NEW MUSIC AND RECORDING ROUND-UP: BLACK TUSK, GOD FORBID, SWALLOW THE SUN AND WHITECHAPEL

Lots of new metal is out or is about to come out! I’ll put about as much effort into writing this intro as the Red Sox did into playing good baseball in September, so let’s just cut right to it:

Let’s start with a couple of bands that are appearing on the same day of The Metal Suckfest, Black Tusk and God Forbid. Black Tusk — who are also playing alongside Municipal Waste, Today is the Day, Howl, Magrudergrind and more at Day 1 of the Suckfest on November 4th — have a new song called “Bring Me Darkness,” which you can stream below. It’s been up for a couple weeks already, but hey, yer Uncles Axl and Vince have been snoozing from hitting the bong a bit too hard, a pastime of which Black Tusk would surely approve. Set the Dial comes out on October 25th via Relapse. Meanwhile, God Forbid, who recently released a demo of a new track called “Where We Come From,” have announced that they’ll be entering the studio next month to record a new album. Great news for fans who enjoyed 2008’s progressive opus Earthsblood as much as we did.

BLACK TUSK – “Bring Me Darkness” by RelapseRecords

Finnish death/doomsters Swallow the Sun, a perennial MetalSucks favorite, have also announced plans to record a new album. They’ve even boldly declared February 1st, 2012 as a release date, according to an update directly from the band:

“During the well-deserved break we took from shows this year, we’ve been preparing new music, and now we are happy to announce that we have entered Drumforest Studios at Viitasaari to record our fifth full length album, which will be released February 1, 2012 by Spinefarm Records.

“Drumforest Studios is an atmospheric studio built in an old-school middle of Finland in Viitasaari. It’s the perfect environment for the-legendary sound engineer Mikko Karmila to capture our signature sound. Mikko is well known in the metal world for his work with such names as NIGHTWISH, SENTENCED, AMORPHIS and CHILDREN OF BODOM, just to name a few, and we’re very happy to work with him.”

Since it’s never a bad idea to listen to Swallow the Sun, here’s “Don’t Fall Asleep” from the Hope album:

Lastly, there’s a new Whitechapel song called “Section 8” on the band’s Facebook page. I’m no Whitechapel fan and this song doesn’t change that, although I will say that this song is one of the most solid I’ve ever heard from these guys. But, with a rumored digital EP coming out in November, I’m forced to wonder: are digital EPs the new thing? Job For A Cowboy, another Metal Blade deathcore band, did the same thing earlier this year. I like it as a way of keeping fans engaged for a low cost during a period of band inactivity.

-VN