A little over a week ago, the MetalSucks Photo Pool’s Alyssa Lorenzon braved the sights, smells, and people of New Jersey to go to the Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, NJ to capture some awesome mothertruckin’ photos of legendary thrash acts Overkill and Forbidden, along with thrash upstarts Evile and Gama Bomb. As you can see from the above, instant-classic portrait of Bobby Blitz, she captured some killer shit! Check ‘em out the rest of her killer photos after the jump.

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Between-song stage banter reminds me of confronting a dentist’s drill, and I prepare for each similarly: When I know it’s coming, I wince, recoil, and repress a series of violent shudders. Cuz suffering either is just so goddamn painful. Some cats are all intense and bro-brah, just heaping on overly-earnest thanks and generally acting like they’re buttering you up for a loan. Then you have the drill sergeant types, who demand that paying ticketholders jump or say ho or make “a crazy fuckin’ circle pit” or some sort of audience participation that would happen organically for, y’know, a good act. Shut it.

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Because porn star Neesa’s vocal cover of Megadeth’s “Holy Wars” was such a smash hit yesterday, I thought that today we’d wind down with her rendition of Overkill’s “Years of Decay.” She comes across as even more fucknuts than she did in the last video… I don’t really wanna spoil any surprises, but do yourself a favor and watch the entire thing from start to finish.

I will tell you this much: She doesn’t just sing in this clip!

Pretty great, right? Well, I guess she thought she could do better, ’cause then she gave it another try! In her defense, she sounds better in this one; not in her defense, she didn’t give the mannequin’s head a cameo this time out. Bummer.

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There’s so much streamin’ going on right now you’d think a bunch of dudes were peeing on you. So without any further bullshit, here are three complete albums you can listen to right now if you wanna get your metal on:

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Tributes to Dimebag have become a bit passe in 2010 (or really sometime in 2008), but the lads in British thrashers Evile get a pass. For one, their cover of Pantera’s “Cemetery Gates” is awesome — vocalist/guitarist Matt Drake handles Phil Anselmo’s vocals with surprising ease, and the band does the Pantera classic justice in every other way. But then there’s the sad tragedy of bassist Mike Alexander’s sudden death last Fall, and the poetic coda that the last song he ever recorded with the band was a cover of “Cemetery Gates.” If that doesn’t give Evile a license to play this song and devote it to Dime whenever they damn please, nothing does.

Suckalo Jeremy Ruemenapp was on hand at Trees in Dallas a few nights ago to catch Evile covering “Cemetery Gates” during their support slot for Overkill. Check out his video of the performance (with really good video and sound quality!) below.

If you live in the Dallas area you can catch Deftones performing a surprise set on that very same stage tonight at 7pm! Ustream will have a live broadcast of the event, so be sure to tune in at 8pm EDT / 5pm PDT tonight to watch if you can’t attend.

-VN

I guess some metal dudes are annoyed by neo-thrash metal bands like Warbringer, Mantic Ritual, and Municipal Waste. No scene is fun for everyone, so whatever, to each his own and all that. But even if Whorebanger, Spandex Ritual, and Munificent Waste make music of no appeal to your fun-hating ear, frankly, I still insist that you acknowledge their value to metal as a genre. First, each makes music that sounds like five guys making music, which feels great when you’re overwhelmed by metal that sounds like the universe collapsing onto itself (SYL, Emperor), a jet landing in your eye socket (Hate Eternal, Minus’ Jesus Christ Bobby), or mankind’s overthrow by fridge-raiding Nazi robots from the future (Fear Factory). Of course, I love that enormity in metal, especially when it’s the expression of an awareness of Earth’s microscopic significance in the universe. But sometimes it’s more fun to just rock out with a bunch of heshers. That’s good thrash metal. It sounds great at the beach.

And a second and unexpected side effect of neo-thrash’s artistic and commercial successes is their impact on other metal bands. This is all conjecture and surmise, but Municipal Waste’s records are big winners, and now we got a goddamn fucking D.R.I. reunion tour to enjoy. And isn’t it reasonable to conclude that Warbringer’s success would provide a shot of confidence and vigor to elder thrash bands, like fucking awesome Overkill? If you’ve heard their excellent 238th record, Ironbound, you know it’s all energetic and snappy metal (normal for them), but also that it’s their most unabashedly thrashy record in forever. And few deserve wallet-love as much as Overkill, who, contrary to their name, exemplify the unpretentious hesher approach. (See The Years Of Decay‘s “I Hate” which features gang vocals that sound like six dirtballs hollering out the back of a van, not a million-strong army of angry mutant outcasts, like say “Hook In Mouth” by Megadeth.) Big sales or not, Overkill did their part and made a metal record to be reckoned with. For this, we can thank the best neo-thrash bands and fans. For the best parts of neo-thrash, we can thank Overkill.

-ADF

Although at first glance at this photo makes it appear as though Ol Drake is stroking a massive hard-on, that’s actually a garbage bin just behind him. Alas, he was not that excited to be speaking with Axl Rosenberg.

Whatever the hell it is we’re calling Evile’s particular metallica subgenre these days – retro thrash, rethrash, nu thrash, or just plain old motherfucking thrash – they’re one of the better bands playing it right now. Like only a handful of their peers, they really seem to “get” the music – and so while their roots as a Metallica cover band might show, it doesn’t really matter ’cause, well, who can think about that shit while headbanging so damn hard?

It’s been a tumultuous time for the band as of late – founding bassist Mike Alexander passed away in October of last year – but they’ve managed to persevere, and now find themselves doing pretty much the best first North American tour any non-American (in this case, British) band could hope for: playing support for Kreator along with Voivod, Nachtmystium, and Lazarus A.D. And as if that wasn’t enough, almost immediately thereafter they hit the road with Overkill. Sheesh.

Following the band’s gig here in New York last weekend, I got to speak with guitarist Ol Drake, who, despite his almost Heavy Metal Muppet-ish appearance, is a very cordial, soft-spoken gentleman. After the jump, get Ol’s thoughts on playing the States for the first time, why it’s taken them so damn long to get here, new bassist Joel Graham, the status of the next Evile record, and more.

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So Overkill’s new album, Ironbound, was released yesterday on E1, and they’re pulling out all the stops to promote it: the entire album is streaming here, and the first video from the record, for the song “Bring Me the Night,” is after the jump. I assumed that song was about was about Bobby Blitz being really angry about how terrible The Happening was, but I guess it’s actually about standing in front of a wall of big lights. Which is understandable. I wouldn’t be able to sleep if there was all that light in the room, either.

And so, the clip:

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Last year, I got way too busy with this thing called life and ignored this other thing called metal. As a result, I missed out on a lot of quality music as was evidenced by my paltry contribution to the year-end MetalSucks Best Of 2009 lists.

I am here to rectify the error of my ways, month by month.

Here are the January 2010 releases that got under my skin, burrowed their way into my brain, made my ears bleed, or simply tickled my unmentionables:

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Rocklahoma, the three day hair metal festival that’s taken place in – doy-hickey – Oklahoma the past few years, was really successful in its first two incarnations – so successful that there were rumors of Iron Maiden and Judas Priest headlining the 2008 edition of the fest. But this past summer’s third running of the show was an epic failure, with embarrassingly  low attendance, despite a line-up that included Anthrax, the “they’re so hot right now!” Anvil, Overkill, Twisted Sister, Ratt, and Skid Row.

Now our pal Allyson at Bring Back Glam has posted a press release announcing that AEG live, “the world’s largest producer of music festivals,” has been put in charge of “revamping” the fest for the 2010 version.

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This is literally a nightmare come true for me and my fellow fans of the undoubtedly most UN-metal Mets: do I root for the Phillies or Yankees? This is a perplexing conundrum indeed.

On one hand you have the “root for the home team” thing. On the other hand, those Phillies are shit-talking bastards.

I think I gotta go Phils. Root for the National League (DH is for weenies). I’d love to see Yankee fans all that much more disappointed, because to them anything less than a World Series title is considered a failure. And what’s good for the Phillies this year will ultimately make our rivalry with them that much more heated next year… and an eventually Mets victory that much sweeter.

Oh hey and since this is a metal website, here’s a video of Mike Piazza — one of the most metal Mets of all time — singing live with Overkill in NYC.

-VN

Our friend Allyson at Bring Back Glam has been reporting from Rocklahoma all week. She’s obviously a big fan of the event, given that a) she runs a site all about glam and b) she wrote the text for the Rocklahoma coffee table book that came out last year.

But she’s been making (perfectly valid) complaints about this year’s fest for the past ten months, taking issue in particular with this year’s line-up. And as it turns out, she was totally correct: attendance at this summer’s edition of the event was apparently abysmal.

Check out this photo Allyson took of the crowd. This was at dusk; if it was Ozzfest, everyone who skipped the second stage would be starting to pile in right about this time. No such luck for Great White, even though there was absolutely no chance of being burned alive at the outdoor venue:

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And now for something completely different…

Kataklysm, “The Chains of Power” – from Prevail (Nuclear Blast)

This is pretty much the most brutal song I’ve ever heard this band do… we can only hope the entire album is this crushing.

Prevail, the latest from our favorite Canucks, comes out May 27. It features guest appearances from members of Cannibal Corpse, Overkill, and Jason Suecof, who is also mixing the album. Then the band hits the road for one of the best tours of the summer.

In the meantime, check out our interview with Kataklysm front man Maurizio Iacono.

-AR

So you’re not even of legal drinking age yet, you’re in Warbringer, you’ve just released an awesome album on Century… what do you now?

Tour with every awesome thrash band you can and prove you ain’t just doing this for shits n’ giggles, that’s what. Warbringer just got done acting as support for Exodus; now Lambgoat reports they’re gonna head out on the road with Overkill, the latest thrash act blazing the comeback trail.

After the jump, get a complete list of tour dates for the tour, which will also feature Toxic Holocaust; below, watch Overkill’s new video for “Skull and Bones,” featuring guest vocals from Lamb of God’s Randy Blythe. While the clip is cheesy and cheap, the song itself is pretty killer.

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Oh. My. God. Omar Minaya and The Metal Mets strike again!! USA Today reports that the Mets have traded for Twins pitcher Johan Santana, in exchange for Carlos Gomez, Philip Humber, Kevin Mulvey, and Deolis Guerra. The deal is pending a physical and the Mets signing Santana beyond 2008 within a 72 hour window. This is big. Huge… a no-brainer!! Bigger than the dudes from Crowbar and Tad combined!

And now back to your regularly scheduled Metal programming. Umm… here’s some video of Mike Piazza performing with Overkill a few years ago.

-VN

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In attempt to provide some off-season entertainment, MLB.com just ran a piece about legendary Mets catcher Metal Mike Piazza’s hard rocking roots. Sure, his love for metal, friendship with Ozzy axeslinger Zakk Wylde and occasional appearances on Eddie Trunk’s radio show have been well-documented enough, but who knew that Piazza has been bashing the drums since the age of 14 the way he bashes a Roger Clemens fastball?

Piazza took drum lessons from session-pro Gregg Bissonette (David Lee Roth, Joe Satriani, ELO, Santana), and lists his all-time favorites as “the hard-rock, ‘hair-band’ sound that had dominated the radio [in the late '80s] — groups such as AC/DC and Van Halen” (whatever that means — gotta love sports writers attempts at music journalism). Says Metal Mike, “I like all hard rock, pretty much, everything from AC/DC to Zebra,” he says. “A lot of hard rock, some classic rock, some metal, some speed metal, some punk. But when I play, I try to play more musical songs, not just speed rock.”

Thanks to some YouTube scouring, I was able to dig up this live gem of Overkill performing “Elimination” at a small club in NYC, with Mike Piazza guesting on vocals and air guitar. Dude plays a mean fucking air guitar.

-VN

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