Jim Dirschberger directed and did the animation for the new Trash Talk clip, “Slander,” someone should definitely buy this dude a beer. The animation is crude to be sure, but that’s part of its charm. And besides — the video is metal as fuck. And relatable. I mean, radioactive ‘shrooms? Who among us has never been there?

Check it out below — and make sure you watch the whole thing. It’s short, and the payoff is great.

“Slander” appears on Trash Talk’s Awake EP, which is out now on True Panther.

-AR

[via Stereogum]

[The seven-inch record is a cornerstone for hardcore music. Unlike metal that has diminished vinyl while perversely fetishizing it, hardcore continues to depend on the format as an essential platform for disseminating music. Characteristically shorter song lengths make it possible for a band in this scene to make a statement over the course of multiple tracks and provide it in a way that is affordable. The purpose of this column is to identify and offer short critiques of some new and recent releases in the 7" format.]

If you attended this year’s CMJ and didn’t catch at least one of Trash Talk‘s five sets, it’s your own damn fault. The brisk material on Awake (True Panther Sounds) surpasses last year’s Eyes & Nines as well as earlier singles. The title track is an absolute banger, like Circle Jerks on PCP–furious, yet still so catchy. Their photo adorning the Arts section of the New York Times, Trash Talk are perhaps the right band at the right time, and dizzying cuts like “Blind Evolution” prove they deserve what acclaim they seem so poised to get.

Santa Barbara, CA’s Minus may have only just released their debut 7″ Hard Feelings (Triple-B), but there’s nothing in the content that suggests that. What we get are five downtuned tracks of bummed out metallic hardcore. The vocals are intelligible, revealing lyrics stuffed with doubt, depression, and self-hate. “Weight” just devastates with a severe negative outlook and heavy riffage. Minus aren’t about overcoming the odds; they way they see it, we’ve already lost.

Matt Henderson must have been storing these riffs for a decade. How else could the former Madball guitarist sonically recreate that group’s 90s salad days with his latest project? A veritable hardcore supergroup, S.O.S. windmills all imitators on I Owe You Nothing (Reaper). Throughout, Terror frontman Scott Vogel lives out his Hardcore Fantasy League dreams as Freddy Cricien’s surrogate, no more apparent than on the title track, a pitch-perfect sequel to “Look My Way.” The sound of reinvigoration on wax…

-GS

We have a decent amount of new stuff this week, including quality releases from Skeletonwitch, Black Cobra, Hull, Fuck The Facts and more. This writer’s opinion on all of it after the jump.

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Sacramento, CA hardcore band Trash Talk have a new EP entitled Awake due out next week (pre-order here), and what I’ve heard from it so far is fucking excellent, and a worthy successor to last year’s Eyes & Nines. Even cooler than the tracks, perhaps, are the well-done music videos for two of the cuts, “Awake” and “Burn Alive.” The latter of these just premiered this week, and is above for your viewing pleasure.

Or, perhaps, displeasure. The short clip opens with the aftermath of police brutality against what appears to be a group of passionate, but presumably peaceful, protesters. What follows is a violent vengeful response that hits a bit close to home, given the way the New York Police Department has been treating the Occupy Wall Street protesters over the past couple weeks. I’m actually heading down there today to march in solidarity with those occupying Zuccotti Park. I’ll be the guy in the MetalSucks t-shirt.

-GS

Our friends at The Deciblog are killing it today. I could do two separate posts pointing you towards each of the terrific stories they ran just this morning, but I’m a jerk, so I’m just gonna lump ‘em both together:

• Did you know that legendary pretty boy Danny Lilker has a black metal band now? Because he felt that being a current or former member of Brutal Truth, Nuclear Assault, Anthrax, and S.O.D. wasn’t enough to cement his place in the annals of metal history, I guess. Either that, or he just wanted to try something new. In any case, the band is called Nokturnal Hellstorm, and The Deciblog is streaming a new track from the band, “Naan Kadavul,” here. It doesn’t do that much for me but maybe you’ll like it better. They also have an interview with Lilker in which he explains the history of Nokturnal Hellstorm, possibilities for the band’s debut full-length, and, oh yeah, the new Brutal Truth album. Check that shit out.
• The Deciblog also posted footage of a record store in Berkley, Rasputin Music, enjoying a lively in-store performance from Trash Talk (below). And, uh… wow. That ain’t like no in-store performance I’ve ever seen. It doesn’t look like an inventory was actually damaged in the mayhem, but I do have to wonder how many potential customers were scared away as a result of walking in and seeing dudes moshing/figuring out ways to stage dive despite the lack of a stage. I just can’t imagine, for example, Mama Rosenberg putting up with that shit when all she wanted was a copy of the new George Winston album or whatever, y’know?

-AR

If you’re one of those people who read this site every day (God bless you, you fucking masochists!), you may have noticed a lack of premium content from yours truly these past couple of weeks. That’s because I’ve been in Japan soaking in neon, dining on fresh sushi, and recoiling in horror at the perverse underbelly of otaku. I did manage to hit up a few rock bars in Osaka (Rock Rock — check out who else has been there!) and Tokyo (Beat Cafe), but otherwise this was a pretty metal-free trip–and that’s okay with me.

So, shit, man. Quite a bit happened in the wonderful world of hardcore while I was away! Ruiner broke up. This Is Hardcore 2010 finally revealed its drool-inducing lineup and sold out in less than two days. (I wasn’t able to get my tickets in time, sadly.) Unsane announced a series of U.S. dates where they’ll play 1995′s awesome Scattered Smothered & Covered live in its entirety. Notable releases included Ceremony’s Rohnert Park, for which I’ll be posting a review later this week. Some pretty awesome tours were announced as well. Check out the dates for some of these below.

Looking forward to your “Welcome Back” sentiments in the Comments section!

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Despite their inclusion at MetalSucks’ 2008 CMJ showcase, Trash Talk haven’t received much in the way of coverage here. Consider this the first step towards remedying that unintentional failing. I mean, it’s not every day that one of the most insane modern hardcore bands neatly and conveniently re-releases its entire discography on vinyl–one record to be exact. Roughly thirty minutes long, the 180g vinyl edition Shame compiles four of the Trash Talk’s increasingly difficult-to-find releases (Walking Disease, Plagues, East Of Eden/Son Of A Bitch, and self-titled full-length).

This is a great introduction to a great band and packed with loads of neat extras like a full-sized poster and footnotes. Pre-order it direct from the band. The turntable-deprived can also snag a CD copy of Shame through the U.K.’s Hassle Records as a confounding double-disc set, with each disc averaging about 15 minutes of music. Lyrics are included for those who care to scream along.

-GS

[Gary Suarez usually manages the consistently off-topic No Yoko No. He recently quit Twitter.]

I would like to go on record as saying I wasn’t too big on the whole re-thrash trend of 2006-2008 from the get-go. I mean, I loves me some thrash, but 99% of the time any band regardless of genre tries to do something that sounds exactly like an old band(s) I’m against it. The key to artistic progression is moving forward, not back, and unfortunately many of the re-thrash bands just brought nothing new to the table. Taking elements of the old and infusing it into the new is all good by me, though, which is why I’m all for bands that have successfully fused vintage thrash influence into a modern shell; Sylosis and Lazarus A.D. are two examples who readily spring to mind.

And Iron Age. Holy fucking shit, you guys.

I was not expecting to like this record at all (see above). But Iron Age’s blend of ripping thrash, NYHC pummel and doomy ambience channeled through modern-sounding production on their second record The Sleeping Eye just hit that fucking SPOT. This is music for fans of fucking furious, tight, beer-soaked, basement mosh-pit party metal like Trash Talk and Bison B.C., Metallica Ride The Lightning-era guitar riffs pushed to the fullest and real in every way with nary a speck of hipster retro throwback. The Sleeping Eye kicks as much ass as any thrash-influenced record released all year, right up there with Rumpelstiltskin Grinder’s Living For Death, Destroying the Rest (albeit in a different way).

So, without further ado, here’s a stream of the entire album. It comes out today. Listen.

[This promotion has ended. -Ed.]

The big buzz on the street yesterday was that Metallica would be playing at the 2,100 capacity Stubb’s; was it worth getting there early to ensure a spot inside? The 8 semis parked outside the venue loomed large. Would us plebes even be able to get in?  Some friends from the Relapse goon squad opted to try, and apparently getting in wasn’t quite the shit-show we’d anticipated. We opted for Whitechapel instead (bad decision), but did end up listening to three songs from outside the outdoor venue along with a few hundred other kindred souls.

While I was busy not seeing Metallica, I did catch Tia Carrera, Hesta Prynn, Jump Back Jake, Dance Gavin Dance, Whitechapel, Wolves in the Throne Room, Dredg, and then an epic DIY show/party on a bridge over the Colorado River with makeshift performances by Vivian Girls and Trash Talk. Highlights and lowlights after the jump.

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Free of the shackles of a major record label, The Bronx frontman Matt Caughthran seemed like a newly reinvigorated man when I spoke to him on the phone this fall. Excited about finally having a team behind the band that actually cares about the band and their awesome new record The Bronx III, Matt told us about how the band’s deal with Island / DefJam went south, what’s it’s like to be in control of everything again, and about the writing and recording of the both the band’s new record and the already-recorded, soon-to-be-released traditional mariachi record they have in the can.

We were supposed to rendezvous at the midtown offices of the band’s publicists but Matt got caught up handling band business at their management’s office, the same firm who handles Fall Out Boy. And that’s where the conversation began.

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Our bro-bros at BITPOM have posted pictures from the MetalSucks co-sponsored CMJ showcase this past Tuesday night featuring The Bronx, Trash Talk and Akimbo. To say that all three bands impressed and tore the tiny basement of Fontana’s apart would be an understatement. Check out BITPOM for the full photo-set of all three bands.

Lest you forget, MetalSucks is sponsoring a show this year at CMJ, otherwise known as the week in which thousands of annoying skinny pants-wearing indie snobs descend upon downtown Manhattan. But fuck ‘em, because there are a ton of great metal events going on this year, of which your favorite metal douchebags are sponsoring one!

Tuesday, October 21st
Fontana’s
105 Eldridge St., NYC
8pm, $8 cover

THE BRONX
TRASH TALK
AKIMBO

See you there.

-VN, AR & KW

MetalSucks is proud to announce our first-ever CMJ event. Together with the fine folks at Solid PR, Sailor Jerry, and Keep-a-Breast.org, we will be hosting a show during the week in which thousands of music industry minions and self-important snobs descend upon NYC’s Lower East Side, also known as the CMJ Music Marathon. The details:

Tuesday, October 21st
Fontana’s – 105 Eldridge St.

THE BRONX
TRASH TALK
AKIMBO

That’s a fucking great lineup. I love The Bronx, and you should too; even if they’re actually from L.A., we’ll forgive them because they rock so damn hard. Akimbo is also a really cool and innovative band; and though I don’t much about Trash Talk, I’m sure they’re worthy of your time by way of inclusion on this bill.

See you there! Buy us drinks. We poor.