The Metalsucks Podcast

Dave Haley, drummer for Australian tech-death band Psycroptic, guests this week, Chuck and Godless grill him about the difficulties of being an Aussie band and touring the world, the benefits of retaining the rights to their music, their involvement with Tasmanian Devil extinction awareness and which member is the true hippie of the band. Chuck and Godless also discuss the divisions between metal fans and how those rifts reflect racial tendencies in the U.S. It can be difficult for any band to become "legitimate," but in the modern metal scene more and more bands get criticized based on their style rather than their ability to write and play songs. Is this the new normal? Why do some people just hate clean singing and only listen to death metal? Should Chuck start a new battle vest? We discuss, you decide. Songs:Psycroptic - "Cold"Veil of Maya - "Phoenix" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

An action packed episode this week! Chuck and Godless take a bunch of your calls, talk about love and relationships for Valentine's Day, and debut the inaugural installment of "One Minute to Midnight," where unsigned bands get to have their music featured on the podcast and heard and critiqued by veteran producer, musician, teacher and resident badass Eyal Levi. Two bands get the full treatment this week; winners? losers? You be the judge! Doc Coyle takes us to school on Steel Panther in his ongoing "Rejecting the Sickness" segment, telling us why SP are totally legit and not as derogatory as you might think based on song titles, album titles, videos, pictures, telegraphs and smoke signals. Songs:Cognizance - "The Succession of Flesh"Byzantine - "A Curious Lot" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

70,000 Tons of Podcast! Chuck and Godless set sail for the Caribbean with 4,000 metalheads to experience 60+ bands and some amazing times: a bigger ship, 20 more bands and even more fans on board than ever before, all headed to Jamaica with one thing in common... metal! Corrosion of Conformity make their first appearance on the Podcast with their Blind-era lineup. They tell us all about how this group came back together of late, the big difference with the recent return to the three piece, Reed Mullin's experience with Dave Grohl and a new project called Teenage Time Killers that features some amazing guest stars. Later Chuck and Godless sit down with Max and Gloria Cavalera and talk about their storied history with the metal business: what it's like to have so much of their family involved, what it means to have that time together and how tragedy has shaped their destiny. Songs:Soulfly - "Eye For An Eye"Blind Guardian - "Ashes of Eternity" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoic

Periphery guitarist Mark Holcomb guests this week on the eve of the release of their new album Juggernaut. We talk about the recording process, guitar nerds asking too many questions, and how producing the record themselves was a liberating experience. We take a listener call about Slayer entering into the Bonnaroo mix; what does that mean for the band and for metal in general? Does it signal metal's acceptance into the mainstream? Is the festival seeing the writing on the wall that metal fans will buy tickets? Will this expand Slayer’s fanbase, or is it just a nice, fat check? All this and a new Storytime With Stavros brings you Metallica in a continuation of his infamous New Orleans stories. Songs:Periphery – "Rainbow Gravity"Venom – "The Death or Rock and Roll" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Jean Paul Gaster, drummer for the mighty Clutch, joins the podcast as the band heads into the studio to record their new album. He discusses how Clutch have been able to retain the same lineup for over two decades, keeping family and band separate, the band's experience with records labels (and launching their own) and the two things every band needs to know to be successful. Chuck and Godless also ponder why bands would make an entire record of cover songs, inspired by Prong's announcement of their own covers album. Do bands not have any new ideas? Is it to fulfill contractual obligations? Or something more simple like getting back the inspiration that may have been lost from years of touring and writing? Songs:Clutch - "The Face"Psycroptic - "The World Discarded" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Josh Middleton, guitarist and vocalist for British metal band Sylosis, guests this week on the podcast. Chuck and Godless chat with him about the local metal scene in England, their bad luck with touring and vehicle wrecks, and they grill him on why he hasn't asked his girlfriend to marry him yet. New album Dormant Heart comes out on the 13th of January, so we play a song from that as well. Chuck and Godless dissect a recent announcement that Nuclear Blast made with the label's 2015 release slate, and they use that a springboard to try to figure out where labels are going nowadays. Is it better for labels to stick with bands who are well-known and will sell lots of albums? Have the days of big labels taking chances on bands gone by the wayside? What does it take to make it on a label these days? They also get suckered in by an unsigned band's Tweet, and are pleasantly surprised by their music. Songs:Sylosis - "Mercy"Napalm Death - "Cesspits" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoic

Chuck and Godless enlist drummer Alex "Rudy" Rudinger (ex-The Faceless, ex-The Haarp Machine, Conquering Dystopia, Monuments) to ring in the New Year with the first MS Podcast of 2015. They chat about his work with Jeff Loomis and Alex Webster in Conquering Dystopia, his take on drum-programming software, and his reasons for leaving The Faceless. Rudy also announces another band he will be subbing for in February after getting off the road with Monuments back in December. Songs:Conquering Dystopia - "Ashes of Lesser Men"Call of the Void - "Cold Hands" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week Chuck and Godless bring in MS Senior Editor Anso DF to discuss 2014's biggest news stories. Some things you might remember, others you might not; who the newsmakers were and who they should have been; and remembering several of our fallen comrades. There might be a couple of predictions for the new year packed in there too. Doc Coyle stops in to "Reject The Sickness" and tell us why Christmas Metal is total bullshit and needs to stop before it even gets into your playlist. Songs:Babymetal - "Doki Doki ☆ Morning"Dio - "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

They wrote them out for you, and now they spend this episode of The MetalSucks Podcast discussing the Best Metal Albums of 2014! Chuck and Godless received your Tweets and comments, and break down their picks versus yours as well as those of other MS staff members and critics. They also talk about what kind of year it's been for metal against what a stellar year it was in 2013, and they look at some of the releases they missed, plus jam a few extra tunes. Songs:Black Crown Initiate - "Great Mistake"Fallujah - "Carved From Stone"Wovenwar - "Matter of Time"The Hell - "Everybody Dies" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Mike Muir, legendary vocalist for Suicidal Tendencies, is our guest this week. Instead of talking about their album and touring, we wind up hearing about his philosophy on life, how his passion for music pisses people off and how he relates to his kids differently than the way his father related to him; really, we just turned on the mics and let him roll. Godless and Chuck also talk about their experience at the recent Slayer show, whether or not people are too cool for Slayer now, and how most people are posers when it comes to liking obscure bands and hating the mainstream. Stop pretending you don't like anything that sold more that five records; you aren't fooling anyone! Songs:Suicidal Tendencies - "I Saw Your Mommy"Periphery - "The Scourge" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week, the hosts of one of Godless' favorite podcasts to troll -- the Bad Christian Podcast -- are our guests. Podcast hosts Matt and Toby also play in a Christian Rock band called Emery. They stopped by the studio to get grilled about all things Christianity, the topic of Christian Metal and whether or not it's legit, if the guys making it are believers, or if it's just another cash cow people use to further their influence. Half of our discussion appears in our episide this week, then we'll dive into the fallacy of religion on the newest episode of their show later this week.  Chuck and Godless also talk about the latest news: the passing of our friend Athon from Black Tusk, why Black Sabbath shouldn't have been named the #1 Best Metal band of All Time in the MetalSucks countdown, and why that awesome metalhead scientist wore that stupid shirt to a press conference. We also take a reader call-in and discuss some small but beloved bands people may not know about. Songs:Toothgrinder - "Relic of My Youth

Michael Lessard, vocalist of The Contortionist, is our guest this week. We go in depth about his home planet of Maine, his transition from his role in Last Chance to Reason as the new vocalist for this band and whether backing tracks are acceptable in a live show, among other topics. Chuck and Godless also pontificate about the final five bands in the 25 Best Metal Bands of All Time countdown and, spurred by your calls, speculate if there were any misses, forgotten bands or glaring absences. They also gush just a bit over the cheesy but awesome new Scar Symmetry song. Songs:The Contortionist - "Language I: Intuition"Scar Symmetry - "Limits to Infinity" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Richie Faulkner, guitarist for the almighty Judas Priest, is our guest this week. We talk to him about his relatively new gig with JP (seeing as their history dates back to before he was even born), which band member's daughter he might be dating, what it's like filling the shoes of the great K.K. Downing and breaking the news to Glenn Tipton that he's playing a song incorrectly. Chuck and Godless offer some words about our friend Corey Mitchell's passing last week, they discuss Miss Fortune's dismall from the Sumerian roster due to the lead singer's run-in with the law, and they take a listener-suggested topic on whether a band's live performance is any better than watching a recorded performance of theirs online (after all, over five million people streamed Knotfest last week). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Housecore Horror Film Festival took place this weekend in Austin, TX, and Chuck and Godless were on hand to take in as much as they could over the festival's four days. They run down their experiences at the fest, including Gwar's new lineup, the Rigor Mortis documentary, and just hanging around with the artists and movie makers. They also sat down to talk with several guests, including: Rafał "Rasta" Piotrowski, lead vocalist for Decapitated, fresh from the side of the road outside of New Orleans where their tour van crashed once again. Gwar's new co-vocalist Vulvatron transported from the future to tell us about her terrible experience with the men in the band, and how her lady bits keep them in line. Michel "Away" Langevin, drummer for the legendary Voivod, gets an earful from uber-fan Godless. Away talks about the band's parting with Blacky, the loss of Piggy and keeping their 30-year history into perspective. Songs:Decapitated - "Veins"Gwar - "The Road Behind"Voivod - "Psychic Vacuum" Learn more

Our guest this week is Nick Schendzielos, bass player for deathcore heavyweights Job For a Cowboy. We talk about his new found work-out regimen, the songwriting process as a newer member of a band, how JFAC operates internally, his music listening styles and Ancient Aliens. MetalSucks co-head-honcho Vince Neilstein drops in to add his two cents about the recent report from Billboard which found that no album released in 2014 has gone platinum, as well as other interesting data about record sales this year. He'll be writing on the topic more extensively later this week, so he gives us a preview and things to think about as you steal the latest albums off the internet. Stavros Giannopoulos also adds his latest installment of "Storytime" with a harrowing tale of "eagle-man" and debauchery in the fine southern front of NOLA. Songs: Job For A Cowboy - "Sun of Nihility"At the Gates - "Death and the Labyrinth" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

David Davidson of Revocation is our guest on episode #71, with their killer new album Deathless coming out this week. We discuss the new sounds they play with on the record, touring with assholes, whether or not it is important to go to music school and the best things he learned while listening to jazz. Chuck and Godless also discuss another listener-suggested topic: whether we need to stop worshiping the metal gods of the past and focus on the new gods of modern metal instead. We also discuss Pig Destroyer's ambitious new album, and whether they should keep doing the doom metal experiment permanently. Songs:Revocation - "Labyrinth of Eyes"Pig Destroyer - "Red Tar" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tomas Lindberg, frontman for the reactivated At The Gates, guests this week on the podcast. He tells us about the new album At War with Reality, why the band dissolved after such a seminal album, growing up in Sweden and his other career as... well, you'll have to listen to find that one out. We take another listener call about why Slipknot smells like shit, or at least wants you to smell burning camel dung as part of your musical experience. Doc Coyle returns for his monthly segment "Rejecting the Sickness" with the original band that sparked the idea, Avenged Sevenfold. Did they jump the shark with Hail to the King? Do they rip too much from the Metallica and GnR tab books, or are they the only thing keeping metal alive? Songs:At The Gates - "At War With Reality"Rigor Mortis - "Rain of Ruin" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For episode #69 we thought it would be appropriate to talk about porn. Pornhub started a record label so Chuck and Godless discuss what that might mean in the New World Order of the music industry. Will it change the game? Has the game already been changed by Apple and U2? How, if at all, could this effect a niche genre like metal? Chuck and Godless gush over the new Devin Townsend record and take another question from a listener about whether or not it is appropriate for fans of a band to criticize them to their face and be surprised if their reaction is not nuanced and measured. Songs:Machine Head - "Now We Die"Devin Townsend Project - "Universal Flame" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dave Lombardo guests this week on the podcast, and we discuss everything... almost: the new Philm record, his disdain for managers, his departure from Slayer, his relationship with Jeff Hanneman, and working for Disney. There just isn’t enough time in in one episode to cover it all, but Chuck and Godless tried. Chuck and Godless also answer a question from a listener about Joey Jordison: was he fired from Slipknot for using drugs, and if that is the case, why did the band not fire Paul Gray before his death? They also ponder why Texas in July acquired a pretty good-sized set of cajones on their latest song.  Songs:Philm – We Sale at DawnTexas In July - Nooses Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The legendary King Diamond is our guest this week, and we don't use the word "legend" lightly. His three decade history in music with Mercyful Fate and his solo band have influenced countless bands, and we consider it an honor to be able to pick his brain. We talk about his recent heart surgery, the upcoming tour and promoters' hesitation to book him, and his public split with Hal Patino. We even get to chat with his lovely wife Livia for a bit. Chuck and Godless also talk about the demise of the New Wave of American Heavy Metal bands of the early '00s, inspired by Doc Coyle's piece that discussed why so many of his contemporaries are falling by the wayside. We premiere a new segment called "Storytime With Stavros" in which Chuck and Godless ask Stavros Giannopoulos of The Atlas Moth to dig up a "good" story from his memory about Blake Judd. Really, there has to be at least one good story about Blake... right? Songs:King Diamond - "The Family Ghost"Unearth - "The Swarm" Learn more about your ad choices. Vis