Rolling 2022 Metal Thread

the abrasiveness of last year's newest Concrete Winds is doing it for me right now

We doing a 2021 best of this year?

id certainly participate. but its a lot of work so if it doesn't happen I understand.

vote metal in the main poll

That's never good.

https://amenra.bandcamp.com/album/de-doorn-alternate-mix

^ sounds better than the first mix imho

Whoa, had no idea this was coming.

We doing a 2021 best of this year?

― Loud guitars shit all over "Bette Davis Eyes" (NYCNative), Thursday, 13 January 2022 23:44 (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

id certainly participate. but its a lot of work so if it doesn't happen I understand.

― gman59, Tuesday, 18 January 2022 16:06 (three days ago) bookmarkflaglink

I hope so! Will contribute some 60-second charcoal interpretations of album covers as artwork if it goes ahead.

new Druid Lord hits about the same spots as their previous releases, I'm just glad to get new music from them.

https://druid-lord.bandcamp.com/album/relics-of-the-dead

The first album of the year that I am buying is the self-titled debut from Maule.

http://www.metal-archives.com/images/9/9/3/6/993688.jpg?5206

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYCRQGQmFVU
http://maule.bandcamp.com/album/maule
http://open.spotify.com/album/0qM8OXofi6vRqScKipZ0mF?si=riwSTFdRSoWoLRRd16j8fA

Still wishing that last Maiden album was more true to their roots? Looking for a band that sounds like the exact moment Thin Lizzy influenced the NWOBHM? These Canadian bangers got you covered. Hella fun.

Would not have predicted that sound based on that cover art. I would have expected Entombed worship and D-beats. I like this a lot. Thanks for the tip!

new moonlight haze track is fantastic if you go in for dramatic power metal -- this band has been showing great growth and I'm excited for the album

two singles out so far from the new mastercastle who are basically my favorite band and just ~barely~ metal -- more hard rock in the 1981 festival undercard vibe. I can't really be objective about mastercastle, I think they whip so much ass and their bassist looks like he's 65 years old if he's a day, just unfadeable I-fix-cars-by-day vibes, but at the same time "this is just a rock band" feels like a fair read on them so idk? I love their melodies & I think her voice is tremendous -- literally every song just vibes me out to exactly where I wanna be, their choruses are peerless imo, like Puccini arias, the second the melody locks in I'm dead

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2MqTnhu-XA

YouTube user jimischild13 with the most brutal comment

still got it , but the clock is ticking for us all never forget that , Best Wishes . BTW i missed you all

That was really nice. I agree about the chorus, and the way the guitar solo kicked in after the little keyboard interlude was great.

yes! the solos on mastercastle records are fantastic. very excited for the new one

loving maule and mastercastle!!

I feel essentially the same way about Magnum as you do about Mastercastle. The new Magnum album is their, I dunno, 180th?

https://open.spotify.com/album/286a0luh0FDCtNoPdQh57A

I really love this Magnum

I mean I love being a lurker on this thread and it's interesting to check out LJ type cool death metal bands who want to be Return to Forever and listen to late period Scott Walker or whatever but I truly only love jean jacket and Camaro shit

Sunday deathcore recommendation: Golgothan's Leech, out 2/4 on Lacerated Enemy.

http://laceratedenemyrecords.bandcamp.com/album/golgothan-leech

They cite Aborted, Cattle Decapitation and Bloodbath as influences, but that's bullshit; they're modern deathcore, bass drops and all. They're from Louisiana and they kinda dress like swamp creatures, half alligator, half GWAR. The track title "Teeth to Eat You" pulled me in, but the new single/video is "Bottomless Pit":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJCu12pvGkw

I'll keep up with tradition (had to read about this on a metal site too even though it could hardly be any further from metal) and post it in the metal thread then: https://40wattsunmusic.bandcamp.com/album/perfect-light

Excitement at seeing Coroner is touring America and playing Philly in May somewhat tempered by the fact that they're playing with overrated boneheaded derps Vio-Lence.

— Brian O'Neill (@NYC__Native) January 26, 2022

New Mizmor "LP" coming out, but it seems to be a single 20 minute track on side A and an ambient rework or something on side B? Already released digitally, vinyl coming in I believe March.

Most of my metal recommendations I've been getting from metal and DIY Twitter, so I miss a lot of stuff but probably get some weird recommendations by the personal friends of complete strangers. I'll let you know if I come across anything really cool.

Also I think between the relative lack of interest year to year in the metal poll and the time commitment, our usual pollrunners have all elected to take a year off. If anyone else wants to run or co-run, it can still happen, just probably won't be Oor Neechy or Pomenitul doing it.

New Krallice out today:

https://krallice.bandcamp.com/album/crystalline-exhaustion

The new Meshuggah song is...a Meshuggah song. They were genuinely pathbreaking 25 years ago, but they're so firmly entrenched in their own thing at this point they might as well be AC/DC.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZH9w-U4WJU

u say that like it's a bad thing

It's neither good nor bad; Meshuggah sounds like Meshuggah. (The only time they pissed me off was on ObZen, when I thought they were trying to sound like Tool.) I'm just not sure how much more of it I need, you know? I could just keep listening to Nothing and Catch Thirtythree for the rest of my life. I guess maybe I should try a little harder to be invested in their last two albums, because they were good when I listened to them, they just felt...unmemorable.

the Mizmor is a heavy-ass 20-minute track and then an ambient rework of a Christian worship song the Mizmor guy wrote many years ago before he ... left the faith or whatever they say.

it sounds nice. it sounds like a lot of that kind of stuff. he could make an album of it and rake in that sweet, sweet ambient cash if he wanted.

What else does anyone who enjoys Meshuggah want than new Meshuggah music that sounds like Meshuggah?!

I get it, their days of innovation are over, but that doesn't mean the new stuff isn't worth hearing. The new track is great. Streamlined and groovy but still with those rotating time signatures that always rope me in. Super catchy. I love that band.

Initially the brainchild of AMENRA guitarist Mathieu J. Vandekerckhove, and NEUROSIS vocalist/guitarist Scott Kelly, ABSENT IN BODY formed in 2017. Immediately recognizing their kinship, and with AMENRA frontman Colin H. Van Eeckhout brought in on vocals and bass, what emerged is a reflection of the intervening years of turbulence, extending it's scope as it navigates across five stretches of unstable terrain. From the opening “Rise From Ruins” with ex-Sepultura drummer, Iggor Cavalera’s tribal beat emerging from foreboding, near-subsonic oscillations to explode in a tide of corrosive riffs and feral howls, through “Sarin’s” steadfast, procession-through-purgatory groove, to “The Half Rising Man’s” matrix of organic/mechanic evolution, it’s an album in constant dialogue between the animalistic, the human and the industrial, and a hunger to distill a truth, something unpolluted from the fray.

This is certainly an interesting collaboration.

^ https://www.instagram.com/p/CZcO6rgqzd4/

Ha, thanks, probably more helpful than regurgitating the press release but I was in a hurry.

dammit - Draconian euro tour cancelled :(

New Cloakroom, don't know if it fits here, but it's such a good album. Reminds me of the recent Hum album a bit. Also the Deafheaven from last year. Stonergaze ftw

I dig Cloakroom a lot and my copy of the new one is supposed to arrive later this week, definitely excited for it and comparisons to the recent Hum album only makes me more so.

track from the Amenra/Sepultura/Neurosis side project from a couple of posts ago: Absent In Body

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDhbP2KROJc

Today in streaming services selling me physical music: I wanted to listen to Godflesh, so I pulled them up on Tidal and saw a new compilation called New Flesh In Dub Vol 1. Googled that title and was sent to Justin Broadrick's website, where I found out about Long Live the New Flesh, a 4CD box containing A World Lit Only By Fire, Post Self, the Decline & Fall EP, and a CD containing all the Japanese bonus tracks from the aforementioned, and two new tracks from the Post Self sessions. I bought it immediately.

Johnny Z, aka Jon Zazula passed away. Without his vision and efforts metal would be a lot different now.

aw :(

I'm one of the Venom Prison backers around these parts, and their new one just dropped.

first few tracks a bit surprising in there's occasional clean vocals, use of synths in the background, slightly more accessible riffs, not quite as raw as previous VP.

but it's pretty effectively used overall! this definitely feels like a pivot a bit to more grandiose things, will probably piss off the fans that want them to do Samsara-esque stuff forever.

but so far I'm enjoying them feeling out this new territory. production IS a little antiseptic, but that's....a lot of metal these days.

almost feels like their Heartwork, not in sound, but in scope, and difference in relation to previous material (as well as increased accessibility without 'dumbing down' the material)

Looking forward to listening to the Venom Prison!

I have been listening to the new Saxon album that came out. It's pretty typical of latter-period Saxon releases - very solid, classic metal feel, Biff still has that distinctive voice.

I'll be buying it.

Yeah, this Venom Prison is fucking great!

Anyone know what's up with the Rise Above label? They've never really kept up with social media or updating their site, even at the best of times, but it seems to have gone eerily silent. It looks like they had another Electric Wizard vinyl reissue last year, but otherwise haven't released an album since September of 2020.

New Mares of Thrace! This is really really good sludge/something? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcgzNapaM7I

a few new releases just dropped on the new stanard elite bandcamp:
https://newstandardelite.bandcamp.com/

baalsebub bringing more slamming grooves with their signature pornographic levels of snare ping. find that this all goes down much easier with a 15min runtime. last track rules.

the cenotaph is quite fun too. lots of pinch harmonics, twangin bass, and blast beats.

Good release day last Friday... Napalm Death EP, Voivod, Zeal & Ardor... Some smaller bands put out things I liked as well.

There are about three black metal albums I like. Immortal's Sons of Northern Darkness is one of them. Since it turns 20 this month, I wrote about it.

Foo Fighters did a death metal song as part of that horror movie the band is doing.

Although I have little hope for the movie, the song is... Actually kinda fun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pj8XbTDBhXc

Holy hell this new Earthless. I love this.

Saw something about that on Twitter, decided not to even bring it here since Venom Prison are uninspired at best — I reviewed their second album for The Wire back in 2019, and it was unfortunate for them that it was paired with Misery Index's then-new one — and I'd never even heard of Violet Cold.

can someone actually post what it is that happened re: Venom Prison? all I can find is people talking about it and going 'yikes' with no details other than a 4 month old tweet, but as I understand it that's not actually it.

esp disappointing because Larissa positioned herself as a leftist and wrote against transphobia in the past. however, TERFs often identify as leftist and we've seen many such people drift to that cult so it's not a shock i guess.

Violet Cold thing seems more like a weird Kanye-esque breakdown

(don't know anything about that band).

cool, so now even the supposed good guys aren't good guys

wow, this sucks, but now I don't have to keep giving that band chances because of their comparatively "good politics" at least. Very funny that the main person I see defending Larissa on twitter is a PR person from Season of Mist, who clearly can take the moral high ground here.

Violet Cold one is kind of incomprehensible to me.

I get the impression that he thinks he’s so obviously anti-fascist that everyone should give him the benefit of the doubt (?)

main people I see defending Larissa are TERFs, some of whom are actually responding to transgender women and telling them they're not women.

xpost yeah that seemed to be what he was trying to say ultimately. in the end he also tried to criticize actual Nazis that followed him due to the controversial "NSBM is the best metal" post but like....bruh what did you think would happen.

the main person I see defending Larissa on twitter is a PR person from Season of Mist

Some of her own tweets are scary/delusional verging on QAnon territory.

digging the new Mare Infinitum. theatrical bent to it for sure (which given my background is a good thing).

who is the female vocal on the second track? sounds like Bernadette Peters singing doom metal (a great thing!)

It's fantastic. I love the choir and the symphonic flourishes. Not sure who is on the second track, but there are a lot of guest vocalists listed here:

https://www.metal-archives.com/albums/Mare_Infinitum/Cryosleep/1092853

As someone who loves Venom Prison and Violet Cold can someone be more specific as to what happened?
Links appreciated.

VC dude posted "NSBM is the best genre ever" for some dumb reason (link).

Re: Venom Prison, she was following "Gays Against Groomers" (a UK anti-trans right wing group), unfollowed them but liked tweets by anti-trans activists/TERFs, seems to have begun the double-down death spiral towards edginess.

So she unfollowed them but now is reposting shit like this. I think it’s time to leave behind this band cos it’s only a matter of time before she goes down the TERF rabbit hole pic.twitter.com/a7bIEX4AaS

— vampyric rhian 🏳️‍⚧️ 🧛‍♀️ (@urfavmtlhdtgrl) December 21, 2022

goes to show you why it's dangerous to take bands at their word even

My guess is that Emin Guliyev (Violet Cold) is just an odd duck but the Larissa Stupar stuff seems more insidious to me.

I would hate to have to not be able to support either of them since I love both bands quite a bit.

He should stick to hilarious posts like this

first the crypto shit than this but let's not forget his craziest post pic.twitter.com/fM0nzg9roO

— Psych Out (@psychout_) December 16, 2022

I would argue he's making his search way harder by not including INFPs but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

What an ugly week for the metal scene. As soon as I heard about the Season of Mist PR's views, I requested my removal from any and all of their press lists.

As for Venom Prison, there's nothing in metal more disposable than a "pretty good" death metal band. They're a dime a dozen, so I have no problem tossing them into the trash.

As soon as I heard about the Season of Mist PR's views

I know her personally. What did she say?

I know her personally. What did she say?

She started in about "chemical castration" and "genital mutilation" and "men in women's prisons" — basically, the most violent/virulent (and false) anti-trans rhetoric you could scrape out of the right-wing TERF gutter.

For following a page that's AGAINST chemically castrating & mutilating pre-pubecent children to change their gender (a common practice here in the US, if you could believe that). It's absolutely ridiculous what she is being attacked for. https://t.co/H52BBlDvBC

— Mercyful Kate (@MercyfulKate) December 22, 2022

That's a great point! For me, it's starting to cross a line with not only how the children are being permanently disfigured well before puberty, let alone the age of consent, but also things like sexually violent men being put into women's prisons https://t.co/QeqX0hZlJW

— Mercyful Kate (@MercyfulKate) December 22, 2022

Thanks. Noted.

Moonlight Sorcery snuck out another EP this month... I think I much prefer the first EP but we'll see.

Okay, I must have had my ears clogged because this rules. The 7-minute instrumental "Constellations" is an absolute banger.

"Flight of No Return" off of the new Mare Infinitum has become an earworm to me in a way few songs have in recent years. I replayed it four times in a row yesterday and didn't want to stop playing it. this kind of metal isn't USUALLY my thing but it's just done so well here and this song just has mood.

reminds me of how I felt when I heard Cynic's "Nunc Stans" the first time.

i can't find the lyrics to the album anywhere and I guess that's fine because part of me is afraid they'll release them and it'll be like a song about Rice Krispies or something

New Memoriam and Megaton Sword albums coming in February. I am pleased.

The Metal Hammer year-end album list has some things that look interesting:

https://www.loudersound.com/features/best-metal-albums-2022

Hey metalheads, who's the best new band channeling the spirit of classic Metallica/Megadeth-style '80s thrash? There have to be a few contenders in these times of cultural regurgitation + widespread technical facility and recording capabilities, right?

It certainly isn't Metallica or Megadeth, that is for sure!

Probably the closest thing to that style of recent years that I've really liked was Power Trip's 2017 album "Nightmare Logic". But I'm not sure if they remain active, due to the untimely demise of their lead singer.

I agree with Neanderthal on Mare Infinitum, except for me the track on repeat is "Celestial Escapist".

The week before last was packed with other great melodic metal, too: Frozen Crown, Hanging Garden, Klaymore, Niovel, Eons Enthroned, Dark Sarah, The Dark Side of the Moon, Ankor, Silver Bullet, Haunted Gods, Carmilla, Martin Gonzalez, E-An0Na, Inchaos, OMMYO-ZA, NEMOPHILIA...

Hey metalheads, who's the best new band channeling the spirit of classic Metallica/Megadeth-style '80s thrash? There have to be a few contenders in these times of cultural regurgitation + widespread technical facility and recording capabilities, right?

Sticking to this past year, here are a couple of thrashing bangers I enjoyed enough to purchase...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcOlaXl3LaA
Celestial Wizard - D&D dice-wielding power metal/thrash from Colorado

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsMO1qLH5DE
Savage Master - More like channeling Bitch, the old Metal Blade band, but still great

god that mare infinitum record is so fucking good

the 70,000 Tons of Metal cruise resumes in 2023 and these morons had the audacity to book the new Vektor. naturally, it didn't go well, and the backlash was quick and they removed them, with the expected two factions emerging in reaction to the removal.

starting to remember why I didn't dress the part of metalhead in my 20s, the people screaming in defense of Vektor are really fucking hateful, stupid idiots. I'm sure the infighting will progress to the boat over this, kinda glad i'm not going.

https://metalinjection.net/news/drama/70000-tons-of-metal-books-then-removes-vektor-from-its-lineup

I'm sure the infighting will progress to the boat over this, kinda glad i'm not going.

Nah. The people expressing the most anger over it aren't the go-outside type.

in more positive news, lineup for Mass Destruction Metal Fest in ATL for this year is out and it's sick and I'm thinking of trying to find a way to go. other than big name Autopsy (who I've been dying to see), it's a very niche lineup that just happens to be a bunch of bands I love. seen Pagan Altar live once, they were incredible, Hellwitch same. Drawn and Quartered fucking rule, as does Vulcano. Loved the Oath of Cruelty debut. really the only band I don't know is Undergang.

Autopsy
Vulcano (Brazil - Bloody Vengeance Set)
Pagan Altar (UK)
Hellwitch
Undergang (Denmark)
Drawn & Quartered
Father Befouled
Oath of Cruelty

wait I forgot what year it was