[because i really miss the discussion from the thread on ilm]
the profundi release on profound lore arrived yesterday. blistering!! that is all i can say about it so far.
*really been enjoying the darkspace reissues on avantgarde. i missed these fellas the first time around. also,grab the paysage d’hiver digibook if you see it.
*saw the neurosis / the grails / grey datsuras in seattle saturday night. new neurosis material sounds very promising and they were agressive as hell. the grails were incredibly tight and the datsuras sucked as bad or worse than any group i have ever seen. one 45 minute wall of noise jam.
i like the profundi stuff i’ve heard. i don’t think i’ve gotten that yet. i liked the asunder album on profound lore. god, i can’t wait for new neurosis.
really enjoying the stuff i got brom black plague/god is myth. nocturnal, sapthier, hellveto, etc. blackened goodness. er, badness.
okay, i did get that profundi album. haven’t listened yet.
one of my fave things recently was the single by Four Days To Burn on the Dada Drumming label. they put out that rabies caste album that i dig. anyway, FDTB are great doomsludgescreamo stuff.
got the small stone *sucking the 70’s* covers comp in the mail. pretty fun stuff that chuck and/or george should check out. i don’t know if they are on faux-ilx. anyway, track-listing:
1. Sasquatch “Are You Ready”
2. Puny Human “Crazy Horses”
3. Clutch & Five Horse Johnson “Red Hot Mama”
4. Dixie Witch “Rock Candy”
5. The Brought Low “Don’t Lie To Me”
6. Novadriver “Sin City”
7. Colour Haze “One Way Or Another”
8. Alabama Thunderpussy “Man On The Silver Mountain”
9. Dozer “Mongoloid”
10. Acid King “The Stake”
11. Halfway To Gone “Honky Cat”
12. Antler “Those Shoes”
13. Brad Davis (Fu Manchu) “Outlaw Man”
14. Gideon Smith & The Dixie Damned “Season Of The Witch”
15. Whitey Morgan and The Waycross Georgia Farmboys “Running With The Devil”
16. Throttlerod “I Just Wanna Make Love To You”
17. Red Giant “Saturday Night Special”
18. A Thousand Knives Of Fire “Bonie Maronie”
19. The Glasspack “Rock n Roll Singer”
20. Roadsaw “When The Levee Breaks”
21. Greatdayforup “Super Stupid”
22. Fireball Ministry “Turn to Stone”
23. Los Natas “Born To Be Wild”
24. Scott Reeder “Two Of Us”
25. Orange Goblin “New Rose”
26. Mos Generator “Garden Road”
27. Honky “Snortin’ Whiskey”
28. The Muggs “I Don’t Need No Doctor”
29. Amplified Heat “Neighbor, Neighbor”
30. RPG “Parchment Farm”
31. Valis “Dreamweaver”
General consensus amongst stoner rockers is the 1st one was better. But I liked the covers of Devo and Funkadelic. Not heard the full album though.
it’s good for the guitars. what will become crystal clear upon listening is how few of these bands have good singers.
Structure betrays a craft in tune with the adamantine will. The mordant efflorescence is reset through ambient refrains, suspiring in the aftermath or else opening like a valve between them as toxic pools reflect a fetid attraction to misery and imprisonment of the body—a spiritual negative condensed in the title track’s provocation to prove we’re “more than flesh.” As the tone of each album becomes increasingly sexualized, the lyrics yield to instinct while rejecting all sentimental justification. Antaeus, following Sade and Lautreamont, replace procreation with pestilence, self-gratification at the expense of spiritual fruit [...]
the next time i suggest that french black metal is following a decadent tradition in french art, please slap me in the mouth until it stops moving.
Decibel and Rockarolla’s albums of the year list
RIGHT,
just thought I’d bump this thread to advertise the WORST REVIEW I’VE SEEN IN A FUCKING LONG TIME. Unfunny, idiotic, self-indulgent to the point of absurdity, and almost entirely unconcerned with the music:
http://www.cokemachineglow.com/reviews/isis_intheabsenceoftruth2006.html
Haha. “I’m giving this my lowest score ever—65%”
cokemachineglow are normally pretty interesting/reliable, as well. this is a shameful let-down.
I went with a friend of mine to see Goatwhore and Cattle Decapitation the other night in NYC (Knitting Factory). I went in knowing basically nothing about either band...very interesting night.
Goatwhore was pretty cool; the vocalist put on a good show. I probably wouldn’t listen to them unless live. Cattle Decapitation was terrible, though. I guess they’re vegetarian grindcore or something, which ain’t my bag.
One thing that stood out was when the guy from Goatwhore was talking between songs, very hard to hear of course but it was something about “I think Trivium is a mockery of metal” (crowd cheers) and then a little “Fuck Christian Metal,” which I wholeheartedly repeated. A strange culture clash in the audience as well.
i don’t know if it fits this thread other than by tangential connection but siege’s drop dead has just been reissued on cd. with the proper skulltastic cover art. KILLA.
i bought the vinyl last week! sounds great.
wait, i’m not maria d. i’m scott.
i don’t know if maria is a siege fan or not. i’ll ask her.
oh, and they totally belong on this thread, el sabor.
yeah, i reckon. especially as there isn’t a “ROLLING SANDBOX BUH-DUH-BUHBUH-DUH 2006 D-BEAT THREAD”.
i was a little disappointed seeing the sticker on the front (“COMPLETE DISCOGRAPHY AND DEMOS AND COMP TRACKS AND CANDY CANES AND SOCKS RIGHT OUT OF THE DRYER”) and the bloody thing was still only twelve minutes. but i guess i was unaware how totally unprolific they were.
Is Maria a metal fan?
it’s an amazing 12 minutes though.
maria likes some metal. definitely more than she used to cuzza me. she isn’t a big death metal fan. she likes the doomy stuff pretty good. i turned her on to katatonia and she really loves them. they make the girls swoon. and me. they make me swoon. but i’m just a really big girl.
On Feburary 20, 2007, Jesu will release their second full-length, Conqueror, through Hydra Head. As the immediate successor to industro-pioneers Godflesh, the trio, which consists of Justin K. Broadrick, sometime Swans drummer Ted Parsons and ex-Cable Regime bassist Diarmuid Dalton, has created their most beautifully epic album yet, full of catchy hooks, clean vocals and a bunch of other sounds not typically associated with Broadrick or Jesu. In a recent interview with CMJ, Broadrick said, “It’s really pop. It’s way more pop than, say, the first actual Jesu album, which is actually like a black hole of depression. But it’s still very emotional and very depressing.”
Jesu worked hard to make this album more of a “band” outing, and ended up with eight songs that total about 60 minutes. “It’s not like the first album, [which] by my own admission, drags intentionally,” says Broadrick. “The first album was pushed to the max at 75 minutes and, intentionally, I wanted it to be use it as you wish. But for those who listen from start to finish that’s fine, but I wouldn’t[laughs]. But this album you can take in one session, I think, and it’s very melodramatic.”
Broadrick is also quite proud that “there’s some quite short songs on there as well”—At least two or three songs at five and a half minutes. “I think there’s only one song that’s around 10,” he says.
In other Jesu news, Broadrick has said that a US tour is possibly—finally!—in the works on his blog saying, “Jesu WILL hopefully be touring the U.S.A. beginning late Feb ending early April 2007 in support of the Conqueror album release in mid Feb 2007. More info soon... ” Also coming soon are a slew of other Jesu releases, inclulding a Hydra Head/Temporary Residence limited-edition split release between Jesu (Broadrick only) and Eluvium, a Jesu and Battle Of Mice split for Robotic Empire and a limited Jesu 12-inch EP with two songs, “Sun Down” and “Sun Rise” for Aurora Borealis. Broadrick has also started a group called Grey Machine with former Head Of David collaborator Dave Cochrane.
Tracklist For Conqueror:
1. Conqueror
2. Old Year
3. Transfigure
4. Weightless & Horizontal
5. Medicine
6. Brighteyes
7. Mother Earth
8. Stanlow
i saw that mentioned somewhere. i just want to see jesu up here in vancouver. i would prefer to see jesu headline though ,rather than [as rumour has it]in the support slot of an isis tour.
really looking forward to this release though.
I saw them support Isis in Glasgow. Wish i had went to see them on their own though.
fucking hell, when did they support isis in glasgow? it certainly wasn’t the tut’s gig ... please tell me it wasn’t the G2 one to which i turned up late :(
anyway, woah, that date is etched in my diary in blood. fucking superb.
8. Stanlow
PLEASE LET THIS BE AN OMD COVER. THEN I WILL DIE HAPPY :)
obligatory “grimly late to the party despite kerr telling him about something ages ago” moment: fucking hell, that agalloch album is bloody genius, isn’t it?
Yes Simon, the G2 gig. Only time I’ve seen Isis (and Jesu).
I’ve not heard the Agalloch. You can turn the tables this time.
I’m not really a black metal fan but I’ll give it a shot.
Did anyone buy the Inoxia 2cd version of the Sunn o)))/Boris album? I couldn’t afford it, but it has an instrumental version of The Sinking Belle which is quite wonderful. Almost like The Rachel’s playing Sunn o)))/Boris.
Yes Simon, the G2 gig.
OH FOR FUCK’S FUCKING SAKE. FUCK.
It’s not even like it was a surprise support act. It was announced weeks in advance!
there was some weirdness going on at that time; can’t remember what, but i know i turned up really late, having driven there (and hence couldn’t drink). gah. i’m a dick.
in fairness: the name jesu would have meant nothing to me then anyway.
but i’m still a dick.
The album had been out a few months.
dude. you might have noticed i’m not the sharpest at listening to new albums :)
anyway, agalloch: it’s more like prog-folk metal than black metal, TBH, but fuck genre arguments ... what matters is that it rocks like a bastard (with added widdling, noodling and acoustic breaks), and that’s good enough for me.
So did anybody go to the Atheist reunion show in Baltimore yesterday?
“I went with a friend of mine to see Goatwhore and Cattle Decapitation the other night in NYC (Knitting Factory). I went in knowing basically nothing about either band...very interesting night.
Goatwhore was pretty cool; the vocalist put on a good show. I probably wouldn’t listen to them unless live. Cattle Decapitation was terrible, though. I guess they’re vegetarian grindcore or something, which ain’t my bag.
One thing that stood out was when the guy from Goatwhore was talking between songs, very hard to hear of course but it was something about ”I think Trivium is a mockery of metal“ (crowd cheers) and then a little ”Fuck Christian Metal,“ which I wholeheartedly repeated. A strange culture clash in the audience as well.
— blastocsyt (lo...), December 1st, 2006.”
Oh man, I saw them open up for Venom. I thought they were terrible.
Goatwhore are utter shit. Their appeal is a total mystery to me.
well, they are called “goatwhore.” that’s got to piss off the straights.
but yeah, OTM, boring.
Mysterious indeed... I was hanging out at some bar a couple nights after that show wearing some metal shirt (probably Dio) and, of course, some random dude starts asking me what I’m into and what shows I’ve seen recently. I mentioned the Venom, Goatwhore, Early Man show. He was REALLY psyched on Goatwhore. Told me about all the shows of theirs he’d been to....
I was about to tell him that I know a bunch of 10 year olds that can play better, but, honestly, I felt like I shouldn’t, since the guy’s neck was bigger than the circumference of my skull.
I think that’s their main audience base. Dudes that are really big and kinda scary, but are wearing dripping eyeliner. Hear that, blastocyst?? You wear EYELINER.
Just got a big package from The Anja Offensive today—a BM distributor. They sent me the new Antaeus, two by Deathspell Omega, two by Funeral Mist, one by Katharsis, and a couple of other things. Seven discs in all. Deathspell Omega fucking rule, and Antaeus have only gotten better since their debut (now I gotta dig up the second album). That’s all I can report for now.
deathspell are indeed very sikkkkkkkk. and a little spooky!
Antaeus are cool, I’ll be checking that one out.
Okay that Agalloch album. Holy Shit!
i listened to it yesterday while half-asleep on a bus round arran. it played wonderful tricks with my mind.
i just can’t get enough kylesa. i love them so. my dream of a nation-wide psychedelic crust-punk revolution grows nearer every day. just need a new neurosis album to make things complete. and now that we have operatives on the inside—mastodon—there is no telling how far we can go.
Speaking of ‘In The Absence of Truth’, the passage of music from 2:14 to 4:16 of ‘Over Root And Thorn’ is now one of my all-time favourites. It really will not dislodge itself from my brain!
picked up a release from a new french band called amesoeurs. fans of earlier katatonia should give them a listen. they have an amesoeurs myspace page which has the second track from the 3 song mcd. really enjoying all three tracks.
OMG
Just had a revelation whilst listening to Mastodon’s ‘Blood Mountain’, which went along the following lines: “OMG I only JUST put this on and we’re HALFWAY THROUGH TRACK SIX ALREADY”.
it FLIES past. absolutely superb record, how on earth can this sort of music be so utterly listenable?
how on earth can this sort of music be so utterly listenable?
?????
Forgive me, ’tis a path of discovery! Until this year I was a metal virgin, dismissive and unwilling, until I got my head around some Isis. Working my way in via ‘ambient’ metal, I’ve finally bought what you’d term a rather more ‘conventional’ metal album, and, fortunately, it happens to be one that rules. Changing, dare I add, my perception of what that craft is capable of.
That Neurosis album I bought (A Sun That Never Sets) is also superb, especially ‘The Tide’ and ‘From The Hill’...
mastodon are the very definition of a gateway drug.
you’ll have me on harder stuff in a matter of weeks, won’t you!
A few weeks ago I also bought (on a whim) Devin Townsend’s ‘Terria’, but I really AM struggling with that one. Give it more time, maybe...
Scott will sort you out don’t worry.
Best Devin Townsend stuff is SYL “City”; SYL “Alien”; Darkest Hour’s “Undoing Ruin”
Saw Gojira last night with Amon Amarth (left before headliners Children of Bodom). They were great, so this morning I downloaded their first two albums, Terra Incognita and The Lift. The former isn’t great but it’s pretty good, and the latter is damn near as good as From Mars To Sirius. I guess they deserve the cover of Terrorizer after all.
Agh, I can’t believe I’ve gone nearly a month without finding this thread.
I finally got ahold of Meshuggah’s Nothing re-relase, and I’m really enjoying it. The guitar tone is much better. I just have to find the time to make a detailed comparison between the two versions.
I’m not sold on the new Mnemic at all. I liked their 2004 disc, for all its Fear factory/Soilwork rip-offs, but this one just falls flat.
And I was so ready to hate the new Fairyland album (the name alone makes me cringe), but I wound up liking it a whole lot more than the recent Angra and rhapsody discs. Napalm Records does that to me nearly every time, 60 seconds in I think each album is going to be the worst thing ever, and 40 minutes later, I’m digging it. The new (and last) Elis album did the same thing.
new issue
Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles—Issue #101
http://www.bravewords.com/magazine/
BravePicks 2006—The Good, Bad & Ugly!
Anyone know what “the good” is?
BravePicks 2006—The Good, Bad & Ugly!
Anyone know what “the good” is?
It’s a weird list...not that any of the albums are awful (well, OSI certainly isn’t that great), but it’s a bit too stodgy and traditionalist, and as much as I love the Voivod album (#9 on my own list), it’s a shamelessly sentimental choice. And come on, Wolf at #4??? I might be a bit biased, but I greatly prefer the Decibel list. Here’s the BWBK top 20:
1. Voivod-Katorz
2. Slayer-Christ Illusion
3. I-Between Two Worlds
4. Wolf-The Black Flame
5. Deicide-The Stench of Redemption
6. Satyricon-Now, Diabolical
7. Enslaved-Ruun
8. Motorhead-Kiss of Death
9. Napalm Death-Smear Campaign
10. Iron Maiden-A Matter of Life and Death
11. Blind Guardian-A Twist in the Myth
12. Mastodon-Blood Mountain
13. Hammers of Misfortune-The Locust Years
14. Converge-No Heroes
15. Amon Amarth-With Oden on Our Side
16. Dismember-The God That Never Was
17. Into Eternity-The Scattering of Ashes
18. Cannibal Corpse-Kill
19. Jorn-The Duke
20. OSI-Free
that’s an okay list! better than most. i wish they sold BW&BK where i live. i miss it. and i always chicken out when it comes to paying, like, 80 bucks for a year subscription.
I’m not above putting old-school stuff on my own list (I’m as big a geezer as anyone), but BWBK always seems to turn a blind eye to the more cutting-edge stuff when it comes to their year-end lists. Ah well. Debating these things is half the fun.
I like about 10 of those 20, which I believe is a higher ratio than the Decibel list. I’ll have to go back and check.
OMG, I totally got a new Sevendust album in the mail. They won’t die just cuz you want them too!!! True evil never dies. You know what’s worse than listening to a new Sevendust album? Trying to listen to a new Sevendust album that cuts out every 20 seconds so as to discourage “pirating”. This from a band that should be sending high quality leaked copies of its album to every blog/website/message board in the nation. I should thank them for sparing me, i guess. now listening to new Explosions In The Sky, but i’m already bored. Crescendo Rock must be the next to die. I also tried to listen to a metalcore band by the name of *The Handshake Murders* and lasted about five minutes. I’m ruthless today! Ain’t got time to mess around!
i’m torturing myself with more mogwaispeed stuff by a band called The Autumn Project. The first song is 14 minutes long. I’m guessing the “awesome” guitars come in at around 8:32.
8:10!!! I was so close!
i had to pust something good on. i’ve already mentioned how much i love the Fall of the Idols album, right? on I Hate records? sooooo good. epic doom a la candlemass and totally hypnotic. great vocal lines. puts me in a trance.
I like that Fall Of The Idols album too.
2006 was such a good year for doom! ahab, asunder, celestiial, the list goes on and on.
I just reviewed the five-minute song from the Autumn Project for PTW. It kinda sounded like Caspar Brötzmann’s Mute Massaker album.
I wasn’t quite the metal virgin that Louis was, but I stopped listening to metal for a few years.
The Mastodon album, the Boris album, the new Converge and the Battle of Mice album have me looking for new stuff.
What do I get next?
Well, to be fair if we’re counting Oceansize as metal (I’m not, really; they’re practically indefinable IMO) then I’ve been enjoying it for a couple of years now. I’d recommend their two albums to anybody, regardless of taste.
And FUCK the haters who’ve only heard ‘Music For A Nurse’ and think of them as some cheap Mogwai/EITS knock-off, because they’re WRONG.
You also get Isis, first rule of metal, more or less.
5 seconds til someone comes in saying ISIS ARE NOT METAL.
Where are Chuck N George anyway?
The best bands in metal are clearly those who are looking to escape the narrow genre-bounds implicit in such a description... :P
no, the best for people what don’t like real metal y’mean.
just announced:
TOTAL ROCK’s DJ Maria has just announced her top 20 albums of 2006
http://www.sexto9.com/index.php?item=bestof2006
1- Scar Symmetry
“Pitch Black Progress”
Nuclear Blast
2- Mercenary
“The Hours That Remain”
Century Media
3- Moonspell
“Memorial”
SPV
4- Submission
“Failure To Perfection”
Listenable
5- Insomnium
“Above The Weeping World”
Candlelight
6- Amorphis
“Eclipse”
Nuclear Blast
7- All That Remains
“The Fall Of Ideals”
Prosthetic
8- The Arcane Order
“The Machinery Of Oblivion”
Metal Blade
9- Disarmonia Mundi
“Mind Tricks”
Scarlet
10- God Dethroned
“The Toxic Touch”
Metal Blade
11- In Flames
“Come Clarity”
Nuclear Blast
12- Textures
“Drawing Circles”
Listenable
13- Heaven Shall Burn
“Deaf To Our Prayers”
Century Media
14- Keep Of Kalessin
“Armada”
Avantgarde
15- Amon Amarth
“With Oden On Our Side”
Metal Blade
16- Avatar
“Thoughts Of No Tomorrow”
Gain
17- Neglected Fields
“Splentic”
Agast
18- Noumena
“Anatomy Of Life”
Spinefarm
19- Threat Signal
“Under Reprisal”
Nuclear Blast
20- Within Y
“Portraying Dead Dreams”
Gain
it certainly isn’t a band’s JOB to one-up their imitators, but converge handily did just that this year. they showed people who is boss without even breaking a sweat. i mean, their album was WAY better than any band that apes them. i have to confess that i’m really hoping that neurosis does this too. i think they will. since the last neurosis album there have been soooooooooooooooooooo many bands copping their steez. scott kelly sez that the new one is very dark and psychedelic(!!). which sounds about right. i think mastodon definitely lived up to their title. whatever the hell their title is. i still haven’t heard the new isis so i don’t know if they did the same. seems like more people were into the new cult of luna album (which i also haven’t heard) than the new isis. and cult of luna used to be written off as isis-wannabes (i think i did this. but i would certainly listen to the new album with an open mind). i think celtic frost did what some people were hoping slayer would do. drop an old-school bomb and wipe the floor with the nu-thrash pretenders. except i think celtic frost taught the doom masses a new trick or two about the concept of “heavy” instead. it’s kind of a sporty impulse, to see your fave band give a licking to the “competition”. and i’m not that sporty. but i couldn’t help but feel a certain satisfaction when i heard that converge album and realized how much it KILLS.
the entirety of December I have been like Mr. Only Listen To Plenty Obscure Black Metal guy
it has fucking ruled
Botch live album is pretty ace.
its a re-issue from 02 isn’t it?
As far as I know this is the first time it’s been released. There’s also a DVD but I’ve not seen it. It’s a recording of their final gig from 2002 though.
that makes sense. botch shows are some of my best memories.
>botch shows are some of my best memories.
Yeah, me too. I saw Botch in 99 or 00, at their first NYC show after We Are The Romans came out—at Brownies, with Isis opening up. Both bands were totally crushing.
did they have the primitive/hardware store lighting rig?
there’s a whole set up on youtube:
I got the Sentenced double live CD Buried Alive in the mail the other day. Much like Botch, it’s a recording of their last ever show. I’m not a huge fan of theirs, though, so it doesn’t really excite me much at first glance. Any big Sentenced fans out there wanna hype this thing to me?
i got 15 estonian, hungarian, ukranian, and russian metal CDs in the mail a couple days ago. i’ll hype that stuff. so much crazy noise. i’m excited to write about it all.
i think i was at that fireside show.
I agree with what Scott said about Celtic Frost. It’s been a while since I heard a comeback album that satisfying. Heavy and dark as hell, but it’s a doom album that makes me smile, it’s so great to have that band back in prime form.
And speaking of Converge, no band, metal hardcore or otherwise, makes the ‘slow song’ as thrilling as Converge does time and again. Their more intense stuff is incredible of course, but when they downshift, nobody can match it.
Got an advance advance of the new Clutch album today, and am loving it. A little punchier than the last album (crisp, lively drumming by that awesome drummer dude of theirs), but still really heavy on the Southern/soul grooves. Have yet to try to decipher Fallon’s lyrics...he’s one of the most entertainnig frontmen around. he’s in fine vocal form here, too, more range to it.
Any big Sentenced fans out there wanna hype this thing to me?
There were two Sentenced albums I really liked in high school (Amok and Down) but I think they may have gotten kinda corny after that.
[I didn’t realize that ILX had a backup page, so it took me a little while to find this. I feel like a dumbass.]
Sentenced are one of my favorite bands, easily in the top 50 (which is pretty high up there, all things considered). Down, Frozen, and The Cold White Light are all fantastic, everything else varying degrees of good. It’s just as catchy as hell rock-leaning metal, with tongue in cheek suicidal lyrics. Saw them on the In Flames/Kill Switch Engage/Dark Tranquillity tour a couple years back, which I think was their only North American appearance. They were great live, and very nice guys when I hung out with them afterwards. Give it a shot, you’ll find yourself humming “I kill myself, blow my brains out on the floor” unconsciously later.
anyone know the end of year list for unrestrained magazine?
On recent stuff I’ve received for review:
Firewind—Allegiance: Did anyone really want a Rising Force cover band in 2006? It isn’t bad, just totally unnecessary. At least the cover doesn’t have Gus G. fighting a dragon with his guitar... on second thought, that would be pretty awesome.
Megadeth—That One Night (DVD): Yawn. When even Dave Mustaine seems bored, it’s sort of hard to get excited.
Killswitch Engage—As Daylight Dies: at first, I didn’t really like this, but after a couple listenings, it’s really grown on me. Not really a step forward for them, but still a damn good record.
Phazm—Antebellum Death and Roll: This is one of the most awesome things I’ve heard in a while. Whoever thought French death and roll with country swagger could be so good? I highly, highly recommend it for anyone with ears.
I kind of like the new Ektomorf, in a simple, Soulfly kind of way.
Firewind—Allegiance: Did anyone really want a Rising Force cover band in 2006? It isn’t bad, just totally unnecessary.
You know, Century Media wants to get a little of that DragonForce love (who can blame them?), but bands like Firewind really show just how good DragonForce is at writing some absolutely contagious melodies. Power metal can wank all it wants, but if the hooks aren’t there, I won’t be interested.
ooh, new phazm. i liked their last one.
God Punch — the new Phazm totally blows away their debut. Definitely an early contender for my top 20 of 2007.
Adrien—Got that same Nuclear Blast package, haven’t had a chance to listen to it yet. I do love the band photo on the back of the Therion CD: Hot chick playing golf with the rest of the band as caddies. Classic!
Firewind has some catchy songs, but I can’t quite get into Dragonforce. I think the songs are all speed and riffs, not enough hooks and songwriting. I think they’re one of those groups that you either totally dig or totally don’t. They are not a casual band.
What I can’t fathom about Firewind is why Gus G. would choose them over Dream Evil or Arch freaking Enemy?! I mean, yeah, okay, better to reign in Hell than serve in heaven or something, but when heaven is Dream Evil or Arch Enemy, and hell is Firewind, the choice seems fairly apparent to me.
i fell asleep listening to that phazm album and it kinda freaked me out. weird dreams.
I left the Phazm album at my job. I’ll look for it when I get back on Tuesday.
I tried to listen to that Therion album, mostly because of that golfing photo, but it bored me a lot. So I’m listening to Napalm Death’s Smear Campaign again. Napalm is just gonna keep releasing awesome record after awesome record to absolutely no attention from anybody but diehards. They’re like Van Morrison or Richard Thompson that way (except that I don’t particularly like what VM or RT do, but lots of people swear each new album is a criminally ignored masterpiece, and that’s kind of how I feel about Smear Campaign).
Just got around to listening to the new Mnemic. It’s... nu-metal. Who thought that was a good idea? A shame, I liked their last one.
You know, between Yyrkoon, Swad, Gojira, and now Phazm, the French scene looks like it’s going to be the one to watch. I’m holding out for the Trust reunion, personally.
Gojira were great opening for Amon Amarth and Children of Bodom the other week. I’m officially a big fan now, as opposed to a somewhat distanced admirer, which is what I was when I heard From Mars To Sirius.
This afternoon I dug out Catacombs’ In The Depths Of R’lyeh (Moribund Cult). This came out in February, but I didn’t pay any attention at the time, for reasons I can’t accurately recall right now. (It might have been because they sent me some goofy solo-black-metal stuff at the same time – Fear Of Eternity, Striborg – and I couldn’t muster the energy to slot one more of their offerings into the player). It’s doom metal at its most ponderous—basically, the tempo of early Swans with a lot more sustain in the guitar lines—and the vocals go down into Cookie Monster’s sub-basement until they don’t even sound like a human voice, let alone discernible words. Six songs in 72 minutes and some change (Track Two, “Dead Dripping City,” runs close to 17 minutes all by itself). It’s not as good as Ahab’s The Call Of The Wretched Sea, but it’s pretty good, and the title of the last track made me laugh – “Awakening Of The World’s Doom (Reprise).”
x-post
the French scene looks like it’s going to be the one to watch
hey jeff:: check out the amesoeurs who i talked about upthread.
i got a fair amount of moribund stuff at tower, catacombs being the one thing i really wanted and of course they didn’t have it.
Listening to new Pelican album. As i have never heard Pelican, I can’t tell you whether it’s better or worse than previous Pelican efforts.
New?? What’s it called? I know there is a new one due. I REALLY need to hear the new one.
i don’t think they are for me.
but maybe i’m missing something. than again, maybe their other albums were lots better. this album mostly sounds like indie-rock to me.
it’s called *Cities Of Echoes*.
shit sorry *City Of Echoes*.
I must investigate. And I must catch up on more of the metal discs that have slipped past me already.
I think Pelican fall into that “well, we don’t know what else to call it, so let’s just stick it in with metal” categorization. Pleasant enough background music, but I don’t quite get why everyone humps their collective leg.
Because it sounds nice? I’m a slight agnostic but my sister and her boyfriend are huge fans and whenever I’ve heard them at their place it was, indeed, pleasant enough background music. I’ve heard worse.
I mean, Sunn0))) are pleasant enough etc. and I’m more than fine with them.
you must dig pelican, ned. they are *for fans of mogwai*.
It certainly sounds nice, well-played, emotional, etc., and I gave them an A in my review. Still, I rarely pull them out, and I really don’t understand why they were Decibel’s best album of 2005 when there was lots of better stuff that came out that year. Now THAT was a great year for metal. 2007 is looking pretty good so far, though.
anyway, they had to have been heavier on other albums, right? this album is very not heavy. and that’s fine, i just thought they did more of that isis-y heavy stuff.
they namecheck Failure in the press thing and that’s more like it. that’s why i would think ned would like it. maybe. Failure could be shoe-gazey, no? mostly it reminds me of chicago or an old thrill jockey album. i don’t know if you know this about me, but i own about five Trans Am albums. it’s shocking. and it’s true.
(I gave their last one an A, to clarify. So I guess I’m guilty of leg humping, myself. At least, for the three people that picked up Campus Circle in Los Angeles, read the reviews, and actually gave them any credence instead of just grabbing the paper for the free movie passes or hot wings coupons. I do like them, I think they’re just a bit overhyped.)
Their last one was reasonably heavy. Not Mastodon or Isis heavy, but maybe the last Neurosis heavy.
There were a lot of indie rock influences, though. I guess they just decided to go entirely in that direction.
i think, also... i finally heard dick wagner’s ursa major album from 1972 and everything pales in comparison. i can’t believe i haven’t picked up a copy before. how can i even call myself a dick wagner fan! i’ll be listening to it a lot.
and if i was gonna get all george and chuck on yer asses id say that the Ursa Major album really belongs on this thread and the pelican totally doesn’t. and i would to if it weren’t for the fact that i’m the one who brought pelican up.
If we’re going to talk about 70s stuff, I just picked up the KISS Gold compilation that came out a couple years ago. Two discs, covering 1974 to 1982, and I would say it’s pretty much all the KISS you need. Pretty definitive as far as compilations go. It stops short of Creatures of the Night, which has some good stuff, but there wasn’t really much worthwhile after that record anyway. I think if you get Gold, Creatures of the Night, and Revenge, that pretty much covers all the Kiss bases. I’ve also come to the conclusion that Blue Oyster Cult were far, far better than KISS, but weren’t nearly as popular. People are stupid.
BOC were pretty popular! but, yeah, not like kiss global domination huge. i actually own that kiss boxed set, i got it at the thrift store, but i never listened to it. i just played the pre-kiss stuff. i don’t remember it being very good. the pre-kiss stuff. i grew up in a kiss household via my brother and they can kinda make my eye twitch sometimes.
If I were going to be lame, I would say that I was part of the Blue Oyster Cult Cult as opposed to the KISS Army. But I’m not lame.
I was eyeing that boxed set, but since the Gold set was $15 as opposed to 40, I went with the Gold. I feel like I made the right choice. I do, however, need to fill out my BOC collection. I have the Workshop of the Telescopes anthology, which I loved to death, literally, so I need to go out and pick up the reissues of Tyranny and Mutation, Secret Treaties, Agents of Fortune, Specters, and Fire of Unknown Origin.
Yeah, you do! Tomorrow! It’s a noble goal.
I own all the Trans Am albums, scott.
really, even gleaming spires-era, Trans Am? Cool!
i think red line is my fave. the survellance my unfave. or at least the one i played the least.
erm wha?
red line, s/t and surrender to the night are my faves. TA is probably my least fave. Tho I should really play it again.
New one is pretty good.
I saw Trans Am when they played the red line tour. The Fucking Champs were support (and were great too)
i never heard liberation! and don’t they have a new album? the only thing i hold against them is their connection with the fucking champs who i kinda couldn’t stand.
haha! x-post
It’s good to have goals.
So you would recommend starting with The Red Line if I were to check out Trans Am? You guys name check them enough.
the earlier stuff is more post-rocky. The Red Line is all over the place. They just mash styles all thru The Red Line.
Where did all this post-rock stuff start, anyway? Slint?
they were a big part of it. and the people in slint after slint. that’s an entire genre right there. *FEATURING FORMER MEMBERS OF SLINT*.
From a rock point of view the 1st album is the best place to start. The next few are more krautrock-y. Then they developed the 80s electronic kraftwerk/new order type stuff.
Liberation was quite good and the new one is even better.
If it wasn’t for one of The Fucking Champs being in Weakling , I would never have heard the Weakling album (which is awesome)
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and the other genre *FEATURING FORMER MEMBERS OF RODAN*
I love post-rock and math-rock
The Pelican album isn’t on any of the usual places.
I don’t want to sound stupid, but I’m trying to sort all this stuff out. I obviously know post-rock when I hear it, but what is it, musically, that separates it from prog or jam rock? Is it the more atmospheric, entire-composition-as-opposed-to-individual-songs nature of it?
i think i’m more kranky than thrill jockey. maybe. once a year i play magnog.
the pelican i got today is pretty much cdr territory. too bad i’m not a russian bootlegger.
post-rock doesn’t rely on playing rock music for a start. It can take other various forms. Some entirely non-rock.
anyway, they had to have been heavier on other albums, right?
Australasia is a lot more metal-ish, though kind of sloppy sounding. I was surprised after hearing The Fire in Our Throats Will Beckon the Thaw first. That was definitely for fans of Mogwai.
there is only really one metal-y song on the pelican. it definitely stands out.
I wrote a piece on Pelican around the time of Australasia for The Wire, and lost interest in them immediately afterward.
My favorite album of this week is Hacride’s Amoeba, mostly for track four, “Zambra,” which is not a cover of an Ojos De Brujo song like the sleeve says, but is in fact a collaboration with OdB, and it’s fucking killer flamenco-metal with a pissed-off woman rapping in Spanish. The rest of the album is proggish artcore, like Gojira but slightly faster. Man this is a good year so far.
For bystanders and those arriving late in the game, anyone care to list a few reasons why 2007 might be shaping up as such a great year for metal?
Most everthing I’ve purchased recently has been of ’06 vintage (Leviathan, Nachtmystium, Teeth of the Hydra, etc.), and I’m curious...
highlights for me so far:
Rotting Christ
Rwake
Melechesh
Year of Desolation
Laethora
there’s lots more but five albums which are all completely solid right there
they namecheck Failure in the press thing and that’s more like it. that’s why i would think ned would like it. maybe. Failure could be shoe-gazey, no?
Failure I was always back and forth on. I think the best thing they did was “The Nurse Who Loved Me,” and that was something I realized only in retrospect after A Perfect Circle covered it.
Scott> The Fucking Champs new album has leaked!
Really good albums from 2007 so far: Minsk, Rwake, Hacride, Machine Head, a bunch of other stuff I can’t remember right now.
Melechesh
I hear good things of it! Time to pick it up, I suppose.
Rotting Christ
Rwake
Melechesh
Year of Desolation
Laethora
Agree with all those. Other great 2007’s for me include The End (probably my top choice of the moment), Wold, Hacride, November’s Doom, Phazm, Minsk, Clutch, Therion, Firewind (yeah, I came around on that one), Architect, Hidden Hand, Year of Desolation, Titan, Lordi (NA release next month), Amber Asylum. The new Naglfar is pretty darn good, too.
Rolling Metal + my new subscrip to Decibel = AWESOME METAL OVERLOAD
WHO THE FUCK is the US press contact for Hacride? It’s not Earsplit, it’s not Nathan Birk—WHO IS WORKING THIS RECORD?
Firewind owns you!
finally got to Phazm today and was REALLY, REALLY impressed but that album title is really horrible imo
but I’m gonna write a piece on how you can’t let the title stop you ’cause seriously that is some of the best driving-around-on-a-grey-day music, fuckin’ rad rad stuff
For the life of me, I can’t remember who the heck sent me the Hacride. And I didn’t get a one-sheet with it.
Does that Firewind remind anyone else of Assault Attack-era MSG? They have a slightly modernized power metal sound, but it’s rooted in classic 1981 metal, with a singer who sounds like a cross between Graham Bonnett and David Coverdale.
Got the new Wuthering Heights album today, which should be loads of fun. I’m a big fan of Nils Patrik Johannson, whether he’s singing for WH or Astral Doors.
As you can see, Dimmu Borgir have really decided to go with something different for their new album cover:
Man, I can’t wait to hear that Dimmu. Lots of fans are up in arms because they’re touring North America with Unearth, Kataklysm, and DevilDriver. DD is boring, but Unearth are loads of fun live.
Oh, and pdf, Hannah at Die Crawling is working the new Hacride album.
I heard from a reliable source that Unearth actually scrapped a planned headlining tour because they wanted to tour with Dimmu Borgir really badly. Guess they’re big fans. And honestly, is touring with Unearth as direct support “worse” than them being on Ozzfest the same year that Unearth were?
Devil Driver are fast becoming the new Chimaira, in that they’re an offensively boring band that keeps getting on great bills, and I have to keep going out in the lobby and waiting until they’re done.
you guys seen this yet
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jbNN75zU6k
suffocation doing a commercial for the history channel
good lookin’ out amon, that’s rad!
frank mullen has a skinhead cut now?
This new band on Earache, Nox, is extremely non-innovative (they’re a Morbid Angel/Vital Remains soundalike, possibly from France), but their album’s solid enough. Plus, two of the song titles—“Intoxicated With Death” and “Insane Hatred For The Supposed Creator”—made me laugh.
Heard the new Pelican album. I really like it. It’s better than the last one.
Nothing will ever touch the 1st ep but this is really good.
Armored Saint reissues.... I just got hold of March of the Saint. Can’t wait to check it out.
i still don’t get the love for that album by The End. i felt the same way about the last Misery Index album. just goes in one ear and out the other.
love the new Virgin Black album though.
>i still don’t get the love for that album by The End.
Me either. Tried to listen to it yesterday, and the vocals just ruined the whole thing for me.
I actually like the vocals on The End’s album. He sounds more Chino Moreno than emo. Yeah, I’m a big fan of this disc.
That new Pelican’s not too bad. Folks who thought the last Isis was a bit boring might prefer this, but I dunno, right now, I’m still preferring Isis.
i still don’t get the love for that album by The End.
thirded.
the vocals just ruined the whole thing for me.
seconded. too emo for my taste.
Bear in mind that I am not to be trusted. I like the new Static-X album.
Has anybody caught any of the Isis+Jesu+Oxbow/Torche tour?
you cannot dig any of the End’s emo stylings = you are admitting that you have GOTTEN OLD
(actually I liked the album ‘til about the fifth listen and then the vox began to really rankle why because I TOO AM OLD)
Has anybody caught any of the Isis+Jesu+Oxbow/Torche tour?
not unless they lept 6 days into the future.
I have my ticket for the Jesu Spaceland show in Los Angeles! We get Intronaut instead of Isis or torche, though.
i am a little envious that you will get to see jesu headline ,jeff.
having seen isis 3x’s already it would have been nice to see the isis/jesu bill flipped.
In other news: Hidden Hand and Kylesa were amazing at Midway (nyc) on Valentine’s eve.
Hidden Hand and Kylesa played at the same venue Jesu are playing at. Good venue for that sort of show, because they have a bar area with tables and stools that you can see the stage from. None of those bands are exactly high-energy, “get the excited crowd vibe” sort of bands.
I saw Isis at a free show they played at MOCA in downtown Los Angeles. The wall of amps were sort of neat, but I didn’t find them the most gripping live act.
Destruction, into Eternity, and Hirax tonight! Now that’s all sorts of rocking.
And it was.
Bad news for Broadrick fans: no US work visas, and no US shows until they get thems. Guess I’m not so lucky after all.
Bad news for Priest fans: Nostradamus concept album might be a double record. Final nail, meet coffin.
Bad news for Vinnie Paul fans: Hellyeah.
There’s a joke somewhere in here about Jesu being a Nat’l Security threat vis a vis mass stoner suicides, but I won’t botch it up.
how come nobody ever showed me the video of the little kids doing sepultura:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TviTCFAGr6w
so cute!
Better than whatever the current Sepultura lineup is, at any rate.
i probably would have agreed before i heard that last album. man i love that thing.
Bad news for Broadrick fans: no US work visas, and no US shows until they get thems. Guess I’m not so lucky after all.
hey jeff,sounds like it will only be 1/3rd [Broadrick] of jesu too that plays. guessing it won’t be that noticeable
Bad news for Priest fans: Nostradamus concept album might be a double record. Final nail, meet coffin.
Could be a trainwreck in the making, but I’m kind of interested in this. Stranger things have happened.
Brutal Truth does an absolutely insane version of “Sister Fucker” on the new Eyehategod tribute CD. Brilliant. An enormously enjoyable two-disc set, that one.
Okay, so I’m really liking the new disc by Maylene and the Sons of Disaster.
Have yet to hear any of the pant-shitting metal that’s supposedly defining 2007 so far. My fault, really, ‘cuz I haven’t hardly tried. Misleading double negatives are our friends.
Anyway, Wormwood’s Starvation is really fucking good, especially towards the end, where it gets all gooey and fucked-up. ’06 though, so scratch that.
Oh, and I just got around to Leviathan’s “The Speed of Darkness” mini-LP. Supposedly half of a split they/he/Wrest did with somebody or other a few years back (like I’d know). Fucking awesome. Best Leviathan I’ve heard so far, and my favorite metal record released in ’06 that wasn’t released in ’06. As long as you accept that metal = doleful shoegaze pounding with angry crows circling overhead.
right now it is all about middian’s “age eternal” in grimly-world. the almost cheery face of doom metal. until the last track, which is so heavy it develops its own gravitational field and your head becomes a black hole.
I wonder where you got that from. Check out YOB, that was the previous band.
Witchcraft’s new single—“If Crimson Was Your Colour” / “I Know You Killed Someone”—is mighty good. I’m anxious to hear the new album, which should be out in a few months.
i do dig that amplified heat album on arclight. i dig their stoner jams.
also in stonerville, i’m still digging that giant brain album on small stone records. rightous guitarist from Big Chief + Neu motorik beats.
Gaza—I Don’t Care Where I Go When I Die
Came out in October and am just now hearing this. Maybe this is too hardcore for y’all but I am digging it. A friend described it to me as “The first Coalesce album locked in a basement for two weeks without food.” They are from SLC, which is appropriate I suppose. Heavy tech/grind and Boris-y thrash give way to some doom drone toward the end. The vocals and drummer (especially his cymbal work) make them stand out to me.
Not exactly revolutionary but satisfying.
I wonder where you got that from.
the metal equivalent of the tooth fairy :)
I thought the parts of the last Maylene and the Sons of Disaster record where they did the southern groove stuff were great, didn’t care quite so much for the hard-core parts. Is the new one more groove or core?
For those of us not on the promo gravy train this was a heckuva week. Minsk (which I’m really grooving on), Jesu, Hidden Hand, Rwake and I’m sure I’m missing other stuff. I haven’t heard the Rwake yet but the pther three are all a blast.
Though Jesu isn’t metal (IMO), it’s been brought up here a few times, and I like it for what it is—a shimmery, crystalline shoegazing bonanza. It was a great accompaniment to my snow-shoeing across the frozen lake this afternoon.
I thought the parts of the last Maylene and the Sons of Disaster record where they did the southern groove stuff were great, didn’t care quite so much for the hard-core parts. Is the new one more groove or core?
Way more groove. Still some hints of hardcore, but for the most part, those boys have gone all Clutch on us, and they’re the better for it. Nothing earth-shattering, but a very respectable, enjoyable 7/10 record.
right now it is all about middian’s “age eternal” in grimly-world
I ain’t grimly but I am listening now and yes, this is quite something.
The Jesu EP/Japanese bonus disc, meantime, is an exquisite counterpart to Conqueror — extended progression and slow burn exaltation.
I thought you might like Middian and the Jesu ep, Ned.
Got the EHG tribute album in yesterday’s mail, gonna check it out today.
SHADOWS FALL’s new single, “Redemption”, is available for streaming @
http://www.threadsoflife2007.com/
need to enter email addy to access track