I hate Disturbed’s music, but the fact that he’s a hypocrite who lacks any real talent aside, David Draiman strikes me as a very intelligent guy. A reader, calling himself simply “Matt,” sent this to me awhile back, and now that Lemmy has re-raised the issue, I think it’s worth discussing even if I don’t really have a solid “answer” per se.

So. This is a Blabbermouth excerpt from a recent Revolver magazine interview with Draiman. I’m going to run the entire excerpt after the jump, and then I’m going to share my thoughts.

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We’ve heard Enslaved’s new album, Axioma Ethica Odini, and holy shit, is it good. I’d argue it’s another serious progression for the band, too; it’s got a little less ahhhh and a little more oomph!, if that makes sense. You can tell right from the opening track, “Ethica Odini” (that’s Latin for “We are going to blow your fucking mind… again!“), that this ain’t Isa, this ain’t Ruun, this ain’t Vertebrae. This album feels less like the soundtrack for that time you got really high and thought about the meaning of colors, and more like the soundtrack for that time you got really high saved the princess from the dragon. It rocks. It ROCKS.

But don’t take my word for it — “Ethica Odini” is now streaming right here. Only listen to it if you wanna be put in a good mood. If you’re gonna be a sour puss today, then, y’know, go do something else. I hear the new Disturbed album is selling nicely.

Axioma Ethica Odini comes out in Europe on September 27 and North America September 28 via Nuclear Blast and Indie Recordings.

-AR

Say what you want about David Draiman — and buddah knows we’ve sure said a lot of things over the years — but you’ve got to hand it to the guy for being [surprisingly] one of the best spoken and most informed musicians in today’s heavy music scene.

Check out Part 2, below, of the recent video interview with Draiman conducted by Phil Freeman on his MSN metal blog in which Draiman speaks eloquently and cohesively about the role of religion in modern society, the holocaust, and the state of currently Israeli youth politics. Like woah, can you imagine Robb Flynn or Tom Araya (“dude… dude…”) or even someone like Jamey Jasta or Guy Kozywyk (two smart men in their own right) getting through an earnest conversation like this, or even wanting to? So, as much as it pains me to say it, bravo for Draiman for bringing important issues to the forefront of at least some of his fans’ minds.

Now, about those big cars and mansion you have while preaching for less oil consumption… Davey, we gotta talk about that.

-VN

Since Axl and I are very patriotic types (couldn’t you tell?) we’ve decide to close the Mansion a bit early this holiday weekend so we can get to the flag-waving festivities as soon as possible.

Kidding! We’re closing early so we can get hiiiiigh and then go see FAITH NO FUCKING MORE! Neither one of us having seen FNM before (although I had a chance to in 1997 and, for some reason, didn’t), we’ve literally been waiting for this moment for most of our lives. We will not be schmoozing with the industry types at a bar in the back, nor will we be politely bobbing our heads on the periphery somewhere… we’ll be right up fucking front, rocking the fuck out as hard as possible (old fashioned push-pit? I hope). To that end, I’m pretty sure we won’t even be drinking tonight; me because I want to remember this night perfectly, and Axl because he doesn’t wanna have to go pee-pee during the show. The man is smart, I tell you.

Here’s what happened this week in the world of metal:

• Van Halen announced plans for a DLR-fronted album in early 2011. Axl is — shockingly — skeptical.
• As part of “Be Nice Day” at the MS Mansion, we said nothing mean about new videos from Hellyeah and Papa Roach.
• We looked at new releases by Bonded by Blood (as part of “Be Nice Day”!), Ceremony and The Ghost Inside, Mastodon, Chambers, and Nattsol.
• We premiered a new track by NJ progressive post-hardcore mind-fuckers East of the Wall.
• We spoke with Warrel Dane of Nevermore and Sanctuary, and Jon Fine about Taco Riffs.
• We sat in on the meeting in which Disturbed brainstormed the artwork for their new album.
• Glenn Danzig is a crappy driver, but Vince Neil is an even crappier one.

Since July 4th falls on a Sunday this year, the gates of the Mansion will be shuttered on Monday, July 5th — like most U.S. businesses — so we can extend the partying by an extra day. See you Tuesday, Suckers.

-VN

DAVID DRAIMAN: “Okay, so our new album, Asylum, is coming out on August 31. What have you got for me?”

ALBUM ARTIST: “Okay, so I know you guys wanna work with your mascot again… I’m sorry, does the mascot have a name?”

DAVID DRAIMAN: “Shithead.”

[confused silence]

ALBUM ARTIST: “Excuse me?”

DAVID DRAIMAN: “Shithead.”

ALBUM ARTIST: “Mr. Draiman… I’m sorry I don’t know the mascot’s name, but I hardly think that warrants calling me names…”

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Can you imagine if everyone to whom we give endless amounts of shit followed Dino’s example? We’d have Rose Funoral cards and Tommy Lee faking his own death and Fred Durst pulling a Billy Madison and pics of Joey Belladonna with his twig and berries tucked back. That’s the kinda world I wanna live in. I believe we can make it happen if we try.

ANYWAY, here’s some shit we did this week:

• We did a second installment of Cooking Contaminated.
• We’re streaming new tracks by Son of Aurelius.
• Eyal gave us a Daath studio update.
• We spoke to Max Cavalera and Ratt’s Bobby Blotzer.
• We suckered Decibel‘s Andrew Bonazelli into writing about the Metal Mets for us.
• We checked out some new German cheese metal releases.
• We called out David Draiman.
• We watched some great music videos, some awful music videos, and some really awful music videos.
• We made fun of the most annoying little kid in the world.
• We were sorry about Abacabb breaking up, but really happy about BOOBS!!!

Speaking of Eyal and studio updates: on Sunday I’m flying down to Atlanta to visit Daath in the studio. If you never hear from me again, assume I’ve been lost amidst a cloud of ATL purp smoke and awesome metal. But what a way to go!!!

-AR

After seeing the lyric video to Disturbed’s new song “Another Way to Die” I was all set to write a post commending David Draiman for taking a stance against our country’s woefully over-indulgent lifestyle and the effects it has on our world. And though it seemed like something of a cheap publicity grab to link the song with the Gulf oil spill despite the fact that the song had to have been written before the spill occurred, still, I was gonna do it. I was gonna praise David Draiman. Swear to God.

Then I saw the below video of Draiman on MTV Cribs and I had to take it all back. How the fuck can someone live such an extravagant lifestyle and open a song with lyrics like this:

The indulgence of our lives has cast a shadow on our world
Our devotion to our appetites betrayed us all
An apocalyptic plight. More destruction will unfold.
Mother earth will show her darker side and take her toll

Uh… hypocrite much? All those gas-guzzling cars, that big house, that giant manicured back-yard and pool… those aren’t “indulgences,” David? Those items aren’t a devotion to your appetite? What makes you so special that you’re exempt from your own advice? If you’re going to attempt to preach a positive message from your pulpit that’s great, but you’ve got to walk the walk. Your lie is equivalent to a kid in a straight-edge band going home to shoot up heroin nightly. Fuck you, David Draiman; you give environmentalists a bad name.

-VN

Thanks: Hetal Bhatt

UPDATE: The actual line-up and dates for this tour after the jump. Still pretty awful. Original story below.

At some point, aren’t all these big package tours just gonna cannibalize one another? It seems like they’re all either competing for the same audience, or at least for a portion of the same audience. And now Metal Insider tells me that there’s gonna be another one, which, like Mayhem, will be sponsored by Rockstar Energy Drink: Uproar.

Gotta love the dudes whose job it is to sit around and think of new names for these things.

Click to read more…

When it comes to music (and other things really), I tend to play devil’s advocate. If everyone is shitting on a certain band, for some reason, I become more attracted to that band and seek them out. I don’t know what it is about my personality, but I think it stems from the same perspective that inspired me to write the antagonistic blog about rethrash. It may be a character flaw, but I’m sure it has something to do with a need to be an individual. From what I gather, this website is inhabited mainly by “true” metal heads. What I define as “true” are people whom are purists in the realm of metal and usually scoff at any band or trend that reeks of premeditated commercialism or an overt play for popularity, and who usually demand a certain level of musicianship and underground credibility. These fans usually hate every Metallica record after …And Justice For All, and for that matter always prefer any particular band’s older releases, which usually have a more raw and unrefined recording quality, as well as more abstract, less traditional song writing. For example, they will prefer Carcass’s Necrotiscim to Heartwork, or Morbid Angel’s Blessed Are The Sick to Domination. Oh yeah, and these guys gave up on In Flames and Soilwork years ago.

I have a good deal of that purism in my bones, but it always seemed short sighted and close minded. You have no idea how many arguments the Adler brothers from Lamb of God and I have gotten into over the merits of a particluar Metallica or Megadeth record. If you even bring up Disturbed or Limp Bizkit on MetalSucks, it is mocked and disregarded 100% of the time. I think metal heads often have a sheep mentality because of the fear of being viewed by their peers as less credible for liking bands that aren’t considered “true” or “real” enough. We all have guilty pleasures, but the real question is “Why should we feel guilty about something we enjoy?”

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So apparently Ozzfest is coming back this summer, and is coming back as a traveling tour again (as opposed to the one-off fest it was in 2008). And that’s all well and good, only… who’s gonna be on the bill?

Mayhem, which is basically Ozzfest 2.0, has already scooped up a lot of big-name bands for the summer, including many who have played multiple past Ozzfests – namely Korn, Rob Zombie, Lamb of God, Atreyu, Shadows Fall and Hatebreed, the latter of whom I think have been on something like 90% of all Ozzfests ever.

Add to that other Ozzfest alum like Chimaira, In This Moment and Norma Jean, and some bands the kids today all seem to like, such as Winds of Plague and They Who Shall Not Be Named, and, well, that’s a whole bunch of potential mainstage and second stage draws right there.

Then there’s the mini-fests like Summer Slaughter. I can’t tell you which bands we already know are booked for some of these tours without betraying a lot of people’s confidence, but I can tell you that some great bands are now no longer available for Ozzfest.

And, oh yeah, Megadeth, Slayer, and Testament are now doing their American Carnage tour in the summer, so they’re out.

So who’s left? After the jump, I’m going to play my favorite game: it’s called “over-think about something incredibly unimportant.”

Before we proceed, it’s worth noting that I’m going to try and be semi-realistic when moving forward with some barely-educated guesses about who’ll be playing Ozzfest. If a band already has summer tour dates booked, I’m going to assume they’re not avail, although I acknowledge that they could cancel those dates in favor of playing for a bigger crowd. And I’m not even going to bother with bands like Pig Destroyer, Sigh, and Salome – bands that will play Ozzfest right around the time Joey Belladonna’s solo band plays four sold-out headlining shows at Giants Stadium. Also, obviously not all of these bands are gonna end up on the bill – these are just bands I think could end up there.

And so, without further bullshit…

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A reader known only as “Jonas” sent us the below video of 55 Escape, a Norwegian band whose biggest influences seem to be Korn and Linkin Park, not Enslaved and Immortal.

Here’s why I find this band kind of interesting. (And moving forward, please be aware that “interesting” and “good” are not the same word.) When you think about it for a second, nu-metal seems to be a predominantly American phenomenon. Off the top of my head, I’m having a hard time even naming a nu-metal band from any part of Europe, never mind Norway. Jeff Killed John were British, but they didn’t get famous ’til they swapped the nu for core and rechristened themselves Bullet for My Valentine. Am I forgetting a really, really obvious band? Korn, Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, Disturbed, Godsmack, Evanescence, Staind, Static-X, Creed, Hed P.E., Snot, P.O.D., Puddle of Mudd, Drowning Pool, Saliva, Coal Chamber, Methods of Mayhem, 40 Below Summer, Sevendust, Ill Nino, Dope, Papa Roach, Soil, The Union Undergound… ALL AMERICAN. What the hell? No wonder the terrorists hate us.

Anyway, thanks to these sperm clots for doing their part in making America look good. Hoo-rah.

-AR

Iron Man was a fun movie. It wasn’t great, but I had a nice time watching it, and I will see Iron Man 2. But if you’re one of those people who thought that Iron Man was the greatest goddamn thing ever and get even think about Iron Man 2 without pissing yourself with excitement, well, then do I have a treat for you: some Iron Man 2 footage appears in a new AC/DC video for an old song, “Shoot to Thrill.” According to Nikki Finke, this is just the tip of the iceberg for the band and the armored hero, as “Columbia Records will release the album AC/DC: Iron Man 2 on Monday, April 19th, featuring 15 classic AC/DC songs selected from 1976 to 2008.”

This doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. Why start promoting an album that doesn’t come out ’til April and a movie that doesn’t come out ’til May now? Will people really remember this in four to five months? Also, since every AC/DC song basically sounds the same, would it really have been so hard for Angus Young to at least whip up a new single for this thing, rather than just offer another rehash of the band’s back catalog?

In any case, here’s the video. Watch it, don’t watch it, whatever. There’ll be plenty of more opportunities to see Iron Man 2 footage between now and its release date, I’m sure.

Meanwhile, the dude who just got hired to direct the new Spider-Man movie has directed videos for Hatebreed and Disturbed. So maybe Marvel is really metal after all.

-AR

Because we at the MS Mansion keep no secrets about our un-ironic love of ’80s hair/glam and because we can never seem to resist a Carlos Ramirez-penned Top <insert here> list at Noisecreep, we give you The Top Ten Musicians with Hair Metal Pasts.

There are a few usual suspects whose Aqua Net pasts have been well-documented here and elsewhere (hiya Rivers Cuomo and studly stud Butch Walker) but there are a few surprises in there as well. Like Disturbed’s Dan Donegan… what I wouldn’t give to hear a Vandal recording! In fact, if someone wants to email those to us I’ll gladly post them for all of us to laugh / sneer at / enjoy.

Take a look at the list, then come back here and tell us why hair metal sucks.

-VN

So The Village Voice – which, depending on who you ask, is either a bastion of intelligent artistic commentary or the most pretentious toilet paper in print – recently compiled a list of the fifty worst songs of the decade, and, sure enough, some terrible nu-metal found its way onto the list. Here are three notable entries, via Blabbermouth:

08. LIMP BIZKIT and JOHNNY RZEZNIK – “Wish You Were Here”
10. FIELDY’S DREAMS – “Baby Hugh Hef”
12. DISTURBED – “Land of Confusion”
14. KORN – “Ya’ll Want A Single?”
15. HINDER – “Born To Be Wild”
19. NICKELBACK – “Something In Your Mouth”
27. KELLY OSBOURNE and OZZY OSBOURNE – “Changes”

Now, I’d never argue that these are terrible songs. But of the seven songs listed above, four are covers. And I just can’t take a cover seriously as the worst pick for each of these groups.

Click to read more…

In honor of Alaskan metalcore band 36 Crazyfists’ new DVD, Under a Northern Sky (in stores October 27), a list of 35 other famous, metal, heavy, and/or crazy fists:

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This week in Soundscan, supergroup Chickenfoot shifted a ridiculous number of records. I’m baffled too. Elsewhere, Iron Maiden had a solid debut and bands like Nickelback, Hollywood Undead, Shinedown, Slipknot, and Metallica continued on with business as usual.

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An interview with Disturbed’s Dan Donegan, from We Love Metal (by way of Blabbermouth)… the debate over what is or is not “nu metal” continues!

We Love Metal: A lot of people on the Internet call DISTURBED “nu” metal. Do you consider yourself nu metal?

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So here I am flying across the Atlantic Ocean again. A few months back I wrote a blog about how much I hate flying and yet here I am doing it again. Press / vacation trip to Paris. I know, I know, such a hard life. But you know what? You guys can eat a dick if you’ve got a problem with it.

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A couple of weeks ago, Vince told you about some Hasidim in the Music as a Weapon IV mosh pit on that tour’s NJ stop. I was actually at that show (and by “at that show,” I mean “I watched Chimaira be awesome and then spent the rest of the night getting drunk/high with friends before driving home very, very, very slowly”), and even though these dudes were what everyone was talking about, I was totally bummed that I never actually got to see any of them.

Well well well… one of them, Josh Kidd, just e-mailed me. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that other Jews who like metal enjoy a site run by guys with names like “Rosenberg” and “Neilstein,” but, somehow, I was still floored when I got the e-mail. So much so that I’m willing to post this video of our fellow Chosen Person, David Draiman, giving them a shout-out from the stage, even though MetalSucks’  distaste for Disturbed is pretty well documented at this point:

Hilarious, right?

These cats even have their own Facebook group, if you’d like to keep in touch. They even utilize the Anton OyVey logo!!!

-AR

MetalSucks Maniac Matt Clark sent us the link to the below video of the unsigned band YEAH! Destroyer covering Katy Perry’s “Hot N’ Cold.” And while I’m fairly certain Matt meant for us to see this cover as a good thing, I have to say – it fucking sucks. And I’m sick of bands doing this kind of shit.

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