Gridlink are one of my favorite grind bands that I almost never have an excuse to write about. And part of the reason I never have an excuse to write about them is because they don’t really tour; the band’s members live in three different locations on two different continents, so it’s not like they can all just hop in a van and do some shows every weekend. A Gridlink concert is a very special thing indeed.

And now the band has announced not one but TWO shows for this month — one on August 13 in Chicago, and one on August 14 in Los Angeles — which will be their only U.S. appearances in 2011.

And to sweeten the deal, Phobia is also on the bill.

And to further sweeten the deal, Maruta is also also on the bill.

And to give you a cavity, THE SHOWS ARE FREE.

That’s a quartet of ridiculously good reasons to go to one of these concerts. In fact, this is one of those situations where I’d posit that if you are in a position to go to one of these gigs and don’t, your must be roughly as intelligent as a Hinder fan.

Get more details and RSVP to these shows here.

-AR

Hats off to reader Derek Navardauskas, who correctly identified last week’s logo as belonging to the band Antediluvian. Derek wins some random shit of his choice from all the random shit we have laying around the MetalSucks Mansion right now. Yyyyaaaayyy, Derek!

This week we have another awesome prize for you: a copy of the new Abaddon Incarnate/Phobia split 7″, which is coming out on February 25 on Underground Movement. It features three new tracks from Irish grinders Abbadon Incarnate and four new songs from the already-legendary Phobia, so, yeah, you know you fucking want this. Only 500 copies of this bad boy will be pressed! You can pre-order it via PayPal by sending payment to ianlawless@gmail.com ($8.82/£5.50 in Ireland, $11.50/£7.20 in the rest of the world, and specify if you want a black vinyl or a white vinyl — the white ones are rarer, and are avail only via preorder). Or, of course, you can just enter this contest!

All you gots to do to win is identify the name of the band whose logo appears below, then shoot me an e-mail at axl AT metalsucks DOT net with your answer, your name, and your address. ALL ENTRIES WITHOUT AN ADDRESS WILL BE DISQUALIFIED. From everyone who gets it right, we’ll randomly select one winner and announce his or her name next week.

This week’s logo was suggested by reader Gary Dreher. Thanks, Gary!

-AR

Congrats to reader Christian H. McClain, who correctly identified last week’s logo as belonging to Ishitrobots. Christian wins an awesome prize pack from Eagle Rock Entertainment, including new DVDs from Heaven and Hell, Velvet Revolver, Black Sabbath, and Rush. Congrats, Christian!!!

This week we have another super-sweet offering for you lucky cats — two grind prize packs from Relapse Records, containing the following albums:

• The self-titled debut from death-grind all-stars Murder Construct (which we’re currently streaming here!)
• Kill the Client‘s Set for Extinction
• Phobia‘s Unrelenting

All three of these releases are guaranteed to flatten your brain like a kitty under a steamroller. You can order ‘em directly from Relapse here, or, of course, just enter this contest!

All you gots to do to win is identify the name of the band whose logo appears below, then shoot me an e-mail at axl AT metalsucks DOT net with your answer, your name, and your address. ALL ENTRIES WITHOUT AN ADDRESS WILL BE DISQUALIFIED! From everyone who gets it right, we’ll randomly select two winners and announce their names next week.

This week’s logo was suggested to us by reader John Lindmeier. Thanks, J-Lin!

-AR

It’s a rare that a supergroup ends up being more than the sum of its parts — and yet, miraculously, such is the case with Murder Construct, a new deathgrind outfit featuring Cattle Decapitation’s Travis Ryan on vocals, Exhumed/Phobia/Impaled’s Leon del Muerte on guitar and vocals, Intronaut/Uphill Battle’s Danny Walker on drums, Bad Acid Trip’s Caleb Schneider on bass, and Fetus Eaters/Watch Me Burn’s Kevin Fetus also on guitar. With a pedigree like that, your expectations for the band are pretty high. And guess what? Murder Construct do not disappoint.

But don’t take our word for it — give the group’s debut album a listen in its entirety below. Once you’ve felt its awesome power, you’ll wanna pre-order it here. Relapse will release the album next Tuesday, November 23. Enjoy it, fuckers!

HOO-RAY! News that isn’t about a band I wish would die!!!

Eyehategod put on one of the most seriously fun shows I went to all year. So I’m glad to see that they’re heading back out on the road starting in late November. I’m not so glad to see that they won’t be coming back east, but dems da breaks, I guess.

If you’ve seen these dudes before, you know good they are live, and if you haven’t, well, for shame. Seriously, get off your ass and go to one of these shows if you can. (I recommend being extra, extra, extra, extra, EXTRA fucked-up for maximum enjoyment. This ain’t straight edge music, ya heard?) Support is gonna come from Phobia, so the gigs should be extra-slimey.

Dates after the jump, courtesy Pure Grain Audio.

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For the record, yes, I did just set a new standard in terrible headline puns by incorporating the name of the band, the name of the album, and the name of the song about which I am going to write. Y’know, every day I wake up and say, “How can I challenge myself?” I’m ambitious like that.

ANYWAY, The Deciblog is streaming a new Phobia track, which is called “If You Used To Be Punk, Then You Never Were.” It’s a Phobia song, so the whole thing is less than a minute; it’s taking me longer to write this (and very possibly taking you longer to read this) than will take for you to actually listen to the song. So maybe stop reading this now and just go listen.

The song comes off of Phobia’s latest, Unrelenting, which Relapse will release on November 23. The band will hit the road with Eyehategod starting at the end of this month; Lambgoat just posted dates.

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

-AR

In my 20+ years of listening to metal/hardcore/etc, there are few records that have made a bigger impact on me than the “Cry Now, Cry Later” compilations. For those who aren’t familiar, this series of four double-7″ compilations collected some of the mid ’90s most brutal and important grindcore/power violence bands, and I still listen to it on the regular (although nowadays that’s usually on my iPod while I’m at the gym).

Before I dig into the tracks themselves, a little background: You may know Pessimiser as the label who put out some great records from bands like 16, Despise You, Excruciating Terror, Grief and Phobia, but it was originally a zine. The brains behind the zine, label and Despise You is Chris Elder, who is not only hilarious, but among the world’s most cynical human beings (as you might be able to tell from the name of his band and label). Chris is born and raised in the sketchy town of Inglewood, which has its fair share of cholos (Mexican gangsters), and the name of the record is a parody of the famous cholo saying “Smile Now, Cry Later.”

Click to read more…

Singapore grind bastards Wormrot are pretty much everyone’s favorite new discovery this year — our own Sammy O’Hagar raved about their album, Abuse (out now on Earache), and then did a great interview with their guitar player, Rasyid. But I kind of assumed that we might never get to see them live, since, like I said, they’re from Singapore, and it’s not like there’s tons of cash to be made from travelling all that way to play grindcore.

Luckily, I was wrong! Reader Chris Halbert has alerted us to the fact that band are, indeed, doing a U.S. tour this fall, including two weeks with Phobia and Maruta. These shows should be CRAZY, and you definitely don’t wanna miss ‘em, ’cause who knows when/if Wormrot will return to the States.

All the dates are on the poster above, or you can get ‘em on Wormrot’s MySpace page.

-AR

MetalSucks photo guru Diana Lee Zadlo captured the madness that was the MetalSucks-sponsored Waste the World tour when it hit Philadelphia, PA’s First Unitarian Church (churches are metal) on December 10th. The pit was so brutal for Municipal Waste that Diana had a hard time getting shots of all the band members, but what she did capture is, as usual, awesome. Take a look at her photos of MW, Brutal Truth, Cauldron and Phobia after the jump.

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The MetalSucks-sponsored Waste The World Tour (featuring Municipal Waste, with Goatwhore, Brutal Truth, Phobia and Cauldron on as support for various dates) is off to a wet start. On the tour’s fifth show — Wednesday night in Houston, TX — a fan decided it’d be a good idea to climb on the pipes hanging from the ceiling during Goatwhore’s set. ‘Cause, ya know, hanging from pipes is always a great idea. The sprinkler system erupted, flooding ensued, and the whole show was forced to evacuate the venue. Fortunately the Meridian had an extra room available, so after an hour of chaos the show went on, faster and harder than ever.

Make sure you catch this tour when it comes through your city. Dates after the jump. Please note that The Accused are no longer part of the tour.

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Reader Brandon Fountain sent us a link to the below video of members of At the Gates and Municipal Waste getting drunk and/or high together on ATG’s awesome reunion tour last year. It’s not really all that exciting, but a) it’s a slow news day, b) it gives you the chance to live vicariously through these very talented musicians, and c) it’s a great excuse to remind you that we’re sponsoring The Waste’s “Waste the World” tour with Goatwhore, Brutal Truth, Phobia and Cauldron. Get dates after the jump!

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Bummer. The Accused, who were scheduled to provide support for  some (but not all!) of the dates on the MS sponsored Municipal Waste “Waste the World” tour, have been forced to drop off due to “scheduling conflicts.” Oh well.

The good news is that Goatwhore are still doing all dates from 11/06-11/16, Brutal Truth are still doing all dates from 12/04-12/11, and Phobia, Cauldron, and, of course, The Waste themselves are still doing ALL dates. And hopefully a new support act will be named to step in for The Accused.

All of the bands remaining on the tour are killer. If you’ve never seen MW fuck shit up live, you ain’t seen shit. Get complete dates after the jump.

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MetalSucks is sponsoring the “WASTE THE WORLD TOUR 2009″ featuring none other than our favorite party thrashers Municipal Waste.  Providing direct support on the tour will be Goatwhore from 11/06-11/16, The Accused from 11/18-12/03, and Brutal Truth from 12/04-12/11.  Appearing on all shows will be Phobia and Cauldron. No matter which direct support band is playing when this tour rolls through your town, this show promises to be a great, fun, drunken time.

Stay tuned to MetalSucks for your chance to win tour tickets as well as other MU swag. Check out Municipal Waste’s hilarious new video for “Wrong Answer” and pick up their 3.5-out-of-5 horns rated new album Massive Aggressive, out now on Earache.

Full list of tour dates after the jump.

Click to read more…