Vince brought the shits back with him from Egypt and in the past twenty-four hours I’ve been hit with a cold so bad that I’m probably gonna go to sleep right around the time I hit “publish” for this post. So before I pass out, here’s a run-down of what we did while Vince was playing Camel jockey:

• We spoke to Mutiny Within’s AJ Jacobs and producer/mixer Kevin Antreassian.
• As I Lay Dying’s Nick Hipa discussed fate versus free will on L O S T.
• We premiered “The Last Horse” by Tiger Flowers.
• We checked out new releases by Xasthur and Borknagar and read a book by Andy McCoy, too!
• Dream Theater’s Mike Portnoy is recording with Avenged Sevenfold; black is white, up is down, cats love dogs.
• The new Bullet For My Valentine song makes a lot of people angry, either ’cause you had to tweet about it just to hear it or simply because it exists.
• One thing MS Suckalos seem to agree upon: Jake E. Lee was not Ozzy’s best guitar player.

Okay, NyQuil time. See ya Monday!!!

-AR

If you’re a regular reader of this site by now you should know all about Mutiny Within, Roadrunner’s latest metal young guns. Their debut self-titled album comes out next Tuesday, February 23rd… and we’ll be streaming the whole thing here on Monday. In the meantime you’ll just have to take my word for it that the album is great, the perfect mix of pure American metal and Euro power written by guys with an amazing sense of songwriting for such a young set of dudes.

Mutiny Within just finished up their opening stint on the MetalSucks-sponsored Tyrants of Evil tour with Arch Enemy, Exodus and Arsis. During the tour’s final week I caught up with bassist Andrew “AJ” Jacobs to chat about the tour, the new album, the support Roadrunner has offered and what it’s like being a new band on the road.

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“Shattering the Skies Above,” the new Trivium song the band recorded for the video game God of War III, has found its way onto YouTube, which in this day and age was inevitable, I guess. The song is notable because it marks the recording debut of Trivium’s new drummer, Nick Augusto, late of the grindcore band Maruta. (And if you’re not familiar with Maruta, Cosmo Lee has a good piece on them, mouring their loss of Augusto, at Invisible Oranges.) To be honest, I don’t hear a huge difference in the quality of the drumming here, but then, recorded performances were never really previous drummer Travis Smith’s problem – live shows were. It’s also not clear how involved Augusto was in the creation of this song, given that he’s only been in the band for a short while; I imagine his contributions will be much more noticeable on the next Trivium album.

Check out the song and see what you think:

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The MetalSucks sponsored Tyrants of Evil Tour, featuring Arch Enemy, Exodus, Arsis and Mutiny Within, is currently winding its way out west through Canada en route to its final stop in Hollywood on February 9th. MetalSucks photographer Jacqueline Cheng was on hand to catch the madness at the new York City stop on January 22nd — as was Axl — and her stunning photographs of all four bands are posted after the jump.

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So apparently Ozzfest is coming back this summer, and is coming back as a traveling tour again (as opposed to the one-off fest it was in 2008). And that’s all well and good, only… who’s gonna be on the bill?

Mayhem, which is basically Ozzfest 2.0, has already scooped up a lot of big-name bands for the summer, including many who have played multiple past Ozzfests – namely Korn, Rob Zombie, Lamb of God, Atreyu, Shadows Fall and Hatebreed, the latter of whom I think have been on something like 90% of all Ozzfests ever.

Add to that other Ozzfest alum like Chimaira, In This Moment and Norma Jean, and some bands the kids today all seem to like, such as Winds of Plague and They Who Shall Not Be Named, and, well, that’s a whole bunch of potential mainstage and second stage draws right there.

Then there’s the mini-fests like Summer Slaughter. I can’t tell you which bands we already know are booked for some of these tours without betraying a lot of people’s confidence, but I can tell you that some great bands are now no longer available for Ozzfest.

And, oh yeah, Megadeth, Slayer, and Testament are now doing their American Carnage tour in the summer, so they’re out.

So who’s left? After the jump, I’m going to play my favorite game: it’s called “over-think about something incredibly unimportant.”

Before we proceed, it’s worth noting that I’m going to try and be semi-realistic when moving forward with some barely-educated guesses about who’ll be playing Ozzfest. If a band already has summer tour dates booked, I’m going to assume they’re not avail, although I acknowledge that they could cancel those dates in favor of playing for a bigger crowd. And I’m not even going to bother with bands like Pig Destroyer, Sigh, and Salome – bands that will play Ozzfest right around the time Joey Belladonna’s solo band plays four sold-out headlining shows at Giants Stadium. Also, obviously not all of these bands are gonna end up on the bill – these are just bands I think could end up there.

And so, without further bullshit…

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Blabbermouth posted the below footage of Arch Enemy nailing the crowd’s nuts to the wall in New York last week as headliners of the MetalSucks sponsored Tyrants of Evil North American Tour 2010 with Exodus, Arsis, and Mutiny Within. It only captures a teensy-weensy little bit of the amount of energy coursing through the air during this performance, but it will at least give you some sense of how great the show was.

It’s not too late to check out this awesome tour! Remaining dates after the jump.

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Marquee at the Nokia Theatre in Times Square, January 22, 2010. Photo courtesy Ken Pierce of Piercing Metal.

Although I’m not entirely sure how old the dudes in Mutiny Within are, if you told me that they weren’t even born yet when Exodus released Bonded by Blood, I wouldn’t be surprised. But that’s cool, ’cause I also wouldn’t be surprised if you told me that they were cranking Arsis in high school, the way James Malone was almost certainly cranking Amott’s recordings with Carcass when he was in high school and early A.E. a little later, and Amott was almost certainly cranking vintage Exodus when he was in high school.

My point is this: this Tyrants of Evil tour has four generations of bands. It’s like a living, breathing codification of the history and ideals of this particular sect of the metal world. None of the two bands sound the same, exactly, but there’s a clear through-line to be drawn from the oldest to the youngest. There’s something incredibly cool about that.

Which must be why the Nokia in Times Square was packed with a wide spectrum of fans when the tour rolled into Times Square this past Friday night, and why those fans seemed to arrive early and stay late.

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Speaking of Exodus: Metal Underground reports that the band’s heavily anticipated follow-up to 2007′s The Atrocity Exhibition – Exhibit A will be released on April 23 on Nuclear Blast. The album is entitled Exhibit B: The Human Condition. Lookit Exodus, gettin’ all philosophical on our asses.

In all seriousness: Exodus, like their peers in Slayer, Megadeth, Testament, and, depending on who you ask, possibly Metallica, have been experiencing a renaissance with their last few albums, and I have no reason to believe that this record won’t be the rock. These guys have just been on top of their game lately. I’m really stoked to hear this one.

Here’s a not-great but not-awful quality rip of a new song, “Good Riddance,” which I’m assuming will appear on the new offering.

And as if I needed to remind you (for the second time today), Exodus are currently on the MetalSucks-sponsored Tyrants of Evil North American Tour 2010 with Arch Enemy, Arsis, and Mutiny Within. Get dates here.

-AR

The MetalSucks-sponsored Tyrants of Evil North American Tour 2010 featuring Arch Enemy, Exodus, Arsis and Mutiny Within kicked off last night in Maryland! And just in time for the tour launch, Arsis have released their new video, “Forced to Rock.” Maybe I’m reading into this too much, but it seems to me that the David Brodsky directed clip was at least partially inspired by Van Halen’s “Hot for Teacher” video – I mean, I know there’s no direct corollary between the two beyond a classroom setting, but I know for a fact that Arsis’ James Malone is a Van Halen fan. Plus, I’m still convinced that there’s a bigger hair metal influence on Malone than some death metal fans would like to admit.

But who knows? Maybe Malone just really, really likes My First Sex Teacher.

By the way, the role of “Miss Rock” is played by Kym Dylla, vocalist for Virginia’s Thismeansyou. I’m not familiar with that band, but if they’ve got Arsis’ seal of approval…

If anyone was at last night’s Tyrants of Evil show in Maryland, drop me line and let me know how it was. For everyone else: get tour dates here. It’s gonna be such a killer show.

-AR

Just in time for their stint on the MetalSucks sponsored Tyrants of Evil North American Tour 2010, Exodus have unveiled their new DVD/CD, Shovel Headed Tour Machine: Live At Wacken & Other Assorted Atrocities. I haven’t gotten to check out the video portion of this multidisc set yet, but the live album is killer, a terrific snapshot of a legendary band who are now firmly back at the top of their game.

Last Friday in Los Angeles, Metalocalpyse‘s Brendon Small hosted an advanced screening of the concert film and documentary that are included in the set, and then moderated an q&a with the band. If you couldn’t make it, you can – and should – check out video of the event below:

Shovel Headed Tour Machine: Live At Wacken & Other Assorted Atrocities is out now on Nuclear Blast – and it should whet your appetite for the MetalSucks sponsored Tyrants of Evil North American Tour 2010 with Arch Enemy, Exodus, Arsis and Mutiny Within. It starts next week! Get dates here.

-AR

Apparently I’ve listened to Mutiny Within’s Roadrunner Records self-titled debut a whole lot because I’m already at that point where I hear the opening notes of the next song in my head the moment the prior song ends. iTunes tells me I’ve listened to the record’s second track “Images” 16 times already… yikers! I’m like a heart-broken high schooler (minus the heartbreak, minus the high school, plus a few gray hairs and a little bit of agita) listening to that song over and over again in my bedroom (minus the bedroom, plus the dilapidated MetalSucks Mansion flophouse).

So when Roadrunner sent us the final cut of the band’s very-first-ever music video this morning — for the album’s opening track “Awake” — after I watched I just had to follow it up with the rest of the record (hello listen #17 for “Images”). There really haven’t been very many metal records with mainstream appeal that I’ve really gotten into over the past couple of years, but Mutiny Within was an easy early favorite of mine for 2010 the first time I heard it a few months back. These fine New Jersey gentlemen (and a Brit who hilariously announces “We’re from New Jersey” at their live shows) are one of the best new bands being catapulted into the scene today, America’s non-cheesy answer to so much Euro power metal gruyere.

About that video, it’s posted below. Listen to “Awake” and two other songs from the album at Mutiny Within’s MySpace page, and make sure you pick it up when it comes out on February 23rd. The band is virgin-tight live, led by the super-talented Chris Clancy’s soaring vocals, as you’ll find out when they open for the MetalSucks-sponsored Arch Enemy tour (with Exodus and Arsis).

-VN

[This exclusive has now ended.]

This winter is shaping up to a great incredible one for U.S. metal tours.The European Summer festivals ain’t got nothin’ on us… ok, well yeah they do, but this winter’s U.S. metal tour slate is still most excellent.

There’s the much ballyhooed Between the Buried and Me / Cynic / The Devin Townsend Project / Scale the Summit North American Orgasm Tour, about which Axl shared his man-juice excitement yesterday. On January 15th death metal Egyptologists Nile kick off their mammoth Those Whom the Gods Detest Tour with Immolation, Krisiun, Abigail Williams and Dreaming Dead. Only five days later Arch Enemy embark on the MetalSucks-sponsored Tyrants of Evil Tour with Exodus, Arsis and Mutiny Within. The Pagan/Folk metal tour du jour this Winter is headlined by Korpiklaani with Tyr, Swashbuckle and White Wizzard in tow (the latter of whom are certainly not pagan or folk). And tomorrow The Metal As Art Tour featuring Hypno5e, Revocation and The Binary Code kicks off in Brooklyn and traverses the country for 31 days. Yowza!

Full lists of dates and venues for all four tours are posted after the jump. There’ve been a few venue changes so make sure you double-check… then feel free to bitch about how none of these tours are coming to your city and proceed to blame us.

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Or, rather, be forced to rock.

For “Forced to Rock” is the name of the new song that Arsis posted on their MySpace page while we were chillin’ during the holidays. And it probably won’t have to force you to rock. It will most likely just induce rocking that is completely consensual.

Arsis mastermind James Malone says that he ” came to the conclusion that the death metal world needed an anthem,” and that the need for said anthem was the impetus for this song. And it’s certainly anthemic. In fact, I’d like to once again point out Malone’s self-professed love of hair metal, and posit that there’s a distinct hair metal influence on this song. I mean, there’s definitely a thrash/death element, too (duh), but c’mon. The death metal world needed an anthem, so he wrote “Forced to Rock,” not “Fuck Her with a Knife.” That says something. Or, at least, I think it says something.

ANYWAY, it’s a killer song, and it’ll be on Arsis’ new album, Shout at Starve for the Devil, which drops February 5 in Europe and February 9 in America on Nuclear Blast. By which point Arsis will already have started the MetalSucks-sponsored Tyrants of Evil North American Tour with Arch Enemy, Exodus, and Mutiny Within! HEY-O!!! Get tour dates here.

-AR

Lookit, lookit! It’s an awesome commercial for the MetalSucks sponsored Tyrants of Evil North American Tour 2010 featuring Arch Enemy, Exodus, Arsis and Mutiny Within!!! Man, if only all commercials were this not-annoying (or however you’d say that). Most commercials are like “Do you need shit? Well here’s some shit that will help you with that shit you need!” and then there’s some lame jingle that makes you wanna kill a child in front of its parents. But not this commercial – no, this one is just selling you an AWESOME FUCKING METAL SHOW. And no lame jingle. Just so much awesome riffage in just sixty seconds. I cannot fucking wait for these shows.

Check out the commercial first, then get dates after the jump!

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Arsis have given us our first taste of their new album, Starve for the Devil, in the form of “Beyond Forlorn,” which is streaming here. And it. Is. AWESOME.

It’s an epic, melodic, death metal song that makes me wanna fuck and kill and then fuck what I’ve just killed, which I mean as a compliment. But it doesn’t sound quite like anything Arsis have ever done before. I actually kinda wonder if some fans are gonna bitch that it’s too straight-forward… but I guess some fans are gonna bitch pretty much no matter what.

Check it out and let us know what you think. Starve for the Devil comes out February 9 on Nuclear Blast. And don’t forget that Arsis are part of the MetalSucks sponsored Tyrants of Evil North American Tour 2010, alongside Exodus, Mutiny Within, and headliners Arch Enemy. Get dates after the jump.

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I have had Mutiny Within’s self-titled debut at the Mansion for about two weeks now, and I’m absolutely loving it. Loving it! Now’s your chance to experience a taste of what I’ve been jamming with a free download of album-opener “Awake,” available today only as a free download at RoadrunnerRecords.com.

This is the best “commercial” — for lack of a better word — metal record that I’ve heard in quite some time. While the mainstream metal canon has mostly stagnated over the past few years with rehash after rehash of umpteenth generation metalcore or breakdown-dominated deathcore, Mutiny Within have come along and finally added something different to the mix, adding a power Euro touch to their brand of American metal. The songs are top-notch, fist in the sky productions, led by the band’s razor-tight attack and Chris Clancy’s operatic vocals (for a sample of his vocal talents, check out this video). These songs aren’t catchy because the band are trying to write overtly catchy melodies… they’re catchy because they come from a genuine place (or at least I can surmise… who am I to make assumptions?).

Check out the free download of “Awake” while you still can, then come back here and let us know what you think. The band is currently on tour with Soulfly and will be making the rounds on the MetalSucks-sponsored Arch Enemy / Exodus / Arsis tour in early 2010. We’ve seen them locally here in NYC for years now, and they are not to be missed… that big sound you hear on “Awake” is not studio chicanery; it’s real.

-VN

So far, this is in line to be the second most metal cover art of 2010 (here’s the first)…

Starve for the Devil drops February 9 on Nuclear Blast. Arsis will also be on the MetalSucks sponsored Tyrants of Evil North American Tour 2010, alongside Exodus, Mutiny Within, and headliners Arch Enemy. Get dates after the jump.

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Earlier this week Earache Records was the subject of an extremely long-winded rant about the state of the metal industry. Now it’s Roadrunner’s turn.

First we get a press release announcing that Roadrunner has signed heavy rock band Hail the Villain. MS reader “Shit Sandwich” alerted us that the label also recently signed indie rockers The Jakes. Then comes the latest fracas involving Rob Zombie suddenly pushing back the release of Hellbilly Deluxe 2 saying “everything was turning into a chaotic mess” which was actually code for “I’m jumping ship to Roadrunner.” Methods of Mayhem… let’s not even go there. And the label is touting Ratt’s new record as one of its flagship releases for early 2010. I mean, I LOVES me some Ratt, but seriously?

All this following the dismissal of long-tenured A&R man Mike Gitter a few months back. Gitter brought Killswitch Engage, Opeth, Megadeth and many others onto the Roadrunner roster.

What the?!?

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Djent flag-wavers and recent Sumerian Records signees Periphery are taking my advice and hitting the East Coast next month for a string of headline dates, welcome news to those of us who saw them absolutely decimate the crowd on this Summer’s hit-or-miss Thrash & Burn Tour despite an asscrack-of-dawn stage time (relatively speaking). To say that Periphery were the standout act of Thrash & Burn would be an understatement; they completely tour up a room that had to be for the most part unfamiliar with them. It was also immensely satisfying for me to finally see a band live that’s been e-famous for years.

The 9-date headline tour also features This or the Apocalypse and Roadrunner young guns Mutiny Within, starting November 8th in Richmond, VA and wrapping up November 16th in Providence, RI. If you don’t live in any of these limited markets, fear not — the band will definitely be touring a helluva lot in the coming months/years.

Full list of dates after the jump, and of course you can listen to the band on MySpace. Also check out our interview with Periphery’s Misha Mansoor and Alex Bois as well as this video of drummer Matt Halpern laying down some ridiculous grooves in the studio.

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Hey, lookit! We just debuted a new Arch Enemy video, “Beast of Man,” earlier this month, and the band already has another one. Sweeeeet.

So here’s “Dark Insanity.” The track comes off the band’s recent Century Media release The Root of All Evil, and the footage is taken from their killer DVD, Tyrants Of The Rising Sun – Live In Japan.

Also: a friendly reminder (as though you’d forgotten!) that Arch Enemy will headline the MetalSucks sponsored Tyrants of Evil North American Tour 2010 with Exodus, Arsis and Mutiny Within starting in January. Get dates here.

-AR