Either Jon Leon’s ass is constantly emitting horrible smelling farts or the guy is really difficult to get along with… because according to this Craigslist ad, sent in to us by multiple sources, California trad metallers White Wizzard are looking for their fourth singer in just two years.

For those unfamiliar, the story goes something like this (and please pardon me if I miss some details — there’s a lot to keep track of). Bassist Jon Leon founded White Wizzard in 2007 with the lineup that would record what would eventually become the High-Speed GTO EP, released as a self-titled EP in 2008 and re-released by Earache in 2009. But by the time Earache put out the EP the lineup was completely different, and as I understand it the dudes whose pictures appeared on the album liner notes weren’t even the dudes who played on the record (except for Leon and possibly one other guy). The dudes who played on the record, however, had since gone on to form their own band, Holy Grail, now signed to Prosthetic Records.

Click to read more…

Like a lot of people, I first became familiar with Brian Posehn because of his time on David Cross and Bob Odenkirk’s brilliant HBO sketch comedy series, Mr. Show, for which he was also a writer. A few years after that show went off the air, my then-roommate and I went to see Posehn do some stand-up at a comedy club here in New York. I don’t think we were even there to see Posehn specifically – if memory serves, David Cross was the actual draw for us – but he was so funny that I actually laughed so hard I became winded and fell out of my chair. Since then, he’s been on a very, very short list of stand-ups that I never miss the chance to check out when they come through town. Mr. Show sketches about a fictional band called “Titannica” led me to believe that someone on the series’ writing staff was a metal fan, but I didn’t know that it was Posehn until later – and the revelation that he was just as obsessed with metal as I was only made him that much cooler.

Fart and Wiener Jokes, Posehn’s second album for Relapse, comes out today (and you can order a copy here). Like its predecessor, Live: In Nerd Rage, it features not only recordings of his brilliant stand-up, but also an original song he co-wrote with Anthrax’s Scott Ian (“More Metal Than You”) to poke fun at some of metal’s more regrettable foibles. It also has a metal cover of Kenny Rogers’ “The Gambler,” and between the two music tracks, Posehn has managed to rope in guest appearances by such all-stars as Jamey Jasta, Mark Morton, Mark Oseguenda, John Tempesta, and Russ Parrish. Assuming you love great comedy and great metal, there’s no way you’re not gonna dig Fart and Wiener Jokes.

A few weeks ago I got to talk to Posehn about putting comedy albums out on a metal label, what it’s like to be friends with some of his boyhood heroes, the state of metal today, his take on the Anthrax vocalist situation, and more. He even turned the tables at the end and asked me a question! Read the complete transcript of our chat after the jump.

Click to read more…

Nowadays, classic metal seems all the rage — some cool kid told me this while walking to the market — and with MetalSucks doing the whole “Ten Great Bands That Inadvertently Helped Ruin Heavy Metal” thing, I got to thinking: how did metal become metal? We all know the Sabbath/Priest/Zeppelin “who started heavy metal” debate, but what about the in-betweeners that were probably “heavy metal” to my dad’s mom when Pops was just growing that ridiculous mustache and finding out that drinking beer was pretty cool once you got past that taste?

(Okay, full disclosure: I was drinking a beer and cranking UFO while reading the Van Halen story, so there.)

We’ve all known 3 Inches Of Blood for more than a few years at this point, but with the rise of bands like White Wizzard, Holy Grail, the criminally underrated Wolf, Gypsyhawk, RAM, and Cauldron waving the flag for the classic metal sound, I got to thinking about the bands that inspired them. These are groups where you could look back at them and say that they aren’t even definable as “metal” anymore.

Click to read more…

Last week’s photo was pretty gross so naturally the captions you all submitted were equally as disgusting. Congrats to Rodney Wilder and Caption Contest veteran Sacajawea for each bringing home the prize of an Obscura Retribution reissue CD and download card for Cosmogenesis. Their winning captions:

• Rodney Wilder: “Now you’ve got something to squint for…”
• Sacajawea: “Fiber One has decided to target the metal demographic in recent months. All Sony records metal cds will come with a free fiber bar in order to make the new material a little easier to digest.”

This week we’ve got an awesome prize pack from trad-metal revivalists White Wizzard, whose debut full-length Over the Top just came out on Tuesday! Two lucky winners will get the following: 1) a stylish jean-jacket adorned with a White Wizzard back patch (!), 2) a White Wizzard t-shirt, 3) A CD copy of Over the Top, 4) a White Wizzard poster. Crikey, that’s a lot of swag! Two runners-up will each also win a t-shirt. Now, we’ve only got the jackets and shirts in sizes L and XL, so please enter which size you’d prefer in your comment along with your email address. Thanks to Hayden Nease for the photo. Ready, set, go!

MARCH IS METAL MONTH IS UNDERWAY!!! And as Vince promised last week, there’s a free sampler now avail featuring artists from many of the participating labels. That means you can download tracks by Fear Factory, Ihsahn, Triptykon, Suicide Silence, Lacuna Coil, Queensryche, White Wizzard, and more, all for the cost of breathing. Head over to Amazon to get the absolutely free download.

We’ll also have lots more March is Metal Month goodness in the coming weeks, including additional interviews and contests. Keep checking back here, or head over to MarchIsMetalMonth.com for all the latest.

While White Wizzard take their show on the road all over the world and make bad-ass videos in support of their upcoming trad-metal rocker Over The Top, former members of that band are getting ready to do the same in their new project, Holy Grail. Holy Grail released the four-song Improper Burial EP this past Fall and are currently in the studio hammering out their full-length debut, Crisis in Utopia, with Danny Lohner (Nine Inch Nails, A Perfect Circle) behind the boards. The record is due out on Prosthetic Records in late Spring.

Three tracks from the Improper Burial EP are currently streaming on the band’s MySpace page. If the full-length songs are anything like these I can’t wait to hear ‘em.

-VN

Photo credit: Alex Solca

My car just got towed and I’m pissed. Really fucking pissed. One side effect of being a pantsless blogger is that sometimes you get a little comfortable and forget to do things like move your car when you’re supposed to (and I swear, I didn’t poke any smot today!). Before I go pay $185 to get my shitty fucking 1988 Honda Accord back, I’ll recap what happened this week on MetalSucks. Fuck the world.

• You say to-MAY-to, I say to-MAH-to… when it comes to band names.
• We debuted a fresh track by Dangers.
• Trivium canned drummer Travis Smith causing you all to argue incessantly about the tr00/false metalness of Trivium. Oceano also lost a member, causing the MetalSucks Mansion to rejoice while Suarez wept in the corner. Meanwhile Periphery’s ex-singer joined a band that sounds just like Periphery and even includes one of their [key] members.
• We spoke with Ihsahn and invited all of you to speak with Dark Tranquillity’s Mikael Stanne.
• Atreyu’s drummer’s wife wants to save rock and roll but apparently doesn’t want to save correct usage of the French language.
• Sammy O’Hagar likee Fear Factory. Axl Rosenberg no likee Fear Factory.
• Eyal is conducting an experiment. Have fun sifting through 385 demos, buddy.
• White Wizzard released the best video ever of the week.

Bye.

-VN

Last week we had a Prosthetic Records 10-pack of CDs up for grabs in our funny photo caption contest. The winner, without a doubt, is the following entry for both its appropriateness and topical (aka related to MetalSucks) humor:

• Spanky: “Hey look, an actual Suckalo.”

Nicely played! This week we’re giving away 4 sets of prizes: each winner will get a back patch and a poster featuring the artwork from White Wizzard‘s soon-to-be-released trad-metal gem Over the Top. Yes, that’s right, a friggin’ back patch! And yes, that’s right, White Wizzard, early recipients of my own personal “Most Bad-Ass Metal Video of 2010″ Award (seriously… check out that video… mind-blowingly great). The back patches — pictured here — are part of a limited run of only 100 (though we hear rumors that at some point Earache will issue cut-off jean jackets with these sewn on!). Just come up with a funny caption to the below photo [thanks: Voltron Futura] and one can be yours. Remember to comment using a real email address so we can contact the winners.

It’s only the first day of February but it’s going to be damn hard to top the levels of bad-assery reached by White Wizzard‘s new video. “Over the Top” — from their forthcoming Earache debut of the same name — reminds me of the days of yore, when music videos, ya know, ruled; the storyline and acting in this ’80s throwback classic are as over the top as the song’s name would imply. Marooned in a dusty desert town under the spell of an evil mage, just when you think our heavy metal heroes are done for good the power of metal and the White Wizzard himself come to save the day and restore all that is right in the world. Classic!

I may sound like an old man, but when it comes to bad ass music videos they just don’t make ‘em like this anymore. Except if you’re White Wizzard (and directory Dave Vorhes).

Over the Top drops March 9th in the U.S. and February 8th in Europe.

-VN

It was a fuckin’ busy week, no? Either shit was crazy this week or I’ve really got to get outside of the MS Mansion more often. Here’s what went down:

• We announced a Winter U.S. tour featuring four bands TBA, and we revealed them day by day via anonymous interviews. So far we’ve revealed Mutiny Within, Arsis and Exodus (click the band name for the interview). Who will the headliner be? Read the interview here and try to guess.
• Eyal got burnt out on the music he loves and explained the financial realities of being a metal musician.
• We spoke with 3 Inches of Blood’s Shane Clark and White Wizzard’s Erik Kluiber.
• Horse the Band’s Lord Gold blogged about being bored on tour.
• We argued about drum triggering in metal.
• We streamed the asshole-ripping new record by The Destro and a webisode from Steel Panther.
• We said goodbye to Evile bassist Mike Alexander. R.I.P.

Ax and I are going to see 3 Inches of Blood in Brooklyn tonight, so hopefully that’ll provide just the head-clearing I need. See you guys Monday.

-VN

I’ve known White Wizzard guitarist Erik Kluiber since 2001 or so, when his old-old band Inner Recipe was working the club circuit in Southeast Michigan. When that band changed their sound to an ’80s metal throwback (way before it was popular to do so), they also changed their name to Overloaded and did quite a few gigs with my own band (“Vince Neilstein was in a band?” I hear you asking. Yes, kids. We’ll get to that another time.). Kluiber was also one of MetalSucks’ earliest supporters (oldschool commenters like Sammy, Wayne and hibernum should know him as “ERiK”).

Now Kluiber is all big-time, having moved to L.A. to join White Wizzard whose MetalSucks-approved High Speed GTO EP dropped on September 8th on Earache Records. I caught up with Kluiber at the band’s recent show in Brooklyn supporting Ross the Boss; we talked about how he came to be a member of White Wizzard, moving to L.A., finally having the support of a record label after years of grinding it out, recording the band’s first full-length record, and what the future holds.

Click to read more…

There’s a classic metal revival beef a’brewin’. In May we told you about Earache Records signees White Wizzard, and just last week we reported on Holy Grail, a recent Prosthetic signee made up of three former members of White Wizzard. Seems that the recent press attention received by Holy Grail has placed White Wizzard on the defensive, as the band found the need to issue a press release warning of “White Wizzard immitators.” Says the press release:

The lineup featured on WHITE WIZZARD’s September 8th debut mini-album, HIGH SPEED GTO is much different from that of the current lineup whom will be recording a full length album set for release in 2010. Recently, several ex-members from the previous lineup have begun making headlines in a newly signed band who’s former name shared an eerily similar theme with that of WHITE WIZZARD’s. WHITE WIZZARD bassist, Jon Leon has written a statement to clear up any confusion about the band’s lineup changes and to serve notice that there is only one WHITE WIZZARD:

Click to read more…

If I were a betting man and I wagered on the chances of any given band signed to any metal label in 2009 actually being good, I’d definitely put my money down on Prosthetic or Sumerian Records. Both labels are completely killing right now. Where Sumerian certainly wins in “scene points” and innovation stylistically speaking, Prosthetic takes a decidedly more varied but no less awesome route; all bands on Prosthetic sound completely different from one another (hello Kylesa, Gojira, Animals as Leaders, Grief of War, etc etc etc ad infinitum) but they’re all superb. Furthermore, their bands have little if anything to do with what’s hot in today’s metal scene — they just are what they are, and they’re damn good at it.

Click to read more…

What I like about White Wizzard, Earache Records’ latest signees, is that there’s no bullshit involved in their music. These are dudes who lived and died by their Maiden, Priest and Dio records back in the day and without a doubt still jam these records all the time. Perhaps best of all, there is not an ounce of irony here; though the dudes certainly have a sense of humor and, methinks, would categorize their music as “fun,” don’t expect them to try to out-shred anyone like a certain band or to pull any ironic “we have 15 singers” crap like another certain band. White Wizzard just like their “classic, traditional metal” (their own self-categorization), therefore that is what the play. Quite well, I might add.

Take their video for “High Speed GTO,” posted below. It’s got wizards and witches, sorcerers, general bad-assery and a storyline you’d expect from a classic Dio video, not a metal video in 2009. But the video doesn’t have these things because they think “ha ha, the ’80s were funny, let’s make fun of them!” like most of the poser rehash bands of today. No, these dudes actually think (and rightly so!) “wouldn’t it be fucking awesome if we had a video with wizards and witches and sorcerers??! that’d be fucking bad-ass!!!” It’s a fine line, kiddies.

After the jump, check out a recent EPK video featuring interviews and live footage of the band, including ex-Overloaded guitarist Erik Kluiber who recently joined White Wizzard as their second guitarist. Erik’s a talented axeman that longtime MetalSucks Maniacs will remember as commenter “ERiK.” Expect a “mini-album” (whatever that is) called High Speed GTO from White Wizzard on July 13th in the entire world. hello, Earache, it’s called “the Internet!” in Europe, and a full-length later in the year.

Click to read more…

No, not the art of sorcery and spell-casting, which are in fact pretty damn metal — but the rock band from Sweden. What’s the deal with this band getting all sorts of metal press lately in mags like Revolver? Listen to the track “Walk Between the Lines” on their MySpace page and try to argue this band is metal, I dare you. Really they’re two parts Doors, one part modern-indie-jangly guitar rock, and maybe one part Sabbath.

Not that this is a bad thing; I mean, I love The Doors. But metal? Someone please explain this one to me. Maybe all you need to do these days to be metal is to look metal. Either their publicist deserves a giant bonus or my ears are broken.

-VN

PS: Here’s a band whose name also starts with “W” who are definitely metal.