FEATURING MEMBERS OF KYLESA, INSOMNIUM, ABORTED, MNEMIC, MARUTA, EAST OF THE WALL, BLOODIEST, BROKEN HOPE, AND IN DE GOOT ENTERTAINMENT

Every year year, MetalSucks asks musicians from across the vast spectrum of the metalsphere (or, in a few cases, the almost-metalsphere) what their favorite albums of the year have been. Death metallers, thrash metallers, black metallers, stoners, grinders, and djenters alike have graciously contributed lists to MS, and we’ll be running them in groups of nine to ten musicians at a time two to three times a day for the whole week.

After the jump, check out the next group… we hope you enjoy seeing what some of metal’s heaviest hitters were into this year as much as we have!

Click to read more…

Brrrrraaaaaahhhhhh…………it’s 4:20 on 4/20!!!!  Ganjaleel?

Speaking of trippy-hippie-nings — I’ve never been to ten year-old Bonnaroo, but I imagine it’s not too much different from most jamband fests I have attended in my day.  Sure, the ‘roo offers a bit more diversity than its twice-baked counterparts, but c’mon you can’t convince me of your multi-faceted-ness just cuz you got Eminem & The Sword.  Really, Bonnaroo — really?  However, looking over the lineup I can’t just write it off as a larger, more commercialized jamband fest, since the bookers did in fact happen to lock in many indie/alternative acts that are pretty awesome.  So…..let’s call it a draw.

In the metal realm, nitrous abusers can enjoy aforementioned The Sword, Primus, Kylesa, and ultimate stony bros Opeth.  Whoa.

I’d be curious to see how all the white dreadlock’d mofos hacky-sackin at the ‘roo might react to Mikael’s death growl, but naturally the psychedelic-imbibers will revel in the acoustic/heady parts.

“Dude…….this is like, totally hardcore metal — but it’s not…”

Although — Baroness played last year and the kids seemed to dig it.  Wanna see the softest mosh pit ever?

Don’t get too stoned today.

-KW

Before there were blogs there were these things called magazines, and the only metal magazine we still get excited about reading every month is Decibel. Here’s managing editor Andrew Bonazelli…

J. Bennett stopped by Decibel HQ last month; naturally, we took the opportunity to grab some adult beverages. It didn’t take long for me to punch up some Kylie in a jukebox that was doing just fine with Use Your Illusion and Ride the Lightning. Nor did it take some random backpatch hombre long—like maybe a second and a half—to cleanse the bar of Ms. Minogue’s exotic stylings with something off of Relentless. Little did this kid know that my drinking comrade was in town specifically to meet up with Bobby Liebling for our May cover story. Ah, the seren-dipshittery—a nice bit of low comedy before an interview that I assume blew even Bennett’s mind.

Said cover story is an instant favorite for multiple reasons, but I think number one is this brief aside from Sean “Pellet” Pelletier, longtime Liebling supporter/sufferer, describing the abode of the Pentagram mainman’s parents.

“There were Cocoa Krispies stuck to the ceiling because Bobby threw a bowl of cereal.”

That’s what I call living. I mean, you don’t need heroin and crack to do that shit, although I suppose it helps. On a moderately more serious note, while the cover’s in simple black and white, the issues detailed therein—loyalty, hedonism, spirituality—span a broad, colorful spectrum. Liebling has defied the odds in virtually every facet of his life—despite endless, infamous struggles with addiction, he’s concocted an absolutely essential proto-doom canon, and lived long enough to see a lethal cocktail of self-sabotage and bum luck transform into international adulation. Worthy subject matter—funny, heartbreaking and, again, sometimes mind-blowing.

And the rest of the issue is no slouch. We’ve covered the Napalm Death flexi already, but there are outlandish and informative features on Burzum, Gridlink, Kylesa, Krallice, Darkest Hour (specifically John Henry’s metal mutha), Obscura, the Scion Rock Fest and shitloads more. Hit it or quit it.

-AB

You can buy the May 2011 issue of Decibel here, or get a full subscription to ensure you never miss an issue, or of those awesome flexi discs!

Hats off to reader Michael Teague, who correctly identified last week’s logo as belonging to the band Decrepit Depravity. Michael wins an awesome Lamb of God/Splatterhouse prize pack, which includes a copy of the Splatterhouse game, a Splatterhouse t-shirt, a Splatterhouse set of iPod Speakers, and a Splatterhouse logo statue. Michael, don’t forget to play that game as loud as possible, ’cause not only is it fun to kill digital pixels, but the soundtrack features not just Lamb of God, but also Mastodon, Goatwhore, The Haunted, Municipal Waste, High on Fire, and Cavalera Conspiracy. Niiiiiice.

This week we have another awesome prize for you: five bottles of Metalliance Hot Sauce, the new sauce from GiddyUp! Sauces created to celebrate the Metalliance Tour, an KICK-MOTHERFUCKING-ASS new package trek featuring Helmet, Saint Vitus, Crowbar, Kylesa, Red Fang, Howl, and The Atlast Moth. Holy shit, that’s a great line-up. And since GiddyUp! Sauces is the brain child of Steve “Buckshot” Seabury, author of Mosh Potatoes: Recipes, Anecdotes, and Mayhem from the Heavyweights of Heavy Metal and bassist for Moth Eater, you know this sauce is gonna be all kinds of delicious.

Below is the super-evil-looking poster for the Metalliance Tour; you can get dates after the jump, and tickets, including special VIP packages, here.

So how do you get the sauce? All you gots to do to win is identify the name of the band whose logo appears below, then shoot me an e-mail at axl AT metalsucks DOT net with your answer, your name, and your address. ALL ENTRIES WITHOUT AN ADDRESS WILL BE DISQUALIFIED. From everyone who gets it right, we’ll randomly select up to five winners (less, if fewer of you get the right answer!) and announce their names next week. Please note that the sauce has not yet entered production, and will therefore take 2-3 weeks to ship.

Thanks to Dillon Lyons for this week’s logo…

And here are those Metalliance Tour dates…

Click to read more…

Hats off to reader Michael Teague, who correctly identified last week’s logo as belonging to the band Decrepit Depravity. Michael wins an awesome Lamb of God/Splatterhouse prize pack, which includes a copy of the Splatterhouse game, a Splatterhouse t-shirt, a Splatterhouse set of iPod Speakers, and a Splatterhouse logo statue. Michael, don’t forget to play that game as loud as possible, ’cause not only is it fun to kill digital pixels, but the soundtrack features not just Lamb of God, but also Mastodon, Goatwhore, The Haunted, Municipal Waste, High on Fire, and Cavalera Conspiracy. Niiiiiice.

This week we have another awesome prize for you: five bottles of Metalliance Hot Sauce, the new sauce from GiddyUp! Sauces created to celebrate the Metalliance Tour, an KICK-MOTHERFUCKING-ASS new package trek featuring Helmet, Saint Vitus, Crowbar, Kylesa, Red Fang, Howl, and The Atlast Moth. Holy shit, that’s a great line-up. And since GiddyUp! Sauces is the brain child of Steve “Buckshot” Seabury, author of Mosh Potatoes: Recipes, Anecdotes, and Mayhem from the Heavyweights of Heavy Metal and bassist for Moth Eater, you know this sauce is gonna be all kinds of delicious.

Below is the super-evil-looking poster for the Metalliance Tour; you can get dates after the jump, and tickets, including special VIP packages, here.

So how do you get the sauce? All you gots to do to win is identify the name of the band whose logo appears below, then shoot me an e-mail at axl AT metalsucks DOT net with your answer, your name, and your address. ALL ENTRIES WITHOUT AN ADDRESS WILL BE DISQUALIFIED. From everyone who gets it right, we’ll randomly select up to five winners (less, if fewer of you get the right answer!) and announce their names next week. Please note that the sauce has not yet entered production, and will therefore take 2-3 weeks to ship.

Thanks to Dillon Lyons for this week’s logo…

And here are those Metalliance Tour dates…

Click to read more…

FEATURING MEMBERS OF KYLESA, DARKTHRONE, BRUTAL TRUTH, KATAKLYSM, 3 INCHES OF BLOOD, TEXTURES, SWASHBUCKLE, THIS OR THE APOCALYPSE, DISFIGURING THE GODDESS, BURNING THE MASSES, CHRISTIAN MISTRESS, MISERY, AND GRIFTEGARD

For 2010, we decided to do something special as part of our regular end-of-year festivities here at MetalSucks — namely, ask musicians from across the vast spectrum of the metalsphere (or, in a few cases, the almost-metalsphere) what their favorite albums of the year were. Death metallers, thrash metallers, black metallers, stoners, grinders, and djenters alike graciously contributed lists to MS, and we’ll be running them in groups of ten to twelve musicians at a time twice a day for the rest of the week.

After the jump, check out the seventh group… we hope you enjoy seeing what some of metal’s heaviest hitters were into this year as much as we have!

(And please note that these are musicians and that they, um, have a lot on their minds. So some of ‘em named albums that actually came out last year. Please don’t freak out.)

Click to read more…

I don’t think we’re doing a list of the “Best Metal Videos of 2010″ this year because no one ever wants to play in the sandbox but me and I’m over it. But Noisecreep has compiled their list, and I think they did a pretty good job. I don’t like every band on the list, but it’s about the videos, not the songs, and most of these videos are pretty good.

Conspicuously absent, in my not-so-humble opinion, are Kylesa’s video for “Tired Climb” and The Red Chord’s video for “Demoralizer,” both of which I think are great. But I can’t exactly get pissy about the list as it exists.

Check it out here, then, as per usual, argue ’til you’re red in the face in our comments section.

-AR

Whether you love Kylesa or hate Kylesa, there’s no denying this indisputable fact: they are a band, and they make music.

Also an indisputable fact: the band has announced a headlining tour to kick off next month. Fight Amp will play support on the entire tour, while Zoroaster will also join the tour for six dates, and Rosetta for nine. Honestly, at this point I’d be more excited to see Fight Amp and/or Rosetta than I would Kylesa and/or Zoroaster. But even if I don’t think that Kylesa are the second coming, I have seen them live three or four times, and they’re always pretty good.

And really if you don’t know Fight Amp and Rosetta, fuck yourself. Those bands are awesome, and will crush your reproductive organs into dust.

Here are dates, via Lambgoat:

Click to read more…

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Welcome to “Question of the Week,” a (sometimes) weekly debate amongst the MetalSucks staff regarding a recent hot button issue.

As regular MetalSucks readers are no doubt aware, our own Vince Neilstein doesn’t really see what the big deal is about Kylesa, while our own Sammy O’Hagar thinks they’re the cat’s pajamas, and actually started his recent review of Kylesa’s Spiral Shadow with the phrase “Vince, you ignorant slut.” Looking through the comments section of the various pieces we’ve run on Kylesa, it seems readily apparent that you readers are divided on this issue as well. So this seemed like a good time to ask the rest of our writers:

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF KYLESA?

The MS staff’s answers after the jump.

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How about another pointless exercise in trumpeting sales figures that aren’t going to matter in a couple years time when no one will be paying for music ownership because music ownership will be irrelevant? Who’s in? Me! New releases this week included (Hed)p.e., Ill Niño, Monster Magnet, Forbidden,  and Kylesa.

OK, let’s go.

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After a long week of CMJ shenanigans, High on Fire rolled through New York City with Kylesa and Torche to rock Webster Hall’s cavernous main room on the night of Sunday, October 24th. Most of the MS crew was exhausted/hungover/sick/dead by the time Sunday rolled around, but not MS photographic squad queenpin Diana Lee Zadlo; she was there bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, ready to capture all the action with her lens. And hey, wouldn’t you know it, Matt Pike was wearing his favorite t-shirt!

See all the action after the stage dive.

Click to read more…

So as you’re no doubt aware, Halloween is on Sunday, and as you’re hopefully aware, we’re holding a “Heavy Metal Halloween” contest with SPV. The deadline was announced as being on midnight on Halloween, the logic being that people would snap their photos before they went our partying; but Vince wisely pointed out that people might not get to upload those photos right away. So now we’re extending the deadline to midnight on November 1. Hope that helps! If you need a refresher on the rules, go here.

Here’s what else happened this week:

• We debuted a new music video by Nile.
• We also debuted new music by Havok, White Arms of Athena, and Shred Sean and Allan Tecchio.
• Daath’s Eyal Levi talked about trust issues while The Red Chord’s Greg Weeks talked about football.
• We spoke to J. Randall from Agoraphobic Nosebleed and our old pal Eyal from Daath.
• We checked out the latest release from Kylesa, and a new book by the Cro-Mags’ John Joseph.
• We went on a “Reader’s Choice” local scene binge.
• We prayed for the end of karate mosh pits.
• We watched Abigail Williams lob a dildo at Iwrestledabearonce.
• We defended Phil Labonte’s angelic singing voice.
• Sergeant D. taught you about bands you would have hated/ignored in ’95.

And that’s all she wrote this week. Don’t forget that our own Gary Suarez is playing in a Jesus Lizard cover band on Sunday night. Swing by if you can!

-AR

Vince, you ignorant slut.

There are tons of bands that get tons of hype that is somewhat-to-completely unwarranted, especially now, considering that the dreaded Hipster Community seems to think metal is cool (do they still, or are they back to ironically appreciating Jefferson Starship or something?). On a list of said bands, I would put Kylesa so far down near the bottom that it would be impossible to tell if they actually appeared on the list or not to anyone except the person who put them there at all. To cut to the chase, I think the band are deserving of every bit of salivating praise thrown their way by the metal community (like, um, this writer did for their last album) as well as the crossover coverage they receive. Bands not pouring themselves into a template is something to behold nowadays, and Kylesa manage to take a filthy IPA-stained piss all over genre lines while simultaneously sounding exactly like they always do, even when they’re at their most experimental. They’re the sound of a band listening to a library’s worth of albums while at the same time just making music reflexively as to what’s playing in their heads. It’s both extremely calculated and extremely human and personal, as good metal — from Sabbath to Priest to Maiden to Mayhem to Nevermore to Portal to Neurosis to Enslaved ad infinitum — should be.

But, haters gon’ hate, I suppose. And haters, subsequently, gon’ hate Kylesa’s new album, the predictably magnificent Spiral Shadow, another choice slab of massive, sludgy riffs, punk/metal and male/female interplay, and brilliantly employed non-metal elements. You’re gonna hear a lot of verbose writers once again, for lack of a more eloquent term, be all on this band’s dick, but Kylesa manage to effectively play to both a metalhead’s primal instincts — the one that clamors for heaviness and horn-raising riff violence — and the more astute listener’s sense of compositional brilliance. Most great bands don’t make new albums solely to try and amass new fans, and Kylesa are certainly no exception. If you didn’t like them before, this certainly won’t change your mind. But if you’re a Kylesa fan and/or obsessive- – hey, guess which one I am! — Spiral Shadow is yet more ammunition to shrug your shoulders at detractors and insist that the band’s encyclopedic knowledge of the past gives us great hope for metal’s future. There’s a reason guys like me are so slavishly devoted to them.

Click to read more…

Axl tried to explain to me the other night why so many bands moved their release date from today to yesterday, for a rare Monday U.S. release date; something about not wanting to compete with Taylor Swift? Whatever the reason, I don’t understand it and apparently after all that neither does Axl… maybe one of you can clarify.

One of said releases is King’s X’s Love Live in London DVD/CD, which you can order here. I’ve already expressed my enthusiasm for this release, but I just can’t contain my excitement for it: King’s X are just so much fun live and I cannot wait to watch this DVD at home. So while you’re mulling over purchasing the new Daath, Firewind and Kylesa releases this week — ’cause in the end they still all come out this week — add this live DVD/CD combo to the list to make your money-spending decision that much more difficult. Check out the trailer above then dare to claim you’ll be as fit at age 60 as Doug Pinnick is.

-VN

There’s a shitload of new releases out today, including the latest from Daath, Firewind, and Kylesa. Albums are normally released on Tuesdays here in the States, so I don’t know what’s up with this industry-wide one day exception, but there ya have it. You can start your week with some awesome new metal.

One of those releases, Kylesa’s Spiral Shadow, is now streaming in-full here, so you can preview it before you buy it. I’m not gonna weigh in on this one ’cause a) I honestly haven’t had a chance to listen to it and b) my number one homie Sammy O’Hagar is writing a review, and he’s a way bigger Kylesa fan than I am, so he’ll surely be much more insightful with regards to the music than I could ever be.

In the meantime, go here to stream the album and form your own opinion. Then come back and let us know what you think.

And if you live in the NYC area, Kylesa are doing a special surprise (oops, just ruined the surprise!) show tonight at Public Assembly in Brooklyn, alongside the mighty Hull. Should be a good time. Hit it up if you can!

-AR

Speaking of Stereogum: They’ve just debuted Kylesa’s new, David Brodsky-helmed video, for the song “Tired Climb,” and it’s all kinds of awesome. I’m gonna hafta smoke some drugs and watch it four or five more times before I’ll be able to to really theorize about the meaning of the clip. But for now, I can tell you that it looks really, really cool (the colors alone are frickin’ gorgeous), and totally augments the song, which is basically the music video’s primary function anyway. Check it out below.

“Tired Climb” comes off of Kylesa’s latest, Spiral Shadow, which will be released via Season of Mist on October 26.

-AR

Start shopping for a new bandanna (or hit the easy button and buy this), because Suicidal Tendencies kick off a proper five-week U.S. tour this week! Last month, the latest version of the band released No Mercy Fool!/The Suicidal Family, a collection of re-recorded cuts from Join The Army and the No Mercy project–and that’s as good a reason as any to play some fucking shows. Opening acts vary depending on the city, but include Cro-Mags, Death Before Dishonor, D.R.I., (Hed) P.E., High on Fire, Kylesa, and Underdog.

Immediately following the tour, Muir returns to California to play an exclusive Infectious Grooves live gig at the House Of Blues in Hollywood–the side-project’s first U.S. show in over a fucking decade. If all of this doesn’t make up for Muir’s 2008 collaboration with P.O.D. (*shudder*), I don’t know what is. All dates are below.

Click to read more…

Decibel is cooler than we are, which is why we’ve kidnapped their kitties and told them we’ll drown the fuckers if they don’t write a weekly column for us. Lucky for all cats involved, they agreed to the terms. Here’s managing editor Andrew Bonazelli.

It actually took some doing this time around, but congratulations to commenter du jour “Mat” for correctly guessing our November Hall of Fame, Angel Witch’s self-titled 1980 nut-crusher. As aforementioned, he scores a free six-month subscription to Decibel, not to mention — should he deign to drop me a line — a Rapegoat sticker and maybe some additional ludicrous extreme ephemera.

The Angel Witch HOF isn’t even the big highlight in our November issue, as you can see from the image above. I mean, we’ve all seen the new video by now, and thumbs up to Mordecai 9000 for the Han Solo dig in the comments, but this get-up’s a little more Queen of Naboo IMHO. And while Shagrath at no point in our cover story mutters, “So, this is how liberty dies — to thunderous applause,” maybe he explains the sikk new threads a little. You’ll have to see for yourself.

Of course, if you’re in the Dimmu-sucks-and-we’re-homos-for-putting-them-on-the-cover camp, you can always feast on a creepy Michael Gira interview, Kylesa backlash in the reviews, Q&A heaven with Dave Wyndorf, a Pig Destroyer studio report, and a Red Chord tour report, featuring Guy Kozowyk’s delightful memories about this very site! Now bow your heads in respect for the Mets’ recent tragic number acquisition and give us your money so we can sell you some fucking cars and shit.

-AB

If you don’t buy yourself a copy of the November 2010 issue of Decibel or, better yet, buy yourself a full subscription, Andrew Bonazelli will send the dude who played Jar Jar Binks to your house to annoy you ’til you wanna kill yourself.

‘Cause two excellent free samplers have been released within the last 24 hours:

• Good Fight have released a free sampler featuring songs from Cancer Bats, Son of Aurelius, The Contortionist, This or the Apocalypse, and more. None of the music is new, but if you’re not familiar with these bands, well, here’s your chance to become familiar with them, all for the the low low price of free. Get it here.
• Adult Swim and Scion A/V have also released a free sampler, and this one includes a new Withered song, “Extinguished with the Weary,” plus “rare or unreleased” tracks from Jesu, Skeletonwitch, Death Angel, Kylesa, Torche, Ludicra, and more. I haven’t had a chance to listen to any of it yet, but, again, it’s new or rare music from a bunch of awesome bands and it will cost only the energy it takes for you to click the “download” button, so go get it here.

-AR

Absolutely nothing! But I’m lumping them in together anyway. If you don’t like it, you can, in the words of Elizabeth Darko, go suck a fuck.

And so:

• Kylesa’s “Tired Climb” is streaming here. I wish I could think of something to say about it other than “It sounds like Kylesa,” but, y’know. It sounds like Kylesa. I really dig it, but if you don’t like this band, this song won’t do anything to change your mind. And if you’re like me and you enjoy Kylesa but completely understand Vince’s point about there being absolutely no need for that second drummer, well, this won’t do anything to change your mind, either — if I didn’t know that the band had two drummers, I’d never be able to tell from this song. Kylesa’s latest, Spiral Shadow, comes out October 26 on Season of Mist.
• Mushroomhead have a new song, “Come On,” streaming over at Guitar World… but I can’t listen to it ’cause I keep getting this message when I try… …and homie don’t play that. So the bad news is, I can’t tell you what the new Mushroomhead song sounds like, and the good news is, I don’t have to listen to the new Mushroomhead song. Their new album, Beautiful Stories for Ugly Children, comes out September 28 on Megaforce. And if you think it’s weird that Anthrax, Living Colour, The Black Crowes, and Mushroomhead are all on the same label, well, so do I.

-AR