Rolling Metal Thread 2009

Although it came out in 2008, I finally found a copy of D.X. Ferris's 33 1/3 book on Reign In Blood this past Saturday. Read it from cover to cover on Sunday and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Also picked up the Masters of Reality book by J. Darnielle but didn't realize it was fiction. Should have read the back before buying it, but I was so excited to finally see these books in a Canadian store that I couldn't help myself. These two books and a few choice used scores (the rare Pentagram comp Human Hurricane and Thin Lizzy's Fighting) made the trip to Toronto worthwhile.

Well, if it's any consolation, the Master Of Reality book is supposed to be amazing.

It's highly entertaining and very well written. But don't expect to learn anything about Black Sabbath from it. Even basic facts are distorted (the narrator assumes Ozzy is the lyricist...).

Well, in the mid-80s, didn't all us metal kids think Ozzy wrote all his lyrics? Of course, we know better now.

Well, if it's any consolation, the Master Of Reality book is supposed to be amazing.

It is!!!!! For goodness sake, get it at once. I like what Matos said, John's book deserves a place alongside The Catcher in the Rye.

The Slayer book delivers what it promises, but parts bugged me. Like how he places more emphasis on the album's hardcore crossover success than the actual impact on the metal community.

It's weird you have trouble finding the 33 1/3series, Sean, we have an oustanding indie bookstore chain out west that is always on top of everythnig Contiuum puts out. And they stock Decibel!

Re: Metal Blade, I think that's only a Canada thing as I haven't received anything today except an offer to download the new Cattle Decapitation record. And Outburn sent me a physical copy of the new Destroy Destroy Destroy for review. Unfortunately the packaging isn't nearly as entertaining as Devour the Power's ( though the album is better).

so uh

GAAHL CAME OUT OF THE CLOSET?!?!?!?!?!!

I think sexual orientation has very little to do with why I do not want to be trapped in a closet with Gaahl.

But, you know, cue the Sodom and Gomorgoroth puns anyway...

it's in the new terrorizer

why must he be paired with dani filth for an interview at this, his most cred time in history

(never mind, we all know why: TERRORIZER-SPONSORED DOUBLE BILL)

Coming out of the closet is pretty black metal!

i think it's pretty tough and awesome of him

he's always been in my top 3 bm dudes

would definitively NOT kick it with, though

There is nothing more satanic than gay sex!

I BROKE THE GAAHL STORY IN ROLLING METAL 2008

nobody ever listens to me, i might as well be leonard cohen record.

no, wait, it was the gorgoroth c or d thread.

yeah, i saw it on there today!

fig'd it wasn't NEWS news as terrorizer were like "so, how are ppl reacting to your gayness"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/jan/02/saxon-rock-music

I missed Saxon supporting Motörhead last month, irritatingly -- got there just as they were finishing. No idea whether I'd have enjoyed them, but I think seeing Saxon is something everyone should strive to do at least once in life.

just like everyone needs to vote in the ilx metal poll once in their life ;)

Ah, dude, genre polls: not for me. I'll vote in the main one but that's all. Sorry.

(Also: I didn't listen to nearly enough metal last year anyway, so it'd be a skewed vote.)

heh there's 267 albums nominated. I bet you've heard a good few of them.

Great NWOBHM article. That new (27th?! I make it 20th, but whatever) Saxon album is also pretty good, which I find kind of alarming as I hadn't paid any attention to them since loving Strong Arm of the Law in 1980.

I locked my 2008 lists at the end of the year, but have already found one 2008 metal album since then that probably would have made it: Monuments by Brave. DC indie progressive-metal (in the song-oriented sense, not the 18-minute wank-out sense) band with a very good female singer. It's on the 2008 poll-list, so somebody noticed it while it was still current.

Oh glenn just make an exception for my poll please :) Help me out here. If everyone votes I wont need to bug everyone and roxy will be happier if i stop. :)

You meant "grimly", not "glenn". I already voted!

haha so you did

but yeah the more votes i receive the happier roxy can be. do it for roxy!

One or 2 people couldnt skew the vote anyway simon, so dont worry.

I have a few mates who still go see saxon. I know one guy who even ran the scottish fanclub.

I locked my 2008 lists at the end of the year, but have already found one 2008 metal album since then that probably would have made it: Monuments by Brave. DC indie progressive-metal (in the song-oriented sense, not the 18-minute wank-out sense) band with a very good female singer.

There's an album I didn't investigate soon enough. She's one of the more tasteful female metal singers you'll ever come across, and the songwriting is strong, in a restrained, Mandylion kind of way. Plus the electric violin is kinda cool.

The Wino solo record isn't surprising at all, considering the source, but it's also about as good as you would expect, considering the source.

Has the man done anything that could be considered outright crap? I can't think of anything off the top of my head.

xpost a perfect summary of that album. (It is good and all but yeah.)

So the legal hoops I had to jump through to hear three new tracks by a certain band, oh, let's call them Shmannibal Shmorpse, was a new experience.

I love Shmannibal Shmorpse! Especially Shombs of the Shmutilated.

And Shmutchered at Shmirth.

Yeah, but what new tracks! I mean, who even knew George played the bassoon?

yeah but spill beans AB! is it good?

One thing I hate about samplers is how it's impossible to tell what the album's like. But the three tracks are excellent, pretty much what you'd expect. One track's a swift excercise in the usual brootality (with some insane O'Brien leads), another's a fast, groovy two-minute thrasher, and another (my fave of the three, the title track) is a creepy-riffin', four and a half minute slow crawler, total old school CC. Or, I mean SS.

And Rutan's one of the best things to ever happen to these guys.

read that as "the usual botany"

so there's a new autopsy single coming out? whoa.

Interesting line-up for the Scion Rock Fest, Atlanta, Feb. 28 --

Mastodon
Neurosis
High on Fire
Boris
1349
Cryptopsy
Torche
Nachtmystium
Wolves in the Throne Room
Baroness
Harvey Milk
Kylesa
Zoroaster
Withered
Krallice
Toxic Holocaust
Skeletonwitch
Rwake
A Storm of Light
Warbringer
Salome
Suidakra
Tyr
Alestorm

That may be one of the best top to bottom festival lineups I've ever seen. Although Krallice were kind of boring when I saw them.

With apologies to the spectacular Maryland deathfeat lineup, I think I'd rather see this one.

Deathfest. Urps.

Totally approve of this Century Media 2009 "Maidens of Metal" calendar, I have to say, even if I never heard of any of these ladies' bands, and even if a few get repeated on different months. (So...what do Luna Mortis sound like?)

Luna Mortis is sort of Into Eternity meets Symphony X meets the Gathering. Melodic prog stuff, tastefully done, with a singer who goes from Anneke van Giersbergen to Sabine Classen. Some folks here were lukewarm, but I like the new album.

So...what do Luna Mortis sound like?

Boringly competent.

Since when was metal being tasteful a good thing? =p

http://www.metalelegance.com/

Results 1 - 10 of about 1,040,000 for: tasteful metal

(The first result is, of course, about Dragonforce.)

S mortiis hasn't done a genesis p-orridge then?

haha since when could Dragonforce be called anything other than utter shitetasteful?

'So you'd like to...Get into some REALLY brutal metal that's still tasteful?'

I've created this guide, for people who think as I once thought; that death metal was nothing but a bunch of monkey noise. Of course, I had good reason, being that the only band's I'd heard were Cannibal Corpse and Six Feet Under.

I was just about to link to that! Not quite sure I would call Dying Fetus tasteful...

Results 1 - 100 of about 136,000 for monkey noise metal. (0.40 seconds

Atlanta lineup = [scanners.gif]. Wish it were somewhere closer to home.

Anyway, you haven't done much to convince me that tasteful metal is a good thing.

By tasteful, I mean prog metal that's disciplined enough not to fly off into either boring, Dream Theater-style circle-jerking or over-the-top operatic silliness. I tend to prefer a little restraint in my prog metal. BTBAM being one exception...

yeah, do you mean tasteless in subject matter or what jeff?

In whatever. I'm not picky.

so you think any music made in the genre of metal should lack taste in every respect

I never said that. Metal should certainly taste delicious!

then i have lots of complaints

I'm not saying metal can't be tasteful, but it's a quality one associates more with, say, smooth jazz or soft rock.

yeah people really associate shit like kenny g and foreigner with "taste"

I'm not saying that they are enjoyed by people with good taste (although Foreigner are pretty awesome), I'm saying that they are tasteful, both in image and music.

Foreigner are pretty awesome

And also not "soft rock."

but dude they aren't

(xpost)

unless you are just taking "tasteful" to mean "bland"

ok foreigner is a bad example. how about the super-tasteful sounds of air supply then?

They certainly show musical restraint.

tasteful

adjective
1. having or showing or conforming to good taste [ant: tasteless]
2. free from what is tawdry or unbecoming; "a neat style"; "a neat set of rules"; "she hated to have her neat plans upset" [syn: neat]

a lot of that shit is pretty unbecoming imo

anyway big deal if we want different things from metal

but to me something like a blaze in the northern sky is my idea of completely tasteful, musically speaking

My Christ[sic]mas present to myself came in the mail yesterday: one of the last few copies of True Norwegian Black Metal. I've only had time to unwrap it, page through it irreverentially, and then hide it from my one-and-a-half-year-old again, but I'm already totally blown away by it. All photo books should be like this. I mean, with pictures of Gaahl standing around outside his parents' 8'x8' shack in the middle of the winter. And the size of a coffee table.

Got the second album by Resistant Culture in the mail today. It came out back in October, but it's basically self-released (Ever heard of Seventh Generation Records? Me either) so it was only by checking out their website that I knew of its existence. They're really good; a Native American grind/D-beat band from L.A. that throws some Injun chanting and flutes and stuff (and spoken samples from pissed-off AIM types) into the mix. Vocalist Tony Rezhawk was also the frontman on Darker Days Ahead, the Terrorizer reunion/comeback album, and Jesse Pintado (Terrorizer/Napalm Death) played guitar on RC's first album, Welcome To Reality.

Something tells me that the above CD will blow that last Tomahawk abomination out of the proverbial water.

My Christmas present to myself came in the mail yesterday: one of the last few copies of True Norwegian Black Metal.

I ordered it with a gift card last week, but they ran out! So I'm very anxiously awaiting the next shipment.

My 2008 wrap-up: http://www.furia.com/page.cgi?type=twas&id=twas0510

Feel free to skip the non-metal parts if they're too scary. Or not scary enough, or whatever.

Cool read. I haven't heard that Nightwish track you mention...I'll have to track that one down.

so there's a new autopsy single coming out? whoa.

wtf

if they fuck this one up I will be pissed off

oh ok never mind

In September 2008, members of Autopsy briefly reunited in the studio to record two new tracks for the special edition of their 1989 classic debut Severed Survival, which is due for release on February 23, 2009.[2] The tracks, marking the band's first recording since 1995, will be included on the reissue's second disc.

J0hn are you voting in the ilx metal poll? it finishes in a few days

John D. is directly responsible for the most metal non-metal thing on my list, and indirectly responsible for the metal thing that that's paired with...

can a dude live xpost

only once YOU vote too roxy!

no I am not voting in that poll, the ground rules confused me so I drank a beer

:(

You only have to choose and rank 25 albums from the nominations list and send that to the email provided

and the groundrules are the same ones from the big ilx poll

which I also did not vote in

sorry man not hating or nothing OK just ranking 25 albums - you gotta understand I am not a big fan of ordered music lists anyway (I know this makes me a freak on a music board), I hand 'em in faithfully but I am not really into 'em and when they're aggregate WHO IS THE WINNER I am just...that is not my thing you know?

kerr im gonna let you in on a little secret

when you remind people to do something 900x more often than not they're just gonna say fuck it

No problem. I'd be grateful if you (and others) did vote but if you don't that's fine. No worries.
It's just all designed to make things easier for the results to be tabulated. It's time consuming as it is.
x-posts

however here is my list of all the new autopsy 7"s I am gonna buy
1. new autopsy 7"

Pfunk: I'll do album- and voter-similarity analysis if you send me the ballots. And if that gives anybody a non-ranking incentive for voting...

Thanks! (I gave a fuller reply on the other thread)

Great essay, Glenn. I hadn't read any of your music writing up to this point, but I think now I'm going to have to read all of it.

Thanks! Although as you'll discover, "all of it" may be a little more than you want...

OK, I gave up on the new Saxon before getting through the second listen. Too much of it is half-assed AC/DC, and I'm not a fan of whole-assed AC/DC to begin with.

Ha ha, I like it -- better half-assed AC/DC than AC/DC are making now, as far as I can tell. Plus, one of the AC/DC-like songs starts out like "Panama" by Van Halen. And "Slow Lane Blues" and "Protect Yourselves" are more threatening -- three-quarters-assed Rose Tattoo, almost. "Demon Sweeney Todd" is a speedy NWOBHM style rocker, and album ends with a thick and inexorably grooving bottleneck boogie vamp ("Coming Home"). A few clunkified slogs in between, true, but also a couple of plaintive 40-second interludes for the deep-thinkers (i.e., "The Letter" and "Premonition In D Minor"). So I'm on its side.

George said the new AC/DC was the best album they had made in years

That's not saying a whole lot. (But yeah, I know George likes it. I liked maybe a third of it, but found most of it hard to twiddle my thumbs through.)

I don't think its had many votes in the ilx poll so far.

I'm intrigued by the unusually strong word of mouth the Saxon's been getting. Their last one didn't do anything for me. I haven't liked a new album by them in, well, ever. Remember Rock the Nations?

They got a feature in Terrorizer as well as in The Guardian.

Thumbs down from me, and I wanted to like it.

This BBC News item is mildly amusing:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7826717.stm

aww.

the father/son relationship briefly touched on in that video reminded me of lars and his dad in 'some kind of monster'. kinda lame drummer son outshined by an awesome dad.

Saxon's album will
get a good haiku review
in new Metal Edge

Re AC/DC

I don't think its had many votes in the ilx poll so far.

I would be surprised if there were any since it's not in the nominations list!

New Khanate has leaked, for some reason I thought they'd broken up.

Khanate broke up in 2006. This new disc was recorded during the Capture & Release sessions; the band improvised a bunch of stuff in the studio, and then they waited three years for Alan Dubin to get around to recording vocals. Which is sort of why they broke up. (I was at James Plotkin's apartment on Friday interviewing him about something else, and this subject came up. I have not heard the new record, though.)

OK, listening to Clean Hands Go Foul now. It's fucking amazing. It may be Khanate's greatest achievement. The first track sounds like Fushitsusha, for fuck's sake. And the last track (which I haven't gotten to yet) is 33 minutes long!

Got a download link for the new Kylesa last night, but unfortunately the queue page it took me to was empty. Hoping to get that straightened out, I'm anxious to hear it.

This probably belongs in the last thread, but I finally got around to the new Wetnurse thanks to Seventh Rule's big 5 year anniversary sale over the holidays. You guys were right, awesome awesome album.

I'm looking forward to new Kylesa

Adrien, I was just reading the new Decibel and I saw your Architect/Architects UK review. Thought it was interesting that my similar combined review for Phil drew some very similar conclusions.

Ha, that'll happen, especially considering how great one album is and how awful the other is. Gotta say, I think front to back, the Darkthrone issue is the best Decibel to come out in quite a while.

Meanwhile, I'm still obsessing over the incredible new Cobalt album. Along with the Neurosis, Swans, and crust influences, I kept hearing siliarities to Tool popping up every so often, but I wasn't too sure what an underground black metal band would think if I started mentioning Tool in the interview, but whaddya know, if Erik doesn't start bringing up Tool in our conversation. Gotta love any band that's willing to piss off the USBM scenesters.

Similarities, I mean.

i skimmed the darkthrone article while killin time in the record store yesterday; looked liked a really good read.

Just got a Play MPE link for the new Mastodon. Apparently I can stream it five times before it self-destructs or whatever.

I got my shipment from Seventh Rule recently, too. Good thing I like the Wetnurse album so much, as thing other stuff I sprung for isn't faring so well. Light Yourself on Fire and Plague Bringer both make the classic judgment-error of putting long dialog samples in their songs, ensuring that I get sick of them almost instantly. Still pondering Akimbo and Indian...

Let us know how the Mastodon is! Metal labels are getting pretty good at the cloak-and-dagger advances...early leaks of the big albums are really decreasing.

I enjoyed Plague Bringer and the Indian. Still wondering what the big deal is about Akimbo, however.

listening to the new Buried Inside. what a fucking great band. kinda hate the vocal style but it doesn't really matter, the music is so wondeful.

still, would 100% buy an instrumental version of this album and/or a version with a non-boring vocal approach

Yeah, they really improved on this one, it's like Ballou forced the drummer to calm the hell down. The lyrics are so pompous it's almost comical, but they obviously mean well.

Real-time notes on the new Mastodon:

Oblivion – Slow ominous start, not the usual roar out of the gate like the last three records. Gets heavy pretty quick, but it’s more of a High on Fire vibe (“To Cross The Bridge”) than earlier Mastodon stuff. Tempo doubles before vocals come in. Vocals very clean, reminiscent of stoner rock bands I can’t remember exactly. Lots of twang in second vocalist’s voice. Guitar solos slow, lots of sustain – this is an arty hard rock song a la Baroness, not a metal song. It doesn’t get Mastodon-y until after the guitar solo, when a big deep crunching riff comes in very briefly. Then there’s another chorus. This is not the kind of adrenaline rush you wanna open your album with, on first listen. It kinda lurches along like second-tier Neil Young & Crazy Horse, but obviously played with tons more skill and technique.

Divinations – Starts with banjo of all things, but gets fast right away and Brann Dailor is whipping the shit out of his kit like we expect. Vocals nasal and piercing, kinda sounds like David Thomas of Pere Ubu. Clean chorus, which is weird. Then back into David Thomas-ism for the verses. Lots of nice guitar interplay on this one, and some very cool bass action. Over too soon at 3 ½ minutes.

Quintessence – Again, more Mastodon-ish than the first track. Don’t know why they opened with that one. Vocals super-nasal. Rhythmically tricky. So far, not a single song as instantly awesome as “Blood & Thunder,” but also nothing as boring as some of the lowlights of Blood Mountain.

The Czar – This song is 11 minutes long. There’s some cool distorted organ at the beginning, which is replaced by a super-repetitive guitar figure of the type they’ve done a zillion times before. Vocals almost Ozzy-esque, very keening. Song keeps shifting, but never slows down or gets ponderous or pretentious. It’s just variations on an intricate, fast-paced rockin’ theme. Guitar solo preceded by more Ozzy-style vocalizin’ over piano and electric guitar. Man, this really sounds like late period solo Ozzy. What the fuck?

Ghost of Karelia – Another half-familiar riff quickly replaced by high-speed Mastodon intricacy. The core riff of this song sounds copped from early 80s Metallica – I think it’s something from Ride the Lightning. This song has no chorus. It does have really cool analog synth drones, though.

Crack the Skye – Anthemic in a very 70s AOR way. Starts out sounding like Bad Company – acoustic guitar shadowed by electric and Dailor comes in with a big thumpeta-thumpeta-thumpeta tom roll sure to get arenas pumpin’. When it gets heavy, though, it gets really heavy. This is the best song so far – too bad it’s number six of seven. Slows down for a very classic rock solo, and Mellotron and treated vocals. Wow, this is the Sound of the Seventies, for real – none of that imaginary 70s of the mind that lesser stoner bands do. This is some wayback machine shit.

The Last Baron – This song is 13 minutes long. Second half is all crazy dual guitar action. No solos per se, just prog-meets-the-Allman-Brothers riff frenzy. Vocalist sounds like Pat Todd from the Lazy Cowgirls. Go, Dailor, go! Okay, the end slows down into drones and sustained guitar notes and…now it’s over.

Seven tracks, 50 minutes, no long stretches of silence followed by dumb jokes, no guest spots that I noticed. I didn’t love it right away, but I like it a lot and it’s definitely better than Blood Mountain (have I mentioned lately how much I hate Blood Mountain?).

The title track looks interesting.

I got my shipment from Seventh Rule recently, too. Good thing I like the Wetnurse album so much, as thing other stuff I sprung for isn't faring so well. Light Yourself on Fire and Plague Bringer both make the classic judgment-error of putting long dialog samples in their songs, ensuring that I get sick of them almost instantly. Still pondering Akimbo and Indian...

I've only listened to the Wetnurse and Akimbo albums from my shipment. I really liked the Akimbo. Liked the Indian too, but I got that a few months back on a whim. Still have the Plague Bringer, Sweet Cobra, and The Makai to hear.

New Cobalt is pretty badass like Abe says. Time will tell if I like it more than 'Eater of Birds'. I think BM dorks will probably get annoyed. Like the first thing I put on this morning was the new Tombs album 'Winter Hours', which is also pretty badass, and between the two there's very few signifiers which definitively say 'this one is the leftfield BM album' and 'this one is the epic crusty HC album'. Which is cool, to me

If an album by a BM band makes BM geeks mad, chances are I'm going to like it a lot...

Lazy blastbeat zing crew http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/jan/16/popandrock

(this is quite readable actually thanks mainly to being chiefly made up of quotes from people who actually have an interest in the subject. I thought Atilla, as in Billy Joel's band, were widely repped for by enthusiasts of proto-metallers, rather than being considered "famously dreadful", though.)

jon/via/chicago, do you ever go in metal haven at damen and montrose? i live pretty near it and every six months i go in there and wander around for 15 minutes and never buy anything

I've listened to that Atilla album and do not remember it having blastbeats on it!

Don't get this bit either:

Scandinavian bands point towards a Swedish anarchopunk band called Asocial
I've got the Asocial discog CD and it's your standard Discharge influenced hardcore, don't get why they'd pick that band over Anti-Cimex or Mob 47 etc.

xpost

jon/via/chicago, do you ever go in metal haven at damen and montrose? i live pretty near it and every six months i go in there and wander around for 15 minutes and never buy anything

Not as often as I'd like. Which is probably for the best,as I usually end up overwhelmed and wanting to buy 100 different things when I go there. But the selection is fantastic and the owner guy is super friendly once he sees you are likely to buy stuff from him.

According to some sources, the blastbeat was invented not by a hardcore band in the 80s, but by either free jazz drummer Sunny Murray on a 1965 recording with Albert Ayler or Attila, a famously dreadful late 60s psychedelic band who dressed as Attila the Hun and were later dismissed as "bullshit" by their keyboard player, Billy Joel.

uhh, what?

i mean, not really psychedelic, who cares what billy joel thinks, and no blastbeats.

cool ... i mainly just have no idea what i'm looking for when i go in there, though i think i went in there looking for the wetnurse album pretty soon after it came out and couldn't find it

I've got the Asocial discog CD and it's your standard Discharge influenced hardcore, don't get why they'd pick that band over Anti-Cimex or Mob 47 etc.

Yeah this isn't something I'm well versed in but these Asocial guys would be fairly second tier in this context amirite? Maybe this is as specific as one part of one song. The idea of it being 'invented' by Sunny Murray, presumably just by virtue of him being good and crazy enough to play at that speed, when no-one has ever made a link between him and fast HC/proto-grind bands, is sort of problematic but I think that's a question of semantics

Well, if nothing else, that article inspired me to download the Attila album. I don't hear any blast beats yet. Lots of ELP/Edgar Winter keyboard fuckery, though.

Everybody knows that the blastbeat was invented by cavemen! There are no recordings of it, only cave paintings!

Voting has ended on the metal poll. Last call for those that wish to do blurbs. If you do please send them to ilxmetalalbums2008 at googlemail.com

Hope to start posting results on monday.

wait is the darkthrone decibel the current issue?

Yep. Just picked mine up on the newsstand yesterday.

god my town is so behind

Okay, I just spent two hours poring over True Norwegian Black Metal...I knew it would be coffee table book size, but I still didn't expect it to be so huge. The sheer size of the book makes it all the more absorbing, you're just swimming in the images. The text is very well written, plus the archived material in the back is amazing.

Saw Septic Flesh, Satyricon and Cradle of Filth last night in Worcester. My first time seeing any of them.

Septic Flesh was outmanned by themselves. The stuff from Communion requires so many elements they didn't have with them (orchestra, guest vocalists, etc.) that they were reduced to playing along to backing tracks. Combined with the standard first-of-three-bands' predicament of being basically perched on the front of the stage with everybody else's gear behind you, and the standard bad first-of-three-bands sound quality, this left the performance feeling somewhere between a concert and a belligerent press conference. Love the band, bought the shirt, but I don't know what I would have made of them if I didn't already know what their records actually sound like.

Satyricon were great. Again, nothing much to look at (Satyr's short and slicked haircut kind of makes him look like a younger Harry Dean Stanton, and the rest of the band look like the victims of a Muppets layoff), but their sparer sound met the slightly better second-of-three sound-mix halfway, and Satyr stalked around with his trident mic-stand, grimmacing during songs and thanking everybody with great earnestness in between them.

But it was Cradle of Filth's show. The sound was amazing, the musical performances were manic, and Dani walked (in enormous boots) his distinctive line between cartoon and chaos. Spectacle overblown enough to laugh at happily, but stirring enough to also appreciate as ceremony. About halfway through I realized what I've been doing wrong with their new album: I've been playing it WAY WAY TOO QUIETLY.

Nearly froze solid while walking one block back to my car. Which has, thankfully, heated seats. How metal is that?

Meanwhile, I'm still obsessing over the incredible new Cobalt album. Along with the Neurosis, Swans, and crust influences, I kept hearing siliarities to Tool popping up every so often

^^^so OTM - track two has this really great piercing wash of guitar that Tool do really well. In fact the whole song sounds like something off 'Aenima' but gnarlier.

New Stinking Lizaveta sounds good so far, seems to be more psychedelic and less doom riff-centric than past albums

I want to hear new Cobalt. When is it out?

Says Mar 17 here

there's an ad in the latest decibel for a symphonies of sickness deluxe reissue on earache, due out a week ago. the earache site and amazon don't seem to have it. anybody know the deal?

I got one in the mail a couple of months ago - it still sounded like shit.

Listening to the new Mastodon again this morning. It's still weird, but it's growing on me, which Blood Mountain never did. I think after two or three more listens I might really like it.

The Khanate album is crushing and so much better than Capture & Release. top 10 album of 2009 for sure.

Really liked the new Mastodon on first listen. I agree that the first track isn't the adrenaline rush that "Blood and Thunder" was, but it isn't nearly as adrenaline rush of an album as Leviathan. I really like chunks of "The Czar," something about the dreaminess is really appealing to me. "Crack the Skye" is totally awesome 70s prog, although I did get more of a 70s prog vibe from the whole thing. I feel like it's more focused then Blood Mountain. Not what I would call "mellow," but I suppose it is by Mastodon's standards... First impression: not as good as Leviathan, better than Blood Mountain.

The unedited Fenriz interview on the Deciblog is GRREAT.

http://decibelmagazine.com/index.php/2009/01/16/fenriz-a-transcript-in-full/

So we've moved from retro thrash to retro NWOBHM: I just downloaded the new Earache compilation Heavy Metal Killers, which is 10 tracks by bands trying to sound like Di'Anno-era Iron Maiden. The only band I know of already is Enforcer, whose Into the Night album on Heavy Artillery last year was pretty great.

Cauldron used to be the very awesome Goat Horn.

http://www.comicvsaudience.net/images/flow_heavymetal.jpg

I would paste the image, but it's huge. Funny stuff. Flow chart of metal band names.

I just want to share this poster, since it warmed my heart
http://img.skitch.com/20081121-c6nq32xbkkkhtjcibr1i8sqrt2.jpg

Not new, but I've been listening to Enslaved's Mardraum again, since it just got reissued and I realized I'd mostly only heard it in the middle of long Enslaved-catalog listening. I'm not getting on that Vertebrae-sucks-the-old-stuff-is-great bandwagon, but if anybody saws off the old-stuff-is-great half and, I guess, makes it into some kind of wheelbarrow, then I'm up for being carted around in it. This thing is awesome. Fierce, sudden, rousing. Had it on while my 1.5-year-old daughter and I were having breakfast the other morning, and she was doing some serious spoon-waving, which is what you do instead of head-banging if you're belted into a booster seat. So: cross-generational appeal!

To borrow a page from Chuck, here's what I've been enjoying in 2009 so far (that I can think of):

Mastodon - Crack the Skye
Ross the Boss - New Metal Leader
Kreator - Hordes of Chaos
Destroy Destroy Destroy - Battle Sluts
Bible of the Devil - Freedom Metal
Wino - Punctuated Equilibrium
God Forbid - Earthsblood

Wino's disc had me about three tracks in ("Release Me" is awesome), and then lost me. But Ross the Boss rules, of course.

I'm still all about Cobalt, Cannibal Corpse, and Saros these days. But the new Cattle Decapitation is a huge surprise...I didn't think they had something like this in them.

Just got Viking Skull's Doom, Gloom, Whiskey & Heartarche

it is seriously awesome btw

I just heard the Leathermouth leak (it's a side project from My Chemical Romance apparently), and I think it's metal. It really just made me cry and gave me a huge headache. But I thought I'd share cause there's so little I get to contribute to this group over the year. Oh, I liked the track "This Song Is About Being Attacked By Monsters," mostly cause it - like - really sounds like a song about being attacked by monsters.

If I liked the Leathermouth thing enough to mention it anywhere I'd've put it on rolling punk, I guess, although there are a fair few metal riffs on it. It reminded me of Every Time I Die to a point, so not expecting it to be listened to by that many people in their 20s, MCR connection notwithstanding.

NP: 'Ravenous' by Wolf. New on Century Media. Not heard them before. Pretty good as after-the-fact Maiden/Priest/non-fruity power metal stylings come these days, I think

Any thoughts on the new Bakerton Group album, El Rojo? I'm still fairly torn, leaning towards not being a very big fan, but every now and then they'll tear in a particularly proggy section that snaps me back into it. I think getting Wiberg on loan from Opeth really helps, otherwise this would be too bluesy for my tastes.

Divinations – Starts with banjo of all things, but gets fast right away and Brann Dailor is whipping the shit out of his kit like we expect. Vocals nasal and piercing, kinda sounds like David Thomas of Pere Ubu. Clean chorus, which is weird. Then back into David Thomas-ism for the verses. Lots of nice guitar interplay on this one, and some very cool bass action. Over too soon at 3 ½ minutes.

Good song, this one. Very clean, typical of O'Brien. Purists aren't going to like the lack of that massive, sludgy tone that Mastodon has co-opted so well.

"I've been listening to Enslaved's Mardraum again"

This is the album that convinced me that I LOVE ENSLAVED. Great to hear about the reissue as my Mardraum has been loved to the point where it skips!

that middle period enslaved stuff is sooo much better than the last few albums.

I think my favorite Enslaved would have to be Below The Lights. So epic!

Right now I'm listening to Krisiun's Southern Storm and thinking it got seriously slept-on by a lot of year-end list-makers, me included.

Haven't heard the new Wolf, but am eager to do so. I like them a lot.

Oh, and the new Cannibal Corpse album is fucking great.

yeah, southern storm's come on shuffle a few times in the last week or so. i always look to see who it is and think i probably ought to give it a good thorough listen. heavy, fast, solid death metal.

Yeah, Wolf is one of the better retro-metal bands out there. Though I do prefer Evil Star to their last one, which was a little less consistent, but the new song is very promising:
http://www.myspace.com/wolfheavymetal

Also, Wolf's version of "A Dangerous Meeting" is the greatest Fate cover ever.

New Altar of Plagues on Profound Lore - metalgaze music from Ireland

Altar of Plagues
http://www.myspace.com/altarofplagues

nice epic production sound on the track: Earth as a Womb - starts Isis like but as the track unwinds it reminds me of the last Withered album with the hyper-speed backwards reverb meets Isis / Cult of Luna atmsospherics

ALTAR OF PLAGUES Completes Work On New Album
http://bit.ly/14mNw
Ireland's most promising extreme metal band since PRIMORDIAL, namely ALTAR OF PLAGUES, has completed work on its debut full-length album, "White Tomb".

...

The album's warm-edged sound and uncompromising production portray's the band's visceral wall-of-sound effect without falling into a typical synthetically triggered digital-sounding paradigm nor falling into a post-whatever sounding mess. Other elements such as KHANATE/BURNING WITCH-esque painful slow trudging doom also find their way into the mix, as "White Tomb" also features guest vocals from Nathan Misterek of the now-defunct doom gods GRAVES AT SEA, minimalistic electronica and haunting Cold Meat Industry industrial ambient, along with the towering apocalyptic vibes of OLD MAN GLOOM and old-school ISIS ("Mosquito Control"/"Celestial" era) layered with the instrumental textures that bands like MOGWAI and RED SPAROWES portray, "White Tomb" (mastered by Colin Marston of KRALLICE/BEHOLD… THE ARCTOPUS/DYSRHYTHMIA etc.) is a vicious and atmospheric pillage that orchestrates the collapse of Earth; a depiction of civilization (or what's left of it) in despair attempting to re-build a world destroyed and shattered by their own hands.

"White Tomb" will be released April 17 via Profound Lore Records.

nice epic production sound on the track: Earth as a Womb - starts Isis like but as the track unwinds it reminds me of the last Withered album with the hyper-speed backwards reverb meets Isis / Cult of Luna atmsospherics

Funny, I just happen to be listening to this album. It does not disappoint...the aforementioned "Earth as a Womb" really blew me away. Actually, if anything it's more stylistically varied than I was expecting, and far more interesting than Cult of Luna, that's for sure. Love the production as well, epic like you said, but also quite warm.

I need to get on Profound Lore's promo list.

Meanwhile, the new Believer is proving to be a very satisfying comeback album. Quite eclectic in parts, but that's really no surprise. The thrashy parts kill, though.

Keeping on the Altar of Plagues/wuss BM/kind of stuff djmartian c+p's press blurb for into this thread tip, I have 'Kold' by Solstafir on right now. This probly needs way more time to get involved with than I have to review it, which is a shame, but they do that Neurosis-with-blastbeats-and-then-some-quiet-tinkles thing pretty well it seems

On Spinefarm BTW, if anyone's taking notes

I'm listening to "Pale Rider" on Solstafir's MySpace, and I'm mightily impressed. How does the rest of the album compare?

I am listening to Wu-Tang Forever.

I am not.

xxp other names that have come to mind over the rest of the (v long) album include Nachtmystium (last album), Cave In, Mark Lanegan and Michael Gira. Aside from the drums and occasional walls of guitar there's very little black metal in here. It's good though. ILXOR 'country matters' would dig this IMO, if he checking this thread

i notice the new Sólstafir album is picking up some excellent reviews:

From the Dust Returned: Sólstafir - Köld (2009)
http://autothrall.blogspot.com/2009/01/slstafir-kld-2009.html

Sólstafir - “Köld” Review
http://www.therockblogger.com/solstafir-kold-review/

Man that second one makes it sound so unappealing tho. The Cult are sort of a good call in the other review mind you - I was trying to pin down the windy, chest-beaty (in more or less a good way) thing that snakes through most of the album. I don't want to overstate 'commercial potential' given that they're on the same label as Nightwish but I could see this breaking out of the niche it might otherwise flop into

new mastodon track on their myspace page:
http://www.myspace.com/mastodon

first impression: I actually really like it. they clean vox sound better than they ever have. that's not saying much, I guess, but hey. good solo too.

not as immediate as the best stuff on remission/leviathan but def. sounds like a cut above blood mountain. (which I could never really get with. like just about everyone else here, apparently.)

Sólstafir album is awesome!

Sólstafir remind me abit of Primordial and some of the harder tracks on Anathema's 1996 album eternity meets Explosions to the Sky with a more metal production (track Pale Rider) whilst the track: Love is the Devil and I'm in Love - would appeal to wide range of rock fans: Motorhead, Botch, Warrior Soul, Hendrix, Dazzling Killmen and Killing Joke

Sólstafir: myspace
http://www.myspace.com/solstafir

there is so much explosive energy in Sólstafir's music

I think grimly fiendish would love it

summon alexinnyc to thread i reckon he would to

Warrior Soul had that "explosive energy" effect on their debut album back in 1990

Warrior Soul - Last Decade Dead Century
http://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/warrior_soul/last_decade_dead_century/

Warrior Soul were awesome.

not as immediate as the best stuff on remission/leviathan but def. sounds like a cut above blood mountain. (which I could never really get with. like just about everyone else here, apparently.)

Man, I must be standing alone here as thinking Blood Mountain is the best thing the band has ever done. It was my album of the year in 2006, metal or no-metal. Listening to it right now and still loving the shit out of each and every song.

Yeah, I'm still a big fan of Blood Mountain as well. "Divinations" sure is promising, very catchy.

What I've heard of the Solstafir so far is actually not unlike the incredible new Cobalt album, in how it subtly goes from black metal to hardcore.

Cobalt: myspace
http://www.myspace.com/stinktown666

are both Cobalt and Sólstafir influenced by The God Machine?

I doubt it, but The God Machine are one of my favourite bands ever.

New Zombi album on Relapse is terrific. I think it's a lot better than their last album and quite possibly the best thing they have done.

TGM are actually a really good reference point for a bunch of this stuff except for the fact that they're such a fell-through-the-cracks kind of band - their albums have been OOP for a decade or something silly like that, I'm sure they're on the net somewhere but...

The God Machine's story is one of the few honest to god rock tragedies out there, I think.

Someone has tagged the new Mastodon single on last fm as 'whalecore' haha

http://www.last.fm/tag/whalecore

New Goblin Cock album!!!!!!!!! http://www.myspace.com/goblincock

Sólstafir has some nice guitar work, but their singer's voice and lyrics really annoy me.

I am really liking Cobalt. Did you guys see one of the two members has been in Iraq since October? :-/

Yeah, and he's reenlisted for five more years, too. He's quite an interesting guy.

I'm the exact opposite - I love Cobalt until they start growling.

x-post

http://images.channeladvisor.com/Sell/SSProfiles/82056366/images/13/goblincock_come.jpg

Not as classic as
http://neerstroem.files.wordpress.com/2007/08/goblin-cock_400px.jpg

the zombi album is metal?? awesome, ive never liked a metal album before.

It's on a metal label and a lot of their fans are metalheads because of it.

Anyone heard the double vinyl reissue of Harvey Milk - The Singles yet? I ordered it along with the Zombi 2xlp from Relapse. Two 2xlps with shipping cost £50.

Holy shit, Metallica crushed it in Newark last night. "Ride the Lightning," "For Whom the Bell Tolls," "Master of Puppets," "Battery," "...And Justice For All," "One," six-and-a-half from the new one (no "My Apocalypse," sadly), "Enter Sandman," "Sad But True," and an (almost - they started with a bit of "Suicide and Redemption") all-Kill 'Em All encore - "Blitzkrieg," "Hit the Lights" and "Seek and Destroy." Oh, and "Nothing Else Matters" toward the end of the main set. Other than that, though, it was all crunch for two hours. They came out swinging; the opening version of "That Was Just Your Life" was faster than the studio version.

Machine Head was good; they covered Iron Maiden's "Hallowed Be Thy Name" and did five of their own songs, with a minimum of jabber from Robb Flynn. The Sword, though, tore shit up like a cross between Maiden and High on Fire. They fucking rule.

I think grimly fiendish would love it

It's already on his list, fear not. Didn't know there was a new Cobalt album, though! Sound.

Heh, not 15 minutes ago I was interviewing Yanni from Stinking Lizaveta, he went to the show in Philly and watched from backstage cos the band are tour pals w/ The Sword

xp

Just got the new SL in the mail; haven't checked it out yet but will this week for sure. Love those guys.

Just obtained a two-disc compilation (may actually be Vol. 1 and Vol. 2) called Latinoamerica Thrashin' the World, which is all unsigned thrash bands from Central and South America, and yes, it kicks all kinds of ass.

So, I made a commitment to listen to more Metal this year (primarily so my year-end list won't be quite as pathetic). I got the 2009 preview issue of Hails & Horns (which I've gotten in the mail since I profiled the Human Abstract about two years ago). Hopefully you guys can tell me which of this stuff I should be excited for (look for) and which probably sucks. They're looking forward to:

Cattle Decapitation - The Harvest Floor (January), God Forbid - Earthsblood (February), Killswitch Engage (March), Darkest Hour (March), Lacuna Coil (May), Slayer (June), Chiodos (Fall), Comeback Kid (TBA), Municipal Waste (TBA), Behemoth (Fall), The Devil Wears Prada (April), Doomriders, Into the Boat, Job for a Cowboy, Impending Doom, God Dethroned, August Burns Red, Born of Osiris, A Day to Remember, Vanna, The Fall of Troy, A Plea For Purging, Evergreen Terrace, Psyopus, The Red Chord, It Dies Today

The Cattle Decapitation album is their best work to date, but if you don't already like them it won't win you over. The God Forbid album is very classicist - if you like Judas Priest and/or Opeth (not the new album but the two before that), you'll like it. You can't go wrong with Slayer - they've never made a bad record. I like Into the Moat (screaming hardcore-influenced death metal with weird jazz-fusion breaks and super-techy bass playing) and Job For A Cowboy (technical death metal - complex riffs, crazy drumming, Cookie Monster vocals) and Born Of Osiris (more technical death metal), but others may disagree.

The Devil Wears Prada, what an awful band. Watch out for Evergreen Terrace, though, their last album was surprisingly good. Chiodos isn't metal at all, but I actually admired their last CD...shamelessly sappy stuff.

I like Into the Moat (screaming hardcore-influenced death metal with weird jazz-fusion breaks and super-techy bass playing) and Job For A Cowboy (technical death metal - complex riffs, crazy drumming, Cookie Monster vocals) and Born Of Osiris (more technical death metal), but others may disagree.

Heh, I'm not a fan of JFAC at all. Tight performers, they have a better presence live than on record, but as far as actual songwriting goes, they don't hold a candle to a band like Neuraxis. Just boring noodling and grunting, with zero hooks.

I think Born of Osiris could develop into something special, and I'm not just saying that because my little brother went to high school with the guitarist. Their EP from a couple years ago wasn't amazing, but it showed tons of potential. I can't wait to hear the full-length.

God Forbid album is really, really good. Early word on the Lacuna Coil is that the new stuff sounds like a vast improvement over the last record. Killswitch Engage are always dependably good/great.

So I'll have to agree with Phil, the new Lamb of God (leaked over the weekend) is quite the cookin' album.

Early word on the Lacuna Coil is that the new stuff sounds like a vast improvement over the last record.

Can't be that good if they're going back into the studio post-tour to re-record it. (Shhh...you didn't hear that from me.)

Heh, wow.

Maybe it's so awesome they wanted to do it twice.

Reuse Your Illusion

The songs evolved as the band played them live? I'd say this re-recording doesn't prove the record will suck. But I haven't been very thrilled with a Lacuna Coil record in a while, so actually I'd have been inclined to tell them to try twice no matter how the first one turned out...

I'm listening to the new Absu. I was not a big fan of Tara, so I fully expected to just skip through a few songs and delete this, but it's holding my attention so far.

Also liking the two new Wolves in the Throne Room songs. Vinyl-only is a dubious trick in general, but kind of in character for WitTR...

The songs evolved as the band played them live?

Nope. The album was supposed to be out in late spring, but is being pushed back to the fall, so after they get off the tour they're about to commence, they've gotta get back to work on it.

Woah, I had no idea Orphaned Land had a new album coming out this year.

About time, too. I loved Mabool, but I hadn't listened to it in quite a while...the Global Metal movie reminded me of just how cool a band they are.

HAIL SATAN

http://www.boingboing.net/200902021203.jpg

Oops. That image is kind of huge.

The Fall Of Troy, from the album i heard is some super spazzmocore stuff that i seem to think i found sort of ok at the time but had zero lasting power. also were like really ridiculously young at the time, so like a wee baby version of Blood Brothers maybe.

So I listened to the new Lamb of God today. I mostly liked the parts that weren't the howling growling cookie monster vocals. (So parts of "Grace," the entire "The Passing," parts of "In Your Words," especially around 3:30 in that song.) I think one of my biggest issues with metal is how addicted I am to lyrics in almost all the music I listen to (probably cause I listen to mostly folk/singer-songwriter) and how hard it is to listen to something entirely not for the lyrics. Ironically I don't have this issue with Classical music. So it might be that the presence of vocals, but their incomprehensibility, bothers me. I feel like I should be able to understand them, and I'm frustrated that I cannot. Is frustrating the listener a part of the intention of metal music? Or is there something about the vocals that if I understood it, I'd be able to appreciate it more?

lyric sheets, bro.

Mordy I feel like you phrased your question in a cloying way, but I feel u: it's occurred to me "am I supposed to care what Xasthur or whoever is howling at me?"

When it comes to the more extreme forms of metal, lyrics are pretty much secondary in my opinion, what counts is the overall visceral impact of the music. If an extreme band does have an extremely talented lyricist (Red Chord, Pig Destroyer are two of my faves for instance), then that's just gravy. I don't care as much about metal lyrics as I did 25 years ago (really, really exceptional lyrics are few and far between), but I do appreciate the growlers and screamers who do make an effort to enunciate. Like Blythe in Lamb of God, he has a real knack for it. Or Corpsegrinder.

Yeah, I vastly prefer growls in my metal, but can't say I ever pay any attention to the lyrics. Just an odd line here and there (y'know, "Welcome to... my church!", haha!)
This point is limited to the subgenres that I guess get lumped together as "extreme metal" these days. I'm not sure how I listen to the vocals, to be honest. It's just a sort of binding rhythmic and textural element most of the time, though I do really like the -sound- of some growls, such as the ones on _Clandestine_.
I'd say I listen to metal mainly for rhythm (and implicitly structure), with the limited sort of melody and harmony brutal riffs provide trailing a bit behind. I do not like "melodic" death metal etc where people try to jam Judas Priest or Abba into their guitar leads, whether it's Vital Remains' _Dechristianized_ or In Flames' _The Jester Race_.

There's incidentally very little I find more offensive to listen to than -singing- over properly brutal riffs, which has made it very hard to find listenable recent "technical" metal bands, since they're all doing that unfortunate emo yell now.

Ignoring lyrics might be more common for us who don't speak English natively, I suppose; it's easier for us to not really pay close attention what the lyrics really say, and thus more easily be comfortable with songs where the lyrics are nigh-impossible to make out. It might also explain why "Every breath you take" is sometimes played at weddings here. Hm. Or why I've heard people complain about Anacrusis' cover of "I Love The World", which apparently wasn't a properly metal sentiment. This might be completely off-base, I admit. I've never really asked around.

Hrm, that didn't really lead anywhere, did it? Damn.
I've been listening to Solstafir on myspace lately, and uh, I don't really get it. Competent but kinda dull, eh? Maybe if I hadn't played "The Silent Enigma" to death back in the days.

I think that "Every Breath You Take" is played at weddings everywhere.

Very few modern metal bands have lyrics that matter to me, so I don't really care what bands are singing about. They have to have good riffs and a solid rhythm section (and of course make music I like).

i never pay attention to metal lyrics but the quality of the vocals matters a lot to me--timbre, timing, style, and just generally fitting in well with the music. a lot of solid bands are dragged down by a boring singer, but most of my favorite bands have a singer who is really trying to do something interesting. for example anaal nathrakh is to me a sort of forgettable band without their singer, and one thing that really elevated krallice was that mick barr did a nice job with the vocals.

This year's token metal band at Bonnaroo is Down.

xp I love melodic death metal, but that's probably because I look for melody over rhythm and music. However, I find that the Cobra Commander-style vocals work much better with melodic death metal than the Cookie Monster ones.

Also: RIP Metal Edge =(

word, RIP BIG MAG

Yeah, it's a sad day.

Yup. :-(

waht happen?

Yeah, really bummed out to hear that news.

The magazine stopped sucking just in time for the economy to kill it.

crap! after i just subscribed a couple of days ago. maybe that done it in?

Technically not public knowledge yet, fellas, but yeah, we're outta here.

Oops... epic fail!

No big deal.

Well, anyway, you did a great job with the magazine, Phil.

Yeah, what a turnaround that was. It went from being a Hit Parader-style jumble of badly written press releases to a magazine with real integrity.

Yeah, it was great to be even a very, very small part of that turnaround. Phil did such an amazing job.

Shit, I guess I should actually try and read a copy of this while I can - sorry to hear that

new Tombs video - gossamer
http://pitchfork.tv/videos/tombs-gossamer

metalgaze music from the USA

Are Tombs America's answer to Jesu?

album review
Tombs - Winter Hours
http://www.lordsofmetal.nl/showreview.php?id=13240〈=en

That review is not super useful, considering that it isn't in English. Although I already reviewed this record for Outburn.

ilxor bbcode messed the url up, go to the review and in the top left corner of the webpage see the link to the english language review

As you might surmise from the name, that is a really freaking depressing album.

I've been meaning to check out that Tombs album, but I've been having loads of trouble getting the Relapse promo flash player to work right.

Ah, I'm glad I'm not the only one having Relapse streamer trouble. Man, I hate those things.

They sound virtually nothing like Jesu for anyone taking djmartian notes btw - I mean they both have an evident boner for olde tyme shoegazing but take it in basically the opposite direction to each other

Yeah, I hate the streamer too. I don't see the Jesu thing, either. I heard something a bit more post-post-metal.

"Yeah, it was great to be even a very, very small part of that turnaround. Phil did such an amazing job."

WORD.

Thanks, y'all.

I got a physical copy of that Tombs disc in the mail yesterday, along with a copy of the new Buried Inside, which I'm more excited about, frankly.

The new Buried Inside rules (think I mentioned it a while back), but I'm still iffy re: Tombs. "Gossamer" does sound pretty strong.

new ABSU is out there. i will be listening to it as soon as my illegal download is done.

"I've been listening to Solstafir on myspace lately, and uh, I don't really get it. Competent but kinda dull, eh? Maybe if I hadn't played "The Silent Enigma" to death back in the days."

i gotta agree. if you are gonna rip off anathema and primordial, you REALLY have to do it well to impress me.

and i like plenty of MDB biters and other U.K. rainstorm doom copycats, so it's not like i'm a purist or something.

"Also: RIP Metal Edge =("

yikes! so sorry to hear this, phil. for real. i could tell that you were very much in your element and putting a lot into the mag. i would have written more for you if life hadn't intruded so mundanely for me. i dug reading the mag, for sure. and i will definitely miss the near-perfect placement of matt's haiku craziness.

it might be that the presence of vocals, but their incomprehensibility, bothers me. I feel like I should be able to understand them, and I'm frustrated that I cannot. Is frustrating the listener a part of the intention of metal music? Or is there something about the vocals that if I understood it, I'd be able to appreciate it more?

Ugly, clunky vocals are my biggest stumbling block in current ("extreme", whatever) metal by far. When I like metal vocals, it's usually because I like their sound. Hell, sometimes it's just because I can tolerate their sound. In "real" metal, they almost never communicate anything anymore, or at least anything remotely concrete -- which is a weakness of the music whether metal fans admit it or not. It also explains why, when I made out my "Top 25" metal albums list for last year, the ones near the top usually tended to be the kind of albums (like Rose Tattoo, say) that lots of metal fans would now insist are merely "hard rock." And sorry, lyric sheets are not the answer -- I judge music by what I hear, not what I could hear in theory if the band would only let me. (Also don't think the Lamb of God guy's vocals are particularly comprehensible, for what it's worth.) Anyway, the inability to decipher lyrics doesn't make me dislike metal -- I still like a lot of it and love some of it, regardless. Lyrics are far from the main thing I listen for when I listen to music, any music. (And I also like lots of rock and other music in foreign languages, and obviously I can't decipher those vocals, either.) But I do have to think that a lot of metal would be better if I could make sense out of what the lyrics might be. In other words, not being able to decipher the lyrics never makes the music better. (Well, maybe it does if the lyrics stink -- just like I have a feeling I wouldn't have loved the '90s Mexican rock band Caifanes so much if their apparent new age poetry baloney was in my face all the time, so thank God I didn't speak Spanish too well -- but like I said, I usually don't check lyric sheets to make sure.) But again, that's just me. What the heck do I know.

Sorry about the beer-stained rant. And yeah, Phil, that does indeed suck about Metal Edge. You should be proud for what you pulled off, though....

(xp Also, it's not just a matter of "communicating" stuff -- like, emotions or whatever the fuck -- it's just that, way back when, hearing the lyrics was part of what made listening to metal fun. And I miss that. It still happens sometimes, but just not nearly as much. But then again, right: I'm old.)

That's why I asked if it was intentional, xhuxk. I can't imagine someone would obscure the lyrics that much if they weren't making some sort of musical point by doing so. I mean, why wouldn't you want someone to know what you're singing?

'cause that would make you look like a rock star maybe? heavens. tru metal is all about the music, man!

For the first 20 minutes of the new God Forbid album I was ready to dismiss it, it wasn't clicking with me at all, but yikes, does it ever step things up in the second half. Sort of reminds me of the epic direction Machine Head took a couple years ago. If this was an LP (I suppose it will be sooner than later), side two would be a fucking beast.

Not convinced by Sólstafir at all. It's about half as heavy as I expected: there are some interesting textures, but it all sounds a little too ... slick. And this is one occasion where I'd far, far rather have Cookie Monster vocals than post-FM-rock yelping.

I've come around to thinking almost the opposite (maybe the converse) about lyrics: including voices as elements of your music shouldn't constrain you to making them linguistic and/or primary. I think even in music where the words are perfectly understandable, reading them as a coherent expository text is fairly rarely an important part of what I do as a listener. Not that it isn't intensely cool when it happens (lyrics had a lot to do with my favorite album of last year being Frightened Rabbit's, for a recent personal example), but I don't think it should be taken as a necessary goal or an inherent virtue, any more than you'd say "not putting overdrive on the guitars never makes the music better".

Actually, come to think of it, I'm pretty sure more music would be improved by increased guitar distortion than by increased lyrical clarity. (But maybe this is just another way of saying that I like metal.)

^ Agreed ... and reminded that I've not heard that second FR album yet. The first one was fucking awesome, and all I've heard is that the second is even better.

Re: Sólstafir ... I can actually imagine there'd be times I really, really wanted to listen to something like it. I might have been a bit hard. It's probably just because it wasn't what I expected at all.

Well, what I will say is that there are definitely worse vocal metal sins out there than incomprehensibility. Which is to say that, given the choice, there's a good chance that I'd still rather listen to your average death-metal barfer than your average screamo whiner or constipated post-grunge moaner or nu-metal bellower. Thing is, I've got several hundred loud rock/metal/whatever albums on my shelves that prove that those crappy alternatives are hardly the only ones out there. And my question is always, if lyrics really don't matter, as Glenn suggests -- if you're just going to toe the stupid line and vomit like every other dime-a-dozen ogre out there -- why bother having vocals at all? (Actually, I sort of know the answer to that -- because most instrumental metal is even more boring than metal with shitty vocals. So it's a rhetorical question, sort of, but I thought I'd ask it anyway.)

It's not what you say, it's how you say it.

Or barf it.

your average death-metal barfer than your average screamo whiner or constipated post-grunge moaner or nu-metal bellower

Poll.

so the torche vinyl showed up today (HOTT), and since i was ordering from robotic empire anyway i grabbed their $20 "Stoney, Ambient, and Heavy" lot 6 CD deal. Any suggestions on where to dig in first from this list?

Torche - S/T
Red Sparowes/Gregor Samsa - Split
Kayo Dot - Dowsing Anenome With Copper Tongue
Windmills By The Ocean - S/T
Versoma - Life During Wartime
Stop It! - S/T

also sad to hear about the magazine, dude.

First Torche is probably better than Meanderthal. I like the RS/GS split, the kayo dot is good and so are Windmills By The Ocean and Versoma. Dunno who Stop Iy! are but looks like you got a good deal.

why bother having vocals at all?

I always thought the vomit vocals were basically to fortify the clubhouse. It's to keep people out. Or rather to make sure the people inside stay in.

To me, the vocals in extreme metal are less about communicating ideas through lyrics and more about being another instrument in the mix. I mean, vocals have always been that to some extent or another, but the growling just takes it to the logical extreme. It doesn't matter what they're saying -- it just matters that they are angry about it.

J3ff just pretty much nailed my thoughts on the vocals in extreme music, not much different I can say right now.

Picked up the new Cattle Decapitation (really good!), Cannibal Corpse (still evaluating), and the Demolition Hammer anthology (eager to dig into this) last night.

that demolition hammer thing is so boss

first disc, anyway

yeah i think i am kind of on the opposite side of mordy here (and maybe xhucx) where extreme metal with clean trad vocals kind of bugs me. throwing some dickinson/dio vocals on top of blastbeats just doesn't quite click. that said, my fave vocals on any metal record last year were on the Belphegor, which are actually kind of comprehensible in their own way.

worst offender by far is the screamo/clean vocal combo, which i just hate hate hate.

(btw, the "Stop It!" was the "plus one mystery CD of our choice" part of the deal, and so far it is kind of a misfit, really sounds a lot like Dischord Circus Lupus stuff with chugga distorto downtuned bass. probably just the tallest pile of stuff that wasn't selling. not bad in its own way tho.)

I think the very best extreme metal vocalists are the ones who can be really expressive through the growling. I think, more than anything else, that's the reason why Dimmu Borgir and Cradle of Filth have gotten as big as they have -- Shagrath and Dani Filth really know how to get across the emotion, even when you can't tell what they're saying (although those are definitely two of the more comprehensible singers).

And it's nothing to do with cartoon personalities?

Well, that certainly never hurts, but image alone isn't enough -- otherwise, Opiate for the Masses would be huge.

What really bugs me is when an extreme band that has a certain agenda or message they claim to want to convey refuses to print their lyrics. Like Gorgoroth, for instance. What's the point?

vocals in extreme metal are less about communicating ideas through lyrics and more about being another instrument in the mix

That's pretty much what I said above myself, by the way. (Just added that, though I acknowledge that's how modern metal vocals usually work, and I can live with it if it sounds good, I don't necessarily agree that makes it the best of all possible worlds.)

problem is that most vocals in extreme metal are more about being an instrument with an incredibly limited range

right -- and not just limited physical range, but limited emotional range, too. (i.e., 100% trumped-up "anger" all the time gets boring really fast.)

That's why I like singers like Stu Block of Into Eternity, who are versatile enough to capture a large range of emotion.

xp I mean, say what you want about the uselessness of lyrics having some kind of concrete linguistic meaning, but at least lyrics (in all kinds of music) have the effect of providing shades of feeling when singers aren't good enough to do it themselves.

Guys, new Jamie Saft ("Black Shabbis") is A++

http://cover6.cduniverse.com/MuzeAudioArt/Large/76/1056576.jpg

Instrumental virtuosity is essential in every facet of metal EXCEPT for vocals. Guitarists sit in their rooms and play all day. Drummers have personal trainers. The singer's job is to throw buckets of water on the crowd and get wasted after the show.

This is why I get excited when I hear about any metal band with a female vocalist. They're not nearly as lazy most of the time.

good growlers and screechers can be understood once you develop an ear for it. i can understand a lot of "vomit" lyrics that just sound like noise to my gf, for example.

like some posters above, i'm also not a big lyric guy. as long as i get the general gist, either through a good expressive vocalist, or just words here and there, i'm good.

the kind of vocalists i have grown to hate more than any other are these post-metal (or whatever the fuck people are calling it now) guys like the Cult of Luna guy. just these bland rage roars that shit all over whatever the band is playing, whether heavy and loud or slow and melodic.

I'm not a big fan of the belching vocals or the post-metal vocals, to be honest. Like, I can't even listen to Nile.

And I will say, sometimes when I flip through Stairway to Hell, I'm kind of jealous of the days when people could actually talk about the lyrics on metal albums.

The singer's job is to throw buckets of water on the crowd and get wasted after the show.

Hahah, okay, I just imagined Bruce Dickinson doing nothing but that. Opening notes of "The Trooper" starts, he just starts flinging water and not saying a word...

Huh, I recall being fairly fond of Nile's vocals (I've not heard their last few albums, so I wouldn't know if they've changed)
Hmm, though when I'm trying to call them up in my head now, I hear the Pessimist guy instead. That's not a good thing. "I'll kill her... before... you can... kill her!" Sigh.

I'm curious about that Saft album. I'm not really a fan, but a friend said it's quite nifty. It's all or mostly original songs, right?

Does anyone do the ultra-low possibly pitch-shifted gurgles anymore? That was a hoot for a while. Beherit etc, I mean. There were a few horror and porno grind groups that took it too far though.

The most absurd vocal style is the grindcore pig squeal. So stupid.

Esoteric are kings of ultra-low right now. i can't play their album around my girl without getting weird looks, though. might as well whip out a Magic card set or something.

i was listening to Devastation the other night and thinking there was a vocal style that worked pretty well over death/trash music. almost hardcore punk sounding.

*thrash

And grind core vocals are my least favorite of all, which is one of the big reasons I don't listen to a lot of it. Screw it, Chuck's right, extreme metal vocals suck.

haha

Huh, I haven't heard Esoteric since _The Pernicious Enigma_. Are they still doing that odd, odd, odd acid-nightmare style of doom?
I was really terribly fond of those guys when I was in my biggest doom phase. Last time I played _Epistemological Despondency_ it was somewhat perplexing.

It's not to my knowledge an established and in any way common vocal style, but man oh man do I hate the terrified dumbass commander vocals on Mayhem's Grand Declaration of War. That record had pretty good screeching though! Though I might've been fooled by the great relief I felt whenever the fellow stopped hollering about cold and damp stuff.

Esoteric has gotten a little more shoegazey, but yeah, same thing pretty much.

extreme metal vocalists need j0hn to pop in and set some ppl straight on this thread.

"Cobra! Retreeeeeaaaaat!"

someone should start a different type of "metal" vocal styles poll (and not just the extreme types please).

Whoa! Opeth/Enslaved US tour this May. No openers. Just an evening with the best metal bands from Scandinavia today.

That cancelled Enslaved headlining tour would have been amazing. So disappointed by that.

i like a lot of "extreme" music and, and the task of dealing with impossibly off-putting vocal styles is a big part of this kind of love. it's not just metal, either - you've got your hardcore he-man bellowing, crazy art vocals the likes of early gira & bargeld, hysterical screaming in noise music, all kindsa bad-to-listen-to mouth sounds. anyway, though i was always inclined to dig the music, the associated singin' styles kept me away from doom and black metal for quite a while. i just couldn't feature voluntarily listening to that crap for more than a few minutes at a time. over the years, though, i somehow grew accustomed. the shrieking/croaking/burping caca-phony sounds natural to me now, and it's hard to imagine the music existing without. plus, there's a lot more room for variety, personality and shading of intensity than some folks seem to give credit for.

not backtracking, really: still think that borderline-incoherent bellowing is often the worst kind of vocal straightjacket, esp when applied to whole genres

not sure how to reconcile the above. maybe just "when it works, it really works; but when it doesn't, it really sucks"

^ probably true of every vocal style that ever was

"That cancelled Enslaved headlining tour would have been amazing. So disappointed by that."

I got to see them headline last year, which was fantastic. But this time they'll get to play for big crowds...

"Hahah, okay, I just imagined Bruce Dickinson doing nothing but that. Opening notes of "The Trooper" starts, he just starts flinging water and not saying a word..."

Oh Ned, you know I was taking the piss... :)

Just to be clear, I'm not giving anybody a waiver for musically inept or inapt vocals, and I will shut off instrumentally-appealing music after about five seconds of hating the vocalist, especially hating the vocalist in some drearily genre-cliche-ish way. And my #1 metal albums both this year and last had hugely melodic (female) singers. But then I still love Leviathan and Deathspell Omega. It's an interesting question, though, whether I'd love Leviathan and Deathspell Omega even more if they had real singers. Possibly, but not definitely. If you treat vocals as an instrument, you have to treat them as an interesting instrument. Which doesn't mean they have to have any particular conventional technique, but they better not sound like hitting one broken drum over and over again for the length of an album.

I really dig grindcore & some black metal vocals but can't put up with the bullfrog early Cynic style of stuff. I dig the black metal vocals that sound inhuman, textural, like a troll on the other end of an icy canyon. The "screams of agony" thing doesn't really do it for me.

Satyricon were fantastic tonight. Too bad about Septic Flesh and Cradle of Filth.

I just wanna say how much I'm loving that Jamie Saft album. I highly recommend. "Der Judenstein" is this really sludgy, doomy track, and "Army Girl" sounds amazing. I think this might be my favorite album of the year so far - metal or not.

This is why I get excited when I hear about any metal band with a female vocalist. They're not nearly as lazy most of the time.

Speaking of which, I'm mildly impressed by the new Serpencult album. It's as if Electric Wizard was fronted by Lee Aaron.

If I YSI one of the tracks, will you guys take a listen?

Oh yes, I'm just trying to keep myself from buying it unheard, so that would be grand.

Hrm, I'm listening to Nile's _Black Seeds of Vengeance_ now, and yup, I really like the hell out of these vocals, though they're perhaps a bit too sibilant at times. Deep and gurgly and fairly easy to understand to boot.
Also, one track has a fantastic guest-appearance by Krusty The Clown. DESOOOLAAAAAATE!

Really? I've sat there with the lyric sheet and still had no idea what the hell Karl Sanders is saying.

mildly impressed by the new Serpencult album

I was tolerable of it but not as impressed as I hoped to be. (Mentioned it a bit upthread, I think.)

Mordy, this is, um...interesting so far.

It's an interesting question, though, whether I'd love Leviathan and Deathspell Omega even more if they had real singers. Possibly, but not definitely.

the vocals for these two groups are some of my favorite in their respective styles. i started writing a post last night about how much i love Wrest's vox on the Lurker of Chalice stuff. it's really hard for me to imagine any other vocal style working for either of these groups.

speaking of bad vocals, I'm listening to Harvey Milk right now, and this guy's vox are just on the right side of tolerable for me.

Harvey Milk's vocals suit the music so perfectly.

new 2009 album from Urna - self described as "post funeral doom metal from Italy"

Urna - Iter ad lucem

2 new sample tracks on myspace

Urna
http://www.myspace.com/urnaproject

stated Influences:

Funeral Doom
Post Metal
Black Metal
Electronics & Ambient Soundscapes
Drone
Sludge Death Metal
and some others

expansive crushing twisting dynamics, big churning psychedelic riffs

Second track on the album:
http://rapidshare.com/files/194385864/02_Blood.mp3.html

Personally would much prefer if Harvey Milk's vocals had more Burke Shelley in them and less King Buzzo.

A few '09 records with loud guitars (or other instruments that sound like guitars) on them that I've decided I like since the last list I posted:

Death – …For The Whole World To See (Drag City reissue EP)
Dirty Little Rabbits – Simon (The End EP)
The Answer – Everyday Demons (The End)
Black Lips – 200 Million Thousand (Vice)
Gene Dante and the Future Starlets – The Romantic Lead (Omnirox Entertainment)
Talk Normal – Talk Normal (myspace/talknormal EP)

really don't hear any buzzo in the harvey milk vox at all.

I think they're perfect for the band too. strained/fragile for the "clean" parts, strained/burly for the rest.

Mostly just sound like your old who-cares pigfuck to me (a shame, since the sludge of the '70s riffs can be pretty awesome.)

album version is better but the vox SO PERFECT for that song.

bah, embedding disabled. just click on the link!

Hey Chuck, there is a new Shakin' Street album out this month.

http://shakinstreetofthe21stcentury.maxximum.org/

in non-metal news, the new nashville pussy album sucks and so does the new mono album. (mono + 23 piece orchestra = worst classical music of all time. and most boring.)

there is a new Shakin' Street album

Yay!

new nashville pussy album sucks

I already pointed this out on the Rolling Country thread!

Just got the fine new Metal Edge issue today. Argh, just when we were on one hell of a roll...

Not metal, but I'm listening to the advanced track from that forthcoming Mono (the Japanese band) album Scott just mentioned, and it sounds pretty fantastic to me.

I'm listening too and it's GREAT! I pre-ordered the vinyl the other day.

(i mean I'm listening to the whole album)

front cover:

Isis - Wavering Radiant
http://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/isis/wavering_radiant_f1/

http://www.bravewords.com/news/106231
The track listing for Wavering Radiant is: 'Hall Of The Dead', 'Ghost Key', 'Hand Of The Host', 'Wavering Radiant', 'Stone To Wake A Serpent', '20 Minutes / 40 Years', 'Threshold of Transformation'.

titles = "we will bore you to death in 70+ minutes"

I've heard "20 Minutes/40 Years," because it's the first song on the CD that'll come with the last(?) issue of Metal Edge. It's seven minutes long and it's one of the heaviest things they've done in years. I like it more than I liked anything on the last album.

I look forward to hearing it. Esp if they're doing something heavy again. (Qotsa take note)

Yeah, every time I say I'm bored with the NeurIsis sound, Neurosis and Isis come along and remind me why they're the best at what they do. Looking forward to the new Isis, silly title and all.

Just picked up In the Absence of Truth yesterday out of the dollar bin, I'm psyched for the new one.

Neurosis and Isis are the masters of the sound. There's always going to be lame imitators but then some of the imitators are very good at it ie Cult Of Luna.
But it's silly to blame Neurosis/Isis for crappy imitators.

yeah, I like some of the imitators too... but neurosis did it first/best. I doubt anyone would dispute that.

seeing isis live circa panopticon actually got me to stop listening to them for a while. just played the whole album. (which I actually really like!) a little improv here-and-there, but overall, very little variation from the studio cuts and very little reason to not just stay home and listen to the album. dull, dull show.

seeing built to spill like 10 years ago had a similar effect, lolz.

anyway, then that last isis dropped and it was probably their worst. never got into it. but I'll give this new one a shot. glad to hear they're heavy again.

still think mosquito control ep is my fave by them. probs the only one with no filler.

I kinda agree with the above. I saw Isis live in 1999 or so, opening for Botch, and they were great. Tons of improv - the high point of the set was a theremin/didjeridoo duet, for fuck's sake! But when I caught up with them again on their 10th anniversary tour with Jesu, they were paralyzingly tedious live. And the DVD - forget it.

The only time I've seen Isis live was a few years back, when they did a free show at the MOCA here in Los Angeles, and I just remember WALL OF SOUND but also being kind of bored and wandering around. Maybe it was because it was daylight, maybe it was because the band was on ground level, or maybe it was because of all the damn hipsters (who, as I discovered at the Eagles of Death Metal show the other night, are really good at killing the vibe), but it kind of put me off seeing post-metal bands live. I just couldn't get into it.

Okay, I'm really liking the Tombs album. Post-metal that actually gets to the point, it doesn't drag on and on.

I was in Philadelphia on business last week and I saw Tombs on Thursday night at a small place called Jung Fu Necktie. They were punishingly loud, too loud for the size of the room. I really like their album a lot, but live they still need a little bit of tweaking. Also on the bill was Dysrhythmia, who were playing lots of new stuff as they're going into the studio next week. They were bang on and the new stuff is stellar.

This new Obscura album, Cosmogenesis, is ridiculously great. Total tech-death madness with two ex-members of Necrophagist and one ex-member of Pestilence. Ultra-complex riffing with jazz-fusion interludes (including some Cynic-style computer voice!) and really prominent fretless bass lines, including bass solos. It's like the best aspects of Necrophagist, Pestilence and Cynic all wadded up into one big ball of awesome.

Meanwhile, the samples from the new Amesoeurs CD have me very excited for the full album: http://www.myspace.com/amesoeurs

Coldwave metal!

Haha, the beginning of the track simply titled "Album preview" made me think it was going to be a cover of "Breaking the law". The hell with this.

I love Cynic, but dammit, I want frets on my metal-bass, and Pestilence were much better as morons than as fuzak-metalers. Never heard Necrophagist properly (last I heard the group, they were as I recall it basically a German guy in his bedroom uploading shit to myspace? He definitely had chops. There's a risk I'm just mixing up two unrelated groups. God knows there are enough Necro* bands out there)
But hell, I obviously must look into Obscura. How can they have that name and NOT sound like Gorguts anyways? Curious.

My rave for today: Wardruna. Gorgoroth side-project, probably not metal by anything but association, but wow. Pagan-ambient rune-drone? Dunno what to call it, but it does for trolls what Enya does for elves.

Trolls may be overstating things, but dwarves anyway.

Goblins, perhaps?

Just downloaded a bunch of upcoming and/or recent stuff from Earache's press site. Had no idea about the label picking up Insect Warfare until this afternoon, and playing it now I'm pretty impressed - stomps a good path between first wave grind and the more recent guttural techy stuff.

New Cauldron on there!

Well, only Cauldron. But still awesome (as I mentioned above, new band from Goat Horn dudes).

Anxious to check out that Cauldron album. After further listening, I've decided that I like the Cannibal Corpse album more than the Cattle Decapitation one, although it is still pretty good. Got my physical promo for the new Kylesa in the mail yesterday, still such an awesome album. I'm figuring it to end up on my list come end of year.

Kylesa's a contender, that's for sure. I like the new one a lot more than anythnig else they've done.

Cant wait to hear it

The Cauldron album is pretty damn good. They're not my favorite band on that Heavy Metal Killers compilation, but the fact that they recorded and released a song called "Chained Up In Chains" wins them a lot of points. And that album cover...

Listening to the Batillus EP that Invisible Oranges threw up a couple weeks ago. Pleasant enough, but I imagine those who tire easily when it comes to post-metal, NeurIsis imitators will probably hate this.

"Chained Up in Chains" really reminds me of White Wolf. Anyone remember White Wolf? From 1984-ish?

That Heavy Metal Killers comp is pretty solid. I like it more than comparable retro-thrash compilations, but I like NWOBHM more than most thrash, so that would probably explain that. Retro-NWOBHM still has a distressing lack of anything remotely original, though.

I think White Lion ate White Wolf in one semifinal. Snow Dog beat By-Tor in the other one, of course, but I confess I've forgotten what happened in the final...

Can't forget about Whitesnake and White Tiger...

I think we've just explained why Black Metal came about...

Enjoying this Cauldron so far, but one big drawback for me is that the lead singer occasionally sounds like the dude from Kill Hannah. And if you know that band at all, not really such a good thing.

So the Lacuna Coil album is coming out in April after all.

Sweet! I'm excited. Have you guys heard the new Desiccated Harpoon yet?

loz

Y'all forgot White Heart! Oh maybe that's because they're Christian....

Finally got a chance to flip through the latest Metal Edge last night, and the news of it closing down was bumming me out all over again. I know its already been mentioned several times on this thread, but it was really heading in the right direction. Some of the latest tweaks in this issue made that even more apparent.

TOOOOMMMMMBBBBSSSSSS!

And BRRRRUUUUUUUUUUTTTAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLL TRRRRRRUUUUUUUUUUUTTTTTTHHHHHHH!

And (surprisingly) Napalm Death.

Today's pr0n spam e-mail subject that could also double as a Cannibal Corpse song:

"Deeper in Her Entrails"

For an acoustic album, the new Eluveitie packs quite a punch at times. Pretty cool.

So far I'm not impressed by the new Brutal Truth or Agoraphobic Nosebleed discs. The BT is OK, but slower than previous efforts. It includes a cover version of the Minutemen's "Bob Dylan Wrote Propaganda Songs" that adds nothing to the original, but does justify Kevin Sharp's disturbing resemblance to Mike Watt. And the ANb album only has 13 songs - what the hell is that about? Guess that's what happens when you let a girl in the band...

I haven't had time to listen to either, but I am looking forward to the Brutal Truth, that's for sure.

I'm still wrapped up in the new God Forbid, which is so good.

And the new Amesoeurs songs I've heard have me geeked. This is going to be one of my 09 faves, I just know it.

It includes a cover version of the Minutemen's "Bob Dylan Wrote Propaganda Songs" that adds nothing to the original, but does justify Kevin Sharp's disturbing resemblance to Mike Watt.

I was thinking exactly the same thing when I saw him in the new Terrorizer (got it for the grindcore special, first time I've bought it in years). Not the first time that song's been covered by a grind band, either -- that is if you count Melt-Banana as grind.

And that's not the only Watt connection to grind: he used to play A.C. on his old internet radio show, and I read an interview once where he met Seth Putnam in Boston. I don't recall if that was a positive or negative experience...

hahaha this years download has excelled itself in gettingan even shittier line up than previous years

Def Leppard are among four new acts to be added to this year's Download Festival bill.

The band will be headlining the main stage alongside Slipknot, while Whitesnake are set to return to Donington Park for the fourth time.

The other two acts announced for the event, which takes place between 12-14 June, are the recently reformed Limp Bizkit and US heavy metallers Trivium.

Other bands already on the bill include The Prodigy and Motley Crue.

Pendulum, Korn, DragonForce and Devildriver are also confirmed to appear.

The rock festival, which is now in its seventh year, will see performances from around 100 bands.

Previous headliners at the event have included System of a Down, Metallica and Black Sabbath.

Tickets are available from 9am on 13 February.

The better summer festival rumour news is that Head of David are reforming for Supersonic this year. This may well have been fanned by Reuben posting footing of them rehearsing in November on their MySpace page.

Just downloaded a bunch of upcoming and/or recent stuff from Earache's press site. Had no idea about the label picking up Insect Warfare until this afternoon, and playing it now I'm pretty impressed - stomps a good path between first wave grind and the more recent guttural techy stuff.

Unfortunately Insect Warfare broke up, pity cos they were one of the better recent grind bands.

wait, but did you actually listen to the new agoraphobic nosebleed?

I've noticed that they've been writing slower/longer songs on a couple of their recent splits, so I was curious if they'd keep on going that route with the next full album. and that could explain why there's only 13 tracks... maybe?

haven't heard it yet myself, but I'm looking forward to it.

OK, this Wardruna album sounds better to me every time I listen to it. If it gets any kind of buzz-momentum I can imagine it being this year's non-metal-by-metal-guys crossover, and if it doesn't, it'll be the thing I hit people with whenever they get dismissive about what metal musicians are capable of.

Having a listen now. It's very ... runic.

But already I'd have to say that if I was going to be stripped naked and hung upside-down over a mountaintop fire by sinister hooded figures in the light of a full moon, this would perhaps be my soundtrack of choice. I like this a lot.

ok this is def more of the drone/stoner/whatever instrumental non-tru-kult-metal side of things but wanted to throw Gay Witch Abortion (from my hometown) into the mix here. not the best off the new album, but its on youtube so you dont even have to leave the page to check it out.

would have posted their myspace but the flashy background is super annoying and evokes way too much load records vibe.

if I was going to be stripped naked and hung upside-down over a mountaintop fire by sinister hooded figures in the light of a full moon

Just another day in Oban. Or not.

Relapse present the metalgaze album of the year?

Full album stream:

now streaming
Tombs - Winter Hours

http://www.winterhours.info/

"Winter Hours" is scheduled for release on February 17 in North America (February 23 internationally) via Relapse Records. The CD was recorded at the Etching Tin Studios in Richmond, Virginia with engineer Ian Whalen.

will this album crossover to a wider audience? i.e fans of these bands: My Bloody Valentine, Swans, Black Flag, Wetnurse, Helmet, Killing Joke, Botch, Dazzling Killmen, Husker Du.

elements of: sludge metal, post-metal, hardcore, shoegaze, experimental rock, mathcore, math-rock

Very, very keen to hear that. Site doesn't want to load for me right now, though.

relapse server is down

it's back
http://www.winterhours.info/

i can also detect some similarity to Withered on this Tombs album - the way the guitars have that buzzing backwards post-black metal reverb

Tomb track: Seven stars of the angel of death - has a Killing Joke vibe - Killing Joke circa 1990 on Extremities, Dirt & Various Repressed Emotions

Yup. That's pretty bloody great. On the list, underlined.

elements of: sludge metal, post-metal, hardcore, shoegaze, experimental rock, mathcore, math-rock

hmmm. sounds mighty intriguing, especially given the reference to extremities, dirt...

the head of david rumour is no longer a rumour, btw.

will this album crossover to a wider audience? i.e fans of these bands: My Bloody Valentine, Swans, Black Flag, Wetnurse, Helmet, Killing Joke, Botch, Dazzling Killmen, Husker Du.

elements of: sludge metal, post-metal, hardcore, shoegaze, experimental rock, mathcore, math-rock

you know, they can say this stuff, but as someone who has listened to a fair amount of "shoegaze, experimental rock, mathcore and math-rock" but not a lot of metal, the tombs album doesn't sound especially different from most other metal albums to my ears. so i'm guessing the crossover elements are exaggerated. i am a philistine though.

interesting that I can't find Tombs on:

Metal-Archives
http://www.metal-archives.com/

I finally heard the Gods & Queens album, holy shit hear it if you haven't.

mind you metal-archives also don't include: Converge or The Angelic Process

with Tombs there is a heavy shoegaze, hardcore and indeed industrial-rock twist embedded into their sound vortex - that's why the metal purists have probably barred them from metal-archives

got that tombs album the other day, ppl tar me as a "purist" sometimes but I thought that album was great

it was actually the first metal record I'd heard this year that did much for me til I heard Gods & Queens

Tombs sounds very 90s to me; like I dunno, a boogie-less meeting of Neurosis, Tad and Fudge Tunnel? But then "Beneath the Toxic Jungle" that has a black metal lead riff.
(Note that I've not heard the album, I've just played the stuff on their myspace page)

earlier this year i compared Cobalt and Sólstafir to The God Machine

thinking of the 90s reference there are some The God Machine vibes in Tombs music

Apparently I'm going to have to break down and order that Tombs album on Amazon. I haven't been able to get the Relapse promo player to work for a couple months now and it seems that Relapse's distribution (around Chicago at least) has gone to shit. Their stuff hasn't been showing up in stores until a month or two after the release date. Long way of saying, haven't heard Tombs yet... but I'm really anxious to do so.

jon, i just saw the tombs album on vinyl at metal haven the other day, guessing they probably have it on cd too

That's one place I haven't looked yet. I need to make a trip down there this week, thanks for the heads up.

I should qualify that when I say "great" I don't mean it's breaking down any doors or anything

Well, damn. The J0hn D. stamp of approval is what made me so anxious to hear it! Actually it sounds like it would be right up my alley.

imagine Fugazi or an Am-Rep band drowning in a sea of shoegazy reverb and noise... panicking and thrashing, desperately trying to claw their way out.

Gods & Queens description on brooklynvegan, could definitely hang with this. and the last j0hn recommendation i hit was wetnurse, so yeah i will be checking this out.

That Gods & Queens is great, definitely check it out!

add to "tombs curious" list

I nominated Gods And Queens on the metal poll

I'm really liking the new Blut Aus Nord album. It is, as the Memoria Vetusta II title implies, a little more accessible than their last couple, but I kind of think that maybe (unlike with Deathspell Omega) they were closer to their personal strengths in that mode, and the combination of focus plus distance ("maturity"? experience?) sounds pretty good to me.

I've also been doing some remedial catalog-spelunking while things are still pretty quiet on the new-release front, and am really enjoying Ven Buens Ende's old album Written in Waters. A Black Metal Classic, I've been assured by the internet, but I had never heard of it until a few days ago. Excitingly strange, in no small part because it was done in 1995 before as many of the genre-tropes had been trope-ified.

Re Gods & Queens: singer has some faint Perry Farrell overtones to his voice (or to the combination of his voice and my ears) that totally ruin it for me.

another Relapse album stream, this time from Obscura from German tech death-metal band, will give it a listen tomorrow

OBSCURA: Entire New Album Available For Streaming
http://bit.ly/CU0s4

"Cosmogenesis", the second full-length album from German death metallers OBSCURA, is available for streaming in its entirety at ObscuraCosmogenesis.com. The CD is being released in the U.S. today (February 17) via Relapse Records (March 2 internationally). The CD features guest appearances from Ron Jarzombek (WATCHTOWER, SPASTIC INK, BLOTTED SCIENCE) and Tymon Kruidenier (CYNIC, EXIVIOUS). "The new album sounds very intense and brutal", the band says in a statement.

Obscura - Cosmogenesis
http://www.obscuracosmogenesis.com/

Glenn, that Ved Buens Ende is a classic. If you like it, you'll probably enjoy the entire Ludicra catalog, as well as their new band Virus.

That's Ved's new band I mean. Ludicra are still Ludicra (and thanks Satan for that!).

BTW - new Wolves in the Throneroom E.P. is the best thing I've heard in 2009 so far.

I think the Obscura is one of my surprise albums of the year so far. It has better songwriting than Necrophagist and some great fretless bass playing. I've had a few people compare it to Human-era Death so far, but I don't really think they're comparable. Two completely different beasts.

Picked it up on vinyl a few weeks ago when I was in Philadelphia. Cool packaging with a diecut sleeve inside and nice blue vinyl.

Made a huge mistake I think on Tuesday night. Instead of going to the Meshuggah/Cynic show in Toronto I took the offer for a free ticket to the Soilwork/Darkane/Warbringer/Swallow The Sun show that same night across town.

Swallow The Sun were best band of the night. They made the most of what they had, stage and PA-wise, and received rapturous response from the 450 or so in the hall. Warbringer were bad. 10th grade retro thrash from a bunch of kids trying way too hard to please. Not looking forward to seeing them again on the Kreator tour in a month or so. Darkane did a good job but the PA wasn't doing them any favors. No vocals for the first song, guitars inaudible until the middle of the second. However, they pulled through any problems and did a great job. Soilwork ended the night. I am not a fan, never have been. They were okay but all I could think of by this point was how Cynic's set went over and what the fuck was I thinking not going to see them anyway.

yeah, I love the new wolves in the throne room ep. best thing they've done to date.

Picked it up on vinyl a few weeks ago when I was in Philadelphia.

where? who is selling metal now that the relapse store is closed?

Relapse's warehouse. I used to work in another life. I even met 'unperson' a few times in person during my time there (although I doubt he remembers).

Relapse's warehouse. I used to work there in another life. I even met 'unperson' a few times in person during my time there (although I doubt he remembers).

so i was streaming the tombs album earlier and couldn't make it past the fourth song. all the black-metal-referencing melodies sounded really really familiar, and not in a good way.

I even met 'unperson' a few times in person during my time there (although I doubt he remembers).

Yeah, I came down there interviewing for what became Carl Schultz's job.

Listening to the live bonus disc on the reissue of Amon Amarth's Once Sent from the Golden Hall right now. I vastly prefer Johan Hegg's current, lower vocals to his earlier, more black-metal-influenced screech, so the live versions of these songs are actually much better, to my ear, than the old studio recordings.

Metal Inquisition has quite an amazing investigation of Manowar's life in Auburn, New York when they're not playing to tens of thousands of people in Europe:

http://metalinquisition.blogspot.com/2009/02/metal-inquisition-investigative-report_20.html

BAN
G
YOUR
HEAD

awesome inbestigative reporting

by which i mean omfg lol dr peppar

Swallow The Sun are fucking great

metal inquisition article is kind of a bummer. ;__; I like metal inquisition and all but the mean-spiritedness gives me a vice mag vibe sometimes.

wasn't feeling the new buried inside but maybe I just wasn't in an angry hardcore guy screaming at me at 8am mood. switched over to the new blut aus nord instead. loving it on first listen. surprisingly melodic for a hypnotic, repetitive black metal album. (especially after that dissonance fest a couple years back.) plus, it swings.

last few tracks are especially strong.

Dudes, you were all right about that God Forbid album. Pretty awesome.

lissening to tombs. liveblog! first track = boring, though scary-pretty at times. screamo vox a huge problem, gotta admit. almost gave up, but "golden eyes", holy shit! esp dig the straight-up, heavy-handed rock drumming. first half of "beneath the toxic jungle" is great too. then it drags again. don't dig the stonefaced blackened postrock when they play it straight. want more catchy shit. and the ambient stuff is straight filler.

second half (side 2) ups gaze quotient, for the better. "the divide" could easily be some midwest amrep also ran. hammerhead? really, really prefer the less hysterical vocals here. dude should pull back more often. good shit, fucking standout track. jeez, now that i think about it, hammerhead/vaz seem like the template for a lot of this record's tricks. beyond the more obvious godflesh thing i mean. "merrimack" goes back to the wounded howling (with some embarassing "look inside your soul" lyrics), but melodicism saves it. kinda started to tune back out after that.

really nice guitar tones throughout, raw and sharp, albini-ish, kinda, but thicker, more lo-end luv. clink clanky junkyard cymbals are weird, but maybe that's just the rip. good record, though the harder they try to crush my soul, the more bored i get. serious godflesh vibes on the 2nd half of "filled with secrets".

super short! without the short interludes, only about 33 min. probably for the best at this stage, though i'm surprised they don't stretch out more.

^ maybe that sounds too unimpressed/bitchy. i dug it, spun it twice, will listen again.

maybe i gotta go back to the stream and try the second half. i was def. not crazy about the recording or vox, and when they would toss in a blastbeat and black metal riff it just sounded kind rote; not like they felt it needed to be there.

I'm glad the Tombs isn't more than 33 minutes. Any longer would have been overkill...this album gets it right, concise and catchy.

Metal Inquisition has quite an amazing investigation of Manowar's life in Auburn, New York when they're not playing to tens of thousands of people in Europe

So let's see here. They invade the privacy of older acts in unfortunate circumstances but can't afford to pay for their own domain separate from blogspot.com. Or get the font in their captions right. Or distinguish a photo of an air-conditioner from a microwave oven.

I found that Manowar "expose" very cruel and tasteless.

A band known for it's taste..

I don't remember the band ever being cruel. They're having fun. What's wrong with that?

Never said there was!

They invade the privacy of older acts in unfortunate circumstances but can't afford to pay for their own domain separate from blogspot.com. Or get the font in their captions right. Or distinguish a photo of an air-conditioner from a microwave oven

or worse yet (and more likely) just doesn't care enough about his own writing to. a skilled writer could have used this information to paint a sad and profound portrait about what happens to bands that are at some point able to quit their day jobs for a music career, and spend the prime of their lives doing something for love that won't continue to pay the bills once they get too old to keep going. i have NO idea if this is the case with these guys, but it seems like something that could easily happen to musicians.

just saying it would be a hell of a lot more interesting than "lol they r poor"

"They don't live in a castle. OMGZ. Such loserz!!!!"

when all is said and done, i wonder who has seen and done more awesome things in their lives: metal internet blogger, or...

http://www.metalyou.com/img/history/p2.jpg

just read that blog, you guys werent kidding about it being cruel.

Yes, now no one will ever mistake them (or it) for being sissies to charity or the pure milk of human kindness.

pretty fucked up, imo

I didn't like MI's mocking of Eric Adams' drywalling job, that was unnecessary. However, anything that brings Joey DeMaio down a peg or two is fine.

How have Man O War (they) sinned? C'mon, tell us, how they've been predatory
assholes. Other than the big crime of being absurd and harmless boasters for over fifteen
years (which many of their fans know is a joke and enjoy.)

Y'know, there's an ocean of difference between saying someone's made a mediocre to lame
record and just randomly condemning a group because their rentals or properties aren't on the
Santa Barbara, CA, mesa. (And do you even know where this is?) I'm astonished this requires a protest.

How many metal communities could withstand scrutiny nailing them on not being economically superior? It seems to me there was a documentary on Anvil last year, one which was sincere and painful but which everyone chose to ignore. Who watched that?

OK, let's just agree to shit on those who boast and don't go multi-platinum in the US.

Y'know, if you're going to critique groups -- a valid thing. Do it on the basis of taste and leave the character and class assassinations aside -- unless they've really asked for it. (Country rock comes to mind as a better target than metal.) Twenty years ago anyone could have written they didn't like Manowar's first album because it was cheesy and OTT. (I really liked it.) It featured a vocal overdub by Orson Welles, the guy who made the alleged best movie ever, Citizen Kane, but who was better known then for endorsing cheap wine.

Did you learn any of this reading Metal Inquisition? Nope. And I've just tossed it off the
cuff. Wow. What a bunch of probers they are. The Manowar guys are lower middle classmen. Nominate that blog for a Pulitzer.

I can see how people reading that as an introductory point to Metal Inquisition would be sort of cheesed off by it but it fits into a really large proportion of what they write, which is this completely self-mocking and backhanded celebration of pseudo-idolatry in metal and, like, being a kid and thinking that bands who give it all that on stage must be really living the high life... then figuring out in later life that they're actually hopeless broke cases like yourself

Oh, so they're doing a community service by teaching kids that being a metal star isn't all it's cracked up to be?

Er, no

As a longtime Metal Inquisition reader, I'm gonna speak up for them. I think Mencap's got it right - look at the title of the blog: "Metal Inquisition." In an admittedly often mean-spirited way, they deflate metal, looking at where these guys really live (they did one on Joey Belladonna recently, too, though it wasn't nearly as in-depth as the Manowar one) or what they do outside of performing and recording, but at the same time they make fun of their own ridiculousness as obsessed fans of the genre. But it's done from a position of real fandom - I have no doubt that those guys really love Manowar's music, because who would do such a thing about a band they didn't care about? Look at their recent post on Suicidal Tendencies, or their whole "wigger slam" thing - they're obsessed with this weird sub-sub-variant of death metal that seems entirely confined to MySpace, and have written numerous posts lovingly describing ultra-obscure bands no one but meth-addled teenagers could ever possibly like. These guys are fans, and I think the post was funny and informative all at once. Besides, as Michael O'Donoghue said, "Making people laugh is the lowest form of comedy."

^^^

seriously, read any of their posts about their lives as teenage metal nerds before you get too upset, dudes.

reading through this now and they've got some funny stuff. the post about "screamo crunk" is classic.

i thought it was funny. and mean as hell, and way too long, but the funny bits are funny. i laughted at "a fifteen year old American coupe with four cylinders that puts out a 'meh' inducing 110 horse power." (mostly due to "meh" nostalgia, but still.) also: "Joey, I don't care if you are the King Of Metal. You better be the King Of Weeding, go out there and take care of that driveway!" i dunno. i like the dumb shit.

meh nostalgia?

yeah things are becoming a little more clear

they are nerds ergo it is funny

:/

that site is great if for no other reason than directing me to this essential campaign:

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ImYY_HdAPxI/SQpvSNATdvI/AAAAAAAAAAM/aVgD3BpPUA8/s1600-h/StriborgCampaign.jpg

ford probes are funny, striborg is really funny, talking about the price of people's houses isn't really that funny.

^

What everyone in this thread has failed to grasp, as well as the bros at Metal Inquisition, is that those aren't the houses where each member of Manowar lives. Those are each member's secret entrance to the cavernous Hall of Metal craved deep below the earth's surface.

"carved" too, dammit.

Ha, that could very well be true.

Say what you will about Manowar, I can't help but admire their little self-made empire. Few bands have that kind of freedom to allow them to be not so much musicians as auteurs.

craved could work, maybe like "craven"?

Whatever about the Manowar thing, Metal Inquisition are totally right about Origin.

"The Great Plains" sounds ridiculously great. Is Scale the Summit like that, generally?

I also love the Wolves In The Throne Room EP

Metal Inquisition is classic for "Rob Flynn's Disease" alone

yeah sometimes they mistake being assholes for being funny but whatevs that's pretty much everyone here innit

I just heard the new Lacuna Coil song, "Spellbound." I'm a little unsure what makes them more metal than, say, Evanescence. Was it a misperception I had that they were?

That new Lacuna Coil track sounds like In This Moment doing a song for the Twilight soundtrack. Not bad overall, but a little underwhelming too.

Meanwhile, it's been a day of good post-metal (or whatever you want to call it) for yours truly...first the impressive new Isis, and then my first listen to the new Irepress album, which is really knocking my socks off.

What did you think of the 2nd half of the Irepress?

I'm perfectly fine with it, sidestepping the heavy math stuff a little bit in favour of some Krautrock/Boards of Canada/King Crimson noodling.

is anybody even remotely considering the scion rockfest in atlanta this weekend? it's just a three-hour drive for me, and wow wotta lineup, but it seems to have potential for being a clusterfuck of apocalyptic proportions.

I would love to be there for it, but I wasn't going to pay for a flight down to Atlanta for a festival that I had about a 1% chance of actually getting into.

I'm going to try hard to be there.

OUTDOOR STAGE
1:00-1:40pm Kylesa
2:00-2:40pm Torche
3:00-3:40pm Baroness
4:00-4:50pm Boris
5:10-5:40pm Pig Destroyer
6:00-7:00pm High On Fire
7:30pm-9:00pm Neurosis
9:30pm-11:00pm Mastodon