MetalSucks

• Periphery, an MS fave appearing on this year’s Thrash & Burn tour with Veil of Maya and Devildriver, have posted their own version of Michael Jackson’s “Black or White” on their MySpace page. It’s a pretty fresh Sumeriancore take on the track, and I laud that they didn’t chose to cover a more predictable Jackson tune that’s been done by other metal bands ad infinitum (see: Billie Jean, Beat It, etc). New Periphery vocalist Chris Barretto fucking nails it without overdoing it; psyched to see this guy live. Check out the rest of the band’s super-awesome tracks while you’re at it. [Thanks: Metal Injection]
• August Burns Red have released the new track “Ocean Of Apathy” on their MySpace page, and it’s essentially a re-jiggered cover of everything else the band has done to date. ABR are definitely better than other Christian metalcore acts like Underoath, but in 2009 there ain’t a whole lot of room to do anything new with metalcore. I’m sure the ABR Christian Haterade Mafia will be lambasting death threats upon the Jews of this here site in mere moments, but whatever. Meh.

-VN

Raw

wicked

fiery

thrash

power

kill

dying

dead

METALLICA – “The Four Horsemen”, from Kill ‘Em All (1983)

-KW

I don’t know what all the people who weren’t around for Thrash’s first run in the Eighties think about the sudden resurgence of the style but I’ve had mixed feelings about it. I really missed traditional Thrash throughout the Nineties and…Oughts (is that what we’re supposed to call them?). Sure, Thrash never really died and there have always been elements of classic Thrash in many of the acts that play Metal today regardless of the sub-or-microgenre with which they are associated; but having come of age in the early to mid Eighties and having been there for the dominant rise of this kind of music I never wanted it to diminish in popularity. Yet it did and there were new styles to take its place. The old acts that established the framework have kept going only to prove, for the most part, that Thrash Metal is a game best utilized through youth. And maybe my mixed feelings regarding all these young acts revolves around the fact that I’m not getting any younger either. It’s neither fresh or exciting to me nor does it further the Metal cause so much as derivatively reflect the glory years. Even so, I’ll be the first to stand up and trumpet that charging “lack of originality” against an act is disingenuous considering that every band carries its influences with them regardless of whether they make it obvious or not. If you think a band is “original” that just means you’re ignorant of their influences. As such I always feel conflicted when faced with a “new” Thrash Metal act.

I really dig Early Man, though. More than most any other neo-Thrash band out there they’ve managed to capture the essence of ’80s Metal for me, personally. From their Monitor Records Fuck You If You’re Talking To Me EP to their Matador Records Closing In album – both from 2005 – there’s been a raw, low budget feel to the music that carries through to their current output even though they now have the backing of The End Records. Their upcoming Beware the Circling Fin EP (out October 14th) was produced by Jack Endino (Nirvana, Mudhoney, Dwarves, High On Fire) and it retains a basement authenticity which makes the effort that much more endearing.

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Huge statement. Right? Huuuge muthafuckin statement, especially from a guy who’s not even really into thrash. But there’s something about music that works so well for what it is that can transcend genre preferences.

You hate folk music? Look me in the eye and tell me that Simon and Garfunkel ain’t the prettiest damn SHIAT you ever dun heard.

Think funk is for hippies and hairsprayed chicks from New Jersey? Remember back to that one party/night at the bar that you got perfectly drunk enough to dance “really well” and remind yourself that James Brown was your messiah at that moment in time.

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