Rolling Metal Thread 2012

When the fuck were Baroness ever a metal band?

Well, that's a fair question but whether you like it or not for a lot of people they simply were. (And I'm not that aware of the 'Lumberjack' style of vocal but it sounds pretty metal to me.) And now they're not. It might not be the way you see it but this is essentially going to end up being the popular narrative of Baroness - especially from the point of view of metalheads who were into them.

Also, I don't think Baroness have finally had the nerve to admit who they really are, they strike me as a band who will keep on evolving.

On top of this, I'm not entirely sure that everyone is going to see Green/Yellow as their defining statement over Red.

the eps are still the best stuff they ever made

the eps are still the best stuff they ever made

People like you are everything that's wrong with metal.

Because of his viewpoint or because he repeats that exact statement whenever we talk about Baroness on here?

Because I mean, his preference is his preference whether we agree with it or not, but I can certainly understand getting annoyed by a broken (blue) record.

Just sick of the whole "the first album/demo/first show/rehearsal only I was at was their best work" thing.

I'm being semi-facetious, but it really is something that bugs the shit out of me - the implied refusal to allow bands to evolve or grow.

their work has really never been as good since i knew the drummer in junior high and he'd bang on the table with spoons and i'd bark out the cafeteria menu. i mean, the new stuff is okay but too mainstream.

best baroness youtube comment:

During the first 6 seconds I already grew 8 beards.

LionsToTheChristians 1 day ago

I'm reminded of a heavier Iron and Wine for some reason which is fine because I fucking love them too

ElJefe437 11 hours ago

"Just sick of the whole "the first album/demo/first show/rehearsal only I was at was their best work" thing.

I resemble this remark. Though I do enjoy actual evolution. De-evolution tends to be the rule with most bands.

DEVILUTION

Just sick of the whole "the first album/demo/first show/rehearsal only I was at was their best work" thing.

if you are sick of this you hate metal lol

If you're sick of bitching about metal, you're sick of life.

If you're sick of life, you like black metal

I do think actually in metal it's not the case that people are as irritatingly "early stuff better" as they're reputed to be. If you browse Metal Archives, you find people writing impassioned defenses of late Mercyful Fate records, Paradise Lost gets a fair shake from the aggregate rating every time right down to the most recent one, inter alios, and I don't think this is just because fans are writing the reviews - it's fans who're supposed to be the ones stanning hardest for early stuff, right? It's just that there's also bands like Katatonia, who completely lose sight of their vision, and metal dudes I think get more aggro about that when they think there was a really good & original band who started to suck

metal fans will buy anything basically. in multiple formats. forever.

i mean, in a good way.

What bothers me about metal fans, and was a huge stumbling block for me when I made my first attempts to really invest time in it, is that a lot of fans I'd run into would sneer at newcomers without a handle on the "classic era" or w/e. I mean, I would have loved to have been on the tape-trading circuit in 1988 and been able to follow the gestating Florida death scene or w/e, but I was stuck in the middle of Central Illinois where metal lived and died in two camps that broke down to basically Van Halen or Metallica and you were fortunate if you ran into someone who might've known about the existence of, say, Cannibal Corpse. With no record stores that gave a shit about metal and nowhere to discover it, I missed out on some key developments. So when I tried to really get into it again when I was finally in college and surrounded by smart metal fans, I was disappointed to constantly run into people that gave me shit and wouldn't take me seriously for not being intimately familiar with Obituary's demos.

Anyway, I like that the internet finally caught up to where I could experience all that stuff and hear all of it (sadly divorced of time and context), figuring out my tastes and understanding how the genres evolved. But I think the internet has also forced these tr00 fans to find new ways to sneer at their "inferiors" since they can no longer just say "lol oh you've never heard the Mantas demos" to feel superior, since any jack with an internet connection could find them in minutes. I feel like now those type of fans that just NEED to be snotty about their tastes cling to their "first album was better" as some sort of way to justify that they've been REAL fans for LONGER.

And obviously there are tons of bands where their first shit really WAS better, but I think you can clearly see on RYM or Metal Archives or wherever when someone is just using that argument to be all challopsy. I don't ever feel that from the ILM metal crew and thats a huge part of why I feel comfortable talking about metal here, even when I feel infinitely less knowledgeable than some of you super smart dudes that have been around the scene forever.

I do agree with Phil, I've been arguing with "first album is better" metal fans for a good 25 years now. There are loads of people who don't think that way of course, but the ones who still do sure as hell are vociferous about it. As metalheads we tend to romanticize, often overly so, those first impressions bands left on us, I think that's a big reason behind it. I still catch myself checking to see what "old stuff" my favourite bands are playing on tour.

I've found myself saying "the first stuff was better/best" a lot. But I don't think its a rule, it just so happens to be so, regardless of genre.. Being tired of the argument I think has more to do with bands getting tired and putting out shitty music than it does fans holding on to nostalgia and the good old days. A lot of people like a band at its rawest and purest and most pissed off, and thats usually the first record. But sometimes that rawness is too raw, and undeveloped un focused.. (the 1st Sepultura comes to mind) It goes back to that 'you've had your whole life to do your first record, and you've had only a year and a half to do your second'...

but it really is something that bugs the shit out of me - the implied refusal to allow bands to evolve or grow.

i think you got the wrong person there.

People like you are everything that's wrong with metal.

lol

how dare I have an opinion!

I only listen to the 1st song on the 1st demo

A lot of
people like a band at its rawest and purest and most pissed off, and thats usually
the first record. But sometimes that rawness is too raw, and undeveloped un
focused.. (the 1st Sepultura comes to mind)

this sums it up quite nicely. esp bc i have always thought that the 1st sepultura was a weak record.

baroness song on their website is v. "....."

bands really need to stop cleaning up their vocals because i don't want to know what dumb shit you are singing about

how come bands never start off as blustery indie-rock affairs and end up doing sludgy hardcore stuff a few albums later? always the other way

The "first album is the best" phenomenon is a form of survivorship bias. Thousands of bands make shitty demos/debuts, never get to make a second.

baroness song on their website is v. "....."

holy shit, you weren't kidding

Reports are that "Take My Bones Away" is the heaviest thing on the record. I also think it's the best thing they've ever done, but I'm a well known hater.

Which website is that? Cause http://www.baroness.com gave me an unexpected result.

lol well not entirely unexpected

baronessmusic is what you want

Has anybody else preordered this record? I preordered the CD version and the green T-shirt.

You guys I bought the Jeff Loomis record today because of all your enthusing, mye ars are expecting to be shredded.

i already said i pre-ordered the vinyl
xp

Three seems to be the magic number for my favorite metal albums for Metallica, Slayer, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Kreator and Megadeth. Album #2 for Napalm Death, Slough Feg, High On Fire and Mercyful Fate. For Mastodon, Gojira and Hammers of Misfortune I've got #4, Black Sabbath and Neurosis #5, Entombed and Scorpions #6, Opeth #8. Hopefully Baroness' #3 (not counting EPs) will be my favorite.

Entombed?

i can't even think what the hell the 6th entombed album would even be. uprising is the only later entombed i still listen to. and i mostly just listen to it for the first song. unsane rubbed off on them on that album. unsane and motorhead. which is fine by me.

Hellz yeah, Entombed - Uprising. Great album.

siegbran doesn't even want to KNOW about entombed after clandestine. this much i know. i've known this for years, actually.

Uprising is super awesome rad. MOTORDEATH

Maryland Deathfest in one week. Anyone else going?

I'll be there. And at the YOB show in NYC on 5/23. Then I'm home for three days before Scion Rock fest and WM tour. Phew!

got my new decibel with a rave witch mountain review in it. and a picture suitable for framing.

Nice! Will have to check that out. I need to get a subscription...

Saw Narrows, Retox and Early Graves last night.. the sound sucked-ass for EG and Retox, but the drummer for EG, who is a soundman in his own right, totally fixed the sound for Narrows, and they destroyed SF.. EG was great despite the shitty sound and Retox was, egh..