SEND EMAIL TO
NEWS [AT]
METALSUCKS
[DOT] NET
MS photographic wiz Jacqueline Cheng has done it again. Her latest batch of mesmerizing photos capture Slayer, Megadeth and Testament on their American Carnage run when it stopped in New Jersey on August 12th. Check out her collection of shots from the show after the jump.
So I feel like we’ve been talking about this Slayer/Megadeth tour FOR-EV-ER, and last night I finally got to see it. And despite my usual cynical instincts telling me that it might very well end up being a major disappointment, I gotta say… I had a really, really fun time.
Testament were great. That’s not really a surprise or anything — Testament have been great, Testament will be great, and if all else failed, I never really doubted for a second that they’d put on a killer show. If I don’t have much else to say about them, it’s because there was never really any suspense with regards to whether or not they’d be good. (But be advised: they went on shortly before 7 pm, so get to the venue early to make sure you don’t miss ‘em. There were far too many people not yet at the venue when they played, which was a damn shame.)
Megadeth… well, there’s really only one problem with Megadeth: Mustaine’s voice sucks. Like, at a James Hetfield level of suckitude — actually, he might sound worse than Hetfield, who can at least stay on-key or close-enough for 60% of the time. (Mustaine was almost on-key during an encore of “A Tout Le Monde,” and that was about it.) I seriously had to tune out Mustaine’s voice just to enjoy the music. He can still play guitar like nobody’s business, it’s great to have Ellefson back, and if we’re not gonna have Marty Friedman and Nick Menza in the band, than Shawn Drover and Chris Broderick are about as good as it’s gonna get, replacement-wise. But Mustaine’s vocals… it’s just embarrassing, man.
And then there was Slayer.
Last week, Dave Mustaine said that Anthrax might play some dates on the upcoming American Carnage tour with Megadeth and Slayer, and I got all excited because the idea of a Slayer/Megadeth/Anthrax/Testament line-up seemed even more appealing to me than the idea of a Metallica/Slayer/Megadeth/Anthrax line-up (y’know, ’cause Metallica sucks now). What I never even considered, though, was that there might be an entire second leg of the tour, and that Testament might not even be on said leg.
Which seems to be exactly what has happened – a whole bunch of dates with Slegadethrax have been announced, but the press release we received makes no mention of Testament. Which means that either a) someone fucked up or b) Testament aren’t on this leg of the tour (more likely). Which kinda sucks. I mean, Megadeth/Slayer/Anthrax is swell and all, but not as cool as tossing Testament in there, too.
Of course, I’m really complaining about an embarrassment of riches, so fuck me, I guess. Slayer will continue to play all of Seasons in the Abyss on this leg of the tour, and Megadeth will continue to play all of Rust in Peace, so if seeing Anthrax appeals to you more than seeing Testament, well… I suppose that, theoretically, you won’t be missing anything. Except Chuck Billy’s beautiful, beautiful punam.
Dates after the jump.
West Coast be damned, I’ll be mighty disappointed if Devin “Poopy McNuggeteer” Towsend doesn’t end up announcing East Coast dates for his October U.S. tour. But whether he does or does not, it seems fairly certain that we won’t be treated to a special performance of Ziltoid in its entirety the way our Finnish compadres at the Tuska Open Air Metal Festival were. And even if the power of the skullet — now the hairdo of choice of the mighty Ziltoid himself — by some miraculous intervention decides to bestow the entirety of the Ziltoid album upon us, there’s no way Testament’s Chuck Fucking Billy will come out to do guest vocals as the Planet Smasher character on the song “Planet Smasher.” And hot damn, does Billy sound scarier than ever or what?
But hey, if that happened that’d really be something. Regardless, we’re pretty sure any Devin Townsend set brought east will tickle our testicles just fine.
-VN
Thanks: TNOTB
The prospect of a Big Four tour is titillating mostly for reasons of nostalgia; it’s exciting to think about seeing all these bands live together, but not as exciting as it is to think about seeing all these bands live together twenty years ago. (Or maybe even twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four years ago.) Different people, of course, have different opinions about which of these bands can still bring it live, but the most obvious weak spot that 99% of all metal fans will be able to agree are well past their prime are Metallica. I’ve seen Trujillo-era Metallica live and I’ve cheered for Trujillo-era Metallica live and I won’t pretend you can’t have fun at a ‘Tallica gig; but you should never listen to the live recording after, because you’ll surely realize that beer, adrenaline, and sentimentality played a big part in your enjoyment.
I’ve already expressed my love of Levi/Werstler’s Avalanche of Worms (read my review here) so many times I’m running out of synonyms for “awesome,” so let me just put it this way: it’s one of the best albums of 2010 thus far. And as much praise has been heaped on Emil Werstler – whose day job is playing lead guitar for Daath – he deserves more. If you love great guitar playing, you need to hear this record, and then you need to bow down before Werstler with a cry of “I’m not worthy!” He is, simply put, the man.
Emil recently took time out from the writing and recording of the new Daath album – which, if all goes according to plan, will be out in the fall – to answer some questions for MetalSucks via e-mail. After the jump, learn how he started playing guitar, how he first hooked up Eyal Levi, his secrets for writing a great guitar solo, how he thinks the lessons of AOW will spill over into the new Daath release, and more.
There’s so much streamin’ going on right now you’d think a bunch of dudes were peeing on you. So without any further bullshit, here are three complete albums you can listen to right now if you wanna get your metal on:
Yep, we talked a lot of smack on Joey Belladonna this week, much to the chagrin of, well, an awful lot of you. I think we’re done for a little while… but I can’t make any promises. Our job at MetalSucks is to amuse ourselves first and foremost, and, well, we thought it was pretty damned funny. So ppppfffftttt.
Here’s what else went down this week:
Alright. We’re gonna go get drunk and crank We’ve Come For You All in John Bush’s honor. Have a great weekend, everyone.
-AR
In the last few years, something seemed to happen and I barely noticed. Suddenly, I’m no longer the young kid at the show. I’m one of the guys hiding out by the bar. I’m not crowd surfing, not covered in sweat with my shirt off, and I’m certainly not moshing. I’m also not randomly yelling “Slayer!”, but that seems to span all demographics. I became… (gulp)… an adult. I don’t know what the range is in the ages of the followers of MetalSucks, but I’ll assume that it’s a mix of younger and older metal fans. I am 29 years old, but I still feel relatively young and energetic considering my opening salvo. I’m the youngest member of my band, and younger than a good majority of my friends in bands and the industry.
With that said, I think there comes a time for all metal heads, and probably all adults for that matter, when you look at what is popular amongst the true youth culture (16-24), and you feel as if not only do you not relate to it, but it feels alien, as if it’s creation was not meant for your consumption (which it wasn’t) – and it also seems inferior to music that you grew up with. I’m only 29, and I’m already having “back in my day” moments. It kind of scared me, and I began to wonder if I was being obtuse and a little too set in my ways, or if my analysis was accurate.
In a way, Testament is like The Small Faces to Metallica’s Beatles and Slayer’s Rolling Stones: a band as virtuosic, productive, and creatively astute as their deified peers, but hamstrung by bad business breaks. Another factor is the absence of an outspoken know-it-all (Slayer, Metallica), a gimmicky mascot (Anthrax), or a Mustaine-esque diva (duh) to which Testament’s marketing efforts could be anchored. Aside from singer Chuck Billy’s serious illness a decade ago, the Testament story’s most noteworthy turns include little more than the defection of a jazz-crazy guitarist and a dickish but minor betrayal by metal’s most corpulent drummer.
Even if a hypothetical Testament: Behind The Music would clock in at about six minutes, an All-Star Tribute To Testament concert event could stretch across days to cover just the highlights of their dudless catalogue. (My personal best-of runs 175 minutes. Yeah baby.) And while the band is enjoying what guitarist Eric Peterson calls “a second wind” since the return of uber-guitarist Alex Skolnick and bassist Greg Peterson for the magnificent 2008 outing The Formation of Damnation, Testament remains supplicant to sexier tourmates Slayer and Megadeth in the opening slot on this summer’s rescheduled American Carnage Tour. That seems fine by the surprisingly affable (and occasionally merry) Chuck Billy, who spoke exclusively to MetalSucks about getting hammered in Europe, how Dave Lombardo’s enabled the awesomeness of The Gathering, the quest to control their back catalogue, and their exciting-as-fuck new setlist. Emphasis on “new.”
EVERYBODY SING WITH ME NOW: “I FEEL PRETTY, OH SO PRETTY, I FEEL PRETTY, AND WITTY, AND BRIIIIIIIGHT!”
No West Side Story fans in the house? No one? Okay, fuck it. Here’s what happened in the world of FUCKING METAL this week:
Next week brings so many interviews and exclusives it’ll make your head explode. See ya then!
-AR
Like a lot of people, I first became familiar with Brian Posehn because of his time on David Cross and Bob Odenkirk’s brilliant HBO sketch comedy series, Mr. Show, for which he was also a writer. A few years after that show went off the air, my then-roommate and I went to see Posehn do some stand-up at a comedy club here in New York. I don’t think we were even there to see Posehn specifically – if memory serves, David Cross was the actual draw for us – but he was so funny that I actually laughed so hard I became winded and fell out of my chair. Since then, he’s been on a very, very short list of stand-ups that I never miss the chance to check out when they come through town. Mr. Show sketches about a fictional band called “Titannica” led me to believe that someone on the series’ writing staff was a metal fan, but I didn’t know that it was Posehn until later – and the revelation that he was just as obsessed with metal as I was only made him that much cooler.
Fart and Wiener Jokes, Posehn’s second album for Relapse, comes out today (and you can order a copy here). Like its predecessor, Live: In Nerd Rage, it features not only recordings of his brilliant stand-up, but also an original song he co-wrote with Anthrax’s Scott Ian (“More Metal Than You”) to poke fun at some of metal’s more regrettable foibles. It also has a metal cover of Kenny Rogers’ “The Gambler,” and between the two music tracks, Posehn has managed to rope in guest appearances by such all-stars as Jamey Jasta, Mark Morton, Mark Oseguenda, John Tempesta, and Russ Parrish. Assuming you love great comedy and great metal, there’s no way you’re not gonna dig Fart and Wiener Jokes.
A few weeks ago I got to talk to Posehn about putting comedy albums out on a metal label, what it’s like to be friends with some of his boyhood heroes, the state of metal today, his take on the Anthrax vocalist situation, and more. He even turned the tables at the end and asked me a question! Read the complete transcript of our chat after the jump.
UPDATE: The Testament camp has just told me that the band will not be playing The Legacy live in its entirety on the American Carnage tour – they will do a “100% new brutal set spanning their 24 year career.” Hopefully that makes you happy and not sad…
It seems to me that the current trend in metal of bands playing classic albums live in their entirety all started when Dave Lombardo returned to Slayer and the band started playing Reign in Blood from start to finish (complete with raining “blood”); then Metallica did Master of Puppets, and then pretty much everyone jumped on the bandwagon.
So I don’t think you can accuse Slayer of trend-hopping now that they’ve announced that they’ll be celebrating the twentieth anniversary of Seasons in the Abyss by playing it in its entirety on the upcoming American Carnage tour with Megadeth and Testament. They started it, so why shouldn’t they continue to reap the benefits? And who would complain anyway? Seasons is the band’s second-best album after Reign!
I hear people talk about Slayer’s Kerry King in tones that suggest that he is, like, commonly viewed as arrogant or something. And now you can tell by my tone that King rules, and that those who disagree can shampoo my crotch anytime on weekdays between the hours of noon and six. For one thing, you never hear is how King’s kick-assosity is contagious; this year, after our Golden Gods Blarpet mini-interview, I was so pumped up that I wanted to slap Jim Florentine and french Kat Von D in one motion. (After last year’s ceremony, I almost punched a hot dog vendor and licked Chuck Billy’s arm.) King is that type of guy, and once you realize this, you can see how Slayer grew into one of history’s greatest bands: good leadership.
After the jump, King and Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo and I chat about the American Carnage tour, Exodus, and meddling producers. Though to tell the truth, I don’t really feel like sharing it in light of the paltry number of comments on yesterday’s hard-hitting Deftones coverage. I guess your mother and I just expected better of you.
“Bark at the Moon” is to Shadows Fall as “Holy Diver” is to Killswitch Engage. They’re both covers of classic solo tracks by former Sabbath vocalists, and both songs were released in their original incarnation in 1983. (The connection between the two songs gets even weirder if you consider that Vinny Appice played drums on “Diver,” while his brother, Carmine, appears in the original “Moon” video even though he didn’t play on the recording.) And just as I imagine that it’ll be some time before KSE ever play another set without doing “Diver,” so it seems that “Moon” is now a staple of the Shads’ live show.
The band recently played the song in Toronto, with a special guest appearance from Alex Skolnick on guitars. The influence of Testament on Shadows Fall has always seemed pretty clear, so it’s cool to watch them get to jam with one of their heroes. Bonus: you can imagine an alternate world where Skolnick left Testament in 1992 and became Ozzy’s guitar player. It would have been post-No More Tears, the last truly worthwhile Ozzy album; Skolnick might have saved us from another seventeen years of sub-par material and guitar squeals!
-AR
[via Metal Insider]
No one can fault Dave Mustaine for putting together a tour in lieu of the stillborn American Carnage trek. But as always the Megadeth frontman aims for maximum annoyance and as such his new tour is a brazen approximation of Carnage minus Slayer. As a member of Slayer, Kerry King must be distressed to find that there’s a nearly identical alternative to his tour on the market — complete with Testament and Exodus, for a total of three thrash metal greats, just like Carnage — that’s sure to distract ticket-buyers and cool walk-up sales. And in light of the recent King-Mustaine cuddlefest at T.G.I.Friday’s, one could argue it’s yet another of Mustaine’s unconscionable and self-destructive backstabbings, at which he is only second to Eddie Van Halen in proficiency. (Unlike lead guitar playing, at which Mustaine is second in proficiency to dozens. Cheap shot alert!)
To make matters worse, ‘Staine and Megadeth will use the new tour to celebrate their last great record, Rust In Peace, y’know, to add a sack-tap to this already historic cockblock. So it was already getting silly by the time the announcement came yesterday that Megadeth’s only other real member, the embittered former Mustaine bum chum David Ellefson, he of history’s greatest metal bass performance and reams of anti-Mustaine bitching, would return to the pasty creases of the Mus-taint for bass duties on the big tour. Yet more juice for the non-Slayer shows. What’s next, the return of RiP guitarist Marty Friedman? (Um please?)
So apparently Ozzfest is coming back this summer, and is coming back as a traveling tour again (as opposed to the one-off fest it was in 2008). And that’s all well and good, only… who’s gonna be on the bill?
Mayhem, which is basically Ozzfest 2.0, has already scooped up a lot of big-name bands for the summer, including many who have played multiple past Ozzfests – namely Korn, Rob Zombie, Lamb of God, Atreyu, Shadows Fall and Hatebreed, the latter of whom I think have been on something like 90% of all Ozzfests ever.
Add to that other Ozzfest alum like Chimaira, In This Moment and Norma Jean, and some bands the kids today all seem to like, such as Winds of Plague and They Who Shall Not Be Named, and, well, that’s a whole bunch of potential mainstage and second stage draws right there.
Then there’s the mini-fests like Summer Slaughter. I can’t tell you which bands we already know are booked for some of these tours without betraying a lot of people’s confidence, but I can tell you that some great bands are now no longer available for Ozzfest.
And, oh yeah, Megadeth, Slayer, and Testament are now doing their American Carnage tour in the summer, so they’re out.
So who’s left? After the jump, I’m going to play my favorite game: it’s called “over-think about something incredibly unimportant.”
Before we proceed, it’s worth noting that I’m going to try and be semi-realistic when moving forward with some barely-educated guesses about who’ll be playing Ozzfest. If a band already has summer tour dates booked, I’m going to assume they’re not avail, although I acknowledge that they could cancel those dates in favor of playing for a bigger crowd. And I’m not even going to bother with bands like Pig Destroyer, Sigh, and Salome – bands that will play Ozzfest right around the time Joey Belladonna’s solo band plays four sold-out headlining shows at Giants Stadium. Also, obviously not all of these bands are gonna end up on the bill – these are just bands I think could end up there.
And so, without further bullshit…
Following its postponment last month due to Tom Araya’s need for back surgery, Megadeth, Slayer and Testament have re-scheduled the dates for their American Carnage Tour. The shows will now take place this summer, which strikes me as somehow more appropriate… I don’t know why. I’d just rather go watch these three bands in warm weather than nice-to-mediocre weather.
And, uh, that’s it I guess. Get the new dates after the jump!
When you’re a fickle, pouting drama queen, you’re going to leave a long list of ex-associates over a nearly 30-year career in metal. So it’s not numerically unlikely that lord of all paranoiacs Dave Mustaine would end up on tour with one of his many former-”best guitarist I’ve hired yet”s. In this case, it’s his most recent ex-not Marty Friedman, Glen Drover, whom Testament is enlisting for the just-announced Megatestodus tour. From Blabbermouth:
Well, ya gotta hand it to Dave Mustaine. He’s trying real hard to give the people what they want.
Following the postponement of the American Carnage tour with Slayer and Testament, Megadeth have announced a Rust in Peace twentieth anniversary tour of North America, to kick off in March. Not only will the band play Rust in Peace in its entirety, but they’ll have Testament (still playing The Legacy in its entirety) and Exodus playing support. In other words: whomever put this thing together is tugging on the same nostalgia strings that the Slaygadeth tour was supposed to pull on. Maybe Exodus don’t sell as many records as Slayer, but they’re still a hugely important part of the American thrash metal movement, and anyone who isn’t excited about this tour just because Slayer aren’t on it is probably pretty dopey.
Why, I just saw Exodus play the other night! And they killed! No less so than Megadeth and Testament (and Slayer), Exodus are experiencing a second golden age of their career.
Of course, there is something kinda funny about getting excited to see Megadeth do the entire Rust in Peace album when Dave Mustaine is the only remaining member of the Rust in Peace-era line-up. It’s like if someone were excited to hear Axl Rose and whatever other dudes he’s currently calling Guns N’ Roses play all of Appetite for Destruction, an album with which they have no actual association. That being said, this Mega-line-up is great, and Rust might be my favorite Megadeth album of all time… so I’m not gonna bitch too much. Maybe just a little. Okay I’ll keep quiet.
Get tour dates after the jump. And just as an FYI – the press release announcing this tour also promised that next week would bring new information on the rescheduling of those American Carnage dates, so if you’re such a sissy cry baby face that Exodus and the complete Rust and Legacy performances doesn’t substitute for Slayer, well, just sit tight. Click to read more…
| The Blog | Columns | Partners | Contact |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home | Eyal | Metal Injection | About Us / Contact |
| Exclusives | Dallas | Blast Beat Network | Advertising |
| Reviews | Paul Masvidal | The Syndicate | Privacy Policy |
| Interviews | Misha "Bulb" Mansoor | ||
| Contests | |||
| Cinemetal |
MetalSucks v3.0 | Contact: news [at] metalsucks [dot] net
Entries (RSS) and Comments (RSS).
Website by StudioAKT
