Back in May we got all excitebike about the new band formed by Sacha Dunable (Intronaut/Graviton/MetalSucks columnist),  Charles Elliott (Abysmal Dawn), Derek Rydquist (ex-The Faceless), and Derek Donley (National Sunday Law/Graviton), called Bewilderbiest. Then in September they announced they’d changed their name to Bereft and released their first song, causing our helpless minds to swell with heated anticipation.

Now Bereft have announced a record deal with The End Records, which is great news because it also comes with an album name and release date for that album. The debut album Leichenhaus (“Mortuary” in German) is a conceptual album thematically revolving around a waiting mortuary (!), and it’s due on April 24th. You can be SURE you’ll be hearing more about it on MetalSucks as the date draws closer.

Check out the previously released track “Withered Efflorescence” here.

-VN

Talk about a first world problems: there are too many awesome tours coming down the line in the next few months! Too many great bands to see! Too many excuses to leave the house even though I’m high and it’s freezing out side! THERE’S TOO MUCH FUN TO BE HAD! AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!

The latest “Holy crap I have to go to that show” news comes in the form of a mini-tour from East of the Wall and Black Tusk, two great bands who put on killer live shows. On top of that, some of these shows are going to also feature Intronaut, and some of them will also feature Hull and Royal Thunder. I don’t know Royal Thunder, but if they’re on this bill, I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Here are dates, courtesy of The PRP:

Click to read more…

We’re not the only ones scratching our heads at the incredible (and well deserved) good fortune bestowed upon Intronaut by the mighty Tool in the form of a string of opening gigs: guitarist/vocalist and MetalSucks contributor Sacha Dunable is just as awestruck. In a tour diary for L.A. Weekly, Dunable shares some of the expected dream-like scenarios of suddenly finding yourself playing in an arena for 8,000 people after a lifetime in bars, dives and dirtholes — pre-show jitters (or lack thereof), Tool’s 12-truck entourage, etc — and also offers this nugget of wisdom:

Tool are one of the most awesome live bands I’ve ever seen. Someone I know recently made the statement that they are “the Pink Floyd of our generation,” and fair enough. They are the masters of the ultimate full on audio/visual performance. It’s inspiring to see a band go to the lengths they do in order to provide that experience for their fans. It’s also interesting to watch the after-show load out done by the team of maybe 100 locals and touring crew. If I were to imagine Egyptian slaves building the pyramids, it would look a lot like Tool’s end of night tear down.

Truer words = never spoken (although I’ve yet to personally bear witness to their load-out). Point being: if you’ve somehow never seen Tool live and our incessant declarations of Tool as the best live band on the planet haven’t yet convinced you, take it from Sacha and go see Tool on tour right now. Do it.

-VN

Here’s a question some of you have probably asked yourselves: what would modern-day Intronaut sound like if they’d kept on steamrolling forward with the unabashed heaviness of their earliest material? The answer, which will make fans of Null/Void-era Intronaut happy, is “just like Loincloth.” Don’t get me wrong — I happen to love the ethereal, post rock-y turn that Intronaut have taken of late (in fact it’s my favorite Intronaut of all) — but Loincloth happen to scratch a certain itch that’s been festering for a while, even going the extra mile by baking their stoner-death pie with a heaping tablespoon of Gorguts-style tight, churning rhythms. All this from an album stream on Pitchfork, of all places; let’s get another “amen” for Brandon Stosuy for ballsily showing hipsters whose only definition of metal is post-ironic-blackened-experimental-whatever that highly technical metal can be cool, too.

Stream Loincloth’s appropriately named Iron Balls of Steel below. The album comes out on January 17th via Southern Lord.

-VN

Loincloth-IronBallsOfSteel by EARSPLIT

Evil Bells aka Slay Bells by guitarstevecc

I’m not one for Christmas music, but I enjoyed the above doom interpretation of an Xmas classic very much. Click “play” while you catch up on this morning’s news:

• Tool have announced the opening acts for their string of winter 2012 dates… and it’s wonky stoner-prog outfit Intronaut (as rumored) on the first half of the tour and doom metal titans Yob on the second half! It’d be easy enough for Tool to take out a commercial hard rock band because their agent or manager said so, an established act that could help put some butts in seats, or no one at all… but nope, they march to their own drum and chose Intronaut and Yob, two acts that will seem completely out of left field to most of Tool’s fanbase. That’s Tool for you; just one of 1,697 reasons I love this band so much.
• Paganfest will come back to America in spring 2012 for its third U.S. incarnation. Despite the pagan/folk metal trend being long over, Paganfest III actually features a really cool lineup: Turisas, Alestorm, and Ex Deo are the bigger bands, and they’ll take along with them Arkona and Huntress, neither of whom I know much about. Get dates here.
• Gwar’s Oderus Urungus and Balsac the Jaws of Death review the new Spielberg movie War Horse for NextMovie.com on video.
• Alternative Press readers have chosen Asking Alexandria’s Ben Bruce as “Guitarist of the Year” for 2011. MetalSucks editors have nominated Alternative Press readers as having the “Worst Taste in Metal” for eternity.
• Gory death metal vets Exhumed have posted their entire live set from Maryland Deathfest 2011 on NPR’s website. Stream it here. And oh hey look at who wrote that article! (hey hey)

FEATURING MEMBERS OF GWAR, DARKEST HOUR, REVOCATION, INTRONAUT, ABYSMAL DAWN, BRUTAL TRUTH, THE ATLAS MOTH, AND IKILLYA

Every year year, MetalSucks asks musicians from across the vast spectrum of the metalsphere (or, in a few cases, the almost-metalsphere) what their favorite albums of the year have been. Death metallers, thrash metallers, black metallers, stoners, grinders, and djenters alike have graciously contributed lists to MS, and we’ll be running them in groups of nine to ten musicians at a time two to three times a day for the whole week.

After the jump, check out the next group… we hope you enjoy seeing what some of metal’s heaviest hitters were into this year as much as we have!

Click to read more…

Dunno how we missed this one but our favorite prog metal band from the city of lost angles has had a previously unreleased in ‘merica song up online for maaaany months now.

We suck.

But the Song, “Vernon”, which was included on the European release of Valley of Smoke, is pretty awesome and you should check it out over at the blogronaut…

-KW

We got all hot n’ bothered back in May, when Derek Rydquist (ex-The Faceless), Sacha Dunable (Intronaut/Graviton/MetalSucks columnist),  Charles Elliott (Abysmal Dawn), and Derek Donley (National Sunday Law/Graviton) announced the formation of a new project, Bewilderbiest. But now we’re even MORE hot n’ bothered to learn that not only has the band changed their name to a less schticky moniker, Bereft, but have also debuted a new song, “Withered Efflorescence,” on their Facebook page (“like” required).

The song is positively crushing, and, you should be happy to learn, sounds nothing like any of the bands of which these musicians have previously been members. It’s a long, slow, heavy-as-Dino-giving-Milano-a-piggy-back-ride doom number, which makes the band’s new name seem all the more fitting. Here’s a comment on the tune from Mr. Elliott himself:

Click to read more…

via Badass

Reading the comments under our announcement of The Metal Suckfest has been a lot of fun — mostly because the predictions regarding which other bands will be on the bill have been so very, very wrong. Hopefully we’ll get to announce a few more bands next week, but in the meantime, you cats need to try harder and be a little more imaginative when speculating.

And while you do that, here’s how we kept ourselves amused this week:

• We debuted new music by Today is the Day, Monstro, and, thanks to our friends at Decibel, Skeletonwitch.
• We also debuted a new video by Venia.
• Intronaut’s Sacha Dunable and Borknagar’s Jens Ryland both weighed in on the Century Media/Spotify drama.
• We spoke to Chimaira’s Mark Hunter, Dead Letter Circus’ Kim Benzie, Trapped Under Ice’s Justice Tripp, and three of the dudes from Fleshgod Apocalypse.
• We checked out the latest release from Wizard Smoke.
• We examined the evolution of deathcore.
• We felt bad for the sixteen year old who just got fired from Design the Skyline.
• We got excited about the Black Sabbath reunion, until we found out that it’s not confirmed yet.
• We carefully examined the first promo photo of Metallica with Lou Reed.
• We continued to count down  31 Days of Faith No More.

Until next week… eat your vegetables, stay in school, don’t drink and drive.

-AR

I’ve left this blog alone for a while because I feel like artistry and punditry shouldn’t come from the same place, but I’d like to chime in here as someone who is actually affected by this whole Spotify issue.

First off, I am a paid premium subscriber to their service and absolutely love it. This is definitely the beginning of the end for tangible musical product. Once they have literally everything ever legally recorded on there, what use will your iTunes library, CDs, etc have? I think it’s the next logical step to find middle ground between the consumers who want everything to be immediate and for little or no money, and for the people who provide the product (music), who need consumer support in order to be sustainable. Of course, there is still some evolving and adapting to do. I’m sure that as this method of consumption grows in popularity, there will be more services like Spotify who make it even more simple to use, add more features and integrate more social networking, and as that grows, I’m sure there will be more money to split up to the people who actually provide the content (a single stream currently earns you something like three thousandths of a cent).

Having said that, I’m going to stand up for Century Media in this case.

Click to read more…

Let it be said that metalheads cannot thrive on metal alone.

As avid fans of all things chunky and technical we need a break every now and then, you know, just to keep us sharp. A demand for intelligent, intense music that isn’t necessarily “heavy” has surfaced in the metal community, and even readers on this site have come to embrace a number of acts that are hardly BR00TAL. Porcupine Tree, Karnivool, Fair to Midland, and Dredg have all shared the stage with heavier acts and received acclaim from even the most opinionated and stubborn metal snobs. This year Sumerian Records have apparently taken notice, adding Brisbane’s Dead Letter Circus to their once very homogenous roster.

The signing of these left-of-center alt rockers and the recent American release of their debut album This is the Warning marks the label’s first true departure from their infamous Sumeriancore stigma. Stirring a lively dose of surround-sound ambience and percussive programming into their quality brand of Aussie alternative, Dead Letter Circus has continually won favor in progressive and extreme metal circles (the group is currently touring with Animals as Leaders, Intronaut, and Last Chance to Reason).

Playing no small role in the group’s universal appeal is Kim Benzie’s powerhouse tenor that drives the group’s music through numerous emotional twists and turns. I recently had the opportunity to speak with him on the road about how a rock band attracts a metal label, why the Australian music scene differs from our own, and, you guessed it, NICKELBACK!

Click to read more…

Soon enough you won’t need to watch crappy, fan-filmed sideways footage of the new Animals as Leaders song because you’ll be able to watch awesome, right-side-up, pro-shot footage of it: the band is filming a live DVD on their current tour with Intronaut, Dead Letter Circus, Last Chance to Reason and Evan Brewer. Here’s MS reader Mason K. with a personal account of how he found out about the DVD at this past Saturday’s tour stop:

But the reason for this e-mail (besides to remind all that they should go if they still have a chance), is to reveal (if you have not heard already) that AAL was filming for a Live DVD at the show, and was verified by “God-sent” Abasi.

Click to read more…

We all already knew that Evan Brewer is a great bass player. But I started to get really, really excited for his new solo album, Alone, after Brewer revealed last month that he’s the only musician to appear on his album, and that “every sound you hear on the album came from a bass guitar.” ‘Cause that sounds like some potentially really interesting, crazy shit.

Now a nearly-two-minute-long teaser for the album has been released, giving us our first real taste of music. The actual song sounds okay — maybe a little too smoove for my own personal tastes, but I’m a cranky old man who just wants to listen to Cannibal Corpse so whatever — but I could really live without that robot voice thinger. I hope that fucker isn’t on the album too much, ’cause that shit could get real irritating real fast.

Evan Brewer’s Alone comes out on Sumerian on June 28. Brewer then heads out on tour with Animals as Leaders, Intronaut, Dead Letter Circus, and Last Chance to Reason, which is a sweet, sweet-ass line-up. Here are tour dates:

Click to read more…

When Evan Brewer announced the impending release of a solo album last month, Vince rightfully pointed out that “The market for these kinds of acts is limited — extremely limited, especially for a bass player.” And I would wager that the market for a solo album from a bass player featuring no other instruments besides the bass is even more limited.

But by golly, I hope I’m wrong, ’cause apparently that’s what Brewer made: not only is the former Animosity/current The Faceless bassist the only musician to appear on his album, appropriately titled Alone, but “every sound you hear on the album came from a bass guitar,” according to the interview with Brewer in the below promotional video. And in the hands of the wrong musician, that kind of gambit could obviously be a total fucking disaster, but Brewer… well, not only is a top-notch bassist, but his motivations for recording such an album sound really fascinating and forward-thinking. We may not know if the record is actually gonna be good or not until Sumerian releases it on June 8, but we do know that Brewer is trying to do something different, and that’s always commendable.

Meanwhile, remember that awesome tour Brewer is doing this summer with Animals as Leaders, Intronaut, Dead Letter Circus, and Last Chance to Reason, and how only some of the tour dates had been released? Well, now we have more dates! So if a town near you wasn’t in the first batch, don’t freak out just yet.

Here’s the new itinerary, courtesy The PRP:

Click to read more…

With every bit of bad news come a little bit of good. Last week we suspected and then confirmed that Derek Rydquist had left The Faceless, who are quickly becoming the White Wizzard of progressive death metal, but that he had joined a new project called Bewilderbiest alongside Sacha Dunable of Intronaut/Graviton, Abysmal Dawn’s Charles Elliot, and National Sunday Law’s Derek Donley, who is also Dunable’s bandmate in Graviton. Since Dunable also happens to be a MetalSucks columnist, we emailed him and asked for the skinny on the band. Here’s what we got back:

Derek Donley is mixing it right now and we should be ready to post something in a week or two.  This shit is sounding heavy as fuck, but I’m sure it won’t be for everyone, especially the tech death guys.  It’s basically 45 minutes of crushing doom metal in the vein of old My Dying Bride, Anathema, etc, but maybe a little more “sludgy” sounding and probably with more of a melodic/psychadelic emphasis.  We’re all really stoked on it though.  I basically have had a few of these songs demoed out for an imaginary band for a few years now, and Derek D and I started working on them back in January.  Derek Rydquist was moving down to LA around that time and wanted to jam on something like this, and Charles has been on deck to do guitar/vocals ever since I first demoed the songs back in ’08 or so.

Click to read more…

Since Dead Letter Circus have been in the news lately — they just signed to Sumerian Records and they’ll be touring with Intronaut and Animals as Leaders this Summer — I thought I’d take a moment to get ya’ll familiar with their maximum rockage. They’re Australian, which is why you likely haven’t heard of them despite one EP and one album release since their inception in 2005, and to be honest they’re not really metal at all. So if the lack of growled vocals, chugga-chug or sweep-picking bothers you, probably best to stop reading right now.

For the rest of you fans of good music, let’s listen to some of the bands choice cuts. Dead Letter Circus remind me a lot of Karnivool, and not just because the two bands share a home country; their rock-based sound is steeped in hard-driving rhythms, delay-soaked atmospheric guitars and soaring vocals. I’d also throw Dredg and A Perfect Circle into the influences pile, so if those bands mean anything to you then Dead Letter Circus will likely resonate.

Here’s “Big” from their 2010 full-length This Is the Warning:

Click to read more…

The other day I was bellyachin’ that while this awesome tour with Animals as Leaders, Intronaut, Dead Letter Circus, Last Chance to Reason, and Evan Brewer had been announced, there were no dates available; well, now Intronaut have posted the “first half of the dates” on their Facebook page. So that’s a start!

Anyway, what else is there to say? If you can go to one of these shows, you obviously should — the only artist I can’t really vouch for is Dead Letter Circus, just because I don’t really know them well enough to have an opinion one way or the other. But even if they turn out to be terrible (and given the rest of this bill, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if they were actually really fantastic), the other peeps playing this show are so killer that you should really go anyway.

And here are those initial dates:

Click to read more…

I was stumbling around YouTube last night when I came across some new fan-filmed videos of The Faceless on their current European tour with Born of Osiris, Veil of Maya, and Gorod. And I’m sitting there watching some shitty cell phone footage of the band performing their new song, “The Eidelon Reality” (listen to a pre-production demo of the track here), and I have this realization –

Hey, that ain’t Derek Rydquist doin’ the vocals.

And so I scrolled down to look at the comments where, indeed, some other dude has asserted “that doesnt look like the vocalist,” and the dude who filmed the above video responded, “I think they got a new one and he´s much better than the old vocalist.”

So, trying to be a good detective, I went over to the band’s Facebook page to see if Rydquist had been removed from their listed line-up. And as of this writing, he hasn’t.

But there is this comment on their wall from some fan who saw them in Plymouth last night:

“incredible tonight, tight as fuck but wheres derek? had no idea he was no longer in the band, never the less the new guy did a stellar job”

Click to read more…

A week or two ago word got out that Animals as Leaders, Intronaut, Last Chance to Reason, Dead Letter Circus (who I don’t really know but who just signed with Sumerian… and apparently Textures’ Stef Broks is a fan, which ain’t a bad sign), and Evan Brewer were gonna do a tour together; we didn’t write anything at the time because, well, we just told you everything there was to write. There were no other details to give!

There are still no other details to give, except now Animals as Leaders have put the tour poster up on their Facebook page, which I guess is something. I mean, if you thought this tour was just a rumor, now you know it’s a really real thing. You don’t know when/where they’re playing or whether or not you can go, but, hey, you do know that they’ll all be on the road together.

Hopefully information that is actually of some use, like tour dates, will be released soon, too.

In the meantime, uh… enjoy this poster I guess?

-AR

Thanks to everyone who e-mailed us about this! Feel free to e-mail us again when dates are released.

It’s here! Graviton, the band guitarist Sacha Dunable (also of MS faves Intronaut) named because of an MS commenter, will release their full-length debut album Massless via Translation Loss on April 26th, but this being MetalSucks (toot toot!) we’ve got the whole thing for you here two weeks early. The album is as psychy, droney and proggy as you’d expect a band featuring three members of National Sunday Law (one of whom is also in Intronaut) to be, but a whole lot more mellow… which is to say it rules.

In case you’re wondering what on earth (or elsewhere) a Graviton is and why this album has been named Massless, look no further than the first sentence of the graviton (the thing, not the band) Wikipedia entry:

In physics, the graviton is a hypothetical elementary particle that mediates the force of gravitation in the framework of quantum field theory. If it exists, the graviton must be massless (because the gravitational force has unlimited range) and must have a spin of 2.

Well, gee… that might explain song titles such as “Hadron,” “Quarks,” “Photon,” and “Tachyon,” the latter of which I’d thought only existed on Star Trek.

Listen to Massless below. Tune into WCUR on the web tomorrow at 5:30 EDT to listen to an interview with Graviton’s Darin Tambascio.

[this streaming promotion has ended]