(click to enlarge)

Oklahoma City gets all the good stuff. Well, maybe not all the good stuff, but five years ago they stole Kevin Durant from a metropolis whose literacy rate is in double digits, and now they pretty much get the one-off metal show of the year. If you’re a proud OKC resident (or reside in the multiple surrounding bumfuck satellites), get pumped.

On Saturday, April 28, the Decibel Magazine Tour with collide with the U.S. Torture Tour at the Big Friendly’s Diamond Ballroom. And when I say “collide,” I mean someone should make an ad with both logos on football helmets crashing together and just fucking exploding, except with freshly decapitated heads inside. This Devastator of a lineup consists of Cannibal Corpse, Behemoth, Watain, Exhumed, the Devil’s Blood, In Solitude, Abysmal Dawn and Arkaik. The cost of such a mega-event must be offensively prohibitive, right? Um, try $23 adv./$26 DOS. Roughly the cost of either package’s standalone shows. Plenty of time to get your flights/carpools organized. Bring me the head of Rumble the Bison.

-AB

The March 2012 issue of Decibel, which features Municipal Waste, Napalm Death, Cattle Decapitation, and an awesome Torche flexi disc, is available for order here. But why not just get a full subscription to ensure that you never miss an issue?

Axl wore his most vile death metal shirt in an attempt to avoid being selected as a juror in this great City of New York, but lo and behold, his plan backfired and he was chosen anyway. So it’s been the Vince party over here since Wednesday with plenty of help from all of our most excellent contributors — special big ups to Anso DF for pitching in extra! Here’s what went down:

• We lost Riot guitarist Mark Reale. R.I.P.
• We premiered a new track by Pyscroptic, one by Exotic Animal Petting Zoo and all of Primal Fear’s new album Unbreakable.
• The Rockstar Mayhem Festival announced the first slate of bands on its 2012 lineup. Slipknot later spilled the beans that High on Fire are confirmed too.
• Ihsahn is guesting on the new Jeff Loomis solo joint and Jeff Loomis is guesting on the new Ihsahn solo joint. Will those two get a room already?
• The Dillinger Escape Plan’s Ben Weinman went all anti-drug on our asses.
• Tours and rumours of tours: The Mastodon / Opeth / Ghost tour is really gonna happen, Meshuggah, Decapitated and Baroness will hit the U.S. together (no dates yet), dates were announced for the Decibel Magazine Tour featuring Behemoth, Watain, The Devil’s Blood and In Solitude, while All Shall Perish, Fleshgod Apocalypse and other cool bands announced a tour too.
• Sammy O’Hagar reviewed Lamb of God‘s new album while Gary took a look at new hardcore 7-inches by Daylight, Unholy Majesty and Wrong Answer.
• We realized that Maynard James Keenan poops and pees and eats just like the rest of us.

We’ll be back next week for Axl’s triumphant return to the blogosphere. See you then.

-VN

Thanks to various teases both in print and right here on this very website, we’ve known for sometime that our friends at Decibel were working on their very own tour; and given how awesome Decibel is, we expected that tour to be something pretty special. But now the line-up has been announced, and… WOW. We didn’t realize it would be this special.

The twenty-six date trek is going to be headlined by Behemoth, making their triumphant return to U.S. stages for the first time since Nergal was diagnosed with, and ultimately defeated, leukemia. And while that fact alone should definitely be enough to get you asking “Where do I buy my ticket?”, just to make extra-extra sure that this tour is unfuckwithable, support is going to come from Watain, The Devil’s Blood, and In Solitude.

And now I believe the words you’re looking for are, “HOLY SHIT!”

Speaking about the tour, Nergal himself said, “I’m thrilled… seriously, I am thrilled about the fact we are arriving to US shores again after such a long break. It’s a big deal for us.” Watain’s Erik Danielsson added the following:

Click to read more…

Y’know, whatever the problem is between The Haunted singer Peter Dolving and Watain, I’m gonna go with Watain. I don’t know what set him off, but Dolving said Watain is overrated (read here). Okay fine, dude’s got his opinion. He also seems to think Watain is corny and totally scoffs at their vibe. I get that, too. But I don’t think it’s cool to kinda float it out there that maybe somebody somewhere should fight the dudes of Watain. And good guys, guys that we like, don’t all slyly suggest that other guys are neo-nazis. I mean, as I read Dolving’s words, I half-expected the Leezar to claim that they have STDs.

Plus I thrash the logic that Watain would best harness their evil potential by becoming white-collar business jerks, with all the schooling and networking that suggests. First off, why is he so sure they aren’t working on a weather machine or subliminal Manchurian Candidate stuff? Second, Dolving’s logic is half-baked, right? I mean, why doesn’t Dolving become a high-powered executive to wield his agenda on everybody? Oh right, cuz he’s a musician. Musicians make music.

-ADF

Watain’s awesome 2010 album Lawless Darkness yielded the awesome “Reaping Death” single whose b-side is an awesome Bathory cover (above!).

Just the other day I was thinking to myself, “Gee, what ever happened to Peter Dolving’s MySpace blogs? Obviously MySpace isn’t a thing anymore, but I can’t imagine that means Dolving has any less to say.” I always enjoyed reading The Haunted frontman’s rants; they were funny, honest, well-articulated, and best of all got the entirety of the metal Interhole in a fucking rage. Well, today I have my answer to my question; he’s baaaaack! On Facebook, natch. And the beef is most certainly still simmering on the open fire.

The latest Dolving controversy involves Watain, specifically that he isn’t too fond of his fellow Swedes. Here’s the FB status update that got it all going:

So, um Waitan from Schmockholm… They’re a an overrated band, and probably need their asses kicked, you know like generally speaking. Agree? Disagree?

And things pretty much exploded from there! A follow-up comment after several readers responded:

Click to read more…

Before there were blogs there were these things called magazines, and the only metal magazine we still get excited about reading every month is Decibel. Here’s managing editor Andrew Bonazelli…

If you could pick one band that should have action figures, it’s gotta be Watain, right? And I don’t mean those creepy roided-out Todd McFarlane things that are at, like, Spencer’s and Suncoast for fat suburban virgins. Original Star Wars-size is sufficient… although that makes me think #1 should be Immortal, since a Blashyrkh playset would be cooler than the Death Star and Unicron combined. (The actual Death Star playset being total bullshit, of course.)

I never considered Electric Wizard for this dubious, infantilizing honor, but after reading Bennett’s cover story on them, they absolutely qualify as a fuck yeah. Not when they were a trio, but today, seeing as how they’re comprised of a married couple, another dude who the better half of said couple “can’t imagine… in my wildest dreams doing an interview anywhere, let alone on the phone,” and another dude with a full facial tat, which recalls either, well, you know or Fuckface Enigma from the Jim Rose Circus (who my friend and I randomly saw in a downtown Cleveland mall 15 years ago, which prompted him to turn to his dad and remark, completely nonplussed, “Hey… Fuckface Enigma.”) Anyway, whether you’re a Dopethrone head or just catching up/dropping out via Witchcult Today and Black Masses — and come on, it’s all the same (amazing) song — you’ll see these delightful degenerates as collectible plastic after reading the piece, too.

Further incentive: the second-ever Decibel Flexi Series entry — this time a live version of 2008’s “The Watcher” from the mighty Enslaved — as well as the worst cover typo we’ve ever let slip by (other than “Queens of the Stone Age: The Coolest Band of the Year Every Year”). That said, Josh Homme would definitely make a sweet-ass action figure. He pretty much dresses like Han Solo already. Any other suggestions?

-AB

The February 2011 issue of Decibel comes with a fully movable kung fu grip, but the only way to ensure you get one of them there flexi discs every month is to get a full subscription!

The fact that Watain are not, like so many of their peers, all talk and no action is not news. It’s one of the reasons people love them so much.

And the great Vincent Castiglia paints in his own blood, so this idea isn’t entirely new.

But I was still caught totally off-guard when I saw the below video of Watain signing autographs in their own blood. I don’t know what I would do if I walked up to an autograph booth to get one of my favorite bands to sign something and they had a little cup of their own blood there for that very same purpose. This is either the coolest thing I’ve ever seen, or the grossest.

Or maybe it’s a little bit of both.

-AR

[via The Deciblog]

FEATURING MELISSA AUF DER MAUR AND MEMBERS OF WATAIN, CATTLE DECAPITATION, FORBIDDEN, VANISHER, HOWL, THE CONTORTIONIST, DISEMBODIED, EVOCATION, AND ROSALINE

For 2010, we decided to do something special as part of our regular end-of-year festivities here at MetalSucks — namely, ask musicians from across the vast spectrum of the metalsphere (or, in a few cases, the almost-metalsphere) what their favorite albums of the year were. Death metallers, thrash metallers, black metallers, stoners, grinders, and djenters alike graciously contributed lists to MS, and we’ll be running them in groups of ten to eleven musicians at a time twice a day for the rest of the week.

After the jump, check out the third group… we hope you enjoy seeing what some of metal’s heaviest hitters were into this year as much as we have!

(And please note that these are musicians and that they, um, have a lot on their minds. So some of ‘em named albums that actually came out last year. Please don’t freak out.)

Click to read more…

In 2010, nobody in music captured my attention more than Watain frontman Erik Danielsson, tireless interviewee and totally sharp dude. In Q&As for Decibel Magazine and Cosmo Lee’s Invisible Oranges, Danielsson set about the thankless task of contextualizing Watain philosophy and music with a gusto exclusive to the singular, intelligent, and enthusiastic. And he seems to have mastered the correct tone needed for discussions of black metal and Satanism, whereas I rarely can avoid notes of defensiveness and debate, a result of my perception that “evil” music is too often viewed as cartoonish and absurd. And it is. Except when it’s not.

Anyhow, Danielsson’s style contributes to the lasting ear-boner I have for his Watain, as well as my certainty that those fuckers are Not Fucking Around. There’s a belief system at the root of Watain art — love of evil, to paraphrase — and with the aid of good interviewers like Lee and Decibel‘s J. Bennett, Danielsson can expound on its nuances and, in doing so, enhance the already face-fucking Watain listening experience by like exponential measures. Does that make sense? Let’s analogize this: There’s that great scene in Heat where Val Kilmer unhesitantly raises his machine gun to fire at Al Pacino’s troops before they can impede his team’s escape from a ill-fated bank robbery, right? The moment is amazing all by itself, but it rises to mind-fucking awesomeness when taken in the context of the story’s preceding ninety minutes. The viewer ends up totally immersed, screaming “Jesus! Get out of there! Use those bystanders as shields! Destroy those cops! RUN!” Likewise, Watain’s 2010 jam Lawless Darkness is the “what” (the shoot-out); Danielsson’s careful and friendly-seeming discourse is the “why” (the backstory). And just as loudly, I’m cheering for Watain to shoot to kill.

-ADF

Watain concluded their Lawless Darkness North American tour this week in Toronto. Get Lawless Darkness here.

I went and saw Watain here in LA a couple weeks ago. I’m not a fan, but my girlfriend loves them and bought the tickets like two months in advance. Even though their music doesn’t do a whole lot for me, I have to admit they put on an excellent show. The stage was all gussied up with rotting, stinky cow heads, burning crosses (I was actually surprised you can do this in a post Great White world), and like 483 lit candles. According to some others I’ve spoken with, they were all rubbed down in some kind of animal blood as well (imagine that pre-show ritual!). This certainly made for some eye candy while sitting through an hour of songs I don’t know at all. As my mind drifted off throughout the set I pondered many things in regards to this band’s appeal, or at least this kind of entertainment in general. In fact, to call it “entertainment” is probably selling some of these fans’ dedication short. There are people who are really down with this shit.

Click to read more…

It’s no secret that the music industry is in a shambles, with both profits and revenues at an all time low. With Napster, eDonkey and Audiogalaxy more popular than ever, anybody with a DSL connection can download an album in a matter of hours, often at CD-quality 96 khz. While the unprecedented access that we the fans have to new music is amazing, it comes at a price: the ability for artists to eke out a meager living by making music.

Sure, on the one hand it’s pretty funny to think about, say, the bassist for The Autumn Offering working at his dad’s ravioli factory when they’re not on tour. Admittedly, the contrast between some D-level metalcore band’s onstage persona (“U MIRIN OUR STAGE PRESENCE BRAH?!”) and the sad reality of seeing them try four times to get their 1998 Saturn to turn over in the parking lot after the show is pretty amusing, but this isn’t high school. Music isn’t about who’s making money and who’s 27 years old and still thinks it’s cool to be in a band, it’s about COMMUNITY. To me, the scene is one big family, and I look out for my family members. Whether you are the “fuckup-idiot-with-a-heart-of-gold cousin that everybody feels sorry for” (Eyehategod) or “ridiculously good-looking older brother we r all jealz of” (Oli Sykes/Bring Me The Horizon), if you are family I will always have your back — and family members do not steal from each other!!

Click to read more…

Three cheers for Crack Hitler, who I think did a very admirable job of running the site on Friday. Sure, he only did six posts, but as I understand, he has a very busy job working at a hospital, which is certainly far more noble and important than running a snarky metal blog. And he brought some excellent music to our attention. Crack Hitler, sir, I applaud you.

Now back to the regular shit. Here are two cool tours that were announced while we were letting a reader from Perth call the shots:

• The Black Dahlia Murder have announced a headlining tour with Goatwhore and Arkaik. I don’t know Arkaik, but you had me at “Black Dahlia Murder and Goatwhore.” Vince has never seen BDM do a full headlining set, and, by Satan, I am going to make sure he finally breaks that cherry, ’cause these dudes kill live. These shows will provide enough fun to justify enduring all the B.O. that comes with a modern death metal sausage fest. Get dates here.
• Speaking of Goatwhore: For obvious reasons, Behemoth had to cancel their headlining run with Watain, Black Anvil, and Withered, so the former two bands are now doing their own tour with the sluttiest of all capra aegagrus hircus. Which, even without Behemoth and Withered, is still a really, really kick-ass line-up.  Get dates from The PRP.

-AR

That’s right, kiddies… Behemoth are gonna heat up your winter with some blazing hot metal forged deep in the fires of Hell! (Actually, Poland. But still.) If you’ve seen Behemoth live before, you know what a, well, behemoth of a show they put on; if you haven’t, you must hate yourself or something, and here’s your chance to remedy the situation. Plus they’re bringing Watain, Withered, and Black Anvil out with them! This is the kind of tour you dream about: four of the dingiest, dirtiest, most evil-sounding bands on the planet, all on one bill. We are so proud to be associated with this tour, we can’t even begin to tell you.

And as if that wasn’t great news in and of itself, Behemoth have also just revealed to MetalSucks that they’ll be releasing a live DVD called Evangelia Heretika this fall (date to be announced soon) so even those who aren’t able to attend the tour can get their fix of live Behemoth. A special pre-order package is available now for only $66.60 that includes 1 ticket to the show, 1 copy of the DVD, a tour poster, and a meet and greet with the band at the show; order here!

Dates and links to buy tickets, along with the album cover for Evangelia Heretika, after the jump!

Click to read more…

I had completely forgotten about Vince’s love of Bob Ross until his post yesterday. It would have been awesome if Bob had done an all-metal edition of his show, in which he discussed the joy of Ed Repka and Paul Romano. Learning about your craft is so metal! Thanks for reminding me, Vince, about what an inspiration Bob should be to us all.

Here’s some other things we did this week:

• We spoke to Anthrax’s Joey Belladonna, the legendary Wino, Harvey Milk’s Creston Spiers, and Cruel Hand’s Chris Linkovich.
• Vince, Axl and Gary discussed their favorite albums of 2010 so far.
• We’re giving away a free mp3 of Fistula’s “Ohio Death Toll Rising.”
• We checked out new releases by Kvereltak, Misery Index, Watain, and Parkway Drive.
• Anso reviewed the Big Four Live from Sofia, Bulgaria movie theater satellite thingy.
• Vince did a really a good job of impersonating Axl.
• Vince also discovered two new Sumeriancore bands that stink, and one that doesn’t.
• He also wondered: What is it with drummers wearing basketball jerseys?
• Guess what Serj Tankian thinks borders are?
• DEVIN TOWNSEND HEADLINE TOUR! DEVIN TOWNSEND HEADLINE TOUR!!!

A week from today, Vince and I see Faith No More in Brooklyn. So expect lots and lot of pointless pondering about FNM next week, ’cause that’s pretty much all I’m gonna be able to think about.

-AR

At this point in time, you should probably know who Watain are. I mean, MetalSucks did debut the stream of their new album, Lawless Darkness, just a couple of weeks ago. Plus, there was Sworn To The Dark, a devilishly delightful slab of Swedish black metal that hit high marks across the proverbial board with metal critics, bloggers, and fans alike in late 2006/early 2007 (depending on which side of the pond you call home). More recently, there was Watain’s “Fuck The World Tour” in late 2008, which delivered on the promise of everything this guy had ever heard about a Watain live show.

It’s been a long four years since the release of Sworn To The Dark, but Watain has always taken their sweet, collective time putting out full-lengths. The good news, though, is that Lawless Darkness is as good as Sworn to the Dark, even as it manages to feel different thanks to slick recording and the surprisingly melodic, menacing approach this “evil” band commands.

Click to read more…

Nevermore, Kingdom of Sorrow, Nachtmystium, Watain, Heaven Shall Burn, Whitechapel…. and, uh, Attack Attack!. All these bands released records last week, and after the jump we take a look at how all of those records performed. Metal Insider‘s Zach Shaw has done a fine job of collecting the data, but you’ll have to visit Metal Insider to get his cheeky commentary. The numbers — with my own cheeky commentary, naturally — after the jump.

Click to read more…

But he, like, totally had it coming. He was the singer for some band called Beneath the Sky.

I’m kidding. I don’t endorse violence against untalented people. Just front row games of Uno.

ANYWAY, here’s some other shit we happened this week:

• We’re streaming Watain’s Lawless Darkness and the Monolith/Voyager split.
• Intronaut’s Sacha Dunable talked about his new band and Sick of it All’s Lou Koller concluded his “Quintessential Guide to Hardcore.”
• We spoke to Nachtmystium’s Blake Judd and Heaven Shall Burn’s Maik Weichert.
• We checked out Thou’s Summit.
• We met the world’s youngest Nile fan.
• We wondered if Opeth ripped-off Immortal.
• We came up with awards that could be named after metal stars.
• Vince isn’t that into Kylesa, and has some advice for Portal, too.
• Anso thinks that No Prayer for the Dying is the worst Maiden album ever.
• As it turns out, Fred Phelps is still an idiot.

Next week we get to debut that video we were supposed to debut this week, and we have another stream, and some other stuff I’m probably forgetting. ‘Til then, enjoy your weekend!

-AR

It’s been more than three years since Watain‘s last album, Sworn to the Dark, was released, but the time is finally upon us for another offering from one of the most exciting black metal bands on the scene today. Lawless Darkness comes out June 8 on Season of Mist, but you can stream it right now on the player below. It’s raw, it’s epic, and it’s sure to be one of the summer’s strongest releases.

Once you’ve given it a listen and heard how awesome it is for yourself, you can pre-order Lawless Darkness in a variety of cool packages right here. And now, without further adieu…

[this promotion has ended]

I can’t wait to see a larger picture of the cover for Watain’s new album, Lawless Darkness; it looks like it might be all manner of awesome, but as it stands, all we have is the itty bitty picher below, which, um… well I can kinda make out some broken scrolls with Hebrew writing on them, and something is flying out of them – demons? Souls? Whatever comes out of the ark at the end of Raiders?

What’s that you say? Oh, it’s just Erik “E” Danielsson’s asshole after a night of too much Taco Bell? Ohhhh. Okay. Never-mind.

Lawless Darkness comes out June 7 on Season of Mist.

-AR

It’s beens exactlys four years and ones week since Watains releaseds Sworn to the Dark. That makes my souls colds and darks, likes the insides of Kirstie Alley’s beastlys anus. Buts finallys, now, we sees the lights at the ends of the beastlys anus: Watains is gonnas release a news albums on 7 June ons Season of Mist.

Thats alls I knows right nows. Erik Danielsson froms Watains says “May the gods unto which it is written be pleased!”, buts I bets godses gots nothings to dos with its.

-NC