MetalSucks

The Absence may very well be one of the best American melodeath bands out there, and they just do not get enough love. Seriously, their guitar solos alone make me wanna cum so hard my nuts fly out of my dick. They’ve released two killer albums, From Your Grave and Riders of the Plague, on Metal Blade, and since Plague came out two years ago, I was hoping we’d get another one in ‘09. And while there’s obviously been no such luck…

…it does look like 2010 will bring us some new material. Says Blabbermouth:

Tampa, Florida melodic thrash outfit THE ABSENCE will enter Mana Recording Studios in St. Petersburg, Florida on Monday, November 2 to begin recording its third album for an early 2010 release via Metal Blade Records. Guitarist Patrick Pintavalle states, “We will be tracking with Brian Elliot and mixing duties will be handled by Jonas Kjellgren (SCAR SYMMETRY, CARNAL FORGE).

Kjellgren produced and also mixed Plague, so I guess the band found that collaboration as fruitful as us listeners did. Everyone should be really, really stoked to hear this new album.

Here’s the video for “Dead and Gone” from Riders of the Plague. If you dig it – and you should – I implore you to check out the full record.

-AR

While keeping fans on the line for the follow-up to 2007’s ridiculously underrated Riders of the Plague, The Absence are throwing fans a bone by teaming up with Ultimate-Guitar.com to offer one would-be shredder the opportunity to have a guest solo on the band’s new record. Entrants can download a rhythm guitar track from the contest page, add their shred over top of it, then submit it to the band as a YouTube video via Ultimate-Guitar.com. The winner gets “a chance” to have the solo included on the new record (which we’re guessing is just an insurance policy in case all the entries suck), and a slew of runners-up will receive an autographed CD, t-shirt, stickers and “other,” whatever that means.

The 15-year-old version of Vince Neilstein just got a giant boner; what a cool thing for the band to do. I wish the Intrawebs were around when I was a kid! Instead I had to settle for listening to 1984 and No More Tears on repeat whilst posing in front of the mirror and pretending to be EVH / Zakk Wylde. I had a helluva Zakk Wylde impression though; you shoulda seen it.

Check out The Absence on MySpace.

-VN

John Kempainen’s awesome guitar solos were major part of the appeal of The Black Dahlia Murder, at least for me. That being said, his replacement, former Arsis axeman Ryan Knight, is no slouch, so I’m definitely down to hear whatever the band comes up with next.

Our pals at Metal Injection captured some lo-fi footage of BDM doing a new song, “Necropolis,” and although it’s hard to hear much besides Trevor Strnad’s vocals, the track sounds heavy as a hippo (And I’ll even forgive the fact that The Absence, as well about as a gajillion other bands, already have a song called “Necropolis.”). Check it out:

Meanwhile, Blabbermouth posted footage of Vader doing a new song, “Rise of the Undead,” which will appear on their new album, entitled… Necropolis. Jesus H. Christ death metal bands, get some new fucking ideas already.

Check out the Vader video after the jump. Their Necropolis drops September 22.

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Metal band names are funny. I mean, sooner or later there just aren’t going to be any new ways to come up with variations of “death,” “dead,” “dying,” etc etc, right? And it doesn’t seem like a metal band is going to name themselves “Riding my pony through a field of daisies” any time soon, although admittedly that would be the most br00tal / tr00 name for a metal band EVARRR!

So, Malefice. They haven’t reinvented the wheel band-name wise and they haven’t done so music-wise either, but both their band name and music are pretty fucking cool if you ask me (and by visiting this here webernet site you did ask me, thankyouverymuch). Think the neo-classical-cum-American-new-wave riffage of The Absence or After the Burial mixed with the groove and swagger of God Forbid, and you’ve got a close approximation of what Malefice sound like. Their Metal Blade Records debut (and 2nd album overall) Dawn of Reprisal is out now, and it’s really fucking solid. These Brits have chops, but they know how to use them to write songs rather than just wank around. Recommended if you like any of the aforementioned bands.

-VN

(three out of five horns)

[Malefice on MySpace]

The Absence guitarist/frequent MetalSucks commentor Patrick Pintavalle has announced that the writing process for a new Absence album has commenced:

“We are writing for our third full-length album. It’s been a bit of a slow going thing. We are trying to make a record that has a classic and timeless feel to it. Some of you may also know that Riders of the Plague is going to be a hard album to top. We are doing whatever it takes to do just that. We have some ideas up our sleeves to involve you fans on this next record as well. The last time, we had many of our fans put their names in our CD insert. Keep your eyes open for something a whole lot cooler than that. The music is coming along. We will be posting video footage of the pre-production and the recording in the months to come.”

I don’t have anything clever/funny to say about this, other than it makes my otherwise shitty day a little bit brighter. Thanks, Patrick!

If you don’t know The Absence, you are most likely insufferable. Check out their video for “Dead and Gone” from Riders of the Plague after the jump.

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Last year Vader joined the re-recording club with the time-wasting and completely pointless XXV – and now I’m starting to wonder if the ridiculous exercise has sucked all the juice out of their mind grapes. The band has posted a demo for a new song, “Rise of the Undead,” on their website, and the song is the very definition of “forgettable.” And I say this as a Vader fan – it just doesn’t make me excited to hear their new album, Necropolis. In fact, it just makes me want to listen to The Absence’s album Necropolis, as everything on that record is vastly superior to this song.

Download the song below, then hit me with your best thoughts. Necropolis, the band’s first album with their new line-up, will be out later this year.

Vader, “Rise of the Undead” (Demo) – Necropolis

-AR

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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The Absence, who are quickly becoming one my favorite new American metal bands, have released a new video for the song “Dead and Gone” from their excellent 2007 release Riders of the Plague. The video showcases just how hard the band rips live, as I found out last month when I saw them open for Amon Amarth.

In other news, there is nothing more metal than a pink guitar.

-VN

As my good friend Axl noted this past May, The Absence are one hell of a fucking good metal band. I’ve been highly digging on their Spring release Riders of the Plague but perhaps I haven’t written about them here enough, so let me just put it bluntly: THIS BAND FUCKING RULES AND YOU OUGHT TO PAY ATTENTION.

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As MetalSucks pensman Sammy O’Hagar so eloquently stated in his review of Amon Amarth’s latest album Twilight of the Thunder God (which comes out tomorrow in the U.S.), the kings of Swedish viking death metal have always justified their outward ridiculousness by backing it up with skull-crushing, top-notch metal. And when it comes to making music videos things are no different; with their epic new video for the album’s title track — which has a full Viking battle reenactment and lots of synchronized head-banging, natch — Amon have created one of the most visually striking and cinematically beautiful videos released in ages, at least to these untrained eyes. Even if frontman Johan Hegg isn’t sporting his usual bare-chested metal chub this time around, at least he’s got his own band’s shirt on, the very definition of epic if you ask me. And oh yeah, did I mention Viking battles? Viking battles!

Speaking of Viking battles, time is running out (as in tomorrow is the deadline) for our Amon Amarth Viking Video Contest, co-sponsored by Metal Injection and Metal Blade. Create your own minute-long Viking reenacement, and a giant stash of Amon swag and booty could be yours. Enter and read the rules here.

Lastly, don’t miss the epicness when it rapes and pillages the shores of North America starting October 1st; catch the MetalSucks co-sponsored Amon Amarth tour with the unfuckwithable lineup of Ensiferum, Belphegor, and The Absence in tow. Dates after the jump. See you there, beer steins in hand. This might actually be the night where I finally where my viking helmet.

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Don’t let the post-weekend hangover get you down; start your week off right by listening a new track from Sweden’s kings of viking metal, Amon Amarth. “Guardians of Asgaard” comes from their new album Twilight of the Thunder God due September 30th on Metal Blade, and the band will kick off a massive North American tour the very next day, which MetalSucks is proud to be sponsoring. Ensiferum, Belphegor, and The Absence will be opening – so ready your beer steins and viking helmets, and check out the full tour routing after the jump. And while you’re at it, don’t forget to enter our Amon Amarth Viking Video Contest to win a huge prize package of Amon Amarth swag.

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After fellating Protest the Hero’s incredible early-2008 release Fortress for two months solid (culminating in my first ever 5 of 5 horns review), I was immediately let down by successive announcements that the band would be touring with shit emo bands through the entire summer. Finally someone in the band’s camp has come to their senses and packaged them with a lineup that will put them in front of the metal audience that NEEDS to know about this band. And finally, I will be able to go see them live. Lambgoat is reporting a fall tour with Protest playing direct support for Unearth, with The Acacia Strain, Whitechapel and Gwen Stacy also on the bill.

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As if this summer’s touring season isn’t already shaping up to be an excellent one — whatwith the likes of Metal Masters (Priest / Heaven and Hell / Motorhead / Testament), the At the Gates reunion, Boris/Torche, and a whole shitload of other great shows — this fall is already shaping up really fuckin’ nicely. This is terrible news for the rest of my social life, but fuck, how can I miss out on these awesome shows?

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We are incredibly bummed to announce that the inaugural run of the MetalSucks-sponsored Metal Blade Fresh Meat Tour — which was due to start this week and featured The Absence, The Destro, Epicurean and Rose Funeral — has been canceled. The official explanation we’ve been given is “due to a handful of personal and other issues.”

So, um, this sucks. No ill will towards Metal Blade or any of the fine bands on the tour, as I’m sure whatever reasons got in the way of this tour happening were good ones. But this still blows.

Ah well. Next time. Sorry.

The MetalSucks sponsored Metal Blade Fresh Meat Tour, featuring the cream of the crop of Metal Blade Records’ young and upcoming bands, hits the road next week for its inaugural 14-date run. The tour features The Absence, The Destro, Epicurean and Rose Funeral. Are you guys fuckin’ excited for this yet? We’re bummed the tour isn’t coming to NYC, but we’ll have to live vicariously through you guys. Full tour dates are posted after the fold.

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Lucky for you, more dates have been added to this Spring’s Metal Blade Fresh Meat Tour, sponsored by MetalSucks, featuring The Absence, The Destro, Epicurean and Rose Funeral. In case you’re a fool and still don’t know about these bands, read Axl’s recent pieces about them, linked above.

MetalSucks.net presents Metal Blade’s Fresh Meat Tour w/ THE ABSENCE, The Destro, Epicurean, and Rose Funeral:
06/19 Richland, NJ Memories Lounge
06/20 Baltimore, MD Sonar
06/21 Albany, NY Valentines
06/22 Niagra Falls, ON The 4555
06/23 Toronto, ON Sneaky Dee’s 19+
06/24 Brampton, ON Spot One
06/25 Sarnia, ON The Polish Alliance Hall
06/26 LaPorte, IN The Next Level
06/27 Troy, OH Staunton Garage
06/28 Detroit, MI Fischer Hall
06/29 Chicago, IL Mojoes Rock House
07/01 Des Moines, IA Vaudeville Mews no Rose Funeral
07/02 St. Louis, MO Rockstar Nightclub no Rose Funeral
07/03 Tulsa, OK The Pinkeye no Rose Funeral
07/06 McAllen, TX Smokin Aces no Rose Funeral

I don’t think there’s anything I could say about Epicurean that would be more elegant than what Kevin Stewart-Panko wrote in the June ‘08 issue of Decibel when reviewing the band’s latest album, A Consequence of Design. So I’m just gonna reprint a portion of that review here:

“While every step Epicurean take is drenched in copious melody, it would appear they’re having a hard time deciding whether they want to be Emperor, Dream Theater, Shadows Fall, Children of Bodom or Kalmah. Not that this is a bad thing—or necessarily confusing—as Epicurean’s synthesis is feted by [John] Laramy’s chameleonic vocals, excellent all-around guitar work and keys that artfully balance skill and widdle, with the result being a heck of a lot more interesting than if they just picked one of those individual outfits to emulate. Their synthesis is made all the more potent by their intelligent use of melodies usually heard in Swedish or Norwegian bands, which drape this album in hooks that are as dark and melancholic as they are life-affirming and triumphant; check out ‘The Author and the Architect’ and ‘Illusion.’ But given that they hail from Minnesota—which, according to census figures, might as well be called Little Scandinavia—we shouldn’t be all that surprised.”

Below, check out a fan made video for “The Author and the Architect;” then check out our interview with Epicurean vocalist John Laramy.

MetalSucks.net presents The Metal Blade Fresh Meat Tour w/ The Absence, The Destro, Epicurean, and Rose Funeral (more dates TBA):

06/19 Richland, NJ – Memories Lounge
06/20 Baltimore, MD – Sonar
06/21 Albany, NY – Valentines
06/22 Niagara Falls, ON – The 4555
06/25 Sarnia, ON – Polish Alliance Hall
06/26 Laporte, IN – The Next Level
06/27 Troy, OH – Staunton Garage
06/28 Detroit, MI – Fischer Hall
06/30 Minneapolis, MN – TBA
07/01 Des Moines, IA – Vaudeville Mews
07/02 St. Louis, MO – Rockstar Nightclub
07/03 Tulsa, OK – The Pinkeye
07/05 San Antonio, TX – TBA
07/06 McAllen, TX – Smokin’ Ace

-AR

The MetalSucks-sponsored Metal Blade Fresh Meat tour featuring The Absence, the Destro, Epicurean and Rose Funeral now has an official tour flyer. So take this shit and plaster it up on your bathroom stalls, MySpace pages, or wherever. Because this is not a tour to miss!

In case you missed the announcement, all of the bands on this bill fuckin’ destroy. Check out Axl’s pieces on The Absence and The Destro from last week.

-VN

Here’s what I wrote about The Destro back in August, in a piece cleverly entitled “The Destro are Fuckin’ Metal”:

“How fuckin’ metal? So fuckin’ metal that in bar fights they can only bitch slap their opponents, because hitting them with a closed fist is the legal equivalent of beating someone with an aluminum baseball bat. So fuckin’ metal that they piss hot molten lead and shit lug nuts. So fuckin’ metal that the first thing they do every morning is lather themselves in WD-40. So fuckin’ metal that if they go out in the rain, they rust. So fuckin’ metal that if they go to the beach, they can’t go into the ocean because they’ll sink right to the bottom. So fuckin’ metal that Unearth frontman Trevor Phipps signed them to his Ironclad label after he discovered them during a mining expedition. So fuckin’ metal that they readily loses electrons to form positive ions, and if you put them in a room with a non-metal band, they’d form an ionic bond.”

Still apples, dude. Still applies.

Here’s their video for “Beast Burden.”

MetalSucks.net presents The Metal Blade Fresh Meat Tour w/ The Absence, The Destro, Epicurean, and Rose Funeral (more dates TBA):

06/19 Richland, NJ – Memories Lounge
06/20 Baltimore, MD – Sonar
06/21 Albany, NY – Valentines
06/22 Niagara Falls, ON – The 4555
06/25 Sarnia, ON – Polish Alliance Hall
06/26 Laporte, IN – The Next Level
06/27 Troy, OH – Staunton Garage
06/28 Detroit, MI – Fischer Hall
06/30 Minneapolis, MN – TBA
07/01 Des Moines, IA – Vaudeville Mews
07/02 St. Louis, MO – Rockstar Nightclub
07/03 Tulsa, OK – The Pinkeye
07/05 San Antonio, TX – TBA
07/06 McAllen, TX – Smokin’ Ace

-AR

Are you guys seriously not excited about the MetalSucks sponsored Metal Blade Fresh Meat tour? If that’s the case, then I’m fairly sure it’s just because you’re not down with The Absence, and by “down with,” I mean “have heard at least one of their songs.” ‘Cause if you’ve ever heard a song by The Absence, then you’d know that, in the words of MetalSucks reader attackmole, the band is “tiiiiiiiiiiight.”

So below is the video for the title track from their Erik Rutan-produced 2005 Metal Blade debut, From Your Grave. Produced by the legendary Erik Rutan, it is one of the best European melodic death metal albums I’ve ever heard by a band not actually from Europe. ‘Cause this band is actually from Florida, where they recorded this album with producer Erik Rutan. Also, did I mention it was produced by ERIK FUCKING RUTAN?

MetalSucks.net presents The Metal Blade Fresh Meat Tour w/ The Absence, The Destro, Epicurean, and Rose Funeral (more dates TBA):

06/19 Richland, NJ – Memories Lounge
06/20 Baltimore, MD – Sonar
06/21 Albany, NY – Valentines
06/22 Niagara Falls, ON – The 4555
06/25 Sarnia, ON – Polish Alliance Hall
06/26 Laporte, IN – The Next Level
06/27 Troy, OH – Staunton Garage
06/28 Detroit, MI – Fischer Hall
06/30 Minneapolis, MN – TBA
07/01 Des Moines, IA – Vaudeville Mews
07/02 St. Louis, MO – Rockstar Nightclub
07/03 Tulsa, OK – The Pinkeye
07/05 San Antonio, TX – TBA
07/06 McAllen, TX – Smokin’ Ace

-AR