On their MySpace, These Arms are Snakes write, “People call us a lot of things. most of them are inaccurate.” At the risk of being wrong, we won’t call them one of the most exciting post-hardcore bands since Fugazi, or say their combination or terse, scratchy guitars, unsettling rhythmic undulations and emphatic vocal deliveries are as exciting as they are harrowing. And we won’t praise their mathematical tempos, electronic embellishments or dynamic sense of disdain. We’ll just ask you to pick up their new album Tail Swallower and Dove, which came out October 7. And we’ll suggest you read the following guest blog from frontman Brian Cook, who calls it like he sees it every time:

“I hate the kids.”

Thanks, Rick Froburg. I’m glad somebody had the balls to say it. While the Descendents didn’t want to grow up and Minor Threat were minors at heart. Hot Snakes had the balls to own up to adulthood.

I turned 31 in July. In punk years, that’s old. As someone that grew up in the hardcore scene and has spent considerable amounts of time working with youth, I feel both indebted to youth culture and
intrinsically a part of it. Yet I don’t want to be a poster boy for suspended adolescence. I’m perfectly content with growing up.

The issue of age gets tangled when I start to evaluate its roll in the music community. Being cognizant of one’s demographic is, to some degree, an acknowledgement of the audience’s age. Music is ultimately another language, another way to convey a thought or emotion. Every song, on some level, is a statement. And, ultimately, I want my music to communicate to my peers. And my peers happen to be other older dudes that grew up listening to punk and hardcore but have learned to
expand their musical horizons beyond “loud and fast rules.” I don’t want to be Blink 182. I don’t want to be well into my adulthood writing songs about hating parents and how high school sucks. That’s not my life. (click “more” to read the rest of Cook’s guest blog and stream six songs by These Arms Are Snakes). (more…)

Testament singer Chuck Billy ponders how King of Metal got his name, photo by Jon Wiederhorn

You know how David Letterman, Jay Leno, Jon Stewart and other talk show personalities sometimes go out and find some really odd or dumb people in the street to make fun of? Well, that’s pretty much what Metal Injection.net correspondent Dave Hill (a.k.a. King of Metal) did last week with a batch of Testament fans outside B.B. Kings in New York City, and some of the shtick is hysterical.

To wit, the following response to a non-metal guy who doesn’t know who Testament are: “Who’s Testament?,” snorts The King. “Only one of the top, like, 40 thrash metal bands of all time.” Click more to enjoy the hilarity. (more…)

photos by Cody Smyth

Okay, all you oldtimers. Surely, you remember 1990s-era “Headbangers Ball,” back when Riki Rachtman was the host. Who could forget the classic episodes, like when Riki went skydiving with Megadeth or when Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain showed up for an interview wearing a ball gown? But you may not know that before Riki, Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider and VJ Adam Curry helmed the ball. Of course, when “Headbangers Ball” returned to the airwaves in 2003 following an eight year hiatus (damn, that alternative rock!), Hatebreed singer Jamey Jasta was the new host.

In commemoration of the commanders of the Ball, MTV2 invited Snider, Rachtman and Jasta to take part in a roundtable discussion that will air on October 25 during our two-hour “Headbangers Ball Anniversary Special.” (more…)

Photos by Jon Wiederhorn

…And then it was Testament’s turn to show the kids how it’s done. The thrash metal old-timers might not look as hip or vivacious as the new blood in photos, but get them onstage and look out. This summer Testament may have opened for Motorhead, Heaven & Hell and Judas Priest, but tonight their performance suggests that they’re the true metal masters. Sound farfetched? Think of how many songs you’ll be rockin’ from Priest’s Nostradamus five years from now, and consider which of the tracks from that best of Black Sabbath with Dio record have major shelf life. It ain’t the three new ones. (click “more” to read the rest of the concert report and see a bunch of Testament and Bodom photos from the gig). (more…)

There’s no stopping the nine-headed killing machine, Slipknot. The band recently landed its first number one album with All Hope is Gone, was the star attraction of the first annual Rockstar Energy Mayhem Tour, is about to release a psychological, rain-soaked video for “Dead Memories” (co-directed by percussionist Shawn “Clown” Crahan) and will return from overseas at the end of the year to launch a new U.S. headline run in early 2009.

At the moment, vocalist Corey Taylor and guitarist Jim Root aren’t even thinking about ramping up their highly successful side project, Stone Sour, again because they’re too tangled up in the Knot. Yet for percussionist and visual artist Shawn Crahan (a.k.a. Clown), all things Slipknot aren’t quite enough. Oh, he’s thoroughly enjoying the tremendous ride they’re on, and he’s got no plans to bail on The Nine. But at the same time, he’s got a few other irons in the fire, and one of them is his new band Dirty Little Rabbits, which released a three-song EP Breeding in 2007 and just signed to The End Records for their upcoming material. The day before Slipknot boarded a plane to head to Japan, HeadbangersBlog.com phoned up Crahan to talk about his new baby.

Tell us about Dirty Little Rabbits.
Shawn Crahan: Dirty Little Rabbits is my new Slipknot. I’m playin’ drums, and I’m a songwriter and this is the band I’ve been waiting to be in my whole life. And it’s more of an alternative band than a metal band. It’s everything I’ve ever been into. And it’s a thought process, it’s a mindset. And this will be the band I end my life with. A lot of people don’t know I’m more or less an alternative person in art and music. I didn’t grow up obsessed with metal. But that’s most of the beauty behind Skipknot. You’ve got guys that are completely dedicated to the metal, and then you’ve got guys who never even listen to it, like me. And you come together and make this thing called Slipknot that happens to be a metal band, and that’s awesome because I always believed when I got together with my brothers that they were writing music that I never heard or felt and that’s why I went with it. And I brought the art to this music, and throughout time I developed all my musical skills and – boom — here I am with Dirty Little Rabbits and it’s finally everything I’ve ever wanted in a band. (more…)