You know what’s an awesome way to prepare for the North American Khaos Tour, the super-incredible Arch Enemy/DevilDriver/Skeletonwitch/Chthonic trek we’re co-presenting with Full Metal Jackie? By checking out this stream of Chthonic’s new album, Takasago Army.

Chthonic are the only band on that tour I’m only kinda-sorta familiar with — which is to say, I’ve heard some of their music before, but I’ve never seen them live. But this Takasago Army makes me wanna check them out that much more. It’s kinda like Dimmu Borgir, if Dimmu Borgir has more Asian elements to their music, and hadn’t completely lost the thread. This is some catchy, catchy stuff.

Headbang here, then come back and let us know what you think in the comments section. Takasago Army comes out September 6 on Spinefarm; the North American Khaos Tour starts September 8. Get dates here.

-AR

Arch Enemy’s North American Khaos headlining tour — which we’re co-presenting with Full Metal Jackie and which also features DevilDriver, Skeletonwitch, and Chthonic — starts next week!!! I’m so goddamned excited I can’t even tell you. I haven’t seen Arch Enemy live in, like, I dunno, two years I think? And they ALWAYS MURDER in concert.

The band’s new video, for “Bloodstained Cross,” isn’t doing anything to lessen my enthusiasm, either. It’s a collection of live footage — I’m assuming filmed at the band’s recent appearances at various summer European festivals, although don’t quote me on that — and just seeing how rabid those crowds are… man. Can I go see Arch Enemy tomorrow, pretty please?

“Bloodstained Cross” comes off of Arch Enemy’s latest, Khaos Legions, which is out now on Century Media. You can get dates for their upcoming tour right here.

-AR

Skeletonwitch have released the first in a series of webisodes chronicling the making of their new album, Forever Abomination. And I know there’s a real glut of in-studio webisodes being released in this day and age of flip cams and iMovie, but you should seriously check this one out, ’cause a) Skeletonwitch rules, b) you get to hear a little bit of new music, c) you actually do get some really good dish on the album, d) you get to learn a lot about new drummer Dustin Boltjes, e) it looks like it was shot by the people who made that movie Bellflower, and f) all of the above.

Forever Abomination comes out October 11 on Prosthetic. Skeletonwitch are going to be one of the support bands on Arch Enemy’s upcoming North American headlining tour, which we’re co-presenting with Full Metal Jackie; DevilDriver and Chthonic are also on the bill. You can get dates for that tour here. Skeletonwitch are also doing a bunch of off-dates with DevilDriver, and a bunch of headlining shows in the Midwest; you can get those dates here.

-AR

Skeletonwitch must be one of the most metal metal bands out there right now; there’s no pretense to their music, no core, nothing about it that’s retro, nothing about it that’s trendy, no way to describe it as anything other than “fucking metal.” Combine this with the fact that Chance Garnette is absolutely one of the most entertaining frontmen on the scene today, and, well, it is absolutely no shock that people love this band. They are worth loving.

So you’ll be happy to know that their just-released new song, “The Infernal Resurrection,” does not disappoint. It is EXACTLY what a new Skeletonwitch song should be. Check it out:

The band has also unveiled the cover art for their new album, Forever Abomination, via that album’s pre-order page. Although it’s at a slight angle for some reason. Still looks pretty fucking cool, though:

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That’s right! As many of you have correctly guessed by now, the headliner of the Magical Mystery Tour 2011 we’re co-presenting with Full Metal Jackie is none other than the great Arch Enemy. Yep. We basically pulled the same trick on you that we did the last time we sponsored an Arch Enemy trek. Hey, we did say that this tour has a different line-up, and, technically, we weren’t lying!

And what a line-up it is! As you now know, Arch Enemy will be joined by DevilDriver, Skeletonwitch, and Chthonic. Arch Enemy’s latest, Khaos Legions, might be their strongest album in years, which is saying something, since they’ve never made a bad record; DevilDriver’s recent Beast is, well, a beast; and while we haven’t gotten to hear any new Skeletonwitch or Chthonic material yet, people in the know assure us that it’s awesome — certainly all their old stuff is!

In other words: These shows are going to be ABSOLUTELY FUCKING INSANE, so make sure you get your ass to a gig!

Get tour dates after the jump! And don’t forget that Khaos Legions is out now on Century Media.

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So this being metal, the powers-that-be decided they wanted to shift the schedule for this tour announcement slightly. Apologies to those who were waiting impatiently for the reveal of the identity of the next band.

The good news is, many of you correctly guessed last week that the third of the four bands on the upcoming super-duper awesome tour we’re sponsoring is, indeed, DevilDriver. They’ll join the previously announced Skeletonwitch and Chtonic on the trek, which is sure to cause chaos and cruelty without beauty wherever it goes.

But who will headline this godless entity of a tour?!?! We’ll let you know one week from today — but for now, here are some clues…

• Like Skeletonwitch, two members of this band are related.
• This is their first U.S. tour in almost two years.
• They have a new album coming out very, very, VERY soon. Like, very soon.

So get with the guessin’… come next Monday, the complete line-up shall be unveiled!!!

-Axl, Vince, and Everyone at MetalSucks

Jennifer’s Body was screwed before a single image flickered in public. The immediate reasons were twofold.

First, Karyn Kusama directed it. That would be that same Kusama whose gritty indie-film Girlfight was celebrated, but whose pricey, high fashion futurist Æon Flux was shredded by the studio and then released without reviewer pre-screenings. The press surveyed the carnage, located the person least responsible— ironically, Kusama — and promptly laid blame on her.

Around the same time, Diablo Cody was still flush with the out of the box success of her first screenplay, Juno. Was it time to knock the attractive ex-stripper down a few pegs no matter what she wrote? Yes it was.

So — deadset on consigning Kusama to the dustbin of one-hit-wonders and eager to loathe anything Cody crafted, the critics promptly lowered themselves to the occasion by trashing the hard-to-pigeonhole Jennifer’s Body on its release in 2009 for reasons that were united mainly by their inchoate ugliness. But later for what may have explained Body’s kneejerk drubbing.

For I am here to praise Cody/Kusama’s great film, which may have MetalSucks readers going, “What the fuck is Jennifer’s freakin’ Body release doing in the New York Times of Metal anyway?”

Click to read more…

If you’d've told me in 1993 that some Swedish metal band that sings about Viking lore would sell more records than Pearl Jam 18 years later, I’d've called you crazy. Shit, if you’d have told me earlier this year that Amon Amarth would sell more records than Pearl Jam I’d've called you crazy. But that’s exactly what happened this past week. Sure, the Pearl Jam release in question was a reissue, but still; how unlikely is it that Amon Amarth, of all bands, have one of the strongest metal debuts of 2011 so far, strong enough to net them #1 on the Hard Music chart — selling roughly 14x the number of copies The Haunted’s new album did (in the U.S.) — and to beat out the enduring monolith that is Pearl Jam? Pretty fucking unlikely, and pretty fucking awesome too. Slow and steady wins the race, I suppose… 13 years and 8 albums in, Amon Amarth have broken through.

No doubt, it’s all due to this 10-year old Amon Amarth fan (WARNING: severe metalhead overload alert!).

Whitesnake (!), Within Temptation, Cavalera Conspiracy, Becoming the Archetype, Obscura and The Haunted also cracked the Top Hard Music Top 100 in their first week of U.S. release; those releases and other notable charting albums after the jump.

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It’s barely been more than a month since DevilDriver released their fifth studio album, Beast, but bassist Jon Miller has now announced his departure from the band.

His statement doesn’t really tell us anything and makes the split sound perfectly amiable (it’s so vanilla I’m not even gonna print it here, but you can read it at Metal Underground if you’re really curious), but Miller had entered rehab in January of this year, so it’s hard not to speculate that his new-found sobriety had something to do with his decision to leave the group. In case it isn’t obvious, being in a band out on tour isn’t necessarily the environment most conducive to just saying “no” — you will constantly be surrounded by people who are partying, and sitting on the bus by yourself is not a lot of fun.

The band hasn’t announced an official replacement, but apparently some dude named Bubbles, who used to be Bury Your Dead and is now DevilDriver’s tour manager, has been filling in for Miller these past few months, so that should pretty much take care of that.

Yep, DevilDriver now has members named “Dez” and “Bubbles.” Not since the “Izzy/Dizzy” era of Guns N’ Roses has anything been so silly.

-AR

A BON JOVI GREATEST HITS ALBUM IS STILL THE #2 “HARD MUSIC” ALBUM IN ALL THE LAND. What the fuck, people?!

Thankfully the #1 spot belongs to Rise Against, a band I don’t particularly care for but whom people seem to dig and at least seem legit. The huge number of units their new album shifted was good enough for #2 on the overall Soundscan charts too, behind Adele.

Mastodon’s live album and As Blood Runs Black’s new one had pretty solid debuts, while Devildriver and Children of Bodom continued to sell respectably.

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Last week’s best selling “Hard Music” album was a Bon Jovi greatest hits package. I make no effort to hide the fact that I enjoy Bon Jovi from time to time, but COME ON FANS OF HEAVY MUSIC WHAT THE FUCK?! Following Bon Jovi, the #2, #3 and #4 charting hard music releases were a 27-week old Linkin Park album, Red State Rock and a GN’R greatist hits album. #5 was Sick Puppies. Sick fucking Puppies! Oy veys mere. Get it together people!

Other than Sick Puppies, the sole new release to chart in its first week out was the new album by Kopek. Who? Exactly. Take solace, fans of heavy music: at least D.R.U.G.S. are selling records.

A day late but never a dollar short, let’s look at last week’s completely irrelevant record sales numbers:

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Hey studs and foxes, Anso here. Please accept my most gracious hugz in return for partying with me these last two days. Running this site in the absence of Axl and Vince has been so superfun thanks to you, our cherished MetalSucks readership. I learned a lot of stuff too, for example that I should hereby refrain from “ass fucking [my] boyfriends cock” [sic]. K I’ll work on that while you all re-live some hilarious, informative, and sexy moments from this week:

• We debuted new music by Maruta.
• We spoke to Rob Arnold from Chimaira/Six Feet Under/The Elite, Jack Strong from The Acacia Strain, Varg Vikernes of Burzum, and Takis Kinis from prog-thrash legends Realm.
• We checked out the latest releases from DevilDriver and Wino. Plus, hot hardcore 7″s and all the stuff that Corey Mitchell rocked in February.
• We reveled in official confirmation of the System of a Down tour story we broke ahead of everybody.
• We proffered scientific evidence that to be in a band is a poor life decision.
• We were wowed by Evan Brewer, player of two basses!
• We peeped Devin Townsend’s nod to Sinatra and incredible new jams from Scale The Summit, Between The Buried And Me, Graviton, and All Shall Perish.
• We cheered Taylor Momsen and her desire to “fuck for Satan.”
• We met the new Dragonforce singer. It’s not Corey Taylor.
• We took a stand against D.R.U.G.S.

You’ll have a couple days to de-Anso yourselves, but please do rush right back to MetalSucks on Monday for more hot action when the bosses return from muling heroin in from Ecuador their business trip and we resume our regularly-scheduled action. You may now put your pants back on!

-ADF

I somehow completely missed this until I read about it on Metal Injection, but it seems that Sebastian Bach will be performing “Youth Gone Wild” with Asking Alexandria as his backing band at the Revolver Golden Gods Awards next month. (DevilDriver and Jamey Jasta will also be doing a tribute to Black Flag, but I have nothing funny to say about that.)

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Like Axl said we’re getting on a plane shortly, so let’s make this shit quick. Some emo haircut band called D.R.U.G.S. (just typing that makes me queasy) sold a lot of records, and Devildriver and Darkest Hour did pretty well too. Numbers and commentary after the jump:

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Last year (and the year before) I got way too busy with this thing called life and missed out on a lot of quality music. I am here to rectify the error of my ways, month by month.

Here are the February 2011 releases that got under my skin, burrowed their way into my brain, made my ears bleed, or simply tickled my unmentionables:

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So Revolver are doing their Golden Gods awards for the third year in a row on April 20 in L.A. (read our coverage from previous years here, here, here, and here) and the nominees have been announced.

Now, the first thing you will notice is that the nominees are more or less fairly ridiculous. For example, if these awards are to be believed, than Disturbed’s Dan Donegan is a better guitarist than Misha Mansoor, and Times of Grace (which is really just Killswitch Engage), We Are the Fallen (which is really just Evanescence), and The Damned Things (which is a supergroup) are all new bands.

That being said… I do not get particularly offended by these nominations the way I do with the Grammys. I think that’s because I know there are people who take the Grammys seriously, and think those awards actually mean something, whereas the only people who pay attention to the Golden Gods are already metal fans who either a) know that this is really just an excuse to throw an awesome party and have a big event promoting metal as a genre, or b) are eleven years old.

So check out the noms after the jump, and try not to get your panties in a twist. You should also be aware that Alice Cooper, Duff McKagan, DevilDriver, Asking Alexadria, Volbeat, and Fozzy are all performing, and that Motley Crue are getting the Ronnie James Dio Lifetime Achievement Award. (Their lifetime achievement: still being alive.)

So, about those nominees…

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New releases from Darkest Hour, DevilDriver and Evergrey top this week’s list of releases in the “veteran” category. Click on through to the other side to see what else is being officially released.

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How come Miss Piggy can’t count to 70? ‘Cause every time she gets to 69, she gets a frog in her throat.

ANYWAY, here’s how we amused ourselves this week:

• We debuted new videos from DevilDriver and Intronaut.
• We also debuted new music from Battilus and VYGR.
• We started a cool new series of tour blogs from Eluveitie and learned fifteen new things about Crowbar’s Kirk Windstein.
• We spoke to Josh Scogin from The Chariot and Mark LeVine, author of Heavy Metal Islam.
• We checked out the latest releases from Regicide, Dragged Into Sunlight, Macabre, and Abraham.
• We helped Burzum launch a new clothing line.
• We learned a sexy new stage move from Dr. Acula.
• We continued to feel embarrassed for Slash.
• We pleaded with record labels to start using Bandcamp and stop using MySpace.
• We mourned the loss of Guitar Hero.

Speaking of 69ing: Monday is Valentine’s Day. I’m just reminding you in case you’re a burnout and you forgot to get something for your woman. Don’t say I never did nuthin’ for ya.

-AR

Before there were blogs there were these things called magazines, and the only metal magazine we still get excited about reading every month is Decibel. Here’s managing editor Andrew Bonazelli…

I’m one of those dipshits who has shamefully mumbled, “I kind of liked the first two Korn albums…” in casual conversation. The karmic penalty has been paid frequently over the last 15 years, from the time a 5’1” girl punched me in the dick during “Faget” at the Cleveland Odeon to every time I have to endure someone trumpeting that they were raised on Morrisound death and never listened to that “poser shit.” The latter of which being just so fucking annoying — the first band (or “band”) everyone got into was either a) something nightmarish your folks played every day, like the Eagles, b) some variation of a boy band, or c) GN’R, which is the most realistic best-case scenario.

Anyway, Korn and Limp Bizkit are the focus of an exceptionally well-written ongoing Onion AV Club series called “Whatever Happened to Alternative Nation,” and just seeing that pic of Jonathan Davis and Fred Durst under their umbrella triggers many still-unreconciled memories for perhaps a few of you guys, and quite a few Decibel staffers. Shane Mehling is among the latter — if “All in the Family” were actually available in a karaoke book, I have no doubt that we could perform it without looking at the screen once. He doesn’t just own up to this on the Deciblog, but even serves up a super classy yearbook photo cementing the sickness. Luckily, this paean to idiocy was preceded by Adrien Begrand’s typically sharp/mercifully not novel-length Justify Your Shitty Taste on Iron Maiden’s The X Factor!, a lifetime contender for most disquieting, yet not even close to cool album cover. Shit, it must be 1995 week on our blog, because evidently Chris Dick just let Dez Fafara write 550 words about, uh, redheads.

We’ll end on a much radder note. If you snap up a dB subscription by Monday at 5pm, we’ll throw you a Valentine’s Day boner — an exclusive, downloadable printable Valentine’s Day by the great extreme cover artist Paul Romano (Mastodon, Hate Eternal, Withered, other highly shitty bands, although a plenty of bands are highly shitty compared to those three).

-AB

You can buy the March 2011 issue of Decibel here, or get a full subscription to get down with the sickness each and every month.

DevilDriver’s grinfuckingly good new album, Beast, comes out February 22 on Roadrunner — and now we here at MetalSucks are proud to be debuting the band’s first video in support of that effort, for the song “Dead to Rights.” This song somehow gets both heavier and catchier every time we listen to it, as the video is totally appropriate for the music — dark, terrifying, and epic as a motherfucker. Check it out below!

Like was said, the Mark Lewis-produced Beast comes out February 22. You can pre-order it here, or the special edition, which includes two bonus tracks and a live recording of the band’s classic anthem “Grinfucked,” here.

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