Before there were blogs there were these things called magazines, and the only metal magazine we still get excited about reading every month is Decibel. Here’s managing editor Andrew Bonazelli…

For this week’s FED, I was all ready to write something (more) idiotic (than usual) about how we usually parcel out shirts, six-month subscriptions and Flexi series streams gratis, but this month—for the privilege of hearing the Black Dahlia Murder and special guest Jeff Fucking Walker covering Carcass’s Heartwork deep cut “This Mortal Coil”—you’d have to actually buy the magazine. Well, believe it or not, some enterprising young reader already ripped the fucking thing and posted it to YouTube. Which is cool and all, since we’re not officially streaming it. We’re particularly chuffed by said reader’s Senator Davis-channeling minor complaint “God damnit. I hate when the vocals first start it skips. My flexi must be flawed i cant get it to not skip there… shittttttttttttt.”

Anyway, go there and check it out. Strnad and Walker execute the most scintillating line trading since Marvin Lee Aday and Lorraine Crosby in “I Would Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That).” As always, it’s totally exclusive to the Decibel Flexi series, on commandingly virile royal blue. Sharpen your scalpels (read: set aside some money) and start slicing (read: subscribe).

-AB

Decibel’s July 2011 issue also features Morbid Angel, Coroner, Baroness, Autopsy, Revocation, Wormrot, and an incredible article about album packaging. That issue is available here, but why not get a full subscription to ensure you never miss one of these awesome flexi discs?

I finally had to make myself stop listening to The Black Dahlia Murder’s new album, Ritual, on such a regular basis (e.g., twice a day for however many days since I’ve had it), because as a blogger I have a responsibility (or something) to listen to a wide variety of metal releases in order to discuss them on the site (or so I’m told).

My point being simply that the album is good to the point of total fucking distraction, and you should be prepared to be totally fucking distracted upon its release. And one such way to prepare yourself is to watch the twelve-minute-plus “making of” video the band has released to Bloody Disgusting. There’s some cool shit in there — Shannon Lucas being the sick drummer we all know him to be, Ryan Knight putting half the other guitar players in modern metal to shame, a live, real, flesh and blood violinist recording the album intro, and, of course, no small amount of BDM tomfoolery.

The video isn’t embeddable, but you can watch it by clicking on the below screen cap of guitarist Brian Eschbach’s ass forever traumatizing Jason Suecof’s dog, Stinky.

Ritual comes out June 21 on Metal Blade, and then TBDM hit the road to headline the MetalSucks-sponsored Summer Slaughter tour along with Whitechapel, Darkest Hour, Six Feet Under, Dying Fetus, As Blood Runs Black, Oceano, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Powerglove, and Within the Ruins. Get dates after the jump!

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Actually I dunno if “Malenchantments of the Necrosphere” is still Vince’s favorite song from The Black Dahlia Murder’s Ritual or not, but I know he proclaimed to be so when we first got the album. In any case, it would be hard to blame him if it were his favorite song on the record, because, by golly, does it ever rock.

The swirling riff that appears beneath the verse always makes me envision a sentient, malicious tornado that has specific aims with regards to whose life it wants to royally fuck, and the riff beneath the chorus is some pretty sweet machine gun shit. And, of course, Ryan Knight’s guitar solo is totally killer. Really, there’s nothing bad about this song. If for some reason you weren’t already desperate to hear Ritual, hopefully this will do the trick.

The track is now streaming over at AP. Crank that shit, and then crank that shit again (these songs are so well-written as to be fairly addictive, so we won’t blame you should you feel the need to listen multiple times in a row), and then come back and let us know what you think in the comments section. But our guess is that what you think will be some variation of “YES!!!!”

Ritual comes out via Metal Blade on June 21. It’s so goddamn good.

-AR

Before there were blogs there were these things called magazines, and the only metal magazine we still get excited about reading every month is Decibel. Here’s managing editor Andrew Bonazelli…

The only other time Decibel put Morbid Angel on the cover was our fifth issue, in March of 2005. David Vincent had just answered our dark prayers, returning to the fold to “focus on putting together a really brutal tour featuring classic Morbid Angel tracks.” That was radical enough, but what everybody was really rabid for was a new Vincent/Azagthoth collaboration, the first since ’95’s Domination. Predictably, Trey didn’t have much of a scoop for us: “We’re just taking this day by day. It takes so long to put an album together. I don’t think I’m at that point yet.”

Suffice it to say, it took him fucking long enough to get to that point. And in just under two weeks, if you’re not a metal journalist or friend of the band, you’ll finally get a thorough overview of what Tampa’s finest have been slaving away on: the deeply polarizing eighth album, Illud Divinum Insanus. And you’ll learn soon enough if your perspective mirrors the majority of those who have already heard it (mass facepalm) or if Azagthoth’s notorious experimental daring has paid off yet again. J. Bennett grills both principals and gets a pretty fascinating explanation for the startling new direction. It’s the big story in July’s dB, available in the webstore now, for subscribers within two weeks. This one doesn’t have a gushing Mars Volta review (sorry, J.), so it’s an improvement on multiple levels!

-AB

Decibel’s July 2011 issue also features Baroness, Coroner, Autopsy, Revocation, Wormrot, an incredible article about album packaging, and an awesome flexi disc of The Black Dahlia Murder covering Carcass’ “This Mortal Coil” with Jeff fucking Walker. That issue is available here, but why not get a full subscription to ensure you never miss one?

Based on your comments regarding “Moonlight Equilibrium,” the first single from The Black Dahlia Murder’s forthcoming Ritual, it seems like you guys are pretty stoked for the album — and you have good reason to be. It is fucking great. If we had to make our year-end lists tomorrow, it would definitely go somewhere near the top for me. Of course, it’s not even June yet and things could happen, but… one way or the other, this record is fucking awesome awesome awesome. BDM did not let their fans down with this one.

And great news! There’s another new track, “Conspiring with the Damned,” now streaming over at Lambgoat. I imagine you’ll be just as happy with this tune as you were with the last one. And if you’re not, uh… no I mean I really can’t imagine you cats not digging this song. Pretty much every song on this album is perfect or near-perfect. The band could just hit “random” and release the first song that comes up as the next single, and they’d be in pretty great shape no matter what.

Headbang here, then come back and continue to gush in our comments section. Ritual comes out June 21 on Metal Blade. The band will spend their summer headlining the MetalSucks-sponsored Summer Slaughter tour, alongside Whitechapel, Darkest Hour, Six Feet Under, Dying Fetus, As Blood Runs Black, Oceano, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Powerglove, and Within the Ruins. Get dates after the jump!

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From what I understand, it is not okay for “real metal” fans to like any deathcore bands. For example, you are not allowed to be into both Deathspell Omega and Winds Of Plague, because WoP don’t have the right haircuts or clothes to be considered a “legit metal band.” It is also important to share your unsolicited, excessively strong opinions whenever deathcore bands come up, letting everybody know that you “are into real metal,” and that “deathcore is the worst shit ever.”

With that said, I’m confused about how there are a few deathcore bands that seem to get a pass from metal nerds: Darkest Hour, The Faceless, Between The Buried And Me, etc. The same people who get very, very angry about the popularity of bands like Suiside Silence or Miss May I love The Black Dahlia Murder, All Shall Perish, and The Red Chord, which is weird to me because they do not really sound any different.

Can anyone help me understand this??? Why are some deathcore bands considered “generic garbage for idiots who shop at Hot Topic” but other deathcore bands are “brilliant musicians who keep pushing the boundaries of the genre,” according to metal nerds???

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Happy Monday. Only five days to go until the weekend!

Yeah, it sucks — I mean I actually like my job, but it probably sucks for you — but hopefully this will relieve your stress: there are clips from each and every song on Ritual, the new album from The Black Dahlia Murder, streaming here, and clips from each and every song on This is Where it Ends, the new album from All Shall Perish, in the video below. Hey, a couple of minutes of new music from these bands is better than nothing, y’know?

Ritual is really, really incredible, and I wish you guys could hear it all right now. Highlights from these clips include the intro to the opening track, “A Shrine to Madness,” and the oh-so-catchy riff from “Malenchantments of the Necrosphere,” which Vince has already proclaimed to be his favorite song on the album. It comes out June 21 on Metal Blade.

As for This is Where it Ends, we haven’t heard it yet save for a couple of songs, so at this point you guys basically have as much information as we do with which to make premature judgments. That being said, if your premature judgment isn’t “This album is gonna fuck my face off,” I don’t really understand you. I mean, this shit sounds crazy promising, doesn’t it? Alas, it’s a little further away than Ritual — it coms out July 26 on Nuclear Blast.

Now seems like a good time to remind you that The Black Dahlia Murder will spend their summer headlining the MetalSucks-sponsored Summer Slaughter tour, which will also feature Whitechapel, Darkest Hour, Dying Fetus, Six Feet Under, Oceano, Fleshgod Apocalypse, As Blood Runs Black, Powerglove, and Within the Ruins. You can get dates here.

Meanwhile, All Shall Perish will spend their summer on the not-MetalSucks-sponsored-but-still-pretty-cool Rockstar Mayhem Festival, along with Megadeth, Machine Head, In Flames, Trivium, Unearth, Suicide Silence, Kingdom of Sorrow, Red Fang, and some shitty nu-metal bands you don’t have to worry about. You can get dates for that trek here.

-AR

As regular readers are aware, I’m usually dead-set against cover albums, which tend to feature meaningless, generally inferior versions of great songs the listener already owns in their original, classic forms.

But I’m willing to give Dying Fetus the benefit of the doubt that if they’ve made a covers album, it’s worth listening to. They’ve earned that much. Why? BECAUSE THEY’RE DYING FUCKING FETUS, that’s why. Duh.

So. In celebration of both their twentieth anniversary and their stint on the year’s edition of the MetalSucks-sponsored Summer Slaughter tour, this July the  band will release History Repeats…, which will not only feature the band re-imaging tracks from some of death n’ grinds finest (Napalm Death, Cannibal Corpse, Bolt Thrower, etc.), but will also feature “Rohypnol,” a brand new song. You might know rohypnol as “roofies,” or “the date rape drug.” So this tune is probably a charming power ballad in the vein of Bon Jovi’s “Bed of Roses.”

History Repeats… comes out July 19 on Relapse, and is limited to 5,000 copies. You can get it a f.y.e. stores, or just pre-order it directly from Relapse.

The full track list for this bad mother is after the jump, along with those Summer Slaughter dates. Other bands on the bill are The Black Dahlia Murder, Whitechapel, Darkest Hour, Six Feet Under, Oceano, Fleshgod Apocalypse, As Blood Runs Black, Powerglove, and Within the Ruins.

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Remember when this year’s Summer Slaughter (which we’re sponsoring!) was announced, there was this fan poll to determine who the last band added to the bill should be?

Well, Within the Ruins have been announced as the winners! They’ll join The Black Dahlia Murder, Whitechapel, Darkest Hour, Six Feet Under, Dying Fetus, As Blood Runs Black, Oceano, Fleshgod Apocalypse, and Powerglove for all dates on the trek. Our own Dave Mustein wrote of the band, “WTR don’t suck live; their performance is nearly as good as on record, which is pleasantly surprising due to the ferocious technicality of their music.” So the band’s presence should just enhance your Summer Slaughter excitement.

Here are dates again, in case you need ‘em:

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I know this isn’t realistic in today’s economic climate, but, no joke, everyone at Metal Blade deserves a bonus. On May 10, they’re release Hate Eternal’s orgasm-inducing Phoenix Amongst the Flames; then, less than two months later, on June 21, they’ll release Ritual, the new album from The Black Dahlia Murder. And at that point, they’ll have released what I think are the two best death metal albums of the year thus far.

Yep. Ritual fucking rocks. (Valnoir Mortsonge’s horny-making cover art is above.) It might be BDM’s best album yet. It’s every bit as catchy as Deflorate was, but way, way more raw. I hesitate to say more because I’m not sure what’s supposed to under wraps right now and what’s public knowledge. But there are some surprises here, I promise you. Cough cough, 100% real string sections, cough cough, not shitty sounding synths, cough.

Can’t wait ’til June to hear this bad boy? Well, lucky for you, there’s already a song from the album streaming online right now! It’s called “Moonlight Equilibrium,” and you can listen to it here. HOLY SHIT IS THIS A GOOD SONG. Go listen go listen go listen go listen.

Like I said, Ritual — which was produced by Mark Lewis and mixed by Jason Suecof, in case you had any doubt that it was gonna sound killer — comes out June 21. You can already pre-order it in a variety of formats here. I just spent $62 on a limited edition box set. No, I am not kidding. It looks freaking awesome (it comes with a cloth ouija board, incense, coffin nails, and a fucking sage wand, for crying out loud) and I’m excited to own it.

BDM will be on tour throughout the world starting next month. You can get all dates here. After the jump I’ve posted the itinerary for the MetalSucks-sponsored Summer Slaughter, which the band will headline and, presumably, dominate.

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When I was growing up, summer Slaughter meant a hot July night listening to Mark Slaughter complain about Vinnie Vincent’s body odor between songs at your local Enormodome. But life in America is awesomer now (not srs) and Summer Slaughter now means extreme metal piled eyeball-high and ballz-deep, plus your chance to make kissy faces at Mike Schleibaum, not Dana Strum. And since MetalSucks is an official Summer Slaughter sponsor, you can give us your thanks for the fun. We’ll pass them on to the other sponsors, promise. Dates after we jump you:

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MetalSucks is proud to once again be sponsoring the best mega-package tour of the summer — Summer Slaughter, of course! As you can see from the above poster, the mini-fest’s organizers have once again put together line-up that show cases a who’s who of the current metal scene.

And they’re taking it one step further this year — they’re letting YOU, the fans, decide who the last band added to the bill should be! Go to the official Summer Slaughter Facebook page to cast your vote.

Cities and dates for the tour will be announced on 4/20. ‘Til then… get ready to get slaughtered…

Why, it was just a couple of days ago that we learned that bassist Terry Butler and drummer Greg Gall have both quit Six Feet Under, and already, the band has announced a replacement for Gall: Kevin Talley, who is joining the group as part of his apparent bid to play with every band ever at least once. (Already on his resumé: Daath, Chimaira, Misery Index, Dying Fetus, Hate Eternal, Suffocation, The Black Dahlia Murder, The Red Chord, and probably fifteen other bands I’m forgetting about.)

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I remember when Allegiance came out in 2006, people were talking about As Blood Runs Black like they were the second coming. Along with groups like The Black Dahlia Murder (who were already much more well-established by then) and All Shall Perish (whose own, and in my opinion superior, breakthrough, The Price of Existence, came out the same year), they were supposed to be the future of death metal, one of the bands that would update the sound without straying too far from their influences. By now, they should have released at least two more albums, and, in theory at least, be enjoying their status as one of the godfathers of deathcore.

But something went hideously awry. I honestly don’t know what, because I thought Allegiance was fine but not great, and I didn’t pay as close attention to ABRB as maybe I should have. I kept hearing about line-up changes, but, like I said, I wasn’t paying very close attention. In any case, it seems like at a certain point everyone stopped talking about this band, and then I wasn’t even sure that this band existed anymore.

But they do! And they finally have a new album, Instinct, coming out next year. And now you can listen to a song from that album, “Resist,” by going to the band’s Facebook page and clicking the “like” button.

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Metal Injection posted this video of The Black Dahlia Murder’s lead guitarist, Ryan Knight, gettin’ jiggy wit it (or whatever the white kids who wish they were black are saying these days) at the wedding of the band’s former tour manager. And let me please be clear: I am laughing with Knight, not at Knight. I wish I lacked the self-consciousness to have this good a time on a dance floor. I mean, I’m sure ten or twenty drinks helps, but still.

If BDM don’t somehow incorporate this into their next video, they’re fools.

-AR

I’m sick. Not in a scary way; more in a “Went to the doctor yesterday and got on antibiotics and didn’t do any posting or checking of e-mail” kinda way. Consequently, the limited amount of posting I’m going to do today will probably be even more ineloquent and vitriolic than usual. (I’ve already responded to several e-mails this morning with the rudest possible reply I could concoct.) My apologies in advance.

Some e-mails that won’t be getting any misplaced rage caused by my current condition: the approximately 18,000 messages alerting us to the fact that Nergal has, at last, found an appropriate bone marrow donor. This is great news for a guy who really is sick in a scary way, and I couldn’t be happier. Here’s an official statement from the man himself:

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At the Accept show I went to last week, I had a pretty funny moment with the boy when I said that it sounded like they were singing “We are nice” instead of “Neon nights.” Which got me thinking: I mishear lyrics a lot. It could be because I’m deaf, or people just don’t enunciate, or that most of the bands I listen to don’t really know English that well so they probably are singing stupid shit. Or it could be that I’d rather hear something than what I actually do — I mean, Bob Ezrin wanted a new, edgy song to appeal to those hip youngsters and thought Alice Cooper was singing “I’m edgy,” instead of “I’m eighteen.” Personally, I’m way more entertained with what my brain, or other people’s brains (as I got some volunteers for this task), comes up with. So here are a few songs that made it to my Misheard Lyrics Hall of Fame.

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Three cheers for Crack Hitler, who I think did a very admirable job of running the site on Friday. Sure, he only did six posts, but as I understand, he has a very busy job working at a hospital, which is certainly far more noble and important than running a snarky metal blog. And he brought some excellent music to our attention. Crack Hitler, sir, I applaud you.

Now back to the regular shit. Here are two cool tours that were announced while we were letting a reader from Perth call the shots:

• The Black Dahlia Murder have announced a headlining tour with Goatwhore and Arkaik. I don’t know Arkaik, but you had me at “Black Dahlia Murder and Goatwhore.” Vince has never seen BDM do a full headlining set, and, by Satan, I am going to make sure he finally breaks that cherry, ’cause these dudes kill live. These shows will provide enough fun to justify enduring all the B.O. that comes with a modern death metal sausage fest. Get dates here.
• Speaking of Goatwhore: For obvious reasons, Behemoth had to cancel their headlining run with Watain, Black Anvil, and Withered, so the former two bands are now doing their own tour with the sluttiest of all capra aegagrus hircus. Which, even without Behemoth and Withered, is still a really, really kick-ass line-up.  Get dates from The PRP.

-AR

Reader LETTHEDEATHMETALFLOW sent in a bunch of excellent footage he (or she… but let’s not kid ourselves… he) shot of The Black Dahlia Murder playing at Baroeg in Rotterdam, Holland last week. If you’re disappointed by Trevor Strnad’s lack of shirtlessness in the first clip, don’t worry… the shirt comes off soon enough and Trevor’s beauteous man-gut gets its time under the lights.

Believe it or not I’ve never seen a proper BDM headline set, so this footage is pretty exciting for me. The video and sound quality are great, too.

-VN

Parts 3 and 4 after the jump…

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This really needs no introduction. If you were stationed in Iraq, you’d need to blow off steam, too.

Thanks to Crispen for the link.

-AR