Rolling Metal 2019

oh my god

Cattle Decapitation up soon

PopMatters Best of 2019 list:

20. Copperhead - Gazing in the Dark
19. Drastus - La Croix de Sang
18. Ossuarium - Living Tomb
17. Have a Nice Life - Sea of Worry
16. Dawn Ray'd - Behold Sedition Plainsong
15. Yellow Eyes - Rare Field Calling
14. Necropanther - The Doomed City
13. Vimur - Triumphant Master of Fates
12. PH - Osiris Hayden
11. Blood Incantation - Hidden History of the Human Race
10. Lord Mantis - Universal Death Church
9. Immortal Bird - Thrive on Neglect
8. Exhorder - Mourn The Southern Skies
7. Esoteric - A Pyrrhic Existence
6. Tomb Mold - Planetary Clairvoyance
5. Baroness - Grey and Gold
4. Inter Arma - English Sulphur
3. Sunn O))) - Life Metal/Pyroclasts
2. BIG|BRAVE - A Gaze Among Them
1. Waste of Space Orchestra - Syntheosis

I like the #1 choice and a few others, but this is otherwise a typical twitter hive mind top 20: heavy on black metal (sorry, when I see black metal titles these days I dibs out instantly), ignorant of every metal subgenre that emphasizes melody save for that mediocre Baroness album as a token selection.

Good list, all things considered.

9. Immortal Bird - Thrive on Neglect

fuck, i completely missed that this record came out

I live the top 6 records for sure, nice to see some love for the BIG|BRAVE record and I think I'm one of the few people that really loves that Baroness record.

I like the Baroness (it's not as good as Yellow & Green but it's better than Purple) and love both Sunn O))) titles, but otherwise that list has nothing to do with my experience of metal in 2019.

I strongly disliked the Baroness and didn't get much out of Pyroclasts but Life Metal will be in my top 50, alongside Blood Incantation, Esoteric, Tomb Mold, Inter Arma, BIG|BRAVE and Waste of Space Orchestra. Maybe Drastus as well.

I definitely have nothing bad to say about Big Brave and Immortal Bird. Two tremendous bands! And 2019 was a great year for death metal.

I've been surprised to see Immortal Bird on so few lists (so far)

I remember really liking that Yellow Eyes record too, should revisit

Wish I could get into Dawn Ray'd cause their politics are great but they leave me cold for some reason

If you're looking for straight-up antifascist black metal, I recall the Bull of Apis Bull of Bronze record being pretty good.

::thumbs-up::

2019 metal releases I liked enough to buy on Bandcamp that will not show up on any year-end lists:

Beastwars, IV
Brand of Sacrifice, God Hand
Catatonic Effigy, Putrid Tendency
Cemican, In Ohtli Teoyohtica In Miquiztli
Decomposition of Entrails, Abnormality
Epicardiectomy, Grotesque Monument of Paraperversive Transfixion
Facelift Deformation, Cybernetic Organism Atrocities
Takafumi Matsubara, Strange, Beautiful and Fast
Organectomy, Existential Disconnect
Retortion Terror, s/t
Smoulder, Times of Obscene Evil and Wild Daring
Splattered, Carnivortex
Tyrannotophia, Distant

had to look up a couple of those to make sure you hadn't snuck any fakes in

Intriguing. I'll have to check those out.

Pay special attention to Catatonic Effigy. Despite the band and album name, they're extremely avant-garde. Colin Marston's on bass.

Noted, thanks.

Likewise I doubt many of these will pop up on the usual lists but I might be wrong:

Abyssic - High the Memory
Akrotheism - The Law of Seven Deaths
Asphodelus - Stygian Dreams
Desecresy - Towards Nebulae
Herxheim - Cultivating Throne of Fur
HWWAUOCH - Into the Labyrinth of Consciousness
Ignivomous - Hieroglossia
Imperial Cult - Spasm of Light
Kvelgeyst - Alkahest
Nifrost - Blykrone
Omination - The New Golgotha Repvbliq
Ossuaire - Derniers chants
Panzerfaust - The Suns of Perdition - Chapter I: War, Horrid War
Ringarë - Under Pale Moon
Sinners Bleed - Absolution
Troll - Legend Master
Unaussprechlichen Kulten - Teufelsbücher
Veiled - In Blinding Presence

I liked that Ignivomous record.

There's a new Kvelertak song w/ their new vocalist. It's mysteriously overlong but it's nice to have the Ballou production back.

So apparently the drummer from Phish is a huge Cattle Decapitation fan and delivers a spoken monologue on their new album. I never liked them anyway, but a Phish affiliation is just a bridge too far, sorry.

I thought they were strict vegans

Damn, I feel for them:

http://www.brooklynvegan.com/full-of-hells-gear-whole-van-stolen-on-cattle-decapitation-tour/

Btw unperson that Catatonic Effigy album is very good indeed, although I'm generally less enthused by instrumental metal for reasons that I've yet to fathom.

I have to say I'm intrigued by a band named Une Misère.

― Siegbran

I've now listened to this record a few times, it turned out to be metalcore (so much for the intrigueing band name!), but it's...really good! From Iceland of all places.

Old news (but new to me) but consider me off the Absu train:

http://www.brooklynvegan.com/absu-member-says-i-lost-my-band-when-i-came-out-to-them/

god bless melissa <3

That ones new to me too, such a shame.

I love the thought of Jon Fishman on a Cattle Decapitation record, my copy doesn't get here until Wednesday to hear for myself. It's hilarious to see that a member of Phish now has his own page on Metal Archives.

I thought they were strict vegans

I lolled.

Anyone doing a 2019 metal poll?

I hope so.

As advertised, there's some good stuff on this list:

https://www.nocleansinging.com/2019/12/03/2019-a-year-in-reviews-the-good/

Its poorer cousin:

https://www.nocleansinging.com/2019/12/02/2019-a-year-in-reviews-the-disappointing/

(The 'great' is yet to come.)

Found this utterly delightful

http://ironboneheadproductions.bandcamp.com/album/witchbones-the-seas-of-draugen

Angry Metal Guy gave it a 2/5 so I'll be sure to check it out.

"minus 1 point for sound quality, minus 2 points for releasing too many things this year"

Onwards to 'the great':

https://www.nocleansinging.com/2019/12/04/2019-a-year-in-reviews-the-great/

I'm on board with most of these picks.

You know most of them? Kudos. Thanks for linking to it (and the 'good' list seemed to have some fine stuff, too), my xmas will be black metal again!

idg finding the Townsend album a disappointment if you already like his stuff

i do, this was sold as his best and most original yet and it was a fitfully-good mess

without much in the way of memorable songwriting

Yeah, I think that's more the issue, this was billed as some tentpole in his catalog and I found it to be patchy and messy.

deconstruction did crazy maximalist devin way better, although i guess this was his attempt to fuse that side of him with boring new-agey devin

Anyone doing a 2019 metal poll?

― Loud guitars shit all over "Bette Davis Eyes" (NYCNative), Wednesday, 4 December 2019 05:59 (nine hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I dont know.

I guess it depends on the success of this Lifetime of ILM 2000-19 Heavy Rock,Noise, Heavy Psych, punk, emo, nu-metal & Metal (or related) Poll VOTING & CAMPAIGNING thread(All welcome to participate) Voting close 23:59 December 13th

to see how much interest there is. Its harder each year to get voters as some ilxors aren't as interested in current music as they were.

I'm afraid the tracks poll would just destroy me but I would most definitely be interested in a 2019 metal poll.

It seems like a lot of work for whoever would do it. We could just represent the genre in the main site year end poll.

I wish.

And finally, No Clean Singing's top 10:

https://www.nocleansinging.com/2019/12/05/2019-a-year-in-reviews-the-critical-top-ten/

lots of Angry Metal Guy overlap in that list

Of those I've heard, Misþyrming and Tomb Mold are the only two I'd put in a top 10.

I like that Car Bomb record a lot.

I haven't heard it yet, mostly because mathcore bores me for the most part, but I'll check it out nonetheless.