Rolling Metal Thread 2014

As much as I've liked Iced Earth at times, I think that'd be a safe pass for me after their awful new album. If I could curate the rest into a Behemoth / Kadavar / Vektor / Inquisition / Goatwhore bill, I'd be pretty happy. All said though, that's a hell of a night for one city.

Anyone going to Maryland Deathfest next month? I'll be there at least for the Friday lineup of Agalloch, At the Gates, Castevet, Mgla, Necros Christos, Solstafir, The Ruins of Beverast et al. That is a seriously stacked day.

Oh, wow, this new Gamma Ray album is a shockingly solid heavy/nwobhm/thrash thing with almost no power-metal bombast. Well, not as much as usual, anyway. But still with solos.

I keep hearing good things about Fluisteraars, so I guess I'll head there next.

The problem is, I just *know* they'll never pull this off ever again, their next album will be padded out with filler.

That sounds like a fantastic proposition. Fluisteraars have probably been saving up riffs for years, like when a novelist says everything he or she needs to say about the world in their first book and then either essentially disappears (e.g., Harper Lee, Ralph Ellison et al.) or follows up with some hare-brained novel about "important issues" (e.g., 99% of MFA graduates).

I saw Godflesh the other night which was great but, you know, monochromatic in a good, mindcrushing way. But I'm still bummed I didn't get to see Satan!

The band or the malevolent deity?

lol!! ^^

The band was malevolent and God-like, so that's redundant!

turns out Cobalt aren't done after all

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=755034351193822&id=109020659128531&fref=nf

In the end, all one ever experiences is one's self.
Erik and I have had a rocky last few years due to extreme personal experience. I cant discredit him for his profound personal development, considering that I have been elusive due to my nature as well.
We have spoken and a new Cobalt album will be recorded, and will be massive and overshadow everthing we,and many others, have ever done.

I now have the Rauhnacht record, and it's bit of a letdown. The first track "Einsam Ist's, Durch's Moor Zu Geh'n" was posted online earlier and is awesome, unfortunately the other seven tracks range from merely competen to boring as fuck.

I'm still working my way through a couple of older finds, and this one stands out for now, Mortualia - Blood Of The Hermit:
http://www.spirit-of-metal.com/les%20goupes/M/Mortualia/Blood%20of%20the%20Hermit/Blood%20of%20the%20Hermit.jpg
Horna/Sargeist main dude doing hypnotic slow black metal with tortured vocals.

This Thantifaxath album is fantastic, a bit Krallice-like while still very much it's own thing.

Lazer/Wulf, the Georgia-based instrumental trio whose music Creative Loafing said "echoes the best math, metal, and prog rock craftsmanship of the last decade," release their highly-anticipated debut album The Beast of Left and Right on July 15 via Retro Futurist Records.

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I liked the band enough seeing them play with Orange Goblin and Holy Grail last year that I want to check this one out.

Liking both Thantifaxath and Mortualia.

how come nobody really lumps gigan in with the other dissonant evil stuff like gorguts, ulcerate, deathspell omega, etc? finally checked out their lp from last year, and man, it really hits the spot. I love how drums have a live, loose feel to em. totally burly and technical but with lots of fills and fun hi-hat and cymbal work and it's just the opposite of that rigid, triggered sound. cool fuzzy guitar tones when the effects get heavy too. some of the moments where they mix grind with psychedelic guitar sounds actually made me think of gasp's record on slap a ham but it's been while so maybe I'm off-base on that one. anyway, this thing rules.

http://i.imgur.com/0qRBFoe.jpg

lol wut?

I need to know what that's about but

how come nobody really lumps gigan in with the other dissonant evil stuff like gorguts, ulcerate, deathspell omega, etc?

I haven't heard their most recent one, but god this band is overlooked. Even the first one is nuts, discordant and weird, fucked up sci-fi synth noises and there's a long free form freakout on the last track.

oh man, you NEED to hear the new(ish) one! it's on spotify if you use that.

What black metal from the first quarter am I missing?

I love A Pregnant Light. Maybe not quite black metal, but it is fantastic. And I also quite like Ghost Bath. The vocals might put you off, but I kinda like them.

xxxpost

Last year I watched the Golden Gods Awards for the first time and vowed never to miss it again. They pretty much turn cameras on an auditorium full of metal and hard rock people, audience and performers alike, and wait to see what happens. I'm not totally sure anyone is ever in charge.

The above pic is from last night's (and not a photoshop.) Sadly I missed the show. So bummed.
http://ultimateclassicrock.com/golden-gods-axl-rose-joan-jett/

If I could choose anyone to sing this it would have been Beth Gibbons.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-mc7D6hs5U&feature=youtu.be

Enjoy!

I am also digging the new Thantifaxath album quite a bit. Good call on that one. Just added Gigan to my Spotify playlist (Alan N: That sounds right up my alley). A Pregnant Light are excellent. I love how they optimize the lo-fi nature of their recordings by making some fairly unconventional production choices. Inventive stuff.

I haven't heard their most recent one, but god this band is overlooked.

Yep. I hadn't heard of Gigan before their most recent one came out, but it's fantastic stuff.

I could maybe say the same about Pyrrhon; their new one The Mother of Virtues is tailor-made for me (I listened back to their previous ones and wasn't inspired at all).

Checked out that last Gigan record last night. Based on the description up-thread, I kinda knew I would like them, but good lord I was not prepared for just how godly that record is. My initial sense is the drum performance alone could be studied for months without getting bored. As a unit, the band members seem to be attuned to each other in a borderline preternatural way.

I wanted to like that Beth Gibbons-sings-Black Sabbath thing, but as I said on Twitter, I bailed as soon as she sang the phrase "Oh no" in this sort of weary descending sigh, like she'd accidentally spilled her tea on the antique sofa. Totally missing the gut-level medieval-Christian horror of the original.

It's all a bit winnie the pooh. Oh bother.

As a unit, the band members seem to be attuned to each other

yep, this was a big draw for me as well. there's a give-and-take to the playing and the way that the songs unfold.

Xandria! This is fun. Too bad the new singer isn't as strong as the last one.

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

getting a late pass on the now-disbanded Ava Inferi, who I first heard when I was in a long anti-goth-metal phase and wrote off. this band has/had some of the best guitar lines around imo

New Judas Priest song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhkoNQ-7uRw

Yeah, the new Priest song rules. I even like that Halford's VOX sound a little weathered and natural.

welcome, Jonathan!

The state of metal criticism in 2014:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8QZFdh8-7k

new Floor album..... anyone heard??

lemme just go ahead and do this for the lulz
http://www.brooklynvegan.com/img/as/floor-oblation.jpg

lol I always forget the extent to which Anathema don't rock these days. didn't put this on in work cos no-one else can tolerate any sort of heavy guitars and two tracks in there's been a song that sounds like Elbow and a power ballad that I think was produced by Dave Stewart

did hear the Floor album but can only really say that it's very Floor-esque, rather than anything more useful about its merits

I like the Floor album a lot, yeah its just Floor but IT'S FLOOR!

ooh looks like they just kicked off a tour.... they'll be in Charlotte this Saturday, but I'm pretty sure I work till midnight v_v

i thought the Floor album was good - it was streaming at Pitchfork for a while - but yeah ... it is very Floor. Sludgy pop-rock songs with Steve Brooks singing. So very Floor.

I guess I should probably just hear it already, but I know I will immediately regret not playing it A.) in my car with the windows down, and/or B.) burning one with friends

I prefer Torche. But it's interesting how Brooks brought a real Torche influence to the new Floor stuff, which of course heavily informed Torche from the start. Bit of a stonier rock ouroboros thing happening there.

yeah the clips I heard made it hard to shake the feeling that it was just, like, a slower Torche record. I think I might prefer the production on the Floor s/t, but only time will tell

my first thought upon hearing it was it sounds like a Torche record playing too slow, so...

Brooks has an oddly distinctive voice for a guy whose voice isn't terribly distinctive...don't be fooled, that totally make sense.

http://i.imgur.com/jZNazSI.png

Oh wow. The randomized imgur link I just got for that image:
i.imgur.com / jZNazSI. png

emphasis mine, needless to say

So Inquisition are Nazis too, huh?

Supposedly Dagon, or someone on his behalf, is going to put out a statement. He mentioned that in a FB post after complaining about strict border security, which for some reason I found funny.

As is usually the case, I'm more entertained by the carousel of willful ignorance-infused denials that metal fans crank up when these things happen. "But metal is supposed to be offensive!" "It's a generalized hatred, it isn't focused on one group!" "SLAYER!" "The swastika was around before the Nazis!"

I really like Naer Mataron and their bassist is literally the Golden Dawn representative in Greek Parliament so I guess I've already bought the ticket for this ride.

Unrelated, I don't know what a Plebeian Grandstand is, but it makes good music. I'll just say it's "dissonant" because that's the quickest, easiest, and laziest way to present you with an accurate idea of what it sounds like. I know there are others here who dig this style. I'd never heard of this band before yesterday.
http://plebeiangrandstand.bandcamp.com/album/lowgazers