Rolling 2006 Metal Thread

I've been listening to Mirand Sex Garden's "Fairytales of Slavery" lately, and it sounds like something out of the world of "post black metal." Last time I heard the album, some years ago, it never occured to me that it was a bit on the metallic side, but hearing it again it sees pretty metal. I suppose at the time it would have been considered Swans influenced, but now I can't help but to think it sure sounds a lot like Beyond Dawn. Not terribly surprising.

BM is stuff i've never been into but for some reason I like the above bands. Same with th BM influence of the new album by Sunn o))), I like that too. Then again I do like Sunn o))) anyway.

Oh and I liked that Lurker Of Chalice album.

angelblood's got good songs here and there on their first two, their last real cd release was great and more consistent (i'm attributing it to the orthrelm dude playing guitar, even though orthrelm irritates the shit out of me).

as for the rest of the "ha ha let's dress up and play black metal" stuff like the 'funeral folk' collective, haven't heard them. don't think i want to.

Messiah's vocals have always been the best part of the Candlemass sound. That album was probably the nicest surprise (for me, anyway) of 2005.

http://sammath-naur.blackmetal.it/modules/catalog/images/hellhammer-sh.JPG

I hope Nortt will do something as well, tour for instance

There are only two choices:

http://www.blastitude.com/6/pettibon-elvis.jpg

or

http://www.ebtm.com/content/ebiz/ebtm/invt/mastp0026/mastp0026_l.jpg

Also, Angelblood is a really bad joke. They're the reason I don't do drugs, because I wouldn't want to accidentally find them interesting. There's one song where they open with "I AM THA HUNTA!" but it's not the Bjork song. Like, why?

And Lucifer's -666- which is an amateur's work from the voluminous catalog of desparation administered by CD Baby. The title song is excellent, along with "Crush Your Enemy" and a love ballad.

I liked it.

also, who is who on this pic http://www.decibelmagazine.com/features/jan2006/twilight.aspx

great article about twilight. some hilarious quotes

Damn, George, I need to hear this (and Copperhead too.)

I'm experiencing a metal drought so far this year, I think. (I guess Lullacry's new Finnish goth-pop metal album is tolerable, though. Whether it has anything to do w/ metal is another question entirely.)

And I guess I don't hate the EP I heard by these guys:

http://yearlongdisaster.com/

Can't get more enthusiastic about anything than that yet, though.

The Onkel Tom is done by some guy who is in Sodom, a thrash band I never listen to. Half of it is recorded at Wacken, that place where everyone in a US classic metal band wants to play because it's the go to festival gig for audiences that like it. The kind of omnibus show that makes Rose Tattoo kings for a week or a day or an hour or something. Everyone is shouting "Onkel Tom! Onkel Tom! Onkel Tom" which reminds me of the Bose Onkelz, a kind of average Deutsch oi band from way way back. Whatever happened to Slime! I had two of their records. When they were in storage my mom threw 'em out when she lost her mind to dementia, just before she had to be put in a place for the middle-class decrepit. "You told me to do it," she said.

Speaking of RT, also have Doomfoxx which I haven't had a chance to allot attention. Must be slang for Dumbfucks, I suspect, and it's the thing of one of the guitarists from the Tatts. Might be good, could also be wretched. I'll let you know. Claims to have played a few times in NYC.

Others to listen to on the digital pile this week -- Nikki Puppet, Weinhold and Saeka, all of whom seem to be fronted by vimmen. All 2005 or older prospects who just made it to me, again generally only reviewed in foreign language Euro pubs online and off. Saeka's a hot-looking Japanese girl looking like (or maybe not) fronting an Accept-like band of Deutscher ringers.

That's what I like best about the album, there seems to be an even balance between the various styles. Fans bitterly complained that their last album was more mainstream-oriented (I liked it), but the new one dips into the late-90s melodic death riffs more.

Not being able to compare it to the previous album I can't get a sense of what mainstream complaints there were but personally I'm glad as heck they let wossname the singer step back from hyperscreech at least part of the time.

Yeah, the singer took the more clean, melodic approach, which annoyed the fans who still cling to the band's mid to late-90s albums, as well as going for the goth/industrial/nu sounds you mentioned. I thought Soundtrack to Your Escape was a rather daring departure, but I remember the reaction of fans online was split, they either loved it or despised it.

samples here: http://www.absolutesteel.com/

(The "Opus Suite" is some fun, lemme tellya.)

In other news, The Ocean's Aeolian is much better than Ocean's I Forget The Title, so I think they oughta have exclusive rights to the name from now on. (Just like Esoteric, the UK doom band, oughta cease-and-desist the shitty metalcore outfit The Esoteric right out of existence.)

Seen HoF twice and the answer is a resounding YES.

I prefer Ocean - 'Here Where Nothing Grows' myself.

Another top moment is the song about the plan to drug her, fuck her and pass her to your brother, I'm starting on a career of evil, or something. The one right after it, "Abandon All Hope," is the philosophy of having promiscuous sex with all the girls he can while sponging off their assets. He's over the top in trying to convince he's the world's foulest rock 'n' roll dirtbag. And it's more often than not entertaining, although not always for the right reasons. Not a classic by any means, but good for a few weeks and you can remember the song titles and the songs that go with them.

Weinhold's From Heaven Through the Earth To Hell is Deutsch. It's the bag of Jutta Weinhold, someone not at all like Doro. She is said to have once sang back-up for Amon Duul on tours. This, though, is valkyrie muzik, loud and vigorous German power rock. Songs -- "Blues Metal," "Rock of Metal," "Black Bone Song," "Wounded Pioneer" -- so you know they don't give a shit about English language cred und verstehen Sie, although it's all auf Englisch. "Black Bone Song," whatever it's about, is great. Es ist nicht schrechlich, Jutta! Sie sind eine grosse fraulein!

Aborym
Agalloch
Age of Silence
Anata
Anathema
Ancient Rites
Battered
Bloodbath
Burnt by the Sun
Callisto
Carpathian Forest
Cave in
Celtic Frost
Cult of Luna
Dark Fortress
Darkthrone
Daylight Dies
Dead to Fall
Decapitated
Dimmu Borgir
Disillusion
Dissection
Dødheimsgard
Drudkh
Dysrhythmia
Enslaved
Entombed
Epoch of Unlight
Eyes of Fire
Frantic Bleep
The Gathering
Head Control System [Garm's new band]
Illdisposed
Into Eternity
Isis
Kataklysm
Katatonia
Kayo Dot
Keep of Kalessin
Lacuna Coil
Legion
Madder Mortem
Mastodon
Mayhem
Mercenary
Misery Index
Moonspell
Negura Bunget
Neurosis
Nightingale
Norther
Novembre
Queensrÿche
Red Harvest
Rush
Saturnus
Satyricon
Scar Symmetry
Scarve
Sepultura
Solefald
Textures
Thorns
Thundra
Tomahawk
Tool
Devin Townsend
Type O Negative
Unearthly Trance
Unexpect
Virgin Black
Voivod
While Heaven Wept
Winds
Woods of Ypres
Yakuza
Yyrkoon

also according to link above from Jaxijin

Trouble
Simple Mind Condition (2006)
AVAILABLE MARCH 2006!
The first release from pioneering doom metallers Trouble in 10 years!! Hopefully Eric Wagner and co. will deliver the goods!!

What else is due out in 2006?

What are your top [10] most anticipated releases?

Right now, it's Trouble, The Gathering, Voivod, Into Eternity, Amorphis, Kataklysm, Decapitated...

I have a morbid fascination with the upcoming Queensryche. Mindcrime 2 could be a trainwreck.

http://www.dickdestiny.com/blog/2006/06/witchfinder-generals-loved-sex-rock.html

next album?! they're going on without piggy?

How fucking hardcore is THAT!? TOURING between HARVESTS!!! take THAT, bonnie prince billy!!

lots of folks i know in mpls like WEW...he plays with lots of punk bands and stuff from around here...apparently a real nice dude.

You can do amazing things with beat mapping in software, but you can't manufacture inspiration or the magic that occurs when people compose and play together. That's the way it is. Guitar music isn't just mechanization, not even for Voivod.

a dude who makes deathfolkcountry and who is a FARMER from IOWA

Get him to run on the Republican ticket. Where, where, are you tonight, why did you leave me here all alone? I searched the world over and I thought I find true love, you met another and pffft you were gone. Should xpost to the noise country thread.

Here, busy yourself with something off topic and intelligent. Stretch your brain, the pictures are funny, and hundreds are reading it as we speak -- Assassination by Toilet Paper and The Botox Shoe of Death:

http://www.dickdestiny.com/blog/2006/06/from-poisoners-handbook-to-botox-shoe.html

Crimson Glory, *Transcendence* (MCA album, 1988)
Metal Church, *Blessing in Disguise* (Elektra album, 1989)
Jerusalem, *Can't Stop Us Now* (Refuge album, 1983)
Rail, "1-2-3 Rock and Roll"/"Fantasy"/"You've Got to Give"/"Hard Girl to Love" (EMI America EP, 1984)
Sampson, "The Fight Goes On"/"Riding With The Angels"/"Vice Versa (Live)" (Polydor EP, 1984)

thanks!

"Riding with the Angels" was a great studio cut when Bruce Bruce sang it on Shock Tactics. I was never sold on it redone with Moore.

Crimson Glory's Transcendence was ahead of its time, no question, but there's something about the sound of it that always struck me as a bit cold.

Heh, I remember Rail. "1-2-3 Rock and Roll" was as goofy a metal rave-up as Helix's "Rock You".

The power metal album I did really like this week was by Warmachine, who are from Toronto, and whose new album is on Nightmare Records.

but, you know, a little longer.

Where is the LOVE for Cirith Ungol?

Everyone in Dick Destiny had Cirith Ungol Lps except the drummer. It was back when we ate shoe leather and liked it! Maybe I should do a poor man's entry for them on the blog for Sunday. Maybe not.

So, when's xhuxk gonna discover Max Gelt and the Broadway Metal Choir's And God Gave Us Max!. I actually Had to interview him because he had some feeble local connection in the newspaper's circulation area. And there's still only one or two entries on the entire web for him. Damn.

xp for Scott, re Agalloch or Agollach as the case may be:

I liked it (though maybe not as much you I guess)! I wrote about it on my MTV Urge blog! My favorite songs were the ones with the '80s AOR-melody diddles sneakily snuck in there - "Falling Snow" and "Not Unlike the Waves," as I recall. (I think I might like those Lacrimos Profundere and Leaves Eyes EPs on Napalm more, though. But the Lacrimos Profundere ALBUM is too much of a ridiculous thing. Sisters of Mercy tributes are much more palatable when kept to EP length.)

My favorite metal album of the year is still by Korpiklaani, however.

Still never figured out what was supposed to be so great about the Moonspell album, sadly enough. It was fine -- just another okay Moonspell album, no complaints, but still, Scott said it was their best in years, and I still can't figure out why. And Katatonia and Madder Mortem are in the same category; i.e., they sound good when I put them on, but when I don't, I can't remember anything about them.)

Somebody mentioned Knut. I never heard their "actual" album, just their remix one, which struck me as theoretically intriguing for a few minutes, but there was nothing on it I cared about returning to.

http://www.decibelmagazine.com/reviews/june2006/moonspell.aspx

i just thought it was really powerful in a way that the last three albums weren't. plus, their last three albums sounded like mud. the new one was so shiny and heavy and catchy and all that good stuff. the SONGS are better too.

some other random metal stuff i've written about on that urge blog:

end records compilation: i decided that unexpect's cut and thin eyes bleed's cuts weren't as horrible as most of the other cuts

invaders compilation: i decided that danava's cut and warhammer 48K's cuts weren't as horrible as most of the other cuts

the gersch: one good track ("residue three"), the rest is expendable

new zao album: one good track ("a last time for everything"); the rest is expendable

also: assorted unknown myspace bands, and sundry other stuff.

and oh yeah: fuck an albatross.

Virgin Black were even better. Seemed to be off some CD where they collaborate with a classical Australian orchestra, but I never heard said album. (I also had no idea that Australia had any orchestras.)

Dickie Peterson is still pretty much a frizzed-out hippie rebel. As Dickie leaned against his amp watching Paul Whaley butcher a drum solo, it was easy to picture him slouching against a small-town drugstore storefront in hicksville North Dakota in 1965, like a tough from Born Losers or something. Glad to see a hippie with a lifelong gift for going against the grain. I thought they all bought SUVs like Grace Slick. Anyway, B'Cheer played all of Vincebus Eruptum at deafening volume. I caught glimpses into a bygone era. I appreciate that they fought for my rights before I was born.

Made me want to go read my old issues of Flesh + Bones, too -- godly '80s dirtrocker zine from Jersey that saw the future.

No, you're probably right, 1988 was the right time for that album to come out, right when that whole epic power metal thing was starting to gain serious momentum (post-Awaken the Guardian, pre-Keeper Part II, pre-Gutter Ballet, pre-Dream Theater). I can't remember Crimson Glory ever getting the kind of attention those other bands did at the time. I have to listen to that album again.

i put in a good word for leaves' eyes in my pan of the new theatre of tragedy album in the new decibel.

Heh, I'm reviewing the new EP. It's okay. A bit heavier than the last album, which went new-age too many times for my liking, the songs are half decent. I kind of like Liv Kristine's replacement in Theatre of Tragedy.

that's gonna be my review: "I lovelovelovelovelovelovleovelvoelvoelvoleovleovleolvoelovelovelovelovleovleovleovleove the new agalloch album. A lot!"

Currently my third favourite metal album of the year, behind Celtic Frost and Katatonia, just ahead of Voivod.

The new Unearth is surprisingly good for no-frills metalcore.

And I'm finding myself less than enamoured of the new Skullflower.

yeah, i originally thought ian was a brit too!

>do you mean you wrote about the *new* Voivod for Spin<

yep

>...in the issue that already came out<

nope. the next one, i think. i wrote three CD reviews for that one, then six (!?) for the issue after that. (hey, i'm suprised, too.)

xp: which one? orange canyon mind (which was crap) or tribulations or what?

Tribulation. A little too formless, no percussion, just an hour-long onslaught of grating, screeching distortion with tiny, tiny hints of melodies buried underneath all the density. I liken it to a badly tuned AM radio...you can hear traces of something, but the static is overwhelming. It's interesting in small doses, especially with headphones (there are a few tracks I really like), but in my opinion, I've heard better from Bower.

I greatly prefer Xaman, Exquisite Fucking Boredom, and yeah, even Orange Canyon Mind.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7_JafYlMY8

Does this buzz around DragonForce mean we're in for a big power metal revival in North America? It's so popular in Europe, but there haven't been signs of the same thing happening here, until recently.

There's a band from Omaha called Cellador that does the Helloween shtick quite well, including a singer who matches Kiske step for step.

Rolling 2006 Metal Thread, Part 2