week, the signal that we’re entering the winter new release slump. 2011 has been a great year for releases, so this is fine by me. Check it out after the jump.

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Coalesce are not your average band, and Give Them Rope, the new re-release of the band’s groundbreaking 1997 debut full-length, isn’t your average reissue. Because not only does it feature the original album repackaged and remastered, and not only does it feature extensive liner notes from guitarist Jes Steineger — but it also features a second disc with 2004′s completely re-mixed and re-jiggered version of the release. That’s right: there are TWO versions of Give Them Rope included with this reissue. Pretty frickin’ sweet if you ask us.

MetalSucks is proud to be debuting the complete Give Them Rope reissue — yep, BOTH versions of the record — in advance of its release via Relapse tomorrow, November 22. You can stream it below, then go here to order yourself a copy. ‘Cause let’s be real: you NEED to own this.

And now, enjoy not one but two versions of the Coalesce classic Give Them Rope…

Last week’s contest proved popular, not surprisingly, because the prize was extra-sweet: a signed copy of Textures’ latest CD Dualism as well as a t-shirt of your choice from their webstore. And our winner is:

• Jonathan Delarosa: “Burn calories, not churches. Eat a br00tally balanced breakfast every morning.”

In case you haven’t heard yet, Coalesce are re-issuing their debut album Give Them Rope; the set includes TWO versions of the same album — the original, released in 1997, and a re-mixed/re-jiggered version released in 2004. We’ve got one 2-disc vinyl set to give away with dark red and baby blue discs, pretty fucking sweet if you ask me. Alls ya gotta do is leave a comment with the funniest caption to the most excellent photo below, which was sent in by no less than five readers over the past couple of days. Remember to use a real email address (or post it along with your comment if you’re using FB Connect / Twitter etc).

Growing up, I was a metal kid: if there was any shred at all, I ate it up. This means that in 1997 I wasn’t aware of bands like Coalesce, who came more from the hardcore side of things and certainly did not shred, although they’re of course now widely respected as being among the first bands to meld metal and hardcore into one. If I had heard Coalesce in 1997 I might’ve been impressed by their use of ever-shifting time signatures, but I might’ve also been too turned off by their gruff vocals to care; no way to know now, I suppose. But what’s most important is that since discovering Coalesce many, many years later I’ve grown to love and appreciate both their music itself and their important role in metal history as one of the original metalcore bands, before it became a dirty word.

So: Coalesce are re-releasing their debut 1997 album Give Them Rope, along with a re-mixed and transmogrified version of Give Them Rope they put out in 2004, together as a two-CD or two-LP set. Since I wasn’t aware of the original version when it came out I can’t really say I have a preference one way or the other (although the mix on the 2004 version does sound beefier), but I know this is the kind of raging debate that gives message boards a reason to exist. NPR is streaming both versions of album cut “Still It Sells,” so you be the judge: which is better?? Visit for the jamz and stay for the fascinating interview with vocalist Sean Ingram about the history of both versions and the impetus behind releasing this set. Also, bonus: new Coalesce album already in the works!

Pre-order the Give Them Rope re-issue set here.

-VN

The Philippines are much further away from New York than Kansas City is, but I don’t travel very much anymore and neither location is real high on my list of “Places to Visit Before I Die.” So since MetalSucks Suckalo “mankvill” sent us this long e-mail regarding bands from the Kansas City area that he thinks are worth checking out, and we had sooooo much fun with the Philippines “Reader’s Choice” thinger yesterday, today I thought we’d go through mankvill’s suggestions one by one and see how they are.

I’m trying to be optimistic this time.

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Oh, sure. A whole slew of awesome bands seem to be “taking a break” (see: Coalesce, Isis, and Buried Inside — and that’s just since May), but fucking Disturbed will live on forever and ever.

Here’s the statement from the band:

“So, after twelve years of being a band, countless tours around the world and records being released, we have made the decision to take some time to explore other interests in our lives. We’ve all reached a point where we feel like we need to take a step back from the band and pursue other things. PTW has been an all encompassing, full-time thing for such a long period that this isn’t an easy thing to do. We want to thank everyone who has supported us in anyway, whether it be buying a record or a shirt, to the occasional robbery from time to time. Once again, thanks for everything and we couldn’t have done any of this without you.”

So this is one of those non-breakup breakups, which still hurts as bad. Like when your ex told you “It’s not you, it’s me.” Yeah, well, whomever the fuck it is, I don’t get to see you naked anymore, and that hurts me. Hurts me deep inside.

Mourn in the comments section.

-AR

[via Gun Shy Assassin]

Following months of speculation, reunited doom metal gods Sleep have announced a string of dates following their appearance at the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival in upstate New York. I guess someone’s puttin’ up a big stack of bills for Sleep to do this, because all of those dates fall in a row without any days off: in other words, they’ll be flying from show to show and backlining gear. That costs mucho moolah. Between this Sleep reunion and the recent success of High on Fire, it sure is a good year to be Matt Pike (or one of his fans). Neurosis drummer Jason Roeder will be replacing original drummer Chris Hakius on these shows; no exact reason is given for Hakius’ absence. Check out Metal Insider for details about the additional six dates in Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, Austin, Portland and San Francisco.

Meanwhile, following a stellar return to form in their early 2009 release Ox, Lambgoat is reporting that recently reunited post-metallers Coalesce will return to hibernation after a fun-filled two years of recording, releasing not one but two records, and a ton of touring. In a public statement, bassist Nathan Ellis was very careful in his choice of words — “This is a good time for a break,” as in a break, not a break-up — so all you Coalesce freaks out there shouldn’t get your panties up in a bunch. I’m sure they’ll be back at some point. In the meantime the members will be working on their new homes and businesses, finishing their PhDs and lying supine on the couch.

The lord giveth and the lord taketh away. You win some, you lose some. Yin and yang. Sleep and Coalesce.

-VN

First things first: screamo is literally worse than the Holocaust in my book. With a few notable exceptions, I absolutely cannot stand this shit. That said, with bands like The Devil Wears Prada and Underoath selling out huge venues, putting out platinum-selling albums, and selling truckloads of cookie-cutter merch to every angsty suburban teen within driving distance of a Hot Topic, it’s hard not to pay attention to the genre. I might not like it, but Kids These Days certainly do. My biggest question: Where the fuck did this shit come from??

As someone who saw the birth of metalcore and “true screamo”/skramz firsthand in the 90s, I am highly confused when I listen to these bands. On the one hand, they are not so different from anything that could have been on Victory or Indecision in the 90s (Earth Crisis, All Out War, Bloodlet). Obviously there are some things that have changed over time, but the fundamentals of metalcore are still there (see my post “The 5 Kinds Of Music Teens Are Into” for more details). On the other hand, the kids in Alesana, August Burns Red, and possibly even As I Lay Dying have no fucking idea who those pioneering metalcore bands are, much less that screamy vocals were born in the tiny basement shows and vegan bakesales of the 90s DIY hardcore scene.

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SWEET.

MetalSucks Maniac “mankvill” directed us to this tweet from Coalesce, in which the band – or whomever runs their Twitter account at least – posted the above photo. Converge and Coalesce? And Gaza? I’m not really familiar with Lewd Acts or Black Breach – does that say Black Breach? – but on this bill, I’d be willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.

I haven’t seen this reported anywhere else yet, which makes me a little suspicious – but maybe Coalesce just let the cat out of the bag early. They above says they’re only on select dates, and we don’t have dates yet. But everyone just start hopin’ the tour comes near them, and comes near them with both bands in tow.

-AR

It’s true. Vince was enjoying warmer climates, and I didn’t go for pussy reasons I won’t bore you with. Gary Suarez and Kip went… but since neither of them have filed a report, we can’t live vicariously through him.

We can live vicariously through Brooklyn Vegan, though. They have many awesome photos of the show (see above, for example), and some killer video, too. It makes us sad that we missed it, but happy for our friends who made it.

Oh, who are we kidding? We’re not emotionally capable of feeling happy for others. Fuck everyone who went and had a great time.

Check out some shit here.

-AR

With Christmas nearly upon us, and “Best of 2009″ lists thankfully behind us, many people are hoping to ride out the rest of the year quietly without getting into arguments with their respective families. Due to the obligations of the holiday season and a general desire on the part of folks to do fuck-all, the final week of a given year typically doesn’t offer music lovers much in the way of live shows, unless you’re the type of degenerate willing to pay an inflated ticket price to watch a band play a truncated set with drunken, amateurish New Year’s Eve revelers hellbent on making monumental asses of themselves. And while I have every intention of honoring my New Year’s Eve tradition of locking myself in my panic room with a case of Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey and several tins of Vienna Sausages, it would be impossible for me to pass up the chance to catch Coalesce, who are headlining a rare, one-off date on December 30th at Club Europa in Brooklyn, NY.

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The latest MetalSucks intern found that suggesting Five Finger Death Punch for “best album of ’09″ didn’t go so well.

And the hits keep on coming.

Chad Bowar of About.com is the latest to post his year-end list. Some of the usual suspects are there (Mastodon, Baroness, Coalesce) but some of the albums that seem to be ending up on pretty much everyone’s list are conspicuously absent (O Converge, where art thou?), and there are some real surprises, too. But there’s nothing that makes me wanna smack myself in the forehead and shout “What the what?!?”

Check out the list here, then continue the arguing about the best metal albums of ’09 in our comments section.

-AR

Three cheers for Coalesce: they took a decade in between 0:12 Revolution in Just Listening and this year’s killer Ox, but now they’re making up for lost time.

OXEP, a new, seven-song EP which I’m guessing consists of songs that were recorded during the Ox sessions and just didn’t make the final cut for whatever reason, comes out November 10 on Relapse, but Lambgoat is streaming it right now. So if it’s another ten years ’til the band makes another full-length, at least we got an abundance of Coalesce in ’09.

Now go give it a listen.

-AR

It took an entire decade for Coalesce to follow up 1999′s 012:2, yet the general consensus around here is that 2009′s OX (still streaming in its entirety here) was more than worth the wait. So imagine my surprise upon discovering that the Kansas City metallic hardcore act would be following that great record so quickly!

Straight from the ox’s mouth:

OXEP (not “ox” ep) is 5 new original coalesce songs. There are 7 tracks, but 1 and 7 are a percussive intro and outro. These songs are not cuts that didn’t make ox. We wrote and recorded these songs specifically for an ep release after ox was already done and delivered to Relapse for production. We continued our americana theme and expanded them on these songs, therefore wanted them to be considered part of the 2009 ox sessions.

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I hadn’t listened to Coalesce’s Ox in a bit, so I threw it on again this weekend, and holy shit. Why did so much good music come out this year? How the fucking fuck am I supposed to narrow all this shit down to just ten albums? Fuck you, brilliant musicians!!!

But I digress. Ox. It’s killer. And now Coalesce is giving fans a chance to re-mix some of the album to win some cool shit. The band says:

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It’s been a doozy of a year for metal releases already, hasn’t it?

After the jump, the records I’ve been jamming the most so far that might or might not end up on my year-end Top 10.

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Where the hell does the time go? The year is more than half over already! Sheesh.

ANYWAY, here are, in alphabetical order, albums that have really knocked my socks off so far this year…

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Congrats to Mr. Lun, the winner of new Darkane, Devin Townsend and Edguy CDs from last week’s funny photo caption contest. Mr. Lun’s winning caption to the photo at right:

“Jimmy gets a taste (and whiff) of the good life at the 2009 Wigger Slam Initiate orientation.”

This week the good folks at Relapse Records have donated copies of Voivod’s Infinfi and Coalesce’s Ox, both brand spankin’ new, to send to one lucky winner. Just come up with a caption to the below photo and they’re yours.

The name Dave Verellen should mean something to anyone who laments the 2002 breakup of Botch, the esteemed hardcore act whose legacy has made it more popular now than when it was an active unit. As the voice of that group, Verellen deserves partial credit – and perhaps a little blame – for the glut of roaring metalcore vocalists that came in his wake. From a publicity perspective, this influence strengthens the already impressive pedigree of Narrows, his latest band featuring members of noteworthy heavy ensembles such as Unbroken and These Arms Are Snakes. As evidenced by its full-length debut New Distances, the group refuses to rest on its proverbial laurels and instead goes above and beyond its participants’ discographies, yielding something truly exceptional.

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