Italian prog metal maestros Ephel Duath are really just an Italian prog metal maestro, singular — the band has gone through something like 1,864,093 line-up changes since 1998, with guitarist Davide Tiso being the only constant. Do hardcore Ephel Duath fans consider that a total bummer, or do they not care? Regardless, this news should make them happy: their new line-up promotes Ephel Duath to a full-fledged supergroup.

For the band’s next release, Tiso has recruited Karyn Crisis (from, y’know, Crisis) to handle vocal duties, Steve DiGiorgio (Death, Testament, Obscura) to play bass, and Marco Minemann (Necrophagist, Kreator) to beat the drums. Holy shit, that’s an interesting collection of musicians, isn’t it?

Minemann is about to start recording drums for the band’s next EP, which will come out in 2012 via Agonia Records. And, clearly, it just became one of the more anticipated releases of next year. So there’s something to be excited for.

-AR

Ron Jarzombek is a name that’s too seldom heard outside of progressive metal circles, despite his extensive metal legacy. Sure, a handful of people may be familiar with Blotted Science — the so-called “supergroup” of which he is a part — but by and large, even those who know Blotted Science are unfamiliar with the man himself.

Jarzombek began his musical work with the underrated-yet-incredibly-influential prog band Watchtower in the 80s, then delved into the realm of technical instrumental music with Spastic Ink in the 90s and 2000s. Blotted Science’s debut, The Machinations of Dementia, was released in 2007, and  also featured Cannibal Corpse’s Alex Webster (who is still in the band) and Behold… The Arctopus’ Charlie Zeleny (who is not).

That band is now back after four years (with a new drummer, Obscura’s Hannes Grossman, to boot!) to release The Animation of Entomology, an EP centered around bugs and horror — so much that the songs were actually written to already-existing videos as kind of horror movie scores. You can see the video for the first one, “Cretaceous Chasm,” here; the second one, “Vermicular Asphixiation,” is here.

I Skyped with Ron last week to discuss the new EP and ended up learning a lot about Jarzombek’s musical history, Blotted Science, Jarzombek’s views on the current metal scene, and ESPN exercise videos.

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Tired of waiting for the new Necrophagist album? Well, so is MetalSucks reader Keith Carlson. Mr. Carlson does weekly comics for Orlandooom.com, and his latest pokes fun at the Chinese Democracy of tech death. Check it out below; it’s some really, really funny shit. You can click on the comic to enlarge it.

Check out more of Keith’s comics here.

-AR

Ah, Valentine’s Day. Reviled by most, enjoyed by the smug, and shrugged off by the belligerently ambivalent. But while most of us couldn’t care less about this specific day in February, it’s still an annoyance that comes around every year. Kind of like the common cold.

Now, most places will have shitloads of “quirky” recommendations you can do with your special someone, even if you’re of the metalhead persuasion. You can hold sweaty hands in the privacy of your parents’ basement, pour each other some classy Motorhead wine, and share a blood pudding in the dreamy light of those church candles. It’s all very nice and sweet to be… nice and sweet.

But you know what’s better? DOING IT. With a killer soundtrack. So on this very special day, I’ve made you all a romantically inappropriate mix tape.

Picking “mood” songs is a little too obvious for my taste. I mean yeah, Faith No More’s “Stripsearch” (Actually, that might be more of a stripping song than a sexing one, but ,hmm, “Evidence” maybe? Heh, “Be Aggressive” might work for some. Either way, Patton’s voice = nudity.) and NIN’s “Closer” are both appropriate (for very different reasons), but that’s no fun. Go forth and find that special someone willing to get, get naked to these select songs. There’s a little something for everyone. St. Valentine would’ve wanted it that way.

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When Mike Portnoy announced he would be leaving Dream Theater, many of you speculated in our comments section that drum great Marco Minneman (who played in Necrophagist for a while, among countless other musical endeavors) might be on the shortlist of potential replacements. The following is of course completely reckless speculation and nothing other than conjecture, but a recent announcement has given at least a shred of credence to the possibility that Minnemann might be the man to warm Protnoy’s drum throne until he and the band mutually decide it’s time for him to come back.

Reader Dean Ferro sent us this link earlier this week, announcing a collaboration between DT keyboardist Jordan Rudess and Minnemann:

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Seems like every few months an interview with Muhammed Suiçmez surfaces in which the Necrophagist mastermind promises a new record will be released soon. Suiçmez wasn’t off-base when he said in July that new music would be released before the end of the year, only he’s got nothing to do with said music: guitarist Sami Raatikainen has beat him to the punch with a new solo album of his own under the Radiance moniker.

The album is 49 minutes and a mish-mash of genres, seamlessly morphing from djent to ambient to electronic to power metal to rock, and featuring a variety of vocal styles. It’s quite an interesting listen, which you can find out by streaming the entire thing for free below, and it’s a cool look into the mind of a guitarist whose input we probably don’t hear much of in his main project.

-VN

Reader Steven Peyton sent in a really interesting interview with Necrophagist guitarist/mainman Muhammed Suiςmez conducted at this year’s Hellfest, in which the wily Turkish-German fret master answers that burning question to which we’d all like to know the answer: when will we be getting new Necrophagist music?? It’s been almost six years already since Epitaph.

Says Suiςmez, they’re finishing it up this Summer. Hoorah! He also shares some interesting thoughts about the relationship between the band, their management, and their label (Relapse), his approach to writing new music, and what he’s been doing in-between tours all these years.

It’s a long interview, so press “play” and leave this one on in the background as you go about your regular surfing routine…

-VN

Thanks: Steven Peyton

#5 – Necrophagist

Technical German death metal that crushes!

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Not even in a Lambgoat funny haha / trying to cause a stir kind of way; in a really malicious, dispiriting what-the-fuck-is-wrong-with-the-human-race kind of way. This coming from MetalSucks, where our comments are unfortunately so often filled with grade-A assholes.

Take the above video, sent in by MS Maniac Israel Dellinger. I see a girl covering a Necrophogist song and doing a damn fine (but not perfect, sure) job of it. Apparently her fellow YouTubers and likely aspiring guitarists see it differently:

It’s fairly obvious from the caliber of comments, choice of expressions and spelling that we’re dealing with either genuinely uneducated scum, young kids, or both. But still; this girl knows she’s up against a lot here, and she also must know she’s pretty good. Female guitarists are SO rare in metal, and by extension I’m sure that YouTube guitar covers played by females are also vastly out-numbered by those of their male counterparts. Still, she puts herself on the line for the world to see and makes a go at it, and not even with a more mainstream metal song that could be considered a) more girly, b) easier to play… but she chooses to tackle fucking Necrophagist! Props, girlfriend. You keep doing what you do. I’ll be the appalled guy at his keyboard that’s glad YouTube didn’t exist when he was a kid.

-VN

I am going to assume that a decent portion of the followers of this site are themselves musicians with bands of their own. That is generally how it goes with metal. There are seamless lines blurred between the “fans” and the “bands” because, like myself, many metal patrons represent both categories. Without this large sector of musician fans, technically proficient bands that cater directly to this base (like Dream Theater, Meshuggah, and Necrophagiast) would be much less successful. So to those musicians, I would like to use this blog to shine a light on one of the harsh truths in all music and entertainment that many musicians choose to ignore -

Image matters a lot in this industry. In fact, it’s probably just as important as the music.
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Cosmo Lee posted a fun piece the other day about band name pronunciations: “Let’s help each other out. Use English words and syllables to denote pronunciation, with all caps for syllabic stress. For example, Metallica’s bassist is Robert True-HEE-yo. Got it? Good.” Among the band names and metal personalities he explores are Marduk, Dan Swanö, Mikael Åkerfeldt and Peter Tägtgren. The European readers of Invisible Oranges are really helping out.

I’d like to add a couple more to the debate:

Necrophagist

Necro-FAY-jist? Neck-RAH-fuh-jist? Necro-FAH-jist?

Vader

VAY-der or VAH-der?

Are there any bands with awkwardly written (or foreign) names that you’re wondering how to pronounce? Posit your theories in the comments.

-VN

As many of you pointed out (including Eyal, who emailed me), there’s no midi tracking device on the uke and the guy is playing along with a tab on Guitar Pro. Oh well!

-VN

Covering Necrophagist on any instrument would be pretty impressive… their music is very technical to say the least. But the tricky part here, as far as ukuleles go, is that they aren’t tuned like guitars; they’re tuned (bottom to top) GCEA, meaning you can’t just take the guitar line and play it on the same strings on a uke. I’m guessing this fine chap’s first instrument is guitar (although that’s just a gander) meaning he had to learn it on guitar and then transpose it into a different tuning and re-learn it on the uke. That’s really fucking impressive! If you’re wondering why the normally placid ukulele sounds all keyboard-y here, it’s because it’s an electric uke played through (I’m guessing) a midi controller.

Apologies to whoever submitted this video, as I can’t find the email/comment… but you know who you are, so I thank you!

-VN

So Vince and I were talking the other day about this question that both of us have wondered about from time to time, and since then I haven’t stopped thinking about it. So here it is: DO ANY OF YOU GIVE A FUCK ABOUT LYRICS IN METAL?

Is it just the sound of the voice and how it works with the sound of the music, or is it also what the vocalist is saying that matters to you? I’m going to take a guess and say that fans of hardcore and straight edge bands really do care about the lyrics because the bands are representing the ideals and beliefs of their respective communities. But what about in death metal, black metal, or any other genre of metal? When you listen to Necrophagist or Cannibal Corpse or Suicide Silence, can you comprehend what they’re singing about, and do you even care? Is it what they’re singing about, or is it more what it sounds like with the music, or both?

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I’m not in the mood for fine prose right now, so let’s just do this thing.

Metal Nick at Metal Injection captured the below footage of Necrophagist playing a new song, “Dawn and Demise,” on the recently completed, MetalSucks co-sponsored Summer Slaughter tour. Because it was captured with one camera, no soundboard, etc., it’s not exactly up to the usual high standards of Metal Injection, but it should keep all the Necrophreaks satisfied for the time being.

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Ahh, Michigan. We have lakes. Big fucking lakes. We used to have a booming car industry, but unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past six months, you need not an explanation of why I won’t be speaking of that in this article. Besides, we harbor a little music festival every summer called Dirt Fest, a metal get together a few hours outside of Detroit, founded by two dudes looking to showcase their own band. Dirt Fest quickly became the summer festival for local bands looking for recognition and inspiration. It wound up becoming comparable to the one hot chick at the party which turned out to be a sausage fest – she ends up having such a good time that she lets everyone have a turn.

Anyhoo, thirteen lucky summers later and Dirt Fest is rocking a roster that has, in the past, included bands like The Dillinger Escape Plan and The Black Dahlia Murder. Obviously something is working if these bands are rolling through, so I decided to finally go check it out this year. Armed with nothing but a delicious bottle of Jagermeister and a set of tits everyone at the MetalSucks Mansion is dying to get a look at, I embarked on what turned out to be a very interesting day. My mouth already tasted like booze before noon…

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Darkest Hour are currently out on the road doing the MetalSucks co-sponsored Summer Slaughter tour, and they’re doing a video tour diary for our gay lovers at Metal Injection. Check it out below.

It’s good to see that Lonestar is growing his mega-beard back. It’s also good to see his package.

ANYWAY, I’ve seen enough of the touring lifestyle to know that I don’t ever want to go on tour. But then again, it looks like these dudes are having so much fun…

Look for more Darkest Hour tour diaries at Metal Injection throughout the rest of the summer. And you can Summer Slaughter tour dates here. In addition to Darkest Hour you get Suffocation, Necrophagist, Ensiferum, Dying Fetus, Origin, Born of Osiris, Winds of Plague, and a bunch of other cool bands, so definitely check it out!!!

-AR

Everyone from Vince’s former home state of Michigan: MetalSucks is proud to now be co-sponsoring Dirt Fest 13, which will take place Saturday, July 11 at the Birch Run Expo Center in Birch Run, MI. The show will feature Necrophagist, Darkest Hour, Winds of Plague, Born of Osiris, Origin, and a whole bunch of awesome bands – PLUS 30 – 40 local bands, at least some of whom are bound to be finds. In other words: it promises to be a pretty kick-ass day.

And to sweeten the deal, the fest is teaming with Sick Drummer magazine for a “Sickest Dirt Fest Drummer” contest. Press release after the jump!

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Watch ex-Necrophagist drummer Marco Minnemann go nuts on the kit. Sick. As in both “holy shit is this guy amazing” and “the quick camera cuts and pans are making my stomach ill (more feet and hand closeups please!).” But still… This ought to be enough to make any aspiring drummers in the MS readership consider putting down the sticks for good, the way I get all depressed and never want to touch my guitar again every time I see John Petrucci play live.

-VN

[Thanks: Jess Z.]

This has been the source of much debate each time the Metal Injection dudes come over to the MS Mansion to blaze; as you might guess, hours of stoned arguing inevitably commence. But who the fuck cares how you pronounce the name of the band when they make music so bloody awesome? Check out the interview with Necrophagist mainman Muhammed Suiçmez that MI shot this past Saturday at the band’s support gig for Carcass.

-VN