Wait, did I listen to Primitive Man? Oh yeah, I put them at #37 on my ballot, a late entry. I hate to call this album unmemorable, but...
― Iannis Xenakis double fisting Cutty Sark (Tom Violence), Monday, 8 March 2021 14:38 (three years ago) link
I don't think I've heard of this before. The description makes it sound like its going to be very raw and crude, but then again it's on Relapse, so one would expect better production values, and in the event it does sound rather well recorded and mixed. First track is pleasantly sludgy.
― o. nate, Monday, 8 March 2021 14:42 (three years ago) link
Alright, let's inaugurate the top 100 proper with the slowest of all possible metal tempos.
― pomenitul, Monday, 8 March 2021 14:44 (three years ago) link
#100Atramentus – Stygian93 points, 3 votes
https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a4077586115_10.jpg
https://20buckspin.bandcamp.com/album/stygian
Bearing the “gift” of immortality bestowed to him by the God’s sword, a lone knight trudges across the land, snow crunching beneath his feet with every heavy, weary step. After witnessing the death of the sun and thus all life on Earth perishing, he’s left with no choice but to travel the frozen lands alone, forcing him to recall painful memories of the loss of those he loved, forever trapped under miles upon miles of ice. Now that‘s a hefty premise for a debut album, and it would take an equally hefty delivery to even give it a whiff of justice. But Atramentus, the Canadian funeral doom act consisting of members of Chthe’ilist, Funebrarum, and Gevurah (among others), spent a good length of time, constructing this album’s premise as far back as the band’s formation in 2012. Stygian is the end result of their labor.And over the course of just three songs totaling over 45 minutes, they most certainly laid down one of the heaviest pieces of funeral doom I’ve heard in a long time. The two bookends of the album provide the bulk of Stygian‘s considerable length, clocking in at a whopping 40 minutes of top-shelf funeral doom. Opening with a mournful harpsichord, “Stygian I: From Tumultuous Heavens… (Descended Forth the Ceaseless Darkness)”1 lurches menacingly forward, darkening your mood with an onslaught of heavy riffs by Claude Leduc and Phil Tougas (both Chthe’ilist), with Tougas growling, howling, and chanting in forlorn agony. It never progresses faster than a menacing creep, and that’s fine, as Atramentus feels fine with suffocating you with oppressive riffs, a stifling atmosphere, and the wonderful feeling of bad shit not letting up anytime soon. There’s no sunshine here. It’s dead, remember?
And over the course of just three songs totaling over 45 minutes, they most certainly laid down one of the heaviest pieces of funeral doom I’ve heard in a long time. The two bookends of the album provide the bulk of Stygian‘s considerable length, clocking in at a whopping 40 minutes of top-shelf funeral doom. Opening with a mournful harpsichord, “Stygian I: From Tumultuous Heavens… (Descended Forth the Ceaseless Darkness)”1 lurches menacingly forward, darkening your mood with an onslaught of heavy riffs by Claude Leduc and Phil Tougas (both Chthe’ilist), with Tougas growling, howling, and chanting in forlorn agony. It never progresses faster than a menacing creep, and that’s fine, as Atramentus feels fine with suffocating you with oppressive riffs, a stifling atmosphere, and the wonderful feeling of bad shit not letting up anytime soon. There’s no sunshine here. It’s dead, remember?
https://www.angrymetalguy.com/atramentus-stygian-review/
Bonus Large Sad Men looming in the background, as is tradition.
― pomenitul, Monday, 8 March 2021 14:45 (three years ago) link
This was my favourite funeral doom album of 2020, so I'm largely sad to see it place so low. I think it's structurally and timbrally less predictable than most of the usual fare, and Philippe Tougas is an eloquent cookie monster.
― pomenitul, Monday, 8 March 2021 14:46 (three years ago) link
Also, having briefly lived in their home town Longueuil, a suburb of Montreal, I can attest to the accuracy and authenticity of the feelings expressed therein.
― pomenitul, Monday, 8 March 2021 14:48 (three years ago) link
Good album, definitely not quite typical fun-doom, could never get into it that much though unfortunately
― your passion oozzes from the (ultros ultros-ghali), Monday, 8 March 2021 14:49 (three years ago) link
Whoa, surprised to see Primitive Man that low. It's my favorite of their albums so far. Meant to check out the Atramentus, but never got around to it.
― soaring skrrrtpeggios (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Monday, 8 March 2021 14:49 (three years ago) link
the longueuil loungeur lads
― stimmy stimmy yah (Simon H.), Monday, 8 March 2021 14:50 (three years ago) link
After witnessing the death of the sun and thus all life on Earth perishing, he’s left with no choice but to travel the frozen lands alone, forcing him to recall painful memories of the loss of those he loved, forever trapped under miles upon miles of ice.
Winter in Quebec, amirite.
― jmm, Monday, 8 March 2021 14:51 (three years ago) link
Literally so, yes!
It's -10°C out today ffs.
― pomenitul, Monday, 8 March 2021 14:53 (three years ago) link
Someday we should poll the albums with Lewandowski covers. This was my 33.
― Iannis Xenakis double fisting Cutty Sark (Tom Violence), Monday, 8 March 2021 14:53 (three years ago) link
Hah, I'd be up for that.
(This was my #10 btw.)
― pomenitul, Monday, 8 March 2021 14:55 (three years ago) link
(xpost my 33 on my ballot, not my 33rd favorite Lewandowski cover)
― Iannis Xenakis double fisting Cutty Sark (Tom Violence), Monday, 8 March 2021 14:57 (three years ago) link
I'm real hit-or-miss with funeral doom, but this was good. Late addition so it didn't get any higher than, say the Drown record.
― Iannis Xenakis double fisting Cutty Sark (Tom Violence), Monday, 8 March 2021 15:02 (three years ago) link
A fun test of metal is how good it would sound with the distortion turned off. Primitive Man would be hilarious as plain indie rock. Here beginneth the dissing
― imago, Monday, 8 March 2021 15:03 (three years ago) link
Haha, now that's what I'm talking about.
― pomenitul, Monday, 8 March 2021 15:04 (three years ago) link
#99Undergang – Aldrig i livet94 points, 4 votes
https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3030072133_10.jpg
https://darkdescentrecords.bandcamp.com/album/aldrig-i-livet
Back in 2011 when Indhentet Af Døden dropped, Undergang got onto my radar because they were described as a mix of Obituary and Demilich, which is obviously a winning combination. I couldn’t wait to get my grubby mitts on that record, and when I did, they got even grubbier because Undergang plays filthy, sewer-dwelling death metal exclusively. Since new Undergang is our focus and it’s not 3AM in the Big Apple, we’re not leaving the sewer; we’re going into its dirtiest depths and getting grimy with Aldrig i livet instead.I liked that shorthand description I was given of Undergang nearly one decade ago, but upon reflection it’s somewhat incomplete. Undergang is indeed a celebration of sewage, taking a heaping scoop, throwing it at a wall, and keeping the grossest things which stick. Fans of classic death metal will hear early Obituary (the first two albums), early Autopsy (the first two albums), Rottrevore, and a bit of Symphonies of Sickness. The Finnish influence here comes largely from Abhorrence, as Undergang employ their own version of Vulgar Necrolatry’s peculiar Finnish melodicism to help capture the sound of an unknown…thing slithering by you in the opaque sewage, but also take the odd cue from Demilich here as well. After two increasingly lengthier and doom-focused records following their debut, Undergang released Misantropologi, their shortest LP to date, where they ratcheted the early Carcass influence up to eleven and streamlined their songwriting. It was an interesting approach, but it didn’t really stick to my ribs the way their first two did, but there was certainly potential in that musical direction.I’ll get right to it: Aldrig i livet actualizes that potential and this new disgusting brew sticks something fierce. Songs are more compellingly composed than anything these guys have put out since their debut, and they’ve essentially recaptured that unbridled creativity from 2011 and brought it into 2020 with their various influences and compositional experiments in the intervening years intact. The anything-goes creative spirit of Mental Funeral is done in marvelous fashion, with “Spontan bakteriel selvantændelse” being a minute long and sounding like Undergang successfully writing something like “Bonesaw” in their own style (and with vocals). “Indtørret” has an “In the Grip of Winter” type break, but what comes after is an extended lead and disgusting vocals which sound like an extension of that indecipherable burbling about forty seconds into “Ruptured in Purulence.” What sounds like a sly reference to Obituary’s “Cause of Death” kicks off “Ufrivillig donation af vitale organer” and Undergang drags it deeper down into the murk via Autopsy, Disma, and Abhorrence. It’s murky, punishing stuff that never gets bogged down in mindless chuggery.
I liked that shorthand description I was given of Undergang nearly one decade ago, but upon reflection it’s somewhat incomplete. Undergang is indeed a celebration of sewage, taking a heaping scoop, throwing it at a wall, and keeping the grossest things which stick. Fans of classic death metal will hear early Obituary (the first two albums), early Autopsy (the first two albums), Rottrevore, and a bit of Symphonies of Sickness. The Finnish influence here comes largely from Abhorrence, as Undergang employ their own version of Vulgar Necrolatry’s peculiar Finnish melodicism to help capture the sound of an unknown…thing slithering by you in the opaque sewage, but also take the odd cue from Demilich here as well. After two increasingly lengthier and doom-focused records following their debut, Undergang released Misantropologi, their shortest LP to date, where they ratcheted the early Carcass influence up to eleven and streamlined their songwriting. It was an interesting approach, but it didn’t really stick to my ribs the way their first two did, but there was certainly potential in that musical direction.
I’ll get right to it: Aldrig i livet actualizes that potential and this new disgusting brew sticks something fierce. Songs are more compellingly composed than anything these guys have put out since their debut, and they’ve essentially recaptured that unbridled creativity from 2011 and brought it into 2020 with their various influences and compositional experiments in the intervening years intact. The anything-goes creative spirit of Mental Funeral is done in marvelous fashion, with “Spontan bakteriel selvantændelse” being a minute long and sounding like Undergang successfully writing something like “Bonesaw” in their own style (and with vocals). “Indtørret” has an “In the Grip of Winter” type break, but what comes after is an extended lead and disgusting vocals which sound like an extension of that indecipherable burbling about forty seconds into “Ruptured in Purulence.” What sounds like a sly reference to Obituary’s “Cause of Death” kicks off “Ufrivillig donation af vitale organer” and Undergang drags it deeper down into the murk via Autopsy, Disma, and Abhorrence. It’s murky, punishing stuff that never gets bogged down in mindless chuggery.
https://www.angrymetalguy.com/undergang-aldrig-i-livet-review/
― pomenitul, Monday, 8 March 2021 15:06 (three years ago) link
TOO
FUCKING
LOW
Seriously, I thought this was one of last year's absolute best DM albums.
I would diss Atramentus but it's sounding pretty good. I will always diss DM though
― imago, Monday, 8 March 2021 15:09 (three years ago) link
but its death metal
― Oor Neechy, Monday, 8 March 2021 15:10 (three years ago) link
C'mon, you like plenty of DM, even if it comes with extra incongruous toppings.
xp
― pomenitul, Monday, 8 March 2021 15:10 (three years ago) link
aw it's true. if it isn't too aimless and wibbly ;)
Atramentus is quite something isn't it
― imago, Monday, 8 March 2021 15:13 (three years ago) link
If imago is enjoying a record that is a slave to slow tempos you know it’s the shiznit.
― pomenitul, Monday, 8 March 2021 15:16 (three years ago) link
The ending of the first track is some heavy, heavy, heavy, heavy organ-prog shit. It's like the true heir to VDGG or something
― imago, Monday, 8 March 2021 15:19 (three years ago) link
Atramentus are the Anton Bruckner of funeral doom and Stygian is their cathedral.
― pomenitul, Monday, 8 March 2021 15:22 (three years ago) link
Anyway, I wonder who else voted for the Undergang. Did Fred surreptitiously cast a ballot for the sake of his fellow Danes? I sure hope so.
― pomenitul, Monday, 8 March 2021 15:26 (three years ago) link
Next up: an excellent instrumental record that is TOTALLY NOT TRVE METAL!
― pomenitul, Monday, 8 March 2021 15:29 (three years ago) link
#98Dan Weiss/Starebaby – Natural Selection95 points, 3 votes
https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a1400024447_10.jpg
https://danweiss.bandcamp.com/album/natural-selection
Dan Weiss is one of those drummers who could easily make a name for himself simply by being a very good drummer but is far from satisfied stopping there. He’s led ensembles all the way from a duet with guitarist Miles Okazaki to a sixteen-piece band. He’s thrived in straight-ahead jazz, modern jazz and even Indian-influenced jazz — he plays a mean tabla — but in 2018 he took his biggest artistic risk yet, an experimental, electronic/prog-metal turn called Starebaby.For Starebaby, Weiss put together a murderer’s row of jazz talent: bassist Trevor Dunn (Nels Cline Singers), guitarist Ben Monder (David Bowie’s Blackstar band) and two of the most forward-thinking keyboardists on the scene today: Craig Taborn (Junk Magic) and Matt Mitchell (Snakeoil). Full of fuzz and feedback, rock bass lines, rock drums, a metal guitar and electronic adornments, this isn’t the stuff you wouldn’t expect top shelf jazz musicians to play. However, these are particularly adventurous jazz musicians and even those types like rock ‘n’ roll and other forms of contemporary music.They do bring their improvisational chops to every composition, but these compositions often don’t follow the structure of either jazz or rock. You don’t have a song figured out in the first two minutes and sometimes, not even in the first five minutes, because even though these songs are meticulously composed one never knows what lurks around the corner
For Starebaby, Weiss put together a murderer’s row of jazz talent: bassist Trevor Dunn (Nels Cline Singers), guitarist Ben Monder (David Bowie’s Blackstar band) and two of the most forward-thinking keyboardists on the scene today: Craig Taborn (Junk Magic) and Matt Mitchell (Snakeoil). Full of fuzz and feedback, rock bass lines, rock drums, a metal guitar and electronic adornments, this isn’t the stuff you wouldn’t expect top shelf jazz musicians to play. However, these are particularly adventurous jazz musicians and even those types like rock ‘n’ roll and other forms of contemporary music.
They do bring their improvisational chops to every composition, but these compositions often don’t follow the structure of either jazz or rock. You don’t have a song figured out in the first two minutes and sometimes, not even in the first five minutes, because even though these songs are meticulously composed one never knows what lurks around the corner
https://jazztimes.com/reviews/albums/dan-weiss-starebaby-natural-selection-pi/
Sund4r, stop checking the Québécois music thread instead of the metal rollout.
― pomenitul, Monday, 8 March 2021 15:30 (three years ago) link
lol
― Oor Neechy, Monday, 8 March 2021 15:35 (three years ago) link
Catching up now. Primitive Man and Atramentus were both albums I liked that didn't get past my second ballot cut of 80ish records, but that I am glad to see place. Undergang was somewhere in the 40s on my ballot and probably could have inched higher if I spent more time with it. This Dan Weiss thing is the rare entrant in these rollouts that I have never heard of at all.
― Judi Dench's Human Hand (methanietanner), Monday, 8 March 2021 15:36 (three years ago) link
As far as vox-free jazz-metal goes, Natural Selection is top notch.
― pomenitul, Monday, 8 March 2021 15:40 (three years ago) link
Oh wow lol, glad it got other votes.
(I'm doing something that I can't listen to records while doing so I was waiting on checking this thread.)
― to party with our demons (Sund4r), Monday, 8 March 2021 15:42 (three years ago) link
This is :( though (and from a jazz publication!)
guitarist Ben Monder (David Bowie’s Blackstar band)
That might be worse than "Wilco sideman Nels Cline".
― to party with our demons (Sund4r), Monday, 8 March 2021 15:43 (three years ago) link
Fair enough, I just wanted to draw your attention to this as it's clearly your doing. ;)
xp oh lol
― pomenitul, Monday, 8 March 2021 15:43 (three years ago) link
locating Trevor Dunn in the Nels Cline singers is the biggest crime of description there imo :P
― imago, Monday, 8 March 2021 15:48 (three years ago) link
Moving on, we've got nothing less than a THREE-WAY TIE!
(32 ballots will do that, heh.)
― pomenitul, Monday, 8 March 2021 15:53 (three years ago) link
#95 TIEWorm – Gloomlord96 points, 3 votes
https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0527932810_10.jpg
https://ironboneheadproductions.bandcamp.com/album/worm-gloomlord
With the aptly titled Gloomlord, Worm has morphed into a mixture of various extreme forms of doom. The mark of bands as varied as Disembowelment, Mortuary Drape, Goatlord, Unholy, Disembowelment, and Thergothon all are present here but degraded into a shuddering mess of shambling, pounding rhythms and lurching chunk-action chords. They are as slow as you would expect though far from sparse; this sophomore’s sound is surprisingly busybodied in its songwriting, packed to the brim as a skull overflowing with maggots and running out flesh and innards for them all. Whereas most doom, extreme or not, is content to simply ring out a few chords and play a few woeful melodies then stretch either out ad nauseam, Worm attacks with an actively involved sort of aggression normally reserved for far more high tempo acts.Drumming in particular plays an unusually prominent role to the extent it’s almost counterpointing the guitar work, answering every staggering step through the muddy depths with crashing cymbal attacks, and rolls tumble and fall forth like flesh sloughing off a reanimated carcass. Very rarely does it play “normal” rhythms, always finding some sort of accent or fill to add an added weightiness to the proceedings, almost answering the riffs whenever it can. While I can’t say this is necessarily incredibly technical drumming, it is by and far the most aggressive instrument on this album which is almost unheard of for any of these styles amalgamated onto this album.
Drumming in particular plays an unusually prominent role to the extent it’s almost counterpointing the guitar work, answering every staggering step through the muddy depths with crashing cymbal attacks, and rolls tumble and fall forth like flesh sloughing off a reanimated carcass. Very rarely does it play “normal” rhythms, always finding some sort of accent or fill to add an added weightiness to the proceedings, almost answering the riffs whenever it can. While I can’t say this is necessarily incredibly technical drumming, it is by and far the most aggressive instrument on this album which is almost unheard of for any of these styles amalgamated onto this album.
https://toiletovhell.com/worm-gloomlord/
― pomenitul, Monday, 8 March 2021 15:54 (three years ago) link
#95 TIEUlthar – Providence96 points, 3 votes
https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3012301573_10.jpg
https://20buckspin.bandcamp.com/album/providence
The work of H.P. Lovecraft looms large within the extreme-metal imagination, and the Oakland trio Ulthar—who take their name from one of the author’s short stories—is far from the first band to fall under its spell. The band’s sophomore LP, Providence, which is named for Lovecraft’s hometown, features album art studded with skulls and plague buboes, resembling one of those cursed Victorian mourning wreaths woven from human hair. Those surface-level clues immediately alert the listener that they’re in for an unsettling ride (and is, artistically, par for the course for Ulthar). There is a certain ghastly air to the proceedings, as though the trio had discovered a nest of eldritch tentacles in the cellar while recording and decided to keep on playing. With Lovecraft himself, the true horror was what a racist, anti-Semitic shitbag he was, but here, that wyrd atmosphere is conjured in good faith, and conducted with blackened grandiosity.The people involved have decades of experience between them in the study and execution of extremity, from drummer Justin Ennis’s tenure in NYC black metallers Mutilation Rites and current project Void Omnia to vocalist and guitarist Shelby Lermo’s experience with Bay Area death cult Vastum and bassist and vocalist Steve Peacock’s time in off-kilter blasphemers Pale Chalice and Mastery. It is unsurprising that Ulthar is a good band, but Providence is not just a good record, it is a great one, and the reasons for that go far beyond its creators’ resumes.They couch their devotion to old-school death metal orthodoxy within a modern context; there's no mud, or murk, or self-conscious efforts to sound lo-fi, and the technical aspects are presented plainly, without apology or artifice. Providence allows no time for niceties on its short, brutish opening track, “Churn,” from which “Undying Spear” offers a brief respite before the rippling melody is torn to shreds by an imperious blast. Ulthar’s sound mingles black metal, death metal, doom, and thrash, and they skitter between genres in the leaps of a scale. But Providence owes a particular debt to Finish masters like Demigod, Convulsed, and Demilich, an earlier cohort who innately understood the importance of tempering technical flights with grounded riffs and headbanging tempos.
The people involved have decades of experience between them in the study and execution of extremity, from drummer Justin Ennis’s tenure in NYC black metallers Mutilation Rites and current project Void Omnia to vocalist and guitarist Shelby Lermo’s experience with Bay Area death cult Vastum and bassist and vocalist Steve Peacock’s time in off-kilter blasphemers Pale Chalice and Mastery. It is unsurprising that Ulthar is a good band, but Providence is not just a good record, it is a great one, and the reasons for that go far beyond its creators’ resumes.
They couch their devotion to old-school death metal orthodoxy within a modern context; there's no mud, or murk, or self-conscious efforts to sound lo-fi, and the technical aspects are presented plainly, without apology or artifice. Providence allows no time for niceties on its short, brutish opening track, “Churn,” from which “Undying Spear” offers a brief respite before the rippling melody is torn to shreds by an imperious blast. Ulthar’s sound mingles black metal, death metal, doom, and thrash, and they skitter between genres in the leaps of a scale. But Providence owes a particular debt to Finish masters like Demigod, Convulsed, and Demilich, an earlier cohort who innately understood the importance of tempering technical flights with grounded riffs and headbanging tempos.
https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/ulthar-providence/
#95 TIEVile Creature – Glory, Glory! Apathy Took Helm!96 points, 3 votes
https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a4014851458_10.jpg
https://vilecreature.bandcamp.com/album/glory-glory-apathy-took-helm
A couple of years ago, I saddled myself with the record Cast of Static and Smoke by Ontarian duo Vile Creature. It turned out to be perhaps the most memorable 3.0 I have reviewed these past 4 years. Despite its flaws, it was an ambitious record that thrived on hideous, grimy textures, hypnotic repetition and glacial progression, rather than hooks or energy. A bit over 2 years hence, and its follow-up graces my inbox, with a disturbing, Midsommar-esque cover and featuring the unwieldy title of Glory, Glory! Apathy Took Helm!.Vile Creature’s sound has remained intact since Cast. From drummer Vic’s hellish opening scream of “WE DIE!” it’s immediately clear the sort of experience he and guitarist KW envision. Glory, Glory is a grimy, nasty, suffocating record. The riffs move at a slow, deliberate, battering clip, millstones grinding your teeth to meal, at a pace too slow to be called energetic but too steady to be called funeralean. They come at us like ocean waves, each movement a rise to a crashing crescendo that washes over us and drowns us. Vic’s drums are tone-setting, the percussion almost melodic against the wall of distorted guitars, accentuating the peaks and valleys of the crushing, churning riffs, while their vocals shriek and wail like an anti-siren, filling the salty air with throat-ripping desperation.
Vile Creature’s sound has remained intact since Cast. From drummer Vic’s hellish opening scream of “WE DIE!” it’s immediately clear the sort of experience he and guitarist KW envision. Glory, Glory is a grimy, nasty, suffocating record. The riffs move at a slow, deliberate, battering clip, millstones grinding your teeth to meal, at a pace too slow to be called energetic but too steady to be called funeralean. They come at us like ocean waves, each movement a rise to a crashing crescendo that washes over us and drowns us. Vic’s drums are tone-setting, the percussion almost melodic against the wall of distorted guitars, accentuating the peaks and valleys of the crushing, churning riffs, while their vocals shriek and wail like an anti-siren, filling the salty air with throat-ripping desperation.
https://www.angrymetalguy.com/vile-creature-glory-glory-apathy-took-helm-review/
Forgot about Ulthar. Good stuff
― Red Nerussi (Neanderthal), Monday, 8 March 2021 15:56 (three years ago) link
xxp great Ian Miller cover art for the Ulthar record
― Sven Vath's scary carpet (Neil S), Monday, 8 March 2021 15:57 (three years ago) link
I quite liked the Worm, but not enough to vote for it, I'm afraid.
The Ulthar put me off for purely subjective and somewhat indefensible reasons: I'm not a huge fan of metal bands with dual vocalists, it just sounds too music hall-y for my tastes. Def a Me Problem.
I forgot to check out the Vile Creature, so I'll be making up for that pronto.
― pomenitul, Monday, 8 March 2021 15:58 (three years ago) link
Oh yay!! The Vile Creature album is lovely. Such mantric intricacy despite the crushing heaviness. I really liked this - my #23.
And that's the first thing I've heard of these so far. That Worm artwork is delicious.
― tangent x (tangenttangent), Monday, 8 March 2021 15:59 (three years ago) link
Vile Creature TOO LOW, my #3. Killer record. I missed their livestreamed set around the release of the album, unfortunately.
― Iannis Xenakis double fisting Cutty Sark (Tom Violence), Monday, 8 March 2021 16:03 (three years ago) link
Listening to it now. Right off the bat, I'm hooked.
― pomenitul, Monday, 8 March 2021 16:12 (three years ago) link
Spotify playlist btw https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6BISg6zJeLzumnfHfMfcbG?si=ccns5k-JQbKz96exWkLLKQ
― Oor Neechy, Monday, 8 March 2021 16:26 (three years ago) link
imago somehow I completely missed the Wyrmwoods album from last year, listening to it now and it's great, thanks
― your passion oozzes from the (ultros ultros-ghali), Friday, 12 March 2021 23:21 (three years ago) link
great results overall! thanks to the poll runners! here's my ballot:
Hail Spirit Noir – Eden in ReverseElder – OmensLiturgy – Origin of the AlimoniesBell Witch / Aerial Ruin - Stygian Bough Vol. ISweven – The Eternal ResonanceHum – InletOranssi Pazuzu – Mestarin kynsiHorisont – Sudden DeathThy Catafalque – NaivZombi – 2020Macabre – Carnival of KillersWorm – GloomlordKadavar – The Isolation TapesEmma Ruth Rundle & Thou – May Our Chambers Be FullPharaoh Overlord – 6Malokarpatan – Krupinské ohneAtramentus – StygianGriiim – Bête immondeKaatayra – Toda história pela frenteEarly Moods – SpellboundPaysage d'Hiver – Im WaldCarcass – DespicablePallbearer – Forgotten DaysSmoulder – Dream Quest EndsMourning Beloveth / The Ruins of Beverast – Don’t Walk on the Mass GravesLethian Dreams – A Shadow of MemoriesColour Haze – We AreSólstafir – Endless Twilight of Codependent LoveLustre – The Ashes of LightDan Weiss / Starebaby – Natural SelectionWake – Devouring RuinDwaal – Gospel of the VileDirt Woman – Lady of the DunesEsoctrilihum – Eternity of ShaogTemple Nightside – Pillars of DamnationTombstone Eyes – Land in the SkyNúll – EntityWytch Hazel – III: PentecostGarganjua – Toward the SunSpell – Opulent DecayZopp – ZoppWayfarer – A Romance with ViolenceOcclith – Gates, Doorways, and EndingsArmagedda – Svindeldjup ÄttestupIntronaut – Fluid Existential Inversions
― Frobisher, Friday, 12 March 2021 23:26 (three years ago) link
Zopp?
― Oor Neechy, Friday, 12 March 2021 23:53 (three years ago) link
What's wrong with Zopp? They have teapots and teapots are metal. (It's a lovely album)
― tangent x (tangenttangent), Saturday, 13 March 2021 01:05 (three years ago) link
Looking forward to the Zopp With Rager album then
― Oor Neechy, Saturday, 13 March 2021 13:37 (three years ago) link
I kinda don't get Oranssi Pazuzu at all. Nor Elder. I mean, it's fine, but it kinda just sounds like psych to me, whereas there is so many fucked up avant soundscapes elsewhere on the list. Neptunian Maximalism! Passage d'Hiver! 26 minute death metal about a spacefarer or something? Black metal covers of Messiaen? It's amazing, so much of it. And I look forward to delving deeper into the results. Thanks to the poll runners!
My ranked top twenty. Bold didn't place:
Sightless Pit – Grave of a DogFeminazgûl – No Dawn for MenPaysage d'Hiver – Im WaldPyrrhon – Abscess TimeTouché Amoré – LamentLiturgy – Origin of the AlimoniesImperial Triumphant – AlphavilleSeptage - Septic DecadenceSenyawa & Stephen O'Malley – Bima SaktiVladislav Delay – RakkaCryptic Shift – Visitations from EnceladusEternal Champion – Ravening IronSumac – May You Be HeldOrm – Mit blodAfsky – Ofte jeg drømmer mig dødFluisteraars – BloemZeal and Ardor – Wake of a NationBehold… the Arctopus – Hapeleptic OvertroveBlack Curse – Endless WoundPallbearer - Forgotten Days
I want more Danish bands on the list next year! Though I guess none of you like BAEST?
― Frederik B, Saturday, 13 March 2021 14:23 (three years ago) link
Bæst is good but why didn't you vote for Sunken? :(
― pomenitul, Saturday, 13 March 2021 14:25 (three years ago) link
Or Chaotian? I suppose Festering Excarnation is technically a compilation, but that didn't stop me.
― pomenitul, Saturday, 13 March 2021 14:26 (three years ago) link
Because I don't know them... I still just stumble around in this genre.
― Frederik B, Saturday, 13 March 2021 14:31 (three years ago) link
Fair enough. Do check out Sunken's Livslede at least, I think you'd really enjoy it.
― pomenitul, Saturday, 13 March 2021 14:32 (three years ago) link
I didn't vote for the Afsky but I thought it was very good btw. I'll look into the Orm – that one slipped under my radar.
― pomenitul, Saturday, 13 March 2021 14:33 (three years ago) link
The Orm ep has brass! Still waiting for an album.
The bass-player from Afsky released a solo album last month as Udånde. It's called Life of a Purist, and, well, it doesn't exactly invent a new genre. But it's ok.
― Frederik B, Saturday, 13 March 2021 14:42 (three years ago) link
Thanks for the tip. Solbrud are also going to release a new album a couple of weeks from now.
― pomenitul, Saturday, 13 March 2021 14:46 (three years ago) link
Oh! Didn't know that! Yay!
― Frederik B, Saturday, 13 March 2021 14:50 (three years ago) link
150 Nechochwen / Panopticon – Nechochwen / Panopticon9 Liturgy - Origin of the Alimonies95 Vile Creature - Glory, Glory! Apathy Took Helm!6 Elder - Omens182 Body Void / Keeper – Body Void / Keeper187 Bernelius - Grave Dancer192 Yuri Gagarin (SWE) – The Outskirts of Reality30 Mare Cognitum & Spectral Lore – Wanderers: Astrology of the Nine205 Limalla – ¿Ké futuro? Directo61 Drown - Subaqueous29 Victory Over the Sun - A Tessitura of Transfiguration218 Gareth Davis and Merzbow - Broken Landscapes50 Sightless Pit - Grave of a Dog11 Slift - Ummon80 Khthoniik Cerviiks – Æequiizoiikum147 Ensiferum - Thalassic247 Thee Arcadians - Current Events257 Barishi - Old Smoke264 Terminal Nation - Holocene Extinction93 Bell Witch / Aerial Ruin – Stygian Bough Vol. I21 Krallice - Mass Cathexis8 Imperial Triumphant - Alphaville234 Serment – Chante, ô flamme de la liberté7 Paysage d'Hiver – Im Wald130 Senyawa & Stephen O'Malley – Bima Sakti307 Bong Wizard - Left Hand Pass18 Lowrider - Refractions320 Faron - Interloper53 Pallbearer - Forgotten Days332 Modarin – In the Distance…335 Fuzzriders – Fuzzriders342 Bring Me the Axe - Bring Me the Axe100 Atramentus - Stygian69 Svalbard - When I Die, Will I Get Better?64 Fuck the Facts - Plene noirceur363 Adzes - No One Wants to Speak About It101 Primitive Man - Immersion32 Couch Slut – Take a Chance on Rock 'n' Roll207 Stephen O'Malley – Auflösung der Zeit382 Desolate Entity - Deconstruction124 Caustic Wound - Death Posture1 Oranssi Pazuzu - Mestarin kynsi43 Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou – May Our Chambers Be Full24 Necrot - Mortal400 Nawaharjan - Lokabrenna12 Ulcerate - Stare Into Death and Be Still191 Escuela Grind - Ppoowweerrvviioolleennccee38 Boris - No381 Anaal Nathrakh - Endarkenment127 Cosmic Putrefaction - The Horizons Towards Which Splendour Withers
I really can't believe nobody else voted for the Nechochwen/Panopticon split, "Rune's Heart" is such an incredible song.
― Iannis Xenakis double fisting Cutty Sark (Tom Violence), Saturday, 13 March 2021 17:13 (three years ago) link
methanietanner as expected, your ballot was the closet to mine of anybody's
including the Ingested album, lol
― Red Nerussi (Neanderthal), Saturday, 13 March 2021 19:47 (three years ago) link
forgot to bold my list, but at a quick pass, this is the stuff that didn't place in the top 100, I think -
Bog Body / Primitive Warfare – The Gate of Grief / Undulating TormentOksennus – Työn orjat sorron yöstä nouskaa200 Stab Wounds – Piles of Festering DecompositionYoth Iria – Under His SwayDeliquesce – Engineered FrailtyKryptamok – VerisaarnaUndeath – Lesions of a Different KindThaetas – Shrines to AbsurdityTorture Tomb – Killing to See How It FeelsDenunciation – California CommandoCrushing the Scepter – Echoing Screams of Madness and DelusionSerration – Shrine of ConsciousnessKommand – TerrorscapeStriges – Verum veterumGravesend – Preparations for Human DisposalDkharmakhaoz – Proclamation ov the Black SunsTerrestrial Hospice – Indian Summer Brought Mushroom CloudsIsengard – VårjevndøgnInternal Rot – Grieving BirthVassafor – To the DeathMoldé Volhal – Into the Cave of Ordeals…Aethyrick – GnosisLustre – The Ashes of LightExhumation – Eleventh FormulaeGreVlaR – Cloud of DeathIfernach – The Green Enchanted Forest of the Druid WizardOnirik – The Fire Cult Beyond EternityLeft Cross – Prophecy of ConquestChasmdweller – Bacterial LotusHerxheim – Incised ArrivalRat King – Vicious InhumanityVader – Solitude in MadnessAborted – La grande mascaradeVentr – Numinous NegativityFaustian Pact – Outojen tornien varjoissa
gonna rep for a few that really stood out to me...
bog body / undulating torment split:https://stygianblackhand.bandcamp.com/album/the-gate-of-grief-undulating-torment
the bog body side is just really in my sweet spot. slow and heavy bass/drums duo that is also pretty propulsive. not unlike ride for revenge and has me primed for more from them.
undulating torment side is messy grind, also cool.
oksennus:https://necrolatryrecords.bandcamp.com/album/ty-n-orjat-paholaisten-y-st-nouskaa
nothing like the other oksennus material I've heard, which was more like gorguts. loose and jammy but great vibe. feels a bit like something corrupted might have put out on a split.
200 stab wounds:https://200stabwounds-maggotstomp.bandcamp.com/album/piles-of-festering-decomposition
this was pretty hyped I thought but only one other person voted for it so... death metal that grooves pretty hard for its brief runtime. "she was already dead" is my fav cut.
crushing the scepter:https://crushingthescepter.bandcamp.com/album/echoing-screams-of-madness-and-delusion
very sparse and atmospheric, feels a bit like disembowlment gone black metal.
deliquesce:https://deliquesceau.bandcamp.com/album/engineered-frailty
another short and sweet death metal release. love the twangy bass work. it's like 6mins long, just give it a shot!
kryptamok:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhg2YAHibPU
could mostly be the similarities between the covers but I always think of emperor's nightside eclipse when I play this one. obv, it isn't as good as that but... it's pretty damn good.
― (⊙_⊙?) (original bgm), Saturday, 13 March 2021 22:32 (three years ago) link
I was wondering who else on here was brootal enough to vote for the Ingested, Neanderthal. Were you also the other voter for Putrid Pile perchance?
― Judi Dench's Human Hand (methanietanner), Saturday, 13 March 2021 23:35 (three years ago) link
As I noted wayyyyy upthread so maybe it has yet to get dealt with, I accidentally double-voted for Ulthar and the proof is in the c & p below: if a re-count is in order then I bellow 'mea culpa' hellward in the OSDMiest of manners:
1) Void Rot - Descending Pillars2) Of Feather and Bone – Sulfuric Disintegration3) Necrot – Mortal4) Faceless Burial – Speciation5) Ocrilim – Plvence Abrost R Msitloun6) Voidceremony – Entropic Reflections Continuum: Dimensional Unravel7) Shezmu – À travers les lambeaux8) Ulthar – Providence9) Undeath – Lesions of a Different Kind10) Omegavortex – Black Abomination Spawn11) Ulthar – Providence12) Black Curse – Endless Wound13) Cryptic Shift – Visitations from Enceladus14) Cosmovore – Into the Necrosphere15) Azath – Through a Warren of Shadow16) Angel Morgue – In the Morgue of Angels17) Ceremonial Bloodbath – The Tides of Blood18) Cosmic Putrefaction – The Horizons Towards Which Splendour Withers19) Ulcerate – Stare Into Death and Be Still20) Witches Hammer – Damnation Is My Salvation21) Coagulate – The Art of Cryptosis22) Xibalba – Años en infierno23) Azarath – Saint Desecration24) Skelethal – Unveiling the Threshold25) Siege Column – Darkside Legions26) Nimbifer – Demo II27) Primitive Man – Immersion28) Dødskvad – Krønike I29) Horna – Kuoleman kirjo30) Afsky – Ofte jeg drømmer mig død
― Kangol In The Light (Craig D.), Sunday, 14 March 2021 00:28 (three years ago) link
I didn't even know there was a new Oksennus last year. Thanks for the tip. This is why I look forward to ilm metal poll every year.
― BlackIronPrison, Sunday, 14 March 2021 01:04 (three years ago) link
Xpost I was! Love the Pile!
― Red Nerussi (Neanderthal), Sunday, 14 March 2021 02:01 (three years ago) link
Thank you pom and Neechy for running the poll! Also thanks to NYCNative for recommending Serpent Omega in one of the threads, it's the best metal album I heard last year.
― braised cod, Sunday, 14 March 2021 16:04 (three years ago) link
Yea thx so much to the pollrunners. Lots of good stuff in this thread.
Don't be so afraid of the hardcore-adjacent bands. I'm pretty sure Gulch was my #1.
― billstevejim, Sunday, 14 March 2021 16:33 (three years ago) link
Thanks folks!
I don't actually dislike hardcore per se, but it helps to set up a few artificial fences lest the process of exploring new music become even more overwhelming.
― pomenitul, Sunday, 14 March 2021 17:03 (three years ago) link
whoa at the 200 Stab Wounds. get in my ears!!!! \m/
― Red Nerussi (Neanderthal), Monday, 15 March 2021 01:03 (three years ago) link
yeah, it's slam, but there are actual riffs instead of "chug 5 power chords really slow for 45 minutes while kids windmill in the pit"
― Red Nerussi (Neanderthal), Monday, 15 March 2021 01:05 (three years ago) link
ie like Dying Fetus
(the actual riffs part, not Dying Fetus being the latter. i will shut up)
Yeah, this is great. Thanks for the tip.
― o. nate, Monday, 15 March 2021 19:24 (three years ago) link
only thing I didn't like was the Ruptured in Purulence cover. it's pretty weak and it's one of my favorite Carcass songs and if you aren't gonna go balls out on that song you might as well just not.
but everything else on the EP is dope.
― Red Nerussi (Neanderthal), Monday, 15 March 2021 19:25 (three years ago) link
Do you guys want the poll run at the same time next year or earlier?
― Oor Neechy, Monday, 15 March 2021 20:35 (three years ago) link
I feel like waiting until the ilm main polls die down is a good idea, so I'd say roughly the same timeframe.
― soaring skrrrtpeggios (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Monday, 15 March 2021 20:38 (three years ago) link
bold dnp
Sweven – The Eternal ResonanceHum – InletSlift – UmmonBehold… the Arctopus – Hapeleptic OvertroveTouché Amoré – LamentGulch – Impenetrable Cerebral FortressBindrune Recordings – OVERGROW TO OVERTHROWCouch Slut – Take a Chance on Rock 'n' RollVladislav Delay – RakkaInfant Island – BeneathKrallice – Mass CathexisStabscotch – Twilight DawnOranssi Pazuzu – Mestarin kynsiSightless Pit – Grave of a DogLiturgy – Origin of the AlimoniesBoris & Merzbow – 2R0I2P0Mr. Bungle – The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny DemoSerpent Column – Endless DetainmentDeafheaven – 10 Years GoneThy Catafalque – NaivOcrilim – Plvence Abrost R MsitlounPlague Organ – OrphanBlack Curse – Endless WoundEnvy – The Fallen CrimsonTriptykon – Requiem (Live at Roadburn 2019)Imperial Triumphant – AlphavilleMachine Girl – U–Void Synthesizer殞煞 Vengeful Spectre – 殞煞 Vengeful SpectreDeftones – OhmsSerpent Column – KathodosVile Creature – Glory, Glory! Apathy Took Helm!Skáphe – Skáphe³Uniform – ShameOld Man Gloom – Darkness of Being/Light of MeaningInfant Island – Sepulcher
― gman59, Monday, 15 March 2021 20:55 (three years ago) link
Sorry to be a pain in the arse but I didn't save my ballot, could someone fish it out the bin and post it please?
― your passion oozzes from the (ultros ultros-ghali), Monday, 15 March 2021 21:37 (three years ago) link
just put Sweven on top of my ballot and jiggle the order about a bit
― imago, Monday, 15 March 2021 21:52 (three years ago) link
& throw in some more colin marston
― imago, Monday, 15 March 2021 21:53 (three years ago) link
there we've rebuilt ultros
Yeah pretty much lol
― your passion oozzes from the (ultros ultros-ghali), Monday, 15 March 2021 22:31 (three years ago) link
I dont have access to ballots
― Oor Neechy, Tuesday, 16 March 2021 13:32 (three years ago) link
Just bumping this to say that I finally got my copies of both #4 (Sweven) and #11 (Slift) this week and they are both absolutely incredible. Wish I'd have gotten to them sooner, they both would have gotten another high vote for sure.
― soaring skrrrtpeggios (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Thursday, 25 March 2021 20:04 (three years ago) link