MetalSucks

It’s not that I think that the members of Napalm Death and Dream Theater have a limited musical palette. Quite the contrary; I’d imagine the musicians that make up these particular bands probably have very diverse tastes.

Still. If I found out that Alex Webster listened to a lot of Roni Spektor, I wouldn’t expect a collaboration between the Russian chanteuse and the death metal legend, y’know?

So. Tom Fassnidge sent us this video of Napalm Death’s Barney Greenway teaming up with some of the dudes from Dream Theater to cover Metallica’s “Damage Inc.” It’s an old video – lookit Barney’s hair!!! – but neither Vince nor myself had ever seen it before. And it’s pretty awesome – look at how much fun Petrucci and Portnoy are having! And, yes, I know that DT have covered entire Metallica albums live in concert before. But it’s the “WHAT THE FUCK IS A MEMBER OF NAPALM DEATH DOING UP THERE?” of it all that makes this video truly worthwhile, in my opinion at least.

Extra bonus: for those of us who find James LaBrie to be a big gaping vagina, we now get to see what DT might be like with singer who isn’t a eunuch.

-AR

Most Dream Theater fans consider the band’s peak to have spanned the era starting with 1994’s Awake and extending through 2002’s double-disc opus Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence (excepting 1997’s bland and boring Falling Into Infinity). I’d actually argue that the band’s “golden” era extended one album further through Train of Thought, unquestionably the band’s heaviest offering ever, if not just because of the good songwriting but for the fact that this was the last album on which the band pushed themselves forward. Since then (Octavarium, Systematic Chaos) Dream Theater have settled into cruise control, pumping out decent but ultimately unspectacular prog metal albums that don’t so much tread new ground as walk confidently atop terrain already explored. The band’s latest, Black Clouds and Silver Linings, continues in this vein; it’s the third album in a row to show little to no musical progression (isn’t this supposed to be “progressive” metal?) and as such ends up feeling mostly same-sounding and… meh. Still, it’s hard to knock anything Dream Theater do too heavily; the band already indelibly changed the metal landscape once, and anything they do warrants at the very least a rating of “pretty good.”

Click to read more…

Watch ex-Necrophagist drummer Marco Minnemann go nuts on the kit. Sick. As in both “holy shit is this guy amazing” and “the quick camera cuts and pans are making my stomach ill (more feet and hand closeups please!).” But still… This ought to be enough to make any aspiring drummers in the MS readership consider putting down the sticks for good, the way I get all depressed and never want to touch my guitar again every time I see John Petrucci play live.

-VN

[Thanks: Jess Z.]

So I totally snoozed yesterday on the fact that After The Burial’s new album Rareform was finally released. If you guys haven’t checked out After the Burial yet, I highly recommend you do so this instant; it’s like Meshuggah’s rhythm section decided to have a three-way with John Petrucci and Bloodjinn vocalist Joel Collins. The results are phenomenal, striking that ever-delicate balance of musicianship and songwriting. It’s some truly invigorating shit! Seriously; more bands should be this good.

After the Burial will be out on this summer’s Thrash and Burn Tour (with Darkest Hour), so if you’re planning on hitting that up be sure to get there early… And let us know how they are live. In the meantime listen to the three songs from Rareform posted on their MySpace, and prepare to be be bludgeoned.

-VN

[After the Burial on MySpace]

And he wants to make sure you know that.

-VN

[Thanks to whoever sent this in - I forget, sorry.]