MetalSucks

Happy July 4th, everyone. Axl and I are closing down the MetalSucks Mansion a day early to get off of this swampy, hot, over-crowded island…. so this is it for us until next Monday. Enjoy your time-off; for our international readers, well… revel in the fact that you get *way* more days off than we lame Americans do throughout the whole year! Anyway, here’s what happened this week:

• Motley Crue and Shinedown had big sales debuts, while Disturbed and Kid Rock kept it going strong.
• The Human Abstract debuted more killer new music.
• We interviewed the brains behind one of our favorite albums of 2008 so far.
• David Draiman insists on having the last word in the ongoing Disturbed vs. Dillinger Escape Plan drama.
• The new Slipknot masks look kinda like the old Slipknot masks, but we like their new song.
• We asked what you thought of Straight Line Stitch; you answered loud and clear.

Cheers, everyone. Enjoy your time off.

-VN

Nachtmystium’s Assassins: Black Meddle Part I is every bit as good as all the hype. Axl and I both placed it on our very-preliminary 2008 Top 10 lists and have waxed ecstaticly about it on multiple occasions; and earlier today, new MetalSucks contributor Sammy O’Hagar wrote a glowing 4.5/5 horns review. I recently had the opportunity to email Nachtmystium singer/guitarist/brainchild Blake Judd a bunch of questions, and wouldn’t you know it, the fine Chicagoan answered them. For Judd’s thoughts on Assassins, his Pink Floyd fetish, black metal, and other interesting tidbits click through the jump.

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“A Seed for Suffering,” the first proper song on Nachtmystium’s last album, Instinct:Decay, felt like a thrown gauntlet. After almost four minutes of pretty good black metal, the following three are a wall of psychedelic guitars all looping around a riff that wouldn‘t sound out of place on an early Burzum record. In a world as narrow as that of black metal, it was akin to handing out British flags in the dingiest pub in Belfast, Northern Ireland. This, of course, lead to two years of anticipation for their next record, to be put out on Century Media with an actual budget. After months of reading overwhelmingly positive press for the album, it only left one to wonder whether or not the band would collapse under the weight of their own hype or continue to establish a solid link between psychedelia and black metal.

Gods be praised, it’s the latter.

Click to read more…

Another week in metal. Apparently some stuff happened.

• Louisana electro-core outfit IWRESTELEDABEARONCE signs with Century Media. Congrats!
• Disturbed’s new record debuts at #1, shifting over 1/4 of a million units and robbing us of our faith in humanity. Sigh.
• Metallica’s management demanded lukewarm reviews of an album preview be stripped from the Internet; band makes management do pushups.
• Live recordings of new Anthrax music with new singer Dan Nelson surfaced.
• Nachtmystium released an awesome new album and God Forbid an awesome new DVD.
• We wished we lived in Chicago so we could eat the world’s most metal burgers.

Have a good weekend everyone!

-VN

2008 isn’t even half over yet and I already know it’s going to be tough picking my top 10 favorite metal albums of the year. So far there have already been a bunch of excellent releases that could be top 10 contenders:

• Protest the Hero – Fortress
• Torche – Meanderthal
• Arsis – We are the Nightmare
• Textures – Silhouettes
• Scar Symmetry – Holographic Universe
• Nachtmystium – Assassins: Black Meddle Part 1
• Disturbed – Indestructible

PSYCH! But seriously folks, the first six in the list are the real deal.

I’m hoping for a slow second half of the year so I don’t have to make any hard choices. Actually, not. Keep ‘em comin’.

-VN

It’s been a while since we’ve had a Tuesday worth talking about, but today is a big day indeed for those who still buy records. Our album pick of the week is Nachtmystium’s excellent, psych-addled, black metal experiment Assassins: Black Meddle Part 1, which hits the shelves amongst much hullabaloo. Even if you don’t buy records you’ve still got to buy DVDs, and God Forbid are dropping a fucking doozy today; Beneath the Scars of Glory and Progression, which has been in the works for well over a year, finally hits stores. The DVD features a live performance filmed at the Starland Ballroom in New Jersey (Axl and I were there) as well as a telling behind-the-scenes documentary by Denise Korycki. Buy it ’cause Dallas said so. And though we haven’t seen it yet, we’re 99.9% sure it’s incredible.

-VN

Nachtmystium’s new record Assassins: Black Meddle Part 1, which drops June 10th on Century Media, is such a solid record that it’s sure to be on a lot of people’s year-end Top 10 lists, as Axl wrote about a month ago. If you’re one of those (like me) who are usually turned off by most black metal because of its sameness and lo-fi-for-the-sake-of-lo-fi production values, this is the record for you. If you like your metal heady and smart, this is the record for you. If you’re a fan of Pink Floyd, boy oh boy is this the record for you.

Any Floyd fan should recognize the homage in the album title immediately. Opening track “One of These Nights” is a sinister-sounding black metal interpretation of Meddle opening track “One of These Days.” The three-part, album-closing epic “Seasick” is an obvious nod to the 22-minute epic “Echoes” from that same album. And the comparisons go on from there.

Guitar World’s MetalKult blog is doing a 7-part “In The Studio” video series chronicling the recording of Assassins: Black Meddle Part 1. The first entry features the band members talking about the role of mushrooms and beer in the band’s writing process, as well as some other studio shenanigans and behind-the-scenes footage.

This is a fucking fantastic album. You owe it to yourselves to pick it up on June 10th.

-VN

Vince and I have heard Nachtmystium’s new album Assassins, and believe us when we tell you it’s gonna end up on a lot of people’s top ten lists at the end of this year. It is, simply put, an awesome, awesome album.

Back in February the band gave fans a little taste of what they could expect when they posted a new track, “True Enemy,” on their MySpace page; well, I guess the band realized it left listeners drooling for more, because now the eight minute plus title track is also on their MySpace page.

No clever witticisms here. Just check it out. Seriously. You fucking owe it to yourself.

Century will release Assassins on June 10 here in the States; the rest of the world gets it via Candlelight on June 23.

-AR