Earlier this week, Metallica performed a previously unreleased song from the Death Magnetic sessions, “Hate Train,” as part of their four-night  thirtieth anniversary celebration at the Fillmore in San Francisco, and then e-mailed their fan club a rough mix of that song; now they’ve done the same for another tune that didn’t make the Death cut, this one called “Just a Bullet Away.” And, holy shit, they are making this too easy. Why don’t they just call a song “Everyone Hate Us Now?”

ANYWAY, I actually think this song is… not terrible. Don’t get me wrong, it has serious problems — namely, James Hetfield’s ongoing obsession with being the worst vocalist in the world, the incredibly crappy chorus, the bloated running time, and the lyric “suck, suck ’til it’s dry” — but the main riff is actually pretty catchy, and doesn’t immediately call to mind any other Metallica riffs. I even kinda like the slow, Gothenburg-y section. So congratulations to Metallica, it looks like another slightly-above-mediocre song was written and recorded for Death Magnetic. I wonder why this one didn’t make the cut?

By the way, if you haven’t been paying attention, ‘Tallica have been having all sorts of special guests at these shows, ranging from Jason Newsted (I can’t believe he had time to fit it into his busy schedule!) to John Bush to Scott Ian to Marianne Faithful to… Lou Reed. Yes, they performed songs from Lulu. I’m too lazy/don’t care enough to write about all that shit, but Metal Insider has plenty of coverage if you’re interested.

-AR

When I was fifteen years old, I had to sneak out of my parents’ house on a Friday night to go see GWAR and the Misfits play a Halloween show. Then I had to conceal my clothing from my parents, seeing as it was, y’know, soaked in blood, urine, and semen.

Here we are all these years later, pretty much right at the anniversary of that show, and GWAR are on a popular, mainstream late-night talk show. And yet, somehow, they seem no less rebellious than they ever were.

Which is all my way of saying, “GWAR rules.” And they do. They rule. Hard.

ANYWAY, here are some things we did this week:

• Speaking of GWAR, Dave “Oderus Urungus” Brockie himself provided us with more insights into the NFL. Meanwhile, several members of the Relapse Records family gave us the skinny on the new NHL season, and The Austerity Program’s Justin Foley pondered the pros and cons of new technology in music.
• We debuted Jucifer’s new video, for the song “Hiroshima.”
• We got exclusive specs on Contain Us, the new box set from The Devin Townsend Project.
• We spoke to Steel Panther and Niilo Sevänen from Insomnium.
• We checked out the latest release from Carnifex.
• We continued the Countdown to the Metal Suckfest and defended Danzig.
• We counted down the eleven cardinal rules of attending a concert.
• We wondered if nu-dethcore is the next big thing.
• We cried because even ex-members of Metallica make bad music now.
• We argued about the best debut albums of the past twenty-five years.

And that’s it! Have a delightful weekend, gang. We’ll see ya Monday.

-AR

When Some Kind of Monster came out, Jason Newsted suddenly surpassed Dave Mustaine to become #2 on the list of Most Popular Former Members of Metallica*, mostly because he made some pretty funny comments about how the whole Phil Towle/group therapy thing was bullshit — comments which, at the screening I attended, were met with rapturous applause. (The house was obviously packed with Metallica listeners.) Suddenly, everyone rather conviently forgot that Newsted was a willing participant in the Load albums, and he seemed like the cool dude who had jumped off a sinking ship before it was too late. And the fact that he was playing with Voivod didn’t hurt his case any, even if the fact that he was also playing with a certain aging Brit sorta did.

But then of course just a few years later Newsted was out of Voivod and in Rock Star Supernova, and his cred went down the drain just as fast as if he’d stuck around for St. Anger.

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I don’t know why anyone would trust anything Metallica has to say these days. Every time they have a new album coming out, they start talking smack on their last album, which is doubly offensive. “St. Anger is gonna blow Load out of the water!” “Okay we know St. Anger sucked, but seriously, Death Magnetic is gonna be amazing!!!” All they’re really doing is just continuously spitting in the faces of fans who actually take them at their word.

But in a new interview with Rolling Stone, Lars Ulrich really does go one step too far: He says that Lulu, the band’s upcoming collaboration with Lou Reed, “makes… And Justice for All sound like the first Ramones album.”

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We have successfully arrived at Yankee Stadium and are sitting in the press box. We feel so professional!

We’re gonna put the live blog after the jump so it doesn’t eat up the entire page. You’ll hafta refresh to get updates. Sorry.

And now, enjoy the snark…

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Welcome to “Question of the Week,” a (sometimes) weekly debate amongst the MetalSucks staff regarding a recent hot button issue.

For no particular reason whatsoever other than we thought it would be fun, this week we asked our writers:

IF YOU COULD HAVE BEEN PRESENT FOR THE CREATION OF ANY SINGLE METAL ALBUM, WHICH ONE WOULD IT BE AND WHY?

The MS staff’s answers after the jump.

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During a recent interview, Lars Ulrich stated that Metallica “did not take advantage of everything that [Jason Newsted] had to give.” Which strikes me as Ulrich being too hard on himself. I mean, really, you’re telling me that Jason Newsted’s talents can be better utilized than they were in this song?

I mean, that’s a classic right there! The first time I heard it, I was all, “Master of Whatits?”

Still, I was curious what Newsted thought of Ulrich’s apparent admission of guilt. Here’s what Newsted told me*:

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‘Cause apparently he’s out. No word yet on whether he was quit or fired, but either way, this news should be about as shocking as the fact that Axl Rose walked off-stage during a show in Dublin last week. Why? ‘Cause Jane’s Addiction have had four bass players just since 2001. Either these dudes are really hard to get along with, or they have terrible luck. And I don’t believe in luck.

And it’s too bad, really, ’cause for people like me, who basically gave up on Jane’s Addiction when they heard Strays (y’know, from the band’s second reunion), having McKagan in the group was probably a good incentive to pay attention again. And McKagan seemed like a good fit for Jane’s Addicition, ’cause Jane’s and GN’R are similar in that they’re both bands that released a couple of killer records forever ago, and whose members manage to milk those records’ popularity to remain in the spotlight even as their work becomes increasingly lackluster.

No word on who Jane’s Addiction’s next soon-to-be-former bassist will be, although I’m really pulling for Jason Newsted. Meanwhile, I imagine McKagan will now go back to his non-solo solo project, Loaded, and calling Slash at all hours of the night, asking when Velvet Revolver can get back together.

-AR

My first memory of being super-impressed by tales of massive drug abuse was when my uncle explained that Stevie Ray Vaughan’s favorite breakfast once was an eight-ball of coke poured into a liter of Jack Daniel’s. That is quality partying, not that St. Patrick’s Day beer-and-barf beginner stuff. I was floored. Barely big enough to hold a guitar, I then and there resolved to achieve those heights of consumption. I also began to keep a wish list of kick-ass drug gobblers with whom I’d one day party hardy, with Vaughan in the first slot.

By 1996, metal maniac Devin Townsend was added to that list. Even before hearing gossip of his heroic intake, I presumed from hundreds of listens to Heavy As A Really Heavy Thing that Devy might be the type to get screamingly high and, like, take a dump in a busy intersection while doing a headspin. Maybe I was projecting. Actually, in retrospect, a mega-fucked up Townsend might be too much for me. He sure was too much for ex-Metallica bassist Jason Newsted!

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So, there are two ways I can approach this review: I can do some haphazard research and come up with a semi-informed opinion of Voivod to judge their new album Infini, or disclose right out of the gate that Voivod is one of those blindspots all enthusiasts of metal have and judge Infini on its merits as a stand alone album. Clearly, I’ve chosen the latter, even if I didn’t intend to, and must admit that while I have not intentionally avoided Voivod, I’m not familiar with their work with the intimate detail that their many of their very dedicated followers are. A number of my favorite bands will mention them in their first breath when talking influences, and their current bassist played on my favorite Metallica album (and, of course, the three boring-to-horrible ones after that). But regardless, I’ve never made time for them, which, depending on who you ask, is a sin punishable by casting me out from the metal Garden of Eden and into the cold, harsh wasteland occupied by Fall Out Boy, or a wise decision on my part. Add to that the fact that Infini consists of the last recorded guitar tracks by Denis “Piggy” D’Amour – a founding member who succumbed to colon cancer in 2005 – and will most likely be their last studio album, and the latter choice is even more of an ordeal.

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Here they are performing “Blackened” at the fest.

In other new Metallinews, Kirk Hammett is saying that Jason Newsted will “most likely” perform with the band at their Rock N’ Roll Hall of fame induction. Since Newsted is the member of Metallica who managed to remain the coolest the longest (save Cliff Burton, natch), I’d actually be curious to see that… even if Jason was on Rock Star Supernova.

-AR