2019 Metal ’n’ Heavy Rock Poll: VOTING & CAMPAIGNING thread (open until the 21st of February)

It probably won't appeal to many but Wigrid sits halfway between Amesoeurs and Burzum, the old hypnotic "ten minutes, two riffs, one tempo, no frills" formula. Catnip for me.

As an aside, is it just me or is there a tacit America vs Europe taste divide on ILM? I tend to gravitate towards European acts more readily, whereas others are seemingly more intent on American ones.

Based on my provisional ballot, 15 out of 50 bands are from the US. I'm curious to see which way this skews for everyone else.

I think Americans seem to prefer death metal and Europeans prefer black metal but as always there's exceptions.

That's my impression as well. If memory serves, unperson doesn't listen to BM at all (partly because of the politics). Are there any ILM BM-heads who avoid DM altogether?

I think metal's center of gravity always has been European except for a fairly brief period in the mid/late 80s (thrash/early death)?

I wouldn't consider myself a BM-head, but I got into the genre via blackgaze, and there's never been anything similar with DM? I've liked a lot of albums categorised as DM this year though, Blood Incantation, Tomb Mold, Wormed.

It took me a while to warm up to DM as well, but I'm now at a point where I'd rate my preferences as 55 BM/45 DM or something like that.

Are there any ILM BM-heads who avoid DM altogether?

― toilet-cleaning brain surgeon (pomenitul), Tuesday, February 11, 2020 3:33 PM (five hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

That would be me. DM's hardly ever done anything for me. There's a certain melodic element to it that I really dislike; or rather, I regard it as something that doesn't befit what I want from my metal (pitch-black, drony and/or hazy, nihil nihil nihil). Occasionally I do try it again, like with Blood Inc, but it's just not for me. Black metal is more or less the only metal for me.

I came to metal via BM and for a long time I had zero interest for DM. Then I discovered a handful of exceptions (bands like Immolation, Gorguts etc.) but BM is still my favorite. Doom is fine too. Like LBV, I'm here for the bleakness.

And speaking of BM, Deathspell Omega wasn't nominated but I still intend to vote for it as it's my favorite metal album this year.

Not a DM fan either though I do like some of the earlier classics. Cant stand most of the vox though.

That's one of my main issues, too, the vocals.

Aye, the cookie monster vocals spoil the music which is quite often fine.

I can also understand why DM fans hate BM vocals. Its just a preference innit

I like funeral doom which isnt quite cookie vox some doom-death is and some are tolerable.

Doom-death ok death-doom not ok, lol

I definitely relate to your reservations about DM. Fwiw Gorguts's Obscura is what made it click for me. Cavernous vox are what draws me in the most, as well as, say, Tomas Lindberg on At the Gates's first two LPs – a thespian of pure despair.

I've just added the DsO album to the noms list btw.

merci !

The opening track on the Wyrmwoods "Spirit & Teeth" sounds like I've got 3 tabs playing youtube videos simultaneously.
Definitely making my ballot.

De rien. :)

xp

Getting into DM (incl vocals) was relativey easy if you came from thrash/speed metal, the step from Sodom/Celtic Frost to Obituary/Death wasn’t huge.

Something about the cadence of most thrash vocalists really turns me off – maybe because of the punk influence? It never feels loose and intense enough (Tom Warrior excepted, among others).

Never cared much for thrash. Celtic Frost covered so much ground and excelled at it so much that you couldn't help but love them.

My entry into death metal was via Slayer and Sepultura. I remember it scaring me a bit (particularly the first Paradise Lost album, for some reason) but I kept coming back. BM came much later for me - probably not until the late-90s.

I'm much more of a DM than BM fan. I listened to a bit of metal in my formative listening years, I owned Master of Puppets on CD for instance, but when grunge became popular that pretty much scratched the itch for me without the embarrassing associations, imagery, bad hairstyles, etc. So during most of the '90s I didn't listen to much metal, though I did listen to a fair amount of heavy indie rock, Japanoise, etc. I think the first metal album I bought in the 2000s was Opeth. That turned out to be a good gateway drug to the DM style of vocals.

My primary criteria for liking music is, does it sound like it was recorded in a cave?

vote for plastic crimewave syndicate

https://youtu.be/4wtGBr4zr5E

vote for drugs

PCS is like a cross between Chrome/Helios Creed & a Rallizes that wed its feedback overload to Stooges-style brat-beat rather than the mesmeric churn of the Velvets

vote for jim jones & the righteous mind

ok they're nominated at all...don't vote for them

vote for lightning bolt

they're *not* nominated at all🙄🙄🙄

vote for things that are there!

yes agreed the Jim Jones album doesn't belong (the eyeroll emoji directed at my mis-typing)--it's only a joke

vote for lightning bolt, no joke

My top 50 is pretty much set in stone at this point so I'm going to submit my ballot in the next couple of days.

I found your list on rym. There's at least a few of those that are on my homework shortlist for next week. I def know your no. 1 will be making my ballot

I like this Sordide album but it's a bit awkward and patchy. It doesn't quite measure up to Fuir la lumière. Nonetheless, they very well might be the best RABM band

That was my feeling as well, except I haven't heard Fuir la lumière.

rage against black metal?

rural american black metal

red and black metal. For all the leftists out there...

Or the Stendhal fans.

seandalai how many ballots do we have? Only a couple of people have said in here they have voted.

I want to vote but I’ve had no time. Will probably get in right at the deadline.

Hoping to spend a bit more time perusing the list of nominations before I vote, since my ballot is likely to be one of the shorter ones.

another week to go so plenty of time but a good idea to start planning now if you havent

Has anyone seen seandalai?

A little last minute campaigning for Imprecation, which doesn't seem to get as much love as it should. If you have a taste for the slower end of old-school death metal, this is one worth checking out. This is a difficult style to pull off, you can't hide behind a blitzkrieg of riffs or pure speed. The songs have got to be there. Recommended for fans of Autopsy, Convulse, Asphyx, Disma, Serpentine Path.

Never got a chance to chime in on the DM vs BM thing because I was too busy, but I'm firmly in the DM camp. Came to it by way of thrash in the late 80s. Like many things I love, it did sort of unsettle or disturb me at first in kind of a: "Jesus... what kind of person makes music like this?" None of my friends were into it and it was kind of a personal shame that I listened to on headphones in private. I lived in TX at the time and they had this awesome radio show on Tuesday mornings on the public radio station - from like 1am - 5am. The knuckleheads who DJ'd that show framed the music well. This fondness for the relentless brutality, but also an appreciation for the comedy of it. I used to listen as much as I could, armed with blank tapes (of which I made many). I loved the Florida bands (First few Morbid Angel albums were huge favorites for years), was big into the European stuff on Earache, as well as the low budget local stuff that sounded the most demented: Muddy tape recordings of unhinged guys in a dank basement screaming/growling over indecipherable down-tuned guitars and drums that sounded like someone was banging on cardboard boxes at breakneck speeds with spatulas. Always an appreciation for the absurdity of it. But, it was the 80s, too, so the blatant satanism was still a bit shocking for a time when the PMRC was still going after guys like Alice Cooper and Ozzy.

I got bored of it in the 90s with so many new styles of music to explore. Every couple of years I'd go through a metal phase, but I think I'm a bigger metal fan now than I have been. I like a fair share of sludge, doom, and black metal, but a good DM album blows everything away. Probably my favorite albums of the last decade are Immolation's "Atonement", Gorguts' "Colored Sands", and Ulcerate's "Destroyers of All". I also love that strain of black metal with a hardcore influence; Castevet's "Obsian" one of my favorites of the decade.