Rolling Metal Thread 2014

What's interesting to me is that the last track on the deluxe edition is literally a thank-you to their fans in song form. Which is cool, not just because it's nice to be appreciated, but also because it implies that to some degree they really want people to hear all 18 songs—the last five aren't leftovers, they're a crucial part of the whole. Which is sort of how I felt about the bonus tracks on the Black Sabbath album, too.

I love the five bonus tracks, they're lighter in tone, just relaxed and fun. "Snakebite" is totally Turbo-worthy. Just a splendid album overall. I haven't heard another metal album this year that's made me so darn happy.

They've said that the bonus cuts were shifted off because they didn't fit the tone and sequence of the album but they definitely wanted folks to hear them.

Listened to new Priest at work today and just love how there's at least 5 tracks I can get behind & that it makes me want to travel to Indiana to see 'em. I liked Angel of Retribution & saw 'em that tour, so I'm just as stoked.

I was deep into Angel of Retribution as part of the whole Stereogum project I was immersed in this past month - appearing next week, I hear - and to this day I absolutely love two thirds of it. The other third is "Loch Ness", which I still can't get over.

I don't mind "Loch Ness"; "Angel" and "Worth Fighting For" are the tracks that sink that album for me.

lol "Angel" is the song that made me wonder whether Rob should be singing anymore. he had no power in his voice on that song.

which is precisely why I like the official album closer on this one so much. he has that rich baritone that he had in his earlier days resonating throughout the song.

alright relistening now and I'm on "Sword of Damocles". it's still not a favorite on the album (mostly as it still sounds to me like an Iron Maiden-esque track from "Brave New World"), but I actually like this a lot better the second time. particularly the interlude in the middle of the song.

I don't know that the other two that didn't stick out to me are going to fare better.

Sword of Damocles includes the line "Beware of the jester that sings". All arguments are invalid.

lol

"March of the Damned" is so goddamn badass.

on the new album from Georgia instrumental metal/hard rock trio Lazer/Wulf:

The Beast of Left and Right was written to be a palindrome, here is an explanation from the band: "As far as the symmetricality, we wrote the album to be a palindrome – that is, it's the same backwards and forwards. The album is in two distinct halves, Left and Right, and we wrote them to be the "opposite" of each other. On the full 9-track version that's on CD, track 1 uses the exact same chords, riffs and drum tracks as track 9 but one is major and the other is minor; track 2 lyrically opposes track 8 (and both are re-recordings from our EP); track 3 uses the rhythm of track 7 backwards (we even recorded the guitars for track 3 backwards and reversed them to the version that's on the album); track 4 uses all the same drum parts and melodies as track 6 but the song structure is backwards, and 5 is the center track – no song opposes it, but it incorporates parts of the songs on either side of it. The idea is that either way you choose, Left or Right, the paths are the same."

well there goes someone's MA thesis in 2024

i kinda dig these kinds of things, where bands try to do ... i dunno, unconventional? clever ... things with album structure. though i can't think of any good examples right now ...

that's fine. it's a thing. but explaining it??

Way less involved than the above, but didn't Mayhem intend GDoW to be the continuation of Wolf's Lair Abyss? I remember GDoW had a track listing dividing it into parts 2 and 3 -- not to mention the riff that began the album was the riff that ended WLA. I think.

that's fine. it's a thing. but explaining it??

if you try to do something cool with structure and don't completely over-sell it literally no-one will notice

zero critics, zero listeners, zero everybody. oversell or forget about it

I'm with aerosmith on the overselling. I was not going to listen to that Lazer/Wulf album. Now I am marginally likely to try it.

cmon that's like saying if you hid A E R O in the notes of one of your compositions no one would ever notice

AVE SATHANAS

All the best pirate metal is written in the key of R.

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/19440-black-anvil-hail-death/

j. robbins-produced!

Anyone remember Rat Skates? Dude drummed on the first two Overkill records before vanishing from music and then suddenly a few years ago turning up as a documentarian of the scene that he abandoned.

Anyway, he and I went at it a couple years ago because he's a huge Tea Bagger now and I called him on some of his dumb comments. We unfriended each other and I assumed that would be the last I heard of him.

But then I saw this headline: Conservative rocker uses Hitler and Holocaust footage in strange anti-’dictator’ video

And of course it was Rat Skates... From the article:

The conservative heavy metal musician behind the strange “war on Christmas” video that aired on MSNBC last year released another bizarre clip, this one using graphic Holocaust footage to apparently downplay the idea of global warming.

The video, “Government dictators vs climate change,” opens with a mix of disaster footage and the question, “What has been our greatest threat in the last 100 years?” After more footage, the screen reads, “Total killed by unpredictable climate: over 5 million.”

At that point, the video shifts to footage of Hitler, then footage of Holocaust victims, including a nude woman being dropped into a mass grave, before a rapid-fire collage of not only the Nazi Germany leader, but some of his collaborators and other dictators.

“Total killed by unpredictable men: Over 300 million,” an onscreen message then states. “The equivalent of the entire U.S. population.”

The video concludes with the question, “Ready for Jesus yet?” flashing on the screen, then a person looking toward the White House amid a storm.

Someone at Metal Sludge should give him 20 questions and watch how many dumb things he says.

just bought a front row seat for Priest in Hollywood, FL.

I had concerns w/ how Halford will sound (I've heard some ugly recent recordings), but I found one from 2011 where he does "Victim of Changes" and while he's nowhere near as solid as he was in his 80s (sounds gruffer), he actually sounds pretty good on it.

anybody see them in recent years that can comment?

Halford's adjusted the way he sings many of the songs, and quite creatively I think. The band's still plenty great live.

Saw them in 2007 (tour w/Heaven and Hell, Motörhead, and Testament) and while he doesn't move around a lot onstage (he was wearing a floor-length leather-and-studs overcoat that looked like it weighed about 100 pounds), he didn't have any vocal problems that I noticed.

http://www.centurymedia.com/newsdetailed.aspx?IdNews=14555&IdCompany=3

the dagger album (w/ grave and dismember dudes) that just came out is fun, loose

http://youtu.be/wLFKpWMjVec

I wrote about (and ranked) the entire Judas Priest discography over at Stereogum, for those interested. Including the new album:

http://www.stereogum.com/1691165/judas-priest-albums-from-worst-to-best/

wow i agree 100 percent with that ranking

We agree on Priest's #1.

I havent read this article yet, because the one you did about Rush totally killed my workday (a compliment by the way). I;ll read at home.

My emotion- and memory-based ranking is way different from yours, but I suspect that if I actually listened to all the albums from front to back in order (which I'm about to do for those guys, for a different band), like you did, I might agree with you more. (Except I'm always gonna like Ram It Down way more than any nominally sane person should.)

My own sentimental ranking did change once I deliberately, carefully worked in chronological order. Fanboy me would have put Point of Entry higher, I'm so fond of half that record. And for all its influence on our generation I couldn't bring myself to put Vengeance higher than 9.

Stained Class does fucking rule

Fanboy me would have put Point of Entry higher, I'm so fond of half that record

feel the same way

stained class is the best

Ha, "Never Forget" is so sappy. I'm glad they kept it off the main album, since I probably don't want to hear it again, but as a one-time deal it's a nice message to the fans.

For some reason Priest's only Ontario stop is Orillia. They must be aiming to bring in that lucrative cottager crowd.

Adrien's Rush piece on Stereogum was a thing of beauty. I'm super-psyched to read the Priest piece, a band I hold even more dearly in my heart.

And I'm very, very sorry for what I'm about to do. I have a poppy post-black metal(-ish) project called Already Long Dead and I'm really happy with how the first track on my demo turned out. I tweeted about it, but this ILM thread features pretty much a complete compendium of my favorite metal writers and metal folks in general. So I'm gonna be gauche and include links:

https://soundcloud.com/already-long-dead/guardian-angel
http://alreadylongdead.bandcamp.com/

This is the last you'll hear of me on this topic.

I've actually still never heard the Ripper albums in full, or Turbo in full, or Ram It Down in full, or any of Point of Entry outside of the 'hits'. Feel like I need to just for context's sake.

great piece Adrien. I rate British Steel lower than most, but I'm glad to see Sin After Sin get the love it deserves as many Priest fans rank it too lowly. as far as favorite, I oscillate between Sad Wings, Hell Bent for Leather, Painkiller or Defenders. Stained Class also does rule, otm.

"Valhalla" is srsly giving me a metal chubby right now. holy hell this song

I'm come around on "Hell and Back". sounds like it coulda fit on British Steel, but now I don't feel like it has the elements that I disliked like I previously thought.

like, who throws "come on party people, won't you listen to me" immediately following a lyric describing how a just-raped woman threw a rock at her attacker in anguish.

I haven't listened yet but I'm gonna wager that something went wrong there and that last post wasn't about the new judas priest album

hahahaha

def wrong thread there. wow at these 5 bonus tracks finally listenin to em....

https://soundcloud.com/cvltnation/01-apotheosis-of-death-axiom?in=cvltnation/sets/exordium-mors-the-apotheosis

wau

thanks for the tipoff, adrian

http://lastrit.es/articles/844/5q5a---exordium-mors

SANTI: The six-part title track came up as an idea around early 2009. For me, the inspiration for that song was equal parts Order From Chaos' "Conqueror Of Fear" Opus, and 70s prog rock. Basically, I wanted to create a Metalized answer to Genesis' "Supper's Ready", ELP's "Tarkus", Gracious' self titled album, or Biglietto Per L'Inferno's self titled album etc.

ILM APPROVED

omg are y'all seeing the "metalhead dating" ad at the top of the page?

new Goatwhore is massive. I liked Blood for the Master but this one shits all over it

that's one leaky goat

still have yet to top "Apocalyptic Havoc" as far as songs go, though