Tosin Abasi <3

- JR

Metalsucks posted the following video of Devin Townsend playing a new song, called “Radial Highway”, from one of the upcoming Devin Townsend Project albums during his acoustic set in Redmond. Judging by the sound, I’m assuming it’s from Ghosts, as Deconstruction is supposed to be heavy as shit and, you know, this sounds like something that would come off of an album called Ghosts.

Devin’s right. It sounds like “Trainfire” from Ki. It even sounded like he lifted that drumline from the song for demoing purposes. It doesn’t matter though, cause the song is still awesome as shit.

- JR

During a performance of “Just A Man” (how fitting) at Faith No More’s appearance at the Soundwave Festival, Mike Patton jumped down off stage and commandeered a camera. After turning it on the audience, he turned it on himself.

Wowie. Mike’s been known to do crazy shit on stage, so I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone.

After the jump, the picture. It’s obviously NSFW, so beware.

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The PRP posted fan-filmed footage of “Unbreakable”, a new song off of their highly anticipated (at least to me) upcoming album [id]. Quality, as you could imagine, is pretty crappy. Vocals are practically indecipherable and the audio is mushy, but it’s enough to get a vague idea of what’s expected. I can hear the melody in the work and I like the main riff a lot. I love those dissonant-yet-strangely melodic high EHN-EHN-EHN-EHN chords (if anyone out there knows if there’s a technical term for that sound/chord, let me know so I can stop sounding like an idiot).

[id] comes out April 6th on Sumerian Records. Here’s another song from the same show off of [id], “Namaste”.

- JR

Apparently Dillinger Escape Plan played a Tears for Fears cover in Paris, France this past month on their European tour.

It’s too dark to really tell, but that’s Ben playing the keys. It’s a good cover, though it’s decidedly unDillinger, if such a thing exists. My only complaint is that Greg’s mic needs to be turned up. Damn sound guy needs to be fired. They should hire me. They don’t even have to pay me in cash. Just give me one and a half meals a day and I’ll take the job. Please hire me, Dillinger. I’m not joking. Dropping out of college to hang out and work with Dillinger Escape Plan? Sign me up.

In addition to the Tears For Fears cover, they played a new song, “Chinese Whispers” which sounds very rock-oriented and sounds like it’ll be one of the singles from their upcoming album Option Paralysis. Skip to 3 minutes in:

Oh man, that song is awesome. I can’t wait for Option Paralysis. It’s due out March 23rd on Party Smasher Inc/Season of Mist.

- JR

What? Can it be?! Option Paralysis leak?!1one!

No.

That was cruel, sorry. I am in fact referring to the recent announcement on Greg Puciato’s Twatter that the Dillinger Escape Plan will, for the second year running, be playing at the UK’s Download festival.

This is kind of a kick in the teeth after twice missing out on tickets for the TWO shows they played in London last Friday (a huge point of contention between me and the greedy London dickheads who went to both shows and/or touted the extremely limited number of tickets for phat £££ – which I don’t have </qq>), but if any of you readers are UK based, this is a better reason than any so far to go.

Me, I don’t particularly like camping, and considering I wouldn’t/couldn’t pay the £35 (about $55) for Friday, I can’t see myself going in for this either. Deftones are the only other band so far I like, and unfortunately Download caters more towards the beer-swilling, unwashed metalkind than my tastes, so I can’t see it getting that much better. That said, last year they rocked Faith No More, Meshuggah and Opeth, and past years have seen Tool, Between the Buried and Me and SikTh. I’m not saying there’s nothing good, but the delights are few and far between, and they also do things like headlining My Chemical Romance, and give bands like Enter Shi(t)kari and Bring me the Horizon stage time, when let’s be honest, a smack on the nose with a rolled-up paper is much more deserved. Amiright?

Sorry if you like those bands. No, really – it must be terrible having your condition…

That’s all, anyway. I’m feeling bitter, which may go some way to explaining the tone of this post. There is a glimmer of hope, however. This means that Dillinger will be in the UK again this year, and a little bird tells me they might have some new tunes out sometime in the next couple of months?

TOUR! TOUR! TOUR!

If there isn’t one I’m gonna break Puciato’s legs. Yes I’m only 140 pounds, but I can take ‘im, just watch me!

- CG

Today, Metalsucks hosted the premiere of a new Veil of Maya song, “Namaste”. It’s unmastered, but it still sounds good. If I’m not mistaken, it’s the final version of the song we heard them play live with the LOST inspired breakdown:

I’m thinking I really like the new song, but Mitch doesn’t (to put it lightly). Here’s an excerpt from our conversation:

Jimmy says:
I actually like it
Mitch says:
I’m going to stop Atheist for this, and I’m going to hate myself for it.
Jimmy says:
Dont bother then I guess
Mitch says:
this guitar tone is pretty awful.
Jimmy says:
It’s unmastered
Mitch says:
oh
just noticed that
Jimmy says:
I’d say it’ll be better
Mitch says:
it’ll still sound shit on the album anyway, just with a bunch dumb effects THREE POUNDS OF REVERB, NOISE GATING ETC ETC
and this is still just bad deathcore.
Jimmy says:
Well I dig it. I dunno
It’s like a more melodic Meshuggah I guess
Mitch says:
if all Meshuggah played was breakdowns instead of weird accented riffs, maybe.

Mitch and I disagree on various subjects. This is nothing new at all though. Comments on various articles I post should tell you this, if you read the site enough.

Anyhow, I like it. I’m into Sumeriancore anyway. If you didn’t like Veil of Maya before, this won’t change your mind. If you loved them before, you should (in theory) love “Namaste”.

VoM’s new album (id) (or is it [id]?) is out April 6th on, you guessed it, Sumerian Records.

- JR

Howard Jones had to leave the current Killswitch Engage tour for some reason (“unforeseen circumstances”). Instead of straight up canceling the tour like some bands would, KsE tap long tome bro in metal Phil Labonte of All That Remains.

Word on the street says Howard has had some kind of injury. But in the mean time, I think Labonte is the perfect Phil in (no more Phil puns–promise). He has a good voice, he’s friends with the band, and All That Remains is a better (imo) version of Killswitch Engage, so it should be a pretty decent tour for what it is.

Phil spoke of the situation on Twitter:

Yep, I’m singing for KsE until HoJo gets better. Not sure how long it’ll be but I’m here till they don’t need me anymore.

So there’s that. Here’s some video of KsE and Phil performing “The End Of Heartache”

- JR

[credit for the headline goes to Blabbermouth user tomelwood]

As far as nu-metal goes, Deftones were always standing out as different than the rest of the pack, at times leaning more towards alternative metal, if such a thing even exists. Empirical evidence also suggests that Deftones are generally more accepted in metal circles than the other bands that they were unfairly clumped with in the 90’s and early 2000’s.

It shouldn’t be news to anyone: In November 2008, Deftones’ bassist Chi Cheng was involved in a car accident that left him in a coma. Deftones then decided to shelve their highly anticipated album “Eros” and work on a completely new album without Chi.

Deftones frontman Chino Moreno (I love saying his name; I mispronounce it so it rhymes) recently spoke with Spin.com in regards to the upcoming album. Read cherry-picked excerpts below:

With former Quicksand bassist Sergio Vega filling in, the Deftones found a renewed energy, writing songs in a rehearsal space together — an approach they had ditched on their past few albums, which were recorded layer by layer with ProTools. Soon the band entered a L.A. studio with producer Nick Raskulinecz. The result: 11 songs for their yet-to-be-titled release, the sound of which recalls the group’s early days — while also exploring new territory.

One of Moreno’s favorite tracks, “Rocket Skates,” is a “heavier” tune with “beautiful yet violent imagery,” that has “a fantasy vibe” similar to “Knife Party,” a hit from 2000’s White Pony. But another newbie, “Nylons and Suspenders,” marks a first for the 20-year-old band.

“Musically, it’s something that we haven’t done before,” he explains. “It’s very… sludgy, like a chainsaw-type of riff but very slow. I shouldn’t say this, but it’s clunky… in an awesome way.”

What can fans expect from the new album?

The dynamics Deftones are known for — aggressive overtones and lush openness. They’re on opposite sides of the spectrum, but we meld them together without sounding contrived. There are a few heavy songs, too, like our first couple records, and there are also experimental tunes — but there’s not a minute on this record that feels like it doesn’t need to be there. Each sound complements the other. I’ll straight-up say it: it’s definitely one of our best albums.

What direction are you going in lyrically?

Well, I’ve been wanting to record a fantasy album like White Pony, where the lyrics are less, ‘This is my life and this is what we’re going through.’ It helps take us away from reality. I don’t like listening to people’s problems — I like music. Music has been smothered with that complaining since the early-’90s. It gets old. Instead of going to the opposite side of the spectrum and listening to Black Eyed Peas, which is just straight silly, I choose to listen to more instrumental music. I do very little singing about myself on this record. I love songs where I can totally take myself out of being human. I can sing about really odd things, and they don’t necessarily have to pertain to me at all. It paints a picture. Those are the kind of lyrics I grew up with — like the Cure. Really visual images and no storytelling.

How did the addition of Sergio Vega affect the music?

It brought us closer together than we’ve been in a really long time. Musically, we were really clicking, and Sergio really fits with the band. But he’s a different type of player than Chi; Chi plays with his fingers, Sergio plays with his pick. We’re just appreciative that we’re still alive and able to make music. The recording process was very different — we didn’t use ProTools. We wrote each song in a practice place and played them a million times ’til they were perfect. That approach goes back to our earlier days, and it’s a lot more personable. We work better when everybody’s together — and the songs benefit.

Below is a video of a live performance of “Rocket Skates”, off of the new album. The yet-to-be-titled followup to 2006’s Saturday Night Wrist is due out some time in May. I’ll be looking forward to it!

- JR

Metalcore giants Converge are launching a U.S. tour for their newly released album “Axe to Fall” for the year 2010. It will feature Coalesce, Gaza, Lewd Acts, Black Breath, and Harvey Milk all juggling around appearance dates. Here are the dates so far.

04/30: TBA @ TBA w/ Special guest, Lewd Acts, and more
05/01: TBA @ TBA w/ Special guest, Lewd Acts, and more
05/02: TBA @ TBA w/ Special guest, Lewd Acts, and more
05/03: TBA @ TBA w/ Special guest, Lewd Acts, and more
05/04: TBA @ TBA w/ Special guest, Lewd Acts, and more
05/05: TBA @ TBA w/ Special guest, Lewd Acts, and more
05/06: TBA @ TBA w/ Special guest, Lewd Acts, and more
05/06: TBA @ TBA w/ Special guest, Lewd Acts, and more
05/07: Cleveland, OH @ Grog Shop w/ Lewd Acts, Black Breath
05/08: Detroit, MI @ Magic Stick w/ Lewd Acts, Black Breath, and more
05/09: Chicago, IL @ Bottom Lounge w/ Lewd Acts, Black Breath, and more
05/10: Lawrence, KS @ Bottleneck w/ Coalesce, Lewd Acts, Black Breath
05/11: Denver, CO @ Marquis Theatre w/ Coalesce, Lewd Acts, Black Breath
05/13: Seattle, WA @ Neumo’s w/ Coalesce, Lewd Acts, Black Breath
05/14: Portland, OR @ Satyricon w/ Coalesce, Gaza, Lewd Acts, Black Breath
05/15: San Francisco, CA @ Slim’s w/ Coalesce, Lewd Acts, Black Breath
05/16: CA @ TBA w/ TBA
05/17: Anaheim, CA @ Chain Reaction w/ Coalesce, Gaza, Lewd Acts, Black Breath
05/18: Los Angeles, CA @ El Rey Theatre w/ Coalesce, Gaza, Lewd Acts, Black Breath
05/19: Tempe, AZ @ The Clubhouse w/ Coalesce, Gaza, Lewd Acts, Black Breath
05/21: Austin, TX @ Emo’s w/ Coalesce, Gaza, Lewd Acts, Black Breath
05/22: TX @ TBA w/ TBA
05/23: Tulsa, OK @ The Marquee w/ Gaza, Lewd Acts, Black Breath
05/25: Memphis, TN @ The Hi Tone w/ Gaza, Lewd Acts, Black Breath
05/26: Louisville, KY @ TBA w/ Gaza, Lewd Acts, Black Breath
05/27: Nashville, TN @ Rockettown w/ Harvey Milk, Gaza, Lewd Acts, Black Breath
05/28: Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade w/ Harvey Milk, Gaza, Lewd Acts, Black Breath
05/29: North Carolina @ TBA w/ Harvey Milk, Gaza, Lewd Acts, Black Breath

It’ll probably be a blast to go to whether you like the bands or not. I don’t know if I’ll go because the only band I really like enough to see live is Gaza. idk man idk. Shit looks cool for you hxc kiddies though.

-MW

Ha. Ha. Ha. I’m hilarious…

Yet another one of those bands I came to way too late (i.e. after they broke up), Mare played a unique mix of uber-sludgy doom with part haunting falsetto, part ball-achingly screechtastic vocals from Tyler Semrick-Palmateer (vocalist for The End on Transfer Trachea Reverberations From Point: False Omniscient). Caleb Collins of Circle Takes the Square handled drums, and there was…urm…some dude on bass.

They only put out one EP before going to the great gig in the sky (re: Crydebris, Push Me Under, a load of more obvious bands I’m probably forgetting) but it got them signed to Hydrahead. They announced the split three years ago this month, but I just got wind of a one-off reunion show they played in Mississauga, Ontario last summer. Some thoughtful guy thought to film it and whack that shit on YouTube: +10 internets for him. The audio quality is pretty damn good, too, and there are some flashy song titles if you didn’t already know them.

Check the related videos for the rest of the set. It’s good.

- CG

Every now and then I just kinda feel like things are getting stagnant. I wouldn’t say I was getting bored with the music scene, but sometimes I crave a new sound and I just want to be enthralled by something I haven’t heard before. Luckily, I came across Norway’s SHINING.

Not to be confused by the blackened emo Swedish band by the same name (he says as he alienates a portion of his audience), SHINING play a style of music that amalgamates jazz fusion, black metal, and industrial. Some of you may cringe at the thought, but this blend of genres makes for a truly engaging and challenging listen.  The music is weird, but sometimes weird is good; and with Blackjazz, weird is spectacular.

The music is abrasive in nature, although it wouldn’t take a genius to come to that conclusion by the album’s title alone. The first few tracks, “The Madness and Damage Done” and “Fisheye“, make heavy use of fuzzy distorted guitars and vocals with synth accompaniment; Shining wear the industrial influence on their sleeves. As with anything jazz related, expect odd time signatures and changes in meter. Don’t expect to be turned off if you think this will be too hard of a listen, however, as a lot of the synth lines and guitar riffs are catchy and memorable, serving as hooks. In “Fisheye“, we get our first taste of saxophone, played by vocalist/guitarist Jorgen Munkeby, who also played sax in Ihsahn’s After, which I praised as the first great album of 2010.

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One glorious fan (who goes by screen name impaledonafence1) has uploaded Devin Townsend’s set from the 1/31 Philadelphia show in high definition. Oh boy oh boy oh boy.

And in this set when they played “Supercrush”, Devin is actually singing all the parts! I’m way too excited over these videos than I should be. /fanboy excite.

Here’s a video for “Disruptr”, which is heavy as fuck live. The rest of the set can be viewed after the jump.

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Oh… so that’s how it’s done?

Take one part jazz, one part black metal, and throw in a twist of industrial, and you have Shining in a nutshell. Not to be confused with that other Shining from Sweden, this “version” hails from Norway. They started out in 1999 as an acoustic jazz quartet. Color me confused, but intrigued.

I’ll have to check out Blackjazz, Shining’s latest album, which is due out February 2nd in the US. Of course, Europe gets all to cool shit first. Thankfully, we have the internet.

Check this music out on myspace. It’s totally worth your time.

- JR

The quality is meh, but you pretty much get the picture. Not half bad, in my opinion. The new song is called “My Frailty” and it’s off of After The Burial’s as of yet untitled upcoming album.

That section of shred at the end and what I could hear of the melodic guitar line was pretty good. I’ll be giving this a metaphorical spin whenever it drops.

- JR