photo by Chris Fulcher

Stomach Earth
TBA
Label – Black Market Activities
Release – TBA

Like most of the world, I have only heard two minutes and nineteen seconds of music from Stomach Earth, in the form of an excerpt of a rough version of the track “Prolong the Death Watch” (listen here). And yet the one-man band’s debut is easily one of my most highly anticipated releases of 2012, and not just because that aforementioned two-plus-minutes sounds killer.

No no no, my excitement about Stomach Earth is almost entirely due to my sincere belief that the project’s mastermind is, well, a master mind. Because that mind belongs to Mike “Gunface” McKenzie, who, as a founding member and (now sole) guitarist for The Red Chord, has brought us some of the most innovative and exciting extreme music of the past ten years.

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Behold Plant Vochestra, the best metal side-project since Ladder Up An Ass!

Like Ladder Up An Ass, Plant Vochestra also happens to feature two of the lovable goons in The Red Chord, along with Between the Buried and Me vocalist Tommy Rogers. The Red Chord played a hometown one-off at the opening date of the Saints and Sinners tour featuring BTBAM this past weekend, setting up the glorious return of this legendary yet reclusive band. Performing live for the first time in several years, Plant Vochestra treated the audience to a wonderful set of the dazzling musicianship and vocal acrobatics you’d expect from a trio consisting of Rogers, Greg Weeks and Mike “Gunface” McKenzie. Courtesy of Metal Injection, here’s their big hit “Surf’s Up Dude.”

-VN

Photo by Chris Fulcher

The Inaugural Metal Suckfest is almost here!!!! Twenty bands will DESTROY The Gramercy Theatre on November 4 and 5, PLUS there’s an awesome, five-band pre-party at the venue the night before, making this THE can’t-miss hang of the year.

Tickets are on sale now right here, and you can hit up the fest’s official website for more info on the shows, including the complete line-up. In the meantime, we’re counting down to this weekend of chaos and debauchery by speaking to one member from each band on the bill. We continue today with guitarist Mike “Gunface” McKenzie of The Red Chord, whose most recent release, Fed Through the Teeth Machine, came out in 2009 via Metal Blade.

Read our chat after the jump. And don’t forget to check back in the coming days and weeks for interviews with more of the musicians participating in this awesome event!!!

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photo by Chris Fulcher

Here’s some cool news: Mike “Gunface” McKenzie, guitarist for experimental grind gods The Red Chord, has apparently been working on a solo project. It’s called Stomach Earth — no, I have no clue what that means — and a rough, unmastered excerpt of a new song, “Prolong the Death Watch,” is already available for streaming here.

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They’re both gonna have members on tonight’s extra-special 100th episode of the Metal Injection Livecast, that’s what!!!

From a press release (What, you think we actually like the Metal Injection dudes? We only communicate via press releases!):

“The Metal Injection Livecast will be celebrating a milestone tonight, 100 first run editions of the live podcast. To celebrate this momentous occasion, the crew will be joined by some great guests. In the first hour of the show, Ben Weinman and Greg Puciato of The Dillinger Escape Plan will call into the show, and in the second hour, Mike ‘Gunface’ McKenzie and Greg Weeks of The Red Chord will join the show. Fans will be able to listen live starting at 8pm Eastern Time, and interact with the guests via a live chatroom as well as by calling into the show directly, via our fan line at 646-929-1357. An archived version of the episode will be posted shortly after the conclusion of the show.”

So if you’ve ever wanted to talk to these dudes without threat of one of them killing you (Puciato is a short guy, but not a small guy), here’s your chance!  Call in, talk to Greg Weeks about football… I’m sure he’s not sick of that. But above all else, just make sure you listen.

-AR

FEATURING MEMBERS OF INTRONAUT, DARKEST HOUR, THE RED CHORD, KYLESA, GORGOROTH, CORMORANT, RETURN TO EARTH, KRIEG, LAZARUS A.D., HAIL OF BULLETS, AND BLOODHORSE

For 2010, we decided to do something special as part of our regular end-of-year festivities here at MetalSucks — namely, ask musicians from across the vast spectrum of the metalsphere (or, in a few cases, the almost-metalsphere) what their favorite albums of the year were. Death metallers, thrash metallers, black metallers, stoners, grinders, and djenters alike graciously contributed lists to MS, and we’ll be running them in groups of ten to eleven musicians at a time twice a day for the rest of the week.

After the jump, check out the fifth group… we hope you enjoy seeing what some of metal’s heaviest hitters were into this year as much as we have!

(And please note that these are musicians and that they, um, have a lot on their minds. So some of ‘em named albums that actually came out last year. Please don’t freak out.)

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Few bands give interviews as entertaining as ones with The Red Chord, and Metal Injection‘s latest — conducted backstage during the NYC stop of this year’s Summer Slaughter tour — is no exception. Bassist (and now MetalSucks NFL columnist!) Greg Weeks and guitarist Mike “Gunface” McKenzie basically highjack the thing, and, well, I almost feel bad for anyone who got anywhere near them during the course of the interview (especially the members of “Veil of Papaya”). I would seriously love it if these dudes had their own television series, so I could just tune in and watch them go kuh-ray-zee on a weekly basis.

Head over to Metal Injection for tons more interviews and awesome live footage from Summer Slaughter.

-AR

There’s a lyric in the song “Hour of Rats” from Fed Through the Teeth Machine, the album by The Red Chord, and this particular lyric has really taken hold in my brain as of late: “WE’VE KNOWN EACH OTHER TOO LONG TO BE FRIENDS.” What a simple, beautiful statement that I can 110% relate to these days. Hm.

Speaking of The Red Chord…

• We’re streaming The Red Chord’s new album, Fed Through the Teeth Machine, through Monday! It’s awesome, so definitely give it a listen, then go buy it when Metal Blade releases it on Tuesday, October 27! We also spoke to The Red Chord’s Mike “Gunface” McKenzie.
• We got a European tour wrap-up from Chimaira’s Mark Hunter, had a nice chat with Kowloon Walled City’s Jason Pace, and even played nice with Oceano’s Andrew Mikhail.
• Lord Gold from Horse the Band graced us with another awesome tour blog, Eyal discussed physical CDs, and Dallas explored the evolution and importance of deathcore.
• We checked out new releases from Converge, Ancestors, and Smite the Righteous.
• Janet Reno quit Attack Attack!
• We’re fairly certain that Dave Mustaine is still a Megadick. Actually, we’re positive.

Have a good weekend everyone…

-AR

Last week we gave Fed Through the Teeth Machine, the incredible new album from death/grind/prog pioneers The Red Chord, four out of five horns, and, honestly, we’re not even sure that that’s a high enough rating. Certain to make many year-end lists, Fed Through the Teeth Machine displays The Red Chord doing what they do best: defying expectations, breaking genre conventions, and tearing the listener a new asshole.

Metal Blade will release Fed Through the Teeth Machine this coming Tuesday, October 27, but as always, MetalSucks has ya covered: we’re streaming the entire album now through Monday, so you can hear how awesome it is before you buy it. We hope you love it as much as we do.

And while we’re on the topic, why you don’t read our interview with The Red Chord’s Gunface about the making of the album?

[This promotion has ended. -Ed.]

If there’s any justice in the world, The Red Chord’s excellent new album, Fed Through the Teeth Machine (read my four out of five horns review here), will cement Mike “Gunface” McKenzie’s status as one of his generation’s great guitar gods while introducing his truly unique playing to scores of new fans. Now The Red Chord’s sole axe slinger, Gunface really steps up his game on Teeth – the riffs and solos on this album are easily some of the year’s very best.

That being the case, I was very, very excited to have the opportunity to e-mail some questions to Gunface earlier this week. He follows bassist Greg Weeks and vocalist Guy Kozowyk as the latest member of The Red Chord to humor me by answering some truly idiotic (and hopefully a few intelligent) questions (I’m sure we’ll get to drummer Brad Fickeisen sooner or later). After the jump, get Gunface’s thoughts on the creation of Fed Through the Teeth Machine, writing solos, his various side projects, the value of the Death Star, and more.

Fed Through the Teeth Machine is out October 27 on Metal Blade.

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Only history will tell us for sure, but I suspect that The Red Chord’s 2002 debut, Fused Together in Revolving Doors, will end up being regarded as one of the most influential metal records of its time. Its title is truly appropriate; it’s not a death album, it’s not a grind album, it’s not a hardcore album, it’s basically just a “play whatever the fuck we want album.” There are now hordes of bands aping it, and most of them are doing a shit job.

Meanwhile, three albums, seven years, and a whole bunch of line-up changes later, The Red Chord are just as uncompromising and self-assured in their vision. I have no idea what a teeth machine is – apparently it has something to do with zippers – but Fed Through the Teeth Machine certainly makes me feel as though that’s exactly what I’ve experienced.

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‘Cause the muthafuckin’ man himself, Trevor “Heartburn” Strnad, is going to call in. He’ll be discussing BDM’s excellent new album, Deflorate (in stores now!), taking questions from other callers, and participating in MI’s patented “Death or No Death” game, where you try to guess which death metal band names are real, and which ones are fake. The last time Rob Pasbani and the gang played that game, it was with The Red Chord’s Gunface, and he won. Can one Metal Blade artist who likes to act silly out perform another Metal Blade artist who likes to act silly? You’ll have to tune in to find out!

The show starts at 8 pm EST tonight; you can listen by going here. The Metal Injection Livecast is on Wednesday nights now, not Fridays, so you’re shit out of excuses to miss it!!!

-AR

Metal Blade will release The Red Chord’s new album, Fed Through the Teeth Machine, later this year. In the meantime, guitarist Mike “Gunface” McKenzie is shooting and editing an in-studio diary for our friends at Metal Injection.

Watch part four below. You can check out part one here, part two here, part three here, and a new song, “Floating Through the Vein,” here.

-AR

The Red Chord guitarist Mike “Gunface” McKenzie is shooting and editing an in-studio diary for our friends at Metal Injection chronicling the making of the band’s new album, which will hopefully drop later this year.

When we interviewed Red Chord bassist Greg Weeks last year, he described the band’s writing and recording process thusly:

“We all get in a room and yell at each other about stupid shit and then painstakingly put riffs together even though it kills us a little bit each time… We argue, we each want it done our way, we smell, we curse, we bleed all over the place, I kicked someone, let’s eat, we yell, we hate the way other people breathe, cannon ball, kitchen craft, we ignore suggestions, we’re ugly and Santa was there, too.”

Hopefully we’ll get to see some of this insanity in upcoming episodes of Gunface’s diary. In the meantime, here’s his first entry, which documents some drum tracking:

-AR