Rolling Metal Thread 2012

Please tell me they're playing Manhattan and not Brooklyn.

Hope Vektor is coming to Chicago, Nate - are you tagging along for Agalloch again this summer?

Vektor is definitely coming to Chicago. NY date is still up in the air.

Can't tour with Agalloch these days. Too busy with Witch Mountain tours. We are on fire (thanks in part to many of you here).

so.....randy blythe

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1688786/lamb-of-god-randy-blythe-detained-manslaughter-prague.jhtml

yikes

uh...

https://s3.amazonaws.com/metalsucks/images/13.png

Poland.

that shit is crazy...

As a performer in the post Dimebag shooting era, I don't blame anyone for gettin down with someone on the stage if they feel threatened...

It shard to say cuz no of us were there, but we'll see how it pans out

Death Angel indeed 100% awesome.

Nate, the Witch Mountain gig was magnificent. Sorry I couldn't chat more after, I was entertaining a group of six. Not sure if you saw, but my bud Philip at the Reader did post this blurb...

Witch Mountain, Cauldron of the Wild. This four-piece from Portland, Oregon, pairs clean female vocals with charcoal black guitars and dilated, doomy riffs. Singer Uta Plotkin sounds like Ann Wilson of Heart if she'd been raised by wolves—which works especially well on the lines "Don't know if you're dead / But I like it that way / 'Cause you know if I knew / Don't know what I'd do." Cauldron of the Wild comes out Tue 6/12, and Witch Mountain plays at the Empty Bottle on Sat 6/16.

Oh, I guess Monica also wrote about it in the show recommendations. "You're not watching the witches' sabbath on a screen, you're there—and you're close enough to tell if it's the harmless hippie kind, or if someone's really going to literally have sex with Satan right in front of you."

So the Lamb of God singer may or may not be in legal trouble for his alleged response to an audience member who repeatedly charged the stage and finally broke on through. Will this affect LOG's current tour with Dethklok and Gojira? Hope not. Meanwhile, kinda wondering if this might be good and/or a royal pain:
SOPHICIDE: German Tech Death Metallers Announce Willowtip Debut

German technical death metal sorcerers, SOPHICIDE, are pleased to announce the release of their debut, Perdition Of The Sublime. Set for North American release on August 14, 2012 via Willowtip Records, the 11-track long player was recorded, mixed and mastered by founder Adam Laszlo at his home studio and features the striking cover design by artist Steve Voigt.

Formed as a one-man-project in 2009 by Laszlo, then 19, SOPHICIDE fuses elaborate melodies with battering technical brutality into a sound that’s as malicious as it is memorable. Meaning "murder of wisdom," SOPHICIDE describes the state of modern society and serves as the central theme of Perdition Of The Sublime. Notes Laszlo: “It's another word for anti-intellectualism. People are stupid, ignorant and seem to be proud of it. This is a disturbing trend.”

“I'm really keen to release this album,” he continues of the release. “I've put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into it and I hope people can connect to it as I do. Basically the overall theme coincides with the meaning of ‘sophicide.’ Intellect and enlightenment seem to be displaced by religion and casting shows. There’s this overall apathy, people don't seem to give a shit about anything as long as they get their cheap meat and TV shows. This is what POTS is basically about, although the focus is on religion, after all it's the elephant in the room.”

Perdition Of The Sublime Track Listing:

01. The Art Of Atrocity

02. Within Darkness

03. Perdition Of The Sublime

04. Of Lust And Vengeance

05. Execration

06. Blood For Honour

07. Freedom Of Mind

08. Folie Á Deux

09. Lafayette's Deception

10. Dawn Of A New Age

11. The Essence Of Warfare

first track streaming here
http://www.earsplitcompound.com/site/2012/06/29/sophicide-german-tech-death-metallers-announce-willowtip-debut/

Got a download link for that yesterday; haven't checked it out yet.

I'm heading to see Elder tonight at The Burlington, just $5!

That was incredible. Other recent shows in comparison were like a half-assed neckrub compared to Elder's full-body oiled Esselin rubdown, complete with inner-organ massaging bass frequencies. Seriously, after seeing the Scorpions strut and preen on Friday (they did have impressive energy for their age, but their song selection sucked ass) it was so refreshing to just have my mind blown by a band. The riffs! The incredible tones! So heavy all the hairs on your body vibrate, but not painful, just entrancing and psychedelic, just how I like it. They play tomorrow night at Now That’s Class in Cleveland.

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/06/29/world/africa/botswana-heavy-metal-heads/index.html?hpt=hp_mid

It looks like unperson wrote about the Botswana metal scene last year. I can't listen to any of this right now because I'm at work, but it was on cnn's front page and my interest is piqued.

link to unperson's article

http://social.entertainment.msn.com/music/blogs/headbang-blogpost.aspx?post=49bc705b-6325-44ef-b031-77be9ac83858

If this reissue of Life among the Ruins that I'm listening to is any indication, 1993 was not a good year to be a Virgin Steele fan.

I mean, I guess it's not like ANY year was that great a year to be a Virgin Steele fan, but 1993 was a particularly lousy vintage

http://t.co/NRSdMAxL

Good read. I'm think of a shit tone of good heavy bands that are suffering this exact fate..

*side note: Scion might be a savior after all!!

*thinking

http://t.co/NRSdMAxL

Good read. I'm thinking of a shit ton of good heavy bands that are suffering this exact fate..

*side note: Scion might be a savior after all!!

i meant to check out mutilation rites sooner, only just getting around to it, and i'm pleased to find out that their drummer justin ennis used to be in tombs (not the most recent drummer though). the record sounds really good so far.

At the halfway point of the year, here are the top metal albums according to Rate Your Music:

1.	Timeghoul - 1992-1994 Discography
2.	Blind Guardian - Memories of a Time to Come
3.	Ne Obliviscaris - Portal of I
4.	Be'lakor - Of Breath and Bone
5.	Circus Maximus - Nine
6.	Agalloch - Faustian Echoes
7.	High on Fire - De Vermis Mysteriis
8.	Borknagar - Urd
9.	Mgła - With Hearts Toward None
10.	AtomA - Skylight
11.	In Mourning - The Weight of Oceans
12.	Sigh - In Somniphobia
13.	Overkill - The Electric Age
14.	ReinXeed - Welcome to the Theatre
15.	Paradise Lost - Tragic Idol
16.	Accept - Stalingrad
17.	Deathspell Omega - Drought
18.	Iron Maiden - En vivo!
19.	Diablo Swing Orchestra - Pandora's Piñata
20.	Dying Fetus - Reign Supreme
21.	Dawnbringer - Into the Lair of the Sun God
22.	Candlemass - Psalms for the Dead
23.	Meshuggah - Koloss
24.	Spawn of Possession - Incurso
25.	Moonspell - Omega White
26.	Lunar Aurora - Hoagascht
27.	Pallbearer - Sorrow and Extinction
28.	Periphery - II
29.	Napalm Death - Utilitarian
30.	Moonspell - Alpha noir
31.	Kreator - Phantom Antichrist
32.	Sabaton - Carolus Rex
33.	Inverloch - Dusk | Subside
34.	Prong - Carved Into Stone
35.	Grand Magus - The Hunt
36.	Black Breath - Sentenced to Life
37.	Gojira - L'enfant sauvage
38.	Christian Mistress - Possession
39.	Damnation Angels - Bringer of Light
40.	Nachtvorst - Silence
41.	Ihsahn - Eremita
42.	Barren Earth - The Devil's Resolve
43.	Orange Goblin - A Eulogy for the Damned
44.	7 Horns 7 Eyes - Throes of Absolution
45.	Oceans of Time - Faces
46.	Hypno5e - Acid Mist Tomorrow
47.	Angelus Apátrida - The Call
48.	Asphyx - Deathhammer
49.	Every Time I Die - Ex Lives
50.	Wodensthrone - Curse
51.	Suspyre - Suspyre
52.	Devin Townsend - By a Thread
53.	Valtari - Fragments of a Nightmare
54.	Unisonic - Unisonic
55.	Xandria - Neverworld's End
56.	Swallow the Sun - Emerald Forest and the Blackbird
57.	Secrets of the Moon - Seven Bells
58.	Before the Dawn - Rise of the Phoenix
59.	Angel Witch - As Above, So Below
60.	Hour of 13 - 333
61.	Pseudogod - Deathwomb Catechesis
62.	Hour of Penance - Sedition
63.	3 Inches of Blood - Long Live Heavy Metal
64.	Gorod - A Perfect Absolution
65.	Soen - Cognitive
66.	Galneryus - 絆 (Kizuna)
67.	Naglfar - Téras
68.	Pythia - The Serpent's Curse
69.	Urfaust - Ritual Music for the True Clochard
70.	Chimp Spanner - All Roads Lead Here
71.	Headspace - I Am Anonymous
72.	Allegaeon - Formshifter
73.	Unisonic - Ignition
74.	Jeff Loomis - Plains of Oblivion
75.	Cattle Decapitation - Monolith of Inhumanity
76.	Iron Maiden - En vivo!
77.	Melvins - Scion A/V Presents: The Bulls & the Bees
78.	Hail Spirit Noir - Pneuma
79.	The Foreshadowing - Second World
80.	Skyharbor - Blinding White Noise: Illusion & Chaos
81.	The Great Old Ones - Al Azif
82.	Pathfinder - Fifth Element
83.	Isis - Live VI (11/16/2007)
84.	Psycroptic - The Inherited Repression
85.	Pharaoh - Bury the Light
86.	Drudkh - Eternal Turn of the Wheel
87.	OSI - Fire Make Thunder
88.	Dråpsnatt - Skelepht
89.	Goatwhore - Blood for the Master
90.	Cannibal Corpse - Torture
91.	Aborted - Global Flatline
92.	Saint Vitus - Lillie: F-65
93.	Status Minor - Ouroboros
94.	Rage - 21
95.	Horrendous - The Chills
96.	Ufomammut - Oro: Opus Primum
97.	Tacoma Narrows Bridge Disaster - Exegesis
98.	Pretty Maids - It Comes Alive: Maid in Switzerland
99.	Suicidal Angels - Bloodbath
100.	Pale Divine - Painted Windows Black
101.	Taranis - Kingdom
102.	Dyscarnate - And So It Came to Pass
103.	Stam1na - Nocebo
104.	Jorn - Bring Heavy Rock to the Land
105.	Words of Farewell - Immersion
106.	Woods of Ypres - Woods 5: Grey Skies & Electric Light
107.	White Skull - Under This Flag
108.	Soulfly - Enslaved
109.	Ascariasis - Ocean of Colour
110.	Havok - The Point of No Return
111.	Amberian Dawn - Circus Black
112.	Lonewolf - Army of the Damned
113.	Carach Angren - Where the Corpses Sink Forever
114.	Rise to Fall - Defying the Gods
115.	Antigama - Stop the Chaos
116.	Horseback - Half Blood
117.	Unleashed - Odalheim
118.	Anhedonist - Netherwards
119.	Stargate - Beyond Space and Time
120.	Axel Rudi Pell - Circle of the Oath
121.	Delain - We Are the Others
122.	Addaura - Burning for the Ancient
123.	Epica - Requiem for the Indifferent
124.	Gojira - L'enfant sauvage
125.	Jeff Scott Soto - Damage Control
126.	Luca Turilli's Rhapsody - Ascending to Infinity
127.	Eluveitie - Helvetios
128.	Luca Turilli's Rhapsody - Dark Fate of Atlantis
129.	Veil of Maya - Eclipse
130.	Dødsengel - Imperator
131.	Autopsy - All Tomorrow's Funerals
132.	Distorted Harmony - Utopia
133.	Dark Forest - Land of the Evening Star
134.	Outcast - Awaken the Reason
135.	DragonForce - The Power Within
136.	Ea - Ea
137.	Marduk - Serpent Sermon
138.	Fear Factory - The Industrialist
139.	Tank - War Nation
140.	Freedom Call - Land of the Crimson Dawn
141.	JK Flesh - Posthuman
142.	Slice the Cake - The Man With No Face
143.	Conan - Monnos
144.	Royal Thunder - CVI
145.	Nekromantheon - Rise, Vulcan Spectre
146.	Horn of the Rhino - Grengus
147.	Firewind - Few Against Many
148.	Dodecahedron - Dodecahedron
149.	Oddland - The Treachery of Senses
150.	Vampillia + Nadja - The Primitive World
151.	Sonata Arctica - Stones Grow Her Name
152.	Peste Noire - Les démos
153.	Diabulus in Musica - The Wanderer
154.	Stoned Jesus - Seven Thunders Roar
155.	Primal Fear - Unbreakable
156.	A Sound of Thunder - Out of the Darkness
157.	Dawn of Destiny - Praying to the World
158.	Ahab - The Giant
159.	Powerwolf - Alive in the Night
160.	Shadows Fall - Fire From the Sky
161.	Sunpocrisy - Samaroid Dioramas
162.	Profusion - Rewotower
163.	Gojira - The Flesh Alive
164.	Ethereal Architect - Monolith
165.	Aura Noir - Out to Die
166.	Heidevolk - Batavi
167.	Obscurcis Romancia - Theatre of Deception
168.	Helltrain - Death Is Coming
169.	Enochian Theory - Life ...And All It Entails
170.	Altar of Oblivion - Salvation
171.	Revenge - Scum.Collapse.Eradication
172.	Reverence - The Asthenic Ascension
173.	Beneath the Massacre - Incongruous
174.	Profetus - ...To Open the Passages in Dusk
175.	Mustasch - Sounds Like Hell, Looks Like Heaven
176.	Abigail Williams - Becoming
177.	Neurotech - Decipher Vol. 1
178.	Author & Punisher - Ursus Americanus
179.	Crystal Viper - Crimen Excepta
180.	Muknal - Muknal
181.	The 11th Hour - Lacrima Mortis
182.	Black Messiah - The Final Journey
183.	Adrenaline Mob - Omertá
184.	Death - Vivus!
185.	Waning - The Human Condition
186.	Eternal Deformity - The Beauty of Chaos
187.	Kayo Dot - Gamma Knife
188.	Yossi Sassi - Melting Clocks
189.	Soulfallen - The Promise of Hell
190.	Mastodon - Dry Bone Valley
191.	Master's Hammer - Vracejte konve na místo.
192.	Whitechapel - Whitechapel
193.	El Caco - Hatred, Love & Diagrams
194.	Bong - Mana-Yood-Sushai
195.	Black Sheep Wall - No Matter Where It Ends
196.	Desaster - The Arts of Destruction
197.	Pelican - Ataraxia/Taraxis
198.	Diskord - Dystopics
199.	Nile - At the Gate of Sethu
200.	Faal - The Clouds Are Burning

isn't that just a list of everything that has came out thus far?

but it's in order!

man that list really tells me how keeping current with metal just is not something I do any more. six or seven years ago I would have been hounding publicists for a copy of a new Aura Noir

it's pretty rad fwiw

personally the list really tells me why I don't look at RYM

rym is not exactly a beacon of good taste

some of those albums are listed multiple times in that list

that Diablo Swing Orchestra album is weird! it's like neo-swing revival metal??

finally! the album we've all been waiting for

that sounds fuckin awful

RYM's 19th best album of the year!

http://brnewsblog.brandrepublic.com/2012/07/03/topshop-sells-t-shirt-featuring-nazi-ss-logo/

I reviewed the last Diablo Swing Orchestra disc; it was okay. I'm not hopping up and down to hear the new one, though.

I finally got to listen to Captain Crimson - Dancing Madly Backwards. They name Cactus, Leaf Hound, Truth and Janey and November as influences! Something to snack on while I await the new Witchcraft... http://www.thesodashop.us/2012/07/03/introducing-captain-crimson/

Leaving for Iron Maiden in a couple hours. They're playing roughly similar setlist to 1988 tour - http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/iron-maiden/2012/marcus-amphitheater-milwaukee-wi-33df6039.html. Looking forward to it, UP THE IRONS!

I wrote about Manowar for BurningAmbulance.com.

Really solid piece there. Kudos.

The louder and more emphatically Manowar proclaim their love of metal, the more forcefully American metal fans shove them away like an embarrassing relative. In Europe, the band is capable of hosting its own multi-day festivals with multiple well-known acts opening for them; at home, they rarely perform live at all, and when they do, the shows are in mid-sized clubs. Of course, American metal fans’ antipathy to Manowar isn’t entirely due to their rhetoric and image—the music they play is highly unfashionable in the States.

embarrassing indeed.

But here's the thing - no one's ever explained to me exactly what's so embarrassing about Manowar. Their Viking songs are no more or less reverent or goofy than Amon Amarth or Unleashed; and the whole "brothers in metal" thing - I mean, how is that any dumber than Cannibal Corpse's (or Carcass's) fixation on gore and horror, or Deicide's "We hate Jesus more than anybody on earth has ever hated anything, and we're gonna tell you about it again, and again, and again, and again" routine? I mean, show me one metal band whose lyrics stand up to close examination without revealing themselves as hilariously boneheaded in one way or another, and I'll maybe come closer to understanding why people are so down on Manowar for what they do.

If we're going down this rabbit hole again, let me preemptively apologize to Doran.

I like the few songs I've previewed from this new Manowar. It's silly bombastic fun.

Uncle Slam wants you – DEAD: http://www.decibelmagazine.com/featured/the-lazarus-pit-uncle-slams-will-work-for-food/

Rate Your Music list just informed me that there's a new Candlemass album? And that apparently people are not rating our music ;)

Well, of course they aren't – Witch Mountain aren't European power metal.

Or weird Europrog or folk/pagan metal…

so j3ff, where's your list of best metal albums so far this year?