rolling 2024 heavy metal and boutique blast beat thread

I suggest we take a break and come back once we've all listened to the new Sunbomb album Light Up The Sky that came out yesterday.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-lcrrxL7zM

That blurb has words I’ve never even used on ILX, confirming my suspicion that anything AI comes up with is unreliable.

with the aim of restoring good vibes to thread; if you have 30 mins or so, please enjoy the Hellfest footage of Suicidal Tendencies from last night. starting at the half way point where they just invite tons of people onstage for over half the set, leading to on-stage crowdsurfing + circle pit.... saw the current lineup a few months back and it was the best. seeing Mike still at it and still giving it his all is a sweet time. warmed my heart.

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

the Megadeth and Emperor streams on the same channel have been worth a watch too

saw Megadeth stream at Graspop and at Hellfest at least he was singing into the mic

oh right, that bass player in Suicidal Tendencies is Robert Trujillo's 19 year old son (I thought, who is this kid who looks like he's 14? :-) )

lmao wtf happened in here

the new Hail Spirit Noir is good I think. ums you should check it out, machine agrees

The Road To Awe is so sick, my god

That was a weird interlude. Turns out even some fuckwitted AI thinks I'm a bland old man. Eh.

Yes mini Trujillo looks ridiculously young. Lineup also including jay Weinberg and lad from Dillinger escape plan, it's a great weird mix

FWIW I thought Glenn's little experiment was pretty hilarious.

Has anyone else heard that new REZN album on Sargent House? I had no idea who they were prior to seeing them open for Pallbearer, and wow, what a killer psych doom band. They had lots of fans too, their merch line was crazy long after their set. Anyway, it's a really good record.

The AI was right that I would want to know about new Leprous, at least. I was listening to my weekly new-release playlist while running, without having scrutinized it first, and the first song this week that made me go "Oh, what is THAT?", and stop to pull out my phone and check, turned out to be the new Leprous song "Silently Walking Alone". I should have recognized Einar's voice from the start, and I would have if I had waited for the chorus. Great use of a slow, controlled pace to build up intensity texturally.

Finnish one man funeral doom project Horre has been expanding into various genres (black metal, dungeon synth) lately, all still very nice: https://horre.bandcamp.com

new Krallice is predictably excellent and possibly one of their best.

holy shit that Suicidal set

Acid King's Hellfest set is also up. I love Acid King.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6dvwHYSquY

stumbled upon, just discovered, came across this new sepulcher ep, i actually went to high school, intense drumming, standout soo smart ah

https://sepulcherfusa.bandcamp.com/album/veins-of-the-void

^^ dan tveit alert

whoever produced crypt sermon, ty. lush lush lush heavy ftw. songwriting's fine yeah that too

new 200 Stab Wounds is fun. not touching any of my death metal albums of the year, but fun. weirdly it gets almost death 'n rolly at times and decidedly less extreme as the album goes on. definitely ear-wormy and accessible.

i thought that ep/demo thing they came out the gate with was a blast. i played the hell out of those three songs. but i found little worth going back to on their first album and the incredibly ugly “5th tier brutal death”-style album cover didn’t exactly help yet either.

glad you're digging the new one tho - i’ve been curious. dumb fun is exactly what i want from this band.

also kinda dig the album art this time around. gross in way that’s more, well, fun than the last one.

*help much either

would like to stab autocorrect 200 times

I do kinda wonder why they're as huge as they are now, other than maybe people that were tired of slam death being retconned into being the only form of brutal death that existed and appreciating something that sounded like it had its roots in 1996 with a modern sheen. like they sell out shows when they come here. I never liked them enough to actually see one of their shows but might next time they come around.

right place, right time thing would be my guess. i don’t personally know their history but i wouldn’t be surprised if they have some ex-hardcore types on the roster. they kinda have that crossover appeal. i’m not against that btw. assuck, terrorizer, suffocation… that’s some of the best music ever. i imagine they have a lot of young fans that like converge and are curious about death metal. but this this is just something i basically made up and could very well be totally off base on!

Stabbing > 200 Stab Wounds

Stabbing > 200 Stab Wounds > Stabbing Westward

New Sumac is incredible. Loved these guys from the start, but this takes things to a whole new level for them.

Kind of wild to realize they've now put out more studio albums than Isis.

The Crypt Sermon album did not click for me on first listen. I didn't hate it, or even dislike it; it just was not what I was in the mood for at the moment, I guess. But I'm listening to it again now and it is really fucking good. There are a couple of little moves they make on the first track that remind me of Opeth, in a really good way. Anyway, I'm glad I went back for a second try.

Glad you gave it another try, I think it's fantastic and I only like it more the more I play it.

Sumac & Crypt Sermon albums are great.

Metal press releases typically suck — I make fun of the hyperbolic language they use often. But this one is actually pretty good, so I'm sharing it. (The album's not bad; face-punching death metal with a sort of Strapping Young Lad-ish sense of humor to the lyrics.)

WEREWOLVES formed in 2019 with the express purpose of releasing ten albums in ten years. 2024 sees them hit the halfway mark with Die For Us, yet another barrage of completely moronic death-metal due out 19th July.

“We are goal-driven achievers known for our savvy business acumen”, says broke-ass bassist-vocalist Sam Bean (The Antichrist Imperium, The Berzerker, who has never been successful at anything in his life, ever). “It seems obvious at this point, now that we have amassed an international following and rabid demand for our live shows, that we should release an album imploring everyone to kill themselves and each other. Reverse psychology, Marketing 101. Getting your fanbase to cull themselves down to a pile of goo and corpses means more sales. Duh.”

“Oh, the music? Same shit…blastbeats and incoherent ranting, sick riffs, that sort of thing. We’ll slip in some big choruses, brilliant samples, a few hints of black metal, one slow track that actually resembles music, and an amazing guest appearance. But at the end of the day, it’s still going to sound like a school bus getting fed into a metal shredder.”

Drummer Dave Haley (Psycroptic, Abramelin, Ruins, King, Blood Duster) and Guitarist Matt Wilcock (The Antichrist Imperium, The Berzerker, Abramelin) who play in real bands, feel that they shouldn’t let the bass player try and describe music.

WEREWOLVES continued their triumphant run of shows that extended no further than their own country and glommed onto bands far more popular than theirs throughout 2023. After beginning the year supporting MAYHEM and ULCERATE nationally, WEREWOLVES went on to support EXHUMED at their Melbourne show, then closed the year out by roaming the country with ARCHSPIRE and INGESTED.

“If that doesn’t stop people calling us a technical metal band I don’t know what will”, says Matt. “Here were these bright young talented things, well-seasoned, with the best equipment and a bright future ahead of them. But first people had to put up with these drunken old cunts with their opening half-hour of horseshit, staggering blindly around stage looking for the single input they had to plug into, and often failing to do that.”

He adds “CAVEMAN DEATH METAL”.

Die For Us ticks every box for modern death metal, with excruciatingly violent blasting straight out the gates and very little let-up until the bitter end. The title track is an anthemic call to self-annihilation, ‘Beaten Back To Life’ castigates everyone with the temerity to have started listening to metal after 1992. ‘Fuck You Got Mine’ is a hymn to the joys of being a slumlord. ‘My Hate is Strong’ is pure visceral evil and features vocal contributions by Australian national treasure ROK from SADISTIK EXEKUTION. ‘Spittle-Flecked Rant’ flirts with d-beats and hardcore while imploring the world to be even worse, and ‘Under A Urinal Moon’ is a wave of blackened darkness piss.

Mixing and Mastering was done by none other than Joe Haley (PSYCROPTIC), who we’ll use until either he dies, we quit, or Erik Rutan becomes an affordable option. The artwork was done by Mitchell Nolte, not an AI because we’re not fuckwits, and is guaranteed to horrify as many people as all the previous albums. He basically took the album title and ran with it, focusing his artistic genius on cramming as much blood and gore onto an album cover as humanly possible.

Gatecreeper's Dark Superstition is fucking immense -- that vocal style is usually an early exit for me but the music is so undeniable. I mean it's early In Flames worship...but early In Flames merits worship. Late pass for me on this record, fuck this is good.

yeah it's very good. I'm not a huge Gatecreeper fan but this one is a standout

Stoked for new Blood Incantation in October. Two tracks, 43 minutes.

It’s been a few years, but death metal outfit Blood Incantation are back and releasing what looks to be their longest album yet on October 4. Clocking in at a robust “nearly 45 minutes,” this new offering will feature a total of two new tracks.

Set as their follow up to 2019’s full-length album Hidden History of the Human Race and their 2023 maxi-single Luminescent Bridge, the new album dubbed Absolute Elsewhere sees the Denver-based quartet creating something they claim is “unlike anything you’ve ever heard before.” Paul Reidl explains:

“Absolute Elsewhere is our most potent audial extract/musical trip yet; like the soundtrack to a Herzog-style Sci-Fi epic about the history of/battle for human consciousness itself, via a 70s Prog album played by a 90s Death Metal band from the future.”

In fact, the band apparently got the album’s title from a mid-70s prog rock band of the same name. Given that original band’s propensity for writing spaced-out tunes like their 1976 album In Search of Ancient Gods, it makes sense that Blood Incantation would find some kindred connection with them so many years later.

And when I said that the album’s just two tracks at nearly 45 minutes a piece, I meant it. The first track, titled “The Stargate” apparently has a runtime of 20:20, while the second track “The Message” clocks in at 23:23.

Yeah, apparently Bill Bruford (Yes, King Crimson, etc.) was a member of Absolute Elsewhere at one point. And re the album specifically, apparently — I haven't heard it yet — Thorsten Quaeschning (leader of the current incarnation of Tangerine Dream) plays on the first track.

Okay, yeah, this Sumac album is impressive as hell. "World of Light" is a journey.

^ This is taking over my listening. What an amazing album.

It has this open, spacious sound and tons of different textures and really takes its time unfolding. I've barely even gotten to the closing track yet. Just the first three tracks are full of things to explore.

alright wormheads, it was never really in doubt but wormed have delivered the goods once again

Yeah it's fantastic

im bullish on it being their best after a very satisfying first listen. the jazzy atmospheric parts feel very fredrik thordendal to me, which helps.

i know this metal - and tech nerd metal at that! - but lol that michael bay-ass cover, hoo boy

alright after two listens i feel like i've been wormed like i've never been wormed before

Unto Others are swinging for the fences on their new album. They worked with Ghost's producer and have pulled off a slick, goth/metal/pop/rock/punk hybrid: think Gene Loves Jezebel meets Volbeat meets The Killers. 16 tracks, most under four minutes, with hooks everywhere. Gabe knows a good hook, and he leans into it with a sense of abandon that I can't help but applaud. It's goofy at times (if short catchy songs turn you off, stay away) but when a band goes all-in like this, they have to embrace the goofiness and run with it.

Thanks to Phil for the Crystal Viper recommendation! I can't remember the last power metal album that captured that Walls of Jericho/Ample Destruction rawness, speed, and fun that I loved so much in 1985. What an album.

i was wondering how the new Crystal Viper was, hadn't checked it out yet but I've enjoyed previous albums of theirs. going to grab that one.

a few months ago I posted about buying a Terrorizer ticket moments before reading Neanderthal's post about their new line-up of racist Trump fans and born-again Christians. well good news, the gig's been cancelled and I'm getting a refund! not sure if there's a world tour downfall or just this gig

not sure if there's a world tour downfall

xps lucky u. saw terrorizer at this fest a couple a months ago and it was pathetic. i am morbid, same

otoh both krypts and skitsytem slayed that fest

oof guess i didn’t get the memo about this nu terrorizer

love the bass playing on this new noxis record, there are moments that would def fit in on frizzle fry era primus

who are running the world re: sci-fi death metal right now? listicle time? it's my fav subgenre

the obvious ones:

Blood Incantation
Tomb Mold
Gigan
Hypocrisy

others:

Innoculation
Nocturnus/Nocturnus AD

who are your favs?

Screaming at the Sky maybe?

that isn't their name wtf is wrong with me. one sec