Rolling Metal 2017

Baroness have a new guitarist, Gina Gleason, and they've posted two videos of her playing songs from their last album with them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1Q_oWxhoL0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUTzDS9TZc4

I've still never seen Baroness live. I'd really like to, one of these days.

female backing vox are something I didn't know I needed Baroness to incorporate but damn that "Morningstar" sounds great

I've listened to the new Elder four times since last night, it's amazing. I was going to order it from Armageddon Shop, but their online order page isn't secure, so I imported it from Stickman, like I did with Lore. I wish they were distributed by a real label in the states.

My Iron Maiden / Ghost musings...

Ghost played eight songs. Of the first seven, six of them were fantastic. Then they closed with Papa making bizarre banter about women's orgasms before ending with "Monstrance Clock" which is plodding hippie psych-rock that maybe wouldn't have been my choice to end the set.

My friend Richard Cowell noted that he felt the band was not as tight as in the past, which was not an unfair point though there are reasons other than new musicians that could be the cause - this was the second show of the biggest US tour (and maybe a bigger tour than they've done anywhere, I have no idea) so maybe it was jitters.

The band got 45 minutes which seemed like a lot and the sound was pretty good - Maiden has never had a reputation for cutting support acts off at the knees with their sound as far as I know. But they didn't or were unable to use the bigger screens on either side of the stage and I didn't see any video work which made it harder to keep track of the band if you were on the side of the stage or farther back.

All that said, I still fucking love this band. I loved Blue Oyster Cult as a kid, Mercyful Fate as a teenager and I have zero problems with a band who sounds like those things and writes serious pop hooks. The image is goofy, so fucking what, it's different. Venom was goofy, Accept was goofy, tons of metal bands are goofy and still brilliant. So is Ghost.

They are headlining a much smaller venue in Philly in July. I cannot wait.

Seeing Iron Maiden play a sold-out arena without the benefit of a brand new album - Book of Souls came out nine months ago - or some huge touring package was really great to see. Many Maiden fans who stuck with the band all these years remember seeing the band in smaller theaters during the "dark days" are now rewarded with higher ticket prices miles away from the band!

Seriously, good for Maiden for weathering the storm and now selling out basketball arenas.

You can tell Maiden does not want to be seen as a nostalgia act and that they're proud of the last album, but also that they have concessions to make with such a long, storied discography to sort through when making a set list.
The band literally did two on-two off the whole set: Kicking off with two songs off the new album before playing two classic Maiden tunes and repeating that pattern three times.

For those who are not math-magicians, that means a dozen songs with exactly six of them from Book Of Souls. That's a lot of songs from one album for a band with fifteen other studio albums. Even discounting the Blaze Bayley stuff, that's still a lot of stuff that didn't get played.

I have a confession to make about Book of Souls: I went on record as loving it when it came out last year but I haven't played it since about that time. So I wonder how much I did love it though the half dozen new songs they played did sound good.

The classic stuff presented was:
Wrathchild
Children of the Damned
The Trooper
Powerslave
Fear of the Dark
Iron Maiden

Can't quibble much with those selections though I am not a huge fan of "Fear of the Dark."

Brice Dickinson is almost fucking 60 years old and it blows my mind how good his voice sounds. Singers that reach his age always are unable to reach and sustain like they used to. Even legendary ones such as Ronnie James Dio, Rob Halford and Tom Araya had to make concessions to age. Apparently Bruce doesn't. Amazing.

I've seen Maiden with three guitarists for so long now, I don't even notice it anymore.

Steve Harris is still a fucking god. What he does in "The Trooper" still astounds me. I have had the honor of being "shot" by him as he put a foot on his monitor at a few shows. It was a shame that I was way out of range tonight.
It's also hard to believe he's 61 years old. Honestly he doesn't seem to have aged since the '80s. Maybe he and Bruce actually did make a deal with the devil...

Speaking of which, the encore was "Number of the Beast." You hear that intro and you get chills and then the song cuts in and damn, I am a teenager again (maybe that's how they stayed so fucking young, writing songs like that that keep you perpetually unaged).

I wondered whether Bruce, a very proud Englishman, would say something about the recent London Bridge incident. The closest he came to it was an impassioned speech about how everyone who was an Iron Maiden fan was welcome and a Maiden show was a safe place for all, and this was kind of cool.

Unfortunately it introduced "Blood Brothers" which is a meh song off an album I never loved all that much (even though I desperately wanted to) but the show stopper of "Wasted Years" was a nice way to go out.

Even with a set list that I wold have chosen differently and sitting farther back than I would have preferred, Iron Maiden is still the consummate metal band. I loved them when I was a teenager and they still make me proud to be a metal fan after all these years.

Great recap, and I'm glad you had fun! Maiden's show in Vancouver in April 2016 was unreal. They have not lost a step.

I wrote about the new Danzig album for Burning Ambulance.

Incantation is gunning hard for that Song Title of the Year trophy: there's a track on their upcoming album (which I haven't heard yet) called "Stormgate Convulsions From The Thunderous Shores Of Infernal Realms Beyond The Grace Of God."

and it'll probably be a 0:17 instrumental

the advance track does sound really good though

As someone who loves Incantation -- but has heard like 10 mins of their music post-2000, what's a good intro to their newer stuff? Can I just start up again w/a new record?

Yeah, the most recent album, Dirge of Elysium, is great. Here's my review.

Last week I got the new Avatarium and Solstafir albums and fine albums they are. Anyone else like either band?

I'd never heard Solstafir before, but yeah, that album's really good.

The previous 2 are brilliant as well. They've come a long way since their early black metal albums

I haven't figured out what I think of the Avatarium album yet, but I've really enjoyed following Solstafir's evolution all along, including this bit!

finally got around to the new artificial brain. "estranged from orbit" is BEAUTIFUL

holyyyyyyyyy shiiiiiiiiiit the new full of hell album

Good review of new Danzig Phil. I agree. It's solid and better than anything he's done in years

Does anyone like the Arcadea disc, a synth-pop project featuring Brann from Mastodon and Raheem Amlani from Withered and some dude from Zruda (itself a project fraturing a couple guys from Lazer/Wulf)? I wanted to like it but didn't find it very compelling.

New Loss album's good.

I'm feeling quite pleased at working how why Tom Violence likes Elder. It's so obvious too

btwn Soen, Pain of Salvation, Anathema, and Elder, a good year for proggy clean-vox jams. The Soen is particularly noteworthy for anyone who likes the idea of late-era Opeth vox meeting Blackwater Park-style instrumentals.

Ordered the new Schammasch

new schammasch already? scheesch.

Mutoid Man's new album goes hard musically but Brodsky's lyrics are even worse than usual so I might end up just sticking with what they've put out so far

https://schammasch.bandcamp.com/album/the-maldoror-chants-hermaphrodite

"Swiftly following their Triangle triple album, Schammasch return with the first of a number of releases exploring the 19th century poetic novel, Les Chants de Maldoror by Comte de Lautréamont. Centred around a protagonist who opposes God and renounces morality’s conventions, this long-prose poem certainly lends itself thematically to an ambitious metal act"

I'm liking the new Vallenfyre album, and have even gone back to check out their two previous albums. It's pretty bare-bones Swedish-style DM, but it's so dirty and gross it almost reminds me of Death Breath, plus blast beats.

Interesting piano-led black metal here

https://wreche.bandcamp.com/

I got that Wreche a while ago, it's very good. FFO Botanist for sure. I'll be writing about it somewhere soon.

I get the Botanist comparison, usually for want of any other reference point, but the vibe is a lot different I think, a lot less 'gazey.

I wrote a thing: Reviews of the new albums from The Wizards, Beastmaker and Farsot.
http://agitreader.com/wp2/the-moods-of-metal

Spoiler: I like all of them.

black metal jazz! https://whiteward.bandcamp.com/album/futility-report

I felt kinda let down by that White Ward. It's fine but it's basically kind of a blackened hardcore album that occasionally stops to make room for a noir-jazz interlude featuring saxophone. It's fine but would've been way cooler if the sax dude was a more interesting player or engaged in some Nik Turner style effects fuckery.

Yeah, I wanted to like it, but...nope.

I think a fair few of you may dig this
http://www.angrymetalguy.com/igorrr-savage-sinusoid-review/

speaking of jazz-ish metal-ish, here's the new heavy band that features Colin Stetson on sax and Greg Fox on drums:

https://exeyeband.bandcamp.com/

album out 6/23 on Relapse.

it's not really very jazz-ish OR metal-ish, but w/e

so I checked out the setlist for Gorguts' current tour. It's pretty cool!

Three songs (plus an intro) from ERosion of Sanity/Considered Dead, one each from the remaining albums, and then ALL of Pleaide's Dust in its entirety (I think - I hope it's all 33 mins at least).

Woooowwwwwwww. Do they do Condemned to Obscurity?

I have to the conclusion that Erosion of Sanity is one of the pillars of NY style DM, along with all the classics of Incantation and Immolation. It's like the best of everything, with great writing too.

unrelated, Aura Noir is coming to NYC in October playing their entire catalog over two shows (including a yet to be released new record). So I'm gonna grab a spot in line tonight.

http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/gorguts/2017/fubar-st-louis-mo-5be74750.html

Oh wow, thanks for mentioning Ex Eye. I love Colin Stetson but hadn't realized this was happening. Listening to the advanced "single" now (https://open.spotify.com/track/4oOGmfj73tltKyfRgNo9X9). This is kind of my idea of what all jazz should sound like.

There are no less than five albums I enjoy coming out on 6/23. Debating on which one(s) to review.
What do you guys think about:

42 Decibel - Unbekanntes Album (Argentinian AC/DC worship with a Bon Scott clone on vocals on Steamhammer/SPV)
Dying Fetus - Wrong one To Fuck With (Death metal gods on Relapse)
Ex eye - Ex Eye (Jazz done experimental black metal on Repalse; discussed above)
Final Coil - Persistence of Memory (British Tool/Chevelle prog metal on Worm Hole Death)
Les Chants du Hasard - Les Chants du Hasard (Classical done Black Metal on I, Voidhanger; discussed above)
Selcouth - Heart Is The Star Of Chaos (Gothic Jazz done experimental dark metal on I, Voidhanger)

I think I can combine some of them into one bigger piece I guess.
How often do three jazz & classical metal albums come out on the same day anyway?

(Pretty sure Neanderthal will be like, DYING FETUS!!!!!!!! Haha!)

omg i was just about to post that haha

I tried that Dying Fetus album and it did nothing for me. I wish Misery Index would put out another album. I like them a lot better.

hey this new schammasch is really really good. really really really good.

like seriously this band has been on a pretty incredible growth arc - triangle was this massive sprawling statement, super good but so much to take in, it's hard for me to imagine anybody having the space in their day to actually hunker down with all of that one -- I liked it, but it was a lot to parse. this one's a very focused and disciplined step forward - echoes of kaleidoscope-era siouxsie & the banshees if they'd indulged their metal side but much bigger & darker & harder. kinda reminiscent of great annihilator era swans, too, that big theatrical gathering-storm feel in the tracks, starting big and getting bigger, that building tension that keeps pressing against what feels like it has to be the limit that'll force everybody to cut loose...and then never cutting loose, just riding that edge. it doesn't sound like neurosis but that feels like a point of reference, too -- exploring a repetitive droney space, heavy floor-kit drums. but the guitars reach a lot further - lots of shading and texture, several different looks.

I guess some places are calling it an EP? it's 32 minutes. whole thing's great. really good stuff.

Luc Lemay is sellin merch. He looks like David Cross.

I can't think of anything interesting to say to him

Last week I got the new Avatarium and Solstafir albums and fine albums they are. Anyone else like either band?

― Odysseus, Tuesday, June 6, 2017 2:03 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I'd never heard Solstafir before, but yeah, that album's really good.

― grawlix (unperson), Tuesday, June 6, 2017 2:10 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The previous 2 are brilliant as well. They've come a long way since their early black metal albums

― Odysseus, Tuesday, June 6, 2017 2:16 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I haven't figured out what I think of the Avatarium album yet, but I've really enjoyed following Solstafir's evolution all along, including this bit!

― glenn mcdonald, Tuesday, June 6, 2017 2:47 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Spotify link: http://open.spotify.com/album/4y0ReoVsLvfwFLRX5CcBsi

New Atriarch album announced, new song from same

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9fQvZ2tI4E