Rolling Metal Thread 2009

What did you think of the 2nd half of the Irepress?

I'm perfectly fine with it, sidestepping the heavy math stuff a little bit in favour of some Krautrock/Boards of Canada/King Crimson noodling.

is anybody even remotely considering the scion rockfest in atlanta this weekend? it's just a three-hour drive for me, and wow wotta lineup, but it seems to have potential for being a clusterfuck of apocalyptic proportions.

I would love to be there for it, but I wasn't going to pay for a flight down to Atlanta for a festival that I had about a 1% chance of actually getting into.

I'm going to try hard to be there.

OUTDOOR STAGE
1:00-1:40pm Kylesa
2:00-2:40pm Torche
3:00-3:40pm Baroness
4:00-4:50pm Boris
5:10-5:40pm Pig Destroyer
6:00-7:00pm High On Fire
7:30pm-9:00pm Neurosis
9:30pm-11:00pm Mastodon

INDOOR STAGE #1
1:10pm-1:55pm Evil Army
2:15pm-2:40pm Trash Talk
3:00pm-3:45pm Skeletonwitch
4:10pm-5:00pm Toxic Holocaust
5:20pm-6:05pm Warbringer
6:30pm-7:30pm Septic Flesh
8:30pm-9:30pm Cryptopsy
11:00pm-12:00am Converge

INDOOR STAGE #2
1:15pm-2:00pm Apocalyptic Visions
2:20pm-3:05pm Salome
3:25pm-4:10pm US Christmas
4:30pm-5:15pm Withered
5:35pm-6:25pm Krallice
6:45pm-7:45pm Wolves In The Throne Room
8:15pm-9:15pm Nachtmystium
10:25pm-11:25pm 1349

INDOOR STAGE #3
1:00pm-1:35pm Gaylord
1:55pm-2:30pm Suidakra
2:50pm-3:35pm Alestorm
3:55pm-4:40pm A Storm Of Light
5:00pm-5:45pm Harvey Milk
6:05pm-6:50pm Rwake
7:20pm-8:05pm Tyr
8:45pm-9:30pm Coalese
10:00pm-11:00pm Zoroaster

I could just camp out at the Outdoor stage all day and be thrilled. But that would mean missing Harvey Milk. And Krallice. And Nachtmystium. And Wolves in the Throne Room. And Toxic Holocaust. And Converge. And Skeletonwitch. Fuck it, maybe its a good thing I'm not going to be there.

yeah, that outdoor stage really hits a sweet spot with me. and then harvey milk! and nachtmystium! and converge! withered, too. and a bunch more i'd be happy to see.

but god the crowd.

Man, that show would be so much fun, but at the same time, I know I'd be devastated about missing several bands. Too many great bands in a single day! Harvey Milk on at the same time as Krallice and Pig Destroyer, 1349 on at the same time as Mastodon, Converge, and Zoroaster...so cruel!

So is that Lamb of God worth $9.99?

If you already like Lamb of God, yeah. I like the album (there are five or so songs that really knock me out), but still think the band played it a bit too safe on this one. They're starting to plagiarize themselves a little bit.

I've been kind of on the fence with 'em, thats why I asked. Wondered if this would be the one to push me over to their side.

^^^ given that lineup, it really oughtta be two days - if not 4. unbelievable cruelty in the decision making. start w kylesa, stick around for torshay, wander on over to skeletonwitch (debate baroness while buying beer, but decide against), maybe check out early to catch some US christmas?, but probably just stick around for toxic holocaust, leave early & run over to harvey milk, bum about pig destroyer getting lost in the shuffle, leave early and run over to krallice, (hold leave early and run over to HoF as backup) but stick around for nachtmystium. kill time til zoroaster. given the lines, probably couldn't even make it into half that stuff anyway.

Yeah, forgot about wanting to see US Christmas. Curious to see how they translate live.

Heh, guess I should have just headed over to PopMatters earlier this morning to get your thoughts Adrien!

Ha, yeah, I don't plug shamelessly enough. But to reiterate, if Lamb of God hasn't won you over yet, I doubt that the new one will. Ashes of the Wake is still your best bet.

Looking forward to seeing them again in April...

Yeah, that's the thing. I thought Ashes of the Wake was decent, but the 2 or 3 tracks I heard off Sacrament didn't do much for me at all - so I never listened to the whole thing.

http://www.nme.com/reviews/lamb-of-god/10140

That's almost as weird as the thought of Pitchfork reviewing Lamb of God.

Is it a sign that Lamb Of God are past it? I hated their last album. I despised Pantera so I hate it when a band imitates them. I did enjoy their previous albums though. But that last one really put me off.

What, NME reviewing it at all? It's not like a lead review or anything, they're pretty big over here - this is highly uh.jpg tho

Virginia’s Lamb Of God remain masters of the subgenre called metalcore. Which itself is an offshoot of a thing called the new wave of American metal, which rejects oafish traditionalism and strives to innovate.

Yeah, if there's one thing Lamb of God has nothing to do with, it's innovation. Not that that's a bad thing of course, they and their fans seem content with being predictable.

who doesn't love oafish traditionalism?

People who write articles slagging off Manowar?

or ILM?

it warms my heart that other people loathe pantera as much as i do

i liked pantera when i was a youngin', but i can see why people hate them. they were a unique voice at one time. they sound worse in retrospect thanks to all of the shitty bands they influenced.

Nah, Vulgar Display is still a flat-out classic.

I should listen again - I doubt I've heard it in 10 years. I never had any use for the albums that followed.

Yeah, I think Anselmo's work with Down has aged a lot better than post-92 Pantera.

I'll rep for Pantera. I listened to Reinventing the Steel not even a week ago, and at least half its tracks hold up just fine. But I fucking hate Down. And the less said about anything else the man's ever done (Arson Anthem, his various idiotic black metal projects, etc.) the better.

I'm back from vacation! Not that anyone cares. Got a bunch of stuff in the mail, including new Samael, which is supposedly a return to their black metal roots, although I haven't listened to it yet. Also got a CD by a band called Mothra, who appropriately sound a lot like Gojira.

Also something from Persona Non Grata, who are foofy prog metal, but their vocalist has some serious pipes, like Matt Barlow range.

^^^
Haha, nice screen name.

It would be great if Mothra split the difference between Gojira and Rodan.

There's a Rodan? I knew there was a Gigan...

Rodan was one of those Slint-y mathrock mid-90s things.

There is a King Geedorah (misspelling on purpose) too - one of MF Doom's pseudonyms.

Rodan fucking ruled. Rusty is a terrific album.

This may be of interest to certain people on this thread:

http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/news/THE-50-GREATEST-METAL-FRONTMEN-OF-ALL-TIME-19861.aspx

Roadrunner disputes the Metal Edge list!

I mean, not that I agree with all of it, but I think we should start a blog war.

can anyone recommend seeing witch live? apparently j. mascis is the drummer

i recommend seeing witch live and coming back here and telling us if it was worth it

Can anyone recommend some good histories of metal music? Ideally something more historical/academic that I could cite when discussing metal history?

Ian Christe's Sound of the Beast is really good, and Albert Mudrian's Choosing Death is a cool history of grind/death metal.

Deena Weinstein's Heavy Metal: The Music and its Culture is a superb examination of the culture of the genre as a whole.

I have yet to get Daniel Ekeroth's Swedish Death Metal, but everyone's saying it's great.

Back to the music...the new Mantic Ritual is great fun. Nothing but generic thrash, but I have a real soft spot for generic thrash. This is right up there with Merciless Death, in my opinion, simple and catchy. Thanks to Palmerston for reminding me to spin this one.

i recommend seeing witch live and coming back here and telling us if it was worth it

― That's not just me saying that, that's the Pentagon. (contenderizer), Friday, February 27, 2009 12:35 AM

ha i watched a couple clips on youtube, seems pretty stoner doomy. i can get in free so i might just go anyway. also this local band vincent black shadow is opening and they're pretty good metal/punk. also earthless

^ have a VBS LP from 2005 (or so?) that's pretty good. metal punk like the stooges. plus love earthless. and you get in free? what's the hold up?

just wanted to see if anyone knew about witch

there's another vbs in canada http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Vincent_Black_Shadow. wonder who got the name first

Go for Earthless. They are amazing live.

Alright, the new Lamb of God is definitely a step in the right direction. Can't say its quite worth the glowing praise of The Quietus review ("Simply put, the most exciting metal record in the last ten or so years."), but I'm enjoying it.

man, the blut aus nord is KILLER. I wish the longest track on it went on forever. and I found it on youtube! compressed as all hell but hey...

the melodic guitar leads on this are just fantastic. almost remind me of a more polished countess. work so well with the head-nodding drums.

and I've liked bits-and-pieces of what I've heard for blut aus nord before but I love this whole thing. well, maybe except for the generic black metal keyboard intro, but that's hardly offensive and kind of funny in a "how to make a black metal album" checklist kind of way.