MetalSucks

We loved the last tour blog that Bison B.C.’s Dan And did for us so much, we’re only all-too-happy to present another! Below, please enjoy part 1; check back tomorrow for part 2!

Sep 11 ‘09 (Vancouver BC @ Commodore)

I always love kicking off a tour with a show in Vancouver. It’s great to have one last chance to get completely loser pissed with our friends before we hit the road for however long. This time we were fortunate enough to finally share the stage with local good ‘ol boys The Golers and old pals 3 Inches of Blood. The Golers have been around forever and everyone should fucking hear them. They’re basically Vancouver’s Venomous Concept: relentless, break-neck speed pummeling. Is grind-punk a genre?

Show was fucking fun as all hell. It was 3 Inches record release show for Here Waits Thy Doom (which may or may not feature all of us doing backups on the song “Preacher’s Daughter”) and the place was packed! The cap of the Commodore is somewhere between 950 and 1000 and apparently it was like 15 tickets away from being sold out. Jesse from local grinders Zuckuss pointed out how fucking crazy it is that three local bands brought that many metal heads out of the woodwork. The night was bitter sweet though because not only was our good friend Ian unable to be there because of surgery but that night would also be my last chance to ever set foot in local punk/metal institution the Cobalt. I can’t even describe how awesome that bar and the staff are. The thought that it’s getting shut down by the fucking slum lords that own the building so they can cash in on Olympic fever makes me wanna tear someone’s head off. I’m consoled by the fact that I know bar legend/honcho Wendy 13 will soon enough have a new venue I can crawl out of at 5am reeking of Jager bombs. COBALT FOREVER!
Click to read more…

Nachtmystium’s Black Meddle, Pt. 1 was one of the best albums of 2008, ending up at the top or near the top of most MS staffers’ top ten lists that year. So, naturally, Nachtmystium fans everywhere have been asking the question, “Hey, where the fuck is Black Meddle, Pt. II?”

Well, hey, guess what? The band has issued an update to that very query on their MySpace page:

Click to read more…

I don’t know about you guys, but I’ve actually learned a lot from metal. For example, when I was a kid, I heard Axl Rose use the word “cunt” in the song “Bad Obsession” and subsequently asked my dad, “What’s a cunt?” To which he responded, “Your mother’s sister.” And I instantly knew exactly what a cunt was.

Metal continues to educate me every day, and this morning has been no different. Marduk have a new song, “Phosphorus Redeemer,” streaming on their MySpace page, and while I initially thought the title was just a nonsense combination of two words, it turns out that Marduk didn’t invent the phrase. Amazing!

Click to read more…

Following three very special U.S. appearances earlier this month in Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York (effectively breaking their streak of visa issues), Swedish black metal battalion MARDUK will return for a full North American headlining tour this November dubbed the U.S. Plague Tour 2009. The band will be joined by Nachtmystium, Mantic Ritual, Merrimack and Black Anvil (on select dates).

Having missed Marduk at the aforementioned New York show and having been subject to at least 2 Nachtmystium cancellations in the past year, we’re psyched to be a part of this tour. Our own Corey Mitchell gave Mantic Ritual’s latest a five-out-of-five horns review, and Black Anvil are quite the talk of the town at the moment — we’re new to Merrimack, but we’ll certainly give them a shot. What a solid lineup. Full list of tour dates after the jump.

Click to read more…

SPECIAL GUEST BLOGGER CHRISTOPHER R. WEINGARTEN OF 1000 TIMES YES

We recently polled a wide array of musicians, managers, publicists, label reps, and writers from within the world of metal to find out what they thought the 21 Best Metal Albums of the 21st Century So Far have been. Eligible albums were released between January 1, 2000 and  April 1, 2009. Each panelist turned in a ballot, with their #1 album worth 21 points, their #2 album worth 20 points, and so on and so forth. The ballots are now in and we’ll be counting down one album a day until we reach #1. Today we present the #15 album, coming in with a total of 117 points…

Nachtmystium, Assassins: Black Meddle, Part 1 (Century Media, 2008)
Blake Judd – Vocals/Lead Guitars
Jeff Wilson – Rhythm Guitars
Zion Meagher – Bass
Tony Laureano – Drums
Produced by Nachtmystium & Sanford Parker

Is it OK to like this band because “hipsters” hypothetically like this band?

Click to read more…

We love Nachtmystium ’round these parts, so when a press release arrived via pneumatic tube at the MS Mansion today announcing that Nachtmystium have a new EP coming out on May 5th we were surprised, though most certainly elated. Seems quite soon, having released the colossally awesome Assassins: Black Meddle Part 1 not even a year ago. Naturally one would be inclined to think that the four songs comprising the Doomsday Derelicts EP are b-sides… but apparently the band is just that prolific, having recorded these tracks a good 6 months after the Assassins sessions. Whatever they are, we’re happy to take ‘em.

Click to read more…

Seriously, does anybody have worse luck than this poor dude? First Nachtmystium weren’t able to complete last year’s tour with Opeth, then they’re kicked off of the free Scion fest for some bullshit about Nazis (which, for the umpteenth time, is NOT TRUE), and now the band has to drop off their upcoming, MetalSucks-sponsored tour with The Haunted because Judd has broken his leg. Says the band:

“Sorry to anyone hoping to see us in April! After this whole bullshit fiasco with the Scion Rock Fest a few weeks back, and now this, it’s been one thing after the other around here. Fear not, we will be back soon enough.”

Click to read more…

Lots and lots of you have e-mailed us this week to ask about the fact that Intronaut and Kylesa have both dropped off The Haunted’s upcoming, MetalSucks-sponsored headlining trek in order to go tour with the almighty Mastodon. And, yeah, it’s bittersweet news at best; we were looking forward to seeing them with The Haunted, but it’s not as though the Atlanta quartet is really any less awesome than our favorite Swedes.

Of course, the always spectacular non-Nazis in Nachtmystium are still doing The Haunted tour, and now the replacement bands for Intronaut and Kylesa have been announced: Merauder and The Agonist.

Click to read more…

That I’m sitting here in the MetalSucks Mansion this snowy Monday morning has gotta be some kinda heavy metal miracle; as I type this, Anton OyVey, Rob Pasbani from Metal Injection, our friends from BITPOM.com, and a lot of other fine friends are still stranded in Atlanta due to the weather.

And honestly, there are worse towns in which to be stranded. To my shock, not only is the booze in Atlanta shockingly cheap, not only is the purp somehow completely fucking magical, but the city is about as chill as you could hope for. I kinda miss it already.

But enough wistful reminiscing. After the jump, get my thoughts on some of the best bands of Saturday’s totally excellent Scion Rock Fest!

Click to read more…

Actually I doubt that Scott Smith’s book or the ensuing cinematic adaptation really had much influence on the makers of The Haunted’s new video, “Trenches.” But, I’m sleepy and simple minded today and they’re both about killer plants, so, there ya have it. Deal with it, bitches.

The Haunted are doing an awesome tour later this year with Nachtmystium, Kylesa and Intronaut. While you’re waiting for it to come to your town, don’t forget to check out Haunted frontman Peter Dolving’s guest blogs for MetalSucks here and here.

-AR

More often than not we’re making of fun of black metal on MetalSucks, but that’s because black metal this good don’t come ’round these parts too often. Ya see, when a press release came across my e-desk announcing that Swedish black metallers Rimfrost had signed with Season of Mist Records I just had to click through the link to listen, if only because pretty much everything Season of Mist has released in the past year has been top fucking notch (see: Cynic + all of these bands). Since that fateful click-through decision I’ve literally been listening to the 5 songs Rimfrost have on their MySpace page on repeat all week.

Without getting too involved in micro-genre labeling or band comparisons, Rimfrost’s sound can be described thusly: they’d make fine touring partners with Enslaved, Keep of Kalessin and Nachtmystium. Do with that information what you will; ridiculous photo and sub-zero butt-hole-licking band name aside, Rimfrost are really fucking good.

-VN

[Rimfrost on MySpace]

It’s only January 7th but already three ridiculously awesome North American tours are planned for the early part of the year:

Soilwork + Darkane + Swallow the Sun + Daylight Dies (in some markets)

Meshuggah + Cynic + The Faceless

The Haunted + Nachtmystium + Kylesa + Intronaut

Like, woah.

Click to read more…

Ever gone to the fridge and, for whatever reason, ended up making yourself a sandwich consisting of several seemingly incompatible food stuffs that, once combined, managed to still somehow end up being totally delicious? C’mon, you know you’ve done it. Maybe it was the middle of the night and you were tired or maybe you were high or maybe you just didn’t have any turkey left like you thought you did, but somehow you ended up with horseradish and peanut butter both ending up on the pumpernickel and mmmm, it turned out pretty good.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the weird sandwich tour of 2009: The Haunted (whose Peter Dolving has blogged for MetalSucks not once but twice) and Intronaut (whose Sacha Dunable is a regular contributor to MetalSucks) will be the fresh baked bread bookending Nachtmystium and Kylesa as the meat.

Click to read more…

2008 has been a fucking great year for metal, and in due time — Monday, Dec. 15, to be exact — Axl, myself and the rest of the writers of MetalSucks will all release our Top 10 year-end lists so you can incessantly argue over which great album was left off or tell us we’re assholes for ranking a certain album higher than it should’ve been.

But for now, ya’ll can argue about something else: here’s my personal short/working list for said year-end list containing all of my favorite metal releases from this year as well as a few that aren’t likely to make my own list but will surely be appearing on others’. Feel free to pipe in with your thoughts or to notify us of any egregious omissions before we put together our final, ordered lists. Regardless, it is going to be really fucking hard to pick just 10 of these and put them in order of awesomeness.

And, my favorite metal records of 2008 in no particular order are…

Click to read more…

A month or so ago Opeth came to New York’s Nokia Theater as part of an awesome (and diverse) package with High on Fire and Nachtmystium. It was one of those nights; a Monday or Tuesday, I was fucking exhausted from having traveled cross-country the night before, partied too many nights in a row, just worked a full day, interviewed the band before the show… and yeah, I was fucking beat. Being psyched to see Nachtmystium for the first time (they were AMAZING, by the way) and having seen Opeth before, I figured I’d stick around for a few songs of Opeth’s set and then high-tail it home. So when Opeth started, “One more song,” is what I kept telling myself. Until the next one… and the next… and the next. And before I knew it, two hours later, the show was over; Opeth were just so fucking phenomenal that I couldn’t bring myself to leave! I shouldn’t have expect any less.

But before the show, I got the chance to sit down with mainman Mikael Åkerfeldt and new guitarist Fredrik Åkesson to grill them about their Progressive Nation Tour with Dream Theater earlier in the year, their new album Watershed, how the band has managed to stay relevant and interesting over such a long career, and, naturally, Metallica. Our conversation, after the jump.

Click to read more…

Even the best package tours usually have at least one weak spot, band-wise; but the Opeth/High on Fire/Nachtmystium tour, which Vince and I got to check out last week, is pretty much perfect from start to finish.

And one of the reasons is – or guess now I should say “was” – the presence of Nachtmystium. Not only did they release one of the best albums of 2008, but they slay live.

Alas, they’ve now dropped off the tour, depriving anyone who is going to an upcoming date on this tour of one of the highlights of the evening.

Click to read more…

Congrats to our winners of last week’s Funny Photo Caption Contest who will each receive an Aborted “Evidence Bag” prize pack containing an autographed copy of Strychnine.213, an autographed poster and an Aborted t-shirt. The winning entries:

• Villanj1: “The subsequent scream bellowed by a then Prince Diamond led to his portly aide to suggest to him a calling in life.”
• havoc21: “There’s so much evil surrounding this descent that I can actually feel Satan’s balls!”

This week we have a few special prize packages provided by the good men and women of Century Media; 1 grand prize winner will receive a gatefold double-LP vinyl of Nachtmystium’s amazing Assassins: Black Meddle Part 1 pressed on beer-colored vinyl and limited to 2,000 copies (read Sammy O’Hagar’s glowing review of the album. Two runners up will each receive CD copies of Into Eternity’s The Incurable Tragedy (read David Bee Roth’s review) and Intronaut’s Prehistoricisms, which was just released yesterday. Alls ya gotta do is come up with a funny caption for the below photo and post it in the comments, and one of these packages could be all yours! (Ghaal jokes automatically excluded for lack of originality.)

[Thanks: Zarko M.]

Last week’s Funny Photo Caption Contest (pictured, right) was another rousing laugh with a shitload of funny entries. Of five total winners, one grand-prize winner will receive a signed CD of The Human Abstract’s new record Midheaven (which hits stores August 19th) as well as a Human Abstract T-shirt, and four will get a regular ol’ Human Abstract CD. Here are the four runners-up:

• Pease Hode: “As you can see, Winds of Plague shows get crazy!”
• Follow4Now: “From the exclusive web only release “SNL skits done metal: My dick in a cold, dark black metal box by Justin Timberlake.”
• James: “Stop! Hellhammer time.”
• BKudler: “The next logical progression in Nu-Metal: Death Pop and Locking.”

And the grand prize goes to…

• Hegster: “…and the crowd gazed upon Lars Ulrich as he tried to devour the dollar symbol they’d cleverly placed around his neck as he bounded and twirled in his new pants made from the broken dreams of hundreds of gen x metal heads, blissfully unaware that he could use his hands for anything other than air-drumming to Trivium’s “The Crusade”.”

ZING! This week’s winner will receive 3 CDs; Nachtmystium’s Assassins: Black Meddle Pt. 1; Terror’s The Damned, The Shamed, and Hail of Bullets’ …Of Frost and War. Just come up with a funny caption to the below photo, and they’re all yours.

As if this summer’s touring season isn’t already shaping up to be an excellent one — whatwith the likes of Metal Masters (Priest / Heaven and Hell / Motorhead / Testament), the At the Gates reunion, Boris/Torche, and a whole shitload of other great shows — this fall is already shaping up really fuckin’ nicely. This is terrible news for the rest of my social life, but fuck, how can I miss out on these awesome shows?

Click to read more…

You know those annoying stickers that Victory Records puts on CD covers that invite fans of really cool bands to check out a really shitty band by proclaiming similarities even though none exist? Think of this article as one of those, minus the sticker, CD, and shitty bands, and with some actual relevancy thrown in.

Nachtmystium have been receiving gobs of praise from the metal press (and with good reason) for their excellent release Assassins: Black Meddle Pt. 1, but Trondheim, Norway’s Keep of Kalessin are doing amazingly progressive things with the oftentimes staid black metal genre equally as well as their stateside brethren. The band has actually been around since 1993 and put out 5 albums before their most recent release Kolossus, which hit stores last month.

Click to read more…