MetalSucks

So we finally got to meet Crustcake at the Hate Eternal/BDM/3 Inches of Blood show on Wednesday; we also got to meet Crustcake’s friend, the excellent photographer Jesse Angelo (I knew I liked Jesse right away because he was wearing a totally rad Jason Voorhees shirt… so clearly he’s a man after my own heart).

ANYWAY, Crustcake has a write-up of the show and some of Jesse’s pics here. You should check ‘em out, because, well, they’re killer. ‘Nuff said.

-AR

Vince and I were mortified when we arrived at BB King’s Blues Club in Times Square last night. Not because we were at BB King’s (not always the best venue for a metal show) or because we were in Times Square (a place of interest only to tourists and other assorted nimrods), but because it was only 8 pm and 3 Inches of Blood were just taking the stage after an “introduction” by Dr. Rockso, the Rock N’ Roll Clown who does cocaine. How the fuck had we managed to miss Hate Eternal? According to the venue’s website, doors had opened at 7, and it seemed highly improbable that openers Decrepit Birth and Hate Eternal had both already played their sets within an hour; since we were at the show largely to check out Erik Rutan and the boys, the thought that we might not get to see them was upsetting, to put it mildly.

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Having now heard a new track from Hate Eternal’s forthcoming Fury and Flames, I’m even more excited than I already was for the latest offering from Erik Rutan – I mean, the song is just fucking BRUTAL. My newly quadrupled enthusiasm works out pretty well, since Vince and I are going to see Hate Eternal’s show with The Black Dahlia Murder and 3 Inches of Blood tonight at BB King’s in Times Square tonight (NY readers – seek us out and buy us a drink… Vince is the dude with the huge beard, I’ll be the guy in the Lamb of God shirt who looks fucking miserable and totally unapproachable)… and, if everything works out, we’ll get to interview the dude sometime in the wee hours of the morning, after the gig.*

ANYWAY, here’s a clip of Hate Eternal playing “I, Monarch” from their DVD, The Perilous Flight. They sound pretty MASSIVE, if you ask me…

[kml_flashembed movie="http://youtube.com/v/FwZ1PhNGQkA" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

-AR

*By the way, as I type this, I think Vince is doing a phoner with one of the dudes from Bullet for My Valentine. And, yes, I am aware of the humor in the fact that we may interview Hate Eternal and BFMV in the same 24 hour period, given that those bands’ respective fan bases would probably kill one another if given half a chance.

Between Windstein and Jasta’s commitments to Down, Crowbar, Hatebreed, Icepick, and writing a friggin’ coffee table book, I had kind of assumed that Kingdom of Sorrow would be one of those supergroups that never actually played live. But, lo and behold, the band has begun to announce some tour dates:

Feb. 27 – Palladium – Worcester, Massachusetts
Feb. 28 – Ottobar – Baltimore, Maryland
Mar. 01 – Valentines – Albany, New York
Mar. 02 – Knitting Factory – New York, New York
Mar. 04 – El Macombo – Toronto, Ontario
Mar. 06 – Reggie’s Rock Club – Chicago, Illinois
Mar. 07 – Magic Stick – Detroit, Michigan

No word on whether or not the band will be traveling on that scary looking horse from their cover art.

Kingdom of Sorrow’s self-titled debut comes out February 19, a.k.a. the same day as half the other exciting winter metal releases (Genghis Tron, Hate Eternal, etc.). Relapse’s small and probably overworked PR department is about as dependable as a rumored release date for Chinese Democracy, so I guess I’ll have to wait for the frickin’ thing to leak just like the rest of you before I can judge the final product. In the meantime, I know where I’ll be on March 2.

-AR

UPDATE: Hey, look at that! The band just posted a new track, “Lead into Demise,” on their MySpace page. Suh-weet. 

Hate Eternal’s “Bringer of Storms” from their forthcoming album Fury and Flames (Feb 19, Metal Blade) has hit the net, and you don’t even need to break the law to download it. Head on over to DownloadPunk to get a high-quality version for free. Don’t say we never gave you nothin’.

-VN

[Hate Eternal on MySpace]

I have no idea if this is true or not, but someone recently told me that Steve Austin (the legendary musician, NOT the pro-wrestler and NOT the Six Million Dollar Man) made current Today is the Day drummer Derek Roddy wear a bullet proof vest during his audition for the band so that Austin could shoot him as he played in order to test his skill under pressure. That seems incredibly extreme and totally fucking fuck nuts if it’s true, especially since Roddy’s skills have already been tested in Hate Eternal, but, uh, hey, it’s still a pretty cool story.

ANYWAY, Austin taking his band out on the road is always cause for excitement, but the fact that’s he taking a rotating support line-up of some of our favorite bands out there right now with him – including Rwake, Lair of the Minotaur, Fuck the Facts, and our friends in the most excellent At All fucking Cost – just makes this tour that much more worthy of your time and money.

After the jump, get a complete list of tour dates, along with a list of which bands will playing which shows.

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This is getting ridiculous.

-AR

I understand that with the physical CDs, records, whatever quickly going the way of the dodo, album art is most likely seeing its end of days, too. Still, if you went to all the trouble of hiring an awesome artist like Paul Romano to do your album art, wouldn’t you first show it to fans in a size larger than this?

Anyway, if I squint real hard, it looks pretty cool. Guess I’ll have to wait ’til the album comes out to know for sure.

-AR

As the founding guitarist in Fear Factory, Dino Cazares became one of the most influential and important figures in metal in the 90s. By the time FF split up in 2002 (and later re-formed without him), he’d also developed a passionate following for his death/grind side project, Brujeria, and, later, Asesino. Little wonder, then, that such a popular, diverse talent should be hand-picked by Monte Connor to be a “team captain” for the all-star Roadrunner United project in 2005, and his almost surprisingly poppy power ballad, the Matt Heafy sung “The End,” became that album’s first and only single and a surprise hit.

Now the tireless Cazares is back with Divine Heresy, a band that combines the sheer brutality of Brujeria with the more mainstream instincts of Fear Factory. Formed with super drummer Tim Yeung (ex-Hate Eternal, Vital Remains) and featuring newcomer Tommy Vext (né Tommy Cummings) on vocals, the band released their debut album, Bleed the Fifth, earlier this year to critical acclaim. Adding ex-Nile bassist Joe Payne to the fold for their live show, the band has begun the process of bringing the message to the people via tireless touring. Axl and Vince recently sat down with Cazares, Yeung, and, later, Payne to discuss Bleed the Fifth, the baggage of fans’ expectations when coming off such popular previous bands, and DH’s current tour supporting Chimaira alongside Kataklysm and Terror.

Oh, and by the way – Dino told us to use that headline.

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The Black Dahlia Murder’s latest album, Nocturnal, has been out for just about two months now, and we still can’t stop listening to it. Guess that means it’s good.

We’ll finally get a chance to hear some of that awesome material live (pleaselpay”DeathmaskDivine” pleaseplay”DeathmaskDivine” pleaselpay”DeathmaskDivine”) when the band hits the road in January on a headlining tour with 3 Inches of Blood (whose Fire Up the Blades is also pretty sweet), Hate Eternal (RU-TAN! RU-TAN! RU-TAN!), and some band we don’t know called Decrepit Birth (Hmm… wonder if their logo is completely unreadable? I’ll have to remember to look into that). Given the size of the venues the tour is hitting, I can’t imagine tickets costing more than twenty bucks or so, and that’s at least three, possibly four really good bands for your money.

Tour dates after the jump.

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