Rolling Metal Thread 2015

Supposed to get new Vektor this year, psyched for that. And Torche has one imminent on Relapse, right? First single is dull, but I'm still hoping. Also Melechesh, Nokturnal Mortum (w due reservations), King Diamond, debut Aktor LP, Black Breath. Curiously optimistic about a Bolzer full-length, curious but not optimistic about new Nile.

\m/

This is going to be a good year. Blind Giardian, Enslaved, Nightwish, Royal Thunder, Napalm Death, maybe even Maiden.

The Visigoth album The Revenant King, which comes out 1/27 on Metal Blade, is a lot of fun. RIYL Grand Magus. Fair warning: There's a song called "Dungeon Master" and it's about exactly what you think it's about. On the other hand, "Creature of Desire" is maybe the most egalitarian song about a metal woman I've ever heard—despite its title, she's portrayed as the narrator's equal in every way.

Haha, Brujeria has a new one coming out. I'm basing this, along with a few of the others I listed, on this Nuclear Blast promo image: http://imgur.com/c1DA5VP

And the Napalm Death artwork is somewhere between amazing and horrifying, while the sample track is nothing but the former: http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/napalm-death-apex-predator-easy-meat-artwork-track-listing-revealed/

I'm not even that big of a fan but after that song ... yeah I'll be grabbing this one. And probably going back through their discography in order to become that big of a fan.

new xibalba in a few weeks https://soundcloud.com/noisey/xibalba-invierno

who recommended this Devil Ancestry record - it's really great

That was me! Glad someone else digs druggy satanic bass metal!

It's not MDF but the A389 11th Anniversary Bash seems like fun...

https://gallery.mailchimp.com/58545da97c32fd0a047659782/images/32cfdd14-7e9a-44bb-93c9-ad015851790e.jpg

https://gallery.mailchimp.com/58545da97c32fd0a047659782/images/32cfdd14-7e9a-44bb-93c9-ad015851790e.jpg

Heidens Hart records has a dodgy-lookin runic sigil kinda logo and a lot of bands that ID as "pagan," so, y'know, possible nazi alert, but the two bands I've been listening to on their bandcamp page - Murwe and Mondovolland - 1) do not seem to be nsbm types and 2) are fuckin' really good

Murw's stuff is pretty cool! Thanks for that. The demo reminds me a bit of Ophthalamia, full length takes the oddly elaborate riffing style and commits more to a doom style.

catching the Decibel tour here in Ottawa in a few weeks - Voivod/Napalm Death/Exhumed/Iron Reagan/Black Crown Initiate. First proper metal show in a long long time.

Having a very power metal day today; started with the new Alpha Tiger (again), and am now checking out the new Battle Beast, with the new Blind Guardian on deck.

xpost that tour is awesome, but the Decibel tour is At The Gates + Converge + Vallenfyre, and they just added Pallbearer.

they're both Decibel tours, though sadly that one is not oming to Ottawa.

oh. ok.

hi

Hey back in September there was a bit of chatter about a Slagmaur release in the works ... thought it was supposed to be in '14, but that didn't happen AFAICT. Anyone know more?

i feel like they've been "finishing up" that album since 2013

According to their FB they're doing shows, with the last message about a new album from like October saying "it'll be out in the near future."

I want.

Of course the Brave Words article about it from January of 2013 says it'll be completed by Spring (of, I presume, 2013).

Just got the new Psycroptic. They're still tech-death, but they've added some melodic prog-core chugga-chugga that I'd describe as almost...Trivium-esque. I like it.

I liked them already, will check that out

this Stargazer album that came out in December is fucking great imo

yeah, that stargazer album's awesome. would have included it among my 2014 favorites if i'd heard it in time.

I still can't stop listening to spectral lore III

infinite dreamscape, no kidding

This could be fun.

http://www.relapse.com/bedemon
http://www.relapse.com/myspace/bed/bed_landingpage.jpg

The name was chosen as a portmanteau of two earlier suggested names, Demon and Behemoth.[11]

I was gonna guess it was either a contraction of "bed demon" or a verb similar to "bedevil".

I was thinking it was a Pokemon character that looked like a mattress

That's actually a reissue of the Black Widow release, I guess? Good to see anyway, it's good stuff if you like 70s Pentagram and don't mind raw recording.

i like the phrase "provocation to doom"

http://www.metalinjection.net/latest-news/amazon-has-over-3000-metal-hard-rock-albums-on-sale-for-only-5

love how sly & the family stone are in the metal section

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=s9_dnav_bw_ir12_c?_encoding=UTF8&bbn=2384464011&rh=i%3Adigital-music-album%2Cn%3A163856011%2Cn%3A!2334092011%2Cn%3A!2334154011%2Cn%3A2384464011%2Cp_n_feature_browse-bin%3A625150011%2Cn%3A625011011%2Cn%3A!2334154011%2Cn%3A!2334092011&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=merchandised-search-5&pf_rd_r=0F71YHPQZ92W2RQZDR03&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=2015969142&pf_rd_i=678551011

some albums appear to be free to prime members

wish this was in the UK

lol the goo goo dolls "hold me up" is in thrash & speed metal

Weren't they on Metal Blade once?

yeah for a while iirc. and sued them

I think it says "invocation to doom", so "provocation" is still up for grabs.

Doom without malice aforethought?

fuck that's a great shirt

http://kognitivtod.bandcamp.com/album/howls-from-the-void

I have no idea what the hell I'm listening to. The artist labels it "experimental black metal." To me it sounds like early Ween. Well, Ween when they let their goofiness slip and became cartoon prog wizards.

Of course the icing is that as I'm sitting here tranced out to the moons of Saturn my eyes focus for a moment on the little part of the bio that says the music was "conceived while reading [among others listed] Thomas Ligotti," my favorite living author and the philosopher on which much of True Detective's anti-natalist themes were based. True Detective, also of course, is the show I've only just begun watching this week. This music is not what I consider dark, however. I ... uh, I dunno. I feel an obsessive phase looming.

WEIRD.

For completion's sake, he also lists Laird Barron as a literary influence on his music, and while Barron was claimed by the writer behind True Detective to be the primary inspiration for the Rusty Cohle character's uh, impenetrably morose worldview, no one who listens to that dialogue can think it was anyone other than Ligotti -- but this is an academic argument I would need to have elsewhere.

This musical entity put out on album in January and three last year.

Sounds like rock with black metal vocals, maybe like a demetalled "Imaginary Sonicscape" era Sigh. I am looking at the dude's picture and imagining him demanding his friends call him Kognitiv Todd, though.

http://i.imgur.com/t6TzeqI.jpg

Now that I've briefly reread some of the True Detective influences saga, I'm reminded that Laird Barron was only one of several lit inspirations the writer reeled off. It was a little more complicated than I stated.

Also also the character was Rustin not Rusty. Heh.

Well this has all been rather mindfucky. Off to sleep with me.

.....never heard of ligotti before... according to wikipedia:

Ligotti collaborated with the musical group Current 93 on the albums In a Foreign Town, In a Foreign Land (1997, reissued 2002), I Have a Special Plan for This World (2000), This Degenerate Little Town (2001) and The Unholy City (2003), all released on David Tibet's Durtro label. Tibet has also published several limited editions of Ligotti's books on Durtro Press. Additionally, Ligotti played guitar on Current 93's contribution to the compilation album Foxtrot, whose proceeds went to the treatment of musician John Balance's alcoholism.[8]

........

Ligotti's an odd one. He's sort of a living Lovecraft protagonist post-insanity-inducing revelation -- only instead of mania or dementia it's nothing but definitive depression. I have a hard time recommending him because if you're of a certain mindset his work can create a rather unpleasant sediment in the bottom of your psyche which doesn't seem to go away. I've had his latest book sitting on my nightstand for months but haven't yet gathered the momentum to charge into it -- and it's like less than a hundred pages long. And again, he's my favorite writer. Can't say I have a relationship like that with any other.

The least controversial way to sum him up is as a modern Lovecraft, I guess. A lot of Nabokov, Cioran, even Borges in there, too. But below it all, Ligotti is less about the writing, as amazing and effective as it is, and more about nihilist philosophy.

And his collaborations with C93 have been interesting. Usually it's just writing or reciting his own stuff for Tibet's crazy music. He did have a series of songs that he played guitar and "sang" on (spoke, really) but they didn't do much for me. I think those were The Unholy City listed in the wiki.

I'm kind of glad metal musicians haven't tried too often to translate Ligotti into their genre of music, to be honest (unlike Lovecraft, who works well in the context). There was a two-volume graphic novelization of some of his stories and it was a disaster. I never even picked up the second one. Some things are better left intangible or at least subjective.

So, uh, yeah. Music. Continuing the I, Voidhanger love from last year's thread, here is the very weird Malhkebre. The music, if a little busy, is pretty standard second wave bm. The vocals ... aren't.

Which Ligotti books would you recommend?

Personally I think his first three collections are his best: Grimscribe, Songs of a Dead Dreamer, and Noctuary. Even they can feel a little archaic, even Victorian, though. His later stuff feels much more modern: My Work Is Not Yet Done and the later stories in Teatro Grottesco aren't as purple prosed and the former even takes the guise of a workplace massacre revenge story. Sort of. All of his stuff is "sort of."

His lone actual philosophical work is The Conspiracy Against the Human Race. I would ... avoid that one, unless you find yourself falling in love with his worldview. At that point, there's no turning back.

My only complaint about Ligotti is that edited some of his stories from the first three collections before they went to Kindle and reprint. He seems to think he's making them better but in some cases he's removing some of the more memorable moments. It's a strange tic of his, I guess.

oh and his interviews are always a blast.
http://www.amazon.com/Born-Fear-Interviews-Thomas-Ligotti/dp/1596066210

They're collected there but I'm pretty sure (and hoping) they're still widely available across the internet.

"my only complaint is that he* edited" his stories, should have said

dammit meant to use the non embed yt link; oh well, year's almost over

Really liking this new album by energetic Montana blackish metal band Martriden.

https://open.spotify.com/album/2iJRLtRjdGHqFySsnBUMP8

I was wondering if the Mgla guys were involved in Batushka. The drums have the same feel. Sounded great on first listen.

yea this batushka is killer, the chanting vox are absolutely *perfect* for this music!

Someone suggested it may be some guys from Polish band Hermh, who I'd never heard of. I still say there are some Mgla-isms in those rhythm guitars. Who knows, though.

I checked out a couple songs from Hermh and there were some liturgical sounding chants however. And the black metal vox were similar too.

Satan – Atom By Atom
King Heavy – King Heavy
Trixter Human Era
Cave Of Swimmers – Reflection
Vhöl – Deeper Than Sky
Black Space Riders – Refugeeum
Magister Templi – Into Duat
Melechesh – Enki
Helrunar – Niederkunfft
Ghost – Meliora
The Sword – High Country
Night Demon – Curse Of The Damned
Visigoth – The Revenant King
My Dying Bride – Feel The Misery
Myrkur – M
Sigh – Graveward
Raven – ExtermiNation
Crypt Sermon – Out Of The Garden
Heidevolk – Velua
Iron Maiden – The Book Of Souls

Oops, sorry left off the title. That was Rhapsody's top 20 metal albums of 2015.

That's Chuck Eddy's list, for what it's worth.
He doesn't post in this thread, I don't think.

that King Heavy is pretty great, the vocals especially, which I can't quite tell are serious...or ultra serious

http://doomcharts.com/2015/12/21/best-of-2015/

Some nice name-your-price atmoblack from Mexico

https://lluvia.bandcamp.com/album/eternidad-solemne

oh I wanted to see them a couple of weeks in Oakland but it didn't work out.

My Year in Metal, 2015
https://open.spotify.com/user/glennpmcdonald/playlist/59NtrREsm0x5Cmi7XyGuBj

My top 10 went like this:

1. Agent Fresco
2. Moonspell
3. Amberian Dawn
4. Panopticon
5. Imperia
6. Myrkur
7. Violet Cold
8. Nightwish
9. Obsequiae
10. Öxxö Xööx

And then 90 more, in associative order:

Shape Of Despair, Leprous, Amorphis, Leviathan, Enslaved, So Hideous, Draconian, Eldritch, Rie a.k.a. Suzaku, Halo, Gloryhammer, Kamelot, Baroness, Dream Theater, Avantasia, Primal Fear, Tau Cross, Elder, To/Die/For, Raaka-Aine, Månegarm, Korpiklaani, Wolfheart, Omnium Gatherum, Turmion Kätilöt, Blind Guardian, Malrun, Santa Cruz, Nergard, Amoral, Graveshadow, Tales Of Evening, Sirenia, Setanera, Xandria, Elyose, Elferya, Dalriada, Triosphere, Battle Beast, Dark Sarah, Embassy Of Silence, Anfel, Crimson Sun, End of the Dream, Against Myself, Coronatus, Elvellon, Symphonic Destiny, Head Phones President, Christian Mistress, Dead Sara, Lucifer, Lotus Thief, Lethe, Imperial Triumphant, Monasteries, Sanzu, Black Tongue, Sunn 0))), Osculum Infame, Heretical, Entrails, Morphinist, Aetherius Obscuritas, A Forest Of Stars, Regarde Les Hommes Tomber, Vattnet Viskar, Drudkh, Kampfar, Tsjuder, Whispered, Mastery, Shining, Bosse-de-Nage, Cradle Of Filth, Finsterforst, Thy Catafalque, Negative Voice, Sannhet, Martriden, Kill The Thrill, Deafheaven, Envy, Cronometrobudú, Saurom, Mokoma, Kauan, Widek, Divides

fuuuuck this Imperial Triumphant

FUUUUUUUUCK

should be fuuuuck, this Imperial Triumphant

Amazing record, don't know why the RYM average is just barely over 3

So there's a song on the YouTubes - Amon Amarth doing "Viking Christmas."
Except that I cannot find it as part of their discography and people online say it isn't them.

Anyone know anything about this?

It's not them. Doesn't sound anything like them.

Thanks for clearing that up... Do you know who it is?

No idea. It's weird to think someone would consider Amon Amarth famous enough to record a parody Christmas song under their name. But in fact, there are two now:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDcu87hyIb8

The singer on that one sounds a little more like Johan, except he's German (which you can hear most clearly on the chorus).

So sometimes I go stupid and I bought this Black Tongue album "The Unconquerable Dark" based on a couple of samples I heard in the store; to me it sounds like sludgy, mildly proggy, kinda djenty kinda doomy stuff with an overwrought vocalist doing, like, EVERY extreme vocalist thing he can think of. He reminds me a bit of Desalvo from Cryptopsy, actually. I get home and apparently these dudes are considered "beatdown hardcore" but call themselves (sigh) doomcore. So are these guys part of some subgenre of hardcore I'm unaware of?

Beatdown is definitely a thing.

http://everynoise.com/engenremap-beatdown.html

ha played 4 bands on that link, and if you had told me before that they were not only the same band, but samples from 4 parts of the same song, I would have believed you

I believe both of your posts. I guess I'm more curious as to whether some subgenre has mutated into discordant prog-sludge...

that's so weird

how could there be like, that many bands i have never heard of who are part of a subgenre i've never heard of that is THAT CLOSE to things i have

lol black tongue, I like that one in small doses too, I put it on to do dishes sometimes

Maybe it's just the mood for head-nodding music that I'm in but the more I listen to Enki the more I think it should've found a place on my year end list. That guy's riffs, especially in the build-up beginning of every song, are just out of this world. And those rhythms -- forget about sitting still when jamming this thing.

Have they even had a single bad song on their last four albums? I feel like Melechesh is gonna end up alongside bands like The Chasm and Anata, appreciated by a lot of people but still not really at the recognition level they deserve for what they're doing.

Fuckin' "Multiple Truths." When they slow things down to that serpentine drone thing, like "Ghouls of Ninevah," I pretty much go to a place no other metal band takes me these days. We need more sexy beats in the netal.

Er, ok, all done I think. Roll my old clattering bones into 2016 please.

netal = *metal

The Beast in the Nettles sounds like a Derleth or Howard story title.

But, please, Gervase, pray close the shades before I relate my tale. It's those nettles... I can't bear to see them, they fill me with a dread redolent of the chill a soul feelsin the last throes of death. Those awful, sting-y nettles!

Spoil that shit!

spoiler* even

Goodbye, Rolling Metal Thread 2015! You were a good timekiller, a fruitful giver of good music, and a fun place to hang out. My favorite thread on ILM. Looking forward to 2016!

well im not starting the new one

Something I posted on Facebook under the title of "10 Great Metal Albums of 2015", although I would probably try to work in King Heavy if I redid it now:

10) Christian Mistress - To Your Death
Fairly straightforward hard rock with twin guitar leads reminiscent of Wishbone Ash and a unique vocal presence in singer Christine Davis.
9) Aevangelist - Enthrall to the Void of Bliss
Discordant, atmospheric black metal featuring unintelligible guttural vocals, churning guitars, and creative use of a harp.
8) Elder - Lore
A melodic prog-metal odyssey featuring five tracks all over 10 minutes long that somehow don’t overstay their welcome.
7) KEN Mode - Success
Arguable whether this is metal, the vocals code as post-hardcore to me, but either way a righteous rocking slab of anger, negativity and irony.
6) Dodheimsgard - A Umbra Omega
Kind of an indescribable maximalist prog-black-metal suite with over-the-top theatrical vocals.
5) Kadavar - Berlin
Another fairly straightforward hard rock album, this time a power trio, with solid songcraft and winningly understated hooks.
4) Satan - Atom by Atom
Don’t be fooled by the name, these guys are more Richard Dawkins than Aleister Crowley lyrically, and don’t miss this non-stop barrage of catchy speed-metal riffs.
3) Mare Infinitum - Alien Monolith God
A unique death-doom-prog-metal sci-fi odyssey, reminiscent of classic-era Opeth for its melodic inventiveness and alternation of clean and guttural vocals.
2) Ghost - Meliora
As enjoyable and slickly-produced an off-beat occult progressive pop metal album as you’ll likely hear this year.
1) Tribulation - The Children of the Night
A seemingly oil-and-water pairing of guttural growls and melodic yet understated classic psych instrumentation that somehow gels into an atmospheric nocturnal journey that was one of the year’s most compelling listens.

Rolling Metal 2016