2011 is going to be an awesome year to be a nerdy metal dork. BTBAM’s got a new EP in the works and frontman Tommy Rogers (aka Thomas Giles) has a solo record coming out in February, both on Metal Blade Records (though the former mysteriously hasn’t been announced as such quite yet). We’re also getting TWO new records from Devin Townsend, new Scale the Summit, and as-of-yet unannounced records from other prog masters, no doubt. Necrophagist? Meshuggah? Certainly possible. A good year is in store indeed.

Devin Townsend played a new song at this weekend’s performance at the annual NAMM show in Anaheim… and yes, this time I promise that this is actually a new track. The song is called “Fly,” and it’s slated to appear on Ghost, the mellowest of the four albums in the Devin Townsend Project suite. Fellow Hevy Devy Superfan Alkahest of Heavy Blog is Heavy picked this one up on the newswire.

As for new BTBAM, we get the following teaser:

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The MetalSucks co-sponsored Full Metal Texas 2010 just keeps getting better and better! Last week Animals as Leaders were added to the bill that already includes such illustrious acts as Darkest Hour, Fair to Midland, Iwrestledabearonce and Born of Osiris; now it has been announced that Israel’s Orphaned Land will be playing the show, too! And Axl just saw them kick-ass the other night. Good deal!

This completely FREE all-day show will take place at Emo’s in Austin, Texas, on Thursday, March 18. Set times for all the bands have been announced, and you can view those after the jump, so as to ensure that you don’t miss anybody you really wanna see. (And there’s a slot open for a “special guest.” Hmm… wonder who that could be?) PLUS, the first 666 Heinekens are FREE, so you’ll wanna get there early.

You can RSVP for the show here – doing so will make you eligible for VIP drink specials at the show, and will enter you into a contest from Eagle Rock Entertainment, who will be previewing two new Classic Album DVDs from Black Sabbath and Rush and are giving away a Blu-Ray player, a bunch of DVDs, and some other cool swag. You can also follow Full Metal Texas on Twitter for all the latest updates.

And here are the set times…

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Last month we told you about Full Metal Texas 2010, a completely FREE all-day show we’re co-sponsoring at Emo’s in Austin, Texas, on Thursday, March 18. With a line-up including Darkest Hour, Fair to Midland, Born of Osiris, Iwrestledabearonce, Howl, Iron Age, and more, it already promised to be an incredibly killer show.

Now perennial MetalSucks faves Animals as Leaders have been added to the bill, meaning you get even more bang for non-buck!

Seriously, if you live in the Austin area and don’t go to this, you’re a damn fool. It’s FREE, for Chrissakes!

You can RSVP here – doing so will make you eligible for VIP drink specials at the show, and will enter you into a contest from Eagle Rock Entertainment, who will be previewing two new Classic Album DVDs from Black Sabbath and Rush and are giving away a Blu-Ray player, a bunch of DVDs, and some other cool swag. You can also follow Full Metal Texas on Twitter for all the latest updates.

-AR & VN

MetalSucks is double-dipping this year at the annual showdown/brodown/hoedown in Austin, TX by bringing you TWO awesome metal shows. You already know about the amazing Full Metal Texas lineup during the day on Thursday, March 18th — featuring Darkest Hour, Howl, Fair to Midland, Iron Age, Karnivool, Iwrestledabearonce and more — and today we’re pleased to announce that we’re sponsoring the showcase for one of our favorite metal labels, Prosthetic Records. The lineup, starting at 7pm on the festival’s inaugural Wednesday night, features the future of Prosthetic’s roster: Scale the Summit, Landmine Marathon, Withered, Book of Black Earth and The Funeral Pyre. We haven’t heard of Clinging to the Trees of a Forest Fire or Lions of Tsavo before, but if Prosthetic gives them their stamp of approval they seriously must be excellent… and aren’t festivals like this supposed to be about discovering new music anyway?

But wait — there’s more! The Prosthetic showcase is taking place at the same venue as the Action PR showcase at the very same time, meaning once you’re in you’ll be able to freely roam between both stages, one inside and one outside. And check out THIS fucking lineup: High on Fire, Priestess, Bison B.C., The Gates of Slumber, Zoroaster and Namm. Holy fucktickles, are you kidding me? That’s 13 fucking awesome metal all for just $10 (free if you have a wristband) in one metal-filled evening. FUCK YES.

Coming soon: a MetalSucks-approved calendar of all the metal goings-on at SXSW 2010.

Hey, tech heads! Our bro-bros at Metal Injection actually put down the bong long enough to get on a plane go to LA (where they picked up another bong, but whatever) to cover NAMM last month. They came back with a HOUR LONG special, which, if I’m not mistaken, makes this easily their most in-depth project yet. It includes interviews not only with a ton of music gear peeps, but also some cool artists as well. Check out part one below; you can watch the other three parts here. You can also download the whole schebang as a single higher-res file on iTunes.

-AR

Monday’s Jumping Darkness Parade post in which Eyal shared his gripes about the 2010 NAMM show was spot on; I’ve done NAMM several times (though not this year) and the level of wankery and hang-on-ery is indeed at an insanely intolerable level. But my favorite part of NAMM is always watching Michael Angelo Batio shred it up at the Dean Guitars booth. I’d use Michael Angelo Batio as an example to challenge Eyal’s assertion that “if you’re a guitar shredder, and that’s all you do, you better prioritize finding yourself a badass songwriter, or you are doomed. Accept reality now and suffer less later.” Because while Mr. Batio certainly isn’t a huge rock star he seems to have made a fine career  for himself out of his completely ridiculous guitar tomfoolery. Dudes like this LIVE for NAMM.

I luuurrrvvv Michael Angel Batio in a completely un-ironic way and I think Axl does too, albeit perhaps to a lesser degree. The double-neck guitar bit gets me every single time. Suckalo Hammer_Smashed_Hurtt surely wouldn’t approve, but I love Batio unconditionally. Dude can rip! Here’s his 2010 NAMM performance.

Oh, and that wig? Priceless. Total A+ material.

-VN

Our boy Bram Teitelman at Metal Insider reports that Guitar Center – a.k.a. “the bane of Eyal Levi’s existence” – is now the defendant in a class action lawsuit, along with the National Association of Music Merchants (you know them as NAMM). See, as it turns out, those fuckers (I guess I should say “allegedly”) conspired to fix the prices of fretted instruments, even go so far as to as to attempt “to quash competition from online retailers by threatening to boycott manufacturers selling through online competitors.” Very nice.

Click to read more…

Click to read more…

Buried in a montage of video interviews conducted by OnTrackMagazine at the Winter NAMM show in Anaheim, CA this past January was in interesting bit with King’s X vocalist/bassist Doug Pinnick. King’s X are one of my favorite bands of all time, and Pinnick — though I haven’t met him (yet!) — seems like one of the most down-to-earth dudes there is. Some interesting tidbits from the interview:

On the illusions and expectations fans have of King’s X being rockstars: “I live from month to month, like everyone else.”

On his time in California during NAMM: “Me and Mick Mars are gonna start writing some tunes together. I’m gonna be hangin’ with him for four or five days… Mick called up and said ‘Come on out, man! Come and write some tunes with me! Let’s do a little writing collaboration and sell tunes to other bands and stuff.’ So I said, why not? Make a little extra money and keep going.”

Anything Pinnick puts his name on I’m willing to check out, and I’m curious what Mick Mars’ writing style is like sans-Nikki. How’s that for a collabo to look forward to in 2008?

-VN