You know we’re teaming up with our bestest buds at Metal Injection and 1000Knives to put on a showcase at this year’s CMJ Music Marathon, right? It’s on Wednesday, October 20th at Club Europa in Brooklyn, and it’s gonna be one of the best shows of the year. WE SHIT YOU NOT. Which is why we’re not surprised that you’ve already bought a ticket. And if you didn’t, well, please allow us to give you five awesome reasons why you should:

1) IT’S A LIFE ONCE LOST’S FIRST NYC SHOW IN A YEAR AND A HALF. A Life Once Lost put on an absolutely KILLER show; we’ve seen them play festivals, we’ve seen them play basements, we’ve seen them play clubs and we’ve seen them play theaters, and they have never, ever done anything less than rip our faces off, eat those faces, shit out those faces, and then affix that shit on our skulls where our faces used to go. It’s been way, way too long since they played our neck of the woods, and the venue is so scared for its own well-being that they’re enlisting some Expendables-type soldiers of fortune to work security. Seriously.

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We’ve seen Dave Mustaine play the song, and we’ve heard a crappy rip filmed directly from the television monitor of a gamer. But now you can finally listen to the studio version of “Sudden Death,” the new Megadeth song that appears in the just-released Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock. Stream it after the jump.

So what’s the verdict? It’s definitely a good song, although I don’t know that it holds up to the best material on Endgame; it actually reminds me more of the stuff on United Abominations, which was like the “Soooooo close, but no cigar” of comeback albums, a precursor to the treasures Endgame would hold (and certainly a vast improvement over The System Has Failed, which is ten different kinds of boring.) What’s my problem with it? Why, I’m glad you asked. Allow me to explain.

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So unless you live under a rock in a cave beneath the ocean, you’re aware that the Big Four did some shows together this past June; at the time, I suggested that it would be cool if they all came out and jammed together, and then they did all come out and jam together (video above courtesy Metal Injection), and it wasn’t really that cool. ‘Cause when I made that suggestion, I guess I forgot that this was all the Big Four bands now, not the Big Four bands in 1990.

So I was actually a little relieved — although not at all surprised — that 75% of Slayer did not participate in the jam (the exception being Dave Lombardo, natch). ‘Cause Slayer have always been and will always be “Cooler Than Thou.”

As it turns out, though, Kerry King would have liked to have participated, but had to do the work his lazy and decrepit band mates wouldn’t do. From a recent Revolver interview:

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So last week we got a video of Dave Mustaine playing “Sudden Death,” the new Megadeth song from Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock; now reader John Spartan has uploaded a video of the song filmed directly from the game itself. It’s still not studio quality, but it’s easier to hear the song than it was in the previous clip.

And… it sounds like it would fit in on Endgame to me. Which is a good thing!

Hopefully a studio version will find its way onto the interwebs soon. In the meantime, enjoy this…

-AR

I used to love Guitar Hero, but I don’t think I’ve played in almost two years… looking around the disaster that is the Axl Wing of the MetalSucks Mansion, I’m not even sure under what pile of crap my “guitar” currently resides. I guess the gimmick just lost it’s luster after awhile? Or maybe I was just dissatisfied that I couldn’t kill things in the game. I like games where I can kill things, y’know?

Still, even if I don’t play anymore, I can’t really be too upset when, say, a band debuts a new track exclusively via a Guitar Hero game, as Megadeth are doing with the song “Sudden Death.” ‘Cause it’s only a matter of time ’til the song ends up on the net somewhere, and then we’ll all have it, video game or no.

While we’re waiting for that to happen, here’s video of Mustaine playing the song on the upcoming Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock. He has kind of a shaky start, but after that, he’s actually pretty good. And while the audio recording isn’t top notch, the song generally sounds pretty cool to me, if perhaps in need of a stronger chorus.

Check it out, then weigh in with your thoughts below. comes out September 28 via Activision.

-AR

[via Metal Insider, via TheHeroFeed.com]

Yesterday Sergeant D. made a joke about MetalSucks being 25% owned by Epitaph Records. I don’t know why we always foolishly assume that people will understand jokes like that, but they often don’t. And so we saw some comments where people were confused, and we got some e-mails from readers, and even a few from industry types who thought we had sold part of MetalSucks. So it may or may not please you to know that MetalSucks is still 100% owned by Vince and myself. And in the future, if you see something on here that seems kinda weird and ridiculous — e.g., that we’re not partially owned by a record label, or Gary Suarez taking all the credit for a band’s success, or whatever — please just take a moment to ask yourself, “Hey, could these dudes be kidding around?” ‘Cause, y’know. We’re very rarely serious. Except about Valtrex. We’re deadly serious about that.

Speaking of herpes, we’re shutting down early today to go enjoy the long Labor Day weekend. We’ll be closed Monday, but we’ll resume our usual suckiness on Tuesday. We have a whole heap of more premieres, cool contests, and interviews, and all manners of sarcastic assholism, so don’t drink so much this weekend that you forget about us, okay? And in the meantime, here’s a run-down of some fun we had this week:

• We debuted a new song by Daath, and a new song by Black Anvil, and a new video by Insidious Disease.
• Cooking Contaminated is back, y’all! Now with 100% more Rosetta.
• We spoke to Slayer’s Dave Lombardo, Saviours’ Scott Batiste, and everyone in Eyes Set to Kill.
• We checked out new releases by Stargazer, and Turbid North and Otargos.
• They say there are no atheists in the foxholes, but there is Nergal.
• Speaking of religion, this nice lady reverend thinks churchgoers could learn from metal.
• We pondered the meaning of Iron Maiden breaking their sales record.
• Dave Mustaine announced a Big Four U.S. tour from the stage.
• Even though, in the words of Anso, metalheads are “supposed to intimidate and discomfit the squares,” we think the death metal cat burglar went a little too far.
• We saw Kvelertak’s kvelertaks.

Now…TO THE BAR!

-AR

Longtime reader Ryan Wineman sent be the below e-mail in the wee hours of this morning. Ryan has been pretty dependable in the past, so I’m inclined to believe that if he says this happened, it happened. That being said, YOU SHOULD OBVIOUSLY TREAT THIS AS RUMOR UNTIL THE BANDS SAY SOMETHING OFFICIAL, because while it’s very exciting news, Dave Mustaine shouting it out on-stage does not mean it’s a sure thing.

Here’s Ryan’s e-mail:

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When I saw Megadeth a few weeks ago, the band sounded great — but Dave Mustaine’s vocals sounded about as appealing as the idea of watching a porno flick starring Billy Milano and Snooki.

So now Noisecreep has debuted the below clip from the band’s forthcoming DVD, Rust in Peace Live, and… Dave’s vocals sound just peachy.

So what happened? Video footage I’ve seen of Megadeth from this entire American Carnage tour suggest that Dave wasn’t just having an off-night when I saw him. Is he having an off-entire tour? Or did he pull a Kiss and go back and clean up these live recordings after the fact? Hm…

Here’s the clip of “Holy Wars” from Rust in Peace Live…

…and here’s the band doing the same song as part of the Big Four mini-tour in late June. Note that Dave’s voice sounds, uh, different than it does in the above clip.

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So I feel like we’ve been talking about this Slayer/Megadeth tour FOR-EV-ER, and last night I finally got to see it. And despite my usual cynical instincts telling me that it might very well end up being a major disappointment, I gotta say… I had a really, really fun time.

Testament were great. That’s not really a surprise or anything — Testament have been great, Testament will be great, and if all else failed, I never really doubted for a second that they’d put on a killer show. If I don’t have much else to say about them, it’s because there was never really any suspense with regards to whether or not they’d be good. (But be advised: they went on shortly before 7 pm, so get to the venue early to make sure you don’t miss ‘em. There were far too many people not yet at the venue when they played, which was a damn shame.)

Megadeth… well, there’s really only one problem with Megadeth: Mustaine’s voice sucks. Like, at a James Hetfield level of suckitude — actually, he might sound worse than Hetfield, who can at least stay on-key or close-enough for 60% of the time. (Mustaine was almost on-key during an encore of “A Tout Le Monde,” and that was about it.) I seriously had to tune out Mustaine’s voice just to enjoy the music. He can still play guitar like nobody’s business, it’s great to have Ellefson back, and if we’re not gonna have Marty Friedman and Nick Menza in the band, than Shawn Drover and Chris Broderick are about as good as it’s gonna get, replacement-wise. But Mustaine’s vocals… it’s just embarrassing, man.

And then there was Slayer.

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Last week we ran an exclusive excerpt from Dave Mustaine’s new autobiography, Mustaine: A Heavy Metal Memoir, and gave one lucky MetalSucks reader a chance to meet Megadave himself at his Barnes & Noble book signing here in NYC tomorrow.

We’ve now selected a grand-prize winner… Alex! Here’s his winning entry:

Pick me! I’m in NYC!

I’ve been a Megadeth fan for my whole life! My brother who is 11 years older than me was a huge fan in the 80’s and early 90’s, as a result, I grew up listening to Megadeth. My first concert was Megadeth when I was 14 at the Electric factory in Philly on the Risk Tour. I have seen them four times since, and I have tickets to both legs of the american carnage tour. I own all of their studio releases. I remember looking at my brother’s Clash of the Titans ticket stub that he had taped to the room of his door, wishing that I could have had the opportunity to see that tour.

…for all intents and purposes, I will finally get to! Hell yes, So excited.

Mustaine is my heavy metal hero.

Well, Alex, now you get to meet your heavy metal hero. Congrats!

Read the five runner-up entries after the jump; each runner-up receives an autographed copy of Mustaine: A Heavy Metal Memoir. Enjoy ‘em, kids!

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So, yeah, it turns out there’s a burgeoning metal scene in Maldives, and we even know some peeps who have either worked there or may work there in the future. Does that mean we’ll take a vacation there soon? Fuck do we look like, Wes Borland?

Here’s some other shit that happened this week:

• We were re-joined by some old friends: Porn star Bobbi Starr talked about the world’s most metal porn, and Dallas Coyle pondered the road to happiness.
• We debuted an exclusive excerpt from Dave Mustaine’s memoirs, and are giving you a chance to meet the man himself.
• We spoke to Woody Weatherman from C.O.C. and Roxana Shirazi, author of The Last Living Slut.
• We checked out new releases by Clutch and The Acacia Strain and I Declare War.
• Sergeant D. taught us about the history of slam.
• We defended Eddie Van Halen from Dave Davies.
• We climbed a Wall of Douche.
• We met The Crud Wizard…
• …who is infinitely cooler than the dude from ICP’s ree-ree son.
• Also, BON JOVI + BOOBIES!!!

Okay. Gonna go to an awesome Cynic show now. Lates.

-AR

Surely one of the most anticipated books in the history of heavy metal, Dave Mustaine’s Mustaine: A Heavy Metal Memoir was released by HarperCollins’s It Books imprint yesterday. And guess what? We’ve got an exclusive excerpt for you! And it’s a juicy one, too, involving a fight between Mustaine and his then-bandmates, James Hetfield and original Metallica bassist Ron McGovney. If you weren’t already dying to read the book, we suspect you will be now!

And as if that wasn’t enough, MetalSucks is also giving one lucky NYC-area reader a chance to get five minutes alone with Dave Mustaine before his book signing this coming Tuesday, August 10 at Barnes and Noble Fifth Avenue!!! Five runners-up will also received autographed copies of the book. All you have to do to win is a leave a comment below telling us why we should pick you. Please make sure you register for the comments section with a real e-mail address, as the winner will be notified via e-mail. And it should go without saying, but if you don’t live in New York and can’t get here by Tuesday, don’t enter the contest!

The awesome, exclusive excerpt from Mustaine: A Heavy Metal Memoir is after the jump. Check it out, then enter the contest for your chance to hang with Dave Mustaine! Good luck!!!

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I don’t have much context for this story, but that’s okay, ’cause you won’t need much to understand it. Yesterday Kataklysm posted the following message on their Facebook page:

Which sounds about right. We don’t know which member of Megadeth it was, but I’d happily bet a great deal of money it was Dave Mustaine.

And what else is there to say? At this point, being surprised by stories of the Megadick is like being surprised that Slayer show featured no acoustic ballads. I suspect Mustaine will release some explanation of why this wasn’t Megadeth’s fault sometime soon, and it won’t make any fucking sense because a pretty picture painted in bullshit is still gonna be all brown and smelly, but a bunch of people will believe it anyway, ’cause they can’t accept that sometimes talented musicians are also shitty people. Ppppfffttt. Whatever.

-AR

Last week, Dave Mustaine said that Anthrax might play some dates on the upcoming American Carnage tour with Megadeth and Slayer, and I got all excited because the idea of a Slayer/Megadeth/Anthrax/Testament line-up seemed even more appealing to me than the idea of a Metallica/Slayer/Megadeth/Anthrax line-up (y’know, ’cause Metallica sucks now). What I never even considered, though, was that there might be an entire second leg of the tour, and that Testament might not even be on said leg.

Which seems to be exactly what has happened – a whole bunch of dates with Slegadethrax have been announced, but the press release we received makes no mention of Testament. Which means that either a) someone fucked up or b) Testament aren’t on this leg of the tour (more likely). Which kinda sucks. I mean, Megadeth/Slayer/Anthrax is swell and all, but not as cool as tossing Testament in there, too.

Of course, I’m really complaining about an embarrassment of riches, so fuck me, I guess. Slayer will continue to play all of Seasons in the Abyss on this leg of the tour, and Megadeth will continue to play all of Rust in Peace, so if seeing Anthrax appeals to you more than seeing Testament, well… I suppose that, theoretically, you won’t be missing anything. Except Chuck Billy’s beautiful, beautiful punam.

Dates after the jump.

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The prospect of a Big Four tour is titillating mostly for reasons of nostalgia; it’s exciting to think about seeing all these bands live together, but not as exciting as it is to think about seeing all these bands live together twenty years ago. (Or maybe even twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four years ago.) Different people, of course, have different opinions about which of these bands can still bring it live, but the most obvious weak spot that 99% of all metal fans will be able to agree are well past their prime are Metallica. I’ve seen Trujillo-era Metallica live and I’ve cheered for Trujillo-era Metallica live and I won’t pretend you can’t have fun at a ‘Tallica gig; but you should never listen to the live recording after, because you’ll surely realize that beer, adrenaline, and sentimentality played a big part in your enjoyment.

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Hey Suckfaces, the Big Four live in Sofia, Bulgaria concert/movie thingy has encore showings tomorrow in select markets and you should totally go! It’s the most fun ever. Even if you’re lukewarm on a band/the bands, the theater-going experience is novel and pretty easy to like. It’s communal (like a concert) and comfortable (good for old people who listen to the Big Four). Plus, the little things: set breaks are excised; the audio is that Live Aid quality which disguises not even the smallest flub or shortcut, almost sickeningly real; close-ups of guitar shredding abound; and mosh pits are way more fun in a movie theater.

But if you just can’t make it to this exciting cinema-concert event cuz you’re in jail still from the Lakers celebration parade or you’re a piteously ugly John Bush fan or whatever, here’s what you’ll miss:

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So I’m still in Atlanta observing Daath as they make their new album (which, unless something goes really, hideously awry between the time I leave and its release date, is going to be so fucking great… people really have no idea what they’re in for), but I just checked my e-mail for the first time in awhile and Ryan Badami sent us a link to the below video of the Big Four photo shoot, and some of it is so goddamn funny I just had to take a minute to write about it.

First of all, good for Hetfield for giving Mustaine that little fist bump. It seems like seeing Mustaine after all this time must be liking being at a party and seeing that crazy bitch you broke up with a million years ago but who is, for some reason, still not over you. So I appreciate Hetfield’s attempt to make things at least kinda-sorta not awkward.

But what mostly amuses me about this video is Joey Belladonna. I know a lot of you think I give him too much shit, but whatever. The dissenting opinion gets its moment in the sun, too, and if you don’t find Joey’s activities in this video funny, you probably have no sense of humor.

Look to the back for Joey waving, then make sure you keep your eyes on him for the rest of the video.

-AR

Fuck taking a photo together. What we all really wanna see is The Big Four jam, dude. For one thing, it would just be cool to see all those dudes rocking out together, maybe on a jam of some old metal classic that everyone could find mutually agreeable (if ever there was a time to pay tribute to Dio…). For another thing, since the number of people in the world who ever actually got to see Mustaine play with Metallica or Kerry King play with Megadeth is roughly equivalent to the number of people who actually paid to see Jonah Hex this weekend (e.g., almost no one), it would be terrific wish fulfillment.

Of course, it will probably never happen, because God forbid everyone put their egos and bullshit aside to do anything too cool. So for now, we’ll have to settle for Scott Ian helping to sing one chorus of “Peace Sells” with ‘Deth. ‘Cause, y’know. When I think great singing, I think Scott Ian.

Skip to the 2:40 mark for fifteen whole seconds of crossover dreams come true.

-AR

[via Blabbermouth]

A new Megadeth song, “Sudden Death,” is going to make its debut in Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, the latest installment of the (apparently flagging) video game franchise. And over the weekend IGN debuted video of some people playing that song. It’s kinda hard to hear because these two schmucks keep providing “helpful commentary” over the track (e.g., “Wow, this really looks hard!” and “I love the sound of my own voice!”). Still, give it the best listen you can and see what you think.

Back in January Dave Mustaine said that he’d been “offered” a “new idea” by Activision, the company behind Guitar Hero; I assume this isn’t it, since debuting your track in a video game is hardly a new idea. I guess we’ll see.

-AR

These come from the Facebook page of Joel McIver, author of The Bloody Reign of Slayer, Justice for All: The Truth about Metallica, the upcoming Glenn Hughes autobiography, and a whole mess of other metal books.

First up: Apparently Dave Mustaine is a genius. He has invented a machine which turns sweaty gross old metal dudes into hot chicks in uniform!

This next one is even better, if only because of the caption McIver included: “A sweet little old lady I met backstage.”

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