MetalSucks

Anyone remember this from a couple of years back?

Well that Taco Bell isn’t too far from the Mansion, and I’m ashamed to admit, but sometimes, in moments of stoned weakness, I purchased food there. But ever since that little incident, I haven’t eaten at a Taco Bell; I can’t. I know that ALL fast food is crap, but come ON, a man has limits.

Still, I guess it’s nice of them to start this whole “Feed the Beat” program, in which they basically give touring bands $500 worth of diarrhea food for free. And now Metal Insider is reporting that a handful of metal bands – including Atreyu, Iwrestledabearonce, Whitechapel, Municipal Waste and Earthless – are rumored to have been selected for the offer.

And as Metal Insider says, “tour support is tour support” – so I don’t blame the bands for participating. And the dudes in The Waste are probably fucked up half the time anyways, so they won’t be able to tell the difference. Meanwhile, Atreyu have been spewing crap forth from their mouths for years, so they might as well put some back into their mouths for a change.

-AR

P.S. I wanna give extra credit to Metal Insider, not just for originally reporting on this story, but for coming up with a headline that is vastly superior to my own. Nice work, Bram!

[Horse the Band are currently on tour supporting their new album Desperate Living (full stream here!). Keyboardist Lord Gold (his mommy calls him Erik) is recording their current road trek for posterity in this here MetalSucks blog. Entry 2 follows (read Entry 1 here). -Ed.]

I was still feeling bored in New Orleans, walking down Bourbon Street after the show, when who did we meet but Iwrestledabearonce at the Tropical Isle, pounding hand grenades. Typical night ensued… got conglomerated, walked down to the Mississippi, did a pound of coke, dominated a 40-somethings gay bar. Feeling a little better about this tour…

A photo essay of the debaucherous night after the jump.

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Horse The Band are growing up. They’ve long since distanced themselves from the “nintendo-core” label of the past, and from what we’ve heard of their new album Desperate Living — the new song “Rape Escape” and now “Shapeshift” in the video below — it seems like this album is another big step forward for them. HtB still combine influences from all over the map and their music is still anything but straight ahead rock or metal, but they present it in a much more mature fashion than, say, Iwrestledabearonce (I know Axl thinks this band is the cat’s pajamas, but I’m not sold yet). From what I can tell of the new record so far, Horse the Band seem to be taking themselves a lot more seriously this time around, and it shows in the presentation and composition of their music.

Watch the new (and weird!) video for “Shapeshift” below. Tomorrow, we’re going to have the full exclusive stream for Desperate Living; get psyched.

-VN

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

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One of these days, I’m going to write a review for Iwrestledabearonce’s It’s All Happening. Swear it. In the meantime, as you could guess, I can tell you that I love the album and think you should buy it. So, that’s the short version.

The disc is finally coming out in Europe on August 31, and the band has launched a new website as a “virtual little treasure chest.” It’s all more or less bonus stuff that can be unlocked by forwarding the page to friends – in other words, X number of forwards unlocks Y cool shit. That’s a nifty little promotional tool.

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Where the hell does the time go? The year is more than half over already! Sheesh.

ANYWAY, here are, in alphabetical order, albums that have really knocked my socks off so far this year…

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It was a short week, but despite Axl being under the weather and Vince gettin lucky in Kentucky, we still managed to get shit done around the ol’ Mansion, even without the help of our favoritest MS Mansion Monkey, Higgins:

• We’re making a list: we give you a hint, another hint and yet another hint. No, it’s got nothing to do with Jacob.
• Ozzy Sharon filed another ridiculous lawsuit, while Dillinger Escape Plan left Relapse Records sans-lawsuit.
• IWABO and Bloodbath released new videos.
• Killswitch Engage gave you a new song for free, we gave you a new Hull song for free, and Job For A Cowboy and Darkest Hour let you hear new songs for free. Crikey!
• We spoke with Nick Hipa of As I Lay Dying and J. Costa of Thy Will Be Done, the former about music and the latter about beards.
• Dallas, The Blogronaut and Eyal all wrote blogs.
• Best Band Ever announces festival appearance atop worst lineup ever.

I had a wisdom tooth pulled this morning so I feel like a giant sack of assholes at the moment, but hey, Percocet! See you tomorrow.

-VN

Fairly self-explanatory…

IWABO’s full-length Century debut, It’s All Happening, comes out this Tuesday, June 2.

-AR

Vince is in Kentucky scouting land for a SECOND MetalSucks Mansion and against the advice of Gary Suarez and my own instincts, I’m off to see Terminator Salvation. We shan’t be posting Monday ’cause it’s Memorial Day, but we’ll be back Tuesday. In the meantime, here’s some shit that happened this week:

• We did a video interview with IWRESTLEDABEARONCE! We also spoke with The Haunted’s Peter Dolving, God Forbid’s Doc Coyle, and Unholy.
• We stole Daath’s Eyal Levi away from Headbanger’s Blog.
• Sigh’s Mirai Kawashima graced us with another totally excellent studio blog.
• Corey Mitchell says this is the best album of the year so far.
• Fuckface Durst finally went too far.

As Baz would say, “I’ll be Bach.”

-AR

So here’s the story: last week IWRESTLEDABEARONCE were in NYC doing press for their debut full-length, It’s All Happening. And as you know if you read this site on a regular basis, we love IWABO. So were totally bummed that, due to scheduling issues, we weren’t able to meet up with them for an interview.

Luckily, one of the band’s publicists, our good friend Leo Lavoro, volunteered to film and edit the band answering some questions we sent over for them. Leo did a killer job and we definitely owe him a beer or ten!

So here it is, our first video interview, with our favorite young experimental electrogrindeathpopwhateverthefuckcorers, IWRESTLEDABEARONCE. It’s All Happening will be out June 2 on Century Media!!!

If you’ve never seen IWRESTLEDABEARONCE live, you’re missing out. We’ve seen these guys and girl a few times now, including when they absolutely demolished The Bowery Poetry Club (of all places) at CMJ last year, and they are all that and a bag of chips (the kids still use that expression, right?).

Luckily for you, HardTimes.ca has an entire set from the band online right now, which you can check out below. Unfortunately the quality of the footage is sub-Metal Injection, but, still, it’s good to be able to watch the show from the same chair in which you usually masturbate.

In case I haven’t mentioned it before, IWABO’s Century debut, It’s All Happening, drops June 2 on Century, and the band is currently on a MetalSucks-sponsored trek with The Human Abstract and a bunch of other awesome bands. Get tour dates here.

-AR

Thanks to all the hep cats who e-mailed this to us!

No idea how we missed this, but “The Cat’s Pajamas,” the first single off of IWABO’s upcoming Century debut, It’s All Happening, is currently streaming on Absolute Punk. It’s actually kinda different for IWABO – the melody-to-madness ratio is higher than normal – but not so different that my head is spinning. In other words, I’m really digging it.

I know a lot of you already have your mind made up about this band one way or the other, but nonetheless I’d encourage you all to give it a listen. Even if it’s just so you can better formulate your argument that it’s utter crap.

It’s All Happening drops June 2.

-AR

I never went on spring break; I mean, I had “spring break” from school, but I never did that thing where you go to Cancun and get fucked up for a week solid and date rape someone. Dunno why.

To win some MetalSucks stickers and assorted promo CDs we don’t want anymore, tell us a) the name of the musician in this video who isn’t a member of IWABO and b) the name of the person doing the voice-over. No fair cheatin’ if you work in the bid-ness.

-AR

[via Metal Injection... duh.]

Here’s an interview our friends at Metal Injection conducted with our friends in IWRESTLEDABEARONCE at New England Metal & Hardcore Festival a couple of weeks back. It’s a spirited romp, as are most conversations led by MI’s Rob Pasbani (or, as many of you call him when he’s spotted out at shows, “Metal Injection Guy!”).

But in the interest of being completely honest, I should let you know that I’m really posting it as an excuse to remind you that IWABO are out on the road RIGHT NOW as part of a MetalSucks co-sponsored trek being headlined by The Human Abstract and also featuring Oh, Sleeper, Vanna, A Tragic Victory and To Speak of Wolves. All the cool kids are going. And if you don’t go, they’ll know you’re not cool and no one will ever want to make out with you or touch you where your bathing suit covers again. Seriously, I know a kid who missed the tour when it came through his town last week, and then he was instantly made a social outcast and hung himself. Peer pressure peer pressure peer pressure.

So watch this interview, then get tour dates after the jump, so that mommy and daddy will still love you and God won’t send you to hell.

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This is pretty straight-forward: IWRESTLEDABEARONCE’s Century Media debut, It’s All Happening, is coming out June 2, and, as is de rigeur, the band will now be posting a series of behind-the-scenes videos on the internet.com to give fans a taste of the in-studio insanity. And, yes, I fully plan on posting each and every video.

Some people will watch this, see the band having fun, and take it as yet another sign that IWABO are ironic hipster doucheturds who don’t take metal seriously (because the memo that metal can’t be fun apparently never found it’s way to Louisiana). And those people, I say: Have fun sulking in the corner. We’ll be over here getting fucked up and having a good time.

-AR

Baseball season officially got underway and New England Metal and Hardcore Fest is coming up next weekend. Surely all is peachy in the world then, yeah? Not so much.

• Dave Mustaine feuded with a mystery band, then kissed and made up before we even knew it.
• Protest the Hero released a new video and gave us a bunch of tickets for their tour to give away.
• We spoke with Daath’s Eyal Levi and TAD/Tadgarden’s Tad.
• Kip W. gave us two recaps (Day 1, Day 2) of our booze-fueled SXSW journey.
• Fear Factory got back together… except not.
• Ya’ll argued about which Mastodon album is the best and whether Jesse or Howard was/is the better KsE frontman.
• Ya’ll argued even more about IWRESTLEDABEARONCE and Oceano.
• We got an exclusive red carpet report from Metallica’s Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

See you next week. New England Metal and Hardcore Fest!!

You know how I know IWRESTLEDABEARONCE are an awesome band? Because of how polarizing they are. Everyone who leaves comments on this site – fuck, everyone I’ve ever spoken to about the group – either loves them or hates them with a passion; they do not ever, under any circumstances, inspire a shrug. And isn’t that what you want from music? Or would you rather have Diecast’s career?

So. Sometime over the weekend, that clock on the band’s official website stopped counting down, and revealed the title and release date of IWABO’s Century debut – it’s called It’s All Happening, and it’ll see the  light of on June 2. There’s also a too-brief sample of a new song, “See You in Shell,” streaming here, and AN ENTIRE NEW SONG (!), “You Ain’t Family,” streaming on the band’s MySpace page.

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Seriously. Ever since Metal Hammer gave us that Web of Death thing, I’ve been knee-deep in pussy. Incredible. It’s amazing that I’m even able to type right now, I’m so worn out. And that’s why you start a website. For the groupies.

Which brings me to my next point: now that we’re famous, we don’t want to be friends with you anymore. Don’t take it personally, we just prefer to rub elbows with other fabulous, famous people. You were great on the way up, but now? Fuck you. M’kay?

Here’s what else went down this week:

• We spoke with Lacuna Coil’s Christina Scabbia, and managed to get through it without embarrassing ourselves too badly.
• Sigh’s Mirai Kawashima wrote another awesome guest blog from the studio, begging the question: is Dr. Mikannibal’s diet hot or not?
• The Haunted’s Peter Dolving lashed out against Lamb of God; you lashed out against Peter Dolving.
• NEW CONVERGE SONGS! NEW CONVERGE SONGS! NEW CONVERGE SONGS!
• Someone actually played IWRESTLEDABEARONCE’S “Tastes like Kevin Bacon” for Kevin fucking Bacon.
• How many Andrew WKs are there, anyway?

Alright. I’ve got like ten girls clawing at me right now, beckoning me back to bed. I’ll see you Monday, if they’ll give me a rest, already.

-AR

If you haven’t yet seen The Human Abstract you’re missing out on one of the finest progressive metal bands in today’s scene. And if you haven’t seen Iwrestledabearonce you’re missing out on one of the most mindfuckingly awesome experiences short of watching Fred Durst punch himself in the nuts repeatedly. Fitting, then, that MetalSucks is sponsoring a Spring tour featuring these two awesome bands as well as metalcorers Oh, Sleeper and Vanna! The tour kicks off April 30th in Anaheim, CA and winds its way east before returning to the left coast and wrapping up on May 28th in Hollywood. Expect more good things related to this tour from MetalSucks in the near future, including exclusive tour blogs and the latest updates. Be there!

Ice cream sandwiches… mmmmm.

-VN

Something is brewing in the IWRESTLEDABEARONCE camp. My once-favorite unsigned band (can’t call ‘em that anymore ’cause now they’re signed!) has now launched a website where you can currently hear a clip from a radio show where – no shit – they play IWABO’s “Tastes Like Kevin Bacon” for… KEVIN FUCKING BACON. Man, I would have loved to be in the room when that happened. “Swell,” Bacon thinks to himself. “First Bernie Madoff, now this.”

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