MetalSucks

It’s hard to believe I wrote my first blog for Metalsucks on February 21st, 2008. I really don’t know what happened to that time. So much has happened to me since then that it’s hard for me to believe life has gone by this quickly.

And I left the only thing I ever knew behind me. I bowed out of the most rewarding and troubling journey I’ve ever experienced.

Believe it or not, my decision to leave God Forbid wasn’t a decision. My quitting the band stemmed from a stupid argument (the last straw) I had with my brother involving me getting a ride from New York City to the band’s van in Pennsylvania. This argument consisted of screaming about money, respect, being a “star,” big opportunities, etc. The argument ended with me screaming to my brother, “Fuck YOUR band.” I’ve never leveled an attack at my brother in that way. The band was never “his” or “mine.” It was always “ours.” That statement was really “I quit,” and we both knew it.

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So Vince is now out of town. Again. Luckily, we really do take after our namesakes; he loves to be out there among the people, partying like he might die tomorrow, and I am a grumpy, mean-spirited recluse. So expect lots of Axl crankiness next week.

In the meantime, here are some things that happened this week:

• Genetic’s Dallas Coyle discussed the importance of positive thinking, As I Lay Dying’s Nick Hipa pondered the various timelines on L O S T, Intronaut’s Sacha Dunable listed the five raddest sets of teeth in metal, Eyal Levi from Daath and Levi/Werstler wondered if anyone cares about guitar solos, and adult film actress Bobbi Starr told us the ten metal bands she wishes would gangbang her.
• We debuted new music by The Dillinger Escape Plan, Landmine Marathon, and Jucifer.
• MetalSucks readers interviewed Dark Tranquillity’s Mikael Stanne and Vince interviewed Sevendust’s Clint Lowery.
• Sammy O’Hagar reviewed Ov Hell’s The Underworld Regime.
• Is Nergal from Behemoth going to jail for destroying a Bible?
• The singer from DragonForce is available for a White Lion reunion.
• We raged against “Rage.”

And that’s it! Next week will see the debut of our irritating new list, as well as some other fun shit. Have a nice weekend…

-AR

Congrats to Ziltoid and Grover XIII for entering the blogger world. Check out their new blog, The Number of the Blog!  It takes balls to work on something and put it out there for people (the world) to ingest. I’m sure they will get a good following. The Internet is such a specific place so a different perspective goes a long way. If there is humor involved, even better!

Your success is dependent on you and no one else. There are people out there who believe you need to fail for them to succeed. That’s bullshit. There’s room for everyone to step up. Get out there and do what Ziltoid and Grover XIII did. Start something. Congratulations again guys. I’ll check it out as much as I can.

Let’s get your band closer to the success you want, need and deserve. There are so many tools at your disposal to get your band noticed. Networking, playing shows, making merchandise, recording albums, making webisodes, etc. But one of the most important aspects of moving forward in music is one of the most overlooked.

Positive thinking. Yeah, I said it. On the big, bad metal blog. Sue me.

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I haven’t been able to shake this cold, and so I’ve actually been playing a lot of on-line Scrabble with a friend this week (because I’m just that cool). It would be really hard to play Scrabble at a metal show, though, not least of all because so many metal d00dz can’t spell.

When we weren’t beating this whole Uno debacle to death like it had just heckled us, here’s what was happening in the world of metal:

• We streamed Mutiny Within’s self-titled debut album, and premiered a track by Dallas Coyle’s new project, Genetic.
• God Forbid’s Doc Coyle defended mainstream metal, As I Lay Dying’s Nick Hipa discussed the cliffside cave list on L O S T, and, yeah, Intronaut’s Sacha Dunable and Daath’s Eyal Levi each weighed-in on a certain incident involving a certain card game.
• Each of the MetalSucks writers endorsed a finalist for the Scion No Label Needed Contest.
• We checked out new albums by The Breathing Process, Hayaino Daisuki, and Bane and Rhinoceros.
• We debated the morality of a label head posting a link to an album leak.
• We are woman, hear us roar.
• We looked at Mike Patton’s penis, and are now increasingly happy our shrink is coming back from vacation next week.
• Our homeboy Corey Mitchell is co-authoring Phil Anselmo’s autobiography!

Okay. Back to Scrabble! See ya Monday. Stay warm.

-AR

Dallas Coyle left God Forbid over a year ago, but the guy’s certainly not been short on musical output during his time away from the scene. From time to time Dallas sends us songs in various stages of completion ranging from demos to full-on productions to gauge our thoughts; of those, his latest project, dubbed Genetic, is by far our favorite. Check out the exclusive premier of the Genetic track “The Master Key” below, then listen to a few more on the Genetic MySpace page.

Alright! After an initial slow news week, 2010 is finally start to get back into the swing of things. Here are some highlights from this week:

• Vince got an exclusive interview with Obituary/ex-Andrew W.K. drummer Donald Tardy about the AWK conspiracy mystery. We also spoke to Richard Christy and Pelican’s Larry Herwig.
• We debuted new music by The Tony Danza Tap Dance Extravaganza, Karnivool, and Blood of the Tyrant.
• Dallas is giving away free music, Eyal’s faith in metalheads has been restored, and Justin pontificated on the format wars.
• These Arms Are Snakes are done…
• …but System of a Down are reuniting! Or maybe not. But maybe.
• The dude from Weedeater shot himself in the foot. Literally.
• We’re sponsoring The Red Chord’s Burgers & Bowling tour!
• Underoath don’t like abortions.

Next week we’ll have some previews of 2010 releases we’re stoked on for you. And Vince is gonna be in sunny Los Angeles, so you poor-ass muthafuckas is stuck with me. BWA-HA-HA-HA!!!

-AR

I really hate the end of the year during Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. I don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s seasonal depression, or maybe it’s because I’m still coming to grips with the fact that Satan Clause doesn’t exist. I always get loopy during that time of the year. My last two blogs were extensions of that, and if I offended any of you guys, I apologize. I really appreciate every person who comes to MetalSucks and contributes to making this place the best metal site on the interwebz. When I called some of you “faggots” and “assholes” it was out of love. Honestly!

I’ve been an angry, bitter fuck these last couple of months. I don’t need to tell you guys. And I appreciate you being good sports throughout this whole ordeal. It’s 2010 and it’s time to move on.

From leaving God Forbid to my personal life completely falling apart, I’ve been dealing with some wild bullshit. I’m thirty years old now and for you young bucks out there, take it from me: life gets harder. But that’s okay. It has to get harder, or else we wouldn’t get stronger.

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Hard to believe it’s been almost a year since Dallas Coyle and God Forbid parted ways, but there ya have it. And a lot of God Forbid fans – including this one – were wondering who was gonna take Dallas’ spot in the band. Former Himsa guitarist Matt Wicklund has been doing live shows with the group since last summer’s Mayhem Fest, and the rumors have been swirling that he was taking the job pretty much ever since -  a couple of readers e-mailed us to say that Wicklund was introduced as “our new guitar player” on-stage, and earlier this month he tweeted that he was “Getting ready to go to rehearsal!”, although rehearsal for what was left kinda-sorta vague.

Well, the rumors are no longer rumors: Wicklund is, in fact, the new full-time guitarist for God Forbid. A statement from Doc Coyle reads as follows:

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My last blog was fucking hilarious. I mean, really. It was good. No, it was better than good. It was great. Besides some of my blogs that have nothing to do with metal (Susan Boyle) I was able to write something that wasn’t serious at all. And again, it was completely hilarious. The best part of the blog was -

Half of you mother-fuckos didn’t even get it!

And Jesus, it was sad. I mean, come the fuck on. What are you guys paying attention to? One of my choices for my year end list was Joe Duplantier  – For being ‘better than everyone else.’ Oh… and one of my favorites: Ivan Moody’s ‘VOICE’ from FFDP. His voice! His god damn voice?

Wake up, you assholes!
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I’ve lost interest in metal. Playing it that is. I LOVE listening though. I listened to Chimaira’s Resurrection in it’s entirety and didn’t even realize it was in its entirety. Bad ass record! Born Of Osiris has been in my play list lately as well. But Dallas Coyle’s (yes, third person) output/creation of metal music has been nil on the metal front. I’ve written some rock, some trip hop, some electronica — But no metal.

I haven’t done a blog in a while because I don’t have the passion to write about metal either. There are an alleged amount of reasons I suspect are contributing to my lack of metal inspiration, none of which I can say is a direct culprit. None of which is the sole reason I’m not ‘metaled’ up right now.

Reason #1

This site is becoming more popular and I feel obligated to write something that relates to the metal scene. Since there is more of a demand for metal blogomania at Metalsucks I feel I shouldn’t talk about Susan Boyle or Tiger Woods. BUT, when the election was happening I didn’t mind talking shit about McCain or Hillary Clinton? Weird right? But the site didn’t have the traffic it does now. I don’t get it myself. Shouldn’t I want MORE people to read what I write? Like I said, I have no idea! I’m an enigma wrapped in a shitty cooked grilled onion. The enigma stinks and so does the onion :) My brother’s latest blog about Killswitch was better than anything I’ve ever written for my blog so maybe I’m waiting for him to step in. Wait. I’m not in God Forbid anymore so I should stop expecting Doc to cover for me. Dammit. I never should have quit!
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Yesterday God Forbid announced that they’ll be playing a very special show on January 9 at Dingbatz in Clifton, NJ. Now, Dingbatz only holds about two-hundred people and advance tickets to the show are a whopping twelve bucks, so this is pretty cool in and of itself. But even cooler for those of us who can’t attend the show is the opening sentence from the announcement:

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There’s a lyric in the song “Hour of Rats” from Fed Through the Teeth Machine, the album by The Red Chord, and this particular lyric has really taken hold in my brain as of late: “WE’VE KNOWN EACH OTHER TOO LONG TO BE FRIENDS.” What a simple, beautiful statement that I can 110% relate to these days. Hm.

Speaking of The Red Chord…

• We’re streaming The Red Chord’s new album, Fed Through the Teeth Machine, through Monday! It’s awesome, so definitely give it a listen, then go buy it when Metal Blade releases it on Tuesday, October 27! We also spoke to The Red Chord’s Mike “Gunface” McKenzie.
• We got a European tour wrap-up from Chimaira’s Mark Hunter, had a nice chat with Kowloon Walled City’s Jason Pace, and even played nice with Oceano’s Andrew Mikhail.
• Lord Gold from Horse the Band graced us with another awesome tour blog, Eyal discussed physical CDs, and Dallas explored the evolution and importance of deathcore.
• We checked out new releases from Converge, Ancestors, and Smite the Righteous.
• Janet Reno quit Attack Attack!
• We’re fairly certain that Dave Mustaine is still a Megadick. Actually, we’re positive.

Have a good weekend everyone…

-AR

Thanks to everyone who downloaded the package of Graphic Novel [GN] songs last week. I’m happy most of you enjoyed the tracks. It’s cool to know people will take the time to check out the music with an open mind. I never said I was the best composer or song writer out there, but I feel I do have a style. I’m always doing my best to refine it. The older you get means the more experiences you have which means your music should evolve into something you can control, as opposed to letting it control you. These particular songs were all composed in a day. Through experimentation, trial and error, and plain passion, you got that download.

I’m working on getting a more professional studio going at some point. Let’s be clear: my recording skills are not my strong side. I’m no Misha Mansoor from Periphery, so I apologize for the (lack of) recording quality.

The songs for the [GN] project are just a color of the ‘voice’ I’ve been spending my whole career trying to perfect. Don’t worry metal heads, I still play metal, just now right now. Which brings me to the subject I’ve wanted to discuss here for a while.

The Evolution Of Deathcore And Why it’s Sweet As Hell

I know the response here for deathcore is a love it or hate it sort of thing. I don’t want to get into that. I’d like to talk about my feelings towards the genre. To say it simply: I fucking LOVE deathcore. I can’t get enough of it.

Seriously.

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Pretty big week here at the MetalSucks Mansion. We laughed, we cried, we fired someone, we rocked out with our cocks out. Here’s a rundown of the highlights:

• We debuted a new song by The Devin Townsend Project, a new video by Skeletonwitch, a new song by Javelina, and the cover art for Sigh’s new album.
• Horse the Band’s Lord Gold blogged about Nawlins and cocaine, God Forbid’s Doc Coyle gave us an exclusive statement about that whole cup throwing incident, Dallas Coyle is giving away music for free, and Daath’s Eyal Levi talked about a run-in with the Polacks and drum triggers.
• We spoke to Dethklok’s Brendon Small, Converge’s Jacob Bannon, Gojira’s Joe Duplantier, and Liturgy’s Hunter Hunt-Hendrix.
• We checked out new releases from Baroness, The Red Chord, Skeletonwitch, Immortal, Vains of Jenna, Vampire Mooose, and Javelina. Also, some asshole really likes Oceano.
• We’re sponsoring the incredibly awesome Tyrants of Evil North American Tour 2010 with Arch Enemy, Exodus, Arsis, and Mutiny Within!

Alright. I’m going to see Where the Wild Things Are now. I’m fairly certain that it is going to make me weep like Gary Suarez. See ya Monday.

-AR

At some point during the recording of Earthsblood, God Forbid announced that they had covered Muse’s “Stockholm Syndrome.” Since then, we’ve actually gotten a stupid amount of e-mails from people asking us when it was going to be released. And we really didn’t know. (I know we’re tight with some of the dudes from God Forbid, but it’s important to remember that we’re not actually in God Forbid, even if we sometimes air guitar to “The End of the World” and fantasize that we are.)

Well, the song is finally available as a single on iTunes. An it’s good! Muse are already one of the most metal non-metal bands out there, and GF completely succeed in turning the track into something metal as fuck. The guitars rip and Byron Davis screams in jjjuuuussssttt the right amounts. If you’re a God Forbid fan, it’s totally worth the buck it’ll cost you. And as a bonus, remember that it might be the last official God Forbid recording to feature Dallas Coyle (who handles most of the vocals, in addition to his usual guitar duties) ever.

For obvious reasons I can’t/don’t want to post the cover here, but below you can check out the video for Muse’s original, in case you’re unfamiliar with it.

-AR

I haven’t had much time to write my blog as much as I would like. To apologize I wanted to give you guys a free download of a small amount of music I’ve done since I’ve left God Forbid. This music is under my moniker Graphic Novel or [GN]. I scored a film a couple of months back and this is a sample of that ’style’ of music I like to create. [GN] definitely is not metal by any stretch but it is some interesting stuff. I hope you kids here can appreciate something besides metal music.

Here’s the tracklisting for the songs cause I’m not sure they will go into your music player in the right order.

1. The Vultures Titles
2. Voices – Score
3. Settle The Score (Inst)
4. Fate-ality
5. Warren’s Fate
6. The Baron’s Theme
7. Push, Shove
8. Death Dance
9. Whistle Blower

The music ranges from horror score to electronica to weird remixes. It will only be up for three days so get it while it lasts you crazy fuckers.

[download is no longer available]

–D

Monday (actually sun down Sunday, but whatever) is Yom Kippur, which is the Jewish day of repentance. As you can imagine, I have a lot to repent for, so I won’t be doing any writing. Vince may or may not be here to give all the goy their bored-at-work dose of entertainment.

In the meantime, here are some fun things that happened this week:

• Dallas Coyle talked about “borrowing ideas” and talking shit, while Eyal Levi contemplated greener grass (not that kind of grass).
• We spoke to Every Time I Die’s Andy Williams and some of the dudes from Periphery.
• We suffered through the worst Metallica cover ever recorded.
• We wondered if Juggalos should be considered a gang.
• And it’s Gojira and Burst live FTW.

See ya Tuesday.

-AR

I haven’t done a blog in a while because the last blog I did really got me thinking about the mentality of people in the metal scene. Most particularly, the mentality of shit talking. We’re all guilty of it. I admitted to shit talking Bring Me The Horizon in magazines over in Europe when I was in God Forbid. I never heard them at that point. But now, I dig them and I feel pretty stupid for slagging them.

In my last blog I mentioned my excitement for the band Eryn Non Dae and how I was going to “borrow” some of their ideas for my new project. First of all, my last blog was PACKED with information about band business, touring and juicy tidbits of amazing knowledge :) But, the funny thing about the last blog was this guy ‘Jamie.’ Out of a five hundred word blog, he took the phrase “borrow ideas” and accused me and God Forbid of riding the coat tails of other popular bands. Killswitch was his biggest gripe. Then it was Opeth.

He claimed Gone Forever (2004) was a Killswitch rip and Earthsblood (2009) was an Opeth rip. This type of thing usually doesn’t bother me. In this instance I was fucking bothered. Jamie and I entered into a written brawl about the history of God Forbid and the intentions of our song writing for the last ten fucking years. Why would I waste my time to defend myself from this sort of claim?

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Let’s start this off by saying I most likely WILL NOT listen to your band. When you post your link to your band I will ignore it. Unless you have some amazing pitch as to why I should listen to your music. If you’re my friend on Facebook I will listen to your shit. Otherwise, don’t post links in the comments section for me to hear. Right now, this blog is to answer serious questions.  Not pipe dreams about me passing on your amazing music to a record label. Most of them are on a signing freeze anyway. I understand the need to post your link in the comments for people to check out your band. Knock yourself out. Just don’t expect me to give my two cents.

OK, now that we got that out of the way, I wanted to turn you guys on to some new music I’ve been rocking…  drum roll…  Eryn Non Dae from France.

I found out about these fucks through this site. I’ll tell you, this shit is great. I listened to it three times in one day. It’s like Neurosis, Meshuggah, and Coalesce. I’m loving it. My new project will definitely be borrowing some of their ideas.

The new Behemoth. Nuff said. It’s Behemoth. The whole album kicks ass. Also, Colin Richardson killed on the mix. It sounds amazing and ferocious.

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Now the nausea’s
In my guts
And I’m wrestling with doubt
The kind you get when your heroes
Sell you out
And as I watch the drawbridge come down
There’s mass extinction
On my mind
Human cruelty stains my thoughts jet black
I’ve got this feeling
Like things have gone too far and now we can’t get back

Here’s more fun shit that happened in the world of metal this week:

• We debuted new videos from Cradle of Filth and Arsonists Get All the Girls.
• We got exclusive tour blogs from Bison B.C.’s Dan And and Woe of Tyrants’ Chris Catanzaro.
• We spoke to members of Winds of Plague, Decrepit Birth and Born of Osiris.
• I counted down 50 things I love about Pig Destroyer, and then added a 51st.
• Ulrich Vs. Mustaine Vs. Ian and Zakk Vs. Ozzy made us laugh with glee.
• Kerry King Vs. Killswitch Engage was pretty funny, too.
• Dallas Coyle answered more of your questions.

Vince gets back from vacation tonight right around the time Repulsion take the stage, and then tomorrow, hopefully, Craig’s List will lead us to some Tool tickets. See ya Monday!

-AR