Having spent much of 2010 on the road celebrating their landmark Victim In Pain album, NYHC originators Agnostic Front have apparently decided to work on new material. As per the band’s Facebook page:

The Godfathers of New York Hardcore, AGNOSTIC FRONT, will enter Mana Recording Studio in Tampa, FL tomorrow to begin recording the highly anticipated follow up to their 2007 release, Warriors. 15 new powerful and anthemic songs will be laid down by Erik Rutan under the watchful guide of producer Freddy Cricien of MADBALL. The record is rumored to be their strongest to date and an early 2011 release is expected.

Even with the obvious and unnecessary marketing copy, I’m thrilled to hear that there’s going to be another Agnostic Front record. What’s especially interesting about the album is that the band opted to work with metal producer Erik Rutan (of Morbid Angel and Hate Eternal fame), who also produced the recently released Madball album Empire. Evidently, Roger Miret, Vinnie Stigma, and the rest of the group are looking for a heavy metallic sound like what Rutan brought out on Madball’s last one. The above video comes from the aforementioned Warriors LP, and if this new record is a continuation of that sound, consider me officially fucking stoked.

-GS

As someone who came up in the 90s West Coast hardcore scene (see my post “5 Things I Miss About 90s Hardcore” for some especially ridiculous memories), I first came across Dave Astor when he was playing drums for Locust. I saw them back in 1995 with Man Is The Bastard at the Velvet Elvis in Seattle, and they blew me away. Back then, it was almost unheard of for hardcore kids with short hair to play blast beats, and while I kind of lost interest in them when they became The Locust, got scene hair and just generally became completely lame, they were definitely ahead of their time. Dave apparently agreed with me, because he quit to join the excellent Cattle Decapitation, then moved on to his current band Pathology.

Their new album on Victory just dropped, and it’s honestly one of the best straight-up, no-frills death metal records I’ve heard in a long time. With veterans like Dave and Matti Way (Disgorge, Liturgy, Cinerary) on board, their experience and craftsmanship really comes through. I know that 99% of MS readers will write it off because I like it, but this is one of the rare instances where they might actually be missing out on something they’d enjoy. It’s by far their best, combining melodic parts that somehow aren’t retarded with brutal slamz that will have you moshing around your room in seconds.

Dave is a man of few words, so I can’t say this is the most in-depth interview I’ve ever done, but he’s real nice and the Pathology record slaps, so pick it up on iTunes ASAP!

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Is it really possible that there isn’t already a well-regarded (e.g., not your’s cousin’s unsigned) death metal band with a song called “Slaughterhouse?” AMAZING! If genius really is the simple idea that somehow no one has ever thought of before, than the dudes in Malevolent Creation are geniuses. At least, when it comes to naming songs. Maybe not so much in real life.

ANYWAY, “Slaughterhouse” is the first track to be released from Invidious Dominion, Malevolent Creation’s latest. It is a true blue, honest-to-Satan old school death metal song, with no bells and whistles. Stream it here.

Invidious Dominion comes out August 24 on Nuclear Blast and was produced by Erik Rutan, who, at least as far as this metal nerd is concerned, can do no wrong.

-AR

He’d have to be to sign on as the producer of the new Malevolent Creation album. After all, doing so means risking getting shot in the face.

In case you don’t recall, MC guitarist Phil Fasciana claimed last summer that he was a big hero after single-handedly stopping a convenience store robbery by shooting the perpetrator in the face. Accusations of the story being bullshit arose pretty quickly, and Fasciana responded by proving that he should never ever act as his own attorney.

Now Rutan – who has to be one of the most consistently inspiring forces in metal today – is set to start working in April on Malevolent Creation’s latest. While we pray he doesn’t piss off Fasciana and escapes with his grill intact, at least we know the new MC album will sound amazing.

No word on whether or not Rutan is being paid in chocolate milk.

-AR

If you’re a fan of Through the Eyes of the Dead – and I don’t mind telling you that I am – you were probably deeply worried about Skepsis, the band’s first album in more than two years. Hell, it’s 3/5ths of a different band now than it was when 2007′s excellent Malice was released! But you can relax: the album, which comes out today on Prosthetic, is a direct sequel to that record, both in style and quality.

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1. It would appear that the dudes in The Absence don’t take themselves too seriously, which is exactly the way every rational human being on this planet should lead his or her life.
2. It may very well be the closest I ever to get to actually being inside of Erik Rutan’s Mana Studios.
3. The Beard Cam.
4. It’s a friendly reminder that The Absence’s new album, Enemy Unbound, will fuck your face off sometime in the not-too-distant future.
5. The new music we get to hear all sounds fuck your face offingly awesome.

-AR

Over at Invisible Oranges, Cosmo Lee recently revealed his own #1 pick for Decibel’s 100 Greatest Metal Albums of the Decade: Hate Eternal’s 2005 release, I, Monarch. I don’t have that magazine in front of me, but if memory serves, it didn’t make the list. Come to think of it, I haven’t seen it – or any other Hate Eternal albums – on any decade-end lists.

I, Monarch isn’t my favorite Hate Eternal album – I’d argue that Erik Rutan far surpassed it with 2008′s Fury and Flames – but it is an awesome, awesome album. Few, if any, bands make more brutal music than Hate Eternal, and Rutan is constantly pushing the envelope of what death metal can be.

So here’s “I, Monarch” – the song – in Cosmo and Rutan’s honor.

Find out my own personal favorite Hate Eternal song after the jump.

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That’s we told MS Intern David en route to this summer’s Mayhem Festival when he asked us what other bands he should listen to if he likes Gojira (and boy, the kid sure does love Gojira… we taught him well!). ‘Cause Gojira borrow a helluva lot from Morbid Angel; Joe-Jira himself will even tell you this. We then proceeded by blast Domination whilst mercilessly stuck in Dirty Jerz traffic.

This live video posted by Crustcake today was filmed at Wacken in 2006 which means that yes, that IS Erik Rutan on guitar!

-VN

Shame on me for having never heard of Australia’s Portal before. I just got their new album, Swarth (which apparently means “land covered with grassy turf”… metal teaches me a new word again!), last week, and it’s blowing my mind. I don’t even know how to describe it; it’s death metal, I guess, but it’s really pushing the limits of what “music” as a concept is. It almost reminds me of Hate Eternal, but that’s not really fair to Portal or Erik Rutan. They are just a really, really unique monster.

And I do mean “monster.” Like I said, this is really pushing the boundaries between music and noise. It’s just fucking evil, man. I’ll try to write a review one of these days, but in the meantime, I implore you to check out Portal on MySpace and buy Swarth for yourself – it just came out this week on Profound Lore.

And, oh yeah, apparently they wear costumes. Here they are doing the song “Glumurphonel” from their 2003 debut, Seepia.

For the time being it seems that Portal live shows are restricted to their native land, but they have been added to the already amazing Maryland Deathfest 2010 line-up, which will also include Converge, Eyehategod, Melechesh, Obituary, and grind gods Gridlink.

-AR

I was seriously worried about the fate of Demiricous, and with good reason, I’d say. The best band ever to sound exactly like Slayer that aren’t actually Slayer, the Hoosier quartet made two killer albums on Metal Blade (produced by Zeuss and ERIK FUCKING RUTAN, respectively) and were endorsed by no less a figure than Mr. Kerry King himself. But then they were, at least as I understand it, more or less completely ripped-off by their then-manager, and they finally parted ways with Metal Blade last year. No one could blame them if they broke up. Bands break up over much less these days.

But now Lambgoat is reporting that Demiricous is, in fact, alive and well, and will enter the studio in November to record a new five-song demo with Gates of Slumber drummer “Iron” Bob Fouts. They still don’t have a label and “will issue the material themselves.” That part confuses me a bit – I mean, I’m thrilled to get to hear new Demiricous music, but is it a demo to try and land them a new label, or is it a self-released EP…? Whatever. Why look a gift horse in the mouth?

Here’s the band’s video for “Vagrant Idol.” Holy shit, this song is heavy.

-AR

I couldn’t have put it better myself. I’ve been head-over-heels for Goatwhore ever since I first saw them on the stage. Dimmu Borgir might look a bit silly in their assorted armor and spikes, but these Louisiana boys strutted straight out in the lights decked out for battle and with such confidence it was frightening. I’ve rarely seen a band before or since so sure of themselves in their own delivery, and it’s no doubt a direct result of their relentless touring which is due to pick up again next week and end… oh, probably never. I’ve been so excited about their newest release, Carving Out the Eyes of God, that I was willing to brave a phone interview with imposing vocalist Ben Falgoust II (also of legendary forward-thinking Southgrinders Soilent Green) at the shockingly early time of 8:30 a.m. My groggy head was soothed, however, by the talkative monsieur’s charming Louisiana accent as we discussed strippers, New Orleans and SATAN!!! Click to read more…

Seriously. If you don’t know who Paul Mazurkiewicz is, you probably shouldn’t be reading this website.

First of all, I just wanted to say thanks so much for the Centuries of Torment DVD. It’s not only the best band DVD I’ve ever seen, but it’s also the best crash course on Cannibal Corpse anyone could have expected.

Cool, man. Glad you like it.

Yeah definitely, but I was wondering, how does an ambitious project like that comes to fruition?

We were thinking about possibly doing just a piece on the Kill tour and we knew of this Denise Korycki girl who ended up doing the whole thing herself. When we decided to do something in any regard, like maybe on the road with Cannibal Corpse for Kill, she was going to come out for a week at the end of the tour. So she did do that, but it turned into, upon talking to Metal Blade [Records] and talking to us, she actually came up with the idea: “It’s going to be your 20th anniversary, what do you think about expanding on this and making it more of a history of Cannibal Corpse? I can get more in-depth.” And we said “Hey, if you’re willing to tackle a project like this, then sure. let’s do that.” Metal Blade were down with it and all that. So when we decided to do that then she came with us on Kill for the last week of the tour and then it took off from there. Then it was like she’s going to be coming to Tampa a bunch and we were going to Buffalo and she’s going to do all the interviews and finding people and all that. So when it did come to fruition and it was a go, it was really all Denise that was the one. Obviously we had to compile some footage and things like that from our archives, but it was really all her just going here and there interviewing the people that needed to be interviewed and just taking control of the whole project. It was great that she wanted to do it because it might not have come to light if she didn’t really push it. So basically that’s what happened.

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Here’s Cannibal Corpse bassist Alex Webster talking about his band in the January 2009 issue of Decibel:

“We’ve gotten a little more musical though the years and I think it’s a gradual and natural progression. We’ve always been trying to improve ourselves as players and songwriters. If you compare out first record and this one, the difference is enormous; but fromalbum one to album to 11, it’s been a slow progression.”

I wouldn’t blame you if you thought that maybe Mr. Webster was talking some bullshit hype, as musicians are prone to do when promoting a new release. But not only does Webster speak the truth – he could just as easily be talking about his peers in Napalm Death.

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I am going to include exclamation points and some kind of onomatopoeiatic grunting noise in every Cannibal Corpse headline from now until the time I review their new album. Just deal with it.

ANYWAY, The Deciblog dudes have a short clip from the making-of DVD that will accompany Cannibal Corpse’s new album, Evisceration Plague. And in case hearing the title track didn’t make you go from six to midnight right quick, this video oughta finish the job. ‘Cause not only does the music sound sick, but it’s got Erik Rutan! I haven’t typed the dude’s name in caps for a couple of weeks, so once more with feeling – ERIK FUCKING RUTAN! Plus, as The Deciblog notes, the band’s Centuries of Torment DVD was very possibly “the greatest thing ever,” so there’s reason to be confident that this could be an above average “please please please buy a physical copy of the album” filler DVD.

Check it out here.

-AR

Someone e-mailed me the other day to tell me how shitty the cover art for the new Cannibal Corpse album is (I know there’s at least one major grammatical error in that last sentence, but fuck it.). And they’re not wrong; it’s not Iron Maiden’s Dance of Death bad, but we know that CC are capable of so much more.

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We recently asked Job for a Cowboy vocalist Jonny Davy to write a tour blog for the band’s MetalSucks co-sponsored headlining trek with Hate Eternal, All Shall Perish, Animosity and Annotations of an Autopsy. Davy’s short but giggle-inducing blog is below. Enjoy!

ITS RAINING TEARS!

Well, another tour… Again, in the freezing cold. So far we’ve been lucky, no snow. No worries of “VAN FLIP/NO CARE/FIRST POST.” Well, Rutan’s kidney is fucked up, forcing Hate Eternal to drop off of our current tour. My only comment for Rutan is this: “Get better, fix you kidney and party on Wayne.”

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By now you may have heard that Hate Eternal have been forced to drop off their slot on the MetalSucks co-sponsored trek with Job for a Cowboy, All Shall Perish, Animosity, and Anatomy of an Autopsy, because guitarist/vocalist/producer/all around main dude Erik Rutan is in the hospital.

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This past spring, the opportunity presented itself for me to do a phoner with Steve Austin, mastermind for Today is the Day. Since I a) think Today is the Day is brilliant and b) knew that Austin had recently started his own label, Supernova Records, I jumped at the chance. And when I called him, I thought I was gonna get the usual ten to fifteen minute chat full of the usual B.S.

Boy was I wrong. Not only did Austin stay on the phone with me for close to an hour, but he answered every question with a level bridge-burning honesty not usually found by even the most hardcore of the most hardcore. It should go without saying that Steve’s opinions are his own and not necessarily those of MetalSucks, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t find the dude fascinating. After the jump, read his thoughts on pretty much any and every topic under the sun.

And, uh, oh yeah: this is easily the longest interview we’ve ever done. Fair warning.

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MetalSucks is jizz-in-our-pants excited to announce that we’re co-sponsoring this fall’s nationwide tour with Job for a Cowboy, Hate Eternal, All Shall Perish, Animosity, and Annotations of an Autopsy. Now, if any two of these bands were touring together, it would already be worth the price of admission and then some – but with all five bands, it’s THE can’t-miss extreme metal tour of the season.

Job for a Cowboy. All Shall Perish. Animosity. Annotations of an Autopsy. These bands are the future of death metal. And then there’s Erik Fucking Rutan’s Hate Fucking Eternal. The Elder Statesman. The Fucking Man Himself.

Get excited about this one, boys and girls. It’s gonna melt your face off.

Get a complete list of tour dates after the jump, and stay tuned to MetalSucks for more info as we get it…

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