Here’s something completely meaningless that we can all argue over.

Back in April, Vice ran a piece in which they attempted to determine which thrash band has/had the best mascot. Only mascots that were used more than once by bands that are distinctly, inarguably thrash qualified, but beyond that, uh… the scoring seems kinda arbitrary. But whatever.

I gotta say, when I think “thrash mascot,” my mind goes right to one place:

That’s not to say that other thrash bands didn’t have excellet mascots… it’s just, y’know. Vic Rattlehead is the classic thrash mascot, isn’t he?

But Vic didn’t win the competition. (And Eddie, the original, most maleable, and still the best metal mascot of all time, didn’t even qualify, since Maiden aren’t a thrash band.) Head over to Vice to see who did, and then engage in some good ol’ fashioned debatin’ below.

-AR

Thanks to Double D for the tip.

Howard Zinn, Zelda Rubinstein, and J.D. Salinger all died within twenty-four hours of another. That’s crappy on all fronts, but right now I’d like to concentrate on Salinger.

On the one hand, it’s very sad that he’s dead because I happen to think he was a brilliant writer; on the other hand, it’s not like he’d written anything in a long, long, long time anyway, so it doesn’t feel like we’re really losing anything; on the other hand, his son Matt was one of the frat douches in Revenge of the Nerds and played the title role in the straight-to-video live-action Captain America movie, which is to say he and Mr. Salinger’s other remaining kin folk will almost certainly sell away his father’s ideals ASAP. Look for Catcher in the Rye 3-D, starring Zac Efron as Holden Caufield, to hit screens sometime in 2011.

Now that that’s off my chest, here’s a recap of what happened in the metal world this week:

• We definitely spoke to Lamb of God’s Chris Adler and think we spoke to the guy who may or may not actually be Andrew W.K.
• Eyal gave us a recap of NAMM, and The Austerity Program’s Justin Foley told us how he got into metal.
• Norway finally caught up with the nu-metal trend.
• The Insane Clown Posee have made multiple feature-length films. Gee, I wonder how we didn’t know that?
• Footage of a new Cynic song!!!
• Also, this.

Alright, it’s fucking freezing as fuck out there, but I’m gonna try and get my ass out and enjoy what’s left of my youth anyways. If you live in the NYC area, don’t forget that The Austerity Program play this Sunday January 31, in Brooklyn at Public Assembly (70 N 6th St) with White Suns, Immanent Voiceless, Daniel Malinsky. This your chance to thank Justin for all the awesome writing he did for us, or to tell him off for all the terrible writing he did for us, depending on your perspective.

See ya Monday!!!

-AR

Suckalo Adam Ellsworth sent us the below photo of a painting a friend made for him. That’s a good friend – the painting is apparently an EPIC 30” x 30” without the frame. It portrays, in Adam’s words, “Dave Mustaine fighting a manticore with James Hetfield’s face while Vic Rattlehead cuts off Kirk Hammett’s hair in the background.”

And there’s the Metallica/Megadeth feud summed up in a nutshell. A beautifully rendered, absolutely haunting nutshell.

If Dave Mustaine doesn’t make that the cover of the next Megadeth album, then he must be high.

-AR