MetalSucks

Reader James Keglor sent us the following e-mail about the band The Sign of the Southern Cross:

“in case yall aint heard ov this band then check em out.  Especially check out the tune Purge, its really fuckin badass but the rest are kinda like Tera filler songs.  The dude sounds EXACTLY like Anselmo its insane like i wouldnt be surprised if Phil was actually the singer in secret.”

Although it’s clear that the singer wishes he were Phil Anselmo, I don’t think this band is anywhere near as good as Pantera. I also don’t think James should continue to spell “of” with a “v” more than once in any given e-mail, but that’s a personal decision that James has to make on his own.

Also… a confederate flag, fellas? Really?

If you feel so inclined, check out The Sign of the Southern Cross here, then share your opinions with James in the comments section below.

-AR

Boasting a resume that features members of Pantera more prominently than any Nashville session players, multi-instrumentalist Hank Williams III has defiantly cultivated a career and an image in stark contrast to the country roots evoked by his iconic namesake. Though hardly abandoning his heritage, the grandson of the honky tonk pioneer continues to mystify and enthrall with this, the first “official” release from this band.

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This is Phil Anselmo performing Alice in Chains’ “Nutshell” in Tel Aviv.

And… that’s all I have to say about this.

-AR

[via Metal Injection]

After the horrific murder of his brother, no one would have faulted Pantera/Damageplan drummer Vinnie Paul for dropping off the face of the Earth. But instead, the man chose to soldier on, starting his own record company, Big Vin Records, and resuming his drumming duties for boozy groove metallers Hellyeah. The former has signed Type O Negative side project Seventh Void and released the successful Dimebag Darrell tribute DVD Dimevision; the latter’s toured the globe in support of their debut album, with plans to record and tour again in the near future. A relentlessly positive guy who sounds a little like the metal version of King of the Hill’s Boomhauer, Vinnie seems content with the past and satisfied with the present (upon hearing that I was conducting the interview from Massachusetts after I shut my tape recorder off, he gave his thoughts on the Boston Bruins’ then-upcoming playoff game with Montreal Canadiens and stated that his dream Superbowl would be between the Cowboys and the Patriots, if it were possible). In his inteview with MetalSucks, he gives his thoughts on the upcoming 20th anniversary of Cowboys from Hell, running a record label, and the future of Hellyeah.

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I can’t believe that there’s going to be a new Hellyeah album. I honestly thought we’d be rid of this insipid band after one phoned-in cash-in. I guess I don’t have any real reason to be too upset though, as not only will I never ever never listen to this record, but I honestly don’t know anyone else who ever will either.

In any case, here are some things I’d rather hear than new “music” from Hellyeah:

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So it’s a slow news day. I mean we’ve gotten some press releases but nothing really exciting.

So a-sniffin’ around YouTube I did go, and I found this pretty cool footage of Kerry King playing three songs with Pantera on two separate occasions.

First up is a rendition of “Raining Blood” from 1989.

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I was pretty excited that Exhorder’s albums are getting reissued, since I thought it meant a lot of kids who have never heard of Exhorder might now check ‘em out.

And yet, somehow, the news that Exhorder have reunited and are working on new material bums me out. I can’t even really figure out why; part of me thinks it’s that “new material” part. Almost every reunited band puts out a new album at some point, because, well, it’s a good way to make money; but these albums, even if they’re any good, can never, and do never, live up to band’s output from their heyday. At the Gates, at least, admitted as much in Decibel (though they didn’t rule out the possibility of recording under a different name, which, truth be told, is just as shitty an idea as recording under their original name, because anyone with an IQ bigger than his shoe size will still know that it’s At the Gates). So while I’m stoked to be able to catch Exhorder at a not particularly large concert venue in the NYC area sometime real soon, I really wish they would please just not make any new music.

Then again, a couple of new songs might provide the perfect bathroom break during the show.

Anyway, below enjoy a photo of Phil Anselmo in an Exhorder shirt. The photo of a member of Pantera in Exhorder merch should help convince 15 year olds that Exhorder really are important to the history of metal, in case actually listening to the band’s music and realizing that they pre-date Pantera somehow fails to convey this fact.

-AR

Here’s the thing about Ray Mazzola, vocalist for New York’s own Full Blown Chaos: the guy has a natural born gift for storytelling. I learned this back in February, when I was lucky enough to be invited to dinner with the members of Soilent Green, music video auteur extraordinaire David Brodsky, and Allie Woest, Brodsky’s partner/producer/sometimes editor/general right hand. Full Blown Chaos were on a temporary hiatus from touring at the time (a hiatus which, their fans will be pleased to know, is now over), and so Ray joined us, and within seconds of sitting at the table, he was trading war stories from the road with Soilent Green/Crowbar drummer Tommy Buckley. And, as nice a guy as Buckley is and as many good stories as he had to tell, he just couldn’t keep up with Ray; I won’t repeat any of Ray’s stories second hand ’cause I could never do them justice, so I’ll just say that I can never again hear Napalm Death’s “The Code is Red” without bursting into hysterical laughter.

So after dinner I interviewed Soilent Green guitarist Brian Patton (and some of the dudes from Car Bomb, who also showed up at some point), and then Ray was cool enough to sit down and let me pick his brain for a little while – and to share one of his special stories with our readers. To say that the story is a doozy would be to put it mildly. Little wonder this dude is such a charismatic front man.

Above, watch the David Brodsky-directed video for Full Blown Chaos’ “Halos for Heroes,” from their album Heavy Lies the Crown; after the jump, read the full transcript of my conversation with Ray.

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Dear Maria Brink and the Other Anonymous Dudes from In This Moment,

First of all, I think we all got off on the wrong foot and I’d like to apologize. I know I’ve said some not very nice things about certain members of your band in the past, things that were completely superficial and in no way related to your music. And my own feelings about your physical appearance aside, I hear that you’re actually very nice people. So I hope we can leave the past in the past and just live in this moment.

(Sorry. I couldn’t resist).

Last week you released a free mp3 on your MySpace page of several of your members, including Ms. Brink, performing a cover of Pantera’s “I’m Broken” with the nice men from Talking Metal. Mostly I thought your version of the song served as a nice illustration of why Phil Anselmo was, in his heyday, one of the best screamers in all of metal. I mean, I guess musically you sounded okay enough – your guitar player is no Dimebag, but then, who is? – but really, I didn’t like Maria’s vocals. At all.

But I chose to keep my mouth shut, because, well, some perfectly respectable people thought Maria acquitted herself quite admirably.

But now you’ve posted another cover of a classic metal song on your MySpace page for free download – this time, a version of Slayer’s “Postmortem.” And, once again, your take on the song serves as little more than a reminder of what made the original so great.

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“If Phil Anselmo hadn’t quit Pantera, Darrell wouldn’t have been playing in that shithole where that guy could get to him.”

Well duh, Einstein. Had that or any one of a million other things been different, Dimebag wouldn’t have been shot. This kind of shit-talking, taken from an interview in the March 2007 issue of Guitar World, is the kind of unnecessary bashing sure to add fire to the flames, not to mention that she comes off like an idiot. If I’d left for work one minute earlier today perhaps I would’ve been hit by a car. If Kip hadn’t left the house that day maybe he wouldn’t have broken his shoulder. We can all make ourselves crazy with a million “what if”s, but it won’t do any good because they’re all true and we can’t change them.

Anselmo, for all his past problems, for the most part has made his amends with Dimebag personally, in his music, and in the media. So Rita, why start this kind of public shit-slinging? A million factors could have been different about that night, and had any one of them been different things wouldn’t have ended the way they did. Why chose the one that’s the most convenient and controversial? We all understand the colossal loss and pain you feel, but that’s one step too far. Fuck you, Rita.

-VN

Phil Anselmo isn’t even the vocalist for his latest project – he’s the guitarist. He left the front man duties to Eyehategod’s fresh-from-prison Mike Williams, and it was a smart move: Arson Anthem – the band and the album – is a knuckle-scraping punch of aggression and hostility, and outside the warmth of Anselmo’s spotlight, I suspect it will only find its way into the hands of those that will really appreciate it.

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