You bitched and moaned about daylight savings time, even though you were asleep when the clocks changed and you get an extra hour of daylight every day until November. You are all retards.

Here’s what else happened this week:

• Sigh’s Mirai Kawashima gave us another studio report (no naked Dr. Mikannibal pics, sorry), Early Man’s Mike Conte got his cheesesteak on, and Neuraxis’ Alexandre Leblanc gave us his final tour blog.
• We spoke with Darkane’s Christofer Malmstrom, Meshuggah’s Marten Hagstrom, Soilwork’s Peter Wichers and Ross the Boss (ex-Manowar)
• Our man-crush on Trent Reznor grew ever greater.
• You argued over who was the most important member of Metallica, past and present.
• We looked at new releases by Razor of Occam and Karl Sanders.
• It was a big week in the Norwegian courts… the Gorgoroth case was settled, and Varg was granted parole.
• Crazytown and Skunk Anansie are getting back together.

Next week Kip and I take off for Austin, TX on Wednesday. We’ll be live-blogging whenever possible. To everyone else, have fun not being there, suckazzz!!

-VN

As a guitarist, Ross “Ross the Boss” Funicello has had a significant role in the development of much of the music we’ve come to love over the last thirty years. For New York proto-punks The Dictators, he welded bare bones rock and roll and pop hooks with sneering attitude, though never gained the godlike status of fellow metropunks The Ramones. As a founding member of muscle ‘n’ loincloth legends Manowar, he provided chest-beating, anthemic fretwork for the band’s revered first six albums. Though he hasn’t been dormant by any means since his departure from the latter band, last year’s New Metal Leader - released under his own moniker with Manowar cover band Men of War (now known as the RTB Band) filling out the rest of the lineup – is a return to the balls-out trad/power metal his most famous band was known for. The album charted in Germany, and the band are working on a followup when not touring in support of it. During a recent interview with MetalSucks, Ross the Boss – equipped with a thick New York accent and a very strong set of opinions – discussed his thoughts on his legacy, reunions (of which he’s been a part with Manowar and The Dictators), his favorite guitarists, and how the current state of the music industry is screwing over bands.

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