Last month,  A389 Recordings celebrated their eighth anniversary by inviting a ton of awesome bands — including Eyehategod, Integrity, and Pulling Teeth, playing THEIR LAST SHOW EVER — to come destroy the Sonar in Baltimore. And if that sounds like a blast and you’re suddenly very depressed that you couldn’t be there, well, we have the next best thing for ya — killer pics of the show, courtesy of MetalSucks’ own Alyssa Lorenzon.

After the jump, check out the latest round of Alyssa’s amazing photos — including shots from Pulling Teeth’s final performance ever!!!

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Newt may seemingly have Mitt on the ropes right now, but that’s no reason to hold up your Pit Romney coverage! Here’s the latest update on the hardcore festival season…

After a 2011 announcement that didn’t exactly thrill me, United Blood seems to have rebounded for 2012, if this initial lineup is any indication. Big names like Agnostic Front and Ringworm stand out, as do pleasant surprises like New Lows and Power Trip. I count five bands that were part of the 2011 initial lineup announcement: Backtrack, Bitter End, Fire and Ice, Naysayer, and Stick Together. The rest of the list is rather robust as well: Beware, Break Away, Dead End Path, Free Spirit, Harms Way, Lockdown,Outcrowd, Soul Search, Suburban Scum, Take Offense, Tough Luck, United Youth, Wisdom in Chains, and Xibalba. Weekend passes are on sale here and here, and with March 30-31 as the dates, you probably want to snag those tickets sooner rather than later.

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And now, another installment of the hardcore festival news round-up known as Pit Romney!

Over the weekend, the folks behind Seattle’s Rain Fest made their initial line-up announcement, being the first of the Spring/Summer season’s crop to do so. In addition to performances from 2011 fest alums Losing Skin, Oblivion, Rotting Out, Wisdom In Chains, Wreck, and Xibalba, 2012′s iteration will also boast sets from Backtrack, Clarity, CodeXRed, Cold World, Dead End Path, Earth Control, Expire, FocusedXMinds, Incendiary, Soul Search, Strain, Trapped Under Ice, and Twitching Tongues. So far a solid lineup, though noticeably missing legacy acts or headliners. (Last year’s fest featured 7 Seconds, for example.) Another round of acts will be revealed February 15, at which time the 3-day passes for this May 25-27 event will go on sale.

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If you live near Baltimore and you just can’t wait for Maryland Death Fest, great news: there’s ANOTHER ridiculously cool fest coming to destroy your town next week! Its’s the A389 Recordings VIII Anniversary Bash, and as you can see from the above poster, the line-up is disgusting: Eyehategod and Integrity are co-headlining, while other bands on bill include Gehenna, Pulling Teeth, Magrudergrind, Weekend Nachos, and a ton of other excellent artists.

It’s a very rare occurrence that I wish I lived in Baltimore. This is one of those times.

Tickets are currently on sale here, and if for some reason you don’t know these bands or you’re not sold on the line-up, you can listen to a sweet, sweet A389 Recordings VIII Anniversary Bash playlist at Stereokiller. Heck, you might just wanna listen to it even if you can’t make it to the show, ’cause it’s an awesome playlist.

Finally, you can also go here to get more info on A389 Recordings.

-AR

Eyehategod’s new album, Whiskey Drink, was at one point scheduled to be released this year; that obviously didn’t happen, which is a real bummer. The good news is, the band performed a new song, “Medicine Noose,” at Club Europa in Brooklyn this past Sunday night, and our bro-bros over at Metal Injection were on hand to capture it all on film. So at least you can hear some new Eyehategod, which is obviously way better than no new Eyehategod.

Eyehategod also performed a DIFFERENT new song, the title of which is unknown, way back in February. You can check out footage of that performance right here.

-AR

At this past weekend’s FunFunFunFest in Austin, Texas, a heavy metal behemoth slayed all comers as far as garnering the positive headlines. No, I’m not talking about thrash legends Slayer, who closed out the fest with a brilliant set (review forthcoming) that made their Big 4 NY appearance look tame by comparison. I’m definitely not talking about The Artist Formerly Known As Mr. Kitty Litter AKA The Artist Now Known For French Onion Soup and A Wendy’s Chicken Sandwich AKA Mr. Glenn Danzig (see recap of his divantics™ here). Nope, I’m talking about Mr. Hollywood Hunk his own bad self, Mr. Ryan Gosling.

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I haven’t a clue how the folks (folk?) at Blot Und Eisen convinced Sigh’s Mirai, Faith No More / Mr. Bungle’s Trey Spruance, Eyehategod’s Michael IX Williams, Agalloch’s John Haughm and Ghoul’s Digestor to submit to the Rorschach aka “ink blot” tests… but there you have it, and the results are fascinating! The Rorschach Test, for those unfamiliar, is “a method of psychiatric evaluation created by Hermann Rorschach in 1921. Psychologists use the test to examine the personalities of their patients.”

Here are just a couple of samples:

Spruance: “An orthodox church.”
Haughm: “The sky…as seen from inside a shallow grave.”
Digestor: “Hard to clean mess.”

Williams: “Beard of a sideshow pharmacist on display in East Cambodia.”
Mirai: “Two Rabbits In The Bush.”
Haughm: “Two siamese twin elephant embryos trying to escape each other.

Me, I just see a bunch of vaginas. I won’t ruin the rest for you; check it out at Blot Und Eisen.

-VN

Interview with Jimmy Bower about Down… by HecticCase

I don’t think this news is gonna come as a galloping shock to anyone, but at least now it’s official after nearly two months of speculation: Rex Brown will not be returning to Down. Drummer Jimmy Bower, also of the great Eyehategod (among other bands), confirmed it in a recent video interview with Metalchroniques.fr (above). Here’s his quote:

“We just wish him to find peace within himself and be healthy, and we weren’t seeing that for Down. We have Pat [Bruders] now. Pat’s playing bass. Pat’s from New Orleans. Makes sense. He plays with Crowbar as well.

“We love Rex to death, man, and wish him the best. He has a new project as well — Kill Devil Hill with Vinny Appice— and I know he’s having fun doing that. He gave Pat his blessing, so it was on a good term. But he will not be back.”

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I met Mike IX Williams, the legendary vocalist for EyeHateGod/Arson Anthem/Drip/Crawlspace/Outlaw Order and author, last year at Philip Anselmo’s hidden home somewhere deep in the woods of Louisiana. I’ve gotten to know the man more this year as we have spent some time together in Fort Worth and Austin while on the road with Arson Anthem. I asked Mike if he would like to share his thoughts with the MetalSucks readers. He eagerly and graciously complied. – CM

Okay, so you’ve been slaving away in the piss hot steaming garage, or alternately, an ice cold freezing cement basement tomb, writing and playing extreme music with various people of dubious degree, quality and background. The torn carpeted walls smell of stale booze, melted wax and illegal left handed cigarettes and the old bass player vomited behind his Peavy cabinet two months before you kicked him out and its still not cleaned up. The new bassist is a fat stinking bastard who probably has head lice but definitely has bad breath and an alcohol problem but comes in handy because he plays like a cross between Tom Araya and Geezer Butler.

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Trying to keep up with the changes at a music festival is like trying to herd a pack of rabid cats. The South by Southwest (SXSW) Music Festival is the biggest musical kitty corral of them all. That’s why you have me here to help you make heads or tails of all your SXSW metallic/hard rock/punk rock/experimental/etc. needs.

There have been plenty of line-up changes since my last SXSW music post over a week ago. First on the list is the welcome news that NOLA-sludgekings eyehategod will team up with doom metal pioneers Pentagram to close out the conference on Saturday, March 19 (both bands will be going on after midnight, so, technically, they are playing on March 20) at the Scoot Inn. They’ll be joined by a stellar group of bands including Cough and Naam.

Other notable additions include YOB, Slough Feg, and Zoroaster.

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Eyehategod — one of the filthiest, scummiest, most legitimately and awesomely fucked-up bands to ever walk the earth — played the Sonar in Baltimore, MD last Thursday night, and MetalSucks’ own Queen of Photography, Alyssa Lorenzon, was there to capture the madness. These pictures are so intimate you can practically smell the weed on Jimmy Bower’s breath. Check out all of Alyssa’s awesome pics after the jump! And don’t forget that you can watch a video of Eyehategod playing a new song live right here.

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Eyehategod are playing Europa in Brooklyn tonight with Misery Index, Magrudergrind, Strong Intention, and Mutilation Rights; that’s a sweet, sweet line-up, and the last time Eyehategod played Europa, they basically tore the place right the fuck apart. (There’s also something kinda funny about Eyehategod playing a venue that is, quite literally, right next door to a police station.)

Alas, I won’t be there, and I don’t think Vince will, either. But at least we can console ourselves with this footage of the band playing a new song in Philly on Wednesday night. And it sounds quite Eyehategod-like. The band is supposed to have a new album, called Whiskey Drink, out later this year, and this bodes well for it being appropriately scummy. Check it out…

-AR

[via Metal Injection]

I have been to practically every South by Southwest Music Festival (SXSW) since the second one way back in the ’80s. I love the atmosphere of the conference, from its much smaller and humbler days back then, to its over-blown monstrous corporate whoredom current-filled state. But as I have noted here in the past, SXSW has almost always been severely lacking in official heavy metal-friendly sanctioned showcases. If you ever wanted to get your real metal fix at SXSW, you usually had to depend on the non-sanctioned day parties that are thrown around town concurrently with the festival.

Not this year!

I can honestly say that the organizers of SXSW have finally woken up to the beast that is heavy metal and have gone out of their way to cater to our needs. Kudos! Huzzahs! and Hurrahs! to them.

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Welcome to “Question of the Week,” a (sometimes) weekly debate amongst the MetalSucks staff regarding a recent hot button issue.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, which means we’re taking off early today and won’t be back ’til Monday. We’re sorry to leave non-American readers high n’ dry, but PLUS ONE FOR FREEDOM, MOTHERFUCKERS.

ANYWAY, in honor of the holiday, we decided to do a special Turkey Day-themed QOTW designed to make you feel all warm and cuddly inside:

WHAT (IN METAL) ARE YOU THANKFUL FOR?

The MS staff’s answers after the jump.

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Welcome to “Question of the Week,” a (sometimes) weekly debate amongst the MetalSucks staff regarding a recent hot button issue.

This week, inspired by Axl’s current ailment, we asked our writers:

WHAT IS THE BEST METAL TO LISTEN TO WHEN YOU’RE SICK?

The MS staff’s answers after the jump.

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HOO-RAY! News that isn’t about a band I wish would die!!!

Eyehategod put on one of the most seriously fun shows I went to all year. So I’m glad to see that they’re heading back out on the road starting in late November. I’m not so glad to see that they won’t be coming back east, but dems da breaks, I guess.

If you’ve seen these dudes before, you know good they are live, and if you haven’t, well, for shame. Seriously, get off your ass and go to one of these shows if you can. (I recommend being extra, extra, extra, extra, EXTRA fucked-up for maximum enjoyment. This ain’t straight edge music, ya heard?) Support is gonna come from Phobia, so the gigs should be extra-slimey.

Dates after the jump, courtesy Pure Grain Audio.

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It’s no secret that the music industry is in a shambles, with both profits and revenues at an all time low. With Napster, eDonkey and Audiogalaxy more popular than ever, anybody with a DSL connection can download an album in a matter of hours, often at CD-quality 96 khz. While the unprecedented access that we the fans have to new music is amazing, it comes at a price: the ability for artists to eke out a meager living by making music.

Sure, on the one hand it’s pretty funny to think about, say, the bassist for The Autumn Offering working at his dad’s ravioli factory when they’re not on tour. Admittedly, the contrast between some D-level metalcore band’s onstage persona (“U MIRIN OUR STAGE PRESENCE BRAH?!”) and the sad reality of seeing them try four times to get their 1998 Saturn to turn over in the parking lot after the show is pretty amusing, but this isn’t high school. Music isn’t about who’s making money and who’s 27 years old and still thinks it’s cool to be in a band, it’s about COMMUNITY. To me, the scene is one big family, and I look out for my family members. Whether you are the “fuckup-idiot-with-a-heart-of-gold cousin that everybody feels sorry for” (Eyehategod) or “ridiculously good-looking older brother we r all jealz of” (Oli Sykes/Bring Me The Horizon), if you are family I will always have your back — and family members do not steal from each other!!

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Jon Fine’s best known band was Bitch Magnet, a (usually) three piece active from the late 80s to the early 90s. Though hardly a metal outfit, Fine was a vocal apostle of heavy music in the independent circles the band traveled in, deeply knowledgeable and conversant in obscure, loud shit going back to the early 70s (and earlier). I met Jon at a number of shows in NYC and read a bunch of his enthusiastic and thoughtful posts on the now-dead Chugchanga mailing list and figured he’d have an opinion or twelve on this. Jon also played in Vineland, Coptic Light and even did some time in Don Caballero.
These days Jon pays rent as a media analyst. You can find him on Mediabistro, CNBC and Twitter (where he has about eleven times as many followers as Gary Suarez).

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The MetalSucks co-sponsored Eyehategod trek made its stop in Brooklyn last weekend, and the band absolutely KILLED. You’ve never seen a room full of hipsters and rock journalists go off like that. You’d almost think that the club was full of real fans.

One of the highlights of the evening was EHG’s performance of “Sister Fucker” – not just ’cause the song rocks, but because the stage banter was HI-LAR-IOUS. And luckily for those of you who weren’t there, our pal Rob Pasbani from Metal Injection caught it on video:

You can watch more of Metal Injection’s footage from the show here and here.

And there’s still five dates left on this tour! It’s a raucous good time, so don’t miss it. Get dates here.

-AR

The MetalSucks co-sponsored Eyehategod headlining trek with Nachtmystium, Brutal Truth, and Black Anvil starts tomorrow in Orlando, and as if EHG alone weren’t enough to lure you to a gig, well, this oughta do the trick. Zena Metal – somehow scooping us on news about a tour we’re sponsoring!!! - reports that for $40, you can purchase what is pretty much the best VIP package ever: “a BBQ, soundcheck access, a meet & greet and a limited-edition poster.”

Again, that’s for forty bucks. So for literally hundreds of dollars less than you’d pay for a VIP package to Ozzfest or whatever other big-name tour you’re planning on going to this summer, you can eat (hopefully?) good food, hang out at soundcheck, meet the band, go home with a souvenir, and not be married by some guy you’ve never heard of. Holy shit, that is awesome.

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