The Mikael Åkerfeldt + Steven Wilson collabo project dubbed Storm Corrosion has been fueling Internet boners for months (years?) already. Two of prog metal’s great writers together in one band! Blackwater Park Part II! Imagine all the possibilities!

But Wilson dropped a bomb sure to deflate many a stiffy in a recent interview with StarsDie.com [via Metal Injection], in which he revealed that the first Storm Corrosion record — gasp! — will not be very heavy at all:

It’s very hard to describe this music as it is so different from most things around right now (at least as far as I know). I said it was the ‘opposite of metal’ because I think a lot of people might have assumed from the two people involved that this would be some kind of progressive/metal thing, but in fact it’s quite a minimal album with a lot of space and beauty, orchestral and organic, hardly any drums and no distorted guitars — ‘twisted beautiful’ is the best way I can describe it.

Oh no!!! No distorted guitars!! No growled vocals!! NOT EVEN ANY DRUMS!!!!! NOT METAL. Herpaderpa derp derp. I can just feel the IMN nerd rage percolating behind your keyboards from here. Spill it all in our comments section as per usual.

-VN

Dear Nardwuar: please come work for MetalSucks. That is all.

-VN

Before there were blogs there were these things called magazines, and the only metal magazine we still get excited about reading every month is Decibel. Here’s managing editor Andrew Bonazelli…

Very few things get our bikini briefs twisted like clean vocals. Most often, because they’re in the horrific and pandering context of the “good cop/bad cop” approach. But also because our bullshit detector redlines when we perceive bands making a concentrated, contrived effort to expand their audience. (I’m sure many messageboards have thoroughly noted how you can comprehend every word in the new Mastodon single.)

Opeth—specifically mastermind Mikael Åkerfeldt—has gotten a pass for that, I presume, because over the last two decades he’s integrated a startlingly vast variety of influences into his singular progressive extremity. So, is it really a shock (or anything approaching “sellout”) when tenth record Heritage is not only entirely sung, yet is already one of the best “extreme” records of the year?

That paradox is explored in our September cover story, the first in-depth piece about Heritage—which isn’t out until September 20—anywhere in the world. Chris Dick trekked all the way to Sweden to pick Åkerfeldt’s brain about lineup turnover, a near-implosion and well-timed creative breakthrough that led to this challenging new record. It’s in our webstore now, but here’s some “bonus footage” from Mike deconstructing his evolved vocal approach:

 “I’m a rock ‘n’ roll vocalist now. I didn’t dare do that before. I was shy. Because there are no death metal vocals, I wanted to make the clean vocals more aggressive. I remember, when I was recording the vocals, they’d say to me, ‘OK, now do that line with more guts!’ I was like, ‘I don’t know how to do that!’ I’m so used to singing nice, like a minstrel. But now I’m not afraid of really going for it. I think growling for such a long time has fucked up my voice, so I can get the sounds l like without really trying. They’re just there when I want it. I think I developed my voice a little, and that excites me. Being a better vocalist is important to me. I don’t have any formal training, so I don’t know if my technique is shit, but I realized my limitations as a vocalist have been in my head. I didn’t dare think like I do now.”

-AB

Decibel’s September 2011 issue also features Toxic Holocaust, Sepultura, Cradle of Filth, All Shall Perish, Skeletonwitch, and an awesomeKrallice flexi disc. That issue is available here, but why not get a full subscription to ensure you never miss an issue?

Opeth (featuring Mikael Åkerfeldt, the eleventh top modern metal guitarist in the world today, according to us) have a new album, Heritage, tentatively scheduled to come out in September, which means — but of course — touring!!! And now the reader known as “Deth” has noticed that the first six dates of the band’s North American fall headlining tour are up on Ticketmaster, even though there’s been no official press release as of yet. THREE CHEERS FOR DETH!!!

ANYWAY, here are those dates… presumably there will be more very soon. I’m assuming that most of the MS faithful don’t really need to be told to go see this band live, but, seriously, GO SEE THIS BAND LIVE.

Click to read more…

Opeth have just uploaded the cover for their new album, Heritage, to their Facebook page, and hol-ee crap, is it ever cool. I imagine a lot of people will object to the fact that the faces of the band members are in the tree, but I think even that is awesome; it’s very easy to imagine Mikael Åkerfeldt saying, in his usual deadpan manner, “Yeah, put our faces in the tree, that’s metal.”

I’m saying I feel like this is incredibly epic and metal, but in no way takes itself too seriously.

Opeth’s Heritage is tentatively scheduled for a September release via Roadrunner.

-AR

Thanks to Tim for the tip!

The intrepid sleuths / social media stalkers at Heavy Blog is Heavy have done it again, this time in the way of noticing a Facebook post by the legendary Opeth:

Even amongst the naysayers and trolls that comprise the MetalSucks commenter base I think we’re gonna be hard pressed to find someone not excited by this news (although of course the act of saying so will surely incite someone). Needless to say, everyone at the MS Mansion is bananas over Opeth. Mastermind Mikael Akerfeldt ranked #11 on our Top 25 Modern Metal Guitarists list, and for good reason: he and his Opeth co-conspirators are still pumping out metal jams of startlingly high quality some nine albums into their career (Heritage will be their 10th). 2008′s Watershed as as good as anything the band’s ever done. We’ll see what Opeth have left in the tanks come September.

-VN

MetalSucks recently polled its staff to determine who are The Top 25 Modern Metal Guitarists, and after an incredible amount of arguing, name calling, and physical violence, we have finalized that list! The only requirements to be eligible for the list were that the musician in question had to a) play metal (duh), b) play guitar (double-duh), and c) have recorded something in the past five years. Today we continue our countdown with Opeth’s Mikael  Åkerfeldt…

Everyone knows Mikael Åkerfeldt as the leader of Opeth, as well as the vocalist and contributor to countless other widely regarded musical projects, like Bloodbath and Katatonia. But really, Akerfeldt isn’t just a superior songwriter and all-around musician — first and foremost, he’s a ridiculous talented, incredibly versatile guitarist, and is far and away one of my favorite modern players.

Click to read more…

You guys dig Bloodbath, right? Of course you do. Everyone does. I literally do not know any metal fans that claim not to appreciate their brand of old-school death metal. They’re the kind of band it just feels too goddamn good to listen to not to love.

So. Tomorrow sees the release of Bloodbath Over Bloodstock, a live DVD of the band’s performance at — duh — the Bloodstock Open Air Festival last summer in Bloodstock, England. (Okay that might not actually be the name of the place where the festival is staged. I’ll have my researchers check on that.) And in case the mere fact that a Bloodbath DVD exists isn’t enough to make you wanna buy it, the helpful folks over at Noisecreep have debuted a video from the performance, of the song “Eaten.” Which just might be the best song ever written about wanting to be a meal for a cannibal. It really captures the desire and longing of the would-be human snack so well, y’know?

It’s kinda awkward to watch Mikael Åkerfeldt rock the mic sans guitar (and to do vocals for a song originally performed by Peter Tägtgren), but this still looks pretty promising. Check it out below and then sound off with your opinions, which we all care ssssssoooo much about, in our comments section below.

-AR

Yep: Per Wiberg now joins Chris Spicuzza in the Keyboardists No Longer in Bands Club. In a statement, Mikael Åkerfeldt says that he and the other members of the band “came to the decision that we should find a replacement for Per right after the recordings of the new album,” which sounds like they let him do a bunch of work and then fired him. But then Åkerfeldt goes on to say that the sacking “this came as no surprise to Per” who “been thinking about leaving” anyway. Which sounds like a “You can’t fire me, I quit” scenariom but nice of Åkerfeldt to not rage on Wiberg.

I’m sure this will make many of you sad, as Wiberg is clearly a talented dude. Just try not to forget that Åkerfeldt is the band; he might as well just change his name to “Opeth.” Wiberg wasn’t even in the band for many of their most famous albums. I’m sure Åkerfeldt will be able to find a suitable replacement.

The good news is, this means the new Opeth album is finished, and we should get to hear it sometime this year.

-AR

“Hey guys, why haven’t you posted this yet?!! It only sounds like the single greatest piece of music ever, brah.”
-Drew Webb

“This should give you another Devin boner.”
-Brian Kessler

“MY DICK IS AFLAME WITH SEMEN.”
-Sam Payne

Well don’t hold back, fellas! Let us know how excited you really are about about this latest behind-the-scenes video from Devin Townsend.

Pretty cool, right? But wait! That’s not all. It seems that Devin recently made a love connection with The Dillinger Escape Plan’s Greg Puciato… via Twitter!

Click to read more…

I tried to download Devin Townsend’s free new live EP yesterday but Inside Out’s website was so overloaded with traffic that I couldn’t get through. Kinda a good problem to have if you’re Devin, I suppose; too much popularity can’t be a bad thing. I just tried again and things went much more swimmingly, so if you had problems yesterday I’d recommend you give it another go.

With all the fracas surrounding the new EP, we completely overlooked this latest bit of Devin-related news: Opeth’s Mikael Akerfeldt, BTBAM’s Tommy Rogers and Gojira’s Joe Duplantier are all rumored to be contributing vocals to Devin’s forthcoming Deconstruction record. We say “rumored” because the speculation is only based on a series of Tweets by Devin, such as “Thank you Joe D,” but given Devin’s reputation and relationships I don’t think it’s a stretch to assume these guest spots are indeed happening. This on top of the confirmation earlier this month that Ihsahn will be contributing vocals too: yowza! I, for one, think Devin’s got an amazing voice of his own — often underrated in all the Devin hype — but I’m of course happy he’s enlisted such an A-list cast of characters to help out this time around.

Can’t wait for Destruction. Can’t wait for Ghost. Stoked.

-VN

In 1968, Gary Moore (above, top left) was just 16 years old when he joined future Thin Lizzy frontman Phil Lynott in the Dublin blues-rock quartet Skid Row*. So, Moore was a charter member of the Society of Overachieving Teen Guitarists that would later include Steve Vai (19, Frank Zappa), Zakk Wylde (19, Ozzy Osbourne), and Devin Townsend (19, Steve Vai). Pretty elite company.

After a pair of short stints in Thin Lizzy, Moore again reunited with Lynott in 1979 for the band’s seminal Black Rose: A Rock Legend (see Axl Rose’s Black Rose-themed tattoo here, upper left). More than twenty solo albums followed, including 2008’s Bad For You Baby.

British tabloid The Sun reports that Moore, 58, was discovered unresponsive by medical staff in a Spain hotel suite where there were “definite signs of alcohol.” The Sun also quotes a source at the hotel who has stated that Moore “seemed fine when he left [the hotel bar] around 11 pm.” A post mortem has been scheduled.

After the jump, check out the MetalSucks round up of tributes to Moore by members of Obituary, Opeth, Black Flag, Testament, Black Sabbath, and mo(o)re.

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The Internet united in one gigantic boner this morning when they turned on their Commodore 64s for the morning and read this, a news bit proclaiming that Opeth will enter the studio in January 2011 to record the follow-up to 2008′s Watershed. Any Opeth news is, of course, good news. But then there was this mystifying detail that caught my intrigue:

Jens Bogren will engineer the effort while mixing duties will be handled by Steven Wilson.

Zuh????

Click to read more…

Katatonia are awesome, and we’re pretty awesome, so when they were like, “We’re gonna do this awesome North American tour with two other awesome bands, Swallow the Sun and Orphaned Land, do you wanna sponsor it?”, we were like, “AWESOME!” And thus it was so.

And now the band has released an awesome trailer for the tour! I know, I know, tour trailers are not usually awesome, but this one is — ’cause it features critical praise from both us and — wait for it — Mikael motherfucking Åkerfeldt. And if you don’t take us seriously for some reason, well, Mr. Åkerfeldt is what the kids call “unfuckwithable.” Awesome!

If you don’t go to this tour, you’ll never have sex again. Get dates here.

-AR

Reader Rich H. (no, not that Rich H.) sent us the below video, which suggests that “The Lotus Eater” from Opeth’s 2008 opus, Watershed, is a rip-off of Immortal’s “Cryptic Winterstorms,” from 1992′s Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism.

Now, I fucking LOVE Opeth, so I hate to say negative about them… but it’s hard not to hear the similarities between the two riffs. It’s also hard to imagine that Mikael Akerfeldt hasn’t heard Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism. So… make of this what you will, I guess.

So, what does everyone think? Weigh in below.

-AR

According to Metal Injection, the long-rumored Mikael Akerfeldt / Steven Wilson / Mike Portnoy collaboration is finally underway, sure to cause prog fanboys the world over to immediately begin fapping at their keyboards. According to an interview in Chordstruck Magazine, Wilson — who worked with Opeth on Blackwater Park — has finally begun writing material with Akerfeldt after years of speculation, and the duo reportedly has about 15 minutes of music put to paper.

The most interesting part of the interview is Mike Portnoy’s vocal concern that the amount of Internet hype already generated will make it impossible for this all-star trio to deliver anything that could possibly live up to expectations: “…people start discussing and discussing and discussing and dissecting and anticipating…[building] up such a level of hype and expectation in their head that it’s impossible to ever satisfy.” He’s not wrong and we’re certainly not helping the matter, but come on, how can any self respecting prog metal fan not get uber boner-fied about the matching of three of the genre’s all-time greats?

We wait with baited breath.

-VN

A press release just arrived at the Mansion telling us that Opeth are turning twenty – TWENTY!!! – and are celebrating their anniversary “with six exclusive shows that will take place across the globe in various international locales such as Stockholm, Sweden; Essen, Germany; Paris, France; London, UK; New York City, NY; and Los Angeles, CA.” Opeth mainman Mikael Åkerfeldt says the band is going to spend most of January through March just rehearsing in order to make sure these shows are really, really special. That’s a long time to rehearse.

And when are Opeth shows not special? I’ve never seen this band give a bad performance. But if they’re pulling out all the stops for these gigs on top of all the stops they usually pull out, well, I’m sure these shows will be legendary. If you can make it, I feel bad for you – but hopefully the band will film and/or record at least one of the shows for posterity’s sake.

Get the dates and locations of the show after the jump!

Click to read more…

So I’m sure you’re all aware of this major lineup change for Dimmu Borgir. I’ve been a fan of that band since ’98, and I’ve liked every single one of their records except For All Tid. My favorite lineup of theirs was the Puritanical and Deathcult lineup. For me as a fan, the music those dudes made together is what really sealed the deal for me with that band. I still enjoyed some later stuff, but for me those two records are where it’s at.

I’m sure they’ll find some amazing people and continue to put out great records, but the band that I became a fan of is now altered. And that got me thinking. How many times has this happened, and when does it really matter?

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So Vince and I were talking the other day about this question that both of us have wondered about from time to time, and since then I haven’t stopped thinking about it. So here it is: DO ANY OF YOU GIVE A FUCK ABOUT LYRICS IN METAL?

Is it just the sound of the voice and how it works with the sound of the music, or is it also what the vocalist is saying that matters to you? I’m going to take a guess and say that fans of hardcore and straight edge bands really do care about the lyrics because the bands are representing the ideals and beliefs of their respective communities. But what about in death metal, black metal, or any other genre of metal? When you listen to Necrophagist or Cannibal Corpse or Suicide Silence, can you comprehend what they’re singing about, and do you even care? Is it what they’re singing about, or is it more what it sounds like with the music, or both?

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Amirite or amirite?

-VN

[Thanks: Brett]