Rolling Metal Thread 2010

dopethrone is little bit of both A and B, really.

I am not "diss(ing) metal because of a perceived lack of sophistication." I am saying "songs about smoking pot are dumb. Hour-long songs about smoking pot are really dumb." Can you honestly not perceive any difference between the two?

I'm dropping out of this thread with bong in hand and getting some actual work done

yeah unperson I would argue strongly that you cannot reasonably make a blanket statement that resembles "songs about _______ are dumb." and moreover that unlikely subjects for songs is a big part of metal's appeal.

But songs about smoking pot are hardly "unlikely." They're horrifyingly common. And with that, I too will retire from the field, because this is a huge blind spot of mine, to the point that no argument, however meritorious, will get anything out of me but "shut it, hippie," but it's a blind spot that I recognize and keep out of my formal criticism.

Who Are You or Am I Going Insane are probably my least favorite from the first six Sabbath. I think Ozzy was the sole writer of both, so there you go. To have Sweet Leaf in the mix is a total shame, that is just one of the most fucking heavy riffs of all time.

What about songs about other drugs? Do you like Snowblind? you can't dislike that song

I've never smoked dope in my life but man i love Dopesmoker (smithy & I shall agree to disagree over Jerusalem & Dopesmoker)

I have a tape somewhere with an interview with sleep on some cable radio show that you could get via cable radio via blueyonder way back in the late 90s. You only got it for a few years but i found a couple of terrific radio stations, one was Solar FM which had a fantastic funk show on a friday night and there was a metal station. It was Matt Pike & Al I think discussing the album being made,Signing & being dropped by London records . all of this while they played the entire album in the background. I wish I could find that tape.
That's how I discovered Sleep.

I'm one of those dummies who didn't know about Sleep until that gargantuan "Dragonaut" riff played in Gummo.

Hour-long songs about smoking pot are really dumb.

See, this is one of those statements that I would have totally been on board with about seven years ago. Even now, on paper, that makes tons of sense. But when it comes to Sleep, I just can't agree at all.

Hour long songs about smoking pot are fantastic when you are smoking pot during that hour.

But I don't want to pile on unperson just yet, I'm going to wait until the new Ozzy that I bought because of him fails to live up to my expectations (they are pretty low though). Actually between my work discount and a gift card I had, it only ended up costing me two bucks so I think that it should live up to the cost.

Funny thing is, I don't smoke pot but I listen to a lot of music that might indicate otherwise.

me too

it's just wacky to me that this of all threads is where i have to be like who really gives a fuck abt lyrical content

But I don't want to pile on unperson just yet, I'm going to wait until the new Ozzy that I bought because of him fails to live up to my expectations (they are pretty low though). Actually between my work discount and a gift card I had, it only ended up costing me two bucks so I think that it should live up to the cost.

Yeah, that's about right.

how is it possible that the rolling metal thread is the place where multiple dudes are like "i don't smoke weed at all ever," I have woke up in bizarro land

some of you guys haven't really ever actually heard cathedral, lemme just tell you that ok

"i don't smoke weed at all ever,"

lol didn't say this exactly, just not my thing really

not really mine much either, once you're grown you're either full time functional stoner or only once in a blue moon in my experience, but I dunno this is a whole separate topic but given the prevalence of weed in both the making & the hearing of metal, its reach throughout the whole spectrum, I dunno like I can't imagine if I hadn't listened to metal high not wondering "what does it sound like to, y'know, so many of the people who're into it?"

I personally resent the suggestion that I cant appreciate a bands music if i haven't taken illegal drugs.

I don't think thats what aerosmith is really saying there though.

Oh really? You sure about that?

some of you guys haven't really ever actually heard cathedral, lemme just tell you that ok

What else do you think he is saying?

1st time I saw High on Fire Matt Pike's first words to the audience: "Hi, we're High on Fire, we're from Oakland. Y'all high or drunk or stoned or...something? Ok, good."

You can enjoy it plenty, but I mean a lot of doom is made by stoned people for stoned people. That doesn't mean you're "not allowed" or whatever think you're prepared to accuse me of but whether you're able to hear it the way its creators did, if you have zero familiarity at all with that mindset? I would say no, you kind of can't conceive of how it sounded to the people who wrote it, and that doesn't really seem to me a particularly wild thing to say -- seems kind of obvious.

Nevermind pfunk, apparently I was wrong. Guess its time to go trash all my Steely Dan records since I can't possibly conceive of their true intentions, having never snorted coke.

I think aerosmith's making a lot of sense here tbh

in other news, if you listen to music in Spanish but you don't speak any Spanish, you are getting something very different out of it than people who speak Spanish are

xpost

that being said, I'm about to find out what its like to listen to Yakuza while eating crackers with jelly, will report back if I feel like my eating was integral to the experience

"Hour long songs about smoking pot are fantastic when you are smoking pot during that hour."

Dopesmoker is my least favorite Sleep record, but I agree with the above statement 100%.

Also, I will once again say that ALL music is stoner rock. I don't think there's a record that doesn't sound better when you're high.

And btw, I'm in the "grown up/functional" category that J0hn referred to. Doesn't keep me from working on this shit 70+ hours/week.

Nah I was being facetious with my Steely Dan comment, I see what he's getting at.

And I don't think anyone is trying to belittle the straight edge folks here. You can enjoy Cathedral AS MUCH as a stoned person. But definitely not IN THE SAME way. I think that's the point J0hn is making. And he's right.

yeah that's kind of all I'm saying

I love Houston screwed n chopped stuff but I don't doubt that a lot of the people who dig it hear it on levels I can't get to because I am just not gonna get way high on cough syrup

in other news, if you listen to music in Spanish but you don't speak any Spanish, you are getting something very different out of it than people who speak Spanish are

Totally get this. In fact, I treat this as a positive a whole lot - I love listening to music in languages I don't speak, because it makes potentially boneheaded/cringeworthy lyrics (which, as someone who makes a living w/words, bothers me more than others, I bet) a non-issue. As far as the whole drug thing, I agree that listening to music made by stoners for stoners without being myself stoned is a totally different, and even in some ways distanced, experience, but it's the one I prefer. I smoked pot and took acid and drank when I was in high school, but I soon figured out that I couldn't write when I was drunk or high, and I chose writing. End of story.

Just finished listen to the Ozzy, totally would have paid up to $5 for this. I kinda like it. First solo full-length I've heard since Ozzmosis though.

Probably in the minority of one here, but if you still somehow have a taste for Isis inspired post-metal - you could do worse than the forthcoming Gifts From Enola record on The Mylene Sheath.

I can't smoke pot for various reasons and I find that Sleep and plenty of other bands such as Ascend or ASVA or UFOmammut or Overmars amongst many others transport me, temporarily, into a different contemplative state.

And this is a general point and not at all going on at Unperson (anyone who wants to stick it to the hippies is a friend of mine) but no matter how clumsy and juvenile, Sleep were getting more toward a concept of getting stoned as part of a ritual rather than just getting fucked up. I had the privilege of interviewing Alan Moore recently and he talked a lot about combining taking magic mushrooms with magic ritual and how it changed the experience entirely. I'd say that listening to Dopesmoker at least leans towards this and is at least, definably not 'Because I Got High'.

I can appreciate this idea, not because I believe in magic or have any particular spiritual beliefs but because speaking as a recovering thirsty person and chaotic and remorseless substance abuser it would have been nice to been introduced to all this stuff not at the age of 13 as a means of putting myself in a void but as something else more positive and structured.

The 40 Best Metal Albums of 2010, So Far (sez me)...

that being said, I'm about to find out what its like to listen to Yakuza while eating crackers with jelly, will report back if I feel like my eating was integral to the experience

actual lol

Good list Unperson... but where's Blood Of The Black Owl!?

There's a lot of stuff on there I need to check out.

very curious about that new defeatist. if you'd care to expand, is it more of the same or a step up, phil?

glad to see the misery index album on there too. it's gotten a pretty lukewarm reception but I always have some time for these world downfall-worshipers. will definitely give that one a whirl too.

Much like this thread, I would like to get back into metal, having enjoyed the latest Sigh and Sunn O))) albums, however I feel a bit like someone who missed a season of Lost and now has no clue what's going on... Someone name me one album that has blown your mind in the last ooh, two years or summat please?

cathedral, the guessing game

No Black Breath, Phil? One of the year's more immediately gratifying albums, that one.

Nah, didn't much care for Black Breath. I could hear what they were trying to do, but they didn't succeed, for me anyway.

Lair of the Minotaur's Evil Power is another that falls into the nothing-new-but-totally-fun category for me. That and Black Breath have been a blast.

The 40 Best Metal Albums of 2010, So Far (sez me)...

Why bother counting the albums if you don't rank 'em? Why not just say, an alphabetical list of some metal albums? I'd be more interested in what your actual few favorites are.

Dog Latin: Cathedral's new album is amazing. Over recent years albums by Dillinger, Converge, SunnO))), Slayer, Cobalt, UFOmammut, High on Fire, Gnaw Their Tongues, Blood Of The Black Owl, Hey Colossus, Part Chimp, Overmars, Arabrot (I Rove, not the album), Harvey Milk, Greymachine, The Shining, Zu, Black Breath, ASVA, Ascend and Admiral Angry have all had great albums out.

dismissing others' doing something because you did it in high school is the most high school thing to do in the world

Dog Latin , if you trust the judgement of ILXors, then try
ILX METAL ALBUMS OF THE YEAR 2008 RESULTS (NOW COUNTING DOWN THE TOP TEN, BTW)

and

!!!!!!!! ILX METAL ALBUMS of 2009 POLL RESULTS!!!!!! (FINAL RESULTS NOW IN! LISTENING TO THESE ALBUMS WILL MAKE YOU STRONGER FRAIL INTERNET PERSON!)

Oh shit yeah, Shrinebuilder...

LISTENING TO THESE ALBUMS WILL MAKE YOU STRONGER FRAIL INTERNET PERSON!

Always good for a lol.