Rolling Metal Thread 2012

Fastnbulbous--were we really on Decibel's list or were we on your addendum?

Yes, it's listed under summer releases.

Witch Mountain, TBA [Profound Lore]

Signed to Profound Lore, nice. Can't wait to hear the new stuff!

Martyrdod fucking crush!
www.thesleepingshaman.com/news/martyrdod-dark-lords-of-swedish-crust-sign-with-southern-lord/

Thanks Fastnbulbous. That's flattering! Good thing we are rehearsing every day right now. We will deliver!

BTW, Ghost + Blood Ceremony was great last night. I could go on and on, but hands down it's a FUN show. And based on the turnout, I will not be surprised if Ghost gets REALLY big soon. Especially with the just announced support tour they're doing with Opeth & Mastodon. Satan is very happy right now.

but is he laughing and spreading his wings like in the days of olde??????

So excited for that Mastodon, Opeth, Ghost tour. Although, a small part of me wishes the Chicago show was an Opeth headline since I've never seen them before and I've seen Mastodon 4 times now.

Opeth were amazing on their fall tour with Katatonia. I'm tempted because the stop here is them headlining, but I'm not a big fan of the others. Though I'm sure live I'd enjoy them more than I do on record.

i don't know anything about opeth but ghost & mastodon sounds like it could be cool

Of course I'm going to this.

I would go if Opeth still played metal. I'm all for bands "growing up," but I felt burned by their last show here. And Mastodon--ugh.

At this point, I would only go to see Ghost, and I just saw them two nights ago.

I want to thank aero, J3ff, and anyone else who was praising the new RAM album, Death, within my earshot. I liked the one song they had streaming (and said so above somewhere), but it didn't prepare me for the onslaught of awesome that is the record. Great start to 2012.

Ooh, I still need to hear that one.

Adrien was right about that King Giant record, its really good. So many bands would sound like they were playing dress up when singing out Appalachian hollows and moonshine, but these dudes sell every word.

RAM is preparing me for the arrival of my Judas Priest box set this afternoon. Rifftastic.

Hey Nate, would you agree that ghost is much much heavier live than on record? Because it seemed pretty notably different to me. Also lead dude sings better live imo.

New issue of Chips & Beer The Magazine out this month. Interviews with Morbus Chron, Halsey “Halseycaust” Swain, Mentors,Deceased, Midnight, Ian Christe of Bazillion Points, King Diamond (nearly 30 pages of interview, primer, timeline, illustrations), Obsequiae, Ola Larsson (Disma cover artist), Thrones, and Twisted Tower Dire. Plus comic and reviews. 120pgs. Preview and order at http://www.20buckspin.com

Okay, this Chaos In Tejas festival has the weirdest lineup. Saint Vitus! Winter! Municipal Waste! Church Of Misery! Ted Leo? The Clean? Best Coast? Thou! Loss!

Goofy.

ok, that is hilarious.

wait just one minute... winter reformed!??

So it would seem.

Love how many bands on that have 'UK' appended to their logos.

and JP and NZ too. Worst trademarks ever.

Yeah, Winter were awesome when I saw them at the Power of the Riff festival.

Holy crap, that might be better than spending the Bank Holiday weekend here.

Haha, I'd like to see Saint Vitus and then Best Coast, quite frankly.

wow that lineup is reading my mind

Am always so jealous of Chaos In Tejas, every year has a fantastic lineup

It's not that I'm disliking the Nightwish album, exactly, but my favorite gothic-metal thing of the moment is Memento Mori, by Lunar Path. First album after some demos and singles. Stripped-down compared to Nightwish, but with a melodic swoopiness that seems more in Nightwish's vein than, say, Lacuna Coil's. Also, their Facebook bio is a game attempt at second-language overwriting. "They're clearly out to kick ass and take names, no compromise." Nothing pisses me off more than compromised name-taking. Just first names, I guess. Or maybe asking for both names but only writing down the initials? Anyway, good to have none of that with Lunar Path. Helps the live shows run smoothly, too, when you don't have to take attendance.

wait what is the clean doing there?
that sounds like a pretty awesome weekend even though i freely admit that i don't know most of those bands.

Xeno & Oaklander seems even more incongruous than Best Coast or The Clean tbh

Death metal with vocals that sound like that one episode of Animaniacs where Wakko belches the ABCs! Plus you can download the whole thing free from the band's website via the link at the bottom of the article: http://www.decibelmagazine.com/featured/the-lazarus-pit-demilichs-nespithe/

Ghost sounded better than the record because it was live in a big hall with pro-sound. Otherwise, I was surprised how much it was produced to sound like the album.

I look at that album now as a soundtrack to the live show. You can't fully "get" Ghost until you've seen them. The music is only part of what they're doing. It's theater, and it works.

favorite gothic-metal thing of the moment is Memento Mori, by Lunar Path.

Ha -- Same title as the second Flyleaf album.

Just got my ticket for the Mastodon/Opeth/Ghost tour, super excited. Sick of ridiculous fees though, the fees were 41% of the face value of the ticket.

:O

I was tempted to go, but just saw both Ghost and Mastodon. It's at the Riviera again, and the sound sucked there for Mastodon. The clincher is that Devil's Blood and In Solitude are playing that same night at Bottom Lounge. I'm definitely doing that!

I'm also gonna see Van Halen with my cousin at United Center. He also wanted to see Guns 'n' Roses at House of Blues. However tix are $125 + fees, kind of insulting given the state of the band. We flipped a coin and VH with Diamond Dave it is! Listening to the new VH today and it's kind of awesome! It's definitely better than Diver Down, and possibly even 1984.

Yeah, the sound at the Riv sucks, but I've missed out on Ghost before and I've never seen Opeth.

Yeah, I'm pretty fucking impressed by the new VH. "Tattoo" sucks dead dog ass, but every other song I've heard (I've only made it a little past the halfway mark) has a power and fury I've rarely heard from them. Hell, some of these songs are easily among the fastest and heaviest they've ever recorded, going back all the way to the earliest days. I'm extremely pleasantly surprised.

Wow, guess I'm going to have to give that album the time of day after all. "Tattoo" was so awful that I was all prepared to ignore the whole thing.

No, the rest of the record is shockingly good.

In other news, in case I haven't mentioned it before, I'm going to be giving a talk on 80s German thrash next Sunday at Centrum Berlin, and anyone who's gonna be in the neighborhood is more than welcome to stop by. It's free and will run about two hours. I'll be giving a sort of general overview of the history, talking about stylistic tropes and political overtones, and playing music by Kreator, Sodom, Destruction, Holy Moses, Iron Angel, Grave Digger, Accept, Running Wild, Deathrow, Rage, Living Death, Erosion, Paradox and maybe even Tankard.

I really can't be arsed going to see Mastodon later, but I kind of want to see DEP and Red Fang so I need to get it in gear. I can always leave early.

I know they placed decently on the metal poll, but man it seems like everyone is pretty down on Mastodon around here these days.

my mate, who didn't care much for recent albums, went to see them in Zurich and really enjoyed it.

As is the case with most bands, I find myself liking Mastodon's earlier stuff than the later,...

Actually, Unsane is probably one of the only bands where I can say I like the new stuff better..

I'm actually looking forward to hearing the newer Mastodon stuff, it seems they've been working at sharpening up the live performances of those songs, which vocally left a lot to be desired.

Pretty stoked. I got hired to write an article on Black Sabbath, and another on Star Wars. Good weekend.

Well, they appear to have regressed to the point where they're an entry-level metal band - the sort you might go and see when you don't want to turn round at a Foo Fighters show and see your parents or your teacher. There's been what seems like a conscious attempt to mould everything down to 3-4 minute territory and it just doesn't work. It seems hard to believe just three years ago I was watching them covering 'The Bit' and now they'd be more likely to cover 'No-one Knows'.

A couple of points to note - Bill has tried to go full-on for the Josh Homme look he's played with for a couple of years now, but is carrying a few touring pounds and actually looks like Dylan Carlson. Secondly, I'd swear that there was some miming going on. If nobody's mouth is open and there's still singing over the PA... Plus the guitar tech inadvertently revealed while setting up that some of the guitar parts are on tape.

I couldn't stick it out and left before the hour mark.

^ When you go mainstream, people expect perfection (hence the taped parts, lipsyncing, etc).

This is a bad example, but didn't Creed get sued years ago by some concertgoer who complained that their show didn't sound like the album?

Friends of Metal - I'm interviewing a nameless ghoul tonight, can anyone who has seen Ghost live on the recent tour give me any pointers for questions? Does it really look like they're going to blow up in the states? I've read some pretty breathless reports. Is there anything about the shows I should know about having not seen them live myself? Cheers.

Pretty stoked. I got hired to write an article on Black Sabbath, and another on Star Wars. Good weekend.

That's awesome! What a great weekend!

I've seen Mastodon four times now and enjoyed every one, but that recent Aragon live album was a little disappointing. I guess I'm surprised to see a lot of people, not so much in here, backpedal from them now that they've hit this level of success.

Mastodon were real bad the last time I saw them, on the tail end of the Crack the Skye touring cycle. There seemed to be a lot of tension within the band itself, and they seemed really tired of playing that album from front to back. Hopefully they've rekindled their love for the material in the intervening time, because they had always been great before that show.

the 2 times i saw them way back at leviathan time they were fantastic