Hey there, didja know MetalSucks is on Facebook and Twitter? Follow us on both to have updates beamed into your brain. And don’t forgot about our merch blow-out sale: $10 t-shirts and $20 hoodies for a limited time.

Meanwhile, the news never stops! Here are a few thing of note that’ve happened over the past 24 hours outside of David Gold’s tragic passing and the announcement of Ryan Parrish’s departure from Darkest Hour:

• Norma Jean’s Cory Brandan says you owe him money if you illegally downloaded Norma Jean’s music, and he’s PISSED. The frontman took to his Twitter account yesterday to post the following, after which he engaged in a lengthy back-and-forth on the topic with fans: ”Anyone that has ever downloaded a Norma Jean record. You owe me money. I hope you had enough money today to buy your family groceries…I mean ‘for free’ of course. Ya know… illegally. Stolen. Theft. Don’t get your feeling hurt. It’s ok if you steal from me. Anything else I can do for free for you? Spoiled brats! It’s about time someone got pissed about this! I hope you guys know what it feels like to have thousands of dollars stolen from you only to be told you have a an attitude about it. BTW! I appreciate and LOVE all of you that have supported us over the years. I hope you are all blessed!”
• He Is Legend are indeed recording a new album, as was previously rumored. Anso DF is gonna be super-duper-uper excited about this news! Check out an interview he did with the band’s manager back in March, then stream He Is Legend’s entire catalog on Spotify.
• Aborted have a brand new song called “The Origin of Disease” streaming over at Gun Shy Assassin. Their new album Global Flatline comes out on January 24th on some label whose name I forget.
• Not news, per se, but: Symphony X’s new album The Iconoclast is fucking fantastic and I’m ashamed I haven’t mentioned it on MS yet. It’s basically the album I wish Dream Theater would’ve written instead of… their last three albums. Stream it in its entirety on MOG.

I am definitely one of those media people who Vince complains show Iced Earth no love. In all fairness to me, though, I can’t help how disinterested I am in that band; my brain literally will not allow them to make any impression on me. Case in point: I completely left their new video, “Dystopia,” out of this morning’s “Cinemetal Round-Up,” for no better reason than I just completely forgot to include them, despite having previously made a note to do so. It’s like I’m Peter Griffin and Iced Earth are Meg Griffin or something.

ANYWAY, I will now make it up to both Iced Earth and Vince by not only posting the video (and the song is actually good so sheesh I don’t know why I don’t love this band), but by posting news of an upcoming North American tour on which they’ll be co-headlining with Symphony X. I bet that bill will make a lot of people happy, even if I’ll probably completely forget about it ten seconds after completing this post.

I can’t post dates because the band has only included them on their website in a manner which makes cutting and pasting impossible, and I’m far too lazy to type them all out one-by-one. So just go here and look for yourself. Support will come from Warbringer, so, in all seriousness, this is a pretty solid line-up, no?

-AR

[via Metal Underground]

The “Top Hard Music” Chart I’ve been using for this column for the past couple of years is a mixed bag; on one hand, a lot of the “Top Hard Music” albums are really old albums that continue to sell (Metallica’s Black Album, various greatest hits collections, catalogue albums of whatever big band happens to be on tour at the time, etc) which paints a skewed picture of what I’m really interested in, namely the new stuff. On the other hand, it’s interesting to see how those older albums continue to sell.

I was recently alerted to the existence of a different chart, “Current Hard Music;” I’m not sure what the criteria is for what constitutes “Current” as some albums on this chart have been on for 90+ weeks and some artists are certainly not “current” by any means, but it does seem to paint a much better picture of the sales of newer albums. Without perrenial classics and greatest hits comps hogging up precious chart space, fewer units need to be sold for a band to get into the Top 100 on the “Current” chart. I am contemplating a move to focusing on that chart in the future. For now, I’ll stick with Top Hard Music with some added albums from the bottom of the other chart. What do you guys think?

Anyway, this week we’ve got big debuts from Pearl Jam and Opeth, big second week drops from a number of artists (Anthrax, Dream Theater and more) that still have pretty big sales numbers, and a look at some albums that came out earlier this year (Black Dahlia Murder, All Shall Perish, more).

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Adrenaline Mob, the new band featuring ex-Dream Theater drummer Mike Portony, Symphony X vocalist Russell Allen, and Stuck Mojo/Fozzy guitarist Rich Ward, are now streaming their debut EP in full (below). And, as we have suspected since the project was announced in June, it’s lame.

I mean, I’m sure it will have its defenders, but I’d also wager that those defenders all have beer guts, and reside either in New Jersey or on Long Island. Because that’s how this music sounds; like it was made by a dude who was prom king back in ’86 and basically hasn’t been able to see his own penis since. It’s like one of these demos people send us where the band clearly had no higher aspiration than to be the next Black Label Society, and yet, they have failed miserably.

Feel free to check it out for yourself, though. I hope you have a super-awesome good time!

-AR

Let’s give Axl Rosenberg a hearty golf clap for capably handling Neilstein Soundscam while I was away, shall we? But the party is over, so it’s back to the grind of boring albums selling soon-to-be insignificant pieces of plastic (and soon-to-be insignificant digital files once Spotify launches).

You should all be elated to learn that Limp Bizkit claimed the #1 spot on the Hard Music charts last week (#15 overall), so let’s all take a great big sigh of relief in knowing that good music reigns supreme.

I keed. Queensryche had a solid debut, while In Flames, Symphony X and The Black Dahlia Murder had decent second weeks despite large percentage drops. Check out the numbers for those and several others after the jump.

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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 June 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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Vince will be back soon, but for now, “Neilstein SoundScam” is still in my evil hands. There were a lot of big debuts last week, so we’re gonna concentrate solely on those for this outing. After the jump, check out some of the more noteworthy sales stats from the latest Top Hard Music charts, including albums by August Burns Red, In Flames, The Black Dahlia Murder, Symphony X, Devin Townsend, and more!

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When I heard about the Dream Theater-shaped hole in the life of drummer Mike Portnoy back in September, I wanted to pitch him on my long-gestating idea to form a killer Jellyfish cover band. I bet he’d be into it cuz of his Jellyfish super-fandom (he has cited 1993′s Spilt Milk as a top ten favorite album); and he’s a pro at pulling together all-star jams, like his awesomely fun tributes to The Who, The Beatles, and Led Zeppelin with guys like Paul Gilbert, Jason McMaster, and Dave LaRue; and lastly, The Ghosts At Number One (that’s my vote for our band name) could serve as a totally non-cynical tribute to another hardcore Jellyfish fan, the late Dimebag Darrell Abbott. And what better way to hip headbangers to irresistible non-metal jams? How could Mike say no to that? Can I call him Mike?

But, shit, while I was dicking around, gobbling drugs, and failing to corner, pressure, and/or threaten Portnoy about the Jellyfish idea, he teamed with qualified musicians he knows who actually, like, realize their ideas. Even if those ideas aren’t so great. Symphony X singer Russell Allen talks about Adrenaline Mob, one of Portnoy’s new bands:

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UPDATE: It’s official. Nevermore are off this tour. WHAT A BUMMER.

Well, here’s a potentially sucky situation.

We just got the following e-mail from reader Glenn Pillsbury:

“Just got a canned email from the promoter of the May 8 Symphony X concert in San Francisco that does not mention anything about Nevermore appearing on the dates, even though Nevermore was on the dates when I purchased my ticket a few weeks ago.  I sent a reply asking about it and got a statement from the promoter guy himself that Nevermore has indeed dropped off.  Haven’t seen anything from Nevermore itself though (their MySpace still has all the dates listed).”

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Oh noes! Soilwork have been forced to drop off their Spring North American tour with Nevermore and Symphony X because guitarist Peter Wichers has a herniated disc in his back. Ouch.

I feel your pain, Peter. Literally… because I have a herniated disc too (actually two). It’s uncomfortable to do pretty much anything; sitting is a challenge (especially in the cramped confines of cars and airplanes) and standing for longer than a couple of hours is a chore… I can’t even fathom having to rock out on stage every night.

So when drummer Dirk Verbeuren says Wichers requires a “prolonged period of rest,” I can’t help but feel for the guy because I know exactly what he’s going through. Worst. Pain. Ever. Peter, can we be herniated disc buddies?? I hope you rest up and get that treated, and if you get better, um, kindly let me know how you did it because nothing I’ve tried to date has worked.

That official statement from Verbeuren after the jump (with news on the band’s future touring commitments):

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Can I get a “heck yes!” from all the nerds in the house?

Heck yes!

Reader Daniel Borbet just sent us a link to an event posted at the website of NYC’s Best Buy Theater — formerly the not-at-all-more-appealingly-named Nokia Theater — for a Symphony X show with Nevermore, Soilwork, Powerglove and Blackguard in tow. Yowza, that’s some serious nerdage right there! The show is booked for April 22, 2011 which seems like an eternity from now, but such is the case when foreign bands like Soilwork are involved and visas need to be procured, flights needs to be booked, and so on and so forth.

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Ayreon mastermind Arjen Anthony Lucassen is always keeping busy, and 2010 is no exception: Next week InsideOut will release Victims of the Modern Age, the second album from his Star One project. Featuring vocals by Russell Allen (Symphony X), Damian Wilson (Headspace, Threshold), Floor Jansen (ReVamp, ex-After Forever), and Dan Swanö (ex-Bloodbath, Nightingale, Edge of Sanity) and lyrics based on a series of classic, post-apocalyptic sci-fi films and television series — including A Clockwork Orange, Blade Runner, and Firefly — Victims of the Modern Age is a must-have for fans of edgy-yet-melodic metal. MetalSucks is proud to debut the track “24 Hours,” which you can stream below. Once you hear how awesome it is, pre-order Victims of the Modern Age here.

[this streaming promotion has ended]

And after the jump, read my exclusive chat with Lucassen about the differences between Star One and all his other various projects, how he goes about collaborating with these legendary singers, Star One’s lyrical content, and what he has in store for fans after Star One…

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Will Vince murder me if I compare Star One, the new project from multi-instrumentalist and Ayreon mastermind Arjen Lucassen, to Dream Theater? ‘Cause I can’t really think of a more apt comparison. Classically infectious main riff? Check. Vocals sure to elicit homophobic epithets? Check. Super proggy guitar solo interspersed with an equally proggy synth solo played in a keyboard tone that is awesome even as it somehow conveys years of chronic masturbation in the face of a complete inability to lose one’s virginity? Check. Dorkiness out the wazoo? My fellow Firefly nerds (I still have just enough dignity left not to refer to myself as a “browncoat”) will recognize the title of Star One’s new song, “Earth That Was,” as a reference to Joss Whedon’s cult show. So, yeah, big 10-4 on that last one.

But as is the case with Dream Theater, I kid because I love. I mean, this shit really is as geeky as geeky gets, but that doesn’t negate the fact that it’s also really fun. In other words: Maybe a more apt comparison than Dream Theater would just be Ayreon.

“Earth That Was” is streaming at Noisecreep. It features vocals by Russell Allen (Symphony X), Damian Wilson (Headspace, Threshold), Floor Jansen (ReVamp, ex-After Forever), and Dan Swano (duh), in case my witticisms didn’t already have you foaming at the mouth. And it comes off of Star One’s new album, Victims of the Modern Age, which is out October 26th via InsideOut Music.

-AR

When it comes to music (and other things really), I tend to play devil’s advocate. If everyone is shitting on a certain band, for some reason, I become more attracted to that band and seek them out. I don’t know what it is about my personality, but I think it stems from the same perspective that inspired me to write the antagonistic blog about rethrash. It may be a character flaw, but I’m sure it has something to do with a need to be an individual. From what I gather, this website is inhabited mainly by “true” metal heads. What I define as “true” are people whom are purists in the realm of metal and usually scoff at any band or trend that reeks of premeditated commercialism or an overt play for popularity, and who usually demand a certain level of musicianship and underground credibility. These fans usually hate every Metallica record after …And Justice For All, and for that matter always prefer any particular band’s older releases, which usually have a more raw and unrefined recording quality, as well as more abstract, less traditional song writing. For example, they will prefer Carcass’s Necrotiscim to Heartwork, or Morbid Angel’s Blessed Are The Sick to Domination. Oh yeah, and these guys gave up on In Flames and Soilwork years ago.

I have a good deal of that purism in my bones, but it always seemed short sighted and close minded. You have no idea how many arguments the Adler brothers from Lamb of God and I have gotten into over the merits of a particluar Metallica or Megadeth record. If you even bring up Disturbed or Limp Bizkit on MetalSucks, it is mocked and disregarded 100% of the time. I think metal heads often have a sheep mentality because of the fear of being viewed by their peers as less credible for liking bands that aren’t considered “true” or “real” enough. We all have guilty pleasures, but the real question is “Why should we feel guilty about something we enjoy?”

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As you are (hopefully) already aware, God Forbid’s latest opus, Earthsblood, hits stores today. Guitarists Doc and Dallas Coyle was cool enough to give us a track-by-track breakdown of each song on what is inarguably the band’s best record to date. Enjoy!

1.”The Discovery” – The intro for Earthsblood came about in a peculiar way. The original piece started with the doomy guitars that kick in around 40 seconds into it. We wrote it as part of our black metal side project called Hell Nigger. It was the outro for a song that we wrote in one day. Without the keys and stuff, it sounded more like Morbid Angel, but with the new album having a much darker tone, we thought it would make a cool intro to the album. The piano piece was actually played and composed (with some direction from Dallas and I) by my Dad, Kevin Coyle. We showed him the chords that the guitars were playing, and he started doing this arpeggiated Danny Elfman thing that just killed. Our Dad is a piano teacher and has been playing for like 40 years. He also played on our last album. The orchestration was performed by Michael Romeo from Symphony X. We met each other through our producer, Eric Rachel. He has his own home studio where Symphony X records their albums and this orchestration program that costs some ungodly amount of money, and takes 4 computers to run. Apparently, they use that program to do film scores. Mike is incredible, and I can’t thank him enough for adding some much virtuosity to the record.
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Protest the Hero’s recent release Fortress is, even at this early stage, in the running for my favorite album of 2008 (read my review). So I was thrilled to have the opportunity to chat with vocalist Rody Walker, who, between the time of our chat and now, posted a message on the band’s MySpace announcing they’d be pulling out of their already-underway tour with Silverstein due to being “exhausted and miserable.” Though this interview was conducted on the second day of Protest the Hero’s tour for the Fortress album cycle, it’s evident that the band were already having their share of problems on the road.

Rody told us about the pitfalls of touring during the winter, his feelings on the commercial success of Fortress, the band’s writing process, and his perpetual hard-on for Symphony X. Read the entire chat transcript after the jump.

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