Holy shit, this is the biggest release day of the summer so far. Tons of good stuff from Devin Townsend, The Black Dahlia Murder, Helms Alee, Sourvein, Jungle Rot , and more.

Also, some stuff that just sucks.

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Ed Gein’s Bad Luck really knocked me flat on my ass. This is one of those grind albums that manages to be both vicious and incredibly fun, and I implore you to check it out when it’s released next week.

But if for some reason you need convincing, here’s my argument: “The Wraith,” a new track currently streaming at Noisecreep. (The Ed Gein song we ourselves debuted, “Wasted Life,” also kicks major ass. You can check that song out here.) The premiere also arrives with an interview with bassist Aaron Jenkins, who says that the song is named after a 1986 horror movie that stars two actors who would go on to be batshit crazy, Charlie Sheen and Randy Quaid, plus plus Nick Cassavetes, the son of the legendary John Cassavetes and Gena Rowlands who eventually direct The Notebook (yucky), and Clint Howard, mutant brother of Ron Howard. So, as if the excellent music wasn’t enough reason to love this band, they are also apparently connoisseurs of crappy cinema, a hobby which is always commendable.

Headbang here, then come back and celebrate this song’s rockitude in our comments section. Bad Luck comes out June 21 on Black Market Activities.

-AR

[via Badass]

So the three-day weekend kinda threw our schedule out of whack; you may have noticed that we still haven’t finished announcing the line-up for our Magical Mystery Tour, and we didn’t get to finish our list of The Top 25 Modern Metal Guitarists, either. Both of those blessed events will go down next week, though, when we’re back for a full five days! So get stoked.

In the meantime, let’s review all the fun we managed to pack into this week’s abbreviated set:

• We debuted new music from four bands signed to Black Market Activities — Ed Gein, Engineer, Fit For An Autopsy, and Khann — as well as new music from Bloodlights.
• We spoke to some guy named Devin Townsend.
• Woods of Ypres’ Shane Madden continued his exclusive tour blog for us.
• We checked out the latest release from Autopsy.
• We celebrated the amazing amazingness that is the album art for Opeth’s Heritage.
• We were not surprised to learn that Emmure’s Frankie Palmeri is completely lacking in originality.
• We wondered if metal is a movement of the youth, inapplicable in its rebellion and ferocity to us olds.
• We made the case for the movie Jennifer’s Body as an underrated cinemetal masterpiece.
• We actually had something nice to say about Limp Bizkit (sort of).
• We introduced you to the future of appliancecore.

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone. You will always be at the forefront of our thoughts, dreams, and prayers.

-AR

As we reported a few weeks back, June is going to be a big, big month for Black Market Activities. The label helmed by The Red Chord frontman Guy Kozowyk begins their new distribution and artist development deal with Good Fight Entertainment with four, count ‘em four, releases in just two weeks — Engineer’s Crooked Voices and Khann’s Erode both come out June 7, and Ed Gein’s Bad Luck and Fit For An Autopsy’s The Process of Human Extermination on June 21.

And guess what? All four releases are fucking fantastic. We dug them all so much, in fact, that we begged Black Market Activities to let us debut four songs at once — one from each album — so we could revel in their awesomeness with you, our beloved readers. You’re welcome, beloved readers!

So check out the tracks below. BMA is a diverse label, and no two of these bands sound even remotely similar, so it’s impossible for us to believe that you won’t dig at least one of these songs. And don’t forget to pick up the full releases when they come out June 7 and June 21!!! You can pre-order them all right here.

ENGINEER, “BRUISED BLUE COLLAR”

KHANN, “THE GATE”

FIT FOR AN AUTOPSY, “THE JUGGERNAUT”

ED GEIN, “WASTED LIFE”

As we revealed yesterday, the answer to last week’s logo was Iwrestledabearonce, or IWABO (both answers were considered acceptable). A surprising amount of you got the wrong answer, but a lot of you got it right, too. Alas, there can be only two randomly-selected winners, and in this case, those winners are Andrew Hamblin and Jillian McClure. They each get a special prize pack from Century Media. Three cheers for Andy and Jill! (You guys don’t mind if I call you “Andy” and “Jill,” do ya?)

This week we have another awesome prize to give away: a package from Black Market Activities, featuring vinyl test presses (pic here) of three of the label’s most highly anticipated forthcoming releases — Engineer’s Crooked Voices (out June 7), Khann’s Erode (also out June 7), and Ed Gein’s Bad Luck (out June 21). If you already know these bands that you already know that these albums are worth getting excited about, and if you don’t, well… you should educate yourself. These albums are going to rule, and these are vinyl test presses, so they’re definitely gonna be collector’s items!

All you gots to do to win is identify the name of the band whose logo appears below, then shoot me an e-mail at axl AT metalsucks DOT net with your answer, your name, and your address. ALL ENTRIES WITHOUT AN ADDRESS WILL BE DISQUALIFIED. From everyone who gets it right, we’ll randomly select a winner and announce his or her name a week from today.

This week’s logo was suggested by reader Jason Apoch Weiss. Thanks, brother!

-AR

Black Market Activities, the label helmed by The Red Chord frontman Guy Kozowyk, has announced a new distribution and artist development deal with Good Fight Entertainment, bringing to an end their long-standing distribution arrangement with Metal Blade. With that announcement also comes an exciting calendar of new releases set to roll out this summer via BMA:

June 7 – Engineer – Crooked Voices
June 7 – Khann – Erode
June 21 – Fit For An Autopsy – The Process Of Human Extermination
June 21 – Ed Gein - Bad Luck
tba – Today Is The Day – Pain Is A Warning

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