Rolling Metal Thread 2009

Nah, Vulgar Display is still a flat-out classic.

I should listen again - I doubt I've heard it in 10 years. I never had any use for the albums that followed.

Yeah, I think Anselmo's work with Down has aged a lot better than post-92 Pantera.

I'll rep for Pantera. I listened to Reinventing the Steel not even a week ago, and at least half its tracks hold up just fine. But I fucking hate Down. And the less said about anything else the man's ever done (Arson Anthem, his various idiotic black metal projects, etc.) the better.

I'm back from vacation! Not that anyone cares. Got a bunch of stuff in the mail, including new Samael, which is supposedly a return to their black metal roots, although I haven't listened to it yet. Also got a CD by a band called Mothra, who appropriately sound a lot like Gojira.

Also something from Persona Non Grata, who are foofy prog metal, but their vocalist has some serious pipes, like Matt Barlow range.

^^^
Haha, nice screen name.

It would be great if Mothra split the difference between Gojira and Rodan.

There's a Rodan? I knew there was a Gigan...

Rodan was one of those Slint-y mathrock mid-90s things.

There is a King Geedorah (misspelling on purpose) too - one of MF Doom's pseudonyms.

Rodan fucking ruled. Rusty is a terrific album.

This may be of interest to certain people on this thread:

http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/news/THE-50-GREATEST-METAL-FRONTMEN-OF-ALL-TIME-19861.aspx

Roadrunner disputes the Metal Edge list!

I mean, not that I agree with all of it, but I think we should start a blog war.

can anyone recommend seeing witch live? apparently j. mascis is the drummer

i recommend seeing witch live and coming back here and telling us if it was worth it

Can anyone recommend some good histories of metal music? Ideally something more historical/academic that I could cite when discussing metal history?

Ian Christe's Sound of the Beast is really good, and Albert Mudrian's Choosing Death is a cool history of grind/death metal.

Deena Weinstein's Heavy Metal: The Music and its Culture is a superb examination of the culture of the genre as a whole.

I have yet to get Daniel Ekeroth's Swedish Death Metal, but everyone's saying it's great.

Back to the music...the new Mantic Ritual is great fun. Nothing but generic thrash, but I have a real soft spot for generic thrash. This is right up there with Merciless Death, in my opinion, simple and catchy. Thanks to Palmerston for reminding me to spin this one.

i recommend seeing witch live and coming back here and telling us if it was worth it

― That's not just me saying that, that's the Pentagon. (contenderizer), Friday, February 27, 2009 12:35 AM

ha i watched a couple clips on youtube, seems pretty stoner doomy. i can get in free so i might just go anyway. also this local band vincent black shadow is opening and they're pretty good metal/punk. also earthless

^ have a VBS LP from 2005 (or so?) that's pretty good. metal punk like the stooges. plus love earthless. and you get in free? what's the hold up?

just wanted to see if anyone knew about witch

there's another vbs in canada http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Vincent_Black_Shadow. wonder who got the name first

Go for Earthless. They are amazing live.

Alright, the new Lamb of God is definitely a step in the right direction. Can't say its quite worth the glowing praise of The Quietus review ("Simply put, the most exciting metal record in the last ten or so years."), but I'm enjoying it.

man, the blut aus nord is KILLER. I wish the longest track on it went on forever. and I found it on youtube! compressed as all hell but hey...

the melodic guitar leads on this are just fantastic. almost remind me of a more polished countess. work so well with the head-nodding drums.

and I've liked bits-and-pieces of what I've heard for blut aus nord before but I love this whole thing. well, maybe except for the generic black metal keyboard intro, but that's hardly offensive and kind of funny in a "how to make a black metal album" checklist kind of way.

I'm finally going to listen to the new Blut Aus Nord and Absu albums today...something tells me it's going to be a good afternoon.

The Samael isn't really grabbing me. A little too obvious a stab at recapturing their early sound. I was a big fan of Reign of Light, but not Solar Soul...

Today's mailbag included the new Wolves in the Throne Room and Orcustus discs, plus a 2CD live set from last year's Return to Forever reunion tour (which I'm currently listening to).

i look forward to the wittr

whoa, didn't realize their was a new wolves in the throne room LP coming out so soon. psyched.

no spoilers!

Got the Wolves album the other day as well. Should be great.

Wow, Blut Aus Nord has really found a perfect middle ground between their experimental side and raw black metal. Brilliant album..."Meditant" (Alan N is right) and "Disciple's Libration" really stand out, plenty of gorgeous melodies in there.

Man, I am not feeling that BaN track as much as the Mort stuff.

The new Absu kills, I wasn't sure what to expect. Another blackened album that benefits hugely from a cleaner, warmer mix. I like this trend.

^ have a VBS LP from 2005 (or so?) that's pretty good. metal punk like the stooges.

yeah that's a good album, why the hell do they not seem to be known outisde of baltimore? i found their album in a dollar bin, it's solid.

i'll have to look for that album, they're really fun live. maybe they haven't toured enough outside of b-more, which is true of most bands here

March 1, 2009 - Sunday
news - GRIEF HAS DISBANDED - 7" record info & maryland death fest
Hello
I'm sorry to announce that Grief is no longer playing. We have dis-banded or whatever. The last show we played was the Wien Arena in Vienna Austria (i think i spelled those things right)
our reasons for disbanding are our reasons. we have chosen not to get into it but it may or may ot include the following reasons.
- Jeff has finally become Rip Van Winkle and will be asleep for the next 50 years.
- Ray has finally eaten so much that he can not fit out of the door to his house and is unable to leave home
- John has become so death metal that we' d have to actually be ghosts to jam with him and none of us feel like it.
- Eric finally became an actual dog and has not learned how to play bass or do artwork with his paws.
we will not be playing the Maryland deathfest in May of 2009
also, re: the Grief 7" released during the euro-tour, if you ran into the problem - please be patient as it is being looked into. it is not the fault of the band. your patience is appreciated
we're sorry for anyone that this disappoints
but whatever
shit happens
- Eric
3/1/09

So -- not that anybody here has been discussing this really -- am I correct in my interpretation that the consensus is that the new Edguy album Tinnitus Sanctus is a disappointment? If so, can anybody here explain why? I actually think the album's good, but then I've never heard any of their earlier albums. Nuclear Blast is also putting out an anthology by them called The Singles, though, I definitely think the new album has way better/more interesting/more rocking songs than the comp. Are the singles not remotely typical of their earlier music, or are my tastes just weird as usual, or what?

even without grief the md death fest lineup is insane

i missed vbs. earthless was pretty good, one long jam that had its moments. witch were boring so i left. lots of girls at the show btw, maybe even outnumbering the guys?

The Singles comp isn't actually a greatest hits, it's literally a compiling of some singles and EPs that they put out for their last two records. So, it's going to be inconsistent, although I think there's a lot of fun stuff on there. I haven't listened to the new album as much, but it seemed to be the missing the sense of fun and hooks that they had on their last few releases (the ones that the singles were culled from) and just kind of sounded like generic Euro hard rock. But, I'll give it another listen.

Yeah, Tinnitus Sanctus isn't bad, but I think what's disappointing is that they seemed like they were on the verge of becoming (Hysteria-era) Def Leppard with their last album, and instead opted to go the road more traveled.

The new Edguy album feels like they're going through the motions. "Ministry of Saints" is really good, but it's all downhill from there. Several of the tracks feel like Avantasia rejects, and the others either try to sound too clever, or just lack the pure catchy fun of the last two records. It just feels sloppy overall.

And yeah, the singles CD is just a quickly-assembled collection of EPs. But it has two of their best singles (the hilarious "Lavatory Love Machine" and the poppy Superheroes"), and "The Life and Times of a Bonus Track" is worth a larf.

The Wolves in the Throne Room is as good as you'd expect, as usual the songs really take off during the extended passages after the vocals. Pretty much on top of their game, but I'm already thinking I prefer the previous two albums, there was a little more diversity to them.

Wittr is great, as is the new Kylesa album.

"Crystal Ammunition" is where the WITTR album really starts to get great, in my opinion. Pity it's the last track. Good stuff overall, though.

Meanwhile, this just came down the PR pike:

---

NACHTMYSTIUM Booted From The Scion Rock Fest Bill

In a statement made on Friday, February 27, 2009: "NACHTMYSTIUM has sad news today with a once-again recurring issue surfacing from the wake of our past. We've been forced, at the request of the promoters and the folks at Scion / Toyota, to pull out of the Scion Rock Fest, scheduled for Saturday, February 28. This news came to us just this past Tuesday and was very disheartening to say the least. A troubling, and unjustly-applied notion that we are, or ever have been, in any way, a 'Nazi' band or a political band on any level, is completely absurd and we are disgusted that there is someone out there who really believes we are of this ilk. It made it as far as the sponsors of this event's desks, and now we are forced to pull out of it after some political threatening on the part of these ridiculously uneducated person/people who have caused this ruckus.

"We'd like to make light of at least one aspect of this situation and use the opportunity to once again clear the air — we are, IN NO WAY, a 'Nazi' band. We do NOT support such groups, political beliefs or bands that are affiliated with that world. We have canceled tours in the past and dodged working with bands and people BECAUSE they had these ideologies and we never wanted to be affiliated with it. Yet, here we are, a metal band whose members are more like hippies than your typical leather-clad metal maniacs, and we're being falsely accused of this association once again. We will be taking legal action against the people who slandered us in this situation, and in the future will file defamation / slander charges against any person or organization who attempts to prevent us from performing anywhere, especially in the United States. We are as offended by this as someone might be at the notion of a Nazi band playing a big corporate-sponsored festival. So — let it be known loud and clear for the LAST TIME, we ARE NOT a Nazi band, ARE NOT political, are certainly NOT racists and DO NOT support that world or any band, person or business affiliated with it.

"My deepest apologies to all of our friends, fans and people who have worked on and supported us being a part of this festival, we are sorry for these awful circumstances and you can be certain this will not defeat us." - Blake Judd

Mastodon/Kylesa/Intronaut on the best metal tour of the spring. Cannot wait to see it.

xp - Jesus. freakin' black metal. Just when you think it can't get worse than NSBM... you lift up the rotting wood, and what is crawling underneath? Pot smokin' hippies.

Guess they shouldn't have taken the Nazis' money back in '02, huh?

One thing I wasn't aware of until digging around a couple of weeks ago, is how few degrees of separation there are between Alcest and NSBM. :(

Oh, brother. Linked how so, curiously?