Rolling Metal Thread 2010

awwww rip earl :(

Eh? Panzerfaust is ORESOME.

darn it, Phil. and here i was hoping you would've done the bitching about the "lame" dB album choices on yer blog piece instead of on ilm. oh well.

but seriously, if we can't moan, bitch, and/or whine over some rock rag's goofy year-end poll results... well, we may as well wrap shit up and head on home.

(also: payolla mongers should note that Iron Maiden did get a dB cover this year, and still didn't make the year-end cut. hmmm...)

cmon nate, I love enslaved too, but iron maiden are an amazingly consistent band!

but I don't even hate the blaze records, so it's entirely possible that I just have no taste

and darkthrone abandoned all the things you listed due to an unwavering dedication to trance-inducing riffs. fine by me, tbh.

also, siegbran is dead-on about that arckanum album. (ÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞ) was tipped by him evangelizing in another thread and it does indeed kill.

aaaaaaand immortal/absu tickets for the NY show are $52! fukkin' expensive but I'll still prob go.

The only Enslaved misstep was ISA. Maiden have blown it at least 5 times...

maiden have also been around since the mid-seventies!

I won't defend everything they've done but they have a huge back catalog and much of it is quite good. including their latest.

JD, we need to make up for me missing you at SSonic by meeting up at ATP. I will propose something once the schedule gets published?

Agalloch boring, Phil? Wow, I'm just the opposite, I find the new one thrilling, life-affirming practically.

Aesop on drums really helps. Just as with Ludicra, he gives them some swing. I wouldn't have guessed they needed it but it really keeps everything moving quite nicely. I do think it's more of a grower than Ashes was; I'm enjoying it more and more each time through.

^exactly my belated reaction.

I think maybe Phil is more interested in the visceral experience of music than the ceremonial, but perhaps I'm just projecting. I intuit that drinking mead & listening to Agalloch by candlelight triggers his built-in bullshit alarm. For better or for worse.

@ Alan--Maiden was at their best in the 70s!

I've heard very good things about NOMEANSNO

I didn't go to the gig this week but I saw them last year and they were AWESOME.

Unfortunately this year I'm going to Bowlie 2 so I won't get to see them at ATP.

Nomeansno is one of the best live bands out there. Period. Go see them any chance you get.

I'm already making plans to catch 3-4 NW shows next time they do the OR/WA tour circuit. They always hit a lot of small towns and this is a band I'm determined to follow next chance I get.

May even see them at ATP if the flights work out!

Aldo: For sure. Drop me a line a few days beforehand.

I think maybe Phil is more interested in the visceral experience of music than the ceremonial

This is true, but only when it comes to metal. Various types of music serve different purposes for me. Metal is for when I'm out for a walk, or have work to do. When I'm in that ritualistic/meditative frame of mind, I gravitate toward classical - Beethoven string quartets, or Morton Feldman if I've got a couple of hours free. When I feel like really focused listening, isolating one instrument out of the mix and really examining how the music comes together, I go for prog or jazz.

But I think my biggest problem with Agalloch is that they're black metal. And black metal just has too many qualities I don't like - it takes a lot for a black metal band to win me over. I hate the drumming, for example. It's just way too unrelieved and monotonous. The guitars are almost as bad - there's no release, just endless hypnotically cycling riffs. I need catharsis, and black metal doesn't provide it. Plus, the vocals suck. (Not just in Agalloch, but in black metal as a whole.)

i don't even think of agalloch as a black metal band.

and agalloch are all about catharsis and release for me!

i don't even think of agalloch as a black metal band.

All I can hear is the black metal stuff when I listen to them. The folky bullshit that their fans grab onto seems like the merest frippery.

i guess i would call them blackened doom. or folky black doom. or something. doom black folk. whatever. they have really pretty clean vocals too.

so wait you don't actually hear the acoustic stuff when its playing? i don't get it. i mean some songs are half acoustic and half electric. its not like a flourish or an acoustic intro or something.

I wasn't an Agalloch fan before this, but I like Marrow of the Spirit a lot, too. I have low tolerance for black metal in which the drumming or vocals (it's usually one of those) drain the music of rhythm or dynamism, but Agalloch doesn't seem to me to be doing that.

I like the Enslaved a lot, too, and would be happy to see either of those on anybody's 2010 list. Whether they'll make mine, I'm not sure yet. It's been a really good year.

The only term I've ever known them to get behind is "Dark Metal." They certainly don't consider themselves to be black metal. I think they draw influence from a lot of black metal, but also classical, folk, industrial, etc. John is the biggest fan I know of Rush Power Windows.

But I would never tell Phil he needs to like/understand Agalloch better. Music is so subjective. And he hears more of it than most people ever will.

One thing I will say though: I think this is the best production/capture of vocals on any Agalloch record. I'm really impressed with how John's voice sounds on this one.

i would tell phil to try a little harder! but in a nice way.

ok honestly his desc. of agalloch in no way matches my experience of listening to that band.

But I think my biggest problem with Agalloch is that they're black metal.

i mean i don't have a problem with saying that this is just flat out wrong

I think this guy figured out the best time and place to listen to Agalloch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBQsp5zH798

anyway, speaking of black metal, i'm really enjoying the Inquisition album that Hells Headbangers sent me. haven't listened to the Black Witchery and Grave Desecrator albums yet.

basically throwing that out there for siegbran and aerosmith and gott punch. dunno if anyone else here would dig it. maybe though. you never know.

noted!

the Black Witchery album is cool too. you know, your standard brootal black/death stuff, but done well. "recommended for maniacs of Blasphemy, Archgoat, Reveng."

have i ever heard Reveng? do i even know who Reveng are?

the Grave Desecrator album (they are from Brazil and sound like they are from Brazil) is recommended for diehards of: Vulcano, early Sepultura, Sarcofago, and early Mystifier.

i know the name Vulcano (from Brazil also), but i don't think i've ever heard them.

Mystifier box set that nuclear war now put out was hot. if you had a hundred bucks to blow on south american insanity it was a good deal. or whatever it cost. probably more.

http://www.nwnprod.com/?p=220

Scott have you heard Mental Horror?

i...don't...think...so. but maybe. you know, sometimes i'll go on a myspace or youtube journey around the world and i don't always remember what i hear. let's put it this way, if i have heard them it wasn't an entire cd. i'll check them out online. there's lots of good brasilian stuff i haven't heard.

I'd just like to say that nothing Agalloch has done has affected me on the level that the White E.P. did. Something about that album stirs really strong emotions. Anyone who doesn't like them because of the raspy vocals and metal leanings should try it out. So far I think their new album is fine, but it hasn't blown me away yet. (haven't had a lot of time to listen deeply to anything for a while)

I know everybody hates retro thrash, but the new Fueled By Fire album Plunging Into Darkness is really, really good. They got the big push from Metal Blade on their debut despite being musically second-tier, but Metal Blade dropped 'em, and they've been through a bunch of membership upheaval since then, and gotten much, much better in the process. This disc is really solid, and they're self-releasing it through their MySpace page while they try and convince a label to sign them. I hope they get another deal.

I don't. I mean I like Evile and Municipal Waste well enough.

Here are the 135 albums from which I will eventually pull my Top 20 of 2010.

Phil's Agalloch skepticism prompted me to listed to Marrow of the Spirit more over the weekend, and the more I play it, the better I like it. Which makes me suspect Nate and Phil of engaging in a sneaky conspiracy. So who wants to pretend to dislike Agrypnie so we can talk about that some more?

I'm really liking this newish form of what I guess feels like pagan metal to me, whether it's what that term was invented for or not: atmospheric black metal laced with tendrils of folk melody and natural/acoustic/elegiac sounds. I mean the thing nestled in the space described by, say, Celestiial, Blood of the Black Owl, Alcest, Agrypnie, Murmuüre, Naglfar, Nechochwen, Negură Bunget, Wolves in the Throne Room and Xasthur. Is it an evolution of Black Metal or a derivation from it? Dunno. But I'm finding it really involving and exciting.

i wrote a gripping essay on folk metal. coming to a bookstore near you. sooner or later. via duke university press.

Five Reasons System Of A Down Should Cancel Their Reunion Tour

Scott, what's the title of the book with your folk metal essay?

The only thing more predictable than Phil Freeman saying something inflammatory about Decibel is Phil Freeman using Decibel content as fodder for the lazy listicles on his MSN blog. C'mon, man, you're better than that!

No, I'm not.