Rolling Metal Thread 2009

Thanks, Scott! It was one of those situations where you interview a favourite band from your youth and you come away admiring them even more. Everyone was so friendly.

The two perfect tens are really deserving scores, that's for sure.

i think it does benefit from being an album that feels like actual "history". you know? so much has changed since then. the making-of stories in the hall of fame of albums from the 90's just don't seem as intriguing most of the time, cuz they seem too...fresh? i dunno.

oh, and the noise column is fun. i am a fan, but i wouldn't say i'm a fanatic. i'm surely no expert. i saw the column as a way for me to re-invigorate myself writing-wise and listening-wise. plus, i thought if decibel was gonna be about "extreme" music that it should at least tip its hat to that other netherworld of experimental/extreme stuff that has been around as long as metal has. i'll tell you what the best thing about it is though. noise/experimental dudes are really excited/appreciative when someone shows an interest in their stuff! cuz their audience is so small. i tell ya, when i was doing the black label ball column every month it could be really frustrating trying to get stuff from small metal labels. some of them were "extremely" unhelpful. i wanted to grab them and say: dude! i am offering you what amounts to a free half page of advertising in a metal magazine! what is your problem! and these weren't tiny kult labels that hated the idea of press. i dunno. it could be discouraging.

Also: the new Hypocrisy is really good.

I'm actually not 100% sure that AFM is even aware I did a Black Label Ball on them.

i think it does benefit from being an album that feels like actual "history". you know? so much has changed since then. the making-of stories in the hall of fame of albums from the 90's just don't seem as intriguing most of the time, cuz they seem too...fresh? i dunno.

I sort of feel the same way, for the most part I'm far more interested in the pre-90s inductees, and I knew if I was going to do one it had to be from the early-80s era.

love all ya trv Hessian warriors!!! when's the new issue out, btw (asks the subscriber from Greece)?

Well, I just got the Immortal issue last week. They seem to arrive later each month now. Too bad, us Old World folks pay like more than three times the amount US subscribers do :/

yeah, me too. :<(((

I only just got the Immortal issue last week, and I'm in Canada!

Speaking of Immortal, new album sounds great (out in Europe tomorrow, hah!). It's got a definite classic thrash / Ride the Lightning-vibe going in tracks like "Norden on Fire" and with the Tägtgren 'empty warehouse decked in ice'-production. Favorite track thusfar is definitely "Hordes to War", with its main riff going back and forth underneath the drums and that huge galloping fast polka bit at the end.

I liked that Immortal album pretty well on first listen last night, too.

OK, I know it's actually in another language, but I can't stop myself from giggling at the cover-art and particularly the logo for Hat. Just imagining a big line of swarthily grim corpse-painted viking dudes grimmacing at me for all they're worth and then all in unison bellowing "Hat!" And then there's this long, long silence, and then the second one from the left raises his hand and points at my hat without saying anything. And after another long silence the one beside him says, quietly but clearly, almost to himself, "Hat." And then they all nod, kind of to me but kind of to each other, and bow slightly, and file away without looking back.

attn: kerr

i gotcher grimmrobes right here

um

i bought kerr a copy of grimm robes live at sunno_O))) tonight

blut aus nord? butt ass nerd more like

Anybody heard Dethalbum II yet?

http://www.blinddaterecords.de/typo3temp/pics/ce3d4070b2.jpg

Clone – play slow. die fast LP VOL II .....12 EURO
The second Volume out of four. Again amazing package and 12-paged booklet.
200 copies in white vinyl. 400 copies in black vinyl.

Line up Vol. II:
*moloch - lightning striked twice (rorschach - 1995)
*on pain of death – troops of doom (sepultura - 1986)
*golden gorilla – absentee debate (unbroken - 1995)
*aguirre - like weeds (his hero is gone - 1997)
*loss – the fog (goatlord - 1987)
*thou – well fed fuck (born against - 1991)
*shadow of the torturer – judgement of the dead (pagan altar - 1982)
*hey colossus – institutionalized (suicidal tendencies - 1983)

Vol. III and Vol. IV in 2010.

oops that should be
http://www.blinddaterecords.de/typo3temp/pics/6d8968d769.jpg

great taste in 90s punk in evidence above I gotta say

Keen to see if Hey Colossus can top the Black Velvet Flag versh of 'Institutionalized'

Got the new Hey Colossus split in the mail on saturday actually.

In celebration of its 20th anniversary, FU MANCHU has a number of very special events planned for 2010. The band will unveil a host of plans that include rolling out both one-of-a-kind live events and extra special vinyl releases. Additionally, the VIRULENCE (pre-FU MANCHU) recordings will be remastered and packaged with the band’s “1985-87 demos” and both live songs and video footage from 1987-89 under the title If This Isn`t A Dream…1985-1989. The package will be made available on both CD and LP and is slated for a winter 2009 release via Southern Lord Records.

Man arrested for assault charge

WALTHAM - A 41-year-old Waltham man was arrested at his School Street home at 3 a.m. on Sunday, after Waltham police got a call from Worcester police saying they had probable cause to arrest him, police said.

Seth Putnam, of 157 School St., was arrested on probable cause for assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (a microphone), police said.

and now an account of it from another board:

"i was there. seth putnam was making fun of this woman standing on the side of the stage. they go back and forth for a little, she's just kidding around, and seth goes "i really wanna punch you in the face, can i punch you in the face?" and she says yes. so he hits her, really hard too. my friend pat said he saw blood shoot out from her face when he hit her. anyways after that everyone went silent and this one dude started screaming and running towards the stage. apparently this was her husband and he body checked seth putnam across the stage into the wall and started beating the shit out of him. the show got shut down, people complained for their money back. after they refused to refund the money some people decided they would just take beer from behind the bar. that resulted in all the security guards grabbing the dudes and trying to hold them there while everyone else escaped. they got away with the security guards chasing after their car in the middle of the street while a cop car 180'd so fast and chased after them. it was the best 5 dollars i've ever spent."

shadow of the torturer, ahhhh its beautiful!

for roxy
http://www.blinddaterecords.de/typo3temp/pics/ce3d4070b2.jpg

Shadow of the Torturer – marching into chaos LP.....11 EURO
ULTRA DOOM. All star project with members of aldebaran, yob, hc minds etc.
Ltd. 300 copies. 100 in white vinyl

ultra d♥♥m

stay classy, seth putnam.

anyone catch one of the rorschach reunion shows? I found out too late and missed out. :-/

Shadow of the Torturer: I turned those guys onto the Gene Wolfe novel of the same name. Still haven't caught them live though.

Devin Townsend and Anneke: two great tastes that taste great together!

I take back what I said about Anvil upthread, I'll never trust a listen through shitty Borders headphones again.. the record is indeed pretty good. Not great, the lyrics are sometimes painful, but some of the tunes really hit me. "Thumb Hang" was on repeat for a bit last night.

Devin Townsend and Anneke: two great tastes that taste great together!

I just love their new song. Agua de Annique's new album is very nice, though there's not an ounce of 'metal' on there, which makes reviewing it for Decibel kind of strange.

i completely (well, almost completely) take back what i said about The Gates of Slumber above. wasn't really feeling it after the first couple of listens, tbh. but now, i kinda love it...and Conqueror too.

and so you should!

i think i like the Shrinebuilder disc even more tho.

shrinebuilder will depend on how good the missing track no5 is i think

I want to love GoS' Conqueror-- I love the sound of the band and I really love the sound of the dude's voice and I love that it's about goddamn Conan, but there's something too samey about the way the songs are put together, it feels like each one does the same RIFF-five syllables-RIFF-four syllables call and response pattern. Gonna listen a few more times though. Have not heard the new one.

I'm really enjoying Addicted!, the aforementioned Devin Townsend Project. It's definitely his most poppy record in a while, down to the electronic beats. And, of course, Anneke sounds great, especially on the cover of Townsend's transcendent "Hyperdrive" from Ziltoid.

Ah, you're taling about the collaboration on that album...I'd only heard the one on Anneke's album, not the DTP. I'll give it a listen straightaway.

got the secrets of the moon album the other day and loved loved loved it. you can listen to the whole thing here apparently:

http://www.terrorizer.com/radio

very heavy. very groovy.

The Secrets of the Moon album is occasionally really good, but it's also really long and the songs are very samey to me - they blur into one another.

it is long. i mean, most albums are too long. but i had it on in the store while i was doing stuff and it sounded really good. the guitar sound they get is just one of those immediate pleasures for me. i have a pretty high capacity for things that sound like that, but i can see some people thinking some of it is kinda tedious or whatever.

I have exactly the same thing with Dismember. Got all choked up during their guitar sound check once.

The three-CD Swedish Death Metal compilation Prophecy is putting out is awesome. A fit companion to the book, which everyone here should own.

i would like that comp. yes i would.

this is the comp i'm listening to right now:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_-LvJQKf6B5U/SAEEL8OUUfI/AAAAAAAAAuo/bL6c29WgSEY/s1600/comps_easternfront3.jpg

Vol. 1-

1) DRI "Yes Mamma"
2) DRI "Soup Kitchen"
3) Stone Vengeance "Malice"
4) Violence "Gutter Slut"
5) Hexx "Edge Of Death"
6) Sentinel Beast "Dogs Of War"
7) Raw Power "Fuck Authority"
8) Laaz Rockit "Awesome"
9) Fuhrer "War"
10) Tyrannacide "Unknown Soldier"
11) Forbidden Evil "March Into Fire"
12) Morally Bankrupt "Malinger With The Devil

Vol. 2-

1) Sacrilege "Skinned Alive"
2) Anti-Momb "So What's Up"
3) Ruffians "Run For Cover"
4) Heathen "Goblin's Blade"
5) Death Angel "Mistress Of Pain"
6) Chronic Plague "The Inquistition"
7) Legacy "Reign Of Terror"
8) Blood Bath "Blood Bath"
9) Messiah "The Temper"
10) Blind Illusion "Smash The Crystal"
11) Aftermath "Win Lose Or Draw"

but it came out in 1986, so don't look for it at Best Buy.

Album cover of the year:

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_vhciIJDhDL8/SmXNuzznEjI/AAAAAAAAA2Y/nqHIKBVv4zQ/s400/axxis_utopia.jpg

And, link to a huge version: http://91.103.160.40/admin2/public/hudba/hardandheavy/Axxis-Utopia-610455.jpg

that combines two very personal images for me--the dragon/water-serpent is reminiscent of the creature on the cover of "TRUE GHOST STORIES & LEGENDS" i had as a kid (scared the shit out of me camping in the woods in new hampshire tbh) and the glass-dome enclosed aquatic city obviously resonates with aquaman etc.