We knew that there would be a video for “More Metal Than You,” the song Brian Posehn co-wrote with Scott Ian for the former’s new album, Fart and Wiener Jokes, and here it is. (Also worth noting: the song features additional guest appearances by Lamb of God’s Mark Morton, Death Angel’s Mark Osegueda, Armored Saint’s Joey Vera, Dethklok’s Brendon Small, the always fashionable John Tempesta, and The Donnas’ Brett Anderson.) The animation style is fairly simple, but there are some real gems in here – including a moment when Posehn head-butts Sharon Osbourne, and then Ozzy gives him a high-five. Oh, if only Ozzy really did recognize that Sharon is a problem.

True story: when I first heard this song, I thought Posehn was saying “My cat’s name is ‘metal.’” In fact, until five minutes ago when I watched this video, I didn’t realize he was saying “Manowar.” Still really funny, though.

Fart and Wiener Jokes is out now on Relapse. I’m giving a copy away for this week’s Completely Unreadable Band Logo contest, so enter that shit now. Also, if you haven’t done so already, check out my interview with Posehn right here.

-AR

Like a lot of people, I first became familiar with Brian Posehn because of his time on David Cross and Bob Odenkirk’s brilliant HBO sketch comedy series, Mr. Show, for which he was also a writer. A few years after that show went off the air, my then-roommate and I went to see Posehn do some stand-up at a comedy club here in New York. I don’t think we were even there to see Posehn specifically – if memory serves, David Cross was the actual draw for us – but he was so funny that I actually laughed so hard I became winded and fell out of my chair. Since then, he’s been on a very, very short list of stand-ups that I never miss the chance to check out when they come through town. Mr. Show sketches about a fictional band called “Titannica” led me to believe that someone on the series’ writing staff was a metal fan, but I didn’t know that it was Posehn until later – and the revelation that he was just as obsessed with metal as I was only made him that much cooler.

Fart and Wiener Jokes, Posehn’s second album for Relapse, comes out today (and you can order a copy here). Like its predecessor, Live: In Nerd Rage, it features not only recordings of his brilliant stand-up, but also an original song he co-wrote with Anthrax’s Scott Ian (“More Metal Than You”) to poke fun at some of metal’s more regrettable foibles. It also has a metal cover of Kenny Rogers’ “The Gambler,” and between the two music tracks, Posehn has managed to rope in guest appearances by such all-stars as Jamey Jasta, Mark Morton, Mark Oseguenda, John Tempesta, and Russ Parrish. Assuming you love great comedy and great metal, there’s no way you’re not gonna dig Fart and Wiener Jokes.

A few weeks ago I got to talk to Posehn about putting comedy albums out on a metal label, what it’s like to be friends with some of his boyhood heroes, the state of metal today, his take on the Anthrax vocalist situation, and more. He even turned the tables at the end and asked me a question! Read the complete transcript of our chat after the jump.

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While we have no intention of going to see Kittie play with a bunch of clowns and The Insane Clown Posse, I suspect we will find our way to Soilwork’s next U.S. tour, which will be with Death Angel and feature support from Augury, Mutiny Within, and Swashbuckle. We haven’t gotten to check out the band since Peter Wichers re-joined, and, truth be told, it didn’t feel quite right without The Wichmeister.

And I promise never to refer to him as “The Wichmeister” again.

Dates after the jump!

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Open Letter To Light This City

Tonight was the last night of the “In Thrash We Trust’ tour with Death Angel, Arsis, Soilent Green and Light This City. The first thing I want to do is thank every single person who came out to this tour and rocked out with us. Some shows were packed and some shows weren’t but in the end none of that matters. The shows we played were for the people who came out to rock! I sound like a broken record but we get to play a show every day. Most of the people who come out to the show make this their one time of the week, their one time of the month — hell, their one time of the year to escape and lose themselves in some heavy fucking metal!

To those people, I THANK YOU!

After this six week run a lot of things have happened. No matter how many tours you do you never have the same story. You are always surprised. It could be the people you encounter that you haven’t seen in a long time. It could be the new bands you meet on tour who become new friends. There is a bond that is established between everyone on tour; from crew, to promoters, to bands, to fans. It really is an amazing animal. Honestly, if any of you out there are scientists in behavior you’d do well to do a study of the rhythm and mechanisms of a tour. I bet you’d find some anomalies that may coincide with the patterns of weather currents.

It is true energy.

Unfortunately, Light This City had to leave this tour early. It really sucked because I really liked everyone in the band. When a band leaves a tour prematurely it can affect you. Soilent left the tour early to do the Dethklok/Chimaira tour. I was happy as hell for them because that tour is kicking ass and they deserve to play for new people. When Soilent left we felt it. It was a blow. It was like our package had to reset itself.

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The band name “Light this City” has never made much sense to me. I assume that the rest of that thought would be “On Fire,” but maybe they just live in an Amish town with no electricity?

ANYWAY, the band has dropped off a couple of tours, including their current support stint for God Forbid and Death Angel, and the rumor is that they’re dunzo.

I’ve never really heard enough of this band’s music to formulate anything resembling an intelligent opinion (hold your jokes, please), but I do like their single “The Unwelcome Savior,” which just happens to have a video directed by Soren.

So here is that video. I hope it brings some comfort to the band’s fans during these troubling times.

-AR

Thanks to all the people and unsigned bands who entered our contest (also sponsored by Nonelouder and Cocaine Energy Drink) to win free God Forbid / Death Angel tickets! The winning bands were really good, but unfortunately one winner was disqualified because he didn’t live close to any tour dates.

So rather than go through and chose more bands, we’re doing it the old fashioned way. If you’d like a free pair of tickets to any of the God Forbid / Death Angel / Arsis / Light This City shows listed below, simply email news [at] metalsucks.net with your full name, the show you’d like to attend, and the reason you think you should win the tickets! Make ‘em funny, and Axl and Vince will chose the winner tonight and notify them by email. The winner’s name will be placed on a guest list at the venue, with a +1 for a friend.

Eligible dates:

Wed 06/04/08 Sauget, IL Pop’s
Thu 06/05/08 Columbus, OH Alrosa Villa
Fri 06/06/08 Mokena, IL Pearl Room
Sat 06/07/08 Detroit, MI Harpo’s Concert Theatre
Sun 06/08/08 Toronto, ON Opera House Concert Venue
Mon 06/09/08 Montreal, QC Les Foufounes Electriques
Tue 06/10/08 Quebec City, QC L’Anti
Wed 06/11/08 New York, NY B.B. King’s Blues Club

Last week we announced our contest — together with Nonelouder and Cocaine Energy Drink — to give away three pairs of God Forbid / Death Angel tickets in the city of your choice on their current tour. To enter, you all posted comments with links to your favorite local bands. It was tough sorting through them all… well, actually, it wasn’t that hard, because most of the bands you submitted sucked, especially a band who shall remain unnamed that spammed us with 50 entries. But there were a few diamonds in the rough, and here are the winners.

• Dhalsim (submitted by Johnny Ringo): Managing to bring Meshuggah’s angular, off-kilter sensibilites to their music without sounding like they’re just ripping off those Swedish legends, this Louisiana 4 piece proves that originality in metal is not yet a dead concept. Check out the almost scat-like rhythms of the vocals: rad.
• Time of the Wolf (submitted by Zack): Two words: “Br00″ and “tal.” It’s not just that Time of the Wolf play uncompromising, epic, thrashy, blackened death metal so well; it’s that their sound already feels so developed (as opposed to some of the other submitted bands), like they could probably just go ahead and put out a record tomorrow. Which we hope they do.
• Inquinok (submitted by metalmike): Inquinok pedal a surprisingly refined, technical and melodic version of traditional black metal from that bastion of darkness and raininess, the state of Washington. Unlike most feaux-black metal pansies, I’d actually be legitimately frightened if I ran into these dudes whilst wandering around the forests of the Pacific Northwest.

Those who submitted the winning entries were contacted by email to hook up their free tickets and case of Cocaine Energy Drink (so if you won and didn’t get an email, contact us.). Congratulations, and enjoy the show!

There’s lots of talk about thrash these days. Amidst killer “comeback” records by the likes of old-schoolers Testament, Exodus, and Death Angel, there’s been a spate of signings of young up and comers who hawk the thrash sound. Muncipal Waste, Warbringer, Bonded By Blood, Evile, etc are all young bands that ape the classic thrash sound to some degree. Not to take anything away from these bands, because they’re certainly talented — but the mass signing of old-school sounding thrash bands begs the question: is this a true revival, or a passing trend?

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MetalSucks, NoneLouder and Cocaine Energy Drink are teaming up to give you a free pair of tickets to see God Forbid and Death Angel on their current U.S. Tour! MetalSucks and Nonelouder will each select three winners; each of the six total winners will get a pair (that’s TWO) tickets to see God Forbid and Death Angel in the city of their choice (dates are listed below), along with a free case of Cocaine Energy Drink. Hey, we’d rather the real stuff too, but we gotta keep it kosher.

How do you win, you ask? Well, it’s easy; since you all always complain that we don’t give enough exposure to your shitty local bands, here’s your chance to prove us wrong. Simply post a comment on MetalSucks or NoneLouder with a link to the MySpace or Nonelouder page of your favorite local band. We’ll listen to them all, and we’ll chose three winners on each site. As an added bonus, the six winning bands will get plugs on MetalSucks and NoneLouder. This is your chance to get your band, your friend’s band, or your favorite local dive bar group some real exposure! Just make sure they don’t suck!

The Rules:
- Post a link on MetalSucks or NoneLouder with the band’s MySpace or Nonelouder page
- Be sure to fill in your email address in the appropriate field
- Make sure to write in your city in your comment. Must live in or near a tour date to enter. Travel costs are not covered!
- The contest ends Wednesday, May 28th, so you have until midnight on the 28th to post. Tickets are only available for shows starting with the May 30th show in Portland, OR. Winners will be notified by email on May 31st

Tour dates, also featuring Light This City and either Arsis or Soilent Green (depending on the date):

Fri 05/30/08 Portland, OR Hawthorne Theatre
Sat 05/31/08 Seattle, WA Studio Seven
Mon 06/02/08 Denver, CO Marquis Theater
Wed 06/04/08 Sauget, IL Pop’s
Thu 06/05/08 Columbus, OH Alrosa Villa
Fri 06/06/08 Mokena, IL Pearl Room
Sat 06/07/08 Detroit, MI Harpo’s Concert Theatre
Sun 06/08/08 Toronto, ON Opera House Concert Venue
Mon 06/09/08 Montreal, QC Les Foufounes Electriques
Tue 06/10/08 Quebec City, QC L’Anti
Wed 06/11/08 New York, NY B.B. King’s Blues Club

Good luck!

So over the weekend our bastardly brothers over at Metal Injection posted some footage of everyone’s favorite New Jersey metal mammoths, God Forbid, playing a brand spankin’ new song live during a recent stop on their current “In Thrash We Trust” tour with Death Angel, Soilent Green, and Light this City (and sometimes Arsis). And while the audio quality is, admittedly, not the greatest thing ever, well, it’s a new song by God Forbid! Those dueling Doc n’ Dallas Coyle guitar solos alone make giving it a listen worth your time.

Is it weird that I’m more excited about the new God Forbid album than I am about the new Metallica album (or, for that matter, the new Anthrax album)?

-AR

For reasons I’m not entirely clear on, Soilent Green will no longer be playing all of the dates on the “In Thrash We Trust” tour with Death Angel, God Forbid and Light this City. That would be a serious bummer (not that Death Angel and God Forbid alone shouldn’t be enough to get your ass out of the house, but the more the metaler), but luckily Arsis are stepping in to save the day on those select dates. Affected shows are as follows:

June 04 – St. Louis, MO @ Pop’s
June 05 – Columbus, OH @ Alrosa Villa
June 06 – Mokena, IL @ The Pearl Room
June 07 – Detroit, MI @ Harpo’s
June 08 – Toronto, ON @ Opera House
June 09 – Montreal, QC @ Foufounes
June 10 – Quebec City, QC @ L’Anti
June 11 – New York, NY @ B.B. King Blues Club

The MetalSucks posse will be at the June 11 show, if anyone wants to buy us some beer, some weed, or some hookers.

If for some reason you’re not listening to Arsis, you should definitely check out their latest, We Are the Nightmare (read Vince’s rave review here). And while you’re at it, why not check out our interview with Arsis bassist Noah Martin? You’ll like it, and it will make us happy.

-AR

So everyone and their mother is going bat shit crazy over the new Death Angel album, Killing Season, and now Headbanger’s Blog has debuted the video for the first single, “Dethroned.” It’s a pretty cool clip, and the song certainly makes me want to throw a bottle of beer against a wall and scream for no real good reason.

And don’t forget that Death Angel are hitting the road with God Forbid and Soilent Green this summer. If that line-up doesn’t get you stoked, you must be suffering from a pretty serious head injury.

-AR