At least here in New York, we are now experiencing full-on the-sun-never-comes-out-and-it’s-cold-as-fuck weather — y’know, in case we somehow failed to realize that it’s October. Luckily, we have two terrific records with uplifting, happy-go-lucky titles to stream this morning, so that should perk you right the fuck up.

• Cold Winds on Timeless Days, the sophomore effort from all-star outfit Charred Walls of the Damned, is now streaming here. Jokes about its icy title and cover art aside, it’s actually a total scorcher, and features top-notch performances from drummer/mastermind Richard Christy, vocalist Tim “Ripper” Owens, guitarist Jason Suecof, and bassist Steve DiGiorgio. Metal Blade will release the album a week from today, October 11; that day is also the deadline to enter our totally awesome CWOTD/Richard Christy Photoshop contest, in which you can win a ridiculous amount of cool swag, including autographed symbols, drumheads, and, uh, a diaper that Mr. Christy himself wore. Enter here.
• Hull’s second full-length, Beyond the Lightless Sky, is now streaming here. Like all Hull music, it’s massive and monstrous and terrifying… like the soundtrack to every horrible feeling through your brain right before King Kong crushes you with his little toe or something. It also comes out one week from today, ‘cept via The End Records.

Now if you’ll excuse me, my apartment is freezing, so I’m gonna go kill the neighbors and use their bones to start a fire.

-AR

We’ve already gotten some good entries for our Charred Walls of the Damned/Photoshop Richard Christy contest, but I’m still waiting for one that makes me laugh so hard I wet myself. There’s still time for you to enter — the deadline is October 11 — so I’m hoping that there are plenty of you just taking your time to make sure you come up with something totally fantastic and hilarious.

And while you do not, why not check out “Admire the Heroes,” another new CWOTD track, which just premiered over at Metal Underground? As we’ve been saying for the past few weeks, the new album on which the track appears, Cold Wind On Timeless Days, will kick your ass so hard yo’ mama gonna feel it. Besides Christy’s always-stellar drumming, the record features guitars, production, and mixing by Jason Suecof [Actually Mark Lewis mixed the album, and tracked drums with Richard, and got all of the guitar tones. I'm a big dummy who can't properly read a press release. A million apologies.], who is a genius if there ever was one, bass by the great Steve DiGiorgio (Death, Control Denied, Iced Earth, Testament, a million other awesome bands), and glass-shattering vocals by the one and only Tim “Ripper” Owens. Seriously, I can’t even believe you’re still reading this and not listing to the song right.

Headbang here, then come back and exchange bro-fives in our comments section. Cold Wind On Timeless Days comes out October 11 on Metal Blade.

-AR

As we’ve said multiple times in the past few weeks, Cold Winds on Timeless Days, the sophomore effort from Richard Christy’s Charred Walls of the Damned, friggin’ KILLS. This supergroup which is actually super — it also features Tim “Ripper” Owens on vocals, Jason Suecof on guitars, and Steve DiGiorgio on bass — have made an album which, as Vince put it, is impossible to listen to “without feeling like your invisible chalice full of your slain enemy’s blood absolutely must be raised to the sky.” This is one of those records that is just pure metal, through and through.

To celebrate the album’s October 11th release (pre-order it here!), MetalSucks is proud to be teaming up with Metal Blade and the legendary Mr. Christy (Death, Iced Earth, Control Denied, The Howard Stern Show, etc.) himself for what is easily one of our coolest, and most fun, contests ever. Here’s how it’s gonna work:

• Download this picture of Richard Christy.
• Photoshop Richard into the most ridiculous, fun scenario you can imagine. Seriously, there are no limits here — do what ya gotta do to make us laugh.
• Send your entry, along with your name and address, to news AT metalsucks DOT net, with CWOTD CONTEST in the subject line. Please note that this contest is open to U.S. residents only.

And that’s it! We’ll select the three funniest photos to be the grand-prize and runner-up winners, respectively… and those winners will win some really, really, REALLY cool stuff. Check it:

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Charred Walls of the Damned are a rarity in the metal world — a supergroup that’s actually super. And because I’m a big dumb idiot, I didn’t really get that into their eponymous debut last year; but now that I’ve heard their sophomore effort, Cold Winds on Timeless Days, I know I’m a big dumb idiot, and I can now remedy my previous blunder.

Case in point re: me being a big dumb idiot and CWotD owning every and all asses: their new single, “Zerospan,” which you can check out below. I defy you to listen to it and not raise a pair of invisible elephantiasis-afflicted nuts towards the sky. It’s impossible. It just can’t be done.

Cold Winds on Timeless Days comes out October 11 on Metal Blade, and was produced by guitarist Jason Suecof. The rest of the band, in case you somehow don’t know, consists of legendary drummer Richard Christy, vocalist Tim “Ripper” Owens, and bassist Steve DiGiorgio.

-AR

Judas Priest with Dave Holland, far left.

Speaking of metal, children, and tricky issues: Tuesday will see the release of the 30th Anniversary Edition of Judas Priest’s British Steel, and Phil Freeman over at MSN has made an interesting observation about the accompanying liner notes:

[The booklet] also includes a short note from the band on the inside cover, a two-page spread of live photos, a two-page essay by some dude I’ve never heard of (Dave Shack), two more pages of live photos, and two pages of credits (band and crew). And while the essays deal with the 30th anniversary, all the photos are new-looking, presumably shot on the 2009 tour. Which means they include Scott Travis on drums. And when you look at the credits in the back of the booklet, Scott Travis is listed as Judas Priest’s drummer.

Which is fine…if you’re talking about the [accompanying] live album. Scott Travis has been Judas Priest’s drummer since 1989. He played on Painkiller, all the Ripper Owens-era material, Angel of Retribution and Nostradamus. But he did not play on the 1980 recording of British Steel. Dave Holland did.

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If all Richard Christy ever did was play drums on Death’s phenomenal final album The Sound of Perseverance, it would be enough to secure his place in heavy metal Valhalla. That death metal classic gained so much from Christy’s nuanced performance that it’s almost criminal that he isn’t mentioned alongside your Lombardos, Reinerts and Dailors as one of the most creative drummers in extreme music. But you won’t find Christy complaining about lack of recognition, especially since he’s been so busy in the decade since Death’s demise. To fill in the gaps between his film directing and acting gigs (Christy played a Ku Klux Klansman in Harold and Kumar Go To Guantanamo), Christy has drummed for Iced Earth, Incantation, Acheron and Demons and Wizards. Of course that was all before he began his tenure as the resident prank caller on The Howard Stern Show. In fact, the only thing missing on Christy’s CV is a successful musical project of his own. That’s all looking to change with the forthcoming debut album by Charred Walls of the Damned, his new metal band with the ridiculous lineup of guitarist Jason Suecof (member of Capharnaum; producer/mixer for The Black Dahlia Murder/Trivium/All That Remains), bass god Steve DiGiorgio (Sadus/Death/Autopsy) and caterwauling vocalist Tim “Ripper” Owens (Judas Priest/Iced Earth). Christy took some time to yak with MetalSucks about his many career paths and the truly bizarre genesis of that band name.

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Here’s the cover art for Yngwie’s new album, Rising Force. Note how both the title of the album and the image are, to put it mildly, insanely phallic:

I take back. It’s 2008 and no one can get away with this shit.

If you listen carefully, I think you can actually hear “Ripper” Owens weeping in the distance.

-AR

I hereby promise this will be the last of an unprecedented run of three posts about Yngwie Malmsteen within the past week; but unscrupulously ousted ex-Iced Earth singer Tim “Ripper” Owens has been tapped to front the band of the fur-coat-wearing, orchestra-conducting King of shred, Yngwie himself. After being ditched by Iced Earth late in 2007 in favor of original singer Matt Barlow at a point when the band seemed poised for a great comeback run, Owens was left down and out. Keep in mind this is the same dude who recorded and toured with his favorite metal band of all time, only to have his life bastardized and turned into a really shitty movie — AND be fired when that lead singer, some dude named Rob Halford, wanted to come back to his old band too. So needless to say, the dude deserved a break.

And he’s gotten it. While a gig with Yngwie may not be as cool as the Anthrax gig Axl suggested, it’s certainly something. No word yet on whether fur coats will become part of Owens’ repertoire.

-VN

At the risk of sounding condescending to a dude who got to fulfill his childhood dream of recording and touring with his favorite metal band of all time and had his life bastardized and turned into a really shitty movie starring an Oscar nominee and a sitcom star, I gotta say: I feel really bad for Tim “Ripper” Owens.

I mean, things seemed to be going so well for Iced Earth: their latest album, Framing Armageddon: Something Wicked was getting rave reviews, it was selling surprisingly well, and while the video for the lead single, “Ten Thousand Strong,” is just about the silliest, cheapest piece of dung I’ve ever seen (see below), Headbanger’s Ball showed it at least three weeks in a row, which is really all the success you can wish for for a metal video these days.

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