I pride myself on being open minded, so it is very important to me that I consider both sides of an issue before I decide what I think about something! For example, I have always thought that “melodic metal” was a very confusing idea. To me, melody and metal are like oil and water: no common ground. In fact, I have always thought of them as polar opposites — it was always my basic rule that if a song is melodic, then it is by definition not metal.

That said, I know that not everybody feels the same about this as I do, so I thought that I should look into this issue a little more. I don’t like to make snap judgments, so in the interest of intellectual honestly I intend to take a FAIR AND BALANCED LOOK at MELODY IN METAL! In this post, I will share a few examples of both successful and unsuccessful uses of melody and let YOU be the judge — WE REPORT, YOU DECIDE!

You tell me: is there a place for melody in metal????

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From the brain of Egyptian-born, New York-based conceptual artist Nader Sadek comes In the Flesh, a new album that centers on the notion of humanity’s relationship with petroleum and how this exhumation of ancient life forms serves as a self-destructive fuel to society’s greed (a subject that’s near and dear to my heart).

You might already know Sadek from his “impressively twisted” sculptures, masks, and installations for the likes of Mayhem and Sunn O))). In The Flesh marks his recorded debut and sees him collaborating with some of extreme music’s most talented artists: Steve Tucker (vocals, ex-Morbid Angel), Flo Mounier (drums, Cryptopsy), and Rune Eriksen (guitars, Mayhem). The album also features guest appearances by Attila Csihar (Mayhem, Sunn O)))), Travis Ryan (Cattle Decapitation), Tony Norman (Monstrosity, Terrorizer), Mike Lerner (Behold… The Arctopus), Descructhor (Morbid Angel), and Nick McMaster (Krallice).

In The Flesh sounds a lot like what you’d expect given the cast of characters involved: its constant and deliberately plodding elephants-marching riffs and slow blasts recall Morbid Angel and old Cryptopsy in a big way, drizzled with frosty, cold black metal oil.

Stream “Petrophilia,” (music: Rune Eriksen and Nader Sadek, lyrics: Steve Tucker) below. Watch the video for “Nigredo in Necromance” here. In The Flesh comes out May 17th via Season of Mist.

-VN

Hey dudes and ladies, sorry I haven’t been posting much this month. I’ve been travelingeven more than usual, and haven’t had much time to sit down and write down much of anything besides flight confirmation numbers and directions to wherever I happen to be sleeping any given evening. Cheers once again to those of you who went out and soaked up the riff-tastic metal circus that was Metalliance (especially those wonderful souls who came up to hang out or bought me a drink!), and mad love to everyone who survived that tour, especially the eternal road dogs in The Atlas Moth and Howl and my tour family on the Saint Vitus/Crowbar bus.

As soon as that madness ended, I flew over to Ireland to stay with my boyfriend J. for a couple days and get ready for my next adventure: reprising my now-yearly pilgrimage to the mighty Roadburn festival in Tilburg, Netherlands. He and I met there last year (he was playing, I was covering, the rest is history) so it was due to be special for more than the usual reasons, which are pretty fucking good reasons in and of themselves!

Roadburn is the best heavy music festival in the world, hands down. A bold statement, sure, but anyone who’s ever played, worked, or attended the event will agree with me. Yeah, the lineups are always amazing, and yes, the venues – the 013, which is separated into the Main Room, Green Room, and Bat Cave, and the Midi Theatre — are killer. The separate building for merchandise, vinyl distros, and movie screenings doesn’t hurt, nor does the charming ambiance of Tilburg itself.

The real heart and soul of this festival comes from outside, though; from the big-hearted organizers Walter and Jurgen, from the efforts of Roadburn public relations guru Yvonne (without whom the whole damn thing would have fallen apart), and from the thousands of fans and bands that have come together, united by an overwhelming sense of community and goodwill. Everyone at Roadburn is absolutely 100% thrilled to be exactly where they are. There is a reason that this year’s edition sold out – sold OUT – in fifteen minutes, and it’s not just because Swans, Godflesh, Winter, and Sunn 0))) were playing (though that can’t have hurt, either). I made it to my first Roadburn in 2009, and have made it a point to come backevery year since – I’ve heard the same pledge from a lot of first-timers, and I know a few people that are already saving pennies for next year!

This year’s lineup was insane (as always). To give you an idea, I wanted to be sure to catch Alcest, Year of No Light, Acid King, Winterfylleth, Zoroaster, Wovenhand, Naam, Blood Ceremony, Pentagram, Today is the Day, Cough, Godflesh, In Solitude, Wardruna, Soilent Green, Count Raven, Earth, Place of Skulls, Winter, Trap Them, Sabbath Assembly, Summon the Crows, Corrosion of Conformity, Menace Ruine, Sunn 0))), Hooded Menace, Grave Miasma, Scorn, Candlemass (performing Epicus Doomicus Metallicus in its entirety!), Black Math Horseman, Master Musicians of Bukkake, Weedeater, Rwake, Ludicra, Evoken, Ramesses, Shrinebuilder, Yakuza, The Gates of Slumber, Swans, Ufomammut, Blood Farmers, Coffins, Dead Meadow, and Sourvein … and that’s just me. There were plenty of other bands that I either had seen many times, was unfamiliar with, or just didn’t want to see (which is rare at Roadburn, but there’s a first time for everything).

Of course, since it’s a massive festival full of people from all over the world, a lot of whom I love dearly, I managed to miss tons of bands, but I’m okay with it. I’ll see most of them again, and Roadburn isn’t totally about the music. It’s about the experience, man.

Here are a few highlights from this year; third time’s the charm!

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I don’t think anybody ever really reads these little intros Vince or myself write every week, so I’m gonna dispense with one today, and if that makes you sad, uh, you’re weird.

Here’s how we got our pull this week:

• We debuted new music by Abysmal Dawn, Full Blown Chaos, and Årabrot.
• We spoke to Jeff Paulick from Lazarus A.D. and Ginger from The Wildhearts.
• We checked out new releases from Xasthur, haarp, and Hesper Payne.
• We watched a nerd’s video about seeing Sunn O))).
• We tried to understand why The Big Four are only doing one show in America.
• We debated the merits and demerits of this year’s Mayhem Fest line-up.
• We celebrated the way that metal makes everything better.
• We enjoyed some new All Shall Perish music (kinda).
• We prepared for Zakk Wylde to boldly go where no guitarist has gone before.
• We got even MORE excited for Meek is Murder’s Algorithms.

Next week we’re gonna, like, totally talk about metal n’ stuff. You should come back and read it, it will be fun.

-AR

Earlier today I was listening to Sunn O)) on Youtube because I was trying to drown out some people around me who were being loud, and I came across this embarrassing video where some dork talks about how he saw them the other day. Not sure who he is or why he made this video, but he’s probably one of those guys with an azn fetish who lives in Brooklyn or Portland and has an MLS degree (but works as a waiter at some vegan bakery/cafe). In this video, he gushes about Sunn O)) for over ten minutes without taking a break — he got so worked up that I expected him to cum at any second. Cliffs:

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Well, this is terrible.

Jef Whitehead — perhaps better known in the metal world as “Wrest,” the moniker he’s used while working with bands such as Leviathan (his own project), Lurker of Chalice (also his own project), Sunn O))), Twilight, and Nachtmystium — has been “charged with criminal sexual assault and aggravated domestic battery… allegedly attacking his girlfriend,” according to the Chicago Tribune.

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FEATURING MEMBERS OF ARCH ENEMY, SUNN O))), MADBALL, FUCK THE FACTS, DOMMIN, DARK CASTLE, IMBROGLIO, EXHUMED, AND THAT METAL SHOW

For 2010, we decided to do something special as part of our regular end-of-year festivities here at MetalSucks — namely, ask musicians from across the vast spectrum of the metalsphere (or, in a few cases, the almost-metalsphere) what their favorite albums of the year were. Death metallers, thrash metallers, black metallers, stoners, grinders, and djenters alike graciously contributed lists to MS, and we’ll be running them in groups of ten to eleven musicians at a time twice a day for the rest of the week.

After the jump, check out the first group… we hope you enjoy seeing what some of metal’s heaviest hitters were into this year as much as we have!

(And please note that these are musicians and that they, um, have a lot on their minds. So some of ‘em named albums that actually came out last year. Please don’t freak out.)

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Stephen Kasner, the extremely gifted artist who has done work for, amongst others, Justin Broadrick, Isis, Sunn O))), and integrity, has fallen on hard times, and needs your help. He’s apparently a very private guy, so the particulars of his medical condition are not being publicly disclosed, but he has released the following statement, which our friend Rich Hall brought to our attention via Invisible Oranges:

“Stephen Kasner has recently been diagnosed with some serious medical issues. Like many artists who lack the benefit of medical insurance, he pushed the situation aside until it became unavoidable. Emergency care has been initiated, but he is not out of the woods yet, and his continued care is extremely necessary – hence this call for aid to friends, admirers of his art, and comrades alike.”

Now here’s how you can help:

• You can make a PayPal donation to kasner@stephenkasner.com. If you take a screenshot of your donation and e-mail to Invisible Oranges’ Cosmo Lee at invisibleoranges at gmail dot com, Cosmo will enter you in a drawing to win a hardcover edition of Kasner’s book Works: 1993 — 2006, which you can also check out here.
• You can purchase some Kasner’s work — Lee says that Kasner “has two stores, a main one and one for his Blood Fountains musical project.”  So there are albums and album art and posters and silk screens and books… you get the idea.

Obviously this is a very worthy cause… we’re sending out good thoughts to Kasner, his friends, and his family, and strongly encourage you to donate today, if it’s just a few bucks.

-AR

The guys that dreamed up Master Musicians of Bukkake knew full well that their band name would get you hornballs to pay attention. And hey, it worked.

The Seattle group features members of Sunn O))) and Earth and their music is basically like that of both groups — all sound effects and drone that go on forever and ever with no discernible structure — but done up in psychedelic/ambient form instead of a wall of fuzzy amplifiers. This would make good background music and that’s about it… I find it boring, as I do Sunn O))), and I certainly do not find it to be high art. But feel free to tell me why I’m wrong for not getting it in the comments, as you all have done so many times before.

Then again, from what I can gather from the copy on their MySpace page — and, of course, from their band name — these guys don’t take themselves too seriously. Which is good. Maybe they’re making fun of themselves? If so, I wholeheartedly support this project!

-VN

Thanks: AdamFuckingRahn

Yo, fuck James Cameron and his blue-cat-people-fucking-in-the-rain-forest movie. If you released this promo for Backsliders and Apostates Will Burn, the forthcoming four song EP from The Austerity Program, in Imax 3D, it would gross $2,667,907,958. That’s a dollar more than Avatard has made worldwide as of this writing. Suck it, Cameron.

Unfortunately, a Titanic-sized conspiracy is preventing this life-altering film from being seen in the format for which it was intended. Oh, well. At least they stuck it up on YouTube, so all the world could get a little taste.

Backsliders and Apostates Will Burn comes out May 4 on Hydra Head. And if you ask real nice, maybe TAP vocalist/guitarist Justin Foley will write some columns for MetalSucks in the not-too-distant future.

-AR

On paper, Washington’s Black Breath is not the sort of band one typically associates with Southern Lord. Dronesmiths Sunn O))), doomy stoners Eagle Twin, instrumental rockers Pelican, and black metalheads Wolves In The Throne Room all coexist comfortably together on the Californian label. Yet Black Breath’s hybrid of gutter-level punk and classic thrash metal somehow make sense, even if it doesn’t exactly seem appropriate for Southern Lord. Coupled with the August release of Seattle punks The Accused’s all new The Curse of Martha Splatterhead, it almost seems as though the ostentatiously hip imprint is slowly embracing a much less esoteric sound.

On November 10, Southern Lord will re-release Black Breath’s Razor To Oblivion mini-LP in CD format in advance of a proper debut album scheduled for early 2010. That forthcoming full-length was recorded earlier this year and engineered by Converge’s Kurt Ballou. Visit the band’s MySpace page to hear some tracks from Razor To Oblivion.

-GS

[Gary Suarez eats his pizza crust first. He usually manages the consistently off-topic No Yoko No. Say, why don't you follow him on Twitter?]

Salome, who just might be our favorite modern doom metal band on the planet, are about to hit the road with Hull and Batillus as part of the Beard Destroyer Tour 2009 (Best tour moniker ever? We think so!). The band also recently completed a split with Thou (cover art above), which is being mastered by James Plotkin (Khanate, OLD, Sunn O))), Isis, etc.) and should be out on Vendetta Records in the next couple of months.

But why wait a couple of months when you can hear some new shit right this very second? The band has been cool enough to graciously allow us to debut a brand new track, “With Hell for a Mouth,” as a free download. Like all Salome, the song is slow like honey and crushing like an anvil, with Kat’s inimitable vocals from the bowels of hell bolstering the performance of guitarist Rob Moore and drummer Aaron Deal. It also marks the next evolutionary step for Salome, as it features slightly brighter production than their EP and even has – gasp! – some sections that are kinda bouncy. It is, in a word, awesome.

Download the song, absolutely free, below. Then, after the jump, get dates for the Beard Destroyer Tour 2009. You need to see Salome live; they are truly otherworldly.

Salome, “With Hell for a Mouth”

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Yes, you read that correctly. For those who don’t know, I hate Sunn O))). I abhor them. I loathe them. The pointless, pretentious, and artistically void droning just infuriates me. They are just beyond awful in every conceivable way. Thus, when I found \\\Maytag, I fell in love with them instantly. You see, the members of \\\Maytag hate Sunn O))). They hate them so much that they went out of their way to make a parody band based on them. They compared Sunn O)))’s sound to broken refrigerators, so they took that idea and made their own brand of “drone metal” using refrigerators and various other kitchen appliances. It started as a joke, but they somehow got over 65 minutes of material for an album with 23 tracks, grimly entitled The Saga of the Frostbitten Lands of Frigidaire, and enough material for two extra EPs (with one long epic track each). I have to say, the result is fucking hysterical! Just listening to the droning fridges, with the tiny subtleties thrown in, makes me giggle like an idiot watching Dane Cook (only idiots like Dane Cook).

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Chicago instru-metallers Pelican have posted a new song, “Strung Up From the Sky” — from their forthcoming full-length What We All Come To Need (October 27th, Profound Lore) — on their MySpace page. Pelican quietly released a 3-song EP earlier this year called Ephemeral, and the upcoming full-length will be their first for the Greg Anderson of Sunn O)))-owned Southern Lord Records. As someone who’s never really been that into this band before, I really dug the EP and I’m very much looking forward to the new album: the EP and one new song are tighter, clearer and seemingly more structured than what I’ve heard from the band in the past. So – check that new song out now and enjoy it whilst we wait for another one to hit the ‘net before the album drops in 2 months.

-VN

So I’ve been living in the UK for about four months now, and have managed to take in quite a lot of this “culture” thing they’re so fond of over here. I’ve been to nine countries, eight major metal festivals, and a handful of cities in Ol’ Blighty itself; I’ve gate-crashed hotel parties in Norway with the drummer of Swallow the Sun, stage-dived into a sea of muddy grind freaks in the Czech Republic, gotten roaring drunk with Wolves in the Throne Room in the Netherlands, met Gaahl’s boyfriend in France, gotten lost in Rome, watched Electric Wizard blow an amp in Manchester, lost my mind to Eyehategod at Hellfest, seen Manowar (‘nuff said there) – and that was just the first couple months. Between all the metal, mud, bruises, whiskey, calimocho, hard cider, and terrifying Czech liquor (Becherovka and Fernet are no fucking joke, even if it is Kevin Sharp and Danny Herrera pouring you a shot), I realized that, somehow, something was still missing.

To my immense chagrin, I had yet to take that all-too-necessary pilgrimage up through the Black Country and into the Unholy Land itself – to Birmingham, England. Every metaller worth his leather (and several million other music fans besides) knows exactly why this unimpressive, coal-smudged city matters so much. Birmingham is the ancestral home of heavy metal. Everything – whether it be doom, black metal, powerviolence, or even the plague that is deathcore – everything came from here. The famed Mermaid Pub provided a fertile breeding ground for extreme metal, nestled as it was in a dodgy part of town where the cops ignored the punkers and longhairs milling around out front as the early rumblings of a deadly new sound thundered away upstairs The city itself was the original stomping ground of the dirty sexy hard rock’n’roll of Led Zeppelin, the NWOBHM gods in Judas Priest, the crusty proto-grind of Sore Throat, the scummy grindcore forefathers of Napalm Death, the industrial noise terror of Godflesh, and the one and only BLACK FUCKING SABBATH.

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Sellouts or smart businessmen? Unlimited CMU Daily reports [via MS Maniac Charlie F.]:

‘O)))Bow 1′, a track from Sunn O)))’s 2001 album ‘Flight Of The Behemoth’, has been used in a new advert for Norwegian design agency and clothing company Anti-Sweden’s new line of ‘True Black Metal Jeans’. The jeans will also feature the occult-inspired artwork of American artist and Sunn O))) collaborator Justin Bartlett on their labels.

Is licensing your music for use in a commercial tantamount to selling out? Personally I think that if Sunn O))) can get money for it then more power to ‘em in today’s increasingly lean times for sales of recorded music, but I’m sure there are many of you who will cry “false metal” at the mere thought of it. Watch the advertisement above.

-VN

Greg Anderson is all about uniquenesss, whether it be drone/doom kingpins Sunn 0)))’s epic trudge or the ability of his record label, Southern Lord, to stay afloat in a dreadful industry climate. The former’s new album – the sprawling, pretty excellent Monoliths and Dimensions – brings the band’s sound into new territory, a seemingly unthinkable feat considering their MO of slow, simple, and heavy up until now. Though the album was a long time in the making, Anderson has hardly been dormant: he’s spread between Southern Lord projects, the Sunn 0))) releases between Black One and Monoliths, and Burial Chamber Trio (a project with Mayhem vocalist/ frequent Sunn 0))) collaborator Atilla Csihar), among other things. In an interview with Metal Sucks, Greg discussed the changes between his main band’s prior work to that on their latest album, workng with Sunn 0))) collaborators like Csihar and Earth’s Dylan Carlson, and running Southern Lord in a time when running a label is a risky venture, to say the least.

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Last week’s funny photo caption contest offered one of the biggest and baddest prize packages yet — a ginormous package of stuff featuring Children of Bodom’s entire discography and a ton of other shit from Spinefarm Records — so it’s fitting that we got a shit-ton of funny entries. But the winning caption to the photo at right, posted by Julian, is:

“Look Ma, I’m Chris Cornell’s career!”

This week we’re giving away a double disc vinyl set of the latest Sunn O))) release Monoliths and Dimensions, the CD of which hit stores this week. Thanks to our friends at Red Indie Metal for supplying this week’s prize (follow them on Twitter @REDINDIEMETAL). Don’t be silly and miss out on this opportunity to have this limited edition vinyl for free! Just come up with the funniest caption to the below photo and you’ll end up with a very nice package in the mail sometime soon.

I’m ’bout to go party at a triple-birthday event then get rowdy at an outdoor winter BBQ tomorrow afternoon (Bacon Explosion, anyone?). But not before I can tell you what went down on MetalSucks this week:

• Dallas broke the silence on Earthsblood and told the “Blabberbitches” to fuck off.
• Zakk Wylde recorded on a Dope song, throwing his last shred of cred out the window. Yeah, Dope.
• Metal Hammer released a shady list of the best death metal songs ever. But at least Metal Hammer is still around: Metal Edge and Metal Maniacs bit the dust for good.
• David Draiman hit the singles market. J-Date.com, here comes the sickness!
• We spoke with Sunn O))) mainman / Southern Lord Records founder Greg Anderson and Sylosis’ Josh Middleton.
• We told you what we think about the new release by Dimension Zero while we asked you what you think about Lamb of God’s latest.
• Sigh’s foxy Dr. Mikannibal got naked and drank cow’s blood.
• We took shots at Camp Kill Yourself and Insane Clown Posse, and their fans took shots at us.

Peace in the mideast.

-VN

Legendary dronesters Sunn o))) and record label Southern Lord share not just a penchant for original, outside-the-box thinking but a man by the name of Greg Anderson, who splits his time between playing guitar for the former and running all operations of the latter. In the interest of full disclosure I’m not really much of a fan of either the band or the label for no other reason than it’s just not my thing, but I have the utmost respect for the legacy of Sunn o))) and the business acumen, foresight and individuality of Southern Lord and all the bands thereon. I was recently given an opportunity to email a few questions to Mr. Anderson himself, and the man was so kind as to respond with his thoughts on the roles the band and label play in the metal community, his thoughts on the metal community at large, and what’s in store for both Sunn o))) and Southern Lord in 2009. Our chat transcript, after the jump.

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