There’s nothing I shouldn’t like about 1349′s latest album, Demonoir: it’s the band at blazing black-metal-at-grindcore-speed again, and its experimental parts feel appropriate, even necessary. But something feels about it hollow: the flesh, bones, and organs are all there, but is there any soul (even a black one) beneath them? How could an album with so much in common with one of my favorite black metal albums ever — the band’s 2005 eviscerator Hellfire – leave me cold?

Then it dawned on me: Revelations of the Black Flame, the album between the two. A dull, pointless affair with experimental black metal (and I even LIKE the genre from time to time: Wold’s Screech Owl and Leviathan’s A Silhouette in Splinters got quite a few spins back in the day), I tore it a new asshole back in ’09 and still stand by that action; after the straightforward destruction of Hellfire, it was a confoundingly sharp left turn for a band doing so much right. The parts on Demonoir that I would usually enjoy felt empty because of this, in that perhaps they were being employed to get back into the good graces of the fans they’d possibly alienated. There’s nothing tangibly wrong with Demonoir, but I can’t help but feel its revived sense of purpose is cold and calculated.

Click to read more…

Drummer Mike Justian is out of The Red Chord… again. I guess in all fairness, it was never really clear if this founding member was re-joining the band on a permanent basis, or if he was just filling-in after Brad Fickeisen split with the group last year. Then again, Justian’s been back in TRC for over a year, which seems like a long-ass time to just be filling-in. And even as a massive fan of the band, it’s certainly funnier to think of Red Chord skinsmen in Spinal Tap terms, spontaneously combusting at random intervals.

But fuck do I know? A statement from the band certainly makes the split sound amicable:

Click to read more…

From Beastmaster:

“Over the last week I’ve noticed on the PRP that both Chelsea Grin and Within The Ruins have been denied entry into to Canada for their separate respective tours. Now granted, I don’t necessarily love these two bands, but I’m wondering if they are possibly related in some way…. Dun dun DUNNNNNNNN.”

Yes. They are both related in that I don’t like either of them. Unfortunately, I don’t control the Canadian government, so my guess is that they actually both just have merch dudes with records for possession or something idiotic like that. In any case, yes, I agree it’s ridiculous that Canada gets to be spared Chelsea Grin while Americans have to continue to endure them.

Click to read more…

Well oh-KAY! Here’s a tour I can get behind. According to The PRP, The Red Chord will hit the road this march with Gaza and Trap them in tow.

If you read MS on a regular basis, you already know we’re huge fans of The Red Chord, and I’ve yet to see them give a bad performance. Gaza — who are signed to TRC front man Guy Kozowyk’s label, Black Market Activities — are also what the kids call “devastating” in the live arena. And while I seem to be one of five people who doesn’t cream his pants at the mere mention of Trap Them, I do enjoy their shows more than I do their records; in concert, they feel legitimately dangerous, like either a member of the band or a member of the audience could actually get hurt at any moment. (Just a few weeks ago, I saw TT vocalist/one-time MetalSucks contributor Ryan McKenney kick off a show by throwing his mic stand right into the crowd, hard; just a few songs later, he bashed himself in the skull with his mic, and spent the rest of the performance bleeding from the head.) And that’s an increasingly rare, and thus increasingly exhilarating, feeling.

So, yeah, these shows should take that lil’ critter you see above and just push a spike right through its guts. Take that, you huge-eared freak.

The PRP only has three dates right now, but says that the tour is scheduled to run through March 25, so sit tight for a complete itinerary. In the meantime, those initial dates are as follows:

Click to read more…

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.)

Click to read more…

Coach Neilstein here calling a play from the sidelines and pulling star QB Greg Weeks from action for the season. Like star hair model Tom Brady, it seems that Weeks is bailing in the clutch and in need of some backup.

I’m kidding, of course; Weeks did a tremendous job writing about the NFL and making us laugh all season long, and we will be forever grateful. Hopefully we can strong-arm him into doing it again next year.

But for now, all I’ve got to say is this:

I know that the guy from Atreyu isn’t really named Alex Fahrvergnügen, but I can never remember how you spell his actual name, and since he can’t be bothered to learn the proper spelling of one of the easiest words in the English language, I’m not sure why I should be expected to learn to spell his name right. I mean, it took me a long time to learn to spell Guy Kozowyk’s last name correctly without double-checking it on the interwebs, but there’s a major difference between Guy and Alex — Guy is talented.

Also, Guy has a band, whereas Alex, it would seem, no longer does.

The following statement from Mr. Fahrvergnügen was pieced together from Twitter:

Click to read more…

They’re both gonna have members on tonight’s extra-special 100th episode of the Metal Injection Livecast, that’s what!!!

From a press release (What, you think we actually like the Metal Injection dudes? We only communicate via press releases!):

“The Metal Injection Livecast will be celebrating a milestone tonight, 100 first run editions of the live podcast. To celebrate this momentous occasion, the crew will be joined by some great guests. In the first hour of the show, Ben Weinman and Greg Puciato of The Dillinger Escape Plan will call into the show, and in the second hour, Mike ‘Gunface’ McKenzie and Greg Weeks of The Red Chord will join the show. Fans will be able to listen live starting at 8pm Eastern Time, and interact with the guests via a live chatroom as well as by calling into the show directly, via our fan line at 646-929-1357. An archived version of the episode will be posted shortly after the conclusion of the show.”

So if you’ve ever wanted to talk to these dudes without threat of one of them killing you (Puciato is a short guy, but not a small guy), here’s your chance!  Call in, talk to Greg Weeks about football… I’m sure he’s not sick of that. But above all else, just make sure you listen.

-AR

Let’s pretend I wrote an intro and put it here and now you’ve read it and we can move on.

First up we this snow filled day we have Mychildren Mybride’s video for “Jonathan Davis” — err, sorry, “King of the Hopeless” — which debuted on Metal Injection.

At first I was like, “Wait, haven’t I seen this video before?” And then I was like, “Wait, I HAVE seen this video before!”

Click to read more…

In 2009, MetalSucks did a digital-only release for The Binary Code’s Suspension of Disbelief. We did this because the band was unsigned, the album was awesome, and we thought it would be fun to actually help some great music find its way out into the world for once, instead of just bemoaning the state of metal from our armchairs.

And it was fun! We had a blast, and have wanted to do it again ever since. But it’s hard to find good bands period, let alone good bands that meet our particular set of criteria.

But one such band is Meek is Murder, the brainchild of guitarist/vocalist Mike Keller (ex-The Red Chord), who we’ve been raving about for some time now. So when Mike and his fellow Meek Men Frank Godla (drums, also of Empyreon fame) and Sam Brodsky (bass) told us they were entering the studio this month to record a new album with producer Kurt Ballou — yep, that Kurt Ballou — and that the record did not yet have a home, well, we jumped at the chance to partner with them to help get their message to the masses.

The result will be Algorithms, which we’ll be releasing on March 22. You can check out the awesome cover art by Mr. Keller himself above, and there will be a demo of one of the new songs appearing on the album, “Sundowners,” on our upcoming NYC Sucks comp.

We’ll give you lots more details about Algorithms in the coming weeks, but for now, we just wanted to put it on your radar and let you know to get excited about it — ’cause we sure as hell are!

-Axl & Vince

We survived the first week of 2011! WHOO-HOO! Only another forty-nine left ’til our next vacation.

Here’s how we rang in the new year:

• The Red Chord’s Greg Weeks tried to earn his contractually-due incentives.
• We spoke to The Funeral Pyre’s John Strachan.
• We showed mortiferous scorn towards the latest release from Mortiferous Scorn.
• We contemplated the not-so-gentle art of the elephants marching riff.
• We celebrated the soundtrack for Castlevania: Symphony of the Night.
• We kvelertranslated Kvelertak’s lyrics.
• We couldn’t believe that Kevin Stewart-Panko is defending Cryptopsy’s The Unspoken King now.
• We watched an Asian girl in her bra and panties rub her vagina against a guitar.
• We learned to stop worrying about SARS and start loving horse meat.
• We did not jizz all over Painted in Exile.

The site will be down for a few hours tonight while we make a few upgrades… yep, MetalSucks just keeps getting better and betterer!

Then next week brings an excellent full-album stream and not one, not two, but THREE song debuts, including a brand new track from one of the most legendary death metal bands of all time. Get excited.

-AR

So let’s say you need to make a music video but you don’t have a very big budget — how can you spice your clip up so it’s not just another performance vid?

A Day To Remember came up with a pretty clever solution: they got all their friends to be in the video, taking turns looking right into the camera and lip synching along for a few moments. Oddly enough, a lot of those friends are metal royalty — including The Red Chord’s Guy Kozowyk, Trivium’s Matt Heafy, As I Lay Dying’s Tim Lambesis, The Acacia Strain’s Vincent Bennett, and whomever is playing Andrew WK this week — despite the fact that A Day to Remember aren’t metal at all.

This was a smart move if you ask me, ’cause otherwise a misanthropic metal d00d such as myself probably never would have watched the video, let alone actually kinda-almost smiled. It looks like everyone is having fun, and fun begets more fun, y’know?

-AR

[via Metal Injection]

Coaches fired, teams failing, and incentives earned. I love week sixteen.

Incentives: they are written into a ton of contracts nowadays to get players to focus more on earning money for themselves than to put in an effort for their team. In the last week of regular season play, we see players on teams who are dead in the water give it their all to earn a couple of extra bucks. I mean, when you’re getting $90 million, you really need that extra $150,000 for one more sack in a game that doesn’t matter, right?  The Red Chord actually has an incentive program in our contract as well. We get free Metal Blade t-shirts, a trip to a rehab of our choice, and a visit to the health clinic, depending on how many rails and groupies we bump during an album cycle. We’re cutting it close, but I can see that t-shirt in my very near future.

Click to read more…

OK, I’m calling a delay of game on myself. After the northeast was crushed with snow, I woke up with zero power, which equals no internet. If I miss certain games during the weekend, I use this Al Gore-invented “super highway” to catch up. I watched a couple of games, but being showered with gifts on Jesus’ birthday weekend makes it hard to watch them all. Why don’t you use phone internet to look up fun football facts, you say? I’ve only got 3G’s here, people!

Anyway, I’ve decided to let you guys talk about the games this week and about the cool shit you got for the holidays. I was raised Irish Catholic, so I get Christmas gifts which include guilt and shame.

Did anyone have their tree catch fire? Did anyone have their menorah light something on fire? How about your fantasy leagues? Anyone make the playoffs? Here’s your chance to chat. Go for it!

I hope the people who check this blog out to enjoy it, get bummed by it, or make fun of it, aren’t too upset by this entry. See you next week!

-GW

Visit The Red Chord on MySpace.

Hello, everybody. As we gear up for a holiday celebration of some sort depending on your religion, upbringing or general scroogery, we also gear up for brutal weather (in some places), presents and more football. The year and regular season are on their way out which means teams will be playing more enthusiastically for their shot at the playoffs. We’ll also see boring games between teams who will definitely not make the playoffs against teams who are pulling their starters to rest them for the playoffs.

The big game this week that everyone is talking about is the the incredible San Diego-San Fran game. Just kidding. Nobody is talking about this game. The 49ers didn’t even score until the 4th in this 34-7 blowout. The actual game I’m speaking of is Michael “Mad Dog” Vick and his Eagles’ triumphant comeback against the NY Giants.

Click to read more…

FEATURING MEMBERS OF INTRONAUT, DARKEST HOUR, THE RED CHORD, KYLESA, GORGOROTH, CORMORANT, RETURN TO EARTH, KRIEG, LAZARUS A.D., HAIL OF BULLETS, AND BLOODHORSE

For 2010, we decided to do something special as part of our regular end-of-year festivities here at MetalSucks — namely, ask musicians from across the vast spectrum of the metalsphere (or, in a few cases, the almost-metalsphere) what their favorite albums of the year were. Death metallers, thrash metallers, black metallers, stoners, grinders, and djenters alike graciously contributed lists to MS, and we’ll be running them in groups of ten to eleven musicians at a time twice a day for the rest of the week.

After the jump, check out the fifth group… we hope you enjoy seeing what some of metal’s heaviest hitters were into this year as much as we have!

(And please note that these are musicians and that they, um, have a lot on their minds. So some of ‘em named albums that actually came out last year. Please don’t freak out.)

Click to read more…

I don’t think we’re doing a list of the “Best Metal Videos of 2010″ this year because no one ever wants to play in the sandbox but me and I’m over it. But Noisecreep has compiled their list, and I think they did a pretty good job. I don’t like every band on the list, but it’s about the videos, not the songs, and most of these videos are pretty good.

Conspicuously absent, in my not-so-humble opinion, are Kylesa’s video for “Tired Climb” and The Red Chord’s video for “Demoralizer,” both of which I think are great. But I can’t exactly get pissy about the list as it exists.

Check it out here, then, as per usual, argue ’til you’re red in the face in our comments section.

-AR

So, I know I’m not supposed to be biased about my favorite team in this blog thing, but c’mon, did you see last Monday’s game? Holy shit! It wasn’t even a real game. Someone should tell Sanchez to relieve his evil twin that has been playing in his place the last two weeks.

On that topic, the Pats faced the mighty Bears yesterday in a brutal snow storm bringing back New England memories of snowbowls, field goals, and ex-cons riding snowblowers. I think the main reason NE buried the Bears, clinching the playoff berth, is that Tom Brady officially changed the team’s footwear from cleats to Uggs. They’re just so warm. A couple weeks ago, the Australian boot company signed Tom Brady to be their spokesperson, claiming that he could get men, a demographic that has shied away from Uggs, to wear their silly boots. Good luck with that.

Click to read more…

It seems like the number of “Why did you ban me from commenting?!?” e-mails from readers has increased as of late, and the gist of those e-mails is often “Whassa matter, can’t take it when someone tells you you suck?” or whatever. And we’ve never banned anyone for disagreeing with us. We don’t give a shit if you disagree with us. We don’t agree with one another half the time — that’s part of the fun of MetalSucks.

Here’s what really happens: you use a word which is on our “no-no” list, and it gets stuck in our spam filter. Some of these words we actively do not allow on MetalSucks (e.g., slurs against minorities), and some of them just get stuck because so many actual spammers use them (e.g., “rape”). We try to be diligent about checking the spam filters and making sure none of you are getting caught in there, but sometimes we miss a few. And sometimes we ultimately don’t allow the comment onto the site (e.g., “I hate this album, this band is fucking gay” will never survive). But even then, we don’t BAN people from commenting. I think I can count on one hand the number of people we’ve banned in four years, and most of them were spammers and/or former Megadeth guitarists. So if your comment isn’t going through, consider first if you used a word we don’t allow, and if you didn’t, just shoot us a POLITE e-mail and we’ll investigage the problem ASAP. M’kay?

And on that note, here’s what we did this week:

• Darkest Hour’s Mike Schleibaum gave us our latest Legacy Tour diary, Intronaut’s Sacha Dunable worked out his black metal daddy issues, and The Red Chord’s Greg Weeks offered to write a song for any sports team that’s not from New York.
• We spoke to After the Burial’s Trent Hafdahl and American Hardcore author Steven Blush.
• We got the skinny from Darkest Hour’s Ryan Parrish about why DH and Veil of Maya got kicked off their own tour bus, and asked Jucifer’s Amber Valentine about Sean Yseult’s claim to being the only woman in metal during her tenure in White Zombie.
• We checked out the latest release from The Unraveling.
• Sergeant D. schooled us in uber-kvlt metalcore bands.
• We contemplated the worst metal albums of 2010 and the best metal songs of 2010.
• We mourned on the six year anniversary of Dimebag’s murder.
• We celebrated Ozzy Osbourne’s terrific taste in modern metal (he put Korn above Firewind).
• We had mixed feelings about the retirement of Judas Priest.
• We got excited that At the Gates are playing more shows in 2011.

Alrighty then. Next week is our last week of regular posting before we shut down for the holidays. You know what that means – YEAR END LISTS! Get ready to argue like your entire sense of self-worth depended on everyone agreeing with you all the time with no exceptions ever.

-AR

So, I’m giving you guys an open invite to my place in Quincy, MA for tonight’s matchup between the Pats and the Jets. We’re playing cards, probably the re-release of NBA Jams, getting some Lynwood’s pizza, and enjoying ourselves. Don’t worry about finding my place; if I seepeople roaming my street with wings and team jerseys, then I’ll assume it’s because of this post and invite them on up.

Steelers-Ravens battled it out for first this week. More important than seeing who was going to be king of the AFC North was to see who was a better shower product. The Ravens’ Ray Lewis and his Old Spice body wash in one corner and the Steelers’ Troy Palmolive… Paramore… Pinkerton… whatever his name is, representing Head and Shoulders in the other. Polamalu takes this one just as he took the game. His late-in-the-game sack caused QB Joe Flacco to fumble, which, in turn, led to the game-winning touchdown. No worries though, Baltimore – you may have lost, but you did break Big Ben’s nose and nearly killed TE Heath Miller. Not too shabby.

Click to read more…