The Faceless have been confirmed for Summer Slaughter 2012. That’s not shocking news, seeing as the band — like the fest’s previously announced co-headliners, Cannibal Corpse and Between the Buried and Me — have been rumored to be participating in the tour for three weeks now.

But it is still good news! Anyone who complains about a show where they’ll get to see Cannibal Corpse, BTBAM, and The Faceless should be hit in the head with a Halestorm album. Plus, there’s still at least seven other bands still to be announced; assuming the rumors continue to be true, those will include Job For A Cowboy, Veil of Maya, and Hate Eternal, all of whom are also awesome. And Vince and I got word of yet ANOTHER great band set to be on the tour over the weekend. So, yeah, everyone is going to this.

The next band will be officially announced on Sunday via the Summer Slaughter Facebook page.

-AR

The rumors are true: Cannibal Corpse and Between the Buried and Me will co-headline this year’s edition of the Summer Slaughter festour. BTBAM and The Corpse obviously play very, very different forms of death metal, but they’re both great. It’s hard to imagine any metal fan who isn’t a total fun-hating grump not being excited about this bill.

None of the other rumored acts — which include The Faceless, Job For A Cowboy, Veil of Maya, and Hate Eternal — have been confirmed yet, and, as Lambgoat reports in a tone I very much appreciate, “Unfortunately, it looks like the Summer Slaughter people are going to string this out, with remaining participants to be announced each Sunday (one-by-one) via Facebook.” The past two Summer Slaughters have featured ten bands apiece, so we should know the full line-up by the end of March.

In any case, between this and the solid line-up Mayhem Fest has put together this year, it looks like it could be a really fun summer…

-AR

Out of all of the big summer package tours, Summer Slaughter has easily become our favorite; it’s so much fun every year that we’re even willing to forgive the to-be-expected presence of some bands we can’t stand (e.g., Oceano, As Blood Runs Black, etc.), because the rest of the line-up built around them is usually so fantastic that having a few built-in beer breaks isn’t the worst thing in the world (as opposed to some of SS’s competitors, where the beer-break-to-cool-band ratio makes the whole endeavor just not worth it). So, yeah, we’re on the edge of our seats to see who makes it onto the bill this year.

To that end, prog metal social network czar Alkahest of Heavy Blog has done it once again, today with some pretty juicy rumors about the lineup for Summer Slaughter 2012.

Click to read more…

I knew I got out of bed this morning for a reason!!!

Not only have Cannibal Corpse unveiled the typically-gross cover art for their new offering, Torture (by longtime Cannibal Collaborator Vincent Locke), but, more importantly, they’ve officially released the first single from the album, “Demented Aggression.” And, yes, it is fucking awesome, and a glorious illustration of why this band is still worth caring about: they’ve struck that perfect balance between the whole Slayer “Let’s never stray too far from our sound!” thing and the Metallica “But artistic evolution is important!” thing. They continue to improve as musicians and songwriters (seriously, I can’t believe I constantly have to stress this, but songwriting is so goddamn imporant!!!), but at no point does it seem to have occurred to them to, say, write a bunch of Godhead songs. Why can’t other bands pull this off?

Enjoy “Demented Aggression” below:

Cannibal Corpse “Demented Aggression” by Metal Blade Records

Torture was produced by Erik “I Am Incapable of Being Involved with Something Shitty” Rutan, and comes out March 13 via Metal Blade; there’s already a wide variety of attractive pre-order packages available here.

-AR

I love Goatwhore because a) I love telling squares I make my living writing about bands with names like “Goatwhore,” and b) more importantly, they never seem to let us fans down. And their latest, Blood for the Master, is no exception — the Nawlins quartet has, once again, delivered a capital-”E” Evil album that is sure to fuel many a night of anti-social behavior and scare the living shit out of your neighbors.

The band has unveiled a new song from the album, “Collapse in Eternal Worth,” which you can stream below. I’m not even sure I understand what it means to collapse in eternal worth, but when the song is this good I don’t really care.

Goatwhore are going on tour with Hate Eternal — whose mastermind, Erik Rutan, produced Blood for the Master – starting next month. Get dates here.

Meanwhile, Blood for the Master comes out — when else? — on fucking VALENTINE’S DAY via Metal Blade. Buy it for someone you love.

-AR

Although their respective sounds are quite different, Goatwhore and Hate Eternal have three important things in common: they’re both on Metal Blade, they’re both produced by HE’s Erik Rutan, and they’re both so endlessly awesome that they put most other bands to shame. If aliens landed tomorrow and said “What is metal?”, you could do a lot worse than to point to these two bands as examples.

So the news that they’re touring together should make you very happy if you live near one of the announced dates, or very depressed, if, like Vince and myself, you do not. I have little doubt that these shows will be spectacular.

Support is coming from Fallujah and Cerebral Bore, who I think are both intriguing young bands with potentially bright futures ahead of them, if not necessarily instant home-run acts. Still, Goatwhore + Hate Eternal should = your attention.

Here are dates, via The PRP:

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Legendary thrashers Forbidden parted ways with drummer Mark Hernandez last week, a happening we failed to report upon because, Jesus Holy Christ, there’s basically two of us and it’s just not feasible that we’re going to be able to write about everything that happens ever, especially given that this entire site is editorials, which actually take some time to write, as opposed to, say, just cutting and pasting press releases.

ANYWAY, Forbidden. Down a drummer. They’re snagged some dude named Gene Hoglan to fill-in for a few dates — namely, the upcoming Alcatraz Festival in Belgium and the ProgPower Festival in Atlanta — but, of course, they’re going to need a permanent replacement. And thus, the band has decided to scour the land so full of undiscovered and unappreciated talent: the internet.

Here are the details, direct from the mouth of guitarist Craig Locicero:

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By the time Hate Eternal took the stage on a hot Saturday night early this month, I was gonna barf and pass out. My day had been spent at sea, teetering and bobbing aboard an overloaded and hot-rodded pontoon boat. The captain: a winner brah of mine; the craft: a two-tiered party tub with bar, arena-sized bank of speakers, and water slide (!), like something out of Caddyshack if Al Czervik were a Volcom rep. Fun!

And though dude is my super-brah, I dispute his shipboard music policy, which can be described as inescapable dance music at levels meant to blast the clothes off sluts. Add a merciless sun, the actual sluts, and drugs? Bam, you’re woozy as fuck.

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Go cry in your pea soup if you missed the Hate Eternal/Origin/Vital Remains/Abysmal Dawn tour. Seriously: get a bowl of pea soup and fucking cry in it, for you are a loser. Vince and I caught the trek when it hit NYC last weekend, and holy shit, did all four bands CRUSH. I was excited about this line-up from the moment it was announced in March, and, boy oh boy, did the bands not let me down. All death metal tours should have a bill this good.

Of course, I have a special place in my heart for Hate Eternal, who I think are one of the best death metal bands of the 21st century, and whose most recent release, Phoenix Amongst the Ashes, remains pretty much unchallenged as THE death metal album of 2011, even in the face of really amazing competition from bands like Decapitated and The Black Dahlia Murder.

Now the band has re-teamed with director David Brodsky, who also helmed their clip for “Bringer of Storms”, for a video of Ashes‘ “Lake Ablaze.” The video certainly seems to be an aesthetic cousin of the “Storms” clip, which is to say, it’s another insanely intense visual experience which provides ample atmosphere for Rutan’s umpteenth lesson in how to castrate men using nothing but sound.

Phoenix Amongst the Ashes is out now on Metal Blade, and if you’re not listening to it, you are seriously depriving yourself of something special.

-AR

[via Noisecreep]

Between the inclusion of Paul Ryan on our Top 25 Modern Metal Guitarists list, the release of their latest album, Entity, and their co-headlining tour with Hate Eternal, which begins tonight, Origin have been crowding the metal spotlight of late. I took some time to talk with Ryan about the new album, the current metal scene, the band’s progress, and the tour. Read our complete conversation after the jump!

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Why, it was just yesterday that we got wind of Origin releasing samples of every song on their new album, Entity, and now the band is already streaming another one of those songs, “Saligia,” in its entirety over at Guitar World. And I am only too happy to write about the band two days in a row, because, well, Origin rule.

So headbang here… actually, it’s kinda hard to headbang to Origin without getting whiplash, so be careful! The post also includes an interview with Paul Ryan (the twenty-fifth top modern metal guitarist today, say we) in which he not only discussed Entity, but talks about his gear, too, which I know is always a popular topic amongst metalheads.

Entity comes out this Tuesday, June 7, on Nuclear Blast. Then, a week later, the the band begins a co-headlining tour with Hate Eternal and support acts Abysmal Dawn and Vital Remains, which is a bill that makes me hard just typing about it. Here are dates for that tour…

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The new Origin album, Entity, comes out this Tuesday, which you already knew, because you know how awesome Origin (and their guitarist, Paul Ryan) are and you’re super excited for the record. But I’m telling you anyway on the off chance it slipped your mind.

I don’t know if the band plans to do a full album stream in advance of Entity‘s release or not, but it doesn’t really matter, because the below video, which features clips from every song on the album, should really be enough to sell you (although you didn’t need to be sold because, again, you already know that Origin rule). It even features my favorite section from my favorite song on the release, “Choosing Death.” That part of the tune has a real sense of, like, derring-do, y’know?

Entity comes out June 7 on Nuclear Blast. Possibly even more exciting is that a week later, the band begins a co-headlining tour with Hate Eternal and support acts Abysmal Dawn and Vital Remains, which is a really, really, REALLY good line-up. Dates after el jumperooni…

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Foo Fighters fans fretting that Wasting Light would relinquish its hold on the meaningless Soundscan charts after dropping to #2 last week after three debut weeks at #1… fret not, as Dave Grohl and co. are back up top! This week’s #2 comes in the form of a big surprise, as Zack Wylde’s Black Label Society sold a ton of copies of the acoustic equivalent of a remixes album.

Lots of interesting action elsewhere, too, with new records by Anvil and Hate Eternal making the charts, and a bunch of other strong sellers. Also: a case study in Sixx A.M. / Motley Crue chart history, another one on the myriad Aerosmith greatest hits collections selling gangbusters, and on Metallica’s Master of Puppets‘ chart legacy finally coming to an end.

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We’ve been trying to get one of the dudes from Cannabis Corpse do a “Metalcal Marijuana” column for us for what seems like forever now, and they said they were gonna do it but never actually did, and now I’m finally going public with this request in the hopes that if enough of you post comments to the effect of “YES PLEASE DO THAT,” it will actually happen.

Then again, it’s hard to blame stoners for forgetting to do stuff. Especially when you’re a stoner who sometimes forgets to do stuff.

Speaking of blaming shit on bud: the band has a new song called “Blame it on Bud” that our, uh, buds at Brooklyn Vegan are now streaming. It comes from Cannabis Corpse’s new album, Beneath Grow Lights Thou Shalt Rise, which is coming out on July 12 via Tankcrimes. And if you still think of Cannabis Corpse as “just some joke band,” well, you oughta know that Erik motherfucking Rutan mixed the album, SO THAT SHIT IS SERIOUS.

So “get right,” as we like to say, and then go rock out to the song. But don’t toke up and then forget what you were gonna do next, you silly stoners!

-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…

And now, it’s the time of the week you’ve all been waiting for: the three-hour window your folks are out of the house, allowing you to jack off comfortably Decibel’s monthly Guess Next Month’s Cover and Win a Decibot Shirt Contest! I’m going to predict this will be the first “FIRST” to get the answer right —provided, of course, that the band/musician/farm animal we’re spotlighting is in fact typed out below the “FIRST.” Unless the first person who sees this types in “System of a Down,” just to be a dick/radical. That said, it’s been a few years since System of a Down proper existed — although who hasn’t enjoyed the “Five Serj Tankian Solo Albums Nobody Cares About/Bassist ‘n’ Friend Randomly Beating the Shit Out of Brent Hinds Era” — so they could ostensibly be rocking spiked wristbands now.

But no, it’s not System of a Down. There’s your hint.

-AB

Decibel’s June 2011 issue, which features Ghost, Killing Joke, Mastodon, Hate Eternal, Gorguts, Protest the Hero, Born of Osiris, and Scale The Summit is available here, or make your mama proud and just get a full subscription.

New releases from Hate Eternal, The Gates of Slumber and Zombi highlight this week’s new metal. MS new release kingpin Vic Vaughn breaks those and more new albums down after the break.

Click to read more…

So we’re now five axe slingers deep into out list of The Top 25 Modern Metal Guitarists. We predicted that the list would get a lot of you angry, and, no shock, it has. Funny thing is, reading the comments, as of yet not one of you has correctly predicted which guitar player is gonna be #1. So, just lettin’ you know… you may be even angrier in the coming weeks, or maybe you’ll be less angry, but so far, it seems like you guys just do not see it comin’.

While you chew on that, here’s some other fun things we did this week:

• We premiered new music from Hate Eternal, Arch Enemy, and Nader Sadek.
• We enjoyed a new episode of “Cooking Contaminated,” this one featuring King Fowley of Deceased.
• We checked out the latest releases from Benighted and Zubrowska.
• We wondered if Metallica and friends have gone too far in their quest for the Big Fortune.
• We checked out some *real* hardcore.
• We weighed Donald Trump’s claim that President Obama was the first drummer for Overkill.
• We wondered why talent can’t be passed down via genetics.
• We weighed, compared and contrasted multiple metal concerts showcasing female-fronted bands.
• We prayed for Kurt Cobain to rise from his grave and off Miley Cyrus.
• We wondered whether or not Dave Grohl is gonna be on the new Mastodon album.

And so, in conclusion… I am going to get a slice of pizza now.

See ya next week.

-AR

We’ve been raving about Hate Eternal’s Phoenix Amongst the Ashes for some time now, and as of this coming Tuesday, you can finally own the wooly mammoth of an album for yourself. But if waiting another four days feels like waiting an eternity — and with a record this good, it ought to — well, fret not! Your friends Axl and Vince worked it out nice, so you can hear the album right now. And you MUST hear this album RIGHT NOW. It is a goddamn motherfucking masterpiece of death metal, and will surely end up on every sensible year-end list. But be forewarned, dear readers: this album will crush your skull into dust.

Like we said, Phoenix Amongst the Ashes comes out this Tuesday, May 9, on Metal Blade. You still have time to pre-order it, though! Choose from a variety of physical packages here, or order a digital download from iTunes here.

And if you haven’t done so already, you should definitely check out this interview that MetalSucks’ own Axl Rosenberg and Anso DF conducted with the mighty Erik Rutan. He had all kinds of fascinating things to say about this record’s creation!

Now enjoy Phoenix Amongst the Ashes…

[Sorry, this stream is no longer available!]

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…

There’s been a lot of buzz about remaking The Crow with Bradley Cooper. Because, you know, nothing conveys goth-punk flair, existential angst and an unyielding appetite for vengeance like the frat guy who probably stuffed fans of the original into lockers. The producers should’ve just gone to Killing Joke mastermind Jaz Coleman. Not only would it at least be novel to see a 50-year-old Crow, but he’s been dressing the part for years.

In 1980, Coleman and his band were bloodthirsty rebels in spirit, not image. Their eponymous E.G. Records debut careened unpredictably between post-punk, metal, prog, disco and what we now know as industrial. Killing Joke influenced, well, pretty much everybody in the interior and exterior of Decibel and MetalSucks’ Venn diagram. (If you’ve never heard them, somehow, drop a jaw at the third paragraph of their Wiki page.) Add incendiary, prophetic, political screeds to taste, and you’ve got a recipe for a wicked Hall of Fame, appearing in our Ghost issue.

As usual, author Chris Dick went above and beyond to make this HOF one of the most thorough Killing Joke interviews ever; hence, we have reams of bonus content. Here’s a little bonus bloodsport to whet your appetite.

Click to read more…

OH SO MUCH YES RIGHT NOW.

There’s a new Origin song in the world right now. I don’t really know what else I need to tell you. If you have even 25% of a functioning brain, you’re no longer reading this but listening to it. So it shouldn’t even matter what I type here. Sometimes Lars Ulrich like to spike his Dunkin’ Donuts Coffee Coolatta and masturbate to pictures of panda bears he has photoshopped to look like fuzzy versions of Randy Rhoads. Karyn Crisis secretly aspires to be more like Cyndi Lauper. Blue bed bugs beg for blumpkins. See, these things I’m typing don’t even make any sense, but it doesn’t matter because no one is reading this right now.

On the off chance you are still reading this for some reason, OMG IT’S SO GOOD STOP READING THIS AND GO LISTEN RIGHT NOW.

Origin’s new album, Entity, comes out June 7 via Nuclear Blast. The band is also doing an incredible summer co-headlining tour with Hate Eternal, and support will come from Abysmal Dawn and Vital Remains. Get dates after the jump.

Click to read more…