The rumor was that this year’s edition of Mayhem Fest would feature Slipknot, Slayer, Motorhead, Anthrax, The Devil Wears Prada, As I Lay Dying and Whitechapel; yesterday, we got confirmation that Slipknot are indeed headlining the outing, and now all the other bands have been confirmed, too. In fact, the only band on the bill that WASN’T rumored to be in the line-up is Asking Alexandria. I’m assuming the festival’s organizers kept that one top-secret on purpose; I mean, I wouldn’t want people to know I was working with Asking Alexandria, either.

All kidding aside, the only bands here I’d consider a total miss are The Devil Wears Prada and the aforementioned Asking Alexandria, and I’m aware that, yes, while I personally may loathe those bands, they will put butts in seats. The rest of the line-up is great; this is obviously Slipknot’s big U.S. comeback tour, and the combination of them and Slayer alone should pretty much guarantee that every metal fan in the country shows up for this thing.

Dates are after the jump, courtesy of Metal Inejection.

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Earlier this week, rumors began to circulate about the line-up for the 2012 edition of Summer Slaughter, and if they’re even kinda-sorta true, the package tour may have put together its best bill ever. Now, The PRP is reporting unconfirmed rumors about the line-up for the 2012 edition of Mayhem Fest, and it sounds like the organizers of that tour ain’t slouching, either: Slipknot, Slayer, Motorhead, Anthrax, The Devil Wears Prada, As I Lay Dying and Whitechapel are all said to be possibilites for this year’s installment of the festival.

Like I said, these are currently unconfirmed rumors, and even The PRP says that “a grain (or more) of salt should be taken” with ‘em. But can you imagine if that line-up is real? I actually think the bill has been on the weaker side for Mayhem for the past couple of years, but even with The Devil Wears Prada (who are horrendous) and Whitechapel (who aren’t horrendous but just really are not my thing) on the tour, having Slipknot, Slayer, Motorhead, Anthrax, and As I Lay Dying all on one show would make it unmissable. And I have to imagine that those would all be mainstage acts, which means there would still be X number of potentially awesome slots available on the secondary stages.

The actual, official line-up will be announced on January 25, so this time next week, we’ll know whether or not these rumors were not really rumors at all. Fingers crossed…

-AR

A bunch of people asked me why I didn’t do a Best Of 2011 list, and the answer is simple: I am a futurist! I don’t care about the past because I’m a lot more interested in what’s coming next. If you have to know what the best progressive djentstep cassette-only release of the year was, I’m sure there is a 200+ comment post that will give you more than enough detail on it. But if you want to know what the Next Big Thing will be, keep reading for my 2012 STATE OF THE SCENE ADDRESS!

In a nutshell, there is nothing more trendy this year than being tr00. MySpace is long dead, and while some of the bands that flourished on the site are still around, they’re dying along with the scene that surrounds them. Neon merch, generic deathcore and crabcore are out; ‘real hardcore,’ old-school death metal, and djent are in. Yesterday’s scene kid is today’s hipster/metal nerd, and in what should be welcome news to MS readers, it’s cool to be an elitist snob!

That said, scene isn’t quite dead. There are still plenty of kids in skinny jeans who love Asking Alexandria, Black Veil Brides are still moving units, and you can still spot the odd pair of ice cream DC high tops here and there. Expect 2012 to be an awkward transition year where new meets old, sort of like 1992 when Nirvana, Ugly Kid Joe and Kriss Kross all charted.

After the break: a scientific model of the scene, and what to expect from music, fashion, and media in 2011!

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The “Top Hard Music” Chart I’ve been using for this column for the past couple of years is a mixed bag; on one hand, a lot of the “Top Hard Music” albums are really old albums that continue to sell (Metallica’s Black Album, various greatest hits collections, catalogue albums of whatever big band happens to be on tour at the time, etc) which paints a skewed picture of what I’m really interested in, namely the new stuff. On the other hand, it’s interesting to see how those older albums continue to sell.

I was recently alerted to the existence of a different chart, “Current Hard Music;” I’m not sure what the criteria is for what constitutes “Current” as some albums on this chart have been on for 90+ weeks and some artists are certainly not “current” by any means, but it does seem to paint a much better picture of the sales of newer albums. Without perrenial classics and greatest hits comps hogging up precious chart space, fewer units need to be sold for a band to get into the Top 100 on the “Current” chart. I am contemplating a move to focusing on that chart in the future. For now, I’ll stick with Top Hard Music with some added albums from the bottom of the other chart. What do you guys think?

Anyway, this week we’ve got big debuts from Pearl Jam and Opeth, big second week drops from a number of artists (Anthrax, Dream Theater and more) that still have pretty big sales numbers, and a look at some albums that came out earlier this year (Black Dahlia Murder, All Shall Perish, more).

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Damn. After a few slow weeks of new releases, we have a ton of new stuff coming out this week, including new stuff from Anthrax, Dream Theater, Wolves in the Throne Room, Haste the Day, Vader, Primus and my personal favorite, Elks, plus many more. We have officially entered the fall new release season!

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It’s true! The summer is over. Sad. We’re closing down early today to enjoy the long Labor Day weekend. That also means we won’t be here Monday. We hope everyone has a great, Axel Rudi Pell-free weekend!

While you await our return, here’s some fun stuff we did this week:

• We wrapped up our interview with Amos Williams from TesseracT, and spoke to Tom Niemeyer from The Accüsed, too.
• We checked out the latest releases from Diamond Plate and Odyssey.
• We concluded our celebration of 31 Days of Faith No More.
• We debated which band was worse, Skip the Foreplay or Design the Skyline.
• We were sad to learn that Metal Blade has also pulled out of Spotify.
• We wondered if Latinos are born to mosh.
• We declared djent to be pop.
• We watched Jack White lick the Insane Clown Posse’s ass.
• We learned to write a breakdown from a deck of cards.
• We continued to be baffled by the popularity of The Devil Wears Prada.

Okay, time to go get fucked up. See ya Tuesday!

-AR

Last week I wrote a little bit about how a lot of modern production techniques I loathe may actually be aesthetic choices; and I tried to keep that in mind as I attempted to listen to Dead Throne, the latest offering from The Devil Wears Prada. If, for example, the band didn’t favor such excessive use of autotune and vocoder, would the songs at least be solid?

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Earthquakes. Hurricanes. New records by The Devil Wears Prada. Come at us, brah! We can survive anything.

Here’s what we did while shit conspired to kill us:

• We debuted new music by East of the Wall and 400 Blows.
• We spoke to Amos Williams from TesseracT about the band’s recent vocalist swap.
• We checked out the latest release from Landmine Marathon.
• We wondered: Which is better, grindcore or doom metal?
• We also wondered: Is it better to make great albums but suck live, or to be great live but put out sucky albums?
• We also also wondered: Who are the top ten metal lyricists?
• We learned what not to do if you’re in an unknown band.
• We were bummed to learn that vocalist Travis Richter has split with The Human Abstract.
• We continued to count down 31 Days of Faith No More.
• We confirmed The Red Chord, Obscura, and Rosetta for The Metal Suckfest.

Alright, I’m gonna go set up my slip n’ slide and get ready for the rain. Come hell or high water (pun intended), I promise you we will be back on Monday. See ya then.

-AR

This post originally appeared on Stuff You Will Hate, but Metal Sucks bossman/18V fan Vince Neilstein pointed out that I didn’t quite cover everything there is to say about 18 VISIONS. It is my mission as a human being to sing the praises of this legendary band, so it appears again here with an Anal Cunt joke in the title, a few small changes on my part, and some additions from Vince — we leave no stone uncovered when it comes to 18 VISIONS OF THE APOCALYPSE! — Sergeant D

In my opinion, one of the greatest tragedies of the late 20th/early 21st century is the demise and corresponding underrappreciation of Orange County metalcore pioneers 18 VISIONS. All jokes aside, I honestly love everything 18V did. I love every album, each for a different reason. And if they didn’t live up to their potential in terms of mainstream popularity, I seriously think it was because they were years ahead of their time — if you can find anyone who played deathcore, did the fashioncore thing, or integrated electronics before they did, it’s news to me. If 18V were ten years younger, they would be bigger than The Devil Wears Prada, Escape The Fate, and every other bands who’s essentially doing stuff they did as a DIY band a decade earlier.

Either way, the band broke up in 2006 after releasing what was, in my opinion, their best album. I got a chance to see them a couple of times on their final tour, supporting Hinder the first time and later at some fest in Christcore-capitol Dayton, Ohio with Damone and Staind. It was fucking sweet, just like every other time I saw them over the previous ten years or so. From day one until the end, 18V never faltered, never listened to the legions of haters that they attracted, and never stopped innovating in ways that still have yet to be completely appreciated or documented.

When I think of 18V, their career can be divided into three phases: 1) Chainreactioncore/Deathcore, 2) Fashioncore, and 3) Mansoncore – and we couldn’t cover 18V without covering phase four, the post-18V bands. In this post, I will share my thoughts on each phase, hopefully inspiring you to love 18V as much as I do!

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While these days metal fandom is basically just a contest to see who can fap harder and faster to obscure technical death metal, it wasn’t always that way. In fact, many of the bands that internet metal nerds regard as legendary icons today were either hated or ignored when they were at their peak — fellow oldz will know exactly what I’m talking about. In this post, I will remind us all what fickle, trendy conformists metal fans can be by taking a stroll down memory lane and recalling vintage popular opinion of a few of your pet bands (hint: it wasn’t good!).

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Like anybody else who writes about music and has a publicly-visible email address, I received a press release earlier this week boasting about deathcore pioneers Bring Me The Horizon’s “gutsy” new video. In this post, I will share my thoughts on this video, which are as follows:

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A reader who wishes only to be known as “Chew” sent an e-mail with the subject line, “My awesome cover of a Devil Wears Prada song.”

So, needless to say, I was intrigued. Either Chew doesn’t read MetalSucks and therefore doesn’t understand how much we loathe TDWP, or else he was being a sarcastic asshole. Which I can certainly appreciate.

So I opened the e-mail, and the message read, “you should post this, its fucking awesome and great.” And contained a link to the below video.

I’m still not sure if this dude was being sarcastic or not.

-AR

First things first: screamo is literally worse than the Holocaust in my book. With a few notable exceptions, I absolutely cannot stand this shit. That said, with bands like The Devil Wears Prada and Underoath selling out huge venues, putting out platinum-selling albums, and selling truckloads of cookie-cutter merch to every angsty suburban teen within driving distance of a Hot Topic, it’s hard not to pay attention to the genre. I might not like it, but Kids These Days certainly do. My biggest question: Where the fuck did this shit come from??

As someone who saw the birth of metalcore and “true screamo”/skramz firsthand in the 90s, I am highly confused when I listen to these bands. On the one hand, they are not so different from anything that could have been on Victory or Indecision in the 90s (Earth Crisis, All Out War, Bloodlet). Obviously there are some things that have changed over time, but the fundamentals of metalcore are still there (see my post “The 5 Kinds Of Music Teens Are Into” for more details). On the other hand, the kids in Alesana, August Burns Red, and possibly even As I Lay Dying have no fucking idea who those pioneering metalcore bands are, much less that screamy vocals were born in the tiny basement shows and vegan bakesales of the 90s DIY hardcore scene.

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Every time you feel the need to bitch about tours like Ozzfest, The Cool Tour, or any other summer package-fest-thinger, just close your eyes, take a deep breath, and tell yourself: suffering is relative. Yes, those tours might not have the strongest line-ups imaginable, but they do have good bands on them, and things could be way, way worse.

For example: The “Scream Like You Mean It” tour, which will feature Silverstein, I Set My Friends on Fire, Dance Gavin Dance, and a bunch of other bands I don’t actually know but I think I can safely assume are pretty awful. (If a band called “Ivoryline” actually turns out to be any good, then I will fuck my sister. Wait, I don’t have a sister. Okay, I’ll fuck your sister, then. Your sister.) The Sayreville, NJ stop of the tour will even throw in The Devil Wears Prada, Miss May I, and Your Demise, just to make extra-sure that you never ever wanna go to this fucking tour, ever.

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The Metal Sucks staff may have more “-stein” and “-berg” surnames than the trading floor of a Wall Street investment bank, but I know Axl and Vince are open to exploring the entire spectrum of global faiths. I am sure we can also agree that music is the one common thread that unites all of us, so what better way to learn about Jesus Christ than through my favorite thing: BREAKDOWNS!

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I am going to assume that a decent portion of the followers of this site are themselves musicians with bands of their own. That is generally how it goes with metal. There are seamless lines blurred between the “fans” and the “bands” because, like myself, many metal patrons represent both categories. Without this large sector of musician fans, technically proficient bands that cater directly to this base (like Dream Theater, Meshuggah, and Necrophagiast) would be much less successful. So to those musicians, I would like to use this blog to shine a light on one of the harsh truths in all music and entertainment that many musicians choose to ignore -

Image matters a lot in this industry. In fact, it’s probably just as important as the music.
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UPDATE! From Phil LaBonte’s Twitter account:

So it sounds like Howard is just sick. Thanks to Matthew Fieger for letting us know!

Original story after the jump:

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Rather than interview Dark Tranquillity frontman Mikael Stanne ourselves or have the Monkeys whip up a few questions on their typewriters, we figured we’d extend an invitation to our faithful Suckalos. After all, DT’s new album We Are the Void drops March 9th so surely there are some burning questions on your mind. Such as:

• What can we expect from the new album?
• What are your feelings on touring with bands as varied as Killswitch Engage and The Devil Wears Prada?
• Why do you do that funny little bob with your head when you sing?

Now’s your chance to have your questions answered by Mikael himself. Simply leave your queries in the comments, we’ll sift through and pick a few of our favorites, and he’ll answer them on MetalSucks in due time.

This guy’s actually not terrible. I mean, he’s not great, and his choice of songs to cover is extremely questionable, but the guy’s low growls are pretty good.

For all the shit we give people who post vocal covers on YouTube — and some them of them are downright awful jokes obviously posted in self-parody while some of them just plain blow — the majority of them are just kids honest-to-goodness trying to express themselves. And the coolest part is that [some] people actually offer legit criticism in the YouTube comments. Like in this video and another one by the same dude, people tend to agree that his low growls are good but his high growls need work. It’s neat to see some positive reinforcement on the Internet from time to time. I’ll bet this kid goes and practices his high growls and improves them greatly in the coming months… and who knows, some day he might front a great metal band. Even if he never goes any farther than covering August Burns Red and The Devil Wears Prada, it stands to reason that some percentage of kids doing these YouTube covers will go on to be members of popular metal bands. It’s scary, but true.

-VN

[Thanks: Patrick Greene]

The below video is a collection of the “Best Keyboard/Synthesizer Breakdowns of All Time.” I saw it today on Sergeant D’s Stuff You Will Hate, which is certainly living up to its name. Because, y’know, I always thought “Gee, totally generic breakdowns could really use some irritating keyboards.”

A couple of good groups, like Horse the Band and Veil of Maya, seem to have snuck their way onto the list, but by and large, this stuff is just as terrible as you’d think. And let’s all thank the guy who made this for not even being able to come up with ten different bands to include – Born of Osiris and HTB are both on here twice.

Also, does The Devil Wears Prada really have a song called “Dogs Can Grow Beards All Over?” ‘Cause that would be an adorable sentiment coming from a three year old. A Christian metalcore band, not so much.

-AR