Everyone’s always complainin’ about how Roadrunner doesn’t sign metal bands anymore, but that’s a crock — I mean, they just released the new Korn album, fer Chrissakes!!!

What people should be really pissed about is that Listenable Records has just totally sold out by signing Outcast!!!! I mean WHAT THE HELL?!?! Why would the label that used to put out awesome shit like Gojira release this garbage now???????

The worst part is, the press release Axl forwarded me refers to these dopes as “djent metal mongers.” HOW IS THIS GARBAGE DJENT?!?! If I was Meesha Mansure, I would totally lose my shit right now!!!!!

The press release also says Outcast is French. I didn’t even know they had rap music in France!

So I’ll give credit where it’s due — for a coupla frogs, these dudes speak English real good.

-DN

MetalGF and I just booked a trip to Paris during the upcoming holiday season, and we’re pretty excited. On the way there we’ll be hanging in Amsterdam for four nights and indulging in all the fine delights that city has to offer; we’ll most certainly be ringing in Christmas the green way, ifyaknowhatimean, like any good Jews would. I shit you not, there is actually a flight from JFK to Amsterdam that leaves at exactly 4:20pm and you better believe we’re on it; some stoned paper pusher at Delta airlines who’s in charge of flight scheduling surely had a good laugh when he slipped that one into the books. In any case, we’ll be in Paris for a whole 5 nights (including New Year’s Eve) and I’m really hoping MetalGF agrees to go to one metal show with me, be it a famous touring band or some local bands at a hole in the wall. There’s nothing quite like experiencing metal in other countries, ya know? In that spirit, here are some of the best reader-submitted French bands to hit my inbox lately:

• Memories of a Dead Man: Video for “Single Thought and Emptiness Wishes” posted above. Kinda sounds like whatever’s halfway between Swallow the Sun and Mastodon, if you can imagine such a thing; big, epic, airy passages mixed with furious riffs of stone. [Thanks: Benoit Debrun]
• Clampdown: These guys are closer to the Gojira sound, especially rhythmically and vocally… I also hear elements of Textures. The first track on their MySpace, “Visions of Splendor,” is phenomenal. [Thanks: Mohamed.O]
• Outcast: Death metal with a healthy dose of technicality and a keen sense of power groove. [Thanks: brandonmetal]
• Them Martyrs: These guys are actually Irish, but they seem to spend a good deal of time in France and even recorded their new album French Extremity there. They sound like a less awesome and less technical version of East of the Wall that wears their post-hardcore influence right out on their collective sleeve.

Now I just need to learn to speak French. At least a few words of it. Like, quick.

-VN

Sometimes we end up on press email lists for like, some underground hip-hop promoter or indie rock publicist who’s obviously never checked out our website. It’s super annoying (first world problems!). But lots of MS readers send us tips of new bands we should check out, and for the most part you guys have pretty good taste / know what we like; shocker! Here are a few that’ve impressed me the most lately.

Black Sun Aeon: In the Swallow the Sun / Agalloch / Daylight Dies / Moonsorrow school of dark, aching, melancholic metal, but, ya know, slightly different. [Sent in by Alexander S.]

White Arms of Athena – This band sent us a message on MySpace rife with faulty grammar and spelling mistakes which is usually a surefire sign for “suck.” But good God, this band fucking rules. They’re like a hardcore version of the myriad tech-death bands on the market right now… so I guess that makes them tech-core. Or is that just “mathcore”? I don’t fucking know… to me it’s good-core.

Outcast: Call it “The Gojira Effect,” but France seems to be pumping out quality metal bands at a phenomenal rate — or maybe they’ve been there all along and we just started noticing. MS Maniac “JTquake” describes Outcast as “full of musical bad-assery and [they] sound like the best parts of Neuraxis and Beneath the Massacre mixed up and twisted together.” I would’ve said Meshuggah and Machine Head, but I guess that just shows my (and his) age.

The Arusha Accord: Taking the Sikth torch and running with it, adding perhaps a touch more melody. Sent in by “J.”

Keep sending in those tips to news [at] metalsucks [dot] net.

-VN