Rolling Metal Thread 2012

Yep, it was a blast.

yeah it sounds like a pretty incredible event. i was coincidentally chatting with a guy yesterday who went a couple years ago.

It really was fun, but like I said, the event is really all about the beer and the music is kinda "tacked on", so it sort of gets the short shrift of attention. I mean, the stage was set up in the brewery's warehouse and, even for High On Fire, there was never more than a couple hundred people out of the (figure I heard) 6000 that were in watching the bands play. I could waltz right in and to pretty much the front of the stage at will. Still sorta disappointed I had to miss Eyehategod to get my Dark Lord, but #firstworldproblem and all. I still had a blast.

naw man thats kind of a huge bummer :/

Worth a read.

http://www.thedaily.com/page/2012/04/30/043012-arts-music-portland-metal-ham-1-4/

Here's my mostly metallic May concert list:

5/ 6 "Decibel Magazine Tour 2012" @ Trocadero
5/ 8 Lacuna Coil @ TLA
5/13 Esperanza Spaulding @ Electric Factory
5/23 Nasum / Brutal Truth @ The Barbary
5/26 Church Of Misery / Rwake / Gates Of Slumber @ North Star Bar

I was possibly going to see Santigold on the 8th and still might however the wife and I saw Santigold but she has never seen Lacuna Coil and tickets are like $20 cheaper.

If any Philly folks will be around, we should hang and drink and stuff. I cannot believe a Decibel tour date in Philly won't have some of you fuckers in attendance...

Church of Misery is sooo good live, I couldn't believe it.

Personally, my only metal shows in May are this weekend. Mares of Thrace/Untimely Demise on Friday, Opeth/Mastodon/Ghost Saturday. Well maybe Apocalyptica too later this month, if I can get a pass.

Re: Leatherwolf

While at an Exodus show in the late '80s at The Bayou in Washington DC, the guys from Leatherwolf were in attendance, hanging out to see the show. They were nice guys despite having to deal with idiot teenagers saying "I hate poser glam stuff... But your band seems cool... I mean, you're not that glam so you're not a poser... Um, are you a poser?" Etcetera.

From http://www.metalinsider.net/metal-by-numbers/:

War Of Ages, Return to Life (Facedown) #130, 2,860 sold
Who knows, maybe their performance at this Summer’s SoulFest will attract a new audience for them?

Torche, Harmonicraft (Volcom) #141, 2,630 sold
The sludge rock group’s first album via Volcom has a strong first week, debuting in the top 200. While Torche should be pleased, guitarist Andrew Elstner is probably just happy that he doesn’t have rabies.

Prong, Carved Into Stone (Long Branch) 1,650 sold
A strong first week for Tommy Victor and co., who sell roughly two hundred copies more than their last album, 2007’s Power Of The Damager (which sold roughly 1,400 in its first week).

Anathema, Weather Systems (The End) 1,290 sold
After a seven year wait between 2003′s A Natural Disaster and 2010′s We’re Here Because We’re Here, it’s safe to say that fans are grateful that the English post-prog rock group didn’t make them wait as long for a new album.

Paradise Lost, Tragic Idol (Century Media) 900 sold
A solid first week for the British goth metal group. Looks like everyone agrees that drummer Adrian Erlandsson (ex- At the Gates/ The Haunted/ Cradle of Filth) was a great addition to the band.

Meanwhile, Jack Black's Blunderbuss sold 138,000.

i read that as Edmondson

I think that Church of Misery and Sleep are playing within a week of each other in SF just a few days before I'm supposed to be on a plane for Alaska. No way I'm gonna make it. If I had to pick one, it'd be Church of Misery. Just heard their stuff via last year's Hellfest set and was knocked out. Pity, since they're probably not coming back to the states anytime real soon.

But Oxbow and Kowloon Walled City are on that Sleep bill..

Hi all, a rare appearance from me. How much do you guys rate that Azareth album that crept into the 2011 metal countdown? I've been caning this wonderful bit of blackened death metal and I love it.

wish i could find a link to a youtube or something but a ladino album i'm reviewing has a track called 'la comida la manana' (it's a traditional sephardic song) that is done in gothic female vox folk metal style. it's kinda excellent.

I liked that Azareth album well enough. Not a favorite, but I've pulled it out more often than I expected I would. Right now I've been spending lots of time with High Spirits (found thier demos disc at Reckless last week), Occultation, Horisont, and Woods of Ypres. Also picked up a couple Deep Purple live albums for cheap.

That Occultation is SO GOOD.

Yes it is, fantastic.

Horisont

also fantastic

Horisont

Horisont?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8ovFPgGVTw

the summoning works!

Horisont rules. You got that at Reckless?

No, FYE actually! I've walked in that place five times and walked out with something in my hand twice. Once was last week with Horisont and then again today when I just picked up four dirt cheap used BOC albums.

which BOC albums?

Agents of Fortune (remaster with bonus tracks)
Spectres (the first CD issue, not the remaster, but it was $3)
Some Enchanted Evening (first CD issue)
Workshop of the Telescopes (a 2-disc comp from the mid 90s, i was unfamiliar with this but the tracklist was awesome)

all for $17 total!

How much do you guys rate that Azareth album that crept into the 2011 metal countdown?

Workshop of the Telescopes is, indeed, an awesome BOC comp. For many years it was all I owned by them.

Yeah, I actually wore out my copy of Workshops.

BE
HE
MOTH
(Is what people were chanting a lot at the decibel tour)

Workshop of the Telescopes is, indeed, an awesome BOC comp. For many years it was all I owned by them.

Yeah, I wasn't sure if I needed a comp since I'm about 1/2 way through getting their albums one by one, but that tracklist was just so o_O that I couldn't pass that up.

There's enough unreleased stuff and alternate takes and selections from albums that are really not worth getting in their entirety to make it worthwhile.

Yeah, thats kinda what I figured when I was looking at it.

ok, i didn't know at first but now i'm 100% on board with this new black breath

i guess as long as there's one metallified hardcore album a year i'm happy.

LEMMINGS!!! http://www.decibelmagazine.com/featured/the-lazarus-pit-lemming-projects-hate-and-despise/

Ha, Lemming Project! Cool. Always found the lyrics to "Washed" amusing. Not a lot of metal bands attacking personal hygiene (lyrically, at least) as another kind of conformity.

Yeesh, yet another excellent female-fronted metal band I hadn't heard of before: Shear. Finnish, fast, slightly gothic and slightly progressive. EM says Power Metal, I guess because of the shredding and sometimes florid keyboards, but I listened to Dragonforce earlier today, and by that standard of Power Metal, this is something far more traditionally heavy. They could easily share a bill with Ulnleash the Archers and Triosphere.

I talk about them in the latest issue of Decibel. Big, big fan of the keyboard melody in "The Awaking," but the subsequent tracks don't quite live up to it.

Shear reminds me of Saraya. In a mildly complimentary sort of way.

Oh, duh, I should have mentioned that Jeff's thing in Decibel is where I encountered Shear. Totally disagree about the rest of the album not "living up" to the first track. "Scorched" is my favorite, but I think the whole album is really strong.

About to announce full US Agalloch tour. This is the most extensive North American run and longest tour of their career.

Very cool. Would love to see them again so I hope they head south.

oh boy!!

Okay, I don't know much about Semargl, but the combination of cover art (see below), title (Satanic Pop Metal), and the descriptions on RYM are really making me morbidly curious about their new album.

http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/78b4b05ec3c99ac344ba56330d1b930d/o3741118.jpg

Some RYM user reviews:

Hilarious album. Black metal took....a different path.

Well, if a band ever wanted to piss off the purist, evil kvlt black metal kids, they're doing an amazing job, considering the hate I've seen for this, haha.

If you ever wanted to hear a Behemoth and Ke$ha collab album, this is the closest you're gonna get.

ok, whoa, sorry about the hueg cover art!

Just a reminder that Jeff Loomis' Plains Of Oblivion is fucking amazing. The two songs with Christine Rhoades make me want them to do a whole album together. They also make me want to shred while standing powerfully upon a small meteor flying through the galaxy.

Yeah, those two songs are superb, sad she didn't sing on the entire album. But those instrumentals are mighty good, too.

No doubt. One of the highlights of 2012, start to finish. Loomis is incredibly lyrical and melodic for a shredder of his caliber.

I still need to track down that Loomis album.

Big year for metal dudes getting into jazz fusion, and I'm enjoying that. First was the surprisingly good TRAM album (dudes from Animals as Leaders, Suicidal Tendencies, and Mars Volta) and now we've got Trioscapes, which features Dan Briggs from Between the Buried and Me. I've only heard their Mahavishnu Orchestra cover thus far, but if the rest of the album holds up as well I think it'll be pretty fun.