MetalSucks

Tomorrow is Halloween. This is great news, because it means that come Sunday (or Monday) people will finally fucking stop talking about Halloween. So sick of it already. When did I become so curmudgeonly? I’m gonna make a hell of an old man. Here’s what went down this week:

• Danzig drummer Chuck Biscuits died. Oh wait, no he didn’t.
• We debuted a new Mudvayne track and we posted live photos from Satyricon and Goatwhore/Eyehategod shows.
• We analyzed the business models of Earache and Roadrunner Records.
• The Boner Tour 2010 has been announced.
• Bison B.C.’s Dan And wrote two tour blogs for us while Horse the Band’s Lord Gold told us about women in diners.
• We spoke with Jucifer’s Amber Valentine and James Plodkin from Jodis.
• We’re giving away a buncha BTBAM shit and celebrating the release of their new album.
• We got all creative writing on your ass.

Our very own Corey Mitchell is gonna be on TV this weekend; he’ll be appearing on E!’s “20 Most Horrifying Hollywood Murders” on Saturday night at 6:00pm EST/5:00PM CST. In addition to his duties as the resident Mansion old fart, Corey writes books about true crime and is a respected authority on the matter so it should be an interesting (and br00tal) watch. Have a good weekend everyone.

Earlier this week Earache Records was the subject of an extremely long-winded rant about the state of the metal industry. Now it’s Roadrunner’s turn.

First we get a press release announcing that Roadrunner has signed heavy rock band Hail the Villain. MS reader “Shit Sandwich” alerted us that the label also recently signed indie rockers The Jakes. Then comes the latest fracas involving Rob Zombie suddenly pushing back the release of Hellbilly Deluxe 2 saying “everything was turning into a chaotic mess” which was actually code for “I’m jumping ship to Roadrunner.” Methods of Mayhem… let’s not even go there. And the label is touting Ratt’s new record as one of its flagship releases for early 2010. I mean, I LOVES me some Ratt, but seriously?

All this following the dismissal of long-tenured A&R man Mike Gitter a few months back. Gitter brought Killswitch Engage, Opeth, Megadeth and many others onto the Roadrunner roster.

What the?!?

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We’re big fans of late ’80s / early ’90s WWF wrestling at the Mansion. When we were kids, Axl and I used to have annual Wrestlemania parties where we got our friends together and got really high on Coke and Doritos and beat the shit out of each other with pillows. Fun times!

So naturally I’m elated to hear that there’s an iPhone app that’s an Iron Sheik soundboard featuring many of his great one-liners. SMNnews.com posted this clip of someone prank-calling Roadrunner Records with said soundboard. The poor girl on the other end of the line (who I’m pretty sure has buzzed us into Roadrunner’s offices on more than one occasion) is actually a pretty good sport about it.

-VN

Last year our own David Bee Roth, got to chat with 3 Inches of Blood vocalist Cam Pipes (who has maybe the most appropriate name for a singer ever). One of the topics that came up was the band’s break-up with Roadrunner:

One of the major events this year is that you’ve split with Roadrunner records. What happened to that relationship between the label and the band?

It was time for them to decide if they were going to pick up the option for the next record. They didn’t and we’re happy about it because we didn’t really like being with that label. There was a lot of things inside the label that we didn’t like in terms of how they showed their support for us and how they pushed our band in the press. We really didn’t see eye to eye on a lot of things. They’re a really big corporate label now owned by Warner, so they’re moving strictly in a “We want to make money” direction and we weren’t putting up the numbers that they would have liked to see. We got dropped on the priority list time and time again and then they finally decided that it wasn’t economically viable to keep releasing this band. It’s enabled us to be a lot more creative on where we want to go. We’re not tied down to a long term contract anymore, so we can go explore other options and hopefully we’ll be a little more free to do certain things with a label that’s a lot more focused to promote us in a better way and [is] more geared towards our style.

Well, following in the footsteps of former and now once again current labelmates Daath (who I guess are still kinda sorta on Roadrunner?), it looks like 3IOB have landed on Century. Thus spake Pipes in a statement:

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The Obelisk, a new metal blog run by JJ Koczan of the now defunct Metal Maniacs Magazine, recently published a fascinating interview with Roadrunner Records A&R-king Monte Conner on the subject of stoner rock. It’s a fascinating glimpse into the mind of one of the most famous and influential A&Rs in the history of metal, if not just for the interesting stoner rock subject matter  then for the industry / label politics / A&R talk. Monte speaks all about his stoner rock heroes from Kyuss to Fu Manchu to Queens of the Stone Age, spends a good deal of time talking about why Roadrunner never ventured far into the stoner rock foray (Karma to Burn excepted — and he goes in depth about them, too), the current state of stoner rock, and why it’s never become a commercially viable genre. Take a quick look at some of the interview highlights after the jump.

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The fine lads and ladesses over at Roadrunner Records have compiled a list of the Top 50 greatest metal frontmen of all-time for you, me and everyone to endlessly argue over (like, seriously: we still get comments on a daily basis on our ages-old posts about Metal Hammer’s Best Death Metal Songs of All Time list and Rolling Stone’s Best Guitarists of All Time list.) What’s interesting about Roadrunner’s list is that in the interest of journalistic integrity all Roadrunnner Records artists have been excluded from the list. How ’bout them apples? The editors of the list also took care to point out that this is a list of the greatest “front-men,” not “singers,” an apt distinction indeed.

After the jump, Roadrunner’s entire list. Followed by your comments.

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It may be a new year on the calendar, but we’re still talking about the same stupid shit here at MetalSucks. Here’s where we focused our energies this week:

• Most awesomest metal festival EVARRR! Not to be confused with the most awesomest tours of early 2009.
  
• New music from Cannibal Corpse!!!
• Mastodon counted down to a new website while Trent Reznor counted down to giving away approximately 400 Gigs of HD concert footage for fans to tinker with.
• We questioned Drew Barrymore’s interest in metal and demanded she take off her shirt.
• We spoke with members of All Shall Perish and Job For a Cowboy.
• Mike Schleibaum declared The Crown’s Deathrace King underrated while Dallas claimed music critics are overrated.
• Can’t anyone make a decent heavy metal TV show?
• One Roadrunner Records staffer named MetalSucks.net the #10 best album of 2008.

Later, gators…

Monday was 2008 Sucks day here at MetalSucks, but we rocked out the rest of the week with some ridiculous shit as per usual:

• We announced our best-of lists for 2008. Check ‘em out.
• Contest: You tell us why you hate the holidays, we send you 100 CDs. Sweet deal.
• PA woman tortures kitties with piercings.
• We spoke with Misery Index’s Jason Netherton and Three Inches of Blood’s Cam Pipes.
• Corporate rock still sells, but Chinese Democracy apparently doesn’t.
• We hated on this band, this band and this band, the latter of whom sent their fans here in droves to hate us back.
• We wondered whether Roadrunner Records actually dropped Amanda Palmer because of her “belly fat” (hint: they didn’t even drop her).
• God Forbid released the cover artwork and tracklisting of Earthsblood, and Pack of Wolves (ex-At All Cost member) released new music.

Tonight it’s new The End Records-signees Hull for Kip and me. Have a good one, everybody.

“Contemporary UK Feminism” blog The F-Word is reporting that Roadrunner Records have dumped singer Amanda Palmer (of Dresden Dolls fame) “Because she refused to let them remove shots of her “fat” belly from the video for “Leeds United” (see above), and is therefore ‘uncommercial’.”

I call “bullshit journalism.”

Click to read more…

Get ready to start hearing a lot about Mutiny Within (formerly Mutiny), Roadrunner’s latest young gun signee. I had the pleasure of seeing this band perform in front of about 12 people at New York’s tiny Lit Lounge last year and was really fucking impressed that dudes so young had such impressive chops and brought such a powerful show.

Click to read more…

MetalSucks Maniac Zac Clarkson correctly identified last week’s logo as Short Bus Pile Up. I mean, LOTS of you correctly identfied last week’s logo as Short Bus Pile Up, since it was one of the easiest logos we’ve ever done, but Zac got picked in the random drawing of all potential winners, so he wins a super-duper deluxe double disc edition of Soulfly’s, um, Soulfly. Rock out with your cock out, Zac.

This week we’re giving away a nifty single-CD with two albums on it, Sepultura’s post-Max Cavalera releases Against and Nation, courtesy the extremely attractive men and women at Roadrunner Records. You might think a Max-less Sep isn’t worth your time, but I think that poor Derrick Green takes too much shit. I mean, c’mon. It’s not his fault that he wasn’t born Brazilian.

ANYWAY, all you have to do to win is identify the name of the band whose logo appears below, then shoot me an e-mail with your answer, your name and address at axl [at] metalsucks.net. We’ll randomly select one winner from everyone who gets it right, and announce their name next Monday.

Good luck, honkies. It’s a hard one this week.

-AR

South Carolina’s Alan Brenner is now one copy of Opeth’s Watershed richer, since he correctly identified last week’s logo as that of Craniotomy. Good for you, Alan. Show South Carolina how to rock.

This week, in honor of the release of Soulfly’s new album, Conquer (read David Bee Roth’s review here), the cats at Roadrunner have provided us with a deluxe, double disc edition of Soulfly, the band’s self-titled debut. In addition to the regular album featuring such gems as “Eye for An Eye” and “The Song Remains Insane,” this bee-atch comes with a bonus disc featuring remixes, unreleased tracks, and all that good shit.

All you have to do to win is identify the name of the band whose logo appears below, then shoot me an e-mail with your answer, your name and address at axl [at] metalsucks.net. We’ll randomly select one winner from everyone who gets it right, and announce their name next Monday. This week’s logo is kinda easy so I expect you mo’fo’s to stop guessing “Dragonforce” and make a real go of it.

Good luck, and remember to let your soul fly…

-AR

I thought that last week’s logo, for the band Mala Fides, was way too easy, but I guess I was wrong: most of you were just way off base with your guesses (Atreyu? Really, guys?). Luckily for them, MetalSucks Maniacs Alex Gellman, Chris John and Roger Adrian all got it right, and all win one copy of Airbourne’s Runnin’ Wild.

This week, the very nice people at Roadrunner Records have given us one last copy of Opeth’s Watershed to give away. People are killing one another in the streets over this album, so you obviously need to own a copy if you want to be considered a real live human being.

All you have to do to win is identify the name of the band whose logo appears below, then shoot me an e-mail with your answer, your name and address at axl [at] metalsucks.net. We’ll randomly select one winner from everyone who gets it right, and announce their name next Monday.

Because I’m feeling generous this week, I’ll even give you guys a hint: it’s not Atreyu.

-AR

First of all, congrats to MetalSucks readers Eric Martin, Andres Nevarez, and Andy Robbins. Since they each correctly identified last week’s logo as that of the band Engorged Cadaver, they each win a copy of Nightwish’s Dark Passion Play. I hope they all find hours and hours of listening pleasure with their new free CDs.

This week, the fine men and women at Roadrunner Records have bestowed upon us two copies of Opeth’s Watershed to give away. This is one of the most highly anticipated, must-own releases of the year, so you’re gonna wanna get your copy if you haven’t already. All you have to do to win is identify the name of the band whose logo appears below, then shoot me an e-mail with your answer, your name and address at axl [at] metalsucks.net. We’ll randomly select two winners from everyone who gets it right, and announce their name next Monday.

I think this week’s logo is insanely easy, although a friend who just tried to read it assures me that’s not the case. I guess we’ll find out the hard way. In any case, thanks to MetalSucks maniac Michael Jones for submitting it.

Good luck…

Congrats to MetalSucks maniacs Rachel Black, McCaleb Burnett, and Ben Wadler. They each correctly identified last week’s logo as belonging to the band Vaginectomy, and each of them win a copy of Dream Theater’s Systematic Chaos for their troubles.

By the way, a lot of you guessed “Vasectomy” as the name of last week’s band. That was a good guess. Not correct, but a good guess.

This week, the fine men and women at Roadrunner Records have bestowed upon us three copies of Nightwish’s latest offering, Dark Passion Play, to give away. All you have to do to win is identify the name of the band whose logo appears below, then shoot me an e-mail with your answer, your name and address at axl [at] metalsucks.net. We’ll randomly select three winners from everyone who gets it right, and announce their name next Monday.

Good luck…

-AR

Well, not for lack of tryin’, but no one got last week’s logo, which belongs to an outfit called Slam-O-Ram-A. Several of you did e-mail me, however, to ask if the logo was just a total joke – which, apparently, it is not.

So. Let’s try this again:

This week, the fine men and women at Roadrunner Records have bestowed upon us three copies of Dream Theater’s latest offering, Systematic Chaos, to give away. All you have to do to win is identify the name of the band whose logo appears below, then shoot me an e-mail with your answer, your name and address at axl [at] metalsucks.net. We’ll randomly select three winners from everyone who gets it right, and announce their name next Monday.

This week’s logo comes to us from MetalSucks reader Mark Moritz-Rabson, who won two weeks in a row, so he knows from completely unreadable band logos. Good luck, and may the force be with you.

-AR

First thing’s first: let’s all take a sec to pat MetalSucks readers Mike Harmon and Mark Moritz-Rabson on the back. They correctly identified last week’s logo as belonging to Lapidate. That was a hard one, and for their efforts, Mike and Mark (who is winning for the second week in a row – somebody stop this dude!) each win a copy of The Best of Obituary. Congrats, kids.

This week, the fine men and women at Roadrunner Records have bestowed upon us three copies of Dream Theater’s latest offering, Systematic Chaos, to give away. Vince, Kip and I all saw Dream Theater live last week, and it was nothing short of a religious experience, so trust me when I tell you that you want a copy of this album.

All you have to do to win is identify the name of the band whose logo appears below, then shoot me an e-mail with your answer, your name and address at axl [at] metalsucks.net. We’ll randomly select three winners from everyone who gets it right, and announce their name on Monday (our new day for Unreadable Band Logo!).

This week’s logo comes to us from MetalSucks reader vitruvianApe, and it’s a fucking doozy. So good luck, everyone. You’re gonna need it.

-AR

Mazel tov to MetalSucks readers Daniel Santana and Mark Moritz-Rabson. They correctly identified last week’s logo as belonging to the band Patisserie. That was a hard one, and for Daniel and Mark’s Herculean efforts, they’ve each won a copy of The Best of Suffocation, courtesy the good folks at Roadrunner Records.

This week Roadrunner has donated two copies of The Best of Obituary for us to give away. Whether you’re a hardcore Obituary completist or a new fan looking for a quick introduction to these death metal legends, this is a pretty sweet compilation.

All you have to do to win is identify the name of the band whose logo appears below, then shoot me an e-mail with your answer, your name and address at axl [at] metalsucks.net. We’ll randomly select two winners from everyone who gets it right, and announce their name one week from today.

Good luck, everyone. Have a br00tal weekend!

-AR