Tuesday, February 7th, 2012 at 3:00pm by MetalSucks
Seeing a huge band in a small venue before their new album touring cycle kicks off is the absolute best. Just look at the above photograph of Lamb of God frontman Randy Blythe crowd-surfing at the Troc in Philly on January 26th; that kind of intense band-to-audience bond would never happen if the band were playing the size venue they’re now capable of filling. MS photographer Mariel “Tormentia” Pietrykoski captured all the energy on film when Lamb of God rocked Philadelphia’s Trocadero along with The Acacia Strain on a quick run of small venues during the release week of LoG’s new album Resolution last month. Check out those pics after the break, and also be sure not to miss Vince’s live review of the NYC show and Sammy’s official writeup of the album.
Tuesday, November 15th, 2011 at 11:00am by Axl Rosenberg
So there’s been a rumor going around that Lamb of God were doing a headlining tour with support coming from The Acacia Strain, and now we know that the rumor is kinda true: in January, the band will playing six club shows (read: gigs in venues smaller than the ones they usually play) on the east coast. The Acacia Strain, along with Too Late the Hero, will appear at five of those six shows. So, not a full tour, but still pretty cool.
These concerts should be a lot of fun… they’re the band’s first dates in support of their new album, Resolution, and I don’t think LoG have played in rooms this small since their As the Palaces Burn days, if not earlier. Dates are after the jump.
Tuesday, November 8th, 2011 at 10:30am by Axl Rosenberg
Here’s some stuff that’s not-at-all-terrible. The PRP has broken news on rumors — and even initial dates — for two very big tours, both of which you’ll want to see, and both of which will kick off early next year. And so –
Lamb of God will do a headlining run, with support coming from The Acacia Strain. Which is a CRUSHING bill; like, a “I don’t know how I’m gonna survive the evening” kinda bill. I dunno if more bads will be added to the line-up or not (Remember the old days, when there were often just two bands on the tour?), but right now the only date which has leaked is January 24 at Irving Plaza in New York.
Machine Head, meanwhile, will hit the road with Suicide Silence, Darkest Hour, and Rise to Remain. Hey, three outta four ain’t bad! Machine Head and Darkest Hour alone would have been enough to get me through the door, and Suicide Silence are always fun, too. The dates which have leaked for that tour are after the jump.
Wednesday, September 28th, 2011 at 3:30pm by Axl Rosenberg
Look, if someone says to you, “Hey! The Acacia Strain are touring with Terror, Stray from the Path, and Harm’s Way!”, you’ll know in three seconds whether or not you’re interested in going to that tour. ‘Cause maybe you’re a fan of those bands, and maybe you ain’t. And if you are a fan, you could just go here, where we premiered an awesome live track by Terror yesterday, and see in another three seconds if the tour is coming anywhere near you. So I guess what I’m saying is, in theory, there’s really no reason for you to watch the below video of TAS front dude Vincent Bennett hyping said tour.
Except that the video is only two minutes long, and it’s funny as hell. The best part is Bennett discussing how “We might be coming to your town, we might not be coming to your town,” and going on to say “it’s really out of our hands,” because, well, TRUTH. I know every time we sponsor a tour people are like “Why isn’t it coming to [whiney reader's town here],” and they don’t realize how many different factors going into making those decisions, and how little say 98% of everyone involved in the tour had in said decision… but Bennett’s explanation is way more entertaining.
BONUS: Here’s a fun drinking game — do a shot every time Bennett says the name of all four bands on the tour. You will be no longer be feeling feelings by the time the video is over.
Like I was saying, you can get dates for the God Damn tour, whatever it’s called, here.
Friday, September 9th, 2011 at 5:00pm by Axl Rosenberg
I meant to remind you guys yesterday but I’m a dick so I forgot — Arch Enemy’s North American Khaos Tour, which we here at MetalSucks are very proudly co-presenting, is now underway! I’ve been trying to find fan-filmed footage from last night’s kickoff show in Baltimore to no avail, but I hear the concert was great… which is really no shock. Especially given that the three support bands — DevilDriver, Skeletonwitch, and Chthonic — are all as much fun as Arch Enemy! You can get dates here. If anyone is gonna be at the NYC show tonight, come find us. I’ll be the really, really not-sober guy in the back screaming for them to play “Savage Messiah” over and over again.
Thursday, September 8th, 2011 at 5:00pm by Sergeant D
What’s up guys I need your help. As you know I am not just a blogger, but also a musician like a lot of you. I just wanted to post this acoustic cover I did of “BTM/FDR” for this cool Alternative Press contest. The winner gets to open for the Deez Nuts/BMTH/Parkway Drive tour in my town! This would be a huuuuge chance for me, especially since I read on Absolute Punk that their were going to be a lot of ‘industry people’ at the show, so I would really appreciate it if you could vote for me!!
Also for all you ‘haters,’ I know this video isn’t perfect so let me just go ahead and say I know it’s not perfect and there are some things I will be fixing when I re-record this. So if you were going to ‘hate’ on me for any of these things, don’t even bother, I will do it for you haha:
Wednesday, August 17th, 2011 at 3:00pm by Axl Rosenberg
I don’t really know enough about Stray from the Path and Harm’s Way to talk about them in either a positive or negative light, but I do know that The Acacia Strain and Terror are good bands who put on really fun live shows. And so I am here to tell you that all four bands will be touring together this fall, under the moniker of the “God Damn Tour.” Which isn’t the funniest name for an Acacia Strain tour ever, but is still pretty good.
ANYWAY, seriously, go check out TAS and Terror if you can. And if I need to know who Stray From the Path and Harm’s Way are, someone feel free to tell me.
The Acacia Strain have released their latest video, for “The Impaler,” and man oh man, it is like no other video this band has ever made. Other than a brief prologue which makes the whacky implication that the entire clip is taking place in some dude’s (totally epic) beard, there’s nothing humorous about the David Brodsky-directed clip; it’s just moody and evil and much more in line with the way I feel when I listen to TAS. I’m not saying I hope they’re done with funny videos — on the contrary, I like that TAS aren’t afraid to embrace their goofy side — I’m just saying, this is not a terrible change of pace for the band.
“The Impaler” comes off of The Acacia Strain’s latest, Wormwood, which is out now on Prosthetic. The band is on the Vans Warped tour this summer; get dates here.
If you are in a deathcore band, getting your image right means everything. It can make the difference between yet another run-of-the-mill, VERB THE NOUN band and becoming the next Suiside Silence — just ask Phil from Whitechapel, whose sick gauges have been reblogged thousands of times by eager teenagers all across the world.
It’s easy to get a new haircut or buy some new clothes, but perhaps the most important decision you’ll need to make is what tattoos to get. Fortunately, thanks to the people at PitCam Productions, a new TV series called “BEHIND THE INK” gives you all the exclusive, behind-the-scenes info you need to unlock and master the skin art secrets of deathcore’s hottest frontmen!
Check out juicy, in-depth interviews with Ricky Hoover of SUFFOKATE, Thanos of EMMURE, Oli Sykes of BRING ME THE ‘ORIZON, and Vincent of THE ACACIA STRAIN after the break!!
Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011 at 11:00am by Axl Rosenberg
So this is pretty cool… in theory at least. Last week, the videogame Homefront was released (I haven’t played it so I have no idea how it is, although I read some decent reviews), and yesterday, the makers of the game started giving away a FREE compilation of metal bands doing covers of war-appropriate songs, sometimes by other metal bands, sometimes by non-metal artists. You can download it here, and should get on that ASAP, as they’re only giving away 25,000 of the free downloads. As of this writing, DLs are still avail, though. Also, I’m sure this thing will remain all over the internet forever and ever, so don’t freak too hard if they’re all gone by the time you get there.
Another reason no to freak out too hard if you don’t get to download this puppy? Even though this is 100% free, like most cover albums, it’s not actually all that amazing. Let’s take a look at what the album has to offer, shall we?
Hey studs and foxes, Anso here. Please accept my most gracious hugz in return for partying with me these last two days. Running this site in the absence of Axl and Vince has been so superfun thanks to you, our cherished MetalSucks readership. I learned a lot of stuff too, for example that I should hereby refrain from “ass fucking [my] boyfriends cock” [sic]. K I’ll work on that while you all re-live some hilarious, informative, and sexy moments from this week:
You’ll have a couple days to de-Anso yourselves, but please do rush right back to MetalSucks on Monday for more hot action when the bosses return from muling heroin in from Ecuador their business trip and we resume our regularly-scheduled action. You may now put your pants back on!
Monday, February 28th, 2011 at 5:00pm by Sergeant D
You know how sometimes you will get completely obsessed with a band, and you’re all “ZOMG CANNOT STOP LISTENING TO THEM!!!”? That is how I am right now with THE ACACIA STRAIN — I probably listen to Wormwood at least three times a day, and when I’m not listening to it, I am singing it in my head.
It’s always awesome to get the chance to see a band when you are at the peak of being into them, so I was very stoked to check out the DEATHCORE ACROSS AMERICA tour when it rolled through my town the other day: I Declare War, Whitechapel, Veil of Maya and The Acacia Strain = YOU’RE FUCKING MOSHING! I also got a chance to chat with TAS bassist Jack Strong [mirin that name, sounds alpha as fuck].
In this post I will share the three reasons why TAS is my favorite band at the moment, as well as a few words from Jack to support my points: 1. Their diverse fanbase 2. They are punk 3. Last but not least, TAS are fucking heavy as fuck.
Monday, January 10th, 2011 at 11:30am by Axl Rosenberg
I am really, really excited for The Human Romance, the new Darkest Hour album. These dudes are still at the top of their game, it’s their first release for a new label, Peter Wichers produced it, and, well, they’re Darkest Hour! How can you not get excited?
The band described their new album art to Metal Injection back in November, but now they’ve finally released it for all the world to see:
So that’s pretty fuckin’ metal, right?
The Human Romance comes out via eOne on February 22.
Meanwhile, over at Darkest Hour’s old label, Victory, they’re preparing to release a new Emmure album. The record is called Speaker of the Dead and the Emmure guys are nothing if not clever, so the cover, of course, is literally a photo of speakers:
Thursday, January 6th, 2011 at 3:30pm by Axl Rosenberg
So let’s say you need to make a music video but you don’t have a very big budget — how can you spice your clip up so it’s not just another performance vid?
A Day To Remember came up with a pretty clever solution: they got all their friends to be in the video, taking turns looking right into the camera and lip synching along for a few moments. Oddly enough, a lot of those friends are metal royalty — including The Red Chord’s Guy Kozowyk, Trivium’s Matt Heafy, As I Lay Dying’s Tim Lambesis, The Acacia Strain’s Vincent Bennett, and whomever is playing Andrew WK this week — despite the fact that A Day to Remember aren’t metal at all.
This was a smart move if you ask me, ’cause otherwise a misanthropic metal d00d such as myself probably never would have watched the video, let alone actually kinda-almost smiled. It looks like everyone is having fun, and fun begets more fun, y’know?
Tuesday, January 4th, 2011 at 4:30pm by Axl Rosenberg
I think I’ve used the phrase “elephants marching riff” on MetalSucks before, but during a hang sesh with Vince just before the holidays, I realized we don’t use it enough — especially considering how often we actually talk about elephants marching riffs. I don’t remember when Vince and I started using the phrase to describe these lumbering, brutally heavy riffs, but they are absolutely one of my favorite metallic tropes. I fucking LOVE a good elephants marching riff.
Like the taco riff, the elephants marching riff is a little hard to define verbally — but you know it the second you hear it. The easiest explanation is that it sounds MASSIVE and moves at the pace at which you suspect a giant beast of war — say, an elephant — might move. But it can’t just be slow — doom bands and, alas, deathcore bands write slow riffs all the time, but I’d rarely define them as “elephants marching riffs.”
For example, the section of Murder the Frail’s “Disturbia” which begins at roughly the 1:45 mark is leaden — but an elephants marching riff it is not:
Tuesday, September 28th, 2010 at 11:30am by Axl Rosenberg
I’ve seen Terror live a few times, and they definitely know how to put on a fun show. I guess I wasn’t paying close enough attention to front man Scott Vogel’s stage banter, though, ’cause I don’t recall hearing him say anything especially noteworthy — yet someone has started a website, called Vogelisms, that is nothing but ridiculous quotes from the hardcore superstar. Who the hell is following Terror so closely that they have an abundance of Vogel quotes? I have no idea, but the site is funny as hell. Here are some gems gleaned from just the few minutes I’ve been looking at it:
Wednesday, September 1st, 2010 at 5:00pm by Axl Rosenberg
Yesterday I praised whomever came up with the moniker for The Acacia Strain’s upcoming “To Catch a Predatour” trek with The Red Chord and The Contortionist as a genius; today I know that it was Mr. Vincent Bennett, vocalist for TAS. For the band’s new, David Brodsky-directed video for “The Hills Have Eyes” is a parody of the infamous “news program” that outs kiddie fuckers (or, at least, would-be kiddie fuckers) on camera. And so, Mr. Bennett, I say again: YOU ARE A FRIGGIN’ GENIUS.
My other not-so-deep thought about this video is that it’s a million times better than that one The Malloys made, where Metallica are performing a very poorly written and produced song about a clogged toilet for the inmates of San Quentin. Maybe it’s “cooler” to go film at a real maximum security correctional institution where the inmates might get loose and rape Kirk Hammett at any moment, but Kirk has been getting raped by Hetfield and Ulrich for three decades anyway, so who really gives a shit? I’ll take Matt Pike (not that one, this one) as a reporter over Robert Trujillo droppin’ a deuce any day.
“The Hills Have Eyes” comes offa The Acacia Strain’s latest and greatest, Wormwood, which is out now on Prosthetic.
Tuesday, August 31st, 2010 at 12:00pm by Axl Rosenberg
We first told you about The Acacia Strain’s fall headlining run with The Red Chord and The Contortionist a few weeks ago, and you certainly seemed excited by the news; so you should be stoked to know that there are now dates for that tour.
The tour, by the way, is called “To Catch a Predatour,” which has to be one of the best names for a tour I’ve ever heard. In fact, I can’t believe no one has ever used it up ’til now. If genius is, as they say, the simple idea that no one has ever thought of before, well, whomever thought of this is truly a genius, and I would like buy him a donut.
ANYWAY, this is gonna be a killer tour. Of course, I’ll have to drive to Poughkeepsie if I wanna see it, which means I probably won’t be seeing it. See, all you people who think we have anything to do with tour routing? We have less than no power when it comes to that shit, or I would have been on the phone hours ago demanding that someone schedule a NYC date.
Thursday, August 12th, 2010 at 2:40pm by Axl Rosenberg
Nah, that doesn’t even make any sense! I just couldn’t think of a better headline to convey that The Acacia Strain have announced a tour with Terror, The Red Chord, and The Contortionist, to take place in October and November.
Actually, I’m not even sure I had to tell you that — we’ve gotten so many e-mails about it these past few days, it seems pretty clear that most of you know. In fact, the general message of those e-mails seemed to be something along the lines of, “Why the fuck haven’t you posted anything about this yet, you filthy fucking fucks?”, and the answer is, “We were hoping they’d announce dates so we could post the news and itinerary in one fell swoop.”
But there are still no dates and this tour is worth writing about twice. The Acacia Strain’s new album, Wormwood, is just terrific; Terror, like Hatebreed, are a band best experienced in a live setting; if you read MS regularly, you already know we’re retardedly huge fans of The Red Chord (the band on this bill I personally would be most excited to see, even though I just saw them on Summer Slaughter less than two weeks ago); and The Contortionist… well, I don’t know The Cortionist very well, but reader Hayden Nease is insistent that they’re awesome (E-mail sample: “The Contortionist. Seriously, The Contortionist. No, really, The Contortionist. sursly guize”), and “Flourish,” the new song they’re currently streaming on Noisecreep, certainly tickles me. So consider this an altogether killer bill.
While we wait for dates, here’s a video that The Acacia Strain’s Vincent Bennett recently made for Metal Injection, in which he asks other bands/techs/fans/whatever, “What’s so cool about The Cool Tour?” You, Vincent. You’re what’s so cool about The Cool Tour!
Metal Injection also has some behind-the-scenes footage from the shoot for The Acacia Strain’s new video, “The Hills Have Eyes.” Check that out here.
So, yeah, it turns out there’s a burgeoning metal scene in Maldives, and we even know some peeps who have either worked there or may work there in the future. Does that mean we’ll take a vacation there soon? Fuck do we look like, Wes Borland?
