Rolling Metal Thread 2013

Let's do this, postapocalypse style!

HAILS!!!!!!!!!!!

New Voivod album in January. New song sounds great on the one-sized 7" I picked up at their Oakland show with YOB and Neurosis.

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/tracks/14327-mechanical-mind/

The new Voivod album is outstanding. Phobos and Hatross were sort of the models Blacky and Mongrain used when they wrote the new songs.

Gotta say right off the bat, my fave new album of 2013 so far is Audrey Horne's Youngblood. They've ditched their bland modern hard rock in favour of straight-up Rainbow worship, and do they ever nail it. Part Long Live Rock 'n' Roll, part Down to Earth, part Straight Between the Eyes. Their singer has a total Joe Lynn Turner thing going on, it's uncanny. It's just a simple, fun heavy metal album with loads and loads of great melodies.

It's 4 a.m. and my dickhead drunk neighbors woke me up just like last year, yay. Wish I could blast some Motorhead but I got neighbors above me who don't deserve it.

I'm looking forward to, along with Voivod,

Void Of Sleep – Tales Between Reality And Madness (Aural) 22-Jan
Flight Of Sleipnir – Saga (Eyes Like Snow) 15-Feb
Purson – The Circle And The Blue Door (Rise Above) 18-Mar
Uncle Acid & The Dead Beats – Mind Control (Rise Above) 22-Mar

So pumped about that Purson record. Didn't know it was coming out that soon!

I heard about a new Will Haven EP coming in the spring..

New Pinkish Black tops my most anticipated list. No eta, but recording is finished.

i mentioned it on the 2012 thread already but my most anticipated release is the new orphaned land

someone said in the 2012 thread that rolling metal is full of the best dudes, and my couple months spent over there proved that to be true. looking forward to hanging out here in 2013, looking slightly less forward to turning into a metal dude. no offense to anyone, of course.

Resistance is futile, you WILL be assimilated.

I like metal.

Alpine, no one is expecting you to burn a church or slaughter a goat in an offering to the darklord...

..not yet anyway.

Hails and welcome!!!!

Butif you find youself driving by any gathering of peeps and have the urge to stick your head out the window and yell at the, "SLAYER", you have in fact become a metal dude

*yell at them

How Slayer saved my wedding speech -- My best friend got married in Oakland in October and I was her "man of honor." I gave a fun speech that started with an account of how she was kicked out of a Stooges show, got some laughs, got into the mushy part about friendship and her growing relationship with her husband and I was in danger of choking up. I said, "I'm getting verklempt . . . SLAYER!!!!!" It totally rebooted me and I was able to finish no problemo. People loved it, I got many compliments that it was the best wedding speech ever. So thank you Slayer, hail Satan.

You know, while Enslaved are getting all the old-man-black-metal kudos (and deservedly so), Rotting Christ have really been doing some next level stuff as well without nearly as much recognition (I guess it would help if they toured over here more often). Their upcoming record is already getting 2013 off to a kick ass start for me.

I heard about a new Will Haven EP coming in the spring..

― SeanWayne, Tuesday, 1 January 2013 19:44 (Yesterday)

Did I miss an entire album from them? The reunion album with Grady? If so, I need that...

I liked the last Rotting Christ a lot; that track with Diamanda Galas was amazing. Will have to check out the new one.

So Earache is staging a Scion-cosponsored 25th Anniversary show in California, and they've got four of their current bands - Oceano, Vektor, Bonded By Blood, and White Wizzard - playing. No old acts. Now, I get that a) Earache's trying to show that they're living in present tense, and looking forward, etc., etc., and b) a lot of their old bands (Napalm Death) hate them now, but shouldn't an anniversary show exhibit some sense of history?

Yes Nate.. they put out an record with Grady the end of 2011, "Voir Dire"... its great. But I don't know what happened after that, they did a very small run of shows, mainly in Europe then went dark.. I've been trying to get a line on what happened.. Only a little happy new year blurb from their facebook page, to check out side projects and a new WH ep..

Ok I'll make sure to grab that, thanks. I remember hearing one track and it was proper. Everything they've done with Grady is excellent. Such an misunderstood band.

xpost - I have a little insight into the Earache / Scion showcase and would say that the reason that there are no historic acts on it is budget-related. International flights add up, as do guarantees for bands that consider themselves important.

Misunderstood is a great way of putting, Nate. They get a bad rap almost for having close ties with Deftones and Slipknot that they get passed over as some nu metal thing, when they've never been..

Just got my Maryland Deathmetal Fest 3-day pass in the mail. Score.

Really digging this Beneath album "Enslaved By Fear" (as I said in the 2012 thread).

Plus Inveracity's Extermination of Millions from 2007, despite being Suffo-worship, is pretty damn fun.

Hail Slayer, Hail Dudes!

Oh man, finally closed on the new house and am in the middle of packing hell in prep for the big move on Friday. I'm really looking forward to Purson, Orphaned Land and Voivod for sure. Still catching up on 2012 though, this month has been crazy hectic for me (but all in good ways!).

btw love that we are getting acclaimed metal from a band named after a Twin Peaks character

Hail Slayer, happy new year!

the new Uncle Acid is the one that jumps out for me, and I suspect there will be LOTS of catching up to do with the metal poll roll-out coming soon...

Are Pessimist still around?

I loved Cult of the Initiated and just got a used copy of Blood for the Gods and realized I really miss these guys. Think they put out an album in 2007 that went unnoticed, but just find it weird that they were kinda blowing up in the underground (w/ a really positive mention in Metal Maniacs and an emerging buzz) and then they just kinda vanished.

Greetings all, another newbie to the thread saying hi.

As my first contribution, I'm looking forward to the new Desolate Shrine, discovered on PopMatters' Ragnarok Gloomy Awards list and due for release in February--not sure how it made a 2012 end of year list!.

I'm not really a death metal guy, but the previews sound fantastic. For those who mentioned the lack of solid death metal in the rolling 2012 thread, this could be for you. Or not, if my tastes are really that false metal.

And here's the Desolate Shrine preview clips:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZ9xMLNs6dc

Hey any of you guys that like proto-metal, Shadow Kingdom just did the Bolder Damn - Mourning album on CD. A-side tracks are a little boogie-rock with some MC5ish moments, B-side has the epic Dead Meat which is kinda classic.

http://shadowkingdomrecords.bandcamp.com/album/mourning

I want that. Cool that they are now carrying the Corsair album now too, though I already bought the CD via their bandcamp. Maybe I'll order the Bolder Damn with some Pagan Altar.

I'm considering starting a new rolling grind/PV thread for 2013, and I'd make more of an effort to keep it going this time. I assume there would be a few takers?

Yeah.

yeah go for it

Just because – http://www.decibelmagazine.com/featured/dave-mustaine-or-billy-corgan-who%E2%80%99s-crazier/

Oh man, that's being unfair to wrestling. I mean, Rick Rubin was a stakeholder in Smoky Mountain back in the '90s but no one thinks he's crazy, do they?

I interviewed Eugene Robinson for Burning Ambulance.

Thought you meant

http://i50.tinypic.com/2q37jbc.jpg

Which would've been cool but probably not thread-relevant.

Ha, I made that clear in the first sentence, actually: "Eugene S. Robinson (the S. is to distinguish him from the political pundit)"

Speaking of grind, I'm liking this new Blockheads record well enough. The cover art is pretty awesome, really devastating picture that fits well with the lyrics.

Just picked up those Pagan Altar reissues over lunch. I kinda don't like that Shadow Kingdom is only PayPal or Money Order. My PayPal account got jacked up years ago thanks to a mistake by my bank and every time I've tried to start reusing it, its been a huge pain in the ass.

The new rolling grind thread is here for side discussion among interested parties.

Don't want to be all AG about it, but the metal poll ends tomorrow night – get in your votes! 2012 NON-ELITIST ILM METAL POLL VOTING THREAD (Closes Jan 11th 2013 11:59pm Britishes Time)

Hey, so one of the previews for the film "Zero Dark Thirty" is set to a soundtrack that features the beginning of Scala & Kolacny Brothers ' goth-ethereal take on Metallica's "Nothing Else Matters" that segues into an absolutely crushing instrumental, monster guitar tone, much heavier than the full electric bit at the end of Metallica's own studio version. It's not on the (score) soundtrack. Any of you bright folks know anything about this, and how I might be able to (pay to) score a copy, so I can listen to it on repeat for a solid hour?

I suppose Kurt Ballou recorded/produced records are high on my 2013 anticipated list by default since I've come to seek out just about anything he works on. His 2013 slate so far, that I have been able to determine:

Nails
Skeletonwitch
Kvelertak
Nice Hooves
All Pigs Must Die
Baptists
Phantom Glue

I've heard tracks from Baptists, Nice Hooves and Phantom Glue so far -- all sound great.

Oh yeah, I heard the Baptists record yesterday and it rages. Sounds a lot like Converge when they play fast - that's probably Ballou's touch right there.

Got a press release for the new Ill Bill album. This hip hop release is relevant for the metal thread for three reasons:

1) The disc features HR of Bad Brains on a track.
2) The second song on the album is called "Paul Baloff" after the late Exodus singer.
3) He used to be in Non Phixion whose logo aped Voivod's nicely.

http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/_/20019593/Non+Phixion+NonPhixion.gif

I am hoping the album is loud and guitars and/or guitar samples are utilized in some way but I'm (still) a sucker for that.

The first track from Corrections House, "Hoax The System", is pretty great. Good enough that I'll try and catch them next month when they come to town.

http://youtu.be/RFrr4uXDihM

Just got the difficult to schedule second interview I needed for my first Noisey feature. Stoked!

anonymous?! i think he's a great vocalist

Finally got this year's Jex Thoth album. Wow, she really eats bandmembers, huh?

i've been listening to this year's beastwars album, trying to figure out how much i like it - it's obviously super - and i realize something that still puts me off-kilter is i don't really get their rhythmic sensibility. i don't think saying 'doom', etc., gets it right, because with the monster bass high up in the mix, the backgrounded role for the guitar, the tendency to repeat/sustain pulses kind of in place of riffs, and especially the clompy, snare-heavy drums - it's weird. as if it never locks in, it's just this constant surging. lumbering, i guess you'd say, except not all slow and lazy like you'd expect that to mean.

― j., Friday, December 20, 2013 10:54 PM (3 days ago)

Yeah, some of their rhythmic sensibility is kinda filtered through coming from that late 80s/early 90s NZ alt (Bailterspace et al) thing it's hard to get away from down here.

Also, if anyone wants A Very Beastwars Christmas:
"Thanks everyone for the great 2013. As is our tradition at this time of year both our albums are now "pay what you want". You can decide if it's us or you that gets the present - and now with the extra bonus of the "send as gift" feature on bandcamp you can give the album to all your friends. Cheers again, see you in 2014 with some brand new music.
http://beastwars.bandcamp.com/

I've been playing last year's Witchrist album "The Grand Tormentor" (on Osmose) a lot lately and I cannot recommend it enough, this might have become my favourite death metal album of the past five years. Combines Incantation, Bolt Thrower, Asphyx in a gloriously filthy and monstrously heavy way, the riffs are fantastic and the sound is immense. This is a big step up from their 2010 debut and a cut above what (otherwise v/ enjoyable) bands like Vastum, Coffins, Obliteration, War Master etc are doing.

ignored this album when I saw it on HHR because when a band fails at naming themselves this hard, why reward them, but Jesus fucking Christ this thing is tremendous

http://www.metacritic.com/feature/best-albums-of-2013

Deafheaven has the best-reviewed major album of 2013

While Kanye West's Yeezus 84 has been dominating critics' year-end top 10 lists, a slightly more under the radar release has quietly maintained its lead as 2013's highest-scoring album, where it has stood since midyear. And with that stellar 92 score, Sunbather—the second LP from San Francisco's Deafheaven—is now officially our best-reviewed album of the year.

It's the first time a metal album has occupied the #1 slot in our year-end rankings. In fact, out of albums with 15 more more reviews (excluding EPs and reissues), Sunbather is now the 7th-highest scoring album in our database, which includes releases dating back to 1999.

Pretty cool that a metal album has done that. Hopefully a seachange in critics view of metal has occurred.

Hopefully a seachange in critics view of metal has occurred.

Even if, that's just Step One. Now we need to wean them off shit like Deafheaven.

They're not ever gonna like Atilla, phil :P

As much as I will defend Sunbather as a well crafted piece of art, I don't think many people lining up to praise it today will be listening to it in 3 years.

Last Rites final four for our Metal Madness is Gorguts vs. Altar of Plagues and SubRosa vs. In Solitude. I'm cool with those. I'm guessing it will be Gorguts vs. SubRosa in the final but I have no clue who will win.

I would be very pleased to see your predictions come true, Erik. Both of those get my vote over IS or AoP.

So many words I usually flee from: "post-metal," "sludge," "americana," and best of all, "collaboration," but this is making my hair stand on end. Seems like it's been praised from one end of the internet to the other, yet somehow I've totally missed it. I rec listening to "Gods Much More Terrible" before "Wolves," out of this world though they both may be.
http://www.nocleansinging.com/2013/12/09/the-lions-daughter-and-indian-blanket-a-black-sea/

The "vinyl-/digital-only" thing is kinda ugh.

I know everyone is catching up on what they might of missed this year.. but the New Indian?!?.. Holy shit! crusty doom/sludge goodness

~~~ ILM METAL POLL 2013 - ALBUMS & TRACKS VOTING & CAMPAIGN THREAD~~~ (VOTING ENDS FRIDAY JANUARY 10th 11.59pm UK time/6.59pm EST) )

Devilock... Loving that Loin's Daughter and Indian Blanket.. not a fan of clean vox either but it works well with that..

And in "I think I've figured it out" news, Ghost is a goof. They can't be serious with that garbage. I can't get no more than 30 secs into it without rolling my eyes and shutting it down. The have to be putting on over on people, in an ICP sort of way..

Even if, that's just Step One. Now we need to wean them off shit like Deafheaven.

cosign

you take away the blast beats and that Deafheaven is a shoegaze record..

And not a very good one.

Pitchfork metal lists

http://pitchfork.com/features/show-no-mercy/9286-the-top-40-metal-albums-of-2013/

Not sure if this was posted already
NPR year end:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/bestmusic2013/2013/12/10/249243871/npr-musics-50-favorite-albums-of-2013

A couple metal albums on there.

http://www.invisibleoranges.com/2013/12/dont-listen-to-everything/

thoughtz

Good (and well put) thoughtz, definitely something that's been pressing on my brain more and more each year. My innumerable reax aside for now, I had to chuckle when I read the comment by the guy who did the metal-archives math and arrived at "14+ new albums a day to just keep pace," because for a half-second I seriously said to myself, "fourteen per day, you say? Hmm."

there's a lot in there - some people really enjoy the sort of Pokemon/vacuum-cleaner style of hearing & having a quick opinion on everything; in the environment of the internet, the people who hear more and make longer lists are likely to generate more attention than people who're self-curating their listening. People who tune out of stuff become less "relevant" to the dialogue I guess. I listened to fewer of the big attention-grabbers this year, though I check out a song or two on Spotify if something's getting a lot of heat. But for the most part reading the opinions of trusted sources (metal archives; people whose taste I jibe with on this thread; whether a liked distro is stocking something carries weight) and sifting from there to determine what I hear means I'm not burning myself out trying to keep current. I did however listen to every goregrind album released in 2013 but that was just for pleasure and is no different from any other year

I am consciously planning to listen to a lot less metal next year, for a couple of reasons:

1) I noticed when posting year-end lists on Burning Ambulance that the jazz lists consistently got 33% more traffic than the metal lists. This tells me that I am not a particularly valued voice in metal discourse, but I am a valued voice in jazz discourse. Since I love both genres, but want to write with a purpose, I will probably write more about jazz, and listen to metal more for pleasure.

2) I'm 42 years old; I know what I like and I know what I don't like. Will I miss out on a couple of great albums by, say, choosing to totally ignore black metal next year? Probably, but I'm sure I missed out by choosing to totally ignore new hip-hop in 2013, and I sleep fine at night. I'll also wind up costing myself money, at least in theory, because these days, the kinds of metal I like least are the kinds being assigned by editors the most—the "extremely extreme," to use Decibel's phrase, is what's getting the clicks. So I'll leave that work up to Brandon and Kim and everyone else who gets pleasure from it. I'll listen to what I like: biker doom, thrash (old school and retro), deathcore, face-punching death metal, and power metal. 'Cause mostly I want stuff I can headbang to on the train ride to and from work.

Can I just say how happily weird it is that somewhere upthread I not entirely seriously asked if there were a term for why I'd been putting off listening to any of Ruins of Beverast's albums despite being a huge Nagelfar fan and knowing Ruins will do me right -- and lo in that gwern.net essay linked from the Oranges piece there is indeed: hyperbolic discounting.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperbolic_discounting
~The More You Know~

And in "I think I've figured it out" news, Ghost is a goof.

― SeanWayne, Thursday, December 26, 2013 10:05 AM (2 days ago)

well sure. doesn't make me like 'em any less.

^^^ Word!

I saw 120 live shows this year. But I struggled to write a Top 20 list for albums. Really only a handful of albums seep into my consciousness each year. And if they're not the type that will really stick around and contend with my favorites from yesteryear, then what's the point, really?

Albums like Clockwork Angels and 13 sweep my year not because of the budgets attached, but because of the experience, maturity, and quality of songwriting. I really don't believe it's just economic disparity that keeps underground metal albums from blowing me away. I definitely give high marks to Blood Ceremony and Purson this year. There are songs on those records.

As great as I'm sure the new Carcass album is, I don't really need a new Carcass album in my life. It's just not what I want to listen to for pleasure, regardless of quality.

I certainly do discover old gems while digging through bins that catch my ear. Is there some sort of luster an album must take on before I can consider a classic? Possibly... but really I think the answer is hooks. And not always in the traditional sense. I just picked up a Richard Pinhas solo album from 1980 that I can't take off the turntable. And that's experimental French electronic/guitar weirdness. But it's catchy to me so wtf.

Ultimately not worried about it. Yes I'll check out Pallbearer and Deafheaven and even enjoy both. But what's of greater importance to me is what I hear and like, which almost always has to do with a concert, not a record.

Man somebody with some great taste in metal dumped a bunch of stuff at my local Half Price Books. Thanks to their 20% off post-holiday sale, I picked up a stellar haul for about $75 total (not all of these are metal, but still):

Los Natas - El Hombre Montana
Los Natas - Nuevo Orden de la Libertad
Khanate - Capture & Release
fIREHOSE - fromohio
Caina - Temporary Antennae
Witchsorrow - Witchsorrow
Wo Fat - Psychedelonaut
Ringo Deathstarr - Sparkler
Pelican - Pelican EP
Behold! The Monolith - Behold! The Monolith
Pig Destroyer - Painter of Dead Girls
Bosse-de-Nage - Bosse-de-Nage
Dawnbringer - In Sickness and In Dreams
Triptykon - Eparistera Daimones
YOB - Atma
Spirit Caravan - Elusive Truth
SubRosa - No Help for the Mighty Ones
Sasquatch - III

Good find, jvc!

xp to Devilock I p much rolled my eyes thru that gwern.net piece but I'm glad someone got something from it

Went to see Suffocation last night; the first non-work show I've been to in I can't remember how long. I had a fucking blast.

IF YOU'VE NEVER SEEN SUFFOCATION: Their frontman, Frank Mullen, is easily the most fun frontman in death metal. He looks like (and probably is) a construction worker, and he's constantly grinning and laughing it up onstage. Plus, he does this bizarre thing on stage, a cross between the Atlanta Braves tomahawk chop and jazz hands, and he sticks his tongue out at the crowd while he's doing it. It's hilarious to watch. His banter rules, too: between songs, we got to hear about how much he enjoyed Anchorman 2; how disappointed he was when the world didn't end in 2012, and how he'd "trusted those fuckin' Mayans"; how his belief in aliens is rooted in a desire to go hunting with the Predator, who he's sure is a death metal fan; and on and on. This was easily the most fun I've ever had at a death metal show, even more because it was all over by 9:45.

There were five bands on the bill, but by the time I got there I only got to see one other, Pyrexia, another bunch of Long Island death-metal-meets-hardcore knuckle-walkers. According to Mullen, both bands are of the same generation - they all went to high school together. Anyway, their stuff would make a great soundtrack if I was the kind of person who did squats.

yeah, the suffocation guy is hilarious for sure. like if your goofy uncle happened to front a killer death metal band.

I'll third "always see Suffocation when they're in town." just a blast

I'm listening to Hooded Priest's 2011 album a lot lately. fucking awesome doom band.

Seeing Neurosis, Bla'st, YOB and The Body tonight in SF.. so stoked!!

That should be epic. I had too much epic last night - Cleric, Pinkish Black, Kill the Client and Eyehategod. Even with decent plugs my ears are tired as shit today.

In the Suffo vid for "As Grace Descends," at 2:30 the whole room does the chop, whatever we're calling it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jp1YSf_5mr8

That video would've been better if it were just the performance footage; everyone is having a freaking blast.

Oh, this is rich. If you google "Frank Mullen," the first auto-complete suggestion is "hand chop," there's a Facebook page for it ("That thing Frank Mullen does with his hand"), and an Urban Dictionary entry ("the blast hand"). I also see something about "death metal spirit fingers," the best of all.

Also Pyrexia's Sermon of Mockery album is a thing of twisted beauty, right at that last stop between brutality and inscrutability. Everything afterward indeed did go into the knuckle-dragger direction and pales in comparison, but that album is something special. It's like a death metal Transilvanian Hunger, utterly pure and monomaniacal with the kind of atmosphere death metal usually isn't known for.

Terrorizer Albums of 2013
https://rateyourmusic.com/list/Technogoat/terrorizer_albums_of_2013/

Carcass @ Number 1

suspect the placing of Cultes des Ghoules there is almost/entirely down to my vote. drunk on power right now tbh

I'm not on Twitter so I'll put this here: great lists from Basement Galaxy! I agree with lots of the choices but I'm even more impressed by the amount of writing. Beats the EOY output of many magazines.

Neurosis, Bla'st, YOB and The Body at the Regency Ballroom, SF.. I've never been to this place, and I might not go back-the sound is not that great. Maybe an old system, or shotty sound guys, but there were a lot of crackles and noise and other sounds not of the musical type...

But besides that it was rad show!. The Body had an additional drummer, and that guitar player did his normal thing of just super low end, why even bother fretting any chords type thing.

YOB was fucking amazing. a great set, smartly put together for maximum crushing heavy impact.

Bla'st could've stayed non-active.. No, thats not nice, but they didn't do anything for me, but I wasn't ever a fan of that era hardcore. But they did get the crowd moving, and a lot of people were stoked that they were on the bill..

Neurosis opened with Locust Star, and I lost my shit! For an hour and 15 they just slayed.. It was my first time seeing em without the screen behind em, and I didn't miss it one bit. It does allow them to not be locked into a certain set from night to night, so I'm sure thats fun for them. I usually watch them from a balcony or the back of a hall, for sound reasons, but since the sound was sub-par, I decided to get in the very front. Pretty intense. Not as intense as I've seen them before, but they still bring it. Dave Ed broke a bass string at the end of one of the tunes, which allowed for an extra freakout noise session from him which was rad to see a moment happen a noises that you would hear otherwise-something subtle I guess, but i thought it was cool... A really, really good show!

So cool you could see that Sean! I was bummed to miss those gigs, especially the OC show with Helen Money opening.

Best time I ever saw Neurosis remains the Word as Law tour. Their films were very new at that point. Seeing them without the films is interesting, but not sure it works that well at venues that large. Not much to look at...

I'm such a gear geek, Nate, that I never have a shortage of things to look at-always trying to figure out what cats are using..

*Resisting urge to post a death metal fat cat video*

Thanks, jmm. I used all my previously published reviews because I had no time to write new blurbs. That sure came in handy.

New Year's resolutions, metal style! http://www.decibelmagazine.com/featured/new-years-metalutions/

Rolling Metal Thread 2014

my top 10 of 2013