Rolling Metal Thread 2009

not a very metal last couple weeks for me... but I have put on the new mastodon a few times. it's so busy that not all that much has stuck yet... but I think I like it. never got into blood mountain, so that's a nice surprise.

still hate the vox, tho. I wish they were mixed down. and less annoying. sub-ozzy at best.

...and agoraphobic nosebleed has a cute girl on board now. (!?!?)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsisk/3288536889/

I wonder if they'll ease up on the casual misogyny?

and my first impressions for the new anb are positive. they took the short songs thing about as far as they could, so I don't mind them stretching things out. it's a bit like what pig destroyer did on their last one; this isn't exactly the new cryptopsy.

still loving that blut aus nord. anyone even mildly interested should check that one out, imo.

hmmm.. my image got sliced out of my post.

direct link to anb band photo:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshsisk/3288536889/

The new ANb album is easily my favourite grind album to come out in a while. The songs are really well-written, the lyrics are twisted, the artwork is over the top, and it's exceptionally produced.

Anyone seen dj martian lately?

Didn't expect Victoria Coren to join ANb :0

The new ANb album is easily my favourite grind album to come out in a while. The songs are really well-written, the lyrics are twisted, the artwork is over the top, and it's exceptionally produced.

have you heard their side on the domestic powerviolence split? pretty great. as you might guess from the title, serious man is the bastard vibe going on. but with little epic doom (ahab came to mind) and wolf eyes bits thrown in for good measure. probably more into it than the new one, but again, I've only listened to that once.

I'm still not sold on the new ANb. I am, however, greatly enjoying Bulldozer's Alive...in Poland, which came in today's mail. Ultra-primitive biker thrash, super-heavily indebted to Venom and Motörhead, plus cheesy keyboards, plus barely intelligible between-song banter in one of the thickest Italian accents I've ever heard not coming from the pizza chef on The Simpsons.

The new Amorphis is as solid as expected. I really like this incarnation of the band, their last three albums have been quite good, and new single "Silver Bride" is a killer melodic hard rock track. Weirdly, though, "Majestic Beast" seems to rip off Opeth's "The Grand Conjuration", of all things...

Wow, Ulcerate's Everything is Fire is one of the best death metal records I've heard in a long time. Technical but with long stretches of slow, dissonant guitar interplay - imagine if Gorguts, Oceanic-era Isis and Immolation were all one band. On Willowtip. (Has that label released a bad record yet? Because everything I've ever heard from them has been great, in one way or another.)

dude that's a hell of a description. definitely gonna check that out.

Really liking the new Coalesce so far.

I'm not exactly blown away by it.

After listening again this morning, I can't say I'm exactly blown away either but still liking it quite a bit. They aren't bringing a whole lot new to the table, but I have just always really loved what they do bring.

I have an iPod shuffle, which I keep filled with a random 2GB of the last 6GB I added to iTunes, in a random order. This is, numerically, even more heavily metal than my usual listening rotation, and it's not uncommon for something to come up that I can't readily identify without looking it up. Usually it's some new band whose latest album I downloaded and will soon delete, but recently I hit a couple songs that I thought sounded fantastic. Heavy and dark, but with this great sneaky creepy tunefulness. Some band taking the black metal blueprint and turning it back into something powerful and scary but not so misanthrophic. Very pleasing to hear a new band with some solid old-school principles.

Except when I went back and figured out who it was, it was old Sentenced, from Love & Death. But, you know, anything you've forgotten is new again.

Any thoughts on the Khanate? Giving it my first listen right now, sounding good to these ears.

Yeah, back to really liking the Coalesce, sorry doods.

The Khanate is great

New L'acephale, on Aurora Bourealis, is like 25% of a metal record or something but completely kicks my arse

Phil, you're right, that Ulcerate album is really good. A little like Gojira too, but a lot more deathy.

I'm listening to In Flames - The Jester Race for the first time. I've never been this fucking bored in my whole life. Is it because this just sucks or because 100,000 bands have done this since then?

or both?

Phil, you're right, that Ulcerate album is really good. A little like Gojira too, but a lot more deathy.

― A. Begrand, Thursday, April 16, 2009 8:23 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

Is it less boring than The Way of All Flesh?

This is not entirely new, either, but I just saw the "expanded" reissue of Xandria's Ravenheart go across my iTunes new-release feed, and clicked on it guessing from the cover that it might be interesting techno. It's female-fronted gothic metal with some little electronic bits, and although I usually have very little tolerance for sub-Nightwish femme-metal gawkiness, the snippets of this actually sounded pretty animated to me. Downloaded Now and Forever, their 2008 best-of, and have had it on near-constant rotation for several days since. It's dramatic and ambitious, but not in the stilted more-operatic-than-thou way this genre sometimes goes. More straightforward than Brave, but more adventurous than Asrai, to take two other in-genre examples I like a lot. Worth a listen if you like this sort of thing.

I've been enjoying Unholy's new record, New Life behind Closed Eyes. I remember hearing their EP a few years ago and thinking they had potential, and they did. Really solid death metalcore along the lines of The Haunted or later Entombed, with lots of killer guitar work and a grouchy shouter. Plus it clocks in at around half an hour, so it doesn't wear out its welcome, something that I am increasingly appreciative of.

(Something which anyone who read my Sylosis review in the latest issue of Decibel could have probably figured out)

holy crap! i am, like, totally digging the hell outta the new Sabba...er Heaven & Hell album! riffs galore; production dark & densely packed; Dio's voice aging well and far more than bearable; Bill Ward, alas, missing. my top two metal albums of the year locked in place already. next?

I'm listening to In Flames - The Jester Race for the first time. I've never been this fucking bored in my whole life. Is it because this just sucks or because 100,000 bands have done this since then?

― matt o, donderdag 16 april 2009 23:45 (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I loved that album when it came out in 1996. Haven't listened to it in recent years but to me it was one of the albums that got me into the whole Gothenburg melo-deathmetal thing (together with Dark Tranquillity's The Gallery, which is even better).

yeah i picked up the new jester race and whoracle reissues--even if it's not my all-time favorite stuff, sometimes you just need to listen to some in flames.

I think The Jester Race holds up very well, although its folk metal direction on "Moonshield" is in retrospect completely unnecessary.

I actually prefer Colony and Clayman, to be honest.

really digging the new Hacride album today! serious riff after serious riff! by the end track, you've got something totally majestic.

i second and third adrien and phil on the ulcerate (willow)tip. great stuff.

i've been listening to wavering radiant for awhile now, and i really like it. it's very 'isis' but definitely distinct from their other albums. it's about 10 minutes shorter than the last record, and there's definitely an absence of filler, which is refreshing.

aaron turner's vocals haven't sounded this awesome/grating in a loooong time.

also, i've found there's more emphasis on tight rhythms this time around. the band really sound together.

Agree about Wavering Radiant; it is tighter than their last couple. Plus, I really dig the 70s organ tones. Got the Hacride in yesterday's mail but haven't played it because...well, because I also got like a half dozen awesome salsa reissues and/or compilations, plus a two-CD Rory Gallagher compilation I picked up while in Belfast this weekend.

yeah, I thought, uh, whatever the one before wavering radiant was called, was seriously boring. I think I only got through that thing about twice or so. but wavering radiant is a step up.

I mean, it's still isis, so if you think isis are boring, it probably won't change your mind. but it compares favorably to the best of their post-celestial stuff, imo.

Second the Hacride love. BIG step up from Amoeba, and I really liked that album. Amoeba got kind of monotonous after a while, but the new one switches it off the lot. I'd say more, but I reviewed it for Decibel, which frames my thoughts in a more coherent way.

holy crap! i am, like, totally digging the hell outta the new Sabba...er Heaven & Hell album!

Not me:

http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/27386930/review/27534978/the_devil_you_know

That NWONWOBHM comp on Earache Metal Killers finally really kicked in though! Cauldron's excellently titled "Chained Up In Chains" is even the running for my Top Ten Singles list for the year, at least for now. Other favorites: Powervice, Crowning Glory, Portrait, two or three others maybe.

Also really liking Cross Stitched Eyes' Coranach on Alternative Tentacles, which I'm told is "crust punk," but then Rudimentary Peni always sounded pretty metal to me (and to Voivod, too.)

Speaking of which, new Voivod!

Voivod are playing Download

Voivod isn't touring Canada. More money in the festivals, but still, boooo.

Cannot wait to hear the new record.

Oh, and that band Portrait Chuck mentioned is so awesome, their album totally took me by surprise. It's like Priest circa '82 meets Mercyful Fate circa '82.

Voivod are playing two shows in Quebec in July.

I am trying to get them to come to Ontario, but it's just gotta be good timing for them to do more...

you know what's great about Agony Column's 80's hellbilly thrash debut album God, Guns, & Guts?

the sticker on the front cover says: WARNING:THIS ALBUM CONTAINS BACKWOODS MESSAGES.

hahahahahahaha!

ooops, wrong video. i'm drunk.

I saw Agony Column open for GWAR in '92 and that dude totally had a lightning bolt shaped guitar. I recall buying the LP before the show because they had a song called "Dead By Dawn" which really didn't live up to it's titular promise.

BTW, just got files of the new Liturgy (from NYC). This stuff is really fucking impressive. Need to digest more fully. Sorta indie-fied trance Black Metal from NYC with a nice, original angle.

Check it: http://www.myspace.com/liturgynybm

I think I've grown numb to grind in the last year or so. I spent time with both the new Agoraphobic NB and Mumakil last night, but really didn't get much at all from either.

I haven't felt the slightest urge to revisit the Nosebleed disc, but that Mumakil album is pretty strong stuff. So's the new Antigama. And I'm enjoying the new Brutal Truth more than I thought I would.

The Mumakil was definitely the better of the two, but even with that I just kept waiting for it to get over. I was just numb after about track 13.

xps

three stars in service of the man (Wenner), Chuck? NOOOOOO!!!!!!

What i've heard off the new Sabbath, which isn't much, is pretty good. Nothing earth-shattering, but a pretty good effort for a bunch of 60 year olds.

How intense was the Mastodon show tonight? Fat dude in the pit picked up The Ubiquitous Lost Shoe and started whapping the sole as hard as he could into his face during the mellow part of "The Czar".

Kylesa was awesome, they benefitted hugely from the 45 minute set time, taking about three songs to get going, and then going on to tear the place apart. Intronaut was the real revelation, though. I've been into them since their demo, but live they're actually so much better.