rolling 2024 heavy metal and boutique blast beat thread

And for the record, that new Inter Arma is a revelation through headphones. You've got the right idea, Neanderthal.

Not exactly metal (and even less so given what I've heard about its Italian giallo influences), but anyone heard the new Uncle Acid?

Rise Above absolutely botched this one. First new album in six years and it is impossible to get on day of release. Out of stock in every format direct from Rise Above, "unavailable" from Amazon, I've searched dozens of US based records stores and either it doesn't exist in their database or it's listed as "out of stock, rare item". No Bandcamp option, either from the band or label. I would be furious if I was in a band and my label failed so miserably.

I admire the effort that went into the new Uncle Acid, it's a fun idea. The attention to detail is spot-on, faithful to Giallo/Poliziotteschi films of the 70s. I hope the physical product, if we can ever get our hands on it, helps flesh out the story, because without the little plot summary journalists were given, it would have been confusing as hell.

Ha yeah, I was wondering about that with it being all in Italian. I've been a fanboy for these guys ever since I first played Blood Lust and when I caught them on the Mind Control tour. I thought the concept sounded like a cool new path for them and I've dug the artwork so far.

Oooh child. I finally feel old for the first time. Was at the Welcome to Rockville festival the past two days. This is one of those Wimmer festivals that really celebrates rock mediocrity, so I don't go often, but this year, both Judas Priest decided to do their only Florida appearance at this festival, and MR BUNGLE....same.

Plus some other funsies like Nitzer Ebb, Anthrax with Dan Lilker on bass, etc.

Priest were incredible as always and it was great to hear the new stuff live. Condensed set meant a lot of staples cut out.

Anthrax with Lilker was just a standard Anthrax set, but it was cool to see Danny on the bass.

Bungle was a fuckin riot. Part of me is still disappointed that they're still mostly just doing Easter Bunny tracks (and don't get me wrong, I like that re-recording a lot), but we DID get "My Ass is on Fire", as well as his typical 70s AM nerd covers ("Hopelessly Devoted to You", "I'm Not in Love", and "True", which in ace trolling fashion came after the intro to "Hell Awaits"). He also sang the Pepto Bismol "upset stomach diarrhea" jingle after MAIOF , and legitimately farted into the mic. Multiple times. Incredible set and oddball behavior, now one day I hope I get to hear classic Bungle!

Nitzer Ebb were a fun EBM trip in scorching daylight.

Kerry King's set featuring his solo act was kind of disappointing. First of all, only one track released, so majority of the set nobody knows. He did end with two Slayer covers, which of course got the biggest response, which I'm sure he wasn't thrilled about (but whadya expect dude).

Not sure what I think of his solo material yet....I need to hear it in headphones, not outdoors at a festival w dodgy sound. But y'know some of it was good.

Anyway my gout flared up today so I walked back to the car on a toe I can't bend and recuperating at home, just having soaked in the bathtub.

Metal up yr tushy!

Apparently Nuclear Blast spotted a nickel at the bottom of the barrel and has signed Marilyn Manson.

oof, rough

gross

He's heading out on tour with Five Finger Death Punch, too, which says a lot about who his audience is at this point.

Christ, just imagine the type of people that'll show up to that thing

You could not pay me enough money to be within 1000 yards of that crowd of knuckleheads.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIqcEiaOpM8

probably not gonna get much love here (not knocking ilm, i get it, besides which their current sound kinda lurks between deathcore and nu-metal) but i'm soooo excited for the new kittie record

I don't need to hear a whole album, but that's a good song. Their current lead guitarist is pretty good. I still remember meeting them at Irving Plaza in 2001, opening for Disturbed; the sisters' dad was there with them.

all of the new (nu?) kittie tracks have been cool. I'm also looking forward to it!

I am admittedly very picky when it comes to what I like and don’t like about metal; I’m definitely out of step with the genre overall.

Nevertheless! The band that consistently does everything exactly in line with my tastes is Ufomammut. Their new album today is GREAT. Since last year they’d released 4 out of the 6 songs here but they all sound better as part of a sequenced whole. Absolutely loving it.

Ufomammut is band I thought about with the Albini discussion, but I dunno if it would work because of the laptop loops they play along with. The electronic flourishes are more forward on this one, I think. Which I love.

I saw this on Twitter and pulled it up on Tidal mostly because I thought it would suck and I could move quickly on, feeling superior to people I saw praising it. Well, it fucking rules. Ten Ton Slug, Colossal Oppressor. Get some.

https://tentonslug.bandcamp.com/album/colossal-oppressor

https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a3691132613_10.jpg

that slug looks like it would weigh more than 10 tons.

Didn't you know? Slugs have hollow bones, which is why/how they can fly.

This Ten Ton Slug is fun. Some great grooves.

Kerry King album is kind of what I felt like when I heard the shit live a week ago. not terribly exciting.

Mark Osegueda can be REALLY annoying when he overdoes it, even on Death Angel songs, and he's in his worst tendencies here, over-elocuting/over-emoting to the point of cheese.

some of the songs are decent but literally nobody would give a fuck about this if it wasn't KK. not to say it's bad. there's good moments here and there. but live, we felt a bit letdown and halfway through this disc, it's kinda confirming it wasn't just 'festival fatigue'.

btw, for Nocturnus AD fans, they put out a (not very well-publicized) new one. i haven't gotten to all of it yet but...in case you are a fan of og Nocturnus's "The Key", it's still in that vein

I listened to about 2/3 of the Kerry King album earlier and...the cover art looks like a streaming service's "modern metal" playlist, and that's kinda what the album sounds like. Kerry and a bunch of thrash lifers doing songs that aren't quite as good as Slayer songs, but frequently sound close enough to make you perk your head up for a second. And Osugueda is trying really hard to sound like Tom Araya on several tracks. But I gotta admit, when I heard his guitar on the opening instrumental, it almost gave me the same thrill I used to get from classic Slayer.

Heresiarch - Edifice
https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a4232526190_10.jpg
Doesn't totally sound like Ulcerate, but the vocals remind me of them--great riffs IMO, RIYL the blast sections in Formulas/Gateways-era Morbid Angel but also the suffocating Aussie/NZ 'war metal' sound I assume? (Still v much a metal newb, pls forgive me)
https://heresiarchofficial.bandcamp.com/album/edifice

Melanie Loves Death Metal review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_pqeyf-fh8
The-reviewer-formerly-known-as-Grizzly-Butts review (now Mystification Zine): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4qzAOJ50ks

The new Unleash the Archers album is great, and if that’s your kind of thing, check out the new Elvellon album, too.

Update: the Nocturnus AD is great and you should listen. Little more leaning into the cosmic stuff and slightly less death. Browning speaks lyrics often on this one.

But it's not a great departure.

Also enjoying the new Pallbearer, which is somewhat shoegazy in comparison to older Pallbearer

that heresiarch album is great

was almost turned off enough not to check out the new Vale of Pnath because metalheads were calling it 'symphonic deathcore' and comparing it to Lorna Shore (one person compared it to Dummy Burger, which was completely wrong), but on listening to half of it thus far, I actually like it a lot? it's more black metally, less techy.

I find the deathcore label completely wrong, there's no breakdowns, nor are the vocals deathcore, nor did Lorna Shore invent the pairing of symphonic music with death metal. but I'm the wrong guy to talk LS with, I feel like their music sounds like it was created by AI and has zero human touch at all.

i caught vitriol on tuesday night. great show. their stage presence at the start was very "pro metal guys" but they revealed over the course of the set that at heart they're sensitive and ambitious. kyle broke a string halfway through which threw them off a bit but they finished strong. matt kilner's drumming is something to behold.

oh killer! would love to see them live

There
is
a
new

Nightwish

song.

Nightwish has gotten so wackadoodle, the campiness is off the charts, and I kind of LIKE this song because of that? I mean, this is utterly ridonkulous.

Just sounds great to me.

I couldn't claim to have ever been the most diligent Death fan, but I had a free evening yesterday and checked the concert calendar to see that Death to All was doing the second of two nights here. I admit I bought the ticket thinking I was going to see Cryptopsy, too, but at least half the information sources noted correctly that they weren't doing this date. NJ thrash-metal band Morbid Cross handled warm-up with admirable destructive glee. Death to All were tremendous, playing all of The Sound of Perseverance and a bunch of other mostly-later Death stuff. I read Choosing Death recently (also recommended), so the whole original scene had been on my mind again. DTA would sound like a dubious premise in most other contexts: former members of a band whose only constant member has been dead for longer than the band existed, playing songs that in many cases they weren't individually involved in creating at all, and certainly not together, with a singer who was never in the band. I would not pay to see Doobie Brothers To All. But these guys all have other bands, and the will to keep Chuck's music alive live in the world justifies this parallel project pretty well. Worth a night if your schedule and theirs line up.

I love Death to All because it's just basically a warm "we love and miss you, Chuck" experience. The band always sounding great helps too.

The best version of it that I saw wasn't actually officially Death to All, but a two day Death tribute that was attended by the surviving Schuldiners on the 20th anniversary of his death.

They had a mini-museum in the back featuring his guitars, pedals, original handwritten lyric sheets, as well as other odds and ends. And James Murphy was present.

I've never seen Death To All but their existence always reminds me of a show I went to, fuck, almost 20 years ago now. It was a whole night of tech-death bands, and one of them ended their set by saying, "We've only got one song left. We know an Atheist cover and a Death cover. Let's have a vote!" (The Atheist cover won.) The whole thing was...charming, is the only word I can come up with.

yo if i really like the new heseriarch album, what else new or old should i check out?

err heresiarch

RIYL the new Heresiarch album (IMO):

Incantation - Unholy Deification
Pneuma Hagion - Demiurge
Aeviterne - The Ailing Facade
Ulcerate - Stare Into Death And Be Still
Portal - Avow (the U.S. Maple of this shit, kinda/vaguely?)
VoidRot - Descending Pillars
Of Feather And Bone - Sulfuric Disintegration
Altarage - The Approaching Roar

New Nile album in August, for those who like Nile. I'm not a big fan; saw them once and they bored me senseless. But anyway, the new song is called "Chapter for Not Being Hung Upside Down on a Stake in the Underworld and Made to Eat Feces by the Four Apes," so there's that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmwqMQ2g0NQ

Reasons To Be Grateful Brutal

Really liking this new album from Belgian thrashy/heavy/power metal group Scavenger. Energetic old-school 80s stuff. The funny thing is that Scavenger has a previous album from 1985, and re-formed in 2018, but the original members left, so the current band has no membership overlap with the 80s band.

https://scavenger1985.bandcamp.com/album/beyond-the-bells

Defacement (whose previous S/T album back in 2021 bore one of the most artfully gory metal covers in recent memory IMO) return with Duality, out in full on July 30th: https://totaldissonanceworship.bandcamp.com/album/duality

MEEEEMORIIIIIES
https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a1502519686_10.jpg

whoa, that defacement preview track is really something! I hope there's at least one more epic on there when the whole thing gets released