Rolling Metal Thread 2009

xp Thanks, Phil. Though to be honest, I don't know how promising, hard-rock-wise, "could conceivably play on a college or 'alternative' rock station" is as a recommendation. Will focus on those cuts nonetheless...

I don't think Rockapads did group Mastodon or High On Fire as NeurIsis bands. (He didn't say ...a shitload of other Neurisis 'post-metal' groups," after all.) Though I swear, when I first heard High On Fire in 2002 or whenever, I somehow decided at the time that they sounded like a cross between Blue Cheer and Neurosis. (But that was before the worldwide metalgaze boom, obviously. So maybe comparing a band to Neurosis meant something different then.) Still have never really had much use for either them or Mastodon, regardless.

What they have in common for me is that they seem to go out of their way to avoid writing any hooks or staying in any kind of groove. Their songs move all over the place, but don't seem to go anywhere. Maybe it is as simple as that they don't play notes that resonate with me. I also kind of hate all of their vocalists, and I'm not sure why.

I still love Kylesa's Static Tensions, though.

anyway, the blue record is to me a lesser version of the red album in like every regard. production is too dry and unfocused, the drums are mixed WAY too high. good luck finding anything as catchy, punchy, and well-written as rays on pinion. steel that sleeps the eye sounds like bad alice in chains. the next song sounds clever but is just a very vanilla three-chord progression that goes on too long. the second half is murky and boring.

eh self-edit it might be more than three chords but it's still blah

I don't know how promising, hard-rock-wise, "could conceivably play on a college or 'alternative' rock station" is as a recommendation.

Well, I don't listen to the radio, so I don't know how accurate my gauge of what's radio-friendly hard rock is, at all. But my impression is that mainstream "rock" stations play mostly wussy indie crap and/or turgid, post-Vedder depresso grunge-like dirges. Bands that actually rock have no place on rock radio as far as I can tell.

And as far as comparing High On Fire and Neurosis, it's worth remembering that HOF's first album, The Art Of Self Defense, was made when Matt Pike hadn't worked all the Sleep out of his system yet. Every album since has been approximately twice as fast as the debut.

fyi mainstream "rock" stations play really shallow versions of 90s aor playlists plus the occasional killers song.

Bands that actually rock have no place on rock radio as far as I can tell

Yeah, totally agree with you there. Just not convinced college or altie stations are any more inclined to rocking. But still, I get your point.

Though fwiw, I actually heard Mastodon on the commercial rock station here a couple months ago; just happened upon it on my car, don't listen regularly. But I don't know if that was just a one-time thing, or not.

got stuck alongside Kylesa at UK customs a few days ago, youtube videos are promising, what's a good start w/those dudes?

the new one, static tensions. it's a winner.

cool, will purchase

Currently listening to Oppressor, a now-defunct Chicago death metal band who released three albums in the '90s. The debut, Solstice of Oppression, is probably the best one; prog-death with little dashes of jazz here and there. Make no mistake, they're not Cynic or Atheist by any means; this is DM first and foremost. But there are some interesting little touches around the margins that make it worth a play or two. The second and third albums get more traditional, and a little less interesting, but none of it sucks. They just never had a real chance in the market, being on Olympic and all. I think their stuff is getting reissued by Metal Mind pretty soon; maybe they'll be rediscovered.

who will be attending the blackened weekend in new yawk?

A three day festival with Krallice, Liturgy, Skeletonwitch, Black Anvil, Rwake, Malkuth, Orphan, and the debut of doom supergroup Shrinebuilder

The Blackened Music Series continues to present the greatest artists in heavy music with a full weekend of events: The Blackened Weekend.

The most vibrant music scene in New York today is it’s thrilling take on Black Metal. With mesmerizing, bewilderingly repetitious riffs and trance-inducing, astoundingly relentless drumming, a handful of serious local bands are recreating Black Metal in New York’s image. The scene's leaders: Krallice, Liturgy, Malkuth and Black Anvil are all playing The Blackened Weekend.

Friday, November 13, 2009 at 9:00pm
End Time: Sunday, November 15, 2009 at 11:55am
Location: Union Pool and Le Poisson Rouge

With regard to xhuxk's question: "Swollen and Halo" and "A Horse Called Golgotha," for me, are the best *songs* on the Baroness record (which is my favorite album this year). They're the album's big epic moments, but they're also catchy as heck and tightly constructed (the noodly outro on "Swollen" aside). I think they're probably the songs most frequently mentioned in reviews, too (except for maybe "Steel that Sleeps the Eye," which is cool but not really a *song*). So add that to unperson's recommendations and you have about half the album covered.

hey do you guys talk about powerviolence and stuff, too? i'm slowly edging into it, and so far the real find has been endless blockade. got their split w/ agoraphobic nosebleed and last year's primitive and both are rad! basically i cannot pour this stuff into my brain quick enough.

I know absolutely nothing about powerviolence. Actually didn't even hear of it until the Decibel piece last year.

man that oppressor sounds like just my kinda thing!

hey do you guys talk about powerviolence and stuff, too?

I'm listening to Black Army Jacket's 222 as I type this. I can't actually tell the difference between powerviolence and grindcore, but I like Kill The Client, Phobia, Magrudergrind, Discordance Axis, BAJ, Enemy Soil, Capitalist Casualties and lots of similar rip-roarin' stuff.

John, I think you would definitely dig Oppressor. They're not trying to change the world, they just wanna play death metal.

I can't actually tell the difference between powerviolence and grindcore

i think it's like, powerviolence is closer to punk and sludge, whereas grindcore is closer to deathmetal. that's what i've heard and so far it sounds just about right.

I saw Man is the Bastard play in a basement in 95. One of the heaviest things I've ever seen. I had bought the Neanderthal 7" prior to MITB.

ok I don't get a chance to be Mr. I Was There very often so can I just say I went to high school with dudes from MITB, and their drummer played with me on a demo thing I did before I settled on what I finally ended up doing musically, and I saw them I think three or four times circa '92-'94, twice in little tiny college coffee shops & once with Honeywell who were so incredible live I can't even tell you

this concludes my I Was There moment

woah dude! may i ask what has become of this legendary demo, j0hn D? and what type of stuff did you two play?

also lol at MITB playing in a coffee shop

I don't know what I ever did with that tape - it sat it my room forever on cassette. we did two songs. I played bass & sang, my friend Mark added guitar, Joel did his thing, a friend added, wait for it, saxophone. Joel was a buddy from high school. tape is presumably lost to history & nobody ever needs to hear what a terrible singer I was then anyway, people talk about how JD can't sing now but trust me present-day me is fuckin Sinatra compared to what I sounded like as a teenager

oh yeah and one of the song was Billie Holiday's "Comes Love"

Has anyone else heard the new CD by Raise the Red Lantern? Cos this thing is killing me, it's a like a combination of early Baroness and Drunk Horse with a big Surrounded By Thieves tone to it (the work of the inimitable Sanford Parker). Great stuff.

drunk horse!! saw those dudes open for the champs once--they were cool

i'm definitely going to check that out

I actually think Drunk Horse's In Tongues from 2005 might be my favorite loud rock/metal/hard rock/whatever album of the decade. (Just mentioned it on Rolling Hard Rock yesterday.) So yeah, I'm intrigued now, too.

I loved that last Drunk Horse album. But yeah, there's that semi-sloppy Thin Lizzy gallop going on this RTRL album that totally reminds me of Drunk Horse.

SF columnist tries to use Heathenfest as an example of something, fails miserably:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2009/11/04/notes110409.DTL

omg that is completely unreadable

saw absu in london last night. whoah! so good. mcgovern is incredible.

That's good to hear, I'll be seeing them in Rotterdam on Saturday. It's a night show, Absu will probably start at around 2 am, which seems appropriate :) Too bad Nachtmystium pulled out of the package, but hey, they're coming to the ever more incredible Roadburn Festival to make up for it.

Never thought anything would get my dander up enough to lament fucking pirate metal being patronised but that sub-Dave Barry dill Ned linked to managed it

BTW I never got round to lauding the Black Breath EP on here did I? Southern Lord just put it out and remarkably it doesn't appear to feature jobbing members from a bunch of other bands on the label. It has four songs and sounds like Motorhead/Poison Idea/Celtic Frost/Coffins/Septic Death pretty much all at once - it floored me

WELP sounds like i'll be buying my yearly southern lord record right there

xpost Scott, I'm gonna go to the Shrinebuilder show of the blackened fest.

i think it's like, powerviolence is closer to punk and sludge, whereas grindcore is closer to deathmetal. that's what i've heard and so far it sounds just about right.

I both agree and disagree with this - grindcore (or at least modern-day grind) is tighter, like death metalis tight, while powerviolence sounds looser, noisier. My introduction to powerviolence was Benumb, but I just took it to be sloppier grindcore really. Later on I discovered Slap-A-Ham and bought a few CDs from them when Chris Dodge was closing the label and liquidating his stock.

Floridian "Power violence" / (and the death of hardcore?)

Top 100 Grind / Power Violence Songs

This Suffocation live album, The Close Of A Chapter, is fucking amazing. It's a complete show from Quebec City in 2005 or so, and they just kill it from beginning to end. I mean, Suffocation are great live; that's well-established. So the performances are ace, and Frank Mullen's ultra-thick Long Island accent announcing the songs is hilarious. But the recording and production on this are terrific, too. I'd say this is even better than Neuraxis's live album, which was one of my previous personal highwater marks for live death metal recordings.

Xpost - Hey DJ Mencap, is that the Black Breath from Bellingham? I assume from your description that it is. Great band.

Enjoying the December Decibel. Update on High On Fire's recording sessions, Shrinebuilder, 3 Inches Of Blood, Gates of Slumber, Converge, Trouble's Psalm 9, etc. I'm intruiged by at least one unfamiliar band, Skeletonwitch, and will need to check out that new Nile album. I'd lost interest in them, but will see if it lives up to the review.

"I think you must sing what you know the best, and we know something about beers, women and forest life." -- Jonne Järvelä (Korpiklaani)

the cats of metal feature was inspired!

New-ish Skeletonwitch album is pretty decent as neo-thrash goes, IIRC

xxp Nate I assume it is - knew nothing about them before it dropped through my door but it smashes it

Heathenfest on monday, first chance to actually see Belphegor, so fucking excited

"....Trouble's Psalm 9, etc...."

Hall of fame inductee? if so, good choice.

Yup. I still need to get that. I see old Metal Blade copies sometimes, but can never find the Escapi remaster from 06.

The old school metal Hall of Fames please me to no end. Looking forward to the new issue. (but not the cats though!)