MetalSucks

In no particular order…

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These are some of my favorite producers and mixers for heavy music… It’s a challenging genre, and these guys are great in my opinion.

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MetalUnderground.com is reporting that Meshuggah will release a live DVD in early 2010. This is great news for us U.S. Meshuggah fans who get to see the band live, like, never. Except when we got to see them at BonerFest 2009, aka with Cynic and The Faceless — that ruled.

No details have been released yet about when and where the footage for this new DVD was filmed. In the meantime here they are performing “Straws Pulled at Random”; this clip was included on the DVD portion of the re-release of Nothing.

-VN

The UK’s Fellsilent — a Sumeriancore band who are on, duh, Sumerian Records (and Basick in the UK) — have a new video for their track “Immerse” [sent in by Spencer B.]. The video itself is pretty cool with some neat-o lighting effects and a giant mosh pit, and makes me wish I was 19 again and tearing shit up in the pit. The song, on the otherhand… this band’s just got nothing original to offer. Fellsilent like their heroes so much that they cop Meshuggah riffs like they’re on sale at the 99¢ store (not to mention the patented Meshuggah forward-and-back headbang) and they even have two lead vocalists like Sikth, the band from which they steal their rhythm and lead guitar diddly-dos. They’re competent, sure, but being a competent rip-off artist of good bands does not a good band make by association. I call BS on Fellsilent. You be the judge.

-VN

FELLSILENT – Immerse (official video) from Basick Records on Vimeo.

Holy shit, does this band wish it were Meshuggah or what?

I just got an e-mail asking me if I want a copy of their album for review. Thank you, I’m sure you’re very a nice person, but, no, I already have enough shitty CDs sitting on my desk that I’ll probably never find time to review.

-AR

Round about the time this site was jocking the wares of avant-garde prog metallers Sikth and Textures, several of you emailed us about the French band Hacride. And as usual, you were right on the money. While Hacride don’t have the frenetic nature of Sikth nor the epic sense of melody of Textures, they do have the technicality and the brutal grooves of both, which naturally just means they all have a common influence in Meshuggah. But theirs is a slower, more raw version of any of the above; in fact, the band I’d most liken Hacride to is Norway’s Benea Reach — punishing, grooving, articulate, deliberate and beautiful all the same. This is Meshuggah strung out on heroin, lounging back in a dirty old armchair with a cigarette burnt to the filter in one hand and the TV remote control in the other.

The band’s got a new album Lazarus coming out on April 20th, and they’ve posted the song “My Enemy” (all 10 minutes of it!) on their MySpace page. Go listen to that shit! It’s some of the best material Hacride have written to date. And if you like it, pre-order the record with a limited edition Hacride t-shirt on Listenable Records’ MySpace.

-VN

You bitched and moaned about daylight savings time, even though you were asleep when the clocks changed and you get an extra hour of daylight every day until November. You are all retards.

Here’s what else happened this week:

• Sigh’s Mirai Kawashima gave us another studio report (no naked Dr. Mikannibal pics, sorry), Early Man’s Mike Conte got his cheesesteak on, and Neuraxis’ Alexandre Leblanc gave us his final tour blog.
• We spoke with Darkane’s Christofer Malmstrom, Meshuggah’s Marten Hagstrom, Soilwork’s Peter Wichers and Ross the Boss (ex-Manowar)
• Our man-crush on Trent Reznor grew ever greater.
• You argued over who was the most important member of Metallica, past and present.
• We looked at new releases by Razor of Occam and Karl Sanders.
• It was a big week in the Norwegian courts… the Gorgoroth case was settled, and Varg was granted parole.
• Crazytown and Skunk Anansie are getting back together.

Next week Kip and I take off for Austin, TX on Wednesday. We’ll be live-blogging whenever possible. To everyone else, have fun not being there, suckazzz!!

-VN

By all accounts, the Meshuggah / Cynic / The Faceless tour earlier year was exactly the masturbatory dude-fest it promised to be from the get-go. With a lineup like that, how could it be anything less than completely mindblowing? Before the show I had the opportunity to catch up with Meshuggah guitarist Marten Hagstrom. I asked him about the touring lifestyle, how the band’s sound has evolved and changed over the years, Meshuggah’s now near-legendary cult status, and one question that really got his goat about the hoardes of Swedish melodic death metal bands that have grown to popularity in recent years. Our chat, after the jump.

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There are a LOT of Meshuggah rip-off bands these days. Tons of ‘em. But accusing a band of sounding like Meshuggah is a pretty damn fine compliment, and if you asked the lads in Fellsilent what they thought of this comparison they’d likely have an answer similar to Airbourne’s Joel O’Keefe when we asked him about being constantly compared to AC/DC:

It doesn’t matter who you are, you are going to get compared to somebody. To be compared to the best rock and roll band in the business, who are still going today and are about to release another album, there is no higher compliment. I could list a thousand bands that I would not want to be compared to. There are a handful that any band does [want to be compared to]. If you get compared to a band like AC/DC or Motorhead or Rose Tattoo or Iron Maiden or Metallica, you can’t be doing anything wrong because that’s real rock and roll.

Meshuggah certainly don’t have the legacy of AC/DC but in certain circles they’re just as revered. So, that brings us to Fellsilent, the latest in a large stable of excellent new bands signed to Sumerian Records (one band excepted).

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So, as Vince mentioned, we went to see the Mesuggah/Cynic/The Faceless last night. It should go without saying that the show was killer – still, having never seen Cynic or The Faceless live before, I was somewhat unprepared for just how killer the evening turned out to be.

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Saying we’re not beyond stoked for the Meshuggah / Cynic / The Faceless pummeling we’re going to receive tonight would be like saying Wes Borland didn’t re-join Limp Bizkit for the moolah (it’s the nookie… yeah… that’s it). I mean this is pretty much the ultimate prog-metal erectionfest of 2009, whatwith the certain non-metal-itude of this year’s Prog Nation tour, amirite?

Lucky for you, Meshuggah and Cynic have been keeping their own online video channel from the tour. Check this clip of Meshuggah performing “Bleed” in Hollywood, and scroll through the arrows to watch Tomas Haake sound check footage, a Cynic performance, tour diaries and more. Listen to and download two free mp3s below while you’re at it.

Side note: certain MS staffers are still looking for tickets to this. If you got extras, email vince AT metalsucks DOT net.

Meshuggah – “Bleed”
Cynic – “Evolutionary Sleeper”

-VN

Thanks to Metal Injection for pointing out that A Life Once Lost have apparently started work on the follow-up to 2007’s Sacrament, Part II Iron Gag. In a statement, the band said “Now that we’ve heard Lamb of God’s Wrath, we know what our new album should sound like!”

In all seriousness, I shouldn’t give ALOL shit for aping LoG; for one thing, I actually really, really like ALOL’s music, and for another thing, they sometimes ape Meshuggah, too. So…

While we wait for the ALOL album later this year, here’s the band’s video for “Vulture” off of 2005’s Hunter, which is a rabid dog of  a record if ever there was one. That guitar solo is suh-weet!

-AR

If 2008 was the year of Gojira, then 2009 will most certainly be the year every new band looking for some traction starts saying they sound like Gojira. Especially bands from France. Take recent Metal Blade-signees END. (all capitals, followed by a period. not to be confused with The End, the Tool soundalikes from Canada, or The End Records, based right here in New York). A press release announcing the signing informs us that “Much like fellow homeland heroes Gojira, END. pull off a signature sound that can immediately be picked up by the metal critics.”  Sheesh, I guess they have my number!

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One of the many stories we didn’t actually get to discuss this week is the news that The Faceless are the latest metal act to be banned from The Disney-owned House Of Blues in Anaheim, California. Oddly enough, their tour mates in Meshuggah and Cynic were not banned; what makes The Faceless any more (or less) offensive than Meshuggah or Cynic is kinda beyond me (Also beyond me: why people keep booking metal shows at this club that has repeatedly acknowledged it wants nothing to do with metal. But I digress.).

But the dudes in The Faceless can take consolation in these two facts:

1. Walt Disney was a Nazi cock sucker.
2. Immediately following the conclusion of their jizz inducing tour with Meshuggah and Cynic, they will HEADLINE their own jizz inducing tour with Arsis, Misery Index and The Tony Danza Tap Dance Extravanganza.

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It’s only January 7th but already three ridiculously awesome North American tours are planned for the early part of the year:

Soilwork + Darkane + Swallow the Sun + Daylight Dies (in some markets)

Meshuggah + Cynic + The Faceless

The Haunted + Nachtmystium + Kylesa + Intronaut

Like, woah.

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Even before we were an “industry type” (I think we can safely call ourselves that now), I loved the fact that Roadrunner Records posts their staffers and some of the artists “best of” lists every year; these people work at/with one of the biggest metal labels out there, so it’s pretty interesting to see what they were grooving on from year to year.

The 2008 lists are on Roadrunner’s website now. Here are some highlights:

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This coming Monday the entire MetalSucks staff will each release Top 10 lists for the entire year in metal of 2008. Get psyched! Things have been slowing down here at the MS Mansion as the holidays approach, but we still found ways to keep it fun this week:

• Axl Rose finally did some press to support Chinese Democracy… but as usual, there’s an asterisk.
• We debuted a new, exclusive Daath track — a medley of Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel and Dying Fetus covers.
• We interviewed members of Clutch, Bison B.C., Dir En Grey, and Fear Factory / Arkaea.
• Job For a Cowboy’s Jonny Davy blogged about urination and hotel trashing, while Darkest Hour’s Mike Schleibaum’s guest blog claimed that Entombed’s Uprising and Morning Star are two of the most underrated albums of all time. Oh, and The Haunted’s Peter Dolving blogged about sleep.
• Gojira’s Joe Duplantier orders you to stop the killing of baby seals but apparently has no problem with ripping New York City a new arsehole.
• Meshuggah + Cynic + The Faceless = The Erection Tour of 2009.
• The metal industry lost a kindred soul. R.I.P. Adrian Bromley.

Mesuggah and Cynic are teaming up for a North American tour. I’m not even gonna try and be witty or clever or tell you how awesome this is; you either get it, or you don’t, and if you don’t, well, more tickets for the rest of us. I had to read the press release like three times before I was able to convince myself that this is really happening, but, yes, it’s really happening.

Only a handful of dates have been announced so far, which you can get after the jump. While we’re waiting for the rest of the itinerary to be released, try to keep your blood pressure down.

UPDATE: We were just told that The Faceless are doing this tour as well. HOLY SHIT, this just keeps getting better and better!!!

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Fiftywatthead – Fogcutter: The band’s name aptly described their sound, but the name of this record should actually be Ballcrusher. Giant-sized, Mastodonian stoner metal that invokes equal parts Neurosis low-end and Kharma to Burn riffage, but often veers a bit too jammy / rambly for their own good.

Fiftywatthead – “Fogcutter”

Silencer – Divisions: Modern melodo-Euro-death-thrash; like The Arcane Order or Soilwork’s heaviest through the lens of Mnemic or (sometimes, almost) Meshuggah. Good chops and solid songwriting but lacking in the dynamics department both song-wise and vocal-wise. Nevertheless solid.

Silencer – “betrayal and massacre: an overture to germania”

Both albums:

(three out of five horns)

[View Musings Part 1]

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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