MetalSucks

On Sunday night we caught the Beard Destroyer 2009 tour with Hull and Batillus (sadly for us, Salome didn’t play that date). It crushed even harder than we thought it would, so we asked our friend, Batillus skinsman Geoff Summers, to do a tour wrap-up for us. We hope you enjoy!

So, here I sit with a mild case of PTD (post-tour depression) writing up this wrap report for the so-called Beard Destroyer tour featuring Salome, Hull, and my band, Batillus. We had some good times, and we had some bad times. It rained. A lot. Everywhere we went. Fortunately, though, the good dwarfed the bad. Let’s recap…

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Our friends over at Crustcake tell us that there’s going to a Boris/Torche split a lil’ later this year:

The artwork you see above is from a post on Aaron Turner’s blog, in which he talks about a new split 10″ between stoner/noise rock kings (and queen) Boris and down-tuned, doom-pop princes Torche. The artwork goes with the split, of course.

No word on a release date, but the album’ll come out here in the US on Hydra Head.

Holy shit, is that some cool artwork.

-AR

Last night I dragged myself out of the comfort of my air-conditioned home and into the stinking epicenter of trustafarian hipsterdom known as Williamsburg to attend the Torche / Harvey Milk show. While ultimately I had to cut out early to get some deserved rest and a reprieve from the stench of unwashed beardos, I was able to catch loud sets from enjoyable locals Pollution and the aforementioned gay rights icon / noise rock band. I was particularly pleased to get my grubby little hands on a copy of the limited 2xLP of Harvey Milk’s first, previously unreleased album.

According to the back of the record sleeve, this self-titled release was funded by an unnamed record label owner, who received the masters from these sessions but never did anything with them nor contacted the band ever again. Of particular note for noise rock fans is that these ten tracks were recorded by noneother than Bob Weston of the legendary Shellac! Hydra Head promises to put out a proper release of this lost Harvey Milk debut at some point, but for now the only place you’re going to find this is at the band’s remaining shows with Torche. In the meantime you can keep playing your worn out copy of Life…The Best Game In Town, which is now available on vinyl!

-GS

[Gary Suarez is counting the days. He also writes for Brainwashed and usually manages the consistently off-topic No Yoko No. Say, why don't you follow him on Twitter?]

Even without guitarist Juan Montoya, Torche still kick ridiculous amounts of ass. Here’s the brand new video for the song “Healer” from their year-end-list-dominating 2008 release Meanderthal; all 2 minutes and 7 seconds of this song are furious, desert rock reminders of why you should obtain this excellent record by any means necessary if you haven’t done so already. That Torche are still promoting and touring the record well over a year after its release is a testament to how fucking solid it is. Catch them on tour now through August 5th in Canada and the U.S.

-VN

Well, not really… but that’s what the band’s new video, for “Across the Shields,” reminded me of. And apparently I’m not alone.

The video also reminds me of  the time that Vince and I shared a bag full of ’shrooms in Central Park. But that’s a whole other story…

-AR

That I’m sitting here in the MetalSucks Mansion this snowy Monday morning has gotta be some kinda heavy metal miracle; as I type this, Anton OyVey, Rob Pasbani from Metal Injection, our friends from BITPOM.com, and a lot of other fine friends are still stranded in Atlanta due to the weather.

And honestly, there are worse towns in which to be stranded. To my shock, not only is the booze in Atlanta shockingly cheap, not only is the purp somehow completely fucking magical, but the city is about as chill as you could hope for. I kinda miss it already.

But enough wistful reminiscing. After the jump, get my thoughts on some of the best bands of Saturday’s totally excellent Scion Rock Fest!

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Torche’s a.d.d.-ish Meanderthal did not make any of our top ten lists this year (although Vince did give them a leel shout-out), but they certainly deserve a bit o’ New Year’s love…their full, stony, harmony-heavy sound ain’t particularly original, but with each album they have definitely upped the ante and come that much closer to being supremely awesome.

Alas, me shan’t be puffin’ at the moment, but by all means you oughtta…

TORCHE – “Grenades”, from Meanderthal (2008)

TORCHE - “Amnesian”, from Meanderthal (2008)

-KW

2008 has been a fucking great year for metal, and in due time — Monday, Dec. 15, to be exact — Axl, myself and the rest of the writers of MetalSucks will all release our Top 10 year-end lists so you can incessantly argue over which great album was left off or tell us we’re assholes for ranking a certain album higher than it should’ve been.

But for now, ya’ll can argue about something else: here’s my personal short/working list for said year-end list containing all of my favorite metal releases from this year as well as a few that aren’t likely to make my own list but will surely be appearing on others’. Feel free to pipe in with your thoughts or to notify us of any egregious omissions before we put together our final, ordered lists. Regardless, it is going to be really fucking hard to pick just 10 of these and put them in order of awesomeness.

And, my favorite metal records of 2008 in no particular order are…

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Now that you’ve all come down from the Death Magnetic food coma, perhaps you’d be interested in reading about something other than the latest output from four millionaires. Back away from the ledge, you pimply faced virgins, because it’s time for your noise news.

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2008 isn’t even half over yet and I already know it’s going to be tough picking my top 10 favorite metal albums of the year. So far there have already been a bunch of excellent releases that could be top 10 contenders:

• Protest the Hero – Fortress
• Torche – Meanderthal
• Arsis – We are the Nightmare
• Textures – Silhouettes
• Scar Symmetry – Holographic Universe
• Nachtmystium – Assassins: Black Meddle Part 1
• Disturbed – Indestructible

PSYCH! But seriously folks, the first six in the list are the real deal.

I’m hoping for a slow second half of the year so I don’t have to make any hard choices. Actually, not. Keep ‘em comin’.

-VN

Torche’s Meanderthal is a fine, fine album — thunderous, downtuned, droney honky, mid-range guitars combine with poppy melodies and a giant bong of your dealer’s best to create an album that stands as one of the more interesting and engaging metal albums of 2008. Meanderthal perfectly melds the aesthetic of the Melvins, the drive and riffage of Queens of the Stone Age and the stoner melodies of Baroness into a pop-melody cocktail that just works. There’s a hint of ’90s alterna-grunge influence too, though I can’t quite put a finger on it — think the heavier moments of Mellon Collie-era Smashing Pumpkins tuned down a couple of steps and a little rougher around the edges. The epic “Grenades” and triumphant “Across the Shields” are standouts, in turn rocking, crushing and eloquent. “Sundown” and “Without a Sound” show that the band can plod sludgingly with the best of ‘em while “Speed of the Nail” and “Healer” rock out with their cocks out. Shimmering guitars and rhythmic shifts show their faces occasionally but only for a moment before the rocking commences. The weakest link by far are Steve Brooks’ gruff vocals which come off as unrefined and uninteresting, ultimately at odds with the rest of the music. But no matter, Torche as a whole are so good that Meanderthal is sure to be one of those underground phenoms that people will talk about for years to come.

-VN

(four out of five horns)

Meanderthal is out now on HydraHead Records [Buy it Here]. They are on tour in the U.S. throughout May with The Sword and June with Boris.

[Torche on MySpace]

“Yes! Boris and Torche will tour together!” I remarked to myself as I read this bit of news on Lambgoat that Japanese sludge/doomsters Boris and doomy, majestic shoegazers Torche would tour together in the U.S. this summer. “July 10th in NYC at Webster Hall… wow, that’s a big venue for them!” I thought inwardly as I flipped through my planner. “Fuck! That’s the same day as the At the Gates reunion hits New York. Guess I’m not going to that one.”

Oh well.

-VN