MetalSucks reader Ramsey K. recently wrote us a letter with the following: “I’m writing to you guys in hope that you will at least post about these two bands that I’m going to mention, because they honestly deserve a lot of recognition for being awesome. I see that you guys like Sikth and Meshuggah and a whole slew of crazy prog metal, so I hope you will at least give these bands a listen or two at their myspaces.”

Touche! The bands in question are Periphery and Bulb, the latter of which is a “solo” project of the guitarist of the former. The headline of this piece pretty much says it all, so if you like those bands then you best check these out.

Also, it turns out that Periphery’s ex-singer Jake Veredika (whose voice is on their MySpace recordings) filled in on vocals for Divine Heresy after Tommy Cummings left / was fired mid-tour in May. Not that this has any bearing on why you should or shouldn’t like these bands. But, ya know, FYI.

-VN

[Periphery on MySpace]
[Bulb on MySpace]

Well, it was inevitable, wasn’t it? After a year-long search for two new vocalists, UK prog-metallers Sikth, a perennial favorite of MetalSucks, have decided to call it a day. Thanks to MetalSucks reader Gerrit G., who sent us a link to the band’s MySpace blog posted today with the following message:

R.I.P. SIKTH 2001-2008

It deeply saddens the four of us to announce that we are closing the book on SIKTH… it’s time to split up.
A combination of factors have driven us to make this decision.
We want to assure you that if it were viable for us to carry on – we would.
We are so proud of all that we have achieved as Sikth and we have agreed to work together again in the future.
we are currently involved in new projects so keep checking our personal pages for announcements.
And finally, we owe such huge and sincere thanks to all of you for listening to our music and enabling us to live our dream. We know we have left you in the dark lately and we are sorry for that.
Your loyalty will never be forgotten.

Dan, James, Dan, Pin.

Well, it was fun while it lasted. We got two AWESOME — and I mean fucking phenomenal — albums out of them. And it sounds like the members will be involved in other stuff as well. If any of our readers happen to know what’s in the works, do let us know. But tonight I’ll jam Death of a Dead Day in memoriam.

-VN

Get ready to become sick of me waxing ecstatic about Textures, the amazing, awesome, incredible progressive metal outfit from The Netherlands. We didn’t lead you astray with At All Cost, right? When we splooged our pants (albeit a year late) over Sikth, you guys liked, right? And when we jumped on the Protest The Hero bandwagon — nay, built the bandwagon — ya’ll thanked us. So, with that in mind…

Guys…. TEXTURES.

This is the kind of music that just creates that awesome feeling inside of me that only music can, gets me psyched about life, and actually gives me hope that this world isn’t totally fucked beyond belief (that, and I just had some very strong coffee). This is kind of musical talent is few and far between.

Go listen to the new album, Silhouettes, in its entirety on Textures’ MySpace page. NOW. If you have any interest in Meshuggah, Faith No More, and good metal, it will be worth your time.

Silhouettes drops April 21 on Listenable Records.

-VN

Silhouettes, the forthcoming release from Dutch progressive metal masters Textures, is the single release I am most looking forward to in April. I was completely sold after hearing only one track from Silhouettes (April 21, Listenable Records) that the band posted on their MySpace a few weeks back, but now that they’ve released a second song (“Storm Warning”) I am completely, totally, and unquestionably sold that this record is going to be absolutely fucking amazing.

Textures make ultra-heady yet accessible progressive metal — imagine elements of Meshuggah, Faith No More and a stew of European influences, with some Protest the Hero and Sikth thrown in, and you should get an idea of what this sounds like. Or just go listen.

Prepare for the next MetalSucks proverbial wet dream.

-VN

Baby — don’t be like that. We haven’t been going out for that long, and…well yeah, I know, our Saturday date is pretty much implied at this point but sometimes a man just has to do his own thing, you dig? In any case, I’m sorry I didn’t make it to your sister’s funeral or whatever the hell we were supposed to get into last weekend…can I make it up to you this Saturday with two awesome songs?

San Francisco’s Citay is by no means a metal band, but when this track cranks it up with wailing guitar, somehow the band’s heady, personal folk metamorphoses into an epic, emotional, and yes, kind of brutal mood — that’s when the horns come out and the metal takes over. There’s been some talk recently in these here parts about “folk-metal”, and I’ve been somewhat surprised that we could even place certain [shitty] bands under that genre heading. To me, any subgenre that uses the word folk in its description needs needs needs to display a strong sense of beauty, or at least something extremely natural/organic, in the mellow sense. Yes, when you combine any type of music with metal, I guess there is to be some expected crankage (either in volume or tempo), but in my opinion, this track by Citay qualifies as being metallic mostly because of how engulfing the damn song is.

CITAY – “Former Child”, from Little Kingdom (2007)

What can I possibly say about British prog-metal masters Sikth that my esteemed colleague Vincent Von Neilshtein, Esq. hasn’t already jizzed written about on this site in the past? Well probably not much but I do feel like this particular tune deserves some attention. Melodic, punishing, more progressive than the San Francisco Gay Pride Parade, “Skies Of Millenium Night” starts out quite aggressive and really doesn’t let up for the first few minutes. The screams begging you to “LOOK AT THE SKY, LOOK AT THE SKY” seem like a warning, as if we are under attack from [more] alien spaceships, but then the singer mutters under his breath “It’s so beautiful…” and the tune takes on a whole new meaning. And then around 3 minutes, 8 seconds in, the fit really hits the shan and the band reminds us what prog truly means.

When Vince pulled 2006′s Death Of A Dead Day out of his always-massive stack of promo CDs and dropped the levity of Sikth on my unsuspecting ears, I really thought they couldn’t crank it any further than that album. But after I had [finally] procured their first full-length and I heard the breakdown of this song (from their prior album, no less) I nearly dropped an immediate and fruitful load. It’s among the best and certainly most fluid of any prog breakdown I have ever heard, and it manages to retain a very ethereal tone as well, especially near the end of the track. FUCKING…PHENOMENAL.

SIKTH – “Skies Of Millenium Night”, from Trees Are Dead And Dried Out Wait For Something Wild (2003)

-KW

Protest the Hero’s recent release Fortress is, even at this early stage, in the running for my favorite album of 2008 (read my review). So I was thrilled to have the opportunity to chat with vocalist Rody Walker, who, between the time of our chat and now, posted a message on the band’s MySpace announcing they’d be pulling out of their already-underway tour with Silverstein due to being “exhausted and miserable.” Though this interview was conducted on the second day of Protest the Hero’s tour for the Fortress album cycle, it’s evident that the band were already having their share of problems on the road.

Rody told us about the pitfalls of touring during the winter, his feelings on the commercial success of Fortress, the band’s writing process, and his perpetual hard-on for Symphony X. Read the entire chat transcript after the jump.

Click to read more…

This review has been incredibly hard for me to sit down and write. Finally forcing myself to do so, I sat my ass down, pressed play on Protest the Hero’s latest album Fortress, and just sat listening without typing a word until halfway through the second song. Oh, I’ve listened to the whole album at least 10 times, probably more, all the way through. But Fortress is just so genre-defying, so outside the box, so off the wall, so virtuosic, progressive, heavy and melodic… us journalist types get all in a tizzy because we don’t know how to describe what Protest the Hero do. So let me start by describing it this way; fucking awesome. Protest the Hero incorporate every element of heavy music that I look for in a band while forging ahead in a direction completely their own, and Fortress is the strongest work to date of their young career making it an easy early contender for best metal album of 2008.

Click to read more…

Just a reminder to you folks; we have a great contest running that you won’t want to miss out on. The good folks at Bieler Bros. Records have given us FIVE prize packages to give away, each containing 2 CDs: Sikth’s critically acclaimed album (and MetalSucks proverbial wet dream) Death of a Dead Day and their ultra-rare, limited run EP Flogging the Horses. If you don’t know about this band, know about them pronto.

All you have to do to win is come up with a funny caption to the above photo!!

Good luck!

Congrats to the winners of our last photo caption contest, which asked you guys to come up with funny captions for the photo at right. You guys came up with some hilarious entries that had us spewing our whiskey all over our keyboards, but these are the three lucky winners who will be receiving a copy of Raintime’s Flies & Lies in the mail:

• DudeManbro: “Wolfgang was a more than adequate last-minute fill-in for David Lee.”
• LandoGriffin: “Vince Neil looked his best in years at the opening date of his “Theatre of Pie” world tour at the Arby’s in Scranton, PA.”
• d.o.g.o.b.g.y.n.: “Holy shit! Devin Townsend ate all the members of Crowbar!”

Boy oh boy do we have a great prize package for you guys this week. The good folks at Bieler Bros. Records have given us FIVE prize packages to give away, each containing 2 CDs: Sikth’s critically acclaimed album (and MetalSucks proverbial wet dream) Death of a Dead Day and their ultra-rare, limited run EP Flogging the Horses. If you don’t know about this band, know about them pronto. All you have to do to win is come up with a funny caption to the below photo and remember to include your email address in the email form. Good luck!

With the amount of e-ink we’ve been giving Protest the Hero and Dillinger Escape Plan lately, not to mention “MetalSucks proverbial wet dream” Sikth, the young
Mukilteo, Washington 3-piece Fall of Troy really ought to be mentioned in the same breath. Fall of Troy are as good an example of the burgeoning post-prog-metal — or is it prog-post-metal? — genre, combining a post-punk attitude with metal grit, lofty arrangements and dazzling musical ability. Guitarist Thomas Erak artfully fretboard-taps up a storm, sharing vocals with bassist Frank Black (no, not that Frank Black), who alternate between melodious sung passages reminiscent of At the Drive In’s Cedric Bixler-Zavala and screamed vocals that actually sound, you know, yelled, not like a trained diaphragm technique version of a growl. The band changes it up constantly with drummer Andrew Forsman leading the way, weaving in and out of melody and dissonance, from one time-signature to the next. While eschewing the tired cliches of guitar chugga-chugga and my-dick-is-bigger-than-yours growling, Fall of Troy have managed to create something incredibly artful, progressive, and heavy all at the same time.

Fall of Troy’s most recent release Manipulator dropped in 2007 on Equal Vision Records. Here’s their video for “Ex-Creations”:

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[Fall of Troy on MySpace]

-VN

All you post-prog-metal-tech-core nerds are probably going to cream your panties over this one, a new band called Anything on Fire. And you know what? They’re really good. If your tastes are along the lines of Between the Buried and Me, Sikth, Protest the Hero… you get the point. In fact, BTBAM producer Jamie King just completed work on two songs with the band, which features Adam Cody of Glass Casket and a guest appearance by BTBAM guitarist Dustie Waring.

Both songs are included on a split EP with Dead Eyes that comes out today on Forsaken Recordings; listen to the new track “Robot Hate Sex” at Anything on Fire’s MySpace page. The band plans a full length for late 2008.

Raleigh, NC residents can catch the band tonight with MetalSucks faves Bloodjinn at The Brewery.

-VN

You guys really loved the “Bloodmeat” video we posted from Protest the Hero’s forthcoming album Fortress, didn’t you?

Good news for you, then; there’s a special pre-order for the album on the Vagrant Online Store — you can pre-order Fortress for $6.99 or you can pre-order Fortress with the band’s previous album Kezia for only $15.00. Orders will be shipped before the 1/29 street date to ensure you get your goods in time. That is a fucking deal, kids, way better than that $40 Hatebreed hoodie you’ve got on.

And if you haven’t checked out Protest the Hero yet… you’re missing out. Protest the Hero offer up completely un-pretentious but forward-thinking post-prog metal (much like MetalSucks darlings Sikth), and the “Bloodmeat” video is the same. No cliche metal video shenanigans here (thank GOD!), and the thing just looks fucking awesome; I’ve literally watched it at least 5 times.
Fortress is undoubtedly one of our most anticipated released of early 2008… at least until Sikth gets their act together and gets some new singers.

-VN

[Protest the Hero on MySpace]

At the Drive In, Dillinger Escape Plan, Between the Buried and Me… Protest the Hero. If that doesn’t satisfy the art-metal snobs amongst you, then I highly recommend you get that stick out of your ass, pronto. Protest the Hero is a talented bunch, and if the first single “Bloodmeat” is any indication, their new album Fortress is going to be one hell of a beautifully crafty and brutal roller-coaster ride. Think also: new MetalSucks darlings Sikth.

Check out the video below for their first single “Bloodmeat,” (the best part: no cliche metal video bullshit), and listen to the band’s past work at their MySpace page.

Fortress drops January 29 on Vagrant Records.

-VN

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Remember SiKth, the best band of 2007 that didn’t actually release a record in 2007? Equal parts Meshuggah, Between the Buried and Me, Porcupine Tree, Dillinger Escape Plan and Tool, SiKth are really the artist’s artist — every single detail of everything has meaning and is thought out completely. Their 2006 release Death of a Dead Day has literally been blowing the minds of everyone I’ve played it for, which is pretty much anyone who lays foot in the MetalSucks Mansion. Yet why has no one in America heard of this U.K.-based prog-metal powerhouse?

Thanks to our boy Frank @ MetalInjection we’ve unearthed some of the band’s music videos and live clips. First, a proper story-telling narrative music video for the album’s first track “Bland Street Bloom,” then a video of live footage from various shows of the song “Flogging Horses,” which shows just how amazing the musicianship is. Word on the street is that the band needs two new singers — can someone get on that ASAP so we can see them live, please? Mmmkay, thanks.

-VN

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Publicists send us shit all the time, and 9 out of 10 times it blows goats but we listen anyway because every now and then there’s that occasional gem that shocks you and makes hours of brain-drilling listening all worth it.. Sikth’s Death of a Dead Day — originally released in 2006 — is that fucking good.

UK-based Sikth’s own brand of progressive metal mixes the breakneck hardcore spazzes and jazz freakouts of Dillinger Escape Plan or Between the Buried and Me, time-warp rhythms of Meshuggah, metallic melody of Dream Theater and bone-crushing breakdowns of Hatebreed all into one neat little package. But the band possesses a sense of songwriting and melody, like their UK prog-metal brethren Porcupine Tree, in which those bands rarely indulge. The musicianship all around is stellar, and vocalist Mikee Goodman shows a surprisingly versatile vocal approach, ranging from singing to screaming, growling, shouting, and everything in between. (According to Sikth’s MySpace page Goodman has moved on and they are searching for a new frontman. Hear that, aspiring vocalists?)

What’s more, the band produced Death of a Dead Day entirely themselves, with a precision mix job coming from Bieler Bros. Records (helmed by Jason Bieler, ex-Saigon Kick!) go-to-guy Matt LaPlant (Nonpoint, Skindred, Burn Season).

Why has no one ever mentioned this band before to me or anyone at the MetalSucks Mansion? This. Record. Fucking. Rules. The #1 sleeper hit of 2007 in my book, even though it was released in June of ’06. See for yourself, below.

Sikth – “Bland Street Bloom”

Sikth – “Part of the Friction”

-VN

(four out of five horns)

[Visit Sikth on MySpace]