When DevilDriver front man Dez Fafara called me this past Friday following a tumultuous, multi-day bus ride between stops on the band’s current tour with Suffocation, Goatwhore and Thy Will Be Done, I was expecting him to be an exhausted mess. But a decade and half of the touring life has made him a hardened veteran, and he clearly hasn’t lost any of his passion for playing live – clearly still riding high on the success of 2009′s Pray for Villains, Dez sounded like he was ready to jump on stage at any second. DevilDriver shows are a full-contact sport with Fafara presiding as the main instigator, and it’s clear that the man loves his job.

After the jump, get Dez’s thoughts on this tour, being away from his family while he’s on the road, a preview of the band’s current set list, and some news on the next DevilDriver album,which he hopes to have out by this time next year at latest. Phew!

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The MetalSucks-sponsored Waste The World Tour (featuring Municipal Waste, with Goatwhore, Brutal Truth, Phobia and Cauldron on as support for various dates) is off to a wet start. On the tour’s fifth show — Wednesday night in Houston, TX — a fan decided it’d be a good idea to climb on the pipes hanging from the ceiling during Goatwhore’s set. ‘Cause, ya know, hanging from pipes is always a great idea. The sprinkler system erupted, flooding ensued, and the whole show was forced to evacuate the venue. Fortunately the Meridian had an extra room available, so after an hour of chaos the show went on, faster and harder than ever.

Make sure you catch this tour when it comes through your city. Dates after the jump. Please note that The Accused are no longer part of the tour.

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Upon first hearing that Eyehategod would be performing a New York City show on a boat, my immediate thought was, “That fucker is gonna sink.” My subsequent thought was, “I want to go to this.” And so I did. With a considerably steep $40 ticket price, one might think that attendees paid for the novelty of the experience, and to an extent, they’d be right. Yet coupled with headliner-quality openers like Pig Destroyer and Goatwhore, it was actually quite a bargain.

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Tomorrow is Halloween. This is great news, because it means that come Sunday (or Monday) people will finally fucking stop talking about Halloween. So sick of it already. When did I become so curmudgeonly? I’m gonna make a hell of an old man. Here’s what went down this week:

• Danzig drummer Chuck Biscuits died. Oh wait, no he didn’t.
• We debuted a new Mudvayne track and we posted live photos from Satyricon and Goatwhore/Eyehategod shows.
• We analyzed the business models of Earache and Roadrunner Records.
• The Boner Tour 2010 has been announced.
• Bison B.C.’s Dan And wrote two tour blogs for us while Horse the Band’s Lord Gold told us about women in diners.
• We spoke with Jucifer’s Amber Valentine and James Plodkin from Jodis.
• We’re giving away a buncha BTBAM shit and celebrating the release of their new album.
• We got all creative writing on your ass.

Our very own Corey Mitchell is gonna be on TV this weekend; he’ll be appearing on E!’s “20 Most Horrifying Hollywood Murders” on Saturday night at 6:00pm EST/5:00PM CST. In addition to his duties as the resident Mansion old fart, Corey writes books about true crime and is a respected authority on the matter so it should be an interesting (and br00tal) watch. Have a good weekend everyone.

With Converge’s critically acclaimed Axe To Fall still commanding the attention of the metallic hardcore faithful, this week’s release of a new album from Belgium’s Rise And Fall could naturally be overlooked. However, that would be to the detriment of those currently enjoying that higher-profile record. An intelligent, intense burst of recorded vehemence, Our Circle Is Vicious–which you can and should buy now–was (like so many Deathwish Inc. albums) produced by Converge’s Kurt Ballou and stands as a considerable improvement on 2005′s Into Oblivion. Listen to “Built On Graves” and “In Circles” at the band’s MySpace page.

The band play a few U.S. shows this week before heading back to Europe for a month-long tour with Iron Age, whose recent album The Sleeping Eye we streamed back in August and is on Vince’s “Best Of 2009″ shortlist. That tour culminates in Rise And Fall’s hometown of Gent, with a final show that also features Goatwhore, Skeletonwitch and Toxic Holocaust. The band will wrap up 2009 with a December tour through Australia, only to kick of the new year with a few gigs with labelmates The Hope Conspiracy. All dates are below.

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Brand new MS Contributing Photographer Diana Lee Zadlo was on-hand at the Eyehategod / Goatwhore etc show at Baltimore’s Ottobar this past Friday, October 23rd, and she snapped some killer photos for us of both bands. A sample of her excellent work is posted above… click through the jump for the full photo set!

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Bummer. The Accused, who were scheduled to provide support for  some (but not all!) of the dates on the MS sponsored Municipal Waste “Waste the World” tour, have been forced to drop off due to “scheduling conflicts.” Oh well.

The good news is that Goatwhore are still doing all dates from 11/06-11/16, Brutal Truth are still doing all dates from 12/04-12/11, and Phobia, Cauldron, and, of course, The Waste themselves are still doing ALL dates. And hopefully a new support act will be named to step in for The Accused.

All of the bands remaining on the tour are killer. If you’ve never seen MW fuck shit up live, you ain’t seen shit. Get complete dates after the jump.

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I know I’m not alone in my excitement over the upcoming Eyehategod micro-tour, which kicks off next week in Baltimore and continues with two New York City shows (including one on a motherfucking boat!) and another one in Cambridge, MA. Openers for these dates include such fine acts as Goatwhore, Pig Destroyer, and Tombs. Peep the sludge metal legends’ MySpace page for more details on these shows.

However, I suspect those of you unable to attend may be pleased to learn that Confederacy Of Ruined Lives, the band’s release from the year 2000, is getting the vinyl reissue treatment via the aptly named I’m Better Than Everyone Records. Limited to a scarce 400 copies on “thick black vinyl,” the album has been specially remastered and packaged in a nifty gatefold, which you can see previews of at the site. An even more limited version is already sold-the-fuck-out, so make sure you preorder your copy before the October 20th release date if you don’t want to miss out.

-GS

[Gary Suarez is amazed at the range of responses to his Oceano review. He usually mismanages the consistently off-topic No Yoko No. Say, why don't you follow him on Twitter?]

MetalSucks is sponsoring the “WASTE THE WORLD TOUR 2009″ featuring none other than our favorite party thrashers Municipal Waste.  Providing direct support on the tour will be Goatwhore from 11/06-11/16, The Accused from 11/18-12/03, and Brutal Truth from 12/04-12/11.  Appearing on all shows will be Phobia and Cauldron. No matter which direct support band is playing when this tour rolls through your town, this show promises to be a great, fun, drunken time.

Stay tuned to MetalSucks for your chance to win tour tickets as well as other MU swag. Check out Municipal Waste’s hilarious new video for “Wrong Answer” and pick up their 3.5-out-of-5 horns rated new album Massive Aggressive, out now on Earache.

Full list of tour dates after the jump.

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The entries for last week’s funny photo caption contest — for which the prizes were a copy of Every Time I Die’s new CD New Junk Aesthetic and a matching t-shirt — were spectacularly unfunny, for the most part. Here are a couple of the best entries. Despite the horribly un-PC nature of one of them… damn, that shit is gold!

\m/Eluveitie\m/ [for the second week in a row! congrats, dude]: “The boys’ pictures were spoiled as a sudden blackout rendered their dates – Lafonda, Laqueefa, Tonisha, and Lil Diamonique – invisible to the prom photographer’s lens.”

ohshitson: “the evolution of the metalsucks monkeys.”

This week we’ve got one killer package of three CDs from Metal Blade Records: Goatwhore’s Carving out the Eyes of God (MS review here), Behemoth’s Evangelion (endless MS praise bestowed here) and Valkyrja’s The Invocation of Demise (no MS review, but you can listen to the band here). Just come up with a funny caption to the below photo, and they shall all be yours.

Am I the only one here that thinks that American bands shouldn’t be allowed to wear corpse paint? There should be a law in the metal books that states it. There’s some rules that us American metalheads must follow, like the famous “Don’t Wear Your Own Band’s Shirt Law,” for instance. It doesn’t apply to Europeans and that’s okay, they’ve got their own set of laws. It applies to us, though, and when you break it, people get to talking.

Well, I think that corpse paint should fall under the “Must Never Be Applied To The Face Of An American” law. I think it should be punishable by excommunication from the community. I’ve got my reasons.

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Last month I was standing next to Sammy Duet from Goatwhore/Acid Bath for about fifteen minutes and didn’t even recognize him. I just still need to get used to the sight of him with hair, is all. I’m so used to picturing a bald dude.

But I’m already off-topic: Goatwhore. As I said on Tuesday, Goatwhore’s latest, Carving Out the Eyes of God, is one of my favorite albums of the year so far; I’m still blasting it at least once a week. It’s just so fucking evil… I love it. I love it I love it I love it.

The band has now re-teamed with director David Brodsky for their new video, “Apocalyptic Havoc,” which is one of my favorite songs on the album. Check it out:

Carving Out the Eyes of God is out now on Metal Blade. Go buy that shit.

-AR

Where the hell does the time go? The year is more than half over already! Sheesh.

ANYWAY, here are, in alphabetical order, albums that have really knocked my socks off so far this year…

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If you missed Friday’s Pig Destroyer show, you should cry. Seriously. It’s totally worth getting upset about.

But don’t, like, slit your wrists or anything: the band has announced another New York show(!)… this one as part of a tour Eyehategod (!!) are doing with Goatwhore (!!!) and Strong Intention (???)… on a motherfucking boat.

To reiterate: Eyehategod. Goatwhore. Pig Destroyer. Boat.

Will someone drown before the night’s end in a sloshed-mosh mishap? Will that someone be me or Vince? Will this be the best boat ride ever? Stay tuned for all the answer.

Here are the dates for the Eyehategod min-tour. Even if you can’t go the NY Pig Destroyer boat extravaganza, the other dates should be awesome, too.

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Momma always told me that if I ever met “the one,” I’d know right away. Even my father – who makes me look like a sunny, optimistic, outgoing person – said that he knew right away he wanted to spend the rest of his life with my mom. But I never really believed it, and definitely never thought it would happen to me.

But then last night changed everything. I knew within minutes, if not seconds, that I had found “the one.”

‘Cause last night I smoked out of a vaporizer for the first time. And my life will never, ever be the same. I’m just not going to be able to go back to bongs and pipes. This is it. I am now a one drug-apparatus man.

Thanks to Sean Z. from Daath for hooking that shit up. There weren’t nearly enough people at the show last night, and Sean had some mic/monitor issues, but Daath still played like they were headlining Madison fucking Square Garden (and Sean managed to sing while doing windmills, which I’ve never seen before). Eyal Levi has fucking pneumonia and a cracked rib, and he was still jumping all over the place. And Emil “Things Go Better with Coke” Werstler is almost spastic enough to be in a mathcore band. Plus, his solos are the shit.

Goatwhore killed it, too. I really can’t say enough good things about these bands. You can find remaining tour dates here; definitely go check ‘em out if you can. And bring your vaporizer.

Here’s some Daath and Goatwhore videos to kick off your morning.

-AR

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So my buddy San Carlos, who comes a long line of depression-era rum-runners and later micro-brewers, was recently in port at Kingston, Jamaica where he got into a rather heated discussion with a polish backpacker over a game of billiards at a shady pub called The Prickhouse (actually Brickhouse, but vandals had recently improved its title). While the original discussion was an argument over the general superiority of Afghan bubble hash versus B.C. hydroponic cannabis, the tensions were soon eased when the Polack began to tell a naughty yarn regarding himself, a Swedish accomplice and a rather sizable number of seasoned Amsterdam prostitutes. While much of that story was lost in translation (San Carlos only communicates through Creole Sign language), the Swede had reported to the Polish gentleman who had passed it on later to San Carlos that one particular prostitute with Pete Steele-esque vampire fang implants had relations in Canada, specifically a sister who had heard from bar tender who had in turn heard from East-side Vancouver street dweller that Sammy Duet (Goatwhore, ex-Acid Bath) had been paraphrased as having said to an interested fan: “If you like Acid Bath, you should try to get to Louisiana next year, but you didn’t hear that from me.”

And you didn’t hear it here first.

Above, check out the video for “Toubabo Koomi,” which is a phrase so filthy, San Carlos refuses to translate it for me. I’m absolutely going crazy for even the possibility of one of the greatest New Orleans scene bands ever reuniting, or maybe I’m just a big bucket of crazy anyway.

-DBR

“Apocalyptic Havoc” is one hell of a heroic entrance for Goatwhore on Carving Out the Eyes of God. It sounds like a pack of angry attack dogs (Dobermans or maybe Rotweilers) breaking their ropes and charging full speed into a crowded nursery. Not a lot of bands can build up your adrenaline from 0 that fast and after a couple listens you’ll be screaming “Alriiiigggghtttt!!” in unison with Mr. Falgoust. Forty minutes later, as you catch your breath again, you’ll probably be thinking the same thing as the rest of us: This is the catchiest album Goatwhore have ever released.

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For those of you not from the U.S. and somehow completely unaware of this, the Fourth of July is a pretty big deal here in America. On that day, we celebrate winning our freedom by kicking the British’s ass. Of course, they later gave us Hugh Grant, so I guess they had their revenge in the end.

So there won’t be any posts tomorrow; on Monday, we’ll unveil the last albums on the list. In the meantime, here’s some things that happened this week in the world of MetalSucks:

• We continued to countdown the 21 Best Metal Albums of the 21st Century… So Far. You continued to engage in, um, intelligent debate. Yeah, let’s call it intelligent debate.
• We spoke with Goatwhore’s Ben Falgoust and Black Math Horseman’s Sera Timms.
• We checked out new releases from Killswitch Engage and Havok.
• Daath’s Eyal Levi took a break from worrying about dying in fiery plane or car crash to worry about getting shot.
• We debated the merits of the new Alice in Chains song.
• We laughed at high school year book photos of past and present members of Metallica.

I plan to not be sober for the next 72 hours. See ya Monday!

-AR

Last week was a ginormous week for new metal releases, and with new ones from Killswitch and Suicide Silence this week promises to be the same. Topping last week’s crop was Dream Theater’s Black Clouds & Silver Linings which debuted at #6 on the Soundscan Charts. Wait a minute… Dream Theater debuted at #6?? Holy fuckity-fuck. Darkest Hour, The Mars Volta, Maylene and the Sons of Disaster and Goatwhore also had strong debuts. Click through for chart positions and sales numbers.

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Hello everyone! I’m on tour now. DAATH is traveling the United States and Canada this summer on the Conquer and Curse tour which features Goatwhore, Abigail Williams, Abysmal Dawn, Success Will Write Apocalypse Across The Sky, and us. My blog isn’t going to become a tour blog, but I do feel that its my duty to discuss amazing and fucked up things when they happen. And they do happen when you’re on the road.

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