MetalSucks

Full confession: I missed my pre-show interview slot with Bigelf’s eccentric frontman Damon Fox because I fucked up with directions on the subway. I’ve lived in this city for 22 of my 27 years on this planet and it still happens from time to time… oops. Doesn’t help that the Beacon Theater, the host of this year’s Progressive Nation tour (Dream Theater, Zappa Plays Zappa and Scale the Summit in addition to the aforementioned), is in butt-fuck nowhere compared to our usual stomping grounds.

But it ended up for the better — missing the pre-show slot allowed me to see the phenomenally talented Scale the Summit, and seeing Bigelf for the first time immediately thereafter gave me a lot more material for my interview. After waiting patiently post-show whilst Fox signed autographs at the band’s merch booth for half a fucking hour, I was finally able to snag him for an interview. Fox is a smart guy who has a lot of strong, well-thought out opinions about metal, music, genre-labeling and the industry in general. We also chatted a bit about the band’s history and their recent surge in popularity.

Our interview started as many do with subjects who aren’t familiar with our website. “So, why DOES metal suck?” jabbed Fox, who clearly “gets it.”

Click to read more…

The second annual Progressive Nation Tour — featuring a re-jiggered and suddenly worth seeing lineup of Scale the Summit, Bigelf and Zappa Plays Zappa supporting Dream Theater — hit New York’s historic Beacon Theater on Sunday night. This year’s proggier leaning lineup (last year’s had Opeth, BTBAM and 3 in the support slots) brought out an older-skewed audience, but as is always remarkably the case with Dream Theater there were plenty of youngins in attendance. In fact, the most frequently spotted band t-shirt I saw all night was for The Faceless; stew on that one for a second.

Click to read more…

When Mike Portnoy announced that there would be a 2009 edition of last year’s bonerrific Progressive Nation Tour — which featured Opeth, Between the Buried and Me and Three in support of Dream Theater (read our show review) — one would naturally assume the lineup would be pretty fuckin’ killer just like its predecessor, no? While our heads swirled with the possibilities of what might be in the cards (Protest the Hero? Muse? Porcupine Tree? Gojira??), today our expectations hit the floor with a mighty thud. Zappa Plays Zappa. Pain of Salvation. Beardfish. Um… who?

Click to read more…

Judging by the massive success of the inaugural 2008 edition of Progressive Nation, Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy has already declared in a statement that he plans on resurrecting Progressive Nation for a 2009 edition “with a great list of bands that I am already considering.” Which is great news to us, because this year’s lineup of DT, Opeth, Between the Buried and Me and Three was fucking stellar. Allow me to make some suggestions to Mr. Portnoy for the 2009 run that have no basis in reality whatsoever:

• Protest the Hero
• Textures
• Sikth (bring ‘em back from the dead!)
• Arsis
• Dillinger Escape Plan

Anyway, back to reality: Portnoy also said the band plans to release a DVD later this year and that he aims to be working on a new album towards the end of the year (“when the kids return to school in September”).

Here’s a recent interview from Metal Injection with keyboardist Jordan Rudess, filmed at the first night of the Prog Nation stop in NYC.

-VN

The 5-man “drum off” in the middle of Dream Theater’s headlining set — at the first night of the Progressive Nation tour in NYC — was one of the most impressive things I’ve seen all year. Axl, Kip and I watched, stunned (and stoned), as the 5 drummers for each of the bands traded places, often two at a time at Mike Portnoy’s behemoth drum kit, in a maelstrom of drummers each amazing in their own right, trying to outdo one another. At a show where musicianship was the focus it stood out as the climax amidst amazing sets by Three, Between the Buried and Me, Opeth and Dream Theater, at a tour that lived up to its billing as one of the best touring lineups of 2008.

Click to read more…

Who’s psyched to see 4 incredible bands wank on their instrument all night long at the Progressive Nation Tour tonight featuring Dream Theater, Opeth, Three and Between the Buried and Me?

THIS GUY RIGHT HERE!!

Axl, Kip and myself will be at tonight’s show at Terminal 5 in NYC. Will you? Come say hello. I’ll be the dude in the Insomnium t-shirt and have a rather large beard, Axl has glasses and a neatly coiffed chin-strap beard, and Kip is taller than both of us and has blondish hair despite his Semitic ancestry. We’ll be the three dudes masturbating simultaneously to John Petrucci’s guitar solos.

And of course tomorrow we’ll be clad in our finest Viking helmets, steins raised high in the air at the final stop of the MetalSucks co-sponsored Paganfest (minus Kip).

It’s a fucking great week to be a metal fan in NYC.

-VN