In 2006, Vince and I saw In Flames and Trivium absolutely destroy the Bowery Ballroom Webster Hall [Whoops! -AR] here in NYC (with some help from DevilDriver and Zao). The show was so good that Vince still has the poster hanging on his wall (I think — I haven’t been to the Neilstein Wing of the MetalSucks Mansion in awhile). It was the kind of show where you leave and you don’t know if that’s your sweat and blood you’re covered in or someone else’s but you don’t really care.

Now In Flames and Trivium have announced a co-headlining North American tour, so we can all re-live the magic. Of course, a lot has changed since that last time we saw the two bands share a stage, but I’m still optimistic about these gigs. Even if In Flames play a few tunes off of Sounds of My Interest Fading and No Sense of Purpose, it will just provide some sure-to-be-needed piss breaks. And support will come from Veil of Maya and Kyng to boot!

Dates are after the jump.

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It’s a good day to be an After the Burial fan: the band has released not one but two music videos, plus additional dates for their previously-announced Crush ‘Em All trek with Veil of Maya, Misery Signals, and Within the Ruins.

So, let’s start by considering these videos, “Cinemetal Round-Up” style, shall we?

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While I would generally prefer it if all of metaldom would stay as far away from the phrase “Crush ‘Em” as possible from now until the sun dies and all of humanity is forgotten forever, there’s no denying that the Crush ‘Em All Tour II has a pretty solid line-up — After the Burial, Veil of Maya, Misery Signals, and Within the Ruins is not a bad night at the opera. The support acts which will appear on select dates — I The Breather, Structures, Volumes, and Your Memorial — are bands that I’m alternately less familiar with or less excited about, but whatever, this is still a totally solid bill.

Now the initial round of dates for the tour have been announced. There are pretty large gaps in this itinerary, so don’t freak out just yet if you don’t see a show on this list that you can attend. Unless you live in Bumblefuck, where metal tours never ever stop. Then you just have shitty luck and there’s no hope for you until you get the hell outta Po’dunk. Sorry.

ANYWAY, those dates, courtesy The PRP:

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IMO the most important part of being a true metal fan is knowing your roots. There is nothing worse than a newjack poser who doesn’t know or care about the older bands who paved the way for the generations after them. For example, IMO you can’t consider yourself a real fan of Avenged Sevenfold without also being a fan of Pantera and 18 Visions/Velvet Revolver. I mean I love A7X but obviously they are pretty much just taking what those two bands did, only doing it a lot better. On the other hand, it also sucks when someone gets older and they stop liking stuff. I mean if you like Suffocation then you should also like Devourment, right?? But contrary to what you would expect, older metal fans do nothing but hate on newer bands.

Which one is right?? The younger fans, full of energy and enthusiasm, but unaware of the shitty bands that people used to like?? Or the jaded, bitter has-beens, with seemingly endless knowledge of irrelevant, music that nobody really cares about anymore??????

In this post I will do my best to tackle this topic and answer the question of which is better, NEW MUSIC or OLD MUSIC. I know it’s hard to compare things from different eras, but I think it will help all of us grow as metal fans!!

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Metal drummers put off by our current Top 25 Modern Metal Guitarists countdown, don’t be distraught; today we’ve got something just for you.

Just in time for the MS-sponsored 2011 version of Summer Slaughter, our hip-bro-potami over at Sick Drummer [via Got-Djent.com] have unveiled some multi-angle drum-cam footage from last year’s festival that will either inspire young metal drummers to better their craft through endless practice or immediately discourage them from ever picking up their sticks again. Don’t be discouraged, though; Navene Koperweis and Sam Applebaum are two of the best in the biz and got to where they are through years of hard work. Just because I can’t throw a knuckleball like R.A. Dickey doesn’t mean I’m gonna quit trying. OK, so maybe it does.

The clips feature a couple of songs each of Animals as Leaders’ and Veil of Maya’s sets. Watch AAL’s Koperweis below, and Veil of Maya’s Sam Applebaum after the jump.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDn7TnBqXhE

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I’m gonna keep this short, because our feelings about thieving dickheads are pretty well known. The following message was posted on Veil of Maya’s Facebook page yesterday:

So that obviously SUCKS. Here’s the picture of the trailer/van. Seriously, if you do live in the area, keep your eyes peeled and let’s catch this asshole:

-AR

Thanks: Anson Wong

Props to Heavy Blog is Heavy for catching this interesting update from Sumerian Records’ official Facebook page:

As HBiH notes, this sounds like it’s going to be a release (or releases) in the vein of Roadrunner United and Nuclear Blast All-Stars — basically a “who’s who” team-up of musicians signed to the label. Those offerings actually ended up being, by and large, pretty cool (I mean, of course there were some missteps, but I don’t look back at those albums and think, “Well, that was ill-advised”), and Sumerian’s current roster is one of the strongest in metal (The Faceless, Animals as Leaders, Periphery, Veil of Maya, After the Burial, etc., pretty much make up for their creatively vapid bands like Asking Alexandria and Upon a Burning Body), so it makes sense that they’d wanna do something like this.

Question is… what form, exactly, will it take? I almost don’t care, as long as Bizzy Bone is involved. Hey, it could happen.

-AR

So this is pretty cool… in theory at least. Last week, the videogame Homefront was released (I haven’t played it so I have no idea how it is, although I read some decent reviews), and yesterday, the makers of the game started giving away a FREE compilation of metal bands doing covers of war-appropriate songs, sometimes by other metal bands, sometimes by non-metal artists. You can download it here, and should get on that ASAP, as they’re only giving away 25,000 of the free downloads. As of this writing, DLs are still avail, though. Also, I’m sure this thing will remain all over the internet forever and ever, so don’t freak too hard if they’re all gone by the time you get there.

Another reason no to freak out too hard if you don’t get to download this puppy? Even though this is 100% free, like most cover albums, it’s not actually all that amazing. Let’s take a look at what the album has to offer, shall we?

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Kip W. and I arrived in Austin, TX the night of Tuesday, March 15th. We’ve never flown in before Wednesday, the official start of the music portion of the festival, but that we felt compelled to be there for all of Wednesday’s day-time activities speaks to the volume of metal at this year’s festival. It was amazing and even overwhelming at times, but too much metal is never a bad problem to have. After a tasty burger at the Jackalope and some delicious but incredibly spicy chicken-wings that would leave our arseholes tingling the following morning, we headed to bed to rest up for the madness to follow. Sleeping is metal. Kip’s righteous snore is definitely not metal, but thank Odin for earplugs.

There was a lot of action on the first day of SXSW: face-punching hardcore via the Brooklyn Vegan day party, a ripping set by recent Ironclad signees Turbid North, and of course the MetalSucks-sponsored Sumerian Records showcase featuring Animals as Leaders, Veil of Maya, The Faceless and more. There was even the somewhat odd but nonetheless fun sight of watching Phil Anselmo play a guitar in his old-school hardcore project Arson Anthem. Deetz and videos after the jump.

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Props to reader Nico C. for reminding us about the Darkest Hour Legacy Tour contest we hosted back in November and December. Ya see, uh, you all know we like to partake in the green herb from time to time and that said herb can have an effect on the memory. Well, umm… we just straight up forgot to choose a winner.

But fear not! Good things come to those who wait; in this case “good things” are one t-shirt from each of the bands on the tour — Darkest Hour, Veil of Maya, Periphery and Revocation — and “those who wait” is our lucky winner Shaun Reeves. We asked “Which Darkest Hour song is your favorite of all-time, and why?” and Shaun answered thusly:

Convalescence. Sure it’s not their heaviest or most technical, but it was one of the first metal songs I had ever heard. The first time I heard it was when I saw the video for it on a victory records sampler. I straight up laughed the first time I saw it, I thought it was terrible, and the lead singer looked like an angry nerd who got beat up in high school too much. As I gradually started getting into heavier music, I watched it again, and it changed my life. It was the heaviest thing I had ever heard, yet it was so melodic. Kris Norris instantly became my icon, his solo was the greatest one I had ever heard. That song not only turned me into a metal head, it turned me into a metal guitarist.

So, congrats Shaun, and sorry for the delay. Enjoy those shirts. Darkest Hour’s new jam The Human Romance is out now.

You know how sometimes you will get completely obsessed with a band, and you’re all “ZOMG CANNOT STOP LISTENING TO THEM!!!”? That is how I am right now with THE ACACIA STRAIN — I probably listen to Wormwood at least three times a day, and when I’m not listening to it, I am singing it in my head.

It’s always awesome to get the chance to see a band when you are at the peak of being into them, so I was very stoked to check out the DEATHCORE ACROSS AMERICA tour when it rolled through my town the other day: I Declare War, Whitechapel, Veil of Maya and The Acacia Strain = YOU’RE FUCKING MOSHING! I also got a chance to chat with TAS bassist Jack Strong [mirin that name, sounds alpha as fuck].

In this post I will share the three reasons why TAS is my favorite band at the moment, as well as a few words from Jack to support my points: 1. Their diverse fanbase 2. They are punk 3. Last but not least, TAS are fucking heavy as fuck.

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We told you last week about our very own SXSW “South By South Death” day party on Friday, March 18th at Headhunters, featuring the very excellent lineup of Kvelertak, Havok, Red Fang, Wormot and Meek is Murder, and also sponsored by Roxwel.com and NARM. MS contributor and Texas native Corey Mitchell has been doing a fine job keeping you abreast of other metal happenings at SXSW 2011.

Now we’ve got one more event to add to the fray. MetalSucks is proud to be sponsoring the official Sumerian Records showcase on Wednesday, March 16th, featuring some of our most favoritest bands: The Faceless, Veil of Maya and Animals as Leaders. The awesome lineup, which will play the Habana Bar backyard, is rounded out by Upon a Burning Body, Struc/tures, and NY up-and-comers Ultrageist. Be there!

From Beastmaster:

“Over the last week I’ve noticed on the PRP that both Chelsea Grin and Within The Ruins have been denied entry into to Canada for their separate respective tours. Now granted, I don’t necessarily love these two bands, but I’m wondering if they are possibly related in some way…. Dun dun DUNNNNNNNN.”

Yes. They are both related in that I don’t like either of them. Unfortunately, I don’t control the Canadian government, so my guess is that they actually both just have merch dudes with records for possession or something idiotic like that. In any case, yes, I agree it’s ridiculous that Canada gets to be spared Chelsea Grin while Americans have to continue to endure them.

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The Internet is a treasure trove of data just waiting to be spliced and re-assembled in new and interesting ways.

A recent feature added to Got-Djent.com gave users the ability to indicate their favorite bands on their own personal profiles, so the keepers of that site have taken that information and produced a map “where the proximity of two bands on the map indicates how much their respective fanbases overlap.” Fascinating. Check it out: (click to enlarge)

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The results are fascinating.

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After the Burial released their new album In Dreams on November 23rd just before heading out to California for their current tour with Winds of Plague. On the day of the album’s release I caught up with ATB guitarist Trent Hafdahl by phone; we chatted about the new album, new vocalist Anthony Notarmaso and his role in the writing process, what really went down when they dropped off the Bleeding Through tour this fall, their plans for 2011 and, of course, Sumeriancore. Our chat after the fold.

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Remember all the way back on Monday (put down that bong!) when we reported that Darkest Hour and Veil of Maya had been kicked off their shared tour bus just before the Dallas stop of their Legacy Tour with Periphery and Revocation? We caught up with DH drummer Ryan Parrish yesterday and he gave us the full scoop on what went down to result in his band’s eviction from their home on wheels:

Well, okay, here’s the thing: the bus driver is a total douchebag — like, just a cocksucker.  He was OCD as shit.  He was always coming on the bus and we’d be partying and shit and he just didn’t like it.  He didn’t think that we cleaned up, which we cleaned every single day, but he was such a dick that he would say that we weren’t cleaning everything just to start drama and shit.  If there were like 2 beer cans on the table, he’d take a picture of it and send it to his company saying that we were destroying the bus lounge.

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As part of our sponsorship of The Legacy Tour featuring Darkest Hour, Veil of Maya, Periphery and Revocation, one member from each band will be penning an exclusive blog entry for MetalSucks to run during the tour (get a full list of tour dates here). Our first entry featured Veil of Maya guitarist Marc Okubo taking us on a run-through of his entire live rig, and the second entry was an update from Revocation’s Dave Davidson, and in the third Periphery’s Misha Mansoor talked about his new direct-to-PA live amp setup. For the fourth and final entry, here’s Darkest Hour’s Mike Schleibaum resuscitating his “The Underrated” MetalSucks column:

LETS GET THIS BAND BACK TOGETHER: CURSED

Greetings from a rat infested parking lot in Lubbock, TX, AKA the road! While I could write about the military strategy Lonestar and Ryan used to get the Whiskey A Go Go dancers on the bus this week in LA or how the 5150 (3′s) made by Fender/EVH might just be the ultimate high gain amp, I’m not. Rather I have decided to litter the internet with yet another opinion-related piece.

Since I have written in the past of unsung heros or overlooked records, I thought I might do that once more. Living on tour every day keeps us surrounded by music and fresh sounds (good or bad) assaulting our ears every day. Still, it’s important not to forget great bands and records that for whatever reason have their little notch in time. So I’ll just plug our new record, The Human Romance, out Feb 22, 2011 on E1 and then I’ll use this space right here to tell you about a band that should not be forgotten: Canada’s Cursed.

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The above photo is of Darkest Hour, Veil of Maya and their respective crews after being booted from their own tour bus early Saturday morning; apparently an overbearing bus driver had had enough of their hard-partying ways, booted the bands, and drove his bus home. Thankfully they were already in Dallas for Saturday night’s show so they continued the party by setting up their own shanty town in the venue parking lot until show time. At present time we’re not sure whether the bands were successful in finding another bus to complete the tour in time for the next show.

Gossipy details to follow as soon as we have ‘em!

Remaining tour dates are posted here.

While this is technically “safe for work”… it’s probably not safe if you’ve got a weak stomach and don’t want to vomit all over your employer’s keyboard. This is bloody and gross. Extremely bloody. So procede with caution.

Still with us? Great! ‘Cause blood is metal, and Revocation guitarist Dave Davidson would surely tell you so too. Ya see, Dave was good and drunk at the Cleveland stop of the MetalSucks-sponsored Legacy Tour with Darkest Hour, Veil of Maya, Periphery and Revocation, and he decided it’d be a great idea to stage dive during Darkest Hour’s set… only it didn’t go as planned. Here’s Dave on the matter:

Shortly after our set at Peabody’s I proceeded to get annihilated and during Darkest Hour’s set I decided to go stage diving. My first dive into the crowd went without incident but on my second attempt I slightly over shot my jump, and luckily my head broke my fall. After a quick trip to the ER and 8 staples later I was back in business. Good times!”

Without further ado, the video, and then some “aftermath” pics of his stapled up head after the jump:

Feeling sick to your stomach yet? Great, now let’s look at Dave’s stitched-up dome:

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As part of our sponsorship of The Legacy Tour, featuring Darkest Hour, Veil of Maya, Periphery and Revocation, one member from each band will be penning an exclusive blog entry for MetalSucks to run during the tour (get a full list of tour dates here). Our first entry featured Veil of Maya guitarist Marc Okubo taking us on a run-through of his entire live rig, and the second entry was an update from Revocation’s Dave Davidson. Here’s Periphery’s Misha Mansoor on his new live rig setup (the idea for which he first mentioned in a prior column) and how that’s working out for him:

So a little while back I posted a column about going direct with the guitars on a future tour, and that tour just so happens to be this tour we are on now with Revocation, Veil Of Maya and Darkest Hour. The idea behind going direct is that instead of having an amp/rig that goes through a cabinet then gets mic’ed up, you just take an audio signal direct to the board and skip the whole cab and mic. This allows for a simpler and cleaner signal chain, as removing the cab, mic and mic-placement variables makes the signal extremely consistent every night. Now we are going direct with our Fractal AxeFX Ultras which is an absolutely phenomenal unit for direct tones.

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