Gus G.’s Firewind, one of the like three power metal(ish) bands that I actually like, are gonna release a new album later this year, Few Against Many. Which means they’ve now performed some new tracks live. Which means the performances of those tracks have been filmed on someone’s cell phone. Which means you can check them out right now.

I’ve heard some good early buzz about the currently-being-completed Few Against Many, and these songs certainly pique my interest. Check ‘em out and see what you think:

“Wall of Sound”

Click to read more…

Ever since Jim Malone announced that Arsis would be touring without him — the Dave Mustaine of Megadeth, the Trent Reznor of NIN, etc — we’ve been scratching our heads. Would it be weird? Would it be good? Would it still even be Arsis? If you were to replace all the boards of a ship one at time, would it still be the same ship? If not, at what exact point does it cease to be the same ship?

I saw Arsis Without Arsis open for Firewind in NYC a couple weeks ago, and although the band was ridiculously tight and sounded fantastic it was definitely really fucking weird to watch. I’m sure a few kids there had no idea anything was amiss — perhaps those kids will go on to become huge Arsis fans — but to me it was a strange sight. On a night where Arsis played without Arsis, Firewind were great but played in a venue way too big for them, and the crowd seemed disinterested in Nightrage, White Wizzard — whoever the fuck is in the band this week — were actually the most normal / best thing about the entire night. How crazy is that?

Anyway, here’s Arsis Without Arsis performing a new song called “Sense the Shadows” in St. Paul, Minnesota, earlier this month. Like I said before, really tight, sounds great… just weird to look at.

-VN

Thanks: Fuzzy Dunlop

Regular MetalSucks readers already know Empyreon; featuring Meek is Murder drummer Frank Godla (although it’s worth noting that they sound nothing like Meek is Murder), they’re one of NYC’s finest melodic death metal acts, and were on our free NYC Sucks comp earlier this year. And while we eagerly await their new full-length next year, the band has blessed us with a little taste in the form of a demo of “No Peace No Light,” which you can check out here.

Even in such rough demo song, it’s a prime example of why we love this band so much, and why we’re so stoked for their new full-length. It’s heavy, it’s fast, it’s catchy, and it’s fucking EPIC. Seriously, make sure you check that shit out.

While we continue to wait impatiently for the band’s new album, they’ll be opening next week’s New York stop of the currently-in-progress Firewind/Arsis/White Wizzard/Nightrage tour. We’re giving away two free pairs of tickets here; you can also buy a special ticket package from the band, which includes a copy of the new single and some sweet swag, right here.

-AR

You know him and you love him; Gus G., mastermind and guitarist of Greek metallers Firewind, who also happens to be the newest addition to the band of some guy named Ozzy. We’ve got a Gus G. ESP Gus-200 Signature Series guitar to give away to one lucky MetalSucks reader who comments with our favorite answer to the following question:

What’s your favorite Ozzy guitar solo of all time, and why?

Firewind will be on tour in North America with Arsis, White Wizzard and Nightrage this October. Get a full list of tour dates here.

Note: Seeing Firewind live will not cause actual breaking of fire wind.

Hey, so remember last month when we told you that Firewind were doing a North American headlining tour with support coming from Arsis, White Wizzard, and Nightrage? Well, that tour has an itinerary now, and that itinerary is after the jump. No need to thank me, I get paid to do this.

In all seriousness: Besides a very small handful of dates last fall, this is the first time Firewind has visited this part of the world in quite some time, so I imagine there’s a reasonable amount of you who have never had the chance to see them live before. You should take advantage of this opportunity. Not only is Firewind fun (I don’t even really like power metal and I like Firewind), but this your chance to see Gus G. shred his brains out without an old man frog hopping around the stage and ruining it for everyone.

Also, Arsis! White Wizzard! Nightrage! Okay so I’ve never really been that into Nightrage, but still! Strong line-up.

And so, the tour dates…

Click to read more…

I get kinda bummed when we hafta write about tours with no dates yet, because it seems like kind of a cocktease — what’s the point of getting excited when you don’t even know if the trek is coming to your town yet? — but these two tours both seem pretty noteworthy. And so:

• Avenged Sevenfold will headline this year’s Rockstar Energy Drink Uproar Festival. Sevendust are also on the tour. And I’m going to pretend that that’s the entire line-up. Yep, just A7X and Sevendust. Two of the best modern pop metal bands touring together, with no one else. What a great bill!
• Firewind are FINALLY gonna do a proper North American headlining tour, with Arsis, White Wizzard, and Nightrage in tow. Not only am I stoked that Firewind are actually touring, but I think it’s really cool of them to have a diverse range of acts as their support. I bet these shows will be a lotta fun.

And we’ll post dates for at least one of these tours as soon as we get ‘em.

-AR

It has literally been years since we’ve done a new edition of “Board to Death,” the column in which we make fun of people on internet message boards, because we’re nice people like that. But last night Ozzy Osbourne’s intern made this announcement on the Ozzfest Facebook page…

…and while I can’t for the life of me understand why anyone would care in light of the fact that there’s still The Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival featuring the Jagermeister Mobile Stage, Vans Warped Tour, The Rockstar Energy Drink Uproar Tour, Summer Slaughter, Slaughter Survivors, Slaughter Slaughter, The All Stars Tour, The Cool Tour (actually I don’t think that one is coming back but still), The Old People Doing Glam for the Sake of Nostalgia Tour, The Hellmann’s Dijon Mustard Extreme Grindcore Festival, and eighteen thousand other Ozzfests that aren’t called Ozzfest. But some people do care, and those people left inadvertently hilarious messages under this announcement.

I’m not gonna do screencaps for all of these, nor am I going to identify everyone by their full name, because it’s been seven whole days since someone last threatened to sue us and I’d like to see if we can make it as far as ten days. But obviously it would be very easy for you to just go to the aforementioned Facebook page and see who I’m talking about.

And on that note, here are some of my favorite comments…

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“Embrace the Sun” is my favorite song on the new (most recent I guess) Firewind album, Days of Defiance. It is that rarest of animals: a power metal song I love. “You can’t change the world, but you can change yourself” — that should be on a t-shirt or a bumper sticker or something. That shit is DEEP, man. I’m not being facetious, either — that is one of my favorite lyrics of 2010.

So I’m not going to say anything about shots of dudes staring out pensively at I’m not sure what, or the champagne, or Gus G. sitting on… is it rooftop? Is that a rooftop he’s sitting on?

Whatever. Awesome song. Days of Defiance is out now on Century. You should get it.

-AR

[via Metal Injection]

FEATURING MEMBERS OF FIREWIND, THROUGH THE EYES OF THE DEAD, TESSERACT, BISON B.C., BONDED BY BLOOD, HAARP, THE UNGUIDED, AND ANNEX THEORY

For 2010, we decided to do something special as part of our regular end-of-year festivities here at MetalSucks — namely, ask musicians from across the vast spectrum of the metalsphere (or, in a few cases, the almost-metalsphere) what their favorite albums of the year were. Death metallers, thrash metallers, black metallers, stoners, grinders, and djenters alike graciously contributed lists to MS, and we’ll be running them in groups of ten to eleven musicians at a time twice a day for the rest of the week.

After the jump, check out the second group… we hope you enjoy seeing what some of metal’s heaviest hitters were into this year as much as we have!

(And please note that these are musicians and that they, um, have a lot on their minds. So some of ‘em named albums that actually came out last year. Please don’t freak out.)

Click to read more…

It seems like the number of “Why did you ban me from commenting?!?” e-mails from readers has increased as of late, and the gist of those e-mails is often “Whassa matter, can’t take it when someone tells you you suck?” or whatever. And we’ve never banned anyone for disagreeing with us. We don’t give a shit if you disagree with us. We don’t agree with one another half the time — that’s part of the fun of MetalSucks.

Here’s what really happens: you use a word which is on our “no-no” list, and it gets stuck in our spam filter. Some of these words we actively do not allow on MetalSucks (e.g., slurs against minorities), and some of them just get stuck because so many actual spammers use them (e.g., “rape”). We try to be diligent about checking the spam filters and making sure none of you are getting caught in there, but sometimes we miss a few. And sometimes we ultimately don’t allow the comment onto the site (e.g., “I hate this album, this band is fucking gay” will never survive). But even then, we don’t BAN people from commenting. I think I can count on one hand the number of people we’ve banned in four years, and most of them were spammers and/or former Megadeth guitarists. So if your comment isn’t going through, consider first if you used a word we don’t allow, and if you didn’t, just shoot us a POLITE e-mail and we’ll investigage the problem ASAP. M’kay?

And on that note, here’s what we did this week:

• Darkest Hour’s Mike Schleibaum gave us our latest Legacy Tour diary, Intronaut’s Sacha Dunable worked out his black metal daddy issues, and The Red Chord’s Greg Weeks offered to write a song for any sports team that’s not from New York.
• We spoke to After the Burial’s Trent Hafdahl and American Hardcore author Steven Blush.
• We got the skinny from Darkest Hour’s Ryan Parrish about why DH and Veil of Maya got kicked off their own tour bus, and asked Jucifer’s Amber Valentine about Sean Yseult’s claim to being the only woman in metal during her tenure in White Zombie.
• We checked out the latest release from The Unraveling.
• Sergeant D. schooled us in uber-kvlt metalcore bands.
• We contemplated the worst metal albums of 2010 and the best metal songs of 2010.
• We mourned on the six year anniversary of Dimebag’s murder.
• We celebrated Ozzy Osbourne’s terrific taste in modern metal (he put Korn above Firewind).
• We had mixed feelings about the retirement of Judas Priest.
• We got excited that At the Gates are playing more shows in 2011.

Alrighty then. Next week is our last week of regular posting before we shut down for the holidays. You know what that means – YEAR END LISTS! Get ready to argue like your entire sense of self-worth depended on everyone agreeing with you all the time with no exceptions ever.

-AR

So Yahoo! has Ozzy Osbourne’s personal list of the Top Ten Metal Albums of 2010, and it may or may not surprise you to learn that it’s a really, really interesting mix of terrible and brain dead. (By the way, if you don’t like MetalSucks articles where I can really, really, really angry about something of less than no importance, then you should stop reading now.)

Okay so check out his list, and then I’ll tell you my thoughts. And before we begin, I should point out that it’s theoretically possible Ozzy didn’t actually choose these release, but, rather, than one of his handlers did it for him. But since it’s being labeled as “Ozzy’s list,” I am going to treat it as though it were written by Ozzy.

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Axl tried to explain to me the other night why so many bands moved their release date from today to yesterday, for a rare Monday U.S. release date; something about not wanting to compete with Taylor Swift? Whatever the reason, I don’t understand it and apparently after all that neither does Axl… maybe one of you can clarify.

One of said releases is King’s X’s Love Live in London DVD/CD, which you can order here. I’ve already expressed my enthusiasm for this release, but I just can’t contain my excitement for it: King’s X are just so much fun live and I cannot wait to watch this DVD at home. So while you’re mulling over purchasing the new Daath, Firewind and Kylesa releases this week — ’cause in the end they still all come out this week — add this live DVD/CD combo to the list to make your money-spending decision that much more difficult. Check out the trailer above then dare to claim you’ll be as fit at age 60 as Doug Pinnick is.

-VN

There’s a shitload of new releases out today, including the latest from Daath, Firewind, and Kylesa. Albums are normally released on Tuesdays here in the States, so I don’t know what’s up with this industry-wide one day exception, but there ya have it. You can start your week with some awesome new metal.

One of those releases, Kylesa’s Spiral Shadow, is now streaming in-full here, so you can preview it before you buy it. I’m not gonna weigh in on this one ’cause a) I honestly haven’t had a chance to listen to it and b) my number one homie Sammy O’Hagar is writing a review, and he’s a way bigger Kylesa fan than I am, so he’ll surely be much more insightful with regards to the music than I could ever be.

In the meantime, go here to stream the album and form your own opinion. Then come back and let us know what you think.

And if you live in the NYC area, Kylesa are doing a special surprise (oops, just ruined the surprise!) show tonight at Public Assembly in Brooklyn, alongside the mighty Hull. Should be a good time. Hit it up if you can!

-AR

I know what you’re thinking: “Axl got in a room with Gus G.! He must have asked him all about Ozzy and Scream, right?” Actually, no. When I interviewed Gus G. in August, it was, of course, impossible to forget that he was Ozzy’s guitar player — for one thing, he was in town to do Ozzfest, and for another, he was staying at one of the nicest hotels I’ve ever seen, in a suite bigger than the apartment I grew up in, and I had to fight with paparazzi just to get inside the hotel.

But as you know if you read this site regularly, while I’m thrilled that his gig with Ozzy has gotten him lots of extra attention, I’m not really that interested in Scream, and as I understand it, Gus didn’t really have anything to do with the writing of that album anyway.

So while the topic of Ozzy naturally came up during the course of our conversation, what I really wanted to discuss was Days of Defiance, Firewind‘s absolutely epic new — and arguably best — album yet. And, of course, Gus was only too-happy to oblige me.

After the jump, read what Gus had to say about the creation of Days of Defiance, how he writes his guitar solos, Firewind’s lyrical content, dealing with all the extra attention he’s gotten since joining the Team Ozzy, and more.

Click to read more…

There was something of a tornado here in Brooklyn yesterday, and even if you didn’t see the tornado itself you saw some of the craziest fucking weather ever. I know you folks out in Nebraska are thinking “So what?” but for us something like this happens about as often as an earthquake does for you. Shit was positively epic. Thankfully even the monkeys didn’t get all riled up like the dudes in the above video — although I think I saw Sammy hiding in the bathtub — and business carried on as usual as it did all week:

• We stroked ourselves just a little bit by celebrating our 10,000th post with a list of our top ten favorite posts ever.
• The return of Ask Oderus: You asked Gwar’s frontman your burning questions and he answered them. Also, Eyal wondered what makes a guitarist “great.”
• We premiered new tracks by Titan, Holy Grail, These are They and we premiered the new Firewind video.
• We spoke with Valient Thorr’s Valient Himself.
• Rumpelstiltskin Grinder changed their name to The Devil. Oh wait, no they didn’t.
• We ranked the Top 10 t-shirts worn by High on Fire frontman Matt Pike.
• We looked at new records by Drudkh and Winterfylleth and Skunk Anansie.
• We looked at our favorite new-school Iron Maiden jams and we wondered if Demolisher is the heaviest band on the planet.
• Tomas Haake may or may not have actually commented on my post about some dude covering Meshuggah’s “Bleed” by playing drums on his pillows. Tomas, if you’re reading this, I have mad respect for your drumming!
• Axl released Part 1 of his Daath in-studio report.

Hopefully no more tornados hit Brooklyn this weekend. Actually, if one could swoop right over Jerry Manuel’s home then hop-scotch over to Omar Minaya’s, I’d be OK with that.

-VN

UPDATE: Now in high-quality!

Greece’s mightiest power metal masters, Firewind, are back with new dose of awesomeness, Days of Defiance – and MetalSucks is proud to be debuting the video for the lead single, “World on Fire.” Because everything Firewind touches turns to metal, this clip features all manner of kick-associty, including the band inhabiting a world on fire (duh), a hot blonde chick, and lots of close-ups of Gus G. If you don’t love this, then you have no soul.

“World on Fire” is currently available for download from iTunes. Days of Defiance comes out October 25 on Century Media; you can pre-order CD or vinyl copies here.

[This exclusive has now ended.]

…when I interviewed Gus G. a couple of weeks ago, he told me that the band was working on putting together a North American headlining tour for the fall. Well, the good news is, that tour is now booked; the bad news is, it’s only four dates. I’m completely speculating, but I imagine this has to do more with Gus’ ongoing commitments to Ozzy than it does anything else. Hopefully he’ll get another reality show or something soon and Firewind can tour more.

But if you’re in a position to go one of these gigs, you should. The band hasn’t played here since they toured with Arch Enemy (I think it was Arch Enemy… feel free to correct me if I’m wrong) in 2008, and these sets will obviously be way longer than those ones were, seeing as the band is headlining.

And – BONUS! The Absence and Powerglove will be doing support. I don’t think it’s any secret that we love The Absence — in fact, we’re streaming their new album right here! — and I like that there’s some real diversity on this bill. I think these shows are gonna be a lot of gun.

Here are the four dates, via Firewind’s MySpace page:

Click to read more…

I’m not, generally speaking, a huge power metal fan, but I love Firewind, and I love their new album, Days of Defiance. Does that mean that Firewind are a very, very good power metal band, and my tastes in the subgenre are highly discerning, or does that mean that Firewind are a very, very bad power metal band, and they appeal to me because they’re so unlike most of their peers?

I don’t know and I don’t care. You could call this “poopy metal” and I’d still listen to it. The music kicks all kinds of ass, Gus G. is the man, and for all the silliness and melodrama usually associated with power metal, it features the single most pithy lyric I’ve heard so far this year, in the song “Embrace the Sun”: “You can’t change the world, but you can change yourself.” Maybe that sentiment seems cheesy, but when I first heard it, I was like, “Whoa. That is some mind-blowing shit. And if we all changed ourselves, we’d change the world, man!!!” And I wasn’t even high when I heard it!

Here’s the newly released cover art for Days of Defiance, which comes out October 26 on Century. It’s pretty much exactly the cover art you’d expect for a new release from this band, but that doesn’t make the music it contains any less rockin’.

And I’ll have an interview with Gus G. soon.

-AR

I interviewed Gus G. this past Friday. He’s such an incredibly nice and talented dude, and the new Firewind album, Days of Defiance, is so friggin’ rockin’, that mid-interview I started to feel really, really guilty that I don’t like Mr. G’s Ozzy debut, Scream. Then again, it’s not really Gus’ fault that the album is perfectly serviceable but totally generic, since he didn’t write any of the material — take one listen to Days of Defiance, and you’ll know that if Gus G. had written the album, it would be 1,000% better.

So. Here’s the new video for Scream’s second single, the de rigeur power ballad, “Life Won’t Wait.” It’s indicative of all of Scream in that it’s a totally fine, and completely unspectacular, song. And, duh, my favorite part is the Gus G. guitar solo. But, really, I wanted to post it to make sure you know that Firewind’s Days of Defiance comes out October 26 on Century, and that the first single from that album, “World on Fire,” is available for download on iTunes right now. And it’s way better than this:

-AR

The nicest compliment anyone can seem to muster about Scream is that it’s Ozzy’s best album this millenium, which is like saying that the genocide in Rwanda wasn’t the worst human rights atrocity of the twentieth century, because only a million people were massacred. Really, the best thing to come of this album is that it’s bringing Gus G. to the attention of a lot of people who might otherwise never know him. Gus is on the cover of Guitar World now, and that makes me really, really happy.

Of course, there’s always the possibility that the mediocrity of Scream will turn people off to the point where they don’t check out Firewind, or one of the other eight-hundred bands with whom Gus has played. I sincerely hope that doesn’t happen. And it wouldn’t have happened, I think, if Gus has been able to contribute to the writing of Scream. And he tells Metal Insider that, knock on wood, if there’s another Ozzy album and he’s the guitar player to be on it, Ozzy wants him — and the other members of the band — to contribute more:

Click to read more…