Talk about a first world problems: there are too many awesome tours coming down the line in the next few months! Too many great bands to see! Too many excuses to leave the house even though I’m high and it’s freezing out side! THERE’S TOO MUCH FUN TO BE HAD! AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!

The latest “Holy crap I have to go to that show” news comes in the form of a mini-tour from East of the Wall and Black Tusk, two great bands who put on killer live shows. On top of that, some of these shows are going to also feature Intronaut, and some of them will also feature Hull and Royal Thunder. I don’t know Royal Thunder, but if they’re on this bill, I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Here are dates, courtesy of The PRP:

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Internet Metal Nerds and real-life metal fans alike have been pretty bonered about Argonauts, the new band featuring vocalist Dimitri Minakakis (ex-The Dillinger Escape Plan), guitarist John Adubato (Burnt by the Sun), bassist Brett Bamberger (East of the Wall, The Binary Code’s old touring line-up), and drummer Dave Witte (Municipal Waste + every band ever). Axl saw them live in October and was still raving about it weeks after. Matter of fact, Axl’s sitting on the MS Mansion Porcelain Throne right now and keeps yelling out “Argonauts!” at random intervals.

But it looks as if Minakakis is an Argonaut no longer, according to a post earlier today on Argonauts Facebook page:

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FEATURING MEMBERS OF KYLESA, INSOMNIUM, ABORTED, MNEMIC, MARUTA, EAST OF THE WALL, BLOODIEST, BROKEN HOPE, AND IN DE GOOT ENTERTAINMENT

Every year year, MetalSucks asks musicians from across the vast spectrum of the metalsphere (or, in a few cases, the almost-metalsphere) what their favorite albums of the year have been. Death metallers, thrash metallers, black metallers, stoners, grinders, and djenters alike have graciously contributed lists to MS, and we’ll be running them in groups of nine to ten musicians at a time two to three times a day for the whole week.

After the jump, check out the next group… we hope you enjoy seeing what some of metal’s heaviest hitters were into this year as much as we have!

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Although I’m obviously somewhat biased, it is my firm belief that Meek is Murder’s Algorithms is one of the best albums of the year, and it’s stayed in my regular rotation pretty much since the band first let me hear this past winter. It is also my firm belief that Meek is Murder live is an INCREDIBLE experience. I’ve seen them… sheesh… I dunno now. I’ve lost count. But I’ve never had anything less than a 110% awesome time. And I still get excited every time I have a chance to se them.

The band is kicking off a six-date tour tonight in Brooklyn; then they’ll head down south this weekend. Three of these shows are with East of the Wall, who are also an INCREDIBLE live band — like “Holy shit I can’t believe this” incredible — so if you have a chance to go one of these gigs and you miss it, you should commit sepuku, for you have shamed your ancestors.

Dates are after the jump!

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This week’s list of releases covers a lot of ground, between the sludge punk of Black Tusk, Noctem’s blackened thrash, a heavier side of Russian Circles, East of the Wall, Carnifex, Hammers of Misfortune and much more. Check it all out by clicking below.

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Okay so I know that this season has been really, really overwhelming for awesome new releases, but, hey, c’mon — there are WAY worse problems to have.

The latest entry in the “Holy Shit How Am I Gonna Fit All This Stuff On My Year-End List?” sweepstakes is East of the Wall’s The Apologist, which is now streaming over at Brooklyn Vegan. This is one of these bands that I’m never quite sure how to categorize… it’s proggy but not a naval gazer… and it’s techy but not in a boring showing-off-but-failed-write-any-good-songs kinda way… and it’s definitely heavy but maybe not br00tal? I dunno. How about “amazing?” Let’s just call EotW “amazing” and leave it at that.

Stream The Apologist here. It comes out October 25 on Translation Loss. And just for good measure, tour dates are after the jump, too… this band is SO FUCKING GOOD LIVE that you should let a truck run over your foot if you miss them, you dumb bastard.

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On Saturday afternoon, ABC No Rio hosted the first-ever NYC show ever by Argonauts, the new band featuring vocalist Dimitri Minakakis (ex-The Dillinger Escape Plan), guitarist John Adubato (Burnt by the Sun), bassist Brett Bamberger (East of the Wall, The Binary Code’s old touring line-up), and drummer Dave Witte (seriously if you don’t know who Dave Witte is stop reading this right now and go do some homework). And for those of us who were lucky/smart enough to be there, the consensus was unanimous: ARGONAUTS. ARE. AWESOME.

If you weren’t lucky/smart enough to be there, though, you don’t have to take my word for it: the always-helpful (((unartig))) was there, and he filmed one of the six songs the group played. This is far superior to the footage of the band’s live debut which we saw last month, and it gives you a much better sense of their sound — although I still don’t think it comes anywhere close to conveying the energy in the room that afternoon, which was postively electric.

Apparently Argonauts’ current live set consists of every completed song they have right now; hopefully they’ll either write s’more and put out a full-length, or otherwise just record an EP, sometime in the very, very near future. I am seriously bummed that I can’t walk around listening to this band on my iPod right now. They fucking RULED. If you’re smart, you’ll keep a very, very close watch on their future activities, ’cause they are the real fucking deal.

-AR

[via The PRP]

The good news is, the always jaw-dropping instrumental prog metal outfit Dysrhythmia (featuring bassist Colin Marston, who was named #15 on our list of theTop 25 Modern Metal Guitarists) have released a demo for a new song, entitled “Running Towards the End.” And the great news is, they are giving away that demo for free. Download it right here. Like all Dysrhythmia, it will take ten or twenty listens to full grasp every nuance of the song, and like all Dysrhythmia, those ten or twenty listens will be highly enjoyable.

Hopefully this means we’ll get a new Dysrhythmia album in the not-too-distant future, too.

Do some forward-thinking here, then partake in a group hug in our comments section below.

-AR

[via East of the Wall's tweet]

Lotsa new music today! Unfortunately neither East of the Wall or Cormorant are playing The Metal Suckfest like two of the bands with new music we featured earlier today, but in a perfect world we’d have both bands playing 2-hour long sets on both days. And so:

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It seems like there’s a new supergroup announced every week now, but few such projects get us excited the way news of Argonauts did. The outfit — which features original Dillinger Escape Plan vocalist Dimitri Minakakis, Burnt by the Sun guitarist John Adubato, East of the Wall bassist Brett Bamberger, and legendary drummer Dave Witte from Municipal Waste, Burnt by the Sun, and eighteen bajillion other awesome bands — made their live debut at GWAR’s GWAR-B-Q over the weekend, and now, of course, fan-filmed videos of the quartet have emerged. They’re not the highest quality, but they do kinda-sorta give you a sense of how the band might sound. And, if nothing else, they show why Bamberger is one of the most fun bass players to go see live — not only is he an amazing musician, but he goes totally apeshit on stage.

More clips after the jump!

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Earthquakes. Hurricanes. New records by The Devil Wears Prada. Come at us, brah! We can survive anything.

Here’s what we did while shit conspired to kill us:

• We debuted new music by East of the Wall and 400 Blows.
• We spoke to Amos Williams from TesseracT about the band’s recent vocalist swap.
• We checked out the latest release from Landmine Marathon.
• We wondered: Which is better, grindcore or doom metal?
• We also wondered: Is it better to make great albums but suck live, or to be great live but put out sucky albums?
• We also also wondered: Who are the top ten metal lyricists?
• We learned what not to do if you’re in an unknown band.
• We were bummed to learn that vocalist Travis Richter has split with The Human Abstract.
• We continued to count down 31 Days of Faith No More.
• We confirmed The Red Chord, Obscura, and Rosetta for The Metal Suckfest.

Alright, I’m gonna go set up my slip n’ slide and get ready for the rain. Come hell or high water (pun intended), I promise you we will be back on Monday. See ya then.

-AR

We’ve been excited about new East of the Wall music since… well, pretty much since several MS staffers enjoyed their last album Ressentiment so much that they named it as one of their favorite records of 2010. That excitement continued as news of a brand new album began to bubble up earlier this year and culminates right now in the form of our very first musical taste of what said new album, The Apologist, has in store.

In short, The Apologist is the same but different; the same wonky, jazzy, proggy via post-hardcore East of the Wall-isms that made Ressentiment (and its predecessor Farmer’s Almanac) so endearing, but done in new ways, evolved to the next level, more ambitious. Which is exactly what you want from a new album by a favorite band of yours; to do the same thing all over again would just be boring. One thing that immediately jumps out as different from Ressentiment is the rawer, more organic production quality, courtesy producer Andrew Schneider, renowned for his work with Cave In, Pelican, Keelhaul, Rosetta and many others. Ressentiment was actually recorded as a different band featuring mostly the same members (the now defunct Biclops) so perhaps the change in sonic aesthetic is a reaction to that; either way, worry not, for it still sounds fucking phenomenal and all the instruments are crystal clear in the mix.

Stream “Whiskey Sipper” from The Apologist below. The album comes out on October 25th and is available for pre-order now on both vinyl and CD (with slightly different cover artwork… so get both!!). East of the Wall will be on tour in October and November with an assortment of merry gentlemen, including Tidal Arms, Iron Thrones, Meek is Murder, Goes Cube and White Arms of Athena on various dates. See when they’re coming to your town after the jump.

[this streaming promotion has ended]

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East of the Wall, an intimidatingly, almost depressingly good band that you absolutely need to get into if you’re not already, have unveiled the album art for the forthcoming release, The Apologist. You’ll notice right away that it is nothing like most metal album art, which is wholly appropriate, seeing as East of the Wall are nothing like most metal bands.

Why does an album called The Apologist have an old-fashioned looking image of a giant factory pumping Christ knows what into our atmosphere? I feel like this hints at some of the deeper meanings behind the record as a whole. It makes me even more stoked to hear this bad boy.

 The Apologist comes out October 25 on Translation Loss.

-AR

[via The PRP]

“Supergroup” is a rough beat; that tag along seems to generate feelings that the sum will never equal the greatness of all its individual parts combined (see: Audioslave, Chickenfoot, Velvet Revolver, etc etc). But when said supergroup is a [comparatively] underground metal band and will be taking their face-fucking music across the country in a dirty, sweaty, fart-filled van, the danger of fan disappointment is automatically diminished. With that in mind, put this lineup in your pipe and smoke it:

Dimitri Minakakis (ex-The Dillinger Escape Plan) – Vocals
John Adubato (ex-Burnt by the Sun) – Guitar
Brett Bamberger (East of the Wall, The Binary Code [touring]) – Bass
Dave Witte (Municipal Waste, ex-Burnt by the Sun, Discordance Axis, Circle of Animals, a million other bands) – Drums

Amirite? We’ve actually known about this project’s super-secret desert bunker jam sessions for some time but had to keep a lid on it while these dudes got their shit tight. The band, called Argonauts, will hopefully be bringing their show on the road very soon.

-VN

Back in December of 2010 we defied East of the Wall’s warning not to get “unreasonably excited” that they were writing a new album, then in March we double-defied them by sprouting boners when they announced they were headed into the studio to record the follow-up to 2010′s year-end-list-topping Ressentiment. And when we received a press release late last week announcing that the recording sessions had been completed, well… let’s just say Kip W. woke me up with a little special surprise that morning. Sez publicity reliables Earsplit PR:

Technical metal subversives EAST OF THE WALL have completed the recording process for their upcoming third full-length, The Apologist, the highly anticipated opus set for release this October on Translation Loss Records for the CD and digital release, and on Antithetic for the vinyl release. The album’s official release date, track listing and more will be announced within the next few weeks.

Click to read more…

It’s true, and it’s finally here — after so many relentless album spins, Germany progressive metal collective The Ocean will finally grace our earholes stateside and decimate the back room at Public Assembly in Brooklyn. Add to the mix MS faves East of the Wall and death-grinders Flourishing, and you’ve got yourself one hell of a show.

Vince and I will most certainly be in tow and whiskey’d up, as will Toto and the Tin Man, and many more of your least-favorite NYC r-tards….

JOIN US.

Thanks to BBG from Brooklyn Vegan & Rich Hallford from 1000 Knives for making this show happen.   Dreams can come true.

Be sure to catch The Ocean on their MetalSucks-sponsored tour around ‘merica with Job For A Cowboy and BTBAM starting this Friday — tour dates after the jump.

-KW

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Back in December East of the Wall teased on their Facebook page that they were “almost done” writing their new album and considerately informed us it would be a fine time to get “unreasonably excited.” Those guys… so humble. Naturally we did indeed get very excited at that excellent bit of non-news… but not as excited as we got when this press release landed in our inboxes:

EAST OF THE WALL Announce Recording Plans For New Album

Boi-oing-oing-oing!

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Metal Blade’s latest sign is a band called Intensus, and by “band” I mean “one man project” — the man being  Eli Litwin, drummer of Knife the Glitter, Burden, Normal Love, and some other bands with whom I’m not really familiar (although I know that Gary Suarez is a KTG fan). The only piece of Intensus music I’ve been able to locate thus far is the above track, “Time Killer Shitter,” which features vocals by Jesse Korman from The Number Twelve Looks Like You — and it doesn’t really do that much for me. I mean, it’s fine, but if not for the pedigree, I don’t know that I’d ever have given it a second listen. (There are some other tracks that are allegedly available on Intensus’ MySpace page, but I can’t get the player to work!)

But I still think this album is, at the very least, going to be worth your attention, for the following reasons: a) Litwin has recruited some awesome guest vocalists, including Between the Buried and Me’s Tommy Rogers, A Life Once Lost’s Robbert Meadows, and East of the Wall’s Chris Alfano, to appear on the album, and b) even though process shouldn’t really be considered when evaluating a piece of art, the process for the creation of this particular record, as explained in the press release announcing the signing, sounds pretty cool:

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IT’S HERE! IT’S FINALLY HERE!!! Volume 1 of NYC Sucks, the completely free comp we’ve compiled to spotlight some of the best metal bands currently dominating the New York metal scene. This volume features fourteen songs by as many bands, who run the gamut of genres, from death to tech to prog to grind to black to hardcore to doom and more. We truly feel that this is a great sampling of all that New York’s thriving metal scene has to offer, and we’re beyond proud to be sharing it with you — absolutely, 100% free of charge.

You can stream, or, better yet, just download the comp below. It contains high-quality 320kbps MP3s, and as well as a PDF of digital liner notes with information about all the bands. Please help get the word out… send the comp to your friends, put it up on torrent sites, submit it to .rar Mediafire blogs… just spread the friggin’ music by any means necessary!

And don’t forget that Volume 2, featuring thirteen more great bands and songs, will be out on February 22nd!!!

—> DOWNLOAD NYC SUCKS VOLUME 1 HERE <—
(includes 320kbps MP3 files, Album Cover, PDF Liner Notes)

1. East of the Wall, “The Ladder”
2. Made out of Babies, “Invisible Ink”
3. Tiger Flowers, “Cuts”
4. Black Anvil, “The Evil of All Roots”
5. Naam, “Frosted Tread”
6. Batillus, “The Children of the Night Make Their Music”
7. Meek is Murder, “Sundowners” (demo)
8. The Binary Code, “Encircled”
9. Castevet, “Stones”
10. Hung, “Desert of Sad”
11. Wizardry, “The Falconer”
12. Pyrrhon, “King of All Tears”
13. Mutant Supremacy, “Epitaph”
14. Incendiary, “Victory in Defeat”

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Welcome to “Question of the Week,” a (sometimes) weekly debate amongst the MetalSucks staff regarding a recent hot button issue.

This week’s question was once again suggested by “Hipsters Out of Metal!” columnist Anso DF, and even though the Grammy nominations were actually announced last week, it still seemed like a fun debate to have. So:

WHAT ARE YOUR NOMINATIONS FOR BEST METAL GRAMMY?

The MS staff’s answers after the jump.

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