“And the fifth angel blew his trumpet. And I saw a star that had fallen from heaven to the earth, and the key of the pit of the abyss was given him. And he opened the pit of the abyss, and smoke ascended out of the pit as the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun was darkened, also the air, by the smoke of the pit. And out of the smoke Limp Bizkit reunited and came forth upon the earth; and authority was given them, the same authority as the scorpions of the earth have.

“And in those days the men will seek death but will by no means find it, and they will desire to die but death keeps fleeing from them.”

Revelations 9:1-6

Ladies and gentlemen, Limp Bizkit have reunited.

Click to read more…

Another week gone in the waning days of summer, another week in the rampant gossip-mill of MetalSucks:

• Wes Borland signed on to be Marilyn Manson’s new guitarist, sans-body paint we hope.
• Lamb of God is recording a new album, tentatively due February 2009, with some producer no one has ever heard of.
• Another Guns N’ Roses song from Chinese Democracy leaks, presumably from the Rock Band camp.
• Jonathan Davis claims he is waving the flag for musicianship; we laugh a lot.
• We gave you lessons in pig squealing.
• We pondered the lack of white t-shirts in metal.
• Metallica played a new song live, and ya’ll argued a lot about it.

Marilyn Manson was always one of the most staunch anti-Limp Bizkit activists during that band’s heyday – so the announcement that Bizkit guitarist Wes Borland is joining his band seems kind of odd.

Luckily, Manson, ever the clever media manipulator, managed to do some damage control with this kind of hilarious statement:

Click to read more…

I mean, really. The above headline is so unfair. Lots of perfectly respectable metal musicians give lessons when they’re not touring ’cause it’s a good way to make some extra money.

Of course, those musicians tend to be talented, hard working, blue collar dudes in real metal bands. And, also, y’know, musicians.

And none of those words describe John Otto, the Limp Bizkit* skinsman/resident hobbit who is now offering drum lessons for $150-$200 a pop (depending on if you want a little alone time with him or don’t mind sharing him with someone else who thought that “Rollin’” was a good song). Having never taken a drum lesson, I have no idea if that’s a fair price or not, but if I were gonna take a drum lesson and it was gonna cost me $200, I would probably want it to be with Dave Lombardo or Gene Hoglan or Paul Bostaph or Kevin Talley or Jiminy fuckin’ Cricket, or at least, like, David Silvera.

Anyways, you can get more info here. Please book something soon and help Mr. Otto get his Ferrari out of the shop – Fred and Wes tell him the LB reunion is still at least a year off and he really, really needs that car to get laid.

-AR

*Frodo – uh, that is, Otto – is apparently also in a band called The Killer and the Star, but I think even fewer people have heard of them than have heard of Black Light Burns.

Sonny Mayo’s sudden expulsion from Sevendust makes me worried that Snot might reunite – I mean, fuck, it almost happened once already just about a year ago.

For those of you lucky enough not to be familiar with Snot, they’re a band that holds a legendary place in the minds of kids who actually like nu metal, since they were poised to join Limp Bizkit as one of their generation’s most annoying bands when front man Lynn Strait died in a car accident in 1998 (I’m not speaking ill of the dead, mind you; I’m just speaking ill of the dead’s shitty music). After Snot disbanded, its various members went on to such craptastic acts as Amen, Invitro, Godsmack, and Hed PE. Hell Mayo’s replacement, Mike Smith, even usurped Wes Borland for the one Limp Suckit album that even Fred Durst’s most ardent supporters seem to think sucks.

ANYWAY, in this day and age when bands like Blind Melon aren’t gonna let a little thing like a dead front man stop them from living their rock n’ roll dreams, I would be in no way surprised if some re-jiggered version of this band tried to figure out a way to cash in. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Here’s Snot’s video for “Stoopid.” Apt description if ever there was one.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://youtube.com/v/6VjJeKoVVM4" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Cute dog, right? Yeah. He died in the car crash, too.

-AR

MTV.com published an interview with Richard Patrick this morning in which the Filter main-man only-man revealed more details about the upcoming fourth Filter record, Anthems for the Damned, tentatively scheduled for release in late March. Tracking was completed in about two weeks with producer Josh Abraham (Slayer, Velvet Revolver) manning the boards.

Business first; Patrick says Army of Anyone (his project with the DeLeo brothers of STP who put out a record last year) is “now on hiatus,” and that he’d love to “do more records with them in the future.” Patrick said it was playing old Filter material during live sets with Army of Anyone that convinced him that the band had to be resurrected:

“But this is not a comeback. Filter’s my legacy. It’s just like Al Jourgensen with Ministry. This is something I took very seriously, something I quit Nine Inch Nails to do, and it has allowed me so much freedom as an artist. I would never turn my back on the thing that has always been the #1 thing in my life. And the core fans that I have, they’re expecting a great record. I knew I’d have to return with the goods, and I’m absolutely convinced that that’s what I have with this record.”

Patrick has recruited an all-star cast of collaborators for this effort; Josh “I’ve played drums on every record ever” Freese, former Marilyn Manson / Rob Zombie guitarist John 5 (who co-wrote two of the album’s tracks), and… ex-Limp Bizkit/ current Black Light Burns guitarist Wes Borland???? Given, Borland was always the most intruiging member of Limp Bizkit, but what??? Maybe it was a political move to solidy Filter’s burgeoning market in Jakarta.

-VN