Rolling 2021 Metal Thread

Definitely has me stoked for the Converge and Khemmis albums to show up this weekend.

The Bloodmoon advance tracks have been very promising.

Glad to see love for that incredible Fucked Up record too.

Lack of Thy Catafalque though.

No Ulcerate was the big surprise for me. But I feel like I don't live on Planet Metal anymore. (Hating Carcass has always kept me on the outside of the pack, anyway.)

depressing that this year's been so nuts that I forgot we had a Darkthrone release despite loving it.

ulcerate record was from 2020

good enough to be album of the year two years running though

Surprisingly it also didn't make last year's Decibel list, though.

Lingua Ignota: the non-dude metal it's still OK for dudes to like.

LI album wasn't remotely metal, lol

I mean, metal af but

The Pit has taken the position that if you have a problem with Brass Against frontwoman Sophia Urista peeing on a willing fan onstage, you suck at being metal.

http://www.wearethepit.com/2021/11/opinion-if-a-little-pee-upsets-you-get-the-fk-out-of-metal

otm

I mean, sure it's metal and it was consensual for the willing fan, but I'd possibly take the very uncool position of saying that people in the audience for a more general music festival didn't get a chance to consent to watching it.

Okay I guess the festival in question is even more metal and rock leaning than I understood, still though, I halfheartedly stand behind my definitely unmetal position. I think I'd feel differently if it was a Brass Against headlining show or something though.

my radical position is that the frontperson of an all-brass covers band peeing on someone onstage is in all senses an aesthetic affront

lol

The Pit must have a very righteous glow about itself after publishing that, though. It must feel like it's on the right side of piss story.

woah I had no idea Rudimentary Peni was still a band

oh I bought that on Bandcamp and haven't listened to it yet lol

their latest is really good, you wouldn't know how many years separated it and like...Death Church

Really baffled by the Pitchfork pan of the Converge record. The main thrust seems to be that it's Converge sticking too close to their formula (as if that in and of itself is a bad thing), but also that the formula sounds too much like Evanescence and Breaking Benjamin?

Bloodmoon suffers from two problems that seem as though they should preclude one another: It is thin on fresh ideas and unexpected twists. Its hard rock-meets-hardcore permutations are familiar to anyone who has ever heard, say, Evanescence and Breaking Benjamin. Despite those predictable modes, the sounds are so overdone and unfocused that listening in one sitting is exhausting.

I dunno, I usually really like Currin's writing, which is why this surprised me even more. Feels like an obligatory Pitchfork slaying of the idols type piece than a thoughtful critique on the album itself. But I haven't heard the whole thing yet, so who know.

new Exodus is really good but there are some inane, ignorant lyrics on it (see upthread for cluez re: Souza), and I couldn't stomach that with my current mood so I put on the new Khemmis, which is really good and not full of that nonsense.

fortunately most of the Exodus songs arej ust your typical garden variety violence and I can skip the ones that aggravate me

Evanescence and BB are...weird reference points, even though I know he's not saying they *sound* like those bands.

xxpost

Yeah, Breaking Benjamin especially feels like a name to drop in just to piss Converge fans off, rather than actually commenting on what the album sounds like. The only takeaway I got from that review is that it.... sounds like Converge?

Couldn't bring myself to play the new Exodus (see upthread for reasonz re: Souza), just so much better stuff out right now. New Khemmis should show up tomorrow, look forward to cranking it this weekend.

Good times for Finnish funeral doom fans! This year Skepticism had a new album out, next year it's Shape of Despair!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8TJq3JYUZ4

The Lurking Fear have a new album out today. They're a kind of Swedish death-grind supergroup, with Tomas Lindberg on vocals, Jonas Stålhammar (At The Gates) and Fredrik Wallenberg (Skitsystem) on guitars, Andreas Axelsson (Tormented) on bass, and Adrian Erlandsson (ATG) on drums. The first album came out in 2017. It's fast, loud, grinding, with no saxophone solos or catchy choruses.

That Pitchfork review is strange. I get the sense that he doesn't care for Chelsea Wolfe. But there are also a few remarks which seem weirdly dismissive of the whole idea of a collab album:

For these 11 tracks, they resort to a trick so predictable even Itchy and Scratchy tried it: Add new members to an old mix that always worked.

But is there anything more cliché in rock’n’roll than the band that hangs on too long, fading away slowly with live versions of classic albums and guest-laden clusterfucks?

Like... yes, this is a Converge & Chelsea Wolfe album. I wouldn't expect it to sound exactly like Converge. There's also no reason to think that they're aiming to break from their hardcore style "once and for all." They're just doing something different on this one project.

The guest-laden thing seems silly to criticize, he gives The Body positive reviews all the time and half of their output is guest/collab stuff. The sudden hate is odd, esp since their last LP was great.

Maybe after the Twitter eruption re the Jane Doe album cover, someone decided it was time to take Bannon and the boys down a peg.

I hate to ascribe intentions to reviewers like that but, yeah, it really feels like a "time to knock Converge down a little, they've been getting too much praise for too long" style review instead of any valid criticism of the record.

why have I never listened to Swallow the Sun before? just listening to this new one and it's my wheelhouse

ooh, forgot they had a new one out too. Check out Songs From the North next, if you remain interested.

for whatever's it worth, the pfork review made me think i would love the new converge, and i do

I'm expecting I'll love it because I've loved every Converge record I've ever heard.

Bannon sounds so much like Tobias Forge on "Coil". I wonder if they're fans.

I don't love Converge (they're okay) but do love Chelsea Wolfe and plan on listening with an open mind when I get to it.

If you like your metal florid and melodic, I recommend the new Temperance album, Diamanti, which I'm pretty sure will be my album of the year after hearing it all the way through just once.

https://open.spotify.com/album/1Ou68gXKBI6ER4q1uKFyYk

That new Converge album feels lifeless to me. Chelsea's contributions feel tacked on, uninspired. Compare that to The Body's collaboration with Big Brave, which feels like a real creative breakthrough for both bands.

Is anyone listening to the Dream Unending album? Dream-pop-inspired death-doom (they call it 'dream-doom'), co-lead by one of the Tomb Mold guys. Sounds great to me after one listen.

https://listen.20buckspin.com/album/tide-turns-eternal

I think their dreams involve more gargling than mine.

It's very good dark November music.

My CD of the new Sunn O))) arrived in today's mail. Gonna shake the walls with it later.

Speaking of Ulcerate, the new The Temple side project is supposed to be very good.

my friend is working on a new project called Mortality, i really love his stuff, has a new track off the upcoming album out. i don't know what kind of metal it is, very epic instrumental, blackish maybe? anyway, super talented guy, plays all the instruments

he was the original drummer for Obsequiae

https://mortality1492.bandcamp.com/track/call-in-your-banners-all

I wrote about five new metal records — Cadaveric Fumes, The Lurking Fear, Obscura, Pathology, and Sunn O))) — at Burning Ambulance. Link.