In case my oh-so-witty headline didn’t give it away, Corrosion of Conformity are hitting the road for a U.S. headlining trek. I haven’t seen the reunited CoC, but I’ve heard some people say they’re great and some people say they’re not so great… I guess this will be my chance to finally find out.

Support on most dates is coming from Torche, Valient Thorr, and A Storm of Light, so that’s a pretty nifty line-up — regular MS readers will already be aware that we’ve very sweet on Valient Thorr. But the first show of the run, on January 22 in Asheville, NC, will have support from Hail!Hornet — okay whatevs — and a screening of Slow Southern Steel, the documentary about southern metal that CT from Rwake made. That could be pretty sweet, too.

Here are all the dates:

Click to read more…

FEATURING MEMBERS OF MELVINS, RED FANG,  JUNIUS,  EXHUMED, RWAKE, ORPHANED LAND, HULL, EARTH, AND KILL THE CLIENT

Every year year, MetalSucks asks musicians from across the vast spectrum of the metalsphere (or, in a few cases, the almost-metalsphere) what their favorite albums of the year have been. Death metallers, thrash metallers, black metallers, stoners, grinders, and djenters alike have graciously contributed lists to MS, and we’ll be running them in groups of nine to ten musicians at a time two to three times a day for the whole week.

After the jump, check out the next group… we hope you enjoy seeing what some of metal’s heaviest hitters were into this year as much as we have!

Click to read more…

I’m officially making the switch from the Top Hard Music chart to the Current Hard Music chart for the purposes of this column. While it’s interesting to see what classic Metallica and Aerosmith albums are charting and I still may occasionally reference the former, the latter chart paints a much clearer picture of the modern metal landscape by opening up more room for new records that sell less than classics, allowing a larger number of relevant new releases to place in the Top 100.

This chart has a slightly different way of tallying new releases, where sometimes they appear as having already been on for one week before official release — I’m still sorting through precisely what that difference is — so occasionally the chart positions are a little mixed up. But this only comes into play much farther down the list and this chart still provides a good gauge of relativity.

Now, onto the releases: as you all no doubt know, Mastodon and Machine Head were the biggies last week, and both did quite well — but the album that ended up at #1 is also a debut, and none of us saw it coming. Sebastian Bach, Warbringer and Maylene & The Sons of Disaster fared well in Week 1, while new records from Rose Funeral, Textures, Suffokate, Rwake, Brutal Truth and many, many more also appeared in the Top 100.

Click to read more…

Look, I know everyone is excited about the stream of the new Mastodon album, and of course you should be excited. But you should also take fifty-three minutes out of your day to go right here and stream Rwake’s new album, Rest, in its entirety. Because it’s really, really friggin’ great.

In fact, I’ve been writing about how great is for some time now, so hopefully I don’t have to do anything else to sell you on its greatness. It’s dirty and it’s evil and it’s epic and it’s challenging, which, I personally at least, enjoy; it doesn’t just reward multiple listens, it requires them. And you can get started right now.

Claw your face off very and painfully here, then come back and celebrate in our comments section. Rest comes out September 27 via Relapse.

-AR

I meant to remind you guys yesterday but I’m a dick so I forgot — Arch Enemy’s North American Khaos Tour, which we here at MetalSucks are very proudly co-presenting, is now underway! I’ve been trying to find fan-filmed footage from last night’s kickoff show in Baltimore to no avail, but I hear the concert was great… which is really no shock. Especially given that the three support bands — DevilDriver, Skeletonwitch, and Chthonic — are all as much fun as Arch Enemy! You can get dates here. If anyone is gonna be at the NYC show tonight, come find us. I’ll be the really, really not-sober guy in the back screaming for them to play “Savage Messiah” over and over again.

Now, here’s some stuff we did this week:

• We debuted new music from Black Cobra.
• We also debuted an outtake from the movie Hesher and a clip from Fantomas’ new live DVD.
• We spoke to Charlie Benante from Anthrax and Avi Kulawy from Magrudergrind.
• We checked out the latest releases from Brutal Truth, Wolves in the Throne Room,and Bloodsoaked.
• We debated the merits of new songs from Mastodon, Opeth, and Megadeth.
• We launched The Third Annual “Run MetalSucks for a Day” contest.
• Vince listed “The Top Fifteen Reasons Metallica are the Yankees of Metal,” and then The Austerity Program’s Justin Foley offered a retort.
• We fucked Bret Michaels in the motherfucking eye.
• We voted for Sergeant D.’s acoustic cover of The Acacia Strain.
• We almost had to kill a puppy.

And, oh hey, did we mention that tickets for The Metal Suckfest are on sale now? We did? Okay, swell!

Have a good weekend, y’all. See ya Monday.

-AR

The last time I wrote about the release of a new Rwake song, there were zero comments; the time before that, there were six comments, five of which were based around accusations that the band sounds like Baroness (which they don’t), and one of which claimed they sound like Primordial (a little more accurate but still come the fuck on). And I find what seems to be a lack of interest on the part of the MS community in Rest, Rwake’s first new album in four years, to be horribly, horribly depressing.

So lemme break it down real simple for you cats: Rest is one of the best albums of the year, and you need to go listen to the latest song from the record to be unveiled, “Was Only a Dream,” immediately.

Go listen to it now.

Go listen to it now.

Go listen to it now.

SERIOUSLY, GO FUCKING LISTEN TO IT RIGHT NOW. Don’t make me shoot that poor pooch in the head.

Rwake’s Rest comes out September 27 on Relapse.

/rant.

-AR

Just yesterday I was all happy because Rwake released previews of every song on their new album, Rest. And I was also sad, because those previews left me with an unpleasant coitus interruptus feeling. But now the band has unveiled a new song, “An Invisible Thread,” in its entirety, and so, yes, it is time to break out the tissues and finish what was started yesterday.

Here’s how vocalist CT describes the tune:

“‘An Invisible Thread’ is an anthemic song about the devil’s music, wife abuse, dreamscapes, and the ability to ’out of body experience’ your very own suicide. It is the ‘upper’ on the album. Not so much uplifting, just more of an all around upper.”

Indeed, once you read the lyrics, which have been included with the song’s debut, you’ll realize that the track isn’t “uplifting” — for example, the phrase “it’s a haunting and the sickness is the demon” doesn’t exactly make me wanna get my It’s a Wonderful Life on, y’know?

ANYWAY, the song is fucking great, and you need to check it out. Rest comes out on September 27 via Relapse.

-AR

Rwake’s Rest is one of the albums I am most anticipating salivating over this year, and it’s one of the albums you’re most anticipating ready to spread eagle for, too, assuming you have any damn sense at all. And this new, seven minute preview of the album — featuring snippets of each and every song — isn’t likely to make you any less randy. I shouted “OH, COME ON!” out loud at least three separate times when three separate song samples ended. It’s the musical equivalent of blue balls.

You will finally be able to blow your wad when Relapse releases Rest on September 27.

-AR

Why, it was just last week that Rwake announced the release of their first new album in four years, Rest, and now there’s already a new track online! It’s called “It Was Beautiful, But Now It’s Sour,” and you can check it out right here.

Let me rephrase that: CHECK IT OUT RIGHT NOW, DUMMY.

Those of you who have been waiting for this song as I have can rest assured, it’s not disappointing in the slightest. In fact, it’s JUST the song I wanted to hear from this band. This album is gonna rule, I can tell.

Headbang (slowly) here, then discuss in our comments section. Rest comes out September 27 on Relapse.

-AR

OH MY FUCKING GOD YES.

Rwake, one of our absolute most favoritest bands here at MetalSucks, haven’t released an album since 2007′s Voices of Omens. They never broke up — they’ve been playing shows somewhat-steadily the whole time — and earlier this year, we got word that the band had FINALLY entered a studio with producer Sanford Parker to record a new album.

Well, that album now has a name — Rest — a release date — September 27 — and album art — which you can see below:

There’s no music available yet, but whatever, if Rest doesn’t turn out to be awesome, I’ll eat my socks. (I will also cry. A LOT.) You can, absolutely fucking should, pre-order the album from Relapse, though, in a variety of CD and vinyl editions. This band is FILTHY FILTHY FILTHY, so I bet that shit sounds super-extra-evil on vinyl.

And hopefully there will be a new Rwake jam for us to jizz all over real soon.

-AR

Hey dudes and ladies, sorry I haven’t been posting much this month. I’ve been travelingeven more than usual, and haven’t had much time to sit down and write down much of anything besides flight confirmation numbers and directions to wherever I happen to be sleeping any given evening. Cheers once again to those of you who went out and soaked up the riff-tastic metal circus that was Metalliance (especially those wonderful souls who came up to hang out or bought me a drink!), and mad love to everyone who survived that tour, especially the eternal road dogs in The Atlas Moth and Howl and my tour family on the Saint Vitus/Crowbar bus.

As soon as that madness ended, I flew over to Ireland to stay with my boyfriend J. for a couple days and get ready for my next adventure: reprising my now-yearly pilgrimage to the mighty Roadburn festival in Tilburg, Netherlands. He and I met there last year (he was playing, I was covering, the rest is history) so it was due to be special for more than the usual reasons, which are pretty fucking good reasons in and of themselves!

Roadburn is the best heavy music festival in the world, hands down. A bold statement, sure, but anyone who’s ever played, worked, or attended the event will agree with me. Yeah, the lineups are always amazing, and yes, the venues – the 013, which is separated into the Main Room, Green Room, and Bat Cave, and the Midi Theatre — are killer. The separate building for merchandise, vinyl distros, and movie screenings doesn’t hurt, nor does the charming ambiance of Tilburg itself.

The real heart and soul of this festival comes from outside, though; from the big-hearted organizers Walter and Jurgen, from the efforts of Roadburn public relations guru Yvonne (without whom the whole damn thing would have fallen apart), and from the thousands of fans and bands that have come together, united by an overwhelming sense of community and goodwill. Everyone at Roadburn is absolutely 100% thrilled to be exactly where they are. There is a reason that this year’s edition sold out – sold OUT – in fifteen minutes, and it’s not just because Swans, Godflesh, Winter, and Sunn 0))) were playing (though that can’t have hurt, either). I made it to my first Roadburn in 2009, and have made it a point to come backevery year since – I’ve heard the same pledge from a lot of first-timers, and I know a few people that are already saving pennies for next year!

This year’s lineup was insane (as always). To give you an idea, I wanted to be sure to catch Alcest, Year of No Light, Acid King, Winterfylleth, Zoroaster, Wovenhand, Naam, Blood Ceremony, Pentagram, Today is the Day, Cough, Godflesh, In Solitude, Wardruna, Soilent Green, Count Raven, Earth, Place of Skulls, Winter, Trap Them, Sabbath Assembly, Summon the Crows, Corrosion of Conformity, Menace Ruine, Sunn 0))), Hooded Menace, Grave Miasma, Scorn, Candlemass (performing Epicus Doomicus Metallicus in its entirety!), Black Math Horseman, Master Musicians of Bukkake, Weedeater, Rwake, Ludicra, Evoken, Ramesses, Shrinebuilder, Yakuza, The Gates of Slumber, Swans, Ufomammut, Blood Farmers, Coffins, Dead Meadow, and Sourvein … and that’s just me. There were plenty of other bands that I either had seen many times, was unfamiliar with, or just didn’t want to see (which is rare at Roadburn, but there’s a first time for everything).

Of course, since it’s a massive festival full of people from all over the world, a lot of whom I love dearly, I managed to miss tons of bands, but I’m okay with it. I’ll see most of them again, and Roadburn isn’t totally about the music. It’s about the experience, man.

Here are a few highlights from this year; third time’s the charm!

Click to read more…

I was just bemoaning the world’s current lack of Rwake last week, and the Metal Gods have already answered my prayers — it seems that 2011 will bring a double dose of Rwawesomeness. To wit:

• The band’s long-out-of-print 2002 sophomore effort, the beyond-wonderfully titled Hell is a Door to the Sun, is getting a reissue from Relapse on March 1. It’s been remastered and has new artwork (old cover, new cover) and new liner notes and all that shit, but, most importantly, it’s been remixed by the great Sanford Parker. One of the remixed tracks, “The Stoner Tree” (How do I grow one of those?), is now streaming here, and if you don’t check it out, you must be a Winds of Plague fan or something, and you should go lay down on a highway. In all sincerity, I generally don’t think that Hell is a Door to the Sun is as good as the band’s two subsequent full-length releases, If You Walk Before You Crawl, You Crawl Before You Die and Voices of Omens, but that just means that it’s still better than 99% of everything else. And this remix sounds really, really great. Go listen now, then pre-order that shit right here.
• As if that wasn’t orgasm-inducing enough, the band has just entered Engine Studios in Chicago to FINALLY get that follow-up to 2007′s Omens done. Parker, who also produced Omens, is once again on-board here, and the album is expected to come out late this summer. I obviously haven’t heard any of it, but if it doesn’t fuck my face off and leave it in a crying heap by the side of the bed, I will be both shocked and disappointed.

And in case you still haven’t had a Rwake-gasm by now, the band is touring, too. Alas, none of the dates come anywhere near me, so I can’t go. But if you can you should, because their live show is great, and also because if you don’t, I won’t love you anymore. Here are said dates:

Click to read more…

At this point I really have no idea if we’re ever gonna get a new Rwake album or what. If they’re done, well, they certainly went out on a high note with 2007′s Voices of Omens (which I assume you all have, and shame on you if you don’t, and you can download it for under nine bucks here). And if they ever do come back, well, hoo-ray for metal!

In the meantime, it turns out that Rwake guitarist Kiffin has a new band, Napalm Christ — which might be the single greatest band name ever, by the way — with members of Shitfire and Shredded Corpse, both bands who also have ridiculously good monikers and both bands who, I am sad to admit, I’m not familiar with (although my gut tells me that Grim Kim might be). And now Napalm Christ have released a demo of one song, “The Seasons of Dirt,” which you can check out below.

It’s a good song, and bodes well for what I’m assuming will eventually be a full album (the band’s Facebook page currently lists Frozen Dawn Records as their label). Yep, I bet it’s only a matter of time until Walmarts all across America are stocking Napalm Christ albums on their shelves.

-AR

To the MetalSucks Maniac known as “Sacajewea,” we would like to say the following: YOU ARE A FUCKING RETARD. It’s incredible how retarded you are, you stupid fucking idiot mongoloid half-wit retard.

We send this message because in October of ’09, Sacajewea left a comment on the very first post we ever wrote, saying he was “Just here to dig up the past;” then he left another comment, just this past June, which read:

“I did it twice. Fuck I’m retarded. If anyone sees this please find me in a recent post and tell me how retarded I am.”

On December 26, 2006 — a date that will live in infamy — we did what professionals call a “soft launch” but we just call “the day we first posted on this blog.” Our slogan was “Smart About Metal,” a play on the slogan for Film Comment magazine.

We had these two stupid South Park caricatures that Axl made at his then-job when he was bored. (Axl forgot until just now that he had a really long goatee in ’06; Vince still had phantom Jew ‘fro, where some days he can feel it, man!) We only posted once or twice a day, throughout the week, pretty much when we had time/interest. We didn’t use tags. We often didn’t post graphics or videos. Our headlines weren’t capitalized. We interviewed members of Stuck Mojo and Twisted Sister, because that’s who we could get interviews with. Believe it or not, we tried to get an interview with God Forbid… and we failed.

Basically, we had no fucking idea what we were doing.

We can’t believe that this is our 10,000th post. We can’t believe we’re still doing this almost four years after we started. We can’t believe that so many of you are reading it. Seriously: WE WERE ONLY FUCKING KIDDING.

So…

Thanks to Kip (who has been here longer than anyone besides Vince and Axl!), Sammy, Gary, Anso, Satan (the MetalSucks contributor and the deity), Sergeant D., Bob, Leyla, Corey, Urbandale, Dave, Matt, Ferris, Dallas, Eyal, Sacha, Paul, Bulb, Arthur, Anton OyVey, Rich Hallford, David Bee Roth, Van Arseface, Mike Pattongill, Angela Gossowski, Joey V., and everyone else who has ever written for us… MetalSucks would not be where it is if not for all of you.

Thanks to everyone in the music industry who has helped us over the years, even as they must have been secretly hoping we would van flip.

And of course, thanks to all the MetalSucks Maniacs, Suckalos, annoying people who can’t use the “search” function, and dudes that have sent us death threats. We can’t tell you how grateful we are that you read our site. Thank you thank you thank you.

Now, with a complete lack of humility, Axl and Vince present their ten favorite MetalSucks posts of all time. Enjoy.

Click to read more…

That’s the question that reader Nathan Werp asked us this morning via e-mail. And, no, Nathan, I do not remember this band. And based on the video of them that you sent us, I think that’s probably a good thing. Because that’s a terrible name for a band, and I think this is a terrible song. It’s just a rehashed grunge riff with irritatingly nasal vocals. Sorry, bro.

But apparently one of their members went on to be in Rwake. So if this band helped give us Rwake, then all is forgiven.

If anyone wants to defend this group… go nuts. I made it about halfway through the video and gave up.

-AR

Rwake is a band we don’t write about as much as we should because, honestly, they don’t generate as much news as we’d like. They only tour occasionally and haven’t released an album since 2007′s nut-bustingly awesome Voices of Omens. I’m hoping they’ll get a new album out in 2010, but haven’t really heard anything. The band announced that they were “writing some more tunes” on their MySpace page, but that was back in March already.

At least we know that vocalist CT has been keeping busy: according to Invisible Oranges, he’s co-directing the documentary Slow Southern Steel, about, uh, well, it should seem obvious. The film is apparently still a work-in-progress, but since that never stops Hollywood from releasing a trailer, why should it stop CT and co-director David Lipke?

You can get more info on Slow Southern Steel here. It seems to have a tentative release date of May 2010.

-AR

So. Yesterday was a fucking whirlwind.

Salt Lick BBQ lunch, punctuated by the special rice krispie treat some guy had sold us the night prior. Kip and I were giggling like high school kids stoned for the first time as we were eating THE MOST FUCKING AMAZING BARBECUE FUCKING EVER. From there it was right back into it with a triumvirate of Peelander-Z, Rwake and proggy atmospheric rockers Maserati. Pound down a few Lone Stars, Coffee, Red Bull, keep going. We hit a quality standup comedy showcase next (Eugene Mirman, others) to break things up before indulging in delicious street tacos, then onwards to the Pelican / Dredg show at Emo’s. Once again, Dredg killed it (better sound this time), and once again I’m not much impressed by Pelican. Cut to 6am passing some bottles of cheap red wine around a hotel room with Dredg as I realized I had to leave for the airport… breakfast at Salt Lick offshoot in the airport, plane, pass out, New York.

Thank you to everyone we hung out with all weekend for making this our best SXSW yet. Fucking epic.

Click to read more…

That I’m sitting here in the MetalSucks Mansion this snowy Monday morning has gotta be some kinda heavy metal miracle; as I type this, Anton OyVey, Rob Pasbani from Metal Injection, our friends from BITPOM.com, and a lot of other fine friends are still stranded in Atlanta due to the weather.

And honestly, there are worse towns in which to be stranded. To my shock, not only is the booze in Atlanta shockingly cheap, not only is the purp somehow completely fucking magical, but the city is about as chill as you could hope for. I kinda miss it already.

But enough wistful reminiscing. After the jump, get my thoughts on some of the best bands of Saturday’s totally excellent Scion Rock Fest!

Click to read more…

If you’re jonesin’ for a fix of sludgy, dark, raw, gritty mothafuckin METAL, you ought to give the new Deadbird track “Death of Self” a listen. Deadbird, featuring one ex-member and one current member of Rwake (if I’m reading the press release correctly), deliver a stony riff-fest of southern-tinged, heavy as fuck sludge, something of a deep-fried, Down-influenced version of Rwake. And this new track is a sprawling, 9-minute epic that expands the boundaries of what you might traditionally think of as sludge by incorporating elements such as, *gasp*, an acoustic guitar. In short, it fucking rules.

The new album Twilight Ritual, from whence this new track comes, hits stores June 24th via At A Loss Recordings.

Deadbird – “Death of Self”

-VN

[Deadbird on MySpace]

I have no idea if this is true or not, but someone recently told me that Steve Austin (the legendary musician, NOT the pro-wrestler and NOT the Six Million Dollar Man) made current Today is the Day drummer Derek Roddy wear a bullet proof vest during his audition for the band so that Austin could shoot him as he played in order to test his skill under pressure. That seems incredibly extreme and totally fucking fuck nuts if it’s true, especially since Roddy’s skills have already been tested in Hate Eternal, but, uh, hey, it’s still a pretty cool story.

ANYWAY, Austin taking his band out on the road is always cause for excitement, but the fact that’s he taking a rotating support line-up of some of our favorite bands out there right now with him – including Rwake, Lair of the Minotaur, Fuck the Facts, and our friends in the most excellent At All fucking Cost – just makes this tour that much more worthy of your time and money.

After the jump, get a complete list of tour dates, along with a list of which bands will playing which shows.

Click to read more…