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We've almost reached the end of 2008, and we gotta say it was a good year for metal. The genre continued to grow and diversify, as best exemplified, perhaps, by the top headbanging fest of the year, Rockstar Energy Mayhem. In a single day of Mayhem, fans could witness mainstream extreme metal (Slipknot), mainstream regular metal (Disturbed, Five Finger Death Punch), power metal (Dragonforce), lumbering prog/doom metal (Mastodon), contemporary thrash (Machine Head), deathcore (Job For a Cowboy), pre-deathcore/hardcore (The Red Chord), alt-metalcore (36 Crazyfists), female-fronted metalcore (Walls of Jericho) Christian metal/hardcore (Underoath) and hard rock (Airbourne, Black Tide). Read more...

We think this guy's still in the band, tacky shirt notwithstanding

Indianapolis Christian experimental hardcore band Gwen Stacy are praying that 2009 will be a more stable year than 2008, and their pleas have nothing to do with war or the economy. This year they lost two key players; first, vocalist Cole Wallace was fired for personal reasons and was replaced by rhythm guitarist Bobby Oakley. Guitarist Chris Suter was hired to perform on tour. Then in November, Oakley quit for reasons unknown and ex-Oceana vocalist Keith Jones temporarily took his place. And now, the band has announced that ex-Once Nothing frontman Geoff Jenkins will be its new vocalist. Read more...

MetalSucks.net have posted a pretty cool flow chart from comcsvsaudience.net that illustrates how there's about seven degrees of separation between metal bands and how a blueprint of the grand design resembles a giant pentagram. Click "more." to be illuminated. Read more...

Florida death metal veterans, Cannibal Corpse, are getting ready to drop their new album Evisceration Plague, which will no doubt feature an abundance of technically complex riffs and beats, inhumanly growled vocals and lyrics that make Clive Barker look like children's book author Eric Carle.

The record comes out February 3 and features track titles like "Skewered From Ear to Eye," "Beheading and Burning," "Shatter Their Bones" and "Carrion Sculpted Entity." We don't have any new music to offer you quite yet, but our friends at Revolver have posted a preview of the bonus documentary DVD that will come with the CD. Click "more" to watch. Read more...

When Mike Hrubovcak isn't onstage with death metal band Monstrosity, chances are he's on his computer designing horrific cover art for some gore-grind group most people have never heard of. From time to time he'll email a file to us in an effort to make us lose our lunches, and whether he succeeds or not, we'll post the thing to see if we can make our readers lose their lunches. Call it pay it forward.

So, for the final "Nightmare Visions" column of 2008, Hrubovcak and HeadbangersBlog.com proudly present the new cover art for Chainsaw Dissection's Eviscerated by a Ravenous Cannibal.

Click "more" for Hrubovcak's twisted art work and commentary. Read more...

A point blank, skull-splitting gunshot, an execution-style shooting and a vicious hatchet murder... Sounds like the makings of an '80s-esque slasher flick, but they're actually splattery plot-points that help propel the latest Joel and Ethan Coen flick "Burn After Reading" (Universal).

While it's not nearly as heavy as the Brother's excellent, but disturbing "No Country For Old Men," "Burn After Reading" (based on a novel by Stansfield Turner) it's still dark, pessimistic and cynical, revolving around the selfish and shallow exploits of a cast of self-obsessed anti-heroes and near-villains.

Osborne Cox (John Malkovich) is a mean, bitter ex-CIA operative who seeks solace through booze and hopes to reinvent himself by writing his memoirs. Linda Litske (Frances McDormand) works at a fitness club and decides the only way to realize her full potential is by undergoing expensive plastic surgery her insurance plan doesn't cover. When Cox accidentally leaves a disc containing notes the book at the club, Litske mistakes the data within as valuable government secrets. Perceiving this as an opportunity to finance her operations, she and club trainer Chad Feldheimer (Brad Pitt) decide to blackmail Cox. When that doesn't work, they attempt to sell the disc to the Russians in a serious of often hilarious, sometimes brutal scenes.

A secondary plot involves Harry Pfarrar (George Clooney), an eccentric, womanizing security guard who's getting it on with both Litske and Cox's cold, emasculating wife, Katie (Tilda Swinton). To add to the drama, Katie is about to hit Cox with a devastating divorce suit and Pfarrar's wife Sandy (Elizabeth Marvel) discovers what her husband is up to and seeks action of her own.

All the infidelities add to the plot twists and the humor value, but the action really kicks into gear when Feldheimer mysteriously disappears and Litske starts to fall apart. Hysterical, she recruits their boss, Ted Treffon (Richard Jenkins) -- who's secretly in love with Litske -- to help investigate and the plot quickly turns ugly and violent.

"Burn After Reading" isn't laugh-out-loud funny, but it's witty, quasi-comical, intense and unpredictable. Also, the flick is thought-provoking, has more jack-in-the-box moments than most thrillers and easily captivates for 90 minutes regardless of how convoluted the plot becomes. Read more...

Sully Erna, the singer for mainstream metal band Godsmack, is being sued by a Chelmsford, Massachusetts women and her parents because of injuries the woman sustained when Erna crashed into the back of her car in April 2007 in Methuen Massachusetts, reported the North Andover Eagle Tribune.

The auto negligence lawsuit claims Erna's careless driving caused him to plow into the back of a car, resulting in "a severe traumatic brain injury" to 26-year-old Lindsay Taylor, who was riding in the back seat of a car driven by Eric Sargent. Read more...

New Jersey-based modern metal band God Forbid have been dropping some computer science to get fans excited about their fifth full studio album, Earthsblood, which comes out February 24. Anyone who signs up for a free membership to their official Web site will receive an MP3 of the new album track "War of Attrition."

"It's one of the most intense songs from Earthsblood, and sure to be a staple in the live set for years," said guitarist Doc Coyle. "We will probably do a video for the track at some point as well. Enjoy and please send us messages and commentary on what you think."

Click "more" for the MP3 and to hear other cuts from Earthsblood. Read more...

As Washington D.C.-based metalcore/melodic death metal band Darkest Hour prepared for their annual hometown show, D.C. Blog DC-ist were there to capture all the excitement and lack thereof. Don't miss the members talking about how they've played D.C. shows for 13 years and how they painstakingly obsess over their set lists. Witness Mike "Lonestar" Carrigan get a call on his cell phone from his mom, watch the dudes send files back and forth to each other on computer and try to relearn songs they haven't played in ages. Click "more" to watch the footage. Read more...

Like many artists, Queensryche frontman Geoff Tate considers himself anti-war. Even though his father was is a war veteran who fought in both Korea and Vietnam, Tate has always felt that killing is wrong and that there should be alternatives to war and human bloodshed. Then he had his first real conversation with his dad about being in battle, and he was mesmerized by what he heard. Not only did his father open up about the struggles and sacrifices being a soldier, he revealed that most men in the military, if given a choice, would opt not to fight.

Intrigued, Tate spent several years recording interviews with his father's military friends, then soldiers they knew and eventually decided to write a Queensryche album with his bandmates based on the conversations. American Soldier, the group's twelfth record will come out in March and feature personal, gripping stories about the triumphs and tragedies of combat ranging from tales from World War II veterans to recollections from soldiers in Iraq.

This spring, Queensryche will present much of the material on an extensive U.S. tour that starts April 16 in Seattle's Snoqualmie Casino.  

For our last podcast of 2008, we called up Tate and talked to him about American Soldier and the more we talked, the deeper the conversation became. Pretty soon we were discussing the recent presidential election, the way the government trivializes rock music, the slumping economy and the failure of the music industry to confront the threat of illicit downloading. Click "more" to stream or download the podcast. Read more...