Hopefully, you Suckahs have been following my Bleeders’ Lists this year. If not, you can play catch-up here – Missed Albums Finally Listened to from the First Half of 2011, June, May, April, March, February, January.

As of the end of June, I have listened to 356 new releases this year — each one all the way through. I have listened to several live releases and re-releases but did not include most of them on my lists. Surprisingly, just under 29% are Bleeders (or the best each month). This is nearly 15% higher than I expected, so that’s the first good thing. The second is that those 103 Bleeders comprise a vast array of what we call “heavy metal” and have made for a stellar year already.

Being a lifelong metalhead, there are obviously going to be certain acts I just don’t like — number one amongst those this year is Ghost. But my Bleeders’ Lists aren’t about what I don’t like, but rather what gets me stoked. I’ve listened to, literally, more than 10,000 metal releases and been to more than a 1,000 metal concerts. In other words, I’m jaded. So, when something excites me, I want to share it with everyone. Thankfully, I’ve been able to do that 103 times this year.

Below you will find my Top 10 of those 103 Bleeders with their original mini-reviews plus updated commentary.

Of course, I just heard the new Decapitated and have a sneaking suspicion it will be be firmly entrenched on my 2011 Top 15 list come December.

Enjoy. Despise. Eviscerate.

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I am old and married to a kindergarten teacher, therefore, I can only go to concerts during the sweltering months of summer.

This is my summer vacation (Part II).

WHO: ECOCIDE, KEN mode, DEAFHEAVEN
WHERE: The Ten Eleven – San Antonio, Texas
WHEN: June 10, 2011

After the previous night’s cockrocktravaganza (AKA Mötley Crüe), I needed something to get me grounded again. Nothing like a solo trip to a seedy bar in the seedier side of San Antonio to check out two seedy-ass noisy bands which have graced my Bleeders’ Digest lists this year. I dug both KEN mode’s Venerable and Deafheaven’s Roads to Judah, but the definitive nod must be given to the former for sheer testicle obliteration. As a result, I was stoked to catch Deafheaven first, followed by KEN mode. Weird line-up as the former tends to fall into the USBM category while the latter can best be pitted in the Quicksand and Poison The Well’s sandboxes.

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Can I make one thing clear? The debut Bravest Man in Metal column wasn’t designed to be provocative. Nor was it designed to make fun or denigrate those of you who enjoy the mind, body, personality and sexual function altering properties of alcohol. That came more from the title that Ol’ Neilstein saddled said entry with. Granted, coming on to the internet to not rip on people for who they are, what they do, the choices they make and the music they listen to is like breathing to most people, but not something I like to spend my time engaging in. “Fuck, dumb ass, why even log on to the ‘net then? Dumb ass!” I hear a number of you ask. Good question! But my little corner here isn’t designed to point fingers or rip on anyone but myself and my like-minded friends so as to possibly display to the prejudicial part of the world that still believes metal is all about blood, guts, lawnmower decapitations and listening to records backwards that metal isn’t about blood, guts, lawnmower decapitations and listening to records backwards (well, not entirely, anyway) via my own nerdish and geeky proclivities. And those of KEN Mode, the Winnipeg noise rock/metal band I roadied and slung merch for on a recent North American tour.

If you read the first instalment, you’re already aware that the amount of drinking on this tour clocked in at a humiliating low. This should be an indicative hint that the amount of drug use was even less. Actually, it was nil. I don’t know about the circles you roll in, but I don’t really think any of my drug-addicted friends aren’t drinkers. One kind of goes with the other, like a doctor’s office and waiting or public figures getting caught in “sex scandals” and denial. But this pairing of myself and KEN Mode was a boring dude’s match made in heaven. In fact, one of the first questions I was asked by the band’s members upon hauling myself into their van the first morning of my tour tenure was if I wished to partake in a wolfing down ritual of a couple gummi vitamins and vitamin C tablets. Granted, getting sick on tour is a recipe for being sick for a long, long time and one should take whatever measures possible to avoid illness, but group morning vitamin chugging in the parking lot of a rainy suburban Buffalo, NY motel doesn’t exactly scream metal the last time I checked. Not only that, but even after having only first met me about 12 hours earlier, the band were genuinely expressing concern about my decision to scarf a day-old muffin and donut. Caring for your fellow man, having empathy and compassion? What the fuck?

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THE KEN MODE TOUR EDITION – PART 1

The overlords here at MetalSucks have on at least a couple of occasions referred to me as the Bravest Man in Metal. Not because I sit around in a fur-lined loincloth in a metal-themed man-cave (pictured above) chewing the legs off Cornish game hens while pining for the days Manowar wrote cheesy metal and not cheesy symphonic metal. Nah. Here, for your memory refreshment and finger pointing fun are exhibits #1 and #2.

My head would have to be buried in the sand and a good halfway to China for me to say that I don’t get why Neilstein and Rosenberg refer to me as ‘brave.’ At the same time, I don’t get what the big deal is. Okay, it’s not a surprise that the metal scene en masse is conservative, about as conservative as a Sarah Palin rally in the town of Stepford, Connecticut (and believe me, she’s probably asked her campaign manager more than once about the possibility of giving a speech there), and there are moments more independent thought came crawling out of 1933-1945 Germany than from your typical gathering of the denim and leather set. So, when some ass hat comes along who’s doing shit that falls outside of metal’s heavily prescribed box, the proverbial shit of steel hits the fan. I just happen to be one of those people – or so I’ve been told – with the added bonus being that my position as He Who Writes About Metal means that my goofy opinions have the (un)fortunate luxury of being in print and on display lo these many years.

So, it was thrown on the table: let’s see just how brave I can be. Let’s take this ‘bravest man’ thing and run with it like Usain Bolt chasing down a dude he just caught fucking his girlfriend. I have no qualms in letting anyone know how un-metal I am in my metal-ness. Why not let in the expanse of the interhole on my poser-ific ways? Basically, MetalSucks has agreed to give me the space to talk about other maligned albums I enjoy, not having long hair, why drinking sucks, skipping out on shows to stay home with my wife and kid, how I’ve never been near a moshpit despite being a regular attendee of shows since the mid-80s, and all the other un-kvlt behaviours I routinely engage in while still managing to love the music I’ve loved since the cover of Iron Maiden’s debut freaked out my punk-ass nine year-old self.

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Last year (and the year before) I got way too busy with this thing called life and missed out on a lot of quality music. I am here to rectify the error of my ways, month by month.

Here are the March 2011 releases that got under my skin, burrowed their way into my brain, made my ears bleed, or simply tickled my unmentionables:

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Vic Vaughn likes it dirty! His picks of the week are new albums by Assaulter, Rotten Sound and Trap Them in a week that also includes new releases by Across the Sun, As Blood Runs Black and Mastodon’s live DVD. His take on all of those and more after the jump.

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As you all know, the interwebs have empowered indie and unsigned bands with opportunities that once seemed unthinkable. For example, back in the early-to-mid-nineties, a band could let one of its buddies make a music video for one of its totally awesome songs – but then there would be essentially nowhere to watch it! YouTube leveled that playing field, which I am grateful for since I am now able to watch low-budget and no-budget videos from bands I like instead of just what MTV tells me I should like.

So savor this freedom from corporate rock and check out the video above from Canadian noise rock meanies KEN mode. The song is called “Extending Common Courtesy Throughout The Evening” and comes from last year’s self-released Mennonite album, which you can and should buy here. They’re working on a new album titled Venerable, and the select demos available on their MySpace page are just super duper.

-GS

[Gary Suarez is so very happy that a bunch of people changing the color of their avatars on Twitter to green instantaneously transformed Iran into a democratic utopia. He also writes for Brainwashed and usually manages the consistently off-topic No Yoko No. Say, why don't you follow him on Twitter?]