EVERYBODY SING WITH ME NOW: “I FEEL PRETTY, OH SO PRETTY, I FEEL PRETTY, AND WITTY, AND BRIIIIIIIGHT!”

No West Side Story fans in the house? No one? Okay, fuck it. Here’s what happened in the world of FUCKING METAL this week:

• We’re streaming Mantric’s The Descent in its entirety.
• We’re giving away new tracks by Nevermore and Heaven Shall Burn.
• We debuted a new video by Karma to Burn.
• Cynic’s Paul Masvidal meditated on unexplained healings, As I Lay Dying’s Nick Hipa gave us a refresher on L O S T, The Austerity Program’s Justin Foley thinks it’s okay to enjoy music by scumbags, Intronaut’s Sacha Dunable wants your help naming his new band, and Eyal from Daath and Levi/Werstler wants you to start ordering CDs online.
• We spoke to Mike Patton and Brian Posehn.
• Slayer and Megadeth are both doing full album performances on their American Carnage tour; Testament, not so much.
• Rose Funoral just can’t live down their past.

Next week brings so many interviews and exclusives it’ll make your head explode. See ya then!

-AR

Just the other day I lamented the fact that legendary stoner rockers Karma to Burn have a new album on the way and we hadn’t even mentioned it, and those of you who commented seemed genuinely excited to hear the news. Today we’ve got more reason to rejoice as you can watch the official video for “Waiting on the Western World” exclusively on MetalSucks, below. You can also listen to two more tracks from the new album on K2B’s MySpace page.

Appalachian Incantation comes out today in Europe and May 11th in the U.S. They’ll be supporting the album by touring with Year Long Disaster in May.

-VN

[This exclusive has now ended.]

Shame on us; recently reunited desert/stoner rock legends Karma to Burn have a new album coming out on April 30th and we haven’t even written about it yet.

Behind the scenes, Appalachian Incantation is seemingly at odds with itself; the record was produced by Scott Reeder (ex-Kyuss) which is a slam dunk, but it’s being released by Napalm Records, definitely a head-scratcher. But who really cares what label is on the spine? The record sounds pretty much like you’d expect — deep, dirty bluesy riff after riff in that laid back desert (Appalachian?) groove. I’d wager that longtime fans are gonna dig it, and it might even gain the band a few new fans who came of age during their hiatus. At the very least, how can you resist bobbing your head to these tasty stoner jams?

Stream “Waiting for the Western World,” “Forty One” and “Forty Five” from the new album on Karma to Burn’s MySpace page. UK fans can see the band live this very week, while U.S. fans can catch them on tour in May with Year Long Disaster [featuring Daniel Davies (son of The Kinks' Dave Davies) on guitar], a band cut from the same stoner rock cloth as KtB.

-VN

The Obelisk, a new metal blog run by JJ Koczan of the now defunct Metal Maniacs Magazine, recently published a fascinating interview with Roadrunner Records A&R-king Monte Conner on the subject of stoner rock. It’s a fascinating glimpse into the mind of one of the most famous and influential A&Rs in the history of metal, if not just for the interesting stoner rock subject matter  then for the industry / label politics / A&R talk. Monte speaks all about his stoner rock heroes from Kyuss to Fu Manchu to Queens of the Stone Age, spends a good deal of time talking about why Roadrunner never ventured far into the stoner rock foray (Karma to Burn excepted — and he goes in depth about them, too), the current state of stoner rock, and why it’s never become a commercially viable genre. Take a quick look at some of the interview highlights after the jump.

Click to read more…

A whole bunch of you emailed us yesterday following my review of Northern Ireland’s meat n’ potatoes rockers The Answer; seems you all really like this kind of stuff. So hows about we take a trip in the not-so-waybackmachine to explore some jams from the likes of Year Long Disaster, Karma to Burn and The Sword?

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