Rolling Metal Thread 2010

I think they were also psyched that Stereomud got back together, so while it's a fun blog, you have to take their music recommendations with a grain of salt.

I liked the first two Daath albums, they're good, they're catchy. The new one, though, is a disaster, nothing but a Guitar center circle jerk on record. It's like that Suicide Silence album last year, why even bother when you can't even remember how a song goes?

oh and buy the swans album too if you havent heard it, it might not be metal but I think you would like it.

^_____^

A couple listens later, I am going to upgrade my comment on this album The Road Less Traveled by Triosphere from "pretty good" to "really good". Norwegian traditionally-minded metal band with just a little "progressive" in the "guitarist probably learned a bunch of Alex Lifeson riffs when he was a kid" sense, and a great female singer with a deep delivery more in the old pre-black/death metal mold than the modern Nightwish/Epica opera-elf version. Like, imagine taking the melodic core of Dream Theater's "Pull Me Under" and grafting it back into something that tries to reinvent Savatage like Enslaved have remade Pink Floyd. I'm really hoping, for list making reasons, that this is the last stunningly good album I discover this year...

That sounds good.

So I went to the Rammstein show on Saturday night in NYC, and it was awesome. Here's my review (with photos, also by me), and here are more photos.

that looks awesome. and this is priceless:

"face-mounted flamethrowers"

The new Deathspell Omega is really good. But is it good in a new way? Not sure yet. I've provisionally decided that the new Blut Aus Nord isn't good in any new way.

imo, the new deathspell is nothing new. but what it does, it does extremely well.

hey guys go nominate some metal on THE 2010 ILM SUPER-MEGA YEAR-END ALBUMS 'N' TRACKS POLL™ is open for nominations thru January 2, 2011 @ midnight EST I just nominated some.

Not that anybody has been asking, but it occurred to me this morning that my metal database could easily tell me what words appear with different frequencies in bands names than in album titles. Now that I bring it up, of course you realize how badly you would like to know, right?

The 10 words more disproportionately found in band names over album titles are:

#,Word,Ratio,Bands/Releases
1, Inc, 4.95, 67/33
2, Cryptic, 3.16, 57/44
3, Project, 2.35, 111/115
4, Corpse, 2.32, 116/122
5, Legion, 2.15, 98/111
6, Fatal, 2.11, 65/75
7, G, 2.1, 55/64
8, Lord, 1.91, 141/180
9, Mortal, 1.87, 95/124
10, Crimson, 1.86, 70/92

At the other end, all these appear 50+ more often in album titles than band names:

Anthology, 1/100
Edition, 1/113
el, 2/196
en, 2/205
Hits, 1/105
Hymns, 2/203
II, 10/1,000
is, 4/571
Of, 34/4,401
Thrashing, 1/102
Tribute, 1/133
Untitled, 1/123
Vivo, 1/132
vs, 1/139
Best, 2/377
Live, 10/3,309
Part, 1/284
Song, 1/166
Songs, 1/331
Tape, 2/512
Welcome, 1/285

Full list here:

https://pub.needlebase.com/actions/visualizer/V2Visualizer.do?domain=Metal-Index&query=Band%2FRelease+Word-Frequency

guys, still hashing out my Profound Lore order -- how are these albums?

* HAMMERS OF MISFORTUNE - Fields/Church Of Broken Glass
* YOB - The Great Cessation
* KRALLICE - Dimensional Bleedthrough
* DRUDKH - Estrangement (re-issue)

awesome

(side question: what's the story on Drudkh? do they have questionable worldviews i may not wish to support with an album purchase?)

It was discussed on here before and the band say they are not racist etc etc so most seem willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.

You will love them I think.

Wow. Anyone heard the latest Vomitor record, Devil's Poison? Art damaged death-thrash from Australia. It's super chaotic and off-kilter. Really cool stuff.

Harvey Milk vinyl now for sale (pre-order)
http://www.bluecollardistro.com/bcd/product_info.php?name=bcd&products_id=3918

Anti-fascist bloggers calling me out for booking an Allerseelen tour. I guess they don't know about my Jewish blood (and big nose).

http://rosecityantifa.weebly.com/1/post/2010/12/allerseelen-on-tour-austrian-far-right-musical-project-on-west-coast-tour-playing-support-to-northwest-heavy-metal-act.html

not familiar with this band but pretty sure the general antifa response to learning that wouldn't be "ah right you are, carry on then"

We invite Agalloch to clarify its position towards the far-Right and fascism, and to indicate what precisely it meant by promoting Allerseelen to its audience.

Oh for god's sake shut up.

"fascist-friendly policy"

So, I read the whole "statement" about Allerseelen by the Rose City Antifascists, neither of whom I'd ever heard before. It leaves me provisionally convinced that the latter dislike the former, at least. It doesn't, I think, make a sufficiently strong case that Petak's politics are outside of the scope of social acceptability, so while the authors are probably within their rights in asking questions, it doesn't seem to me that they've established sufficient moral grounds for demanding answers. I am also inherently skeptical of an essay that calls out an artist in detailed personal terms, and then signs the whole thing as an anonymous collective. If you're going to attack a person, directly, to the level of detail of tracking the movements of his "associates", you are stepping into public, and you better do it with your masks off and your own lives open to exactly that much scrutiny. If it were me being called out, I would demand to see names and signatures, and gauge my response as a personal conversation with those individual people, conducted howevever publicly.

That said, though, "Apparently you haven't seen my nose" is not a responsive answer to any question they're asking. "We invite Agalloch to clarify its position towards the far-Right and fascism, and to indicate what precisely it meant by promoting Allerseelen to its audience." is a stiffly but carefully worded sentence. Ignoring it or responding to it are likely to be more productive reactions than trying to treat it like it's obviously and inherently laughable.

A good example response to this sort of thing, though, might be something along the lines of "Transgressive art is often morally challenging, by its nature, and engaging with it, as an audience, is not at all the same as endorsing its internal logic. We are confident that Agalloch's audience are capable of deciding for themselves how to receive and respond to Allerseelen's music."

Oh god antifascists ruin everything. I don't care about Allerseelen's dodgy "militant paganism," and it has absolutely nothing to do with Agalloch. Jesus they act like all these guys are fucking Skrewdriver or something. I invite these fuckwads to kindly stfu and gtfo.

You make very good points Glenn.

And as for taking off the mask, they phoned me from a blocked number at 10:30 this morning to get a statement from me. I refused to be quoted on 6 hours of sleep but told them I was entirely unaware of any fascist connections and that I'd make a personal decision myself after spending a week in the van with Allerseelen (who are also staying at my house.)

I'm anti-fascist in principle too, of course. But I don't see a smoking gun or a strong case in this instance.

Only fascists would want to know who they're talking to on the phone, Nate.

Undoubtedly. And now they've posted my private cel # on some sort of site or list. I'm fielding blocked calls from uppity college students that are demanding to know why I'm promoting a fascist band in Portland.

When I ask them their names and why they are calling from a blocked #, they invariably hang up. The few who have stayed on the line, I've called cowards and victims of propaganda. Sheep I tell you.

Now that I've been labeled a hipster and a fascist, I'm waiting to see what's next. Steampunk? LARPer? How much lower can I go?

Tabletop Wargamer.

Ouch!

(but I do love me some Talisman!)

Don't deny your true nature; I saw that huge collection of painted miniatures and realistic terrain at your house.

I too loved Talisman back in the day.

I found Talisman kind of repetitive, actually -- just seems like going around in circles for hours. But then, I dig Arkham Horror, which some people think is REALLY repetitive. Anyway.

Last nerd post for the moment - I always wanted to play Arkham Horror but my crew weren't Cthulhu guys. And as much as I liked Talisman, I played more Dungeon! than any other boxed game until I got into Civilization in high school.

The original Dungeon was a blast. I've been into Settler of Cataan this year. Talisman goes round and round for sure, but I own so many of the expansion sets that there are a lot of random variables and extra characters to keep it interesting.

Settlers is brutal -- I very nearly had a falling out with one of my friends over that game. I'm actually surprised to find other metal dudes who are into boardgames, but I probably shouldn't be -- the subject matter of a lot of it (fantasy, horror, historical) overlaps, as does the nerd factor.

Haven't played in a while but I'm a Carcassonne enthusiast. Hunters & Gatherers is the best game of the bunch IMO.

Nate I can't believe these dingalings are harassing you. Rude.

i think the issue here is that you are all damn nerds!

I always wanted to play Arkham Horror but my crew weren't Cthulhu guys

You can play Arkham Horror by yourself, y'know.

Also, I'm getting Carcassonne for Xmas. Geek pride!

Kerrang top 20 of 2010
20. Electric Wizard - Black Masses
19. Linkin Park - A Thousand Suns
18. Motion City Soundtrack - My Dinosaur Life
17. Stone Sour - Audio Secrecy
16. Black Breath - Heavy Breathing
15. High On Fire - Snakes For The Divine
14.Grand Magus - Hammer Of The North
13. Trash Talk - Eyes & Nines
12. Jimmy Eat World - Invented
11. Alkaline Trio - This Addiction
10. Far - At Night We Live
9. Against Me - White Crosses
8. Melissa Auf Der Maur - Out Of Our Minds
7. My Chemical Romance - Danger Days: The True Lives Of The Fabulous Killjoys
6.Kvelertak - Kvelertak
5. The Dillinger Escape Plan - Option Paralysis
4. Bring Me The Horizon - There Is A Hell,Believe Me I've Seen It. There Is A Heaven, Let's Keep It A Secret
3. Iron Maiden - The Final Frontier
2. The Gaslight Anthem - American Slang
1. Deftones - Diamond Eyes

4. Bring Me The Horizon - There Is A Hell,Believe Me I've Seen It. There Is A Heaven, Let's Keep It A Secret

oof, this album title

I love that Jimmy Eat World album, too, but what the hell is it doing on this list? It has many virtues, but kerranginess is not among them...

that's what I thought while typing it out.
xp

glenn> that kinda thing is what kerrang covers now. It hasn't been a metal mag for 10 years. It covers emo.

I have a soft spot for Jimmy Eat World, but never got around to picking the new one up. Worth it glenn? How does it stack up against the last one?

But I suppose talking about Jimmy Eat World is grounds for dismissal from the metal thread.

Kerrang! list could be a LOT worse, which is to say it's not greatly representative of what's been most prominently covered

*in the mag that is

You can play Arkham Horror by yourself, y'know.

I did not! Will have to add it to the list of things to do.