Guys, I honestly do not give a fuck if you wear your pants or not. But don’t make me feel like a dick for wanting to discuss relevant metal bands, as opposed to, say, sit around and wonder when Queensryche are get their shit together. (Short answer: Never. Long anser: Abso-fuckin’-lutley never ever never never.)

So. We might have to spend a portion of today catching up on shit that happened last week. For example…

As you know from reading my recent interview with Chimaira guitarist Rob Arnold, the band are currently in the studio recording a new album. And apparently they’ve been swept up in all the Charlie Sheen hysteria that’s been going on as of late (seriously, motherfucker hasn’t been on so many people’s minds since Platoon came out), so they decided to record a cover of The Troggs’ classic anthem, “Wild Thing” (below). For the youngsters out there: the song choice isn’t just a reference to Sheen’s recent behavior, but also to… well, just get your ass to Netflix.

UPDATE: Metal Insider tells me that this cover is now available for purchase on iTunes.

Chimaira’s new album should be out later this year on eOne.

-AR

Thanks: Ryan Badami

Hey studs and foxes, Anso here. Please accept my most gracious hugz in return for partying with me these last two days. Running this site in the absence of Axl and Vince has been so superfun thanks to you, our cherished MetalSucks readership. I learned a lot of stuff too, for example that I should hereby refrain from “ass fucking [my] boyfriends cock” [sic]. K I’ll work on that while you all re-live some hilarious, informative, and sexy moments from this week:

• We debuted new music by Maruta.
• We spoke to Rob Arnold from Chimaira/Six Feet Under/The Elite, Jack Strong from The Acacia Strain, Varg Vikernes of Burzum, and Takis Kinis from prog-thrash legends Realm.
• We checked out the latest releases from DevilDriver and Wino. Plus, hot hardcore 7″s and all the stuff that Corey Mitchell rocked in February.
• We reveled in official confirmation of the System of a Down tour story we broke ahead of everybody.
• We proffered scientific evidence that to be in a band is a poor life decision.
• We were wowed by Evan Brewer, player of two basses!
• We peeped Devin Townsend’s nod to Sinatra and incredible new jams from Scale The Summit, Between The Buried And Me, Graviton, and All Shall Perish.
• We cheered Taylor Momsen and her desire to “fuck for Satan.”
• We met the new Dragonforce singer. It’s not Corey Taylor.
• We took a stand against D.R.U.G.S.

You’ll have a couple days to de-Anso yourselves, but please do rush right back to MetalSucks on Monday for more hot action when the bosses return from muling heroin in from Ecuador their business trip and we resume our regularly-scheduled action. You may now put your pants back on!

-ADF

Sometimes the most obvious or silliest captions win, so long as they’re worded cleverly. So it went with last week’s contest, the winners of which will receive a copy of Rotten Sound‘s new record Cursed. The best captions to the photo at right, as chosen by moi:

• Michel Giroux-Burroughs: “This cat doesn’t have 9 lives, he’s IMMORTAL!”
• Kevy Metal: “That reminds me… Time to give the cat Abbath.”

This week we’ve got a copy of the Six Feet Under DVD Wake the Night! Live in Germany to bestow upon you, only fitting given the recent news of Six Feet Under partnering with Chimaira’s Rob Arnold. The below photo was sent in by reader Jesse Blake and comes from the highly excellent site People of Walmart, an Interhole site you should definitely check out the next time you’ve got some of your boss’s time and money to waste. So do what you do: come up with the funniest caption to the below photo and drop it in the comments. Remember to use a real email address (or post it with your comment if you’re using FB Connect).

Photo by Scott Ferrara

Rob Arnold is a busy dude. As lead guitarist and one of the principal songwriters for Chimaira, he’s been one of the leaders of the New Wave of American Heavy Metal for more than a decade now; in 2009, he launched The Elite, a new project, with Bleed the Sky drummer Austin D’Amond; and then, just yesterday, it was announced that he’s the new guitar player for Six Feet Under, original Cannibal Corpse vocalist Chris Barnes’ legendary death metal band that has long been known as one of Arnold’s favorite acts. Phew! Can’t accuse Rob Arnold of slacking off, that’s for sure.

The very first thing I did when I heard that Arnold was the latest addition to SFU (along with new drummer Kevin Talley, who, coincidentally, was in Chimaira from 2004 to 2006) was shoot him an e-mail to see if he’d be down to answer some quick questions about his latest creative endeavor. Luckily for us, he agreed! After the jump, read about how Arnold came to join Six Feet Under, the new material he’s working on with SFU, the band’s future touring plans, and, oh yeah, that new album that Chimaira is currently recording…

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Earlier this month Six Feet Under shed 50% of their line-up, and I cracked wise that they should hire Chimaira’s Rob Arnold as their new guitar player. He’s a known SFU fan (check out the video of him singing “Remains of You” above), and he writes great riffs, so, yeah, I thought he’d be a killer addition to the band’s ranks.

And, hey, guess what? Even though I was just fucking around when I said Arnold should join the band, he has now done just that! Says Six Feet Under vocalist Christ Barnes (who also used to be in some band called Cannibal Corpse):

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Bassist Terry Butler and drummer Greg Gall have both quit Six Feet Under. Butler told Blabbermouth that he’s off to join Obituary full-time (he’s been playing with them since last year), but no word on where Gall will seek employment. Butler makes it sound like everything ended in a happy place, but I’m always suspicious when multiple band members split at once.

Whatever. Butler and Gall were, along with Chris Barnes, both original members of the band (guitarist Steve Swanson joined in ’98, replacing, coincidentally, ex-Obitchuarian Allen West), but I feel like it really shouldn’t be that hard to fill their shoes; Six Feet Under’s brand of death n’ roll is so easy to write that, once upon a time, a tribute band was able to imitate their sound with enough skill to get Barnes to actually join the group. And Barnes has already revealed that he and Swanson have been working with a new writing partner for the past four months. I dunno who it is (it would be awesome if it was Chimaira’s Rob Arnold, who I think is a big Six Feet Under fan, but that seems unlikely given his commitments to both Cleveland’s Finest and The Elite), but I’m of the opinion that Barnes should just make nice with those Torture Killer dudes now and get them to be the new guys in Six Feet Under.

ANYWAY, here’s a fittingly romantic song by which to remember Butler and Gall — “Remains of You.” True story: for a long time, I thought Barnes was singing “I took my nuts to your head,” not “I took an axe to your head.” I still think my lyric is superior.

-AR

Bassist Terry Butler and drummer Greg Gall have both quit Six Feet Under. Butler told Blabbermouth that he’s off to join Obituary full-time (he’s been playing with them since last year), but no word on where Gall will seek employment. Butler makes it sound like everything ended in a happy place, but I’m always suspicious when multiple band members split at once.

Whatever. Butler and Gall were, along with Chris Barnes, both original members of the band (guitarist Steve Swanson joined in ’98, replacing, coincidentally, ex-Obitchuarian Allen West), but I feel like it really shouldn’t be that hard to fill their shoes; Six Feet Under’s brand of death n’ roll is so easy to write that, once upon a time, a tribute band was able to imitate their sound with enough skill to get Barnes to actually join the group. And Barnes has already revealed that he and Swanson have been working with a new writing partner for the past four months. I dunno who it is (it would be awesome if it was Chimaira’s Rob Arnold, who I think is a big Six Feet Under fan, but that seems unlikely given his commitments to both Cleveland’s Finest and The Elite), but I’m of the opinion that Barnes should just make nice with those Torture Killer dudes now and get them to be the new guys in Six Feet Under.

ANYWAY, here’s a fittingly romantic song by which to remember Butler and Gall — “Remains of You.” True story: for a long time, I thought Barnes was singing “I took my nuts to your head,” not “I took an axe to your head.” I still think my lyric is superior.

-AR

The Elite, the new project featuring Chimaira guitarist Rob Arnold and Bleed the Sky drummer Austin D’Amond, has uploaded the second part of the mini-movie chronicling the making of their EP, WW3. Check it out below. I promise, it doesn’t all take place through the point of view of a bottle, just the first little bit. And if you haven’t seen it yet and need to catch up, check out part one here.

WW3 is out now, and if you like Chimaira, or Bleed the Sky, or any of what you heard in the above video, you should definitely check it out. In fact, here’s a link to where you can download it on iTunes for a whopping price of $4.95. You can afford that, you cheap fuckers.

-AR

Thanks: Kristoffer Infante

The PRP has debuted a deleted scene from Chimaira’s excellent DVD/CD set, Coming Alive (read my review here), which you can watch below. You’ll understand pretty quickly why this didn’t make director Todd Bell’s final cut, and now it’s basically been turned into a commercial for the band’s upcoming “Blue Collar Brawler” tour with Impending Doom, Dååth, and This or The Apocalypse. But I’m totally okay with that, ’cause I think it’s a cool tour that you should go to.

Also, because this makes me laugh. You’re trying to tell me you’ve never done something like this when you were alone? Puh-leeze.

-AR

Remember last year, when I told you about The Elite, a new band featuring Chimaira guitarist Rob Arnold and Bleed the Sky drummer Austin D’Amond? Well, Mr. Arnold has now uploaded the first in what is apparently going to be a five-part mini-movie chronicling the creation of the band’s debut EP, WW3. Check it out below.

I can’t imagine that anyone who digs Chimaira wouldn’t also enjoy The Elite; I mean, the riffs are unmistakably Arnold. Check out The Elite here.

-AR

Thanks: Kristoffer Infante

A lot has happened since Chimaira released their first full-length DVD, The Dehumanizing Process, in 2004; as captured by director Todd Bell, the band portrayed in that DVD is struggling to make the album they want to make, struggling to stay signed, struggling to get good tours, struggling just to stay together. The Chimaira of Coming Alive — the band’s third excellent collaboration with Bell — are opening for Disturbed, playing arenas, and taking bets on how many copies The Infection will sell in its first week. We’re obviously not in Metallica territory or anything here, and we do see that the band’s members are still working their collective ass off (a scene in which bassist Jim LaMarca personally hands out band stickers and canvasses fans is particularly striking) — but Coming Alive has less conflict and drama than its predecessor. And while no one should begrudge a band this talented and hard-working, unfortunately, conflict and drama are the things great stories are made of.

It’s the biggest — and, really, the only — strike against Coming Alive. Luckily, Bell is such a talented guy that it also really doesn’t matter in the scheme of things.

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If you read this site regularly, you’re already aware that I’m a huge Chimaira fan. In fact, I pride myself on knowing way too much about them.

I guess I haven’t officially reached stalker status yet, though, because until I read this interview with Chimaira lead guitarist Rob Arnold, I had no idea that the dude had another band – The Elite.

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Chimaira have never made the same exact album twice, so the only thing a listener can assume about a new Chimaira record is this: it’s going to be crushingly heavy. This band makes truly unpleasant, misanthropic Metal with a capital fucking “M.” Fuck, their most famous song is all about how they don’t like you very much.

The Infection is no exception. It sounds at once both distinctly like Chimaira and yet not precisely like anything the band has ever made before. The dichotomy of it, though, is that the vitriol is wrapped the catchiest and, in some ways, most optimistic music the Cleveland sextet has ever created.

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Alright. First thing’s first: we have heard The Infection. It slays. Fucking SLAYS, dude. I’ll post a full review real soon, but for now, just know that listening to this record might kill your grandma.

As with Chimaira’s last album, Resurrection, there will be a special edition of The Infection that comes with a making of DVD directed by Todd Bell (who also directed the band’s excellent documentary The Dehumanizing Process). Here’s  a quick tease:

Now, obviously, that’s just a taste, but I already dig that guitarist Rob Arnold is being so straight-forward: yes, he thinks this is their best album yet, but, yes, he admits he always feels that way – so this isn’t your typical “THIS IS OUR MOST BR00TAL ALBUM EVER!” hype.

The Infection comes out one week from today on Ferret in North America and Nuclear Blast everywhere else.

-AR

I still haven’t heard Chimaira’s The Infection. But because I’m a Chimaira dork, it was with great excitement that I listened to the fifteen second samples of each of the album’s ten songs on Amazon this morning. After the jump, my completely unfair snap judgement on thsi 150 seconds of new Chimaira music.

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Holy crap, people are getting The Infection tats already? That’s fucking devotion.

ANYWAY, here’s some cool Chimaira shit you should know about:

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Few bands in modern metal are as exciting as Chimaira. That’s because few bands constantly undergo such a dramatic and undeniable evolutions from album to album – and do so with a bare minimum of line-up changes. From their 2000 self-released debut, This Present Darkness, right up to 2007′s Resurrection, Chimaira have never made the same album twice. Elements of thrash, death, groove, black, and even prog metal and punk abound, and, ultimately, the only thing you ever know for sure about a new Chimaira album is this: it’s gonna be heavy as a motherfucker, and just as catchy.

As the band – which includes guitarists Rob Arnold and Matt DeVries, bassist Jim LaMarca, drummer Andols Herrick, and keyboardist/sampler Chris Spicuzza – anticipates the April 21 release of their sixth album, The Infection, we were lucky enough to snag an exclusive e-mail interview with vocalist Mark Hunter. After the jump, read Mark’s thoughts on the group’s latest offering, the ongoing metamorphosis of their sound, reuniting with longtime producer Ben Schigel, the internet as a marketing tool, the state of his pure hatred, and more.

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So as you may have heard by now, Chimaira are allowing fans to watch them live in the studio as they record their new album. The way it works is, you go to their official site and if the “Live Cam” icon in the upper right corner of the screen is red, you can click on it and watch whatever the fuck they’re doing at the moment. Sounds pretty cool, right?

Unfortunately, as I watched drummer Andols Herrick finish up his tracks yesterday afternoon, I remembered something I already knew: being in the studio is not super exciting. In fact, it’s pretty tedious. Herrick played some drums, picked his cuticles, played the same song again, picked his cuticles some more, fucked around with the cymbals a little, spoke (inaudibly) with producer Ben Schigel, played the same song again… and then I woke up an hour later with drool all over my keyboard.

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Chimaira are one those bands that take a lot of shit and never really understand why. Is it because their Roadrunner debut, Pass Out of Existence, was a not especially great Korn-esque foray into nu metal? Does it really fucking matter? Every album they’ve made since (or, for that matter, This Present Darkness, the independently released album they made pre-Existence) has been as heavy as an elephant standing on your balls, and their sound continues to evolve.

So the band are apprently gonna enter the studio in October to make a new album, which will presumably be released in 2009. That news makes me so friggin’ excited I just wanna go out on the street and grab the cutest baby I can find and slam its head into a plate glass window. The album will be produced by Jason Suecof, who also produced their last disc, Resurrection. I know a lot of people though that Resurrection was a weak follow-up to 2005′s self-titled masterpiece. Chimaira is fucking awesome but so was Resurrection so those people should smoke a joint and just calm the fuck down.

Here’s some footage of the band recording “Six,” one of their most impressive songs. It comes off of the “make-of” DVD that came with Resurrection. After you’re done basking in its metallic goodness, read our interview with Chimaria’s lead guitarist, Rob Arnold, here, in which we get the skinny on this crushing, sprawling, epic donkey punch of a song.

-AR