Throughout the course of L O S T’s sixth and final season, my guest-column writing approach has been (somewhat) consistently this:

- Step 1: Watch the episode
- Step 2: Ponder, reflect, dissect, and overanalyze everything presented in the then-current episode as much as is in my capacity to
- Step 3: Ponder, reflect, dissect, and overanalyze how the concepts presented fit in the grand scheme of the L O S T story
- Step 4: Lurk amongst my favorite L O S T-related sites to see what my fellow nerds are thinking. Filter through to find thoughts that challenge or reinforce my own, then ponder, reflect, dissect, and overanalyze as per usual.
- Step 5: Share my current understandings and questions with you here to hopefully strengthen the former and minimize the latter.

This weekly process was my best attempts at keeping myself (and hopefully a lot of you) pumped up and interested in what would happen next. The end was coming, the end was nigh, and the end has happened. The completely obvious and appropriate question now is: how do you feel about it? Personally – in a somewhat frustrating but true-to-form manner with regards to how I’ve felt about this show historically – I don’t quite know how I feel.

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Dio died. Isis broke-up. Bret Michaels is back in the hospital. And I just used Dio, Isis, and Bret Michaels in one thought-stream, which, I’m sure, offended somebody.

Luckily, we did manage to have some fun this week:

• Sick of it All’s Lou Koller is counting down his top ten hardcore albums, As I Lay Dying’s Nick Hipa is counting down to the end of L O S T, Batillus’ Fade Kainer is counting down ’til the band can get the fuck outta the studio, Agenda of Swine’s Pete Benumb is counting down to MDF, and Cynic’s Paul Masvidal is counting down to achieving a higher level of being.
• We spoke to Steve Joh from Century Media, Tara Johnson from Disembodied, Emil Werstler from Daath and Levi/Werstler, and Travis Stever from Coheed & Cambria.
• We checked out the latest release from Rosetta.
• Sergeant D. has new slamz 4 u.
• The best music video ever of the week is by… Goldfrapp?
• There are plenty of things we’d rather do than listen to a new Attack Attack! song.
• Endorsement of the new Avenged Sevenfold single = flame war.
• You guys are still arguing about my Korn review. Seriously?
• I’m still upset about John Bush leaving Anthrax again. Seriously.
• We used to love Sweden, but we had to kill it.

And hopefully no one awesome will die or break-up next week.

-AR

Namaste L O S T enthusiasts,

How is everyone feeling about “What They Died For?”  As much as I was hoping it would melt my mind, I’m going to cast it amongst the bottom rung of “not so awesome season six episodes.”  This will be a temporary standing, though, if one of you happened to think it ruled and are persuasive in explaining why to me!  Clinging to my absolutely last hope of optimism, though, I will assume this episode’s function in the entire grand scheme of this story is to serve a preparatory purpose for the Series Finale this coming Sunday.  It wasn’t without its redeemable informative value, as it blatantly defined some extremely crucial roles and objectives:

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Yep, we talked a lot of smack on Joey Belladonna this week, much to the chagrin of, well, an awful lot of you. I think we’re done for a little while… but I can’t make any promises. Our job at MetalSucks is to amuse ourselves first and foremost, and, well, we thought it was pretty damned funny. So ppppfffftttt.

Here’s what else went down this week:

• We debuted the title track from Nachtmystium’s new album, Addicts.
• Genetic’s Dallas Coyle called us “influential,” Disfear’s Tomas Lindberg shared some Maryland Deathfest memories, The Austerity Program’s Justin Foley unveiled his top four Taco Riffs, Cynic’s Paul Masvidal got burglarized, As I Lay Dying’s Nick Hipa made some new revelations about L O S T, God Forbid’s Doc Coyle worried about turning into an old geezer, Daath’s Eyal Levi gave us a lesson in stage etiquette, and Batillus’ Geoff Summers gave us a new studio update.
• We spoke to The Melvins’ Buzz Osborne, Periphery’s Misha “Bulb” Mansoor, Testament’s Chuck Billy, and Sick of it All’s Lou Koller.
• We checked out new releases by Korn and Ufomammut and Year of No Light.
• Is Mastodon’s Brent Hinds a Mastodick?
• Sergeant D sez Cunthunt777 are your new favorite band.
• Don’t worry, baby, Dr. Danzig gonna cure what ails you.
• Hot chick loves Nergal, hates the Bible.
• Boy oh boy, do we love the new Limp Bizkit cover art!
• If you’re looking for new band members, don’t do this.

Alright. We’re gonna go get drunk and crank We’ve Come For You All in John Bush’s honor. Have a great weekend, everyone.

-AR

Good Wednesday to you all,

It was good to see a complete backstory sans flashways episode last night in “Across the Sea.” Much like Richard’s “Ab Aeterno,” the result of seeing a world that once was – as opposed to a world that could quite possibly be, is currently being, or will currently become – is that we are left more informed than questioned… well, kinda. Jacob and Nemesis’ history was finally explained, the mysterious kid we’ve been seeing around the Original Timeline has been identified as Jacob (or at least an apparition of him), and last but certainly not least: we now know who Adam and Eve are. In spite of the overly blatant use of recycled season one footage to let the most obtuse of L O S T fans know that a major question was being answered, I’m happy with who it turned out to be and how it became.

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A few hours ago authorities evacuated Times Square for the second time in a week after someone found a “suspicious cooler” on the street. Of course, everyone was just being overly cautious, but as long as it doesn’t infringe on my civil rights, there’s nothing necessarily wrong with that. I think Vince was in Michigan when 9/11 went down, but I was here, and if I never see another tank rolling down my street again or run all over the city because there’s no cell service and I need to make sure that all of my friends and family are still alive, well, I’ll be good.

While I nurse my PTSD, here are some happier, metalier things that happened this week:

• We’re streaming Keep of Kalessin’s new album, Reptilian. We also debuted new music by Lamb of God and The Funeral Pyre.
• We also also also debuted new videos by Soulfly and Cancer Bats.
• We also also also also debuted our new cooking show, Cooking Contaminated.
• Cynic’s Paul Masvidal discussed the shape of silence, Periphery’s Bulb taught you how to get that “big” studio tone, As I Lay Dying’s Nick Hipa had some questions about L O S T, Matt from Rumpelstiltskin Grinder fondly recalled Maryland Deathfest, and Batillus bassist Willi Stabenau gave us a studio update.
• We talked to Darkest Hour’s Mike Schleibaum, Reign Supreme’s Jay Pepito,  Jackyl’s Jesse James Dupree, and unveiled part one of our massive two-part interview with Buzz Osborne.
• We checked out the latest release by The Howling Wind.
• Does the fact that Mike Portnoy is touring with Avenged Sevenfold make you wanna see ‘em?
• We don’t want Joey Belladonna to return to Anthrax. Seriously.
• Sergeant D. wants to know if u mosh 4 Christ???
• Damnocracy’s Evan Seinfeld and his porno Howdy Doody also do bar mitzvahs.
• We wish there was really such a thing as a Slayer burrito.

Next week brings even more betterer br00tal goodness – interviews, debuts, guest blogs, all that shit. It’s gonna get real up in this bitch. See ya then.

-AR

Hoooooly Shizer! “The Candidate” last night was sick! This is my personal opinion, of course, but the culmination of action and character revelation/decimation should have been more than enough to get all of you juiced up as well!

In the Original Timeline, all suspicion of Nemesis Dude’s intentions towards the remaining candidates can now be tossed aside. That electromagnetic-flurry-of-scheminess is straight up trying to kill fools. He is NOT trying to get them off the Island because (just as Jack suspected during “The Last Recruit”) he is more concerned with what would happen if they DIDN’T. Most of us accepted this already, but like the Whispers, Tawaret, and the Black Rock, we now have absolute confirmation that his objective is to eradicate all Candidates who could serve to become his proverbial cork. Regardless of him being depicted as “the bad guy,” I thought it was genius how his manipulating of the Candidates in a submerged submarine with C4 almost unfolded flawlessly. Sayid’s heroism, although uncharacteristic of his recently infected self, ended the story line of my personal favorite and debatably most metal character of the show for the sake of who he feels is the “chosen” one: Jack.

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EVERYBODY SING WITH ME NOW: “I FEEL PRETTY, OH SO PRETTY, I FEEL PRETTY, AND WITTY, AND BRIIIIIIIGHT!”

No West Side Story fans in the house? No one? Okay, fuck it. Here’s what happened in the world of FUCKING METAL this week:

• We’re streaming Mantric’s The Descent in its entirety.
• We’re giving away new tracks by Nevermore and Heaven Shall Burn.
• We debuted a new video by Karma to Burn.
• Cynic’s Paul Masvidal meditated on unexplained healings, As I Lay Dying’s Nick Hipa gave us a refresher on L O S T, The Austerity Program’s Justin Foley thinks it’s okay to enjoy music by scumbags, Intronaut’s Sacha Dunable wants your help naming his new band, and Eyal from Daath and Levi/Werstler wants you to start ordering CDs online.
• We spoke to Mike Patton and Brian Posehn.
• Slayer and Megadeth are both doing full album performances on their American Carnage tour; Testament, not so much.
• Rose Funoral just can’t live down their past.

Next week brings so many interviews and exclusives it’ll make your head explode. See ya then!

-AR

Hey dudes,

As most of you know last night was a rerun of “Ab Aeterno,” the awesome-answer-filled-brilliantly-acted-question-answering-Richard-centric episode that rocked our drawers several weeks ago. I didn’t end up watching it but lurked about the internet to find out what the “Enhanced” rerun disclosed; these are some of the things that they confirmed:

- Isabella on the Black Rock was confirmed to be Nemesis (something we suspected and agreed on already)
- Nemesis’s manipulation of Richard was his first attempt at finding his crease
- Jacob’s touch to Richard while discussing the wine analogy is definitely what brought him agelessness (thereby implying that other gifts were given to our LOSTIES (i.e. Hugo talking to dead people))
- MIB is not able to leave the Island after killing Jacob because of the potential candidates
- The Doctor was conning Richard for money because Isabella had TB and antibiotics weren’t commonly used until after WWII (especially in the Canary Islands)
- Richard is another person brought to the island who has been directly or indirectly responsible for the death of someone.

A lot of this stuff we’ve already assumed but at least it was nice to have it absolutely validated. On the topic of being rewarded with answers for quite possibly hundreds of hours of our lives being invested into the shows’ many mysteries and questions; I’m sad to say that we will definitely be left hanging.

This is probably the most un-credible and illegitimate form of making such a claim, but here is my reasoning…

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Good afternoon dudes! Today I’m taking the “day after” approach instead of the “day of” approach for two specific reasons: yesterday was the Levi/Werstler takeover (which I thoroughly enjoyed) and also – as mentioned by some of you before – it makes more sense to talk about the latest episode sooner (one day) than later (seven days). For me, L O S T has been intensifying its degree of sickness tremendously the past two weeks, so hopefully all of you were pleasured by “Everybody Loves Hugo” and “The Last Recruit” as much as I was!

The past two L O S T’s have been a lot of killer and miniscule amounts of filler, the result is that much of what we’ve been wondering and waiting for has been fulfilled: we now have an explanation for the Whispers, We have an answer for the Christian Shephard apparitions, its was confirmed that John Locke was chosen because he was easiest to manipulate, the Kwon’s finally reunited, and last but not least… a human explosion!

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Greetings dudes!

It’s wonderful to be back in the United States of America. Australia is a wonderful country and all, but there is no beating the comforts of home… specifically raging wifi and network television! Given that we are beyond the halfway point in the final season of L O S T, each remaining episode has been getting significantly more in depth and heavy. The consequence of watching more than one of these episodes at a time (in my case three in a row) and trying to process it all at once is very much like having this happen to you. So in order to make all of our lives easier, I’m going to take the episode-by-episode approach on this one…

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Yes, I know it’s wrong to pass judgment on a minute and a half of music, and not even music heard the way it should be heard, but, rather, with the dude from Jade talking all over it and shit. But the below commercial for CSI: Eat Me does feature some of Ozzy Osbourne’s new song, “Scream,” including most or all of the chorus, and… I’m ready to predict that the song will suck. Maybe I’ll hafta eat a bag of crow on this one, but what’s here doesn’t exactly have me jonesin’ to hear more.

Also, I have no idea who wrote this song, but I heard at least one guitar squeal. I know that’s not Zakk playing, bbbbbuuutttt… since Gus G. apparently joined the band kinda late in the process, I wonder if he got to do any songwriting, or if he was basically just a session player.

Anyways, I guess we can pass final judgment when this CSI episode airs on April 14. You won’t actually have to watch, as it’s 2010 and the song will be all over the net within hours if not minutes of its television debut, but if you do choose to tune-in, at least Harold Perrineau from L O S T is a guest star.

-AR

[via Blabbermouth]

G’day L O S T aficianodos,

It was nice to see the trend of expounding upon our main character’s standout qualities continuing with last week’s “Recon.” We’ve already pointed out how violence was expected and was delivered with Sayid, information was held within and shared through Ben, and now (true to form) we got to see our resident con man Sawyer slaying all sorts of tail. When this show initially aired, Sawyer’s character was vital in that he was on the opposing end of a power struggle with Jack. As the show has progressed, however, the power struggled turned into a love triangle, and lately it seems as if a lot of his role’s relevance has been to keep the love-story aspect of the show going. This isn’t my favorite part of L O S T by any means, so I had my low expectations fulfilled. Apart from the extreme curve ball we were thrown with Sawyer being a cop who had the exact same past in the alternate timeline, I wasn’t too into this one myself. What were your thoughts/reactions on it? There were little nugs of revelation and also a definite “Hey, I’m the Smoke Monster” by Nemesis Dude, but aside from that it seemed the episode was heavier on red herrings (i.e., Charlie’s brother at the police station) than straight up information. We DID learn that Nemesis has a crazy mother, but the details are still hazy so methinks it’d be best to wait for more to begin getting way into it. Another bit of plot unfolding that we were let in on is that Widmore looks to be on Team Jacob… or at least opposed to Nemesis. This would make my most recent speculation completely wrong if absolutely true, but I’m going to be stubborn on this one and wait for it to be for reals confirmed before giving up on it. You never know with this show!

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Fellow followers of L O S T,

So how was everyone feeling about last week’s episode, “Dr. Linus?” I was certain the writer’s blew a good portion of their load on the previous week’s action-packed “Sundown,” and that with a Ben-centric story, we were just going to get little tidbits of clues regarding the Island and the Nemsis vs. Jacob conflict…  But I was wrong!  Lindelof and company have temporarily abandoned their prime time penchant for mid-season filler to deliver what I view as my favorite episode of the season so far! Aside from an Emmy award worthy performance from Michael Emerson, a surprise cameo from Dude from Real Genius, and a crucial beach side reunion montage back on The Island, we were given nugget after nugget of valuable information throughout the entire episode that either completely answered or brought us closer to answering many questions, such as:

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I’m really, really disappointed in you, male MetalSucksians. After reader Ashley sent in some epic photos of herself in a MetalSucks hoodie and not very much else, I predicted we’d get an identical pic from a wise-ass dude by the end of the week. Nope. Either no one thought of it, or no one had the balls to do it. For shame. And now what are the three ladies who actually read this site to look at? Pics of Lars Ulrich’s dick?

Oh well. Here are some other things that happened this week:

• We debuted new music by Daughters, Woe of Tyrants, Stigma and Nails.
• As I Lay Dying’s Nick Hipa wondered “Who is coming to the island on L O S T?”, while Eyal pondered whether it’s better to burn out or fade away.
• We listened to the God of War EP and new releases by Shining, Burzum, and H.I.M.
• Antonin Skullia taught us about the law of Metalocalypse.
• Did this shitty Matthew Fox show steal The Haunted’s logo?

And next week I expect you, our beloved readers, to be back up to your usual level of witty repartee.

-AR

Okay, so in all fairness, this isn’t really the L O S T star’s fault – but I don’t know the name of the graphic designer/marketing genius who did this, so I’m unfairly placing the blame with the dude whose face is on the cover. And if Matthew Fox thinks that’s unfair, I’m sure his millions of dollars and fucking of strippers will ease his pain.

ANYWAY, you’re familiar with the logo for The Haunted, no? In case you somehow are not, here it is:

And are you aware that prior to L O S T (but after Party of Five), Matthew Fox appeared on a television series called Haunted? You’re probably not, since it was cancelled in 2002 after just twelve episodes. But those episodes are coming to DVD, and I just saw the cover art for said collection. Ready? Here it is:

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I haven’t been able to shake this cold, and so I’ve actually been playing a lot of on-line Scrabble with a friend this week (because I’m just that cool). It would be really hard to play Scrabble at a metal show, though, not least of all because so many metal d00dz can’t spell.

When we weren’t beating this whole Uno debacle to death like it had just heckled us, here’s what was happening in the world of metal:

• We streamed Mutiny Within’s self-titled debut album, and premiered a track by Dallas Coyle’s new project, Genetic.
• God Forbid’s Doc Coyle defended mainstream metal, As I Lay Dying’s Nick Hipa discussed the cliffside cave list on L O S T, and, yeah, Intronaut’s Sacha Dunable and Daath’s Eyal Levi each weighed-in on a certain incident involving a certain card game.
• Each of the MetalSucks writers endorsed a finalist for the Scion No Label Needed Contest.
• We checked out new albums by The Breathing Process, Hayaino Daisuki, and Bane and Rhinoceros.
• We debated the morality of a label head posting a link to an album leak.
• We are woman, hear us roar.
• We looked at Mike Patton’s penis, and are now increasingly happy our shrink is coming back from vacation next week.
• Our homeboy Corey Mitchell is co-authoring Phil Anselmo’s autobiography!

Okay. Back to Scrabble! See ya Monday. Stay warm.

-AR

Vince brought the shits back with him from Egypt and in the past twenty-four hours I’ve been hit with a cold so bad that I’m probably gonna go to sleep right around the time I hit “publish” for this post. So before I pass out, here’s a run-down of what we did while Vince was playing Camel jockey:

• We spoke to Mutiny Within’s AJ Jacobs and producer/mixer Kevin Antreassian.
• As I Lay Dying’s Nick Hipa discussed fate versus free will on L O S T.
• We premiered “The Last Horse” by Tiger Flowers.
• We checked out new releases by Xasthur and Borknagar and read a book by Andy McCoy, too!
• Dream Theater’s Mike Portnoy is recording with Avenged Sevenfold; black is white, up is down, cats love dogs.
• The new Bullet For My Valentine song makes a lot of people angry, either ’cause you had to tweet about it just to hear it or simply because it exists.
• One thing MS Suckalos seem to agree upon: Jake E. Lee was not Ozzy’s best guitar player.

Okay, NyQuil time. See ya Monday!!!

-AR

Greetings metal maniacs and L O S T enthusiasts,

I hope everyone had a rad past week and, for those of you who are into it, were able to watch “What Kate Does.” It wasn’t nearly as action packed or blatantly informative as “LA X”, but still there are some interesting occurrences worth discussing.

Fate vs. Freewill has been one of the central themes of this show since the get go. The introduction of the flash-sideways timeline is, at surface level, supposed to show us what life would have been like if the plane never crashed. The notion of fate, though, is becoming increasingly more “the point” as we are seeing the main characters fulfilling the destinies intended for them by (or at least on) the Island. From Ethan’s involvement with Claire’s pregnancy, to Kate being present when she initially goes into labor, to Locke’s potential “healing” via his encounter (and possible operation) with paralysis-reversing-surgeon Jack, we are seeing similar parallels to the timeline on the island. We haven’t actually been given any EXACT consistencies, however, just a bunch of “very-similars” to keep us guessing. On a side note, the woman who was assumed to adopt Claire’s baby was named Lindsey Baskum, which super nerds have decoded as an anagram meaning “Used by Malkins.” Richard Malkin was the psychic who played an extremely crucial role in getting Claire on the original Oceanic Flight 815. His involvement in this timeline is unknown for now, but the connection is worth mentioning just in case it gets the wheels turning for any of you.

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Well I had a heckuva afternoon, what with a horde of Veil of Maya fans all e-mailing me at once to express their upset that VOM’s new song wasn’t up at the time we said it would be. But it’s up now, and we think that the track, “Namaste” – not “Dexter,” as our stupid audio player says – is terrific. You can listen here and join in on the fun.

Here are some other fun things that happened this week:

• We did a Jew on Jew interview with Orphaned Land’s Kobi Farhi and released the audio of Vince’s confusing interview with Andrew W.K.
• One of As I Lay Dying guitarist Nick Hipa’s theories about L O S T was correct!!!
• Bob Cock thinks Armour are AWESOME.
• Dave Ellefson has returned to Megadeth!
• The Ultimate Warrior rules, and The Red Chord agrees.
• Anthrax’s Worship Music finally a release date: the fifth of never.
• If you have a child, don’t do this.

Have a good weekend, everyone!

-AR