MetalSucks

Axl is the sole inhabitant of the Mansion today, but I wrote up a few posts for him ahead of time so he doesn’t have to rely on content from the Monkeys, who, to be honest, have been turning in a shoddy performance lately.

Today I am en route to a wedding in Rochester, NY. Gag. Not the wedding… the wedding will be a swell, fancy affair. The city… yuck. Weather.com tells me lows are going to be at or near freezing with snow showers, while TheFuckingWeather.com tells me simply “It’s Fucking Cold.” Thanks. FUCK.

But it’s perfect weather for Swallow the Sun music, which always hits that dark, gloomy spot for me when the weather turns south (north?). I’m listening to the new track “These Woods Breathe Evil” from their forthcoming record New Moon (out November 10th in the U.S.). Or, I was listening to it yesterday when I wrote this… but I may be listening to it now… and if I hadn’t mentioned the whole Rochester thing you would’ve just assumed I was actually listening to it now. When is “now” anyway? Is it when I’m writing the post, when I hit “publish” (by which time the song might actually be over) or when you read these words? Or neither? Does it matter? Does anything matter? Woah. Meta.

Stop intellectualizing and go enjoy the new Swallow the Sun track, you sillies.

-VN

Autumn is upon us. The days are a little shorter and the shadows a little longer, the light a little dimmer and the breeze a bit cooler. It happens every year (and I write about it every year), but it gets no less easy for me to swallow each time… Winter is coming. Soon enough Daylight Saving Time will end and a month after that New York will be enveloped in darkness every night by 5pm. And it’ll be fucking cold.

Still, I think that those of you who live in climates where it’s roughly the same year-round are missing out on an quintessential human experience. There’s something intangible that comes along with the change of seasons — beyond it just meaning that Football season is starting — that is difficult to describe or put to words. It’s an ebb and flow to life, a coming and going, a give and take, a cyclical nature to the events of your life that I can’t imagine is experienced in the same way when it’s warm out all the time. As much as I fucking hate the winter — and I fucking hate it — I’m not sure I’d give it up for a uniform, level sameness year after year after year. Where’s the fun and the hope in that? Where’s the joy in that first day when the cold breaks, when you go outside, it’s a bit brighter, and you see the tiniest green bud on a tree? The pure elation and child-like excitement that so many fun things are around the corner? How can you fully appreciate the good without first experiencing the bad?

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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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It may be 80 degrees and Sunny today, but it’s not too soon to start thinking about the gloomy darkness of Autumn and the doomy goodness that the 2009 season is going to bring; Swallow the Sun and Paradise Lost both have new records on the way.

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Watching Peter Wichers play with Soilwork last month at New York’s Highline Ballroom was like witnessing a homecoming of sorts. Sure, it wasn’t the very first show back for Wichers, a founding member and key songwriter who recently returned to the group after a four-year hiatus, who had already been playing with the band for weeks on tour with Darkane, Warbringer and Swallow the Sun. Still, it just felt so right. Without Wichers, Soilwork was like a lumbering beast doing its best Soilwork impersonation… but it wasn’t quite Soilwork. Sworn to a Great Divide was a decent album, but “decent” was exactly as far as it went. Before the show I caught up with Wichers to ask him about the circumstances leading to his return to the band, balancing life on the road and life with a family, what it’s like to play someone else’s material in your band, his production work on the Nuclear Blast Allstars project and Warrel Dane solo record, and what the future holds for Soilwork. Our chat, after the fold.

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The splendidly worded (and completely, 100% grammatically correct) phrase above came from one of the Blabberbrats who was commenting on Soilwork’s new video for “20 More Miles.” And y’know what? I’m inclined to agree! Sure, this clip is the kind of slo-mo behind-the-scenes of a tour-type thing we’ve seen a million times before, but it still works, ’cause it’s fuckin’ Soilwork!

Don’t forget that Soilwork’s MetalSucks sponsored tour with Darkane, Swallow the Sun, and, depending on which date you attend, either Daylight Dies or Warbringer, kicks off this Friday. It’s gonna be a helluva time; get complete tour dates at Soilwork’s MySpace page.

-AR

It’s only January 7th but already three ridiculously awesome North American tours are planned for the early part of the year:

Soilwork + Darkane + Swallow the Sun + Daylight Dies (in some markets)

Meshuggah + Cynic + The Faceless

The Haunted + Nachtmystium + Kylesa + Intronaut

Like, woah.

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No, the band didn’t break up; but two days ago marked the shortest day of the year so it’s all uphill from here, baby! This time of year I always get to thinking of bands like Daylight Dies and Swallow the Sun because it’s so fucking dark, cold and depressing all the time. To that end, here’s Daylight Dies’ video for “Lies That Bind,” a MetalSucks-fave by a band that’s from the wintry, isolated, dreary wilderness of… North Carolina.

Catch ‘em on the MetalSucks co-sponsored North American tour this winter with Soilwork, Darkane and — who else — Swallow the Sun.

-VN

What was already shaping up to be one of the most exciting tours of early 2009 just got even better. The North American jaunt, headlined by Soilwork with support from Darkane and Swallow the Sun, just added North Carolina’s princes of gloomy-death-doom Daylight Dies (read Chris Roddy’s glowing review of Lost to the Living) in place of Warbringer, who were forced to drop off due to recording obligations. It’s not that we don’t like Warbringer — in fact, they’re one of our collective favorite bands of the current re-thrash movement — it’s just that… dude, Daylight fuckin’ Dies!! And Swallow the Sun! On the same bill! Headlined (finally!) by a newly re-Peter Wichers’ed Soilwork!! Dude.

Head exploding. For serious. Full list of tour dates after the jump.

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Is it too early to get excited about a tour that doesn’t even kick off ’til May? Not when the tour is Enslaved, Keep of Kalessin and Swallow the Sun. Truth be told, I’m not as familiar with KOK (say it aloud for a cheap giggle) as I oughta be, but Vince has been raving about them to me for months, and Enslaved and Swallow the Sun are both awesome. So, consider this the first tour of ‘09 that I’m already stoked about.

Complete itinerary after the jump, or, as the French call it, le jump:

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We love Daylight Dies here at the MS Mansion and apparently Cosmo Lee of Invisible Oranges (and several other fine publications) does too:

I put on Lost to the Living (Candlelight, 2008) as Hurricane Hanna hit New York. As rain curtained my windows, my room darkened. It wasn’t just the sky. My thoughts went south to North Carolina, home of Daylight Dies, and where Hanna had just touched down. Few bands change the color of a room so effectively. Outside of metal: Joy Division and The Cure (for me, Disintegration (incidentally, this record was mixed at Fascination Street Studios)). In metal, Daylight Dies’ colleagues: Katatonia, Sentenced, Swallow the Sun, Insomnium. These are soundtracks for rainy days – blankets, hot tea, and metal.

If it’s raining wherever you’re reading this from, crank it up and curl up in front of a fire (or smoke a bowl). If it’s not, you can just pretend.

Daylight Dies – “A Subtle Violence”

Daylight Dies – “Cathedral”

-VN

What’s that you say?? Child rearing (literally) has been outlawed? What the fudge, dude — where was I?!?

Speaking on behalf of all first amendmenteers everywhere, this is an outrage — isn’t my banging whoever I wantsa bang protected by the freedom to…you know, assemble, in one’s a-hole? Even if said “one” is under the age of one, I still don’t see the harm as long as both parties are consenting, ahem, persons.

I say bang the bums of whosever you wansta, and don’t be an age-ist fer chrissakes!! Infant isn’t even a number anyway…

And while you’re at it, smoke a bowl and check out this dark ditty.

SWALLOW THE SUN — “Psychopath’s Lair”, from Ghosts of Loss (2005)

-KW

As Daylight Savings Time comes to a close, the most depressing and dark time of year is now upon us. No band’s name sums it up better than Finland’s Swallow the Sun, and their music captures the impending feelings of gloom and despair via moody, dark, Scandinavian doom-metal. Slow, downtuned, neo-classical bludgeonry and razor sharp keyboards slice through a bowel-movement inducing death metal growl to make some of the most depressing music imaginable. My mood today and feelings about how it got dark at 4:30 last night are perfectly captured in “Descending Winters,” below.

My heart goes out to my Scandinavian metal brothers and sisters who have to deal with only 6 hours of daylight come December. I don’t know how you guys make it through. Actually, I guess you just write depressing music like this.

-VN

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