Metal Insider tells us that brand new music streaming service MOG went live yesterday morning. MOG promises a deep library at a $5 monthly fee, and boasts a service “better than Rhapsody, iTunes and Pandora…combined.” [Full disclosure: MOG's advertising arm sells some ad space on this site.] With all four major labels signed on (those being Warner, EMI, Sony and Universal), a $5/month unlimited streaming service is a tantalizing proposition indeed. But the million dollar question on our minds (and undoubtedly yours as well) is: do they have metal?

Without having tested the service yet I’m inclined to say that, surprisingly, the answer is actually “yes.” Century Media, Nuclear Blast, Earache, Willowtip and a few other metal labels are distributed digitally through EMI, so those ought to be covered. Warner holds a majority stake in Roadrunner so that oughtta be a no-brainer. Relapse, Metal Blade and Victory releases are distributed by Red, which is owned by Sony. Those are all the labels at the proverbial metal big kids table right there. Obviously there are plenty of other smaller metal labels, but I’m guessing most of them also have major distribution.

This new MOG service is interesting indeed. If anyone here has tested it out, please let us know in the comments how it fares metal-wise. How does it stack up against the much simpler, sleeker Spotify? Watch a brief description of some of the service’s key features in the video below.

-VN

Congrats to the winners of last week’s photo caption contest, each of whom will receive a copy of The Bakerton Group’s latest El Rojo, a slammin’ buesy rawk record featuring all of the dudes from Clutch with no vocals. The winning entries:

Joe: “The real victims of wigger slam are the children.”

Rooktrocity: “On the verge of a major label signing, the founding members of Hollywood Undead made a tough, albeit necessary decision to leave the band’s weakest link, ‘Squatty 2 Bummin’, on a deserted road somewhere in the vast Nevada desert.”

This week we’re giving away a special limited edition 7″ boxset of the infamous This Comp Kills Fascists compilation (feat. Total Fucking Destruction, Insect Warfare, Brutal Truth, Magrudergrind a shitload of other awesome bands) provided to us by the Relapse Records deathsquad. Just come up with a caption we deem to our liking for the below photo — which happens to be the cover of the very boxset we’re giving away — and it shall be yours. Have a field day with this one, kiddies.

What with forthcoming albums from Necrophagist, Baroness and Obscura hogging most of the spotlight reserved for Relapse’s 2009 release schedule, and the nation’s attention focused elsewhere on their January 20th release date, it’d be easy to overlook these two solid Relapse contenders. We at MetalSucks couldn’t let that happen, could we?

Click to read more…

Buried Inside’s 2005 Chronoclast was one of my favorite slices of post-hardcore this decade, if not ever; it was a truly corrosive, haunting work (Converge fans who don’t know the album are truly robbing themselves of experiencing something special). Having not heard a peep from the band since its release, I kind of assumed they were dead and, well, buried.

Not so, says Lambgoat, who just posted the following release from the band:

“Despite what may seem like complete inactivity, Buried Inside are not broken up. Not even close. The writing for the follow-up to Chronoclast is nearing completion and pre-production has been underway for the last couple of months. Arrangements are being ironed out for the upcoming recording, and barring any obstacles, a release date is expected for January 2009.”

Wow. I suddenly have a record to get excited about for next ear.

In case you don’t know these dudes, here’s a track from Chronoclast… check it out, it is most definitely worth your time:

Buried Inside, “Time as Ideology” – Chronoclast (Relapse)

-AR