This week we celebrate the 35th anniversary of the legendary Metal Blade Records by talking to three generations of musicians on the label. Our show starts with Joey Vera of Armored Saint and Fates Warning. He talks about the Los Angeles scene from which the label was born, the evolution of the formats on which music is consumed, and the label's importance to Armored Saint. Next we talk to Greg Burgess of Allegaeon; we discuss his favorite Metal Blade release of all time, the 35th anniversary to...
Apr 03, 2017•1 hr 26 min
This week we talk with John Kevill of Warbringer. He discusses the long delay between records, the starting-over process that occurred between album cycles and the direction of the latest record Woe to the Vanquished. We also get into his knowledge of history and his take on the current era -- the best time to be alive, according to him -- and he throws down an epic Arnold monologue per our request. Brandon and Petar introduce you to Brent Hinds' new fast food restaurant, tackle the Harlott vs. ...
Mar 27, 2017•1 hr 5 min
This week we have legendary Bolt Thrower vocalist Karl Willetts on the show to discuss his new project Memoriam. We talk about his approach to lyrics on Memoriam's new album For the Fallen, which Bolt Thrower songs they plan on playing live, what he envisioned when he decided to create a new band, the decision to end Bolt Thrower after Kiddie’s passing, and what newer bands he's digging. Brandon and Petar find a company that helps out the unappreciated bass player, discuss James Hetfield’s recen...
Mar 20, 2017•1 hr 6 min
This week we interview Mike Schleibaum from the mighty Darkest Hour. We talk about the new record Godless Prophets & The Migrant Flora, what producer Kurt Ballou brought to the table, the crowdfunding campaign behind the record (and how scary it was to make the decision to try it), the tenth anniversary of Deliver Us and how to mobilize the youth with music in this day and age. Brandon and Petar talk way too much about Overdose of AIDS, Wes Scantlin’s latest rant, if Juggalos can became a pr...
Mar 13, 2017•1 hr 13 min
We talk to producer and Fit For An Autopsy guitarist Will Putney about his band's new record The Great Collapse, his non-traditional role in the band, the writing process for the record and how being a third guitarist makes it less stressful to tour. We discuss which type of bands he prefers producing, his views on remixing and remastering older material, and his biggest success as a producer/musician. Brandon and Petar tackle Otep's feud with the Butcher Babies, how metal cover albums usually d...
Mar 06, 2017•1 hr 6 min
This week we talk to Phil “Landphil” Hall from Iron Reagan. In addition to updates on all things Iron Reagen, Cannabis Corpse and Municipal Waste (including Iron Reagan's brand new album Crossover Ministry), he discusses what it’s like to see his likeness in a claymation video, his true “Fuck The Neighbor” tales, his favorite Troma movie and touring with Six Feet Under. Meanwhile Brandon and Pete talk about James Hetfield's recent statement regarding the lack of bass on …And Justice For All, the...
Mar 01, 2017•1 hr 3 min
This week we interview Mina Caputo from Life of Agony. She discusses the last 12 years of LOA, what it's like to be transgender in the hard rock/heavy metal scene and how she believes the band's upcoming release A Place Where There’s No More Pain is the most passionate and honest album she has ever made. We also discuss the Tim Lambesis situation, introduce a new product he is selling and contemplate whether or not we would support an As I lay Dying reunion. We talk about Attila and the protecti...
Feb 20, 2017•1 hr 14 min
This week the boys discuss the need for a Heavy Metal President, and what choices we are stuck with on both sides. We play the mudslinging ads from both parties and we discuss the major platforms for each candidate, their surprise choices for running mates, and we ask fans to vote on who they would want to represent all the tough decisions to be made in metal in 2017. We also chat with Pallbearer guitarist/vocalist Brett Campbell and bassist Joseph Rowland about the band's upcoming new record He...
Feb 13, 2017•1 hr 7 min
The MetalSucks Podcast returns after a two-month hiatus! Your new hosts Brandon Hahn and Petar Spajic speak with Suicide Silence vocalist Eddie Hermida, who has a lot to say about all the negative trolls their new material has brought out, working with Ross Robinson, the live headline tour they're about to embark upon and the record release parties each night after their headline set is complete. We also tackle the hardcore scene in light of the tragedy that occurred at a recent Code Orange show...
Feb 06, 2017•1 hr 4 min
This week we jump on the bandwagon and present to you our picks for the top metal albums of 2016. Instead of trying to write witty asides for every album -- we’ll leave that to the experts -- we chose to give you an audio rundown of the list and share our thoughts on each one. Some of Chuck and Godless's picks match -- not many, but some -- and we cover a lot of ground between the two of us. We did agree on the number one album of the year, and we brought that artist on as a special guest to be ...
Dec 05, 2016•1 hr 42 min
Dave Stephens, vocalist for We Came As Romans, guests this week on your favorite metal podcast with an interview outside of their album cycle. We catch Dave and the band right in the middle of working on the follow up to their eponymous latest album. Dave talks candidly with us about the recent departure of their drummer and longtime member Eric Choi, how aesthetic and the "look" of a new member will be important, their struggle with being an up and coming band and keeping their feet on the grou...
Nov 24, 2016•1 hr 25 min
John LaMacchia, guitarist of the reactivated Candiria, guests this week on your favorite metal podcast and we dive deep into the band's new record While They Were Sleeping. In our interview we talk about the many projects he's spearheaded, how 9/11 took its toll on him and led to addiction, the dark nature of the music he creates, going back out on tour and what that means for his lifestyle, and what the future might bring. We also talk about the disappointing sales figures for Avenged Sevenfold...
Nov 14, 2016•1 hr 17 min
Adam Dutkiewicz of Killswitch Engage guests this week on your favorite metal podcast. Of course you know him from KsE, but Adam's latest project takes his immense talents in a completely different direction. Serpentine Dominion is a death metal project also featuring Shannon Lucas (ex-The Black Dahlia Murder) and George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher of Cannibal Corpse, so it's a bit heavier than what you might expect from Adam. In our interview, on the eve of the U.S. Presidential election, we decided ...
Nov 07, 2016•1 hr 22 min
Jon Mess and Will Swan of Dance Gavin Dance guest this week on your favorite metal podcast. We talk about how the band is shunned by metal fans and where they believe that comes from, how they have succeeded while so many others have failed, and their latest release, Mothership. We also talk about their perspective on the rotating door at their lead singer position, and how that changes the way they write music and what they are able to do as a band. We talk more about the lead singer problem in...
Oct 31, 2016•1 hr 10 min
This week our guest on your favorite metal podcast is Jessica Pimentel, both a metal musician and star of the hit Netflix series Orange is the New Black. Her career has been taking off with the portrayal of Maria Ruiz on the jailhouse drama, but her ties to metal run deep, whether with her band Alekhine’s Gun, her main squeeze (Meshuggah drummer Tomas Haake), or just the circles she runs with in her native Brooklyn. In our interview we talk about her recent excursion to see Metallica at Webster ...
Oct 24, 2016•1 hr 30 min
Jordan Mancino, drummer for Wovenwar (and ex-As I Lay Dying) guests this week on your favorite metal podcast to talk about the band's new record, Honor is Dead, which is out now. We talked with Jordan about the recent departure of bandmate Phil Sgrosso (he'd been a part of AILD and/or Wovenwar since he was a teenager), how they were able to reconstruct themselves after Tim Lambesis decided to "go rogue" and what that looked like from the inside, how that time in their history informs who they ar...
Oct 17, 2016•1 hr 24 min
Vicky Psarakis, vocalist of The Agonist, guests on your favorite metal podcast this week, and in our interview we discover a genuine and enthusiastically nice person behind the voice of one of the most exciting bands in metal today. We talk about how she finds and fleshes out great hooks and writes songs, her rise from a YouTube singer to taking over for Alyssa White-Gluz as the frontwoman of an up-and-coming metal band, transitioning from never being in a band before to touring around the world...
Oct 10, 2016•1 hr 23 min
This week on your favorite metal podcast we talk to virtuoso guitarist Monte Pittman, who has played with plenty of non-metal acts like Madonna and Adam Lambert, but also alongside Tommy Victor in Prong. He ha an extensive solo catalogue as well, including his latest metal installment Inverted Grasp of Balance. In our interview we talk about his whole career, from starting out in East Texas to becoming the King of LA (crowned by us), his ability to work with all walks of life, what it's like to ...
Oct 03, 2016•1 hr 22 min
The latest episode of your favorite metal podcast is absolutely crucial for every Metallica fan. This week marks the 30th anniversary of one of the greatest losses in metal history, the untimely death of Cliff Burton. We wouldn’t normally commemorate an artist on their death date, but it really is stunning that three decades after the tragic bus accident on September 27, 1986, we still compare metal bass players to Cliff. We took the opportunity to talk to Joel McIver, author and biographer, who...
Sep 26, 2016•1 hr 31 min
Our guest this week on your favorite metal podcast was suggested to us by none other than Chris Adler of Lamb of God back when he was on the podcast last year, although we have been fans of Allegaeon for quite a while outside of that endorsement. In our interview with guitarist Greg Burgess we talk about trying to top what you think is your best work, the shuffling of the staff around the band, manager and booking agent and why they needed to make a change, what surrounded the shift in singers f...
Sep 19, 2016•1 hr 19 min
You might know Richard Christy as a cast member of The Howard Stern show, but metalheads know him as being a badass drummer with Death, Control Denied, Iced Earth, and now Charred Walls of the Damned. In our in-depth interview we spend a lot of time talking about that history, his relationship with Chuck Schuldiner, the story of Death and the end of the band, how he approaches the drums, and what Charred Walls of the Damned means to him in his very busy schedule. Christy has been a vital part of...
Sep 12, 2016•1 hr 28 min
The Dillinger Escape Plan guitarist Ben Weinman guests this week on your favorite metal podcast, and we decided to make this the definitive interview about the impending split of the band. He and drummer Billy Rymer were willing to discuss the decision in depth with us, what it means to them to make a choice to quit at the top of their game, who ultimately raised the idea of breaking up, whether there's a chance it might be a fluke or snap decision, where they plan to go from here, ... we asked ...
Sep 06, 2016•1 hr 24 min
Author Dayal Patterson guests this week on your favorite metal podcast to give us a lesson in underground black metal; his book Black Metal: The Cult Never Dies Vol I will come out via Decibel press this month (order here). We wanted to find out more about the significant evolutions in black metal that came from its controversial origins. We all know black metal can be a very secretive genre of music, sometimes by design, other times by accident, and what Dayal has done to get artists to expose ...
Aug 22, 2016•1 hr 28 min
We have wanted to talk to Devin Townsend for quite some time now, and we finally got our chance! He has been a guest on your favorite metal podcast before, but Axl and Vince had the opportunity to do the interview and now we run him through our own ringer. You gotta love this guy! To call him a singer or a guitarist would be selling his talents short, and although he hates to be complimented, Devin is one of the most prolific and inspiring musician of the last two decades. Whether you loved Stra...
Aug 16, 2016•1 hr 29 min
Karl Sanders of the mighty Nile is our guest on your favorite metal podcast this week. We caught up with him midway through the Summer Slaughter Tour for our interview and he had quite a bit to say about the tour package, playing with old friends Cannibal Corpse and Krisiun and the young bands on the bill like Carnifex and After the Burial. We also chat about the transition from touring to home life, his experience and what kind of person he becomes while at home, his routines and training in ma...
Aug 08, 2016•1 hr 13 min
Neil Fallon of the mighty Clutch guests this week on your favorite metal podcast! In our interview with the singer, we talk in-depth about the 25 years of the band's history, how it might have just been a nice accident that they have lasted this long, the progression of their music through their career, his side projects Dunsmuir, The Bakerton Group, and The Company Band, dealing with the ever changing landscape of the music business as a band and, more recently, as the owner of the label Weathe...
Aug 01, 2016•1 hr 31 min
Sumerian Records proprietor Ash Avildsen is our guest this week. You might know him from an array of different projects, whether you are a fan of his music, the bands on his label, his pioneering touring packages like Summer Slaughter or the recent movie What Now and soon-to-come American Satan. We started our chat by celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Summer Slaughter Tour with Cannibal Corpse, Nile, Suffocation, After the Burial and plenty more, but as is our tendency, we stray from the p...
Jul 25, 2016•1 hr 25 min
This week on your favorite metal podcast we feature our first interview with a member of the Mt. Rushmore of the metal industry, Brian Slagel, founder and owner of Metal Blade Records. Brian and Metal Blade have been in the metal business for nearly 35 years, developing some of the biggest acts in the history of metal such as Slayer, Gwar, Amon Amarth, Behemoth, Between the Buried and Me, and so many more. Brian's early career found him side by side with some of the most well-known musicians in ...
Jul 18, 2016•1 hr 18 min
Scott Ian Lewis, lead singer for deathcore mainstays Carnifex, guests this week. In our in-depth exclusive interview we talk about their new record, Slow Death (out next month on Nuclear Blast), what it takes to make it in the music business, leaving a label that wasn’t a good fit for the band, taking a hiatus to try and regroup, and being able to survive the pitfalls of constant touring. Plus, Lewis talks about his songwriting strategies, the financial burden of touring musicians, and much more...
Jul 11, 2016•1 hr 28 min
Dave Davidson, acclaimed guitarist and vocalist of Revocation, makes his return to the podcast this week, and we debut "Profanum Vulgus" from their upcoming album Great Is Our Sin. We talk about the new album and we talk Dave's views on politics and religion and how that all influences his songwriting and perspective on making music. Revocation enjoy nearly universal acclaim for their genre-clashing songs and Davidson's virtuosic guitar playing, so hear from the brains and fingers behind the mus...
Jul 05, 2016•1 hr 17 min
