Sooo… just thought we’d take this opportunity to remind you yet again that MetalSucks, with a special assist from The Austerity Program’s Justin Foley, will be presenting Heavy Metal Literature Night at at Hank’s Saloon in Brooklyn this Thursday, February 17. Members of God Forbid, Tombs, and, of course, this very website, will be doing readings from from some of metal’s greatest tomes, including Motley Crue’s The Dirt, Led Zeppelin’s Hammer of the Gods, Slash’s Slash, Marilyn Manson’s Long Hard Road Out of Hell, and more — kinda like what Will Forte does in the below video. Only we don’t make one of the biggest bombs of the year and get fired from Saturday Night Live at the end.

And, oh yeah, Vince is DJing!!! Come get st00pid with us. Thursday night. See ya there.

The above video (which I first saw on Movieline) is of Mad Men star Jon Hamm doing a reading from My Dad Was in ZZ Top, a new book by Conan writer John Glaser. The book uses allegedly “found” documents to tell the secret history of rock n’ roll — Hamm is reading a chapter about the secret origins of the Butthole Surfer’s moniker.

Sadly, Hamm will not be at the MetalSucks sponsored Heavy Metal Literature Night at Hank’s Saloon on Thursday, February 17 — but lotsa other cool people will be! Members of God Forbid, Tombs, and The Austerity Program will all be on hand to do readings from some of metal’s greatest tomes, including Motley Crue’s The Dirt, Led Zeppelin’s Hammer of the Gods, Slash’s Slash, Marilyn Manson’s Long Hard Road Out of Hell, and more; MS’ own masters of mischief, Axl Rosenberg and Vince Neilstein, will also be on hand to read and DJ, respectively.

Oh yeah, and, of course, we plan to get pretty drunk.

Even more details coming next week!!! Get excited!!!

Mark LeVine is a professor at the University of California, Irvine, who has spent the better part of his life trying to understand and teach about the Middle East and Muslim world.  Part of this has been fueled by his interest in music – Mark is both a performer and fan of heavy metal (and other, lesser genres).  This interest led Mark to write Heavy Metal Islam: Rock, Resistance, and the Struggle for the Soul of Islam, a book that upends the simple “us vs. them” ideas about the Islamic world that tend to lead to things like war and death.  The book’s stories and message have proven so compelling that a CD of the music covered – Flowers in the Desert – and an upcoming documentary continue to tell the story, as does Mark’s website.

I was able to grab an hour of Mark’s time over the phone on Friday.  I peppered him with some questions around a topic that has plagued Americans for over a century – “What the hell is going on over in the Middle East?”

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Let’s class this bitch up.

On Thursday, February 17, at Hank’s Saloon in Brooklyn, we are going to be presenting (with some serious help from The Austerity Program’s Justin Foley!) Heavy Metal Literature Night. This will be like one of those classy book readings where intellectual types sit around drinking wine while people read aloud from beautifully written, deeply meaningful texts — only instead of intellectual types, the readers will be various members of the local metal community, instead of wine we’ll be drinking beer and whiskey and whatever else leads to terrible decisions in life, and instead of beautifully written, deeply meaningful texts, we’ll be reading from some of metal’s greatest tomes, including Motley Crue’s The Dirt, Led Zeppelin’s Hammer of the Gods, Slash’s Slash, Marilyn Manson’s Long Hard Road Out of Hell, and other books of that nature.

There will be booze. There will be music. There will be fun.

Mark it in your calendars. More details coming next week…

Allan Horrocks and Andee Connors run Aquarius Records in San Francisco, CA. It’s the best record store in the country, especially if you don’t live right next to a record store and especially if you like metal. I interviewed them a few months back for the ongoing Taco Riff series, and figured they’d have a good take on all of your holiday shopping. I called them up to get their wrap up on their favorite metal of the year. Although they took notes on what they were going to say, they ignored them entirely almost as soon as we began.

Before we begin, you should sign up for their bi-weekly (now becoming weekly) mailing list of favorite new releases. It’s mindblowing.

We started with me trying to type what they said, but they were going way too fast.

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Last week our friend Justin Foley from The Austerity Program made a very impassioned and well-reasoned argument as to why Magrudergrind shouldn’t have agreed to work with Scion. I really enjoyed reading Justin’s piece, and I agreed with almost none of it. For me, this really comes down to two issues:

• Yes, metal shows would happen whether or not Scion paid for them, but free day-long metal shows headlined by bands like Neurosis and Cannibal Corpse probably would not. To the kid who just walked in for the cost of nothing (as opposed to whatever they have to pay for, say, Ozzfest), the question “Who’s footing the bill for this?” is moot. Not hurting is that, in my experience, the actual advertising for Scion at Scion shows is incredibly non-invasive, especially when compared to the corporate sponsorship for most festivals.
• Yes, metal albums would get made whether or not Scion paid for them, but the more time talented and creative people get to spend being talented and creative instead of doing whatever they do at their day job, the more we all benefit. I’ll never complain that someone made it possible for an excellent band to make music instead of taking my order unless they ask that band to compromise their art in order to do so, which, clearly, was not the case in this instance.

And on top of all that, there’s the simple fact that Magrudergrind’s resulting EP, Crusher, is awesome. Awesome awesome awesome awesome awesome. I’m so happy to have it, and I really don’t give a fuck who paid for it. I can promise you that at no point during my initial listens of the album did I think about cars. All I thought about what how fucking much I love this band.

And on that note, you can now stream Crusher below. I thought that Brooklyn Vegan was gonna stop giving away the album for free download after the weekend, but it looks like it’s still up, so go grab it if you haven’t already. You can also get it in CD or vinyl form here.

-AR

Allow me to shill for a beat before the weekend: If you haven’t already bought one of our new, limited edition shirts, go get yours now!!! They’re selling fast, and soon they will be the title of a God Forbid album. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Here’s some other fun stuff we did this week:

• Valient Thorr’s Valient Himself gave us the rundown on Fun Fun Fun Fest, The Red Chord’s Greg Weeks found the CFL fun and confusing, Intronaut’s Sacha Dunable talked about the best and worst drives in the U.S., and The Austerity Program’s Justin Foley is the latest to weigh in on free metal from Scion.
• We debuted new music from Murder Construct.
• We spoke to Pentagram’s Bobby Liebling and Christopher Drew from Nevershotnever and Eatmewhileimhot.
• We checked out the latest releases from Riotgod, Electric Wizard, Rimfrost, and First Blood and Killing the Dream.
• We asked you about old school bands you wanted to like but couldn’t.
• We joined Gene Simmons, Slash, and Dave Navarro in having NOH8 for gays.
• We laughed at both Kirk Hammett and the little girl he kicked.
• We also laughed at Sebastian Bach’s frail ego.
• We got really excited about the new single from The Human Abstract.
• We also got really excited about Decibel‘s new flexi disc series.

Have a nice, relaxing weekend gang. We’ll miss you muchly, but we’ll see ya Monday.

-AR

I looked at BBG this morning and saw that they had some free music available by Magrudergrind. I’m not too familiar with the band, but was a bit surprised to see that they have released the record through Scion, the car company. And when I say “a bit surprised,” I mean the kind of surprised that reminds you of what you had for breakfast because it’s figuring on making a repeat appearance.

Before I begin, please let me note a few things. First, these are people with whom I am generally simpatico – they play abrasive, heavy music, they take the time to think about what they’re doing, and they’re not doing stuff that, on the face of it, is simply wrong (like lobbying for the weapons industry or hiring scabs or kicking puppies). They seem like nice guys. And really: this is small, small potatoes in a world that includes starvation, disease and the cultural cancer of Dancing with the Stars. I also recognize that this stuff is interesting to talk about because it cannot be reasonably argued by appealing to absolutes; this topic is a world of various shades of gray (which, by the way, doesn’t mean that things can’t be right or wrong). So let’s all take this with a grain of salt, right? Perfect.

That said, this Scion record stuff is gross and I think Magrudergrind is dead wrong for doing it.

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Earlier this week I had a dream that I was working with Atreyu. I don’t know in what capacity I could possibly find myself “working with” Atreyu, since I’m not a manager, nor a publicist, nor a label rep, and they’re about as likely to end up doing a guest column here as I am to give the new In This Moment album a perfect 5-horn review, but, hey, the subconscious works in mysterious ways. Why did I have Atreyu on the brain? Was my mind trying to tell me “The glass is half-full?” Do I have  a hankering to re-watch The Neverending Story? Did I just ingest too many different substances that night? I’ll have to bring it up in therapy next week.

Here’s other shit that happened this week, some of which, believe it or not, is even more terrifying than the thought of working with Atreyu:

• Freddy Madball is counting down his favorite hard and heavy non-hardcore bands of all time, TesseracT’s Acle walked us through the history of djent, The Austerity Program’s Justin Foley spoke to Converge’s Kurt Ballou about Taco Riffs, The Red Chord’s Greg Weeks made some suggestions for losing NFL teams, Intronaut’s Sacha Dunable contemplated the ways in which technology has changed touring, Daath’s Eyal Levi wondered, “Is this it?”, and a wide array of metal stars previewed the just-begun NHL season.
• We spoke to Kirk Windstein from Crowbar/Down/Kingdom of Sorrow, Sean Z. from Daath, Daddy X and Dirtball from Kottonmouth Kings, and Yoshiki Hayashi from X Japan.
• We checked out the latest releases from Abysse and Deafheaven.
• We contemplated trancecore.
• As the headline says, we heard the worst thing ever.
• We reviewed the history of terrible Limp Bizkit cover songs.
• We had fun with misheard song lyrics.
• We bemoaned the signing of another re-thrash band.
• We applauded Slayer fans’ desire to help the physically disabled.
• We had yet another laugh at Winds of Plague’s expense.

We have a special surprise for you next week. I can’t promise you’re going to like it, but I can promise you’re going to have a strong reaction to it. See ya then.

-AR

Kurt Ballou is the guitarist for Converge and runs/is Godcity Recording Studio. In both of these capacities he has been a big part of making some of my favorite music ever. Screw the commonly used term “arguably” – Converge’s last record is their best/hardest record yet. And Kurt’s recording style presents live-sounding documents of aggressive bands that includes a ferocious midrange bite (see Young Widows, Disappearer, or Ghengis Tron, for example). It’s a compelling antidote to the heavily-edited/eq’d ProTools default deployed by most heavy music. He’s also an unabashed music fan who’s given some thought to what he likes.

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Legendary stonebags Sleep are resurrecting their monolithic Holy Mountain this weekend here in the NYC metro area. That record is pretty amazing – less a collection of songs and more a riff delivery program. As is the trend these days, those who didn’t hear them tour on the record in the mid-90s will get a second chance to drink it all in. It will be a moment: everyone in the room will know the songs, the band isn’t going to be too stoned to play and even the opening bands will be watching from the side of the stage, happy to finally hear these songs the way they’ve always hoped to hear them – live, loud and in front of them.

This reunion stuff… I’ve got mixed feelings about it, like lots of folks. I guess it’s better to happen than not to happen. I guess. But bands performing dated works has a sense of nostalgia to it that doesn’t give the charge it did when it was all first going on. This itself may be a fiction – appreciation for a band may grow after they’ve decided to call it quits, and maybe they just weren’t that good a live band when they came up with their classic material. Sleep, for example, was opening for Cathedral at the goddam Limelight (a Mid-town cocaine dance club for those who aren’t familiar) when they were touring Holy Mountain. Still, the thrill of hearing Al Cisneros roll through the opening lines “Dragonaut” just can’t be the same as when it was all happening the first time.

Which is funny for us here in NYC. Because that exact thrill of a totally amazing, mindblowing show happening in a cramped basement by sweaty bands surely at their peak will also be happening Monday night. As 1,000 joints of light are ignited uptown, those lucky enough to cram into the basement of the Lower East Side’s Cake Shop to see Young Widows and Helms Alee are going to be there as it’s all happening for the first time. Each band has put out an underappreciated classic records in the past few years, reports on the new stuff for both say they’re even better and they can each fully fucking bring it live.

Young Widows is a blistering three piece. I guess you could describe them as a rock band, the same way you can describe cheese grater as a kind of loofa. Maybe someone has a complaint with their twin fridge-amp/light show presentation, but not me. It all gives them the visual appearance and sonic presentation of the business end of a Peterbilt truck on a midnight Interstate. I haven’t heard the new shit they will be playing so I’ll hold off on raving about that, but if they’re still ending their set with the transcendently awesome “Swamped and Agitated” from their last record, we will all be leaving that room changed for the better.

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Derek Riggs is an illustrator based in California. His website showcases the album art he’s done over the past thirty years, including his absolutely classic work for Iron Maiden. Derek is opinionated and funny; the half hour you will spend looking through the entire site shows that clearly. In 2006, he put out Run For Cover: The Art of Derek Riggs, a book that includes a bunch of his best stuff as well as several interviews.

I was hesitant to call him and ask him about his work for Iron Maiden, as that’s an old chapter in his life and he’s put a lot of that behind him. But then I thought, “Fuck it, it would be fun to call Derek Riggs, let me see if I can talk to him.” He was game, so I took a deep breath and asked him a few questions about his past.

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Holy crap, was that awesome Faith No More show really a week ago already? I think I may be suffering from post-FNM depression. We’re seeing Maiden on Monday night, and I’m more excited to hang out with my friends than to see Bruce, Steve and the gang. I just wanna go see FNM again… is that so wrong???

Luckily, there’s plenty of stuff going on in the metal world to keep me distracted from dreams of Mike, Mike, Billy, Roddy and Jon. For instance:

• Bulb from Periphery got his groove back, and The Austerity Program’s Justin Foley consulted with the dudes from Aquarius Records as he continued his search for the perfect Taco Riff.
• We debuted new music from Asher.
• Sergeant D spoke to Miss May I’s Ryan Neff and Sammy O’Hagar chatted with Rasyid from Wormrot.
• We checked out new releases from Soilwork, Allegaeon, and Sister Sin.
• The possibility of new Beavis and Butt-Head episodes gave us a collective boner.
• The hippies in Phish got aggressive and covered Rage Against the Machine.
• We looked at a plethora of terrifically terrible music videos, and Vince wondered if the medium was even a relevant tool for promotion anymore.
• Vince also took time out of his busy schedule to find me a new woman. Yowza!

Next week we’ll have a song debut from our fellow stoner nerds, an interview with a power violence band, and some other shit. Plus, Question of the Week will finally return. ‘Til then… enjoy your weekend!

-AR

Andee Connors and Allan Horrocks run Aquarius Records in San Francisco. Their bi-weekly mailing list is simply one of the greatest things on the Internet – an opinionated, enthusiastic and overwhelming review of the latest releases and reissues that includes sound samples. From major pop releases to the absolutely most obscure/limited/cassette-only cave dweller metal, if it’s good the list will be championing it (and probably calling it out for sucking if it does suck). Any metal fan – any music fan – must sign up for it (and, duh, buy from them if they like it).

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Jon Fine’s best known band was Bitch Magnet, a (usually) three piece active from the late 80s to the early 90s. Though hardly a metal outfit, Fine was a vocal apostle of heavy music in the independent circles the band traveled in, deeply knowledgeable and conversant in obscure, loud shit going back to the early 70s (and earlier). I met Jon at a number of shows in NYC and read a bunch of his enthusiastic and thoughtful posts on the now-dead Chugchanga mailing list and figured he’d have an opinion or twelve on this. Jon also played in Vineland, Coptic Light and even did some time in Don Caballero.
These days Jon pays rent as a media analyst. You can find him on Mediabistro, CNBC and Twitter (where he has about eleven times as many followers as Gary Suarez).

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Wino – the nom de guerre of Robert Scott Weinrich – has been making heavy music for nearly 35 years. Starting with War Horse, Wino has since been in a string of incredible bands: The Obsessed, St. Vitus, Spirit Caravan, The Hidden Hand, Palace of Skulls and now Shrinebuider. Wino has also released solo material (Punctuated Equilibrium was released last year) and, as everyone who I have ever spoken to about him has said, is an incredibly down-to-earth, friendly and funny guy.

What’s the greatest Taco Riff of all time?

Wait, I think I know what you’re talking about. I’ve got a few that I’d say right away:

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(Email exchange after being asked by a reader to check out a Taco Riff)

Me: Oh. No. That is a generic breakdown riff. We’ve got to be able to come up with a name for that. Feel free to give it a shot.

Axl: A Taco Bell Riff (like a taco in theory, but completely disgusting, generic, and bad for you).

Me: I do like the Run For The Border aspect. Let’s keep that one in a holding pattern. We maybe could call it the Triple A riff. You know, what you resort to for everyday breakdowns.

Axl: That’s pretty funny.

I’ve got to hurry up and type fast. It’s 9:15 PM on a Monday  and I’m giving myself four hours to see if I can get this little experiment done.

I’ve done a pair of posts now on trying to find the perfect Taco Riff, and do note that I’m hunting for something I haven’t done a very good job of describing. That’s due in part to my limits as an explainer, but more due to the elusive nature of what we’re seeking. So before we spend some more time talking about what a Taco Riff is, let’s talk for a second about what it’s not.

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Howard Jones missed the last KSE tour because…

HE WAS KIDNAPPED BY ALIENS WHILE ON A FISHING TRIP!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

In all seriousness, though, I love this video, and here’s why:

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Dio died. Isis broke-up. Bret Michaels is back in the hospital. And I just used Dio, Isis, and Bret Michaels in one thought-stream, which, I’m sure, offended somebody.

Luckily, we did manage to have some fun this week:

• Sick of it All’s Lou Koller is counting down his top ten hardcore albums, As I Lay Dying’s Nick Hipa is counting down to the end of L O S T, Batillus’ Fade Kainer is counting down ’til the band can get the fuck outta the studio, Agenda of Swine’s Pete Benumb is counting down to MDF, and Cynic’s Paul Masvidal is counting down to achieving a higher level of being.
• We spoke to Steve Joh from Century Media, Tara Johnson from Disembodied, Emil Werstler from Daath and Levi/Werstler, and Travis Stever from Coheed & Cambria.
• We checked out the latest release from Rosetta.
• Sergeant D. has new slamz 4 u.
• The best music video ever of the week is by… Goldfrapp?
• There are plenty of things we’d rather do than listen to a new Attack Attack! song.
• Endorsement of the new Avenged Sevenfold single = flame war.
• You guys are still arguing about my Korn review. Seriously?
• I’m still upset about John Bush leaving Anthrax again. Seriously.
• We used to love Sweden, but we had to kill it.

And hopefully no one awesome will die or break-up next week.

-AR

All bands end eventually and if you had to pick the best way for a band to go out, you couldn’t come up with something much better than what Isis said in yesterday’s announcement. They have done what they wanted, are all still healthy and engaged, feel gratitude to those they have met and stand by what they have done. Folks may feel sad or dramatic about the impact of this – “Isis is breaking up!” – but you’ve got to hand it to those guys: they’re ending it about as well as anyone could.

Tthink for a second about the thirteen years that Isis has been around and you’ll realize a lot has changed for the better in the world of music. Over that near decade and a half, the world at large has come to a different understanding of “metal.” Through the persistent work of a bunch of people the music that falls under that ever-broadening genre description is now understood to be a vast landscape of possibilities. You say “I’m in a metal band” and lots of folks will say ”Okay, what kind of metal band?”

Even the most “I-only-love-Steel-Panther-and-there’s nothing-ironic-about-it” fan has to appreciate that this means more people listening to, making and drawing appreciation from this expanding type of music. And Isis has been one of the most vital forces for this change. They’ve created and presented heavy music that was contrary to expectations – not macho, not fantastic, smart about design and abstraction, focusing less on technique and more on structure, but never too far from a roaring power that could straight-up destroy. When they started they were often lumped into a small box with one or two other oddballs bands on some fringe. The world has come around but it’s only because Isis’s dedication has been so, so persistent and compelling.

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