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

Things are looking up for Early Graves, who lost vocalist Makh Daniels in a devastating auto accident in August of 2010. In March of this year reports surfaced that the remaining members were working on new material, and this past August — almost exactly a year after Daniels’ passing — the band announced that The Funeral Pyre’s John Strachan would be their new vocalist moving forward.

Strachan made his live debut with the band at the Power of the Riff festival in Los Angeles and San Francisco in mid-August. Today, MetalSucks is thrilled to premiere an exclusive pro-shot video of Early Graves and Strachan performing “Goner” on that tour. Let’s all agree that Strachan was a great choice for Early Graves; he’s got big shoes to fill, but as this video proves he’s doing quite an admirable job of it. Here’s to wishing Early Graves all the best and hoping that this is the start of something great; those guys have been through a lot.

Does anyone notice a strikingly dark pattern here? Hmmm.

As the headline suggests, The Funeral Pyre’s John Stracham is the new vocalist for Early Graves (formerly Apiary), whose former vocalist Makh Daniels passed away last year in a tragic van accident. Strachan revealed his new gig in a guest blog at Gun Shy Assassin [via L.A. Weekly]. As far as we know this doesn’t mean Strachan is leaving The Funeral Pyre.

Click to read more…

Are the dudes at Heavy Blog is Heavy killing it lately or what? First they single-handedly got Devin Townsend to add Greg Puciato to the list of vocal collaborators on Deconstruction, all through the power of Twitter. Now they’ve done some bonafide real-deal journalism and picked up on the fact that Early Graves — whose vocalist Makh Daniels tragically passed away last August in a van accident – are back in the studio.

Click to read more…

With Southern California black metallers The Funeral Pyre making this blogger’s year-end list (again) in 2010, what better time to catch up with frontman John Strachan than on the cusp of another year, jam-packed for the band with new tour dates, new music, and new(-ish) releases? Plus, he’s got a few picks of his own from last year — and a few gripes — to boot.

On the eve of the January release of a Vultures At Dawn 180 gram LP, MetalSucks took some time to talk with Strachan about the band, the album, and Forest Moon Special Products, Strachan’s record label with more than a few admirable releases under its belt. The conversation after the fold.

Click to read more…

We bid fuck off to 2010 tonight ,and that’s sad cuz this year contained the last days of  Type O Negative’s Peter Steele and metal’s Babe Ruth, Ronnie James Dio. We also have to prematurely turn the page on Paul Gray of Slipknot (see you in lefty heaven, dude), Bay Area legend Debbie Abono, and Makh Daniels from Early Graves. It’s like we’re leaving them behind in ’10 and will be forced to forge a path beyond 2011 without their support. What a rip-off.

Okay, this is turning into a real bummer and, worse, it’s redundant to our oft-blubbery reportage of these deaths and others. But today, let’s quickly acknowledge that outside of the MetalSucks coverage umbrella fell the passings of two friends of metal, actor Tony Curtis and filmmaker Satoshi Kon. Curtis may’ve been a marquee leading man and master of frantic comedy in the ’60s, but he first delivered the single greatest, metallist, brilliantest line of dialogue in the history of cinema in 1957′s The Sweet Smell of Success (see headline). Even Mike Patton and Tomahawk made it the refrain of their jam “Laredo” (above, at 1:40). Which is odd cuz that album also has a track named “Sweet Smell of Success.”

Then there’s Satoshi Kon, whose mind-mangling 13-part series Paranoia Agent is one of those works that metal people can love for its non-damning treatment of outsider fuck-ups and its flip, fatalist depiction of mankind’s collective narcissism. It brings to bear the desolate panic of Hitchcock, Lynch’s themes of futile struggle against unfathomable evil, and inevitable dead-end violence, as found in Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors. Which is odd, cuz the star of that movie reminds me of Mike Patton.

Cheers everybody! See you back here in 2011!

-ADF

We’re still reeling from the passing of Makh Daniels, the twenty-eight year old vocalist for Early Graves who tragically died in a van accident earlier this week.

Now Trevor Phipps — front man for Unearth and head of Ironclad Recordings, the label to which Early Graves are signed — has released a statement on behalf of the band. That statement follows in full:

Click to read more…

A benefit and memorial show has been planned for Makh Daniels, vocalist of Early Graves, who tragically passed away on Monday in a van accident while on tour in Oregon. Everyone is encouraged to come and show support for someone who dedicated his life to touring and the metal scene, and to help his family with the costs involved with this tragedy. All proceeds from the door and a percentage of profits from the bar will be donated to Makh’s family.

MAKH DANIELS BENEFIT & MEMORIAL SHOW
Friday, August 6th @ The Bamboo Lounge
14308 Telegraph Road
Whittier, CA 90604
21+ over – $5 donation – 8pm-2am

Live performances from:
ANTAGONIST
EXHAUSTED PRAYER
DESTROY JUDAS
+ 2 more special guests

For those of you who can’t make it or are from another part of the country and would still like to contribute to the family, can make a donation here.

- MS dudes

Early Graves vocalist Makh Daniels was killed in a van accident early this morning en route to a show in Reno, NV, according to The Gauntlet [via reader Stephen Parker]:

The van’s driver reportedly fell asleep and he lost control. The van and trailer traveled off the right shoulder, rolled and came to rest off the freeway in a grassy area. None of the nine occupants were using safety restraints and the adult male victim was ejected from a rear cargo area where he and two others were. The victim was pronounced deceased at the scene by responding emergency medical services personnel.

The driver and one passenger were transported by ambulance to Rogue Valley Medical Center for treatment of non-life threatening injuries.

It’s incredibly tough to sum up our feelings about this in words. Early Graves were a fantastic band who were only just getting started; we premiered a track from their crushing new album Goner this Spring, and the former band comprised of the same dudes — Apiary — was a favorite of Kip W’s. We’ve also gotten a ton of emails from readers expressing how much they loved the new album.

We can only imagine the pain all the members of the band and Daniels’ family are currently experiencing. On behalf of the entire MS staff, our thoughts go out to them.

-VN, AR and everyone at MS

Photo credit: Rebecca Reed

Kirk Windstein is a poet. Of this, there can be no doubt. Since Kingdom of Sorrow took over our site on Tuesday, Vince and I have decided we really, really wanna take a trip to New Orleans and just go eat with the dude (well, probably get high and then go eat with the dude). But secretly, I have aspirations of someday being able to pay the man to teach my children how to speak good. I can dream, can’t I?

Here’s some other shit that went down in the Mansion this week:

• We debuted a clip from The Haunted’s new DVD, Road Kill.
• We also debuted new music by Early Graves.
• We spoke to Stephen Carpenter from Deftones.
• Ken Sorceron from Abigail Williams doesn’t wanna talk shit about Winds of Plague, so instead he just left a comment on our site saying “it its embarrassing to once again see our name next to theirs on another metal news site.” Way to not talk shit, Kenny!
• We checked out a new release by Black Pyramid.
• Sergeant D taught us about the history of metalcore and screamo.
• We engaged in debate about the new Maiden song, the new Maiden setlist, and the old Maiden album art.
• The new Methods of Mayhem song is the worst thing ever.
• Rose Funoral finally spoke out about the Uno Incident.
• Vince thinks the BP oil spill is Korny.

Next week will bring some more streams, interviews with Max Cavalera and Bobby Blotzer, and more self-righteous rage over fairly trivial topics. ‘Til then…

-AR

OK, so the name of the track is actually “May Day,” as in the first day of May — but who are we to resist an easy pun-tastic headline?

San Francisco’s Early Graves — formerly known as Apiary [who were loved by Kip Wingerschmidts the world over] — will release their second album Goner on June 22nd via Ironclad Recordings. Goner is the kind of dirty, pissed off, rugged piece of raw metal and hardcore best served up in the moshpit of a raging mid-summer show at a dirty, scuzzy bar, which is to say it’s heavy as fuck. “May Day” is a pretty good representation of what the album is all about, so give it a shot and see what you think.

Check out another new Early Graves song on MySpace and pre-order Goner here. Early Graves will be on tour with The Funeral Pyre this Summer.

-VN

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