I am not cool, but it occasionally appears that way cuz my incidental awareness of cutting-edge music. There’s a simple reason for that, one which I share with tons of other fortunates out there: I have an older sibling. She’s cool. She dated cool guys. Those cool punk and alternative and goth guys stopped at nothing to get within sniffing distance of her bod; as such, most found it worthwhile to cultivate the kid-brother endorsement.

The astute dudes recognized that the way to my heart is through my headphones and funneled a lot of free tapes (!) and CDs my way. (One particularly smitten Doc Martens aficionado worked at local college radio and hooked me up with my own evening time slot when I was 15.) My sister and I hardly got along, so my input on her suitors was never solicited, much less heeded; I thank her for neglecting to mention this fact to all those hornballs whose awareness of interesting music exploded my horizons.

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OF COURSE YA DO! So thank the anonymous reader who sent us a link to the below vid. Yes, it would be way cooler if this were being played by an actual orchestra and wasn’t just a synth-simulation, but it’s still pretty frickin’ amazing that someone took the time to do this… and he did such a good job, too! Whenever my non-metal friends express disbelief that I “can listen to this stuff,” I try to tell them about the kinship between extreme music and classical music, and assert that if you took out all the screaming and had an orchestra play the same music, they would all “get” the skill involved in these compositions. But they usually just look at me like I’m crazy. Hopefully, this will do a little more to prove my point in the future…

And just for kicks, here’s an 8-bit version of the same song… sounds kinda like a Genghis Tron demo…

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We haven’t bugged you about Meek is Murder’s new album, the Kurt Ballou-produced Algorithms, in awhile, but now’s a good time — ’cause Brooklyn Vegan is streaming a brand new track, “(null),” right now. And it’s AWESOME — furious and raw and larger than life… basically, it epitomizes everything Vince and I love about Meek is Murder. So go listen to it right fucking now. They’ve also posted some pretty killer (and totally hilarious) behind-the-scenes studio footage, which originally debuted on The Deciblog and Noisecreep.

And, oh yeah, don’t forget that you can download a demo of MiM’s song “Sundowners” as part of Volume 1 of NYC Sucks! And it’s FREE!!! The finished version is even kick-assier, but this will at least give you some sense of the awesome roller coaster ride that is Algorithms.

MetalSucks is proud to be releasing this bad boy on March 22. And we’re now accepting pre-orders here! You can get a high quality digital download for five bucks, a download and a t-shirt (in one of two stylish, uh, styles) for fifteen bucks, or a special, super-limited edition (only fifty pressed!), hand-made, autographed CD for just ten bucks. Check that shit out and see what tickles your fancy.

And, finally, keep in mind that the band is gonna be on tour all next month. You really, really need to see these dudes live — that’s how they made me fall in love with them. Here are dates:

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Ah, Valentine’s Day. Reviled by most, enjoyed by the smug, and shrugged off by the belligerently ambivalent. But while most of us couldn’t care less about this specific day in February, it’s still an annoyance that comes around every year. Kind of like the common cold.

Now, most places will have shitloads of “quirky” recommendations you can do with your special someone, even if you’re of the metalhead persuasion. You can hold sweaty hands in the privacy of your parents’ basement, pour each other some classy Motorhead wine, and share a blood pudding in the dreamy light of those church candles. It’s all very nice and sweet to be… nice and sweet.

But you know what’s better? DOING IT. With a killer soundtrack. So on this very special day, I’ve made you all a romantically inappropriate mix tape.

Picking “mood” songs is a little too obvious for my taste. I mean yeah, Faith No More’s “Stripsearch” (Actually, that might be more of a stripping song than a sexing one, but ,hmm, “Evidence” maybe? Heh, “Be Aggressive” might work for some. Either way, Patton’s voice = nudity.) and NIN’s “Closer” are both appropriate (for very different reasons), but that’s no fun. Go forth and find that special someone willing to get, get naked to these select songs. There’s a little something for everyone. St. Valentine would’ve wanted it that way.

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Last night’s stellar Lake of Blood/Castevet show has me respired to get atonal, abrasive, dissonant, and LOUD.

Here’s a couple of my favorite screechers from yesteryear:

-KW

In 2009, MetalSucks did a digital-only release for The Binary Code’s Suspension of Disbelief. We did this because the band was unsigned, the album was awesome, and we thought it would be fun to actually help some great music find its way out into the world for once, instead of just bemoaning the state of metal from our armchairs.

And it was fun! We had a blast, and have wanted to do it again ever since. But it’s hard to find good bands period, let alone good bands that meet our particular set of criteria.

But one such band is Meek is Murder, the brainchild of guitarist/vocalist Mike Keller (ex-The Red Chord), who we’ve been raving about for some time now. So when Mike and his fellow Meek Men Frank Godla (drums, also of Empyreon fame) and Sam Brodsky (bass) told us they were entering the studio this month to record a new album with producer Kurt Ballou — yep, that Kurt Ballou — and that the record did not yet have a home, well, we jumped at the chance to partner with them to help get their message to the masses.

The result will be Algorithms, which we’ll be releasing on March 22. You can check out the awesome cover art by Mr. Keller himself above, and there will be a demo of one of the new songs appearing on the album, “Sundowners,” on our upcoming NYC Sucks comp.

We’ll give you lots more details about Algorithms in the coming weeks, but for now, we just wanted to put it on your radar and let you know to get excited about it — ’cause we sure as hell are!

-Axl & Vince

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

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, which means we’re taking off early today and won’t be back ’til Monday. We’re sorry to leave non-American readers high n’ dry, but PLUS ONE FOR FREEDOM, MOTHERFUCKERS.

ANYWAY, in honor of the holiday, we decided to do a special Turkey Day-themed QOTW designed to make you feel all warm and cuddly inside:

WHAT (IN METAL) ARE YOU THANKFUL FOR?

The MS staff’s answers after the jump.

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Earlier this week I had a dream that I was working with Atreyu. I don’t know in what capacity I could possibly find myself “working with” Atreyu, since I’m not a manager, nor a publicist, nor a label rep, and they’re about as likely to end up doing a guest column here as I am to give the new In This Moment album a perfect 5-horn review, but, hey, the subconscious works in mysterious ways. Why did I have Atreyu on the brain? Was my mind trying to tell me “The glass is half-full?” Do I have  a hankering to re-watch The Neverending Story? Did I just ingest too many different substances that night? I’ll have to bring it up in therapy next week.

Here’s other shit that happened this week, some of which, believe it or not, is even more terrifying than the thought of working with Atreyu:

• Freddy Madball is counting down his favorite hard and heavy non-hardcore bands of all time, TesseracT’s Acle walked us through the history of djent, The Austerity Program’s Justin Foley spoke to Converge’s Kurt Ballou about Taco Riffs, The Red Chord’s Greg Weeks made some suggestions for losing NFL teams, Intronaut’s Sacha Dunable contemplated the ways in which technology has changed touring, Daath’s Eyal Levi wondered, “Is this it?”, and a wide array of metal stars previewed the just-begun NHL season.
• We spoke to Kirk Windstein from Crowbar/Down/Kingdom of Sorrow, Sean Z. from Daath, Daddy X and Dirtball from Kottonmouth Kings, and Yoshiki Hayashi from X Japan.
• We checked out the latest releases from Abysse and Deafheaven.
• We contemplated trancecore.
• As the headline says, we heard the worst thing ever.
• We reviewed the history of terrible Limp Bizkit cover songs.
• We had fun with misheard song lyrics.
• We bemoaned the signing of another re-thrash band.
• We applauded Slayer fans’ desire to help the physically disabled.
• We had yet another laugh at Winds of Plague’s expense.

We have a special surprise for you next week. I can’t promise you’re going to like it, but I can promise you’re going to have a strong reaction to it. See ya then.

-AR

Kurt Ballou is the guitarist for Converge and runs/is Godcity Recording Studio. In both of these capacities he has been a big part of making some of my favorite music ever. Screw the commonly used term “arguably” – Converge’s last record is their best/hardest record yet. And Kurt’s recording style presents live-sounding documents of aggressive bands that includes a ferocious midrange bite (see Young Widows, Disappearer, or Ghengis Tron, for example). It’s a compelling antidote to the heavily-edited/eq’d ProTools default deployed by most heavy music. He’s also an unabashed music fan who’s given some thought to what he likes.

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Black Market Activities will release Mercy, the third full-length from Chicago’s Sweet Cobra, on September 28; since we’re debuting a track here on MetalSucks, it should go without saying that we think it’s pretty frickin’ cool. “Brux,” the opening track, has to be one of the catchiest songs we’ve heard all year; it sounds like Mastodon, if Mastodon were more interested in making sure they got stuck in your head and less interested in, like, orcs n’ shit. If the slip-slide riff and boppin’ drums don’t make you wanna get up and grab a hula-hoop, than you must have no pulse. This song is so infectious you’re gonna need to drill into your brain just to get it out.

Check out “Brux” below, and then pre-order Mercy here. It was produced by Sanford Parker (Pelican, Nachtmystium) and mixed by Kurt Ballou (Do you seriously not know who Kurt Ballou is?!?!), as if you needed any further incentive to buy a copy.

[this promotion has ended]

The headline pretty much says it all. At the conclusion of their reason stint playing support for Converge’s European tour, our favorite emerging Norwegian band of 2010 decided to have a little fun and run out on stage naked. They didn’t put a sock over their junk the way, for example, Corey Taylor did when he pulled a similar stunt during a Slipknot tour with Chimaira six or seven years ago, either; the members of Kvelertak let their kvelertaks fly.

But the best part might be the look on Jacob Bannon’s face. Priceless.

Skip to roughly the :36 mark to see more Kvelertak than you ever hoped you might.

And here’s the angle from back stage:

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We kid!

SMNnews.com tells us that Converge have a new 7″ EP on the way called On My Shield, and while this isn’t huge news to me as I’m certainly not the world’s biggest Converge fan, I know that lots of you — Axl and Sammy O’Hagar among them — will be very excited at the prospect of new music from Converge so soon after the release of their latest album.

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What’s up everyone! In celebration of the new KINGDOM OF SORROW album coming out today, MetalSucks have been nice enough to let me takeover their site! I figured I’d better make the reading interesting and at least cause some discussion, so here goes, this is probably the longest run on sentence you’ll ever read, haha, enjoy!

Since we’re well into 2010. I figured I’d start my blog with my top ten “most listened to” metal and hardcore albums of the last decade, and the top ten albums I hope to enjoy this decade!!! It’s not a top ten “best of” the decade or anything like that, it’s just what I’ve listened to the most while on the road, at home, in the gym, in the office or in my car. Keep in mind that the criteria for these albums to make this list was that they were released between 2000 and 2010, that is all.

The top 10 records I’m “most hopeful & excited for” are more like a wish list. It will be cool to see some of that stuff happen!

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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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As I Lay Dying have posted a three-and-half-minute sample of another new song from their forthcoming album, The Powerless Rise. This track is called “Parallels,” and you can stream it here.

I’m not entirely sure I understand the band/label’s strategy of only releasing samples of these new songs (they did the same thing for “Beyond Our Suffering” earlier this month). Is it to prevent bootlegging? That might work to some extent, but I can guarantee you that there are AILD fans out there who are so obsessed with the band that they’ll listen to anything they can get their hands on.

Whatever the case, “Parallels” sounds pretty good, if not as heavy as “Beyond Our Suffering.” The sample cuts out right as Nick Hipa is about to rip into what sounds like a pretty epic guitar solo. So Nick has learned at least one lesson from the show he writes about: how to give me blue balls and leave me wanting more. Thanks, Nick! Grrr…

The Powerless Rise comes out May 11 on Metal Blade. There are a variety of pre-order packages available here, including one that comes with a matted, framed and autographed full-color print of the Jacob Bannon designed artwork, which is anything but powerless.

-AR

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

Back in August I lamented the fact that The Bled signed with haircut-core label Rise Records, home to such “artists” as Attack Attack!, Breathe Carolina, Dance Gavin Dance a whole slew of other bands sure to make you cringe. The move didn’t make sense for a band like The Bled with hardcore roots and actual real, live aggression… a band that’s actually, ya know, good.

But now the band has released the first two songs from their forthcoming record Heat Fetish (out March 2nd) and they’ve completely made me eat my words. The two new songs, “Smoke Breaks” and “Moutheater” — both now streaming on The Bled’s MySpace page — are easily the two heaviest songs the band has ever written. And we’re not just talking in relative terms here… these two songs are heavy as fuck compared to anything by any band. We’re talking Converge and Dillinger territory here. Seriously. If you’ve never listened to The Bled because you thought they were part of a certain scene, now is the time to throw all of your preconceptions out the window and give them a shot.

Heat Fetish is suddenly one of my most anticipated record of 2010. With two tracks like these new ones, how can it not be?

-VN

Ohmylordee, have you heard of Bay Area noise-prog-metallers Name? Most likely you have, as they’ve been around for a few years and are signed to Lifeforce Records. Whether you have or haven’t isn’t the issue… it’s that they’ve got a new album coming out in about a month and you ought to pay attention.

The cover art and track listing for Name’s new album Internet Killed The Audio Star have surfaced, along with a tracklisting and two brand new songs on Name’s MySpace. Name are cut from the same sonic cloth as Converge and The Dillinger Escape Plan but I’d say they verge a bit closer to traditional metal and more wholly endorse Prog with a capital “P.” There’s plenty of raw motherfucking aggression but no tough-guy hardcore posing and no spazz-outs that are basically un-followable. I’d wager that a whole lot more folks would know about this excellent band if not for their awkward and un-Google-able band name moniker.

Internet Killed the Audio Star will be released on February 16th in the US and April 19th in Europe. Listen to two tracks from that album pronto, then come back here and let us know what you think.

-VN

I was a little baffled by the sheer number of comments that were a little baffled by the inclusion of Converge’s Axe to Fall on so many MS staffers’ year-end lists. I mean, they’re Converge. They’re just one of those bands that everyone knows are inarguably brilliant… right?

Wrong, I guess. There is a contingent of the metal community that just doesn’t dig this continuously praised quartet – and some of them are smart people, too. For example, take our friend Sergeant D. from Metal Inquisition and Stuff You Will Hate. We love the Sarge with all our hearts and respect him like he were our own Mansion-mate – hell, he designed one of our most favoritest t-shirts for us -but look what he wrote about Converge as part of a “Best of ’09 Exchange” with Something Awful!

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I barely remember the lost weekend I once spent in Baltimore. Was I bored, or just doing what I do? I dunno. I dunno.

Looks like I might be going back, though: D.R.I. have been added to the already stellar line-up of the 2010 edition of Maryland Deathfest. This is just the latest in a long line of good reasons to attend, not least of which is that it is, at least as far as I’m aware, currently the only scheduled U.S. appearance of Australia’s Portal, whose new album Swarth is currently frightening metalheads across the world. Throw in Converge, Magrudergrind, Entombed, Obituary, Watain, Melechesh, Jucifer, Gridlink, Gorod, 16, and a plethora of other awesome bands, and I think I could have a weekend in Baltimore even more lost than my last.

Get Maryland Deathfest’s complete line-up-to-date after the jump.

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