Mordy's Metal Listening Club - New Albums Every Monday

ok halfway through and i'm turning this off for some Mandrills. 1/4 so far (Entombed) for actual enjoyment. Will listen to COF tomorrow and try to download the Mastadon when Sunday maybe.

Maybe i should have picked the more accessible Kyuss album then

A hoy hoy, do you feel the same way about the HIM track I posted? I agree with you about this week's album though.

(So far, Fate's Warning is bringing back memories of listening to Queensryche on my Walkman while riding my bike the summer I was 13. Some good guitar solos too.)

i haven't checked the yt but will tomorrow

hes funking it up tonight

listening to the fates warning right now. can't say I have any serious problems with it but it does seem kind of plodding and clunky. some of the choruses are near fist-pumping territory; this would probably go down smoother w/a couple brewskis.

I bet my guitar major buddy is into these dudes.

you make john justen shudder saying that

then some of this might as well...

listening to the cradle of filth record. anyone make a dethlok comparison? this is the dethlok of black metal right here.

anyway, this ain't all that bad either. totally cheesy but lots of metal is, so whatevs. a lot of this strikes me as tedious; esp. the slower numbers like "english fire" (tho the hammerheart backing vox are a nice touch).

like the maiden-ey leads that they sprinkle throughout.

opening of "gabrielle" belongs in an RPG. i'm thinking maybe a chrono trigger outtake? and I see where people are going with the "embarrassingly intimate" coments after that spoken word bit at the tail end of the track.

"gilded c-bomb" is the best track so far. everything on it works to their strengths and it's surprisingly heavy.

also, holy shit, this thing is really long. it's 77 mins total but it's not just the length of the whole album - every track so far has overstayed its welcome. don't think I'm gonna make it through this whole thing...

i'd like to participate in this but missed the first week, and am not really interested in what's going on this week. i like metal a lot but don't really have a solid knowledge of it. this thread is going to do wonders for me, i can see it now.

i did pick up the entombed record though, as it was the only one of the three that i hadn't heard. great stuff!

You can still discuss previous weeks albums. Feel free to do so, that is why Mordy wanted it all on one thread.

Still haven't chosen all three of my records for tomorrow...

So after some more listening, I'm not entirely sure what to make of the Fates Warning. It's not doing that much for me beyond the nostalgia I mentioned above. I have no problems with the style but this presents no surprises at all. I feel like I want it to be more of something: either catchier, heavier, or more complex. Scale the Summit, Hammers of Misfortune, or White Willow hit my pomp/prog spots much more than this does. "Eye to Eye" is not bad hard rock pop music though. The singer does sound an awful lot like Steve Perry, whom I actually like.

I like the HIM album better as emo-pop on second listen. It's the kind of thing where I recognize its crassness but don't want to turn it off at the same time. Even my girlfriend was surprised by how poppy this was.

I'm still scared to listen to the Cradle of Filth.

it wont scare you

unless you're scared of the monsters in Scooby Doo

Ha, I just meant "scared" because Cruelty and the Beast wasn't to my taste. I listen to heavier things all the time.

Here I go in any case...

I really dislike it so far (made it through the first 8.5 songs and will not listen to more right now). I can't quite explain why yet. Other than the awful heavy-handed orchestral writing, there's nothing obviously poor about their craftsmanship but something about their aesthetic really does not appeal to me and just leaves me irritated. I could imagine myself loving it, down to the ridiculous narrative, when I was 17-18 though.

This said, it often takes me a while to get into something,

OK, folks, here we go.

Amon Amarth, Versus the World, 1994
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61C%2BEgk9wWL._SS500_.jpg
Their fourth album, and the one that found them settling into the sound they've explored ever since.

GridLink, Amber Gray, 2008
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51-DgKbZpbL._SS500_.jpg
Ultra-tight grindcore featuring vocals from former Discordance Axis frontman Jon Chang. 11 songs in as many minutes.

Manowar, Sign of the Hammer, 1984
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61nnGV-rZIL._SS500_.jpg
Like Amon Amarth, this is their fourth album; but in Manowar's case, this album marked the end, not the beginning, of a sound. On later discs, they'd be just as aggressive, but more pomptastic and less rocking.

Interested to know everyone's thoughts!

I don't know why I said the Amon Amarth album was from 1994; it's from 2002.

Listening to Man O'War, is it me or is there something very slightly camp about them?

Thoughts about this record: not as "power metal" as I expected (much looser and self-consciously epic), very much influenced by Maiden, unsurprisingly I suppose considering the year of release. Presumably the proper power metal stuff came after this record?

PS Spotify link for Man O'War:
http://open.spotify.com/album/2Ry1UTk7LC4bpZ6cXiAdPC

For Amon Amarth:
http://open.spotify.com/album/2N4o8xXRlIRNa8Y4covLjp

No Gridlink, sadly.

"Thank you for the Kool Aid, Reverend Jim" lol

"Are you our god, or a man in a cape?" KBP to thread!

KBP is too scared to listen to metal. Bogans listen to synth pop from the 80s now.

Awesome! Metal thread making my Mondays tolerant!

(Haven't heard this Manowar album yet, but yes -- Manowar is always super campy. That's the concept.)

I've heard other Amon Amarth and Man O'War records, just not either of those two. Have the GridLink, but haven't really listened to it since I was sent the promo. I remember thinking I had to be in a very particular mood to want to hear it.

Some tips for appreciating Manowar: remember that the lyrics are not the music. The album cover and any band photos you may Google up are not the music. Yes, they're goofy looking. Yes, their lyrics wallow in a kind of machismo that our placid suburban middle-class upbringing and secondary/higher education have taught us is to be ridiculed. But can they write a riff? Hell, yes. Can they play their instruments? They can play the fuck out of their instruments. So shut off the part of your brain that reflexively snickers at things you might be embarrassed to be seen/overheard liking, and fully invest yourself in taking Manowar seriously for 40 minutes or so.

The ManOwaR is not an obvious (thunder)pick, but Thor The Powerhead, Mountains and Guyana are three of their strongest songs, epic stuff. I get goosebumps when the song is introduced in the Hell on Wheels live album.

Also, some fanclub dude counted the times the word "metal" was uttered in each Manowar album. The average was around several dozens, but strangely it's nowhere to be heard in Sign.

^ the song="Thor"

Excellent, just starting the Amon Amarth now! I haven't heard this Amon Amarth album, had never even heard of GridLink, and haven't listened to this Manowar album since it was still current, so this will all be new enough for me, but I shouldn't have to bail out of anything!

I always prefer Hail to England over Sign of the Hammer, but it's still a solid album. "Guyana" and "Mountains" especially.

And I play Versus the World's "Death in Fire" all the time. I never tire of that tune, and it kills live.

My first and fave Manowar album is Fighting the World, primarily for the totally awesome insane "Black, Wind, Fire and Steel," but this album is really great. Especially Guyana which has some completely gorgeous moments that I had no idea Manowar was capable of. I can see why unperson wanted us to listen to this unironically (or without looking for camp), because this song at least is totally good in a very sincere beautiful way. (Every time they sing Guyana, I keep hearing Diana, and then imaging that they're singing this to a girl.) That said: I think it's totally legit to appreciate Manowar songs for being completely over the top metal camp.

ooooooooooooooooooooh

http://i42.tinypic.com/6z3af8.jpg

first riff on versus the world is THUNDEROUS

i remember streaming some of twilight of the thunder gods and not getting what the big deal was, so this is a good re-engagement opportunity.

Listening to Amon Amarth just now. On the first song and liking it so far, love the guitar solo.

hahahah love the bell on the second track

amon amarth is on grooveshark for amurrcans, btw.

I got the sound of a phone dialling on the 2nd track then a scottish dude asked me to give blood. Damn spotify adverts.

REMEMBER! PIRATING IS A CRIME! ARGH.

I'm not paying £10 a month premium just to listen to amon amarth, its good so far but I'd rather buy the damn thing for a tenner.

Guitar sound is awesome on this, but the drum sound is argh.

yeah i know what you mean--i'd like the drums to be a little more aggro but it's not really bothering me that much

its that farting drum sound all the way through it, im not a muso so cant explain it, its all over most extreme metal albums and its always annoying. But you all know what I mean.

back to last week's:
Fates Warning is the surprise. Im sure I mustve heard some of it when it came out, but its much better than I remembered FW being. Fantastic drummer, great songs, great solos...singing obv a bit dated and silly. Like that theyre somewhere midway between queensryche and iron maiden. Production is great too, if only more records sounded as breathy, open.

I wonder if this is what people mean by drum triggers? Someone needs to explain it to me. But it really is annoying me spoiling a really good record.
xp

Triggered drums are when the producer adds a sample drum sound on the beats to keep the kick drum tone as clean as possible. Lots of people hate it, but I'm fine with it in most cases. On this album the kicks are borderline intrusive, that's for sure, but that sort of adds to the whole cannonading fun of Amon Amarth. Gets the blood pumping!

CoF on the other hand so unsurprising. This band really put all their originality into their first album and then cruised all the way to the bank/goth chicks for the next 15 years. Its a nice franchise but it really depends on fresh flows of adolescents cause who would buy more than 2 CoF albums? Basically theyre the Insane Clown Posse of metal. And with all original non-Dani members now out they really have nothing going for them musically at all, so boring and predictable and stale.

Interesting to note that their debut was received very well in 'serious' metal press and many a tr00 metalhead I know liked it on first listen. Amazing how fast this band wears off.