Your five favorite metal records of the moment

don't know if i'm ever digging five at once but here are a few metal albums on my phone

ulver: bergtatt - don't have the time of day for straight up black metal lately but this has always been a favorite because 1) ulver is the best band 2) their particular idea of black metal, at least on this record, is more rolling & cinematic, less icy hypnosis
azarath: blasphemers' maledictions - still mad i didn't know about this record last year. astounding, exploratory death.
anata: the infernal depths of hatred - THIS FUCKING BAND Y'ALL. jazzy death metal that is kind of just on the edge of floating off into pestilence territory. tight, brutal, mind-turning
iron maiden: killers - yep

also i cannot get into this year's asphyx record. when it's death-y or crusty, it's great. when it's doomy it's boring

also definitely a member of the "from wisdom to hate kicks ass, don't sleep on it" crew

Seconded Clark, great record. I would recommend Obituary's Slowly We Rot if you like early Morbid Angel.

Also:

Flower Travellin' Band - Satori
Tweak Bird - Undercover Crops
Harvey Milk - Life... The Best Game in Town

― Neil S, Friday, November 9, 2012 11:44 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I do really like Slowly We Rot and Cause of Death by Obituary; I just don't looove them outright like I do Morbid Angel. And yeah, I just recently discovered Satori too--what a ride that is.

ulver: bergtatt - don't have the time of day for straight up black metal lately but this has always been a favorite because 1) ulver is the best band 2) their particular idea of black metal, at least on this record, is more rolling & cinematic, less icy hypnosis

That first song absolutely slays me. And the album art is amazingly gorgeous.

new Pig Destroyer, new Black Breath, all albums by Horseback (on a big kick right now), and now thanks to this thread Gorguts and Dissection.

anata: the infernal depths of hatred - THIS FUCKING BAND Y'ALL. jazzy death metal that is kind of just on the edge of floating off into pestilence territory. tight, brutal, mind-turning

otm. don't know why these guys don't get more shine

the effort, or non-effort as it were, to uglify (render primal) the melodies and general atmosphere on Nattens Madrigal is exactly what i love about it. it's like the music has found electrifying rapport with nature and has become more beautiful for it.

Saint Vitus - Lillie: F-65
Celeste - Misanthrope(s)
Candlemass - Nightfall
Ne Obliviscaris - Portal Of I
Nachtmystium - Silencing Machine

Loving the new Nachtmystium a lot. So far, more than any of their others

Listened to the latest Cannibal Corpse again this morning. They are on such a hot streak the last few years. Hooking up with Erik Rutan was one of the best ideas they ever had.

I def need to hear that

"I really need to hear Storm of the Light's Bane."

yeah you do. its even better. i just call it blackened death. or deathened black.

― scott seward, Thursday, November 8, 2012 8:13 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I just got this yesterday... Man, it's a beautiful record! His ability to write a stirring tremolo riff is uncanny. I need more records full of amazing tremolo riffs. (I mean, I guess that's a meat-and-potatoes part of black metal, right? I have this idea that In the Nightside Eclipse will scratch the same itch although I haven't had much luck getting into later Emperor.)

i reckon you will love 'in the mightside eclipse'

in terms of uncanny swedish amalgams of black/death, try grotesque's 'in the embrace of evil'; it's not beautiful in the way the dissection albums are, but the sheer ferocity of it is a thing of beauty.

('nightside', obv.)

Cool, thanks... I suppose I should finally listen to De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas soon too.

Today at work I was running some analysis code on gothic symphonic metal songs. Which lead me to:

- Regardless of Me: Pleasures and Fear
- One Without: Sweet Relief
- Sengir: Guilty Water
- Alight: Don't Fear the Revenge
- Amaranthe: Amaranthe (Special US Edition)

In The Nightside >>>>>>> later Emperor (although the next record is still pretty good.)

Definitely get Setherial "Nord" which is basically "In The Nightside Eclipse part 2".

Also, peak-era Marduk (Opus Nocturne/Heaven Shall Burn) were the kings of tremolo riffs.

gman mentioned Candlemass upthread... After being totally floored by Epicus Doomicus Metallicus, I got the next two records but I'm having tons of trouble getting into the vocalist for those, whereas the vocalist on that first record just clicked for me immediately. It's hard to say why; they're roughly equivalent in over-the-top-ness I suppose.

Oh, Siegbran, I forgot to mention a record I really enjoy on the tremolo-riff front: Nattestid Ser Porten Vid by Taake.

Yep Nattestid is a great record. Too bad about that grating, shitty digital brick wall-compressed guiter sound though.

Has anyone else noticed how good black metal tends to sound at really low volumes? I've found myself playing it very quietly from time to time so as not to bother my neighbors--and an album like Nattens Madrigal I find hard to play loudly simply because of how piercingly shrill it is (I'll get my dress and go home)--but it really works. I think "Jesu Dod" was the first time I really noticed this--all these little interlocking tendrils of tremolo riffage seemed to surface, whereas at louder volumes I noticed more the full-on rush and pummel of it.

peak-era Marduk

As far as I'm concerned, Marduk are pretty much peaking right now. Bringing in Mortuus was probably the smartest move they ever made. (Here's my review of Serpent Sermon

I just picked up In the Nightside Eclipse yesterday. Wow, this is great. I got my head around black metal by way of Darkthrone and Burzum (and to some extent Bathory), so it's actually been a little of a challenge getting used to the technical prowess of things in this vein. But this manages to be nimble and technical while still totally crushingly intense. The one-two punch of "Beyond the Great Vast Forest" and "Towards the Pantheon" is astonishing.

I always loved the lyrics to Nightside, those stream of consciousness ramblings by Mortiis were sadly missed on the later material, which is veers towards Manowar-in-corpsepaint.

I very much dislike those 2 cover songs that were tacked on the reissues, they're recorded by the later 'comeback' lineup with Alver/Charmand/Trym and don't fit the sound and feel of the album at all.

nightside set the bar so friggin' high. hard to reach those heights. or depths...or whatever. there's many who tried to prove that they're faster and they didn't last and they died as they tried.

Covers also add nothing to the originals either. Very bland.

Listening to Nightside right now. Amazing record.

Siegbran, I was marveling at the lyrics yesterday; I love them too. They read like black metal freestyle.

been addicted to this youtube channel lately. not all amazing stuff and a lot to wade through but i have fun wading. if you are a fan of fuzzy tapes its a winner:

http://www.youtube.com/user/Oiceoptoma/videos?view=0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnNfsuU7Ih0&feature=plcp

there's many who tried to prove that they're faster and they didn't last and they died as they tried.

setherial could knock your socks off its true. just some of their intros alone like having a bomb go off in your face.

but now you've got me digging around for those marduk reissues that i've got in a box somewhere. they sent me a bunch of them at the time. i really want to hear heaven shall burn...

Siegbran, I was marveling at the lyrics yesterday; I love them too. They read like black metal freestyle.

It's barely English as well, with lines like "into the frozen nature chilly" - I'm sure I had some of that last night.

I will definitely be getting that Setherial record. My relatively recent delving into metal has led me to buy more new CDs than I have in a long time; it's really not productive nor within my budget to try and procure 2nd-wave BM stuff, early death metal, etc, on vinyl.

Also, Storm of the Light's Bane is just completely, totally flooring me. "Thorns of Crimson Death"! It's one of the most perfect metal songs I know of. I need more things like this. Is anything else classified as "Gothenburg Sound" anywhere near this good?

First two Sacramentum records.

(Finis Malorum and Far Away From The Sun)

Is Battles in the North comparable in quality to In the Nightside Eclipse? Never heard any Immortal...

from Immortal you want an album called At the Heart of Winter.

and an album called sons of northern darkness. and an album called pure holocaust

great career

"Is Battles in the North comparable in quality to In the Nightside Eclipse? Never heard any Immortal..."

There are no bad Immortal albums (and Battle is great as is the sorta transitional follow-up Blizzard Beasts)

I don't love the super early Immortal stuff (Battles in the North, Blizzard Beasts, Pure Holocaust) as much as the middle-period and later stuff (Damned in Black, At the Heart of Winter, Sons of Northern Darkness, All Shall Fall). But it's all good to great. They rule.

They are by far the most consistent of the first wave of Norwegian Black Metal bands.

Clarke have you heard Abruptum?

yeah, it's easy to get stuck on Immortal for whole stretches at a time, there's so much good stuff in there.

as far as really melodic black metal goes, i wholeheartedly recommend Windir (and more specifically their album Arntor).

I was playing some major catch-up on about 40 albums worth of thrash for a few weeks, and sort of burnt myself out on it, but will be returning to these soon I'm sure:

Coroner - Grin (1993)
I'm a big fan of a most of this Swiss band's stuff, but was late in getting around to hearing this, which is much more prog than thrash. Kind of lost between the cracks and underrated. I'd guess Gojira might be fans.

Voivod - Killing Technology (1987)
Another band in the crossroads between thrash and prog, I bought Nothingface and Angel Rat right when they came out, but for some reason didn't dig into the older material. I loved their nerdy sci-fi approach, and enjoy the rougher, thrashier sound of this one.

Paradox - Heresy (1989)
Toxik - Think This (1989)
Kreator - Coma Of Souls (1990)

I don't love the super early Immortal stuff (Battles in the North, Blizzard Beasts, Pure Holocaust) as much as the middle-period and later stuff (Damned in Black, At the Heart of Winter, Sons of Northern Darkness, All Shall Fall). But it's all good to great. They rule.

And of all the Norwegian Black Metal bands, they look the most like a pro wrestling tag team. Demolition, specifically.

They also have a healthy appreciation of the staginess (ridiculousness doesn't seem the right word) of their gimmick, going by the interviews in that Decibel Hall of Fame article from a few years ago.

Just jumping in here to say that for everyone who loves the "deathened black" of Dissection--you really need to get the first Necrophobic album Nocturnal Silence. It's soooooo good.

nice tip on that Necrophobic album, Nate! i've had their name somewhere in the back of my head for many years, but never paid any attention till now. so many incredible riffs.

Clarke have you heard Abruptum?

― One bad call from barely losing to (Alex in SF), Monday, November 19, 2012 10:33 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I haven't, but I'll be sure and change that. Thanks to all for the Immortal tips too. Necrophobic sounds amazing! There are really just so, so many albums I still have yet to discover. (On a proto-metal tip, I finally found a nice vinyl copy of Blue Oyster Cult's Secret Treaties yesterday--it's definitely as good as everyone says it is.)