MetalSucks

We’re a little late on reporting this, but there’s a sample of another new Levi/Werstler track, “Obsidian Fissures,” now streaming on their merch page. It’s maybe twenty seconds of the song, which is to say it’ll pretty much give you sonic blue balls. But that’s only because it’s so awesome.

Levi/Werstler’s debut album, Avalanche of Worms, comes out April 20 on Magna Carta, and features drums by the great Sean Reinert, of Cynic fame. While you wait (and pine for a longer taste of “Obsidian Fissures”), you can watch another clip of Emil playing some of “Dura Mater” below. You can also download some free guitar tabs here, so that all of you shred nerds can start trying to learn some of this shit.

And, finally, it’s worth noting that Eyal and Emil are currently accepting questions via their MySpace, Facebook and Twitter pages; they’ll answer the best ones in an upcoming video.

-AR

I know that there are lots of reasons why the Levi/Werstler project may never get to do a live show (or, better yet, a tour, even): there’s the usual considerations about the costs (financial or otherwise) of being on the road, and the Daath boys are hitting the studio in the not-too-distant future to record their new album, plus you’d have to coordinate their schedules with that of Cynic’s Sean Reinert, who plays drums on the album – and that would probably be a major pain in the tuchus. Still, I hope against hope that they somehow end up on Prog Nation, or something awesome like that. It would be kind of a shame if videos like this one were the only chance fans ever have to see these dudes play some music from Avalanche of Worms:

I have no idea what that song is called, but I’m ready to hear the rest of it now.

We are going to continue to remind you all that Avalanche of Worms comes out 4/20 on Magna Carta pretty much until it’s out. You can pre-order it here.

-AR

If you’re like me and you love watching great guitarists play because you yourself are a terrible guitarist but you just love the grace it takes to be a good guitarist, than you will enjoy this clip of Emil Werstler playing some of “Dura Mater.” The song is the first taste of Avalanche of Worms, the debut solo/side/not-really-sure-what-to-call-it project from Daath’s guitarists (with Cynic’s Sean Reinert on drums!):

If for some reason you still haven’t listened to the complete stream of “Dura Mater,” well, you’re depriving yourself of awesomeness, and you should go listen to it now.

Avalanche of Worms comes out 4/20 on Magna Carta. And while we’re on the topic, you should also head over to Noisecreep for a pretty cool interview with Emil and Eyal – they talk about Avalanche and also explain a little bit more why Kevin Talley (who I can assure you is still very much the drummer for Daath) sat out a chunk of the band’s 2009 tour.

-AR

If you’re a regular reader of Eyal Levi’s blogs for this very site, than you’re already aware that he and his fellow Daath guitarist, Emil Werstler, have been working on a new, non-Daath record with Cynic drummer Sean Reinert. Well, hey, guess what? The album has a name now, Avalanche of Worms, and an oh-so-appropriate release date of 4/20 on Magna Carta. And as if all of that weren’t exciting enough, they’re already streaming a new track, “Dura Mater,” on their merch page (scroll down – the player is on the lower right hand side).

The track, it should go without saying, rips. It certainly has a Daath-y vibe to it – the long instrumental intro of the song “Translucent Potency” from The Concealers comes to mind – but it’s definitely not Daath. The music has been taken to a whole other level here. It’s shreddier and proggier than anything we’ve heard these fellas do before, but not at the expense of good songwriting – there is structure here, and strong hook. I dunno… it’s just good music, dude. I’m loving it, and can’t wait to hear the rest of the album. (It also bodes really, really well for the next Daath record – if this is the kind of growth Eyal and Emil are showing, the future can only be full of good things.)

You can stream “Dura Mater,” and pre-order Avalanche of Worms in a variety of sexy packages here. The project also now has an official website, a MySpace page and a Facebook page, so you can stay up-to-date on all their latest news. And, of course, we’ll give you more info as we get it…

-AR

If you loved Daath’s The Concealers as much as we did – and both Vince and myself included the album fairly highly on our 2009 year-end lists – than you’ll be as excited as we are to learn that there’s a buttload of activity going on in the Daath camp right now. For one thing, guitarist/MetalSucks columnist Eyal Levi and guitarist Emil Werstler have completed a solo/side album with Cynic’s Sean Reinert playing drums, and while we haven’t heard that record yet, we know people who have, and those people have good taste, and they assure it’s awesome. As though there were any doubt that it would be.

If that wasn’t enough, Daath have no apparently begun the songwriting process for their next release. I’m so stoked to see where Daath go from here, I can’t even tell you – The Concealers was a major evolutionary leap forward from the band’s first album, The Hinderers, and I’d wager we’re gonna get something pretty different once again. In fact, the band has said as much.

But why take my word for it? Here’s a lengthy statement from the band giving you the skinny on all their various goings-on:

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Hello all. No year end list or rant about the state of bullshit… I just wanted to wish all you MetalSucks readers a Happy New Year from my hotel in NOLA. Emil is here as well as some other friends, and we’re just enjoying chilling after making an album that was basically like a three month long drag-out, blow-by-blow fight. Can’t wait for you guys to hear that stuff.  Should be soon. As we enter the studio for the next DAATH album this spring, that record should be hitting stores.  I’m also looking forward to blogging it the fuck up over the next year and interacting with all of you more. I’ve got a lot on my mind and I’m sure you guys do, too. So ’til then, party safe, and remember not to take Tylenol for your hangover. Stick to Advil.

Cheers,

Eyal

Ring in the New Year with Daath on MySpace.

Are you ever going to write again? Is your column at Metalsucks over? Where the fuck have you been? Why don’t you hang out? You better be ditching me for a really good reason! You’re in town? Why didn’t I know? Etc. Etc. Etc.

At first I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. If I did, I would’ve told everyone in my life that I was going to have to disappear for about a month or two but I was not expecting this to be such a gargantuan undertaking. But it is. When the questions as to my absence started coming in I didn’t make much effort to answer them because I figured the workload was going to lighten up a little. It hasn’t. Friends, fans, family members, band mates, business partners, ex-girlfriends, and more have all been hitting me up asking where the fuck I’ve been. When Vince wrote me and asked me where I was I figured ok, its time to come out of the cave for a moment.

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Here’s a funny story: earlier this year Daath’s Emil Werstler made one of those “Betcha Can’t Play This” instructional videos for Guitar World. Said video showed him playing so fast that some of the staff of that publication actually accused him of speeding up the video. Once he did another video, showing him at PRS clinic proving he could actually play that fast, was released, all was forgiven, and he’s now made a second “Betcha” vid.

It’s good to Werstler getting the credit he deserves. When Daath’s first album, The Hinderers, was released, none of the press concentrated on the dude’s prowess as a guitar player; now that all that shit about the band allegedly being Kabbalah obsessed mystics or whatever has subsided, it seems like people are more willing to focus on the things that actually make Daath worth listening to: great musicianship and excellent song writing skills.

Here’s the more recent “Betcha” segment; after the jump, check out the older one that got Emil accused of cheating, as well the PRS clip that proves that he is, in fact, just a supreme bad-ass.

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Photo by Mart Reinson

While winding down their recent European trek with Unearth, Daath and Throwdown, Mark Hunter, vocalist of perennial MetalSucks favorites Chimaira, was cool enough to answer some questions via e-mail. After the jump, get Mark’s thoughts on European audiences versus American audiences, eating at McDonald’s abroad, the joys of Don “The Dragon” Wilson, showers in Germany, and more.

And by the way, there’s a NSFW image in this interview. You were warned.

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This is a follow up to Vince’s blog on drum triggers. I’m with him.

There’s definitely a misconception out there that to trigger is to cheat. I’ll get this out of the way early: triggers are like any other tool. You can use them correctly, or not. Water can be used to give life or drown a person. Triggers can be used in a musical way for a style that demands them or they can be used to cover up a shitty drummer’s inability to hit consistently or like a man (no offense to all you female drummers out there).

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I am SO PISSED that I missed Chimaira’s most recent tour (with Hatebreed), because a) Chimaira slay live and b) I’m fucking dying to hear some more material from The Infection in a live setting – when I saw the band on this spring’s Music as a Weapon tour, the album had literally just come out that day and the band were, consequently, only playing two new songs.

So. Rhythm guitarist Matt DeVries had to pull a Mark Morton and leave the tour early so he could get home for the birth of his new child, Austin (Mazel tov, Matt!); filling in for him is Daath co-guitarist/all around cool dude Emil Werstler. I am using this little fact as an excuse to post this video I saw on Blabbermouth of the Wersterful Chimaira performing “The Venom Inside.” Also, to point out that bassist Jim LaMarca seems to have shed his signature locks. That leaves DeVries as the only dude in Chimaira capable of windmilling. Just sayin’.

Chimaira continue to decimate Europe alongside Unearth, Throwdown, and our friends in Daath through October 12; then, at the end of the month, they hit the States again with Trivium, Whitechapel and Dirge Within. Get dates here.

-AR

Do you guys have any issues with cops? Ever been unfairly treated by one or many? No, this isn’t a defense attorney ad, but I’m just curious. You see, prior to one thing that happened on the last tour DAATH did (and, granted, it wasn’t HUGE), I had never ever been messed with by a cop. I’ve always treated them with respect, and somehow they’ve always treated me that way. And I KNOW that is a rare situation because I hear from so many people about how they’ve been brutalized or fucked with or just not treated right by some cops.

My thought has always been, who you gonna call at 5 a.m. if someone is rummaging through your house and you don’t own a gun? They’ll risk their lives for you, so with me, there’s always a baseline of respect. But this thing that happened to us sure did shatter that respect for at least one cop.

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Laying in a bed in Atlanta, Georgia has never felt so sweet. One week ago tonight I was laying in a hospital bed in Hartford, not sure if I was going to live out the week. One week before that, I was breaking fevers in the van once every three hours, not able to breath, and breaking down from the exhaustion of getting really fucking sick on the road.

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Momma always told me that if I ever met “the one,” I’d know right away. Even my father – who makes me look like a sunny, optimistic, outgoing person – said that he knew right away he wanted to spend the rest of his life with my mom. But I never really believed it, and definitely never thought it would happen to me.

But then last night changed everything. I knew within minutes, if not seconds, that I had found “the one.”

‘Cause last night I smoked out of a vaporizer for the first time. And my life will never, ever be the same. I’m just not going to be able to go back to bongs and pipes. This is it. I am now a one drug-apparatus man.

Thanks to Sean Z. from Daath for hooking that shit up. There weren’t nearly enough people at the show last night, and Sean had some mic/monitor issues, but Daath still played like they were headlining Madison fucking Square Garden (and Sean managed to sing while doing windmills, which I’ve never seen before). Eyal Levi has fucking pneumonia and a cracked rib, and he was still jumping all over the place. And Emil “Things Go Better with Coke” Werstler is almost spastic enough to be in a mathcore band. Plus, his solos are the shit.

Goatwhore killed it, too. I really can’t say enough good things about these bands. You can find remaining tour dates here; definitely go check ‘em out if you can. And bring your vaporizer.

Here’s some Daath and Goatwhore videos to kick off your morning.

-AR

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So in metal it seems like one of the highest honors your band can get is to score some high rankings on the brutalometer. If you hear “THAT WAS FUCKNG BRUTAL MAN” and the dude is covered in sweat and looking at you like you have led him through war victoriously, you have won him over via metal.

It’s really amazing to me that music can be described as brutal. What an emotion to try and communicate. I can’t think of anything more cathartic than playing a brutal show where the band and audience are 100% on their game (It’s a two-way street, dudes.). But the other part of the brutal coin isn’t as much fun or psychologically rewarding. I wonder before every tour about which injuries I’m going to come home with. What new permanent marks will I have to add to the collection?

Well this past time it was a whole amazing array of bruises all over my body and random cuts on my hands and wrists and last but not least, a broken rib. Yes, a broken rib.

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I am, without a doubt, the world’s shittiest guitar player. I can probably play you the worst renditions you’ve ever heard of Nirvana’s “Come As You Are” and Chimaira’s “Pure Hatred,” and if I concentrate really, really hard, I think I can pretty much butcher Slash’s guitar solo from “November Rain.” And that’s about it.

I blame lack of motivation to practice, my love of writing which always outweighed my like of guitar of playing, and the fact that my guitar teacher was a total square. If my guitar had been, say, a member of a totally awesome metal band like Dååth, I might have been much, much more inclined to learn my shit.

And, hey, look at that! Dååth’s Emil Werstler is now indeed offering guitar lessons:

“I have been teaching in the Southeast for years, and I actually enjoy the exchange of information. There are a lot of misconceptions about the art of guitar playing, and I’m totally into the idea of exposing the facts while nerding out nation wide.

“I will be offering anything from how to play Dååth songs to soloing strategies or anything else a serious guitar player would want to know.”

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The first time we spoke to Dååth guitarist Eyal Levi, it was purely about being a Jew. That’s all well and good, but now that Dååth are about to release an excellent new album, The Concealers (out April 21 on Century/Roadrunner), it seemed like a mighty good time to actually speak to the dude about, y’know, music n’ shit.

In addition to being a ridiculously talented musician, songwriter, and producer, Levi is also just one of those people you meet who is all-around good dude. After the jump, get Eyal’s thoughts on the band’s new album, the media and metal scene’s perceptions of Dååth, why ATL purp is tops, and more.

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Speaking of Atlanta, here’s Dååth’s Eyal Levi and Emil Werstler jamming for a segment on FPE-TV. It’s a good Tuesday afternoon song to get stoned to… even if you’re smoking someplace that isn’t Atlanta.

You can watch Werstler tear some more shit up here. We’ve heard Dååth’s new album, The Concealers, and it’s killer – and Werstler has some really, really tasty solos. You can hear when it comes out April 21 on Century via a partnership with Roadrunner. In the meantime, enjoy some new Dååth here, here, and here.

-AR

I’ve never actually caught Daath live (at least not yet), so I don’t know how the band handles soloing duties – but I do know that guitarist Eyal Levi is kind of the public face of the band and it’s de facto leader, so people may forget that there’s another super talented guitarist, Emil Werstler, in the band.

But the below video of Werstler shredding his ass off should throw the dude in the spotlight at least for a hot minute. Fucker has chops, that’s for damn sure.

Daath’s new album, The Concealers, will be out later this year. While you’re waiting patiently, don’t forget that you can download an exclusive Daath death metal metal medley consisting of covers of Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel and Dying Fetus right here at MetalSucks.

-AR