Monday’s post on Misery Signals’ pending new album led me into YouTubeLand where I proceded to spend too much time listening to old Misery Signals tracks. But it also led me to discover something I wasn’t expecting at all. I was aware of the free metal soundtrack to the Homefront video game released earlier this year, but I honestly didn’t pay it much attention because it was a covers album. Shame on me, because I just discovered Misery Signals’ cover of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon classic cut “Us and Them” and my socks have been knocked all the way into New Jersey. Like all truly great covers, Misery Signals have made this song their own while still managing to stay true to the original spirit of the song; it starts off similar to the original but all that goes out the window when the chorus kicks in just before the 2-minute mark. Holy fuck, I’ve never heard Pink Floyd sound so heavy and epic! Misery Signals also introduce some rhythmic and harmonic variations throughout, presented a marked contrast to the original that somehow just works.

I’ve always wanted to put together a comp of famous metal bands covering Floyd. Shadows Fall did that cover of “Welcome to the Machine” a while back (that was actually my introduction to SF!), Nachtmystium’s past two albums have basically been giant tributes to Floyd, Foo Fighters and Brian May did “Have a Cigar” and tons of other bands have covered Floyd throughout the years… but to my knowledge there’s never been one cohesive Metal Pink Floyd comp. “Us and Them” wouldn’t've been on my short list of songs ripe for metal covers, but I absolutely love this version. I always thought “Fearless” would be perfect (Junius would tear that song a new arsehole!), maybe “Hey You” (Queensryche!), something from The Final Cut by Opeth, any of the middle three tracks from Animals (heyo BTBAM!)… we could skip “Another Brick in the Wall” and “Money” (too obvious and Korn already butchered the former). Any other ideas?

-VN

Post-script: A forum thread from 2006 on Ultimate Metal turned up this version of “Run Like Hell” by Kittie! Best thing they’ve ever recorded. Go figure.

The other day I posted about Misery Signals guitarist Karl Schubach’s new project Solace without realizing it was Schubach’s project; d’oh! But that should speak to the strengths of Schubach’s songwriting, and it only reinforces my desire to hear new Misery Signals. I was never into Misery Signals before 2008′s Controller, but with that album I found a modern metalcore record that not only held my interest on repeated listens but put the band’s own fresh stamp on a sub-genre that had peaked a couple of years earlier. And now it seems like we’ll finally be getting a follow-up four years later.

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It’s a good day to be an After the Burial fan: the band has released not one but two music videos, plus additional dates for their previously-announced Crush ‘Em All trek with Veil of Maya, Misery Signals, and Within the Ruins.

So, let’s start by considering these videos, “Cinemetal Round-Up” style, shall we?

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While I would generally prefer it if all of metaldom would stay as far away from the phrase “Crush ‘Em” as possible from now until the sun dies and all of humanity is forgotten forever, there’s no denying that the Crush ‘Em All Tour II has a pretty solid line-up — After the Burial, Veil of Maya, Misery Signals, and Within the Ruins is not a bad night at the opera. The support acts which will appear on select dates — I The Breather, Structures, Volumes, and Your Memorial — are bands that I’m alternately less familiar with or less excited about, but whatever, this is still a totally solid bill.

Now the initial round of dates for the tour have been announced. There are pretty large gaps in this itinerary, so don’t freak out just yet if you don’t see a show on this list that you can attend. Unless you live in Bumblefuck, where metal tours never ever stop. Then you just have shitty luck and there’s no hope for you until you get the hell outta Po’dunk. Sorry.

ANYWAY, those dates, courtesy The PRP:

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So this is pretty cool… in theory at least. Last week, the videogame Homefront was released (I haven’t played it so I have no idea how it is, although I read some decent reviews), and yesterday, the makers of the game started giving away a FREE compilation of metal bands doing covers of war-appropriate songs, sometimes by other metal bands, sometimes by non-metal artists. You can download it here, and should get on that ASAP, as they’re only giving away 25,000 of the free downloads. As of this writing, DLs are still avail, though. Also, I’m sure this thing will remain all over the internet forever and ever, so don’t freak too hard if they’re all gone by the time you get there.

Another reason no to freak out too hard if you don’t get to download this puppy? Even though this is 100% free, like most cover albums, it’s not actually all that amazing. Let’s take a look at what the album has to offer, shall we?

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Welcome to “Question of the Week,” a (sometimes) weekly debate amongst the MetalSucks staff regarding a recent hot button issue.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, which means we’re taking off early today and won’t be back ’til Monday. We’re sorry to leave non-American readers high n’ dry, but PLUS ONE FOR FREEDOM, MOTHERFUCKERS.

ANYWAY, in honor of the holiday, we decided to do a special Turkey Day-themed QOTW designed to make you feel all warm and cuddly inside:

WHAT (IN METAL) ARE YOU THANKFUL FOR?

The MS staff’s answers after the jump.

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Protest the Hero (recipients of one of only two 5-out-of-5-horns ratings on MetalSucks ever) are currently out on the MetalSucks-sponsored “Heads Will Roll” Tour with Misery Signals and The Number 12 Looks Like You, and yours truly had the privilege of seeing them headline for the first time this past Saturday night in NYC — and good lord, the band delivers the goods live to be sure. PtH have all the chops live they do on record; no ProTools chicanery there, folks. This is a tour you absolutely need to see when it hits your city, but it may already be too late; the tour wraps up with a show tonight in Chicago and another tomorrow in St. Paul, Minnesota. If you missed the tour when it came through your town or you live in Chicago or St. Paul but spent all your money on weed, check out the exclusive tour diary the Protest dudes did for us, below. It’s a great look into the zany behind-the-scenes antics of what goes down in the Protest camp on tour. And you get the impression this is only a fraction of the crazy shit that actually goes on.

-VN

Seeing as we’re sponsors of the awesome Protest the Hero “Heads Will Roll” spring tour (also featuring The Number Twelve Looks Like You, Misery Signals, Scale the Summit and Fall From Grace), we figured it’d be fitting if we gave away a pair of tickets to each show date. Thanks to the fine folks at Vagrant Records, we’re able to do just that! The full list of tour dates is in the above graphic, and there is an additional date on May 15th in St. Paul, Minnesota at Station 4, not listed, that we will be giving away tickets for as well.

To win, sent an email to vagrantrsvp@gmail.com. Make sure the words “PROTEST THE HERO – (DATE / CITY / VENUE) – (FULL LEGAL NAME)” are in the subject line, written exactly in that format with the info for the show you’d like to attend. Only entrants who follow the instructions correctly will be considered for tickets. Winners will be selected randomly and notified via email if they are selected, and tickets can be picked up at door time at the will call window on the day of the show (winners will either be on Protest the Hero’s list or the Vagrant Records list).Good luck, and see ya in the pit.

TheFuckingWeather.com tells me “21°!? IT’S FUCKING COLD. Should have gone south,” as if looking outside at the foot of snow on the ground didn’t make it obvious. Funny enough, we did go south this weekend. But it snowed 4 fucking inches down there, stranding all of our friends and causing inexperienced Atlantans to drive like complete and utter assholes (seriously, people… get it together), worsening my pot-induced paranoia as Ax and I attempted to high-tail it to the airport to make our flight out (we missed it).

This morning I was listening to Misery Signals excellent 2008 album Controller on my iPod and it seemed to perfectly fit the cold, morose mood of the day. Here’s the video for “A Certain Death,” not my favorite track on the record but a pretty good one nonetheless.

-VN

Because the list of MetalSucks-sponsored tours going out this year wasn’t already kick-ass enough — whatwith the likes of the Soilwork / Darkane / Warbringer / Swallow the Sun joint, The Haunted tour, Paganfest 2k9, The Mayhem-headlined Blackenedfest and The Human Abstract / Iwrestledabearonce trainwreck — we’re now sponsoring another of the sexiest tours hitting the circuit. The Heads Will Roll Tour, commencing April 17th in Denver, CO, will be headlined by MetalSucks-faves Protest the Hero, and will feature support in various configurations from Misery Signals, The Number Twelve Looks Like You, Scale the Summit, and Fall From Grace. Holy fucking crapticles is that an awesome lineup! The only bummer is that the highly awesome / MetalSucks-approved Scale The Summit won’t be on the NYC date, but so it goes.

The whole list of tour dates, as well as a full-size poster, after the jump.

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Misery Signals new album, Controller (Ferret), is a genre-defying act of aural aggression which our own Vince Neilstein recently categorized as “progressive metalcore that doesn’t just borrow old tricks from the worn playbook.” I got a chance to e-mail some questions to bassist Kyle Johnson as he was on the road wrapping up this summer’s Thrash & Burn tour, and he had some interesting things to say about the band’s latest offering, their writing process, working with uber-producer Devin Townsend, and what separates Misery Signals from the rest of the metal herd. Read the full transcript after the jump.

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Misery Signals — whose solid July release Controller completely caught me by surprise — have released a video for the album’s first single, “A Certain Death.” The David Brodsky-directed video was filmed in a truly dangerous locale. Relates vocalist Karl Schubach;

“We filmed our scenes in a burnt down hotel in a [sic] abandoned town in upstate NY. It was definitely condemned, I don’t know how they got us in there but it was dark, dirty with gutted wood beams, blackened walls and if you weren’t careful you could fall into the basement that was flooded with some kind of liquid.”

Sounds mysteriously like the MetalSucks Mansion. Hmmmm.

“A Certain Death” wouldn’t have been my choice for first single (I think “Parallels” and “Weight of the World” showcase the band’s originality more), but the video has some cool visuals intercut with the performance footage that make it a good watch, up to snuff with Brodsky’s consistently high standards.

Check out Misery Signals’ MySpace page for more tunes, and definitely check out Controller as soon as possible.

-VN

So I was all set to write a review of Controller, the Devin Townsend-produced effort that Misery Signals released on Ferret Music a couple of weeks ago — but why bother when Aversionline elegantly summed up everything I had to say? In short, it’s surprisingly good progressive metalcore that doesn’t just borrow old tricks from the worn playbook.

Dig this mp3 while you’re at it:
Misery Signals – “Parallels”

-VN

(three and a half out of five horns)

So Misery Signals have a new record Controller due July 22nd on Ferret Records. They’ve got two tracks from said record posted on their MySpace page, “A Certain Death” and “Parallels.” And you know what? “Metalcore” as a bad word be damned; this is pretty good stuff. Misery Signals certainly aren’t re-writing the book here or going above and beyond; but this is solid, serviceable — hell, even very well executed metal. Swedish-influenced guitar harmonizing, plenty of chugging, hooky choruses, ya know. But it’s all done way more tastefully than a lot of other bands. Karl Schubach’s guttural-as-fuck deep growls add to the appeal as well.

-VN

[Misery Signals on MySpace]

Misery Signals vocalist Karl Schubach just did an interview with Way Too Loud!, and while I’m not really a Misery Signals fan, the following part of the interview, about Devin Townsend, who’s producing the band’s new album, did catch my attention:

WTL: Did you per chance say anything about [Townsend's] haircut?

Karl: He doesn’t have the hair anymore! The skullet is now no more! It was a shock at first when he showed up. The guys were holding bets whether or not he’d have the hair, and it’s reign of terror is over. I’ve seen pictures of it. I think he has the hair at home in a box, or so he claims.

First he murders Strapping Young Lad, then the skullet? Say it ain’t so, Dev!!!

On behalf of MetalSucks, Vince’s beard, and funny hair cuts everywhere, I’d like to send my condolences to the skullet’s family. I hope Devin soon chooses to release it from its back, cremate it, and spread its ashes over Lake Ontario like it always wanted.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go tell my kids that Uncle Dev’s skullet went to go live on a farm where it could play freely in the fields with all the other old skullets.

-AR