So it seems like potentially-excellent 2012 tours are now being announced left and right — no joke, this is the second of four consecutive posts about tour itineraries you’ll see on MetalSucks this morning. Of course, this is a terrific problem to have; no one ever laid on their death bed and thought, “I saw too many awesome rock concerts,” y’know?

So… Every Time I Die! They’ve announced a headlining trek which will feature Terror, Stray from the Path, and Former Thieves. ETID and Terror are both terrific, in my estimation; I’m not really a Stray from the Path fan, but I’ve also never seen them live, and Vince says they’re great; and I don’t know Former Thieves. I guess my point is, all in all, this seems like it could be a really fun night at the opera. And now that ETID is breaking out new songs live (like the one above, “Underwater Bimbos from Outer Space”), you’ve got some extra incentive to check this tour out.

Here are dates, via Metal Underground:

Click to read more…

On October 6th, the Frak the Gods tour — featuring Periphery, Textures and The Contortionist, with Stray From the Path taking the place of The Human Abstract — rolled through New York City for a very appreciative sold-out crowd at the Gramercy Theater. MetalSucks faves The Binary Code opened the show, and MS photographer Mariel “Tormentia” Pietrykoski was there to capture all the action. Take a look at her photos after the jump.

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Last year (and the year before) I got way too busy with this thing called life and missed out on a lot of quality music. I am here to rectify the error of my ways, month by month.

Sorry for the delay. Been extra busy writing books, covering film festivals for Bloody Disgusting, and watching zee American football. Also, my listening tally practically doubled with the introduction of Spotify in my home.

Here are the August 2011 releases that got under my skin, burrowed their way into my brain, made my ears bleed, or simply tickled my unmentionables:

Click to read more…

Look, if someone says to you, “Hey! The Acacia Strain are touring with Terror, Stray from the Path, and Harm’s Way!”, you’ll know in three seconds whether or not you’re interested in going to that tour. ‘Cause maybe you’re a fan of those bands, and maybe you ain’t. And if you are a fan, you could just go here, where we premiered an awesome live track by Terror yesterday, and see in another three seconds if the tour is coming anywhere near you. So I guess what I’m saying is, in theory, there’s really no reason for you to watch the below video of TAS front dude Vincent Bennett hyping said tour.

Except that the video is only two minutes long, and it’s funny as hell. The best part is Bennett discussing how “We might be coming to your town, we might not be coming to your town,” and going on to say “it’s really out of our hands,” because, well, TRUTH. I know every time we sponsor a tour people are like “Why isn’t it coming to [whiney reader's town here],” and they don’t realize how many different factors going into making those decisions, and how little say 98% of everyone involved in the tour had in said decision… but Bennett’s explanation is way more entertaining.

BONUS: Here’s a fun drinking game — do a shot every time Bennett says the name of all four bands on the tour. You will be no longer be feeling feelings by the time the video is over.

Like I was saying, you can get dates for the God Damn tour, whatever it’s called, here.

-AR

[via Metal Injection]

This week’s column does feature a few new releases, but that doesn’t mean this is a good week in metal. Hella’s new album is my personal highlight. Let’s take a look at what’s new this week after the jump.

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Opinions are like assholes; everyone’s got ‘em. Opinions (and assholes) even differ here within the MS Mansion. Which is why it blows my mind when readers accuse us of being paid to post positively about bands/products. With so much public disagreement between MS staffers how would that even be possible?

But I digress. Stray From The Path. Yesterday Axl didn’t seem too impressed with their new song “Mad Girl,” and I can’t blame him; I don’t disagree with his reasons for not particularly liking the song. But I’ve listened to the full album from whence it came, Rising Sun, and on the whole I’m liking what I hear. I’m not completely bowled over with love for Stray From the Path, but I get what they’re doing and they’re doing it well; aggressive post-hardcore with big, punchy production, angular guitar riffs and shouted (not screamed) vocals. They remind me of Refused. While copying Refused isn’t especially novel these days, Stray From the Path get it right, and they also bring enough of their own ideas to the table to keep things interesting. If you like Refused you’ll probably like Stray From the Path too. They get my stamp of approval.

Rising Sun comes out on August 30th via Sumerian Records and is available for pre-order now.

-VN

Alright, there’s been a bunch of new shit released today, but we got a little distracted making fun of unknown bands and sucking Devin Townsend’s kazoo. So now it’s time to play catch-up.

First up today: The Dillinger Escape Plan’s Greg Puciato has released  a cover “of a song called ‘Driving’. Originally written/recorded by Oupa,the solo project of Yuck frontman Daniel Blumberg,” according to Mr. Puciato. As Tracy Jordan once said, “I’m not familiar with about half the words in that sentence,” but I do dig the track. You can check out Puciato’s version below, or the original here.

Driving(Oupa Cover, Written By Daniel Blumberg) by Greg Puciato

Click to read more…

I don’t really know enough about Stray from the Path and Harm’s Way to talk about them in either a positive or negative light, but I do know that The Acacia Strain and Terror are good bands who put on really fun live shows. And so I am here to tell you that all four bands will be touring together this fall, under the moniker of the “God Damn Tour.” Which isn’t the funniest name for an Acacia Strain tour ever, but is still pretty good.

ANYWAY, seriously, go check out TAS and Terror if you can. And if I need to know who Stray From the Path and Harm’s Way are, someone feel free to tell me.

Here are tour dates, courtesy of The PRP:

Click to read more…

Remember when Adam D.’s hair looked like this? Good times.

Times of Graces, the Alive or Just Breathing-era Killswitch Engage reunion that doesn’t play any songs from Alive or Just Breathing, will spend their summer doing support of Underoath. (I’m sure there’s a “Underoath is Not-” joke to be made, but I’m not quite sure what it is. Underoath are Not-Botch? Underoath are Not-Good? I’m open to suggestions.) Other bands on the bill will be Stray from the Path and Letlive. Or, put more simply: I’m not going to this tour.

But you can! No judgments. Okay I might judge you a little but not so much that we can’t still be friends. Jesse Leach can still sing his ass off and Adam D. is still entertaining as hell to watch. I’m just a grumpy old man who wants to hear “Life to Lifeless” more than he wants to hear “Live in Love,” and doesn’t want to hear Underoath, Stray from the Path, or Letlive at all.

But if you’re not like me — and, statistically, a lot of you are not like me — here are dates. Enjoy the show!

Click to read more…

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…

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…

Have you heard the good news, brother? The New England Metal and Hardcore Fest has added a third stage for younger bands with whom concert goers might be less familiar.

Looking over the list, I already know  one terrible band that will be on this stage (Oceano) and two excellent bands that will be on this stage (Brother Von Doom and The Destro), but there are a lot of names here I’m not familiar with. Thus, I am now going to listen to some of those bands via various channels (really just one channel – MySpace) and make some snap judgements. So, in no particular order:

Click to read more…