Throughout the course of L O S T’s sixth and final season, my guest-column writing approach has been (somewhat) consistently this:

- Step 1: Watch the episode
- Step 2: Ponder, reflect, dissect, and overanalyze everything presented in the then-current episode as much as is in my capacity to
- Step 3: Ponder, reflect, dissect, and overanalyze how the concepts presented fit in the grand scheme of the L O S T story
- Step 4: Lurk amongst my favorite L O S T-related sites to see what my fellow nerds are thinking. Filter through to find thoughts that challenge or reinforce my own, then ponder, reflect, dissect, and overanalyze as per usual.
- Step 5: Share my current understandings and questions with you here to hopefully strengthen the former and minimize the latter.

This weekly process was my best attempts at keeping myself (and hopefully a lot of you) pumped up and interested in what would happen next. The end was coming, the end was nigh, and the end has happened. The completely obvious and appropriate question now is: how do you feel about it? Personally – in a somewhat frustrating but true-to-form manner with regards to how I’ve felt about this show historically – I don’t quite know how I feel.

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Dio died. Isis broke-up. Bret Michaels is back in the hospital. And I just used Dio, Isis, and Bret Michaels in one thought-stream, which, I’m sure, offended somebody.

Luckily, we did manage to have some fun this week:

• Sick of it All’s Lou Koller is counting down his top ten hardcore albums, As I Lay Dying’s Nick Hipa is counting down to the end of L O S T, Batillus’ Fade Kainer is counting down ’til the band can get the fuck outta the studio, Agenda of Swine’s Pete Benumb is counting down to MDF, and Cynic’s Paul Masvidal is counting down to achieving a higher level of being.
• We spoke to Steve Joh from Century Media, Tara Johnson from Disembodied, Emil Werstler from Daath and Levi/Werstler, and Travis Stever from Coheed & Cambria.
• We checked out the latest release from Rosetta.
• Sergeant D. has new slamz 4 u.
• The best music video ever of the week is by… Goldfrapp?
• There are plenty of things we’d rather do than listen to a new Attack Attack! song.
• Endorsement of the new Avenged Sevenfold single = flame war.
• You guys are still arguing about my Korn review. Seriously?
• I’m still upset about John Bush leaving Anthrax again. Seriously.
• We used to love Sweden, but we had to kill it.

And hopefully no one awesome will die or break-up next week.

-AR

Namaste L O S T enthusiasts,

How is everyone feeling about “What They Died For?”  As much as I was hoping it would melt my mind, I’m going to cast it amongst the bottom rung of “not so awesome season six episodes.”  This will be a temporary standing, though, if one of you happened to think it ruled and are persuasive in explaining why to me!  Clinging to my absolutely last hope of optimism, though, I will assume this episode’s function in the entire grand scheme of this story is to serve a preparatory purpose for the Series Finale this coming Sunday.  It wasn’t without its redeemable informative value, as it blatantly defined some extremely crucial roles and objectives:

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Yep, we talked a lot of smack on Joey Belladonna this week, much to the chagrin of, well, an awful lot of you. I think we’re done for a little while… but I can’t make any promises. Our job at MetalSucks is to amuse ourselves first and foremost, and, well, we thought it was pretty damned funny. So ppppfffftttt.

Here’s what else went down this week:

• We debuted the title track from Nachtmystium’s new album, Addicts.
• Genetic’s Dallas Coyle called us “influential,” Disfear’s Tomas Lindberg shared some Maryland Deathfest memories, The Austerity Program’s Justin Foley unveiled his top four Taco Riffs, Cynic’s Paul Masvidal got burglarized, As I Lay Dying’s Nick Hipa made some new revelations about L O S T, God Forbid’s Doc Coyle worried about turning into an old geezer, Daath’s Eyal Levi gave us a lesson in stage etiquette, and Batillus’ Geoff Summers gave us a new studio update.
• We spoke to The Melvins’ Buzz Osborne, Periphery’s Misha “Bulb” Mansoor, Testament’s Chuck Billy, and Sick of it All’s Lou Koller.
• We checked out new releases by Korn and Ufomammut and Year of No Light.
• Is Mastodon’s Brent Hinds a Mastodick?
• Sergeant D sez Cunthunt777 are your new favorite band.
• Don’t worry, baby, Dr. Danzig gonna cure what ails you.
• Hot chick loves Nergal, hates the Bible.
• Boy oh boy, do we love the new Limp Bizkit cover art!
• If you’re looking for new band members, don’t do this.

Alright. We’re gonna go get drunk and crank We’ve Come For You All in John Bush’s honor. Have a great weekend, everyone.

-AR

Good Wednesday to you all,

It was good to see a complete backstory sans flashways episode last night in “Across the Sea.” Much like Richard’s “Ab Aeterno,” the result of seeing a world that once was – as opposed to a world that could quite possibly be, is currently being, or will currently become – is that we are left more informed than questioned… well, kinda. Jacob and Nemesis’ history was finally explained, the mysterious kid we’ve been seeing around the Original Timeline has been identified as Jacob (or at least an apparition of him), and last but certainly not least: we now know who Adam and Eve are. In spite of the overly blatant use of recycled season one footage to let the most obtuse of L O S T fans know that a major question was being answered, I’m happy with who it turned out to be and how it became.

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A few hours ago authorities evacuated Times Square for the second time in a week after someone found a “suspicious cooler” on the street. Of course, everyone was just being overly cautious, but as long as it doesn’t infringe on my civil rights, there’s nothing necessarily wrong with that. I think Vince was in Michigan when 9/11 went down, but I was here, and if I never see another tank rolling down my street again or run all over the city because there’s no cell service and I need to make sure that all of my friends and family are still alive, well, I’ll be good.

While I nurse my PTSD, here are some happier, metalier things that happened this week:

• We’re streaming Keep of Kalessin’s new album, Reptilian. We also debuted new music by Lamb of God and The Funeral Pyre.
• We also also also debuted new videos by Soulfly and Cancer Bats.
• We also also also also debuted our new cooking show, Cooking Contaminated.
• Cynic’s Paul Masvidal discussed the shape of silence, Periphery’s Bulb taught you how to get that “big” studio tone, As I Lay Dying’s Nick Hipa had some questions about L O S T, Matt from Rumpelstiltskin Grinder fondly recalled Maryland Deathfest, and Batillus bassist Willi Stabenau gave us a studio update.
• We talked to Darkest Hour’s Mike Schleibaum, Reign Supreme’s Jay Pepito,  Jackyl’s Jesse James Dupree, and unveiled part one of our massive two-part interview with Buzz Osborne.
• We checked out the latest release by The Howling Wind.
• Does the fact that Mike Portnoy is touring with Avenged Sevenfold make you wanna see ‘em?
• We don’t want Joey Belladonna to return to Anthrax. Seriously.
• Sergeant D. wants to know if u mosh 4 Christ???
• Damnocracy’s Evan Seinfeld and his porno Howdy Doody also do bar mitzvahs.
• We wish there was really such a thing as a Slayer burrito.

Next week brings even more betterer br00tal goodness – interviews, debuts, guest blogs, all that shit. It’s gonna get real up in this bitch. See ya then.

-AR

It’s been almost three years since As I Lay Dying put out a new album, but their latest opus, The Powerless Rise, comes out this Tuesday, May 11. So, hey, no shocks here – it’s streaming now. I know it’s gonna sound like I’m just shilling for one of our guest bloggers, but sincerely: Nick Hipa and co-guitarist Phil Sgrosso have really outdone themselves on this record . The solos especially are EPIC. The ones on “Parallels” and “The Plague,” especially, really get me goin’.

Check it out and let us know what you think. Like I said, The Powerless Rise comes out this Tuesday on Metal Blade.

-AR

Hoooooly Shizer! “The Candidate” last night was sick! This is my personal opinion, of course, but the culmination of action and character revelation/decimation should have been more than enough to get all of you juiced up as well!

In the Original Timeline, all suspicion of Nemesis Dude’s intentions towards the remaining candidates can now be tossed aside. That electromagnetic-flurry-of-scheminess is straight up trying to kill fools. He is NOT trying to get them off the Island because (just as Jack suspected during “The Last Recruit”) he is more concerned with what would happen if they DIDN’T. Most of us accepted this already, but like the Whispers, Tawaret, and the Black Rock, we now have absolute confirmation that his objective is to eradicate all Candidates who could serve to become his proverbial cork. Regardless of him being depicted as “the bad guy,” I thought it was genius how his manipulating of the Candidates in a submerged submarine with C4 almost unfolded flawlessly. Sayid’s heroism, although uncharacteristic of his recently infected self, ended the story line of my personal favorite and debatably most metal character of the show for the sake of who he feels is the “chosen” one: Jack.

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EVERYBODY SING WITH ME NOW: “I FEEL PRETTY, OH SO PRETTY, I FEEL PRETTY, AND WITTY, AND BRIIIIIIIGHT!”

No West Side Story fans in the house? No one? Okay, fuck it. Here’s what happened in the world of FUCKING METAL this week:

• We’re streaming Mantric’s The Descent in its entirety.
• We’re giving away new tracks by Nevermore and Heaven Shall Burn.
• We debuted a new video by Karma to Burn.
• Cynic’s Paul Masvidal meditated on unexplained healings, As I Lay Dying’s Nick Hipa gave us a refresher on L O S T, The Austerity Program’s Justin Foley thinks it’s okay to enjoy music by scumbags, Intronaut’s Sacha Dunable wants your help naming his new band, and Eyal from Daath and Levi/Werstler wants you to start ordering CDs online.
• We spoke to Mike Patton and Brian Posehn.
• Slayer and Megadeth are both doing full album performances on their American Carnage tour; Testament, not so much.
• Rose Funoral just can’t live down their past.

Next week brings so many interviews and exclusives it’ll make your head explode. See ya then!

-AR

Hey dudes,

As most of you know last night was a rerun of “Ab Aeterno,” the awesome-answer-filled-brilliantly-acted-question-answering-Richard-centric episode that rocked our drawers several weeks ago. I didn’t end up watching it but lurked about the internet to find out what the “Enhanced” rerun disclosed; these are some of the things that they confirmed:

- Isabella on the Black Rock was confirmed to be Nemesis (something we suspected and agreed on already)
- Nemesis’s manipulation of Richard was his first attempt at finding his crease
- Jacob’s touch to Richard while discussing the wine analogy is definitely what brought him agelessness (thereby implying that other gifts were given to our LOSTIES (i.e. Hugo talking to dead people))
- MIB is not able to leave the Island after killing Jacob because of the potential candidates
- The Doctor was conning Richard for money because Isabella had TB and antibiotics weren’t commonly used until after WWII (especially in the Canary Islands)
- Richard is another person brought to the island who has been directly or indirectly responsible for the death of someone.

A lot of this stuff we’ve already assumed but at least it was nice to have it absolutely validated. On the topic of being rewarded with answers for quite possibly hundreds of hours of our lives being invested into the shows’ many mysteries and questions; I’m sad to say that we will definitely be left hanging.

This is probably the most un-credible and illegitimate form of making such a claim, but here is my reasoning…

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As I Lay Dying have posted a three-and-half-minute sample of another new song from their forthcoming album, The Powerless Rise. This track is called “Parallels,” and you can stream it here.

I’m not entirely sure I understand the band/label’s strategy of only releasing samples of these new songs (they did the same thing for “Beyond Our Suffering” earlier this month). Is it to prevent bootlegging? That might work to some extent, but I can guarantee you that there are AILD fans out there who are so obsessed with the band that they’ll listen to anything they can get their hands on.

Whatever the case, “Parallels” sounds pretty good, if not as heavy as “Beyond Our Suffering.” The sample cuts out right as Nick Hipa is about to rip into what sounds like a pretty epic guitar solo. So Nick has learned at least one lesson from the show he writes about: how to give me blue balls and leave me wanting more. Thanks, Nick! Grrr…

The Powerless Rise comes out May 11 on Metal Blade. There are a variety of pre-order packages available here, including one that comes with a matted, framed and autographed full-color print of the Jacob Bannon designed artwork, which is anything but powerless.

-AR

Good afternoon dudes! Today I’m taking the “day after” approach instead of the “day of” approach for two specific reasons: yesterday was the Levi/Werstler takeover (which I thoroughly enjoyed) and also – as mentioned by some of you before – it makes more sense to talk about the latest episode sooner (one day) than later (seven days). For me, L O S T has been intensifying its degree of sickness tremendously the past two weeks, so hopefully all of you were pleasured by “Everybody Loves Hugo” and “The Last Recruit” as much as I was!

The past two L O S T’s have been a lot of killer and miniscule amounts of filler, the result is that much of what we’ve been wondering and waiting for has been fulfilled: we now have an explanation for the Whispers, We have an answer for the Christian Shephard apparitions, its was confirmed that John Locke was chosen because he was easiest to manipulate, the Kwon’s finally reunited, and last but not least… a human explosion!

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I just wanna throw my two cents in…

True story: when I was a kid, I thought the lyrics to “Black No. 1″ were “You can’t go out ’cause your boobs are showing.” I was confused about what the song’s title meant, but otherwise, the words made perfect sense to me. Oh, misheard lyrics. You never cease to amuse.

Even if you weren’t a Type O Negative fan or a Carnivore fan, you have to admit that Peter Steele had one of the most distinctive voices in the history of metal. You never heard the guy and thought, “Gee, who is that?” And because my mother used to work with Josh Silver’s (now sadly also departed) dad, Type O Negative always felt, somehow, more tangible to me; Steele was iconic and often seemed larger than life, but I knew he wasn’t superhuman.That he passed away so young was a very unfortunate reminder that he wasn’t The Man of Steele. But he made his mark and left something to appreciated behind, and in the end, that’s all any of us can really ask for.

Here are some happier things that happened in the world of metal this week:

• We unveiled the line-up for Summer Slaughter 2010.
• We debuted a new video by Jungle Rot.
• We spoke to Kerry King and Dave Lombardo from Slayer, Chino Moreno from Deftones, and Stephen Pearcy from Ratt.
• Cynic’s Paul Masvidal contemplated depression, As I Lay Dying’s Nick Hipa contemplated L O S T, and The Austerity Program’s Justin Foley contemplated the perfect Taco Riff.
• We checked out new releases by Levi/Werstler, Wormrot, and Bison B.C. and Sweet Apple.
• Ever dreamed of singing with Nevermore? We’re running pretty much the coolest contest in the history of ever.

Next week brings at least one and possibly two big surprises, plus, knock on a wood, the debut of a new column by a writer you will hate. See ya then.

-AR

Greetings dudes!

It’s wonderful to be back in the United States of America. Australia is a wonderful country and all, but there is no beating the comforts of home… specifically raging wifi and network television! Given that we are beyond the halfway point in the final season of L O S T, each remaining episode has been getting significantly more in depth and heavy. The consequence of watching more than one of these episodes at a time (in my case three in a row) and trying to process it all at once is very much like having this happen to you. So in order to make all of our lives easier, I’m going to take the episode-by-episode approach on this one…

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Two minutes of As I Lay Dying’s new song, “Beyond Our Suffering,” are now streaming, and I gotta say: it sounds like the heaviest thing AILD have done in some time. Not that these dudes haven’t always been heavy, but the beginning is straight-up death metal, man (and anyone who says otherwise is just being a prejudiced ass wipe). The breakdown at the 1:29 mark is more in the metalcore vein, but then Nick Hipa takes a quick guitar solo which is pure shred. I wanna hear the rest of this song! It’s a frickin’ scorcher, man.

“Beyond Our Suffering” comes off of As I Lay Dying’s new album, The Powerless Rise, which Metal Blade will release on May 11. You can both listen to the song and pre-order the album here.

-AR

G’day L O S T aficianodos,

It was nice to see the trend of expounding upon our main character’s standout qualities continuing with last week’s “Recon.” We’ve already pointed out how violence was expected and was delivered with Sayid, information was held within and shared through Ben, and now (true to form) we got to see our resident con man Sawyer slaying all sorts of tail. When this show initially aired, Sawyer’s character was vital in that he was on the opposing end of a power struggle with Jack. As the show has progressed, however, the power struggled turned into a love triangle, and lately it seems as if a lot of his role’s relevance has been to keep the love-story aspect of the show going. This isn’t my favorite part of L O S T by any means, so I had my low expectations fulfilled. Apart from the extreme curve ball we were thrown with Sawyer being a cop who had the exact same past in the alternate timeline, I wasn’t too into this one myself. What were your thoughts/reactions on it? There were little nugs of revelation and also a definite “Hey, I’m the Smoke Monster” by Nemesis Dude, but aside from that it seemed the episode was heavier on red herrings (i.e., Charlie’s brother at the police station) than straight up information. We DID learn that Nemesis has a crazy mother, but the details are still hazy so methinks it’d be best to wait for more to begin getting way into it. Another bit of plot unfolding that we were let in on is that Widmore looks to be on Team Jacob… or at least opposed to Nemesis. This would make my most recent speculation completely wrong if absolutely true, but I’m going to be stubborn on this one and wait for it to be for reals confirmed before giving up on it. You never know with this show!

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Fellow followers of L O S T,

So how was everyone feeling about last week’s episode, “Dr. Linus?” I was certain the writer’s blew a good portion of their load on the previous week’s action-packed “Sundown,” and that with a Ben-centric story, we were just going to get little tidbits of clues regarding the Island and the Nemsis vs. Jacob conflict…  But I was wrong!  Lindelof and company have temporarily abandoned their prime time penchant for mid-season filler to deliver what I view as my favorite episode of the season so far! Aside from an Emmy award worthy performance from Michael Emerson, a surprise cameo from Dude from Real Genius, and a crucial beach side reunion montage back on The Island, we were given nugget after nugget of valuable information throughout the entire episode that either completely answered or brought us closer to answering many questions, such as:

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So Vince is now out of town. Again. Luckily, we really do take after our namesakes; he loves to be out there among the people, partying like he might die tomorrow, and I am a grumpy, mean-spirited recluse. So expect lots of Axl crankiness next week.

In the meantime, here are some things that happened this week:

• Genetic’s Dallas Coyle discussed the importance of positive thinking, As I Lay Dying’s Nick Hipa pondered the various timelines on L O S T, Intronaut’s Sacha Dunable listed the five raddest sets of teeth in metal, Eyal Levi from Daath and Levi/Werstler wondered if anyone cares about guitar solos, and adult film actress Bobbi Starr told us the ten metal bands she wishes would gangbang her.
• We debuted new music by The Dillinger Escape Plan, Landmine Marathon, and Jucifer.
• MetalSucks readers interviewed Dark Tranquillity’s Mikael Stanne and Vince interviewed Sevendust’s Clint Lowery.
• Sammy O’Hagar reviewed Ov Hell’s The Underworld Regime.
• Is Nergal from Behemoth going to jail for destroying a Bible?
• The singer from DragonForce is available for a White Lion reunion.
• We raged against “Rage.”

And that’s it! Next week will see the debut of our irritating new list, as well as some other fun shit. Have a nice weekend…

-AR

Did you know that resident MetalSucks L O S T columnist Nick Hipa is also one of the guitar players for As I Lay Dying? It’s true, we swear! He doesn’t just sit around watching TV for us all day – he has actual shit to do! It’s why we credit him as “Nick Hipa of As I Lay Dying.” Weird, right?

In point of fact, it’s a minor miracle that Nick has been able to write such great columns for us week after week, as AILD have been working on a new album, The Powerless Rise. That album now has a May 11 release date via Metal Blade, and some sweet cover art. Check it out:

This is the band’s second album with producer Adam Dutkiewicz and master mixer Colin Richardson is handling the, y’know, mixing. In other words: if you’re fan of NWOAHM, you should be really, really stoked for this…

-AR

Virtually every Sayid episode we’ve ever seen has delved into some form of his past and inner gnarliness, so it only makes sense that last week’s “Sundown” blasted us with all sorts of action, violence, and brutality. Viewing the episode for substance, though, we were only handed little nuggets of answers to some very minor questions (Who is Dogen?) in exchange for even more: how was Dogen the only thing keeping Nemesis out? Why couldn’t Nemesis be killed by stabbing when Jacob can/was? How can Nemesis give people “anything they want in the entire world?” These are the freshest of mysteries which I’m fine with keeping on the back burner (for now) to get into the more crucial topic of the timelines.

With the flash-sideways of Sayid’s life, the alternate timeline has remained consistent with the kinda-consistent-to-the-OT-facts direction it has been taking since its introduction at LA-X. In both timelines, Sayid was an interrogator in the Iraqi Republican Guard and holds his love interest Nadia as “the most important thing to him in the world.” The OT inconsistency here is that in the ALT Nadia is unobtainable to him as she is actually the wife of his brother. Here are a few more examples of characters with the standout details of their past as we know it in the OT being similar but slightly different in the ALT:

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