FEATURING MEMBERS OF AT THE GATES, TEXTURES, GRIDLINK, FIGHT AMP, MONSTRO, GLORIOR BELLI, VALLENFYRE, HOODED MENACE, AND PORTRAIT

Every year year, MetalSucks asks musicians from across the vast spectrum of the metalsphere (or, in a few cases, the almost-metalsphere) what their favorite albums of the year have been. 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 nine to ten musicians at a time two to three times a day for the whole week.

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

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Gridlink are one of my favorite grind bands that I almost never have an excuse to write about. And part of the reason I never have an excuse to write about them is because they don’t really tour; the band’s members live in three different locations on two different continents, so it’s not like they can all just hop in a van and do some shows every weekend. A Gridlink concert is a very special thing indeed.

And now the band has announced not one but TWO shows for this month — one on August 13 in Chicago, and one on August 14 in Los Angeles — which will be their only U.S. appearances in 2011.

And to sweeten the deal, Phobia is also on the bill.

And to further sweeten the deal, Maruta is also also on the bill.

And to give you a cavity, THE SHOWS ARE FREE.

That’s a quartet of ridiculously good reasons to go to one of these concerts. In fact, this is one of those situations where I’d posit that if you are in a position to go to one of these gigs and don’t, your must be roughly as intelligent as a Hinder fan.

Get more details and RSVP to these shows here.

-AR

Before there were blogs there were these things called magazines, and the only metal magazine we still get excited about reading every month is Decibel. Here’s managing editor Andrew Bonazelli…

J. Bennett stopped by Decibel HQ last month; naturally, we took the opportunity to grab some adult beverages. It didn’t take long for me to punch up some Kylie in a jukebox that was doing just fine with Use Your Illusion and Ride the Lightning. Nor did it take some random backpatch hombre long—like maybe a second and a half—to cleanse the bar of Ms. Minogue’s exotic stylings with something off of Relentless. Little did this kid know that my drinking comrade was in town specifically to meet up with Bobby Liebling for our May cover story. Ah, the seren-dipshittery—a nice bit of low comedy before an interview that I assume blew even Bennett’s mind.

Said cover story is an instant favorite for multiple reasons, but I think number one is this brief aside from Sean “Pellet” Pelletier, longtime Liebling supporter/sufferer, describing the abode of the Pentagram mainman’s parents.

“There were Cocoa Krispies stuck to the ceiling because Bobby threw a bowl of cereal.”

That’s what I call living. I mean, you don’t need heroin and crack to do that shit, although I suppose it helps. On a moderately more serious note, while the cover’s in simple black and white, the issues detailed therein—loyalty, hedonism, spirituality—span a broad, colorful spectrum. Liebling has defied the odds in virtually every facet of his life—despite endless, infamous struggles with addiction, he’s concocted an absolutely essential proto-doom canon, and lived long enough to see a lethal cocktail of self-sabotage and bum luck transform into international adulation. Worthy subject matter—funny, heartbreaking and, again, sometimes mind-blowing.

And the rest of the issue is no slouch. We’ve covered the Napalm Death flexi already, but there are outlandish and informative features on Burzum, Gridlink, Kylesa, Krallice, Darkest Hour (specifically John Henry’s metal mutha), Obscura, the Scion Rock Fest and shitloads more. Hit it or quit it.

-AB

You can buy the May 2011 issue of Decibel here, or get a full subscription to ensure you never miss an issue, or of those awesome flexi discs!

So I think the last time we heard about the new Gridlink album, it was scheduled to come out on via Hydra Head on February 22; that obviously didn’t happen, but it is coming out on March 29! And Noisecreep has premiered the title track*, which was formerly available only in instrumental form. And it’s just not Grindlink without Jon Chang’s vocals, y’know?

Needless to say, the song is a scorcher, and makes me really, really wanna hear the rest of the album. Like, right now.

Sigh. March 29 is just a couple of weeks away.

Whet your appetite for Orphan here. It’s a great way to blow off steam at the end of your work day. Just don’t mosh right into your boss, okay?

-AR

*You know how I know one of the dudes from Black Army Jacket is running Noisecreep now? Because they’re premiering a Gridlink song.

I somehow missed that Jon Chang’s Gridlink were even working on new material. Luckily, Crustcake schooled me today when they posted news of not one, but two new (unmastered) Gridlink songs currently streaming on the band’s MySpace page: a “karaoke version” (read: currently without vocals) of “Orphan,” which apparently also be the name of the new album, and a track called “Hearts.”

Click to read more…

Like so many grind bands, Gridlink (a.k.a. “Another awesome grind band with ex-Discordance Axis vocalist Jon Chang”) make really, really short songs. Their first album, Amber Gray, was eleven tracks in something like twelve minutes; that was two years ago already. I don’t mean to understate the amount of work that goes into making twelve minutes of music, let alone twelve minutes of excellent music, or in any way suggest that these are Triple A riffs which can be hammered out in a few hours - but come on. If your band makes twelve-minute long albums, you should be release, like, at least three albums a year. At least.

But I guess these dudes have other things to do than sit around all day and work on making me happy, ’cause they’re only just now getting around to getting into the studio to put together their follow-up. Still, I guess I should stop being a spoiled brat and just be grateful that this year we’ll get another twelve minutes of music-to-kill-your-obnoxious-neighbor’s-family-while-you-make-him-watch-by.

Gridlink will apparently debut some of this new music at Maryland Deathfest this weekend, which is reason 8,679 why I should have gone. Oh well.

Here’s half of Gridlink’s Amber Gray, in case you doubt their awesomocity.

-AR

I barely remember the lost weekend I once spent in Baltimore. Was I bored, or just doing what I do? I dunno. I dunno.

Looks like I might be going back, though: D.R.I. have been added to the already stellar line-up of the 2010 edition of Maryland Deathfest. This is just the latest in a long line of good reasons to attend, not least of which is that it is, at least as far as I’m aware, currently the only scheduled U.S. appearance of Australia’s Portal, whose new album Swarth is currently frightening metalheads across the world. Throw in Converge, Magrudergrind, Entombed, Obituary, Watain, Melechesh, Jucifer, Gridlink, Gorod, 16, and a plethora of other awesome bands, and I think I could have a weekend in Baltimore even more lost than my last.

Get Maryland Deathfest’s complete line-up-to-date after the jump.

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Shame on me for having never heard of Australia’s Portal before. I just got their new album, Swarth (which apparently means “land covered with grassy turf”… metal teaches me a new word again!), last week, and it’s blowing my mind. I don’t even know how to describe it; it’s death metal, I guess, but it’s really pushing the limits of what “music” as a concept is. It almost reminds me of Hate Eternal, but that’s not really fair to Portal or Erik Rutan. They are just a really, really unique monster.

And I do mean “monster.” Like I said, this is really pushing the boundaries between music and noise. It’s just fucking evil, man. I’ll try to write a review one of these days, but in the meantime, I implore you to check out Portal on MySpace and buy Swarth for yourself – it just came out this week on Profound Lore.

And, oh yeah, apparently they wear costumes. Here they are doing the song “Glumurphonel” from their 2003 debut, Seepia.

For the time being it seems that Portal live shows are restricted to their native land, but they have been added to the already amazing Maryland Deathfest 2010 line-up, which will also include Converge, Eyehategod, Melechesh, Obituary, and grind gods Gridlink.

-AR

My dumb friggin’ luck. Gridlink, the killer grindcore out featuring Discordance Axis’ Jon Chang, are kicking off a small East Coast tour tonight in Brooklyn and I can’t make the show. And I was actually having a pretty good day.

So I hope anyone who can go to one of these shows does go to one of these shows, and lets us know how it was. Chang’s other band, Hayaino Daisuki, are also on the bill, and Gridlink’s new album, Amber Grey (out now on Hydra Head), is Sick with a capital “S.”

These shows are going to own your ass. I’m already jealous of everyone who gets to go.

Head over to Gridlink’s MySpace page for more details.

-AR