I’ve seen The Binary Code live a bunch of times, and they just keep getting better and better and better. They could always play, but they’ve really come into their own as performers; I feel like I’ve watched them go from a caterpillar to a butterfly! A total wicked butterfly that plays awesome progressive technical death metal.

If you live in the Northeast and you’ve never checked these dudes out, well, here’s your chance – they’re doing a show in Brooklyn next week with Lair of the Minotaur and Elks, and then a Northeast tour with The Gloominous Doom. (One date will even include Rumpelstiltskin Grinder and Total Fucking Destruction. I’ve never wished I lived in Hamburg, PA so badly in my life.) I’ve never seen The Gloominous Doom live, but after seeing their video for “Portal Potty,” which made its debut on Metal Injection earlier this week (and which Vince already wrote about, but I just now watched ’cause I’m slow that way), I really, really want to; not only is it a funny clip for a good song, but I’d love to see how a tech-death crowd reacts to reggae parts. Because, yes, they have reggae parts.

Bottom line: they are two really, really creative bands, and these shows are gonna be a lot of fun. Get tour dates after the jump!

Click to read more…

Cosmo Lee of Invisible Oranges wrote an editorial a few weeks back about the 20th anniversary of Scatterbrain’s Here Comes Trouble, noting that there’s a certain element of fun and audaciousness that’s not only been missing from metal for two decades but that would be considered downright ridiculous these days:

Listening to Scatterbrain now is a trip because its sound is so dated. It comes from a time of “fun metal”, in which D.R.I., M.O.D., Anthrax, Suicidal Tendencies, Fishbone, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Primus, Faith No More, Mr. Bungle, and Ugly Kid Joe were all likely cohabitants in CD collection.

While it’s hard to imagine anything as silly as “Mr. Johnson and the Juice Crew” (MP3 posted at Invisible Oranges), not all metal is frowny-faced gloom and doom these days. There’s bands like Municipal Waste and Rumpelstiltskin Grinder who take their thrash with a sense of humor. There’s the pagan metal set, which is completely serious but is also all about having a good time and getting jolly wasted. And there’s Reading, PA’s The Gloominous Doom, whose unlikely combination of ska and metal harkens back to some of the bands that Cosmo name-checked.

Take The Gloominous Doom’s new video for “Portal Potty” as proof; it’s about a special porta-potty with Bill & Ted-style time-traveling qualities. This is a band that has plenty of chops and songwriting ability but doesn’t take themselves too seriously. Their new record The Feature will come out on May 4th via DRP Records. They’ll be on a Northeast mini-tour with The Binary Code in May, and their CD release show on May 1st also features none other than fellow fun-lovers Rumpelstiltskin Grinder.

-VN

This past January and February Hypno5e, Revocation and The Binary Code criss-crossed the nation on the rigorous Metal As Art tour that saw them play 31 shows in 33 days. The bands faced van wrecks, breakdowns, snow storms, crazy groupies and even withstood a contest to see who could go the longest without showering (Todd from The Binary Code ended up victorious, if you’re wondering), but they all lived to tell the tale and are all the better for it. If you were one of the lucky ones who got to catch a show then you know what I’m talking about; I got to catch 6 shows, including 5 on the west coast from Los Angeles through Portland. I even got to visit the bizarre-as-fuck Meth-haven known as Reno; I hope I never ever end up there again.

Our Bro-jiras over at Roxwel.com were on hand at Red 7 in Austin to catch the action. They captured excellent live footage of Revocation and The Binary Code and conducted interviews with both bands. Check out an interview / live footage montage of each band below, and check out the rest of the live footage at Roxwel.com.

The Revocation:

Revocation – Interview & Live Performance
Watch Music Videos at www.roxwel.com

The Binary Code:

Binary Code – Interview & Performance
Watch Music Videos at www.roxwel.com

The road leading to post-experimental-progressive metallers East of the Wall‘s forthcoming Translation Loss full-length Ressentiment has been a long one. The band’s initial incarnation was comprised of four of the five members of The Postman Syndrome, whose debut LP Terraforming was met with critical acclaim but whose 2nd album never saw the light of day. The Postman Syndrome’s members went on to split time in various formations between Biclops and East of the Wall, but within the last couple of months it was announced that those two bands were combining not only members but songs and continuing on just as East of the Wall. Got all that?

Sweet. Because I can’t speak for past East of the Wall lineups, but the current Biclops/EotW hybrid completely knocked my socks off last Monday at NYC’s Lit Lounge. The band tore through three songs before the NYU hipster brigade rolled in at 11:30 to shake their booties to bad ’80s-imitation dance music, but those three songs (which are at least twice the length of most bands’ songs) impressed the fucking bajesus out of me! What I’ve heard of Ressentiment so far had impressed me, but having seen the band live brings my anticipation of the album to a whole new level.

Back to The Postman Syndrome. The aforementioned unreleased 2nd album will finally see the light of day as God Relieve Our Grief: A Mausoleum Of Stillborn Demos, which the band is releasing entirely themselves, smartly timed to coincide with East of the Wall’s pending album release. Since it’s a DIY operation everything is being done on the cheap, which means that they’re able to offer fans a super-awesome package for a relatively small chunk of change:

Click to read more…

If you don’t know East of the Wall, you should learn about them right quick. For one thing, the share a member with The Binary Code – that would be bassist Brett Bamberger -and for another thing, well, they rock. If The Binary Code are too tech-y for you, East of the Wall may be more your speed – it still has a proggy, experimental vibe, but it’s somewhat more straight-forward art metal than TBC.

The band has a new album, Ressentiment, coming out in July on Translation Loss, and have debuted two new songs from that record on their MySpace page: “Salieri” and “Fleshmaker.” They’re both sweet. Go give ‘em a listen!

-AR

Thanks to Mr. Sandwich for the tip.

Kevin Antreassian runs a booming recording business out of Backroom Studios in Rockaway, NJ. In addition to helping make countless local metal bands sound like Gods, Kevin has been the man behind sessions with Coheed & Cambria’s Chris Pennie, The Number 12 Looks Like You, Knife the Glitter, The Binary Code and more.

A couple of weeks ago I shot Kevin a list of questions via email about his studio, producing, the recording process, gear, getting all up in a band member’s face when they play a sloppy take and some of the bands that he’s worked with. It’s clear from his answers that not only is Kevin a talented engineer/mixer/producer but he gets metal, a characteristic that most studio guys on a local level just don’t have. production Kevin’s answers, after the jump.

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“Welcome to the Band Explodo Tour 2010” announced guitarist David Davidson after two bouts of boner-inducing death/thrash mayhem from his band Revocation. Maybe that title didn’t carry the gravitas of the tour’s actual name, “Metal As Art,” but it was apt. Revocation’s van had broken down in Arizona earlier in the day, requiring a hasty switch into a rented minivan and the borrowing of much equipment; just a couple days into the month-long string of dates, their tourmates The Binary Code had totaled their own van. This particular gig had hot-potatoed around three other Los Angeles venues before finally resting at grindcore/metal haven The Blvd., and if that weren’t reason enough for audience members to give up, L.A. was in the midst of its worst rainstorm in years.

But metal’s for survivalists. Surely each of the three bands on the tour – rounded out by French experi-metallers Hypno5e – long ago accepted that suffering for one’s art is a prerequisite of induction into heavy metal’s spiny embrace. Despite the terrible vehicle karma all three acts launched themselves into their performances like they were playing for their room and board. Which they kinda were, considering that both The Binary Code and Revocation both asked the audience if they could offer a place to sleep that night.

Click to read more…

While the first run of the MetalSucks-sponsored Metal As Art Tour — featuring Hyno5e, Revocation and The Binary Code — is now entering the home stretch as it winds its way back east (get dates here), the crazy motherfuckers in France’s Hypno5e are gearing up for another month-long U.S. tour that focuses on mostly Northeast, Southeast and a few Midwest markets that the 1st tour leg missed. Starring Janet Leigh and Fallen Martyr will accompany the band for the 2nd run of the tour, which kicks off February 9th in Philadelphia and wraps March 4th in NYC.

Check out this live video of Hypno5e performing “Tutuguri” in their native France. These dudes fucking bring it live with a coordinated light show and video projections, and they sound perfect every night. A full list of tour dates for the 2nd leg is posted after the jump.

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It’s been great getting to meet some of our readers over these past few years. There are few things more gratifying than putting a face with a name and seeing that someone really actually does a give a shit about what we’re doing here at MetalSucks. I mean, I know we’re not curing cancer, but finding new and inventive ways to insult people is challenging, y’know?

And while Parker Werley is one reader I’ve never met, if I ever do, I am going to buy the dude a beer or ten, or get him really high, or both. Because he introduced me to Son of Aurelius. And Son of Aurelius are AWESOME.

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This winter is shaping up to a great incredible one for U.S. metal tours.The European Summer festivals ain’t got nothin’ on us… ok, well yeah they do, but this winter’s U.S. metal tour slate is still most excellent.

There’s the much ballyhooed Between the Buried and Me / Cynic / The Devin Townsend Project / Scale the Summit North American Orgasm Tour, about which Axl shared his man-juice excitement yesterday. On January 15th death metal Egyptologists Nile kick off their mammoth Those Whom the Gods Detest Tour with Immolation, Krisiun, Abigail Williams and Dreaming Dead. Only five days later Arch Enemy embark on the MetalSucks-sponsored Tyrants of Evil Tour with Exodus, Arsis and Mutiny Within. The Pagan/Folk metal tour du jour this Winter is headlined by Korpiklaani with Tyr, Swashbuckle and White Wizzard in tow (the latter of whom are certainly not pagan or folk). And tomorrow The Metal As Art Tour featuring Hypno5e, Revocation and The Binary Code kicks off in Brooklyn and traverses the country for 31 days. Yowza!

Full lists of dates and venues for all four tours are posted after the jump. There’ve been a few venue changes so make sure you double-check… then feel free to bitch about how none of these tours are coming to your city and proceed to blame us.

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This morning I was reading an interview with Binary Code guitarist Jesse Zuretti, in which the artful shredder mentioned jazz guitarist Allan Holdsworth as a major influence on his playing. Curious, I hit YouTube up for an Allan Holdsworth history lesson.

Check out this video of Holdsworth playing live; he doesn’t really get going until around the 2 minute mark, at which points he lets loose with a flurry of seemingly atonal out-of-key shred passages that just somehow work. Then around the 5 minute mark he goes bonkers, and here’s where I see the Zuretti influence; the quick, almost-sweep-like jazzy shred passages recall the solos in The Binary Code songs “Ghost Planet” and “The Story” (the latter of which is streaming on The Binary Code’s MySpace) in their almost Vernon Reid-esque insanity. Like Reid’s solos, it’s constantly as if the train’s about to run right off the rails but you know there’s a method to the madness underneath it all.

-VN

The MetalSucks co-sponsored Metal As Art Tour 2010, featuring Revocation (Relapse Records), Hypno5e, and The Binary Code, kicks off in just a couple of weeks. You should all be familiar with Revocation by now; SEVEN of our writers named their 2009 album Existence is Futile in their end-of-year lists for 2009. I had the chance to see the band in NYC a couple of months back and they’re every bit as good live as they are on record, and then some. Of course you’re all also with familiar with The Binary Code, whose Suspension of Disbelief was our first foray into the world of releasing music just last week; seeing the band’s astonishing live show was actually what drew us to them in the first place. And while France’s Hypno5e haven’t hit America’s shores in some time, I’m greatly looking forward to meeting their prog metal meets art rock onslaught.

During a winter that’s already got a couple of higher-profile tours, this is a smaller tour that I’m the most excited about. The 31-date run kicks off January 6th in Brooklyn, winds its way through the Midwest and South, runs up the whole West Coast and then cuts through the center of the country all the way back, wrapping February 6th in New Jersey.

Full list of tour dates after the jump (**please note a venue change for Los Angeles**):

Click to read more…

The day has finally come… The Binary Code’s debut full-length Suspension of Disbelief is out today.

Love it, hate it; pan it, praise it; steal it, buy it… just do yourself a favor and give it a chance by listening. As partners in this release, we’re pleased to bring you the full stream of the album in high-quality 320kbps MP3 files; it’ll be available for 24 hours only so make sure you listen now.

In response to some of the haters on previous posts about the band, we just have this to say: MetalSucks stands to make little to no money on this release. No, The Binary Code are not paying us for this promotion… and while we feel privileged to now call the dudes in the band friends of ours, we came to know them through being thoroughly impressed with their music, not vice versa. The goal here is to help this band gain wider exposure, and that is really all.

So, have a listen and let us know what you think. The whole album is available for digital purchase for the very fair price of only $5, or with one of four t-shirt designs for only $15 (with free U.S. shipping). All files are 320kbps MP3s. Visit The Binary Code’s webstore to order.

The Binary Code will be on tour with Revocation and Hypno5e from January 6th through February 6th, traversing most of the U.S. Get dates here.

- VN & AR

[This promotion has ended. Two full tracks are currently streaming at The Binary Code's MySpace]

Oh boy oh boy. We’re less than a week away from the MetalSucks exclusive digital release of Suspension of Disbelief, the new release from progressive technical death metallers The Binary Code. And now you have another chance to get a sneak peak of the album – Metal Underground is streaming a new song, “The Story,” right now. GO LISTEN NOW.

We’re charging a measly five bucks for the download of the album, or fifteen if you wanna order it with one of several awesome The Binary Code shirts. Pre-orders are being accepted now for the December 15 release date at this location. And if you live in the U.S. and order a shirt, shipping is free!

And don’t forget that The Binary Code will be playing as part of the “Metal as Art” tour with Hypno5e and Revocation this January and February. Get a complete list of dates after the jump!

Click to read more…

Yesterday we posted live footage of Periphery tearing up the New York City crowd at their headline show at Santo’s Party House last month… and today we’ve got footage of The Binary Code from that very same show thanks to our brostophers at Metal Injection. The live setting is really where these guys shine. Despite the iffy sound quality in this video of the band playing the title track from Suspension of Disbelief segueing into “The Story,” the video does a good job of conveying the intensity that is The Binary Code live…. and believe us, it’s really fucking intense.

Suspension of Disbelief drops December 15th, which is next Tuesday! Buy the full album for only $5, or buy the album and one of four t-shirt designs for only $15 (with free U.S. shipping); pre-order it here. Check out their MySpace for some tuneage.

-VN

A month ago we saw Periphery headline a small club show in NYC with The Binary Code and Empyreon, prompting my brother from another mother Axl to write: “… these guys are the shit, and are gonna be huge. They had the crowd eating out of the palms of their hands, and, unlike some bands (I’m not naming names, but think Jack the Ripper), they actually have three guitar players for a reason.”

No longer do you have to take Axl’s (and my) word; Metal Injection has posted 4-camera live footage from that night’s performance of two songs, “Light” and “Icarus Lives.” Whether or not you like this kind of metal, there’s no denying that the band is tight, professional, and engaging, and that frontman Chris Barretto is a truly talented singer and an electrifying frontman.

Periphery’s Sumerian Records debut will drop some time in early 2010… it’s certainly on this writer’s “most anticipated” list for next year. In the meantime watch “Light” below and “Icarus Lives” after the jump, and don’t forget to check out a full recorded version of “Light” and more on Periphery’s MySpace.

-VN

Click to read more…

Sometimes I feel fairly certain that a substantial portion of the people who leave comments on MetalSucks would be considered legally brain dead by most medical doctors. Having said that, I’m glad they read our website.

Here’s what happened in the world of metal this week:

• We spoke to Darkthrone’s Fenriz, Iron Age’s Wade Allison, and Swallow the Sun’s Juha Raivio.
• We debuted a new video from Austrian Death Machine.
• Everyone wants to kill everyone else because of all these decade end lists.
• Also, people are cranky about that Dimebag tribute album.
• Kip Wingerschmidt thinks that Stewert Voegtlin’s recent trashing of Baroness, Mastodon, Pelican and Neurosis was “eloquent.” The Austerity Program’s Justin Foley disagrees.
• Unfortunately, there is going to be a new Limp Bizkit album.
• Lambgoat is streaming “Mechanical Seas,” a new song by The Binary Code!
• I admit it: I left the ring stain on Julia Louis-Dreyfuss’ table.

Last night we went to a fancy-schmancy holiday party with an open bar and got faschnickered. Tonight I’m… going to a fancy-schmancy holiday party with an open bar. If I’m not here Monday, it’s because I died of alcohol poisoning.

Have a good one, y’all.

-AR

Turns out we’re not the only ones excited about The Binary Code’s pending release of Suspension of Disbelief; the first-post/van-flippers over at Lambgoat are exclusively streaming the brand new track “Mechanical Seas” right now!

Having heard all of Suspension of Disbelief (since MetalSucks is releasing the album digitally — duh!) I’m having a hard time finding the words to express how fucking awesome the record sounds (courtesy of a killer mixing job by Knife the Glitter’s Kevin Antreassian). “Mechanical Seas” is definitely one of my favorite tracks from the record, but it’s just the tip of the iceberg compared to the rest of the mind-bending progressive death metal contained therein.

So go on and stream “Mechanical Seas” at Lambgoat. Suspension of Disbelief drops on December 15th for the whopping price of only $5 for a high-quality 320kbps MP3 digital download, or $15 with one of four sick t-shirt designs (and free shipping in the U.S.!). You can pre-order the record at The Binary Code’s webstore right now.

For a sample of what the rest of Suspension of Disbelief has in store, check out the medley containing clips from every song on the album posted on The Binary Code’s MySpace.

-VN

Photo credit: Justina Villanueva

Oh boy oh boy. We’re getting closer to the release of The Binary Code’s Suspension of Disbelief, which MetalSucks will sell in a digital-only format for a whopping five bucks starting December 15. Now we can share with you the cover art, which was designed by guitarist Jesse Zuretti (who also created this awesome MetalSucks t-shirt and hoodie), as well as the track listing. Check it out:

Tracklisting:

1. Suspension of Disbelief (Part I & II)
2. Mechanical Seas
3. Ghost Planet
4. Void
5. the Story
6. Human Condition
7. Awaiting Necropolis
8. Void II

And don’t forget that TBC are on tour all of January and February with Hypno5e and Revocation. Get dates after the jump!

Click to read more…

Today was Friday the 13th, but absolutely nothing bad happened to me. I mean, the night is young so shit could still go horribly awry I suppose, but all in all, I had a pretty good day – nay, I had a pretty good week. If only the same could be said for the world of metal. Here’s some disasters the plagued various musicians this week:

• Slash completed his decade-long indoctrination into the Metallica “Fuck Our Fans” Club.
• We’re not sure if Steven Tyler is still in Aerosmith or not, but we are sure that we don’t give a fuck either way.
• There was a lot of controversy over a really, really ugly painting.
• No can explain to me why I should care about Alter Bridge.
• Fear Faction ate s’more babies, released a new song.
• R.I.P. Jerry Fuchs.

And, oh yeah, some good news: MetalSucks is going to do a digital release of The Binary Code’s Suspension of Disbelief on December 15 for just five bucks! Get stoked.

Alright. I’m off to go hear Vince spin. Have a nice weekend everyone. Next week we have another extra, super-duper special surprise for you…

-AR