Eyehategod’s MetalSucks co-sponsored tour with Nachtmystium and Brutal Truth doesn’t start for another couple of weeks, but the band played the (in)famous Emo’s in Austin, Texas last week – and, more specifically, they played their first two albums, In the Name of Suffering and Take As Needed for Pain, in their entirety. Which is awesome. And makes me sad that we weren’t there. Maybe they’ll do it again on this upcoming tour?

Ah, well. Even if they don’t, at least we have some video of the performance…

You can check out more at Blabs. And go here to get those tour dates! These shows are gonna be sssssiiiccccckkkk…

-AR

You probably know Century Media for their work with groundbreaking, legendary artists like Stuck Mojo and My Own Victim, but they are also home to lesser-known bands like Lacuna Coil, Arch Enemy, Nevermore, Warbringer, Terror, and deathcore sensations Winds Of Plague and Suicide Silence. In all seriousness, though, I’ve worked with CM in one form or another since the mid-90s, and have nothing but good things to say about the CM crew. In addition to Despise You frontman/ CM warehouse manager Chris Elder, one of the many great people at CM is A&R guy Steve Joh. With the label’s 20th anniversary coming up soon, I figured it would be a great time to catch up with one of the nicest guys in metal and give the label some much-deserved props. Thanks to Steve for his time and help, and thanks to CM for being cool enough to send me promos when I was a teenager with a fanzine back in the day!

Note: I am a fan of both WoP and Suicide Silence. Knowing that they are lightning rods for the (negative) attention of angry metal dorks, I included their names in the headline for this post in hopes of attracting maximum viewership, and therefore giving the most possible publicity to Steve and the bands. Thank you for participating in this exciting social media marketing initiative.

Click to read more…

Yep, we talked a lot of smack on Joey Belladonna this week, much to the chagrin of, well, an awful lot of you. I think we’re done for a little while… but I can’t make any promises. Our job at MetalSucks is to amuse ourselves first and foremost, and, well, we thought it was pretty damned funny. So ppppfffftttt.

Here’s what else went down this week:

• We debuted the title track from Nachtmystium’s new album, Addicts.
• Genetic’s Dallas Coyle called us “influential,” Disfear’s Tomas Lindberg shared some Maryland Deathfest memories, The Austerity Program’s Justin Foley unveiled his top four Taco Riffs, Cynic’s Paul Masvidal got burglarized, As I Lay Dying’s Nick Hipa made some new revelations about L O S T, God Forbid’s Doc Coyle worried about turning into an old geezer, Daath’s Eyal Levi gave us a lesson in stage etiquette, and Batillus’ Geoff Summers gave us a new studio update.
• We spoke to The Melvins’ Buzz Osborne, Periphery’s Misha “Bulb” Mansoor, Testament’s Chuck Billy, and Sick of it All’s Lou Koller.
• We checked out new releases by Korn and Ufomammut and Year of No Light.
• Is Mastodon’s Brent Hinds a Mastodick?
• Sergeant D sez Cunthunt777 are your new favorite band.
• Don’t worry, baby, Dr. Danzig gonna cure what ails you.
• Hot chick loves Nergal, hates the Bible.
• Boy oh boy, do we love the new Limp Bizkit cover art!
• If you’re looking for new band members, don’t do this.

Alright. We’re gonna go get drunk and crank We’ve Come For You All in John Bush’s honor. Have a great weekend, everyone.

-AR

We’ve been raving about Nachtmystium’s Addicts: Black Meddle Pt. II for awhile now, and today, we’re incredibly proud to present an mp3 of the title track for free download. Dirty, psychedelic, epic, visceral, and catchy as hell, it’s just a small taste of this insanely creative, wholly provocative masterpiece. We hope you love it as much as we do.

Nachtmystium – “Addicts”

Addicts: Black Meddle Pt. II comes out June 8 on Century Media. You can pre-order a copy here. We assure you, it’s totally worth it.

When we heard that our friends in Brooklyn doom-crew Batillus were heading into the studio to record a new album,  we were all, “Dudes, do a studio blog for us!!!” And they were all, “Okay!!!” And so here we are! Below, find the inaugural installment, which was written by bassist Willi Stabenau; more entries from the other members of the band will follow in the coming weeks. Enjoy!

Waiting eighteen months for amps is almost worth it, if your amps are two Electric Power Units. After months and months of anxiety and crappy tone from my Coliseums, my two Greens showed up here in Chicago, just in time to start recording. Probably the best-sounding amps I’ve ever heard, and hugely powerful. Not sure I would wait that long again, though. You will love this bass; I guarantee it to be all over your ears like a cheap Men’s Wearhouse suit.

Yesterday, we discovered that [guitarist Greg] Peterson looks suspiciously like Varg Vikernes:

And shortly thereafter, we realized that the dude who’s recording us looks a hell of a lot like one Sanford Parker, knob-twiddler to the metal stars:

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2010 is shaping up to be a great year for black metal; Ludicra’s fantastic The Tenant and Burzum’s comeback album Belus (love Varg or hate him) have already impressed and ex-Emperor frontman Ihsahn released a stellar new solo album in After (which admittedly isn’t very black metal at all). Much-hyped new releases from Nachtmsytium and Keep of Kalessin are on the way, Krallice are keeping busy on the road, and then there’s this: a rousing new track by New York City newcomers Castevet.

Castevet are new to me, although they released a 7″ in 2009; thanks to the gents at Crustcake for putting me onto them, both in person (thanks Gerf) and on the blog. Like Crustcake, new song “Grey Matter” has piqued my interest in new album Mounds of Ash, recorded by Krallice’s Colin Marston and scheduled to see the darkness of night on May 25th. The Marston matching is definitely a good fit; like Krallice, Castevet bring a certain amount of technicality to the table that isn’t usually present in black metal and mix it with blackened psychedelia. Maybe we’re witnessing the birth of progressive black metal first hand.

Check out “Grey Matter” below, courtesy of the band’s label Profound Lore.

Castevet – “Grey Matter”

-VN

Anyone else as excited about Keep of Kalessin’s new album as I am? Their 2008 album Kolossus was one of my favorite black metal-ish records of the year, close to Nachtmystium’s Assassins: Black Meddle Part 1 and Enslaved’s Vertebrae; it was the most traditionally black metal sounding of the three, but it too had flecks of psychedelia and progressive experimentation. The album wasn’t without faults but was a really solid record that showcased the unique brand of black metal the band had to offer.

Two years later Keep of Kalessin are back with new album Reptilian, having gained a lot of notoriety since then both via word-of-mouth and through the Eurovision competition earlier this year. Their new song “The Dragontower” took them surprisingly far in the Eurovision competition; that song’s been streaming at Keep of Kalessin’s MySpace page since then, and the band has just posted another new song from Reptilian called “The Awakening.” It’s an ambitious 8+ minute epic — counter to the 3-minute pop structure of “The Dragontower” — which hopefully hints at what this album’s going to offer.

Reptilian comes out on May 10th in Europe via Indie Recordings and June 8th in the U.S. via Nuclear Blast. Stay tuned to MetalSucks for a full album stream soon.

-VN

Yesterday you got your first taste of two full songs, “High on Hate” and “No Funeral,” from Nachtmystium’s upcoming masterpiece, Addicts; in the comments section, reader thrasheaderek helpfully pointed out that there’s also an e-card where you can listen to two additional tracks, “Nightfall” and “Blood Trance Fusion.” If you’re one of the readers who found “No Funeral” to be “shocking” or “interesting” or some other such word for “Wow, didn’t see that coming,” well… get ready to feel that way again. There’s ten tracks on the album, which means you’ve now heard 40% of it. The diverse and unexpected nature of the music should now be fairly clear in your mind.

Listen to the new tracks here. And if you’re already sick of me talking about Addicts, well… tough. It’s a great record and we’re gonna be splooging all over it quite a bit between now and its June 8 release.

-AR

The Nachtmystium/Addicts flame wars have already begun. I know this because some fans – including one reader of this site – have expressed concerns over the band’s new logo in lieu of actually having new music to criticize. I recognize that logos often tell you what kind of band you’re about to hear, but… it’s not like Nachtmystium are a new band. And concern over logo changes make me think we’re all still suffering from the PTSD caused by Load – when Metallica’s long-time logo changed, that’s when the band really started to suck. But I promise you, Nachtmystium are not about to release a Load, or pull a Cryptopsy and put out a deathcore album. So why did they get a new logo? Is it because having a pentagram and inverted crosses probably makes the stocking of their albums and merch in certain venues less likely? Or were they just tired of the old one? I honestly have no idea what the answer is, but it strikes me as a moot point. Addicts is a truly great record, and their logo could be a poop smear for all I care – in fact, their new logo does kinda look like poop smears.

If people got in a tizzy over nothing more than a little over one minute of music and some album art, then I can’t wait to see what they have to say about the actual music, which is now starting to emerge into the world. First, we have some pro-shot German television footage of the band performing the opening track from Addicts, “High on Hate.” It’s actually one of the only kinda-sorta traditionalist black metal songs on Addicts, and isn’t really all that indicative of the sound of the album. Which is not to say that it doesn’t rule, because, clearly, it does.

Meanwhile, Stereogum is giving away a free mp3 of the song “No Funeral,” which, as I noted a few weeks back, is that rarest of commodities: a metal song you can dance to. You’re either gonna hear those keyboards and think “AL-RIGHT!”, or some homophobic slur is going to pop into your brain. Either way, I’d be surprised if anyone had a mild reaction to the song. Download it here.

-AR

I don’t usually like to post these “album teasers” ’cause nine times outta ten they’re totally friggin’ lame, but I’m gonna make an exception in the case of this video promoting Nachtmystium’s upcoming Addicts: Black Meddle Pt II. For one thing, in case you didn’t get memo, we think that this album is tops; and given the range of reactions other blogs have already had to less than a minute and a half of actual music, I was right when I asserted that this thing is gonna be a conversation starter. “Meh” is not a response you’re going to hear people give Addicts; you will, however, see endless flame wars and drunken/stoned arguments.

So. The song actually being used here is album-closer “Every Last Drop,” which I predicted “might be the new high watermark for Nachtmystium.” The entire song is eight and half minutes long, so this is just a free taste, as my heroin dealer might say…

In case you’re slow and those numbers at the end of the video are totally baffling to you, Addicts comes out June 8 on Century.

-AR

I’ve been looking for an excuse to write about Nachtmystium’s latest, Addicts: Black Meddle Pt. II, for awhile now. The band just announced a June 8 release date via Century and “unveiled the track list,” as the metal-news terminology goes; I don’t usually give a shit about track lists, because unless the band is Metallica and the song is “Unforgiven XIX,” titles don’t actually tell you very much about the music. But since the Nachtmystium is in the headlines, now I can write about the album and not feel like I’m being completely random.

So: it’s still early, but as of today, April 7, Addicts is the best album of 2010 so far. And there’s a lot I want to say about it, so please excuse me while I ramble a little.

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FUCK. YES. MetalSucks is very proud to be teaming up with our friends at SMN to bring you the legendary Eyehategod’s June 2010 tour. If you’ve seen Eyehategod before, you know they’re a force of nature live; if you’ve never gotten to experience them in concert until now, well, prepare to get turned right the fuck inside out. Add Nachtmystium playing support from June 4 – 15 and Brutal Truth playing support from June 10 – 13, and these are pretty much guaranteed to be some of sickest shows of the summer.

Dates are on the nifty poster above. And, of course, stay tuned to MetalSucks for more coverage…

-Axl, Vince, and Everyone at MetalSucks

Last weekend I was lucky enough to be back in NYC for my spring break (even though the first week of March is clearly not spring), and was able to catch the Kreator, Voivod, Nachmystium, Evile, and Lazarus A.D. show. Considering that it had been a little while since I have been pushed up against someone bigger and sweatier than I am, I was pretty geeked.

While I was at the show it dawned on me that, unlike in most sports, there aren’t statistics that tell you how well a band performed. Soccer has the a similar problem, which they solve by giving each player a 1 – 10 ranking based on their overall performance. So in honor of the upcoming world cup and my brother, who both despises metal and introduced me to soccer, I give you the band ratings for the Kreator show in soccer style.

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Although at first glance at this photo makes it appear as though Ol Drake is stroking a massive hard-on, that’s actually a garbage bin just behind him. Alas, he was not that excited to be speaking with Axl Rosenberg.

Whatever the hell it is we’re calling Evile’s particular metallica subgenre these days – retro thrash, rethrash, nu thrash, or just plain old motherfucking thrash – they’re one of the better bands playing it right now. Like only a handful of their peers, they really seem to “get” the music – and so while their roots as a Metallica cover band might show, it doesn’t really matter ’cause, well, who can think about that shit while headbanging so damn hard?

It’s been a tumultuous time for the band as of late – founding bassist Mike Alexander passed away in October of last year – but they’ve managed to persevere, and now find themselves doing pretty much the best first North American tour any non-American (in this case, British) band could hope for: playing support for Kreator along with Voivod, Nachtmystium, and Lazarus A.D. And as if that wasn’t enough, almost immediately thereafter they hit the road with Overkill. Sheesh.

Following the band’s gig here in New York last weekend, I got to speak with guitarist Ol Drake, who, despite his almost Heavy Metal Muppet-ish appearance, is a very cordial, soft-spoken gentleman. After the jump, get Ol’s thoughts on playing the States for the first time, why it’s taken them so damn long to get here, new bassist Joel Graham, the status of the next Evile record, and more.

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Kreator’s twenty-fifth anniversary tour, which features the very strong supporting line-up of Voivod, Nachtmystium, Evile, and Lazarus A.D., rolled through NYC on Saturday night, and, yeppers, I was there. I don’t have tons to say about it, but I did wanna give you a quick run-down, in the event that you are somehow on the fence about whether or not to buy a ticket when the tour comes to your town… so here are some quick thoughts about all the bands, in the order in which they appeared:

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2008 was something of a banner year for psychedelic black metal. The obvious breakthrough was Nachtmystium’s Pink Floyd-worship piece Assassins: Black Meddle, Pt. 1, the reverberations of which are still being felt with a slew of decade-best list inclusions. Norway’s Enslaved also released the very excellent Vertebrae in 2008, continuing the band’s progression from traditional black metal into psychedelia and landing the album a slew of “best of” nods for the year as well. Keep of Kalessin, a lesser known band from Norway, also made waves ripples in 2008 with their Nuclear Blast release Kolossus, another excellent record. Kolossus was neither overlooked or overhyped — it got precisely the amount of attention it deserved, garnering attention in all the right places and allowing the band to grow, develop and spread their worldwide reach organically.

Here we are in 2010. Nachtmystium are reportedly working on Black Meddle Part 2, tentatively due for release this Spring. No word from Enslaved yet, but one can only hope. And according to Blabbermouth Keep of Kalessin are working on a new album called Reptilian tentatively due in “early 2010″ to which my reaction is yes yes yes yes YES!! It’s unclear whether they’ve finished recording the album yet, but they’ve at least finished one song, “The Dragontower,” for inclusion in the Eurovision contest Melodi Grand Prix. “The Dragontower” has more of a black n’ roll flavor than anything from Kolossus, and at only 3 minutes it’s also shorter, both qualities I’d attribute to the nature of the contest they’re entering (Bmouth tells us that the full, 5-minute version of the song will appear on Reptilian). If Rage Against the Machine can beat out UK pop in sales, maybe an extreme metal band can win a national TV competition in Norway? Stranger things have happened.

Stream the shortened version of “The Dragontower” below. We’ll keep you apprised of further developments related to Reptilian and try not to blatantly gush.

-VN

Even though metal seems to have (re?)infiltrated the mainstream as of late, I’m still always surprised when I open my NY Times in the morning and see a feature on a metal band. When that feature includes a half a page above-the-fold photo of Immortal, I am outright shocked.

But there they, the chosen visual representation for an article on black metal and, in particular, the black metal symposium that took place at Public Assembly in Brooklyn this past weekend.

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After Corey Mitchell’s perfect review of their album Executioner, how could we resist running a tour blog from Mantic Ritual guitarist Jeff Potts? Read his first installment below, and if you’re very well behaved, others will follow…

Right now I’m sitting back stage at the Masquerade in Atlanta with the peculiar kind of sore throat that only comes from prolonged screaming and generally abusing the hell out of the vocal chords.  This doesn’t sound that weird for a guy who’s in a  thrash band on a black metal tour, but it’s actually pretty odd – because I’m the guitarist.

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The MetalSucks-sponsored U.S. Plague Tour 2009 is currently weaving its way across the country, and MS photographer Diana Lee Zadlo was on hand November 23rd in Baltimore to catch Marduk, Nachtmystium and Merrimack in action. The tour rolls through New York in a couple of weeks, and though we’re exhausted from a long Autumn full of shows we couldn’t be more excited to finish things off for 2009 with this awesome lineup.

Diana’s photos, after the fold…

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The MetalSucks-sponsored U.S. Plague Tour 2009 — featuring Marduk, Nachtmystium, Mantic Ritual, Merrimack, and on select dates Black Anvil — is currently under way. The tour kicked off Friday in Worcester, MA, runs through the South, up the West Coast, and then cuts back through the Midwest, ending December 16th in New York. In a cluttered Fall tour marketplace, this is one that definitely stands out from the pack. Must-attend!

And if you didn’t hear, Nachtmystium’s Black Meddle Part II is currently in the works. By now pre-production should be complete and recording will supposedly begin in January for a Spring release. Stoked!

Full list of tour dates — with ticket buy links — after the jump.

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