To me, nothing is as fully sweet like pop music played heavy and with controlled virtuosity. It’s like a famous master chef whipping up simple, delicious hot dogs for my face; it seems foolish to abandon such classic fare to high-volume/low-margin assembly lines, right? Hence my devotion to the jamz of Rush, Bay Area thrash, Iron Maiden, Deftones, Devin Townsend, Love/Hate, Blessed By A Broken Heart, and tons more snappy songwriters with big boner crunch.

So I warmly welcome Look Right Penny, whose debut album Sugar Lane (out Tuesday) is a slam dunk of pop-djent metal. Click to read more…

That we adore Devin Townsend here at MetalSucks is no secret. But whether you think he’s worthy of all the praise or you think he’s an overrated hack, this much is not disputable: dude is incredibly prolific. One gets the impression that when Devin isn’t touring or spending time with his family he spends ALL of his free minutes holed up in his home studio writing and recording. And his well of inspiration never dries up: the four albums in three years that comprised the Devin Townsend Project suite were apparently just the beginning of his busiest artistic period yet, as THREE new albums are already in the works, each a completely different concept. Here’s the lowdown from the man himself via a post on the official Hevy Devy forum [via Heavy Blog]:

I found as a reaction to the complications of decon and the sheer bulk of work thats been going on (seriously, it’s insane) my writing ended up going in 3 ways recently:

Click to read more…

video via Metal Insider

Today is the last day of regular posting on MetalSucks for the remainder of the year. We’ll still have some posts now and then — our annual Heavy Metal Hanukkah contest starts next week, we might have a series of cool new guest blogs from an old friend for you, and, of course, if there’s any major breaking news, we’ll cover it —  but most of your regularly scheduled programming is going on hiatus while we enjoy the holidays.

But until we’re back, have fun reviewing our top stories from this week, won’t you?

• We debuted a new video from Novembers Doom, new music by Nylithia, and, thanks to our pals at Decibel, new music from Autopsy.
• Lazarus AD’s Jeff Paulick nominated Marion Barber for president and Jonah Livingston from Ramming Speed told us about his live drum set-up.
• We spoke to Devin Townsend and Repulsion.
• We checked out the latest release from Kevin Hufnagel and some free shit from Australia.
• We listened to more previously unreleased material from Metallica’s Death Magnetic sessions.
• We got excited about the line-up for this year’s New England Metal and Hardcore Festival.
• We got even more excited to learn that Puddle of Mudd’s Wes Scantlin is a criminal.
• We accepted an apology from the world’s most pretentious metal band.
• The future ex-Mrs. Vince Neilstein serenaded us with a piano cover of Mastodon’s “Oblivion.”
• Dummy Nosenothing continued to know nothing. How come we don’t fire this idiot?

Thanks for another sucky year, gang. See ya in 2012!

-AR

After posting our own year-end lists for 2011, we asked you, oh ye MetalSucks faithful, to tell us what you thought the best metal album of the year was. And the winner by a landslide was The Devin Townsend Project’s all-star spectacular, Deconstruction, which got more than twice as many votes as its nearest competitors, Revocation’s Chaos of Forms and Protest the Hero’s Scurrilous. (Kind of amazingly, Mastodon’s The Hunter got one vote. ONE. Sheesh.)

We’d like to congratulate MetalSucks readers for once again demonstrating excellent taste. Now we can all stop arguing about what sucked so bad about 2011, and start arguing about what’s going to suck so bad in 2012!

And don’t forget to read our latest interview with Mr. Townsend himself, which was just published an hour ago right here.

Photos by Brian Schroeter

Sitting opposite Devin Townsend, I am able to witness firsthand his mid-day queasiness (credited to a crummy breakfast), the way conversation causes him to perk up in little plateaus, and his determination while outlining his plans for the coming years. He’s excitedly building something, I observe, with this string of late-year shows in small markets serving as launch ramp to a bigger viability. It’s incredible, but this metal guy — despite boasting an 18-album discography over 16 years, including four Devin Townsend Project records that make up the exquisite Contain Us boxset — is fixed on a greater achievement: more autonomy.

Which is wild if you think about it. Townsend — the sole artist on his own Hevy Devy Records, a eight-tool studio whiz, and a frequent genre-buster now at a peak in popularity — appears to be the most creatively and commercially unbound musician ever in any genre. In his own studio and enlisting his peers, Townsend can make any project fly, be it puppet opera (Ziltoid The Omniscient and its planned sequel) or a prog-metal-Quadrophrenia-on-peyote theatrical epic (this year’s masterful Deconstruction) or sweet Anneke van Giersbergen-voiced pop metal (2009‘s Addicted, the forthcoming Epicloud project).

So what more does he want? The clue lies in DTP’s one-album-per-night shows back in November, and a massive event this Fall called The Retinal Circus: He’s steadily setting foundations for a bigger live show with a bigger budget, in reference to which his term is “absurd” (a word he pronounces “ob-zurd,” though it’s unclear whether that’s a product of Canadianism or just the way “homage” is said by certain people “oh-mazhe” and by others “Ah-mej”). But why, in these uncertain times, is Townsend forsaking modest aims for risk? We might surmise that he’s not satisfied to perform only parts of sprawling epics like Deconstruction and Ziltoid, nor to sub in backing tracks for his orchestras and choirs. To us, he could be metal’s most ambitious madman or a joker set on his own destruction. He probably wants nothing more sinister than to have shitloads of fun.

For the moment it’s a bit vague. What becomes clear over the course of our talk is that he is an entertainer and a liberator, a spirit-guide on a tour through the heart of a metal guy’s frantic consciousness. To this end, he is fortifying his fanbase. Hours after our talk, Townsend will display this onstage, loudly describing his suit’s odor as that “of a thousand ballbags,” bolting stage-right and out around the crowd to rock in the face of a 50-ish spectator seated mid-venue, and segueing regularly into and out of instrumental passages with self-reducing quips (“I’m a fucking dink! Go!”). He’ll dole out mid-show bro-fists, press forehead-to-forehead with front-row fans, and call his song “Life” his “gayest ever.” After the show, as cymbals are still ringing, Townsend will hop right down off the stage to greet and pose with all concertgoers. He’s friendly and sincere to each. He’s got plans for them.

Click to read more…

photos by Gabrielle Duplantier

November 12, 2011. I’m in Long Island City, heading towards Spin Recording Studios, where the mighty Gojira have recently begun recording their new album with producer Josh Wilbur. It’s a big deal because a) it’s Gojira’s first album in more than three years, b) the band has just announced that they’ve signed with Roadrunner Records, and c) Gojira fucking rules, and I’m a massive, massive fan.

I’m still a good block-and-a-half away when I hear it. It’s so incredibly LOUD and metallic, it almost sounds like machine gun fire — but it’s too rhythmic to be a weapon. I decide it must be a street performer, banging on some sheet metal or something… except that I can see the street all around me, and it’s completely deserted. If it is a street performer, he’s very well concealed, and is apparently playing to an audience of no one.

By the time I arrive at the front door of Spin Studios — a large, steel entrance — the sound has become deafening. And as I peek through the small, submarine-like door window, I finally see the source of the sound: it’s Gojira skinsman Mario Duplantier, drumming on the door like the thunder god that he is.

Click to read more…

The year may be winding down but that doesn’t mean there aren’t still a few new releases coming our way. With new releases come streams, and today we’ve got three excellent ones for you: Vektor, Dirk Verbeuren’s Bent Sea, and The Fallen Divine.

Click to read more…

…Devin Townsend recently performed an acoustic version of the song — the first time he’s dipped into the SYL catalog since that group disbanded in 2007 — and hol-ee shee-ite, does the song just sound that much sexier with Devy whispering sweet nothings in your ear. See what’s all the fuss about below:

In semi-related news, Townsend just announce The Retinal Circus, a ridiculously-awesome sounding concert set to take place in London on October 27, 2012. There are a LOT of cool goings-on involved with this show — so many that I probably should have just written a whole post about it, but oh well — so just go here to read the press release, get all the details, and find out how you can buy tickets. This sounds like the kind of thing that might actually get me on plane to London.

-AR

[via Heavy Blog is Heavy]

Who wants to see some awesome photos of The Devin Townsend Project performing at Slim’s in San Francisco last month?

[loud cheers]

I SAID WHO WANTS TO SEE SOME AWESOME PHOTOS OF THE DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT PERFORMING AT SLIM’S IN SAN FRANCISCO LAST MONTH?!?!

[DEAFENING cheers]

Well, good, ’cause that’s what we have for you, courtesy of MetalSucks photographic master Miikka Skaffari! Miikka captured Heavy Devy making plenty of more awesome, silly, and awesomely silly faces like the one above. So check ‘em out after the jump! And don’t forget that Townsend’s sweet new box set, Contain Us (say it out loud), comes out November 29 via InsideOut Music; it’s super limited edition, so go pre-order yours now or risk the heartbreak never ever owning one. Also, remember that Devy is on tour in Europe right now, before he begins another North American headlining trek in December; get all of his upcoming tour dates here.

Click to read more…

The older I get the last attached I become to material possessions. It all started when I moved three years ago and had the epiphany that lugging multiple gigantic boxes of CDs around with me for life was pointless when I could enjoy all that music just the same on one device the size of a small book. Since then, getting rid of shit has become something of an obsession; it’s gotten to the point where I’m actively and constantly trying to get rid of all but the stuff I really need in my day-to-day life. Only problem is that I’m way too sentimental and can’t bare to part with certain items (like the signed Brian Schneider baseball that’s sitting on my desk! wtf do I need this thing for?). But I’m getting there, slowly and surely.

Back in my less curmudgeonly days I surely would’ve drooled all over my keyboard at the news of the above Ziltoid puppet, available through Devin Townsend’s UK webshop. I admit, it IS pretty fucking cool, so while I don’t feel like I need yet another item that’ll sit on a shelf collecting dust that won’t stop me from buying it as a gift for a fellow DT lover and item collector. If you’re a girl, maybe this would make a great holiday gift for your metalhead guy; imagine all the sexy-time role play fun you can have with this! Actually… yuck.

-VN

[via Heavy Blog]

When I was fifteen years old, I had to sneak out of my parents’ house on a Friday night to go see GWAR and the Misfits play a Halloween show. Then I had to conceal my clothing from my parents, seeing as it was, y’know, soaked in blood, urine, and semen.

Here we are all these years later, pretty much right at the anniversary of that show, and GWAR are on a popular, mainstream late-night talk show. And yet, somehow, they seem no less rebellious than they ever were.

Which is all my way of saying, “GWAR rules.” And they do. They rule. Hard.

ANYWAY, here are some things we did this week:

• Speaking of GWAR, Dave “Oderus Urungus” Brockie himself provided us with more insights into the NFL. Meanwhile, several members of the Relapse Records family gave us the skinny on the new NHL season, and The Austerity Program’s Justin Foley pondered the pros and cons of new technology in music.
• We debuted Jucifer’s new video, for the song “Hiroshima.”
• We got exclusive specs on Contain Us, the new box set from The Devin Townsend Project.
• We spoke to Steel Panther and Niilo Sevänen from Insomnium.
• We checked out the latest release from Carnifex.
• We continued the Countdown to the Metal Suckfest and defended Danzig.
• We counted down the eleven cardinal rules of attending a concert.
• We wondered if nu-dethcore is the next big thing.
• We cried because even ex-members of Metallica make bad music now.
• We argued about the best debut albums of the past twenty-five years.

And that’s it! Have a delightful weekend, gang. We’ll see ya Monday.

-AR

Hey, so, remember when Devin Townsend promised that, following the completion of all four albums in The Devin Townsend Project’s Ki/Addicted/Ghost/Deconstruction cycle, there would be a “monumental box set” containing “eight records plus a DVD?” Well, as you are most surely aware by now, all four albums have been completed and released — which means it’s time for the super-duper-awesome box set.

MetalSucks has exclusively obtained specs on the collection, which will be entitled Contain Us.  (Please note that the details outlined in the below document are not 100% final, but they’re pretty close — for example, there will actually be 5,000 copies worldwide, not 2,500 as the sheet says, and the vinyl featuring two exclusive tracks will be a 7″, not a 10″.) The so-incredible-sounding-it-has-us-drooling-already packaging was designed by Tom Bejgrowicz from manAlive Design; you probably already know Bejgrowicz from his work with God Forbid, Rolling Stone magazine, and the also-so-cool-it’s-silly coffin box set he designed for the Misfits. But, frankly, this new piece for Heavy Devy sounds like it’s gonna blow that Misfits thing right the hell out of the water.

Click on image of the specs below to enlarge, download, and get all the details for yourself, and start saving up for it now, because they are going to be limited edition, and you are definitely going to want one. Contain Us is scheduled for release later this very year! More details as we get ‘em!

This past July I asked you all which of the four Devin Townsend Project albums was your favorite, now that all is said and done. Addicted came out on top, followed closely by Deconstruction. I ran the poll almost exactly one month after the release of Deconstruction, but I’m wondering if maybe that was still too soon and if the results would be different if I ran the poll now. Either way, I know what MY favorite is… and it’s Addicted, followed closely by Ki. For some reason I just can’t get into Deconstruction the way some folks can; it hasn’t got the songs.

Over the weekend Devin posted a new song comprised of “some shrapnel from the past few months,” and it reminds me of a song that could have been on Addicted. The accompanying video reel of tour highlights is entertaining too. Devin said via Twitter that “The song on that video is a rough demo of some ideas I’m working on… no title yet.” I wonder if it’s something for Ziltoid 2? Come for the new song but stay for the “silent” jam at Dirk Verbeuren’s house that’s at the end of the video. I won’t ruin it for you, so just watch.

-VN

Not Seth Putnam

One mind-blowing aspect of Devin Townsend’s Deconstruction album is its coterie of guest personnel. A who’s-who of pivotal screamers, the list includes that awesome dude from Gojira, legendary super-stud Ihsahn, and extreme metal’s loveliest alto, Tommy Rogers from Between The Buried And Me. And though Townsend rightly rushes to downplay the distraction/sketchy motives of high-profile guest contributions, it’s exciting as shit for metal fans to have those guys — plus studz from Meshuggah, Cynic, and Gwar — all in one place.

Likewise, I super-hail Chino Moreno and his 2005 Team Sleep record, which finds the Deftones frontman enlisting the non-metal voices and pens of Helium’s Mary Timony and Rob Crow of Pinback (above). Each sings awesomely on at least two of the self-titled album’s jamz (e.g. “Our Ride To The Rectory” with Crow here). Just like Townsend’s gang on Deconstruction, Crow’s and Timony’s presence legitimizes the album (ie. busy, inspired aces wouldn’t appear on some hack shit) and helps it to achieve a specialness, like the NBA All-Star game or the time I ate a pizza that a bag of Cheetos had spilled onto (aka Cheetzza©). Best of all, it makes me feel in sync with another human being (Moreno) who happens to ass-worship Timony and Crow and um Moreno. It’s like finally somebody put my needs first when making an album!

Okay here we are at paragraph three, so I bet my editors would like me to deliver on the headline’s promise :) Speaking of Team Sleep MVP Rob Crow, you love the dude cuz he’s awesome (see also: Optiganally Yours’ Exclusively Talentmaker!), and cuz he’s metal (see: his non-serious doom metal project, Goblin Cock), and cuz on his new solo album He Thinks He’s People, he offers an affectionate tribute to Seth Putnam, the recently deceased Anal Cunt mainman and author of history’s best song titles. Check it out and chuckle after the jump!

Click to read more…

Happy birthday, Reign in Blood! We love you. You don’t sound a day over one.

Here’s some other things that happened this week which are worth celebrating:

• We started the countdown to The Metal Suckfest.
• We debuted new music by Immolation and a new video by Early Graves.
• Devin Townsend and Textures’ Jochem Jacobs and Bart Hennephof took us through their live rigs.
• GWAR’s David Brockie discussed the NFL, Daath’s Eyal Levi discussed getting the fuck out, and God Forbid’s Doc Coyle discussed how the times, they are a changin’.
• We spoke to Mike Muir from Suicidal Tendencies, Mother of Mercy’s Bob Wilson, and directors Sean Dunne and Kenneth Thomas.
• We checked out new releases by Ghoul and Taake and Craft.
• Sergeant D. became the most popular feminist in metal.
• Bring Me the Horizon’s Oli Sykes had a bad week.
• We mourned the death of the album intro track.
• We wondered if Mastodon’s live vocals are getting better.

Now go crank some Slayer.

See ya Monday.

-AR

(photo credit: Mark Holmes for Metal Discovery)

Devin Townsend has gone above and beyond for MetalSucks, and for YOU, oh devoted MetalSucks reader, Devin Townsend superfan and guitar player. Not only has Devin put together one of the most detailed Rigged entries to date, not only has he provided an incredibly in-depth description of his live signal chain setup, not only has he provided photos of his EQ settings… but he’s actually provided us with the very custom-made patch files he uses live. For you to download. Completely for free. If you like Devin Townsend and you’re a big nerd (which we’re guessing is everyone who likes Devin Townsend) you’re going to love this edition of Rigged.

Unlike most of our Rigged musicians who say, “As you can see, it’s quite simple!” Devin is honest about his rig: “What a freaking nightmare.” And with that, here’s Devin himself:

Click to read more…

We missed a whole lotta new videos while we were out on Friday, so I’m gonna post ‘em — and my snarky and not-so-snarky commentary, of course — now. Please excuse my lack of a traditional introduction about little effort I am going to put into this introduction.

First up, we have The Devin Townsend Project’s video for “Juular,” which was directed by David Brodsky. And holy poo, this video is GREAT. The animation is fantastic, and the way the camera moves, swooping in and out of shots… it’s just a totally epic visual expression of an awesome, awesome, awesome song. Also, anything where an old man is blowing something phallic is a-okay in my book. This is definitely a contender for Video of the Year.

Click to read more…

Just yesterday, Vince reported a rumor that The Ocean would be opening for Devin Townsend on his October headlining run; now it’s confirmed, thanks to both the release of the actual dates for said October trek, and that nifty poster you see above. The Ocean actually won’t be on the first three dates, but still — not only is this a fantastic bill, but it must make up for the sting of The Ocean’s previously-scrapped U.S. tour plans.

There’s really nothing else to say… if you know anything about anything, you will absolutely NOT miss any tour with both Heavy Devy and The Ocean. Here’s the itinerary:

Click to read more…

Shit hit the fan for The Ocean last week when the unannounced headliner of their U.S. tour flaked and decided to push the whole thing back a couple of months. For any American band this wouldn’t be too big of a deal, but when you’re coming from overseas and flights have already been purchased, gear already rented and visas already procured it presents a major problem. This band’s tours are eternally cursed; endless van breakdowns, highway robberies, and pretty much any thing else that could go wrong has, especially in the U.S. So when they threw this hail mary pass up into the metalsphere we had every reason to think, “Haha! Yeah, right.”

If anyone has a tour to offer us between October 9th and November 20th, we’re all ears :-) Hope we can still make it over somehow.

Except it actually worked, thanks to clutch wide receiver Devin Townsend.

Click to read more…

This needs no further explanation beyond this post’s headline. Perhaps it was created by whoever ended up with that old spatula Sir Townsend auctioned off on eBay. Ladies and gentlemen, “Supercrush” on Kazoos:

Supercrush! (Devin Townsend) – Kazoo by segritz

-VN

Thanks: Peter Brown