The Black Dahlia Murder are one of those bands I will always go see live, under pretty much any circumstances, just because they’re so much fun. And now they’ve announced a U.S. headlining tour with pretty much the best support acts imaginable: death metal legends Nile and rising blackened deathrashers Skeletonwitch, plus Hour of Penance, an above-average deathcore act that I don’t love but HOLY SHIT BDM + NILE + SKELETONWITCH = I AM SO FUCKING THERE. This tour is gonna rule.

Here are dates for ya:

Click to read more…

MetalSucks recently polled its staff to determine who are The Top 25 Modern Metal Guitarists, and after an incredible amount of arguing, name calling, and physical violence, we have finalized that list! The only requirements to be eligible for the list were that the musician in question had to a) play metal (duh), b) play guitar (double-duh), and c) have recorded something in the past five years. Today we continue our countdown with Nile’s Karl Sanders…

No one is saying Nile’s Egyptian themes are obscure or necessarily revolutionary: it’s a particularly brutal part of history taking place in an unforgiving environment, so it’s pretty easy to make something metal out of it (see also: vikings). But in a field as broad-yet-limited as death metal, even the smallest of tweaks or gimmicks can make you a visionary. When all your contemporaries are squabbling over whose dick is bigger, people will be more inclined to pay attention to an argument that your dick is more unique and interesting (note: not a great ice-breaker with women).

Of course, words like “gimmick” exist to demean what Karl Sanders does with Nile, and by no means is Nile worthy of being shrugged off. Playing ten-fingered riffs blisteringly fast? Karl Sanders is on that shit. Menacing, memorable slow parts that sound oppressively evil and evocative? Karl Sanders has that shit leased with an option to own. If he did none of that well, he and his band would be remembered as That Band That Wrote Songs About Mummies and Stuff. But Amongst The Catacombs Of Nephren-Ka, Annihilation of the Wicked, Those Whom the Gods Detest, and the rest of Nile’s discography are masterful, epic, and brilliant death metal albums with interesting thematic elements. But while there are guys who can play faster and slam harder, none can do it with the soul Nile does. Karl Sanders is that soul, and his playing is much more than a focus on modal riffs in lieu of atonal chromatics. It’s crafting a world of brutal heat, oppressed millions slaving for the benefit of a chosen few, and a complex system of gods, religion, and politics so ancient that it’s completely foreign to us now, all before dropping a pen to a legal pad for lyrics. His dexterity makes him a solid death metal guitarist; his penchant for atmosphere in addition to brutality is what makes him great.

Click to read more…

Photo by Alison Webster

This month, brutal death metal trio Hate Eternal, led by producer/guitarist Erik Rutan, has been at the center of a pitched battle between MS co-lord Axl Rosenberg and MS writer-at-large Anso DF. The conflict? Is Hate Eternal’s forthcoming Phoenix Amongst The Ashes record awesomely killer (per Axl) or is it insanely ripping (per Anso)? Does it fuck the face and slam the nutz (Anso) or does it render each listener “so fucking happy to be alive” (Axl)? Can its production and performances better be described as a high watermark of contemporary metal (Axl) or as a gift from another realm to every living music listener (Anso)? Is Phoenix a shoo-in for metal album of the year (Axl) or does it crush every other record on earth (Anso)?

Welcome to our love war.

When the time came to phone up Rutan for a discussion of Phoenix and other Hate Eternal affairs, we at MetalSucks opted to settle this battle of agreement with an interview conducted by both Axl Rosenberg and Anso DF. Unsurprisingly, Rutan took on the task with good humor and ease, only succumbing to confusion at times when Axl and Anso simultaneously rushed to hail Phoenix and its predecessor Fury & Flames. In its unexpurgated glory, we present our very special double-team interview of the great Erik Rutan.

Click to read more…

The bad news is that drummer Derrick Nau has left the band, although apparently under amicable circumstances — in a statement, the group says that Nau ”is returning to art school and does not wish to be a musician anymore.” C’est la vie.

The great news is that the band has already named a replacement for Nau, and that replacement is Tony Laureano, who, the statement says, “will be playing drums on our April tour, new album, and for the foreseeable future.”

Click to read more…

Banner Designed by Cysquatch

Welcome to “Question of the Week,” a (sometimes) weekly debate amongst the MetalSucks staff regarding a recent hot button issue.

This week’s query was suggested by a reader identifying himself simply as “Andy” –

WHICH MODEL OF GUITAR IS THE MOST METAL?

The MS staff’s answers after the jump.

Click to read more…

According to reports by SMN and other various metal sites across the web, Pathology, who are currently part of the MetalSucks-sponsored Nile headlining tour (along with Ex Deo, Psycroptic, and Keep of Kalessin), ”have been involved in a serious bus crash.” No further details are available at this time.

This is obviously horrible news… hopefully everyone is okay. We’re sending out good thoughts for the dudes in Pathology.

More info as we get it.

-AR

So as you’re no doubt aware, Halloween is on Sunday, and as you’re hopefully aware, we’re holding a “Heavy Metal Halloween” contest with SPV. The deadline was announced as being on midnight on Halloween, the logic being that people would snap their photos before they went our partying; but Vince wisely pointed out that people might not get to upload those photos right away. So now we’re extending the deadline to midnight on November 1. Hope that helps! If you need a refresher on the rules, go here.

Here’s what else happened this week:

• We debuted a new music video by Nile.
• We also debuted new music by Havok, White Arms of Athena, and Shred Sean and Allan Tecchio.
• Daath’s Eyal Levi talked about trust issues while The Red Chord’s Greg Weeks talked about football.
• We spoke to J. Randall from Agoraphobic Nosebleed and our old pal Eyal from Daath.
• We checked out the latest release from Kylesa, and a new book by the Cro-Mags’ John Joseph.
• We went on a “Reader’s Choice” local scene binge.
• We prayed for the end of karate mosh pits.
• We watched Abigail Williams lob a dildo at Iwrestledabearonce.
• We defended Phil Labonte’s angelic singing voice.
• Sergeant D. taught you about bands you would have hated/ignored in ’95.

And that’s all she wrote this week. Don’t forget that our own Gary Suarez is playing in a Jesus Lizard cover band on Sunday night. Swing by if you can!

-AR

For a hot minute my friend and I contemplated inviting Karl Sanders on our big trip to Egypt this past February. It had come to our attention that Nile’s guitarist had never been to the country all of his songs are about, and wouldn’t it be badass to take him around? But then we reconsidered; assuming he would ever even accept an invitation from us buffoons, what if we ruined Egypt for him? What if the mighty Karl Sanders was underwhelmed by the knowledge and ambition of us peons? Would we be embarrassed to jam Nile songs on our headphones whilst staring at the pyramids in awe? What if he got annoyed with our constant farting? Please Mr. Sanders, spare us for we must pass peacefully to the underworld! No, better not to take the risk; Mr. Sanders, you’ll have to make it to Egypt on your own time.

Nile have a new video for “Permitting the Noble Dead to Descend to the Underworld” which we’re premiering exclusively for you all below. They are about to embark on their second MetalSucks-sponsored U.S. tour in support of their recent album Those Whom the Gods Detest — with the incredibly awesome support bands Ex Deo, Psycroptic and Keep of Kalessin in tow — starting on Halloween. Get dates here. In the meantime, watch this video and ponder how we can get Karl Sanders a plane ticket to Egypt; think of the awesome music that would follow.

[this streaming promotion has ended]

If you missed Nile earlier this year on the MetalSucks-sponsored Those Whom the Gods Detest Tour, this fall is your chance to get your fix of Egyptian-themed death metal. MetalSucks is proud to once again bring you a Nile tour, but this time around Karl Sanders and co. will be hitting cities they didn’t visit on their first go-round. And it’s a sweet deal too, ’cause in addition to Nile you’ll also get to see Maurizio Iocono’s Roman-themed Ex Deo, a rare U.S. appearance by Tasmanian tech-deathsters Psycroptic, Norwegian epic black metal maestros Keep of Kalessin and Sergeant D-approved slam deathsters Pathology.

Dates after the jump.

Click to read more…

How ’bout that World Cup loss to Spain, eh? Too bad for the Dutch.

-VN

Thanks: LETTHEDEATHMETALFLOW

But he, like, totally had it coming. He was the singer for some band called Beneath the Sky.

I’m kidding. I don’t endorse violence against untalented people. Just front row games of Uno.

ANYWAY, here’s some other shit we happened this week:

• We’re streaming Watain’s Lawless Darkness and the Monolith/Voyager split.
• Intronaut’s Sacha Dunable talked about his new band and Sick of it All’s Lou Koller concluded his “Quintessential Guide to Hardcore.”
• We spoke to Nachtmystium’s Blake Judd and Heaven Shall Burn’s Maik Weichert.
• We checked out Thou’s Summit.
• We met the world’s youngest Nile fan.
• We wondered if Opeth ripped-off Immortal.
• We came up with awards that could be named after metal stars.
• Vince isn’t that into Kylesa, and has some advice for Portal, too.
• Anso thinks that No Prayer for the Dying is the worst Maiden album ever.
• As it turns out, Fred Phelps is still an idiot.

Next week we get to debut that video we were supposed to debut this week, and we have another stream, and some other stuff I’m probably forgetting. ‘Til then, enjoy your weekend!

-AR

Videos like this always make me wonder whether there’s something else going on behind the camera that we can’t see — like, is the cameraman (presumably this young tyke’s father) holding a toy, or making faces or something? and when he shuts off the music is he simultaneously hiding the toy or ceasing to make faces? Who knows, so in this case we’ll have to take this video at face value; Amelia Mae lurrrrvs Nile!

-VN

Thanks: Alex Ford

November seems like an eternity from now given that April is almost over but it’s still blustery and cold outside, but when you’re a foreign band trying to tour the U.S. it’s never too early to book a tour; just ask any of the countless bands who’ve been denied entry to the U.S. because they couldn’t get their visa papers together in time. So although it’s more than 6 months away, Egypt-themed (but U.S. born) death metallers Nile — who recently wrapped up their MetalSucks sponsored Those Whom the Gods Detest Tour — have announced a Fall U.S. tour with Ex Deo, Psycroptic and Keep of Kalessin in tow. That’s a damn solid lineup, and at this early juncture I proclaim it the best Fall tour to be announced so far!

Nile are Nile, and I’ve actually never seen ‘em live; I look forward to getting pummeled live by the soundtrack that guided my camel journey to the Pyramids of Giza. I dig Maurizio Iacono’s Roman-themed Ex Deo project a whole lot more than I do his main squeeze Kataklysm, and ever since seeing the beyond-epic music video for “Romulus” I’ve wanted to see the band play live. Psycroptic are one of my absolute favoritest tech-death bands; their 2008 release Ob(servant) was one of my favorites of the year, and since they’re from Tasmania it’s rare for them to visit the U.S. And I’ve already waxed ecstatic about Keep of Kalessin enough in recent months for you all to know that I’d be stoked to see them live, especially since last time they reminded me of a troupe of Legolas look-a-likes.

Tour dates for the Those Whom the Gods Detest Tour II after the jump.

Click to read more…

Musicians are strange creatures. Their work hours and habits are almost always odd, hygiene is often suspect, and sanity questionable.

If I had to point out one thing that ties all musicians together, it would be inspiration, often drawn from a simple but strong love for music. Inspiration comes from all varieties of thoughts and experiences though, and most will agree that it is a mystical and almost spiritual matter that is difficult to qualify. For me, personally, my inspiration is the most important thing I have in life because it guides all of my goals and efforts to blast through them. Although it may be oriented around music for whatever reason, the specifics of what I am inspired to do are not crystal clear. It is not instrument, genre, or socially based. It is just to create.

I have always been in awe of musicians that are able to look past the world’s conceptions of genre. For some bands, it is absolutely correct for them to do their thing 100% their way and use their tested process over and over, record after record. I don’t mean being stale, either… Development and growth between records is an assumed necessity for me to take a band seriously. Examples of bands that know their sound or process well and tend to stick to it (with great results) would include bands like Meshuggah, Megadeth, Behemoth, Muse, Deftones, and even more progressive bands like The Mars Volta, Opeth, and Dream Theater. But the musicians that REALLY get me thinking these days are ones who understand how to take a complete 180 degree turn: drop the world’s, or maybe just critics’, perception on its head, and use new influences from a completely different angle. It is almost as if they side-step into a bizarro dimension and are running two or more separate careers. Musicians that can accomplish this demonstrate a certain type of understanding and mental clarity that is all too rare. Here are some of my favorite examples:

Click to read more…

I guess yesterday’s story about Rose Funeral beating up on some concertgoers for playing Uno during a recent set in Tulsa has caused a stir – because people are still e-mailing us about it. Here are some tidbits from those e-mails, both directly and indirectly related to the incident:

Click to read more…

NOTE: Devin Shidaker is no longer in Rose Funeral, even though for some reason he’s still listed as a member on the band’s MySpace page. Our apologies for including his name when we initially ran this story.

UPDATE: A source very close to the band tells us that this entire story is true. So that sucks. Original story follows…

Alright. So we’ve been getting e-mails about this since Thursday, and Vince and I struggled with whether or not to run anything about it because, well, the internet can be a terrible place full of nonsense, and we have no way to verify whether or not this event ever actually occurred. But now we’ve gotten so many e-mails about it, it seems like we have to say something.

Still, two disclaimers before we move forward:

1. This should be treated as an unsubstantiated rumor until further notice. Like I said, we’re currently unable to verify if there’s any truth to this story or not.
2. We’re not making any judgments, positive or negative, about Rose Funeral’s music. Whether or not we or anybody else thinks they’re a good band or not is the very definition of “beside the point” in this instance. The point is whether or not one or more members of the band did something really heinous.

And with that being said, here’s the story, as described to us via various e-mails from people who claim to have been present when this all went down…

Click to read more…

Welp I’m back from Egypt, meaning any posts you see from me for the next little while are actually written in realtime as opposed to the canned tripe I wrote in advance that Axl’s been posting over the past 8 days. Egypt was amazing and absolutely fucking fucknuts. I’ll do a full blog with photos about my trip in due time, but for now let’s just say I’m glad to be home where I can easily stroll to my own toilet to suffer the wrath of Ra, who has inflicted upon me a wicked case of the shits that forced this guy to run to the airplane bathroom no less than 5 times on the brutal (in a bad way) 12-hour flight home. Some kind of revenge for my people escaping the Pharaohs a few millenia ago? Who knows.

Two quick observations about Egypt (and I promise I’ll follow with more in due time):

1. I spent a night smoking “chocolate,” drinking beer and jamming the fuck out to all sorts of metal with MS Maniac Timur Redu of the Cairo-based metal band Brutus. Timur played me some of the new Brutus recordings (not yet posted on their MySpace) and they’re really fucking good. I can’t wait for you all to hear them. Big ups to Timur for being the man.
2. Easily the best / funniest moment on the entire trip: our first full day in Cairo we rented some camels and rode them to the pyramids. Juggalo Bob spent the entire ride jamming out to Nile on his headphones while looking at these amazing five thousand year-old structures… until his camel went out of control and flipped him over onto the ground like a fucking sack of potatoes. Considering the guy had spent the past 3 months talking about nothing but listening to Nile at the pyramids it was only too fitting. He lived to tell the tale and endless laughter ensued.

In honor of Juggalo Bob, who is still in Egypt, here’s some Nile. I think they wrote this song about my bowels.

-VN

This ain’t exactly new news anymore, but I’ve been away for over a week so cut me some slack ok? NYC death metal OGs Immolation have a new song called “The Purge” posted on their MySpace page and it absolutely rips assholes, scrotums and vaginas. Sonically it sounds much better than anything they’ve done in the past and the playing is cleaner too — I haven’t heard their whole new record Majesty and Decay yet, but if the rest of it is this good then consider my psyched.

Majesty and Decay comes to the U.S. March 9th (and March 5th everywhere else), so we’ve only got to wait a little under 2 months to hear the rest of the Immolation pummeling. Immolation are currently bruising bodies all across the U.S. on the MetalSucks-sponsored Those Whom the Gods Detest Tour alongside Nile, Krisiun and Dreaming Dead (click for dates).

-VN

* I had to look up the meaning of “immolate” on Dictionary.com before writing this headline. True story.

Because Vince is in LA and I had a familial obligation, we totally missed the NY stop of this killer tour… But the now Abigail Williams-free, and the rest of the lineup is killer – Nile, Immolation, Krisiun and Dreaming Dead? That sounds like an awesome night of death metal to me.

Here’s some fan-filmed footage from the aforementioned NYC date, which I spotted on Blabbermouth. Get a complete list of remaining tour dates after the jump!

Click to read more…

… and the lineup is that much stronger for it, if you ask us, because they were kind of the odd band out on this tour anyway. Seems that drummer Ken Meyers has been injured, but no other details have been released.

The MetalSucks-sponsored U.S. trek also features Krisiun and Dreaming Dead, the latter of whom Axl recently realized are the cats pajamas and then some. The tour kicks off TODAY in Baltimore, so make sure you check the list of dates after the jump to see when it rolls through your town.

Click to read more…