The MetalSucks Podcast

Midnight mastermind Athenar is our guest this week. We discuss the band's new album, Rebirth by Blasphemy, and how it fits into Midnight's history starting with the band's early seven-inches, as well as the difficulty of writing lyrics in the bizarre realm of metal, if he would ever create a record with other musicians or if he always plans to maintain full creative control, and the importance of...

This week we resume our annual best-of-the-year episode with part two (part one right here), featuring our five favorite albums of 2019. We play a couple of tracks from each record that we found to be special, and feature an interview with Lars Frederiksen of The Old Firm Casuals and Rancid. This is our last episode of 2019, so come and celebrate the highlights that made this year important as we...

This week we bring you part one of our annual two-part Top 15 albums of the year episode. We count down our favorite albums from #15 to #6 (our top five will come next week) and we play a track from each record. Vicky Psarakis of The Agonist, Ray Alder of Fates Warning and Chelsea Wolfe, three of our picks, also join us for quick interviews. Come celebrate another great year with us and the music...

This week our guest is Sevendust guitarist Clint Lowery, also formerly of Dark New Day, Korn, Seether and Call Me No One. We talk about his debut solo album, God Bless The Renegades, the weight of putting his name on a record as opposed to a project with a band, Wolfgang Van Halen’s role in the project and the special songs he plans on performing live while touring the record. We also discuss the...

Nile mastermind Karl Sanders is our guest this week. We discuss the writing process for Nile's new album, Vile Nilotic Rites, the extensive touring prior to recording it, keeping up that momentum in the studio, the anxiety that comes with releasing new music and what made this album cycle different, how producer Mark Lewis helped strengthen its production, why he isn't interested in playing a clas...

Nile mastermind Karl Sanders is our guest this week. We discuss the writing process for Nile's new album, Vile Nilotic Rites, the extensive touring prior to recording it, keeping up that momentum in the studio, the anxiety that comes with releasing new music and what made this album cycle different, how producer Mark Lewis helped strengthen its production, why he isn't interested in playing a clas...

This week we chat with film composer and Marilyn Manson producer Tyler Bates. Tyler worked with Manson on The Pale Emperor and Heaven Upside Down and has composed musical scores for the entire Guardians of the Galaxy and John Wick franchises, in addition to films such as Deadpool 2, Watchmen, 300, Halloween (2007), Atomic Blonde and numerous others. We discuss his involvement with the first live a...

This week we have vocalist Tatiana Shmayluk of Jinjer on the show. We discuss the short gap between the Micro EP and new full-length album Macro, the difficulty of writing lyrics quickly as opposed to taking your time, how deadlines help motivate her, and the lyrics behind the track “Retrospection” and how it is connected with her childhood. Tati also tells us about growing up in the Ukraine as th...

Fit For an Autopsy songwriter/guitarist and metal producer Will Putney returns to the show this week to discuss Fit For an Autopsy's new album The Sea of Tragic Beasts. He tells us the dream that motivated the title of the album, how the traumatic issues children in broken homes face influenced it, the positive message that the band tries to put forward, and how he utilizes his artistic output to...

This week we chat with Cory Brandan of Norma Jean! We discuss his return to Norma Jean after releasing the Hundred Suns project, having the lifer mentality when it comes to the art form of metal, the difficult writing process for Norma Jean's new album, All Hail, how the loss of a fan inspired the creation of many songs, going through the stages of grief while creating songs, comparing the lessons...

This week we chat with Refused drummer David Sandström. We discuss the band's new album, War Music, the emotional energy needed to write the record, the years of Refused’s inactivity and if he had any clue the band could ever experience a second life, being very obscure in the States during their original run, the legacy and lasting power of The Shape of Punk to Come, and how War Music is his prou...

GosT mastermind Baalberith is our guest on the podcast this week. We discuss GosT's new album Valediction, having the record start heavier than all his previous one, the limitless possibilities working in the electronic music medium allows, his choice to include vocals on a majority of the album, the recent tour with 3Teeth, and his expectations for heading out with Mayhem and Gaahl’s Wyrd in Euro...

This week's guest is Gatecreeper frontman Chase Mason. We discuss the band's upcoming new album, Deserted, the insane hand-drawn cover art by Brad Moore and the story behind it, his favorite tour memory with Power Trip, the bromance between Gatecreeper and Iron Reagan, and his take on pornogrind. We also talk about his love for Pauly Shore despite (or perhaps because of) not being much of a film b...

Opeth mastermind Mikael Åkerfeldt is our guest this week! We delve into his search for the perfect Latin phrase to name an album, his choice to sing in two languages, King Diamond's influence on the new album, how the term “heavy” has changed throughout his career and his opinion of the phrase, writing the new record in secret without anyone knowing, his refusal to modernize his studio and using o...

In this special half-episode episode we catch up with Nine Inch Nails and Angels & Airwaves drummer Ilan Rubin about his solo project, The New Regime. Ilan tells us about his choice to release the album as four EPs -- titled Heart, Mind, Body, and Soul -- how much touring he would like to do with The New Regime despite his commitments with NIN and Angels & Airwaves, the difficulty of juggling all...

Johannes Persson of the mighty Cult of Luna is our guest this week. We discuss the band's much lauded collaboration with Julie Christmas, Mariner -- which recently landed on our list of the 25 Best Metal Albums of 2010-2019 -- and its impact on Cult of Luna's new full-length, A Dawn to Fear, what it was like performing that album live due to popular demand, getting everybody back together and on t...

Monolord bassist Mika Häkki is our guest this week. We talk about his musical upbringing in Finland, the gateway bands that led him into underground metal, watching the Swedish metal scene explode, the impact of bands like At the Gates and Refused had on both him and the world, the trial and error process that saw the discovery of Monolord's sound, the influence country music has on him, the journ...

This week we're joined by drummer Ray Luzier, from Korn and KXM! We discuss the origin of the supergroup KXM, the chemistry between band members, the group's creative freedom, and why they've never played a live show. We also chat about Korn's new album, The Nothing, the personal tragedy vocalist Jonathan Davis suffered during the creation of the album, and why this is Ray's favorite record he has...

Betraying the Martyrs vocalist Aaron Matts is our guest this week. We discuss the recent fire that struck the band's trailer and forced them to cancel their North American tour, the results of the investigation into the cause of the blaze, the sad news that the drum kit Chris Adler used with Megadeth burned up, how Adler became the band's manager, how skate culture was Aaron's gateway into music,...

Cristina Scabbia and Andrea Ferro from Lacuna Coil guest on the show this week. We discuss their recent live DVD commemorating the band's 20th anniversary, everything that went into the production and special guests of that two-day performance (and what went wrong that viewers would never know), how revisiting songs they haven’t played in years influenced the new album, Black Anima. We also look b...

The Contortionist vocalist Michael Lessard returns to the show. We discuss the band's new EP, Our Bones: how the creative seeds for the record came out of soundchecks while on tour, enjoying the hyper-focused lens that a shorter release grants the songwriting process, producing the music video for “Early Grave” and his passion for editing music videos, and choosing to cover the Smashing Pumpkins “...

Carnifex vocalist Scott Lewis is the guest on our 300th episode. We discuss the band's new album World War X, the concept behind the record, the importance of the atmospherics and layers to the album's sound, the importance of the visual aesthetic in this album's videos, and how this year’s Summer Slaughter tour has been going and why it's working so well. We also discuss Scott's passion for actio...

This week we talk to Mike D’Antonio of Killswitch Engage. We discuss the journey of making the band's new record Atonement, Jesse Leach's vocal cord surgery during the recording of the album, signing to Metal Blade Records and the pride they have in completing their record contract with Roadrunner, ranking all the cover artwork he's created for Killswitch from best to worst, and his thoughts on re...

Ex-Turbnegro frontman Hank Von Hell is our guest this week. We discuss his first North American solo tour later this summer, the circumstances that led to the original tour's postponement earlier this year and the difficulty of rescheduling all the dates, how his past addictions still haunt him and the myth of rock n' roll's tie to mental illness, why he had to step away from the rock scene for ma...

Sabaton bassist Pär Sundström is our guest this week. We discuss the band's new album The Great War and the World War I anniversary that inspired it, the concept of war history and heavy metal working so well together, the draw metalheads feel towards towards such topics, the band's recent tour across Europe with a full choir, filling in last minute when Manowar canceled at Hellfest, having to cut...