MetalSucks

These are some of my favorite producers and mixers for heavy music… It’s a challenging genre, and these guys are great in my opinion.

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In his “Tell Us Why MetalSucks Sucks” contest entry, finalist Malacoda accused us of not covering Nevermore at all. To this I have two things to say:

1) this is clearly not true. (ditto for All Shall Perish, the other band Malacoda suggested we gave the short shrift, whom we have covered in abundance)

2) fuck you.

To that end, here’s a video of a shred-off between Chris Broderick (now in Megadeth) and Jeff Loomis filmed at Jaxx in Springfield, VA in 2006. SHRED!

Nevermore are currently recording a new album. No word on a release date yet, but you’ll definitely know as soon as we do.

-VN

“I’d hate to be in one of those bands where every song has screamed verses and sung choruses. We’re averse to writing songs with any kind of formula.”

-Phil Labonte, Decibel, October 2008

Ladies and gentlemen, seven of the eleven songs on All That Remains’ latest, Overcome, follow this exact formula.

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Congrats to the winner’s of last week’s Funny Photo Caption Contest. “Jonowev” won the grand prize, a limited edition, beer-colored double-gatefold vinyl of Nachtmystium’s excellent Assassins: Black Meddle Part 1 with the following caption to the photo at right:

“Kiss had been forced to spend less on their stage shows due to the credit crisis.”

These two runners-up also win CD copies of Into Eternity’s latest The Incurable Tragedy and Intronaut’s Prehistoricisms:

villanj1: “The practicing of a rare and bizarre ritual for the regrowing of Devin Townsend’s skullet.”

Scott: “We’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Winds Of Plague shows get NUTS!”

This week we have a mind-blowingly radical God Forbid prize package courtesy of Century Media: two grand prize winners will each get a limited edition God Forbid IV: Constitution of Treason picture-disc vinyl, a IV: Constitution of Treason lithograph and a copy of the Beneath The Scars of Glory & Progression DVD. Holy shit is that cool; like, I’m seriously jealous of whoever wins that! Two runners-up will also each receive a copy of Norther’s new album N and the Jeff Loomis [of Nevermore] solo-album Zero Order Phase. Alls ya gotta do is come up with a funny caption to the below photo. Go!

[Thanks: DamagedMike]

A press release arrived last night after the gates of the MetalSucks Mansion had been shuttered announcing pretty much the best news ever: founding guitarist Peter Wichers has rejoined Soilwork. Wichers had departed to pursue a career in producing, working on such records as the Nuclear Blast all-star Out of the Dark compilation and Warrel Dane of Nevermore’s solo record Praises to the War Machine.

This news is particularly refreshing because without Wichers, Soilwork had been lumbering along as an imitation of its former self. Wichers was always the primary writer and creative force behind Soilwork until his departure in late 2005, so his return should come as welcome news to any fans who thought 2007’s Sworn to a Great Divide was lackluster effort (presently company excluded — I thought Sworn was a passable if even decent effort, but that it lacked that special touch). To make matters worse, second guitarist Ola Frenning quit earlier this year, removing any guitar links to the band’s glory days. With Wichers’ return, his replacement Daniel Antonsson has been let go and drummer Dirk Vervueren’s bandmate in Scarve, Sylvain Coudret, has been tapped for second guitar.

This great news comes just in time for the band’s massive North American headline tour with Darkane, Warbringer and Swallow the Sun! YES! Full list of tour dates after the jump.

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How many of you snoozed on Praises to the War Machine, the excellent solo CD released this past Spring by Nevermore crooner Warrel Dane? The Peter Wichers (ex-Soilwork)-produced effort, while not necessarily living up to the best of Nevermore, was a damn fine disc. As perhaps the album’s slowest number, “Brother” wouldn’t have been my choice for a video to represent the whole album — but it does capture the ethos of the disc pretty well while indulging in some of the finest metal cliches known to man (Warrel sitting in a leather arm chair surrounded by candles in a dark room = unequivocally METAL). Interestingly (and Dane deserves major props for this), the movie footage cut into this video is real stuff from his childhood, relating to the [depressing] subject matter of the song.

-VN

Praises to the War Machine, the first solo effort from Nevermore / Sanctuary vocalist Warrel Dane, is one of the releases yet to come out this Spring that I’m most looking forward to. The effort was recorded and mixed by ex-Soilwork axeman Peter Wichers who also plays guitar and bass on the album; Soilwork drummer Dirk Verbeuren plays drums on the record as well. Praises to the War Machine is now available for streaming in its entirety on Warrel Dane’s MySpace. Also, check out the handy-dandy widget, below!

The result? Praises to the War Machine sounds something like Soilmore or Neverwork, not that this is a bad thing at all. The production and guitar tone are Wichers’ trademark, but Dane’s vocals add a dynamic to the music that’s distinctly Nevermore. If you’re a fan of either, you’ll likely dig this release. If you’re unfamiliar with Nevermore, you a) are a nincompoop, b) should check out several of their songs here. And I’m guessing most of you know Soilwork pretty well.

Praises to the War Machine drops April 28th in Europe and May 13th in the U.S. on Century Media.

-VN

Let’s get some love for Pacific Northwest metallers Nevermore around here. The first time I saw these guys was at the first Gigantour (’04?), and it was quite the spectacle — five dudes with hair below their asses windmilling in perfect unison. Nevermore deserves so much credit for being an American band forging ahead with the European style of metal in the late ’90s when literally NO ONE would touch it this side of the Atlantic, other than an underground nation of Doom 3-playing, Magic card-toting teenage geeks. Thankfully they made it through those darkest of times and forged the way for new bands like Into Eternity to carry the torch.

Nevermore – “Final Product”
Nevermore – “The Psalm of Lydia”
Nevermore – “Narcosynthesis”
Nevermore – “The River Dragon Has Come”
Nevermore – “Dreaming Neon Black”

The following video for “Voyager” from their 2003 release Enemies of Reality gives a pretty good flavor of the band. And those finger-spike thingies; oh my, where do I get my pair of those?

-VN

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