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The Internet’s been a-churnin’ with buzz about the forthcoming U.S. tour featuring the prog-tastic lineup of Protest the Hero, Periphery, Jeff Loomis and The Safety Fire, but MetalSucks has been mum until now. Why? Because we were waiting on the all-important tour poster featuring our very own logo! Ain’t it purdy? Take that bitch and embed it anywhere you please.

Words of wisdom regarding the tour from Luke Hoskin of Protest the Hero:

Reality check 1 – We get to travel beautiful countries that aren’t even ours
Reality check 2 – We get to travel these countries playing music we wrote and love
Reality check 3 – We get to do all this alongside bands like Periphery and musicians like Jeff Loomis who we are inspired by…
Reality check 4 – We need beers.

and from all of Periphery (teamwork!)”

We’re extremely elated to be going on tour with some great friends! We’re good buddies with three of the other bands on this tour, so it’s sure to be a fun time with some great music and awesome shows! We’re all going to be teaching via Bandhappy on this tour too, so we’re excited to connect with our fans, hang with some great friends, and perform in some of our favorite cities across the US. See ya soon!

So, like… duh, this tour lineup is beyond all ruleage. Take the already excellent combo of Protest the Hero and Periphery, add the first North American tours EVER for both Jeff Loomis and djenty up-and-comers The Safety Fire, and holy crap, what a bill. We don’t know much about Today I Caught the Plague, but if they’re among such esteemed company they’re certainly worth checking out.

Dates after the break:

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Yo! Have you guys signed up for our new e-mail list yet? If not, you can, and should, do so above. You’ll get occasional updates from the MS Mansion with breaking stories, special features, exclusive premieres, etc., delivered right to your inbox. Don’t worry, we won’t spam you — expect a newsletter-type of situation with updates once a week at most. And don’t forget to friend us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter to stay up-to-the-minute on all the latest suckage.

With that shameless plug out of the way, let’s look at some of the things we did this week, shall we?

• Maybe we should rename the site “Sports Suck?” God Forbid’s Doc Coyle taught us about the NBA and Lazarus A.D.’s Jeff Paulick taught us about the NFL.
• We spoke to Matt Halpern from Periphery and Bandhappy and Nick Cohon from Cormorant.
• We were saddened to report that legendary Black Sabbath guitarist has been diagnosed with lymphoma.
• Jason Richardson was saddened to learn that he has been fired from Born of Osiris.
• We considered ten possible candidates to replace Howard Jones in Killswitch Engage.
• We wagered that the new Metallica album is not going to sound like The Black Album despite what the band says.
• We passed judgement on the new Van Halen single and video.
• We got excited that Refused and At the Drive In are reuniting.
• We learned that Virgin Steele are from Long Island.
• We started to look at some Albums That Will Fuck Your Face Off in 2012: new releases from Adimiron, Hypno5e, Ides of Gemini, Pallbearer, Sai Nam, and Samothrace.

Next week we’ll have even more Albums That Will Fuck Your Face Off, interviews, premieres, and, of course, plenty of snark. ‘Til then, brothers and sisters…

-AR

Well, this is probably a first for MetalSucks: an interview exclusively about another website. But Bandhappy isn’t just any website; as we’ve been telling you for months (first by “Run MetalSucks For a Day” contest winner Justin Gosnell), Bandhappy is a new platform that offers students and teachers — many of whom are famous metal musicians — the opportunity to connect directly for one-on-one, personalized video lessons, and also provides a platform for setting up in-person lessons while on tour. It’s a really robust platform that brings all the different parts of the equationinto one convenient hub, and Bandhappy founder Matt Halpern — who also happens to be a teacher himself and the drummer for Periphery — recently took some time to chat with me about Bandhappy, what it took to get it going, what makes it unique, and what to expect from it now and in the future.

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Seems like we’ve been hearing about the pending launch of Bandhappy for ages now… and it’s finally here! The website, created by Periphery drummer Matt Halpern, offers a platform for artists and students to connect one-on-one for video lessons on a variety of instruments in real-time, as well as the ability to archive those lessons for future review. Here’s just a small sampling of artists who are giving lessons through Bandhappy culled from a quick perusal of the site: Tosin Abasi, Chris Adler (Lamb of God), Francesco Artusato (All Shall Perish), Jason Bittner (Shadows Fall), Evan Brewer, Stef Broks (Textures), Dino Campanella (Dredg), Dave Davidson (Revocation)… and the list goes on. Check out the full list of artists currently signed up right here. Impressive, right?

As of today, Bandhappy is fully functional. Whether you’re a teacher looking to expand your student base or a student looking to connect with your hero, sign up and give it a shot. You can view the teacher tutorial here, and the student tutorial here to learn a bit more about how the platform operates from each side.

Coming later this week, we’ll publish an interview I did with Matt Halpern about Bandhappy; his motivations for creating it, the challenges he’s faced and continues to face in building it out, and his goals for the platform.

-VN

Periphery have released a very brief video of themselves in the studio working on their new album, and included in that very brief video is a very brief snippet of some new Periphery music. And, hey, guess what? It sure does sound like Periphery!

Of course, I’m just being a wise ass — new Periphery music isn’t a bad thing at all, and I’m stoked to hear the full album. It should be out sometime next year via Sumerian.

-AR

Happy happy joy joy! Earlier this year, Periphery revealed that they were working on not one but TWO new albums for release in 2012, and now the band has revealed via a press release that the recording sessions for the first album, tentatively titled Juggernaut, have begun. Will they be working on the second new album at the same time, will that come later, or has the idea of releasing two at once been ditched? We really don’t know, but we do have this to offer from guitarist Jake Bowen:

We’ve got a ton of new songs ready that we can’t wait for you guys to hear. We’ll spend the winter in the studio with Taylor Larson (our good friend Nolly Getgood is co-producing with Misha Mansoor). We’ve decided to go a new direction with our music and we’re calling this new genre DjentSlam! JUST KIDDING! Get stoked!

DjentSlam aside, we expect big things from Periphery in 2012. Periphery are pretty much single-handedly responsible for the explosion of djent, so it’ll be interesting to see whether they take things in a new direction, ala Animals as Leaders’ second album, or they’re content to repeat the status quo and ride the wave. Fun times await. Watch the first of what promises to be many studio updates above.

-VN

Periphery just dropped the following bomb via Facebook:

Sad to hear Periphery bassist Tim Murphy has left the band issuing the following statement: “I’m sorry to announce that as of today I will no longer be playing bass for Periphery. I have had so many unforgettable experiences and have met so many wonderful people while playing with the band and just want to say thank you to all the fans for making that possible. I am leaving to pursue something new. If you are interested following up with me, feel free to add my personal page at facebook.com/tom.h.murphy.
-Tom”

Murphy is a great bassist and a great performer, and speaking as a Periphery fan, I’ll miss the guy being in the band. That being said, it’s not exactly a secret that Misha Mansoor is the driving force behind Periphery, so it’s hard for me to imagine that this will hurt Periphery too much in the long run.

Still, it is a little troubling that Murphy is leaving less than five months after guitarist Alex Bois also split from the group. Hopefully the loss of two members in such a short time span does not forebode any rough times for the band.

-AR

Thanks: Rod

On October 6th, the Frak the Gods tour — featuring Periphery, Textures and The Contortionist, with Stray From the Path taking the place of The Human Abstract — rolled through New York City for a very appreciative sold-out crowd at the Gramercy Theater. MetalSucks faves The Binary Code opened the show, and MS photographer Mariel “Tormentia” Pietrykoski was there to capture all the action. Take a look at her photos after the jump.

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Misha Mansoor hasn’t done his own Rigged column for MetalSucks, but anyone who’s interested in finding out what guitar gear he uses could easily do so from his many Gear Geek columns on MetalSucks and from the general fruits of the Internet. Much more interesting is this video piece he produced with Metal Injection on the band’s recent Frak the Gods Tour stop in New York City, in which he takes us behind-the-scenes of Periphery’s stage show. He covers the band’s setup and sound-check, the sound guy, backstage, explains their light show, speaks with the other bands on the tour… everything, and it turns out that Misha’s a hilarious video host despite having the flu. Someone get this guy a regular show on Metal Injection.

-VN

I gotta be honest: I cannot for the life of me keep track of who the crap was in Periphery or Haunted Shores when. Misha Mansoor was definitely involved with Haunted Shores at some point, but I assume that involvement ceased before former Periphery vocalist Chris Baretto joined… although I don’t think that Baretto a part of that band now, though I could be wrong… and then I guess at some point current Periphery vocalist  Spencer Sotelo also did a track with Haunted Shores… and we just got a press release telling us that HS guitarist Mark Holcomb (above, with Mansoor) has joined Periphery full-time after filling in with them on their last few tours after other other guitarist Alex Bois parted ways with the band back in July, and… maybe now Bois can join Haunted Shores? And I just went cross-eyed typing all that shit. Seriously, it’s easier keeping up with who is what version of L.A. Guns than it is with who was in what version of each of these bands at what time.

I’m sure someone will try to explain it to me in the comments section, but don’t bother. The important thing is, like I said, Holcomb is the new permanent guitarist in Periphery. Or, uh, that is, he will be, following the band’s upcoming European tour with Dream Theater, because a dude named Nolly from Red Seas Fire was already slated to be on that tour. But after that! Holcomb all the way!

In all seriousness, I saw Holcomb play with the band just a few weeks ago, and he was great. So if any Periphery fans were worried about who Bois’ replacement was gonna be, they can now breathe a sigh of relief.

-AR

There’s something really remarkable about following a band from inception to record. What we so often see and hear as listeners is a finished product, spontaneously available, without any history or sign of the trials and challenges the band faced while getting there. I can’t claim to be one of the group’s earliest fans, but for the last year I have had the unique opportunity to watch Fairfax, Virginia native Chris Purvis’ experimental metal project, Friend for a Foe, grow and evolve.

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If you’re into what’s happening in the modern music world and especially the modern metal scene then you’re no doubt already familiar with the band Periphery.  To say they are carrying one of the biggest buzzes in the industry right now is an understatement.  While you may have heard of them, and even be a huge fan of their music, what you may not know is that they are continually focused on giving music lessons and teaching any and all up-and-coming musicians who want to learn.  Giving lessons has become a standard part of just about every tour they do and in a time where other bands find they are struggling to stay afloat on the road, Periphery uses this approach to not only bring in some invaluable extra money while on tour but also to enrich the next generation of musicians and create a stronger bond with their fans.

Periphery’s drummer Matt Halpern has gone way above and beyond with Bandhappy.com, a forthcoming website that has been many years in the making.  Once a musician creates an account on Bandhappy they are then able to pay for and take LIVE, online or on tour music lessons from a plethora of musicians and teachers from all over the world. If one would like to teach, anyone can apply, and once approved, all teachers gain access to an online profile where they can set their schedules, rates, and teach either online or on tour, anytime from anywhere – it’s easy to use and gives complete control to the teacher, enabling them to provide a truly personal learning experience. Perhaps the most awesome feature of Bandhappy is that it provides a great opportunity for students to take LIVE and personal lessons from some of the top names in the industry.  Something like that can be a complete dream come true and is something that’s never be made available before.  I certainly couldn’t imagine myself when I was 16 being able to take a guitar lesson from Adam Jones-my mind would have exploded!

Matt was kind enough to give me all the details on Bandhappy and more in the following interview.

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This article is mainly for all of you who are in a band(s) or are attempting to be. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a bunch of you misconstrue this article as a rant or a tool for me to vent about reactions to Periphery. To those of you who still believe that is my goal by the end of this, I would like to thank you. Although it is sad to see you miss the point entirely, perhaps you weren’t intended to understand this concept to begin with. And with this industry being about survival of the fittest, you are only going to make the lives of other professional musicians that much easier!

Let us start with a few things we know about the music industry:

1) It is hard to break into. Everyone wants to be in a band, and now that anyone can make music on a laptop, the industry is more saturated than ever. There are subgenres with absurd names popping up every day (for example the one that begins with the letters “Dj”). So as you start thinking about forming your first band and/or project, the odds are already highly stacked against you.

2) There are two main groups of factors that affect how successful a band is: factors you have control over like conducting good/smart business, and factors you don’t have control over such as being in the right place at the right time, and whether your music will be liked or not. This article is going to focus on one aspect that you DO have control over.

3) Everyone is on the Internet. People’s dogs have Facebook pages. And just because some people don’t post on forums or comment on blogs doesn’t mean they don’t read what is said. The grand majority of your favorite bands and musicians read a lot of the same sites you do, and lurk on a lot of the forums and blogs you frequent and perhaps post on as well.

4) At the end of the day, like it or not, this industry is a business. And the most successful bands usually get as far as they do by treating it like one. Sure you can have fun with it, but if you have ever wondered “Why did Band X make it and Band Y didn’t?” chances are Band X was better at the business side of things. That is the difference between making some noise for a few years and making a career.

With these four points in mind, perhaps you can see what I’m getting at.

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(TesseracT 2k11! Official photo with new vocalist Elliot Coleman.)

Yesterday the metalsphere with abuzz with the news that TesseracT had parted ways with vocalist Daniel Tompkins and had replaced him with Sky Eats Airplane / Of Legends vocalist Elliot Coleman. Instead of opting for the traditional route of announcing a band member swap with much media to-do, TesseracT just went and showed up for a gig in Milton Keynes, UK with Coleman holding the mic, didn’t say a word, and let the Internet do all the dirty work for them. Today TesseracT came out with an official announcement featuring quotes from various involved parties, but we’ve up and done you one better: an interview with bassist / main band-businessman Amos Williams.

Amos shared with us his thoughts on new vocalist Elliot Coleman, how it came to pass that Tompkins and the band parted ways, future U.S. tour plans, a new album and what the band members do when they’re not touring

Our chat after the jump. Later this week we’ll unveil Part 2 of the interview, in which we talk about… well, just wait.

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This might be the worst post ever. Vince is away and my internet is fucked, so I’m actually writing this from the WordPress app on my iPhone. Which blows. But I wanted to make sure you guys go to check out this footage of Periphery doing a new song, “Face Palm Mute,” at a recent Euro festival. I originally saw it on The PRP.

Periphery will do their first headlining tour this fall, with support coming from The Human Abstract, Textures, and The Contortionist. Get dates here.

I’m out until I get this internet BS sorted out. There will be a Sergeant D. post at 4:20, and then you’re on your own ’til tomorrow. Sorry!

-AR

First it was my turn to take a vacation and now it’s Axl’s; I haven’t spoken with him since he left for the lake house last Saturday and that’s a good thing, not because I don’t love the dude but because it means he’s having fun instead of stressing about work. Hopefully as I write this he’s stoned out of his gourd and enjoying something tasty from the grill. But guess what? I’m gonna be away again this coming Monday and Tuesday conducting super-top-secret business in L.A., meaning it’ll just be Axl and the rest of our fine contributors for the early part of next week. But don’t worry; come Wednesday things will be back to normal with our usual Axl + Vince full frontal attack.

Meanwhile, here’s what Axl missed this week:

• We premiered new music by ’90s hardcore legends Earth Crisis and new Metal Blade signees Battlecross, and we premiered a new video from Last Chance to Reason
• We spoke with In Flames’ Bjorn Gelotte and IKILLYA’s Jason Lekberg.
• Landphil pondered the best wrestling “shoots” of all time.
• We looked at new releases by After Oblivion, Doctor Midnight and the Mercy Cult and Michael Monroe while Corey Mitchell gave us the rundown of his bleeders and blowers for June.
• We checked out Mastodon’s “different” new album artwork.
• Sergeant D wondered whether or not melody has a place in metal.
• Periphery lost guitarist Alex Bois while Pig Destroyer gained drummer Adam Jarvis.
• The metal world chimed in on the Casey Anthony verdict; we chimed in on the metal world.

Adios.

-VN

Why it was just three months ago that we interviewed Periphery guitarist Alex Bois (along with bassist Tom Murphy) when his band played NYC with Scale the Summit, and things seemed just dandy. But apparently that was not the case or events have taken a sudden turn: Bois and the band have parted ways, although it’s not clear which party (if not both) was responsible for the split. From Periphery’s MySpace page:

Hey Guys!

We have some sad news to share. Alex Bois and Periphery have decided to part ways. This is truly a sad day for Periphery, because Alex has been with us since the beginning, and he is like a brother to us. We’re going to do everything we can to make the most out of this unfortunate situation, and soldier on like we always have in the past when faced with setbacks.

In regards to all of our upcoming shows and tours, worry not! We will have special guest artists filling in for Alex, so our touring plans will not be changing whatsoever.

Throughout all of this, we really appreciate your support and understanding.

See you soon

- Periphery

Seems like one of those touchy situations where the privacy of the band is best respected, but what do we know, maybe they just decided it wasn’t working any more. Naturally we’ll fill you in if we hear anything else.

-VN

Thanks: ton0290 and Dan

IT’S HANUKKAH IN ALMOST-JULY!!!

After two weeks of salivating over the mere thought, dates for Periphery’s first-ever headlining tour — which will feature support from The Human Abstract, The Contortionist, and, playing for the first time ever in North America, Textures — have been announced. This is certainly one of the can’t-miss tours of the fall; pretty much any one of these bands alone would be sufficient reason to buy a ticket, but together, they’re like one mighty, proggy, Voltron of modern metal.

I cannot wait.

Here’s the itinerary:

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MetalSucks tipster extraordinaire Hetal Bhatt sent us the below video, and while it has nothing to do with metal, it did make me laugh, and I did forward it to friends. So, enjoy:

And on that note, here’s some stuff we did this week:

• We debuted new music by Chimaira, Cannabis Corpse, and S.O.S.
• We debuted a new music video from Sleeping Giant.
• We got new gear tips from Periphery’s Misha Mansoor and Revocation’s Dan Gargiulo, and we spoke to Michael Amott from Arch Enemy.
• We checked out the latest releases from Decapitated, The Black Dahlia Murder, Limp Bizkit, and Wormrot.
• We pondered a world in which concertgoers can’t film shows with their iPhones.
• We marveled that anyone finds Tosh.0 to be funny.
• We wondered which deathcore frontman has the best tattoos.
• We found the worst line-up for a festival ever.
• We chose our favorite extras from the new Annotations of an Autopsy video.
• We broke the bad news that vocalist Chris Clancy and keyboardist Drew Stavola are both out of Mutiny Within.

You’ve got one more week with me and me alone before Vince comes back. Deal with it, fuckers.

See ya Monday.

-AR

You asked and Misha answered. Today, the Periphery guitarist/mastermind and #20 on our list of the Top 25 Modern Metal Guitarists, tackles more MS reader-submitted questions about gear, guitars, and more. This week: Misha’s preferred method for recording guitars directly to a computer, the best way to record drums on a budget, and how Misha created the sexy synth/drum loops on the Periphery and Animals as Leaders albums.

Click to read more…