MetalSucks

There’s nothing terribly innovative or groundbreaking about Italy’s Disarmonia Mundi but sometimes a healthy dose of pop-melodeath is just what I need (and God no, I’d never listen to that Sonic Syndicate abortion). More known for often partnering up with Soilwork vocalist Bjorn “Speed” Strid than anything else, Disarmonia Mundi are actually quite good at what they do even if they are essentially to Soilwork as Soilwork are to In Flames, a slightly poppier version of their forebears. I stumbled upon Disarmonia Mundi years ago because I was totally obsessed with Soilwork — ok fine I still totally love everything Soilwork do — and uncovered their linked histories via that bastion of music minutae AllMusic.com.

So Disarmonia Mundi have a new album on the way December 9th called The Isolation Game. The new record does in fact feature guest appearances by Speed Strid, a press release tells us, but to what extent isn’t quite clear. The band has a couple of new tracks streaming up on their MySpace. If you like this sort of music I imagine you’ll eat this up. If not… sucks for you.

-VN

Alright, people. I feel like fucking death. I just wanna go lie down and hopefully never wake up. Let’s get this over with:

• We finally finished the goddamn motherfucking list with “Albums We Wish Had Made It” entries from my man Vince (Soilwork’s Natural Born Chaos) and my girl Amy Sciarretto (DEP’s not-really-eligible Calculating Infinity).
• We got another exclusive world tour video tour diary from Misery Index. We also spoke with Johnny Kelly of Type O Negative and Seventh Void and got our bro-bros at Thrash Hits to do a video interview with Trigger the Bloodshed for us. Thanks, dudes.
• We lost IQ points just watching this video interview with the singer of Attack! Attack!
• We have it on good authority that there’s gonna be an Acid Bath reunion.
• Dallas Coyle is now answering your questions.
• So is Gwar’s Oderus Urungus.

We’ll be at Summer Slaughter on Sunday. If any of you spot us and want to buy us a drink, please, for the love of all things holy, don’t.

-AR

Soilwork, Natural Born Chaos (Nuclear Blast, 2002)
Björn “Speed” Strid − Vocals
Peter Wichers − Guitars
Ola Frenning − Guitars
Ola Flink − Bass
Sven Karlsson − Keyboards
Henry Ranta − Drums
Produced by Devin Townsend

When Soilwork dropped Natural Born Chaos in 2002, “metalcore” was not yet a twinkle in the eye of a million American copycats. Just pure. Fucking. Swedish. Heavy metal. Though their countrymen In Flames may have melodicized death metal first (or second, after At the Gates, I suppose), Soilwork arguably did it better, and the Devin Townsend-produced Natural Born Chaos stands as the band’s defining moment.

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You bitched and moaned about daylight savings time, even though you were asleep when the clocks changed and you get an extra hour of daylight every day until November. You are all retards.

Here’s what else happened this week:

• Sigh’s Mirai Kawashima gave us another studio report (no naked Dr. Mikannibal pics, sorry), Early Man’s Mike Conte got his cheesesteak on, and Neuraxis’ Alexandre Leblanc gave us his final tour blog.
• We spoke with Darkane’s Christofer Malmstrom, Meshuggah’s Marten Hagstrom, Soilwork’s Peter Wichers and Ross the Boss (ex-Manowar)
• Our man-crush on Trent Reznor grew ever greater.
• You argued over who was the most important member of Metallica, past and present.
• We looked at new releases by Razor of Occam and Karl Sanders.
• It was a big week in the Norwegian courts… the Gorgoroth case was settled, and Varg was granted parole.
• Crazytown and Skunk Anansie are getting back together.

Next week Kip and I take off for Austin, TX on Wednesday. We’ll be live-blogging whenever possible. To everyone else, have fun not being there, suckazzz!!

-VN

Watching Peter Wichers play with Soilwork last month at New York’s Highline Ballroom was like witnessing a homecoming of sorts. Sure, it wasn’t the very first show back for Wichers, a founding member and key songwriter who recently returned to the group after a four-year hiatus, who had already been playing with the band for weeks on tour with Darkane, Warbringer and Swallow the Sun. Still, it just felt so right. Without Wichers, Soilwork was like a lumbering beast doing its best Soilwork impersonation… but it wasn’t quite Soilwork. Sworn to a Great Divide was a decent album, but “decent” was exactly as far as it went. Before the show I caught up with Wichers to ask him about the circumstances leading to his return to the band, balancing life on the road and life with a family, what it’s like to play someone else’s material in your band, his production work on the Nuclear Blast Allstars project and Warrel Dane solo record, and what the future holds for Soilwork. Our chat, after the fold.

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U.K. prog-death-thrashers (yeah, I said it) Sylosis are without a doubt one of the young bands that interest me most in 2009, thanks in no small part to the urging of several MetalSucks readers. Their Nuclear Blast debut Conclusion of an Age is a refreshing burst of modern thrash and death metal, rolled into a nicely accessible little package and sprinkled with prog influences that show the maturity and restraint of a band twice their young age. We’ll post an official MetalSucks review shortly, but in the meantime I was able to catch up with guitarist Josh Middleton to ask him a few questions about the formation of the band, the events that led to their deal with Nuclear Blast, their upcoming touring plans and their metal heroes.

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The splendidly worded (and completely, 100% grammatically correct) phrase above came from one of the Blabberbrats who was commenting on Soilwork’s new video for “20 More Miles.” And y’know what? I’m inclined to agree! Sure, this clip is the kind of slo-mo behind-the-scenes of a tour-type thing we’ve seen a million times before, but it still works, ’cause it’s fuckin’ Soilwork!

Don’t forget that Soilwork’s MetalSucks sponsored tour with Darkane, Swallow the Sun, and, depending on which date you attend, either Daylight Dies or Warbringer, kicks off this Friday. It’s gonna be a helluva time; get complete tour dates at Soilwork’s MySpace page.

-AR

It’s only January 7th but already three ridiculously awesome North American tours are planned for the early part of the year:

Soilwork + Darkane + Swallow the Sun + Daylight Dies (in some markets)

Meshuggah + Cynic + The Faceless

The Haunted + Nachtmystium + Kylesa + Intronaut

Like, woah.

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No, the band didn’t break up; but two days ago marked the shortest day of the year so it’s all uphill from here, baby! This time of year I always get to thinking of bands like Daylight Dies and Swallow the Sun because it’s so fucking dark, cold and depressing all the time. To that end, here’s Daylight Dies’ video for “Lies That Bind,” a MetalSucks-fave by a band that’s from the wintry, isolated, dreary wilderness of… North Carolina.

Catch ‘em on the MetalSucks co-sponsored North American tour this winter with Soilwork, Darkane and — who else — Swallow the Sun.

-VN

Fiftywatthead – Fogcutter: The band’s name aptly described their sound, but the name of this record should actually be Ballcrusher. Giant-sized, Mastodonian stoner metal that invokes equal parts Neurosis low-end and Kharma to Burn riffage, but often veers a bit too jammy / rambly for their own good.

Fiftywatthead – “Fogcutter”

Silencer – Divisions: Modern melodo-Euro-death-thrash; like The Arcane Order or Soilwork’s heaviest through the lens of Mnemic or (sometimes, almost) Meshuggah. Good chops and solid songwriting but lacking in the dynamics department both song-wise and vocal-wise. Nevertheless solid.

Silencer – “betrayal and massacre: an overture to germania”

Both albums:

(three out of five horns)

[View Musings Part 1]

What was already shaping up to be one of the most exciting tours of early 2009 just got even better. The North American jaunt, headlined by Soilwork with support from Darkane and Swallow the Sun, just added North Carolina’s princes of gloomy-death-doom Daylight Dies (read Chris Roddy’s glowing review of Lost to the Living) in place of Warbringer, who were forced to drop off due to recording obligations. It’s not that we don’t like Warbringer — in fact, they’re one of our collective favorite bands of the current re-thrash movement — it’s just that… dude, Daylight fuckin’ Dies!! And Swallow the Sun! On the same bill! Headlined (finally!) by a newly re-Peter Wichers’ed Soilwork!! Dude.

Head exploding. For serious. Full list of tour dates after the jump.

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The chill of fall is in the air but the gossip mill never cools off at the MetalSucks Mansion. This week’s notables and quotables included:

• Original guitarist Peter Wichers returned to Soilwork and ex-At All Cost guitarist Mike Carrigan replaced Kris Norris in Darkest Hour; we rejoiced that great Soilwork music will once again be made and that Mike’s got a job. But the good was tempered by the bad as Christian Alvestam left Scar Symmetry and Spineshank reunited. There is no justice.
• Winds of Plague’s Kristen Randall showed the world her bewbs!
• We reviewed solid new albums by Into Eternity, Enslaved and All Shall Perish, and waxed ecstatic about Burst, Vince’s new proverbial wet dream.
• New videos from The Human Abstract and Amon Amarth are unbelievably epic.
• A scandal erupted involving the audio quality of Death Magnetic, alternate Guitar Hero mixes, and the now infamous “Better, Shorter, Cut” abridged edition.
• Vince & Axl [almost] reveal their true identities.

See ya next week.

A press release arrived last night after the gates of the MetalSucks Mansion had been shuttered announcing pretty much the best news ever: founding guitarist Peter Wichers has rejoined Soilwork. Wichers had departed to pursue a career in producing, working on such records as the Nuclear Blast all-star Out of the Dark compilation and Warrel Dane of Nevermore’s solo record Praises to the War Machine.

This news is particularly refreshing because without Wichers, Soilwork had been lumbering along as an imitation of its former self. Wichers was always the primary writer and creative force behind Soilwork until his departure in late 2005, so his return should come as welcome news to any fans who thought 2007’s Sworn to a Great Divide was lackluster effort (presently company excluded — I thought Sworn was a passable if even decent effort, but that it lacked that special touch). To make matters worse, second guitarist Ola Frenning quit earlier this year, removing any guitar links to the band’s glory days. With Wichers’ return, his replacement Daniel Antonsson has been let go and drummer Dirk Vervueren’s bandmate in Scarve, Sylvain Coudret, has been tapped for second guitar.

This great news comes just in time for the band’s massive North American headline tour with Darkane, Warbringer and Swallow the Sun! YES! Full list of tour dates after the jump.

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How many of you snoozed on Praises to the War Machine, the excellent solo CD released this past Spring by Nevermore crooner Warrel Dane? The Peter Wichers (ex-Soilwork)-produced effort, while not necessarily living up to the best of Nevermore, was a damn fine disc. As perhaps the album’s slowest number, “Brother” wouldn’t have been my choice for a video to represent the whole album — but it does capture the ethos of the disc pretty well while indulging in some of the finest metal cliches known to man (Warrel sitting in a leather arm chair surrounded by candles in a dark room = unequivocally METAL). Interestingly (and Dane deserves major props for this), the movie footage cut into this video is real stuff from his childhood, relating to the [depressing] subject matter of the song.

-VN

Though much has been said (here and elsewhere) about the decline of Soilwork as a relevant metal force, 2007’s Sworn to a Great Divide was a pleasantly solid record that [almost] stands up to anything else in the band’s catalogue. And despite replacing their two key guitarists within the span of a year and a half, the band still rips shit up live. Enjoy this footage from the band’s U.S. tour with Throwdown this past Spring; hopefully they’ll come back soon on a proper headline run and play a longer set.

-VN

With One-Way Mirror, the not-quite supergroup of European metal not-quite royalty, this new band has created a surprisingly solid if not particularly revolutionary debut record. You get the impression that One-Way Mirror — which features Guillaume Bideau (Mnemic), David and Franck Potvin (Lyzanxia, Phaze I), Dirk Verbeuren (Soilwork) and Loic Colin (Scarve, Watcha) — aren’t trying at all to reinvent the wheel so much as write catchy metal songs with a groove and conventional structure, and at that they’re mostly successful.

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There must be something in the water in Sweden. Metal is just ingrained in their culture. I was hanging out drinking with a major label pop band last night, five of whose six members are Swedish and at least three of whom were longhairs that I figured might be into metal given their appearance and heritage. Metal is a always a great way to bridge slightly awkward conversation with complete strangers, so I figured why not try? I swung and missed with the keyboardist, more of the jazz type, who nodded politely but seemed otherwise not to give a shit when I tried to slip “In Flames” and “At the Gates” into the conversation. Strike one. I would’n't even need a strike two, ’cause the minute I mentioned Soilwork to the guitar player his hand went up in the air for a high five. We were in full agreement that Stabbing the Drama is one of the best records of the past five years. And it went on from there down familiar paths like “Meshuggah” (he loves obZen), Refused and more.

This story seems way less compelling now that I’ve actually written it down. But, um, it was, like, really cool or something. Kind of like the time I ended up hanging out with Phil Anselmo’s Aunt and Uncle (a story for another time). That red wine / beer combo didn’t hurt either.

-VN

I really can’t take credit for this one. But “Death Jovi” really is the perfect way of describing Scar Symmetry’s new record Holographic Universe (thanks: Metal Injection). Never before have hooks so big, sugary and sweet been combined with this kind of punishing death-influenced metal. While yes, the “Gothenburg” sound is definitely running its course (thanks to the thousands of American imitators), you just can’t knock the Swedes who know how to do it best. And based on just a couple of listens, this is one of the most delicious slices Gothenburg has had to offer in the past couple of years, easily beating out the recent releases by In Flames and Soilwork.

First single “Morphogenesis” on Scar Symmetry’s MySpace page is just the tip of the iceberg. Holographic Universe has so much to offer in the way of hooks, brutality, and astonishing musicianship. It drops June 20th on Nuclear Blast in Europe and July 8th in North America.

-VN

One Way Mirror, a new metal supergroup featuring Guillaume Bideau (Mnemic), David and Franck Potvin (Lyzanxia), Dirk Verbeuren (Soilwork) and Loic Colin (Scarve) have released some tunes on their MySpace page. It’s pretty much what you’d expect from this cast of characters, though I don’t mean that in a bad way — a big Gothenberg sound mixed with a more groovy, alt-metal feel. Truth be told, there is some element of American butt-rock in here too, but damn, these are some fucking good songs. In fact, these are some surprisingly really good songs.

One Way Mirror drops June 27 (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy), June 30 (Rest of Europe), and July 22nd (US) on Metal Blade Records.

-VN

[One Way Mirror on MySpace]

It’s time for the second installment of our Passover series relating the Ten Plagues to metal. Today we have lice, flies and cattle disease! So metal. Heathens beware… ’cause the Jews besaved.

#3 – Lice: God created a plague of lice from handfuls of dust which swarmed in the air and irritated the skin of the Egyptians and their animals.

Tool – “Sober”: I imagine this dude is so miserable because lice have eaten his skin away. he must have been Egyptian.
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#4 – Flies: God created the plague of dog flies that bit the Egyptians and attached themselves to their eyelids, but the Hebrews were unaffected by them.

The Black Dahlia Murder – “Flies” (live):
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#5: Cattle Disease: Murrain – murrain means a cattle plague. This is a virus that affects cattle and eventually kills them. Most Egyptian cattle were affected by this plague but the Hebrew cattle were not.

Carcass — duh! Sick live clip from 1992:
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-VN