Hard-rock outfit WILSON are shitter aficionados. They’ve been rating toilets on the road for a while on their own blog, and now they’re bringing their expertise to RevolverMag.com. The band is currently crossing the country with Newsted and What the Hell, from whence they will be educating us on their various bathroom encounters. Here, singer Chad Nicefield drops blog No. 4.

“Boston Bruins…more like Boston bruises…on my ass cheeks.

“Here lays the Middle East in Cambridge, Mass, and boy, did I have something brewing in this Masshole.

“This has to be by far the worst of this tour. I chose the only stall with a proper door…however, no lock, so the boys got a chance to run up on me mid-toilet meal and snap this candid ‘business’ photo. At first, I thought there was no TP…but then, when the back of my head smashed into the TP box on the wall behind me, I was pleasantly surprised to get a good wipe in. This is some weird off brand of an American Classic, it completely set crooked. Plus, the seat was barely attached.

“I got a lot of love for New Englanders…so I’m not going to totally dis this shitter. All in all, 4 out of 10.”

For the latest on WILSON, visit WilsonPartyAnimals.com, Instagram.com/WilsonParties, Twitter.com/WilsonParties, Soundcloud.com/WilsonRock, Youtube.com/WilsonParties, WilsonParties.Tumblr.com/, and WilsonParties.BigCartel.com/.

Re-formed British extreme-metal legends Carcass have signed to Nuclear Blast records for the world excluding Japan. Surgical Steel, the band’s first studio release since their 1996 LP, Swansong, was produced by Colin Richardson (Napalm Death, Bolt Thrower,  Cannibal Corpse) and mixed/mastered by Andy Sneap (Megadeth, Accept, Exodus, Testament). Joining guitarist Bill Steer and bassist-vocalist Jeff Walker in the band’s current incarnation are new drummer Dan Wilding (Aborted, Trigger the Bloodshed) and guitarist Ben Ash (Pig Iron, Desolation, Liquefied Skeleton). Expect some guest vocals from original drummer Ken Owen as well, when Surgical Steel is released this fall world-wide.

Carcass has released the following statement regarding their new found partners: “We are pleased to announce that we have found the perfect home for Surgical Steel, the first Carcass album for, what, 18 years?! We’ve inked a deal with Nuclear Blast for our new baby. We have to thank Markus Staiger for his enthusiasm and belief in what he heard, but mostly his ability to take advantage of Jeff with a bad hangover when he visited the office in Stuttgart to let him be the first to hear the rough mixes. Nuclear Blast has managed to secure this release despite interest from all the main players in what remains of the metal ‘music industry.’

“We’re also looking forward to working with our pals in the U.S. office, who have done favors for us behind the scenes over the last few years. On a personal note, Jeff  looks forward to his and label manager Gerardo Martinez’ friendship to come crashing down in flames and tears in a few months.

“As long as we don’t mention ‘the war,’ we think we’re going to do just fine with our new teutonic home!”

Commented Nuclear Blast owner and founder Markus Staiger: “One of my all-time favorite U.K. metal bands signed recently to Nuclear Blast—it feels like a dream come true. When Jeff Walker let me listen to the new record I knew immediately that Carcass made one of their best albums ever! It is a perfect mixture of Heartwork and Necroticism with a massive production to boot. The album is without a doubt just as perfect and lethal as surgical steel itself, and exactly what both old and new fans have waited for eagerly all of these years! 
I am very proud to say, Carcass—welcome to the Nuclear family. It is an honor to work with this legendary metal band.”

A “left-handed Aquarius, master of the fine arts, wordsmith, survivor,” as it says on his Facebook page, Valient Thorr frontman Valient Himself is now also a RevolverMag.com blogger. He’ll be offering us regularly updates from his mind, starting with the piece below. His band’s new album,

May 14 marked the FIVE year anniversary of me donating a kidney to my Earth father. Valient Thorr makes rock ‘n’ roll with a message. Everyone always asks what is at the core of that message?  The basic point of a lot of it has been to get past all the greed and bullshit and think about what matters. The people of the Earth. It always has been a humanitarian message. If we don’t take care of the people then what do we have left here? Without the people, Earth is just another rock floating in space. So in order to highlight that point, whenever possible, we try to do what we can to help others. In the past, we’ve done benefits for many causes including MS, breast cancer, bells palsy, and my personal crusade has been flying the flag for the National Kidney Foundation.

I wanted to use this blog today to report that after five years, my kidney is still going strong inside of my old man, and I too am as strong as I ever have been. If you ever have wondered if you should donate to someone you know or even had the desire to help out a stranger but was unsure if the long term effects would slow you down in the least, come out to one of our tour dates beginning in June and see for yourself. We are still going strong and you, too, could be the key to saving someone’s life. My old man was in rough shape back in ’08, but he looks better today than he did for the few years leading up to the surgery.

There are thousands of people waiting on the national list for kidneys that they may never get (my Earth cousin included). If you know someone who needs one, get yourself checked to see if you’re a possible candidate for donation. If you have any questions, you can send them to me via my personal Facebook page or just check out Kidney.org.

Thanks for all the support over the years, check out our new album, Our Own Masters, on June 18, and please donate!

Kidney Donation Diary Video:

Due to space constraints, we had to cut the “Splatter Matters” horror news page from the forthcoming issue of Revolver, which hits newsstands on June 4. The issue’s column had covered the new film, American Mary, which was directed by twin sisters Jen and Sylvia Soska and was just released on VOD. The movie is also getting a theatrical release in 25 theaters across the filmmaker’s native Canada on May 30th, with the surreal short The Captured Bird opening. The director of The Captured Bird, Jovanka Vockovic just so happens to the editor of the “Splatter Matters” page, and below, we share her interview with the Soska Sisters.

While horror cinema has long had a place for strong female characters that best the Bad Guy as the film’s “final girl,” women are rarely depicted as powerful killers. That genre convention is turned on its ear in American Mary, the sophomore feature from Jen and Sylvia Soska (Dead Hooker in a Trunk), twin female filmmakers with a penchant for horror.

“There are ridiculous notions that women don’t have a capacity for evil and there’s a lot of Western influence pigeonholing female characters in film,” writer-director Sylvia Soska says. “You have these iconic male horror creations: Freddy, Pinhead, Michael Myers, Jason, and Norman Bates, but who is the lady you would not to go anywhere near? A true femme fatale?”

The Soskas’ answer to that question is American Mary, a provocative body-horror film that stars Ginger Snaps’ Katharine Isabelle as a disenfranchised medical student who begins performing illegal operations for the body-modification community and eventually escalates to exacting sadistic surgical revenge on those who have wronged her.

“The story of a young woman struggling in a male-dominated business, where, despite her ability, she is seen as below her male counterparts and more as a party favor or sexual object, isn’t anything new,” explains cowriter-director Jen Soska, who says the film is analogous to her and her sister’s own experiences in the film industry. “It is a story that focuses so much on appearances being everything and there is a lot that women can relate to.”

As such, American Mary is a direct reaction to the bland stereotypes in mainstream genre films. “We’d heard the Twilight saga called a ‘feminine horror,’” she explains. “That just pissed us off.” Adds Sylvia, “Martyrs is a female horror film. Inside is a female horror film. American Mary is very much a feminist body-horror film.”

Featuring “one of the most tasteful nipple removal and clitorectomy sequences ever made,” according to Jen, the movie is also a potent marriage of sex and surgery—which, until now, has been the province of one other famous Canadian filmmaker obsessed with venereal horror and bodily transmogrification. Not surprisingly, David Cronenberg was an inspiration to the twins.

“Dead Ringers, as you might be able to guess, is one of our very favorite films,” says Jen. “Cronenberg is a trailblazer. If it wasn’t for him, we wouldn’t be making the films we are.” Sylvia elaborates, “We even homage Dead Ringers in the twin surgery scene by putting Mary in the red scrubs. I love unique storytellers, the ones that have an unapologetic voice in their art. Cronenberg has always been that.”

An author, filmmaker, and journalist working in the horror genre, Jovanka Vuckovic is Revolver‘s resident fright-flick guru, the writer of each magazine’s “Splatter Matters” column. She was recently named one of the top 10 most important women in the history of horror. For more, visit jovankavuckovic.com and follow her at @JovankaVuckovic on Twitter.

U.K. rockers Heaven’s Basement made their New York City headline debut at the Bowery Electric on March 27 to a sold-out crowd. Now they’re offering a behind-the-scenes look at the gig with the video below. The band will be playing NYC again tomorrow, Thursday, May 23, this time with Buckcherry at Irving Plaza.

On June 11, legendary hardcore outfit Integrity will release its 10th album, Suicide Black Snake, on vinyl via A389 and on CD via Magic Bullet. In anticipation, the band, led by the infamous Dwid Hellion (pictured above), is streaming the record in its entirety right here right now. Check it out below and let us know what you think in the comments.

For more info, visit: Facebook.com/INTEGRITY.HT, HolyTerror.com, A389records.com, Facebook.com/A389Recordings, Twitter.com/A389Recordings, MagicBulletRecords.com, Facebook.com/MagicBulletRecords, and Twitter.com/MagicBulletRecs.

Lesbian’s third full-length and Translation Loss debut, Forestelevison, is a single song, 44-plus minutes of prog-influenced epic doom and blackened metal. Recorded at Avast! Studios with longtime producing collaborator Randall Dunn (Wolves in the Throne Room, Earth, Boris) and featuring artwork by Arik Roper (High on Fire, Sleep), Forestelevison will see a June 25th release on CD (Digipack), Digital, and 2xLP.  The 2xLP version will come housed in deluxe gatefold packaging and include an exclusive Vinyl-only extended outro-bonus track! The album is available for pre-order right here.

You can listen to a segment of the album/song below. Let us know what you think in the comments.

A woman’s strength can be tested in many different ways, whether it be through the rigorous daily physical challenges of having lady parts, dealing with social assumptions or shooing off the adoring masses. Honing in on a higher purpose within the confines of the madness is certainly no small feat. For one of hardcore’s most recognizable frontwomen, Candace Kucsulain from Walls of Jericho, her sense of balance has been discovered through the male-dominated sport of power lifting.

“When I first met my husband in Europe while on tour in 2009, he told me about a power-lifting program,” Kucsulain recounts. “Now I’m moving to Ohio with him and our daughter to train with one of the top women in the country.” Not a romantic gesture for many, but for the strength-driven Kucsulain, lifting has cemented her love for fitness and was the catalyst for a new stage of her life post full-time musicianship. “I have never wanted to be weak, whether it be weak of the body or mind,” she confidently states.

It is that exact fire that led her from the music road to the fitness lane, a path often carved out by her male counterparts but rarely addressed and conquered by the femme faction. “One of of the last Ozzfest tours, someone had weights and they’d work out,” she recalls. “I’d jump in because you’re looking for something to kill the time in-between. I hated that the guys in my band could dead-lift 300 pounds and I couldn’t, but I finally dead-lifted 310 pounds at my last meet!”

Consistently defying boundaries while still maintaining those beautiful characteristics that define a strong woman has been Kucsulain’s M.O. since her band’s inception over 15 years ago. Never one to take anything for granted, Kucsulain notes that “strength takes time and dedication.”

Dedication is something she has plenty of at this turn-key point of her life and career. Kucsulain is a multitasker who understands the value of giving the task at hand your all. Her inner strength is perfectly manifested in her standing as frontwoman of Walls of Jericho. “In 1998, I was living on my own, playing shows with the band, and eventually had to drop out of high school to continue touring because I wanted to do the band–it was my passion,” she readily admits. During a time where social networking and digital communication was at an inception stage, Kucsulain offered endless fodder for the now infamous hardcore message board communities. Recognizably one of the only female vocalists in a machismo-filled community of musicians, she immediately realized that even her presence alone offended some deeply. “people did not like there being a female vocalist in hardcore,” she says. “I was shocked.”

Never one to be discouraged or back down from the mission at hand Kucsulain arose like a crowned champ, clocking in years of international and national touring, including on notable festivals such as Ozzfest and Mayhem, as well as releasing multiple successful albums, all while keeping grounded. “In the U.S., in order to survive as a hardcore band, you have to travel,” Kucsulain readily admits. “I was lucky to be in a band with those guys. They were smart about touring and the lifestyle. We rarely got hotels early on.” As their career flourished in the late ’00s, the band finally decided to put out for some extra accommodations, a move fueled by one rather disturbingly telling situation. “One morning, while we were staying at someone’s house on tour, I woke up to a letter in my shoe from a guy staying at the house as well,” she laughs. “He said that he watched me sleep, and I said to my bandmates, ‘We’re good. I’m drawing the line,’ and we were done with that.”

Yet, considering her rare talent and energy, it’s not difficult to see how any human would be infatuated with Kucsulain’s presence. Even mainstream metal powerhouse Corey Taylor, of Slipknot and Stone Sour fame, couldn’t resist her musical charms, helping to produce one of her band’s most adventurous melodic undertakings in 2008, the Redemption EP. As a band best known for their in-your-face brutality factor, it was a bold step to take on such a melodically-driven project, but after meeting Taylor on the Family Values tour and being inspired to write after the death of her mother in 2006, Kucsulain took on the challenge. In a span of two weeks, the band pumped out a heartfelt EP that was “in memory of someone I loved,”  Kucsulain gratefully remembers. “To be able to record something like that was beautiful to me.” The EP gave her a chance to revisit a love of clean singing that had previously only appeared in glimpses on prior releases. “I love singing and grew up singing,” she explains. “In high school, there was one year that I was actually in two choirs, but I came into hardcore because I was angry and lost. Hardcore was my savior.”

Through time, Kucsulain has found many more saviors and has been, herself, a positive figure to many women who are involved in music and yet want to also experience the joys of normal family life. Many active band members have children, but it is a true rarity to see a female try to balance motherhood with the touring heavy-music artists’ life. Kucsulain notes that once she met her husband and had her daughter, her life took an extremely different and nurturing turn, offering her love she had never known. Always one to walk the walk,  Kucsulain says that “if you want to see a change in the world,  you have to start with the kids.” Perhaps it is that sense of duty and higher purpose that continually fuels her desire to excel at both motherhood and power lifting, as well as ramps up her need to create new music with Walls of Jericho. As someone who admittedly is not a fan of small talk and surface interactions, instead opting for close relationships, she will have have endless fuel for writing this time around. “We’re writing a new song for the 10-day European tour coming up in August,” she says. “It’s exciting because I’m ready to write about my life now. At first, they sent me some songs and I just couldn’t focus–it wasn’t the right time.”

We all know timing is everything, and with Kucsulain’s clock aligning hands, it will be exciting to see what is next for Walls of Jericho sonically. In a world full of strife and challenge, Kucsulain amply rises to the occasion time and time again, exemplifying hardcore heart. “We chose this music,” she playfully laughs. “That says something about us.”

Philip H. Anselmo will take to the road for his first-ever solo tour, “Technicians of Distortion,” which will kick off July 31 in Tulsa, OK. On this tour, Anselmo will be joined by his back up band The Illegals–guitarist Marzi Montazeri, bassist Steve Taylor, and Jose Manual Gonzalez on drums. Tickets go on sale this Thursday, May 23–log onto  TheHousecoreRecords.com/ > ARTISTS for ticketing information.

Technicians of Distortion is in support of Anselmo’s upcoming solo release, Walk Through Exits Only, due out July 16 (Housecore Records/Megaforce) and will take the group to a total of 16 important markets over a three-week period.  Warbeast, who are signed to Anselmo’s Housecore Record label and just released their new album Destroy (produced by Anselmo), along with industrial-doom and drone-metal one-man band Author and Punisher, will provide support on all dates.

“It is an incredible pleasure to do my first solo tour with my brothers in Warbeast and to introduce the mighty Author and Punisher to the extreme-music audience properly,” said Anselmo. “This is a killer program of insane variety, so come out and support the gigs!!!!”

Fans can expect a hardcore, stripped-down production that is focused on a set list that will include all songs on Walk Through Exits Only, as well as lots of extras.

With one additional date to be announced, the confirmed itinerary for the Technicians of Distortion tour is as follows:

JULY
31   Cain’s Ballroom, Tulsa, OK

AUGUST
2   Wooly’s, Des Moines, IA
3   First Avenue, Minneapolis, MN
4   House of Blues, Chicago, IL
6   House of Blues, Cleveland, OH
7   The Intersection, Grand Rapids, MI
9   Royal Oak Music Theatre, Royal Oak, MI
10   Danforth Music Hall, Toronto, ONT Canada
11   Heavy MTL Festival, Montreal, QC Canada
13   The Palladium, Worcester, MA
14   Upstate Concert Hall, Clifton Park, NY
16   Best Buy Theatre, New York, NY
17   Union Transfer, Philadelphia, PA
18   The Fillmore, Silver Spring, MD
20   The Masquerade – Heaven Stage, Atlanta, GA

You can preorder the album on Amazon or, digitally, on iTunes.