MetalSucks

Last week’s logo was way too easy – everyone save for one or two people whom I’m guessing are mentally retarded (THE ANSWER IS NEVER FUCKING SLIPKNOT PEOPLE. IT HAS NEVER BEEN SLIPKNOT AND IT WILL NEVER BE SLIPKNOT.) correctly identified last week’s logo as belonging to the band Alice Through the Windshield Glass. The luck of the draw says that congratulations are in order for David MacDonald, Jose Martinez, and Dan Saraceno, all of whom win a copy of Nightwish’s Made in Hong Kong (And in Various Other Places).

But don’t go slitting your wrists if you didn’t win a copy – Roadrunner has supplied us with two (2) more copies to give away this week. This two-disc set includes live performances recorded around the world, PLUS b-sides and demos, PLUS a DVD with music videos and a documentary chronicling the Dark Passion Play World Tour that took place from ‘07 – ‘08. This sweet package is a must own for all you Nightwish fans, so get crackin’!

All you have to do to win is identify the name of the band whose logo appears below, then shoot me an e-mail with your answer, your name and address at axl AT metalsucks DOT net. We’ll randomly select two winners from everyone who gets it right, and announce his or her names next week.

This week’s logo was suggested to us by read Shawn Zeilenga. It’s a mite harder than last week’s…

-AR

Alright. So on Monday night at Paganfest (where Moonsorrow absolutely RAPED the crowd, in addition to have the coolest t-shirt of the evening – the Statue of Liberty on fire while a viking ship sails away), I heard a bunch of people talking about Saturday’s night’s NYC Nightwish concert. We weren’t there, but the thing that seemed to stand out in the mind of everyone who did attend wasn’t the music or the performance – it was was that vocalist Anette Olzon was apparently wearing a muumuu.

Okay. Humorous enough.

But then, earlier today, Vince and I had lunch with some friends who were also at the show, and all they could talk about was this friggin’ muumuu. So I looked on YouTube and, sure enough, some fan got some footage on his or her cell phone – and Olzon, is, indeed, wearing a muumuu.

Now, muumuus are traditionally reserved for a) the pregnant and b) the morbidly obese; Anette certainly isn’t the latter and some rumors from last year aside, I don’t think she’s the former. So oh why oh why is she wearing this smock?

Check out the video footage after the jump.

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I don’t like Nightwish. I don’t really dislike Nightwish, either; I guess I mostly just don’t see what the big deal is.

That being said, I know a lot of people do like Nightwish, and for those people, Ian Christe’s Bazillion Points Books has just released Once Upon a Nightwish: The Official Biography 1996-2006 by Mape Ollila. Christe is the author of the excellent history of metal, Sound of the Beast, as well as the equally excellent Van Halen biography, Everybody Wants Some, and Bazillion Point’s was the publisher that released last year’s mind-blowing Swedish Death Metal, which is pretty much the definitive book on… well… y’know. My point being that even as someone who doesn’t appreciate Nightwish, I’m willing to bet this book is quality.

And just to prove it, Bazillion Points has released a free chapter from the book, which you can download here. A press release describes the chapter:

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By all accounts, the Meshuggah / Cynic / The Faceless tour earlier year was exactly the masturbatory dude-fest it promised to be from the get-go. With a lineup like that, how could it be anything less than completely mindblowing? Before the show I had the opportunity to catch up with Meshuggah guitarist Marten Hagstrom. I asked him about the touring lifestyle, how the band’s sound has evolved and changed over the years, Meshuggah’s now near-legendary cult status, and one question that really got his goat about the hoardes of Swedish melodic death metal bands that have grown to popularity in recent years. Our chat, after the jump.

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Congrats to MetalSucks maniacs Rachel Black, McCaleb Burnett, and Ben Wadler. They each correctly identified last week’s logo as belonging to the band Vaginectomy, and each of them win a copy of Dream Theater’s Systematic Chaos for their troubles.

By the way, a lot of you guessed “Vasectomy” as the name of last week’s band. That was a good guess. Not correct, but a good guess.

This week, the fine men and women at Roadrunner Records have bestowed upon us three copies of Nightwish’s latest offering, Dark Passion Play, to give away. All you have to do to win is identify the name of the band whose logo appears below, then shoot me an e-mail with your answer, your name and address at axl [at] metalsucks.net. We’ll randomly select three winners from everyone who gets it right, and announce their name next Monday.

Good luck…

-AR

Ironic metal covers of decidedly non-metal songs are definitely passe, but exceptions have to be made when there’s nary a trace of irony. Northern Kings, the new Finnish band consisting of J. Ahola (Teräsbetoni), Marco Hietala (Tarot, Nightwish), Tony Kakko (Sonata Arctica), J-P Leppäluoto (Charon) have a new all-covers album called Reborn, including the Tina Turner smash “We Don’t Need Another Hero,” video below. (The album also features covers of Peter Gabriel, Radiohead, Dire Straits, Billy Idol, and more).

Check out some other audio samples at Northern Kings’ MySpace page.

This, my friends, is fucking metal. These guys really mean it; NO MORE FUCKING HEROES, OK???
-VN

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Most of the big debuts in hard rock and metal came last week with the Foo Fighters, Dethklok, Down and Arch Enemy — but all of these held respectable positions, while Nightwish and The Cult made Top 100 debuts. Chart positions and sales numbers after the jump.

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