Emmure get a lot of shit here, from readers and staff alike, and I often feel like the odd man out for ranking their last record, Felony, among my favorites of 2009. Yet I experienced firsthand the collective love for the band when I caught their engaging, riotous set at the Warped Tour stop at New York’s Nassau Colisseum this weekend. To paraphrase my dear friend Elise from Reign in Blonde, who also witnessed this memorable performance, it’s easy to forget how popular Emmure are if all you rely on are metal websites. The young crowd were deeply into the band’s music, shouting along with the lyrics, windmilling wildly, and generally having a great time. It makes me wonder if you online sourpusses even know how to have fun, or have even so much as kissed a girl.

For me, the highlight of their Warped Tour set was a surprise cover of an early-Naughties dance-pop hit: Alice Deejay’s “Better Off Alone.” Without warning, Emmune-branded beach balls were thrown into the crowd, as frontman Frankie Palmeri led the eager audience in a singalong. After one last acapella take, the band segued quickly into “Bars In Astoria,” a song I really identified with from Felony. There was a certain artfulness to pairing the two tracks together, since “Better Off Alone” is almost certainly the type of song one would hear at a Queens nightspot over the past decade. Perhaps Palmeri has some less than pleasant memories associated with the track? Check out the fan-filmed video footage above of “Better Off Alone/Bars In Astoria” from a different date on the 2010 Warped Tour. Remaining tour dates are below.

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If you needed another reason to hate Emmure, this is it (as if their knuckle-dragging version of nu-deathcore isn’t enough). Props to MS super-commenter Alex_P for bringing this Lambgoat interview with Emmure’s Frankie Palmeri to our attention (Metal Injection picked it up too); I never would’ve checked it out on my own, let alone read through all of it.

It starts off with pretty typical interview fair talking about the band’s current tour, their next record, blah blah blah. It starts to get good when Palmeri starts talking about his love of Limp Bizit. It gets even better when he starts talking about spirituality. And then it goes to a whole new level when he starts talking about the Nibiru aliens, his thoughts on global warming (he actually believes the earth is about to cool down) and the inherent energy-holding capabilities of gold. The only gold containing any energy is the pure hilarity of this interview, in my opinion.

On Limp Bizkit:

I would like to think that [our fans are similar]. I mean, I don’t know, when I was growing up Limp Bizkit was the best band in the world to me and they’re still one of the bands that completely altered my view on life and music and what I should be as a person. Getting to tour with them would blow my fucking mind I don’t know if it’ll ever happen…

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Our friend Amy Sciarretto from Noisecreep reports that Birmingham City University (in England, not Alabama) is naming an award after everyone’s favorite heavy metal grandpa: the Ozzy Osbourne Development Award “will be bestowed upon the student that makes the most significant progress on their degree in the Media and Communication/Music Industry degree.” I assume that the Osbourne family donated a nice chunk of change to get the award named after him, but this doesn’t really make that much sense to me. For one thing, I don’t know if Ozzy has really shown any musical development in, oh, the last hundred years or so, and as much as I admire a lot of his past work, you’ll never convince me that the bulk of the credit doesn’t lie with his collaborators – especially given that the dude doesn’t actually play an instrument. And beyond that, fuck has Ozzy got to do with media and communication? If we’re talking about his work with various reality shows and what have you, well, then, shouldn’t the award be named after Sharon, since we have her to thank for Ozzy’s wonderful non-music endeavors.

But whatever. This piece of news got me thinking: what other awards could we name after heavy metal musicians? And so, after the jump, my suggestions for new university kudos monikered in honor of various other members of the heavy metal community.

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A little over a year ago I was invited to go see The Acacia Strain play a sold-out show at the Palladium in Worcester. I wasn’t able to make it, but everyone I spoke to who did said it was INSANE. All caps like that, dude: INSANE.

Luckily, David Brodsky and his crack team of metal video makin’ nutjobs were there to capture the action, and the concert flick will be included on The Acacia Strain’s new DVD, The Most Known Unknown, which now has February 16 release date via Prosthetic.

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As much as I love metal feuds, they usually don’t actually go anywhere. Kerry King and Dave Mustaine can trade barbs in the press all they like, but we all know they’ll never actually get into any kind of altercation; in fact, Slayer and Megadeth just announced another string of Canadian dates together. Metal doesn’t have its own Tupac/Biggie story because rarely do these dudes show any actual desire to hurt one another. And even when they do, it usually goes nowhere (see: Vince Neil versus Axl Rose).

Well, Lambgoat is reporting that The Acacia Strain’s Vincent Bennett and Emmure’s Frankie Palmeri have now crossed that line, apparently beating the shit out of one another at last night’s Emmure gig in Clifton Park.

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