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Metal File: Daughters, Dark Funeral, DragonForce, Kylesa & More News That Rules

'I have no hopes of anything good happening in music at all, other than us,' frontman A.S.F. Marshall says.

Daughters frontman A.S.F. Marshall (or Lex, to fans of the intense, Rhode Island noisecore artisans) doesn't care if you like his band, or if you get offended by the fact that he likes to disrobe mid-gig and hock loogies at the audience. In fact, he's a rather sullen dude. The one thing that seems to brighten his churlish mood is Daughters' forthcoming album, Hell Songs, in stores Tuesday.

Why's that? Well, for the last three years, his band's been playing the same 10 tunes -- all of them from Daughters' 2003 debut, Canada Songs. So this fall, when the crafters of cacophonic chaos hit the road, Marshall won't be so bored.

"We've been rehearsing, and it feels so much better to be playing the new stuff," the singer said. "There are a couple of old songs we've been playing, but I don't even want to deal with them."

Of course, several of those fans who do turn out for Daughters' tour with Red Sparowes -- which will commence August 12 with an album-release soiree in Providence -- might want to hear some of that older material. And sure, Daughters will be blasting out a couple of those tracks during their sets -- much to Marshall's chagrin. It took Daughters three years to get around to writing fresh material, and the singer blamed turnover for Hell Songs' delay.

"We spent a lot of time on tour, and whenever we'd get home, someone would leave the band," he said. "So, we had to fix all that and find people who would stick around. Every time we had a chance to write, we'd spend the time teaching someone else all this old crap. That was a bit of a problem. But we have people now who don't want to leave, so that's good."

With Hell Songs, Marshall tried to convince the rest of Daughters -- which formed in 2001 and rose from the ashes of As the Sun Sets -- that longer is better. "I was pushing them to make the songs a bit longer, which I think we all wanted to do," he said. "It's boring playing short songs over and over again." The average length of the tunes on Canada Songs is about a minute and 20 seconds, with the shortest track running 34 seconds long. On Hell Songs, the average is about a minute and 50 seconds, with one track lasting six minutes.

"It's boring playing for 30 seconds, then you stop, then you play another 30 seconds -- it's stupid," he continued. "I couldn't stand doing it any more. The only goal I had with this record was to make it longer. But as far as what kind of music we were going to write, we weren't trying to top ourselves. It just came out naturally. I was listening to a lot of gospel stuff -- like old '30s, '40s gospel music. The lyrics are about hell, Jesus, sex, death, fire -- whatever. I don't know what people want to hear, and I don't give a sh--. I don't expect anything -- I don't listen to new music, because I don't want to. I have no hopes of anything good happening in music at all, other than us. We're probably the only good thing out there anymore.

"We get together and we write what we want to play," he continued. "We don't try to sound like this or that or whatever. I'm not going to stop screaming because so-and-so is popular. I don't give a damn. ... I don't know if we fit in anywhere. All the bands I like are broken up or someone's dead."

Daughters will be on tour with Red Sparowes through September 19 in Austin, Texas, and will team up with Pelican and Nachtmystium the following day in Denton, Texas, for seven shows -- the last being on September 30 in Seattle. Marshall said the band will play several shows this fall with Since by Man too, but that trek's still be worked out. You can see also catch Daughters at the 10th annual Dirt Fest in Birch Run, Michigan, on August 19, along with the Dillinger Escape Plan, Every Time I Die, the Black Dahlia Murder and Fear Before the March of Flames.

The rest of the week's metal news:

Danzig have shot a video for "Crawl Across Your Killing Floor," which appears on the band's forthcoming Lost Tracks of Danzig LP. The two-disc set of unreleased Danzig material should surface in November. ... Possibly the only sludge-metal band armed with two drummers -- Savannah, Georgia's Kylesa -- will release their third album, Time Will Fuse Its Worth, on Halloween. Tracks include "What Becomes an End," "Hollow Severer," "Identity Defined" and "Where the Horizon Unfolds." Kylesa will preview some of the new material on a short tour that begins August 11 in Philadelphia and runs through August 17 in Richmond, Virginia. ... Full Blown Chaos have dropped off the upcoming Hell on Earth Tour, a European run that features God Forbid, Cataract and Maroon on the bill. "Unfortunately we had to pull out of the Hell on Earth Tour in Europe. There was a complication with our plane tickets," reads a post on the band's Web site. Instead, the boys will head out with Scars of Tomorrow starting September 1 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, with dates running through September 17 in West Hollywood, California. ... More dates have been rolled out for DragonForce's upcoming tour with All That Remains and Horse the Band. The tour will hit Los Angeles (September 8); San Francisco (September 9); Portland, Oregon (September 11); Seattle (September 13); Boise, Idaho (September 15); Salt Lake City (September 16); Cincinnati (September 22); Detroit (September 23); Worcester, Massachusetts (September 28); New York (September 29); Tempe, Arizona (October 5); and San Diego (October 6). ...

Doomy Columbus, Ohio, noisemakers Teeth of the Hydra have recorded their first disc since their 2002 full-length debut, We Are the Fantasy. The new album, Greenland, is scheduled for release September 19 and includes "Sawing Through the Ice," "The Garden of Rotten Teeth" and "Purgatorium." ... Canadian melodic-thrash band Threat Signal's guitarist Rich Howard has quit the band to pursue "other life goals," according to a post on the band's Web site. His final show will be August 29 in Windsor, Ontario. Afterward, bassist Marco Bressette will take over on guitar. The band is currently seeking a new bassist for their tour with Soilwork and Mnemic, which starts October 5 in Springfield, Virginia. Requirements: "A dude who can slay a bass like a guitar, must use a pick, have professional gear, willing (and able!) to tour the world and make Threat Signal top priority." Interested applicants should write to threatsignal@hotmail.com. Threat Signal's debut, Under Reprisal -- which was produced by Fear Factory's Christian Olde Wolbers -- comes out August 22. ... "The Wolf Is Loose" will serve as the first single off Mastodon's forthcoming album Blood Mountain, which drops September 12. The band plans to shoot a video for the track within the next week or so. ... Having performed Deep Purple's signature tune "Smoke on the Water" for decades, the band's singer Ian Gillan is giving other folks a shot by launching a contest in which fans can submit their own versions of the track over the Internet. Participants in the Smoke This contest should upload their version to Gillan's Web site. Winners will be chosen in best vocal and best Guitar categories. First-place winners in each will be flown to Las Vegas, where they will perform the song onstage with Gillan on September 17 at the House of Blues. A separate contest category enables bands to submit their rendition of the song for a chance to win $2,500 in music gear. The contest ends August 27. All winners will be chosen September 4. ...

Scandinavian metal legends Dark Funeral and Enslaved will launch the Candlelight II: Phoenix Rising tour January 9 with Abigail Williams. Shows run through February 4 and exact dates will be announced soon. The concerts will mark Dark Funeral's first North American visit since 2002. "Since we announced the first European tour dates for our latest album Attera Totus Sanctus earlier this year, there has been a constant and completely overwhelming flow of [e-mails] from the U.S. and Canada asking when the hell we will tour North America," guitarist Lord Ahriman said. "It'll be killer to finally return overseas." Added Enslaved guitarist Ivar Bjornson: "I have awaited this moment since I don't know when. You won't be disappointed; neither will we." ... The Sword have shot a video for "Freya" from their acclaimed self-titled debut, which came out in February. The Texan doomsters worked on the clip with director Barnaby Roper, who has previously shot videos with alternative bands Razorlight and OK Go. The band's further revealed that it'll be one of the support acts on Trivium's upcoming North American headliner this fall. No dates for the trek have been announced. ... Oregon's arty Agalloch will release their new album, Ashes Against the Grain, on Tuesday, but fans who want a sneak preview can hear the entire disc streaming on mp3.com. Agalloch recently shot a video for "Not Unlike the Waves" with director Nicole Phillips and cinematographers Richard Stark and Juan Mosqueda.

For more metal madness, check out our feature "The Greatest Metal Bands Of All Time."

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