Rolling 2022 Metal Thread

yeah, i've listened a few times now and i’m totally into it. the guitars are generally pretty righteous, esp like it when things get a little extra moody, makes me think of, like, tangerine dream michael mann shootouts and repo man LA cruising. not something that happens regularly while listening to black metal otherwise but mean that in a cool way.

saw them live whenever they last toured, maybe 10yrs ago now? really good, would like to catch em again.

4 LP version of Paysage d'Hiver's Im Wald album: https://paysagedhiver.bandcamp.com/album/im-wald

a little underwhelmed by the new Undeath. as much as I want to love it, feels like undercooked Cannibal Corpse. much more into the Corpsessed.

new Destruction is a lot of fun even if not otherworldly.

I was a bit puzzled that Pitchfork were complimenting Undeath on their supposed pop accessibility (even bringing in a Rihanna comparison). To me the big problem with that album is that I can't remember any of the songs.

i liked their last one and the demo before that but their production seems ill-fitting to death metal, too thin and lifeless, and the first track starts out sounding like CC's "Staring Through the Eyes of the Dead" but none of the heft or quality songwriting of that one. it doesn't seem to go as hard as it should, and I like a few songs here and there but I can almost never get to the end.

just very disappointed as it was one I was looking forward to, whereas I didn't even know the Corpsessed was due out until the day of and I liked that one better.

Count me as another Undeath skeptic. But when you read the review and count how many times Currin (who I like as a human, but whose critical aesthetic is about 175 degrees from my own) uses words like "fun," "goofy," "absurdist," etc., it's clear that the media narrative on this band is "death metal you can make fun of without seeming like a dick, 'cause the band is in on the joke!" No thanks.

I'm pretty in the tank for Undeath in general, but also found their newest underwhelming and poorly produced, though it sounds like I liked it more than some of you (I'd throw it a 7 out of 10).
Definitely kind of baffled why it got the biannual metal album BNM award from pfork apart from them being in right place in their hype cycle right now.

The new Sentient Horror is working for me right now though.

yeah, I thought the first undeath was really, well, fun. but the teaser tracks from the new one haven't really been doing it for me either. I haven't given it a listen yet. especially since every band in finland seems to have released a record the last two or three weeks.

speaking of which, I think a new slugathor was released yesterday but this is the only place I can find it listed:
https://www.levykauppax.fi/artist/slugathor/crypt_of_the_ancient_fire/

excited for this one

big (good and bad) news from Draconian tomorrow

https://www.facebook.com/draconianofficial :

- Heike Langhans (was their singer for two albums, from 2012 on, also in ISON, Light Field Reverie, Remina, etc) is leaving
- Lisa Johansson (was their singer from 2002-2012, five albums) will return. There will be one final show with both Heike and Lisa at Hellfest (to be streamed by Arte)
- new rhythm guitar player Niklas Nord
- former rhythm guitar player Daniel Arvidsson moves to bass
- new album is in the works

yeah, i've listened a few times now and i’m totally into it. the guitars are generally pretty righteous, esp like it when things get a little extra moody, makes me think of, like, tangerine dream michael mann shootouts and repo man LA cruising. not something that happens regularly while listening to black metal otherwise but mean that in a cool way.

Listening again, it sounds to me like a slightly more extreme take on some of the proggier Mercyful Fate tunes, like “Satan’s Fall” – the constantly shifting sections, spooky occult storytelling, moody melodic parts. Really good stuff.

impressed by Konvent (all woman band - yes, this is a female vocalist)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cH0LodMdtwo

I'm super digging this Chilean heavy metal band Vórtize.

https://nubenegraprod.bandcamp.com/album/tienes-que-luchar

Super fast and catchy with great dual male-female Spanish vocals, lots of surprising touches.

Nice to see some love for Konvent, I dig both of their albums so far.

I like the Undeath just fine, it's fun. Not sure I get why that's the band plucked for wider buzz though.

Digging the new Incandescence this morning.

The Black Dahlia Murder vocalist Trevor Strnad has died, and the band included the US national suicide prevention hotline in their post, so...wow. Fucked up. They were really, really good at what they did. I wrote about their last album, in 2020, and I remember getting into some trouble for putting them on the cover of Metal Edge in 2008 or so, when I was the editor; Metal Maniacs was owned by the same company, and their editor claimed TBDM was more of an MM kind of band and got mad at me for stepping on their territory.

oh my god.

wasn't ever a huge BDM fan, but dude was a major celeb in the scene. this is just fucked up

That's a shame, I always liked hearing them, though I'm realizing now I totally missed that they had a 2020 album.

this feels as shocking as Riley Gale's death a few years ago.

just makes me incredibly sad to see these young musicians peacing out so young

this came out last week.

fuckin righteous. prog death/black that isn't just an excuse for endless dissonance. love the vocals also

https://hauntertx.bandcamp.com/album/discarnate-ails

Brutal Truth/Venomous Concept frontman Kevin Sharp on depression, divorce, and suicidal ideation. Might be a rough read for some, but valuable, too.

Thanks for sharing that, definitely powerful. Glad to hear he seems to be on the way towards feeling better.

Maybe not strictly 'metal' but Scott Seward was a big fan of this band as was I, and I know LJ & TT, Simon and Brad will be interested, and I just want to say that after all this time Gospel have finally dropped a follow-up album to The Moon Is A Dead World, and its brilliant.

https://gospel.bandcamp.com/album/the-loser

Moon Tooth and Mournful Congregation albums are awesome.

love the Moon Tooth, they have slowed it down / calmed down on the pyrotechnics, which I did like, but I'm completely in the tank for this band -- love the dude's voice, love the vibe, they're all great players.

new Devil Master about as fun as the last. feels like the Cure meets black metal and punk

I think it might even be more fun than the last one.

yeah it's a good'un

Feel like lots of folks that regularly post itt would love the Tómarúm debut as much as I do, absolutely killer blackened prog metal.

https://tomarum.bandcamp.com/album/ash-in-realms-of-stone-icons

Moon Tooth is super good. They almost sound like they could get on the Mainstream Rock chart.

currently really enjoying the Pharmacist record that came out last month. Its primo Carcass worship from Japan that keeps it entertaining despite (or perhaps because of?) the weirdly long 7.5 minute average track lengths.

came here to hype up the Gospel album mentioned above? maybe its good for the emo/punk thread. anyhow, it rules though. technically proficient post hardcore. back like no time has passed since 2005

sorry my punctuation is all over the place

This NPR piece on Matt Pike is worth reading. Pike is an extremely...frustrating figure at this point.

Ugh such a bummer.

not surprised given what i've read about him in the past. he just seems a little bit like a dude who has smoked too much weed and doesn't get why people are exasperated with his erratic ignorance or why David Ickes is...maybe not a guy to follow.

Neanderthal otm, but it's extra exasperating to watch him being given chance after chance after chance to walk back some of this shittier implications of whatever it is he actually believes, but her refuses to do so in order to keep playing the victim.

A big bummer, for sure.

I would say to Currin "do Wino next," but Wino's stock has already diminished to what's-the-point? levels. It's not like the Obsessed are gonna be nominated for a Grammy anytime soon.

Goddammit, Matt.

This also popped up on Twitter today:

one weird thing about sunn 0))) and related acts becoming fully assimilated into the world of wire-type highbrow experimental music is that i don't think i've seen anyone ever mention how much straight-up nazi shit stephen o'malley published in his descent zine in the 90s

— Jess Harvell (@cheaptrickrules) May 19, 2022

not even exaggerating here either: in addition to the usual pussyfooting are-they-or-arent-they black metal bands, issue five contains an interview with the proudly white supremacist power electronics act control resistance, among others

— Jess Harvell (@cheaptrickrules) May 19, 2022

i knew he'd done a black metal zine but hadn't actually read any of it until recently, and you could maybe write it off as the flirtations of a young man into "extreme" shit, but he designed a burzum box set just two years ago

— Jess Harvell (@cheaptrickrules) May 19, 2022

Jess up to date as ever

Not that I am defending anyone willing to work with Varg at any point, but fwiw, I cannot find anything about O'Malley doing art for him "two years ago". He did artwork for him back in the late 1990s for something that, somehow, keeps being reissued, but nothing that recent.

Again, not trying to defend O'Malley though.

I'd like to perform artwork on Varg's teeth

lol

The new Malevolence album, Malicious Intent, is really good floor-punching chudcore, if that's what you're in the mood for. Out today on Nuclear Blast.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqoFbD1xVWM

i considered it until I saw the smoke bombs

new Septic Flesh is good as usual Septic Flesh.

A local promoter put two tours into one small venue that happens to have a second, even smaller stage, for a mini-metal fest tonight, and it's truly a mix or eras and tempos:

http://d1htavafy9m5bl.cloudfront.net/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJwcm9kLXNpaC5zZWV0aWNrZXRzdXNhLnVzIiwia2V5IjoiMjRlMTU4MzUtZTVlOC00YTk0LWEyOWItNzE5OWNjNzliNTUzIiwiZWRpdHMiOnt9fQ==

Of course I am going though my plan is to leave before Vio-Lence who I always thought were overrated and I think even less of them now that they're all MAGA.

Exciter and Coroner? Holy hell

That tour (the Coroner one) is hitting NYC tomorrow night and part of me really wants to go, but I know it's not gonna happen.

new heaving earth record is sick:
https://lavadome.bandcamp.com/album/darkness-of-god

it's something like the midpoint between ulcerate and atonement-era immolation

early stream up here:
https://grizzlybutts.com/2022/05/24/an-early-stream-of-heaving-earth-darkness-of-god-lp-2022-premiere/