The bad news is that drummer Derrick Nau has left the band, although apparently under amicable circumstances — in a statement, the group says that Nau ”is returning to art school and does not wish to be a musician anymore.” C’est la vie.

The great news is that the band has already named a replacement for Nau, and that replacement is Tony Laureano, who, the statement says, “will be playing drums on our April tour, new album, and for the foreseeable future.”

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Well, here’s a real bummer. From God Dethroned’s official Facebook page:

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FEATURING MEMBERS OF ISIS, MUNICIPAL WASTE, ELUVEITIE, WORMROT, LAST CHANCE TO REASON, ZAPPA PLAYS ZAPPA, GOD DETHRONED, OWEN HART, NIGHTFALL, HORSEBACK, AND OCTOBER TIDE

For 2010, we decided to do something special as part of our regular end-of-year festivities here at MetalSucks — namely, ask musicians from across the vast spectrum of the metalsphere (or, in a few cases, the almost-metalsphere) what their favorite albums of the year were. Death metallers, thrash metallers, black metallers, stoners, grinders, and djenters alike graciously contributed lists to MS, and we’ll be running them in groups of ten to eleven musicians at a time twice a day for the rest of the week.

After the jump, check out the fourth group… we hope you enjoy seeing what some of metal’s heaviest hitters were into this year as much as we have!

(And please note that these are musicians and that they, um, have a lot on their minds. So some of ‘em named albums that actually came out last year. Please don’t freak out.)

Click to read more…

MetalSucks got nothin’ but love for God Dethroned. Sammy O’Hagar gave their 2009 World War I-themed album Passiondale four-out-of-five horns, which we ended up streaming in full; Bob Cock ranked Passiondale in his top twenty albums of 2009; Axl thought a song from that record kicked ass, and though he thought its first video was suspect he was a big fan of its second; we even sponsored their fall 2009 North American tour. So why no mention of their brand new record Under the Sign of the Iron Cross, which comes out next Tuesday, November 23rd on Metal Blade? No good reason. No good reason at all.

So here’s our attempt to rectumfry the situation; Metal Underground is streaming the entire new album right now, and here we are telling you about it. Because you don’t want to let a slice of fast-paced Dutch death metal this good pass pass you by, and neither do we. Please forgive us! Here’s singer/guitarist Henri Sattler:

Musically the new album turned out to be one of the most extreme records we ever did. Nevertheless with the very recognizable God Dethroned hooks present in all the songs. Producer Joerg Uken outdid himself this time, because our new album is in my opinion the best produced album we ever had. Extremely raw, heavy, but crystal clear and super dynamic at the same time.

Right? Right. Now go listen, and if you like what you’re hearing then pre-order Under the Sign of the Iron Cross here.

-VN

I don’t really like Sabaton, and I think this song, “Uprising,” stinks as a piece of music. But it’s hard for me not to appreciate this video, for the following reasons:

• I don’t think I’ve ever seen the Warsaw uprising portrayed in a metal video before, and I’m inclined to believe that I never will again.
• The band somehow got Peter Stormare from Fargo and Bad Boys II (and a million other movies) to play a Nazi officer. Stormare is Swedish, so maybe he’s friends with the band (everyone in Sweden knows everyone else in Sweden, right?), or maybe he just needed a free lunch. Either way, score for Sabaton.

Maybe the History Channel could start a metal program where they show this video along with some God Dethroned clips and maybe some Iced Earth or whatever. I’d watch that.

“Uprising” comes off of Sabaton’s latest, Coat of Arms, which is out now on Nuclear Blast.

-AR

When Susan Gerl, guitarist for Dutch melodic death metallers and MetalSucks faves God Dethroned, offered to do a tour blog for the South American leg of the band’s War Propaganda tour, we just couldn’t say no! Read Susan’s account of the highs and lows of that tour below. And don’t forget that God Dethroned start the North American, MetalSucks co-sponsored leg of the tour tomorrow. Get a complete tour itinerary here, or after the jump!

At the moment I’m sitting on the plane from Houston to Tucson, and we have nearly finished the first leg of our War Propaganda World Tour.

We started off in Brazil and had a really good time there. The atmosphere was really nice and laid back. Something we had to get used to, though, was the Brazilian sense of time. When we arranged to meet somewhere, we would be there, right on the spot – and waiting. After doing this for one day we adapted ourselves pretty quickly to the Brazilian pace of doing things and just stayed relaxed in our hotel rooms until the promoter phoned us that it was time to go to the venue, which was usually a couple of hours later than initially planned, so no rush there.

One disappointment in Brazil was the cancellation of our Sao Paulo show. To make a long story short: it all came down to money and corruption.

Click to read more…

Hey, lookit that! After their last, incredibly silly video, for “Drowning in Mud,” God Dethroned have returned with a new video “Poison Fog,” that kicks all kinds of ass. It’s not just a dude running around in a field! Hoo-ray!

And just in time for their MetalSucks co-sponsored tour with Augury, Woe of Tyrants and Abigail Williams! SCORE!

God Dethroned’s Passiondale is out now on Metal Blade. It’s killer. Go check it out.

-AR

God Dethroned will be assaulting North America for the first time since 2007 on the headlining War Propaganda World Tour 2009 in support of their newest album, Passiondale (recipient of four-out-of-five horns on MetalSucks!). Vocalist/guitarist Henri Sattler and co. will embark on the coast to coast campaign starting on September 30th. Joining the MetalSucks, SMNnews.com and MetalInjection.net-sponsored march will be Abigail Williams, Augury and labelmates Woe Of Tyrants. MetalSucks and SMNnews will be giving away tickets to shows and MetalInjection will be posting video updates from God Dethroned as they tour across the US. Stay tuned for details as they become available.

Sattler comments on the tour: “The second leg of the tour [the first leg was in Europe] starts on September 30th in Tucson, Arizona with Abigail Williams, Augury and label mates Woe of Tyrants and leads us through the States up to Canada. We are really excited to tour the U.S. again and to promote our latest album “Passiondale”, which was released last April. Our last show in the U.S. was in 2007 so we can’t wait to see many of our fans again soon!

Full list of tour dates after the jump.

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So if you’ve been reading this site for awhile, you know we’re fans of God Dethroned and their new WWI concept album, Passiondale. Sammy O’Hagar gave it four outta five horns, and we were very proud to host the exclusive album stream shortly before its release.

So it kinda kills me to say that the band’s new video, for “Drowning in Mud,” is terrible. I mean, some directors know how to take a shoestring budget and do something cool with it, and some directors apparently think putting one dude in the middle of a field in a fairly ridiculous looking military outfit and filming him running around in a wide shot and then adding some old-timey looking effects in post will suffice.

Those directors are dead wrong.

Still, I encourage you to close your eyes and just enjoy the music. ‘Cause Passiondale is a really good record.

-AR

Actually, we don’t have to pirate our own articles. Plenty of other websites do that for us, often without giving us credit or linking back to us. Once upon a time someone even accidentally included one of our bylines in their cut and paste job. Said “writer” apologized but then went on to shamelessly rip us off many more times, which was nice, because it shows his apology was sincere. You know who else tried to pass off someone else’s work as their own? The guy who went on to shoot Dimebag. So good company you keep, fellas.

Here are other ethically questionable decisions people made in the metal world this week:

• Hasidim moshed, we made punny jokes.
• Matt Heafy and Paolo Gregoletto of Trivium asked fans to illegally burn and share the band’s music.
• We’re streaming God Dethroned’s entire new album until Tuesday; listen now! We also debuted new tracks from Animals as Leaders and Burning Human.
• Arch Enemy choose to re-record old material; we choose to stop talking about this project from hereon out (starting… now!).
• Tyson vs. Holyfield 3 Underoath vs. Avenged Sevenfold! We love this kind of shit.
• Some Russian high school black metallers headbanged for show and tell, and we pondered how to improve our corpsepaint skillz.
• The Dillinger Escape Plan’s Greg Puciato sounded off against President Barack Obama. You sounded off against each other.
• We looked at new releases from Chimaira, God Dethroned and Goes Cube.

Next week brings more contests, more interviews, more new music streams you won’t be able to hear anywhere else, and at least one confrontation with a singer Axl once gave a terrible review. Come back and read more. You know you want to.

-Vince and Axl

Did you catch Sammy O’Hagar’s 4 out of 5-horns review of God Dethroned’s excellent new album Passiondale? If you missed it, here’s the gist:

Passiondale is a compact, precise, and immensely rewarding listen, essentially a barbed collection of riffs that you’ll most likely find yourself humming afterward… The melodic tinges are very Heartwork, while the black metal elements are nail bombs occasionally thrown in to put a part or riff over the top (the fierce opening “Under a Darkening Sky” bobs and weaves between the two seamlessly, while the title track swells with an almost In Flames sort of bigness)… Passiondale is a precise yet affecting record that’s not afraid of beauty or sadness, but certainly isn’t preoccupied with it.

Lucky for you, you don’t have to take our word for it; listen to the entire new record below, for free, until its Metal Blade release on Tuesday, April 28th, and let us know what you think. If you like what you hear, you can pre-order the CD here or pre-order a special CD/t-shirt combo here.

- The MS Dudes

[This streaming audio promotion has ended. Sorry!]

God Dethroned’s decision to base their latest album, Passiondale, on a particularly bloody World War I battle – quite possibly the second most brutal war ever, behind only the one that followed it – both fits their toothsome brand of blackened melodic death metal and doesn’t: the band’s previous M.O. has been mainly anti-Christian, as is the nature of the blackened half of their sound. But God Dethroned’s militaristically precise riffing and often relentless drumming evoke the horrors of the dawn of modern warfare, and the lyrics don’t glorify war as much as provide a first person account, complete with the terror and panic of it. Passiondale’s melodic flourishes smooth out the edges (of what would, without it, most likely be a Marduk album), but doesn’t dip into sentimentality too often. Those edges are still sharp, the album’s concept is still one filled with horror, and by no means is this an uncharacteristic softening of a band like God Dethroned. Passiondale is a compact, precise, and immensely rewarding listen, essentially a barbed collection of riffs that you’ll most likely find yourself humming afterward.

Click to read more…

The Netherlands’ God Dethroned is band # 2,586,923 that we don’t talk about enough around here. I wasn’t really that familair with them until 2006′s The Toxic Touch, but if you’re a fan of European melodeath, you should absolutely check this band out.

And here’s your chance: the group just posted a new song, “Under a Darkening Sky,” on their MySpace page. It’s our first taste of music from the band’s forthcoming album, Passiondale (And I wanna go on record right now as saying that I like the album’s name better in its original Dutch – Passchendaele – just because for some reason it makes me giggle. Passchendaele. Tee hee.), and I think it bodes well for the rest of the record.

And because I can just seem some idiot complaing that the name Passiondale sounds like some pussy soap opera, I would like to preemptively tell that person to learn your fucking history.

Passiondale will be released Metal Blade Records in Germany/Austria/Switzerland/Italy on April 24, 2009 and in the rest of Europe on April 26. I have no idea about an American release date but hopefully it will be somewhere in that vicinity, too.

-AR