Earlier this week, you got to check out some sweet live footage of the three support bands (Barn Burner, Turbid North, and Battlecross) from the CMJ showcase we did with Metal Injection and 1000 Knives last Friday night; the MI Junkies tell me they’ll have even sweeter footage of co-headliners Skeletonwitch and Kvelertak sometime in the not-too-distant future. And while you wait for that, we have a good, old-fashioned, not-at-all-glossy audio bootleg of the event from Mr. 1000 Knives himself, Rich Hall. I don’t think I even realized they played for damn near an hour until I saw the running time on this baby. Wow. It honestly felt like ten minutes. I mean, I could have watched them again almost right away. In fact, we did watch them again almost right away — they played at the nearby St. Vitus just a few hours later, and, yes, we did go to see them for the second time that night. Metal Injection has some footage of that gig, including a BRAND NEW SONG!!!, here.

Alas, we don’t have audio of Skeletonwitch, but I promise, they absolutely murdered the joint, too, and if they’d been playing again a few hours later, we surely would have spiked our booze with coffee and gone to see them, too. Lucky for all you cats, the MetalSucks-presented Skeletonwitch/Kvelertak headlining tour is still ongoing, so you, too, can snap your neck rocking out to both bands! Get remaining dates here. Support comes from Zoroaster.

And now, enjoy some livelertak…

1000 KNIVES PRESENTS KVELERTAK 10.21.2011 by 1000-KNIVES

-AR

Kvelertak’s rise has been the very definition of “meteoric.” In 2009, no one knew who they were; then they released what was, in my opinion, the best album of 2010, and suddenly they were the topic of a million water cooler conversations, and now they’re friggin’ headliners. And you know what? They 110% deserve all their success, ’cause they really are that good.

And now, I’m thrilled to say, they have a video deserving of the music therein. The animation in the clip for “Blodtorst” feel unique in its style, and is certainly entertaining. It’s also chock-full of imagery that might best be described with the old adage, “metal as fuck.” And, of course, it never hurts that the song is great.

In case you missed the news yesterday, MetalSucks is proudly presenting Kvelertak’s upcoming co-headlining U.S. tour with Skeletonwitch, another band we totally love who are currently enjoying the well-earned fruits of its labors. And as though you needed another excuse to buy a ticket, Zoroaster is playing support! Get dates here.

-AR

(click here for a hi-res version of the tour admat)

Add it to the slate of awesome tours criss-crossing the U.S. this tour: Kvelertak and Skeletonwitch are teaming up for a co-headline run of the Eastern and Midwest U.S. this October with Zoroaster in support, and MetalSucks is bringing it to ya!

Kvelertak rocked the socks off of SXSW when they last visited the U.S. back in March; they were the buzz band of this year’s festival, and anyone who saw them couldn’t stop talking about their electric performances. Check out live footage of their headline show at the MetalSucks “South by South Death” showcase for a taste of what you’re in for. Skeletonwitch are perennial MetalSucks faves and their new album Forever Abomination comes out in October, so the timing is perfect for them to rip through some of their new tunes live and in the flesh. And for a special treat full of stoney, drony, weed- and beer-fueled psychedelic jams make sure you arrive early to catch Zoroaster.

The October 21st stop in Brooklyn also happens to be a a very special show: it’s the second annual Metal Sucks / Metal Injection / 1000 Knives CMJ showcase! Kvelertak and Skeletonwitch will co-headline while Zoroaster have the night off, and 3 more bands will be announced shortly.

Full list of tour dates after the jump.

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Hey dudes and ladies, sorry I haven’t been posting much this month. I’ve been travelingeven more than usual, and haven’t had much time to sit down and write down much of anything besides flight confirmation numbers and directions to wherever I happen to be sleeping any given evening. Cheers once again to those of you who went out and soaked up the riff-tastic metal circus that was Metalliance (especially those wonderful souls who came up to hang out or bought me a drink!), and mad love to everyone who survived that tour, especially the eternal road dogs in The Atlas Moth and Howl and my tour family on the Saint Vitus/Crowbar bus.

As soon as that madness ended, I flew over to Ireland to stay with my boyfriend J. for a couple days and get ready for my next adventure: reprising my now-yearly pilgrimage to the mighty Roadburn festival in Tilburg, Netherlands. He and I met there last year (he was playing, I was covering, the rest is history) so it was due to be special for more than the usual reasons, which are pretty fucking good reasons in and of themselves!

Roadburn is the best heavy music festival in the world, hands down. A bold statement, sure, but anyone who’s ever played, worked, or attended the event will agree with me. Yeah, the lineups are always amazing, and yes, the venues – the 013, which is separated into the Main Room, Green Room, and Bat Cave, and the Midi Theatre — are killer. The separate building for merchandise, vinyl distros, and movie screenings doesn’t hurt, nor does the charming ambiance of Tilburg itself.

The real heart and soul of this festival comes from outside, though; from the big-hearted organizers Walter and Jurgen, from the efforts of Roadburn public relations guru Yvonne (without whom the whole damn thing would have fallen apart), and from the thousands of fans and bands that have come together, united by an overwhelming sense of community and goodwill. Everyone at Roadburn is absolutely 100% thrilled to be exactly where they are. There is a reason that this year’s edition sold out – sold OUT – in fifteen minutes, and it’s not just because Swans, Godflesh, Winter, and Sunn 0))) were playing (though that can’t have hurt, either). I made it to my first Roadburn in 2009, and have made it a point to come backevery year since – I’ve heard the same pledge from a lot of first-timers, and I know a few people that are already saving pennies for next year!

This year’s lineup was insane (as always). To give you an idea, I wanted to be sure to catch Alcest, Year of No Light, Acid King, Winterfylleth, Zoroaster, Wovenhand, Naam, Blood Ceremony, Pentagram, Today is the Day, Cough, Godflesh, In Solitude, Wardruna, Soilent Green, Count Raven, Earth, Place of Skulls, Winter, Trap Them, Sabbath Assembly, Summon the Crows, Corrosion of Conformity, Menace Ruine, Sunn 0))), Hooded Menace, Grave Miasma, Scorn, Candlemass (performing Epicus Doomicus Metallicus in its entirety!), Black Math Horseman, Master Musicians of Bukkake, Weedeater, Rwake, Ludicra, Evoken, Ramesses, Shrinebuilder, Yakuza, The Gates of Slumber, Swans, Ufomammut, Blood Farmers, Coffins, Dead Meadow, and Sourvein … and that’s just me. There were plenty of other bands that I either had seen many times, was unfamiliar with, or just didn’t want to see (which is rare at Roadburn, but there’s a first time for everything).

Of course, since it’s a massive festival full of people from all over the world, a lot of whom I love dearly, I managed to miss tons of bands, but I’m okay with it. I’ll see most of them again, and Roadburn isn’t totally about the music. It’s about the experience, man.

Here are a few highlights from this year; third time’s the charm!

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Trying to keep up with the changes at a music festival is like trying to herd a pack of rabid cats. The South by Southwest (SXSW) Music Festival is the biggest musical kitty corral of them all. That’s why you have me here to help you make heads or tails of all your SXSW metallic/hard rock/punk rock/experimental/etc. needs.

There have been plenty of line-up changes since my last SXSW music post over a week ago. First on the list is the welcome news that NOLA-sludgekings eyehategod will team up with doom metal pioneers Pentagram to close out the conference on Saturday, March 19 (both bands will be going on after midnight, so, technically, they are playing on March 20) at the Scoot Inn. They’ll be joined by a stellar group of bands including Cough and Naam.

Other notable additions include YOB, Slough Feg, and Zoroaster.

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Whether you love Kylesa or hate Kylesa, there’s no denying this indisputable fact: they are a band, and they make music.

Also an indisputable fact: the band has announced a headlining tour to kick off next month. Fight Amp will play support on the entire tour, while Zoroaster will also join the tour for six dates, and Rosetta for nine. Honestly, at this point I’d be more excited to see Fight Amp and/or Rosetta than I would Kylesa and/or Zoroaster. But even if I don’t think that Kylesa are the second coming, I have seen them live three or four times, and they’re always pretty good.

And really if you don’t know Fight Amp and Rosetta, fuck yourself. Those bands are awesome, and will crush your reproductive organs into dust.

Here are dates, via Lambgoat:

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[UPDATE: Dates have now been posted at Stereogum!]

Feels like we’ve been waiting forever for a Nachtmystium headline tour; in my recollection there wasn’t one for the Assassins: Black Meddle Part I album cycle, and as you all [should] know Blake Judd and the crew have released another excellent album since then. Maybe there was a headline run for Assassins but I couldn’t go or something… which makes this new opportunity even sweeter.

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Whatup with people pronouncing Zoroaster “Zo-Roaster”? It’s pronounced “Zoro-Astor.” He was a prophet, philospher and poet who lived in the 6th Century B.C. Get it right, peoples! This band ain’t got nothin’ to do with coffee.

But despite their heady, historical name and prowess for Mike Tyson’s Punch Out, I feel roughly the same about Zoroaster as I do about Black Tusk, which is to say… they’re a’ight, but why bother? If I’m looking for beardy, doomy, stony metal I’ve got a hundred other choices.

So they’ve got a new video for the song “Odyssey,” premiered by Stereogum. The song does the exact same thing for two-and-a-half minutes (much like another song they recently released), then there’s a really boring middle part with a solo that sounds like it was played by an 8th grader, then it goes back to doing the same thing it did in the first half of the song. Boooo-ring. Finally, with a little over a minute to go we get a pretty decent Taco Riff to finish things up, but it’s obscured by more 8th grade soloing.

So yeah, I don’t know about this band. They’re using up their chances to impress me mighty quick. This is the kind of music that’s fun to jam to when you’re playing it yourself, but not very much fun for anyone else.

-VN

It seems like there isn’t a lot of variation during the course of the new Zoroaster song, “Black Hole,” – even when the song does change riffs at the 2:28 mark, well, it then proceeds to stick with that riff for the remainder of the song. And intellectually I know that should be a real problem, but I kinda like the song anyway. It gets me moving. I dunno. Maybe it’s all the whiskey I’ve been drinking this morning.

Zoroaster’s new album, Matador, comes out July 13 as part of E1′s great metal experiment.

-AR

The new video for Zoroaster’s “White Dwarf,” which just had its premiere on Brooklyn Vegan, isn’t necessarily the greatest thing I’ve ever seen, but there are three aspects of it which I really appreciate:

1. It was clearly meant to be watched while stoned.
2. It pokes fun at the current 3D trend.
3. Brent Hinds being Brent Hinds.

By the way, who else has played God of War III? If they make a movie version of that franchise, don’t you think that they should TOTALLY cast Hinds as Zeus? Totally.

-AR

I cannot see the name “Zoroaster” and not think about coffee. I know that’s not even how you pronounce it, but, seriously. I see “Zoroaster” and mind just goes, “Milk and two sugars, please.”

If the dudes from Zoroaster are reading this, well, I hope they don’t take offense, since I actually think they’re peachy. (I saw them open for Gojira and Burst last year, and they were really fun to watch live.) And this video (of admittedly dubious quality) of them doing a new song, “Ancient Ones,” at Hoek’s Death Metal Pizza during SXSW suggests to me that the band’s new album, Matador, is gonna rock. Even if it makes me wanna get all caffeinated n’ shit.

Matador is scheduled to come out in July on E1.

-AR

[via Blabbermouth]

The only time I saw Zoroaster live was when they opened for Gojira and Burst in Brooklyn last fall. Honestly — and nothing against these dudes at all — I was so preoccupied with the fact that I was about to see Gojira perform the best show of 2009 and Burst perform for the first/last time ever in New York that I really wasn’t focused on Zoroaster at all. I agree with Axl’s assessment of the show; Zoroaster were pretty good. I think.

But with a brand new album on the way I’m likely to get a lot more chances to see these doomy destroyers in action in the near future. Salome road correspondent Grim Kim seems mighty fond of ‘em, so that’s gotta be worth something, and for chrissakes these guys played on a tour called The Beard Destroyer Tour. But the fact that drummer Dan Scanlan is a Mike Tyson’s Punch Out guru — as shown below in the studio video sent in by MS reader Ashley Lee — automatically predisposes me towards liking this band; I mean, it’s only the best NES game EVER made. I never could beat Mike Tyson; I can literally breeze through the rest of the game but can barely get through one round with Iron Mike. Dan, if you’re reading this… can you do it? If so, HOW??

Side note: someone oughtta do a metal rendition of the music from Mike Tyson’s Punch Out. It’s probably been done already but I’m too lazy to search at the moment.

-VN

MetalSucks is double-dipping this year at the annual showdown/brodown/hoedown in Austin, TX by bringing you TWO awesome metal shows. You already know about the amazing Full Metal Texas lineup during the day on Thursday, March 18th — featuring Darkest Hour, Howl, Fair to Midland, Iron Age, Karnivool, Iwrestledabearonce and more — and today we’re pleased to announce that we’re sponsoring the showcase for one of our favorite metal labels, Prosthetic Records. The lineup, starting at 7pm on the festival’s inaugural Wednesday night, features the future of Prosthetic’s roster: Scale the Summit, Landmine Marathon, Withered, Book of Black Earth and The Funeral Pyre. We haven’t heard of Clinging to the Trees of a Forest Fire or Lions of Tsavo before, but if Prosthetic gives them their stamp of approval they seriously must be excellent… and aren’t festivals like this supposed to be about discovering new music anyway?

But wait — there’s more! The Prosthetic showcase is taking place at the same venue as the Action PR showcase at the very same time, meaning once you’re in you’ll be able to freely roam between both stages, one inside and one outside. And check out THIS fucking lineup: High on Fire, Priestess, Bison B.C., The Gates of Slumber, Zoroaster and Namm. Holy fucktickles, are you kidding me? That’s 13 fucking awesome metal all for just $10 (free if you have a wristband) in one metal-filled evening. FUCK YES.

Coming soon: a MetalSucks-approved calendar of all the metal goings-on at SXSW 2010.

We loved the last tour blog that Bison B.C.’s Dan And did for us so much, we’re only all-too-happy to present another! Below, please enjoy part 1; check back tomorrow for part 2!

Sep 11 ’09 (Vancouver BC @ Commodore)

I always love kicking off a tour with a show in Vancouver. It’s great to have one last chance to get completely loser pissed with our friends before we hit the road for however long. This time we were fortunate enough to finally share the stage with local good ‘ol boys The Golers and old pals 3 Inches of Blood. The Golers have been around forever and everyone should fucking hear them. They’re basically Vancouver’s Venomous Concept: relentless, break-neck speed pummeling. Is grind-punk a genre?

Show was fucking fun as all hell. It was 3 Inches record release show for Here Waits Thy Doom (which may or may not feature all of us doing backups on the song “Preacher’s Daughter”) and the place was packed! The cap of the Commodore is somewhere between 950 and 1000 and apparently it was like 15 tickets away from being sold out. Jesse from local grinders Zuckuss pointed out how fucking crazy it is that three local bands brought that many metal heads out of the woodwork. The night was bitter sweet though because not only was our good friend Ian unable to be there because of surgery but that night would also be my last chance to ever set foot in local punk/metal institution the Cobalt. I can’t even describe how awesome that bar and the staff are. The thought that it’s getting shut down by the fucking slum lords that own the building so they can cash in on Olympic fever makes me wanna tear someone’s head off. I’m consoled by the fact that I know bar legend/honcho Wendy 13 will soon enough have a new venue I can crawl out of at 5am reeking of Jager bombs. COBALT FOREVER!
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On Sunday night we caught the Beard Destroyer 2009 tour with Hull and Batillus (sadly for us, Salome didn’t play that date). It crushed even harder than we thought it would, so we asked our friend, Batillus skinsman Geoff Summers, to do a tour wrap-up for us. We hope you enjoy!

So, here I sit with a mild case of PTD (post-tour depression) writing up this wrap report for the so-called Beard Destroyer tour featuring Salome, Hull, and my band, Batillus. We had some good times, and we had some bad times. It rained. A lot. Everywhere we went. Fortunately, though, the good dwarfed the bad. Let’s recap…

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Last night I told Burst vocalist Linus Jägerskog -  a truly chill dude who not only works his band’s merch booth, but is more than happy to pose for photos, sign shit, etc. – that he broke my heart. How could this be the first time we were seeing them live? And why oh why was it the last?

Burst were fucking great, man. So great that when the shitard behind me yelled “Stand up, you faggot!” at guitarist Robert Reinholdz (who was, for reasons I’m not clear about, seated for the entire performance) and then called for Jägerskog to “hang yourself tonight,” I seriously considered throwing my beer at him. And if any band that wasn’t Gojira was going on after Burst, getting kicked out of the show to defend the Swedes’ honor might have seemed totally worth it.

But GOJIRA. Wow. Here are some random thoughts that ran through my brain as we watched them give the best show of the year so far for the second time this year:

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I’m told that up is the new down, polka is the new metal, and energy drinks are the new WEED, but I’m not sure that all those claims are entirely accurate.

Also, Burst is (soon to be was) an awesome band, and if you can catch them on their first/last US tour ever (until a reunion that a scant few of us will actually care about) with Zoroaster and MetalPoops bone-crunching/eco-friendful fave Gojira (for most dates), you shan’t be disappointed. I can safely say that we are all extremely excited to see this bill at a smallish venue in chipster Brooklyn — you’re invited too, so get a ticket before it sells out!

It’s a shame to see Burst go — the albums that they’ve released are all pretty awesome, and I believe that the more they were to tighten their vision, the more they could have crossed over into further popularity/acclaim.

Oh well.

BURST — “Nineteenhundred” from Lazarus Bird (2008)

For US tour dates, visit Burst on YourMySpace.

-KW

A couple of weeks back we reported on the sudden glut of U.S. metal festivals this year, the latest of which is the MetalSucks-sponsored Planet Caravan 2-day metal festival being held in Asheville, NC this September. Quick refresher: Clutch, Pentagram, Kylesa, Burst (first and last U.S. tour ever!), Wino and many others. Today we’re thrilled to announce that the already strong bill has gotten that much stronger with a slew of heavyweight bands added: Tombs, The Gates of Slumber, Zoroaster, Bison B.C., Sourvein, doom kings/queen Salome, and friends of MetalSucks Hull and Battilus, the latter 3 of which will be touring the U.S. together around that time. All of the newly added acts will perform on the also-newly added second stage, right next door to the Orange Peel mainstage at Mo Daddy’s.

If you live anywhere close to North Carolina, how can you even consider not going to this event? It’s going to be a fucking rager. Tickets are on sale here or at the Orange Peel box office.

-VN

A couple of weeks ago about 10,675 of you emailed us about the kinda-cool-but-not-really-all-that-exciting news that LoG and Gojira will be opening for Metallica on their fall U.S. tour; good for them and all, but tickets will cost a fortune and we’d much rather see each band in a smaller, more intimate setting. So of course now that there’s actually some legit, super-exciting news — that Gojira have scheduled a series of one-off headline gigs in between their shows with Metallica — the grand total of readers who have emailed us so far is…. zero. Seriously, fuck all of you. (update: ONE. Thank you once again to MetalSucks Maniac / our favorite metal Hasid, Josh Kidd!). Kids, Gojira’s NYC headline show earlier this year was easily the best show we’ve seen all year. Easily. “Holy” and “shit” don’t even begin to describe how we felt about the show.

Support on these dates, which start September 21st in Brooklyn, will come from Zoroaster (who are headlining the MetalSucks-sponsored North America is Doomed Tour this Summer) and motherfucking BURST! That’s right, motherfucking Burst, whom I’ve been imploring you all to check out for at least two years. All at the same tiny venue in Williamsburg where we saw Mastodon play Crack the Skye in its entirety; the place holds 300 people, 400 max.

Check out the full list of Gojira headline dates after the jump. If your city isn’t included, fret not — the press release we received says “more dates TBA.”

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If this afternoon’s post about Shrinebuilder and A Storm of Light wasn’t enough to get you doom lovers off, here’s another bit of news that might help you bust a nut tonight: the MetalSucks-sponsored North America is Doomed tour kicks off next Saturday, August 1st! The tour features Zoroaster (who our own Kip W. affectionately pronounces “Zo-Roaster”), The Gates of Slumber and Serpentcult, and kicks off August 1st in Chicago, snaking its way through Eastern Canada, the Northeast U.S. and Midwest, and wraps up August 14th in Indianapolis.

http://www.myspace.com/thezoroaster
http://www.myspace.com/thegatesofslumber
http://www.myspace.com/serpentcult

Full list of tour dates after the jump.

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