METAL for ART-metallers

this notion that he's somehow A One-Man Black Metal Band Apart is the sort of coronation-by-indiedom stuff that turns me into Cranky Old Manasaurus.

Maybe that's just because he's on Hydra Head, which may be less intimidating to some than some obscure kvlt imprint (aside from certainly having a greater profile).

which is why i always have to remember not to make blanket statements about WHY anyone listens to anything.

exactly. but imagine what a desert this place would be if everyone followed your example.

Scott Seward is my hero.

mine too, now.

I'm aspiring to be more Scottlike in this thread while wanting to continue encouraging people to seek out from metal both the things that are different from what they already know they like as well as the things they already know they like (indie self-consciousness, big telegraphed "this is art!" punches as has there ever been a more artful metal album than Transilvanian Hunger? A: not according to me, etc)

Anyhow LJ you might seek out: Arkenstone, Drastus, Velvet Cacoon (v. controversial! many purists think they don't "mean it"! I think they're quite cool), Striborg (now on Southern Lord I think), Haemoth & especially if you haven't already Abruptum.

and I wanna plug Cirith Gorgor though they're not in the this-looks-like-art camp but their guitar work (and tone) are fucking artful as anything.

now playing:

http://img1.nnm.ru/imagez/gallery/4/6/1/7/6/46176253245b7619e6c9222d90a40079.jpg

original pressing or you are posing

KIDDING

i'm trying to think of something new and "arty" that i really dig, but i can't think of much. i like the new Velnias album, but it's not really that out there. it's good though.

http://www.myspace.com/velniascult

i have the season of mist reissue of the beherit album. i helped the record store here set up a metal section - they didn't have one - and they got it in and i felt like i should buy it in case nobody else did.

would racebannon qualify for the 'arty' ephithet? or 'metal', for that matter? either way, the new album is pretty stunning.

am i really the only person on here who loves the septic flesh album that came out this year??????

it's so cool. and best use of metal band + full orchestra that i think i've ever heard. the arrangements are so great. the orchestral parts aren't just tacked on. they are an integral and crucial part of the sound.

http://www.metalkingdom.net/album/img/d15/15064.jpg

http://www.myspace.com/septicfleshband

racebannon are spazzcore and pretty great. and they've held up better than the locust. i never understood why they were on an indiepop label for so long though. was it secretly canadian?

(only cuz people who would like what they do might never hear stuff on a label like secretly canadian. if that was the label. i know it was one of those indie rock labels. although their offshoot rapider than horsepower was a good fit for an indie rock label. i loved that first album by them.)

no scott I share your enthusiasm for septicflesh, wrote about it here

it was definitely secretly canadian.

although it was their second and third albums on that label...

SC and Racebannon are both from Bloomington yeah? So I gess they go back a bit. I heard that they left the label as a result of someone from one end fucking the girlfriend of someone from the other end. </Spazzcore Enquirer>

<3 that Beherit album. Might be the 1st black metal I ever bought actually

racebannon are heavier, more feral and more diverse than the locust, imo. there's something about them that I find genuinely disturbing. in a good way.

Thanks, J0hn! There's nothing I'd like more than for this thread (bad title and all) to turn into a "stuff y'all might like" eye-opening-recommendation forum. I'll stay tuned! My Xasthur comment was probably born out of ignorance; I've never heard anything like it, but then I haven't heard very much metal.

Totally endorse J0hn's Velvet Cacoon recommendation upthread. Been listening to their stuff a lot over the last few months, and I reckon a lot of noise heads here would like them. (Apart from the ones who hate them already!)

. and with Velvet Cacoon, you have this whole debate in one band!

There's a new Racebannon??? I gotta hear it!!! I love all their other albums I have. What label are they on now?

people who would like what they do might never hear stuff on a label like secretly canadian

Isn't that kinda like when Saint Vitus were on SST? Although maybe that was the reverse, as in punkers doing a double-take when their fave label signs a gang of longhairs with kickass riffs.

Tried real hard w/ the Vlevet Cacoons, but couldn't get into em. Sound great as background music, like having a thousand amplified cats purring at you, but there's no there there. It's just a pleasant tone, carried out for forty-some minutes. I have way too many "pleasant tone" records.

Love Xasthur, but was likewise a bit 0_o at the "genius and a genuinely singular artist in the metal", when, you know, Leviathan, Striborg, Drastus, BURZUM (BM Godwin's Law).

Sound great as background music, like having a thousand amplified cats purring at you, but there's no there there.

kind of why I like them

OTM

If anyone can be bothered putting together an annotated "If you like Xasthur . ." list of one-man BM outfits, I'd like to see it. Even if I have the first half-dozen already.

There's a new Racebannon??? I gotta hear it!!! I love all their other albums I have. What label are they on now?

'tis on southern.

i forgot to mention the new Empire Auriga album on here! i love it.

http://www.myspace.com/empireauriga

you can listen to a couple tracks on their myspace. very down and dirty blend of bm/industrial/martial neo-folk/etc

again, that would be me, not maria.

Maria is getting quite metal these days ;)

There's a fair amount of art-metal on Paper Thin Walls from time to time. Here's a couple of tracks I like, both of which can still be downloaded:
Time Of Orchids
http://www.paperthinwalls.com/singlefile/item?id=948
Oops, better save the second for another post, or it'll say too much BB.

Although you'd prob have to hear that in context of the album to have it seem all that metal, like it does to me; it's more the overall vibe though. The other I was thinking of is Kayo Dot, though they were more consistent early on, but it still works sometimes.I guess we shouldn't call these bands "post-metal"? They have something to do with trace elements, still glowing in the dark, setting off counters.:
http://www.paperthinwalls.com/singlefile/item?id=1594

I just want to thank this thread for making me finally listen to some Art Bears.

1st Kayo Dot was best

OK, so I mostly only listen to music at the moment when I'm working, so it needs to be somewhat backgroundish. I listen to a lot of Sunn O))) - what else should I try?

I can recommend Nortt - very atmospheric black/doom - and Velvet Cacoon, described above.

i highly recommend listening to Make a Change... Kill Yourself as background music while at work.

Darkspace is awesome for that, too, but a different vibe.

man, I love that last time of orchids record. not sure that they were at all metal (esp. by that point), but THERE was a band that were doing their own thing. a shame they called it quits; they were at the height of their game.

I love how they took this fragmented, spazzy off-shoot of prog and made it into something so pretty and epic. I mean, they really make you work for it, but when a song climaxes, it can be pretty amazing. the "darling abandon" track that's streaming on paper thin walls is the perfect example. people should listen to that.

still bummed that I missed them open for koenjihyakkei. :-/

fucking great list of music up there from scott

The best album I've ever heard for working to is Earth Pentastar. I can play it over and over and never get tired of it.

Erik Davis wrote a great thing in the Voice, about art waltzing its way into metal, againe and againe: think the title was "Only A Northern Song," or close to that, and still in the online no doubt. Leave us not forget Mastodon, Nadja, Yakuza.

New Velvet Cacoon double 'Atropine' announced for Oct/Nov on the Full Moon Productions site: "This album was carefully created over a four year period under the closely supervised influence of mandrake, hemlock, datura stramonium, henbane, belladonna and jesaconitine isolate. Most of the drone library was originally recorded to DAT and buried in the ground for two years before reviving them for use."

New album by Lustmord is pretty good. Arguably more conventional than previous releases, in that it doesn't sound like being pulled out of airlock into space, but identifiably him.

Finally got around to downloading "Where the black stars hang", which you recommended to me ages ago. Immense! Perhaps not metal as such, but a lot of the 'ambient' BM I've been listening to recently approaches a similar feel. I'd be surprised if Darkspace weren't fans.

Stunning clip, zero information, as per with Velvet Cacoon. Appears to be a track from the new VC CD. Could be a fanvid from found footage - if so, I'd like to know where they found it.

can someone educate me about Ascend? There's one album titled "Ample fire within" here in the store.

It's great and the best thing Greg Anderson has been involved with in years!

okay, I'm going to buy it NOW! : )