So this normally where we write some fairly meaningless bullshit as an intro to our weekly recap, but reader Sean Williams sent us a link to the below video update from one Mr. Devin Townsend, and we really can’t think of a better way to kick-off the weekend. As Sean put it, “Deconstruction AND Ghost as a double record? Holy fucking shit!” And it gets “Holy shittier” when we get to hear a little bit of new music…

Here are some other fun things that happened at MetalSucks this week:

• We debuted Joe Satriani’s first Black Swans and Wormhole Wizards webisode and new music by Sweet Cobra.
• Gwar’s Oderus Urungus answered more of your idiotic questions, The Red Chord’s Greg Weeks got unnecessarily rough, Daath’s Eyal Levi pondered the meaning of sacrifice, and Rumpelstiltskin Grinder’s Shawn Riley taught us how to make delicious hot wings.
• We spoke to producer/engineer/mixer extraordinaire Mark Lewis, The Contortionist’s Jon Carpenter, and Shred Sean from Blessed by a Broken Heart.
• We checked out new releases from Dawnbringer and Merkaba.
• We helped A Day to Remember struggle with young adulthood.
• We gave Jason Newsted a shoulder to cry on.
• We got excited that Byzantine are making a new record.
• The kid of the dude from the E-Street Band is out of Madball.
• We’ve decided that when we die, we want our ashes to be pressed into vinyl.
• Can you please help us find Elote 5?

Until Monday… don’t get alcohol poisoning…

-AR

I’m on a kick these days. My current kick involves trying to figure out exactly what the fuck people mean when they say certain things. Last “Jumping Darkness Parade,” I mentioned that I have no idea what anybody means by the word “great.” Well, here’s another one I just don’t get: “Sacrifice.” I know what the dictionary says it means. And there are a few different connotations for it. Sacrifice one thing in order to gain another. Or you could simply just be selling something at a loss.

So what does it really mean? I mean, clearly it has something to do with loss, but to what degree and under what conditions? When people say they’ve “sacrificed a lot,” what do they mean? Did they sacrifice their legs in combat for your freedom, or did they sacrifice going to Starbucks for a month so that they could buy a new iPhone? It’s another one of those words that gets thrown around with such frequency and with so much intent behind it, but is so subjective that I think it’s more of an accelerant for someone’s story than a word that carries much meaning… at least in most cases.

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Whether you realize it or not, you probably own an album that Mark Lewis has worked on. He started working with Jason Suecof at the already-legendary Audiohammer Studios for 2005′s Roadrunner United collection; since then, either working with Suecof or on his own, he has produced, engineered, and/or mixed a ridiculous number of major metal releases, including albums by Death Angel, Chimaira, The Black Dahlia Murder, DevilDriver, Trivium, Six Feet Under, Whitechapel, Demon Hunter, Charred Walls of the Damned, The Autumn Offering, and more. Hell, just last week we debuted a Holy Grail track, and didn’t even realize that Mark mixed the song until after the fact!

Mark is obviously ridiculously good at what he does, but he also happens to be a super cool dude — which is probably why artists are so ready to work him over and over again. In fact, Daath’s self-titled album, which Century Media will release on October 25 (pre-order it here), is his second time working with guitarists Emil Werstler and Eyal Levi (who co-produced and co-engineered the album with Lewis) just this year — he was also on-board for their excellent Avalanche of Worms album (and wrote a great guest blog for MetalSucks upon that album’s release).

When I was in Atlanta for a few days this past June visiting Daath in the studio (read my report here), I managed to pull Mark away from his console for a little while to pick his brain on the creation of this ridiculously good album. Read the full transcript of our chat after the jump.

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There was something of a tornado here in Brooklyn yesterday, and even if you didn’t see the tornado itself you saw some of the craziest fucking weather ever. I know you folks out in Nebraska are thinking “So what?” but for us something like this happens about as often as an earthquake does for you. Shit was positively epic. Thankfully even the monkeys didn’t get all riled up like the dudes in the above video — although I think I saw Sammy hiding in the bathtub — and business carried on as usual as it did all week:

• We stroked ourselves just a little bit by celebrating our 10,000th post with a list of our top ten favorite posts ever.
• The return of Ask Oderus: You asked Gwar’s frontman your burning questions and he answered them. Also, Eyal wondered what makes a guitarist “great.”
• We premiered new tracks by Titan, Holy Grail, These are They and we premiered the new Firewind video.
• We spoke with Valient Thorr’s Valient Himself.
• Rumpelstiltskin Grinder changed their name to The Devil. Oh wait, no they didn’t.
• We ranked the Top 10 t-shirts worn by High on Fire frontman Matt Pike.
• We looked at new records by Drudkh and Winterfylleth and Skunk Anansie.
• We looked at our favorite new-school Iron Maiden jams and we wondered if Demolisher is the heaviest band on the planet.
• Tomas Haake may or may not have actually commented on my post about some dude covering Meshuggah’s “Bleed” by playing drums on his pillows. Tomas, if you’re reading this, I have mad respect for your drumming!
• Axl released Part 1 of his Daath in-studio report.

Hopefully no more tornados hit Brooklyn this weekend. Actually, if one could swoop right over Jerry Manuel’s home then hop-scotch over to Omar Minaya’s, I’d be OK with that.

-VN

A few weeks ago, our friend, Metal Mark, posted a guitar-oriented webisode where our co-producer, Mark Lewis, said that he thought our lead guitarist, Emil Werstler, was hands down the best guitar player in metal.

His comment caused some pretty interesting dialogue. A bunch of great guitarists’ names were thrown around, as well as the customary amount of entertaining insults. Tobin Abasi, Ron Jarzombek, Ryan Night, Loomis, you suck, die, emotionless piece of shit, etc. You name it. People were getting all riled up.

And that’s okay. Music is something very personal to each and every one of us, and for some reason we take this stuff seriously. Let me say, for the record, I don’t think there is any such thing as a “best guitar player” in anything. Let me repeat, this time in bold, just so we’re clear: I don’t think there is any such thing as a “best guitar player” in anything. I think there’s only the right part played the right way at the right time, or it’s the wrong part. Some guys have a higher ratio of pulling the off “right part” than others, and they seem to do it with no effort. Some pull off “the right part” in ways that are completely non-traditional. Some guys will work their whole lives, and no matter what their girlfriends and wives tell them, they will never pull it off.

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Eyal Levi’s studio resides in the basement of his family’s home in suburban Atlanta. It’s a small room that couldn’t comfortably hold more than five, maybe six people; if your only mental image of a band making a record comes from A Year and a Half in the Life of Metallica, it might be a little off-putting. You’re perpetually aware that you’re actually in the middle of someone’s house; various non-local metal denizens (including this blogger) populate the guest beds and couches, while members of Daath who live within driving distance but aren’t necessarily needed at the moment come and go as they please to share meals, jokes, vape rips, and the work-in-progress. It’s only when you really look around and soak in the details of your surroundings — the box full of copies of Daath’s self-released debut, Futility; the Misery Index vinyls; the post-it note by the door that makes reference to an incident involving Arsis’ James Malone, the house security system, and the local police department — that you realize: Oh, yeah. I’ve got albums on my iPod that were recorded in this room!

Daath have returned here to make their new, self-titled album after recording 2008′s The Concealers at producer Jason Suecof’s Audio Hammer Studios in Florida. The relaxed and homey environment was chosen deliberately for this outing. The name of the game this time is “creative freedom,” and the atmosphere at Eyaland (the studio doesn’t have an official name) definitely seems to breed open thinking — which is key, given that the group has only written and demoed skeletal versions of the songs, with the flourishes that, frankly, make Daath Daath still-to-be-added.

The decision to work this way came about because the band has felt, in the past, as though sometimes their preproduction demos “would sound better than the records we released,” Eyal explains. ”Lots of times we’d feel we were making better-sounding-but-more-stale-versions of what we did [on the demos], because lightning doesn’t strike twice in the same place… This time we didn’t allow that. We got the songs to the point where we’re comfortable hitting ‘record,’ and we’re taking them to the next level in the studio.”

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That’s right! One of MetalSucks’ most controversial voices — which is really saying something — is gonna be the DJ at tonight’s Heavy Metal Happy Hour at Arrow Bar (85 Avenue A). There are 2-for-1 drinks from 6:00PM until 9:00PM, so if you’ve ever wanted to get drunk and ask Gary “ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS OR WHAT?!?!” in person, here’s your chance!

Now the week’s highlights:

• We debuted new music by The Absence and Vanisher.
• We spoke to Accept’s Wolf Hoffmann and Sebastian Bach (but not really with that last one).
• We checked out new releases by Filter, Neurosis, and The Last Felony.
• Vince contemplated a Mike Portnoy-less Dream Theater.
• Sergeant D. contemplated the new Escape the Fate song…
• …while we couldn’t even pay attention during the new Oceano song.
• We considered bidding on the best band name in the world.
• As it turns out, Wormrot are really good live, too.
• Neil Young and Burzum are collaborating on a new album?!?
• Wanna see a fat man eat seven cans of ravioli in time to a Fuckshovel song? OF COURSE YOU DO!!!

As Eyal promised yesterday, next week will see the full-on return of “Jumping Darkness Parade.” Plus we’ll have more contest, more video and track debuts, more interviews, more everything. Be there or be ᄆ.

-AR

Dear Metalsucks Readers,

It’s been a while. I would have liked to write some blogs recently, but, quite honestly, making the new DAATH record took every ounce of creative and physical energy I had available to me. I tried writing a few and I’d be embarrassed to put my name on what was coming out. So rather than give you guys inferior reading material, I decided to wait until I had more mental energy to devote to “JDP.”

Good news is that there’s lot’s of pent up shit in my head, and I’m looking forward to sharing it with you guys. Then arguing about it, or not. Anyhow, hope you’ve all been as well as possible, and we’ll be sparring again soon!

-Eyal

Daath’s new, self-titled album comes out October 25 on Century Media. While you’re waiting patiently, why not visit Daath on MySpace?

Yesterday Sergeant D. made a joke about MetalSucks being 25% owned by Epitaph Records. I don’t know why we always foolishly assume that people will understand jokes like that, but they often don’t. And so we saw some comments where people were confused, and we got some e-mails from readers, and even a few from industry types who thought we had sold part of MetalSucks. So it may or may not please you to know that MetalSucks is still 100% owned by Vince and myself. And in the future, if you see something on here that seems kinda weird and ridiculous — e.g., that we’re not partially owned by a record label, or Gary Suarez taking all the credit for a band’s success, or whatever — please just take a moment to ask yourself, “Hey, could these dudes be kidding around?” ‘Cause, y’know. We’re very rarely serious. Except about Valtrex. We’re deadly serious about that.

Speaking of herpes, we’re shutting down early today to go enjoy the long Labor Day weekend. We’ll be closed Monday, but we’ll resume our usual suckiness on Tuesday. We have a whole heap of more premieres, cool contests, and interviews, and all manners of sarcastic assholism, so don’t drink so much this weekend that you forget about us, okay? And in the meantime, here’s a run-down of some fun we had this week:

• We debuted a new song by Daath, and a new song by Black Anvil, and a new video by Insidious Disease.
• Cooking Contaminated is back, y’all! Now with 100% more Rosetta.
• We spoke to Slayer’s Dave Lombardo, Saviours’ Scott Batiste, and everyone in Eyes Set to Kill.
• We checked out new releases by Stargazer, and Turbid North and Otargos.
• They say there are no atheists in the foxholes, but there is Nergal.
• Speaking of religion, this nice lady reverend thinks churchgoers could learn from metal.
• We pondered the meaning of Iron Maiden breaking their sales record.
• Dave Mustaine announced a Big Four U.S. tour from the stage.
• Even though, in the words of Anso, metalheads are “supposed to intimidate and discomfit the squares,” we think the death metal cat burglar went a little too far.
• We saw Kvelertak’s kvelertaks.

Now…TO THE BAR!

-AR

Well, we’ve been talking about it for some time, but now you get to hear some of Daath‘s new, self-titled album and make up your mind for yourself — we’re giving away “Destruction/Restoration,” the second cut off the record, as a FREE download.

It should go without saying that we love this song. It sounds like Daath have been let off the leash: Emil Werstler is playing insane shit which should make guitar geeks everywhere cream their pants, Kevin Talley is going absolutely nuts and playing anything but what’s expected, the production, by Mark Lewis and Eyal Levi, is filthy, and the music is darker than Vince Neil’s liver and more misanthropic than Glenn Danzig at a doctor’s office. “Destruction/Restoration” is only about two-and-a-half minutes long, but you’ll never be able to appreciate it after just one listen; it’s just too layered and crazy for that. So download this one on us, get a good pair of headphones, and blow your ear drums to smithereens.

Daath comes out October 25 on Century.

DAATH – “DESTRUCTION/RESTORATION”

Daath – “Destruction/Restoration”

DOWNLOAD

That’s what producer Mark Lewis calls Werstler in the latest Daath in-studio video report from Skulls N’ Bones. And it’s obviously the kind of statement which is gonna get people really, really hot and bothered.

But there’s a very, very strong argument to be made that Lewis speaks the truth.

Personally, I knew that Werstler was a really talented dude, but I had no idea just how incredible he was until I watched him play in the studio. He’s one of those guitar players who can do pretty much anything — and he’s a workaholic who loves a challenge. Some of the stuff I watched him lay down for Daath’s new, self-titled album was really, really mind-blowing — doubly so when you consider that he was often coming up with it right there on the spot.

Daath comes out October 26 on Century. My own multi-part behind-the-scenes report will begin next month.

-AR

I think bassist Jeremy Creamer may be the biggest question mark for most Daath fans; he’s not front n’ center like vocalist Sean Z., and unlike guitarists Eyal Levi and Emil Werstler and drummer Kevin Talley, his work outside of Daath is not, at least currently, that well-known by the metal community (very likely because his work outside of Daath is often not metal music). But he’s an insanely cool dude and an insanely talented dude, and… I’m not gonna tell you more ’cause I’m gonna run an interview with him as part of the massive behind-the-scenes series I’m working on. So for the time being, just watch the below video that Skulls N’ Bones posted of him laying down bass for Daath’s new, self-titled album, which comes out October 26 on Century.

Daath has also released the track list for the album. Even with a band I love (like this one!), I don’t usually find track lists all that interesting, ‘case song titles don’t actually tell you much, but this being Daath n’ all, I’m gonna run it anyway. Check it out after the jump.

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And there’s really nothing else to say except, “HOO-RAY!” I’m so fucking excited for this album I can’t even tell you.

My own in-depth, behind-the-scenes studio reports will begin in September, but in the meantime, Metal Mark from Skulls N’ Bones continues to post his own videos. This latest one shows Sean Z. laying down vocals in the studio with producer Mark Lewis, and apparently smoking while he does it. Fuckin’ metal.

October is really right around the corner, so hopefully we’ll get to hear some music real soon…

-AR

As I’ve mentioned before, earlier this summer I spent a few days in Atlanta hanging out with Daath as they recorded their new album; starting in September I’m going to unveil a massive, multi-part behind-the-scenes series, which will include a studio report, some video footage, and extremely in-depth interviews with most of the band, as well as producer Mark Lewis.

While you’re waiting for that sure-to-be-awesome series to begin, Metal Mark at Skulls N Bones has compiled his own behind-the-scenes videos, the first part of which you can check out below. At the end you can hear a little bit of a new song, which still didn’t have a title (or vocals, for that matter) when I was there — but it’s a really groovy number that demands you bob your head in time with the beat. But the entire album is really diverse, and unless Daath have added a turn tablist or something since I visited with them, I can pretty guarantee you it’s gonna kick all kinds of ass.

The video also says there’s an October 26 release date); I’m 99.9% sure that’s accurate, although you might wanna wait for an official statement from the band and/or Century Media before marking it down in your calendar.

-AR

Vince and I left the Mansion a little early yesterday afternoon to take a little field trip, so we missed that our very good friend, Mr. Eyal Levi of Daath, was going to be on the Metal Injection Livecast! Bummer. Hopefully you’re all faithful Metal Injection readers and knew to listen-in anyways.

And if for some reason you aren’t, well, you can download an mp3 of the Livecast right here. Eyal gives the skinny on the new Daath album, talks about the band’s possible touring plans for the future, gives some tips on guitar tone, discusses why he’d never fuck a goat, and reveals that he doesn’t date Jewish girls, much to Noa’s apparent disappointment. Go listen.

And while we’re on the topic of Daath in the studio, I know some people have asked if I’m gonna write anything about my time visiting with the band last month; and the answer is, of course I am. We’ll have a SHIT LOAD of coverage… closer to the album’s release. So sit tight!

-AR

Remember Sean Farber, Daath’s old singer? I’ve never met the dude since his tenure with the band ended before we had any relationship with them, so for all I know the guy is a real sweetheart. But he infamously left Daath, “for all intensive purposes,” to pursue other dreams, including starting his own religion. And while I have no idea how that quest is going, the fact that I haven’t read about “Farbertology” or whatever somewhere leads me to believe that the answer is, “Not very well.”

So Sean Farber is probably pretty pissed there’s a thread on Century Media’s YouTube page in which people are positing that his successor, Sean Z.,  looks like Jesus Christ.

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It takes balls for five white dudes from Indiana to name their EP after a Maya Angelou poem. But I’ve been enjoying Deliver Us From Evil‘s Still I Rise EP so much, they could have just as well called it The Autobiography of Malcolm X and it wouldn’t have bothered me that much.

Whether you realize it or not, you’re probably already familiar with the band’s drummer, Alex Morgan; he’s a talented and successful photographer who has worked with Gojira and Daath, amongst others. (Check out his work at his official website, or with this MS post or this MS post, or just look about an inch up on this post.) Which makes it all the more baffling to me that Deliver Us From Evil are unsigned; they’re like eight million times better than half the bands publicists and label reps send us every day.

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Can you imagine if everyone to whom we give endless amounts of shit followed Dino’s example? We’d have Rose Funoral cards and Tommy Lee faking his own death and Fred Durst pulling a Billy Madison and pics of Joey Belladonna with his twig and berries tucked back. That’s the kinda world I wanna live in. I believe we can make it happen if we try.

ANYWAY, here’s some shit we did this week:

• We did a second installment of Cooking Contaminated.
• We’re streaming new tracks by Son of Aurelius.
• Eyal gave us a Daath studio update.
• We spoke to Max Cavalera and Ratt’s Bobby Blotzer.
• We suckered Decibel‘s Andrew Bonazelli into writing about the Metal Mets for us.
• We checked out some new German cheese metal releases.
• We called out David Draiman.
• We watched some great music videos, some awful music videos, and some really awful music videos.
• We made fun of the most annoying little kid in the world.
• We were sorry about Abacabb breaking up, but really happy about BOOBS!!!

Speaking of Eyal and studio updates: on Sunday I’m flying down to Atlanta to visit Daath in the studio. If you never hear from me again, assume I’ve been lost amidst a cloud of ATL purp smoke and awesome metal. But what a way to go!!!

-AR

Yesterday I gave longtime reader Cody Barrick shit for recommending a terrible band and claiming they were superior to Slayer and Daath.

Well, Cody was being sarcastic.

This is one of the dangers of e-mails – especially e-mails from someone you don’t really know: that you will completely misinterpret someone’s tone.

So my apologies to Cody, who suggested we post the below video. I salute you, good sir.

-AR

I’ve never personally metal Cody Barrick, but he is the definition of a MetalSucks Maniac – he’s been reading the site for a long time and has supplied us with some really good tips for stories in the past. So when I got a “Reader’s Choice” e-mail from him today, I was curious to listen to the band he wanted to suggest.

But when I opened his e-mail, I saw the following claim…

“These guys by the name of Ennui Breathes Malice are so awesome! Way better than Daath and Slayer if you ask me.”

…and I knew I was in trouble.

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