Leaderboard

Show wrapped last night. Would've posted a small summary, but I was well past my limit of cheap beer. I think the appropriate term is piss drunk. Regardless, day 3 was the best of the week. Highlights - Sodom, Demolition Hammer, and Rotting Christ. Darvaza was pretty decent too. Didn't get excited about Tank, though the rest of the fest seemed to enjoy them quite a bit. Also didn't get much for Forbidden, mainly because they only have 1 song I even remember and secondly because who the fuck can follow DH after they level the place. Surprise of the day was Rotting Christ. Never seen them or listened to them much. Pretty freaking great. Overall show highlights aside from the above - Queensryche (the early stuff kills live and after seeing them both I think I prefer LaTorre to Tate), Lamp of Murmur (pulled it off live), Candlemass, Sumerlands, Savage Oath, and Autopsy. 6th year here and it just keeps getting bigger. Some growing pains and capacity issues at the venue, but they have always been good at working those things out between years. Up there with MDF for quality run organized festival by good people. If you're shopping for a fest to hit next year, can recommend.

Huoripukki - Ikuinen Kamppailu Destruction - Sentence of Death Dead Congregation - Promulgation of the Fall

Pungent Stench - Been Caught Buttering, Austria 1991. I feel like this album gets unfairly passed over. Absolutely one of the best death metal records of 1991. And I say that knowing there were some real bangers released in 1991. Massacra - Enjoy the Violence, French death/thrash 1991 Parler Anglais ou mourir? I liked this album well enough in '85, but it hasn't aged like a fine Bordeaux. More like 40 year old camembert.

Iron Maiden - Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (1988)

Mark had asked about my never finished year end list for 2023, so I figured I'd share what I had before I gave up on it. I'd only just started making cuts, so this will be a lot longer than normal. Because of that I'm going to post it a little at a time and break it up by genre...and since the black metal list was the longest, I'll post it first. Black Metal Arnaut Pavle - Transylvanian Glare Arbor - Behold... The Age of Pagan Blood Atheosophia - Shadowgate of Winter's Spirit As the Shadows Envelop Me – Fedrekult Astral Tomb of Yearning - Summoning the Impenetrable Night Aeon Furnace - Providence Descends Abisma - Disciples of the Black Ram Black Hurst – S/T Blutschwur - Those of My Blood Crucifixion Bell - Mirages in Izar Ceremonial Crypt Desecration - Unholy Black Metal Against the Modern World Dai-Ichi – S/T Dominance - Slaughter of Human Offerings in the New Age of Pan Demoncy - Black Star Gnosis Ebony Pendant – S/T Fellwinter - The Dawn of Winter Final Eclipse - The Dark World Flaming Ouroboros – Blood Gauntlet Ring - Beyond the Veil of the Night Graf - Rite of Nocturnal Passage Gam - Alt hans væsen Geistaz'ika - Midnatsbøn ved djævelens port Helleruin - Devils, Death and Dark Arts Hinsides - Hinsides hörs djävulsklockans urklang Iron Firmament – Keepeater Kringa - All Stillborn Fires, Lick My Heart! Krigstjørn - Mod guders svig Kurgan - Ascetic Dissociations Lja – 1943 Mavorim - Ab Amitia Pulsae Motstand – S/T Mycorrhizae – The Great Filtration Noitila – Langennut Nöldr - Chaotic Mysticism from the Tormented Silence Nahasheol - Serpens Abyssi Nartvind – Breath of Night Orkblut – Ghost Paths to Septentrion Obsidian Grave – Blood of the Night Oerheks - Grondslagen Regnum Tenebrarum - Légendes noires Ravensrealm - A Crash of Heathen Thunder Sulphuric Night - Black Metal Tyranny Tsjuder – Helvegr Trest - Sorginak Unholy Craft - Naar all tid er omme Vestígio - Vestígios (^Mark and FA will both want to check out the above album) Versteck - Symbols of Seven Harmonies

Killing Joke - Killing Joke (2003) Coroner - Grin

I believe that is what really turned me off to IPAs. Like Surge, I won't turn down a perfectly good beer if someone is handing it to me, but they're never my first choice. Down here, breweries either try to see just how bitter they can make a beer as some kind of badge of honor or how many weird ass fruit combos can be added. It's akin to the hot wings trend, let's make these perfectly good chicken wings inedible as some test of manhood by adding 43 ghost peppers and top it with a scotch bonnet. People claim to enjoy them, but I can't see how. And it's all fine and good. Plenty of beer out there to like for everyone. Just annoying that every brewery has to have 60-75% of the menu dedicated to the same variation of style. In stores, seems that's all they carry anymore and most just suck (the ones you mentioned, Voodoo Ranger, Space Dust, 420, the list goes on). Many started out good, but over the years got bought out by conglomerates or over expanded and the quality dropped. Stone was sold several years ago and had never been the same. Everyone has their own preferences. I personally don't like German beer. Lukewarm on IPAs and Pilsners. Will never seek one out, but will never turn down a freebie.

Obituary - The End Complete (1992)

I'll have you know I read the whole thing. Surge finds some interesting stuff, sometimes. Good dude. Glad he got a job after getting his degree. I know he was trying to make a better life for he and his wife.

Obituary - Slowly We Rot

Enslaved - Eld (1997)

Happy Zombie Jesus day! Let's start off by serenading the neighborhood with some proper religious tunes. Candlemass - Epicus Doomicus Metallicus Candlemass - Nightfall

Bathory - Under the Sign of the Black Mark (1987)

S.O.D - Speak English or Die (1985)

Atheist - Piece of Time

First album was pretty good and I caught them live in Denver on that tour back in '17 opening for Denmark's Undergang which was a solid performance. But this new album's a snoozer, listened to half of it one time, wouldn't buy it. Just checked, it's the same 3 guys, wonder what happened? Turns out writing memorable death metal isn't as easy as it looks. Pungent Stench - For God Your Soul... For Me Your Flesh, Austria 1990 Benediction - The Grand Leveller, UK 1991

GLOATH - Solitude Consciousness

I don't know if it's worth a damn, not having tried it, but I've seen in my local that several of the better known foreign brewers like Paulaner and Weihenstephan are making non-alcoholic versions of their beer. If anyone can pull off a reliably decent tasting non-alcoholic, it's probably going to be one of them. What's interesting about those breweries though, is because their beer is so "blah" in flavor, their quality control is absolutely topnotch. It has to be because being so lacking in actual flavor any deviation would be incredibly noticeable

Obituary ‎@ Frozen Alive recorded at Stodoła Club, Warsaw Poland. August 24th, 2006

Motorhead - No Sleep Til Hammersmith 40th anniversary

Napalm Death - Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism (2020)

Bloodbath - The Fathomless Mastery

Terrorizer - World Downfall

Testament - The New Order (1988)

Candlemass - Epicus Doomicus Metallicus

Control Denied - The Fragile Art of Existence (1999) Don't say that: I'm 27 too... * 2 😭

Totality was fucking amazing. I'm sorry I looked away from it even to get a shot on my phone, which can't do it justice, but there ya go:

Brutal Truth - Need to Control (1994)

Judas Priest - Painkiller

Rush - Moving Pictures

Nuclear Assault - Handle With Care

I've been summed up in various ways over the years - the latest being my son 'with yer cool sunglasses and cool leather coat you look like a hipster, but we know you are in fact just an oddball' - but this actually gets pretty close to the essence of Thatguy too.

Akhlys - The Dreaming I (2015)

Couch Slut is great live. Saw them in a small dungeon of a club with Imperial Triumphant last year. Little different styles. Tiamat started as a death/doom outfit and Samael was black metal, but they do have some similarities. Also Tiamat hails from Sweden, Samael from Switzerland. Not sure how much interplay they had to influence each other, but it's definitely possible. Interestingly, they had similar career arcs moving towards a more electronic sound far from where they originated. If you dig that sound, this might be up your alley. One of my favorites along the lines of very early Samael. Serpent Noir (Greece) - Sanguis XI Sanguis XI | SERPENT NOIR | Hellthrasher Productions (bandcamp.com)

Suffering Hour - The Cyclic Reckoning - not as good as their first, but still a solid record Of Feather & Bone - Sulfuric Disintegration - fucking grind into oblivion Stygian Obsession - Form is Void - never seen anything else by these dudes but this crushes Cruz - Culto Abismal - another crushing one off (for me anyway)

Nuclear Assault - Survive (1988)

Phosphorus - Sonos a Tenebrae (demo) Saw them about the time this came out with Cattle Decap and Cannibal Corpse. Needless to say they were the weakest band on the bill but still very enjoyable. Show was even on my birthday. Nice of them I think.

Sargeist - Let The Devil In

Summoning - Lugburz (1995)

Rotting Christ - Non Serviam Inquisition - Into the Infernal Regions of the Ancient Cult

VERBERIS - The Apophatic Wilderness. Noice. An here is Thatguy's cat. Luna Bonjour (she came to us already named).

Windhand - Eternal Return, Richmond VA 2018 YOB - The Illusion of Motion, Portland OR 2004

Eternal Suffering - Drowning In Tragedy, BDM Boston Mass 1999 Suffocation - Pierced from Within, BDM NY 1995

Church of Misery is fucking great fun. Will have to check this out. Not sure about the Monkey business, but if the Church thinks enough of them to do a split, they're worth a go. Panzerfaust - The Suns of Perdition Chapter 2 Dodheimsgard - Monumental Possession

Sarcofagus - Envoy of Death Savage - Hyperactive No Future, No Past - Finnish Speed & Thrash Metal Explosion 1986-1992

Swans/Soundtracks for the Bind (1996)-It's been said by many, that in a career of making weird albums, this is the weirdest album Swans ever made. love it or hate it-and fans fall on both sides of the fence (I am on the love side) there is nothing like this album. The album that was the final straw breaking the Swans for 14 years. They reformed in 2010'ish and they came to more general notoriety in 2012 with their massive trilogy beginning with The Seer in 2012 which garnered a great deal of praise in all music internet sites that cover left of field experimental music, which is when I discovered them. 2012 was when I got into headfi and hifi gear, put together a proper listening system and started following the machinations beyond metal. At any rate, Soundtracks for the Blind (2 discs, 4 LPs) and 26 tracks is a herculean listen at over 2 hours. It's long been a favorite for fans of experimental rock music. Some would say it's been eclipsed post 2010 in terms of what Gira strove to achieve-some kind of transcendental music that pulls from many genres. It's an album that requires patience, there is over indulgence and bloat to be sure, but I find the entire experience utterly compelling. The roots to Soundtracks predates 1996 some 10 years to the beginning of the Swans existence and is as you might guess, conceived to be the soundtrack to movie that never existed. There's quite a bit ambient music and overall vibe of ambient drone on this album, but also explosive music and field recordings, and creepy, voyeuristic voice tracks. I believe Gira and Jarboe both recorded people in their lives with mental and physical health problems to create a sense of watching a film designed to give the listener a feeling of discomfort. The album is unsettling and beautiful. Much credit has to go to Jarboe, Gira's long time collaborator who has one of the most elastic, powerful, beautiful and at times brutal female voices in experimental music. In fact, the entire album has a combined effect of surrealist experience-reminiscent of a bizarre David Lynch movie and other worldly experience beyond the capacity to explain in words. The voice overs create a sense of watching a haunting documentary of some corner of the underbelly of twisted human existence-ne'er do wells living sordid, utterly depressing lives-something that draws me in, repels me but I just can't take my eyes off the screen--- or perhaps, turning to look at the multi car accident on the other side of the highway-traffic backed up for miles, emergency vehicles, cars burning, bodies on stretchers....and you just can't restrain yourself from slowing down to look at the carnage. There is nothing that I've heard that sounds like this album.

Afterbirth - In But Not Of (2023) Slimelord - Chytridiomycosis Relinquished (2024)

KAT - Oddech Wymarlch Swiatow (Polish thrashy hm a la 1987) Accept - Metal Heart

Coroner - R.I.P. Doom - Total Doom Taipan - Live 1982 Samael - Worship Him

Circle of Ouroborus - Night Radiance Recluse - Stillbirth in Bethlehem (my favorite Christmas album) Wode - Servants of the Countercosmos