via The Chive, in case the logo didn’t make that clear

Can someone please try the above but with metal? I don’t really care if it’s death metal or power metal or whatever, just make sure you film it and send it to me. Also, don’t get arrested. Thanks.

ANYWAY, here’s some shit we did this week:

• We debuted new music by Scale the Summit and Junior Bruce.
• We learned about the NBA from God Forbid’s Doc Coyle.
• We spoke to Alex Webster from Cannibal Corpse and Kris Norris from A Cancerous Affair.
• We checked out the latest album from Goatwhore, hardcore 7″s from Losin’ It, Appalachian Terror Unit, and Overlooked, and free releases from Autolatry, Yellow Eyes, Agartha, and Uvikra.
• We were surprised to learn that bands like this still exist.
• We were reminded that Juggalos are hilarious.
• We learned that Greg Puciato is dating the porn star Jenna Haze.
• We also learned that Bill Ward isn’t participating in the Black Sabbath reunion.

Okay, five o’clock! Time to punch out! Who’s got a joint?

-AR

First, a little backstory. Back in 2006, Darkest Hour was making the promotional rounds for their latest disc, Undoing Ruin. I was working for my shitty college paper, doing a show preview for DH’s show in Omaha, Nebraska and emailed Kris requesting an interview. He called me five minutes after I sent the email. That’s how cool of a guy he is.

Besides being one hell of a nice dude, Kris is an extremely talented musician, and his new project, A Cancerous Affair, has completed their lineup and is starting to produce what will most definitely be some killer tunes.  Check out my interview with Kris below.

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(photo credit: Phil A. Wickstrand of Metal Psalter)

Yesterday we reported on differing versions of press releases regarding ex-Darkest Hour guitarist Kris Norris’ new band, A Cancerous Affair; one version said that “ex-Darkest Hour drummer” Ryan Parrish was playing drums on the project while another version didn’t mention a drummer at all. Well, it turns out the former wasn’t just a slip-up: Ryan Parrish is indeed out of Darkest Hour (and will be joining his former bandmate Kris in the new project). Here’s an official statement from the band send directly to MetalSucks:

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If yesterday was the day for 2012 new album updates, today is the day for dudes quitting bands. Which always sucks. Nevertheless, here’s what’s been happening over the past 24 hours or so:

• We’re still selling MetalSucks t-shirts for only $10 and hoodies for just $20 through the holidays – order now to get them in time! We’ll be retiring these designs forever once they’re gone.
• Did drummer Ryan Parrish leave Darkest Hour? In yesterday morning’s news round-upwe reported on news we received via press release that ex-DH guitarist Kris Norris had teamed up with ex-Annihilator touring bassist Dave Sheldon (on vocals) for a new project called A Cancerous Affair. That press release made no mention of a drummer. But then this morning we received a tip from MS reader Huthaifa Al-Rawi linking us to this Blabbermouth article citing the same quotes and press release text as what we got except for this: “and ex-Darkest Hour drummer Ryan Parrish.” Zuh? If Parrish is indeed out of Darkest Hour and that article’s writer didn’t just make a mistake I’m sure we’ll be hearing confirmation shortly. Also, that would really suck; Parrish is a great drummer and an awesome dude.
• Cannabis Corpse have parted ways with vocalist Andy Horn (aka Weedgrinder) and guitarist Nick Poulos (aka Nikropolis) but will continue on with a new lineup, according to Phil “Landphil” Hall.
• Spin Magazine has decided to get into the “Best Metal Albums of 2011″ game by publishing their Top 20. Kudos for including great lesser-known bands like Hull and Batillus — and really, most of the list is pretty solid — but someone please smack whoever compiled this list for naming Liturgy’s album #1 and for including Korn at all. Lulz.
• The Vegan Black Metal Chef is movin’ up in the world; check out his newest instructional video for Yule Log Cake above, via Chow.com.
• The Safety Fire have a new music video for “Huge Hammers.” The song will appear on the band’s new album Grind the Ocean, out February 27, 2012 via Inside Out Music.

Today is seemingly “news about albums that are coming out in early 2012″ day. To that end:

• Soilwork are writing a new album called The Living Infinite. Generic quote time: Speed Strid says that “people can expect a continuation of the intensity and presence of The Panic Broadcast, only taken to a higher level” and wishes us all a merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Gee, thanks, Speed!
• Gojira have issued their third studio update video, this one showing bassist Jean-Michel Labadie laying down his tracks. Labadie is the member of Gojira I feel like I know the least about; I’d love to get to know that guy! Gojira are presumably all done or close to done recording their album by now… very exciting.
• Lamb of God released a new trailer for their new album Resolution (January 24th, Epic Records), and it features a good chunk of a previously unheard song. Check it out above, and listen to the first single “Ghost Walking” here if you haven’t yet.

So as it turns out, Periphery have a rather sizable online following. Hm. Who knew?

ANYWAY, here’s how we amused ourselves this week:

• We debuted new music by the aforementioned Periphery, as well as Meek is Murder.
• Gwar’s Oderus Urungus answered some more reader questions, and we spoke to Fredrik Andersson from Amon Amarth.
• We checked out the latest releases from Drugs of Faith and Throatruiner Records.
• We reported on all the awesome metalocity at SXSW.
• We wondered if metalheads support gay marriage.
• We offered a retort to Sumerian Records head honcho Ash Avilldsen’s anti-piracy argument.
• We started the “Best of 2011″ argumentswwwaaaaayyyy early.
• We watched the best school assembly ever.
• We wondered why good musicians join terrible bands.
• We steeled ourselves for the release of the worst album of the year.

Alright, have a good frakin’ weekend everyone! See ya Monday.

-AR

I understand that musicians have bills to pay and mouths to feed like anyone else, and that if there’s a way — any way — for you to make your living by playing music, well, that’s pretty fortunate.

Still, I’m always a little put-off when a musician I admire either has to or chooses to squander his talent by playing with some crappy band. Does anyone really believe that there aren’t better ways that current Korn-holers Ray Luzier and Shane Gibson could be spending their time?

So. Recently two more dudes I admire have joined bands I could live without: Kris Norris, formerly of Darkest Hour, has joined Straight Line Stitch, apparently on a full-time basis, while Gil Sharone, formerly of The Dillinger Escape Plane, plays on the new Otep album, Atavist. (I don’t get the impression that he’ll be touring with the band or anything like that, though.)

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The second-to-last night of Summer Slaughter — the first of two nights at NYC’s Irving Plaza — was a fucking party. Axl and Vince arrived before doors opened to interview Darkest Hour mastermind Mike Schleibaum and were summarily handed beers. “New York City . . . oh god. Suffocation, and also sharing your dressing room [with Suffocation]. . . there’s going to be a lot of drinking. Beer is going to be hard to get. We should really start right after this interview!” mused Schleibaum before handing us a couple of Bud Lights to get things started off right. “It’s just a Bud Light, my friends,” he responded after we thanked him for the hospitality; true, but somehow “just a Bud Light” turned into “just a bottle of Jack Daniels” being completely polished off in the DH / Suffocation dressing room shortly thereafter. “The thing is – it’s going to get all drank by the time Blackguard’s finished,” prophecized Schleibaum. And so it went. The men of DH like their Jack (and their weed) and the endless stream of Suffocation ladies — 40-something Lawngisland bleach blondes with giant, fake tits — that paraded through the room all night provided much amusement for our chemically altered brains.

But before all of the shenanigans went down we sat with Mr. Schleibaum and chatted about the Summer Slaughter tour, the band’s new album The Eternal Return, the end of Darkest Hour’s deal with Victory Records and what that means for the band, the departure of guitarist Kris Norris and subsequent replacement with ex-At All Cost axeman Mike “Lonestar” Carrigan, working with producer Devin Townsend in the past, and a slew of other topics. Our chat, after the jump.

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…Matt Wicklund, formerly of the now-defunct Himsa. He also played on Praises to the War Machine, the excellent solo album Nevermore’s Warrel Dane released last year.

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So, we’ve heard the new Darkest Hour album, The Eternal Return, and while I’ll leave a full review to someone else, I can tell you that the album shreds. With all due respect to Kris Norris, his departure from the band had no discernible effect on the quality of their music, and ex-At All Cost axe master Mike “Lonestar” Carrigan is a more than able replacement. Plus, saying his name makes me think of Spaceballs. Good times.

You won’t get to hear The Eternal Return in its entirety until Victory releases it on June 23, but in the mean time, the band has posted another new song, “Devolution of the Flesh,” on their MySpace page. Check it out; you’ll only hate it if you don’t like to rock.

-AR

If, like me, you’re too lazy to download the new Victory Records sampler so you can get the new Darkest Hour song, “No God,” you’ll be happy to know that it is now streaming on the band’s MySpace page.

What can I say about this track? It’s Darkest Hour. It rocks. And, as Vince noted last week, there’s a killer solo by new lead guitarist Mike “Lonestar” Carrigan, formerly of At All Cost, a.k.a. MetalSucks’ favorite band that fell apart under unfortunate circumstances.

Darkest Hour’s new album – their first with Carrigan and without Kris Norris – is called The Eternal Return, and drops June 23 on Victory.

-AR

Sounds pretty good despite the shitty audio quality, no? It’ll be interesting to see how the loss of Kris Norris and the addition of Mike “Lonestar” Carrigan affects the Darkest Hour sound. So far I’m liking what I’m hearing. LOVE the Lonestar solo around the 3:00 mark!

-VN

[Thanks: Zackage]

Here’s a statement from Doc Coyle:

“There have been a barrage of rumors and questions on whether or not Dallas has left God Forbid. It’s true that Dallas has left the band. It’s taken us a few days to confirm this definitely, and figure out what we were going to do considering the fact that we are starting a very important tour with Lamb of God this week.

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As you are (hopefully) already aware, God Forbid’s latest opus, Earthsblood, hits stores today. Guitarists Doc and Dallas Coyle was cool enough to give us a track-by-track breakdown of each song on what is inarguably the band’s best record to date. Enjoy!

1.”The Discovery” – The intro for Earthsblood came about in a peculiar way. The original piece started with the doomy guitars that kick in around 40 seconds into it. We wrote it as part of our black metal side project called Hell Nigger. It was the outro for a song that we wrote in one day. Without the keys and stuff, it sounded more like Morbid Angel, but with the new album having a much darker tone, we thought it would make a cool intro to the album. The piano piece was actually played and composed (with some direction from Dallas and I) by my Dad, Kevin Coyle. We showed him the chords that the guitars were playing, and he started doing this arpeggiated Danny Elfman thing that just killed. Our Dad is a piano teacher and has been playing for like 40 years. He also played on our last album. The orchestration was performed by Michael Romeo from Symphony X. We met each other through our producer, Eric Rachel. He has his own home studio where Symphony X records their albums and this orchestration program that costs some ungodly amount of money, and takes 4 computers to run. Apparently, they use that program to do film scores. Mike is incredible, and I can’t thank him enough for adding some much virtuosity to the record.
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According to a recent post on SMNnews.com, ex-Darkest Hour guitarist Kris Norris will now be pursuing a career in producing in addition to putting out his recently completed solo album. While we certainly wish him all the best, the realist in me is privy to think that Norris’ career arc as a producer will closely follow that of Peter Wichers’, who left Soilwork in ’05 in favor of the producer’s chair only to rejoin Soilwork last month. Not that it can’t be done — Fear Factory’s Christian Olde Wolbers is someone who comes to mind as an example of a metal musician who’s made the successful switch — it’s just that the paycheck ain’t as reliable as the perpetual cycle of touring, merch and album advances (then again, Darkest Hour are on Victory Records, so all bets are off in the advances department). And it certainly isn’t as much fun!

The idealist in me, however, really hopes Norris succeeds, not just because of the warmth in our collective hearts but because ex-At All Cost guitarist and friend of MetalSucks Michael Carrigan (ex-Throeald) has been tapped as Norris’ replacement in DH, and that motherfucker is a sick guitarist deserving of his call up to the big leagues.

-VN

We’re late to the party on this one, but Darkest Hour have parted ways with guitarist Kris Norris. It’s very sad and blah blah blah and honestly, I don’t care that much. I like Darkest Hour but I’m just not emotionally involved enough in the idea of Norris remaining in the band for this to phase me the way, for example, news of Mark Morton leaving Lamb of God might.

What I do care about is that Norris’ replacement is Mike Carrigan (pictured above), a.k.a. lead guitarist for MetalSucks’ favorite underappreciated geniuses, At All Cost.

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