MetalSucks

Here’s The Dillinger Escape Plan’s fifth webisode chronicling the making of their forthcoming album, Option Paralysis. And sorry if I got your hopes but, no, James Hetfield (Hatfield?) is not actually on the album. Just watch, it’ll all make sense.

The best part of watching these remains the all-too-brief teases of new music the band keeps feeding us. But everything we’ve heard thus far seems to be in the vein of classic, Calculating Infinity-style DEP mathcore, and while there’s nothing wrong with that at all, I am starting to wonder if there’s going to be any Ire Works-style Faith No More pop. I’d love for the band to continue to strike a balance between the two styles (as they did on Ire and, to a lesser extent, Miss Machine), but… who knows. I’m obviously speculating based on next to no concrete information, so… “Dead as History” fans shouldn’t lose sleep just yet.

-AR

Above you’ll find the fourth in-studio webisode for The Dillinger Escape Plan’s Option Paralysis. It’s worth watching mostly for the all-too-brief taste of new music you get, which sounds, well, pretty much like vintage DEP.

Maybe just as exciting is the band’s new, limited edition t-shirt for “Mouth of Ghosts,” one of my favorite songs off of Ire Works. Vocalist Greg Puciato explains:

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As one of the chief riff providers for swaggercore titans Every Time I Die, Andy Williams takes pride in making the discordant into catchy. For a perfect example of this, look no further than the band’s latest (MetalSucks-approved) album, New Junk Aesthetic. Distilling the band’s decade-plus essence into a tight half hour, it’s a satisfying mix of thunderous heaviness and easily the most appealing material the band have put to tape. But while he’s often overshadowed by vocalist Keith Buckley’s relentless wiseassery, it’s his and Jordan Buckley’s Skynard-by-way-of-Dillinger-Escape-Plan guitar work that make the band stand out and ultimately worthwhile.

A self-described “chatty Cathy,” Andy Williams was remarkably frank and refreshingly earnest in a recent interview with MetalSucks on the eve of the release of New Junk Aesthetic. Among other things, he discussed why he can listen to the new album and none of the band’s other material, his thoughts on the new Converge record, the changing landscape of the scene he came up in, and life over at ETID’s new label, Epitaph.

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Yesterday, at 10 a.m., our friends at Metal Insider reported that Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz has recorded guest vocals for the new Every Time I Die album.

This morning at 1 a.m., they reported that ETID drummer Mike Novak has split from the band due to “personal conflicts.”

Coincidence?

While you ponder that, enjoy the new ETID song below, entitled “The Marvelous Slut.” Metal Injection discovered it floating around on YouTube. It originally appeared on a recent Hurley-Epitaph Records compilation, which you can download here.

And, yes, that is Dillinger Escape Plan’s Greg Puciato doing guest vox.

-AR

Last month, The Dillinger Escape Plan frontman Greg Puciato lashed out at President Barack Obama in a lengthy blog post, taking the sitting prez to task for the bailout and calling him “George W. Bush lite, wearing a young black man costume.”

Well, you’d assume that Obama a) has never heard of The Dillinger Escape Plan and b) therefore would not have heard about/cared about what Puciato had to say.

Apparently, this is not the case.

Read President Obama’s response to Puciato after the jump… it’s a doozy.

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Wowza. Greg Puciato posted this Sunday on his MySpace blog (and I think it’s important to note that it’s his MySpace blog – I don’t know if we can assume this represents the feelings of the entire band). It’s fucking War and Peace length, so wait ’til your boss isn’t around to start reading.

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So last week Dillinger Escape Plan’s Greg Puciato and Ben Weinman got up on stage in Australia with Nine Inch Niles to help out with “Wish,” a song DEP had previously covered. Up ’til now, all we’ve seen is shitty cell phone capture of the performance – but now NIN have posted something considerably higher quality on their web site.

Not much to say here – you just gotta love it when there’s so many great musicians on one stage.

-AR

Well… happy friggin’ new year, everyone. We gots some catchin’ up to do.

As Dillinger Escape Plan fans may have heard by now, the band has hired some dude no one has ever heard of, Billy Rymer from The Rivalry, to replace Gil Sharone, who, in turn, replaced founding drummer Chris Pennie for 2007’s orgasm-inducing Ire Works and all subsequent touring for that album. Now, I know that Sharone’s departure may worry the DEP faithful – the dude was not only an awesome drummer, but watching how chill he always was live, even while playing some retardedly complex drum parts, would seem to suggest that he may very well be a god amongst men (or at least drummers). Hell, even DEP front dude Greg Puciato told us that Sharone is like “the kid in school who always gets good grades just because he’s naturally fucking super gifted.”

But here’s the thing.

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On August 25, 1988, Metallica released what many consider to be their last great album, …And Justice for All. To my ears, this would probably be my favorite Metallica album of all time if not for the lack of bass (Which, to this day, I think was an idiotic way to haze then-new-now-former bassist Jason Newstead – I mean, why would the band punish themselves by damaging their own album? How does that pay tribute to the memory of Cliff Burton? It doesn’t). Justice features Metallica at their heaviest, and, often, their proggiest. I’ve been trying all week-end to think of words that could do Justice, um, justice – but I just can’t. And I probably don’t need to to: I’m sure you all have your own feelings on this classic recording.

So here’s Metallica performing the title track on the Justice tour in ‘89. After the jump, keep the celebration going with more live clips, the now classic video for “One,” and some other cool shit.

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I know that some people think that The Dillinger Escape Plan have gotten too big for their britches in light of all the critical acclaim heaped upon them for Ire Works. I don’t see it. Sorry. When we interviewed front man Greg Puciato last November, the dude told us to stick around the band’s tour bus and help ourselves to whatever we wanted from the fridge. And that was after the interview was already over. Does that sound like rock star ego to you? If it does, you’re too thin skinned, and God help you if you’re ever in the room when someone brings Marilyn Manson oranges instead of the grapes that his rider specifically called for.

ANYWAY, here’s DEP’s new clip for “Black Bubblegum,” directed by drummer Gil Sharone’s bro-bro Ilan. Like when I lost my virginity, I have almost no idea what’s going on here, but I love it.

-AR

So The Dillinger Escape Plan were on Conan last night, and while front man Greg Puciato did not make good on his promise to set the late night talk show host’s desk ablaze, he did jump on it, and he also, as I predicted he would, ran into the audience, where, sure, enough, almost everyone seemed freaked out by him (except that one dude who jumped and high fived him; that guy is cool).

ANYWAY, watch the clip of the band performing “Black Bubblegum” below.

-AR

NBC. 12:35 am tonight/tomorrow morning. Greg Puciato has vowed to burn Conan’s desk down; even if he doesn’t, it should be interesting (I got five buck that says he runs into the audience and scares the living shit out of some tourists from Nebraska).

It’s gonna be special. Watch it with someone you love.

-AR

Chris Brown – Exclusive – Kiss Kiss, With You, Take You Down, Throwed

Chris Brown for the construction of an entire career, growing from a temporary replacement for an undeniably big pop star. It seals the deal with Exclusive, an all-grown-up album on a level with Justin Timberlake’s beneficiaries, Rihanna’s Good Girl Gone Bad, or even Bobby Brown’s King of Stage. “With You” is the convincer, even if you immediately recognize that producers Stargate was just trying to roll-out “Irreplaceable” one more time – Brown groans on the acoustic guitar loop a poignant account with R & B-wave

Alicia Keys – No One (As I am) – As I Am is the third studio album by American R&B/soul singer Alicia Keys, and was released on November 13, 2007. It features appearances by John Mayer, Marsha Ambrosius, Linda Perry.

Album by Rihanna: Good Girl Gone Bad found in Billboard Singles Chart

Good Girl Gone Bad is the third studio album by singer Rihanna, which was released on June 4, 2007 in most European countries and on June 5, 2007 in the United States. The album achieved considerable success worldwide following the release of its smash-hit lead single “Umbrella” and maintains its successful chart run. The album has spawned 3 top 10 hits and 1 top 20 hit in the United States. To date, the album has sold more than 4 million albums worldwide, and has earned a platinum certification in the United States.

So I’m not gonna pretend to know very much about motorcycle culture – call me old fashioned, but I like my motor vehicles to come with mufflers – but O’Neal USA, who a press release tells us are “one of the leading manufacturers of motorcycle and BMX accessories,” are releasing a line of limited edition Slayer helmets (pictured above). The helmets will come in three varieties ranging in price from $159 to $349 and “will be boxed in a custom-made container patterned after the Anvil road cases, which are used to transport band equipment while on tour.”

So here’s the thing: like I said, I have no use whatsoever for a motorcycle helmet, but I do have use for some protective head gear to wear into the pit the next time I go to a Slayer show. Seriously, those things are brutal; even Greg from Dillinger Escape Plan thinks so, and he’s a big scary dude himself. And since the helmet has the band’s art on it, I feel like it will give me some cred amongst my fellow Slayer fans.

Whatever use you have planned for these things, they hit stores February 25. The press release dramatically declares that “once they’re gone, they’re GONE,” so if you’re planning to buy one, you should, like, totally get on that already.

-AR

After interviewing Greg Puciato on The Dillinger Escape Plan’s tour bus just hours before their sold-out show at The Blender Theatre in NYC, Axl and Vince agreed upon two things: Puciato might be the best interview subject they’ve ever had, and he’s definitely the nicest. After half an hour of giving incredibly open, honest, and detailed answers to the MetalSucks boys’ every query, he told them they could just hang out and help themselves to some food and drinks from the band’s fridge. Some horrifically scary Satanic metal dude, Puciato is not.

After the jump, read Puciato’s thoughts on The Dillinger Escape Plan’s current tour, the band’s new members, the making of Ire Works, how he chooses song titles, and the lawsuits brought on by the angry parents of injured teenage concert goers…

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