Earlier this week we got to hear a little sample of a potentially-quite-good cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” by Academy Award© Winner Trent Reznor and Karen O from Yeah Yeah Yeahs when it showed up in a trailer for the new movie version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; now Metal Injection have posted a video of Enslaved covering that very same song during a recent performance at the Henie Onstad Cultural Center in Oslo. You can check out video below; the audio quality isn’t great, but it’s good enough!

If you wanna see Enslaved do another cover — this one of King Crimson’s “Red” — head over to Metal Injection. And, lest ye forget, Enslaved’s own Ivar Bjørnson was named #22 on our list of The Top 25 Modern Metal Guitarists; you can read all the nice things Sammy O’Hagar wrote abotu him here.

-AR

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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Los Angeles psychedelic-doom drivers Ancestors are already back with another new album after last year’s acclaimed two track debut Neptune With Fire, and this time around they’re  arguably even more ambitious. On the eight track Of Sound Mind, the band expands their scope and continues their doom-laden trip down nostalgia lane, with plenty of prog rock inspirations. And lots of guitars.

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This is an epic, classic progressive rock masterpiece that doesn’t even really start til about 3 minutes in! But you’re well off being patient and getting down with this ultra-melodic legend…

Interesting factoid — shortly after the recording of this awesome 3-song album, drummer extraordinaire Bill Bruford left the band to join another little prog outfit known as KING CRIMSON. Yelp!

If you’ve never heard a song by Yes before, get yr head out of yr rectum and be sure to check out “Heart of the Sunrise” as well (which was one of the first-ever Saturday Songs To Get Stoned To).

Now go smoke that weed — just don’t buy any (even though I’m about to).

YES – “Close to the Edge”, from Close to the Edge (1972)

-KW

We’ll dispense with the usual bullshit: chances are, you’re already familiar with Mastodon. They’ve been, inarguably, one of the most important metal bands of the 21st century thus far, and a band that we pretty much revere at MetalSucks.

We recently got the chance to interview bassist and co-vocalist Troy Sanders during some pre-show downtime at the Rockstar Mayhem Festival’s stop at Nassau Coliseum. Adorned in sweat pants and flip-flops and, by his own admission, fighting a hangover, Sanders was amicable as he led us into the band’s dressing room, offered us Gatorades, and then plopped down on the band’s cooler to get down to business. After the jump, read Sanders’ thoughts about playing in front of huge crowds that are by and large not at the show to see Mastodon, the band’s forthcoming new album, and, yes, even barbecuing.

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This is the news that Axl, myself, and approximately 7 other guitar dorks worldwide have been eagerly awaiting. Steve Stevens — Billy Idol’s guitarist for years, Vince Neil’s guitarist on the Exposed album, and king Brooklyn Jew (birth name: Steve Schneider –take a look at that shnoz!) — will be releasing a new solo album, Memory Crash, on January 29th via Steve Vai’s Magna Carta record label. Doug Pinnick of King’s X makes a guest appearance lending his soulful voice to one track, as does Billy Idol / ex-Ozzy bassist Brian Tichy.

Those who have followed Steve Stevens closely over the years as I have — and I’m guessing there’s maybe one of you who has — know what an underrated and incredible guitarist he is. In addition to writing all those classic Idol riffs (“Rebel Yell,” “White Wedding,” etc etc etc), Stevens absolutely tore it up on Vince Neil’s Exposed record, his 1993 post-Motley solo debut. He wrote some amazing songs, and fuck did he ever go nuts on the guitar on that album. He’s also done a bunch of experimental stuff over the years (Bozzio / Levin / Stevens) and some studio work here and there.

Stevens says about the record, it’s “a journey through another dimension, It’s virtually musical cinema.” Citing influences such as prog-rock giants Pink Floyd, Yes, King Crimson, and Emerson, Lake & Palmer, he continues, “I’ve always loved that about the prog records, like Dark Side Of The Moon. You enter this little theater of the mind. It’s a true headphone experience.”

Cool.

-VN