I get kinda bummed when we hafta write about tours with no dates yet, because it seems like kind of a cocktease — what’s the point of getting excited when you don’t even know if the trek is coming to your town yet? — but these two tours both seem pretty noteworthy. And so:

• Avenged Sevenfold will headline this year’s Rockstar Energy Drink Uproar Festival. Sevendust are also on the tour. And I’m going to pretend that that’s the entire line-up. Yep, just A7X and Sevendust. Two of the best modern pop metal bands touring together, with no one else. What a great bill!
• Firewind are FINALLY gonna do a proper North American headlining tour, with Arsis, White Wizzard, and Nightrage in tow. Not only am I stoked that Firewind are actually touring, but I think it’s really cool of them to have a diverse range of acts as their support. I bet these shows will be a lotta fun.

And we’ll post dates for at least one of these tours as soon as we get ‘em.

-AR

This post originally appeared on Stuff You Will Hate, but Metal Sucks bossman/18V fan Vince Neilstein pointed out that I didn’t quite cover everything there is to say about 18 VISIONS. It is my mission as a human being to sing the praises of this legendary band, so it appears again here with an Anal Cunt joke in the title, a few small changes on my part, and some additions from Vince — we leave no stone uncovered when it comes to 18 VISIONS OF THE APOCALYPSE! — Sergeant D

In my opinion, one of the greatest tragedies of the late 20th/early 21st century is the demise and corresponding underrappreciation of Orange County metalcore pioneers 18 VISIONS. All jokes aside, I honestly love everything 18V did. I love every album, each for a different reason. And if they didn’t live up to their potential in terms of mainstream popularity, I seriously think it was because they were years ahead of their time — if you can find anyone who played deathcore, did the fashioncore thing, or integrated electronics before they did, it’s news to me. If 18V were ten years younger, they would be bigger than The Devil Wears Prada, Escape The Fate, and every other bands who’s essentially doing stuff they did as a DIY band a decade earlier.

Either way, the band broke up in 2006 after releasing what was, in my opinion, their best album. I got a chance to see them a couple of times on their final tour, supporting Hinder the first time and later at some fest in Christcore-capitol Dayton, Ohio with Damone and Staind. It was fucking sweet, just like every other time I saw them over the previous ten years or so. From day one until the end, 18V never faltered, never listened to the legions of haters that they attracted, and never stopped innovating in ways that still have yet to be completely appreciated or documented.

When I think of 18V, their career can be divided into three phases: 1) Chainreactioncore/Deathcore, 2) Fashioncore, and 3) Mansoncore – and we couldn’t cover 18V without covering phase four, the post-18V bands. In this post, I will share my thoughts on each phase, hopefully inspiring you to love 18V as much as I do!

Click to read more…

I was thinking the other day about how some bands make a lot of money even though they always get bad reviews and it seems like nobody likes them. Like how everybody is all “I H8 DEATHCORE/METALCORE;;;ALL THE BANDS SOUND THE SAME;H8 U SUISIDE SILENCE;;H8 U ATTACK ATTACK,” and then they are like “U SHOULD LISTEN TO THIS BAND BECAUSE THEY ARE DOING SOMETHING REALLY ORIGINAL AND UNIQUE” and link to some obscure band I have never heard of. I guess it is cool to be original if you are OK with being a poor artist, but sometimes I think it’s stupid to be “original.” I think it is smarter to wait until someone else invents something, then after they make it popular, copy them (only do it a little better so you get more popular than the band who invented it).

I am going to list some bands who were stupid, because they were the ones who invented something that other people copied — metalcore, djent, and other popular styles of metal. Most of these bands were really good, but because they were one of the first bands to play that style of metal, nobody liked them and they didn’t make any money. I feel bad for them, but I want to share their stories here so you don’t make the same mistakes they did!!

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With the holidays right around the corner — and all the best of, greatest hits and holiday comps that come therewith — this past Tuesday was the last big date for new album releases in 2010, though there are still a few stragglers coming down the pipe. The world of hard rock and metal made a big showing last week, with new releases from Underoath, Dio, Cradle of Filth, Oceano, Gwar, Helloween, Volbeat and a smattering of others making the Soundscan charts. Rankings, sales figures and commentary after the jump.

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I had to look up Escape the Fate on MySpace before writing this post to see what they sounded like. And I do not like what I hear. But you know what I do like? Boobies. And having boobies rubbed in my face. And being flown across the country on someone else’s dime — along with a friend — to have boobies rubbed in our faces for free. How can you fuck with that?

Answer: you cannot. Even if you’ve already got a set of boobies to call your own. I’ve known many a girl that enjoyed going to strip clubs to watching boobies. I even dated one that got up on stage and flashed the crowd at her own b-day party. That was hot! I also know that girls like boobs too because this band has four chicks in it and they’re hosting their record release party at a strip club!

All this talk of flying you and your friend across the country to watch live boobies is of course because Escape the Fate are offering one fan and a friend of theirs the chance to do just that in celebration of their new record. The album comes out on November 2nd and the release party will be on November 3rd at Crazy Girls strip club in Hollywood, CA. 1 winner gets roundtrip airfare for 2 to Los Angeles, CA, hotel accommodations, and VIP access to the private party. Contest ends on October 20th.

How can you turn that opportunity down? Enter here for the price of the 1 minute it takes you to do so, then proceed to pass Go, collect $200 and get some boobies rubbed in your face.

-VN

That’s right! One of MetalSucks’ most controversial voices — which is really saying something — is gonna be the DJ at tonight’s Heavy Metal Happy Hour at Arrow Bar (85 Avenue A). There are 2-for-1 drinks from 6:00PM until 9:00PM, so if you’ve ever wanted to get drunk and ask Gary “ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS OR WHAT?!?!” in person, here’s your chance!

Now the week’s highlights:

• We debuted new music by The Absence and Vanisher.
• We spoke to Accept’s Wolf Hoffmann and Sebastian Bach (but not really with that last one).
• We checked out new releases by Filter, Neurosis, and The Last Felony.
• Vince contemplated a Mike Portnoy-less Dream Theater.
• Sergeant D. contemplated the new Escape the Fate song…
• …while we couldn’t even pay attention during the new Oceano song.
• We considered bidding on the best band name in the world.
• As it turns out, Wormrot are really good live, too.
• Neil Young and Burzum are collaborating on a new album?!?
• Wanna see a fat man eat seven cans of ravioli in time to a Fuckshovel song? OF COURSE YOU DO!!!

As Eyal promised yesterday, next week will see the full-on return of “Jumping Darkness Parade.” Plus we’ll have more contest, more video and track debuts, more interviews, more everything. Be there or be ᄆ.

-AR

I’ve always thought that ESCAPE THE FATE were a solid band, but to me they were kind of doing the same thing as Blessed By a Broken Heart, only not quite as polished or interesting. That’s not a bad thing by any means, but I’m excited to see that their new song takes things in a different direction, more along the lines of mid-period Linkin Park (before they started listening to too much indie rock) or the post-18 Visions band N3V3R EN0U6H. If you ask me, there are not nearly enough industrial-metal glam-goth bands out there these days, so I am stoked to see these youngsters carrying the torch!

Will ETF alienate their core fanbase of teenage girls who weren’t born when hair metal was relevant?? Will industrial nu-metal make a comeback this decade???? Will Blessed By a Broken Heart ever get the credit they deserve?? When (if ever) will post-hair metal become passe??

-Sergeant D.

Some things never change: The sky is blue, water is wet, and girls only like a band if they want to eff one or more members. I’m a realist: I know there’s probably nothing I can do to change that, but as a responsible adult, I feel like it’s my duty to speak out on this sad state of affairs, and say what nobody else will: LADIES, QUIT EFFING BAND DUDES!!!

Entry-levelers and haters will think this is sour grapes, but it’s not like that at all — as someone with some serious, wizard-level game, I had my “effing a ridiculous/shameful number of random young, stupid, hot girls” phase, but I am now using my powers for good. If I can save just one young girl from blowing some filthy loser, or one young man from making the biggest mistake of his life (joining a band), then all my hard work is worth it!

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OK, I get the deal with this Black Veil Brides superfan… the whole “I listen to metal but I wear a suit and tie” thing is this guy’s shtick, and he wants to be known for it amongst the YouTube youngster masses. There’s the whole “don’t let the man bring you down” + “be who you are” attitudes he’s portraying, which I guess I can get down with in theory. I mean, every time I meet a doctor or lawyer or investment banker (or anyone whose work uniform is not the Business Hooide) and I find out they’re a closet metalhead, I’m pretty stoked. And I definitely advocate being who you are. Except that this guy’s taste in metal sucks balls.

His latest video du jour — sent in by OG MetalSucks reader and Darkest Hour guitarist Mike “Lonestar” Carrigan — features dudeman dancing around his bedroom pretending to be in the band (yeah, I totally did this to Van Halen and Ozzy… when I was 12). It starts off all normal [relatively], then around 1:45 he runs off camera to get his white button-down shirt and starts assembling his work wardrobe piece by piece. To the music of Escape the Fate. Escape the fucking Fate! Maybe this would be cool if it were Slayer or Maiden, or even something a little newer like… oh, I don’t know, Opeth or The Red Chord. But Escape the Fate and Black Veil Brides? Cry me an emo river in that cubicle. These bands are like the shitty office job version of metal… bland, derivative and boring.

Hey, at least the guy can tie a mean double-windsor.

-VN

We’ve worked pretty hard to achieve our title of the “Most Negative Site in Metal.” And we’re proud of that title. We’ve earned it, damn it.

So we’re jealous that those fuckers at The Deciblog, and not us, thought of this brilliant idea:

THE DECIBLOG SCREAMO COVER ELIMINATION BRACKET.

Luckily, they invited us to participate.

Here’s the description of how it’s gonna work:

Click to read more…