Yesterday we ran a very silly post in which we hypothesized about possible new vocalists for Killswitch Engage, except that the majority of candidates we named are not realistic possibilites (more on that in a second). I know that there are people who were bummed that we didn’t consider more realistic potentialities, but there was a reason we didn’t do that — it seems to us that Jesse Leach is really the only man for this job. (And, yes, we know that Leach just told fans via Facebook that “If I have something to say, I WILL say it. For the moment I have no comments on KSE.” But what do you expect him to say?)

Leach isn’t just the obvious choice — he’s really the best choice. Because his voice is still in great shape; because he’s a great performer; and because in 2012, we’d like to think that bands have learned from the Gary Cherones, Blaze Bayleys, and Dan Nelsons of the world. Being the third singer for a really famous band is a thankless task, even if you’re really talented. Tommy Vext, for example, is a great vocalist — but if he really did join KsE, he would face a momentous uphill battle to be accepted by fans and come out from under the shadow of Leach and Jones. And history teaches us that he — or any other singer, for that matter — probably would not win that battle.

So. This message on Killswitch’s official website certainly caught me by surprise…

Click to read more…

If you thought that release of Worship Music meant that Anthrax could finally put all the Dan Nelson drama behind them, well, you thought wrong. The New York Post reports that the former ‘Thrax vocalist is suing the band for a whopping $2.65 million:

Dan Nelson says drummer Charlie Benante, bassist Frank Bello and guitarist Scott Ian falsely stated in “numerous interviews” that he had “abruptly resigned” after getting sick, forcing a cancelation of a tour.

The $2.65 million suit also alleges that Benante last month told the rock-news site Blabbermouth.net that Nelson “was a bully.”

The Long Island native says his ex-bandmates’ “intentional defamation” has caused him a loss of income and damaged his reputation.

The Manhattan federal court filing further charges that Nelson co-wrote the tunes on the band’s latest album, “Worship Music,” but hasn’t gotten his fair share of the profits.

Click to read more…

Anthrax were playing at the Club Nokia in Los Angeles this past weekend when a fan jumped up on-stage, and a security guard who is also a major, major John Bush supporter decided to use said fan-on-stage as an excuse to tackle Joey Belladonna. Check out the video below; the incident in question happens at roughly the 1:36 mark.

Click to read more…

Here’s the thing about new Anthrax, in my opinion (and opinions among the various MS staffers differ greatly): it’s pretty good! Sure, I would rather be hearing John Bush’s (or even Dan Nelson’s) low, gruff snarl instead of Joey Bellardini’s high-pitched wail; a lot of Worship Music sounds like it was written for Bush/Nelson and subsequently re-tooled for Bellardini, and recent interviews with the band have confirmed that. But the songs themselves are pretty great, and Bellardini (with help from vocal producer Jay Ruston, I assume) actually did a good job penning vocal melodies to fit the already-written music. The performances are solid all around, and in the end isn’t an album’s awesomeness vs. suckiness-factor about the strength of the songs? Bellardini’s vocals sound weird / very produced at times, but his overall performance is good enough and doesn’t distract from the songs at all. Most importantly, the songs rock.

SO. With that in mind listen to “The Devil You Know” over at GuitarWorld.com; it’s the latest track to be released from Worship Music and it’s one of my favorites from the album. This is definitely one of those songs that falls into the “these riffs are begging for John Bush’s voice” category, but it’s still pretty fuckin’ headbangable if you ask me!

-VN

1) Be nicer to Sebastian Bach
2) Compare penis sizes with Tommy Lee
3) Hire Phil LaBonte as a vocal coach
4) Hire Billy Milano as a personal trainer
5) Hire Tripp Eisen as a baby sitter
6) Sleep with present-day Tawny Kitaen
7) Help Danzig clean up his motherfucking bricks, bitch
8) Listen to Ted Nugent talk about politics
9) Listen to Ted Nugent talk about romance
10) Listen to Ted Nugent talk about Ted Nugent

Click to read more…

Well, it’s been a long, long, long time coming, but Anthrax’s Worship Music is apparently FINALLY coming out on September 13. And now the studio version of the first single, “Fight ‘Em ‘Til You Can’t” — a song the band has been playing live for three years, since Dan Nelson’s brief tenure as their vocalist — is available for download here. (And, oh yeah, you hafta give up your e-mail address to get it.)

Not counting that “Ball of Confusion” cover Joey Belladonna recorded with John Bush for 1999′s Return of the Killer A’s, this is the first new Anthrax song with Belladonna in more than two decades. And it’s no secret that I’m not a Belladonna fan, but I’ll be curious to see if anyone defends his vocal performance here; I think it’s especially awful, and further demonstrates that, even if you are a Belladonna fan, his voice has not aged well. (And whoever decided he should whisper “I will end you” in sync with the drums before the second verse made a poor choice. SO CHEESY.)

But I also think the band made some weird choices in the production of the song, and those choices undermine its power. I don’t know if those guitars or keyboards under the chorus, for example, which is a bad sign; whatever they are, they make the track feel way too poppy. In fact, I’d say the whole song seems to be lacking any real edge.

But maybe it will grow on me. We’ll see.

Headbang here, then debate the quality of the song in the comments section below.

-AR

Thanks to Aleksander Sobecki for the tip!

In an alternate universe the world would be genuinely excited for new Anthrax featuring one Dan Nelson from Lawn Guyland, NY. In reality we have Joey Suckadonna ‘Thrax to look forward to on an album that will come out sometime never, and Nelson, a talented vocalist if you ask me, is left on the sidelines working on other things.

“Other things” is his new band Blackgates, also featuring superman-drummer Paul Bostaph (Testament, Exodus, Slayer, etc), guitarist Jeremy Epp and bassist Uriah Duffy (Whitesnake); the “supergroup” of sorts has a propensity to seem ridiculous before even playing a note. But ya know what? The two Blackgates songs I’ve heard so far are damn fine; solid riffing, sharp drumming and powerful vocals a good band makes. Stream via the ReverbNation widget below.

-VN

Earlier this month Scott Ian uploaded some videos of him recording the new, seemingly forever-in-the-making Anthrax album, Worship Music. I didn’t write anything about it at the time ’cause in the videos he was working on the song “Fight ‘Em ‘Til You Can’t,” which we’ve already heard live seemingly a gajillion times, and with two different singers at that (Dan Nelson, Joey Belladonna). So the clips didn’t seem like news, ’cause the band didn’t prove that Worship Music really exists so much as they proved that that one song really exists.

But now Ian has uploaded another video — and this one has a riff we haven’t heard before! And it’s a good riff, too. I know it’s not the most innovative thing ever written, but it’s heavy, it’s catchy, it’s fun… it makes me wanna hear the rest of the song ASAP. It would be really really awesome if Worship Music turned out to be really really awesome.

Worship Music is allegedly FINALLY coming out in September via Megaforce.

-AR

[via Metal Insider]

The possibly-not-final cover art for Anthrax’s Worship Music

So I have a friend who works closely with Camp Anthrax. I obviously can’t tell you the friend’s name, but I can tell you that he once told me that the Dan Nelson version of Worship Music was awesome, and that I’ve been begging him to let me hear it ever since. Thing is, he doesn’t actually own a copy, and has never been able to get his hands on one. Security around the album was tight before the Nelson debacle, but after, he told me, “It was like Scott and Charlie were going door-to-door personally checking people’s hard drives to make sure everyone had deleted it.”

And so last night I got a text from this friend, I guess trying to make amends for the fact that he never did come through with that Dan Nelson record: “Just got the Belladonna version of Worship Music. U wanna hear it?”

I responded simply, “Be there in 20.” And I got my ass on the subway and I went over to his place.

And I gotta tell you, guys… it’s a weird record, and there are two MASSIVE, and massively tragic, missteps… but it’s pretty great overrall. It’s not really like any metal record I’ve ever heard before. Whatever else you wanna say about Anthrax, you can’t accuse them of refusing to experiment — this album is a huge, huge risk, often welding together vastly different styles and textures of not just metal but often other genres of music, too. I don’t know if people will go for this record or not, but I think it’s kinda brilliant.

(By the way, the above album cover is a carry-over from the Dan Nelson version of the record; apparently it may be scrapped in favor of something that “feels more like the album cover of one of the old Belladonna albums.” Which would be a weird decision, because, a few songs aside, this record doesn’t sound anything like any other Anthrax album.)

And so here it is — my track-by-track breakdown of what I heard.

You guys aren’t gonna believe this shit.

Click to read more…

We haven’t had any real Anthrax drama in a few months, so I guess we were due. This might be the most ridiculous round yet, though, ’cause it’s really all just about Scott Ian having a lousy memory.

So here’s what happened. As you should be aware, after Anthrax re-fired Joey Belladonna and found themselves unable to re-hire John Bush, they brought on an entirely new singer, Dan Nelson. They even recorded an album with the guy, called Worship Music. One of the songs on Worship Music was called “Fight ‘Em ‘Til You Can’t.” Here’s Anthrax with Dan Nelson performing the song in Chicago in May of 2008:

Then for whatever reason Dan Nelson was either fired from or quit Anthrax, and Worship Music sat on the shelf. And then John Bush was back in the band, and then he wasn’t, at least in part, it seems, because he didn’t just wanna re-record Nelson’s parts from Worship Music.

And so Anthrax re-re-hired Joey Belladonna, who made it clear that he was amenable to re-recording Nelson’s Worship Music performance. And while we’re still waiting for Worship Music (or whatever the hell it ends up being called) to be released, this latest incarnation of Anthrax is currently touring with Slayer and Megadeth, and have even started playing “Fight ‘Em ‘Til You Can’t” with Belladonna on vocals. Here’s a video of that happening  in Uniondale this past Friday night:

Click to read more…

An actual screen-cap.

The Big Four Comedy Tour rolls on!

Scott Ian gave a video interview to zee German edition of Metal Hammer earlier this month, and when pressed about Joey Belladonna’s status in the band, he was, well… let’s just say “non-committal.” I can’t embed the video, but here are some choice quotes…

Click to read more…

After John Bush left Anthrax (again) in May, he had this to say on the topic of Joey Belladonna possibly performing Bushthrax material:

Hopefully they’ll start playing some of the songs I sang on. I think it’s time for Joey to step up and play some songs from my era. I played songs from the whole catalog, including Neil Turbin’s stuff. I think fans should still get to hear songs like “Inside Out”, “Room For One More” or “Only.” There are lots of amazing songs and they should play them. It would be weird if they didn’t, quite frankly.

I thought the idea of Belladonna singing Bushthrax songs was a little odd, but I was willing to give it a shot; then again, I never really thought it would happen, ’cause, well, so often when an original member of a band re-joins said band, all the material that was written and recorded without him goes right out the window. Obviously there are exceptions – like Dave Lombardo playing “Disciple” at pretty much every Slayer concert since he came back to the fold – but that’s the exception, not the rule. Anyone see David Lee Roth sing “Right Now” on the Van Halen reunion tour? No. What about Ace Frehley doing “Lick it Up?” Never happened. If Axl and Slash ever kiss and make-up, do you think we’ll suddenly see the original GN’R line-up playing tunes off of Chinese Democracy? It’s not likely. This is just the way things go.

But now those Sonisphere Big Four shows have started, and, lo and behold!, Anthrax did, indeed, play “Only” – probably the most famous Bushthrax song – with Belladonna belting it out. Now, I know there are people who think that Belladonna could raise the dead and I’d still find a reason to complain, but, seriously. He cut the balls right the fuck off this song. Just snipped ‘em right off. This bootleg isn’t even very good quality, and I still think it sounds weird as fuck:

Pretty funky, right? And there are parts where he sounds kinda winded, too, although I’m willing to forgive that somewhat, ’cause, y’know. It happens sometimes.

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

Since Anthrax announced last week that they’re bringing Joey Belladonna into the fold, we’ve had one burning question at the forefront of our minds: What the fuck went wrong with John Bush? Scott Ian said “we needed a total commitment to Anthrax, and [Bush] knew that wasn’t what he wanted,” but that’s fairly vague. The rumor was that he didn’t want to tour anymore, but we also recklessly speculated that he didn’t wanna be just a session musician and re-recorded Dan Nelson’s parts for Worship Music – which is perfectly understandable.

Now Blabbermouth’s Ryan Ogle has scored the interview of the week by hunting down Bush and getting his perspective on things. And as it turns out, the rumors and reckless speculation were both kinda true.

Click to read more…

Through amazing mind-reading technology created by the MetalSucks Mansion Monkey affectionately known as “You Worthless Retard,” MetalSucks was exclusively able to listen-in on Joey Belladonna’s most private thoughts while he contemplated whether or not to return to Anthrax.* What follows is a transcript of those thoughts…

Okay, Joey. Now, let’s be rational. Let’s think this all the way through. Let’s not make any brash decisions this time.

I mean, these dudes have not been cool to me. Remember when they fired me in 1992 for no apparent reason? And they hired me back to do that reunion tour. And then they, uh, y’know. Fired me again. And this time, I found out about it over the internet. They weren’t even good enough to give me a phone call! And then Scott and Charlie talked an awful lot of shit about me in the press, and said that I should “Grow up and be a man. Take responsibility for your life.” And I had, like, no idea what they were talking about. Just a couple of months ago, Scott made fun of me on television! I kinda think it might be because the reunion was less financially successful than we’d hoped. But I don’t really know, ’cause I never actually spoke to them about it.

And now they wanna hire me back! Again! And they want me to sing some other dude’s parts on a new album, without actually contributing anything myself! And the guy is some kid they hired because when John Bush showed a little backbone and refused to come back to the band after I was re-fired, they decided they’d rather work with pretty much anyone but me. Actually, they decided they’d rather work with Corey Taylor than me. But Corey’s business manager had more sense than that, and then they decided they’d rather work with pretty much anyone but me. The nerve!

Click to read more…

Well, this was some shitty news to get first thing in the morning.

Just last week we heard rumors that Anthrax was swapping out John Bush for Joey Belladonna again – and now those rumors are fact. Belladonna will play the “Big Four” shows Sonisphere Festival shows and a handful of other gigs with the band starting next month; immediately thereafter, according to the official press release, “the band will fly back to the U.S. and begin writing and rehearsing for a new album that’s expected to be out in early 2011.”

(And in case you’re wondering, Dan Spitz isn’t returning to the fold, because I guess he’s too busy changing the face of music forever with his revolutionary new project, DeuxMonkey. So, at least for now, Rob Caggiano’s job is safe.)

I hate just cutting and pasting press releases, but for the sake of us all having the same amount of information before I start my little rant, I’m going to re-print a portion of said release after the jump. My holier-than-thou ramblings will follow.

Click to read more…

Like a lot of people, I first became familiar with Brian Posehn because of his time on David Cross and Bob Odenkirk’s brilliant HBO sketch comedy series, Mr. Show, for which he was also a writer. A few years after that show went off the air, my then-roommate and I went to see Posehn do some stand-up at a comedy club here in New York. I don’t think we were even there to see Posehn specifically – if memory serves, David Cross was the actual draw for us – but he was so funny that I actually laughed so hard I became winded and fell out of my chair. Since then, he’s been on a very, very short list of stand-ups that I never miss the chance to check out when they come through town. Mr. Show sketches about a fictional band called “Titannica” led me to believe that someone on the series’ writing staff was a metal fan, but I didn’t know that it was Posehn until later – and the revelation that he was just as obsessed with metal as I was only made him that much cooler.

Fart and Wiener Jokes, Posehn’s second album for Relapse, comes out today (and you can order a copy here). Like its predecessor, Live: In Nerd Rage, it features not only recordings of his brilliant stand-up, but also an original song he co-wrote with Anthrax’s Scott Ian (“More Metal Than You”) to poke fun at some of metal’s more regrettable foibles. It also has a metal cover of Kenny Rogers’ “The Gambler,” and between the two music tracks, Posehn has managed to rope in guest appearances by such all-stars as Jamey Jasta, Mark Morton, Mark Oseguenda, John Tempesta, and Russ Parrish. Assuming you love great comedy and great metal, there’s no way you’re not gonna dig Fart and Wiener Jokes.

A few weeks ago I got to talk to Posehn about putting comedy albums out on a metal label, what it’s like to be friends with some of his boyhood heroes, the state of metal today, his take on the Anthrax vocalist situation, and more. He even turned the tables at the end and asked me a question! Read the complete transcript of our chat after the jump.

Click to read more…

It must be an interesting time to be John Bush. Armored Saint have just released La Raza, their first album in a decade – and its rightfully being met with cheers of “It was worth the wait!” from critics and fans alike. Meanwhile, last year he re-joined Anthrax after more than four years away, and, it would seem, is now back with the band for good. Given that he was pretty much absent from the scene altogether during those years, this sudden abundance of new output can only be good news for the John Bush fans of the world – like us!

Last week I got to talk to to Bush about getting back together with Armored Saint after all this time, the writing process for La Raza, whether or not the band has any plans to tour, and what exactly is going on with Anthrax (the answer may surprise you – it looks like we may get to hear at least some of a Bushful of Worship Music after all, despite what some other members of the band have said in the press). Read the full transcript of our chat after the jump.

Click to read more…

THE ANTHRAX SAGA CONTINUES!

So. If you’re just joining us, here’s the story thus far: Anthrax decided to do a reunion tour with Joey Belladonna, but when they got off the road everyone in the band came to their senses and was like, “Wait, what? We’re not making an album with Joey Belladonna!” But John Bush was all, “You can’t fuck another girl and then ask me to the prom,” so Anthrax needed to get a new singer. They hired this dude no one has ever heard of named Dan Nelson and recorded a new album, Worship Music, which they assured us was going to be the second-coming. But then all of sudden Nelson was out of the band, either because he quit or was fired, depending on who you believe. And then they got John Bush to agree to tour with them again. And now everyone is all, “Is Bush in the band or what?” and Anthrax is all “Fingers crossed!”, which isn’t very reassuring.

On top of all of this, it has now been six and half years since the release of Anthrax’s last album, We’ve Come for You All. The last time anyone waited this long for a new record by an allegedly not-defunct band, it was Chinese Democracy.

Difference is, we finally got to hear Chinese Democracy, and now it looks like we’ll probably never hear Worship Music - at least, not in any official capacity.

Click to read more…

Obviously, my headline is a little sensationalistic. We waited a decade and a half for Chinese Democracy; it’s only been six (almost seven) years since the last Anthrax studio album, We’ve Come for You All. And wile CD apparently cost somewhere in neighborhood of $13 million dollars… well, I don’t know what the budget was/is on Worship Music, but I’m guessing Anthrax wouldn’t know $13 million dollars if it pooped in their eye.

Still, Chinese Democracy – which was finally released almost exactly one year ago – is the closest corollary I can think of to Worship Music, which is starting to reach mythological status.

Click to read more…