Rolling Metal Thread 2010

Anyone heard the new Howling Wind? I was listening to some old Thralldom and saw The Howling Wind had a new one coming out. Profound Lore has an mp3 up:

http://www.profoundlorerecords.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=14&Itemid=33

Great stuff!

I'm really enjoying Mastabah's debut full length. It somehow reminds me of the first couple Hypocrisy albums, but updated with some of the new technical and "brutal" elements. It's one of my favorites for this year so far.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MM0zDiHGtKA

Haha, wow, Nick Bowcott had quite the fro back in the day.

Adrien, just want to say I really like the Burzum bit up on your blog right now.

Thanks!

was kinda taken by surprise when i saw the cover of the new Decibel! don't know why, but i was.

I didn't think they'd do it. Hope it's a well-written cover story.

I know they've lost at least one subscriber. Wonder how many more they'll lose.

what is on the cover of the new decibel??

i assume Burzum?

sufjan

I've been revisiting Bigelf's Money Machine every day for the last two weeks. Damn that is a solid record. Most bands can't write songs like that (even if most of the riffs are pretty much stolen from the Beatles and King Crimson).

someone on Twitter said it's Varg

I don't really think they'll lose too many subscribers over it, but I'm surprised they did it. But hey, controversy supposedly sells - right?

For or against--it is a big story in heavy metal right now.

what's the controversy?

It's the whole lionization-of-a-racist/arsonist/murderer thing.

giving publicity to Varg xpost

hm, gotta wiki dude.

I'm not going to cancel my Decibel subscription (of which this is my first issue), but I'd much rather have seen Warrior on the cover.

On that subject, though, I'm not warming to the Triptykon as fast as I'd hoped and expected. It's heavy, but in parts I find myself thinking, heretically, "But Sunn O))) do this better..." But I'll probably come around, eventually. I wasn't an instant believer in Monotheist, either. (And I liked Cold Lake fine, so...)

Guardedly optmistic about the new Metsatöll and both new Negurǎ Bunget albums, after one listen each, but I admit I wanted the NB to be darker or faster or something. Really liked my first play, just now, of Imperium Dekadenz's Procella Vadens. Looking forward to listening to Cathedral tomorrow.

But mostly: Ludicra.

Forks' - Check out Adrien's blog today http://abegrand.pitas.com/ - his handling of the person vs. the music is really on point. Personally, I don't care for his music so nothing tempers my loathing.

Yeah, my favorite Varg anything is the synth sax stuff. Blah.

Yeah, that's what I loved about Adrien's post - the way he approached it from his personal view without drawing any lines in the sand about how others should feel about the man and his music.

really liked your thoughtful take on Burzum, Adrein

I'm glad people have read it. I'd been discussing doing a review for PopMatters, but we all felt Varg doesn't really need the publicity from a site that gets a million unique readers per month. Still, I wanted to review the album and at the same time try to explain why I sincerely enjoy Burzum, so I spent Sunday putting together a rather extemporaneous attempt at doing so.

dunno that they're 'metal', but the new Dillinger Escape Plan is fucking fantastic on first listen.

It's even more astonishing to these ears as I first got into DEP when I was discovering extreme music about 11 years ago, and because of my excessive music buying, I sort of lost track of them after Calculating Infinity.

I had no idea that they had explored more melodic territory or branched out like this. It's sort of like they still have their math rock grounding but with actual hooks attached.

If you haven't heard Ire Works, you really should pick it up. It's even more diverse and hooky.

When they signed that deal with Season of Mist they sort of inferred it would give them the kind of creative license to just go nuts with the experimentation we heard on Ire Works, but as good as the new songs are ("Farewell, Mona Lisa" is brilliant), the album feels predictable, something that never happened with DEP before.

I'm actually d/ling it from ITunes as we speak. can't wait to hear.

I agree that Ire Works trumps the new one, but it's definitely still distinctive and enjoyable.

Yeah, that's what I loved about Adrien's post - the way he approached it from his personal view without drawing any lines in the sand about how others should feel about the man and his music.

read the decibel burzum article last night. it's basically the complete opposite approach.

I think the dude that wrote it is a good writer and I've liked stuff he's done before... but I thought this one was a real missed opportunity. particularly a long rant about racism vs. murder (and which one is worse and which one he can't believe we don't ALL realize is the greater of two particular evils). the terrorizer message board is quoted repeatedly. o_O can't imagine how that part didn't get cut.

loved adrien's post too, btw.

also, apparently there's a new CELESTIIAL album - where life springs eternal

excited for this one. the album from a couple years back was this great funeral doom/field recordings hybrid. totally cool.

I just got the first Decibel of my subscription. I'm pretty sure it's last months; High on Fire are on the cover, and it was posted on 8 March (I think it's been on a shelf in the local sorting office along with everything else I've been expecting, so no issue with the Decibel subs department!). Guess I won't be enjoying the Varg controversy for another week or two...

Yeah, High on Fire is the April issue. I picked it up from the bookstore two weeks or so ago, I think.

Thinking of subscribing today, actually.

i don't understand decibel trying to distinguish between racism and murder and asking which one is worse --- didn't he do both???

"excited for this one."

it's great. that's my second rave celestiial review in decibel. get the new blood of the black owl too. also great.

for some reason i get all serious when i write about celestiial. and caina too. they bring out the adult in me.

i think his point was that most people don't even talk about/care about the fact that he killed someone. they just talk about his racist babble. like, sure he burned down some buildings and killed his friend, but he's RACIST and that's why i don't like him/listen to his music.

i dunno. i'm not really into debating varg. kinda scary that he has three kids. i don't think i knew that.

Wikipedia:

Burzum released his new 2010 album Belus worldwide on 8 March 2010, and Varg will be donating a portion of the proceeds to benefit victims of the Haitian earthquake

Really?

lol, kinda doubt that

xposts:

I mean, yeah, he did kill a guy. the article goes off on a long tangent about how people always bring up varg's racism and how disgusting it is but not nearly as much attention is given to the euronymous murder. thinks varg killing a man is more damning than anything varg could possibly think but not act on.

really found the soapbox aspect of this weird and out of place. and referencing the terrorizer message board to back this all up is just bizzare. wtf

not to mention, people DO mention this stuff constantly! typical burzum article starts with a "murderer/racist/chruch burner" checklist.

I dunno, maybe varg only giving curt responses via email necessitates some type of embellishment? but I just really wasn't feeling this article.

Here's the reference for that: http://www.metalcallout.com/metal-news/burzum-belus-proceeds-to-go-to-haiti-relief.html#dates

loooooool wiki vandalism

A+

hahahaha.

been listening to Ghost Radio XXI, and a lot of it is really wonderful. thanks for the tip, J0hn.

you bet man

only four more songs to go -- it's super long, but psyched to look into this stuff more :-)

heh, also listening to that. obitus are pretty cool

it's great. that's my second rave celestiial review in decibel. get the new blood of the black owl too. also great.

for some reason i get all serious when i write about celestiial. and caina too. they bring out the adult in me.

― scott seward, Tuesday, March 23, 2010 4:28 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark

glad to hear it! the first album was pretty slept on, imo

Oh man, the talk page for Burzum's wikipedia article:

Emocore is listed in the genre box. Is this accurate? I'm not terribly familiar with the band but this seems more than a little suspect. Unless someone confirms that Burzum is in fact an emocore band, I will assume that this label is vandalism and remove it.

Listening to the Cathedral now. Much goofier and Yes-like than I expected, but I'm starting to get into it.

Ok, metal score of the week here. Browsing around a used shop this afternoon that usually has a horrible selection, but killing some time. Just about to walk out the door when I spied the Judas Priest Metalogy box for 22 bucks. But wait, also the store has a 50% off sale going on, so I got it for $11. Good bargain, I would say.