MetalSucks

I really like the Rockstar Mayhem Festival – it’s like someone went to Ozzfest and figured out a way to make it way better. Having two side-by-side second stages was a stroke of genius; there’s no downtime in-between bands, because one act can set up while another plays. The mainstage has been solid, too, although there’s always one co-headliner that’s totally missable – in other words, Disturbed and Marilyn Manson played those slots. But so have Slayer, Mastodon, and a bunch of other great bands, so there’s that.

Well, our pals at Metal Insider are reporting a few rumors as to whom might be on this year’s fest, and it looks as though the skipable band this year may very well be Korn.

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Twitter is arguably the most powerful tool available to musicians today, its micro-blogging mechanism allowing for real-time dissemination of information as well as a venue for direct communication open discussion with fans. Sadly, too many bands focus so heavily on the first of these benefits (Shadows Fall are a prime example of Twitter fan abuse, their profile replete with repeat tweets) that they squander any chance of actually connecting with their supporters. Interestingly, one musician who actually “gets” Twitter comes from a generation of rockers you’d expect to not “get” Twitter. His name is Glenn Hughes.

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The big beef on the Webernets this weekend concerned a Twitter fight between Shadows Fall frontman Brian Fair and All That Remains frontman Phil Labonte over the latter’s girlfriend. Yup, a Twitter fight. In the end it can most likely be chalked up to a bunch of drunks quibbling, but it sure is funny! Have a look at the Twitter war play by play over at Metal Injection.

Turns out All That Remains have a new video too, for the track “Forever in Your Hands.” I’ve been over All That Remains since the first time I saw them live and realized Labonte couldn’t touch those high notes he hits on record with the assistance of ProTools. Not that I was ever really into the band in the first place. But, ya know, some of you may dig this band… so here’s the video, which features cameos by God Forbid’s Byron Davis, Killswitch’s Adam D. and others.

-VN

Five heavy hitting heavy hitters — Alice in Chains, Hatebreed, Austrian Death Machine, Steel Panther and Dethklok — all released new records last week. Solid 2nd and 3rd week performances from Three Days Grace, Muse, Megadeth, Five Finger Death Punch and others made it an all-around big week for metal. Let’s see how everyone fared after the jump.

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Look how angry Brian Fair is in that photo. Grrrrr. That’s his metal face. Not to be fucked with.

In reality, though, Brian is actually a pretty chill dude. Seriously. Would an angry monster give away free shit over Twitter? Of course not. But Brian is. Says the Shadows Fall front man himself:

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Luckily for Five Finger Death Punch, being total assholes who completely lack any musical talent isn’t hurting their record sales: their new album, War is the Answer, is apparently going to sell to somewhere between 35,000 – 40,000 copies in its first week of release… and that’s just here in the U.S. That probably sounds like a lot of units moved, and you’re right. It is a lot of fucking units moved. To put it in perspective with the sales of some awesome albums that came out this week…

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Last Tuesday was a huuuuge week for new metal releases. Megadeth, Black Dahlia Murder, Shadows Fall, Living Colour, Dying Fetus, Porcupine Tree, Every Time I Die, Thrice and Ace Frehley all released new albums, and all charted in the Top 200! After the jump, let’s look at where they all ended up.

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In celebration of their new album Retribution, Shadows Fall have teamed up with like 10,082 sponsors to offer fans the ultimate prize pack, including a copy of the new record, signature gear, gift certificates, magazine subscriptions, and a whole lot more swag from all of the participating sponsors. A guitar from Ibanez! Drum gear from Tama and Meinl! A microphone from Samson, a recorder from Zoom, and MORE! It’s without a doubt one of the biggiest, craziest promotions of which we’ve ever been a part! It’s in-saaaaane!*

Enter now for your chance to win before the contest ends on September 25th.

*Crazy Eddie not included.

Oh boy: what an excellent way to end your day. Shadows Fall’s highly anticipated new album, Retribution, is streaming in full right now. Go listen.

The album hits stores tomorrow on Everblack Industries/Ferret. We hope y’all dig it!!!

-AR

Tomorrow night there will be a special listening party for Shadows Fall’s new album, Retribution, at Arrow Bar here in Manhattan. Arrow Bar is a cool place – they have heavy metal happy hour every Friday night (where you can often find either Vince or myself and other members of the NYC metal literati drinking until we find one another attractive), and was the spot of last year’s Second Annual MetalSucks/Metal Injection holiday fiesta. Plus, y’know, you’ll get to hear the new Shadows Fall album!

Unfortunately, Vince will be in Philly and I’ll be tending to some personal bidness, so there won’t be any representatives of the MetalSucks family on hand. But we have heard Retribution and can readily endorse it as another killer blast of metal from our favorite Massholes. My short review would be that band found a happy balance between the heavy heavy shit of yore (The Art of Balance, etc.) and the arena rock material that found its way onto Threads of Life: “My Demise” has one of the best guitar solos of the year and “War” will surely make you want to kill small animals, but “Picture Perfect” is one of the best Def Leppard songs that Def Leppard never wrote. This album has it all.

Be there or be square. I’m very sad I can’t go.

If you can’t make it either, don’t fret: Retribution comes out this Tuesday, September 15 on Everblack Industries/Ferret.

-AR

This morning, I received the following e-mail from reader Parker Werley:

“How does a band get to earn the proud badge of having -core in their genre?”

That’s a pretty simple question, but it’s also kind of thought provoking. So I thought maybe we could explore it here a little bit. Because, honestly, I’m not sure that I know what the answer is.

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Below is video of Shadows Fall on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last night. It’s an awesome performance of the new song “Still I Rise,” but unfortunately, it doesn’t show what might have been the best part of the show: our favorite Massholes completely destroying Fallon’s personal green room (NOT his guest green room) during a live, on-air promo right before they played. If anyone saw that – you should know that it was not staged, and no one on Fallon’s team (or The Shads’, as I understand it) had any idea what the band had planned (these promos usually consist of just waving to the camera and being boring). You can watch video of the band going all GN’R/Headbanger’s Ball on the green room’s ass here.

You might think Fallon was pretty pissed, but apparently he thought it was awesome and is only too-excited to have SF back on his show in the near future – the above photo was actually taken after the green room incident. So props to Fallon for being a cool dude.

Shadows Fall’s new album, Retribution, drops September 15 on Everblack Industries/Ferret.

-AR

Those in the NYC area, pay close attention: TONIGHT, there is a very, very special MetalSucks co-sponsored Tones of Death show going down at Fontana’s in Manhattan. Observe:

• Black Anvil CD release party (download “Margin For Terror” for free here)
• MetalSucks local faves The Binary Code are opening.
• Special guest DJ is Brian Fair from Shadows Fall
• There is a super-awesome, super-secret special guest band giving a surprise performance. We can’t tell you who this super-secret special guest is, but we promise you that you’ll be very, very sorry if you miss this opportunity.
• THE SHOW IS FREE!
• There will very likely be free alcohol of some kind.

See? The madness starts at 8pm, and the show is 21+. See you there!

Here’s the new Shadows Fall video, for the song “Still I Rise.” It’s full of dudes working out and running and fighting and stuff. Mostly, though, it’s just a good chance to hear a new Shadows Fall song.

The band’s latest, Retribution, comes out September 15. A little birdie told me it’s heavy as fuck.

Shadows Fall just announced a tour with Five Finger Death Punch. Well, nobody’s perfect.

-AR

Last week, Elise at Reign in Blonde wrote a piece entitled “TOP 5 SONGS I WOULD PROBABLY USE AS MY STRIPPER SONG.”

Improbably enough, this led to a stoned think-session where I came up with a list of the top five songs I would probably use as my own stripper song. ‘Cause I know you all wanna see me strip so badly.

Okay, here we go:

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Word on the street is that the new Shadows Fall album, Retribution, is one heavy motherfucker, and the first song released off the record, “King of Nothing,” would seem to confirm this. It’s already a shitton heavier than anything off of Threads of Life; this sounds like classic Shads, with enough of a musical progression to keep it interesting. If anyone still doubts that Bachand and Donais can bring the shred, this should shut ‘em up, and my neck already hurts from just one quick listen/headbanging session.

And, of course, having a guest spot by Randy Blythe doesn’t hurt.

Check out the song here. Retribution comes out September 15.

And just for shits n’ giggles, if you’re really bored at work, watch the mediocre Metallica video for the mediocre Metallica song of similar name after the jump.

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[Reverend David J. Ciancio, owner of Yeah! Management (Shadows Fall, Cancer Bats, Poison the Well, many more), likes his meat as much as he likes his metal; the man has two meat-themed websites, Steak Club 7 and Burger Conquest, the latter of which is devoted to seeking out and reviewing the burgers of the world, an ambitious and worthy mission if ever there was one. Anytime I'm in a random city I'll text The Rev to ask him where the best burger is, and he inevitably comes through (aside: if you're ever in San Diego hit up Neighborhood). The Rev was recently on tour with Shadows Fall in Alaska and took them on a Burger Conquest, the writeup of which is below, exclusive to MetalSucks. Enjoy!]

Arctic Roadrunner Local Burgerman
http://www.lastfrontier.org/morsel_apr_2008.htm
5300 Old Seward Hwy
Anchorage, AK 99518

THE STORY
Before I go anywhere, I Google “best hamburger (insert city name)” and results for Anchorage seemed unanimous, Arctic Roadrunner Local Burgerman is reported to have the #1 burger in town. Located just South of the city center next to Campbell Creek, the Arctic Roadrunner has been slingin’ up burgers since 1964. It’s short-order counter service and cash only but it’s an award winning institution. Sparing no details in decorating the log cabin, you’ll find a tusk of a woolly mammoth, antlers, a fire place, pictures of famous patrons and all sorts of local oddities.

I was up here on tour with Shadows Fall who played 2 shows while in town with Family Tree Presents. We played a 21+ gig at the world famous Chilkoot Charlie’s and an all-ages show at Club Millenium. Both shows were fantastic and the fans were insane. Metal is alive and well in Alaska!

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The album drops September 15.

-AR

Also quickly:

-AR

I guess having successfully attained “Redemption,” Shadows Fall are just gonna kick ass and take names with their latest album: they’ve chosen the title Retribution, according to Blabbermouth. The album will drop September 15, which is now shaping up to be a truly righteous day for new records.

Here’s some lo-fi footage of the band playing a new song, “A Public Execution.” And Matt Bachand is wearing a God Forbid tee. Nice.

-AR