QUESTION OF THE WEEK: THE REST OF 2012
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We at MetalSucks are power-rolling doobs and herding half-barrels in preparation for the best summer party weekend ever! Okay, that’s a lie; we’re just wringing our hands over this Randy Blythe arrest mess. It’s freaky that our dude is in custody in Eastern Europe on some tragic weirdness, so we’re sending in Viggo Mortensen to strip naked and karate-blast Blythe’s captors. While we secret Mortensen into Prague under the cover of night, you relax and enjoy our MetalSucks Question Of The Week, a weekly survey of our staff on a recent hot-button issue that’s (sorta) rocking our metal planet.
Fearless. Controversial. Half-baked. We give it to you straight every Friday afternoon. Okay not that straight. Here’s this week’s topic:
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Inspired by our awesome MetalSucks Best Of 2012 … So Far! series, we
asked our staff the following question:
What album scheduled for release in the second half of 2012 are u hottest in the pants area for?
Wat u think? The MS staff’s expert answers after the jump!
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AXL ROSENBERG
I’ve already answered this question, but in case for some reason I have not made myself clear: PIG DE-FUCKING-STROYER.
That is all.
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SAMMY O’HAGAR
Undoubtedly, Pig Destroyer. In the five long years since their last album, it’s easy to imagine that — what? Just one song? Nothing else official yet? Shit. Alright, then absolutely Gorguts. In the decade or so since they broke up, their brand of weird death metal has lit a fire under the ass of bands like Portal, and it’ll be interesting to see, especially considering the band’s current lineup, what they — come on, really? They’ve been promising a new album for two years and still nothing? God fucking dammit. Well, Tool probably has a release date for — No? I should have figured. Neurosis– stop laughing. Then I guess Ludicra– they WHAT?! When?! Really? Alright.
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LEYLA FORD
Folk metal is kind of a tired genre at this point. I think the gimmick ran its course. However, I will always love Ensiferum (they were the proud back patch on my very first denim vest when I was just a wee one) and I just found out they have a new album coming out in August: Unsung Heroes will be released August 27 via Spinefarm. It’s been three years since From Afar and I’m really looking forward to their rip-your-face-off brand of folk metal. Plus, new album usually means new tour and what’s more fun than downing the mead (or beer) and pretending you’re a silly Viking for a night? Amon Amarth may be the leaders of this particular genre but Ensiferum will always have my heart.
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KELLHAMMER
My first thought was to answer by screaming “SAMOTHRACE!!!” again and again, but since I’ve already made known my excitement over their upcoming release Reverence to Stone, let’s give someone else a chance. Then I remembered that bassist Dylan Desmond has another album in the works: Bell Witch, a droning, doom duo from Seattle. After a well-received demo last year, the pair is at work on a full length for a fall release on Profound Lore. Just like Samothrace, Bell Witch has their work cut out for them. Good stuff on the way, I’m sure.
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ANSO DF
Super-exciting are nearby releases from Testament, Nachtmystium, and Katatonia, but I boner most throbbingly for Devin Townsend‘s Epicloud project, a fifth DTP album set to arrive September 18. It’s a cousin to Townsend’s masterful Addicted album, a second set of pop metal wallop and infectious singalongery abetted by former The Gathering vocalist Anneke von Biergarten. It even echoes Addicted via a self-cover (“Kingdom” from his kinda bizarrely underrated Physicist album). And though Townsend told me in December that it would serve as a practice volley before the Wimbledon of his Ziltoid The Omniscient sequel, Epicloud has spilled over onto a second disc and is marked by Townsend’s hilarious frustration during its post-production stages. That’s how you know it will be awesmazing!
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GRIM KIM
There are a lot of records that I’m still waiting on. EyeHateGod goes without saying (oh please oh please guys!), as well as Cruciamentum and Grave Miasma (come on lads!), but for confirmed releases, I’m biting my nails down to the quick in anxious anticipation of new Weapon, Niantiel, Knelt Rote, Seeds of Iblis, Blut Der Nacht, Gospel of the Horns, ZOM’s upcoming EP, and of course, the approximately six hundred tape releases that the Black Twilight Collective will burn through in the next couple months. I’m being made to pick one “most anticipated album,” though, so I’ll send that one out to my homies in Weapon; Embers and Revelations is due later this year on Relapse, and is sure to be a deadly manifestation of supreme Satanic black/death metal art.
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You there! What upcoming metal releases have your slacks a-blazin’? Can anything beat the colossal works of genius from 2012’s first half? Will Pig Destroyer ever return to stoke Axl Rosenberg’s crotch-fire?
