FEATURING MEMBERS OF GWAR, DARKEST HOUR, REVOCATION, INTRONAUT, ABYSMAL DAWN, BRUTAL TRUTH, THE ATLAS MOTH, AND IKILLYA

Every year year, MetalSucks asks musicians from across the vast spectrum of the metalsphere (or, in a few cases, the almost-metalsphere) what their favorite albums of the year have been. Death metallers, thrash metallers, black metallers, stoners, grinders, and djenters alike have graciously contributed lists to MS, and we’ll be running them in groups of nine to ten musicians at a time two to three times a day for the whole week.

After the jump, check out the next group… we hope you enjoy seeing what some of metal’s heaviest hitters were into this year as much as we have!

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Congratulations to Isaac Schwarz, the winner of our MDF MVP contest! We had a bunch of great entries, but Isaac’s was chosen above all others by an illustrious panel of Maryland Death Fest veterans, including Andres Erickson (General Surgery/Sayyadina), Matt Harvey (Exhumed/Depakitator), Rich Hoak (Brutal Truth/Total Fucking Destruction), Mike Hrubovcak (Monstosity), Mike Majewski (Devourment), Matt Moore (Absu/ Rumpelstiltskin Grinder),  and Proscriptor (Absu). Isaac any 2 shirts, 1 LP, 2 CDs , and a  mystery prize from the Relapse booth at this year’s MDF (Relapse titles only). Not bad, eh, Isaac?

And don’t forget that Maryland Death Fest starts tonight, and rages all weekend! Four day passes are now sold out, but three passes and tickets to individual days are still available here. This year’s line-up is incredible, and includes Neurosis, Coroner, Voivod, Nuclear Assault, (the soon to be departed) Cathedral, Corrosion of Conformity, Exhorder, Exhumed, Kylesa, Ghost, Skinless’ farewell gig, and tons more. If you have the chance to go and you don’t, you’re a damn fool.

And on that note, here’s Isaac’s contest-winning essay…

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The Sonar in Baltimore, Maryland has been shut down due to an expired liquor license and a subsequent dispute amongst several of the people who run the venue.

“So?” you may be thinking. “Venues get shut down all the time. Such is life. Why should I care?”

Well, this particular venue was supposed to host Maryland Deathfest (plus two sold-out Deftones/Dillinger Escape Plan shows) at the end of this month. Which means the MDF, one of, if not the, most revered extreme music festivals in North America, only has a few weeks to find a new venue.

But don’t fret! According to Metal Underground, “The festival organizers claim to have a backup plan that should involve little to no inconvenience to ticket holders (even those coming from out of town) and will be releasng more details soon.” So it looks like the festival is going forward as planned, which is obviously a major relief. It would be a serious tragedy if the festival had been derailed because somebody couldn’t keep track of an important date.

The final line-up for the fest, as well as set times for each band, is after the jump, although please note that it’s all subject to change once the new venue is announced.

In the meantime, don’t forget that you still have ’til Monday, May 16 at midnight EST to enter the awesome MDF MVP contest we’re doing with Relapse. You could win any 2 shirts, 1 LP, 2 CDs , and a  mystery prize from the Relapse booth at this year’s MDF (Relapse titles only), and the contest is being judged by a who’s who of MDF luminaries: Andres Erickson (General Surgery/Sayyadina), Matt Harvey (Exhumed/Depakitator), Rich Hoak (Brutal Truth/Total Fucking Destruction), Mike Hrubovcak (Monstosity), Mike Majewski (Devourment), Matt Moore (Absu/ Rumpelstiltskin Grinder),  and Proscriptor (Absu)! Go here for all details on how to enter.

And now those set times…

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IN CASE Y’ALL SOMEHOW FORGOT!!!

The ninth annual installement of Maryland Deathfest, arguably America’s best extreme music festival, will take place from May 26 – 29, and will feature performances from Neurosis, Coroner, Voivod, Nuclear Assault, Corrosion of Conformity, Cathedral, Exhorder, Ghost, Kylesa, Exhumed, and tons more! You can get more details and tickets here.

To celebrate this stupendous occasion, MetalSucks is teaming up with Relapse Records for an incredibly cool contest: THE MDF MVP. Here’s how it’s gonna work:

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The ninth annual installement of Maryland Deathfet, arguably America’s best extreme music festival, is just around the corner! This year’s fest will take place from May 26 – 29, and, as usual, has a ridiculously strong line-up: Neurosis, Coroner, Voivod, Nuclear Assault, Corrosion of Conformity, Cathedral, Exhorder, Ghost, Kylesa, Exhumed, and tons more will all be playing during the course of the weekend. You can get more details and tickets here.

To celebrate this stupendous occasion, MetalSucks is teaming up with Relapse Records for an incredibly cool contest: THE MDF MVP. Here’s how it’s gonna work:

• Anytime between now and Monday, May 16 at midnight EST, send an e-mail to news AT metalsucks DOT net with the subject line “MDF MVP.”
• The contents of the e-mail should include anything and everything you think proves that you should be this year’s MDF MVP. How many other installments of the fest have you attended? Have any great stories? Pictures? Memorabilia? Memories of great or terrible bands? It’s up to you to convince the panel of judges that you deserve to win.
• Speaking of the panel of judges, look at the MDF MVPs we ‘ve rounded up to reign over this contest! Andres Erickson (General Surgery/Sayyadina), Matt Harvey (Exhumed/Depakitator), Rich Hoak (Brutal Truth/Total Fucking Destruction), Mike Hrubovcak (Monstosity), Mike Majewski (Devourment), Matt Moore (Absu/ Rumpelstiltskin Grinder),  and Proscriptor (Absu) will look over the entries and choose the MDF MVP!!!
• The winner gets  any 2 shirts, 1 LP, 2 CDs , and a  mystery prize from the Relapse booth at this year’s MDF (Relapse titles only).
• The winner will be announced the week of May 23.

And that’s it! This should be a really fun contest that separates the real fans from the chumps… so get crackin’ on those entries!!!

-Axl, Vince, and Everyone at MetalSucks

Oh my fuck, you guys, IT IS 71 DEGREES OUTSIDE. I was gonna stay home and watch Vanilla Ice’s underrated cinemetallic classic, Cool as Ice, but instead I am getting stoned and going for a long, long walk in the sun. Quickly, before I ditch you losers to actually enjoy life, here’s what we did this week:

• God Forbid’s Doc Coyle weighed-in on Sergeant D.’s “band life is for losers” theory.
• We broke the news that hardcore supergroup S.O.S. has signed with Good Fightand got an exclusive report on the status of He is Legend from the band’s manager.
• We debuted new music by Napalm Death (thanks, Decibel!), The Haunted and Clutch.
• We said cel-lo to Grayceon’s Jackie Perez Gratz and got the skinny on the new Today is the Day album from drummer Curran Reynolds.
• We checked out the latest release from Total Fucking Destruction.
• We wondered if women make better metal singers than men.
• We examined the Kid Rock-Confederate flag controversy.
• We watched the worst video of 2011 so far.
• Dummy Nosenothing listened to the new Meshuggah song and then chased an ice cream truck.
• WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK WHAT THE FUCK…

Alright, I’m gonna go have some ice cream! ICE CREAM! YYYYAAAAAYYYYY!!!

-AR

Total Fucking Destruction is whatever it wants to be, which is both its greatest asset and downfall. On the one hand, it’s a perfect outlet for Brutal Truth drummer Rich Hoak’s spastic, jazzy grind drumming: It’s got the flexibility to be a world-scorching grind band, a punky/hardcore bunch of dudes, or a group with an ADD attitude toward time signatures at any point in time. I’ve always posited that they resemble what a grind band started by Devin Townshend would sound like. But like that prospect, its inherent absurdity sometimes undoes the weight the band strives for. TFD sound like no other band out there, but depending on your mood, that can mean either, “Oh!” or “Ugh.” And Hater, their latest (and also their first full length not to feature their name in the title, unfortunately), elicits the same reaction: a patient, tolerant mood lets Hoak’s schizophrenic, speed-addled grind wash over you with the album’s 27 minutes zipping by like nothing, but a testy, irritated one can make the record’s every moment a long one, it’s many dalliances impossible to keep track of. Either way, though, it sounds like little else in metal, and especially grindcore. Total Fucking Destruction’s versatility is most welcome, even if it can grate on some.

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New releases by Deicide, Neuraxis and Total Fucking Destruction top this week’s list of new metal albums available in the States. While the new one from Emmure is guaranteed to outsell them all (combined!), we can take solace in the fact that there a smattering of other great new releases too from the likes of Ava Inferi, Darkest Era, Rabbits, The Famine, and a whole lot more. Vic Vaughn breaks ‘em all down after the fold.

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Total Fucking Destruction — a.k.a. Rich Hoak from Brutal Truth’s other band — have a new album, Hater, coming out next month (that’s the cover art above, which I think is making reference to at least two different Kubrick films, in addition to world events), and Noisecreep is streaming a new track. It’s called “Dudehammer.” I’d never heard the phrase “dudehammer” before, but the Urban Dictionary tells me its a euphemism for “cock.”

Wow. That might be the best euphemism for a penis I’ve ever heard. And it makes the song’s chorus — “DUDE! HAMMER! IN YOUR FACE!” — 110% MORE awesome. This is a brutal grind song about waving your schlong in someone’s grill. How totally sexcellent. As Vince would say, A++++ WDBWA.

Listen to the track here. Translation Loss will release Hater on February 15.

-AR

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Welcome to “Question of the Week,” a (sometimes) weekly debate amongst the MetalSucks staff regarding a recent hot button issue.

There weren’t any real hot button topics this week, so we decided to just play a fun game that used to keep Vince and Axl occupied for many a lunch period when they were kids:

The MS staff’s answers after the jump.

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We’re just a few weeks away from Maryland Deathfest 2010, which will take place from May 28-30 in (duh) Baltimore, Maryland. This year’s edition of the annual fest promises to be the best one yet, with a line-up that includes Gorguts, Autopsy, Obituary, Entombed, Sodom, Repulsion, D.R.I., and a ton of other kick-ass bands. In anticipation of the event, we thought it would be fun to get some recollections of past MDFs from artists who were there. So we’re teaming up with Relapse Records to do just that! The inaugural edition, by Matt from Rumpelstiltskin Grinder, is below; in the coming weeks, we’ll also present entries by members of Brutal Truth, Disfear, and more. Enjoy…

Day 1

I forget what year it was exactly… but it was the time Municipal Waste played… Eli (Relapse Sales Manager, XXX Maniak) and I (Rumpelstiltskin Grinder, Absu, Woe, XXX Maniak, Creeping Vine Productions) drove down to MDF in one of our shitty cars… we were hoping to get there in time to see Municipal Waste.  We get to the parking lot, and the only spot there is too small because some jerk-off parked between two spots.  We yell at two nearby dudes to come help us and the four of us lift up this loser’s car and move it out of the way so we can park.  High fives and last car-beers finished…

We scam our way inside somehow and Municipal just started… we each grab two beers from the bar and get involved in the circle pit. I forget much of the rest of the day but here are some recollections:

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I’ve seen The Binary Code live a bunch of times, and they just keep getting better and better and better. They could always play, but they’ve really come into their own as performers; I feel like I’ve watched them go from a caterpillar to a butterfly! A total wicked butterfly that plays awesome progressive technical death metal.

If you live in the Northeast and you’ve never checked these dudes out, well, here’s your chance – they’re doing a show in Brooklyn next week with Lair of the Minotaur and Elks, and then a Northeast tour with The Gloominous Doom. (One date will even include Rumpelstiltskin Grinder and Total Fucking Destruction. I’ve never wished I lived in Hamburg, PA so badly in my life.) I’ve never seen The Gloominous Doom live, but after seeing their video for “Portal Potty,” which made its debut on Metal Injection earlier this week (and which Vince already wrote about, but I just now watched ’cause I’m slow that way), I really, really want to; not only is it a funny clip for a good song, but I’d love to see how a tech-death crowd reacts to reggae parts. Because, yes, they have reggae parts.

Bottom line: they are two really, really creative bands, and these shows are gonna be a lot of fun. Get tour dates after the jump!

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Just yesterday I was complaining about a lack of decent grindcore thus far in ’08, and now here comes the reunited Brutal Truth to tell me to sop my bellyachin’, punch me in the teeth, and spit on me when I’m down.

“Turmoil,” currently streaming on the band’s MySpace page, is one of four new songs the band recorded late last year, and will appear on This Comp Kills Fascists, an upcoming compilation (duh) that will be released on Relapse later this year. The album is being put together by Scott Hull of Pig Destroyer and Agoraphobic Nosebleed fame, and will feature some of our other favorite grind acts, including Total Fucking Destruction, the soon to be broken up Insect Warfare, and Deciblog faves Magrudergrind (If you don’t know Magrudergrind check out their contribution to the comp, “Burden,” here. Seriously. So fucking worth your time).

And now that I’ve been writing about it for a minute and listening to the new Brutal Truth and Magrudergrind tracks, I am suddenly very, very excited about this album. Yowza.

-AR