Rolling 2020 Metal Thread

mid-tempo growly underwater doom with dreamy spidery guitars from Markov Soroka. Very very good

https://markovsoroka.bandcamp.com/album/subaqueous

like very very VERY fuckin good. dang

omg this new Lantern

there's 'clean' vocals and the vocalist sounds like Javier Bardem when he sings even though he's Finnish

Finally got around to that Neptunian Maximalism and it's the real deal.

The Regarde les hommes tomber LP Neechy mentioned upthread is very much worth hearing as well.

on second listen, new Lantern is fuckin' fantastic

11 minutes into 'Avènement de l’éon évaísthitozoïque probocène flamboyant' for the second time today and I'm tempted to argue that Éons is the Espaces acoustiques of metal.

I have a lot of catching up to do, apparently.

Actual quote from a PR email I just received: "If you are looking for something polished, advanced, or otherwise consistent with industry standards, prepare to be disappointed." Seriously, what the fuck? "Our music is poorly played and recorded like shit! Excited yet?"

man, poorly played and recorded metal, what an innovation

on second listen, new Lantern is fuckin' fantastic

― I hear that sometimes Satan wants to defund police (Neanderthal), Monday, July 13, 2020 8:31 AM (eleven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

oh man they really killed it

The Neptunian Maximalism (triple?) album is amazing!

Actual quote from a PR email I just received: “If you are looking for something polished, advanced, or otherwise consistent with industry standards, prepare to be disappointed.” Seriously, what the fuck? “Our music is poorly played and recorded like shit! Excited yet?”

They could just say it sounds ‘raw’ and not tie themselves up in rhetorical knots.

what does "advanced" mean in that sentence

The chords don't progress, there's only one chord per song

frankly, i'm in

"we heard you like microtonal metal so we kept it to one tone"

maybe it's like Zaireeka where they make a cd for every note possible on the fretboard and you have to play the cds simultaneously to make the music you want

Name a name plz, this is already sounding like my AOTY.

It's an album by Siege Column, coming out on Nuclear War Now! in August. (Musical merits - or not - of this particular record aside, hasn't NWN thrown in with politically shady folks in the past?)

Just a quick glance at their Bandcamp reminds me that, yes, they've got Lurker of Chalice, Cénotaphe, Goatlord…

Cenotaphe are dodgy? dammit i listened to their album on spotify the other day and liked it

They've put out Goatpenis... but also Agathocles

I think it's safe to say they're not generally an NS focused label but they don't really care about the politics of the bands they put out and probably enjoy the edginess. The owner has some weird ideas about Yukio Mishima.

To be precise, Nécropole are the ones with explicitly antisemitic lyrics, but that's just Cénotaphe with an extra member.

You can run track 2, 'Ferments de corruption', through Google translate:

https://www.spirit-of-metal.com/parole-groupe-Necropole-nom_album-Solarite-l-fr.html

:(

That is, and I say this as a person who's unfortunately seen a lot of antisemitic lyrics, fucking awful

Its neo-late Romantic literary pretentiousness is fairly typical of the French BM scene. I can’t tell whether that makes it worse or is just a different flavour of awful.

https://mcusercontent.com/90ec68132b3c021c2e6819f62/files/5cb6a7c1-7150-4c88-b2cd-3abe0cc8e5b8/fistfulmetal2.pdf

Another batch of metal zines on the auction block! Crazy prices - but a better representation overall (in comparison to first batch I posted about above).

There are no long doom epics on the new Incantation album. There are some slow songs, of course, but they're short. Still, there's a song called "Entrails of the Hag Queen," so it's a must-buy.

welp after that discussion about NWN i am sad to announce they are reissuing the Minotauri album.

and i'm working my way through the Neptunian Maximalism album in sections (yesterday was Earth, tonight Moon) and it's wonderful. gives me JK Broadrick/K. Martin vibes circa Ice and the God stuff, which is a high compliment.

(first Minotauri album that is)

I give you, uh, Belarusian blackened trap:

https://moraprokazasom.bandcamp.com/album/by-chance

This is one of the more endearing quarantine music videos I've seen this year:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3zeW_cEm7I

My copy of the Neptunian Maximalism 3CD set arrived today. It's a really nice digipak. Worth owning in physical form IMO.

If you don't know whether you like gothic symphonic metal or not, the new Dark Sarah album is a good way to find out:

https://open.spotify.com/album/4vPBOxUHgThzl6U87tGHGG

unperson - did you order that Neptunian Maimalism CD through their bandcamp? How long did that take to get to you?

Yeah, through Bandcamp. I ordered it on June 29, so...18 days.

Actually, to be pedantic, I ordered it from here, but that was linked from their Bandcamp and I got a "yum" download code with my purchase, so I guess it's all linked?

Cool, thanks. Just curious with how messy shipping has got, but that package looks too cool to pass up.

Due to popular demand here is a self-indulgent rundown of all the metal albums that I've enjoyed in the first half of 2020:

AOTY so far
Sweven - The Eternal Resonance

Particular favourites (mostly ilx friendly)
Spectral Lore/Mare Cognitum split
Oranssi Pazuzu - Mestarin Kynsi
Mamaleek - Come and See
Kaatayra - Só quem viu o relâmpago à sua direita sabe
Hail Spirit Noir - Eden in Reverse
Elder - Omens
Monolithe - Okta Khora
Jordablood - The Cabinet of Numinous Song

Good, but possibly niche interest
Etoile Filante - Magnum opus caelestis (ornate atmoblack)
Afterbirth - Four Dimensional Flesh (progressive brutal death metal)
SouphL - CommérageS (avant-garde mathcore)
Aara - En Ergô Einai (frilly atmoblack)
Lesath - Sacred Ashes (cloudy atmoblack)
Lotus Thief - Oresteia (prog/post-/doom/black metal)
Forlesen - Hierophant Violent (ambient doom, sorta)
Vihameditaatio - Kuoleman silmän kontinuumi (raw psych bm)
Lugubrum - Plage chômage (?)
Sallow Moth - The Larval Hope (tech-death)

Good stuff, although I was a tad disappointed by the Aara. So fallen alle Tempel felt more cohesive to me. And didn't the Monolithe come out last year?

Kaatayra looks intriguing. Have you heard Salqiu?

Oh yeah you're right about Monolithe, I got confused because it was released digitally this year apparently. Kaatayra's pretty interesting, he has a couple also very good albums that sound a lot like Volahn, this new one's closer to Botanist if anything.

I'm horribly behind with my backlog, Salqiu has not been on my radar but it seems neat, I'll get round to it ASAP!

shit I dig from this year...

Lantern - Dimensions
Voidceremony - Entropic Reflections Continuum
Centinex - Death in Pieces
Ripped to Shreds - Luan
Putrid Pile - Revel in Lunacy
Black Curse - Endless Wound
Like Rats - Death Monolith
Meth Leppard - Woke
Afterbirth - Four Dimensional Flesh
Midnight - Rebirth by Blasphemy
Rage - Wings of Rage
Sinister - Deformation of the Holy Realm
Annihilator - Ballistic, Sadistic
Exhumed/Gruesome - Twisted Horror (EP)
Mekong Delta - Tales of a Future Past
Vader - Solitude in Madness
Warbringer - Weapons of Tomorrow
Oranssi Pazuzu - Mestarin Kynsi
Abysmal Dawn -Phylogenesis
Benighted - Obscene Repressed

probably forgetting a ton

My list so far (it's longer than I expected, given how little time I spend listening to metal these days):

Abysmal Dawn - Phylogenesis
Afterbirth - Four Dimensional Flesh
Aseitas - False Peace
Beast of Revelation - The Ancient Ritual of Death
Behold the Arctopus - Hapeleptic Overtrove
The Black Dahlia Murder - Verminous
Defeated Sanity - The Sanguinary Impetus
Dwaal - Gospel of the Vile
Elder - Omens
Fange - Pudeur
Christian Muenzner - Path of the Hero
Neptunian Maximalism - Éons
Titan To Tachyons - Cactides
Triptykon - Requiem: Live at Roadburn 2019
Trivium - What the Dead Men Say
Ulcerate - Stare Into Death and Be Still
Vader - Solitude In Madness
Xibalba - Años in Infierno
Xythlia - Immortality Through Quantum Suicide

I posted this to my Facebook page at the start of the month.

Midway Point of 2020
Metal(lic) Albums I Really Like

At The Altar Of The Horned God - Through Doors of Moonlight
Cirith Ungol - Forever Black
Cosmic Burial - Impakt
Couch Slut - Take A Chance On Rock 'n' Roll
Dola - Dola
Drottinn - Í helgum dýrðar ljóma
Drown - Subaqueous
Eye of Nix - Ligeia
Feminazgûl - No Dawn For Men
Fluisteraars - Bloem
Frayle - 1692
Haunt - Mind Freeze
Horn - Mohngang
Hyporian - Volume II
Ihsahn - Telemark [EP]
Insect Ark - The Vanishing
Lili Refrain - ULU
Lotus Thief - Oresteia
Lucifer - III
Myrkur - Folkesange
Oranssi Pazuzu - Mestarin Kynsi
Paradise Lost - Obsidian
Paysage d'Hiver - Im Wald
Pyrrhon - Abscess Time
Riot - Rock World (Rare & Unreleased 87-95)
Sightless Pig - Grave of a Dog
Skepticism - Alloy (Reissue)
Smoulder - Dream Quest Ends
Thy Catafalque - Naiv
Tombs - Monarchy of Shadows
Total Fucking Destruction - ...to be alive at the end of the world
Triptykon/Metropole Orkest - Requiem (Roadburn 2019)
Vile Creature - Glory, Glory! Apathy Took Helm!
Violet Cold - Noir Kid
Warbringer - Weapons Of Tomorrow
Witching - Vernal
Wolftooth - Valhalla
Yatra - Blood of the Night
Nechochwen / Panopticon - Split

Half a top 50 so far, unranked:

Armagedda – Svindeldjup Ättestup
Atavisma / Void Rot – Atavisma / Void Rot
Ayyur – Balkarnin
Caverne – Omphalos
Ehnahre – The Scrape of a Keel
Esoctrilihum – Eternity of Shaog
Förfallet – Förfallet
Fortress of the Olden Days – Verlassenheit
Grifteskymfning – Bedrövelsens härd
Horn – Mohngang
Lowrider – Refractions
Nawaharjan – Lokabrenna
Neptunian Maximalism – Éons
Nero di Marte – Immoto
Oranssi Pazuzu – Mestarin kynsi
Paysage d’Hiver – Im Wald
Salqiu – Orfeu
Serment – Chante, ô flamme de la liberté
Sombre Héritage – Alpha ursae minoris
Spectral Lore & Mare Cognitum – Wanderers: Astrology of the Nine
Turia – Degen van licht
Ulcerate – Stare Into Death and Be Still
Utkena – Nex Fornix
Vampire – Rex
Ygg – The Last Scald

It occurs to me that only two of those are American (Mare Cognitum, Void Rot) and both are splits.

whoaa i didn't know about that new ehnahre record! it sounds good!!

my other faves from this year so far have been oath of cruelty, ripped to shreds, body count, and the spectral lore / mare cognitum

2020 metal-adjacent stuff to have gotten 9/10 from jagthony imtago

Victory Over the Sun - A Tessitura of Transfiguration - if andrei rublev was about gender transition & if tarkovsky's chosen medium was microtonal bm
Psalm Zero - Sparta - sick prog metal, depeche mode style, from everyone's favourite medievalist
Slift - Ummon - kosmische heavy psych, 70 minutes in the blink of an astral portal
Azusa - Loop Of Yesterdays - lovely melodic proggy post-hardcore from international supergroup; comes out as delirious psych-pop in its last two tracks
Stabscotch - Twilight Dawn - wildly experimental brutal prog/hardcore outfit who cite coil as their predominant influence and consider themselves magicians (transitioning across this release from black to white magic)

2020 metal-adjacent stuff to get 10/10 from imagony jagthano

fuckin' Oranssi Pazuzu obv

oh yea the new ulthar is out too 🤟 https://listen.20buckspin.com/album/providence