UPDATE: Yep, this is official. An industry insider just sent us the details. It will be 12-song CD/78 minute DVD set, featuring Crack The Skye in its entirety, plus performances of songs from Blood Mountain and Leviathan. It will also contain a live cover of ‘The Bit’ by Melvins. Get stoked!!!

Well, this is interesting. You may recall that back in 2009, Mastodon announced that they were recording their performance at Chicago, Illinois’ Aragon Ballroom, presumably for a future live release; now Interpunk.com says that release has a title, the very creative and potentially misleading Live at The Aragon, and a release date of March 15.

Click to read more…

Yep, we talked a lot of smack on Joey Belladonna this week, much to the chagrin of, well, an awful lot of you. I think we’re done for a little while… but I can’t make any promises. Our job at MetalSucks is to amuse ourselves first and foremost, and, well, we thought it was pretty damned funny. So ppppfffftttt.

Here’s what else went down this week:

• We debuted the title track from Nachtmystium’s new album, Addicts.
• Genetic’s Dallas Coyle called us “influential,” Disfear’s Tomas Lindberg shared some Maryland Deathfest memories, The Austerity Program’s Justin Foley unveiled his top four Taco Riffs, Cynic’s Paul Masvidal got burglarized, As I Lay Dying’s Nick Hipa made some new revelations about L O S T, God Forbid’s Doc Coyle worried about turning into an old geezer, Daath’s Eyal Levi gave us a lesson in stage etiquette, and Batillus’ Geoff Summers gave us a new studio update.
• We spoke to The Melvins’ Buzz Osborne, Periphery’s Misha “Bulb” Mansoor, Testament’s Chuck Billy, and Sick of it All’s Lou Koller.
• We checked out new releases by Korn and Ufomammut and Year of No Light.
• Is Mastodon’s Brent Hinds a Mastodick?
• Sergeant D sez Cunthunt777 are your new favorite band.
• Don’t worry, baby, Dr. Danzig gonna cure what ails you.
• Hot chick loves Nergal, hates the Bible.
• Boy oh boy, do we love the new Limp Bizkit cover art!
• If you’re looking for new band members, don’t do this.

Alright. We’re gonna go get drunk and crank We’ve Come For You All in John Bush’s honor. Have a great weekend, everyone.

-AR

I’ve had some family shit distracting me this week, but there’s really no excuse for the fact that I somehow completely missed the debut of a new song by uber-supergroup Shrinebuilder. Entitled “Pyramid of the Moon” and streaming right here, it is just seven-plus minutes of sheer excellence.

Click to read more…

It is with a heavy, cholesterol-afflicted heart that I report the news that Big Business has posted a new song to their Myspace page that kinda sorta sucks.

Click to read more…

Shrinebuilder, the project that features in equal measure Wino (St, Vitus, Hidden Hand), Scott Kelly (Neurosis), Al Cisneros (Om, Sleep), and Dale Crover (Melvins), will be in the studio with Toshi Kasai (Melvins, Big Business) from January 9th through January 11th, according to a press release sent exclusively to MetalSucks by the band’s publicist. Shrinebuilder’s debut full-length is set for a summer 2009 release on Neurot Recordings.

Scott Kelly has announced that he will report live from the studio via http://www.weburnthroughthenight.blogspot.com beginning no later than Saturday, January 10th.  Look for guest blogs by other members of Shrinebuilder as well as possible in-studio photos from the band.

-VN

Okay, I’m going to come right out and say this but I don’t want it to deter you from exploring what I’m about to describe; Capricorns are a band from London who invariably fall into the doom/sludge category.

Wait! Don’t run away. Seriously, you should keep reading this time and I’ll even make it brief. While they’ve been labeled as such, Capricorns are so much more than your typical Neurosis knock-off. I really think they’re the sort of act that could change your mind about this style of music. The reason? Capricorns don’t wallow in dragging time signatures and brooding, growly vocals. In fact their latest effort, River, Bear Your Bones is completely instrumental. Thematically it explores the band’s own feelings toward living in close proximity to the great Thames river and “the London Towne that spreads from its banks like a concrete cancer.” Musically it has the hardcore edge of the best Black Flag material, the crushingly melodic undertones of a band like the Melvins and the sort of complexity in arrangement that made for the most memorable and engaging moments in Black Sabbath’s mid-to-late Seventies material. They’ve become a staple on Lee Dorian’s now 20 year old Rise Above Records label and have won over the admiration of many industry giants.

Click to read more…

Honestly, it didn’t start off this way, but pretty early on in handcrafting my latest installment of Scraping Genius Off The Wheel I realized that I was heavy on the Melvins-related content. So I said to myself, “Self, you should go all Osbourne-Crover on these pliable blog-suckling rubes! It’ll be like Six Degrees Of Kevin Bacon, except skip the part about movies and just start cookin’ with fatback on the griddle! Full English Breakfast!!!” I concurred that the idea was “brilliant” and then gave myself a sensual massage that went too far. So, out of the pan and into the fire, here’s your Melvins news.

Click to read more…

I’ve taken on the thankless assignment of the noise rock beat for Metalsucks and I couldn’t be happier to share my undying love for this savage and atonal subgenre with all you closeted Disturbed fans. From vile legends like Big Black and Helmet to beady-eyed upstarts Pissed Jeans and The Austerity Program, I’m your man; shabbily attired, inconveniently hirsute and altogether uncouth. (I briefly considered taking on a Hebraic pseudonym, as is customary here, but opted against it despite my own Word Jumble of a heritage. For the record, it would have been Moishe Milquetoast.)

Let this first installment of Scraping Genius Off The Wheel (get the reference, win a freaking door prize) serve to remind you all that while the inglorious glory days of Amphetamine Reptile and Touch & Go lie behind us, we socially awkward and hideously acned admirers of this type of music still have plenty to get excited and inappropriately erect over.

Click to read more…

Happy Memorial Day to our U.S. readers, and we hope you’re enjoying your day off by stuffing yourselves silly with grilled meat and beer.

Mike Patton has done a hell of a lot of weird shit over the past decade, but as far as I’m concerned Tomahawk has been his best (read: most Faith No More-like) output since Faith No More. Tomahawk has consistently been his rockingest project to date, featuring a metal pedigee of Jesus Lizard/Hank Williams III guitarist Duane Denison, former Helmet drummer John Stanier, and Melvins bassist Kevin Rutmanis. And this song, from 2003′s Joe Barresi-produced Mit Gas, came closest to equaling the sound and ethos of latter day Faith No More.

Tomahawk – “Captain Midnight”

-VN