Rolling Metal Thread 2010

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.

Just got the new Decibel yesterday. Last time one of mine was really late, I contacted Mark Evans and he was great about sending a replacement. Of course then the missing copy showed up too. I think there must be a lot of USPS workers enjoying this magazine.

Well, the mail delivery in my neighborhood is notoriously awful anyway, so I feel bad blaming it on anyone else. I'll give it a couple more days.

One more shameless plug...

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/column/134341-the-best-metal-albums-of-2010/

YOB were bluddy great last night, in case you were wondering.

Here's my Top Ten at MSN; the 10 worst albums of the year piece will come later today.

macdara to thread

I personally don't blame Mark at Decibel, he always replied quickly to my e-mails and got my refund sorted pronto. But as I've said here before, I only received three issues without having to ask for them. Mark pointed the finger at distribution problems with a new printer but they couldn't go on for that long. Sure the postal system here isn't brilliant but I'm still getting my other mail! Long story short: I'll never subscribe to Decibel again.

Holy shit, the Christian Mistress. Wow. Glad I heard this before I wrapped up my lists and voting in the metal poll. Her voice is fantastic, but its the riffs that make it such an absolute joy to hear.

i love the last track especially. I still need to order that one, was waiting on a vinyl but its so expensive now for shipping n stuff I think i'll just buy cd.

They tore it up live, too. Crowd was lovin' it, and they responded in kind. Really nice group of people as well.

Here's my Top Ten at MSN; the 10 worst albums of the year piece will come later today.

― that's not funny. (unperson), Friday, December 10, 2010 6:54 AM (2 hours ago)

love a handful of the top 20 -- i guess i need to check out that sword album, huh? they're from my city!

Does nobody else have a MASSIVE problem with the drum sound on the Decrepit Birth record? I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere, but I know I'm not just imagining it because one of my friends noticed the same thing.

Otherwise, nice round ups, guys.

digging A.B.'s list on stylus

i couldn't care less about the actual #1, #2, etc. rankings on most of these lists, I'm just glad to be able to note a solid 15-20 metal albums i've yet to check out and can run with!

sorry, not stylus -- popmatters

R.I.P. stylus :(

fixing to place an order from profound lore, but i can't spend too much -- which of these are absolutely essential, awesome, worth buying, etc.? i've heard a couple tracks from agalloch, yakuza, but that's about it :/

* AGALLOCH - Marrow Of The Spirit
* SLOUGH FEG - The Animal Spirits
* DAWNBRINGER - Nucleus
* YAKUZA - Of Seismic Consequence
* LUDICRA - The Tenant
* ATAVIST/NADJA - II:Points At Infinity
* CORRUPTED - Paso Inferior
* DAWNBRINGER - Sacrament EP
* WATAIN - Lawless Darkness Ltd Digipack
* WATAIN - Rabid Death's Curse Re-Issue

Essential? I'd go with the Agalloch, Ludicra, and Yakuza. The Watain and Slough Feg are both really good, but not quite as great as the others I listed. Wait, that Corrupted is very essential too. I still haven't heard Dawnbringer, which I need to remedy before the poll.

haven't seen much talk about the new deathspell omega. loving it myself.

reminds me of the last few converge albums in approach. (though not sonically, obviously.) a band at the top of their game knocking out a razor-sharp, no-frills, and extremely aggressive release. this band is just SO in control of what they do.

vinyl is very nice too!

as for that list above, I'd go with the agalloch and corrupted records. haven't heard about half of em tho.