MetalSucks

Darkest Hour are currently out on the road doing the MetalSucks co-sponsored Summer Slaughter tour, and they’re doing a video tour diary for our gay lovers at Metal Injection. Check it out below.

It’s good to see that Lonestar is growing his mega-beard back. It’s also good to see his package.

ANYWAY, I’ve seen enough of the touring lifestyle to know that I don’t ever want to go on tour. But then again, it looks like these dudes are having so much fun…

Look for more Darkest Hour tour diaries at Metal Injection throughout the rest of the summer. And you can Summer Slaughter tour dates here. In addition to Darkest Hour you get Suffocation, Necrophagist, Ensiferum, Dying Fetus, Origin, Born of Osiris, Winds of Plague, and a bunch of other cool bands, so definitely check it out!!!

-AR

Everyone from Vince’s former home state of Michigan: MetalSucks is proud to now be co-sponsoring Dirt Fest 13, which will take place Saturday, July 11 at the Birch Run Expo Center in Birch Run, MI. The show will feature Necrophagist, Darkest Hour, Winds of Plague, Born of Osiris, Origin, and a whole bunch of awesome bands – PLUS 30 – 40 local bands, at least some of whom are bound to be finds. In other words: it promises to be a pretty kick-ass day.

And to sweeten the deal, the fest is teaming with Sick Drummer magazine for a “Sickest Dirt Fest Drummer” contest. Press release after the jump!

Click to read more…

So the line-up for Summer Slaughter – a.k.a. the big summer package tour that isn’t Ozzfest, Mayhem, Warped, or Sounds of the Underground (R.I.P.) – has been announced, and, pretty much as expected, it’s totally solid. Yes, there are a few bands on the bill I don’t care for (I’m looking at you, Winds of Plague), but the presence of co-headliners Suffocation and Necrophagist, plus Darkest Hour, Origin, Born of Osiris, Dying Fetus and Blackguard pretty much guarantees this will be a day (well, late afternoon at least) worth your time and money. Especially since, unlike the aforementioned summer fests, this one plays smaller venues and comes at a cheaper price.

Also kind of advantageous: you’re basically just dealing with death metal on this tour. So… you pretty much know if you’re the audience or not for this tour.

No dates yet… stay tuned for more details.

-AR

If there had been a #11 on my list of top albums of ‘08, it most likely would have Origin’s tech-death masterpiece, Antithesis. If you haven’t heard this album, you need to; the final, nine minute plus title track alone is worth the cost of an actual CD.

Awhile back we co-sponsored some dates for Origin, and our fellow sponsors/bestest pals over at Metal Injection captured some sweet live footage at the show. Below, check out Origin performing “The Aftermath.”

-AR

It always happens this way; you wait and wait and wait for a band you love to come around, and when they finally do they’re playing at the same time as that other band you’ve waited and waited and waited for. So it is tonight in NYC, FOUR-fold. So if you’ve still got an open card for the evening, check out at least one of these awesome shows, and if you’re ambitious and have deep pockets lined with cab money, check out all four! It’s a great night to be a metal fan in NYC, with headliners Wetnurse, Origin, Amorphis and Kataklysm sitting atop 4 totally well-rounded and deep tour bills.

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This past Spring Vince and Axl had the privilege of meeting Topeka, KS-based technical death metallers Origin at the video shoot for their new song “Finite.” Antithesis, the album from whence it came, is a hell of a record (read Axl’s 4 out of 5 horns review here), and in between takes at the video shoot guitarist Paul Ryan told us a bit about its creation. So it’s with extreme honor that we present to you a MetalSucks co-sponsored Origin tour, featuring Misery Index and Fuck the Facts on select dates. The tour is currently winding its way through Canada and will hit a handful of Eastern and Midwestern cities through early October. Full list of remaining dates are after the jump.

And while you’re at it, check out some live footage at UVTV of Origin performing earlier this year in Rochester, NY.

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Because we don’t always agree on shit here at the MetalSucks Mansion, and because I didn’t get my say in Vince’s column, I’m gonna throw in my two cents about some albums that weren’t on Vince’s “Best of ‘08 So Far” list that I would have included:

• Genghis Tron – Board Up the House. Except for Nachtmystium’s new album, this is still the best thing I’ve heard so far this year. Read my review here.
• Made Out of Babies – Ruiner. Holy shit does this album rule. My review is coming up real soon, but everyone should either pre-order a copy or just be prepared to buy one when it drops on June 24.
• Jarboe/Justin K. Broadrick – J2. Like a less industrial Jesu. Gorgeous, aching, awesome. Read my review here.
• Hate Eternal - Fury & Flames. Erik Rutan makes discordance into an art… again. Easily his best work since the Morbid Angel days. Read my review here.
• Origin – Antithesis. The ten minute epic mindfuck of a title track alone means you need to either own this album or beat yourself in the face with a hammer. Read my review here.
• Meshuggah – Obzen. And on the 8th day, God created Meshuggah. And He saw that it was good. Read Kip’s review here.
• Virgin Black – Requiem: Fortissmo. Read My review here.

Believe it or not, I still haaven’t heard this fucking Harvey Milk album everyone is going on about. I think I’ll go do that now.

-AR

MetalSucks recently had the opportunity to have a quick chat with Origin guitarist Paul Ryan on the set of the band’s shoot for their new video, “Finite.” Ryan had some interesting things to say about life on the road, the band’s new album, Antithesis (read Axl’s review here), and what lies ahead for these death metal masters. Above, watch the David Brodsky-directed video for “Finite;” after the jump, read the full transcript of our chat with Paul.

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Look: after nearly 20 years of making brutal death metal, Deicide ain’t exactly trying to reinvent the wheel. So while “The Beginning of the End,” the opening track of their latest offering, Till Death Do Us Part, is kind of surprising (it’s a slow, moody instrumental, as foreboding as the title would suggest, that is unsettling and in no way beautiful, like the negative version of the intro to every American New Wave album this century), everything after is exactly what you’d expect from these fearsome Floridians. Chuck Klosterman once suggested that the reason the Sunshine State spawned so much awesome death metal is because constantly being surrounded by old people makes one think about death all the time; maybe all that ponderin’ of the great beyond also makes these dudes desperate to maintain their youth, and so they just keep making the same album they did in 1990 over and over again.

In any case, it’s a moot point, ’cause like AC/DC before them and Children of Bodom after, the fact that they’re usually pretty good slides them from the “boh-ring” column to the one labeled “dependable.”

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After I interviewed Deicide skinsman Steve Asheim a couple of weeks ago, I went back and listened to The Stench of Redemption for what must have been the first time in like a year. And you know what? The album still slays, and it just made me even more excited for the release of Deicide’s latest, ‘Till Death Do Us Part, which hits shelves April 28 in Europe and May 13 here in the States.

So now the band has made the title track avail as a free download on their MySpace page. And you know what? When Asheim told me that “A lot of people thought that Stench was too melodic and I think ‘Till Death has definitely tweaked that,” he wasn’t kidding. This track just relentlessly pummels, dude; Asheim’s drums are the aural equivalent of getting the shit kicked out of you by a drunk biker outside a bar you had no business being in in the first fuckin’ place. I’m saying it’s a good song.

It’s only April and it’s already turning out to be an awesome year for death metal; after new releases by Hate Eternal, Origin, and Arsis, ‘Till Death should be the next release on your “must own” list.

-AR

Here’s the reason I’m so often turned off by super-technical death metal: the bands just get lost up their own asshole showing off how amazingly skilled they are as musicians, and forget to, y’know, write a fucking song. Even if your lead singer can make his voice sound like the most bowel-blasting bloody diarrhea ever, at the end of the day, the ability to play really complicated shit on your instrument really, really fast isn’t that impressive if what you just played made no impression on the listener. In other words: just because you seem “tough” doesn’t necessarily make you any less ridiculous than Yngwie of DeVille or whatever other EVH wanna-be you’re so ready to ridicule.

What make Antithesis, the latest offering from Origin, so friggin’ good, then, is the fact that songs are really memorable – and, yeah, the band can play the fuckin’ shit out of their instruments.

Click to read more…

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