Facedown and Mediaskare are all over the new releases this week, and we have new records from Unearth, Intensus, Exhumed and Harm’s Way as well. Let’s check it out.

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Best commercial ever?

ANYWAY, here’s how we filled our time this week:

• We mourned the loss of Anal Cunt’s Seth Putnam and Sirius XM Liquid Metal’s Mario Comesanas.
• We debuted new music by Intensus and, thanks to Decibel, Wormrot, too!
• Revocation’s Dave Davidson walked us through his live rig, and we spoke to Paul Ryan from Origin and Tommy “Two-Tone” Blankenship from My Morning Jacket.
• We checked out the latest release from Gigan.
• I told you which metal albums of 2011 have been my favorites thus far.
• We tried to figure out why people like August Burns Red.
• We discussed the new Machine Head single, “Locust.”
• We gave you The 16 Cardinal Rules for Running a Metal Record Label in 2011.
• We wondered who is dumber — Korn fans or Silent Hill fans?
• We pondered the upcoming Metallica/Lou Reed collaboration.

Next week is a big one — we’re debuting new tracks from two of our most favoritest bands, a video from one of our childhood heroes, reviewing a very, very, VERY highly anticipated new record (Hint: We definitely discussed it this week!), and we’ll have some other surprises in store for you, too. See ya then!

-AR

Intensus’ self-titled debut may be the very definition of “forward-thinking rock music.” The one man project from Knife the Glitter/Burden/Normal Love drummer Eli Litwin thinks way, way, way outside the box, creating an experience that is simultaneously cerebral and unrestrained. No wonder it’s been a constant source of conversation around the MetalSucks Mansion as of late. Which is why we’re proud to be debuting the track “Outlast Robinsum,” which features guest vocals from Between the Buried Me’s Tommy Rogers!

Here’s what Mr. Litwin had to say about the song, and collaborating with Rogers:

“This is one of the two tracks on the album featuring Tommy from BTBAM.  He’s the only singer on the album that wasn’t in the studio recording his vocals with me right there so I had no idea what he had done when I got the completed track in my e-mail.  Needless to say, he exceeded any expectations I may have had.  His mix of creative vocal effects and brutal screaming fits the track perfectly.  I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out.”

Stream the track below, and then pre-order Intensus here. Other totally excellent guests who appear on the release include Robert Meadows (A Life Once Lost), Jesse Korman (The Number Twelve Looks Like You), Chris Alfano (East of the Wall / Postman Syndrome), Jerry Jones (Trophy Scars), Travis Weinand (Burden/Tetsuo), Evan Moore (Gypsy Wig/Birth Screams), Ruston Grosse, Alex Nagle (Satanized/ex-Normal Love) and Jason Herrmann (Burden/Tetsuo).

[this streaming promotion has ended]

Metal Blade’s latest sign is a band called Intensus, and by “band” I mean “one man project” — the man being  Eli Litwin, drummer of Knife the Glitter, Burden, Normal Love, and some other bands with whom I’m not really familiar (although I know that Gary Suarez is a KTG fan). The only piece of Intensus music I’ve been able to locate thus far is the above track, “Time Killer Shitter,” which features vocals by Jesse Korman from The Number Twelve Looks Like You — and it doesn’t really do that much for me. I mean, it’s fine, but if not for the pedigree, I don’t know that I’d ever have given it a second listen. (There are some other tracks that are allegedly available on Intensus’ MySpace page, but I can’t get the player to work!)

But I still think this album is, at the very least, going to be worth your attention, for the following reasons: a) Litwin has recruited some awesome guest vocalists, including Between the Buried and Me’s Tommy Rogers, A Life Once Lost’s Robbert Meadows, and East of the Wall’s Chris Alfano, to appear on the album, and b) even though process shouldn’t really be considered when evaluating a piece of art, the process for the creation of this particular record, as explained in the press release announcing the signing, sounds pretty cool:

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