Rolling Metal Thread 2012

Top ten (twelve?) so far roughly in order:
Asphyx - Deathhammer
Mgla - With Hearts Toward None
Nachtvorst - Silence
Les Discrets - Ariettes Oubliees
Burzum - Umskiptar
Al Namrood - Kitab Al Awthan
Furia - Marzannie, Krolowej Polski
Lunar Aurora - Hoagascht
Nachtmystium - Silencing Machine
Wodensthrone - Curse
A Forest of Stars - A Shadowplay for Yesterdays
Heidevolk - Batavi

Oh and:
Deiphago - Satan Alpha Omega

There are no bad AC/DC albums. Some are (much) better than others, but there are no bad AC/DC albums. They've never made a Turbo.

Cool, I'm seeing Voivod tonight. Wasn't really sure what to expect - we're mostly going to see Doom support them, Voivod is a bonus.

Doom were pretty good too. I guess the crowd here wasn't much into 'em, aside from the two lifers at the front yelling out for 'Police Bastard'. One of the band did quip: "Is that the only song we wrote?"

Doom are pretty popular in London I think, last time I saw them here was at an all day punk/oi!/crust gig and I think they had the biggest draw of all the bands. Not sure how much that crosses over into Voivod fans but I often see people I recognise from crusty punk gigs at metal shows, so might be OK.

Unfortunately, I'm not as into this A Forest of Stars record as I was the last one.

However – you guys have to listen to Venomous Maximus! They are from Houston, but they capture the Aleister Crowley charisma and charmingly incompetent on occult rock of 80s Italian bands like Death SS. Stream or buy here: http://venomousmaximus.bandcamp.com/

I wrote a review of the new Ehnahre album that will be up on Burning Ambulance tomorrow.

I've really been enjoying the new Venomous Maximus album, too.

A while ago I asked if anybody knew of a good metal/dubstep combination. Nobody really came up with anything that matched what I meant, but I did just come across a metal song with dubstep wobble-bass, which is pretty good: "Távolból", by Hungarian vaguely-gothic band Obsidian Shell.

http://open.spotify.com/track/7DpxQG0EB50A0GGpPGRrL6

I liked their 2009 debut quite a bit, but they've done three more since then without my realizing. This song is from the new one, In Noxa Est. According to EM they're still unsigned, so you get extra indie cred for listening.

Also, this new Kiss record is pretty decent.

By the standards of a Kiss record, or by the standards of music generally?

Er, I guess both. It's an unapologetically straightforward analog hard rock record, so if that's not a kind of thing you like, it probably won't matter what standards anybody applies. But I think it's a pretty solid reminder, and I admit I'm one of the people who periodically forgets this, that Kiss was a real rock band, not just a stage show. Was and is.

I should clarify: I've never been a Kiss fan, and it has nothing to do with the makeup or anything besides the music. As a '70s hard rock band, they've never done it for me - they've got maybe two or three genuinely solid, memorable, rockin' songs, and then a whole bunch of stuff that seems to me to be way inferior to what else was going on at the time. Aerosmith, Ted Nugent, Montrose...all those bands had way better songs than Kiss, to my ear. So if it's only as good as the stuff other people like by them, I know it's not gonna work for me. That's what I meant.

Did you like Black 'n' Blue back in the day? Because Tommy Thayer seems to be driving the riffs and musical structure of a fair chunk of the new Kiss sound. If you don't like how he writes a song than I expect the new Kiss will be as worthless as old Kiss to you.

Oh, and while we're clarifying, this is the first whole Kiss record I've listened to since, er, Love Gun or so, and as best I can recall the first one I've ever said anything complimentary about. I was also never an Aerosmith, Nugent or Montrose fan. But I like AC/DC, UFO and Rainbow.

I went on Spotify and tried listening to other recent Kiss albums. Couldn't find Sonic Boom on there, but checked out Psycho Circus and Carnival of Souls, and honestly I liked the first few songs on Carnival but HATED Psycho Circus.

can't recall/be bothered to read up on why Nachtmystium shed members with such regularity but if you want to know what four (4) ex-members are doing now they are in a band called Doomsday which is pretty dece crusty BM rampage on the basis of their mini-album. also they include a cover of 'I Kill Everything I Fuck' but sadly did not cede to demands for an acoustic version

Each Blut Aus Nord album seems almost indistinguishable from the one before, to me, but I feel like they're slowly perfecting something odd and fascinating.

I kind of gave up on Blut Aus Nord a while ago, but maybe we'll meet again when they do perfect that sound.

Really digging Hellwell right now. Manilla Road + keyboards, basically.

yeah i like the Hellwell

More ebulliently sparkly female-sung gothic/symphonic metal for you: Yotangor's second album, We Speak. They're from France. The "symphonic" part here is basically just some keyboards. The "gothic" part is basically just the female singer and everybody wearing black on the cover. So it's kind of more metallic synthpop hard rock. Which is absolutely fine with me.

Any reactions to new Yakuza or Neurosis?

not heard

I'd like to hear Yakuza but I was waiting for optimal circumstances, ie I was in the mood to listen to Yakuza.

I do not have that mood.

I have reactions to both those things!

Have the Yakuza but haven't played it yet; strongly disliked the Neurosis.

you hate all neurosis albums though, right?

Hate is too strong a word. They bore me senseless, and the worship afforded them annoys me.

Have you ever seen Neurosis live? I was the same as you, thought they were kinda boring until I saw them live, now they are my fave all-time band.. But if you don't like em, you don't like em.. Most of you guys like Ghost, and I think they are terrible...

Just playing it now and it's fucking fantastic!

I saw them in 1997, opening for Clutch and Pantera. They were actually OK back then. They've gotten worse as the years have gone on.

xxp Man, this is one depressing group of jaded motherf***ers. I'm enjoying the Witchcraft so damn much, and could give a rat's ass that they dropped the 60s psych thing, as good as they were at it. Neurosis certainly had a difficult patch for a few years in 00-03, but the album with Jarboe is cool, and Given To The Rising is good. I'm keeping an open mind when I check it out today. Yakuza is an interesting listen too, need to hear it more. Officially out Oct 30 but available on Bandcamp now is Venomous Maximus - Beg Upon The Light (http://venomousmaximus.bandcamp.com/). I saw them open for Hammers of Misfortune and they had a good sludgy High On Fire thing going, but hearing the new songs more clearly, the hooks and Hammer Horror occult vibe is really coming through. Awesome!

i dont get why people think the last witchcraft was better. Its their weakest album.

last as in 3rd album not the one due out

Venomous Maximus is a blast. Bummed I miss their last show here in town, but they'll be back in December and I hope to catch them then.

The Witchcraft is fine, but other bands do the straight ahead retro-rock just as well if not better. If The Alchemist was an A, I'd give this a B-. Still better than average but didn't blow my mind. And the political lyrics do them no favors.

I wouldn't say The Alchemist is their weakest, but I'm liking Legend more so far, it's hardly generic retro. Who can do Witchcraft better than Witchcraft other than perhaps Graveyard?

That's probably my issue. I don't like Graveyard, so Witchcraft shifting their sound toward that end of the retro-rock spectrum is the last thing I wanted from them.

it's only a metal record in certain parts but the debut album by Spiders, which has the old Witchcraft guitarist and which just came out I believe, is really great. 'Fraction' is the money track on it imo

think they had a Graveyard dude in also but not anymore? w/e it's all gold

Spiders was co-formed by the drummer from Graveyard, but when Graveyard broke he decided to stick with that band full-time.

Also Troubled Horse is well worth checking out. It has guys from Witchcraft & Spiders, and they sound a little closer to what I was hoping the Witchcraft album would sound like. It's a little more lively and psych-influenced.

http://metalblade.com/troubledhorse/

speaking of Graveyard, anyone heard their new one yet? I'm into both advance tracks I've heard.

I really liked the single I heard a while back by Troubled Horse, so it's fantastic news to see the album has a release date! Love the Spiders, I reviewed it as my album of the week after the previous week's Witchcraft. A great Autumn for this kind of music. Metal Blast is being stingy with review copies/streams for independent critics/sites, so I haven't heard yet, but The Obelisk did review the new one: http://theobelisk.net/obelisk/2012/10/11/graveyard-lights-out-the-wolves-at-your-door/

Also, what do people think about these 3 records qualifying for year-end lists? (All old music, but very sparsely available until now apparently -- especially the top one.)

Coven – Worship New Gods (Shadow Kingdom)
Pagan Altar – The Time Lord (Shadow Kingdom)
Manilla Road – Invasion (Shadow Kingdom)

I need to listen to the Coven more, but both Pagan Altar and Manilla Road are early demos and formative first recordings for both bands and more historical interest than measuring up to their best. I'm more interested in the more recent reissue of Pagan Altar's first album, Judgement Of The Dead (1982).

I have a stream for the Graveyard album (they've hired an indie publicist to push it), but haven't listened to the whole thing yet. What I have heard sounds like a definite step forward from the last album, which I didn't like as much as the debut.

Liked the Spiders album OK. Reminded me of Bad Wizard at times.

Yeah, the Graveyard record is a big step forward – it's their darkest album to date, musically, and it's really nice to see that they actually had a place to go with their sound instead of just mining the same retro rock territory.

hooded menace is such a deep fucking doom record

I didn't like the Hooded Menace; the Serpentine Path record is way more my thing, like if treacle was music.

Jon look what got a BNM
http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/17132-all-we-love-we-leave-behind/

I'm no writer (nor a Converge fan) but that's a shockingly badly written review, for a high-profile site like Pitchfork.

Just finished a review of the new Malignancy album Eugenics for Burning Ambulance; it'll be up tomorrow.