Rolling Metal Thread 2009

It's weird: Steel That Sleeps & Swollen and Halo seems like they're of a piece, and Ogeechee Hymnal seems like an extended intro to Horse Called Golgotha (which fucking rocks and is easily the best part of the record imo??). Anybody else hearing that structure?

plus the occasional Frippery guitar parts

read this as flippery and got confused and excited.

btw guys this is a ~jazz album~ but i think it would really appeal to the drone/psych partisans of this thread hey look i made a genre distinction lets all be cool about it

http://www.runegrammofon.com/artists/fire_/rcd-2091---fire_-you-liked-me-five-minutes-ago

can be got in the amazon mp3 store and is super cool, equal parts Om & Alice Coltrane

barrabas

I'm off to see Electric Wizard twice this week. Am stupidly excited.

Yeah, going to the Bristol show on Saturday.

Re Baroness: Yeah, there's definite bleed-through from one track to the next, plus the whole album is kinda linked/looping in structure (first song "Bullhead's Psalm," last song "Bullhead's Lament").

Re Fire! (punctuation in original): I like that one too.

Another thing I like is the new/forthcoming Ancestors album. It's four long songs paired with/separated by four short interlude things, so clearly intended to be owned/heard on double vinyl, but they've really gotten a lot better since the debut. Big Uriah Heep influence, at least to my ear, and that's never a bad thing.

With the Baroness album I love how it straddles metal, prog, and accessible jammy rock so effortlessly. And for all the noodling, there's a sense of restraint there, the hook gets top priority, not the technical flash. Plus these guys have a better sense of groove than a band like Mastodon (great as they are) ever will.

What's really grabbed me as of late is the new Worm Ouroboros record. I've had it for ages it seems, but it's finally settled in this past week. Gorgeous album...at times it sounds like Alison Goldfrapp fronting early Baroness.

these guys have a better sense of groove than a band like Mastodon (great as they are) ever will

As far as Brann Dailor's concerned, time spent establishing a groove is time that could have been spent on manic fills.

Although to Dailor's credit, he does seem to tone down on the fills at times on the new record. But when he does that, his drumming really feels rigid. Not entirely a bad thing, it suits Mastodon fine, but it doesn't exactly swing like, say, Dave Lombardo.

i liked dailor better when he was like pretending to be a jazz drummer. he's kind of boring when he consciously simplifies.

Re Baroness: Yeah, there's definite bleed-through from one track to the next, plus the whole album is kinda linked/looping in structure

Yeah I started to hear a bunch of the repeated themes after another listen this morning.

It's a long-ass suite

Baroness album is fucking awesome. the more Yes and psychedelic the better

also i think this new Om album is by far their most interesting and listenable yet.

two great alt metal albums

xpost - Worm Ouroboros = very good.

I'm trying to figure out what "Steel That Sleeps the Eye" reminds me of. It's like it's beamed in from a Grace Slick record or something, or maybe Hawkwind?

It's pure Hawkwind.

I was thinking Moody Blues, a little bit.

! That's what I was hearing, my dad playing me all those Moody Blues records as a kid.

What a weird band

finally listened to the baroness last night. really impressed.

Listening to _Renihilation_, by Liturgy. Brooklyn blast-metal band, first full album. Wow. Who needs to slow down? Or breathe? Produced by some guy from Krallice; I never managed to appreciate Krallice, but this is magnificent. Ever so vaguely in the same realm as Wolves in the Throne Room, but more like the wolves got distracted ripping some rabbits apart on the way in.

tis good

This week in the Cleveland Scene, I reconsider Cryptopsy's The Unspoken King.

I tried to reconsider The Unspoken King when I saw Cryptopsy late last year...it does have a couple good moments, but not enough for me to do a complete 180, opinion-wise. Live, though, they sounded as good as they ever had.

I reconsider Cryptopsy's The Unspoken King.

TOO SOON!

hahaha.

This Liturgy album is like Parts & Labor as a metal band.

Also, I'll reiterate my endorsements of the new Madder Mortem and Urna, both of which are holding up incredibly well under extreme repetition.

I'm coming around to Augury's Fragmentary Evidence this time, too, after twice previously downloading and deleting it. Thanks to everybody who kept plugging it.

I like that Liturgy album quite a bit.

The new BTBAM is eclectic. Shocker!

Do they run through multiple styles in the course of a single frantic song!!

Oh, just a little bit, haha.

Actually these guys are ace songwriters, they're one of the only bands who can make those sudden stylistic shifts sound natural. They're in full command on the new record. Sure, it's crazy at times, but it's disciplined as well.

I'm waiting for the publicist to send me a stream. Is that what you've been hearing, or did it leak?

Yeah, it's a stream. Took a lot of convincing from Decibel's side, it was stupid.

I've got a Tuesday review deadline from Alternative Press; I'm sure I'll get my link tomorrow. Unless you wanna share yours via Gmail...

I'd like to, but after all this time assuring the band I'm trustworthy, I'm a little hesitant! Hopefully you're set up asap.

All this cloak & dagger stuff just to try to hear a record is absurd.

Yeah, I've been having crazy trouble getting ahold of some records that I'm supposed to review -- and not even obvious ones! A certain label that I've always had good dealings with in the past now has a page long legal document you have to sign if you want to receive the record early, and I'm very hesitant to sign something like that. Seems like there's more paranoia than ever about downloading.

Interesting review of The Gates Of Slumber - Hymns Of Blood and Thunder: http://decibelmagazine.com/Content.aspx?ncid=329277. I haven't heard it yet, so my question is, are they paying homage to More's (awesome) 1982 album, Blood & Thunder, or is it just a coincidence?

No idea, but I can say that the album's every bit as good as that.

"they're one of the only bands who can make those sudden stylistic shifts sound natural"

Um, Opeth?

Well, BTBAM really goes off the deep end with their variety, they go all over the map. But yeah, I did forget about Opeth. The funk bit in "Lotus Eater" still amazes me.

That's exactly what I was thinking of. Listened to that song earlier today!

I like the samples of Hymns. They have a CD release show at Doug's Rock House, Oct. 2 in Aurora -- Wayne's World country, appropriately enough!

Between the Buried and Me sound interesting too.

New Katatonia track here: http://www.burningshed.com/store/peaceville/freedownload/20/

Pretty much what you'd expect from them: heavy, gloomy, melodic, classy. So excited to hear the rest.

Saw Ozzy perform at the Sunset Strip Music Festival last night, it was pretty cool to actually get to see him from a reasonable distance. Gus G. was awesome -- he nailed every song. Hopefully this means that the next Ozzy album won't sound like Black Label Society outtakes.

How come nobody has informed the world that the new Peste Noire is so good? Their best proper album yet, beats everything they did since Macabre Transcendance. I've read quite a few negative reviews which put me off (Folkfuck Folie was pretty useless) but this is so much better!

That Peste Noire album does sound amazing. Truly bizarre.

The BTBAM album has grown on me hugely this weekend. The Floyd rip-offs that were so glaring on Colors are gone, and this time there's a massive early-70s, heavy King Crimson thing going on. There are a couple of crazy turns, like the Kurt Weill bit in "Fossil Genera" and the Derek Trucks style blues jam on "Disease Injury Madness", but for the most part they've really got all the insanity under control for once. Excellent, excellent record.

Got the forthcoming Saviours album, Accelerated Living, in today's mail. All the original songs from their three recent singles (but not the cover songs) are on it, plus five more tracks.

Listening to the BTBAM album right now. It's great music, brilliantly performed, but I gotta say it's pretty unmemorable. Say what you will about early '70s Yes, they had hooks - phrases and bits that stick in your head. "Roundabout," "Close To The Edge," even "Sound Chaser" are things that'll pop into my head sometimes. BTBAM are as close as metalcore's gonna get to classic Yes, but they haven't figured out how to write a hook that memorable yet, or maybe they think it's beneath them, or something.

Love that Saviours album. As for the BTBAM, I find it all pretty darn memorable. It needs time to sink in. But I do know what you're getting at. Old prog bands were very catchy, something a lot of young bands can't seem to realize.

um, the old guys grew up listening to the Beatles/Beach Boys. just sayin'.