MetalSucks

As I’ve stated many times in the past, I’m a huge fan of Guy Kozowyk’s lyrics. So I know the words to The Red Chord’s “Demoralizer” pretty well, and I think I have a pretty good understanding of the meaning – or at least a meaning – of the song. And I think I understand the meaning – or at least a meaning – of the new video for the song, which recently debuted on Bloody Disgusting.

What I don’t entirely understand is how the meaning of the song, at least as I understand it, and the meaning of the video, at least as I understand it, intersect. And I’m not sure that they intersect in an obvious, linear way – I know that Kozowyk is a big fan of double and triple meanings.

But I’m willing to watch this video dozens of more times to try and figure it out. Director David Brodsky found a pretty awesome way to ensure that the performance footage wouldn’t just be the same old same old, and artist Tim Kellen – who has previously collaborated with Brodsky on the videos for Suffocation’s “Cataclysmic Purification” and Born of Osiris’ “Now Arise” – created animation (which serves as narrative aspect of the clip) that is grimey and gritty and unique and distinctly “home made,” for lack of a better term. And Bloody Disgusting says that Kellen “used charcoal, meat, grape jelly, and chicken-guts in his illustrations,” which is metal as fuck.

So even if the exact “meaning” of the video isn’t of importance to you… well, you’ll probably still enjoy this video, because a) the song is great and b) visually it’s incredibly stimulating, and puts 99% of other recent metal videos to shame.

The Red Chord are currently headlining the MetalSucks co-sponsored Burgers & Bowling Tour with My Children My Bride, Chelsea Grin and Those Who Lie Beneath. Get the remaining dates after the jump!

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Even if our relationship with Born of Osiris is a little, uh, strained, that doesn’t mean I can’t dig their music. So here’s their new, David Brodsky-directed video, for “Now Arise.”

My first thought when I saw this was “Oh, great performance footage” – whatever else you wanna say about BOO, you can’t accuse them of being unable to play their instruments – “but I don’t understand the concept behind the animation.” Luckily, I don’t have to, because Tim Kellen, who did the animation for the video, released a statement on the subject!

“The illustrations that materialize in the video show symbols we see everywhere; in advertising, corporate branding, and on legal tender.  Many of these are ancient, sacred symbols used to empower the individual.However, according to some scholars, these symbols have been subverted by those wishing to destroy and dominate the rest of the population.  Some would argue that the eagle is representative of Scorpio, a symbol of money and power;  that the 2 headed eagle is a popular symbol among the Bavarian Illuminati;  The many skulls are symbols revered by brotherhoods of death; and that the all seeing eye represents surveillance.”

Well, alrighty then! Keep all that mind when watching the video…

“Now Arise” comes off of BOO’s latest, A Higher Place, which is out now on Sumerian.

-AR

Hey, Scott Rives! Guess what? You correctly identified last week’s logo as that of romantic crooners Cunt Smash! You win a Lacuna Coil DVD! CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Alrighty. Now that that’s out of the way…

This week the fine folks at Prosthetic Records have given us a copy of The Acacia Strain’s new DVD, The Most Known Unknown, to give away. I’m gonna have a review up for you soon, but the short version is, this DVD is killer. It has not one but two awesome concert films, both directed by David Brodsky, a documentary about the band and its history, a bunch of music videos, and more. It hits stores next Tuesday, February 16, but you can win one right here.

All you have to do to win is identify the name of the band whose logo appears below, then shoot me an e-mail at axl AT metalsucks DOT net with your answer, your name, and your address. From everyone who gets it right, we’ll randomly select a winner and announce his or her name next week.

This week’s logo was suggested to us by MetalSucks Uber-Maniac Kirsten Ann Hogenson. Kirsten enters this goddamn contest every week (You think I don’t notice you crazy people who enter every week? Oh, I notice.), and clearly, she’s a connosieur, ’cause this one is pretty fucking unreadable…

-AR

I have seen The Acacia Strain’s new DVD, The Most Known Unknown, and it is good. Honestly, I’ve never been a huge TAS fan – I’ve always respected them and liked them, but I don’t spend a lot of my free time listening to them. But this DVD made me like them a whole lot more. I shouldn’t have to tell you that David Brodsky did a great job with the live footage. But the band also just sounds so good. “Whoa! Shut it Down” and “Skynet” have never sounded so heavy. Now I really wanna go to a TAS concert.

While I wait for that to happen, you can check out a clip from the DVD, of the song “Dr. Doom.” Unfortunately it’s not embeddable, but clicking on the pretty screen cap below will take you there.

The Most Known Unknown comes out February 16 on Prosthetic.

-AR

A little over a year ago I was invited to go see The Acacia Strain play a sold-out show at the Palladium in Worcester. I wasn’t able to make it, but everyone I spoke to who did said it was INSANE. All caps like that, dude: INSANE.

Luckily, David Brodsky and his crack team of metal video makin’ nutjobs were there to capture the action, and the concert flick will be included on The Acacia Strain’s new DVD, The Most Known Unknown, which now has February 16 release date via Prosthetic.

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Did you know that only total tool bags don’t like Blood Oath? It’s a fact.

So here’s a new video for a song from that very album – “Cataclysmic Purification.” Suffocation’s one of those bands where I really like watching ‘em play ’cause they’ve got some sick talent, and David Brodsky’s performance footage certainly allows for that – but I also really dig this animation by Tim Kellan. It’s just fucking gross and wicked, both of which seem appropriate for Suffo, doncha think?

Blood Oath is out now on Nuclear Blast.

-AR

Vince and I finally got to see Revocation live a few weeks back, and not only are they just as good in-person as they are on record, but they just look like a bunch of normal dudes – which we love, being relatively normal-looking dudes ourselves. Seriously, just to look at this band, you’d never really know what they recently released one of the best metal albums of 2009. (That would be Existence is Futile, in case ya didn’t know.)

This weekend the band filmed a video for the track “Dismantle the Dictator” with director David Brodsky (Who had a very busy weekend – he also did the video for The Red Chord’s “Demoralizer” in the same forty-eight hour period!), and now our fellow metal connoisseurs at Metal Injection are giving away a FREE download for the mp3 of that song. It’s totally killer, so go get it, suckas!!!

Existence is Futile is out now on Relapse.

-AR

“Repulsive Salvation” is one of my favorite tracks from Skeletonwitch’s ripping new record Breathing the Fire, out today on Prosthetic Records (order here). I was lucky enough to be on hand for the David Brodksy-directed video shoot last month at Brooklyn’s famed Lucky 13 Saloon, surprisingly one of the few metal hangs in a borough you’d think would be full of them. While the band rocked out to the track over and over like their careers depended on it, I stood in the corner watching the band rock whilst getting my drink on with $1 Busch cans (win!). The dudes in Metal Injection were on hand to conduct an interview with the band, and in between takes we hung out and drank with the Skeletonwitch dudes and bar-owner Melody Henry like a big, happy family, with guitarist Nate Garnett as the jubilant uncle who has everyone in stitches every time the guy opens his mouth. Great times were had.

Enjoy the video below. Also check out the interview I conducted with guitarist Scott “Scunty D.” Hedrick and the band’s hilarious webisodes (the 5th of which was just released). And pick up the album; highly worth it!

A few weeks ago Skeletonwitch shot a video for the song “Repulsive Salvation” at Lucky 13 in Brooklyn, under the watchful eye of director David Brodsky. Vince got to go visit and have fun for awhile, and I didn’t, ’cause I’m a goober.

Lucky for me, though – and you! – our bestest friends, Metal Injection, also went, and, hey, guess what? They filmed the shit outta Brodsky filming the shit outta Skeletonwitch pretending to play the shit outta their instruments along to a recording of them actually playing the shit outta of their instruments. If that’s not meta enough for you, well, congratulations, you’re more sober than I am.

Skeletonwitch’s anus-ticklingly good Breathing the Fucking Fire (I might’ve added a word there) comes out October 13 on Prosthetic. We’ll have Bob Cock’s rave review up soon.

-AR

Back in July, our brostafas at Metal Injection announced what has to be one of the most awesome contests in the history of awesome contests: one lucky unsigned band, selected by MI readers, would get to have heavy metal auteur David Brodsky of My Good Eye direct their video, absolutely free of cost.

Well, all the unsigned bands that submitted demos to the contest have been whittled down to ten finalists, and now’s your time to help pick a winner. It’s easy – just go here, listen to the bands, and give a horns up to whichever ones you like. You can only vote for each band one, but you can vote for as many different bands as you like.

I’m not sure if it would be kosher for me to tell you who I think you should vote for. I will say that as I type this, I just happen to be wearing a The Binary Code t-shirt. Just putting that out there.

Go vote now.

-AR

There’s really nothing I can say about “Let Us Slay,” the new video from Gwar and director David Brodsky, that would be funnier than what Oderus Urungus himself has to say about it. So I’ll just let him speak, via a press release:

“LET US SLAY” is the first video from our new epic album, ‘LUST IN SPACE’, and provides actual first-hand footage of GWAR’s recent travels through outer space and our cosmic struggle against that intergalactic asshole Cardinal Syn…this should put an end to any speculation that we are not really from outer space…you can really see us flying around on spaceships and shit!”

After a huge hit of crack laced with horse tranquilizer and kitty litter, the warty front-thing continued, “This is just the latest GWAR video from esteemed director David Brodsky, whom we have worked w/ before on the amazing ‘SCHOOL’S OUT’ video. He is a very talented and effusively garrulous sort of guy, and he works for rocks! Plus I am particularly excited about the many dance moves that I executed in the course of the video…I recently studied under Christopher Walken, and after working very hard he gave me the nickname “Twinkletoes!”

That part about Brodsky working for rocks is true, by the way. What Oderus neglects to mention is that he uses the rocks to beat people and take their money, so it’s not like he’s going broke or whatever.

Here’s the video. It’s pretty awesome. Enjoy it.

-AR

If you enjoy melodic death-tinged power metal – and really, who doesn’t? – then it’s hard to imagine that you won’t enjoy Luna Mortis’ Century debut, The Absence. This shit is heavy, infectious, and epic as all get-out.

A big part of the reason why the album works is vocalist Mary Zimmer. A classically trained singer who once had aspirations of doing opera, Zimmer put to shame all the over-processed, auto-tuned vocalists that will inevitably let their fans down in a live setting. Her voice isn’t only powerful – it’s undeniably real.

Luna Mortis have just released a new, David Brodsky-directed video for the song “Forever More,” which you can watch above. They’ve also just hit the road with Edguy and Epicurean. You can get a complete tour itinerary here; then, after the jump, read my chat with Zimmer regarding all things metal. Raaaaar.

Click to read more…

I got to visit the set for Municipal Waste’s new video, “Wrong Answer,” and when I first arrived, I didn’t even recognize guitarist Ryan Waste. In fact, my first thought was “What the hell is the dude from Waking the Cadaver doing here?”

Ryan was just in costume, of course. Directed by David Brodsky, the video, as Waste and drummer Dave Witte explained to me, literalizes the song’s lyrics and portrays a game show where answering a question incorrectly has deadly consequences. That might sound like the description for a Miike movie, but this being The Waste, it’s actually quite funny.

“Wrong Answer” comes off the band’s new album, Massive Aggressive, which Earache released this week. I’ll have my interview with Waste and Witte up soon; in the meantime, enjoy the clip…

-AR

Last month I was standing next to Sammy Duet from Goatwhore/Acid Bath for about fifteen minutes and didn’t even recognize him. I just still need to get used to the sight of him with hair, is all. I’m so used to picturing a bald dude.

But I’m already off-topic: Goatwhore. As I said on Tuesday, Goatwhore’s latest, Carving Out the Eyes of God, is one of my favorite albums of the year so far; I’m still blasting it at least once a week. It’s just so fucking evil… I love it. I love it I love it I love it.

The band has now re-teamed with director David Brodsky for their new video, “Apocalyptic Havoc,” which is one of my favorite songs on the album. Check it out:

Carving Out the Eyes of God is out now on Metal Blade. Go buy that shit.

-AR

One of my favorite videos of the year thus far is the trippy, creepy, effects laden clip that David Brodsky directed for Suicide Silence’s “Wake Up.”

I was invited to the shoot and couldn’t make it, but luckily, our friends at Metal Injection did make it, and just posted this behind-the-scenes report. Check it out below.

-AR

Our brostafas at Metal Injection are running what has to be one of the most awesome contests ever: they’re giving one lucky unsigned band the opportunity to have David Brodsky of My Good Eye direct their video, absolutely free of cost. If you’re unfamiliar with Mr. Brodsky’s work, well – he’s one of the best and most prolific metal video directors out there right now, and has made clips for such bands as God Forbid, Pig Destroyer, Goatwhore, Suicide Silence, Hate Eternal, Soilent Green, Arsis, In This Moment, Unearth, Bleeding Through, and about a gajillion other bands I’m forgetting. His video for The Black Dahlia Murder’s “Everything Went Black” was voted the #1 video of 2008 by the viewers of Headbanger’s Ball. Obviously, having the guy do your band’s video would be an incredible (and did I mention free?) chance to have a great promotional tool.

Head over to Metal Injection for details on how to win this incredible contest. And tell ‘em MetalSucks sent ya.

-AR

I’m seriously hard-pressed to think of a cooler looking video that’s been released this year than Suicide Silence’s new clip for “Wake Up,” off No Time to Bleed – maybe the new Alice in Chains video, but that’s it. It’s awesome sober and even better high. I mean, it’s basically just a bunch of cool imagery, but that’s more than I can say for most metal videos these days.

Check it out below. It was directed by David Brodsky, in what seems to be a particularly inspired moment of maniacal glee.

Our friends at Metal Injection were on-set for the shoot and should have some behind the scenes video later this week. Stay tuned for more details.

-AR

I have kind of a love/hate relationship with Twitter, but I have to admit, it’s become a useful source of information.

So. Through the Eyes of the Dead, whose 2007 album Malice was actually capable of killing small animals, have suffered through some fairly heavy-duty line-up changes since that album’s release (including going through two vocalists inside of a year). The band endures, though, and are currently recording a new album. Meanwhile, they tweeted/twittered/twatted/twote/whatever that they’re playing four dates in August. I highly recommend you go check ‘em out.

Dates are after the jump. In the meantime, here’s the band’s video for “Failure in the Flesh.” The Romero-esque goodness was directed by David Brodsky.

Click to read more…

‘Cause he’s on a roof! Get it?!? I crack me up.

Anyways, here’s Thy Will Be Done’s new video, for “Earth’s Final Embrace.” The track comes from the band’s Still born release, Was and Is to Come, and the video was directed by David Brodsky. It’s an awesome song and fun video, so check it out, then read Vince’s interview with Thy Will Be Done front dude J. Costa. And don’t forget that Thy Will Be Done will be tearin’ new assholes all up and down these great United States this summer as part of the MetalSucks co-sponsored Thrash & Burn tour. Get dates and ticket info here.

-AR

[via Metal Injection]

I don’t have a lot to say about Warbringer’s new, David Brodsky-directed video, “Severed Reality,” other than it seems like a throwback to those old thrash videos where the band is playing live and the crowd is just murdering one another (Exodus’ “Toxic Waltz,” etc.). That’s not a shock, given that pretty much everything about Warbringer is a throwback… but that doesn’t make the video any less cool.

Warbringer’s new album, Waking into Nightmare, was released yesterday on Century and was produced by – speak of the devil! – Exodus’ Gary Holt.

-AR