MetalSucks

On November 10th, Unearth will offer up a special edition of their latest album The March. The special edition will come with a bonus DVD featuring a tour documentary entitled The Three Day March, with footage shot by acclaimed director Doug Spangenberg during Unearth’s recent tour of the Northeastern US. The DVD will also feature footage from inside the studio during the band’s recording sessions for The March as well as party footage from the band’s recent tour with Testament. Anyone who’s ever met the dudes from Unearth or even seen them live should know that they’re a perpetual party machine… so this should be fun to watch. In addition to the candid behind the scenes footage, the DVD will also feature live footage of four songs from the 2008 Wacken Festival and the three music videos shot for The March.

Check out an exclusive preview clip from the DVD below, and pre-order the special edition set here. Unearth go on tour in early November with Hatebreed, Cannibal Corpse, Born of Osiris and Hate Eternal; full list of dates after the jump.

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Dude, I haven’t played Guitar Hero (or Rock Band, for that matter) in for-ever. But apparently their song “Graves of Opportunity” is available as part of a track pack for Guitar Hero world tour, alongside an awesome Chimaira song (”Walking On Broken Glass”) and something by a band I don’t care to mention who are named after a Meryl Streep movie, so maybe it’s time I picked up my plastic guitar and rocked out again.

The “Graves of Opportunity” certainly gives me the desire to do so – I mean, it looks like it was more fun to film than it is to watch. Phil Labonte looks like he’s having a good time, at least.

If there really were Unearth avatars for Guitar Hero, it would be awesome if when you hit “overdrive” or whatever the fuck it’s called, the digital Ken Susi would spit in the air, catch it in his hand, and then run it through his hair. Ah. I can dream, can’t I?

“Graves of Opportunity” comes off of Unearth’s excellent album The March, which is out on Metal Blade now.

-AR

Shady times in Poland. We were a little bummed to begin with. Warsaw was coming up and we found out that Behemoth was playing in the same town as us. In their homeland. Ouch. When you get news like that your first feelings are, “Why bother with our show? Why not go hang out at their show?” That’s never a good idea. I remember when we were on the Dark Funeral/Naglfar tour in 2007 and we hit Phoenix, Arizona the same day as Behemoth and Job For a Cowboy. It seemed like a serious bummer, but somehow there were still around 200 kids at our show, which was on par for that tour. Same thing happened on this tour. There were like 400-500 kids at our show. I heard there were 2,500 people at the Behemoth show, but still, 400-500 kids made for good times.

The crowd was enthusiastic and other than the intense heat onstage, I thought it was great times. The promoter was super cool. The food spread he gave us was fit for an army. So many different kinds of everything. Meats, cheeses, breads, drinks, cereals, candies, fruits, yogurts, spreads, etc., etc., etc. His dinner was amazingly catered as well. So many different choices of pastas, meats, salads. The backstage area was huge. We were treated great.

Until the end of the night, that is.

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I am SO PISSED that I missed Chimaira’s most recent tour (with Hatebreed), because a) Chimaira slay live and b) I’m fucking dying to hear some more material from The Infection in a live setting – when I saw the band on this spring’s Music as a Weapon tour, the album had literally just come out that day and the band were, consequently, only playing two new songs.

So. Rhythm guitarist Matt DeVries had to pull a Mark Morton and leave the tour early so he could get home for the birth of his new child, Austin (Mazel tov, Matt!); filling in for him is Daath co-guitarist/all around cool dude Emil Werstler. I am using this little fact as an excuse to post this video I saw on Blabbermouth of the Wersterful Chimaira performing “The Venom Inside.” Also, to point out that bassist Jim LaMarca seems to have shed his signature locks. That leaves DeVries as the only dude in Chimaira capable of windmilling. Just sayin’.

Chimaira continue to decimate Europe alongside Unearth, Throwdown, and our friends in Daath through October 12; then, at the end of the month, they hit the States again with Trivium, Whitechapel and Dirge Within. Get dates here.

-AR

First of all, I have to say, if you’re into Muse then check out their new album, The Resistance, which comes out today. It’s fucking brilliant. They always manage to take a different approach from album to album, and this one continues on that path. Anyways, its great stuff and I recommend it highly.

I’ve had music writing on my mind a lot these days. Maybe its because I have a lot on my plate. The record I’m doing with Emil from DAATH and Cynic’s Sean Reinert needs to be delivered by the first of the year. It’s going to be released in the spring of 2010. My side project wants to record an EP of still to be written material this December. And last but not least, DAATH is looking to go into the studio in April to record our next one. We’d like for it to be out by the end of Summer 2010.

That’s a shit load of music to write in a very short period of time if you consider that we’re still touring. Some advice I get from people is “Don’t rush.” That’s good advice. None of this is going to be rushed and it will all get what it needs and wants so that it can grow into the work of art it deserves to become. I think I’ve figured out how to write on the road and this next tour will be the perfect situation for that. We are sharing the bus with a straightedge band. Can’t be partying like usual because my health could relapse. Instead of staring into space and wishing I could party, I’ll occupy my time with creative things. So I’ll be writing music on the road. And a lot of it!

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I listened to The Infection over the weekend for the first time in a little while. Guess what? Still kills. I can’t wait to see some of this shit played live.

Here’s a not-so-great quality bootleg of the band playing the first cut off the album, “The Venom Inside.” As Vince says, “This song just makes me happy.” What a killer way to open the show. Sounds like the crowd is almost as loud as Mark Hunter.

Friendly reminder: Chimaira are on tour right now with Hatebreed, Dying Fetus, Toxic Holocaust and Winds of Plague. Then they head to Europe in September with Unearth, Throwdown, and our friends in Daath. You can get all the tour dates here.

-AR

It’s no secret that pretty much every band in metal wants to open for Metallica, even if that band’s best days are behind them – and God Forbid are no exception. Since we consider GF like family around the mansion, seeing them fulfill one of their ambitions and get to open for ‘Tallica would be pretty swell.

For better or worse, for right now we’re going to have to settle for Doc Coyle opening for Metallica.

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Laying in a bed in Atlanta, Georgia has never felt so sweet. One week ago tonight I was laying in a hospital bed in Hartford, not sure if I was going to live out the week. One week before that, I was breaking fevers in the van once every three hours, not able to breath, and breaking down from the exhaustion of getting really fucking sick on the road.

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I’m not really a regular comics reader anymore so I have no idea if they still do this, but DC use to have this thing called Elseworlds where they basically reimagined the lives of various heroes – e.g., What if Superman had been Russian?, What if Batman was a vampire?, What if Wonder Woman had a dick?, etc. And I always really enjoyed those.

That same interest in the “what if?” questions must be why I’m also so fascinated when a band has to do a one-off gig without a key member and replaces said member with some other all-star musician – e.g., Metallica with Dave Lombardo and Joey Jordison, Trivium with Doc Coyle, and now Lamb of God with Unearth’s Buz “Banned from Wal-Mart” McGrath.

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Oftentimes, writers tend to fall in love with their own words and florid descriptions. I try to avoid this in my true crime books as I believe the stories themselves propel the tale along.

In music criticism, it’s even worse.

Who can come up with the most br00tal analogies or the wittiest put-downs or the sickest comparisons usually takes precedence over simply writing a straight-forward review of what the writer has just listened to or witnessed? Sometimes it’s not necessary to go into an overly detailed historical analysis of metal or an attempt to make a sociological connection between the music and its fans. I’m sure I’ve fallen prey to pedantic verboseness at times. But, hey, sometimes, it’s just better to tell the readers that “shit sucks” or “shit’s great.”

That being said, Testament and Lazarus A.D. fall into the “shit’s great” category, while Unearth falls into the “shit sucks” category.

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I mean, look at these dudes. They be scary. Like, real “don’t wanna run into these guys in a back alley” scary, not faux “I wear corpsepaint to cover up for my small penis” scary. They nearly fuckin’ made me cry through sheer awesomeness at the 3rd stage of New England Metal & Hardcore Fest this past Friday; a band that bills themselves as “Old School Brutal Style” can’t go wrong. The Destro are at the top of my “psyched for a new album in ‘09″ list at the moment; their new record was recorded just prior to NEMHF with Ken “Not a Child Molester” Susi of Unearth fame, so expect that shit to drop on Ironclad / Metal Blade some time this year.

Here’s their video for “Beast Burden” from their debut record released in 2007. I’m pretty sure they’ve got a new bassist now (and possibly even a new drummer) but rest assured the new lineup kicks even more ass than the last. Listen to more of The Destro on Myspace.

-VN

True story (not tr00 story): Vince and I have a friend who is definitely not into metal and, for a very long time, thought Killswitch Engage was called Kill, Switch and Gauge. Y’know, like the world’s most fucked up law firm or something.

Speaking of KsE, here’s what went down this week:

• Even new Killswitch album art makes you guys argue. Sheesh.
• We have an exclusive clip from the new As I Lay Dying DVD!
• We spoke to Cannibal Corpse’s Paul Mazurkiewicz and checked out the new release from Dååth.
• You accused Vince of being a pedophile.
• Best website ever?
• I thought Anso DF’s coverage of Revolver’s Golden Gods Awards was pretty funny, but apparently none of you agree with me.
• Could Slayer and Megadeth really be touring together?!?

Okay. We have a special 4/20 treat for you guys on Monday, plus the triumphant return of Unreadable Band Logo of the Week, so make sure you get your ass back here. ‘Til then, I bid you adieu.

-AR

Ken Susi is some kind of wicked, twisted dude. I don’t even wanna know what he said to get the poor little girl in this video (or her parents) to perform a song with deeply sexual undertones. There is something very, very wrong here, yet… this is awesome! Watch it!

-VN

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All is not lost in the world of metal; in fact, this past week brought some nice surprises, along with the usual mish-mash of shitty radio rock bands. Last week’s sales numbers, with our usual sardonic commentary, after the jump. (Hint: look at the tags below, and click “read more” if any of those bands interest you!).

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Congrats to MetalSucks devotee Joel V. who proved himself worthy of metal god status by photoshopping corpsepaint on his own photo to win last week’s contest. For your troubles, you’ll receive that awesome Early Man prize package; a limited edition gatefold colored vinyl of Beware the Circling Fin, said album on CD, and an Early Man t-shirt (aka this package).

This week we’re going back to the good ol’ photo caption contest, and we’re giving away one copy of Amon Amarth’s latest Viking onslaught Twilight of the Thunder God and one copy of Massachusetts metallers Unearth’s new record The March, courtesy our friends at Metal Blade Records. Just come up with a funny caption to the below photo and post it in the comments, and one of them is yours.

Things are heating up in the U.S. presidential race, and everyone from Vince to Axl to Dallas to the Blogronaut expressed their opinions; naturally you all got fired up too. But even politics as usual couldn’t stop the flow of happenings this week in the world of metal:

• Dallas apologized. Woah.
• Best Buy claims Chinese Democracy is finally coming out, but we’re skeptical. No word yet from Axl Rose.
• We debuted a new Early Man track and spoke with singer/guitarist Mike Conte, while Nathan Ells of the Human Abstract spilled the beans on just about everything.
• Testament was deemed one of the Top 40 greatest thrash bands of all time.
• We loved new albums from Gojira and Psycroptic. You loved arguing about them even more, especially the former. Meanwhile, new releases from Unearth and Cradle of Filth proved controversial.
• Protest the Hero’s van broke down; they danced.
• AC/DC’s Brian Johnson proved himself old and out of touch, but that didn’t stop us from asking for freebies to see his band live.

We out. See you Monday.

Life on the road looks fun, doesn’t it?

In other news, guitarist Tim Millar’s beard is fucking FIERCE, dude! I positively cannot WAIT to see these guys open for Unearth on October 30th in NYC.

-VN

I’ve been trying to organize my thoughts on the latest Unearth album, The March, for a couple of weeks now, and I’m finally waving the white flag of surrender. I have a lot to say about this album, some of it good, some of it bad, and I’m just gonna let it all hang out now in a little bit of a brain fart. So bear with me here…

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Holy shit, it’s fucking October already? What the fuck? Weren’t we just talking about all the summer festivals, like, yesterday? Sheesh.

ANYWAY, I mention it because Unearth’s new album, The March, drops October 14 on Metal Blade, which just a couple of weeks away. So it’s time for the band’s promotional machine to kick into overdrive, and they’ve started by posting another new song, “We Are Not Anonymous,” on the band’s MySpace page. Like “My Will Be Done,” the other new song the band has already unveiled (and which is also streaming on MySpace, in case ya missed it the first time), it’s a shreddy, catchy, breakdownalicious slice of metalcore. In other words, it’s classic Unearth.

I don’t know if this album is gonna reinvent the wheel – in fact, it clearly won’t – but I am fairly certain it’ll rock your panties off. And it reunites the band with producer Adam D., so, y’know, that’s fun.

-AR

P.S. Re: the above photo… what an odd tramp stamp to get. Can you imagine if you were hittin’ that and you kept looking down to read Unearth lyrics? And wouldn’t be you tempted to scream out “No, I’ve known a girl’s ass before, but that was a bold claim?”

That live video of Unearth playing their new single, “My Will Be Done,” was useful for reassuring fans that, yes, the band has a new album coming out, but not much else. It was some kid’s cell phone bootleg, after all, so sound quality better than you’d find in, say, a bum’s asshole would have been asking too much.

Lucky for us, then, the band is now streaming the studio version of the song in all its aural awesomeness. And now that I’ve actually gotten to listen to it, I’m really excited for Unearth’s new album, The March. I mean, I like this song way more than anything from Unearth’s last album… just listen to those dueling guitar solos! Suh-weet.

Why can Unearth make this brand of metalcore sound so effortless when so many other bands try, and fail, to reproduce this sound?

The March drops October 14 on Metal Blade. I predict that “My Will Be Done” will have a very cool video sometime before that date arrives.

-AR