Photo by Alison Webster

This month, brutal death metal trio Hate Eternal, led by producer/guitarist Erik Rutan, has been at the center of a pitched battle between MS co-lord Axl Rosenberg and MS writer-at-large Anso DF. The conflict? Is Hate Eternal’s forthcoming Phoenix Amongst The Ashes record awesomely killer (per Axl) or is it insanely ripping (per Anso)? Does it fuck the face and slam the nutz (Anso) or does it render each listener “so fucking happy to be alive” (Axl)? Can its production and performances better be described as a high watermark of contemporary metal (Axl) or as a gift from another realm to every living music listener (Anso)? Is Phoenix a shoo-in for metal album of the year (Axl) or does it crush every other record on earth (Anso)?

Welcome to our love war.

When the time came to phone up Rutan for a discussion of Phoenix and other Hate Eternal affairs, we at MetalSucks opted to settle this battle of agreement with an interview conducted by both Axl Rosenberg and Anso DF. Unsurprisingly, Rutan took on the task with good humor and ease, only succumbing to confusion at times when Axl and Anso simultaneously rushed to hail Phoenix and its predecessor Fury & Flames. In its unexpurgated glory, we present our very special double-team interview of the great Erik Rutan.

Click to read more…

There just aren’t enough good books about metal in the world. I mean, you can only read The Dirt or Choosing Death so many times, y’know? And it’s the summer, and I want to go sit on a beach and read, goddamn it. Now, sure, I could read any number of books on any number of topics, who really gives a shit about anything but loud, obnoxious music? Amirightoramiright?

Luckily for all of us, Flavorwire has now unveiled “A Summer Reading List for Metalheads.” And it’s actually pretty helpful!

Click to read more…

Longtime readers of MetalSucks will know that I’m a big fan of Continuum’s 33 1/3 books series. Each one is by a different writer, and each one is devoted entirely to the study of a different classic album – and “study” has a pretty broad definition here, as the manner in which the books approach the album-in-question really depends on the author. Sure, Eric Weisbard’s entry on GN’R's Use Your Illusion albums was basically one long apology by an ironic hipster who couldn’t bring himself to admit that he actually enjoys those records. But the great John Darnielle’s book, on Sabbath’s Master of Reality, is one of the most creative pieces of music writing I’ve read in some time – the entire thing takes the form of journal entries written by a teenager who has been committed to a psychiatric center – and I loved D.X. Ferris’ take on Slayer’s Reign in Blood that not only did I interview him, but I basically bullied him into writing some pieces for MetalSucks (Most recently, he did an incredibly in-depth interview with the one and only Tom G. Warrior).

So far those three books have been the only ones in the series that deal with metal or sorta-kinda-metal (which isn’t to say the other books in the series aren’t worth reading, just to say, y’know, metal will always be my first and greatest love). Which is why I’ve been so excited to read Daphne Carr’s contribution, on Nine Inch Nails’ Pretty Hate Machine. The book was announced for-ever ago, and I kept seeing release dates on Amazon and Barnes & Noble’s web site, which would come and go without the thing ever actually getting released. It was like 33 1/3‘s version of Chinese Democracy.

Well, Mr. Ferris himself, writing for Cleveland Scene, now reports that the book is finally coming out! Just don’t ask when:

Click to read more…

Here’s what I don’t understand about all these lists: why they make people so very angry. When we set out to make our 21 Best Albums of the 21st Century (So Far) list earlier this year, we pretty much knew from the outset that it would be unsatisfactory. For one thing, there were only going to be 21 albums on the list, which meant a lot of great records were going to get left off; for another thing, we made the decision early on to allow bands to have multiple albums on the list if that was the way the voting turned out, and that meant that even more artists who deserved recognition weren’t going to get it; and finally, there was the very issue of how you even go about compiling such a list – we thought it was exciting to solicit the opinions of a lot of prominent musicians and industry insiders (as opposed to just the MS staff), but that approach obviously had its pros and cons, too. I’m not apologizing for or disowning our list – I’m just pointing out what should be obvious, which is that it was meant to be a fun conversation starter, which, from our end at least, is exactly what it was. And who really gives a shit which albums did or did not end up on that list? You know which albums you love and which ones you hate, so you shouldn’t need MetalSucks, or any other media outlet, to validate your opinion. I think Albert Mudrian is a great writer and is way more knowledgeable about metal than I am, but my ego isn’t so frail that I need him to agree with my every assessment of every band and every album.

Which brings me to what this blog post is actually about: Decibel’s 100 Greatest Metal Albums of the Decade special, which you can order here. It’s considerably more comprehensive that our list was, but I imagine most intelligent metal fans will also find it just as infuriating, and just as fun.

Click to read more…