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For all the shit Century Media spewed at me earlier this year you’d think they actually disagreed with what I had to say. And while they haven’t gotten their artists back on Spotify yet, they’ve taken a firm step into the 21st Century by doing one of the other crucial things I recommended: they’ve launched their very own booking agency! Hilarious.
I’m going to put approximately as much work into this introduction as Zakk Wylde did the writing of the last BLS album.
I’m actually going to begin today with a video that I think is legitimately good, because I need to wash the taste of so much cinemetallic poo out of my mouth. The band is called Montezuma’s Revenge (you’d expect them to be of Aztec descent, but they’re actually Russian), the song is called “Dead Frost,” Vince suggested I watch it, and I’m glad he did. The animation isn’t amazing, but it still puts this clip way ahead of the pack.
FEATURING MEMBERS OF KYLESA, DARKTHRONE, BRUTAL TRUTH, KATAKLYSM, 3 INCHES OF BLOOD, TEXTURES, SWASHBUCKLE, THIS OR THE APOCALYPSE, DISFIGURING THE GODDESS, BURNING THE MASSES, CHRISTIAN MISTRESS, MISERY, AND GRIFTEGARD
For 2010, we decided to do something special as part of our regular end-of-year festivities here at MetalSucks — namely, ask musicians from across the vast spectrum of the metalsphere (or, in a few cases, the almost-metalsphere) what their favorite albums of the year were. Death metallers, thrash metallers, black metallers, stoners, grinders, and djenters alike graciously contributed lists to MS, and we’ll be running them in groups of ten to twelve musicians at a time twice a day for the rest of the week.
After the jump, check out the seventh group… we hope you enjoy seeing what some of metal’s heaviest hitters were into this year as much as we have!
(And please note that these are musicians and that they, um, have a lot on their minds. So some of ‘em named albums that actually came out last year. Please don’t freak out.)
At the Accept show I went to last week, I had a pretty funny moment with the boy when I said that it sounded like they were singing “We are nice” instead of “Neon nights.” Which got me thinking: I mishear lyrics a lot. It could be because I’m deaf, or people just don’t enunciate, or that most of the bands I listen to don’t really know English that well so they probably are singing stupid shit. Or it could be that I’d rather hear something than what I actually do — I mean, Bob Ezrin wanted a new, edgy song to appeal to those hip youngsters and thought Alice Cooper was singing “I’m edgy,” instead of “I’m eighteen.” Personally, I’m way more entertained with what my brain, or other people’s brains (as I got some volunteers for this task), comes up with. So here are a few songs that made it to my Misheard Lyrics Hall of Fame.
I’m a hypocrite. I give bands like Linkin Park and Nickelback shit for basically writing the same album over and over and over again, but I don’t have a problem (or at least have less of a problem) with bands like Slayer, Children of Bodom, and, well, Kataklysm doing more or less the same thing. I guess because I like songs like “Necrophobic” and “Perseverance” and “Prevail,” I have no problem hearing a seemingly endless string of versions of those tracks, whereas if I hear one more variation of “How You Remind Me,” I’m going to grab Sam Jackson and kill every motherfucker in the McDowell’s.
Which is a long way of saying that, yes, Kataklysm’s new album, Heaven’s Venom, sounds more or less like every other Kataklysm album, and I still think it rocks. It’s impossible to listen to this band and not headbang, y’know?
The band has released the first video from the album now, for the song “Push the Venom,” and I gotta say… it’s one of the better videos I’ve seen in awhile. It’s just absolutely EPIC. So props to director Ivan Colic.
Nuclear Blast has already released Heaven’s Venom in Europe; North America gets it August 24.
-AR
I don’t have much context for this story, but that’s okay, ’cause you won’t need much to understand it. Yesterday Kataklysm posted the following message on their Facebook page:
Which sounds about right. We don’t know which member of Megadeth it was, but I’d happily bet a great deal of money it was Dave Mustaine.
And what else is there to say? At this point, being surprised by stories of the Megadick is like being surprised that Slayer show featured no acoustic ballads. I suspect Mustaine will release some explanation of why this wasn’t Megadeth’s fault sometime soon, and it won’t make any fucking sense because a pretty picture painted in bullshit is still gonna be all brown and smelly, but a bunch of people will believe it anyway, ’cause they can’t accept that sometimes talented musicians are also shitty people. Ppppfffttt. Whatever.
-AR
The good news is, Kataklysm have unleashed a new track, “Determined (Vows of Vengence),” upon the world, and it’s our first chance to hear anything off of Heaven’s Venom, the band’s new album. The bad news is, either my computer is fucked, or my internet is fucked, or Kataklysm’s MySpace page is fucked, ’cause I can’t actually get the player to load. So I can’t say anything about the track — it could be an acoustic rap ballad for all I know. I mean, I doubt it. But I’m just saying.
Still, I like Kataklysm, so I thought it was more important that I tell you all the song is streaming, rather than just worry about my own selfish enjoyment. Listen to it here, then describe it for me in the comments.
Heaven’s Venom comes out August 13 in Europe and August 24 in North America via Nuclear Blast.
-AR
The cover for Kataklysm’s forthcoming Heaven’s Venom marks the third straight appearance of the so-called “Heartbeast,” which I guess officially makes him the Canadian death metallers’ answer to Eddie or Vic Rattlehead. Will we someday see him launched into outer space, toiling with the ancients, or engaged in politics? Only time will tell, but for now, I’m perfectly content just to watch him fuck shit up.
Heaven’s Venom comes out August 20 in Europe and August 24 in North America on Nuclear Blast. Kataklysm will also be one of the best reasons to hit up Ozzfest this summer; get dates here.
-AR
What’s up everyone! In celebration of the new KINGDOM OF SORROW album coming out today, MetalSucks have been nice enough to let me takeover their site! I figured I’d better make the reading interesting and at least cause some discussion, so here goes, this is probably the longest run on sentence you’ll ever read, haha, enjoy!
Since we’re well into 2010. I figured I’d start my blog with my top ten “most listened to” metal and hardcore albums of the last decade, and the top ten albums I hope to enjoy this decade!!! It’s not a top ten “best of” the decade or anything like that, it’s just what I’ve listened to the most while on the road, at home, in the gym, in the office or in my car. Keep in mind that the criteria for these albums to make this list was that they were released between 2000 and 2010, that is all.
The top 10 records I’m “most hopeful & excited for” are more like a wish list. It will be cool to see some of that stuff happen!
So unless you managed to stay away from a computer this entire weekend – and good for you if you did – you’ve probably already seen the line-up for Ozzfest 2010, which was unveiled this past Friday evening. While our source was right that this year’s incarnation of the tour would be scaled back – it’s only hitting six cities over the course of about a week and half – a whole lot of the bands we’d heard would be playing the fest aren’t. In fact, if you can’t quite consider it a stellar line-up, that’s probably only because so many great bands were already swept up by other big package tours; maybe I’m being too nice because a large chunk of the second stage consists of bands I really like or at least respect, my feeling is that if this line-up doesn’t send anyone running for tickets, well, it’s not exactly something to be scoffed at, either. My own thoughts on all the bands and artists after the jump… plus dates, natch.
“Epicer” is a word, right?
You might remember Ex Deo’s video for “Romulus,” which Vince described as being “epic, grand, colossal, and monolithic;” the group’s new video, for the song “The Final War (Battle of Actium)” takes that shit to a whole other level. Sure, the special effects are a little cheesy and the director was clearly taking a lot of his visual cues from 300, but compared to what most bands are passing off as music videos these days, Ex Deo have pretty much hit a grand slam. Judge for yourself:
-AR
Haven’t done one of these posts in a while because, well, there hasn’t been a Tuesday this important in quite some time. The following albums are available for legal, legit purchasing today:
Oh hey look, rock’s resident asshole Ted Nugent also has a CD/DVD out today! Killer! Psych.
If you’ve already heard these albums tells us what you think of them in the comments. We’ll report the sales figures for all of these albums as soon as we get them in next Wednesday. In the meantime, go n’ buy some music so some broke-ass dudes can eat! Except Ted Nugent, unless you want your money to go straight to the NRA.
-VN
Last week we told you about the epic, Roman-themed band Ex Deo, spearheaded by Kataklysm’s Maurizio Iocono. You could be a hipster-metal fart-knocker and roll your eyes at yet another pagan metal band, or you could take my word for it and click “play” on the fittingly epic video for “Romulus,” the album’s title track, below. This shit is epic. Did I say “epic” enough times yet? Grand. Colossal. Monolithic. All of these adjectives describe both the band and this video.
The video (and song) tells the ancient Roman tale of Romulus and Remus, and was filmed by director Stanimir “Staca” Lukic in Belgrade, Serbia. Romulus comes out on June 19th in Europe and June 30th in North America on Nuclear Blast Records. Catch Ex Deo on the Paganfest Europe tour this fall.
-VN
When news of Ex Deo, the new band featuring Kataklysm’s Maurizio Iacono, first began to bubble this winter, I yawned. I’ve always thought of Kataklysm as a solid, serviceable but not especially interesting group, so the prospect of a side-project of a band I’m not especially into in the first place wasn’t all that appealing. But now that new tracks from the Ex Deo debut Romulus are starting to surface I’m being forced to reconsider.
This shit is epic!
Monday was a crazy night for metal in the city, with no less than 4 awesome shows happening simultaneously. Yours truly chose to attend the most eccentric, with Keep of Kalessin, Eluveitie and Dying Fetus opening for metal stalwarts Kataklysm.
The night’s biggest calling card for me was Norway’s Keep of Kalessin; their recent release Kolossus is a fierce slab of fast, psychedelic black metal, an album I’ve jammed several times and really, really like.
For anyone not familiar with Keep of Kalessin, I would describe them thusly: four dudes that look like a goth version of Legolas from Lord of the Rings — on heroin — playing passionate, fast, psychedelic black metal. The following description would also be accurate: Enslaved on an 8-ball of cocaine.
It always happens this way; you wait and wait and wait for a band you love to come around, and when they finally do they’re playing at the same time as that other band you’ve waited and waited and waited for. So it is tonight in NYC, FOUR-fold. So if you’ve still got an open card for the evening, check out at least one of these awesome shows, and if you’re ambitious and have deep pockets lined with cab money, check out all four! It’s a great night to be a metal fan in NYC, with headliners Wetnurse, Origin, Amorphis and Kataklysm sitting atop 4 totally well-rounded and deep tour bills.
Summer Slaughter Tour Terrorizes Texas on Independence Day
One problem with being an Old Fart in the metal scene is that you have to do Old Farty kind of things, like celebrating 4th of July with your family and friends. The problem arises when said celebration coincides with one of the biggest concerts of the year – the Summer Slaughter Tour.
Canada’s Kataklysm are one of those bands that don’t necessarily do very much different from album to album – which is not to say that they don’t do things better from album to album. So while fans probably know what to expect from the band’s latest, Prevail (released yesterday on Nuclear Blast) – more thrashy, groove laden melodic death metal – they won’t be prepared for how much fun it is to listen to.
Kataklysm have always made Fuckin’ Metal with a capital “F-M,” and Prevail is no different. If the lyrics like “Prevail/Like a venomous snake/Ready to strike and dominate” turn you off, then this ain’t the album for you. But if you’re looking for straightforward, crushing metal that is in no way, shape, or form ashamed of its metalness, Prevail should be right up your alley.
Every song on the album is pretty fuckin’ good, but as I’ve stated before, I personally find the band to be at their most powerful when they slow things down; tracks like “Blood in Heaven,” “Taking the World by Storm” and “To the Throne of Sorrow” lumber like wooly fucking mammoths that trample every living thing in their path. While every thrash and death metal band in the world has spent the past two decades following Slayer’s First Law of Faster is Better, Kataklysm seems to understand how much more painful it can be to slowly crush an enemy’s head in a vice rather than just brain him right there on the spot.
At the end of the day, Prevail isn’t a masterpiece, and it probably won’t change your life. But like I said, it is a fuckuva lotta fun to listen to.
(three and a half out of five horns)
-AR
Why wait for my (or any other critic’s) review of Kataklysm’s Prevail? There’s only so many synonyms for “awesome” and “brutal” I can use, and besides, right now the band is streaming the entire album on their MySpace page. Which means you can write your own review!
Lettin’ fans hear the whole album prior to its release is just good promotin’ skills, but it takes some balls, too; the album doesn’t hit stores/iTunes/whatever ’til May 27 (here in the US; Europe gets it on May 23). If it sucked, that would give everyone a week and a half to spread the bad buzz. But, duh-hickey, it doesn’t suck, and the band obviously knows that, so, voila, they’re letting you listen to it early.
So check it out already. “Blood in Heaven” is my favorite song on the disc thus far; how about all’a y’all?
-AR
Am I the only one whose favorite Kataklysm songs are the slow ones? I mean, don’t get me wrong, these Canadian deathrashers can do the speed metal thing as well as anyone, but there’s just something about those chunky, churning, elephants-marching rhythms on songs like “Slither,” “Crippled and Broken,” and “The Road to Devastation” that’s so… brutal. Like, the band doesn’t wanna pummel you to death; they want to skin you alive. Slowly.
“Taking the World by Storm,” the first single off the band’s forthcoming Prevail, is one of those songs, and I loved it the second I heard that colossal riff. The video was helmed by MetalSucks fave David Brodsky, who does his usual top notch work here (the colors, dude, the colors!), and I don’t care what those “Videos are Dead” naysayers think – the clip is as effective a marketing tool as any metal band could wish for.
Prevail drops May 23 in Europe and May 27 here in the States on Nuclear Blast.
Kataklysm – Taking The World By Storm
-AR
