I’m going to put about as much effort into this introduction as the writers of The Artist put into that movie’s dialogue.

First up we have Anthrax’s new video, for “The Devil You Know.” The song is catchy as heckfire, but it’s really just a boring clip video, with a bunch of footage of shit the band did in the months since Worship Music has been released. The only thing even kinda interesting about it is that there’s a bunch of Yankees shit in there, which will make Vince mad. But it’s not even like he’s gonna get upset enough to burn all his ‘Thrax albums, so that’s no fun.

[UPDATE: Embeds have been disabled, so go watch the video here.]

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Last year Into Eternity announced that they were looking for a touring vocalist since their own singer, Stu Block, is gonna be busy with Iced Earth for awhile. And now Metal Injection tells me that they’ve found their touring vocalist, and it’s not at all the kind of person you’d expect. By which I mean, you’d probably expect them to hire a dude, since Stu Block is a dude. And yet, they have hired a lady: Amanda Kiernan, from a band called The Order of Chaos (see what they did there?).

So, yeah, that’s kind of unusual.

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Oh, Into Eternity, what did I ever do to you besides make the mistake of falling in love with you? Why do you punish me so? First, you finally released a new single, “Sandstorm,” last July, and now you’ve posted a clip of another new song, “Fukushima,” on the web — and yet you still offer no concrete information about when we might expect a new album. Sure, you’ve told us that “five songs have been recorded,” but five songs in three-and-a-quarter years is, like, an Axl Rose work pace. At this rate, your next full-length may finally be ready for release in 2015, by which time some site called Metal: Over It! will be the biggest blog on the scene, Vince will be the new host of Headbanger’s Ball on MTV 8 (“The Ocho”), and I will be dead.

And the saddest part is, this material sounds really promising. Really, my only complaint about it is that at no point does Stu Block get to hit any notes that only dogs can hear.

Enough with this foreplay. Give us a new album or else… or else… or else we’ll cry and call you a poopy face!!! AND THEN YOU’LL BE SORRY!!!!!!

-AR

Thanks to Carlos B. for the tip!

Into Eternity — a band of which Vince and I are both huge fans — haven’t released an album since 2008′s The Incurable Tragedy, and a large chunk of the touring behind that release was done without guitarist/creative head honcho Tim Roth. They did release a pretty good single, “Sandstorm,” back in July, but concrete news of a new album has not been forthcoming. And then, somewhere along the way, vocalist/glass breaker Stu Block joined Iced Earth.

And now the band is looking for a touring vocalist to fill-in for Block:

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In June, Into Eternity announced that they’d FINALLY have a new single out in July, and, well, it’s July, so now the new single is out. It’s called “Sandstorm,” and you can listen to and/or purchase it here. It’s the first time the band has released new material since 2008, which is like an eternity (no pun intended) in metal years. And according to an e-mail from guitarist Justin Bender, the tune “was written the day the U.S.A took out Osama Bin Laden, and is inspired by the events that transpired,” so it can help you get your ‘Merica on, too (somewhat ironic given that IE are a Canadian band, but whatever).

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“What the fuck is going on with Into Eternity?” seems to be a common question amongst metal fans these days, and with good reason. It’s been three years since the release of the band’s last album, The Incurable Tragedy; guitarist Tim Roth sat out a chunk of that album’s touring cycle, which seemed kinda odd given that he pretty much is the band; and just this past March, vocalist Stu Block was announced as the latest singer for Iced Earth. So you can’t exactly blame folks for thinking that Into Eternity’s future might be in question.

But apparently they’ve been working on new stuff! And will have a new single called “Sandstorm” out as soon as next month! There’s even a sample of that single available now! You can listen below! EXCLAMATION POINTS!!!

But wait — there’s more! After the jumps are some studio clips of the band recording this new single, including footage of Rob Doherty, a singer I’m not familiar with, laying down the death metal vocals for “Sandstorm.” Check it out:

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I’ve never really been an Iced Earth fan. Which is why, despite a ton of e-mails from Iced fans who were sad that Matt Barlow recently announced he is leaving the band for the second time (following their European tour this summer), I did not write anything about it. I had nothing to say. Sorry.

I am, however, a huge fan of Into Eternity. So I guess now that their singer, Stu Block, is the new front man for Iced Earth, I’ll have to start paying attention to both bands. Actually, the last time I saw Into Eternity live, they were opening for Iced Earth, so, yeah, this makes sense I suppose.

While Into Eternity just announced a new drummer last week, we still have no idea when the band will release another new album — it’s been three years since 2008′s The Incurable Tragedy. But I’m glad Block found a gig to occupy his time while Into Eternity guitarist/primary songwriter Tim Roth completes filming his lead role on the Fox series Lie to Me.

In case you’re not familiar with Block’s glass-breaking vocals, after the jump is the video for Into Eternity’s “Severe Emotional Distress.” You should really just know this song anyway, ’cause it rules.

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…although you’d barely know it to watch the band’s latest, Stu Block-centric, video, for “Time Immemorial.” Still, it’s hard to be too pissed, because a) the visuals are pretty, b) Stu Block is a cool dude with a funny Canadian accent, and c) the song is good.

-AR

The chill of fall is in the air but the gossip mill never cools off at the MetalSucks Mansion. This week’s notables and quotables included:

• Original guitarist Peter Wichers returned to Soilwork and ex-At All Cost guitarist Mike Carrigan replaced Kris Norris in Darkest Hour; we rejoiced that great Soilwork music will once again be made and that Mike’s got a job. But the good was tempered by the bad as Christian Alvestam left Scar Symmetry and Spineshank reunited. There is no justice.
• Winds of Plague’s Kristen Randall showed the world her bewbs!
• We reviewed solid new albums by Into Eternity, Enslaved and All Shall Perish, and waxed ecstatic about Burst, Vince’s new proverbial wet dream.
• New videos from The Human Abstract and Amon Amarth are unbelievably epic.
• A scandal erupted involving the audio quality of Death Magnetic, alternate Guitar Hero mixes, and the now infamous “Better, Shorter, Cut” abridged edition.
• Vince & Axl [almost] reveal their true identities.

See ya next week.

Into Eternity’s new album, The Incurable Tragedy, just dropped last week (read David Bee Roth’s review here), and now the band is getting ready to hit the road with Iced Earth – an appropriate tour mate for IE if ever there was one. Just one little problem: guitarist, founder, and all around main man Tim Roth won’t be on the tour.

In a War & Peace-length statement, the band explains…

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Congrats to our winners of last week’s Funny Photo Caption Contest who will each receive an Aborted “Evidence Bag” prize pack containing an autographed copy of Strychnine.213, an autographed poster and an Aborted t-shirt. The winning entries:

• Villanj1: “The subsequent scream bellowed by a then Prince Diamond led to his portly aide to suggest to him a calling in life.”
• havoc21: “There’s so much evil surrounding this descent that I can actually feel Satan’s balls!”

This week we have a few special prize packages provided by the good men and women of Century Media; 1 grand prize winner will receive a gatefold double-LP vinyl of Nachtmystium’s amazing Assassins: Black Meddle Part 1 pressed on beer-colored vinyl and limited to 2,000 copies (read Sammy O’Hagar’s glowing review of the album. Two runners up will each receive CD copies of Into Eternity’s The Incurable Tragedy (read David Bee Roth’s review) and Intronaut’s Prehistoricisms, which was just released yesterday. Alls ya gotta do is come up with a funny caption for the below photo and post it in the comments, and one of these packages could be all yours! (Ghaal jokes automatically excluded for lack of originality.)

[Thanks: Zarko M.]

Last week, a bunch of self-satisfied millionaires released an album called Dead Magnets or something, and in all the name-calling and fan-rage that ensued, I became so emotionally shattered after being called a “talentless hack” who should “go play Guitar Hero” that I was forced to delay a review for a release that was actually worth listening to. My only hope is that we can all put this behind us and mend the chords of metal brotherhood with reinforced steel so that we might be united once more in our elitist musical sausage fest.

Arriving just in time for the peace offering is Into Eternity’s The Incurable Tragedy, an album that manages to be so credibly metal, yet so vastly accessible, that there’s something for everyone. If you’re like me, you most likely began to hear the buzz about them around the release of their 2006 breakthrough, The Scattering of Ashes. If you liked that album, then I can only tell you to run out and get this one now, as there’s no chance you’ll be disappointed. Into Eternity have not skipped a beat since 2006, and you’ll be waltzing into capable but familiar territory.

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Well, not really, of course.

They will, however, be debuting “at least two songs” off their forthcoming concept album, The Incurable Tragedy, on 93.1 FM CJTR Regina Community Radio in Saskatchewan, Canada, which strikes me as kind of an odd platform from which to dive into the album’s promotion. Still, you can stream the broadcast live (which will also feature interviews with front man Stu Block and guitarist Tim Roth) this Friday, June 13 at 6:00 p.m. here. And I imagine mp3s of the new tracks will be floating around the ‘net within hours of the broadcast.

Vince and I are both really, really, really excited about this album. And the rough mix of new song “Diagnosis Terminal,” currently streaming on the band’s MySpace page, is totally crazy and way way way heavier than I anticipated, so… even if the band is debuting new songs on a community radio station is Saskatchewan, I’m sure we’re all gonna buy this thing when it drops.

-AR

[via Blabbermouth]

Blabbermouth has posted the below footage of At the Gates playing one of their first reunion shows in Japan this past week as part of a tour with Dillinger Escape Plan, Pig Destroyer, Into Eterenity and Mayhem (Holy purple poop, that’s a sweet tour!). At the Gates don’t show up ’til the 6:43 mark, but it’s actually kinda worth it to just sit through the Pig Destroyer and DEP footage.

Obviously this isn’t the highest quality video, but the band sounds pretty killer to me. What do y’all think?

-AR

Let’s get some love for Pacific Northwest metallers Nevermore around here. The first time I saw these guys was at the first Gigantour (’04?), and it was quite the spectacle — five dudes with hair below their asses windmilling in perfect unison. Nevermore deserves so much credit for being an American band forging ahead with the European style of metal in the late ’90s when literally NO ONE would touch it this side of the Atlantic, other than an underground nation of Doom 3-playing, Magic card-toting teenage geeks. Thankfully they made it through those darkest of times and forged the way for new bands like Into Eternity to carry the torch.

Nevermore – “Final Product”
Nevermore – “The Psalm of Lydia”
Nevermore – “Narcosynthesis”
Nevermore – “The River Dragon Has Come”
Nevermore – “Dreaming Neon Black”

The following video for “Voyager” from their 2003 release Enemies of Reality gives a pretty good flavor of the band. And those finger-spike thingies; oh my, where do I get my pair of those?

-VN

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Into Eternity – easily one of our favorite power metal bands out there right now (and, mixing in of death/black metal vocals be damned, they are a power metal band) – have finished touring behind last year’s jizz inducing The Scattering of Ashes, and, according to an update from guitarist/vocalist/mastermind Tim Roth (not to be confused with the Oscar nominated actor of the same name), are working on a concept album:

“Right now we are home in Canada awaiting the cold chill of winter. It is supposed to snow tomorrow, so I’ll be in front of my warm computer composing new riffs for the next album. For the first time ever, we will be doing a concept album. Stu [Block, vocalist] and I are working on the lyrics right now. It’s always good to keep moving forward and to try new things, and this is something that we have always wanted to do. We have done two songs already, and it’s turning out really cool. We’ll keep you posted in the future as things start to progress further.”

Oh man oh man, does this news make me excited. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna jerk off to Leia in the gold bikini in Jedi and cry myself to sleep.

-AR