By which I don’t mean they’re broke.

No, former Dillinger Escape Plan/current Return to Earth drummer has now parted ways with Coheed & Cambria after four years in the band. An official statement from Pennie chalks the split up to “creative differences” and says that Pennie will now concentrate on Return to Earth and another band I wasn’t even aware of, Fight Mannequins. (I wonder if that moniker refers to mannequins that fight, or is a directive to take down some dummies? The name works on so many levels!)

Here’s some more stuff Pennie said:

Click to read more…

There is a new video game coming out called Batman: Arkham City. This is probably old hat to most of the basement-dwelling betas who lurk our comments section, but it’s news to me. More to the point, that video game has a soundtrack that’s being released separately — remember soundtracks? I guess video games are the new movies — and that soundtrack has a brand new Coheed & Cambria song, “Deranged,” which you can now stream over at IGN. I like it. It reminds me of something that might’ve been on Good Apollo; melancholic and bittersweet, but still rockin’. The lyrical theme also has nothing to do with the whole Coheed fantasy saga I could never be bothered to follow, which is a nice relief. Stream it below.

Last month Soundgarden announced the first set of dates for their forthcoming North American reunion tour; now they’ve released their full itinerary, and, in case my headline somehow failed to convey this, support acts, too.

Of course, cynical bastard that I am, my immediate concern is that if Chris Cornell’s voice is in poopy shape, these support acts could pretty much end up overshadowing what’s supposed to be one of the biggest reunions in years. Then again, Mastodon’s vocals don’t always sound so good live, either, so maybe it won’t matter. In any case, having this caliber of bands as the opening acts is a smart move on Soundgarden’s part — it could definitely bring in younger fans who are too young to remember SG from the their heyday, and it will definitely incentivize skeptical pricks like me into getting their ass to a tour stop.

Here’s the full tour schedule, including info on which bands are playing which sections of the tour, courtesy Metal Underground:

Click to read more…

Dio died. Isis broke-up. Bret Michaels is back in the hospital. And I just used Dio, Isis, and Bret Michaels in one thought-stream, which, I’m sure, offended somebody.

Luckily, we did manage to have some fun this week:

• Sick of it All’s Lou Koller is counting down his top ten hardcore albums, As I Lay Dying’s Nick Hipa is counting down to the end of L O S T, Batillus’ Fade Kainer is counting down ’til the band can get the fuck outta the studio, Agenda of Swine’s Pete Benumb is counting down to MDF, and Cynic’s Paul Masvidal is counting down to achieving a higher level of being.
• We spoke to Steve Joh from Century Media, Tara Johnson from Disembodied, Emil Werstler from Daath and Levi/Werstler, and Travis Stever from Coheed & Cambria.
• We checked out the latest release from Rosetta.
• Sergeant D. has new slamz 4 u.
• The best music video ever of the week is by… Goldfrapp?
• There are plenty of things we’d rather do than listen to a new Attack Attack! song.
• Endorsement of the new Avenged Sevenfold single = flame war.
• You guys are still arguing about my Korn review. Seriously?
• I’m still upset about John Bush leaving Anthrax again. Seriously.
• We used to love Sweden, but we had to kill it.

And hopefully no one awesome will die or break-up next week.

-AR

Photo credit: EmpyreLounge.com

My interview with Coheed & Cambria guitarist Travis Stever got off to a bit of a slow start. I believe I was his first interview of the morning in a long line of many, and he was audibly a bit groggy after a rough night of sleep on the bus. But after a few questions Stever got into the flow of things, and started talking at length about his band’s new record Year of the Black Rainbow, their current tour with Circa Survive and Torche, working with ex-Dillinger Escape Plan drummer Chris Pennie, the Neverender series of shows and the thrill of playing Madison Square Garden.

We only had fifteen minutes to talk before Stever was whisked away to his next interview, but we got plenty accomplished in that time. Our chat, after the jump.

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April 20th was circled in my calendar well in advance, and not just because it’s holiday we at the MS Mansion take very seriously — April 20th marked the biggest release date of the year thus far for metal releases with new offerings from Periphery, Ratt, Sevendust, another greatest hits repacking from AC/DC, Circa Survive, Airbourne and more. Let’s see how those releases fared in their first week out, as well as how other metal and hard rock records are performing after the jump.

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As I already said, I’m completely over following the Coheed & Cambria saga; I’m just in it for the tunes, man. So while I’m sure that “Year of the Black Rainbow” means something, like, ya know, totally profound to die-hard Coheed fans I don’t really care to dive back down that rabbit hole. On its own, though, a black rainbow would be pretty fucking cool… and metal.

Coheed are presently streaming their entire new album Year of the Black Rainbow on their MySpace page. I’m digging it about as much as I dug their last album, which is to say it’s pretty decent but nothing that’s blowing me away (yet). Coheed are one of those bands who put a lot of effort into giving their music added dimension for increased repeat-listening value, though, so I look forward to really sinking my teeth into this one and getting to know its ins and outs. I’m especially digging the song “Guns of Summer,” which is really different for the band. I wonder how much influence, if any, former Dillinger Escape Plan drummer Chris Pennie had in writing this album and in particular songs like “Guns of Summer”?

Check out Year of the Black Rainbow on Coheed & Cambria’s MySpace. The album comes out officially next Tuesday, April 13th.

-VN

Before I start: this is all pure speculation and none of these bands have confirmed or even commented on anything.

Now, let’s dig in.

Seems there are some rumors a brewin’ about a possible Iron Maiden summer tour with Dream Theater and Coheed & Cambria in support. Here’s the approximate timeline of events unfolding that have led to this speculation, as provided by Suckalo Tzvi Cederbaum:

Click to read more…

Check out this time-lapse video of artist Esao Andrews painting the cover of Circa Survive’s forthcoming album Blue Sky Noise. My missive against the relevance of album art be damned, this is pretty fucking cool. Many of you will immediately write this band off because of the way their vocalist sounds, and many of you will will (rightly) declare they aren’t metal… but hey, fuck you, it’s my website!

Blue Sky Noise comes out on 4/20. You can catch Circa Survive on tour with Coheed & Cambria and Torche this Spring.

-VN

I always really dig tours that match together a bunch of bands who don’t really fit into any one scene. When these kinds of bands are awkwardly placed on bills with a bunch of bands that don’t sound like them the end result is that die-hard fans of said bands don’t bother attending and those who do attend are completely uninterested. A great example of this phenomenon is the way Protest the Hero toured with one shit band after the next in support of Fortress; it wasn’t until they capped the album cycle with a headline run that I finally got to see them live.

Check out this recently announced Spring tour that groups together a bunch of such individual-minded bands: Coheed & Cambria, Torche and Circa Survive. How cool is that? All these bands sound totally different from one another but they’re united in their unwillingness to fit into any one scene. It’s a perfect fit, and for a change anyone that goes to see one specific band will probably end up digging the others too.

Coheed & Cambria and Circa Survive will both have new albums to promote, and while Torche won’t have anything new (that I’m aware of) it’ll be a great opportunity for them to spread their wings outside of their indie-metal centric fanbase. Have a look at the full list of dates after the jump.

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I long ago gave up trying to keep track of the crazy batshit saga that the lyrics of Coheed & Cambria’s songs tell. I just like the music, mmmkay?

Speaking of the music, Coheed have a new song called “The Broken” currently streaming on their website (take that, MySpace!). The song comes from Coheed’s forthcoming album Year of the Black Rainbow which comes out April 13th and is the first Coheed release to feature ex-Dillinger Escape Plan drummer Chris Pennie.

I like the song. It’s got some pretty nifty fretwork and it’s catchy in a way that’s typical of Coheed & Cambria. I couldn’t get into 2007′s Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV, Volume Two: No World for Tomorrow as much as I did 2005′s Good Apollo, I’m Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness (what a fuckig mouthful) but the former did have a few really solid tracks.

Don’t ask me what this new album is about and how it relates to the overall story because I don’t know and I don’t care.

-VN

Thanks: The 1 billion of you who emailed us with this news.

The two winners of last week’s funny photo caption contest each win a hand-dandy CD of Nirvana 2002′s ’89-’91 Recordings provided by Relapse Records. The winning entries are:

• Chet Stedman: “The only known photo to surface from the Rick Ross/Chris Barnes collabo entitled “The Blinging”"
• meat mincing machine: “Yo dawg, pass me some of that blunt force castration.”

This week we’ve got something different for you. The folks at Music Skins have provided us with custom decals for Guitar Hero and Rock Band guitars, each with Coheed & Cambria printed branding and actual signatures of every band member. We’ve got 3 models; 2 of them are for the Rock Band Guitar (Stratocaster) and one is for the Guitar Hero guitar for Wii (Les Paul model). Even if you don’t have a practical use for these decals you should still enter the contest, because they’re pretty fucking cool as a piece of rock memorabilia on their own.

Just come up with a funny caption to the photo below (sent in by Nikkü), and remember to use a real email address (not a Facebook Connect login).

Thrice are something of an enigma, a band that’s refused to ever stay the same. The Irvine, CA-based foursome started out as a metal-influenced heavy punk band that incorporated more and more progressive elements into their music with each album. 2005′s Vheissu took a complete left turn by adding indie and electronic elements, a path down which the band ventured even further on their 2007/2008 4-part album suite The Alchemy Index. Beggars, their latest offering, incorporates all of their prior influences and stretches their indie wings still wider, still experimenting with new sounds and expanding their fanbase.

A few weeks ago I spoke with drummer Riley Breckenridge about the band’s constantly evolving career arc, public and critical perception of this change, the new album Beggars and its super-early leak, consuming music in the digital age, and what the band hopes to accomplish in the near and distant future. Our chat follows.

Click to read more…

It’s 4 pm, and right about now we’re either interviewing someone or other or watching Job for a Cowboy. Either way, I hope we’re having a fun time.

Here’s what happened in MetalSucks Land this week:

• We’re streaming Iron Age’s The Sleeping Eye in its entirety!
• Current Coheed & Cambria/former Dillinger Escape Plan drummer Chris Pennie discussed metal with us.
• Daath’s Eyal Levi is home for tour and very busy blogging for us.
• Our girl Grim Kim visited Birmingham, England, the birthplace of metal.
• We checked out the latest releases from Assjack and Dysrhythmia.
• It looks Ozzy has hired Firewind’s Gus G. to replace Zakk Wylde. And that got us thinking about the legacies of former Ozzy axe slingers Jake E. Lee and Joe Holmes.

Have a good weekend, everybody. I know I will.

-AR

Coheed & Cambria skinsman Chris Pennie has taken some time out of his day to record a quick video segment with us in which he shares the metal albums he’s currently spinning. Without spilling the beans so you don’t have to click that play button, we’ll just say this: he’s got awesome taste in metal! No surprise, given the guy played drums for The Dillinger Escape Plan for an entire decade.

Catch Coheed & Cambria on the peanut-butter-and-jelly-like combination tour with Heaven & Hell starting this Friday. Full list of dates after the jump.

[This exclusive has now ended.]

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Am I the only person who thinks the pairing of Heaven & Hell with Coheed & Cambria for a tour this summer is fan-fucking-tastic? All the emails we’ve gotten so far about the tour of the “wtf are they thinking?!” nature, but to me this lineup seems perfectly natural. Ronnie James Dio sings about demons, evil, and sorcery; Claudio Sanchez has written all of his band’s material about some crazy fantasy story no one who actually has a life can make heads or tails of. Dio has a skullet; Sanchez has beautiful, flowing, curly man-locks. Tony Iommi laid the blueprint for stoner metal with his epic, tasteful playing; Sanchez takes the torch and runs with it, never a showboat. Both bands are fucking awesome and make great music, which, truth be told, is pretty similar to one another. What am I missing here?

Slipknot taking out Coheed & Cambria… now that was a head-scratcher. But Heaven & Hell? It’s a no-brainer. If there’s such a thing as a modern version of Dio-era Sabbath, Coheed & Cambria are that band. Count me in as psyched; I’ll be there rocking out while the rest of you suckers stay home. Full list of confirmed tour dates after the jump.

-VN

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Slipknot have announced a North American tour with Coheed & Cambria and Trivium. Like a lot of people, I was initially confused by this news – I mean, even taking into account that plenty of metalheads dig C&C, what the crap are they gonna do on a tour with Roadrunner’s elite? Can you really mosh to “Welcome Home?”

But then I thought about it some more, and ya know what? These bands have more in common than it might initially appear. Check it out:

Click to read more…

Based on their incredibly lame name, I assumed, when I sat down to listen to Kill Your Ex’s From Words to Motion, that KYE would be the gazillionth American band making a desperate attempt to sound like they were from Gothenburg. Having now listened to this album, all I can say is, I wish Kill Your Ex played third-rate metalcore.

Instead what we get is horrific yuppie alt-rock that would haunt my nightmares, if any of it were actually memorable enough for even my subconscious to somehow absorb. This garbage isn’t on the same level as Dredg, let alone a band like Muse or Coheed & Cambria; fuck, this shit isn’t even on the same level as Maroon 5. When I think of all the better things that could have been done with the money and resources it took to make this album – feed starving children, research a cure for cancer, get someone high/drunk/laid/whatever – it makes me want to exterminate the entire human race.

I’d say more, but really, what’s the point? I’ve already wasted two minutes of my life I’ll never get back typing shit about this worthless, worthless band.

(Fuck You out of Five Horns)

-AR

Judging by the comments, you guys love the new Coheed & Cambria album No World for Tomorrow — so MetalSucks has teamed up with Coheed & Cambria to offer our readers a chance to win an amazing prize package! Enter to win:

• 2 tickets to see the band at Roseland in NYC, November 29th
• 3 Days, 2 nights hotel
• Meet and Great with Coheed & Cambria on the Gibson Bus
• Airfare courtesy of Travel Worm

Fuck yeah, how can you beat that? Enter now, because the contest ends November 21 at 11:59pm PST (That’s Pacific time, aka California).

Just before the weekend set in, MetalSucks got word that two of the most important releases of October have now leaked; Coheed & Cambria’s No World For Tomorrow (Oct. 23) and Avenged Sevenfold’s self-titled new album (Oct. 30). This writer hasn’t listened to the new Coheed yet, but I’m sure you kids will love it. As for the new Avenged Sevenfold… fuck… yeah!!

Where to Find ‘em: Peeps Bucket has the new Coheed & Cambria. We can’t find a blog who has a link for the new Avenged Sevenfold, but if you’ve got google, a brain, and a torrent application you should have no problem finding it.

-VN