Rolling Metal Thread 2009

Esoteric are kings of ultra-low right now. i can't play their album around my girl without getting weird looks, though. might as well whip out a Magic card set or something.

i was listening to Devastation the other night and thinking there was a vocal style that worked pretty well over death/trash music. almost hardcore punk sounding.

*thrash

And grind core vocals are my least favorite of all, which is one of the big reasons I don't listen to a lot of it. Screw it, Chuck's right, extreme metal vocals suck.

haha

Huh, I haven't heard Esoteric since _The Pernicious Enigma_. Are they still doing that odd, odd, odd acid-nightmare style of doom?
I was really terribly fond of those guys when I was in my biggest doom phase. Last time I played _Epistemological Despondency_ it was somewhat perplexing.

It's not to my knowledge an established and in any way common vocal style, but man oh man do I hate the terrified dumbass commander vocals on Mayhem's Grand Declaration of War. That record had pretty good screeching though! Though I might've been fooled by the great relief I felt whenever the fellow stopped hollering about cold and damp stuff.

Esoteric has gotten a little more shoegazey, but yeah, same thing pretty much.

extreme metal vocalists need j0hn to pop in and set some ppl straight on this thread.

"Cobra! Retreeeeeaaaaat!"

someone should start a different type of "metal" vocal styles poll (and not just the extreme types please).

Whoa! Opeth/Enslaved US tour this May. No openers. Just an evening with the best metal bands from Scandinavia today.

That cancelled Enslaved headlining tour would have been amazing. So disappointed by that.

i like a lot of "extreme" music and, and the task of dealing with impossibly off-putting vocal styles is a big part of this kind of love. it's not just metal, either - you've got your hardcore he-man bellowing, crazy art vocals the likes of early gira & bargeld, hysterical screaming in noise music, all kindsa bad-to-listen-to mouth sounds. anyway, though i was always inclined to dig the music, the associated singin' styles kept me away from doom and black metal for quite a while. i just couldn't feature voluntarily listening to that crap for more than a few minutes at a time. over the years, though, i somehow grew accustomed. the shrieking/croaking/burping caca-phony sounds natural to me now, and it's hard to imagine the music existing without. plus, there's a lot more room for variety, personality and shading of intensity than some folks seem to give credit for.

not backtracking, really: still think that borderline-incoherent bellowing is often the worst kind of vocal straightjacket, esp when applied to whole genres

not sure how to reconcile the above. maybe just "when it works, it really works; but when it doesn't, it really sucks"

^ probably true of every vocal style that ever was

"That cancelled Enslaved headlining tour would have been amazing. So disappointed by that."

I got to see them headline last year, which was fantastic. But this time they'll get to play for big crowds...

"Hahah, okay, I just imagined Bruce Dickinson doing nothing but that. Opening notes of "The Trooper" starts, he just starts flinging water and not saying a word..."

Oh Ned, you know I was taking the piss... :)

Just to be clear, I'm not giving anybody a waiver for musically inept or inapt vocals, and I will shut off instrumentally-appealing music after about five seconds of hating the vocalist, especially hating the vocalist in some drearily genre-cliche-ish way. And my #1 metal albums both this year and last had hugely melodic (female) singers. But then I still love Leviathan and Deathspell Omega. It's an interesting question, though, whether I'd love Leviathan and Deathspell Omega even more if they had real singers. Possibly, but not definitely. If you treat vocals as an instrument, you have to treat them as an interesting instrument. Which doesn't mean they have to have any particular conventional technique, but they better not sound like hitting one broken drum over and over again for the length of an album.

I really dig grindcore & some black metal vocals but can't put up with the bullfrog early Cynic style of stuff. I dig the black metal vocals that sound inhuman, textural, like a troll on the other end of an icy canyon. The "screams of agony" thing doesn't really do it for me.

Satyricon were fantastic tonight. Too bad about Septic Flesh and Cradle of Filth.

I just wanna say how much I'm loving that Jamie Saft album. I highly recommend. "Der Judenstein" is this really sludgy, doomy track, and "Army Girl" sounds amazing. I think this might be my favorite album of the year so far - metal or not.

This is why I get excited when I hear about any metal band with a female vocalist. They're not nearly as lazy most of the time.

Speaking of which, I'm mildly impressed by the new Serpencult album. It's as if Electric Wizard was fronted by Lee Aaron.

If I YSI one of the tracks, will you guys take a listen?

Oh yes, I'm just trying to keep myself from buying it unheard, so that would be grand.

Hrm, I'm listening to Nile's _Black Seeds of Vengeance_ now, and yup, I really like the hell out of these vocals, though they're perhaps a bit too sibilant at times. Deep and gurgly and fairly easy to understand to boot.
Also, one track has a fantastic guest-appearance by Krusty The Clown. DESOOOLAAAAAATE!

Really? I've sat there with the lyric sheet and still had no idea what the hell Karl Sanders is saying.

mildly impressed by the new Serpencult album

I was tolerable of it but not as impressed as I hoped to be. (Mentioned it a bit upthread, I think.)

Mordy, this is, um...interesting so far.

It's an interesting question, though, whether I'd love Leviathan and Deathspell Omega even more if they had real singers. Possibly, but not definitely.

the vocals for these two groups are some of my favorite in their respective styles. i started writing a post last night about how much i love Wrest's vox on the Lurker of Chalice stuff. it's really hard for me to imagine any other vocal style working for either of these groups.

speaking of bad vocals, I'm listening to Harvey Milk right now, and this guy's vox are just on the right side of tolerable for me.

Harvey Milk's vocals suit the music so perfectly.

new 2009 album from Urna - self described as "post funeral doom metal from Italy"

Urna - Iter ad lucem

2 new sample tracks on myspace

Urna
http://www.myspace.com/urnaproject

stated Influences:

Funeral Doom
Post Metal
Black Metal
Electronics & Ambient Soundscapes
Drone
Sludge Death Metal
and some others

expansive crushing twisting dynamics, big churning psychedelic riffs

Second track on the album:
http://rapidshare.com/files/194385864/02_Blood.mp3.html

Personally would much prefer if Harvey Milk's vocals had more Burke Shelley in them and less King Buzzo.

A few '09 records with loud guitars (or other instruments that sound like guitars) on them that I've decided I like since the last list I posted:

Death – …For The Whole World To See (Drag City reissue EP)
Dirty Little Rabbits – Simon (The End EP)
The Answer – Everyday Demons (The End)
Black Lips – 200 Million Thousand (Vice)
Gene Dante and the Future Starlets – The Romantic Lead (Omnirox Entertainment)
Talk Normal – Talk Normal (myspace/talknormal EP)

really don't hear any buzzo in the harvey milk vox at all.

I think they're perfect for the band too. strained/fragile for the "clean" parts, strained/burly for the rest.

Mostly just sound like your old who-cares pigfuck to me (a shame, since the sludge of the '70s riffs can be pretty awesome.)

album version is better but the vox SO PERFECT for that song.

bah, embedding disabled. just click on the link!

Hey Chuck, there is a new Shakin' Street album out this month.

http://shakinstreetofthe21stcentury.maxximum.org/

in non-metal news, the new nashville pussy album sucks and so does the new mono album. (mono + 23 piece orchestra = worst classical music of all time. and most boring.)

there is a new Shakin' Street album

Yay!

new nashville pussy album sucks

I already pointed this out on the Rolling Country thread!

Just got the fine new Metal Edge issue today. Argh, just when we were on one hell of a roll...

Not metal, but I'm listening to the advanced track from that forthcoming Mono (the Japanese band) album Scott just mentioned, and it sounds pretty fantastic to me.

I'm listening too and it's GREAT! I pre-ordered the vinyl the other day.

(i mean I'm listening to the whole album)

front cover:

Isis - Wavering Radiant
http://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/isis/wavering_radiant_f1/

http://www.bravewords.com/news/106231
The track listing for Wavering Radiant is: 'Hall Of The Dead', 'Ghost Key', 'Hand Of The Host', 'Wavering Radiant', 'Stone To Wake A Serpent', '20 Minutes / 40 Years', 'Threshold of Transformation'.

titles = "we will bore you to death in 70+ minutes"

I've heard "20 Minutes/40 Years," because it's the first song on the CD that'll come with the last(?) issue of Metal Edge. It's seven minutes long and it's one of the heaviest things they've done in years. I like it more than I liked anything on the last album.

I look forward to hearing it. Esp if they're doing something heavy again. (Qotsa take note)

Yeah, every time I say I'm bored with the NeurIsis sound, Neurosis and Isis come along and remind me why they're the best at what they do. Looking forward to the new Isis, silly title and all.

Just picked up In the Absence of Truth yesterday out of the dollar bin, I'm psyched for the new one.

Neurosis and Isis are the masters of the sound. There's always going to be lame imitators but then some of the imitators are very good at it ie Cult Of Luna.
But it's silly to blame Neurosis/Isis for crappy imitators.

yeah, I like some of the imitators too... but neurosis did it first/best. I doubt anyone would dispute that.

seeing isis live circa panopticon actually got me to stop listening to them for a while. just played the whole album. (which I actually really like!) a little improv here-and-there, but overall, very little variation from the studio cuts and very little reason to not just stay home and listen to the album. dull, dull show.

seeing built to spill like 10 years ago had a similar effect, lolz.

anyway, then that last isis dropped and it was probably their worst. never got into it. but I'll give this new one a shot. glad to hear they're heavy again.

still think mosquito control ep is my fave by them. probs the only one with no filler.