Rolling Metal Thread 2012

Pike must have went in right after that Sleep show in Oakland..

what did you do to him?

My friend was at that Oakland Sleep show.

"I really had the best time. I can't stop thinking about how amazing it was. So loud, so incredible to see them on home turf. After it was done Pikey lights a cigarette in the shadows of the stage after the show and survey's the crowd like "yeah motherfucker...that's what I thought." His stomach is so big, I think a demon is incubating up in thar."

Maybe he was so stoked from a good show that he partied too hard that night and realized after he'd better cool it if he wants to be able to continue rawking balls.

I bought him a drink before his show at Alexandra Palace. :-(

i really loved the sleep set at alexandra palace. it was a really powerful, righteous amalgam of 'dopesmoker/jerusalem'extract plus 'holy mountain'stuff. wish they'd played 'from beyond' tho'.

melvins covering 'youth of america' was fuckin' great too.

yeah that was a fun day alright, helped by the excellent weather, in contrast to today's November-like gale.

Yeah, there were more than a few "is Mike pregnant?" jokes when they played the Dark Lord Day event back in April. Glad to see he's getting help though.

Obviously "Mike" is my conflation of "Matt" and "Pike". Frack I'm tired this morning.

We should do that with more metal stars... Kerring! Tyomi. Jusborne.

patt Mike on the belly

Lulrich

Witch Mountain - Cauldron Of The Wild is out today! All you fans be sure to pick up or order a copy! I'll get one at the show on Saturday. Profound Lore | All That Is Heavy | Amazon

Anyone heard Crystal Viper's fourth and latest album, Crimen Excepta? It's a concept album about the persecution of witches accused of practicing black magic during the holy inquisition.

Anyone heard Crystal Viper's fourth and latest album, Crimen Excepta? It's a concept album about the persecution of witches accused of practicing black magic during the holy inquisition.

Yeah, I have it. It's OK. The one super annoying aspect is that there are short bridge tracks before every song, and they're nothing but sound effects - crackling fires, screaming torture victims - that serve no dramatic purpose (there's no dialogue) and just pad out the track listing/running time. I excised them all before putting it in my iPod. And even on a song level, it's not as good as their last album. They're not a great band, but if you're really hard up for Maiden-aping female-fronted power metal, they'll do.

if you're really hard up for Maiden-aping female-fronted power metal

so completely sold, holy fuck yes

Fair enough, but if you follow the storyline of the lyrics close enough, I think the sounds do serve a dramatic purpose. I was listening to <i>Legends</i> (2010), and I think the new one is better, and overall if not great, better than just good! And of course you can leave them out if you wish. Remember the old days of programming a temporary custom playlist in the 5 CD changer? That used to be a cool bonus feature, now it's considered an inconvenience!

How are their first two albums? I'm almost afraid to check, but I bet there's just a ton of other interesting Polish metal bands worth hearing.

if you're really hard up for Maiden-aping female-fronted power metal

so completely sold, holy fuck yes

That sold me too, but mostly it reminds me of Michael Schenker Group (although the solos aren't up to Schenker's standard) not least because Marta Gabriel's voice is uncannily like Gary Barden's. Not complaining...

I've never gotten around to any Michael Schenker Group. Should I start with MSG 2 (1981)?

Assault Attack is the one I'd recommend.

I've never gotten around to any Michael Schenker Group. Should I start with MSG 2 (1981)?

Sure, that's a good starting point. It and MSG 1 are both fine melodic hard rock but the release 1981 has Cozy Powell on drums. Assault Attack is a bit more aggressive, but I think the songs are stronger on the earlier records. I have a soft spot for 1983's Built to Destroy (especially the superior UK mix, which shows up as bonus tracks on the current mp3 release), but it's probably a dark horse choice, a little more pop.

Saint Vitus brought it last night

believe that (Bristol) was their last UK date but they are really on form so if you live in a place where you can see them, do it

the idea of a band where Wino could play guitar, but doesn't, and it's not even an issue, continues to amaze me (in a good way)

Totally agree, although the onslaught of Acid King threatened to steal the show beforehand.

How out of it was Wino though? Totally caned.

Man I totally need to hear more Acid King

Here's a thing I did for the day job: members of Dream Theater, Korn, Machine Head, Slipknot and Soulfly talking about balancing fatherhood with metal-hood.

Thanks for that, those things are always fun for me to read, doubly so having become a recent father myself.

(Congrats btw)

Congrats! My 14 month old presented me with a Marduk mug for my birthday this morning. It was most righteous. Then we invented a song: "Marduk! Marduk! Quack Quack Quack! Whose duck? Your duck? My duck? No Marduk!"

I enjoyed that fathers day piece immensely needless to say.

I def wanted to wish u a happy birthday Doran. I probably shouldve just revived an old Sunn0))) thread tbh

Thanks! \m/

OK, it became available on the band's website (and/or the rar blog of your choice) yesterday, so clearly it's time to talk about Manowar's new album, The Lord of Steel. They abandoned their plans to collaborate with some fantasy novelist on a concept album about Norse gods(!), and chose instead to bring back original drummer Donnie Hamzik (who only played on their debut album, Battle Hymns, before quitting) and just write ten awesome songs. Which these are. Best song titles: "Born in a Grave," "Expendable" (a tribute to the Sylvester Stallone movies), "Hail, Kill and Die" (presumably a sequel to "Hail and Kill"), and of course "Manowarriors."

Seriously, I get that Manowar are not for everyone—hell, they're not even for 90% of metal fans—but after years of snickering from afar, I downloaded their whole studio catalog (and one live album) a while back, and was totally converted. They're fucking awesome, and this album is awesome. The drums sound a little over-gated to me, and/but DeMaio's bass is much more fuzzed out than on previous albums, but Karl Wagner's guitar solos are terrific, and Erik Adams remains a solid vocal presence. I can see me playing this at least as often as the new Grand Magus, and that album's gonna make my year-end list for sure (which, to name one other notable and semi-comparable example, the new High On Fire is definitely not).

i love manowar so much. black wind fire + steel is my jam.

i used to listen to eddie trunk's show in high school and that's where i first heard them

I'm hoping the new Manowar is better than the last album, which was dreadful.

The Grand Magus album is incredible. Plus the band is coming to North America in September just to play Noctis Fest & Conference in Calgary with Agalloch and Pig Destroyer, which is going to rule. (I'm going to be one of the panelists there this year, too)

Is the theme "no two metal bands that sound even remotely similar"? Wow.

Plus Nunslaughter and Black Witchery!

Oh ok phew.

I have one album each by Nunslaughter and Black Witchery and like those albums but have never gone any further with them. That's normal, right?

Manowar is terrible.. its exactly what people laugh about when it comes to metal

who cares what ppl laugh about?

No, no, Mordy, SeanWayne has it exactly right. The most important thing, when choosing what music to listen to or go public about liking, is how that choice will be seen by others. All taste should be socially aspirational.

Jock Rock.

i see your snarkiness.. I can give a fuck about needing approval about what i listen too. Theres plenty of stuff I listen to that is laughable by some.. I'm talking more about the cliche that band is.. Manowar are like a real life Spinal Tap... silly.

I agree with SeanWayne whole-heartedly. If I cared what people thought of my taste I'd barely listen to any metal and certainly nothing ace like Maiden and Slayer. And if I did it'd just be vanilla, P4k American new age metal that goes on about forests, minerals, growing your own vegetables, yoga and transcendence.

That said I'm fucking mortified when I say I like metal and people presume that means fucking end of the pier, Dame Twanky bullshit like Manowar or WASP. Have you ever heard Manowar interviewed? They're fucking morons. Going on about how many chicks have orgasms after riding on their Harleys. And their music really does a good job of revealing exactly how stupid they are.

Manowar are not great. Watain are great.

I've interviewed Joey DeMaio myself. He was a prick who hung up on me after I asked questions he didn't feel like answering. I still think that at their best, they make fucking great metal records.

That's a fair point. I like plenty of bands who are nobheads to be honest but Manowar are pretty high up the chart.

I think it's both sad and funny that what others think about your taste matters to you once you're out of high school. I haven't heard the new Manowar because I haven't liked anything I've heard from them since Fighting The World, but if people like it then good on them.
This is just as silly as the "Scion is co-opting the underground" malarkey.

It's more complex than that though isn't it. I don't really care what people think of my taste in music per se, but I do care if people think I'm some kind of misogynist, educationally sub normal wing nut.

I write about heavy metal for a good portion of my working week and I rely on the income this generates to pay my mortgage and keep my site ticking over. My job would be a lot easier if prejudices against heavy metal weren't so ingrained. Ask anyone who works at the WIRE what a lot of their readership thought of the SunnO))) cover (I seem to remember one letter decrying the band as long haired idiots who were taking the rightful place of terrible wankers My Cat Is An Alien) or ask anyone at MOJO what their subscribers thought of their (excellent) eight page feature on Reign In Blood. Despite The Guardian finally adding a full time metal writer to their roster (Dom Lawson) and people like Unperson and Joe Stannard writing for WIRE, metal is still perceived to be a goon's genre in a lot of quarters.

Recently when editing a piece by Joe Muggs on dubstep I had a bizarre argument with him where he claimed that the only sexism that occurred in dubstep was down to one particular producer who had been in a metal band when he was a teenager and his "Beavis and Butthead aesthetic". When you ask him about how he perceives metal bands, Manowar is one of the first that he mentions.

I genuinely have a lot invested in heavy metal's aesthetic of self-determinism, self-belief and questioning all authority and for me to take this stuff seriously, I kind of have to ignore bands as crass as Manowar. Fair enough if someone likes the music but the idea that it doesn't matter at all how they act is demonstrably wrong. See also, me constantly having to explain to people that black metal doesn't automatically mean Nazi church burning Satanist.

That said I'm fucking mortified when I say I like metal and people presume that means fucking end of the pier, Dame Twanky bullshit like Manowar or WASP.

lol

^^^^

Thats a point my good friend brought up, you like WASP but you don't like Manowar? I guess he got me, cuz I do like a handful of WASP tunes.

I've often never let the outside the music behaviors of a band influence my like of their music, but often times such behaviors and attitudes influence that music, so it makes it really hard to swallow.

heavy metal's aesthetic of self-determinism, self-belief and questioning all authority

You really don't see how Manowar pretty much personifies all these things? They own their own label, and license their albums for distribution. They book their own tours, playing where people want to see them (Europe) and ignoring markets where they're not a draw (America). They do exactly what they feel like doing, concede nothing to critics or the market, and treat their fans very well indeed, from what I've read (meet-and-greets at their giant festivals, inviting fan club members to hear this new album weeks before release, etc., etc.). Manowar live the ethos you describe; they just do it in a way you don't like.