Rolling 2021 Metal Thread

Necromantical Invocation is a project for Echetleos, who has played in a bunch of groups in Greece, most notably Caedes Cruenta. A demo that was only on cassette Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie was released by Belgian label Zombi Danz Records in February and was just given a CD/LP release by Helter Skelter Productions/Regain Records, which promises to grant it a bigger audience.

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0662607540_16.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zx9vJFr6Wcg
http://regainrecords.bandcamp.com/album/dogme-et-rituel-de-la-haute-magie

It's pretty unique, with spooky Gothic cornerstones supporting noir-ish avant garde black metal. It's essentially two long, grandiose songs with a shorter intro and outro cut bookending the EP. "Necromantical Ritual" is plodding with pleqasantly cheese synths while the title track is laden with baroque piano and supple bass. Pretty interesting!

Metal Church Facebook just posted that vocalist Mike Howe passed away. Sucks.

Fuck

def enjoying this decrepisy (ex-vastum guitarist) record on my first spin. grooves pretty hard, which is how I like my death metal.

https://www.decibelmagazine.com/2021/07/27/album-premiere-decrepisy-emetic-communion/

Wow, Joey Jordison of Slipknot has died!

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/joey-jordison-slipknot-dead-1203167/

RIP

More people need to talk about King Woman. The new album is fantastic.

I didn't get much out of their first album despite it being totally my jam (the fact that it came out the same year as Hiss Spun didn't help) but this is great so far, much more convincing in terms of songwriting, which I thought was the debut's weak link.

I would say that's fair. I really did like the debut, but this feels like such a huge step forward.

New Succumb album coming out end of Sept, one song up and it sounds scathing as fuck

http://succumb.bandcamp.com/album/xxi

Saw this on Twitter — the cover of Brazilian rapper FBC's 2018 album S.C.A. is a direct nod to Sarcofago.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E7oTUk8XEAM68AG.png

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E7oTP90WUAERsjs.jpg

I was going to make a “is king woman metal” post but apparently that’s unnecessary. last one was great this one seems to be too but i need to give it time

It's obviously unnecessary one minute in. I like how the rhythm section keeps it heavy all the way through. idk if I prefer this over the first album as it's been in constant rotation for the past few years for me.

love these guys: https://fulcicult.bandcamp.com/album/exhumed-information

Fulci-inspired death metal. The album is a concept based on the film "Voices from Beyond” (1991).. their death metal isn't really outside the beaten path or anything, but it it's good for fist-pumping, and occasional synths or melodic leads show up to accentuate the riffs and make things more 'cinematic' (they give it an 80s sleaze-horror feel)

it has a few all-synth interludes that seriously fucking rule

I'm not really a war metal aficionado, but there was no way I was going to skip an album called Blood and Extinction by a band called Caveman Cult, and I'm glad I checked it out. It's only 22 minutes long, but it's a raw blast half way between super-primitive black metal and Lair of the Minotaur, with some bursts of electronic noise thrown in. Out October 1.

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a0558583510_10.jpg

https://nuclearwarnowproductions.bandcamp.com/album/blood-and-extinction

I like Caveman Cult, they're from Miami! saw them open for Black Witchery and live, it was ....let's just say, really intense.

Nice. Added it to my list.

New Serpentrance (stanky death/doom from Russia)

https://godzovwarproductions.bandcamp.com/album/akra-tapeinosis

A little less exciting than The Besieged Sanctum (which has this amazing, reverby and sludgy production) but it has some weird Demoncy-esque blackened vibes from time to time.

the king woman album is the best album of all time

It's so good! Happy to see more love.

This, folks, is some damn good old school Finnish deathgrind:

https://mesacounojo.bandcamp.com/album/prying-sight-of-imperception

oh, this is quite good. I never totally clicked with their last record but this seems like a significant step up. love that outro.

I am rounding out my concert calendar and I am debating the merits of seeing some geezers in 2021:

Testament / Exodus / Death Angel
Judas Priest
Bad Religion

Discuss...

Bad Religion are always fun, and JP is always amazing.

Thanks for the Galvanizer recommendation; I bought both their albums.

What's a metal concert?

I wouldn't go see Judas Priest in 2021 for several reasons:

• the rona
• they're touring with Sabaton, who I just cannot find it in me to care about
• I saw them in 2007 with Testament, Motörhead, and Heaven and Hell, and that was an experience that IMO couldn't be topped

Re the Testament/Exodus/Death Angel tour, is there a headliner for that collection of perpetual support acts?

The last Bad Religion album I liked came out in 1989, and even that was a step down from Suffer, so...shrug emoji.

All that said, I'm sure every band you listed is still putting on good shows, so get out there!

I appear to be in the minority but I really dig this new Psychic Hit tape

https://psychichit.bandcamp.com/album/solutio-2

Retro 70s heavy (think like Wishbone Ash more than Sabbath) and slightly proggy stuff, kinda wish there was more violin.

Sabaton are great, sure they only really know how to write one song and slight variations thereon, but they do know how to put on an excellent live show around it.

Sabaton would be a phenomenal opener, and perfect for the Priest crowd. A lot of my fellow olds who don't follow the metal scene anymore would get a huge kick out of them.

And Priest have been sounding great with Sneap, plus he and Ritchie have been pushing Rob and Ian to dig deeper in the back catalogue. Two years ago they were playing stuff like Tyrant, The Sentinel, Starbreaker, Take These Chains.

We got Starbreaker, All Guns Blazing, and Killing Machine at my last Priest show

Well, okay! My son is having me take him to Korn next week (I don't dislike the band but I never would have guessed that Korn playing an amphitheater would be my first post-COVID show bacK) so I told him he needs to listen to Priest on Spotify and tell me if I can take him to see them. He got to see Motorhead before Lemmy died so it feels like something that just needs to happen.

Aduanten never got mentioned above which is a bit of a surprise - the band is self-described as a "dark-textured death metal collaboration formed in late 2019 from the ashes of melodic death metal cult favorites Vex and featuring members of Obsequiae, Panopticon, and Horrendous."

Their debut EP came out back in May and it's quite good, definitely brainier than most death metal but not at all pretentious and super melodic at times as well.

http://open.spotify.com/album/3LmeTgRTNQ1ioOf7pJKq5P?si=wimRxhxhQvGdZIFFSfK7sA&dl_branch=1
http://aduanten.bandcamp.com/album/sullen-cadence

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05rjYI8hom8

Trve kvlt Buddhist-themed black metal from India, although you'd be forgiven for wondering whether this isn't yet another Western impersonator:

https://siddhatthagotama.bandcamp.com/album/-

A roundup of recent favourites I haven't seen cited itt:

https://solbrud.bandcamp.com/album/levende-i-br-nsh-j-vandt-rn (there's a quasi improvisatory slant to Solbrud when they play live, which brings out the best in them)

https://bloodharvestrecords.bandcamp.com/album/mokv-n-v-okovech (Czech OSDM that doesn't sound stale – I have no idea how they pull it off)

https://blutumhang.bandcamp.com/album/the-fires-of-domination (second wave Norwegian BM worship that plays up the folksy, keening ambient bits)

https://sanctuaire.bandcamp.com/album/spectre-de-mondes-pass-s (a Monarque alias that flirts with dungeon synth and possibly the best QC BM album I've heard this year)

https://drycough.bandcamp.com/album/to-the-endless-depths (caverncore made viable again by a bunch of Swedish teenagers who sound like they're discovering it for the first time, because they are)

This was already mentioned upthread, but special shoutout to Marie (aka Brouillard/Sphere) for putting out three stellar records in 2021, under those two monikers plus Transcending Rites (with Déhà). Wouldn't be surprised if there was a fourth one in the pipes.

Oh yeah, and the new Ænigmatum is dropping tomorrow:

https://20buckspin.bandcamp.com/album/deconsecrate

Hopefully this one will provide them with the attention they deserve. That they were picked up by 20 Buck Spin is an excellent sign in and of itself.

It is my duty to inform you that a new Anal Stabwound EP just dropped on New Standard Elite and it's pretty darn good: https://analstabwound.bandcamp.com/album/abstraction-bathes-in-sunlight

Portrait have a new album, At One With None, coming out September 3. It's pretty epic. They've made two videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCmak39UYLw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwyt6IaiczA

Neptunian Maximalism update: Now that I have really big speakers, Éons sounds fucking amazing in my living room.

This has already been an incredible year for tech death (Ad Nauseam, Atvm, Ophidian I, Seputus, Siderean, StarGazer) and now I may safely add Diskord to that list:

https://diskordband.bandcamp.com/album/degenerations-dissonant-technical-death-metal

I started listening to that Diskord record and liked what I heard, but I'm currently neck deep in the new Spirit Adrift EP. It's only three songs, 20 minutes, but it's exactly the right kind of retro.

haven't listened to the diskord yet but it's gonna hard not to like an album that starts with a song titled "loitering in the portal"

As far as hopelessly retro metal goes, the Herzel remains excellent but if NWOBHM revival with a vocalist who rivals Lemmy is what you're hankering after, look no further:

https://dyingvictimsproductions.bandcamp.com/album/heavy-sentence-bang-to-rights

Probably old news (I mean, it is) but these are all tons of fun and new to me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8A6R5GDXD2E

Guitarist Mike left Destruction back in March, so now it's apparently Schmier and three youngsters. They've got a new song (with a video clearly filmed in isolation), and it's fine, I guess.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-62qSa5efOo

this laceration record sounding like one of the death metal records of the year to me on my first listen

https://rottedlife.bandcamp.com/album/demise

this new Diskord record is extremely my shit

Good day for hipster black metal fans with new albums from both Deafheaven and Wolves in the Throne Room!
I have held back on listening to the advance tracks and will be checking them out for the first time shortly.

I've been playing the hell out of the Deafheaven all day. Any thoughts on the WIITR? I hope to get to it over the weekend.