MetalSucks

These are some of my favorite producers and mixers for heavy music… It’s a challenging genre, and these guys are great in my opinion.

Click to read more…

Here’s the video for DevilDriver’s “Fate Stepped In,” from Pray for Villians. It’s one of those Warrant-”Heaven” style tour montage videos, but no one is wearing white leather, Dez never sings right into the camera, and there’s no synchronized guitar moves. Oh well.

And just because I feel like it, here’s that Warrant video I was referencing…

Click to read more…

Wanna know what’s worse than cops that have decided to ruin your day? Customs officials that have decided to make an example out of you.

Click to read more…

Last week was somewhat of a slow one for metal record sales. There weren’t a whole lot of new releases, but a few records that have been out for a while hung onto their spots in the Top 200 and Hank III’s Assjack project had a solid debut. Click through for chart positions and sales numbers.

Click to read more…

The MetalSucks co-sponsored Thrash & Burn Tour is currently about half-way through with its month-long U.S. trek. Those in California and the South have already gotten their Thrash on with MetalSucks faves Devildriver, Despised Icon, Veil of Maya, Periphery and Thy Will Be Done (among others), while those in the East and Midwest will get their chance in the coming weeks. After playing Baltimore last night, the tour picks up again tomorrow in New York City and then works its way through the Midwest, wrapping up August 24th in Minnesota. Is the end of August / summer really that close? FUCK!

Check out the full list of tour dates on the Thrash & Burn MySpace, and be sure to pick up your tickets in advance.

DevilDriver’s latest rock-solid chunk of American New Wave, Pray for Villians, doesn’t come out for another week, but you can listen to it now, in its entirety, here. Give it a listen and then come back here and let us know what you think!

You can also check out DevilDriver this summer on the MetalSucks co-sponsored Thrash & Burn tour. Get concert dates here.

-AR

Quickly:

-AR

Cain. Iago. Lecter. Vader. Joker. The dude in the black hat is always the most interesting character in any given story. Who gives a shit about the pansy ass hero who wants to save the day because it’s the right thing to do and yadda yadda yadda? The villian is the guy who’s gonna buck the system. The bad ass. The man with the motherfucking plan.

DevilDriver understand this better than most. They’ve got an awesome new album, Pray for Villians, coming out July 14 on Roadrunner Records, and it’s all about the celebration of the rebel. The anti-hero. The guy you need to fear.

MetalSucks is proud to debut DevilDriver’s brand new video for the title track. It was directed by Nathan Cox, who, in addition to the last two DevilDriver videos, has also worked with Trivium, Lacuna Coil, Queens of the Stone Age, and loads others, so ya know it’s a gonna be a masterpiece of modern cinemetal. Check it out below! Pre-order the special edition of Pray For Villains at a special discount here.

You can pre-order DevilDriver’s Pray for Villains here as either a Special Edition digi CD/DVD with bonus tracks or the regular edition CD. Either way, if you order now, you get an autographed booklet to sweeten the deal. You can also get all your up-to-the-millisecond DevilDriver news at the band’s Roadrunner home page.

And don’t forget to check out DevilDriver headlining the MetalSucks co-sponsored Thrash & Burn tour all summer long. Get official tour dates here.

-Axl, Vince, and Everyone at MetalSucks

Tickets for the MetalSucks co-sponsored U.S. Thrash & Burn Tour — headlined by DevilDriver and featuring Despised Icon, Veil of Maya, Periphery, Thy Will Be Done and others — have now gone on sale, and if you pre-order by the end of today you’ll also receive a free tour poster, and, if you order 4 tickets, a t-shirt! By ordering today (I feel like I’m selling a fucking Ginsu knife) you’ll also be automatically entered to win the “Ultimate Thrash & Burn Tour Package.” Only one winner will be chosen, and will receive:

The Ultimate Thrash & Burn Tour Package includes:
- A Thrash & Burn guitar, provided by Washburn
- Dinner with one of the Thrash & Burn bands of your choosing before the show
- A T-shirt pack, including a shirt from each band on the tour and a Trash & Burn tour shirt
- An autographed poster signed by all of the bands

Check out the full list of tour dates after the jump, and pre-order tickets here; remember, this deal is only good through today.

Click to read more…

If you don’t know who Amy Sciarretto is, well, ya should. She’s Roadrunner Records in-house PR goddess (and often writes the very funny “Ask Amy” column for the Roadrunner website) and also writes for NoiseCreep. She’s also written for Revolver, Kerrang!, Guitar World, and a butt load of other publications and websites. In other words, she knows her shit.

Now Amy has teamed up with Rick Florino – founder or Ruined magazine and a contributor to Inked, Revolver, Hit Parader, etc. – to write Do the Devil’s Work for Him: How to Make it in the Music Industry (and Stay in It!). Featuring interviews and music biz advice from members of System of a Down, DevilDriver, Dragonforce, Matt Sorum (current Velvet Revolver/ex-Guns N’ Roses drummer) and Roadrunner A&R guru/blade runner Mike Gitter, this promises to be much, much cooler than your average “how to” guide.

The book hits shelves on June 26. In the meantime, you can get more info here.

-AR

Those groovy folks at Roadrunner are giving away the title track from the new DevilDriver album, Pray for Villains, right here.

And I dig it. It sounds like DevilDriver, but a little faster than most DevilDriver, and a little more melodic (and no, that’s not code for “clean vocals” – Dez still sounds like he’s trying to hock a massive blood-tinged loogie). I also really like that herky jerky start-stop thing that happens in the last minute or so of the track.

So go download it and then come back here and let us know what you think. And don’t forget that DevilDriver are headlining this summer’s Thrash and Burn tour, which we’re co-sponsoring! You can get complete tour dates here.

-AR

As a co-sponsor of the 2009 run of the Thrash & Burn Tour, MetalSucks is pleased to announce the full, confirmed lineup of bands for this year’s trek. The tour will run through the U.S. from July 24th through August 30th, 2009, and will be headlined by MetalSucks-faves Devildriver. Support will come from Emmure, Despised Icon, My Children My Bride, Veil of Maya, For The Fallen Dreams, Oceano, Periphery and Red River Revival [UPDATE: Red River Revival will not be on the tour. -Ed.]

While we at MetalSucks can’t say we vouch for every single one of those bands, we appreciate the “something for everyone” angle of this year’s tour, and there’s absolutely no denying it; that is an amazing lineup, and if you aren’t interested in at least a few of those bands we highly suggest you stop drinking that Haterade pronto. We’ll be there for sure. We’ll have tour announcements for you leading up to and through the duration of the tour, including tour dates and cities very soon. As soon as we know, so will you!

See you this summer.

Here’s the cover art the new DevilDriver album, Pray for Villians – both the regular and special editions. It’s certainly… different.

-AR

Not really, of course – but these clips from old episodes of Friends, sent to us by MetalSucks maniac Daisy May Twinklepants, would suggest otherwise:

Alas, I’m not aware of any metal band called “Karcass” with a “k”…

Click to read more…

Even before we were an “industry type” (I think we can safely call ourselves that now), I loved the fact that Roadrunner Records posts their staffers and some of the artists “best of” lists every year; these people work at/with one of the biggest metal labels out there, so it’s pretty interesting to see what they were grooving on from year to year.

The 2008 lists are on Roadrunner’s website now. Here are some highlights:

Click to read more…

So while it was rumored for awhile that this year’s edition of Ozzfest would be a two day event – but it has now been announced that it’ll be just one single day, on Saturday, August 9, at at Pizza Hut Park* in Dallas, Texas. The line-up will be as follows:

Main Stage
OZZY OSBOURNE
METALLICA
SERJ TANKIAN
HELLYEAH
JONATHAN DAVIS
CAVALERA CONSPIRACY
SHADOWS FALL
APOCALYPTICA
IN THIS MOMENT
All-Star Tribute To “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott

Second Stage
SEVENDUST
DEVILDRIVER
KINGDOM OF SORROW
SOILENT GREEN
WITCHCRAFT
GOATWHORE

Texas (Third) Stage
THE SWORD
DROWNING POOL
RIGOR MORTIS

Actually, that is, by no means, a terrible line-up; if the stages are staggered at all (and I imagine they will be), it would be plenty easy to keep oneself occupied during sets from In This Moment, Jonathan Davis, and HellNo. And I guess it’s honorable of Metallica to let Ozzy play last, even though, at this point, a) they’re much bigger than Ozzy and b) Ozzy has to be in bed by 8 pm. I mean, if I was Ozzy, and I’d spent recent Ozzfests getting blown off the stage by the likes of Maiden and Priest, I certainly wouldn’t wanna follow Metallica. But, y’know, nice of Ulrich and Hetfield to step aside for one night and let the Ozzman cometh.

Click to read more…

Phil Anselmo has allegedly referred to DevilDriver as “the next Pantera,” but DD’s new video for “Clouds Over California” is still second to Pantera’s clip for “Revolution is My Name” when it comes to kids substituting for the actual band. Don’t get me wrong – I really like DevilDriver, and “Clouds” is probably by second favorite song from The Last Kind Words (”These Fighting Words,” in all its glorious Gothenburginess, is still tops in my book). But, c’mon – those kids aping the band in “Revolution” (especially the one playing Dime) are so fuckin’ great, I don’t even know where to start.

Watch both clips below and decide for yourself.

-AR

P.S. Best part about “Revolution?” Why, the cowbell, of course.

The rad dudes over at Metal Injection have posted a new video interview with Randy Blythe from Lamb of God, Bjorn Strid from Soilwork, and Dez Fafara of Devildriver… all in the same room, filmed on their recent OMG-best-lineup-ever tour (along with Killswitch Engage). The three frontman have some pretty interesting things to say about illegal downloading. Blythe, for a change, comes off as smart, accepting of the current state and recognizing the need to adapt. Strid is mostly pensive and understand both sides, while Fafara ends up sounding like a bit of an ill-informed idiot, suggesting all artists band together and sue the iPod and iTunes out of existence. Great idea, that’ll work. <sarcasm> And Coal Chamber was a great band, too. </sarcasm>

It has to be seen to be believed. Check out the video at Metal Injection.

-VN

MetalSucks recently sat down with guitarist Ola Frenning (above, right) of Swedish metal kings Soilwork mere hours before their sold out show at New York City’s Hammerstein Ballroom with Killswitch Engage, Lamb of God and Devildriver. Frenning talks about the tour, the band’s new album Sworn to a Great Divide (read our review), self-producing for the first time, the sudden exit of guitarist and songwriter Peter Wichers from the band, future touring plans and more. Read the full transcript after the jump.

Click to read more…