Yesterday’s commentary on the disappointing new Raintime single had two positive effects. 1) Everyone’s favorite negative nancy Ziltoid actually agreed with me on something, not just that the new single is weak but that 2008′s Flies & Lies was a good album [just watch, he'll come back now and say something else], 2) Some modern power metal fans came out of the closet to share new bands with us, amongst them Suckalo Andy Synn to tell us about Communic.

Mr. Synn also made a good point, namely that bands like Mercenary, Firewind, Raintime and Communic aren’t really power metal. As he put it so succinctly, “No frilly shirts, no lyrics about orcs/elves/woods/battles, just big riffs and big vocals.” True enough. But I guess that if radio programmers today are calling MGMT and Vampire Weekend modern “alternative” then we can call the aforementioned bands modern power metal by the same extension.

So, Communic are pretty fucking rad. The songs on Communic’s MySpace page are exactly what I’d want from any of these bands… just big riffs and big vocals. And the cheese factor is definitely there, but that’s why we like it.

-VN

A few weeks ago Cosmo Lee at Invisible Oranges called for power metal fans to defend the (in his opinion) indefensible genre, a call which I readily answered because I love the stuff. Almost on cue, Intronaut’s Sacha Dunable issued his own defense of power metal — I swear I didn’t prompt him — claiming that in its current unpopular state, playing power metal in 2010 is about as punk rock as you can get. I salute you, Sacha.

Raintime, one of my favorite Europowercheese bands, have come out with a new song this week on the MySpace page of their American record label, Bieler Bros. The song, “Fire Ants,” comes from their forthcoming March 16th release Psychromatic. Their last release Flies & Lies was an excellent album so I’m curious what this new record will hold for these fine Italian gentlemen, but based on the new track I’m kind of nervous. Musically the song is solid if unspectacular, but vocally it’s weak as hell. Nevermind the fact that Claudio Coassin has ditched his vocal growls completely… I’m more concerned with the fact that his clean vocals kind of suck. Perhaps this was the case on Flies & Lies and I just didn’t notice because the music and songwriting were so strong. There’s a new pre-pro track on Raintime’s own MySpace page which leaves me feeling pretty much the same way.

Way to not give me any more ammo in my power metal argument, guys. With Mercenary ditching half their band last year and Gus G.’s obligation to Ozzy over Firewind for the immediate future, what have we modern power metal fans got left?

-VN

Congrats to the winners of our last photo caption contest, which asked you guys to come up with funny captions for the photo at right. You guys came up with some hilarious entries that had us spewing our whiskey all over our keyboards, but these are the three lucky winners who will be receiving a copy of Raintime’s Flies & Lies in the mail:

• DudeManbro: “Wolfgang was a more than adequate last-minute fill-in for David Lee.”
• LandoGriffin: “Vince Neil looked his best in years at the opening date of his “Theatre of Pie” world tour at the Arby’s in Scranton, PA.”
• d.o.g.o.b.g.y.n.: “Holy shit! Devin Townsend ate all the members of Crowbar!”

Boy oh boy do we have a great prize package for you guys this week. The good folks at Bieler Bros. Records have given us FIVE prize packages to give away, each containing 2 CDs: Sikth’s critically acclaimed album (and MetalSucks proverbial wet dream) Death of a Dead Day and their ultra-rare, limited run EP Flogging the Horses. If you don’t know about this band, know about them pronto. All you have to do to win is come up with a funny caption to the below photo and remember to include your email address in the email form. Good luck!

Congratulations to “Chriatian666″ who won our most recent funny photo caption contest lampooning a promo shot from VH1′s Rock of Love: Season 2. Chriatian666′s caption was concise, but nailed it: “Three Arses.” Well done — he’ll be getting a package of assorted Century Media goodies.

This week we’re giving away 3 copies of Flies & Lies, the most recent release from Italian epic melodic death metallers Raintime, courtesy of Bieler Bros. Records. Flies & Lies just missed Vince’s 2007 Top 10 list, receiving an honorable mention — it’s truly a must-listen for fans of power metal and melodeath / Gothenburg.

All you have to do is come up with a funny caption for the below photo and post it in the comments section; we’ll sort through the entries and chose the three winners. Don’t forget to include your email address so we can contact the winners. Have fun!