rolling 2024 heavy metal and boutique blast beat thread

I don’t like Spirit Adrift, but I do like this Transit Method song. It’s the Voivod in the sound that’s hooking me.

I just listened to the whole Transit Method album. Most of it kind of sits somewhere between Intranaut and Elder for me. With a tiny dab of Voivod here and there. I could see it growing on me.

*Intronaut

I really like the HoF after one listen. New drummer brings a very different dynamic to their sound. I personally always gravitate to heavy music that is closer in spirit to Melvins—big drums and heavy riffs prioritized over speed (but also not so slow as to be sad doom)

I’m listening to their 2019 album now just to remind myself, and I definitely like the new drummer’s presence a lot more

Speaking of which, I'm hearing good things about the new Melvins album out today.

i don't wanna really hyperfocus on the speed, per se, as my favorite High on Fire is when they're locked into an impenetrable groove, but something just felt off.

starting my second listen now. I should preface I was in the midst of a 2+ hour anxiety attack while I was listening.

also going to play the My Dying Bride, excited to hear the Melvins one is great (my good friend was raving about it).

I don't know what I think about the DVNE album yet, seems harder that before but it always takes a while before they get to me

High on Fire much improved on second listen, though still feeling not quite up to the previous three to my ears. but good, I do like it, the title track is my favorite. going to live with it a bit more and going to see them in a few weeks.

onto the new My Dying Bride now

Oh I didn’t know there was a new Melvins album too!

that's my next listen!

Well, I've gone and written 2700 words about High On Fire for Wednesday's newsletter. TL;DR: Matt Pike's a dumbass, but he is apparently capable of learning, as there are no songs about reptilian conspiracies on the new record; also, Coady Willis has given them a major kick in the ass.

new Bongripper is predictably excellent and heavy as hell.

aw thanks and also was gonna ask you and the metal cru - friend and i see that GA tickets are still available for pretty reasonable - Judas Priest: still good live or no?

newark show? did you go? i went and had a blast myself.

it’s been said a lot but halford still sounds great. varied set too (even got “turbo lover”!) with a pretty reasonable amount of new stuff (which i like but “crown of horns” in particular isn’t really punching at the same level as what’s around it). they used some pretty lame AI art-looking imagery but easy enough to tune out. super fun.

was only vaguely familiar with saboton but they were an enjoyable sugar rush and seemed to have a big presence in the crowd too.

aw thanks and also was gonna ask you and the metal cru - friend and i see that GA tickets are still available for pretty reasonable - Judas Priest: still good live or no?

newark show? did you go? i went and had a blast myself.

it’s been said a lot but halford still sounds great. varied set too (even got “turbo lover”!) with a pretty reasonable amount of new stuff (which i like but “crown of horns” in particular isn’t really punching at the same level as what’s around it). they used some pretty lame AI art-looking imagery but easy enough to tune out. super fun.

was only vaguely familiar with saboton but they were an enjoyable sugar rush and seemed to have a big presence in the crowd too.

whoopso!

I'll be seeing them at Welcome to Rockville in a few weeks

Three listens in, The High on Fire is sludgily reinvigorated for me. I like how "Burning Down" and "Darker Fleece" really hang on a pounding throb. I especially the Turkish touches, which really meet me half way with a lot of my listening to maqam/Persian/Turkish music. And now I will once again post my favorite metal video of all time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jgJKDtdTEA

the new The Vision Bleak album is great again - how are these guys not bigger than Ghost?

The new Iron Monkey is some high quality sludge.

xpost - no in Minneapolis, show hasn't happened yet but sounds like I should go!

fuuuuck me this Sovereign album on Dark Descent, came out in January...it's like a perfect thing. Schuldiner style vox over Coroner style thrash...but drier than Coroner, kinda beefier...fuck this album is nice

woah i LOVE the transit method album

Back in 2021, the debut album by Sunbomb, Evil and Divine, came out of nowhere and knocked me on my ass. It was a collaboration between Stryper vocalist Michael Sweet and L.A. Guns guitarist Tracii Guns, but it wasn't hair metal, it was trad/power metal in a Trouble/Candlemass vein, and it was probably my biggest surprise of the year. (Here's my original review.) I naturally assumed it was a one-off, but I got an email today letting me know that there's a second album coming in June, and I am VERY excited.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2oCTcB3kcI

right anyway, this is sounding amazing

https://couchslut.bandcamp.com/album/you-could-do-it-tonight

COUCH SLUT ARE BACK

I wrote 3000 words about High On Fire.

In "make it make sense" news....

Terrorizer reformed after only being broken up for a short while. I knew David Vincent was back in the band.

What I didn't know was right-wing, Trump-loving racist edgelord Brian Werner was the new vocalist. His claim to fame was briefly being in Vital Remains and a video on YouTube that shows him ripping down a cross from the ceiling that belonged to the owner and getting in a fight with her (a show that I, weirdly, was at). He is a self-professed theistic Satanist but this is probably just edgelordy posturing.

So he is now going to be screaming extreme left wing lyrics that probably offend him, while adding stage banter between songs that will contradict it.

This just proves Pete Sandoval is a huge sellout. He gives a job to a guy who probably makes disparaging remarks about people of his ethnicity, and once tried to sell a Stand Your Ground hoodie with Trayvon Martin's pic on it.

He quits Morbid Angel, claiming he is born again now, and can't perform MA's material anymore due to the content...then joins I Am Morbid, which plays these same songs.

And then hires a self-proclaimed extreme right-wing Satanist to sing with him.

Doubtful I'm gonna see them w Werner in the band. Fuck him.

On first listen, that Sovereign album is sounding like the best metal album I've heard in a while. Not even finished with it and can't wait to listen to it again.

The new Party Cannon album is a concept album about Action Park. Since I went there and lived, I guess I have to give it at least one listen. The cover is Bosch-meets-Robert Williams, and it's pretty amazing:

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a1622643158_10.jpg

He quits Morbid Angel, claiming he is born again now, and can't perform MA's material anymore due to the content...then joins I Am Morbid, which plays these same songs.

Anyway, it annoys the hell out of me to see so many people who dedicated their lives in the 80s to fighting christianity become unhinged born-again conspiracy nuts.

Magnificent artwork

That is indeed a glorious cover, the choice of band logo is *chef's kiss*

That Sovereign album is awesome, thank you. I love this drum sound.

I am very much enjoying this Toronto hard rock band Freeways. They're like Canadian Blue Öyster Cult - smooth and melodic, darker shades creeping in at the edges.

https://dyingvictimsproductions.bandcamp.com/album/dark-sky-sanctuary

Shellac and Party Cannon should go on tour

ffs I just bought a Terrorizer ticket then I read this

Sorry :( I didn't even know until a friend pointed it out

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GMGhPNeX0AAAAD5.jpg

Look at the third row on this poster, then imagine being a member of Goatwhore or Krisiun and realizing that you're seen as equal in stature to a Van Halen cover band.

bands who even worry for a second about what line they're listed on are basic, that shit is for internet idlers & nothing else. the van halen cover band has a manager who's capable of negotiating line placement, it's meaningless.

instead we should be talking about the o_O factor of a band called, if I'm reading that correctly, "Poon Tickler"

Weekend Nachos?

those guys are actually pretty good!

Xxpost You did read that correctly and sadly they're a shitty pornogrind band from my lovely state.

They have thirteen minutes of recorded music in their discography, one of which is the song "I Want an Ass to Fuck My Ass"

ha, of course, thanks. i also can't decipher that middle bottom one that clearly starts with "ASS" before getting indecipherable

Piss from the Moat(?)

oh haha maybe not "clearly" to me

oh, must be Hiss From the Moat. I think my misreading is better.

I just don't get how these shitty low level death/grind bands have any following other than people wanting to brag to their friends about the extreme edgelordy band they like.

Another one, Gutalax, frequently gets lobbied to be on the 70000 Tons of Metal cruise. Their lyrics are 100% poop-themed*, fans bring plungers to the shows, but the vocals sound like the noise from Juon/The Grudge, and the music is awful, not even competent death metal.

*I know big shock that I of all people oppose the poop band

New Inter Arma has some amazing dissonant stuff on it. And then some of it is really melodramatic in a way I'm not so sure about.

The Japanese band Kriegshög has a new album out, 14 years after their first. It sounds like Discharge covering Hawkwind, or vice versa. It RULES.

https://lavidaesunmus.bandcamp.com/album/love-revenge