The Faceless have been confirmed for Summer Slaughter 2012. That’s not shocking news, seeing as the band — like the fest’s previously announced co-headliners, Cannibal Corpse and Between the Buried and Me — have been rumored to be participating in the tour for three weeks now.

But it is still good news! Anyone who complains about a show where they’ll get to see Cannibal Corpse, BTBAM, and The Faceless should be hit in the head with a Halestorm album. Plus, there’s still at least seven other bands still to be announced; assuming the rumors continue to be true, those will include Job For A Cowboy, Veil of Maya, and Hate Eternal, all of whom are also awesome. And Vince and I got word of yet ANOTHER great band set to be on the tour over the weekend. So, yeah, everyone is going to this.

The next band will be officially announced on Sunday via the Summer Slaughter Facebook page.

-AR

Back in May we got all excitebike about the new band formed by Sacha Dunable (Intronaut/Graviton/MetalSucks columnist),  Charles Elliott (Abysmal Dawn), Derek Rydquist (ex-The Faceless), and Derek Donley (National Sunday Law/Graviton), called Bewilderbiest. Then in September they announced they’d changed their name to Bereft and released their first song, causing our helpless minds to swell with heated anticipation.

Now Bereft have announced a record deal with The End Records, which is great news because it also comes with an album name and release date for that album. The debut album Leichenhaus (“Mortuary” in German) is a conceptual album thematically revolving around a waiting mortuary (!), and it’s due on April 24th. You can be SURE you’ll be hearing more about it on MetalSucks as the date draws closer.

Check out the previously released track “Withered Efflorescence” here.

-VN

The rumors are true: Cannibal Corpse and Between the Buried and Me will co-headline this year’s edition of the Summer Slaughter festour. BTBAM and The Corpse obviously play very, very different forms of death metal, but they’re both great. It’s hard to imagine any metal fan who isn’t a total fun-hating grump not being excited about this bill.

None of the other rumored acts — which include The Faceless, Job For A Cowboy, Veil of Maya, and Hate Eternal — have been confirmed yet, and, as Lambgoat reports in a tone I very much appreciate, “Unfortunately, it looks like the Summer Slaughter people are going to string this out, with remaining participants to be announced each Sunday (one-by-one) via Facebook.” The past two Summer Slaughters have featured ten bands apiece, so we should know the full line-up by the end of March.

In any case, between this and the solid line-up Mayhem Fest has put together this year, it looks like it could be a really fun summer…

-AR

Oh. Fuck. YES.

MetalSucks and Dead End Threads are proud to present what has to be not one, but really two of the sickest, most brutal tours of the new year. From February 26 to March 3, death metal legends Dying Fetus are hitting the road with death metal legends-in-the-making Job for a Cowboy and Volumes, plus Last Chance to Reason, one of the most exciting up and coming young prog acts on the scene today. That’s a line-up so solid you’d need a jackhammer to break it. And while you might be bummed to learn that Job for a Cowboy leave the tour after that, not one but two bands will be hopping on to make up for their absence: tech-death spacelords The Faceless and one of the most evil bands ever spawned, the mighty fucking Goatwhore.

So, like we were saying:

Oh. Fuck. YES.

These shows are gonna be beyond insane. Like, a make-sure-all-your-affairs-are-in-order level of nuts. You absolutely cannot miss these bands when they come to your town. So get dates after the jump!!!

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Photo by Jeff Chan

Those poor metalcore Massholes in Unearth have been without a drummer since parting ways with Derek Kerswill back in 2010 — although, to their credit, they did make the best of a bad situation, recruiting Killswitch Engage/Blood Has Been Shed skinsman Justin Foley to sit in on last year’s Darkness in the Light. But now a press release tells us they’ve finally found their man to take the gig full-time:

“Nick Pierce is a self taught drummer who’s been playing since age 10. He grew up playing for local bands in the Seattle/Tacoma area (Culling the Weak, Eterna Nocturna, Embalmed) as well as LA based band The Faceless. Nick first sat in behind the kit for Unearth in May of 2011 during their two show trip to Alaska. Unearth discovered Pierce on YouTube where he had been covering Unearth songs, among many other bands, on a series of videos on his YouTube channel.”

Man, I do love that musicians can legitimately find one another through the internet. Seriously, I think it’s great that internet can make us one big community, able to communicate across vast spaces in miniscule amounts of time with people who share common interests and life philosophies. It’s a really beautiful thing. In fact, besides the endless sea of free porn, it’s my second favorite thing about the internet.

But I digress.

After the jump, check out two videos of Pierce in action: one of him performing “Watch it Burn” with his new band, and an eight-minute solo for all you drum nerds out there. Enjoy…

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Out of all of the big summer package tours, Summer Slaughter has easily become our favorite; it’s so much fun every year that we’re even willing to forgive the to-be-expected presence of some bands we can’t stand (e.g., Oceano, As Blood Runs Black, etc.), because the rest of the line-up built around them is usually so fantastic that having a few built-in beer breaks isn’t the worst thing in the world (as opposed to some of SS’s competitors, where the beer-break-to-cool-band ratio makes the whole endeavor just not worth it). So, yeah, we’re on the edge of our seats to see who makes it onto the bill this year.

To that end, prog metal social network czar Alkahest of Heavy Blog has done it once again, today with some pretty juicy rumors about the lineup for Summer Slaughter 2012.

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Today is seemingly “news about albums that are coming out in early 2012″ day. To that end:

• Soilwork are writing a new album called The Living Infinite. Generic quote time: Speed Strid says that “people can expect a continuation of the intensity and presence of The Panic Broadcast, only taken to a higher level” and wishes us all a merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Gee, thanks, Speed!
• Gojira have issued their third studio update video, this one showing bassist Jean-Michel Labadie laying down his tracks. Labadie is the member of Gojira I feel like I know the least about; I’d love to get to know that guy! Gojira are presumably all done or close to done recording their album by now… very exciting.
• Lamb of God released a new trailer for their new album Resolution (January 24th, Epic Records), and it features a good chunk of a previously unheard song. Check it out above, and listen to the first single “Ghost Walking” here if you haven’t yet.

Hey, so remember last week when we told you this year’s Metal Alliance Tour* featuring DevilDriver, The Faceless, Dying Fetus, Job For A Cowboy, 3 Inches of Blood, and Impending Doom? Well, the full tour itinerary has been released, so now you can, like, go n’ shit. I don’t really know what else there is to say about this tour… it’s such a killer line-up, I’m just stoked to go.

Here are the dates, courtesy of Lambgoat:

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Last year’s first annual Metalliance Tour had a sweet line-up — Helmet, St. Vitus, Crowbar, Kylesa, Red Fang, Howl, and The Atlas Moth — and it’s looking like this year’s edition will as well… although, holy tonal shift Batman, y’know? According to Lambgoat, the bill this year will consist of Devildriver, The Faceless, Dying Fetus, Job For A Cowboy, 3 Inches of Blood, and Impending Doom, six bands who are obviously way, way different from the groups that played last year.

But who cares? There’s literally only bad band on the bill — Impending Doom — and if they play first, they’ll be easy to miss anyway. The rest of this bill is a total beast.

Only a few dates have gotten out so far, but more are sure to follow. So, for now:

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UPDATE, 12:08 P.M.: The band’s new single, “Carbon-Based Anatomy,” is now avail for free download here!!! Thanks to The PRP for gettin’ the scoop!!!

Ever since we announced Cynic would headline Night 2 of The Metal Suckfest we’ve been seing a bunch of emails and comments wondering just who exactly would be playing bass and second guitar in the band’s live lineup since bassist Robin Zielhorst and guitarist Tymon Kruidenier (both of Dutch fusion metal outfit Exivious) parted ways with Cynic in December 2010. Truth is we didn’t even know ourselves, but we figured Paul Masvidal and Sean Reinert would find suitable replacements in time; and, of course, they have.

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We got all hot n’ bothered back in May, when Derek Rydquist (ex-The Faceless), Sacha Dunable (Intronaut/Graviton/MetalSucks columnist),  Charles Elliott (Abysmal Dawn), and Derek Donley (National Sunday Law/Graviton) announced the formation of a new project, Bewilderbiest. But now we’re even MORE hot n’ bothered to learn that not only has the band changed their name to a less schticky moniker, Bereft, but have also debuted a new song, “Withered Efflorescence,” on their Facebook page (“like” required).

The song is positively crushing, and, you should be happy to learn, sounds nothing like any of the bands of which these musicians have previously been members. It’s a long, slow, heavy-as-Dino-giving-Milano-a-piggy-back-ride doom number, which makes the band’s new name seem all the more fitting. Here’s a comment on the tune from Mr. Elliott himself:

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The Faceless are back in the studio recording their follow-up to 2008′s genre-expanding Planetary Duality — with the way bands release “studio videos” after the fact these days the album could even be in the can by now — providing new bassist Evan Brewer with his first opportunity to put his sick low-end skillz down on tape for his new band.

Not deterred one bit by guitarist/producer/mixer/band-mastermind (and #12 on our Top 25 Modern Metal Guitarists list!) Michael Keene’s past propensity to bury the bass in the mix below a volume level perceptible by humans, Brewer’s doing his damndest to prove that bass is worth hearing, darnit (as if his recently released solo album Alone didn’t already make a pretty good case). Here’s the most recent Faceless studio update video, in which Brewer discusses finding the right bass equipment and tone:

Hopefully we can expect the album to be released in early 2012. In the meantime, enjoy “The Eidolon Reality,” a pre-pro track the band posted a couple of months back, after the jump:

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Pretty slow week in metal releases, seeing just some new releases from Queensryche, the bass player from The Faceless, and also some band called Limp Bizkit. Details on this week’s latest metallic offerings after the jump!

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I’ve been curious to hear Evan Brewer’s Alone ever since I heard the bassist discussing his intentions for the album — how “every sound you hear on the album came from a bass guitar,” because the bass is still a “young” instrument, and he wants to explore its potential, and so on and so forth. That sounds really interesting, right?

Well, now, finally, less than a week before the release of the record, there’s a track from Alone called “Vertigo” streaming online, and… yep, that’s what a bass all by itself sounds like.

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We all already knew that Evan Brewer is a great bass player. But I started to get really, really excited for his new solo album, Alone, after Brewer revealed last month that he’s the only musician to appear on his album, and that “every sound you hear on the album came from a bass guitar.” ‘Cause that sounds like some potentially really interesting, crazy shit.

Now a nearly-two-minute-long teaser for the album has been released, giving us our first real taste of music. The actual song sounds okay — maybe a little too smoove for my own personal tastes, but I’m a cranky old man who just wants to listen to Cannibal Corpse so whatever — but I could really live without that robot voice thinger. I hope that fucker isn’t on the album too much, ’cause that shit could get real irritating real fast.

Evan Brewer’s Alone comes out on Sumerian on June 28. Brewer then heads out on tour with Animals as Leaders, Intronaut, Dead Letter Circus, and Last Chance to Reason, which is a sweet, sweet-ass line-up. Here are tour dates:

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No Clean Singing are totally killing it lately with interviews lately. Last month’s interview with Nachtmystium was a quality piece of journalism in which Blake Judd candidly shared his feelings about drug use, his record label, haters and more. The latest is a one-on-one with The Faceless mainman Michael Keene (recipient of a #12 ranking in our Top 25 Modern Metal Guitarists list!), in which the talented guitarist/singer/producer gives some juicy quotes, including what the new album will sound like and how it feels to be the odd band out on Sumerian Records.

First thing’s first, new album tawk:

Talking of the new album, is there anything you’d like to share about it? You’ve previewed one song (“The Eidolon Reality”) already, so do you know what sort of direction, musically or lyrically, the rest of it is going to go in?

MK: Musically I think the new song that we posted, the pre-production track, is probably a pretty good indication of the musical directions, stylistically. Although I definitely think the album’s going to be a bit more… a bit broader… than anything we’ve done before.

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When Evan Brewer announced the impending release of a solo album last month, Vince rightfully pointed out that “The market for these kinds of acts is limited — extremely limited, especially for a bass player.” And I would wager that the market for a solo album from a bass player featuring no other instruments besides the bass is even more limited.

But by golly, I hope I’m wrong, ’cause apparently that’s what Brewer made: not only is the former Animosity/current The Faceless bassist the only musician to appear on his album, appropriately titled Alone, but “every sound you hear on the album came from a bass guitar,” according to the interview with Brewer in the below promotional video. And in the hands of the wrong musician, that kind of gambit could obviously be a total fucking disaster, but Brewer… well, not only is a top-notch bassist, but his motivations for recording such an album sound really fascinating and forward-thinking. We may not know if the record is actually gonna be good or not until Sumerian releases it on June 8, but we do know that Brewer is trying to do something different, and that’s always commendable.

Meanwhile, remember that awesome tour Brewer is doing this summer with Animals as Leaders, Intronaut, Dead Letter Circus, and Last Chance to Reason, and how only some of the tour dates had been released? Well, now we have more dates! So if a town near you wasn’t in the first batch, don’t freak out just yet.

Here’s the new itinerary, courtesy The PRP:

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With every bit of bad news come a little bit of good. Last week we suspected and then confirmed that Derek Rydquist had left The Faceless, who are quickly becoming the White Wizzard of progressive death metal, but that he had joined a new project called Bewilderbiest alongside Sacha Dunable of Intronaut/Graviton, Abysmal Dawn’s Charles Elliot, and National Sunday Law’s Derek Donley, who is also Dunable’s bandmate in Graviton. Since Dunable also happens to be a MetalSucks columnist, we emailed him and asked for the skinny on the band. Here’s what we got back:

Derek Donley is mixing it right now and we should be ready to post something in a week or two.  This shit is sounding heavy as fuck, but I’m sure it won’t be for everyone, especially the tech death guys.  It’s basically 45 minutes of crushing doom metal in the vein of old My Dying Bride, Anathema, etc, but maybe a little more “sludgy” sounding and probably with more of a melodic/psychadelic emphasis.  We’re all really stoked on it though.  I basically have had a few of these songs demoed out for an imaginary band for a few years now, and Derek D and I started working on them back in January.  Derek Rydquist was moving down to LA around that time and wanted to jam on something like this, and Charles has been on deck to do guitar/vocals ever since I first demoed the songs back in ’08 or so.

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So in case you haven’t been following all the drama with The Faceless this week, here’s a quick run-down of recent events:

• I noticed that recent tour videos of The Faceless in Europe featured the band performing with a vocalist who is not Derek Rydquist.
• Rob Pasbani from Metal Injection hit up Rydquist for a comment, and Ryquist basically didn’t deny that he’s out of the band.

And now Rydquist has released a statement to Lambgoat officially announcing his departure… which isn’t shocking news following the other events, but I guess it’s good to have some closure.

Rydquist’s statement, and what little we know about the band’s new vocalist, after the jump.

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MetalSucks recently polled its staff to determine who are The Top 25 Modern Metal Guitarists, and after an incredible amount of arguing, name calling, and physical violence, we have finalized that list! The only requirements to be eligible for the list were that the musician in question had to a) play metal (duh), b) play guitar (double-duh), and c) have recorded something in the past five years. Today we continue our countdown with The Faceless’ Michael Keene…

If Michael Keene ends up being the defining metal guitarist of his generation, no one should be surprised. His work is certainly far beyond a label as simple as “Sumeriancore,” even if The Faceless are are at the top of the Sumerian heap. Fact is, Keene is a metal dork’s wet dream — he’s a ridiculously good guitar player, a ridiculously good producer, and a ridiculously good songwriter, and his output is always proggy and challenging but fun, heavy as an orgy whose participants are all suffering from gigantism, and shreddy in just right the measure.

In other words: if Michael Keene’s only goal in life is induce envy and orgasms in metal fans and musicians everywhere, well, he has thus far succeeded and then some.

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