It occurred to me sometime this afternoon that Frankie Palmeri may very well read what I wrote about him earlier today, and decide the best course of action is to invite me onto his tour bus to settle our conflict through calm, intelligent discussion, only to sucker punch me when the bus door opens. Thus, I have come with a new rule for life: NEVER GO ONTO A TERRIBLE DEATHCORE BAND’S TOUR BUS. Seems simple enough!

While I contemplate Thanos Bison Reignz coming after me during a solar apocalypse, here’s a rundown of some of the fun shit we did this week:

• We broke the news of new System of a Down tour dates! I’m very proud of Vince for his investigative journalism skills on this one. He’s a regular Carl Bernstein, that one.
• We enjoyed another excellent tour blog from Eluveitie.
• We checked out the new release from Derek Roddy’s Serpents Rise.
• We wondered, “Is Hatebreed the best hardcore band of all time?”
• We whined about the Grammys.
• We made you a totally romantic Valentine’s Day mix.
• We learned the value of telling women we like metal up front.
• We discovered djentstep.
• We likened a Deftones concert riot to a Mad Max movie, ’cause we’re sensitive like that.
• Our friends at Decibel let you hear the previously unreleased Lamb of God tune “Hit the Wall.” Say “Thank you, Decibel.”

So, one last reminder: next week sees the release of Volume 2 of NYC Sucks, our totally free comp collecting awesome bands from the New York area. But if you’re a total sour puss and awesome free music does nothing for you, we’ll have some other fun shit, too. ‘Til then…

-AR

There’s a powerfully bittersweet scene in the Iron Maiden documentary Flight 666 in which a Costa Rican metalhead spends a few post-entry/pre-show moments lamenting the misfortune of Third World metalheads. He states:

When I was like 14 or 15, I heard Iron Maiden for the first time. [I thought,] ‘Oh, this is amazing! I-ron Maiden! Can you just imagine to see them live? Oh, [what a] shame — we live in the ass of the world.’ … [So, today's concert] is once in a lifetime! I have a friend who quit his job to be here today!

Though the show is hours away, the guy’s voice cracks with emotion and his gestures signify rising euphoria. He’s happy for himself and and those like him who waited most of their lives for the chance to see Maiden pound “the ass of the world” later that night. Intense, right? Now, swap out Maiden for the Deftones, Costa Rica for Thailand, and a full-tilt ass-pounding for a 90-minute delay followed by an outright cancellation. Yeah, then swap out euphoria for angry rioting:

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I was elated to see all the recommendations for good elephants marching riffs following my love letter to that conceit earlier this week. I was a little less elated to discover that there’s almost as much confusion over what qualifies as an elephants marching riff as is there over what qualifies as a taco riff.

For example, here are some excellent riffs by some excellent bands that some of you excellently suggested but which are, rather unexcellently, not elephants marching riffs:

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[UPDATE: Full tour routing has been posted here. - Ed.]

My good friend Eduardo, a non-metalhead (or “normie” as Juggalo Bob calls them), is a lifelong Deftones fan despite his status as a die-hard hip hip fan. As a youth growing up in Sacramento, CA Eduardo was ensconced in Deftones culture, kinda like you’d be hard pressed to find anyone born and raised in the NYC area who doesn’t like the Beastie Boys regardless of their other musical tastes. But the poor chap has never seen the Deftones play live. Since he moved to New York in 2005 and our friendship began we’ve been angling to see the Deftones live and for Eduardo to crowd-surf for the first time, but it’s just never happened. Deftones haven’t come to the East Coast much during that period, and when they have it’s been as support like on the recent BlackDiamondSkye tour. But we may finally get our opportunity.

The PRP is reporting [via Gun Shy Assassin] that Deftones will be touring this Spring with the Dillinger Escape Plan in tow. Three dates have already been leaked, so presumably more are on the way, and two of them are on the East Coast which bodes well for Eduardo and I. STOKED. That is going to be a moshfest of massive proportions. I hope Eduardo is prepared for the insanity! It’s always fun to see someone react to their first ever metal concert.

The three dates confirmed so far are posted after the jump.

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

This week’s question was once again suggested by “Hipsters Out of Metal!” columnist Anso DF, and even though the Grammy nominations were actually announced last week, it still seemed like a fun debate to have. So:

WHAT ARE YOUR NOMINATIONS FOR BEST METAL GRAMMY?

The MS staff’s answers after the jump.

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While most new releases have trailed off into Christmas Music oblivion, there were still a few notable new metal albums trickling in last week. After the jump, a look at the meaningless sales numbers generated by new ones from After the Burial, Metallica, The Chariot and Yngwie Malmsteen with a look at a few other charting releases as well (take a look at the tags below if you wanna know who). Snarky commentary included, natch.

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One of the best things about the public library is the nerd-calming intimacy of ceiling-high bookshelves. It’s easy to feel calm and invisible amid the stacks, and therefore free to pursue the solitary nerdiness of books in, um, nerdy solitary. It’s a calming opposite of snooty record stores, where insecure dorkwads feel spotlit and browbeaten when, say, searching for a uncensored edition of Brandy’s Afrodisiac or buying a third copy of It’s Complicated.

So, yeah, the public library is actually quite private. Especially the unpoliced expanses of a major city’s main branch. That’s why so many times I’ve whirled around a corner to encounter a uppity homeless guy brushing his teeth (Honolulu), or a pair of crack bums in the throes of a mutual jack-off (Minneapolis), or a frazzled nanny stashing a soiled diaper in the Danielle Steel section (Santa Monica), or a teenaged Olivia Munn‘s whispered offers of a meth-for-homework swap (Shinjuku). You gotta stay on your toes. That doesn’t even count the everyday stuff, like the ever-present soiled condoms/female products, angry smears of feces, and seniors bickering with newspaper racks.

So to me, there is no more gratifying a fantasy than the new Deftones video for “You’ve Seen The Butcher” (below) off their horny Diamond Eyes record. It’s got a cozy library, some slamming pop metal, and buckets of blood where it belongs: coating the skin of four dozen sexy underwear chicks. And afterwards, there’s no need to blast yourself with a Purell canon. The only thing missing from the clip is a ZZ Top-style fool-to-cool resolution where I stumble upon the band and babes, drop my stack of stalker novels, and begin to twitch and sweat before being escorted into the band’s magical super-car for a full fashion makeover. Then straight back to the library to romance some bloody underwear hotties!

-ADF

The Deftones bring Diamond Eyes live to Europe in November/December then Australia in January. Dates here. Help Chi Cheng here.

Man, Aerosmith guitarist Joe Perry is having a rough month. First, his arch-frenemy Steven Tyler finalized a spot on that TV show about pre-failures caterwauling hit songs while nervous. And this follows know-it-all beardo John Kalodner’s description of Perry as “completely wrong,” “jealous,” and “ultra-pissed off,” which supposes that Perry hoped that the AI judge seat was to be shared by the Toxic Talkshit Twins. Actually that would’ve been cute, every week Tyler perched gamely on Perry’s lap, stroking his abs while some featureless shriek-droid performs “Don’t Stop Believin’” to a theater of fame-wet spectators. Well, that’s what I dreamt last night anyway. Cough.

Anyhow, when Perry awoke and rolled off a pile of my money this morning, he was probably too crabby to just ignore the announcement that his band is the latest victim of an Atreyu Cover Version attack. It happened to Bon Jovi in 2004, when Atreyu launched an emo-guided missile of Twilight-level corniness at “You Give Love A Bad Name” (I complained all about it on The Deciblog). Then, an unapologetic lameness mine overturned both Faith No More’s “Epic” and “Clean Sheets” by The Descendents in 2008 and holy shit let’s not validate that type of ear-terrorism with discussion of any kind. (It never happened if everyone on Earth denies it. You fuckin’ deny that shit.)

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Alice in Chains must really want to make sure you all go see them on their current BlackDiamondSkye tour with Deftones and Mastodon, ’cause they’ve released a video for the song “Lesson Learned” not even one full week after they released a video for the song “Acid Bubble.”

Not that I’m complaining — I actually think this is a really cool video, and certainly much better than the “Acid Bubble” one. It was directed by Paul Matthaeus, whose background is serving as (an often uncredited) “creative director” on risqué television shows like Six Feet Under, Dexter, True Blood, and Nip/Tuck. I’m not really sure what the heck a “creative director” does on such shows, but whatever it is, I guess it made Matthaeus the perfect choice to helm a metal vid.

Get tour dates for the BlackDiamondSkye trek here.

-AR

I’m not really the resident Deftones fan here at MetalSucks, but my-oh-my do I like their new video, for the song “Sex Tape.” I have no idea what, if anything, the footage “means” in relationship to the song, but it sure is gorgeous to look at.

Oddly enough, it’s only the second-best underwater romp amongst pretty girls I’ve seen in the past month; the extended lesbian ballet in Piranha 3D still has this beat. Sorry, Deftones. Next time get some nudity.

“Sex Tape” comes off of Deftones’ latest, Diamond Eyes, which is out now on Reprise/Warner Bros.

-AR

It was a while ago now that Axl dug up Ill Bill’s Unauthorised Biography Of Slayer, a surprisingly detailed history of Slayer delivered entirely in rap. But like all metalheads, Ill Bill has a little bit of trouble keeping his love of all things heavy in one place. Check out this jam by Ill Bill’s posse, Non Phixion, titled ‘The CIA Is Still Trying To Kill Me’, featuring members of the Deftones and Fear Factory. Yes, it does have that boofheaded-guitar-riff-over-hip-hop-beat thing that made nu-metal suck, but the whole first verse is peppered with references to classic metal bands and albums. The shout-outs aren’t exactly harde to pick, but at the very least it’ll put a smile on your miserable face, so quit yer whingin and check this out:

-Crack Hitler

Alight guys, sorry I haven’t posted an article in a while, but I’m here now with something I think is kinda cool and rarely gets talked about in the metal world: Groove.

Some of you guys may know just how much I love a rhythm that grooves, something that just makes you want to bob your head to it, and there’s more to it than just getting playful with the accents or syncopating a beat. There are the more subtle aspects, the kind that sometimes don’t translate so well to recordings. I mean, what is groove exactly and what gives it that “feel”? Who in the band really affects the level of groove — is it just the drummer, the drummer and the bassist, or the band as a whole?

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Kirk Windstein is a poet. Of this, there can be no doubt. Since Kingdom of Sorrow took over our site on Tuesday, Vince and I have decided we really, really wanna take a trip to New Orleans and just go eat with the dude (well, probably get high and then go eat with the dude). But secretly, I have aspirations of someday being able to pay the man to teach my children how to speak good. I can dream, can’t I?

Here’s some other shit that went down in the Mansion this week:

• We debuted a clip from The Haunted’s new DVD, Road Kill.
• We also debuted new music by Early Graves.
• We spoke to Stephen Carpenter from Deftones.
• Ken Sorceron from Abigail Williams doesn’t wanna talk shit about Winds of Plague, so instead he just left a comment on our site saying “it its embarrassing to once again see our name next to theirs on another metal news site.” Way to not talk shit, Kenny!
• We checked out a new release by Black Pyramid.
• Sergeant D taught us about the history of metalcore and screamo.
• We engaged in debate about the new Maiden song, the new Maiden setlist, and the old Maiden album art.
• The new Methods of Mayhem song is the worst thing ever.
• Rose Funoral finally spoke out about the Uno Incident.
• Vince thinks the BP oil spill is Korny.

Next week will bring some more streams, interviews with Max Cavalera and Bobby Blotzer, and more self-righteous rage over fairly trivial topics. ‘Til then…

-AR

There remain some people who aren’t convinced that the Deftones are a special band, but if it’s possible to evaluate music subjectively, then few could argue that the post-alt metal quintet at least belongs on the ballot. For one thing, the Deftones Sound evolves (and occasionally just mutates), leading to a dynamic catalogue of resemblant but dissimilar albums. And like other rare, extra-interesting bands, Deftones elude classification and repeatedly outdo their, ahem, peers. Also, they have a killer drummer and an unobtrusive, artful guitarist (he’s so guitartful), a combo that ensures a ripping live show.

But what wows me about this band in 2010 is their handling of prolonged, agonizing tragedy. By shelving their near-completed sixth album, Eros, they seem to express a certainty of the day in the future where all of its authors will ably engage in its promotion and performance. For now, what guitarist Stephen Carpenter calls a whole “different Deftones” is enjoying a top-ten debut for the slim, slamming Diamond Eyes, a bonkers Fall tour with two other tweener juggernauts (Alice In Chains, Mastodon), and a healthy relationship with producer Nick Raskulinecz (Rush, Coheed And Cambria). Carpenter called back to Los Angeles from New York and spoke to Metal Sucks about both Deftones, weird talk radio, and the steamy night we shared in Milwaukee.

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I’ve gotten out of the habit of reading industry pundit Bob Lefsetz lately. It’s not that I stopped liking the guy or disagreeing with his rants about the current and future state of the music industry; I guess I just got tired of reading about his ski trips, and his new music recommendations are so irrelevant that they threaten the integrity of his industry rants. Still, when it comes to major label / old music biz world shenanigans and calling them out, no one’s smarter or funnier than Lefsetz.

It was actually Lefsetz that inspired me to run my not-quite-weekly Soundscan Chart roundups, and since last week’s charts included some notable heavy hitters and I didn’t do a writeup I’d like to call in Mr. Lefsetz for his own analysis. Of course, in our world Godsmack and the Deftones are ginormous behemoths — two of the biggest bands we ever talk about on this site — but Bob points out that they’re pretty small potatoes all things considered (truth). Still, for someone that’s got little to no knowledge of metal, Bob displays a knowledgeable understanding of each band’s place in the world:

Godsmack “Oracle”

Sales this week: 117,481
Debut

[excerpt]

…I’ll guarantee you almost no one knows Godsmack.  Take a survey, in a country of three hundred million how many even recognize the name, never mind know the music.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.  Godsmack has a hard core fan base.  Which rushed out and bought this album this week. After they’ve all got it, then what?  Maybe there’ll be airplay and sustaining sales.  But I doubt they’ll be anywhere near enough to put “Oracle” at the top of the chart.

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It’s a long way from loving a band’s record to loving the band. There are records I’ve listened to eight-hundred times whose authors, if ever set on fire, would die at my feet as I arch a stream of tinkle just past their twitching, smoldering carcasses. Hate their guts. On the other hand, there are terrible, mega-awful bands staffed by funny guys who don’t dress like dogfuckers and are fans of your favorite records, too. Isn’t that a bummer.

Occasionally, you luck out and like the band as much as the band’s music. I love that! The best case scenario in my book is Faith No More, but a deceptively close second goes to the Deftones guys. It’s so easy to like bands that can select and execute cover songs so well. As a fan, I worry that either band might appear to be a purveyor of the dreaded Wacky Cover Song, or worse, the Pretentious Cover Song that’s actually a demand for respect in disguise, as if to say “Man, look at all the cool shit we listen to!!!”

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Tributes to Dimebag have become a bit passe in 2010 (or really sometime in 2008), but the lads in British thrashers Evile get a pass. For one, their cover of Pantera’s “Cemetery Gates” is awesome — vocalist/guitarist Matt Drake handles Phil Anselmo’s vocals with surprising ease, and the band does the Pantera classic justice in every other way. But then there’s the sad tragedy of bassist Mike Alexander’s sudden death last Fall, and the poetic coda that the last song he ever recorded with the band was a cover of “Cemetery Gates.” If that doesn’t give Evile a license to play this song and devote it to Dime whenever they damn please, nothing does.

Suckalo Jeremy Ruemenapp was on hand at Trees in Dallas a few nights ago to catch Evile covering “Cemetery Gates” during their support slot for Overkill. Check out his video of the performance (with really good video and sound quality!) below.

If you live in the Dallas area you can catch Deftones performing a surprise set on that very same stage tonight at 7pm! Ustream will have a live broadcast of the event, so be sure to tune in at 8pm EDT / 5pm PDT tonight to watch if you can’t attend.

-VN

The fact that anyone was treating the Alice in Chains/Deftones/Mastodon “BlackDiamondSkye” tour as a rumor was always pretty ridiculous; the three bands’ “hints” that the tour was coming were about as subtle as Cannibal Corpse lyrics. Still, I’m sure everyone will be elated to know that the tour has been officially announced.

I know I am! I’m not even that big a Deftones fan or anything, but they put on a killer show. An Alice in Chains and Mastodon obviously pwn live. I guess the only question now is, “Will tickets cost a fucking fortune?” Based on the size of the venues the tour is hitting – which, I gots to admit, are bigger than I would have guessed (with the exception of The Joint in Vegas, which will still probably charge an arm and a leg) – I would wager that they will. But the tour doesn’t even start ’til September, so you’ve got time to start saving now.

Here’s the first batch of dates; more will follow soon…

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A lot of media outlets are treating this fall’s Alice in Chains/Deftones/Mastodon tour as rumor since there’s been no official announcement yet, and while I appreciate their caution, let’s be real here, folks – this tour is happening. For one thing, there’s this YouTube teaser clip, which, scrambled though it is, clearly features music by all three bands:

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