Rolling Metal Thread 2009

i was just listening to eyes of ligeia the other day. they are great.

i feel bad that i got the new tyr album, like, 2 weeks ago and i still haven't listened to it. napalm voiceover promos do bum me out, but still...

sapthuran doesn't get enough ink. he's way better than most basement bm u.s. dudes. i love his stuff. maybe cuz he isn't on moribund or southern lord or something people don't seek his stuff out? who knows. they should though.

reminds me i should hit up crionic mind for my noise column.

bindrune just might be my favorite record label in america. even though they haven't put out much. them and god is myth.

This very weekend, I will seek out Sapthuran. Actually, I'm listening to him now on Youtube, but I'll definitely give him some serious listening.

I only know of Sapthuran because of the split with Leviathan, and I admit I deleted the Sapthuran tracks after a couple listens.

My newest Black Metal discovery is Funeral Mist, who I'd somehow ignored until now. Nothing too likely to convert outsiders, but the new album, Maranatha, is a particularly good mix of ominous atmosphere and intermittent breakneck BM sputtering.

Listening now to the Hungarian band Obsidian Shell. Reminds me of a less fluttery, more aggressive version of Dalriada, the only other female-fronted Hungarian metal band I know.

Got the new Xasthur, but haven't played it. Haven't been feeling miserable enough yet.

You will be miserable enough after listening to it.

ha - was just thinking about how I loved the celestial album that came out a few years back on birdrune.

never listened to anyone else on the label, tho.

Latest Xasthur is a further step in the direction of BM as big 60's film themes. Great moments, but the drawback is that I can't see any structure or flow - just seems like "here's the last dozen things I wrote in chronological order. Back in six months."

Respect is due for putting out a cassette-only release in 2009, though.

i feel bad that i got the new tyr album, like, 2 weeks ago and i still haven't listened to it. napalm voiceover promos do bum me out, but still...

Yeah, those voice-overs are awful. The new Tyr is pretty solid, a lot more upbeat than the last few, with some great vocals. But only two songs in Faroese...I think this band is always better when they don't sing in English.

Really looking forward to that Tyr album, but those fucking voice-overs nearly kept me from discovering Tyr in the first place, so I'll wait for the unruined version...

This is very much a side note, but if any of you are a fan of Tape Op, the magazine about home recording, there is a (unintentionally) hilarious article about recording death metal and black metal in the most recent issue. It basically vacillates between "When I'm recording the ride cymbal, I use an SM57 pointed halfway in between the bell and the cymbal proper" and "You have to turn up the drums so they are FUCKING EXTREME." I also learned that in recording keyboards for metal music "REAL METAL HAS NO KEYBOARDS."

Well more unintentionally bemusing than unintentionally hilarious, to be fair.

over/under on number of times "brutal" is used....i'm setting at 3.5

HOOS just out of curiosity how big was the venue where you saw wittr? i saw them just a few days ago in a v. small club and thought they legit killed.

― Is because I think a lot of the music you like is flowery? (call all destroyer), Tuesday, May 26, 2009 3

kinda like a large club

place i'll be in a week or so will be smaller

Am I just late to the party, or have we talked about how great this Helms Alee album on Hydrahead is yet? Stoner with folk and country influences, and intertwined male/female vox.

It's great, I have the vinyl.

The new Darkest Hour album sounds as if In Flames reverted from Clayman back to Whoracle. Not a bad thing.

New Goatwhore's the best new record I've heard in a while, though.

OK, now I've heard the Tyr album. Whee! 100% predictable, and I do not mean that as a criticism in any way.

Also, I'm so into this Funeral Mist album. More after each listen. The cover needs to be cropped, however. Logo to the bottom left, angel in the top right, make it square. Much better.

New Pelican EP is pretty solid. Much heavier than the other stuff I've heard by them. Unfortunately, it's also a little more traditional instrumental hard rock... of course, it is only two songs and an Earth cover, so it's hardly as expansive.

Chickenfoot is surprisingly fun! Bluesy hard rock with no real pretensions or expectations, just four pros jamming in the studio. Plus, the heat sensitive packaging blows my mind.

The new YOB is in the process of killing me right now. Yikes, it's good.

As is the proggy new Drudkh album. Things are really starting to pick up, there are tons of killer metal releases this summer.

i just wanted to stop by and thank Scott for convincing me to buy the annihilator album - Criteria for a Black Widow is maybe my favorite "new" thing i've heard this year. so fucking thrash awesome.

ysi?

jk

um give me a moment and check your email

this Helms Alee album on Hydrahead

this is ridiculously fucking dope btw

Finally got my hands on a copy of the now-mastered unreleased Bloody Panda album. It definitely delivers on the promise of the first, featuring further realization, better production, and more tuneful singing (betwixt plenty of gut-wrenching screams).

Would be the Doom album of the year hands down if not for YOB.

it's unrelease as-of-yet, right? and not going to be unreleased forever? right? because i want to hear it.

Meanwhile, at the lighter end of things ... I've been given the debut album by a Glasgow band called You Already Know to review. It's kind of "we like Mogwai" mixed with "we also really, really like old-fashioned metal", recorded in a sock. I have reasonably high hopes for them. Any of the Scots on here know them?

onion avclub got a metal column

i need to hear that yob album more than any other album thats due

take off that Bon Iver CD, turn your speakers up to 11, and let’s get started.

Jackie Harvey's branching out

That Leonard Pierce guy is a jerk, always disagreeing with me...

I think it's great they got a metal column.

Disappointed with that Sunn O))) album review. Not a good start to the column.

it's kind of silly to have a metal column, isn't it? they can't just, you know, review metal albums alongside their regular reviews of indie dreck and electronic stuffs? sure, they reviewed an album here or there in the past (less than a dozen, i'd guess) but why does THE ONION need a metal column? pitchforkism!

"hey, here's a genre we've kept at arms length for our entire existence, let's give it its own column!"

i need someone smart like adrien to explain to me what the hell drudkh are up to on their new album. ??????????????

xpost - the Bloody Panda is coming out on Profound Lore. As is the YOB. Both coasts win.

i need someone smart like adrien to explain to me what the hell drudkh are up to on their new album. ??????????????

Ha, I was as just as baffled as you. But a few spins had me liking this album a lot...it feels a little like Enslaved at times. At any rate, it's better than Estrangement, but not as great as Blood in Our Wells.

http://www.avclub.com/articles/june-2009,29007/

Copycats!

Nah, seriously, this is pretty cool, I always liked Leonard's stuff.

wow, what a response to that onion column! i'm jealous. i need to pitch a column to some metal-less web-site. does Business Week.com have a metal column?

profound lore have a track from the new yob up here:
http://www.profoundlorerecords.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogcategory&id=14&Itemid=33

love it.

Thanks for the heads-up on that Yob stream Alan. Fantastic.

yeah, this album went from something I had no idea was coming out from a band I hadn't followed in years to one of my most anticipated releases of the year. thanks nate/rolling metal!

Here's a rather fascinating account of the swift demise of the Blackened fest:

http://www.metalinjection.net/dispatches-from-the-van/exclusive-demise-blackened-fest

The sun rose and the arguing continued. Robin, Mayhem's bus driver, was prepared to ditch Mayhem and their crew at a truck stop in Denver without any of their gear or belongings. He, within a couple hours, had already changed the trailer lock. I was waiting for that moment, when the Cephalic/Withered bus drove off and Attila and Hellhammer still in their 4 inch soled boots were flipping birds at us because they were stuck in the middle of nowhere with no tour.

Crazy post. I just now texted Mayhem's live sound man (and producer extraordinaire) Billy Anderson. He said he got paid, most of the the internet story is BS, and that there will be an official statement tomorrow.

Finally got my hands on a copy of the now-mastered unreleased Bloody Panda album. It definitely delivers on the promise of the first, featuring further realization, better production, and more tuneful singing (betwixt plenty of gut-wrenching screams).

I loved the first album, and this excerpt sure sounds promising.

http://www.profoundlorerecords.com/mp3/Miserere_Excerpt.mp3

I admit to have given up on Amorphis after Am Universum, and in fact didn't even realize they changed vocalists (three albums ago) until I read somebody's comment about how far the newest record was from their early greatness. That got me to try the new one (Skyforger) out of curious contrarianism, and now I have to go back and get the previous two, too. New voice = new life, at least for me.

Also, I just noticed that Amorphis is band id=1 in Encyclopaedia Metallum. Definitive cred.

Yeah, the new guy really revitalized the band, and plus he looks kind of like a pirate! Eclipse, Silent Waters, and SkyForger not only have some ridiculously catchy songs, but the complexity of the arrangements are pretty stunning.

Meanwhile, I've been listening a lot to the new Novembers Doom. Continues their tradition of excellent death doom, if you can get past the lol-ness of the title, Into Night's Requiem Infernal.

Nightrage's Wearing the Martyr's Crown is a big improvement over the last album, which was really boring generic metalcore. This one is really well done generic melodic death metal, which to some people may not be an improvement, but I like it.

grief of WAR really like mid-90s Century Media metalcore (Shadows Fall and the Haunted), so if you like that stuff, you'll like this.

Pelican EP is pretty gritty and rocking for instrumental post-rock, but only three songs and on vinyl, so I would probably wait for the full length.

Trollfast sound like Finntroll with a shorter attention span. They have a song where the chorus consists of quacking.

Astra's The Weirding, on Metal Blade of all places, play total 70s-style Hongro-prog. Fun stuff, if a bit of a head scratcher. Lots and lots of wanking, but everything old is new again, right?

lso, I just noticed that Amorphis is band id=1 in Encyclopaedia Metallum. Definitive cred.

http://www.metal-archives.com/band.php?id=666

black jester are clearly the evillest metal band ever.