Metal Insider tells me that both Rob Halford and חיים ויץ‎ turned sixty yesterday, which isn’t really that old in the scheme of things, but is still most certainly a reminder that Metal’s Founding Generation is getting closer and closer to death. Then again, you know who isn’t getting closer and closer to death? Dead people. So, yeah.

ANYWAY, I remember when Mick Jagger turned fifty, The New York Times did a big article about it, ’cause I guess it was unfathomable that a rock star sex symbol would ever turn fifty. And sixty is obviously older than fifty. So I kinda feel like we should be writing some monumental piece about these two. Only, no fucking way am I spending time doing that. Instead, I think I’ll just prepare their obituaries, so we have ‘em ready for publication when these dudes finally go the way of Joey Bellardini’s voice. That seems like a much more constructive use of my time.

In conclusion: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ROB AND CHAIM!!!

-AR

Devin Townsend has so much explaining to do. As a tireless songwriter and producer, he’s set to release two albums on June 21, Ghost and Deconstruction, to complete the Devin Townsend Project cycle that he started with 2009′s Ki and Addicted. That’s four full-length records, 43 songs, and 260 minutes of music unleashed over about two years. But for Townsend, discussion goes beyond song ideas and his exhaustive studio work required to bring them to life; he could talk all day and yet only touch on the subjects of touring, sales, and modern music industry calamity; and, shit, his back catalogue is too huge and varied to even approach in a Q&A of any reasonable length.

You see, being a modern musician and being Devin Townsend are not the same thing. Sure, he grinds out records and then tours like everybody. However, our latest MetalSucks interview with Townsend reveals an artist unbound by the limits of imagination, but pretty aware of averse reactions to his art; his self-expression is total and unapologetic — until fans and media misinterpret him or disapprove of his humor. He’s confident as a person, but shakeable as a virtuosic guitar player, a theater and puppet enthusiast, and a production wiz. He lets no truth about his world go unexpressed, beit via the hair-raising cacophony of Deconstruction (think Strapping Young Lad’s Alien: The Ride) or Ghost‘s murmuring calm. He puts himself out there all the way; now, let him explain why.

Click to read more…

Judas Priest are probably one of the best metal bands in the history of the genre, and certainly one of the most important. And, sure, their post-reunion-with-Halford studio albums haven’t been so great, but they haven’t been unbearably terrible, either, and the band still puts on a really, really fun show live.

So why am I feeling so over it with them? Well, let’s begin by going over all the drama that has surrounded the group just in the past seven months.

Click to read more…

Tues: The final 12 (men)

Wed: The final 12 (ladies)

Thur: Live results

Misery index: A dropped taco

Tyler-o-meter: 1%

For years I’ve secretly wanted an excuse to watch American Idol. And Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler’s appointment to the panel of judges provided one. Hey, I want music programming on primetime TV. I want to enjoy great songs sung by nice people. I want some schlub to get a career-enabling break.

Too bad there’s so much baggage. The fabricated human drama. The Running Man-esque torturedome. The pandering, ass-kissing, and marginalizing. The Jennifer Lopez. I hate this damn shit.

But here in week seven, things are looking up slightly. It’s live broadcast time, so no kind editing for the persistently idiotic ‘Fer-‘Pez. The Idol house band helps drown out all the weak, scared singing. And since there remained only 24 contestants, we can see a distant end to this rancid slobberfest. Thank fuck.

Now that judge input is reduced to a minimum (though ‘Fer-‘Pez displays no compunction about talking into Randy Jackson’s time) and the 100% inept singers are removed (several 80% inept singers remain), it’s probably the safest time for music lovers to join Idol season ten in progress. Before you do, get to know the singers — and see who moved on to next week — with our Idol Remains Week Seven Contestant Sc’whorecard.

Click to read more…

Admit it: this picture makes you SO FUCKING HAPPY.

Recently, my friend sent me a YouTube link to a Bee Gees cover group. Excuse me, tribute band. That is the proper way of addressing them, as Mark Wahlberg taught us in Rock Star. I don’t like the Bee Gees. I don’t like disco. Disco is kind of terrible. Disco blows dogs for quarters. Disco is never amazing, especially not when KISS attempt it. To say I was a little confused would be an understatement. But my friends aren’t totally clueless to what I listen to, so I gave it a shot. It turned out it was a heavy metal Bee Gees tribute band. Okay, it was a little bit awesome. Weirdly enough, it worked. I only like thin-voiced men screeching when accompanied by equally high-pitched guitars, and that’s basically what heavy metal “Stayin’ Alive,” was. I turned it off about halfway through because, well, I still have my limits, but it kind of makes you stop and go, “Huh!” Metal just makes everything sound better.

Click to read more…

Before we begin today’s edition of “Cinemetal Round-up,” I’d like to address a comment left by the reader who calls himself “GoingDeaf?” after the last round-up:

“I find it hard to believe that these are the BEST new videos you have at your disposal. I’m all for shitting on bad bands with bad videos, but there HAS to be something of value for you to mix in from time to time for this column. It’s more fun to be a curmudgeon, sure, but balance can be good as well.”

GoingDeaf?, I gotta tell you, if I only posted these when there was “something of value to mix in,” I’d only post two or three of these a year. I post the videos I’m sent via press releases, or see on other metal sites. I’m not sitting on good videos just for the sake of being a curmudgeon; good videos do get made, but they’re very, very few and far between. So, uh, y’know, feel free to just not read these columns. Sorry, bud.

And with that out of the way, let’s watch the crap currently passing for metal videos.

Click to read more…

So Yahoo! has Ozzy Osbourne’s personal list of the Top Ten Metal Albums of 2010, and it may or may not surprise you to learn that it’s a really, really interesting mix of terrible and brain dead. (By the way, if you don’t like MetalSucks articles where I can really, really, really angry about something of less than no importance, then you should stop reading now.)

Okay so check out his list, and then I’ll tell you my thoughts. And before we begin, I should point out that it’s theoretically possible Ozzy didn’t actually choose these release, but, rather, than one of his handlers did it for him. But since it’s being labeled as “Ozzy’s list,” I am going to treat it as though it were written by Ozzy.

Click to read more…

The below advertisement is for software I’ve never heard of, Guitar Rig 2 (although I don’t claim to be an expert in music software). I stumbled across it quite by accident while YouTube surfing, and apparently it’s at least four years old, which makes the fact that I’ve never seen it before all the more surprising. In any case, it’s best that I don’t tell you much about it, lest I spoil the fun — so just watch.

This is so much better than that cell phone ad with Rob Halford, or that beer ad with Motorhead, or pretty much any metal-themed ad I’ve seen this year that isn’t this one. As my man Vince likes to say, A+++++++, would do business with again.

-AR

I’m tired of posting the same old high-charting consistent sellers (heyo Disturbed, Linkin Suck, etc) and I’m sure you’re even more tired of reading about them, so this week I’d like to focus on the Top Hard Music Albums charts with a special emphasis on debuts. This week’s notable sales numbers with my own snarky comments (natch) after the flip.

Click to read more…

You think you have a monopoly on using metal to promote a Japanese car, Scion? No way! Now Honda is using Judas Priest’s “The Hellion” in a commercial for the 2011 model of the Odyssey. Between this and that cell phone commercial Rob Halford was in this summer, at least we know that The Metal God can afford a hot meal this month. I know a lot of you were worried about that.

The funniest part of this commercial — besides the minivan quickly turning into a panther, in case there was any doubt about the message the advertisers were trying to send — is that, near the end, there’s a video showing on the in-car television, and while it’s clearly meant to be a metal dude in the video, it’s not actually Halford or any other member of Priest. I guess there’s a limit to Honda’s licensing budget or something.

-AR

Thanks to William Corella Corella for the tip!

So back in July, Iron Maiden released a video for the title track from their latest opus, The Final Frontier, and while the space opera-themed clip looked pretty cool, some dolt decided to include the sound of all the laser guns n’ shit while the song was playing.

Now Rob Halford has released a similar video for the title track from his new album, Made of Metal, and the bad news is, it looks way cheaper and cheesier than Maiden’s clip. The good news is, you can actually, y’know, hear the fucking song. Not that that’s half the point of a music video or anything.

Halford’s Halford IV — Made of Metal is out now.

-AR

So Rob Halford has a new solo album, Halford IV – Made 0f Metal, coming out September 28, and our number one homies at Metal Injection are streaming an exclusive track, “Undisputed.” Check it out here.

I’m gonna keep this one short n’ sweet, ’cause, really, what is there to say about a Halford track? The dude never sold out, never made a trendy record or attempted to “modernize” his sound… he’s made good, old fashioned HEAVY FUCKING METAL for four decades now, and I suspect he’ll keep going ’til he dies, or his vocal chords burn out… whichever comes first. So go listen to the song, then come back here and let us know what you think.

Halford will be blowing Ozzy Osbourne off the stage throughout November and December; Metal Injection also has tour dates for you.

-AR

Thanks to the magic of my DVR, I don’t really watch commercials anymore — but as I was fast forwarding between breaks on The Daily Show yesterday, I thought I saw Rob Halford. And then my mind went, “Are you stupid? No way you just saw Halford. In what context would he be on a commercial?” But then another part of my brain was like, “You write a metal blog for a living, dummy, and you need shit to write about. Go back and make sure.” So I went back.

And guess what?

It is Halford!

Unfortunately, every other part of the commerical sucks. But that just means you can stop watching after the first five seconds.

-AR

What’s up everyone! In celebration of the new KINGDOM OF SORROW album coming out today, MetalSucks have been nice enough to let me takeover their site! I figured I’d better make the reading interesting and at least cause some discussion, so here goes, this is probably the longest run on sentence you’ll ever read, haha, enjoy!

Since we’re well into 2010. I figured I’d start my blog with my top ten “most listened to” metal and hardcore albums of the last decade, and the top ten albums I hope to enjoy this decade!!! It’s not a top ten “best of” the decade or anything like that, it’s just what I’ve listened to the most while on the road, at home, in the gym, in the office or in my car. Keep in mind that the criteria for these albums to make this list was that they were released between 2000 and 2010, that is all.

The top 10 records I’m “most hopeful & excited for” are more like a wish list. It will be cool to see some of that stuff happen!

Click to read more…

My top five show flyers… okay, it’s really six, but only because I had a tough time deciding! Keep in mind this is based on the memories, not the flyers themselves!

Click to read more…

When you tune into the premiere broadcast of The Second Annual Revolver Golden Gods Awards tomorrow night on VH1 classic, you’ll see the final public appearance of our beloved Ronnie James Dio. You’ll also see Jerry Cantrell and Mike Inez of Alice In Chains, winner of roughly half of the meaningful awards, enjoying the metal community’s validation of their potentially dicey comeback effort, the magnificent Black Gives Way To Blue. You’ll see metal codgers like Rob Halford, Alice Cooper, Ozzy Osbourne, and Lemmy bathe in much-deserved adulation. You’ll also see potentially ho-hum performances pumped up by mega-drummers: Rob Zombie with Joey Jordison (in his debut performance), Fear Factory with Gene Hoglan, Brian Posehn with John Tempesta (and Brett Anderson girl call me srsly) and Slash with Dave Grohl.

But at a mere 60 minutes, the broadcast can’t capture all of the April 8 event’s super moments and silly gaffes. Here’s a few things you won’t see:

Click to read more…

Well, this is certainly a historic moment in metal history. MetalSucks’ own guru of love, Rich Hallford – who is heavily rumored to be 1000 Knives‘ Rich Hall – is on this week’s Noisecreep “Creep Show” podcast, where the special guest of honor was none other than Judas Priest’s Rob Halford. “Nights with Alice Cooper”‘ syndicated radio show producer Katherine Turman and Noisecreep scribes Jon Wiederhorn and Amy Sciarretto round out the panel.

But who cares about them?!?! You wanna hear Rob talk, and you wanna look at Rich’s pretty face. He’s so handsome, I just wanna pinch his cheeks. Face or buns, I don’t care.

Check out the episode below.

-AR

So unless you managed to stay away from a computer this entire weekend – and good for you if you did – you’ve probably already seen the line-up for Ozzfest 2010, which was unveiled this past Friday evening. While our source was right that this year’s incarnation of the tour would be scaled back – it’s only hitting six cities over the course of about a week and half – a whole lot of the bands we’d heard would be playing the fest aren’t. In fact, if you can’t quite consider it a stellar line-up, that’s probably only because so many great bands were already swept up by other big package tours; maybe I’m being too nice because a large chunk of the second stage consists of bands I really like or at least respect, my feeling is that if this line-up doesn’t send anyone running for tickets, well, it’s not exactly something to be scoffed at, either. My own thoughts on all the bands and artists after the jump… plus dates, natch.

Click to read more…

So we had a lot of fun hanging out Nevermore’s Jeff Loomis last night – definitely a very laid back and humble dude, considering that he could probably kill us all with his guitar playing. Attendees included MetalSucks’ own Anton OyVey and Antonin Skullia, Esq., as well as Empyreon drummer Frank Godla (who, despite one of my poorly phrased tweets, has not replaced Van Williams in Nevermore.). When we weren’t passing my iPhone around, enjoying the entries for the Nevermore/MetalSucks “Create Your Own Conspiracy” contest (it ends Friday and there is definitely a front runner already – so enter now if you’re gonna!!!), it should surprise no one to learn that significant portion of the evening was devoted to music dorkery; so while I can’t remember exactly how it came up, at some point Mr. Loomis recommended we all check out MasterTracks18, a YouTube user who has uploaded literally hundreds of individual tracks from various well-known songs spanning different genres – metal and hard rock being primary amongst them.

Of course, it’s all pretty fascinating; you could lose hours of your day listening to all of these. I’ve only listened to a handful myself so far, and I already feel like I’m about to lose hours of my day listening to these. I’m sure all you instrument nerds can are gonna love really getting into the nitty gritty of the various tracks, but even if you’re not an instrument nerd… it’s just a really, really awesome look behind the curtain, so to speak.

You can check them all out at MasterTracks18′s YouTube page, which now, for legal reasons, is segueing to page for MasterTracks19. But in the meantime, here are just a few of my favorites…

“Crazy Train,” Guitar Track

Some more after the jump.

Click to read more…

There are two reasons that a John 5 interview could last for days. The first is that in just more than a decade, he’s already played guitar for David Lee Roth, Rob Halford, Marilyn Manson, and now Rob Zombie, none of whom are uninteresting conversation topics. And if that got old, he could discuss what it’s like contributing songs to Filter, Garbage, Avril Lavigne, Meat Loaf, Paul Stanley, Lynyrd Skynrd, and the friggin’ Scorpions. If he still has a voice, you could next ask him about his somewhat accidental/totally awesome solo career.

The second reason is that John 5 (né John Lowery) is a total music guy. And it’s totally effortless to talk music with total music guys. You could bump into him before a show and end up blowing off the headliner just to continue a breathless discussion of Van Halen at the bar next door. I can also imagine the results if I stopped at the guitar shop on my lunch hour to find John 5 lounging against an amp: We’d innocently start comparing Rob Zombie’s band to Ozzy’s and before you know it, it’d be sundown and I would be sneaking back into the office through a window. A bus ride to the beach would be disastrous ‘cause we’d undoubtedly miss our stop by miles while merrily disputing the merits of KISS. And so on.

Sadly for me but mercifully our transcribers, my talk with John 5 last week lasted but twenty minutes. He used the word “love” a lot to genially discuss his past and present collaborators, his fifth solo album The Art of Malice (get it May 11), this year’s Mayhem tour, and the Ozzy situation last summer. After that, we just talked about Van Halen a bunch – and might’ve gone on all day. But apparently he has things to do. About a million things.

Click to read more…