Rolling Metal 2016

MAIDEN

That was a great set. They said that it's their last show of the tour, and they definitely sounded really tight after 70 shows.

Can anyone recommend any good, very foresty black metal from this year in the vein of Drudkh?

yeah, I enjoyed the everloving fuck out of that, even though I've not heard a Maiden album in its entirety since ... Fear of the Dark? Jesus. Man, they were one of the crossover bands for me, between KISS and glam metal and all that and / actual metal. Saw them on the Seventh Son tour -- I'd gone there to see FREHLEY'S COMET for fuck's sake -- and Maiden couldn't play that night here in Atlanta, I don't remember why, but they let us all come back days later, and from the moment "Moonchild" knocked my head back I was like, oh I need to be into this.

xpost how am I not the only one awake

but to answer
https://vindland1.bandcamp.com/album/hanter-savet

Thank you! Will listen now. Sadly it's 10.23am for me and I am very much at work.

That Vindland album has some lovely moments, ty. Very foresty indeed.

Ophidian Forest's final album.

https://ophidianforest.bandcamp.com/album/susurrus

Nutty multinational black metal with the guy behind Botanist on drums and hammered dulcimer!

― ultros ultros-ghali, Saturday, July 9, 2016 8:14 PM (3 weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I just listened to this too. Omg it's great. I've been checking for Botanist news frequently, but this can absolutely suffice for now. It sounds like it has been rerecorded from underneath a pile of leaves. And so, so much birdsong!

I'd love to have seen the Seventh Son tour. That's my Maiden album of choice these days. Nothing from it in this show, unfortunately. It's impressive that they could lean so heavily on the Book of Souls tracks. I even liked the meandering second half of Red and the Black, which doesn't quite hold my interest in the album version.

vocalist for Denner/Shermann still not a great fit style-wise, but lord is it nice to hear the duo's inspired riffing again (better than last year's EP I think).

I found this one completely satisfying. It's close enough to Mercyful Fate to make me happy. Denner/Shermann themselves are a blast. The vocalist is fine. He's nothing spectacular, but in terms of fit I don't have an issue.

I liked the Book of Souls stuff too, and yeah I def see how that longer track would've worn out its welcome without the Wacken ambience. The sight of that crowd always awes me.

Today's schedule:

15h40-16h55 Borknagar
17h00-18h10 Metal Church
18h15-19h30 Therion
19h35-20h50 Steel Panther
20h55-22h10 Clutch
22h15-23h30 Triptykon
00h40-01h55 Parkway Drive
01h55-03h10 Arch Enemy

Kinda curious how Borknagar will work. Isn't Vintersorg in some kind of bad health or something. Whatever the case I imagine Simen will be in some stage of an alcoholic fugue.

Nuclear War Now is having a 40% off sale at their online store to pay for a new warehouse in Oakland. I had to restrain myself from buying a dozen $3 cassette demos by bands I'd never heard of.

Celebrating the xpost Dio box, and just because it can, Dio hologram debuts, hopes to tour with Eyeillusion:
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/ronnie-james-dio-hologram-debuts-at-german-metal-festival-w433089

from press release (was wondering wtf Kenny Aronoff is up to these days):

"The economics of making music are changing, with tours being more important than ever," said Wendy Dio. "For artists who have been blessed with legions of fans around the world, the question is how to continue meeting the demand for your music. At the same time, newer acts are thinking about how to build a following and reach more people. Today, all artists need to find new, modern ways to connect with fans and Eyellusion is supporting those efforts."

Eyellusion's hologram and live production focus spans a range of genres, including rock, country, pop, EDM and more. Key team members include Wendy Dio, who supports industry relations, veteran rock manager Todd Singerman and Pat DiNizio of the Smithereens, who support artist relations, and Kenny Aronoff, world renowned live and studio drummer, who supports business development and technical live production efforts. Chad Finnerty at Digital Frontier FX is Eyellusion's exclusive content creation partner, working directly with clients to help bring every project vision to the live stage. Legendary Hollywood digital effects executive Scott Ross advises Eyellusion on overall content production.

"Holograms represent a major opportunity for live music and fan engagement, but they have to be done right," said Pezzuti. "We believe we've cracked the code on delivering the highest quality hologram-based events, creating the ultimate live music experience that keeps fans coming back. The Eyellusion team's unmatched production capabilities and deep music industry ties bring crucial industry knowledge to our collaboration with artists as we work toward a shared vision of creating unforgettable shows. We can't wait to see music fans everywhere on the road."

For more information, visit www.eyellusionlive.com and follow Eyellusion @eyellusionlive on Instagram and Twitter.

An alternative to sending out robot line-ups, a la Kraftwerk, but will have to compete with any future Dethklok tours.

Well it feels good to live in an era where we have holograms, it's just unfortunate that we use them in the dumbest ways possible.
I love that middle paragraph btw, it feels so bullshitty in its phrasing.

Ok, for 76 cents you can download this bugfuck crazy Australian black/doom/sludge album and have your ears scoured proper

https//obedmarsh.bandcamp.com/album/innsmouth

New Darkthrone album has been announced: Arctic Thunder.

Here's one for the avant/metal-that-sounds-like-Branca crowd:

Plasmodium - Entheognosis
https://plasmodium-ritual.bandcamp.com/releases

Blackened powerfully violent sludge metal? Might be easier just to call it black noise.

The new Pallbearer EP is so freaking good.

https://profoundlorerecords.bandcamp.com/album/fear-and-fury

old album but Morta Skuld's "Dying Remains" is kicking my fucking ass tonight.

Spotted on Facebook:

https://scontent.fewr1-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/13935123_10154242787381206_5559339468717071580_n.jpg?oh=ce4cac3885113220f1e04c95c7690fdb&oe=581C101A

http://i63.tinypic.com/2sbjqco.jpg

I mean that in a good way.

Nobody mentioned the new Ihsahn album yet? I am listening for the second time and I really love it.
It's somewhat proggy, highly melodic, industrial at times.

Track six "Until I Too Dissolve" sounds like Queensryche outtake from Rage For Order until the harsh vocals kick in but the riff and chugging bass rumble and clean parts is vintage brilliance.

I guess it's not getting much love because it's a departure? I thought he had already departed though...

Anyway, I love it.

New Goatess record is fun as hell. ― You say tomato, Isao Tomita (RIP) (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ)

Yay! I am digging that Plasmodium mentioned upthread... and this Black Viper demo with dudes from Deathammer, Obliteration and Mion's Hill. Ripping speed metal stuff. Free!

http://blackvipermetal.bandcamp.com/releases

listening to that Demilich compilation from a few years ago and lord these lyrics have me giggling like a fiend:

"You see your bowels in the air
approaching the ceiling like tentacles
Dying like your father when he was young
Flying out of this world to another land..."

Heh. Man, whatever exploding bowel condition that family has, they need to see a specialist...

Some of the best black metal albums of all time have drum machines (Rotting Christ's Thy Mighty Contract for one). But yeah, nothing like a perfect artificial beat to turn wild, lawless music into something nice and mannered sounding.

That's not even getting into e-drums and stuff. The history of metal drumming is checkered indeed.

re Arctic Thunder--I think Darkthrone kinda got back on track with Underground Resistance, so I'll buy it. I tuned out for a while after FOAD, too much "funny" retro record collector type stuff, but lately it seems like they're beginning to incorporate all those old cult metal influences (Manilla Road & Agent Steel & whatnot) in a more personal "artistic" way.

I hope it's not a return to black metal because everything after Panzerfaust proves they lost it in that genre.

It's more than possible to made a drum machine sound good, it just takes some effort. And there are tons of albums that are so triggered they might as well be machines (since you're not actually hearing real drum hits anyway).

I can live with a drum machine if the music's great, but there's always this "human touch" it can't recreate as far as I'm concerned.

Really bad, sloppy drumming can actually make metal better! Like Grand Belial's Key's first album, those batshit stumbling drums full of false starts and unsteady blastbeats gives it such a savage feel, I love it

def excited about new Darkthrone, but actually hoping they steer away from the sound of the last couple of records. The quality on the 2005-2008 era was inconsistent, but there was still black metal bite in the performances, even if they were essentially applying them to Motorhead/Venom style tunes. Starting w/Circle the Wagons, their traditional heavy metal love came a bit too close to the fore IMO.

Also very happy to hear Culto is doing all the vox on the new one, because he is incapable of sounding cheesy.

ha and totally expect to hear that Black Viper on a Fenriz radio show

Drum Machines? Godflesh. 'Nuff said.

Darkestrah
Turan
(Osmose Productions)
Release Date: 4/29/2016

http://shop.season-of-mist.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/500x500/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/D/a/Darkestrah-Turan-49179-1.jpg

http://open.spotify.com/album/2fqE80hDwkXqcHst0jV3jP
http://darkestrahofficial.bandcamp.com/album/turan

Never heard this band before despite them having a slew of releases going back to 2004 with the new one and 2013's Манас on Osmose Productions. My loss. The new album takes elements of folk, classical and prosaic black metal and makes all of them work, and work together. If you like your atmospheric black metal to have some substance or your pagan metal to not be cheesy, you will likely find something you will like here. A lot of things, actually.

For the record, I posted that thing because it made me laugh. Drum machines aren't what makes black metal a garbage genre.

I know that's a challops but I want to pick at it so bad

Revisiting the Full of Hell/Merzbow album today. Still not as glorious as I'd hoped when I bought it - I was anticipating something in the vein of, I don't know, Kill the Client crossed with James Plotkin's Atomsmasher - but it's an excellent soundtrack to a hot day.

Man this Inter Arma record is pretty great. Aside from the cover, which looks like blacklight art from a pirate bar.

new Cadaveric Fumes is fucking outstanding. just great loosey-goosey guitar work in a black metal context, it's like Jeffrey Lee Pierce or Kid Congo recruited to play in a black metal band

seriously this shit is GREAT

It kind of has a Tribulation/Stench/Morbus Chron vibe to my ears... I feel like someone gave all these kids copies of King Crimson's "Red" and it's starting to pay dividends. I definitely hear a looseness there, it's a great direction to take death/black in after two decades of super-uptight, rigid precision. Well maybe moreso for death...

(it is great!)

yay Cadaveric Fumes love! Between that, Ghoulgotha, and Wakedead Gathering, this year has been great for not-clinical/overly-precise, DIY death metal. I feel like there's been the birth of a sort of new style in the last few years along these lines (see also last year's Khthoniik Cerviiks, Domains from 2014, the various Stargazer releases) for death metal that doesn't feel constrained by the genre, allows for a little black metal ambiance, and song structures that aren't just emphasizing brutal upon brutal upon brutal.

I'm split between wanting a name for that style so I can easily refer to it without naming a bunch of bands and being afraid it'll be called something really stupid.

>> I feel like someone gave all these kids copies of King Crimson's "Red" and it's starting to pay dividends. <<

YES!

and not even sure it's a "style", but an organic evolution of death metal, which actually seems cooler to me

that said, hypnagogic metal

I didn't realize that Joel Violette from Woods of Ypres had another band. Thrawsunblat. Wowwowwow. Epic melodic black metal. https://open.spotify.com/album/27M8aMOAQ4feeqMYwdFWEB

into this concept but I always like modifiers of extant categories so how about hypnopompic death