Rolling Metal 2016

I'll be doing this VERY differently this year, but here's where (I hope) I'll be keeping up with you guys better this year.
ILM's Rolling Metal Thread 2016

Following that.

So my first thing I liked from last year (which is a reissue of stuff from the 90s) and am bringing up this year is Barathrum's "Jetblack Warmetal" comp. It's not war metal in the usual blasting sense, but bass-heavy (THREE BASSISTS! TWO GUITARISTS!) crude black metal with some Mediterranean influences and some Beherit vibes. Very noisy.

Anything good coming up this month?

For me personally, new Master and Brutus. And well I suppose Abbath.

Oh and I'd love for the new Borknagar to blow me away. But ... eh.

There's a new Ehnahre coming out this month and it's great. Super weird, lots of piano. The first track sounds like the beginning of a Cecil Taylor album, where he's striking what seem like random keys and reciting sound poetry in that weird croaking voice.

I was wondering when Ehnahre would re-emerge, I knew they were working on something. Really looking forward to that one.

Yeah, I just looked at the preview, this is going to be great

How is the Witchcraft? I see its been released on bandcamp

There's a new Wildernessking album out at the end of the month

https://wildernessking.bandcamp.com/album/mystical-future

great band name alert

https://oldstove.bandcamp.com/releases

To start off 2016 on my end, I will say that the new Oranssi Pazuzu album is very, very exciting.

And the new Holy Grail and megadeth albums are ace as well!

New Oranssi Pazuzu! Great news.

a couple of upcoming things

http://profoundlorerecords.bandcamp.com/album/le-dernier-cr-puscule

http://avantgardemusic.bandcamp.com/album/rituals

can't recall what if anything ppl itt think of Volahn but their album last year was good and this, off the new Black Twilight Circle compilation, is great too. spaghetti western black metal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Prm9B0f4wvc

VOIVOD announce 'Post Society EP' release

http://www.centurymedia.com/media/news/large/635864369564106525.jpg

Canadian progressive sci-fi metal innovators VOIVOD are pleased to announce the release of Post Society EP Mini-CD. This special release will be available in Digipak CD format as well as digital download on February 26th, 2016 via Century Media Records.

The Post Society EP, with artwork by VOIVOD drummer Michel "Away" Langevin, contains 5 studio tracks, including the previously vinyl-only new VOIVOD songs from the split 7" EP's with label-mates At The Gates and Napalm Death, two brand new songs and a Hawkwind cover ("Silver Machine") total playing time of 30 minutes. Here is the track-listing:

VOIVOD - Post Society - EP
1. Post Society (06:17)
2. Forever Mountain (05:12)
3. Fall (06:42)
4. We Are Connected (07:26)
5. Silver Machine (04:48)

Michel "Away" Langevin checked in to comment on the release as follows: "More songs from out in the woods! In between tours, we are steadily finding our way through recording the next album at RadicArt studio. Many riffs were composed on the bus but until the North American tour with Vektor in 2016, we will spend most of wintertime in Montreal writing another batch of material. Meanwhile, we hope you will enjoy this EP of good old thrash-prog-punk-metal or whatever people want to call Voïvod nowadays :)"

Always excited about new Voivod and a Hawkwind cover to boot!

Volahn but their album last year was good

Dude, thanks for mentioning this - saw it at a shop today and between your mention and the Iron Bonehead logo I figured I'd buy it. It's really good, somehow manages to balance kind of proggy elements with a really vicious rawness. And the guitar is great, all of these elaborate little filigrees and the almost necro-surf tone he has.

I guess they're debatably metal now but I really love the advance track from the latest album by The Body, No One Deserves Happiness (out 3/18):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoZgTrv5ods

Hmmmmmmm. I usually like people doing weird shit to metal but that didn't really convince.

Oh man, if you like your metal supermelodic, check out this album The Deviant Hearts, by Phantasma. I missed this completely when it came out a couple months ago, but it's Charlotte Wessels from Delain, Oliver Philipps from Everon and George Neuhauser from Serenity. It's phenomenal.

Saw the first great show of the year - the quadruple New(ish) Jack Thrash bill of Warbringer, Enforcer, Exmortus and Cauldron.

Enforcer were amazing, like Hanoi Rocks gone thrash. The singer had eyeliner and leather and was genuinely charismatic and hamming it up and was in general a lot of fun.

I also loved Exmortus' neoclassical thrash (picked up the brand new one from them at the merch booth), Cauldron's sense of economy and Warbringer brought it as well.

Just a fun night with four bands that all had different strengths and played to them perfectly.

I tried to get into Warbringer recently, can't stand that vocal recording style. Feel like I'm listening for polyps on the guy's vocal chords.

Enforcer sounds pretty good though.

Man, I'm digging on this Bison Machine, which Tom at PunkNews hipped me to https://www.punknews.org/review/14110/bison-machine-hoarfrost

Stoner metal is not usually my bag, but this is working for me on account of some solid hooks/grooves and a mildly paradoxical combo of cut--it-with-a-knife guitar tone and agreeably lo-fi, no-frills production values. Came for the 4 minute jam, staying for the duration.

How is the Witchcraft? I see its been released on bandcamp

I had bookmarked it there but apparently they've deleted their bandcamp :/

Ondt Blod's Finnmark is sort of a cross between Converge-style noisy hardcore and Kvelertak, with a few less guitar heroics than that implies, and more clean vocals in the catchy parts. Like Kvelertak, it's all in Norsk, but that doesn't matter much. There's a sample track on Soundcloud.

Andy Marshall of Saor has a new project called Fuath that's supposed to be hypnotic atmospheric black metal, album planned for 1st of Feb. First thing I'm interested in this year!

Looking backwards, here's the 100-song playlist I made of 2015 metal, starting with the 10 things I voted for in the Pazz & Jop: https://open.spotify.com/user/glennpmcdonald/playlist/59NtrREsm0x5Cmi7XyGuBj

http://www.spin.com/2016/01/oranssi-pazuzu-hypnotisoitu-viharukous-new/

really enjoying teh fuck out of the Taphos Nomos.

I like the Exmortus too but I still feel like the vocals are bland and a wasted opportunity.

saw Nile the other night- they kicked ass. saw 1349 and am convinced they are really boring live (Tombs were great tho).

Kampfar album is solid too

Behemoth's coming back around on tour in the US, playing The Satanist in its entirety. The more interesting thing about this tour, for me anyway, is that Myrkur is opening. I might go, catch her, and leave.

You'd be doing it exactly wrong

I saw Behemoth on their last US tour, with Cannibal Corpse, Aeon and Tribulation. I didn't like them.

Defeated Sanity are in town tomorrow!

There are two bands on that bill with "iniquitous" in the name.

I just now briefly considered going then realized the Atlanta show -- where I am -- was tonight. Probably for the best; I'm not really a show-goer anymore.

yes, many xposts, the volahn record is great. i love blastbeats behind half-time guitars. well, they're not really half-time but they certainly don't warrant a blastbeat necessarily. bm meat puppets?

it's an effect that really works with darkspace/paysage d'hiver. in fact, volahn is the stifling, central american summer answer to paysage's frosty swiss winter.

xpost welp you didn't miss much. DS's sound was garbage to the point of incomprehension so I left midway through. might have been the venue but it sounded like a guy trying to start his car in the mud while a bunch of gazelles occasionally made sound in the distance

Spoilers for the next Chris Watson album

http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/former-morbid-angel-frontman-david-vincent-is-back-with-original-country-song-buyer-beware-video/

Following Bret Michaels' career path seems like a good move for Dave.

I'm digging the Lycus album Relapse just put out. Even if the band name is always going to make me think of this guy

http://i67.tinypic.com/e7xnxe.jpg

Im almost as stoked for new Aluk Todolo as I am for new Oranssi Pazuzu

Those are just made up words, you're being ridiculous

😆😆😆

I need to get some Aluk Todolo, actually, they've been on my list forever.

The new one is really good, as is the one before, Occult Rock. They have no bad records, but those two are definitely orders of magnitude better than what came before.

I'd love to see them live.

looking forward to this:

Novembre - Ursa
http://peaceville.com/novembre-release-new-studio-album-ursa-in-april/
URSA is the seventh and latest album from Italy’s atmospheric death/doom metal purveyors, Novembre, and is set for release on 1st April on Peaceville Records on CD and vinyl.

New Witchcraft is streaming on Spotify. I like it quite a bit but it's not particularly metallic.

I mean, the band was never full-on metal, but there's a lot more soft psychedelia and folk infusions and less loud psych-rock and churning doom riffs.

There's a 14 minute track and a nearly 16 minute track, the rest of the album is more standard but it causes the album to come out at nearly an hour and a quarter.

It's mournful as always, and that's always good.

I can't imagine anybody here digging it - it's super-dramatic Mars Volta/Coheed-y esp in the vocals which are zero-growl, super I'M THE SINGER singing - but the Moon Tooth album is grabbing me tonight, the guitarist is really good and the production sounds really nice - great separation, really great tones - I don't know enough about recording electric guitars to know if these are direct or amped but they sound great

https://moontoothny.bandcamp.com/album/chromaparagon

maybe I'm wrong though anyway I really like this

ok though but like its influences, the album becomes a bit much after six tracks

I can't imagine anybody here digging it - it's super-dramatic Mars Volta/Coheed-y esp in the vocals which are zero-growl, super I'M THE SINGER singing - but the Moon Tooth album is grabbing me tonight, the guitarist is really good and the production sounds really nice - great separation, really great tones - I don't know enough about recording electric guitars to know if these are direct or amped but they sound great

*raises hand*

I love the "Huh!" the vocalist lets out at about 1:30 into "Queen Wolf" (and by the way, the first song streaming on Bandcamp is called "Queen Wolf," Smith forgot to mention that crucial bit of info). I would say the vocals are late '80s/early '90s pre-grunge AOR-prog more than Mars Volta/Coheed post-emo prog. Either way, awesome.

This just came out on the 19th, tip for the cavernous death massive

http://sevenchains.bandcamp.com/album/seven-chains

Does it appeal to you more if I add that there's also lots of weird orchestral (like, a real orchestra) stuff going on? And I think there's a saxophone solo in the first song? And some violin? No?

False to death metal!

Sounds good so far

Yep, right up my alley, and also now I get to have two songs called "Metanoia" on my '16 playlist

Um this is fucking incredible

If these dudes aren't signed to Profound Lore for their next album I'll eat my hat. I'll buy a hat first.

they might already be better than profound lore

We should really just start doing each year's metal poll in December of the following year.

(I'm allowed that hyperbole right)

It's the metal thread not a safe space for the hyperbole-allergic!

New Antaeus man. At first I was like "ahh man, why'd I buy this, it's just blistering, blastering stuff I'm not really in the mood for" and then "Flesh Ritual" started unhinging things a little bit and by "Angels of Despair" I was in luuuv.

seriously it is GOOD. had the exact same "do I really need new Antaeus in 2016?" reaction and then just got completely caught up in the maelstrom.

listening to Seven Chains, some *very* Swans moments here. Not sure I find it all that engaging overall, but the band certainly isn't afraid to do non-death metal stuff.

Yeah it's quite good, there's shades of Portal and Ehnahre in there but it doesn't grab me consistently

high five Brad!
https://daily.bandcamp.com/2016/12/23/mesarithm-interview/

cool work!

oh i forgot that i did that

Brad do you know if the two new EPs are the remnants of the scrapped 2nd album, done in the Isolate style?

(I suppose I could just start listening to their bandcamp and sort of judge for myself...)

no idea, i didn't follow up after they came out

hey brad, just curious: when did you turn that in?

right after thanksgiving iirc

Bandcamp lead times are print-mag long. The stuff I've written for them has run 4-6 weeks after I turn it in.

huh. ok. good to know, thanks.

it's mostly bc of volume afaict. ton of pieces running all the time

The Furia is fantastic!

Avoiding my relatives, listening to discordant and slightly proggy Australian death metal:

http://convulsing.bandcamp.com/

Has a Porcupine Tree cover (!?) which does the unthinkable and sounds good.

The guy at the metal record shop in Keene that I go to a couple times a year talked me into buying some German black metal I'd never heard of before. It's Dis Manibvs by Imperium Dekadenz, released this year on Season of Mist. Anyone else familiar with these folks? One track on side 3 sounds a little like Deafheaven, but most of it is a little more raw than that.

I remember liking their 2010 album Procella Vadens but not checking out further. I didn't even know they had a new one.

This was posted on Vektor's Facebook page tonight, but has now been taken down:

https://scontent.fewr1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/15781503_10211834348394080_6313819094695793081_n.jpg?oh=ee4fac5a7c83a7b3990a5d8354d77d3a&oe=5920DE2C

It would be a shame to break up, given how far they've gone together. Sounds like an issue with Dave.

Daaaamn.

ok why didn't I check this Blood Incantation out earlier this year. this is completely my wheelhouse.

It's a great record.

As a Vektonaut I'm displeased, but this made me laugh.

I apologize to anyone who was concerned about the post from earlier today. Vektor is not stopping. I started writing Vektor songs in 1999 and I'm still writing Vektor songs. As long as I live, Vektor will not die.
I appreciate everything that Blake, Frank, and Erik have done to help this ship take off. I also appreciate all of my band mates before them: Willy, Pablo, Adam, Mike, and Kian.
See you on the road!
-Dave

lol that is some first-class shade

for a moment, due to my sinus headache, read "Willy, Pablo" as "Petey Pablo"

Since I didn't really know anything about them, I imagined Vektor as a democratic alignment of nerdy virtuosos but I guess it makes more sense that it's principally the product of one particularly crazed nerdy virtuoso

Listening to Vektor with a sinus headache, oof.

A list of lists

https://www.facebook.com/metaltotheteeth/posts/1629762337319064

Man, Khemmis is so widely loved and I just don't get it.

Finally got my physical copy of the Haar/Ur Draugr split and have been listening to it... Haar's stuff is one of the better takes on the modern black metal sound (which is deadly dull if mishandled), vicious enough for my tastes. The Ur Draugr side is an epic 20 minute track that is all over the place, maybe a little too chaotic in terms of structure but with a lot of great ideas and stuff they havent explored before (including solid, Timeghoul-esque use of clean vocals). Feel like both of these bands are going to do great stuff with their next releases.

Moon Tooth + Astronoid (!!!)

Feb 1 – Brooklyn, NY – Saint Vitus
Feb 2 – Allston MA, – Great Scott
Feb 3 – Montreal, QC – Bar Le Ritz
Feb 4 – Toronto, ON – Hard Luck
Feb 5 – Detroit, MI – EL Club
Feb 6 – Chicago, IL – Reggies Rock Club
Feb 7 – Pittsburgh, PA – Club Cafe
Feb 8 – Webster, NY -Harmony House
Feb 9 – Latham, NY – On The Circle
Feb 10 – Lancaster, PA – Lizard Lounge
Feb 11 – Amityville, NY – Amityville Music Hall

Tried to start Rolling Metal 2017, server is hanging endlessly in the void. Someone pls start it.

Rolling Metal 2017

Zealotry album from last year really deserved more att'n/love. Crowded marketplace & novelty's always gonna rule over known quantities but it's a thoughtful, focused, beautifully played death metal album with some Roger Patterson-endebted workouts in the breaks here and there and some really cool little decorative touches -- choral vocals on one track, an acoustic interlude on another (they did that on their previous too iirc and it's something I always like in DM albums).

Yes to all of that

just got caveman cult savage war is destiny which is some wild bestial shit featuring the drummer from torche (!) https://cavemancult.bandcamp.com/ highly recommended

dig this zealotry too

Since this thread popped up, here is my too-late-for-polls and unranked list of my favorite metal albums of 2016, in alphabetical order:

Abbath - Abbath
Airbourne - Breakin' Outta Hell
Alcest - Kodama
Aluk Todolo - Voix
Anaal Nathrakh - The Whole of the Law
Ash Borer - Irrepassable Gate
Asphyx - Incoming Death
Astronoid - Air
Babymetal - Metal Resistance
Brant Bjork - Tao of the Devil
Black Tusk - Pillars of Ash
Blood Ceremony - Lord of Misrule
Bloody Hammers - Lovely Sort Of Death
Blues Pills - Lady In Gold
The Body - No One Deserves Happiness
The Body and Full of Hell - One Day You Will Ache Like I Ache
Bolzer - Hero
Cadavarice - I: Exhumation
Charred Walls Of The Damned - Creatures Watching Over the Dead
Cobalt - Slow Forever
Comet Control - Center Of The Maze
Cough - Still They Pray
Crematory - Monument
Crippled Black Phoenix - Bronze
Crowbar - The Serpent Only Lies
Cult of Luna - Mariner
Cultes des Ghoules - Coven
Dark Funeral - Where Shadows Forever Reign
Darkestrah - Turan
Darkthrone - Arctic Thunder
Destroyer 666 - Wildfire
Deviant Process - Paroxysm
Diamond Head - Diamond Head
Discharge - End of Days
Eight Bells - Landless
Entropia - Ufonaut
Esben and the Witch - Older Terrors
Exmortus - Ride Forth
Eye - Vision and Ageless Light
Falaise - As Time Goes By
Furia - Księżyc milczy luty
Gatecreeper - Sonoran Depravation
Ghost BC - Popestar
Ghoul - Dungeon Bastards
Goatess - Purgatory Under New Management
Grand Magus - Sword Songs
Hail Spirit Noir - Mayhem in Blue
If These Trees Could Talk - The Bones of a Dying World
Ihsahn - Arktis
Inquisition - Bloodshed Across the Empyrean Altar Beyond the Celestial Zenith
Inter Arma - Paradise Gallows
Inverloch - Distance | Collapsed
Krallice - Hyperion
Krallice - Prelapsarian
Krypts - Remnants of Expansion
Kuolemanlaakso - M.Laakso - The Gothic Tapes Vol 1
Lord Vicar - Gates of Flesh
Lotus Thief - Gramarye
Magrudergrind - II
Mammoth Weed Wizard Bastard - Y Proffwyd Dwyll
Memoirs of a Secret Empire - Vertigo
Mesarthim - Isolate
Metallica - Hardwired...To Self Destruct
Mithras - On Strange Loops
Moonsorrow - Jumalten Aika
Mortiis - The Great Deceiver
Mourning Beloveth - Rust & Bone
Myrkur - Mausoleum
Nervosa - Agony
Netherbird - Grander Voyage
Neurosis - Fires Within Fires
Oathbreaker - Rheia
Oranssi Pazuzu - Värähtelijä
Otep - Generation Doom
Panopticon - Revisions of the Past
Prong - X - No Absolutes
Running Wild - Rapid Foray
Russian Circles - Guidance
Schammasch - Triangle
Skeletonwitch - The Apothic Gloom
Sodom - Decision Day
Spire - Entropy
Subrosa - For This We Fought The Battle of Ages
Surgical Meth Machine - Surgical Meth Machine
Testament - Brotherhood Of The Snake
Thy Catafalque - Meta
Trap Them - Crown Feral
Urfaust - Empty Space Meditation
Vektor - Terminal Redux
Voivod - Post Society EP
Volur - Disir
The Wakedead Gathering - Fuscus: Strings of the Black Lyre
Wardruna - Runaljod Ragnarok
Whores. - Gold.
Witchcraft - Nucleus
Worm Couroboros - What Graceless Dawn
Wormrot - Voices
The Wounded Kings - Visions In Bone
Wovenhand - Star Treatment
Wretch - Wretch
Wyrd - Death Of The Sun
Yidhra - Cult Of Bathory