Rolling Metal 2016

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.