video via Metal Insider

Today is the last day of regular posting on MetalSucks for the remainder of the year. We’ll still have some posts now and then — our annual Heavy Metal Hanukkah contest starts next week, we might have a series of cool new guest blogs from an old friend for you, and, of course, if there’s any major breaking news, we’ll cover it —  but most of your regularly scheduled programming is going on hiatus while we enjoy the holidays.

But until we’re back, have fun reviewing our top stories from this week, won’t you?

• We debuted a new video from Novembers Doom, new music by Nylithia, and, thanks to our pals at Decibel, new music from Autopsy.
• Lazarus AD’s Jeff Paulick nominated Marion Barber for president and Jonah Livingston from Ramming Speed told us about his live drum set-up.
• We spoke to Devin Townsend and Repulsion.
• We checked out the latest release from Kevin Hufnagel and some free shit from Australia.
• We listened to more previously unreleased material from Metallica’s Death Magnetic sessions.
• We got excited about the line-up for this year’s New England Metal and Hardcore Festival.
• We got even more excited to learn that Puddle of Mudd’s Wes Scantlin is a criminal.
• We accepted an apology from the world’s most pretentious metal band.
• The future ex-Mrs. Vince Neilstein serenaded us with a piano cover of Mastodon’s “Oblivion.”
• Dummy Nosenothing continued to know nothing. How come we don’t fire this idiot?

Thanks for another sucky year, gang. See ya in 2012!

-AR

Death/doom crew Novembers Doom released their new record Aphotic via The End Records earlier this year, and the album finds the Chicago-based metal vets doing more of what they do best, the sound they helped pioneer over 20 years ago: artful yet punishing death grooves laden with doomy, morose undertones. “Harvest Scythe” is one of the album’s stand-out tracks so we’re pleased to be able to exclusively premiere the song’s official music video.

Vocalist and sole remaining founding member Paul Kuhr had this to say about the song and video: “The song is about internal conflict in one’s mind, somewhat multiple personalities. The video shows her going through different personalties, and not being able to escape from them. The different clothes she wears, the chalk outlines on the floor… The house represents her mind where she’s “trapped” and it’s supposed to play like a loop, where if you watch the video a second time, it almost seems like it’s supposed to start over.”

Last year (and the year before) I got way too busy with this thing called life and missed out on a lot of quality music. I am here to rectify the error of my ways, month by month.

Here are the May 2011 releases that got under my skin, burrowed their way into my brain, made my ears bleed, or simply tickled my unmentionables:

Click to read more…

[Blackened doom metallers Woods of Ypres are currently touring North America on the so-called "Pain & Piss Tour." Bassist Shane Madden will be taking us along with him on his journey of pain and piss, to be delivered in four parts throughout the tour. Part 1 follows.]

Part One: The Manifesto

Were I to choose one thing to say about touring in North America it would be that it’s not a memorable experience. The day to day is exceedingly dull and occasionally overwhelming. The windshield and its filth don’t change no matter how long I stare at them; the view broken at a gentle curve midway by the one-and-only existing mechanical arm that continues it’s symmetrical dance partnerless. We roll through here and there, and admittedly it’s a nice time of year to tour. Everything is green and it’s warm, but not hot (until we get to the desert), and there are minimal expectations for anything. Folks in the northeastern States feel that it’s springtime when the weather is pleasant here for a few weeks, and there’s hope. Nothing can go that badly. Any wrong can be righted. It’s Aphrodite or Freya or the Easter Bunny fooling humans into procreation and continuation and perpetuation. All in all, probably the best season to tour.

Now, let’s get down to brass tacks:

The drives are long. We don’t always eat enough every day. Money is important to do this. The shows are good. The shows are okay. There’s booze and debauchery. We do it out of passion. Name-drops. Tour blog rehash. Tour blog falsehoods.

Click to read more…

MetalSucks is oh-so-very happy to be teaming up with RED Distribution to bring you, our most beloved readers, the MetalSucks Fan Pack, which will be available exclusively at all FYE stores starting this Tuesday, April 12. Not only does this limited edition box full o’ metal come with a CD featuring twenty brootal tunes by twenty brootal bands (including Kvelertak, Trap Them, Believer, Napalm Death, TesseracT, Thomas Giles, Deicide and a bunch more) but it also comes with that HOLY SHIT THAT IS SO KILLER t-shirt you see above, which was designed by our friend Rodney Githens from Vertebrae 33 (you might also recognize his work from this sexy t-shirt and this Louvre-worthy poster that he did for us).

How much would you expect to pay for this incredible package? Twenty bucks? Fifteen bucks? Try $9.99. That’s right, gang — twenty songs from twenty bands and that guaranteed-to-get-you-laid t-shirt for under ten bucks.

But wait! There’s more! If you act now and head over to the official MetalSucks Fan Pack web page, you can get a coupon for 30%, which brings the price down to a mere seven dollars. Holy crap, that’s a metsieh if ever there was one.

So go here to get a complete track list of all the bands on the comp, and to use the nifty store-finder to locate the f.y.e. nearest to you. And, oh yeah, you can also enter to win this custom guitar:

So, yeah, that’s pretty fuckin’ bad-assed.

-Axl & Vince

Don’t know These Are They? Well, unless you wanna end up in the back of a trunk like the dude above, you should learn who they are right quick. The  side project of Novembers Doom’s Paul Kuhr, These Are They channel crushing old-school death metal acts like Morbid Angel and Devastation — in fact, they cover Devastation’s “Cranial Hemorrhage” with Devastation guitarist Erv Brautigam and vocalist Duane Rasmussen on their new, mafia-themed album, Disposing of Betrayers, which is out today on The End. And in case that didn’t provide enough metal cred for you, the album was produced by Chris Wisco (Michael Angelo Batio, Dirge Within) and mixed and mastered by the legendary Dan Swanö (if you need Swanö’s credits, you shouldn’t be reading this website).

To help celebrate the release of Disposing of Betrayers, MetalSucks is proud to be giving away a free download of the track “La Mano Nera,” which means “The Black Hand,” which means the mob — like we said, these are some tough Chicago motherfuckers, and they’re not to be fucked with. So download the track below, and crank that shit. Then, once you’ve felt the song’s awesome power, order yourself a copy of Betrayers here. If you don’t do it, we might send Paul Kuhr to pay a little visit to your family… capiche?

THESE ARE THEY, “LA MANO NERA”

THESE ARE THEY, “LA MANO NERA”

DOWNLOAD

Yeah, I dunno why I chose that headline, either.

ANYWAY, here’s Nightrage’s video for “Wearing a Martyr’s Crown.” It seems to have a nearly identical concept to that Novembers Doom video I posted yesterday: performance footage of the band made to look all static-y ’cause the director had no other ideas about how to make the visuals interesting. The difference is that this clip has a slightly more professional glean about it than the ND vid, but that ain’t saying much.

This is the title track from Nightrage’s latest, which is out now on Lifeforce.

-AR

Novembers Doom are a good band, and a like a lot of good bands in this day and age, they deserve a better music video than the one they got for this song, “A Eulogy For The Living Lost.” I understand that times are tough – as your arms get shorter, your pockets get deeper, as a poet much quicker of tongue than I am once said – but hiring your son’s friend from the high school A/V club is never the answer. You’re almost better off not making a video at all, so that pricks like me won’t make fun of it.

“A Eulogy For The Living Lost” comes off of Into Night’s Requiem Infernal, which is out now on The End.

-AR

I’ve gotten a few e-mails today from people asking me where Vince is. Well, the truth is, Vince can’t write because he’s ill. And he’s quitting the site. No, really, he quit. We didn’t fire him. Swear it. We stand by that statement.

Here’s some other shit that happened in the world of metal this week:

• We’ve heard the new Alice in Chains album, and it is good.
• Gwar’s Oderus Urungus answered some of your questions, and will answer more in the future.
• John Bush is coming back to Anthrax because Dan Nelson quit. Oh, wait, no he didn’t. Yes he did. He probably didn’t, though.
• We spoke with Poison the Well’s Ryan Primack and Sunn O)))’s Greg Anderson.
• We checked out the latest releases from He Is Legend, Magrudergrind, Novembers Doom, and Clutch.
• Unfortunately, the 10th Annual Gathering of the Juggalos really is a real thing.
• Baby-eater Dino Cazares must be stopped!!!

Alright. Time to go buy a vaporizer of my very own. See ya Monday.

-AR

It takes a lot of balls to put the music you play right in your name: sometimes it works (see: Death) and sometimes it doesn’t (see: the Rockstar Mayhem Festival, which confusingly decides not to include the black metal band with whom they share a name in its roster year after year, or even Methods of Mayhem). Novembers Doom claim ownership of the necessary balls, though: they’re slow, menacing, classy doom metal with a well-integrated melodeth twist, managing to pique interest even in their most dull moments. Their latest, Into Night’s Requiem Infernal, is the sort of well-crafted metal that can only come from a band that’s been at it for two decades (albeit with a few lineup shifts), admirable even to those that aren’t affected by the material. Dark without becoming meandering and epic without overstaying its welcome, the album is a fine slab of doom, perhaps perfect for those sick of ambient post-funeral doom sludge and just want their gloomy brethren to cut to the point.

Click to read more…

Novembers Doom have been around a long time, to be sure — just look at the list of ex-members on their Wikipedia page. But with longevity comes expertise, and 20 years into their career Novembers Doom are still kicking out some of the finest death/doom opuses of their career. The band just finished recording their new album Into Night’s Requiem Infernal with a release expected on The End Records some time this year, but we’ve been given an exclusive first listen of the new song “Empathy’s Greed,” right here, right now. Have a looksie for yourself and stay tuned for album release news as it becomes available. Listen and download:

November’s Doom – “Empathy’s Greed”

For more Novembers Doom:

http://www.novembersdoom.com/
http://www.myspace.com/novembersdoom

Well, we asked you to send us your most metal face, and out of all the entries we’ve received, we have selected our winners. So congrats to Rebecca Haimovitz and Mark Lewis (pictured below). Their faces are Metal with a capital “M,” and for their troubles, they win some cool shit from Novembers Doom and The End Records:

• Amid its Hallowed Mirth reissue
• Of Sculptured Ivy and Stone Flowers reissue
• The Novella Resevoir (2006 studio release)
• A Novembers Doom t-shirt

And don’t forget, later this year, the Chicago dark metal masters will release their first ever DVD, The Novella Vosselaar: Live in Belgium.

-The Dudes at MetalSucks

Visit Novembers Doom on MySpace.

It’s gonna be a big big year for Novembers Doom. First, next Tuesday, May 27, The End Records will reissue their 1995 debut Amid its Hallowed Mirth and 1999′s sophomore effort Of Sculptured Ivy and Stone Flowers, with new artwork, remastered audio, and super sweet bonus tracks. Then, later this year, the Chicago dark metal masters will release their first ever DVD, The Novella Vosselaar: Live in Belgium.

To celebrate, MetalSucks is teaming up with The End Records to give away two bad ass prize packages, each consisting of the following:

• Amid its Hallowed Mirth reissue
• Of Sculptured Ivy and Stone Flowers reissue
• The Novella Resevoir (2006 studio release)
• A Novembers Doom t-shirt

Pretty sweet, right? Now here’s all you have you do to win:

• Take a picture of yourself making your most metal face (if you don’t know what a “metal face” is, congratulations, you’re disqualified from the contest and probably should not even be reading this website)
• E-mail it to news [at] metalsucks.net by midnight on Sunday, May 25 OR post a link to someplace we can see it (your MySpace page, blog, photo bucket, wherever) in the comments section below
  

And that’s it. It’s meant to be fun, guys, so get goofy with it. Axl and Vince will judge the photos and the two most metal faces will find themselves up to their eyeballs in free Novembers Doom swag.

Good luck, everyone…

-The Dudes at MetalSucks

Visit Novembers Doom on MySpace.