In celebration of their 21 years (!) as a label, Relapse Records is having a gigantic sale that no metalhead in their right mind will be able to pass up. For 21 straight days, Relapse will be making one album available each day for the so-low-your-balls-are-basically-dangling-all-the-way-to-the-floor price of 21 cents. Just 21 cents for a frickin’ album! For an actual, real, physical CD no less, meaning this is a great opportunity for all you to collectors to fill those holes in your CD walls.

There’s a small catch: in order to trigger the 21 cent album download each day, you’ve got to buy something else in the Relapse store. But considering Relapse is running another sale in which they’re offering all Relapse Records titles for 50% off (other than 2011 releases), this remains a deal for the ages! May as well buy a few other CDs at 50% off while you’re there, right?

Relapse is revealing each 21 cent album every day at noon via their Facebook and Twitter, so make sure you’re following both; one title will be on sale from noon ’til midnight each day, starting with a Relapse release from 1990 and counting up chronologically over the course of 21 days to a 2011 release to be revealed on December 2nd, thus ending the sale. They’re already a week into this madness, so while we’re a little behind the ball it’s never too late to start working out deals. Today’s deal is Nile’s Black Seeds of Vengeance, so get on that shit.

-VN

Let it not be said that Relapse Record is fighting the future like some metal record labels; the long-standing bastion of quality metal has announced a partnership with Moshpit Tragedy to release what they’re billing a ”sliding-payment download series.” Each week for the next 24 weeks, one new title from the Relapse catalog will be released digitally at MoshpitTragedy.com for a price of the buyer’s choosing, starting at only $2.99.

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MetalSucks is thrilled to announce the launch of our very own streaming radio station at Earbits.com! It’s completely free for your enjoyment and features a constantly-streaming playlist of MetalSucks-approved artists across the metal spectrum. To celebrate this momentous occasion and yesterday’s release of Toxic Holocaust‘s new album Conjure and Command (streaming in full here, available for purchase here), we’ve teamed up with Relapse Records to offer one lucky winner a deluxe edition of Conjure and Command on 2x vinyl and CD/DVD, a t-shirt, and a chance to hang out with Toxic Holocaust before a show on their upcoming tour (dates here). Three additional first place winners will get all that except for the meet and greet, and six more runners-up will be chosen to win the new album as a digital download.

To win, simply visit the MetalSucks Station at Earbits and follow the instructions on the on-screen prompt that will appear after about 10 seconds.

If for some reason all that cool stuff isn’t impetus enough to enter, how about doing it ’cause these hot babes said so?

Congratulations to Isaac Schwarz, the winner of our MDF MVP contest! We had a bunch of great entries, but Isaac’s was chosen above all others by an illustrious panel of Maryland Death Fest veterans, including Andres Erickson (General Surgery/Sayyadina), Matt Harvey (Exhumed/Depakitator), Rich Hoak (Brutal Truth/Total Fucking Destruction), Mike Hrubovcak (Monstosity), Mike Majewski (Devourment), Matt Moore (Absu/ Rumpelstiltskin Grinder),  and Proscriptor (Absu). Isaac any 2 shirts, 1 LP, 2 CDs , and a  mystery prize from the Relapse booth at this year’s MDF (Relapse titles only). Not bad, eh, Isaac?

And don’t forget that Maryland Death Fest starts tonight, and rages all weekend! Four day passes are now sold out, but three passes and tickets to individual days are still available here. This year’s line-up is incredible, and includes Neurosis, Coroner, Voivod, Nuclear Assault, (the soon to be departed) Cathedral, Corrosion of Conformity, Exhorder, Exhumed, Kylesa, Ghost, Skinless’ farewell gig, and tons more. If you have the chance to go and you don’t, you’re a damn fool.

And on that note, here’s Isaac’s contest-winning essay…

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The Sonar in Baltimore, Maryland has been shut down due to an expired liquor license and a subsequent dispute amongst several of the people who run the venue.

“So?” you may be thinking. “Venues get shut down all the time. Such is life. Why should I care?”

Well, this particular venue was supposed to host Maryland Deathfest (plus two sold-out Deftones/Dillinger Escape Plan shows) at the end of this month. Which means the MDF, one of, if not the, most revered extreme music festivals in North America, only has a few weeks to find a new venue.

But don’t fret! According to Metal Underground, “The festival organizers claim to have a backup plan that should involve little to no inconvenience to ticket holders (even those coming from out of town) and will be releasng more details soon.” So it looks like the festival is going forward as planned, which is obviously a major relief. It would be a serious tragedy if the festival had been derailed because somebody couldn’t keep track of an important date.

The final line-up for the fest, as well as set times for each band, is after the jump, although please note that it’s all subject to change once the new venue is announced.

In the meantime, don’t forget that you still have ’til Monday, May 16 at midnight EST to enter the awesome MDF MVP contest we’re doing with Relapse. You could win any 2 shirts, 1 LP, 2 CDs , and a  mystery prize from the Relapse booth at this year’s MDF (Relapse titles only), and the contest is being judged by a who’s who of MDF luminaries: Andres Erickson (General Surgery/Sayyadina), Matt Harvey (Exhumed/Depakitator), Rich Hoak (Brutal Truth/Total Fucking Destruction), Mike Hrubovcak (Monstosity), Mike Majewski (Devourment), Matt Moore (Absu/ Rumpelstiltskin Grinder),  and Proscriptor (Absu)! Go here for all details on how to enter.

And now those set times…

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IN CASE Y’ALL SOMEHOW FORGOT!!!

The ninth annual installement of Maryland Deathfest, arguably America’s best extreme music festival, will take place from May 26 – 29, and will feature performances from Neurosis, Coroner, Voivod, Nuclear Assault, Corrosion of Conformity, Cathedral, Exhorder, Ghost, Kylesa, Exhumed, and tons more! You can get more details and tickets here.

To celebrate this stupendous occasion, MetalSucks is teaming up with Relapse Records for an incredibly cool contest: THE MDF MVP. Here’s how it’s gonna work:

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The ninth annual installement of Maryland Deathfet, arguably America’s best extreme music festival, is just around the corner! This year’s fest will take place from May 26 – 29, and, as usual, has a ridiculously strong line-up: Neurosis, Coroner, Voivod, Nuclear Assault, Corrosion of Conformity, Cathedral, Exhorder, Ghost, Kylesa, Exhumed, and tons more will all be playing during the course of the weekend. You can get more details and tickets here.

To celebrate this stupendous occasion, MetalSucks is teaming up with Relapse Records for an incredibly cool contest: THE MDF MVP. Here’s how it’s gonna work:

• Anytime between now and Monday, May 16 at midnight EST, send an e-mail to news AT metalsucks DOT net with the subject line “MDF MVP.”
• The contents of the e-mail should include anything and everything you think proves that you should be this year’s MDF MVP. How many other installments of the fest have you attended? Have any great stories? Pictures? Memorabilia? Memories of great or terrible bands? It’s up to you to convince the panel of judges that you deserve to win.
• Speaking of the panel of judges, look at the MDF MVPs we ‘ve rounded up to reign over this contest! Andres Erickson (General Surgery/Sayyadina), Matt Harvey (Exhumed/Depakitator), Rich Hoak (Brutal Truth/Total Fucking Destruction), Mike Hrubovcak (Monstosity), Mike Majewski (Devourment), Matt Moore (Absu/ Rumpelstiltskin Grinder),  and Proscriptor (Absu) will look over the entries and choose the MDF MVP!!!
• The winner gets  any 2 shirts, 1 LP, 2 CDs , and a  mystery prize from the Relapse booth at this year’s MDF (Relapse titles only).
• The winner will be announced the week of May 23.

And that’s it! This should be a really fun contest that separates the real fans from the chumps… so get crackin’ on those entries!!!

-Axl, Vince, and Everyone at MetalSucks

So right now you’re probably thinking 1) “Hey, assholes, the NHL season actually started last night so this can’t really be a ‘preview’ in the traditional sense of the word,” and 2) “Hey, assholes, at least one of these artists isn’t actually signed to Relapse Records.” And, yes, we know we’re a little late, but this is metal, so who the fuck is ever on time? And, yes, we know that at least one of these artists isn’t actually signed to Relapse Records, but most of them are, and the fine people at Relapse really did all the work in putting this together, so ppppfffffttttt.

So. After the jump, you can find previews of how the freshly-begun NHL season is looking for the favorite teams of members of 3 Inches of Blood, -(16)-, Buried Inside, Cephalic Carnage, Cretin, Dekapitator, Exhumed, Fuck the Facts, Gravehill, Hero Destroyed, Indian, Misery Index, Mortuous, Repulsion, and Toxic Holocaust. Enjoy!!!

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I like it when metal record labels throw us curveballs. No, I’m not talking about Vampires Everywhere, but how every now and then a metal label will take a chance on a band that’s only tangientially metal. While such moves often infuriate the label’s core, they serve as a refreshing break for the rest of us more open-minded fans and provide a glimpse into something new.

Take recent Relapse Records’ signees Horseback. Relapse has hedged its bets on the beardo metal (for lack of a better catch-all term) scene lately with new signings such as Black Tusk, Indian, Black Anvil and Mose Giganticus, and though it’s possible that Horseback will appeal to fans of those acts, the band really represents something else.

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In a recent editorial on Invisible Oranges, Cosmo Lee (and yes, it was actually Cosmo who wrote this one… I triple-checked!) used the recent success of High on Fire as a case study to discuss why metal fans hate it when their favorite bands become successful. Cosmo posits three theories and they’re all on point (as usual), but I’ll let you check out Invisible Oranges for that because that’s not really what I’d like to discuss today. I’d like to explore when the fuck High on Fire suddenly became such a big deal.

I’ve never been a huge High on Fire fan, but I haven’t got anything against the band. To me they’ve always been a sweet bonus, that band that’s opening on tour with a bigger, cooler band — “Ah, nice, High on Fire’s on that tour… cool, we get to see Matt Pike rock the fuck out with his shirt off!” — but they didn’t really warrant much attention individually. No doubt, the band has a rich history (hi Sleep) and had a core of die-hard fans, but by and large they lived in the underground. They were always that band that were either a) supporting a bigger band, or b) playing in small, cramped sweaty bars.

There’s a ton of hype around their new album Snakes for the Divine which had a HUGE first week with almost 9k copies sold but, by and large, isn’t all that different from their past work. All of a sudden they’re on the cover of Decibel right out of the gate, with a snake-adorned Matt Pike wearing more makeup than a 50 year-old stripper. And they’re on their own headlining tour of decent-sized legit venues, selling them out across the country. Make no mistake about it; like Cosmo points out, High on Fire are a big band now. They’re in the mainstream metal consciousness.

So when did this sudden transformation happen?

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So by now everyone and their mother knows that The Dillinger Escape Plan have parted ways with longtime label Relapse Records. But one of the big, nagging questions – especially coming off the tremendous success of Ire Works – has been “Why?”

Well, our friends at Metal Insider recently caught up with DEP guitarist Ben Weinman to get some answers. Here’s an excerpt:

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It was a short week, but despite Axl being under the weather and Vince gettin lucky in Kentucky, we still managed to get shit done around the ol’ Mansion, even without the help of our favoritest MS Mansion Monkey, Higgins:

• We’re making a list: we give you a hint, another hint and yet another hint. No, it’s got nothing to do with Jacob.
• Ozzy Sharon filed another ridiculous lawsuit, while Dillinger Escape Plan left Relapse Records sans-lawsuit.
• IWABO and Bloodbath released new videos.
• Killswitch Engage gave you a new song for free, we gave you a new Hull song for free, and Job For A Cowboy and Darkest Hour let you hear new songs for free. Crikey!
• We spoke with Nick Hipa of As I Lay Dying and J. Costa of Thy Will Be Done, the former about music and the latter about beards.
• Dallas, The Blogronaut and Eyal all wrote blogs.
• Best Band Ever announces festival appearance atop worst lineup ever.

I had a wisdom tooth pulled this morning so I feel like a giant sack of assholes at the moment, but hey, Percocet! See you tomorrow.

-VN

This interesting bit of news trickled down the Interwebs grapevine yesterday. Seems DEP’s contract with Relapse has ended, and the band will release their next record on Season of Mist in collaboration with their own Phonogetic Records.

Zuh?

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When MetalSucks contributor Christopher Roddy phoned Jesse Haff for his scheduled interview, the Daylight Dies drummer was busy working — on a holiday. As much as we love Daylight Dies and continue to spread the word to the masses, Haff pays his bills as the sole web developer for a 60-person media firm in Los Angeles, though he works from Brooklyn where he’s recently relocated from his native North Carolina. Though Haff was busy juggling work with rehearsing daily for the then-upcoming 10-date tour with Soilwork and Darkane, he still found time to give Roddy an incredibly engaging interview, offering insight into the band’s early days with Relapse Records, the band’s current state of affairs, and their writing and recording process for Dismantling Devotion and Lost to the Living. Read the full interview after the jump.

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This past spring, the opportunity presented itself for me to do a phoner with Steve Austin, mastermind for Today is the Day. Since I a) think Today is the Day is brilliant and b) knew that Austin had recently started his own label, Supernova Records, I jumped at the chance. And when I called him, I thought I was gonna get the usual ten to fifteen minute chat full of the usual B.S.

Boy was I wrong. Not only did Austin stay on the phone with me for close to an hour, but he answered every question with a level bridge-burning honesty not usually found by even the most hardcore of the most hardcore. It should go without saying that Steve’s opinions are his own and not necessarily those of MetalSucks, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t find the dude fascinating. After the jump, read his thoughts on pretty much any and every topic under the sun.

And, uh, oh yeah: this is easily the longest interview we’ve ever done. Fair warning.

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MetalSucks recently had the opportunity to have a quick chat with Origin guitarist Paul Ryan on the set of the band’s shoot for their new video, “Finite.” Ryan had some interesting things to say about life on the road, the band’s new album, Antithesis (read Axl’s review here), and what lies ahead for these death metal masters. Above, watch the David Brodsky-directed video for “Finite;” after the jump, read the full transcript of our chat with Paul.

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