Rolling Metal Thread 2009

Except now it sounds like death metal.

Ah, it's dudes from Portal. This is ace.

13 Metal Albums You May Have Missed In 2009. Most of the denizens of this thread will probably not actually have missed all of these. But you'll probably find something worth investigating or revisiting. And like I say at the end, it's better than pretending Between The Buried And Me are good.

Nice list, I agree with every one of those choices. Nice to see Gwynbleidd and Zu there.

(the new BTBAM is good!)

Saw Between the Buried and Me supporting the DEP some time last year - they were so quiet! It was quite funny actually, watching them riff and gurn away while this piddly sound drifted out of the PA.

I wonder if this is at Borders yet - http://store.decibelmagazine.com/products/top-100-albums-of-the-decade-special-issue

"So here's a small sampling - a baker's dozen, if you will - of highly worthwhile metal albums that may have slipped past you unnoticed in '09."

20 is a baker's dozen. 13 is a demon's dozen! \m/

wont be in the UK Borders. They've gone bust.

20 is so not a baker's dozen.

That is a nice list Phil, I can especially endorse the Kreator, Wolf, and Obscura albums - all of which I enjoyed to varying levels and didn't really see a whole lot on. Still need to check out the Zu and Minsk though.

Hasn't 13 always been a baker's dozen?

(ha xpost!)

Have all the Borders straight up just locked their doors never to return as of today then? Crazy

Aren't they still struggling on in vain like Willem Dafoe at the end of Platoon? I'm sure the one in Islington was open the other day.

closing down sale apparently, but they wont be getting any new stock obviously.

But what if the baker did a wake 'n' bake and was feeling generous? Or was addled with cold medicine like me?

20 is only a baker's dozen if you're a really hungry baker.

Question for Adrien if he sees this. I saw you mention Orphaned Land on your Twitter, do they have a new one coming out? My wife works with a guy who splits time between Israel and Chicago for their company and he knows a couple of the Orphaned Land guys, which is how I got ahold of Mabool originally.

Yeah, I've been listening to the new album, I was a big fan of Mabool as well. It's pretty good, but there's a lot to digest. It comes out in February I believe.

I'm not Adrien, obviously, but yeah, there's a new OL disc coming out in early '10. I got a download link for it but haven't grabbed it yet 'cause I've got eight dozen other things demanding my attention at the moment.

i want new orphaned land!

Thanks for the info Phil, curious to hear it.

i wrote a review of mabool almost SIX years ago in the village voice and i used the term "half-assed experimentalism" which i TOTALLY stole from siegbran! wow, feels likes a lifetime ago:

Some purists decry what they see as half-assed experimentalism in some modern metal as an aesthetic dead end and as a trend that prizes novelty over the perfection of form dictated by the unwritten laws and constraints of whatever sui generis subgenres a band aligns itself with. Unfortunately, I was cursed with a funny bone, a belief that exploration can often trump orthodoxy, and have never been much interested in the comfort and faith that purism provides and requires.

Plus, you never know what's gonna come of anything. If Israel's Orphaned Land, beloved by Arab and Israeli alike, manage to service the long-overlooked segment of society that are fans of Fiddler on the Roof, Ofra Haza, and death metal with their album Mabool: The Story of the Three Sons of Seven, then all I can say is hurrah for the Holy Land!

I happen to enjoy their mixture of Jesus Christ Superstar choral work, death-barking, epic Semitic desert riffs, Mideastern folk warbling and plucking, triumphal hi-diddle-diddle-la-la-la-la choruses, temple-mount rock-god solos, and a cappella prettiness mixed with spoken-word portentousness. Heavy metal is folk music, so combining it with trad ethnic hootenanny action makes perfect sense. And there ain't nothing half-assed in the way that Orphaned Land go about it. Do I care that the three sons pictured on the album cover are a snake, an eagle, and a lion, and that these animals represent Judaism, Islam, and Christianity? No, I don't. The song is the thing. What Orphaned Land do make me think about is that metal—and music!—is a land you are free to roam, even though there will always be people who choose to stay close to home working the same plot of ancestral soil year in and year out.

This is why I love Scott.

I don't know what it is about those Middle Eastern sounds and metal, but damn the combination can work brilliantly. A great example on the new Orphaned Land is the opening track "Sapari", which is probably the best track on the record.

Some purists decry what they see as half-assed experimentalism in some modern metal as an aesthetic dead end and as a trend that prizes novelty over the perfection of form dictated by the unwritten laws and constraints of whatever sui generis subgenres a band aligns itself with. Unfortunately, I was cursed with a funny bone, a belief that exploration can often trump orthodoxy, and have never been much interested in the comfort and faith that purism provides and requires.

I like experimentalism in metal as well, for the last 20+ years I've been drawn to the more adventurous heavy sounds, satisfying as formulaic metal is. I can't help it, I'm always interested in where metal is going to go next. That's just me. Actually, Scott's statement actually works as a convincing argument against that ludicrous anti-false metal rant that the Voice published today.

I just read that piece. Such garbage.

link pls?

my pal jeanne responds:

http://decibelmagazine.com/Content.aspx?ncid=345944

Yeah, the Deciblog is how I first saw the piece.

It's like, dude, bash on the Pelican because you've kinda got a few good points about that particular album, but, uh, just shut up after that.

wow what a horrible piece (the vv, not your pal jeanne)

The same goes doubly for Florida's Torche, which often sounds like Looney Tunes composer Carl Stallings tearing through Helmet's late oeuvre in double-time.

this is a not inaccurate rendering of why torche is awesome you fucking clown

god dammit. i mean at least you could say baroness, mastodon, and torche are linked by geography but whatever you think of pelican they have nothing at all to do with those other bands.

grouping is the most intellectually dishonest form of criticism.

"Boy this Pelican album is bad. And you know what other metal bands I hate?"

LOL voegtlin. he's always fucking terrible.

I kinda like the idea of 'sketchy' metal. In this interview Weakling's Josh Gossard also talks about how he would like metal to be *more* sketchy. If Dead as Dreams is 'sketchy metal' then I'm all for it.

Man, the new Mudvayne album is bad. I used to kind of like them - I thought their second album showed real promise - but this is terrible, a watered-down combination of the worst aspects of Tool and Linkin Park. Guh.

good comment from the deciblog post:

Posted 12/1/2009 8:08 PM by ghettohed

Ive read alot of trash like that Village Voice article. People spend way to much time naming things cool or uncool, hip or unhip, etc. Not to sound like the stoned kid in the back, but cant we just enjoy the music?

i can understand his frustration at bands that probably don't really qualify as metal taking album of the year honors from groups like Blut Aus Nord, Enslaved, and Behemoth*, who have all put out amazing albums over the past few years, but the article is poorly written. i wouldn't mind reading a well-written hate-fest of Pelican or Baroness based on their music instead of where they fit in in the world of metal and who listens to them. that's just kind of juvenile to me.

*okay maybe i am projecting a little

i know i might be inviting a shitstorm with the "qualify as metal" thing, but c'mon... these guys are either punk-tinged hard rock (Torche), prog rock (Mastodon, Baroness), or post-rock (Pelican), with massive amounts of distortion and/or hollerin'.

xpost I hear ya but I also don't think it's all that surprising that crossover acts get a disproportionate amount of attention from media that doesn't exclusively cover metal.

"I never cared who was in the crowd as long as they weren’t out to beat my ass."

This was the line that Jeanne wrote that resonated with me. It's an important stipulation because we all know the "bridge and tunnel" knuckledraggers can in fact ruin a good show if they don't behave.

whatever next:

KEEP OF KALESSIN Competing To Represent Norway In EUROVISION SONG CONTEST
http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=131312

whatever next...this

10,000 metal releases came out this year
http://invisibleoranges.com/2009/12/10000-metal-releases-came-out-this-year.html

decibel 100 best of the decade special issue is pretty cool! and no martian i will not transcribe it for you. it's probably online somewhere by now anyway.

no sign of a blogger publishing the list yet, however i would expect the list to turn up on rateyourmusic.com soon

http://rateyourmusic.com/lists/recent

The Metal Minute: The Metal Minute's 25 Immaculate Receptions (and Honor Roll) for 2009
http://rayvanhornjr.blogspot.com/2009/12/metal-minutes-25-immaculate-receptions.html

1. Mastodon – Crack the Skye
2. Isis – Wavering Radiant
3. Between the Buried and Me – The Great Misdirect
4. Kylesa – Static Tensions
5. Candlemass – Death Magic Doom
6. Chthonic – Mirror of Retribution
7. Megadeth – Endgame
8. Sepultura – A-Lex
9. Zombi – Spirit Animal
10. Voivod – Infini
11. Slough Feg – Ape Uprising!
12. Pelican – What We All Come to Need
13. Slayer – World Painted Blood
14. Brown Jenkins – Death Obsessed
15. Skyfire – Esoteric
16. Sunn O))) – Monoliths and Dimensions
17. The Black Dahlia Murder – Deflorate
18. Hacride – Lazarus
19. Shadows Fall – Retribution
20. Tyr – By the Light of the Northern Star
21. Mantic Ritual - The Executioner
22. My Dying Bride - For Lies I Sire
23. Heaven and Hell - The Devil You Know
24. Wolves in the Throne Room - Black Cascade
25. Ahab - The Divinity of Oceans

Honor Roll of 2009:

Lamb of God - Wrath
Arise - The Reckoning
Vader - Necropolis
Behemoth - Evangelion
Ancestors - Of Sound Mind
Leeches of Lore - s/t
Nocturnal Fear - Metal of Honor
Leaves' Eyes - Njord
Static-X - Cult of Static
God Dethroned - Passiondale
Job for a Cowboy - Ruination
Living Colour - The Chair in the Doorway
Ace Frehley - Anomaly
Warbringer - Waking Into Nightmares
Mudvayne - s/t
Novembers Doom - Into Night's Requiem Eternal
Bone Gnawer - Feast of Flesh
Assjack - s/t
Luna Mortis - The Absence
Cannibal Corpse - Evisceration Plague
Nile - Those Whom the Gods Detest
Shrinebuilder - s/t
Wino - Punctuated Equilibrium
Lillian Axe - Sad Day On Planet Earth
W.A.S.P. - Babylon
Killswitch Engage - s/t
UFO - The Visitor
Powerman 5000 - Somewhere On the Other Side of Nowhere
Nihilitia - Nihilist Militia
The 11th Hour - Burden of Grief
The Amenta - Non
Psyopus - Odd Senses
Gollum - The Core
Conspiracy - Concordat

Decibel's decade list has finally been blurted:

http://www.terrorizer.com/main-forum/music/decibel-mags-greatest-100-albums-decade

It's definitely eclectic, which is a really good thing. Lots of stuff to argue and discuss about (right off the bat, I don't agree with numbers 1 and 2!). Can't wait to read the real thing...whenever that'll be.

So it's not on the stands yet?

lol @ no 100

The complete absence of Slipknot on that list pleases me.

that list is hilarious. Decibel is trolling imo.