Rolling Metal 2019

whoa

anyway I'm glad to hear you came around, it's one of my most-listened-to this year

An hour flies by on the strength of the songwriting. It really is a user's guide on how to make prog metal not-boring

Btw next week's classical decade poll will feature Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique, without which much of the music you worship would be unthinkable, lj, so you better vote! In exchange I'll stop postponing my intention to hear a Cardiacs record and dive into On Land and in the Sea forthwith.

You should vote too, Simon, as well as everyone else!

I know jack shit about classical but I will use it as an opportunity to acquint myself better :)

*acquaint, not acquit lol

It sounds like a fantastic symphony. I'll check in

That's the spirit! The aim of these polls is neither exhaustiveness nor chichi-ness, it's just an excuse to listen and discover music you might like.

Oh and as far as the current (1820s) poll is concerned, Beethoven's Missa solemnis and the Große Fuge in particular are your tickets to pre-prog bewilderment.

A momentary change in subject, my apologies, but I'm extremely pleased to report that Multishiva is only getting better and better

https://multishiva.bandcamp.com/album/savup-iv

I've never heard these guys but 'Total Fucking Dunkelheit' is an A+++ title.

One last thing, re: the Wilderun album. Is this the first documented instance of T. S. Eliot metal?

*posts the Cats trailer again*

Just listening to the Kampfar record that came out earlier this year - this is a band that I’ve always thought had a 10/10 classic in them someday, and this might not quite be that but it’s very good and probably the best thing they did in this millennium.

Highlight are the vocals, really well done mix of screams, chants, yells and some lady that sounds suspiciously like Fever Ray. It keeps things moody and dark mostly, but plenty of hooks, it’s an easy listen.

Also, how can you not enjoy a song with the chorus going “the rowers keep on rowing”?

Acclaimed guitar virtuosos Rodrigo y Gabriela have unveiled a spectacular new version of the Metallica classic, “Battery,” which will be featured on the duo’s upcoming METTAL EP, due from ATO Records on Black Friday, November 29, as a one-sided 12” vinyl Record Store Day First release, limited to 2,500 and available only at independent record stores. Side 2 will have an art etching. This companion EP to their latest full-length, METTALVOLUTION, sees Rodrigo Sanchez and Gabriela Quintero paying tribute to the icons of thrash metal with three previously unreleased covers, shedding light on some of their favorite foundational songs. Along with “Battery,” METTAL EP includes stunning new versions of Megadeth’s “Holy War” and Slayer’s epic “Seasons In The Abyss.” All three tracks were produced and recorded by Sanchez in Oslo, Norway and finished at the duo’s own Lumbini Studio in Ixtapa, Zihuatenejo, Mexico. METTAL EP was mixed by Jim Monti (Slipknot, Metallica, KoRN) and then mastered by GRAMMY® Award-winner Ted Jensen (Bring Me The Horizon, Disturbed, Halestorm) at Sterling Sound, Nashville.

maybe not everyone's taste here but i diggit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUL3-rXIATc

iirc R&G famously went from playing in a metal band in mexico to doing cruise ship flamenco where they would work to camouflage metal tracks into the songs. then somehow they caught on big time in ireland and have been doing american arena shows for nearly a decade. it's a story!

Yeah I dug Rodrigo y Gabriela the first time I saw them, but I kinda faded fast on being into them. That said, their new one from this year is surprisingly good. Definitely not metal in any sense of the word, but it has a side-length cover of Pink Floyd's "Echoes" that is really good.

Indeed ulysses, Rodrigo y Gabriela were fucking massive here in Ireland for a while.

y'all like intricate guitar!

I admire what R&G do, but I don't really need to hear it. They seem like the kind of thing that does really well on YouTube, like one step removed from those "hot girl drummer covers Tool" videos, but somehow they managed to translate it into a full-fledged career. Good for them.

i've seen them live maybe six times including in a couple of very small clubs and they're remarkably skilled guitarists and have amazing chemistry. they're really good musicians and composer/arrangers. i understand the impulse to shrug them off as a novelty act but the reason they've done so well for themselves and lasted as long as they have is because they're talented performers and spectacular live, not because they're doing acoustic megadeth.

Pretty sure my favorite metal-related thing from this year that doesn't involve any women singing is the new envy song "A step in the morning glow".

https://open.spotify.com/track/1GORbtwX5guuohmSbr8NI3?si=EyU-cE5AQsqphq8s7CZqyQ

dudes

just checked out the Wilderun

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oh jesus he's speaking in tongues

the prog is in him

Ok so here's some mildly blackened death featuring Greg Mackintosh of Paradise Lost which I just had to check out on account of their name, Strigoi (a kind of restless, malevolent revenant in Romanian mythology):

https://www.nocleansinging.com/2019/11/19/strigoi-abandon-all-faith/

The single, 'Phantoms' is a pure monster and now I need to hear Vallenfyre as well.

Btw Siegbran, I very much enjoyed Ofidians Manifest, but like you said, as good as it is, I too like to think they have an even better album in store for us at some point in the near to distant future.

increasingly convinced the new Cattle Decapitation is gonna be my metal AOTY

https://youtu.be/k3G2Iz8Vhd8

Blood Incantation is heading for mine.

I hope the clean vocal breaks aren't as jarring on this one. I liked em on Monolith but sometimes on the last album it felt like they would just abruptly and awkwardly pivot to them (tho i like the alb).

Gonna see em on Tuesday, tho more excited for Atheist

the Bolzer EP is good

Travis's singing voice is kinda like Krang on Ninja Turtles now. it's weird how he produces that sound. I like it though.

wehre did all of the black metally riffs start coming from on the last three albums? not that I'm complaining cos I love BM but they just kinda...showed up.

Listening to the Blood Incantation for the first time now. (I didn't get a promo on it.) I like prog-death a lot, but this is not the kind of prog-death I like. Too muddy and doomy. Could have used some fretless bass à la Obscura. The Tangerine Dream-y bit in the long song is my favorite part.

"too muddy and doomy" as if such a thing were possible

jk but i don't hear that on this record

digging the new Obsequiae a lot

Same. Then again, I'm easily entertained by medieval-esque metal.

i'm actually loving this Alcest album, although I haven't cared much about anything post-Souvenirs and used to think they peaked with Le Secret.

I haven't heard Le Secret but their latest is now my favourite after Souvenirs d'un autre monde.

The Vitriol album that came out in September is surprisingly great. Technical yet brutal death that has nice melodic flourishes.

Production does hurt the nuance a bit but it is nonstop pummeling energy.

They are opening for Cattle Decap

god the bill for that tour (Cattle Decap/Atheist/Full of Hell/Author and Punisher/Vitriol) makes that show very tempting

Yea i am very much there

On Tues

please report back, it's a little more than I like to spend on a gig (esp a weekday night gig!)

Will do!

Glad i have the week off, Tuesday nights are usually tough otherwise

Cattle Decap leaked. Normally wouldn't play a leak but i can't wait, plus i have the alb pre-ordered

Spinning now

Lifetime of ILM 2000-19 Heavy Rock,Noise, Heavy Psych, punk, emo, nu-metal & Metal (or related) Poll VOTING & CAMPAIGNING thread(All welcome to participate) Voting close 23:59 December 13th

xpost shit's of poor sound quality (brickwalled), which was to be expected from a leak, but it's good stuff. idk if I'm as high on it as all of you (I miss the crazier grind from even as recently as Monolith of Inhumanity), and the melodic stuff is even more front and center, though it works far better than on the past album.

gonna give another listen when it's not 2 am

I've never heard these guys and I'm not really into grind to begin with but I'll be sure to check out the new album.

I feel like the newer stuff especially you can enjoy without being a huge grind fan. not to say they aren't extreme but they're more proper 'songs' than their stuff like Humanure (which I also like)

I just wanted to type Humanure again