Continuing the trend of announcing Metal Blade bands produced by Erik Rutan, Sumerian bands that are on Sumerian, and bands that everyone already knew were on the tour,  Goatwhore and Veil of Maya have both been added to Summer Slaughter. Goatwhore were officially announced via the festival’s Facebook page; VoM haven’t been yet, but Lambgoat says that when their new album, Eclipse, is released next week, it will be adorned with a sticker announcing the band’s participation. I guess the label thought that wouldn’t be letting the cat out of the bag too early, since no one purchases CDs anymore, and in theory, at least, that meant that no one would see the sticker. But someone did, so there ya go.

Aaaannnndddd… Holy crap, am I really gonna have to keep writing about this tour after every weekend? It’s a great line-up and I’m very excited to go see the show, but I am shit out of things to say about it already. Do you think if I stop writing about the tour, Vince will do it instead, or do you think MetalSucks readers will just have to learn about it elsewhere? I mean I could probably just ask Vince instead of rambling on about it in this public blog piece, but it’s too late, I’ve typed it now and there’s no going back.

Here’s a picture of an actual goat whore that I made because I was bored/horny:

Click to read more…

UPDATE, 2/22, 11:28 am: Complete tour itinerary is now available below!

Back in October, Nasum announced that they were officially breaking-up (which everyone kind of assumed they had already done but I’m not complain), and were celebrating that break-up with a farewell tour, with Rotten Sound’s Keijo Niinimaa taking over vocals for Mieszko Talarczyk, who tragically passed away in the 2004 Asian tsunami.

Now the first batch of dates for that tour have surfaced… actually, I’m not clear if this is the first batch of dates or the only batch of dates… it doesn’t really look like there are any massive gaps in this schedule, but there is certainly room for the band to announce more gigs. In any case, you should try really, really hard to get your ass to a show, because after this, there will officially, 110% be no more Nasum, and the world will be a much more dreary place for it. And most of these shows have other awesome bands on the bill — like Brutal Truth, Exhumed, and every other band on this year’s Maryland Deathfest — so I mean come on, you gotta go!

Here are those dates, via Lambgoat:

Click to read more…

Summer Slaughter has been officially announcing one new band that will be on the bill every Sunday for the past three Sundays. And while a) the bill is great and b) that’s a very clever way to make sure everyone is talking about the tour around the water cooler each and every Monday morning, it also promised to be a potentially anti-climactic way of unveiling this year’s line-up for the annual fest — ’cause the identities of six of the ten bands on the tour already leaked several weeks ago, and so far, all the billing announcements (namely Cannibal Corpse, Between the Buried and Me, and The Faceless) and have just confirmed that the leaks were accurate. Obviously, it’s not the fault of the fest’s organizers that someone on the inside had loose lips — but, still, it kind of eliminates the need for a piece-by-piece unveiling.

So it was a nice surprise to wake up this morning and discover that Exhumed — a band who had NOT been rumored to be part of the tour — have been added to the trek.

Click to read more…

(click to enlarge)

Oklahoma City gets all the good stuff. Well, maybe not all the good stuff, but five years ago they stole Kevin Durant from a metropolis whose literacy rate is in double digits, and now they pretty much get the one-off metal show of the year. If you’re a proud OKC resident (or reside in the multiple surrounding bumfuck satellites), get pumped.

On Saturday, April 28, the Decibel Magazine Tour with collide with the U.S. Torture Tour at the Big Friendly’s Diamond Ballroom. And when I say “collide,” I mean someone should make an ad with both logos on football helmets crashing together and just fucking exploding, except with freshly decapitated heads inside. This Devastator of a lineup consists of Cannibal Corpse, Behemoth, Watain, Exhumed, the Devil’s Blood, In Solitude, Abysmal Dawn and Arkaik. The cost of such a mega-event must be offensively prohibitive, right? Um, try $23 adv./$26 DOS. Roughly the cost of either package’s standalone shows. Plenty of time to get your flights/carpools organized. Bring me the head of Rumble the Bison.

-AB

The March 2012 issue of Decibel, which features Municipal Waste, Napalm Death, Cattle Decapitation, and an awesome Torche flexi disc, is available for order here. But why not just get a full subscription to ensure that you never miss an issue?

[Updated with official tour poster, 2:16pm EST.]

Prepare to get stangry: we are about to announce the dates of a really sweet tour, and unless you live in or near a major city the chances are pretty high that it’s not coming to your town! If the members of Cannibal Corpse, Exhumed, Abysmal Dawn and Arkaik could speak to you, I’m sure they’d say “We really wish we could visit all of you! We don’t give any fucks about our families, comfortable beds, good meals or regular showers! All we care about is serving YOU, the people of South Dakota! Next time we’ll do a non-stop 150-date U.S. tour and we can all party together!” Or not. Because dudes in bands have lives. Folks of Florida, Montana and Nebraska: deal with it.

Lucky for you, this most brutal of spring tours actually DOES have dates in Florida (two!) and Nebraska. Sorry, Montana, you’re still out of luck. But if it’s any consolation, this tour is not hitting either New York City or Los Angeles, so at least you can revel in that.

Dates after the break [via Noisecreep]:

Click to read more…

Evil Bells aka Slay Bells by guitarstevecc

I’m not one for Christmas music, but I enjoyed the above doom interpretation of an Xmas classic very much. Click “play” while you catch up on this morning’s news:

• Tool have announced the opening acts for their string of winter 2012 dates… and it’s wonky stoner-prog outfit Intronaut (as rumored) on the first half of the tour and doom metal titans Yob on the second half! It’d be easy enough for Tool to take out a commercial hard rock band because their agent or manager said so, an established act that could help put some butts in seats, or no one at all… but nope, they march to their own drum and chose Intronaut and Yob, two acts that will seem completely out of left field to most of Tool’s fanbase. That’s Tool for you; just one of 1,697 reasons I love this band so much.
• Paganfest will come back to America in spring 2012 for its third U.S. incarnation. Despite the pagan/folk metal trend being long over, Paganfest III actually features a really cool lineup: Turisas, Alestorm, and Ex Deo are the bigger bands, and they’ll take along with them Arkona and Huntress, neither of whom I know much about. Get dates here.
• Gwar’s Oderus Urungus and Balsac the Jaws of Death review the new Spielberg movie War Horse for NextMovie.com on video.
• Alternative Press readers have chosen Asking Alexandria’s Ben Bruce as “Guitarist of the Year” for 2011. MetalSucks editors have nominated Alternative Press readers as having the “Worst Taste in Metal” for eternity.
• Gory death metal vets Exhumed have posted their entire live set from Maryland Deathfest 2011 on NPR’s website. Stream it here. And oh hey look at who wrote that article! (hey hey)

FEATURING MEMBERS OF GWAR, DARKEST HOUR, REVOCATION, INTRONAUT, ABYSMAL DAWN, BRUTAL TRUTH, THE ATLAS MOTH, AND IKILLYA

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!

Click to read more…

FEATURING MEMBERS OF MELVINS, RED FANG,  JUNIUS,  EXHUMED, RWAKE, ORPHANED LAND, HULL, EARTH, AND KILL THE CLIENT

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!

Click to read more…

There’s still six dates left on Exhumed’s MetalSucks-presented tour with Goatwhore and Havok! The shows thus far have been completely fucking nuts, and we assume if you live near one of the remaining dates, you are going. But if for some reason you aren’t going, you should check out this sweet live footage from Metal Injection, ’cause it will make you wanna go.

See? Now you wanna go, right? So go! Remaining dates and ticketing info are available here. And you can check out more footage from the tour at Metal Injection: Goatwhore live and Havok live. Enjoy!

-AR

Over the weekend, we got an e-mail from Ron Blackwell — the vocalist for Danny Lilker’s black metal project, Nokturnal Hellstorm — informing us that he had recently proposed to his girlfriend onstage during an Exhumed show. I didn’t get to watch the video of the most romantic thing in the history of love until this morning because I was, y’know, kinda busy, but now that I’ve actually seen it, all I can is, holy shit, this is twice as beautiful as I imagined it would be.

I just cried a little. Anyone else just cry a little? I mean, that was fucking beautiful.

If you need a little romance in your life, don’t forget that Exhumed’s North American headlining tour with Goatwhore and Havok — which, hey!, we happen to be presenting — is ongoing through November 20. Get dates and links to purchase tickets right here.

-AR

[UPDATE, 4:30pm EDT: As some of you pointed out, Cephalic Carnage have, in fact, dropped off this tour. -Ed.]

Hell fuckin’ yeah, bitches! We are proudly co-presenting death metal masters Exhumed’s North American headlining tour, which, just to make extra-extra-sure you attend, features the unfuckwithable support line-up of Goatwhore (seriously fuck you if you don’t worship Goatwhore), Cephalic Carnage (best Entire Catalog to Get Stoned To ever?), and Havok (one of the only modern thrash band that actually matters). The tour was supposed to begin last night in Gallup, NM, but now that show has been pushed back to the end of the trek; alas, tonight’s gig in Amarillo, TX has been cancelled altogether.

But the tour will officially fo’ realz kick-off tomorrow night in Oklahoma City!!! You can get all the dates on the newly-updated itinerary, plus links to purchase tickets, right here. DO NOT MISS THESE SHOWS! They are guaranteed to be completely brutal and completely unforgettable.

Before there were blogs there were these things called magazines, and the only metal magazine we still get excited about reading every month is Decibel. Here’s managing editor Andrew Bonazelli…

I’m digging the Skeletonwitch cover this month, but Chance Garnette looks like a younger version of this guy. THERE IS NO FUCKIN’ PUMPKIN ICE CREAM IN YOUR FUCKIN’ FUTURE.

Luckily, House of 1,000 Corpses and The Devil’s Rejects never come up in J. Bennett’s comprehensive and revealing cover story on Athens, Ohio’s premier metal outfit (although Appalachian Death Ride sound promising—thanks, Wikipedia!). The blackened thrash quintet has been refining their (witch)craft over the last half-decade while dealing with annoying member turnover. Now Forever Abomination is poised to be their breakthrough; we’re obviously in their corner either way, seeing as how SW made their stamp on the Flexi Series just a month earlier.

The ’Witch headline a Halloween rogues’ gallery in November, including a Call & Response with Alice Cooper, an amusingly acrimonious HOF on Ministry’s The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste, features on Goreaphobia and Exhumed, and a new Flexi with Anaal Nathrakh dressing up to deconstruct the Specials’ “Man at C&A.” And as always there’s plenty more razor blades embedded within. Subscribers will have the issue within the next three weeks, the rest of you can order it here now.

-AB

Yeah, you could just order Decibel’s November 2011 issue, which also features Machine Head, Chimaira, and Brutal Truth — but why not just get a full subscription to ensure that you never miss an issue?

Last year (and the year before) I got way too busy with this thing called life and missed out on a lot of quality music. I am here to rectify the error of my ways, month by month.

Here are the July 2011 releases that got under my skin, burrowed their way into my brain, made my ears bleed, or simply tickled my unmentionables:

Click to read more…

On Thursday, August 4, 2011, MetalSucks photog Miikka Skaffari braved the treacherous pits of Slim’s in San Francisco to bring you, our beloved readers, some awesome, awesome pics of Exhumed, Macabre, and Withered. And not only are the resulting photographs gorgeous, but they should more than whet your appetite for Exhumed’s upcoming, MetalSucks-presented tour with Goatwhore, Cephalic Carnage, and Havok. Get dates here.

And now, without further interruption, Mr. Skaffari’s metal-as-fuck pics…

Click to read more…

[UPDATE, 4:30pm EDT, Oct 27: Cephalic Carnage have unfortunately dropped off this tour. -Ed]

MetalSucks is proud to be teaming up with our pals at Metal Injection and Hails & Horns to bring you what we think is gonna be one of the most brutal tours of the year: the incredibly fucking awesome Exhumed are headlining, and support is coming from Goatwhore, Cephalic Carnage, and Havok. This is one of those rare package tours where there isn’t a bad band on the bill — it’s gonna be the kind of show where you’ll wanna get there early to make sure you don’t miss a minute. There’s just absolutely no way that these shows will be anything less than insane.

Seriously, do NOT miss this tour — you’re gonna feel like a damn fool if you do. Dates are after the jump!

Click to read more…

Facedown and Mediaskare are all over the new releases this week, and we have new records from Unearth, Intensus, Exhumed and Harm’s Way as well. Let’s check it out.

Click to read more…

Yay, Vince is back! And guess what? Now it’s my turn to take a vacation! I haven’t had once since the summer of 2006, about six months before we started the site. So, yeah, I’m looking forward to getting away. Try not to miss me too much, m’kay?

And, oh yeah, it’s July 4 weekend, so we’re leaving early today and won’t be here Monday. That might be worth mentioning for non-American readers.

ANYWAY, here’s what we did this week:

• We debuted new music by Exhumed.
• Landphil from Municipal Waste and Cannabis Corpse pondered the CM Punk WWE Raw “shoot.”
• Our pals at Decibel spoke to the members of Cradle of Filth about about their album The Principle of Evil Made Flesh.
• We wondered why teenagers are still butthurt about Hot Topic in 2011.
• We celebrated the Stephen Colbert/Ted Nugent showdown.
• We checked out the first Portnoy-free Dream Theater song.
• We enjoyed some lulz at the expense of Staind and their record label.
• We bemoaned the fact that Behemoth’s Nergal is back on trial for tearin’ up a Bible.
• We celebrated the gloriousness that is the new Mastodon video.
• Best. “Show Us Your MetalSucks.” EVER.

And now it’s time to start partying. Lates.

-AR

It’s been eight long years since the release of Exhumed’s last studio album, but the wait is finally over: All Guts, No Glory, the band’s new album, is absolutely MONSTROUS, and will more than rewards fans’ patience. Razor-sharp guitars, brain-busting drums, demon from the bowels of hell vocals, songs that prove that technicality, brutality, and hooks can all peacefully co-exist… in short, All Guts, No Glory is everything you want from an Exhumed record.

Relapse will unleash Guts upon the world on July 5, but you don’t hafta wait ’til then to hear it in all its death metal glory, ’cause we’re streaming it below right this very second. And once you’ve heard just how killer it is, you can pre-order a copy here.

And don’t forget that Exhumed will be touring with the also-excellent Cephalic Carnage starting July 17; you can get dates here.

[this streaming promotion has ended]

Congratulations to Isaac Schwarz, the winner of our MDF MVP contest! We had a bunch of great entries, but Isaac’s was chosen above all others by an illustrious panel of Maryland Death Fest veterans, including Andres Erickson (General Surgery/Sayyadina), Matt Harvey (Exhumed/Depakitator), Rich Hoak (Brutal Truth/Total Fucking Destruction), Mike Hrubovcak (Monstosity), Mike Majewski (Devourment), Matt Moore (Absu/ Rumpelstiltskin Grinder),  and Proscriptor (Absu). Isaac any 2 shirts, 1 LP, 2 CDs , and a  mystery prize from the Relapse booth at this year’s MDF (Relapse titles only). Not bad, eh, Isaac?

And don’t forget that Maryland Death Fest starts tonight, and rages all weekend! Four day passes are now sold out, but three passes and tickets to individual days are still available here. This year’s line-up is incredible, and includes Neurosis, Coroner, Voivod, Nuclear Assault, (the soon to be departed) Cathedral, Corrosion of Conformity, Exhorder, Exhumed, Kylesa, Ghost, Skinless’ farewell gig, and tons more. If you have the chance to go and you don’t, you’re a damn fool.

And on that note, here’s Isaac’s contest-winning essay…

Click to read more…

The Sonar in Baltimore, Maryland has been shut down due to an expired liquor license and a subsequent dispute amongst several of the people who run the venue.

“So?” you may be thinking. “Venues get shut down all the time. Such is life. Why should I care?”

Well, this particular venue was supposed to host Maryland Deathfest (plus two sold-out Deftones/Dillinger Escape Plan shows) at the end of this month. Which means the MDF, one of, if not the, most revered extreme music festivals in North America, only has a few weeks to find a new venue.

But don’t fret! According to Metal Underground, “The festival organizers claim to have a backup plan that should involve little to no inconvenience to ticket holders (even those coming from out of town) and will be releasng more details soon.” So it looks like the festival is going forward as planned, which is obviously a major relief. It would be a serious tragedy if the festival had been derailed because somebody couldn’t keep track of an important date.

The final line-up for the fest, as well as set times for each band, is after the jump, although please note that it’s all subject to change once the new venue is announced.

In the meantime, don’t forget that you still have ’til Monday, May 16 at midnight EST to enter the awesome MDF MVP contest we’re doing with Relapse. You could win any 2 shirts, 1 LP, 2 CDs , and a  mystery prize from the Relapse booth at this year’s MDF (Relapse titles only), and the contest is being judged by a who’s who of MDF luminaries: Andres Erickson (General Surgery/Sayyadina), Matt Harvey (Exhumed/Depakitator), Rich Hoak (Brutal Truth/Total Fucking Destruction), Mike Hrubovcak (Monstosity), Mike Majewski (Devourment), Matt Moore (Absu/ Rumpelstiltskin Grinder),  and Proscriptor (Absu)! Go here for all details on how to enter.

And now those set times…

Click to read more…