FEATURING MEMBERS OF GOD FORBID, SKELETONWITCH, CHARRED WALLS OF THE DAMNED, MUNICIPAL WASTE, TODAY IS THE DAY, LANDMINE MARATHON, AND SHAI HULUD

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!

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Well, the line-up for this year’s New England Metal & Hardcore Festival — one of the oldest and most revered extreme music fests in the U.S. — has been announced, and it’s… interesting. The fest returns to a three-day format after being only two days last year, but if I’m not mistaken, this is the first time that the initial day will be a Thursday, not a Friday. And as reader Brian Kessler pointed out to us via e-mail, there are two noteworthy aspects to the lineup:

• It seems like metal and hardcore have been further segregated on the bill — Thursday appears to be almost entirely dedicated to deathcore and crabcore bands, Friday seems to be entirely devoted to hardcore bands, and Saturday is dominated by metal bands. There are pros and cons to this approach — the pro being that if you’re only a fan of one particular style of extreme music, you can cherry pick which day you’re going to attend, and the con being that new fans are less likely to be exposed to bands with whom they were not already familiar.
• There seem to be fewer “big name” acts. Sure, Hatebreed and Biohazard are on there, but that’s still a far cry from years’ past. In fact, plenty of big name who have new albums scheduled to come out this year — like Amon Amarth, DevilDriver, Arch Enemy, In Flames, and Children of Bodom — aren’t playing the fest.

Please note that I’m not knocking the fest — in fact, I think Saturday, April 16 is full of killer bands — and I don’t think every fest needs to be headlined by a band of Megadeth’s stature. I just think this particular line-up is… interesting.

Anyway, here’s the full bill:

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Well, the line-up for this year’s New England Metal & Hardcore Festival — one of the oldest and most revered extreme music fests in the U.S. — has been announced, and it’s… interesting. The fest returns to a three-day format after being only two days last year, but if I’m not mistaken, this is the first time that the initial day will be a Thursday, not a Friday. And as reader Brian Kessler pointed out to us via e-mail, there are two noteworthy aspects to the lineup:

• It seems like metal and hardcore have been further segregated on the bill — Thursday appears to be almost entirely dedicated to deathcore and crabcore bands, Friday seems to be entirely devoted to hardcore bands, and Saturday is dominated by metal bands. There are pros and cons to this approach — the pro being that if you’re only a fan of one particular style of extreme music, you can cherry pick which day you’re going to attend, and the con being that new fans are less likely to be exposed to bands with whom they were not already familiar.
• There seem to be fewer “big name” acts. Sure, Hatebreed and Biohazard are on there, but that’s still a far cry from years’ past. In fact, plenty of big name who have new albums scheduled to come out this year — like Amon Amarth, DevilDriver, Arch Enemy, In Flames, and Children of Bodom — aren’t playing the fest.

Please note that I’m not knocking the fest — in fact, I think Saturday, April 16 is full of killer bands — and I don’t think every fest needs to be headlined by a band of Megadeth’s stature. I just think this particular line-up is… interesting.

Anyway, here’s the full bill:

Click to read more…

Yep yep — Shai Hulud, one of the rare bands to give metalcore a good name (and one of the rare bands to actually combine metal with hardcore and therefore be worthy of the “metalcore” tag), are doing a headlining tour. I’m not really familiar with the support acts so I can’t actively endorse your arriving early at the show — I mean they could be great for all I know, I just don’t wanna tell you they are when I don’t know their music — but I will say that if you have a chance to go see Shai Hulud and you don’t, you’re a fool. A damn fool, I say.

Perhaps better news still, at least for those of us who don’t live near one of these tour stops, is that the trek is actually a break from the band’s work on a new album — their first since 2008′s jugular-rippingly good Misanthropy Pure. It’s funny, ’cause like five minutes ago, I was feeling really cynical about 2011 as a good year for metal, but not it seems like a bright, bright, bright, sunshiny day.

Here are tour dates, in case you’re too stoopid to be able to read the poster at the top of this article:

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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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Dallas Coyle a prophet? Maybe not — but his prediction that myriad summer tours would be canceled this year because of the prohibitively high price of gasoline has proven true. Day after day I see tour cancellation announcements dropping into the MetalSucks Mansion inbox and RSS reader, most recently the “Summer of Scum” tour with Shai Hulud and Full Blown Chaos. Inevitably these press releases include vague language such as “uncontrollable circumstances” or issues “out of our hands,” which is not-so-secret code speak for financial issues, aka gas money. If respectable, successful bands like Shai Hulud and Full Blown Chaos are being forced to cancel tours, it begs the question: what lies ahead for the touring industry in these tough economic times?

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Congrats to MetalSucks reader Dave D. who won last week’s Funny Photo Caption Contest to the picture at right with this timely gem:

“What Lars Ulrich used to fuck before he fucked over his fans.”

Dave gets Hail of Bullets’ Of Frost and War and Epicurean’s A Consequence of Design sent to him in the mail. I’d also lke to give a shoutout to Walker, who posted this extremely tasteless but no less hilarious caption:

“And a moment later he fell in Tommy Lee’s pool.”

I’m speechless. Anyway, this week we’re giving away a 3-pack of Metal Blade Records CDs including Shai’s Hulud’s recent Misanthropy Pure, Fate’s Vultures and Hatchet’s Awaiting Evil. Just come up with a funny caption to the below photo and post it in the comments. The winner will be notified by email.

I think it’s safe to say that Full Blow Chaos front man Ray Mazzola is the funniest interview subject we’ve ever had. If you’ve read the interview, you know these dudes get into some crazy, crazy The Dirt-style shit when they’re on tour.

So it’s just been announced that they’ll be hitting the road again in July, first to do a string of headlining gigs with The Breathing Process and Sons of Azrael, then to do some shows with science fiction lovers/pure misanthropes Shai Hulud. You should really, really make an effort to go to one of these shows and buy Ray and company a drink or twelve. If you’re nice to them, I’ll bet they’ll let you co-indulge in whatever shenanigans they get up to. And there will be shenanigans.

Just leave your girlfriend/sister/mother/whatever at home. It would be a shame to see anyone you really care about get a bottle shoved up any place that is extremely uncomfortable… like the back of a Volkswagen.

After the jump, get FBC’s complete tour itinerary.

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Congratulations to the winners of last week’s Funny Photo Caption Contest; you’ll each be receiving a copy of Another Black Day’s self-titled debut in the mail for coming up with a funny caption to the photo at right. The winners are:

• Oh Yeah?: “Wes Borland finally decides to release a solo album… ‘Live from Ibiza!!’”
• FLmetal: “A sneak peek at David Draiman’s new “METAL” clothing line.”
• Christopher: “Man with lack of ethnic background compensates with dark clothing and unrealistic ambitions.”
• Murderface Rapes your mother and then: “Lou Perlman’s decided to go in a completely different direction since his sentencing.”
• Strapping Young Lad: “Slipknot FINALLY unveils their new costumes for their upcoming album!!”

Congratulations. This week we have a package from Metal Blade Records to give away, featuring the brand new Shai Hulud CD Misanthropy Pure and Aletheian’s recent release Dying Vine. All you have to do to win is come up with a funny caption to the below photo and post it in the comments section. Good luck!

I’ve never met Matt Fox in person, but reading his answers to this all-too-brief interview I recently conducted with him via e-mail, I really, really want to. Fox comes across as intelligent, funny, and, as his band’s name would suggest, a knowledgeable and opinionated sci-fi geek; in other words, he comes across as exactly the kind of dude I’d wanna be friends with.

Shai Hulud’s latest cock punch of metallicized hardcore, the excellently titled Misanthropy Pure, hits stores today via Metal Blade, and if you haven’t heard it yet, well, you need to: it’s a vicious, wholly unique entry into a genre that seems to be growing more tired by the day, an album that genuinely doesn’t sound like anything else on the market right now. Above, watch Shai Hulud’s David Brodsky-directed video for the title track; after the jump, check out Matt’s thoughts on the writing process, the metalcore genre, and, of course, all things sci-fi.

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