Today is seemingly “news about albums that are coming out in early 2012″ day. To that end:

• Soilwork are writing a new album called The Living Infinite. Generic quote time: Speed Strid says that “people can expect a continuation of the intensity and presence of The Panic Broadcast, only taken to a higher level” and wishes us all a merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Gee, thanks, Speed!
• Gojira have issued their third studio update video, this one showing bassist Jean-Michel Labadie laying down his tracks. Labadie is the member of Gojira I feel like I know the least about; I’d love to get to know that guy! Gojira are presumably all done or close to done recording their album by now… very exciting.
• Lamb of God released a new trailer for their new album Resolution (January 24th, Epic Records), and it features a good chunk of a previously unheard song. Check it out above, and listen to the first single “Ghost Walking” here if you haven’t yet.

We invited Rumpelstiltskin Grinder to play our first annual Metal Suckfest in NYC in November but unfortunately the PA criminal thrash kings had to decline because bassist/vocalist Shawn Riley had other touring commitments. Turns out those “other touring commitments” are with most excellent black metallers Woe — who are playing our official Suckfest “Pre-Game” with Mayhem on Thursday, November 3rd — so the news that RsG couldn’t make it was bittersweet. But man, Rumpelfuckingstiltskin Grinder! ‘Twould’ve been an honor to have them at our fest.

I’m cranking 2009′s Living For Death, Destroying the Rest as I write this, and this album without a doubt thrases just as furiously as it did when it came out and I named it one of my favorite records of the year. Riffs for miles and miles and miles! So it is with great excitement that I tell you this, via a press release: Rumpelstiltskin Grinder are working on a new record that will tentatively come out in Spring 2012. Comments guitarist Matt Moore (also of Absu fame):

Click to read more…

Congratulations to Isaac Schwarz, the winner of our MDF MVP contest! We had a bunch of great entries, but Isaac’s was chosen above all others by an illustrious panel of Maryland Death Fest veterans, including Andres Erickson (General Surgery/Sayyadina), Matt Harvey (Exhumed/Depakitator), Rich Hoak (Brutal Truth/Total Fucking Destruction), Mike Hrubovcak (Monstosity), Mike Majewski (Devourment), Matt Moore (Absu/ Rumpelstiltskin Grinder),  and Proscriptor (Absu). Isaac any 2 shirts, 1 LP, 2 CDs , and a  mystery prize from the Relapse booth at this year’s MDF (Relapse titles only). Not bad, eh, Isaac?

And don’t forget that Maryland Death Fest starts tonight, and rages all weekend! Four day passes are now sold out, but three passes and tickets to individual days are still available here. This year’s line-up is incredible, and includes Neurosis, Coroner, Voivod, Nuclear Assault, (the soon to be departed) Cathedral, Corrosion of Conformity, Exhorder, Exhumed, Kylesa, Ghost, Skinless’ farewell gig, and tons more. If you have the chance to go and you don’t, you’re a damn fool.

And on that note, here’s Isaac’s contest-winning essay…

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The Sonar in Baltimore, Maryland has been shut down due to an expired liquor license and a subsequent dispute amongst several of the people who run the venue.

“So?” you may be thinking. “Venues get shut down all the time. Such is life. Why should I care?”

Well, this particular venue was supposed to host Maryland Deathfest (plus two sold-out Deftones/Dillinger Escape Plan shows) at the end of this month. Which means the MDF, one of, if not the, most revered extreme music festivals in North America, only has a few weeks to find a new venue.

But don’t fret! According to Metal Underground, “The festival organizers claim to have a backup plan that should involve little to no inconvenience to ticket holders (even those coming from out of town) and will be releasng more details soon.” So it looks like the festival is going forward as planned, which is obviously a major relief. It would be a serious tragedy if the festival had been derailed because somebody couldn’t keep track of an important date.

The final line-up for the fest, as well as set times for each band, is after the jump, although please note that it’s all subject to change once the new venue is announced.

In the meantime, don’t forget that you still have ’til Monday, May 16 at midnight EST to enter the awesome MDF MVP contest we’re doing with Relapse. You could win any 2 shirts, 1 LP, 2 CDs , and a  mystery prize from the Relapse booth at this year’s MDF (Relapse titles only), and the contest is being judged by a who’s who of MDF luminaries: Andres Erickson (General Surgery/Sayyadina), Matt Harvey (Exhumed/Depakitator), Rich Hoak (Brutal Truth/Total Fucking Destruction), Mike Hrubovcak (Monstosity), Mike Majewski (Devourment), Matt Moore (Absu/ Rumpelstiltskin Grinder),  and Proscriptor (Absu)! Go here for all details on how to enter.

And now those set times…

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IN CASE Y’ALL SOMEHOW FORGOT!!!

The ninth annual installement of Maryland Deathfest, arguably America’s best extreme music festival, will take place from May 26 – 29, and will feature performances from Neurosis, Coroner, Voivod, Nuclear Assault, Corrosion of Conformity, Cathedral, Exhorder, Ghost, Kylesa, Exhumed, and tons more! You can get more details and tickets here.

To celebrate this stupendous occasion, MetalSucks is teaming up with Relapse Records for an incredibly cool contest: THE MDF MVP. Here’s how it’s gonna work:

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The ninth annual installement of Maryland Deathfet, arguably America’s best extreme music festival, is just around the corner! This year’s fest will take place from May 26 – 29, and, as usual, has a ridiculously strong line-up: Neurosis, Coroner, Voivod, Nuclear Assault, Corrosion of Conformity, Cathedral, Exhorder, Ghost, Kylesa, Exhumed, and tons more will all be playing during the course of the weekend. You can get more details and tickets here.

To celebrate this stupendous occasion, MetalSucks is teaming up with Relapse Records for an incredibly cool contest: THE MDF MVP. Here’s how it’s gonna work:

• Anytime between now and Monday, May 16 at midnight EST, send an e-mail to news AT metalsucks DOT net with the subject line “MDF MVP.”
• The contents of the e-mail should include anything and everything you think proves that you should be this year’s MDF MVP. How many other installments of the fest have you attended? Have any great stories? Pictures? Memorabilia? Memories of great or terrible bands? It’s up to you to convince the panel of judges that you deserve to win.
• Speaking of the panel of judges, look at the MDF MVPs we ‘ve rounded up to reign over this contest! Andres Erickson (General Surgery/Sayyadina), Matt Harvey (Exhumed/Depakitator), Rich Hoak (Brutal Truth/Total Fucking Destruction), Mike Hrubovcak (Monstosity), Mike Majewski (Devourment), Matt Moore (Absu/ Rumpelstiltskin Grinder),  and Proscriptor (Absu) will look over the entries and choose the MDF MVP!!!
• The winner gets  any 2 shirts, 1 LP, 2 CDs , and a  mystery prize from the Relapse booth at this year’s MDF (Relapse titles only).
• The winner will be announced the week of May 23.

And that’s it! This should be a really fun contest that separates the real fans from the chumps… so get crackin’ on those entries!!!

-Axl, Vince, and Everyone at MetalSucks

So this normally where we write some fairly meaningless bullshit as an intro to our weekly recap, but reader Sean Williams sent us a link to the below video update from one Mr. Devin Townsend, and we really can’t think of a better way to kick-off the weekend. As Sean put it, “Deconstruction AND Ghost as a double record? Holy fucking shit!” And it gets “Holy shittier” when we get to hear a little bit of new music…

Here are some other fun things that happened at MetalSucks this week:

• We debuted Joe Satriani’s first Black Swans and Wormhole Wizards webisode and new music by Sweet Cobra.
• Gwar’s Oderus Urungus answered more of your idiotic questions, The Red Chord’s Greg Weeks got unnecessarily rough, Daath’s Eyal Levi pondered the meaning of sacrifice, and Rumpelstiltskin Grinder’s Shawn Riley taught us how to make delicious hot wings.
• We spoke to producer/engineer/mixer extraordinaire Mark Lewis, The Contortionist’s Jon Carpenter, and Shred Sean from Blessed by a Broken Heart.
• We checked out new releases from Dawnbringer and Merkaba.
• We helped A Day to Remember struggle with young adulthood.
• We gave Jason Newsted a shoulder to cry on.
• We got excited that Byzantine are making a new record.
• The kid of the dude from the E-Street Band is out of Madball.
• We’ve decided that when we die, we want our ashes to be pressed into vinyl.
• Can you please help us find Elote 5?

Until Monday… don’t get alcohol poisoning…

-AR

Rumpelstiltskin Grinder made my #5 most favoritest record of 2009 which also happened to be the #1 most funnest, so it’s no surprise that bassist/vocalist Shawn Riley makes for a good cooking show co-host. In this, the fifth episode of MetalSucks’ cooking show Cooking Contaminated, Riley brings his dad’s blue cheese dressing recipe into host Eli Shaika’s kitchen where the two team up to serve it with Eli’s own famous hot wings. Watch and learn, and as always, find the ingredients after the jump so you can follow along at home.

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There was something of a tornado here in Brooklyn yesterday, and even if you didn’t see the tornado itself you saw some of the craziest fucking weather ever. I know you folks out in Nebraska are thinking “So what?” but for us something like this happens about as often as an earthquake does for you. Shit was positively epic. Thankfully even the monkeys didn’t get all riled up like the dudes in the above video — although I think I saw Sammy hiding in the bathtub — and business carried on as usual as it did all week:

• We stroked ourselves just a little bit by celebrating our 10,000th post with a list of our top ten favorite posts ever.
• The return of Ask Oderus: You asked Gwar’s frontman your burning questions and he answered them. Also, Eyal wondered what makes a guitarist “great.”
• We premiered new tracks by Titan, Holy Grail, These are They and we premiered the new Firewind video.
• We spoke with Valient Thorr’s Valient Himself.
• Rumpelstiltskin Grinder changed their name to The Devil. Oh wait, no they didn’t.
• We ranked the Top 10 t-shirts worn by High on Fire frontman Matt Pike.
• We looked at new records by Drudkh and Winterfylleth and Skunk Anansie.
• We looked at our favorite new-school Iron Maiden jams and we wondered if Demolisher is the heaviest band on the planet.
• Tomas Haake may or may not have actually commented on my post about some dude covering Meshuggah’s “Bleed” by playing drums on his pillows. Tomas, if you’re reading this, I have mad respect for your drumming!
• Axl released Part 1 of his Daath in-studio report.

Hopefully no more tornados hit Brooklyn this weekend. Actually, if one could swoop right over Jerry Manuel’s home then hop-scotch over to Omar Minaya’s, I’d be OK with that.

-VN

So earlier this week, there was a posting on Rumpelstiltskin Grinder’s MySpace page in which they seemed to announce that they were changing their name to “The Devil.” They even debuted some new music and set up a new MySpace page under that moniker. And at the time, I said, “I’m honestly hoping that this is just a joke I don’t get,” ’cause I think that Rumpelstiltskin Grinder is an awesome name, and The Devil is pretty meh.

Well, hey, guess what? I guess it was a joke I don’t get! Or the band’s MySpace page was hacked — but that seems less likely, given the other, new MySpace page and whatnot. (Although that MySpace page is now gone.) In any case, here’s an official statement from the band:

Rumpelstiltskin Grinder is not changing it’s name even though ‘the internet’ said we were. We will have a new album in 2011.
Rumpelstiltskin Grinder is elusive and it’s true motives are unknown. Rumpelstiltskin Grinder is bigger than ‘The Devil’

Click to read more…

Rumpelstiltskin Grinder are an awesome band — their most recent Relapse release, Living for Death, Destroying the Rest, ranked number five on Vince’s year-end list in 2009 — and at the end of the day, no band name is gonna change that; they could call themselves “Limp Bizkit” and their music would still kick ass.

Still, I was pretty bummed when an anonymous reader sent us a link to the following message from RG’s MySpace page:

Hey you poofts.  We have officially changed our name to THE DEVIL.  2 new songs just got posted and we’re changing the url to myspace.com/thedevilband.

I’m honestly hoping that this is just a joke I don’t get, like back in April when HORSE The Band announced that they were changing their moniker to “Wicked Decision.” ‘Cause while “Rumpelstiltskin Grinder” is a name that is at once memorable, funny, and accurate with regards to the sound of the band, “The Devil” is generic, boring, could apply to any number of types of bands, and will officially lose all menace as of this Friday, when that new M. Night Shymalamadingdong movie opens.

And as of right now, The Devil’s MySpace page* is pretty bare bones, so maybe it is a joke — or maybe they’re just still getting set up. I dunno, I dunno. I hope these dudes didn’t purchase this name on eBay, ’cause if they did, they got took.

While we wait to see what the deuce is going on here, you can check out those new songs on Rumpelstiltskin Grinder original MySpace page.

-AR

*By the way, even “The Devil’s MySpace Page” strikes me as being a cooler name than “The Devil.”

A few hours ago authorities evacuated Times Square for the second time in a week after someone found a “suspicious cooler” on the street. Of course, everyone was just being overly cautious, but as long as it doesn’t infringe on my civil rights, there’s nothing necessarily wrong with that. I think Vince was in Michigan when 9/11 went down, but I was here, and if I never see another tank rolling down my street again or run all over the city because there’s no cell service and I need to make sure that all of my friends and family are still alive, well, I’ll be good.

While I nurse my PTSD, here are some happier, metalier things that happened this week:

• We’re streaming Keep of Kalessin’s new album, Reptilian. We also debuted new music by Lamb of God and The Funeral Pyre.
• We also also also debuted new videos by Soulfly and Cancer Bats.
• We also also also also debuted our new cooking show, Cooking Contaminated.
• Cynic’s Paul Masvidal discussed the shape of silence, Periphery’s Bulb taught you how to get that “big” studio tone, As I Lay Dying’s Nick Hipa had some questions about L O S T, Matt from Rumpelstiltskin Grinder fondly recalled Maryland Deathfest, and Batillus bassist Willi Stabenau gave us a studio update.
• We talked to Darkest Hour’s Mike Schleibaum, Reign Supreme’s Jay Pepito,  Jackyl’s Jesse James Dupree, and unveiled part one of our massive two-part interview with Buzz Osborne.
• We checked out the latest release by The Howling Wind.
• Does the fact that Mike Portnoy is touring with Avenged Sevenfold make you wanna see ‘em?
• We don’t want Joey Belladonna to return to Anthrax. Seriously.
• Sergeant D. wants to know if u mosh 4 Christ???
• Damnocracy’s Evan Seinfeld and his porno Howdy Doody also do bar mitzvahs.
• We wish there was really such a thing as a Slayer burrito.

Next week brings even more betterer br00tal goodness – interviews, debuts, guest blogs, all that shit. It’s gonna get real up in this bitch. See ya then.

-AR

We’re just a few weeks away from Maryland Deathfest 2010, which will take place from May 28-30 in (duh) Baltimore, Maryland. This year’s edition of the annual fest promises to be the best one yet, with a line-up that includes Gorguts, Autopsy, Obituary, Entombed, Sodom, Repulsion, D.R.I., and a ton of other kick-ass bands. In anticipation of the event, we thought it would be fun to get some recollections of past MDFs from artists who were there. So we’re teaming up with Relapse Records to do just that! The inaugural edition, by Matt from Rumpelstiltskin Grinder, is below; in the coming weeks, we’ll also present entries by members of Brutal Truth, Disfear, and more. Enjoy…

Day 1

I forget what year it was exactly… but it was the time Municipal Waste played… Eli (Relapse Sales Manager, XXX Maniak) and I (Rumpelstiltskin Grinder, Absu, Woe, XXX Maniak, Creeping Vine Productions) drove down to MDF in one of our shitty cars… we were hoping to get there in time to see Municipal Waste.  We get to the parking lot, and the only spot there is too small because some jerk-off parked between two spots.  We yell at two nearby dudes to come help us and the four of us lift up this loser’s car and move it out of the way so we can park.  High fives and last car-beers finished…

We scam our way inside somehow and Municipal just started… we each grab two beers from the bar and get involved in the circle pit. I forget much of the rest of the day but here are some recollections:

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I’ve seen The Binary Code live a bunch of times, and they just keep getting better and better and better. They could always play, but they’ve really come into their own as performers; I feel like I’ve watched them go from a caterpillar to a butterfly! A total wicked butterfly that plays awesome progressive technical death metal.

If you live in the Northeast and you’ve never checked these dudes out, well, here’s your chance – they’re doing a show in Brooklyn next week with Lair of the Minotaur and Elks, and then a Northeast tour with The Gloominous Doom. (One date will even include Rumpelstiltskin Grinder and Total Fucking Destruction. I’ve never wished I lived in Hamburg, PA so badly in my life.) I’ve never seen The Gloominous Doom live, but after seeing their video for “Portal Potty,” which made its debut on Metal Injection earlier this week (and which Vince already wrote about, but I just now watched ’cause I’m slow that way), I really, really want to; not only is it a funny clip for a good song, but I’d love to see how a tech-death crowd reacts to reggae parts. Because, yes, they have reggae parts.

Bottom line: they are two really, really creative bands, and these shows are gonna be a lot of fun. Get tour dates after the jump!

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Cosmo Lee of Invisible Oranges wrote an editorial a few weeks back about the 20th anniversary of Scatterbrain’s Here Comes Trouble, noting that there’s a certain element of fun and audaciousness that’s not only been missing from metal for two decades but that would be considered downright ridiculous these days:

Listening to Scatterbrain now is a trip because its sound is so dated. It comes from a time of “fun metal”, in which D.R.I., M.O.D., Anthrax, Suicidal Tendencies, Fishbone, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Primus, Faith No More, Mr. Bungle, and Ugly Kid Joe were all likely cohabitants in CD collection.

While it’s hard to imagine anything as silly as “Mr. Johnson and the Juice Crew” (MP3 posted at Invisible Oranges), not all metal is frowny-faced gloom and doom these days. There’s bands like Municipal Waste and Rumpelstiltskin Grinder who take their thrash with a sense of humor. There’s the pagan metal set, which is completely serious but is also all about having a good time and getting jolly wasted. And there’s Reading, PA’s The Gloominous Doom, whose unlikely combination of ska and metal harkens back to some of the bands that Cosmo name-checked.

Take The Gloominous Doom’s new video for “Portal Potty” as proof; it’s about a special porta-potty with Bill & Ted-style time-traveling qualities. This is a band that has plenty of chops and songwriting ability but doesn’t take themselves too seriously. Their new record The Feature will come out on May 4th via DRP Records. They’ll be on a Northeast mini-tour with The Binary Code in May, and their CD release show on May 1st also features none other than fellow fun-lovers Rumpelstiltskin Grinder.

-VN

It might only be the beginning of 2010, but artist and Monstrosity vocalist Mike Hrubovcak is already stoked to know that the metal-minded artwork he’s done for the likes of Decrepit Birth, Braindrill, Rumpelstiltskin Grinder, Aurora Borealis, and Azure Emote (another criminally underrated, Hrubovcak-fronted band) will be featured in an upcoming Hollywood production with plenty of star power to go around.

Dream House, a Universal/Morgan Creek film helmed by Jim Sheridan and starring Daniel Craig, Rachel Weisz, and Naomi Watts, will hit theaters in 2011 and has a plot that’s fitting enough for Hrubovcak’s artwork: a family (Weisz and Craig) move into a new home to find out about a brutal slaying there earlier in its history, while the neighbor (Watts) is the only person able to lend any hint that the husband who allegedly killed his wife and children there may not be dead. Not only is it great exposure for Hrubovcak — who works as a graphic designer for an “adult novelty” company by day, as an artist using oil, airbrush, and photo manipulation for some of metal’s most brutal bands (with cover art to match) by night, and still finds time to participate in Monstrosity, Vile, and a host of other projects — but it’s great for metal. Where else can metalheads hope to see artwork from gruesome metal bands at the movies?

Hrubovcak’s VisualDarkness website has a ton of samples of his past works in his portfolio to check out, but for the uninitiated, the man’s done artwork for bands like Chainsaw Dissection, Fecal God, and XXX Maniak – so you should pretty much know what to expect.

Hrubovcak took some time to talk with MetalSucks about an upcoming showcasing of some of his works, how he deals with having so much on his plate, and zombies. Oh, come on, you knew that was coming.

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It’s been a doozy of a year for metal releases already, hasn’t it?

After the jump, the records I’ve been jamming the most so far that might or might not end up on my year-end Top 10.

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I would like to go on record as saying I wasn’t too big on the whole re-thrash trend of 2006-2008 from the get-go. I mean, I loves me some thrash, but 99% of the time any band regardless of genre tries to do something that sounds exactly like an old band(s) I’m against it. The key to artistic progression is moving forward, not back, and unfortunately many of the re-thrash bands just brought nothing new to the table. Taking elements of the old and infusing it into the new is all good by me, though, which is why I’m all for bands that have successfully fused vintage thrash influence into a modern shell; Sylosis and Lazarus A.D. are two examples who readily spring to mind.

And Iron Age. Holy fucking shit, you guys.

I was not expecting to like this record at all (see above). But Iron Age’s blend of ripping thrash, NYHC pummel and doomy ambience channeled through modern-sounding production on their second record The Sleeping Eye just hit that fucking SPOT. This is music for fans of fucking furious, tight, beer-soaked, basement mosh-pit party metal like Trash Talk and Bison B.C., Metallica Ride The Lightning-era guitar riffs pushed to the fullest and real in every way with nary a speck of hipster retro throwback. The Sleeping Eye kicks as much ass as any thrash-influenced record released all year, right up there with Rumpelstiltskin Grinder’s Living For Death, Destroying the Rest (albeit in a different way).

So, without further ado, here’s a stream of the entire album. It comes out today. Listen.

[This promotion has ended. -Ed.]

Finally… we have a capable, intelligent, forward-thinking new U.S. president. No, it’s not Dave Mustaine. Here’s what else happened this week:

• We wondered aloud and speculated about Slayer’s co-headline tour, New England Metal & Hardcore Fest, Scion Rock Fest (aka Atlanta Metalfest), and The Faceless’ headline tour. This spring just got awesome.
• We ran to the hills to avoid a shitty classic metal cover. Meanwhile, we found Iron Maiden in Iran and on the big screen.
• We got sexi(vious) with members of Cynic and Textures.
• We looked at new releases from Satyricon, Cattle Decapitation, 16 and Rumpelstiltskin Grinder.
• Maynard got all Jiu-Jitsu on our asses and Carcass played a wedding.

Axl, myself and our girlfriends (we have girlfriends… whowouldathunkit???) are going to see The Dark Knight on the IMAX tonight. Hopefully weed will be involved. Later, suckaz!!

What with forthcoming albums from Necrophagist, Baroness and Obscura hogging most of the spotlight reserved for Relapse’s 2009 release schedule, and the nation’s attention focused elsewhere on their January 20th release date, it’d be easy to overlook these two solid Relapse contenders. We at MetalSucks couldn’t let that happen, could we?

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