MetalSucks

I’ve had this YouTube vid up in my browser for days because it’s simply awesome. This kid who goes by the name “Krimh” plays drums, bass and guitar himself on this track, filmed himself playing each part and cut it all together in this nifty video. The playing is top-notch and the composition is excellent — reminds me of an instrumental Textures. It’s kind of got a Sumeriancore feel to it but there’s also an element of black/grimness that pops up here and there. I also really dig the organic drum tones as opposed to the heavily sound-replaced tones that usually dominate this kind of music.

This guy is pretty much what I strived to be when I was in high school, a multi-instrumentalist composer — only I didn’t have a drumkit (or the space for one) and my crappy little Roland 8-track (which did service me quite well) wouldn’t have been capable of properly recording it even if I did. Today’s kids are lucky to have excellent recording software available at their fingertips so cheaply, I tells ya.

Check Krimh out on MySpace if you want more.

-VN

[Thanks: Chris Uber]

If you’ve ever wondered what goes into tracking and recording a metal record, take a look at this in-depth, behind-the-scenes studio footage of producer Jochem Jacobs walking the viewer through the Textures song “Awake,” track by track. Even the most bare-bones recordings these days tend to have multiple layers of guitar and vocal tracks, but if you’ve heard Textures’ sonically dense album Silhouettes then you already know the next level to which these Dutchmen take their recording technique. The production on Silhouettes is positively stellar, far and away one of the best recorded and produced records of 2008.

In the below video, Jacobs walks the viewer through the different sections of the song, then through the multiple layers of tracks in each, isolating a number of different parts individually and together in different combinations so you can hear precisely what was recorded. It’s a fascinating look into production and recording technique; watch the clip below, then watch the rest at FaceCulture.com. Thanks to Jesse Z. for sending this in.

-VN

When we introduced you to Sikth, you thanked us. When we introduced you to Textures, you thanked us again.

So, when we say you absolutely need to hear something… you fucking need to hear it. And why not: it’s free!

LISTEN TO ANIMALS AS LEADERS!!!

The fine folks at the unfuckwithable metal label Prosthetic Records have hooked us up with a free track for you from the brand new Animals as Leaders album, out next Tuesday. This is intricate instru-metal of the highest caliber for the kind of metal fan who’s more concerned with musicianship, arrangement and composition than with “being fucking br00tal dudez!!” (though it certainly is heavy). It’s the brainchild of guitar wunkerkind Tosin Abasi, who is pretty much the Trent Reznor of this micro-genre of metal in that the band is basically just his project. Stream and download below. Enjoy.

Animals as Leaders – “Tempting Time”

-VN

New Jersey progressive death metallers The Binary Code have released a new song, “Suspension of Disbelief,” and I could not be more in awe (as if I wasn’t already). The new song, which comes from the band’s debut full-length to be released later this year, is the band’s most progressive, intricate, brutal and genre-challenging work to date. If the following bands mean anything to you, you owe it yourself to check out the new song: Gojira, Between the Buried and Me, Textures, Decapitated.

Once you’re through having your mind blown by the new song, you’ll need to see this band live; the young gents who comprise The Binary Code are some of the most next-level players I’ve seen anywhere, and will absolutely rip your fucking face off as your jaw drops to the floor in disbelief. The band has some upcoming dates around the Northeast with Tiger Flowers, culminating in a May 15th show at Brooklyn’s Trash Bar with recent Roadrunner-signees Mutiny Within and MetalSucks-faves Hung. Full dates are on their MySpace page. Get ready!

-VN

Round about the time this site was jocking the wares of avant-garde prog metallers Sikth and Textures, several of you emailed us about the French band Hacride. And as usual, you were right on the money. While Hacride don’t have the frenetic nature of Sikth nor the epic sense of melody of Textures, they do have the technicality and the brutal grooves of both, which naturally just means they all have a common influence in Meshuggah. But theirs is a slower, more raw version of any of the above; in fact, the band I’d most liken Hacride to is Norway’s Benea Reach — punishing, grooving, articulate, deliberate and beautiful all the same. This is Meshuggah strung out on heroin, lounging back in a dirty old armchair with a cigarette burnt to the filter in one hand and the TV remote control in the other.

The band’s got a new album Lazarus coming out on April 20th, and they’ve posted the song “My Enemy” (all 10 minutes of it!) on their MySpace page. Go listen to that shit! It’s some of the best material Hacride have written to date. And if you like it, pre-order the record with a limited edition Hacride t-shirt on Listenable Records’ MySpace.

-VN

Finally… we have a capable, intelligent, forward-thinking new U.S. president. No, it’s not Dave Mustaine. Here’s what else happened this week:

• We wondered aloud and speculated about Slayer’s co-headline tour, New England Metal & Hardcore Fest, Scion Rock Fest (aka Atlanta Metalfest), and The Faceless’ headline tour. This spring just got awesome.
• We ran to the hills to avoid a shitty classic metal cover. Meanwhile, we found Iron Maiden in Iran and on the big screen.
• We got sexi(vious) with members of Cynic and Textures.
• We looked at new releases from Satyricon, Cattle Decapitation, 16 and Rumpelstiltskin Grinder.
• Maynard got all Jiu-Jitsu on our asses and Carcass played a wedding.

Axl, myself and our girlfriends (we have girlfriends… whowouldathunkit???) are going to see The Dark Knight on the IMAX tonight. Hopefully weed will be involved. Later, suckaz!!

Prog-metal fans ’round the world yesterday sported massive boners following the announcement of Exivious, the new jazzy-fusiony-metaly band featuring two non-Paul Masvidal members of Cynic and Textures drummer Stef Broks (sample press release copy: “With a jazz fusion backbone, Exivious uses freaky metal riffs to decorate their organic eruption of free improvisations and complex rhythms.”). Yowza!

Click to read more…

2008 has been a fucking great year for metal, and in due time — Monday, Dec. 15, to be exact — Axl, myself and the rest of the writers of MetalSucks will all release our Top 10 year-end lists so you can incessantly argue over which great album was left off or tell us we’re assholes for ranking a certain album higher than it should’ve been.

But for now, ya’ll can argue about something else: here’s my personal short/working list for said year-end list containing all of my favorite metal releases from this year as well as a few that aren’t likely to make my own list but will surely be appearing on others’. Feel free to pipe in with your thoughts or to notify us of any egregious omissions before we put together our final, ordered lists. Regardless, it is going to be really fucking hard to pick just 10 of these and put them in order of awesomeness.

And, my favorite metal records of 2008 in no particular order are…

Click to read more…

Textures have released a breathtaking (metal!) new video for “Awake,” from their breathtaking (yeah!) new album Silhouettes, likely to rank in both mine and Kip’s year-end Top Ten. As MS Maniac Scott R. says about the video, “unless you have an irrational fear of water, its pretty damn good.” According to a press release,  the band was able to make the video exactly as they wanted without budget restriction, “thanks to a generous grant from the Dutch TAX funds – an incentive from the Dutch Government to assist up-and-coming Dutch artists with audio/visual output.” How come the American government doesn’t donate money for awesome metal videos like this one? Come on Messiah Obama, make it happen!

Will someone get this fucking band on the road in the U.S. Already so Kip and I can satiate our raging hard-ons?

-VN

So a lot of you have been emailing us lately about this band Hacride, a really solid French progressive metal band very much in the Meshuggah / Textures / Benea Reach school. I think they’re pretty F’n cool, even if not entirely original (see also: those bands). Here’s the trippy Aronofsky-esque video for their song “Perturbed.”

-VN

So if you’ve previously traversed these here interweb waters before, chances are you prolly know who our-very-favorite-first-half-of-2008-discovered-math-metal band is; that said, the dudes in Benea Reach are bringing the progressive aggressive strength in a major way as well, Nordic styles…and whoah, look at that — their recently-released album Alleviat, just officially made my top-10 list of 2008!! How thpecial…

The vocal (screaming) style is often Meshuggah-reminiscent (with a throaty hardcore backbone, especially on their 2006 debut album, Monument Bineothan), and there is indeed singing here and there as well, allbeit predominantly ambient and in the background…but the music itself feels a bit more straightforward and organic than the aforementioned Swedish metal maniacs — before you cry boring, let me remind you that while simplistic is almost always a disappointing attribute of a band, simple is most definitely not.

Click to read more…

A press release tells us that Dutch prog-metal masters Textures are set to begin filming a video for “Awake” from their critically-acclaimed album Silhouettes (by this writer, anyway — and I’ve constantly heard that shit blasting down the corridor from the Wingerschmidt Wing lately), released earlier this year on Listenable Records in Europe and hitting U.S. store shelves on September 30th. We’re still holding our breath for a U.S. Tour but in the meantime this will have to do. Here’s their video for “Millstone” from their prior album Drawing Circles.

-VN

[Textures on MySpace]

It’s been a long time coming, but Dutch progressive technical metal band Textures, about whom we’ve I’ve been raving for months and months, have finally got a U.S. record label (Koch) and a release date (September 30th) according to a press release from the band’s management. Judging by the number of readers who email us thanking us for introducing them to this band, lots of you already have this album via illegal downloading mail order, but we hope Koch can give them the extra push needed to achieve wider success here.

Congrats to Textures. Maybe now I’ll stop posting about them so often. No, I think not; they still need to tour the U.S. Get on it!

-VN

I like to think that our incessant posts about little-known bands we find have some effect on gaining those bands a broader fan-base. Judging by the number of you who email us thanking us for introducing them to bands like Sikth, it seems like we’re at least doing something right. The latest Vince Neilstein circle jerk, also known as the Dutch prog-metal band Textures, finally appears to be getting some traction and well-deserved attention here in the U.S. This makes me feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside.

The progenitors of the blog Hipsters Out of Metal not only publicly thanked us for introducing them to Textures (”Metal Sucks’ tireless efforts forced me to love them”) but tipped us off to some recent live footage of the band we hadn’t seen yet. How’s that for reciprocity and blogger goodwill? Enjoy. God damn, this band is so fucking good.

-VN

MetalSucks reader Ramsey K. recently wrote us a letter with the following: “I’m writing to you guys in hope that you will at least post about these two bands that I’m going to mention, because they honestly deserve a lot of recognition for being awesome. I see that you guys like Sikth and Meshuggah and a whole slew of crazy prog metal, so I hope you will at least give these bands a listen or two at their myspaces.”

Touche! The bands in question are Periphery and Bulb, the latter of which is a “solo” project of the guitarist of the former. The headline of this piece pretty much says it all, so if you like those bands then you best check these out.

Also, it turns out that Periphery’s ex-singer Jake Veredika (whose voice is on their MySpace recordings) filled in on vocals for Divine Heresy after Tommy Cummings left / was fired mid-tour in May. Not that this has any bearing on why you should or shouldn’t like these bands. But, ya know, FYI.

-VN

[Periphery on MySpace]
[Bulb on MySpace]

2008 isn’t even half over yet and I already know it’s going to be tough picking my top 10 favorite metal albums of the year. So far there have already been a bunch of excellent releases that could be top 10 contenders:

• Protest the Hero – Fortress
• Torche – Meanderthal
• Arsis – We are the Nightmare
• Textures – Silhouettes
• Scar Symmetry – Holographic Universe
• Nachtmystium – Assassins: Black Meddle Part 1
• Disturbed – Indestructible

PSYCH! But seriously folks, the first six in the list are the real deal.

I’m hoping for a slow second half of the year so I don’t have to make any hard choices. Actually, not. Keep ‘em comin’.

-VN

The new Textures album Silhouettes, which the Dutch progressive metal masters had planned to drop on April 21st via Listenable Records, has been pushed back to a May 5th release according to a blog on the band’s MySpace page.

“The reason for this is that there is a manufacturing delay with the complexity of the gold print on the digi-pack.”

Oh well — at least the reason for the delay is, quite literally, metal.

I haven’t actually gone to the store and bought a CD in quite a while (never thought I’d say that), but I might have to for this piece of awesomeness. Go and listen to the album in its entirety on their MySpace page; I’ve been hyping it as Meshuggah meets King For a Day-era Faith No More, but it’s really so much more.

-VN

Get ready to become sick of me waxing ecstatic about Textures, the amazing, awesome, incredible progressive metal outfit from The Netherlands. We didn’t lead you astray with At All Cost, right? When we splooged our pants (albeit a year late) over Sikth, you guys liked, right? And when we jumped on the Protest The Hero bandwagon — nay, built the bandwagon — ya’ll thanked us. So, with that in mind…

Guys…. TEXTURES.

This is the kind of music that just creates that awesome feeling inside of me that only music can, gets me psyched about life, and actually gives me hope that this world isn’t totally fucked beyond belief (that, and I just had some very strong coffee). This is kind of musical talent is few and far between.

Go listen to the new album, Silhouettes, in its entirety on Textures’ MySpace page. NOW. If you have any interest in Meshuggah, Faith No More, and good metal, it will be worth your time.

Silhouettes drops April 21 on Listenable Records.

-VN

Silhouettes, the forthcoming release from Dutch progressive metal masters Textures, is the single release I am most looking forward to in April. I was completely sold after hearing only one track from Silhouettes (April 21, Listenable Records) that the band posted on their MySpace a few weeks back, but now that they’ve released a second song (”Storm Warning”) I am completely, totally, and unquestionably sold that this record is going to be absolutely fucking amazing.

Textures make ultra-heady yet accessible progressive metal — imagine elements of Meshuggah, Faith No More and a stew of European influences, with some Protest the Hero and Sikth thrown in, and you should get an idea of what this sounds like. Or just go listen.

Prepare for the next MetalSucks proverbial wet dream.

-VN

Netherlands-based prog-metal titans Textures are fucking fresh. Part Meshuggah, part Lamb of God, part Opeth, part Faith No More, and all awesome, this is the kind of hyper-aggressive, technical, mathy, heavy, heady and of course progressive metal that we jizz our pants over around here. At least I do… err, just did.

Lucky for you, VS Webzine has made the new track “Old Days Born Anew” from their upcoming album Silhouettes due April 21 (Listenable Records) available for free download. We’ve linked to the track below so you should be able to listen right here, but in case that doesn’t work for you Textures has the track up on their MySpace page too.

Textures – “Old Days Born Anew”

-VN