Rolling 2004 Metal Thread

Anata, Under a Stone With No Inscription (metalcore/death-metal fusion [!]: really a grower, sounded good on first listen way back in January and just keeps getting fiercer & wilder
Decapitated, The Negation Plain ol' death metal with a Morbid Angel fixation but gawd they're good at it, really spaced-out & great
The End, Within Dividia Somewhat ike Anata but not as crazy & way more on the metalcore side of things - which is odd because the End used to be super-crazy on purpose, only in an often annoying way i.e. their bass parts reminded me of Primus sometimes, which can't be good. But this one really cages in the bassist and the whole album's really focused and savage.

...and the new Lickgoldensky, which I've only got a burned copy of & I'm not sure when it comes out but is easily the best of the lot, because Lickgoldensky is just unbelievably great.

http://www.zebulonpike.com/

mpls based...lead by the bass player of free jazz/funky whatever band Happy Apple (also related to the Bad Plus)...

Anyways, saw them and was very impressed....all instrumental doom/stoner stuff, but they (unlike alot of all instrumental bands like this i've seen)...had a good sense of composition (ie they write multiple "movements" to the songs that eb and flow so's they don't get boring)..excellent musicians, used alot of harmony double lead guitar stuff....bass player had monster loud tone (and very old Rush 2112 t-shirt on so you know he's not playin')...

they have some demos on the site a 5-song full length is recorded and coming out this summer...

Signed,
C. Eddy

Other things I like right now:

Cadaver (formerly Cadaver Inc.), Necrosis
1349, Beyond The Apocalypse
Dimension Zero, This Is Hell
Pelican, Australasia

Recent tuneful metal

You can add the new Katatonia album and Subterranean Masquerade CD single to the ones I talk about on that thread, as well. I like the End and Anata; haven't heard Decapitated. The Lickgoldensky EP or whatever it was from last year was kind of fun, in a stupid way.

Best Foghat song of the year is on the Mr. Wonka!? CD-R I review here:

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0415/eddy.php

As far as other newish heavy music goes, I haven't heard anything that can touch Kayo Dot's "Choirs of the Eye" since that came out last year. The new Koma album (feat. members from Cult of Luna) is pretty good, but not in the same league.

That Vital Remains album was my second favorite album of last year after the Lickgoldensky debut! As to the new Deicide, I thought it was pretty weak on first listen but I'm a little more into it now - still, Glenn's vocals on it sound like he's just plain not into it any more. Maybe Vital Remains, umm, revitalized him. AAaagh sorry about that one.

Chuck I thought the last Katatonia was totally unlistenable - is the new one more of that, or back in the direction of Last Fair Deal Gone Down?

and finally, Phil- am I right in guessing that metalcore-ish stuff doesn't do anything for you?

For the most part, yeah. I love the Deftones, though, and have an affection for Machine Head that's a mystery even to me. (Their new album, which reunites Robb Flynn with his old guitarist from Vio-lence, is really good.)

Other than that on a commercial metal tip I would say the new fear factory and soulfly records are both returns to form after preceding blips.

and Scott I wouldn't know whether the Viva Emptiness songs are good because the singing & production thereof/upon is so very, very bad :)

All I will say here is that I trust Scott Seward's Katatonia judgement implicitly, at all times. I'm talking about a 2-CD set I got in the mail two weeks ago. I have no idea when its songs were recorded, but its sad grumbling frequently sounds quite beautiful.

Actually, his new single is really good, but I wouldn't call it metal, honest!

The comp has the demo, a couple of tracks off the first album, For Funerals To Come, A couple from Brave Murder Day, a couple comp tracks, and a couple old e.p.s/single tracks.

Decapitated-I can't remember. I might have a promo of it, but i could be thinking of something else. I'll check.

In the UK we have two stations Radio 1 and Xfm - that have weekly rock/ metal shows - but they are mostly useless.

Some Dark Metal/Metalcore/Noisecore artists that I am looking forward to release albums in 2004 [although no doubt some will be delayed to 2005 !]

Arcturus
Borknager
Celtic Frost
Converge
Cult of Luna
Death Angel
DHG/ Dodheimsgard
Diabolical Masquerade
Dillinger Escape Plan
Ephel Duath
Gehenna
Green Carnation
Lamb of God
Lickgoldensky
Madder Mortem
Mastodon
Motorhead
Neurosis
Nile
Opeth
Potentiam
The Red Chord
Red Harvest
Solefald
System of a Down

http://www.snakenetmetalradio.com/mostrecentadds.asp

http://www.snakenetmetalradio.com/charts/charts.asp

i never really pay attention to what years things come out, i think the only newish metal stuff i've bought recently is:

abigail - forever street metal bitch. ridiculous retro japanese 'black thrash' with motorhead/venom/sodom influences proudly to the fore.

spear of longinus - black sun society box. australian 'nazi occult metal,' probably their best release and moving toward a heavier, seemingly more death metal inspired sound.

mutiilation - majestas leprosus. french black legions = virulent/crapulent darkthrone-descended ugliness.

tangorodrim - unholy and unlimited lp on southern lord. first thing on SL i've heard that's outside their usual 'genre' - this is more pure hellhammer/darkthrone-inspired stuff.

blood storm's "ancient wraith of ku" is pretty cool. main guy used to be in goreaphobia and toured as a member of absu.

The Mutilation disc is impossible to find. But if you have Soulseek and a halfway decent gentleman willing to share, you can get lucky.

-Alan

-looking forward to converge and dep. mastodon should rock.

-i've been digging the latest flying luttenbachers stuff which is very prog metalish... it's really blistering stuff.

-temporary residence put out this metal record by some teenagers called nightfist.... it's total 80s epic cheese with little acknowledgement of what everybody else is doing... somebody grew up in a trailer with nothing but Yes and Europe maybe. it's kinda refreshing cause i don't have any of my old metal like it. the midi piano is choice.

-probot has some good moments but you can tell the excitement of such a project overshadowed the song writing at times.

-circle takes the square... sort of grind meets emocore with weird quite parts... probably not metal, pear say. very good though. multi-vocals rule.

-heh...squarepusher has some near industrial metal like stuff on his new one... track i'm referring to specifically: "steinbolt"

-friends are pissing themselves over bathtub shitter but i'm not feeling it.
m.

The Mutilation disc is impossible to find.

www.theajnaoffensive.com has it - i just got my copy (+abigail +s.o.l.) from them. i think they're also doing US distro for drakkar these days.

By the way, "Rolling Metal" would be one kick-ass genre!

Here's my review of those precocious tykes:

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0351/eddy.php

The Lord of the Rings conquering the world was just the start. JUST YOU WAIT etc. Chuck remind me to send you some Raunchy Young Lepers songs one of these days.

msp if you dig "The Beautiful Sounds of Lickgoldensky" just wait 'til you hear their next stuff...holy God is it focused

sleepytime gorilla museum is really good. sort of us maple meets mr bungle/faith no more. heavy, but quirky. very knowledgeable and/or talented musicians are behind it. (the band seems made up of avant musicians from the bay area... mills college has connections i know. aka, where fred frith is a professor.)

m.

GOATSNAKE are coming back, which is excellent to know.

Whoa. Well, I'm intrigued now -- what does the cover get right that the original might get wrong?

Heh. *checks which track* "The Evil That Men Do," I have to say that's not a Maiden track that sticks with me much, so maybe the cover will make it more memorable.

What, exactly, am i missing here?

It's a younger band?

Except for the Meat Puppets on your list I really don't hear LGS as belonging in that group: Neurosis, Meshuggah, DEP, Prong et al. are all really math-y, you can practically hear 'em goin' "ok we've done that riff thirteen times, now switch to the 5/4 section." LGS are just way more interested in messing around with sound (esp. than Neurosis who unless I misremeber recorded their last one at Electrical = they are not at all interested in messing around with sound-as-such), mastering, production - and also image, which maybe shouldn't be an issue & maybe should. There's a big-burly-guy aspect of Neurosis/Meshuggah/the End/all-Primsesque-metalcore-stuff that's totally absent from LGS, who are more like a pop Melt-Banana (esp. on the new one which has some really fucked up pop aspects to it).

I dunno, I am a big LGS evangelist, they seem to actually rock where Converge, Isis, etc. etc. etc. just sorta lurched.

I haven't made it through the whole Relapse DVD, either, but that's because I don't care enough about Bongzilla or Alabama Thunderpussy (or Dillinger Escape Plan or Today Is The Day) to watch their performances. High On Fire's section is great, as is Neurosis's, and I liked Burnt By The Sun (and, as I mentioned, Dysrhythmia). Pig Destroyer disappointed me (because I heard they finished early, and Agoraphobic Nosebleed finished out the set-time with their so-far-only-ever live appearance, and it wasn't included on the DVD).

xpost (I meant what else I'd put on if I wanted to be rocked...)

Isis more interesting, you're right, I shouldn't tar them with the same brush.

x-post Burnt By the Sun is pretty good, yeah

what are they doing then?

the lgs with the flower on the cover wasn't mind-blowing or anything. not anything that tremendously broke molds... but i thought as far as songwriting goes it was better than some other stuff that i've heard recently. less one trick pony. more angular. more industrial by way of psychedelic. (see the last track that's nearly as long as half the incredibly short album.)

or maybe it was just new. who knows?
m.

Jumping up and down in place and yelling really loud, mostly. With their hands in their pockets. And a javelin up their ass. (And sometimes laying on the floor and beating their hands on the lineoleum floor 'cause Mom won't give them any more Pepsi.)

Anyway, here's what Dave Queen wrote about Pelican; I (obviously?) like where he says instro-stoner metal reminds him of dub:

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0402/queen.php

A little less, actually, but I'm still pissed off about it. In the end, Eyehategod were incredible, and Unsane royally royally sucked.

Also, I hung out with Jimmy Bower one night at CBGBs (Eyehategod and Soilent Green and BuzzOv'en and some other bands were playing, but EHG had one of their roadies on vocals because Williams was in jail or something), and he was wearing the greatest hat I've ever seen. It was a black baseball cap with a pentagram (w/goat's head) on the front, and below the pentagram it said "The New South." I've coveted that hat since that night.

xpost EHG live gave off the most evil bad-feeling something-shitty's-gonna-happen-any-minute-now vibe of any band I've ever seen except for Whitehouse - magnificent, and some of the best audience-baiting ever

...and their songs flow together in the mire like DJ sets. I wasn't too impressed, though, the very first time I saw them, in New Orleans in '94. We kept going across the street to watch New Birth Brass Band, the little brothers of Rebirth. Awesome. Came back between sets, and horror writer Nancy Collins was onstage punching Mike in the head, while the rest of the band called her a bitch. Par for the course. When EHG grew up musically, they were greatness.

...but the bad vibes permeate New Orleans. Soilent Green bassist Scott Williams was just murdered Monday night.

I've defended Children of Bodom

It's not so bad, for a band named after a cafe press. I'd recommend the Norther album Death Unlimited, on Spinefarm, to anyone enamored of this melodic death-thresh sound.

This is the first I've heard about Williams. That's too bad. I never liked the band much, but still.

They're unofficial reprints. Mutilation doesn't do more than a couple hundred copies and refuses to do official repressings.

and I agree with you on the new Vital Remains, it slays.

and what mammoth production.

of course, when everybody's out of shape, the breakdowns happen a lot cause the drummer has to catch a breath. that and spray cheese. everybody needs a chance to eat some spray cheese.
m.

?

the guitarist usually stops the chorus verse riffing for big chops that ring out and slow things down while the rhythm section continues to move forward and then WOOGAH!

change.
m.

ps but don't forget the spray cheese or the chance for a screedy rant by the drummer (metallica) or the singer (henry rollins).... every moderately political band (including U2) has used this at some point.

m.

made me laugh.

HAHA

But, the real question...was the virtual Will Rahmer wearing a leather vest too?

That's a pretty impressive feat.

Slipknot is music for pseudo-rebels: people who are angry but don't know why and just feel like being apathetic to everything.

Back to the breakdowns post, I always saw them as the part of the song where the music slows way down to almost a grinding halt and chunky chords play...they are sometimes "moshy" parts too.

Just an ultra bore.

I believe these people are called teenagers.

Authentic nihilism is fine, I mean, I suppose Eyehategod are somewhat nihilistic, and I enjoy them, but not ignorant apathetic blind incoherent rantings by groups such as Slipknot. Seriously, the journal entries in my high school journal had more soul, and they were completely stupid. The lyrics to "Surfacing" I especially can't stand because they're truly sophomoric and every kid on the planet quotes it as the Bible nowadays, and I think it's the wrong thing to be quoting.

Even ignoring that, though (cuz I like lots of bands with bad lyrics), it's their music that is truly not compelling as well. I heard enough of their self-titled album to know I hated them.

and as far as screaming goes, well, I like that too, but nu-metal screams irritate the hell out of me.

As for Deftones, them I actually like, at least, the last two albums. I like the style they've come to embrace on the last two albums.

the new vocalist (on the as yet to be released KE new album) sounds pretty good too...last one supposedly fucked up his voice or got nodules. gee, wonder why :)

What I do consider them, however, is downright boring. :)

When it comes to metal, I'm still a suck for the more traditional styles, though the artsy stuff metal expanded into I love as well. as far as metal goes, I like:

Annihilator, Exhorder, Death, Dying Fetus, Bathory, Cathedral (first album at least, only one i have), Morbid Angel, Immolation, Cryptopsy, My Dying Bride, Pain of Salvation, Rhapsody, Slayer, Celtic Frost, Nile, Nuclear Assault, early Deicide, Pantera's 5th-7th albums, Darkthrone, Suffocation, some Hypocrisy, Kreator, Sodom, Emperor, Cradle of Filth, Satyricon, Testament, Judas Priest, Maiden, Sabbath (ozzy era), mid-late period Mayhem, Anthrax (tho only periods of em), Suicidal Tendencies, King Diamond, Mercyful Fate, Ulver, Malignancy, Carcass, Blind Guardian, Iced Earth, Witchery, Strapping Young Lad, The Haunted, Are You God?, Brutal Truth, Meshuggah, Type O Negative, Cynic, Pessimist, old Metallica, most Megadeth, Halford, Opeth, Nevermore, Savatage, Entombed, The Crown, Soilwork, Possessed, Sigh, Impaled Nazarene, Eyehategod, and shit, ther'es more i'm forgetting probably but you get the idea...some artists as well that I own cds by but don't have enough interest in to call em a favorite.

but I listen to a lot of other shit though too. I'll admit I have a huge affinity for motown and classic r&b/soul music, but as far as purchasing goes I've just recently gotten around to doing it. Al Green, Lenny Williams, stuff like that...

I also listen to quite a bit of rap (Tribe Called Quest, Dre/Snoop, The Coup, Outkast, Deltron 3030, shit like that...dr. dooom), a small amount of punk although that collection as of yet is criminally small (some artists I like are the punk era of Suicidal Tendencies, Misfits, Black Flag, Bad Religion, Ignite, Nomeansno, Minor Threat, Zeke, Descendents...)

bit of progressive, but not a huge collection...I love old Genesis, and King Crimson, though.

anything really. Jeff Buckley, Stevie Wonder, whatever floats my boat.

Pretty much. If the lead singers of Shadows Fall and Slipknot changed right now, each band would sound like the other.

Nah. Slipknot would still sound like an amped-up late-period Sepultura, and Shadows Fall would still sound like late-80s Anthrax. Two totally different sounds.

And as far as this goes:

>not everybody who listens to Slipknot is a dumbfuck, I'm just stating that's a large portion of their fanbase.

A large portion of everybody's fanbase is dumb folks. Dumb folks are the majority; that's how you can recognize smart people when you meet 'em - they stand out.

What would the "metal edges" be? The guitars, bass, drums, and vocals?

And "pop" as in "poppy" or "popular" or "top 40" or what?

I would say more punky than poppy. ya know, hardcore. Moshcore. whatever you wanna call it.

I still say Iowa beats Nebraska for heartland ennui anyday.

Slipknot make me itchy. I still can't really figure out if this is a good thing or not. Its probably just that monolithic in-the-red production that gives the music that sweaty, claustrophobic feel. I mean i can listen to hours of death/grind/black/noise metal and mostly its just soothing to me. Like ambient music.

Ever hear Ross Robinson's old band Detente from the 80's? They had that same itchy quality. Not least because Dawn Crosby (R.I.P.) was the singer and her scary screech could often be extra-human in its ability to be creepycrawly. (I still listen to her band Fear of God's Whithin The Veil a lot. That album is proto-nu, proto-grrl, proto-Kitty, proto-lotsofthings really.)

Eh....What Scott said. I mean, I don't even LIKE Slipknot (though they're my 11 year old son's favorite band) and I know the phrase above is completely ridiculous. I mean, ABBA or the Knack or Run DMC were a pop band with metal edges, you know? Slipknot aren't catchy enough to be pop, and I they have no edges that AREN'T metal, near as I can hear. Slipknot are a metal band with, like Ministry edges. Or Killing Joke edges. Or something. Mainly in the drums. And Ministry and Killing Joke were basically metal bands, when you get down to it.

Well, the lyrics to that song are pretty sophomoric (but that really isn't important to me). But musically it's actually one of the only interesting tracks on that album.

"Slipknot make me itchy. I still can't really figure out if this is a good thing or not. Its probably just that monolithic in-the-red production that gives the music that sweaty, claustrophobic feel."

That's one of the few things I like about them.

Not that I'm against screaming, half the bands I listen to have shrill vocals. I just think that was the average Slipknot template on that album.

Well, different strokes...but anyway, I hate the idea of spending time debating the (admittedly dubious) merits of Slipknot.

Are you guys hearing a different mix of the "Left Behind" single than I am or something? the song, I mean, that's so damned catchy that I haven't heard it since the week it came out and I can still sing it from memory? and I have a really shitty memory?

I'm thinkin' out loud here about something that I've sort of thought-some-about rather than thought-through, so sc. grain/s of salt etc., but I'd say this: there was a point in the '80s when metal was part of the pop universe (Poison, Motley Crue, GnR) though this was also the exact point when the word "metal" started to get a little slippery (Venom, Slayer, Celtic Frost: do these bands have anything in common with their hairy contemporaries?). To my ears, the mainstream/chartmetal types such as those profiled by Spheeris (who were certainly pop bands) lost the battle: metal as I'd mean it now constitutes black metal, death metal, thrash & thrash revivals, etc., all fairly anti-pop both in the songs they write and in their cultural positioning. There's catchy metal that I still wouldn't think of as pop but is kinda pop-informed/pop-bearing (most power-metal to thread, esp. Nightwish & Kamelot, both of whom I love despite myself), but Slipknot seem to occupy a unique or almost-unique position (what are they to Korn, and what's Korn to them?): three minute hard-as-fuck (compared to what else is radio-ready anyhow: Linkin Park, say?) songs following a pretty rigid verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus-chorus structure. And with hooks, though they're hooks that aren't really enthuastic about being hooks.

So, no: not "if catchy = not metal." But! Slipknot-qua-entity seem more solidly a pop act than a metal band. I know Mike at Metal Maniacs takes all manner of abuse in the letters page over his support of Slipknot, and I suspect/guess that this axis is where the question lies.

But, again, I just like talkin'/thinkin' about Slipknot for some reason.

I find a lot of "hooks" on Mercyful Fate's "Melissa" and that's definitely not a "pop" album.

Here's the track-listing of a tape I made Anthony Miccio a month or two ago:

Side 1

Midnight Sun - Metal Gods
Heavenly - The World Will Be Better
Human Fortress - The Dragon's Lair
Angel Dust - The Human Bondage
Blind Guardian - Battlefield
Alice Cooper - Triggerman
Howling Syn - Black Moon
Hammerfall - Hearts Of Fire
Danzig - Wicked pussycat
Dream Evil - Save Us

Side 2

Dio - Killing The Dragon
Helloween - The Departed (Sun Is Going Down)
Freedom Call - Flying High
Danzig - Kiss The Skull
Dream Evil - Break The Chains
Star One - High Moon
The Kovenant - Star By Star
Witchery - Omens
Katatonia - Ghost Of The Sun
Katatonia - Sleeper

Not all power/symphonic, but all really really catchy!

RE: the kidz and Slipknot-my dad was working for child protective services in upstate new york and he had the same sort of thing to say about that bond between the kidz and Slipknot that John did.

Well, Slayer and Poison were both on the *Less Than Zero* soundtrack. And Venom's "Teacher's Pet" is more like Van Halen's "Hot For Teacher" than like anything by, say, Cannibal Corpse or whoever. And I always thought GnR's "My World" sounded like a Celtic Frost song. And Tom G Warrior was a fan of Poison's debut album, not to mention of fan of glam rock (like Roxy Music, for instance, who Celtic Frost covered). And they all had loud guitars. So...yeah. They do.

xpost

No, Motley Crue sucks eggs.

Slayer were responsible for such masterpieces as Reign In Blood, Hell Awaits, Divine Intervention, and Show No Mercy.

Yea, so Motley Crue sang "Shout at the Devil". Even that had glammy touches to it:

"HE'LL BE THE LOVE IN YOUR EYES
HE'LL BE THE BLOOD BETWEEN YOUR THIGHS
AND THEN HAVE YOU CRY FOR MORE"

Hardly the same thing as:

"Waiting the hour destined to die
Here on the table of hell
A figure in white unknown by man
Approaching the altar of death
High priest awaiting dagger in hand
Spilling the pure virgin blood
Satan's slaughter, ceremonial death
Answer his every command"

The first song almost has me think the devil is David Bowie

Plus, Slayer usually knew when to throw in an interesting riff fill or change it up a bit. They did grow more commercial and "pop" ish towards the Seasons in the Abyss era, though.

Oh, sure, it has some great thrash anthems ("Hallowed Point", "War Ensemble", "Born of Fire"), but christ, "Blood Red" and "Expendable Youth" might as well be the same, boring, Rolling Stones outtake...and even the title track is sort of boring.

Seasons of the Abyss wasn't quite up to the gold standard of the previous two, but it was still pretty great. They really seemed to be on an unbelievable roll at the time. I love "Blood Red". One of my favorite tracks on the record.

All those bands listed above have a lot of the same influences. Doesn't that give them all something in common.

Slayer were at their most templatic on everything Diabolus and beyond, and Seasons.

xposts galore

I mean if you want to nitpick, you can say "well they're all a form of ROCK MUSIC", but other than the stylistic points like the hair and the mascara, musically speaking I wouldn't put them in the same league.

"Living on a Prayer" is hardly "TO MEGA THERION".

I'm even hard pressed to call St. Anger metal, other than the title track. It seems more like garage rock.

that doesn't make them all the same thing anyway, though. A rap artist and a metal artist can both be influenced by Elton John and not sound a damn thing alike.

Hell Awaits is Slayer's answer to Melissa, by the way. I agree it's their creative high point, though not their most proficient moment.

The worst metal band I've ever heard, in any subgenre, is Wizard.

That's the spirit! Keep digging!

So all metal records must sound exactly the same? Okay, I get it now.

Sonically speaking, the two bands don't sound alike at all. Motley Crue were 'heavier' than they were later in their early days, but Slayer were a much more extreme group from the getgo, in that they were deathy-thrash in their early days, really gritty.

Song structure itself doesn't play into the differences between metal and pop since metal itself can be somewhat "poppy" in convention, but I wouldn't put Motley Crue and Slayer, given their body of work, in the same league whatsoever.

Note Slayer ditched the makeup and mascara after their first album and moved entirely away from that.

Of COURSE metal doesn't all sound the same. for fuck's sake, why do you think there are so many subgenres? Doom metal, goth metal, thrash metal, death metal, black metal, grindcore, progressive metal, industrial metal, power metal...and even then, there are subgenres of subgenres, like melodic death metal, industrialized thrash.

But I do not consider something like Living on a Prayer to be anything more than a pop song with loud guitars. Which does not necessarily make it metal.

xpost

If you think Slayer and Poison sound anything alike, I'd get your ears examined. They might share some roots, but they both branched off in completely different directions.

All metal is a form of rock music, but not all rock music is metal, just like all pediatricians are doctors but not all doctors are pediatricians

Slayer wore spandex in their early days, wore mascara and makeup, played classic rock tunes live, and sounded a lot different earlier on.

And I would never argue that they weren't influenced by NWOBHM, because it was a huge influence.

To reclarify my post, I can't argue that many of these groups did not share some or many of the same influences (though the second-wave bands may have been more influenced by the first-wave groups rather than the first wave's influences, if you get my drift), but that that in themself doesn't make them the same entity.

but you weren't arguing that, so...ok :)

>>Just punch up http://www.amazon.com and see what Warrant's fan base thought of DOG EAT DOG in the "buyer's reviews"...that is possibly the best heavy-guitar melodic heavy metal album of its entire generation. close to amazing. seriously. It of course came out it the hellmouth of the explosion of 1992 grunge crap-deluge everywhere, and so got buried; the band's manager died, their headlining tour tanked and was canned halfway through, the band splintered/broke up for a year...etc. There's probably a great unreleased Jani Lane solo album between the various (later) Jabberwocky and Lane-solo stuff that CBS eventually decided not to put out (he initially retained a CBS deal after the band was dropped in the mass purge of nearly all major-label hair metal bands, most of whom obviously deserved to return to the hellhole they came from).

if you are a hard rock/metal fan but don't own those 3rd and 4th Warrant albums DOG EAT DOG and ULTRAPHOBIC, your entire collection should be confiscated and traded in for Hilary Duff DVD's yesterday. I say this as someone who heard and loved it all first-wave heavy metal from ground zero, Sabbath in 1970-71 until "heavy metal" turned to formula crap within about a decade. For Warrant to cut a substantial body of truly great or near-great melodic and heavy melodic-metal during the nadir of idiot clueless poser hair-metal and speedmetal bands, was a remarkable accomplishment. (In baseball, that'd be called the "ballpark factor").<<

xpost

I'll admit I kind of jumped into this thread without really getting clearly where both sides were coming from.

The thing I said about chuck was not to imply that he didn't know anything about metal, but to imply that I did not know what he knew about metal.

Here's the thing with Slayer.

They ditched the makeup, mascara, and all that flash, but their music was also less weighty on the first album. It could be considered extreme for the timeframe, and had some dark edges to it, seeming to owe homages to Venom and the like, but it was pretty easy on the ears.

Hell Awaits, which came out not so long after, was a much darker, more extreme beast. It had some touches of what would later be death metal in it, and was much more sinister and dark. Reign in Blood was heavily hardcore influenced as well. They moved farther and farther away from the peers they're being compared with in this thread.

Nah, John, more like "I obviously know there's no objectively right answer to the 'what is heavy metal?' question, but for some reason I still manage to waste lots of time arguing that my own definition is the right one, probably because it's still somewhat fun to do so."

At the time, you better believe it was time for all-out war on posers, but in retrospect Dokken and Testament are a close call.

Anyway, Slipknot have taken over. Their shows are much more violent, anarchic fun than Nile or Iced Earth, believe that. Hating sort of makes you a fogey, and we all do so I guess we all are. Fine.

If I wanted to see a bunch of people jumping around in clown suits I'd go to Cirque de Soleil

so, uhm...WHO ELSE GOT THE NEW SUFFOCATION

Got a Marduk DVD today -- finally get to glimpse what the Pole police were so stuck up about.

Um, no. And Ian, you're way smarter than that. Don't buy into the "Slipknot sell too many records to mean it" bullshit.

>I've seen Nile live, and they slayed.

You're one of those guys who stands at the edge of the moshpit with his arms folded, scowling, aren't you? Go see Slipknot. They're one of the best live acts around. Nile suck live. I saw them a couple of years ago, and they were the worst band on the bill. (Their albums bore the crap out of me, too; that's probably got something to do with my opinion on the matter.)

I'm very bored with the new Suffocation. I'd rather listen to the new Death Angel. I'm all about the 80s retro-thrash lately...Death Angel, Exodus, Destruction...

The music is secondary, right?

Nile were amazing live, not to mention tight, when I saw them. I don't give two shits what the hell the knuckledragging Slipknot fans do in a moshpit.

If I were Slipknot, I'd be rushing to admit I was kidding the whole time, due to just how bad most of their shit is.

Ha, I usually stand in the back by the bar, and say stuff like "wow, look at all those goofy people in the mosh pit." unless opeth is playing, when it's more like, "ha, all those silly people up there in the mosh pot don't know what to do to music this slow and sad. how come clubs don't provide folding chairs at concerts like this?"

Me, too, except I'm saying "Wow, metal chicks are even hotter now than they were when I was in high school."

The Opeth show at Irving Plaza was great; all those dudes standing zombified, staring at Mike Akerfeldt's fingers the whole time.

They're from my hometown.

I agree. I never listen to "Seasons..." as much as I do Reign in Blood or South of Heaven.

Of course, my total lack of money and album purchasing has a lot to do with this. My to-buy list still has a bunch of early-2003 releases like Spawn Of Possession's Cabinet.

That being said, the new My Dying Bride sounds really good... They've really managed to pick up the steam again (so to speak), as I felt everything between Turn Loose The Swans and The Dreadful Hours was a bit pedestrian.

Re: Kataklysm (welcome to usenet!)
That band is a really sad chapter, to me. Their first couple of releases are really amazing, particularly Sorcery! I've still not heard any other bands approach that sound. Sadly Kataklysm seemed to get more and more streamlined for each release, and now they sound half an Afflicted-riff away from moving to Stockholm.

There's a leak of the new Darkthrone floating around -- a couple new twists, a more necro sound than Hate Them. Or you can wait six months for the official release, the poor bastards.

Just went to a Fantomas/Melt-Banana show and watching idiots try and mosh to the 5-15 seconds of appropriate stuff Fantomas played was fun. The songs would get all heavy, guys would start flailing around, then the band would start breaking down the riffs, getting all choppy and these guys would start getting confused trying to keep their flailing in step... and looking really goofy in the process. Finally, they'd just look mad when then band would inevitably go off on something completely different... that you can't punch people to.

But even though these guys could only mosh in 15 second intervals, some jerk still ripped my friend's jacket!

xpost - hi scott! and bye! i'm going home now!

I'm sure I'm gonna get shit for this...does anybody on this thread besides me like Atreyu? I dig 'em; their songs are straight metalcore, but then they've got this lead guitarist who's in a total Iron Maiden power-metal fantasy world. It's a great combination. I just got their new album in this morning's mail (street date: June 29).

I've been listening to that CD off and on for a couple of weeks. I guess I just don't like them as much as you do. I wrote this small preview to their show here tomorrow:
http://cityguide.entertainmentidaho.com/fe/Calendar/standalonehotticket.asp
I may go see Atreyu, anyway, for the hell of it. As a nice, sissy-boy warm-up to Kataklysm Sunday. Heh.

They've put one song on their website, which sounds pretty intriguing to me. Although the first time I played it, I thought someone was breaking into the garage because of that odd percussive bit that pops by a few times.
Neurosis - Eye Burn.mp3

The best metal albums I've heard so far this year have been the new Mayhem and My Dying Bride. Somewhat surprising really, but then I'm one of the few who also really liked the last Mayhem. MDB have proved that the last album wasn't a fluke as far as being able to make me exclaim "what the hell? They're GOOD again!?"

Oh, and I'll also like to plug one of the few good demo bands I know of these days, the Lotus Project. Very fancy musicianship, with some seriously cronkly rhythms abound, but not falling into the traps that those bands that tend to be called "prog metal" are usually stuck in. I'm sure these guys have listened to Cynic and Atheist quite a bit in their life.
Closets comparison point I can come up with is Italian death metallers Karnak.
[Lotus Project] This site has the "Echo" demo for download. I see they have a 'Maiden cover too now that wasn't there last I looked...

that loincloth band is related to confessor, right? the music is totally in line with "condemned." which is a great album.

GRAVES AT SEA

and leave it at that

Oh, the new Today Is The Day, "Kiss The Pig", is sounding really good too, but then I'm a big fan of that band. I think the new drummer is Rosswog from Circle Of Dead Children, who's really good, despite supposedly only starting drumming like a year before joining CODC?

Is the Loincloth demo still available? I emailed them to order a copy back when it came out, got a reply where they said something about them contacting me in a couple of days, and then I never heard from them again. Guess I should try again, as I've only heard positive things about it.

I think they played a memorial show when Ivan Colon died, and that night flames were rekindled and soon after practice spaces rented.

Yep, Loincloth is Confessor's rhythm section with Pen Rollings and another bloke on guitars.

I'm fairly sure Watchtower is back together, and I'm certain their second career will be cut short by the Dangerous Toys reunion. That's just how things go.

I wonder why there aren't more "Old boys teams" in death metal (aka supergroups! Except more fun!)
I'd like to hear more one-off projects between those guys... Luc Lemay and Flo Mounier (sp?) playing with Immolation would be something something something. But that's a different thread alltogether.

Chuck, did you get that Peccatum album from The End? I would think you would like that one.

Have taken a liking to that new Suffocation album, but it's still nowhere near as good as Decapitated's latest. And I like the guitar heroics on God Forbid's Gone Forever a whole lot - like the whole album,really, though I feel like I oughta feel guilty about that but fuck it, I liked their last one too

Katatonia is one of those bands who I've owned almost all albums by, despite never really liking any of them. They have a way of being really likable at first, but have no re-play value for me.

Decapitated's debut = kinda OK
Decapitated's 2nd (Nihility) = pretty damned good with a couple of great songs
new one = really, really good easy-to-get-lost-in death metal

Mercyful Fate's classic Don't Break the Oath, and Dimmu Borgir's Death Cult Armageddon, which is absolutely unreal.

http://www.pandacide.com/iframes/mp3s/ARCH_nrc.mp3

any thoughts?

Yeah, I think the link didn't work, but as a longtime fan of either birds with teeth or reptiles with feathers, I have to say they have an awesome name (which, I think, was previously used by some non-metal band in the late '70s or early '80s, who may or may not have had a song called "Barbarella." I'll check my 45s shelf at home.)

Listening now to the new one. Baby and babymama went to the store so i can crank it. I heart Neurosis.

Download "Burn" here:
http://neurotrecordings.com/media/Neurosis_Eye_Burn.mp3

You can take a train to Providence and get a bus to Wood's Hole and the ferry. The bus only takes about an hour. The train...hmm, how long does a train from New York to Providence take?

Oh, but wait, you are coming from PA possibly? That will, um, take a bit longer. The other annoying thing is that the bus station and train station in providence are not near each other, and you have to take a shuttle from the train station to the bus station. Ha Ha!! Got all that? That car might be looking good by now.

Hope everyone enjoyed the directions to Martha's Vineyard!! Me and Carly and J.T. will be waiting here.

Anyway, back to heavy metal. I am now listening to the new album by Zao, and I like it. I *always* like Zao! I feel like they do Meshuggah/Dillinger Escape Plan/Lickgoldensky stuff better than all those other bands (assuming those other bands are even sensible points of comparison). I'm not sure why. Maybe because they are Christians? Or because they have melodies? Or because the shrieking really sounds a LOT like Dan Kubinski on the first Die Kreuzen album? (Right now the singer is shrieking "baaarbed wiiiires," and it's just like that old Die Kreuzen song "Live Wire"!!)

3 hrs!

Yo, do you guys like Necronomitron? Crazy noisy speed metal. CD on Load.

What are the other 4?

NB the strong '80s weight there does not actually mean that I have actually listened to any of these bands recently, except for the Gun Club, who I listen to all the time. If '80s bands are ruled out then the best band names of all time as of right now are Circle of Dead Children, Jungle Rot, the Mummies, the Pleasure Fuckers and Teen Cthulhu

necronomitron = madness. wish that had come out on LP.

it's too bad that everything else i ever heard fell short of that. i was expecting them to leave a bigger wake.

?
m.

Did anybody else get the two-song advance from the new Dillinger Escape Plan album? I tried to give a shit, I really did, but...yyyyyyyaaaaawwwwwwnnnn.

Turns out that new Zao album is a best-of, in case anybody is taking notes. Played it again this morning, though, and it sounded even better than yesterday.

Probably other good recs here: Kyuss/Stoner Rock

I am starting to like the new Peccatum album. And yeah, lotsa Kate Bush in there. Though I alway say "Enigma and KMFDM" instead of "Dead Can Dance and Nine Inch Nails," but what do I know? I forget if I've actually ever even heard an Emporer record.

I love High Rise, and I've said elsewhere, that they go on my top ten live show list EASY. They are beyond tunes live. They are about god and heaven and the devil and beauty and the sheer exhilaration of volume.

ian! look on soulseek for stuff by marzuraan - it's english stuff in the sunn/khanate/sludge vein played on superdowntuned bass guitars. very noisy, though, i think the cd is called "flayed ice ramparts of mammuthusis." also, boris "absolutego" and esoteric if you can take the "GLRRP GLRRP" vocals.

Thanks guys.

You NEED Esoteric's Metamorphogenesis!!

i think i'm THERE, man.

http://www.80smetal.com/WolfST.jpg

I haven't heard the whole thing yet though... Is it out? I only have MP3s, but I need the real thing post-haste! Now that Spiritual Beggars seem to be losing it, I figure Clutch can pick up the torch again...

my parents met at a heart concert, so if it wasn't for them i might not have existed.

Anyhoo, I'll reiterate what I said yesterday... The new Clutch is definitely a big comeback of sorts, and probably either their best or second best album (after Elephant Riders, which a lot of people hated, so maybe my tastes are a bit lopsided)
New TITD sounds really good based on the two songs I've heard... No surprise there though.

"Hopkins" is still a clodhopper genius of a hit single, but at least with the EP version you get their wavy gravy version of Arthur Brown's "Fire."

Then I got sick as hell of them and never could listen to them again.

Isn't that just the most beautiful story in the world?

So, has anyone heard the new Capharnaum album yet? It's [soon?] out on Willowtip records, which to me is possibly the best death metal/grind label around these days (Harakiri's Twilight of the idol incidentally being stiff competition when battling Immolation's Unholy Cult for best death metal album of 2002)
I never did hear their previous albums, though they're often lauded as some of the finer music to come out of the whole tech-death thing.

And on that note, it's bothering me how 90% of death metal albums these days are called technical. Apparently that's a synonym for "sounding like Suffocation" these days. Bleh. We need bands that pick up Atheist's fallen torch already!
In fact, we need more DIFFERENT brutal death metal these days. Seemingly the only different bands in the genre these days are of the overly melodic type, with a few exceptions like Nile.
Blablabla?

Living through another Cuba! Love at first sight! I wonder if any metal bands ever covered XTC.
And on that note, I've always borkeda bout Voivod sounding like they've listened to a lot of Die Kreuzen... Only to find out that they've covered them! Mike Watt and Brutal Truth are on the tribute too... Shame tribute albums are such a waste of money, as that's a kinda neat lineup. Plus tons of bands I've never heard of, naturally. Yay!

Didn't know Cathedral's new album was a best-of. But what the heck, since I can't imagine why anybody would want to own more than one album by those numbskulls, I guess I'll hang on to it then...

Same with Ozric Tentacles.

Go figure.

I don't anymore.

I've never liked Cathedral, either.

Yeah, I just accidentally stumbled upon it when boredly browsing for Die Kreuzen info that day.
Supposed official site: The front page has a full track list.
I don't really care about tribute albums, but they're usually fun to hear once. Which is why Soulseek is such a blessing.

Today I'm rocking the 3-CD Scorpions set (not a box cause it's not in a box). I love the trippy psych-prog song "I'm Going Mad," from Lonesome Crow, that opens the first disc.

This band really crashed and burned. A shame too, as that Under The Running Board EP really is something. Hopefully Converge aren't going the same way (admittedly they've so far gotten better with time) as they're the last band along these lines that I can honestly say I like.

Yeah, I like it. This album's a pretty cool combination of screamo and Swedish metal...the riffs and solos make the screamo stuff bearable. Kind of like Hatebreed meets Funeral For a Friend meets In Flames.

yeah, same here. where do you go from doe?

"Dude, I love everything. Except rap and country, which arent valid forms of music, except GARTH BROOKS."

"I fucking hate Metallica-flat out, fuck Metallica, fuck Black Sabbath. I dont give a fuck about the fucking "roots". Those arent my roots, so i don't fucking care. Everyone goes, "Gasp! You don't like Led Zeppelin?" I'm fucking 22 years old! I don't care! Green Day was more important to me, you know?"

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0424/eddy1.php

Anyway, I really like it.

How to put this... there's always a been Re of hope for Mi so Fa? [note to self: fuck off]

The new Carcass best-of is probably more essential than the lackluster Cathedral one described above.

On the metalcore front, Between the Buried and Me is pretty fucking awesome. Fast shredding metalcore with macaroni guitar leads inserted here and there.

Debris Inc is a ruling doom rock / punk band with Dave Chandler of St. Vitus, Ron Holzner of Trouble, and Barry Stern of Zoetrope. Two very different mp3 minutes here: http://www.murdermetal.com/mm/here_are_some_un.htm

I saw a late-hour Bill Monroe show on PBS last night -- that guy was ten times as metal as Nightwish, even way back in the 1930s! God of fancy speed picking and total American doom.

And the full Emperor catalog should be reissued this fall. Yes, it needed to be already.

I'm very disappointed by the new Neurosis. It seems like the further they get from metal, the more people like them. This one is mopey alt-drone-rock with occasional crunching sounds. I'm enjoying the 3-CD Scorpions box much more.

I don't know if C.Aarmé are metal or not (probably not, they sound like a heavier version of early Plugz to me), but I love their album. I sent you a review yesterday, Chuck. You should listen to the record; it's great.

That's certainly a great name for both band and album...

Chuck I think if you side-by-sided them with the Jesus Lizard you'd have to own here that you're mainly just bustin' out the hate stick. When were the Jesus Lizard interested in any kind of production other than the dry, effect-less Albini model?

!

I feel you on the LGS/Gold Standard thing, and yeah, there's some of the Yow affectation, but Yow didn't exactly cut that from whole cloth...I just like 'em a whole lot, thing there's a sort of blender ethos goin' on, but yeah I can see where my blender is your derivative - all's cool - meanwhile, I must here boast for the first time in a while that I MET THOR when he played at Yo Yo a Go Go a couple years back, and it RULED

The new Susperia is also sounding great these days. Very Testament-ish.

What was Thor like, John?

I think "Bad Hobbits Die Hard" is funny!

(Chuck, those Nektar reissues sound rad! Thanks for sending them my way. Lemme know if you need anything on them.)

The THOR - Mutant demos LP pressed last year in edition of 3-500 vinyls is mighty good. "Sweat Love" grinds.

Heard Vince Neil's cover of "I Fought the Law" yesterday -- it was no fun.

It's out in the US on June 29, on Candelight Records, apparently.

Back to Thor: who can ever forget the time he blew up the hot water bottle live on Much Music, circa 1985?

The new Ildjarn mini-cd 'Nocturnal Visions' will be released by Northern Heritage productions on January 2nd. The release contains old unreleased material dating back as far as 1992. Information on the album was added in the 'Discography' section.

looks like it might be the metal.

Scott is right about those Nectar reissues too, by the way (and yeah Scott, I'll letcha know if I can fit a review into the section about them. By the way, did you get my email about visiting you guys????)

hear, hear!

also... anyone have love for the proto-kaw/pre-kansas cd on cuneiform?

http://video.nardwuar.com/video/interviews/real/media/gene_simmons.rm

He bends a bar of steel for Gene, using a Kiss T-shirt to protect his teeth@!

Anyone who knows who Nektar is needs to get the Tony Iommi DVD from Netflix, then check the extras for a 15 minute feed of interviews with Nektar nuts at a Nektar reunion somewhere near Baltimore a couple years ago. Apparently, there was an ice storm when Nektar came to DC 30 years earlier, canceling the show and freezing all area psych nerds in a state of arrested development lasting three decades. Hardcore dollar bin fandom that must be seen to be believed.

Same disc has cool Curved Air footage and an excruciating behind the scenes from a Uriah Heep classical project. Plus the main attraction -- nice Iommi interviews where he talks about playing in a pre-Sabbath band with another guitarist missing fingers.

Man, the Black Keys seem pretty damned cheerless (har har) to me. Stodgy, didn't think much of the EP.

Is ANY Fear Factory any good? None I've ever heard...

I listened to that Dragons disc this morning. I hear the early Motorhead, sure, but I wouldn't call it metal.

I feel like listening to Swans all day, so I brought Cop/Young God/Greed/Holy Money and Public Castration Is A Good Idea in and burned them to my work hard drive.

if anyone is into Botch, look for the Minor Times debut 'Making Enemies' on Level Plane and if you're into seeing good live bands, go see them. intense, bro. intense.

What about Pelican? Do I need to be listening to them?

So far demo versions of tracks have had much hits from download.com. The nightspirit lives! When amount of the number of hits is 666 there will be much victoriosness.

http://www.download.com/byzantum

I agree, that song is absolutely amazing. Best metal release of the year so far.

Do a soulseek search for 'meshuggah i", and you'll find it.

Yeah, if the next Meshuggah album is filled with material of this quality... it'd probably be one of my fave metal releses EVER.

It seems like this one 20 minute song both encompasses and refines everything they've done before, including that (amazing) Fredrik Thordendal album! I mean, Destroy Erase Improve-style evil prog - check. Chaospere-style deconstructed fat guy breakdowns - check. Nothing-style brutal sludge - check. Most intense finger tapping solo ever - check!! Etc, etc. But everything is tighter and just executed with more confidence and flash than anything they've ever put out. Amazing.

Only thing is I wish it were longer and that they stretched out that feedback at the end into about 10 minutes of droning, freeform NOISE. (thought this was going to happen first time I listened) It wouldn't exactly be original but I'm sure they would handle it well.

Fave of the month even though it's not really metal: Das Oath

Now Playing: Morgion - Solinari ( I haven't heard their new one either)

everyone should go check out this danish band exekrator - mp3s, ridiculously great music somewhere between accept and older black metal.

the new old man gloom, "christmas", is insanely good.

Must listen to the new OMG again. Didn't really take it in the first time. I still feel like it can't possibly top Seminar III.

I just got the new Incantation in the mail. Has anyone else heard it? Should I even bother throwing it in the player? I usually find them even more boring than Deicide, except that I really liked the album on Relapse (don't remember the title) where the last song was 10-15 minutes long.

(I can't wait to hear the new Lamb of God, too)

CHILDREN OF THE RISK X Life
GOATSNAKE Trampled Under Hoof EP
ICED EARTH The Blessed and the Damned reissue
MASTODON Leviathon Sampler promo EP
OLD MAN GLOOM Christmas
SWITCHBLADE Switchblade
TUSK Tree of No Return EP
MICHAEL YONKERS 13 Yonkers

Are you gonna be at the Lamb of God/Atreyu show on 8/30, Chuck?

It's mostly about the vocals. Lamb of God are recycling old Slayer riffs (but those are great riffs!), but their vocalist, Randy Blythe, has one of the best, most distinctive voices in death metal right now. Yeah, it's a little vomity, but he's also got a really cool redneck snarl mixed in there. As someone who fetishizes country culture, you should dig that.

>And Atreyu are just another half-assed band, like a couple hundred before them, mixing vomity "angry" parts with whiney "sensitive" emo parts, near as I can tell.

Atreyu are all about the lead guitarist; he thinks he's in an 80s arena-metal band. One of their songs (I forget which one, I think it's track 3 on the new album) breaks down into a riff that's a total Scorpions rip. Since I've been listening to Box Of Scorpions a lot lately, that's a big plus for me.

Well, I thought Pantera always bit the big one, too, for whatever that's worth. Those Skynyrd comparisons made no sense at all to me...

but i wasn't into meshuggah at all until i downloaded "I," so what the hell.

The thing that really stands out to me about Lamb of God, aside from the great Slayer-ripped riffs and vocals, is the drumming. This guy is simply the most elegant, light-handed drummer in thrash/death/speed metal. It's like he paid his dues as a jazz player who was forced to play softly in a Holiday Inn lounge setting or something. Really airy, graceful stuff.

http://www.blackmarketactivities.com/label/media/mp3/psyopus-death.mp3

Also, It really bothers me that Mastodon's new album basically stole the cover of THRONES' far more original SPERM WHALE EP.

By the way, if anybody is thinking about picking up the Fucking Am album, "Gold," pass on it. It's entirely average. In fact, it's pretty disappointing.

Above, that's not a diss on LOG, by the way -- it's a compliment to the youth of America.

Not sure what this means, but that new Lars Frederikson and the Bastards album is really really good (as was their last one).

Bloodbath
http://bloodbath.biz/

Outnumbering the Day [full song] - (3:14) / 3mb / mp3
Taken from the album "Nightmares Made Flesh"
European Street Date: September 27th, 2004

the production is startling

Bloodbath are one of the last great red-blooded death metal bands, along with Deranged, Defiled, and Dismember.

http://www.burn-the-priest.com/images/Merch02/LOGthong.jpg

If it sucks, I blame Y'ALL.

But seriously, everyone should buy that Das Oath album. It's so cool. It's more punk than metal, but still.... (it's on Dim Mak)

I do like the album cover, however. It is quite pretty.

So far the songs sound pretty same-y, but good, and super-tight (especially the drummer, damn).

They gave me a free Lamb of God poster at the record store, whether I wanted it or not (and the cd was $8.99!).

And just so you know, it took a few days before this album grew on me entirely.

Tomorrow night, I'm going to go see Killswitch Engage, From Autumn To Ashes, Eighteen Visions and 36 Crazyfists. Maybe I'll be less impressed with Lamb of God after seeing Killswitch
Engage. Who knows. But I really do dig that new LOG album at this moment.

Oh, and Randy Blythe's got a very distinctive voice...he's one of the few metal growlers who actually enunciates the words clearly.

Currently enjoying the new Therion double album...I find myself gravitating toward the more metal-oriented Sirius B slightly more than the operatic Lemuria. This album has a guest vocalist who does the most brilliantly corny viking metal voice I've heard since Jeff Scott Soto singing "I'll See the Light Tonight" on Yngwie Malmsteen's Marching Out...

OTM. I was excited before I bought the album because I thought I had read an interview with the drummer, this black dude who grew up playing jazz and fusion. Turns out that was the guy from God Forbid, whoever they are. The drummer from LoG is really good, but there's nothing jazzy about it.

I'm one of those people. (Yes, I have the gift. Heh.) I wish I could explain to you why I hear it in certain metal. I mean, I'm a funk freak. I listen to tons of it -- James Brown, Brothers Johnson, Greyboy Allstars (well, that's more boogaloo), whatever! -- and I totally hear that groove in a neo-sense in some of Slayer's slower stuff. It's the key to why people love them, whether they are cognizant of it or not. I mean, seriously, listen to Pantera's "Cowboys From Hell" or "Walk" — those songs have a major rhythm pocket. I hear that lip-biting dig in Lamb of God's drummer, too -- and some of the guitar parts. (Whatever the case, please don't read my review if you come across it. You'll just think I'm delusional ... which may be true. Hell, I don't know.)

You bet. "Postmortem" is all the proof one needs...

I still haven't gotten the new Isis, but I got the new Cult of Luna today, and that's almost the same thing. So far, it's really good. Eight songs in 73 minutes; five minutes into Track One, and no vocals yet. Super-throbby, with lots of guitar shimmer and...oops, it just got heavy. There's a photo on the back of the promo disc - I had no idea there were seven of these guys. I can't hear any more than four of 'em, five tops, and that's assuming the vocalist doesn't play an additional instrument.

Electric Wizard, We Live. Indeed they do! First album with the new quartet lineup, and it fucking kills. Might be their best ever.
Esoteric, Epistemological Despondency and The Pernicious Enigma. These are 2-CD sets (with no more than 5 songs per disc) and I got 'em for $15 each. Psychedelic doom with occasional fast thrashy parts.
Gorguts, Obscura. I had a burn of this, but lost it, so obviously I had to go get it, since I recently bought the Roadrunner twofer of their first two discs. Jazz-death. Love it.

I also got the solo album from Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, the guitarist from the Mars Volta, but I don't expect that to be very metal. More like a post-hardcore Love, Devotion, Surrender, probably. Hope the presence of John Frusciante (possibly the most overrated musical figure since Steve Malkmus) doesn't fuck it up too much.

Dudes! Why Didn't Anyone Tell Me That One Of My Best Friends From High School, Liz Buckingham, Is In Electric Wizard!!??

i would almost say univers-zero-death. the playing seems much more influenced by them and avant-classical hoo-hah to me. such a great album!

check the download section...new MP3 track from the new album Salvation.

Re E-Wiz: the mix is cleaner on this album than any since Come My Fanatics.... Which is weird, because he's got the guitarist from 13/Sourvein and the drummer from Iron Monkey, both of whom specialize in that ultra-grimy New Orleans style of sludge. So, in a way, this record reminds me of Eyehategod's Confederacy Of Ruined Lives, where they tried to clean up their sound a little but still stay their unwashed junkie selves. At the same time, the 15-minute closing track, "Saturn's Children," goes on so long and heads so far out into amp-busting overdrive territory it almost sounds like Fushitsusha (circa Gold Blood or Withdrawe, This Sable Disclosure Ere Devot'd or The Caution Appears). There's one fast song, "Another Perfect Day?", which is not as noisy/dirty as "We, The Undead" from their last album (plus it's eight minutes long, where the other was only 4 1/2) but just as furious. The two-guitar thing really works; Osborn holds down the huge bottom-heavy riffs, and Buckingham plays higher, winding around him like razor wire. I really like it; I think the change has been overwhelmingly positive. Plus, who knows, maybe they'll tour America again.

The new Mastodon album is incredible. Prog metal lives...

But about Electric Wizard, anyone else like Let Us Prey? I know it doesn't get lots of love from the metal camp but I think it's pretty solid myself. And I've even listened to Dopesmoker a couple times and gotten nothing out of it. Get bored. It's hard to explain, but the riffs on LUP just seem more engaging when they get their repetition on. (Which is, like, every song, I guess) Should I check out the new one?

"Hearts Alive" blew me away, it's like Moving Pictures revisited. The way the band turned down the sludge and turned up the prog is something I can't help but love.

Tarantula Hawk, Asunder, and Unpersons are also good.

I have no idea what I think about Helmet's drummer. Their guitar player was good, though. But their singer was really bad, right?

I don't think that you can actually call it "singing".

"Nemo" is killer.

That Pig Destroyer album is great. Finally got around to listening to "Natasha", the 37 minute dvd track, and found it a very cool departure from the actual album, much slower, with a decent enough story, and overall, very creepy.

Page Hamilton (the Helmet guy) put out an album of guitar duos with Caspar Brotzmann. He also took Caspar Brotzmann Massaker on tour with him. I saw that tour at the Stone Pony - well, I went down specifically to see Massaker, and left when they were done, skipping not only Helmet but Girls Against Boys, who were the in-between band.

The duo guitar album is not as good as Last Home, which is duos between Caspar Brotzmann on guitar and his dad, on various saxophones and reed instruments. That one's great, but good luck finding it.

Cattle Decapitation aren't great - at least, I've never heard anything great by them. But their new album (which supposedly has a new cover now, because the first cover, which depicted a cow shitting out a human corpse, was rejected by many chains) is supposed to be their best ever. My favorite grind bands are still Agoraphobic Nosebleed and Discordance Axis and, yes, Pig Destroyer (who share two members with AN).

a cow WHOSE HEAD HAS NOT BEEN DECAPITATED shitting out a human corpse!

Metal bands are so stupid.

Haha Lawnmower Deth's lyrics: 'You've got no legs / Don't come running to me'.

The new Converge disc, You Fail Me, has failed to convert me. I never liked 'em much, and don't like 'em now.

Arsis, Celebration of Guilt

Meads of Asphodel, Exhuming the Grave of Yeshua (black metal a la Ren Fair rather than ICP. Alan Davey & Huw Lloyd Langton of Hawkwind pop in for a song or two. fun.)

Hammers of Misfortune, The August Engine

Eikenskaden, 665.999 (most particularly for the album title and the gorgeous "Absolute Zero," kicked off with a bombastically catchy riff credited to Beethoven, overwhelmed by the grim/cold/buzzing BM drone you'd expect, finally briefly sunlit at song's end by a graceful twin guitar counterpoint. loverly)

What what what?! Is he just on one tune? That's f'in crazy.

Also got the recent 20th anniversary re-release of Voivod's War and Pain today, and I'm very impressed. Tons of extras, such as demos, a full live set, and multimedia stuff. Very nice package, and the remastered album sounds great...especially when you consider how primitive that album really was.

Nope, he's the drummer on the whole album. I'm interviewing Mustaine on Wednesday - I gotta find out how that meeting was arranged.

A marginal band that has stubbornly become more marginal. They were about at the top of the game on the release of "Dopethrone" and couldn't fill the Troubador when I saw them. The show was fair to good but it took 'em around half an hour to really get going.

Well, they screwed it up just like everything else, copping the title but not the cleverness from an old, old sci-fi short story subsequently redone by Rod Serling and then beaten to death by Matt Groening for The Simpsons.

And the Edgar Broughton Band beat Cattle Decapitation to the cows and carcasses imagery by thirty years, too.

yes yes. i love that these guys are bringing 70s space and 80s nwobhm styles to the fore in a stealthy sort of way. the endtro is absolutely "space ritual." first album's really good, too.

And you gotta love a band whose slogan is "Putting the Metal back into Black." Live in the studio record with the 'forementioned Hawkwinders due sometime this month. Sez the band: "The Mill Hill Sessions....airs the band in a raw environment with guitars taking over the main sound, leaving the keyboards at a bare minimum....‘My Beautiful Genocide’ is a 25-minute + track that the band blasted out and contains many work in progress sections that may or may not see the light of day on future studio releases." Sounds like a fun mix of rawkin' and pissing around.

Velvet Revolver's tyrannical press machine, MSOPR, burned me out with spam and Mussolini-like speeches & proclamations. The way I figure
it, so much must have been spent on promotion and making the record, that it could sell three million copies and not make any money.

So I simply detest them. There was a cover of "Negative Creep" on a
CD single that sounded more intense than their own material. Not enough to make me want to keep it around, though.

So tell me, ple-e-e-a-se.

And, yeah, BS' "Escapism to Refresh" does literally stumble into a terrific shaking groove. Actually, the drummer swings better than 99 percent of Yanks in 2004.

Dan Carey grooves in Pigmy Love Circus. I was astounded.

Orange Goblin's "Thieving from the House of God" aspires to similar things. As Brits, they really wanna be ZZ Top, 'Mericans doing funk-assed punch yer face hard rock. "Just Got Paid" is covered. It's better than Girlschool's "Tush" but.... you have to really turn it up to make it seem great. First half of the CD is best. A chick singer is hired for "Black Egg" and steals the show, really working it off the flow of riff and drums. Fantastic number and if the entire album had been that way, it would've been in there with first Point Blank or your favorite southern muscle boogie outfit.

But not Bathtub Shitter who get my "We're Injecting F-U-N into the Bowels of Grind Metal Where All the Rest of the Assholes Say It Doesn't Belong" award.

That tells me what I wanted to know. I saw the cover and thought it was a retro-disco record by a band pinching the same name.

So tell me, ple-e-e-a-se.

They're like Big & Rich as a hardcore band. Except in a talentless, entirely soporific way. Does that work for ya?

You really need a copy of Agoraphobic Nosebleed's Frozen Corpse Stuffed With Dope. It's the Paul's Boutique of grindcore.

Yeah.

========
HUMANURE ALBUM COVER CHANGE (8/30/04)

*We've been given the option to change the album cover and we're doing it. We’ve received too many complaints that people are unable to find the album and that is something we wanted to defeat by signing with Metal Blade. We knew it had to incorporate the current original artwork somehow as well as to put across a message. We're going to go with the image that's on the back of the current layout. Its just a barren wasteland that(now in hindsight, cryptically) symbolizes the ill effect of censorship as well as the fallout left by the apocalypse known as humanity. Void of flavor and life. Exactly the way this world will be when it cures itself of this disease. The positive things to come out of this? Now nobody will be able to complain that they can't find what we think is our best record to date as well as more focus on the music and the lyrics...We're really not concerned with "grossing people out", our music deserves more than that and the lyrics do a fine job of that already...

Who to blame? I wish it was as simple as "The PMRC." After Janet Jackson revealed her mammary glands(complete with surrounding tissue and piercing) on national TV, the FCC has tightened the noose on the entertainment industry, forcing chain stores and countless others to pay more attention to this kind of thing. Fear. Having ultra Christian/right-wing conservatives running our country doesn't help much either. Get out there and vote, people.

=====

Best new goth-metal I've heard since Nightwish would be Lifend's CD.

I'll recommend some Iced Earth, too. The riffage on it from their first couple of CDs is neat: "Iced Earth" ends on a Blue Oyster Cult lick, "Travel in Stygian," "Stormrider," etc.

Jag Panzer I never really got into but I used to talk to the guitar player, nice guy. He had braces when I met him.

No, not really. Ten Benson were bad Nantucket musically, but with more tastelessly appropriate lyrics and dance stuff -- "Robot Tourist" -- just to confuse you. A used copy for cheap might be worthwhile.

I'll def. check Orange Goblin.

Yeah, be advised, it's still half-stuck in stoner metal. But as said, "Black Egg" and "If it Ain't Broke, Break It" are ace developments.

I was going to ask, is early Iced Earth all that, then?

Not all, but a fairly decent portion.

Finally, with regards to "Contaminated Fest," is THAT what they were called?!? When the woman whipped out an ocarina or something, I thought they were going to light a campfire and pretend they were in Australia.

Very serious, considering that PLC's drummer happens to be Tool's drummer Danny Carey.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v462/Hago/satan.jpg

I'd get that. Yeah, Thomasson from the Outlaws is in Skynyrd. So's Ricky Medlocke from Blackfoot. I think they've made about ten live albums, all with the same songs.

el sabor, re Ballistic: mid-80's power metal with the appropriate sprinkling of cheese, done in 2001. Gone Ballistic! Heck, I would've bought it on a lazy afternoon. Thanks for posting the link!

Accidentally humorous or purposeful? What label, I need a copy.

Immortal beat them to it (Sons Of Northern Darkness, Battles In The North, At The Heart Of Winter, Blizzard Beasts...).

>Accidentally humorous or purposeful? <

Hard to be sure, but I'm hoping their humor is an accident. Label is Crash Music, 4025 Chandler Blvd Suite 70B-3, Phoenix AZ 85048

http://www.crashmusicinc.com/

This is of course Norwegian toilet scrubber. It is of metal so as to break toilet ice, for freezing toilet bowl is common hazard of arctic winter. And as for pogo stick sported also by Immortal, this is test of manhood. It is so as to say, 'Come and see! So kvlt am I, that unafraid of pogoing for sport and fun on frozen lake am I!' For no fear of cracking ice and falling through have Immortal, since they transcend all weakling fear. Also, you should see their metal skateboards, which sadly did not make final photo.

"I.C.E secluded themselves in a small shelter in a vast frozen landscape during the great winter of Råvaskeiths' 8th eclipse in order to record this three song promo CD of truly winter inspired blackmetal. This abominable foursome: Mammoth, Blisserred, IceSickKill and Bleak are poised and ready to conquer and entomb this world with the blackhate of frozen snow..."

http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=27345

what the scene needs now,with all of the homosexual symphonic bands prancing about everywhere.support ICE,they will rule black metal in the future.

Kids.

Surely this isn't a put on: I.C.E. = I, Chuck Eddy??!?

Nah.
Wonder who'd win in a icy howling kvlt l^ff-off between I.C.E. and Satan's Penguins?

Unpersons have a good 15-minute one-song album-as-CD-as single out now, too. (Of "dirgecore music," I bet somebody calls it.) It's a trend!! (I haven't heard the Meshuggah one yet, though.)

RIP, Satan's Penguins. Drink mead in the frosty halls of your fathers.

http://www.salmonhater.com/

...and Hatebeak, with a parrot for a lead singer:

http://www.boingboing.net/2004/06/29/free_mp3_of_parrotfr.html

http://www.systemcorrupt.com/rank/ranksinatra.html

I'll have a bloody mary thanks! P'taaeuugh! That's not real blood! Joke metal is the new black. Or rather, black metal is the new joke.

Witchcraft surpised me. It was on TMC so more stoner metal, guitars like oozing magma, right? Nope, a perfect imitation of the 69-72 sound of second & third tier hard rock, the kind of thing that would have been dismissed as trash in Rolling Stone. Absolutely authentic down to the still clinging to psychedelia singer. Now I don't have to dig up Demian anymore.

"Her Sisters They Were Weak" sounds like someone who has just seen Jethro Tull chart for the first time and wants a piece of the action.

This isn't a backhanded compliment but genuise praise. I am delighted someone would publish Witchcraft. For fans of Uriah Heep, first two UFO albums, you know who you are.