So as it turns out, Periphery have a rather sizable online following. Hm. Who knew?

ANYWAY, here’s how we amused ourselves this week:

• We debuted new music by the aforementioned Periphery, as well as Meek is Murder.
• Gwar’s Oderus Urungus answered some more reader questions, and we spoke to Fredrik Andersson from Amon Amarth.
• We checked out the latest releases from Drugs of Faith and Throatruiner Records.
• We reported on all the awesome metalocity at SXSW.
• We wondered if metalheads support gay marriage.
• We offered a retort to Sumerian Records head honcho Ash Avilldsen’s anti-piracy argument.
• We started the “Best of 2011″ argumentswwwaaaaayyyy early.
• We watched the best school assembly ever.
• We wondered why good musicians join terrible bands.
• We steeled ourselves for the release of the worst album of the year.

Alright, have a good frakin’ weekend everyone! See ya Monday.

-AR

I understand that musicians have bills to pay and mouths to feed like anyone else, and that if there’s a way — any way — for you to make your living by playing music, well, that’s pretty fortunate.

Still, I’m always a little put-off when a musician I admire either has to or chooses to squander his talent by playing with some crappy band. Does anyone really believe that there aren’t better ways that current Korn-holers Ray Luzier and Shane Gibson could be spending their time?

So. Recently two more dudes I admire have joined bands I could live without: Kris Norris, formerly of Darkest Hour, has joined Straight Line Stitch, apparently on a full-time basis, while Gil Sharone, formerly of The Dillinger Escape Plane, plays on the new Otep album, Atavist. (I don’t get the impression that he’ll be touring with the band or anything like that, though.)

Click to read more…

Yesterday I interviewed Greg Puciato, Liam Wilson, and Billy Rymer from The Dillinger Escape Plan (transcript coming soon); because Rymer is the band’s new drummer and this is his first album with DEP, it should go without saying that a portion of the conversation was devoted to how he joined the band, his experience as “the new guy,” and his predecessors – namely Gil Sharone and, of course, Chris Pennie. Unless you live under a Dino Cazares, you already know that Pennie is now the drummer for Coheed and Cambria; since I’m a wwwwaaaaayyyyy bigger fan of DEP than I am of C&C, I don’t spend much time thinking about Pennie these days. Which isn’t to take away from his incredible talent; I’m just saying, it’s unusual for me to have Pennie on the brain at this particular moment in time.

But now here we are, I was just thinking about him yesterday, and he’s already back in the headlines! It turns out that Pennie is in the whole other band I didn’t even know about, Return to Earth, who released an album called Captains of Industry in 2007; now they’ve signed with Metal Blade, who will release their sophomore effort, Automata, sometime this summer.

Click to read more…

As of today DEP and their producer, Steve Evetts, have been in the studio working on the band’s new album, Option Paralysis, for ten days. And besides getting a new DEP record in ’10, y’know what that means? We get the new de rigeur in-the-studio video updates of DEP in the studio! Hoo-ray!

Here’s the first entry. You don’t really get to hear any new music, but you do get to see that new drummer Bill Rymer can hold shit down (probably) just as well as Chris Pennie or Gil Sharone.

-AR

Well… happy friggin’ new year, everyone. We gots some catchin’ up to do.

As Dillinger Escape Plan fans may have heard by now, the band has hired some dude no one has ever heard of, Billy Rymer from The Rivalry, to replace Gil Sharone, who, in turn, replaced founding drummer Chris Pennie for 2007′s orgasm-inducing Ire Works and all subsequent touring for that album. Now, I know that Sharone’s departure may worry the DEP faithful – the dude was not only an awesome drummer, but watching how chill he always was live, even while playing some retardedly complex drum parts, would seem to suggest that he may very well be a god amongst men (or at least drummers). Hell, even DEP front dude Greg Puciato told us that Sharone is like “the kid in school who always gets good grades just because he’s naturally fucking super gifted.”

But here’s the thing.

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I know that some people think that The Dillinger Escape Plan have gotten too big for their britches in light of all the critical acclaim heaped upon them for Ire Works. I don’t see it. Sorry. When we interviewed front man Greg Puciato last November, the dude told us to stick around the band’s tour bus and help ourselves to whatever we wanted from the fridge. And that was after the interview was already over. Does that sound like rock star ego to you? If it does, you’re too thin skinned, and God help you if you’re ever in the room when someone brings Marilyn Manson oranges instead of the grapes that his rider specifically called for.

ANYWAY, here’s DEP’s new clip for “Black Bubblegum,” directed by drummer Gil Sharone’s bro-bro Ilan. Like when I lost my virginity, I have almost no idea what’s going on here, but I love it.

-AR