Rolling Metal Thread 2012

I'm hoping the new Manowar is better than the last album, which was dreadful.

The Grand Magus album is incredible. Plus the band is coming to North America in September just to play Noctis Fest & Conference in Calgary with Agalloch and Pig Destroyer, which is going to rule. (I'm going to be one of the panelists there this year, too)

Is the theme "no two metal bands that sound even remotely similar"? Wow.

Plus Nunslaughter and Black Witchery!

Oh ok phew.

I have one album each by Nunslaughter and Black Witchery and like those albums but have never gone any further with them. That's normal, right?

Manowar is terrible.. its exactly what people laugh about when it comes to metal

who cares what ppl laugh about?

No, no, Mordy, SeanWayne has it exactly right. The most important thing, when choosing what music to listen to or go public about liking, is how that choice will be seen by others. All taste should be socially aspirational.

Jock Rock.

i see your snarkiness.. I can give a fuck about needing approval about what i listen too. Theres plenty of stuff I listen to that is laughable by some.. I'm talking more about the cliche that band is.. Manowar are like a real life Spinal Tap... silly.

I agree with SeanWayne whole-heartedly. If I cared what people thought of my taste I'd barely listen to any metal and certainly nothing ace like Maiden and Slayer. And if I did it'd just be vanilla, P4k American new age metal that goes on about forests, minerals, growing your own vegetables, yoga and transcendence.

That said I'm fucking mortified when I say I like metal and people presume that means fucking end of the pier, Dame Twanky bullshit like Manowar or WASP. Have you ever heard Manowar interviewed? They're fucking morons. Going on about how many chicks have orgasms after riding on their Harleys. And their music really does a good job of revealing exactly how stupid they are.

Manowar are not great. Watain are great.

I've interviewed Joey DeMaio myself. He was a prick who hung up on me after I asked questions he didn't feel like answering. I still think that at their best, they make fucking great metal records.

That's a fair point. I like plenty of bands who are nobheads to be honest but Manowar are pretty high up the chart.

I think it's both sad and funny that what others think about your taste matters to you once you're out of high school. I haven't heard the new Manowar because I haven't liked anything I've heard from them since Fighting The World, but if people like it then good on them.
This is just as silly as the "Scion is co-opting the underground" malarkey.

It's more complex than that though isn't it. I don't really care what people think of my taste in music per se, but I do care if people think I'm some kind of misogynist, educationally sub normal wing nut.

I write about heavy metal for a good portion of my working week and I rely on the income this generates to pay my mortgage and keep my site ticking over. My job would be a lot easier if prejudices against heavy metal weren't so ingrained. Ask anyone who works at the WIRE what a lot of their readership thought of the SunnO))) cover (I seem to remember one letter decrying the band as long haired idiots who were taking the rightful place of terrible wankers My Cat Is An Alien) or ask anyone at MOJO what their subscribers thought of their (excellent) eight page feature on Reign In Blood. Despite The Guardian finally adding a full time metal writer to their roster (Dom Lawson) and people like Unperson and Joe Stannard writing for WIRE, metal is still perceived to be a goon's genre in a lot of quarters.

Recently when editing a piece by Joe Muggs on dubstep I had a bizarre argument with him where he claimed that the only sexism that occurred in dubstep was down to one particular producer who had been in a metal band when he was a teenager and his "Beavis and Butthead aesthetic". When you ask him about how he perceives metal bands, Manowar is one of the first that he mentions.

I genuinely have a lot invested in heavy metal's aesthetic of self-determinism, self-belief and questioning all authority and for me to take this stuff seriously, I kind of have to ignore bands as crass as Manowar. Fair enough if someone likes the music but the idea that it doesn't matter at all how they act is demonstrably wrong. See also, me constantly having to explain to people that black metal doesn't automatically mean Nazi church burning Satanist.

That said I'm fucking mortified when I say I like metal and people presume that means fucking end of the pier, Dame Twanky bullshit like Manowar or WASP.

lol

^^^^

Thats a point my good friend brought up, you like WASP but you don't like Manowar? I guess he got me, cuz I do like a handful of WASP tunes.

I've often never let the outside the music behaviors of a band influence my like of their music, but often times such behaviors and attitudes influence that music, so it makes it really hard to swallow.

heavy metal's aesthetic of self-determinism, self-belief and questioning all authority

You really don't see how Manowar pretty much personifies all these things? They own their own label, and license their albums for distribution. They book their own tours, playing where people want to see them (Europe) and ignoring markets where they're not a draw (America). They do exactly what they feel like doing, concede nothing to critics or the market, and treat their fans very well indeed, from what I've read (meet-and-greets at their giant festivals, inviting fan club members to hear this new album weeks before release, etc., etc.). Manowar live the ethos you describe; they just do it in a way you don't like.

the power is a great manowar song but there's no doubt they're very silly. Can we work Pantera and Burzum into this too?

Pantera is a different story Kerr.. Their music very much carried the flag in the 90s, at leadt fro here in the States.. I know you can't stand Anselmo, but his stupid ramblings of a heroin addicted redneck don't compare to the murdering ways of the Burzum dude, or the silliness that is Manowar

I genuinely have a lot invested in heavy metal's aesthetic of self-determinism, self-belief and questioning all authority and for me to take this stuff seriously, I kind of have to ignore bands as crass as Manowar. Fair enough if someone likes the music but the idea that it doesn't matter at all how they act is demonstrably wrong. See also, me constantly having to explain to people that black metal doesn't automatically mean Nazi church burning Satanist.

Yet you do reviews and interviews with Burzum. :/

I genuinely have a lot invested in heavy metal's aesthetic of self-determinism, self-belief and questioning all authority and for me to take this stuff seriously, I kind of have to ignore bands as crass as Manowar. Fair enough if someone likes the music but the idea that it doesn't matter at all how they act is demonstrably wrong. See also, me constantly having to explain to people that black metal doesn't automatically mean Nazi church burning Satanist.

Yet you do reviews and interviews with Burzum. :/

Where the fuck have I done this you cunt? Seriously fuck you. I need people spreading shit about me like this like I need a hole in the fucking head. You want to talk to me about shit get your fucking facts straight.

u guys are so dramatic

heavy metal's aesthetic of self-determinism, self-belief and questioning all authority

You really don't see how Manowar pretty much personifies all these things? They own their own label, and license their albums for distribution. They book their own tours, playing where people want to see them (Europe) and ignoring markets where they're not a draw (America). They do exactly what they feel like doing, concede nothing to critics or the market, and treat their fans very well indeed, from what I've read (meet-and-greets at their giant festivals, inviting fan club members to hear this new album weeks before release, etc., etc.). Manowar live the ethos you describe; they just do it in a way you don't like.

You're talking about a DIY ethos which is slightly different. And it's more important in this instance, what Manowar represent in negative terms. Although kudos is due to them for doing shit themselves it doesn't necessarily mean I have to like them, there are plenty of right wing bands who are totally DIY for example. I'm talking more in terms of general philosophy.

Doran: this isn't on your site?

http://thequietus.com/articles/04020-burzum-unbound-varg-vikernes-speaks-to-the-quietus

I have no issue with you at all so please do watch the "fuck you" stuff. If I have it wrong I'm sorry.

hahaha

Ez you should check the date on that article

Oops! I was wrong. I'm sorry.

I didn't mean to stir shit up... I always seem to do that on here.

rofl ez

Why does this stuff go down whenever I go away for the weekend? Like, seriously, every single time.

the power is a great manowar song but there's
no doubt they're very silly. Can we work Pantera
and Burzum into this too?

hahaha, goalkeeper otm.

Honestly it was worth it for this by doran

That said I'm fucking mortified when I say I like metal and people presume that means fucking end of the pier, Dame Twanky bullshit like Manowar or WASP

Latest New Metal Album Roundup: 11 mini-reviewed by me, 4 by other people; at least 6 I would actually recommend; 1 or 2 that aren't technically metal but they made sense to include anyway.

http://www.rhapsody.com/blog/2012/06/top-15-metal-albums-june-2012

As always, nice round-up.

I am LOVING this new Grand Magus record. Big sing-along choruses and huge riffs, and a swinging rhythm section are getting me nodding as I type. I wish I had a big fuck you gas guzzling muscle car to drive around in and blast this through the posh neighborhoods of Dallas. It'd be worth sweating in the heat to fist pump out the window.

yeha, its good, man. i want to climb a mountain to it.

Some newish records I'm into at the moment:

- Unisonic's self-titled debut album, which is pretty much exactly what I could have hoped for from a Helloween reunion: lots of melody plus a little more maturity to mute the silliness that sometimes carried both Helloween and Gamma Ray over the top and off a waiting cliff.

- Canary Islands band Jotnar's short but surging introductory EP, which is the kind of thing you might like if you still remember the time when nobody was embarrassed about liking In Flames.

- HIGH AND MIGHTY COLOR's 2009 album Swamp Man, which is the thing you've been looking for if you thought the J-Pop/Metal fusion of Blood Stain Child sounded intriguing in principle, but ended up having too much international trance sheen and not enough J-Pop chirp.

- Azoic's Gateways, which sounds to me a lot like a version of Mitochondrion or DSO with a slightly shorter attention span.

- Maglor's Call of the Forest, which has some of the old Bathory charm of a guy in his garage channeling primeval wildernesses.

Still making up my mind on the ambient-metal-ish records from Desiderii Marginis, Les Fleurs Du Mal, Cold Womb Descent and the shoe gauzy Marriages. And have only listened to the new Ihsahn and Rush once through each, but am looking forward to the second times.

That Unisonic album is great fun. Better than anything Helloween and Gamma Ray have put out in ages.

Heard that Azoic for the 1st time a few weeks ago, good stuff. Grabbed the released version last night (the band have it for free download).

Here's the band-condoned link to the Azoic record: http://www.mediafire.com/?l3zazic2kiolf5c

Manilla Road has just been confirmed for the Noctis Fest in Calgary in September, to go along with Agalloch, Pig Destroyer, Grand Magus, Midnight, Nunslaughter, Black Witchery, and more. I don't believe the headliner's even been announced yet. Amazing.

Swedish redneck stoner metal! http://www.decibelmagazine.com/featured/the-lazarus-pit-roachpowders-viejo-diablo/

Note to promoters who book metal shows, tours and the like.. DO NOT book a metal show in a high end club in San Francisco... It completely ruins the vibe of a show, and it keeps people from the show, more than it invites..

The current Southern Lord tour stopped in SF last night to a lack luster, slimmer than should've been crowd at the Mezzanine; a pretty swanky place, with blazer and ear piece wearing security guards, expensive drinks and an up coming shows calender of hip-hop, reggae and adult contempos that no one has heard of..

But nonetheless, the bands killed it! I missed Enabler, who I really wanted to see cuz its the Fall Out Boy drummer (morbid curiosity), But Burning Love was great, despite the crowd being uninterested..
Martyrdod steam rolled through a blistering set of unrelentless d-beat.. They have no time to talk or even sing songs in English... the Swedes just don't care! and we love em for it!!
Black Breath finally got the crowd going, with a 5-6 man pit in small flurries, fists and horns held high while a small few sang along. They were in top form, though I've seen em do a better song selection. But they still killed it..
Noothgrush headlined this SF stop (I think they do the Santa Cruz stop as well) and our local sludge heros crushed it, and the crowd actually stuck around to soak in their brand of doom!

We like to go to our metal in the bay area in crusty places; if we touch something we are not gonna feel uncomfortable about it getting it dirty. It was like going to your aunts house, that married the rich guy with the big house, and you can't touch ANYTHING without the riot act..

Kinda late on this, but I finally got my copy of Cauldron of the Wild and they are absolutely killing it. What a superb album. And I would even say that if a certain somebody wasn't reading this thread. :)

Ha ha! I have been name checked once more in Decibel for my love of the girly medal (this time in the Call & Response section).

Girly METAL.

Speaking of basically the opposite of that, new Master record is fun in the exact same way that the new Black Breath and Asphyx records are.

That Noctis Fest lineup is rather good. Wish there were cheap flights.

Another fun lazarus pit J3ff. And I have definitely never heard of Roachpowder before.

Also, Scorpions tonight! Playing the Staples Center, which is a way bigger venue than the one in which I saw them 10 years ago.

Nice! I looked at going but tickets were way more than I wanted to spend on Scorpions, as much as I love them.