Century Media and Metal Blade now have more company in the room: Prosthetic Records is pulling out Spotify, according to an article at L.A. Weekly that includes quotes from Prosthetic owner E.J. Johantgen.
Before you all get uppity on me, I actually think Johantgen has some good reasons for deciding to pull his artists from Spotify, certainly the most well-reasoned I’ve seen yet. That doesn’t mean I agree with his final decision, but they’re good reasons nonetheless and should be discussed. So:
I LOLd for an hour straight on Tuesday cuz my Twitter was blowing up with metal people’s reactions to the Casey Anthony verdict (announced around 4PM EDT). It’s a serious situation, so dudes are mad and lending their two cents. That’s natural. But man, some people think dumb. Actually, know what? I’m just gonna c+p some metal celebrity tweets below. Remember, most of the following mini-declarations are wrought in awful logic, but not everybody on the internet is ignorant and high-horsing this shit to death. Um yeah just go ahead and keep reading and oooh the suspense…
MS contributor Corey Mitchell, ever the deal-hunter, emailed me yesterday about this free sampler that Metal Blade posted on Amazon featuring new music by great bands such as Between the Buried and Me, Primordial, In Solitude, Hate Eternal and more. I went through the whole process of downloading a new Amazon app (despite already having it), installing it, going back to the download page… only to be told the sampler wasn’t available in my territory. Zuh?
Then I realized I was on Amazon.co.uk, so I signed on to regular Amazon.com, searched for and successfully downloaded the sampler. It’s right here for those Americans who want it. But all Brits have to click the other link, above; Japanese folk can probably find it here, French people can presumably click here, Germans can download it here, and Chinese people… fucked if I know. Never mind if you’re Japanese, French, German or any other nationality but you speak English; no, no, no, Amazon will not allow you to download from the U.S. site! Never! Heresy! If you’re Metal Blade, this is a real concern since readers of MetalSucks come from all over the world.
And therein lies the problem; I bring this issue up not to pick on Metal Blade, of course (the same could be said of any release on any label), but to underscore the completely backwards state of our current digital distribution system.
Black Market Activities, the label helmed by The Red Chord frontman Guy Kozowyk, has announced a new distribution and artist development deal with Good Fight Entertainment, bringing to an end their long-standing distribution arrangement with Metal Blade. With that announcement also comes an exciting calendar of new releases set to roll out this summer via BMA:
June 7 – Engineer – Crooked Voices June 7 – Khann – Erode June 21 – Fit For An Autopsy – The Process Of Human Extermination June 21 – Ed Gein - Bad Luck tba – Today Is The Day – Pain Is A Warning
It’s the end of an era for Victory Records; the only two credible metal acts they had on their roster have finished their contracts and are free to sign elsewhere. Darkest Hour ended up on E1, a good fit for a label who has signed a number of already-established metal acts over the past few years (High on Fire, Hatebreed, Black Label Society, Overkill and In Flames, just to name a few). Where will Between the Buried and Me end up? It’s gettin’ to be about that time for them to release an album, whatwith those EP rumors and all.
If I were a betting man I’d put a few fat ones down on the table on BTBAM ending up with Metal Blade. The reason why has nothing to do with the actual music but with the folks behind the scenes. In fact, there’s a good chance the deal is already done, the t’s crossed, the i’s dotted, the ink dried.
The winner of last week’s contest did not follow instructions and neglected to include his email address with his Facebook login comment. Luckily for Christian “Varg” Voltaggio I have his email address from a prior contest and his entry was the only one that even approached funny. So, Christian wins the signed copy of Ozzy’s Scream for coming up with this caption to the picture at right:
“The winners of this photo caption contest as their prize is revealed: an autographed copy of Ozzy’s ‘Scream!’”
Meta-comment for the win. This week we have a huge package of CDs from Metal Blade Records; Hail of Bullets – On Divine Winds, System Divide – The Conscious Sedation, Return To Earth – Automata, Allegation – Fragments of Form and Function, Bison BC - Dark Ages, Dawn of Ashes – Genocide Chapters, and Lightning Swords of Death – The Extra Dimensional Wound. In addition to all of that, the winner will get one t-shirt from every single one of those bands in a size Large! Wow! All of this is being brought to you by Metal Club, a group of record stores throughout the US and Canada that work to connect the metal community with their local record stores by bringing you special metal promotional pieces, exciting in-store events, and a series of exclusive Metal Club releases (such as that Metallica Live at Grimey’s album, Job For A Cowboy’s Ruination Limited Edition 3×10″ vinyl/CD Box Set, and Anthrax’s Live at the Sonisphere Picture Disc, among other items listed here).
You know the rules: to win, just come up with the funniest caption to the below photo, and remember to use a real email address (or post it with your comment if you’re using FB Connect)! Thanks to Stefan Stankevich for sending it in.
The funny thing about the photo for last week’s photo caption contest was that it really did look like either Fenriz or Kid Rock. Has anyone ever pointed out how similar those two dudes look? Anyway, our two winners — who each get a copy of Lightning Swords of Death’s latest The Extra Dimensional Wound and a reissue of Amon Amarth’s 2001 release The Crusher – each posted entries that reflect the duality of the photo’s subject:
BruisedMetal: “Kid Rock blows”
BubbaBu: “Darkblown.”
Well done, kids. This week we’re giving away a FOUR-pack of Metal Blade CDs; the latest releases from Woe of Tyrants, As I Lay Dying, Arma Gathas and Impious. Just come up with a funny caption to the below photo (sent in by James Finch) and the CDs shall all be yours — remember to comment with a real email address (or include it with your comment if you’re using FB Connect).
When I posted about the super-awesome totally FREE Metal Blade / Good Fight / Cool Tour Sampler available at Amazon, little did I realize that the sampler’s opening track is a brand spankin’ new song by none other than our favorite American thrashy melodeathsters The Absence. Silly me, ’cause if I’d bothered to look first instead rushing to get the article up in all my excitement about the freeness/awesomeness of said sampler, I would’ve been very stoked about new Absence music and definitely would’ve let you know about it.
So, allow me to make things right: there’s new Absence music, and it’s free! It’s the title track from their upcoming album Enemy Unbound, ripping live footage of which Axl posted in May, and no surprise, the track kills. We’re very excited for Enemy Unbound, which should be out later this year. So go and download the Metal Blade Sampler now to get the new Absence track — along with songs by Bison B.C., Brain Drill, Istapp, The Ocean, Skyforger, Woe of Tyrants, Cancer Bats, Son of Aurelius and more — for the unbeatable price of free.
When we were kids, getting a free sampler CD along with a magazine or as a promo item in a record store was the coolest thing. The coolest fucking thing! 20 tracks of music for FREE, or for the price you were going to pay for your favorite magazine anyway. And though the Internet has all but done away with the need for CD samplers (and any would-be fan curious about a given band can stream a few tracks on MySpace within minutes), the idea of a free downloadable sampler is still pretty cool because you might find something cool that you’ve never heard before.
The folks at Metal Blade and Hydra Head know this all to well, as both labels are giving away free samplers online highlighting some of their very best artists.
TheMetalDen.com has unearthed what is supposedly the earliest known live video of Slayer, embedded below, performing the classic track “Black Magic” at Anaheim, California’s The Woodstock club on March 28, 1983.
I’m not enough of a Slayer fanboy to know whether this is in fact the oldest known video of the band playing live, but regardless of whether it is or isn’t it’s still pretty damn old and it’s really cool. How ’bout those synchronized stage moves? The band caught the attention of Metal Blade Records head honcho Brian Slagel in the very same club only a few months later, and we all know how that worked out for both parties.
Metal Insider tells us that brand new music streaming service MOG went live yesterday morning. MOG promises a deep library at a $5 monthly fee, and boasts a service “better than Rhapsody, iTunes and Pandora…combined.” [Full disclosure: MOG's advertising arm sells some ad space on this site.] With all four major labels signed on (those being Warner, EMI, Sony and Universal), a $5/month unlimited streaming service is a tantalizing proposition indeed. But the million dollar question on our minds (and undoubtedly yours as well) is: do they have metal?
Without having tested the service yet I’m inclined to say that, surprisingly, the answer is actually “yes.” Century Media, Nuclear Blast, Earache, Willowtip and a few other metal labels are distributed digitally through EMI, so those ought to be covered. Warner holds a majority stake in Roadrunner so that oughtta be a no-brainer. Relapse, Metal Blade and Victory releases are distributed by Red, which is owned by Sony. Those are all the labels at the proverbial metal big kids table right there. Obviously there are plenty of other smaller metal labels, but I’m guessing most of them also have major distribution.
This new MOG service is interesting indeed. If anyone here has tested it out, please let us know in the comments how it fares metal-wise. How does it stack up against the much simpler, sleeker Spotify? Watch a brief description of some of the service’s key features in the video below.
Is it just for me or has Metal Blade been signing bands left and right? I guess in today’s climate of people not paying for music, the more the merrier, right?
Here are a couple of recent Metal Blade signees that I’m really digging at the moment:
Eryn Non Dae: When will lazy journalists stop comparing all French metal bands to Gojira? Oh, wait… oops. But seriously, the other day I read a review of Hacride in Decibel in which the reviewer compared them sonically to Gojira (false) and then said the record may be just as good as The Way of All Flesh (also false — but it is good). Are we even listening to the same band? If not for sharing a home country, these comparisons would never be made; the two bands share very little other than being French, being metal, and being awesome. ANYWAY, Eryn Non Dae are also from France, are also metal, and are also awesome. They do not sound like Gojira (or Hacride); they sound a whole lot more like Meshuggah drums and vocals-wise, with some real different guitar playing in the form of added dissonance and chaotic, frenetic Dillinger-esque passages. They’re pretty f’n cool; if you like the proggy weirdo metal shit I usually recommend, you’re gonna like this. Check ‘em out.
Istapp: The press release announcing Istapp’s signing to Metal Blade has a collective quote from these three Swedes that sums up pretty much everything you need to know about the band:
“We are proud to announce that we have conquered Metal Blade Records. The war against the sun will now proceed with an even stronger force. Our upcoming album “Blekinge” will hit the earth hard. Prepare yourself for the final avalanche!”
Alright, I can get down with that! Istapp play black metal that doesn’t sound like it was recorded inside Varg’s asshole and is actually weirdly catchy. It’s like halfway between Enslaved and 1349 (pre-Revelations of the Black Flame). Curious to hear how this holds up over a full-length release; we’ll find out soon enough.
Wednesday, May 28th, 2008 at 11:05am by Axl Rosenberg
I don’t think there’s anything I could say about Epicurean that would be more elegant than what Kevin Stewart-Panko wrote in the June ’08 issue of Decibel when reviewing the band’s latest album, A Consequence of Design. So I’m just gonna reprint a portion of that review here:
“While every step Epicurean take is drenched in copious melody, it would appear they’re having a hard time deciding whether they want to be Emperor, Dream Theater, Shadows Fall, Children of Bodom or Kalmah. Not that this is a bad thing—or necessarily confusing—as Epicurean’s synthesis is feted by [John] Laramy’s chameleonic vocals, excellent all-around guitar work and keys that artfully balance skill and widdle, with the result being a heck of a lot more interesting than if they just picked one of those individual outfits to emulate. Their synthesis is made all the more potent by their intelligent use of melodies usually heard in Swedish or Norwegian bands, which drape this album in hooks that are as dark and melancholic as they are life-affirming and triumphant; check out ‘The Author and the Architect’ and ‘Illusion.’ But given that they hail from Minnesota—which, according to census figures, might as well be called Little Scandinavia—we shouldn’t be all that surprised.”
MetalSucks.net presents The Metal Blade Fresh Meat Tour w/ The Absence, The Destro, Epicurean, and Rose Funeral (more dates TBA):
06/19 Richland, NJ – Memories Lounge
06/20 Baltimore, MD – Sonar
06/21 Albany, NY – Valentines
06/22 Niagara Falls, ON – The 4555
06/25 Sarnia, ON – Polish Alliance Hall
06/26 Laporte, IN – The Next Level
06/27 Troy, OH – Staunton Garage
06/28 Detroit, MI – Fischer Hall
06/30 Minneapolis, MN – TBA
07/01 Des Moines, IA – Vaudeville Mews
07/02 St. Louis, MO – Rockstar Nightclub
07/03 Tulsa, OK – The Pinkeye
07/05 San Antonio, TX – TBA
07/06 McAllen, TX – Smokin’ Ace
I’ve never met Matt Fox in person, but reading his answers to this all-too-brief interview I recently conducted with him via e-mail, I really, really want to. Fox comes across as intelligent, funny, and, as his band’s name would suggest, a knowledgeable and opinionated sci-fi geek; in other words, he comes across as exactly the kind of dude I’d wanna be friends with.
Shai Hulud’s latest cock punch of metallicized hardcore, the excellently titled Misanthropy Pure, hits stores today via Metal Blade, and if you haven’t heard it yet, well, you need to: it’s a vicious, wholly unique entry into a genre that seems to be growing more tired by the day, an album that genuinely doesn’t sound like anything else on the market right now. Above, watch Shai Hulud’s David Brodsky-directed video for the title track; after the jump, check out Matt’s thoughts on the writing process, the metalcore genre, and, of course, all things sci-fi.
“How fuckin’ metal? So fuckin’ metal that in bar fights they can only bitch slap their opponents, because hitting them with a closed fist is the legal equivalent of beating someone with an aluminum baseball bat. So fuckin’ metal that they piss hot molten lead and shit lug nuts. So fuckin’ metal that the first thing they do every morning is lather themselves in WD-40. So fuckin’ metal that if they go out in the rain, they rust. So fuckin’ metal that if they go to the beach, they can’t go into the ocean because they’ll sink right to the bottom. So fuckin’ metal that Unearth frontman Trevor Phipps signed them to his Ironclad label after he discovered them during a mining expedition. So fuckin’ metal that they readily loses electrons to form positive ions, and if you put them in a room with a non-metal band, they’d form an ionic bond.”
Still apples, dude. Still applies.
Here’s their video for “Beast Burden.”
MetalSucks.net presents The Metal Blade Fresh Meat Tour w/ The Absence, The Destro, Epicurean, and Rose Funeral (more dates TBA):
06/19 Richland, NJ – Memories Lounge
06/20 Baltimore, MD – Sonar
06/21 Albany, NY – Valentines
06/22 Niagara Falls, ON – The 4555
06/25 Sarnia, ON – Polish Alliance Hall
06/26 Laporte, IN – The Next Level
06/27 Troy, OH – Staunton Garage
06/28 Detroit, MI – Fischer Hall
06/30 Minneapolis, MN – TBA
07/01 Des Moines, IA – Vaudeville Mews
07/02 St. Louis, MO – Rockstar Nightclub
07/03 Tulsa, OK – The Pinkeye
07/05 San Antonio, TX – TBA
07/06 McAllen, TX – Smokin’ Ace
We didn’t lead you astray with the MetalSucks co-sponsored Paganfest, and we certainly wouldn’t dare do so with any other tour we put our name on. We are extremely proud to announce that MetalSucks will be sponsoring this Spring’s ‘Metal Blade Fresh Meat’ tour, featuring Metal Blade young guns The Absence, Ironclad Recordings’ The Destro, as well as Epicurean and Rose Funeral! Get pumped. And get ready to get sick of hearing us talk about this tour.
MetalSucks.net presents The Metal Blade Fresh Meat Tour w/ The Absence, The Destro, Epicurean, and Rose Funeral (more dates TBA):
06/19 Richland, NJ – Memories Lounge
06/20 Baltimore, MD – Sonar
06/21 Albany, NY – Valentines
06/22 Niagara Falls, ON – The 4555
06/25 Sarnia, ON – Polish Alliance Hall
06/26 Laporte, IN – The Next Level
06/27 Troy, OH – Staunton Garage
06/28 Detroit, MI – Fischer Hall
06/30 Minneapolis, MN – TBA
07/01 Des Moines, IA – Vaudeville Mews
07/02 St. Louis, MO – Rockstar Nightclub
07/03 Tulsa, OK – The Pinkeye
07/05 San Antonio, TX – TBA
07/06 McAllen, TX – Smokin’ Ace
Amon Amarth have a new album presumably coming later this year (they’re currently in the studio) via Metal Blade Records. But in the meantime, Metal Blade and Amon Amarth have launched a website that coincides with a comic book the band will be rolling out over the next several weeks. The story is about “Ragnarök, Norse mythology and the end of the world.”
Just take a look at the website. In no other genre of music would something so outrageous, and yes, slightly ridiculous, be acceptable in any way, shape or form. But us metalheads — at least those of us smart enough to check our serious tough-guy faces at the door — revel in this kind of kitsch. Brilliance indeed. Amon Amarth has really got the market cornered as far as this kind of stuff goes.
And of course we can’t wait for the new Amon Amarth record! After all, it was an Amon Amarth show that sparked Axl and I to start this website. That and a little of your finest greenery.
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“Man, do I feel sorry for you,” Brian Patton tells me as he chain smokes his way through what must be at least his seventh cigarette in the last hour. “You gotta transcribe this with my accent!” He’s referring to the Nawlins drawl which gives Patton and his Soilent Green bandmates – vocalist Ben Falgoust (also of Goatwhore), drummer Tommy Buckley (also of Crowbar), and bassist Scott Crochet (also of Hostile Apostle) – the easygoing air of southern gentlemen. It’s a little off putting, actually, considering that a) these dudes make some fucking furious death/grind/sludge and b) have endured about as much hardship as a band possibly could, including line-up changes, label changes, murder/suicides, and, of course, the wretched effects of Hurrican Katrina on their native turf.
But the band seems unphased, and with good reason: they have an awesome new album, Inevitable Collapse in the Presence of Conviction, coming out on their new label, Metal Blade, on April 15; and just twenty four hours prior, they completed shooting performance footage for the video of their new single, “Antioxidant,” with director David Brodsky (it’s that clip above, and you should definitely watch it at least twice – it’s arguably Brodsky’s best work to date).
I was lucky enough to fulfill every fan’s wet dream of having dinner with the band the night after the shoot; afterwards, Patton let me grab a few minutes to pick his brain about the new album, producer Erik Rutan, the state of metal today, the influence of non-metal music on Soilent Green’s work, and more. Read the full transcript after the jump.
Buried in a Metal Injection review of the Arcane Order’s recent release In the Wake of Collisions (which we also wrote up) was this excerpt taken from the Metal Blade Records press release that accompanied the album:
Metal Blade Records is starting to release ‘Digital Only’ releases, which means these releases will only be available to consumers as digital albums and will not be carried as physical releases in stores. What this means for you is basically that you will only receive these releases as digital downloads to check out for review or interview consideration. We will not be making up physical copies to service as we will not be making physical copies up for sale.
This is pretty big news. Given, The Arcane Order isn’t exactly a huge band and Metal Blade probably wouldn’t attempt this (YET!) with releases from higher profile bands like As I Lay Dying or The Black Dahlia Murder — but still, this is a big, bold step forward. The digital market isn’t prevalent enough yet that labels have been willing to risk foregoing CD sales dollars, but it seems that for lower profile acts it makes sense. Money saved on manufacturing and shipping costs is money that can be spent on marketing. It also encourages fans to share music they like with their friends, and though some might argue that this cuts into sales — and perhaps it does — I think that the sales it cuts into are negligible for a low-profile act (people seem to forget that we’ve been burning copies of CDs for our friends for years, and dubbing tapes before that). Furthermore I believe that the value of spreading the music outweighs whatever lost sales there may have been, especially for a newer band.
And apparently, so does Metal Blade. It’s not easy being the first and it takes a fair amount of balls to do so. Metal Blade should be commended for this revolutionary, forward-thinking new way of doing business. Watch as the rest of the record label world follows suit.
Is it just for me or has Metal Blade been signing bands left and right? I guess in today’s climate of people not paying for music, the more the merrier, right?
Buried in a 
