MetalSucks

This coming Monday the entire MetalSucks staff will each release Top 10 lists for the entire year in metal of 2008. Get psyched! Things have been slowing down here at the MS Mansion as the holidays approach, but we still found ways to keep it fun this week:

• Axl Rose finally did some press to support Chinese Democracy… but as usual, there’s an asterisk.
• We debuted a new, exclusive Daath track — a medley of Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel and Dying Fetus covers.
• We interviewed members of Clutch, Bison B.C., Dir En Grey, and Fear Factory / Arkaea.
• Job For a Cowboy’s Jonny Davy blogged about urination and hotel trashing, while Darkest Hour’s Mike Schleibaum’s guest blog claimed that Entombed’s Uprising and Morning Star are two of the most underrated albums of all time. Oh, and The Haunted’s Peter Dolving blogged about sleep.
• Gojira’s Joe Duplantier orders you to stop the killing of baby seals but apparently has no problem with ripping New York City a new arsehole.
• Meshuggah + Cynic + The Faceless = The Erection Tour of 2009.
• The metal industry lost a kindred soul. R.I.P. Adrian Bromley.

When a press release landed in the MetalSucks inbox a couple of months ago announcing that Fear Factory guitarist (and former bassist) Christian Olde Wolbers had released a signature Randall amplifier head and was currently booking interviews, I got to thinking. Could I possibly land an interview with Wolbers — who also happens to be a talented producer who worked on the recent Threat Signal record and tracked vocals for the new God Forbid album Earthsblood — ask him the one obligatory amplifier question, and then proceed to ask him questions about Fear Factory, producing, and his new band Arkaea? Yes, yes I could. And so I did. Our conversation, after the jump.

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Due to circumstances beyond our control / due to an unexpected situation / due to unforseen problems, Fear Factory vocalist Burton C. Bell’s ambient/experimental band Ascension of the Watchers has been forced to cancel their European tour. Oh, wait… what’s that, the band actually gave a concrete reason for their cancellation? From the AOtW MySpace blog:

My dear friends, it is with great sadness that I inform all of you that the Ascension of The Watchers tour that was scheduled for November 27 – December 14 had to be cancelled due to the lack of ticket pre-sales.

In these troubling economic times, the risk of the tour failing was far too great for all parties involved. After much consideration, canceling the tour for this season was the best course of action.

Well paint my neck red and call me John McCain; Burton Bell actually manned up and told the truth! That’s a good reason indeed for a tour cancellation. Now excuse me, I’ve got more press releases to read containing vague and nebulous reasons for tour cancellations.

-VN

PS: AOtW’s Numinosum was a pretty good album; read my review here, and then check out my interview with Burton.

But this band sure did know how to rip shit up live. It’s a slow news day. Here’s Fear Factory playing “Zero Signal” live in ‘98.

-VN

According to a recent post on SMNnews.com, ex-Darkest Hour guitarist Kris Norris will now be pursuing a career in producing in addition to putting out his recently completed solo album. While we certainly wish him all the best, the realist in me is privy to think that Norris’ career arc as a producer will closely follow that of Peter Wichers’, who left Soilwork in ‘05 in favor of the producer’s chair only to rejoin Soilwork last month. Not that it can’t be done — Fear Factory’s Christian Olde Wolbers is someone who comes to mind as an example of a metal musician who’s made the successful switch — it’s just that the paycheck ain’t as reliable as the perpetual cycle of touring, merch and album advances (then again, Darkest Hour are on Victory Records, so all bets are off in the advances department). And it certainly isn’t as much fun!

The idealist in me, however, really hopes Norris succeeds, not just because of the warmth in our collective hearts but because ex-At All Cost guitarist and friend of MetalSucks Michael Carrigan (ex-Throeald) has been tapped as Norris’ replacement in DH, and that motherfucker is a sick guitarist deserving of his call up to the big leagues.

-VN

I know we’re a bit late on this, but this is just the kind of low-brow, tabloid shit we thrive on and I just can’t resist! Adding fuel to the fire that has been the ongoing feud between Dino Cazares (ex-Fear Factory) and now ex-Divine Heresy singer Tommy “Vext” Cummings (now in the recently reunited Snot), Cummings apparently attacked Dino and has wife backstage at the Rockstar Mayhem Fest this past weekend. According to the MySpace blog of Mrs. Cazares: [sent in to us by Noah Skape, among other readers]:

Last night @ The Metal Mayhem Festival, Having a great time with awesome friends backstage. Out of no where comes a beer and fist straight to my face (so horrifying and painful) that…..somebody (Tommy Vext). He has my husband by the hair (it all was so sudden) next thing you know the live nation guards pushed us all over stopping everything and it took several guards to take Tommy down, they took him down and he hit his head on the ground cutting his head open, and even then he was still pulling my husband’s hair, and not letting go.

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According to the “status” post on Fear Factory’s MySpace, the band will have a “New Album and World Tour in 2009!”

I guess this was inevitable, despite Burton C. Bell’s claims when we interviewed him a few months back that he doesn’t even like metal. Whatwith the Divine Heresy soap opera, the relative failure (commercially) of Bell’s Ascension of the Watchers, the rest of the dudes doing God knows what, and reports of Burton and Dino kissing and making nice at a show in LA a few weeks ago (I can’t find the source, but I remember reading that they chatted), the time seems ripe for an FF reunion.* I’d think there will be plenty of interest too, judging by the fervency of Fear Factory fans who comment on our site.

-VN

*After I published this article, Axl pointed out to me that this news does not necessarily mean that Dino is back in the band. Good point.

A few weeks ago I was offered the opportunity to sit down and talk with Ascension of Watchers and ex-Fear Factory frontman Burton C. Bell, a chance I jumped at right away. Bell was quite the gentleman, sitting through a long interview and answering my questions about the new Ascension of the Watchers album Numinosum (read my review here), his past career with Fear Factory, working with Al Jourgensen of Ministry, and a whole lot of other topics. The full chat transcript, after the jump.*

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It’s been a rough, rough week for the fellas of Divine Heresy. First, as Axl reported on Tuesday, there was an altercation over the weekend at the band’s show in Poughkeepsie, NY the night before New England Metalfest, in which a shoving match ensued on-stage between vocalist Tommy “Vext” Cummings and guitarist Dino Cazares. Iann Robinson of None Louder reported:

“From what was being spread around the monitors were out and vocalist Tommy Vext couldn’t hear himself. After eight songs and fearing his voice might blow Vext requested the band cut the set short. Ex-Fear Factory member Dino Cazares shoved Vext and a physical altercation ensued. As far as we know the band is no more but that could change.”

The band subsequently canceled their appearance at Metalfest. Yesterday Cazares issued a statement through Headbanger’s Blog about the fight:

“He gave us 10 different reasons why we should stop — ‘My microphone doesn’t work, I got diarrhea, the monitors are f–ked up’ — whatever he could think of… And we decided that’s not fair to the fans. We wanted to give them a full show. We felt that he wanted to end the show early to go hang out at the New England Metal Fest, which we were supposed to be performing at the next day.”

Cazares also announced Cummings’ dismissal from the band and that the band was holding auditions for a new singer. The most recent twist is a video response from Tommy himself through Metal Injection. In the 8:45 minute exposition, Cummings explains the situation with the monitors, the altercation, and had this nugget to say:

“I’ve been suffering the indignities of Dino’s massive ego for as long as I’ve worked with him, and unfortunately everything I’ve heard about him had eventually come to fruition, and he is exactly as he’s been portrayed as by his ex-band members. And this happening now is the same reason why he’s not in Fear Factory anymore. It was a stepping stone in my life and I’m moving on.”

Soap opera time! It’s funny how years ago this would have all taken place through the press over a series of weeks or months, but now it happens in a matter of days with the wonders of the Interwebs. He goes on to say “It was the Dino Cazares show” and that he verbally and physically pushed members of the band around.

Watch Tommy’s full video response after the jump.

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The latest Blabbermouth [via Rock N Roll Experience] news sure to cause an uproar: Burton Bell just gave an interview where he calls Deftones front man Chino Moreno “a dick,” Slipknot’s Joey Jordison a “sloppy” drummer, and asserts that the last few Ozzy albums have been full of “shitty music.”

And, hey, you know what? Horns up to Bell for being honest. Because while I don’t think Jordison is a sloppy drummer and I don’t know Chino well enough to classify him as a dick or otherwise, but Ozzy certainly has been making shitty music for at least three studio albums now. And why the fuck should we fault Bell for speaking his mind? It’s better than the usual being diplomatic bull crap.

Ironically enough, the last time I remember someone this prominent in the metal world really speaking out like this was Chino’s infamous Revolver interview in the summer of ‘03, when he slagged every band he was about to hit the road with for that year’s Summer Sanitarium tour (including Metallica). What goes around comes around, I s’pose…

-AR

Iann Robinson at None Louder is reporting that Divine Heresy broke-up on stage at this past weekend’s New England Metal & Hardcore Festival:

“From what was being spread around the monitors were out and vocalist Tommy Vext couldn’t hear himself. After eight songs and fearing his voice might blow Vext requested the band cut the set short. Ex-Fear Factory member Dino Cazares shoved Vext and a physical altercation ensued. As far as we know the band is no more but that could change.”

There’s been no official statement from the band or their label, and everything looks hunky dory on the band’s MySpace page; still, we consider Robinson a very reliable source, so I’m inclined to believe that this is real.

I’m sure that Fear Factory fans will celebrate this news as evidence that a full-on FF reunion is in the works (especially after Dino was spotted hanging out with Burton C. Bell a few weeks ago). Still, even if Divine Heresy were to break up, I’d hope it would be in a somewhat more amicable manner than this; when we interviewed the band back in November, they seemed like genuinely nice dudes who were really enjoying working together, and for former bouncer/security guard Vext, getting to front Dino’s new band must have seemed like winning the lottery.

Divine Heresy are suppposed to kick off their next U.S. tour May 9 in Philly; presumably we’ll get some kind of official word before then.

-AR

Fear Factory singer Burton C. Bell is finally back with a new project, Ascension of the Watchers, along with John Bechdel (Killing Joke, Ministry) and Edu Mussi (Still Life Decay). As other Fear Factory members have gone forth and prospered in the metal world — Dino Cazares with Divine Heresy, and Christian Olde Wolbers in the producer’s chair for Mnemic and Threat Signal — Bell has been relatively quiet in recent years, and has taken a decidedly different path than his former Fear Factory brothers.

Bell’s silence is about to end, relatively speaking, with Numinosum, the debut from Ascension of the Watchers, due February 19. Numinosum is Fear Factory’s ambient alter-ego, with its atmospherics and electronics representing everything Fear Factory was not. Imagine the filler tracks on a Tool album, full of samples, atmospheric keyboards, and whispers. Picture the brooding, dark, tripped-out explorations of the soul that have always made up the majority of Nine Inch Nails’ album tracks. Now imagine those on top of beats reminiscent of a darker, dirtier Portishead — and you should have a pretty good idea of what Numinosum sounds like.

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MetalSucks recently sat down with guitarist Ola Frenning (above, right) of Swedish metal kings Soilwork mere hours before their sold out show at New York City’s Hammerstein Ballroom with Killswitch Engage, Lamb of God and Devildriver. Frenning talks about the tour, the band’s new album Sworn to a Great Divide (read our review), self-producing for the first time, the sudden exit of guitarist and songwriter Peter Wichers from the band, future touring plans and more. Read the full transcript after the jump.

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As the founding guitarist in Fear Factory, Dino Cazares became one of the most influential and important figures in metal in the 90s. By the time FF split up in 2002 (and later re-formed without him), he’d also developed a passionate following for his death/grind side project, Brujeria, and, later, Asesino. Little wonder, then, that such a popular, diverse talent should be hand-picked by Monte Connor to be a “team captain” for the all-star Roadrunner United project in 2005, and his almost surprisingly poppy power ballad, the Matt Heafy sung “The End,” became that album’s first and only single and a surprise hit.

Now the tireless Cazares is back with Divine Heresy, a band that combines the sheer brutality of Brujeria with the more mainstream instincts of Fear Factory. Formed with super drummer Tim Yeung (ex-Hate Eternal, Vital Remains) and featuring newcomer Tommy Vext (né Tommy Cummings) on vocals, the band released their debut album, Bleed the Fifth, earlier this year to critical acclaim. Adding ex-Nile bassist Joe Payne to the fold for their live show, the band has begun the process of bringing the message to the people via tireless touring. Axl and Vince recently sat down with Cazares, Yeung, and, later, Payne to discuss Bleed the Fifth, the baggage of fans’ expectations when coming off such popular previous bands, and DH’s current tour supporting Chimaira alongside Kataklysm and Terror.

Oh, and by the way – Dino told us to use that headline.

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