Rolling Metal Thread 2008

(...actually, probably more the melodic clunkiness than the singer, who did seem to at least have some aptitude for Geoff Tateness, amidst metal much heavier than Queensryche's. Not that I care about Geoff Tate-style singers all that much, I guess.)

I hate geoff tates voice and i've always found Queensryche to be a very boring band.

really digging mike hickey's Goatreign album. total low budget demo-sounding headbanging coolness. dude played guitar in Venom and even played guitar on Carcass's Heartwork tour. And he played bass in Cathedral on some of their tours. But he's a Yank. On the mighty Wabana Records in Brattlefuckingboro Vermont!

http://www.mikehickeyguitar.com/images/Goatreign-cargo1.jpg

the actual album sounds like a demo. and then at the end their are bonus demo tracks! they sound like extra demo-y demos!

oh and dude is a BAD-ASS shredder. know what i mean? not all fancy and frilly, just fuckin' wicked.

and i like it more than, like, black label society stuff. which is a fair comparison at times.

So can I sheepishly admit kinda liking the new Mars Volta in here? Also, the new Earth, even tho at this point it's uber-samey [nice keys/organs, but Hex pretty much sealed the deal.]

I don't love the new Volta, but the song "Goliath" is one of the hardest and straightest rock tunes they've ever done; the main riff sounds like a ripoff of Frank Zappa's "Stevie's Spanking," and the percussion/drum line(s), rather than being all hyper-complex like the rest of the album, are straight Santana circa 1970.

The new Opeth album is fucking amazing. I can't even describe how much of a simultaneous leap forward and left turn it is. One thing it's not is More Ghost Reveries. It opens with an acoustic song featuring a female co-vocalist (the new drummer's girlfriend, Natasha something). There's another song (sorry, I don't know titles on any of 'em - don't even know if titles are final yet) that sounds like the Moody Blues with occasional outbursts of loud guitar. And the second track on the disc (there are seven in all, adding up to a 55-minute running time) has possibly the most aggressive death parts they've ever recorded, plus a piano interlude, insane rhythmic shifts and unbelievable drumming from Axenrot - the whole track is like one big "here I am, fuck you" to anybody who's gonna bitch about Lopez's absence. Plus strings. Lots of strings on the album, and oboes, flutes, church organ and various other keyboard sounds. Seriously, it's such a melange of prog and symphonic rock styles and sonic touchstones, but at the same time it's heavy as fuck when it wants to be. Easily one of the albums of the year, already, I guarantee it. Out in June.

I cannot wait to hear that Opeth album! The way you describe it, Phil, it must be their boldest album in ages.

Does it sound anything like 'The Drift'?

noticed this: INVISIBLE ORANGES - Top 10 Most Anticipated Records 2008

Those most anticipated album guides are always so handy...I can never keep track of what's coming out.

I was on the fence with Broadrick/Jarboe's J2 EP, but over the weekend I was completely won over. A couple of the tracks bear a strange similarity to early Goldfrapp, while one in particular ("Magicgrl") is the best Swans song that Swans never recorded.

That Nasum live record could be a good one. I'm still kicking myself for missing them when they supported the DEP at Eamon Doran's back in 2002. I had an exam the next morning, true, but that didn't stop me from going to see Yo La Tengo two years before...

While I'm at it, I have to thank an former work colleague for getting me into Nasum. He was the drummer in a kick-ass grindcore band whose second album was, incidentally, produced by Mieszko.

I'm really pumped for new Arsis and Neuraxis. I saw them on a bill ages ago and was blown away.

Have you heard the recent Neuraxis live album? It's one of the best live discs to come out in quite some time. The new vocalist does a solid job, too.

I am now home from tour and I am dying to hear that new Opeth.

Oh yeah. New Danava video has just been posted.

http://kemado.com/artists.php?req=show&artist=11

Are you the Nate Carson that was in Witch Mountain?

Still am. 10 years!

Ha ha, awesome. I picked up "... Come the Mountain" in the bargain bin at Amoeba when I was there with Ned on a whim, didn't know that a fellow ILXor played on it.

Founding member. Our new trio format and material is heavier and less polished than that record...

Playing with WM is like going fishing with my buddies.

BTW, did you get the English Rage of Acchilles version or the deluxe US Mountastic edition?

The deluxe one. I'm good at sniffing out awesome stoner-type rock just from looking at the cover/label/names of the band members. And don't feel bad that it was in the bargain bin -- all sorts of great stuff that they don't know what to do with winds up in there. (And I picked up the album on a whim, I wasn't at amoeba with Ned on a whim. Grammar is fun!)

I am whim. By default.

I don't feel at all bad about being in the bargain bin. Our whole goal at this point is to become a future nugget from that whole Man's Ruin era...

"Rock on/420" is a total nugget.

On another note -- holy fuck, the Gathering DVD is amazing. I heart this band.

New Meshuggah album is kicking all kinds of bottom just now. Almost makes up for that cover.

Yeah, I don't quite get the Meshuggah thing.

Well, if you don't get Meshuggah, surely you must dig the new Sword. Pretty big improvement over the good debut, which I though wasn't quite as great as so many other critics claimed.

Lost out on the sword album, unfortunately. Going to have to wait to hear that one, I think.

On further listen, the Hermano album would make a phenomenal EP, but there's too much aimless filler in between the awesome rock songs.

I hope to get that Hermano disc sometime after reading about it so much here.

Also got the mediocre Tarja Turunen disc in the mail. I must have mentioned it in the 07 thread...her cover of Alice Cooper's "Poison" is a fascinating trainwreck.

i've been downloading relapse stuff that i haven't heard via their promo streams. ghengis tron sounded cool. kingdom of sorrow sounded ho-hum. haven't listened to DEP yet. or disfear. see, this is how long it takes me to hear stuff if people don't send me CDs.

oh and the J2 album wasn't doing anything for me. i was kinda hoping it was gonna be more guitar-based and less beatz-based. but maybe i'm just not in the mood. my cough/cold that i've had for a friggin' month is really bad tonight. gorge will have to recommend me some patented cough syrup rock. we've got the good stuff in the house too! (FYI: single malt scotch is NOT an effective substitute for cold medicines. just so you know. it DOES make a Democratic presidential debate a whole lot more entertaining though!)

oh and the J2 album wasn't doing anything for me. i was kinda hoping it was gonna be more guitar-based and less beatz-based.

Yeah, that really came as a surprise, but I really wound up warming up to it. Especially the Goldfrappish "Let Go" and the Swans-ish "Magicgrl".

Man, Akerfeldt looks like a total B.A. in the new(?) promo pics (stolen from Wacken website):

http://www.wacken.com/typo3temp/pics/a3c1feb5bb.jpg

Velveteen jacket confirms them as a prog band, in case anyone was still in doubt.

Bachelor of Arts?

Haha, perhaps. But I meant Bad Ass.

I don't know, he looks more like a BFA to me.

Bachelor of Fine Arts? Tomayto, tomahto!

New Meshuggah album is kicking all kinds of bottom just now.

You're not kidding, this thing sounds terrific. This mops the floor with Catch 33.

The midget second from left is doing nice!

Agreeing with the positive views on the Meshuggah - definitely very good stuff, though it didn't totally grab me at first listen. Probably need to play it a few more times while not half asleep.

Was I the only one to think lebowski when I saw that opeth pic? Maybe it's just because I love the idea of the dude frontmanning them.

I shall listen to the Meshuggah again just now I think.

Akerfeldt was wearing that same Moody Blues shirt when I interviewed him. And that must be a fairly old photo, because Martin Mendez has cut off all his hair.

Our whole goal at this point is to become a future nugget from that whole Man's Ruin era...

In that case I'll probably find your discs soon enough. All sorts of Man's Ruin stuff turns up in the Amoeba bargain bins and I pick up every one as I find it. (That's how I got into Croatan.)

Is that the same Croatan as this Croatan? Jeez, even by Man's Ruin's generous standards, they were barrel-scrapers. A duo that managed to derive no benefit from the duo fad. I got my copy on spec at Tower's going out of biz fire sale.
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Croatan "Violent Passion Surrogate" -- One of the about two hundred reasons Man's Ruin went out of business, Croatan are one of the true flat-tires of this column, even at a buck and a quarter. A duo, consisting of a drummer and a girl who squawks unintelligibly, sings flat and plays Blue Cheer-esque guitar. However, there's no "Summertime Blues" or anything remotely like what's on "Vincebus Eruptum." Instead, you get loud make-it-up-as-you-go-along art.
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hey, is D@rk Sh1ft a band that metal dudes have heard of?

Dork Shaft?

I'm a Drive Shaft fan!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v295/Hathery/ShaftCD0204.jpg

Jeez, even by Man's Ruin's generous standards, they were barrel-scrapers.

You gotta remember that I like goth.