Last week, I saw some kid outside of a Chimaira show compliment keyboardist Sean Z. on his vocal performance. “I had no idea you could scream like that!” the lil’ dude proclaimed. Presumably, the young fan was somehow unaware that Z. is also the vocalist for Dååth, meaning that, yes, he is a helluva front man who can scream his guts out with the best of ‘em.

I have no idea if incidents like that one were the inspiration for what Sean Z. has done now or not, but it’s easy to imagine the epicly bearded musician going “Hey, I’m getting all this new attention because of Chimaira, might as well put it to extra-good use!”

And so, whatever his motivation may be, Sean Z. has posted on his Facebook page links to download — for free, natch — not only the two Dååth albums on which he appears, but also b-sides and demos from those albums.

Click to read more…

In news that will shock no one who follows him on Twitter (or enjoyed the slow-but-brutal grooves on The Infection, for that matter), Chimaira vocalist Mark Hunter likes to smoke weed. And, like so many of us who enjoy herbal refreshments, Hunter has now had a run-in with 5-0. Last night he was arrested in San Antonio for possession; as a result, he missed last night’s Chimaira show, and keyboardist/fellow marijuana afficionado Sean Z. filled-in on lead vocals again.

Hunter seems to be in surprisingly good spirits about the incident, though, if the tweets he’s been sending out since his release are any indication:

Click to read more…

Well, here’s some shit luck: Chimaira’s U.S. tour in support of their excellent new album, The Age of Hell, LITERALLY just started, and vocalist/Tweeter Laureate Mark Hunter has already fallen ill. That means that, unfortunately, he was forced to bow out of last night’s show at the Sonar in Baltimore, Maryland.

The silver lining, though, is that Chimaira now counts Dååth’s Sean Z. amongst its ranks — technically, he’s the band’s new keyboard player/sampler/electronic noise dude, but, of course, that motherfucker can scream his guts out with the best of ‘em. And so, as part of a noble effort to see to that the fans at least kinda-sorta got what they paid for, Chimaira took the stage with Mr. Z handling lead vocal duties, and, as The PRP affectionately puts it, “became more ‘Chimairååth’ than ever.”

Here’s video from the show:

Click to read more…

If I’m not mistaken, Chimaira vocalist Mark Hunter has now been interviewed for MetalSucks more times than any other musician — which is fine by me. Not only is he one of my favorite front men all of modern metal, but I always come away from these interviews feeling like I actually learned something about a band I love. In a world where it increasingly feels like too many folks are giving what I’d call “paint by numbers” answers to interview questions, Hunter’s willingness to be so sincere is always refreshing.

And, besides, Chimaira’s new album, The Age of Hell (out today on eOne — stream it here, buy physical copies here, or download it from iTunes here), is not only totally awesome, but it arrives admist a flurry of drama and controversy, as the band changed fifty percent of the line-up in the intervening years since 2009′s The Infection. So there was certainly plenty to discuss this go-’round!

After the jump, read the full transcript of my most recent chat with Hunter, in which he discusses those line-up changes, Hell‘s creation, the band’s upcoming tour plans, and much, much more.

Click to read more…

Photo by Todd Bell

NOTE: We were all set to premiere this song this morning, but someone blew their load early and released it over the weekend. Luckily for whomever decided that person was, we have some awesome new Chimaira music to serve as an outlet for our rage, so his or her life is most likely still safe… for now. In any case, assuming you didn’t get to hear the tune yet, well, here it is!

The Age of Hell is almost upon us.

It’s no secret that these have been (ahem) hellish times for Chimaira. But if their new single, “Born in Blood” (below), is any indication, than they haven’t missed a beat creatively. A rager in the vein of the band’s anthems “Power Trip” and “Resurrection,”  ”Born in Blood” is Chimaira music at its best: more vicious than a slaughter house, and just as full of hooks. To put it simply, Chimaira have, once again, stuck the fucking landing — and they seem to know it, too.  ”There is no more doubt,” vocalist Mark Hunter bellows in simultaneous acknowledgment and dismissal of the sextet’s recent travails. “We won the war inside our minds… nothing can stop us now.” Yeah, no shit, dude!

So turn you speakers way, way, WAY up — if your walls are shaking and the neighbors are complaining, you’ve got it almost loud enough! — and then check out “Born in Blood” below. Then go here to download the track, which features a guest appearance by Whitechapel’s Phil Bozeman. You can download another new single from the band, “Trigger Finger,” here. Both songs will appear on The Age of Hell, out August 16 via eOne. We can’t wait.

[this streaming promotion has ended]

We still don’t know when the new Chimaira album is coming out, or what it’s gonna be called, or, uh, very much else about it, to be honest. We do know that that band has a really, really excellent new line-up, though, and that said new line-up will be making their live debut next month, when they do a too-brief six date mini-tour. While new bassist Emil Werstler has played live with the band before, these shows will be the first for his Daath bandmate, Sean Z., and for new drummer Austin D’Amond (Bleed the Sky). So these shows should be pretty exciting.

Presumably, Chimaira will also use these concerts to show out some of their new material. And hopefully we get some official word on album release date soon.

In the meantime, here are the six tour dates, in case you somehow can’t read the poster above:

Click to read more…

Earlier this week I had a dream that I was working with Atreyu. I don’t know in what capacity I could possibly find myself “working with” Atreyu, since I’m not a manager, nor a publicist, nor a label rep, and they’re about as likely to end up doing a guest column here as I am to give the new In This Moment album a perfect 5-horn review, but, hey, the subconscious works in mysterious ways. Why did I have Atreyu on the brain? Was my mind trying to tell me “The glass is half-full?” Do I have  a hankering to re-watch The Neverending Story? Did I just ingest too many different substances that night? I’ll have to bring it up in therapy next week.

Here’s other shit that happened this week, some of which, believe it or not, is even more terrifying than the thought of working with Atreyu:

• Freddy Madball is counting down his favorite hard and heavy non-hardcore bands of all time, TesseracT’s Acle walked us through the history of djent, The Austerity Program’s Justin Foley spoke to Converge’s Kurt Ballou about Taco Riffs, The Red Chord’s Greg Weeks made some suggestions for losing NFL teams, Intronaut’s Sacha Dunable contemplated the ways in which technology has changed touring, Daath’s Eyal Levi wondered, “Is this it?”, and a wide array of metal stars previewed the just-begun NHL season.
• We spoke to Kirk Windstein from Crowbar/Down/Kingdom of Sorrow, Sean Z. from Daath, Daddy X and Dirtball from Kottonmouth Kings, and Yoshiki Hayashi from X Japan.
• We checked out the latest releases from Abysse and Deafheaven.
• We contemplated trancecore.
• As the headline says, we heard the worst thing ever.
• We reviewed the history of terrible Limp Bizkit cover songs.
• We had fun with misheard song lyrics.
• We bemoaned the signing of another re-thrash band.
• We applauded Slayer fans’ desire to help the physically disabled.
• We had yet another laugh at Winds of Plague’s expense.

We have a special surprise for you next week. I can’t promise you’re going to like it, but I can promise you’re going to have a strong reaction to it. See ya then.

-AR

If you do a shot every time Daath vocalist Sean Z. uses the phrase “more real” during the course of this interview, you will definitely be good and drunk by its conclusion. But it’s hard to blame him for recycling those words again and again: While a former member of the band’s pre-occupation with mysticism cast a pall over the group’s lyrical content in the past, their new, self-titled album, which Century Media will release on October 25 (pre-order it here), does away with all that in favor of dealing with issues that listeners can actually relate to. And it’s all the stronger for it.

For a dude with such a ferocious vocal attack and intense stage presence, I found Sean Z. to actually be incredibly laid back, easy going, and just plain fun to hang out with. After the jump, read our chat about his lyric writing process, why Daath is actually the band’s first album, hallucinogenics as a creative tool, plane crashes, and more real shit.

Click to read more…

Because there is. It’s also called Daath. And we love it. And we’re very excited for you to hear it. And we know that some of you think we’re biased because we’re friends with Eyal, and all we can say is, you’re right. We would never actually be friends with a talented person who is a member of a good band, only a hack whose album we can promote because we don’t really believe in it. Eyal was actually, like, our eighth choice of guest columnists, after members of Attack Attack!, The Devil Wears Prada, Oceano, Bring Me the Horizon, and this band, amongst others, turned us down.

SO. While two tracks have already been released — “Destruction/Restoration” debuted right here at MetalSucks, and “Indestructible Overdose” is streaming on the band’s MySpace page — now you’ve got a chance to hear a third: “N.A.T.G.O.D.” has just debuted over at Metal Injection. Go here to listen.

And now that you’ve heard approximately 23% of the album and you’ve come to realize that we’re not just biased and this album really does rule and you’re so excited to hear the rest of it that the October 25 release date can’t come soon enough, go here to pre-order the thing.

And while you’re jonesin’ to hear the remainder of the record… Skulls N’ Bones have now completed their series of in-studio videos chronicling the creation of Daath, and I’ve collected them all right here for you, ’cause these are really fun and I’m a nice guy like that. Here’s the one centering on Eyal…

And here’s the one about drummer Kevin Talley…

Click to read more…

Eyal Levi’s studio resides in the basement of his family’s home in suburban Atlanta. It’s a small room that couldn’t comfortably hold more than five, maybe six people; if your only mental image of a band making a record comes from A Year and a Half in the Life of Metallica, it might be a little off-putting. You’re perpetually aware that you’re actually in the middle of someone’s house; various non-local metal denizens (including this blogger) populate the guest beds and couches, while members of Daath who live within driving distance but aren’t necessarily needed at the moment come and go as they please to share meals, jokes, vape rips, and the work-in-progress. It’s only when you really look around and soak in the details of your surroundings — the box full of copies of Daath’s self-released debut, Futility; the Misery Index vinyls; the post-it note by the door that makes reference to an incident involving Arsis’ James Malone, the house security system, and the local police department — that you realize: Oh, yeah. I’ve got albums on my iPod that were recorded in this room!

Daath have returned here to make their new, self-titled album after recording 2008′s The Concealers at producer Jason Suecof’s Audio Hammer Studios in Florida. The relaxed and homey environment was chosen deliberately for this outing. The name of the game this time is “creative freedom,” and the atmosphere at Eyaland (the studio doesn’t have an official name) definitely seems to breed open thinking — which is key, given that the group has only written and demoed skeletal versions of the songs, with the flourishes that, frankly, make Daath Daath still-to-be-added.

The decision to work this way came about because the band has felt, in the past, as though sometimes their preproduction demos “would sound better than the records we released,” Eyal explains. ”Lots of times we’d feel we were making better-sounding-but-more-stale-versions of what we did [on the demos], because lightning doesn’t strike twice in the same place… This time we didn’t allow that. We got the songs to the point where we’re comfortable hitting ‘record,’ and we’re taking them to the next level in the studio.”

Click to read more…

Well, we’ve been talking about it for some time, but now you get to hear some of Daath‘s new, self-titled album and make up your mind for yourself — we’re giving away “Destruction/Restoration,” the second cut off the record, as a FREE download.

It should go without saying that we love this song. It sounds like Daath have been let off the leash: Emil Werstler is playing insane shit which should make guitar geeks everywhere cream their pants, Kevin Talley is going absolutely nuts and playing anything but what’s expected, the production, by Mark Lewis and Eyal Levi, is filthy, and the music is darker than Vince Neil’s liver and more misanthropic than Glenn Danzig at a doctor’s office. “Destruction/Restoration” is only about two-and-a-half minutes long, but you’ll never be able to appreciate it after just one listen; it’s just too layered and crazy for that. So download this one on us, get a good pair of headphones, and blow your ear drums to smithereens.

Daath comes out October 25 on Century.

DAATH – “DESTRUCTION/RESTORATION”

Daath – “Destruction/Restoration”

DOWNLOAD

I think bassist Jeremy Creamer may be the biggest question mark for most Daath fans; he’s not front n’ center like vocalist Sean Z., and unlike guitarists Eyal Levi and Emil Werstler and drummer Kevin Talley, his work outside of Daath is not, at least currently, that well-known by the metal community (very likely because his work outside of Daath is often not metal music). But he’s an insanely cool dude and an insanely talented dude, and… I’m not gonna tell you more ’cause I’m gonna run an interview with him as part of the massive behind-the-scenes series I’m working on. So for the time being, just watch the below video that Skulls N’ Bones posted of him laying down bass for Daath’s new, self-titled album, which comes out October 26 on Century.

Daath has also released the track list for the album. Even with a band I love (like this one!), I don’t usually find track lists all that interesting, ‘case song titles don’t actually tell you much, but this being Daath n’ all, I’m gonna run it anyway. Check it out after the jump.

Click to read more…

And there’s really nothing else to say except, “HOO-RAY!” I’m so fucking excited for this album I can’t even tell you.

My own in-depth, behind-the-scenes studio reports will begin in September, but in the meantime, Metal Mark from Skulls N’ Bones continues to post his own videos. This latest one shows Sean Z. laying down vocals in the studio with producer Mark Lewis, and apparently smoking while he does it. Fuckin’ metal.

October is really right around the corner, so hopefully we’ll get to hear some music real soon…

-AR

Remember Sean Farber, Daath’s old singer? I’ve never met the dude since his tenure with the band ended before we had any relationship with them, so for all I know the guy is a real sweetheart. But he infamously left Daath, “for all intensive purposes,” to pursue other dreams, including starting his own religion. And while I have no idea how that quest is going, the fact that I haven’t read about “Farbertology” or whatever somewhere leads me to believe that the answer is, “Not very well.”

So Sean Farber is probably pretty pissed there’s a thread on Century Media’s YouTube page in which people are positing that his successor, Sean Z.,  looks like Jesus Christ.

Click to read more…

So Vince and I were talking the other day about this question that both of us have wondered about from time to time, and since then I haven’t stopped thinking about it. So here it is: DO ANY OF YOU GIVE A FUCK ABOUT LYRICS IN METAL?

Is it just the sound of the voice and how it works with the sound of the music, or is it also what the vocalist is saying that matters to you? I’m going to take a guess and say that fans of hardcore and straight edge bands really do care about the lyrics because the bands are representing the ideals and beliefs of their respective communities. But what about in death metal, black metal, or any other genre of metal? When you listen to Necrophagist or Cannibal Corpse or Suicide Silence, can you comprehend what they’re singing about, and do you even care? Is it what they’re singing about, or is it more what it sounds like with the music, or both?

Click to read more…

I haven’t smoked weed in about three weeks now. I haven’t wanted to. Getting sick kind of took that wind out of my sails and then I had no choice but to abstain in the hospital. Two nights ago I was at my girl’s place watching her and her roommate spark joint after joint after joint, and the craving came back. I didn’t partake. And I’m not going to for awhile, but I wanted to. And I still kinda do.

Click to read more…

Momma always told me that if I ever met “the one,” I’d know right away. Even my father – who makes me look like a sunny, optimistic, outgoing person – said that he knew right away he wanted to spend the rest of his life with my mom. But I never really believed it, and definitely never thought it would happen to me.

But then last night changed everything. I knew within minutes, if not seconds, that I had found “the one.”

‘Cause last night I smoked out of a vaporizer for the first time. And my life will never, ever be the same. I’m just not going to be able to go back to bongs and pipes. This is it. I am now a one drug-apparatus man.

Thanks to Sean Z. from Daath for hooking that shit up. There weren’t nearly enough people at the show last night, and Sean had some mic/monitor issues, but Daath still played like they were headlining Madison fucking Square Garden (and Sean managed to sing while doing windmills, which I’ve never seen before). Eyal Levi has fucking pneumonia and a cracked rib, and he was still jumping all over the place. And Emil “Things Go Better with Coke” Werstler is almost spastic enough to be in a mathcore band. Plus, his solos are the shit.

Goatwhore killed it, too. I really can’t say enough good things about these bands. You can find remaining tour dates here; definitely go check ‘em out if you can. And bring your vaporizer.

Here’s some Daath and Goatwhore videos to kick off your morning.

-AR

Click to read more…

The first time we spoke to Dååth guitarist Eyal Levi, it was purely about being a Jew. That’s all well and good, but now that Dååth are about to release an excellent new album, The Concealers (out April 21 on Century/Roadrunner), it seemed like a mighty good time to actually speak to the dude about, y’know, music n’ shit.

In addition to being a ridiculously talented musician, songwriter, and producer, Levi is also just one of those people you meet who is all-around good dude. After the jump, get Eyal’s thoughts on the band’s new album, the media and metal scene’s perceptions of Dååth, why ATL purp is tops, and more.

Click to read more…

While in the studio recording their new album, The Concealers, the members of Daath decided to record a medley of classic death metal songs by Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel and Dying Fetus (see behind-the-scenes video above). Charmingly dubbed “Fecal Finger,” the track won’t actually appear on the band’s new album, so they decided to let us pass it on to you… for free!

Daath drummer Kevin Talley explained the genesis of the track to us via e-mail:

“Fecal Finger”… a beautiful name for a beautiful piece of music. One day we jammed some death metal songs and we jokingly said we should play them at a show… so we did. We chose the DYING FETUS song because I wrote and recorded it with them and many people never saw me play it live. Matt DeVries [Chimaira] and I used to jam that MORBID ANGEL riff a couple years ago so we brought that in since it is crushingly brutal. And you can’t jam a jam without Jim Carrey’s favorite death metal band CANNIBAL CORPSE. We recorded this freakin shit because kids these days need to recognize who influenced the newer bands they listen to. After hearing the originals for so many years, it’s weird hearing these songs with a newer style recording. But Sean Z’s vocals are fucking sick and Jonny Davy’s (Job for a Cowboy) guest vocals on the MORBID ANGEL part are amazing. This recording is finally growing on me and it’s actually my favorite thing to listen to right now.

-Kevin Talley

And so, without further adieu…

Daath, “Fecal Finger”

The Concealers will hit stores sometime in early 2009.

-MetalSucks