MetalSucks

I’m all for break-up sex. Yeah, the relationship is over, and yeah, it might be kinda bittersweet, but you were into each once, so why not enjoy one last fuck, right?

To that end: I really appreciate it when a band announces that they are going to break-up, and plays a few last shows to give the fans a chance to say good-bye. Burst have done it, and now another long-standing MetalSucks favorite are doing it: At All Cost.

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Congrats to Exor666t for coming up with the winning caption to last week’s our most recent funny photo caption contest. For his troubles, Exor666t will get a trifecta of classic In Flames CD reissues, each “Reloaded” with bonus content: Whoracle, Colony and Clayman. The winning entry to the photo at right:

Global recession forces Somali pirates to downsize operations.

This week we’re giving away a vinyl copy of Betrayer, the debut full-length from Austin, TX’s Pack of Wolves (featuring Trey Ramirez, ex-At All Cost). Watch Pack of Wolves’ latest video here. Just come up with a caption to the below photo that tickles our funny bones, and the record is all yours.

Wednesday has done and drawn to a close, and an awesome day it was. Highlights included Young Widows, The Bronx, Fighting With Wire, Jucifer, El Mariachi Bronx (The Bronx as a full mariachi band), Valient Thorr, Pack of Wolves, These Arms Are Snakes, and finally meeting MS contributor Corey Mitchell in person. There’s so much to be seen today, Kip has gone missing, and I’m hungry, so I’ll make this quick:

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In December we told you about Pack of Wolves, the new(ish) project from former At All Cost guitarist Trey Ramirez; well, their debut album, Betrayer, is being released this coming Tuesday, March 10 on vinyl, and the band has announced its arrival in grand style – with a new video for the track “Concession.”

Only 350 copies of Betrayer will be pressed, and each one comes with a free digital download of the record, so you can listen to even if you’re not close to your turntable.

The band will also be playing this year’s SXSW; if you go the fest, make sure you check ‘em out!

-AR

Monday was 2008 Sucks day here at MetalSucks, but we rocked out the rest of the week with some ridiculous shit as per usual:

• We announced our best-of lists for 2008. Check ‘em out.
• Contest: You tell us why you hate the holidays, we send you 100 CDs. Sweet deal.
• PA woman tortures kitties with piercings.
• We spoke with Misery Index’s Jason Netherton and Three Inches of Blood’s Cam Pipes.
• Corporate rock still sells, but Chinese Democracy apparently doesn’t.
• We hated on this band, this band and this band, the latter of whom sent their fans here in droves to hate us back.
• We wondered whether Roadrunner Records actually dropped Amanda Palmer because of her “belly fat” (hint: they didn’t even drop her).
• God Forbid released the cover artwork and tracklisting of Earthsblood, and Pack of Wolves (ex-At All Cost member) released new music.

Tonight it’s new The End Records-signees Hull for Kip and me. Have a good one, everybody.

Back in April we told you about Pack of Wolves, a new project from guitarist Trey Ramirez, late of MetalSucks’ most favoritest totally underrated (and now, sadly, defunct) band, At All Cost. At the time POW (how’s that for band initials?) were unsigned…

…but Ramirez just e-mailed us to say that the group will be releasing their new album, Betrayer, on vinyl through Arclight Records on March 10. Three tracks from the album, “Walking Dead,” “Concession” and “The Death of my Old Self,” are currently streaming on the band’s MySpace page.

If you dug At All Cost, it’s hard for me to imagine you won’t dig Pack of Wolves; they’re not as druggy/experimental/whatever as AAC, but their riffs are just as tasty.

More info as we get it…

-AR

MetalSucks reader David A. has alerted us to the fact that one of our collective favorite bands, At All Cost, have possibly broken up. In a blog posted yesterday on the band’s MySpace page, singer Andrew Collins revealed the news that we can’t say we didn’t see coming, which is that the band is taking some time off to collect themselves and figure out what’s next (without using the words “break” and “up”). After guitarist Trey Ramirez departed last fall for Pack of Wolves, bassist Clean Bobby left after the Hatebreed tour to pursue other interests, and drummer Johnny Oswald put up a message on his own MySpace blog announcing his drum kit was for sale… things didn’t look too good. Apparently Century Media dropped the band in the meantime after just one album, and it all went downhill from there.

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It’s been a while since we’ve written about At All Cost, the Austin, Texas metal quintet whom we wouldn’t shut up about last summer and whose phenomenal 2007 Century Media debut Circle of Demons placed close to the top of both mine and Axl’s year-end Top 10 lists.

Since we last saw them this past Christmas as part of Hatebreed’s Stillborn Fest (also featuring God Forbid, Agnostic Front and others), there have been some changes within the band. By that time guitarist Trey Ramirez had already departed (we’ve since written about his new outfit Pack of Wolves) and had been replaced by new guitarist Ryan (above, second from right). In an interview conducted that night that we never published, bassist CleanBobby told us he would be leaving the band and that’s exactly what happened, to be replaced by the dude above, middle, whom MySpace tells us is named Liam. We are also sad to report that the band also lost their unofficial sixth member, the collosal beard of lead guitarist Michael Garrison Throeald.

At All Cost has a couple of Texas dates posted on their MySpace page, and we can assume they’re working on new material in their down time. In the aforementioned interview Throeald told us the band was working on new stuff that was stonier and trippier than their past efforts. Color us interested.

-VN

So this Texas band Pack of Wolves are going to act as support, alongside Time of Cholera, on a brief upcoming tour headlined by Century. Now, the reason Pack of Wolves are worth paying attention to is because their guitarist, Trey Ramirez, used to be a member of At All Cost, one of MetalSucks’ most favoritest young bands in the whole wide world. Listen to the demos on Pack of Wolves’ MySpace page, and it’s easy to hear some AAC in there; in fact, the band often sounds like a more straight-forward, meat n’ taters, less trippy version of At All Cost.

Pack of Wolves are still without a label and the tour is coming nowhere near NYC, so I won’t be able to check ‘em out live; but I encourage anyone in the vicinity of this tour to go and let us know how the show was. All dates after the jump.

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