Mordy's Metal Listening Club - New Albums Every Monday

As discussed on the rolling metal thread.
It's the same kinda thing as a book club but with Metal records instead obviously. Mordy, for some reason , wanted me to do it, but there should be no-one in charge. However I am happy to start things off with 3 albums (no more than 1 album per sub-genre I suppose is fair?)
Links to illegal d/ls should not be posted here, but if you dont own them then do as you need to. Spotify links will be provided if they are available for those who have it (for north american ilx0rs, i believe there's a way round it which someone will provide info when asked)

So how about

Album #1: Stoner Rock/Metal
Kyuss - Blues For The Red Sun (1992)
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_oTIl59RWQ6M/Sm39rJgm-bI/AAAAAAAAABw/DNSUAleqpkM/s320/kyuss.jpg
Spotify Link

Album #2:: Death Metal
Entombed - Wolverine Blues (1993)
http://freemindrecords.com.br/lojaonline/images/entombed_wolverine.jpg
Spotify Link

Album #3: Sludge proggy metal?
Mastodon - Remission (2002)
http://www.burningworldrecords.com/typo3temp/pics/0dfe9ccfa5.jpg
(not on Spotify)

And I guess we all meet here next week and discuss it?

Any form of rules or whatever can be discussed here.

Have fun, fiends!

http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/uncyclopedia/images/b/b4/Fiends.png

Awesome. This is gonna be great (I hope!)

I went with the Kyuss because I thought it might be an easier way in for a lot of people a bit wary of "metal", but chose this album because (apart from being a classic) it's probably not as well known as Welcome To Sky Valley , but this is their heaviest album. Brant Bjork and Nick Oliveri were still in the band then along with Josh Homme & John Garcia.

Entombed I chose so j0hn wouldn't accuse me of ignoring Death Metal and Mastodon cuz It's their best album.

In my experience, there isn't an easy way into metal that just skips over what can often be frustrating/dissonant/opaque -- mostly because those emotions are at the heart of the experience. It's not supposed to be pleasant to listen to -- which is one of the things I tend to love most about really black metal. It doesn't try to meet you half-way as a listener.

thx for starting this mordy! i'm psyched, because sometimes i need a "reason" to listen to old stuff and so this is pretty much the perfect imperative.

I have two Kyuss albums, but not that one! Nor do I have the Entombed, have to do some digging.

i'm gonna do entombed. getting it now.

hey forks herman asked me to fix the tags in the first post here and i have realized i am too stupid and post bar to do so, so if you want to take a crack at it, be my guest.

If you may be so inclined, the Kyuss is only $7.99 on iTunes.

all fixed.

oh man, great idea guys. looking forward to this

jeez. apparently, I sold my copy of wolverine blues. that was dumb.

still have the other two.

this is a good idea, too bad i can't get into metal no matter how hard i try.

Bee OK: Have you tried Baroness (Blue Record) or Mastodon (Crack the Skye)?

nope, but i have heard Mastodon in the past and they really didn't do anything for me.

give belphegor a shot, they are kind of an easy entrance point

Either that or abruptum, they have kind of an indie sensibility and some great dance beats

nope, but i have heard Mastodon in the past and they really didn't do anything for me.

― Bee OK, Tuesday, April 13, 2010 12:08 AM

not sure what Mastodon you heard, but both of the records i listed above crossed over to the indie crowd last year, so if you're ever interested in listening to a little metal, you may want to check them out

OK will try them out, i just think i'm into pop type of songs and metal really don't have a lot of those. that being said i'm much more of an album guy than a singles guy, so a good album will always win me over.

that was xpost to jjjusten post.

ksh thanks for the recommendations.

no problem!

ok now i feel bad and need to clearly state that my suggestions should not be trusted

baroness blue record (esp steel that sleeps the eye) seriously recommended to bee oks that feel curious about these things - much more so than recent mastodon

plus thanks you pfunkboy for having this great idea - wolverine blues doesn't get anywhere near enough attention these days

Wow, thanks. This is exactly the sort of thing I always think I should be part of but do nothing about, so will try much harder this time.

contenderizer OTM re "Steel That Sleeps the Eye"

Giving the Entombed a spin now. It's not really death metal now, is it? When I think death metal I think of the usual stuff, The Bleeding and whatnot. It's alright, though.

That Entombed disc is my second favorite by them. Clandestine is my absolute favorite; I never really loved Left Hand Path, canonical though it may be.

Contenderizer dont thank me, thank mordy, the listening club is his idea.

Kyuss: This is exactly why I generally steer away from anything labeled "Stoner". Dull, slow, dull, unfocused, dull. Come to think of it, I rarely like anything called "Blues for" anything, either. Stoner blues: not my genre. Hate the moany singing, hate the long-song/short-thing album structure. Basically, I like nothing about this. I started track-skipping after about track 4, and gave up completely with 3 or 4 songs still to go. Moving on.

First thought re: Kyuss -- barely even sounds like metal. Really just hard rock.

you guys are nuts

Well Mordy's not exactly wrong. And glenn just doesn't got for this type of thing, fair enough. Can't say I agree with him though.

Had never heard this Entombed album, although I'm familiar with them from later stuff. Never liked their singer at all, and never liked their music enough to be too sad about not liking their singer. Rarely like the whole strained-macho-yelling school of Death Metal vocals, although certainly there's nothing inherently worse about it than other extreme styles I do like. I like the faster bits of the music more than the lurching, grinding bits; perhaps this is the "blues" thing striking again. I'm perfectly willing to believe that this is an examplar of Death Metal, and I don't dislike the subgenre on principle, but I think it's one of the lower-yield subgenres of Metal for me, personally.

Btw, I'm not saying I dislike it. It's a lot of fun to listen to and has some great moments (I wanna listen to it a couple more times at least). It just doesn't scream metal at me -- at least not any more than like Queens of the Stone Age, Velvet Revolver, etc. (lol Velvet Revolver, I know.) The Mastodon so far is really interesting. I'm used to their more recent material. This is a lot less groovier and a lot more -- wild? uncontrolled? esp on a song like "Workhouse" where is sounds like the band is lit playing themselves to death. It's totally wild (which I love).

"Ol'e Nessie" is more the Mastodon I'm used to.

It never gets better than Crusher/Destroyer

and Kyuss - 60 Million Year Trip is one of my top 10 tracks ever. From an all time classic album. I LOVE KYUSS! Getting into Kyuss in the mid 90s was the best thing I ever did. I then worked my way into Vitus and doom metal from there (along with a whole load of fantastic stoner rock before the genre went stale)

Actually, I think I bought Blues For The Red Sun because it was #2 to Alice In Chains - Dirt (my fave album that year) in raw or kerrangs albums of the year (back when those lists were great)

50 Million Year Trip! My copy has 10 million less years than yours apparently???

Dirt! That's what I was thinking it reminded me a lot of.

haha typo

Dirt if it was written in a desert minus the heroin addiction with a singer who had never really been into metal whose fave band was EW&F.
I dont believe they had never heard Sabbath at the time though. Josh homme claimed all they listened to was SST bands and the local desert rock bands like Yawning Man.

lol, I guess it makes sense that Kyuss sounds like QOTSA.

5 songs into kyuss. it's basically just hard rock in a vein that doesn't really do it for me. too much classic-rock-derived riffing, and the singer is pretty uninspiring.

50 mil year trip was the first song that did anything for me on this--i like the woozy desert solo jam as it closes out.

apothecaries' weight is pretty good too. stop singing, stop recycling old riffs, just jam endlessly.

when you say stop recycling old riffs, do you mean from before that record was made? Because the fact that every stoner band has copied Kyuss since shouldn't take away from how awesome and unique Kyuss were at the time.

no i mean the 70s hard rock they were lifting from.

So I now have acquired all three of these, will probably start with the Entombed as that is the one I am least familiar with.

please tell me the songs they stole riffs from

::sigh:: you know when you hear something and it just kind of reminds you of a lot of other stuff, not in a specific way, but in a way that makes it feel like well-trod territory? that is what this sounds like to me.

uh i srsly have heard like exactly zero 2010 albums to pimp on this list, i have had a very very digging backwards year so next monday could be a problem

Get crackin'!

I'll switch with you if you want to get an extra week's worth of listening in.

if noone else volunteers ilxor and markers might. So hurry!

*raises hand*...

I haven't heard much this year but Herman's insisting that I volunteer. Sorry in advance, you guys.

18 October - JJ
25 October - EZ Snappin
1 November - Aldo
8 November - glenn
15 November (2020) - ilxor

Now we're talking.

ok but srsly some one else needs to take next week. i got nothin

18 October - EZ Snappin
25 October - Glenn
1 November - Aldo
8 November - JJ
15 November (2020) - ilxor

Get listening!

ok ok.

A day late and dollar short but here's my picks for some overlooked gems of 2010:

Across Tundras - Old World Wanderer

http://www.progarchives.com/progressive_rock_discography_covers/4077/cover_18192342010.jpg

They're giving it away so no excuses

Black Bombaim - Saturdays And Space Travels

http://img192.imageshack.us/img192/7734/blackbombain.jpg

They're giving it away so no excuses

Samsara Blues Experiment - Long Distance Trip

http://www.progarchives.com/progressive_rock_discography_covers/5307/cover_4818152522010.jpg

They aren't giving it away (I bought the import from All That Is Heavy) so it's up to you if you find a way to hear it.

Across Tundras are great.

I really enjoy the Black Bombaim record; I'll always have room for crazy Earthless style psyche-metal jamming.

ok you sold me, i found it too.

(thanks to your link obviously)

Do Samsara Blues Experiment sound like Colour Haze?

A bit. One of the many German stoner rock bands playing on that same ballfield. There are some cuts up on youtube if you wan't to check it out before hunting it down.

i found it quite easily. will report back.

have you ever heard My Sleeping Karma?

No I haven't. Similar kind of thing?

instrumental proggy spacey psych with keyboards!

check your email dude

MSK have toured Europe with Brant Bjork, they've played Roadburn too.

thanks for the black bombaim rec, it sounds great so far.

Liking the Samsara Blues Experiment album so far.

I think you will really like MSK. You got anything else to recommend in this vein?
Do you like Monkey 3 or any of those bands?

I think everything else I've heard like that i got from Rolling Metal threads (like Monkey 3). I really loved the Ancestors record last year that is a kissing cousin of this stuff, and Sula Bassana's The Night is more proggy spacerock stuff but I think it was overlooked.

Have you heard the Hawkwind Triad record from this past summer? Minsk, US Christmas and Harvestman doing Hawkwind tunes. Pretty amazing.

Yeah, they were out as 7" singles previously.

ez you listen to the MSK?

No chance yet. It'll be a few days before I have enough time to get straight through the album. I hate having to stop and start the first time I hear something.

until i got to listen more closely to that black bombain record, i didn't realize how insane the bass parts were on the one song. for like five minutes there's just this incessant thumping, i couldn't quite tell sometimes if it was the bass or the kick drum or both. by the end i felt a little sick, which is awesome.

the dawnbringer record seems quite good—especially the riffs, the song structures, and the mixture of nwobhm and black metal sounds (especially the playing that's usually there in black metal but obscured by the sound)—but the vocal performance is kind of disappointing, flat. i can see how it might make sense to people with some different tastes, though. also, this is just me, but i really dislike it when metal bands fall back on acoustic intro/outro/interludes. whatever the effect that seems intended, it usually comes off as completely unimaginative and uninspired. although the tuneless bit on the last song was actually effective, for once.

Started my day with the My Sleeping Karma record and it's pretty good. Started better than it ended, but when they were jamming I really enjoyed it. Would totally see them live if they came over to the States.

Will post picks in the morning...

3 more interesting and underdiscussed 2010 releases:

http://www.metalkingdom.net/album/img/d3/29452.jpg
Ea - Au Ellai
Elegiac atmospheric whisper doom

http://www.metalkingdom.net/album/img/d38/27587.jpg
Mandrake - Innocence Weakness
Goth prog death pop

http://www.metalkingdom.net/album/img/d3/26952.jpg
Negură Bunget - Vîrstele Pamîntului
Eldritch tangled-vine forest-folk metal

Never even heard fo these glenn. Should be interesting.

That Ea record is pretty great. Wonderful vibe, which I was I want from any atmospheric metal.

The Mandrake is actively not my thing; they seem to be a dash of this thing I dislike with a smidgen of that thing I dislike and then a big dollop of stuff I really, really don't like.

Negură Bunget is for after lunch.

I am going to be late next week btw, will be away from internets until Tuesday.

I love the Negură Bunget record! I'm playing it again this morning; it's keeping me from the Kylesa which is saying something. Just the right mix of elements to grab me, including what sounds like a raging high pipe in "Ochiul Inimii".

Thanks Glenn. I don't know whether you're on the weirdest promo list or what, but year after year there seems to be something you recommend out of left field that pushes my buttons.

I am on no promo lists. I come by all discoveries the old fashioned way: download everything I ever hear of, delete all but .1% after 1 minute of the second song and 10 seconds of the fifth.

Where are you hearing of stuff like Negură Bunget? I need to widen my metal 'net horizons.

Well, I would have told you I found about them on Rolling Metal 2008, but Google says that the person who mentioned them on Rolling Metal 2008 was me, so apparently it was somewhere else. But what I do in situations like this, where I happen across something I didn't know about that seems like it could be a vein of greatness, is search for blogs that review them or post their albums, subscribe to a bunch of them, and then weed them back out again if they turn out to mostly produce goregrind or deathcore or something else I don't need more of...

Although chances are decent that my discovery of Negura Bunget had something to do with either Rotting Christ or Estonia.

Love the idea that you introduced them to yourself; you rewrote the narrative in your mind and were surprised to learn otherwise.

I should do more review hunting and sourcing; when I have in the past I haven't enjoyed the results much, but that's on me as I'm not good at weeding things out - I still have tons of dead blogs in my regular reads folder.

What? Me? Do another week? OK.

http://www.metalkingdom.net/album/img/d1/26850.jpg
Kathaarsys: Intuition
Weirdo jazz-fission prog-out

http://www.hellbound.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Nechochwen_lowrescover.gif
Nechochwen: Azimuths to the Otherworld
Ambient tribal metal

http://www.metalkingdom.net/album/img/d1/27000.jpg
Xasthur: Portal of Sorrow
It's always darkest right before the sun gets sucked inside-out

That Xasthur album is his artistic peak. Shame it's his farewell gesture.

I've heard of two of these Glenn! You're losing your touch.

I was just going to come and do mine. I did say I was going to be late..

Kerr, what does the schedule going forward look like?

Just post yours. There's room for everyone

Okay.

Celeste - Morte(s) Nee(s)

http://denovali.com/celeste/mortes400.jpg

Free download here (but the packaging is lovely, so you should buy it): http://www.denovali.com/celeste/

Are they French? Who knows. There seems to be a suspicion this band are not exactly who they seem, but who cares. Blackened Doom of the highest quality.

Murmuure - Murmuure

http://s.dsimg.com/image/R-2500715-1287427847.jpeg

http://www.myspace.com/murmuure

Damn if this isn't becoming my album of the year. Avant-Black, like if Zombi put a BM production on everything.

Titan - Sweet Dreams

http://shop.relapse.com/dbimages/sleeves/sweetdreams_362.jpg

http://www.myspace.com/titanaut

Previous releases have been Space/Kraut behemoths with heavy psych overtones, but the move to Relapse adds Steve Moore which pads ut the sound in maybe the ways you'd expect. Awesome.

3 really really good albums there.

I've tried twice to get into Celeste and failed, and Titan didn't appeal to me any more than I expected from the description, but I'm liking Murmuure quite a bit.