It’s 2012 at last!  Remember that press conference back in November where Ozzy, Tony, Geezer and Bill Ward (yes, that’s what makes it Sabbath finally – the insertion of one BILL WARD!) sat down at the Whiskey A Go Go and announced to the world that they were finally making a new album with Rick Rubin? Don’t call it a comeback. Call it a reclamation.

There’s something very intriguing about watching a band make a colossal misstep and then recover. There have certainly been a good share of them — most recently and horrifically that towering monolith of  “what the fuck was that?” known as Lulu — albeit, no one has redeemed themselves from that one quite yet. And with the exception of one great Maiden track, “The Klansman,” (which Bruce has to explain before every time they play it live), there were those Blaze Bailey Maiden albums.

In the wake of all the hoopla of their classic line-up reformation I give you Black Sabbath’s self admitted career low-point: Forbidden. First off, let’s make this clear: I do consider the Tony “The Cat” Martin era of the band to be a legit part of the Sabbath legacy, just not Forbidden. In fact, The Headless Cross is on my  top 5 list of  Sabbath albums. Truthfully, the Tony Martin era of the band doesn’t get enough credit; The Eternal Idol and Tyr are solid records as well. Maybe they’re not proper Sabbath records, but good ones.  Incidentally, Tony Martin should also be credited with one of metal’s most spectacular mullets.

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It’s no secret that Rick Rubin is what might be best described as a “hands off” producer. Based on what little I know about the guy, he wasn’t always that way — but these days, he has a reputation for being more a guru who comes into the studio X number of times a week and tells the band what they’re doing wrong before moving onto his next appointment. Y’know that image you have a record producer from A Year and a Half in the Life of Metallica? Of the producer being present 24/7, and being so passionately involved with his work that he often argues with the band? Yeah, that ain’t Rubin.

Corey Taylor confirmed as much while discussing working with Rubin on Slipknot’s Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses during a recent stop on his solo tour. So that’s not really news. What is news that Taylor apparently hates the dude, who he calls “overrated” and “overpaid.” Check out video below:

In other news, Rick Rubin could probably give a fuck what Taylor or any other members of Slipknot think of him, because eighteen gajillion other bands will still pay him squillions of dollars to sit on their couch, eat his smelly blue shit, and tell them what he thinks of their record. But, hey… great work if you can get it.

-AR

[via The PRP]

After months of “speculation” (by which I mean we all knew this was happening, but no one would officially confirm it), Black Sabbath announced today at a press conference at LA’s Whiskey A-Go-Go — where they played their first American show back in 1970 – that they are, indeed, reuniting for both a world tour and a new album… which will be produced by Rick Rubin. Rubin says the band has written half the album already, and that recording will begin in early 2012.

The above video montage, also heralding the reunion, appeared on the band’s website at 11:11 am PST. The video also reveals that the band will be headlining this year’s Download Festival… so now we know who two of the headliners will be. I wonder if the only reason Metallica are playing the Black Album in its entirety is because of Black Sabbath? If so, that’s pretty silly. And it makes me wonder if AC/DC, doing all of Back in Black, will be the third headliner.

We know from Heaven and Hell that Tony Iommi still has some good riffs in him; now I guess we just have to wait and see if they can make this cool without Dio or what.

Debate in the comments section below.

-AR

Last week, a shitty translation of a news story from a French website told us that Gojira told them that Rick Rubin was producing the band’s new album. We’ve been trying to get confirmation to no avail, but now another shitty translation of another news story from another French website tells us that Gojira told them that Rubin isn’t the producer — Greg Fidelman is.

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That’s what a horrible translation of a story from the French site Spirit of Metal tells us, but we have no official confirmation.

Still, let us take a moment to ponder this possibility. For this is MetalSucks, and we are nothing if not ponderers.

So.

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Am I crazy or does World Painted Blood suck? Is Slayer moving forward or caving to the post-Slipknot shitty production trend? Am I a fossil who can’t deal with a classic band’s evolution? I love serial killers and hate religion, so what’s the deal? Why did critics splooge all over this record, and do fans agree?

During a recent plane trip, I played about four hours of Slayer pinball on my mobile tablet device — to the dismay of my westerly neighbor, who frowned from behind her religious-themed novel presumably at the game’s huge glowing pentagram — and it got me thinking about World Painted Blood. Like 2006′s mehtastic Christ Illusion, the 2009 record arrived amid a rush of acclaim — as though a spiteful metal media corps had a chance to bestow retroactive cheers upon a critically spurned but iconic band. Or maybe the album is awesome, and therefore deserving of warm reception even from fancy music writers at The Onion and All Music Guide. But I don’t think so.

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Steven Blush’s American Hardcore: A Tribal History is one of the great rock n’ roll history books. And now it’s bigger. Originally published in 2001, the Feral House book nails the golden age of old-school hardcore, from the movement’s inception to the watershed year 1986. The book inspired a documentary, the 2006 film American Hardcore. The movie is a must-see that has inspired as much griping and controversy as the book.

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The Daily Show had this great bit the other day about that NOH8 campaign commercial Vince posted earlier this week, and how certain politicians who have taken a certain stance on certain issues are almost certainly going to be looked back upon as dickwads. I’m not gonna embed it, but you can watch it here if you’re so inclined.

And I’m actually not trying to make a political point. I’m trying to make a point about history. The cliché about “Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it” is a cliché for a reason. There are no new stories. Just new versions of old stories.

So I’m sorry to harp on this Blue Felix nonsense, but it just occurred to me — I’ve seen this movie before. I know how it ends.

Anyone remember these bands?

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There’s still no official release date for Gold Cobra, the most heavily anticipated recording in the history of music and sure to be the highest selling release of all time — or, at least, since Chinese Democracy. (I’ve heard that executives throughout the industry feel confident that Cobra will single-handedly revive CD sales. “There’s nothing out there right now with this kind of scope,” an unpaid intern who just started in the Interscope mailroom, and thinks he has a really bright future with the label, told me.) And while the anticipation is killing me, at least I know when I can run to Walmart and get my hands on the new Linkin Park album: the band has announced a September 14 release date for their latest offering, A Thousand Suns. It was produced by Rick Rubin, the man who made Metallica totally cool and relevant again.

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These are some of my favorite producers and mixers for heavy music… It’s a challenging genre, and these guys are great in my opinion.

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D.X. Ferris certainly thinks so, and listening to the record again this week, I’m starting to agree with him (I actually think that the Paul Bostaph years in general are underrated, and that the recent Slayerenaissance began with God Hates Us All. But I digress.). Diabolus has an incredible sense of groove – something Slayer are not usually known for – and, of course, reunited them with Rick Rubin for the last time.

Here’s the band playing the album’s opening track, “Bitter Peace,” in Argentina in ’98, probably right around the time Diabolus was being released.

-AR

Today would have been Johnny Cash’s 77th birthday. In his honor, here’s his video for “Hurt” – a cover of a Nine Inch Nails song from the producer of Reign in Blood.

Is this version superior to Trent Reznor’s original? Cash’s age (and personal history) certainly lends the lyrics extra poignancy; he’s not a young man belly aching, but an old man looking back at the mess of his life.

Discuss!

-AR

Every metalhead knows that Kerry King likes to talk shit like he’s being paid by the insult, but isn’t Tom Araya supposed to be the more even-keeled one? The dude who brings his family to the Grammys and thinks it might be time for Slayer to call it a day and openly admits that he’s a practicing Catholic who doesn’t believe Slayer’s anti-religion message so much as he thinks it’s just a great theme for evil sounding metal?

Well maybe Tom is tired of King getting all the attention, because in a recent interview with Stormbringer Webzine, he took a page from his longtime bandmate’s playbook and slammed Metallica’s latest album, Death Magnetic:

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For seven glorious minutes and eight fantastic seconds, I thought that Death Magnetic might be the record that Metallica should have released after the Black Album – a record that melds the pop-metal sensibilities the band adopted in the 90s with the thrashier, proggier Metallica of the 80s. That’s exactly the length of time it takes the opening track of the album, “That Was Just Your Life,” to play out, full of enough monstrous riffage, catchy hooks, and blistering solos to make up even for Lars Ulrich’s distractingly mechanical drumming. And if the nine songs that follow were as good, Death Magnetic might actually have been the album that restored Metallica to something at least resembling their former glory.

Instead, the nine songs that follow are a mixed bag – not even from song to song so much as within each song.
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To me, Metallica ceased to be relevant ages ago — so much so that I have barely heard any of their last few albums, save the studio recording footage featured in the 2004 documentary Some Kind Of Monster (which I found to be reasonably entertaining), and surprisingly I actually liked the music I heard enough to go acquire said tracks (didn’t say I paid for em tho, wink wink nudge nudge/suck it).

But upon repeated listens of that material, it was apparent even back then that the Metallica of yesteryear, an old school conceptual thrashy metal band that actually pushed new boundaries at one point both sonically and stylistically, was D-E-mf-D. And really…who cared? Shouldn’t the shelf life of once-classic bands that are now repeatedly outputting watered-down versions of their formerly original sound be minimal at best?!? I’m all for old fogies rockin it directly into the grave (hope to myself) but shit man, they best ought perpetually evolve as artists in their middle/old age somehow throughout, doncha think?

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I don’t know about all of you, but Metallica has been and will always be my favorite band in the whole world. I put down the trumpet and picked up the guitar for one reason: Metallica. When I used to draw comic books for 8 hours a day I never did it better while I was listening to …And Justice for All. The first two rock bands I discovered were Guns N’ Roses and Metallica. Why do I say rock? I got into Metallica on The Black Album. Before The Black Album I used to listen to R&B and Hip Hop. It was so bad, I would never say the word “awesome.” I thought it was too white. I called Metallica rock because for a kid like me, metal was too heavy. For a kid like me ,Metallica was the only band to get me in touch with my angry side without being too angry.

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If anyone around here has the right to dissect Metallica, it’s me – the Old Fart.

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MUSIC: Tastes Great
LYRICS: Less Filling

(3 out of 5 shofars)

-AO

It’s bad. The new Metallica album is bad. Let me explain why this shouldn’t be surprising.

This is the album that Metallica thought you wanted. This is the throwback to that classic era of the late eighties and early nineties that everyone was begging them to create. This is the album that everyone in that battered-wife fan base was hoping would come out even as the band was raking in millions while the music kept getting worse. We all sat and watched as they stumbled from failure to failure, transforming into a mainstream rock act before our eyes, holding expensive and tasteless concerts with an orchestra backing, and releasing a largely useless collection of covers before finally delivering the audio coup de grace that was St. Anger. It was the final line they had to cross. It was an output without a single redeeming factor that was only defended by the most unreasonable apologists; the sort of people who lack the ability to criticize their heroes no matter what their transgressions – and l doubt any of them have listened all the way through St. Anger in the year 2008.

So here we are at the eve of a new Metallica release and everyone’s talking about it. I bet everyone knows at least a few people who are really excited, and maybe it’s even you. It’s a false alarm though, I assure you, as this only furthers the mountain of evidence that Metallica no longer deserve an instant of our attention, appreciation or excitement outside of a live venue. Death Magnetic is more embarrassing even than their previous documentary that revealed to the world how detached and conceited they’d grown from their own creative process as well as each other. In fact, Death Magnetic is the affirmation of just that. Correction, it is the second affirmation, after St. Anger.

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When considering their latest album, it’s important to bear in mind the lasting power of Metallica’s legacy, especially when taking into consideration the weak efforts of the past couple decades. This is a band that had had a hand in building up the traditional Thrash framework throughout the 80s into an impenetrable fortress. But the castle has crumbled and they’re left with just a name. In the early 90s, they entreated us to take their hand and we would be off to the Never Neverland of mainstream success. But then Metal lost its foothold on radio and MTV, falling victim to the Grunge/Alternative phenomenon. Metallica forged onward but many were forced to ask: were they following their instinct, not a trend? Deep down inside fans felt the need to scream. The band seemed to be putting dignity to shame, with dishonor.

The Metallica of that decade was leaner, more open to pop constructs and, to their credit, this did translate into commercial success, along with a flurry of less-than-flattering press. Yet to longtime fans, when the circus rolled into town, they were playing the lead clown. Welcome to where time stands still. No one rocks and no one will. Hell, they even went country (for only one song, but still!). The band eventually lashed out at the fans and the fans revolted. Hey, honesty was our only excuse. They can try to rob us of it but it’s no use. Load, Re-Load and St. Anger each grew progressively worse. We were left to face the thing that should not be: a flaccid hard rock outfit of aging, emotionally unavailable sociopaths that had long ago lost their hunger and, subsequently, their edge. But please excuse them while they tend to how they feel. They went to therapy, filmed it and foisted it on a bewildered public. Fuck it all and fucking no regrets. Would there be a happy ending in this dark set? Did Metallica drift on numbered days?

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