Rolling Metal 2017

Oh man the Great Old Ones record is killer. Lovecrafty black metal but just super fun to listen to.

Rebel Wizard and Tomb Mold are both spending a lot of time in my earholes. Waiting for my copy of the Lorn CD, secretly hoping Marc Maron will accidentally agree to interview them on his podcast.

Cathartic shrieky epic black metal by the aforementioned Ghost Bath: https://open.spotify.com/track/6eKu3fqaUDQm0iwwkFquy0

Re: Disperse

That was terrible.

hahaha no one but brad was meant to listen to that

Did Brad lose a bet?

(And for the record I listen to everything that is posted in this thread at least once as soon as I can hear the full album. Most don't get more than one listen, however. :) )

I love that Disperse song.

for real though I dig the hell out of that Disperse album, it sounds like someone went into the 1975's studio when they were off on spliff breaks and tried to make prog-metal using their setup xp

Simon OTM! I listened to the Disperse a few days ago when it got reviewed on AMG, and the first thing I thought was, "This sounds like that last 1975 album. But, you know, better." I think I even said something like that in the review comments.

It's not terrible, I don't think, but it's definitely not my kind of thing.

Hey guys. I haven't been contributing to this thread because frankly I'm severely burned out and need an extensive break from the new metal stuff. There's not much new stuff that makes me happy anymore. However the new Power Trip album is a hugely pleasant surprise in that it's ultra-formulaic thrash that remembers how catchy thrash is supposed to be. Hooks aplenty, great dynamics, the kind of filth and speed and tightness that has me comparing this record to Possessed and Exodus, with Slayer divebombs for good measure. Regressive metal for the proverbial win. It reminds me of being 17, at the height of my thrash obsession, in 1988.

And for those who like the girly metal (Glenn, take note) the new Kobra and the Lotus is a long-overdue strong effort by a band that always had a bad habit of underachieving in the past. They're a great fit on Napalm, and I hope they do well with the Euro-metal crowd.

Yes! I like "Gotham" a lot, and am looking forward to the rest of the Kobra and the Lotus album.

You guys.

Nocturnus (AD) debuted a new song at this show tonight.

And it is gooooood

Like Key good

WHAT

would die 4 that

Yeah man. If they can write 7 more songs like this daaaamn

Dread Sovereign
For Doom the Bell Tolls
(Ván Records)
Release Date: 3/3/2017

http://www.metal-archives.com/images/6/2/3/9/623928.jpg?0611

One Sheet

Doom metal without any of the hippie-dippy stuff. Even when they get a little psychedelic, it is only to make the music seem heavier. Doom metal is often morose and mournful; in the hands of this Irish group, it's all about anger and it's not a bad look.

The album is streaming via SoundCloud at Noisey, where Kim Kelly says

For Doom the Bell Tolls is dark—immensely dark. The sound of church bells ring out, puncturing the murky, twilit atmosphere and punctuating the howling ripples of distorted riffs. Joined by drummer Johnny King (Malthusian, Sodb) and guitarist Bones (Wizards of Firetop Mountain), vocalist and bassist Nemtheanga (AKA Primordial's Alan Averill) lays aside his usually epic vocal stylings in favor of an eerie sort of ur-wail, a wavering cry that undulates through the sepulchral fog to bring tidings of doom. A perfectly grimy (and extremely fitting) Venom cover at the end sees them ramp up the sleaze in a gritted-teeth reminder that doom has always been dirty. Satan, laughing, spreads his wings.

Satan, laughing, spreads his wings.

WHOA LORD YEAH

well fuck

omg I spent the whole first track thinking "wow this guy sounds like Alan Averill". Well duh.

got Incubus's drum stick after the Inquisition set. the thing was beat to shit. he plays the hell out of them.

It's not just a little matchstick?

Lol kinda is now.

NBD just met Corpsegrinder

http://i68.tinypic.com/xmsizl.jpg

Overkill still rule live and they play the best two songs (#1 and #3) from the new album live.

Caught Anvil with Night Demon and Graveshadow this evening in Philly. The venue, Johnny Brenda's, doesn't do a ton of metal shows and it is in the hipster neighborhood of Fishtown so I kind of expected some ironic attendees at the show but instead it was filled with lifers who put me to shame. I wore a Diamond Head shirt (Night Demon's Jarvis Leatherby approved, I said I thought maybe he heard a song or two of theirs and he laughed, "Yeah, one or two.") and at one point was at the bar next to someone in a Budgie shirt causing me to exclaim that we were responsible for half of Metallica's cover songs. It was certainly nice to not be the oldest person at a show for once.

I missed locals Hound because I was eating a cheesesteak, but they're quite good if you ever come across them, solid shit-kicking rock and roll will be your reward.

I was intrigued by Graveshadow enough to make sure I caught them. They have a video out which is really cheesy, but it's also quite infectious and has stuck in my head. I post it here so those who were offended at my negative views of Disperse can mock me for my questionable taste.

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

Live the band was a lot heavier than the clip and debut album I checked out on Spotify and the singer was having a great time, shrugging off rude catcalls and winning over a lot of the crowd by sheer will and an ability to sing quite well and also growl at times, something that helps set her and the band apart from the bulk of female-fronted, gothic metal bands. The bassist spent the whole set playing from the area in front of the stage or wandering around the balcony area and the singer did this as well. They were utterly uncool but a lot of fun too.

I really love Night Demon's updated NWOBHM and the two new songs they performed from an April album makes me think that will continue.

Anvil was Anvil (which can be a posthumous album title since they seem to love those three-word deals) which is fine with me since I liked 'em before the documentary. Lips was smiling all the time, making crude sexual jokes that might be unbecoming from someone past sixty, but the dude still does a guitar solo with a vibrator so, yeah, and he told some cool stories about Lemmy and stuck up for Metallica for letting them open for them in Singapore a few years ago when some dude in the crowd inexplicably started screaming how they suck.

I would have liked to hear a lot more old songs, but I understand that is unrealistic, and looking at the setlist (Philly got the same set, save for an encore of "Born To Be Wild" because we were a better crowd than Boston, ha!) I think they did fine overall. But man, it would be great to hear them do "School Love" live.

Overall a fun night out with two young bands that sound old and an old band that is classic.

http://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/17098345_10158308973450597_8305012159831817383_n.jpg?oh=9220055992aa8bc638ec108f1191648f&oe=593AA546 http://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/17155682_10158309115105597_3495316403875898951_n.jpg?oh=50bf07c0592aa18e7452e765aa74213c&oe=596CA7DD

http://scontent-lga3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/17022136_10158309115000597_6566456682048178797_n.jpg?oh=1ab26c36c3b122bc513eb9d90f38c386&oe=59739CA2

Nice pic, Neanderthal! Surprised that you could get Corpsegrinder's neck in a shit and have room for you... :)

http://i.imgur.com/rU4W7FN.jpg

Man Corpsegrinder got some youthful hands, dude must SLATHER on the Oil of Olay

I MEAN BLOOD

Neanderthal that is a great pic. I have a similar merch table pic from a few years back, Fischer is a stand-up dude imo

yeah he's a stand-up dude. he wasn't acting aggravated about it or anything at all.

I saw Steve Asheim again as well but he's always at shows in that area.

nice pics of Anvil! they were fun the times I saw them a few years back. is their bass player still the goofy looking dude with missing teeth? I liked him.

surprised they didn't do "School Love" - they were playing that the time I saw it.

did they do "Mothra"? that was my fav of the night.

looking at recent setlists, I wish they'd stop playing "Bad Ass Rock 'n Roll", that's such a boring song.

did they do "Thumb Hang"?

This AV Club article on Nazism in metal is one of the best I've read on the subject. Worth checking out, particularly for the discussion of Profound Lore, who have put some really sketchy shit out while earning a seemingly unbroken stream of critical praise.

yeah that first paragraph, I had no idea

I miss when AVC regularly had good (any) metal content

If you're interested in the political morass associated with some ugly metal, the book The Lords of Chaos is a pretty gripping mostly-journalistic study, starting with Burzum and Norwegian church-burning and spiraling outwards into various kinds of nationalism and paganism...

I'm still disappointed that Sion Sono's proposed adaptation fell through

Ha, yeah. He said that he wanted to make it like 90210.

It is sad that so many people involved in Metal are fascist and/or misanthropic dicks. Definitely makes reading interviews much less enjoyable.

People need to be reminded that Craig Pillard is a full-blown Nazi, but it seems weird to conflate that with Charlie Fell saying some some dumb shit in defense of a misunderstood album cover.

I legitimately had no idea re: Pillard. granted I always think of McIntee when I think of Incantation and I have barely listened to the one Disma album I have, but like I think NS values are so often tied to black metal that non-black metal artists don't always get looked at as closely.

it is making me sadder each day to see the kind of plankton like this in the scene. had a convo with someone at the Overkill show Saturday and it was all fun until he defended Phil's 'white power' moment at the concert (even tho he wasn't expressing agreement w/ it) and talked about SJWs and all this stuff and I basically just talked to the other guys at the table the rest of the night. can these people please just leave the scene?

I've tabbed that article to read tomorrow, but it immediately reminds me of the whole 'I can listen to Burzum without endorsing Varg' thing and, well, can you? (Not that going down that path doesn't open up a whole can of worms.)

there are traces of that can of worms being opened and dumped on the floor of this board at least like...once every two years

Just wanted to say I really, really like Dying Beauty & the Silent Sky the Asphodelus EP that came out on Iron Bonehead last year. They're a Finnish doom-death outfit, used to be called Cemetery Fog. Don't think Dying Beauty got much notice, very few reviews online, but I keep coming back to it a year down the road. Anyone else?

AV Club article was great
Though I hate the Varg/Mayhem cru is "insane" thing, always feels like a copout they seem just like genuinely awful, hateful evil ppl who believe terrible things, but not crazy

had no idea about Pillard. granted when I think Incantation I think McIntee and I only have one Disma album, but seems like people with shitty beliefs not named Jef Whitehead fly under the radar if they're not NSBM.

Profound Lore link was an interesting one - artisan labels sometimes tend to make you assume they're mostly signing acts that are on the level but y'know...

That AV Club article bummed me out. One thing which surprised me was that the comments - and internet comments sections are notoriously a cesspool brought about by semi-anonymity emboldening - had a lot of good discussion.

When I worked at Relapse Records I was the buyer for the mailorder. I was also a buyer at an independent record store in Columbus, Ohio before that. My attitude was that I would stock things without judgement and people could vote with their wallets. I was fine with truth in advertising too - At the record store I remember making the bin card for Arghoslent "Richmond, VA Thrashy Death metal. Warning: Racist redneck assholes."

While at Relapse a left wing group started a campaign by actually emailing bands on the label or past bands pointing out some of the things we had in the mail order catalogue and how those bands were now associated with that. Apparently some of the bands - I never was told which ones - mentioned it to the powers that be at the label. They might not have been upset, they might have just given them a head's up, or maybe they were angry, I was never given details. I was given orders that I had to take down some bands and not stock them or similar ones ever again.

This was quite frustrating, and not because I was some paragon of allowing free speech (although that is a motivating factor) but the inconsistencies of who was included and who was safe. Someone with tangential innuendo would be forbidden to bring in but it was okay to stock other groups. I have always had issues with the contradictions of what was "allowed" in metal, excused because it's an extreme genre of music, and what wasn't. Bashing Christianity is almost a necessary component of many forms of metal, and metal has done this in very pointed ways, but of course Judaism can never be targeted (I am not naive to why this is the case). And violence against women is commonplace in metal, even sexual violence, but it's excused because it's metal. It made my job harder and one more than one occasion I was forced to explain why I stocked something that I shouldn't have.

I am really torn and the current state of affairs in this country with white supremacy in the White House doesn't help. Just last night some guy working a a grocery store saw my Agnostic Front shirt and asked if I liked metal. We had a brief discussion where he admitted to being open-minded as far as metal fans go (he liked AF and said he was listening to Dissection on the way to work but also said his favorite band was Epica) and he seemed like a nice enough guy, but I didn't give him my Facebook handle because in the back of my mind I was like, what if this guy's an asshole? I will be seeing Metallica in a few months and I know that I will be among a lot of racist asshole who voted for Trump.

I have a lot of music from sketchy bands in my collection. Some of it is quite good - Burzum is classic, the last Inquisition record was excellent. I even own that Arghoslent album and it's a shame they're such fuckheads because it's amazing. Part of me wants to just throw it all away, but where is the line drawn? But if it's that hard of a line to draw, why do I like metal and other art that I like to begin with?

I rationalize it this way: I don't think that anyone who has a Cannibal Corpse album in their collection is anti-women and pro-rape but that band (and many others) have graphic lyrics about those things and has for decades. And I don't buy that line about how death metal lyrics are like horror films, obvious over the top fiction, whereas white supremacists are all too real. Last I checked women get raped, women get murdered. That's real life as well.

I realize that I have my own inconsistencies. Ted Nugent is a piece of shit whose political views have made it difficult to listen to his music, but I don't feel the same way with other sketchy artists. I am not even sure why, as I type this. Maybe it's because Ted is mainstream and Varg isn't.

There is no easy answer here. I think that ultimately everyone makes their own decisions with their own morality and I think that quibbling over where the line is drawn is not going to help anything. At the end of the day the most benign art has influenced heinous acts and some of the most extreme art has been cathartic and allowed me to look at the world differently. I think the responsibility for the art someone consumes is not to the art, but to what they get out of it and what it inspires in them. But I'm a grown-ass man, not an impressionable kid.

It bums me out and may impact my consumption of some bands, or it may not. But I can rationalize whatever I wind up doing - to myself, and that's all that matters to me, frankly.

the plankton in the metal scene has to go. I have started way too many conversations with fellow metalheads at shows lately that have started innocently enough and then moved into some form of racist horseshit.

not remotely the majority of them, but more than enough for me to think twice about talking to some of them.

I have a lot of music from sketchy bands in my collection. Some of it is quite good - Burzum is classic, the last Inquisition record was excellent. I even own that Arghoslent album and it's a shame they're such fuckheads because it's amazing. Part of me wants to just throw it all away, but where is the line drawn? But if it's that hard of a line to draw, why do I like metal and other art that I like to begin with?

You should comment on my FB post. I'm asking people to list their favorite Nazi/racist bands, and explain what they like about them. After all, if it's not the ideology they're responding to, it must be the riffs, and if the riffs are that awesome, I don't wanna miss out!