Rolling 2020 Metal Thread

Melancholic trance-y blackness by Dutch Grief & Bliss also worth a listen

https://griefandbliss.bandcamp.com/album/hiraeth

good on Panopticon/Lunn.

After a few more listens I am ready to upgrade the new Hail Spirit Noir from "pretty cool" to "outstanding".

Ah, thanks for that Grief & Bliss! Very Heretoir-like.

Grief & Bliss and Serment both scratching where I itch! So much to listen to, with the mammoth Paysage D'Hiver and NEPTUNIAN MAXIMALISM records too.

NEPTUNIAN MAXIMALISM - whoa

https://www.brooklynvegan.com/liturgy-leya-release-collaborative-single-antigone-listen/

New Liturgy single, collaboration with a violin/harp duo that they were supposed to tour with this year.

Nice:

THIRTY ONE TRACKS TO COMBAT RACISM.

Voices from across the Metal and Punk spectrum have united to not only speak out against racism and in support of those who are in the streets actively demonstrating, but work to actively support a fight that all of us must take on.

https://bindrunerecordings.bandcamp.com/album/overgrow-to-overthrow-compilation

Featuring a plethora of awesome bands.

I also beseech everyone to check out this other stellar bit of Québécois black metal:

https://sombreheritage.bandcamp.com/releases

Anybody in a mood for super heavy math-death should check out Aseitas' False Peace, which comes out in a week digitally; Translation Loss will put out vinyl in the fall.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x17Ee1qtmK4

the more I listen to the latest Ripped to Shreds (Luan), the more I think it might be my AOTY so far.

Through the midway point of the year, here are the metal and metal-adjacent records that I like enough that I would like to buy them in alphabetical order

At The Altar Of The Horned God - Through Doors of Moonlight (I, Voidhanger Records)
Cirith Ungol - Forever Black (Metal Blade Records)
Cosmic Burial - Impakt (Purity Through Fire)
Couch Slut - Take A Chance On Rock 'n' Roll (Gilead Media)
Dola - Dola (Independent)
Drottinn - Í helgum dýrðar ljóma (Ván Records)
Drown - Subaqueous (Prophecy)
Eye of Nix - Ligeia (Prophecy)
Feminazgûl - No Dawn For Men (Independent)
Fluisteraars - Bloem (Eisenwald)
Frayle - 1692 (Aqualamb Records)
Haunt - Mind Freeze (Shadow Kingdom)
Horn - Mohngang (Iron Bonehead)
Hyporian - Volume II (Season of Mist)
Ihsahn - Telemark [EP] (Spinefarm)
Insect Ark - The Vanishing (Profound Lore)
Lili Refrain - ULU (Subsound Records)
Lotus Thief - Oresteia (Prophecy)
Lucifer - III (Century Media)
Myrkur - Folkesange (Relapse Records)
Oranssi Pazuzu - Mestarin Kynsi (Nuclear Blast America)
Paradise Lost - Obsidian (Nuclear Blast America)
Paysage d'Hiver - Im Wald (Kunsthall Produktionen)
Pyrrhon - Abscess Time (Willowtip Records)
Riot - Rock World (Rare & Unreleased 87-95) (Metal Blade Records)
Sightless Pig - Grave of a Dog (Thrill Jockey Records)
Skepticism - Alloy (Reissue) (Svart Records)
Smoulder - Dream Quest Ends (Cruz Del Sur Music)
Thy Catafalque - Naiv (Season of Mist)
Tombs - Monarchy of Shadows (Season of Mist)
Total Fucking Destruction - ...to be alive at the end of the world (Translation Loss Records)
Triptykon with the Metropole Orkest - Requiem (Live At Roadburn 2019) (Century Media)
Vile Creature - Glory, Glory! Apathy Took Helm! (Prosthetic Records)
Violet Cold - Noir Kid (Independent)
Warbringer - Weapons Of Tomorrow (Napalm Records)
Witching - Vernal (Independent)
Wolftooth - Valhalla (Ripple Music)
Yatra - Blood of the Night (STB Records)
Nechochwen / Panopticon - Split (Bindrune Recordings)

(I realize that the misplaced modifier is funny; I do not plan on purchasing them in alphabetical order. Even I am not that OCD.)

i've bought so much music in the last few months that I fucking forgot the Triptykon thing happened and it was all I was listening to for a weekend

I am way behind on my music purchases and plan on rectifying that soon.

The problem was not going out (I buy a lot of music at shows and occasional record stores). Of course there was also the economic uncertainty these days.

But my Amazon/Bandcamp lists are updated and we are doing okay financially so I am gonna make a concerted effort to support the scene.

Boris released a new album digitally only (at least for now) on Friday with relatively little fanfare (at least as far as I could see):
https://boris.bandcamp.com/album/no

It's quite good with several tracks that remind of their more hardcore material ("Anti-Gone" and "Non Blood Lore" are pretty much punk rock).

the new lunatii record is from another world

Why did none of you tell me there was a new Regarde Les Hommes Tomber album?

Their last one was brilliant and this ones sounding great. Ordered LP from seasons of mist and got a free wav download.

Or listen/buy it here
https://rlht.bandcamp.com/

The Boris album is fantastic and their best in years. Theyve actually been releasing some really good albums the past couple of years

I'll check 'em both out.

Does anyone know if that Boris is getting any kind of physical release, or is it digital only? Trying to decide if I should shell out for the digital now, or hold off a little.

you guys there's a new REBEL WIZARD album coming out soon

this band rules: https://rebelwizard.bandcamp.com/album/magickal-mystical-indifference

Imperial Triumphant posted a new video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7gBhgYiY80

tech-death/grind combo from Minneapolis on I, Voidhanger -- if wild 'n' wooly is your style this will satisfy

https://xythlia.bandcamp.com/track/the-eye-bath

also yes as Brad points out, new Lunatii, utterly crucial

Got the promo of that Xythlia yesterday:

"[BAND] brilliantly blend the most extreme tech death/grind metal with Voivod's progressive/experimental approach and the mind-shattering guitar acrobatics of Krallice and Ocrilim." Um, SOLD. (I'm hearing some Agoraphobic Nosebleed, too...)

— burning ambulance (@burn_amb) July 6, 2020

oooh new lunatii!

This Mare Cognitum/Spectral Lore split LP is a BEAST :))

Thanks for clarifying here, I was wondering which band that tweet was referring to. Sounds great.

highly recommend this new collection of material from sick/tired splits:

http://sick-tired.bandcamp.com/album/obsessed-with-death-splits-compilation

grind!

thoughts on the new armagedda? can’t make up my mind on it tbh. it all sounds a bit too... polite? i feel like i might be missing something here tho.

afterbirth record prob my fave of the year so far. can’t stop going back to that one.

the suffocation worship on that thaetas record def also hitting the spot.

Czech BM with atypically stellar drumming, a well-judged predilection for 'post-' (rock, hardcore, metal) gestures and a decidedly urban feel for atmosphere. Bonus: inspired by Gustav Meyrink's The Golem.

https://lavadome.bandcamp.com/album/the-meyrinkian-slumber

The Armagedda is top 5 EOY material for me btw but I'm a sucker for the stuff.

xp

interesting! if you’ll indulge me, what makes it stand out of the pack for you? (aside from the lineage, more like as a recording of songs.) i’ve tried it a few times now and am struggling to hear what others hear but i want to believe.

Songwriting, vocals, production, a fondness for mid-tempo BM, the sense that they're beating the 2nd wave classics at their own game. But I'm an idiosyncratic listener, to be sure, and routinely get excited over material that leaves most fellow ILMers cold.

agreed on the vox and also have a fondness for mid-tempo (or slower) BM. i can’t make up my mind on the production (and the drum sound in particular) but i’m going to give this a focused listen soon, thanks!

Armagedda has a very crisp production, on first listen? I'd not heard of them before, but will def get back to this. It leaves me cold Pom, but that's what the best BM does ;)

can you guess what kind of music a band called Eternal Rot plays

http://godzovwarproductions.bandcamp.com/album/putridarium

for a death/doom band there's a good amount of imaginative stuff happening and surprising amounts of shambling groove

Industrial grind from Kenya:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zd35MhHqjhc

I'm intrigued. Bandcamp preorder link

new Napalm Death!!! Apex Predator-Easy Meat was brilliant.

https://www.brooklynvegan.com/napalm-death-announce-first-album-in-5-years-throes-of-joy-in-the-jaws-of-defeatism/

There are no bad Napalm Death albums. Can't wait.

Fear Emptiness Despair is pretty bad I’d say.

What are your 2020 metal highlights so far, Siegbran? I miss your write-ups of old.

I've hardly heard new metal this year. I've liked Thanatos, Sepultura, Sivyj Yar, Ygg, Deathwhite, Paysage d'Hiver, Armagedda and Lustre but I'll probably do most of my metal listening around the end of the year.

The Ygg, Armagedda and Paysage d’Hiver are among my favourites this year but I’ve yet to hear all of those, so thanks.

Any thoughts on the Maggot Heart record?
There's a Beastmilk/Grave Pleasures connection (both bands were/are ILM faves) so I figure they would be on the radar of some people here.
I liked them live with King Dude last March.
I listened to the album a few times and I like the spirit of it but cannot seem to latch onto it.

Does anyone know if that Boris is getting any kind of physical release, or is it digital only? Trying to decide if I should shell out for the digital now, or hold off a little.

(No dice means I didn't get a reply, not that they are not doing a physical release, sorry abou that!)

pre-ordering Duma!

Skeleton's debut, out tomorrow, ticked a lot of boxes. rock solid pünkened black, full of stately mayhem hooks

https://listen.20buckspin.com/album/skeleton

new Sumac coming in september

https://www.brooklynvegan.com/sumac-announce-new-album-may-you-be-held/

now back to the uneasy pantheon of BM for people with big crust punk analog hearts: new Utzalu!!!

https://vrasubatlat.bandcamp.com/album/vt-xxvi-the-grobian-fall