When ex-Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy announced an unlikely collaboration with John Sykes (above left, the guy who wrote Whitesnake’s huge album), it was easy to be of two minds: On the one hand, Portnoy had reactivated the long-dormant Sykes, which is awesome; but, jeez, the Portnoy-Sykes affair also set a roadblock before any potential reunion of Blue Murder, Sykes’ awesomely awesome supergroup with drummer Carmine Appice and farty Tony Franklin. That’s a bummer.

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FEATURING MEMBERS OF ARCH ENEMY, THAT METAL SHOW, BLACK ANVIL, ABIGAIL WILLIAMS, AND LEPROUS

Every year year, MetalSucks asks musicians from across the vast spectrum of the metalsphere (or, in a few cases, the almost-metalsphere) what their favorite albums of the year have been. Death metallers, thrash metallers, black metallers, stoners, grinders, and djenters alike graciously contributed lists to MS, and we’ll be running them in groups of nine to ten musicians at a time two to three times a day for the whole week.

After the jump, check out the next group… we hope you enjoy seeing what some of metal’s heaviest hitters were into this year as much as we have!

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That Metal Show‘s interview with Axl Rose — the singer’s first on-camera interview in close to a decade – aired this past Friday night, and it was about what I expected. Rose tells some great stories about the good ol’ days, sometimes displays a genuine sense of humor (he sarcastically commands Dj Ashba — who says nothing and is present for no discernible reason — to stop interrupting him), and, naturally, refuses to take responsibility for absolutely anything he has ever done. (To hear him tell it, the infamous rant from “Get in the Ring” was the brainchild of Duff McKagan and A&R guru Tom Zutaut, and when “shit hit the fan,” they both abandoned Rose to deal with the repercussions. Poor, defenseless Axl!)

The complete episode is now available below for your viewing pleasure. Other highlights include a live performance of “Live and Let Die,” and Eddie Trunk looking as though he’s struggling to stay awake through this wee-hours-of-the-morning chat.

-AR

I have honestly never seen That Metal Show, but you’re goddamn right I set my DVR to record it tonight. ‘Cause tonight they’re gonna air the interview they conducted with Axl Rose a couple of weeks ago, and if I’m not mistaken, this is Rose’s first on-camera interview since 2002, and his first in-depth non-email interview since the release of Chinese Democracy three years ago.

“But what do you expect to see, dude?” you’re asking. “Axl is nuts. This won’t be good.”

I agree that Axl is nuts, but that’s precisely WHY I think this will be fun to watch. If the preview clips of the interview which have already been released (below) are any indication, Axl is a) in a good mood, b) paradoxically really upfront (he admits that he felt the pressure to finish Chinese Democracy and make it great, and he seems aware that a portion of his “fans” actually hate him) and not really upfront at all (he still refuses to take the blame for his tardiness), and c) completely paranoid and delusional in the most entertaining way possible (he thinks people see him as a dictator because of a joke Izzy made in an interview back in the 80s, and says he was pressured into touring behind Use Your Illusion). I mean, regardless of what actual, concrete info we actually take away from this interview, there’s no way it’s not gonna be good television.

The interview premieres tonight at 11 PM ET/PT on VH1 Classic, although if you don’t have cable, I assume it will be all over the internet in due time. Meanwhile, like I was sayin’ a second ago, you can check out a bunch of preview clips below and after the jump.

For metal fans over the age of 30, there’s little fresh news to be found on VH1′s That Metal Show; the weekly show functions mostly as a clubhouse for “remember when?” type gab with flabby old-timers. (For metal fans under 30, TMS provides a peek back in time to when the term “metal” meant “heavier than Paul McCartney & Wings.”) So I was one of tens of viewers of the TMS season seven finale, in which former Ozzy drummer Carmine Appice (above, big brother of Heaven & Hell skinsman Vinny Appice) shot ropey jets of great and hilarious news all over the sweaty boobs of the dinosaur metal world.

Wow, that’s a clusterfucked metaphor, but ahem the important thing is that the unconvincingly bewigged Appice addressed the status of Blue Murder to TMS host Eddie Trunk, who along with me makes up about half of the post-Whitesnake John Sykes supergroup’s restless, rabid fanbase. But that was only the happiest news, not the weirdest. According to Appice:

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In a wise move, VH1′s fossil-rock chat program That Metal Show has expanded to sixty minutes for its sixth season. As a result, there’s a huge improvement to the ratio of guest interview content to idiot host blathering. Too much of the half-hour TMS format depended on rushed segments which pitted one host’s poorly-explained preferences against another’s; now, even a seemingly negligible amount of additional interviews/gabbing gives TMS an actual shot at resonant entertainment. Impossible before now were particularly inspired production moves like the booking of Tesla’s Jeff Keith (so smiley!) and Frank Hannon on the same episode as Testament’s Chuck Billy (above). If VH1 brass has any brains, they’ll holiday bonus the shit outta whomever was responsible for pairing these superficially different but geographically and alphabetically neighborly acts. It’s TV gold! Watch here and you’ll see that the two camps endorse the same sports team, play the same clubs, and share members (!). Best of all, Billy expounds on the fun CD-shopping quirk that sorta cosmically partners similarly-named bands, i.e. you have to go through the Tesla section to reach Testament. (And through The Cult to get to Curve, and, by design, through Megadeth to Metallica.) This stuff might seem like filler or minutiae, but priceless spontaneity and shared giggle sessions are the key to entertaining talk programming. Now all they have to do is replace host/Howard Stern wannabe Jim Florentine with an at-large correspondent who focuses weekly remotes on, oh, bands formed after 1983 maybe? I know just the dude!

-ADF

That Metal Show premieres new episodes Saturdays on VH1 Classic. View full episodes here.

For its season opener in October, VH1′s That Metal Show dedicated a broadcast hour to hailing the late Ronnie James Dio (view episode here). With access to the MTV vaults, TMS dredged up some old interview clips of RJD being totally cool and very metal. The first of them didn’t need much unearthing, though, ‘cuz it was from Dio’s last public appearance back in April at the Golden Gods thang. On my first viewing, I immediately got a lump in my throat, and was about to get downright blubbery when my attention was derailed by something totally amazing: Me! On the television! Well, really just my neck and head, bobbing stalkerishly beyond RJD as he cuddles on-air with TMS host Eddie Trunk and the other two. Lolz. Even in death, the man continues to ram fun into my life.

And fun can be similarly rammed into yours cuz Dio’s new/old live set is streaming freesies right here. It comes from remastered BBC tapes of a 1983 show (promoting Holy Diver) and a longer set from 1987 (Dream Evil), each at historic Castle Donington in England. Tasty. And and and Tuesday brings the release of the little-ballyhooed but potentially mind-shattering Heaven & Hell live set from last year’s Wacken Open Air. I say “potentially” because no advance copy has arrived for me yet cough cough. I’m a TV star now and, yeah, and I do not like to be kept waiting. I’ll be in my motherfucking trailer.

-ADF

Dio’s sexcellent double live album Dio At Donington UK is out now on Niji Entertainment. Heaven & Hell’s Neon Nights: 30 Years of Heaven & Hell, Live At Wacken comes out Tuesday.

When you tune into the premiere broadcast of The Second Annual Revolver Golden Gods Awards tomorrow night on VH1 classic, you’ll see the final public appearance of our beloved Ronnie James Dio. You’ll also see Jerry Cantrell and Mike Inez of Alice In Chains, winner of roughly half of the meaningful awards, enjoying the metal community’s validation of their potentially dicey comeback effort, the magnificent Black Gives Way To Blue. You’ll see metal codgers like Rob Halford, Alice Cooper, Ozzy Osbourne, and Lemmy bathe in much-deserved adulation. You’ll also see potentially ho-hum performances pumped up by mega-drummers: Rob Zombie with Joey Jordison (in his debut performance), Fear Factory with Gene Hoglan, Brian Posehn with John Tempesta (and Brett Anderson girl call me srsly) and Slash with Dave Grohl.

But at a mere 60 minutes, the broadcast can’t capture all of the April 8 event’s super moments and silly gaffes. Here’s a few things you won’t see:

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L.A. Guns (the Tracii Guns version) were just the first signing in an apparent change of direction for Steve Vai’s formerly shredtastic Favored Nations label. According to a press release, the new Jibboom imprint of Favored Nations has just wrapped up negotiations with comedian / That Metal Show co-host Jim Florentine. Florentine is perhaps best known for his characters Special Ed and Bobby Fletcher on Comedy Central’s cult-favorite TV show Crank Yankers, so unsurprisingly his first release for the label — Terrorizing Telemarketers Vol. 5 — will be in the vein of Crank Yankers / Jerky Boys style prank call recordings.

I’ve now lived without a TV for over four years so I haven’t seen That Metal Show. Our own Corey Mitchell didn’t like it all, but judging by the comments on that post most of you seemed to dig it. As if you needed an invitation… please share your thought about That Metal Show / Jim Florentine with us in the comments section.

Here’s a clip of one of Florentine’s calls. I’m not sure whether this appeared on Terrorizing Telemarketers Vol. 1-4 or whether it’s new, but it should give you a pretty good idea of what’s in store for Vol. 5.

-VN

I must have been a ”submissive” in a previous life filled with dungeons and whips and chains. That’s the only way I can explain my irrational belief that someone, somewhere can actually make a decent fucking television show about heavy metal. The good ones, like Talking Metal or Uranium get yanked, while the cool hosts, such as Jamey Jasta and Juliya, get deep-sixed as soon as they start getting popular.

Regardless, I held out hope for this fall’s newest unwanted bastard red-headed stepchild AKA That Metal Show. Not surprisingly, my hopes were ill-founded and short-lived. That Metal Show blows.

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