Devin Townsend has so much explaining to do. As a tireless songwriter and producer, he’s set to release two albums on June 21, Ghost and Deconstruction, to complete the Devin Townsend Project cycle that he started with 2009′s Ki and Addicted. That’s four full-length records, 43 songs, and 260 minutes of music unleashed over about two years. But for Townsend, discussion goes beyond song ideas and his exhaustive studio work required to bring them to life; he could talk all day and yet only touch on the subjects of touring, sales, and modern music industry calamity; and, shit, his back catalogue is too huge and varied to even approach in a Q&A of any reasonable length.

You see, being a modern musician and being Devin Townsend are not the same thing. Sure, he grinds out records and then tours like everybody. However, our latest MetalSucks interview with Townsend reveals an artist unbound by the limits of imagination, but pretty aware of averse reactions to his art; his self-expression is total and unapologetic — until fans and media misinterpret him or disapprove of his humor. He’s confident as a person, but shakeable as a virtuosic guitar player, a theater and puppet enthusiast, and a production wiz. He lets no truth about his world go unexpressed, beit via the hair-raising cacophony of Deconstruction (think Strapping Young Lad’s Alien: The Ride) or Ghost‘s murmuring calm. He puts himself out there all the way; now, let him explain why.

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MetalSucks is oh-so-very happy to be teaming up with RED Distribution to bring you, our most beloved readers, the MetalSucks Fan Pack, which will be available exclusively at all FYE stores starting this Tuesday, April 12. Not only does this limited edition box full o’ metal come with a CD featuring twenty brootal tunes by twenty brootal bands (including Kvelertak, Trap Them, Believer, Napalm Death, TesseracT, Thomas Giles, Deicide and a bunch more) but it also comes with that HOLY SHIT THAT IS SO KILLER t-shirt you see above, which was designed by our friend Rodney Githens from Vertebrae 33 (you might also recognize his work from this sexy t-shirt and this Louvre-worthy poster that he did for us).

How much would you expect to pay for this incredible package? Twenty bucks? Fifteen bucks? Try $9.99. That’s right, gang — twenty songs from twenty bands and that guaranteed-to-get-you-laid t-shirt for under ten bucks.

But wait! There’s more! If you act now and head over to the official MetalSucks Fan Pack web page, you can get a coupon for 30%, which brings the price down to a mere seven dollars. Holy crap, that’s a metsieh if ever there was one.

So go here to get a complete track list of all the bands on the comp, and to use the nifty store-finder to locate the f.y.e. nearest to you. And, oh yeah, you can also enter to win this custom guitar:

So, yeah, that’s pretty fuckin’ bad-assed.

-Axl & Vince

Last weekend Thomas Giles (aka BTBAM’s Tommy Rogers) came through town on a little mini-tour to promote his latest solo release Pulse, with Cave In’s Steven Brodsky in tow. I couldn’t go because, ya know, life happens, and watching this video from SMN News of Giles perform “Sleep Shake” makes me all that much more sour about it.

As opposed to the full-out bombast of a BTBAM show, the Thomas Giles performance is intimate and bare-bones. It’s the kind of show I could see playing a coffee shop or small performance space with tables scattered throughout; I’d get hella stoned beforehand, sit, order a cocktail, and enjoy. The complete opposite of the usual metal experience, much like the album itself.

-VN

I recently got on the phone with Tommy Rogers, aka Thomas Giles, to talk with the BTBAM vocalist about his new solo record Pulse. Tommy had some interesting things to say about his new solo record, the record industry in general, his thoughts on being a “career band” as opposed to a flash in the pan, and how a band can never really be sure of their standing with fans.

Of course we got to talking all things BTBAM as well, not the least of which was their forthcoming EP The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues (which as of interview time had not yet been announced); Tommy tells us the EP is actually Part 1 of a two-part album suite, Part 2 of which will be a full album! Excite.

Read our chat after the jump.

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I kind of assumed that Tommy Rogers (a.k.a. “Thomas Giles”) wouldn’t be doing any touring behind his awesome new solo album, Pulse; for one thing, he plays all the instruments on the record himself, so he’d need to go recruit a band, and for another thing I thought he’d be too busy with his other project, some group called Between the Buried and Me.

But, hey, guess what? I was wrong! And happy to be. Rogers has announced a mini-tour (only five dates, sadly). Which would already be good news, but he’s also gonna have Cave In’s Stephen Brodsky doing support. So these shows should be fun.

Additional support comes from a band called Braveyoung, with whom I am not familiar (Vince tells me they used to be called Giants). But Rogers is obviously a big fan — he named their album We Are The Lonely Animals one of his favorites of 2010. So I’m gonna assume they’re good.

Here are dates:

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I see a pattern developing in 2011; the only albums selling are old ones. It’s quite startling, in fact; it’s already mid-February and the new release machine is kicking into high gear, but the charts are still dominated by best-of compilations and classic albums from the likes of Metallica, Van Halen, Ozzy, Aerosmith (Idol Effect), and Guns N’ Roses and perennially charting butt-rock bands like Godsmack, Disturbed, Three Days Grace, Theory of a Deadman, Kid Rock, Linkin Park, Nickelsuck, etc etc etc. AKA bands that appeal to people mostly over the age of 30. Will 2011 be the year that folks stop purchasing music en masse? It’s too early to tell, but things are not looking good.

In any case, last week saw a variety of solid new releases in the metal world from Full Blown Chaos, Lazarus A.D., Thomas Giles (of BTBAM) and Abysmal Dawn. Not bands you’d expect chart-busting numbers from, but still, heavy hitters in our world. Sadly, only one of those bands was able to crack the Top 100 in the Top Hard Music Charts. We know better than to claim these numbers as a definitive measure of those bands’ popularity, but as long as record labels are the source of funding to launch these bands’ careers — and until there’s a better ranking system that incorporates record sales, merch sales and touring revenue into one chart — sales numbers will matter to some degree.

Let’s look at how last week’s new releases, and a few others, performed on the Soundscan charts.

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Today sees the release of Abysmal Dawn’s first new album in more than two years, and Full Blown Chaos’ first new album in more than three; that alone would be cause for celebration, but there’s plenty of other good shit coming out today, too! Our previews of this week’s new releases after the jump.

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Today sees the release of Abysmal Dawn’s first new album in more than two years, and Full Blown Chaos’ first new album in more than three; that alone would be cause for celebration, but there’s plenty of other good shit coming out today, too! Our previews of this week’s new releases after the jump.

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We love Tommy Rogers, we love Owen Hart, and, of course, we love Pantera — so combining all three makes for one awesome metal sandwich.

Rogers recently hopped on-stage with Owen Hart to join them for some Pantera covers, and, of course, someone caught it all on video. The quality’s not 100%, but it’s good enough to know that the bright ray of sunshine you felt on your face today was Dime smiling in approval.

Here’s “Domination…”

…and if you head over to Metal Injection, you can check out “Mouth for the War,” too.

Tommy Rogers will release his new solo album (under the name Thomas Giles), Pulse, tomorrow  on Metal Blade; Owen Hart’s latest, Earth Control, is out now on Vitriol. You can read my review here.

-AR

“Sleep Shake,” the video for the opening track from Between the Buried and Me front man Tommy Rogers’ solo album (under the name Thomas Giles), Pulse, is no great, uh, shakes. I mean, it’s cool to see Tommy play all the instruments himself, but it is by no means a good video.

That being said, I think you all need to watch it, because the song is killer. It bears only the slightest relationship to metal, but it has a strong kinship with epic epicness… and you can’t get enough epic epicness in your life. You just can’t.

Pulse comes out February 1 on Metal Blade.

-AR

[via Popmatters]

2011 is going to be an awesome year to be a nerdy metal dork. BTBAM’s got a new EP in the works and frontman Tommy Rogers (aka Thomas Giles) has a solo record coming out in February, both on Metal Blade Records (though the former mysteriously hasn’t been announced as such quite yet). We’re also getting TWO new records from Devin Townsend, new Scale the Summit, and as-of-yet unannounced records from other prog masters, no doubt. Necrophagist? Meshuggah? Certainly possible. A good year is in store indeed.

Devin Townsend played a new song at this weekend’s performance at the annual NAMM show in Anaheim… and yes, this time I promise that this is actually a new track. The song is called “Fly,” and it’s slated to appear on Ghost, the mellowest of the four albums in the Devin Townsend Project suite. Fellow Hevy Devy Superfan Alkahest of Heavy Blog is Heavy picked this one up on the newswire.

As for new BTBAM, we get the following teaser:

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I don’t think there’s any universe in which Between the Buried and Me vocalist Tommy Rogers’ solo album, Pulse (which Rogers is actually releasing using what I believe is his middle name, Giles, and the more formal iteration of his first name), could be considered metal, but you really shouldn’t give a poop, ’cause a) Rogers definitely should have earned your respect by now, and b) it’s a wonderful album and if you don’t check it out you’re depriving no one but yourself.

Now the album closer, “Hypoxia,” is streaming here. It is an epic, achingly beautiful song, which, come to think of it, are words I could use to describe a lot of the music on Pulse. It is entirely possible that you won’t like this album, but only if you hate your ears.

So check out that track, and then come back and celebrate its excellence in our comments section. Pulse comes out February 1 on pioneering record label METAL BLADE RECORDS.

-AR

Between the Buried and Me have begun working on their hinted-at new EP, to be released at some point in 2011 on pioneering record label METAL BLADE RECORDS. Or have they?

Metal Injection picked up on a status update posted on Between the Buried and Me’s Facebook page yesterday, a screen cap of which is shown above. BTBAM’s Facebook page is linked with their Twitter account, so the update appeared there too. But then the Facebook post mysteriously disappeared while the linked Twitter post remained. Did someone spill the beans early?

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