I completely, 110% share Metal Injection’s enthusiasm for seeing Animals as Leaders at Summer Slaughter this coming Sunday, for I was also at their SXSW performance and my mind, like Rob’s, was also shattered into a thousand little puny pieces by the superior super-human ability of Tosin Abasi and co. As we’ve said ad nauseam the Summer Slaughter lineup this year is absolutely stacked and I’m excited to see all the bands (except for one), but Animals as Leaders are definitely THE band I’m most pumped to watch. I’ll be rocking out up front and screaming like a little school girl fapping away in the corner as this band of extraordinarily talented gentlemen display their extraordinary musical powers… and somehow I’m gonna have to find a place to burn a doobie before their set. Hey, Summer Slaughter bands, if you wanna do a little puffin’ with Axl and Vince this Sunday, we’ll supply the greens if you supply the locale!

Here they are performing “CAFO” at the Summer Slaughter stop in Fort Worth, TX. Fuck yeah to the guy up front who’s doing windmills despite the fact that the band isn’t playing in any discernible time signature whatsoever for more than a few seconds at a time.

Summer Slaughter rolls through your town soon! Get dates for the MetalSucks-sponsored tour here.

-VN

[UPDATE: Some dates have been changes since the above poster was released. Updated cities and venues after the jump.]

A lot of you thought that the “big surprise” we hinted at last week was the announcement of Summer Slaughter 2010 dates. By now it’s obvious that that wasn’t the big surprise, but lucky for you we’ve got Summer Slaughter dates today anyway!

In case you somehow missed the news, the MetalSucks co-sponsored Summer Slaughter tour is without a doubt THE metal package tour to be at this summer with a lineup that’s sexier than Sammy O’Hagar and Kip W. having an orgy with the MS Mansion Monkeys. Decapitated, The Faceless, All Shall Perish, The Red Chord, Veil of Maya, Cephalic Carnage, Decrepit Birth, Animals as Leaders, Vital Remains… and, uh, Carnifex… will be taking the U.S. by storm this July and August. We’re beyond stoked for this lineup, and you should be too.

Dates are after the jump.

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I just wanna throw my two cents in…

True story: when I was a kid, I thought the lyrics to “Black No. 1″ were “You can’t go out ’cause your boobs are showing.” I was confused about what the song’s title meant, but otherwise, the words made perfect sense to me. Oh, misheard lyrics. You never cease to amuse.

Even if you weren’t a Type O Negative fan or a Carnivore fan, you have to admit that Peter Steele had one of the most distinctive voices in the history of metal. You never heard the guy and thought, “Gee, who is that?” And because my mother used to work with Josh Silver’s (now sadly also departed) dad, Type O Negative always felt, somehow, more tangible to me; Steele was iconic and often seemed larger than life, but I knew he wasn’t superhuman.That he passed away so young was a very unfortunate reminder that he wasn’t The Man of Steele. But he made his mark and left something to appreciated behind, and in the end, that’s all any of us can really ask for.

Here are some happier things that happened in the world of metal this week:

• We unveiled the line-up for Summer Slaughter 2010.
• We debuted a new video by Jungle Rot.
• We spoke to Kerry King and Dave Lombardo from Slayer, Chino Moreno from Deftones, and Stephen Pearcy from Ratt.
• Cynic’s Paul Masvidal contemplated depression, As I Lay Dying’s Nick Hipa contemplated L O S T, and The Austerity Program’s Justin Foley contemplated the perfect Taco Riff.
• We checked out new releases by Levi/Werstler, Wormrot, and Bison B.C. and Sweet Apple.
• Ever dreamed of singing with Nevermore? We’re running pretty much the coolest contest in the history of ever.

Next week brings at least one and possibly two big surprises, plus, knock on a wood, the debut of a new column by a writer you will hate. See ya then.

-AR

Summer Slaughter is without a doubt the best metal tour hitting the U.S. pavement this Summer. The 100% confirmed, official lineup, which MetalSucks exclusively can reveal to you now, is…

DECAPITATED
THE FACELESS
ALL SHALL PERISH
THE RED CHORD
VEIL OF MAYA
CEPHALIC CARNAGE
DECREPIT BIRTH
CARNIFEX
ANIMALS AS LEADERS
VITAL REMAINS

I mean… wow. That lineup is unbelievably sexy and unfuckwithable. There isn’t a single band I could skip seeing other than Carnifex, and we gather many of you will feel the exact same way. There’s no doubt about it: Summer Slaughter is by far the best metal tour of Summer 2010. Rockstar Mayhem is lame, Ozzsharonfest is surely gonna be lame, and “The Cool Tour” is uh, not cool at all save a couple of bands. Comments tour founder and booking agent Ash Avildsen on how Summer Slaughter fits in (or doesn’t) with this Summer’s other metal tours: “I don’t think those tours really compete for many of the same fans as Summer Slaughter. This is focused on underground extreme metal rather than mainstream metal. All of our shows also have air conditioning.” Hooray for air conditioning!

The lineup is a shade younger than in years past, but young bands like The Faceless, Veil of Maya and Animals as Leaders are ones that are more likely to appeal to an older crowd than, say, Born of Osiris would. Avildsen knows exactly what he’s doing: “It’s a much younger line up this year, rather than a lot of older bands in the headlining positions. Tickets will be much cheaper for this same reason, coming in at under $20 in advance almost everywhere with the exception of LA and NYC. Most will be $18.” And it’s cheap, too… extra bonus.

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Wait until you guys see the lineup for this year’s Summer Slaughter tour. It absolutely SMOKES the Rockstar Mayhem Festival and rumored Ozzfest lineups… no competition. To say that the lineup is super-sexy would be an understatement.

You’re going to have to wait to find out who’s on the bill, but lucky for you Veil of Maya revealed in the above Metal Injection interview that they’re one of the bands. And while some of you will probably think Veil of Maya are too “scene”… just you wait until you see who else is on the bill. And for what it’s worth, I hold Veil of Maya in high regard as the sort of kings of that scene (in a good way) and some of the very best the genre has to offer.

Veil of Maya’s new record [id] just came out this past Tuesday on Sumerian Records. Check out a few of its songs on their MySpace page.

-VN

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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