Rolling Contemporary UK Metal/Post-Metal/Heavy Rock Thread

If Stevie Chick is around and reading this, what Todd and Part Chimp are worth checking out? and are The Lords any good?

(Y!IAALWFH and Kids Will Be Skeletons being the next two, in that order. Fear Satan just doesn't have the impact it once did any more (ever since I heard GY!BE's Motherfucker = Redeemer, actually).)

Part Chimp have never gone the full distance for me, but I'm happy they do what they do. Lords are decent, and remind me a lot of Mule, if that helps.

Taint are one of my very favourite bands from the UK of recent times, although they're also my friends, so, y'know, full disclosure and such. They rule, anyway. Trencher from London play surreal grind with keyboard bits, and are often great. Possibly not much metal in there, but still.

I've seen Atavist twice and enjoyed, although not convinced they have too many strings to their bow. Geisha, from Bristol, are good if you want something like Unsane but with more Burmese-type noise terror bits. There are lots of others which I will think of later.

Anyways, Jesu is great. Nice to see people finally coming on board for that one.

Does Dragonforce count as metal? If so, I've gotta put a word in for their new album. Sure, it's mainstream. Sure, it's poppy. Sure, it's cheesy as fuck.

But it's also fun as hell. One of my favorite records to play at work when time seems to be dragging on.

I guess if we can count Mogwai as metal, we can count Wolf Eyes. I guess they're not from the UK though... I lose.

i need more Heads albums. Or even one! the stuff i have heard - which was really really old stuff - was excellent.

Part Chimp: their first album is better than their latest, IMO. "Hitlers and Jews" is great, and has funny lyrics as well.

does anybody know of art of burning water? excellent, pummeling, hardcore-tinged bass-heavy brutality. well worth seeing live too...their drummer is one of the finest on the planet.

also, an affiliated band, foe, are representing the uber-proggy, mathy, instrumental wing. their album 'arm yourself with clairvoyance' came out a few years ago and is utterly essential if you're at all into mastodon, crimson, dillinger, ruins, etc. a new album is on the way soon, allegedly...

Why are Oceansize hated? IMO they're the best and most forward-thinking band currently operating in Britain today. Yet all I've found here is antipathy and revulsion. Are they too 'pop' for the hardcore metallers? Are they too 'metal' for the popsters? Are they too 'prog' for the haterz? C'mon, I'd like a cogent, sustained argument as to why they're not worth our time.

Agree on Part Chimp - I've only heard Chart Pimp but that's just average really - might be worth picking up cheap or 2nd hand though.

-- Obvious Ninja

Ripping off Mogwai and Explosions in the Sky ranks up there with the most tired musical clichés imaginable in '06.

DJ Mencap, if they're not forward-thinking, which British bands are? Just curious (you'll probably name a load of other bands I really like, I'm not having a dig).

It's the only song anyone who is a non-fan would have heard and is basically a big ol' stinky rip-off of above mentioned bands (who are themselves slightly stinky rip-offs but have enough élan to pull it off). I just went to their myspace, the rest of the songs aren't even bareable.

I'll give you that.

But it IS a fantastic song in its own right IMO, and since they're clearly not your bag then I'll accept your criticism. But to dismiss their music you need to be able to say more than 'one of their songs sounds like a tarted-up version of two very, very good bands'. To bear them, as I can tell you, takes a coupla listens at least.

"Forward thinking" strikes me as one of those airy, needless terms that, when applied to rock music, tend to have little real meaning. Which isn't to say that guitar bands can't make music that justifies the term - that would be dumb - but it doesn't have a lot to do with what I want to 'get' from music right now. All the current British stuff I can think of that doesn't have immediate and obvious musical touchstones - Scatter, DJ Scotch Egg, probably some others - is on the periphery of 'rock' music, and then only if you're being liberal with the term. Isis and Tool might not have invented a new type of music, but I think they've changed the way a lot of bands play it, for better or worse. I can't see what you might think Oceansize are doing to alter how anyone thinks about rock. They write long songs with a few different parts and big production? Jeez, stop the presses.

Oceansize have changed the way I think about rock a little, though. I now know that it's possible to write intricate, melodic progressive rock whilst adapting to the production techniques, advances in musical technology and electronic wizardry available today. Which equals HOORAYs all round.

(Mars Volta to thread...) ;-)

Born from a blizzard of horned cats, Crippled Black Phoenix bring you a twisted cinematic experience, handcrafted by a mercenary crew of underground heavyweights, giving depth and gravity to regal songs about love, loss, tragedies and redemption. Justin from Electric Wizard/Iron Monkey joins together with Mogwai bassist Dominic Aitchison as well as members of Gonga, Panthiest members Andy Semmens and Kostas Panagiotou, Nial McGaughey of 3D House of Beef and -(16)-.
http://www.myspace.com/crippledblackphoenix
http://www.myspace.com/voiceofthesevenwoods

i really liked Thirteen Thirteen (13:13)'s album. no idea when it came out, or if they've done anything since. Birmingham band that kept the Blind Idiot God sound alive. cool shit.

would this be the place to rave about Twelfth Night?

what happened to Abraxas? maybe not the right thread, unless Scorn would also qualify, but Skin Thrills was another promising post-metal blast from out of nowhere, around the same time. maybe a few years earlier.

Although it'll just end up with me slagging off Mr. Beast and an unhappy row developing

louis: seriously, go back and listen again. as i mentioned yesterday - maybe on the isis thread; can't remember - i was bitterly disappointed by it at first but, upon returning a couple of months later, i discovered a far tighter, tauter, ROCKIER album than i'd remembered. i don't think it's their best, but it's not what you think it is. go on, get listenin'.

i wish they'd re-record "2 rights". there's a live version on their website from camber sands 2004 (i think); shame it's not the 2005 one, because hearing that (at about 3pm, surrounded by awestruck hangovers) is seriously the closest i've ever come to a spiritual experience. last time i saw them live was the glasgow ABC, before "mr beast" came out, and they didn't quite scale the same heights (it's all in the crescendo) ... still, they've (esp barry, i get the impression) done so much work with that song, and turned it into something glorious, and i really wish they'd commit it to record somehow.

last truly great british metal i heard was the other week, on tom ravenscroft's show: a three-piece called dissociation, who come from some shithole town of dreadfulness and are basically a blastbeat frenzy.

i've also been listening (qv threads passim) to earl brutus a lot. pre-post-metal, anyone?

Pfunkboy - I have the IX demo, it's decent but not as good as decriptions made them sound. I wasn't aware they have any 'proper' releases yet but I might have missed something

The guitar riff reminded me of Rob Zombie. But less funny.

30 Acid Mothers Temple - Starless & Bible Black Sabbath
29 Jazkamer - Metal Music Machine
28 Jamie Saft & Merzbow - Merzdub
27 Oxbow - Love That's Last
26 Grief - Alive
25 Ghostdigital - In Cod We Trust
24 OOIOO - Taiga
23 The Residents - Tweedles
22 Unearthly Trance - The Trident
21 Made Out Of babies - Coward
20 Yellow Swans - Psychic Secession
19 Current 93 - Black Ships Ate The Sky
18 Slayer - Christ Illusion
17 Wizardzz - Hidden City
16 Boris - Pink
15 Subtle - For hero, For Fool
14 Wolf Eyes - Human Animal
13 Whitehouse - Ascetici-sts
12 Converge - No Heroes
11 Kayo Dot - Dowsing Anemone With Copper Tongue
10 Isis - In The Absence Of Truth
09 Jesu - Silver
08 Liars - Drum's Not Dead
07 Zombi - Surface To Air
06 Dub Trio - New heavy
05 John Zorn - Moonchild
04 Othrelm - Behold The Arctopus
03 Peeping Tom - Peeping Tom
02 Sunn O))) & Boris - Altar

01 Melvins - (A) Senile Animal

i wonder when NME will do their writer's poll early december? or will they switch back to the traditional 2 week issue before christmas

which end of year list will be the most comical this year Q or NME?

NME will be out early again so there's 2 big selling issues no doubt.
I wish they would go back to having it in the Xmas special again.
No doubt I'll buy the albums of year issue out of habit and hate everything in it.
We all know what's going to win the NME album of year anyway.

ZEE ARCTIC MONKEYS - so average they can't even get into the top 100 of 2006 on rym

http://rateyourmusic.com/charts/top/album/2006

This thread idea took off didn't it?

FUCKING OCEANSIZE

they're really nice blokes, if that helps! had a long chat with them after their gig last week. very genuine, very affable.

DJ Martian got any bands for us?

haha @ LJ going on about Oceansize yet again.

New Hey Colossus album out in a few weeks!!

love that last hey colossus album! they should be way bigger in the states. have they ever toured the u.s.? they should. i'd think that people would go crazy for them here.

their last two albums came out on shifty here which is a tiny label and that makes a difference.

It's on Riot Season here. Dunno bout the USA. But ATH (stonerrock.com) stock them.

oh and everyone needs to hear the new Esoteric album The Maniacal Vale It's the best thing they've ever done.
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/614MDwl2W8L._SL500_AA240_.jpg

Scott have you heard it yet?

nope.

I'd be surprised if you didn't love it.

New Hey Colossus is called Happy Birthday
http://www.heycolossus.com/

DeSalvo have been kicking my arse for the last fortnight or so. Their album is great. It's P6, the vocalist from the Stretchheads, on vocals here as well, which is awesome. They have a kinda Botch thing going on, but way better and more idiosyncratic than most bands who try this sort of thing. I hope people give a shit about them but I don't think they will

i would probably give a shit

I give a shit. desalvo are incredible. the album's great, but have you caught them live? something else entirely. masks, a severed chef's head, a loudhailer and a terrifying frontman-mountain. could be gimmicky nonsense, but the music's so beautifully nasty that it works perfectly, without being kitschy.

plus, they must be contenders for catchiest hook of the decade with "FIND THEM AND FUCK THEM AND KILL THEM AND BURY THEM".

They toured at the end of last month and me and a friend could've put them on but I'd not really heard them at that point and it was kind of short notice so opted out. Regretted it when I listened to the album properly. The guitarist is in Idlewild and the other dudes are all busy day-to-day so they don't get much chance to tour