Rolling Metal Thread 2014

BTW I'll go on record that I own an exact equal amount Dr Dre (produced) and Burzum CDs (five), and I'm proud to have financially contributed to a better world enriched with designer headphones and rebuilt stave churches.

I don't think there's an awful lot of moral high ground to win in a "Taking Sides: Stabbing a man in his underwear a couple dozen times versus Kicking a woman half your size in the ribs and slamming her head repeatedly against a wall".

― Siegbran, Sunday, June 29, 2014 5:35 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

being dead does have a bit of finality to it

― Neanderthal, Sunday, June 29, 2014 5:36 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

BTW I'll go on record that I own an exact equal amount Dr Dre (produced) and Burzum CDs (five), and I'm proud to have financially contributed to a better world enriched with designer headphones and rebuilt stave churches.

― Siegbran, Sunday, June 29, 2014 5:46 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this leaves aside Burzum actually esposes a noxious and damaging ideology as well

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/news/death-metal-band-to-play-in-soundproof-airtight-box-in-london-9572606.html

keep going back to the new mayhem, really like this record. the guitars sound great, love all the slashing and ringing noises. and I dig the jammy, loose feel on a lot of it, sorta like deathspell omega if they were a little less uptight and had a way more fun frontman. it's certainly not as memorable as ordo ad chao but... the production is cleaner!

Fuck, Teitanblood rules. Why didn't I know this before now? Both Death and Woven Black Arteries are kicking my ass.

oh man, thanks for reminding me there's a new teitanblood. seven chalices is killer too btw.

I love the new Tombs.

Haven't gotten to that one, it's in the pile at home.

Alan - I'm definitely going back to track down the old Teitanblood stuff.

i can't get into the tombs yet, it seems so unlikeable : /

and i really loved the last one

ayo the new every time i die kicks

oh and it's produced by kurt ballou apparently, which accounts for the familiar punch in the mix

mine

http://i57.tinypic.com/b8uz9k.jpg

niiiiiiiiiiiiiiice

what's #tripmetal?

Looks like some twitter in-joke. Hashtags aren't metal, though, so who gives a fuck.

digging on the latest Trap Them a lot

also got around to last year's Shitfucker album. I know everybody's divided but this album sounds like it was made for me. would be perfect if not for the crepey shitfuck-repurposing of the swastika on the cover

Incoming wall o'text. Imagine trumpetous heraldry, scrolls unfurling, exhausted messengers falling off horses, etc.

So a few hours ago some dude from an Australian band I'd never heard of, The Furor, posted release info about a new album in the metal-archives thread devoted to "worthwhile" albums of the year. A little arrogant and presumptuous? Possibly, I thought. The cover artwork obviously got my attention, though.

I'm holding off on listening to the second half of this thing til I get a physical copy. The half of the album I have heard, however, has just dropped my jaw -- and dried out my eyes from all the awe-stricken, unblinking staring. Let me sum this up best by saying, you know how sometimes a metal album can deliver on the kind of intensity that brings to mind a demented sorcerer desperately trying to fend off a dungeon full of gibbering, howling hellspawns yanked through a flaming pentagram from their millennial naps? This does that. Chaos. Riffs. Crazy leads. Panoramic drumming. It's one of those rare blackened death metal albums that actually make that dead horse of a subgenre worth saving from the glue factory. It sounds like Abbath, Trey Azagthoth, Samoth, and Proscriptor McGovern formed a supergroup. The punchline is that it's a one man band.
http://thefuror.bandcamp.com/

If you like Beyond, Begrime Exemious, Axis of Advance, Angelcorpse, or, I don't know, any other incandescently amazing metal, I recommend hopping on over to that bandcamp.

Oh, he's the current Impiety drummer, I see.

well i'm really enjoying how excited you are devilock! cover art is great, will report back

I'm also finding myself weirdly excited about the new Cannibal Corpse so maybe I've had too much caffeine. I feel like my text is yelling, like that Will Ferrell SNL character with "voice modulation disorder."

the last cannibal corpse i thought was among their best so i'm choosing to believe you

If you haven't already, you can actually hear the new CC track: http://youtu.be/iuRWK17T4_M

Nothing extraordinary, I just like that they've thrashed up their sound and sort of de-chunkafied the guitars. Not that I didn't love the sound of Torture, definitely my second fave after Bloodthirst (and then it's a precipitous drop-off); I appreciate when bands tinker with their formulas. And I dig the less ornery cover art.

Speaking of cover art, I know next to nothing about this Black Twilight Circle, but the comp of their stuff has one helluva cover.
http://i.imgur.com/91jQBxi.jpg

I've never been quite sold on Botanist before but this new track is ace

http://thequietus.com/articles/15681-botanist-callistemon

oh that is lovely

New Judas Priest kicks all sorts of ass.

Really? I have it on pre order.

Will i like it if i didnt like the last two?

I think so. I wasn't a big fan of either and I think this is excellent. The whole thing is streaming on itunes radio if you want to check it out.

Awesome thanks!

I'm gonna be three blocks from a Best Buy on Tuesday, so I'm just gonna wait and pick up the deluxe edition.

I'll be getting that as well. The bonus cuts are fun, too.

What did Nachtmystium do? I'm seeing cryptic tweets from metal critics.

Their final album is being released in a few months.

Ah, OK. I got the impression they'd said something Burzumy in a press release.

Blake Judd has made a lot of enemies by being a junkie who ripped a bunch of people off.

Here's the top albums of the year at the halfway point of 2014 according to Rate Your Music:

 1	Swans - To Be Kind
 2	Triptykon - Melana Chasmata
 3	Mastodon - Once More 'Round the Sun
 4	Dead Congregation - Promulgation of the Fall
 5	Behemoth - The Satanist
 6	Insomnium - Shadows of the Dying Sun
 7	Saor - Aura
 8	Anathema - Distant Satellites
 9	White Lung - Deep Fantasy
10	Agalloch - The Serpent & the Sphere
11	La Dispute - Rooms of the House
12	Voyager - V
13	Anubis Gate - Horizons
14	Gridlink - Longhena
15	Epica - The Quantum Enigma
16	Thou - Heathen
17	Rival Sons - Great Western Valkyrie
18	Every Time I Die - From Parts Unknown
19	Elvenking - The Pagan Manifesto
20	Hannes Grossmann - The Radial Covenant
21	Architects - Lost Forever // Lost Together
22	Teitanblood - Death
23	Falconer - Black Moon Rising
24	Exmortus - Slave to the Sword
25	The Great Old Ones - TEKELI-LI
26	Morbus Chron - Sweven
27	Vader - Tibi Et Igni
28	Vanishing Point - Distant Is the Sun
29	Animals as Leaders - The Joy of Motion
30	Autopsy - Tourniquets, Hacksaws and Graves
31	Words of Farewell - The Black Wild Yonder
32	Incantation - Dirges of Elysium
33	Whispered - Shogunate Macabre
34	Freedom Call - Beyond
35	Primal Fear - Delivering the Black
36	Gamma Ray - Empire of the Undead
37	Kriegsmaschine - Enemy of Man
38	Eyehategod - Eyehategod
39	Sabaton - Heroes
40	Sinbreed - Shadows
41	Motorpsycho - Behind the Sun
42	Vanden Plas - Chronicles of the Immortals - Netherworld (Path 1)
43	Bigelf - Into the Maelstrom
44	Valtari - Hunter's Pride
45	Equilibrium - Erdentempel
46	Hail Spirit Noir - Oi Magoi
47	Thantifaxath - Sacred White Noise
48	Xandria - Sacrificium
49	Woods of Desolation - As The Stars
50	Septicflesh - Titan

I'm not sure why Anathema is in there, they're basically Coldplay with less hooks.

According to Encyclopaedia Metallum via empath:

89.7 6 Domains · Sinister Ceremonies
89.5 6 Triptykon · Melana Chasmata
88.9 19 Behemoth · The Satanist
88.1 5 Freedom Call · Beyond
87.8 6 Teitanblood · Death
87.7 7 Alcest · Shelter
85.4 3 Vader · Tibi Et Igni
85.2 5 Helstar · This Wicked Nest
85.2 3 Spectral Lore · III
85.1 3 Morbus Chron · Sweven
84.7 6 Conan · Blood Eagle
84.7 3 Multinational Corporations · Jamat-al-Maut
84.6 5 Whispered · Shogunate Macabre
84.2 4 Persuader · The Fiction Maze
84.1 4 Gridlink · Longhena
83.3 4 Hatriot · Dawn of the New Centurion
83.2 3 Delain · The Human Contradiction
83.1 4 Misery Index · The Killing Gods
83.1 3 Sinbreed · Shadows
83.1 7 Woods of Desolation · As the Stars
82.8 4 Savage Messiah · The Fateful Dark
82.8 4 Primal Fear · Delivering the Black
82.8 4 The Wounded Kings · Consolamentum
82.8 4 Moloch · Verwüstung
82.7 7 Skull Fist · Chasing the Dream
82.6 3 Dead Congregation · Promulgation of the Fall
82.6 6 Edguy · Space Police - Defenders of the Crown
82.3 5 Iron Savior · Rise of the Hero
82.2 3 Insomnium · Shadows of the Dying Sun
81.6 6 Within Temptation · Hydra
81.4 4 Sargeist · Feeding the Crawling Shadows
81.2 5 Gamma Ray · Empire of the Undead
81.1 3 Hail Spirit Noir · Oi Magoi
80.9 4 Below · Across the Dark River
80.4 3 Epica · The Quantum Enigma
80.1 4 Artificial Brain · Labyrinth Constellation
80.1 4 Skelethal · Deathmanicvs Revelation
79.7 3 Paramnesia · Paramnesia
79.4 3 Sabbatory · Endless Asphyxiating Gloom
79.3 3 Entartung · Peccata Mortalia
79.0 3 Pestifer · Reaching the Void
78.9 3 Pilgrim · II: Void Worship
78.9 3 Iskald · Nedom og Nord
78.8 5 Autopsy · Tourniquets, Hacksaws and Graves
78.2 3 Neglektum · Blasphemer
78.0 3 Grand Magus · Triumph and Power
78.0 6 Cynic · Kindly Bent to Free Us
77.7 4 Vallenfyre · Splinters
77.5 3 Heresiarch · Wælwulf
77.3 3 Nausea · Condemned to the System
77.1 4 Windbruch · No Stars, Only Full Dark
77.1 3 Battleroar · Blood of Legends
77.0 3 Bleeding Fist · Death's Old Stench

http://furia.com/em/releases-year.html

I am noticing certain biases.

Well that Freedom Call album IS great.

Are there any other techy grindcore bands as brilliant as Gridlink and Discordance Axis? Longhena's been probably the most rewarding album I've heard this year - up there with Triptykon anyway.

The GridLink is great stuff. I know people were like 'blah blah you can't call album of the year for a February release blah blah' but it's July now and I've yet to hear anything else that surpasses it.

The Feb release will hurt it (and Behemoth) in the critics EOY lists, obv not in the RYM lists.

Isn't there a techy grindcore band with "worm" somewhere in their name? Either Wormed or Wormrot? Or possibly another. I hear them mentioned alongside Gridlink, whoever they are. Obviously this isn't my specialty. Considering my love of weird techy death bands a few steps down on the extremity ladder from that kind of thing, I probably need to check out weird techy grind.

well, Wormrot are grind but they're not really techy (but they are awesome). Wormed are more straight up tech DM.

Wormed are tech-death, and I love them. I wrote about their last album for Burning Ambulance:

The second album by this Spanish technical death metal quintet—coming a decade after their debut—is a polarizing effort. Musically, it’s pretty unassailable, if you’re a fan of savage blast beats, sci-fi riffing, and ultra-downtuned chugs that will make you want to punch holes in your living room floor. On that score, they can easily be recommended to fans of bands like Origin or Obscura. But vocalist Phlegeton‘s delivery might well be a stumbling block for many listeners—he’s a gurgler, frequently sounding more like a clogged bathtub drain than a human being. Many metalheads, particularly ones over 30, can’t stand so-called “pig squeal” vocals and find them repulsive. But in Wormed‘s case, they provide a fascinating contrast when juxtaposed with the admittedly heavy and hyperaggressive, but still extremely technical and complex, music. It’s like the sound of a caveman running around a spaceship, and it makes Exodromos one of 2013′s most exciting and surprising (as in, who the hell expected a new Wormed album after 10 years away?) death metal releases.

yeah it was a solid record

On my most cursory of surveys of weird techy grind, I have determined that Psudoku and Gigantic Brain are things that I may want to return to, neither of which has a 2014 release, however. (The former has a song called "worMHOLz" but I doubt that's what I was thinking of.)

Oh, and Gridlink, obviously, which I finally checked out. Some stuff from the album prior to this year's. I'm slow.

This year's album is on Bandcamp too, in case you missed it: https://handshakeinc.bandcamp.com/album/longhena