MetalSucks

Candiria needs no introduction, but even those familiar with the band might not know that guitarist John LaMacchia is one of the most hard-working men in underground metal. In addition to his work with Candiria — who are releasing Toying With the Insanities Volumes 1 and 2 this September — LaMacchia runs Rising Pulse Records, the label that will be releasing the aforementioned new Candiria albums. He’s also a member of Spylacopa together with members of The Dillinger Escape Plan, Isis and Made out of Babies, and and he’s co-writing and producing a solo album with Julie Christmas of the latter. In a phone conversation earlier this month, I chatted with John about the new Candiria sets, the aforementioned side projects (which are only the tip of the iceberg), the current status of Candiria, and some local bands he digs. Our chat, after the jump.

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I’ve got a bit of a cold, so I’m not really up for writing some long drawn out post replete with nautical allusions, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t try and turn you on to a stellar post-hardcore band I’ve only just discovered. City Of Ships is a Virginia-based trio that recently signed to Translation Loss Records. Due out this June, the full-length debut Look What God Did to Us was produced by Andrew Schneider at Brooklyn’s Translator Audio, a studio that has served such Scraping Genius… faves as Made Out Of Babies and Zozobra, as well as the upcoming Celan (Chris from Unsane) album I’m so fucking stoked about.

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2008 has been a fucking great year for metal, and in due time — Monday, Dec. 15, to be exact — Axl, myself and the rest of the writers of MetalSucks will all release our Top 10 year-end lists so you can incessantly argue over which great album was left off or tell us we’re assholes for ranking a certain album higher than it should’ve been.

But for now, ya’ll can argue about something else: here’s my personal short/working list for said year-end list containing all of my favorite metal releases from this year as well as a few that aren’t likely to make my own list but will surely be appearing on others’. Feel free to pipe in with your thoughts or to notify us of any egregious omissions before we put together our final, ordered lists. Regardless, it is going to be really fucking hard to pick just 10 of these and put them in order of awesomeness.

And, my favorite metal records of 2008 in no particular order are…

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So. You may or may not recall that, a few weeks back, for the first time ever, five females won the Completely Unreadable Band Logo contest. Dubbing them “The Slipknot Five,” I wrote that “since I’ve never had a girlfriend who was actually into metal, I’m hoping at least one them e-mails me with a marriage proposal. Fingers crossed.”

Well, lo and behold, one of those ladies, Ms. Stacey Watrobski, did, in fact, e-mail me with a marriage proposal, and even included a link to her MySpace page so I could see that she didn’t, in her words, “look like one of those broads from Kittie.” Stacey then scolded me for never promoting shows outside the NYC area; I, in turn, promised to promote any show outside NYC that she asked me to, seeing as we’re now engaged n’ all.

Well, now Stacey has a show she wants to promote, so I’m here to help. But rather than try and write something about said show, I’m just going to let her tell you about it:

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From The Austerity Program to Made Out Of Babies, it seems that some of my favorite acts in noise rock these days are coming from NYC, something that makes this native beam with hometown pride. Wetnurse is the latest addition to this list.

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A couple of months back I published an article declaring that Spylacopa, the new supergroup featuring John LaMacchia (Candiria), Jeff Caxide (Isis), Greg Puciato (The Dillinger Escape Plan) and Julie Christmas (Made Out of Babies / Battle of Mice), was sounding surprisingly tame for a band whose members usually spit such intense venom. Now I eat my words.

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Call it the Sarah Palin Effect: so much is already stacked against In This Moment (a metalcore band two to three years after metalcore flickered out with an incredibly attractive frontwoman equipped with a ridiculously provocative sense of fashion) that the bar is set almost comedicaly low. But much like struggling to answer simple follow-up questions during one of your first televised national interviews, any slight hint of competency already exceeds expectations, and by many, will be perceived a victory. I wouldn’t call The Dream, the band’s latest album, a victory by any means, but considering the flaccidity of the genre in which it exists, they manage to ascend from “Why do bands like this still make music?” to “Not that bad, really,” with relative ease. Though by no means a classic, it wobbles between lame metalcore and admirable pop-rock somewhat effortlessly to maybe work their way onto the guilty pleasure heap – no small achievement when considering the ocean of sneers and venom already directed their way before playing a note.

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It’s a really slow fucking news day and I’m bored off my ass, but I found this footage of Made Out of Babies doing the song “Invisible Ink,” off their latest album, The Ruiner, and it kept me entertained for a few minutes, so I thought I’d share it.

The Ruiner is easily one of the best albums of the year, and this is probably my favorite track on the record – it gets stuck in my head at least once a week. It’s epic, it’s catchy, it’s heartbreak, and, oh yeah, Julie Christmas is a babe. So check it out, hopefully it’ll help you pass the remaining hours ’til the work day is done a little faster.

-AR

There must be something in the water; another awesome supergroup has been born. Says a press release delivered by carrier pigeon to the MetalSucks Mansion:

United Nations is a power-violence band that features members of Thursday, Glassjaw, Made Out of Babies, Converge, and other special guests:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_(band)

Full album. Streaming. MySpace. Now. Listen.

-VN

If I told you there were a new supergroup on the block that includes John LaMacchia (Candiria), Jeff Caxide (Isis), Greg Puciato (The Dillinger Escape Plan) and Julie Christmas (Made Out of Babies / Battle of Mice), you’d think the result would be some kind of furious explosion of heavy, right?

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I’ve taken on the thankless assignment of the noise rock beat for Metalsucks and I couldn’t be happier to share my undying love for this savage and atonal subgenre with all you closeted Disturbed fans. From vile legends like Big Black and Helmet to beady-eyed upstarts Pissed Jeans and The Austerity Program, I’m your man; shabbily attired, inconveniently hirsute and altogether uncouth. (I briefly considered taking on a Hebraic pseudonym, as is customary here, but opted against it despite my own Word Jumble of a heritage. For the record, it would have been Moishe Milquetoast.)

Let this first installment of Scraping Genius Off The Wheel (get the reference, win a freaking door prize) serve to remind you all that while the inglorious glory days of Amphetamine Reptile and Touch & Go lie behind us, we socially awkward and hideously acned admirers of this type of music still have plenty to get excited and inappropriately erect over.

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Our “Metal Face” contest was such a hit we figured we’d take it to the next level. In celebration of the release of Made Out of Babies’ excellent new album The Ruiner (read Axl’s review) and its’ kinda hilarious cover artwork (pictured), we’re giving away five Made Out Babies prize packages:

(1) MADE OUT OF BABIES – THE RUINER CD + T-shirt (in your size)
(4) MADE OUT OF BABIES – THE RUINER CD

To win, take a photo of yourself striking your best neanderthal pose, and either post a link in the comments (to your MySpace, Facebook, etc) or send it in to news [at] metalsucks.net. This is intentionally vague — make it funny! (shirts off are encouraged — but no nudity please). Five winners will be chosen next week.

There’s some interesting releases coming out today, and I’ve been meaning to write about a few of them; unfortunately, life got in the way. So without further adieu, I just wanna toss in my two cents…

THE GOOD: MADE OUT OF BABIES, THE RUINER

I’ve had this album for at least a month, and I’ve spent that entire time trying to write a review that would do it justice. But I just can’t find the words; there’s nothing I can write that’s as elegant as what Made Out of Babies have accomplished with this disc.

So let’s simply say this: I love this fucking album. And if you like good music, you owe it to yourself to check it out.

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Because we don’t always agree on shit here at the MetalSucks Mansion, and because I didn’t get my say in Vince’s column, I’m gonna throw in my two cents about some albums that weren’t on Vince’s “Best of ‘08 So Far” list that I would have included:

• Genghis Tron – Board Up the House. Except for Nachtmystium’s new album, this is still the best thing I’ve heard so far this year. Read my review here.
• Made Out of Babies – Ruiner. Holy shit does this album rule. My review is coming up real soon, but everyone should either pre-order a copy or just be prepared to buy one when it drops on June 24.
• Jarboe/Justin K. Broadrick – J2. Like a less industrial Jesu. Gorgeous, aching, awesome. Read my review here.
• Hate Eternal - Fury & Flames. Erik Rutan makes discordance into an art… again. Easily his best work since the Morbid Angel days. Read my review here.
• Origin – Antithesis. The ten minute epic mindfuck of a title track alone means you need to either own this album or beat yourself in the face with a hammer. Read my review here.
• Meshuggah – Obzen. And on the 8th day, God created Meshuggah. And He saw that it was good. Read Kip’s review here.
• Virgin Black – Requiem: Fortissmo. Read My review here.

Believe it or not, I still haaven’t heard this fucking Harvey Milk album everyone is going on about. I think I’ll go do that now.

-AR