Rolling 2021 Metal Thread

did nobody mention last year's Draconian's Under A Godless Veil album? it's pretty great (if you're into that kind of doom/gothic thing)

It was pretty solid, yeah. If you enjoy Heike Langhans's vocals, check out her LP with Light Field Reverie, also from last year and treading similar ground.

In other news, this board is sorely lacking in love for Ungfell, the only band that sounds like The Seventh Seal and even more so on their latest album:

https://ungfell.bandcamp.com/album/es-grauet

Pretty good week for metal releases: Amenra, Darkthrone, Pestilence, Thy Catafalque, a White Ward EP, Withered... Working my way through them now.

Thought the Pestilence was good but kinda petered out as it went along.
Playing Amenra now and it's more arty than I expected for some reason, though that's not a pejorative at all!

The Amenra is quite good but I suspect I'd get far more out of it if I knew Dutch. Bits of it border on straight-up spoken word.

also loving the new cerebral rot and thy catafalque records everyone else seems to be into

thought this 4-way doom/death split was quite good too, esp the blood spore track it opens with:
https://bloodharvestrecords.bandcamp.com/album/4-dimensions-of-auditory-terror

thought burning banners... ripped but finding the new warmoon lord record pretty dull. the sense of grandeur the other one nailed seems to be missing here. maybe it'll open up if I try again when it isn't brutally hot outside.

oh and, not metal, but if you're into primitive & nasty grind, this new gall record is a fun ride:
https://gallviolence.bandcamp.com/album/17-21-min

Brouillard's 3rd album this year (after Brouillard and Sphere's π) : a collaboration with Déhà. Harsh+atmospheric black metal. https://transcendance-bm.bandcamp.com/album/transcending-rites-enthronement-of-the-third

Cheers for that Gall tip; I can always use new grind or PV in my life.

the Cerebral Rot, on three or four listens, I really feel like could be a gateway for people wanting to get into DM, it's really accessible in terms of the simple arrangements, which isn't to say it's "watered down", but the atmosphere is easy to grasp and get sucked in by. i can't get over how murky and Loch Ness monstery the lead guitar sounds. the last album was good but this one is just like....a step beyond.

this is a band I'd love to see on tour.

the Darkthrone is sticking with me a lot too. the atmosphere is so garage-y.

darkthrone is currently my aoty

Sounds like I def need to grab that new Cerebral Rot. Just finally got around to the new Ghastly and I absolutely love it. I was already on board but when the synth kicks in halfway through "Dawnless Dreams" it pushed my appreciation to a whole new level.

AI-generated 1990s death metal album covers

"1990s Death Metal album cover"

got a few fun results for this one https://t.co/FLg3fyBlTM pic.twitter.com/MiSVBfUQ8E

— Images Generated By AI Machines (@images_ai) June 28, 2021

Very Adramelech or Demilich

new thy catafalque is so fucking cool

xp You're right, jon /via/ chi, that synth part of that Ghastly track is great--whole album does a solid job of moving from slightly more accessible to slightly more extreme song parts/riff sections IMO (plus the cover art is amazing, which tbh does end up influencing the initial time I'll spend trying to get into something)

Yeah, I dig the cover art a lot, it's a nice departure from what most death metal art looks like these days, while still feeling thematically appropriate.

just figured out this metal band's name pic.twitter.com/VDJqCHenMC

— Joe McAdam (@joemcadam) July 1, 2021

latest Silver Talon is quite good, esp if you like Nevermore-type stuff. vocalist sounds like Warrel Dane in his baritone range, riffs of that ilk, but the songwriting and atmosphere is great.

For those who loved the Boris album that came out in 2020 called No but were bummed it was a physical release only, be less bummed now:

Boris continue their bountiful output with two monumental vinyl versions of their milestone releases; 2000’s Flood and 2020’s NO. Third Man Records will release the albums on LP formats on August 27th, and NO will be released digitally through Third Man as well.

Rather, bummed there was no physical release...

Turkey's death metal scene deserves more respect. I mean, just listen to this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3bDT_uga04

The entire album is great, and it features a song titled 'Spearfuck the Throes of Treason'.

It may please those of a, *ahem*, prehistoric persuasion.

As will this (relevant opening track title):

https://transylvaniantapes.bandcamp.com/album/fossilization-he-whose-name-was-long-forgotten

Last but not least, the new At the Gates is solid old man metal, a wee bit proggier than their previous effort and I daresay more interesting as a result.

I may have to turn in my metalhead card over this, but I hate Tomas Lindberg's voice.

It's...an acquired taste

I'd put him in my top 5 without hesitation.

I didn't return to the last ATG after one listen, as it didn't catch me, but this one is pretty good so far.

Max Cavalera has a new band, Go Ahead And Die, with his son Igor and Khemmis's Zach Coleman on drums. The self-titled debut comes out June 11; it's primitive, crudely produced caveman thrash. Some of you may like it better than anything he's done since Arise. I still say Cavalera Conspiracy are a great band, particularly on their last two albums, but this is really good, too.

― but also fuck you (unperson), Monday, May 17, 2021 10:14 AM bookmarkflaglink

good call I like this. the production is definitely more lo-fi than you'd be used to with his other stuff, and I think that's due to his son's desires probably. this definitely draws from a lot of 80s grimy extreme metal as well. definitely a lot of punk but it doesn't really feel like crossover.

no guitar solos anywhere.

https://imgur.com/PXoJPA8

https://i.imgur.com/PXoJPA8.png

We're halfway through the year!
Here are the metal albums that came out this year that I like enough to pay for...

Animal Schoolbus - Going To Grammy's House!? 2021 Remix (Lawnmowerjetpack Records)
Artillery - X (Metal Blade Records)
Big|Brave - Vital (Southern Lord)
Tom Morello & The Bloody Beetroots - The Catastrophists (Comandante LLC)
Bloody Hammers - Songs of Unspeakable Terror (Napalm Records)
The Body - I've Seen All I Need to See (Thrill Jockey)
Bongzilla - Weedsconsin (Heavy Psych Sounds)
Cirith Ungol - Half Past Human [EP] (Metal Blade Records)
The Crown - Royal Destroyer (Metal Blade Records)
Dordeduh - Har (Prophecy Productions)
Dread Sovereign - Alchemical Warfare (Metal Blade Records)
Dusk in Silence - Beneath the Great Sky of Solitude (Flowing Downward)
Evile - Hell Unleashed (Napalm Records)
The Flight of Sleipnir - Eventide (Eisenwald)
Gaunt Emperor - Femur (SpicyBoi)
Haunt - Beautiful Distraction (Church Recordings)
Heavy Temple - Lupi Amoris (Magnetic Eye Records)
Hot Breath - Rubbery Lips (The Sign Records)
Impaled Nazarene - Eight Headed Serpent (Osmose Productions)
Knoll - Interstice (Sludgelord Records)
Korpiklaani - Jylhä (Nuclear Blast)
Krallice - Demonic Wealth (Independent)
Lingua Ignota - Angus Dei (Self-Released)
Lucifuge - Infernal Power (Dying Victim Productions)
Melvins - Working With God (Ipecac Recordings)
Mesarthim - Vacuum Solution [EP] (Avantgarde Music)
Monster Magnet - A Better Dystopia (Napalm Records)
Mourners - Act I: Tragedies (Personal Records)
Panopticon - …And Again Into the Light (Bindrune Recordings)
Paysage d'Hiver - Geister (Kunsthall Produktionen)
The Pretty Reckless - Death By Rock And Roll (Fearless Records)
Red Fang - Arrows (Relapse Records)
The Ruins Of Beverast - The Thule Grimoires (Ván Records)
S.H.I. - 4 死 Death [LP] (Relapse Records)
Spectral Wound - A Diabolical Thirst (Profound Lore Records)
Steel Bearing Hand - Slay In Hell (Carbonized Records)
Sur Austru - Obârșie (Avantgarde Music)
Throat - Smile Less (Svart Records)
Tribulation - Where the Gloom Becomes Sound (Metal Blade Records)
Wardruna - Kvitravn (By Norse Music)
Warish - Next to Pay (RidingEasy Records)
White Ward - Debemur Morti [EP] (Debemur Morti Productions)
Youth Code / King Yosef - A Skeleton Key In The Doors Of Depression (Self-Released)
V/A (Sisters of Mercy Tribute) - Black Waves Of Adrenochrome (Metalville)

My non-metal list does include some stuff metal folks may like as well including:
Amigo The Devil (Dark Folk/Cabaret)
EGGVN (Satanic Mexican Industrial)
Godspeed You! Black Emperor
HIDE (Harsh Electronic Industrial)
Human Impact (NY Noise Scene Veterans)
Iceage
The Mountain Goats
Stalag 13 (Old School Nardcore)
th1rt3en (Rap with Guitars & Sabbath Samples)

My favorite metal or loud-enough-to-count releases of the first half of 2021:

The Absence, Coffinized
Cannibal Corpse, Violence Unimagined
The Crown, Royal Destroyer
Crypta, Echoes of the Soul
Distant, Aeons of Oblivion
Go Ahead and Die, s/t
Gojira, Fortitude
Gravesend, Methods of Human Disposal
Horndal, Lake Drinker
Mainliner, Dual Myths
Hedvig Mollestad Trio, Ding Dong. You’re Dead.
Mythic Sunship, Wildfire
Nervosa, Perpetual Chaos
Obsolete, Animate//Isolate
Slant, 1 집
StarGazer, Psychic Secretions
Sunbomb, s/t
Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Way Down in the Rust Bucket
Rob Zombie, The Lunar Injection Kool Aid Eclipse Conspiracy

gravesend is such a shit town I never realised how metal its name is

I can get the vinyl hype, okay, but cassettes? Meh. (Not only is there a 9-release cassette box (and a new release) by Mesarthim, there's also this, by Austere: http://www.depthsofvoid.com/products/706069-austere-cassette-collection-3-tape-box )

I loved cassettes, back when I owned a cassette player that I used on a daily basis. But I just did a quick search and could only find one major brand cassette player — an ugly boombox:

https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81OaqdwzkqL.jpg

Everything else I saw was from some company I've never heard of and would probably last a month. No thanks.

Even that one probably isn’t up to much from a technical standpoint; Techmoan on YouTube has done multiple videos about the quality of contemporary cassette tape player mechanisms.

after about 5 plays in that, you'll be getting the Chopped n Skrewed metal experience, and then the "lol i ate ur tape' experience

are pencils coming back too? (how else are we going to rewind the loose tape?)

how else are we going to rewind the loose tape?

Bic biros were always better for that, almost as if they were designed for the job.

Avant Garde Polish non-metal according to Encyclopaedia Metallum group Dola just released a new album Czasy.

Bandcamp: http://dola.bandcamp.com/album/czasy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtGQkRx_9vM

Only the first single "Kije" is on Spotify as of now:
http://open.spotify.com/album/6eAMheANKpXAWFANB3Q6NI?si=4bs4n28CQdWdbfdtWlROsQ&dl_branch=1

holy fuck this fossilization album really is all that, hails pomenitul

also, you can get truly excellent, often mint tape players on eBay, it's a buyer's market. if you were feeling completely bonkers you could get a two-owner nakamichi dragon (generally considered the highest point of technical excellence that tape decks ever reached) for 1500 which is a steal.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/114875004316?hash=item1abf15759c:g:hz8AAOSw7lhg3k24

I mean, the band IS called Defacement...

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a1502519686_10.jpg

https://i-voidhangerrecords.bandcamp.com/album/defacement

Nice.

boringly literal album covers thread to thread

PR quote of the day: "Dawn Of A Dark Age is the main project of the multi-instrumentalist Vittorio Sabelli, a classical and jazz musician who gave to the clarinet a leading role for the first time in black metal." OH GOOD.

Nice.

The Defacement album is pretty good in a Portal-ish amorphous roaring-with-ambient-interludes sort of way.

yo you're clowning but black metal with a clarinet sounds rad

ok I"m listening to Dawn of a Dark Age's 2020 album and it's fantastic