Rolling 2023 Metal thread

Majesties (Can't recall what prompted me to add this, sorry if it's not metal)

Just figured out why it's on my radar: Side project for guys in Obsequiae and Inexorum who are both all kinds of awesome.

A bit from maybe the most insane metal press release I've ever read:

By sweep of sanguine axe and scorn of solar halo, the rusted chains of antediluvian iron broken by immortal talons, a pale visage of unholy supremacy leering with violent virtue, rises from cruel coffin sarcophagus the entity feared only as Nachtlich. Resurrected from its nocturnal medieval slumber in the age of 2016, Nachtlich is a Canadian revenant manifested by shady mournmaker U.E, whose infamy across a vast array of miserable entities is celebrated in low chants of ennui trance by tomb cults across the ephemeral realm. An arsenal of nightbringer brutality, Nachtlich’s library of intoxicating incantations is wide in its selection, but only by the keen eye of ritual master, Inferna Profundus Records, has this early masterwork of U.E been claw chosen to bathe in unlight of the half moon horror malfeasance.

Third Ritual is the grave stomping carrion call of the unliving ghast grume. An evocative alchemical fusion of bass heavy raw black metal and eerie atmospheric ambient ministrations, Nachtlich here truly awakens to the rotting majesty within; wielding putrescence of power chord, zombie shamble of percussion, penetration of shrieking oration, crypt shake of bass, fungal dissonance of production and ennui enlightenment of subversive synth. Dedicated to the true ways of the ancient, U.E carves a path familiar, yet unique in its twists and turns of labyrinthine composition, contrasting spectral synth passages with mid-pace of raw black metal massacre. Raw, stripped down and rancid—Nachtlich’s Third Ritual is the triune damnation triumphant.

TL;DR: It's a reissue of the third album by a one-man black metal band.

How Nachtlich got his grume back

Congratulations to the genius booking agent who knew that Ingested and Devourment belonged on tour together. Well done.

If you habitually skip over seemingly marginal niche metal, you might easily miss this magnificent Tolkien Metal epic:

Ainur "Forging of the Rings"
https://open.spotify.com/track/5WCzf7xdfXNNRsHQYbj1iR

!!!

I have always liked Prong, and I still do. I like this new song's main riff, but the lyrics are *hilariously* generic. "Political Protest Song [Project Your Specific Beliefs/Cause Here]".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XC3NmLOQXTc

New Cattle Decapitation due in May. I, for one, am really stoked.

Not sure about the cover art tho:

https://www.metal-archives.com/images/1/1/0/4/1104775.jpg?4705

Ant Man sequel went dark

lol

it's giving Antz/A Bug's Life energy

hopefully this is in preparation of a new album now they have a bass player again: Darkspace back catalogue reissued on Season Of Mist -> https://shop.season-of-mist.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=darkspace

Technically from last year, but absolutely loving the new Hammers of Misfortune, just a dense mass of bonkers tech-prog.

i made this spreadsheet for metal releases this year, mostly stuff already mentioned here, some others. editable by anyone so feel free to contribute but also feel free to make a copy for your own use: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1xn_OktEIIx-TUj7URk8cnGBAsT-ls_Ujfv6sUz50H0U/edit?usp=sharing i'll try and update it regularly too

does Djunah count? outta Chicago. They seem to market themselves as noise rock but they seem kinda metal (it's a duo and the guitarist/singer plays a custom made bass synthesizer w/her foot)

https://djunah.bandcamp.com/album/femina-furens

metal-adjacent maybe

enjoying the latest Deiquisitor. just glad to still have death metal that's raw and doesn't sound so artificially clean and clicky. no matter how much this drummer's speed degrades on blasts (and it does!).

i always like when the vocalists sound like the bad guy on an 80s toy television show.

i havent heard it yet but i love that their label is called "extremely rotten productions"

MESHUGGAH To Issue Remastered Fifteenth Anniversary Edition Of ObZen Full-Length March 31st Via Atomic Fire; Preorders Available

how the fuck is that album fifteen years old, jesus

yeah that's still one of the 'new ones' in my eyes

same

I still remember going to see them open for Ministry in 2008 just so I could hear some of that material live and screaming "what the FUCK" at the stage when they abandoned "Bleed" right before the intense end part.

Uncharacteristically bad show for the boys, who in the last six years have put on two of the most incredible shows I've ever seen

Always cracks me up when an album is remastered after such a short period of time, like has the loudifying technology advanced that much

actually all of the bass drum sounds were replaced by farts

i don't really get the point of a remaster of any Meshuggah album like, post-Chaosphere, the shit was fairly optimal the first time around on the albums after that. not a fan of the re-recorded Nothing with the 8-strings even.

Wow, if you aren't afraid of the upcoming Amberian Dawn album of ABBA covers, check out the new Dark Sarah album while we wait.

https://open.spotify.com/album/4WilNXjE7dhYxMzNXXwBLg?si=6fc498a0a343496f

Also, that Amberian Dawn album came out two months ago. I apparently thought the third single, which came out the same day, was another song released in advance of the record.

It's really good, unless the idea of a metal tribute to ABBA sounds inherently terrible to you, in which case it's exactly that terrible.

Also, I had forgotten that Dark Sarah was formed by Heidi Parviainen after her time as the singer for Amberian Dawn, so the similarity isn't coincidental at all.

Amberian ABBA: https://open.spotify.com/album/5mzhto5AZTFY6RDpiFtjXt

This new Ahab record is fantastic.

I am digging it too, even if dude's clean vocals remind me of Mr Mackey in the South Park episode where he got high and started singing

hey all it's new SANGUISUGABOGG time, make sure you have your SANGUISUGABOGG record ready to spin and that all valuables are safely tucked away in your house as you flail around to SANGUISUGABOGG boy i just love saying SANGUISUGABOGG

also three songs in and this rules.

however fans are likely to cry sellout because the SNARE ISN'T PINGY this time.

well it is a LITTLE

ok the ping is back

one-woman black metal project Brouillard from France is back with an album called (guess) : https://transcendance-bm.bandcamp.com/album/br0uillard-brouillard

hahahaha! i love that concept

I think I got her last Brouillard

new Spirit Possession March 31

https://spiritpossession.bandcamp.com/

excited for new Sanguisugabogg, didn't realize it was coming out so soon. I've taken to callin them "The Bogg" in the tradition of Steve Coogan as Tommy Saxondale calling Jethro Tull "The Tull."

i excuse and even enjoy violent imagery in a lot of music, perhaps particularly in death and grind. i do object to artists targeting a single oppressed identity with their violent lyrics (and indeed we call this NSBM when folks do it w/r/t race), and i do really wonder about sanguisugabogg's vocalist and his previous band that only wrote violently misogynistic rape anthems

Yeah, I knew nothing about Sanguisugabogg before seeing some hype this past week and saw that when digging through their Metal Archives page. That band had some really wtf lyrics and artwork.

i did not know that about Sanguisugabogg vocalist, but that's definitely fucked up. not that misogyny is new to metal but there is definitely a higher degree of wtf to making rape/abuse/violence against women the actual target of your lyrics - one reason I refuse to listen to anything pornogrind or Waco Jesus-y.

thanks for sharing the information roxy.

for real. i think it is reasonable to draw the line at violent misogyny being the entire theme of your themed band

absolutely

after awhile you'd hope artists would grow past bigotry or misogyny in lyrics and, if they didn't, listeners wouldn't reward it by failing to call it out, idk. there's such a wealth of music out there w/o that kind of lazy bullshit, or those kinds of shit worldviews. it's very easy to not write evil lyrics imo (as someone who doesn't write lyrics even i can recognize that.)

If you want to write those kinds of lyrics you should start a power metal band and really enunciate the fuck out of every word. Stop hiding behind growls and gurgles.

with a lot of these bands, they aren't 'just fantasies' either, they're a reflection of internalized toxicity (or worse, the Jef Whitehead incidents). i think roxy posted once that it permeates into the crowds as well at some of the shows of pornogrind and similar bands and it's not surprising.

hell, Don Decker of Anal Blast used to come into #metal on DALnet and he was every bit the caveman he portrayed himself as on disc.

at a minimum, people who make light of sexual violence do not take sexual violence seriously. that much at least should be obvious. it often goes beyond that. it isn't as simple as saying pornogrind guys are rapists, or whatever, but it isn't hard to imagine how they might respond to incidents of sexual assault in their communities (or even bands), and i can assure you those are happening

On another note, while more noise rock than metal proper, the new Oozing Would is hitting all the right spots for me today. Absolutely killer production on this one, it just sounds so good.

lol "Oozing Wound", although I wouldn't mind hearing these guys take on that Alice In Chains song

into the cut again
same old pus it was back thennnn

The combination of camp and dorkiness is a big part of the appeal of heavy metal to me - basically "Necropolis" by Manilla Road is the ideal.

i really want to like power metal cuz basically trad metal is my jam forever, and love dio, maiden, etc etc but most of the stuff i hear on this thread or on facebook just has a stench of "eurovision music" to me that i can't get over :/

I'm not really into the "metal that sounds like a pinball machine" style of power metal, to badly paraphrase somebody I once knew who hated Rhapsody. I like power metal that has riffs, but melodic tastefulness as well, and lots of it can have too much of a glimmering sheen and be overproduced for me. particularly a lot of the neo-classical power metal bands.

I like:

Blind Guardian (one could argue that they were more speed metal than power for much of their career)
Helloween (same, but I think you'd have to say they're power NOW, even if not on their earlier stuff)
early Angra (basically Helloween gone Brazilian, with heavier classical influence)
Manticora (they did some high concept album about a serial killer that was good a few years ago, actually had some face-melty riffs on it)
Labyrinth (featuring the original vocalist from Rhapsody, Fabio Leone...or at least, at one point he was with them)
Rhapsody (I didn't say 'of Fire' because lol fuck that, also I haven't heard anything from post-name change)
Gamma Ray (Kai Hansen!)

I hate:

Dragonforce (I don't care if they count, they must be shidded on)

i don't think they are even exactly "power metal", they have some AOR tendencies but I love High Spirits so much

https://highspiritsmetal.bandcamp.com/album/safe-on-the-other-side

Rhapsody of Fire are fantastic. They make me laugh, but in a giddy pleasurable way, not mockery at all. But the stuff I would write about, if I wrote the book I have in my mind, is all along the Dio/Manowar/Armored Saint/Manilla Road/Attacker/Visigoth axis. The kind of thing that still gets described as "heavy metal."

I love pretty much all of that stuff

I've never actually listened to Manilla Road. There's something about the name (why the extra L? Is it vanilla from the Philippines?) and their pretty much uniformly terrible album art that has always kept me away.

Seems like Mark Shelton didn't really know the reason for the name either.

Why the name Manilla Road?

The first drummer for the band, Ben Munkirs, and I were having some beers in his kitchen watching Monty Python’s Flying Circus on a small black and white TV. In our drunken stupor we came up with the name Manilla Road thinking that it meant the road of light. Don’t really know why we hung on to it but we did and so that name of the band.

https://www.psychedelicbabymag.com/2011/06/manilla-road-interview-with-mark.html

i have a few of their albums, they were also killer live the one time I saw them at a festival

Crystal Logic and Open the Gates are American metal classics!

They were so epic and fun, and Shark was one helluva guy.

Manilla Road were fantastic and had a pretty amazing run of albums in the 80s

Wouldn't say they were power metal, but certainly nothing they did would put off power metal fans. They were a trad metal band who embraced thrash, doom etc and were adopted by fans of those styles and I think Unperson would adore the album 'Crystal Logic'. Embrace the corny album covers. I have a print of Crystal Logic cover framed on my wall!

Manila Road is one of the greatest of all metal bands. Once you buy in, the covers become a feature, not a bug.

I started listening to Crystal Logic last night, and the riff on the title track immediately reminded me of Black Flag's "The Bars":

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-O32cr9l0Y

Tangentially, this band Sacred Outcry is some fantastic Euro power metal. Cheesy and grandiose but without that modern glossy production.

https://sacredoutcry.bandcamp.com/album/towers-of-gold

Sepultura are packing it in:

"Sepultura has reached the end of the road and has chosen to depart via a conscious and planned death.

Throughout the next 18 months we will celebrate 40 years of existence together along with our loyal fans on a farewell tour across the entire globe.

It will be a celebration of the past and the present for one final time.

After 4 decades filled with ups and downs, having visited 80 countries and countless different cultures, we’ve had the chance to become Brazil’s messenger to the world and spread our colors and rhythms worldwide. With our latest studio album Quadra, a highlight of our career, we added an unforgettable chapter followed by the SepulQuarta experience that helped us to overcome the difficult times of the pandemic together. We will unite our forces for one final, strong farewell. And all of you can be a part of it.

During this 40th anniversary tour, we will record 40 live tracks in 40 different cities and release a massive compilation of our best, most energetic moments on stage.
We are happy and very grateful for everything we could witness within the past four decades. We have released great albums and played unforgettable shows, cultivated friendships, met our idols, contributed to placing Brazilian metal on the world map, and therefore feel that we can leave the music scene with a sense of duty fulfilled.

We’ve always had the best fans in the world, who supported us with praise and criticism, who were demanding and intelligent, who grew together with the band and have always been loyal. Without you, none of this would have been possible. This album and this tour are for you. Dear SepulNation - we love you and always will!

Euthanasia, the right to a dignified death. The right to choose to live free and to choose when you die!"

European farewell tour dates:

30/10 Paris, FR - Zenith Paris - La Villette
31/10 Offenbach am Main, DE - Stadthalle
01/11 Hamburg, DE - Edel Optics Arena
02/11 Cologne, DE - Palladium
03/11 Den Bosch, NL - The Rock Circus
05/11 Brussels, BE - Ancienne Belgique
06/11 Esch-sur-Alzette, LU - Rockhal
08/11 Manchester, UK - Manchester Academy
09/11 Dublin, IE - Olympia Theatre
10/11 Belfast, UK - Telegraph Building
11/11 Glasgow, UK - Barrowland Ballroom
12/11 London, UK - Hammersmith Apollo
14/11 Zurich, CH - The Hall
15/11 Ludwigsburg, DE - MHP Arena
16/11 Munich, DE - Zenith
17/11 Budapest, HU - Barba Negra
19/11 Leipzig, DE - Haus Auensee
20/11 Vienna, AT - Gasometer
21/11 Katowice, PL - Spodek
22/11 Berlin, DE - Columbiahalle
23/11 Prague, CZ - O2 Universum

i am listening to this album "Portal of I" by Ne Obliviscaris for this podcast i have to do...

it's crazy like some kinda "if dream theater and jean luc ponty were in a black metal band together" kinda thing, so over the top and dramatic

xpost over/under on how long it takes for Max to try and sue to get usage of the name Sepultura back

some folks swear by Ne Obliviscaris, I just don't get the hype. to each their own, not here to hate... but to me it felt like the violin is used more like a gimmick than effectively.

At a Mortician show at Saint Vitus right now and the drummer for Immortal Suffering is none other than Nikhil T of Anal Stabwound fame. I’m starstruck.

Sounds like many of yall would enjoy Hell's Heroes VI in Houston, Mar 21-23, 2024. V was a lot of fun. Sodom, Queensryche (doing debut EP and The Warning), Candlemass (doing Nightfall), Solitude Aeturnus, Eternal Champion, Watchtower, Sumerlands, Traveler, Girlschool, Wytch Hazel, Bloodstar, Early Moods, Dawnbringer and many more.

https://www.sonicperspectives.com/news/hells-heroes-festival-announces-2024-line-up/

I got to see all of Chris Black's bands during my years in Chicago, including one show where he played, as Professor Black, songs from all his projects, including Dawnbringer and High Spirits. Brilliant.

A couple metal YT channels I started following this year doing their countdowns:

Melanie Loves Death Metal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xo2cZW6TPQM

The Heavy Metal Journal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HA7JtxWXmTg

Sorry bout the embeds, I thought I used the correct versions but apparently not. Will try again with Cassette Cult on Banger with Sarah from Smoulder for top 10 underground metal picks. Was happy to see Mansion finally get some attention, they've been in my year-end lists since their first EPs. She also created the Last Fanzine before Doomsday (https://bit.ly/LastFanzine) to accompany this which I may order.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTbOEedmD4M

I've been stuffing death metal in my brain the past week, much of it from Melanie's recs.

Mealanie Loves Death Metal

1. Afterbirth - In But Not Of
2. Cattle Decapitation - Terrasite
3. Cruciamentum - Obsidian Refractions
4. Tetragrammacide - Typho Tantric Aphorisms From The Arachneophidian Qur’an
5. Disguised Malignance - Entering The Gateways
6. Horrendous - Ontological Mysterium
7. Fires In The Distance - Air Not Meant For Us
8. Fuming Mouth - Last Day Of Sun
9. Outer Heaven - Infinite Psychic Depths (JR Hayes, Steven Tucker, Derek Vella)
10. AHAB - The Coral Tombs
11. Cannibal Corpse - Chaos Horrific
12. Astiferous - Pulsations of the Black Orb
13. Fossilization - Leprous Daylight
14. Nothingness - Supraliminal
15. Nithing - Agonal Hymns
16. Suffocation - Hymns From Apocrypha
17. Dying Fetus - Make Them Beg for Death
18. Organ Dealer - The Weight of Being
19. Neurectomy - Overwrought
20. Sulphur Aeon - Seven Crowns and Seven Seals

Bubbling under:
Abyssal Rift - Extirpation Dirge
Ascended Dead - Evanfall of the Apocalypse
Autopsy - Ashes, Organs, Blood & Crypts
Body Void - Atrocity Machine
Celestial Sanctuary - Insatiable Thirst for Torment
Depraved Murder - Unethical Terrestrial Collapse
Dripping Decay - Festering Grotesqueries
END - The Sin of Human Frailty
Festerdecay - Reality Rotten to the Core
The Glorious Dead - Cemetery Paths
Gravesend - Gowanus Death Stomp
Gridlink - Coronet Jupiter
Grotesqueries - Vile
Incantation - Unholy Deification
Jarhead Fertilizer - Carceral Warfare
Left Cross - Upon Desecrated Altars
Lipoma - Odes to Suffering
Majesties - Vast Reaches Unclaimed
Nuclear Remains - Dawn of Eternal Suffering
Obituary - Dying of Everything
Reverence To Paroxyms - Lux Morte
Seeping Protoplasm - Exhale Extinction
Sentenced 2 Die - Parasitic Infection
Sulfuric Hatred - Sulfuric Hatred
Tomb Mold - The Enduring Spirit
Ulthar - Anthronomicon & Helionomicon
Vastum - Inward to Gethsemane
Grotesqueries- Vile Crematory
VoidCeremony - Treads of Unknowing
Vomitory - All Heads Are Gonna Roll
Whore Of Bethlehem - Ritual of Homicide

shame about Sepultura, last few albums have been great with the latest lineup...lineup includes Obituary and Jesus Piece in UK too so can't resist that.

re: the Max thing... saw the Cavalera - Morbid Devastation tour recently and it RULED. there were 2 or 3 times where Max asked the crowd to chant 'THE REAL SE-PUL-TU-RA!!!!' back at him.... kind of awkward to be honest and crowd were laughing a bit but playing along. so I wouldn't be surprised at all if he somehow managed to grab the name back, even if it was a 'Cavalera Brothers' SEPULTURA' sort of thing.

*bill includes Obituary and Jesus Piece i mean

The Heavy Metal Journal (linked above) completed last EP with top 10. "This recurd blew me wee face off!"

the two albums krallice released this year put the rest of the metal world to shame

Stuff I have heard and liked*

Horrendous – Ontological Mysterium
Tanith – Voyage
Danava – Nothing But Nothing
Wytch Hazel – IV: Sacrament
Shadows – Out for Blood
Moonlight Sorcery – Horned Lord of the Thorned Castle
Tyrann – Besatt
Behold the Arctopus – Interstellar Overtrove
Gridlink – Coronet Jupiter
Tomb Mold – The Enduring Spirit
Meurtrières – Ronde de Nuit
The Night Eternal – Fatale
VoidCeremony – Threads of Unknowing
Hellripper – Warlocks Grim & Withered Hags
Smoulder – Violent Creed of Vengeance
Air Raid – Fatal Encounter
Megaton Sword – Might & Power

*caveat: my listening dropped off sharply around August

late catching up to some stuff from this year, but the Crypta and Hellripper records both rule

yeah co-sign the Hellripper, one of my earliest favs this year

Yeah, me too; I conducted a short email interview with the main dude for Bandcamp Daily. And since they only used a few words of it, I'll paste the whole thing here!

How would you describe the evolution of the music from the last album to this one? What are you better at (as a writer, as a player) in 2023 than you were in 2020?
I think that the overall sound is perhaps more diverse on this album. In order to keep things interesting for myself, I wanted to branch out and bring some new elements into the sound from bands that typically wouldn't influence Hellripper's music. The only rule I set for myself was that the album would stay true to the black/speed/thrash style at the core, and so the goal was to incorporate these new things in a way that would compliment that style while being careful not to dilute the end product.

I think that I am better as both a writer and as a player, as well as a producer. With the many live shows we've played over the past couple of years and the amount of time I spent writing the tracks on this new album, I feel like I just naturally improved as a musician. But, I feel like I have improved as a songwriter and perhaps more importantly, I have grown more confident as a songwriter. As I mentioned previously, I wanted to bring in some different influences, and I don't think I would have been able to do some of the things that I've done here on the last album. It all comes from experience I guess.

I think the album is the best sounding Hellripper album to date also, and again that comes from experience in recording/mixing my own music over the years. Like with the songwriting, I wanted to try some new things production-wise on this record, and a lot of these ideas came from albums outside the black/speed metal genre. The process involved a lot of trial and error and there were some things that just didn't work out, but it was a really fun process for me.

Your lyrics are a mix of history, pre-Christian religion and anti-Christianity, but you've avoided drifting into bonehead "cultural nationalism" disguised as headbanger misanthropy - what advice do you have for other metalheads, to help them avoid that pitfall themselves?
Well, first of all, I'm not a bonehead, so I guess that helps!

From having conversations with my non-Scottish friends, I've gathered that what you describe may be the case in other countries, but this is not the case in Scotland, and Scotland may be an exception in this matter. People may want independence for example and enjoy the culture, but in general it has no connotation to right wing views - in fact it's usually the contrary.

I don't know what advice I would give to other metalheads other than to do research and know what you're reading about/listening to. Don't fall into the trap of "National Myths" - where history is twisted or reappropriated to make a point that fits a personal opinion.

You play almost everything yourself on the records, but you have musicians you use for shows. Why not use them in the studio? Is it a question of geography/logistics, or something else?
I just prefer the process of working alone mostly. The convenience, cost, and ability to change things myself at any point also play a part in that! I guess geography would be a factor also!

I am constantly changing things throughout the whole process and replacing/removing songs at all times. With about one month or so to go until I had to submit the album for mastering and to the label, I realised that one of the tracks just didn't fit and I wasn't 100% happy with it. So I made the decision to remove the track (which was almost fully recorded and mixed) from the album, and work on another half-written track instead. I was able to do that because everything is done at home by myself. That just wouldn't have happened if I had to go through the process of contacting other people, getting them to learn the track and hiring a studio for them to record it, and I would have been left with an album that I wasn't completely satisfied with.

It's a hobby and my passion, so I just really enjoy being able to write or record something whenever I want to with little thought for anything else.

Not a question, an observation: Good for you, using real bagpipes and not a keyboard on the title track!
Thank you! I wish I could have played them myself, but I'm just no good unfortunately (or fortunately for my neighbours)! Antonio did a great job on the recording and I think they fit with the track nicely.

new Vemod and Darkspace early next year (finally! x2)

https://shop.season-of-mist.com/darkspace-dark-space-ii-2024-cd-digisleeve-digital
https://shop.season-of-mist.com/vemod-the-deepening-cd-digipak

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBSHIR_5kVs

!!

the Darkspace album is one 47 minute track apparently, they played it at the Prophecy Festival - first impressions: some people will say it's all the same/boring but I think there's definitely clear different parts & progression: youtube watch?v=5XFJkDFvyRM

^ don't want to spoiler too much so I didn't embed it

Baring Teeth are a Dallas, TX based trio. Their latest album is a slab of atonal avant-metal that still manages to have memorable songs. Recommended for fans of Imperial Triumphant:

https://i-voidhangerrecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-path-narrows

Vemod sounds promising too, don't know why it took them 11 years since Venter På Stormene

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLh6yNFMcE8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnvMxclmUYQ