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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MetalSucks is double-dipping this year at the annual showdown/brodown/hoedown in Austin, TX by bringing you TWO awesome metal shows. You already know about the amazing Full Metal Texas lineup during the day on Thursday, March 18th — featuring Darkest Hour, Howl, Fair to Midland, Iron Age, Karnivool, Iwrestledabearonce and more — and today we’re pleased to announce that we’re sponsoring the showcase for one of our favorite metal labels, Prosthetic Records. The lineup, starting at 7pm on the festival’s inaugural Wednesday night, features the future of Prosthetic’s roster: Scale the Summit, Landmine Marathon, Withered, Book of Black Earth and The Funeral Pyre. We haven’t heard of Clinging to the Trees of a Forest Fire or Lions of Tsavo before, but if Prosthetic gives them their stamp of approval they seriously must be excellent… and aren’t festivals like this supposed to be about discovering new music anyway?

But wait — there’s more! The Prosthetic showcase is taking place at the same venue as the Action PR showcase at the very same time, meaning once you’re in you’ll be able to freely roam between both stages, one inside and one outside. And check out THIS fucking lineup: High on Fire, Priestess, Bison B.C., The Gates of Slumber, Zoroaster and Namm. Holy fucktickles, are you kidding me? That’s 13 fucking awesome metal all for just $10 (free if you have a wristband) in one metal-filled evening. FUCK YES.

Coming soon: a MetalSucks-approved calendar of all the metal goings-on at SXSW 2010.

If the headline doesn’t tell you everything you need to know, please consult a physician, as you may be retarded and eligible for aid from the state. Otherwise, go here to listen to High on Fire’s latest offering in full.

I’ve only had time to listen to about half the album, but that half is pretty awesome. In fact, my only complaint thus far is that I’m not sure the song “Bastard Samurai” needed to be over six minutes, given that unlike, say, the eight minutes-plus title track, it doesn’t have a huge amount of variation. But that’s a really minor complaint, because it’s still a very cool song.

Give the album a listen and then let us know what you think in the comments section below. It comes out February 23 on E1.

-AR

I’d normally never use a word like “divine” or “glorious” without a hint of irony, since people who do use those words without a hint a irony turn out to be annoying ten out of ten times, and life is just too short.

So let’s just take a page from the Bob Cock playbook and call “Snakes for the Divine,” the title track from the forthcoming new High on Fire offering, AWESOME. I totally forgot to eat lunch today, so I’ve been trying to get outside for twenty minutes to grab some food; unfortunately, my desire to listen to this song on repeat got the best of me, and before I knew it, I was sitting here in my chair, coat on, just rocking out for an extended period of time. And I’m not even high. If my tummy hadn’t suddenly growled, I’d probably have forgotten to get some lunch yet again.

I generally think of Spin Magazine as being about as metal-friendly as rust, but they’ve got the stream of the song, so whatever. I’d visit the website of a male Patti LuPone impersonator if they were streaming a new High on Fire song.

Snakes for the Divine comes out February 23 on E1.

-AR

Damn, that sounds sexual.

ANYWAY, “Frost Hammer” is actually the name of a new High on Fire track – the first we’ve heard from the band’s forthcoming album, Snakes for the Divine, and like pretty much everything High on Fire do, it’s metal as fuck. I mean, the song includes such lyrics as “Winters in veins/Hammers aris /to melt through the ice… Frost Hammer!”, so you know that HOF aren’t dicking around.

Stereogum is debuting this track; you can give it a listen here. Snakes for the Divine comes out February 23 on E1.

-AR

According to a tip sent in by Suckalo Leanne Fischler, legendary dope smokers Sleep appear to be looking to do a U.S. tour in 2010. The tip comes from a blog announcement on Sleep’s MySpace’s page titled “Booking info,” in which the text simply reads”

“Sleep booking inquiries can be sent to: john@groundcontroltouring.com”

Which would seem to indicate that the band is looking to tour… right? The text sits on top of the above flyer for the band’s appearance at All Tomorrow’s Parties New York, a 3-day festival to be held in upstate New York this coming September. So while it’d be a stretch to say a Sleep tour is definitely happening, it’s certainly not a stretch at all to say it’s quite likely.

I’m not sure whether the ATP appearance was already announced before this blog, but it’d definitely make sense for Sleep to do a bigger tour surrounding their ATP date. It’s worth noting, though, that with a new High on Fire album on the way Matt Pike might have touring commitments to take care of with his main squeeze.

-VN

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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