MetalSucks

As if this summer’s touring season isn’t already shaping up to be an excellent one — whatwith the likes of Metal Masters (Priest / Heaven and Hell / Motorhead / Testament), the At the Gates reunion, Boris/Torche, and a whole shitload of other great shows — this fall is already shaping up really fuckin’ nicely. This is terrible news for the rest of my social life, but fuck, how can I miss out on these awesome shows?

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First of all, congrats to MetalSucks readers Eric Martin, Andres Nevarez, and Andy Robbins. Since they each correctly identified last week’s logo as that of the band Engorged Cadaver, they each win a copy of Nightwish’s Dark Passion Play. I hope they all find hours and hours of listening pleasure with their new free CDs.

This week, the fine men and women at Roadrunner Records have bestowed upon us two copies of Opeth’s Watershed to give away. This is one of the most highly anticipated, must-own releases of the year, so you’re gonna wanna get your copy if you haven’t already. 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 next Monday.

I think this week’s logo is insanely easy, although a friend who just tried to read it assures me that’s not the case. I guess we’ll find out the hard way. In any case, thanks to MetalSucks maniac Michael Jones for submitting it.

Good luck…

Van Halen, U2, Metallica, Dave Matthews Band, Staind, System of a Down… Disturbed. Sigh. These are the elite ranks of rock acts to have three #1 debuts in a row.

Excuse me while I go vomit.

In other news, Opeth debuted at at #23 with 19,655 units shifted. But it kind of feels like getting a pair of socks for Chanukah when your brother got that sweet new video game.

-VN

Yes, that’s right- Journey. I will give specific examples below…

I wish I could say that Opeth is still carving new territory in the symphonic progressive death metal arena, but truth be splooged, they — or more accurately, Åkerfeldt & Co., are starting to sound like a watered-down version of the band’s former self. Which, as any old-school Opeth fan might suspect, is still mostly awesome.

Yes, for a group/visionary of this musical magnitude, it will take a while before the new new Opeth is actually not worth checking out, although in this case I will admit up front that the compositions are noticeably simpler throughout, and the lyrics — well, I’ll get to the lyrics, and it ain’t gonna be pretty.

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Judging by the massive success of the inaugural 2008 edition of Progressive Nation, Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy has already declared in a statement that he plans on resurrecting Progressive Nation for a 2009 edition “with a great list of bands that I am already considering.” Which is great news to us, because this year’s lineup of DT, Opeth, Between the Buried and Me and Three was fucking stellar. Allow me to make some suggestions to Mr. Portnoy for the 2009 run that have no basis in reality whatsoever:

• Protest the Hero
• Textures
• Sikth (bring ‘em back from the dead!)
• Arsis
• Dillinger Escape Plan

Anyway, back to reality: Portnoy also said the band plans to release a DVD later this year and that he aims to be working on a new album towards the end of the year (“when the kids return to school in September”).

Here’s a recent interview from Metal Injection with keyboardist Jordan Rudess, filmed at the first night of the Prog Nation stop in NYC.

-VN

The 5-man “drum off” in the middle of Dream Theater’s headlining set — at the first night of the Progressive Nation tour in NYC — was one of the most impressive things I’ve seen all year. Axl, Kip and I watched, stunned (and stoned), as the 5 drummers for each of the bands traded places, often two at a time at Mike Portnoy’s behemoth drum kit, in a maelstrom of drummers each amazing in their own right, trying to outdo one another. At a show where musicianship was the focus it stood out as the climax amidst amazing sets by Three, Between the Buried and Me, Opeth and Dream Theater, at a tour that lived up to its billing as one of the best touring lineups of 2008.

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Who’s psyched to see 4 incredible bands wank on their instrument all night long at the Progressive Nation Tour tonight featuring Dream Theater, Opeth, Three and Between the Buried and Me?

THIS GUY RIGHT HERE!!

Axl, Kip and myself will be at tonight’s show at Terminal 5 in NYC. Will you? Come say hello. I’ll be the dude in the Insomnium t-shirt and have a rather large beard, Axl has glasses and a neatly coiffed chin-strap beard, and Kip is taller than both of us and has blondish hair despite his Semitic ancestry. We’ll be the three dudes masturbating simultaneously to John Petrucci’s guitar solos.

And of course tomorrow we’ll be clad in our finest Viking helmets, steins raised high in the air at the final stop of the MetalSucks co-sponsored Paganfest (minus Kip).

It’s a fucking great week to be a metal fan in NYC.

-VN

Swedish death metal supergroup Bloodbath have returned with a four song EP, and it should surprise exactly no one to learn that Opeth vocalist Mikael Akerfedlt, returning to the band after his absence from 2004’s Nightmares Made Flesh, makes a fitting replacement for his own, um, replacement, Hypocrisy’s Peter Tagtgren.

But I have to wonder how much input Akerfeldt had as a songwriter this time out; there really isn’t a lot of ingenuity here, and the presence of former guitarist/drummer Dan Swano, who was generally acknowledged as the driving creative force behind Bloodbath, is sorely missed.

That’s not to say that the tracks on Unblessing the Purity are bad; that’s not true by any stretch of the imagination. They’re just unspectacular: the sense of groove that Swano brought to the proceedings is sorely missing here. (Think of the lumbering yet limber riffs of fan favorite “Eaten” or “Cancer of the Soul” and you’ll know what I’m talking about.) The band has replaced said sense of groove with speed and brutality, and while there’s not a damn thing wrong with that per se – this is Swedish death metal, after all – it ultimately never seems as, well, special as what Swano was able to achieve on Nightmares.

So, yeah, it’s good to have Akerfeldt back. But not so good that I don’t miss Swano.

(three and a half out of five horns)

-AR

The Progressive Nation tour hits New York City for two sold-out dates at the relatively intimate Terminal 5 next week, and we are beyond psyched. We’ve been talking about this damn tour since November for chrissakes, well before dates were announced.

A lot of folks I know that are going to Progressive Nation are least excited about the tour’s headliner, the mighty Dream Theater (the tour also features Opeth, Three, and Between the Buried and Me). To thee I say, you guys are fucking fools. Get over the need to prove yourself br00tal and enjoy one of the best, most enduring, and talented progressive metal bands of all time.

Take their cover of Pantera’s “Cemetery Gates,” featuring a battery of guest musicians and a Mega-special guest solo. What other band would choose this Pantera song as their homage? Few could even pull it off, let alone with this degree of awesomeness.

-VN

Aletheian can certainly play their instruments, and there are some pretty cool musical passages on their Ironclad Recordings / Metal Blade debut Dying Vine, out today — but unfortunately their musical ambitions end up being like a gun to the foot. To be sure, the seeming ease at which these four dudes have honed their crafts is pretty impressive; The Pennsylvania-based quartet work their way around a progressive death metal shell, weaving in elements of melodeath, progressive metal, and classic metal into their multi-pronged attack. But despite the quality of the ingredients, 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 ends up equaling something less than four as Dying Vine — which was independently recorded and released in 2005 — falls short in the songs department. The album ends up being a somewhat tedious 40-minute listen, as each of the ten songs suffers from a severe case of ADD that makes it rather difficult to pinpoint any of them as standouts. I totally “get” the idea of not being bound by writing within a traditional song-structure, but the specific way Aletheian have chosen to defy convention is ultimately to their detriment as there is neither much of anything to latch onto or any groundbreaking, new ideas. Some moments offer promise; the solo in “Open Grave,” middle section of “Call to Arms” and Opethian classical acoustics of “How Could I” (among other songs), but those moments are fleeting and far between. Where bands like Opeth and Dream Theater have done this with great success, as have bands like At the Gates and Death on the other side of the coin — all of whom have no doubt influenced Aletheian — Dying Vine just doesn’t hit the right balance and ends up a frustrating, wandering trip in a large, expansive metropolis.

-VN

(one and a half out of five horns)

[Aletheian on MySpace]

“Porcelain Heart” is an interesting choice for Opeth’s first video to promote their forthcoming Watershed – its much slower and less heavy than most of the band’s “signature” tracks.

Not that that’s a bad thing. Crustcake called the tune “gorgeous,” and I’d agree with that. I also think the video – directed by Lasse Hoile – is haunting.

Watch the clip below and discuss amongst yourselves.

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-AR

By now, many of you are probably aware that a new Opeth song, “The Lotus Eater,” has been made avail for free download (we’ve included it below to make your life easier.). It’s the first time the world has gotten to hear official, studio quality new music from the band’s so-highly-anticipated-it’s-ridiculous forthcoming release, Watershed.

Now, I spoke to someone last week who allegedly heard this album, the word they used was “disappointing.” And I already don’t like this song nearly as much anything from the band’s back catalogue, including the group’s last album, Ghost Reveries. Still, it’s not a bad song by any stretch of the imagination, and Opeth music generally greatly benefits from repeat listens. So for now, I choose to remain optimistic about this one.

We’ll know for sure when Roadrunner releases Watershed on June 3. In the meantime, I think it’s pretty cool that they’re just giving this song away; just posting it on the band’s MySpace page would have led to lots and lots of illegal downloading anyway, so why not just make it easy for the fans?

Opeth, “The Lotus Eater” – from Watershed (Roadrunner Records) 

-AR

Sometimes the amount of material we receive in the mail or read about is completely overwhelming and some excellent stuff gets lost in the shuffle. Here are some releases that have been in my “must listen to more” pile for quite some time, but for whatever reason I haven’t been able to work them into a post or give them their fair due. homemade anal video – amateurs girl and boy having anal sex

Memfis – The Wind-Up
Progressive death metal that’s melodic but not overtly Gothenburg. Does that make sense? Their 2006 (2007 for U.S.) release The Wind-Up on Candlelight is excellent through and through. Another gem I found out about from Andrew @ Averisonline, who describes it as “focused and surprisingly technical… [and is] an almost perfect blend of equal parts Opeth and Burst – and both from the fellow Swedes’ golden ages.”

Memfis – “The Wind-Up” (The Wind-Up)
Memfis – “The Judgment” (The Wind-Up)

Van Halen – Fair Warning
This is kind of a dud of a Van Halen album, isn’t it? For whatever reason I didn’t actually own a copy of this until very recently (I know, I know), but now the reason why is apparent; as far as Van Halen goes, Fair Warning wasn’t really the top jimmy. Other than “Mean Street” and “Unchained” there really isn’t anything memorable, and the whole thing is sort of pussified. There aren’t even any classic DLR showtunes. If I went to the record store when this came out in 1980 and dropped the needle on the record when I got home I would’ve been mighty disappointed. What, you wanna fight about it?? Let’s go.

Three – The End Is Begun
We’ve posted about Three quite a bit here, but I still don’t feel as if they’ve gotten their due. After all, they are “that other band” on this Spring’s Progressive Nation Tour (feat. Dream Theater, Opeth and Between the Buried and Me) and their logo looks like a giant cock n’ balls. But their album The End is Begun, recently re-released on Metal Blade, is one hell of a piece of work. Part Coheed and Cambria, part something more delicately intricate, Three combine beautiful acoustic passages with prog-metal deliciousness. Guitarist and founding member Joey Eppard is actually the brother of ex-Coheed (and ex-Three) drummer Josh Eppard. Definitely do not miss them on the Prog Nation Tour.

Opeth – The Roundhouse Tapes (Live) [2x CD]
A fucking fantastic live recording by a fucking fantastic band. New and old Opeth songs are enjoyable all the way through both discs, with a palpable feeling of energy in the air. For die-hard fans and Opeth newbies alike. The kind of album you can lay back, sit and listen to with headphones on, or keep in the background while working.

-VN

The good denizens over at Metal Injection just released an interview and live footage of Between the Buried and Me. Though the Internet hype-it-then-forget cycle may have already chewed up and spit out BTBAM, we sure haven’t; Colors was one of the most exciting and impressive records of 2008. In the interview the band talks about dressing up like rednecks on Halloween, the shit-tastic guitar tone on Alaska, their side-project Plant Vochestra and a slew of other topics. Tommy Rogers farts into the microphone in his latest attempt at avant-garde art. And it’s all intercut with awesome live footage of the band playing in NYC.

Psyched for the Progressive Nation Tour with Dream Theater, Opeth, Between the Buried and Me and Three yet? We are.

-VN

Netherlands-based prog-metal titans Textures are fucking fresh. Part Meshuggah, part Lamb of God, part Opeth, part Faith No More, and all awesome, this is the kind of hyper-aggressive, technical, mathy, heavy, heady and of course progressive metal that we jizz our pants over around here. At least I do… err, just did.

Lucky for you, VS Webzine has made the new track “Old Days Born Anew” from their upcoming album Silhouettes due April 21 (Listenable Records) available for free download. We’ve linked to the track below so you should be able to listen right here, but in case that doesn’t work for you Textures has the track up on their MySpace page too.

Textures – “Old Days Born Anew”

-VN

The fine gents at Metal Injection [via YouTube user maxorxo] have dug up live footage of Opeth performing the new song “Heir Apparent” on the recent Melloboat cruise from Stockholm, Sweden. The song comes from Opeth’s forthcoming album Watershed due June 3 on Roadrunner Records.

Sounds like the band is in tip-top form and the new song is fucking heavy. Watch the footage — with excellent audio quality, all things considered — below.

-VN

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Progeny, the first proper release from New York City’s Hung, is one of the more musically complex CDs I’ve heard in some time. This is always surprising coming from a local band but shouldn’t be seeing as that band is Hung, a band we’ve followed and written about on MetalSucks from time to time. Following in the tradition of European influenced prog-metal, Hung’s take is both fresh and well-done. With a non-traditional, almost classical approach to song structure and arrangement, Hung — though they still have some growing to do — are one of the most interesting and promising bands in the New York City metal scene.

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Because seriously, we were starting to think this whole thing was smoke and mirrors; but thankfully dates for the Progressive Nation tour featuring Dream Theater, Opeth, 3 and Between the Buried and Me have finally been announced. The North American trek covers 23 dates hitting mostly major markets and bookended by shows in Mexico and Puerto Rico (with Dream Theater and between the Buried and Me only). New York City and Calgary (of all places!) get two dates each. And the best part? This tour is playing intimate theaters! Terminal 5 in New York is a new venue maybe one and a half times the size of Irving Plaza — shit is not big! This is going to be awesome. Just don’t count on trying to pick up any chicks at these shows because the audience will be about 98% sausages, air-guitaring and air-drumming along wih every single note.

Tour dates after the jump.

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Opeth, one of our all-time collective favorite progressive metal bands, have been causing quite a stir in the metal media lately with news about their forthcoming album which now has a name and a release date. Like their Swedish metal-brethren in Meshuggah, fans go nuts pretty much anytime a member of Opeth so much as takes a dump.

The new album will be called Watershed and will be released on June 3 in the U.S. (June 4th internationally) on Roadrunner Records. The album will have seven songs, all written by Mikael Akerfeldt except one which was co-written with new guitarist Fredrik Åkesson (ex–Arch Enemy). Three cover songs that will not appear on the regular release of the album were also recorded: “Bridge of Sighs” from Robin Trower’s 1974 LP of the same title, “Den Ständiga Resan” (sung in Swedish) by Marie Fredriksson, and the Alice in Chains song “Would?”

Is it time to get excited about new Opeth yet? Will the band be the same without Peter Lindgren? What kind of toilet paper does Mikael Akerfeldt use?

-VN

PS: While searching Google Images for the above logo, I came across this bizarre post in which the author attempts to use metal sub-genres and Opeth as an analogy to explain document management. What the fuck?

I know that Vince’s revelation that 3’s logo looks like a donger upset more than a few 3 fans who felt like now they could no longer wear the band’s shirts; but in all seriousness, we got nuthin’ but love for this band. They just hit the road with Chevelle, the special edition of their latest album, The End is Begun, hits stores on February 18, and sometime this year, they’ll be part of pretty much the best tour ever alongside Dream Theater, Opeth, and Between the Buried and Me. Check out their MySpace page for more details; in the meantime, here’s their David Brodsky-directed video for “All that Remains.”

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-AR