Rolling Metal 2019

I always feel like such a lump in that I buy hundreds of metal albums a year and then I look at the top ten list and have only heard two of them. and it's not like I have big subgenre blind spots!

I hear you on this, this year particularly feels like there are SO MANY things I'm missing out on or slide right by me. In part I think it's down to the continued expansion of tiny, more niche labels. It seems like more and more bands, particularly in metal, are moving away from even the more well-known labels to set up their own or work with European outlets. Which I'm sure is great for them in terms of controlling things, but it makes it a more difficult task to try and keep up with everything!

I've never listened to as much new music as I have this year, with metal as the backbone of my pathological diet, and I still feel a slight bit of awe (and a pinch of disgust) when I come across EOY lists that remind me of how utterly unending and overwhelming it all is.

An embarrassment of riches, yes, but it also makes it more difficult, if not impossible, to separate the chaff from wheat or to have so much as a common ground for cultural discourse. It also emphasizes how disposable and isolated most of this music is, even the better stuff: you listen to it a couple of times and discard it by necessity, as there is always so much more to discover.

for me I think it's cos I spent most of my earliest metal leaning years (late 90s) playing decades of catch-up, then took several years in the early 2000s barely listening to it at all, so had to play catchup again for several years around 2010 when I started aggressively listening again. so only the last few have I been in a place where I'm acquiring more new music than pre-existing.

lol yeah I'm def catch and release with the majority of it

it also makes it more difficult, if not impossible, to separate the chaff from wheat or to have so much as a common ground for cultural discourse. It also emphasizes how disposable and isolated most of this music is, even the better stuff: you listen to it a couple of times and discard it by necessity, as there is always so much more to discover.

― pomenitul, Thursday, December 5, 2019 11:26 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

this is as true as it is depressing

my lone contribution to the EOY talk: the White Ward album has really grown on me. I enjoyed it right off (certainly more than Futility Report), but it didn't totally click until I listened three or four more times. Really into it atm

Really feeling the last string of posts... :-/

I'm w/ Paul Ponzi, White Ward has grown on me. I got my black metal fix this year mostly from Örmagna, Mgła's 'Age of Excuse' and 'Serpent Column's 'Mirror in Darkness'. But I dread all those classic albums I must have missed.

it helps to only really bother with about ten metal albums a year ;)

lotta falseness itt today

xp that is why it seems pointless to run a metal eoy poll

I might run one anyway if you're not up for it this year, Neech. I have no idea what the exact rules are but I could probably figure them out.

As poll runner you get to make the rules except one. That is the most important one and it must not ever be changed.

NEVER listen to anything imago suggests.

lol, I suspected as much.

Seriously though, I'd aim to maintain tradition, i.e. whichever rules we've been using for the past, what, ten years?

I still feel a slight bit of awe (and a pinch of disgust) when I come across EOY lists that remind me of how utterly unending and overwhelming it all is.

Covering metal full-time in the 2010s was fun, but nearly destroyed me. It's honestly impossible to gauge the entire genre with any semblance of accuracy - the global scope is far too huge - which partially explains the online critic hive mind. You're focusing on a couple dozen records and don't dare venture out of it because thousands of new titles are waiting to bury you.

And I love the new Crypt Sermon! They've become an American answer to Atlantean Kodex.

Rule #1 -Don't let Johnny Fever participate

It's honestly impossible to gauge the entire genre with any semblance of accuracy - the global scope is far too huge - which partially explains the online critic hive mind. You're focusing on a couple dozen records and don't dare venture out of it because thousands of new titles are waiting to bury you.
― A. Begrand

I'm sorry you feel that way - I can never understood this kind of FOMO/angst 'at our age' - it's so incredibly easy to venture out! Just pick a random record out of the RYM top 300 for 2019 with a cool looking cover, intriguing title or a weird/appealing combination of genre tags and listen to it a few times. Go to a random dive bar in town with bandnames on the bill you've never heard of. Who cares if the 5-6 biggest metal sites/mags have reviewed it or not, that was important to me when I was thirteen years old and wanted to get properly educated and felt I had to hear the stuff those all-knowing critics raved about. I love reading a well-argued review as much as the next guy but in the end these reviewers don't know more about metal than you or me.

I mean not to imply that you care too much about reviewers A, that's probably poorly worded. But their limited pool of reference for this years essential records doesn't necessarily have to be yours.

Rule #1 -Don't let Johnny Fever participate

― master of nuggets (Neanderthal), Thursday, December 5, 2019 10:03 PM (fifty-nine minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Harsh.

pomenitul there's no rules as such. I've always allowed unlimited nominations, been loose on the definition of 'metal' and have up to 100 choices on the ballots, ran a top 101 rollout, allowed lurkers to participate.
The online voting form is much better than the old email voting system.

"As advertised, there's some good stuff on this list:

https://www.nocleansinging.com/2019/12/03/2019-a-year-in-reviews-the-good/

― pomenitul"

"Both brutal legends Nile and progressive overlords Borknagar responded to some unfortunate line-up changes"...

I can't take this seriously. Oh no did something UNFORTUNATE happen to a band who call themselves "Borknagar"

"I've never listened to as much new music as I have this year, with metal as the backbone of my pathological diet, and I still feel a slight bit of awe (and a pinch of disgust) when I come across EOY lists that remind me of how utterly unending and overwhelming it all is.

― pomenitul"

That was my 2018. My 2018 longlist was over 500 entries, and it's gotten longer since. And since then, well, it's done. I don't know most of the good stuff that happens. I don't need to, I'm not Aristotle trying to encompass all human knowledge. I can listen to good music when I want and if I hear something really good I'll probably want to hear it again at some point. I can listen to a song for ten seconds and decide I'm not interested in the band and they're not for me, which is fine because I can always change my mind later. I've never expected to recognize anything on these year-end lists; I browse them cursorily and if something jumps out at me I listen, "White Ward"? Sounds good. This other one? Doesn't, don't ask me what it's called, that was five seconds ago, I can't remember. Tell me your favorite 500 records and I'll find three that I like, more or less at random, and move on to something else. There's good metal in 2019, and I've heard a little of it. What could be wrong with that?

I can listen to a song for ten seconds and decide I'm not interested in the band and they're not for me

you're missing out on some really good harmonized lead guitar solos

But Toto sucks

no, they do not

Ignore me i am plasturred

you're missing out on some really good harmonized lead guitar solos

― Paul Ponzi

you say that but i'm listening to and enjoying bob wills' "twin guitar special" right now. i also once listened to a youtube video of all of thin lizzy's guitar solos even though they never much grabbed me as a band, they were pretty good

yeah i'm missing out on, like, wishbone ash or whatever but i can live with that

fwiw, i love love love metal poll rollout and hope it happens this year

if it helps at all, i promise to vote. in the past, i have always meant to and never actually done so. (maybe once, i did.)

Quality posts, Sieg & rush. Yeah, I have no idea why inflicted this upon myself – I guess because metal as a genre is especially prone to it and I only got into it 2-3 years ago so I had to get it out of my system.

I can totally understand in your situation pomenitul, catching up to 45 years of metal in the space of 2-3 years *is* an intimidating task.

And I love the new Crypt Sermon!

it is great imo! also I for one love the late-Floyd vibe of the Borknagar album

Pomenitul please check your ilx webmail, I messaged you.

Got it. Just emailed you back.

same

Rumours of the metal poll's death have been greatly exaggerated:

2019 Metal 'n' Heavy Rock Poll: NOMINATIONS thread (open until the 3rd of January 2020)

In the spirit of the earlier posts about losing track of new releases, I just remembered how much I love the new Cattle Decapitation

ok so i don't actually listen to a lot of metal and i am broadly ignorant of it but i guess i will share the stuff that's grabbed me from this year:

Apparatus - Yonder Yawns the Universe
Disentomb - The Decaying Light
Jucifer - Futility
Liturgy - HAQQ
Oranssi Pazuzu - Live at Roadburn 2017
Sankara - Total Liberation of the Human Race
Tomb Mold - Planetary Clairvoyance
Wędrowcy~Tułacze~Zbiegi - Marynistyka suchego lądu
White Ward - Love Exchange Failure
Xoth - Interdimensional Invocations
Zeal & Ardor - Live in London

You should definitely nom those (assuming glenn hasn't already!).

yeah it looks like that thread has already been taken over as a Spotify Thread, my "i've listened to ten metal albums i like this year" ass is staying far far away from that morass

big data! quantity over quality! throw enough shit at the wall and some of it will stick

I hear you. It's been partly rectified (I hope).

Dude, I was trying to make it so people could vote in the poll and find the albums they wanted to vote for on the ballot. I've voted in ILM polls for years with that usually not being true.

we can add it at the end but unperson usually complains there are too many nominations to sort through and wont vote so poll runners are damned either way

I'm not voting this year either so do whatever you like and don't drag me into it.

wasn't dragging you into anything. And its a pity you wont vote.

Why don't you want to vote, unperson? I'd be curious to see your ballot.

If I voted it would be for the following 15 acts/albums: Amon Amarth, Baroness, Beastwars, Destruction, Distant, Ecstatic Vision, Grand Magus, Memoriam, Misery Index, Opeth, Organectomy, Saint Vitus, Splattered, Sunn O))) (Life Metal, yes; Pyroclasts, no), and Tanith.

Then you should nom those that haven't been nommed yet and vote. A 15 album ballot is perfectly fine.

As a side note, I wonder if anyone here seriously prefers Pyroclasts to Life Metal. Challop of the year if that's the case.

I didn't know there was a new Ecstatic Vision until unperson mentioned it!

Hey rusho you mind if I c+p yr list in the noms thread (I'll edit out duplicates, don't worry ON)...there's some stuff on there I'll prob vote for and some stuff I want to check out

as long as rushomancy votes. Also I'd really like unperson to nominate and vote.

I'd like it if everyone on this thread voted actually.