IMO the most important part of being a true metal fan is knowing your roots. There is nothing worse than a newjack poser who doesn’t know or care about the older bands who paved the way for the generations after them. For example, IMO you can’t consider yourself a real fan of Avenged Sevenfold without also being a fan of Pantera and 18 Visions/Velvet Revolver. I mean I love A7X but obviously they are pretty much just taking what those two bands did, only doing it a lot better. On the other hand, it also sucks when someone gets older and they stop liking stuff. I mean if you like Suffocation then you should also like Devourment, right?? But contrary to what you would expect, older metal fans do nothing but hate on newer bands.

Which one is right?? The younger fans, full of energy and enthusiasm, but unaware of the shitty bands that people used to like?? Or the jaded, bitter has-beens, with seemingly endless knowledge of irrelevant, music that nobody really cares about anymore??????

In this post I will do my best to tackle this topic and answer the question of which is better, NEW MUSIC or OLD MUSIC. I know it’s hard to compare things from different eras, but I think it will help all of us grow as metal fans!!

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So, yeah, I think I’m officially not excited for Kyuss Lives!, the new Kyuss reunion missing the man who is arguably the single most important member of Kyuss. Has anyone seen this band? Are they worth getting stoked for? I literally haven’t heard from a single European reader who thought they were awesome, which I take as a bad sign. But who knows? Maybe we just need more European readers.

In any case, Kyuss Lives! — they’ve added an exclamation mark I guess, as though that might induce enthusiasm — have announced two U.S. tour dates, presumably with more to follow. The Sword are opening. So it will be like a night of seeing Not Kyuss and Not Black Sabbath. Awesome.

Here are those two dates:

9/23 — New York, NY @ Terminal 5
10/8 – Pomona, CA @ The Fox Theater

-AR

[via Metal Insider]

Brrrrraaaaaahhhhhh…………it’s 4:20 on 4/20!!!!  Ganjaleel?

Speaking of trippy-hippie-nings — I’ve never been to ten year-old Bonnaroo, but I imagine it’s not too much different from most jamband fests I have attended in my day.  Sure, the ‘roo offers a bit more diversity than its twice-baked counterparts, but c’mon you can’t convince me of your multi-faceted-ness just cuz you got Eminem & The Sword.  Really, Bonnaroo — really?  However, looking over the lineup I can’t just write it off as a larger, more commercialized jamband fest, since the bookers did in fact happen to lock in many indie/alternative acts that are pretty awesome.  So…..let’s call it a draw.

In the metal realm, nitrous abusers can enjoy aforementioned The Sword, Primus, Kylesa, and ultimate stony bros Opeth.  Whoa.

I’d be curious to see how all the white dreadlock’d mofos hacky-sackin at the ‘roo might react to Mikael’s death growl, but naturally the psychedelic-imbibers will revel in the acoustic/heady parts.

“Dude…….this is like, totally hardcore metal — but it’s not…”

Although — Baroness played last year and the kids seemed to dig it.  Wanna see the softest mosh pit ever?

Don’t get too stoned today.

-KW

The cliché is that the third chapter of any cinematic trilogy (Godfather III, Return of the Jedi, Scream 3, Spider-Man 3, etc.) will suck, and “Night City,” the new video from The Sword, would certainly seem to prove that this rule does not just apply to movies. It’s the third chapter of the series the band started with the excellent “Tres Brujas” video and continued with the slightly-less-excellent-but-still-really-cool “Lawless Lands” video, and it pales in comparison to those clips. Someone feel free to sit there with a stop watch and tell me if I’m wrong, but it feels like the ratio of Heavy Metal dorky storyline/trippy imagery to performance footage has completely shifted too far in the latter’s direction. Did they not allot enough of their budget this (presumably) completing chapter?

-AR

Sorry, kids, but I am not a Gates of Slumber fan. They’re one of those bands, like The Sword, whose sound is ultimately just too self-consciously retro for my tastes. There are bands doing the whole classic-hard rock/metal thing but putting their own spin on it, like Dawnbringer and High on Fire, and then there are bands like this. Thank you but not thank you.

But I know that The Gates of Slumber have their following, and I know that at least some of that following reads this website, so they may be curious to know that TGOS have a new song, “Coven of Cain,” now streaming at The Deciblog. It does nothing for me, but, of course, you shouldn’t let my opinion influence you — just listen here and make up your own damn mind.

“Coven of Cain” from The Gates of Slumber’s latest, The Wretch, which comes out May 10 on Rise Above Records.

-AR

Alright, let’s Pauline Kael these bitches.

First up today is “Nowhere,” by Muderdolls. As in, “We ain’t goin’ nowhere ’cause we had to cancel our tour .”

ANYWAY, when this video started, I was like, “Oh, a chick in bed. I can get behind this concept.” But then I realized it wasn’t a chick, it was a Murderdoll. And so then Joey and Wednesday 13 are on the phone and Wednesday 13 is bummed for some reason and Joey is all, “You wanna go somewhere?” and Wednesday 13 is all “Yeah.” And then Joey gets in his cool car in slow motion, and then Axl gets bored and turns the video off.

When did this band start taking themselves so seriously? Remember when all their songs had names like “197666″ and “Love at First Fright” and lyrics like “I don’t wanna meet your mom and dad/Unless you let me fuck your mom and dress your dad in drag?” All this angst is so sleeeeeeeeepy.

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I’m tired of posting the same old high-charting consistent sellers (heyo Disturbed, Linkin Suck, etc) and I’m sure you’re even more tired of reading about them, so this week I’d like to focus on the Top Hard Music Albums charts with a special emphasis on debuts. This week’s notable sales numbers with my own snarky comments (natch) after the flip.

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All these bands decided to release new videos within the past twenty-four hours. So I’m just lumping them all together in one post, the same way my mom lumps any music with loud guitars together under the heading, “Things I assume my degenerate son must like.”

First up we have this pretty amazing video for “Tres Brujas” from The Sword. I’m not even, like, the biggest The Sword fan in the world, but I gotta hand it to them, they have definitely made the nerdiest stoner metal video I’ve ever seen by a band that isn’t Mastodon. The thirteen year-old zit faced virgin in me thinks that this video is incredible, and the eight year-old autistic kid who’s never heard of Sabbath in me thinks the music is pretty great, too.

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Well, here’s an excellent way to kick-off your week: a free download of a new studio track The Sword! There’s been some live footage of “Trej Brujas” (that’s “Three Witches” to us non-Spanish speakers) floating around the interwebs, but this is your first chance to hear the studio version of the song. All you have to do is enter your e-mail address into the widget below, and a link for your free download will be sent to you immediately. We hope you dig it!

“Tres Brujas” will appear on The Sword’s latest offering, Warp Riders, which comes out August 24 on Kemado Records.

Or so I’m led to believe by the album art for their latest offering, Warp Riders. But that’s cool! It means we can be friends. Come over to the Mansion and hang some time, The Sword.

Warp Riders comes out August 24 on Kemado Records. It will probably sound an awful lot like Ozzy-era Sabbath. Just a guess.

-AR

Even though they started their own metal column this past summer, I don’t traditionally think of The Onion as someplace to get metal news and criticism. But their A.V. Club has now weighed in with their very own “Best Metal Albums of the Deacade” list. And the list is honestly kind of shocking.

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There’s some hype around Jennifer’s Body ’cause it’s the first film that stripper-turned-screenwriter Diablo Cody has written since she won the Oscar for Juno, which is one of those movies you either love or hate. But it’s from the director of the live-action Aeon Flux, which is a bad sign, and besides The Sword, the soundtrack is mostly hipster-douche bands I can’t stand. Of course, some people would argue that The Sword are a hipster douche band…

Anyways, it’s a slow news month, and any excuse to post Megan Fox looking all whorish pretty much the way she always does, right?

Jennifer’s Body comes out September 14. It takes place in a world where Amanda Seyfried is considered the ugly girl.

-AR

I love Metal Insider‘s Bram Teitelman so much right now I could kiss him on his Quaker Jewish mouth right now (And no, I’m not kidding. And, oddly enough, Teitelman is the second Quaker Jew I’ve known. Bizarre.). See, Bram noticed what the rest of us failed to – that the riff from the new Kiss song, “Modern Day Who Gives a Fuck,” is more or less a total rip-off of The Sword’s Freya.

Think Bram is wrong? Listent to both and decide for yourself.

Here’s Kiss:

And here’s The Sword:

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When it was announced last month that Killswitch Engage would be on Disturbed’s fourth Music as a Weapon tour, we were flooded with so many irate e-mails from readers you’d have thought that Howard Jones had just been caught raping hundreds of metal fans’ mothers; KSE fans just couldn’t seem to wrap their heads around the concept of the American New Wavers acting as support for one of the most love ‘em or loathe ‘em nu metal acts on the planet. We didn’t report on the development at the time, though. Frankly, I figured it was just one of those things; sometimes awesome bands tour with crappy ones. You can’t please all the people all the time.

But now that Chimaira and Lacuna Coil have joined the tour, I gotta ask: what the frick?

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I wonder if this guy had toked a leel on my baby blue bubbler and listened to this song, would he still have gone buck wild and done what he done?

[link courtesy of the one-and-only Hurricane Doneski (from thefamousish.com), my favorite non-Mexican Mexican and Vince and mine's host into hell in March for SXSW 2009 -- whoop whoop/apologies in advance to my poor liver...]

THE SWORD – “Lament for the Aurochs”, from Age of Winters (2006)

-KW

Thank YOU for taking part in our “Give Thanks to Metal” contest, in which we asked you to tell us why you’re grateful to have metal in your life. You guys are truly a thankful bunch, and we received several quality and heartfelt entries. Congratulations to Daniel Jaryniewich of North Arlington, NJ; Daniel’s letter made us laugh and made us cry, proving to us that he is truly, honestly and completely thankful for metal. For that he wins an Epiphone guitar signed by the members of stoner metal phenoms The Sword; don’t say we never did nothin’ for ya.

Daniel’s excellently crafted winning entry in its entirety, after the jump. Enjoy.

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In the spirit of the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, MetalSucks is giving you the chance to win an Epiphone guitar signed by the members of The Sword! This sweet Sword sword — which is also imprinted with the band’s logo — can be all yours for the price of FREE; all you have to do is write a comment below or email news [at] metalsucks.net (with “Sword Sword” in the subject) and tell us why you’re thankful for metal. Monsieurs Axl and Vince will pick their favorite entry after Thanksgiving on Monday, December 1st, and the guitar shall be yours. U.S. entrants only please, as we gots to ship this thing and it ain’t cheap. Praise be metal!

A whole bunch of you emailed us yesterday following my review of Northern Ireland’s meat n’ potatoes rockers The Answer; seems you all really like this kind of stuff. So hows about we take a trip in the not-so-waybackmachine to explore some jams from the likes of Year Long Disaster, Karma to Burn and The Sword?

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So rumor has it that Wolfmother are done. Which is fine by me – I always thought that band sucked anyway. Hipsters will have one less metal band to worship I guess, but, hey, The Sword are still going strong.

Here’s the now infamous video of a certain Monsieur Michael Patton expressing an opinion not dissimilar from my own:

I knew there was a reason I worship Mike Patton…

-AR

So while it was rumored for awhile that this year’s edition of Ozzfest would be a two day event – but it has now been announced that it’ll be just one single day, on Saturday, August 9, at at Pizza Hut Park* in Dallas, Texas. The line-up will be as follows:

Main Stage
OZZY OSBOURNE
METALLICA
SERJ TANKIAN
HELLYEAH
JONATHAN DAVIS
CAVALERA CONSPIRACY
SHADOWS FALL
APOCALYPTICA
IN THIS MOMENT
All-Star Tribute To “Dimebag” Darrell Abbott

Second Stage
SEVENDUST
DEVILDRIVER
KINGDOM OF SORROW
SOILENT GREEN
WITCHCRAFT
GOATWHORE

Texas (Third) Stage
THE SWORD
DROWNING POOL
RIGOR MORTIS

Actually, that is, by no means, a terrible line-up; if the stages are staggered at all (and I imagine they will be), it would be plenty easy to keep oneself occupied during sets from In This Moment, Jonathan Davis, and HellNo. And I guess it’s honorable of Metallica to let Ozzy play last, even though, at this point, a) they’re much bigger than Ozzy and b) Ozzy has to be in bed by 8 pm. I mean, if I was Ozzy, and I’d spent recent Ozzfests getting blown off the stage by the likes of Maiden and Priest, I certainly wouldn’t wanna follow Metallica. But, y’know, nice of Ulrich and Hetfield to step aside for one night and let the Ozzman cometh.

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