Have you had enough summer tour-related excitement for one day yet? No? Well, hot on the heels of this afternoon’s official announcement that Slipknot, Slayer, Motorhead, Anthrax, As I Lay Dying, Whitechapel and two other bands no MS readers will care about will all be playing the 2012 Rockstar Mayhem Festival, Slipknot just posted some kind of flyer/poster on their Facebook page that includes one more awesome band: High on Fire!

High on Fire are about due for a new album (their last was 2010′s Snakes for the Divine), so the timing for a blockbuster summer tour would make sense. Have those guys really taken it to the next level over the past few years, or what? Great gig for High on Fire — their presence on the fest gives us olds one more reason to attend, and they’ll undoubtedly pick up tons of new fans along the way.

Get the full list of tour dates here. Tickets go on sale Friday, April 6th.

-VN

I’ve made no secret of my general distaste for black metal, going so far as to call for a boycott of one of the sound’s most celebrated and influential figures. Without question, I’m not the ideal person to defend any aspect of a subgenre that I consider an eye-rolling, oft-racist joke. And yet, Tim Hunter at Invisible Oranges has driven me to stand up for it (sorta) thanks to his scathing and shoddy article lambasting the sub-subgenre “Cascadian black metal” and those journalists who dare to use the term in their pieces.

I’m not saying the music itself is bullshit – that’s more of a personal taste thing – but I think the sub-genre as a concept is bullshit. Ever since Wolves in the Throne Room garnered a more significant share of the music spotlight (chiefly by playing a corporate-sponsored festival, I’ve seen the term “Cascadian black metal” tossed around in more articles recently. Some of these have been from outside the metal world (the New Yorker, The Guardian), while others are more in tune with the underground. But I’m skeptical by default of any attempt by music media to create new pigeonholes for the music they cover. In some cases, it’s merely lazy journalism; in other cases (I’m looking at you, New Yorker dude), it’s just a way to make it seem like you know more than you really do about your topic.

Here’s why Hunter’s argument is (to reclaim the epithet) bullshit.

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In case the live footage of three new Pig Destroyer songs wasn’t enough to jump your start your morning, High on Fire also recently performed a couple of new songs live. You can check out footage of the tracks, which may or may not be entitled ”Serums Of Liao” and  ”Madness Of An Architect,” below. Again, the quality is only meh, but, hey, it’s High on Fire so no one’s complainin’, right?

So here’s “Serums Of Liao”…

…and  ”Madness Of An Architect” is after the jump. Enjoy.

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Someone in the High on Fire camp might be taking #13 of my Cardinal Rules of Running a Metal Record Label list a little too seriously. When I suggested labels and bands shouldn’t throw away money on a fancy .com band website I didn’t mean to suggest those sites should be completely neglected for 12 years; I just meant to say that super-pretty designs, deep content and bells and whistles are completely unnecessary. Ya know, just the basics, in case anyone happens to stumble through.

So either High on Fire don’t give two shits about their official website, Matt Pike is taking the piss, or he just got reeeeeeeally stoned and forgot to update it, ’cause the official High on Fire website is like a living shrine to GeoAngelfireTripodCities and hasn’t been updated since 1999 (2002 if you count some tour dates, half of which were cancelled). Check out the website and all of its beautiful, flame-laden animated .gifs before the band gets hip and pulls it down. This kind of old-school Internet gold doesn’t come around too much anymore; even Ace Frehley’s website is roughly up to 2004 standards these days. At least there’s always Waybackmachine.

Thanks to Metal Injection for this ace find.

-VN

I have a friend who swears that the basement of her workplace is haunted by a g-g-g-g-ghost… She also mentioned an affinity for reality shows about paranormal activity. So naturally I asked her if the ghost at her workplace came before she started watching said reality shows or vice versa. What do you think her answer was?

My humble apologies to the apparition-believers among us — I don’t mean to sound so skeptical. As a matter of fact, I suspect there are plenty of cosmic/extrasensory phenomena I have faith in that many of you might scoff at.

Destiny?

Fate?

G-d?

Unicornzzz?

MS Mansion Monkeys????

(That last one is undeniably real)

In any case, it’s hard not to appreciate m-m-m-m-music about g-g-g-g-ghosts, right?  Let’s get our spook on after ze jump…

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I don’t think anyone would actually equate Matt Pike’s recent good-vibe poolside interview to the famous so-sad-it’s-not-even-funny pool interview with W.A.S.P.’s Chris Holmes, but I definitely got flashes of the latter in this highly entertaining clip from Soundwave T.V. For one, Matt Pike seems to generally love life and be stoked on just about everything as opposed to being a pathetic sad-sack, and Pike strikes me as a much more down-to-earth working man than Holmes was. But this is MetalSucks, so you be the judge:

True to form, Pike is even wearing his favorite t-shirt.

-VN

Sorry, kids, but I am not a Gates of Slumber fan. They’re one of those bands, like The Sword, whose sound is ultimately just too self-consciously retro for my tastes. There are bands doing the whole classic-hard rock/metal thing but putting their own spin on it, like Dawnbringer and High on Fire, and then there are bands like this. Thank you but not thank you.

But I know that The Gates of Slumber have their following, and I know that at least some of that following reads this website, so they may be curious to know that TGOS have a new song, “Coven of Cain,” now streaming at The Deciblog. It does nothing for me, but, of course, you shouldn’t let my opinion influence you — just listen here and make up your own damn mind.

“Coven of Cain” from The Gates of Slumber’s latest, The Wretch, which comes out May 10 on Rise Above Records.

-AR

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Welcome to “Question of the Week,” a (sometimes) weekly debate amongst the MetalSucks staff regarding a recent hot button issue.

This week’s question was once again suggested by “Hipsters Out of Metal!” columnist Anso DF, and even though the Grammy nominations were actually announced last week, it still seemed like a fun debate to have. So:

WHAT ARE YOUR NOMINATIONS FOR BEST METAL GRAMMY?

The MS staff’s answers after the jump.

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After a long week of CMJ shenanigans, High on Fire rolled through New York City with Kylesa and Torche to rock Webster Hall’s cavernous main room on the night of Sunday, October 24th. Most of the MS crew was exhausted/hungover/sick/dead by the time Sunday rolled around, but not MS photographic squad queenpin Diana Lee Zadlo; she was there bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, ready to capture all the action with her lens. And hey, wouldn’t you know it, Matt Pike was wearing his favorite t-shirt!

See all the action after the stage dive.

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They’re all touring with Daath! Not all at once, unfortunately. In two separate groups. But still! These are good bills.

The U.S. tour will see Chimaira headlining with Impending Doom, Daath, and This or The Apocalypse providing support.The Chimaira/Daath bill alone is enough to get my money. When those bands toured Europe together last year, I was jealous of the Europeans. Now I’m jealous of people who live in Poughkeepsie, which has never happened before and may never happen again.

Europe, meanwhile, gets a Fear Factory headlining run with Daath and High on Fire. Those aren’t three bands you’d necessarily expect to see touring together, but they’re all bands of a certain quality, and that’s what makes this tour cool. When I criticized the line-up for Fear Factory’s U.S. tour earlier this year, a member of one of the supporting bands e-mailed me to a) call me a dick, and b) ask who I thought Fear Factory should be touring with. Well… THIS is who I think Fear Factory should be touring with. THIS is an exciting tour. I’m not even a Fear Factory fan, and I’d go to this.

So if you’re in a position to go to either tour, do it. Buy some merch. Give Eyal a high-five. It’ll be fun.

Get dates for both tours after the jump.

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Start shopping for a new bandanna (or hit the easy button and buy this), because Suicidal Tendencies kick off a proper five-week U.S. tour this week! Last month, the latest version of the band released No Mercy Fool!/The Suicidal Family, a collection of re-recorded cuts from Join The Army and the No Mercy project–and that’s as good a reason as any to play some fucking shows. Opening acts vary depending on the city, but include Cro-Mags, Death Before Dishonor, D.R.I., (Hed) P.E., High on Fire, Kylesa, and Underdog.

Immediately following the tour, Muir returns to California to play an exclusive Infectious Grooves live gig at the House Of Blues in Hollywood–the side-project’s first U.S. show in over a fucking decade. If all of this doesn’t make up for Muir’s 2008 collaboration with P.O.D. (*shudder*), I don’t know what is. All dates are below.

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There was something of a tornado here in Brooklyn yesterday, and even if you didn’t see the tornado itself you saw some of the craziest fucking weather ever. I know you folks out in Nebraska are thinking “So what?” but for us something like this happens about as often as an earthquake does for you. Shit was positively epic. Thankfully even the monkeys didn’t get all riled up like the dudes in the above video — although I think I saw Sammy hiding in the bathtub — and business carried on as usual as it did all week:

• We stroked ourselves just a little bit by celebrating our 10,000th post with a list of our top ten favorite posts ever.
• The return of Ask Oderus: You asked Gwar’s frontman your burning questions and he answered them. Also, Eyal wondered what makes a guitarist “great.”
• We premiered new tracks by Titan, Holy Grail, These are They and we premiered the new Firewind video.
• We spoke with Valient Thorr’s Valient Himself.
• Rumpelstiltskin Grinder changed their name to The Devil. Oh wait, no they didn’t.
• We ranked the Top 10 t-shirts worn by High on Fire frontman Matt Pike.
• We looked at new records by Drudkh and Winterfylleth and Skunk Anansie.
• We looked at our favorite new-school Iron Maiden jams and we wondered if Demolisher is the heaviest band on the planet.
• Tomas Haake may or may not have actually commented on my post about some dude covering Meshuggah’s “Bleed” by playing drums on his pillows. Tomas, if you’re reading this, I have mad respect for your drumming!
• Axl released Part 1 of his Daath in-studio report.

Hopefully no more tornados hit Brooklyn this weekend. Actually, if one could swoop right over Jerry Manuel’s home then hop-scotch over to Omar Minaya’s, I’d be OK with that.

-VN

Matt Pike in one of his most awesomest t-shirts, with some dude I don’t know.

So last week Vince and I hit up the Sleep reunion show (read our friend Justina Villanueva’s review at Noisecreep), and as we were watching the mighty Matt Pike, we turned to one another and were all, “Wow, that dude has a lot of awesome t-shirts!” I mean, Vince and I have some pretty extensive t-shirt collections full of all kinds of cool shit, but that Matt Pike… man. I’ve never seen that dude NOT wearing an awesome shirt.

And so, to that end, I now present to you, oh loyal readers, our list of Matt Pike’s top ten t-shirts.

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Following months of speculation, reunited doom metal gods Sleep have announced a string of dates following their appearance at the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival in upstate New York. I guess someone’s puttin’ up a big stack of bills for Sleep to do this, because all of those dates fall in a row without any days off: in other words, they’ll be flying from show to show and backlining gear. That costs mucho moolah. Between this Sleep reunion and the recent success of High on Fire, it sure is a good year to be Matt Pike (or one of his fans). Neurosis drummer Jason Roeder will be replacing original drummer Chris Hakius on these shows; no exact reason is given for Hakius’ absence. Check out Metal Insider for details about the additional six dates in Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, Austin, Portland and San Francisco.

Meanwhile, following a stellar return to form in their early 2009 release Ox, Lambgoat is reporting that recently reunited post-metallers Coalesce will return to hibernation after a fun-filled two years of recording, releasing not one but two records, and a ton of touring. In a public statement, bassist Nathan Ellis was very careful in his choice of words — “This is a good time for a break,” as in a break, not a break-up — so all you Coalesce freaks out there shouldn’t get your panties up in a bunch. I’m sure they’ll be back at some point. In the meantime the members will be working on their new homes and businesses, finishing their PhDs and lying supine on the couch.

The lord giveth and the lord taketh away. You win some, you lose some. Yin and yang. Sleep and Coalesce.

-VN

I mean, how did they come up with this? There’s no gold cobra, no suggestion that the phrase “gold cobra” is a euphemism for cock, and no indication that this is a music CD. Thank God someone thought to put the band’s name and the album title on there somewhere (it’s in the center of the image, but it’s blended-in pretty well – look carefully and you should be able to see it), or otherwise I think people might have seen the sword and the girl in the Princess Leia bikini touching herself and assumed that this was the new High on Fire record.

To the dudes in Limp Bizkit: I applaud you. This is some really abstract, thought-provoking shit right here.

-AR

In a recent editorial on Invisible Oranges, Cosmo Lee (and yes, it was actually Cosmo who wrote this one… I triple-checked!) used the recent success of High on Fire as a case study to discuss why metal fans hate it when their favorite bands become successful. Cosmo posits three theories and they’re all on point (as usual), but I’ll let you check out Invisible Oranges for that because that’s not really what I’d like to discuss today. I’d like to explore when the fuck High on Fire suddenly became such a big deal.

I’ve never been a huge High on Fire fan, but I haven’t got anything against the band. To me they’ve always been a sweet bonus, that band that’s opening on tour with a bigger, cooler band — “Ah, nice, High on Fire’s on that tour… cool, we get to see Matt Pike rock the fuck out with his shirt off!” — but they didn’t really warrant much attention individually. No doubt, the band has a rich history (hi Sleep) and had a core of die-hard fans, but by and large they lived in the underground. They were always that band that were either a) supporting a bigger band, or b) playing in small, cramped sweaty bars.

There’s a ton of hype around their new album Snakes for the Divine which had a HUGE first week with almost 9k copies sold but, by and large, isn’t all that different from their past work. All of a sudden they’re on the cover of Decibel right out of the gate, with a snake-adorned Matt Pike wearing more makeup than a 50 year-old stripper. And they’re on their own headlining tour of decent-sized legit venues, selling them out across the country. Make no mistake about it; like Cosmo points out, High on Fire are a big band now. They’re in the mainstream metal consciousness.

So when did this sudden transformation happen?

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High on Fire took their U.S. tour with Priestess, Bison B.C. and Black Cobra in tow to Philadelphia’s First Unitarian Church this past Tuesday. MS photographer Diana Lee Zadlo was on hand to capture the action with her usual flare. Her photos, after the jump.

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I’ve indulged in enough posts about the crazy and random shit we did on the road, so now it’s time for what we were all traveling for in the first place: SXSW. The magnitude of SXSW is inconceivable to anyone who’s never been; every orifice of downtown Austin is literally oozing live music. As MS commenter Joel Bailey said yesterday, “Half the shows at SXSW are in the store room of some coffee house or the smoking patio at an Ihop.” While this is true it’s not for lack of real music venues — in fact, the venues in Austin are all top-notch and blow NYC’s rooms out of the water — but there’s just so much going on that even smaller places that normally have nothing to do with music want to get in on the action. For a glimpse of what the scene looks like, check out Metal Injection’s SXSW wrap-up video.

Kip and I decided months back that this year we’d splurge on a hotel room Downtown. Trying to crash with local friends in years past was economical but a pain in the ass; getting a cab at 2am at SXSW is nearly impossible, and hiking a mile or two just to get home (and not having the option of a mid-day stop-in, or even better a clean place to take a shit!) can be really tiring, or worse, result in injury (just ask Kip). Though the option of staying on the SlayRV for the duration of SXSW later presented itself, we opted for the space and comfort of the Omni Hotel and it ended up being well worth it.

After settling into our room we headed over to the Mohawk to get set up for the Prosthetic Records showcase we were sponsoring. With a killer lineup of Prosthetic bands playing inside and the Action PR showcase going on outside (feat. High on Fire, Priestess, NAAM and others) — all in the same venue for one price of admission — the night was off to a great start before it even began.

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The video for High on Fire’s “Frost Hammer,” from their windpipe-smashingly good new album Snakes for the Divine, has been released! And it’s a pretty perfect representation of the song. It’s totally metal, kinda meat n’ taters but kinda not, completely lacking in pretension, and totally nerdy and ridiculous. Gotta love it.

Snakes for the Divine is out now on E1. If you don’t own it, you’re a chump.

-AR

Apparently Sade has a new hit record and scored the #1 record last week. Who knew? Good for her… Sade’s pretty rad. I know at least one death metal dude who will be REALLY psyched to hear this news.

But I’m guessing you all care more about the new High on Fire record. Let’s find out how that and other metal and hard rock releases charted last week after the jump.

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