Rolling Metal Thread 2009

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40292000/jpg/_40292729_overmarsb203.jpg

Oh frabjous day. I fucking love Overmars. 'Born Again' was amazing.

Got the new Cave In ep from Aaron Turner. It's the best stuff since Jupiter. Faster and meaner than they've been in years. I like it, but I'm not going to ride through the streets yelling "They're back!" until they can make a whole album this good.

I just got the new Skeletonwitch. It's pretty blazing.

^ Really looking forward to that one. Jack Endino's having quite the metal renaissance these days.

The new Arch Enemy album of re-recorded pre-Angela tracks is kind of pointless. I greatly prefer her vocals to Liiva's, but she doesn't really bring anything new to the table, which is surprising, because a) she really sounded charismatic on the last record, and b) the performances of the old tracks on the live DVDs are blistering. These new tracks just feel tepid.

Is there a thread about albums that actually should be re-recorded?

I liked the Destruction re-recordings a lot. It's a dumb idea nearly all the time, but every once in a rare while it can work.

Listening to the new Anvil album right now. It's...good! Much heavier than I thought it would be, almost reminds me of the Heaven and Hell disc in a way, and the vocals are almost Ian Gillan-esque. Note: this is my first experience with Anvil - haven't heard the back catalog, haven't seen the movie. So if anyone can tell me if this is a major change for them (if age has slowed them down) or if they were always sorta doomy classic/power metal?

Their early stuff was half proto-thrash, half UFO style classic metal. Still, what I've heard of the new one still sounds unmistakably Anvil.

holy crap - I didn't realize that joe connell (ex-man is the bastard) is in bastard noise now! check out "movement two" on their myspace:
http://www.myspace.com/mitbnoise

awesome.

turns out the Overmars album on Crucial Blast is just an American re-release of their album from last year, Born Again. One 40 minute epic song. But it's new to me! This is seriously one of the best things i've heard all year. And without a doubt one of the heaviest albums i've heard in a long long time. like, Swans-heavy doom. very exciting to listen to.

The new Crucifist album is pretty good, like a crustier Goatwhore, total Frost/Bathory worship. The highlight, though, has to be their ripping cover of Angel Witch's "Angel of Death". Awesome track.

Now downloading my watermarked copy of the new Slayer. Tentative release date: October somethingorother.

my prediction: it sounds EXACTLY like a Slayer album!

It does indeed. But to my ear, they've never made a bad one except for Undisputed Attitude, so I'm happy with it.

Would you agree that the last one they put out as good as Seasons in the Abyss was Seasons in the Abyss?

No, I would not. I really like some of the Bostaph-era albums, particularly Diabolus in Musica, and I thought Christ Illusion was at least as strong as Seasons in the Abyss; maybe even better, because it had some crazy dissonant guitars and it didn't have any songs as shitty as "Dead Skin Mask."

That new Bastard Noise line-up is aces.

xpost - I am also a defender of Diabolus in Musica. Haven't heard Christ Illusion.

Christ Illusion is great!

"turns out the Overmars album on Crucial Blast is just an American re-release of their album from last year, Born Again. One 40 minute epic song. But it's new to me! This is seriously one of the best things i've heard all year. And without a doubt one of the heaviest albums i've heard in a long long time. like, Swans-heavy doom. very exciting to listen to."

Aiiieeeeee! Denied!

They are great though. If they come to your town, go and see them. They play that track all the way through infront of a big film of a woman giving birth, made to look like a kaleidoscope. Main dude looks like the chap from 300 with the beard having something inserted roughly but not entirely unpleasantly into his anal cavity.

'Christ Illusion' is a great album.

I think I agree with Adrien on the new 3 Inches of Blood... pretty rocking throwback metal. "All of Them witches" is especially glorious.

i've been enjoying mindrot lately. it's really cool to hear something with a neurosis influence from before neurosis became a genre.

^Mindrot!!! Yeah I remember listening to them back to back with Winter and Asbestos Death--before Neurosis was a genre. Good stuff.

I just love the new Ghost Brigade album. They're one of those bands where merely describing them (Katatonia meets Cult of Luna) doesn't do it justice...they come up with some of the classiest melodies I've heard from a metal band in a while, yet at the same time they can be tremendously heavy.

I think I agree with Adrien on the new 3 Inches of Blood... pretty rocking throwback metal. "All of Them witches" is especially glorious.

"Call of the Hammer" and "Rock in Hell" are so perfect in their 1985 vibe. One rips off Manowar, the other rips off Grim Reaper. Love it.

Sounds like Opeth didn't have the greatest weekend...

Ha, I read that last night...what a trainwreck!

The new Behemoth reminds me of the new Mastodon without the ELO stuff.

Is it sacrilege to say I think I now worship Karl Simon of Gates of Slumber more than Wino? Cause Hymns of Blood and Thunder is fucking owning my world right now, to such a degree that I don't even think I need the Shrinebuilder album to come out; this is my doom-biker-metal album of 2009.

I wish I liked Karl's voice.

Overmars is playing in Boston tomorrow night!! I wish I wasn't such a scaredy cat about driving long distances by myself. and driving in cities. and on highways. i need to make a metal friend here in greenfield who likes to drive places.

the Overmars album is definitely my second favorite album of the year. even though it actually came out in 2007.

any western massachusetts lurkers wanna drive to Allston tomorrow night?

I liked Christ Illusion quite a bit, but I have to say, World Painted Blood is better. The title track is the best thing I've heard from Slayer in quite a while.

In which I express my misgivings about the whole Shrinebuilder thing (that name's becoming increasingly ironic, btw, given how many people are willing to fall to their knees without having heard a note of music)...

i think what yr saying is that if you only like half the guys in the band you're going to be less excited than someone who likes 3 or 4 guys in the band?

well, if you hate sleep, om, and neurosis, i guess you wouldn't be that excited by the whole thing!

i wasn't even paying attention to this album, but now that i think about it, it might be really good! (i like sleep, om, and neurosis. i never listened to melvins, but the dude can drum. who cares what band he was in. and wino is wino. he's always good for a listen or two.)

MOST stuff like this, no matter who is in the group, is usually something that i listen to once and never play again.

There's certainly a lot to digest on the new Krallice album. It's something like 78 minutes long. Liking it so far, though.

oh god--when i saw them the vast majority of the set was one song that felt like it was definitely 20+ minutes. not sure that kind of length is good for them tho.

Recent posts mentioning Madder Mortem's "Eight Ways" prompted me to register and stop lurking. I fell in love with Madder Mortem with 2005's "Desiderata", which is one of my favorite discs this decade. I was nervous about "Eight Ways" because it's hard to live up to a disc that you love. "Eight Ways" is a worthy successor, and one I'm falling for just as much. In fact, I forced myself to stop listening to it for fear that I'd burn out on it like I did with Nevermore's "This Godless Endeavor", which I also think is one of the best discs this decade.

While I'm at it, other things I'm listening to:

Amorphis - Skyforger : Reserving judgment, too new for me
Augury - Fragmentary Evidence : Reserving judgement
Cattle Decapitation - The Harvest Floor : I can't get into this band
God Forbid - Earthsblood : I can't get into this band either, but I like this one better than their earlier work
Heaven & Hell - The Devil You Know : Surprisingly good, but not sure how well it'll age
Kreator - Hordes of Chaos : I should love this band, and this is a great disc, but they leave me wanting more somehow. This feels like a strong release from them, compared to some earlier work.
Lamb of God - Wrath : Been a fan for a while, this disc is growing on me, I like it more than Sacrament, but not as much as As The Palaces Burn, maybe it'll grow on me more.
Mastodon - Crack The Skye : Love the band, love the disc. Many talk about hating the vocals, I like them a lot, I don't know why people seem surprised by their evolution, which seems perfectly natural to me.
YOB - The Great Cessation : I can't get into doom as much as I feel I should. This seems like a good album, but leaves me wondering what all the fuss is about.

So far, "Eight Ways" and "Crack The Skye" are my favorites so far this year.

Band I wanted so badly to like after reading a long TheLeftHandPath interview, but couldn't get into at all: Weapon.

Band I probably wanted to like more before reading a long TheLeftHandPath interview, but am still pondering, with guarded optimism: Teitanblood.

I'm also really liking the Dark Tranquillity demo comp, and the bonus tracks from the Projector/Have/Damage Done reissues.

My track-by-track (p)review of the forthcoming Slayer album can be read here. Short version: It's good.

what is the new krallice called? don't see anything about this online

I'm sure there'll be the title announcement/preview track appearing at Profound Lore any day. It's a beast of a record, that's for sure. Its last track really blew me away. Just like the first CD.

Oh, and I agree with you, Phil, the Slayer is really good. Nice preview piece!

God, Araya looks ancient. And Lombardo looks like Andy Garcia.

He does.

Nice Slayer write-up Phil, makes me a lot more excited to hear it than I was.

xpost-I just texted Mick Barr. He says the new Krallice doesn't have a title, but that they're referring to it as Dimensional Bleedthrough.