THE WEEKEND IS ALMOST HERE! Are you excited? The weather is finally starting to get nice, at least where we live. I’m gonna need to ahead and try and to defeat Portal 2 ASAP so I don’t spend the entire weekend indoors.

ANYWAY, a good way to get your party started is by watching the below fan-filmed footage of Job for a Cowboy performing a new song, “Signature of Starving Power,” at a recent stop on their MetalSucks-sponsored tour with Between the Buried and Me, The Ocean, and Cephalic Carnage. We’ve already seen some footage of JFAC drummer Jon “The Charn” Rice rehearsing this song, but this is the first time we’ve actually heard it with the whole band and everything. And, of course, it’s a bootleg and the quality ain’t great, but it still sounds pretty good to me. Everyone I know who’s heard JFAC’s new EP, Gloom, says it’s the best thing they’ve ever done, and a new chapter for the band, and based on the two songs we’ve now heard (the other being “Misery Reformatory,” which is already available for download), I’m inclined to believe it.

Gloom should be out sometime in the not-too-distant future on Metal Blade.

And here are remaining dates for that awesome BTBAM/JFAC/The Ocean/Cephalic Carnage tour:

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So Job for a Cowboy have a new EP coming out sometime this year. It’s called Gloom, and there’s one new song, “Misery Reformatory,” already available for download, although it’s not streaming anywhere yet. I am listening to it right now, though, and I can tell you that’s it’s good stuff. It definitely has the best guitar solo I’ve ever heard in a JFAC song. Check it out.

Meanwhile, the band has also posted footage of Jon “The Charn” Rice rehearsing another new track, “Signature Of Starving Power,” which also sounds promising. Hopefully the band will debut some of this material on their upcoming MetalSucks-sponsored tour with Between the Buried and Me, The Ocean, and Cephalic Carnage.

Hey, speaking of that tour, here are dates!

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…then check out this quote from a recent interview with vocalist Tommy Rogers:

“We have a really exciting set list for everyone this tour. We are going to do the entire new record [The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues] plus a set of old songs.”

Well, I think that’s great fucking news, and based on your reactions from when we debuted the EP last month, you’ll all find it happy-making, too. Plus the album is only thirty minutes, BTBAM are the headliners, and Tommy promised “old” (lulz) songs as well, so it’s not like you won’t get to hear favorites from the rest of the band’s discography.

In other words: this really exciting tour just got that much more exciting.

The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues is out today on Metal Blade, and the tour kicks off Friday! Get dates after the jump — BTBAM alone are enough of a draw, but Job for a Cowboy, The Ocean, and (on select dates) Cephalic Carnage are all on the trek, too, so you’re really gonna feel like a dummy if you don’t go. And also don’t forget to check out our recent “Rigged” column, in which BTBAM axe slingers Paul Waggoner and Dustie Waring take you through their live setups piece by piece. We’ll have another entry from BTBAM drummer Blake Richardson soon!

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Between The Buried and Me are heading out on the road on a MetalSucks-sponsored tour with Job For A Cowboy, The Ocean and, on select dates, Cephalic Carnage. We’ve teamed up with the band to give away one PRS SE Custom 24 guitar in Tobacco Sunburst and one copy of their upcoming album, The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues, due out April 12th on Metal Blade Records (which you can stream here for a limited time!).

Check out a picture of the pretty instrument up for grabs here, but please note the one you get will be in the Tobacco Sunburst color, not the orange shown.

For such a radical prize you’ve got to submit an equally radical entry, and as you know we like to keep things fun and light-hearted here at MS. So, do tell us via the comments: what is your favorite BTBAM song and why? Be creative.

Check out tour dates here, and stream the entire EP right here on MetalSucks!

So yeah yeah yeah, Victory is releasing a greatest hits package for Between the Buried and Me on March 29. We have avoided writing about it up ’til now because it’s one of those things where a label goes “We just lost one of our big bands, but we have the contractual right to try and milk some more money from ‘em, so let’s slap something together and get it out there.” (BTBAM recently ankled Victory for Metal Blade.) Sad, but this kind of thing happens all the time — hell, Victory did the same thing when they lost Atreyu a few years back. These collections usually aren’t even approved by the band, who legally have no say in the matter.

But so many of you have e-mailed us about the below video, which shows off the packaging for this compilation, and… yeah, it looks killer. Like, Tool-album-packaging-killer. Even though there’s absolutely no new material on this album (there are two CDs and one DVD, the latter showcasing all the band’s music videos), this is an increasingly-rare instance of a label actually giving fans a good reason to purchase a physical copy of an album. Whether or not you think that makes it worth it to pay for music you already own, well… that’s up to every BTBAM fan to decide for him or herself.

Meanwhile, BTBAM will release a NEW (not just recycled material!) three-song, thirty minute EP, The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues, on April 12 via Metal Blade. Then they’ll headline a MetalSucks-sponsored tour with The Ocean, Job for a Cowboy, and, on select dates, Cephalic Carnage. Get dates for that trek after the jump.

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Drummer Mike Justian is out of The Red Chord… again. I guess in all fairness, it was never really clear if this founding member was re-joining the band on a permanent basis, or if he was just filling-in after Brad Fickeisen split with the group last year. Then again, Justian’s been back in TRC for over a year, which seems like a long-ass time to just be filling-in. And even as a massive fan of the band, it’s certainly funnier to think of Red Chord skinsmen in Spinal Tap terms, spontaneously combusting at random intervals.

But fuck do I know? A statement from the band certainly makes the split sound amicable:

Click to read more…

Speaking of AP debuts that seemingly caused MetalSucks readers to just completely lose their shit and e-mail us messages to the effect of “YO POST THIS SHIT RIGHT NOW!!!” en masse: Alt Press is streaming an excerpt of the song “Specular Reflection” from Between the Buried and Me’s new EP, The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues.

And before you get sad that they’re not streaming the entire song, be aware that said track’s total running time is nearly eleven-and-a-half minutes, and AP has six-and-a-half of those glorious minutes. Also, Parallax only has three songs, although it’s total running time is roughly thirty minutes. So, really, you’re getting to hear more than 25% of the album with this clip.

Headbang here. The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues comes out April 12 on Metal Blade. And don’t forget that BTBAM will headline the MetalSucks-sponsored Hypersleep Dialogue Trek starting in April, along with Job for a Cowboy, The Ocean, and, on select dates, Cephalic Carnage. It’s gonna be killer. Get dates after the jump.

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From Beastmaster:

“Over the last week I’ve noticed on the PRP that both Chelsea Grin and Within The Ruins have been denied entry into to Canada for their separate respective tours. Now granted, I don’t necessarily love these two bands, but I’m wondering if they are possibly related in some way…. Dun dun DUNNNNNNNN.”

Yes. They are both related in that I don’t like either of them. Unfortunately, I don’t control the Canadian government, so my guess is that they actually both just have merch dudes with records for possession or something idiotic like that. In any case, yes, I agree it’s ridiculous that Canada gets to be spared Chelsea Grin while Americans have to continue to endure them.

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Yesterday we got news of a new Between the Buried and Me record and today we get news of a new Between the Buried and Me North American tour! Yippee!

We already kinda knew that Between the Buried and Me would be touring this Spring with The Ocean and Job For A Cowboy based on one leaked date and the fact that all three bands appear atop this year’s New England Metal and Hardcore Fest lineup. In all honesty, though, we already totally knew; in case you haven’t noticed yet, our logo is on that there tour poster above, meaning we’re a sponsor of the tour… and it was killing us not to tell ya’ll these past couple of months because we knew how excited you’d be. But now you know, we all know, EVERYONE knows, and together we’ll revel in this awesome lineup, which also features Cephalic Carnage on select dates!

Full list of dates after the jump.

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It’s been a long three years since The Ocean toured the U.S.; Precambrian had just come out, and they came to the States for a headlining run — perhaps a bit prematurely — with Withered, Lair of the Minotaur and Kylesa, an awesome bill but perhaps not the right one for The Ocean at that time. Their live show was stunning and left me wanting more, but The Ocean weren’t quite at the popularity level they are now and, at least in NYC, the room had mostly cleared out by the time they want on. Three years and two albums later it appears The Ocean appear to be finally headed back… with Between the Buried and Me and Job For A Cowboy (or whoever is playing in the latter these days), in a support role that’s much better suited for them.

ThePRP.com has picked up on an April 29th date for all three bands at The Rickshaw Theater in Vancouver, B.C., and as we already know all three bands sit atop Saturday’s bill at The New England Metal and Hardcore Fest on April 16th. As we learned in high school geometry, two points make a line; I think it’s pretty safe to assume there will be a full U.S. (North American, really) tour featuring all three bands.

Until then, enjoy this live music video (with album audio) of The Ocean playing the Heliocentric track “The Firmament,” one of my faves from that record. Thanks to TNOTB for alerting me to its existence.

-VN

What’s up rmember me i’m still BIG PIMPIN lol!

Hay whats up everybody thanks for all the help on the blog I posted before about where I was just getting into metal and stuff!! You guys were super cool and when I read it the other day I was all “lol I sound like such a metal n00b back then” but since then I started reading this site (Metal Suck.com) and got into a lot of way more cool bands (I got a new shirt that I am wearing in the picture at the top of this lol)! One of the things that one of the people said was I should get into some local bands bc they are actually considered better than popular bands, I guess bc if not that many people know about them then it makes you sound like you are more of a real fan if you like them?? Like even though Jobs For A Cowboy are way better than the bands in my town (Edmonds, Washington) I can see how it would be cool to be like “Have u heard this band from my town, they are like JFAC but better” bc then you know about something other people don’t!

Anyways I checked out a couple of bands that are from my area and I thought they were kind of cool but I wanted to see what u guys think before I tell anybody about them! I think these bands are ‘black metal’ not death metal, which I don’t know that much about- it doesn’t sound as good as death metal to me but a lot of the black metal bands seem like they are cooler to like??? IDK, just tell me what you think of these bands!

Click to read more…

Well, the line-up for this year’s New England Metal & Hardcore Festival — one of the oldest and most revered extreme music fests in the U.S. — has been announced, and it’s… interesting. The fest returns to a three-day format after being only two days last year, but if I’m not mistaken, this is the first time that the initial day will be a Thursday, not a Friday. And as reader Brian Kessler pointed out to us via e-mail, there are two noteworthy aspects to the lineup:

• It seems like metal and hardcore have been further segregated on the bill — Thursday appears to be almost entirely dedicated to deathcore and crabcore bands, Friday seems to be entirely devoted to hardcore bands, and Saturday is dominated by metal bands. There are pros and cons to this approach — the pro being that if you’re only a fan of one particular style of extreme music, you can cherry pick which day you’re going to attend, and the con being that new fans are less likely to be exposed to bands with whom they were not already familiar.
• There seem to be fewer “big name” acts. Sure, Hatebreed and Biohazard are on there, but that’s still a far cry from years’ past. In fact, plenty of big name who have new albums scheduled to come out this year — like Amon Amarth, DevilDriver, Arch Enemy, In Flames, and Children of Bodom — aren’t playing the fest.

Please note that I’m not knocking the fest — in fact, I think Saturday, April 16 is full of killer bands — and I don’t think every fest needs to be headlined by a band of Megadeth’s stature. I just think this particular line-up is… interesting.

Anyway, here’s the full bill:

Click to read more…

Well, the line-up for this year’s New England Metal & Hardcore Festival — one of the oldest and most revered extreme music fests in the U.S. — has been announced, and it’s… interesting. The fest returns to a three-day format after being only two days last year, but if I’m not mistaken, this is the first time that the initial day will be a Thursday, not a Friday. And as reader Brian Kessler pointed out to us via e-mail, there are two noteworthy aspects to the lineup:

• It seems like metal and hardcore have been further segregated on the bill — Thursday appears to be almost entirely dedicated to deathcore and crabcore bands, Friday seems to be entirely devoted to hardcore bands, and Saturday is dominated by metal bands. There are pros and cons to this approach — the pro being that if you’re only a fan of one particular style of extreme music, you can cherry pick which day you’re going to attend, and the con being that new fans are less likely to be exposed to bands with whom they were not already familiar.
• There seem to be fewer “big name” acts. Sure, Hatebreed and Biohazard are on there, but that’s still a far cry from years’ past. In fact, plenty of big name who have new albums scheduled to come out this year — like Amon Amarth, DevilDriver, Arch Enemy, In Flames, and Children of Bodom — aren’t playing the fest.

Please note that I’m not knocking the fest — in fact, I think Saturday, April 16 is full of killer bands — and I don’t think every fest needs to be headlined by a band of Megadeth’s stature. I just think this particular line-up is… interesting.

Anyway, here’s the full bill:

Click to read more…

Thank you to everyone who entered our Job For A Cowboy Ruination colored vinyl contest back in December. We chose a winner at the beginning of January as promised and notified said winner, but apparently we forget to announce it on the site. So if you’ve been waiting to find out if you won… well, sorry, you didn’t. But a fellow named “buttcheese” did, by submitting the following answer to the question: “Why do you dig the cover artwork for Ruination?”

“My favorite thing about this cover is that my buddy Steve, who happens to be the guy on the cover, finally got a job. He always has trouble getting work, you know, with the horns and the skull face and all. Keep it up, Steve, you’ll be able to afford that surgery in no time!”

Thanks for playing, everyone. More contests soon, as always!

[UPDATE: Now with actual pics included! Sorry. -Ed.]

Earlier this week we shared with you some photos taken by Alyssa Lorenzon at the First Unitarian Church in Philadelphia on December 17th, 2010, and those pics were some of the bad-assiest, hairiest, most metal pics of Skeletonwitch we’ve ever seen. Fellow MS photographer Mariel Pietrykoski was on-hand at the same show and snapped some excellent pics of the other bands on the bill, A Life Once Lost, Job For A Cowboy and Misery Index. Those pics after the jump!

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On November 23 Metal Blade Records released Job For A Cowboy’s Ruination as a limited edition 3×10” colored vinyl / CD box set; the collection houses the album as well as both rare and live material. The box set is only available through the indie record stores listed at http://www.mymetalclub.com/ and online through Vintage Vinyl. And hey, guess what? We’ve got an autographed copy of this sweet jobby [for a cowboy] to give away to one of you lucky chaps.

To win: leave a comment telling us why you dig the cover artwork for Ruination. Remember, this is MetalSucks, not an SAT essay, so make your entry funny and interesting. Axl and Vince will hand-pick their favorite entry and announce the winner the week of January 3rd.

Details of what exactly is included on each disc of the box set are posted after the jump. Be sure to catch Job For A Cowboy on tour in December with Skeletonwitch, Misery Index & Trap Them!

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It’s the end of an era for Victory Records; the only two credible metal acts they had on their roster have finished their contracts and are free to sign elsewhere. Darkest Hour ended up on E1, a good fit for a label who has signed a number of already-established metal acts over the past few years (High on Fire, Hatebreed, Black Label Society, Overkill and In Flames, just to name a few). Where will Between the Buried and Me end up? It’s gettin’ to be about that time for them to release an album, whatwith those EP rumors and all.

If I were a betting man I’d put a few fat ones down on the table on BTBAM ending up with Metal Blade. The reason why has nothing to do with the actual music but with the folks behind the scenes. In fact, there’s a good chance the deal is already done, the t’s crossed, the i’s dotted, the ink dried.

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It used to be that if you wanted to know what you should buy, you would see what famous people liked, and buy whatever they said was cool — like how I originally got into Suicide Silence after I heard Demi Lovato talking about them. But now there is another way to find out what you should buy: shopping haul videos. A haul video is where someone goes shopping, then makes a YouTube video where they tell you about all the stuff that they bought. Usually they are really long, and made by young girls who like to talk about themselves. I don’t have a video camera, so I can’t make a video, but I thought it might be cool for you to see some of the stuff I bought at Hot Topic the other day in case you are thinking about doing any shopping and and wondering what is cool right now.

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In case you can’t tell by all the posting I’ve been doing about the soundtrack, I really wanna see The Social Network. It’s just like the story of how MetalSucks was created, only we didn’t go to ivy league schools, we’re not billionaires, and we haven’t sued each other (yet). How dare David Fincher and Aaron Sorkin steal our life story!

Speaking of our life story, here’s how we amused ourselves this week:

• We debuted new music by The Fucking Wrath.
• Intronaut’s Sacha Dunable wondered if America really has any talent, The Red Chord’s Greg Weeks discussed the NFL with Job for a Cowboy’s Charn, and Daath’s Eyal Levi taught us about proper etiquette for being a houseguest.
• We spoke to Eric Guenther from From Exile and the new Daath album.
• We checked out new releases by The Serpent & The Siren as well as Mutant Supremacy, Pyrrhon and Parasitic Extirpation.
• We found out that way more of you like nu-metal than we thought.
• We learned how to look like a hot metal chick.
• We bemoaned the latest batch of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominees.
• We watched the new Cephalic Carnage video and now we’re afraid we’ll never get a boner again.
• We got excited about the first awesome tour of 2011.
• We declared Cradle of Filth to be a glam band now.

Have a good weekend, folks. See ya Monday!

-AR

Oh snap!!! During Monday night football last week, down-on-his-luck Saints running back Reggie Bush snapped his fibula. After realizing he was hurt, Reggie attempted to walk on the broken leg. It reminded me of a video I once saw. In the video, a guy was on PCP and being chased by the cops. He jumped off of a second story parking garage and landed on his side. He completely shattered one of his legs, got up and attempted to run again. It was fucking gross! After falling a couple of times, due to the perp’s now-rubber leg, the cops easily apprehended him. In short, I think the NFL should have a week where every team is on PCP. Even non-football fans would tune in.

Even though it’s an exciting week for football — Texas vs. Texas (Texas won!), Drew Brees on 60 Minutes (how is Andy Rooney still alive?), and still no Roethlisberger (and the Steelers can’t lose) — I took it upon myself to mix this blog up a bit. Knowing I’d be more focused on the season premiere of Eastbound and Down than highlights, I decided to call up a fellow football fan and ask him a couple questions. His name is Charn, he has an amazing throwing arm, and he plays drums for Job For A Cowboy.

Click to read more…