Pretty big week here at the MetalSucks Mansion. We laughed, we cried, we fired someone, we rocked out with our cocks out. Here’s a rundown of the highlights:

• We debuted a new song by The Devin Townsend Project, a new video by Skeletonwitch, a new song by Javelina, and the cover art for Sigh’s new album.
• Horse the Band’s Lord Gold blogged about Nawlins and cocaine, God Forbid’s Doc Coyle gave us an exclusive statement about that whole cup throwing incident, Dallas Coyle is giving away music for free, and Daath’s Eyal Levi talked about a run-in with the Polacks and drum triggers.
• We spoke to Dethklok’s Brendon Small, Converge’s Jacob Bannon, Gojira’s Joe Duplantier, and Liturgy’s Hunter Hunt-Hendrix.
• We checked out new releases from Baroness, The Red Chord, Skeletonwitch, Immortal, Vains of Jenna, Vampire Mooose, and Javelina. Also, some asshole really likes Oceano.
• We’re sponsoring the incredibly awesome Tyrants of Evil North American Tour 2010 with Arch Enemy, Exodus, Arsis, and Mutiny Within!

Alright. I’m going to see Where the Wild Things Are now. I’m fairly certain that it is going to make me weep like Gary Suarez. See ya Monday.

-AR

As many of you successfully guessed on Friday, the headliner to the MetalSucks-sponsored mystery tour is none other than Arch Enemy. They join the already super sweet bill of Exodus, Arsis and Mutiny Within for the Tyrants of Evil North American Tour.

Arch Enemy just released The Root of All Evil, a recording of some of their best songs from the pre-Angela Gossow era, with Gossow now handling vocals. We have seen AE lay to waste many a venue full of unsuspecting metal heads, and having an extra dose of their classics in the arsenal ain’t gonna save any lives. Add the aforementioned three generations of awesome metal bands, and you’ve got the kick-ass tour of the winter. You will not wanna miss this.

Get tour dates after the jump!

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It was a fuckin’ busy week, no? Either shit was crazy this week or I’ve really got to get outside of the MS Mansion more often. Here’s what went down:

• We announced a Winter U.S. tour featuring four bands TBA, and we revealed them day by day via anonymous interviews. So far we’ve revealed Mutiny Within, Arsis and Exodus (click the band name for the interview). Who will the headliner be? Read the interview here and try to guess.
• Eyal got burnt out on the music he loves and explained the financial realities of being a metal musician.
• We spoke with 3 Inches of Blood’s Shane Clark and White Wizzard’s Erik Kluiber.
• Horse the Band’s Lord Gold blogged about being bored on tour.
• We argued about drum triggering in metal.
• We streamed the asshole-ripping new record by The Destro and a webisode from Steel Panther.
• We said goodbye to Evile bassist Mike Alexander. R.I.P.

Ax and I are going to see 3 Inches of Blood in Brooklyn tonight, so hopefully that’ll provide just the head-clearing I need. See you guys Monday.

-VN

On Tuesday we told you that we’re sponsoring an AWESOME tour this winter with a four band bill, and while we can’t tell you all the bands on the bill just yet, we can tease that info out for you. So every day for the rest of this week, we’ll be posting an interview with a member of each band on the bill, featuring questions designed to help you guess who they are without spoiling the surprise. Then, this Monday, October 12, we’ll reveal the complete line-up for the tour!

The first bands announced were Mutiny Within and Arsis. Yesterday, many of you correctly guessed that the third band is none other than the legendary Exodus! The band just announced a January 15 release date for their sure-to-be killer new DVD/CD set, Shovel Headed Tour Machine (Live At Wacken And Other Assorted Atrocities), and with a little luck, 2010 will also bring us the release of The Atrocity Exhibition – Exhibit B. These guys are true pioneers, a band that pretty much every metal band since has owed some debt to, and they absolutely SLAY live.

After the jump, check out the interview with a member of the headlining band. See if you can guess who it is just based on his or her answers!!!

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There’s been a lot of talk lately about how Megadeth have made their best album in years, Slayer have made their best album in years, some people (but not me!) think that Metallica made their best album in years, and so on and so forth. But where’s the love for Exodus? They might not play venues as big as their aforementioned peers, but they started their own comeback in 2004 with Tempo of the Damned, and things only got better on their subsequent releases Shovel Headed Kill Machine and The Atrocity Exhibition – Exhibit A. Even if I personally didn’t agree with the decision to re-record Bonded by Blood with Rob Dukes, the band has been putting out “their best album in years” for five years now. And I caught them with Dukes last year, and they slayed. These guys are at the top of their game right now.

So I’m excited for their new DVD, Shovel Headed Tour Machine (Live At Wacken And Other Assorted Atrocities). It’s a three disc collection that will include a DVD of their live set from last year’s Wacken fest, a CD of that same show, and then another DVD with a documentary covering the aforementioned, all-important last half-decade. Plus I’m sure there’s a ton of bonus features.

Alas, the DVD doesn’t come out ’til January 15, but here’s a trailer to tide you over. Looks pretty rad to me.

-AR

Dan Nelson is already a legend, and not necessarily in a good way. Like Gary Cherone or Blaze Bailey, he’s going to go down in history as a dude who was hired to be the new singer for a well-known band, only to get the boot fairly quickly; unlike Cherone of Bailey, the work he did with this particular well-known band will either never see the light of day, or slip out only as a bootleg. A fairly limited number of ‘Thrax fans ever got to see him perform live with the band, so really there’s only a small part of the population that has any sense of what his contributions may have been, positive or negative.

But Nelson is from Strong Island, and ain’t gonna let no Scott Ian or Charlie Bananas get him down. According to Metal Underground, Nelson has started a new project with drummer Paul Bostaph.

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In honor of Alaskan metalcore band 36 Crazyfists’ new DVD, Under a Northern Sky (in stores October 27), a list of 35 other famous, metal, heavy, and/or crazy fists:

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When people talk about neo-thrash bands like Warbringer, their words usually carry a subtle hint of disdain. I concede that it’s hard not to mention what they are (neo-Bay Area Thrash) before saying how good they are (very). But to brand Warbringer (or Municipal Waste) fetishizers of a bygone era implies something vaguely untrustable, beyond a mere affection for the Thrash idiom. And it’s true, there’s little about Warbringer that suggests an original vision. All the same, their debut full-length War Without End and now the Gary Holt-produced Waking Into Nightmares are too awesome to be the creation of some tribute band; it’s simply not possible that Warbringer is comprised of five masters of mimicry. Rather, it’s clear they feel that Bay Area-native bands did shit right. And now they do.

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When I was twenty years old, I was trying to stay awake during college classes, attempting not to get fired from my shitty job before I’d saved enough money to take one of those “middle class white kids backpacking through Europe” trips, and dating a girl who Vince liked to call “The Critic” for her alleged resemblance to the cartoon character of the same name.

John Laux is twenty, and he’s the guitar player for Warbringer, one of the top bands in the current thrash metal revival. He didn’t have to backpack through Europe because he’s, y’know, toured Europe. His band just released their second full-length, Waking into Nightmares (Century Media), which was produced by Exodus main main Gary Holt. If I get hit by a bus tomorrow, Laux will already have lived a much fuller, cooler life than I have.

I can’t hold it against the dude, though; he’s an awesome guitar player in an awesome band, and his success is well-deserved. John was recently cool enough to answer some of my retarded questions via e-mail. After the jump, get his thoughts on Warbringer’s latest, working with the legendary Mr. Holt, the perils of trying to help a drunken fan cross the border, and more.

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This past Friday, I decided to take a break from writing my latest book Savage Son to catch some old school, new school, and something-in-between-school metal. After spending a sweltering hot day at the San Antonio Zoo with my three-year-old daughter and witnessing a Gibbon monkey with an anal prolapse and a pair of crusty old horny humping turtles, I figured the Kreator-led Hordes of Chaos Tour at San Antonio’s Scout Bar might actually be a bit less mentally taxing.

It definitely was, but in a good way.

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A few years ago Slayer performed Reign in Blood in its entirety, a year later Metallica did Master of Puppets, and now Exodus are gonna do Bonded by Blood, Judas Priest are doing British Steel, Motley Crue are doing Dr. Feelgood, Ratt are doing Out of the Cellar, Aerosmith are doing Toys in the Attic, Melvins are doing Houdini, etc. What does the MetalSucks Haterade Mafia think; is this trend lame, or is it cool?

n

Some good news for thrash fans:

1. Warbringer have posted “Severed Reality,” the first single from their new album Waking Into Nightmares, on their MySpace page. The song sounds more or less like Warbringer – which is a good thing. ‘Cause you don’t throw on a Warbringer album when you’re in the mood for Jesu, y’know? Anyways, the band apparently just filmed a video for the track with perennial MetalSucks fave David Brodsky, and Nightmares was produced by Gary Holt (yes, that Gary Holt), so expect more Warbringery goodness in the near future. Waking Into Nightmares drops May 19 on Century – but you can see the band live as they wrap up their MetalSucks sponsored trek with Soilwork, Darkane and Swallow the Sun, or their upcoming tour with Exodus. Get dates here.
2. Bonded by Blood and their Masters of Disasters tourmates, Exmortus and Witchhaven, will be playing a FREE gig at The Water Grill in Brooklyn next Saturday, March 28. It’s thrash! It’s free! You live in America in 2009 and listen to metal so you’re probably poor! What’s not to love about a free thrash show? Details after the jump.

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So apprently Slayer are gonna announce their co-headlining tour mates this coming Monday, January 26. Of course, this raises the question: who will said co-headliners be?

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My first Fuck Rolling Stone post on metal singers was such a hit I thought I’d dig back into the RS archives and stir up some more shit. So, I decided to re-read their summertime list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time (also here).

Thankfully, there are a few metallic (but mostly rockish) noteworthy icons; however, extreme metal is woefully ignored. Nonetheless, the list did include Jimi Hendrix (#1), Jimmy Page (#9), Kirk Hammett (#11), Kurt Cobain (#12), Johnny Ramone (#16), Tom Morello (#26), Thurston Moore/Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth) (#33/#34), Joe Perry (#48), Ritchie Blackmore (#55), Vernon Reid (#66), Eddie Van Halen (#70), Adam Jones (Tool) (#75), D. Boon (The Minutemen) (#89), Glen Buxton (Alice Cooper) (#90), Wayne Kramer/Fred “Sonic” Smith (MC5) (#92/#93), Kevin Shields (My Bloody Valentine) (#95), Angus Young (#96), Leigh Stephens (Blue Cheer) (#98), Greg Ginn (Black Flag) (#99), and Kim Thayil (Soundgarden) (#100).

And, yet another reason why we here at the MetalSucks Mansion like to say “Fuck Rolling Stone!” — coming in at #86, TOMMY Iommi…yes, “TOMMY.” How the fuck do you not know the first name of one of the true legends of not only metal, but of rock guitars? Hmmmmmmmm….Please, clue me in.

IT’S TONY, YOU FUCKS!!!

Anyway, here is my stab at the best Metal Guitarists of All Time — and for a point of reference, my Old Fartness will be shining through here, as will my love for rhythm guitarists:

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Be sure to check out the brilliant documentary Get Thrashed: The History of Thrash Metal, now out on DVD. The biggest revelation is that, according to Dave Mustaine, Dave Mustaine invented thrash. The below video is his direct transcribed quote starting at 3:33 (half of Satan???):

“The sad thing, and this is really strange, when Kerry [King] was playing with Megadeth I showed him a lot of my style. Kerry’s a good guitar player, for rhythm he’s great. In Metallica, I was the only guitar player and a lot of that rubbed off on James [Hetfield]. And in Megadeth it was all my guitar playing and hired hands who learned what I was doing.

So, out of all of this, and this is totally gonna sound arrogant and I’m sorry but I am just telling you the facts, I’ve affected three bands out of the Big Five.

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(Rolling Stone ballot filled out by James Hetfield of Metallica.)

I just finished reading the latest issue of Rolling Stone (#1066/11.27.08) which has a cover story entitled “The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time.” Not surprisingly, the metal contingent representation is dismal. Oh sure, they tapped several genre luminaries to place their votes including Ian Astbury, Sebastian Bach, Alice Cooper, Chris Cornell, Ronnie James Dio, Sammy Hagar, James Hetfield, Tony Iommi, Maynard James Keenan, Geddy Lee, Peter Mensch (Q Prime Mgmt – Metallica, Queensryche), Ozzy Osbourne, Iggy Pop, and Scott Weiland, but what about the actual list? How many metalheads (or at least “rockers”) made the final cut?

Here are the pathetic results:

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Sasha Horn at Metal Review recently wrote a piece on the three song self-titled EP from unsigned band By Any Means Necessary. Here’s the part that caught my attention:

“…the rodents have crawled out of their cage, and have learned to conduct some experiments of their own. Specifically, the equation of Exodus divided by Vio-Lence, plus the square root of Devastation, times Chimaira.”

Well, Horn said the magic word – actually, there’s like four magic words in that sentence – so I had to check this band out. And, holy crap, am I glad I did.

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Holy fucking shit, this is fucking disgraceful. The idea to re-record Bonded by Blood was already fucking pathetic, but this just nails the coffin shut on any coolness the “re-imagining” might have had. The cover art for the original Bonded by Blood looked cheap as fuck, but it looked cheap in that totally acceptable DIY-ish way. This just looks like crap. I know that Gary Holt has bills to pay and that, gas prices being what they are these days, staying out on the road, where he can fuck girls his daughter’s age, isn’t the easiest thing in the world; still, there’s nothing about this that doesn’t make me angry.

Gary, if you’re reading this, I just want you to know, sincerely, from the bottom of my heart, I hope your daughter sucks Lars Ulrich’s dick.

-AR

I was a big fan of The Showdown’s late-2006 release Temptation Come My Way, a southern-infused steamroller of an ’80s metal-influenced hard rock record. Judging by the band’s new song “Achilles The Backbreaker” — from their new record Back Breaker, to be released August 19th on Solid State — the band hasn’t dropped their ’80s influence at all, but has moved on from Ratt and Crue-infused riffage to Metallica and Exodus pummeling. No kidding. But this isn’t close to yet another entry in the current re-Thrash trend. Heavier riffs, double-bass pummeling, more screaming vocals. It still sounds distinctly modern and distinctly Showdown. It’s the same band (minus one member), just heavier… Which is a fucking awesome thing if you ask me.

Listen to the new track on The Showdown’s MySpace page. I am officially excited about this record.

-VN

Holy shit, I don’t even know what to write. I feel so sick right now. I wouldn’t even categorize myself as a hardcore Exodus fan, and I actually really like new(ish) vocalist Rob Dukes, but the idea that the band is re-recording their seminal album Bonded By Blood just rubs me rawer than my dick after a lubeless, hour long jerk-off session.

I was just talking about re-recordings a little while back, and I think at the time that I came to the conclusion that this was a pointless but ultimately harmless exercise.

I see now that I was wrong. This is the metal equivalent of all those terrible remakes and franchise revivals that Hollywood is pumping out these days. The best case scenario is that the only people who ever listen to this are those who have heard and appreciated the original album and are just kinda curious about why the band would ever waste their time doing such a thing.

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