So apparently Ozzfest is coming back this summer, and is coming back as a traveling tour again (as opposed to the one-off fest it was in 2008). And that’s all well and good, only… who’s gonna be on the bill?

Mayhem, which is basically Ozzfest 2.0, has already scooped up a lot of big-name bands for the summer, including many who have played multiple past Ozzfests – namely Korn, Rob Zombie, Lamb of God, Atreyu, Shadows Fall and Hatebreed, the latter of whom I think have been on something like 90% of all Ozzfests ever.

Add to that other Ozzfest alum like Chimaira, In This Moment and Norma Jean, and some bands the kids today all seem to like, such as Winds of Plague and They Who Shall Not Be Named, and, well, that’s a whole bunch of potential mainstage and second stage draws right there.

Then there’s the mini-fests like Summer Slaughter. I can’t tell you which bands we already know are booked for some of these tours without betraying a lot of people’s confidence, but I can tell you that some great bands are now no longer available for Ozzfest.

And, oh yeah, Megadeth, Slayer, and Testament are now doing their American Carnage tour in the summer, so they’re out.

So who’s left? After the jump, I’m going to play my favorite game: it’s called “over-think about something incredibly unimportant.”

Before we proceed, it’s worth noting that I’m going to try and be semi-realistic when moving forward with some barely-educated guesses about who’ll be playing Ozzfest. If a band already has summer tour dates booked, I’m going to assume they’re not avail, although I acknowledge that they could cancel those dates in favor of playing for a bigger crowd. And I’m not even going to bother with bands like Pig Destroyer, Sigh, and Salome – bands that will play Ozzfest right around the time Joey Belladonna’s solo band plays four sold-out headlining shows at Giants Stadium. Also, obviously not all of these bands are gonna end up on the bill – these are just bands I think could end up there.

And so, without further bullshit…

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Iron Man was a fun movie. It wasn’t great, but I had a nice time watching it, and I will see Iron Man 2. But if you’re one of those people who thought that Iron Man was the greatest goddamn thing ever and get even think about Iron Man 2 without pissing yourself with excitement, well, then do I have a treat for you: some Iron Man 2 footage appears in a new AC/DC video for an old song, “Shoot to Thrill.” According to Nikki Finke, this is just the tip of the iceberg for the band and the armored hero, as “Columbia Records will release the album AC/DC: Iron Man 2 on Monday, April 19th, featuring 15 classic AC/DC songs selected from 1976 to 2008.”

This doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. Why start promoting an album that doesn’t come out ’til April and a movie that doesn’t come out ’til May now? Will people really remember this in four to five months? Also, since every AC/DC song basically sounds the same, would it really have been so hard for Angus Young to at least whip up a new single for this thing, rather than just offer another rehash of the band’s back catalog?

In any case, here’s the video. Watch it, don’t watch it, whatever. There’ll be plenty of more opportunities to see Iron Man 2 footage between now and its release date, I’m sure.

Meanwhile, the dude who just got hired to direct the new Spider-Man movie has directed videos for Hatebreed and Disturbed. So maybe Marvel is really metal after all.

-AR

We’ve all been there. Tensions are high in some packed, sweaty venue, sparked by feverish excitement and the potential for violence. These people paid good money to enjoy some type of cathartic release. The frontman for whatever hard-nu-death-crab-metal-core outfit is brazen and demanding. Can you believe this shit? You PAID to be entertained, and this guy is telling YOU what to do! The speech goes something like this: “I want everybody in this room moving! Front to back, side to side, NO ONE STANDS STILL! When this part kicks in, I want total [Insert destructive word here like "chaos," "mayhem," or "bedlam" if you're witty]. If the person next to you isn’t moving, MAKE THEM MOVE!” Than, if the action is not adequate, this screamer/pep rally organizer calls YOU some variation of “pussy” or “faggot” or really anything to make you feel like a soft, womanly bitch of a man in order to get in that pit and kick another grown man in the face, all in the spirit of making this band look like they are awesome. But then something happens, as if the air is sucked out of the room at the moment of impact – when those glorious staccato chugs kick in, the crowd is almost always powerless to its charms regardless of the obvious lack of substance. Like junk food and reality TV, we have a love affair with breakdowns.

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The line-up for the 2010 Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival (Jesus I hate typing all that shit) has been announced. See who’ll be playing one of the summer’s biggest metal tours after the jump, along with my snarky commentary, of course…

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Kingdom of Sorrow, the sludgecore supergrouping of Hatebreed’s Jamey Jasta with Crowbar’s Kirk Windstein, has just announced via press release that they have re-upped with Relapse Records, with a new album to be released some time this Spring. And while admittedly I’m having a little bit of harmless fun with the band’s unintended double entrendre (referenced above), in actuality I’m seriously fucking excited about this. We don’t have a name for the record yet, or any other details, but I loved their debut enough to call it my favorite album of 2008. One thing’s for sure: the guys have some nice things to say about Relapse!

Windstein commented on the resigning and new album; “Jamey and I are really excited to be working with Relapse on another Kingdom Of Sorrow album. They were a big part of the success of our first album and have been a great company to work with. Our new material kicks ass, we can’t wait to unleash it! It’s a real beast!”

Jasta continues; “It was a no brainer to re-sign with Relapse for another Kingdom Of Sorrow album. They are a great company who really gets it and we’re extremely excited to have them 110% behind us.”

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It was back in December of ’08 that my man Vince first observed that E1 (then still called Koch) was signing every fucking metal band in the world. At that point, the label had recently made deals with or released albums by In Flames, Hatebreed, High On Fire, Satyricon, Otep, Throwdown and Straight Line Stitch; now there’s a rumor that they’ve added Black Label Society to their roster, too.

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Last week, during one of my daily perusals of this very blog, I came across a rather scathing recounting of Killswitch Engage’s self-titled album, which came out earlier this year. This caught me a bit off guard, as I considered it to be one of my favorite albums of the year and a step in the right direction from Daylights Dies, which was at first very disappointing but grew on me after some time. I was even more surprised when I saw that most user comments tended to agree with the blog entry.

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Two Jamey Jasta headlines in one day! Oh boy!

We’ve known for some time that Mr. Jasta was helping Sebastian Bach write material for his next solo album, the follow-up to the borderline-unlistenable Angel Down. Which actually strikes me as kind of a good idea – Bach hasn’t really brought the heavy since Skid Row’s underrated Subhuman Race album way the fuck back in 1995. We even got an ever-so-brief taste of that music back in May.

But now Blabbermouth has posted video of Bach and his new solo band, all of whom are apparently willing to pay for their own gas and rehearse for free, performing a new song in its entirety. It’s called “Live the Life” and, well, it’s pretty bad. And not heavy in the slightest.

But it’s good to see that Baz can still headbang like it’s 1989.

If I were Baz I’d put out some of those songs he wrote with Jasta ASAP. This shit is fucking embarassing.

-AR

Our friend D.X. Ferris recently interviewed Hatebreed’s Jamey Jasta for the Riverfront Times. Ferris is a great writer and an all-around good dude, so it’s definitely worth checking out… but here’s the part that really caught my attention:

What’s the latest with your books?
I had a major setback with the lyric book, which the lawyers are dealing with. Let’s hope these bad deals I’ve done in the past don’t come back to haunt me any more. It’s not something I can really talk about in the press. When you sign a bad [record] deal, it affects everything: the use of your lyrics, and the use of your music in commercials and TV shows and movies and soundtracks.

<sarcasm>A bad record deal? When did Hatebreed ever sign a bad record deal? Haven’t they always been on top-quality labels that have reputations for treating their artists fairly? What could Jamey possibly be talking about? Hmm… the mind boggles…</sarcasm>

On a semi-related note, please allow me to take the opportunity to once again plug D.X. Ferris’ awesome entry on Reign in Blood into the 33 1/3 book series. There were a lot of great metal-related books in 2009, but I think this one was my very favorite. With the holidays right around the corner, I can’t think of a better stocking stuffer. Order a copy here.

-AR

Although I know of at least one groupie who probably would like to see the fellas in Born of Osiris forcefully lose their butt cherries, this article is actually about the below video, which Sergeant D. brilliantly included in his review of a recent Hatebreed/Cannibal Corpse/Hate Eternal/BOO gig.

The clip is noteworthy for two reasons:

1. It’s just funny to see some kids in a deathcore cover band playing to fifteen people in their school gym. As Sergeant D. notes, when the kids start moshing at the 47 second mark, it makes you “wish you could spray everybody under 21 in the face with AIDS.”
2. This band calls themselves “The Rapist.” What a charming band name. Clearly, The Rapist should be signed to Sumerian ASAP, so that they can rape rape rape all across this great land.

Fear for the future of our world, people.

-AR

I really like the Rockstar Mayhem Festival – it’s like someone went to Ozzfest and figured out a way to make it way better. Having two side-by-side second stages was a stroke of genius; there’s no downtime in-between bands, because one act can set up while another plays. The mainstage has been solid, too, although there’s always one co-headliner that’s totally missable – in other words, Disturbed and Marilyn Manson played those slots. But so have Slayer, Mastodon, and a bunch of other great bands, so there’s that.

Well, our pals at Metal Insider are reporting a few rumors as to whom might be on this year’s fest, and it looks as though the skipable band this year may very well be Korn.

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As a fan of Kingdom Of Sorrow, Jamey Jasta’s collaboration with the incredibly Kirk Windstein, I follow the Connecticut-based hardcore vocalist on Twitter. I’m not a huge fan of his main project Hatebreed, largely because so many of their songs, while angry and uplifting, sound so damn similar. As a result, I’ve been reluctant to pick up their recent self-titled album. I mean, if I want to be motivated by metal, I’ll pop in ANDREW W.K.’s I GET WET!!!!!!

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Not that we had any doubt Baroness’ Blue Record would have a strong debut, but it’s always nice to see the proof. And Skeletonwitch’s ripping new record Breathing the Fire had a great debut too; I’m elated to see the band sell as many records first week as they did. Elsewhere it was the usual radio rock / alt-metal suspects dominating the charts. Click through to see chart positions and sales figures.

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Five heavy hitting heavy hitters — Alice in Chains, Hatebreed, Austrian Death Machine, Steel Panther and Dethklok — all released new records last week. Solid 2nd and 3rd week performances from Three Days Grace, Muse, Megadeth, Five Finger Death Punch and others made it an all-around big week for metal. Let’s see how everyone fared after the jump.

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Uh, I think the headline pretty much says it all. There’s nothing for me to add, really. I’m curious to hear this album when it comes out next week, but I’m not sure what to expect. Or, rather, I’m afraid that I am sure what to expect. Or. Y’know. Whatever.

-AR

At this point, I don’t know what to expect from Hatebreed’s upcoming, self-titled album. The first song the band released, “In the Ashes They Shall Reap,” really did nothing for me – but I actually quite liked the second song the band put out, “Merciless Tide.” So much so that I’ve been listening to it off and on for the past week.

Now the band has posted yet another track on their MySpace page, entitled “Everyone Bleeds Now.” And in terms of the quality scale, I’d place it somewhere in-between “Ashes” and “Tide.” I mean, it’s pretty heavy, but it’s also just another variation on the same song the band has been putting out over and over and over again since Perseverance. Whereas “Tide” suggested there might be some fight left in the old boys yet, this song just makes me feel…  meh.

Still, the album has fifteen songs on it, so there’s still twelve more tracks to win me over. I guess I’ll find out when Hatebreed drops September 29 on E1.

-AR

Hatebreed have a new song, “Merciless Tide,” available for free download right here. It comes off their new, self-titled album, which will be released on E1 on September 29.

And… hey! Lookit that. I actually like it. It reminds me why I always end up enjoying Hatebreed, even if they’re never gonna make another Satisfaction is the Death of Desire. And it’s definitely better than that other song the band released. There’s multiple guitar solos, both of which I enjoy, the breakdown is fun, Jamey sounds pretty cranky.

And besides. I’ve already heard the best hardcore album of 2009. It’s called Axe to Fall.

-AR

Here it is:

Based on your comments, it looks like most of you were unimpressed with the first song the band has released from the album, ““In the Ashes They Shall Reap.” Hopefully you’ll enjoy the rest of the record more.

Hatebreed comes out comes out September 29 on E1.

-AR

“In the Ashes They Shall Reap,” the first song we’ve gotten to hear off of Hatebreed’s new, self-titled album, is streaming here.

I have a distinct opinion about this song – but I’m not going to share it. No. Because we’ve been enjoying you kids duke it out so much, I wanna keep my nose out of it… at least for now. I just wanna hear what you guys think.

Weigh in with your thoughts below. Hatebreed comes out September 29 on E1.

-AR

I do really enjoy Hatebreed when I’m in the right mood, and they’re a lot of fun live. But the thought of a new Hatebreed album doesn’t really get my blood pumping the way it used to. Perseverance was a turning point, the moment the band officially went from being hardcore to metalcore; since then, they’ve really just made Perseverance Part 2, Perseverance Part 3, etc.

Now they’ve announced a Septmeber 29 release date for their new, self-titled album, and front dude Jamey Jasta is promising that this album will mark another evolution for the band:

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