Animals as Leaders were so fucking good when I saw them play the small room at Emo’s during SXSW that still, over a month later, I can’t stop thinking about that performance. For me and most people in the room it was the first time seeing the band live, and whenever you see a band you’ve really been digging live for the first time there’s a certain special energy and uncontainable excitement. That everyone in the room was in the exact same boat made it even bigger. Like the first time (and shit, even the second time) we saw Gojira headline… it was all just pure excitement and unadulterated happiness. OK, maybe Animals as Leaders weren’t Gojira great, but they still killed it and I can’t wait to see them again when they come through with the Summer Slaughter tour.

Here’s a live video I found of Animals as Leaders playing “Tempting Time” live in St. Louis this past Fall. The room is bigger, and as such the excitement level lower, than when I saw them… but it’s still a great taste of what these guys do live.

-VN

MS reader Jesse Z.’s description of Sludge as “Gojira played half-time” had me interested, but it took all of 5 seconds of watching the above video he sent to have me completely sold. Now I’m in love, head over heels; I want to know absolutely everything about this band and possess their entire discography.

I did a little recon on their Reverb Nation bio page; they’ve been around since 1996, toured all over Europe, released a bunch of records and even share a member with Samael. I’m surprised I haven’t heard of this guys, but I guess they just haven’t had much distro in the U.S.

Someone bring this band to America. NOW. Dear Sludge, if you ever make it to NYC… the weed’s on me.

-VN

Super Joe is at it again, this time not only by making punishing and head-spinning metal but by doing so for a good cause. According to a French video report, below, Gojira will return to the studio this Summer to record a 5-song EP from which the proceeds will benefit anti-whaling organization Sea Shepherd, about whom Joe Duplantier has spoken in the past. The EP will feature “guests from the international metal community” and will only be available on the Internet through Gojira’s website.

Readers of this blog know all about my undying love for Gojira and my angry eco rants. So while I’m obviously super-excited that we’ll be getting new Gojira music this summer, I’m even more excited that it’s for a good cause. My summer already got that much better.

Meanwhile, Gojira are currently without a U.S. label for their next proper release. Someone oughtta get on that.

-VN

Thanks: Lewis Hart, Shinaain, Ben Turbitt

I’ll admit it: I still do check Blabbermouth from time to time. Hard not to. It’s kind of a metal institution at this point. Here and there, when they publish first week numbers, I’ll read those if they concern a band I like, or am curious about for whatever reason.

I’m not a Demon Hunter fan, but I was down at Audiohammer when Jason Suecof was mixing their record, and so I’m familiar with their new record by twist of circumstance. (Believe me, I would have never gone looking on my own.) Anyways, when their first week numbers were published, I decided to check on that, and goddamn guys. 14k approximately. That’s what Suicide Silence does. That’s what DevilDriver does. That’s what bands that tour all the time and are always in the media do. Good for them. Congrats dudes.

Here’s why I find this interesting. Demon Hunter has never really been a touring act. They’ve never really been in the media too much before the present.  So what explains them selling records on par with bands that are always out there hustling? To answer this, I thought about what some bands in the past have pulled off without too much touring.

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I got a very flattering e-mail from French reader Vincent Roquefort yesterday. And since I have a particular affinity for France and French culture (Don’t hang me as a traitor, Republicans!), I took Monsieur Roquefort’s claim that “Civilisation Perdue” (that’s “Lost Civilization” to you English speakers) by Sortilège is “the greatest French heavy metal song of all times.”

I’m not really familiar with Sortilège (“Magic Spell”), nor the 1984 album on which this song appears, Métamorphose. But it’s a pretty good song. The greatest French heavy metal song song of all time(s), though? Yeah, I’m not sure… but check it out and let us know what you think. If there’s a French heavy metal song you like better, feel free to suggest it. I know we’re gonna get a million votes for Gojira, and I love that band, too (duh), but let’s try to think outside la boîte a little bit, m’kay?

-AR

Prosthetic Records, home to such artists as Gojira, Skeletonwitch, The Acacia Strain, and Through the Eyes of the Dead, has filed suit against Razor & Tie, Billboard reports. I don’t wanna re-type or misinterpret any of the legalese, so I’m just gonna cut and paste the nitty gritty from Billboard:

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Remember that time in 2009 we went on and on about how amazing Gojira were when we saw them in New York City? Oh yeah, that’s right… that happened twice because we got two Gojira headline shows this year. Both were something slightly more than orgasmic, and our heads (along with our testicles) nearly exploded in sheer elation.

At the first Gojira headline show way back in May (read Axl’s review), we had photographer Chetan Patel on hand snapping pics up front. He did a great job capturing Gojira’s epic performance and got some good shots of openers The Chariot as well. His pics, after the jump.

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Like a lot of people I imagine, I’d never heard of Switzerland’s Kruger before it was announced that GOD HIMSELF Gojira’s Joe Duplantier would be contributing vocals to one song, “Muscle,” on their forthcoming album, For Death, Glory and the End of the World.  But I did spend a delightful evening in Switzerland once and found the people to be incredibly friendly, so I wandered over to Kruger’s MySpace page and, hey, no shocks here, Monsieur Duplantier has good taste in guest appearances. I don’t know if this band is gonna change my life the way Gojira seem to have done, but they know how to write a killer metal song. Plus, Converge’s Kurt Ballou is mixing the album, so there’s that.

For Death… is scheduled to come out sometime in mid-February on Listenable. Until there’s most music to listen to, you can check out the cover art below. A press release tells me it was inspired by Jérôme Bosch’ “Jardin des délices,” and it’s a good thing they mentioned it, because I never would have picked up on the (kinda vague) connection on my own.

-AR

In no particular order…

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That’s we told MS Intern David en route to this summer’s Mayhem Festival when he asked us what other bands he should listen to if he likes Gojira (and boy, the kid sure does love Gojira… we taught him well!). ‘Cause Gojira borrow a helluva lot from Morbid Angel; Joe-Jira himself will even tell you this. We then proceeded by blast Domination whilst mercilessly stuck in Dirty Jerz traffic.

This live video posted by Crustcake today was filmed at Wacken in 2006 which means that yes, that IS Erik Rutan on guitar!

-VN

We loved the last tour blog that Bison B.C.’s Dan And did for us so much, we’re only all-too-happy to present another! Below, please enjoy part 1; check back tomorrow for part 2!

Sep 11 ’09 (Vancouver BC @ Commodore)

I always love kicking off a tour with a show in Vancouver. It’s great to have one last chance to get completely loser pissed with our friends before we hit the road for however long. This time we were fortunate enough to finally share the stage with local good ‘ol boys The Golers and old pals 3 Inches of Blood. The Golers have been around forever and everyone should fucking hear them. They’re basically Vancouver’s Venomous Concept: relentless, break-neck speed pummeling. Is grind-punk a genre?

Show was fucking fun as all hell. It was 3 Inches record release show for Here Waits Thy Doom (which may or may not feature all of us doing backups on the song “Preacher’s Daughter”) and the place was packed! The cap of the Commodore is somewhere between 950 and 1000 and apparently it was like 15 tickets away from being sold out. Jesse from local grinders Zuckuss pointed out how fucking crazy it is that three local bands brought that many metal heads out of the woodwork. The night was bitter sweet though because not only was our good friend Ian unable to be there because of surgery but that night would also be my last chance to ever set foot in local punk/metal institution the Cobalt. I can’t even describe how awesome that bar and the staff are. The thought that it’s getting shut down by the fucking slum lords that own the building so they can cash in on Olympic fever makes me wanna tear someone’s head off. I’m consoled by the fact that I know bar legend/honcho Wendy 13 will soon enough have a new venue I can crawl out of at 5am reeking of Jager bombs. COBALT FOREVER!
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MS Maniac Tim-o-tato has brought to our attention that the almighty Gojira are the latest band to produce a pair of kicks. Check it out:

I like ‘em. They’re simple. Tasteful, even – people might not really realize that you’re wearing sneakers emblazoned with the logo of one of the best metal bands in the world today (I can practically hear my mom asking “There’s a shoe company called Gojira?”).

Unfortunately, they’re stupid expensive – 95 euros, which is about $141 U.S. (and that’s not including shipping). Sheesh.

Hey, Vince – so about that Hanukkah present…

-AR

Pretty big week here at the MetalSucks Mansion. We laughed, we cried, we fired someone, we rocked out with our cocks out. Here’s a rundown of the highlights:

• We debuted a new song by The Devin Townsend Project, a new video by Skeletonwitch, a new song by Javelina, and the cover art for Sigh’s new album.
• Horse the Band’s Lord Gold blogged about Nawlins and cocaine, God Forbid’s Doc Coyle gave us an exclusive statement about that whole cup throwing incident, Dallas Coyle is giving away music for free, and Daath’s Eyal Levi talked about a run-in with the Polacks and drum triggers.
• We spoke to Dethklok’s Brendon Small, Converge’s Jacob Bannon, Gojira’s Joe Duplantier, and Liturgy’s Hunter Hunt-Hendrix.
• We checked out new releases from Baroness, The Red Chord, Skeletonwitch, Immortal, Vains of Jenna, Vampire Mooose, and Javelina. Also, some asshole really likes Oceano.
• We’re sponsoring the incredibly awesome Tyrants of Evil North American Tour 2010 with Arch Enemy, Exodus, Arsis, and Mutiny Within!

Alright. I’m going to see Where the Wild Things Are now. I’m fairly certain that it is going to make me weep like Gary Suarez. See ya Monday.

-AR

When I last spoke with Gojira’s Joe Duplantier about a year ago, the tone of the conversation was overwhelmingly positive; The Way of All Flesh had just been released to critical acclaim, the band had just come over to the U.S. for their biggest tour here to date (supporting In Flames) and everything was hunky-dory in Gojiraland. Fast forward a year, and the conversation is markedly different. Things are still fantastic for the band; The Way of All Flesh continues to sell and to be loved and they’ve toured non-stop all over the world with the likes of Metallica, Slayer and Lamb of God — but all this work has left the band exhausted.

In my recent chat with Joe before their headline show in Brooklyn last month, he explained the double-edged sword of the band’s newfound success — seeing the world, playing to sold-out audiences and opening for childhood heroes Metallica, while at the same time facing the realities of the constant grind of the road, living without a home and the hardships that come with being in a bus with the same 3 other dudes year-round.

Read my full chat with Joe after the jump, and also be sure to check out Axl’s show writeup (summary: they were FUCKING AWESOME!)

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Time for another Readers’ Choice! HOO-RAY!

So. Reader Tim-o-tato e-mailed us about this band Yyrkoon. No, I have no clue how you pronounce that, either.

ANYWAY, here’s what Tim-o-tato has to say about them:

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I actually think that Metallica’s Live Metallica website is a cool idea. Even if James’ voice sounds like shit and I’m pretty sure Lars is literally confused about what those sticks some roadie just shoved into his hand are for, a high-quality recording of a show you recently attended is both a cooler and cheaper souvenir than, say, and $400,000 t-shirt (or whatever arena rawk bands charge for merch these days). And I fully support their recent decision to allow single-song downloads. Yes, it’s kind of ironic given the Napster mishegoss, but, y’know, whatever. Metallica aren’t the titans of metal that they once were, but every now and then they do something right.

Now Metal Insider tells us that they’ve launched an iPhone app version of the site, called – duh – Live Metallica:

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…but it won’t make you splooge the way seeing them in really real life will. There’s just nothing that compares to actually being there. Still, this footage that Metal Injection has of our favorite Frenchmen playing the Garorock Festival in Marmande, France, might be the next best thing.

Watch more pro-shot footage of Gojira’s Garorock Fest performance at Metal Injection.

-AR

Mere hours before Gojira played the best show of 2009, our friends at Metal Injection interview G to the Jira main man Joe Duplantier, and even got him to pick his favorite metal videos. No shock: the man has good taste. So, needless to say, this is pretty awesome.

Vince’s own interview with Joe should go up sometime next week. You’ll wanna read that, too. Trust me.

-AR

Monday (actually sun down Sunday, but whatever) is Yom Kippur, which is the Jewish day of repentance. As you can imagine, I have a lot to repent for, so I won’t be doing any writing. Vince may or may not be here to give all the goy their bored-at-work dose of entertainment.

In the meantime, here are some fun things that happened this week:

• Dallas Coyle talked about “borrowing ideas” and talking shit, while Eyal Levi contemplated greener grass (not that kind of grass).
• We spoke to Every Time I Die’s Andy Williams and some of the dudes from Periphery.
• We suffered through the worst Metallica cover ever recorded.
• We wondered if Juggalos should be considered a gang.
• And it’s Gojira and Burst live FTW.

See ya Tuesday.

-AR

…our friend Elijah Torn just sent this to us.

All I can say is… “Wow.” Just… wow.

-AR