Oh. Fuck. YES.

MetalSucks and Dead End Threads are proud to present what has to be not one, but really two of the sickest, most brutal tours of the new year. From February 26 to March 3, death metal legends Dying Fetus are hitting the road with death metal legends-in-the-making Job for a Cowboy and Volumes, plus Last Chance to Reason, one of the most exciting up and coming young prog acts on the scene today. That’s a line-up so solid you’d need a jackhammer to break it. And while you might be bummed to learn that Job for a Cowboy leave the tour after that, not one but two bands will be hopping on to make up for their absence: tech-death spacelords The Faceless and one of the most evil bands ever spawned, the mighty fucking Goatwhore.

So, like we were saying:

Oh. Fuck. YES.

These shows are gonna be beyond insane. Like, a make-sure-all-your-affairs-are-in-order level of nuts. You absolutely cannot miss these bands when they come to your town. So get dates after the jump!!!

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Like my good pal Axl, I’m kinda over it with Andy Rehfeldt’s “Radio Disney” versions of death metal songs… or so I thought I was. The troof: it’s just impossible not to be entertained by these, at least for one listen/watch, and to appreciate the amount of work that goes into the precision of making these live performances look convincing. But really they’re just fun, and I ain’t gonna be no fun-hater.

So: here’s Rehfeldt’s latest, for Dying Fetus’ “Grotesque Impalement.” Enjoy… or not.

-VN

Thanks: Fuzzy Dunlop

Today is seemingly “news about albums that are coming out in early 2012″ day. To that end:

• Soilwork are writing a new album called The Living Infinite. Generic quote time: Speed Strid says that “people can expect a continuation of the intensity and presence of The Panic Broadcast, only taken to a higher level” and wishes us all a merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Gee, thanks, Speed!
• Gojira have issued their third studio update video, this one showing bassist Jean-Michel Labadie laying down his tracks. Labadie is the member of Gojira I feel like I know the least about; I’d love to get to know that guy! Gojira are presumably all done or close to done recording their album by now… very exciting.
• Lamb of God released a new trailer for their new album Resolution (January 24th, Epic Records), and it features a good chunk of a previously unheard song. Check it out above, and listen to the first single “Ghost Walking” here if you haven’t yet.

Hey, so remember last week when we told you this year’s Metal Alliance Tour* featuring DevilDriver, The Faceless, Dying Fetus, Job For A Cowboy, 3 Inches of Blood, and Impending Doom? Well, the full tour itinerary has been released, so now you can, like, go n’ shit. I don’t really know what else there is to say about this tour… it’s such a killer line-up, I’m just stoked to go.

Here are the dates, courtesy of Lambgoat:

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Last year’s first annual Metalliance Tour had a sweet line-up — Helmet, St. Vitus, Crowbar, Kylesa, Red Fang, Howl, and The Atlas Moth — and it’s looking like this year’s edition will as well… although, holy tonal shift Batman, y’know? According to Lambgoat, the bill this year will consist of Devildriver, The Faceless, Dying Fetus, Job For A Cowboy, 3 Inches of Blood, and Impending Doom, six bands who are obviously way, way different from the groups that played last year.

But who cares? There’s literally only bad band on the bill — Impending Doom — and if they play first, they’ll be easy to miss anyway. The rest of this bill is a total beast.

Only a few dates have gotten out so far, but more are sure to follow. So, for now:

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The latest edition of Metal Injection’s “Ask the Artist” series — in which various artists are asked one uniform question (See what they did there?) —  poses the query “What are the best and worst stage moves in metal?” to various bands that were on this summer’s two biggest metal tours — Mayhem Fest and Summer Slaughter.

And it’s a great question to ask, because it’s certainly one that seems to come up in metallic circles quite a bit. Just recently, a publicist told me she understood that I didn’t like one of her bands because they played too much “breakdowncore,” and I told her the breakdowncore was silly, sure, but not as silly as they choreographed stage moves they used for each and every song. So it’s interesting to hear the thoughts of the musicians who actually have to be extra-conscientious of stage moves themselves.

Not shocking — a lot of the bands, including Trivium and Fleshgod Apocalypse, poke fun at crabcore and general scene-friendly stage moves. More shocking: so do Oceano.

Check out more of Metal Injection’s “Ask the Artist” videos here.

-AR

As we mentioned yesterday, this past Friday, Miikka Skaffari,  our newest member of the MetalSucks Photo Squad, went to the MetalSucks-sponsored Summer Slaughter tour in San Francisco… and boy oh boy, did Miikka ever deliver for his first-ever MS assignment. Dude captured some really, really awesome pics of a bunch of the bands on the bill, including headliners The Black Dahlia Murder (above), Whitechapel, Darkest Hour, Dying Fetus, Six Feet Under, Oceano, and As Blood Runs Black. Check out all of Miika’s photos after the jump! And don’t forget that Summer Slaughter — which also features Fleshgod Apocalypse, Powerglove, and Within the Ruins — is still making its way across America right now! Get dates here.

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I’ll keep this brief, ’cause we’ve written about all of these releases at length before. But in case you’re interested (and you probably should be):

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This has to be the best-yet edition of “Ask the Artist,” the new video series in which our partners in crime at Metal Injection ask musicians to answer one uniform question. This week, the question is “How easy is it to score girls while on the road?” And, confirming what Sergeant D. has been telling us all along, the answer seems to be, “Not very easy at all.” Check it out:

Don’t forget that you can watch more episodes of “Ask the Artist” at Metal Injection.

-AR

As we mentioned a few weeks ago, Metal Injection has launched this great new video series, “Ask the Artist,” in which they give you helpful tips for getting out tough stains. No, I’m kidding, they ask fucking artists things, that’s why it’s called “Ask the Artist.”

ANYWAY, the latest installment of the series has the MI dudes posing the question “What band got you into metal?” to current and former members of Dying Fetus, Killswitch Engage, Job for a Cowboy, Cephalic Carnage, Revocation, The Ocean, Lazarus A.D., and more.

My personal favorite answer probably comes from A Life Once Lost’s Doug Sabolick, not because I have any special affinity for the album he cites, but because a) it’s a pretty unique answer and b) I remember exactly where I was the first time I heard that album, and I like thinking that while I was rocking out to it with Vince in my parents’ living room, Sabolick was somewhere having his mind blown and his life forever changed. I like that we have that connection now. We’re like Fievel and Tanya from An American Tail, singing “Somewhere Out There.” Only not really at all.

Check out the rest of Metal Injection’s “Ask the Artist” series here. And, hey, while we’re on the topic, feel free to discuss the bands and albums that got you into metal in our comments section below.

-AR

The days when a musician stands a chance of making a living as a musician may very well be coming to a close. It’s one thing for the members of Crowbar Abortion to have to get jobs at the mall when they’re not on tour, but when even the dude from Guns N’ Roses is giving guitar lessons on his down time, you know times are tough.

Which gives a little extra edge to the below video, in which our doppelgängers at Metal Injection ask various musicians what they’d do with their lives if they weren’t in a band. Because that’s a question most metal musicians should probably ask themselves at some point or another.

Best answer comes from Revocation drummer Phil Dubois-Coyne, although I’m down the response A Life Once Lost’s Doug Sabolick and Bob Meadows provide, too.

This video is the first in a new series Metal Injection is doing, called, cleverly enough, “Ask the Artist.” Go here to make sure you stay up-to-date on all future installments, as I’d wager that they will continue to be this entertaining.

-AR

“Yep, that’s what Dying Fetus covering Bolt Thrower would sound like.”

That was the thought that ran through my mind as I listened to Dying Fetus’ new cover of Bolt Thrower’s “Unleashed Upon Mankind,” which is now streaming here.

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I finally had to make myself stop listening to The Black Dahlia Murder’s new album, Ritual, on such a regular basis (e.g., twice a day for however many days since I’ve had it), because as a blogger I have a responsibility (or something) to listen to a wide variety of metal releases in order to discuss them on the site (or so I’m told).

My point being simply that the album is good to the point of total fucking distraction, and you should be prepared to be totally fucking distracted upon its release. And one such way to prepare yourself is to watch the twelve-minute-plus “making of” video the band has released to Bloody Disgusting. There’s some cool shit in there — Shannon Lucas being the sick drummer we all know him to be, Ryan Knight putting half the other guitar players in modern metal to shame, a live, real, flesh and blood violinist recording the album intro, and, of course, no small amount of BDM tomfoolery.

The video isn’t embeddable, but you can watch it by clicking on the below screen cap of guitarist Brian Eschbach’s ass forever traumatizing Jason Suecof’s dog, Stinky.

Ritual comes out June 21 on Metal Blade, and then TBDM hit the road to headline the MetalSucks-sponsored Summer Slaughter tour along with Whitechapel, Darkest Hour, Six Feet Under, Dying Fetus, As Blood Runs Black, Oceano, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Powerglove, and Within the Ruins. Get dates after the jump!

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As regular readers are aware, I’m usually dead-set against cover albums, which tend to feature meaningless, generally inferior versions of great songs the listener already owns in their original, classic forms.

But I’m willing to give Dying Fetus the benefit of the doubt that if they’ve made a covers album, it’s worth listening to. They’ve earned that much. Why? BECAUSE THEY’RE DYING FUCKING FETUS, that’s why. Duh.

So. In celebration of both their twentieth anniversary and their stint on the year’s edition of the MetalSucks-sponsored Summer Slaughter tour, this July the  band will release History Repeats…, which will not only feature the band re-imaging tracks from some of death n’ grinds finest (Napalm Death, Cannibal Corpse, Bolt Thrower, etc.), but will also feature “Rohypnol,” a brand new song. You might know rohypnol as “roofies,” or “the date rape drug.” So this tune is probably a charming power ballad in the vein of Bon Jovi’s “Bed of Roses.”

History Repeats… comes out July 19 on Relapse, and is limited to 5,000 copies. You can get it a f.y.e. stores, or just pre-order it directly from Relapse.

The full track list for this bad mother is after the jump, along with those Summer Slaughter dates. Other bands on the bill are The Black Dahlia Murder, Whitechapel, Darkest Hour, Six Feet Under, Oceano, Fleshgod Apocalypse, As Blood Runs Black, Powerglove, and Within the Ruins.

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Teenagers are always doing stupid, embarrassing shit in public, especially the ones who listen to metal. One of the most popular (and potentially humiliating) things a kid can do is enter their high school’s talent show, in particular if they make the mistake of playing a metal song in hopes of impressing their peers. For example, when I was in 9th or 10th grade, I was in a horrible band that played a Black Flag song in front of our school. Nobody thought it was cool, they just laughed at us. Thank god Youtube didn’t exist then, like it does for these dumb kids who embarrassed themselves by trying to be cool in front of their peers.

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Remember when this year’s Summer Slaughter (which we’re sponsoring!) was announced, there was this fan poll to determine who the last band added to the bill should be?

Well, Within the Ruins have been announced as the winners! They’ll join The Black Dahlia Murder, Whitechapel, Darkest Hour, Six Feet Under, Dying Fetus, As Blood Runs Black, Oceano, Fleshgod Apocalypse, and Powerglove for all dates on the trek. Our own Dave Mustein wrote of the band, “WTR don’t suck live; their performance is nearly as good as on record, which is pleasantly surprising due to the ferocious technicality of their music.” So the band’s presence should just enhance your Summer Slaughter excitement.

Here are dates again, in case you need ‘em:

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When I was growing up, summer Slaughter meant a hot July night listening to Mark Slaughter complain about Vinnie Vincent’s body odor between songs at your local Enormodome. But life in America is awesomer now (not srs) and Summer Slaughter now means extreme metal piled eyeball-high and ballz-deep, plus your chance to make kissy faces at Mike Schleibaum, not Dana Strum. And since MetalSucks is an official Summer Slaughter sponsor, you can give us your thanks for the fun. We’ll pass them on to the other sponsors, promise. Dates after we jump you:

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MetalSucks is proud to once again be sponsoring the best mega-package tour of the summer — Summer Slaughter, of course! As you can see from the above poster, the mini-fest’s organizers have once again put together line-up that show cases a who’s who of the current metal scene.

And they’re taking it one step further this year — they’re letting YOU, the fans, decide who the last band added to the bill should be! Go to the official Summer Slaughter Facebook page to cast your vote.

Cities and dates for the tour will be announced on 4/20. ‘Til then… get ready to get slaughtered…

Starting this past January, Relapse Records began reissuing albums from Dying Fetus’ back catalogue, re-mastered, re-packaged, and bonus-trackified. First came 1995′s Infatuation With Malevolence early demo compilation and 1996′s Purification Through Violence; next up on the docket are 1998′s Killing on Adrenaline and 1999′s Grotesque Impalement EP, set to be re-issued next Tuesday, March 1st. Both of the latter are currently streaming at DyingFetus.info.

Whether you’re an old-school death metal lover or newcomer to the scene who’s a fan of modern DM of any kind — tech-death / Sumeriancore / deathcore / bree / whatever — you owe it yourself to check out these reissues. Truth be told, I didn’t really get into death metal until later on in my metal evolution (metalvolution?), and this is my first time hearing these older Fetus records. These guys were doing it at kind of a weird time for the genre, after the early ’90s explosion but before death metal became cool again. Much respect to any band who soldiers through an era when their brand of music isn’t popular at all. Listening to these records now, it’s obvious how much influence Fetus had on today’s death metal scene some 15 years later. We’ll forgive them for using the Papyrus font on the cover of Grotesque Impalement; it was only 1999, after all.

Stream both records here, and pre-order them here (Killing…) and here (Grotesque…).

-VN

Why, it was just a couple of days ago that we learned that bassist Terry Butler and drummer Greg Gall have both quit Six Feet Under, and already, the band has announced a replacement for Gall: Kevin Talley, who is joining the group as part of his apparent bid to play with every band ever at least once. (Already on his resumé: Daath, Chimaira, Misery Index, Dying Fetus, Hate Eternal, Suffocation, The Black Dahlia Murder, The Red Chord, and probably fifteen other bands I’m forgetting about.)

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