Tuesday, January 24th, 2012 at 3:00pm by Axl Rosenberg
Mike Portnoy’s new band, Adrenaline Mob, are gonna release their debut full-length, Omertà, later this year. And now they’ve unveiled the cover art, which is pretty typical metal album stuff…
…except if the concept of a skeleton against a deep blue night sky seems kind of familiar, well, it ought to, because of this:
Hey, so you what did you guys think of the idea I posited last week for a new band ranking system? Thanks to Jason from IKILLYA for pointing out the existence of NextBigSound.com, a cool site that aggregates a lot of the data I suggested be included in the ranking, namely social network stats and other Internet metrics. While NextBigSound allows account holders to enter their own Soundscan data, I’d love to see all those things — along with torrents, merch sales, etc — combined into a single chart that’s published once a week and accessible to the industry, much like Soundscan is now. The grand picture is so much bigger than album sales now more than ever, and I think that needs to be reflected in the main chart people analyze. For the most part, it seemed like you guys were into the idea even if you questioned its feasibility.
Anyway, this week is pretty depressing sales-wise. One look at the top six records on this week’s Current Hard Music chart should make any metalhead cry. Since there weren’t many notable new albums released last week and you surely don’t wanna just read about Nickelsuck, I also included numbers of some older albums from earlier in 2011 that are experiencing holiday sales bumps.
Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011 at 5:00pm by Dave Mustein
Ron Jarzombek is a name that’s too seldom heard outside of progressive metal circles, despite his extensive metal legacy. Sure, a handful of people may be familiar with Blotted Science — the so-called “supergroup” of which he is a part — but by and large, even those who know Blotted Science are unfamiliar with the man himself.
Jarzombek began his musical work with the underrated-yet-incredibly-influential prog band Watchtower in the 80s, then delved into the realm of technical instrumental music with Spastic Ink in the 90s and 2000s. Blotted Science’s debut, The Machinations of Dementia, was released in 2007, and also featured Cannibal Corpse’s Alex Webster (who is still in the band) and Behold… The Arctopus’ Charlie Zeleny (who is not).
That band is now back after four years (with a new drummer, Obscura’s Hannes Grossman, to boot!) to release The Animation of Entomology, an EP centered around bugs and horror — so much that the songs were actually written to already-existing videos as kind of horror movie scores. You can see the video for the first one, “Cretaceous Chasm,” here; the second one, “Vermicular Asphixiation,” is here.
I Skyped with Ron last week to discuss the new EP and ended up learning a lot about Jarzombek’s musical history, Blotted Science, Jarzombek’s views on the current metal scene, and ESPN exercise videos.
On September 20th we reported that Mike Portnoy sued the other members of Dream Theater back in April, linking to the publicly available “Notice of Summons” document as proof. Later that day Dream Theater’s attorney was quoted as saying there is “no pending litigation” between Portnoy and Dream Theater. Today I choose to file a motion of “bullshit.”
A stealthy MetalSucks named Larry W. reader tipped us off to the existence of this website, a publicly searchable database of all court records in New York state. Pass the captcha, type “Portnoy, Mike” into the Plaintiff Search box (lol at him not using “Michael”), and voila, a plethora of documents relating to the Portnoy vs. DT litigation, the most recent of which was filed YESTERDAY.
Metropolis Pt 2: Scenes From a Memory stands as Dream Theater’s best album, the crowning accomplishment of a lengthy career that itself is quite the crowning accomplishment. It’s rare that a band’s 5th album — or 4th, or 3rd, or 6th — is the one that’s almost universally considered their best (“I only ever really liked their FIRST album, brah!”), but amongst Dream Theater fans the opinion is nearly unanimous: Scenes From a Memory was (and still is) beyond incredible. I know it, you know, the band members themselves know it.
Monday, October 17th, 2011 at 5:00pm by MetalSucks
On September 15th we published Part 1 of an epic Rigged piece in which new Dream Theater drummer Mike Mangini embarked on a quest to take MetalSucks readers through every single piece of his massive drumkit. On September 29th we posted Part 2. It wasn’t our intention to have to split this Rigged feature up, it’s just that the dude’s got so. much. gear. and is so passionate and detailed about explaining how it all works that we simply didn’t have a choice but to split this feature up into three! We could publish a friggin’ book with this thing. So, FINALLY, here is the third and final part:
I want to end with the electronics. I’m using what’s called Tru-Trac pads that Pearl developed to use with their e-Pro drums. Pearl’s electronic drums are not trying to rival Yamaha or Roland’s fabulous electronic drums; those are awesome and those guys make absolutely great stuff, but Pearl is not trying to copy or rival them. Pearl decided that they wanted to have a drum set that could be smacked and it would feel like an actual drum set. It’s not that the other electronic kits don’t work and can’t be learned and adjusted to; it’s just not the same as hitting the acoustic drum. They know it. Everybody knows it. Pearl said “we’re going to make something different.” Because I’m an acoustic kit player and I play a lot harder than it looks like I’m playing (but you can tell if you look at the dB meter), what’s happening is when I hit these pads, I have a connection to them with the feel. That’s the reason I’m using the Tru-Trac pads. As far as the sizes are concerned and the amount, I have one with each foot and they’re all 10″ diameter pads. Why 10″? The bigger ones are heavy. I don’t want to be putting a large electronic drum way up high on a rack. Somebody has to lift that and god help me if it falls.
The release year is winding down. Aside from new Megadeth and Animals as Leaders records, I think we’re pretty much done with bigtime new albums until 2012.
The #1 record on the Current Hard Music chart last week came from a band whose music it’d be a stretch to call “hard.” Click through to find out who it was. Blessthefall, Misfits and Wayne Static had solid debuts, while a number of last week’s releases jumped off the second week cliff. All that and more, right here:
I’m officially making the switch from the Top Hard Music chart to the Current Hard Music chart for the purposes of this column. While it’s interesting to see what classic Metallica and Aerosmith albums are charting and I still may occasionally reference the former, the latter chart paints a much clearer picture of the modern metal landscape by opening up more room for new records that sell less than classics, allowing a larger number of relevant new releases to place in the Top 100.
This chart has a slightly different way of tallying new releases, where sometimes they appear as having already been on for one week before official release — I’m still sorting through precisely what that difference is — so occasionally the chart positions are a little mixed up. But this only comes into play much farther down the list and this chart still provides a good gauge of relativity.
Now, onto the releases: as you all no doubt know, Mastodon and Machine Head were the biggies last week, and both did quite well — but the album that ended up at #1 is also a debut, and none of us saw it coming. Sebastian Bach, Warbringer and Maylene & The Sons of Disaster fared well in Week 1, while new records from Rose Funeral, Textures, Suffokate, Rwake, Brutal Truth and many, many more also appeared in the Top 100.
Thursday, September 29th, 2011 at 5:00pm by MetalSucks
On September 15th we published Part 1 of an epic Rigged piece, in which new Dream Theater drummer Mike Mangini embarked on a quest to take MetalSucks readers through every single piece of his massive drumkit. It wasn’t our intention to have to split this Rigged feature up, it’s just that the dude’s got so. much. gear. that we simply didn’t have a choice but to split it up into three! So, without further ado, here’s Part 2:
So that brings me to the cymbal arrangements. The cymbal arrangement is setup where for the most part darker sounding cymbals are on the left side and brighter sounding cymbals are on the right — higher pitch right, lower pitch left. That determines whether or not I play righty or lefty. Let me give you an example: on a song like “Caught in a Web,” the musicians in the band change key signatures from whatever key signature that they’re in to one that’s up a couple of steps. When I go from a lower key signature to a higher key signature, I will often switch from my left side hi-hats (which are lower pitched) to the right side ones (which are higher pitched).
That is the one thing that is going to stick out as being distinctly different from me and everybody, and that includes Mike Portnoy. When it comes to playing Dream Theater songs, I’m not going to play on just one hi-hat. I’m going to be switching hi-hats when the guys change key signatures.
Wednesday, September 28th, 2011 at 1:00pm by Vince Neilstein
The “Top Hard Music” Chart I’ve been using for this column for the past couple of years is a mixed bag; on one hand, a lot of the “Top Hard Music” albums are really old albums that continue to sell (Metallica’s Black Album, various greatest hits collections, catalogue albums of whatever big band happens to be on tour at the time, etc) which paints a skewed picture of what I’m really interested in, namely the new stuff. On the other hand, it’s interesting to see how those older albums continue to sell.
I was recently alerted to the existence of a different chart, “Current Hard Music;” I’m not sure what the criteria is for what constitutes “Current” as some albums on this chart have been on for 90+ weeks and some artists are certainly not “current” by any means, but it does seem to paint a much better picture of the sales of newer albums. Without perrenial classics and greatest hits comps hogging up precious chart space, fewer units need to be sold for a band to get into the Top 100 on the “Current” chart. I am contemplating a move to focusing on that chart in the future. For now, I’ll stick with Top Hard Music with some added albums from the bottom of the other chart. What do you guys think?
Anyway, this week we’ve got big debuts from Pearl Jam and Opeth, big second week drops from a number of artists (Anthrax, Dream Theater and more) that still have pretty big sales numbers, and a look at some albums that came out earlier this year (Black Dahlia Murder, All Shall Perish, more).
Thursday, September 22nd, 2011 at 10:00am by Vince Neilstein
Last week was a big, big sales week for new metal releases, I’d imagine one of the highest cumulative tallies of the year so far. The #1 through #6 entries on the Top Hard Music charts could all be considered smashes in today’s relative terms, with Dream Theater, Anthrax and others making big splashes. Arch/Matheos, Vader and Wolves in the Throne Room also had nice debuts. Let’s look at the numbers:
UPDATE, 1pm EDT: Now Dream Theater’s attorney says that there is ”no pending litigation” between the band and Portnoy… although he did file a “Notice With Summons.” Stay tuned for more details…
Original post:
I didn’t see this coming, but I can’t say I’m that surprised: Mike Portnoy is suing Dream Theater.
The summons was sent all the way back on April 19th so I’m shocked it’s taken this long to find its way online, but here it is in all its glory. The suit, which is leveled at John Petrucci, John Myung, Jordan Rudess and James LaBrie personally — as well as the operating Dream Theater-related companies Ytse Jams, Inc., and Infinity Touring, Inc. — charges that the above defendants:
So much of this week ended up being devoted to the Big Four that I honestly don’t wanna think about any of those bands again for at least the remainder of the year. So to wrap this shit up, here’s everything Big Four-related we did this week:
And don’t forget — you still have until midnight tonight to vote on which reader will take over MetalSucks a week from today… although, honestly, at this point Justin Gosnell pretty much has it in the bag.
Thursday, September 15th, 2011 at 5:00pm by MetalSucks
When I contacted Dream Theater’s press folks for a Rigged interview with new drummer Mike Mangini about his new kit, I didn’t realize I’d end up publishing a book.
But that’s the kind of dude Mangini is; incredibly passionate, earnest, easy-going, and without a doubt one of the nicest guys I’ve ever spoken with on record. He’s also a gear nerd of the highest order, and the drum kit he’s hauling around with him on tour with Dream Theater is no joke. Mangini’s set up is so complexand his explanations so detailed, we’ve decided to split up this Rigged feature into three parts to avoid the dreaded wall of text. Drummers in the MetalSucks readership are gonna LOVE what we’ve got in store for you.
Up first: Mike takes us through his quadruple kick set-up, his pedals (8 total), hi-hats and snares. He also talks a good bit about technique as it relates to his drum setup and playing ambidextrously. Here’s Mike:
Thursday, September 15th, 2011 at 1:00pm by Axl Rosenberg
Discussing Dream Theater’s new album, A Dramatic Turn of Events, last week, Vince wrote that the release “sounds just like Dream Theater,” even without longtime drummer Mike Portnoy. And Vince is a way, way, WAY bigger Dream Theater fan than I am, so if he can’t hear any discernible difference, I sure as fuck ain’t gonna be able to.
So. While I still haven’t heard the entire album, mostly because I just do not care, but listening to the song in the band’s new video, “On The Backs Of Angels,” I am inclined to agree with Vince, that, yes, Portnoy-less DT sounds exactly like Portnoy-full DT. Which is to say, the song is pretty cool until James LaBrie opens his stupid mouth. Holy shit, that dude’s voice is irritating.
ANYWAY, check out the video below, courtesy of Yahoo. At first it seems like a pretty cool clip, until you realize it’s really just a bunch of graphics that don’t do anything especially interesting, intercut with some admittedly very good performance footage. So I guess I’d say this is a good video, but not the best video you’ll see today or even this week.
A Dramatic Turn of Events is out now on Roadrunner, but based on the initial sales figures that have gotten out, you already knew that.
Tuesday, September 13th, 2011 at 1:30pm by Vic Vaughn
Damn. After a few slow weeks of new releases, we have a ton of new stuff coming out this week, including new stuff from Anthrax, Dream Theater, Wolves in the Throne Room, Haste the Day, Vader, Primus and my personal favorite, Elks, plus many more. We have officially entered the fall new release season!
I’ve beenragging on Dream Theater a good bit lately, but it comes from a place of love; nowhere in the metalsphere will you find a bigger DT fanboy than me. Naturally I’m quite excited that no longer do we have to listen to short snippets of new songs; Roadrunner Records Germany is hosting a full stream of DT’s new album Mike Portnoy Left the Band.
As I sit here listening to the album I’m wondering whether this stream is also Mike Portnoy’s first chance to hear it. Sorry for dwelling on his exit from the band, but it’s a pretty big deal! Anyway, from what I can tell his departure hasn’t really affected the band’s sound much one way or the other; A Dramatic Turn of Events sounds just like Dream Theater, even the drumming. I can’t see any longtime DT fans being disappointed, and likewise, if you’ve never liked Dream Theater before this album your mind is not going to be changed. Of course, as with all Dream Theater albums, I’ll need several listens to fully digest the music and make final judgment.
Stream the album over at Roadrunner Germany. Order it here before its September 13th release date.
I hail Roadrunner Records for their success at landing major label-weened acts like Megadeth, Ratt, Dream Theater, and as of today, fuckin’ RUSH. These are high-performance, self-steering acts with little need for career guidance or image interference, and who shouldn’t allow their profits’ to be diverted to cover losses incurred by ten shitty signings this year by Belinda the 22-year old A&R prodigy whose aged bf got her the job or Dan the radio personality’s son who spent $19 million on promotions for an Amerie collection.
Anyway, how about some exciting details of Rush and Roadrunner’s deal?! First, know that a RR press release states that a live album will come out ahead of new set Clockwork Angels; also, it calls this deal a “partnership,” which I’ve seen translated to “distro services and profit share.” But in an email today, RR A&R super-stud Monte Conner told me that Rush will be worked like any other RR band (i.e. publicity, promo, the whole whack). I also asked if RR bought out “Caravan” and “BU2B,” the jamz that Atlantic released as a single last summer; Conner said that the songs will appear on the album as planned. Next I’ll ask him how he plans to repair the rip in the fabric of time caused by having Rush, Dream Theater, and Opeth on the same roster. Stay tuned.
-ADF
Rush’s freaking 19th studio album Clockwork Angels is slated for 2012 release. Get “Caravan” b/w “BU2B” here.
What Would Mike Portnoy Have Done? Certainly not put clip art on his band’s album cover or subject his fans to this “snippet” bullcrap they’ve been pulling for weeks now. This is 2011, not 2005; you release full songs, not snippets. No one gives a shit about snippets.
As for the actual music in the post-Portnoy era I wouldn’t know ’cause you can’t tell dick from snippets, especially with a band like DT whose songs are 14 minutes long. The one full song they posted was swell, though (and holy crap, it has nearly 1.5 million plays!)
In other news, I heard Dream Theater signed up for a Friendster profile. Check it out here.
