Biggest and best metal release day of 2011 so far? It certainly seems that way. New records from Amon Amarth, Becoming the Archetype, Blackguard, Cavalera Conspiracy — are you kidding me? there’s still more? — Goes Cube, Havok, Mercenary, Obscura and a Between the Buried and Me best-of comp (with a brand new release coming next week!) all officially come out today. If you’re a devoted metalhead with varied tastes you better have saved up, else you’ll be very, very poor come tomorrow.

Vic Vaughn takes a look at all those release — and yes, EVEN MORE — after the break.

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Why are Havok so much fun? Why are various inhabitants of the MS Mansion constantly touting their awesomeness while trashing other re-thrash bands? Why did everyone love their show so much at South by South Death in Austin? Is Denver the next Bay Area? Will you just click “play” already below to listen to their new album Time Is Up in its entirety?

Did you know that Time Is Up comes out tomorrow? And that you can order it here? Are you sick of all these questions yet? Would you hate us if we did this all day?

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[Read my recaps of Day One and Day Two. -Ed.]

The always-wise Antonin Skullia Esq. said to me on Friday that there’s no such thing as a “first annual,” just a “first ever.” Indeed. So please don’t think I’m gloating when I say that the first ever MetalSucks SXSW event South by South Death was a big success and surely worthy of creating a “second annual.” Meek is Murder, Wormrot, Red Fang, Havok and Kvelertak teamed up for for an excellent day of headbanging, beer-swilling, and sweaty, dirty metal in the cramped punk-rock confines of Headhunters.

And for the night-cap, the definitive most metal of non-metal bands: Chrome-E-Oh. Ohhhhh ohhh!

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I was not aware of the existence of Singlish until just now, when I watched the below video interview that Invisible Oranges‘ Cosmo Lee conducted recently with Wormrot — but I’m not at all surprised that it exists. Are the band’s lyrics in Singlish? I’ve honestly never really paid attention to what front man Arif was screeching, and, kind of unbelievably, I can’t seem to find any of the band’s lyrics online. One way or the other, though, this is pretty interesting stuff.

While we’re on the topic of Wormrot: if you’re at SXSW this week don’t forget that they’re playing MetalSucks’ ABSOLUTELY FREE South by Southdeath party at Headhunters, at 720 Red River, from 2-6pm this Friday, March 18th. Kvelertak, Havok, Red Fang, and Meek is Murder are also on the bill, and Full Blown Chaos’ Ray Mazzola is MCing. It’s gonna be a killer time so be there. And bring some weed for Vince — he does so much for you!

Wormort’s new album, Dirge, will be out May 3 on Earache. I’ve heard it. It will not disappoint you.

-AR

Havok, the neo-thrash band that makes all other neo-thrash bands look bad, have a new album coming out on Candlelight on March 29. It’s called Time is Up. Yes, it’s terrific — if you dug Havok’s 2009 debut, Burn, you will dig this, and if you didn’t hear Burn, you should hear this, and if you didn’t like Burn, go jump in a fire.

I mention this because Metal Injection have a behind-the-scenes video of Havok in the studio making Time is Up. And you should watch it! Here, I’ll make it easy for you:

If you’re going to SXSW next week, don’t forget that Havok are playing MetalSucks’ ABSOLUTELY FREE South by Southdeath party at Headhunters, at 720 Red River, from 2-6pm on Friday, March 18th. Kvelertak, Red Fang, Wormrot, and Meek is Murder are also on the bill, and Full Blown Chaos’ Ray Mazzola, a.k.a. “One of the Funniest Motherfuckers in Metal,” is MCing. Be there.

-AR

Why, I was just complimenting Havok on the cover art for their new album, Time is Up, earlier this week — and now they’ve gone ahead and debuted a new song, “Scumbag in Disguise,” over at Metal Underground. It’s like they wanted to prove that I wasn’t wrong when I predicted “that the music will more than match the aardvark baby impalingness of the cover.” Because I know there’s this perception that both Vince and I myself hate all re-thrash, which isn’t true — we just hate ALMOST all re-thrash. But the power of Havok’s rockingness is so undeniable that I can’t bring myself to say a bad word about them.

Check out “Scumbag in Disguise” here, then let us know what you think in the comments section. And don’t forget that we’re streaming another song from the album, “Fatal Intervention,” here.

Time is Up will be released via Candlelight (How romantic!) on March 29.

-AR

Havok have released the cover art for their new album, Time is Up, and it definitely impales aardvark babies. Check it out:

I dig this cover so much that I decided to Google the artist, Halsey Swain. (I didn’t realize at first that she also did the art for Havok’s first album, Burn — I liked that album cover, but this one blows it out of the water, I think.) It seems that Ms. Swain’s day job is as a sushi chef in Portland, which just goes to show that my mother was right all along when she told me, “Sushi chefs from Portland are almost always great heavy metal album cover artists, too.”

Here’s another Halsey Swain piece that I want on my wall:

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So as you’re no doubt aware, Halloween is on Sunday, and as you’re hopefully aware, we’re holding a “Heavy Metal Halloween” contest with SPV. The deadline was announced as being on midnight on Halloween, the logic being that people would snap their photos before they went our partying; but Vince wisely pointed out that people might not get to upload those photos right away. So now we’re extending the deadline to midnight on November 1. Hope that helps! If you need a refresher on the rules, go here.

Here’s what else happened this week:

• We debuted a new music video by Nile.
• We also debuted new music by Havok, White Arms of Athena, and Shred Sean and Allan Tecchio.
• Daath’s Eyal Levi talked about trust issues while The Red Chord’s Greg Weeks talked about football.
• We spoke to J. Randall from Agoraphobic Nosebleed and our old pal Eyal from Daath.
• We checked out the latest release from Kylesa, and a new book by the Cro-Mags’ John Joseph.
• We went on a “Reader’s Choice” local scene binge.
• We prayed for the end of karate mosh pits.
• We watched Abigail Williams lob a dildo at Iwrestledabearonce.
• We defended Phil Labonte’s angelic singing voice.
• Sergeant D. taught you about bands you would have hated/ignored in ’95.

And that’s all she wrote this week. Don’t forget that our own Gary Suarez is playing in a Jesus Lizard cover band on Sunday night. Swing by if you can!

-AR

BOO-YA! We have a real treat for you today, kiddies: a brand-spankin’-new track from Havok‘s forthcoming Candlelight Records release, Time is Up. We give re-thrash bands a lot of shit here on MetalSucks, but Havok are no ordinary re-thrash band — sure, their music is distinctly old-school style thrash, but their songwriting skills and musicianship are a notch above the competition. And they put on a killer live show, too! Vocalist/guitarist Dave Sanchez assures us that Time is Up is “SO THICK IT’S GONNA GIVE YOU DIAREHHA,” and if “Fatal Intervention” is any indication, he ain’t lyin’! Like all of Havok’s music, it is, simply put, smokin’. Check it out below!

Time is Up will feature album art by Halsey Caust, who also did the cover for Havok’s last album, Burn, as well as multiple records for Toxic Holocaust. We’ll give you more details on the album’s release as we get ‘em. In the meantime, the band is still on tour with Wretched and Armed for Apocalypse through November 16; get dates after the jump!

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I’m not sure how Primal Fear have slipped under my radar all these years given my undying love of Iron Maiden and my recent exploration/fascination of/with Euro Power/Epic Metal cheese, but all it took was one note of last night’s headline set at NYC’s Gramercy Theater… and I was sold, hook line and sinker. Dork metal to the max; dorks of every kind, everywhere, more Iced Earth shirts than I’ve ever seen in one place ever other than an Iced Earth show, and somewhat shockingly a slew of hot older babes turned out to catch this German band’s U.S. tour kickoff (with Havok). So ridiculous, so epic, so Maiden-y, so Priest-y, so…. awesome. I loved it. Words cannot express.

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Shitty picture that does not do this awesome band justice courtesy of my iPhone

So as I mentioned yesterday, Vince and I went to check out Havok live for the first time last night. It was the inaugural date of their supporting stint for Primal Fear, and apparently lead guitar player Shawn Chavez quit the band the day they had to hit the road, which meant that vocalist/guitarist David Sanchez had to screamble to learn all the solos and make sure the band could still put on a proper show, and not have to cancel this tour.

And while I never saw the band with Chavez, I gotta say, I didn’t miss him.

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Vince and I are seeing Havok tonight for the first time (they’re opening for Primal Fear). I’m pretty stoked; I really dug their album, Burn, and only by the grace of the fact that SO MUCH GOOD STUFF came out in 2009 did it not make my year-end list. If all the retro-thrash bands sounded this good (as good as Revocation or Lazarus A.D., for that matter), I’d be considerably less inclined to bust their balls.

Here’s Havok’s video for “Morbid Symmetry,” from Burn. What an excellent song.

Burn is out now on Candlelight.

-AR

Where the hell does the time go? The year is more than half over already! Sheesh.

ANYWAY, here are, in alphabetical order, albums that have really knocked my socks off so far this year…

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The whole retro-thrash thing has already pretty much worn itself out, and, generally speaking, if you’re not Municipal Waste, Warbringer or maybe maybe maybe Merciless Death, I just don’t really give a shit these days. I’m over it.

Or at least I thought I was… until I heard Havok’s Burn.

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