Rolling Metal Thread 2010

Just listening to the Mortemia album again. You know before you start it that's it's off-brand Sirenia, which some would claim was already off-brand Tristania, but I readily admit that I like Morten Veland's epicgothicdeathchoir thing a lot, and am perfectly happy to listen to him trying to perfect it in its own terms. In the abstract I'd have guessed I'd like it less without female lead vocals (the women are banished to the choir for this one, and he does all the lead croaking himself), but in fact that doesn't end up bothering me at all. This is an album of consolidation, not innovation, but I have time for that. I might even have a 2010 top 10 spot for it.

My inside source reports back that the EW disc is likely a January release through Metal Blade (they, not Candlelight, have the Rise Above contract now).

Thank you sir! Ordered the import this morning.

By the way, if for some reason you didn't buy the Judas Priest box set Metalogy before now, my local has it brand new on sale for $15.97. Yep, 4 discs and a DVD for that price. If you are interested and don't have a Bull Moose in your area, their website (bullmoose.com) has the same price.

Enthusiastic after-two-listens endorsement for folk-ambience-tinged battering Finnish black metal band Draugnim, whose new (second) album is called Horizons Low.

Also, damn, this Kamelot album is really good.

Today's BurningAmbulance.com review: the latest by Texas grindcore kings Kill The Client.

Listening to Wino's (mostly) acoustic album Adrift, released a couple of weeks ago on Exile on Mainstream. It's really great. It's actually more of a "drumless" album than an "acoustic" album, as quite a few tracks have overdubbed electric guitar solos, but he appears to be the only person on it. Shows that as awesome as his guitar tone is, he's not totally amp-dependent and is in fact a pretty damn good songwriter. It's certainly much less boring than acoustic records by, say, the Neurosis dudes have been.

I'm a little surprised to be saying this... but the new Disturbed actually isn't too bad. Got some pretty decent metal riffs and solos, and Rabbi Draiman keeps the awk-ing down.

Finally catching up and hearing the new Slough Feg album. I'm not as rabid as quite a few of you are, but I'm enjoying this well enough. I don't understand why anyone hates this stuff though, its kinda like hating desert. You can say you've heard better, but this stuff seems pretty difficult to actively dislike.

The Slough Feg really does have staying power, I'm enjoying it more now than a couple months ago. That Alan Parsons Project cover is killer.

And I actually like the title track off that Disturbed album.

I cancelled my subscription to Decibel last week. Since signing up in March I only received six issues - and three of those I had to ask for when they failed to show up many weeks after the due date.

I can't complain about the service of Mark at Decibel, he replied quickly whenever I contacted him and did whatever he could to help. But if I'm not getting my issues in the post, what's the point in subscribing? It's not like I'm in an awkward location - mail from the States takes only a few days to get here, usually less.

I don't know if this is a common issue for international subscribers, but in any case I won't be subscribing to Decibel again.

Finally catching up and hearing the new Slough Feg album. I'm not as rabid as quite a few of you are, but I'm enjoying this well enough. I don't understand why anyone hates this stuff though, its kinda like hating desert. You can say you've heard better, but this stuff seems pretty difficult to actively dislike.

― "I am a fairly respected poster." (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Wednesday, November 3, 2010 11:11 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Herm Neuname ruined these guys for me.

I'm not going to be suckered into hearing another Disturbed album, I'm not going to be suckered into hearing another Disturbed album, I'm not going to be suckered into hearing another Disturbed album, I'm not...

It's good. But I like them more than most posters here.

I wrote about the latest Grand Magus album for BurningAmbulance.com today - they're signed to Roadrunner, but the album hasn't been released in the US and they're not even listed on the label's artists page...weird, right?

who did this agalloch "review"

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs909.snc4/72208_10150112133364816_663344815_7570148_1955142_n.jpg

someone on fb

man, just listened to the new agalloch. was all like, "this is a great agalloch record. nothing new but solid as hell" until the manuel gottsching delay pedal action kicked in!!

i refuse to listen until i get my own copy
that diagram is ridic

moody moog!

Thrones/Monarch/Trees was really great last night. Monarch's drummer didn't make it to the US, but Rob from Dark Castle is more than ably filling the spot. It was crushing.

Wow, Agrypnie! German elegiac melodic atmospheric black metal, with a vocalist somewhere between the customary black-metal rasp and the emotive howl of Lifelover. The new album is called 16(485) (with square brackets, but I suspect BBcode might screw that up). I can feel as tired of black metal as anybody else after a string of 9 or 10 gray-black blurs, but to me this is another striking example of somebody seeing "black metal" as a kind of sigil for the vast artistic potential of accepting the presence of darkness. Somewhere between 1349 and that last Nargaroth album?

not someone on fb, an agalloch posted it on his fb and i linked from that

Finally playing the Agalloch now. This as the Agrypnie go together pretty well, actually, although the Agalloch's version of "atmosphere" is more acoustic.

Winding down metal week at BurningAmbulance.com with a write-up on Interment, a Swedish death metal band that formed in 1988 but didn't record an album until this year.

BREAKING NEWS Lordi: the game for iPhone/pad/whatever free today /drudgesiren.jpg

And.....its predictably hilariously bad

Aesop found that diagram on RYM and posted it on his FB. And mine.

I have to listen more closely for that Nanotear Moog!

Enslaved live in Worcester: set too short, of course, but still magnificent. And I wonder whose doing it is that the house music while they clear the stage for Dimmu Borgir is all Dio? Crowd seems to be thinning a bit, but maybe they all just went to buy Enslaved shirts. Still lots of facepaint in evidence. If there were a table where you could make hats out of popsicle sticks or something, this would practically qualify as a kids' event. I feel bad that I left my 3yo daughter at home asleep.

"I have to listen more closely for that Nanotear Moog!"

There's 14 tracks of Moog for about 3 minutes in the middle of Blake Lake Nidstang. Hard to miss ;)

OK, Dimmu Borgir are pretty good live, too. "Gateways" is getting a pretty rapturous reception as I post, so maybe it wasn't a bad choice for a single after all.

Although I think the effect would have been way greater if they'd brought somebody to sing the female lines instead of playing them off recordings. And a couple violins, at least? One guy with two keyboards can sound like a symphony, but watching him isn't quite the same. Although he is wearing white pants, so obviously that's something.

It's like they're trying to be the black metal version of Angel.

http://www.heavyharmonies.com/bandpics/angel.jpg

Oh, nobody is going to mistake them for THAT. Polar opposite approach to grooming, for starters.

Also: driving home from the show, I had that Agrypnie album playing again. For the moment, at least, it seems like a serious album-of-the-year contender for me in a really strong year. Repeatedly and extendedly breathtaking in its scope. And I just saw Enslaved, and was playing Axioma Ethica Odini on the drive out, so it's not like they're rising out of a slush pile.

Fucking hell, this Lesbian album is a bit good, eh?

Has anyone heard the advance copy of Hell's Human Remains?
Apparently, they still haven't secured a label deal for it.

I think they just might have the best logo ever!
http://www.metal-archives.com/images/5/8/4/9/5849_logo.jpg

I'm working on my top 20 and realized that I have not heard a note of the following 2010 albums:

Devin Townsend - Addicted
Ihsahn - After
Rotting Christ - AEALO
High on Fire - Snakes for the Divine
Landmine Marathon - Sovereign Descent
Unleashed - As Yggdrasil Tembles
Alcest - Ecailles De Lune
Burzum - Belus
Unearthly Trance - V
Jucifer - Thrones in Blood
Melvins - The Bride Screamed Murder
Watain - Lawless Darkness
Nachtmystium - Addicts
Grand Magus - Hammer of the North
Lighting Swords of Death - The Extra Dimensional World
Ufomammut - Eve
Iron Maiden - Final Frontier
Zoroaster - Matador
Kylesa - Spiral Shadow
Swans - My Father Will Guide Me...
Killing Joke - Absolute Dissent
Melechesh - The Epigenesis
Ghost - Opus Eponymous
Electric Wizard - Black Masses
Atheist - Jupiter

Well I can save you some time and tell you to skip the Melvins album. It isn't a BAD album, just pretty disappointing in terms of the recent uptick in quality since they absorbed the Big Business guys.

I'm liking the Atheist album pretty well, for what it is, but I definitely don't like what it is as much as I like some other things.

Of the things on Nate's unheard list, I'd be unwilling to unhear Ihsahn, Rotting Christ, Alcest, Grand Magus, Iron Maiden and Killing Joke.

The Ufomammut is another solid Ufomammut record; a little more focused than they've been for a bit.
The Kylesa is seriously kicking my ass - absolutely love it, where I haven't really warmed to them in the past.
Really liked the Ihsahn last winter and need to revisit it. Same with the Alcest.

Didn't care for, probably not my thing: High on Fire, Nachtmystium, Zoroaster, Unearthly Trance.

Want to hear: Grand Magous, Electric Wizard, Ghost.

Also have not heard the latest Danzig or Converge.

That's the thing with me: I see 100 shows in a year. Hundreds of bands live. I hear/make time for very few new albums.

I am definitely loving Wolvserpent, Cathedral, Ludicra, Christian Mistress, Triptykon, Sabbath Assembly, Enslaved, Hail of Bullets, Withered, Immolation, Dusted Angel, and the Rush single. :)

Honorable mention for Agalloch and METAL SWIM too but hey--I can't really vote for those anywhere.

Kind of regretting my decision to wait to hear the new Kylesa until I get my own physical copy, because I ordered it three weeks ago and Amazon has still yet to ship it. It keeps getting bumped back for some reason. Distribution problems?

Did you order the limited edition with the DVD or single disc? I think the single disc isn't actually out until December.

Hmmm, I think the single disc, but I just checked the site and they now have it updated to say the single-disc version gets released this Tuesday, the 9th. So hopefully I'll have it before the end of the week. Just getting antsy after reading all the solid reviews.

The little DVD was actually quite nice. 45 minute "making of the album" documentary, with short interviews and Q&As with each of the members. Was really helpful for me since this is the record where I got on board.

I opted out of that, simply because those bonus DVDs just end up piling up around me completely unwatched.

If it had in any way increased the cost I would have been right with ya.

There's a new Rush single? Oh.

Oh!

Ha, Nate, your list of stuff you haven't heard looks like my top 20 list for the year.

Now playing: Atheist, Jupiter. Okay, I love Atheist's first three albums (yes, even Elements). And the promo MP3s were so low-quality that I fucking bought this one. But I don't know if I can get behind it. It doesn't sound like Atheist to me. Granted, there's only two original members still in the band (vocalist/guitarist Kelly Shaefer and drummer Steve Flynn), but the two new guitarists are playing all these Dillinger Escape Plan riffs, and Shaefer's vocals sound like Chad Gray from Mudvayne. Granted, the cover art is awesome - it's a painting of a lion and a bear wrestling inside a snow globe. But I don't know if that'll salvage it. At least it's got a dynamic mix, and isn't all brick-walled to shit like most current metal. That's something.