A veritable force within the pantheon of doom, the mighty YOB have recently unleashed their most focused album to date, Atma. Once again, they do not disappoint, offering the listener a soul-crushing, transcendental experience of balls-heavy doom/sludge. YOB possess that rare triple-threat quality of producing consistently excellent recordings, performing flawlessly live, and bringing forth an intelligent, complementary aesthetic to their music. I caught the band on their recent US tour with Dark Castle, which if you missed, means you receive an F in life. The band is about to head across the pond to Europe with Dark Castle and Kongh, captivating new audiences and destroying speakers along the way. I

had the chance to catch up via e-mail with YOB founder Mike Scheidt, where he gave his insight on the band’s growing popularity, working with Scott Kelly, and YOB’s unique inspirations. So spark up some hash, put Atma on your speakers, and enter the devastating world of YOB.

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Last week we offered a signed Cradle of Filth picture disc vinyl as the prize for our weekly photo caption contest. And the winner is:

• Zach Dolan: “The Human Scenetipede.”

Nicely done, Zach. This week’s we’re giving away a gatefold vinyl test press version of the new Dark Castle album Surrender to All Life Beyond Form, which is being released by Brutal Panda Records and is available for pre-orders now. Just leave a comment with the funniest caption to the photo below (sent in by reader Kyle Palmer). Remember to use a real email address (or post it with your comment if you’re using FB Connect).

Lotsa stuff happened over the long weekend while we were away, so yesterday we did our best to catch ya’llup. But Vic Vaughn would never leave you hanging, and as such here’s his take on all the new metal hitting the waves this week.

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If you’re American, you already know it’s Memorial Day weekend, and, in fact, you’re probably either already on your way to the beach/a BBQ/a terrible summer movie/whatever, and are reading this after it was published. If you’re not American, all you really need to know is that we’re breaking out right now, and won’t be here on Monday. Usual tomfoolery will resume on Tuesday, May 31.

In the meantime, here’s how we kept busy this week:

• We debuted new music from Job for a Cowboy, Tombs, Unearth, and Vaulting.
• We spoke to Neil Fallon from Clutch.
• We continued to unveil our list of The Top 25 Modern Metal Guitarists.
• We checked out the latest releases from Dark Castle and Embers.
• Sergeant D. examined comedy metal.
• Leyla Ford examined Lady GaGa’s metal-ness.
• Anso wondered if Slayer pinball is better than recent Slayer albums.
• We got really excited about the new Gojira song.
• We got less excited about the new Bury Your Dead song.
• We watched you folks debated about the new Trivium song.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I am going to put these tips for using the toilet to good use before I head out for the weekend. See ya Tuesday!

-AR

Like I (and many others) have said before, drone doom, like grind, is incredibly easy to make and almost impossible to make well. But unlike grind, its success lies not in its riffs or intensity, but in its overall atmosphere. People don’t like drone-doom because it’s slow (well, unless they’re insufferable people); they like it because it’s menacing, ominous, and full of intensifying-yet-rarely-resolved dread. Which, fortunately, means it’s easy to weed out genuine dronesmiths from the scores of assholes-with-amp-boners. There’s nothing quite like the toxic air great drone-doom summons, and inversely, there’s nothing quite as unbearable as vapid, pretentious, assfaced hipsters thinking they’re conjuring evil when all they’re doing is contributing to a trust fund-financed circle jerk because metal is the cool thing to nod to when your Deerhoof vinyl is backordered. Profound Lore’s Dark Castle don’t sit firmly on the latter end of that spectrum, but they don’t really sit at the former, either. There are some decent songs, some great ideas, but ultimately, not a whole lot to grab on to.

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Dark Castle. I know there are people who go absolutely gaga over this band, but… I just don’t hear it. I don’t even really have anything negative to say about the band… they just don’t… they don’t… geez, I’m trying to avoid typing “They don’t hit me on a gut level” because that is such a cliché, but I honestly can’t think of another way to put it right now. They don’t impale aardvark babies to my ears? I dunno.

But I’m curious to hear what you cats think. Dark Castle have a new song, “I Hear Wind,” currently streaming at Invisible Oranges. Cosmo Lee is typically elegant when discussing his own passion for the band’s music: “On record, Dark Castle was once potential,” he writes. “Now the band is force, moving and writhing with a desire so vibrant that it practically grips listeners and shakes them.” Man, I wish I felt that way when I heard this song! That sounds like an awesome feeling to have. Maybe I have to see the band live to really “get it.”

ANYWAY, check out the song here and let us know what you think in the comments section. “I Hear Wind” comes off of Dark Castle’s latest, Surrender to All Life Beyond Form, which comes out May 31 on Profound Lore.

-AR

FEATURING MEMBERS OF ARCH ENEMY, SUNN O))), MADBALL, FUCK THE FACTS, DOMMIN, DARK CASTLE, IMBROGLIO, EXHUMED, AND THAT METAL SHOW

For 2010, we decided to do something special as part of our regular end-of-year festivities here at MetalSucks — namely, ask musicians from across the vast spectrum of the metalsphere (or, in a few cases, the almost-metalsphere) what their favorite albums of the year were. Death metallers, thrash metallers, black metallers, stoners, grinders, and djenters alike graciously contributed lists to MS, and we’ll be running them in groups of ten to eleven musicians at a time twice a day for the rest of the week.

After the jump, check out the first group… we hope you enjoy seeing what some of metal’s heaviest hitters were into this year as much as we have!

(And please note that these are musicians and that they, um, have a lot on their minds. So some of ‘em named albums that actually came out last year. Please don’t freak out.)

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[UPDATE: Dates have now been posted at Stereogum!]

Feels like we’ve been waiting forever for a Nachtmystium headline tour; in my recollection there wasn’t one for the Assassins: Black Meddle Part I album cycle, and as you all [should] know Blake Judd and the crew have released another excellent album since then. Maybe there was a headline run for Assassins but I couldn’t go or something… which makes this new opportunity even sweeter.

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On Sunday night we caught the Beard Destroyer 2009 tour with Hull and Batillus (sadly for us, Salome didn’t play that date). It crushed even harder than we thought it would, so we asked our friend, Batillus skinsman Geoff Summers, to do a tour wrap-up for us. We hope you enjoy!

So, here I sit with a mild case of PTD (post-tour depression) writing up this wrap report for the so-called Beard Destroyer tour featuring Salome, Hull, and my band, Batillus. We had some good times, and we had some bad times. It rained. A lot. Everywhere we went. Fortunately, though, the good dwarfed the bad. Let’s recap…

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MetalSucks is super-duper-uper psyched to be co-sponsoring the U.S. fall tour for Baroness, whose forthcoming Blue Album is so good that Axl will buy you a hooker if it’s not his favorite album of 2009. Baroness definitely bring the goods live, too. Some time shortly after the release of Red Album I saw the band in a shitty, hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant in Bushwick that was so makeshift that the furious moshpit kept running up against the restaurant’s tables and chairs stacked against the walls. It was complete fucking mayhem, and though Baroness have now moved on to considerably bigger and better venues, their intensity and passion for their live shows is just the same. Support on the run comes from a rotating cast of characters consisting of Earthless, U.S. Christmas, MetalSucks faves Iron Age, and Dark Castle, all of whom are sure to sweeten up the deal just that much.

Full list of tour dates (with relevant support act info) after the jump.

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