… Brandon Ellis. You might recognize the 18-year old (!) Ellis’s name from his run as a touring guitarist with Arsis on their most recent Jim Malone-less tour, or perhaps from his brief stint with North Carolina-based MS-faves Vanisher. Filling in for Jim Fucking Malone in Arsis is pretty dern impressive on its own, but learning a band’s entire live set — let alone a band as technical and precise as Sylosis — in TWO DAYS, then going out on tour with them to open for As I Lay Dying in 1,000+ capacity venues? Mind boggling. This kid’s got my respect.

But the news of Brandon Ellis replacing Alex Bailey — who broke his wrist mere days into Sylosis’ U.S. tour — isn’t new in and of itself, as Ellis started playing with the band late last week and several other sites picked up the news around that time. Mainly I just wanted a reason to post this new live music video of Sylosis playing “A Serpent’s Tongue,” ’cause Sylosis are fan-fucking-tastic and you really ought to pay them attention. I named their 2011 release Edge of the Earth as one of my Top 15 of 2011, so use this as an excuse to catch up on what you missed.

-VN

[via No Clean Singing]

The first thing you’ll notice about the new Vanisher song “Reaction” (other than the typically sick riffs) is that where there once would’ve been screamed vocals, there are no more. That’s because ex-Glass Casket vocalist Adam Cody, who is currently out on the road fronting Wretched, has officially left the band and the remaining members (plus a new bassist and drummer) have decided to continue on… (drumroll)… as a clean singing-only outfit.

Where most metalheads would throw their hand up in the air and wave this new direction away with a resounding “phooey,” I raise my fist and say “bravo.” The decision to go all-clean is the final step in a natural evolution that’s been coming ever since a couple of ex-Bloodjinn members decided to form Zero System a couple of years ago. Zero System were kinda like Bloodjinn Jr. (in a good way) in that their sound closely resembled the former but made an obvious attempt at something more catchy — and dare I say more mainstream — with clean-sung choruses. As the band’s sound morphed and continued in that direction, they changed their name to Vanisher. So it feels right that the band finally made the decision to ditch cliched growls altogether because it’s where they’ve been headed this whole time. Since Vanisher are excellent songwriters, I don’t really see this is as a problem… they’ve got the goods to back it up. And I’ve always been a fan of Justin Reich’s entirely unique clean-sung voice.

Check out the new song “Reaction” at the band’s official website. It is 110% guaranteed to get stuck in your head instantly.

-VN

Last Chance to Reason and Son of Aurelius are both terrific bands, and I’m quite pleased to let you know that they’re touring together. I’m a little less pleased to say that Wretched are on the bill, too. I mean, Wretched aren’t the worst band in the world or anything, but Vince has to keep reminding me who they are, despite the fact that I’ve written about them before, which is not a good sign for their memorability.

But I think they go on last every night, so even if, like me, you feel pretty indifferent towards them, you should still go to this tour and check out SoA and LCTR. ‘Cause those dudes are awesome, fo’ reals, and worst case scenario is you leave before Wretched plays… or at least before they finish — might as well give ‘em a shot while you’re there, because they could end up being one of those bands who are way awesomer live than on record. Especially since Adam Cody, formerly of the MetalSucks-approved acts Vanisher and Glass Casket, will be touring with band this go-round.

Here are tour dates, via the often-helpful Lambgoat:

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Before we begin today’s edition of “Cinemetal Round-up,” I’d like to address a comment left by the reader who calls himself “GoingDeaf?” after the last round-up:

“I find it hard to believe that these are the BEST new videos you have at your disposal. I’m all for shitting on bad bands with bad videos, but there HAS to be something of value for you to mix in from time to time for this column. It’s more fun to be a curmudgeon, sure, but balance can be good as well.”

GoingDeaf?, I gotta tell you, if I only posted these when there was “something of value to mix in,” I’d only post two or three of these a year. I post the videos I’m sent via press releases, or see on other metal sites. I’m not sitting on good videos just for the sake of being a curmudgeon; good videos do get made, but they’re very, very few and far between. So, uh, y’know, feel free to just not read these columns. Sorry, bud.

And with that out of the way, let’s watch the crap currently passing for metal videos.

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Some of the members of Bloodjinn are in Vanisher now, and Vanisher is an excellent band, so I don’t mean to sound ungrateful or nuthin’, but – I am so fucking ready for Bloodjinn to get back together. I feel like I hear rumblings that it’s gonna happen at least twice a year, but so far, zip, zilch, zero. And our world is still in some dire need of Bloodjinning*.

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That’s right! One of MetalSucks’ most controversial voices — which is really saying something — is gonna be the DJ at tonight’s Heavy Metal Happy Hour at Arrow Bar (85 Avenue A). There are 2-for-1 drinks from 6:00PM until 9:00PM, so if you’ve ever wanted to get drunk and ask Gary “ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS OR WHAT?!?!” in person, here’s your chance!

Now the week’s highlights:

• We debuted new music by The Absence and Vanisher.
• We spoke to Accept’s Wolf Hoffmann and Sebastian Bach (but not really with that last one).
• We checked out new releases by Filter, Neurosis, and The Last Felony.
• Vince contemplated a Mike Portnoy-less Dream Theater.
• Sergeant D. contemplated the new Escape the Fate song…
• …while we couldn’t even pay attention during the new Oceano song.
• We considered bidding on the best band name in the world.
• As it turns out, Wormrot are really good live, too.
• Neil Young and Burzum are collaborating on a new album?!?
• Wanna see a fat man eat seven cans of ravioli in time to a Fuckshovel song? OF COURSE YOU DO!!!

As Eyal promised yesterday, next week will see the full-on return of “Jumping Darkness Parade.” Plus we’ll have more contest, more video and track debuts, more interviews, more everything. Be there or be ᄆ.

-AR

We’ve already told you how we feel about NC-based metallers Vanisher, who feature in their ranks members of Bloodjinn and Glass Casket, North Carolina royalty. Their debut album The History of Saints drops on Tribunal Records on September 14th, and now, in addition to the couple of tracks they’ve got on their MySpace page you can also stream “Conviction Cell,” the album’s very last track, below. It’s a good taste of what Vanisher are all about — razor-tight riffs and an uncanny sense of melody with songs that get stuck inside your brain almost instantly. Pre-order The History of Saints here.

Vanisher will be on tour from September 17-26 with MS faves The Binary Code and fellow NC-rockers Hephystus. Tour dates after the jump!

[this promotion has ended]

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North Carolina’s Vanisher, who were once known as Zero System and feature in their ranks members of Bloodjinn and Glass Casket, have a dual-pronged piece of good news for metalheads this week. First is the announcement that they’ve signed with Tribunal Records and will release their new full-length album The History of Saints on September 14th. And to support the album they’ve announced a 10-day tour of the East Coast in September on which they’ll have MS faves The Binary Code and NC rockers Hephystus in tow.

Despite the pedigree of its members, Vanisher actually doesn’t sound a whole lot like Bloodjinn or Glass Casket; dare I say, they’re a bit more straight-forward than either? I’ve really been digging what I’ve heard of The History of Saints from their MySpace page; it’s melodic and catchy without being trite or obvious, and it’s got plenty of brutality and razor tightness which was what I always loved about Bloodjinn. Of course you all know how we feel about The Binary Code, whose new EP Priest is out now and the title track of which we’re streaming here. Hephystus are new to us, but we look forward to seeing them when they hit the NYC stop (with local faves Empyreon).

Tour dates after the jump!

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No, they didn’t break-up; the band – which features members of Bloodjinn and Glass Casket – has just changed their name to Vanisher. They’ve also announced an August 10 release date for their new full-length, The History of Saints.

Is the name change good or bad? Vanisher strikes me a slightly more generic, but at least kids won’t ask what it means. (On the other hand, I’d wager nine out of ten Misery Index fans have no idea what a “misery index” is, but whatever.) Still, the band seems to have some good reasoning behind the name switch. Says vocalist/bassist Justin Reich:

Click to read more…