MetalSucks

The second-to-last night of Summer Slaughter — the first of two nights at NYC’s Irving Plaza — was a fucking party. Axl and Vince arrived before doors opened to interview Darkest Hour mastermind Mike Schleibaum and were summarily handed beers. “New York City . . . oh god. Suffocation, and also sharing your dressing room [with Suffocation]. . . there’s going to be a lot of drinking. Beer is going to be hard to get. We should really start right after this interview!” mused Schleibaum before handing us a couple of Bud Lights to get things started off right. “It’s just a Bud Light, my friends,” he responded after we thanked him for the hospitality; true, but somehow “just a Bud Light” turned into “just a bottle of Jack Daniels” being completely polished off in the DH / Suffocation dressing room shortly thereafter. “The thing is – it’s going to get all drank by the time Blackguard’s finished,” prophecized Schleibaum. And so it went. The men of DH like their Jack (and their weed) and the endless stream of Suffocation ladies — 40-something Lawngisland bleach blondes with giant, fake tits — that paraded through the room all night provided much amusement for our chemically altered brains.

But before all of the shenanigans went down we sat with Mr. Schleibaum and chatted about the Summer Slaughter tour, the band’s new album The Eternal Return, the end of Darkest Hour’s deal with Victory Records and what that means for the band, the departure of guitarist Kris Norris and subsequent replacement with ex-At All Cost axeman Mike “Lonestar” Carrigan, working with producer Devin Townsend in the past, and a slew of other topics. Our chat, after the jump.

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Ahh, Michigan. We have lakes. Big fucking lakes. We used to have a booming car industry, but unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past six months, you need not an explanation of why I won’t be speaking of that in this article. Besides, we harbor a little music festival every summer called Dirt Fest, a metal get together a few hours outside of Detroit, founded by two dudes looking to showcase their own band. Dirt Fest quickly became the summer festival for local bands looking for recognition and inspiration. It wound up becoming comparable to the one hot chick at the party which turned out to be a sausage fest – she ends up having such a good time that she lets everyone have a turn.

Anyhoo, thirteen lucky summers later and Dirt Fest is rocking a roster that has, in the past, included bands like The Dillinger Escape Plan and The Black Dahlia Murder. Obviously something is working if these bands are rolling through, so I decided to finally go check it out this year. Armed with nothing but a delicious bottle of Jagermeister and a set of tits everyone at the MetalSucks Mansion is dying to get a look at, I embarked on what turned out to be a very interesting day. My mouth already tasted like booze before noon…

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Darkest Hour’s new album, The Eternal Return, is currently streaming in its entirety at the band’s MySpace page. Not only do Vince and I both think it kicks ass in a major way, but Vince has already proclaimed it his favorite Darkest Hour record.

Check it out here, then come back and let us know what you think. You can buy an actual copy when Victory releases the album tomorrow.

And, lest ye forget, Darkest Hour are on the MetalSucks co-sponsored Summer Slaughter tour. Get tour dates here.

-AR

Axl’s gotten his panties all up in a bunch (and justifiably so) several times in the past about bands re-recording, re-mixing and re-releasing their classic albums (see: Exodus, Arch Enemy, etc) as a gluttonous cash-grab. But After the Burial, one of my favoritest Sumeriancore bands, might be the one rare case in which I fully support their decision to re-record, re-release and re-master one of their prior albums.

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Well, it’s, like, totally summer now. The girls here in New York are dressed like whores, regardless of whether or not they have the bodies for it. It smells like dog shit and hot garbage everywhere you go, unless you go to New Jersey, where the air will just kill you anyway. The bars are unnecessarily crowded, so everyone with rooftop access and half a brain is just getting drunk someplace real fuckin’ dangerous to be drunk at. There’s a lot of total shit at the cinemas (X-Men Origins: Fuck You, Terminator Rape Your Face, Night at the Shit in Your Dead Mother’s Mouth 2) and some fun shit, too (Drag Me to Hell, The Hangover, Up. Yeah, Pixar, bitches.). There won’t be any new L O S T until like 2072 or some shit. And Summer Slaughter is in full effect, muthafuckas.

We are, of course, proudly co-sponsoring this tour, and our fellow co-sponsors at Metal Injection just happened to capture some footage of two new Dying Fetus songs at the Summer Slaughter tour stop in Richmond last night. The one below is called “Your Treachery Will Die With You,” and I’d like to dedicate it to Mr. Dick Cheney. I’ve really enjoyed this most recent press tour, Dick.

Go to Metal Injection to check out another new Dying Fetus song, “Shepard’s Command.” And go here to get all remaining dates for Summer Slaughter. If you don’t go, we’re sending the dudes from Dying Fetus over to your mom’s house to serenade her with these songs.

-AR

Behemoth, a.k.a. our favorite Polacks who aren’t Vader, have been added to three dates of the MetalSucks co-sponsored Summer Slaughter tour. Y’know, in case Suffocation, Necrophagist, Darkest Hour, Origin, Born of Osiris, and a plethora of other awesome bands wasn’t enough for you.

These are the Behemoth-sized dates:

07/05-Edmonton, AB @ Starlite Room
07/06-Calgary, AB @ The Whiske
07/07-Spokane, WA @ Knitting Factory

Of course, even if Behemoth won’t be on your local Summer Slaughter stop, it’s still a rad tour that you should check out. Get a full list of dates here.

-AR

It was fun to speculate last about with whom Slayer might spend the summer touring, but now we have an official answer: as rumored, they’ll be co-headlining the Rockstar Energey Mayhem Festival with their ‘07 tourmates, Marilyn Manson.

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Summer Slaughter Tour Terrorizes Texas on Independence Day

One problem with being an Old Fart in the metal scene is that you have to do Old Farty kind of things, like celebrating 4th of July with your family and friends. The problem arises when said celebration coincides with one of the biggest concerts of the year – the Summer Slaughter Tour.

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