My heavy metal DVD shelf was once pretty bare, displaying only The Decline Of Western Civilization and a load of one-view concert films. But just since 2005, it’s been sagging under the weight of classy, addictively watchable feature-length documentaries like Heavy Metal In Baghdad, Get Thrashed, Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey, Global Metal, and the Iron Maiden and Rush movies. The latter four come courtesy of industrious heavy metal anthropologists Sam Dunn and Scot McFadyen, both responsible for the launch of metal’s overdue efforts to canonize itself and shout down mainstream media’s 40-year campaign to paint metal as dumb, violent ape music. Pssht. Everybody knows it’s awesome, fun ape music.

Cough anyway Dunn and McFadyen are back with an 11-part mini-series airing Saturdays on VH1 Classic titled Metal Evolution. Think about it for a sec: That’s a total running time of about 440 minutes. If you’re not bonered about that, then … gosh, get your boner checked, okay? To date, three episodes have aired, each detailing the roots of metal in blues, jazz, and classical music; Saturday’s episode (above) traveled to England to gab with/about Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin (who, according to Dunn, declined to be interviewed due to an aversion to being associated with metal), and concluded with Judass Priest circa Sad Wings Of Destiny. Spoiler: Bruce Dickinson calls Eric Clapton “tame” compared to Ritchie Blackmore. SWISH! Episode schedule after the jump:

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Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ score for  The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo was supposed to come out today… but I guess it’s been delayed for some reason, and now won’t come out until next Friday, December 9. That’s the poopy news. The good news is not only that the cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” that the duo recorded with Karen O. from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs (and which appeared in the film’s first teaser trailer back in May) is now available on iTunes, but Reznor and Ross are giving away six tracks from the score for free download right now. Here are all the details, via a statement Reznor has posted on Nine Inch Nails’ official website:

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Welcome to “Question of the Week,” a (not really at all) weekly debate amongst the MetalSucks staff regarding a recent hot button issue.

Inspired by the ongoing disaster that is Lou Reed & Metallica’s Lulu, this week we asked our writers:

BESIDES METALLICA AND LOU REED, WHAT IS THE WORST COLLABORATION BETWEEN A METAL BAND/ARTIST AND A NON-METAL BAND/ARTIST? AND WHAT IS THE WORST ONE YOU COULD POSSIBLY IMAGINE IN YOUR WILDEST NIGHTMARES?

The MS staff’s answers after the jump!

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Michael Winslow is probably best known as the guy who makes funny noises in the Police Academy movies (winner of more Oscars than any other franchise in history), but I prefer to remember him as the “I’ve lost the bleeps, I lost the sweeps, and I lost the creeps” dude from Spaceballs. However you remember him (assuming you remember him at all), there is no denying that he made a solid career for himself out of the world’s best party trick, which is more than you can say for most people!

I mention him now because Metal Injection found [via the AV Club] some super-sweet footage of Winslow doing a couple of Led Zeppelin covers, which you can check out below. Even though it’s very (very, very, very) easy to make Winslow into a punchline, there really is no denying that this is pretty cool.

More Led Zep after the jump. And as a bonus, I’ve included some old footage of Winslow doing Jimi Hendrix’s “Purple Haze,” too.

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The official website for David Fincher’s new cinematic adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (not to be confused with Niels Arden Oplev’s adaptation of the same novel) launched yesterday afternoon, and with it came the first samples of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ score for the film (much as they debuted their score for The Social Network via that film’s website). No shock — it’s kinda drone-y and very cool. Check it out below:

You may recall that a Reznor and Rossified cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song,” featuring vocals by Karen O. from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, has already debuted in the movie’s trailer. You can check that out here.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo comes out December 21. Presumably, the score will be released sometime beforehand.

-AR

[via Collider]

When I heard about the Dream Theater-shaped hole in the life of drummer Mike Portnoy back in September, I wanted to pitch him on my long-gestating idea to form a killer Jellyfish cover band. I bet he’d be into it cuz of his Jellyfish super-fandom (he has cited 1993′s Spilt Milk as a top ten favorite album); and he’s a pro at pulling together all-star jams, like his awesomely fun tributes to The Who, The Beatles, and Led Zeppelin with guys like Paul Gilbert, Jason McMaster, and Dave LaRue; and lastly, The Ghosts At Number One (that’s my vote for our band name) could serve as a totally non-cynical tribute to another hardcore Jellyfish fan, the late Dimebag Darrell Abbott. And what better way to hip headbangers to irresistible non-metal jams? How could Mike say no to that? Can I call him Mike?

But, shit, while I was dicking around, gobbling drugs, and failing to corner, pressure, and/or threaten Portnoy about the Jellyfish idea, he teamed with qualified musicians he knows who actually, like, realize their ideas. Even if those ideas aren’t so great. Symphony X singer Russell Allen talks about Adrenaline Mob, one of Portnoy’s new bands:

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Earlier this week we got to hear a little sample of a potentially-quite-good cover of Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” by Academy Award© Winner Trent Reznor and Karen O from Yeah Yeah Yeahs when it showed up in a trailer for the new movie version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; now Metal Injection have posted a video of Enslaved covering that very same song during a recent performance at the Henie Onstad Cultural Center in Oslo. You can check out video below; the audio quality isn’t great, but it’s good enough!

If you wanna see Enslaved do another cover — this one of King Crimson’s “Red” — head over to Metal Injection. And, lest ye forget, Enslaved’s own Ivar Bjørnson was named #22 on our list of The Top 25 Modern Metal Guitarists; you can read all the nice things Sammy O’Hagar wrote abotu him here.

-AR

Last week, Idol bid adieu to contestant Heavy Metal James Durbin and that’s sad. Not only did Durbin leave behind two no-singing country hacks and the tight-assed, moderately skilled classic rocker Haley Reinhart, but he took with him the show’s only smidgeon of, like, real life. Dude has seen some trouble; that tiny measure of authenticity carried him past crappy technique and, later, malproductive cockiness. Plus, he was semi-metal and therefore good for a Judass Priest jam once in a while. Well, exactly once.

In Durbin’s wake, Idol is now a desert of arid suckiness (Countreh Boah Scotty McCreery, Lauren The Winner) pocked by the occasional cactus of pretty goodness (Haley Reinhart). This week, we accompanied each back home to visit all the fake-ass fame humping nobodies from whom each Idol wannabe wishes to escape. How depressing. I mean, let the little kids are excited, but grown adults in tears for these fireflies, these off-brand pan-flashes, these Hostess Twinkie motherfuckers? Yes, people of the heartland, hats off to the inanimate carbon rod!

The good news is the shit is nearly over and I, Anso DF, get my life back in time for summer. Back in fall, I pitched Idol Remains to Axl and Vince as a means for MetalSucks rubberneckers to gawk at the continuous Idol trainwreck and to ride along every week with Steven Tyler, American rock’s greatest frontman. He’s a producer, writer, dancer, singer, druggie, and bon vivant — not a live TV personality or dutiful judge of weak, flavorless singers. (Oh, plus, he sucks at writing books.) So, Tyler the Idol goof may be of little help to me, Aerosmith fans, Aerosmith members, or Idol contestants, but he rescued ratings (aw nuts) and, for a time, managed to counteract the idiocy of fellow judge Jennifer Lopez (uh thanks). Not a good trade-off for all the strife it caused with his band. Sigh.

Anyway, with three performers left, gaze in horror on your penultimate Idol Remains scorecard of hard sores and lard-ass bores.

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For metal fans over the age of 30, there’s little fresh news to be found on VH1′s That Metal Show; the weekly show functions mostly as a clubhouse for “remember when?” type gab with flabby old-timers. (For metal fans under 30, TMS provides a peek back in time to when the term “metal” meant “heavier than Paul McCartney & Wings.”) So I was one of tens of viewers of the TMS season seven finale, in which former Ozzy drummer Carmine Appice (above, big brother of Heaven & Hell skinsman Vinny Appice) shot ropey jets of great and hilarious news all over the sweaty boobs of the dinosaur metal world.

Wow, that’s a clusterfucked metaphor, but ahem the important thing is that the unconvincingly bewigged Appice addressed the status of Blue Murder to TMS host Eddie Trunk, who along with me makes up about half of the post-Whitesnake John Sykes supergroup’s restless, rabid fanbase. But that was only the happiest news, not the weirdest. According to Appice:

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

This week’s query was suggested by a reader identifying himself simply as “Andy” –

WHICH MODEL OF GUITAR IS THE MOST METAL?

The MS staff’s answers after the jump.

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Sooo… just thought we’d take this opportunity to remind you yet again that MetalSucks, with a special assist from The Austerity Program’s Justin Foley, will be presenting Heavy Metal Literature Night at at Hank’s Saloon in Brooklyn this Thursday, February 17. Members of God Forbid, Tombs, and, of course, this very website, will be doing readings from from some of metal’s greatest tomes, including Motley Crue’s The Dirt, Led Zeppelin’s Hammer of the Gods, Slash’s Slash, Marilyn Manson’s Long Hard Road Out of Hell, and more — kinda like what Will Forte does in the below video. Only we don’t make one of the biggest bombs of the year and get fired from Saturday Night Live at the end.

And, oh yeah, Vince is DJing!!! Come get st00pid with us. Thursday night. See ya there.

The above video (which I first saw on Movieline) is of Mad Men star Jon Hamm doing a reading from My Dad Was in ZZ Top, a new book by Conan writer John Glaser. The book uses allegedly “found” documents to tell the secret history of rock n’ roll — Hamm is reading a chapter about the secret origins of the Butthole Surfer’s moniker.

Sadly, Hamm will not be at the MetalSucks sponsored Heavy Metal Literature Night at Hank’s Saloon on Thursday, February 17 — but lotsa other cool people will be! Members of God Forbid, Tombs, and The Austerity Program will all be on hand to do readings from some of metal’s greatest tomes, including Motley Crue’s The Dirt, Led Zeppelin’s Hammer of the Gods, Slash’s Slash, Marilyn Manson’s Long Hard Road Out of Hell, and more; MS’ own masters of mischief, Axl Rosenberg and Vince Neilstein, will also be on hand to read and DJ, respectively.

Oh yeah, and, of course, we plan to get pretty drunk.

Even more details coming next week!!! Get excited!!!

Let’s class this bitch up.

On Thursday, February 17, at Hank’s Saloon in Brooklyn, we are going to be presenting (with some serious help from The Austerity Program’s Justin Foley!) Heavy Metal Literature Night. This will be like one of those classy book readings where intellectual types sit around drinking wine while people read aloud from beautifully written, deeply meaningful texts — only instead of intellectual types, the readers will be various members of the local metal community, instead of wine we’ll be drinking beer and whiskey and whatever else leads to terrible decisions in life, and instead of beautifully written, deeply meaningful texts, we’ll be reading from some of metal’s greatest tomes, including Motley Crue’s The Dirt, Led Zeppelin’s Hammer of the Gods, Slash’s Slash, Marilyn Manson’s Long Hard Road Out of Hell, and other books of that nature.

There will be booze. There will be music. There will be fun.

Mark it in your calendars. More details coming next week…

It’s been a while since we had anything to grind through the Mike Portnoy / Dream Theater rumor mill, unless you count all those “I’m not the permanent drummer of Avenged Sevenfold” interview responses, which I don’t. Thankfully this glorious week of giving thanks here in the U.S. brings us two Portnoy / DT news tidbits to be thankful for, one dorky and one gossipy.

First, the dorkitude. In perhaps some of the best DT drum covers to be posted to YouTube in the history of that site, Behold… the Arctopus and Blotted Science drummer Charlie Zeleny recently uploaded a bunch of “audition” videos of himself playing along to various Dream Theater songs. “Audition” is in quotes because apparently Zeleny wasn’t actually asked in for an audition, but somehow got wind of which songs DT were asking auditioning drummers to learn and recorded and uploaded them of his own accord. It sorta worked, too; apparently the members of DT have now seen these videos. I’m actually kinda surprised more young drummers that grew up under Portnoy’s influence haven’t done the same thing the way, say, Dave Grohl publicly groveled for Led Zeppelin’s drum throne when they reunited in 2007 to pay tribute to Ahmet Artegun. Here’s Zeleny covering the middle/end section of “Metropolis Pt. 1″:

Note the Portnoy stick-flip at 1:10! Way to score those extra points, Chuck.

Now onto the gossip!!

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For my opening salvo, I suppose I should mention that it has been a long break between blogs. I’ve been meaning to get back to it, but this summer has been a very busy one filled with the musical composition of the new God Forbid album as well as a new project I’ve been working on, in addition to the daily pursuit of living life and getting by. I hope to contribute more frequently in the near future.

If you’ve followed my articles in the past, you may notice that I often address music history, and pertaining to this site, heavy music specifically. I have a great respect for artistic pioneers and the roots of where the most admirable and brilliant music stems from. I was the type of kid who would read liner notes and interviews by my favorite bands to find out who influenced them. I would always want to climb that musical family tree to see where it lead.

In my process of discovery, there was a common thread that jumped out at me that has been consistent through metal and rock history.  There seemed to be an intercontinental ping-pong match between the USA and Europe in terms of trailblazing the cutting edge of whatever musical genre was the dominant force of the time. This goes way back before metal existed — and yet, it has helped shape the musical landscape that exists today. The torch keeps being symbolically passed from one shore to the other.

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Kurt Ballou is the guitarist for Converge and runs/is Godcity Recording Studio. In both of these capacities he has been a big part of making some of my favorite music ever. Screw the commonly used term “arguably” – Converge’s last record is their best/hardest record yet. And Kurt’s recording style presents live-sounding documents of aggressive bands that includes a ferocious midrange bite (see Young Widows, Disappearer, or Ghengis Tron, for example). It’s a compelling antidote to the heavily-edited/eq’d ProTools default deployed by most heavy music. He’s also an unabashed music fan who’s given some thought to what he likes.

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To celebrate the release of Madball’s latest aggro masterpiece, Empire, we asked vocalist Freddy “Madball” Cricien to compile a list of his favorite non-hardcore (but still heavy!) bands. Luckily for us and all of you, he agreed! So we’ll be running two entries a day from Freddy’s list every day for the next five days, leading up to Empire‘s October 12 release. To follow, pelase find the first installment. We hope you enjoy…

10) LED ZEPPELIN

I wasn’t sure at first if I should put them on this list. They could be considered more rock than anything, and that would open up a whole other door of bands I love. But you know what? They’re heavy, so I’m going to throw them on my list. I grew up listening to my older brother Rudy’s Led Zeppelin records… along with a bunch of other eclectic stuff. I always loved Zeppelin. Great songs, unique sounding band, and the heavy-ness and groove of John Bonham’s drums was just amazing.

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

There weren’t any real hot button topics this week, so we decided to just play a fun game that used to keep Vince and Axl occupied for many a lunch period when they were kids:

The MS staff’s answers after the jump.

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I’ll admit it: I still do check Blabbermouth from time to time. Hard not to. It’s kind of a metal institution at this point. Here and there, when they publish first week numbers, I’ll read those if they concern a band I like, or am curious about for whatever reason.

I’m not a Demon Hunter fan, but I was down at Audiohammer when Jason Suecof was mixing their record, and so I’m familiar with their new record by twist of circumstance. (Believe me, I would have never gone looking on my own.) Anyways, when their first week numbers were published, I decided to check on that, and goddamn guys. 14k approximately. That’s what Suicide Silence does. That’s what DevilDriver does. That’s what bands that tour all the time and are always in the media do. Good for them. Congrats dudes.

Here’s why I find this interesting. Demon Hunter has never really been a touring act. They’ve never really been in the media too much before the present.  So what explains them selling records on par with bands that are always out there hustling? To answer this, I thought about what some bands in the past have pulled off without too much touring.

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Reader Shane Gillis sent in this video, which appears to be a bunch of clips strung together of an obviously overcaffeinated Dave Grohl in the studio with Them Crooked Vultures (who are pretty “meh” even by “meh” supergroup standards). And while, on the one hand, it’s pretty funny, on the other hand, I know that in real life I hate being around people this loud and obnoxious. Guess it’s a good thing that Grohl is a rock star and we’ll never be friends. I didn’t wanna be friends with him anyway…

-AR