Matt Harvey, mastermind behind the twenty-five-year history of Exhumed, guests this week. We talk about the re-recording of the classic album Gore Metal, how bands survive with so many lineup changes, and what his personal role was in shaping the band's history. We talk about growing up without much a metal scene, keeping death metal alive in the '90s and how his new project Gruesome is really a love letter to Chuck Schuldiner and old school Death. Chuck and Godless also talk about the recent fl...
Apr 20, 2015•1 hr 24 min
36 Crazyfists vocalist Brock Lindow guests on the podcast this week to talk about the band's new album Time and Trauma and their upcoming tour with Nonpoint. Brock is not only the frontman of 36 Crazyfists, but he is also the father to a five-year-old, he's started his own hockey-themed sports bar, he co-hosts a podcast about craft beer and he's an all-around hard working dude. Chuck and Godless speculate whether Marty Freidman's alleged re-addition to Megadeth would have really been a "step bac...
Apr 14, 2015•1 hr 17 min
This week Testament's Chuck Billy and Exodus vocalist Steve "Zetro" Souza guest on the podcast to kick off the Dark Roots of Thrash Tour II. We talk about the early days of thrash metal, the differences between their experiences touring in the '80s and today, the benefit show that possibly made the revival of their generation of bands possible, and we find out how these seemingly popular musicians really made their living for the last couple of decades. Eyal Levi steps in once again for another ...
Apr 06, 2015•1 hr 13 min
The New England Metal and Hardcore Fest kicks off its seventeenth year in just a few weeks, so Chuck and Godless had some questions about the prolific festival for founder Scott Lee. Scott talks about how he picks bands for the festival, the challenges of a changing audience over the past decade, finding the right combination of sponsors and lifestyle groups to make it financially viable without being a giant advertisement, what the landscape of regional festivals looks like, and how that compet...
Mar 30, 2015•1 hr 13 min
Otep Shamaya found herself at the center of controversy this week when her band pulled out of the upcoming Civil Unrest Tour -- also set to feature Ill Nino, 36 Crazyfists and Terror Universal -- because the singer of Terror Universal allegedly "violently grabbed my crotch on our last tour." Since then, accusations have been flying every which way. Ill Nino and the tour's organizers both issued statements on the matter, as did the wife of Terror Universal's singer (although, interestingly, no on...
Mar 25, 2015•43 min
Drummer Hannes Grossmann of Alkaloid (Ex-Obscura, ex-Necrophagist) guests this week. We talk about the differences between being a session drummer and a band member, how to admit you wrote something that sucks, how playing fast is no excuse for bad songwriting, why he left Obscura and when the Necrophagist record will be coming out. Chuck and Godless were consumed by SXSW this week but they still found the time to get some discussion topics together. Can Slipknot live forever? They discuss if ba...
Mar 23, 2015•1 hr 22 min
Mlny Parsonz from Royal Thunder guests on the podcast with Chuck and Godless this week. We discover her surprising history with religion and spirituality, her theory on songwriting and life, her Jesus tattoos, how she's learned to look forward instead of linger on bad situations and what frightens her most about the world. Doc Coyle joins for another segment of Rejecting the Sickness to talk about some of his latest musings in his new VH1 column. We hash out whether being a metal puritan is a re...
Mar 16, 2015•1 hr 34 min
Chuck and Godless invite Editor-in-Chief of Decibel Magazine Albert Mudrian onto the podcast to talk about the new version of his book Choosing Death, with updated chapters on the past decade of death and grind. Albert also speculates on the future of metal; where are we headed? what might be the next hot trend? is there even any room for that nonsense anymore? Eyal Levi drops in again for another installment of One Minute to Midnight, the segment designed to let you hear new and unsigned bands ...
Mar 09, 2015•1 hr 18 min
That Metal Show co-host Don Jamieson is our guest this week. We talk about season fourteen of the show, how and why VH1 decided to put some metal into their programming line-up, who the best and worst guests have been and why they don't seem to offer much in the way of newer metal on the program. Chuck and Godless talk about the weekend controversy with Dimebag Darrell's grave site desecration, the band or band member responsible for the act and why his apology probably won't fly in Texas. Metal...
Mar 02, 2015•1 hr 23 min
Enslaved founding member Ivar Bjørnson is our guest this week. The legendary progressive black metal band's new record In Times hits shelves in a few weeks, and Chuck and Godless had a chance to talk to him about his young children, how close the band has been to splitting up, bouncing back and solidifying a new line-up, the keys to a good relationship in a band and his "marriage" to Enslaved bassist Grutle Kjellson for the last 25 years. We also discuss the metal events coming to SXSW -- includ...
Feb 23, 2015•1 hr 18 min
Dave Haley, drummer for Australian tech-death band Psycroptic, guests this week, Chuck and Godless grill him about the difficulties of being an Aussie band and touring the world, the benefits of retaining the rights to their music, their involvement with Tasmanian Devil extinction awareness and which member is the true hippie of the band. Chuck and Godless also discuss the divisions between metal fans and how those rifts reflect racial tendencies in the U.S. It can be difficult for any band to b...
Feb 16, 2015•1 hr 15 min
An action packed episode this week! Chuck and Godless take a bunch of your calls, talk about love and relationships for Valentine's Day, and debut the inaugural installment of "One Minute to Midnight," where unsigned bands get to have their music featured on the podcast and heard and critiqued by veteran producer, musician, teacher and resident badass Eyal Levi. Two bands get the full treatment this week; winners? losers? You be the judge! Doc Coyle takes us to school on Steel Panther in his ong...
Feb 09, 2015•1 hr 16 min
70,000 Tons of Podcast! Chuck and Godless set sail for the Caribbean with 4,000 metalheads to experience 60+ bands and some amazing times: a bigger ship, 20 more bands and even more fans on board than ever before, all headed to Jamaica with one thing in common... metal! Corrosion of Conformity make their first appearance on the Podcast with their Blind-era lineup. They tell us all about how this group came back together of late, the big difference with the recent return to the three piece, Reed ...
Feb 03, 2015•1 hr 38 min
Periphery guitarist Mark Holcomb guests this week on the eve of the release of their new album Juggernaut. We talk about the recording process, guitar nerds asking too many questions, and how producing the record themselves was a liberating experience. We take a listener call about Slayer entering into the Bonnaroo mix; what does that mean for the band and for metal in general? Does it signal metal's acceptance into the mainstream? Is the festival seeing the writing on the wall that metal fans w...
Jan 26, 2015•1 hr 18 min
Jean Paul Gaster, drummer for the mighty Clutch, joins the podcast as the band heads into the studio to record their new album. He discusses how Clutch have been able to retain the same lineup for over two decades, keeping family and band separate, the band's experience with records labels (and launching their own) and the two things every band needs to know to be successful. Chuck and Godless also ponder why bands would make an entire record of cover songs, inspired by Prong's announcement of t...
Jan 19, 2015•1 hr 13 min
Josh Middleton, guitarist and vocalist for British metal band Sylosis, guests this week on the podcast. Chuck and Godless chat with him about the local metal scene in England, their bad luck with touring and vehicle wrecks, and they grill him on why he hasn't asked his girlfriend to marry him yet. New album Dormant Heart comes out on the 13th of January, so we play a song from that as well. Chuck and Godless dissect a recent announcement that Nuclear Blast made with the label's 2015 release slat...
Jan 12, 2015•1 hr 22 min
Chuck and Godless enlist drummer Alex "Rudy" Rudinger (ex-The Faceless, ex-The Haarp Machine, Conquering Dystopia, Monuments) to ring in the New Year with the first MS Podcast of 2015. They chat about his work with Jeff Loomis and Alex Webster in Conquering Dystopia, his take on drum-programming software, and his reasons for leaving The Faceless. Rudy also announces another band he will be subbing for in February after getting off the road with Monuments back in December. Songs:Conquering Dystop...
Jan 05, 2015•1 hr 21 min
This week Chuck and Godless bring in MS Senior Editor Anso DF to discuss 2014's biggest news stories. Some things you might remember, others you might not; who the newsmakers were and who they should have been; and remembering several of our fallen comrades. There might be a couple of predictions for the new year packed in there too. Doc Coyle stops in to "Reject The Sickness" and tell us why Christmas Metal is total bullshit and needs to stop before it even gets into your playlist. Songs:Babyme...
Dec 15, 2014•1 hr 16 min
They wrote them out for you, and now they spend this episode of The MetalSucks Podcast discussing the Best Metal Albums of 2014! Chuck and Godless received your Tweets and comments, and break down their picks versus yours as well as those of other MS staff members and critics. They also talk about what kind of year it's been for metal against what a stellar year it was in 2013, and they look at some of the releases they missed, plus jam a few extra tunes. Songs:Black Crown Initiate - "Great Mist...
Dec 09, 2014•1 hr 17 min
Mike Muir, legendary vocalist for Suicidal Tendencies, is our guest this week. Instead of talking about their album and touring, we wind up hearing about his philosophy on life, how his passion for music pisses people off and how he relates to his kids differently than the way his father related to him; really, we just turned on the mics and let him roll. Godless and Chuck also talk about their experience at the recent Slayer show, whether or not people are too cool for Slayer now, and how most ...
Nov 24, 2014•1 hr 16 min
This week, the hosts of one of Godless' favorite podcasts to troll -- the Bad Christian Podcast -- are our guests. Podcast hosts Matt and Toby also play in a Christian Rock band called Emery. They stopped by the studio to get grilled about all things Christianity, the topic of Christian Metal and whether or not it's legit, if the guys making it are believers, or if it's just another cash cow people use to further their influence. Half of our discussion appears in our episide this week, then we'l...
Nov 17, 2014•1 hr 24 min
Michael Lessard, vocalist of The Contortionist, is our guest this week. We go in depth about his home planet of Maine, his transition from his role in Last Chance to Reason as the new vocalist for this band and whether backing tracks are acceptable in a live show, among other topics. Chuck and Godless also pontificate about the final five bands in the 25 Best Metal Bands of All Time countdown and, spurred by your calls, speculate if there were any misses, forgotten bands or glaring absences. The...
Nov 10, 2014•1 hr 26 min
Richie Faulkner, guitarist for the almighty Judas Priest, is our guest this week. We talk to him about his relatively new gig with JP (seeing as their history dates back to before he was even born), which band member's daughter he might be dating, what it's like filling the shoes of the great K.K. Downing and breaking the news to Glenn Tipton that he's playing a song incorrectly. Chuck and Godless offer some words about our friend Corey Mitchell's passing last week, they discuss Miss Fortune's d...
Nov 03, 2014•1 hr 22 min
The Housecore Horror Film Festival took place this weekend in Austin, TX, and Chuck and Godless were on hand to take in as much as they could over the festival's four days. They run down their experiences at the fest, including Gwar's new lineup, the Rigor Mortis documentary, and just hanging around with the artists and movie makers. They also sat down to talk with several guests, including: Rafał "Rasta" Piotrowski, lead vocalist for Decapitated, fresh from the side of the road outside of New O...
Oct 27, 2014•1 hr 42 min
Our guest this week is Nick Schendzielos, bass player for deathcore heavyweights Job For a Cowboy. We talk about his new found work-out regimen, the songwriting process as a newer member of a band, how JFAC operates internally, his music listening styles and Ancient Aliens. MetalSucks co-head-honcho Vince Neilstein drops in to add his two cents about the recent report from Billboard which found that no album released in 2014 has gone platinum, as well as other interesting data about record sales...
Oct 20, 2014•1 hr 30 min
David Davidson of Revocation is our guest on episode #71, with their killer new album Deathless coming out this week. We discuss the new sounds they play with on the record, touring with assholes, whether or not it is important to go to music school and the best things he learned while listening to jazz. Chuck and Godless also discuss another listener-suggested topic: whether we need to stop worshiping the metal gods of the past and focus on the new gods of modern metal instead. We also discuss ...
Oct 13, 2014•1 hr 22 min
Tomas Lindberg, frontman for the reactivated At The Gates, guests this week on the podcast. He tells us about the new album At War with Reality, why the band dissolved after such a seminal album, growing up in Sweden and his other career as... well, you'll have to listen to find that one out. We take another listener call about why Slipknot smells like shit, or at least wants you to smell burning camel dung as part of your musical experience. Doc Coyle returns for his monthly segment "Rejecting ...
Oct 06, 2014•1 hr 14 min
For episode #69 we thought it would be appropriate to talk about porn. Pornhub started a record label so Chuck and Godless discuss what that might mean in the New World Order of the music industry. Will it change the game? Has the game already been changed by Apple and U2? How, if at all, could this effect a niche genre like metal? Chuck and Godless gush over the new Devin Townsend record and take another question from a listener about whether or not it is appropriate for fans of a band to criti...
Sep 29, 2014•1 hr 7 min
Dave Lombardo guests this week on the podcast, and we discuss everything... almost: the new Philm record, his disdain for managers, his departure from Slayer, his relationship with Jeff Hanneman, and working for Disney. There just isn’t enough time in in one episode to cover it all, but Chuck and Godless tried. Chuck and Godless also answer a question from a listener about Joey Jordison: was he fired from Slipknot for using drugs, and if that is the case, why did the band not fire Paul Gray befo...
Sep 22, 2014•1 hr 19 min
The legendary King Diamond is our guest this week, and we don't use the word "legend" lightly. His three decade history in music with Mercyful Fate and his solo band have influenced countless bands, and we consider it an honor to be able to pick his brain. We talk about his recent heart surgery, the upcoming tour and promoters' hesitation to book him, and his public split with Hal Patino. We even get to chat with his lovely wife Livia for a bit. Chuck and Godless also talk about the demise of th...
Sep 15, 2014•1 hr 26 min
