Kenneth Thomas, in a tunnel.

If you care about heavy music and still believe that art should trump commerce every time, you owe it to yourself to check out Blood, Sweat & Vinyl: DIY in the 21st Century. I’ve written about Kenneth Thomas’s music documentary in these e-pages before. After watching the film a second time, I’m even more convinced of its importance as both a document of bands that you rarely (if ever) got to hear from outside of the concert hall, and argument for the importance of underground music makers, making music underground. Thomas chose to keep the focus tight, centering on the musicians, artists and label heads associated with three independent labels that are doing things their own way: Hydra Head, Neurot Recordings and Constellation. While there are certain characters that emerge as the spiritual ballast for the film – Aaron Turner of Isis & Hydra Head, Steve von Till of Neurosis & Neurot, and Efrim Menuck of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, in particular – the overwhelming sense is of a giant inter-connected family of passionate people, united by nothing other than a desire to pursue truth and clarity through music.

Aside from a couple off-camera giggles during an adorable scene with Justin Broadrick (Jesu/Godflesh), Thomas himself doesn’t show up in his film. So we figured we’d find out what the director had to say about his opus.

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A headline like “Tori Amos Issues Challenge to Metal Bands” is hard to ignore.  So I went over to Spinner.com to read this interview with Ms Amos, and this is what she had to say:

“Well, look, sometimes you don’t know how music affects people. I embrace that because I don’t think that just because I talk about emotional stuff that it’s not mother—er stuff. I’ll stand next to the hardest f—ing heavy metal band on any stage in the world and take them down, alone, by myself. Gauntlet laid down, see who steps up. See who steps up! I’ll take them down at 48. And they know I will. Because emotion has power that the metal guys know is just you can’t touch it. Insanity can’t touch the soul. It’s going to win every f—ing time.”

Before we get too riled up, it’d be smart to remember that homegirl has a new album to promote, and will spout any number of ridiculous soundbites to sell some plastic. Also, the offending paragraph showed up at the end of the interview, and feels like an offhand remark. Metal news sites went apeshit over it, though, so here we are. I sincerely doubt that Ms. Amos really intends to stand onstage next to Iron Maiden (or Manowar!) and “blow them off the stage.” Unless she’s got about sixteen Orange amps to blast her whispery, piano-driven poem-songs through and 4/5 of Vader providing backup, she ain’t gonna have much luck.

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A veritable force within the pantheon of doom, the mighty YOB have recently unleashed their most focused album to date, Atma. Once again, they do not disappoint, offering the listener a soul-crushing, transcendental experience of balls-heavy doom/sludge. YOB possess that rare triple-threat quality of producing consistently excellent recordings, performing flawlessly live, and bringing forth an intelligent, complementary aesthetic to their music. I caught the band on their recent US tour with Dark Castle, which if you missed, means you receive an F in life. The band is about to head across the pond to Europe with Dark Castle and Kongh, captivating new audiences and destroying speakers along the way. I

had the chance to catch up via e-mail with YOB founder Mike Scheidt, where he gave his insight on the band’s growing popularity, working with Scott Kelly, and YOB’s unique inspirations. So spark up some hash, put Atma on your speakers, and enter the devastating world of YOB.

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One of the things that I love most about underground metal is that so many diehard fans fulfill so many roles within the metal community. A lot of the kids that you see at the grind show are also in bands. The dude rockin’ out at the front might own a distro. That girl might run the screenprinting service where all the locals get their band shirts made. Another guy might be taking photographs for his blog, or promoting the show, or running a small label on the side. Extreme music requires extreme commitment.

Filmmaker Kenneth Thomas is one of those extremely committed folks. He’s a filmmaker with 15 years of experience, mostly in documentary work but also in producing music videos and EPK footage for Isis, Neurosis, Queens of the Stone Age and tons more. Back when he was living in Los Angeles, I would see Thomas at most every show I went to. Sometimes he had a film camera with him; sometimes he was just rockin’ out with everyone else. After five years of work, he’s just about to release his latest project, Blood Sweat and Vinyl: DIY in the 21^st Century.

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(photo by Seth Ballentine)

It’s been just a little over a year since Isis called it quits, but Aaron Turner has managed to keep busy (which isn’t out of the ordinary): he put out an album with Mamiffer (the band he’s in with his wife, Faith Coloccia) as well as starting up a new record label, SIGE. He’s also been working on posthumous Isis releases as well as reissuing the band’s long out-of-print live albums (heavily culling from Oceanic and Panopticon material, and cool enough to be streamed by Metal Sucks). So even though his highly influential and beloved group is done, he’s not coasting in early retirement (or getting a day job and riding off into the sunset, telling neighborhood kids about the glory days when he toured all over the country for a decade in motherfuckin’ ISIS).

While Turner isn’t know for his stodgy release habits (he’s also a member of House of Low Culture and avant-garde metal supergroups Greymachine and Old Man Gloom), Isis looms largest, and Turner not only seems at peace with that but enthusiastic about it, thankful for the people who have supported him and his art over the years. At the same time, he doesn’t have any reservations about how it ended or that it did, but simply accepts it as the end to a chapter in his life, albeit a chapter he has no problem reminiscing about. In a recent conversation with Metal Sucks, Aaron discussed the demise of his most well-known band, future Isis releases, and how running SIGE compares with running Hydra Head.

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And here’s a great way to continue continuing your morning: fan-filmed footage of Shrinebuilder performing two new songs — “Let the Hell Come” at Scion Rock Fest back in March, and “Nagas 1&2,” at the recent Roadburn festival. As was the case with that Neurosis footage we posted a little earlier, one of these clips ain’t new, but for some reason I’ve never seen it posted elsewhere, so, y’know, it’s new to us.

Here’s “Nagas 1 & 2″…

…and check out “Let the Hell Come” after the jump!

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And here’s a great way to continue your morning: fan-filmed videos of Neurosis performing not one but TWO new songs at All Tomorrow’s Parties earlier this year. The footage is from back in February, but I haven’t previously seen it posted anywhere.

I know that there are readers out there who are far bigger Neurosis fans than I, so I’ll leave it to you folks to judge, but… sounds pretty Neurosis-y to me.

Here’s the first song…

…and you can check out the second after the jump!

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I stole this photo from Invisible Oranges.

I wasn’t a big fan of last year’s Maryland Deathfest: The Movie. But I haven’t seen Maryland Deathfest: The Movie II, so for all I know, filmmaker David Hall knocked the ball out of the park the second go-round. And one way or the other, I respect that Hall is trying to do something different from most metal concert films, and I respect that Hall is working with some very cool bands (he’s also directed films for Today is the Day and Fuck the Facts) for what I’m assuming is pretty much no money. If your goal is to be a wealthy man, you don’t make documentaries about death metal festivals. Clearly, Hall loves his subject matter.

So I was pretty bummed to read “Don’t Be a Dick: A Tale of Indie Filmmaking, Extortion and MDF,” a guest post he wrote for The Deciblog today in which he tells the completely awful and depressing story of why the footage he shot at last month’s Maryland Deathfest 9 will never see the light of day.

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I heard about, and then completely ignored, this photo album of Mastodon recording their new album. Why did I completely ignore it? Because I’ve seen bands record albums. It looks like dudes standing in a studio playing instruments. And unless you’re dealing with a band who haven’t recorded together in a very, very, very long time, well… that’s not too exciting. So these kinds of shots in and of themselves are usually not very cool.

Well, I’m an idiot. If I had looked, I might have seen this pic of Dave Grohl in the studio with the band:

Instead, I had to read about it on Heavy Blog is Heavy. D’oh!

ANYWAY, let us now analyze this photograph into, ahem, oblivion.

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More than twenty years ago I was interviewed by The Daily Texan, the University of Texas school newspaper, for my role (along with my still best friend, Ray Seggern) as co-host of “The Metal Show” for KTSB (now KVRX), the student-run radio station. One of the quotes I made then that still holds true to this day was that 85% of heavy metal was “crap,” and that the joy in being a metal DJ was finding the other 15% of diamonds in the rough and sharing it with others.

If anything, the crap quotient is probably a bit higher these days, what with so many people of less than stellar skills having cheap access to means of production and simple ways of distribution. Unfortunately, the level of song-writing skill hovers around the same mark, as least on a per capita basis. In other words, more bands simply means more crap to sift through.

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I’ve been meaning to rave to you all about Wino’s new acoustic album Adrift for some time, and this is the perfect excuse. It’s not metal, but it was written and played by metal royalty… not like that should really matter much because it’s excellent in its own right, but whatever gets you to check it out. Adrift is full of heart-felt, bluesy acoustic tunes that ought to grab anyone with any kind of soul at all… and that’s you, right? Check out a few live videos of him performing the songs from Adrift at his website.

Now, onto the topic at hand: Wino and Neurosis’ Scott Kelly embarked on an acoustic tour this month which landed at NYC’s Mercury Lounge on February 12th. MS photographer Mariel Pietrykoski captured the action via her handy-dandy lens; check out the pics after the jump.

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I’ve been listening to Graf Orlock’s Doombox EP so much these past couple of weeks that I can now recite a movie quote from a movie I’ve never seen (that would be Harsh Times). The whole thing is under twelve minutes long (read Sammy O’Hagar’s rightfully-glowing review here), so it’s easy to listen to as an aid for short bursts of disrupted internet service/”FUCK YOU TIME WARNER CUSTOMER SERVICE!!!”-inspired rage. I’m so obsessed with the EP, in fact, that I now outright hate the people of Tacoma, Vancouver, and Portland, as those are the only three towns Graf Orlock will be hitting up on their upcoming mini-tour with the also-awesomeOwen Hart (whose contributions to this year’s second edition of Scott Hull-curated This Comp Kills Fascists were two of the highlights of that collection). Hopefully these dudes make it to other parts of the country in the not-too-distant future, ’cause I’m dying to see this shit played live.

So while we usually try not to cover regional tours ’cause so few of you will ever get to go, my envy of people who can attend these shows is such that I am going to post all three dates:

Dec 17 – Tacoma, WA @ The Redroom
Dec 18 – Vancouver, BC @ Garbage Mountain
Dec 19 – Portland, OR @ Branx

Go if you’re lucky enough to live in that part of the country.

Meanwhile, The PRP tells me that Scott Kelly and Wino are gonna be doing some shows together next year. They call the itinerary after the jump the “initial dates,” so hopefully there will be more soon, ’cause that sounds like a show that many of you might enjoy.

The aforementioned “initial dates” are…

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That’s right! One of MetalSucks’ most controversial voices — which is really saying something — is gonna be the DJ at tonight’s Heavy Metal Happy Hour at Arrow Bar (85 Avenue A). There are 2-for-1 drinks from 6:00PM until 9:00PM, so if you’ve ever wanted to get drunk and ask Gary “ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS OR WHAT?!?!” in person, here’s your chance!

Now the week’s highlights:

• We debuted new music by The Absence and Vanisher.
• We spoke to Accept’s Wolf Hoffmann and Sebastian Bach (but not really with that last one).
• We checked out new releases by Filter, Neurosis, and The Last Felony.
• Vince contemplated a Mike Portnoy-less Dream Theater.
• Sergeant D. contemplated the new Escape the Fate song…
• …while we couldn’t even pay attention during the new Oceano song.
• We considered bidding on the best band name in the world.
• As it turns out, Wormrot are really good live, too.
• Neil Young and Burzum are collaborating on a new album?!?
• Wanna see a fat man eat seven cans of ravioli in time to a Fuckshovel song? OF COURSE YOU DO!!!

As Eyal promised yesterday, next week will see the full-on return of “Jumping Darkness Parade.” Plus we’ll have more contest, more video and track debuts, more interviews, more everything. Be there or be ᄆ.

-AR

Neurosis are one of the best metal bands around much in the same way David Lynch is one of the best directors in American cinema: the vast, vast majority of people who encounter his movies, at best, don’t get the big deal. Neurosis aren’t a band that are easy to get into: they don’t have brews-and-BBQ-ready riffs, they’re steeped in noise and occasionally apocalyptic folk, and their M.O. for song lengths is looong. But like all difficult art, if they get their hooks in you, you’re a fan for life. Neurosis are known for harnessing soul-shaking power and crafting it into near-perfect (or, in some case, plain ol’ perfect) albums and increasingly rare-yet-transformative live appearances; their slavishly devoted fan base (which, if you’re remarkably simple and haven’t noticed, this writer is certainly among them) will tell you we’re lucky to exist in a time in which they’re still active and present. Neurot Records (helmed by the band themselves) have two new releases that further illustrate that point: yet another reissue of their classic Enemy of the Sun album and Live at Roadburn 2007, a solid capturing of their headlining set at their curated edition of the eponymous festival. Though neither are particularly essential (unless you haven’t heard Enemy of the Sun yet), they’re still a meaty bone thrown to fans waiting three years for a follow-up to Given to the Rising, surely enough to gnaw on in the meantime.

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Hello MetalSucks readers! I realize that most of you don’t know who I am, so I figured I’d take some time to tell you and maybe shed some light on the subject of why I’ve been asked to write a few fun pieces for all of your enjoyment.

My name is Bobbi Starr and I am a girl who over the past three and a half years has made a living off of all of you who buy pornography and blow your loads to the site of my asshole being impaled by the giant members of pornography legends such as Lexington Steele, and I thank you for that.

Now, those who steal porn off of bit torrent and tube sites: shame on you, and I just might hunt you down, cut your wiener off, put it on a post and do a little, non-sexual, dance, ridding you of all porno-steeling-desires. Granted, at this point you would be without a penis, but you should of thought of that before you stole my porno.

I’m just kidding. In reality, I’d probably tell you that you are a very bad boy, and then suck you off.

Anyway, back to metal. Some of you may know, I’ve pretty much always been a music nerd, and therefore a fan of the ye ol’ metal. I think those important people at MetalSucks picked up on this and thought, “We should get this chick to write nasty things for our website! That would be awesome!” I love delving into the dark, slimy depths of the music world, and sinking my teeth into some crunchy metal bands.  It may be an acquired taste for many, but I must admit that I constantly find myself craving more of those down-tuned riffs and growling vocals.

Not only is it my desire to explore the music of each band, but also my primal urge to become intimately acquainted with the nether regions of all of the band members as a whole. So, I figured, what the hell, why not make a list of the top ten metal bands that I’d like to get gangbanged by? Maybe I’ll get lucky and one of them will come through for me.

And so, in no particular order…

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Although the editors of MetalSucks get a vote in the Scion No Label Needed Contest, the staff of MetalSucks, alas, does not. Thus, over the course of the next few days, each MetalSucks writer will post an endorsement for his favorite finalist for the contest. You can check out all the finalists, and vote for your personal favorite, here.

When I received my latest homework assignment from the mansion (thanks, Gary), I knew there was only one way to go about it — completely blind. I was determined to only listen to the twenty tunes up for grabs. I had no interest in looking at band photos, music videos, or websites that gave me any background information on the bands involved. I wanted this to strictly be about the music.

As a result, only three bands actually caught my ear: Reciprocal, Scorched-Earth Policy, and Iron Thrones.

It’s been far too long since I’ve gotten a solid dose of a new Godspeed! You Cult of NeurIsis fix. I can safely say that Iron Thrones’ 12-minute post-apocalyptic acid-drenched gutter sludge track, “Cover of Smoke,” has sated my jones.

Amidst the swirling chaos of crunching guitars and throat-shredding vocals hovers a hint of melodic beauty that can’t quite disguise the band’s apparent love of cinematic soundscapes ala Explosions in the Sky.

It’s brutal. It’s beautiful. Brutiful.

Hands down, Iron Thrones “smokes” the competition.

Be sure to vote for Iron Thrones here.

Download their entire album at the Iron Thrones website.

-CM

Corey Mitchell is a best-selling author of true crime books and founder of In Cold Blog. Join him on Facebook and Twitter. His next book, SAVAGE SON, can be pre-ordered now.

Sometimes I feel fairly certain that a substantial portion of the people who leave comments on MetalSucks would be considered legally brain dead by most medical doctors. Having said that, I’m glad they read our website.

Here’s what happened in the world of metal this week:

• We spoke to Darkthrone’s Fenriz, Iron Age’s Wade Allison, and Swallow the Sun’s Juha Raivio.
• We debuted a new video from Austrian Death Machine.
• Everyone wants to kill everyone else because of all these decade end lists.
• Also, people are cranky about that Dimebag tribute album.
• Kip Wingerschmidt thinks that Stewert Voegtlin’s recent trashing of Baroness, Mastodon, Pelican and Neurosis was “eloquent.” The Austerity Program’s Justin Foley disagrees.
• Unfortunately, there is going to be a new Limp Bizkit album.
• Lambgoat is streaming “Mechanical Seas,” a new song by The Binary Code!
• I admit it: I left the ring stain on Julia Louis-Dreyfuss’ table.

Last night we went to a fancy-schmancy holiday party with an open bar and got faschnickered. Tonight I’m… going to a fancy-schmancy holiday party with an open bar. If I’m not here Monday, it’s because I died of alcohol poisoning.

Have a good one, y’all.

-AR

Now I’m not saying I agree with all, most, or even any of the points made in Stewert Voegtlin’s recent bitter-tastic Village Voice article (aptly entitled “Sketchy Metal”), but holy jeez a voice of dissension should be appreciated, welcome, and even necessary at times, especially when certain bands are so blindly revered by so many…..and furthermore anybody who can bring such a well-worded subtly sardonic taste to their Hateology (free album title!) a la our own Gary Suarez deserves a complimentary bong hit.

The article starts out with an analysis on Pelican’s sound (or lack thereof), positing that the Chicago band’s thang never crystallizes into anything approaching authentic emotion, but that some bands that Pelican derives influence from (Trans Am, in particular) have made plenty of music worth veneration, especially back in the day.  Hmm……agreed.

I almost joined the Train of Descent (free band name!) recently myself when I was considering writing an article — which was to be called MASTODON EVOLVED EVERYTHING ABOUT THEIR SOUND ON CRACK THE SKYE….EXCEPT FOR THE LYRICS – about the many cliches held within several of the lyrics on Crack the Skye. However, after listening to the album a few more times to get a clearer context of the lyrics to the piece as a whole, I cleaned my shorts off and reconsidered libeling the best modern progressive metal band of the decade.

But Voegtlin? This guy ain’t takin no prisoners (pls disregard double negative)……my favorite gem of haterade enclosed within the article definitely has to be Voegtlin’s response to Baroness’ John Baizley’s claim that his band’s music is influenced by “fine art, cinema, and literature”:

[This is] as stiltedly silly as name-dropping higher mathematics, physics, or philosophy, when what the band really peddles is exactly the everything-and-nothing Hallmark heft so many claim to uncover in Pelican’s wordless, aimless songs. While Baizely’s predilection to hawk such High Times erudition makes him sound more puerile than he likely is, it’s difficult to imagine him honestly striving to disseminate meta-emotional discourse through music as transparently commercial as his band’s stoner-metal-meets-Ford-truck-jingle approach.

Yowza!!

More insightful dissin’ and the link to the actual article afterthejump.

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While there are more obvious statements than “supergroups more often than not fail to meet our expectations” – “fire will ruin your house” and “Guns N’ Roses have gone through numerous line-up changes” are tied with it – there aren’t many. And yet, with the announcement of a formation of one, excitement is usually the first emotion called upon. And while saying that supergroup prospects should immediately be met with caution is like saying a new car should be approached with the attitude that you will most likely wrap it around a tree, the failure/success ratio is sadly stacked toward the former. However, this usually isn’t the fault of the uber-collective, but our own gargantuan expectations assuming that this new band featuring members of other bands we like will be as good as all the involved bandmembers main projects COMBINED. And while there have been some out and out failures as of late (cough Greymachine cough), the other two most notable supergroups that reared their heads this year – scraggly doom metal gathering of titans Shrinebuilder and semi-unkempt gathering of some dudes from your uncle’s favorite bands Them Crooked Vultures – have gotten an unfair rap in the wake of their respective debuts’ releases. While to say the bands’ detractors dislike their albums because they don’t rival Neurosis, Sleep, the Melvins, Nirvana, Queens of the Stone Age, or Led fucking Zeppelin is unfairly ignoring their actual grievances, to write off either Shrinebuilder or Them Crooked Vultures would be a damn shame, in that, while not reinventing any sort of wheel, in a year where the biggest supergroup commercially was Chickenfoot, a solid doom metal album and a solid stoner rock album are two pretty significant things to dismiss.

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In no particular order…

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