Shame on me for having never heard of Australia’s Portal before. I just got their new album, Swarth (which apparently means “land covered with grassy turf”… metal teaches me a new word again!), last week, and it’s blowing my mind. I don’t even know how to describe it; it’s death metal, I guess, but it’s really pushing the limits of what “music” as a concept is. It almost reminds me of Hate Eternal, but that’s not really fair to Portal or Erik Rutan. They are just a really, really unique monster.

And I do mean “monster.” Like I said, this is really pushing the boundaries between music and noise. It’s just fucking evil, man. I’ll try to write a review one of these days, but in the meantime, I implore you to check out Portal on MySpace and buy Swarth for yourself – it just came out this week on Profound Lore.

And, oh yeah, apparently they wear costumes. Here they are doing the song “Glumurphonel” from their 2003 debut, Seepia.

For the time being it seems that Portal live shows are restricted to their native land, but they have been added to the already amazing Maryland Deathfest 2010 line-up, which will also include Converge, Eyehategod, Melechesh, Obituary, and grind gods Gridlink.

-AR

Axe to Fall, Converge’s once-again excellent new album, is yet another stylistic shift: the majority of it is devoted to the band playing harder and more technically than they have in their post-Jane Doe era, while the closing two songs finding them venturing further away from their comfort zone than they ever have before. But even though guitarist Kurt Ballou darts all over the fretboard more than usual, vocalist Jacob Bannon changes nothing about his performance, from the breathless rambling on opener “Dark Horse” to his trademark pterodactyl-like shriek over the course of the album. But this isn’t to say that he’s in a state of creative stasis while the rest of the band moves outwards: Bannon’s hellacious scream is just as much a part of Converge’s uniqueness as is Ballou’s nimble riffing. Bannon’s work on Axe to Fall is as savage as it’s ever been, and once again adds weight and disturbing depth to the album’s metallic hardcore-fueled chaos.

Jacob Bannon’s place in metal, hardcore, and—for better or worse—metalcore is massive, with his trademark vocals incalculably influential and lyrics favoring the abstract over the melodramatic. Even outside of Converge, Bannon manages to be prominent, with a successful visual art career and running hardcore label Deathwish Inc. A surprisingly normal sounding (at least in terms of how he sounds on record), introspective guy, Bannon comes off as both wise about the metal and hardcore world while still impressed by and interested in it. In a lengthy interview with MetalSucks, he discussed the musical and lyrical intricacies of Axe to Fall, his approach to artwork in comparison to his vocal work, and people’s changing attitudes toward heavy music as they age.

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Up to this point, the Obituary that reunited in 2003 only bothered to resuscitate their exasperating tendencies. After two, um, unsatisfactory outings, a third post-reunion album must feel like a potential strike three to many. And like the ’05 and ’07 albums, 2009’s Darkest Day can be painfully simplistic and inattentively performed. But unlike those dull albums that preceded it, Darkest Day has stretches of greatness (at least 24 bars of most songs), a pair of classics (“Payback,” “Your Darkest Day“), their best-ever album closer (The Crown-hinted “Left To Die”), and brilliant performances from the inimitable John Tardy and frowny lead guitarist Ralph Santolla.

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Haven’t done one of these posts in a while because, well, there hasn’t been a Tuesday this important in quite some time. The following albums are available for legal, legit purchasing today:

• Killswitch Engage – Killswitch Engage: The band everyone hates to love or loves to hate. Prediction: this record goes Top 10 first week, possibly even Top 5.
• Suicide Silence – No Time to Bleed: Deathcore upstarts attempt to [suicide] silence the naysayers with their second Century Media full-length. This writer thinks they’ve done it.
• Obituary – Darkest Days: O.G. death metallers return with their eighth full-length.
• Ex Deo – Romulus: Roman-themed metal helmed by Kataklysm frontman Maurizio Iacono. We think the tunes are solid and the music video is beyond epic.

Oh hey look, rock’s resident asshole Ted Nugent also has a CD/DVD out today! Killer! Psych.

If you’ve already heard these albums tells us what you think of them in the comments. We’ll report the sales figures for all of these albums as soon as we get them in next Wednesday. In the meantime, go n’ buy some music so some broke-ass dudes can eat! Except Ted Nugent, unless you want your money to go straight to the NRA.

-VN

Obviously that’s not a bad thing. Honestly, for whatever reason I never got as into Obituary as I did other Floridian death metallers from the same era (Cannibal Corpse, Deicide, etc.), but it’s not like a new Obituary song is ever a bad thing.

The track is called “List of Dead” and you can check it out here. It comes off of Darkest Day, which Candlelight Records will release on June 30. Check out the song and then let us know what you think in the comments section below.

-AR

Noisecreep have unveiled their list of the Top 10 Death Metal Debut Albums (although the list is in no particular order), courtesy Friend of MetalSucks, Carlos Ramirez.

And for once, I don’t actually have any complaints. The list is pretty good.

That being said, I’m sure you folks will find something to bitch about, so… have at it!!!

-AR

Alright. Last week one of you e-mailed me to tell me about this story (and my apologies that I don’t know your name – I’ve lost quite a lot of e-mails in this weekend’s server transfer), in which Obituary guitarist Trevor Peres revealed that his band has been trying to put together a package tour with great old school Floridian death metal bands including (beside Obituary, natch) Deicide, Morbid Angel, Six Feet Under… and Cannibal Corpse?

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A full 4 days before the March 3rd release of their Metal Blade Records debut The Onslaught, MetalSucks is pleased to offer the entire record of Wisconsin thrash upstarts Lazarus A.D. for free, streaming right here. The Onslaught was mixed by the infamous James Murphy (Death, Testament, Obituary) and contains 10 tracks of vicious thrash that pay due respect to their ’80s forefathers without simply ripping them off; there’s a slew of modern influences here too. The Onslaught will be streaming here until release day, so listen while you can and then be sure to buy the record when it comes out. Enjoy! Click the “read more…” link to listen.

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So many of you have e-mailed us this week to instruct us to post news about the fact that Opeth and Enslaved are touring together that I’m fairly certain posting news about the fact that Opeth and Enslaved are touring together is a complete waste of time; I mean, clearly, everyone and their mother is already aware of this tour.

I’m not saying this isn’t an awesome package – clearly, it is – I’m just saying, you’ve all sent us the news and the tour dates, so what can we tell you that you don’t already know? How about this: we will be at the show at the Starland Ballroom in NJ, and we will be high. Actually, you probably knew that already, too.

I’m putting tour dates after the jump, although I don’t for the life of me know why.

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Those uproarious chaps over at Metal Inquisition have compiled what they claim to be the Ultimate Florida Death Metal Mix (and, really, it’s tough to argue with them). The maverick known only as “Gene Hoglan’s Balls” writes:

“I love all kinds of death metal, but if I had to pick just one to listen to for the rest of my life it would be Florida Death Metal. And if I could only listen to one song from each of my favorite Florida Death Metal bands for the rest of my life I would come up with Metal Inquisition’s Ultimate Florida Death Metal Mix. If you’re a fan of Florida Death Metal, then you will love this. If you don’t know anything about Florida Death Metal, then prepare to be schooled.”

Fair enough. Lucky for all of you mavericks, copyright laws mean little to nothing these days, so the mix is avail as a free download. Get the full track listing and links to the download after the jump.

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The following MetalSucks Maniacs all correctly identified last week’s logo as belonging to black metallers Krallica, and earn a free copy of The Best of Suffocation for their troubles: Tim Young, Matt Nelson, Brian Cartan, Mike Hanson, and Phil Plancner. I hope the album brings you hours and hours of joy, or, at the very least, provides you with a fitting soundtrack for when you finally snap and kill your parents/girlfriend/teacher/pet/whatever. Bonus points if any of you are still virgins and manage to lose said virginity while a Suffocation track is blasting in the background. It’ll be your first time, so I recommend one of the shorter ones, like “Jesus Wept,” maybe.

Speaking of deflowerings, the notorious cherry poppers at Roadrunner Records have given us five copies of The Best of Obituary to give away this week. Since the Floridian metal titans (Sorry, I’m practicing for the day when I can write for Blabbermouth) have a new EP coming out tomorrow, this seems like a good time to freshen up on the music that made the band so legendary in the first place. And, if for some reason you don’t already know Obituary, well, shame on you and here’s your chance to learn a lil’ sumpin’ sumpin’.

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. Some of you have been sending in answers without your name and address, and, well, not to toot my own horn, but I get hundreds of entries for this dang contest every week, so if you don’t includine your name and addy, I’m gonna junk your entry immediately. You’re warned.

We’ll randomly select five winners from everyone who gets it right, and announce their names next Monday. And if you don’t win, well, look at this way: it’s only your dignity.

-AR

First thing’s first: let’s all take a sec to pat MetalSucks readers Mike Harmon and Mark Moritz-Rabson on the back. They correctly identified last week’s logo as belonging to Lapidate. That was a hard one, and for their efforts, Mike and Mark (who is winning for the second week in a row – somebody stop this dude!) each win a copy of The Best of Obituary. Congrats, kids.

This week, the fine men and women at Roadrunner Records have bestowed upon us three copies of Dream Theater’s latest offering, Systematic Chaos, to give away. Vince, Kip and I all saw Dream Theater live last week, and it was nothing short of a religious experience, so trust me when I tell you that you want a copy of this album.

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 on Monday (our new day for Unreadable Band Logo!).

This week’s logo comes to us from MetalSucks reader vitruvianApe, and it’s a fucking doozy. So good luck, everyone. You’re gonna need it.

-AR

Mazel tov to MetalSucks readers Daniel Santana and Mark Moritz-Rabson. They correctly identified last week’s logo as belonging to the band Patisserie. That was a hard one, and for Daniel and Mark’s Herculean efforts, they’ve each won a copy of The Best of Suffocation, courtesy the good folks at Roadrunner Records.

This week Roadrunner has donated two copies of The Best of Obituary for us to give away. Whether you’re a hardcore Obituary completist or a new fan looking for a quick introduction to these death metal legends, this is a pretty sweet compilation.

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 two winners from everyone who gets it right, and announce their name one week from today.

Good luck, everyone. Have a br00tal weekend!

-AR

Obituary have called have their spring tour “for reasons beyond our control.” That’s a bummer, but really, I’m pissed ’cause Origin were supposed to be one of the support bands for the tour (along with Dying Fetus and Thy Will Be Done), and I was really looking forward to seeing those dudes live.

If you haven’t yet heard the new Origin album, Antithesis,  well, it’s killer (we’ll have a review – and an interview with the band – soon). I hope these dudes find another tour to get on ASAP (is there any room left on Summer Slaughter?). In the meantime, here’s Origin’s video for “Portal.”

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/VDAh2ti8u18" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Their new video will be much cooler. Bank on it.

-AR

[kml_flashembed movie="http://youtube.com/v/F8-J4hL7iDM" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

-AR

Okay okay okay, I had to get the lame Sebastian Bach pun out of the way.

ANYWAY, Sebastian Bach’s much ballyhooed new album, Angel Down, is now avail for streaming in its entirety on AOL music; I’ve listened to about half of it, and while I’m sure at least one of you will disagree with me, it’s really, really, really bad. Really bad.

Here’s the thing: it’s not impossible, in 2007, to make good hard rock or pop metal – hell, we’ve seen some pretty good examples of those genres this year – nor is the album bad because Bach is, as some have accused, “stuck in the 80s.” I mean, Bach is stuck in the 80s, but that’s not why this album is bad. This album is bad because the songwriting sucks. There are “hooks,” I suppose, but not good ones. It’s just boring, generic cock rock, and frankly, I don’t think anyone hanging out on the Strip in ’85 would’ve enjoyed this crap, either (then again, Pretty Boy Floyd managed to have a career, so who knows). And no amount of guest appearances by reclusive singers from more famous bands in the world can save lousy songwriting (By the way, it’s recently come to my attention that at least one of these songs was written by Ralph Santolla of Deicide and Obituary fame; I find that incredibly hard to believe, but in any case, whatever Santolla contributed didn’t do much to raise the quality level here).

So for now I’ll go back to daydreaming about Baz reuniting with Skid Row, thank you very much. Only thing is, after awhile, I’ll probably remember that the last two Skid Row albums sucked monkey balls, too, and I’ll have to be content with my one trillionth spin of Slave to the Grind.

-AR