MetalSucks

There’s nothing terribly innovative or groundbreaking about Italy’s Disarmonia Mundi but sometimes a healthy dose of pop-melodeath is just what I need (and God no, I’d never listen to that Sonic Syndicate abortion). More known for often partnering up with Soilwork vocalist Bjorn “Speed” Strid than anything else, Disarmonia Mundi are actually quite good at what they do even if they are essentially to Soilwork as Soilwork are to In Flames, a slightly poppier version of their forebears. I stumbled upon Disarmonia Mundi years ago because I was totally obsessed with Soilwork — ok fine I still totally love everything Soilwork do — and uncovered their linked histories via that bastion of music minutae AllMusic.com.

So Disarmonia Mundi have a new album on the way December 9th called The Isolation Game. The new record does in fact feature guest appearances by Speed Strid, a press release tells us, but to what extent isn’t quite clear. The band has a couple of new tracks streaming up on their MySpace. If you like this sort of music I imagine you’ll eat this up. If not… sucks for you.

-VN

An e-mail I received from long time reader Seveword earlier today:

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Soilwork, Natural Born Chaos (Nuclear Blast, 2002)
Björn “Speed” Strid − Vocals
Peter Wichers − Guitars
Ola Frenning − Guitars
Ola Flink − Bass
Sven Karlsson − Keyboards
Henry Ranta − Drums
Produced by Devin Townsend

When Soilwork dropped Natural Born Chaos in 2002, “metalcore” was not yet a twinkle in the eye of a million American copycats. Just pure. Fucking. Swedish. Heavy metal. Though their countrymen In Flames may have melodicized death metal first (or second, after At the Gates, I suppose), Soilwork arguably did it better, and the Devin Townsend-produced Natural Born Chaos stands as the band’s defining moment.

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When we saw In Flames tour with Gojira last year, there ended up being a kind of major problem: the Frogs blew the Swedes off the stage. See, as much as I love In Flames, their set was kind of A Sense of Purpose-heavy, and, well, they just couldn’t match Gojira for sheer goose-bump-inducingness.

Now the melodeath stars have announced a trek with Between the Buried and Me, The Faceless and 3 Inches of Blood. Holy crap, that’s a great bill – there isn’t a weak band on the tour.  Hopefully BTBAM get a long enough set time to play more than just two or three songs, The Faceless are just a goddamn sight to behold live, and y’know 3IOB will slay. If In Flames don’t bring their A-game, they’re gonna get upstaged by their support bands again.

Announced tour dates can be found here.

-AR

It’s raining in New York today. AGAIN. At least it’s warm; it’s been fucking rainy and cold for all of June (seriously… hoodie weather in June??). I feel like I’ve been cheated out of an entire month of summer. Fuck the world.

Here’s what happened this week:

• More arguing ensued over our 21 Best Metal Albums of the 21st Century… So Far list. You bitched and moaned to the tune of 444 comments (and counting) about the #11 pick of Deftones’ White Pony — just as you did last week with the debatably metal Tool (#12) and System of a Down (#14) picks — and then when we finally announced more trve/cvlt/br00tal albums you approved of (#10 Opeth, #9 Gojira, and #8 In Flames), comments were few and far between by comparison. You people are fucking morons. Especially Ziltoid.
• Rumors flew about the resuscitation of Headbanger’s Ball in 2010 with Jose Mangin as the host.
• More shit-talking between the two sparring Fear Factory camps provided us with endless amusement. We wondered aloud whether or not FF should be considered nu-metal.
• Shinedown’s Brent Smith claimed to have insider knowledge of a Soundgarden reunion, to which Axl — and possibly but not definitely Soundgarden’s own Ben Shepherd — took offense.
• We spoke with Scott Kelly of Neurosis and Vinnie Fucking Paul.

We out. Stay tuned in a couple of hours for our #7 Best Metal Album of the 21st Century… So Far. I’ll be at tomorrow night’s Black Anvil show at the new Duff’s location in Brooklyn if anyone wants to come out and hang. See you next week for more shenanigans!

We recently polled a wide array of musicians, managers, publicists, label reps, and writers from within the world of metal to find out what they thought the 21 Best Metal Albums of the 21st Century So Far have been. Eligible albums were released between January 1, 2000 and  April 1, 2009. Each panelist turned in a ballot, with their #1 album worth 21 points, their #2 album worth 20 points, and so on and so forth. The ballots are now in and we’ll be counting down one album a day until we reach #1. Today we present the #8 album, coming in with a total of 170 points…

In Flames, Clayman (Nuclear Blast, 2000)
Anders Fridén – vocals
Jesper Strömblad – Guitar
Björn Gelotte – Guitar
Peter Iwers – Bass
Daniel Svensson – Drums
Produced by Fredrik Nordström

It was my senior year of college in 1996, sitting in coffee shop, reading the latest music rag (taking a break from my Old Testament studies) when I came across a review for In Flames’ The Jester Race. Something about it caught my eye as that was the time I was getting more into of the Scandinavian metal like At The Gates and Amorphis. I picked it up and was blown away how they had made “death metal” so “melodic.” I almost denounced my religion and started a cult dedicated to this semi-new genre of metal!

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MetalSucks Maniac Matt Clark sent us the link to the below video of the unsigned band YEAH! Destroyer covering Katy Perry’s “Hot N’ Cold.” And while I’m fairly certain Matt meant for us to see this cover as a good thing, I have to say – it fucking sucks. And I’m sick of bands doing this kind of shit.

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Then again, A Sense of Purpose is the first In Flames album that I have truly not liked – yes, I’m including Soundtrack to Your Escape – so I guess it’s a wonder that I remember anything about the disc besides its bizarre psychosexual cover art.

Here’s the group’s new video for “Delight and Angers.”

-AR

Pretty sure this is from the Used and Abused DVD filmed on the Soundtrack to Your Escape tour, a must-own if you’re a fan of In Flames / awesome concert DVDs. Great shit.

-VN

Last week’s funny photo caption contest was a doozy… but MS Maniac “Sacajawea” has emerged victorious and will receive the deluxe This Comp Kills Fascists boxset from our pals at Relapse Records for coming up with the following caption to the photo at right, actually the box set cover:

“At the base of every penis you’ll find a Bush.”

Touche. This week we’re giving away one prize package of THREE classic CDs from Sweden’s kings of melodic death metal, In Flames. Each album has been remastered, re-released and re-packaged with bonus material and extra tracks by Nuclear Blast as part of their “Reloaded” series. One lucky winner will receive the “Reloaded” versions of Whoracle, Colony and Clayman — In Flames’ best albums, if you ask me. Just come up with a funny caption to the photo below and they’re yours.

By now you’ve probably seen the viral YouTube clip “David After Dentist,” now approaching 8 million views, in which a drugged up 7-year old says some seriously hilarious shit after being put under at the dentist’s office. A slew of remixes have since hit the webernets including this one [sent in my metalgf] set to an In Flames jam. ‘Cause nothing is more metal than a drugged up 7-year old… rocking out to In Flames.

-VN

It seems like every day we get a press release here at the MS Mansion announcing that some respectable metal band has signed to Koch Records. High On Fire, Satyricon and Throwdown are the latest crop, having all signed to Koch within the past few weeks. Add that to the already formidable metal roster of In Flames, Otep, Hatebreed and Straight Line Stitch… despite a couple of admittedly terrible bands in that bunch, from a business perspective that’s some serious fucking firepower there, all added within the last year, give or take.

So what the hell is going on over there?

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As I mentioned earlier today, we saw Gojira live Sunday night, and they decimated Terminal 5 here in Manhattan. But seeing as they were sandwiched in between Alaskan metalcore masters 36 Crazyfists and Gothenburg gods In Flames, I thought I should share some not particularly well organized thoughts on those bands’ sets as well.

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From the event listings in this week’s issue of The L Magazine:

Now obviously this was written by someone who is anti-metal, or at least extremely un-metal — for those of you not “in the know”, Vampire Weekend is a super-buzzy indie-rock band from NYC that recently blew up (pretty sure one of their tunes is in some boppy commercial or another) — but for realz, it’s like comparing apples n oranges…the fact that a self-respecting journalistic rag could make reference to a metal show but describe under a clearly “indie” lens seems to miss the point of having show listings in the first place.

I am not only offended as a fan of aggressive music (duh), but also as a music lover and show-goer of all different genres. If I were genuinely curious about this show (and rest assured, I already have a ticket, natch), a description such as this wouldn’t help in the least.

Word to the un-wise, L Magazine: Gojira’s new album is among the best of the year, and perhaps you ought to employ a “metal” aficionado that can accurately report on “earsplitting” shows/albums. The truly hep kids know how cool and “cool” metal is, especially in our current musical climate. You also might wanna stop pretending to be anything more than a softie one-dimensional ‘zine.

After the jump, a much more reputable (and diverse) NYC publication’s blurb on the same show…

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In Flames have made the A Sense of Purpose b-side “Tilt” avail for free download. I think a lot of IF fans probably already got this track when it leaked some time back, but in case ya didn’t, here’s your chance. And it’s totally legal, so you don’t feel guilty about the download! Kinda like the reason you fly to Thailand once a year to fuck a little boy.

ANYWAY, this isn’t the greatest In Flames song ever, but I think I actually dig that pounding riff more than anything that ended up on the final version of Purpose. How about you?

In Flames – “Tilt”

In Flames are about to hit the road with All That Remains, Gojira, and 36 Crazyfists. Get tour dates here.

-AR

Even though I’m not such a fan of In Flames’ latest album A Sense of Purpose, I will always love this band to death. The album wasn’t bad by any means, but it definitely falls well below the level of metal the band are capable of making, and ultimately when I’m fixin’ for the kings of Swedish melodeath I’m gonna grab Clayman, Colony or even Come Clarity before I grab this one.

But anyway, the band just released a video for the song “Alias” from that album; like the song itself, the video gets a solid “meh” from me. But like I said, I love this band, and I’ll listen to/watch anything they do. Including going to see them live; for my money they’re one of the best live bands of the past 15 years, hands down. You can bet your ass I’ll be rockin’ out hard fan-boy style when they tour the U.S. with All That Remains, Gojira, and 36 Crazyfists this winter (full list of tour dates after the jump).

-VN

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I mean, come on. There is no WAY this thing got through several rounds of drafts, approvals, and record company folk without anyone noticing. I mean, seriously?? It’s a giant pussy (insert joke about Kirk Hammet here), complete with pubic hair. Even more so than In Flames’ blatantly psycho-sexual A Sense of Purpose album cover. Just what are Metallica trying to say here?

-VN

There must be something in the water in Sweden. Metal is just ingrained in their culture. I was hanging out drinking with a major label pop band last night, five of whose six members are Swedish and at least three of whom were longhairs that I figured might be into metal given their appearance and heritage. Metal is a always a great way to bridge slightly awkward conversation with complete strangers, so I figured why not try? I swung and missed with the keyboardist, more of the jazz type, who nodded politely but seemed otherwise not to give a shit when I tried to slip “In Flames” and “At the Gates” into the conversation. Strike one. I would’n't even need a strike two, ’cause the minute I mentioned Soilwork to the guitar player his hand went up in the air for a high five. We were in full agreement that Stabbing the Drama is one of the best records of the past five years. And it went on from there down familiar paths like “Meshuggah” (he loves obZen), Refused and more.

This story seems way less compelling now that I’ve actually written it down. But, um, it was, like, really cool or something. Kind of like the time I ended up hanging out with Phil Anselmo’s Aunt and Uncle (a story for another time). That red wine / beer combo didn’t hurt either.

-VN

I really can’t take credit for this one. But “Death Jovi” really is the perfect way of describing Scar Symmetry’s new record Holographic Universe (thanks: Metal Injection). Never before have hooks so big, sugary and sweet been combined with this kind of punishing death-influenced metal. While yes, the “Gothenburg” sound is definitely running its course (thanks to the thousands of American imitators), you just can’t knock the Swedes who know how to do it best. And based on just a couple of listens, this is one of the most delicious slices Gothenburg has had to offer in the past couple of years, easily beating out the recent releases by In Flames and Soilwork.

First single “Morphogenesis” on Scar Symmetry’s MySpace page is just the tip of the iceberg. Holographic Universe has so much to offer in the way of hooks, brutality, and astonishing musicianship. It drops June 20th on Nuclear Blast in Europe and July 8th in North America.

-VN

Axl and Vince recently had the opportunity to sit down with In Flames bassist Peter Iwers hours before the second of two Gigantour shows at New York City’s Hammerstein Ballroom (also featuring Megadeth, Children of Bodom, High on Fire, and Job For a Cowboy). Peter shared his thoughts about In Flames’ new album A Sense of Purpose, its success in America, the band’s writing and recording process, and the band’s mysterious guitar-tech/personal assistant Biffin (the truth is shocking!). Read the entire chat transcript after the fold.

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