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Lots of people seem really stoked on Christian Mistress. I’ve listened to their new album Possession and I think it’s pretty good. Retro NWOBHM is all the rage these days, and these guys (and gal) do a fine job at it — good riffs, good songs, all around pretty solid.
But it never ceases to amaze me how the hipster propaganda machine works, taking ordinary to decent bands and revving them up into a dizzying whirlwind of hype.
Only two Christmas-themed releases this week as we continue to close the book on 2011’s new releases. Next week will be my last article of the year, as we close down for the year on the 16th.
Vince and I saw that super-duper-sweet Toxic Holocaust/Holy “So Much Hair” Grail/Krum Bums tour last week, and, as expected, all three bands brought the FUCKING ROCK. Hopefully, you’ve either caught one of these shows, or are able to catch one of the remaining ones (get dates here); one way or the other, the band’s new, handsomely filmed performance video, for the song “Judgment Awaits You,” may be the next best thing to actually moshing mere inches for the real-live band.
“Judgment Awaits You” comes off of Toxic Holocaust’s latest album, Conjure and Command, which is out now on Relapse.
-AR
[via Blank TV]
Here’s a not-at-all awful way to begin your week: Toxic Holocaust are now streaming their new album, Conjure and Command, in full right here. It has enough energy to kickstart your morning in a way that coffee, cocaine, or some combination thereof never could, so you pretty much wanna start listening to it right now. No, I do not care that your boss is standing right there. If he hears you listening to this, I imagine he’ll be too scared to do anything other than leave you alone for the rest of the week and hope you don’t come to work with an AK-47 in your bag.
I’m saying this is a darn good record.
Headbang here, then let us know what you think in the comments section below. Conjure and Command comes out tomorrow on Relapse. And lest ye forget, Toxic Holocaust are hitting the road for a headlining tour that some really awesome websites (ahem) happens to be sponsoring, and they have Holy Grail and Krum Bums along for the ride, so, yeah, only losers will miss those shows. Get dates after the jump!
We couldn’t quite blame you if you’re not familiar with Krum Bums; technically speaking, they’re really more punk than metal.
But you SHOULD know them, because they play AWESOME punk, and are clearly metal-friendly: they’ll be part of the upcoming MetalSucks/Metal Injection-sponsored tour with Toxic Holocaust and Holy Grail (dates here). Which is all the metallic recommendation you should need.
But if you need more, well, now you can allow your ears to feast for themselves: MetalSucks is proud to debut “Starving Wolves,” a new cut from the band’s forthcoming album Cut the Noose, out August 23on People Like You Records. It’s loud, it’s fast, it’s obnoxious… it’s everything you want from extreme music.
Check out “Starving Wolves” below; pre-orders of Cut the Noose will be available soon via CM Distro.
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That’s right, little ones! We’re teaming up with our pals over at Metal Injection to bring you Toxic Holocaust’s upcoming five-week North American headlining tour. It’s in support of the band’s latest and greatest, Conjure and Command (out July 19 on Relapse), which impales aardvark babies left n’ right n’ left again. And these dudes seriously rule live.
And in case that wasn’t enough to entice you, they’re taking out the awesome awesome awesome Holy Grail for support, along with Krum Bums, a totally killer punk band is that is guaranteed to knock your socks clean off.
These shows are going to be INSANE, so make sure you don’t miss ‘em. Dates after the jump!
[To chronicle their current tour -- the U.S. portion of which features 3 Inches of Blood, Holy Grail and System Divide in support -- Swiss folk metallers Eluveitie will be writing an exclusive tour blog for MetalSucks. Read about the Brazilian tour in the Week 1 Tour Blog, and arriving in America and Canada in Week 2. Week 3 follows, in which Eluveitie learn to enjoy the old American West and encounter zombies in Vancouver. -Ed.]
Chicago. We had more than enough rest and we can’t wait to actually DO something again. Offdays are useless crap. After the traditional morning excursion to Starbucks we can face the day!
Nice location, good sound, great restaurant and a reasonable amount of fans making it to the show, so nothing to complain about at all. Jenna is the lucky contest winner (over a couple of weeks fans could record videos of them covering “Thousandfold” and we chose the winners), so she will be on stage with us tonight to play her “Flying V” violin (with fuckin frets, how weird is that?!).
And FINALLY we get our after-show party!
Earlier this month I caught Eluveitie, Holy Grail and System Divide at NYC’s Gramercy Theater at the beginning of their month-long North American trek [check Eluveitie's tour blogs]. Unfortunately 3 Inches of Blood were trapped in Cleveland (the horror!) due to van problems, so I was bummed to learn I wouldn’t be catching them on this day… but no matter, I’ve seen their rockage before and I’m sure they’ll be back again. Eluveitie reminded me of what folk metal is like when it’s done exceedingly well, Holy Grail lived up to my expectations of having lots of shred and lots of hair, and System Divide… well, uh, they were there too.
After the jump, further thoughts on all three bands, and plenty of photos from the show.
[To chronicle their current tour -- the U.S. portion of which features 3 Inches of Blood, Holy Grail and System Divide in support -- Swiss folk metallers Eluveitie will be writing an exclusive tour blog for MetalSucks. Week one of the tour took them through Sao Paulo, Belo Horizonte and Curitiba, Brazil; read about the Brazilian tour in the Week 1 Tour Blog. Week 2 follows, in which we learn that Eluveitie hate touring with other folk/pagan metal bands but absolutely love Walmart. -Ed.]
Sleep for 10 hours straight on the plane and wake up in the freezing cold. Awesome. Temperature shock FTW part II! BUT there’s a Starbucks at the airport which gets us all excited and stuff.
First stop, Philly! Apart from the bad news of people not making it to the show because roads are blocked and shit like that we’re stoked to see our good friends from Holy Grail. 3 Inches of Blood unfortunately can’t make it to the show because their van broke down… System Divide sound really good, great to be on a tour with bands that are worth listening to. Side note: We fucking hate touring with folk/pagan metal bands (apart from Finntroll). Isn’t it ironic ;-)
Just when it seemed like things had finally cooled down and no ex-members of White Wizzard had engaged in comment wars on MetalSucks in several months, up pops an interesting interview with ex-White Wizzard — and, apparently, ex-Holy Grail — guitarist James J. LaRue.
The interview took place over the weekend on the Mars Attacks Radio podcast. LaRue shares some pretty interesting revelations, among them:
We’ve got a bit of history with famed heavy metal burger truck Grill ‘Em All. One of our readers named their brand new BBQ sauce, we interviewed Chef Ryan Harkins this Fall, and duh, we love burgers. So when Chef Ryan and crew rolled cross-country to NYC in October as part of their “Victory Lap” tour — celebrating their victory on The Great Food Truck Race TV show — we visited their guest lunch service at Duke’s Restaurant to experience the deliciousness and glory of their burgers for the very first time.
The GEA dudes hired a film crew to capture the entire Victory Lap, and lo and behold… Axl and Vince got a little camera time. Watch Episode 2 of the Victory Lap coverage below. If you’re wondering, the kick ass intro music comes courtesy of L.A. shredders Holy Grail.
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Man, Eluveitie are a fun live band. “How fun are they?” Why, I’m glad you asked, oh beloved readers. They’re so much fun that, as Vince would say, if you don’t like fun, you shouldn’t go see them live.
Of course, you do like fun, and you will go see them live. And if you live in North America, you’ll go see them live in February, when they’re doing a headlining trek. And they’re taking some great bands on the road with them for support, too — namely, 3 Inches of Blood and Holy Grail. System Divide will also be on the tour.
Get dates after the jumper-ator-ator-ator.
Seeing Holy Grail’s new video for “My Last Attack” only makes me that much more excited about seeing these dudes live. A “live” video like this is the perfect introduction to a new band as this is the first chance most folks have gotten to see what the band looks like, and by all accounts these guys fucking smoke in the live setting. Whereas in the ’80s and ’90s metal bands filmed “fake live” videos on big stages in giant arenas, we all know that in 2010 metal bands don’t play in arenas; they play in dirty, cramped clubs. And though the audio in this music video is obviously the album version of the track, it sure looks like Holy Grail are loads and loads of fun to watch live. Shred! Hair! Fist pumping! I’m so in. These dudes are on tour now with Blind Guardian, but I think I’ll wait to catch ‘em in a more proper, metal setting like the one in this video.
Holy Grail‘s absolutely stellar debut Crisis in Utopia is out now on Prosthetic Records. If you don’t like good music, don’t check it out.
-VN
A little under a year ago we started hearing about a start-up food truck in Los Angeles called “Grill ‘Em All” that served gourmet metal-themed burgers. Between then and now Grill ‘Em All’s mythos and popularity have exploded beyond the grimey streets of L.A. where they serve up burgers daily to the rest of the U.S. and even the world. Their latest adventures saw them face off against another L.A. burger truck on The Travel Channel’s Food Wars and endure a 6-week cross-country marathon to come out victorious on the The Food Network’s The Great Food Truck Race. It’s safe to say that the duo of Chef Ryan Harkins and Matt Chernus are now burger — and metal — royalty, right up there with Kuma’s Korner in Chicago.
To celebrate their recent victory on The Great Food Truck Race, the Grill ‘Em All dudes are taking a “Victory Lap” in New York City this coming week, where they’ll be taking over the kitchens of various area restaurants and serving limited numbers of their patented metal burgers. You can get details about each of those events at Grill ‘Em All’s official website, right on the front page.
What’s this crazy whirlwind of burgers and metal and cross-country journeys in the name of both been like for Chef Ryan? Ryan indulged me with a leisurely phone chat this past Saturday; he spoke about the experiences of both shows, the brotherhood of metal, the brotherhood of food, and told us about the mouth-watering
“Pantera” burger he’ll be serving up this week in NYC. A Grill ‘Em All brick-and-mortar restaurant on the horizon?? A Grill ‘Em All fan club?? Could be in the very near future. Our chat, along with Grill ‘Em All manager and Burger Conquest maestro The Rev, after the bite.
‘Cause if I have, I haven’t done so enough and it bears repeating. The new Holy Grail album fucking rips. The new Holy Grail album fucking rips. The new Holy Grail album fucking rips. Seriously folks… this album takes all assholes and leaves them gaping wide open.
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:
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
Despite all the drama we still maintain that White Wizzard (or, really, just Jon Leon since he’s the only constant) are a good band, and that Over the Top was a quality trad-metal album. Now we get to find out what three of Leon’s ex-bandmates have been up to all this time in the form of Holy Grail (ex-Sorcerer), whose first LP Crisis in Utopia drops October 26th via Prosthetic.
We got our first taste of Holy Grail — who I’d describe as similar to WW but a touch faster and a healthy dollop more guitar-driven — on the Improper Burial EP, and we liked it enough to debut a track from their new album sound unheard. Thankfully “My Last Attack” doesn’t disappoint at all; it’s a fiery storm of modern trad-metal with tons o’ scorching guitars, anchored by near-constant double-bass pounding and, most importantly, a knack for what makes a good classic metal melody. It’s pretty much all you could hope for from a band of this cloth. Stream and download it for free below, and pre-order Crisis in Utopia for only 10 Smackers at Prosthetic’s webstore (PLUS for a limited time only enter discount code SUCKS at checkout to receive 10% off!!) Catch Holy Grail on fall with Blind Guardian this fall.
HOLY GRAIL, “MY LAST ATTACK”
Apparently White Wizzard have responded to my humorous post (I made fart jokes fer chrissakes!) about Jon Leon’s public “vocalist wanted” Craigslist ad by putting MS on their shitlist. Which is a perfectly fantastic business decision, seeing as there isn’t a single U.S. metal media outlet (maybe world?) bigger than MetalSucks that’s giving the band as much favorable coverage as we are. Really, I thought Over the Top was quite the solid disc and I said as much many times (including a nod in my mid-year “favorite albums of 2010 so far” list). Sure, I goofed on the details regarding the lineup that recorded that album, but that doesn’t negate everything else I said about the revolving door of musicians to pass through WW’s ranks and what that might imply… I may be “unprofessional” in my journalism, as accused by band mastermind/bassist Jon Leon, but at least I know the difference between “your” and “you’re.”
In any case, shitlist or not, the band members of White Wizzard — both former and current — are doing a great job themselves of keeping us up to date on the band happenings… in our own comments section!
Either Jon Leon’s ass is constantly emitting horrible smelling farts or the guy is really difficult to get along with… because according to this Craigslist ad, sent in to us by multiple sources, California trad metallers White Wizzard are looking for their fourth singer in just two years.
For those unfamiliar, the story goes something like this (and please pardon me if I miss some details — there’s a lot to keep track of). Bassist Jon Leon founded White Wizzard in 2007 with the lineup that would record what would eventually become the High-Speed GTO EP, released as a self-titled EP in 2008 and re-released by Earache in 2009. But by the time Earache put out the EP the lineup was completely different, and as I understand it the dudes whose pictures appeared on the album liner notes weren’t even the dudes who played on the record (except for Leon and possibly one other guy). The dudes who played on the record, however, had since gone on to form their own band, Holy Grail, now signed to Prosthetic Records.
Exodus are hitting the road for a North American headlining tour this August, and that’s all well and good ’cause Exodus are swell and are one of those veteran bands currently enjoying a renaissance of sorts. That being said, I do think the support acts could be stronger -
Still, this tour might very well be worth hitting up just to see Exodus. And at least there won’t be any karate kicking in the pit.
Get dates after the jump.
