MetalSucks

Back in March I bitched that this year’s Progressive Nation lineup — featuring Pain of Salvation, Beardfish, and Zappa Plays Zappa supporting Dream Theater — was decidedly less metal than last year’s lineup (which featured 3, BTBAM, and Opeth supporting DT — killer show) and wasn’t worth the price of admission to anyone under 50. A press release delivered good news to the MS Mansion earlier this week, announcing that Bigelf and Scale the Summit have replaced Pain of Salvation and Beardfish. Suh-weet!

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SPECIAL GUEST BLOGGER FREDDY CAI OF PAINKILLER MAGAZINE

We recently polled a wide array of musicians, managers, publicists, label reps, and writers from within the world of metal to find out what they thought the 21 Best Metal Albums of the 21st Century So Far have been. Eligible albums were released between January 1, 2000 and  April 1, 2009. Each panelist turned in a ballot, with their #1 album worth 21 points, their #2 album worth 20 points, and so on and so forth. The ballots are now in and we’ll be counting down one album a day until we reach #1. Today we present the #10 album, coming in with a total of 163 points…

Opeth, Ghost Reveries (Roadrunner, 2005)
Mikael Åkerfeldt – Vocals/Guitars
Peter Lindgren – Guitars
Per Wiberg – Keys
Martin Mendez – Bass
Martin Lopez – Drums
Produced by Jens Bogren

To Opeth, Ghost Reveries might have just been another album, an opportunity to take its forcecful sound one step further. To me, it’s more like a full-length spell that has been put upon my head. This is one of those very rare albums of which I just can’t easily rid myself, like an ex you just can’t get out of your head.

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As Axl told ya’ll, I was down in Northeastern Kentucky this weekend setting up a homestead for the soon-to-be-built MetalSucks Mansion Appalachia Annex. That shit is real! My first stop was at a Home Depot just over the border in West Virginia to buy supplies. As I was tooling around the store with a shopping cart full of random odds and ends, some dude looked at me quizzically, and perhaps a little skeptically of this bearded New York Jew he asked “I don’t mean to be nosey… but what are ya’ll doing with a hatchet and a cooler?” If I’d been on my game I would’ve come up with a witty/metal answer about chopping bodies up or something, but I failed. Maybe I should’ve just said “Just going out to the dance club, you know, usual night on the town.”

Anyway, the drive to and from KY is not a short one. We got a bit of a late start, and as night fell we were somewhere in the sharp, angular hills of West Virginia, the rolling, jagged green cliffs holding dense, white fog like something out of an epic metal music video. As daylight quickly faded, it was one of the most serene and beautiful landscapes I’ve ever seen. The mood called for Opeth. Blackwater Park became the soundtrack of choice and was the absolute perfect match for this epic, epic part of our journey. Not gonna lie, I was kinda pretending in my mind that we were driving through the Swedish wilderness. Not that I actually have any idea what the Swedish wilderness looks like. West Virginia = Sweden??

Here’s Opeth performing “Bleak” live a few years back.

-VN

Holy moly, those sexy Swedes still dun got it! And they clearly proved so last night at smelly New Jersey’s Starland Ballroom, where they vaguely represented almost every album they’ve ever released — obviously last year’s Watershed, album-before Ghost Reveries, and juggernauts Still Life and Blackwater Park, but also early records Orchid and My Arms, Your Hearse.

This guy was bored a leel by the meandering tunes from those yesteryear albums, and in my not-so-humble-opinion drummer Martin “Axe” Axenrot don’t hold no candle to Opeth-heyday skinsman Martin Lopez, but man o man, did the band rrrrock von rockinstein!

And after a 10-song, 1.7 hour long set that included zero songs from Deliverance, Opeth closed the encore with the title track from said ‘heavy’ album.

Now go smoke a Swede.

OPETH — “Deliverance”, from Deliverance (2002)

-KW

Thanks to The Deciblog for reminding me of two things I somehow forgot:

1. Sunday was the seventh (!) anniversary of Layne Staley’s death.
2. Opeth covered “Would?”

-AR

When Mike Portnoy announced that there would be a 2009 edition of last year’s bonerrific Progressive Nation Tour — which featured Opeth, Between the Buried and Me and Three in support of Dream Theater (read our show review) — one would naturally assume the lineup would be pretty fuckin’ killer just like its predecessor, no? While our heads swirled with the possibilities of what might be in the cards (Protest the Hero? Muse? Porcupine Tree? Gojira??), today our expectations hit the floor with a mighty thud. Zappa Plays Zappa. Pain of Salvation. Beardfish. Um… who?

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U.K. prog-death-thrashers (yeah, I said it) Sylosis are without a doubt one of the young bands that interest me most in 2009, thanks in no small part to the urging of several MetalSucks readers. Their Nuclear Blast debut Conclusion of an Age is a refreshing burst of modern thrash and death metal, rolled into a nicely accessible little package and sprinkled with prog influences that show the maturity and restraint of a band twice their young age. We’ll post an official MetalSucks review shortly, but in the meantime I was able to catch up with guitarist Josh Middleton to ask him a few questions about the formation of the band, the events that led to their deal with Nuclear Blast, their upcoming touring plans and their metal heroes.

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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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Six times over the past 9 months I’ve received emails from Jordanian metal band Bilocate, several from the band’s bassist Hani Al Abadi himself. I have no excuses, really; I guess I’m just an asshole music journalist. So it wasn’t until Invisible Oranges proprietor and Decibel contributor Cosmo Lee wrote about Bilocate in both publications that I was jolted into realizing that I’d been missing out on a truly talented and worthwhile metal band. Better than a 1950’s Pabst Blue Ribbon commercial. Better than a Bacon Explosion for chrissakes.

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Horns up for Cody Rackley, the very lucky MetalSucks Maniac who correctly identified last week’s logo as belonging to Antaeus. Cody wins a copy of the totally bitching Roadrunner United: The Concert DVD, which you’d have to be a total ‘tard not to enjoy. If you didn’t win, don’t weep: the DVD hits stores today, and is totally worth your hard earned moolah.

This week we have a super duper awesome amazing prize, courtesy the super duper awesome amazing people at Roadrunner: four autographed Opeth Watershed CD booklets, signed by all four members of the band. Please note that we’re not giving away any copies of the actual Watershed CD. Still, that shouldn’t bother you ’cause a) it’s been out for months and hopefully you already own it and b) this prize is so fucking cool in and of itself.

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 four winners from everyone who gets it right, and announce his or her names next week.

Thanks to longtime MetalSucks Maniac Mark Moritz-Rabson for supplying this week’s logo.

-AR

Shortly after the band finished their mind-bending set opening for The Black Dahlia Murder, Testament and Children of Bodom at New York City’s Hammerstein Ballroom, I had the chance to talk with Between the Buried and Me singer Tommy Rogers and bassist Dan Briggs. The guys spoke about the band’s new DVD Colors Live, their rigorous touring schedule in support of Colors, sharing the stage with their heroes in Dream Theater on the summer’s Prog Nation tour, and what the next Between the Buried and Me record is going to sound like. The full interview transcript, after the jump.

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2008 has been a fucking great year for metal, and in due time — Monday, Dec. 15, to be exact — Axl, myself and the rest of the writers of MetalSucks will all release our Top 10 year-end lists so you can incessantly argue over which great album was left off or tell us we’re assholes for ranking a certain album higher than it should’ve been.

But for now, ya’ll can argue about something else: here’s my personal short/working list for said year-end list containing all of my favorite metal releases from this year as well as a few that aren’t likely to make my own list but will surely be appearing on others’. Feel free to pipe in with your thoughts or to notify us of any egregious omissions before we put together our final, ordered lists. Regardless, it is going to be really fucking hard to pick just 10 of these and put them in order of awesomeness.

And, my favorite metal records of 2008 in no particular order are…

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Amirite or amirite?

-VN

[Thanks: Brett]

Metal Bastard tells us that Swedish metallers Memfis have got two new tracks up on their MySpace page. I’ve written about Memfis in this space before, but it bears repeating because you all have thick skulls: they’re an excellent metal band from Sweden (NOT melodeath/metalcore/Swedecore/whatever) whose 2006 release The Wind Up turned more than a few heads. Think a more death-y Burst mixed with the dramatics of Opeth mixed with… ya know, originality.

Check out Memfis’ MySpace for the two new tracks from an album whose name and release date have yet to be announced; then check out Metal Bastard to download a few MP3s; then watch the band playing “Dead Ends” live, below. If you can even handle it.

-VN

Apropos of nothing, we just wanna say: PLEASE DON’T SEE SAW V THIS WEEKEND. It’s time for that stupid fucking franchise to die already. If you’re in the mood for a horror movie because Halloween is coming up, there’s better fucking things you can rent. For fuck’s sake, just watch John Carpenter’s original Halloween again. Just don’t send the message that we want more of these inane fucking movies.

ANYWAY, here’s some shit that happened in the world of metal this week.

• Guns N’ Roses finally sent a single to radio and confirmed the release of Chinese Democracy. Enough of you cared enough to tell us you don’t care.
• We interviewed Opeth and 3. Progginess ensued.
• God Forbid’s new album got a title!
• Winds of Plague’s Kristen Randall thinks she’s Gloria Steinem. Thinking logical human beings everywhere strongly disagree.

Join us next week, same bat time, same bat channel!

A month or so ago Opeth came to New York’s Nokia Theater as part of an awesome (and diverse) package with High on Fire and Nachtmystium. It was one of those nights; a Monday or Tuesday, I was fucking exhausted from having traveled cross-country the night before, partied too many nights in a row, just worked a full day, interviewed the band before the show… and yeah, I was fucking beat. Being psyched to see Nachtmystium for the first time (they were AMAZING, by the way) and having seen Opeth before, I figured I’d stick around for a few songs of Opeth’s set and then high-tail it home. So when Opeth started, “One more song,” is what I kept telling myself. Until the next one… and the next… and the next. And before I knew it, two hours later, the show was over; Opeth were just so fucking phenomenal that I couldn’t bring myself to leave! I shouldn’t have expect any less.

But before the show, I got the chance to sit down with mainman Mikael Åkerfeldt and new guitarist Fredrik Åkesson to grill them about their Progressive Nation Tour with Dream Theater earlier in the year, their new album Watershed, how the band has managed to stay relevant and interesting over such a long career, and, naturally, Metallica. Our conversation, after the jump.

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Even the best package tours usually have at least one weak spot, band-wise; but the Opeth/High on Fire/Nachtmystium tour, which Vince and I got to check out last week, is pretty much perfect from start to finish.

And one of the reasons is – or guess now I should say “was” – the presence of Nachtmystium. Not only did they release one of the best albums of 2008, but they slay live.

Alas, they’ve now dropped off the tour, depriving anyone who is going to an upcoming date on this tour of one of the highlights of the evening.

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And it’s a question I can’t answer just yet, because I haven’t heard all of Lazarus Bird, which drops September 16th on Relapse. But from the three songs I’ve heard on their MySpace page (“I Exterminate the I,” “Cripple God” and “We Watched the Silver Rain”), I can tell you this: it is without a doubt going to be fucking phenomenal. Like, you-need-to-drop-what-you’re-doing-and-go-listen-right-NOW kind of awesome.

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I thought that last week’s logo, for the band Mala Fides, was way too easy, but I guess I was wrong: most of you were just way off base with your guesses (Atreyu? Really, guys?). Luckily for them, MetalSucks Maniacs Alex Gellman, Chris John and Roger Adrian all got it right, and all win one copy of Airbourne’s Runnin’ Wild.

This week, the very nice people at Roadrunner Records have given us one last copy of Opeth’s Watershed to give away. People are killing one another in the streets over this album, so you obviously need to own a copy if you want to be considered a real live human being.

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 one winner from everyone who gets it right, and announce their name next Monday.

Because I’m feeling generous this week, I’ll even give you guys a hint: it’s not Atreyu.

-AR

Am I the only one excited about the new Burst record? (well, I can think of possibly one other person). This Swedish quintet has straddled the line between Opeth and originality for several years, but from the sound of the new tracks posted on their MySpace page, with their new album Lazarus Bird, this time around they’ve planted their feet firmly on the “originality” side. Combining the band’s prog-metal meat with inventive psychadelic guitar work and an experimental stoner metal sensibility, the band has forged ahead in a new direction that’s had me playing the two new songs on repeat for the past 24 hours.

Don’t do yourself a disservice; go listen now.

Lazarus Bird drops September 16th (and 22nd in Europe) on Relapse Records.

-VN