If you’re American, you already know it’s Memorial Day weekend, and, in fact, you’re probably either already on your way to the beach/a BBQ/a terrible summer movie/whatever, and are reading this after it was published. If you’re not American, all you really need to know is that we’re breaking out right now, and won’t be here on Monday. Usual tomfoolery will resume on Tuesday, May 31.

In the meantime, here’s how we kept busy this week:

• We debuted new music from Job for a Cowboy, Tombs, Unearth, and Vaulting.
• We spoke to Neil Fallon from Clutch.
• We continued to unveil our list of The Top 25 Modern Metal Guitarists.
• We checked out the latest releases from Dark Castle and Embers.
• Sergeant D. examined comedy metal.
• Leyla Ford examined Lady GaGa’s metal-ness.
• Anso wondered if Slayer pinball is better than recent Slayer albums.
• We got really excited about the new Gojira song.
• We got less excited about the new Bury Your Dead song.
• We watched you folks debated about the new Trivium song.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I am going to put these tips for using the toilet to good use before I head out for the weekend. See ya Tuesday!

-AR

I’m disrupting our usual posting schedule because some things are just too damn important to wait until tomorrow. And, clearly, this is one of those things.

It seems like forever now that we’ve been hearing about a new Gojira EP, the proceeds of which would benefit anti-whaling organization Sea Shepherd. And we knew that the EP would feature “guests from the international metal community.” Now one of those songs, “Of Blood and Salt,” featuring two of those guests — some dudes named Devin Townsend and Fredrik Thordendal (What a letdown, Gojira. Whassa matter? Dio and Hendrix weren’t available?) — is scheduled to be released with a sampler that will accompany next week’s issue of Metal Hammer. This being 2011, though, the song is already on YouTube. You can listen below.

Do I even have to tell you it’s awesome? It’s classic Gojira — I mean, I think at least 95% of the song consists of a massive elephants marching riff. Add a little Devy and Thordendal (I assume that’s him playing the guitar solo, although I could be wrong) and, well… get ready to have a six and a half minute orgasm.

Hopefully the EP will have an official release date soon. Meanwhile, keep in mind that Gojira’s Joe Duplantier appears on the song “Sumeria” on The Devin Townsend Project’s new album, Deconstruction, which comes out on June 21 via InsideOut.

-AR

Thanks to everyone who e-mailed us about this.

Max Cavalera is a name you’ve probably heard recently. His band, Cavalera Conspiracy, has been making waves in the metal world with their latest release, Blunt Force Trauma, and are currently on tour in the U.S. But here’s something you might not have known: he’s been at this for decades.

Max, along with his esteemed colleague and brother, Igor, made some of the most beastly and innovative thrash in the mid 80’s and 90’s in the highly influential, underground metal outlet, Sepultura (Portuguese for “grave”). Unfortunately personal differences in ’96 drew him away from the band. Upon relocating to the States, he focused his talents on a new project, the still-running Soulfly (English for “Mighty-Spirit-Mosquito”).

For years Max worked tirelessly with the group, releasing seven studio album’s and gradually building a cult following in the process. Now with a new band and his brother back at his side, the world is finally taking notice.

I recently had the opportunity to speak with the bearded bellower to get the skinny on the new album and see what he makes of his recent success.

Click to read more…

The good folks at Heavy Blog is Heavy are celebrating the dawn of spring with Prog Metal March, in which they’re featuring one song by a different prog metal band every day. Why March? Beats me, but any excuse to compile the best of the best prog metal is a-ok with this guy. Yesterday’s entry comes from our favorite frenchmen Gojira, who as you may have heard are finally finishing their Sea Shepherd EP and are even working on a live DVD and writing a brand new album.

Today’s celebration comes from their 2008 smasher The Way of All Flesh in the form of a live performance of the album’s second track, “Toxic Garbage Island.” Few riffs written in the last 10 years get me as pumped as the opening riff of this song. Perfect in every way. I haven’t seen this footage before but it’s unbelievable. I dare you to challenge my assertion that Mario Duplantier is one of the best drummers in modern metal.

I just got chills watching this… srsly.

-VN

Any time there’s Gojira news worth paying attention to MS reader Ashley Lee is there for us. For this we’re incredibly grateful, because our jobs are like really super-difficult and our lives suck and we don’t have time to do things like periodically peruse Gojira’s Facebook page (srsly), where the band just posted an update about a live DVD, the long-awaited Sea Shepherd EP and a brand new full-length studio album, all of which they’re working on right now! Other websites take note: don’t pretend like Ashley Lee sent this to you too. Here’s Gojira:

We are currently working on a live DVD with important bonus section : “The Way Of All Flesh From The Inside”, the Sea Shepherd EP, (a non profit operation with a lot of people involved is a bit complicated to wrap, but we’re getting there and we promise to release these songs soon). We’re also composing a new album! We’ve written pretty much half of it, and we are very excited by this new material. It’s a big step for us. These songs are original and a good reflection of what we are today.

Click to read more…

Did you know that Car Bomb vocalist Michael Dafferner’s day job is working as a satellite engineer? No, no I did not. Well, did you know that he also directed a documentary, [why_you_do_this], about how difficult and shitty it is to be a touring metal musician? No, no I did not know that, either. Yeah, well, neither did I, but apparently both facts are true.

[why_you_do_this] (it’s a statement, not a question asked by an immigrant) is going to make its premiere next week at the Queens World Film Festival (as in a world film festival which takes place in Queens, not a film festival which takes place on a world full of royal women), and even though I didn’t know about it until like ten seconds ago, it look pretty interesting — Dafferner interviewed all kinds of cool people, like Richard Christy, Randy Blythe, Joe Duplantier, and Ben Falgoust, all about the very simple question posed by the title. Or, perhaps a little less succinctly, this move could be called Holy Shit There is No Money to be Made in Metal and Touring Fucking Sucks, Why the Fucking Fuck Do You Keep Subjecting Yourself to this Crap? Which is a question every aspiring metal musician should ask him or herself, since the chances of making a living at playing music are only slightly better than the chances that you’ll be struck by lightning while receiving a wristie from Marilyn Monroe.

ANYWAY, the movie premieres at the aforementioned film festival on Friday, March 4, at 7:00pm EST at The Renaissance Auditorium (81^st Street & 37^th Ave) in Jackson Heights, NY. You can get more details, as well as tickets, here; you can also watch the trailer here and a clip here (they’re not embeddable… I guess they’re trying to keep the film a secret). I don’t think I can make it ’cause I’ll be on an airplane just hours prior, but if anyone goes, please let me know how it is. Hopefully this thing will get a DVD release or something soon so the rest of us can check it out.

Also, the press release says that Car Bomb are working on new music. That’s what they told me in 2008, too, but maybe we’ll actually get a new album before I turn eighty.

-AR

“Hey guys, why haven’t you posted this yet?!! It only sounds like the single greatest piece of music ever, brah.”
-Drew Webb

“This should give you another Devin boner.”
-Brian Kessler

“MY DICK IS AFLAME WITH SEMEN.”
-Sam Payne

Well don’t hold back, fellas! Let us know how excited you really are about about this latest behind-the-scenes video from Devin Townsend.

Pretty cool, right? But wait! That’s not all. It seems that Devin recently made a love connection with The Dillinger Escape Plan’s Greg Puciato… via Twitter!

Click to read more…

I tried to download Devin Townsend’s free new live EP yesterday but Inside Out’s website was so overloaded with traffic that I couldn’t get through. Kinda a good problem to have if you’re Devin, I suppose; too much popularity can’t be a bad thing. I just tried again and things went much more swimmingly, so if you had problems yesterday I’d recommend you give it another go.

With all the fracas surrounding the new EP, we completely overlooked this latest bit of Devin-related news: Opeth’s Mikael Akerfeldt, BTBAM’s Tommy Rogers and Gojira’s Joe Duplantier are all rumored to be contributing vocals to Devin’s forthcoming Deconstruction record. We say “rumored” because the speculation is only based on a series of Tweets by Devin, such as “Thank you Joe D,” but given Devin’s reputation and relationships I don’t think it’s a stretch to assume these guest spots are indeed happening. This on top of the confirmation earlier this month that Ihsahn will be contributing vocals too: yowza! I, for one, think Devin’s got an amazing voice of his own — often underrated in all the Devin hype — but I’m of course happy he’s enlisted such an A-list cast of characters to help out this time around.

Can’t wait for Destruction. Can’t wait for Ghost. Stoked.

-VN

In between the gruesome, heartless whale slaughterers of the world and the earth’s largest mammals stands one thing: Gojira.

The boat.

In November we told you that Sea Shepherd had named one of their vessels after our favorite metallica Frenchmen, but with a new season of Animal Planet’s Whale Wars around the corner we’ll soon get to see her in action. Check out the trailer for Season 4 sent in by longtime MS supporter Shinaain:

Soon enough we’ll have a brand new EP by Gojira — the band — the proceeds of which will be donated to Sea Shepherd. Cannot wait.

Now get to arguing in the comments section about how we’re all crazy environmentalist hippie pinko lefties just like you always do.

-VN

I think I’ve used the phrase “elephants marching riff” on MetalSucks before, but during a hang sesh with Vince just before the holidays, I realized we don’t use it enough — especially considering how often we actually talk about elephants marching riffs. I don’t remember when Vince and I started using the phrase to describe these lumbering, brutally heavy riffs, but they are absolutely one of my favorite metallic tropes. I fucking LOVE a good elephants marching riff.

Like the taco riff, the elephants marching riff is a little hard to define verbally — but you know it the second you hear it. The easiest explanation is that it sounds MASSIVE and moves at the pace at which you suspect a giant beast of war — say, an elephant — might move. But it can’t just be slow — doom bands and, alas, deathcore bands write slow riffs all the time, but I’d rarely define them as “elephants marching riffs.”

For example, the section of Murder the Frail’s “Disturbia” which begins at roughly the 1:45 mark is leaden — but an elephants marching riff it is not:

Click to read more…

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Welcome to “Question of the Week,” a (sometimes) weekly debate amongst the MetalSucks staff regarding a recent hot button issue.

This week, Anso DF suggested the Question of the Week; unfortunately, he did so before Slipknot announced that they’re headlining the Sonisphere Festival this year, so it doesn’t seem quite as relevant anymore. Still, it was a fun question to answer, so:

TO WHAT EXTENT WOULD A SLIPKNOT BREAK-UP BE BAD FOR METAL?

The MS staff’s answers after the jump.

Click to read more…

Maybe President Obama should just send Gojira to Iran on a diplomatic mission; the French metallers wouldn’t likely be able to stop the country’s nuclear buildup, but they’re certainly heavier than the enriched uranium the country’s government so covets. Maybe they’d even be able to unite the oft-troubled Middle East region in synchronized headbanging… or a collective “elephants marching” session to “Vacuity.”

Getting Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to headbang might be wishful thinking, but there’s at least one Gojira fan in Iran who thought it’d be cool to interview frontman/guitarist Joe Duplantier for a new series called “Scream For Me Tehran” on the website Manoto1 TV. Unfortunately Google Translate can’t handle what’s being said inside YouTube videos (yet!) but Joe’s answers are in English, and as always they provide an insightful (if brief) look into the motivations behind his music, in this case the quite topical issue of why he chooses to sing in English. Thanks to loyal MS reader and fellow Gojira supernerd Shinaain for sending this in:

Of course we all know that Gojira are currently recording (or perhaps have already finished recording?) a new EP, the benefits of which will be going to the Sea Shepherd organization. But did you know that Sea Shepherd’s got a boat named Gojira? Footage of that uber-sweet sea-faring vessel, which has apparently circumnavigated the entire world, after the jump:

Click to read more…

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Welcome to “Question of the Week,” a (sometimes) weekly debate amongst the MetalSucks staff regarding a recent hot button issue.

This week, we have our first ever reader-suggested QOTW, coming from MetalSucks Maniac Cougar Party:

WHAT BANDS DO YOU HATE THAT YOU HAVE SEEN LIVE MULTIPLE TIMES BECAUSE THEY ARE ALWAYS OPENING FOR SOMEONE YOU LIKE?

The MS staff’s answers after the jump.

Click to read more…

This past April, Gojira announced they’d be recording a new five-song EP this summer featuring “guests from the international metal community,” the proceeds of which would benefit anti-whaling organization Sea Shepherd. As of July, we were still wondering what the heck has been going on with that, and since then, we’ve received fairly regular e-mails from readers asking us for updates — in fact, MetalSucks Maniac Ray Pecheone e-mailed us looking for info just this monday.

And, hey, guess what? The PRP has the scoop! They report:

Gojira will enter a Los Angeles, CA area studio next week to begin recording their new four song EP with producer Logan Mader (DevilDriver, Cavalera Conspiracy). The band have also revealed that the EP will feature some “very special guests singing.”

So the EP is still happening, it’s still gonna have some presumably awesome guests (my money’s on Randy Blythe, amongst others), the recording schedule just seems to have been delayed a little. But I’ll take tardy Gojira over no Gojira.

-AR

As was the case last Wednesday, a whole buncha bands have all released new videos at once, and for convenience’s sake, I’m just gonna lump them all together in one post. If you don’t like it, go get a bowling ball, hold it over your head, and release the ball. Thanks.

First up we have “Unbreakable,” the new Raul Gonzo-directed video from Sumeriancore masters Veil of Maya. I’m not as big of a fan of this band as Vince is, although I certainly respect the heck outta ‘em, especially after seeing their live set at Summer Slaughter earlier this month. But I have no fucking idea what’s going on in this video. These people are connected to the band via wires and stuff, and, uh, I guess the music is, like, making them type real fast, and mash stuff with their hands, and, um, fingerpaint?, and, uh… then they put all this stuff in the oven, and it grows into a brain. I mean, I’m a college educated New York Jew, so I know from over-thinking stuff, but I don’t even know where to begin with this one. If anyone has any theories, by all means, put ‘em in the comments section. Otherwise I’m just gonna go with, “Hey, cool song!”

Click to read more…

Holy shit, is it seriously August already? It’s gonna start getting cold soon. Motherfucker. Here’s what we did this week when we should have been enjoying the sunshine and fresh air:

• We’re streaming Dementia/Dyslexia, the Metal Blade debut of Fleshwrought,  a new project from Animosity/Animals as Leaders’ Navene Koperweis and Job for a Cowboy’s Jonny Davy.
• We debuted an EPK for Iron Thrones’ The Wretched Sun.
• We also debuted “Fear, Emptiness, Decibel,” a new column from the editors of our favorite metal rag.
• We had a little beard on beard action with Andy Williams from Every Time I Die and Liam Wilson from The Dillinger Escape Plan. We also spoke to Avenged Sevenfold’s Johnny Christ, The Dillinger Escape Plan’s Jeff Tuttle and Pathology’s Dave Astor.
• We checked out the latest releases from Chimaira and Decrepit Birth.
• We schooled Korn’s Jonathan Davis on the BP Oil Spill.
• We questioned the sincerity of Max Cavalera’s claim that his collaboration with Fred Durst is all Ross Robinson’s fault.
• We questioned Glenn Danzig’s sanity. Again.
• We got pissy that Eddie’s not on the cover of the new Maiden album.
• We got boners watching 72 minutes of pro-shot Gojira footage.
• We did not get boners looking at Emmure noodz.
• We found the best bass player in the history of forever-ever-ever.

We’ll be hanging out at the Summer Slaughter show this Sunday here in NYC; if you spot us, please bring us presents. We like presents. Thanks.

-AR

Back in April Gojira announced they’d be recording a new 5-song EP this summer featuring “guests from the international metal community,” the proceeds of which would benefit anti-whaling organization Sea Shepherd. What ever became of that project? I ask because though summer’s not yet close to over the clock is definitely ticking, and I haven’t heard any updates or progress reports at all — and their August is calendar is chock full of festival dates in Europe. Furthermore, and not that this necessarily means anything, their former U.S. label Prosthetic Records denies any knowledge of news relating to the EP. So… what up? We sincerely hope our favorite Frenchmen haven’t gotten too busy to make this EP a reality.

Meanwhile, you can get your Gojira fix with 72 minutes of pro-shot, HD footage of their show at au Festival Les Vieilles Charrues in France. It’s good to see the guys are just as tight as ever, and it’s pretty cool to see them playing a bunch of older material from Terra Incognita and The Link. I’ve been attempting to watch this in the background all morning as I go about my other work (“what? there’s work besides writing and bong-toking that goes on at the MS Mansion? whodathunkit.”) but my eyes keep coming back because, ya know, Gojira! Thanks to Gideon McAdams for the link.

-VN

Alight guys, sorry I haven’t posted an article in a while, but I’m here now with something I think is kinda cool and rarely gets talked about in the metal world: Groove.

Some of you guys may know just how much I love a rhythm that grooves, something that just makes you want to bob your head to it, and there’s more to it than just getting playful with the accents or syncopating a beat. There are the more subtle aspects, the kind that sometimes don’t translate so well to recordings. I mean, what is groove exactly and what gives it that “feel”? Who in the band really affects the level of groove — is it just the drummer, the drummer and the bassist, or the band as a whole?

Click to read more…

It takes balls for five white dudes from Indiana to name their EP after a Maya Angelou poem. But I’ve been enjoying Deliver Us From Evil‘s Still I Rise EP so much, they could have just as well called it The Autobiography of Malcolm X and it wouldn’t have bothered me that much.

Whether you realize it or not, you’re probably already familiar with the band’s drummer, Alex Morgan; he’s a talented and successful photographer who has worked with Gojira and Daath, amongst others. (Check out his work at his official website, or with this MS post or this MS post, or just look about an inch up on this post.) Which makes it all the more baffling to me that Deliver Us From Evil are unsigned; they’re like eight million times better than half the bands publicists and label reps send us every day.

Click to read more…

If you’re gonna sound like another band, Gojira aren’t such a bad band to choose — unlike so many other oft-worshipped bands (At the Gates, Meshuggah, etc), Gojira haven’t quite reached the level of ubiquity where imitation has become widespread and annoying. At least not yet. Here are three decent Gojira-inspired bands sent in by our readers:

• Trepalium: Like Gojira but with more of a hip-shaking swagger. If Gojira sound like “elephants marching” as Axl likes to say, than Trepalium are something like elephants skipping in unison (but no less heavy). They even toured with Gojira in France last year. [Thanks: Gideon, for a hilariously stoned email]
• Grenouer: Gojira-meets-Meshuggah death metal from Russia played with surprising aptitude.
• Aabsinthe: The production, guitar riffs and vocal delivery remind me a whole lot of Gojira, and though Aabsinthe are pretty damn good they’re not quite as intricate/interesting as the original. I swear I thought up the Gojira comparison before I realized these dudes were from France. [Thanks: Vegard]

-VN