MetalSucks faves Son of Aurelius have released a pre-production demo, “Strange Aeons,” which will appear in its finished form on their new album. And as No Clean Singing points out, “it’s a strange choice as a musical tease for the next album” because there’s “no technical ‘wow’ factor.” (NCS also points out that there are no vocals, but that surprises me less.) You would think that SoA would tease fans with something a little more, um, upbeat I guess is the word?, but I don’t really think it matters; the track may just be an interlude or something, but it sounds pretty cool, and we’re all gonna check out the band’s new release anyway.

Son of Aurelius’ new album should be out sometime in 2012 on Good Fight.

-AR

The days when a musician stands a chance of making a living as a musician may very well be coming to a close. It’s one thing for the members of Crowbar Abortion to have to get jobs at the mall when they’re not on tour, but when even the dude from Guns N’ Roses is giving guitar lessons on his down time, you know times are tough.

Which gives a little extra edge to the below video, in which our doppelgängers at Metal Injection ask various musicians what they’d do with their lives if they weren’t in a band. Because that’s a question most metal musicians should probably ask themselves at some point or another.

Best answer comes from Revocation drummer Phil Dubois-Coyne, although I’m down the response A Life Once Lost’s Doug Sabolick and Bob Meadows provide, too.

This video is the first in a new series Metal Injection is doing, called, cleverly enough, “Ask the Artist.” Go here to make sure you stay up-to-date on all future installments, as I’d wager that they will continue to be this entertaining.

-AR

What’s going on, readers of MetalSucks? You’re reading the words of Max Zigman, Cary Geare, and Spencer Edwards of Son of Aurelius. We’ve been asked aplenty about how to get good tone and what we use to achieve our sound, so here is a little overview of our gear. Of course, good tone doesn’t just start at the instrument; it starts with consistently good technique.

The Guitars: An Ibanez RGT6EXFX and Jackson DK2 Pro. Both stock, strung with D’addario strings:

Click to read more…

What do Smaragos and Immersed have in common? Well, I’ve written about both them before (Smaragos here, Immersed here), and they’re both death metal bands, and they both have new albums, and, uh, that’s about it. But I’m lumping them together to make two news items into one. My apologies to all parties involved.

But, for reals, check this shit out:

• Smaragos’ self-titled EP is now available for purchase on both CD Baby and iTunes! This is an awesome, spastic-y tech band features Son of Aurelius’ Max Zigman, and the EP has a guest guitar solo by Ivan Munguia of Brain Drill and Arkaik fame. I’ve posted one song, “Scaphist,” above, but you can — and should — also check out more music here or here.
• Immersed have just moved from the “Awesome Unsigned Bands” category to the “Awesome Signed Bands” category — Unique Leader has scooped ‘em up for a multi-album deal, and will reissue last year’s In the Ire of Creation on August 2. You can check out some tunes here. It’s almost impossible for me to imagine that there could be death metal fans who wouldn’t enjoy this — it’s no-bullshit, totally bludgeoning DM. Hopefully the band will go on tour soon so we can finally check ‘em out live.

-AR

Last Chance to Reason and Son of Aurelius are both terrific bands, and I’m quite pleased to let you know that they’re touring together. I’m a little less pleased to say that Wretched are on the bill, too. I mean, Wretched aren’t the worst band in the world or anything, but Vince has to keep reminding me who they are, despite the fact that I’ve written about them before, which is not a good sign for their memorability.

But I think they go on last every night, so even if, like me, you feel pretty indifferent towards them, you should still go to this tour and check out SoA and LCTR. ‘Cause those dudes are awesome, fo’ reals, and worst case scenario is you leave before Wretched plays… or at least before they finish — might as well give ‘em a shot while you’re there, because they could end up being one of those bands who are way awesomer live than on record. Especially since Adam Cody, formerly of the MetalSucks-approved acts Vanisher and Glass Casket, will be touring with band this go-round.

Here are tour dates, via the often-helpful Lambgoat:

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Son of Aurelius, another band that rose to prominence last year, had a busy 2010 — not only did they release the excellent The Farthest Reaches (which came thiiiiissss close to making my year end list and actually did make Dave Mustein’s list), but then they released a BONUS edition of that same album with an EP’s worth of new tracks AND did their first real tour, doing support for no less a band than Cattle Decapitation.

So you might think that these dudes have earned some vacation time — but I guess there’s no rest for the wicked, ’cause the band has a released a too-brief teaser video for the new material they’re working on. Check it out below.

Presumably, this means there will be a new SOA album this year, which would be pretty sweet. Obviously, we’ll post more news as we get it…

-AR

Photo credit: Taija Lynn for Brooklyn Vegan.

Last Saturday I attended the California Blood Tour in San Francisco, featuring Son of Aurelius, Burning the Masses, Knights of the Abyss, Devourment, and Cattle Decapitation. I had mixed expectations of almost all the bands on the tour, but many of them ended up being proven wrong.

First up were Son of Aurelius (most of you probably know them by now, since we’ve done quite a few articles on them). They opened with a shreddy, breakdowny intro song that even incorporated power metal vocals, so I think a lot of the crowd were a little confused. But once the band started playing songs like “Myocardial Infarction” and “A Good Death”, the crowd warmed up to them, spawning some of the biggest pits of the first three bands. They definitely wowed me. Even though they had a different vocalist for this tour, he still performed admirably, and their mix was fantastic; both shredding solos and brutal breakdowns were perfectly audible. Great opening band for this tour.

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When all is said and done with The California Blood Tour currently criss-crossing the nation, the poor lads in Knights of the Abyss are going to be remembered not for their live shows but for a series of hilarious and embarrassing viral videos filmed on the road.

It seems as if Cattle Decapitation have taken to hazing their opening act; whether it comes from a place of brotherly love or genuine malice we can’t say for sure! The first incident, you may remember, featured a vicious bitch-slap bestowed upon KOTA’s guitarist Brian McNulty by Cattle Decapitation’s tour manager after the latter over-indulged and missed the second night of the tour. The latest hijinx occurred after Cattle Decap got fed up with Knights of the Abyss’s bass player always leaving his bass out, a big no-no when you’re on tour. So they decided to kidnap the bass, make a piñata out of it and… yep, jizz all over it:

If you’re Knights of the Abyss all of this may be a bit humiliating, but here we are talking about a band we probably wouldn’t be talking about otherwise; a couple of would-be fans are sure to click that there MySpace link I just posted. So I were Knights of the Abyss I’d keep doing stupid shit on tour. Get the remaining dates of the tour (which also features Devourment, Burning the Masses and Son of Aurelius) here.

-VN

So Cattle Decapitation are on tour RIGHT NOW! with Devourment, Knights of the Abyss, Burning the Masses, and Son of Aurelius (get dates here). And I guess Knights of the Abyss guitarist Brian McNulty, uh, overindulged, and consequently missed the second date of the tour. That’s obviously pretty early in the run, too early for leeway, and so Cattle Decapitation’s tour manager, who outweighs McNulty by over a hundred pounds, was tasked with carrying out the chastisement. Watch video below, courtesy those mad geniuses at Metal Injection.

So Cattle Decap’s TM seems like a really nice dude who is reluctant to administer corporal punishment — still, he smacked McNulty right proper. I bet that dude never misses another show again, no matter who his band is opening for.

-AR

If you’ve been enjoying Son of Aurelius’s The Farthest Reaches as much as I have this year, than you’ll wanna know about Smaragos, a new project from SOA bassist Max Zigman.

Smaragos share some common traits with SOA — namely, an emphasis on musicianship and a willingness to try all sorts of wacky things (e.g., a two-minute long sitar section!) — but it’s mostly it’s own animal. Whereas SOA’s influences are more noticeably melodeath, Smaragos are more interested in administering blunt force trauma and whiplash-inducing schizo-shifts; if the easy comparison for Son of Aurelius is The Black Dahlia Murder, than the east comparison for Smaragos might be Cattle Decapitation (funnily enough, SOA are actually on tour with Cattle Decap right now — get dates here). Some of the synth-y stuff makes me think of Faith No More at their heaviest (e.g., “Jizzlobber”), but the Satan’s-Taking-a-Dump vocals are pure Glenn Benton and his ilk.

This project is still in the early stages, but demos of two songs, “Furnace” and “Primordial,” are definitely promising (if kinda bass-heavy — not shocking given Zigman’s presence, but still…). There are streams of said demos after the jump; check them out, visit Smaragos on MySpace, and then let us know what you think in the comments section.

Here are the demos…

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‘Cause two excellent free samplers have been released within the last 24 hours:

• Good Fight have released a free sampler featuring songs from Cancer Bats, Son of Aurelius, The Contortionist, This or the Apocalypse, and more. None of the music is new, but if you’re not familiar with these bands, well, here’s your chance to become familiar with them, all for the the low low price of free. Get it here.
• Adult Swim and Scion A/V have also released a free sampler, and this one includes a new Withered song, “Extinguished with the Weary,” plus “rare or unreleased” tracks from Jesu, Skeletonwitch, Death Angel, Kylesa, Torche, Ludicra, and more. I haven’t had a chance to listen to any of it yet, but, again, it’s new or rare music from a bunch of awesome bands and it will cost only the energy it takes for you to click the “download” button, so go get it here.

-AR

Everyone who likes to bitch that too many metal videos look like they were filmed in a warehouse will be happy to know that the new Son of Aurelius video, “Mercy for Today,” appears to have been shot in a greenhouse. Sure, it’s a non-functioning, kinda run-down greenhouse, but, y’know. It has lotsa windows!

Whatever. This song is awesome, and if for some reason you still don’t know Son of Aurelius, well, here’s a good chance to educate yourself — “Mercy for Today” is just the right mix of tech-y and hook-y, and a perfect example of what SOA is all about.

“Mercy for Today” comes off Son of Aurelius’ The Farthest Reaches, which is out now on Good Fight.

-AR

Everyone’s favorite vegan death metal band, Cattle Decapitation, are gonna start writing their new album at the end of this year, which is great news ’cause, well, they’re motherfucking Cattle Decapitation.

Also great news: that they’re gonna do a headlining run, “The California Blood Tour,” before they start that process. (The name is a reference to the point of origin for the bands on the tour — they’re actually playing all over North America. A little confusing, but whatever.)

ALSO great news: that they’re taking some really cool bands with them on the trek, including the Sergeant D.-beloved Devourment and Burning the Masses, as well as MetalSucks favorites Son of Aurelius. (Knights of the Abyss, who I don’t know as well as I probably should, are also on the bill; Slaughterbox and Condemned will play select dates.) This will be SOA’s first time playing outside their general West Coast vicinity (at least as far as I know), and I can’t express how excited I am to finally see them live. And with Cattle Decap! Pinch me, for I must be dreaming.

Here are dates…

Click to read more…

Can you imagine if everyone to whom we give endless amounts of shit followed Dino’s example? We’d have Rose Funoral cards and Tommy Lee faking his own death and Fred Durst pulling a Billy Madison and pics of Joey Belladonna with his twig and berries tucked back. That’s the kinda world I wanna live in. I believe we can make it happen if we try.

ANYWAY, here’s some shit we did this week:

• We did a second installment of Cooking Contaminated.
• We’re streaming new tracks by Son of Aurelius.
• Eyal gave us a Daath studio update.
• We spoke to Max Cavalera and Ratt’s Bobby Blotzer.
• We suckered Decibel‘s Andrew Bonazelli into writing about the Metal Mets for us.
• We checked out some new German cheese metal releases.
• We called out David Draiman.
• We watched some great music videos, some awful music videos, and some really awful music videos.
• We made fun of the most annoying little kid in the world.
• We were sorry about Abacabb breaking up, but really happy about BOOBS!!!

Speaking of Eyal and studio updates: on Sunday I’m flying down to Atlanta to visit Daath in the studio. If you never hear from me again, assume I’ve been lost amidst a cloud of ATL purp smoke and awesome metal. But what a way to go!!!

-AR

Just in case Ozzfest, Mayhem, Summer Slaughter, Thrash & Burn, The Cool Tour, Scream Like You Mean It, and, to a lesser extent, American Carnage weren’t enough to keep you occupied this summer (to say nothing of all the regular plain ol’ tours goin’ on), yet another big package/fest tour has been announced: the Over the Limit tour. (And, yes, I realize the above song is actually called “Push it to the Limit.” But any excuse to listen to that awesome, awesome piece of music will suffice.)

The line-up, my thoughts on that line-up, and dates are all after the jump.

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Son of Aurelius are one of the most exciting new bands of the year, and we’ve been singing the praises of their Good Fight Entertainment debut, The Farthest Reaches, since its release in April. But this summer, Reaches is gonna reach that much farther: SOA have recorded five brand new tracks for a digital only deluxe reissue. You can purchase the entire album – the original tracks plus the new ones – for just ten bucks, or, if you already own the album, you can buy the new additions individually.

The new tracks won’t be released ’til July 6, but because we love you so much, we’ve arranged for you hear two of ‘em early. You can go ahead and stream “Slaughter The Immortals” and “Feast Of Feminine Flesh” on the player below. It’s entirely possible that these songs are even better than the original batch from Reaches (and we LOVED the original batch). They’re techier, tighter, heavier, catchier, and just generally more betterer. If the band has come this far just since April, can you imagine what they’ll sound like in six months, a year, five years? We are so excited for the future of SOA, we can’t even tell you.

So go ahead and enjoy these new tunes. Like we said, Good Fight will release the new and improved The Farthest Reaches approved on July 6.

[this promotion has ended]

In case my review, the interview I did with guitarist Cary Geare, and the contest we’re running to give away autographed copies of the CD somehow weren’t enough to brand it into your brain that Son of Aurelius‘ The Farthest Reaches comes out today via Good Fight Entertainment, well, let this post serve as a reminder. We really love this album, and hope you’ll check it out. If you haven’t already, go ahead a listen to the entire thing before you buy it – we’re streaming it right here.

Once you’ve decided you love it so much you wanna take it out back behind the middle school and get it pregnant, you can order a physical copy here or download it from iTunes or Amazon.

And hopefully these dudes will announce touring plans soon so I can finally check ‘em out live…

-AR

In my review of The Farthest Reaches, the debut offering from Son of Aurelius, I called the album “one of the strongest releases of the spring, and possibly the year.” This Roman mythology-themed record is just a BEAST – the songs are sharply written, the musicianship is top notch, the production epic, and even the cover art is insanely cool. Fuck that stupid 3D movie; this shit here is the real clash of the titans.

Good Fight Entertainment will release The Farthest Reaches this Tuesday, April 13, but you can listen to the whole thing right here, right now. Once you realize the sheer power of this thing, go ahead and order a copy here, and enter in our contest to win an autographed copy here. And while we’re on the subject, why don’t you read my interview with guitarist Cary Geare?

Now here’s the album…

[this promotion has ended]

-AR

In case you missed my review, I am really, really into The Farthest Reaches, the debut album from Santa Cruz quintet Son of Aurelius. Proggy, techy, brutal and infectious in equal measures, The Farthest Reaches is the most assured debut by a metal band I’ve heard in some time – and SOA only just formed last year. Imagine what the future holds for them!

The Farthest Reaches will be the inaugural release from the newly-formed Good Fight Entertainment next Tuesday, April 13. On the eve of the album’s release, SOA co-guitarist Cary Geare took some time to get on the phone and tell me all about these incredibly promising young upstarts. Read the full transcript of our chat after the jump.

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In case you were too lazy to read my review, I really, really like The Farthest Reaches, the debut album from Son of Aurelius. And now that AOL is giving away a free mp3 of the song “Myocardial Infarction,” you can have a little taste of what an authority no less than me called “one of the strongest releases of the spring, and possibly the year.”

It’s a really short song (under two minutes), but it should give you a pretty good sense of what these dudes are all about. Plus, it’s FREE! So what do you have to lose? Go here to download it.

And later this week we’ll have an interview with guitarist Cary Geare.

-AR