Rolling Metal Thread 2014

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/19096-warfaring-strangers-darkscorch-canticles/

comp of 70s u.s. proto-metal

So I wrote this. Purists will object, as Ashbery says.

http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2014/03/dayal_patterson_s_history_of_black_metal_reviewed.single.html

Fave metal of 2014 so far fwiw:

Slough Feg
Behemoth
Grand Magus
Indian
Black Space Riders
Eric Church

Selim Lemouchi, songwriter/leader of The Devil's Blood, has died. Very sad news, he was a tremendous talent.

oh no :(

Oh man. I was looking forward to whatever he was going to do next. RIP.

Babymetal performing with Chthonic.
http://youtu.be/6eRvLeUq9pg
Digging the lycra skeletons. The article it came from is here:
http://www.dailydot.com/lol/babymetal-metal-japanese-pop/

you guys are trippin' on that Babymetal..lol Its not for me, I guess.

The Fluisteraars three-track debut album Dromers is awesome if you'd like your black metal in long slabs of hypnotic midtempo riffs in 3/4 time between Burzum "Hvis Lyset Tar Oss", Drudkh "Autumn Aurora" and Moonsorrow.

I haven't read Dayal Patterson's book yet, but that review struck me as rather patronizing.

But who cares? Fans aren’t looking for good writing from a book like Black Metal—they’re looking for lore, for new and eviler bands to listen to, for absurd statements from their metal gods. (“Living off human blood, decorating your flat with tombstones, animal carcasses, digging up graves and shit, does something to you,” explains Emperor’s Terje Vik Schei, who is “no longer a Satanist and now married with children.”) On that score, as your average metal reviewer might have it, it delivers the goods and then some.

Why put yourself above other readers like that? How do you know what average fans and reviewers want out of a book? It's like what movie reviewers always do when writing about things like comic book adaptations, bracketing their criticisms with the qualification that the movie was made for fans and fans won't care. Why presume that? If good writing is important for you, shouldn't you charitably assume that it's important for other people?

So today I bought the Bölzer - Aura 12" from bandcamp and got the flacs and bloody hell this is just fantastic. It's hard to categorize as there's bits of black, death, doom and heavy metal and its quite magnificent. Count me in as someone desperate to hear a full length!

They're supposed to have a new EP out this month.

Bölzer are also unbelievably good live. If you're going to either Roadburn or MDF, DO NOT miss them.

Interesting review of Morbus Chron - http://www.popmatters.com/review/179524-morbus-chron-sweven/

Listening at work but need more time with it.

The Fluisteraars three-track debut album Dromers is awesome if you'd like your black metal in long slabs of hypnotic midtempo riffs in 3/4 time between Burzum "Hvis Lyset Tar Oss", Drudkh "Autumn Aurora" and Moonsorrow.

This Rauhnacht album coming out on Hammerheart would seem to fit here too. I'd never heard of him. Am correcting this problem. (There's even a cover of "Glemselens Elv" on the vinyl edition.)
http://youtu.be/F26Fxv_qYPA

Oh man the other songs from that album, which I'm finding in the related vids, are all great. I need to stop so I can just order it and take in the whole thing at once.

btw if anyone really likes this style but doesn't mind some lo-fi production, I cannot recommend Horn highly enough, specifically the albums Der Kraft der Szenarien and Naturkraft.
http://youtu.be/MoqzHdXL-Zo

It's not metal at all but I picked up the new Bohren & der Club of Gore and it's pretty great, something that all fans of the dark arts should check out, preferably while wearing a smoking jacket and drinking a glass of the reddest wine imaginable.

Have been awaiting the Rauhnacht album, I'm a big fan of Stefan Traunmüller and his projects (Rauhnacht, Golden Dawn, Wallachia). I guess the language barrier will keep a lot of people from getting the most out of it, but there's a steady stream of interesting German language "alpine folklore" themed metal coming from Austria, Switzerland and Bavaria like Lunar Aurora, Rauhnacht and Angizia.

Bohren album is excellent. already looking forward to someone putting forth a tortuous sub-xhuxk argument as to why it should be in the EOY metal poll

kinda been thinking about getting into Bohren, will give the new one a listen

The Killer Be Killed album (Max Cavalera, Greg Puciato, Troy Sanders, and one of the many ex-Mars Volta drummers) will surprise fans of Soulfly, Mastodon, and Dillinger Escape Plan in more or less equal measure. It's not Nailbomb Part 2 (Point Blank turns 20 on Sunday and is still harder than half your record collection), but neither is it just another boneheaded/half-assed Max Cavalera thrash-groove disc. There are actual songs here. Worth a listen.

Nailbomb...that's funny, I've always avoided Nailbomb like the plague and to this day haven't heard a single note, mostly due to how shit Sepultura was at the time and how negatively everyone received it. This is the first time I've seen it referenced in at least a decade - i should probably check it out, it can't be as bad as Roots, can it?

but Nailbomb had alex newport in it and Fudge Tunnel were immense.

Nailbomb is awesome!!

I'm gonna go play it again now. Not done that in years

Nailbomb came around before Sepultura started to suck, in my opinion. I still have my "Proud To Be A Punk Loser" hoodie too!

http://www.decibelmagazine.com/featured/dave-witte-and-tired-hands-collaborate-on-play-fast/

I'm seeing a lot of Babymetal in my facebook news feeds.. I'm gonna start deleting friends!.. lol

Yeah, that last Babymetal link I posted was sent to me by a friend with whom I'd never talked about them, and who to my knowledge has no interest in either metal or jpop -- his only comment was, "this is surreal." I think I've seen at least one thread about them on one message board or another, I forget which. They're spreading!

apparently they're the band emil.y has been playing in outloud/plug.dj for a few years

Every person I know has sent me a link to BABYMETAL. Which is totally fine with me.

its just so action movie soundtrack too me.. I can't get into it.

that last Babymetal link I posted was sent to me by a friend with whom I'd never talked about them, and who to my knowledge has no interest in either metal or jpop -- his only comment was, "this is surreal."

getting a lot of this too

hate it

not babymetal, no hate they're fine, but the whole "wow this is INSANE!!" tone (coupled with the now-obligatory "purists will hate it!! they must doin somethin right, am I right??" schtick is like

must we

Kawaii Metal is a great name though tbf

After the Jezebel website posted the Give Me Choco!! video Saturday, a commenter wrote, "Somewhere in Norway there is a metalhead in corpse paint standing in a forest crying tears of blood."

is pretty funny too

it's the best. my mom forwarded me the same joke. she's in her 80s

I've been oscillating between the k-pop thread and the metal thread this year.

My EOY list is going to look so weird.

I'm gonna be really hard pressed to do a top 25 metal releases at year's end—I'm spending so much more of my time listening to jazz this year to begin with, and of what I have heard, the only two 2014 releases that have really stuck for me so far have been Gridlink and Exmortus.

can I just say

shout out to tomapai who did it earlier and never get much recognition:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1-Jvf4hJfY

and shout out to momoclo who did it weirder and with marty friedman shredding along:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UjT_s1SRT4

but babymetal are pretty fun. not sure I'll listen to em much but I feel like, overall, they're a positive force for music. I get where you're coming from, aero. esp w/the 'japan is so ~WEIRD~' angle... but ya gotta lighten up, before yer arteries harden.

Can't forget Ayumi Hamasaki's take on prom dress metal:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l83l9Ufe5fQ

I did wonder if Marty Friedman was involved with babymetal actually.
If these kids learn English and can do tv interviews I think they could get a hit in the US

but babymetal are pretty fun. not sure I'll listen to em much but I feel like, overall, they're a positive force for music. I get where you're coming from, aero. esp w/the 'japan is so ~WEIRD~' angle... but ya gotta lighten up, before yer arteries harden.

I said they were fine! I just get a lot of "aero have you seen????BLACK METAL PARROT!!" from well meaning people and it's like this one dude said around 3:38 - 4:02 of this video, like it's exactly like that

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdphlVjBsVU

sure, and the discourse around them is p lame, I said I feel you on that. mostly just wanted to quote the 80s akira dub, no disrespect.

Heard a track from

32 Nothing - Guilty of Everything (Relapse)

and it was mighty interesting. Shoegaze postmetal?

these guys -> http://noisey.vice.com/blog/interview-about-nothing-philly-shoegaze-band

I feel like I've heard that sound a thousand times before. It's slightly louder and on Relapse, though, so "metal" I guess.

All this talk about a non-metal band on Relapse is old hat, though. The same stuff was going round when Don Caballero signed a few years ago.

dysrhythmia too iirc, what metal bro doesn't enjoy a little post-rock now and then

Cynic new album review in pitchfork today. I don't know that much about death metal, but am beginning to realize I hate stuff labeled "technical" or "progressive". I think I might even be starting to hate Meshuggah, and pretty sure I hate the guitarist's solo record, which reminds me of Cynic's Focus. I hate Allan Holdsworth, Frank Gambale-esque soloing, and I hate Dream Theater. Technical metal, you are usually boring!

I finally got a chance to see Cynic in person on the 70k cruise. Impeccably played, but the vocals were so tone-deaf. It was unbearable. Masvidal/Reinert/DiGiorgio were spectacular playing the Death to All set, though.