Rolling Metal Thread 2012

I'm not a big Steven Wilson fan, but that looks interesting.

Meanwhile, the new Meshuggah album is great. Where Obzen felt like an amalgamation of everything the band had done up until then, Koloss returns to challenging listeners more, throwing some interesting curveballs. And there are no"djent" riffs to be found; they leave that to all the kiddie bands imitating them these days. Easily their best since Nothing. I'll have an interview with Haake up at MSN around Feb. 1st.

Excited to hear that Meshuggah!

In catching up with 2011 releases news, what the hell happened to Maylene and the Sons of Disaster? I know they've never been exactly a brilliant band, but their particular brand of southern fried metalcore was a guilty pleasure. But now, wow are they awful. IV might as well be a Shinedown album or something. This is terrible.

oh man, really want to hear that new meshuggah album!

Yeah, that Maylene record was a pretty big disaster. My guess is, their previous albums didn't do as well as people had hoped and so this was a last-ditch effort to find that elusive success by going for rock radio. Unfortunately, I guess nobody realized that rock radio isn't really a path to success for anybody anymore (except maybe Five Finger Death Punch).

I was just handed the new DragonForce album. There was some mild dismay at the fact that while there is a song with "Storm" in the title, and one with "Sword" in its title, there is no song with "Fire" or "Flames" in its title.

More seriously, this is a more aggressive, and more concise, album from them. There's only one song that's more than six minutes long, plus you get an acoustic version of one song (presumably this will be a bonus track on the deluxe edition, or something). I like it, but I've always liked DragonForce.

Eh, tbh, if I'm going to listen to DragonForce, I want long songs! Only one song over six minutes isn't really a selling point for me.

Well, the other songs are all in the 4-5 minute range, and the new singer is much better than ZP was, at least to my ear.

Sounds promising. I can't ever not like DragonForce.

I'm about halfway through the album now, and while it still sounds every bit a DragonForce album, there are a lot of different sounds on it (more human-ish guitar playing, weirder synth tones, occasional slow drumming) and it's really, genuinely heavy at times. I'm liking this a lot.

Oh I'm definitely going to check it out, I've just always liked the longer epics.

I also like DragonForce.

Wolves in the Throne room plyed in SF tonight and I didn't go... for fucks sake I'm getting old!

i continue to be shocked by people enjoying meshuggah. however considering i have gotten a few calls about ordering the new ibanez $5000 meshuggah signature, i support them from a business perspective. go meshuggah, you terrible terrible band!

btw i just did the sabermetrics on our sales of metal guitars last year and we sold more 7/8 strings than 6 strings. which is insane, and thats w/o counting baritones.

7-string guitars are still a thing? damn.

Of all the bands to single out as "terrible terrible", Meshuggah strikes me as a weird one.

They're not terrible, but unless I hear something really revelatory on this album, I'm probably gonna shrug them off.

Yeah I'd say Meshuggah is mediocre at worst.

crazy

I like to think of them as the powerman 5000 of tech metal.

I'm not even sure what that means but yeah basically I think they are awful

You're meshuggina, John.

jjj actually likes powerman 5000 so just ignore him.

A big ol' Fenriz interview:

http://www.decibelmagazine.com/featured/fenriz-isengard-darkthrone-interviewed/

that reads really weirdly, like part email interview part telephone

still cool tho

Yeah, it also kind of just dives right into the commentary track question with no setup or anything, sort of confusing without some sort of context via an introductory paragraph. Anyway, minor quibbles, its a cool interview.

Decibel's Feb issue has the Top 25 most anticipated albums and a pretty thorough release schedule. I'm surprised they didn't include the Electric Wizard and Ufomammut releases in their top 25, but otherwise was a cool feature. These stand out for me:

Ancestors - In Dreams And Time (Tee Pee) Apr
Bible of the Devil - For the Love of Thugs and Fools (Cruz Del Sur) May 8
Christian Mistress - Possession (Relapse) Feb 28
Corrosion Of Conformity (Candlelight) Feb 28
Death - Vivus (Relapse) Feb 28
Drudkh - Eternal Turn Of The Wheel (Season Of Mist) Feb 24
Napalm Death - Utilitarian (Century Media) Feb 28
Orange Goblin – A Eulogy For The Damned (Candlelight) Feb 14
Sigh - In Somniphobia (Candlelight) Mar 20
Ufomammut - Oro: Opus Primum (Neurot) Apr
Van Halen - A Different Kind Of Truth (Interscope) Feb 7

Also coming: Ancestors, Baroness, Black Math Horseman, Black Sabbath, Church Of Misery, Cobalt, The Darkness, Electric Wizard, Ghost, Gojira, Gozu, Graveyard, Greenleaf, Gypsyhawk, High On Fire, Horisont, Kylesa, Kyuss, The Mars Volta, Neurosis, Om, Queens Of The Stone Age, Saint Vitus, Shrinebuilder, Sons Of Otis, Tool, Torche, Truckfighters, Wight, Witch Mountain.

Anyone heard anything?

ugh ghost show is tonight and i am really stuffed head sick do i go

buddy of mine on fb had a blast when they were here

I've heard one cut from the Christian Mistress and it was great. Word from on high is that it is consistently good.

It is!

This is only Ghost's second tour, correct? They're in Mpls tonight, I believe. I was sick as a dog for Slayer/Megadeth over a year ago, and I just loaded up on cold meds. Glad I went. I was at the Ghost show last night, and it was awesome. So great to see a band committed to costumes and stage show, not to mention the anonymity. An Anonymous Ghoul addresses that in an interview:

Offstage, do you guys like to get wild and party or are you pretty straitlaced?
We have this anonymity bond. We don't regularly get invites because nobody really knows who we are. I wouldn't say that we are a hundred percent clean in every aspect, but we are quite innocent in comparison to a lot of other groups that would jump at every opportunity to go nuts. We're here for something else. Some of the single guys in the band might think it's a drag, but those of us who aren't are pretty happy.

One of the strangest/greatest moments of the show was when they launched into a pretty straight, and quite pretty, version of "Here Comes The Sun." It was oddly moving, the spell not even completely broken in the end when someone inevitably shouts, "SATAN!!!"

A dude was wearing a Repugnant t-shirt. I guess Papa Emeritus is supposedly Tobias Forge of Repugnant/Subvision. It's hard to tell listening to Repugnant's Epitome Of Darkness. It would be just as well if it's unconfirmed, as it would be more fun if they maintain the mystery.

Blood Ceremony were great too. I feel like their sound (especially the thick Sabbathy drum sound!) and musicianship was better, but Ghost still put on a more exciting show. But they're very different kinds of bands, despite the common occult interests.

Christian Mistress is probably my second favorite album of 2012 (I'm counting The Devil's Blood as 2012 because screw Europe). It is METAL.

Also, John: yes. Are you going to let tiny germs overcome METAL?

Christian Mistress is probably my second favorite album of 2012 (I'm counting The Devil's Blood as 2012 because screw Europe). It is METAL.

Haha, this is my case exactly as of right now.

I would also like to nominate Iron Savior's "Heavy Metal Never Dies" for inclusion in the pantheon of super awesome/cheesy European power metal anthems about heavy metal alongside Primal Fear's "Metal Is Forever" and Dream Evil's "the Book of Heavy Metal."

heard Christian Mistress and CoC once each so far

the former is sounding on point and the latter respectably solid, if not a candidate for 'old folx showing younguns how it's done' status

Christian Mistress is probably my second favorite album of 2012 (I'm counting The Devil's Blood as 2012 because screw Europe). It is METAL.

Agreed, very stellar. Will be reviewing it for the AMG.

can someone explain to me Ghost? I'm mean I get it, but I don't don'tget why everyone is digging them.. they're terrible.

Do you hate Blue Oyster Cult too?

Super-catchy Blue Oyster Cult-inspired hard rock about Satan with fun imagery? What's not to love?

Yeah, digging the COC, it's more a return to the Blind sound than the Animosity sound, but considering how good Blind is, I'm okay with that.

maybe thats exactly why I don't like it..

:O You don't like Blue Oyster Cult?!

BOC are great; maybe Ghost will be, but that first record isn't.

only listened to "black to gold" and "haunted hunted" but !!! re christian mistress

Not really. but I only know the crap I hear on the radio and it never did anything for me, so I never bothered to look any further.

Get thee copies of Secret Treaties, Agents of Fortune, Spectres, and Fire of Unknown Origin, stat!

tbh my main motivation for going to the ghost show (which is looking less likely with every wave of headcrushing pain) is to see blood ceremony

I'd love to see Blood Ceremony. Alas, no southern swing on this tour.

Headcrushing pain is metal.

Bummed I couldn't make it to the Ghost/Blood Ceremony show last night.

Man, Sean, I used to feel the same way about BOC, but hearing Secret Treaties really opened my eyes - there is so much more to love about BOC than what classic rock radio would have you believe.