With all due respect to Mark Hunter — a talented vocalist, extraordinary Tweeter, and Chimaira’s lone original member — this footage of three new[ish] members of Chimaira rehearsing together is about as exciting as this story’s headline makes it sound. While some would say this is “rehearsal” footage, it’d probably be a lot more accurate to call it “learning” footage. It looks like Daath’s Emil Werstler — Chimaira’s senior-most member with a 10-month silver coin – is running the show here and teaching the two new guys how to play Chimaira songs. These guys are all talented musicians and I’m sure the finished product will sound great, but at what point in the mass exodus of members does a band stop being that band? Watching a bunch of men in different bands learn songs so they can go up on stage and pretend to be some other band is just weird! On the other hand, if some kid who knows nothing of all the member swaps goes to a show and loves it, does it even matter? Does life even matter?? Aren’t we all gonna die eventually anyway?!?!?

Maybe Hunter is trying to go the Chris Barnes route; shit, Barnes has been doing it for years and Six Feet Under are still going strong… so I guess fans really don’t care. Speaking of Six Feet Under, former members of Chimaira just wrapped up their Six Feet Under cover band recording sessions and are currently in the mixing process! Now the former members of Six Feet Under just need to join up with Eyal Levi in a reconsituted version of Daath and this three-band circle jerk will be complete.

-VN

So it looks like Chimaira kept pretty busy while we were away.

First: as announced in November, last week’s twelfth annual Chimaira Christmas marked the band’s final performance with guitarists Rob Arnold and Matt DeVries. And, unfortunately, DeVries’ parting gift to vocalist Mark Hunter – who is now the band’s sole remaining original member — was to knock him over in the middle of “The Age of Hell,” resulting in Hunter taking a nasty spill and spraining his ankle. You can watch video of the incident below courtesy of The PRP (the fall comes just after the 1:18 mark), and see a photo of Hunter’s swollen ankle here.

Potentially better news is that while Hunter had thus far remained mum on his plans for Chimaira’s future, the band has since announced replacements for Arnold and DeVries.

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UPDATED:

I admit, I was lukewarm on The Contortionist at first. It took me spending three days on tour with them, Periphery, Textures and Stray From the Path this past fall to convince me that they weren’t just another BTBAM clone or run-of-the-mill Sumeriancore band. But now I’m a believer. The Contortionist are a dern talented bunch of young individuals; if these guys can harness that talent and focus, really focus, I believe they can write an album that’s truly unique and takes the metal world by surprise. Exoplanet was good, but it wasn’t that album.

The Contortionist will take another shot at greatness this coming winter; according to a recent interview with Guitar World, they’re currently writing a new album, plan to record it at Audiohammer Studios with Jason Suecof and Eyal Levi in February, and are eyeing a spring or summer 2012 release via Good Fight Entertainment. Suecof and Levi are some of the best in the biz, so if anyone can get the best performances and songs out of these dudes, it’s them. I look forward to seeing what they can come up with.

ORIGINAL POST:

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Eyal Levi from Dååth, Levi/Werstler, and Audiohammer Studios has obviously been in this business for some time now, and he’s learned a thing or two about a thing or two. This week, he imparts ten lessons about the music biz — and life in general — to you, our beloved readers, once a day, two installments at a time. You can read lessons one and two here, and lessons three and four here, lessons five and six here, and lessons seven and eight here; check out the final two lessons below!

#9: IF YOU’RE NOT GOING TO SETTLE IT YOURSELF, LET IT GO

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxKiK-SeBhE&feature=related

I am wholeheartedly against turning the other cheek. That’s my disclaimer before I get into this. I’m a big proponent of the Nicky from Casino way of life. Two eyes for an eye all the way. There’s a wild card, though. And it’s a wild card we all know and love. It’s called the internet. Gone are the days when you could just settle a beef between just the two parties involved.

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Eyal Levi from Dååth, Levi/Werstler, and Audiohammer Studios has obviously been in this business for some time now, and he’s learned a thing or two about a thing or two. This week, he imparts ten lessons about the music biz — and life in general — to you, our beloved readers, once a day, two installments at a time. You can read the week’s first two lessons here, and the week’s next two lessons here, and the week’s most recent two lessons here; check out lesson numbers seven and eight below!

#7: WEEKENDS? THERE’S NO SUCH THING

If you’re fortunate enough to get to a point in your life where you can actually support yourself from a creative endeavor, then be prepared to throw away all notions of having a normal life. Now ,I know that there’s no such thing as “normal,” and that everyone is an individual, but hear me out on what I mean by that.

Weekends are for resting and partying; weekdays are for working. That’s a normal concept, which fits in with the archetypical 9-5 jobs. It’s perfectly setup for ensuring that you can hold down a social/family life while working at the same time. And, for the majority of the world, it works. There’s a good structure to it. I can see how it would get repetitive and old, but at least you know what to look forward to. And at least you can get things done without too much hassle, because the rest of the world is set up to cater to your schedule.

In the land of creative jobs, good luck with that idea. More often than not, you will find yourself working all hours of the night, for weeks, or even months, on end. If you take breaks like the rest of the world, then you will be left behind.

Click to read more…

Eyal Levi from Dååth, Levi/Werstler, and Audiohammer Studios has obviously been in this business for some time now, and he’s learned a thing or two about a thing or two. This week, he imparts ten lessons about the music biz — and life in general — to you, our beloved readers, once a day, two installments at a time. You can read the week’s first two lessons here, and the week’s next two lessons here; check out lesson numbers three and four below!

#5: EVERYTHING GETS OLD

My favorite dickhead line about dating is, “Show me a super hot girl, and I’ll show you the guy that’s tired of fucking her.” Other variations include “…tired of putting up with her” or “…tired of dealing with her shit.” Any way you say it, the point is that no matter how great something is at one point in your life, you will eventually need something else that’s bigger and better  (i.e., The Next Step). In my opinion, it’s the same phenomenon as when your brain stops registering physical stimulus if you repeat it enough (try scratching an itch for too long to see what I mean). Anything you do long enough without variation will not get you going anymore. Mark Lewis and I even have some theories about how this relates to sound and mixing. But that’s another article…

Is there anything that’s now normal to you which once was just a fantasy? Look at your life. Is there anything you have now that at one point was just a dream? Is there anything you can do now that you couldn’t even imagine doing at one point in time? I’m sure there is. Big or small, I’m sure there is at least one thing in each of your lives that fits the bill. Again, is there anything in your life right now that you almost or do take for granted which you would have killed for in the past?

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Eyal Levi from Dååth, Levi/Werstler, and Audiohammer Studios has obviously been in this business for some time now, and he’s learned a thing or two about a thing or two. This week, he imparts ten lessons about the music biz — and life in general — to you, our beloved readers, once a day, two installments at a time. You can read the week’s first two lessons here; check out lesson numbers three and four below!

#3: BE UNDENIABLE

I first saw Behemoth live when they toured with Suffocation sometime around 2004. I had only heard of them before that. Needless to say, this band blew me away. The sound was shit, as it always is at that club in Atlanta, but that didn’t matter. They came on stage and OWNED. I was captivated from start to finish of the set. And then I bought a shirt. That is such a rare occurrence that I remember it to this day. For me to go buy a shirt after seeing and hearing a band for the first time is not quite on the level of Haley’s Comet… but in the span of my own meaningless existence, it’s pretty remarkable. Anyways, Behemoth is now an institution in extreme music.

I remember the first time I saw Opeth on the Blackwater Park tour. I had kind of gotten into their music prior to that, but had not solidified my opinion on the band yet. When they finally played, I got this amazing feeling, as though I was watching something historical and religious go down. I had never seen or heard a band produce sounds and transitions and emotions that were so right and so on. I felt like people must have felt when they were first seeing the early metal bands in the 1970’s. I’m not exaggerating one bit. I was completely humbled and a fan for life. Obviously, the rest of the metal world eventually caught on.

Anyone here seen Muse live? I’m a sucker for great musicianship and songwriting, and Muse definitely have an ample amount of both. But that didn’t drive my loyalty towards them until I saw them live. Their show is easily one of the most incredible rock shows ever put on by any band ever ever EVER! To try and describe it will not do it justice. Just go see them. I saw them first in 2005, when they were playing small theaters. They are now headlining arenas. I guess enough people couldn’t deny their power.

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Eyal Levi from Dååth, Levi/Werstler, and Audiohammer Studios has obviously been in this business for some time now, and he’s learned a thing or two about a thing or two. This week, he imparts ten lessons about the music biz — and life in general — to you, our beloved readers, once a day, two installments at a time. Enjoy the week’s first two lessons below!

#1: (C+P = R) BEING SUCCESSFUL TAKES TALENT, JUST NOT AT WHAT YOU THOUGHT 

Someone just told me that Thomas Edison didn’t actually invent the light bulb. I was told that he just registered the patent to it. True or not, he definitely got the credit for it. And with that credit he certainly got the rewards as though it were true. It’s also well known that Christopher Columbus didn’t discover America first. However, what we’re taught in the early years of American education doesn’t exactly support that fact. Even though he wasn’t the first, he was the one that got the credit for being first. Just remember the following equation: C+P = R. That stands for Credit + Perception = Rewards.

In an ideal world, success in any field (I know music) would be based on skill, talent, and hard work. We don’t live in an ideal world. If we lived in an ideal world, lots of things we’re used to would be different.

In the world we live in, creative talent is second to marketing talent.  When you have a product that is going to take money out of people’s pockets, that product, whatever it is, has to be worth them parting ways with their cash. And everybody has different reasons for being willing to part with that cash. If you can tap into people’s reason for spending their money, then you will sell more product. Being able to access that part of people’s hearts and minds is a completely different process than the creative one. Yes, marketing and promotion can be creative, but it’s a completely DIFFERENT type of skill set than the creativity required to actually create something out of thin air. And it’s arguably a more important skill set.

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Friendly reminder: as of RIGHT THIS SECOND, the legendary Richard Christy from Death, Iced Earth, Control Denied, and, oh yeah, The Howard Stern Show, is at the MetalSucks/Vertebrae 33  booth at New York Comic Con signing copies of Charred Walls of the Damned‘s ridiculously rocking new album, Cold Winds on Timeless Days, which is out NOW on Metal Blade Records. He’ll be there ’til 7 pm, so there’s still time for you to hop on a bus, subway, or in a cab and get your ass down there — we’re booth #2625. Myself and/or Vince are also there now, and will be there tomorrow and Sunday, too, and we may have some other special guests in store for you yet. So come on by, pick up some free swag courtesy of Indie Merch and Metal Blade, hang out, whatever. It’ll be a blast! Get all the details here.

And now, some other fun shit we did this week:

• We premiered a new live recording of Death’s “Leprosy” and new music from Trapped Under Ice.
• We spoke to Grutle Kjellson from Enslaved, Rex Brown from Kill Devil Hill/Pantera/Down, producer Shane Frisby, and Skateboard Marketing’s Munsey Ricci.
• Valient Thorr’s Valient Himself occupied Wall Street, GWAR’s Dave Brockie gave us the blow-by-blow on the NFL, and Eyal Levi from Dååth and Levi/Werstler and Audiohammer Studios got all Pacino-in-Heat on us.
• We checked out the latest releases from Warbringer and Årabrot.
• We continued The Countdown to The Metal Suckfest and launched a contest in which you can win some sweet swag and a meet and greet session at the show.
• We watched some inter-Emmure drama unfold.
• We begged Sasha Frere-Jones from The New Yorker to stop writing about metal forever.
• We enjoyed the use of Nine Inch Nails in the new trailer for The Avengers.
• We got excited about Cynic’s new line-up + song.
• We celebrated the best Dragonforce cover ever.

Have a terrific, relaxing weekend everyone. See ya Monday, if we don’t see ya at NYCC!

-AR

Happy birthday, Reign in Blood! We love you. You don’t sound a day over one.

Here’s some other things that happened this week which are worth celebrating:

• We started the countdown to The Metal Suckfest.
• We debuted new music by Immolation and a new video by Early Graves.
• Devin Townsend and Textures’ Jochem Jacobs and Bart Hennephof took us through their live rigs.
• GWAR’s David Brockie discussed the NFL, Daath’s Eyal Levi discussed getting the fuck out, and God Forbid’s Doc Coyle discussed how the times, they are a changin’.
• We spoke to Mike Muir from Suicidal Tendencies, Mother of Mercy’s Bob Wilson, and directors Sean Dunne and Kenneth Thomas.
• We checked out new releases by Ghoul and Taake and Craft.
• Sergeant D. became the most popular feminist in metal.
• Bring Me the Horizon’s Oli Sykes had a bad week.
• We mourned the death of the album intro track.
• We wondered if Mastodon’s live vocals are getting better.

Now go crank some Slayer.

See ya Monday.

-AR

Have you ever stayed in a situation when you knew deep down inside that it was already doomed? I believe in the power of positive thinking a rational amount. That is, if I keep my mind focused on the right shit, the right shit happens in my life. If I focus on the wrong shit, the wrong shit happens. Either way, shit happens, but at least it’s the right shit. Or closer to right than it would have been otherwise. You definitely have some measure of control over some of the outcomes in your life.

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Isn’t waiting when you’re ready one of the most frustrating things ever? “Hurry up and wait” is a very familiar cliché in the music industry. Well, from years of touring and recording, I can say that it’s one of those clichés that’s based on some truth. When you are so focused and ready to do something that inactivity fills you with anxiety and fucks up your mood, then you can’t take advantage of everything you could be spending that extra energy on. There is enough to do in life that you could fill your time with productive, useful, and engaging things rather than sitting around rotting.

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All people are not created equal; anybody who thinks so is kidding themselves. Sure, we all deserve equal rights and yada yada yada, but to think that we’re all born with equal intelligence, talent, drive, temperament, etc., is borderline delusional. If we were truly equal, than each of our ultimate impacts on the world and society would be pretty much the same across the board — give or take. But guess what? Because we AREN’T equal, certain people’s contributions to the world will outshine the contributions of others.

I think that is very hard for some people to accept. Pride can be a nasty mental state that will often cloud perception. To really contemplate that someone else’s life, and thus death, may affect multitudes more people than your own can be a tough pill to swallow. I’m not saying that anyone has more of a right to life than anyone else, I’m just saying that some people’s lives will affect the entire world, while others will be lucky to affect the thirty cats they own.  I guarantee you that only one of these obituaries would make it onto the news (unless, perhaps, the latter deceased person sexually abused the thirty cats and then ate their corpses).

These thoughts were stirred up by two of the major news events that took place recently: the untimely death of Amy Winehouse and the horrific bombing and massacre in Norway. Both were terrible for two completely different reasons; one- – fame nor fortune can cure a damaged mind, and two — people are capable of heinous acts in the name of ideology. Both these lessons are universal. History can almost be seen as a fugue between these two themes — they are deeply rooted in who we are as humans. Our beliefs about the world and ourselves can be be incredibly destructive on a physical and/or mental level if not kept in check.

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In a lot of ways, Francis Ford Coppola is to cinema as Metallica are to metal. He directed four incredible movies (the first two Godfather films, The Conversation, and Apocalypse Now), all of which still hold up as examples of the craft at its finest, and then he devolved into self-parody. (The Godfather: Part III is pretty much his version of “The Unforgiven IV,” and if you don’t remember Jack, consider yourself lucky.) He basically sired one of Hollywood’s royal families (His children, Sofia and Roman, are also film directors, and his nephew is Nicolas Cage, who changed his last name in an effort to achieve success based on his own merits), and these days, Coppola makes his money via his winery (I’ve had some of his wines, they’re actually quite good!), and then self-funds small, personal art films, like 2007′s Youth Without Youth and 2009′s Tetro. These movies generally open to middling reviews and are seen by an audience of about ten people, but it doesn’t really matter, because Coppola is doing what he wants and he seems happy.

Why am I rambling on about this dude? Because he recently gave an interview to The 99 Percent in which he basically advocates illegal downloading, and the concept of the artist as an unpaid worker:

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I’m sad to say that Eyal wasn’t able to do a new “Jumping Darkness Parade” this week — but cut the dude some slack, he’s currently on tour in Europe!

So to make sure you get your Levi fix this week, I thought that now would be an ideal time to post the below live footage of Daath performing at the Crocodile Rock in Allentown, PA last weekend, as part of the band’s recent tour with Chimaira, Impending Doom, and This or The Apocalypse. It starts with a drum solo from the always-excellent Kevin Talley, and the goes into “Double Tap Suicide,” one my favorite songs from the band’s new, self-titled album. I haven’t had a chance to see the band perform any of the new shit live yet, so this video made my day.

If you’re one of our European readers, Daath’s current tour with Fear Factory and High on Fire continues through December 20. That’s a great fuckin’ bill, ain’t it? Get dates here.

-AR

[via Metal Injection]

So last night’s question was tricky — so tricky, in fact, that only one person got it right! Necro’s real name is Ron Braunstein, and, yep, he’s Jewish. And despite his name, Darkest Hour’s Mike “Lonestar” Carrigan is, indeed, half-Jewish. I was caught off-guard when I saw Igor Cavalera included in this article at The Gauntlet (where a picture of From Exile’s Eric Guenther, who is not Jewish, is used for the entry on Daath’s Eyal Levi, who is… but I digress), but some research unearthed that fact that the former Sepultura drummer apparently converted when he got married. His brother Max also married a Jew, although I don’t think he converted. In any case, that just leaves Poison’s C.C. DeVille.

I understand why people would think that C.C. DeVille (né Bruce Johannesson) is Jewish, given that he’s loud, from Brooklyn, and has a big schnozz — hell, I used to assume that he was Jewish — but, alas, he’s not. So mazel tov to reader Joe Caperon, the only entrant who correctly answered the question. Joe wins a mystery prize courtesy of Century Media, and a dreidel, courtesy of us. Go Joe!

Here’s the question for night three:

• What is the name of infamous metal-themed music retailer in Tel Aviv?

E-mail your answer to axl [at] metalsucks.net with the phrase “HEAVY METAL HANNUKKAH – NIGHT 2″ in the subject line. All entries should include your name and mailing address in addition to your answer, and are due by 5 pm tomorrow (Saturday, December 4) evening. Shortly thereafter we’ll announce the winner and post night 4’s trivia question. And while you don’t have to be Jewish to enter the contest, you do have to live in the U.S. We need to conserve moolah to get all the MetalSucks Mansion Monkeys their Hanukkah gifts!!!

-AR

We’re shuttering the Mansion gates early today for tomorrow’s Thanksgiving holiday, ’cause let’s face it: you’ve all gone home already and have long since put up your “I am out of the office. If it’s urgent, call my cell phone” auto-responders. Please, people: no one cares about you. Get over it!

Here’s what happened in this abbreviated week while might or might not have been checking your Blackberries:

• Two bears reviewed Daath’s new record and called us faggots.
• Haste the Day decided to hang it up, as did Chimaira’s Jim LaMarca.
• Two Greeks showed us the only proper way to react to a brass band busking on the street.
• All of J.S. Bach’s organ works are available for free download; know your metal forefathers, son!
• Revocation’s Dave Davidson kept us up to date with the latest shenanigans to befall The Legacy Tour with Darkest Hour, Veil of Maya and Periphery, while Daath’s Eyal Levi thinks the picture looks bleak for today’s unsigned metal bands hoping to make it big.
• Are there single songs you like by bands you otherwise abhor?
• Crowbar released a new jam!
• Bob Cock spoke with Slough Feg’s Mike Scalzi.
• We Contaminated our Cooking by making baked mac and cheese and collard greens with Woe’s Chris Griggs.

We’ll be stuffing our faces full of food and booze tomorrow and recovering all day Friday. See ya Monday!

-VN

Newsflash: You’re not going to get signed and become a rock star. Fucking get over that dream. I know I’ve talked about this before, and here I am talking about it again. You see, DAATH just went out on tour again, and once again, we’re getting demos and pressure to hand them over to our A&R guys and hook people up with their dreams. Once again, we’re seeing decent people of all talent levels that are  just plain misguided. Maybe they don’t want to accept what’s going on right now? Maybe they just are not aware.

Either way, while the people running the show are trying to get out of a huge bind and keep their lights on, there’s still many people trying to get into the game with starry eyes and puckered assholes. The saddest part is they have no idea the game may not exist in this form for very much longer. This is a PSA to all bands who think that anybody in the music industry that’s isn’t on the highest of levels can do anything for your career: Kill that idea. It’s doing you more harm than good.

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Why am I writing this week’s “Worst Week” entirely in questions? Could it be to irritate you? Or am I just trying to keep myself amused at the end of the week?

Did you know we asked some other questions this week?

• Was Sergeant D. kidding when he said that there are only two good songs in Reign in Blood?
• Why did Dimmu Borgir change their album art post-release?
• What’s the big deal about Volbeat?
• Is Glenn Danzig actually perfectly reasonable?
• Is there anything better than a Devin Townsend show?
• Can Ozzy restore your sanity?

And have you asked yourself these questions as well?

• Did you know that we debuted new music by The Ocean, Dukatalon, and Gozu?
• Did you read Anso’s chat with Dave Wyndorf from Monster Magnet?
• Is Oderus’ advice column worse than Vinnie Paul’s? Do you agree with Doc Coyle’s assessments on the issue of European metal versus American metal? Do you find, as Eyal Levi does, that creative prison is for pussies? Is Greg Weeks imagining it, or does it smell like poop and onions right now?
• Did you buy the new album from Dallas Coyle’s Genetic? You know the money goes to cancer research, right?

Are you worried that I’ll still be doing this on Monday? Do you think I care?

-AR

I’ll admit, I had some writer’s block coming into this blog. Sometimes it’s hard to think of what to write. I’ve been racking my brain for a few days now with the burning question… “What will I write about next time?” Good fucking question, and I really don’t have an answer in sight. So I’ve decided that I’m just going to write about not knowing what to write.

Writer’s block is an interesting thing. It’s kinda like having mental constipation. You know the ideas are in there. You know the ideas want to come out. But something is just clogging the passageway. I guess the only way to get the ideas to bubble forward is to move some shit around. So I’m doing that by exploring this topic, which by the way, is one that many people write to me about.

I think my strongest suite as a musician is in composition. I’m a much better writer than I am a player. To me, that’s where it’s at. Sit me down for a year and I’ll write you a few records. It’s what I do. and I’m used to getting questions like, “How do you come up with ideas like…?” or “How did you learn how to write so much?”, etc. Well, I guess my overarching answer to all “how to” writing questions is this — “JUST FUCKING DO IT!”

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