Rolling Metal Thread 2012

Mutilation Rites were pretty cool, I'd never really checked em out before.. The drummer is a beast, literally! hits so hard!

i think this is one of the things i started picking up on more. the drum production on the album seems a little boomy to me, it took a while to hear more of the beastiness

Total beast.. He's got long prematuring grey hair, a big beard, plays with his shirt off and is hairy all over... all beasty qualities, no?

AND.. he does the right thing and beats the shit out of his drums like they owe him money.. which I complimented him on and he responded, "THEY DO!!"

On the very much non-girly-metal front, I'm enjoying the new Varg album, innocuously titled Guten Tag. Melodic German death metal with traces of pagan folk-melody lilt. Like, maybe, Wolfchant without the goofiness. Or Kreator if they'd spent a little more time listening to Big Country.

bagpipes then?

Sadly no, not that much time. But a little of that emotional epicness instead of pure thrash.

On the experimental front, I didn't find the new Cloak of Altering that interesting (and I didn't like the last Gnaw Their Tongues that much, either), but I'm liking this extremely bracing and spastic self-titled debut album by Stagnant Waters. Even the parts that sound like saxophones getting run over by tanks, and the parts that kind of sound like Xasthur doing Philip Glass.

Sigh. http://www.thegauntlet.com/article/485/26617/SIX-FEET-UNDERs-Chris-Barnes-Punches-CATTLE-DECAPITATIONs-Travis-Ryan

Given ILM's strong affinity for doom, I'm surprised I haven't seen any chat about Pale Divine. It took hearing them in my favorite liquor store (West Lakeview Liquors in Chicago) while picking up some Founders Backwoods Bastard to remind me to dig into 'em. I've been enjoying all four albums, the most recent of which, Painted Windows Black, came out in March:

http://shadowkingdomrecords.bandcamp.com/album/painted-windows-black

I saw that Entombed is working on a new album and realized I never listened to Serpent Saints: The Ten Amendments (2007). It's not bad, but hopefully the new one will see them rejuvenated. Also exhumed some old Grave and Dismember. Is there any Dismember from recent years worth hearing? I like Like An Everflowing Stream (1991) and to some extent Massive Killing Capacity (1995).

I don't think there are any bad Grave or Dismember albums. They're Motorhead-esque in that regard: Every album has at least four or five great songs. (Weirdly, I don't feel the same way about Unleashed - their stuff always bores me.)

I'm liking this trend, reissues on Bandcamp!

http://earache.bandcamp.com/album/scum-full-dynamic-range-2012-edition-3
http://earache.bandcamp.com/album/from-enslavement-to-obliteration-full-dynamic-range-2012-edition
http://earache.bandcamp.com/album/slaughter-of-the-soul
http://shadowkingdomrecords.bandcamp.com/album/judgement-of-the-dead
http://shadowkingdomrecords.bandcamp.com/album/lords-of-hypocrisy
http://shadowkingdomrecords.bandcamp.com/album/mythical-magical

yesss

Yeah, it's a really cool idea, although I'm still not to the point where I'm willing to shell out more than $10 for a digital copy of anything. I know I'm in the minority on that point though. But, hell, a digital copy is preferrable to getting fucked over on ordering a physical album through bandcamp. Won't be making that mistake again.

I have no idea what's different/better about the "full dynamic range" versions of the first two Napalm Death records. They sound exactly the same - and honestly, those songs are best heard on a third-generation cassette dub anyway.

Scum (180 gram 45 rpm half speed masters by Stan Ricker)

I've ordered CDs through Bandcamp without any problem. Just like Amazon resellers, it just depends on who you're dealing with. Maybe Bandcamp needs to have an Amazon like feedback rating system.

I do hesitate to pay more than $10 too, especially when a hard copy of a reissue might have interesting packaging and liner notes. But it's a positive step to at least have the lossless files available.

Yeah, I can see it being hit and miss. I'm just mostly annoyed because I ordered the new Krallice directly from the band and never got it. Nor have they answered my five emails asking what happened. I'm going to have to pony up another $15-18 to buy it AGAIN. But at this point, I'm pretty much tempted to say "fuck Krallice" and give up on 'em. I'm sure the logistics of releasing your own records can be a pain in the ass, but I'm pissed that they took my money and won't even offer a half-assed excuse.

those songs are best heard on a third-generation cassette dub anyway

That's how I heard Scum for the first time!

I'm sure the logistics of releasing your own records can be a pain in the ass, but I'm pissed that they took my money and won't even offer a half-assed excuse.

Maybe they got overwhelmed and never put the mechanisms in place to handle the volume of orders. Not the first time for musicians to crumble after soliciting their fans' direct involvement in projects - didn't that Animal Collective guy make a mess of his Kickstarter recently?

But on Krallice specifically: it's not as if they're a mega-selling band, but they spread themselves very thin, don't they? How many bands is Colin Marston either in or producing? I'm sure Mick Barr et al are similarly prolific. Maybe take a break from that and fill some orders for a while, yeah?

Go w/ God and torrent at will, jvc

http://www.metalstorm.net/bands/albums_top.php?album_style=Thrash

I was poking around for thrash metal lists and this one had some interesting entries I hadn't heard:
Paradox - Heresy (1989)
Toxik - Think This (1989) & World Circus (1987)
Kat - Oddech Wymarlych Swiatów (1987)
Forbidden - Twisted Into Form (1990)
Annihilator - Never, Neverland (1990)
Sabbat - Dreamweaver (1989)
Vio-lence - Eternal Nightmare (1988)

Will start listening on the way to work.

Speaking of great obscure thrash, here's my Lazarus Pit on Believer's Sanity Obscure: http://t.co/9r1oJNhZ

Forbidden's Twisted Into Form is not as good as Forbidden Evil, the first record.. and Vio-lence's Eternal Nightmare is essential!!!! my favorite thrash metal record, hands down!

Coincidentally, I wrote a bit about Sacrifice's Forward to Termination, a Canadian thrash classic that's in my opinion Decibel Hall of Fame-worthy.

http://social.entertainment.msn.com/music/blogs/headbang-blogpost.aspx?post=daf14e1f-ba04-4154-a68a-e62e93dcd6e1

I reviewed the new Yakuza for Burning Ambulance; I like it more than you guys, it seems.

I meant to ask, does Decibel send the special issue with Top 100 Death Metal albums to subscribers or no? If I have to order it, I'll also get their Thrash special and find out what they were thinking in placing Holy Terror - Mind Wars (1988) at #5. Also surprised that Coroner's Punishment For Decadence, Mental Vortex and Grin didn't make the list, and that Seasons In The Abyss was only #44.

I've been listening to Vio-lence and many others, and need more time with them. However I think in both lists there is a tendency to overrate some of the more obscure albums, because it is, at least for a while, more interesting to listen to something that's kind of new to our ears than what we've been familiar with for 22+ years.

Others I'm listening to from the list:
#9 Dark Angel - Darkness Descends (1986)
#24 Sabbat - History of a Time to Come (1988)
#25 Blind Illusion - The Sane Asylum (1988)
#26 Exhorder - Slaughter in the Vatican (1990)
#30 Anacrusis - Reason (1990)
#32 Carnivore - Carnivore (1985)
#38 Believer - Sanity Obscure (1990)
#39 Sacrifice - Forward to Termination (1987)
#41 Death Angel - The Ultra-Violence (1987)
#43 Infernäl Mäjesty - None Shall Defy (1987)
#45 Sadus - Illusions (1988)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=xnS80YI7MzQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnS80YI7MzQ

Neurosis: Metal for 10-year-olds.

Off to see Witch Mountain.

nice!!

have fun, mane

Holy shit, this new Voivod song sounds like a leftover from Dimension Hatross.

The new Voivod material is really strong live so I'm glad to hear that. Very much looking forward to that album (even if the cover art is a bit shite; sorry, Away, but it is).

The last few albums haven't been really strong in the cover art department. But I'm really looking forward to the new one despite the art.

Witch Mountain were absolutely killer last night. Castle was really good, too (as was the first local opener - it was a good night of music), but Nate & company were firing on all cylinders. Definitely helped that the crowd was really into it, hooting and hollering and clapping like mad between songs.

I also got to meet xhuxk for the first time, which was very cool.

All in all a great night, even though my car died and I needed AAA to help me get back to Dallas.

The local openers that really impressed me were Unmothered. You can check them out here if you're curious:
http://unmothered.bandcamp.com/

castle were definitely v. good at their thing, couldn't decide how much i was into their thing

That kid is amazing.. he knows his shit!!

xp I just recently heard Voivod's self-titled from 2003, which is not bad. Have not yet heard Infini (2009) where they assembled guitar parts recorded by Piggy before his death. I was talking about the Decibel thrash list before, which listed Killing Technology (1987) in the top ten and War And Pain (1984) lower down, but no mention of Dimension Hatröss (1988), Nothingface (1989) or Angel Rat (1991). Maybe they were considered too proggy to be thrash?

Yeah, they shed the thrash tag once and for all with Hatross.

aw that kid is cool

Another great installment of "Mixtarum Metallum": http://www.popmatters.com/pm/tools/full/164888

Two albums I didn't know about were Hellwell - Beyond The Boundaries Of Sin with Mark Shelton of Manilla Road, and Indesinence — Vessels of Light and Decay, recorded and mixed by Greg Chandler from Esoteric. Also happy to see Ufomammut, Spiders, Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell and Blues Pills covered.

The Indesinence is pretty good, but yeah, that article really made me want to check out that Hellwell.

Don't sleep on the Oak Pantheon record either. Really good.

I wish I liked the Hellwell album more. And the Oak Pantheon album is very good.

Indesinence is really miserable, and they do a good job at it, but I have zero recollection of it even after listening to it a bunch to review it.

huh oak pantheon is from mpls!

New Kowloon Walled City..... CRUCHING!!!!
http://www.npr.org/blogs/allsongs/2012/11/07/164604989/song-premiere-kowloon-walled-city-cornerstone

Is that like a mix between crushing and crunching?