Friday, February 13th, 2009 at 11:58am by Vince Neilstein
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!
Thursday, January 22nd, 2009 at 11:10am by Axl Rosenberg
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:
Walt Disney was a Nazi cock sucker.
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.
Tuesday, January 6th, 2009 at 4:00pm by Axl Rosenberg
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.
Friday, December 12th, 2008 at 5:43pm by Vince Neilstein
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.
Tuesday, December 9th, 2008 at 11:00am by Axl Rosenberg
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!!!
Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008 at 10:47am by Vince Neilstein
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.
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.
Monday, December 1st, 2008 at 1:52pm by Vince Neilstein
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…
Friday, November 28th, 2008 at 5:56pm by Vince Neilstein
Before Meshuggah was Meshuggah-ing and mind-fucking the feeble confines of what was rhythmically acceptable to our once feeble metal minds, Dream Theater was pushing the boundaries of mind-fuckery with their crushing masterpiece “The Mirror” on their 1994 album Awake. The section in question is the first minute of the song and the verses, in which John Petrucci plays the same simple chugga-chug pattern throughout while Mike Portnoy constantly changes the rhythm beneath. I think that’s called a polyrhythm (but I could be wrong). Get really stoned and try to wrap your head around this one… it ain’t easy.
“The Mirror” was way ahead of its time; it also is probably the heaviest Dream Theater song to date, or was at least until Train of Thought came out. Regardless, it fuckin’ kills. Enjoy.
Friday, November 7th, 2008 at 11:00am by Vince Neilstein
This is way more metal than the live puppy cam feed I’ve been watching for the past two days (but no less cute). It’s never too early to get ‘em started on the right foot.
Friday, October 31st, 2008 at 10:06am by Vince Neilstein
So a lot of you have been emailing us lately about this band Hacride, a really solid French progressive metal band very much in the Meshuggah / Textures / Benea Reach school. I think they’re pretty F’n cool, even if not entirely original (see also: those bands). Here’s the trippy Aronofsky-esque video for their song “Perturbed.”
Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 at 11:10am by Vince Neilstein
Axl and I discussed going to the 3-day Hellfest metal festival in France this summer, but we’re suckers and we didn’t make it. Here’s some footage of Meshuggah performing “Perpetual Black Second” at said festival this past weekend to make me jealous of those who did.
Thursday, June 19th, 2008 at 10:49am by Vince Neilstein
MetalSucks reader Ramsey K. recently wrote us a letter with the following: “I’m writing to you guys in hope that you will at least post about these two bands that I’m going to mention, because they honestly deserve a lot of recognition for being awesome. I see that you guys like Sikth and Meshuggah and a whole slew of crazy prog metal, so I hope you will at least give these bands a listen or two at their myspaces.”
Touche! The bands in question are Periphery and Bulb, the latter of which is a “solo” project of the guitarist of the former. The headline of this piece pretty much says it all, so if you like those bands then you best check these out.
Also, it turns out that Periphery’s ex-singer Jake Veredika (whose voice is on their MySpace recordings) filled in on vocals for Divine Heresy after Tommy Cummings left / was fired mid-tour in May. Not that this has any bearing on why you should or shouldn’t like these bands. But, ya know, FYI.
Tuesday, June 10th, 2008 at 6:38pm by Axl Rosenberg
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.
Tuesday, June 10th, 2008 at 3:54pm by Vince Neilstein
There must be something in the water in Sweden. Metal is just ingrained in their culture. I was hanging out drinking with a major label pop band last night, five of whose six members are Swedish and at least three of whom were longhairs that I figured might be into metal given their appearance and heritage. Metal is a always a great way to bridge slightly awkward conversation with complete strangers, so I figured why not try? I swung and missed with the keyboardist, more of the jazz type, who nodded politely but seemed otherwise not to give a shit when I tried to slip “In Flames” and “At the Gates” into the conversation. Strike one. I would’n't even need a strike two, ’cause the minute I mentioned Soilwork to the guitar player his hand went up in the air for a high five. We were in full agreement that Stabbing the Drama is one of the best records of the past five years. And it went on from there down familiar paths like “Meshuggah” (he loves obZen), Refused and more.
This story seems way less compelling now that I’ve actually written it down. But, um, it was, like, really cool or something. Kind of like the time I ended up hanging out with Phil Anselmo’s Aunt and Uncle (a story for another time). That red wine / beer combo didn’t hurt either.
Wednesday, May 14th, 2008 at 3:58pm by Axl Rosenberg
I don’t have much to say about Mesuggah’s new video for “Bleed” (directed by by Ian McFarland & Mike Pecci), except that I can’t wait to get home, get high, and watch in it a proper state of mind. It’s almost – almost – on the level of video making we’ve come to expect from Tool.
Wednesday, May 7th, 2008 at 12:00pm by Vince Neilstein
Two bits of Meshuggah news today. First, an interview with the intrepid, strapping young lads of Metal Injection in which drummer Thomas Haake shares his thoughts on the cult status of the “Meshuggahhhhhhh!!!” chants at concerts, his blase attitude about the supposed complexity of the band’s music that most of us mere peons struggle to understand, and the fact that a U.S. headline tour is tentatively scheduled for November. Yes!
Next, we have a spine-tingling trailer for the upcoming music video for “Bleed.” Holy fuck.
Friday, May 2nd, 2008 at 4:44pm by Vince Neilstein
As opposed to Ministry’s headline performance (read Axl’s review), Meshuggah absolutely fucking destroyed last night at NYC’s Irving Plaza. It seems like a good chunk of metalheads at last night’s show in NYC were there strictly for Meshuggah — after all, U.S. tours for the band are few and far between. Eight string guitars? Check. Forward head-banging? Check. Gut-wrenching, precision drumming? Double-check.
What is there really to say about Meshuggah that you don’t already know? They’re fucking awesome, they make your head spin, they are br00tal, yadda yadda. Cosmo Lee of Invisible Oranges (and lots of other mags you read) summed it up better than I possibly could, anyways:
Yet Meshuggah provoke a profound bodily response. People sway, nod their heads, or simply close their eyes. It’s trance music in the true sense. The key is Tomas Haake, whom only Vinnie Paul rivals in steely precision and groove. Meshuggah cut through the testosterone bullshit that “groove” in metal usually entails, and tap into something truly primal. Yes, they’re cerebral – but towards physical ends. Their sonic vice grips probably light up the same areas of my brain that addiction does. Like how certain psychedelic experiences weren’t possible before synthesized drugs, Meshuggah couldn’t have existed 30 years ago. They’re that rare band for whom today’s antiseptic, hyper-compressed production is perfectly appropriate.
Vince and I saw Ministry’s (alleged) farewell tour last night, which is to say, we went to see Meshuggah (who ruled – Vince’ll have a review up a little later I think), and then we decided to stick around for Ministry, who just happened to be the headliners.
There were two distinct crowds at this show, and after Meshuggah concluded their set, suddenly all the long haired dudes with big beards split and the venue was suddenly overflowing with what we might call, for lack of a better term, hipsters, yuppies, and good old fashioned bridge n’ tunnel trash. Ministry took an unbearably long amount of time to set up, mostly, I think, because they perform from behind a chain-link fence that had to be installed (Is Al Jourgensen saying we’re all prisoners of the band, or that the band are prisoners of us all? HE’S SO DEEP!!!). Then the lights dimmed and some intro music started and I thought “Oh, swell. The band is finally gonna come out and play some music now.”
Then the intro music kept going.
And going.
And going.
Seriously, this intro was so long that it’s still happening right now. I’m still standing here, typing this review as the intro music plays, waiting for the band to come out. “Wow,” a friend of ours jokes, “live they sound exactly the same as they do on the CD!” Yes, they’ve decided to go ahead and just play an entire song from the CD over the PA system for their “intro.” And it’s not a short song, either. Another friend wonders aloud why they’ve kept the crowd waiting for so long if they’re not even on stage for the first fifteen hours of their show.
Oh-kay! The band has finally gone on now. They open with “Let’s Go” from The Last Sucker, and suddenly I’m reminded why I never really like Ministry that much: for each song, they find a cool riff, and then just play it over and over and over and over again. Sometimes they find a second cool riff and then play that for too long as a kind of bridge between bouts of playing the original cool riff. Even stoned or drunk, this shit can get real old, real fast. Add to that the fact that Jourgensen, as a performer, strives to be very, um, theatrical, which I usually dig, but, really, he’s not that good at being theatrical. He just kind of comes off like the David Cross character on Arrested Development.
Above, I’ve posted Ministry’s video for “Just One Fix.” It’s a song I generally like, and when I was a young man, I found the video, with its weird William S. Burroughs cameo and kid endless puking, to be genuinely disturbing. It’s how I’d like to remember Ministry – not the way we (allegedly) said “farewell” to them last night.
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!
