MetalSucks

So I just watched Faith No More’s Download Fest perf. I only saw one pair of boobies, and they were terrible boobies. On the other hand, FNM killed it and played “Take This Bottle” and Patton did part of “We Care A Lot” while doing sit-ups with the mic in his mouth, so ya take the good with the bad.

Speaking of the good with the bad: we started to unveil the results of our 21 Best Metal Albums of the 21st Century… So Far poll/list this week, and as usual, y’all had something to say about it:

• SP420 thinks it’s “unbelievable that so many people hold” the #17 album, Hatebreed’s Perseverance, “in such high regard.” Sp420, Jamey Jasta will be at your house in one hour to discuss.
• ionlanach thinks that the #18 album, Lamb of God’s New American Gospel, is “Mediocre, just like everything Lamb of God have ever done.” Even Randy Blythe’s BBQ sauce is offended
• I hate you thinks that if the #19 album, Mastodon’s Remission, “was your first metal album, you are gay” and that “metal is obviously not your fortay.” In other news, I hate you doesn’t know how to spell “forté” correctly.
• Fufkin calls the #20 album, Shadows Fall’s The War Within, “metalbore.” While I don’t agree with him (her?), that’s just clever enough for me not to make fun of Fufkin.
• Robert thinks that the #21 album, Slipknow’s Vol 3: The Subliminal Verses, is “sort of a pile of shit.” Which leads me to wonder: at what point does something go from being “sort of” a pile of shit to, y’know, an actual pile of shit?

Next week we’re countin’ down albums #16 through #12. The picks are clearly either gonna make you guys really fuckin’ happy or really fuckin’ mad. I’ll give you a hint, though: they’re all metal albums.

-AR

SPECIAL GUEST BLOGGER BRAM TEITELMAN OF THE SYNDICATE & METAL INSIDER

We recently polled a wide array of musicians, managers, publicists, label reps, and writers from within the world of metal to find out what they thought the 21 Best Metal Albums of the 21st Century So Far have been. Eligible albums were released between January 1, 2000 and  April 1, 2009. Each panelist turned in a ballot, with their #1 album worth 21 points, their #2 album worth 20 points, and so on and so forth. The ballots are now in and we’ll be counting down one album a day until we reach #1. Today we present the #20 album, coming in with a total of 105 points…

Shadows Fall, The War Within (Century Media, 2004)
Brian Fair – Vocals
Jonathan Donais – Lead Guitars
Matt Bachand – Rhythm Guitars
Paul Romanko – Bass
Jason Bittner – Drums
Produced by Zeuss

In 2009, “metalcore” is a polarizing word. Mainly because the fusion – of metal and hardcore, of screamed and sung vocals, of Sweden and America – is a cliché by now, a dead horse that’s been beaten by countless formulaic bands that forgot to write actual songs. Go back almost exactly five years, however, and the sound was as close to a revolution in metal as there has been this decade. Killswitch Engage’s The End of Heartache made an impressive debut at #21 on Billboard’s top 200 chart in May of 2004, but on September 28th of the same year their New England brethren Shadows Fall’s fourth album, The War Within, did them one better, debuting at #20. While neither of the New England trifecta of those two bands and Unearth would probably want to label themselves as “metalcore,” they represent the heights of the genre, for better or worse.

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You know what I love about Shadows Fall? They’re just pure fucking shredders. It’s unfortunate that they got caught up in the whole “metalcore” tag, or for that matter any scene-y genre label at all, because if not for this fact they’d be in a completely different position today. Think about it: when Of One Blood came out in 2000 (and to an even greater extent, Art of Balance in 2002), no one in America was pedaling the kind of ’80s-influenced shred Shadows Fall were offering up on the regs. If the whole Massachusetts scene hadn’t blown up the way it did Shadows Fall would’ve surfaced as an oddity in the American metal scene, shredders amongst hordes of non-shredding masses. A true metal band in a sea of… not true metal bands.

All this occurred to me for two reasons:

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There are a few phrases that tweak the highly attuned sensors of professional music journalists. The one that frequently sets off the bullshit detectors is “highly anticipated debut.” Debuts, by their very nature, are seldom anticipated by anyone not in a band, working for a band or related to or fucking a member of the band. (And in the case of the latter, the anticipation is mainly along the lines of “Now maybe they’ll please just shut up about how the record’s coming out soon.”) The entire rest of the world is unlikely to be anticipating a debut because they don’t know anything about the band in the first place… because, after all, this is their debut we’re talking about.

In the case of Burning Human, however, a considerable amount of slack should be given to their describing their own studio debut album as “highly anticipated.” Why? Because after nearly a decade and a half of forming the band, these guys finally got around to releasing a full-length studio album. Burning Human was founded in upstate New York way back in 1995 and, based on the strength of a pretty rad demo tape (Death is Mercy), looked to be ready to take on the death metal world. As you may have realized, they did not (although drummer Jason Bittner hasn’t done too poorly for himself in Shadows Fall) and they split up in 1997, coming back together for the inevitable Reunion Nobody Asked For in 2007.

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Earlier this month, to help celebrate the fact that our favorite Massholes, Shadows Fall, are going to play decimate Bonnaroo, we asked you to tell us the best way to stop a hippy using metal. We got a lot of great entries but there was only room for ten winners. And those winners each get an awesome Shadows Fall shirt (pictured above). Congratulations everyone!

Read the ten winning entries after the jump. And don’t forget to check out Shadows Fall’s website and Shadows Fall’s MySpace page for all the latest updates on the band!

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So this Burning Human record ended up being really fucking cool. Any time early press about a band loudly touts the fact that the band features a member of another more famous band (in this case drum-guru Jason Bittner of Shadows Fall) I’m naturally skeptical; but about 5 seconds of the new song “Tormented Mind” was really all I needed to convince me that Burning Human is completely capable of standing on their own as a brutal, crushing death metal band. Honestly, this is some of the finest straight up death metal I’ve heard since Bloodbath’s The Fathomless Mastery decimated my brain last year. “Tormented Mind” comes from their new album Ressurection Through Fire, produced by the legendary James Murphy (Death) and out on Koch/E1 tomorrow. Download it for no charge, guilt-free, below! Check out Burning Human’s MySpace page for an extra streaming track. Enjoy. [Click the below link to stream and download]

Burning Human – “Tormented Mind”

-VN

In case you haven’t heard, Shadows Fall are playing Bonnaroo. No no no, fuck that – they are going to decimate Bonnaroo. All those filthy hippies won’t know what the fuck the hit ‘em. They’ll see Brian Fair take the stage with his awesome, long-ass dreads, and they’ll be all “Cool, he likes patculli, I like patculli!” and then WHAM! The band’ll play “The Light that Blinds” or “Destroyer of Senses”  or whatever and it’ll make the Great Quake of 1906 look like a Pixar movie.

To celebrate our favorite Massholes’ contribution to the decimation of these wretched fiends, we’re teaming up with the band to give away ten (10) awesome Shadows Fall t-shirts.

All you need to do to win is leave a comment below telling us the best way to stop a hippy using metal (consult the episode of South Park where Cartman drives the hippies mad by blasting Slayer for an excellent example). Remember that this is MetalSucks, not the New England Journal of Medicine, so you’d better make us laugh if you want a shot at winning.

And PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU REGISTER FOR THE COMMENTS SECTION USING A REAL E-MAIL ADDRESS AS ALL WINNERS WILL BE CONTACTED BY E-MAIL. We’ll also have various shirt sizes so don’t worry about that for now.

And don’t forget to check out Shadows Fall’s website and Shadows Fall’s MySpace page for all the latest updates on the band! They’re working on a new album! HORNS!

-Axl, Vince, and Everyone at MetalSucks

• FORMER MEMBER OF GN’R NOBODY GIVES A SHIT ABOUT DELIVERS HIS REACTION TO CHINESE DEMOCRACY TO A MIRROR: “Yes, I listened to it on a long drive to Phoenix, Arizona,” ex-GN’R rhythm guitarist Gilby ‘I Swear I’m Not Izzy’ Clarke allegedly told “a fan” (actually his reflection). “But there was [sic] too many slow-to-midtempo songs on it for my taste and some of the solos are a little overdone; they don’t match the song.” When the “fan” flattered Clarke by saying the album’s solos would have been vastly superior had Clarke played them, he chuckled modestly: “You’re too kind. Too kind.”
• CLINT LOWERY SAYS DARK NEW DAY’S FUTURE “DOESN’T LOOK GOOD.” Also: water is wet.
• MEMBERS OF SHADOWS FALL AND FATES WARNING JOIN FORCES IN 80′S METAL COVER BAND NAMED AFTER THE “BAD” DOJO IN THE KARATE KID: Still less fucktarded than being named after the dude from The Neverending Story.

-AR

We haven’t done “Ask Anton OyVey” in awhile because Anton went to the old country to visit the shtetl. But before he left he once told me that he was on the hunt for an original, vintage Dangerous Toys shirt, and was having no luck locating one on eBay. Since I know Anton is tight with Shadows Fall’s manager, I told him he should give the dude a call – the Shads recorded a cover of “Teasin’ Pleasin’” a few years ago with Jason McMaster doing guest vocals, and if they could put Anton in touch with McMaster, it was hard for me to imagine that McMaster wouldn’t help out; I mean, what the fuck else does the guy have to do these days?

So apparently Dangerous Toys reunited for a 20th anniversary gig last week (see video footage below). I imagine a tour will follow shortly, at which point Anton will be able to get an original (if not vintage) Dangerous Toys shirt. I can’t wait to see the look of joy on his face when he does.

-AR

The economy’s in the shitter and the sun is setting earlier and earlier every day. Still, there was reason to rejoice this week in the world of metal:

• The members of Twisted Sister are apparently now willing to “take it.”
• We interviewed Dani Filth of Cradle of Filth, Ronny Munroe of Metal Church, and Brian Fair of Overcast / Shadows Fall.
• Dallas raged against the McCain machine (as did the Foo Fighters). You raged against Dallas.
• Crikey! Scar Symmetry hire two new vocalists to take the place of one.
• Scars on Broadway call off their tour; we call bullshit.
• FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK. And Fuck.
• Gojira got heavy in every sense of the word.
• Bam Bam Bigelow + Marty Jannetty = ’80s Vinnie Paul.

Sayonara suckers. See you next week.

-VN

To many fans around the world, Brian Fair is known as the charismatic front man for Shadows Fall, one of the most successful metal bands of their generation. What younger fans might not realize is that Fair actually got his start as the singer of Massachusetts metalcore pioneers Overcast. Every subgenre of metal has an Overcast – a band that splits up before they really hit it big, and whose members go on to form other, better-known acts. (In Overcast’s case, besides Fair’s joining of the Shads, guitarist Pete Cortese went on to form Seemless, while bassist Mike D’Antonio currently plays with some band called Killswitch Engage.)

Of course, the newfound celebrity of Overcast’s members didn’t dampen old fans’ desire to hear their music – or new fans’ curiosity about how some of their favorite musicians got their start. But before disbanding in 1998, Overcast had only released a small handful of recordings on tiny independent labels, making anything other than low-quality bootlegs incredibly difficult to track down.

With that in mind, the band recently released the appropriately titled Reborn to Kill Again (Metal Blade), an Adam D. produced collection of re-recorded classic and several new songs. I recently had the opportunity to chat with Fair about getting Overcast back together again, re-thinking the band’s old material after all these years, and the possible future of the band. And, oh yeah, he was even cool enough to give me a quick update on the status of the new Shadows Fall album. Check out the full transcript after the jump.

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I know some people that are absolutely fuckin’ fanatical about All That Remains, the Masshole group fronted by former Shadows Fall front dude/devout Christian/self-professed porn addict Phil Labonte (who actually seems to have found a fairly stable line-up for the band after years of constant member changes). I’ve always had a lot of respect for the band, but never quite got to a point where I was as into them as some of their American New Wave peers; maybe that’s because, as much as I’ve enjoyed their albums (particularly 2004’s This Darkened Heart), I’ve seen them live a few times and they never exactly knocked my socks off. Still, I’ll take them over As I Lay Dying any day of the week.

ANYWAY, ATR have a new album, Overcome, coming out on Prosthetic on September 16, and now two new songs from said album, entitled “Before the Damned” and “Relinquish,” have made their way onto the band’s MySpace page.

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Metal Blade has signed infamous Massholes, Overcast. Overcast are of some interest because their singer, Brian Fair, went on to front a little band you may have heard of called Shadows Fall, while their bassist, Mike D’Antonio, eventually joined some group called Killswitch Engage (the band’s other members, presumably, went on to get day jobs). That makes Overcast one of those bands that is kind of a retroactive supergroup, like the line-up of Megadeth that had Kerry King for all of ten seconds, or one of those glam bands like London or Hollywood Rose, whose various members went on to form Motley Crue, GN’R, and L.A. Guns.

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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.

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So, yes, we saw Unearth on Friday night*, and they pretty much slayed it. There wasn’t quite as much jumping off of amplifiers as I might have liked, but their set was violent – I mean, I saw one dude come out of the pit with blood absolutely gushing from his head – so I guess that more than makes up for it.

The big news of the night (at least for music dorks like us) though, was that vocalist Trevor Phipps announced from the stage that the band will be entering the studio to record a new album in June – with producer Adam D. Unearth fans will remember that Adam D. produced most of the band’s old albums (including their breakthrough, The Oncoming Storm), but that the band’s most recent release, III: In the Eyes of Fire, was done with Terry Date (Pantera, Deftones, etc.).

I’m more than a little curious to know why Unearth are going back to Adam D. – not that I think the reunion is a bad thing (I actually much prefer Storm to Fire). The documentary included on the band’s recent DVD, Alive from the Apocalypse, indicates that they had a good working relationship with Date. So was it a money issue? A scheduling issue? Or, having seen other people and sown their wild oats (so to speak), is Unearth now ready to settle down with their high school sweetheart?

In any case, hopefully we’ll get a new Unearth album before the end of the year (the band played a single new riff on Friday night – it sounded suspiciously like the breakdown from Pantera’s “Domination”). In the meantime, if you haven’t watched Alive from the Apocalypse, you probably should – both the documentary and the concert film included on it are killer.

-AR

*It’s more than worth mentioning that Shadows Fall headlined, and I think they played the most energetic set I’ve ever seen them perform. Craziness.

For some reason metal bands have particularly taken to covering Pink Floyd. Actually, pretty much everyone has taken to covering Pink Floyd because, well, they’re one of the best and most important bands of all time. But of all metal covers of Pink Floyd tunes, “Welcome to the Machine” seems to get the nod more frequently than most. There’s something about that plodding rhythm that is just so visceral and brutal and ripe for metal renditions.

Invisible Oranges recently posted the original along with Queensryche’s version from their 2007 release Take Cover and Shadows Fall’s version from The Art of Balance.

Pink Floyd – “Welcome to the Machine” (Wish You Were Here, 1975)
Shadows Fall – “Welcome to the Machine” (The Art of Balance, 2002)
Queensryche – “Welcome to the Machine” (Take Cover, 2007)

Which do you prefer?

-VN

[Massachusetts metallers Shadows Fall have just completed an exhausting run of shows on the far side of the globe in Australia, Korea, Japan and the Philippines. Each day this week vocalist Brian Fair will be recapping stories from the road in a guest-blog for MetalSucks. The fourth and final entry follows; be sure to read Brian’s entries about the Australian, Korean and Japanese tour stops. -Ed.]

We had never been to the Philippines before and honestly had no idea what to expect. There was no way we could have been prepared for the reception we were about to receive. The second we got off the plane, we knew this was going to be something special. We were greeted at the gate by an army of photographers from all the local newspapers and magazines. We were then whisked through immigration and customs and taken to a special VIP lounge where we discovered that we were on the front page of the local paper!! Unreal. After battling through the insane traffic of Manila, we headed to a local radio station to help promote the show. This was going to be the first metal show in the Philippines in years so the anticipation was incredibly high. We headed back to the hotel for some much needed rest and recovery and also to prepare for our trip to the beach the next day. Since we had two days off before the show, Vernon the promoter had set it up so we could head to the island paradise of Boracay to enjoy two days on the white sand beaches.

We hoped on a tiny ass propeller plane, then an even tinier boat, then finally a crazy truck to make it out to this remote slice of heaven. It really just doesn’t get any better than this. After two incredible days, we headed back to Manila to get ready for the show. As we walked into the venue, we noticed something incredible. Vernon and his crew had constructed a 30 foot replica of the “Rootman” from the album artwork from Threads Of Life, complete with moving arms and lazers shooting out of it’s chest!!!!

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[Massachusetts metallers Shadows Fall have just completed an exhausting run of shows on the far side of the globe in Australia, Korea, Japan and the Philippines. Each day this week vocalist Brian Fair will be recapping stories from the road in a guest-blog for MetalSucks. The third entry follows; be sure to read Brian's entries about the Australian and Korean tour stops. -Ed.]

Back to Japan. The land of Godzilla, Hello Kitty and some of the greatest metal fans in the world. We were very excited to be part of a four day tour with our good friends in Arch Enemy and Job For A Cowboy. For those of you who don’t know, Arch Enemy are heavy metal gods in Japan and we can’t thank them enough for allowing us to join them and play in front of their rabid fans. All of the shows were packed and absolutely incredible. This was by far the most energetic and physical audience we have ever played in front of in Japan. The response to the new songs from Threads Of Life complete with crazy sing-alongs and general insanity of the crowds blew us away. It had been two and a half years since our last trip to Japan and the welcome we received was overwhelming. On our final night, we headed to our favorite bar in Japan, the infamous Rock Rock bar in Osaka. We all knew we had to wake up at 5AM for our trip to the Philippines, but that didn’t stop us from slamming beers and shots with Arch Enemy and JFAC ’til the sun came up. Thank God the flight was only three hours.

- Brian Fair (Shadows Fall)

[Stay tuned for the update from the Philippines tomorrow...]

[Shadows Fall on MySpace]
[Shadows Fall Official Website]

[Massachusetts metallers (and perennial MetalSucks faves) Shadows Fall have just completed an exhausting run of shows on the far side of the globe in Australia, Korea, Japan and the Philippines. Each day this week vocalist Brian Fair will be recapping stories from the road in a guest-blog for MetalSucks. The second entry follows; be sure to read yesterday's entry about the Australian tour stop. -Ed.]

Right after the final Soundwave show in Perth, we headed right to the airport to begin a long trip to Seoul, Korea for a headlining show. This would be our second time playing in Korea and our anticipation of a killer show was very high. The fans in Korea welcomed us with a very loud reaction and lots of energy. We responded with a marathon set that included some songs from Of One Blood that we had not played in years and “Stormwinds” from Threads Of Life that had never been played live before. After the set, we headed to an amazing rock bar for a meet and greet with a ton of kids from the show. The Jager was flowing like water and people started getting quite loose. Jason took over the DJ booth and kept the hits from the 80’s rolling. The bar had a stage with a full backline set up and it was only a matter of time before a drunken karaoke session broke out. Nothing says party like a Jager soaked Men At Work sing along. A big thank you to Kevin Kim and everyone at Dope Entertainment.

Everyone had a blast until we realized we had to be up at 6AM for our flight to Japan. Ouch.

-Brian Fair (Shadows Fall)

[Stay tuned for Japan shenanigans tomorrow...]

[Boston-area metallers (and perennial MetalSucks faves) Shadows Fall have just completed an exhausting run of shows on the far side of the globe in Australia, Korea, Japan and the Philippines. Each day this week vocalist Brian Fair will be recapping stories from the road in a guest-blog for MetalSucks. The first entry follows. Enjoy. -Ed.]

Wow. 15 flights in 21 days. The best word to describe our Australia and Asia tour would have to be whirlwind. Early mornings, airport breakfasts, incredible shows and brutal hangovers. I can’t wait to do it all again!!!

Australia has always been one of my favorite places on this earth to visit and our run on the Soundwave festival was no exception. The weather was perfect, the beers were strong and the crowds were ready for some real metal. The shows felt more like a class reunion of bands we have toured with throughout the years than a festival half-way across the globe. We had a blast partying with our boys in Killswitch Engage, From Autumn To Ashes, Divine Heresy, As I Lay Dying, Thursday, Still Remains and many more. The crowds over at the metal stage were absolutely insane!! They were loud enough to drown out the sappy sounds creeping over from all the emo stages that surrounded us and let people know that metal was alive and well in the land of Oz. These kids were going off from the first band to the last with some serious circle pit action and other assorted insanity. One kid even climbed a tree for a better view until the branch he was on snapped off and he dropped twenty plus feet to the ground!!! Another highlight was watching Tommy Vext of Divine Heresy doing his best Fred Durst at Woodstock impression and riding a piece of plywood on top of the crowd until his heavy ass split the wood in two!! A big “fuck you” to the kid in the crowd that hit Nick from As I Lay Dying in the head with an empty whiskey bottle. Thankfully the crowd responded with a little “dance floor justice” and made sure that he did not get away unpunished.

All in all, it was an amazing trip that already has me looking forward to heading back to Australia.

- Brian Fair (Shadows Fall)

[Shadows Fall on MySpace]
[Shadows Fall Official Website]