I was minding my own business Wednesday night just jeering Carmelo Anthony and cheering Danilo Gallinari, when a friend’s friend whammied my world via donation of one single (!) blast of her super-weed. I knew the ganj was trouble cuz I immediately I began to hack, seize at my own chest, and think “Aw shit. So long, brain.” The remainder of the night was spent in a state of utter cluelessness, all half-formed sentences and puzzled looks. Confusion reigned. Like, I spent like two full minutes trying to fast-forward a regular broadcast of Breaking Bad. It was ugly.

I was pretty out of it, and though I’ve rallied this morning, I still feel pretty out of it. But not in the no-basic-comprehension-skills/can’t-work-a-TV-remote way. More in the sense that, duhhh, I didn’t even know Glassjaw had an EP out since January (thanks, commenters on Axl’s sexy response to Noiseceep’s best songs of 2011 so far thing). I also just discovered that Ghost’s Opus Eponymous is, like, bonerus colossus (thanks, publicity studs/foxes at Metal Blade) and that the Chicago jam “Feelin’ Stronger Every Day” totally jamz like W’OMG (thanks, mutinous car stereo).

Anyway, I’m not so humbled by my ignorance as to come down off my high horse. Maybe I’ll ask my high horse to dismount its high horse, but anyway as I thought of my favorite 2011 jamz so far, it occurred to me that I only overlooked the abovementioned awesome stuff cuz other awesome stuff has been occupying me — mostly the sleeper classic of 2011, Kampfar’s Mare (above). Nobody seems to be talking about this soon-to-be topper of many year-end lists, and that fills me with both elitist rage and writerly self-recrimination. So here, let’s fix this by all cranking the self-titled kick-off jam from Mare (below), which can be yours on Tuesday. Next, we’ll all talk about it and hype it up a ton, like we’ve done for the other awesome, deserving, all genre-fan-inclusive K-name band from Norway. This way, we all rock and feel super-smart! Win-win!

Kampfar’s masterful Mare is out Tuesday on Napalm Records. Get it or be ignorant.

Glassjaw’s place in the pantheon of rawwrrr metal is certainly up for debate, but there isn’t any doubt that they’ve had a huge impact on today’s music scene. When our own Sergeant D wrote an extensive history of metalcore/screamo he omitted Glassjaw, an important band to both scenes indeed, but once upon a time ex-Roadrunner / current Century Media A&R honcho Mike Gitter wrote a guest column for us in which he praised the band and their seminal album Everything You Ever Want to Know About Silence.

Glassjaw have been working on their third album, the first since 2002′s Worship and Tribute, for what seems like forever. Rumors have been circulating since 2006 and the band has done occasional tours in the meantime, but until now there hasn’t been any new music; Metal Insider alerted us to the fact that the new song “All Good Junkies Go To Heaven” is now circulating online. The ever-reliable Wikipedia tells me that the band released a 7″ vinyl single forthe song at the UK’s Hevy Fest on August 8th and that it will ship everywhere else on August 20, 2010 via Merch Direct.

So, check it out and let us know what you think. I’ve never been huge on Glassjaw but I’ve always respect them, and I love Daryl Palumbo’s voice.

-VN

Thanks to MS Maniac Aaron M. for pointing out the hilariousness that is ensuing over at Ross Robinson’s Twitter account re: the new Korn record. Yeah, Robinson is producing the new Korn record — somehow I missed that too.

I have somewhat of a difficult relationship with Ross Robinson. On one hand he produced one of the bestest albums ever in the form of At the Drive-In’s Relationship of Command, and he also produced landmark albums by Glassjaw and Slipknot. On the other hand he produced way more albums that are just all sorts of terrible — records by Limp Bizkit (this in and of itself is a crime worthy of corporal punishment), Korn, Cold, Soulfly, Machine Head’s cringe-worthy rap-metal phase, and Vanille Ice’s nu-metal “comeback” record. As a producer who was definitely pigeonholed into a genre (rightly or wrongly), unsurprisingly Robinson hasn’t had a whole lot of work lately.

But he sure got a nice money gig for the new Korn joint. And he’s all sorts of excited about it! Here we go:

Korn, Day one: pikt out drums/cartage broke wheel of my 24 trk tape mchn/fairchild on cymb/made catbox/knee wnt out of socket-kicks ass12:01 AM Aug 6th

Click to read more…

[After we completed our much ballyhooed 21 Best Metal Albums of the 21st Century... So Far countdown last month, we invited all of the inhabitants of the MS Mansion to submit an "Albums We Wish Made the List" piece. Former Roadrunner Records A&R guru Mike Gitter, who was a member of the voting panel that constructed the list, asked us if he could submit an album he wished made the list as well, and we've posted his writeup below. Whether taken as part of our "21 Best" list or on its own as a regular editorial piece, it's a great look into a great album. Enjoy. -Ed.]

Boys will be boys…and boys get fucked over. And they hate girls. And instead of acting like a buncha homos, ‘writing love on their arms’ or any of those slogans you seen them pussies flagging t-shirts for at Bamboozle, Glassjaw laid down the bitchslap in-extremis. Everything You Ever Want To Know About Silence is a friggin’ landmark. A record that broke with their local Long Island hardcore tradition – counting lurvely lads from the likes of Silent Majority and that little know Jew Crew Sons of Abraham – and staked out some entirely new sonic turf. Think Bad Brains rapturous riff-o-rama, V.O.D.’s blazing intensity and a razor sharp lyrical sense from not-so-sucka MC Darryl Palumbo, now of dance-rockers Head Automatica.
Click to read more…

There must be something in the water; another awesome supergroup has been born. Says a press release delivered by carrier pigeon to the MetalSucks Mansion:

United Nations is a power-violence band that features members of Thursday, Glassjaw, Made Out of Babies, Converge, and other special guests:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_(band)

Full album. Streaming. MySpace. Now. Listen.

-VN