Rolling Metal Thread 2014

Devilock I will admit to never being the hugest Overkill fan (I mean I have Horrorscope and The Years of Decay and love them but haven't spun in years) but your post made me curious and...damn. I'm surprised to hear how full of life and energized it sounds. Bobby "Blitz" sounds amazing!

have similar feelings about em. always found them to be very inconsistent and hadn't paid much attention for at least a decade but ironbound was the one that got me interested again. love that album.

So a dear friend told me yesterday the new Mastodon record is the best of 2014... I haven't heard it yet, but he is a huge Sammy Hagar fan. I need new friends?

It's a good record, and I'm saying this as a non-fan. Works best if you leave all the "metal" baggage behind and approach it as a hardcore-meets-modern-rock record.

So we can start the "they're not metal" complaints early, here's a new track from the forthcoming GOAT disc:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6z-CNxLeItw#t=18

Just as awesome as anything on the amazing "World Music," methinks. Disc is out on 9/23 via Sub-Pop!

I don't know Greek all female black metal band Astarte, but bass player Tristessa has died from leukemia apparently : http://www.metal-archives.com/artists/Tristessa/5188

I do know them - I have to admit they were never as good as some of the better known names from the Greek underground, but Tristessa was more than just the bass player, she did vocals and wrote all lyrics and most of the music.

I thought Astarte was pretty good, actually... I turned Vincent Crowley from Acheron onto them when I worked at an indie record store in Columbus, Ohio. That sucks.

that new Godflesh track someone posted is great, I'm stoked for the new album

just copped the Coffinworm album from this year & I'm digging it a lot on first listen... still need to pick up the Triptykon but I'm saving that until I get some decent new headphones, because I know that otherwise I'm gonna want to crank it to neighbor-waking levels

Well, yeah.

i was not feeling the lead pallbearer single 'ghost' from the new one, but now that i'm hearing the whole album, fukkkk this shit jams

http://pitchfork.com/advance/510-foundations-of-burden/

damn. I'm surprised to hear how full of life and energized it sounds. Bobby "Blitz" sounds amazing!
― Neanderthal, Tuesday, August 12, 2014 9:11 AM (10 hours ago)

If you're saying you dig the new one but haven't heard Ironbound then good lord yes speed thee to Ironbound.

Also. Incoming.
http://i.imgur.com/64So1uk.jpg

that Goat track is really cool stuff, obviously not metal at all but really lovely. it's going to be a huge fucking drag when people write their IS METAL EVOLVING? BECAUSE THIS ONE RECORD HAS ITS LOGO IN OLD SCHOOL GOTHIC pieces about it but fuckin whatever, thinkpiecers gonna piece, I'll jam that record for sure

HOLY FUCK THAT TOUR.

not coming anywhere near me but I am totally gonna have to road trip.

Hoping to catch Obituary on the tour they're doing before that one. (Saw the dates the other day; forget who they're going out with.)

Just got the promo for the new Wolf album. I always want to like them more than I end up actually liking them, but I'll give it a listen tomorrow.

Virus are playing a couple of days in New York with every Colin Marston/Mick Barr band and I wish I was that side of the Atlantic fuuuuck

Wow, that Carcass & Obituary tour is sure hitting some secondary markets... The closest date is Richmond which is four hours from me! Ugh, it's so rare to see a package tour where I want to see the entire bill. I pretty much just see shows for one or two bands now. I'm lame and old. But that one I would get there early and leave late.

my folks live in Raleigh but I'd feel bad once again doing a "hey I felt like visiting this weekend OH HEY WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT, A CONCERT??!!*"

*I did that with Iron Maiden last year

I have friends in Raleigh - I used to live there - who I am pretty sure I could impose on but that's like 6 1/2 hours to drive for me.

9 for me. and flights are crazy expensive from Orlando to Raleigh cos there are few directs, I refuse to Greyhound, and Amtrak has gotten much more expensive, so it's likely how I'd be saddled w/ getting there.

but I mean....Carcass/Obituary/Macabre = I'll kidnap a motherfucker and force him to drive me there.

I'd Lady Astronaut that drive.

BTW this new Origin album... I feel like 90% of the album is covered with constant, sometimes dual, vocals. And it's mixed in such a way that the vocals kinda drown out the music, at least on my car's speakers.

Oh and anyone have any comments about Postsocial by Wold?

i don't mean to be a downer (or a pedant), but unless i'm reading that poster wrong, I don't think there are any Carcass/Obituary/Macabre dates, Neanderthal...it's either Carcass/Obit/Exhumed/Noisem or Carcass/Macabre/Exhumed/Noisem...

ahh yes I read it too fast. well I've seen Obituary 3 times so I'd lean towards the latter pairing.

Noisem would be great to see again if they don't ask he sound guy to turn them up so loud that it's deafening and painful like they did last time I saw em

That makes it less awesome. I would only be mildly interested in seeing Exhumed whereas I love both Obituary and Macabre. And I want to see Noisem, the one band I haven't checked out live yet.

yeah tbh while I like Exhumed and all, I've seen em twice already, and having them on a bill w/ Carcass seems almost pointless (kinda like how Pennywise and Bad Religion are on the same bill now).

Macabre would be the main draw for me but admittedly I only know their first two albums. anything from later period worth checking out?

I know a bunch of you guys have talked to Luc Lemay before, but I got to talk to him for the first time this past weekend and what a friendly and engaging interview. I'd happily talk to him anytime.

jealous. only metal musician I've ever been in a lengthy dialogue w/ was Jon Oliva of Savatage (interview, never published due to recording issues).

I love how Gorguts cheesed the audience at the Carcass show I was at by saying "Y'ALL WANNA HEAR SOME OLD STUFF?" and everyone erupts thinking they're getting something from Erosion of Sanity and he just picks an Obscura song, in keeping w/ the theme for the night.

Given Colored Sands sound, it made sense in keeping thematic unity, but it was a humorous windup on his part.

Oh and anyone have any comments about Postsocial by Wold?

Only played it once so far. I thought it was alright, but definitely not my favorite of theirs. I remember thinking the vocals were pushed up way too high in the mix for my liking.

Neanderthal - if you want to hear the conversation with Luc it's the latest Steel for Brains podcast. You can find it at steelforbrains.com or search Steel for Brains on itunes.

I think Jon Olava would be a cool interview. I'm sorry you had tech issues.

nice, will check it out.

yeah technology circa 2000, bleh. woulda been easier in today's day and age. I wasn't really a 'writer', but Savatage was my third favorite band at the time so talking to an idol was still a great experience.

I might MIGHT be at the Raleigh show. Saw Carcass in Raleigh a few years back and had a great time, though the first week in November is going to be a heady time in this house so I might not be able to get out

Anyone seen Ragnar Bragason's Icelandic film Malmhaus (known internationally as Metalhead)?

http://www.invisibleoranges.com/2014/08/interview-joseph-d-rowland-pallbearer/

good interview

I saw Metalhead on an Icelandair flight recently. I thought it was pretty interesting, but its grimness is much more human than metal, mostly.

It's a family drama first and a metal movie second, yes.

It still gets the metal right though. Also:
http://www.vera-groningen.nl/sites/all/files/imagecache/420x280/events/4917/rockin-screen-metalhead-malmhaus_0.jpg

In other news, I've sort of been following developments around Nokturnal Mortum over the past year or so. They're arguably Eastern Europe's most significant metal band today, of festival-headlining popularity, and very outspoken Ukrainian nationalists. This would mostly be a curiosity were it not for the fact that they're from the city of Kharkiv, less than thirty miles from the Russian border. They have had to cancel most of their summer festival appearances because of travel restrictions, and instead a couple of weeks ago they headlined a local Kharkiv charity concert to support the Ukrainian national army, along with performances by nationalist poets and the like. At this point Nokturnal Mortum can more or less be considered one of the flagship pro-Ukrainian artists, esp with many supporters in the army. With the first Russian tanks rolling into Ukraine today, things are heating up (more than 70 people a day are getting killed) and I'm sure they're aware that their profile makes them targets.

New Orange Goblin track:
http://loudwire.com/orange-goblin-the-devils-whip-song-premiere/

Sounds kinda punk-and-roll. I like.

Decibel came in yesterday, nice to see Electric Wizard on the cover. But unlike last year's Pallbearer issue, the excitement doesn't extend to the reviews section, where there's two of the most buzzkilling, wet-blanket meh reviews of the Electric Wizard and Witch Mountain albums one is likely to see anywhere. I refuse to believe they deserve the 7 and 6(where I come from those are failing grades!) 'til I hear 'em.

Nice surprise to see Orange Goblin has Back From The Abyss coming Oct 7, though I'm hoping for less Motorhead, and more stoner doom, but fear that's not gonna happen.

I haven't heard the Witch Mountain, but the Electric Wizard album is really boring and uninspired. I remember when they'd at least try to have more than one idea - the weird dubby stuff on Come My Fanatics..., the Radiohead-gone-doom stuff on Let Us Prey - I miss that band.

I'm actually more likely to check out a 7 than a 9. back in high school friends and I worked out what grades/ratings tended to indicate the most interesting records and "better than average, not great" was almost always a review of something really interesting

same. think the moment that crystallized for me was when pfork gave a maxwell album a 7.something

I kinda agree, but for me it's mostly because I distrust writers that get too excited about stuff. I'm always more likely to actually listen to a record if I read a review that's sort of subdued in its enthusiasm, and/but points out specific interesting things about its subject, than some "Album of the Year/career highlight/paradigm-shattering" hoo-ha.

A 6 for the new Witch Mountain? Yikes, I strongly disagree.

Granted, in my critic's mind a 6 is still positive, but in metal parlance a 6 is practically the kiss of death.

Unless there's three of them.

The problem isn't that a 6 is particularly bad, but with ~3000 metal albums released every year, that means you get the feeling there's an awful lot of records that are more worthy of your time.

Indeed, to me a 6 would indicate there should be several hundred or even a couple thousand better albums. Which is just not true, and why I mostly ignore scaled scores, and removed them from my site, though they are hidden in my database.

I also refuse to believe the Electric Wiz is uninspired. We'll see.

Am I the only person who ignores the shit out of number scores?