There’s no sense in attempting to intellectualize why I like Shinedown so much. I just do, ya hear? I don’t know if there’s anything inherently better or smatter about Shinedown as compared to contemporaries Theory of a Deadsuck, Nickelsuck, Suckd and Suckturbed (even though I like to think there is), but Shinedown’s songs have just always had their way with me. They’re, like, really catchy and stuff. So there’s nothing guilty about my pleasure of reveling in the new song “Bully” by the best radio hard rock band in existence. Sure, the lyrics (as highlighted in the lyric video above) seem a bit juvenile coming from dudes well into their 30s, but at the least the message is positive instead of the endless whining and self-hatred peddled by other bands, and at least it doesn’t lean on a religious crutch for support.

“Bully” is available from iTunes and comes from the new album Amaryllis, out March 27th on Atlantic Records. Hopefully it’s as good all the way through as The Sound of Madness.

The Foo Fighters and Hollywood Undead were finally toppled from their respective #1 and #2 spots last week after holding down the fort in that order for three straight weeks prior (with Hollywood Undead at #1 the week before Foo Fighters’ debut), but rest assured, they’re still at #2 and #3 and show no signs of letting up. Nikki Sixx’s new Sixx A.M. record nabbed the top spot on the Hard Music Charts this week, undoubtedly due to this record-shifting post.

Elsewhere, Shinedown debuted their new live album, another Poison greatest hits collection flopped, and some other bands sold some records too. The numbers:

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Believe it or not, folks still buy CDs. I know… I’m shocked too. But the weekly Soundscan numbers released by Neilsen actually do include digital downloads too. I know what you’re thinking… people still pay for music? I s’pose so. Here are the most recent week’s charting hard rock and metal releases, with my own snarky commentary, natch. Check those tags down yonder for a list of covered releases.

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The Smoking Gun has posted a list of the per-gig earnings of some of the highest paid artists that toured this year, and a number them may interest you, our beloved Suckalos.

It will shock absolutely no one to learn that Kiss are number two on the list, and take home $500,000 a night, or that radio stalwarts Buckcherry and Shinedown respectively earn $100,000 and $85,000 per performance.

More surprising, to me at least, is that Bret Michaels gets $64,000 a night even without Poison (which means all those reality show appearances are good for something!), and that Warrant — FUCKING WARRANT — get $12,000 per show. I know $12,000/gig probably doesn’t seem like much when you consider what Kiss is getting, but I can assure you that it’s wwwwwaaaaayyyyyy more than pretty much all of your favorite metal bands are earning (unless you exclusively listen to Metallica or Korn or whatever). And that’s for a band who haven’t had a hit in two decades, and who are currently touring without their original singer, who also happens to be their most recognizable member.

The moral of the story, I guess, is that it pays to have a radio hit. As long as there’s someone who wants to hear “Cherry Pie” and “Heaven” live, Warrant will be richer than you.

Look at the complete list here.

-AR

[via Gun Shy Assassin]

Eddie Van Halen rage stories are pretty legendary, but I’d thought that Mr. EVH had calmed down in recent years. Not so according to Shinedown singer Brent Smith, who toured with Van Hagar in 2004 and became chummy with the OG shredder before a little backstage incident set him off and re-ignited the raging dickitude of old. Good to know that the old man’s still got some vinegar (and piss) in ‘im.

The clip comes from MTV’s new self-described “dude blog” called Clutch in which the goal I suppose is to be a modern-day online Maxim full of stories about hot chicks, sports, and other silly dudebro shit. Like Shinedown or hate ‘em (I happen to love ‘em!), Brent Smith does an excellent job telling the story. I won’t ruin it for you.

-VN

Holy crap, was that awesome Faith No More show really a week ago already? I think I may be suffering from post-FNM depression. We’re seeing Maiden on Monday night, and I’m more excited to hang out with my friends than to see Bruce, Steve and the gang. I just wanna go see FNM again… is that so wrong???

Luckily, there’s plenty of stuff going on in the metal world to keep me distracted from dreams of Mike, Mike, Billy, Roddy and Jon. For instance:

• Bulb from Periphery got his groove back, and The Austerity Program’s Justin Foley consulted with the dudes from Aquarius Records as he continued his search for the perfect Taco Riff.
• We debuted new music from Asher.
• Sergeant D spoke to Miss May I’s Ryan Neff and Sammy O’Hagar chatted with Rasyid from Wormrot.
• We checked out new releases from Soilwork, Allegaeon, and Sister Sin.
• The possibility of new Beavis and Butt-Head episodes gave us a collective boner.
• The hippies in Phish got aggressive and covered Rage Against the Machine.
• We looked at a plethora of terrifically terrible music videos, and Vince wondered if the medium was even a relevant tool for promotion anymore.
• Vince also took time out of his busy schedule to find me a new woman. Yowza!

Next week we’ll have a song debut from our fellow stoner nerds, an interview with a power violence band, and some other shit. Plus, Question of the Week will finally return. ‘Til then… enjoy your weekend!

-AR

If you’re not excited for The Expendables, I can only assume it’s because you don’t have any hair where your bathing suit covers, and have no intention of ever growing hair in that spot. Even with Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger only having brief cameos, even with Jean-Claude Van Damme declining to participate (Dolph Lundgren took his role instead) and Steven Seagal not being invited to participate, and even with Charles Bronson unavailable to participate… surely, this must be the greatest gathering of action stars in the history of gun powder. And it has an R rating, which seems increasingly rare these days. If it’s half as violent as the most recent Rambo flick, well, I say just hand it the Best Picture Oscar right now and tell everyone else to go fuck their mothers.

That being said, when I saw the latest trailer for the greatest film Francois Truffaut never got around to directing, I was horrified to hear them using what sounded like some of the shittiest fucking moose rock I’d ever heard in my life. I knew it wasn’t Nickelback, but it sure did sound like Nickelback; so I assumed it was Theory of a Dead Man, or some crap like that. I also assumed that, as is so often the case, it wouldn’t appear in the finished film, but, rather, was just being used in the trailer, probably because it conveniently featured the lyric “Every one of us is expendable.”

Alas, I was wrong. According to the always lovely Allyson B. Crawford at Bring Back Glam, it’s a new Shinedown song, entitled “”Diamond Eyes (boom-lay boom-lay boom),” and it was written specifically for the film. And I know that Vince really likes Shinedown, and I love Vince and respect his opinion with every ounce of my being, but… holy crap, this song is FUCKING AWFUL.

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April 20th was circled in my calendar well in advance, and not just because it’s holiday we at the MS Mansion take very seriously — April 20th marked the biggest release date of the year thus far for metal releases with new offerings from Periphery, Ratt, Sevendust, another greatest hits repacking from AC/DC, Circa Survive, Airbourne and more. Let’s see how those releases fared in their first week out, as well as how other metal and hard rock records are performing after the jump.

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I agree with pretty much everything Vince said in his assessment of Cold Day Memory last week; it’s a really good pop metal record and having Clint Lowery back in the band obviously makes all the difference in the world. If I have a complaint about the record, it’s that at least half the songs – including the first three tracks – all feature ambient intros. It’s as though the band couldn’t decide which track should go first in the sequence, so they just kinda made them all the first in the sequence and decided to let the listener decide how the track list should go. That’s not a terrible thing – especially if, like me, you actually think that the penultimate tune, a surprisingly Swedecore-esque ditty called “Better Place,” should have kicked off the proceedings – but it is kinda weird.

ANYWAY, with that outta of the way, here’s the band’s video for the first single, “Unraveling.” It’s a pretty ho-hum clip, but I do really enjoy this song.

Meanwhile, Sevendust have just been announced as the best thing about an otherwise pretty terrible tour. (I didn’t even know Puddle of Mudd were still around.) So I guess I won’t be seeing them live until at least the fall. Bummer.

-AR

Apparently Sade has a new hit record and scored the #1 record last week. Who knew? Good for her… Sade’s pretty rad. I know at least one death metal dude who will be REALLY psyched to hear this news.

But I’m guessing you all care more about the new High on Fire record. Let’s find out how that and other metal and hard rock releases charted last week after the jump.

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Not that we had any doubt Baroness’ Blue Record would have a strong debut, but it’s always nice to see the proof. And Skeletonwitch’s ripping new record Breathing the Fire had a great debut too; I’m elated to see the band sell as many records first week as they did. Elsewhere it was the usual radio rock / alt-metal suspects dominating the charts. Click through to see chart positions and sales figures.

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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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It’s raining in New York today. AGAIN. At least it’s warm; it’s been fucking rainy and cold for all of June (seriously… hoodie weather in June??). I feel like I’ve been cheated out of an entire month of summer. Fuck the world.

Here’s what happened this week:

• More arguing ensued over our 21 Best Metal Albums of the 21st Century… So Far list. You bitched and moaned to the tune of 444 comments (and counting) about the #11 pick of Deftones’ White Pony — just as you did last week with the debatably metal Tool (#12) and System of a Down (#14) picks — and then when we finally announced more trve/cvlt/br00tal albums you approved of (#10 Opeth, #9 Gojira, and #8 In Flames), comments were few and far between by comparison. You people are fucking morons. Especially Ziltoid.
• Rumors flew about the resuscitation of Headbanger’s Ball in 2010 with Jose Mangin as the host.
• More shit-talking between the two sparring Fear Factory camps provided us with endless amusement. We wondered aloud whether or not FF should be considered nu-metal.
• Shinedown’s Brent Smith claimed to have insider knowledge of a Soundgarden reunion, to which Axl — and possibly but not definitely Soundgarden’s own Ben Shepherd — took offense.
• We spoke with Scott Kelly of Neurosis and Vinnie Fucking Paul.

We out. Stay tuned in a couple of hours for our #7 Best Metal Album of the 21st Century… So Far. I’ll be at tomorrow night’s Black Anvil show at the new Duff’s location in Brooklyn if anyone wants to come out and hang. See you next week for more shenanigans!

I wouldn’t be shocked if Soundgarden reunited. Everyone else is doing it; Chris Cornell needs to try and get his street cred back; I’m sure Kim Thayil could use a paycheck; and then there was that whole Tadgarden thing. In fact, I’d imagine that, at this point, the biggest impediment to a Soundgarden reunion is the fact that Cornell’s ex-wife, Susan Silver, set up the Tadgarden show, which, presumably, means she’s still involved in the band’s business dealings despite what was reportedly a nasty split with the singer.

Now, all of that being the case… in the words of my associate Gary Suarez, I’ll believe the reunion is happening when “I hear it from Kim Thayil’s hairy lips.”

And Shinedown singer Brent Smith, whom Blabbermouth tells me claims he heard from “someone… specifically in their organization” that the reunion is happening, ain’t no Kim Thayil. His lips aren’t even hairy.

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This week in Soundscan, supergroup Chickenfoot shifted a ridiculous number of records. I’m baffled too. Elsewhere, Iron Maiden had a solid debut and bands like Nickelback, Hollywood Undead, Shinedown, Slipknot, and Metallica continued on with business as usual.

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The infamous Now That’s What They Call Music comp, now it’s thirtieth iteration (!), will never stop selling. Nor will Hannah Montana. Given, it’s tough for any true metal band to crack the Billboard 200, but Mastodon did just once again that by notching a #11 debut with Crack the Skye, beat out metal-wise only by Papa Roach (ugh). Elsewhere, we got some surprises from Chris Cornell, Twiztid (!?) and others. Sales figures for those and other notable hard rock and metal releases after the jump.

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2008 has been a fucking great year for metal, and in due time — Monday, Dec. 15, to be exact — Axl, myself and the rest of the writers of MetalSucks will all release our Top 10 year-end lists so you can incessantly argue over which great album was left off or tell us we’re assholes for ranking a certain album higher than it should’ve been.

But for now, ya’ll can argue about something else: here’s my personal short/working list for said year-end list containing all of my favorite metal releases from this year as well as a few that aren’t likely to make my own list but will surely be appearing on others’. Feel free to pipe in with your thoughts or to notify us of any egregious omissions before we put together our final, ordered lists. Regardless, it is going to be really fucking hard to pick just 10 of these and put them in order of awesomeness.

And, my favorite metal records of 2008 in no particular order are…

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All is not lost in the world of metal; in fact, this past week brought some nice surprises, along with the usual mish-mash of shitty radio rock bands. Last week’s sales numbers, with our usual sardonic commentary, after the jump. (Hint: look at the tags below, and click “read more” if any of those bands interest you!).

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If you’re br00taler than br00tal, stop reading this review right now. If you only care to listen to the heaviest shit possible and can’t be bothered by hard rock, stop reading. But if you can keep your cool-o-meter in check and want to know about an awesome record, then keep going. That record is The Sound of Madness by Shinedown, and it’s easily the best hard rock record of 2008, eons ahead of the pack of the ho-hum radio rock bands with which they’re usually lumped in

What makes Shinedown so much better than the Breaking Benjamins and Seethers of the world? I’m not really sure, but in so many ways Shinedown is just infinitely better than any band you’re likely to hear on your local active rock radio station. Maybe it’s the dynamic songwriting or endless guitar and vocal hooks. Maybe it’s Brent Smith’s astonishing pipes. Maybe it’s this band’s desire to just ROCK without worrying about “cred.”

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Happy July 4th, everyone. Axl and I are closing down the MetalSucks Mansion a day early to get off of this swampy, hot, over-crowded island…. so this is it for us until next Monday. Enjoy your time-off; for our international readers, well… revel in the fact that you get *way* more days off than we lame Americans do throughout the whole year! Anyway, here’s what happened this week:

• Motley Crue and Shinedown had big sales debuts, while Disturbed and Kid Rock kept it going strong.
• The Human Abstract debuted more killer new music.
• We interviewed the brains behind one of our favorite albums of 2008 so far.
• David Draiman insists on having the last word in the ongoing Disturbed vs. Dillinger Escape Plan drama.
• The new Slipknot masks look kinda like the old Slipknot masks, but we like their new song.
• We asked what you thought of Straight Line Stitch; you answered loud and clear.

Cheers, everyone. Enjoy your time off.

-VN