In the days since Megaupload was shut down last week, a new story has come to light that defenders of Megaupload are claiming illuminates a conspiracy by the U.S. government and major record labels to squash competition in the form of a new service Megaupload was planning to launch. And I’m about to squash that theory.

Before you read any further, please check out this hilarious set of photos of Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom (his momma named him Kim Schmitz) doing… all sorts of things. OK… you’re back? Read on.

The article in question, which was actually published back on December 21, 2011 by Digital Music News, claims that Megaupload was getting ready to launch a digital music store and cloud locker service called Megabox in which they’d pay 90% of revenue to artists. Intriguing, right? MetalSucks readers who have been emailing us about this article and nerds on Internet message boards have been up in arms over the past few days, claiming that Universal Music Group — with whom Megaupload was actively engaged in litigation — crushed Megaupload to squelch the supposed oncoming competition from Megabox. I call bullshit.

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via Topless Robot

I would give anything for that to be the actual James Bond theme music from now on, wouldn’t you?

ANYWAY, here’s some shit we did this week:

• We spoke to Neige from Alcest and SL from The Devil’s Blood.
• Lazarus A.D.’s Jeff Paulick got pissed the Packers losing.
• We checked out the latest releases from Nails, Skin Like Iron, Fatal Birth, and No Tolerance.
• We previewed some more more Albums That Will Fuck Your Face Off in 2012: 7 Horns 7 Eyes, Crazy Lixx, Wormed, and Imperial State Electric.
• We got excited about the rumored line-ups for both Summer Slaughter and Mayhem Fest.
• We helped Godsmack, Staind, and Halestorm name their new tour.
• We enjoyed Juliet’s video for “My First Hardcore Song.”
• We suffered through a bad trip with The Dillinger Escape Plan’s Greg Puciato.
• We felt bad for Trivium — poor bastards have to go tour with Asking Alexandria.
• We pondered whether the shutdown of Megaupload was good or bad.

And don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter for all the most up-to-date suckitude.

See ya Monday, folks!

-AR

Wednesday was a big day for the Internet, as protests by Google, Wikipedia, Reddit and thousands of other websites not only raised general awareness of the dangers of the SOPA and PIPA bills working their way through Congress but also convinced a significant number of lawmakers to withdraw their support of the bills. While piracy is a big problem that needs to be addressed, SOPA and PIPA would fail to solve that problem while inadvertently trampling all over free speech rights and stifling innovation — Wednesday’s protests were a huge victory for you, MetalSucks, and everyone.

But Internet advocates took a big blow yesterday when it was announced that the U.S. government shut down the popular file-sharing site Megaupload. The timing seems apt given all the SOPA/PIPA hooplah, but that actually strikes me as a coincidence — you can’t just suddenly wrap up a long ongoing investigation in 24 hours.

Here’s something that’s probably going to surprise a lot of people who regular read my columns about the music industry, Spotify, SOPA/PIPA, etc: I actually have no problems with Megaupload being shut down. Good riddance.

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The most anticipated leak since, well, the last time songs from Chinese Democracy leaked, has hit the Internet. Only this time it’s the whole, final, mixed, mastered shebang (albeit in 128kbps MP3s), 6 days ahead of its official release. If you’ve got Google and a brain you should know how to find this, and if you can’t find it this minute just wait until later today — it’ll surely be all over. I wonder if sites like rapidshare, sendspace, megaupload and their ilk will actually notice an uptick in traffic today due to the “Chinese Democracy effect?” I’d say it’s likely. And no, we won’t post a link, so don’t ask.

To those who have it already: thoughts?