The first time I ever heard the term “panterdactyl” was in this interview that Metal Injection conducted with The Red Chord’s Guy Kozowyk back in 2008. Kozowyk was referring to that kind of wiggerish hand movement that some bands/fan indulge in… I dunno really know how to describe it, but it’s that thing where people kinda raise their arm in the air, bend the arm, and move their hand up and down in time with the music, if that makes sense. Think about Koko B. Ware and you’ll get the idea. You’ve definitely seen frontmen do it before.

ANYWAY, as I learned via our friend Mark Vieira on Twitter today, there actually is a band in Los Angeles called Panteradactyl. On their Facebook page, they describe themselves in this simple manner: “We dress up like dinosaurs and play Pantera songs.” And they’re not kidding. Look:

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Justin M. Norton over at Invisible Oranges has been killing it this week. Yesterday, he wrote a really great piece about entitled “Why Ghost Matters,” which you should definitely check out, especially if, for some reason, you’re still not convinced that those Swedes are the real deal; now, he’s unveiled his list of the Top 10 Metal Lyricists, which, I imagine, will cause exactly the kind of shit storm that makes the internet so damn fun in the first place.

And, hey, I don’t agree with all of his inclusions (although I certainly agree with some of ‘em, like one Mr. J.R. Hayes from Pig Destroyer). But, again, the debate is what’s so much fun about these kinds of things. Lists don’t really “mean” anything — they’re just the opinions of one individual or a group of individuals. But what’s great about them is that they get people thinking; even if you disagree with the choices, you have to figure out a way to articulate exactly why you disagree with the choices, to hopefully come up with a retort more sophisticated than “You’re wrong and you’re a douche for disagreeing with me.” (Although, clearly, some internetters fall back on that “reasoning,” too.)

Check out Norton’s list here, then come back and let us know who your own favorite metal lyricists are in our comments section. Two of my personal poetic heroes who I think definitely deserve to be on this list: Tool’s Maynard James Keenan and The Red Chord’s Guy Kozowyk. How about you cats?

-AR

But that’s the name of the band’s new song — “The Conqueror.” It’s now streaming on Fit for an Autopsy’s Facebook page, assuming you’re willing to click the “like” button, which you should be, ’cause this band is br00tal, and you like br00tal things.

In case you didn’t read about Fit for an Autopsy the last time I wrote about them, they’re a new band that features former Through the Eyes of the Dead vocalist Nate Johnson, as well as guitarist Will Putney, who has already produced such killer records as The Human Abstract’s Digital Veil. Their debut album, The Process of Human Extermination (cover art above) is coming out June 21 on Black Market Activities, and features guest appearances from The Red Chord’s Guy Kozowyk, Tim Williams of Vision of Disorder/Bloodsimple fame, Full Blown Chaos’ Ray Mazzola, and The Human Abstract’s Travis Richter.

In other words, this is a record to which attention must be paid.

So headbang here, then come back and let us know what you think. My guess is that about half of you will accuse the band of playing generic deathcore, and the other half of you have ears.

-AR

This past December we gave you the heads up that Guy Kozowyk’s Black Market Activities had signed Fit for an Autopsy, the actually good deathcore band that features fromer Through the Eyes of the Dead vocalist Nate Johnson and guitarist Will Putney, who has already produced such killer records as The Human Abstract’s Digital Veil. Now The PRP tells us that the band’s debut album, The Process of Human Extermination, is complete and ready for release. It comes out June 21.

But wait! There’s more! As if the Johnson-Putney-Kozowyk connection wasn’t already enough to get you interested, the band has also enlisted some pretty excellent guests to appear on the record as well: besides Kozowyk himself (like you didn’t see that coming), Tim Williams of Vision of Disorder/Bloodsimple fame, Full Blown Chaos’ Ray Mazzola, and The Human Abstract’s Travis Richter all contributed vocals. So that sounds pretty enticing, to put it mildly.

Alas, there are no samples of Extermination available just yet — I mean, there’s a couple of songs on the band’s MySpace page, but I have no idea if those will appear on the album or not. In any case, I’m feeling really optimistic about this record… hopefully we’ll get to hear more soon.

-AR

Today is the Day, 2011: from left to right — Ryan Jones, Steven Austin, and Curran Reynolds. Photo by Karen Novak.

Curran Reynolds is not just a staple of, but a bona fide blessing to, the New York City metal scene. As both the drummer for Wetnurse and the mastermind behind Precious Metal, the city’s “best and longest running weekly event dedicated to heavy music,” the guy is a FORCE, and anyone who loves metal and lives in NYC should be grateful for him.

So. Wetnurse’s follow-up to Invisible City was my pick for Album That Will Fuck Your Face Off in 2011 (and if you’ve never heard Wetnurse before, please please please go listen to the on the second volume of our free NYC Sucks comp), but before that yet-to-be-recorded record ever sees the light of day, Ryenolds and his Wetnurse band mate, bassist Ryan Jones, will appear on another insanely exciting new release: Today is the Day’s Pain is a Warning. This will be Steve Austin’s ninth release for the constantly-pushing-the-envelope outfit, but it will be the first time Reynolds and Jones have recorded with the band — and you can hear the excitement in Reynolds’ voice. He is a huge fan living the dream — he really did get to go and join one of his favorite bands.

As I’m writing this, TITD is about ten days away from completing the album. Immediately thereafter they’re off to do a five-week tour of Europe (get dates here); in typically fuck-nuts TITD fashion, the very first show of that tour will take place at Litla Hraun prison, the only Maximum Security correctional facility in Iceland, which currently holds violent offenders, burglars, and drug traffickers, and Lucifer knows who the hell else. And yet, despite the busy schedule of completing the album/preparing for the tour/praying there isn’t a prison riot, Curran was cool enough to take some time out of his day and answer a few of my questions.

After the jump, read what he had to say about the new Today is a Day album, how he came to join the band, working with Austin and producer Kurt Ballou, and more.

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Well oh-KAY! Here’s a tour I can get behind. According to The PRP, The Red Chord will hit the road this march with Gaza and Trap them in tow.

If you read MS on a regular basis, you already know we’re huge fans of The Red Chord, and I’ve yet to see them give a bad performance. Gaza — who are signed to TRC front man Guy Kozowyk’s label, Black Market Activities — are also what the kids call “devastating” in the live arena. And while I seem to be one of five people who doesn’t cream his pants at the mere mention of Trap Them, I do enjoy their shows more than I do their records; in concert, they feel legitimately dangerous, like either a member of the band or a member of the audience could actually get hurt at any moment. (Just a few weeks ago, I saw TT vocalist/one-time MetalSucks contributor Ryan McKenney kick off a show by throwing his mic stand right into the crowd, hard; just a few songs later, he bashed himself in the skull with his mic, and spent the rest of the performance bleeding from the head.) And that’s an increasingly rare, and thus increasingly exhilarating, feeling.

So, yeah, these shows should take that lil’ critter you see above and just push a spike right through its guts. Take that, you huge-eared freak.

The PRP only has three dates right now, but says that the tour is scheduled to run through March 25, so sit tight for a complete itinerary. In the meantime, those initial dates are as follows:

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I know that the guy from Atreyu isn’t really named Alex Fahrvergnügen, but I can never remember how you spell his actual name, and since he can’t be bothered to learn the proper spelling of one of the easiest words in the English language, I’m not sure why I should be expected to learn to spell his name right. I mean, it took me a long time to learn to spell Guy Kozowyk’s last name correctly without double-checking it on the interwebs, but there’s a major difference between Guy and Alex — Guy is talented.

Also, Guy has a band, whereas Alex, it would seem, no longer does.

The following statement from Mr. Fahrvergnügen was pieced together from Twitter:

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So let’s say you need to make a music video but you don’t have a very big budget — how can you spice your clip up so it’s not just another performance vid?

A Day To Remember came up with a pretty clever solution: they got all their friends to be in the video, taking turns looking right into the camera and lip synching along for a few moments. Oddly enough, a lot of those friends are metal royalty — including The Red Chord’s Guy Kozowyk, Trivium’s Matt Heafy, As I Lay Dying’s Tim Lambesis, The Acacia Strain’s Vincent Bennett, and whomever is playing Andrew WK this week — despite the fact that A Day to Remember aren’t metal at all.

This was a smart move if you ask me, ’cause otherwise a misanthropic metal d00d such as myself probably never would have watched the video, let alone actually kinda-almost smiled. It looks like everyone is having fun, and fun begets more fun, y’know?

-AR

[via Metal Injection]

Photo by Jeremy Saffer

The latest sign for Guy Kozowyk’s Black Market Activities label is New Jersey’s Fit for an Autopsy. The band is notable for several reasons (besides the fact that they’re good, I mean), namely:

• They are that rarest of breeds — a good deathcore band. After seeing them live last year, our own Sammy O’Hagar said that “the band’s brutal, glowering take on [deathcore] reminded one of the squandered potential of the genre,” noting that “hardcore grooves and swagger, when incorporated correctly, blend quite well with death metal.” Sammy also complimented front man Nate Johnson, asserting that Johnson’s “serrated vocals provided the oomph needed to put the band over the top.” Oceano: take note.

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Decibel is cooler than we are, which is why we’ve kidnapped their kitties and told them we’ll drown the fuckers if they don’t write a weekly column for us. Lucky for all cats involved, they agreed to the terms. Here’s managing editor Andrew Bonazelli.

It actually took some doing this time around, but congratulations to commenter du jour “Mat” for correctly guessing our November Hall of Fame, Angel Witch’s self-titled 1980 nut-crusher. As aforementioned, he scores a free six-month subscription to Decibel, not to mention — should he deign to drop me a line — a Rapegoat sticker and maybe some additional ludicrous extreme ephemera.

The Angel Witch HOF isn’t even the big highlight in our November issue, as you can see from the image above. I mean, we’ve all seen the new video by now, and thumbs up to Mordecai 9000 for the Han Solo dig in the comments, but this get-up’s a little more Queen of Naboo IMHO. And while Shagrath at no point in our cover story mutters, “So, this is how liberty dies — to thunderous applause,” maybe he explains the sikk new threads a little. You’ll have to see for yourself.

Of course, if you’re in the Dimmu-sucks-and-we’re-homos-for-putting-them-on-the-cover camp, you can always feast on a creepy Michael Gira interview, Kylesa backlash in the reviews, Q&A heaven with Dave Wyndorf, a Pig Destroyer studio report, and a Red Chord tour report, featuring Guy Kozowyk’s delightful memories about this very site! Now bow your heads in respect for the Mets’ recent tragic number acquisition and give us your money so we can sell you some fucking cars and shit.

-AB

If you don’t buy yourself a copy of the November 2010 issue of Decibel or, better yet, buy yourself a full subscription, Andrew Bonazelli will send the dude who played Jar Jar Binks to your house to annoy you ’til you wanna kill yourself.

I resisted checking out The Tony Danza Tap Dance Extravaganza for the longest time, a decision which was based purely on their name. This was poor judgment on my part – this band is just swell! Which just goes to prove, you can’t judge a book by its cover. Unless that cover belongs to Kamelot.

ANYWAY, I mention this ’cause TTDTDE (holy shit, even typing their initials takes a fucking hour) are streaming a new song, “The Union,” on their MySpace page. It’s a discordant mind-melter, which should come as no great shock. But, seriously, if I ever listened to it drunk, I think I might puke. This is the aural equivalent of one of those times when you’ve had a few (or way) too many, and even when you close your eyes, the darkness spins.

“The Union” will be on TTDTDE’s latest, Danza III: The Series Of Unfortunate Events, which comes out July 6 on Guy Kozowyk’s Black Market Activities label. You can also stream the band’s cover of Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” right here at MetalSucks! And don’t forget that they’ll be on the MS-sponsored Road to MetalFest Tour with Through the Eyes of the Dead, Impending Doom, Arsonists Get All the Girls, and Chelsea Grin. Get dates here.

-AR

As I’ve stated many times in the past, I’m a huge fan of Guy Kozowyk’s lyrics. So I know the words to The Red Chord’s “Demoralizer” pretty well, and I think I have a pretty good understanding of the meaning – or at least a meaning – of the song. And I think I understand the meaning – or at least a meaning – of the new video for the song, which recently debuted on Bloody Disgusting.

What I don’t entirely understand is how the meaning of the song, at least as I understand it, and the meaning of the video, at least as I understand it, intersect. And I’m not sure that they intersect in an obvious, linear way – I know that Kozowyk is a big fan of double and triple meanings.

But I’m willing to watch this video dozens of more times to try and figure it out. Director David Brodsky found a pretty awesome way to ensure that the performance footage wouldn’t just be the same old same old, and artist Tim Kellen – who has previously collaborated with Brodsky on the videos for Suffocation’s “Cataclysmic Purification” and Born of Osiris’ “Now Arise” – created animation (which serves as narrative aspect of the clip) that is grimey and gritty and unique and distinctly “home made,” for lack of a better term. And Bloody Disgusting says that Kellen “used charcoal, meat, grape jelly, and chicken-guts in his illustrations,” which is metal as fuck.

So even if the exact “meaning” of the video isn’t of importance to you… well, you’ll probably still enjoy this video, because a) the song is great and b) visually it’s incredibly stimulating, and puts 99% of other recent metal videos to shame.

The Red Chord are currently headlining the MetalSucks co-sponsored Burgers & Bowling Tour with My Children My Bride, Chelsea Grin and Those Who Lie Beneath. Get the remaining dates after the jump!

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MAJOR props to MetalSucks Maniac “jwaal,” who e-mailed me about this wwwaaaayyyy back in October. I always meant to write about it but basically completely forgot to, even though it’s a brilliant observation.

So let’s back it up for a minute. When I was a kid, before I discovered metal, I was a HUGE wrestling fan. I guess I always liked big sweaty dudes with long hair and lots of make-up, I dunno. But my two favorite wrestlers were Lex Luger in the WCW – who we named our family dog after (no shit) – and The Ultimate Warrior in the WWF. I guess that’s why I have no problem with the concept of corpse paint.

The Warrior was a madman, capable of bouts of berzerker rage that would annihilate all in his path. The man beat Hulk Hogan, which, believe you me, was a big, big deal at the time. And because I was a young ‘un, I didn’t really realize that very little of what he said actually made any sense. To wit, this highlight reel of some of The Ultimate Warrior’s finest quotes:

How does all of this relate to metal, you ask? Well, I’ll tell you how: because of the brilliant poetic mind of Guy Kozowyk, front man for The Red Chord.

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Extreme experimental metallers Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza posted a new song called “Yippiekayay Motherfucker” on their MySpace page back in October, but that was just the tip of the iceberg. The Danza have a full new record on the way later this year via Guy Kozowyk’s Black Market Activities label titled Danza III: The Series Of Unfortunate Events, and while we haven’t heard anything from that album just yet (unless the aforementioned Bruce Willis-inspired track will make it onto the record) we do have something to tide you over in the meantime. Here’s a statement from frontman Jessie Freeland:

Soooo, basically we were just getting bored and wanted to post a song. We can’t post any of the new stuff at this time so we decided, what the hell, let’s do a cover. The first thing that jumped into our heads was ‘Teen Spirit.’ There’s nothing special about the song to us – we basically just wanted to see if we could pull it off. So, with a little help from Jack Daniels we got it done and here it is.

It’s a pretty straight cover of a song we all grew up on, but that makes it no less awesome; as one might expect, Freeland absolutely lets loose during the choruses, screaming his guts out on Kurt Cobain’s famous lyrics. Stream and download the track below.

[this promotion has ended]

-VN

Last week we gave Fed Through the Teeth Machine, the incredible new album from death/grind/prog pioneers The Red Chord, four out of five horns, and, honestly, we’re not even sure that that’s a high enough rating. Certain to make many year-end lists, Fed Through the Teeth Machine displays The Red Chord doing what they do best: defying expectations, breaking genre conventions, and tearing the listener a new asshole.

Metal Blade will release Fed Through the Teeth Machine this coming Tuesday, October 27, but as always, MetalSucks has ya covered: we’re streaming the entire album now through Monday, so you can hear how awesome it is before you buy it. We hope you love it as much as we do.

And while we’re on the topic, why you don’t read our interview with The Red Chord’s Gunface about the making of the album?

[This promotion has ended. -Ed.]

If there’s any justice in the world, The Red Chord’s excellent new album, Fed Through the Teeth Machine (read my four out of five horns review here), will cement Mike “Gunface” McKenzie’s status as one of his generation’s great guitar gods while introducing his truly unique playing to scores of new fans. Now The Red Chord’s sole axe slinger, Gunface really steps up his game on Teeth – the riffs and solos on this album are easily some of the year’s very best.

That being the case, I was very, very excited to have the opportunity to e-mail some questions to Gunface earlier this week. He follows bassist Greg Weeks and vocalist Guy Kozowyk as the latest member of The Red Chord to humor me by answering some truly idiotic (and hopefully a few intelligent) questions (I’m sure we’ll get to drummer Brad Fickeisen sooner or later). After the jump, get Gunface’s thoughts on the creation of Fed Through the Teeth Machine, writing solos, his various side projects, the value of the Death Star, and more.

Fed Through the Teeth Machine is out October 27 on Metal Blade.

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Only history will tell us for sure, but I suspect that The Red Chord’s 2002 debut, Fused Together in Revolving Doors, will end up being regarded as one of the most influential metal records of its time. Its title is truly appropriate; it’s not a death album, it’s not a grind album, it’s not a hardcore album, it’s basically just a “play whatever the fuck we want album.” There are now hordes of bands aping it, and most of them are doing a shit job.

Meanwhile, three albums, seven years, and a whole bunch of line-up changes later, The Red Chord are just as uncompromising and self-assured in their vision. I have no idea what a teeth machine is – apparently it has something to do with zippers – but Fed Through the Teeth Machine certainly makes me feel as though that’s exactly what I’ve experienced.

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GOOD MORNING EVERYONE! How ya doin’? Good, good.

You know what’s better than coffee? Another bootleg of a new song by The Red Chord! This one was filmed in Budapest. I have no idea what the song is called, but it will be on the band’s new album, Fed Through the Teeth Machine, which Metal Blade will release later this year.

And even if you don’t dig The Red Chord for some reason, you should watch the beginning of this clip just for Guy Kozowyk’s on-stage musings. The dude might be second only to Frank Mullen and Mikael Åkerfeldt for stage banter.

You can watch a clip of another new song by The Red Chord, “Floating Through the Vein,” here.

-AR

[via Metal Injection]

Metal Injection just posted this video interivew with Guy Kozowyk from The Red Chord. Vince and I were standing just off-camera, obnoxiously watching the interview take place when we probably should have been minding our own business, and at the time, I thought it was one of the funniest, most honest interviews I’d seen recently; I’m glad to have now discovered that it holds up even if you’re not in the room. Guy is not only insanely entertaining, but he’s brutally honest in a way a lot metal musicians would never be – to wit, see his thoughts on Suicide Silence and deathcore in general. Even if you don’t agree with him, you gotta admit, this is some funny shit.

Also, clearly “The Panteradactyl” should be the hot new dance move in the mosh pit.

By the way, in case you’re somehow not in the know, Metal Injection has loads more cool interviews and live footage and lotsa other shit. Go visit them. It’s what all the cool kids are doing.

-AR

It wasn’t that long ago that we interviewed The Red Chord bassist Greg Weeks via e-mail, but since a) that interview turned out to be one of the best we’ve ever done and b) we love The Red Chord, we just couldn’t resist the chance to sit down with vocalist Guy Kozowyk at the Long Island stop of the Rockstar Mayhem Festival. Guy was happy, or at least very good at pretending to be happy, to talk to us about the tour, playing in front of such huge crowds, and the already legendary Ladder Up an Ass project, but, like his bandmate, he was also cool enough to humor Axl Rosenberg when he asked a stupid question on behalf of his girlfriend. Check out the full transcript of our chat after the jump.

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