MetalSucks

For those of you not from the U.S. and somehow completely unaware of this, the Fourth of July is a pretty big deal here in America. On that day, we celebrate winning our freedom by kicking the British’s ass. Of course, they later gave us Hugh Grant, so I guess they had their revenge in the end.

So there won’t be any posts tomorrow; on Monday, we’ll unveil the last albums on the list. In the meantime, here’s some things that happened this week in the world of MetalSucks:

• We continued to countdown the 21 Best Metal Albums of the 21st Century… So Far. You continued to engage in, um, intelligent debate. Yeah, let’s call it intelligent debate.
• We spoke with Goatwhore’s Ben Falgoust and Black Math Horseman’s Sera Timms.
• We checked out new releases from Killswitch Engage and Havok.
• Daath’s Eyal Levi took a break from worrying about dying in fiery plane or car crash to worry about getting shot.
• We debated the merits of the new Alice in Chains song.
• We laughed at high school year book photos of past and present members of Metallica.

I plan to not be sober for the next 72 hours. See ya Monday!

-AR

There’s something reassuring about knowing that people one sometimes considers cooler than him or herself were not, in fact, always so cool.

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I’m a disorganized mess today (fucking monkeys had a late night rager and trashed the Mansion last night) so I can’t figure out who sent in this merengue cover of Metallica’s “Enter Sandman,” but whoever it was…. uhh, thanks dude. It’s pretty ace.

…will be called Endgame, and is “expected to be released in September through Roadrunner Records.”

And since we’re all about starting shit here at MetalSucks, let me get the ball rolling on this little discussion: with the Big Four all releasing new albums within the time span of about a year, where will this new Megadeth record stand? It’s hard to imagine it won’t be better than Death Magnetic, but, personally, I’m more excited for the latest release from Slayer and more curious about Anthrax’s Worship Music.

While you’re pondering you own feelings about a new Megarelease, here’s the band doing one of my favorite songs from the last record they put out that really got my dick hard…

-AR

This week in Soundscan, supergroup Chickenfoot shifted a ridiculous number of records. I’m baffled too. Elsewhere, Iron Maiden had a solid debut and bands like Nickelback, Hollywood Undead, Shinedown, Slipknot, and Metallica continued on with business as usual.

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-AR

[via Metal Injection]

This is too well-done for words. So… just watch.

Between this and yesterday’s Black Metal Skateboarding video, Protest the Hero are gonna have some serious competition if they can’t get a follow-up to their Van Breakdown Dance video together by year’s end.

Thanks to MS Maniac Steve S. — he of the infamous Reb Beach fail — for sending this in.

-VN

Have you ever popped in a CD that you knew nothing about beforehand, had no expectations of whatsoever, and were so completely blown away by what lay within the “grooves” that you were forced to reconsider everything you thought about the state of heavy metal?

Nah, me neither.

That is…until I heard Mantic Ritual’s Executioner.

The Pittsburgh, PA thrash band, formerly known as Meltdown, have recently earned raves from the Godfather of Thrash, one Mr. James Hetfield*. That may be damning with faint praise these days, but the Metallica frontman is absolutely, 100% correct in his assessment that Executioner is the “Best Debut Thrash Album” of 2009.

I’ll go much further and stake my claim that Mantic Ritual’s Executioner is the best debut album by a band of any musical genre since the aforementioned Metallica’s Kill ‘Em All was released way back in 1983.

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Reader Eddie Linquist sent us this photo, which he took at Worlds of Fun in KC. He didn’t have more info, and I can’t find anything about it on Google, so if someone knows more about what the crap this is, let us know. In the meantime, I’m fairly certain the Metallicattorneys are gonna be on this like white on rice, if their past track record is any indication…

-AR

MS Maniac Chti M. sent in this self-made mash-up of Metallica’s “Sad But True” and Ice Cube’s “Today Was a Good Day.” Cool tribute or lame? You tell us.

-VN

A few years ago Slayer performed Reign in Blood in its entirety, a year later Metallica did Master of Puppets, and now Exodus are gonna do Bonded by Blood, Judas Priest are doing British Steel, Motley Crue are doing Dr. Feelgood, Ratt are doing Out of the Cellar, Aerosmith are doing Toys in the Attic, Melvins are doing Houdini, etc. What does the MetalSucks Haterade Mafia think; is this trend lame, or is it cool?

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Invisible Oranges posted this pretty incredible footage of Metallica rehearsing in the summer of ‘92 with Metal Church’s John Marshall, who was the band’s guitar tech that was called up to step in on rhythm guitars when Hetfield suffered severe burns from a pyro accident on the band’s stadium tour with Guns N’ Roses. I think it’s pretty surreal to be reminded that Metallica have to rehearse just like everyone else.

Invisible Oranges also pointed the way to this blog by Marshall about attending Metallica’s induction to the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame a few weeks back. It’s a fun read, but it also has an actual photo of Pushead, who I’ve never seen before, and who in no way, shape, or form looks the way I’d imagined. THE ILLUSION IS RUINED!!!

-AR

To celebrate Metallica’s induction into the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame a few weeks back, Fuse generously donated Metallica’s entire discography to one lucky MetalSucks reader. We asked you to tell us your favorite Metallica song and why it’s your favorite; we meticulously sorted through the entries (yup, we really read all of ‘em), and we’re happy to announce that Bryan Wall is the lucky man. Read Bryan’s hilarious “ball busting” entry in its entirety, below; it seriously had my laughing out loud all 3 times I read it!

My favorite song is Damage, Inc because it saved me from getting Tabasco Sauce on my balls. True Story.

When I was 18 and a freshman in college I pledged a fraternity (ridiculous things seemed important at 18, but I did it and it was fun and I really have no excuses), and it’s no secret that hazing takes place in fraternities. The one I was in was pretty notorious for vicious hazing, and vomiting and constant physical pain were how I spent my first 10 weeks of school. Great times. This being 1999, there were a few guys that were 2 or 3 years older than me that had grown up in the heyday of Thrash and were still very legitimate metalheads. They found out that I played guitar in metal bands before college, and that I also knew how to play almost every song on the first three Metallica albums. This alone saved me more misery than any ass-kissing could have ever done. One guy in particular, Jim, was an obsessed Metallica fan and would force me (I was a pledge, after all) to sit in his room and play the Master of Puppets album on his shitty electric guitar while he and his drunk friends screamed along. This usually lasted for hours, but it was fun so I really didn’t care.

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The big frickin’ deal week before last was Metallica’s induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in Cleveland. Last week, the focus of the Metal community’s honor is Metallica’s Lucifer, Dave Mustaine, at The Epiphone Honda Fury Revolver Magazine Golden Gods Awards. Anti-Metallica sentiment was aired freely and to shouts of encore! The name of Mustaine’s band was chanted pretty much all night (poor Atreyu guy). The event went down at Club Nokia in downtown L.A. on Tuesday night hosted by Rodrigo from Mr. Show (Brian Posehn). Honestly? It was pretty awkward and not very Metal. A ton of Metal people were there, mostly ticket buyers. The vibe started a bit chilly outside the venue, then spiked at Killswitch Engage and Maynard James Keenan (not together) before a nosedive from which even Megadeth could not recover. I had a GREAT TIME! Photos by Adam Haussman.

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Baseball season officially got underway and New England Metal and Hardcore Fest is coming up next weekend. Surely all is peachy in the world then, yeah? Not so much.

• Dave Mustaine feuded with a mystery band, then kissed and made up before we even knew it.
• Protest the Hero released a new video and gave us a bunch of tickets for their tour to give away.
• We spoke with Daath’s Eyal Levi and TAD/Tadgarden’s Tad.
• Kip W. gave us two recaps (Day 1, Day 2) of our booze-fueled SXSW journey.
• Fear Factory got back together… except not.
• Ya’ll argued about which Mastodon album is the best and whether Jesse or Howard was/is the better KsE frontman.
• Ya’ll argued even more about IWRESTLEDABEARONCE and Oceano.
• We got an exclusive red carpet report from Metallica’s Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

See you next week. New England Metal and Hardcore Fest!!

Blabbermouth tells me that Dave Mustaine has released yet another of those bizarrely cryptic messages (No, I’m not going to make the obvious joke) he digs so much:

“Today is the 9th of April and I have agreed to doing something last night that I am sure a lot of people are going to be very excited about, and something that I had hoped would one day lead to another one of the potential feuds going away for good, if not for a long while.

“I can’t confirm the band or the dates yet, and I have to go get my youngster up for school. Rest assured, as soon as we are ready to announce it, you will be one of the first to know.”

Man, Mustaine loves his teases, don’t he?

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Vince and I are not in the MetalSucks Mansion right now. In fact, we haven’t been here most of the day. You’ve been reading stories we wrote earlier in the day and then auto-programmed to publish at their allotted times. Isn’t technology swell?

Why aren’t we working on the site right now, you ask? ‘Cause it’s Passover, that most metal of Jewish holidays. How metal? Why, Metallica wrote a song about it, of course!

So thanks to our pal Anton OyVey and his totally excellent blog, Bacon Jew (”I’m a Jew and I Love Bacon!”), for a) expressing our shared dread of spending too much time with our families (I don’t give a fuck who is still technically the youngest, I ain’t asking no more fucking questions), and b) posting this clip of Metallica performing said Passover classic on their Cunning Stunts DVD.

And if you don’t understand what “Creeping Death” has to do with Passover, head over to Bacon Jew to read the lyrics!

-AR

Hey y’all. First of all, thanks to everyone who wished me well during my “family emergency” on Saturday. I may have inadvertenly made it sound more grave than it was. In any case, I appreciate the good thoughts.

ANYWAY, I finally watched Fuse’s broadcast of the ceremony last night. First of all, my DVR cut off the end – did this thing seriously run past 1 AM EST?!?! – so I’ve only been able to watch the performances online. Still, here are my thoughts, not collected or organized in any particular fashion:

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Axl’s thoughts on the ceremony will appear a little later today, as promised. In the meantime, a metal guy who was there for his other gig graciously hit us up with the exclusive red carpet report. Enjoy!

Before Metallica showed up, Iron Maiden sneakers walked the red carpet to the 24th annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Concert, at Cleveland’s Public Hall Saturday, April 4.

The Maiden Vans were worn by Anthrax guitarist and VH1 talking head Scott Ian, who was there with drummer Charlie Benante. Ian said the new album is being mixed, and added that Maiden and Priest should be in the Rock Hall.

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Because I am a) actually kinda curious how this is all gonna go down and b) a glutton for punishment (seriously, I own a humbler), I have decided to live blog Metallica’s induction into the Rock N’ Roll Hall of Fame this Sunday night, April 4. The ceremony starts and 9 pm and will broadcast on Fuse; I have no plans to live blog the entire ceremony, but if you’re at home watching and want to see if I have anything smart/snarky/entertaining/ree-tah-ded to say, check back here. I’ll be updating through the Metallicats’ portion of the evening.

And don’t forget, there’s still time to enter our contest to win Metallica’s entire discography! So you should go ahead and do that if you haven’t already. We’ve gottan some hilarious, awesome entries so far but we want more. DO IT! DO IT! DO IT!

-AR