MetalSucks

I really like the Rockstar Mayhem Festival – it’s like someone went to Ozzfest and figured out a way to make it way better. Having two side-by-side second stages was a stroke of genius; there’s no downtime in-between bands, because one act can set up while another plays. The mainstage has been solid, too, although there’s always one co-headliner that’s totally missable – in other words, Disturbed and Marilyn Manson played those slots. But so have Slayer, Mastodon, and a bunch of other great bands, so there’s that.

Well, our pals at Metal Insider are reporting a few rumors as to whom might be on this year’s fest, and it looks as though the skipable band this year may very well be Korn.

Click to read more…

Adema are the latest nu-metal to reunite in hopes of cashing in on barely decade-old nostalgia. They’ll play their first show in over five years at the Whiskey in LA on January 14, which, hey, uninteresting fact, happens to be the anniversary of my bar mitzvah.

Anyways, if you don’t remember this band, well, consider yourself lucky. The most notable thing about them is that their singer, Marky Chavez, is the half-brother of Korn’s Jonathan Davis (or something like that). They were definitely a last-generation nu-metal band – they got big in 2001ish, right around the time the American New Wave was starting its ascent to popularity – but I guess someone needs to be the first support act for the inevitable Korn/Limp Bizkit summer shed tour, right?

Anyways, here’s one of their videos. Don’t even bother watching it – I just thought this post looked too bare with no graphic or non-written content of any kind.

-AR

When the biggest breaking story of the day is the revival of Skold, you know it’s a slow news day. So why not turn to YouTube for some vocal cover lulz? Let’s dive head-first into the bedrooms of America’s teenagers via YouTube to see the funniest vocal covers of the mighty Korn (see also: The Limp Bizkit Collection).

First up we have this guy. He claims to have been drunk when he recorded it. And?

Click to read more…

We loved the last tour blog that Bison B.C.’s Dan And did for us so much, we’re only all-too-happy to present another! Below, please enjoy part 2; you can read part 1 here.

Sep 28 ‘09 (Albuquerque NM @ Launch Pad)

The first thing that struck me about this venue was the framed posters that line the walls… Melvins, High on Fire, Fu Manchu… some killer bands have been through here over the years. I was also struck by how nice and clean Albuquerque seemed. I would later find out that the town is ranked in the top five for violent crimes in the US. Okay then, never mind.

Played with a rad band called Roñoso. Weirdest guitar tone ever but it totally worked in their crust-saw sound. Kylesa sounds fucking huge tonight. Their (hilarious) sound guy Dave is working the system like it owes him money… and it probably does.

Click to read more…

Four words before I start this little rant:

FUCK YOU CHUCK MOSLEY.

Now that that’s outta my system…

We’ve known for awhile that Mosley, a.k.a. “The former Faith No More singer no one cares about,” had re-recorded the FNM classic “We Care A Lot” for his new solo album, Hel-lo! Does Anyone Remember Me? I mean I know I’m Not Mike Patton but I Gotta Eat, Too! And while that immediately struck me as a terrible idea, the fact that FNM keyboardist Roddy Bottum was playing on the track gave me hope that it wouldn’t be terrible.

But, hey, guess what? It’s terrible.

Click to read more…

Luckily for Five Finger Death Punch, being total assholes who completely lack any musical talent isn’t hurting their record sales: their new album, War is the Answer, is apparently going to sell to somewhere between 35,000 – 40,000 copies in its first week of release… and that’s just here in the U.S. That probably sounds like a lot of units moved, and you’re right. It is a lot of fucking units moved. To put it in perspective with the sales of some awesome albums that came out this week…

Click to read more…

Over the weekend we got a couple of emails about a benefit project for ailing Deftones bassist Chi Cheng, helmed by Korn bassist Fieldy Arvizu. Fieldy has recorded a song with a star-studded cast of characters to help raise money for Cheng, whose medical costs continue piling up as he enters year two (!!!) of his coma induced by a car accident. The song, simply called “A Song For Chi,” is available for free download — although donations of any amount at all are encouraged — features members of Machine Head, Metallica, Killswitch Engage, Slipknot, Sevendust and a whole bunch of others.

Click to read more…

Who knew that a delicious kernel-laden, summer treat was also the name of an up and coming new-metal band? Sergeant D of Metal Inquisition has posted another journalistic masterpiece that sheds light upon a band of unique, take-no-prisoners upstarts from California. Excerpt:

But they also seem like they like metal, because a lot of the songs are really dissonant and heavy. I feel like they are probably big noisecore fans because on the record there isn’t even a bass player. In the parts where most bands would have the bass, they just have these weird sounds that remind me of pieces of metal clanking together. It seems like something 7 Minutes of Nausea would do. They have a guy who plays with them live and does “noise/effects” and sometimes uses a bass to make the clanking sounds, I don’t know how he does it. He’s probably into circuitbending or whatever and rewired the whole bass.

If you didn’t enjoy Sergeant D’s piece on Brooklyn genre-benders Biohazard, you a) are an idiot, b) ought to check this one out. Highly recommend A+++ would do business with again, fast shipping!!

-VN

Thanks to MS Maniac Aaron M. for pointing out the hilariousness that is ensuing over at Ross Robinson’s Twitter account re: the new Korn record. Yeah, Robinson is producing the new Korn record — somehow I missed that too.

I have somewhat of a difficult relationship with Ross Robinson. On one hand he produced one of the bestest albums ever in the form of At the Drive-In’s Relationship of Command, and he also produced landmark albums by Glassjaw and Slipknot. On the other hand he produced way more albums that are just all sorts of terrible — records by Limp Bizkit (this in and of itself is a crime worthy of corporal punishment), Korn, Cold, Soulfly, Machine Head’s cringe-worthy rap-metal phase, and Vanille Ice’s nu-metal “comeback” record. As a producer who was definitely pigeonholed into a genre (rightly or wrongly), unsurprisingly Robinson hasn’t had a whole lot of work lately.

But he sure got a nice money gig for the new Korn joint. And he’s all sorts of excited about it! Here we go:

Korn, Day one: pikt out drums/cartage broke wheel of my 24 trk tape mchn/fairchild on cymb/made catbox/knee wnt out of socket-kicks ass12:01 AM Aug 6th

Click to read more…

More than a year ago, I wondered aloud: “Say, what the fuck did ever ever happen to Chuck Mosley?” It had been so long since anyone heard from the former Faith No More singer that I even misspelled the dude’s name, and not a single one of you left a snarky comment correcting me.

Well, now it seems that Mosley has a solo album, Will Rap Over Hard Rock for Food, coming out August 11, presumably being released to capitalize on all the ink the reunited, Mosley-less FNM are getting. And while I appreciate Mosley having a sense of humor about his lack of success in da biz in the years since he split from FNM, I’m not sure that advertising yourself as rap-rock in 2009 is the smartest way to go if the acquisition of sustenance is your goal. Unless you’re hoping people will throw eggs at you, and that you can then proceed to lick the yolk from your clothes.

Click to read more…

Vince, Kip, and Anton OyVey are all down at SXSW, but don’t worry about lil’ old me; Higgins and I got shit covered. Here’s what happened in the world of metal this week:

• We all finally got to hear the new Mastodon album! Needless to say, intense debate ensued.
• We spoke to Wolves in the Throne Room drummer Aaron Weaver and Lazarus A.D. bassist/vocalist Jeff Paulick.
• No penis? No Dir En Grey!
• Is this new Teagan and Sara shirt metal as fuck, or total hipster bull pucky?
• The Megatallica rivalry continued as we watched Dave Mustaine kill on Jeopardy and Lars Ulrich eat it on Who Wants to be a Millionaire?
• Fieldy = Jesus
  
• Read Vince’s initial SXSW reports here and here!

Alright-y, then. Higgins and I are off to make like chimneys and blow smoke. See ya Monday!

-AR

I don’t know if we got a press release for this and I saw the word “Korn” in the subject line and just deleted it, or if Korn’s people actually know better than to send us shit… but in any case, Blabbermouth has just brought it to my attention that bassist Fieldy has an autobiography coming out, the title of which is long and I am therefore not going to re-type (or even bother to cut and paste) here.

As you can see from the book’s cover, it seems that Fieldy is the second member of this band to find God. But only the first, at least as far as I’m aware, to actually equate his struggle with that of Jesus Christ.

To that end, after the jump we will explore the ways in which Fieldy and Jesus are both similar and dissimilar, in the hopes of figuring out whether or not Fieldy is, in fact, the Second Coming.

Also, we’ll look at an NSFW picture of Field’s sister’s nipples. Just because they’re there.

Click to read more…

Faith No Mania continues!

Following the news that the legendary Faith No More are, in fact, reuniting, it has just been announced that they will headline the opening night of this year’s Download Festival in the UK. Slipknot and Def Leppard will headline the following nights.

Oddly enough, the FNM-inspired nu-metal acts that Mike Patton has repeatedly professed hatred for, Korn and Limp Bizkit, will play earlier that same day.

Will Patton make fun of Fred Durst from the stage? Will Nikki Sixx throw a fit that Motley Crue’s umpteenth tour isn’t nearly as newsworthy? Can FNM’s performance even possibly live up to expectations? I guess we’ll have to wait and find out.

On a side note: I know some non-European readers have been freaking out because the band allegedly has no plans to tour the rest of the world right now. All I can say is: chill. We have it from a good source that this reunion is going to last quite awhile. Just be patient.

-AR

When it was announced last month that Killswitch Engage would be on Disturbed’s fourth Music as a Weapon tour, we were flooded with so many irate e-mails from readers you’d have thought that Howard Jones had just been caught raping hundreds of metal fans’ mothers; KSE fans just couldn’t seem to wrap their heads around the concept of the American New Wavers acting as support for one of the most love ‘em or loathe ‘em nu metal acts on the planet. We didn’t report on the development at the time, though. Frankly, I figured it was just one of those things; sometimes awesome bands tour with crappy ones. You can’t please all the people all the time.

But now that Chimaira and Lacuna Coil have joined the tour, I gotta ask: what the frick?

Click to read more…

So yesterday I posted the Completely Unreadable Band Logo of the Week, as I’m prone to do, and readers’ entries started pouring into my inbox, as was bound to happen.

And someone guessed that the band logo in question belonged to Korn.

Click to read more…

This morning longtime MetalSucks Maniac Sammy sent us a link to the below YouTube clip of Korn’s Jonathan Davis covering Lil’ Wayne’s “Got Money,” noting that “Unfortunately, [Slipknot guitarist] Jim Root is part of this atrocity.” I’m not that surprised that Root was willing to work with Davis, given the ‘Knots ties to the world of nu-metal, although you’d think the dude would be better utilized; pretty much anyone could have played this guitar part.

Anyways, I agree with Sammy that the song blows. Then again, I don’t have a lot of love for Lil’ Wayne or Jonathan Davis, so a Davis cover was pretty much bound to be the aural equivalent of someone vomiting on you while someone else is already raping you.

I’m sure Korn fans think this is the shit and will applaud Davis for stepping outside of his comfort zone (but not really), but the thing about Korn fans is, they like Korn. So their opinions on this matter are gonna be kinda iffy at best.

I’m sure that Davis has a solo album or something where this cover will eventually appear, but I don’t know any of the details and I don’t care enough to do the research. If you actually like this shit, I’m sure there’s a MySpace page or something where you can get additional info.

-AR

Another week gone in the waning days of summer, another week in the rampant gossip-mill of MetalSucks:

• Wes Borland signed on to be Marilyn Manson’s new guitarist, sans-body paint we hope.
• Lamb of God is recording a new album, tentatively due February 2009, with some producer no one has ever heard of.
• Another Guns N’ Roses song from Chinese Democracy leaks, presumably from the Rock Band camp.
• Jonathan Davis claims he is waving the flag for musicianship; we laugh a lot.
• We gave you lessons in pig squealing.
• We pondered the lack of white t-shirts in metal.
• Metallica played a new song live, and ya’ll argued a lot about it.

Apparently Korn frontman Jonathan Davis thinks today is opposite day. In a recent interview with RollingStone.com (conducted by friend of MetalSucks Chris Steffen), Davis muttered this nugget:

“I feel like I’m waving the flag for musicianship, trying to bring back bands that can play.”

In other news, Davis also claims to have invented music.

-VN

What could possibly be funnier than the fact that Korn guitarist-turned-Jesus-freak Brian “Head” Welch is releasing a solo album this September? Oh, lots and lots of things. For instance:

1. The Jesus-themed artwork adorning his MySpace page (including but not limited to the tattooed cross on his cheek).
2. This sentence, taken from his bio, describing Korn: “The band was credited with being the major influence in the rise of the New metal movement.” Things that are funny about this:
   1. The emphasis of “the.”
   2. The fact that this is boasted as a good thing.
   3. Use of “New” instead of “Nu,” and the capitalization thereof.
3. The high school diary-like lyrics of his new song “Flush.” Really, you have to listen to believe it.
4. Did I mention the lyrics?
5. White-boy dreads in 2008.
6. The fact that we’re probably giving him a traffic boost by writing this article.
7. Etc.

What? You mean this wasn’t supposed to be a joke? Oops, my bad. But then again, neither was Korn.

-VN

Fieldy from Korn is apparently writing a book. Here’s what he had to say about it in a recent interview:

“It’s like an inspirational autobiography. It’s going to have pictures from my childhood through my teens until now, and people’s jaws are going to be on the ground when they read some of the stories, people are not going to believe I’m still alive. I’ve led the craziest life ever. People are going to be blown away when they check this book out.”

I think he means “people are going to be blown away when they discover that I can actually read and write.” Aw, who are we kidding? A friggin’ ghost writer is gonna do all the reading and writing for him!

Actually, this book might prove some (mostly inadvertent) entertainment; but it’s tough to imagine Fieldy giving the kind of dish you want from a tome like this. In other words, there are other upcoming metal tell-alls I’m much more excited about.

Of course, Fieldy isn’t the first member of Korn to wager that at least some small percentage of the band’s fans are literate: Head released a book last year in which he detailed how Jesus, and not the laws of good taste, finally convinced him that it was time to leave the band.

-AR