A headline like “Tori Amos Issues Challenge to Metal Bands” is hard to ignore.  So I went over to Spinner.com to read this interview with Ms Amos, and this is what she had to say:

“Well, look, sometimes you don’t know how music affects people. I embrace that because I don’t think that just because I talk about emotional stuff that it’s not mother—er stuff. I’ll stand next to the hardest f—ing heavy metal band on any stage in the world and take them down, alone, by myself. Gauntlet laid down, see who steps up. See who steps up! I’ll take them down at 48. And they know I will. Because emotion has power that the metal guys know is just you can’t touch it. Insanity can’t touch the soul. It’s going to win every f—ing time.”

Before we get too riled up, it’d be smart to remember that homegirl has a new album to promote, and will spout any number of ridiculous soundbites to sell some plastic. Also, the offending paragraph showed up at the end of the interview, and feels like an offhand remark. Metal news sites went apeshit over it, though, so here we are. I sincerely doubt that Ms. Amos really intends to stand onstage next to Iron Maiden (or Manowar!) and “blow them off the stage.” Unless she’s got about sixteen Orange amps to blast her whispery, piano-driven poem-songs through and 4/5 of Vader providing backup, she ain’t gonna have much luck.

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Horned Almighty
Necro Spirituals
Label – Candlelight
Release date – January 25

Are there times when you just want to strip away the niceties of everyday life, flush away any remote sense of decorum, and turn off your brain? How often do you wish you had time to throw back a multitude of pints, curse out your God-fearing neighbors, and cause undeterred rampant chaos? Sometimes it’s best to revert back to your cavemanic id, and if you need a soundtrack to accompany your civil disobedience, listen no further than veteran Norwegian black thrashers Horned Almighty’s newest collection of instigation, Necro Spirituals.

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FEATURING MEMBERS OF KYLESA, DARKTHRONE, BRUTAL TRUTH, KATAKLYSM, 3 INCHES OF BLOOD, TEXTURES, SWASHBUCKLE, THIS OR THE APOCALYPSE, DISFIGURING THE GODDESS, BURNING THE MASSES, CHRISTIAN MISTRESS, MISERY, AND GRIFTEGARD

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 twelve musicians at a time twice a day for the rest of the week.

After the jump, check out the seventh 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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Kevin Stewart-Panko is a brave, brave man.

Today The Deciblog launched a new weekly column, “Justify Your Shitty Taste,” in which “every Wednesday morning, a Decibel staffer or special guest will take to the Deciblog to bitch and moan at length as to why everybody’s full of shit and [this week's] dud is, in fact, The Shit.” And the first batter up is the venerable Stewart-Panko, and the album he’s defending, in case the headline didn’t give it away, is St. Anger, perhaps the single most universally loathed metal record of the past ten years.

Stewart-Panko being Stewart-Panko, though, his argument is actually reasonably compelling. Here’s an excerpt:

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Before there were blogs there were these things called magazines, and the only metal magazine we still get excited about reading every month is Decibel. Here’s managing editor Andrew Bonazelli.

“People tend to avoid people in capes. I know that’s not the case here… but look at these people.” —Paul Rudd, Role Models

Indeed, there are few (public) places on earth where capes are not frowned upon. The LARP-friendly park space in Role Models is one of them; another is evidently the V.I.P. beer tent at 2006’s Download Fest in Donington Park, England, ’cause I saw Satyricon’s Frost totally stroll through the morass of international “journalists” like he was ready to leap off a Hong Kong skyscraper.

(I know, the Batman comparison is reaching — Frost is more like the kind of guy who’d sew a cell phone bomb in your gunt.)

Anyway, his band’s 1996 full-length, Nemesis Divina — the latest honoree in our Hall of Fame, which is a lot easier to assemble when there are two people to interview — struts just as confidently in the shaky terrain between orthodoxy and abandon. Of course, superfans will know that there weren’t just two interviews to conduct — resident Darkthrone hiking advocate Nocturno Culto helped out on guitar and very nearly stuck around permanently. That’s just one of many intriguing nuggets surrounding the creation of Nemesis — Satyr discovered that Frost was nearly blind, and the titillating NSFW “Mother North” video was one of Norwegian black metal’s first.

Some (adults) would suggest that this was Satyricon’s last good record. Some (kids) have always found them clownish. Where do you guys stand?

-AB

You can order the January 2011 issue of Decibel here if you wanna read the Hall of Fame entry on Satyricon’s Nemesis Divina. But if you get a full subscription, not only will you never miss a Hall of Fame, but every month you’ll get an exclusive flexi disc of never-before-released music, too.

Before there were blogs there were these things called magazines, and the only metal magazine we still get excited about reading every month is Decibel. Here’s managing editor Andrew Bonazelli.

In 1998, there was Lords of Chaos. In 2008, there was Until the Light Takes Us. Somewhere between that, aired amongst a bunch of shitty Victory ads on Headbangers Ball, there was this. One might logically conclude that, between this biography, documentary and $100-budget commercial, the history of black metal has been comprehensively documented.

Not so! With this much personality, talent, vision, rampant egotism and disdain for non-Aryans, the genre remains entertainingly unstable — the more you talk to its original practitioners, the more weird new anecdotes bubble up to augment a perpetually-contested whole. That — along with the need to finance multiple third-term back-alley abortions for the staff’s favorite strippers — is why we’ve concocted our second exclusive Decibel one-off, the Black Metal Hall of Fame issue.

Our staffers busted ass to bring you eight tales from black metal’s vast crypt. Three of them you’ve never seen before — touchstones from Burzum, Satyricon and Rotting Christ — and the Darkthrone feature was only previously available in our HOF anthology, Precious Metal. This monster’s not included with subscriptions and is only available online and at select indie record retailers starting around November 8.

The final roster is, as you can see above, Immortal, Burzum, Venom, Darkthrone, Emperor, Satyricon, Enslaved and Rotting Christ. I’m too lazy to copy and paste the album titles, but are there any bands you’d prefer for a prospective round two? (Bear in mind that everyone’s gotta be alive to do these things, so no dice on Bathory and Mayhem.)

-AB

Please help the staff of Decibel finance all the necessary third-term back-alley abortions for their favorite strippers by purchasing the special Black Metal Hall of Fame issue here. You can also help contribute to this tremendous cause by buying yourself a copy of the December 2010 issue of Decibel or, better still, buying yourself a full subscription.

Since the dawn of time over 9,000 years ago, man has achieved progress only by questioning himself, putting even his most basic assumptions to the test of rigorous, unforgiving critical analysis. Once upon a time, we believed that the sun revolved around the earth, all matter was made of four basic elements, and that Brujeria really were Mexican drug traffickers, but thanks to the tireless efforts of great thinkers like Galileo, Hobbes, and Hume, now we know better. In the same spirit of fearless intellectual honesty, I ask the readers of MetalSucks the following: which is the best, BLACK METAL or DEATH METAL???

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Metal fans have been buzzing for months about Until The Light Takes Us, but official screenings have been few and far between. Consequently, 99% of the film’s core audience hasn’t seen the saga of the Norwegian black metal scene as told by filmmakers Aaron Aites and Audrey Ewell. That’s all going to change on September 28th, when Until The Light Takes Us finally gets DVD treatment. Luckily for me, my hookup Terrill, whose inventory is usually comprised of amateur porn, videocam bootlegs of current blockbusters and unreleased Tyler Perry films, somehow got his grubbies on an advance screener.

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YouTube user SoulsideJourneySucks may have a dumb name (it is the only good Darkthrone album, back when they still sounded like early Gorguts), but when it comes to making tutorials on metal subgenres that have no currency despite being incredibly obscure, he really knows his stuff.

I think he meant this video as a joke, but the truth is that it’s pretty accurate. I think you will agree that with this tutorial and a few hours of work, with your mom’s laptop you could be next Cemetery Rapist!

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So br00tal. I’ll bet he makes a killer smoked salmon.

[via Metal Inquisition]

-VN

Taste is a subjective thing; one can’t judge another person based solely on what they like and don’t. That being said, there are certain things I can’t get past someone not liking: Ghostbusters, The Simpsons, Star Wars, and early Van Halen albums, for instance. And while I get True Norwegian Black Metal fetishism (maybe you don’t like Enslaved’s proggy inclinations, felt close to Euronymous’ guitar work and can’t get on board with Blasphemer’s arguably superior material with Mayhem, liked Immortal when they were glowering and frosty and not when they got epic, and thought Burzum jumped the shark after Varg killed a guy), I don’t trust people that love Darkthrone but won’t get into their new material. Though they essentially created and perfected the lo-fi demonry black metal has — for better or worse — been known for since the early ‘90s, from 2007’s F.O.A.D. on forward, they’ve been the finest blackened crust punk band there is, crafting magnificently simple anthems about hiking metal punks, Canadian metal, and hanging out in Haiger (on “Hiking Metal Punks,” “Canadian Metal,” and “Hanging Out in Haiger,” respectively). And their brilliant simplicity continues on their latest, Circle the Wagons. Though “true” is often applied to Darkthrone’s early work, it’s Circle the Wagons that’s probably the truest to who the band are: to the point, kind of dopey, black metal only when necessary, and fucking awesome.

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Sometimes I feel fairly certain that a substantial portion of the people who leave comments on MetalSucks would be considered legally brain dead by most medical doctors. Having said that, I’m glad they read our website.

Here’s what happened in the world of metal this week:

• We spoke to Darkthrone’s Fenriz, Iron Age’s Wade Allison, and Swallow the Sun’s Juha Raivio.
• We debuted a new video from Austrian Death Machine.
• Everyone wants to kill everyone else because of all these decade end lists.
• Also, people are cranky about that Dimebag tribute album.
• Kip Wingerschmidt thinks that Stewert Voegtlin’s recent trashing of Baroness, Mastodon, Pelican and Neurosis was “eloquent.” The Austerity Program’s Justin Foley disagrees.
• Unfortunately, there is going to be a new Limp Bizkit album.
• Lambgoat is streaming “Mechanical Seas,” a new song by The Binary Code!
• I admit it: I left the ring stain on Julia Louis-Dreyfuss’ table.

Last night we went to a fancy-schmancy holiday party with an open bar and got faschnickered. Tonight I’m… going to a fancy-schmancy holiday party with an open bar. If I’m not here Monday, it’s because I died of alcohol poisoning.

Have a good one, y’all.

-AR

When one thinks of black metal OGs Darkthrone, most likely, the image of a gangly guy with a candelabra comes to mind, and with it, black metal’s trappings and faults. But, like true originators, the band molded the style they helped create to their liking, moving from the raw mist of tremolo picking on Transylvanian Hunger to the (relatively more) refined old school black metal on 2004’s Sardonic Wrath to the anthemic and (dare I say) kinda fun blackened crust punk of their excellent last two releases, F.O.A.D and Dark Thrones and Black Flags. Despite being an integral part of one of the most important movements in metal’s history 20 years ago, Darkthrone are still putting out some of their best work right now, still raw and confrontational and, most importantly, still not giving a fuck about what people want them to play. Punk rock has always lurked underneath the band’s best material, but its attitude of individuality is what fuels Darkthrone and sets them apart from most of their frosty peers.

Part of the band’s artistic growth could most likely be due to its distillation to its core: Guitarist/vocalist Nocturno Culto and drummer/lyricist/occasional vocalist Fenriz have been the band‘s sole members for quite a while. The latter member has become a celebrity in his own right in the metal world through assembling the occasional compilation (his latest, Trapped Under Vice II, a collection of obscure trad metal and prog, is pretty fucking great) and generally coming across as a funny dude with a broad knowledge of metal by way of entertaining interviews. One of those interviews was recently with MetalSucks via email, where Fenriz discussed his band’s future (new album in February!), his approach to vocal work both in Darkthrone and his long gestating doom metal side project Fenriz’ Red Planet, his thoughts on production, and how “true” black metal was just black metal back when they started.

[Editor's note: English is not Fenriz's first language, but in the hopes of maintaining as much of what he wanted to say the way he wanted to say it, we did very little editing to his e-mail responses. In other words, we sometimes sacrificed proper grammar for the sake of keeping the interview interesting.]

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While Anthrax, Testament, Heaven and Hell and motherfucking Motorhead are among the most anticipated bands that metal pilgrims are converging on western Germany to see, it would appear that my favored people, those crafty Norwegians, also have a few things planned for the mayhem. While Enslaved will be appearing (and hopefully represented on a good stage, because you know they fucking deserve it) some others are teaming up with foreigners in combinations that are hard to ignore.

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Noisecreep have unveiled their list of the Top 10 Death Metal Debut Albums (although the list is in no particular order), courtesy Friend of MetalSucks, Carlos Ramirez.

And for once, I don’t actually have any complaints. The list is pretty good.

That being said, I’m sure you folks will find something to bitch about, so… have at it!!!

-AR

Since its inception in the late ‘80s, black metal has been one of the most rigid genres in terms of evolution and change. While bands like Cradle of Filth, Dimmu Borgir, and Behemoth trumpet the genre through its larger than life, orchestral origins, black metal’s “elite” have gained their notoriety through either a) being a part of the original church-burning generation and altering their sound as little as possible or b) miming the original church-burning generation as closely as possible, right down to the tape hisses and wall of buzz saw guitars. But after nearly two decades of existence and reverence in the metal and music worlds as a whole, many bands have moved away from their restrictive lo-fi roots and come to embrace different influences, resources, and inspirations. The band that has best exemplified this move from their base to the outer limits is Enslaved, one of Norway’s longest running black metal bands. Before American upstarts Nachtmytsium made it cool to melt your Burzum and Pink Floyd records together, Enslaved were dabbling in the dark power of psychedelia on Below the Lights and ISA. Though those who take black metal seriously insist that sticking to their guns has been the key to longevity, its shifts in sounds and ideologies has been what’s kept it alive. Those shifts have been most solidly illustrated by Enslaved, and has resulted in one of the most impressively consistent discographies in metal, right up through their latest genre-bending triumph Vertebrae.

Grutle Kjellson, Enslaved’s bass player and lead vocalist, has been with the band since the beginning. In an interview he was kind enough to grant MetalSucks via phone from his home in Norway, he talks about the importance of looking forward creatively, what influenced Vertebrae, working with longtime bandmate Ivar Bjornson in Enslaved and their experimental metal side project Trinacria, the overall importance of Pink Floyd on his band’s sound, and the fans that only want to hear songs off of their early ‘90s demos at their shows.

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