Hey there, didja know MetalSucks is on Facebook and Twitter? Follow us on both to have updates beamed into your brain. And don’t forgot about our merch blow-out sale: $10 t-shirts and $20 hoodies for a limited time.

Meanwhile, the news never stops! Here are a few thing of note that’ve happened over the past 24 hours outside of David Gold’s tragic passing and the announcement of Ryan Parrish’s departure from Darkest Hour:

• Norma Jean’s Cory Brandan says you owe him money if you illegally downloaded Norma Jean’s music, and he’s PISSED. The frontman took to his Twitter account yesterday to post the following, after which he engaged in a lengthy back-and-forth on the topic with fans: ”Anyone that has ever downloaded a Norma Jean record. You owe me money. I hope you had enough money today to buy your family groceries…I mean ‘for free’ of course. Ya know… illegally. Stolen. Theft. Don’t get your feeling hurt. It’s ok if you steal from me. Anything else I can do for free for you? Spoiled brats! It’s about time someone got pissed about this! I hope you guys know what it feels like to have thousands of dollars stolen from you only to be told you have a an attitude about it. BTW! I appreciate and LOVE all of you that have supported us over the years. I hope you are all blessed!”
• He Is Legend are indeed recording a new album, as was previously rumored. Anso DF is gonna be super-duper-uper excited about this news! Check out an interview he did with the band’s manager back in March, then stream He Is Legend’s entire catalog on Spotify.
• Aborted have a brand new song called “The Origin of Disease” streaming over at Gun Shy Assassin. Their new album Global Flatline comes out on January 24th on some label whose name I forget.
• Not news, per se, but: Symphony X’s new album The Iconoclast is fucking fantastic and I’m ashamed I haven’t mentioned it on MS yet. It’s basically the album I wish Dream Theater would’ve written instead of… their last three albums. Stream it in its entirety on MOG.

Last week a friend asked me to read one of her friend’s writing samples. And I read it. “Well,” I told my friend, “it’s not the worst thing I’ve ever read.”

And my friend replied: “Coming from you, that’s a huge compliment!”

And so, Norma Jean fans, please feel free to bask in the glow of the compliment I just paid this video in my headline. It’s not that original and I got kinda bored after about half of it, but a lot of the individual shots are cool, and clearly some thought went into the editing, which is to say: it’s still better than most videos I see these days!

-AR

[via Altpress]

This post will be very concise and to the point: The other day I realized that nearly all metalcore/screamo/post-hardcore videos take place in a grassy field, and I will use this space to list several examples. I don’t know if you have ever tried to make a Wikipedia entry, but it’s really hard because some pedantic nerd/ass hole/etc. will delete it in like two minutes (like when I tried to make a Wiki for wigger slam back in the day), so I feel like MetalSucks is the best venue to document this phenomenon.

[Thanks to tween expert/post-teenager Elise from Reign In Blonde for a couple of these examples]

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Okay! Time to check out some more new videos from various metal outfits. Ready? Let’s do this thing.

First up we have “In Division” by Underoath. Have Underoath’s Spencer Chamberlain and Norma Jean’s Cory Brandan always sounded like the exact same person and I just never noticed? In any case, this video is actually kinda cool; I don’t know if there’s a thematic connection between the lyrics and the upending of gravity or if they just did it because it worked for Inception, but at least the clip ain’t boring. Almost makes me wish I enjoyed the music.

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Last night Axl and I (along with Good Fight Entertainment via the Internet drones at YouSendIt) shared the following email exchange upon both being sent The Chariot’s new Long Player Long Live:

Good Fight via YouSendIt: “This link is good for 1 download of The Chariot – Long Live. the link will be active for 48 hours. please download asap. thanks!”

Vince [to Axl]: “Holy shit. This RIPS.”

Axl: “I DLed it but still need to listen.”

Axl [20 minutes later]: “Wow. I think this dude must have been single handedly responsible for how awesome those old Norma Jean albums were. Either that, or he and the band had a SERIOUS divergence in artistic intent.

Obviously it’s a little of both; it’s clear now what Josh Scogin’s influence was in Norma Jean, as both bands’ post-2003 output has been a testament to that. I rather enjoyed what I heard of Norma Jean’s recent release Meridional, but Long Live is a completely different ballgame; these two bands are so different in 2010 that they barely even justify being discussed together anymore.

So let’s not mention the N[J] word for a minute and just focus on the C word. While The Chariot’s prior endeavors have all been really heavy and have all been really good, Long Live takes things to the next level.

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I haven’t personally really dug a Norma Jean album since 2005′s O God, The Aftermath, and even that release, I thought, was inferior to the band’s prior offering, Bless the Martyr and Kiss the Child. But just because I’m not the biggest Norma Jean fan in the world doesn’t mean I think the artists involved aren’t entitled to have some say in how and when their work is released.

And they’re apparently pissed about Birds and Microscopes and Bottles of Elixirs and Raw Steak and a Bunch of Songs, a multi-CD collection that will combine Norma Jean’s first three releases (that would be the aforementioned Bless the Martyr and O God as well as 2006′s Redeemer) into one set. Solid State have set a November 23 release date for the compilation, but I guess Norma Jean have nothing to do with it, ’cause vocalist Cory Brandan tweeted the following message late last night:

I’d be curious to know what it is Brandan (and, presumably, the rest of the band) doesn’t like about Birds – I mean, it’s still their work, the packaging is just gonna be different — but it’s kind of a moot point. If Norma Jean don’t approve of the release, chances are they had nothing to do with its creation, which means anyone who purchases it will be getting artwork and a really bizarre album title that I’m assuming they never signed off on. And while I’m sure Solid State has a legal right to put out whatever they want… the whole thing just makes me feel icky.

Weigh in with your thoughts below.

-AR

[via The PRP]

With a provocative song title like “Deathbed Atheist,” there ought to be no doubt that Norma Jean have zero intention of abandoning their religious beliefs as their popularity surges. Taken from their phenomenal new record Meridional, the track churns with the darkness of Undertow-era Tool and confrontational yet personal lyrics like “Bury your hands in the sand / You’ll never use them on me again.” The title is an obvious reference to the Christian notion that, at the end of their lives, many atheists convert and accept God. Critics such as Richard Dawkins have had harsh and dismissive words for that idea, and substantiation of so-called deathbed conversions is admittedly hard to come by.

So taking all that into account you’d think that the new Norma Jean video would at least attempt to dramatize or allude to the idea. And you’d be wrong. Instead, we get another minimal, stylized, CGI-lite video with some bizarre symbols (bugs, nails, mirrors) that don’t exactly make sense. Perhaps my lack of familiarity with scripture is keeping me from “getting it,” but until I learn otherwise I’m just going to assume this is another ordinary promo video. Still, it’s one hell of a track.

-GS

Just so you know, when Vince and I cuddle, he’s usually the big spoon.

Here’s what happened in MetalSucks Land this week:

• Misery Index’s Jason Netherton joined us for the latest edition of Cooking Contaminated.
• Intronaut’s Sacha Dunable wondered if corporate-sponsored metal shows are killing the live concert market.
• We chatted with Soilwork’s Peter Wichers, Mantric’s Ole Halvard Sveen, and Black Army Jacket’s Carlos Ramirez.
• We checked out new releases by Norma Jean and Lightning Swords of Death.
• We celebrated the excellent year currently being enjoyed by Metal Blade Records.
• Korn played to the largest audience they deserve. (That would be an audience of zero.)
• New BOO means debates by you.
• Poison the Well poisoned our week.
• We were on the Metal Injection Livecast!
• Booty shake.

Next week is hair metal week! We’ll still be reporting on regular metal, too, so don’t freak out too hard. See ya Monday.

-AR

By the time The Anti Mother came out in 2008, a not-unsubstantial portion of fans found themselves unable to come to grips with the more accessible and, yes, catchy sound Norma Jean had taken on. It’s hard to blame them for being cynical or even angry about it. After all, the Georgia metalcore act followed the Botch-esque mathcore masterpiece O God, the Aftermath with two Ross Robinson produced records which, each having its own merits, had veered them into much safer waters. Not content to live in the shadows of Tacoma, Washington’s cult heroes, Norma Jean dreamt bigger and built an even larger following over the years. But the past was clearly on their minds, as made evident by the 2009 tour where the group played Bless the Martyr and Kiss the Child – a record that only two remaining members had even played on — in its entirety. Through press releases and public tweets, Norma Jean declared their next album to be a return to the group’s roots. So then, is Meridional a fan-friendly rehash of the old days, another broken promise, or something else altogether?

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Even if I don’t necessarily agree with Gary Suarez’s assessment that Norma Jean’s latest, Meridional, is, like, the best thing ever, I do think it’s easily the best record they’ve made since O God, The Aftermath. It seems like a solid codification of the old, crazy-ass Bless the Martyr Norma Jean that I loved and the newer, Ross Robinson’d Redeemer Norma Jean, with whom I am considerably less smitten. And it’s entirely possible that I’m doing that thing where I complain about something heavy not being heavy enough — Gary thinks I just need to “PLAY IT LOUDER” and I’ll understand the full brilliance of this record. So who knows.

But now the band is streaming the full record in advance of its July 13 (a.k.a. “tomorrow”) release date via Razor & Tie. So you can just check it out and decide for yourself. I’m particularly fond of the song “Blood Burner” myself.

Once you’ve listened to it, engage in pointless arguing over its quality in the comments section below. I’m curious to know how other Bless the Martyr fans think it stacks up.

-AR

Gary Suarez says that the new Norma Jean album, Meridional, “will ruin your life it’s so good,” and while I haven’t heard the album yet, I hope he’s right. I’d love it if the new Norma Jean album were awesome.

Of course, I’d also love it if Cristina Scabbia was sitting naked on my lap right now. We don’t always get what we want.

So. Norma Jean have released “Deathbed Atheist,” a new song from the aforementioned Meridional, and while I think it’s pretty good – and certainly much better than “Leaders and Self Enlisted,” the other already-released new song from the album – it’s not gonna ruin my life. Fuck, it’s not even gonna find its way onto my iPod.

Still, I’m… encouraged? I dunno. Maybe that’s too strong a word. I haven’t written this record off yet, let’s put it that way.

You can download “Deathbed Atheist” right now if you pre-order Meridional, or you can listen to it below. The album comes out July 13.

-AR

First things first: screamo is literally worse than the Holocaust in my book. With a few notable exceptions, I absolutely cannot stand this shit. That said, with bands like The Devil Wears Prada and Underoath selling out huge venues, putting out platinum-selling albums, and selling truckloads of cookie-cutter merch to every angsty suburban teen within driving distance of a Hot Topic, it’s hard not to pay attention to the genre. I might not like it, but Kids These Days certainly do. My biggest question: Where the fuck did this shit come from??

As someone who saw the birth of metalcore and “true screamo”/skramz firsthand in the 90s, I am highly confused when I listen to these bands. On the one hand, they are not so different from anything that could have been on Victory or Indecision in the 90s (Earth Crisis, All Out War, Bloodlet). Obviously there are some things that have changed over time, but the fundamentals of metalcore are still there (see my post “The 5 Kinds Of Music Teens Are Into” for more details). On the other hand, the kids in Alesana, August Burns Red, and possibly even As I Lay Dying have no fucking idea who those pioneering metalcore bands are, much less that screamy vocals were born in the tiny basement shows and vegan bakesales of the 90s DIY hardcore scene.

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I was kinda ticked last month when Norma Jean unveiled the album art for their latest, Meridional, via a teaser video, ’cause it denied us the pleasure of actually getting a good look at said art. Now The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza have done the same thing for the Michael Windsor-designed cover of Danza III: The Series of Unfortunate Events. And while I hope this doesn’t become a trend – I’ve seen Windsor’s entire piece, and it’s pretty cool – I’ll forgive TTDTE, because, well, I’ve heard Danza III, and it’s absolutely punishing. It is, as Vince observed during a recent listening session, somewhat less mathcore-ish than Danza II and somewhat more of what I guess you’d call, for complete lack of a better term, “good deathcore” – e.g., The Red Chord. But whatever box you wanna try and shove it into (“Heh-heh, he said ‘box you wanna shove it into!’”), it’s really just a damn fine piece of work.

The song in this video is called “The Union,” by the way.

Noisecreep debuted this clip, and if you head on over there, there’s a brief statement from Danza vocalist Jessie Freeland explaining the general idea behind the art.

Danza III comes out July 6 on Black Market Activities.

-AR

What I really liked about Norma Jean’s Bless the Martyr and O’God, the Aftermath was just how unpredictable the band sounded. I felt like I never knew where the songs were going; it was metalcore as written by a schizophrenic who just went off his meds. The more slickly-produced and highly structured Norma Jean of Redeemer and The Anti-Mother isn’t the same band (in some ways literally); and that might not be a problem if the music they produced kicked major ass, but, at least in my opinion, it did not. Norma Jean very quickly went from feeling kinda dangerous to feeling pretty predictable; the schizo went back on his meds, it seems.

The band has a new song now, “Leaders and Self Enlisted,” which they’re offering as a free download if you sign up for their mailing list (which is a bitch, I know). On the one hand, I like it way more than anything I’ve heard these dudes do in some time; on the other hand, I still don’t like it as much as anything from Martyr. The thinking behind it just seems so traditionalist compared to the crazy NJ of yore.

But this isn’t the same kinda-promising-sounding song as the one that appears in this teaser for the band’s new album, Meridional, so… I will continue to hold out hope.

Of course, this raises all the usual questions about “artistic development vs. changing your sound,” so… yeah, get the song here and then rage on, I guess. Meridional comes out July 13.

-AR

[via Noisecreep]

The Metal Sucks staff may have more “-stein” and “-berg” surnames than the trading floor of a Wall Street investment bank, but I know Axl and Vince are open to exploring the entire spectrum of global faiths. I am sure we can also agree that music is the one common thread that unites all of us, so what better way to learn about Jesus Christ than through my favorite thing: BREAKDOWNS!

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Well, this is interesting.

Rather than unveil the cover art that Jason Oda of Starvingeyes.com has created for their new album, Meridional, the traditional way – e.g., with a still photo – Norma Jean have actually made a teaser video featuring said cover art. The clip debuted on Noisecreep earlier today.

The pro of this approach is that we get to hear a snippet of a new song from the album, “The Anthem of the Angry Brides.” And while it’s less than forty seconds of actual music, I gotta say, it already sounds better to my ears than anything they’ve done since O God, The Aftermath - it really sounds like they brought the heavy/crazy back, and heavy/crazy is what this band has been missing on their last couple of albums.

The con of this approach is that there isn’t a single shot in the video of the entire cover at once, which means that even strategic hitting of the “pause” button won’t allow you to really study and appreciate the art. That might not be a big deal to the young ‘uns who don’t really care about album art, but to old fogies like me who are still really into cover art, it’s a bummer – not least of all because what we do get to see looks pretty cool. But hopefully an actual picture of the cover will be released soon.

Watch the vid below and see what you think. I had to sit through a commercial about how my dog needs to brush his teeth or some shit first, but dem’s da breaks.

-AR

So apparently Ozzfest is coming back this summer, and is coming back as a traveling tour again (as opposed to the one-off fest it was in 2008). And that’s all well and good, only… who’s gonna be on the bill?

Mayhem, which is basically Ozzfest 2.0, has already scooped up a lot of big-name bands for the summer, including many who have played multiple past Ozzfests – namely Korn, Rob Zombie, Lamb of God, Atreyu, Shadows Fall and Hatebreed, the latter of whom I think have been on something like 90% of all Ozzfests ever.

Add to that other Ozzfest alum like Chimaira, In This Moment and Norma Jean, and some bands the kids today all seem to like, such as Winds of Plague and They Who Shall Not Be Named, and, well, that’s a whole bunch of potential mainstage and second stage draws right there.

Then there’s the mini-fests like Summer Slaughter. I can’t tell you which bands we already know are booked for some of these tours without betraying a lot of people’s confidence, but I can tell you that some great bands are now no longer available for Ozzfest.

And, oh yeah, Megadeth, Slayer, and Testament are now doing their American Carnage tour in the summer, so they’re out.

So who’s left? After the jump, I’m going to play my favorite game: it’s called “over-think about something incredibly unimportant.”

Before we proceed, it’s worth noting that I’m going to try and be semi-realistic when moving forward with some barely-educated guesses about who’ll be playing Ozzfest. If a band already has summer tour dates booked, I’m going to assume they’re not avail, although I acknowledge that they could cancel those dates in favor of playing for a bigger crowd. And I’m not even going to bother with bands like Pig Destroyer, Sigh, and Salome – bands that will play Ozzfest right around the time Joey Belladonna’s solo band plays four sold-out headlining shows at Giants Stadium. Also, obviously not all of these bands are gonna end up on the bill – these are just bands I think could end up there.

And so, without further bullshit…

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The line-up for the 2010 Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival (Jesus I hate typing all that shit) has been announced. See who’ll be playing one of the summer’s biggest metal tours after the jump, along with my snarky commentary, of course…

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Despite what you may think, I don’t have a problem with Christian metal as long as any religious message isn’t too overt. If you’d never told me that As I Lay Dying and Norma Jean were Christians, I’d have no idea. They don’t let their personal beliefs distract from the music.

But Sergeant D. posted the below Underoath song on Stuff You Will Hate this morning, and… wow. I don’t know Underoath that well and apparently this isn’t really how they sound anymore, so I guess I can give them a pass for how fucking horrible this song is. But the pro-life lyrics – which includes such poetic gems as “Babies die everyday because of a pro-choice made” – really rub me the wrong way. Big time.

You can read all the lyrics over at Stuff You Will Hate. Then come back and tell me why I’m an asshole for being pro-choice, or how politics have no place in metal, or whaaaaa whaaaaa whaaaa.

-AR

Well, it’s 2010 and The Chariot are through playing second fiddle. After spending a significant chunk of last year on the proverbial road opening for bands like Norma Jean and Evergreen Terrace, Josh Scogin’s band of metalcore brothers will finally–and rightfully–venture out on a lengthy American headlining tour of their very own later this month. Unfortunately, said tour will feature some of the blandest, most generic opening acts that heavy music has to offer today.

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