Rolling Metal Thread 2009

Got the Moss 10" on thursday in Glasgow. It's great! Also picked up the Sunn 0))) & Panasonic 12".

I am crushed at the lack of worship here for the new Madder Mortem cd.

Seriously, when it comes to metal bands whose name starts with 'M', MM simply obliterate Mastodon by any criteria one can imagine aside from 'swinging dicks'.

The Madder Mortem is pretty good. Whatshername keeps reminding me of the way less bombastic Hanne Hukkelberg, who I greatly prefer. The heavy guitars actually sound a little intrusive on this album at times.

do mastodon swing their dicks????

have seen this tbh

Name is Agnete M. Kirkevaag but she understandably just goes by Agnate.

The thing is, she doesn't fit any metal femme template. She isn't operatic (Nightwish etc), rockin' (Lacuna), ethereal gothic or misplaced-indie-chick (Serpent Cult).

Sometimes she's almost gospel, but David Lynch gospel.

I think they may be evolving themselves out of metal entirely, which may be why those guitars seem intrusive. And for fear of being first wave feminist, but I think if she were a dude, their profile would be vastly higher. Or if she were anorexic.

I forget which mag it was, but they gave the record raves--except they had a wee problem with Agnate's tendency to scream.

Imagine--someone screaming in a metal band, how tactless.

Another awesome thing about Madder Mortem are the quiet/clean guitars. They way the parts are so perfectly sculptured and play off one another/around each other or answer the vocals. For real, Isis needs to steal some shit from these guys.

omg a girl that cant be categorized

Maybe it's because I'm not feeling 100%, but Kylesa didn't really do it for me tonight. Great at times, but overall just... underwhelming.

made yall an igoogle theme

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v136/primrosehill/igoogle.jpg

Atheist and The Faceless were both fantastic last night. Atheist played stuff from all three albums, and the Faceless just ripped shit. The Agonist had a van breakdown so didn't make the gig, which was sort of good since it solidified the whole tech-death sausagefest atmosphere; a hot babe onstage would only have been a distraction. Gnostic were good, but unsurprisingly since they include both of Atheist's touring guitarists and drummer Steve Flynn, they sound a whole lot like Atheist and Death, but with a frontman who's like a cross between Jamey Jasta and Michael Chiklis from The Shield. Psyopus are just awful. They should go home, download Brutal Truth's Need To Control and OLD's Lo Flux Tube and then break up in shame. The whole spazzy-noisy psych-art-grind thing is just so fucking played at this point.

I'd give the kylsea another shot. it's a grower.

Roxy, you have made my morning super happy fun.

Meant the Kylesa live show, have already tried and liked the album.

Has anybody heard this Legion of Two CD, Riffs? It's a metal-electronica crossover thing, but instead of being sampled thrash riffs over drum 'n' bass beats or whatever is usually done, it's got live drums which everything else is built upon. It winds up being more like Sunn/Boris meets Isis with extra dubby noise. Not all that far away from what Kevin Martin and Justin Broadrick were doing as Ice before they brought all the rappers in on Bad Blood, or some of the Techno Animal stuff (Vs. Reality, Radio Hades), but a little (sometimes a lot) prettier. It's on Mu; I read a review of it in The Wire and...obtained it.

Looks like YOB is finally officially out tomorrow.

YOB – The Great Cessation (Profound Lore)

Since people here had it three months in advance, has anyone heard this yet?

Solace - A.D. (Small Stone?)

More on retro/stoner/riff rock - Retro rock itch

I didn't like the Legion of Two CD half as much as I hoped but I do intend to give it a fair crack of the whip

My store had the Yob last week - it's amazing, easily their best and at this point the best new thing I've heard this year.

Yeah can't say enough good about the YOB. The more you listen to it, the more you'll like it. It's their heaviest and most brutal as well. But still exceptionally listen-able and rewarding.

Brilliant album, that YOB. I was a big fan of The Unreal Never Lived, but this one tops it. Love the vocals.

Going to spin the new Ensiferum tonight, which should be fun.

Occasional metal listener here - has anyone heard Bergraven's Till Makabert Vasen? I think it's fantastic: atmospheric, melodic, furious, pretty freaky in how everything comes/holds together - it works. For me. Don't know previous albums so can't compare..

Mine is still in the post.

Aldo did you check out the Woburn House?

The new Bergraven is fantastic. Much more Opeth/Enslaved influence than on previous records, and much faster and harder/heavier than earlier stuff too. He's moving away from the atmospheric Burzum/Nortt feeling of the last disc toward a more organic sound that I really love. Might well wind up on my year-end list.

Am listening to the Madder Mortem, thanks to the mention above. Haven't decided how much I like it, but it's definitely interesting, and I'd never heard of them, so another point for Rolling Metal.

Other thing I just discovered is l'Acephale, whose semi-new album Stahlhartes Gehäuse is worth a try if you like Wolves in the Throne Room.

And did I ever mention how great the new Amorphis album is? Yes, I see I did. But it's been a few days, so you might have wondered if I'd changed my mind. I haven't.

xpost to Kerr

Yeah, sorry for not getting back. Enjoyed it a lot more than the first one, but something about them just not clicking for me. Will give it some more attention soon.

Getting to like, as opposed to being distantly impressed by Madder Mortem...it takes a little investment.

At first I was all, Oh, this is, uh...something else. And there was enough to pique interest to keep listening.

Part of it is that each song has a great deal of density--of ideas, of the way things are composed/structured. And be sure--these things are composed. not glib verse-chorus-verse or even madcap-black-metal structuring. Every part relates to an earlier part for maximum effect in the part playing currently.

I guess "Armour" is a good start point, what with it being the single but their idea of a single include a mini-etude on bass and the singer turning into a theremin every few choruses.

Right now, I'm loving how all the clean guitars have this definite Dick-Dale-on-barbiturates feel.

Has anyone else heard the new Augury? I like it a ton, they've done away with the operatic singing that marred the last album, and there's more of that Deving Townsend yell-singing to offset the growls. Plus some stupidly cool basslines on this record. Very Intronaut-esque.

Oh, and the new Ensiferum is catastrophic. They're always best as one of those middle-tier bands that sticks to a comfortable formula and keep the fans happy, but they have much higher ambitions on the new CD, and everything fails, it's all so overblown (everything from maudlin symphonic metal to inexplicable Calexico-style -!- passages), pretentious, and contrived.

Ha. "Catastrophic" made it sound intriguing til I realized that you really meant it.

old news for everybody i imagine, but due to hammers of misfortune and slough feg both playing in town within days of each other (!!!) i was listening to my newly created last.fm hammers of misfortune station and HOW THE HELL have i never heard reverend bizarre before. this shit is aweosme!

'Doom Over The World' and 'Demons Annoying Me' are yoga flame for all time - great band

From one truly great finnish band to one of the worst ever..

Children Of Bodom, the Finnish five-piece with a burgeoning reputation as one of the world’s premier shred-tastic bands, will release the ‘Skeletons In The Closet’ album on September 21st 2009 – a 17-track collection of cover versions spanning the group’s decade-plus career.

Some of the covers have appeared as bonus material on hard-to-find single releases or limited edition catalogue re-issues, others are brand new recordings. Indeed, the lead track from the project will be a recently completed version of ‘War Inside My Head’, a song originally recorded by Suicidal Tendencies back in 1987.

The full UK track-listing is as follows:

1. ‘Lookin' Out My Back Door’ (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
2. ‘Hell Is For Children’ (Pat Benatar)
3. ‘Somebody Put Something In My Drink’ (Ramones)
4. ‘Mass Hypnosis’ (Sepultura)
5. ‘Don´t Stop At The Top’ (Scorpions)
6. ‘Silent Scream’ (Slayer)
7. ‘She Is Beautiful’ (Andrew W.K.)
8. ‘Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)’ (Kenny Rogers)
9. ‘Bed Of Nails’ (Alice Cooper)
10. ‘Hellion’ (W.A.S.P.)
11. ‘Aces High’ (Iron Maiden)
12. ‘Rebel Yell’ (Billy Idol)
13. ‘No Commands’ (Stone – a band that once featured current C.O.B guitarist Roope Latvala)
14. ‘Antisocial’ (Trust/Anthrax)
15. ‘Talk Dirty To Me’ (Poison)
16 ‘War Inside My Head’ (Suicidal Tendencies)
17 ‘Ooops! I Did It Again’ (Britney Spears)

500% real talk here, I cannot wait to hear what CoB covering Andrew WK sounds like

yuck.

I guess they're into the big lebowski soundtrack.

'Doom Over The World' and 'Demons Annoying Me' are yoga flame for all time - great band

huh? is there a band called yoga flame or something? what the hell is going on here?

It's an old ILX micromeme! That dude Tynan Delong, it was one of his

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXSYpQi7Nt8

all praise deserved--the yob album is amazing.

I like Bodom's cover of "Hellion".

OK, when I said "Am listening to the Madder Mortem ... Haven't decided how much I like it, but it's definitely interesting", I was literally playing it for the first time. They had me by the end of the second listen. This is a fantastic, fantastic record. At times I feel like I'm hearing Cowboy Junkies as a metal band, at times I think "See, the problem with Marnie Stern as 'metal' is that she only understands lead guitar, and metal is 92.3% rhythm guitar", at times I think this is what Voivod could have sounded like if they'd understood why the original version of "Diamonds and Rust" is 1000 times spookier than Judas Priest's cover. And most of the time I'm just mercifully speechless.

all praise deserved--the yob album is amazing.

Yeah, even PFork likes it. http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/13327-the-great-cessation/

or, you could say, even Cosmo likes it. i'll take his word over the entity that is pitchfork.

i don't even know why i say that. i don't even read pitchfork. but i do like cosmo. and i didn't even know that he wrote for them.

he is their token metal reviewer of late.

listening to the new Ahab. sounds like Ahab!

must buy

Interviewed Dio today. Nice old guy. Got him to talk about his 1950s rock 'n' roll cover band years and making the turn toward heavy rock in the '70s.

really stoked for that ahab!

Have we talked about the new Nachtmystium EP yet? It's really great, I probably prefer it to 'Assassins'