Noisecreep

Brain Drill Enjoy Entombed, Enema Porn

Chris Harris — 2010-05-04T08:00:00+00:00

When fans of California's Brain Drill lay ears on the band's new LP, 'Quantum Catastrophe,' which drops May 10, they're going to notice that the band has unbelievably boosted the technicality of its unique brand of death metal. And according to bassist Ivan Munguia, that was totally and utterly intentional. On their new record, Brain Drill are a band with something to prove.

"I think it was just Dylan, because he just wanted to outdo himself from the last record, especially since we don't have the same members and a lot of people were like, 'How are you going to be able to pull it off without [former drummer] Marco [Pitruzzella] and [ex bassist] Jeff [Hughell]?,'" says Munguia. "So, Dylan was like, 'F--- you guys, I wrote everything.' And he threw it back in people's faces. He really wanted to try to outdo himself on this one."

Coheed and Cambria Discuss Timelines and Tours -- Video Interview

Chris Harris — 2010-04-27T17:00:00+00:00

Filed under: Interview, Exclusive Video

Prog rock fans, rejoice! There's a new Coheed and Cambria record in stores called 'Year of the Black Rainbow.' Like all of Coheed's previous efforts, 'Black Rainbow' is a concept record that serves as a prequel to frontman Claudio Sanchez's 'Amory Wars' storyline, the same storyline that's unfolded across the band's first four records. According to Sanchez, 'Black Rainbow' is essential listening for fans of the Coheed story, as it explains a lot about Sanchez's elaborate sci-fi saga.

"It's the origin of Coheed and Cambria, and for those who might be apprehensive about diving into that world, this is the beginning," Sanchez told Noisecreep during a recent visit to our downtown offices. "So, you know, you don't really need to know all the conceptual stuff from the other records to really jump in. This is number one. You know, it is the origin tales of Coheed and Cambria, and it just kind of sets up the world that's behind the record. It certainly answers a lot of questions that were posed when [2002's] 'The Second Stage Turbine Blade' came out, and started getting told in the comics and things like that."

Alice in Chains, Deftones, Mastodon Tour Rumored

Chris Harris — 2010-04-23T10:00:00+00:00

Filed under: News, Tours

In six days time, we should know a little more about BlackDiamondSkye.com, a site launched this week that several websites are speculating will go down this fall, and if the rumor is true, the only question remaining is: Who'll be the headliner? Alice in Chains, Deftones and Mastodon ... on the same bill? That's this week's hot rumor.

While nothing has been officially confirmed yet, chances are this rumor will end up being fact in six days, when the countdown on BlackDiamondSkye reaches zero. Reasons why it could be true? The site name alone is a dead giveaway. Last year, Alice In Chains released their comeback LP 'Black Gives Way To Blue.' The Deftones released 'Diamond Eyes' in May, and Mastodon's last effort, 'Crack the Skye,' dropped in 2009. There's also a YouTube video, which seems to be promoting the site itself. The clip is a mash-up of imagery and audio, but at times, you can distinctly hear the music of all three bands.

As I Lay Dying Tour Dates With Underoath, Between the Buried and Me

Chris Harris — 2010-04-22T17:00:00+00:00

Filed under: News, Tours

Talk about a lineup! Christian metalcore act As I Lay Dying, who will be releasing a new record called 'The Powerless Rise' next month, have revealed their plans for the inaugural Cool Tour, which will also feature Underoath, Between the Buried and Me and a host of other bands. The trek launches in Orlando, Fla., on July 12 and grinds to a halt Aug. 1 in San Francisco.

Tickets for the Cool Tour will go on sale April 30. Fans can also opt for the 'Cooler Package,' which will get you a T-shirt, a signed tour poster and a souvenir tour laminate in addition to a ticket to the gig. The bill will also feature Blessthefall, the Acacia Strain, Architects, Cancer Bats and War of Ages.

Bloodlined Calligraphy Bassist Eric Cargile Dead at 30

Chris Harris — 2010-04-22T14:00:00+00:00

Filed under: News

Michigan metal band Bloodlined Calligraphy have made the very sad announcement on April 21 that their bassist, Eric Cargile, passed away in his sleep from unknown causes on April 20. Cargile was 30 years old.

"We don't know how this happened, all we do know is that a loss of this magnitude cannot be truly explained in words," the band writes in a statement posted to their MySpace page. "Eric was seriously the heart of this band, and more importantly, he was the best friend and person we have ever met. Without him, so many things would have never been possible, and we all have so many amazing memories of and with him. We have lost our brother, our best friend, and things will never be close to the same without him. Any of you, bands, friends, fans who had the pleasure of meeting this extraordinary man can attest to the genuine nature of his heart."

Metallica's European Travel Plans Hindered by Iceland's Dust Cloud

Chris Harris — 2010-04-22T10:30:00+00:00

Filed under: News

You can't blame the guys in Metallica for not wanting to travel by bus. Since 1986, when the band's bus flipped while on tour in Sweden, killing bassist Cliff Burton, Metallica have opted for air travel between tour dates. But thanks to that Icelandic volcano and the dust clouds it's regurgitating into the ether, the thrash legends are grounded, just like the rest of the world. Rather than nix their current European tour, Metallica are returning to the bus. But it hasn't been easy.

"I just could not relax, thinking, 'Wow, those buses have changed a lot since we traveled,'" guitarist Kirk Hammett told reporters in Vilnius, Lithuania, where the band will be performing this evening. The band has to travel 28 hours by bus to make the gig ... a trip that typically takes two hours by plane. "[These buses] are so much more comfortable. You see, we did not use this means of transportation for more than two decades since the tragedy."

Lamb of God Prepping Anthology Releases for June

Chris Harris — 2010-04-21T10:30:00+00:00

Filed under: News, New Music

In the span of seven years, Virginia metallers Lamb of God have risen from the depths of the underground to become one of the biggest metal bands of the 21st century. Need proof? This summer, Lamb of God will be touring with Korn and Rob Zombie as part of the Rockstar Mayhem Festival, and to mark the occasion, the band will be releasing a series of anthology releases, collecting Lamb of God's six studio LPs in a number of convenient packages.

With the band's last record, 'Wrath,' in stores for more than a year now and no immediate plans to return to the studio, Lamb of God is tiding fans over with "Hourglass: The Ultimate Anthology,' which drops June 1. The 'Ultimate Anthology' box set will features 180 gram vinyl editions of the band's six records, including 'Wrath,' 2006's 'Sacrament,' 2004's 'Ashes Of The Wake,' 2003's Devin Townsend-produced 'As The Palaces Burn,' 2000's 'New American Gospel' and 1999's 'Burn the Priest.' The box will boast special packaging, and more details will be released in the coming months.

Terror, 'Keepers of the Faith' -- New Album

Chris Harris — 2010-04-20T15:00:00+00:00

Filed under: News, New Music

California metalcore maestros Terror have entered a recording studio to start work on the follow-up to 2008's 'The Damned, the Shamed' with New Found Glory's Chad Gilbert, who will be producing the effort -- the band's fifth full-length offering.

Called 'Keepers of the Faith,' the disc is being eyed for a late 2010 release through Century Media Records. The band has launched a studio blog to document all of the studio goings-on so that fans can remain updated on all of the band's in-studio progress. No songs titles have been released yet, but the band claims it will be dropping more hints about the disc in the coming weeks.

Former Every Time I Die Drummer Gets 'Cute' in His New Band

Chris Harris — 2010-04-20T14:30:00+00:00

Filed under: News

He left Every Time I Die last year to start a new project called Deadly Animals. And now, with the latter six feet under, drummer Mike 'Ratboy' Novak, who was an original member of ETID, has joined a new band: Cute Is What We Aim For.

Cute Is What We Aim For frontman Shaant Hacikyan, who has revived his band after announcing his plans to go solo last summer, recently broke the news. In the interview, Hacikyan explains how his struggles with alcoholism contributed to the dissolution of Cute. Now he's enlisted new players for the group, who'll be touring soon with Friday Night Boys.

Clutch Planning Reissues, Double-Disc DVD Set

Chris Harris — 2010-04-20T12:30:00+00:00

Filed under: News, New Music

Some bands release a few good records and follow them up with predictable tripe. Clutch, Maryland's kings of sludge rock, are not that type of band. In fact, Clutch have consistently released hellacious rock records that should always be played loudly, preferably while double-fisting some brewskies. And this coming year is going to be a busy one for the Clutch dudes.

The band will soon release a video for their track 'Let a Poor Man Be.' Meanwhile, a rare promo-only EP featuring unreleased material will be made available for release and is set to arrive May 3 through the bands own Weathermaker Music label. In addition, a whole lot of reissues are in the works.

Sharon Osbourne to Give Ozzy Her Breast Implants

Chris Harris — 2010-04-20T12:00:00+00:00

Filed under: News

They were most likely_thumbnail.gifts for Ozzy Osbourne in the first place, but now, wife Sharon Osbourne's breast implants will end up in Ozzy's hands ... and perhaps on his desk. That's because Sharon's downgrading her implants, dropping to two cup sizes.

Osbourne appeared on NBC's 'Today' show Monday, to promote this current season of 'Celebrity Apprentice,' which features Sharon and rocker Bret Michaels. Sharon tells 'Today' that her 34DDs need to be reduced, much to Ozzy's chagrin. But rather than disposing of the implants, she's having them turned into paperweights for her more-metal half.

In This Moment Lose Bassist; 'He Wanted to Fly Planes'

Chris Harris — 2010-04-19T14:00:00+00:00

Filed under: News

Female-fronted California metalcore outfit In This Moment have parted ways with original bassist Jesse Landry, according to a new video interview with vocalist Maria Brink and guitarist Chris Howorth.

"We didn't want to make a big scene out of it," Howorth says of Landry's departure. "After [last summer's] Warped Tour, he decided he didn't want to tour anymore, and he didn't want to do the music life. It can be hard. He wanted to fly planes and thought it over for a while. He's still part of our family."

Howard Jones Returning to Killswitch Engage for Spring Shows

Chris Harris — 2010-04-19T13:00:00+00:00

Filed under: News

They've been getting by with a little help from their friends Phil Labonte and Jesse Leach, but now Killswitch Engage have announced a handful of spring shows that'll once again feature frontman Howard Jones behind the microphone.

Jones sat out for Killswitch Engage's most recent trek with the Devil Wears Prada and Dark Tranquility, leaving the band no choice but to call on All That Remains' Labonte and their original singer, Leach, to fill in for him. Killswitch remains silent on why Jones had to skip on the trek, and the band has yet to respond to a flurry of rumors regarding his absence, including whispers that he might have been bounced from the group.

Decapitated, the Faceless to Headline Summer Slaughter Tour

Chris Harris — 2010-04-19T10:30:00+00:00

Filed under: News, Tours

This summer, there will be a ton of festivals to keep fans drunk, sunburned and rocked, but what's the heavy metal fan who doesn't dig Korn to do? Enter the annual Summer Slaughter Tour, which always promises to be a more underground undertaking than the usual festival fair -- a tour for the more discriminating longhairs. And this summer's installment will be no different. The lineup features recently revived Polish death metallers Decapitated and tech death metallers the Faceless.

"I don't think those tours really compete for many of the same fans as Summer Slaughter," says tour founder and booking agent Ash Avildsen, of where Slaughter fits in with the Warpeds and the Rockstar Mayhems and the Ozzfests. "This is focused on underground extreme metal rather than mainstream metal. All of our shows also have air conditioning."

Tool Writing New Material for Next LP

Chris Harris — 2010-04-16T19:00:00+00:00

Filed under: News

Holy Maynard! Could it be true? Tool, who MetalSucks so appropriately called "the past, present and future best band on the planet," are writing material for a new record, working three days a week on new tunes while frontman Maynard James Keenan continues touring the U.S. with his side-project, Puscifer. The band spilled the boner-inducing news in its latest online newsletter. The idea of a new Tool LP lends those rumors of a possible tour with Faith No More some extra credence.

"Members of the band are still in the process of writing new material and with the latest leg of the Puscifer tour nearing completion, it shouldn't be long before the dry-erase board is filled with a bewildering array of color-coded intros, progressions, agitatos, con sordinos, crescendos, diatonics, inversions, resolutions, transitions, variations, obbligatos, consonance, and endings -- the arrangements that millions will attempt to download off the Internet," Tool's newsletter reads.

Police Confirm Discovery of Morgan Harrington's Pantera Shirt

Chris Harris — 2010-04-16T15:30:00+00:00

Filed under: News

Virginia State Police gave reporters a lot of information during the early stages of the investigation into the disappearance of 20-year-old Metallica fan Morgan Harrington. But now, with the investigation shifting to a homicide, we're learning that they didn't reveal everything about the investigation during the first few months.

Six months after Harrington, a student at Virginia Tech, vanished from a Metallica concert at the John Paul Jones Arena on the University of Virginia campus, police revealed that, less than a month after she was abducted, the black Pantera T-shirt she'd worn to the concert was found by a local resident, 11 miles from where her remains would eventually be found.

Type O Negative Break Silence, Comment on Death of Peter Steele

Chris Harris — 2010-04-16T14:30:00+00:00

Filed under: News

Late Thursday evening, nearly 24 hours after rumors of frontman Peter Steele's death started spreading like wildfire online, Brooklyn metallers Type O Negative have broken their silence on the 48-year-old singer and bassist's sudden passing. Steele's death rocked the metal world Thursday, with some doubting initial reports. But not only did the band confirm Steele died Wednesday of what appears to be heart failure, they revealed that the world almost had another Type O disc.

"Ironically, Peter had been enjoying a long period of sobriety and improved health and was imminently due to begin writing and recording new music for our follow up to 'Dead Again' released in 2007," the band's statement reads. "The official cause of death has yet to be determined pending autopsy results. The funeral services will be private and memorial services will be announced at a future date. We are truly saddened to lose our friend and appreciate the tremendous outpouring today from around the world."

Type O Negative's Peter Steele Dead at 48

Chris Harris — 2010-04-15T10:00:00+00:00

Filed under: News

Word spread just before midnight last night, and now, it has been confirmed. Peter Steele, the bassist and frontman for Brooklyn heavy metallers Type O Negative who also spent time in Carnivore and Fallout, passed away Wednesday at the age of 48. An official cause of death has not yet been released.

Type O Negative manager Mike Renault confirmed the initial reports, saying in a statement, "Peter passed away last night. As of now it appears to have been heart failure. That's all the details we have right now."

Swashbuckle Part Ways With Drummer, Name Replacement

Chris Harris — 2010-04-14T16:30:00+00:00

Filed under: News

Avast ye, scallywags. New Jersey-based pirate-themed thrash outfit Swashbuckle have sent drummer Captain Crashride to Davy Jones' Locker and replaced him with Bootsmann Collins of We All Have Day Jobs.

"There's been a bit of a change in the 'Buckle rank as of late. We have recently parted ways with drummer Captain Crashride. He brought us five years of service and utter shenanigans, and we wish him nothing but the best in combating that extreme outbreak of scurvy," frontman Admiral Nobeard is quoted as saying; he did not offer an explanation for the lineup shift, however.

Gojira to Record EP This Summer for Whales

Chris Harris — 2010-04-14T13:30:00+00:00

Filed under: News

While some people just talk about saving whales, French extreme metallers Gojira are actually doing something to curb international whaling -- and they'll do it whaling on their guitars. The band explains in a new interview that they've been writing songs for an EP they'll record this summer, the proceeds from which will benefit Sea Shepherd, an anti-whaling organization.

"We'll record and produce five songs that [we] will sell on our Web site without going through traditional ways," says frontman Joe Duplantier in a new video interview. "The benefits of sales will be donated to Sea Shepherd," an organization he's mentioned in countless interviews before. "There will be guests from the international metal scene [on the record]."