Rolling Metal Thread 2008

"The first song was Angels of Light, I've been listening to Michael Gira for twenty-four years, and I drew a total blank."

okay, now i know you are nuts. who else could it have been!

It was like my brain was broken! I was just sitting there with a dumb grin on my face goin' "Jesus, I know this...it's like...who is it, duh" & my wife looked over and was like "you didn't get that one?" and I was like "I hate being stupid"

You can go up on stage in front of people and perform your songs, but being asked to name songs is too much pressure for you?

Hell, I've blacked out on a few obvious things over time. Much to the amusement of those around me.

You can go up on stage in front of people and perform your songs, but being asked to name songs is too much pressure for you?

haha I imagine if I did invisible jukebox every night for an hour and got a paycheck at the end of it I'd get pretty good at it

That would be an awesome job!

got the latest issue of SOD magazine in the mail. i'm cranking the latest album by Sathanas that the band sent me on CDR. drinking lots of coffee. life is good.

So it turns out the latest one by the Destiny Program is actually more listenable than I expected it to be. When they're not doing a respectable imitation of In Flames and Soilwork, they pull out these big spacious melodies and arrangements that sort of remind me of Thrice, of all people. Not as good as, say, the last Soilwork album, but at least they're trying to stand out from the crowd.

Otherwise, as of late (the last month really) I've been completely immersed in the Tank back catalog, and have been thoroughly enjoying it. What a great band...

I'm going to have to respectfully disagree, Adrien. There is definitely some good stuff on this album, especially when they go melodic or try to sound like Fear Factory, but it's still pretty generic.

The harder stuff is pretty plain, but I'm really surprised at how this thing actually held my interest. I'm usually bored stiff 20 minutes into a metalcore album. I must have been in a good mood or something.

Today I listened to grind all day. It was awesome. Amoebic Dystenery & Gruesome Stuff Relish did not disappoint.

grind is the gift that keeps on giving.

After half a listen Khann's Tofutopia sounds like the greatest album ever made. It's hard but then suddenly it's not, and then suddenly it's eating your guts off the floor without even brushing them off or anything.

Well now I'm interested!

Just got the new Dead Child in the mail. I had heard about these guys but hadn't heard them - was sort of assuming there'd be an audible tongue-in-cheek quality to it, but there isn't - it sounds kinda like a sped-up Pentagram only the vocals have an early-eighties metal vibe. Chuck I wonder if you wouldn't dig this record a lot, at least the first two tracks, which is where I'm at.

The one-sheet is lousy and should be ignored but that's par for the course this year, I've read some of the worst shit ever just in the past two days.

actually having listened to the whole thing I'd say "it's real good" and "it sounds kinda like Only Theater of Pain/Deathwish-era Christian Death only more metal"

is dead child more of that horrible dave pajo crap? that last album was the worst thing i've ever heard.

So, Sigh - Gallows Gallery has been remastered 2 years after it came out. Is it any different?

The reissue, remastered by James Murphy (Testament/Death), also features revamped artwork and several bonus
tracks. The band recently released their album 'Hangman's Hymn' in June of this year to rave reviews.

About the reissue, singer/founder/frontman Mirai Kawashima says: "In the beginning, Gallows Gallery was planned to be
pretty much a jazzy album. You'll hear the discarded pieces along with some alternate versions never heard before in the
bonus tracks. Remastered

is dead child more of that horrible dave pajo crap? that last album was the worst thing i've ever heard.

It's Pajo for sure - I didn't hear the last one. My wife sez some song of his she heard on the radio was like the worst thing she'd ever heard. I dunno man! Dead Child new one sounds like Christian Death crossed with QOTSA!

well, the last one was beyond bad. that's all i know. painful. like, dudes, just have fun in the basement, okay, no need to put that shit out in public.

mostly i just hate when indie dudes try and play metal cuz they have to play so slow cuz they can't play.

and i got no problem with jokes! the song i heard from the deathalbum the other day was AWESOME!

I didn't see anything about this on the 2007 thread but these yankee black metal guys Imperial Crystalline Entombment kick ass: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=73387075

i actually bought actual CDs today! at a record store! with money! i know, what year am i living in. but i did. got me some amon amarth (never got a copy of with oden on our side), some beherit, some gorguts (twofer of considered dead/the erosion of sanity), and some bathory! i gotta support my local record store. especially as i'm the one who helped them set up their new metal section. which is looking great by the way!

Just got the new Dead Child in the mail...the vocals have an early-eighties metal vibe. Chuck I wonder if you wouldn't dig this record a lot, at least the first two tracks, which is where I'm at.

Okay, I'll put it back on; I'd already given up on it before I read John's post. I was thinking the singer -- at least in his high register -- sounded too much like Jack White (sort of like the Wolfmother guy), except really thin (even thinner than the Danava guy). Liked some of the riffs, but the overall air wasn't grabbing me; wonder if I'd have thought differently if I didn't suspect they were, as Scott says, "indie dudes try and play metal" stuff. I have no opinion about Dave Pajo himself one way or the other; who is he again? (I'm not kidding -- okay, I just Wiki'd him; skimmed his resume', and I still have no opinion about the guy.) Anyway, I wouldn't say the Dead Child stuff I was listening to was especially slow or inept, but it wasn't really grabbing me, either, mainly because of the weak voice, I think. Track 10 "Wasp Riot" (amusing name) was even reminding me of Killing Joke a little, though not as palatably as when October File and Alchemyst reminded me of Killing Joke a few months ago. I don't think I've ever listened to a Christian Death album, oddly enough. (Used to like 45 Grave, though; does that count? And once in New York Rocker somebody reviewed Chirstian Death alongside the first Bad Religion album, I guess because of their names, so I've always associated them with each other even though they have nothing in common.) Anyway, I'll try Dead Child again, at John's behest, but I'm not expecting anything. If I change my mind I'll say so here; if not, I'll probably just leave it at this.

(Weird how people here think both Danava's and Dead Child's singers sound early '80s metal; I don't hear them that way at all. Maybe my stereo just stinks.)

Christian Death and 45 Grave -- commonality -- none, that I could ever tell. Christian Death was always into art. 45 Grave was into monster movie jokes, which they pulled off pretty successfully for awhile with "Partytime" and its dispensation through that Eighties comedy zombie movie everyone in the US went to see. Dinah Cancer gave them something of an effective frontwoman/singer, too.

Was Christian Death on the Hell Comes to Your House comps on Bemisbrain? I can't remember.

Yep; maybe that's why the two bands are connected in my head:

http://www.artistdirect.com/nad/store/artist/album/0,,327164,00.html

Wish I still had my copy, though it probably wasn't very good. (Why else would I have gotten rid of it, right?)

has been known to command prices in excess of $100 for a good vinyl copy

Fuck...The story of my life.

Christian Death and 45 Grave were friends and played together a lot but Christian Death was less campy. Or less playin'-it-for-laffs, anyway. Their first album & the Deathwish EP were them as a rock band, then they got arty. Still rock but kinda breezier and keyboardier. So when I say the Dead Child thing is kinda like them I mean the early lineup, not the Valor lineup.

man Scott I been spinnin that Erosion of Sanity reissue like twice a week. What a great fucking band.

45 Grave was into monster movie jokes, which they pulled off pretty successfully for awhile with "Partytime" and its dispensation through that Eighties comedy zombie movie everyone in the US went to see. Dinah Cancer gave them something of an effective frontwoman/singer, too.

Love both versions of that song (one of my all-time faves, really), but the older version, the child abuse one, is creepy as hell.

I got some good dirt on you from Rosa, Phil!

What metal blogs are y'all reading now?

so apparently pestilence (!) are making a comeback:

I have for you the best news you can even imagine... PESTILENCE IS BACK!!! There is new line up: founder Patrick Mameli (vocals, guitar), well known Tony Choy (bass) and drummer Peter Wildoer (Darkane, Non-Human Level and others). Patrick is working on new great songs which style he describes as modern fusion of "Testimony..." and "Spheres", but even more technical (!!!) and more brutal. New album will be recorded by Jacob Hansen and produced by Patrick himself. As you see we all have a reason to live!

did anyone here hear c-187?

Metal blogwise, I still say invisibleoranges.com and The Deciblog are the two most important ones out there right now.

thanks, A!

The Dead Child full-length is a big improvement over the EP, which was mind-roastingly shitty. Right now I'm listening to the Genghis Tron disc, which is also kinda awesome if a little too much for my present, already somewhat frantic 'n' skittish, state of mind. Up next: the Kingdom of Sorrow album, or maybe Grief Of War's A Mounting Crisis...As Their Fury Got Released, or maybe even the Earache nü-thrash compilation Thrashing Like A Maniac (Bonded By Blood, Evile, Municipal Waste, Dekapitator, Fueled By Fire, Decadence, Warbringer, SSS, Gama Bomb, Merciless Death, Deadfall, Lazarus, Toxic Holocaust, Mutant, Violator and Send More Paramedics). Tried the Gathering live album A Noise Severe last week and was bored nearly senseless. I guess I just don't get that band, and don't really care.

In other news, the 2008 Gigantour lineup sounds fucking great (Megadeth obviously, plus In Flames, Children Of Bodom, Job For A Cowboy and High On Fire), and I will definitely be there when the show hits NYC in April. Oh, and my new Iron Maiden Vans (with artwork from "The Trooper") came in today, as did my advance CD-Rs of the Hellhammer stuff. Woo-hoo!

Gigantour's headed my way this year, which I'm really happy about. Any chance to see High on Fire again, and I'm there.

It should be a fun year for metal shows...I plan on flying somewhere to catch Maiden's Somewhere Back in Time tour, which is pretty much the ultimate show for 37 year-old Maiden geeks. Yay nostalgia!

Roxy: http://www.metalsucks.net/ is very entertaining and irreverent.

I heard the Meshuggah album at the listening party on Saturday night. The other people there were going nuts over it, but it isn't really my thing. It didn't seem much of a stretch from their other material, but according to my friend it's way better than the last two albums. And Phil, I had Rosa take a picture of me with her to show you that I, I don't know, exist. Ask her about it.

You exist, Jeff? Impossible, we dreamt you up Saturday as a consensual hallucination.

Man, you guys must have some twisted imaginations to dream me up. I feel sorry for you.

Got the Meshuggah in today's mail - haven't had a chance to listen past track two yet, but so far I like it. Not a major leap forward, backward or in any direction, but at least it's not one long song. Can't wait to see them live again in May.

After hearing Gojira and Hacride do such great stuff with a similar sound, Meshuggah seem to be spinning their wheels. I realize that they were pretty revolutionary in their day, but there just doesn't seem to have been much advancement on their parts. But like I said, a lot of the other people there were loving it, so...

I heard the one song that surfaced over the weekend, and it sounds very promising. I found Catch Thirty Three to be rather dull, but judging by the track, they really seem to have shaken the cobwebs out. Nothing remains one of my favourite metal albums of the decade.

They're being (justifiably) stingy with advance copies...web writers (which is me in this case, having missed out on a print assignment)won't get to hear it for another couple months yet.

Holy crap, did anyone else see the new In Flames cover art? I would post a JPEG here, but it's huge... here's a link: http://a596.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/61/l_dbd387cecdff812a8316bdd11ee5e1e3.jpg

Wow.

wow thats awful.

I think it's kind of cool, actually. Has a very classic metal feel to it, like a Fates Warning cover or something.

looks like 90s goth johan vasquez comic book lameness. but inflames has always been lame.

holy shit, that's even worse than the Meshuggah