Rolling Metal Thread 2010

yeah, the big deal, so what rote BM vocals are the only thing keeping me from loving the shit out of the new Agalloch.

xps

nice to see that the mountain goats played jj's home town.

I like the raspy vox better on this new one than I did on Ashes. There were a few songs on Ashes that just really needed more melodic vocals, but with Marrow, it's like some ancient forest ghost in pitching in or something.

Sunday afternoon Metal Listening Club at my house: I'm liking Solefald, whose new album Norrøn Livskunst sounds a tiny bit like a pagan/prog/black-metal Sigur Rós. 3yo daughter says they're OK, but that she prefers the previous album, Dyrathor's Sacred Walcraft Of Hel, which I actually already deleted because I thought it was completely undistinguished. She can download it again herself when she's older, if she likes it so much.

Oh, man, Solefald. How have I never heard this band before?

The thing is, if a lot of those bands had clean vocals, they would just sound like Codeine.

You say that like its a bad thing.

It isn't a bad thing! It would just make them not metal anymore.

Although I think it would be pretty funny to see what non-metal music could pass for metal if you just swapped in raspy black-metal vocals.

I'm posting my Top 40 albums of the year, plus the 10 worst albums of the year, on MSN this week; here are #s 40-31.

\m/ ^_____^ \m/

Because Glenn sends me on at least one fulfilling wild goose chase a year I decided to give that Solefad a listen. The first track made me think Glenn had sent me to another pot of gold at the end of the rainbow; the second track killed that thought in about 3 seconds. I've decided that, as much as I dislike black metal vocals, I really, really dislike trebly BM guitars even more. I will say it is quite a diverse record; they even have a track ("Stridsljod / Blackabilly") that contains what sounds like a black metal version of the Munsters theme but ends up as Gogol Bordello in corpsepaint. Whatever Solefad is I can't say it bored me. Too WTF for that.

The only even vaguely close reference I could think of was that Trinacria record Travel Now Journey Infinitely. Or, in impact if not specific details, the first couple Thought Industry albums. Even in such a nominally "extreme" genre as extreme metal, I don't hear a lot of records that are genuinely surprising.

when are we starting 2010 metal poll noms?

I think Algerian Goalkeeper was saying that he wasn't going to do one this year, too much work for too little appreciation.

i appreciate the hell out of it, i think most of us do!

if he doesn't wanna run the poll, i'm happy to tabulate votes on the back-end if someone can do the analytics (glenn?)

word. always the BEST ilm poll of the year (and then some)--certainly of far greater reach/interest/diversity/humor (aesthetically speakin') than any competing poll run by yr rag/siteblight of choice. and it's fun too. lazy-assed rollin' metal goons--i'm lookin' atcha Scott, j0hn d, Phil, Gorge, Xhuxk et al--outta be ashamed of themselves for not contributing. let's do this you mugs!

I'll talk to Glenn, but hardly anyone from this thread takes part and even less took part in the alltime poll. It was mainly lurkers and non-thread regulars. Most here just bitch about it.

ILX Metalheads : Do you want a best of 2010 Metal Poll ?

I didn't have the time for the all-time poll, wish I would have, but I'd love to see another metal poll. Gives a nice counter to the main ILM poll.

in general, overarching all-time polls aren't really my thing (that's why I didn't participate in that one) but the year-end metal ones are always a good time and definitely appreciated.

I feel the same as Alan. I didn't vote in last year's because I didn't feel I had heard enough new metal in '09, but this year is different (I had an insatiable appetite for metal!) Even though I didn't vote last year, the poll clued me into some great albums I had missed.

I always appreciate an EOY poll so I can catch up with what has been going on, but I don't think I could vote as my list could only stretch to about 5 records max.

i have no problem w/ people who've only heard 5 or so albums voting, as long as they liked the albums!

Hey, this crunchy power-metal band Triosphere is pretty good. Except I could swear she just sang "Can you taste the toothpaste grin?"

Brushing your teeth is so metal. \m/

so i go across the street to the dismal chain cuz they have south of heaven and seasons cheap on cd and i have been listening to the tapes for twenty years and i figure what the hell? might be nice to have new copies. they say "remastered" on them but i figure how bad can they be? they're TERRIBLE! UNFUCKINGLISTENABLE! i can't even turn up the volume to the halfway mark before the sound starts disintegrating before my very ears. its a fucking crime. did iggy pop remaster these things? what a waste of money. i'm so sad.

I'm sorry Scott. I've never upgraded my tapes, and now I'm thinking I shouldn't bother.

i have every slayer tape up to seasons. i think i might actually have two south of heaven copies. but if you ever wanted a testimonial for cassettes look no further than my original copy of that album. i've played it at least two or three hundred times over the years. still sounds phat.

original cd copies of those albums probably sound okay. old def jam CDs are usually fine. or American cds or whatever.

I'll keep an eye out for you Scott. It'd be a good excuse to come back to the store.

saw a sweet colombian pressing of south of heaven at a record show recently but i was already loaded down with oi! and psych records. did buy an original slowly we rot for ten bucks on vinyl though.

I've been playing my old Banzai cassette of Haunting the Chapel for 26 years, and have yet to replace it with CD or vinyl. Those old Banzai tapes are of extraordinary quality.

ILM Metal/Heavy Rock & other 'metal' subgenres 2010 POLL NOMINATIONS THREAD CLOSES 31/12 - All are welcome.

my South of Heaven CD is a Japanese import I got like 10 years ago. glad I hung onto it.

Shameless plug for my big Agalloch feature over at PopMatters:

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/column/133403-the-weight-of-darkness-inside-agallochs-marrow-of-the-spirit/

(this was a fun one to do)

and it was damn good too (read it last nite).

Yeah, I was late getting into Slayer and was so underwhelmed when I heard how shitty the CDs sounded.

Picked up Decibel last night. My favorite quote -- "During this journey, I wrote several pages of random epic thoughts..." -- John Haughm, Agalloch

For those of you that subscribe to Decibel, have you all gotten this issue? I finally subscribed about 3 weeks ago and got email confirmation, but I haven't had an issue show up yet and I'm wondering whether I need to just go out and buy a copy of this.

macdara to thread

yeah, I got my issue

xpost

I was just looking at Orphaned Land's wikipedia page and I saw this about their album:

Within the first week of being released in the United States, this album sold 600 copies and reached 80th place on the Billboard Heatseekers chart

600 copies in the first week? This number astounds me and tells two stores - 1) the record industry really is in bad bad shape if 600 copies can place on a Billboard chart, and, 2) metal albums don't sell for shit. I realized Orphaned Land is a long ways from even like Dimmu Borgir, but that is a tiny number.

my issue arrived a week or so ago tbh

Sounds like I'll have to go pick one up.

what exactly is a heatseekers chart though? obviously it's not a main one.

True, I mean it isn't going to reflect anywhere near the numbers of one of the main charts, but still... 600 copies in a week seems so low to me.

i haven't gotten mine yet. was it something i said? ;_;

just listened to the murmuüre album. (finally! thanks for the tip, glenn.)

so, this is a really nice mix of spacey, krauty ambiance and black metal but less generic than that sounds. brought celestiial and lurker of chalice to mind - it's similarly natural and loose. scott should listen to this.

Wasn't it Aldo who recommended it? I heard it because of him.

ah, yes. you're right. I just saw glenn list it above.

either way, it's very strong.