MetalSucks

When it comes to metal and hardcore, 2009 has been an exceptional year for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The legendary Cave In officially reunited, played some shows, and released the four-song Planets of Old 12″. Converge dropped the highly-anticipated Axe To Fall, considered by some to be as good as or even better than their benchmark album Jane Doe. Hell, that band’s bassist Nate Newton even managed to secure substantial attention and overwhelming praise for Darkness Come Alive, the latest from his Doomriders side-project. In this somewhat incestuous collection of talented New England musicians exists yet another amazing group called Disappearer, who have given us possibly the best album of the year.

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There I was, minding my business on the Internet when all of a sudden, the Deathwish Inc. Twitter account tweets about a new Blacklisted album. And not just new, but NOW AVAILABLE.

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Now that Animosity is done, I guess vocalist Leo Miller is occupying his time by working as a correspondent for Metal Injection – in which I case I can only say, “Hey, Leo, welcome to the family!” Any friend of MI’s is a friend of ours. Except for Sid. He doesn’t like Cynic so screw that dude.

ANYWAY, here’s Leo interviewing Converge. The best part actually comes later in the video, when Jacob Bannon high-jacks the interview and… well… just watch.

-AR

With Converge’s critically acclaimed Axe To Fall still commanding the attention of the metallic hardcore faithful, this week’s release of a new album from Belgium’s Rise And Fall could naturally be overlooked. However, that would be to the detriment of those currently enjoying that higher-profile record. An intelligent, intense burst of recorded vehemence, Our Circle Is Vicious–which you can and should buy now–was (like so many Deathwish Inc. albums) produced by Converge’s Kurt Ballou and stands as a considerable improvement on 2005’s Into Oblivion. Listen to “Built On Graves” and “In Circles” at the band’s MySpace page.

The band play a few U.S. shows this week before heading back to Europe for a month-long tour with Iron Age, whose recent album The Sleeping Eye we streamed back in August and is on Vince’s “Best Of 2009″ shortlist. That tour culminates in Rise And Fall’s hometown of Gent, with a final show that also features Goatwhore, Skeletonwitch and Toxic Holocaust. The band will wrap up 2009 with a December tour through Australia, only to kick of the new year with a few gigs with labelmates The Hope Conspiracy. All dates are below.

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On paper, Washington’s Black Breath is not the sort of band one typically associates with Southern Lord. Dronesmiths Sunn O))), doomy stoners Eagle Twin, instrumental rockers Pelican, and black metalheads Wolves In The Throne Room all coexist comfortably together on the Californian label. Yet Black Breath’s hybrid of gutter-level punk and classic thrash metal somehow make sense, even if it doesn’t exactly seem appropriate for Southern Lord. Coupled with the August release of Seattle punks The Accused’s all new The Curse of Martha Splatterhead, it almost seems as though the ostentatiously hip imprint is slowly embracing a much less esoteric sound.

On November 10, Southern Lord will re-release Black Breath’s Razor To Oblivion mini-LP in CD format in advance of a proper debut album scheduled for early 2010. That forthcoming full-length was recorded earlier this year and engineered by Converge’s Kurt Ballou. Visit the band’s MySpace page to hear some tracks from Razor To Oblivion.

-GS

[Gary Suarez eats his pizza crust first. He usually manages the consistently off-topic No Yoko No. Say, why don't you follow him on Twitter?]

An initial impression of Axe to Fall, Converge’s latest bruiser, is that it’s a little too simplistic: the vast majority of the album find the band rocking more balls out than they have since their early days. Even “Worms Will Feed” and “Damages,” two slower tracks, feel more like uneasy breathing room than the expansive, emotional dalliances of You Fail Me’s “In Her Shadow” or No Heroes’ “Grim Rose/Black Heart.” Even despite Axe to Fall’s two further-out-than-ever-before closing songs, the majority of the album feels slight, missing a key element of what had made the band as exceptional as they are up until now. With No Heroes finding the band at once at their grindiest and most experimental, something about Axe to Fall feels empty.

Of course, initial impressions don’t do a Converge album justice; if the band are known for anything, it’s marrying the deceptively simple and the brilliantly complex. Despite its tendency to be more gruff than any modern Converge release, Axe to Fall features some of the band’s tightest, most interesting songwriting, as well as providing one of the most satisfying repeat listens of any Converge album. Compact but alarmingly dense, the band have never been this comfortable putting their heads down and charging at you, with a relentlessness that’s almost militaristic in its approach. More than just a bunch of throw-aways before its wildly expansive ending, Axe to Fall stands eye level with their genre-defining full length debut (Petitioning the Empty Sky) or their genre-shattering masterpiece (Jane Doe). Though foolish and cynical to think otherwise, the band are still as good as they’ve ever been, with no signs of coasting despite having been around exponentially longer than most of the hardcore bands they came up with.

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Axe to Fall, Converge’s once-again excellent new album, is yet another stylistic shift: the majority of it is devoted to the band playing harder and more technically than they have in their post-Jane Doe era, while the closing two songs finding them venturing further away from their comfort zone than they ever have before. But even though guitarist Kurt Ballou darts all over the fretboard more than usual, vocalist Jacob Bannon changes nothing about his performance, from the breathless rambling on opener “Dark Horse” to his trademark pterodactyl-like shriek over the course of the album. But this isn’t to say that he’s in a state of creative stasis while the rest of the band moves outwards: Bannon’s hellacious scream is just as much a part of Converge’s uniqueness as is Ballou’s nimble riffing. Bannon’s work on Axe to Fall is as savage as it’s ever been, and once again adds weight and disturbing depth to the album’s metallic hardcore-fueled chaos.

Jacob Bannon’s place in metal, hardcore, and—for better or worse—metalcore is massive, with his trademark vocals incalculably influential and lyrics favoring the abstract over the melodramatic. Even outside of Converge, Bannon manages to be prominent, with a successful visual art career and running hardcore label Deathwish Inc. A surprisingly normal sounding (at least in terms of how he sounds on record), introspective guy, Bannon comes off as both wise about the metal and hardcore world while still impressed by and interested in it. In a lengthy interview with MetalSucks, he discussed the musical and lyrical intricacies of Axe to Fall, his approach to artwork in comparison to his vocal work, and people’s changing attitudes toward heavy music as they age.

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As one of the chief riff providers for swaggercore titans Every Time I Die, Andy Williams takes pride in making the discordant into catchy. For a perfect example of this, look no further than the band’s latest (MetalSucks-approved) album, New Junk Aesthetic. Distilling the band’s decade-plus essence into a tight half hour, it’s a satisfying mix of thunderous heaviness and easily the most appealing material the band have put to tape. But while he’s often overshadowed by vocalist Keith Buckley’s relentless wiseassery, it’s his and Jordan Buckley’s Skynard-by-way-of-Dillinger-Escape-Plan guitar work that make the band stand out and ultimately worthwhile.

A self-described “chatty Cathy,” Andy Williams was remarkably frank and refreshingly earnest in a recent interview with MetalSucks on the eve of the release of New Junk Aesthetic. Among other things, he discussed why he can listen to the new album and none of the band’s other material, his thoughts on the new Converge record, the changing landscape of the scene he came up in, and life over at ETID’s new label, Epitaph.

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I want you to know that I am stone-cold sober right now. There is no weed in my system. I am not influenced by anything other than the power of music.

There is a new Converge song, “Dark Horse,” streaming on the band’s MySpace page right now. It comes off of their new album, Axe to Fall. And it is fucking incredible.

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I’ve given my Scraping Genius… seal of approval to Disappearer before, though that was based on the fierce Massachusetts noise rock trio’s fucking demo (which you can download for free). Those of you who loved those tracks will be happy to hear that Disappearer’s debut album is imminent.

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Here’s all you need to know about Doomriders:

1) Nate Newton of Converge, J.R. Connors of Cave In
2) dirty, beer-fueled, hardcore-tinged southern rawk (think: Thin Lizzy for the modern era)
3) Awesome.

While the band promised but didn’t deliver a new record in ‘08, Lambgoat reports that ‘09 is the year; the band is reportedly recording at Godcity Studios in Massachusetts as we speak with producer-of-the-moment / Converge guitarist Kurt Ballou at the helm (!). The band’s put 12 songs to tape and plans on releasing an album later this year. Peep this track for a preview of what you might be in for.

Doomriders – “Black Thunder”

-VN

Duuuuuuude. I feel like I’ve been waiting for-ev-er for a new Buried Inside album. Their last, 2005’s Chronoclast, was nothing short of a masterpiece, but its release was nearly four years ago, and since then, there’s been zip, zilch, zero, nuthin’, nada, bupkas.

Well, the band FINALLY has a new album coming out, Spoils of Failure, and have posted a new song, “V,” on their MySpace page. And it strikes me as totally worth the wait: few bands combine dirty, blindingly mad rabid dog viciousness with epic, introspective beauty as well as these dudes do. Check it out NOW – it is easily one of my most anticipated albums of the new year.

Relapse will release the Kurt Ballou-produced Spoils of Failure on March 3 here in the U.S. and March 9 everywhere else.

-AR

If you’re not familiar with Magrudergrind, it’s because media outlets (including this one) don’t give them enough coverage. But they have to be one of the best grind bands on the scene right now; 2007’s Rehashed was pretty fuckin’ good, but the three songs they contributed to Scott Hull’s This Comp Kills Fascists were even better.

The band has now signed with Willow Tip and are entering the studio to make a new album which will be engineered by Converge’s Kurt Ballou and mastered by The Inimitable Mr. Hull himself. Which means that along with the new Napalm Death album (and some new Pig Destroyer, pretty pretty please?), grind fans have least two albums in ‘09 that they know will be good.

-AR

Okay, so here’s the thing: every time we run a story about electro-grind masters Genghis Tron, we get no response from you people. And that makes no sense to me, ’cause this band is AWESOME. Seriously, YOU NEED TO BE LISTENING TO THIS BAND.

So now their new album, Board Up the House, has leaked. Produced by Converge’s Kurt Ballou, it is just a mind-blowing, orgasm inducing piece of work, and you really owe it to yourself to give it a listen (preferably with a really, really good pair of headphones that will allow you to explore every nook and cranny of aural delight). What have you got to lose? It’s free, fer Chrissakes.

Head over to Deathcore is Sexy to download the whole album. Then haul ass over to the your local music store – assuming you still have a local music store – to buy an actual copy when Relapse releases the album on February 19.

-AR

Electrogrind masters Genghis Tron gave their fans a holiday gift in the form of posting another new song, “City On A Hill,” on their MySpace page. The track will appear on their forthcoming opus, Board Up the House.

The phrase “city upon a hill,” for those of you who didn’t complete the 8th grade, comes from John Winthrop’s 1630 sermon entitled “A Model of Christian Charity,” and was intended to suggest that America should act as the ideal template for all the people of the world: “For we must consider that we shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us.” Ronald Reagan later used the phrase in his farewell speech after leaving office in ‘89. So while I can’t exactly understand what GT front man Mookie Singerman is yelping about, I have to imagine it has something to do with how very, very disappointed he feels in the U.S. of A. these days.

Board Up the House was produced by Converge’s Kurt Ballou, and hits stores February 19.

-AR