Rolling Metal Thread 2014

Chicago metal doesn't seem very healthy these days.

yeah i like a lot of how this sounds but i wish the drums had more punch. like, i know dude is recording his drums in the woods or whatever, and that's great, but they sound a little anemic to me.

Re Botanist, I prefer the drum sound on the first two records, the ones on tUMULt - sounds like a woodpecker stuck in a cardboard box, which I'd ordinarily laugh at, but in this case the weirdness works in context.

seeing Nocturnus (ok, sorry, Nocturnus AD) tonight...for ten bucks. woot

Usually it's contractually obligated that artists receive some product.
At worst, it's usually a good idea. Most of the time it's pretty uncontroversial.

― Loud guitars shit all over "Bette Davis Eyes" (NYCNative), Friday, September 5, 2014 3:33 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

^these are traditionally the copies they sell at the mercy booth on tour no?

Usually those are purchased by the band separate of any contractual stuff. At least it was when I was at Relapse.

if CM is really just sending fans records that the fans paid Blake for, that is stand-up behavior by Century Media

Otm

Lol @ "mercy booth" tho

holy fuck Nocturnus was next level

if CM is really just sending fans records that the fans paid Blake for, that is stand-up behavior by Century Media

It's also really good PR. Not just a nice thing to do, but smart from the standpoint of building trust with customers for future business. Still, it's good for the fans regardless of their motives.

Look! It's the back of Siegbran's head (maybe) : https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152225073837260

Just started listening to Bolzer. I think these guys are on to something.

listening to this Botanist album
pretty good, wouldn't have sounded out of place on Dischord or 1/4 Stick back when really - more textured production than was the norm with either of those labels, but a pretty cool organic proggy vibe
not really metal to my ears, trade those vocals out and it's pretty indie-rock, but good all the same
― Now I Am Become Dracula (underrated aerosmith bootlegs I have owned), Friday, September 5, 2014 1:59 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

too hard to not-dance to, I guess

The new Darkspace is overwhelmingly overwhelming. Three vv long tracks that have everything, slow long atmospheric bits, growly vocals, mysterious movie samples, drum machine blast beat bits, serious serious riffage, synths far away in the background, in short: they've out-Darkspaced themselves. Can't wait for the next one :-)

idk why but indie drummers just aren't allowed to play 16ths, outside of a fill

mid-nineties bros though, Tar, Don Cab, them kinda indie bros dug a 16th or two

Just learned that two potentially amazing things are coming next month, adding to what's already been quite a year for offbeat black metal. Furia, from Poland, one of the more interesting and creative bands in the genre, has a new one out on October 16th. I'm not even looking for leaks yet; I want to be surprised. Here's them from the first of their three phenomenal albums, sort of an arty, mildly proggy thing, maybe appealing to fans of latter day Enslaved:
http://youtu.be/VqwuHkbcGQ8
And from their odd, Kranky Records-inspired EP of last year:
http://youtu.be/_MRMr3LuwDo

Slagmaur, on the other hand, are just balls-out bizarre. It's music made by an orchestra of malevolent tinker toys.
http://www.norskmetal.net/slagmaur-debuts-the-2nd-track-from-thill-smitts-terror/
This is from a live show.
http://youtu.be/RojSrjDlRg4

Also

holy fuck Nocturnus was next level

― Neanderthal

Please to expand on this. I love all three of their albums, even Ethereal Tomb which gets slagged.

they played mostly all The Key stuff. their set was not real long (35-40 minutes I think) because the dickholes that played before them took 40 minutes to set up and of course it had to end at 2 am. didn't matter. the mix was great, soundwise. the musicianship was phenomenal (those keys sound really dope live with the rest of the band). they were real professional despite having some tech issues prior to starting. they ended with their cover of "Chapel of Ghouls".

but they really gotta pick better security for these shows. I was approached by a security guard who told me "I'm gonna need you not to jump around and bump into people", even though I didn't bump into a single person cos I'm always mindful of who is around me. Another guy who was really into the show got stopped by security for similar reasons but we all just hi-fived him afterwards.

"Sir, I'm going to need you not to enjoy this on any visceral level."

BTW who were the dickholes? Name them, shame them.

anyone dig archspire? if you're in the mood for super noodly canadian tech death with completely indistinguishable 'songs', none so vile drumming ratcheted up a couple BPM plus an even tighter snare drum sound, and lots of sweet solos, then the one from this year should do the trick. not sure how often I'll go back but... I was in that mood earlier.

BTW who were the dickholes? Name them, shame them.

― "a bit of goatery, some demonry" (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Sunday, 7 September 2014 23:58 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I honestly don't remember their name, will have to look up. No other band took anywhere near as long as they did to set up, and they weren't exactly moving with purpose. course the venue could have helped by starting things an hour earlier so nobody had to worry about finishing on time.

>> music made by an orchestra of malevolent tinker toys. <<
good god you know how to set a boy to salivating

many x-posts -

huh, new slagmaur! haven't listened to those guys in like 7 years or so but those new tracks are sounding good to me. seems like they're still working a similar formula (with some clean vox and a little werewolf howling thrown in for good measure) but not a bad thing...

Yeah, and I meant to include a link to the article that shows off some of the artwork from the album. Peep the slideshow at the bottom.
http://www.norskmetal.net/slagmaur-thill-smitts-terror-first-sample-tracklist-and-artwork/

I like the cover but uh

http://www.norskmetal.net/wp-content/gallery/slagmaur-thill-smitts-terror-artwork/thill_smitts_terror_artwork1.jpg

I'm pretty sure that in the live clip I posted the drummer is dressed as that jester/clown dude. I like how when the vocalist brings the mic up to his birdskull head, the rubber beak collapses.

For sheer whatthefuckery, the Domfeldt cover will always be my favorite:
http://i.imgur.com/WXVfkwl.jpg

But the Professor of Numerology and Alpine Hats isn't far behind:
http://i.imgur.com/NpvlIuk.jpg

hahaha

Look! It's the back of Siegbran's head (maybe)

I always dig it when extreme music countercultures gets referenced outside of the usual places. Which is probably why I like this track by Iowan alt-country singer-songwriter Max Jury who gets all corpse-painty while using the chord progression for "Knocking On Heaven's Door" and singing about "Black Metal."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUXnZQNgx7s

I think that Max Jury tune sounds even more like something else than it does like "Heavens Door" and the something else has the "Long" in "all day long" a fifth higher (ish, I think. I'm not a perfect pitch guy) . Kinda driving me nuts. Ring any bells?

"Baby I Love Your Way" by Frampton?

Time for my nap.

digging this new Occultation album. that's all. a better historian than me can provide some "sounds like..." action.

If it sounds like the first one, it sounds like awesome.

^^ otm

New Khold album coming out in two weeks. I'm actually excited; I always liked their blend of black metal and groove metal.

I liked the first few Khold albums and kind of lost track of them (I think they went on hiatus maybe?), but the newer stuff I've checked out seemed pretty bland.

Anyone know anything about Chaos Echoes? They just signed to Nuclear War Now. In their pics they've got an analog synth and a guy in an Ash Ra Tempel shirt. Good signs.

They're French. Ex-members of the now-defunct (and very boring) Bloody Sign. They sound like this, more or less: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWdjeb8sbNc&noredirect=1

I'm down, I guess.

Thank you! I think I'm down for this as well. Can't wait to hear their album. That track actually kind of reminds me of very early Cattlepress... Super sludgy guitar tone and discordance.

I am digging the latest October 31 record. No frills, nothing new at all (that would violate King Fowley's sense of purpose) but a solid nod to olden days of denim vests and logos etched into notebooks.

I'm completely new to Sólstafir but, damn, I am digging the hell out of Ótta. This is the kind of atmospheric, yet highly melodic, metal-tinged prog (or prog-tinged metal?) ((trying to avoid the 'post-rock' word here)). Either way, this is gorgeous stuff.

Yeah, I'm really liking that new Solstafir record, too. I liked them already, but this record feels like a big surge of confidence, or maybe competence, or maybe I've just forgotten what the other two sounded like and this one is actually exactly the same.

New Darkspace is great at first listen, not sure if it tops II or last year's PTP record (within the Space Black Metal world) but I'm a sucker for this stuff.

In case anyone was still following the Blake Judd saga but missed out on this, Imperial from Krieg AKA Neill Jameson AKA one of the other dudes in Twilight and longtime friend of Judd offered up a pretty massive, detailed, and unsurprising history:
http://noisey.vice.com/blog/neill-krieg-blake-judd

Never known myself to be dyslexic but I first typed out his name as "Jake Bludd," which tbf would make for a good cinematic action hero/villain.

Still need to hear the new Darkspace. Love em. Also love PTP. Hope they do more things.

have we talked about memoria vetusta iii in october? I find blut aus nord a little spotty overall, but man, memoria vetusta ii was top-notch. I never really stopped listening to it, go back all the time.

Actually was just listening to MV I last night for the first time. MV II is yeah pretty much the best thing BAN has done, one of the best things anyone has ever done for that matter (those guitar leads, whew). TWWTG is right behind it even if it's not something I can break out too often. Now that I've heard MV I, I see it as a MV II, Jr. Nowhere near that level. I heard a really promising sounding track from Pt III so I'm hoping for continued greatness.

MoRT is actually kind of cool in a weird, creepy way. Other than that there were a couple cool songs on the first of that 777 trilogy. That's ... about as far as I've gone with BAN.

One thing I can say about them, however, is that they possess one of my favorite talents: knowing when to take a musical idea and really hammer it home for an extended amount of time, usually in those dreamy guitar passages that go on and on. When I first heard "Our Blessed Frozen Cells" I was like, these guys get me.

I assume everyone heard the Bloodbath announcement (finally). This media strategy worked because I haven't bought or even heard anything after their first full length and now here I am curious how they'll sound with the Paradise Lost guy.

The thing with Bloodbath is, I'm fine with it being a somewhat non-serious retrodeath sideproject with their old buddies, but I'm still frustrated with it. It's nice and all that it is an outlet for Jonas Renske and Anders Blackheim to channel their love for actual METAL, I can fully understand that. But now we're left with an alt-rock Katatonia that has clearly run out of ideas and has been treading the same stale Cure-infested waters for years, and a hobby band that seems content with reshuffling riffs from old Swedeath records into new albums every two years. It just seems like a colossal waste of guys this talented.

yeah, I can't really get excited about bloodbath at all.

as for katatonia, we still have the old records. I'm used to it at this point.