Rolling Metal Thread 2009

Enjoying this Cauldron so far, but one big drawback for me is that the lead singer occasionally sounds like the dude from Kill Hannah. And if you know that band at all, not really such a good thing.

So the Lacuna Coil album is coming out in April after all.

Sweet! I'm excited. Have you guys heard the new Desiccated Harpoon yet?

loz

Y'all forgot White Heart! Oh maybe that's because they're Christian....

Finally got a chance to flip through the latest Metal Edge last night, and the news of it closing down was bumming me out all over again. I know its already been mentioned several times on this thread, but it was really heading in the right direction. Some of the latest tweaks in this issue made that even more apparent.

TOOOOMMMMMBBBBSSSSSS!

And BRRRRUUUUUUUUUUTTTAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLL TRRRRRRUUUUUUUUUUUTTTTTTHHHHHHH!

And (surprisingly) Napalm Death.

Today's pr0n spam e-mail subject that could also double as a Cannibal Corpse song:

"Deeper in Her Entrails"

For an acoustic album, the new Eluveitie packs quite a punch at times. Pretty cool.

So far I'm not impressed by the new Brutal Truth or Agoraphobic Nosebleed discs. The BT is OK, but slower than previous efforts. It includes a cover version of the Minutemen's "Bob Dylan Wrote Propaganda Songs" that adds nothing to the original, but does justify Kevin Sharp's disturbing resemblance to Mike Watt. And the ANb album only has 13 songs - what the hell is that about? Guess that's what happens when you let a girl in the band...

I haven't had time to listen to either, but I am looking forward to the Brutal Truth, that's for sure.

I'm still wrapped up in the new God Forbid, which is so good.

And the new Amesoeurs songs I've heard have me geeked. This is going to be one of my 09 faves, I just know it.

It includes a cover version of the Minutemen's "Bob Dylan Wrote Propaganda Songs" that adds nothing to the original, but does justify Kevin Sharp's disturbing resemblance to Mike Watt.

I was thinking exactly the same thing when I saw him in the new Terrorizer (got it for the grindcore special, first time I've bought it in years). Not the first time that song's been covered by a grind band, either -- that is if you count Melt-Banana as grind.

And that's not the only Watt connection to grind: he used to play A.C. on his old internet radio show, and I read an interview once where he met Seth Putnam in Boston. I don't recall if that was a positive or negative experience...

hahaha this years download has excelled itself in gettingan even shittier line up than previous years

Def Leppard are among four new acts to be added to this year's Download Festival bill.

The band will be headlining the main stage alongside Slipknot, while Whitesnake are set to return to Donington Park for the fourth time.

The other two acts announced for the event, which takes place between 12-14 June, are the recently reformed Limp Bizkit and US heavy metallers Trivium.

Other bands already on the bill include The Prodigy and Motley Crue.

Pendulum, Korn, DragonForce and Devildriver are also confirmed to appear.

The rock festival, which is now in its seventh year, will see performances from around 100 bands.

Previous headliners at the event have included System of a Down, Metallica and Black Sabbath.

Tickets are available from 9am on 13 February.

The better summer festival rumour news is that Head of David are reforming for Supersonic this year. This may well have been fanned by Reuben posting footing of them rehearsing in November on their MySpace page.

Just downloaded a bunch of upcoming and/or recent stuff from Earache's press site. Had no idea about the label picking up Insect Warfare until this afternoon, and playing it now I'm pretty impressed - stomps a good path between first wave grind and the more recent guttural techy stuff.

Unfortunately Insect Warfare broke up, pity cos they were one of the better recent grind bands.

wait, but did you actually listen to the new agoraphobic nosebleed?

I've noticed that they've been writing slower/longer songs on a couple of their recent splits, so I was curious if they'd keep on going that route with the next full album. and that could explain why there's only 13 tracks... maybe?

haven't heard it yet myself, but I'm looking forward to it.

OK, this Wardruna album sounds better to me every time I listen to it. If it gets any kind of buzz-momentum I can imagine it being this year's non-metal-by-metal-guys crossover, and if it doesn't, it'll be the thing I hit people with whenever they get dismissive about what metal musicians are capable of.

Having a listen now. It's very ... runic.

But already I'd have to say that if I was going to be stripped naked and hung upside-down over a mountaintop fire by sinister hooded figures in the light of a full moon, this would perhaps be my soundtrack of choice. I like this a lot.

ok this is def more of the drone/stoner/whatever instrumental non-tru-kult-metal side of things but wanted to throw Gay Witch Abortion (from my hometown) into the mix here. not the best off the new album, but its on youtube so you dont even have to leave the page to check it out.

would have posted their myspace but the flashy background is super annoying and evokes way too much load records vibe.

if I was going to be stripped naked and hung upside-down over a mountaintop fire by sinister hooded figures in the light of a full moon

Just another day in Oban. Or not.

Relapse present the metalgaze album of the year?

Full album stream:

now streaming
Tombs - Winter Hours

http://www.winterhours.info/

"Winter Hours" is scheduled for release on February 17 in North America (February 23 internationally) via Relapse Records. The CD was recorded at the Etching Tin Studios in Richmond, Virginia with engineer Ian Whalen.

will this album crossover to a wider audience? i.e fans of these bands: My Bloody Valentine, Swans, Black Flag, Wetnurse, Helmet, Killing Joke, Botch, Dazzling Killmen, Husker Du.

elements of: sludge metal, post-metal, hardcore, shoegaze, experimental rock, mathcore, math-rock

Very, very keen to hear that. Site doesn't want to load for me right now, though.

relapse server is down

it's back
http://www.winterhours.info/

i can also detect some similarity to Withered on this Tombs album - the way the guitars have that buzzing backwards post-black metal reverb

Tomb track: Seven stars of the angel of death - has a Killing Joke vibe - Killing Joke circa 1990 on Extremities, Dirt & Various Repressed Emotions

Yup. That's pretty bloody great. On the list, underlined.

elements of: sludge metal, post-metal, hardcore, shoegaze, experimental rock, mathcore, math-rock

hmmm. sounds mighty intriguing, especially given the reference to extremities, dirt...

the head of david rumour is no longer a rumour, btw.

will this album crossover to a wider audience? i.e fans of these bands: My Bloody Valentine, Swans, Black Flag, Wetnurse, Helmet, Killing Joke, Botch, Dazzling Killmen, Husker Du.

elements of: sludge metal, post-metal, hardcore, shoegaze, experimental rock, mathcore, math-rock

you know, they can say this stuff, but as someone who has listened to a fair amount of "shoegaze, experimental rock, mathcore and math-rock" but not a lot of metal, the tombs album doesn't sound especially different from most other metal albums to my ears. so i'm guessing the crossover elements are exaggerated. i am a philistine though.

interesting that I can't find Tombs on:

Metal-Archives
http://www.metal-archives.com/

I finally heard the Gods & Queens album, holy shit hear it if you haven't.

mind you metal-archives also don't include: Converge or The Angelic Process

with Tombs there is a heavy shoegaze, hardcore and indeed industrial-rock twist embedded into their sound vortex - that's why the metal purists have probably barred them from metal-archives

got that tombs album the other day, ppl tar me as a "purist" sometimes but I thought that album was great

it was actually the first metal record I'd heard this year that did much for me til I heard Gods & Queens

Tombs sounds very 90s to me; like I dunno, a boogie-less meeting of Neurosis, Tad and Fudge Tunnel? But then "Beneath the Toxic Jungle" that has a black metal lead riff.
(Note that I've not heard the album, I've just played the stuff on their myspace page)

earlier this year i compared Cobalt and Sólstafir to The God Machine

thinking of the 90s reference there are some The God Machine vibes in Tombs music

Apparently I'm going to have to break down and order that Tombs album on Amazon. I haven't been able to get the Relapse promo player to work for a couple months now and it seems that Relapse's distribution (around Chicago at least) has gone to shit. Their stuff hasn't been showing up in stores until a month or two after the release date. Long way of saying, haven't heard Tombs yet... but I'm really anxious to do so.

jon, i just saw the tombs album on vinyl at metal haven the other day, guessing they probably have it on cd too

That's one place I haven't looked yet. I need to make a trip down there this week, thanks for the heads up.

I should qualify that when I say "great" I don't mean it's breaking down any doors or anything

Well, damn. The J0hn D. stamp of approval is what made me so anxious to hear it! Actually it sounds like it would be right up my alley.

imagine Fugazi or an Am-Rep band drowning in a sea of shoegazy reverb and noise... panicking and thrashing, desperately trying to claw their way out.

Gods & Queens description on brooklynvegan, could definitely hang with this. and the last j0hn recommendation i hit was wetnurse, so yeah i will be checking this out.

That Gods & Queens is great, definitely check it out!

add to "tombs curious" list

I nominated Gods And Queens on the metal poll

I'm really liking the new Blut Aus Nord album. It is, as the Memoria Vetusta II title implies, a little more accessible than their last couple, but I kind of think that maybe (unlike with Deathspell Omega) they were closer to their personal strengths in that mode, and the combination of focus plus distance ("maturity"? experience?) sounds pretty good to me.

I've also been doing some remedial catalog-spelunking while things are still pretty quiet on the new-release front, and am really enjoying Ven Buens Ende's old album Written in Waters. A Black Metal Classic, I've been assured by the internet, but I had never heard of it until a few days ago. Excitingly strange, in no small part because it was done in 1995 before as many of the genre-tropes had been trope-ified.

Re Gods & Queens: singer has some faint Perry Farrell overtones to his voice (or to the combination of his voice and my ears) that totally ruin it for me.