… Brandon Ellis. You might recognize the 18-year old (!) Ellis’s name from his run as a touring guitarist with Arsis on their most recent Jim Malone-less tour, or perhaps from his brief stint with North Carolina-based MS-faves Vanisher. Filling in for Jim Fucking Malone in Arsis is pretty dern impressive on its own, but learning a band’s entire live set — let alone a band as technical and precise as Sylosis — in TWO DAYS, then going out on tour with them to open for As I Lay Dying in 1,000+ capacity venues? Mind boggling. This kid’s got my respect.

But the news of Brandon Ellis replacing Alex Bailey — who broke his wrist mere days into Sylosis’ U.S. tour — isn’t new in and of itself, as Ellis started playing with the band late last week and several other sites picked up the news around that time. Mainly I just wanted a reason to post this new live music video of Sylosis playing “A Serpent’s Tongue,” ’cause Sylosis are fan-fucking-tastic and you really ought to pay them attention. I named their 2011 release Edge of the Earth as one of my Top 15 of 2011, so use this as an excuse to catch up on what you missed.

-VN

[via No Clean Singing]

How’s this for shitty timing? Just as Sylosis were poised to begin their first-ever U.S. tour, supporting As I Lay Dying, guitarist Alex Bailey breaks his wrist and will be forced to sit the whole tour out. We haven’t been able to determine how, exactly, Bailey broke his wrist — we’re being told he fell — but apparently he broke it in three places, so it’s a pretty serious injury.

Axl and I went to see a Sylosis headline show the other night in NYC — one of a small handful of dates leading up to the AILD support run — and while we thought the band looked a little funny up there with only three dudes and sounded a little funny with only one guitarist, we weren’t too sure because we’d never seen them before. Things became a little more clear when vocalist/guitarist Josh Middleton announced from the stage that Bailey had broken his wrist, and yesterday we were able to confirm the situation with the band’s publicist. Bailey made it to the U.S., played the first couple of shows, then broke his wrist. So the poor sap is here, in a foreign land for the first time, and he can’t even play to what are presumably some of the biggest audiences Sylosis has ever seen. I can only imagine how pissed and upset he is right now.

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In January of this year I selected Sylosis’ Edge of the Earth as my choice for the album that would fuck your collective faces off in 2011. And I was right! In case you somehow missed all the ranting and raving I’ve already done about Sylosis this year, I present you with Edge of the Earth stand-out track “Awakening:”

Traveling overseas to tour is hella expensive, and as such the Brits in Sylosis haven’t yet made it to the States… until now. The good news is that they’re finally coming over here in November and December in support of As I Lay Dying, but the bad news is that the tour is relatively short and they’re the first of four support bands, meaning they won’t be playing a very long set. But fear not, fellow Sylosis fans: according to a post on Sylosis’ Facebook page [via MS reader Lewis Hart], the band will be flying to the U.S. early to play five special headline shows before embarking on the AILD tour. Consider me there!

Those dates, as well as their dates supporting As I Lay Dying, after the jump.

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My own fragile sense of mortality means that I’m still adjusting to the fact that the original bands from the New Wave of American Heavy Metal — commonly mislabeled as “metalcore” — are now hovering somewhere around their tenth year of existence. As I Lay Dying are the latest band to hit the one decade mark, and while I can’t say I was one of the cool kids who has known about them since the release of Beneath the Encasing of Ashes, I do remember when I first heard Frail Words Collapse, and it really seems like it was just last week.

But enough about my own neurosis. The story here is As I Lay Dying’s tenth anniversary, which they’ll celebrate by releasing an album entitled Decas. Mercifully, it’s not just a lame greatest hits collection — instead, it will feature three new songs, covers of classics by Slayer, Judas Priest, and Descendents, and remixes of old AILD tunes by the likes of The Dillinger Escape Plan’s Ben Weinman, Big Chocolate, and Kelly “Carnage” Cairns. You can check out the first new tune, “Paralyzed,” below. It’s equal parts heavy and catchy, which is to say, it’s an As I Lay Dying song, and a good reminder of why the band grew to be so popular in the first place.

Decas will come out November 8 on Metal Blade, and you can already pre-order it here. And if that isn’t enough to give you your As I Lay Dying fix, the band will continue the celebration of their birthday with the ”A Decade of Destruction,” which starts at the end of November and will feature support from Of Mice & Men, The Ghost Inside, Iwrestledabearonce, and, maybe best of all, Sylosis, who I personally am absolutely dying (no pun intended) to see. Here are dates, courtesy of AP:

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Here at MS we like to use the Reviews section to highlight smaller bands that we don’t otherwise talk about much throughout the regular course of our blogging. Said “regular course of our blogging” includes tons of articles about bigger bands’ albums, usually before release: song premieres (here or elsewhere), music videos, in-studio vids, album artwork, and so on and so forth. But when those albums do finally come out, well, a lot of the time they kind of fall off our radar. So what of those albums that we spend lots of time hyping? Full-on reviews are a royal pain in the ass to write, so today I’ll take a quick look at a few releases from the first half of 2011 and give them the proper review treatment in abbreviated form.

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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.

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

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This week sees new releases by Graveyard, Periphery, Blut Aus Nord, Septicflesh, Winds of Plague, and tons more. MS new release expert Vic Vaughn takes a looksee at each after the jump!

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I mean, it’s no Hard Eight video, but it’s pretty good, I guess. I appreciate that the director was giving it the old college try, but I think he may have old college tried too hard; really, some street lamps and running and slot machines would have been more than sufficient. And the clip could definitely use some more old people smiling, that’s for damn sure.

“Empyreal” comes off of Sylosis’ latest, Edge of the Earth, which is out now in Europe via Nuclear Blast. The rest of the world can go fuck itself.

-AR

As you are aware, Vince is at SXSW this week, and is probably drunk and laughing and/or headbanging even as I type this. So in his honor, it is my duty to tell you that Sylosis’ Edge of the Earth – Mr. Neilstein’s pick for Album That Will Fuck Your Face Off in 2011 — is now streaming on the band’s Facebook page.

I’m listening to the album as I type this, and while I don’t always agree with Vince (and he doesn’t always agree with me!), I gotta say, he nailed it this time — this album rocks. I mean, I can feel my face coming off from all the fucking its getting. Awesome. Totally awesome.

Headbang here, then come back and let us know what you think. Edge of the Earth came out on March 11 in Europe via Nuclear Blast; still not sure when it’s getting released elsewhere, but at least you can hear it now no matter where you live!

-AR

I named Sylosis’ Edge of the Earth as my pick for Albums That Will Fuck Your Face Off in 2011, and it seems my choice was greeted with rousing e-chants of “here, here!” in the form of positive comments and a storm of emails from fellow Sylosis fans anytime a band member so much as unzips his fly to take a piss. In that regard I certainly wouldn’t put Sylosis in Tool, Devin or Animals as Leaders’ company yet… but perhaps someday.

In any case, Metal Hammer is hosting a preview clip of the new album featuring interviews with the band members, some samples of new music, and a semi-music video of the band playing a new track “live” at the end. Apparently Edge of the Earth is a concept album of sorts, from a lyrical standpoint; neat! Musically, the band describes the album as being more adventurous and experimental, and as sounding more organic from a production standpoint. Double neat! But the new music alone is worth the price of admission; I’m already more excited for Edge of the Earth than when I started writing this post. Watch the preview video below.

-VN

Thanks: MikeH

Photo by Robert Escue.

Lazarus A.D. bassist/vocalist Jeff Paulick is the latest to join the ranks of musicians we’ve interviewed more than once (see Axl’s March 2009 interview with him here). Perhaps it’s because he agrees with our assessment that his band has been unfairly lumped in with the re-thrash movement; “I never wore a jean jacket in my life and I’ve never bought a patch in my life. Last time I wore hightops, I was in kindergarten or I was playing basketball. We’re not part of that crew and a lot of bands are from California and whatnot. We’re from Wisconsin. It just doesn’t exist here.” He also has nothing but great things to say about Revocation and Sylosis, a good barometer for how he approaches his own thrash-influenced — but not thrash rip-off — music. More than anything else during the course of my interview with Jeff a couple of weeks back, he stressed how he feels it’s important for bands to grow musically from release to release rather than simply writing the same record over and over.

Lazarus A.D.’s new album Black Rivers Flow is certainly a change for the band, which you can find out for yourself before its February 1st release by streaming the entire thing on Metal Underground this week. During my interview with Jeff we spoke at length about the new record, the reality of dudes in metal bands having day jobs when they’re not on tour,

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Sylosis
Edge of the Earth
Label – Nuclear Blast
Release Date – March 11, 2011

Sylosis made ripples with their 2008 Nuclear Blast debut Conclusion of An Age, but these modern UK thrashers are going to make waves with sophomore album Edge of the Earth, set to come out on March 11th. Sylosis play just the kind of modern thrash we like — enough of the old stuff to let you know where their influences lie but with plenty of modern inflection and lots of their own pizzazz — so it’s fitting that they’re worthy of being discussed in the same breath as bands like Revocation and Lazarus A.D.

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Our email inboxes have been blowing up since Monday with excited pleas to check out the new track by the U.K.’s Sylosis. I loved Sylosis’ 2008 ripper of an album Conclusion of An Age, a shining example of what modern thrash (read: not re-thrash) can and should be, a healthy mix of old and new. The very young stallions of Sylosis quickly worked their way into my metal heart and Conclusion just missed being included on my 2008 year-end list; it’s that good. If you don’t own it yet, I highly recommend you buy that album now

So it wasn’t for want of trying, but I’ve just been so swamped with catch-up listening from the holidays that I didn’t get to check out the new track, “Empyreal (Part 1)” until now… and holy shit, you guys were right as usual. Of course we’re only talking about one track here, but it seems like Sylosis have matured leaps and bounds in the past 2+ years; “Empyreal” finds the band only hinting at their thrash roots, ditching the remnants of metalcore present in their sound on their first full-length, getting heavier, getting more technical, improving their songwriting… just getting better all around. I’ll reserve final judgment until I hear the full album, but I’d say these guys have found a real sound of their own. If the rest of the album is this good, Edge of the Earth is going to be an absolutely monolithic face-fucker. Stream “Empyreal (Part 1)” below:

Edge of the Earth comes out on March 11th via Nuclear Blast.

-VN

Thanks: Tom Braund, Randy Gatto, and a bunch of commenters.

To the MetalSucks Maniac known as “Sacajewea,” we would like to say the following: YOU ARE A FUCKING RETARD. It’s incredible how retarded you are, you stupid fucking idiot mongoloid half-wit retard.

We send this message because in October of ’09, Sacajewea left a comment on the very first post we ever wrote, saying he was “Just here to dig up the past;” then he left another comment, just this past June, which read:

“I did it twice. Fuck I’m retarded. If anyone sees this please find me in a recent post and tell me how retarded I am.”

On December 26, 2006 — a date that will live in infamy — we did what professionals call a “soft launch” but we just call “the day we first posted on this blog.” Our slogan was “Smart About Metal,” a play on the slogan for Film Comment magazine.

We had these two stupid South Park caricatures that Axl made at his then-job when he was bored. (Axl forgot until just now that he had a really long goatee in ’06; Vince still had phantom Jew ‘fro, where some days he can feel it, man!) We only posted once or twice a day, throughout the week, pretty much when we had time/interest. We didn’t use tags. We often didn’t post graphics or videos. Our headlines weren’t capitalized. We interviewed members of Stuck Mojo and Twisted Sister, because that’s who we could get interviews with. Believe it or not, we tried to get an interview with God Forbid… and we failed.

Basically, we had no fucking idea what we were doing.

We can’t believe that this is our 10,000th post. We can’t believe we’re still doing this almost four years after we started. We can’t believe that so many of you are reading it. Seriously: WE WERE ONLY FUCKING KIDDING.

So…

Thanks to Kip (who has been here longer than anyone besides Vince and Axl!), Sammy, Gary, Anso, Satan (the MetalSucks contributor and the deity), Sergeant D., Bob, Leyla, Corey, Urbandale, Dave, Matt, Ferris, Dallas, Eyal, Sacha, Paul, Bulb, Arthur, Anton OyVey, Rich Hallford, David Bee Roth, Van Arseface, Mike Pattongill, Angela Gossowski, Joey V., and everyone else who has ever written for us… MetalSucks would not be where it is if not for all of you.

Thanks to everyone in the music industry who has helped us over the years, even as they must have been secretly hoping we would van flip.

And of course, thanks to all the MetalSucks Maniacs, Suckalos, annoying people who can’t use the “search” function, and dudes that have sent us death threats. We can’t tell you how grateful we are that you read our site. Thank you thank you thank you.

Now, with a complete lack of humility, Axl and Vince present their ten favorite MetalSucks posts of all time. Enjoy.

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It’s hard to believe that Dime has been gone for five years, but December 8 will be the anniversary of one of metal’s bleakest moments. To cash-in on commemorate the event, Metal Hammer have enlisted a bunch of well-known acts to record Pantera covers (but not Damageplan covers, because, y’know, let’s get real here) for a CD that will come with the magazine. Metal Hammer has done this a few times in the past – I remember they had they entire Master of Puppets album re-recorded by various bands, including Mastodon, Machine Head, Chimaira and Trivium when that album reached its twentieth anniversary, and some of it was pretty good.

Get the complete track list for Metal Hammer’s Dime tribute disc after the jump, along with my thoughts in bold.

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It would seem that UK neo-thrashers Sylosis — whose 2008 debut Conclusion of an Age was a ripping example of what modern thrash (NOT re-thrash) should be — are quietly working on a new album. MS Maniac Evan Hurd sent in a link to the band’s Facebook page (screen cap above), where the band posted an update saying they’re just about finished writing their new album and plan to begin recording it in a few weeks.

This should come as good news to all — there’s little not to like about Sylosis. By all accounts they killed at this year’s New England Metal and Hardcore Fest, and guitarist Josh Middleton seemed like a well-rounded kid with all the right influences when I interviewed him back in February. A new Sylosis album on the horizon definitely has me excited.

-VN

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

U.K. prog-death-thrashers (yeah, I said it) Sylosis are without a doubt one of the young bands that interest me most in 2009, thanks in no small part to the urging of several MetalSucks readers. Their Nuclear Blast debut Conclusion of an Age is a refreshing burst of modern thrash and death metal, rolled into a nicely accessible little package and sprinkled with prog influences that show the maturity and restraint of a band twice their young age. We’ll post an official MetalSucks review shortly, but in the meantime I was able to catch up with guitarist Josh Middleton to ask him a few questions about the formation of the band, the events that led to their deal with Nuclear Blast, their upcoming touring plans and their metal heroes.

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