Rolling Metal Thread 2012

Although if there's only one dose of a magic potion to rescue a once-soaring band from their own intentional self-induced ugliness, I'm going to vote for administering it to In This Moment, not Lacuna Coil.

New Converge sounds pretty good to these ears, but they are a band that I've only come around to very recently, so take that as you will.

XP I mean, there was certainly the pressure of following up an incredibly successful (both critically and commercially) record, but I feel that they were, at least as far as Karmacode went, genuinely trying to follow their artistic path – they had just absorbed too much nu metal, which was a novelty to them at the time, and decided to apply it to a sound that it was incompatible with.

That new In This Moment is definitely my contender for worst record of the year (which, it should be noted, I generally apply only to bands that should genuinely know better and not like Blood on the Dance Floor or whatever).

I agree with your assessment of ITM, Jeff, but look what happened, their first week sales are about to more than double those of the last record. One of the shrewdest examples of how pandering can sometimes pay off.

about a month of xposts, but siegbran if you're following, thank you for the ice ages recommendation. buried silence is hitting the spot in a major way.

and a different sound, yes. but the summoning vibe is here in full force.

I'm trying to tell myself that the In This Moment album will sound better if I ignore it for a few months and try it again. But I slapped it pretty hard in Alternative Press.

On the other hand, the new Sister Sin is great. Recommended to fans of Doro and Holy Moses.

I always enjoy Sister Sin, and am definitely looking forward to the new one.

Anyone else interested in whatever comes out of the VHÖL project (besides Nate)? It's Sigrid Sheie & John Cobbett of Hammers with Mike Scheidt of Yob & Aesop Dekker on drums. I'm bummed I can't make it to Fall Into Darkness to see them play.

anybody wants to completely destroy me at the songpop game on facebook I miss about half the metal questions, to my lasting shame.

oh i think viceroy might accept that challenge. He's always bugging me to play him at it.

lol I just bugged you to play me at it

strange i didn't get a request. I've never played it. is it just a 1 vs 1 thing or a group of strangers?

you play one on one - a song plays, you have four options (sometimes it's the band name, sometimes the song title) and your score gets lower the longer you take to get it right. Five q's per round. Earn enough "coins" and you can buy new playlists. I'm an old point-and-shoot video game player who loves quizzes so I am helpless before this thing even though I'm kinda bad under pressure & real creaky so I guess wrong on songs I actually know but it's ridiculously fun

Well I am utterly useless at these things but if you cant find someone else to play who would give you a better challenge then hit me up!

about a month of xposts, but siegbran if you're following, thank you for the ice ages recommendation. buried silence is hitting the spot in a major way.

and a different sound, yes. but the summoning vibe is here in full force.

What I don't understand is how Ice Ages seem to be completely ignored by the industrial/EBM scene. I guess being on a metal label + taking a leasurely six years between albums are pretty effective career killers.

Has anyone else heard the new album by Goat, called World Music? African beats, krautrock, psychedelic rock, and some of the wickedest wah-wah you'll hear. From Sweden, of course. That record's left me floored. I wrote about it at MSN:

http://social.entertainment.msn.com/music/blogs/headbang-blogpost.aspx?post=23c13964-a164-4396-a7cc-ca0c2761b653

Also, Spiders' debut album Flash Point, which I'd been excitedly waiting for over the past 12 months, is every bit as good as I'd hoped. Out of all the Swedish retro stuff that's come out this year (still waiting on Graveyard and Year of the Goat), this album has more of a rock 'n' roll feel, and I'd say right now it's the best of the lot. It's out in early October on Crusher Records.

Yeah, I have been listening to Goat a lot prior to the Supersonic show. Looking forward to it a lot.

Fall into Darkness 2012 fest cat out of the bag.

http://www.wweek.com/portland/blog-29054-exclusive_fall_into_darkness_2012_unveils_lineup.html

And as Erik mentioned upthread, secret band is VHÖL (Cobbett, Aesop, Sigrid, Scheidt).

I will totally see you on Songpop. My weakness is that I try really hard to answer as fast as possible, leading me to miss all sorts of things that I identify right as my finger is hitting the wrong button.

I laffed when both glenn and I, the two biggest Nightwish stans I know, got a Nightwish question

And then he proceeded to beat me, in every genre, over and over again...

if you know current chart pop I am pathetic in that one

I just whet my appetite on songpop today and now it appears that the game is trying to sell me coins in order to continue. Is this a pay to play thing or am I missing something?

i never got an invite :( maybe another time

oh is it pay to play? fuck that

Stoked to hear the Goat album, and really can't wait for Spiders!

I saw Chuck's excellent piece in SPIN about Witch Mountain, Royal Thunder, Christian Mistress, etc.. Nice job!

Excited to see Witch Mountain is coming back to Chicago Oct 22 with Castle! An ad in Decibel said Royal Thunder is also on that tour. But since they're already playing Beat Kitchen on Sep 14, not sure if they'll be back on that Oct 22 date.

You can ignore all the pay stuff in Songpop. I do not pay, and yet I play.

I saw Chuck's excellent piece in SPIN about Witch Mountain, Royal Thunder, Christian Mistress, etc.. Nice job!

Thanks! I haven't actually seen it yet, though -- need to go downtown to buy a copy. Wish magazines still sent out comp copies like in the old days. (Also hope it runs on line, eventually. But probably first they have to put it on an app, or whatever magazines do these days.)

I had a subscriber scan it for me. Turned out great. Thanks again Chuck. Sincerely, you gave Uta and I the best interviews we've yet received. You've obviously done this before ;)

I'm totally getting into this new ambient Yiddish pagan tech-death genre djentl. Meshugganyr, etc.

I love the Streisand covers compilation album Djlentl

And yes we will be in Chicago, but not with Royal Thunder. They asked to be on our tour, then opted out to tour with Baroness... which is obviously no longer happening.

xpost - it's a good thing that sound originated in Sweden because everyone knows that Djentlemen prefer blondes.

Also, too few bands (industrial or metal) seem to be aware of the instant awesomeness induced by HUGE THUNDERING DRUMS.

this is very true. one of my favorite things about 80s rap/house/freestyle/etc. as well.

I've said it for years, (and I might be a bit biased) but loud drums on a recording give things more power. It'll make things rock a bit harder, sound heavier.. its just godamn better!!

The problem is that big loud drums don't leave a lot of room for the rest of the music. With Summoning/Ice Ages everything else is designed to maximize the impact of that massive reverbed drum sound - they slow the songs down to well below normal rock/metal tempi, use very sparse arrangements, etc. I guess the reason few rock bands do this is that in the group dynamic of most bands it's rare for everyone to take a back seat and play completely subservient to the drummer.

Or rather, drummers are rarely the main songwriters.

http://www.terrorizer.com/blog1.php/2012/08/24/the-terrorizer-friday-death-metal-top-15

I didn't think much of the big Darkness single a few years back, and didn't investigate further, and I only queued up their cover of Radiohead's "Street Spirit (Fade Out)" in the expectation that it would be entertainingly awful, but holy crap, I like it! Apart from the vocals (well, and a solo not up to Schenker's gold standard) it sounds almost like it could've been a lost track from UFO's "Obsession." On Spotify.

I like the cover too, actually. Even though I do like Radiohead, I like it even better when their pomposity gets knocked down a level or two and what better way than with a hair metal cover? The rest of the album is pretty weak though.

My favorite Radiohead cover is Jupiter by Cave In. Actually I like that better than any Radiohead.

Why are we talking about Radiohead on the metal thread?! This is supposed to be a safe haven!

http://krallice.bandcamp.com/

new album!

Like every Krallice record, it takes a while to settle in, but this is another great one. Again, the last track is the highlight. They have a real knack for that.

This month's roundup of new metal albums. (10 reviewed by me, 5 by two other guys, per usual.)

http://www.rhapsody.com/blog/2012/08/top-15-metal-albums-august-2012

That Unisonic album is great fun. That, Sabaton, and DragonForce have been my most-played power metal albums of the year.

Nice write-ups as usual xhukx, but I have to admit I just had this running through my head:

"No, no, no. No, no..."CUH-ven" sounds like "oven", man. And that's just... it doesn't work."

Maybe we should call them "Coe-ven" to differentiate them from Jinx Dawson's band.

xp Yeah, I know. But it reads better on paper. I couldn't resist.