GOD FORBID / DEATH ANGEL TICKET WINNERS; THE BEST LOCAL BANDS SELECTED BY METALSUCKS

Last week we announced our contest — together with Nonelouder and Cocaine Energy Drink — to give away three pairs of God Forbid / Death Angel tickets in the city of your choice on their current tour. To enter, you all posted comments with links to your favorite local bands. It was tough sorting through them all… well, actually, it wasn’t that hard, because most of the bands you submitted sucked, especially a band who shall remain unnamed that spammed us with 50 entries. But there were a few diamonds in the rough, and here are the winners.

• Dhalsim (submitted by Johnny Ringo): Managing to bring Meshuggah’s angular, off-kilter sensibilites to their music without sounding like they’re just ripping off those Swedish legends, this Louisiana 4 piece proves that originality in metal is not yet a dead concept. Check out the almost scat-like rhythms of the vocals: rad.
• Time of the Wolf (submitted by Zack): Two words: “Br00” and “tal.” It’s not just that Time of the Wolf play uncompromising, epic, thrashy, blackened death metal so well; it’s that their sound already feels so developed (as opposed to some of the other submitted bands), like they could probably just go ahead and put out a record tomorrow. Which we hope they do.
• Inquinok (submitted by metalmike): Inquinok pedal a surprisingly refined, technical and melodic version of traditional black metal from that bastion of darkness and raininess, the state of Washington. Unlike most feaux-black metal pansies, I’d actually be legitimately frightened if I ran into these dudes whilst wandering around the forests of the Pacific Northwest.

Those who submitted the winning entries were contacted by email to hook up their free tickets and case of Cocaine Energy Drink (so if you won and didn’t get an email, contact us.). Congratulations, and enjoy the show!