Rolling 2023 Metal thread

fwiw it's really the final 2 songs that deliver that elusive combo of weird (delicate flute: check; neoclassical more than prog?) thorny, but melodic that push it into "buy" for me

The story at the top of this month's Stereogum metal column is really great. A band whose just slightly too-late sound doomed them to obscurity in the early 90s now achieves success via sync licensing. Good for them.

(Also, in a surprise to me, one of the releases on my label is written up as a bonus at the end of the column!)

which one is yours?

Diego Caicedo's Seis Amorfismos.

https://diegocaicedo.bandcamp.com/album/seis-amorfismos

I like it!

getting a lot of love elsewhere but this is pretty excellent https://ragana.bandcamp.com/album/desolations-flower

I love Ragana so much.

Diego Caicedo's Seis Amorfismos.

https://diegocaicedo.bandcamp.com/album/seis-amorfismos

― read-only (unperson), Tuesday, October 31, 2023 3:02 PM (two days ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is wild and awesome

i think you will hate this reference haha but there are little bits that remind me of LULU where the modern classical strings are droning

totally forgot there's new Suffocation tomorrow!

Xoth drops a new one tomorrow as well

the new Tetragrammacide going for track titles of the year award. also sounds fantastic

https://ironboneheadproductions.bandcamp.com/album/tetragrammacide-typho-tantric-aphorisms-from-the-arachneophidian-quran

oh shit, love Xoth!

Wow, this Tetragrammacide album is amazing (and has given me a new username).

lol

I'd been consciously avoiding the new Suffocation album, because no Frank? No interest. But I checked it out this morning and it's really fucking good. Some amazingly shredtastic guitar solos. And the new singer sounds enough like Frank that it's not a jarring transition. Now, does he do jazz hands live? That's the crucial question.

yeah I really dig the new Suffocation. definitely had an issue w/ no Frank the first time, but I am a Disgorge fan so I like Ricky.

might be the most vitality I've heard out of them in years, but I liked the last one a lot too.

the last one never really clicked but i LOVED pinnacle (aside from the cover). “sullen days,” “eminent wrath”… that’s good shit.

still gotta check the new one out. seeing them tomorrow tho. franks lawng island banter will be missed for sure.

I only got to see Frank with the band once, and the experience was somewhat hampered by a bad eye infection i had, but otm with his banter being missed. Ricky doesn't do much, I miss hearing "I love youse guys"

The one time I saw them his adult daughter was hanging out at the side of the stage, so we got some proud-dad banter and the revelation that "Breeding the Spawn" was about her, which was hilarious.

My mistake; he didn't say the song was about her, he just dedicated it to her.

hahahaha love it

the Xoth did not disappoint. \m/

how many calories are in these riffs, my ears are gaining weight

New Vastum drops today, one of the better death-metal bands currently operating, IMO:

https://vastum.bandcamp.com/album/inward-to-gethsemane

i like them, particularly their last two, but opted not to pick up yet, simply cos I'm slow to listen to anything lately. but maybe I"ll give a listen.

lol at the Incantation parody title

I listened to their previous one a lot. This one seems at least as good on first listen.

Out of curiosity - anyone itt ever order stuff direct from Nuclear Blast? I pre-ordered a few things months ago, with the latest street-date for them being October 27th, but still nothing has been shipped. Perhaps more worryingly, I can't get a response to my email asking for an update. Is this fairly typical for them? Not a big deal if something slipped back or there's a longer delay, just would be nice to have any kind of communication from them.

Yeah, I've bought things from them before — when they reissued the Earthless catalog I bought just about everything. But I think they might have changed webstores since then...and I don't remember them being super communicative, no.

Decibel's top 40 albums of 2023 have been posted:

https://www.decibelmagazine.com/2023/11/16/spoiler-here-are-decibels-top-40-albums-of-2023/

Surprised not to see the Godflesh album on there.

This is the fewest I've heard of the Decibel top 40 like ever. That's not a brag, just a weird observation.

I've only heard 10, but four of them were on the list I submitted to The Wire. (I decided to submit an all-metal top 10 for their critics' poll this year.)

I've heard a couple of these. I've mainly defected to power metal.

Solid #1.

might need to see a urologist

looool

https://weirdsciencemarvelcomics.files.wordpress.com/2023/09/iceman-2-featured-image.jpg

Ha!

But yes, shocked by the lack of Godflesh. And KEN Mode.

that ken mode album cover makes me want to crawl out of my skin

re: that Decibel list, I'm kinda shocked to have heard 22 of them.

Nice to see the love for Fires in the Distance and that album by The Keening. Kind of surprised to see the Krieg album that high, it's fine I guess, but really nothing special. Surprised not to see Hellripper, Ulthar or Moonlight Sorcery (haven't heard the new LP yet, but it seems these guys were all the rage) on the list.

Another new Judas Priest song, and yeah, this one rules, too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0n5aFASWfDA

that's an earworm and a half

Oh yes: new Madder Mortem single today, new album in January!

It's fun to see in the first week, Decibel entries Horrendous and Tomb Mold in the top 15 of the albumoftheyear site. I had their first album, but totally forgot about the new Godthrymm, which I'm enjoying. As far as epic doom I still prefer Sorcerer - Reign of the Reaper. Not surprised it's missing, there's just so damn much metal that a top 40 can't even come close to covering.

My subscription of Fistful of Metal ran out, and I know they did a top 50. Does anyone have that issue?

Apologies for my year-long silence. Combination of increased job demands, taking care of family with longterm illness and managing 7+ acres of Rancho Bulboso, including an epic endeavor to critterproof under the house. Currently there's skunks getting in through animal fencing and I'm gradually cementing in stone blocks around the perimeter.

The new Plague Rider is sounding to be fantastic, rollicking avant-death

https://plaguerideruk.bandcamp.com/album/intensities

Sometimes I go a few months without listening to them, and I forget just how much pleasure I get from Destruction. Their albums are all basically the same, but as meat 'n' potatoes head-through-the-wall thrash, they're fucking great. I can slip my headphones on, call up any of their last half dozen albums, and just sit there quietly headbanging.

Every time I think I never need to hear another new black metal album, Panopticon comes out with something.

https://thetruepanopticon.bandcamp.com/album/the-rime-of-memory

Digging the Plague Rider, and also the Cruciamentum that came out Friday is impressive.

https://cruciamentum.bandcamp.com/album/obsidian-refractions

Finally got the Fistful list. There's a lot of stuff I wouldn't normally listen to, at least a half dozen albums, but I've got 'em all in a playlist to see what jumps out at me. I totally forgot about KK's Priest.

Warriors of the World: Fistful of Metal's Festive 50

1. Tailgunner - Guns For Hire (Fireflash)
2. Cannibal Corpse - Chaos Horrific (Metal Blade)
3. Hellripper - Warlocks Grim & Withered Hags (Peaceville)
4. Obituary - Dying of Everything (Relapse)
5. Doro - Conqueress: Forever Strong and Proud (Nuclear Blast)
6. Enforced - War Remains (Century Media)
7. Girlschool - WTFORTYFIVE? (Silver Lining)
8. Church Of Misery - Born Under a Mad Sign (Rise Above)
9. KK's Priest - The Sinner Rides Again (Napalm)
10. Spirit Adrift - Ghost at the Gallows (Century Media)
11. Metallica - 72 Seasons (Blackened)
12. Enslaved - Heimdal (Nuclear Blast)
13. Urne - A Feast on Sorrow (Candlelight)
14. Bongzilla - Dab City (Heavy Psych Sounds)
15. U.D.O. - Touchdown (Atomic Fire)
16. Cryptopsy - As Gomorrah Burns (Nuclear Blast)
17. Voivod - Morgoth Tales (Century Media)
18. Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats - Slaughter on First Avenue (Rise Above)
19. Sanguisugabogg - Homicidal Ecstasy (Century Media)
20. Memoriam - Rise to Power (Reaper)
21. Raven - All Hell's Breaking Loose (Silver Lining)
22. Skindred - Smile (Earache)
23. Dawn Ray'd - To Know the Light (Prosthetic)
24. Jag Panzer - The Hallowed (Atomic Fire)
25. Deviser - Evil Summons Evil (Hammerheart)
26. Katatonia - Sky Void of Stars (Napalm)
27. The Gauntlet - Dark Steel & Fire (Eternal Death)
28. In Flames - Foregone (Nuclear Blast)
29. Burning Witches - The Dark Tower (Nuclear Blast)
30. Bloodbound - Tales From the North (AFM)
31. Enforcer - Nostalgia (Nuclear Blast)
32. Downfall Of Gaia - Silhouettes of Disgust (Metal Blade)
33. Evile - The Unknown (Napalm)
34. Wallowing - Earth Reaper (Church Road)
35. Power Trip - Live in Seattle (Southern Lord)
36. Tygers Of Pan Tang - Bloodlines (Mighty Music)
37. Nattverd - I Helvetes Forakt (Soulseller)
38. Alcatrazz - Take No Prisoners (Silver Lining)
39. Wytch Hazel - IV: Sacrament (Bad Omen)
40. Uriah Heep - Chaos & Colour (Silver Lining)
41. Overkill - Scorched (Nuclear Blast)
42. Battle Born - Blood, Fire, Magic & Steel (Prosthetic)
43. Air Raid - Fatal Encounter (High Roller)
44. Dying Fetus - Make Them Beg for Death (Relapse)
45. Cattle Decapitation - Terrasite (Metal Blade)
46. Night Demon - Outsider (Century Media)
47. Twilight Force - At the Heart of Wintervale (Nuclear Blast)
48. Stoned Jesus - Father Light (Season of Mist)
49. Avatar - Dance Devil Dance (Century Media)
50. The Dust Coda - Loco Paradise (Earache)

>>: 17. Voivod - Morgoth Tales
I'm kinda fascinated by how much I love the PIL cover on this. It is almost note-for-note, which I usually don't go for. But it's a great performance/mix imo and I guest its fun to retroactively recast "ALBUM" as metal. (But of course it always was, I think the similarity of "Home" to Ozzy's "Over the Mountain" is a l'il too pronounced to be coincidence)

Relatedly still digging through the mega target bandcamp dump. glenn, did you ever listen to Coco Moon's "Marble Mouth" not remotely metal, indie rock with touches of trip-hop and noise (there's at least one tune where you could maybe get away with telling someone it's a super obscure old metric b-side) But I think the writing/performances are strong throughout.

Bruce Dickinson's new single sounds like he's fronting Amon Amarth, and I'm here for it.