So, hey, remember Red Lamb, the new project from former Anthrax guitarist Dan Spitz and forever Megadeth boss Dave Mustaine (and once upon a time called DeuxMonkey)? Well, guess what? Their self-titled debut full-length was released on Friday via iTunes. And you’d think that first album from a band featuring two founding members of Big Four bands would be treated like a huge event and reported on by every metal news outlet in the galaxy, but it wasn’t, because there was no press release sent out, and the only official announcement came earlier today via the band’s Facebook page. So, that seems pretty weird.

Also weird: yeah I don’t think Mustaine actually had anything to do with this record.

Here is my evidence:

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Jeff Loomis has been teasing a new solo album since July of last year, with increasingly juicy bits of information slipping out all the time — like the fact that it will feature guest appearances from multiple former Megadeth guitarists (namely, Marty Friedman and Chris Poland), PLUS Tony MacAlpine, PLUS, oh yeah, some dude named Ihsahn.

Now here’s the most important tidbit yet: the album will be called Plains of Oblivion, and will be out on April 10. That’s the cover art below, and it looks appropriately epic to me.

One more thing: the track list for the album has also been released. I generally find track lists boring and not-newsworthy (“Ooh! There’s a song called ‘Escape Velocity!’” Okay, whatever, let me know when I can actually hear the damn song.), but in this particular instance, I think the track list actually is kinda newsworthy, for one simple reason: it lets us know that Attila Vörös, who was a live co-guitarist for Loomis in Nevermore, is also on the album. So, y’know, more reasons to get excited.

April 10 cannot come soon enough…

-AR

Former Megadeth guitarist Marty Friedman has posted the following end-of-year message on his official web site. And even though these kinds of things are usually boring as hell, the video includes some new music he’s been working on, so it’s definitely worth a look. Check it out:

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Last week Relapse Records gave us two copies of Abysmal Dawn’s reissued album From Ashes to give away in our Photo Caption Contest. The lucky winners are:

• Ben Alden: “Even though Uncle Ted was out on tour this Christmas, the Nugent family still had their best Christmas card yet.”
• Chief: “Oh good, they renewed Sarah Palin’s Alaska.”

This week we’ve got four large, full-color lithographs of the cover artwork from Megadeth’s United Abominations album, beautifully printed on a nice, thick-stock artist paper. The dimensions of the paper are 20″ x 16″, with the printed area measuring 17.5″ x 9.5″. These things are sweet — check out a photo here – and if you win one you’re definitely gonna wanna frame it so I’ll mail it to you in a cylindrical poster shipping tube to keep it fresh. The instructions to enter, in case you somehow don’t know by now: leave a comment with the funniest caption to the photo below (sent in once again by Jason Solomon). Remember to use a real email address (or post it along with your comment if you’re using FB Connect / Twitter etc).

UPDATE: I know the links keep getting pulled. I’ll try to re-update the vids as often as possible. Sometimes I might have to use live vids instead of studio recordings, depending on what’s available. Apologies.

If my headline seems oddly dry and straightforward, it’s because I’m running out of things to say about these mediocre new songs from the mediocre Death Magnetic that Metallica played as part of their four-night  thirtieth anniversary celebration at the Fillmore in San Francisco. (You can listen to the first two here and here.) I guess it’s good to know Metallica wrote four extra songs in the gajillion years it took them to make Death Magnetic, because, uh, at least they were being productive.

Anyway, these both suck, but if you care –

“Hell and Back”

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It was a week of polar opposites: on one hand, butt rock ruled as Disturbed nabbed the #1 spot on the Current Hard Music charts with Five Finger Death Punch and Evanescence firmly entrenched in second and third place. On the other hand Animals as Leaders scored a big debut, a big victory in the name of all that is right in the music world. As I Lay Dying and Rush also sold well. Let’s take a look at those and more after the jump.

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…Max Cavalera recently revealed during a radio interview (video above) that he’s working on his autobiography with British journalist Joel McIver, who has previously penned such metal-themed tomes as The Bloody Reign of Slayer and Justice for All: The Truth about Metallica. The forward will apparently be written by Dave Grohl, who collaborated with Cavalera as part of his Probot project back in ’04.

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That sound you hear is the echo of corks popping off the champagne bottles at Dave Mustaine’s house; for the first time ever (?), a Megadeth record outsold a Metallica record in its debut week. It’s not a proper Metallica album, and what it is is a steaming pile of turds, but it’s still gotta feel like something of a victory for Mustaine. And that it comes in the form of the #1 Hard Music album in the U.S. has gotta feel absolutely great, too.

Elsewhere, Steel Panther had a great debut week while Krisiun, Sick of it All and Vallenfyre also made the Top 100 on the Current Hard Music charts.

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Geez, this new Megadeth video sure does have a lot of monkeys in it.

Here are some questions I have after watching this video. Please let me know if you can answer any of them.

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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…

We’ve done three special one-off Decibels now, and have pimped them in this very spot like Jodie Foster in Taxi Driver (you can do anything you want with them… but no rough stuff, all right?). The one you see above is my favorite, not necessarily because I prefer thrash to black metal or a general ’90s metal countdown, but because a shark eating a skeleton eating a pizza is only half the fucking cover art by acclaimed metal artist Andrei Bouzikov (Municipal Waste, Skeletonwitch, Cannabis Corpse).

Anyway, the content is just as choice: a galloping rundown of the top 50 thrash albums of all time, buffered by seven radical Hall of Fames:

Slayer, Reign in Blood
Anthrax, Among the Living
Testament, The Legacy
Metallica,  …And Justice for All
Megadeth, Rust in Peace
Anacrusis, Reason
Prong, Beg to Differ

The latter three are exclusive to this issue, duh. If you’re wondering why the Big Four haven’t been fully represented in the Hall until now, well, it took years of busting ass from writer Chris Dick to make it happen. (Which you probably could’ve guessed—I mean, it’s Megadeth.) But it’s really funny and harsh and long—I’m sure I’ll post some deleted scene action here someday, since we basically had to cut it in half. Anyway, the Thrash HOF issue is available only in Decibel’s webstore and select indie record shops (go here to find a store near you). If you missed out on our previous special issues, we’ve put together this triple-threat bundle for extreme convenience. You’re welcome.

Any other thrash-centric HOFs you wanna see in the future? Comment away.

-AB

You can order this very special one-off issue right here. And, of course, the December 2011 issue of Decibel – which features Megadeth, Municipal Waste, Animals as Leaders, Landmine Marathon, Hammers of Misfortune, and an awesome Goatwhore flexi disc – can be ordered here. But why not just get a full subscription to ensure that you never miss one an issue?

Not a bad week of releases immediately following Devil’s Night and some holiday called Halloween. This week is heavy on the awesome black metal, with Taake and Throne of Katharsis releasing sweet records today, as well as new shit from Megadeth, Steel Panther, Sick of It All, Dreaming Dead, Krisiun and more. Check it all out after the jump.

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Last month it was confirmed that Gigantour would be back for a 2012 go-round shortly after Dave Mustaine let it slip that Megadeth would be touring with Motorhead, Volbeat and Lacuna Coil. Dates for the trek were released today, which you will find after the jump. But I’m still not sold on the idea of this tour as “Gigantour,” though; what’s so “gigantic” about it?

In 2005 and 2006, Gigantour’s first two years, the fest featured a two-stage / all-day format, not dissimilar to what Rockstar Mayhem does now and Ozzfest did back then. So how is the 2012 Gigantour any different than any Megadeth + special guests tour? The lineup is sweet, sure, but there’s nothing gigantic about this tour. As Axl claimed all the way back in January of 2008 when the Megadeth / In Flames / Bodom / High on Fire / Job For A Cowboy edition of Gigantour was announced, calling this thing “Gigantour” is false advertising. One’s thing for certain: with those bands on the bill the ticket price is certainly going to be gigantic.

I guess it all comes down to marketing; perhaps Mustaine and his handlers have discovered that they can sell more tickets with the Gigantour brand than they can with the Megadeth name atop a show flyer. If that’s the case, well, I guess they deserve a pat on the back for finding a clever way to get their fans to plunk down their hard-earned Benjamins when they otherwise might not.

Those tour dates after the jump:

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As of this writing, I’ve listened to Megadeth’s TH1RT3EN all the way through only once, but I’m kinda sad to say I think it’s good but not great. The problem is that, frankly, there just aren’t enough good songs — basically, the same problem I had with United Abominations. By count, more than half of the album is pretty boring; Endgame‘s track record was far superior. (I’m not even gonna get into classic ‘Deth.)

So I understand why the band has now released “Black Swan” — it’s definitely one of the best songs on TH1RT3EN. In fact, I’d say with its unveiling, you have now heard all but one of the best numbers on the record: “Sudden Death,” “Public Enemy No. 1,” and “Never Dead” were all previously released. If you don’t dig these lil’ ditties, well, I doubt the rest of TH1RT3EN will win you over.

Check out “Black Swan” below and let us know what you think in the comments section. Roadrunner will release TH1RT3EN on November 1.

-AR

[via Metal Injection]

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…

I’m kind of scared to interview Dave Mustaine. Not because I have a Vic Rattlehead backpiece and placekick my cat every time she comes within three feet of my Peace Sells… vinyl box. And not because he’s an intimidating, confrontational guy with a scary-low tolerance for perceived affronts. Mostly because he has a tendency to ramble like the bum downstairs who just tried to buy one of my smokes for a quarter, and we don’t have a Decibel intern right now who would transcribe that clusterfuck for me. Luckily, Jeff Treppel is a true believer with infinite patience, and he did an unsurprisingly stellar job on December’s Megadeth cover story.

It’s about time we gave MegaDave a cover all to himself (he shared the glory with Testament and Slayer back in February of ’10). Hell, there are plenty of occasions to commemorate. The oddly stylized new record is, in fact, number TH1RT3EN, and Dave just celebrated the big 5-0 with a (literally) backbreaking Big Four homecoming. Most surprising of all, he comes off as legitimately introspective and humble for the duration of the piece. And bonus: the cover image is just the right blend of really cool and disarmingly creepy. The December ish also features a super-exclusive interview Jef Whitehead of Leviathan (speaking of confrontational), as well as Daniel Ekeroth’s favorite new-school Swedish death metal bands, stories on Absu, Animals as Leaders, Muni Waste and… yeah, you can see it all for yourself right there on the cover.

-AB

The December 2011 issue of Decibel also features Landmine Marathon, Hammers of Misfortune, and an awesome Goatwhore flexi disc, and can be ordered here. But why not just get a full subscription to ensure that you never miss one an issue?

I like new-era Megadeth. There, I said it.

Endgame was sweet. United Abominations was sweet. Even The System Has Failed had some really good songs (although it had some duds too). No, MegaDave’s not breaking new ground or upping the ante, but when you’ve been doing it for 30 years already that’s not really expected. Sick riffs and decent songs are enough for me, and the last few albums have had tons of ‘em. For fuck’s sake, people en masse give Slayer a pass and they’ve written the same album ad nauseam forever.

But nothing involving Megadeth comes without controversy. Axl and I have both really been digging the first and second songs to be released from Megadeth’s admittedly embarrassingly titled TH1RT3EN, but the comments I’ve been seeing from you all on MS have been full of venom. “That main riff is suspiciously similar to ‘Hanger 18′.” “This track sounds like a leftover from Cryptic Writings- modern rock radio garbage.” “You gotta be trolling saying this is a good song.” “The lyrics sound like it was a bands first attempt at lyrics.” And on and on and on, with tons of negative comment “Likes” to boot. Can’t we all just get along?? Why can’t we just headbang together? Why’s everything gotta reinvent the wheel??? No wonder Dave Mustaine’s so f’ed up… dude’s been a lightning rod for most of his life.

A third song from wE SP4Ll lIkE 12-yEaR oLDs in Ao-HeLL-ChAtRoOmS-CiRCa-1994 premiered on Full Metal Jackie’s radio show last night; its subject matter is coincidental given my rant above. I liked the first two songs from the album more than this one, but it sure ain’t bad at all — lotsa sick Megadethy riffs. Have a spin below, then sound off in the comments:

-VN

Thanks: James Mullen

Holy shit, this is at least the second funniest thing I’ve seen all day. I have no idea where these old interviews are from or exactly what year they were conducted (I mean clearly it’s the early 90s sometime but I don’t know the precise dates or anything), but they are absolutely priceless, and definitely a must-watch. Highlights include:

• James Hetfield when he was still drunk, mean, and inarticulate.
• Scott Ian discussing offering to help a friend kill Joey Belladonna “and his chick and then bury them in one of his unused wells where they’ve been digging for water.” (Ian and Belladonna obviously get along much better now.)
• Kirk Hammett saying that if Dave Mustaine had never been fired from Metallica, “I would be playing with Megadeth… well, with better vocals, though. ‘Cause I can sing better than that guy.”
• Someone massacring a copy of So Far, So Good… So What? with a shotgun.
• Interviews with some of the smartest metal fans in the history of the genre.

Seriously, drop what you’re doing and watch this, you will not regret it.

-AR

Major props to Shane Gillis for sending this in!!!

Last week Dave Mustaine let it slip that Megadeth would be touring with Motörhead, Volbeat, and Lacuna Coil “this year coming up,” and now Noisecreep has confirmed that that tour is, indeed, a go, and is, as we suspected, the newest incarnation of Gigantour. Of course, in a day and age where there are routinely massive multi-band package tours like Mayhem and Summer Slaughter, there’s really nothing gigantic about it, but, hey, the line-up is good enough that there’s no point nitpickin’ the name.

And the really good news is, the tour will apparently take place from January through March, so our concerns that this was gonna be yet another big summer tour are now eased, and we have something to look forward to in the cold winter months. Also, it’s a safe bet that Lacuna Coil’s Cristina Scabbia, who voice is good enough that she’s still in the band despite looking like the kid from Mask, will probably be doing “A Tout Le Monde” with Megadeth every night, and I’m all in favor of anything that will mean Dave Mustaine has to do less singing.

There are no dates yet, but we’ll let you know as soon as there are, natch.

-AR

I really liked “Public Enemy No. 1,” the first single from Megadeth’s forthcoming TH1RT3EN, and I liked it even more after I heard the band perform it live at the Big Four show earlier this month. But based on the comments below our story about that song, it seems like you guys really weren’t feeling it.

Hopefully, you’ll dig the second song released from that album, “Never Dead,” more. It has a really classic-sounding Mustaine riff, and while I think the hook could be a little stronger, it still beats the heck outta anything on United Abominations. BONUS: There is no spoken-word poetry to be heard on the whole thing.

TH1RT3EN comes out November 1 via Roadrunner.

-AR

Back in July, Dave Mustaine announced that he was bringing Gigantour back in 2012, and now, in an interview with Street Date (above – skip to the 3:00 mark), Mustaine claims that Megadeth will soon be touring with Motörhead, Volbeat, and Lacuna Coil “this year coming up.” That’s a pretty loose time frame ,so it’s not clear if he’s referring to Gigantour or just a regular Megadeth tour. Although, come to think of it, Gigantour hasn’t had a second stage since 2006, meaning it’s usually just been a four or five band package anyway, so, uh, I’m not really sure what would differentiate this from a “proper” Gigantour.

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via WWTDD

So much of this week ended up being devoted to the Big Four that I honestly don’t wanna think about any of those bands again for at least the remainder of the year. So to wrap this shit up, here’s everything Big Four-related we did this week:

• We live snarked the Big Four show at Yankee Stadium.
• We went to an Anthrax press conference.
• We went to the Metal Masters clinic and saw Phil Anselmo jam some Pantera with various Big Fourers.
• We debated the merits and demerits of Anthrax’s Worship Music.
• We listened to Lars Ulrich on Howard Stern.
• We had fun at the expense of Dave Mustaine’s faith.
• We had a Big Four edition of Show Us Your Metalsucks.
• We helped Metal Injection with their Big Four-themed Livecast.
• I also made an appearance in Metal Injection’s Big Four video recap, which you MUST watch because a) it’s awesome and b) I’m so handsome!