They might have looked like high school kids waiting for their prom dates when they showed up at the Epiphone Revolver Golden Gods Awards dressed in tuxedos, but the second the members of Suicide Silence took the stage, they proved that they're more than the deathcore trend of the month -- far more. Vocalist Mitch Lucker is a frightening, captivating frontman, and while his bandmates do their share of entertaining flailing and headbanging, it's Lucker who almost single-handedly stole the show from all the other Golden Gods performers. See for yourself when Suicide Silence appears on the exclusive 60-minute telecast of the awards show Saturday night at midnight on MTV2, which will be followed by an hour long wrap-up hosted by XM Radio DJ Jose Mangin, which features performance outtakes and band interviews.

Lucker will also take part in a special edition of MTV2's "Headbangers Ball" tonight at midnight.
The show will be co-hosted by Suicide Silence and Slipknot vocalist Corey Taylor, who deejayed right before the Golden Gods. Click "more" to watch our Golden Gods interview clips with Suicide Silence. Read more...

Melodic metalcore band All That Remains have gotten some flack for the euphoric choruses and infectious riffs that made "Two Weeks" a staple of rock radio. But the Massachusetts band's mainstream success wasn't pre-formulated, and, is actually pretty surprising. Their songs might be catchier than those of their peers, however All That Remains latest album, Overcome, still features lots of vicious thrash riffs, Swedish death metal guitar harmonies and enough screaming to keep Throat Coat tea in business. Plus, the band's songwriting is crafty, but hardly conventional thanks to guitarist Oli Herbert's background in classical music composition.

After their soundcheck for the Epiphone Revolver Golden Gods Awards we hooked up with vocalist Phil Labonte, Herbert and guitarist Mike Martin to talk about All That Remains' considerable success, unorthodox writing approach, extra-curricular activities and the difference between touring the U.S. and other countries. We also discussed plans for their next album, the importance of a national metal awards ceremony and the way metal thrives under Republican administrations and. Click "more" to stream or download the podcast. And watch All That Remains' performance on the Epiphone Revolver Golden Gods Awards on our exclusive telecast May 2 on MTV2. Read more...

photo by Jon Wiederhorn

A few hours before Megadeth delivered the headline performance of the Epiphone Revolver Golden Gods Awards, HeadbangersBlog.com met up with frontman Dave Mustaine to talk about the ceremony, why there has never been a popular metal awards show in the U.S., how MySpace is ruining music, what the next Megadeth album is gonna sound like and his recent interaction with Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich before Metallica was nominated into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Click "more" to stream or download the podcast. And don't miss all our upcoming audio and video footage from the awards ceremony on HeadbangersBlog.com and MTV2's "Headbangers Ball." Our comprehensive coverage will culminate in a one-hour presentation of the Revolver Golden Gods awards show on May 2. Read more...

Just two days before launching a tour with Lamb of God, As I Lay Dying, Children of Bodom and Municipal Waste, God Forbid have announced that guitarist Dallas Coyle has quit the band. In a statement, his brother, guitarist Doc Coyle, said there was a "mutual disagreement" that "became angry on both sides, and [Dallas] decided to sit out the tour the day we were supposed to leave."

His ex-bandmates assumed the rift would be temporary, then, according to Doc, they "learned later he did not want to tour anymore at all." (Click "more" to read the rest of the story and listen to HeadbangersBlog.com's podcast interview with Doc Coyle, in which he described the musical differences he was having with his brother before the split.) Read more...

They returned from the grave in 2007 to write and record three new songs for the greatest hits album Black Sabbath the Dio Years. They had such a good time working together again for the first time in 12 years that they scheduled a gig at New York's Radio City Music Hall, which was filmed for the CD and DVD "Live From Radio City Music Hall." Then Heaven and Hell started touring and wound up co-headling the Metal Masters with Judas Priest.

During that whole cycle, they played their three new songs, but relied more heavily on their three previously released studio albums, Heaven and Hell (1980), Mob Rules (1981) and Dehumanizer(1992) -- to the chagrin of no one. After all, these were classic albums which have had substantial influence and impact upon the metal community. But if Heaven and Hell were to continue to grow, everyone knew they'd need to do a new album. (click "more" to listen to our interview with Heaven and Hell vocalist Ronnie James Dio and bassist Geezer Butler.) Read more...

Even though there will never be another Ministry studio album, industrial metal fans can take solace in knowing the coming months will bring the band's two final products: A live CD chronicling the Ministry's 2008 C U LAaTouR and a DVD of the tour, which will feature separate songs and a documentary of the mayhem that went down behind the scenes. Both are being called Adios Puta Madres.

In addition frontman Al Jourgensen Jourgensen has just released the latest album by his alter-ego Revolting Cocks, Sex-O Olympic-O, which stays true to the band aesthetic of sleazy industrial dance beats, overheated guitars and distorted vocals.

We recently hooked up with Jourgensen and talked about why he'll never hit the road again, The new RevCo album and an upcoming thrash collaboration with Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison. Jourgensen also discussed plans for a third full-length Lard album (a collaboration with ex-Dead Kennedys vocalist Jello Biafra) his hopes for a second release by Pailhead (a band he formed with ex-Fugazi frontman Ian MacAye) and his production plans for the next Prong album.

Click "more" to stream or download the podcast. Read more...

It's hard to believe that 2009 marks the 10th anniversary of Static-X, a blazing outfit that fuses alt-metal, thrash, industrial and even techno into celebrations of nihilism, hedonism and destruction. During their career, about half of their records, including 2001's Machine and 2007's Cannibal, have been rooted mostly in hostility and dissonance, while others, such as 1999's debut Wisconsin Death Trip and 2005's Start a War, contained more melody and groove within the demolition site framework.

Static-X's new album, Cult of Static, which comes out March 17, is a hybrid of both worlds, melding aggressive, insistent riffs and explosive energy with a tangible sense of control and even finesse. Frontman Wayne Static, who writes all the riffs, is joined once again by gifted guitarist Koichi Fukada, who quit in 2000 and was replaced by ex-Dope guitarist Tripp Eisen, only to rejoin the fold after Eisen was arrested in 2004 for statutory rape.

Click "more" to read more and hear our podcast interview. Read more...

On March 5, melodic metal/hard rock band In This Moment will play an acoustic set at a New York fashion show for Metal Couture, an event that will probably showcase lots of hot chicks in revealing outfits. If that's the case, In This Moment vocalist Maria Brink should feel right at home.

From the very moment her band started raising eyebrows with their 2007 debut Beautiful Tragedy, Brink has flaunted her attributes, donning revealing outfits for countless magazine photo shoots, eventually posing as the star of her label's 2009 "Girls of Century Media" sexy pin-up calendar and appearing in the music issue of Playboy currently on newsstands.

If In This Moment didn't have their own assets, such exhibitionism could trivialize their music. Fortunately, like a push-up bra, it only enhances what's already there. Brink can sing like an angel and howl like a demon and her bandmates play with confidence and skill, hungrily exploring the music spectrum.

Beautiful Tragedy was a searing platter of Pantera-influenced metal and hard rock. Last year's The Dream was far more melodic, bearing more in common with a heavier Pat Benatar or No Doubt, however the songs were also also multifaceted and the guitars were heavy, and for all of the old fans that bailed, In This Moment picked up more new listeners intrigued by the group's combination of sensuality, surreality and crashing rock.

Click "more" to see the picture of Brink in Playboy and hear our podcast, in which she talks about sexuality, being a role model to young girls, what she does on the bus and how she gets along with male bandmates. She also discussed her relationship with her boyfriend/Devildriver bassist Jonathan Miller, her biggest nightmares and the thrill of winning over different audiences from various genres. Read more...

photo by Jon Wiederhorn

It doesn't get much better than artful French demolitionists Gojira when it comes to progressive, brutal and experimental metal. The band's 2006 album, From Mars to Sirius, was an inventive showcase of pulverizing death, sludgy doom and spacious psychedelia. The band's new record, The Way of All Flesh (out October 14) incorporates all of these elements with even more skill to create a bleak, barren landscape of pollution and decay that intersects an open, gleaming sky of promise and potential. It's a striking juxtaposition, but one that never feels forced or ill-advised. Lyrically, the album addresses the process of death, the physical and emotional effects of loss and the alarming environmental conditions that threaten the future of mankind.

We tracked down Gojira frontman Joe Duplantier at his home in France to discuss the creation of The Way of All Flesh, what inspired him to write an album about death, what he thinks awaits beyond the abyss, his contributions to the Cavalera Conspiracy and why the French metal scene is stronger now than it has been in years.

Click "more" to stream or download the podcast. Read more...

For more than six years now, All That Remains lead singer, Philip Labonte, has been screaming like a man with his fingers caught in an iron door. All the same, he's never claimed he doesn't like melody. In fact, his favorite songwriter is Sammy Hagar. So, maybe it shouldn't be too surprising to hear his voice swooping through the band's new album Overcome (which comes out Tuesday) like a dove circling a demolition site. and there's plenty of screaming as well -- actually, he claims 70 percent of the vocals are screamed -- but it's those towering melodies that stand out most.
Coupled with classical-based guitar harmonies and exultant fist-in-the sky riffs, Overcome is a well-crafted, sonically pristine album that could bring All That Remains out of the underground and into the mainstream.

For old-school fans, this raises a dilemma of sorts. The songs are heavy, sure, and catchy as the flu, but they're no longer rooted in the bipolar, emotionally maladjusted world or metalcore or the brutality-is-king domain of extreme metal. Not that All That Remains were necessarily aiming for major radio airplay. If you believe Labonte, the sound of Overcome just sort of happened without any preconceptions or gameplan. And while it was a bitch to create all those layered vocals, powerhouse rhythms, and delicate arpeggios, the pains of their creation paid off. For those willing to accept a bit more sentimentality with their metal than they may be used to, Overcome is a dynamic slab of granite than carves new paths as it crushes.

In our weekly podcast interview, HeadbangersBlog.com talked to Labonte about the eclectic songwriting on the record, the emphasis on melody and the band's experience working with wingnut producer Jason Suecof. In the process, Labonte addressed the current economic climate, the basic code of morality mankind seems to have forgotten and the misconception that All That Remains is a Christian metal band. Click "more" to stream or download the podcast. Read more...