Rolling 2020 Metal Thread

melodic but bleak af bm from january:

https://nimbifer.bandcamp.com/album/demo-ii

also i fucking love that revenant marquis album someone mentioned upthread. it's most of the best things black metal can be imo

You're on board! Awesome, it's so great.

And there it is, the entirety of the Decibel Tour canceled.

40 more dollars to me to spend on what i need at the grocery store.

Endless rolls of toilet paper, I assume.

i'm just shitting into a vaccuum cleaner, cutting out the middle man

Watch the placement and suction level lest you end up looking like a goregrind album cover

Decibel's annual Metal & Beer Fest has been "postponed indefinitely" due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

I was just chatting with Albert yesterday and he thought it wouldn't affect the Fest.
Funny how fast things are changing.

I know there's a lot bigger things impacted and people are dying so it's hard to get too upset, but this is the first thing other than sports that touched me personally. I hope it's the last but probably not... :(

yeah :( . I understand why it was done, but shows and fests are one of the few social activities I have besides theatre that actually engage me. I've made a ton of friends in the scene over the years, and in the last few months, it's been one of the few things that's relieved me from severe anxiety. I often use them to motivate me to get through the week.

I know it's the right move, but being that I'm probably going to lose the Orlando Fringe this year too...it's really hard to lose my social outlets, the ones that actually work.

personal corny melodjent faves Caligula's Horse have a new one on the way, RIYL Steven Wilson etc.

https://youtu.be/dNc5PT645sU

Ooh nice, I really dug that last Caligua's Horse album.

new Code Orange is a blast so far

also out today, new Ruin Lust (mem. Yellow Eyes/Vanum/Anicon). nasty no fuss blackened death stuff.

also also a 78-minute (?!?!) new Huntsmen album if you like some Americana in yr metal

as is the two-hour Spectral Lore/Mare Cognitum split+collab but that doesn't appear to be on streaming services yet.

it's on bandcamp
https://i-voidhangerrecords.bandcamp.com/album/wanderers-astrology-of-the-nine

ah, it was listed but not streaming on a different bandcamp page. thanks!

this is neat:

http://www.brooklynvegan.com/code-orange-cancel-release-show-but-theyre-livestreaming-it-from-an-empty-venue/

I fucking hate that bands will have to "innovate" to get by but so it goes

fuck. I have a feeling we'll be seeing a LOT of this:

https://www.metalinsider.net/news/insomnium-and-omnium-gatherum-north-american-tour-cancelled?fbclid=IwAR3dmzLhAhPgwXHCvokaAiieCX3KK2zZ5Q5uCCIM_YppyqiuEcvafzTp8fU

not the cancellation, but the financial ruin

Gonna end up buying a lot of band merch with my travel refunds.

that's a thing I already do. but if they put up Gofundmes I might go that route

I'm really enjoying this new gothic symphonic metal album Worlds, by the French band Fourth Circle:

https://open.spotify.com/album/2CuDTHaPofIqYTy2UZYkUR?si=KSqSDHAqQXCBDf2DnfJpPw

French band Pénitence Onirique used to be a duo but are now a 6-piece and released their second one in December 2019 - cold & melodic black metal (I'm still listening to their debut V.I.T.R.I.O.L a lot)

https://penitence-onirique.bandcamp.com/

Kristin Hayter of Lingua Ignota needs back surgery and her income (touring) has basically stopped, so Bandcamp/Profound Lore has agreed to shift the proceeds from her Bandcamp page over to her directly instead of to the label, according to Sargent House. Now is the time to buy that tarot card jacket if you were eyeing it.

Oh no. Thanks for the heads up.

New demo from a North Carolina band

https://ralenc.bandcamp.com/album/2020-demo

Nothing-new death metal but I love the raw, wide open production and they play pretty ferociously.

Deathwish offering straight-to-the-artist PWYC prices on a bunch of releases:

https://deathwishinc.com/blogs/news/support-our-touring-bands

Really digging this new EP from Sutrah right now. Pretty chill prog tech with eastern flourishes.

https://sutrahmetal.bandcamp.com/album/aletheia

Seconded.

finnish black metal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7o0ZjU5s-8

The new new ep from Orm is very good. 20 minutes of black metal, and yes, it includes a long coda with trumpets. For fans of Møl and Solbrud.

This Orm isn't in any way related to the character from Norsemen?

It just means 'worm' in Danish / Norwegian

They should do a split with Cheep.

has anyone listened yet to Robert Andersson's new band Sweven? The Eternal Resonance out next friday (Ván Records)

When it was decided to put Morbus Chron to rest, I had begun working on what was originally supposed to be our third record. It has been a strenuous battle stretching from then to now. It is time to leave the trenches.

the advance track, Mycelia is stellar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7atkNuadaE

Nice. But probably better to stay in the trench for the moment.

The Korgonthurus album is the perfect soundtrack for when you're trapped at home with 2 kids running and screaming everywhere.

I liked the last Huntsmen record a lot but the new one is sadly an overblown, overlong dud. The epitome of bloat.

That's too bad, I was looking forward to it.

Other ppl have reacted a lot more positively than I tbf

came out a few months ago, but while I've always liked Midnight, this might be their best. the hooks are so much sharper.

live, they put on a hell of a show too, though be a long time before we see that again.

New Behold The Arctopus album in June. Press release contains the following fascinating (to me anyway) quote from the band:

"The 7th Behold the Arctopus recording, Hapeleptic Overtrove is imminent! This time, the band teams up with Willowtip, P2, and Denses(s) for what will be our most extreme, unique, and controversial album. Colin Marston (Warr guitar) and Mike Lerner (guitar guitar) are joined by drummer Jason Bauers (previously of Psyopus), who has brought his experience with classical percussion to the table, allowing the drums to become another melodic voice, rather than just a metric skeleton. For the new compositions, inspiration was drawn from the non-traditional setup of English free jazz drummer Tony Oxley, and the percussion music of 20th century composers Iannis Xenakis, Edgard Varese, and Elliott Carter. The drum kit for the new album removes extreme metal's constant harsh static wash by deleting all hi-hats, crashes, and ride cymbals, replacing them with almglocken, wooden plank, metal pipe, broken stacks, and bell/chimes. Sticks are replaced by mallets, and, more importantly, the function of the drums is no longer to play 'beats.' Instead the drums take on a role more similar to the guitars, resulting in a sound closer to chamber music than rock.

Is anyone else tired of how painfully slow metal has evolved recently compared to how quickly innovations occurred at the end of the last century? Think about how drastic and surprising changes were in the 5 years between 1988 and 1993, versus how stagnant metal between 2015 - 2020 has been. On Hapeleptic Overtrove, Behold the Arctopus shows the utmost respect for the true spirit of extreme metal: a musical world that should challenge the audience to listen to and think about things in new ways, while reveling in mystery, surprise and excess which is simultaneously baroque and primitive."

I've listened to Tony Oxley a lot, mostly playing with Bill Dixon and/or Cecil Taylor, so this concept is fascinating to me.

that appears to be exciting yes

The past 2 times I've seen them they've done a setup similar to this and it was awesome both times. The drums look and sound wild. I thought Cognitive Emancipation was awesome but I'm even more excited for this one.

holy fuck, the Oath of Cruelty album that dropped last year.

some of the most inspired death/thrash (a la old Kreator) I've heard in ages.

Is anyone else tired of how painfully slow metal has evolved recently compared to how quickly innovations occurred at the end of the last century? Think about how drastic and surprising changes were in the 5 years between 1988 and 1993, versus how stagnant metal between 2015 - 2020 has been.

i understand this coming from BtA camp is surely intended with good spirits (that's how i've read it). beeing myself a post-Reign In Blood kind of guy (cf. that Siegbran post on that thread) i totally agree with the 88-93 timespan innovations the pr is goin for. best of times

otoh to some extent, that specific romanticised rearview look always rub me the wrong way. cause, yeah i remember 93, real metal dudes goin' batshit crazy about entombed and pestilence and obituary and (...) for !selling out! and not doin it anymore like they used to do in 89. reactionary times at its most close-minded. and oh have you heard of those norway dudes doin't it by the true spirit of extreme metal? ime, also the worst of times i had as metal goes
soon you either had to go full metallica/megadeth/pantera or full blasphemy/beherit/brzm. i def don't miss those days. instead of a hard-edged canon, there was then a two-headed stupid canon. almost no middle ground for the outsiders . in fact that made me quit everything metal related for some time. attending shows, drmn', managing, zinetrading, i'm out. [/bitter]

i guess, my point beeing, there was close to none audience ready to be chalenged in 93 by an extreme metal rec inspired by the works of Tony Oxley (by then, good luck to you heading to a metal label w a diferent notion of metal drumming). i do remember ppl pissing on pestilence because of... jazz drums?
in that sense it's better now

tl;dr - always ready for a new BtA

I mean, in the early days of metal, it was easier to break new ground because there was a smaller width to the genre then. there's still room for experimentation and innovation, but sometimes it comes across more subtle than when you had a band like Suffocation showing up in the 90s sounding like nothing you'd ever heard before.

there's still room for experimentation and innovation

sure is. since we're on Colin-band-topic, take new Krallice song for evidence. they're still goin' at it

have you heard the new Sweven, Neanderthal? (not sure if you were into Morbus Chron, btw) amazing record