Mordy's Metal Listening Club - New Albums Every Monday

jeez, can't believe i said "totally" three times in that fucking post. or, well, i can easily believe it, but it's still a difficult truth to face.

Yeah Slough Feg without Scalzi would be like a Monster Manual without Demogorgon.

Nate are you taking a week in this?

dunno what to add about come my fanatics. never sure whether or not to call it my favorite e-wiz record, cuz i go back and forth between that and dopethrone, but it doesn't matter - they both rank high among my very favorite metal records. dopethrone's angrier, harsher, and therefore less invitingly, psychedelically womblike, so i turn to it less often in the long run. love the weird gentleness of ...fanatics. "return trip", "doom mantia" and "solarian 13" are such gooey, groovy, mind-melting things. they're metal, but they've also got something in common with some austin powers cliche of swinging 60s dance pop. don't know what i mean by that, exactly, but agree with myself anyway. feels like bathing in the mathmos, makes me feel high even when i'm straight.

weirdest thing about records like born too late, spine of god, sleep's holy mountain, ...fanatics, paso inferior and amplifier worship is how simple and derivative they seem, while still retaining a strong, basically inimitable identity. i was really excited about the possibilities of stoner/doom in the late 90s and early 00s, due to those records (and a few others), but wound up liking very little of what they spawned and accompanied. dunno why. i guess it's easy to duplicate a sound or general vibe, but less so to express a clear artistic personality within a narrow formal straightjacket. like i have nothing against ufomammut, but they don't move me in the same way.

UFOmammut are great!

"Nate are you taking a week in this?"

Give me a week. I'll totally do it.

Yeah I also love UFOmammut.

Ok listening to this week's tunes over the weekend. Will report back.

I would have joined the club sooner but I was overseas.

So unless I missed something, next week is Alan, then EZ Snappin, then me?

yah, i dunno why i picked on ufomammut specifically. i think it's that they always sounded a little too much like stoner doom by the numbers. and i dunno, line-sixy. but maybe i wrote em off too quick.

anybody spotted any other easter eggs in the slough feg, like the syrinx nod? seems like a record made for that kind of trainspotting...

only complaint i have is that they deserve bigger, better, clearer production.

The (lack of) 'production' is one of the things I like best about both Slough Feg and Hammers, it's like power metal without the POWER, but in a very good way. I especially like the organic feel and sound of the drums, which - according to John Cobbett at least - is definitely a creative choice rather than the result of a lack of means.

The thing I like *bestest* about both bands are Cobbett's riffs off course, but that goes without saying really. I think the reason I was disappointed with Ape Uprising is the absence of Cobbett, though I'm not really sure how much he contributed to the songwriting/riffs on the earlier stuff; anyone?

Oh and Nate, the two YOB shows at Roadburn got a lot of good coverage in in the mainstream-ish/non-metal press over here in Holland, they were almost unanimously singled out as THE highlight of the festival. And deservedly so! I really had to struggle to keep my composure when they played "The Lie that is Sin" in the second set, to put it mildly ;) I was also amazed at the number of dudes who came up to me at Neurotic Deathfest (which was two weeks later at the same venue) and started going on and on about how awesome YOB was at Roadburn (I was wearing the YOB shirt I bought from you). This was the hardcore knuckledragging death metal crowd, so that's saying something, right?

before i go to bed and before anyone tears me a new one, "stoner doom by the numbers" is, yeah, a fucking retarded way to describe ufomammut. they're more psychedelic than either of those things and definitely have their own sound. but i was listening to them at a time when i was listening to a LOT of roughly similar stuff - heavy psych that did everything right, but wound up feeling empty & redundant to me. thinking here of earthless, mammatus, colour haze, etc. probably has more to do with my oversaturation in the genre than the merits of the band(s).

xpost - Hey Thijs, that's so great to hear. Not too surprising (I'm actually starting to get used to how much YOB steals shows and festivals). But it's really awesome anyway.

Hope to be there next year with my own band! :)

Nate please tell mike to bring Yob to Glasgow!

So Alan N to post his anytime after midnight UK time then
24/5 EZ Snappin
31/5 Nate Carson?

Or do we just do a Rainbow/Sabbath/Dio trio of picks and Alan goes next week , EZ ,Nate after that?

I do feel it should be Rainbow/Sabbath/Dio regardless anyway.

Can we all agree on which Rainbow/Sabbath/Dio albums?

Rising, Heaven and Hell, Holy Diver.

Sounds good, i know alan probably would have picked them anyway, but i think he should still get another go next week if he wants.
Noone could object to this week being Dio Week.

^ yes

So who wants to post the albums then? I can help them with Spotify links.

since we know the albums you could just do it pfunk

If im not stepping on alan's shoes and noone else minds, then since i have access to spotify for links then i guess i could. It does seem fitting to do it right now while ppl are awake and will want to listen. Best way of paying tribute is to listen to the music. I'm jamming Black Sabbath - Heaven & Hell already.

gimme 10 mins to sort it out then

In memorial of Ronnie James Dio (July 10 ,1942- May 16, 2010)
http://www.positech.co.uk/blog/dio.jpg

Mordy's Metal Listening Club Volume #5: - Rainbow , Black Sabbath & DIO

#1
Rainbow - Rising
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_Wq91zQyc2yg/SVpZi8ZeEUI/AAAAAAAABtw/gJOm2lokeqI/s400/Rainbow+-+Rising.jpg
Spotify Link

#2
Black Sabbath - Heaven & Hell
http://www.metal-archives.com/images/5/0/4/504.jpg
Spotify Link

#3
DIO - Holy Diver
http://www.alternative-zine.com/images2/Dio/Dio_Holy_Diver.jpg
Spotify Link

So Alan N to post his anytime after midnight UK time then
24/5 EZ Snappin
31/5 Nate Carson?

Or do we just do a Rainbow/Sabbath/Dio trio of picks and Alan goes next week , EZ ,Nate after that?

If everything is being bumped a week, can I go after Nate? I'm going to be in Portland 31/5 and be away from the computer. Or, if I can arrange to meet Nate there, he can post my picks for me.

I don't think anyone will mind if you swap weeks with Nate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SedQcg-65a8

Amazing track

As good as anything Deep Purple , Black Sabbath or Led Zep made imo

Rising remains one of the most explosive albums to come out of metal's second wave in the mid to late-70s. I was cranking it today...man, does it ever hold up.

I think "Stargazer" is Dio's greatest moment on record.

Agreed, stupendous stuff.

"stargazer" is so, so good.

and no worries pfunk, nobody rational could possibly object to dio week.

...but I was going to pick mob rules and the last in line. ;-)

That was what Jeff wanted! lol

special dio tribute week bonus albums:

bonus pick #1
black sabbath - mob rules
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B001EOOQF6.jpg

bonus pick #2
dio - the last in line
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B000002L61.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

gonna listen to so much dio this week.

Might as well throw in this, too:

bonus pick #3
Rainbow - Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow
http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/0f/de/6109810ae7a0dcd3b6a2b110.L.jpg

cool, I've never listened to that one before. (prob bc of the cover.)

Never listened to Rainbow before but I quite enjoyed Rising. Cool proggy organ break on "A Light in the Black".

It's been a Dio monday, and definitely a lot of sad thoughts mixed with the joy of hearing these great records.

I like the first Rainbow record more than Rising, though "Stargazer" is by far the best thing Dio did with Blackmore. I think the first is a bit more organic sounding - Elf had been together for a fairly long time, and that rapport just isn't there on Rising, even if the tunes are stronger overall. The keyboard solo on "A Light In The Black" is just -- I don't have the words, because horrible and cheesy and hackle-raising just don't cut it.

Heaven and Hell is pretty great all the way through, though the obvious highlights of "Neon Knights" and the title track are way past pretty great and live in the realm of the majestic. Adrien posted a Rollins rant about Dio on twitter this morning where Rollins goes off on the evil woman trope that is on every Dio record; of course, we get "Evil Lady" and "Walk Away" on this one. But we also get one of my favorite Dio lines "It's a long way to nowhere, and I'm leaving very soon. On the way we pass so close to the back side of the moon." Not the dark side or the far side, but the back side of the moon. Ever since I was little this has made me titter.

Holy Diver. I'll probably be the only one, but this is my favorite of the three. "Stand Up and Shout" was what I wanted from metal when I first heard it back in '84, and it stil smokes. The title track is a justifiable classic, and his vocal phrasing is great - "jump, jump -- jump on the tiger". What is with the baaing sheep sound dubbed over the word hell in "Don't Talk To Strangers"? Anyone? It's not just the Satan=goat thing, right? The vocal phrasing in the slow intro of "Invisible" reminds me of Neil Young's "Cortez the Killer" - you can't quite sing one to the other, but it's close. "Rainbow in the Dark" may have the cheesiest keyboard this side of the aforementioned "A Light in the Black", but here works. Love the video with him on the rooftops making faces at a camera on a crane.

I've read a lot about metal and Dio, but I can't recall seeing an interview where the writer got him to go into detail about what the appeal of the rainbow was. That image pops up in practically everything he's done since 1975, at least every major work.

never got into Dio, but now's a good time to start. just finished listening to rising and it's damn good! i always hate it when i start appreciating someone's music just as they've passed.

xpost - Of course I'll be happy to go next week EZ Snappin. No worries.

I played 3 hours of Dio (Rainbow through Heaven + Hell) at my Dj gig last night. The guy has so many great songs!

1) Rising - "Stargazer" has to be the ultimate Dio track. So epic and glorious. I first heard it while on tour in Denver, staying in a squat on a snowy night. Dio had always been there, but I was an avowed Ozzy fan for a long, long time before I finally succumbed. This song and album helped me break the chains.

2) Heaven & Hell - The best non-Ozzy Sabbath record, period. "Children of the Sea" is one of my favorite songs by any band. Plus the title track (which Solitude Aeturnus nails pretty well too) is so heavy. It's Bill Ward's last stand, even if they somehow "drug" him back for Born Again.

3) Holy Diver - This was the only Dio record I owned as a younger man, and now it's the most critical omission from my collection. No idea what happened to it, but I recall purposefully asking the clerk to make me a $6.66 price tag to put on the cover. I'm afraid I once thought "Rainbow in the Dark" was by far the best song on this album. And I do stand by that song (as I'm a big lover of synthesizer, so no problems there). But clearly the title track is a monster and the playing and the production and that signature bass sound; all top notch.

I do wish that The Devil You Know was being discussed here. That really was my favorite album of 2009 (check my Pazz N Jop poll if you think I'm being revisionist). It's just the most amazing set of workhorse doom metal songs with the fully matured Dio voice, weathered, world-weary, but still incredibly vital. Seeing the band live last year was a big deal for me. D.I.O.R.I.P.

I agree; I really love The Devil You Know, as my AMG review makes clear.

I wish I had heard that rainbow album years ago.

Phil - Those 4 stars are well-deserved.

Herman - It's never too late! Took me a long time too.

BTW Phil, AMG seems to not have an entry for Rising. Might be worth a quick remedy this week, eh? :)

They did have a review, I remember seeing it becasue it was given an inexplicably low four stars. Maybe they're remedying that.

I read the review the other day when he died, they also used it on Spotify. Now spotify is using the wikipedia entry, i noticed that last night.

listening to heaven & hell right now. "die young" is the shit.