I can’t think of anything clever to say right now, so I’m just gonna leave to my homies, Ozzy and Forest:

Here’s what we did this week:

• Veil of Maya’s Marc Okubo gave us our first Legacy Tour diary, Intronaut’s Sacha Dunable gave us a lesson in why Californians should have voted to legalize weed, and The Red Chord’s Greg Weeks gave MetalSucks readers a chance to write about the NFL themselves for once.
• We debuted new music by The Secret.
• We spoke to Dredg’s Gavin Hayes, Enslaved’s Ivar Bjørnson, and Nails’ Todd Jones.
• We checked out new releases by Masters of Reality and Colombian Necktie.
• We kicked off the arguing regarding the best albums of 2010.
• We wondered, “Which is better, death metal or black metal?”
• We also wondered if we should like Mogwai.
• We regretted learning about Gump-core.
• We watched a chick shred some Faceless.
• We tried to find a stage big enough to hold Glenn Danzig’s ego.

Have nice weekend everybody. See ya Monday.

-AR

On Tuesday night we got an e-mail from reader Taylor Carik, letting us know that he and a friend had gone to see Danzig at the Cabooze in Minneapolis earlier in the evening — only for Danzig to cancel the show at the last minute, “saying he didn’t like the venue.” Apparently the other bands on the tour played anyway, though — Taylor also told us that “Moduk was alright, too, for corpse paint.” And I know I should have immediately done some research to see if Danzig had, indeed, cancelled a gig because he didn’t like a venue, but I didn’t. I was far too interested in finding out who Moduk were. Corpse paint that can actually play music? That’s amazing! It takes the musicians who usually wear the corpse paint right out of the equation! IT COULD BE A REVOLUTION IN BLACK METAL!!! No longer would corpse paint be beholden to some asshole to make its art.

But while I was busy trying to track down this magical corpse paint, we got another e-mail, from a reader calling himself “Why Hate Abigail Williams?” (to which I can only reply, “Because they blow goats and like it?”), pointing us towards this report regarding the Danzig cancellation in question:

Click to read more…

Why am I writing this week’s “Worst Week” entirely in questions? Could it be to irritate you? Or am I just trying to keep myself amused at the end of the week?

Did you know we asked some other questions this week?

• Was Sergeant D. kidding when he said that there are only two good songs in Reign in Blood?
• Why did Dimmu Borgir change their album art post-release?
• What’s the big deal about Volbeat?
• Is Glenn Danzig actually perfectly reasonable?
• Is there anything better than a Devin Townsend show?
• Can Ozzy restore your sanity?

And have you asked yourself these questions as well?

• Did you know that we debuted new music by The Ocean, Dukatalon, and Gozu?
• Did you read Anso’s chat with Dave Wyndorf from Monster Magnet?
• Is Oderus’ advice column worse than Vinnie Paul’s? Do you agree with Doc Coyle’s assessments on the issue of European metal versus American metal? Do you find, as Eyal Levi does, that creative prison is for pussies? Is Greg Weeks imagining it, or does it smell like poop and onions right now?
• Did you buy the new album from Dallas Coyle’s Genetic? You know the money goes to cancer research, right?

Are you worried that I’ll still be doing this on Monday? Do you think I care?

-AR

You may remember that exactly one month ago, the above photo of Glenn Danzig shopping for kitty litter surfaced, and the internet wet its collective pants laughing. I didn’t really see the humor in the situation, though, and I still don’t. The dude owns a cat. That cat needs to shit. Danzig isn’t a member of Metallica; it’s not likely he has a horde of minions to run out and do his bidding all the time. And even if he does, we know for a fact that sometimes the Metallicats enjoy behaving like regular people, too, so it’s entirely feasible that Danzig gave his assistant or whatever the day off and just went to the store himself.

So. Glenn Danzig goes shopping for pet supplies. Hahahaha. Whatever.

But I’m clearly in the minority. So now Buzzgrinder has asked Danzig about the photo, and to his credit, Danzig’s response is perfectly reasonable:

Click to read more…

Our friends at Metal Insider and Metal Injection both posted the below photo today. In case you’re blind and your computer is, like, reading this to you or something, it’s a picture of Glenn Danzig in a grocery store parking lot, having just purchased, amongst other items, some kitty litter.

And I guess the picture is pretty funny, not least of all because Danzig is either wearing one of his own band shirts, or a shirt that looks one of his band shirts; I’ve seen Doro Pesch out in public rocking her own gear, too, and I don’t really understand the need to call attention to yourself like that, but maybe that’s why I’m an anonymous blogger and not a rock star.

But I don’t find a lot of humor in the simple fact that Glenn Danzig goes shopping. Between getting laid out by that dude from North Side Kings, advising cancer patients not to get chemo, and declaring that The Illuminati secretly run the world, I’d argue that Danzig lost his cool mystery factor a long time ago.

You know what I would find surprising and hilarious? If his cat were any color other than black. Now that would be unexpected.

I’ve written before about my affinity for the music of Melissa Auf der Maur, and I know that some people were all,”Hey, this chick ain’t metal.” To which I say: au contraire. Even if her music isn’t always as heavy as a really heavy thing, she’s certainly got the metal in her blood n’ spirit. She fronted Hand of Doom, a (totally killer) Black Sabbath tribute band, and her latest solo album, Out of Our Minds, has a duet with Glenn Danzig, fer Chrissakes!

But in case you’re somehow still too metalier than thou to show Ms. Auf der Maur some love, maybe this will change your mind: She recently hit up the Heavy MTL festival in her hometown of Montreal, and filed a four-part video report from said festival. I’m skipping right to part three below, not because the first two parts aren’t great (Cute Canadian girls with funny accents! WHOO-HOO!), but because I find this interview with Mastodon’s Troy Sanders and Brann Dailor to be really, really entertaining.

Check out the other three video reports here. Melissa Auf der Maur’s latest, Out of our Minds, is out now. And after the jump, in an effort to get you all on board with the program, I’ve posted some more Auf der Maurian goodness…

Click to read more…

We already knew that Glenn Danzig was nutty, ’cause he used to sing for The Misfits and he doesn’t believe in doctors or medicine. So I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that he’s a conspiracy theorist, too. From a recent interview with MSN:

What are you reading lately?

Let’s see… something I started getting interested in a long time ago, that’s just an extension of a course on America being founded on Masonic principles and things like that. Back in the ’90s I looked at it and it was a no-no to talk about, but… the whole organization that runs the world, which is multi-country, and people know it as either the Committee of 300 or the Bilderbergs. Some people call it the Illuminati. That’s interesting to me.

The Illuminati? Like, the bad guys from that movie Opie made? Yeah, I’m not that worried about those dudes. Or the Bilderbergs. Or any of those other groups people like to say secretly run things. I mean, my grandfather was a Freemason, and if that guy was running the world, then I’m secretly Joey Belladonna, and I just make fun of myself for free publicity. Oh, wait. Shit. I wasn’t supposed to tell you that. Now I have to kill you.

Anyways, here’s hoping Danzig now covers this:

-AR

From TMZ:

-AR

Thanks to Clint Kaio for this amazing, amazing tip!!!

Being a metal blogger makes me some sort of music journalist, apparently, and membership in this club has its privileges. Perhaps the coolest of these is the tendency to hear new albums weeks or even months before the general public. Unlike you, I don’t have to speculate on whether or not the forthcoming Danzig album will sound good–because I’ve already fucking heard it (and it’s a serious letdown, my friends.) But I don’t want to talk about Danzig right now. I want to talk about Mose Giganticus, a recent Relapse Records signing that I’ve expressed my distaste for before.

Why do I take issue with this band? Well, “The Left Path”, the first track the band released, essentially took unique elements from the Melvins’ “A Talking Horse” and regurgitated it. The similarities are pretty much undeniable by anyone familiar with the (A) Senile Animal, and were enough for me to publicly call Mose Giganticus out on it. Today, given the opportunity and audience afforded to me as a MetalSucks writer, I can reveal that, having received an advance promotional copy of their upcoming album, that there’s at least one other obvious instance of Melvins-snatching on the record. Out of professional courtesy for the label, I wont post the track in advance of the album’s release, but the opening track “Last Resort” seemingly co-opts quite a few elements from the Melvins’ “The Bit”–from riffs to vocals. It’s not as blatant as in the previously cited case, but it’s assuredly there and I know at least one other Melvins freak who concurs with me on this. This is more than a coincidence and even Mose Giganticus unapologetically concede this.

Click to read more…

I was catching up on the past couple of weeks of The Office this weekend, and…

And then I found twenty bucks.

-AR

Yep, we talked a lot of smack on Joey Belladonna this week, much to the chagrin of, well, an awful lot of you. I think we’re done for a little while… but I can’t make any promises. Our job at MetalSucks is to amuse ourselves first and foremost, and, well, we thought it was pretty damned funny. So ppppfffftttt.

Here’s what else went down this week:

• We debuted the title track from Nachtmystium’s new album, Addicts.
• Genetic’s Dallas Coyle called us “influential,” Disfear’s Tomas Lindberg shared some Maryland Deathfest memories, The Austerity Program’s Justin Foley unveiled his top four Taco Riffs, Cynic’s Paul Masvidal got burglarized, As I Lay Dying’s Nick Hipa made some new revelations about L O S T, God Forbid’s Doc Coyle worried about turning into an old geezer, Daath’s Eyal Levi gave us a lesson in stage etiquette, and Batillus’ Geoff Summers gave us a new studio update.
• We spoke to The Melvins’ Buzz Osborne, Periphery’s Misha “Bulb” Mansoor, Testament’s Chuck Billy, and Sick of it All’s Lou Koller.
• We checked out new releases by Korn and Ufomammut and Year of No Light.
• Is Mastodon’s Brent Hinds a Mastodick?
• Sergeant D sez Cunthunt777 are your new favorite band.
• Don’t worry, baby, Dr. Danzig gonna cure what ails you.
• Hot chick loves Nergal, hates the Bible.
• Boy oh boy, do we love the new Limp Bizkit cover art!
• If you’re looking for new band members, don’t do this.

Alright. We’re gonna go get drunk and crank We’ve Come For You All in John Bush’s honor. Have a great weekend, everyone.

-AR

I just saw this as part of the “If CHUD Ran the Movies” series and it made me giggle…

Check out more hot photoshop action here. If you like movies and don’t read CHUD, you’re a loser.

-AR

I don’t really know what the critical consensus was on the self-titled debut solo album from ex-Hole/ex-Smashing Pumpkins bassist Melissa Auf der Maur, but I thought it was catchy as hell. It came out just a few months after Courtney Love’s America’s Sweetheart and certainly blew that album right the fuck out of the water, that’s for sure. If you’ve never heard it, all you really need to know to understand what kind of record it is is that Josh Homme co-wrote and appears on the album alongside James Iha, Jeorde White (a.k.a. “Twiggy Ramirez”), and some other nifty guest musicians. Either those names appeal to you, or they don’t.

ANYWAY, that was almost six years ago already, and I kinda thought maybe Ms. Auf der Maur was done with music or something. But not so! She’s just released a video for “Out of Our Minds,” the title track from her new solo album, which a press release tells me “extends into a 28-minute, HD film starring and conceived by MAdM, as well as a limited edition comic book and matching Picture Disc Vinyl illustrated by Jack Forbes from Brooklyn, NY.” Personally I’m not sure that I care about anything other than the music, but, hey, good for her for being ambitious.

So this isn’t really metal and I’m not as wild about it as I was, say, “Followed the Waves” or “Taste You”* from her last album, but it’s not bad at all:

Out of Our Minds comes out March 30. And it features a duet with Glenn Danzig!

-AR

*If you can find the French language version of “Taste You,” check it out instead of the English version. The song sounds a million times sexier en Francais.

Here’s the poster for this summer’s Sweden Rock Festival. You tell me what’s wrong with this picture:

Are people really like “Man, I can’t wait to see Slayer and Mastodon and Suicidal Tendencies… and Rick Springfield!”? Do we think there are a lot of Swedish Behemoth  and Watain fans who are also totally stoked to check out BTO? I guess I can see some of the over-forty set being just as excited to sing along with “Jesse’s Girl” as they are “Round and Round,” but if you’re the kind of person afflicted with that particular virus of 80s nostalgia, I don’t know what the hell you do while Danzig are on-stage. Grab a beer and wait for W.A.S.P., I guess?

Your thoughts?

-AR

Tomorrow is Halloween. This is great news, because it means that come Sunday (or Monday) people will finally fucking stop talking about Halloween. So sick of it already. When did I become so curmudgeonly? I’m gonna make a hell of an old man. Here’s what went down this week:

• Danzig drummer Chuck Biscuits died. Oh wait, no he didn’t.
• We debuted a new Mudvayne track and we posted live photos from Satyricon and Goatwhore/Eyehategod shows.
• We analyzed the business models of Earache and Roadrunner Records.
• The Boner Tour 2010 has been announced.
• Bison B.C.’s Dan And wrote two tour blogs for us while Horse the Band’s Lord Gold told us about women in diners.
• We spoke with Jucifer’s Amber Valentine and James Plodkin from Jodis.
• We’re giving away a buncha BTBAM shit and celebrating the release of their new album.
• We got all creative writing on your ass.

Our very own Corey Mitchell is gonna be on TV this weekend; he’ll be appearing on E!’s “20 Most Horrifying Hollywood Murders” on Saturday night at 6:00pm EST/5:00PM CST. In addition to his duties as the resident Mansion old fart, Corey writes books about true crime and is a respected authority on the matter so it should be an interesting (and br00tal) watch. Have a good weekend everyone.

Yesterday we mourned the loss of former Danzig drummer Chuck Biscuits, who died at age 44 of throat cancer. It was indeed a sad, sad day here at the MetalSucks Mansion, and we all wore white in tribute to the fallen skinsman (We usually wear black anyway, so that wouldn’t do.).

Only problem is, Brooklyn Vegan is now reporting that Mr. Biscuits is very much alive and well.

Click to read more…

Former Danzig drummer Chuck Biscuits (né Charles Montgomery) has passed away from throat cancer. He was only 44.

There’s never anything you can really say in these situations… Chuck was an awesome drummer and was way too young to die. Our thoughts are with his friends and family.

Here he is with Danzig… I saw this video on Zena Metal and it seemed appropriate… she has more that you should go check out.

-AR

…since apparently Perez Hilton is the Perez Hilton of metal. Check out his new t-shirts, which I saw this morning on Reign in Blonde. They’re the latest signs of the mainstream’s attempt to co-opt metal culture:

Click to read more…

As a part of goth metal OGs Type O Negative, drummer Johnny Kelley’s talents are often overshadowed by the low end sultriness and antics of bassist/frontman/nude model Peter Steele. But his graceful stickwork has been holding the band together since 1995′s October Rust, and the string of Type O albums that have come out since have stood shoulder to shoulder with the band’s prior material. Along with being Danzig’s drummer, Kelly plays in Seventh Void, a stoner/trad metal outfit with Type O Negative guitarist Kenny Hickey. The latter band released their debut on Vinnie Paul’s Big Vin Records in April. In an interview with MetalSucks, Kelly discusses Type O Negative’s future, working with Glenn Danzig, and his thoughts on modern drummers.

Click to read more…

I mean, there’s no way this is actually Glenn Danzig, but good God, whoever is running @DANZIG deserves a major fucking pat on the back for coming up with gems like these:

I’ve never liked the word “spunky”
1:14 PM Apr 4th from web

my patience has worn thinner than my hairline lately.
10:43 PM Mar 23rd from web

No I am not going to be on a VH1 dating show, so stop asking.
1:14 AM Mar 7th from web

heading to the nail salon to get my pinky nail sharpened, brb
8:25 AM Feb 28th from web

standing in a clearing at the edge of the woods shaking a baby in my mouth
12:08 AM Feb 27th from web

Pure. Comic. Gold. Thanks to loooongtime MS Maniac (and Twitter-phobe) hibernum for sending this one in.

-VN