As regular readers are already aware, we do not always agree with one another here at MetalSucks. To that end, we now present not one but two reviews of the new Goes Cube album, In Tides and Drifts, which is out now on The End Records — one from Ben Shanbrom, who loved the album, and another from Gary Suarez, who, uh, didn’t. We hope you find our staff arguing in public as entertaining as we do.

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MetalSucks is oh-so-very happy to be teaming up with RED Distribution to bring you, our most beloved readers, the MetalSucks Fan Pack, which will be available exclusively at all FYE stores starting this Tuesday, April 12. Not only does this limited edition box full o’ metal come with a CD featuring twenty brootal tunes by twenty brootal bands (including Kvelertak, Trap Them, Believer, Napalm Death, TesseracT, Thomas Giles, Deicide and a bunch more) but it also comes with that HOLY SHIT THAT IS SO KILLER t-shirt you see above, which was designed by our friend Rodney Githens from Vertebrae 33 (you might also recognize his work from this sexy t-shirt and this Louvre-worthy poster that he did for us).

How much would you expect to pay for this incredible package? Twenty bucks? Fifteen bucks? Try $9.99. That’s right, gang — twenty songs from twenty bands and that guaranteed-to-get-you-laid t-shirt for under ten bucks.

But wait! There’s more! If you act now and head over to the official MetalSucks Fan Pack web page, you can get a coupon for 30%, which brings the price down to a mere seven dollars. Holy crap, that’s a metsieh if ever there was one.

So go here to get a complete track list of all the bands on the comp, and to use the nifty store-finder to locate the f.y.e. nearest to you. And, oh yeah, you can also enter to win this custom guitar:

So, yeah, that’s pretty fuckin’ bad-assed.

-Axl & Vince

Biggest and best metal release day of 2011 so far? It certainly seems that way. New records from Amon Amarth, Becoming the Archetype, Blackguard, Cavalera Conspiracy — are you kidding me? there’s still more? — Goes Cube, Havok, Mercenary, Obscura and a Between the Buried and Me best-of comp (with a brand new release coming next week!) all officially come out today. If you’re a devoted metalhead with varied tastes you better have saved up, else you’ll be very, very poor come tomorrow.

Vic Vaughn takes a look at all those release — and yes, EVEN MORE — after the break.

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The new Goes Cube album, In Tides and Drifts, is FUCKING SICK, guys. The album comes out on The End on March 29, but there are already chances to hear some new shit; for one, our friend Sean “Spleen Latifah” Gresens shot some footage of the band performing new material for Metal Injection — you can watch a clip above, or go here to see the rest. And you’ll get to hear an official studio cut when we debut a new song as part of Volume 2 of our free NYC Sucks compilation (you can download Volume 1 here!!!). But just know that the album is FUCKING SICK.

So I’m stoked that the band just announced a tour for next month. I really dug their last album, 2009′s Another Day Has Passed, but, frankly, I don’t think it holds a candle to this new one, and I’m really excited to see them play lots and lots and lots of new tunes live.

Here are dates, via The PRP:

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[UPDATE: And a new Crowbar song!! Listen to "Let Me Mourn" here.]

I know we told you that we’re done bloggingg for 2010, but the metal train keeps on a rollin’ and there’s some killer new music out there you need to hear!

Ex-Periphery frontman Chris Barretto — who recently recorded a cover of STP’s “Wicked Garden” with The Binary Code — has a new band called Ever Forthright. One listen to Ever Forthright and you won’t be surprised that they chose a former member of Periphery to front their band, as they’ve certainly got a shared sonic template, but Ever Forthright are a whole lot more experimental in their harmonic choices than Periphery. There’s some really legit jazz-ish noodling, dissonance, and chaos here. Think djent meets Dillinger Escape Plan. Ever Forthright have two new songs available for streaming on their Soundcloud page, and some other ones at MySpace. For what it’s worth I think Barretto was a great choice for this band, and it’s good to hear his voice again. [Thanks: Randy Gatto,

One of the few pagan/folk metal bands worth caring about, Turisas, are giving away a free download of the title track from their forthcoming record Stand Up and Fight. Turisas (or, more accurately, probably Century Media) really want you to spread the word about the track and are requiring a Tweet or Facebook update on your part to download it which is super annoying, but I’m guessing the track’s already up on YouTube — as is par for the course these days – if you want to bypass that step. The track isn’t full of the over-the-top madness I’ve come to expect from Turisas but is absolutely solid; Turisas are one of those bands that are best experienced live anyway. Stand Up and Fight comes out on March 8th in North America and in late February most everywhere else (aka it’ll be available on the Internet by late February, latest).

Brooklyn alt/post-metal trio Goes Cube — who are appearing on our free NYC Sucks digital compilation to be released in January and February — have released two slammin’ new songs. I haven’t actually listened to the new songs yet but I assume they’re slammin’ because their 2009 The End Records debut Another Day Has Passed kicked all kinds of ass. The songs are available via Coextinction Recordings for a total of $2.99 where you can also hear samples of both. Look for a new Goes Cube record via The End in 2011.

-VN

“The last day of SXSW is always the most metal.” – Kip Wingerschimidt, the morning of the last day of SXSW 2009, before staying up all night partying with Dredg and then tearing the insides of his knee to shreds in the most non-metal of ways whilst getting ready to go to the airport. Fortunately there would be no injuries this year, but the last day of SXSW was indeed quite metal, we did stay up all night, and we worked out some really sweet deals.

Only one problem: it was fucking cold outside. Not just Texas cold… actual cold, like low 40s / high 30s. We New Yorkers are used to that kind of weather (on a good day in the winter) but having to endure it in Austin in the Spring was a major buzzkill.

The calm before the storm… E. 6th St. at about noon, while trucks are making their beer deliveries and everyone else is still sleeping off their hangovers from the night before.

But we had our own method of keeping warm. With at least half of the bag o’ herbals left and only one day to smoke it, it was do or die time for the sweet leaf we purchased in Dallas. First mission of the day was to roll it all up. Fifteen minutes later we were ready to begin our final mission, five joints in tow.

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In which we ate epic BBQ and saw an epic headline set by Muse…

Every year at SXSW I make time for a trip down to the Salt Lick. It’s never easy; at 45 minutes outside the city limits it turns into a 3+ hour adventure, and the tricky part is getting a ride. Thankfully this year the dudes in East of the Wall and Goes Cube hooked it up big time and by noon me, Kip, and Rob from Metal Injection were on our way to Driftwood.

I know there are other great BBQ places, even inside Austin itself, but the Salt Lick is so fucking good I just can’t NOT go there. By the time we rolled up to the Salt Lick parking lot with Goes Cube, East of the Wall were ready and waiting with a case of beer (Salt Lick is BYOB). We quickly sucked down the two joints we’d rolled that morning and put our names on the list, and within 20 minutes we were sitting at a table ready to gorge ourselves on meat.

Salt Lick offers “all you can eat” meat platters for $15 per person. They include brisket, ribs and sausage, and they’ll just keep bringing you more platters until you say stop. Stoned, drunk and jubilated we tore into the meat as soon as our waiter set it down on the table. For some reason the question “Another round of meat, guys?” elicited constant laughs… there’s something about the concept of being able to order rounds of meat that tickled us silly.

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First of all, congrats to Norman Schrader, Ryan Torchia, and a reader who asked that she be identified only as “Barbara” – they each correctly identified last week’s logo as belonging to the band Thyrfing, and they each win an autographed 7-inch from Goes Cube! Good for you, kids.

Now that we have that out of the way: did you know that MARCH IS METAL MONTH?!?! It’s true! And there’s gonna be all sorts of kick-assery to celebrate. You can go here for all the latest details; in the meantime, “Completely Unreadable…” is going to be partnering with MARCH IS METAL MONTH (gggggrrrr) for, well, the entire month of March to give away super-duper awesome prizes. First up: a copy of Arsis’ new album, Starve for the Devil, signed by the band, and an Arsis poster that is also signed by the band. Starve is a really fantastic record that you should own anyway, but you throw in the autographs, and, well, if I was you I’d get crackin’ on this here logo.

All you have to do to win is identify the name of the band whose logo appears below, then shoot me an e-mail at axl AT metalsucks DOT net with your answer, your name, and your address. From everyone who gets it right, we’ll randomly select one winner and announce his or her name next week.

This week’s logo was suggested by read Isaac Schwarz. Thanks, Isaac!

-AR

Congrats to Jackson May and Sophie Holman. They each correctly identified last week’s logo as belonging to the band Paracoccidioidomicosisproctitissarcomucosis, and they each win a vinyl copy of Sigh’s Scenes from Hell for their troubles. Congratulations, kids! It’s an awesome record and we’re sure you’re gonna enjoy it.

This week we have another very special prize from the fine folks at The End Records: three, count ‘em three, autographed 7-inches from Goes Cube. There were only 500 of these bad boys pressed, and they contain the songs “Property” and “The Ban Has Been Lifted.” This is a really talented band and a really special prize, so get crackin’!

All you have to do to win is identify the name of the band whose logo appears below, then shoot me an e-mail at axl AT metalsucks DOT net with your answer, your name, and your address. From everyone who gets it right, we’ll randomly select three winners and announce his or her names next week.

This week’s logo was suggested to us by reader Tom Kelly…

-AR

The title of this post is intentionally sarcastic, so please don’t get cranky or confused! Still, I think we all can agree that the traditional single has become ever rarer with the rise of digital downloads. Though still in circulation, 7″ singles maintain a tenuous, uncertain existence even in the punk and hardcore scene. Clearly the demand for vinyl exists in the metal community, as savvy indies large and small produce (sometimes limited) wax versions of their releases. This, then, is why I anticipate at least some of you will be happy to hear that The End Records will release a 7″ of brand-new music from Brooklyn noise rockers Goes Cube.

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This Monday, August 24, Brooklyn noise rockers Goes Cube are playing a one-off show at Precious Metal, the NYC party (curated by Curran Reynolds of Wetnurse!) which showcases awesome heavy music every week at Manhattan’s Lit Lounge. Opening acts are DBCR and Easter, but perhaps the most exciting news is that I’M DJING THIS FUCKING THING. Now you have an opportunity to see me in the flesh, bask in my glory, baste in my gravy, and listen to me play songs you hate between sets from some great local bands.

It’s not like you’re doing anything else Monday night anyway, you sad lonely virgins.

-GS

[Gary Suarez likes puppies. He usually manages the consistently off-topic No Yoko No. Say, why don't you follow him on Twitter?]

Another day has passed and you still haven’t heard Goes Cube? This is the headline our own Satan Rosenbloom used for his review of Goes Cube’s The End Records debut Another Day Has Passed, released last month, and recipient of a highly distinctive four-out-of-five horns rating on MetalSucks — and the headline could not be any more true, because Another Day Has Passed is a sick album worthy of the attention of any fan of the Quicksand/Helmet school of post-metal. Now you’ve literally got no excuse for letting yet another day pass, because we’re giving away a free track from Another Day Has Passed right here, right now. So don’t let this opportunity slip by, sucker.

Goes Cube – “Goes Cube Song 57″

-VN

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

I’ve never had the privilege of seeing Goes Cube in concert, but I imagine a t-shirt wearing beardo turning to his flannel-weaering beardo friend and going “Listen to this one, broheim! This shit is so good!” about every single song they play. Such is the embarrassment of riches on Another Day Has Passed, the Brooklyn band’s first full-lengther after a string of sold-out EPs: thirteen varied, hard rocking buzzsaw tunes, and nary a bad one in the bunch.

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After the antics of the first day of the festival, I felt more than ready to get into day two with a healthy dose of music from the beginning. Unfortunately, that was not to be so for me, as at the time I thought I would be continuing on after SXSW into further ridonkulousness, all the way to a family vacation during Spring Break in Mexico….and today was the day that my renewed passport was meant to be FedExed to the flophouse where Vince and I were crashing.

When I had returned to said flophouse the night prior and to my surprise found an open couch in the living room right by the front door (where I was told FedEx homeboy would appear bright and early), I figured it prolly made the most sense to sleep right there on the ground floor as opposed to the stank upstairs sweat lodge where I would be sure to miss any sounds of door knocking.

Sadly, no FedEx arrived in the morning as promised — I was actually awoken by a phone call from Vince around noon wondering where the hell I had ended up last night. After a couple more hours my passport finally arrived, at which point I had to wait at least another hour for a cab to take me down to the action.

HOLY SHIT.

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After yesterday morning’s scare, thankfully Kip turned up. On the couch downstairs at the flophouse we’re crashing at. Phew!

It was another fine day in Texas; 80 degrees, sunny, lots of metal. First up was Full Metal Texas, at which I saw Black Math Horsemen, Kylesa, Skeletonwitch and Fact. The End Records / MetalSucks showcase followed, at which Junius, Hull, These are They, Goes Cube, Tub Ring and Early Man rocked the confines of a tightly packed room that looked like an old European castle. My quick summary after the jump.

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MetalSucks is proud to present, along with our friends at The End Records, an actual Official South by Southwest 2009 Showcase! Kip and I will be rockin’ with our cocks out in Austin, TX non-stop from Wednesday through Saturday while Axl and a particularly clever MS Mansion Monkey named “Higgins” hold down the fort here in NY. You’re likely to catch us at many of the awesome metal-flavored SXSW events going down this year (including but not limited to Full Metal Texas), but you will absolutely catch us at the kick-ass MetalSucks / The End Records showcase at The Ale House Pub on the eve of Thursday, March 19th. The killer lineup includes Junius, Hull, These are They, Goes Cube, Tub Ring and Early Man — holy fuckin’ shit!!

Set times and location after the jump. See you there.

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It always happens this way; you wait and wait and wait for a band you love to come around, and when they finally do they’re playing at the same time as that other band you’ve waited and waited and waited for. So it is tonight in NYC, FOUR-fold. So if you’ve still got an open card for the evening, check out at least one of these awesome shows, and if you’re ambitious and have deep pockets lined with cab money, check out all four! It’s a great night to be a metal fan in NYC, with headliners Wetnurse, Origin, Amorphis and Kataklysm sitting atop 4 totally well-rounded and deep tour bills.

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