Rolling Metal 2017

Relapse really dropped the ball when they dropped Pyrrhon, but I guess that's the direction they're going and they're still putting out great stuff like the new Atriarch so whatevs.

Yeah I thought that was strange - it was like signed-album out-dropped in a very short period of time. But it doesn't seem to have slowed the band down, thankfully.

Bonehunter album is pretty good punky black metal with more depth than you might expect. For an album with a bear-man with a huge erection stuck in a science tube on the cover.

Dunno if I mentioned it or whatever but Nuclear War Now seems to have gotten some wider distribution (through the Alliance one-stop) so there's a good chance their releases will turn up at well-stocked record stores they might not have previously. I picked up the Rites of Thy Degringolade "Arch Spatial" LP (an anthology of their demo, EP etc) recently and highly recommend it for anyone who likes Canadian black death with some really excellently weird drumming.

The new Enslaved album is exciting, a big return to form after In Times. It sounds like the Bardspec and Skuggsja projects have inspired more experimentation in Ivar's songwriting, because there's more of an experimental feel than we've heard from the band lately. A couple really catchy, hard-charging tracks are on there, too.

anybody heard the Venom, Inc album due out tomorrow?

how did I not know they were actually recording? had thought they were just touring.

we have two Venoms now. and two Entombeds. cray

"Ave Satanas" which I'm listening to now is....alright. kinda fist pumpy heavy metal, not really what I was expecting. somewhat catchy but a bit generic. and the spoken word bit in the middle sounds like the one from "Thriller".

7 minutes....oi.

ok listening to "Dein Fleisch" and idk what they're going for but it's not interesting to me.

guess I'll post my "stuff I like from 2017" list since it's August. no particular order

Decrepit Birth - Axis Mundi (one of the few tech death bands I like)
Decapitated - Anticult
Memoriam - For the Fallen
Broken Hope - Mutilated and Assimilated
Dying Fetus - Wrong One to Fuck With
Origin - Unparalleled Universe
Iced Earth - Incorruptible (I will stress there is absolutely nothing essential about this album)
Sinister- Syncretism
Body Count - Bloodlust
Ruinous - Graves of Ceaseless Death
Danzig - Black Laden Crown
Beheaded - Beast Incarnate
Mastodon - Andromeda
Immolation - Atonement
Warbringer - Woe to the Vanquished
Expulsion - Nightmare Future
Cemetery Urn - s/t
Artificial Brain - Infrared Horizon
Venenum - Trance of Death
Lantern - II: Metamorphosis
Suffocation - ...of the Dark Light

I left a buncha stuff off that I've only listened to once cos this summer was brutal w/ work

You might dig the Contaminated album, Final Man, if you haven't heard it.

For anyone who digs Maryland doom, there's a Force "Discography 1981-84" compilation out. Mastered from none-too-quiet vinyl but still, recommended if you dig the style; they're really good at writing hooky songs with riffs that have an almost Witchfinder General feel and great low key female vocals, couple of members went on to Iron Man.

Maybe the greatest album ever of gothic symphonic metal covers of pop songs:

https://open.spotify.com/album/1z2VqMp0MNni68SZ37N1m4

Also, if you're into the visual-kei version of J-metal, Mucc has two new albums out at once:

https://open.spotify.com/album/0H5RxHktwweq029ONUYzdw
https://open.spotify.com/album/2VMc5xfMUJusmSGR3wx2IV

Next week I could see either the reformed Captain Beyond or Profanatica.
I let the wife choose and she chose the black metal show because she liked the venue better,

Invictus is one of my favorite labels right now. They released my favorite metal album of the year so far (Apostate Viaticum), and the samples from their September and October release line-up all sound good as well (Antiversum, Inconcessus Lux Lucis, Oraculum).

Newish Howls of Ebb/Khthoniik Cerviiks split. I was sold about two seconds into the first HoE track, which has a great intro riff like orcs trying to play King Crimson riffs. Warlike but bouncy.

http://ironboneheadproductions.bandcamp.com/album/howls-of-ebb-khthoniik-cerviiks-with-gangrene-edges-voiidwarp

And the Poison Blood EP from the Horseback guy and Neil from Krieg is good stuff if you like your weirdmetal to have chunks of Beherit worship floating in it.

do you like Blessed Are the Sick? then you should probably get into this

https://phrenelith.bandcamp.com/album/desolate-endscape

that's a fuckin endorsement if I ever heard one!!!!

god I love the new Incantation, I mean new INcantation being good isn't a surprise but this is fuckin' TAUT

if you like Begrime Exemious or other ugly clattering thrashy deathy stuff, Serpent Column is pretty good, the last two songs especially where things sort of open up

https://serpentcolumn.bandcamp.com/releases

I'm still catching up on this year; there's so much, aaaaaggghhh still haven't heard Incantation or Pyrrhon

or that Phrenelith for that matter and the BATS ref compels me to do so

Phrenelith is great. For Morbid Angel worship I think Tehom beats them out by a nose. A demon nose.

I think I'm in love with the one-man slam death project Needle Contaminated Pork from Japan right now btw.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=385q2NN4dJ0

Also any recommendations for full-strength ignorant slam death would be appreciated, I need to pound this week out of my brain and it's only Tuesday.

Interesting article about a Minneapolis-based white power label and the corporate lawyer who runs it

Saw Tour of the Doomed on Sunday. Metal Mike Smith, organizer of Milwaukee's Days of the Doomed Fest which last happened in 2014, arranged this tour with Spillage (Tony Spillman of Earthen Grave), Beelzefuzz and the mighty sHEAVY from Newfoundland. The band formed in 1993, and remarkably this is their first U.S. tour! Highly recommended for fans of rock 'n' doom. One thing all the bands shared in common were strong, unique vocalists, which is often a weakness in this genre. They hit Cleveland tonight, then Pittsburgh, York and Brooklyn. Apostle Of Solitude opened in Chicago. Other dates will include Argus, Witch Hazel, Reign Of Zaius and Pale Divine.

Pics: http://www.johnmourlas.com/2017/20170813400/

Also on Friday I saw Castle probably for the fifth time. Rather than take them for granted, I'm always amazed all over again by their musicianship and commitment to put out with great performances every time (pics). My favorite husband-wife team currently in metal, Elizabeth Blackwell puts forth an intensity that suggests she's not just performing, but exercising demons nightly. Mat Davis is a first rate shredder, watching his fingers flying on the fret is a joy for all guitaraholics (ex on "Corpse Candles"). Drummer Al McCartney ably carries the weight of a power trio drummer. For some reason they haven't gotten quite the same attention as contemporaries such as Christian Mistress and Witch Mountain. They are true road dogs, criss-crossing the U.S. and playing in Europe, and deserve more love. Initially considered a doom band, they've always been a mix of mystical hard rock and traditional metal. Their fifth album should come out early next year. Friends and I chatted with Elizabeth a good 30 minutes before the show and my favorite thing she said was when she talked about how much she loved Judas Priest -- "I'd do anything for Rob Halford -- I'd feed his cats!"

Phrenelith owns, thanks for the sugg

That Serpent Column is really good. I've got tons of stuff to listen to that I'm behind on, but I'm listening to this again.

the Lör album In Forgotten Sleep is incredible imo, sort of a folk/black metal + power hybrid? unexpectedly savage in places, really unique production.

Oh, nice, this Lör album is good. And I will now go fix them in Spotify so that the two not-even-vaguely-similar-to-this-or-each-other records by other Lors are on different pages...

happy 2 be an agent of change

There's a new Ehnahre out next week. I haven't listened to it yet.

Just pre-ordered the deluxe version (5 bonus tracks) of the new Myrkur, and grabbed an Author & Punisher EP that came out back in March (not metal, but metal-adjacent).

The Undergang and Temple of Void albums mentioned upthread are both really good.

wow thanks for Temple of Void recc. reminds me a little of if Bolt Thrower decided to also add funeral doom elements.

New Wildspeaker is highly recommended if you like blackened crust. I'm kind of dubious about that as a genre, tbh, but this is really good and weighty.

so I guess antifa are planning on disrupting Bolzer's tour, which has prompted the guy from Bolzer to issue a statement. the statement seems righteous to me but I mean...if you're gonna get swastika tattoos and then tell people about how the swastika isn't really like that, you gotta expect plenty of blowback

https://www.facebook.com/erosatarms/posts/1637456716287584

I didn't know his dad was a well-known musician and it's heartening to see him say he's anti-fascist/racist/sexist.

The swastika thing... uh. Trying to reclaim the swastika at this point might not be the best idea.

Antifa... man. I'm like 100% behind them except they seem to be kind of knee-jerk reacting to metal bands without knowing much about them or really caring (like the Marduk show they interrupted in the Bay Area). I see them brought up a lot on metal discussion boards by people who aren't necessarily fascist sympathizers but they'll whip out some good old "antifa are fascists too!" horseshit.

I mean, shit, you can see it in the comments on his post.

there's been a spotify purge of white supremacist music. they even briefly removed nokturnal mortum then restored them (you can tell because they play counts have been reset). obviously i'm in favour of this where it explicitly applies but yeah there are more racist fish to fry than our ukrainian patriot buddies

Yeah I haven't wanted to speak ill of Antifa but they do go too far in classifying people in the metal, neofolk, industrial scenes without knowing them and in some cases for playing shows on a book with another band they didn't know that was thrown together by a local booker. Particularly happened to a friend of mine.

Though I would say no matter your intent, you will have two lives, your life before you got a swastika tattoo & your life after and sadly for this kid.

The swastika thing... uh. Trying to reclaim the swastika at this point might not be the best idea.

I'm not sure that it can't be done, necessarily, but extreme metal is not the context to do it in. There's no way a swastika on a death metal musician won't invoke those associations, and I can't believe that he's really so naive as to think that his tattoos are "very benign".

The thing with tattoos is when you get them, and choose to make them publicly visible, you've pretty much opened yourself up to judgment, whether you like it or not. No doubt there are some people that would normally like me that see my Baphomet pentagram and say "ok fuck no". whatever, I chose that.

no doubt this dummy thought "well fuck, people will see this and come up and ask me about it and I can explain". but that's not really how tattoos work - they generate instant reactions, some people are moved enough to ask you 'ok what's that about', but a lot of other people are uncomfortable doing that.

so when you decide to get a tattoo "reclaiming" the swastika and you happen to be a musician in a genre that has had a notorious Nazi problem, both with the musicians and the fans, you can't really get upset that you're "misunderstood".

It's also hella fucking irresponsible considering how some undesirables will react to said tattoo - unless he plans on getting a two paragraph essay tattooed below the Swastika explaining why he got it. just a really dumb idea.

jmm otm.

How hard is it to just remove one fucking tattoo? Certainly a lot less effort than dealing with all this. Guess it does mean a lot to him personally then.

My only personal experience with Okoi/Bolzer was three years ago when he was a total asshole to the organisers of a local Swiss festival.

well removal is expensive so doubtful he wants to spend that kinda scrilla, but there is this thing called *concealer*.

Have you seen how many tats that dude has? If he can pay for those...

true. I suspect dude feels he "shouldn't have to" cos fans should "do homework" on his tatts cos after all tatts are the same as artwork in museums

so when you decide to get a tattoo "reclaiming" the swastika and you happen to be a musician in a genre that has had a notorious Nazi problem, both with the musicians and the fans, you can't really get upset that you're "misunderstood".

It's elitism, innit. I tweeted about this the other day when I read the Facebook post, which comes from a place of exasperation - like, ugh now I have to do the work and come out and explain my stance, I thought I was above having to communicate 'my' meaning with the symbols that I use UGH. But that defence of 'sorry you don't know what I really mean' is as common as it is weak. Doesn't make you a Nazi, just makes me think you're not on as solid an intellectual pedestal as you think you are.

The newest Cormorant album is really great. It manages to go some way in filling the space that the last few Opeth and Mastodon albums have left without sounding too much like either of them.

that defence of 'sorry you don't know what I really mean' is as common as it is weak. Doesn't make you a Nazi, just makes me think you're not on as solid an intellectual pedestal as you think you are.
otm
elitism and privilege, perceived or genuine
if you have a nazi tattoo in the 21st c you should be 100% prepared to explain it without outsourcing the work to your critics
please

Ugh can't you guys stick to Porky Pigging in corpsepaint and blasphemy.

http://i.imgur.com/B94KAAG.png