Metallica have sucked fucking dick since …And Justice For All but maybe Rick Rubin told them to quit fucking whining, check out of rehab and start pounding enough Jaeger to help them write riffs in standard-E that still sound heavier than anything nu-metal ever fucked with. Doubtful? Yes. But nevertheless, there’s still hope.

Metallica have announced their tenth studio album, Death Magnetic, will be released globally on Friday, September 12th.

News about Death Magnetic has been flowing out of Metallica’s camp via the band’s official website (www.metallica.com) and a brand-new site, missionmetallica.com, which offers users a unique, ground-breaking look-in on the making of the album, with producer Rick Rubin. Fans who can’t wait for the September 12th release date will be able to purchase a digital-edition version of the album, to be delivered at midnight on release day, by joining the free site, which launched on May 29th. Missionmetallica.com features a treasure trove of exclusive content, including the low-down from the band members themselves about their progress in the studio via fly-on-the-wall video footage, live concerts downloads, exclusive new and never-before-seen archival photos from the studio, contests to fly to foreign lands to see the band perform and much much more.

Metallica are currently finishing up the mixing and mastering of Death Magnetic. The cover art and full-track-listing (below) have been posted at missionmetallica.com, where fans can purchase the album plus web content in various configurations. Users should continue to check the site for the chance to win tickets and meet-and-greet passes to Metallica’s live concert events this summer. Upcoming dates include headlining slots at Ozzfest on August 8th in Dallas, TX and at England’s Leeds and Reading festivals later this month.

Death Magnetic is Metallica’s first studio album since 2003’s multi-platinum St. Anger, which hit No. 1 in 30 countries and has sold nearly six million copies worldwide. Formed in Los Angeles in 1981 by drummer Lars Ulrich and guitarist and vocalist James Hetfield, Metallica has become one of the most influential and commercially successful rock bands in history, having sold 100 million albums worldwide and playing to millions of fans the world over. They have garnered numerous awards and accolades, including seven Grammy Awards, two American Music Awards, and multiple MTV Video Music Awards. In addition, their 1991 album, Metallica, which has sold 15 million copies in the United States, has been awarded the prestigious “Diamond Award” from the Recording Industry Association of America, given to those albums with U.S. sales of 10 million or more.

The track-listing for Death Magnetic is as follows:

“That Was Just Your Life”
“The End of The Line”
“Broken, Beat & Scarred”
“The Day That Never Comes”
“All Nightmare Long”
“Cyanide”
“The Unforgiven III”
“The Judas Kiss”
“Suicide & Redemption”
“My Apocalypse”

My first introduction to Anticon Records was from someone who absolutely HATED what they were putting out. This, sadly, colored my opinion for some time; that is until my cousin (currently studying international law at Harvard…so I’ll have someone to represent me once I finally get caught for my various illicit activities I enjoy so liberally) burned me a mix CD of some of their artists. It was then that I figured out that Anticon isn’t quite the self-important backpack hip-hop label my friend made them out to be — Its stable of artists is more composed of experimental rock, sample/electronica artists. There’s a love and appreciation of hip-hop within most of these artists, but it’s not straight up beats and verses, far from it. As for my Anticon hating friend, sometimes it pays to take opinions with a grain of salt (or in this case, an entire shaker).

For me, Anticon artist Why? leads the label roster with inventive, glitchy indie-rock with an almost They Might be Giants vocal delivery and dark, contemplation-worthy poetic lyrics. It’s on some real shit, real sink-your-teeth-into sounds. Worth your attention, for sure. Love their cover of “Close To Me,” by The Cure, too. Why? is heading out on tour, and their publicist was kind enough to alert us.

From Force Field PR:

It’s been a busy and interesting year for WHY?, since the release of their acclaimed album Alopecia in March, the band has been touring the world almost non-stop, with a U.S. tour in the Spring and a lengthy European tour that immediately followed. Only one slight hiccup - while in Europe, two of the band members (brothers Yoni and Josiah Wolf) got the mumps, and on top of that, Yoni broke his hand. The band has soldiered on despite these minor setbacks and has scheduled another full North American tour for the fall, with pals Mount Eerie, Tussle and Tobacco (of Black Moth Super Rainbow) opening along the way.

Check out their video for “Song of the Sad Assassin” right here:

Tour dates (courtesy of Force Field PR) after the jump (more…)

I haven’t really fucked with metal since my career as a late-90s high school stoner jock came to an abrupt end. But ever since Synthesis Marketing Idiot and overall coward Cayle Hunter moved into the desk next to mine I’ve been getting a crash course in the latest badass deathcore and Scandanavian metal bands. Shit like White Chapel, Salt the Wound and probably my favorite yet, Bloodbath. Something of a Swedish metal all star band, Bloodbath wouldn’t even know where to find a fuck, let alone how to give one. The music thing more pissed than the music is the artwork, which features the obligatory illegible lightning bolt font band name and a wolf in a priest outfit bathing an infant in blood. In the liner notes, the band members are listed as “Those Who Unbless the Purity.” Thank god for Sweden, where the government is smart enough to subsidize death metal bands. Maybe that’s why all their bands rule and most of ours are fucking shitdicks. Fuckers.