Rolling Metal 2016

Flesh fails, metal endures.

new Krallice for yr face ears

METAL NEVER BENDS! 201666!!!!!!

Sorry, been listening to a lot of Cianide.

I'll be doing this VERY differently this year, but here's where (I hope) I'll be keeping up with you guys better this year.
ILM's Rolling Metal Thread 2016

Following that.

So my first thing I liked from last year (which is a reissue of stuff from the 90s) and am bringing up this year is Barathrum's "Jetblack Warmetal" comp. It's not war metal in the usual blasting sense, but bass-heavy (THREE BASSISTS! TWO GUITARISTS!) crude black metal with some Mediterranean influences and some Beherit vibes. Very noisy.

Anything good coming up this month?

For me personally, new Master and Brutus. And well I suppose Abbath.

Oh and I'd love for the new Borknagar to blow me away. But ... eh.

There's a new Ehnahre coming out this month and it's great. Super weird, lots of piano. The first track sounds like the beginning of a Cecil Taylor album, where he's striking what seem like random keys and reciting sound poetry in that weird croaking voice.

I was wondering when Ehnahre would re-emerge, I knew they were working on something. Really looking forward to that one.

Yeah, I just looked at the preview, this is going to be great

How is the Witchcraft? I see its been released on bandcamp

There's a new Wildernessking album out at the end of the month

https://wildernessking.bandcamp.com/album/mystical-future

great band name alert

https://oldstove.bandcamp.com/releases

To start off 2016 on my end, I will say that the new Oranssi Pazuzu album is very, very exciting.

And the new Holy Grail and megadeth albums are ace as well!

New Oranssi Pazuzu! Great news.

a couple of upcoming things

http://profoundlorerecords.bandcamp.com/album/le-dernier-cr-puscule

http://avantgardemusic.bandcamp.com/album/rituals

can't recall what if anything ppl itt think of Volahn but their album last year was good and this, off the new Black Twilight Circle compilation, is great too. spaghetti western black metal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Prm9B0f4wvc

VOIVOD announce 'Post Society EP' release

http://www.centurymedia.com/media/news/large/635864369564106525.jpg

Canadian progressive sci-fi metal innovators VOIVOD are pleased to announce the release of Post Society EP Mini-CD. This special release will be available in Digipak CD format as well as digital download on February 26th, 2016 via Century Media Records.

The Post Society EP, with artwork by VOIVOD drummer Michel "Away" Langevin, contains 5 studio tracks, including the previously vinyl-only new VOIVOD songs from the split 7" EP's with label-mates At The Gates and Napalm Death, two brand new songs and a Hawkwind cover ("Silver Machine") total playing time of 30 minutes. Here is the track-listing:

VOIVOD - Post Society - EP
1. Post Society (06:17)
2. Forever Mountain (05:12)
3. Fall (06:42)
4. We Are Connected (07:26)
5. Silver Machine (04:48)

Michel "Away" Langevin checked in to comment on the release as follows: "More songs from out in the woods! In between tours, we are steadily finding our way through recording the next album at RadicArt studio. Many riffs were composed on the bus but until the North American tour with Vektor in 2016, we will spend most of wintertime in Montreal writing another batch of material. Meanwhile, we hope you will enjoy this EP of good old thrash-prog-punk-metal or whatever people want to call Voïvod nowadays :)"

Always excited about new Voivod and a Hawkwind cover to boot!

Volahn but their album last year was good

Dude, thanks for mentioning this - saw it at a shop today and between your mention and the Iron Bonehead logo I figured I'd buy it. It's really good, somehow manages to balance kind of proggy elements with a really vicious rawness. And the guitar is great, all of these elaborate little filigrees and the almost necro-surf tone he has.

I guess they're debatably metal now but I really love the advance track from the latest album by The Body, No One Deserves Happiness (out 3/18):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoZgTrv5ods

Hmmmmmmm. I usually like people doing weird shit to metal but that didn't really convince.

Oh man, if you like your metal supermelodic, check out this album The Deviant Hearts, by Phantasma. I missed this completely when it came out a couple months ago, but it's Charlotte Wessels from Delain, Oliver Philipps from Everon and George Neuhauser from Serenity. It's phenomenal.

Saw the first great show of the year - the quadruple New(ish) Jack Thrash bill of Warbringer, Enforcer, Exmortus and Cauldron.

Enforcer were amazing, like Hanoi Rocks gone thrash. The singer had eyeliner and leather and was genuinely charismatic and hamming it up and was in general a lot of fun.

I also loved Exmortus' neoclassical thrash (picked up the brand new one from them at the merch booth), Cauldron's sense of economy and Warbringer brought it as well.

Just a fun night with four bands that all had different strengths and played to them perfectly.

I tried to get into Warbringer recently, can't stand that vocal recording style. Feel like I'm listening for polyps on the guy's vocal chords.

Enforcer sounds pretty good though.

Man, I'm digging on this Bison Machine, which Tom at PunkNews hipped me to https://www.punknews.org/review/14110/bison-machine-hoarfrost

Stoner metal is not usually my bag, but this is working for me on account of some solid hooks/grooves and a mildly paradoxical combo of cut--it-with-a-knife guitar tone and agreeably lo-fi, no-frills production values. Came for the 4 minute jam, staying for the duration.

How is the Witchcraft? I see its been released on bandcamp

I had bookmarked it there but apparently they've deleted their bandcamp :/

Ondt Blod's Finnmark is sort of a cross between Converge-style noisy hardcore and Kvelertak, with a few less guitar heroics than that implies, and more clean vocals in the catchy parts. Like Kvelertak, it's all in Norsk, but that doesn't matter much. There's a sample track on Soundcloud.

Andy Marshall of Saor has a new project called Fuath that's supposed to be hypnotic atmospheric black metal, album planned for 1st of Feb. First thing I'm interested in this year!

Looking backwards, here's the 100-song playlist I made of 2015 metal, starting with the 10 things I voted for in the Pazz & Jop: https://open.spotify.com/user/glennpmcdonald/playlist/59NtrREsm0x5Cmi7XyGuBj

http://www.spin.com/2016/01/oranssi-pazuzu-hypnotisoitu-viharukous-new/

really enjoying teh fuck out of the Taphos Nomos.

I like the Exmortus too but I still feel like the vocals are bland and a wasted opportunity.

saw Nile the other night- they kicked ass. saw 1349 and am convinced they are really boring live (Tombs were great tho).

Kampfar album is solid too

Behemoth's coming back around on tour in the US, playing The Satanist in its entirety. The more interesting thing about this tour, for me anyway, is that Myrkur is opening. I might go, catch her, and leave.

You'd be doing it exactly wrong

I saw Behemoth on their last US tour, with Cannibal Corpse, Aeon and Tribulation. I didn't like them.

Defeated Sanity are in town tomorrow!

There are two bands on that bill with "iniquitous" in the name.

I just now briefly considered going then realized the Atlanta show -- where I am -- was tonight. Probably for the best; I'm not really a show-goer anymore.

yes, many xposts, the volahn record is great. i love blastbeats behind half-time guitars. well, they're not really half-time but they certainly don't warrant a blastbeat necessarily. bm meat puppets?

it's an effect that really works with darkspace/paysage d'hiver. in fact, volahn is the stifling, central american summer answer to paysage's frosty swiss winter.

xpost welp you didn't miss much. DS's sound was garbage to the point of incomprehension so I left midway through. might have been the venue but it sounded like a guy trying to start his car in the mud while a bunch of gazelles occasionally made sound in the distance

Spoilers for the next Chris Watson album

http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/former-morbid-angel-frontman-david-vincent-is-back-with-original-country-song-buyer-beware-video/

Following Bret Michaels' career path seems like a good move for Dave.

I'm digging the Lycus album Relapse just put out. Even if the band name is always going to make me think of this guy

http://i67.tinypic.com/e7xnxe.jpg

Im almost as stoked for new Aluk Todolo as I am for new Oranssi Pazuzu

Those are just made up words, you're being ridiculous

😆😆😆

I need to get some Aluk Todolo, actually, they've been on my list forever.

The new one is really good, as is the one before, Occult Rock. They have no bad records, but those two are definitely orders of magnitude better than what came before.

I'd love to see them live.

looking forward to this:

Novembre - Ursa
http://peaceville.com/novembre-release-new-studio-album-ursa-in-april/
URSA is the seventh and latest album from Italy’s atmospheric death/doom metal purveyors, Novembre, and is set for release on 1st April on Peaceville Records on CD and vinyl.

New Witchcraft is streaming on Spotify. I like it quite a bit but it's not particularly metallic.

I mean, the band was never full-on metal, but there's a lot more soft psychedelia and folk infusions and less loud psych-rock and churning doom riffs.

There's a 14 minute track and a nearly 16 minute track, the rest of the album is more standard but it causes the album to come out at nearly an hour and a quarter.

It's mournful as always, and that's always good.

I can't imagine anybody here digging it - it's super-dramatic Mars Volta/Coheed-y esp in the vocals which are zero-growl, super I'M THE SINGER singing - but the Moon Tooth album is grabbing me tonight, the guitarist is really good and the production sounds really nice - great separation, really great tones - I don't know enough about recording electric guitars to know if these are direct or amped but they sound great

https://moontoothny.bandcamp.com/album/chromaparagon

maybe I'm wrong though anyway I really like this

ok though but like its influences, the album becomes a bit much after six tracks

I can't imagine anybody here digging it - it's super-dramatic Mars Volta/Coheed-y esp in the vocals which are zero-growl, super I'M THE SINGER singing - but the Moon Tooth album is grabbing me tonight, the guitarist is really good and the production sounds really nice - great separation, really great tones - I don't know enough about recording electric guitars to know if these are direct or amped but they sound great

*raises hand*

I love the "Huh!" the vocalist lets out at about 1:30 into "Queen Wolf" (and by the way, the first song streaming on Bandcamp is called "Queen Wolf," Smith forgot to mention that crucial bit of info). I would say the vocals are late '80s/early '90s pre-grunge AOR-prog more than Mars Volta/Coheed post-emo prog. Either way, awesome.

another really interesting record from Avantgarde - this one credited to "two individuals who prefer to remain anonymous," they're from Oz, probably not the Berzerker or disEMBOWELMENT but maybe somebody from Portal? anyway, I guess this came out last year but it's pretty interesting - keyboard melodies that could be nicked from a Summoning record over some sorta-doomy epic rolling-drum scenarios...good stuff imo

http://avantgardemusic.bandcamp.com/album/isolate

name-your-price bm, members of Misþyrming involved

http://nadra.bandcamp.com/album/allir-vegir-til-gl-tunar-3

I think I need this Abbath album. At least based on the first track I'm listening to right now. Why is this dude so fucking good at riffs?

he is just unstoppable

just went looking for an update from Morbus Chron on their next album, and turns out they broke up in September. sad!

I thought their last album was the most interesting of that little cohort they formed with Tribulation and Horrendous

ahh man that really sucks. I listened to that album more than any one album in a long time, it was just a pleasure

Just released, on Friday January 22nd:

LATITUDES - Old Sunlight
http://dmp666.bandcamp.com/album/old-sunlight

Influenced by such varied Artists as NEUROSIS, RUSH, KING CRIMSON, BLUT AUS NORD, IMMOLATION, CONVERGE or MASTODON, the incredible UK-based band LATITUDES proudly deliver, with "Old Sunlight", their deepest, most expansive and forward-thinking work to date.

on spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/7nOCBGfhCrZhTxoaNQq5E3

AN NCS ALBUM PREMIERE (AND A REVIEW): LATITUDES — “OLD SUNLIGHT”
http://www.nocleansinging.com/2016/01/22/an-ncs-album-premiere-and-a-review-latitudes-old-sunlight/

Almost boundlessly imaginative, ever-changing, and beautifully performed, Old Sunlight is an utterly intoxicating experience, the kind that makes most progressive and post-metal seem drab by comparison. We’re barely into 2016, and already we have one of the year’s highlights.

http://www.slugmag.com/soundwaves/episode-228-subrosa/

podcast interview with SubRosa wherein they discuss their upcoming dystopian sci fi doom album inspired by the novel "We" by Yevgeny Zamyatin

I saw Latitudes at Desertfest a couple of years ago and loved them. Weirdly, I was only thinking about them last night.

upcoming dystopian sci fi doom album inspired by the novel "We" by Yevgeny Zamyatin

Holy shit, it's like they made an album just for me.

I'm listening to the Abbath album today and it's really fun. So far I like every track. I think this will my first album purchase of the year.

I was kind of marveling at how much the RYM metal people seem to dislike the Abbath album. I don't know that it's earth-shattering or anything but it is a fucking blast. And "Winterbane" is a genuine monster.

sounds good to me

Listened to it tonight on the train. Wanted to like it, but...didn't. The riffs are super-generic, almost groove metal. If they were a little slower they could have appeared on an U.D.O. album. And he sounds more like Popeye than ever.

On the other hand, I'm liking this quite a bit:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CZnH3rfWYAMVRFp.jpg

Listened to the debut album by Oceans of Slumber this morning. It's called Winter, and it's semi-proggy doom(ish) metal with "beauty-and-the-beast" male-female vocals. Think In This Moment + Swallow The Sun + Gwen Stefani (the female singer reminds me of her quite a bit). There's a cover of the Moody Blues' "Nights in White Satin" on the album, and they also covered Candlemass's "Solitude" last year:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e91SnsQS1O8

I'm late to the party it seems, but Batushka!

If you like those bands that stay in a second wave black metal comfort zone, Belgians Cult of Erinyes have a new EP for free download. There's even a "Pagan Fears" cover, which is sort of redundant in light of the other two tracks' clear inspiration.
https://cavernaabismal.bandcamp.com/album/cult-of-erinyes-transcendence-tape

Their previous albums are also good if not revolutionary. Kinda remind me of Glorior Belli before the latter went all bluesy.

I bought the new Megadeth at Target last night because I couldn't remember the last time I bought a metal cd in a Target. Felt weird.

And the album is surprisingly listenable! Main problem is I can almost hear Dave saying, "ok now let's do that part from 'Hangar 18 / Wake Up Dead / whatever" rather than "hey check out these new riffs I wrote." Can't say I ever had any emotional investment in Megadeth though.

Oh and that new Borknagar has amazing vocals throughout but damned if I can remember any guitar-centric moments. I suspect I'll be giving it more listens. I don't mind losing riffing if it's in favor of hearing Vintersorg/ICS Vortex/Garm/the other guy.

this Obscura album is pretty wild. not often drawn to this kinda techy grandiose death metal but it's also somewhat proggy and there's a choir on one track. feeling it. its 'radio impact date' is tomorrow so somewhere'll prob stream it?

Finally picked up last years' Rippikoulu "Musta Seremonia" reissue. Finnish doomy death circa 1993, great stuff if you're into that sound.

I don't know if more than two people care about this including myself but Ehnahre's new one is out:

https://kathexis.bandcamp.com/album/douve

That Rippikoulu is great, almost perfect really for that sound, and for the last quarter of 2015, was a big part of my metal listening, along with Abhorrence, Convulse and Disgrace.

Thoughts on the latest Phil Anselmo incident? I think I'm this thread's loudest Pantera defender, but I'm pretty fucking disappointed by this, on several levels: 1) the salute and shout itself; 2) the attempt to claim it was a joke about white wine; 3) his asshole fans trying to carry that pathetic lie across the finish line; 4) the broader metal community basically turning their backs out of careerism (as the linked MetalSucks editorial says, pretty much every writer or editor you or I know has interviewed Anselmo in the past, or wants to interview him in the future - I've talked to him at least twice that I recall).

Conspicuous, gutless silence in favour of careerism, absolutely. Why upset the apple cart when you can get a media pass to Housecore fest?

A ton of respect to Machine Head's Robb Flynn for posting this video, though (disclaimer: I worked with Robb for 2-3 years while we were both still at Roadrunner):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCBKzWg4WYo

Agreed. I understand there's a discrete difference between 'being racist' and 'being a racist', and this latest Anselmo bullshit (that I have to qualify that with a 'latest', well...) slots him into the latter camp in my book.

There's a whole Anselmo thread:

so I guess we can stop playing the "is he/isn't he game" about Phil Anselmo from Pantera wrt to racism

This MetalSucks article is a bit odd with its assumptions, is there really anyone who thinks Anselmo is a respectable dude? Of course there's the commercial angle, but those people would happily talk to and write about Mustaine and Vikernes if they would be commercially viable artists. Never in history has being a despicable asshole been a hindrance to a commercially succesful career.

For a minute I thought it was Ned Ragget on the artwork for The Body a few posts into this thread

*Raggett

woah this new Oranssi Pazuzu is fucking GOOD

I am enjoying Le Dernier Crépuscule by Chthe'ilist on Spotify.
I generally like Profound Lore stuff but this is my first exposure to this band.

Lyrical themes: Horror, Dark Fantasy, The Legend of Zelda

Well they do have a song called "Tales of the Majora Mythos Part 1"

Yeah, I really like this Chthe'ilist. It has a swing to it that is different from most of the DM I hear in this murky atmospheric vein.

I've been hooked on the new Mesarthim single the last couple of days. Black Metal with some icy/cheesy/new-agy synths on top.

https://mesarthim.bandcamp.com/album/suffocate-single

the album is fantastic. only 1 euro on bandcamp but loved it so much I ordered the vinyl. The few people I have recommended it to since Smithy told me about it love it too.

One of the reviews sums it up nicely

"Summoning in space on LSD with guitar solos. I think that's good."

^^^^^ yeah i am hugely enthusiastic about that mesarthim record, even though it came out last year apparently

but vinyl and cd arent out til end of feb so it will count for metal poll!

Also time for you guys to review it elsewhere!

This new Avantasia album is fantastic. If you like melodic overkill. I like melodic overkill. A lot. Magnum + Blind Guardian?

Yeah, I really like this Chthe'ilist. It has a swing to it that is different from most of the DM I hear in this murky atmospheric vein

Listening to this now, and the first thing that stands out is the Demilich influence. The murky production actually kind of hurts this record to me a bit, but as OSDM revival-ish records go, you could do a lot worse than bringing back this sound!

playlist is up to date.

ILM's Rolling Metal Thread 2016 Spotify Playlist

Mourning Beloveth - Rust & Bone (Ván Records)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs2z5BrccoY

The Encyclopaedia Metallum page says it came out in December but everywhere else it's listed as this year.

It's quite good, straddling funeral doom, straight-up doom metal and death metal. Very epic. The only quibble is that all five songs occupy the same tempo, but I really enjoy the contrasting vocals that go from grandiose Candlemass-inspired almost spoken word to death metal growls.

http://cdn.theobelisk.net/obelisk/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/rip-in-the-wind.jpg

Looking forward to hearing this R.I.P album, on Totem Cat Records...
Chiefly because the Obelisk described it as 'Street Doom'.

Hey hip-hop nerds. What kind-of hip-hop is this?

R.I.P single is streaming here... So good
http://theobelisk.net/obelisk/2016/02/03/r-i-p-in-the-wind-tremble/

As someone who likes stoner metal but not constant weed references, that's nice stuff.

As someone who likes stoner metal but not constant weed references

I have to take every opportunity to mention Abdullah and their album Graveyard Poetry. Great band, great vocals, just kinda lackluster production. (They were on Meteor City so maybe they're more well known than I think; I just never see em talked about.) I feel like they could've honed themselves into a QOTSA type crossover thing but they didn't stay together long enough. Those songs are immortal in my book, though.

https://youtu.be/TLA3qnjuPnU

I pay pretty close attention to the Portland (heavy) scene - including scanning gig listings every week - and I've never even heard the name R.I.P. Weird?

Good tune, though, looking forward to hearing more.

new Krallice for yr face ears

OK I think I like that Mourning Beloveth; where the fuck can I get Van stuff in the US for, say, less than $30?

Also all you dudes digging Chthe'ilist should check out Howls of Ebb if you haven't!

As someone who likes stoner metal but not constant weed references

I pay pretty close attention to the Portland

^^^^ Ugh... above post due to dumb fat fingers ^^^^

What I was trying to say was:

I pay pretty close attention to the Portland (heavy) scene

If you go see them, let me know how it was... I can't imagine getting to see them in the UK anytime soon

If you liked the Violet Cold album last year, be advised that a new one came out today!

https://open.spotify.com/album/06EZss4sACNROJBE64nSFR

If you missed it: experimental one-man atmospheric post-blackgaze metal from Azerbaijan!

Anyone heard the new Rotting Christ?

so who's going to Maryland Death Fest this year? kinda excited for Testament (who I will see for the first time finally in a few weeks), Wormed, Desaster, etc.....

also not at all feeling the new Megadeth. better than what I heard from Supercollider, but very bland.

def going to mdf this year. psyched to live so much closer now

was gonna go, schedule won't allow it. get in the pit on my behalf everybody

I'm going to MDF! Stoked!

still need to get a pass but i'm definitely going again this year

sweet. I got my three day pass for Edison lot. Lookin forward to...

Horrendous
Mayhem (are they seriously doing all of De Mysteriis?)
Samael
The Haunted (tho I'm seeing them this Tuesday)
Sinister
Wormed (really stoked for this one)
Exciter
Gruesome (seen em once tho)
Hail of Bullets
Impaled Nazarene
Nuclear Assault (hell yea!)
Testament (tho I'm seeing them end of this month)
Satan
Destroyer 666
Desaster
Venom

got my hotel booked cheaply .5 miles away, still need to find cheap airfare, but was able to last time...

gotta say I am really down with the latest Enforcer album. the instrumental on the album kinda reminds me of Anvil a little and there are hooks a plenty all over it.

also I'm diving deeper into Trouble's back catalog now (previously I had only Psalm 9 and The Skull) after seeing them at Florida Metal Fest. and holy fuckballs, is the s/t album from 1990 the best Led Zep stoner album never made. other than the one Dark Side of the Moon ripoff, it's a fav.

can I just say tho seeing Trouble (while they were the best band of the night easily) was funny cos they were doing Psalm 9 stuff (hella fuckin' cool) and hearing the Christian lyrics being sung, song ends, and then Kyle Thomas says something like "how the motherfuck are you fuckin' doin tonight?!"

Hey, man, Jesus totally looks like a dude who would say that.

Totally right about the s/t album, btw! Like it's one of those albums that could be regarded as a sellout except for the fact that it's so fucking great.

looking forward to this album

Fallujah reveal artwork, track listing for upcoming album ‘Dreamless’
http://www.metalinsider.net/releases/fallujah-reveal-artwork-track-listing-for-upcoming-album-dreamless

April 29th

their last one was pretty good, looking forward to it

Picked up the new Eight Bells CD at the show last night in Philly.

It's pretty phenomenal, taking the catharsis and beauty of their debut and expanding on both emotions until they ethereally collide.

Also, Voivod is still great and the two new Vektor songs make me anxious for their new one on Earache in March.

OK I think I like that Mourning Beloveth; where the fuck can I get Van stuff in the US for, say, less than $30?

there's a second new Vektor track?

new Eight Bells

oh nice, I didn't know they had a new one

New Cobalt track up with that goon from Lord Mantis singing

http://profoundlorerecords.bandcamp.com/album/slow-forever

there's a second new Vektor track?

Two new songs, or two songs? (Their songs are pretty long, and first-opener sets can be pretty short...)

Not new stuff, but thanks to Dominique for mentioning Convulse. World Without God is rocking my world right now.

Haha, two new songs, silly.

I didn't make it out last year but I might make more of an effort this year...

SHADOW WOODS METAL FEST Returns To Devastate Central Maryland In September; More Than Twenty Bands Already Confirmed

http://files.ctctcdn.com/28b23da7301/d7ed3dce-8650-4e19-998b-1652a8949784.jpg

SHADOW WOODS METAL FEST 2016 Confirmed Lineup:
A SOUND OF THUNDER (DC) **traditional old-school heavy metal
ACID WITCH (Detroit) **horror death
BLOOD STORM (PA/TX) **black thrash
BOUND BY THE GRAVE (Baltimore) *death
CEMETERY PISS (Baltimore) **black
COFFIN DUST (Philadelphia) **death
CORPSE LIGHT (Baltimore) *doom
DARSOMBRA (MD) **metal drone
DESTROYER OF LIGHT (Austin, TX) **sludge
EMPYREUS(Chicago) **black
FAITH IN JANE FEATURING WINO (MD) ** doom trio joined by the godfather of the sound
GENEVIEVE (MD) **experimental black
GRAVE GNOSIS (St. Petersburg, FL) **black
HAXEN (Rhode Island) **black
HELLEBORUS (Manitou Springs, CO) **black
MYOPIC (DC) **death/doom
SAPREMIA (New Jersey) **death
TELOCH VOVIN (NY) **black
TEMPLE OF VOID (Detroit) **doom
WIZARD EYE (PA) **doom
XEUKATRE (Baltimore) **black
MANY MORE BANDS YET TO BE ANNOUNCED

I don't know if more than two people care about this including myself but Ehnahre's new one is out:

https://kathexis.bandcamp.com/album/douve

a friend of mine just recommended this to me and i immediately thought, "where is imago, has he heard this"

Hey, Anthrax? Enough with the pentagrams. You guys are the least pentagrammy band in metal.

Yeah they should bring the Not Man back.

Cult of Luna / Julie Christmas collab

https://youtu.be/z_O-NZfzvj0

https://kathexis.bandcamp.com/album/douve

a friend of mine just recommended this to me and i immediately thought, "where is imago, has he heard this"

― HYPERLINK TO RAP GENIUS (BradNelson), Thursday, February 11, 2016 9:37 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

good crikey, he's hearing it now, ty

i mean, so far it's more 'intriguing' than 'mindblowing' and could yet tumble back to 'irritating' but oh hey look the big guitars have come in

Checked out the Ehnahre at the bequest of a few people above... It's like Tom Waits started a depressive black metal band. Interesting stuff.

I do like Douve quite a lot, could possibly have done with some editing, it starts to lose me slightly towards the end of the middle (it's a long album OK) but picks up again on the last handful of tracks I feel

snuck off to Wilmington, NC, without a word to anybody this weekend, just cos Cryptopsy/Cannibal Corpse/Obituary/Abysmal Dawn tour is here otnight and I'm too impatient to wait for the Tampa stop (tho I'll hit that one up too).

stoked given that I liked the Topsy EP, the rest I figure I know what's coming.

Cult of Luna / Julie Christmas collab

I was wondering what Julie Christmas was up to!

One of my favorite-ever concert memories was catching Made out of Babies at a showcase of some kind in NYC, w/ the whole band (and JC in particular) evilly amused at playing right after a particularly obnoxious, bro-y pop=punk band. Just tore the place up.

Listening to Goatwhore's Carving Out The Eyes Of God on Spotify; it's working for me better than it ever has before, and I don't know why. I've never liked this band, but somehow tonight their head-down dumbassery is just what I want to hear. I hope I don't wind up listening to Devildriver next.

Goatwhore = good on disc....boring live

spent valentine's day catching up on 2016 stuff so far

abbath's album rips imo. great riffs as ever. priest cover kicks so much ass!

disappointed to find that the chthe'ilist album is so very much not my thing, esp after so many people told me i'd love it! i was expecting atmospherics, or maybe something dungeon synth-y, or moevot-esque. but i got canadian tech death with boodlypanking bass! not a dis, but not for me at all.

ehnahre: really like it, but def an endurance event at 18 substantial tracks, damn

bored by krallice tbh. have the guitars always sounded this early 2000s post hardcore? that tone.

stoked to see eight bells, voivod et al tonight. did i mention i moved to richmond and there are so many great shows that i have to be super choosy? not used to that at all! and having baltimore/DC in driving distance has me doubly spoiled.

and i find this exmortus album immensely satisfying for some reason. melodic DM is rarely up my alley at all, and i was surprised that i couldn't turn it off.

If you're in a mood for power metal, I highly recommend Tanagra's None Of This Is Real, a 2015 release I just discovered on Bandcamp. Had I known about it last year, it would have made my year-end list for sure. These guys are great players, the singer can really wail, and their songs have everything power metal should have: speed, riffs, and epic choruses. It's name-your-price, so you've got no excuse.

Frobisher has the results ready to go
Finally... The Top 200 Extreme Metal Albums of ALL TIME!

all hail the emperor penguin

Had a great time seeing Graveyard and Spiders Saturday night, the last show of their US tour.
I have seen Graveyard before and love them but Spiders was so fucking fun!
I had no idea the singer was so tiny but she commanded the stage and the sound as well.
It's possible that Shake ELectric was my favorite album of 2014. But they were even better live.

If I still went to shows I'd have gone to that one.

Some stuff dredged up from the NWN fever swamps:

Chilean thrash drawing heavily from the classic Teutonic stuff. There are hints of the non-Bay Area Americana too. More Girardi artwork.
Ripper

Weird scifi death metal that almost scratches my Anata itch. They're obv fans of Demilich, like everyone else at the moment. Can probably file it next to Artificial Brain.
Nucleus

Blazing fast dirty n noisy black metal that reminds me of stuff like Haemoth and Diamatregon, almost tuneless but produced in an effective/appealing way. May appeal to the war metal crowd.
Eggs of Gomorrh

And the best thing I've heard this year so far, Hostium's Bloodwine of Satan. Feels like Cultes des Ghoules, which is to say, feels like the really crazy blood-smeared sorcery happening in the cellar of that cathedral on the cover of Mayhem's DMDS while the Norwegians played politely above ground.
Hostium

Forgot to mention that if you like to hear actual bass strings thrumming in your thrash, that Ripper will make your day.

so this Enforcer/Warbringer/Exmortus/Cauldron show, have they been good?

I like Warbringer (tho more of a fan of their first and third albums), Enforcer other than the occasional annoyance of their lead vocalist when he goes into Def Leppard-mode, is a lot of fun (I love the "From beyond" title track), Cauldron seems like they could be as well even if their most recent album starts out way better than it ends. I like the new Exmortus but the vocalist still strikes me as dull.

problem is the venue I'm seeing it as is tiny.

The new Rotting Christ album is called Rituals. If you've heard other recent Rotting Christ albums, your idea of how a new Rotting Christ album called Rituals will sound is probably pretty much right. I.e., intense, dark, repetitive, epic, mythic, monumental.

Ghost won a grammy!

righteous

I like the new Rotting Christ album, but not as much as I liked AEALO.

First I thought that Ghost winning a Grammy was absolutely amazing but then I saw they were up against August Burns Red, Sevendust, Lamb Of God and Slipknot.

Cauldron in a brutal van wreck last night. having to pull out of the rest of the tour but thankfully they're all ok.

https://www.facebook.com/CAULDRONmetal/posts/10153409750326463

so this Enforcer/Warbringer/Exmortus/Cauldron show, have they been good?

I like Warbringer (tho more of a fan of their first and third albums), Enforcer other than the occasional annoyance of their lead vocalist when he goes into Def Leppard-mode, is a lot of fun (I love the "From beyond" title track), Cauldron seems like they could be as well even if their most recent album starts out way better than it ends. I like the new Exmortus but the vocalist still strikes me as dull.

problem is the venue I'm seeing it as is tiny.

heh and I see I replied to that post too - glad to see my memory is holding up.

per Nathan and the St Vitus Bar, Coffins got sent back home to Japan due to visa issues. all kinds of fucked up

were supposed to start their tour tonight

the new Dakhma is some murky, occasionally chaotic deep-down black metal

pretty fuckin' outstanding

(the Swiss Dakhma on Iron Bonehead, not the Michigan one)

Oh yeah, those dudes are deep in the cave.

Joanie, did you hear the Temple Nightside album from a year or two or a few back? It's not as chaotic as Dakhma, almost has a Demoncy circa Joined in Darkness (gone doom) or early Disembowelment vibe. A stately, plague-ridden death metal thing with a sorta similar production to that Dakhma.

STEVE VAI, ZAKK WYLDE, YNGWIE MALMSTEEN,
NUNO BETTENCOURT & TOSIN ABASI COME TOGETHER
FOR GENERATION AXE - A NIGHT OF GUITARS

TOUR BEGINS APRIL 5TH
TICKETS ON SALE FEBRUARY 19TH

February 16, 2016 – The term “supergroup” gets thrown around on a regular basis these days, however, a new tour featuring some of the greatest guitarists of all time is about to truly give the term a whole new meaning.

Introducing: Generation Axe, featuring Steve Vai, Zakk Wylde, Yngwie Malmsteen, Nuno Bettencourt, and Tosin Abasi.

Beginning on April 5th in Seattle, Generation Axe - A Night Of Guitars is hitting the road for 26 performances in North America. Tickets for all shows go on sale Friday, February 19th.

"The Generation Axe show is a unique performance of five fiercely talented guitar players coming together to create a 6-string extravaganza that is sure to amaze and delight,” commented Steve Vai.

The Generation Axe fan experience will go way beyond simply gathering five guitar greats on one stage to jam. Each tour stop will include a variety of collaborations by the five players, including everyone performing together as one cohesive band with a rhythm section including Pete Griffin (Dweezil Zappa, Stanley Clarke, Edgar Winter) on bass and Nick Marinovich (Yngwie Malmsteen) on keys. Vai, Wylde, Malmsteen, Bettencourt and Abasi will perform songs from their various catalogs and join forces on some well-known songs (as well as probably a few unexpected, unearthed gems).

Making this rare tour experience even more special, Generation Axe VIP packages will be offered, giving fans access to these guitars masters and exclusive one-of-a-kind memorabilia. A front row package (including a meet & greet), a meet & greet package, and a VIP tour package will be available. For more information, visit www.generationaxe.com.


About the Generation Axe Members

While many artists fit easily into a single category, Steve Vai remains unclassifiable. Vai is a virtuoso guitarist, visionary composer, and consummate audio producer who sculpts musical sound with infinite creativity and technical mastery. He is one of the most in-demand, versatile, eloquent and soulful guitarists in the business. The GRAMMY Award-winner has sold over 15 million albums and toured the world as a solo artist, a member of G3, and with Frank Zappa, Alcatrazz, David Lee Roth, and Whitesnake. Vai launched his successful solo career with the release of Flex-Able in 1984 and has written, produced, and engineered all of his solo albums. He has appeared as a guest artist on more than 40 albums and created music for blockbuster films, best-selling video games, national sports franchises, and corporate brand initiatives. Vai has earned honorary doctorates from Berklee College of Music and Musicians Institute. For more info, visit: www.vai.com

GRAMMY Award-winner Zakk Wylde’s legendary career includes a lengthy tenure with Ozzy Osbourne in which Wylde co-wrote and recorded several albums, including the multi-platinum No More Tears, Osbourne’s largest selling solo album featuring the classic hit single, “Mama, I’m Coming Home” and the bulk of the double platinum 2002 set, Ozzmosis. With Osbourne, Wylde has played on countless world tours and television appearances, with his signature bullseye Les Paul in tow. Wylde has his mitts imprinted on Hollywood’s Rock Walk of Fame; guest-starred alongside Mark Wahlberg and Jennifer Aniston in the movie “Rockstar”; and even momentarily joined Axl, Slash and Duff in Guns N’ Roses. But nothing offers the pure expression of Zakk Wylde’s animalistic “id” like Black Label Society, the stomping, heavy, bluesy, recklessly unhinged hard-rock-metal quartet who are quick to rip up a solo as to dip into a piano-fueled anthemic ballad. For more info, visit: www.zakkwylde.com

When Yngwie J. Malmsteen hit the scene in the early 80s, he turned the entire guitar world upside down; never before was guitar playing like his ever heard. Drawing inspiration from his love for Baroque and Romantic classical music, Malmsteen employs classical violin techniques such as four and five octave arpeggios, pedal notes, and harmonic minor, diminished and Phrygian scales, flawlessly delivered at mind-boggling levels of speed and clarity. In doing so, he has singlehandedly created a brand new style of guitar playing and composing that is still derived from today. In addition to having written and produced 35+ neoclassical rock albums, Malmsteen composed and orchestrated the "Concerto Suite for Electric Guitar and Orchestra,” which he recorded with the prestigious Czech Philharmonic in Prague, conducted by Yoel Levy of Atlanta Symphony fame. Malmsteen subsequently performed the piece live with the the New Japan Philharmonic and the Taipei Symphony, among others. Malmsteen has received numerous Grammy nominations, hundreds of magazine covers, dozens of Reader's Poll and Composer of the Year Awards, a plaque on the Rock Walk of Fame, signature model guitars, amps, pickups, strings, picks, pedals, microphones, and more. TIME Magazine placed him as one of the top ten guitarists of all time. Some 35 years and 25 million+ album sales later, Yngwie shows no signs of slowing down, with his brand new record World on Fire due for release in April 2016. For more info, visit: www.yngwiemalmsteen.com

Guitar virtuoso, singer-songwriter, and record producer, Nuno Bettencourt rose to international prominence as a guitar player with the GRAMMY-nominated, Boston-area band EXTREME, one of the most successful rock acts of the early to mid 1990s selling over 10 million records worldwide. Musically, EXTREME is dominated by Bettencourt’s blistering guitar riffs, often with funky, syncopated timing, and incendiary, high-speed rock/metal solos. Bettencourt penned the acoustic ballad “More Than Words” that went to #1 on the Billboard charts and “Hole Hearted” that reached #4. He has released multiple solo albums as well as with bands he founded including Mourning Widows Population 1, Dramagods and Satellite Party. Bettencourt has written, produced and performed with many legendary artists including Rihanna, Steven Tyler, Paul McCartney, Janet Jackson and many others. For more info, visit: www.nunobettencourt.com

Oluwatosin Ayoyinka Olumide Abasi, better known as Tosin Abasi, is a Nigerian American guitarist known as the guitar player and founder of the instrumental progressive metal band, Animals as Leaders. Abasi’s compositions of intricate music have garnered critical acclaim in a few short years. Abasi is part of the breed of new contemporary players who are raising the bar on the concept of electric guitar virtuosity. His approach to the guitar stems from a passion for advanced techniques and harmony. Using 7-, 8-, and 9-string guitars have allowed Abasi to create a highly unique and individual sound. For more info, visit: www.facebook.com/animalsasleaders

Generation Axe - A Night Of Guitars is produced by Copeland International Arts and is booked by CAA.

For more information: www.generationaxe.com.
GENERATION AXE TOUR DATES
April 5, 2016 - Seattle, WA - Paramount Theatre
April 6, 2016 - Vancouver, BC - Queen Elizabeth Theatre
April 8, 2016 - Oakland, CA - Fox Theater
April 9, 2016 - Las Vegas, NV - The Joint
April 10, 2016 - San Diego, CA - Humphrey's Concerts By The Bay
April 11, 2016 - Los Angeles, CA - The Wiltern
April 13, 2016 - Denver, CO - Paramount Theatre
April 15, 2016 - Kansas City, MO - Uptown Theatre
April 16, 2016 - Salina, KS - The Stiefel Theatre
April 17, 2016 - Dallas, TX - Bomb Factory
April 18, 2016 - Houston, TX - Revention Music Center
April 20, 2016 - Jacksonville, FL - Florida Theatre
April 21, 2016 - Orlando, FL - Hard Rock Live
April 23, 2016 - Wilmington, NC - Cape Fear Community College
April 24, 2016 - Washington, DC - Warner Theatre
April 25, 2016 - Cincinnati, OH - Taft Theatre
April 26, 2016 - Indianapolis, IN - Murat Theatre
April 27, 2016 - Nashville, TN - Ryman Auditorium
April 29, 2016 - Chicago, IL - Copernicus Center
May 1, 2016 - Madison, WI - Orpheum Theatre
May 2, 2016 - Royal Oak, MI - Royal Oak Music Theatre
May 4, 2016 - Toronto, ON - Massey Hall
May 5, 2016 - Upper Darby, PA - Tower Theater
May 6, 2016 - Westbury, NY - Theatre at Westbury
May 7, 2016 - Hampton Beach, NH - Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom
May 8, 2016 - Providence, RI - Providence Performing Arts Center

More like Generation BLECCHs

I've got to admit, I like Yngwie - in small doses.

Hostium

could swear I heard this on a Fenriz show and meant to check out? Anyway, yeah, right up my black/death/war alley

I'd like to see Steve Vai! David Lee Roth starts his own band, to get away from ego-clashes/upstaging with players---and hires his own band of vivacious virtuosi, anchored by Steve Vai! One of the world's flashiest guitarists. Steve Vai! Zappa's designated "stunt guitarist." But how could this work with YJ Malmsteen? Kinda like to find out, but I'm sure I can't afford it.

You're bringing back memories of seeing Roth with Vai when I was in high school. We were pretty close to the stage, so there was some flashing and pantie throwing and stuff going on around us. It was pretty wild for a suburban kid I guess! Great show. Dokken opened.

another really interesting record from Avantgarde - this one credited to "two individuals who prefer to remain anonymous," they're from Oz, probably not the Berzerker or disEMBOWELMENT but maybe somebody from Portal? anyway, I guess this came out last year but it's pretty interesting - keyboard melodies that could be nicked from a Summoning record over some sorta-doomy epic rolling-drum scenarios...good stuff imo

http://avantgardemusic.bandcamp.com/album/isolate

This is really nice to see. Takafumi Matsubara from Gridlink playing guitar again: https://www.facebook.com/takafumi.matsubara.7/posts/962774543770546

Cool! So many strings.

I forgot I was listening to Les Brers in A Minor when I turned the sound up on that video, it was an interesting mix.

brian my copy turned up today of Mesarthim - Isolate. With the extra CD.

The best description of the album is SUMMONING ... IN SPACE

Which is pretty much my idea of the ideal album. and its fucking stunning.
http://i.imgur.com/xCgNB6V.jpg

its so good its even floored Dennis the Menace.

That cover is so Pink Floyd

that is probably the cellophane tbf

I got the Zoldier Noiz - Regression Process album today. Exactly what I need, kinda crusty sounding thrash metal that reminds me of "Ripper Crust" era Hellbastard. Or like all of the good bands on Noise Records circa 1986 but angrier and scummier.

If you don't mind metal that sometimes doesn't bother to plug in, this Ukrainian folk-metal-ish band [Ті, що падають вгору] is pretty good!

spotify:album:6XnXXcYh9nHS8w2Oqui1gc

I tried to figure out what people call them in non-Cyrillic characters, but near as I can tell, nobody ever calls them anything in non-Cyrillic characters.

i am now the holder of one ticket to this: http://migrationfest.us/

just played summoning and mesarthim back to back. grand stuff

Xpost that's a good lineup!

Dunno if there's a new rolling stoner/psych/doom/whatever thread so I will say that the new Moon Curse album is really good.

legitimately pissed off @ this violet cold album

Why?

If you don't mind metal that sometimes doesn't bother to plug in, this Ukrainian folk-metal-ish band [Ті, що падають вгору] is pretty good!

spotify:album:6XnXXcYh9nHS8w2Oqui1gc

I tried to figure out what people call them in non-Cyrillic characters, but near as I can tell, nobody ever calls them anything in non-Cyrillic characters.

It's a stretch to call it metallic though.

I heard a Violet Cold album last year, it was fucking dreadful. As far as I recall it's basically the cheesiest Euro-dance chord progressions with some idiot rasping over it.

So it's Republica?

j3ff will love it then

Last year's Violet Cold album was one of my favorites of the year. I don't have chord progressions I do or don't consider appropriate for metal, though, and even without that it doesn't surprise me if not everybody likes it. It's like laptop Alcest.

(It doesn't sound anything like EDM, regardless.)

I don't consider anything "inappropriate" to mix with metal. I might be remembering what it sounded like a bit wrong because I couldn't take it for too long and I'm sure as hell not going back there now

It's like laptop Alcest.

the hardest of passes

The Voivod EP is so fuckin great

Looking forward to new Voivod.

Here's another new Oranssi Pazuzu song to fucking drive me crazy until I get my copy:

http://www.thewire.co.uk/audio/tracks/listen-to-oranssi-pazuzus_vasemman-kaden-hierarkia_

When that guitar comes in. When that fucking guitar comes in.

There's been some discussion of Ved Buens Ende/Virus/Fleuerety on the EXTREME METAL thread, here's a new album in that ill-defined genre by Pogavranjen:

http://pogavranjenband.bandcamp.com/

Never heard of these guys before but it's pretty solid stuff. Better than Seasons in the Abyss!!!!!!!

The wait for the new Oranssi Pazuzu is painful to me too.

I heard that Pogavranjen album recently, the Virus impression is a bit too on the nose, it was kind of distracting.

Didn't bother me but that can be a danger when you're trying to play what is essentially a one-band genre.

At least the new OP song is amazing, unless it goes crap in the last 5 minutes (unlikely, but the stream won't load for me past a certain point for some reason). I'll have to wait until I get it.

Yeah that tune is fucking crazy great. 3 days until my copy gets here. Hopefully.

Also found out that Relapse reissued Sacrilege's "Behind the Realms of Madness" mini-LP with a bunch of bonus tracks, recommended for fans of early metallic crust/crusty metallics.

Weird that no one has ever reissued their trad-doom album Turn Back Trilobite, but maybe they're ashamed of it.

Interesting article on the "Weird Global Appeal of Heavy Metal":

http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-weird-global-appeal-of-heavy-metal-1455819419?curator=MediaREDEF

Cult of Luna have recorded a new album with Julie Christmas on vocals throughout. Five tracks, 55 minutes. I haven't listened to it yet, but I'm intrigued.

I heard a Violet Cold album last year, it was fucking dreadful. As far as I recall it's basically the cheesiest Euro-dance chord progressions with some idiot rasping over it.

― space prophet wogan (ultros ultros-ghali), Saturday, February 20, 2016 7:08 PM (3 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

exactly. every song builds to the most predictably corny climax possible and then hangs out there for 4 mins

This description, modulo the value-judgments, is pretty much why I think it's great, too.

https://entropia.bandcamp.com/album/ufonaut

Entropia is a Black Metal band from Poland, shimmering with psyche-rock elements but not at the expense of heaviness or a more traditional black metal vibe than most who proudly take on the post- prefix and -gaze suffix.

Ufonaut is their second album. Released on 2/15 through Arachnophobia Records.

That's pretty nice. Already sold out, apparently.

You guys, you know what rules? Immortal's Blizzard Beasts. It's like they decided to do a tribute to Altars/Blessed era Morbid Angel.

Oranssi Pazuzu song upthread is monster

new Gorguts!

http://youtu.be/RDyn5lkVNlo

YES

aaaah

this is so good

guess we'll have to re-poll Extreme Metal in May

should be a new jute gyte by then too

Sounds great. Basically more of Colored Sands.

ahhhh!

Luc Lemay comments, “As our EP ‘Pleiades’ Dust’ consists out of a single long narrative composition, it was not written with the intention of being edited in segments. As the storyline proceeds in chapters though, I was able to isolated this part called ‘Wandering Times’ which will give the listener a good idea of the composition aesthetics which are present throughout the whole piece.

That's pretty nice. Already sold out, apparently.

the ltd edition one is sold out

15 Years Of ILM POll (Metal & Heavy Rock Edition) NOMINATIONS AND DISCUSSION THREAD (Nominations Close Friday April 1 2016)

the ltd edition one is sold out

any left?

Two. Clicky the linky.

Or get the jewel case version for only $11.99 including shipping through eBay:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/ENTROPIA-Ufonaut-CD-black-metal-sludge-post-metal-Poland-BLINDEAD-CULT-OF-LUNA-/252298903329

That listing is from Selfmade God Records though the CD is still cheaper through eBay from them than their website though that may not be the case for European buyers.

http://f1.bcbits.com/img/a1266747464_10.jpg

Brimstone Coven - Black magic
Doomy Proto-Metal Hard Rock from West Virginia
Out January 29, 2016 on Metal Blade Records

http://open.spotify.com/album/2W9gHde4uAkgJii1f8HNNU

For fans of Pentagram, Withcraft

I liked it. Listening again to see if I love it or not.

I think I only like it.

But there are so many large breasts on the cover!

Thanks for the tip on the Entropia.

New Gorguts sound FFFUUUUCCKIIINNN AAAMAAAAZZUUULUUIIINGGG, I feel like I've been waiting for this EP forever but the sample points towards it being absolutely worth it. Goddamn they're so good.

Thanks for the tip on the Entropia.

Seconded, this is a great record, right up my street. Vinyl coming mid-March...

New Oranssi Pazuzu is now up on Spotify but I'm going to have to wait until tomorrow to give it a proper listen.

Heard The new Oranssi Pazuzu earlier, it's awesome.

Krallice's rhythm section have an album out in April, under the name of Geryon.

https://www.profoundlorerecords.com/geryon-complete-work-on-new-album/

I really like the EP they did a while back, and the preview song on that page sounds promising

Oranssi is cool so far. Groovy and dark.

New Anthrax is zzzzzZzzzzzzzzzz.

I liked Worship Music fine but this is a masterpiece for people who can't get enough of Megadeths TWNAH.

I went on a long drive yesterday mainly so I could check out the Oranssi Pazuzu. I'm thinking this is their best album so far.

(Also recommend the doomier OP side project Atomikylä!)

i saw dakhma night before last in a tiny room and the guitarist turned up so unnecessarily loud that not a single peep could be heard from the vocalist, tone was so muddy and volume so high that it just sounded like a single constant chord with no vocals and a drummer going ham.

["sounds like it was great!!!!!" -subsequent mind blowing post]

lolll

wow, the opening Oranssi track is indeed great. I loved their last album too. excited for the rest of this. also the new Destroyer 666!

man this goes from trance-inducing to intense all over the place. love it...especially the fourth track

oh man the Destroyer666 is fucking dope too

I will join in the love-fest for the new Oranssi Pazuzu.
There's not much about the album I don't think is amazing.
"Havuluu" sounds like a psyche-rock film noir.
Cover art matches the album sound too.

Playlist somewhat updated.

ILM's Rolling Metal Thread 2016 Spotify Playlist

listening to Oranssi Pazuzu now, call me crazy but this sounds like an extension of Circle circa early 2000s

it does

I've never heard Circle but I read an interview with Jun-His from OP and he named them as one of the band's influences.

Also loving the new album, quite different from Valonielu but equally great.

listening now as well, this is fucking exceptional

they are riding to war

somewhere in andromeda

Also got around to listening to the Chthe'ilist album - technical death is not really my thing normally but this hits the right buttons.

AAAAAHHHHHHHHH

You broke him

I remember loving the first Oranssi but the new one has a way of startling you. Like by track 4 when that intense string-cum-guitar riff just appears.

Such a headphones alb

This album broke me

It's just too good

Will rep again but the new Destroyer666 rules

"Hounds At Ya Back" is such a killer old school sounding song. So glad to be excited over a D666 album again.

I'm working my way toward that OP, not being in much of an "out there music" mindset lately.

I've not been much impressed by Howls of Ebb before but this new track is pretty good

https://nuclearwarnowproductions.bandcamp.com/album/cursus-impasse-the-pendlomic-vows

To me it sounds "squidgy." I don't know how that works or if anyone else knows what I'm talking about but there we are

reviewing the Sinistro album (on Season of Mist) at the moment and while it hasn't blown me away it seems to be really successful at its attempted niche, which is Lana Del Rey type pop noir meets modish doom metal. think quite a few ILM types would be into this one off it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XR1fILkvSlA

one-man blackened death metal project The Wakedead Gathering, surprisingly coherent (not sure I know other one-man DM bands), with a dark, old school vibe. Demigod is the first old band that springs to mind with this stuff, but thinking fans of the 2014 Domains album might also like.

https://thewakedeadgathering.bandcamp.com/album/fuscus-strings-of-the-black-lyre

and there's probably some Incantation in there too

I've not been much impressed by Howls of Ebb before but this new track is pretty good

https://nuclearwarnowproductions.bandcamp.com/album/cursus-impasse-the-pendlomic-vows

To me it sounds "squidgy." I don't know how that works or if anyone else knows what I'm talking about but there we are

― space prophet wogan (ultros ultros-ghali), Tuesday, March 1, 2016 8:12 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Think I get you. It's kind of slow and awkward and horrible in a really cool way, like it's dripping through the speakers or something

the Pazuzu album is so dense. like the layered shrieks that appear over the riffs towards the end of the opening track

I'm listening to it now on an Amtrak train while the sun is setting. I am seriously stoked for when it gets dark out as this is concluding

Just got the new Inherit Disease, their first in five years. I know there's not much love for brutal death metal with "what's wrong with the toilet?" vocals around these parts, but these guys are really, really good at it, so I'm very excited.

I love a lot of bdm but whatever fine line I have for enjoyable vox is crossed by Inherit Disease, at least on their last one. It might just be a combo of being mixed too loud and not having enough variation from a drawn out monosyllabic GLURRRRRRRRGH. But I'm sure I'll get around to the new one. I probably should relisten to their debut because I vaguely recall it being less in your face vox-wise.

There's an unintentionally hilarious bdm thread on ultimatemetal that's pretty much three or four easily disgruntled dudes flying the flag. It's where I learned about the Jenovavirus demo which is one of the more ridiculously awesome things I've ever heard.
https://youtu.be/bdc0ssOvs9I

Yeah, that Jenovavirus is amazing. Downloading it now.

Aluk Todolo's Voix is so good, and perfectly recorded. The cymbal work on track 4 alone.

yeah this is better than I expected, if not quite as monstrous (or fun) as OP. feels more like jazz if anything

and yeah, just reached the 4th part. this is great

the most obvious magma influence in bm history but they use it well

I hear the similarity to OP too, although more focused and restricted in terms of instrumentation. And I want to say more of a sense of chemistry, which might be because it's a live album.

yeah, where OP is a boundless cosmic opus, this is very much a performance, and a brilliant one too

I thought the Aluk Todolo album was mildly impressive on a superficial level but really pretty boring. I don't get the black metal connection either, it just sounds like noisy jam-rock which is fine but not something I personally want to listen to

it's pretty much a fusion prog jam yeah, but idk - do you like magma?

(obviously i prefer OP and the song 'vasemann käden hierarkia' has ruled my entire life for the last 2 days)

Magama are another one of those bands that I should like, probably even love but I can't get into. I've tried, believe me.

I also don't really understand how I can enjoy OP so much when AT leave me apathetic but it just depends on what I have a gut reaction to honestly

I don't hear Magma in Aluk Todolo at all. I hear Fushitsusha sometimes, though.

I still need to listen to the Oranssi Pazuzu album (someone else wrote the Burning Ambulance review).

oh man the Destroyer666 is fucking dope too

speaking of black metal that recalls Fushitsusha, check out the new Skáphe (again on I, Voidhanger, home of earlier mentioned Wakedead Gathering, Ævangelist, Spectral Lore) -- cold spacey, yet dead black atmosphere a la Darkspace, but with expansive psychedelic guitar. Swirling, claustrophobic, cosmic.

https://skaphe.bandcamp.com/album/sk-phe-2

another new Vektor track:

http://www.npr.org/sections/allsongs/2016/03/02/468701046/vikings-choice-vektor-charging-the-void

"Charging The Void" is the first track of the album and sets the scene for the story that follows. It begins with the lone astronaut from Outer Isolation, who is actually an Isolation test subject. He overrides the autopilot and is compelled to go forth on his own and search for his purpose. Years in isolation have twisted his mind, and he teeters between insanity and vengeance. His travels bring him to the now-exploded star, Alshain. Within the stellar nebula, he finds a life-giving molecule that revitalizes him and extends his life. With an entire haul of the newfound molecule, he believes he's found his purpose. He has an epiphany about life and death and decides to bring his life-giving molecule and his new way of understanding to the Cygnus Regime.

I don't like Voivod, and Krallice bores me, but I love Vektor! Weird...

Can't imagine either of those bands pulling a move like this track does in the last 2 mins

Wow, that is epic.

Man, new Howls of Ebb already. Love those dudes and their pioneering work in shitty guitar sounds.

"Shitty" with regards to standard metal guitar paradigms, I mean. I think they way out of the infinite regress of HM-2 or Incantation derived sounds is through textural guitar weirdness.

Funny how Jenovavirus came up, I was listening to that on the way to work couple of days ago... I'm not usually one for BDM but that demo's pleasingly fucked up. I've been digging Wormed recently too, they have a new album out pretty soon.

Yeah, I love Wormed and can't wait for the new record. I think there's a preview track out there but I haven't listened to it, I'm waiting for the full album.

need to check out that Howls of Ebb, which is also on I, Voidhanger -- quickly realizing this is my favorite new metal label

For work reasons, I find myself having generated a very long list of fairly-new metal songs by bands with almost no listeners (but whose few listeners are serious metal fans). And I've been listening to it for hours. And it's relentless and mind-blowing and awesome.

https://open.spotify.com/user/glennpmcdonald/playlist/0OHKkcE4alE0JcaaZeTBlO

(The experiment I was doing was seeing if I could generate genre-coherent lists of music by artists for whom we have so little data that our usual genre-coherence methods don't work. So the fact that this is consistently metal, at least for the first few hours, is a major and surprising victory.)

full R.I.P. album is streaming:

http://www.cvltnation.com/cvlt-nation-streaming-r-i-p-in-the-wind/

I think I'm on like my tenth or eleventh listen of that new Vektor song! Pretty remarkable how much they've broadened their tonal/ melodic palette without sacrificing virtually any edge.

Listening to the advance of Metal Massacre 14, which is coming out on Metal Blade in April or May, compiled by Alan from Primordial, and...well, the original series was supposed to promote up-and-coming underground metal bands who theoretically had potential to reach broader audiences, but this one is part of the whole '80s cosplay thing that's been going on for, like, 15 years now in metal, and it's as lame as any other deliberately closed-off retro gesture, despite the actual songs being in some cases kinda decent.

Man. I've been listening to Savage Master a lot lately and mentioned to someone that "Ripper in Black" sounds like something that would be the best track on one of the less popular Metal Massacres... turns out I'm right.

new Church of Misery is pretty great, though the production isn't so overwhelmingly deafening this time, which is interesting.

anybody been following the fucked up shit going on at Frankfurt Deathfest? granted, not a major festival (Avulsed were one of the biggest names there if that gives you any indication), but apparently the promoter promised airfare to the bands and didn't deliver, so they bailed like, day of. In one case, the promoter Mario bought plane tix for Avulsed and gave them confirmation numbers, but the band found out at the airport he had cancelled the reservation months ago and gotten a refund.

That sucks. Can't be too huge an amount of money, right? Seems stupidly shortsighted.

And I just want to say I failed to pay attention to the Black Twilight Circle dudes in L.A. and I kind of regret it... listening to the second Arizmenda tape and shit is crazy, vicious chaotic black metal with proggy elements; like Lust (the Canadian one) if they were into pre-DSOTM Floyd and Magma.

Anyone who's still a bit miffed that Morbus Chron split should definitely hear this

https://pulverised.bandcamp.com/album/temisto

Proggy OSDM. Many riffs.

Yesss, I heard that on Glenn's (awesome) Spotify playlist above, had never heard of them before but it's great stuff.

If you like the HIM school of gothic love-metal, I highly recommend this new Beseech album. https://open.spotify.com/album/7HIENHqz4iq3AAUe0NBoAV

There's a band called Groundhogs playing between Arabrot and Bongzilla on the second day of the Temples Festival this year. I really doubt it's the legendary late '60s/early '70s blues-rock trio, so WTF?

I believe it is them

very popular with the doom and stoner rock crowd and the melvins headline that day.

If it is them, that's actually even weirder, as they're the only band of that vintage on the entire three-day bill...

The festival organizers responded to me on Twitter - apparently it's a lineup led by original drummer Ken Pustlenik and some dudes from the band Gonga.

that's weird. Tony McPhee still tours as the groundhogs

Inverloch: Distance | Collapsed -- idiomatic doom/death from half of Disembowelment.
https://inverloch.bandcamp.com/album/distance-collapsed

I guess it's like how there are multiple versions of Goblin. I can't say I'd go see any lineup of the Groundhogs in 2016 - McPhee had a pretty bad stroke two years ago, I hear.

McPhee played with C93/David Tibet last year, seemed fine.

The Drummer Groundhogs are pretty good, according to a mate that's seen them. I'm quite looking forward to them.

4-way split of bands on Unspeakable Axe called 4 Doors to Death, all in the old school, blackened death metal realm: https://unspeakableaxerecords.bandcamp.com/album/4-doors-to-death

Going to get that and the Inverloch soon. Had to pick up the new Begrime Exemious last night, though, which is surprisingly thrashy but without stooping to retro lameness. Also picked up the 2nd Uncle Slam album for a buck, which is pure retro (well, old) lameness and I loved every minute of it. Especially the dumbass cover of Dazed and Confused.

weird question, but who's the "bigger" band right now: Baroness or Machine Head?

Machine Head for sure. Baroness is playing 400-capacity rooms with other bands on the bill; Machine Head can sell out 1500-2000 person rooms with no opening act, doing an "Evening With..." show.

xxxpost Unspeakable Axe also put out that new Ripper album, which is, uh, a thing that rips.

Many thanks for the attention drawn to The Wakedead Gathering, whose most recent two albums I now have in my possession. Music, lyrics, general vibe are all incredible. Kinda wish they'd go a little less in the "cavernous" direction though, because, like Domains, I think this music is better when it's cleared of some of the cobwebs.

Also on the I, Voidhanger tip, that Suspiral thing is pretty mindbending. If you're not burned out on this style, that is, which I probably should be.

I wouldn't mind hearing the cavernous/clearer style used by a band, like going back and forth. Anyone do that?

styles, that is

cool, yeah that Ripper is def along a death/thrash axis that I almost always want to hear (also note to Atheist fans, you know who you are, it's kinda like early Atheist)

the cavernous thing seems particularly prevalent among one-man bands/studio projects, and I chalk some of it up to a production quirk that obscures the fact that it's just one guy. With Domains, I remember listening on headphones one time, and realizing that the drums are probably played by someone from a keyboard/MIDI pad (despite what the credits say), rather than a real person, and would sound pretty ridiculous without a good amount of room-y reverb all over them (and everything else).

Of course now I'm on my second listen of Fuscus and I'm already finding it way less murky and smothered than I did the first time through. The mind is a weird thing. Maybe it was because I wasn't following the lyrics this time and so wasn't focusing on the vox, which is where most of the reverb seems to be.

And that's weird about Domains, because one of the things I love about their album is how alive and real it sounds.

xpost I can't imagine two competing production styles on one album but I'd be interested to hear any examples. Hell I don't even like it when demos get tacked on to the end of a disc; I need my homogeneity!

yeah, it's weird-- I think at the least, it's an electronic kit, but some weird performance things, like a ton of snare+cymbal hits that I know as someone who played a fair amount of keyboard drums on tracks is a lot more likely to happen there than from a real drummer on a kit. Also some too-isolated cymbal spacing. Drum *sounds*, as far as the samples themselves, are pretty easy to mask in a recording.

but yeah, that Wakedead Gathering is my favorite record so far this year, and happy to hear someone else is digging it.

New Kvelertak song. They're touring North America in April, too.

This is really shitty and I'm glad the police took her seriously and treated her with kindness. I hope they find the scumbag.

http://www.redbrick.me/music/this-is-not-a-review/

Baroness (they are in no way to blame) have responded
https://www.facebook.com/YourBaroness/posts/10153886065765056

Disgusting that this kind of thing goes on at gigs.

This Inverloch is great. The fourth track is sprawling, crypt-summoning bleakness in the best way.

xp disgusting that sort of thing goes on EVERYWHERE.

i'm talking to the folks at one of the venues I work at about pre-emptively having one of our interns act as a representative for http://girlsagainst.tumblr.com/post/138737820792/girls-against-reps

Wanted to listen to the new Anthrax but it's not on Spotify or streaming anywhere and I refuse to buy an Anthrax album in 2016 without hearing it first...

listen to it before you go to bed, you'll be out in ten minutes

I'll dropbox it for you if you really wanna hear it tho....I have the mp3s

Would you get in trouble for that? If not, email me... My email address on my account here works.

nope no trouble (i boughts it). check yer email, just sent link

Thanks!

"nope no trouble (i boughts it)."

Funny.

Gehennah's 10 guidelines for an anti-poser lifestyle

Mandatory reading.

2. Listen to early Tank

Yesssssssssssss

New Mesarthim EP today. $1 on bandcamp. Haven't heard it yet, but looking forward to do so.

https://mesarthim.bandcamp.com/album/pillars-e-p

oh wow! thanks!

lol

http://heaviermetal.net/corey-taylor-forced-to-perform-without-a-mask-after-it-was-stolen-backstage

oh how i wish it were true

Mesarthim is hitting the right spot. like a black metal Enya?

browsing through this week's Invisible Oranges : Upcoming Metal Releases: 3/13/2016 – 3/19/2016
http://www.invisibleoranges.com/upcoming-metal-releases-3132016-3192016/

this took my interest:

Plateau Sigma – Rituals | Avantgarde Music | Gothic/Death/Doom Metal/Darkwave | Italy

“Utilizing elements of the aforementioned darkwave as well as classic “Peaceville 3″ death/doom and Pink Floyd-tinged psychedelia, Plateau Sigma simultaneously remains rooted in their influences, but also transcends through coalescence. To rephrase, while undoubtedly influenced by the aforementioned trilogy, often alternating fluidly between the three, there are moments in which Plateau Sigma becomes something else entirely. A sum of their influences, sure, but efficient and effective in such a way that they become indistinguishable and Plateau Sigma rises above them something new: crushing, atmospheric, downtrodden, expansive. Something sad, painful, beautiful. Maybe there is a sublime ecstasy in pain.”

album stream:

Plateau Sigma – Rituals (Album Premiere)
http://www.invisibleoranges.com/plateau-sigma-rituals-album-premiere/

released: March 18th

the fifth to infinity album is really really good. drummer from Opeth, guitarist from Winterkrig. Waaaaay heavier than Opeth. being sold as "blackened death," there's more battle-metal ala Amon Amarth in here than death metal really imo - anyhow it's really absorbing stuff. On Avantgarde.

this Mesarthim is a) amazing and b) one of the best pop albums of the year so far

this Mesarthim is a) amazing

yes

and b) one of the best pop albums of the year so far

is this really a necessary take, I think there's honestly enough discussion about the mighty unassailable great God Pop without us having to drag Australian metal into the whole thing. leave the dead to bury their dead imo

amen

the fifth to infinity album is really really good.

Yeah this sounded really good last time I heard it. Gotta get a hard copy of it.

Currently listening to the Electric Funeral 2LP on Southern Lord. Super noisy d-beat that is probably a bit much for two LPs, really, but the first one's sounding pretty good.

solid atmoblack from South Africa:

https://wildernessking.bandcamp.com/album/mystical-future

So the dude from Blut Aus Nord and Debemur Morti started a new label called Sundust, the first release on it is Mutterlein - Orphans of the Black Sun, couple of tracks are up for free right now:

http://sundustrecords.bandcamp.com/album/orphans-of-the-black-sun-ep

Not metal, really, but recommended if you like Swans type heavy dirging and female vocals...

Skuggsjá, the piece that Enslaved and Wardruna were commissioned to write to celebrate 200 years of the Norwegian constitution (!) has been recorded and released as an album. It's really good.

It's released as A Piece For Mind And Mirror, btw.

Is is all traditional intruments like Wardruna?

No, it's a mixture of traditional and contemporary.

I've downloaded that but haven't listened to it yet. Very interested to check it out.

the new Convulse album has been sitting in my Amazon cloud for two days and I keep forgetting about it.

no more! here we go

sounds nothing at all like any other Convulse release. a lot closer to what Tribulation did on their last one, with rock and roll/psych elements.

fairly sure the fanbase is gonna be divided on this one, I like it so far.....

ok now I'm confused, track #3 sounds like something from Sepultura's "Roots"

sold

Saw Absu live tonight.

Jesus fuck are they amazing

Going again Wed

Nice. Didn't know they were touring.

Yup! First time in a few years

If like me you can't get enough of the DMDS style done in a grimier, more hallucinogenic or otherwise weirder fashion, eg: Cultes des Ghoules or Hostium, there's Recitations' The First of the Listeners. The third song is all dark ambient, and completely awesome.
https://recitations.bandcamp.com/

^^^ That is VERY nice. Also you got me to check out CdG and already ordered one of theirs, thanks.

Absu in NY pretty soon, debating going. Tho I did go see Archgoat this wkd (speaking of Cultes des Ghoules style), and they were great. Pretty positive vibe too, for such a Satanic/blasphemous band -- nice candles/incense stage decoration. Openers were a Swedish black metal band called Valkyrja that I'd never heard of, but they were also good (great drummer too), in a very traditional black metal way.

Anyway, encouraged me to go to more metal shows. will check that Recitations too!

Here's my list of stuff that I have checked out or will be, mostly culled from above but some not.
Some I have checked out, some I have not.
ILM is if I "discovered" it here; RYM is Rate Your Music.

Band                            Album	                                   Source
Abbath                          Abbath                                     ILM
Aluk Todolo                     The Wire                                   ILM
Anthrax                         For All Kings                              ILM
Beseech                         My Darkness, Darkness                      ILM
Bison Machine                   Sweet Leaves Vol. 1                        ILM
Black Tusk                      Pillas Of Ash                              RYM
Bloodiest                       Bloodiest                                  RYM
The Body                        No One Deserves Happiness
Borknagar                       Winter Thrice                              ILM
Brimstone Coven                 Black Magic                                RYM
Brutus                          Murwgebeukt                                ILM
Cauldron                        In Ruin
Chthe'ilist                     Le Dernier Crépuscule                      ILM
Church of Misery                And Then There Were None                   ILM
Cobalt                          Slow Forever                               ILM
Conan                           Revengeance                                RYM
Convulse                        Cycle of Revenge                           ILM
The Cult                        Hidden City                                RYM
Cult of Erinyes                 Transcendence                              ILM
Cult of Luna / Julie Christmas  Mariner                                    ILM
Dakhma                          Astiwihad-Zohr                             ILM
Destroyer 666                   Wildfire                                   ILM
Dream Theater                   The Astonishing                            RYM
Eggs of Gomorrh                 Rot Prophet                                ILM
Église                          Église                                     RYM
Ehnahre                         Douve                                      ILM
Eight Bells                     Landless
Entropia                        Ufonaut                                    RYM
Exmortus                        Ride Forth
Exumer                          The Rising Tides                           RYM
Fallujah                        Dreamless                                  ILM
Fjørt                           Kontakt                                    RYM
Forndom                         Dauðra Dura                                RYM
Fuath                           I                                          ILM
Geryon                          The Wound And The Bow                      ILM
Gorguts                         Pleiades' Dust                             ILM
Headspace                       All That You Fear Is Gone                  RYM
Hexvessel                       When We Are Death                          RYM
Holy Grail                      Times of Pride and Peril
Hostium                         The Bloodwine Of Satan                     ILM
Howls of Ebb                    Cursus Impasse: The Pendlomic Vows         ILM
Hyperion                        Seraphical Euphony                         RYM
Inherit Disease                 Ephemeral                                  ILM
Inverloch                       Distance | Collapsed                       ILM
Krallice                        Hyperion                                   ILM
Kvelertak                       Nattesferd                                 ILM
Latitudes                       Old Sunlight                               ILM
Lycus                           Chasms                                     RYM
Magrudergrind                   II                                         RYM
Master                          An Epiphany of Hate                        ILM
Mechina                         Progenitor                                 RYM
Megadeth                        Dystopia                                   ILM
Mesarthim                       Isolate                                    ILM
Mesarthim                       Pillars                                    ILM
Moon Tooth                      Chromaparagon                              ILM
Mourning Beloveth               Rust & Bone                                RYM
Mütterlein                      Orphans Of The Black Sun                   ILM
Myrath                          Legacy                                     RYM
Naðra                           Allir vegir til glötunar                   ILM
Novembre                        Ursa                                       ILM
Nucleus                         Sentient                                   ILM
Obscura                         Akróasis                                   ILM
Omnium Gatherum                 Grey Heavens                               RYM
Ondt Blod                       Finnmark                                   ILM
Oranssi Pazuzu                  Värähtelijä                                ILM
Plateau Sigma                   Rituals                                    ILM
Primal Fear                     Rulebreaker                                RYM
R.I.P.                          In The Wind                                ILM
Recitations                     The First of the Listeners                 ILM
Ripper                          Experiment of Existence                    ILM
Rotting Christ                  Rituals                                    ILM
Savage Master                   With Whips and Chains                      ILM
Sinistro                        Semente                                    ILM
Skáphe                          Skáphe²                                    ILM
Skuggsjá                        A Piece for Mind & Mirror                  ILM
Striker                         Stand in the Fire                          ILM
Sturm, Lacey                    Life Screams                               RYM
Suspiral                        Delve into the Mysteries of Transcendence  ILM
Temisto                         Temisto                                    ILM
Ті, що падають вгору            Divina                                     ILM
Ulver                           ATGCLVLSSCAP                               RYM
Violet Cold                     Magic Night                                ILM
Voivod                          Post Society
Votum                           :Ktonik:                                   RYM
The Wakedead Gathering          Fuscus: Strings of the Black Lyre          ILM
Wildernessking                  Mystical Future                            ILM
Witchcraft                      Nucleus                                    ILM

Ugh, so wrapped up in the formatting my intro above is a mess. Oh well, you get the idea.

This Circus Maximus album is really great melodic progressive metal if you think you'd like Dream Theater better if they were a little more fond of the later Rush albums without so many 20-minute concept-suites.

new Drudkh/Hades Almighty split EP June 3rd

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCIg3-1ae-8

Decibel is streaming the collaboration with The Body and Full Of Hell:
http://decibelmagazine.com/blog/exclusive-album-stream-the-body-and-full-of-hell

I love both bands, cannot wait to listen to this one.

All the years of working way too hard at keeping up with new metal music have worn me down, to the point where I can't handle listening to much new stuff at all anymore. However, the handful of albums to excite me in 2016 so far are Cobalt, Oceans of Slumber, Gehennah, Oranssi Pazuzu, Aluk Todolo, Grave Miasma, and Vektor. And the new Megadeth is swell. Eight keepers in three months is still pretty good!

the 'mighty' Brass Mug of Tampa has always been a local favorite for no good reason but after the terrible sound they put Absu through last night (compared to the crisp sound they got in Jacksonville), that place should be razed to the ground IMO

2016 albums I like a lot so far: Aluk Todolo, Amon Amarth, Oceans of Slumber, Plebeian Grandstand (French noisecore a la Converge), Wormed. I haven't heard the new Vektor yet but I'm looking forward to it.

Thanks for the heads up on Wormed.

And Amon Amarth! What a week.

Now time for Absu night #3

I am digging the Ritual Chamber album; no surprises, it's just Incantammolation style death metal but it's Dario Derna (of Krohm and Evoken and 20 other bands) and is extremely well done.

(Also some great guitar work that reminds me of Autopsy. Pinch harmonics!)

Just got Temisto and I'm listening to it for ten minutes before work. Excellently rabid vocals and riffs but with some stealth progginess.

Forgot about Amon Amarth! The new album is so much fun, us usual.

It's fun, but they're also stretching out in a way they haven't since Twilight of the Thunder God. They're experimenting with a bunch of different things (concept album, guest vocals from Doro Pesch) and it all works. Don't know if I need to see them live again, but I'm thinking about it just because Exmortus are opening the show.

On a somewhat similar not, there's also a new Moonsorrow coming. Not sure if they, or anyone really, can top a song like Huuto but expectations are high nonetheless.

highly anticipated:

Be'lakor - New Album Title, Cover And More Released
http://www.metalstorm.net/events/news_comments.php?news_id=28938

Album Title: Vessels

Tracks:

01. Luma
02. An Ember's Arc
03. Withering Strands
04. Roots To Sever
05. Whelm
06. A Thread Dissolves
07. Grasping Light
08. The Smoke Of Many Fires

Release dates:
June 24th worldwide, through Napalm Records
July 1st in Australia and NZ, through MGM

The band said regarding the record: "Vessels is the product of well over a year's hard work - without doubt, it's the album that has challenged us the most. It's much richer and more textured than any of our other albums. There are parts which sound like the Be'lakor that fans know, while other sections might surprise some people. Our goal was to keep the music exciting and varied, for us as much as for anyone else. Vessels is also our first concept album, which has meant that lyrically we've really pushed ourselves this time around. We hope our fans will enjoy it as much as we do!"

Dunno if Aldo still posts here or not but there's a new Book of Sand album he can check out

https://mouthbreatherrecords.bandcamp.com/

Digging this lil thrashcore EP RIYL DRI after the first 2, Straw Dogs, Nuclear Assault...

https://larrydistribution.bandcamp.com/album/triage-power-beat

^^^ You caught me at just the right time with that, been listening to Sacrilege and English Dogs... itch scratched.

I'm definitely going to listen to that Book of Sand album later, the guy has some interesting ideas though I haven't been massively impressed by the execution of anything he's done yet.

I really like the new Cobalt & I got sent an advance of the new Sumac which is probably going to be the album to beat this year.

holy FUCK the Wormed album!

i like to imagine the vocalist looks like Rocksteady from the Ninja Turtles when he screams like this

Man the music there is good, but those vocals. Sounds like a Tibetan monk with strep throat.

The contrast between the vocals and the music is one of the best things about them. I described their last album as sounding like a caveman running around a spaceship.

Nah that dude does not sound like a caveman. Paul Baloff sounded like a caveman. That dude sounds like one of the aliens from V with a guinea pig stuck in his gullet. It's like a modern super-extreme!!!! style I'm not into.

I liked the Putridity album last year so I suspect I'm gonna dig this guy's vocals, excited to hear something heads are going pretty nuts about

lol the monk with strep throat thing is so otm. the only diff between you and I is that I see that as totally awesome.

I have no problem w/ Wormed's vocals. Stoked to dig into the new one, Exodromos was something else.

I'm not into the BREEEEE BREEEEEE vocals, I'll leave it at that.

Anyway, Sindrome's demos got reissued by Century Media with a second disc of a live bootleg. I've always liked those dudes' music even if the singer did write an angry letter about a review I wrote of one of their demos. It's really solid thrash stuff, they should've gone somewhere but their second demo came out in '91 and, well, who wanted to sign thrash bands in 1991?

This may be of interest to some folks here. The Numero Group is putting out a 3CD/5LP box of all White Zombie's pre-Geffen Records material in early June. I reviewed it for The Wire, and heard that all the music had been remastered by WZ guitarist Jay Yuenger. Since, when the early stuff was reissued in 2008 as part of Let Sleeping Corpses Lie, it was mastered from vinyl (seriously, on a major label release), I was curious about what Numero was gonna be willing/able to do. So I emailed Jay and asked. Here are the answers I got.

1) Did you remaster the early material from the original tapes? If so, did you get those with Rob's help/permission, or from some other source?
All the early material is from the original tapes, and the transfers are hi-def, 24 bit. It took a long time and a lot of work, but Rob signed off on this stuff.

2) There are several previously unreleased songs from the Pig Heaven session, and two from Gods On Voodoo Moon that are also very rare. Was there additional material that you/Numero chose not to include?
No, everything from the sessions for the early 7"s is included.

3) I have heard that the version of Make Them Die Slowly that the world is familiar with was version #3 or #4 of that album - are there other tapes, and if so, do they sound substantially different? When remastering this box, were you able to do anything with/to/about Bill Laswell's production choices?
Okay, here's the official timeline on this, and I checked with Sean [Yseult, bassist] to make absolutely sure I'm giving you the correct info. The album was recorded three times. The second version was never finished, was aborted when Laswell stepped into the picture, and the third version is the one that was released.

The first version is very interesting. It was totally finished, mixed and everything, but the masters have vanished. I contacted everyone I could find who had anything to do with this version, and nobody knows a thing. What we do have is Sean's cassette of the mix, which came straight off the board, and it's a fascinating document - the sound is much more powerful, the band sounds great, and this version of the album fits into the timeline, the transition between the art-noise-damage sound and the metal sound, much better. It makes much more SENSE as part of the history of the band.

I transferred all the material from the cassette, which includes a few songs that nobody's ever heard, and cleaned everything up, and it actually sounds pretty good. We're hoping that we'll be allowed to let people hear this stuff at some point, but we couldn't include it in the box set.

super interesting. guy who wrote the liner notes to this is a friend of mine and a good writer, stoked to see what he put together. I saw them on the Soul Crusher tour in L.A. in May of '88 and that was a blistering show, didn't really get into the Big Popular Band era of them but they're interesting imo

Always wanted to hear these old albums. Like smithy I never cared for their popular era bar a couple of great songs but I'm damn sure I'd like this stuff as i like a lot of music from that scene

A weird comparison popped into my head at one point: during the peak of their art-noise era (basically, Psycho-Head Blowout and Soul-Crusher), WZ were to Led Zeppelin what Pussy Galore were to the Rolling Stones.

sounds like i really need to hear them

it was weirdly hookless stuff though. like, you had to listen and listen and listen to really get an angle on it, but it was so assaultive that that was a challenge. spent a year or two pretty into 'em

got this box in mp3 promo form last week, never checked this stuff out before but Make Them Die Slowly especially is really great

I loved MTDS when it came out. The terrible Bill Laswell production is actually... distinctive? I'd love to hear an alternate or live version of that album from that period, though, that shit must've been crushing live.

Bill Laswell has to be one of the most instantly maligned but formerly in demand producers the world has known.

Checking out the St. Francis Duo album Peacemaker Assembly. Not metal, but metal-adjacent: Stephen O'Malley on guitar, and UK improv hero Steve Noble on drums. This is their second album; the first came out in 2012. Relatively close in spirit to the Sunn O))) album Pentemple, where they had the dude from Striborg (I think) on drums.

Playlist somewhat updated for March.

ILM's Rolling Metal Thread 2016 Spotify Playlist

Back when I was buying any used cheapish vinyl I could find I picked up a copy of "Soul-Crusher."
Took it home, played it, really didn't get it, but kept it as I didn't part with things.

A few years later and I literally move back to NYC when I get press passes to the 1989 CMJ because I did not have enough money to go and come back. My hatred of northern Virginia, living with my parents and my restaurant jobs were a palpable consideration in my dumb decision.

That convention was so amazing to me being an unjaded fanzine editor who was just absorbing any and all music that I could get my ears on. Got to see Sepultura's first ever American performance at an S&M club (a place I would not long afterwards also see my first ever S&M). Although Bob Mould's show was not a CMJ event, someone tried to sell me tickets before finally coming back and saying "Eh, just go." So I did and my mind was blown.

Anyway, that year was the legendary show at the Loeb Student Center at NYU with Soundgarden ("Louder Than Love" just came out) alongside Primus (unsigned), Prong (still on In-Effect/Combat), Bullet Lavolta (criminally underrated Boston band on RCA somehow) and of course... White Zombie! Signed by Geffen but before releasing anything by the label.

The performance blew me away! They were fantastic!

I wandered backstage (nobody stopped me for reasons I still don't understand) and met Sean and Rob. I blurted out in my socially retarded way "I got 'Soul Crusher' and I hated it! But I loved the show!"

They seemed to appreciate my dumb honesty and we became friends. Wound up seeing them all the time back in the day, and Rob but especially Sean were always really nice to me. It was nice to see them take off like they did.

I will have to get that boxset. My old vinyl copy died with the rest of my vinyl in the Great Basement Flood of 2010.

Skuggsjá, the piece that Enslaved and Wardruna were commissioned to write to celebrate 200 years of the Norwegian constitution (!) has been recorded and released as an album. It's really good.

Yes, it most definitely fucking is! Love the heaviness but also the horns and Viking vibe. The people who decry Enslaved's progressive direction should definitely check this out because it's very heavy but also very smart.

It can be streamed here: https://skuggsja.bandcamp.com/album/a-piece-for-mind-mirror

one-man blackened death metal project The Wakedead Gathering, surprisingly coherent (not sure I know other one-man DM bands), with a dark, old school vibe. Demigod is the first old band that springs to mind with this stuff, but thinking fans of the 2014 Domains album might also like.

Many thanks for the attention drawn to The Wakedead Gathering, whose most recent two albums I now have in my possession. Music, lyrics, general vibe are all incredible.

Consider me a convert as well, really solid stuff here. Bonus points from being from my old stomping grounds of Columbus, Ohio who had a very fertile metal scene when I lived there (Deadsea, Teeth Of The Hydra, Eye - who did an album with Mexican Summer and just signed with Laser's Edge and play a particularly heavy psyche-rock a la Hawkwind and Uriah Heep, Skeleton Witch played there a lot before they were signed and Acheron is based out of there)... It's nice to see the area still fly the flag of quality and relatively unique metal.

not sure I know other one-man DM bands

Immediately springing to mind is Hooded Menace's Lasse Pyykko's Claws, pretty good SweFinDeath with doomishness. Put out a full length on Razorback in 09:
https://razorbackrecords.bandcamp.com/album/absorbed-in-the-nethervoid

And I guess Dan Swano's Moontower could count here.

Any others? ilm powers, activate!

Ritual Chamber! Again, doomish death.

this is actually from December 2015, but I just heard about it: Kthoniik Cerviiks - SeroLogiikal Scars (Vertex of Dementiia)

https://ironboneheadproductions.bandcamp.com/album/khthoniik-cerviiks-serologiikal-scars-vertex-of-dementiia

Tech-death-prog on Iron Bonehead. Can hear bits of Bolzer, Gorguts, Voivod, Stargazer, Thantifaxath. Just a whole range of cool reference points, but to my ears, this still sounds unique. Anyone know these guys?

also this new record by Zealotry: https://lavadome.bandcamp.com/album/the-last-witness

Actually not out yet, so I can only hear one track, but it's a doozy. Gorguts/Demilich/Immolation strange heaviness

Listening to the Spotify Metal Playlist now...
The Cobalt song is *not* the metal Cobalt!

This is the song on the playlist:
https://soundcloud.com/edouard-gonzalez/cobalt-echoes

I know they changed but not *that* much! :)

New Howls of Ebb is up to stream

http://i-voidhangerrecords.bandcamp.com/album/cursus-impasse-the-pendlomic-vows

been playing the fuck out of the Wormed lately. I feel like even though they scratch a different itch, they kinda do for me what Cryptopsy did for me in the 90s/00s. its chaotic as fuck but it's fully-formed.

can't wait to see these dudes at MDF

xp Also says it will be their "penultimate" release. Kind of wonder if that's true or they're misusing the word penultimate.

my guess is they're using it in the incorrect "OMG REALLY ULTIMATE" sense

THIS SO ULTIMATE GUYS

it was already ultimate and then we penned that shit up

new Amon Amarth is really stickin to my ears, moreso than the last one.

can't wait to see em on tour. it'll be a first.

omfg

http://www.metalinjection.net/latest-news/deaths-scream-bloody-gore-reissue-bobblehead-coming

i want that fuckin' bobblehead

I have zero desire to own that type of stuff normally but come on... that's awesome.

there's no way I'm not buying that.

Yeah I want one too, hope they're making more than 2 I guess

Hey anyone heard of B.A.R.F.? Blasting All Rotten Fuckers from Montreal. Trying to figure out why no one ever talks about these dudes. Unless Ignorance Chaos Suicide is their only good album or something.

GUNS N' ROSES NORTH AMERICAN SUMMER STADIUM TOUR

All dates, cities and venues below subject to change.

Thursday, June 23, 2016 Detroit, MI Ford Field
Sunday, June 26, 2016 Washington, DC FEDEXFIELD
Wednesday, June 29, 2016 Kansas City, MO Arrowhead Stadium
Friday, July 1, 2016 Chicago, IL Soldier Field
Wednesday, July 6, 2016 Cincinnati, OH Paul Brown Stadium
Saturday, July 9, 2016 Nashville, TN Nissan Stadium
Tuesday, July 12, 2016 Pittsburgh, PA Heinz Field
Thursday, July 14, 2016 Philadelphia, PA Lincoln Financial Field
Saturday, July 16, 2016 Toronto, ON Rogers Centre
Tuesday, July 19, 2016 Foxboro, MA Gillette Stadium
Saturday, July 23, 2016 East Rutherford, NJ MetLife Stadium
Wednesday, July 27, 2016 Atlanta, GA Georgia Dome
Friday, July 29, 2016 Orlando, FL Orlando Citrus Bowl
Sunday, July 31, 2016 New Orleans, LA Mercedes-Benz Superdome
Wednesday, August 3, 2016 Arlington, TX AT&T Stadium
Friday, August 5, 2016 Houston, TX NRG Stadium
Tuesday, August 9, 2016 San Francisco, CA AT&T Park
Friday, August 12, 2016 Seattle, WA CenturyLink Field
Monday, August 15, 2016 Glendale, AZ University of Phoenix Stadium
Monday, August 22, 2016 San Diego, CA Qualcomm Stadium

lol St Louis was originally on the list

http://www.stltoday.com/entertainment/music/kevin-johnson/guns-n-roses-spokesperson-discusses-the-st-louis-show-s/article_34382f10-7d2f-590e-ae38-cf58fc2c598d.html

Man, that Ripper album. Bassist is NUTS. And audible. I hope he doesn't quit metal to play fusion or something.

Just got a promo for a new Nervosa album coming out in June. They're a Brazilian all-female thrash trio on Napalm who sound a lot like Destruction. I liked their first EP and first full-length back in 2014; intrigued to hear this one.

I like the Ripper album -- really, it's one of the most faithful old school death-thrash albums I've heard. Death/thrash (along with black thrash) is one of my favorite kinds of metal to listen to, so I have a feeling I'll be spinning this album a lot this year. The bassist seems very DiGiorgio to my ears, which is probably part of the point. Still, at this point, I hear a little too much early Death/Kreator/Possessed, so hopefully after a few plays, I'll hear more of what Ripper actually bring.

(also, last few years, there is always a band who makes me think stuff like this -- last year it was Inculter, year before it was Vampire. I still listen to those bands, so am hopeful for Ripper)

Yeah, DiGiorgio was the first thing that came to mind, though this guy doesn't hit chords for emphasis like Steve did. They're definitely sort of beholden to their influences, but it's thrash; I'd love to hear a new thrash band that was really doing something different but it's just always going to remind me of older stuff, it's kind up to how ferociously you can play. Or what other genres of metal you can fold in...

yeah, thrash is weird as far as how much you can mess with it and have it still be thrash. I feel like particularly now, retro thrash is the expected method -- bands like Vektor are about as "new" as you can be, and to my ears, those guys aren't really unique sounding at all, just "modern". For some reason, you just can't fool around in the genre like you can in pretty much every other kind of metal.

IMO, thrash in this century that tries bring something new would be stuff like the Cadaver Inc record from 2001. It's a one-off mix of thrash, death and black metal, with bits of prog in there too -- and surprise, you hardly hear people talk about it today.

Recombinance is the key to making good metal these days, I think, but you have to really own the thrash, black, death, purple, whatever parts and not sound patchwork. Like Black Fast's album was ok but I could see some of the joints.

I'm going to have to check that Cadaver Inc album out.

Listening to the new Destruction. I've always liked them, and this one is as good as all of their 21st Century material has been. I think, with Motörhead gone, they might easily become my new bare-bones/head-down/go-see-'em-whenever-they-come-to-town band. (I've only seen them once, in 2011, with Warbeast and Heathen.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wz-4xELUpMs

Just heard these new Cult of Luna/Julie Christmas singles...very impressive. CoL sound like they're coming from the sky rather than the earth these days. Lovely enormous building.

Envy Vocalist Leaves Band

I'm going to have to check that Cadaver Inc album out.

I cosign this record - it's good-not-great, but it's weird - I feel like '01/'02 was an interesting time in metal, a lot of people kinda reacting to how themes & moods that had been specifically metal territory were a little more mainstream now - I don't have a formed thesis on how that played out but I feel like some bands felt a little ambitious, and this album reflected that.

11 minutes Black metal track from Italian artist Chiral, found via Glenn's weekly New Particles list: http://furia.com/newparticles/

tracks starts off acoustic, develops into instrumental rock riffs, then blasts into hyper-speed black metal with rasping vocals, ends acoustically

Chiral - Abisso
https://open.spotify.com/track/5PkYkNCtTT5dLhF75x30vA

from the album

Chiral - Abisso
https://chiral27.bandcamp.com/album/abisso-2

Chiral is an Italian one-man band, from the countryside near Piacenza, started at the end of 2013.

yay for new Desaster! anybody heard it?

Does anyone here like Volbeat? I saw them once supporting someone and I thought they were horrible.
A friend pointed out that they draw from things I usually like, but I said "the worst parts."

Wondering if I should care about the new thing coming out.

I've seen them twice - once opening for Metallica in 2008/2009, and once opening for Megadeth on the last Gigantour. Their core idea - rockabilly plus metal - isn't an awful one, but in practice it just adds up to a slightly heavier Social Distortion. The one thing I will say for them is that the second time I saw them, they had Hank Shermann from Mercyful Fate on lead guitar, so some of the solos were pretty ripping.

reminder, two albums mentioned previously on this thread are now released and available on Spotify

Geryon – The Wound and the Bow
https://www.profoundlorerecords.com/products-page/plr-items/geryon-the-wound-and-the-bow/
https://profoundlorerecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-wound-and-the-bow

Sinistro - Semente
http://www.terrorizer.com/news/sinistro-stream-full-album-semente/

2 debut albums by Black Metal artists, released in the last few days:

Manchester's Wode - Wode
https://wode.bandcamp.com/album/wode
not on spotify

Portland, Oregon band UADA - Devoid of Light
http://records.eisenton.de/album/devoid-of-light

Another debut album to listen, from iceland's Zhrine

released April 8th on Seasons of Mist

ZHRINE'S NEW ALBUM 'UNORTHETA' ELEVATES ICELANDIC EXTREMITY TO ATMOSPHERIC NEW HEIGHTS
http://noisey.vice.com/blog/zhrine-unortheta-stream

Zhrine has been slinging noxious, elevated Icelandic extreme metal since before anyone was really looking to the wintery island nation for anything of the sort, starting up just a year after confirmed OGs Svartidauði lit the flame in 2006. Originally known as Gone Postal (a name that was wisely swapped for Shrine in 2014, then further supplanted by Zhrine come 2015), the Reykjavík-area band features members of other notables like Ophidian I, Naðra, and the aforementioned Svartidauði.

The album is an imposing, dissonant mass of unorthodox death, heavily atmospheric and weirdly progressive.

Zhrine - Unortheta
http://noisey.vice.com/blog/zhrine-unortheta-stream

recommended track for the playlist:

Zhrine - Empire
https://open.spotify.com/track/2pVCMHCaaP2TfAmI3ROEKq

luv the twisting atmospherics on this track

on RYM:
Zhrine - Unortheta
https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/zhrine/unortheta/
Descriptors dark, atmospheric, ominous

new Desaster is good which is to say it sounds like all Desaster

The Geryon album's pretty great btw

A stream of the new Woman is the Earth album is up over at Invisible Oranges

http://www.invisibleoranges.com/woman-is-the-earth-torch-of-our-final-night-album-premiere/

I am digging the Geryon too; Lys is fucking monstrous. I find this way more appealing than Krallice, but that might be 'cause I'm a sucker for bass metal.

This is the cover to the upcoming Blut Aus Nord/Aevangelist split (4 BAN songs, 1 Aevangelist song), coming out in June:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cf8BLOJVAAEryLt.jpg

New Withered track - Distort, Engulf

https://youtu.be/7GM3zFGxKKA

half way through turns into a blast hyper-speed vortex

via

AN NCS PREMIERE: WITHERED — “DISTORT, ENGULF”
http://www.nocleansinging.com/2016/04/13/an-ncs-premiere-withered-distort-engulf/

I like Withered. saw them live once, they committed the cardinal sin of asking the sound guy to turn them up so loud it was painful and destroyed any sense of dynamics.

was surprised when I got the cd afterwards anyway how much I liked their music

Just got a promo of the new Vektor, so pretty fucking excited about that. The female backing vocals on the first track are so amazing in context.

Metal shows in Philly...

Last night was Napalm Death and Melvins and tonight will be Kvelertak and Torche (Oceano is also in town).

Because I have to pick and choose my battles, I couldn't go to those. :(

But Friday is the Decibel Magazine Tour and on Saturday is the Choosing Death Fest.
Saturday afternoon there is a Grimposium of some metal panels and they're screening the "Death By Metal" documentary.
I will be going to those, thankfully!

Lots of great bands but I am especially looking forward to seeing Abbath, Skeletonwitch with their new singer, Deceased for like the dozenth time and Horrendous for the first.

The new Vektor album is amazing. Voivod + Krallice + post-Waters Pink Floyd (I half expected to hear a saxophone at one point) = a truly impressive prog-thrash epic. Easily one of the best albums I've heard this year.

just got an email about a band called Conclave fronted by the vocalist from Warhorse, Jerry Orne. not listened yet but if I had written that email I'd have made a heck of a lot more of that fact

Just got an email about a Soulfly/Suffocation tour with one of the best typos ever in it:

"Metal icons SOULFLY will embark on a four week headlining tour across the United States starting this April. Joining them are brutal death metal legends SUFFOCATION, Metal Blade recording artists BATTLECROSS, along withABORMALITY and LODY KONG. Comments mailman Max Cavalera. 'We are coming again with another kick in your face package! Get ready to sell your soul to metal!!'"

C.O.D.!

His performance pushes the envelope, but I think it really delivers.

the typo aside, "Comments mailman Max Cavalera." is an elegant sentence

That show was fucing great...

http://scontent.fphl1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/13015612_10156804339900597_2298039190330878628_n.jpg?oh=c04461f320ed0212ef35fb67debb6864&oe=577769CD

i had to suffer through Psychostick yesterday. textbook definition of "trying too hard", like an unfunny Primus performing whilst being vivisected

good call on that Ritual Chamber. this is entirely in my moody death metal wheelhouse.

Only one song on soundcloud from this Polish band, Morthus, but I like it quite a lot. The blurbs say stuff about Dissection and Bathory, which aside from a lead guitar line here or there, I hear none of. Definitely sounds like "Polish blackened death metal" for the most part, and I particularly like when it kicks into that hardcore beat.

https://soundcloud.com/witchinghour-2/morthus-gospel-for-evil-and-chaos

I've been hearing good things about the new Interment too. One of these days I might get around to listening to it.

Oh and there's a new Vanhelgd album coming.
https://soundcloud.com/pulverised/vanhelgd-rebellion-of-the-iniquitous

Also if that Soulfly/Suffo opening act is supposed to be Abnormality, they also rule pretty well. (And after checking their metal-archives page, turns out they have a new one on Metal Blade coming later this month. Killer.)

Oh, yeah, guess they have a video out and everything. Can't say I'm blown away but eh.
http://www.metalinjection.net/video/abnormality-are-being-followed-by-the-cia-in-mechanisms-of-omniscience-music-video

Not exactly safe for work, and I'm not sure we needed another "person being tortured in a chair" video.

"First Kill" from the new Amon Amarth might be one of my fav metal tracks of the year. great lyrics too.

damn i love that UXO album, maybe my fave of the year so far

https://youtu.be/QDGBOTy6fXM

Supposedly this is Beherit playing in a mall for some kind of music contest -- in 1990, when they looked like Hanson. They're only in the video from 2:58 - 4:20.

Haha, I came to post that Beherit clip. Amazing.

At Amon Amarth. Entombed ADs set was half Left Hand Path/Clandestine.

Fuuuuuck yes

A friend of mine Steve Holtje turned me on to this:

https://ethicist.bandcamp.com/

Ethicist is from Cincinnati. They play what some call post-black metal, what I call bleak, blackened landscapes of doom-gaze.

The band has a name your own price download there as well as CD, LP and cassette options. It was released on 4/8.

If you like the idea of Deafheaven but are off-put by the output (or if you're like me and you actually like them) Ethicist might have something to offer you.

Amazon is currently selling the single disc Metallica reissues for $5 each.

Speaking of Metallica, I am currently thinking stupid thoughts about buying one of those Metallica Kill 'Em All box sets. Someone stop me.

Also Neanderthal or anyone, do I need to be fucking with those Entombed AD albums?

They're pretty weak, really. I just listen to the last two Entrails albums when I want to hear 'new' Entombed music, at this point they're better than the original band.

I was afraid of that. How about Firespawn?