Rolling Metal Thread 2012

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?

This year I was totally going to write down which albums I loved to make it easier to compile a list at the end of the year… And then I didn't.

so do it now!

In no particular order (also, I love the Baroness and Torche records, but I'm not sure they are metal any longer):

Paradise Lost - Tragic Idol
Dawnbringer - Into the Lair of the Sun God
Meshuggah - Koloss
Grand Magus - The Hunt
Gojira - L'enfant sauvage
Christian Mistress - Possession
Ihsahn - Eremita
Barren Earth - The Devil's Resolve
Witch Mountain - Cauldron of the Wild
Pallbearer - Sorrow and Extinction
Royal Thunder - CVI
Liberteer - Better to Die on Your Feet Than Live on Your Knees
Worm Ouroboros - Come The Thaw
Alcest - Les Voyages De L'Âme
Les Discrets - Ariettes oubliées...
Asphyx - Deathhammer
Cannibal Corpse - Torture
Katatonia - Dead End Kings
Jeff Loomis - Plains of Oblivion
Horisont - Second Assault
Occultation - Three and Seven
Nachtmystium - Silencing Machine
Testament - Dark Roots of Earth

But what the hell, let's include these:

The Devils Blood - The Thousandfold Epicentre (by US release date)
Baroness - Yellow and Green
Torche - Harmonicraft

Metall is the most honest genre

My top 12 of 2012, so far:

Baroness, Yellow & Green
Cannibal Corpse, Torture
Emmure, Slave to the Game
Gojira, L'Enfant Sauvage
Grand Magus, The Hunt
Job for a Cowboy, Demonocracy
Kreator, Phantom Antichrist
Manowar, The Lord of Steel
Napalm Death, Utilitarian
Steelwing, Zone of Alienation
Whitechapel, s/t
Whourkr, 4247 Snare Drums

Manowar certainly are no more silly than Alice Cooper, who opened for Iron Maiden and was well received. I could see them opening for Maiden.

How was the show?

Solid lists, Jeff and Phil. Though I'm still not feeling the Paradise Lost album much, and Emmure, well, their gimmick is smarter than people give them credit for, but I still find them unbearable. Katatonia is growing on me, but I still think it's their least consistent album in a very long time, perhaps ever.

I posted my own January-June highlights at MSN earlier this week:
http://social.entertainment.msn.com/music/blogs/headbang-blogpost.aspx?post=2ed01d65-6407-462b-b3be-19923c4ac2ca

Yeah, I saw that – I was considering putting Accept on my list, but I'm not sure how often I'm going to revisit that one. And as my Decibel review indicated, I still don't understand the appeal of Lamb of God's pure American mediocrity.

First time I saw Iron Maiden. Great to see them play plenty of songs from 80-84 era that I grew up with. Sound could have been better -- loud but muddy, hard to discern which of the three (!) guitarists were playing what. Bruce D jumps around like he's frickin' 25. I'm not too into these big venues though, I much preferred the Elder show in a small room with 35 people.

Bruce jumps around a little too much for his own good – he fell off the drum riser onto his head at the Dance of Death show I saw.

I'm sorry the sound was muddy. I wonder how much was venue or band. I'm seeing Maiden in August for the first time in 25 or so years, and am really excited by the setlists that have been making the rounds.

I'm a small room show guy too. This will be my first thousands and thousands of people show in 15 or 20 years.

listening to new baroness for the first time right now. just finishing yellow but WOW.

The new Lamb of God goes on some interesting tangents, and I don't consider them mediocre, but I just don't need anything beyond Palaces and Ashes, you know what I mean?

Most intriguing new album in a while for me: Arbor's The Plutonian Shore. Black Metal, I guess, but with enthusiasm and real dynamics. Wolves in the Garage?

And Ankhagram are tiding me over on breathy funeral doom until the new Evoken comes out.

And provisional approval for Kråke, Thormesis, Uncertain, Bend the Sky and Natan. And the Agalloch "EP". And old Asrai and Xandria albums.

The brothers in metal thing is dumb.. its just dumb.

Trying to be the loudest band in the world. dumb! trying to be the fasted drummer, loudest screamer.. all that shit they tried to do to get notice and in the Guiness book years ago.. fucking lame! Only a pretentious prickface would try to do any of those things. Bands with real heart don't try and do those things, they just are..

Viking songs? from an American Band? lame!!! What the fuck do they know about Vikings?

Manowar to me is the very reason metal gets clowned on for being ridiculous, overly macho, homo-erotic, war-mongering and just not smart.. For some, Metal are burnouts, or dumb jocks that got kicked off the team for bad grades, and they fall into the latter.. They cover all the stereotypes, imo.

And I think Alice Cooper is hella silly, too. His music was never cool to me, certainly nothing heavy, and the theatrics seem to try and make up for lack of musical integrity..

back when all i knew about manowar was that they were 'the world's loudest band' (and i didn't really listen to any metal then) i listened to them once to test that claim and it was the most embarrassing thing ever. AND not the loudest.

I'm with you re: Manowar, Sean, but you just might want to reconsider Alice Cooper.

I've tried with Alice, it ain't happenin... lol!

Mgła With Hearts Toward None is probably my pick of the year so far. Somewhere in between Nachtmystium, Drudkh and Deathspell Omega, very well produced, great songwriting, not a weak riff to be found and all played with max intensity.

I posted my own January-June highlights at MSN earlier this week

I like the Asphyx album, for sure, I was singing its praises when it came out. I forgot to include it when singling out the better death metal releases, but in the end it won't make the cut on my EOY list come December anyway. Nile just might, I love the new one.

So I was poking around an antique mall in Bay City, Michigan the other day and stumbled across this, for $20:

http://i999.photobucket.com/albums/af118/jon830/IMAG2522.jpg