Rolling Metal Thread 2012

I love that bands are not just making logos that are unreadable but have extended it to the names themselves.

THOSE ARE REAL BANDS

There's likely a good number of metal dudes who model their politics after the Nuge:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=06XVt6zEr9E

Really? American metalheads are so right-wing that even the liberal ones are economic conservatives? The metal/hardcore guys I knew growing up were like left-anarchist. Except for the ones who were just apathetic stoners, I guess.

I guess maybe I'm thinking more of guys who were into Neurosis and Union of Uranus than guys who were into Fear Factory and Cannibal Corpse.

i wonder what guys who listen to black label society and pantera are into. Here in the UK id be surprised if they were right wing tbh.

You need some new whipping horse bands. Have you considered Five Finger Death Punch?

I think there are more right-wing metal fans than left-leaning boohoos like yours truly.

I would think most are apolitical? to me this makes sense since the majority of metal lyrics don't tackle political issues and stick to fantasy and escapism.

most metalheads I know lean left fwiw.

Siegbran I don't know those bands & was gonna say something snarky about the New Wave of North American Black Metal (which I'd generally advise you to ignore) but a quick check reveals Thantifaxath is on Dark Descent - that's a good label - they put out Goreaphobia, who're just reliably great, and Father Befouled, who were pretty enjoyable HHB-friendly BM, and Grave Ritual, who aren't breaking down any doors but have an ear for atmosphere & some chops too. Thantifaxath does however have only 1 release, a tape, to their name...I have mixed feelings about new bm bands making tapes.

Eggs of Gomorrh look like decent enough warlike bm

Another 15 new metal albums reviewed, rounded up, and ordered (including only a handful that stretch the definition -- two of which were reviewed by other people):

http://www.rhapsody.com/blog/2012/04/metal

I refuse to listen to any band with the word egg in their band name.. lol

Eggbeard

UGH JEFF LOOMIS IS SHREDDING SO HAAAAAAAARD ON THIS NEW RECORD BUT MRS A IS SICK I MAY HAVE TO STAY HOME AND PLAY NURSE INSTEAD OF SEEING HIM TONIGHT but that's the breaks but anyway yeah this record kills

Anyone hear the new UFOMAMMUT yet?

Have y'all seen the Gojira album cover? I think it's gonna look excellent on a T-shirt.

I like Gojira but not that cover.

The UFOmammut is good. I think it's still streaming at Roadburn website if you want to hear it.

yeah thats actually one of my least favorite Gojira covers, looks like some second tier indie band cover.

I kinda dig it. There was an earlier cover design I liked a lot more, but this one's pretty good. Besides, it's not like we had veto power - it was designed by Mario Duplantier, the drummer.

I'd say the Ufomammut is more than just good!

I stumbled on this - sales info on metal albums:
http://www.metalinsider.net/metal-by-numbers

Notable debuts: first week sales after album debuts

Van Halen, A Different Kind of Truth (Interscope) #2, 187,500 sold
Shinedown, Amaryllis (Atlantic) #4, 105,770 sold
The Used, Vulnerable (Hopeless) #8, 31,520 sold
Halestorm, The Strange Case Of… (Atlantic) #15, 23,840 sold
The Mars Volta, Noctourniquet (Warner Bros.) #14, 20,900 sold
Meshuggah, Koloss (Nuclear Blast) #16, 18,340 sold
Every Time I Die, Ex-Lives (Epitaph) #20, 14,020 sold
Demon Hunter, True Defiance (Solid State) #34, 12,500 sold
Cannibal Corpse, Torture (Metal Blade) #38, 9,600 sold
Veil Of Maya, Eclipse (Sumerian) #62, 7,750 sold
High On Fire, De Vermis Mysteriis (eOne) #61, 7,400 sold
Emmure, Slave to the Game (Victory) #59, 7,040 sold
Overkill, The Electric Age (eOne) #73, 6,500 sold
Mark Lanegan Band, Blues Funeral (4AD) #89, 5,740 sold
Accept, Stalingrad (Nuclear Blast) #76, 5,383 sold
Job for a Cowboy, Demonocracy (Metal Blade) #80, 4,880 sold
Eluveitie, Helvetios (Nuclear Blast) #109, 4,240 sold
Corrosion Of Conformity, Corrosion Of Conformity (Candlelight) #120, 3,840 sold
Goatwhore, Blood for the Master (Metal Blade) #171, 3,110 sold
Ministry, Relapse (13th Planet/AFM) #154, 3,020 sold
The Pretty Reckless, Hit Me Like A Man EP (Interscope) #150, 2,900 sold
Jeff Loomis, Plains of Oblivion (Century Media) #139, 2,880 sold
Municipal Waste, The Fatal Feast (Nuclear Blast) #152, 2,680 soldd
3 Inches of Blood, Long Live Heavy Metal (Century Media) #198, 2,360 sold
Napalm Death, Utilitarian (Century Media) 2,180 sold
Pelican, Ataraxia/Taraxis (Southern Lord) 1,280 sold
Orange Goblin, A Eulogy for the Damned (Candlelight) 990 sold
Earth, Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light II (Southern Lord) 920 sold
Black Breath, Sentenced to Life (Southern Lord) 700 sold
Unsane, Wreck (Alternative Tentacle) 620 sold
Angel Witch, As Above So Below (Metal Blade) 530 sold
Death, Vivus! (Relapse) 520 sold
Christian Mistress, Possession (Relapse) 520 sold
Naglfar, Teras (Century Media) 450 sold
Terrorizer, Hordes of Zombies (Season of Mist) 380 sold

Ghost, Opus Eponymous (Rise Above) 400 sold
Quite possibly the biggest surprise of the week is seeing Ghost’s over a year old debut album experiencing an impressive 59% increase in sales. While the mysterious Swedish doom group have just been added to the Orion Music & More lineup, this sudden jump in sales is most likely due to their current opening stint on Mastodon and Opeth’s tour.

I guess Christian Mistress isn't exactly taking over the world yet.

caught the Loomis show. got there a little late. probably the best guitar playing I've seen outside of the classical world. fucking nuts and awesome. go see him if he comes to your town. it's a short set, he's on a package tour but fuckin A he is tremendous.

wouldn't surprise me that the Heritage Hunter is really helping Ghost out, i was impressed by how people got there early to see them and they converted a lot of skeptics around where i was standing.

but sadface at "400 sold". i mean, 2012 music industry and all, but goddamn thats a tiny number.

G4y witch abortion/wizard rifle/nightosaur show tonight! Should be awesome

helluva bill

cant remember who it was that pimped wizard rifle in the past (i think nate maybe) but let me just say HOLY SHIT.

super nice dudes too. great great show.

Anybody planning on seeing Negura Bunget? Their US tour kicks off tomorrow, and I can't go (show's in Brooklyn) but I really want a T-shirt. If someone's gonna be there (or at any of the dates) and can help me out, let me know.

Thinking of going to see Crowbar/Prong/Witchburn tomorrow at Cobra Lounge. A friend knows Witchburn, who I'm especially interested in, as I've been greatly expanding my Metal Sirens piece (update should be done this weekend, including Mares Of Thrace, Undersmile, Ides Of Gemini, Alunah, Worm Ouroboros, Shroud Eater & Dark Castle). I'm also enjoying the new ones by Royal Thunder, Castle and Witch Mountain immensely. Witchburn will be following up This Is How We Slay Our Demons (2010) with another Jack Endino produced album this summer. There's so much many good bands with female leads these days!

Yeah, I was just commenting to my buddy last night that this has been a really great year for female fronted metal, but ironically very little of the great stuff has been what I would define as "girly metal."

Anybody planning on seeing Negura Bunget? Their US tour kicks off tomorrow, and I can't go (show's in Brooklyn) but I really want a T-shirt. If someone's gonna be there (or at any of the dates) and can help me out, let me know.

was thinking of catching it but got sick, sorry. :-/

still curious... anybody know if they're good live? only one original member remaining, right?

I reviewed the new Pelican here: http://thumped.com/music-reviews/pelican-ataraxia-taraxis.html

Free download of the new album by awesome death metal act Dreaming Dead, today only. You have to give them your e-mail, but I'm sure you guys have junk folders.

http://www.reverbnation.com/artist/downloads/417574

I am indeed Wizard Rifle's pimp. They're hitting the full US now. Catch them if you can.

I enjoyed the hell out of Devil's Blood on the Decibel tour last night. In Solitude were kids having fun, but terrible sound. Devil's Blood really brought it. I'm sure Watain was good too but I had somewhere to be...

I heard the upcoming debut from Jess and the Ancient Ones, a Finnish band with some similarities to The Devil's Blood. I think I might like it even more than The Thousandfold Epicentre. They're included in my piece here - http://www.fastnbulbous.com/metal-sirens.htm, but I there aren't any links to stream via Bandcamp or Soundcloud yet. Hopefully they'll correct that soon. Writers who want to hear it can contact Tomi at Svartrecords.com. That makes seven new releases of heavy bands with female lead vocalists coming out in the next six weeks, and most of them are mindblowingly great!

By sheer chance, I learned last minute that another band that would fit my piece, Witchburn, were opening for Prong and Crowbar Friday night. A friend from work who went to hs with the drummer told me about it, and since it was sold out, got me on the list. I was so impressed, and bought the CD (This Is How We Slay Our Demons... (2010) and a t-shirt. The album was produced by Jack Endino, and they're heading to the studio next month to start on their next one with Endino. Also coming out later this summer is English band Alunah's second album, White Hoarhound, Purson's debut on Rise Above, and hopefully Spiders.

Saw Huntress and DragonForce last night. (Didn't see the middle band on the bill, Holy Grail, as I was in DragonForce's dressing room talking to them and their manager.) DragonForce are really good live - the new frontman, Marc Hudson, is about 6'5" and blond - he kinda looks (and carries himself) like a young, guileless Sebastian Bach. I mean that in a good way. He's totally excited about being up there, has already learned how to duck out of the way when the other members come forward for their solos or line up for guitar choreography (including the bassist and the keyboardist, who wields his keytar like a broadsword). They're playing four or five songs from the new album live, which considering that the new songs are on average two and a half minutes shorter than songs from previous albums, helps keep the set going that much faster than previous tours. Seriously, if they come through your town, check 'em out.

Huntress were pretty good, too. The band's instrumentalists dress in denim vests and jeans and with their long hair and beards they kinda looked like Valient Thorr, but they have approximately .0001% of Valient Thorr's showmanship and stage presence - they mostly stand in one spot, occasionally pointing a pointy guitar at the ceiling. Jill Janus is an excellent singer, but not much of a frontwoman - she wears more clothes on stage than she does in the band's promo photos, sporting a spandex catsuit rather than a tiny bathing suit on this particular occasion (and since she shouted out her younger sister in the audience, I was actually kinda glad about that, for her sake). But her voice is really solid. I recommend getting there early to hear them, if not necessarily to see them.

Funny thing about that show: It was all-ages, so when Janus came out to the Huntress merch table after their set, she was immediately besieged by, and spent close to half an hour taking pictures with, a small army of 16-year-old boys.

Hellbeard played with Behold! the Monolith on Saturday night in Reno, Nevada.. I talked to the bass player/singer for a minute, seemed like a cool guy. He invited us to L.A. whenever we get the notion to go down there, and he said they hook us up.. The rabid fans of about 25-30 that peppered Jub-Jub's thirst Parlor on this Day of the Loud Fest coaxed them into an encore, for which they granted.. Good, solid set of fist pounding metal in the HoF vein from those guys... And the 'Beard didn't play too bad either if anyone is asking..lol! especially for being 8 months since our last show...

Behold! The Monolith seem like really good people. And their album impressed me. Looking forward to seeing them live one day. Seems like they have aspirations to tour a fair amount.

what you say seems true, Nate.. Just booked Hellbeard to open up for them here in Oakland in June..

Twitter is buzzing about Roadrunner firing a lot of people...

Yeah, Roadrunner UK has been shut down, and rumours are rampant that the same goes for Roadrunner Europe too.

Soon only Blabbermouth remains...

Decibel Magazine Tour: unbelievably amazing.

http://www.thisisfakediy.co.uk/articles/news/roadrunner-records-to-close-europe-office/

Oh man, sucks about Roadrunner. Hope a certain poster's job is safe.

I still have a job. Can't say much more than that for the moment.

*couple of hours later*

"The rebranding of Roadrunner as 誤訳侮辱 Records is now complete. We look forward to your money."

man you guys reaaaaaly need to this wizard rifle album, ive been playing it nonstop since the show. track 3 is such a lumbering badass bruiser. great combo of GWA/lightningboltisms with sludge and O_O actual singing.

need to hear this. is what that is supposed to say.

Roadrunner Canada is apparently down now as well.

"We need backup NOW, we've received a direct hit to the Nickelback! I repeat, a direct hit to the Nickelback!"