Rolling Metal Thread 2009

Could just be Canada...I got physical MB product not that long ago, I think. I've been downloading their new/upcoming releases for awhile already, though.

Uh, Phil... is this Noism album a joke? It sounds like someone left a Genghis Tron record on fast-forward.

I've been downloading their new/upcoming releases for awhile already, though.

As have I. It's fine for reviewing stuff at home, but as far as the weekly radio show I do with fellow writer K. Stewart-Panko I don't have a CD burner and can't access the files at the station while on-air, so I'm a little bummed about that. He'll probably end up getting all the CDs still though since he's been on their regular list since like 1992, but we'll see.

Although it came out in 2008, I finally found a copy of D.X. Ferris's 33 1/3 book on Reign In Blood this past Saturday. Read it from cover to cover on Sunday and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Also picked up the Masters of Reality book by J. Darnielle but didn't realize it was fiction. Should have read the back before buying it, but I was so excited to finally see these books in a Canadian store that I couldn't help myself. These two books and a few choice used scores (the rare Pentagram comp Human Hurricane and Thin Lizzy's Fighting) made the trip to Toronto worthwhile.

Well, if it's any consolation, the Master Of Reality book is supposed to be amazing.

It's highly entertaining and very well written. But don't expect to learn anything about Black Sabbath from it. Even basic facts are distorted (the narrator assumes Ozzy is the lyricist...).

Well, in the mid-80s, didn't all us metal kids think Ozzy wrote all his lyrics? Of course, we know better now.

Well, if it's any consolation, the Master Of Reality book is supposed to be amazing.

It is!!!!! For goodness sake, get it at once. I like what Matos said, John's book deserves a place alongside The Catcher in the Rye.

The Slayer book delivers what it promises, but parts bugged me. Like how he places more emphasis on the album's hardcore crossover success than the actual impact on the metal community.

It's weird you have trouble finding the 33 1/3series, Sean, we have an oustanding indie bookstore chain out west that is always on top of everythnig Contiuum puts out. And they stock Decibel!

Re: Metal Blade, I think that's only a Canada thing as I haven't received anything today except an offer to download the new Cattle Decapitation record. And Outburn sent me a physical copy of the new Destroy Destroy Destroy for review. Unfortunately the packaging isn't nearly as entertaining as Devour the Power's ( though the album is better).

so uh

GAAHL CAME OUT OF THE CLOSET?!?!?!?!?!!

I think sexual orientation has very little to do with why I do not want to be trapped in a closet with Gaahl.

But, you know, cue the Sodom and Gomorgoroth puns anyway...

it's in the new terrorizer

why must he be paired with dani filth for an interview at this, his most cred time in history

(never mind, we all know why: TERRORIZER-SPONSORED DOUBLE BILL)

Coming out of the closet is pretty black metal!

i think it's pretty tough and awesome of him

he's always been in my top 3 bm dudes

would definitively NOT kick it with, though

There is nothing more satanic than gay sex!

I BROKE THE GAAHL STORY IN ROLLING METAL 2008

nobody ever listens to me, i might as well be leonard cohen record.

no, wait, it was the gorgoroth c or d thread.

yeah, i saw it on there today!

fig'd it wasn't NEWS news as terrorizer were like "so, how are ppl reacting to your gayness"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/jan/02/saxon-rock-music

I missed Saxon supporting Motörhead last month, irritatingly -- got there just as they were finishing. No idea whether I'd have enjoyed them, but I think seeing Saxon is something everyone should strive to do at least once in life.

just like everyone needs to vote in the ilx metal poll once in their life ;)

Ah, dude, genre polls: not for me. I'll vote in the main one but that's all. Sorry.

(Also: I didn't listen to nearly enough metal last year anyway, so it'd be a skewed vote.)

heh there's 267 albums nominated. I bet you've heard a good few of them.

Great NWOBHM article. That new (27th?! I make it 20th, but whatever) Saxon album is also pretty good, which I find kind of alarming as I hadn't paid any attention to them since loving Strong Arm of the Law in 1980.

I locked my 2008 lists at the end of the year, but have already found one 2008 metal album since then that probably would have made it: Monuments by Brave. DC indie progressive-metal (in the song-oriented sense, not the 18-minute wank-out sense) band with a very good female singer. It's on the 2008 poll-list, so somebody noticed it while it was still current.

Oh glenn just make an exception for my poll please :) Help me out here. If everyone votes I wont need to bug everyone and roxy will be happier if i stop. :)

You meant "grimly", not "glenn". I already voted!

haha so you did

but yeah the more votes i receive the happier roxy can be. do it for roxy!

One or 2 people couldnt skew the vote anyway simon, so dont worry.

I have a few mates who still go see saxon. I know one guy who even ran the scottish fanclub.

I locked my 2008 lists at the end of the year, but have already found one 2008 metal album since then that probably would have made it: Monuments by Brave. DC indie progressive-metal (in the song-oriented sense, not the 18-minute wank-out sense) band with a very good female singer.

There's an album I didn't investigate soon enough. She's one of the more tasteful female metal singers you'll ever come across, and the songwriting is strong, in a restrained, Mandylion kind of way. Plus the electric violin is kinda cool.

The Wino solo record isn't surprising at all, considering the source, but it's also about as good as you would expect, considering the source.

Has the man done anything that could be considered outright crap? I can't think of anything off the top of my head.

xpost a perfect summary of that album. (It is good and all but yeah.)

So the legal hoops I had to jump through to hear three new tracks by a certain band, oh, let's call them Shmannibal Shmorpse, was a new experience.

I love Shmannibal Shmorpse! Especially Shombs of the Shmutilated.

And Shmutchered at Shmirth.

Yeah, but what new tracks! I mean, who even knew George played the bassoon?

yeah but spill beans AB! is it good?

One thing I hate about samplers is how it's impossible to tell what the album's like. But the three tracks are excellent, pretty much what you'd expect. One track's a swift excercise in the usual brootality (with some insane O'Brien leads), another's a fast, groovy two-minute thrasher, and another (my fave of the three, the title track) is a creepy-riffin', four and a half minute slow crawler, total old school CC. Or, I mean SS.

And Rutan's one of the best things to ever happen to these guys.

read that as "the usual botany"

so there's a new autopsy single coming out? whoa.

Interesting line-up for the Scion Rock Fest, Atlanta, Feb. 28 --

Mastodon
Neurosis
High on Fire
Boris
1349
Cryptopsy
Torche
Nachtmystium
Wolves in the Throne Room
Baroness
Harvey Milk
Kylesa
Zoroaster
Withered
Krallice
Toxic Holocaust
Skeletonwitch
Rwake
A Storm of Light
Warbringer
Salome
Suidakra
Tyr
Alestorm

That may be one of the best top to bottom festival lineups I've ever seen. Although Krallice were kind of boring when I saw them.

With apologies to the spectacular Maryland deathfeat lineup, I think I'd rather see this one.

Deathfest. Urps.

Totally approve of this Century Media 2009 "Maidens of Metal" calendar, I have to say, even if I never heard of any of these ladies' bands, and even if a few get repeated on different months. (So...what do Luna Mortis sound like?)

Luna Mortis is sort of Into Eternity meets Symphony X meets the Gathering. Melodic prog stuff, tastefully done, with a singer who goes from Anneke van Giersbergen to Sabine Classen. Some folks here were lukewarm, but I like the new album.

Shall we lock this thread now, or keep it going for totally off-topic Aphrodite's Child/Britisher talk?

Liverpool and places like Wigan, St Helens and Warrington lean more toward psychedelia in rock music and Manchester and Lancs tend to lean away from it.

You can only really make the broadest of generalisations here but bands like the Stone Roses, The Engineers and The Verve, while usually being lumped in as Manc, have this through line to psych and prog that goes with the territory they actually come from (Stone Roses were more of a Warrington band, The Verve, Wigan etc), imho. Even bands like The Coral and Teardrop Explodes kind of fit this theory.

I think Julian Cope has it down as a Catholic Irish/Anglo Protestant split between the two areas; which is partially true and partially over-romanticized.

It falls apart if you examine it too closely.

XP: Sorry Jeff! All done now.

hey, that was really interesting! the merest whiff of 'cardiacs' and i'm in like flynn :D but the psych/non-psych lancashire divide is pretty intriguing. i'll have to try and keep tabs on my favourite north-west bands and see if it holds true!

The Year in Metal (BBG's best of 2009)
http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2010/01/the_year_in_met_1.html