Rolling 2020 Metal Thread

Migration has been rescheduled to October. Of 2021.

A couple more Twitter comments about albums that just came out that I like...

The new @jarboe_living album 'Illusory' (@consouling) seems meditative and contemplative but try as she might, it seems like an uneasy peace treaty with a world that doesn't deserve the courtesy (see "Man of Hate"). https://t.co/sSjn78RyQ5 #NowPlaying

— Brian O'Neill (@NYC__Native) April 19, 2020

.@Oranssi_Pazuzu's "Mestarin kynsi" (@nuclearblastusa) doesn't rely on mere psychedelics to make it's hallucinogenic point; there's Swans discomfort, Kraftwerk minimalism. A perfect soundtrack to an apocalypse that is long overdue. https://t.co/wWHkhGZofA #NowPlaying

— Brian O'Neill (@NYC__Native) April 19, 2020

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gyasCEbpro

I loved the last Ulthar record!

When you guys get wind of these, let the class know what you think:

5/1 --- Witchcraft, Havoc (I personally think they suck, but whatever)
5/8 --- Old Man Gloom, Oathbreaker,
5/15 --- Paradise Lost
5/29 --- Alestorm (I know, but I think they're fun), Xibalba

I've heard the Xibalba record. It's solid, knuckle-walking hardcore/beatdown death metal, somewhere between Entombed and Judge. RIYL big dumb riffs and a powerlifter barfing at you.

The Witchcraft record is a complete waste of time. It's eight tracks, maybe half an hour long, and it's just the singer and an acoustic guitar. Not even a second guitar from another bandmember. I'm pretty sure I slipped into unconsciousness at least twice listening to it.

xpost - do you keep your own list of release dates or did you copy that from somewhere?

i feel like i need a better way to know what metal albums are coming out. i had no idea new Oathbreaker is on the way.

Speaking of beatdown/hardcore, I'm definitely not Mister Current Affairs on that genre (I mean Hatebreed is still a "new" band in my book). But recently I've discovered Rise Of The Northstar - French, apparently named after a Japanese kids show, and they do hardcore-with-rapping Biohazard/Suicidal Tendencies-style. Esp the first EP and album from 2014 are incredibly entertaining, of course it's goofy but they absolutely go all-in on the intensity, and they bring the hooks.

Haha, Fist of the North Star, which is the show you might be thinking of, is most definitely *not* for children.

I'm not Mister Current Affairs on japanese comics either, it seems.

obv stating that the Old Man Gloom rec that they bandcamped, rules in all manners

https://profoundlorerecords.bandcamp.com/album/seminar-ix-darkness-of-being

same amalgamation of awesomeness as ever, yeah, in a more captivating and very fluid way

Have no interest in the new Alestorm, but it got a pretty brutal (I think it's a 2 out of 10) review in the new Decibel.

Good to know I can safely skip the Witchcraft.

I'm sure I'm the only person in this thread uncool enough to like Trivium, but they've got a new one out on Friday that's pretty decent. About as good as the one before it, better than the one before that, not as good as the two before that (In Waves is still my favorite of their albums).

I like some Trivium, but the last couple haven't left much of an impression.

xpost - do you keep your own list of release dates or did you copy that from somewhere?

ah, gotcha. thanks.

i think my favorite heavy/metal album of 2020 so far is this one:

https://aktor.bandcamp.com/album/placebo

am i nuts?

Still waiting for my pre-order for the new Elder to arrive but I'm getting a kick out of Angry Metal Guy's absolute trashing of the new record which is, uh, quite a bit different from the other reviews I've read from people with far more trustworthy tastes.

I would love the shit out of the new Elder LP if dude didn’t sound like a 2nd tier 90s alt-rock singer. Good thing most of the record is instrumental – and less fuzz suits them, for the most part.

yeah his vox are really glaring in places on this one :/

I like the new Elder a lot, but not as much as I liked Floating World. When I want doomy prog with almost-too-much synth, I have Ancestors; I like Elder best when they head to the edge of Baroness/Kylesa territory. That said, I really liked the Krautrock stuff on the Gold & Silver Sessions EP, so...I don't know. I will say that the vocals don't bother me - they're fine-to-ignorable.

I know many have grown tired of Warbringer given their diminishing returns, but this new one on first listen is more balls out than anything they did since their first "demo" turned album.

I don't know the first thing about them but this is pretty good so far.

their first two were pretty inspired, esp the first one as the thrash revival wasn't so fuckin' oversaturated at the time, but they got less interesting over time. none of their shit is original or anything but they're good at what they do.

though last year's album by Sadistic Intent is better. and really good.

I like Warbringer but haven't heard the new one yet.

I've said it before, but my problem with thrash revival bands is that I feel like I need to properly immerse myself in the 80s before moving on to the nostalgia bait. Then again, a cursory look at RYM's thrash top 40 reveals that I've heard, like, 15 of them, which isn't that bad.

Another problem is that the retro thrash movement is already so old itself, starting with (often half-serious) bands like Gehennah, Desekrator, Aura Noir, Dekapitator, Infernö, Bewitched, Witchery, Desaster in the mid/late 90s, that the nostalgia effect has by now completely worn off.

Then there's nostalgia for music you used to hate. As a kid I hated all the AOR I heard cuz you couldn't escape it, and I knew there was better stuff that I didn't have access to. Yet now Chris Black's High Spirits and Aktor are hitting pleasure buttons I didn't know I had (though I've been gradually warming up to the old AOR over the course of 15 yrs). I can listen to an entire album by The Night Flight Orchestra! I'm discovering old stuff that I'd never heard like Balance and liking it.

I had an 80s technical thrash deep dive a couple years ago, but had a hard time with the crappy production, since that style would benefit from better recording technology than most of those bands had access to. Voivod and Coroner eventually did, but Watchtower, Mekong Delta, Deathrow, Realm, Sadus, Toxik, Annihilator, Artillery, Obliveon, Hellwitch, Invocator and Aspid, not so much. For I tend to lean toward the newer stuff.

I noted in my review of the Elder album that I heard 90s indie too, though it made me think of Bitch Magnet, Unwound, Polvo, Rodan. Not sure if Nick heard those specific bands, but he did recently mention going from post-hardcore to Low, Red House Painters and Idaho. I think his vocals work just fine in the context of those songs.

The Wino cover of Joy Division is really sweet.
Never thought Joy Division could boogie, and yet...
I wonder what Peter hook would think of it.

Gústaf of Misþyrming, Dauðadagur of Misþyrming and Skáphe; and Sturla Viðar of Svartidauði are Drottinn and they sound awesome playing raw, frenzy impetuous deathened black

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBgeNQ5WC-c

Thanks for the heads up.

I find the new Katatonia so ponderous... Can anyone rep for this?

I wish I could.

oh my god that Black Curse album is almost hilariously intense

catching up but I love the Aktor album. Paranoia was a random purchase from a sale bin (I knew Circle was involved that's it, loved the cover art too) and at first i was like "ehhh not my kinda thing" but i grew to love it. Been getting into Dawnbringer too lately.

Anyway new Herxheim for fans of the Howls of Ebb style creepy-crawl. Longer, slower tracks, just as full of disease.

http://herxheim.bandcamp.com/album/incised-arrival-lp

more big chorused basslines in metal

I'm enjoying the Katatonia album. Typically mellow and deliberately paced, but with just enough heavy moments to provide some variation. I'm sure it'll grow on me more, too.

i've digitally bought about like 50 albums in a month. i'm afraid to keep reading this thread

scary thing is I have time to listen to em all for the first time in my life but I still want more

was reading Mats Gustafsson waxing lyrical about Anna Hogberg Attacks's Lena - link posted in the rolling jazz thread- and i hope he's cool if i just paste here his enthusing A primal force of something... real and Music in general is a primal force 'cause it also fits so damn perfectely the Black Curse album

hopefully in light of that my Endless Wound post upthread from days ago, will read less dumb

omg this Black Curse, holy fuck.

I like the Black Curse, but I can’t say it’s bowled me over. Time for another spin.

i'm just happy to find new death metal I like that's finding a way to keep things fresh.

this isn't topping last year's Blood Incantation, but i'll be spinning it a bit.

interestingly enough, this band has Khemmis's drummer, Blood Incantation's bass player, and Primitive Man's guitar player

Don't get me wrong, I think it's excellent. I'm just a little taken aback by the hype (4.5/5 on AMG, for instance).

i'm kinda suspicious of most overhyped metal releases. i think last year was one of the first times where I was relatively in line with what the press was picking for death metal.

Should anyone find this useful, I took the liberty of cobbling together a list of 2020 metal releases that have stood out for me so far, with approximate subgenre tags appended to each title:

Ad Infinitum – Chapter I: Monarchy (symphonic/power)
Afterbirth – Four Dimensional Flesh (brutal tech death)
Atavisma / Void Rot – Atavisma / Void Rot (death doom)
AYYUR – Balkarnin (black)
Black Curse – Endless Wound (blackened death)
Black Flux – Black Stream (black)
Bütcher – 666 Goats Carry My Chariot (black/speed)
Caverne – Omphalos (black)
Cénotaphe – Monte Verità (black)
Chaos Catharsis – Extase dans la violence (brutal tech death)
Cordyceps – Betrayal (brutal death)
Dola – Dola (post-metal)
Fortress of the Olden Days – Verlassenheit (atmoblack)
Gates of Tyrant – Vortex Towards Death (black)
Genfærd – Blodhævn (black)
Grift – Budet (atmoblack)
Hecate – Ode au désert suspendu (black)
Horresque – Chasms, Pt. I: Avarice and Retribution (blackened death)
Loviatar – Lightless (doom)
Lowrider – Refractions (stoner/heavy psych)
Nawaharjan – Lokabrenna (black)
Nekrovault – Totenzug: Festering Peregrination (blackened death)
Nero di Marte – Immoto (avant-metal)
Norrhem – Koitos (pagan)
Oranssi Pazuzu – Mestarin kynsi (black/heavy psych)
Paysage d’Hiver – Im Wald (atmoblack)
Plague – Portraits of Mind (death)
Sjálfsmorð af Gáleysi – The Ruins of Eden (avant-metal)
Solothus – Realm of Ash and Blood (death doom)
Spectral Lore & Mare Cognitum – Wanderers: Astrology of the Nine (atmoblack)
Sweven – The Eternal Resonance (prog/black)
Turia – Degen van licht (black)
Ulcerate – Stare Into Death and Be Still (tech death)
Ygg – The Last Scald (pagan)

Fluisteraars, pom?

want to check the Atavisma / Void Rot split asap

Upon revisiting it, I found it a little too bright for my (current) liking.

2020 releases I've liked:

Abysmal Dawn, Phylogenesis (tech-death)
Afterbirth, Four Dimensional Flesh (arty prog-death)
Beast of Revelation, The Ancient Ritual of Death (doom-death)
The Black Dahlia Murder, Verminous (melodeath)
Dwaal, Gospel of the Vile (dooooom)
Elder, Omens (Elder)
Christian Muenzner, Path of the Hero (shred)
Sightless Pit, Grave of a Dog (arty industrial noise)
Trivium, What the Dead Men Say (modern metal)
Ulcerate, Stare Into Death and Be Still (dissonant doom-death)
Vader, Solitude in Madness (floor-punching DM)
Xibalba, Años en Infierno (floor-punching DM/beatdown hardcore)

In terms of pure sound, the Beast of Revelation is an absolute monster but the songwriting is kind of monotonous. It would have been one of my favourites otherwise.

I'm growing tired of doom-death