Rolling Metal Thread 2010

I'm glad people have read it. I'd been discussing doing a review for PopMatters, but we all felt Varg doesn't really need the publicity from a site that gets a million unique readers per month. Still, I wanted to review the album and at the same time try to explain why I sincerely enjoy Burzum, so I spent Sunday putting together a rather extemporaneous attempt at doing so.

dunno that they're 'metal', but the new Dillinger Escape Plan is fucking fantastic on first listen.

It's even more astonishing to these ears as I first got into DEP when I was discovering extreme music about 11 years ago, and because of my excessive music buying, I sort of lost track of them after Calculating Infinity.

I had no idea that they had explored more melodic territory or branched out like this. It's sort of like they still have their math rock grounding but with actual hooks attached.

If you haven't heard Ire Works, you really should pick it up. It's even more diverse and hooky.

When they signed that deal with Season of Mist they sort of inferred it would give them the kind of creative license to just go nuts with the experimentation we heard on Ire Works, but as good as the new songs are ("Farewell, Mona Lisa" is brilliant), the album feels predictable, something that never happened with DEP before.

I'm actually d/ling it from ITunes as we speak. can't wait to hear.

I agree that Ire Works trumps the new one, but it's definitely still distinctive and enjoyable.

Yeah, that's what I loved about Adrien's post - the way he approached it from his personal view without drawing any lines in the sand about how others should feel about the man and his music.

read the decibel burzum article last night. it's basically the complete opposite approach.

I think the dude that wrote it is a good writer and I've liked stuff he's done before... but I thought this one was a real missed opportunity. particularly a long rant about racism vs. murder (and which one is worse and which one he can't believe we don't ALL realize is the greater of two particular evils). the terrorizer message board is quoted repeatedly. o_O can't imagine how that part didn't get cut.

loved adrien's post too, btw.

also, apparently there's a new CELESTIIAL album - where life springs eternal

excited for this one. the album from a couple years back was this great funeral doom/field recordings hybrid. totally cool.

I just got the first Decibel of my subscription. I'm pretty sure it's last months; High on Fire are on the cover, and it was posted on 8 March (I think it's been on a shelf in the local sorting office along with everything else I've been expecting, so no issue with the Decibel subs department!). Guess I won't be enjoying the Varg controversy for another week or two...

Yeah, High on Fire is the April issue. I picked it up from the bookstore two weeks or so ago, I think.

Thinking of subscribing today, actually.

i don't understand decibel trying to distinguish between racism and murder and asking which one is worse --- didn't he do both???

"excited for this one."

it's great. that's my second rave celestiial review in decibel. get the new blood of the black owl too. also great.

for some reason i get all serious when i write about celestiial. and caina too. they bring out the adult in me.

i think his point was that most people don't even talk about/care about the fact that he killed someone. they just talk about his racist babble. like, sure he burned down some buildings and killed his friend, but he's RACIST and that's why i don't like him/listen to his music.

i dunno. i'm not really into debating varg. kinda scary that he has three kids. i don't think i knew that.

Wikipedia:

Burzum released his new 2010 album Belus worldwide on 8 March 2010, and Varg will be donating a portion of the proceeds to benefit victims of the Haitian earthquake

Really?

lol, kinda doubt that

xposts:

I mean, yeah, he did kill a guy. the article goes off on a long tangent about how people always bring up varg's racism and how disgusting it is but not nearly as much attention is given to the euronymous murder. thinks varg killing a man is more damning than anything varg could possibly think but not act on.

really found the soapbox aspect of this weird and out of place. and referencing the terrorizer message board to back this all up is just bizzare. wtf

not to mention, people DO mention this stuff constantly! typical burzum article starts with a "murderer/racist/chruch burner" checklist.

I dunno, maybe varg only giving curt responses via email necessitates some type of embellishment? but I just really wasn't feeling this article.

Here's the reference for that: http://www.metalcallout.com/metal-news/burzum-belus-proceeds-to-go-to-haiti-relief.html#dates

loooooool wiki vandalism

A+

hahahaha.

been listening to Ghost Radio XXI, and a lot of it is really wonderful. thanks for the tip, J0hn.

you bet man

only four more songs to go -- it's super long, but psyched to look into this stuff more :-)

heh, also listening to that. obitus are pretty cool

it's great. that's my second rave celestiial review in decibel. get the new blood of the black owl too. also great.

for some reason i get all serious when i write about celestiial. and caina too. they bring out the adult in me.

― scott seward, Tuesday, March 23, 2010 4:28 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark

glad to hear it! the first album was pretty slept on, imo

Oh man, the talk page for Burzum's wikipedia article:

Emocore is listed in the genre box. Is this accurate? I'm not terribly familiar with the band but this seems more than a little suspect. Unless someone confirms that Burzum is in fact an emocore band, I will assume that this label is vandalism and remove it.

Listening to the Cathedral now. Much goofier and Yes-like than I expected, but I'm starting to get into it.

Ok, metal score of the week here. Browsing around a used shop this afternoon that usually has a horrible selection, but killing some time. Just about to walk out the door when I spied the Judas Priest Metalogy box for 22 bucks. But wait, also the store has a 50% off sale going on, so I got it for $11. Good bargain, I would say.

Sweet find! The box is missing several crucial remastered original tracks ("Love Bites", "Hot Rockin", etc.), but it's still an excellent career overview. That '82 DVD is incredible, Halford just kills "Riding on the Wind".

Helluva deal.

Yeah, most of my Priest collection is vinyl handed down from my uncle, so I was just glad to get such a variety in a slightly more handy format. Can't wait to dig into the DVD.

They recently re-released the box without the DVD and the studs. Totally missing the point, that.

Well in that case I'm definitely glad to have this version, with both! The studs make it look so awesome.

I'm always tempted to pick it up for that reason, even though it would basically just be for the DVD. Priest were my first metal love, and I think their 74-79 run is unimpeachable.

Black Sabbath > Judas Priest > Iron Maiden > Burzum > Pantera

and stfu if you disagree.

I'd flip Maiden and Priest, but other than that totally on board. Maybe add a couple more '>>' between Burzum and Pantera though.

Well sure, I was just trying to stay on topic. :)

Except that you're wrong. Priest has more good records than Maiden.

I adore Priest, but for me Maiden gets the nod every time. That's mainly due to the fact that Maiden's 82-88 discography trounces Priest's from that period, which were my formative years, metalwise.

got the rest of dillingers studio albums cuz I found Miss Machine used. I feel like a dude that goes to the homeless shelter to eat for weeks and forgets he has shitloads of food in the fridge.....man I wish I had bought these sooner...

I'm always tempted to pick it up for that reason, even though it would basically just be for the DVD.

That Priest DVD was also released separately as Live Vengeance '82, I picked it up for just a couple of euro's a few years ago. That live version of 'Helion/Electric Eye' is probably my favorite Priest moment ever.

Black Sabbath > Judas Priest > Iron Maiden > Burzum > Pantera

I'd have to go Black Sabbath > Judas Priest > Iron Maiden > Pantera > Lady Gaga > five Down syndrome kids beating coffee cans with wooden spoons and singing along with Yoko Ono's "Don't Worry Kyoko" > someone beating a baby with a cat > the sound of glass jars full of gravel being hurled into a tree shredder > Justin Beiber >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> M.I.A. > Burzum

And as far as the Priest/Maiden divide goes, Priest have better albums but Maiden kills 'em live.

^^There is great truth in that statement. Not that Priest are a bad live band - or at least not the several times I've seen them over the years. But Maiden are something else.

maiden have gotta be one of the most consistent bands around, tho. just about everything they've ever put out has been pretty solid. I don't even mind the blaze bailey years.

and yeah, they're

quality varies more wildly with sabbath/priest. which can be fun and surprising (never say die) or... not (turbo).

lol, meant to write this:

and yeah, they're [maiden] just so much fun live

actually, I haven't listened to turbo since I was 15 or so and I know it has some boosters around here. I prob should listen again.

and even though it's been a few years, these lyrics will always stay with me:

You say I waste my life away
But I live it to the full
How would you know anyway
You're just mister dull

> someone beating a baby with a cat >

Joanna Newsom joke goes here

Prefacing this with an "I love Joanna Newsom & her music," but:

http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/500/364328/Joanna+Newsom.jpg

I tried listening to Joanna Newsom once. Not any of the albums, I just watched a YouTube clip of her performance on the Jimmy Fallon show, and it wasn't so much "good" or "bad" as inexplicable. Her aesthetic is utterly alien and incomprehensible to me - I will never voluntarily listen to her music again, because there was literally nothing about it that was appealing. At the same time, there was nothing particularly offensive about it. It was just utterly weird and disconcerting, like watching someone with major cognitive impairment perform acrobatics. You want to applaud, you want to be encouraging, but at the same time there's a great sadness to the whole thing.

Justin Beiber >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> M.I.A

this is madness, btw

Turbo is not a great album by any stretch of the imagination, but I think it is defensible. It's certainly fun, and it has a few genuine gems -- the title track and that chilling, criminally overlooked "Out in the Cold." Even the dopey hair metal tunes like "Parental Guidance" and "Wild Nights" are incredibly catchy. It's just a definite oddity in their catalog. However, it TROUNCES the tepid Ram It down, which, with the exception of the title track and the stunning "Blood Red Skies," is almost entirely unlistenable.

I think there are at least three or four really good songs on Ram It Down (wasn't it originally supposed to be the second half of a two-disc set, with Turbo being Disc One? I thought I remembered hearing that somewhere), including the awesomely hilarious cover of "Johnny B. Goode."

Joanna Newsom? Justin Beiber? MIA? What the fuck thread am I on?