Every time we think Dark New Day is dead, caught between quitting guitarists and a label that doesn’t give a shit, they pop up with new songs or newslike a proverbial defibrillator. In a blog posted earlier today by drummer Will Hunt, the band revealed they’ve added a new guitarist (BC Kochmit, ex-Switched, Rikets) to replace Clint Lowery; interestingly, second guitarist Troy McLawhorn’s name is absent from the roster of members on the band’s MySpace page, perhaps because he’s busy with Evanescence.

Dark New Day has also posted two new tracks on their MySpace page. The band also revealed they have approximately three albums worth of material recorded, and that they plan on releasing a series of online-only albums featuring those cuts that won’t make it onto their eventual second album starting 6-8 weeks from now. Knock on wood. Hunt also promises the final record will come out soon.

The two new songs they’ve posted, “Fiend” and “I Don’t Need You,” are good songs consistent with the Dark New Day sound, no doubt benefiting from Lowery’s penmanship. How ironic is it that DND benefits from his writing while he’s back in Sevendust touring a mediocre album he didn’t even help write?

If anyone has mp3 rips of these new Dark New Day tracks please send to news [at] metalsucks.net.

-VN

When we interviewed Sevendust guitarist Clint Lowery last month, he made it pretty clear that he reads our site on a regular basis. And he was a super nice dude. And much, much bigger than I am. So I hate to think that he might be reading this, because I’m about to say something rude about the video for Sevendust’s new single, “Prodigal Son.”

This video sucks. It’s lame, it’s boring, it’s ugly, it’s cheap looking, it’s way too literal, it’s everything that gives videos a bad name. I mean there’s some side boob so that makes my inner Butt-head happy, but mostly, I just wish this video didn’t suck so bad. Check it out for yourself below; if you’re really, really lucky, Vimeo’s crappy stream will keep stopping and starting at random intervals as you try to watch it, before freezing your computer.

Clint, if you’re reading this, drop me a line. We’ll hook you up with a decent director for your next video, and all will be good in the hood.

-AR

So while it was rumored for awhile that this year’s edition of Ozzfest would be a two day event – but it has now been announced that it’ll be just one single day, on Saturday, August 9, at at Pizza Hut Park* in Dallas, Texas. The line-up will be as follows:

Main Stage
OZZY OSBOURNE
METALLICA
SERJ TANKIAN
HELLYEAH
JONATHAN DAVIS
CAVALERA CONSPIRACY
SHADOWS FALL
APOCALYPTICA
IN THIS MOMENT
All-Star Tribute To “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott

Second Stage
SEVENDUST
DEVILDRIVER
KINGDOM OF SORROW
SOILENT GREEN
WITCHCRAFT
GOATWHORE

Texas (Third) Stage
THE SWORD
DROWNING POOL
RIGOR MORTIS

Actually, that is, by no means, a terrible line-up; if the stages are staggered at all (and I imagine they will be), it would be plenty easy to keep oneself occupied during sets from In This Moment, Jonathan Davis, and HellNo. And I guess it’s honorable of Metallica to let Ozzy play last, even though, at this point, a) they’re much bigger than Ozzy and b) Ozzy has to be in bed by 8 pm. I mean, if I was Ozzy, and I’d spent recent Ozzfests getting blown off the stage by the likes of Maiden and Priest, I certainly wouldn’t wanna follow Metallica. But, y’know, nice of Ulrich and Hetfield to step aside for one night and let the Ozzman cometh.

Click to read more…

“MetalSucks.net! I look at you guys all the time!” These are the first words out of Clint Lowery’s mouth when he greets MetalSucks on his tour bus. Our intrepid reporters quickly burst into semi-nervous laughter before Lowery admits that a statement he released on Dark New Day’s MySpace page was a direct response to an editorial our own Vince Neilstein had written about that band just days prior (he’ll also make reference to at least one other piece Vince has written during the course of our interview).

“I hope no one was pissed,” the surprisingly tall Lowery says apologetically in his thick Georgia drawl before he takes a seat on the nearby couch. It’s kind of a surprising to hear Lowery ask us if we’re cool with something he said, since we’re pretty much accustomed to being the proverbial Assholes. But it illustrates what a genuinely nice dude Lowery is, and how legitimately happy he seems to be back in Sevendust after a three album absence.

The fans are happy, too. Later that night, at the band’s gig at the Starland Ballroom in Sayreville, New Jersey, they create huge pits as violent as anything you’d ever see at a Hatebreed show, seemingly in Clint’s honor. This loyal and rabid fanbase is the reason Sevendust has survived while so many of their peers have fallen by the wayside. And with Lowery back in the band, it seems that they’re now poised to be more powerful than ever before.

After the jump, read Clint’s thoughts on leaving Dark New Day, returning to Sevendust, and what lies ahead for him and his bandmates.

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Killswitch Engage might hold the record for security guard singalongs at New Jersey’s Starland Ballroom, but after last night Sevendust hold the crown for roughest mosh pit. A reinvigorated Sevendust — now with founding guitarist Clint Lowery back in the band — got the crowd moving in a way I haven’t seen that room churn in years… maybe ever. Before the show Axl remarked to me that Sevendust, who traveled in a ginormous tour bus and with a full tractor-trailer of a gear, might benefit monetarily from scaling back their production just a tad — but he quickly ate his words as the awesome, all-enveloping stage show that is Sevendust began their set. Sevendust is still one of the most engaging and exciting live bands on the planet, and having Clint back in the band drives that point home.

Let’s get this out of the way first: it is fucking great to have Clint Lowery back in the band. Now sporting some manly man’s long hair, Clint rocked out hard from note one and didn’t relent all night, criss-crossing across the stage without effort and engaging the crowd, who seemed well aware of his recent return even before the band hit the stage. His stage presence is mesmerizing, and it made the overall performance of the band that much more cohesive. Sevendust was and always will be a strong live unit, and Sonny Mayo did a fine job in the 4+ years of Clint’s absence — but I don’t think there’s any doubt that the band’s show is even stronger with Clint up there. Somehow, with Clint up on stage Lajon seemed more commanding, John and Vinny more energetic, Morgan more… Morgan fucking Rose, with his screaming and stick-throwing shenanigans.

Click to read more…

Sonny Mayo’s sudden expulsion from Sevendust makes me worried that Snot might reunite – I mean, fuck, it almost happened once already just about a year ago.

For those of you lucky enough not to be familiar with Snot, they’re a band that holds a legendary place in the minds of kids who actually like nu metal, since they were poised to join Limp Bizkit as one of their generation’s most annoying bands when front man Lynn Strait died in a car accident in 1998 (I’m not speaking ill of the dead, mind you; I’m just speaking ill of the dead’s shitty music). After Snot disbanded, its various members went on to such craptastic acts as Amen, Invitro, Godsmack, and Hed PE. Hell Mayo’s replacement, Mike Smith, even usurped Wes Borland for the one Limp Suckit album that even Fred Durst’s most ardent supporters seem to think sucks.

ANYWAY, in this day and age when bands like Blind Melon aren’t gonna let a little thing like a dead front man stop them from living their rock n’ roll dreams, I would be in no way surprised if some re-jiggered version of this band tried to figure out a way to cash in. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Here’s Snot’s video for “Stoopid.” Apt description if ever there was one.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://youtube.com/v/6VjJeKoVVM4" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Cute dog, right? Yeah. He died in the car crash, too.

-AR

Another fine metal Tuesday of new releases is upon us.

The most talked-about release today is In Flames’ controversial new album A Sense of Purpose. Does it represent a step towards current trends or the next logical evolution of the band? Read Vince’s Sunday Spotlight feature on In Flames for a career retrospective of the band up until this point.

Sevendust release their seventh record Chapter VII: Hope & Sorrow today, less than a week after announcing the return of original guitarist Clint Lowery, making this album kind of irrelevant. It’s the third Clint-less album, and hence the third to sound exactly the same. But it’s Sevendust, and there are a few gems within. Read Vince’s long review and short review.

Dream Theater release the aptly titled Greatest Hit and 21 Other Pretty Cool Songs 2-disc retrospective set. Ironically, the one “greatest hit” has been remixed and robbed of its originality.

Retro-Sabbathian metallers The Sword release their new one Gods of the Earth today; Kip W. will have a full review shortly, but preliminary reactions have been so-so.

Elsewhere, Ministry finally release their covers album Cover Up after embarking on their farewell C U LaTour with Meshuggah. Apparently Joe Satriani has a new album out, and though we haven’t heard it we’re pretty sure we know what it sounds like. And experimental art metallers Nadja have a new one too; color me interested to hear it.

So hit your local record store (at least one city, Seattle, still has an awesome one called Everyday Music that I visited this weekend), iTunes, or your favorite torrent legal music download service and get these new jams.

Seeing as Clint Lowery just rejoined Sevendust, really, who cares? Can we please just skip this album and go to the next one? Mmmkay, thanks guys.

[Read Vince's long review here]

-VN

(two out of five horns)

[Sevendust announced yesterday that founding member and key songwriter Clint Lowery has rejoined the band after a four-year absence. The following is my best attempt at writing a review of their new album without having heard that news, which, in certain ways, is really difficult to do given Lowery's past influence on the band. -Ed.]

Almost exactly a year ago in a review of the then-new Sevendust album Alpha, I wrote the following line:

“Songs like ‘Deathstar’ feel like a cop-out to me; this is a mediocre song, and I feel like guitarist John Connolly could easily shit riffs like this for days and days.”

Unfortunately the band hasn’t done much to disprove me with their latest offering Chapter VII: Hope & Sorrow, out next Tuesday, April 1st on 7 Bros. / Asylum Records. For their third album without founding member and key songwriter Clint Lowery, essentially Sevendust have gone and written the same album for the third time in a row. Though there are a few nuggets on this album, Sevendust have failed to push themselves forward as a band and have, once again, failed to live up the potential that I have hoped — that I know — they have somewhere inside themselves.

Click to read more…

Head over to Sevendust’s MySpace page and you’ll find the message “Clint is back! More details to come…” Needless to say, this signals the return of guitarist Clint Lowery to the fold. Presumably this would mean that Sonny Mayo, who replaced Lowery, is out of the group… except both his photo and that of co-guitarist John Connolly are now missing from the “members” listing on the page. So for all we know, Mayo is still in and Connolly is out, or both of ‘em are out and Lowery is back in… we imagine this will get cleared up soon.

I guess this is good news, and I guess it was inevitable that Lowery would someday return to the fold – but the timing strikes me as odd. Sevendust are about to start promoting their new album, Hope and Sorrow, which comes out next week with and which features no contributions whatsoever from Lowery; meanwhile, the band Lowery left Sevendust to form, Dark New Day, just posted a new a song on their own MySpace page over the weekend (ironically titled “Goodbye”). Dark New Day’s MySpace page makes no mention of Lowery quitting the band, and the fact that his brother is also in the band would make you think he’s not gonna leave anytime soon; so is Lowery gonna be in two bands now? Even though they both sound nearly identical?

ANYWAY, if Lowery IS back, this would seem to make the band’s mysterious decision to drop off the Rockstar Energy Mayhem whatever the fuck its called tour even stupider; why reunite, get all that hype, and then waste it on a tour with fucking Saliva?

Hopefully someone will be wise enough to put out an official press release soon and clear up all the confusion. Color us intrigued…

-AR

Might we see a new Dark New Day release this year? Maybe so. After label problems and scheduling snafus due band members’ other touring commitments, it appears that the Clint Lowery-led (ex-Sevendust) machine might finally be ready to offer a follow-up to 2005′s Twelve Year Silence. In addition to posting a full, new track called “Goodbye” on their MySpace page this weekend, the band (in the form of drummer Will Hunt) had this to say:

“So, rumor, speculation, anticipation, etc., seems to be on a lot of peoples minds. I will not say anything accept this……………………Happy Easter! O.K., not really, I mean Happy Easter, no doubt, but let me just say this- there will be an announcemnt, I mean announcements, over the next couple of weeks that I really believe will make any Dark new Day fiends very happy- this I promise… Because after the rumors, speculation, labels, lawyers, he said, she said, blah, blah, fucking BLAH, its about the music, and you, the loyal DnD tribe that have never lost sight of that!”

What can we say? We sure hope the new record does see release this year. The new song is both heavy and artfully melodic, as could be expected from anything Clint Lowery puts his name on. While Sevendust may have written three albums in the time it took DnD to write one, the former seems content to write the same album three times in a row (Chapter VII: Hope & Sorrow out next Tuesday; trust us, we’ve heard it) but every bit of new Dark New Day material we’ve heard reassures us that Clint was the most progressive thinker in his old band.

-VN

Sevendust’s seventh album — Chapter VII: Hope & Sorrow — due for release April 1, has hit the leak wire. Down Mining has the album available for download; it features three guest appearances on three different songs — Myles Kennedy and Mark Tremonti of Alter Bridge, and Chris Daughtry of American Idol fame. This is the band who dropped off the mega-lineup of Rockstar Mayhem Energy Tour and joined forces with… wait for it… Saliva. Yes, the band who brought us such brain cell-killing duds greats as “Click, Click, Boom.” A little part of me just died inside.

It pains me to say these harsh words. This band has so much potential. Sigh.

-VN

After years of mis-management, losing a key songwriter / founding member, and a string of mediocre but decent enough albums, things were looking up for Sevendust. They weathered the storm of the nu-metal fallout to emerge unscathed by the critical backlash to beset pretty much every other band to whom that term ever applied. They’re set with their own label imprint through WMG’s Independent Label Group, they have a new album coming out a mere year after the last one, and they signed on to headline one of the side-stages at this Summer’s Rockstar Energy Mayhem Tour. Yes, Sevendust were poised for a new start; and now they go and fuck it it all up.

Click to read more…

[Welcome to the fifth installment of our exclusive blog series from the new thrash supergroup Iron Steel, featuring Morgan Rose (Sevendust) on drums; Jim LaMarca (Chimaira), Dave Ellefson (ex-Megadeth) and Rachel Bolan (Skid Row) all on bass; along with vocalist and guitarist Fran Strine and guitarist Tommy Redd. Each week a different member will be posting a blog entry at MetalSucks. This week Sevendust skinsman Morgan Rose talks about the trials and tribulations of being the band's de-facto tour manager. (Check out Fran Strine’s, Jim LaMarca’s, Tommy Redd’s and Dave Ellefson's previous entries.]

If you asked me a year ago if I would be the only island of sanity in an otherwise raucous, insane metal super-group, I would tell you that you were NUTS. The fact is, they need SOMEONE around here who is realistic, grounded and sensible, so here I am!

At NAMM Ellefson and Fran were having flashbacks, LaMarca got out of control at our release party and Tommy… well, Tommy is just a dangerous dude on the whole. Rachel Bolan only speaks to us via morse code transmissions and I recently heard that we were bringing even more people into this psychotic mess of a band – scary!

I’ve become the de-facto tour manager for the band lately because all our tour managers wind up either quitting, getting killed in one of Tommy’s ill-planned maneuvers or disappearing on their way to take the groupies home. The last one went to bring Tommy one of his bags and brought the wrong one up from under the bus – it was his stash of grenades – and it exploded as the tour manager swung it over his shoulder. We found the poor guy, headless, hanging from a tree on the outskirts of the parking lot we were in.

Click to read more…

[Welcome to the fourth entry of our exclusive blog series from the new thrash supergroup Iron Steel, featuring Morgan Rose (Sevendust) on drums; Jim LaMarca (Chimaira), Dave Ellefson (ex-Megadeth) and Rachel Bolan (Skid Row) all on bass; along with vocalist and guitarist Fran Strine and guitarist Tommy Redd. Each week a different member will be posting a blog entry at MetalSucks. This week ex-Megadeth low-end king Dave Ellefson talks about the band's upcoming tour plans. (Check out Fran Strine’s, Jim LaMarca’s and Tommy Redd's previous entries.]

Someone told me that we have to go on tour soon. The thought of leaving the Iron Steel compound with its many amenities was less than pleasant, but I understand that mere mortals need to see us play from time to time to be reminded of what Metal is.

The people we pay to deal with these things let us know about the offers – headlining of the main and second stages on the Rockstar Mayhem Tour, Ozzfest, The Warped Tour and Sounds of the Underground (they said they would do it this year if we would headline it) and a few other little tours that I don’t recall right now.

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[Welcome to the third entry of our exclusive blog series from the new thrash supergroup Iron Steel, featuring Morgan Rose (Sevendust) on drums; Jim LaMarca (Chimaira), Dave Ellefson (ex-Megadeth) and Rachel Bolan (Skid Row) all on bass; along with vocalist and guitarist Fran Strine and guitarist Tommy Redd. Each week a different member will be posting a blog entry at MetalSucks. This week guitarist Tommy Redd sounds off on run-ins with Afghani rebels on the band's recent tour through Asia. (Check out Fran Strine's and Jim LaMarca's previous entries.]

OK, so I am late! I’ve been busy keeping the world safe. I’d give you details about my activities, but then I’d have to kill you and frankly, I’ve had enough of that kinda stuff lately.

The guys in the band complain about me being late for practice, trying to play a show over speakerphone from communist countries with bad phone service, disappearing for a month when we are supposed to go on tour and shit, but their concerns pale in comparison to those of my superiors at my ‘day job’ (yeah, let’s call it that).

Click to read more…

Over the past several days there have been a spate of press releases more or less confirming that the biggest metal tour this summer is going to be the newly corporate controlled christened Rockstar Energy Mayhem Tour, whatwith Sharon Osbourne promising a limited run of Ozzfest dates this summer. So far the lineup is shaping up as follows:

• Slipknot and Disturbed will be co-headlining
• Dragonforce and Mastodon will round out the mainstage lineup
• Two sidestages:
  • Sevendust, Airbourne, Five Finger Death Punch, and 36 Crazyfists on one.
  • Machine Head, Black Tide, Suicide Silence, The Red Chord and Walls of Jericho on the other.

What a mess of conflicting emotions I have about this. I think it’s safe to say that no one who comes to this site gives two shits about Disturbed. I’m not big on Slipknot but I certainly respect what they’ve accomplished and haven’t ever witnessed the spectacle that is their live show, and I know Axl is gonna be psyched about this. Dragonforce and Mastodon: sweet. As for the side stages, there could be some difficult choices to make but hopefully the timing will stack up in such a way that Five Finger Death Suck and Black Tide are playing while other, cooler bands are on the other stage. Machine Head? Seen ‘em twice in 2007 but still, sweet. As for Sevendust, say what you will about their past several very mediocre albums, but the band always brings it live, and this is the first package tour of any sort they’ve been a part of since… man, I can’t even remember. Airbourne could be a good time in that AC/DC sort of way, and Axl’s been hyping Suicide Silence so I’ll give ‘em a shot. Our boys at Metal Injection love the Red Chord, so I’ll check that out too. Couldn’t care less about Walls of Jericho, except that my friend is in their music video.

On second thought, I guess there isn’t really that much of a dilemma: the Rockstar Energy Mayhem Tour is the tour to be at this summer, despite a few shitty acts. But when are there ever not any shitty acts?

-VN

[Welcome to the second entry of our exclusive blog series from the new thrash supergroup Iron Steel, featuring Morgan Rose (Sevendust) on drums; Jim LaMarca (Chimaira), Dave Ellefson (ex-Megadeth) and Rachel Bolan (Skid Row) all on bass (!); with vocalist and guitarist Fran Strine and guitarist Tommy Redd. Each week a different member will be posting a blog entry at MetalSucks. This week Chimaira's Jim LaMarca reports on the post-NAMM show apocalypse.]

As the wild NAMM weekend came to a close, Iron Steel almost broke up. Hung over from our release party, we had our first band meeting. Tommy was late, as usual, because he and Diggity Dave from Pimp My Ride closed down the party and moved it over to the custom shop, bringing the majority of the women in attendance with them. Fran had been barricaded in the bathroom of his hotel suite, hiding from Lacey from Rock of Love. She stalked him during the party and chased him all the way back to his hotel room. Morgan took his Sevendust bandmates, John Connolly and Sonny Mayo, left the party early and somehow wound up in jail for performing lewd acts at nearby Disneyland. Ellefson, in his usual ‘work mode’ did an impromptu ‘side-side project’ with some of the remaining musicians in attendance at the party – recruiting Mick Thomson (Slipknot), Josh Rand (Stone Sour), Marc Rizzo (Soulfly), Doc (God Forbid) – into a band that was all guitar players – and he was the only bassist (finally). I observed it all with Rob and Matt from my other band, Chimaira, sitting in the ultra-ultra-VIP section where nobody could see or speak to us – it was an invisibility chamber, actually – created just for Iron Steel.

Click to read more…

Next didn’t do much for me and Alpha did even less; so the news that Chris Daughtry will do a guest spot on the new Sevendust album, Hope and Sorrow, would seem to signal the official end of my interest in Sevendust. Yes, they now join Metallica, Megadeth, Aerosmith, AC/DC, and whatever band Vinnie Paul is playing with this week in my “Who gives a shit anymore?” pile. If working with some dip shit from American Idol is what gets the dudes in Sevendust off these days, then we were clearly headed down divergent paths anyway; Bon Jovi basically plays country these days, so I understand that sometimes bands I enjoyed in my youth and I are just going to have irreconcilable differences.

I’m sure at least one of our fine readers will accuse me of being close minded, and yet another will call me a hypocrite for ever liking Sevendust when I so openly loathe Korn; to those people, all I can say is “Your mother sucks cocks in hell.” Sometimes I have an itch for melodic pop metal that requires something a little more substantial than “All Day I Dream About Sex” but a little less weighty than “Stinkfist.” So blow me.

Anyway, it looks like there’s finally gonna be a new Dark New Day album this year. Maybe that’ll cure my jones for something cool n’ catchy.

-AR

[Welcome to the first of our exclusive blog series from the new thrash supergroup Iron Steel, featuring Morgan Rose (Sevendust) on drums; Jim LaMarca (Chimaira), Dave Ellefson (ex-Megadeth) and Rachel Bolan (Skid Row) all on bass (!); as well as Fran Strine on vocals and guitar and Tommy Redd on guitar. Each week a different member will be posting an exclusive blog only at MetalSucks. This week we start you off with Fran Strine, reporting from the trenches of the NAMM show in Anaheim.]

So, today I was walking around the 2008 NAMM show checking out all the new gear that everyone is going to give me because I’m so fucking rad, when I heard a loud ‘bang.’

I hit the floor as soon as I heard it – taking one of our many bassists, Dave Ellefson, along with me. “They’re coming,” I screamed. Dave was looking left to right and doing a military crawl, dragging me along until we got under the table at the Peavey booth. As people walked by, we saw our drummer, Morgan Rose, we called out to him “save yourself, Morgan!” He came over, yanked Ellefson out from under the table and shook him by the shoulders, screaming “Dave – we are in Anaheim!” Next he did it to me, and once we were both shaken and sat down at the booth, we calmed down a bit. Morgan went and got LaMarca and Tommy and told them what happened. I could see them shaking their heads and when I read their lips, they were saying “Not again!”

Click to read more…