Rolling Metal 2017

hell yes

I initially thought this Swedish band had a guy with high range, but it's a woman, the bad ass Sofie-Lee Johansson. Lyrical themes: "Freedom, supernatural vengeance." \../

https://listenable-records.bandcamp.com/album/exterminator

that rocks

sweet

The Antiversum album is out now. An immense-sounding death/doom hybrid, reminds me a bit of the excellent Mare Infinitum album from a couple of years ago:

https://invictusproductions666.bandcamp.com/album/cosmos-comedenti

ah the magic words "reminds me a bit of the excellent mare infinitum album from a couple of years ago"

yknow I love Bell Witch but the prospect of an 83-minute single track is a bit mindnumbing. surely that's one of the longest rock recordings in history given that it can't fit on any physical format?

I threw it on the other day and enjoyed it, although I was admittedly happy to have my mind numbed at the time.

(And by "threw it on", I mean "pressed play on Soundcloud" since it can't actually fit on any physical format.)

Proto-metal Pentagram/Sab worship, but it scratches ALL my itches right now (I'm listening to promo, out Nov 3) - https://highreeper.bandcamp.com/album/high-reeper

https://doomcharts.com/2017/10/19/high-reeper-preview-giveaway/

New Yellow Eyes album is very much business as usual for them, but the last track Jubilat is fucking amazing

Beginning to see mentions that Martin Ain of Celtic Frost has passed away. Goddammit.

man. there goes a guy who played on records that changed music for me forever.

I know. I was just remembering teenage me plonking out the bassline to "Return to the Eve" over and over along with the tape. Not to mention the completely shit band I was in that only had two songs, one of which was "Dawn of Megiddo" stretched out as long as we could stand to play it.

RIP.

first song I heard by them was "The Usurper" off Tragic Serenades. Will never forget hearing that riff and laughing, like, what the fuck is going on here? They opened with it when I saw them two years later and man oh man oh man.

RIP indeed.

oh fuck :( RIP

this sucks

it's like...when I talk about Celtic Frost, I sound, to myself, like a fuckin boomer goin off about the Beatles or whatever. I couldn't explain to my friends what was great about it, they were all "Tom G. Warrior? lol w/e Joanie" but I was like "idk this is pretty incredible." like the Birthday Party in that respect - singular, very off-putting to plenty of people but transformational to those of us who locked in to the groove. so weird but so right. no other band scratching the same itch at ALL for me -- the heaviness of the riffs, the out-of-nowhere shit like the operatic vocal drop-ins...it was all a long time ago. Monotheist is great of course but that early run, when it felt like two guys and a huge idea they were wrangling and just on the verge of losing control of it...very little like that in music, to have watched a band like that grow and become what they became.

Amenra - Mass VI is out on Neurot in two different versions: one mixed by Billy Anderson and mastered by Justin Weis and the second one mixed+mastered by Jack Shirley
https://www.neurotrecordings.com/news/amenra-mass-vi-out-now

My mind is somewhat blown to find out Martin Ain was 17 when they recorded Morbid Tales (and 16 when he joined Hellhammer).

I wrote about Martin Ain for Stereogum.

excellent article, Phil.

i take it you know it says Marvin Ain btw? I know it's not your fault

"It's Marvin... your cousin Marvin Ain."

I could have sworn I found out about this album in this thread but it doesn't appear to be the case. Atmospheric black metal from a mysterious French dude.

Esoctrilihum - Mystic Echo From A Funeral Dimension

I emailed the editor and he fixed it.

Co-signing: great article, Phil.

Tom writes about Martin

Such a moving and wonderful piece.

Just got a promo of an industrial-ish black metal album that includes a cover of NON's "Total War." Subtle messaging there, dudes.

Weird Krallicey black metal!

https://blattaria.bandcamp.com/album/blattaria

If you like glossy gothic-symphonic pop-metal, the whole Metalite album is finally out!

https://open.spotify.com/album/4TQm0qnmv06YHZK6XUuWPK

And if you don't, https://open.spotify.com/album/3BrfgSK2ajxuGn46V1qWyn

Anyone know who the publicist is for Botanist?

OMG this Metalite album is masterful.

Just got a promo of an industrial-ish black metal album that includes a cover of NON's "Total War." Subtle messaging there, dudes.

― grawlix (unperson), Thursday, 26 October 2017 16:47 (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

listened to that and thought that track was the only musically interesting thing on it tbh

while I would on balance prefer it if no-one covered or endorsed Boyd Rice, I haven't generally found it to be true that people who enjoy his music are trying to say they're fascists in coded terms

Anyone know who the publicist is for Botanist?

It was Stephanie Marlow back in 2013, when I emailed Otrebor myself. The Botanist website still lists his website for contact so I'd flow him a message and he'll send you the right way.

Bruce Dickinson's autobiography is out next week. He narrates the audiobook version himself.

Progenie Terrestre Pura by oltreLuna, on Avantegarde, is a major work meriting close listens. just wonderful.

artist/album reversed there I think?

yep, oltreLuna is the album

new Exhumed is a lot of fun, concept album about the Burke and Hare murders w/ actual orchestral interludes lolol....but musically it's more in the vein of their last album, not mere Carcass worship anymore, there's melody and actual songwriting going on (not that I dislike old Exhumed)...

Never got around to this Progenie Terrestre Pura album but I liked the first one. Will have to dive in

The new Primal Fear best-of includes a cover of Heart's "If Looks Could Kill," a song whose lyrics don't benefit from gender-flipping, to put it mildly.

I'm already struggling to keep up with my exploration of older, canonical material so I've barely heard anything from this year. Yet I'm curious to hear your thoughts on sites like Angry Metal Guy or Metal Injection. What are their biases? Are they at all 'trustworthy'?

Subjective questions bound to elicit subjective answers, to be sure…

Despite some slightly annoying quirks, I've found some great, great albums through AMG that I would not have otherwise, and I'm constantly impressed by just how many reviews they crank out.

Speaking of which, I'm not normally a power metal guy but man are Galneryus a blast.

I don't get much in the way of recommendations from AMG, but I find all but one of their reviewers bar one quite entertaining so I read it fairly often. They're quite harsh scorers, when in doubt they round down; what I *do* find annoying is their obsession about production/mixing, they often have valid criticisms but anything remotely raw or sub-professional gets shat on.

yeah that's my primary beef, perfectly fine-sounding albums get docked for having a DR5 or whatever.

I like AMG but tbh I rarely discover albums through reviews these days, I'm more prone to following links to premieres or tooling around the Bandcamp pages of labels and bands I like.

Listening to Dodsengel - Interequinox. Pretty good, slightly weird black metal that sounds like they probably slip some creeping death rock influences in. Vocals are nuts.