Actually, I don’t know if you could call this a “cover” — it samples the guitar riff and title phrase from Manson’s “The Beautiful People,” but beyond that, it’s a new creation. According to this right wing tabloid disguised as a legitimate newspaper, the track appears in Xtina’s new film, Burlesque, which I have not seen, but appears to have been sent here by Satan to announce The Dark Lord’s imminent arrival, and the subsequent end of days. (One question for Cher: What’s wrong with your faaaace?!?!)

And this song ain’t no better. Normally I’d say something about how it goes against everything Manson original stood for, but since he’s not exactly a bastion of creative integrity, and I think Aguilera thinks her lyrics are facetious in much the same way Manson’s lyrics were facetious, I guess I can’t cry philosophical rape.

So why am I posting this? Because I mothertruckin’ hate you, and I want you to die.

This isn’t Aguilera’s first dalliance with a hard rock/pop metal star of the 90′s — Dave Navarro plays guitar on her song “Fighter.” Nor is it Manson’s first run-in with a diva I wish would take an acid bath already: he raped our ears last year when he leant his vocals to a remix of a Lady GaGa’s “Love Game.”

Now let’s never speak of this again.

-AR

Fuck Exect for sending this to us.

Allow me to shill for a beat before the weekend: If you haven’t already bought one of our new, limited edition shirts, go get yours now!!! They’re selling fast, and soon they will be the title of a God Forbid album. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Here’s some other fun stuff we did this week:

• Valient Thorr’s Valient Himself gave us the rundown on Fun Fun Fun Fest, The Red Chord’s Greg Weeks found the CFL fun and confusing, Intronaut’s Sacha Dunable talked about the best and worst drives in the U.S., and The Austerity Program’s Justin Foley is the latest to weigh in on free metal from Scion.
• We debuted new music from Murder Construct.
• We spoke to Pentagram’s Bobby Liebling and Christopher Drew from Nevershotnever and Eatmewhileimhot.
• We checked out the latest releases from Riotgod, Electric Wizard, Rimfrost, and First Blood and Killing the Dream.
• We asked you about old school bands you wanted to like but couldn’t.
• We joined Gene Simmons, Slash, and Dave Navarro in having NOH8 for gays.
• We laughed at both Kirk Hammett and the little girl he kicked.
• We also laughed at Sebastian Bach’s frail ego.
• We got really excited about the new single from The Human Abstract.
• We also got really excited about Decibel‘s new flexi disc series.

Have a nice, relaxing weekend gang. We’ll miss you muchly, but we’ll see ya Monday.

-AR

“Bullying” seems to have become a hot button issue since 18-year old NJ college student Tyler Clementi killed himself earlier this year after his sexual encounter with another man was allegedly streamed online by his roommate and another student. Public outcries like this are always bittersweet; on the one hand it’s a shame it takes a death to bring an issue like this to light (an issue which had shamefully been ignored for way too long), but on the other hand any positive change that can result from such a tragedy can be looked upon as a silver lining.

Homophobia and gay-bashing in the metal community — where a bunch of social outcast have surprisingly low tolerance for others that are different than they are — are as bad as they are anywhere. Exhibit A: the outrageous comments right here on this site.

Click to read more…

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Welcome to “Question of the Week,” a (sometimes) weekly debate amongst the MetalSucks staff regarding a recent hot button issue.

For no particular reason whatsoever other than we thought it would be fun, this week we asked our writers:

IF YOU COULD HAVE BEEN PRESENT FOR THE CREATION OF ANY SINGLE METAL ALBUM, WHICH ONE WOULD IT BE AND WHY?

The MS staff’s answers after the jump.

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• Slash has been unveiling a song a day from his new, self-titled solo album, so at this point, if you’ve wanted to hear the entire record, you pretty much have. But if you’re like me, and you were too lazy to keep checking back all the various websites where the shit has been streaming these past week, AOL now has the entire album in one place. I’ll try to write a full review in time for Slash‘s release on Tuesday, but the short version is: “Hey! It’s not the total face-raping I was expecting!” Which I guess would make it Slash’s Death Magnetic. So, April Fool’s on me, I guess.
• I don’t think it will come as a galloping shock to anyone to learn that the rumors are true: Duff McKagan is the new bass player for Jane’s Addiction. Slash basically spilled the beans in an interview a couple of weeks back, and then some photos of Duff working with the band popped up online, and now he’s actually gigged with the group – that grainy video up top is footage of Duff’s Addiction covering Led Zep’s “Whole Lotta Love.” I’m excited that Duff will now once again be in a band that plays for more than fifty people a night, although I’m sure the dudes in Loaded are pretty bummed. Of course, between this and Slash’s solo album, I’d wager we won’t get any new developments on the Velvet Revolver front until 2012, if ever.
• Finally: the drums on Slash’s solo album were recorded by Josh Freese, who also played drums on the nu-GN’R song “Oh My God,” which featured a guitar solo by… Dave Navarro. Small world. But I find it funny that Slash and Duff are now both working with dudes who have played with Axl Rose more recently than they have.

-AR

FML.

-AR

Well here’s a nice juicy rumor to end the week. From Blabbermouth:

“According to The Pulse of Radio, the JANE’S ADDICTION fan web site Xiola.org has reported that VELVET REVOLVER and ex-GUNS N’ ROSES bass player Duff McKagan is writing and recording with the band, following the departure of original member Eric Avery for the second time in the group’s troubled history. After JANE’S reunited for a third time in late 2008 — with Avery on board for the first time since the band originally broke up in 1991 — and toured last spring with NINE INCH NAILS, the band began feuding once again as it tried to record new music, with recent rumors suggesting that Avery was headed out the door…

“…There has been no official announcement about McKagan from JANE’S ADDICTION themselves, except a brief post by frontman Perry Farrell saying that the band was working with a new ‘writing partner.’”

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So Slash performed a new song, “By the Sword,” at some benefit over the weekend, and of course there’s bootleg footage now on the net. It sounds better than the crap we’ve heard before, but the sound of Slash taking an actual crap would sound better than the crap we’ve heard before, so whatever.

The vocals are being performed here by Carrot Top. I don’t remember anyone saying that Carrot Top was on the actual album, so either he is and we just didn’t know it ’til now, or someone else sings the studio version. Let’s hope it’s the former.

Filling out the band for this performance is Dave Navarro, another dude from Jane’s Addiction who isn’t Navarro or Perry Farrell, and Blink-182′s Travis Barker, who tragically survived a plane crash earlier this year.

Slash’s solo album should ruin your 2010 sometime in the spring.

-AR

“Metal” or not, I think we can all agree that Jane’s Addiction was a truly awesome and original band, and their seminal 1990 album Ritual de lo Habitual still sounds like nothing I’ve ever heard elsewhere.

If you don’t have this album, go mug an old lady for cash and buy it — yes buy — immediately.

JANE’S ADDICTION — “Three Days”, from Ritual de lo Habitual (1990)

-KW

And, as the keen observers at Hipsters out of Metal so duly noted, Lacuna Coil’s 2006 album Karmacode was a damn good record:

Somehow Italy’s Lacuna Coil snatched awesomeness from the jaws of mediocrity by releasing 2006′s most compelling melody album, Karmacode. Prior to that, LC boasted one great single (over like 17 albums) and Cristina Scabbia (above), loud rock’s best singer — and whoa quite a fetching one at that. Some Iowan guitarists have all the luck. I haven’t called off my campaign to get Scabbia a solo record, though Karmacode did a lot to mute my demands; we’ll see if the goofy outfit-prone (read: European) sextet turns out a second near-masterpiece. For now, LC’s double DVD Visual Karma (Body, Mind, and Soul) comes out in November. Check out Karmacode’s sledgehammer tune “Closer” live (and acoustic ugh) on Dave Navarro’s uh Spread TV. Let’s get a pool going for time elapsed between the band arriving on set and Navarro’s first proposition to ‘spread’ Scabbia. It was probably in the rider.

In case you’re still doubting either Scabbia’s hotness or stunning vocal ability, check out said acoustic performance on Dave Navarro’s show, after the jump. We really, really feel bad for the dude singer. I mean… He MUST know…. Right?

-VN

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It’s a shame Otep’s music sucks so much, because it’s such a waste of a pretty awesome person. Otep Shamaya is smart, articulate, and consistently on point with her messages. She is, in my opinion, the very archetype of what a woman in metal should be. It’s just a shame her music is so mundane and unspectacular, seemingly at complete odds with her personality. Check out her recent appearance on Dave Navarro’s new show Spread TV, plugging her new site allshapesandsizes.org and the MetalSucks-approved Carbon Rally. Listening to her talk it’s hard for me NOT to love this person; she’s the type I could easily imagine running into in my building and being like, “hey Otep, what’s up, wanna come over and smoke a bowl?” and then proceeding to do just that and talk about important issues for hours.

ANYWAY, here’s the clip. Dave Navarro has sunken to levels of tool-ness previously thought unfathomable; some of his between-question banter is jut cringeworthy. Navarro peaked with RHCP’s One Hot Minute, and it’s been all downhill from there. But hey, at least he’s still got a career, so I’ll give him that.

-VN