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Here’s a statement from Doc Coyle:
“There have been a barrage of rumors and questions on whether or not Dallas has left God Forbid. It’s true that Dallas has left the band. It’s taken us a few days to confirm this definitely, and figure out what we were going to do considering the fact that we are starting a very important tour with Lamb of God this week.
A lot of you have been e-mailing us about the rumors that Dallas Coyle has quit God Forbid.
As huge God Forbid fans ourselves, we understand your desire to know what the situation is ASAP. At this time, we do not know any more than you do. We trust that there will be a statement clarifying the situation in good time. In any case, when we know more, you will.
Thanks,
Axl, Vince, and Everyone at MetalSucks
The Adequate Response to Criticism; An Artist’s Perspective
Criticism. Criticism is something all artists who release their work on a broad scale must encounter. Many of us who do so approach these reflections in our own ways. On Metalsucks, my blogger brother, Dallas, has had the monopoly on providing that perspective in regards to God Forbid, which I think is unfortunate because I think it provides an inaccurate picture of the band’s collective or individual views. My motivations in writing this are not only to respond to the detractors of my band, but also to give an alternative view on the mindset of the motivations and mentality behind what we (who aren’t Dallas in God Forbid) do and what we hope to accomplish.
Not too long ago, Dallas released a blog insisting that he hoped our new album would get bad reviews in light of a theory that bad reviews would trigger some kind of reverse psychological effect in terms of success with the band. I guess that theory has some basis in the fact in that some bands whom although they don’t necessarily get critical acclaim, it isn’t directly tied to overall record sales or popularity (Disturbed, Insane Clown Posse, etc). The fact is, God Forbid has more or less gotten good reviews since the release of Determination, and maintained a good relationship with the metal media. In a sense, I feel like metal media has always been rooting for us. In that respect, I felt the assertion was off base because I felt pretty good about the new album. The only effect Dallas’s commentary would have is to make some people who would normally be allies into adversaries. I think what he was generally trying to say was that he doesn’t care what people think. What many people who respond to Metalsucks and Blabbermouth don’t understand is that he is mainly trying to push buttons, and even if the commentary is negative, you’re doing something right as long as people are talking about you. I think the jury is still out on that one.
What’s up everyone? Today is the day Earthsblood comes out and I’d like to thank MetalSucks for supporting the band and this record from even before they had a chance to hear it. What to say about Earthsblood? 1) The album kicks ass. 2) It’s getting great reviews across the board even though I requested that not to happen. 3) Don’t listen to me because I’m just a musician trying to create waves! I don’t know shit.
As you are (hopefully) already aware, God Forbid’s latest opus, Earthsblood, hits stores today. Guitarists Doc and Dallas Coyle was cool enough to give us a track-by-track breakdown of each song on what is inarguably the band’s best record to date. Enjoy!
1.”The Discovery” – The intro for Earthsblood came about in a peculiar way. The original piece started with the doomy guitars that kick in around 40 seconds into it. We wrote it as part of our black metal side project called Hell Nigger. It was the outro for a song that we wrote in one day. Without the keys and stuff, it sounded more like Morbid Angel, but with the new album having a much darker tone, we thought it would make a cool intro to the album. The piano piece was actually played and composed (with some direction from Dallas and I) by my Dad, Kevin Coyle. We showed him the chords that the guitars were playing, and he started doing this arpeggiated Danny Elfman thing that just killed. Our Dad is a piano teacher and has been playing for like 40 years. He also played on our last album. The orchestration was performed by Michael Romeo from Symphony X. We met each other through our producer, Eric Rachel. He has his own home studio where Symphony X records their albums and this orchestration program that costs some ungodly amount of money, and takes 4 computers to run. Apparently, they use that program to do film scores. Mike is incredible, and I can’t thank him enough for adding some much virtuosity to the record.
Click to read more…
Our very own Dallas Coyle and his brother Doc of the mighty God Forbid made the long trip all the way from New Jersey to San Antonio, Texas, to premiere their long-awaited new CD release, Earthsblood.
Hosted by S.A. metal institution Robb Chavez of Robb’s Metal Works, the Coyle brothers stopped into the Cabo Grille to chat with fans, answer questions from the press, and drink beers while spinning their new record.
It was also the first meeting between two MetalSucks contributors (MS bloggers Dallas Coyle and Corey Mitchell pictured above with Doc Coyle and Antonia “Toni” Garcia of OMCTV).
The Coyles talked about the theme of Earthsblood, how they came about the artwork for the new record, their upcoming tours with Lamb of God and Mayhem Fest, the improbability of running their own record label, the effect an Obama presidency may or may not have on their career, and their sheer, unadulterated love for metal.
I’m ’bout to go party at a triple-birthday event then get rowdy at an outdoor winter BBQ tomorrow afternoon (Bacon Explosion, anyone?). But not before I can tell you what went down on MetalSucks this week:
Peace in the mideast.
-VN
I bet a lot of you are wondering why I haven’t been doing my blog lately. Well, let me tell you. Our album comes out very soon and I say a LOT of fucked up shit when I’m writing these blogs. I guess it’s not as fucked up as what the BlabberBitches say but I guess I can get people all riled up. Maybe they have no lives. Maybe their user name handle is out of date and they just can’t change it because their anxiety of being un-”famous” prevents them from doing so. I don’t know.
I slowed down on the blogs for a bunch of reasons. 1) I had a baby. 2) I got a job. 3) I wanted to quiet myself before the album came out so you can pay attention to the music. Of all the shit I say, in the end, none of you would know me if it weren’t for God Forbid so I think it’s respectful to let GF have the spotlight while the record is set to be released.
Now that the record is about to come out [pre-order here. -Ed.] there’s been some press, you’ve heard some songs and you’ve seen the artwork. Most of you are probably familiar with the fact that we’re touring with Ill Nino in Europe in March, Lamb Of God in the states in April, doing the festivals in Europe in June and doing MAYHEM in July and August. That is a lot of touring. And to the BlabberGrundles who said we’re washed up: Yeah, we also got fabric softener with our sick tours… Fuck off.
The countdown to Earthsblood continues!
Back in December, I commented that Vince Neilstein must be some kind of psychic, because he pretty much predicted that “War of Attrition” would be the first song off the album that the band released for public consumption; the flipside of that assertion was my own prediction that song “Walk Alone” would be the first song released, since it’s one of the more easily palatable tracks off the disc. I don’t mean that as a put down – it’s an awesome song. But it’s melodic, has some great clean vox by Dallas Coyle, a strong hook and catchy chorus, and is not, by the standards of some of the other songs on the album, the heaviest number in the world. In other words: from a commercial standpoint, it’s kind of a perfect single.
Well, now the band has released “Walk Alone,” which you can stream on the below widget (along with the already released “The Rain” and some non-Earthsblood tracks). Like I said, it’s a pretty melodic song, but it’ll also rock your face off. Check it out, then let us know what you think in the comments section.
Earthsblood drops on Century on February 24. You can pre-order it right now.
-AR
It may be a new year on the calendar, but we’re still talking about the same stupid shit here at MetalSucks. Here’s where we focused our energies this week:
Later, gators…
We’re all critics in our own right. The age old adage of “Everyone’s got an opinion” has never been more true… Maybe the internet has something to do with it? *wink, wink* I don’t have a problem with critics at all. I love seeing records get shit-canned, especially when they are good records. What I don’t love seeing is critics analyze a record and act like they know exactly where a band is coming from. That shit annoys me. Whether it’s a good record or bad record, just review the songs. Don’t review the overarching idea of the album. I want to know about your thoughts about the record, not your thoughts about your presumptions about the record.
This has become a problem nowadays with the “cool” magazines and the “cool” bands. There don’t need to be reviews where people are looking up words in the thesaurus to “paint” the picture for the reader. Or fans on a message board talking about why they won’t listen to new stuff from a band because they think the band is “over the hill.” A lot of you may be wondering if I’m talking about us; yes and no. We’ve always been lucky enough for the critics to shoot God Forbid a lot of love. I guess there is media bias for GF. hehe. But, at the same time you don’t really need to look into the shit that deep. And we’re well regarded for the most part so, no, I’m not talking about us. But, yes, I am.
Click to read more…
By now a lot of you have had a chance to hear some of our new shit floating around, or you’ve had the chance to hear the whole album if you’ve been SO LUCKY… I can say that I’m very excited to have this record come out on February 24th 2009. By the way, February 24th will be a huge day for metal. Us and Lamb Of God have our records coming out the same day. The coolest thing about this is every one can see how far metal has progressed from each of our first albums to our latest. We’ve come a long way. And I think both of our bands haven’t compromised. I also think we’ve produced quality material through our respective careers. So big ups to us and them!!! Big ups to metal!!!
I keep saying big ups because this blog is going to be all about one thing: Haterade. The big ups is a precursor to the new words or phrases that come out over time. Yeah, maybe being in a metal band makes it harder to say things like true dat, big ups or haterade but I’m gonna say that shit anyway. I am in a metal band but I am also from the streets so I have carte blanche to say all that ghetto shit.
Seriously, I’m talking about haterade because I think bands that get hated on generally become more successful. Right now, I’m hoping, pleading and wishing for this album to be panned by critics, internet trolls and whoever wants to shit on it. You may ask me, “Why Dallas? Why dost thou-eth needest us to protesteth soeth mucheth?” Because we need some boiling water in our career. We need people to hate. We need people to defend. We need to fight a fucking war for this record to push us to another place. We are a successful band. I want to be more successful. I want anyone out there who hates God Forbid to say they hate us. I don’t want reasons. I don’t want debates. I want hate!!!
We’ve heard Earthsblood, the new album from God Forbid that will drop approximately February ‘09, and man oh man, are you guys in for a treat. This album slays. SLAYS. And before you say “You have to say it’s awesome ’cause Dallas writes for the site,” you should know that a) we were God Forbid fans before we even started MetalSucks and b) Dallas thinks we’re just money grubbing Jews and doesn’t actually like us anyway. So there. Ppppppffffttttt.
ANYWAY, our pals over at Metal Injection have posted the first in a series of videos which will document the band’s time in the studio recording their latest. In this clip, you can watch Dallas and front dude/grizzly bear/all around scary motherfucker Byron Davis laying down some vocals. Suh-weet.
Metal Injection will have more behind-the-scenes clips in the coming weeks. We’ll continue to post ‘em here. but you should probably check out MI anyways, just because they’re the best second best metal site on the web.
-AR
Well, it’s finally over. The presidential race was a hard fought battle and there was a clear winner that was chosen by the American people. Anyone who reads this blog regularly knows who I voted for. This isn’t a time for gloating. It’s a time of reflection and a time of congratulations to President-Elect Obama. It’s weird to type it but after January 20th 2009, it’ll be President Obama. It gives me goose bumps.
It’s still hard to digest. I’m really proud of the fifty three million people who voted in this election. I am surprised by the result honestly but I also expected it. It’s funny. The conservative talk show radio hosts are saying it wasn’t a landslide victory which I have to disagree. It was definitely a landslide. Not in popular vote but by strategic electoral vote. This was a brutal beating in wits and strategy which I think is way more important.
Election day is only a couple of days away and it’s excruciating. For that reason alone, I’m not going to talk about politics at all until this election is done with. It seems things are so contentious right now that having an objective point of view about things causes arguments that aren’t even intended, so for now: FUCK POLITICS!
Let’s talk about metal music. Every single record we put out seems to get better and better for us musically. Our last record did slightly better than our last worldwide and the record before that did three times better than the last one. So we always seem to step up to the “Next Level” so to speak.
I have a problem with this term “The Next Level.” When bands say, “This album is our best yet! It’s going to get us to the next level,” it makes me wonder. Are bands and musicians playing the music game like it’s Super Mario Brothers? Do we beat final bosses or get power ups on the way? In a way we do. One of the power ups we get when we’re on the road hustling to push a record is fame. Our band over the last five years has become a lot more known so when I go places people recognize me. I get clothes for free because we have endorsements. Our guitar company (ESP) treats us well as does our amp company (Randall). We get to the special level where we don’t to spend as much money on gear, clothes and beer!
God Forbid’s new album, which has a tentative release date of February ‘09, now has a title: Earthsblood. Here’s what guitarist Doc Coyle (brother of MetalSucks blogger Dallas – duh) says in a statement:
“The title Earthsblood came to me after watching the film There Will Be Blood. What is the price of ambition? Is the blood of our bodies and the blood of the earth one and the same? With the current energy crisis, and its relation to many of the military conflicts worldwide, there has been a global, collective consciousness that has emerged in regards to the interdependence between humankind and the planet in which we inhabit. Coincidentally, the lyrics that Byron Davis and Dallas Coyle had written meshed with these revelations perfectly. This isn’t a preachy, trendy, ‘hip to be green’ album, nor is it a concept album. It’s just an abstract observation.”
The title is, as my favorite God Forbid shirt says, metal as fuck; and like Doc says, it’s not “trendy.” There’s always been been a political component to God Forbid’s music – they’re not hopping on any bandwagons.
We’ve already heard four tracks from this album, and I now feel 99.9% certain that this record is gonna be the shit. If you’re not excited already, you fucking should be.
-AR
When God Forbid’s new, still-untitled album is released in 2009, it will have been more than three years since their last record, the epic Constitution of Treason. Since then, the band has done an insane amount of touring and thrown their fans a few bones to tide us all over – a rarities collection here, a DVD there – but if most of our fellow God Forbid fans are like Vince and myself, they’re jonesin’ pretty hard for some new material.
So, speaking purely as fanboys, we were insanely excited when Dallas Coyle offered to give us a listen to four tracks off the new album. And we became even more excited when the songs turned out to be totally worth the wait, foretelling of a record as good as, if not better than, past God Forbid releases.
Things are heating up in the U.S. presidential race, and everyone from Vince to Axl to Dallas to the Blogronaut expressed their opinions; naturally you all got fired up too. But even politics as usual couldn’t stop the flow of happenings this week in the world of metal:
We out. See you Monday.
Mistakes
Last week’s blog was a fiery debate about politics, racism and the age old subject of musicians keeping their mouth shut and just sticking to music. As most of you know, I don’t adhere to the policy of musicians or artists keeping their mouths shut about politics whether they’re informed or not. I think people should be able to say what they want especially if they are given a platform to do so.
I will admit, my words about McCain’s comment were said out of anger and I stepped over the line. For that I apologize and I will say I made a mistake in charging McCain and his supporters with charges that aren’t necessarily true. If they are true I have no way of knowing so I concede the point that I was too harsh and I take my statements back in inferring that he may have deep rooted prejudices that will affect his style of governing.
I do think the debate on the blog last week was healthy and it was great to see people rage against me because of my regrettable comment. Someone said in a comment responding to the blog, ‘It’s better to be hated for who you are, than loved for who you are not.’ I’ll live by that standard and I can deal with it. I can fly off the handle and last weeks blog proved it.
Here we go again. After the most boring debate in history we were given a McCain soundbite that will live on for the rest of the campaign. McCain’s derogatory remark of “that one” referring to Senator Obama was pretty much a game changer in my opinion. This little remark showed the inner nature of John McCain and the Republican, conservative base. “This is mine. You don’t deserve to be here, you people…”
When you look at a small remark such as “that one”, it makes me think about going to vote. I was going to vote for Obama regardless but back during the primaries I was one of those Obama supporters who would have considered McCain if Hillary Clinton were the nominee. Now as I think about it, I should have had my fucking head examined. McCain is harboring some deep prejudices regarding black people and it clearly showed in that remark.
Do you want a bigot in the highest office in the world? I know I don’t. The funny thing is I’m sure there were a good amount of presidents who were bigots behind closed doors, but we live in a new time and a new day and that aggression will not stand. The fact that McCain’s disposition toward Senator Obama reeks with disdain, contempt and disrespect shows me he is unfit to be a president. I’m going to say it. McCain is a fucking loser. And he’s a punk.
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