When people ask why I believe in God* I say, “Well, look at Frank Mullen. If that dude wasn’t born to front a metal band, no one was. Living proof that God takes care of his children!” Suffocation are great and all, but at least half the reason I go see them live when they play New York City is for Frank Mullen’s between-song banter. Mullen is second to NO ONE when it comes to hilarious on-stage rants, made all the funnier by his extreme Lawn Guyland tough-guy accent.

Late night revelers on the 70,000 Tons of Metal cruise last week got to witness Mullen deliver the ultimate between song-banter one night in the form of a [presumably very drunken] karaoke rendition of “New York, New York.” Come for the vocals, stay for the spills (x2) and the angry, drunken trash talk (there’s uterus punching involved). Make sure you watch the whole thing.

-VN

*I don’t actually believe in God.

Thanks: Frank from Metal Injection for filming this!

The possibly-not-final cover art for Anthrax’s Worship Music

So I have a friend who works closely with Camp Anthrax. I obviously can’t tell you the friend’s name, but I can tell you that he once told me that the Dan Nelson version of Worship Music was awesome, and that I’ve been begging him to let me hear it ever since. Thing is, he doesn’t actually own a copy, and has never been able to get his hands on one. Security around the album was tight before the Nelson debacle, but after, he told me, “It was like Scott and Charlie were going door-to-door personally checking people’s hard drives to make sure everyone had deleted it.”

And so last night I got a text from this friend, I guess trying to make amends for the fact that he never did come through with that Dan Nelson record: “Just got the Belladonna version of Worship Music. U wanna hear it?”

I responded simply, “Be there in 20.” And I got my ass on the subway and I went over to his place.

And I gotta tell you, guys… it’s a weird record, and there are two MASSIVE, and massively tragic, missteps… but it’s pretty great overrall. It’s not really like any metal record I’ve ever heard before. Whatever else you wanna say about Anthrax, you can’t accuse them of refusing to experiment — this album is a huge, huge risk, often welding together vastly different styles and textures of not just metal but often other genres of music, too. I don’t know if people will go for this record or not, but I think it’s kinda brilliant.

(By the way, the above album cover is a carry-over from the Dan Nelson version of the record; apparently it may be scrapped in favor of something that “feels more like the album cover of one of the old Belladonna albums.” Which would be a weird decision, because, a few songs aside, this record doesn’t sound anything like any other Anthrax album.)

And so here it is — my track-by-track breakdown of what I heard.

You guys aren’t gonna believe this shit.

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As some of you may know, my favorite 19 year-old hottie isn’t Demi Lovato, it’s the internet’s own Cam Argon, better known as Big Chocolate. He’s the vocalist for Disfiguring the Goddess, Abominable Putridity, Burning The Masses, a DJ, and a criminal justice major. For more background on Big C, check out the interview I did with him on Metal Inquisition a while ago — otherwise, here’s some stuff off his YouTube channel.

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If you’ve never seen Suffocation live, well, you need to. Not only do they kill, but Frank Mullen is one of the funniest fucking front men ever.

I haven’t gotten to listen to the band’s new live album (actually recorded in ’05), The Close Of A Chapter: Live In Quebec City, yet, so I don’t know it captures Mr. Mullen in all his gallows humor glory. But the record is now streaming right here, and even if all it does it showcase what a powerful live act this legendary death metallers are, well, that’s reason enough to give it a listen.

The Close Of A Chapter: Live In Quebec City comes out October 27 on Relapse.

-AR

There’s already enough long winded discussion going on about this list we’re still in the process of revealing, so let this review be one from the Corey Mitchell school of telling it like it is. No hustle.

Blood Oath is the best death metal record released this year and barring something out-left-field and totally unexpected, it’s going to rank up there among the years best.

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