LOLZ at the flame-war that erupted over last week’s funny photo caption contest; apparently our supposed “funny photo” was actually a famous-ish painting by artist Miguel Calderón, and some MetalSucks Maniacs took offense to us using it in a mocking light. To thee I say: our site is called “METAL SUCKS” for chrissakes, so get the sand out of your collective vaginas and stop whining. Fuckin’ A!

Anyway, die-hard MS Maniac Sammy won the signed God Forbid guitar with the following entry:

…and with that the ICP Special Olympics began….

Congrats Sammy, your 6,457 comments on this site have finally paid dividends. Maybe in another 2.5 years we’ll get you an amp rig to go with that axe. This week we’re giving away a package of CDs to one lucky winner: Darkane’s latest ripper Demonic Art, Devin Townsend’s excellent new solo release Ki and a collection of Edguy singles. Good variety, something for everyone. Just come up with a funny caption to the below photo!

You bitched and moaned about daylight savings time, even though you were asleep when the clocks changed and you get an extra hour of daylight every day until November. You are all retards.

Here’s what else happened this week:

• Sigh’s Mirai Kawashima gave us another studio report (no naked Dr. Mikannibal pics, sorry), Early Man’s Mike Conte got his cheesesteak on, and Neuraxis’ Alexandre Leblanc gave us his final tour blog.
• We spoke with Darkane’s Christofer Malmstrom, Meshuggah’s Marten Hagstrom, Soilwork’s Peter Wichers and Ross the Boss (ex-Manowar)
• Our man-crush on Trent Reznor grew ever greater.
• You argued over who was the most important member of Metallica, past and present.
• We looked at new releases by Razor of Occam and Karl Sanders.
• It was a big week in the Norwegian courts… the Gorgoroth case was settled, and Varg was granted parole.
• Crazytown and Skunk Anansie are getting back together.

Next week Kip and I take off for Austin, TX on Wednesday. We’ll be live-blogging whenever possible. To everyone else, have fun not being there, suckazzz!!

-VN

Darkane guitarist Christofer Malmström defines dedication. So considering the Swedish melodic death-thrash quintet’s great fifth record Demonic Art (Nuclear Blast), a direct support slot on a grueling tour with Soilwork, and his band’s place in a burgeoning thrash metal renaissance, it’s clear he has cause to be in high spirits. Even a doom-obsessed interviewer couldn’t dispirit Malmström, who was battling a cold on his way to rock Portland when MetalSucks phoned up to chat about their brand new singer Jens Broman, playing 50 shows in 52 days, and not listening to new music.

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Watching Peter Wichers play with Soilwork last month at New York’s Highline Ballroom was like witnessing a homecoming of sorts. Sure, it wasn’t the very first show back for Wichers, a founding member and key songwriter who recently returned to the group after a four-year hiatus, who had already been playing with the band for weeks on tour with Darkane, Warbringer and Swallow the Sun. Still, it just felt so right. Without Wichers, Soilwork was like a lumbering beast doing its best Soilwork impersonation… but it wasn’t quite Soilwork. Sworn to a Great Divide was a decent album, but “decent” was exactly as far as it went. Before the show I caught up with Wichers to ask him about the circumstances leading to his return to the band, balancing life on the road and life with a family, what it’s like to play someone else’s material in your band, his production work on the Nuclear Blast Allstars project and Warrel Dane solo record, and what the future holds for Soilwork. Our chat, after the fold.

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Since a) we rocked out to Darkane on Sunday night at the MetalSucks sponsored Soilwork/Darkane/Warbringer/Swallow the Sun tour (get remaining tour dates here!), b) I was just talking to Frank Godla from Metal Injection about how awesome this band is, and c) Vince has been twittering (tweeting?) about the band, this seemed like a good time to post a Darkane video.

So, here’s a Darkane video. For the song “Chaos Vs. Order.” Enjoy.

-AR

The splendidly worded (and completely, 100% grammatically correct) phrase above came from one of the Blabberbrats who was commenting on Soilwork’s new video for “20 More Miles.” And y’know what? I’m inclined to agree! Sure, this clip is the kind of slo-mo behind-the-scenes of a tour-type thing we’ve seen a million times before, but it still works, ’cause it’s fuckin’ Soilwork!

Don’t forget that Soilwork’s MetalSucks sponsored tour with Darkane, Swallow the Sun, and, depending on which date you attend, either Daylight Dies or Warbringer, kicks off this Friday. It’s gonna be a helluva time; get complete tour dates at Soilwork’s MySpace page.

-AR

It’s only January 7th but already three ridiculously awesome North American tours are planned for the early part of the year:

Soilwork + Darkane + Swallow the Sun + Daylight Dies (in some markets)

Meshuggah + Cynic + The Faceless

The Haunted + Nachtmystium + Kylesa + Intronaut

Like, woah.

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No, the band didn’t break up; but two days ago marked the shortest day of the year so it’s all uphill from here, baby! This time of year I always get to thinking of bands like Daylight Dies and Swallow the Sun because it’s so fucking dark, cold and depressing all the time. To that end, here’s Daylight Dies’ video for “Lies That Bind,” a MetalSucks-fave by a band that’s from the wintry, isolated, dreary wilderness of… North Carolina.

Catch ‘em on the MetalSucks co-sponsored North American tour this winter with Soilwork, Darkane and — who else — Swallow the Sun.

-VN

What was already shaping up to be one of the most exciting tours of early 2009 just got even better. The North American jaunt, headlined by Soilwork with support from Darkane and Swallow the Sun, just added North Carolina’s princes of gloomy-death-doom Daylight Dies (read Chris Roddy’s glowing review of Lost to the Living) in place of Warbringer, who were forced to drop off due to recording obligations. It’s not that we don’t like Warbringer — in fact, they’re one of our collective favorite bands of the current re-thrash movement — it’s just that… dude, Daylight fuckin’ Dies!! And Swallow the Sun! On the same bill! Headlined (finally!) by a newly re-Peter Wichers’ed Soilwork!! Dude.

Head exploding. For serious. Full list of tour dates after the jump.

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MetalSucks recently sat down with guitarist Ola Frenning (above, right) of Swedish metal kings Soilwork mere hours before their sold out show at New York City’s Hammerstein Ballroom with Killswitch Engage, Lamb of God and Devildriver. Frenning talks about the tour, the band’s new album Sworn to a Great Divide (read our review), self-producing for the first time, the sudden exit of guitarist and songwriter Peter Wichers from the band, future touring plans and more. Read the full transcript after the jump.

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