Rolling Metal Thread 2012

Actually, I skipped Kamelot because having dinner at home with my wife sounded like more fun. Nightwish were really good, though, and I took one of the best pictures I've ever taken at any show by anybody tonight. Stop by RoadrunnerRecords.com on Monday to see it, and a bunch more.

Really digging the NME Unholy Death 2cd reissue. Always loved these guys and their punkier Venom vibe. Punkier than Warfare even. The demo tracks are kind of reminding me of Amebix actually.

No disrespect to anybody's dinner, but I'm here watching Kamelot, and they're terrific.

This amuses me...

http://a2.ec-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/153/913efcd1a83949e8954cbaa3332fa533/l.jpg

Yeah, that was a very good show. I never saw Nightwish live with Tarja, so I can't do the obvious era comparison, but I thought the whole thing, both Kamelot and Nightwish, was tremendous. Well worth the annoying 1hr drive to Worcester, for which my standards and expectations have definitely risen over the years...

I'm pleasantly excited to hear the new Sabbath Assembly record. They were a late addition to the YOB/Norska bill on Saturday and I was seriously impressed. This new lineup hasn't played out much (if at all - might have been their first gig), but you would bever know. Wonderful harmonies, and I like the more prevalent 60s psych touches in the sound. They didn't have any copies of the new album to sell, unfortunately.

New Sabbath Assembly is rad, a little more low-key than the first one but that's not a bad thing.

Didn't like the first one. Dunno if I'll bother with new one

Really excited for the new Enslaved after hearing "Veilburner" now, even though I liked "Thoughts Like Hammers" more.

I don't know if this has been discussed elsewhere, but it was entertaining:

http://www.maximumfun.org/judge-john-hodgman/judge-john-hodgman-episode-73-gavelbangers-ball

J0hn D is the expert witness.

Hilarious stuff.

As I Lay Dying: good book.

― Hamster of Legend (J3ff T.), Monday, September 10, 2012 4:48 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

Backing up a little bit, I'm relistening to this Huntress album and finding it quite likable. I get why her voice might turn people off and, yeah, she is hella raw (I mean obviously not super-trained or pro or anything) but I really can't let that spoil because, hello, a lot of lauded male metal singers I like are just as raw and untrained. I think it actually adds a roughness to the songs, I wouldn't want to hear a classically trained European power metal diva over this stuff. That said, I can totally see how her screech might be off-putting. SMDH at all the people out there basing their critiques of this band (positive or negative) on Janus' supposed past or looks or w/e.

I put on a show for Huntress on short notice--and way before the hype. They were a solid live band. Nothing new, but nothing to complain about either.

Yeah, I mean they aren't going to make my year-end list or anything, but its a nice album to throw on after 3 Inches of Blood (as Phil mentioned earlier).

Is this a joke I'm missing out on? Jill Janus is a trained opera singer. Not to say she isn't hard to listen to at times, as is some opera!

I began singing opera at the age of 10. I was born with a four-octave coloratura soprano range. Basically, the kind of high pitched voice that breaks glass in cartoons! [My start in opera] lead to rock bands in high school and ultimately metal.

Well I can't go see Neurosis and Godflesh in London, but I'll take Neurosis and Yob in Oakland!!

I didn't know that about Janus! But, I'll be honest.. it doesn't come through on this album. Maybe live. But then I don't know much about opera. Foot is firmly inserted in mouth.

Neurosis and Godflesh

What? Godflesh?!

We are actually taking a night off on our US tour to see Neurosis, Voivod, and YOB in Oakland. What a stunning lineup!

Is that show actually happening? It's not on the Fox Theater website.

Yeah I hope Godflesh play in the U.S. at some point.

xp Don't mean to call you out re Janus, was just surprised. However, despite how she talks about all she does to prepare and protect her voice, it is hard to tell, as she obviously roughs it up when she sings and it doesn't sound all that natural for her. I read somewhere she was supposed to have been not only trained since 10, but a successful opera star of some renown, but that could have just been PR hyperbole bs.

New Menace Ruine is some really rad noise at the junction of female-fronted psychedelic occult rock, shoegaze, and dark ambient, but hell if I know why Profound Lore is putting it out.

I am really annoyed that Fell Voices, Ash Borer, Menace Ruine, Servile Sect, Sutekh Hexen are playing in Oakland on a Thursday night. If this was anywhere in the city (or a Fri/Sat) I would so be there.

I really like the one tune (Salamandra) I've heard of the new Menace Ruine. I figure they're weird and Canadian and that combo is enough for Profound Lore. He's put out some similarly not crushingly heavy stuff before, like the last Angelic Process record, or the last few Caïna records.

xp Don't mean to call you out re Janus, was just surprised. However, despite how she talks about all she does to prepare and protect her voice, it is hard to tell, as she obviously roughs it up when she sings and it doesn't sound all that natural for her. I read somewhere she was supposed to have been not only trained since 10, but a successful opera star of some renown, but that could have just been PR hyperbole bs.

Don't worry, I don't feel like you were calling me out, I was just shocked to learn that. I feel bad for pigeonholing, I just didn't really hear her in that way.

Yeah I just got that Menace Ruine too. Looking forward to their show here next week. Also spinning the new Atriarch, Eight Bells, Ash Borer, and finally got the Author & Punisher. Great week for new music.

saw huntress a while ago and thought that they were awful

thx to a temp money shortage, missed out on the hydrahead $100 deal for 40 cds and 4 vinyl and (i dont care, i have closets full of this shit) 40 posters. pissed. still bought 20 cds plus posters i will prob throw away for $40

I interviewed the guitarist from Witch Cross, a very early Roadrunner band whose one album, 1984's Fit For Fight, is being reissued by Hells Headbangers. Click the link just for the video.

Witch Cross reissue? Fuck yeah.

80s metal reissues are my fucking kryptonite. I am constantly loading up a shopping cart at Shadow Kingdom and then having to talk myself out of the items in it one at a time

Pagan Altar reissues man. You know you need them.

they have been in the cart several times, it's just a matter of time really

I saw Pagan Altar in a small room at Roadburn. What's their best (ie doomy-est) album?

Judgment of the Dead AKA Vol. 1. Recorded in 1982. The Time Lord has some earlier version of the same songs, but JOTD is kinda definitive. Lots of people liked their two newer ones but they didn't quite leave a mark for me.

i think they got better as they went on myself

Wait, you don't think their first EP was the best? That's uncharacteristic of you.

Clearly a poll is called for.

Man, my Krallice album still hasn't shown up yet.

Neither has mine! That might have something to do with the fact that I never ordered it…

The new Witchcraft is just fine.

I wish it were more than that, but alas, it is not to be.

That sounds disappointing.

its as good as the previous 2

Legend a good retro-rock record. It just doesn't have that "lost album from 1971" vibe that The ALchemist did. It's more riffs, less psych, and will likely triple their fanbase.

Their first EP was the best.

The demo before the first EP was best. But it only sounded right on the blood and semen splattered shellac hand lathed by the singer in a limited edition of 2 copies mastered for 78 rpm.

It's actually my least favorite of their albums. The big-riff style doesn't work for them nearly as well as the jazzy-psych-blues thing they were doing, and their new interest in political lyrics is a big turnoff.

political lyrics

Yeah, this sounds ever more disappointing. In a list of things I do not want from a band like Witchcraft, that would be fairly high up there.

awww, jeez. you guys are bumming me out for real. I loved the alchemist so freakin much.

and the "jazzy-psych-blues" thing was pretty key. I like the 70s as much as the next guy but a little 60s is nice sometimes too.