Friday 5: What 5 Artists Have Been Away Too Long?
Happy Friday, MetalSucks reader! Welcome to MetalSucks Friday 5, our awesome series that appears every Friday (duh) on MetalSucks (duhh) and involves the quantity of five (duhhh).
Here’s how it works: A list of best/worst/weirdest/whatever five somethings is posted by one of your beloved MetalSucks contributors or by one of our buds (like you?). Then you, our cherished reader, checks it out, has a chuckle, then chimes in with a list of the same. No sweat, just whatever springs to mind, k? (Just like that movie about those losers working at a Chicago record store!) After all, it’s Friday — the day dedicated by the gods to mindless, fun time-wasting.
Today, let’s nag our tardy favorites!
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THE FIVE
What five artists should immediately return to active status?
THE LISTER
Anso DF, MetalSucks senior editor
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Kenny Hickey (Seventh Void, ex-Type O Negative)
Date of last release: 2009
This week, we were treated to news of a couple very welcome returns: divorce-pop icon Phil Collins announced his plans to tour and record after a long hiatus, and ex-God Forbid guitarist Doc Coyle unveiled a new jam by his new band. Great to have them back, there’s nothing so wasteful as a talent at rest. On that note, we really need to check in with Kenny Hickey, formerly of Type O Negative. We last spoke to the surviving Type O guys back in 2011; that was a year after Peter Steele died suddenly, ending the band, and back then Hickey was the surviving member who seemed to be taking it the hardest. Still we expected a follow-up to the 2009 debut album by his band Seventh Void, especially once it was teased in 2013 and again in March. Kenny Hickey call me!
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Atheist
date of last release: 2009
A third awesome return arrived last week, when a beloved and obscure ’80s prog metal band called Watchtower released three songs from their long-awaited new album. Which reminded us here at MetalSucks, wasn’t fellow jazz-metal juggernaut Atheist set to follow up their awesome comeback album, Jupiter? Sure enough, frontman Kelly Shaefer mentioned it back in 2012 and again last year. Where is it already!
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https://youtu.be/T2HfJO0zQ_8?t=1m19s
John Sykes
Date of last release: 2000
Fans of the debut album by John Sykes’ post-Whitesnake band Blue Murder comprehend the guy’s abilities to stun. But it’d be tough to argue that Blue Murder’s next releases and Sykes solo stuff is even a fraction as magical. That’s why it was exciting to hear in 2011 that Sykes had paired with drummer Mike Portnoy, then freshly departed from Dream Theater, for an (ill-fated) album. Then in 2014, its release seemed imminent — if you judged by the exciting, very finished-sounding song samples released in December. Yet here we fans are. Well not literally “here,” y’know. In Japan.
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Ratt
Date of last release: 2010
Each of us could think of a million bands that we’d love to welcome back to our lives. I mean, I’d kill to hear a new album by Thought Industry, or to witness Greg Fulton reeling off those tricky Cyclone Temple riffs onstage somewhere — but that is probably not viable. (Do even Carcass and At The Gates make decent money for all their renown and excellence?) Nope, this week’s F5 lists bands that are unjustly inactive.
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https://youtu.be/2xV93TlPv1M
Tool
Date of last release: 2006
Oh the psychic fatigue one suffers when asked over and over again to do the impossible. In Tool’s case, it’s a good problem. Even so, smart fans are in no rush. We’ve heard the results of a hurried or semi-engaged Tool, so we’re happy to wait til the time is right. Let’s hope we haven’t been shot dead at the mall before then.
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Your turn! Have a great wknd!
