I am an ignorant slut.

Even though both Ryan Butler and Matt Martinez from Landmine Marathon put Vastum’s Carnal Law on their 2011 year-end lists, and even though MetalSucks’ own Satan Rosenbloom was strongly considering the album for his own list, and even though Corey Mitchell… well, actually, Corey thought it was “meh.” But he “almost thought” it was good, so that’s something!

And yet, I never checked out Carnal Law until this afternoon, when Brad Fickeisen, former drummer for The Red Chord, recommended it to me via Twitter.

For shame, Axl. For shame. Carnal Law is ugly, raw death metal, but what sets it apart is the pace and the quality of the riffs. Everything — including the guitar solos, which are never unstructured King/Hanneman stuff — is catchy as hell, and played at a… well, maybe not quite an elephants marching speed, but certainly an elephants galloping speed. The combination of these two elements pretty much ensures that, yes, you will be bouncing your head in time with the music. Seriously. Don’t try to fight it — you’ll lose.

Vastum’s Carnal Law is out now on 20 Buck Spin. You can stream and/or purchase the entire thing here. The cost of legally downloading the album is $6.66, which should really be the cost of all heavy metal mp3 downloads from now on.

In the event you’re too lazy to click a fucking link, here’s “Devoid,” the track which Brad recommended, and which sold me on the whole thing in the first place.

Also, if you’re not already, you should be following Brad Fickeisen on Twitter.

-AR

photo by Chris Fulcher

Stomach Earth
TBA
Label – Black Market Activities
Release – TBA

Like most of the world, I have only heard two minutes and nineteen seconds of music from Stomach Earth, in the form of an excerpt of a rough version of the track “Prolong the Death Watch” (listen here). And yet the one-man band’s debut is easily one of my most highly anticipated releases of 2012, and not just because that aforementioned two-plus-minutes sounds killer.

No no no, my excitement about Stomach Earth is almost entirely due to my sincere belief that the project’s mastermind is, well, a master mind. Because that mind belongs to Mike “Gunface” McKenzie, who, as a founding member and (now sole) guitarist for The Red Chord, has brought us some of the most innovative and exciting extreme music of the past ten years.

Click to read more…

Total bummer: no new album from The Red Chord this year, despite their fact that their last effort, Fed Through the Teeth Machine – my personal favorite release of 2009 – came out more than two years ago. But semi-redemption: the band still managed to play a string of killer shows (including one of my favorite sets of the weekend at The Metal Suckfest), and have apparently been demoing material for their next offering… forty-nine seconds of which they’ve made available via the below video.

The audio quality is miserable, even by demo standards — it seems like someone turned the volume way down — but what I can make out sounds, well, evil, chunky, intimdating… in other words, like awesome new music from The Red Chord. Fingers crossed this means we get a new TRC album sometime in 2012.

-AR

[via The PRP]

The first time I ever heard the term “panterdactyl” was in this interview that Metal Injection conducted with The Red Chord’s Guy Kozowyk back in 2008. Kozowyk was referring to that kind of wiggerish hand movement that some bands/fan indulge in… I dunno really know how to describe it, but it’s that thing where people kinda raise their arm in the air, bend the arm, and move their hand up and down in time with the music, if that makes sense. Think about Koko B. Ware and you’ll get the idea. You’ve definitely seen frontmen do it before.

ANYWAY, as I learned via our friend Mark Vieira on Twitter today, there actually is a band in Los Angeles called Panteradactyl. On their Facebook page, they describe themselves in this simple manner: “We dress up like dinosaurs and play Pantera songs.” And they’re not kidding. Look:

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We had a blast at The Metal Suckfest in NYC last weekend, but don’t worry if you couldn’t make it; earlier this week we shared Justina Villanueva’s photos from Night 1 (featuring Municipal Waste, God Forbid, Today is the Day and more) and today we’ve got Mariel “Tormentia” Pietrykoski’s photos from Night 2. After the jump, relive all the glorious metal brought down upon us by Cynic, Obscura, The Red Chord, 3, A Life Once Lost, Scale the Summit, Last Chance to Reason, Fight Amp, Rosetta and Ultrageist on Night 2.

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The Metal Suckfest is this weekend!!! And in case you’re not familiar with, or are somehow not sold on, the twenty incredible bands we’ve booked to play THE party of the year, we have scoured YouTube for recent live footage of ALL the artists playing the fest… so you can have a little taste of the madness we have in store for ya! You can see clips from all the bands playing on Friday, November 4 here; and check out clips of all the bands playing on Saturday, November 5 below.

And don’t forget: TODAY and TODAY ONLY, ALL TICKETS TO THE METAL SUCKFEST ARE JUST $25 EACH with no added fees, regardless of whether you buy tickets online, or just walk up to the box office at the Gramercy Theatre. So if you don’t already have your tickets, make sure you take advantage!!!

And now, without further ado, enjoy concert footage of all the bands playing Day Two of The Metal Suckfest!

CYNIC

More after the jump!

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Behold Plant Vochestra, the best metal side-project since Ladder Up An Ass!

Like Ladder Up An Ass, Plant Vochestra also happens to feature two of the lovable goons in The Red Chord, along with Between the Buried and Me vocalist Tommy Rogers. The Red Chord played a hometown one-off at the opening date of the Saints and Sinners tour featuring BTBAM this past weekend, setting up the glorious return of this legendary yet reclusive band. Performing live for the first time in several years, Plant Vochestra treated the audience to a wonderful set of the dazzling musicianship and vocal acrobatics you’d expect from a trio consisting of Rogers, Greg Weeks and Mike “Gunface” McKenzie. Courtesy of Metal Injection, here’s their big hit “Surf’s Up Dude.”

-VN

Photo by Chris Fulcher

The Inaugural Metal Suckfest is almost here!!!! Twenty bands will DESTROY The Gramercy Theatre on November 4 and 5, PLUS there’s an awesome, five-band pre-party at the venue the night before, making this THE can’t-miss hang of the year.

Tickets are on sale now right here, and you can hit up the fest’s official website for more info on the shows, including the complete line-up. In the meantime, we’re counting down to this weekend of chaos and debauchery by speaking to one member from each band on the bill. We continue today with guitarist Mike “Gunface” McKenzie of The Red Chord, whose most recent release, Fed Through the Teeth Machine, came out in 2009 via Metal Blade.

Read our chat after the jump. And don’t forget to check back in the coming days and weeks for interviews with more of the musicians participating in this awesome event!!!

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photo by Chris Fulcher

Here’s some cool news: Mike “Gunface” McKenzie, guitarist for experimental grind gods The Red Chord, has apparently been working on a solo project. It’s called Stomach Earth — no, I have no clue what that means — and a rough, unmastered excerpt of a new song, “Prolong the Death Watch,” is already available for streaming here.

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That’s right! Tickets for The Metal Suckfest — the two day festival with a line-up so ridiculously awesome we can’t believe we actually put this thing together — are ON SALE RIGHT NOW.

You can buy tickets to Day 1 (November 4) or Day 2 (November 5) individually for thirty bucks a pop — that’s just three dollars per band!!! — or, for your best value, buy a THREE DAY PASS! for seventy-five bucks.

“Wait, there’s a THIRD day?” you ask. That’s right! On November 3, the night before the fest officially kicks off, we’re hosting The Metal Suckfest Pre-Game, which will be headlined by legendary black metallers Mayhem and will also feature Keep of Kalessin, Hate, Abigail Williams, and Woe. Individual tickets to that show cost twenty-five dollars, but with your Metal Suckfest 3 Day Pass, you get a ten dollar discount. Pretty sweet, eh?

So GO BUY TICKETS NOW. The full line-up is after the jump, in case you forgot… do not forget that four more bands are still yet to be announced!!!

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Click to enlarge the ridiculously sweet poster art by Rodney Githens from Vertebrae 33 and Metal Band Art

When we first announced The Metal Suckfest, we promised you that it was NOT just a bunch of tours already-in-progress, routed so that they all converge for one event. That it was NOT just bands that all sound alike and one would normally expect to find on the same bill. That it would be a wholly unique concert in which some truly incredible artists are coming together JUST to play THIS ONE SINGLE EVENT.

And now you know — we weren’t lying.

We are SO PROUD to announce the line-up for the inaugural Metal Suckfest, which will take place November 4 and November 5 at The Gramercy Theatre in Manhattan. As you can see, the bands range from thrash to death to grind to prog to noise rock to NWOAHM to stoner to we don’t even know what you call it, but they all have one thing in common — they are all fucking awesome, and they are all 110% MetalSucks approved. This fest is gonna be so great, we keep having to pinch ourselves to make sure it’s real.

Tickets go on sale Friday at LiveNation.com at 10 am. 12 noon. We’ll be announcing the final four bands on the bill shortly, but trust us — you don’t wanna wait to get your ticket.

Here’s the rest of the line-up:

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4
Municipal Waste
God Forbid
Today is the Day
This is Hell
Howl
Black Tusk
Magrudergrind
All Pigs Must Die
Ramming Speed
Prime Evil

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 5
Cynic
Obscura
The Red Chord
3
A Life Once Lost
Scale the Summit
Last Chance to Reason
Fight Amp
Rosetta
Ultrageist

-Vince, Axl, and Everyone at MetalSucks

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

Justin M. Norton over at Invisible Oranges has been killing it this week. Yesterday, he wrote a really great piece about entitled “Why Ghost Matters,” which you should definitely check out, especially if, for some reason, you’re still not convinced that those Swedes are the real deal; now, he’s unveiled his list of the Top 10 Metal Lyricists, which, I imagine, will cause exactly the kind of shit storm that makes the internet so damn fun in the first place.

And, hey, I don’t agree with all of his inclusions (although I certainly agree with some of ‘em, like one Mr. J.R. Hayes from Pig Destroyer). But, again, the debate is what’s so much fun about these kinds of things. Lists don’t really “mean” anything — they’re just the opinions of one individual or a group of individuals. But what’s great about them is that they get people thinking; even if you disagree with the choices, you have to figure out a way to articulate exactly why you disagree with the choices, to hopefully come up with a retort more sophisticated than “You’re wrong and you’re a douche for disagreeing with me.” (Although, clearly, some internetters fall back on that “reasoning,” too.)

Check out Norton’s list here, then come back and let us know who your own favorite metal lyricists are in our comments section. Two of my personal poetic heroes who I think definitely deserve to be on this list: Tool’s Maynard James Keenan and The Red Chord’s Guy Kozowyk. How about you cats?

-AR

We really cannot wait to share with you the entire lineup of the inaugural Metal Suckfest, our very own metal festival in New York City featuring 20 bands over the course of two full days; you will like, very, very much!

Last week we unveiled Cynic and Municipal Waste as the headliners. You’re gonna have to wait a little longer to see what the entire bill will look like, but for now you can get a sneak peak via the sleuths at Brooklyn Vegan. First they noticed a post on The Red Chord‘s Facebook page announcing themselves and Obscura on the same day as Cynic, and then they got a tip from a reader that Rosetta will be playing that very same day. All true; we can’t deny it.

November 5th: Cynic, Obscura, The Red Chord, Rosetta + 6 TBA
November 4th: Municipal Waste + 9 TBA

Stay tuned for the rest of the lineup.

I pride myself on being open minded, so it is very important to me that I consider both sides of an issue before I decide what I think about something! For example, I have always thought that “melodic metal” was a very confusing idea. To me, melody and metal are like oil and water: no common ground. In fact, I have always thought of them as polar opposites — it was always my basic rule that if a song is melodic, then it is by definition not metal.

That said, I know that not everybody feels the same about this as I do, so I thought that I should look into this issue a little more. I don’t like to make snap judgments, so in the interest of intellectual honestly I intend to take a FAIR AND BALANCED LOOK at MELODY IN METAL! In this post, I will share a few examples of both successful and unsuccessful uses of melody and let YOU be the judge — WE REPORT, YOU DECIDE!

You tell me: is there a place for melody in metal????

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But that’s the name of the band’s new song — “The Conqueror.” It’s now streaming on Fit for an Autopsy’s Facebook page, assuming you’re willing to click the “like” button, which you should be, ’cause this band is br00tal, and you like br00tal things.

In case you didn’t read about Fit for an Autopsy the last time I wrote about them, they’re a new band that features former Through the Eyes of the Dead vocalist Nate Johnson, as well as guitarist Will Putney, who has already produced such killer records as The Human Abstract’s Digital Veil. Their debut album, The Process of Human Extermination (cover art above) is coming out June 21 on Black Market Activities, and features guest appearances from The Red Chord’s Guy Kozowyk, Tim Williams of Vision of Disorder/Bloodsimple fame, Full Blown Chaos’ Ray Mazzola, and The Human Abstract’s Travis Richter.

In other words, this is a record to which attention must be paid.

So headbang here, then come back and let us know what you think. My guess is that about half of you will accuse the band of playing generic deathcore, and the other half of you have ears.

-AR

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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This past December we gave you the heads up that Guy Kozowyk’s Black Market Activities had signed Fit for an Autopsy, the actually good deathcore band that features fromer Through the Eyes of the Dead vocalist Nate Johnson and guitarist Will Putney, who has already produced such killer records as The Human Abstract’s Digital Veil. Now The PRP tells us that the band’s debut album, The Process of Human Extermination, is complete and ready for release. It comes out June 21.

But wait! There’s more! As if the Johnson-Putney-Kozowyk connection wasn’t already enough to get you interested, the band has also enlisted some pretty excellent guests to appear on the record as well: besides Kozowyk himself (like you didn’t see that coming), Tim Williams of Vision of Disorder/Bloodsimple fame, Full Blown Chaos’ Ray Mazzola, and The Human Abstract’s Travis Richter all contributed vocals. So that sounds pretty enticing, to put it mildly.

Alas, there are no samples of Extermination available just yet — I mean, there’s a couple of songs on the band’s MySpace page, but I have no idea if those will appear on the album or not. In any case, I’m feeling really optimistic about this record… hopefully we’ll get to hear more soon.

-AR

[Read my Day One recap here. -Ed.]

If Kvelertak aren’t rich men by the time they release their next album they’ll have seriously blown it. Based solely on the power of their incredible live performances at SXSW, the first of which took place Thursday afternoon inside Emo’s at the annual MS-sponsored Full Metal Texas event, these six Norwegians had major U.S. record labels drooling, kissing the ground they walk on, drinking their piss, shoveling poop down their own throats and throwing gobs of money at them. Expect a major bidding war to erupt over Kvelertak; it’ll be interesting to see where their next album lands. But the truth is, it’s all deserved; Kvelertak RIPPED. Video after the jump!

Day 2 of SXSW also featured the live debut of T.R.A.M., an improvizational jazz/metal supergroup featuring Animals as Leaders’ Tosin Abasi and Javier Reyes, Suicidal Tendencies drummer Eric Moore, and former Mars Volta saxophone player Adrian Terrazas at the WSOU showcase (along with Ultrageist and Meek is Murder). We also caught performances by Goes Cube, Yob and The Red Chord at Full Metal Texas.

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Today is the Day, 2011: from left to right — Ryan Jones, Steven Austin, and Curran Reynolds. Photo by Karen Novak.

Curran Reynolds is not just a staple of, but a bona fide blessing to, the New York City metal scene. As both the drummer for Wetnurse and the mastermind behind Precious Metal, the city’s “best and longest running weekly event dedicated to heavy music,” the guy is a FORCE, and anyone who loves metal and lives in NYC should be grateful for him.

So. Wetnurse’s follow-up to Invisible City was my pick for Album That Will Fuck Your Face Off in 2011 (and if you’ve never heard Wetnurse before, please please please go listen to the on the second volume of our free NYC Sucks comp), but before that yet-to-be-recorded record ever sees the light of day, Ryenolds and his Wetnurse band mate, bassist Ryan Jones, will appear on another insanely exciting new release: Today is the Day’s Pain is a Warning. This will be Steve Austin’s ninth release for the constantly-pushing-the-envelope outfit, but it will be the first time Reynolds and Jones have recorded with the band — and you can hear the excitement in Reynolds’ voice. He is a huge fan living the dream — he really did get to go and join one of his favorite bands.

As I’m writing this, TITD is about ten days away from completing the album. Immediately thereafter they’re off to do a five-week tour of Europe (get dates here); in typically fuck-nuts TITD fashion, the very first show of that tour will take place at Litla Hraun prison, the only Maximum Security correctional facility in Iceland, which currently holds violent offenders, burglars, and drug traffickers, and Lucifer knows who the hell else. And yet, despite the busy schedule of completing the album/preparing for the tour/praying there isn’t a prison riot, Curran was cool enough to take some time out of his day and answer a few of my questions.

After the jump, read what he had to say about the new Today is a Day album, how he came to join the band, working with Austin and producer Kurt Ballou, and more.

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