Total bummer news of the day: Converge have been forced to cancel the remainder of their current tour due to a health scare involving bassist Nate Newton (also of Old Man Gloom and Doomriders fame, in case you somehow didn’t know that). A statement from the band tells fans…

“Unfortunately on our day drive from St. Louis to Austin, one of our members had a serious health scare. We rushed him to the nearest ER were he was looked at by some fine Oklahoma doctors. After a night’s stay in the hospital and a battery of tests we were able to have him discharged earlier today. We are now racing (quite literally) to make it to our show at Chaos In Tejas, albeit extremely late, to play an abbreviated set. Wish us luck.

“Because of this health issue, we are canceling the remaining few shows of this current U.S. tour so he can get home and get some medical attention asap. To those in Little Rock, Nashville, and Raleigh, we will add you to our list of places for make up shows later down the road.

“Thanks to all of you for your continued support, it is appreciated by all of us.”

So’s that’s obviously scary and upsetting, but hopefully everything will work out okay. Like the headline says, we’re sending out good thoughts to Mr. Newton… feel free to do the same in the comments section!

-AR

Kurt Ballou, you rat bastid! After telling us he was about to begin working on a new Old Man Gloom record and getting us into a tizzy, Ballou has gone and taken it all back a few days later, claiming it was a “belated little April Fools joke.” From Kurt’s Facebook via Metal Injection:

whoops. nevermind about Old Man Gloom. they forgot to write songs, so they’ve cancelled

And then a follow-up reply to stangry FP commenters:

hey, i want an new OMG too. i think i’m just going to write it and record it myself and see if i can pass it off as them. i have played drums, guitar, and sang on their records before, so it’s ok, right? it will be called “easter.”

Oh well. At least we can still pine for that Scissorfight reunion.

-VN

In 2001 I went to the now-defunct NYC venue Brownie’s to catch Cave In, who I’d recently discovered, and ended up catching Old Man Gloom and Scissorfight in the process. The way I viewed heavy music was forever altered, the show a railroad switch that sent my descent into the gnarlier side of metal over the edge.

All three bands took lengthy hiatuses shortly after peaking mid-decade. Cave In, as we know, got back together in 2009 to record Planets of Old and have a new album White Silence due on May 24th. Old Man Gloom — whose members include Aaron Turner of Isis, Nate Newton of Converge, Caleb Scofield of Cave In and Jay Randall of Agoraphobic Nosebleed, among others — are jumping on the reunion bandwagon too (did they ever officially break up? whatever); according to Gun Shy Assassin, producer (and Converge guitarist) Kurt Ballou posted a Facebook message that his next project is a new Old Man Gloom record. Good news indeed.

So where are Scissorfight in all of this? Word on the street is that frontman Ironlung is totally over it. We beg him with all our granite hearts to reconsider. Axl and I jammed Potential New Agent for Unconventional Warfare no less than 30 times (seriously) whilst driving around in L.A. a few weeks back, in part because it was the only CD we had and in part because sick fucking riffs dude! C’mon, Scissorfight… do it, do it, do it!

-VN

Are you hip to Zozobra yet? Well goddammit–be the fuck down; they’re AWEZSOME with an unnecessary Z in the middle…last year’s Harmonic Tremors was really excellent, and this year’s recent release Bird of Prey is quite good, although it did take me a few listens to get really into it (and I do still need like I may need a couple more to fully dig on what the album has to offer).

The project is the brainchild of Caleb Scofield, the former bass player of an on-hiatus-for-two-years-now space-rock/alt-hardcore band that Vince will forever be on the nuts of, as well as the underappreciated Old Man Gloom (a SSTGST alum — the very first of this year, if I’m not mistaken), but Zozobra really has its own sound, a sludgy, often monotone, pedal note-heavy groove thang that keeps its riffs somewhat simple but the tone decidedly bombastic.

If you’ve never heard Harmonic Tremors, by all means track down a copy; if you dig, then move on to the recent record. If you don’t dig, I guess I’ll still be your friend, but I will openly talk shit about you behind your back.

ZOZOBRA – “The Blessing”, from Harmonic Tremors (2007)

[Visit Zozobra on MySpace]

[Read a January 2007 Boston Phoenix article on Cave In side projects (Zozobra, Clouds, Octave Museum, etc.]

Catch Zozobra on select dates of the Champions of Sound 2008 tour this fall, with Pelican, Kayo Dot and Stove Bredsky (Steve Brodsky of Cave In) also on the bill. Tour dates after the jump.

-KW

Click to read more…

At least someone from Cave In is currently doing something with balls. And holy fuck does Zozobra have balls. Zozobra, the sludge/doom/skullcrushing brainchild of Caleb Scofield (also of Old Man Gloom) hasn’t waited long since last year’s Harmonic Tremors to follow up with a new album Bird of Prey, a punishing slab of metal full of fuzzed-out, low-end Isis-like riffs and an unmistakable sense of melody not heard since Cave In’s early work.* No surprise then that Bird of Prey was recorded and mixed by Isis drummer Aaron Harris, who also plays drums on the record.

MetalSucks can exclusively debut (at least for the 2 seconds it takes you steal, seed, and torrent it) the new track “In Jetstreams” from Bird of Prey. Enjoy this sucker.

Zozobra – “In Jetstreams” (mp3)

-VN

* I love Cave In’s later work too, for the record, if not moreso. But it’s different, ya hear?