When we heard that our friends in Brooklyn doom-crew Batillus were heading into the studio to record a new album,  we were all, “Dudes, do a studio blog for us!!!” And they were all, “Okay!!!” And so here we are! Below, find the third installment, which was written by vocalist / synth-master Fade Kainer; read the inaugural entry by bassist Willi Stabenau here and the second entry by drummer Geoff Summers here; this will be the final entry.

Nine days in an isolation tank, electricity bent through circuitry, vacuum tubes glowing, wood assaulting metal alloys and mylar skins. Subsonic grit, larynx shatters the air; all captured, assembled, deconstructed, processed and reassembled. The new album has been created; Sanford Parker has captured our sound at his Semaphore Studios — lovingly dubbed ‘the Submarine’ due to its stark, lightless interior; long, narrow floorplan; and row of bunk beds — in Chicago. We now have no concept of time, day or night, as we head home toward Brooklyn. But our journey was not without incident.

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Yep, we talked a lot of smack on Joey Belladonna this week, much to the chagrin of, well, an awful lot of you. I think we’re done for a little while… but I can’t make any promises. Our job at MetalSucks is to amuse ourselves first and foremost, and, well, we thought it was pretty damned funny. So ppppfffftttt.

Here’s what else went down this week:

• We debuted the title track from Nachtmystium’s new album, Addicts.
• Genetic’s Dallas Coyle called us “influential,” Disfear’s Tomas Lindberg shared some Maryland Deathfest memories, The Austerity Program’s Justin Foley unveiled his top four Taco Riffs, Cynic’s Paul Masvidal got burglarized, As I Lay Dying’s Nick Hipa made some new revelations about L O S T, God Forbid’s Doc Coyle worried about turning into an old geezer, Daath’s Eyal Levi gave us a lesson in stage etiquette, and Batillus’ Geoff Summers gave us a new studio update.
• We spoke to The Melvins’ Buzz Osborne, Periphery’s Misha “Bulb” Mansoor, Testament’s Chuck Billy, and Sick of it All’s Lou Koller.
• We checked out new releases by Korn and Ufomammut and Year of No Light.
• Is Mastodon’s Brent Hinds a Mastodick?
• Sergeant D sez Cunthunt777 are your new favorite band.
• Don’t worry, baby, Dr. Danzig gonna cure what ails you.
• Hot chick loves Nergal, hates the Bible.
• Boy oh boy, do we love the new Limp Bizkit cover art!
• If you’re looking for new band members, don’t do this.

Alright. We’re gonna go get drunk and crank We’ve Come For You All in John Bush’s honor. Have a great weekend, everyone.

-AR

When we heard that our friends in Brooklyn doom-crew Batillus were heading into the studio to record a new album,  we were all, “Dudes, do a studio blog for us!!!” And they were all, “Okay!!!” And so here we are! Below, find the second installment, which was written by drummer Geoff Summers; read the inaugural entry by bassist Willi Stabenau here and expect two more entries by the band’s guitarist and vocalist in the coming days.

Day five. Overdubs are nearly done for all but two songs. It’s nice not to feel rushed for once—for each of our last two recording sessions we tracked and mixed 60 minutes and 25 minutes of music in two days, respectively. This time we have ten days to track and mix seven songs, and we’re taking our time and paying more attention to detail and allowing the creative process to flow a bit more freely. It’s a good feeling.

Having not much to do, I cooked up a stir-fry yesterday with snap peas, bell peppers, onion, corn, and broccoli with rice noodles. It was damn good, if I do say so myself, and rather spicy.

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When we heard that our friends in Brooklyn doom-crew Batillus were heading into the studio to record a new album,  we were all, “Dudes, do a studio blog for us!!!” And they were all, “Okay!!!” And so here we are! Below, find the inaugural installment, which was written by bassist Willi Stabenau; more entries from the other members of the band will follow in the coming weeks. Enjoy!

Waiting eighteen months for amps is almost worth it, if your amps are two Electric Power Units. After months and months of anxiety and crappy tone from my Coliseums, my two Greens showed up here in Chicago, just in time to start recording. Probably the best-sounding amps I’ve ever heard, and hugely powerful. Not sure I would wait that long again, though. You will love this bass; I guarantee it to be all over your ears like a cheap Men’s Wearhouse suit.

Yesterday, we discovered that [guitarist Greg] Peterson looks suspiciously like Varg Vikernes:

And shortly thereafter, we realized that the dude who’s recording us looks a hell of a lot like one Sanford Parker, knob-twiddler to the metal stars:

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On Sunday night we caught the Beard Destroyer 2009 tour with Hull and Batillus (sadly for us, Salome didn’t play that date). It crushed even harder than we thought it would, so we asked our friend, Batillus skinsman Geoff Summers, to do a tour wrap-up for us. We hope you enjoy!

So, here I sit with a mild case of PTD (post-tour depression) writing up this wrap report for the so-called Beard Destroyer tour featuring Salome, Hull, and my band, Batillus. We had some good times, and we had some bad times. It rained. A lot. Everywhere we went. Fortunately, though, the good dwarfed the bad. Let’s recap…

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