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Master's Call "Morbid Black Trinity" My Dying Bride "Turn Loose The Swans"

Wormed - Exodromos

How ironic that @FatherAlabaster's first release with his new band is in the favoured format of @Fjara Ghetto Blaster Girl. The Gods are in alignment here! Good luck with the band and upcoming show too. The thing that really pisses me off about the Sala incident (aside from a young man in his prime being robbed of a promising future) is the bullshit corporate shenanigans around his transfer fee and who should pay. Flowers don't grow out of bones for a reason. No one should profit from this!

Convulse - World Without God

I think it's worth talking a little bit about the unintentional and perhaps ironic damage that some bands' image does for them. This has been something on my mind for a while now, and it's only crystalised into an idea worth posting with the recently released tracks from Rotting Christ. I'm a huge fan of fairly well produced melodic metal, but unfortunately a lot of the time these bands are targeting a younger audience with, frankly, foolish imagery and bally-hoo. I think it backfires in a lot of cases. Cradle of Filth is the most obvious example. As I've stated on this forum many times, they are one of my favourite bands. I consider four of five of their albums to be metal classics, whilst also accepting that another three or four are quite appalling. What bothers me most, however, is the ridiculous image Dani has created for the band. I love the puns and wordplay, and I love the generally dark/gothic artwork when it's done well (and mostly it's not), but gosh most of the time they look like tools dressed up like a bad Marilyn Manson cover band. A lot of the time they look so stupid and embarrassing that it completely undermines the complexity and intellectualism of the music and lyrics. They do get the image thing right some of the time. The band pictures from 'Cruelty and the Beast' and the last couple of albums are examples of them getting it right. But as a rule, when I avoid their videos/pictures and just listen to the music I find it so much more compelling and meaningful. The new Rotting Christ songs are a similar case in point. I watched the lyric videos for 'Heaven and Hell and Fire' and 'Fire, God and Fear' and for the first few times I saw them I was really unimpressed with the songs. I thought they sounded commercial and unexciting. Of course, I was watching them with the animated lyric videos. After hearing them a few more times I bought both tracks on itunes because I was heading out and wanted to give them a proper listen. Well, suddenly they bloomed into life as magnificent tracks, free from the corny imagery of a commercial black metal marketing exercise. Septicflesh are another band who have done this. Their song 'Prometheus' from the 'Titan' album is one of my all time favourite metal songs. It's about the rise, fall and rise again of the average man, and speaks to me on so many levels. But the video shows the band playing amongst pieces of meat hanging from the ceiling that have no relevance to anything. They look like cyber-goths and it feels foolish. Again, a sophisticated band that produces great art is reduced to an embarrassing S&M photoshoot. Dimmu Borgir are another band. Their 'Eonian' album is one of my favourites from last year, but those stupid sequined hoodies they're wearing in the promo shots are just lame. My lord. To their credit, the pictures in the 'Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia' and 'Death Cult Armageddon' sleeves are fantastic, as are the nature shots in 'Eonian'. But why the band feels the need to dress up like idiots is beyond me. Even when I picture them walking down the street on Halloween in those hoods I start laughing. There's NOTHING evil or cool about them. I don't want to over-egg the pudding here, but there are just so many examples of bands who are putting out great albums and then, in my jaded 39 year old eyes, undoing their good work with cheesy imagery. It's almost reached a point where I deliberately avoid videos so that I don't have the beauty of the music sullied. So the point of all this is: if you're a great band, please don't overdo the image thing. Be reserved, be classy, look cool and everything but let the music do the talking. Try some sophistication like Fleshgod Apocalypse in their promo shots (although even their videos are corny in the extreme). Pull it back about 40%. Because I've had enough of you fools looking like idiots.

If I go on a night out and don’t get raped by elephants then I have come home too early.

Akercocke - Goat Of Mendes Cradle Of Filth - Dusk... And Her Embrace

Possessed - Seven Churches

Hello, My name is Logan and i've come to the metal forums because no one in my family likes metal. I listen to Deathcore, Nu Metal, Metalcore, Grindcore etc. My family is a little older so you might be able to understand why. I hope to find some awesome people here that love metal as much as i do. ,Logan

Hoooaarrr, I never smelled anything like it in all me life!

Oooohharrrroohhharrrrayyyyyyyyyyyyy….

Must be my long-lost cousins.

Sargeist - Feeding the Crawling Shadows

Downeast "Double Blend" cider. Apple juice, but with 7.3% ABV. Don't know what that is in Celcius for the rest of you lunks.

Yikes, I hadn't even heard of that. That's a bummer too. When I read the news it starts to feel like everybody's dying young. Thanks for your interest in the band, I hope you dig what we have going on. The tape won't come out till late May, but I'll keep you posted.

I can imagine and yeh, feel awful for his kids and other family. Lives changed forever in just a few seconds. Kind of related, I keep thinking about the footballer Sala in that plane crash, don't know why, just has really bothered me for some reason. Bless him. Oh and yes..I would love to purchase a tape if you have any going..same arrangement as last time maybees if so pm me when ya know what's happening. Cheers marra.

Good luck with the show and would be great to hear the new project..not so good about the guy who was killed, especially with kids. Would bother me too.

Celtic Frost - To Mega Therion

Hooded Menace - Ossuarium Silhouettes Unhallowed

Better then Ice Cube or Biggie or Jay-Z or Nas? Love me some Tupac but damn 90's rap was awesome.

Deftones - White Pony

In my opinion, the East Asian metal scene is really good right now, especially in regards to extreme black/death/noise metal. Tetragrammacide (India), Kapala (India), Reek of the Unzen Gas Fumes (Japan), Grizzly Fetish (Japan), Fogged by Fleshflies (Japan/S. Korea), Thy Sepulchral Moon (S. Korea), Konflict (Sri Lanka), and Genocide Shrines (Sri Lanka) are all very good. I would love to hear about more, though.

I have to give the edge to YouTube. It's great for new(er) music as well as exploring stuff I haven't gotten around to yet, but the real value is in the recommendations on the sidebar. Even if I like one unknown album out of ten that I click on, I feel like I'm ahead of the game, and whatever or whoever generates their recommendations actually does a great job of finding common threads. There's a lot to wade through, and I find that I have to be in the right mood or I'll get burned out quickly, but I seem to have more frequent success with that (for metal) than any other conduit, even personal recommendations. If it's an area I don't know as well, like jazz, fusion, classical, or hip-hop, I prefer getting starting points from my friends.

I honestly feel a bit of a cringe when I see people trying too hard to create an image but on the other hand I can't help but think that people are more likely to remember and talk about someone who looks ridiculous that someone who doesn't. Sometimes it seems to work like the musical equivalent of pea cocking. Think of a mediocre band with an over the top image that is ridiculously popular. Slipknot, Ghost, Mushroomhead, GWAR. Now think of a great underground band with a "let the music talk" attitude. I can't prove a causal link but it seems that sometimes the audience doesn't always put the music first.

I thought of yet another non metal favorite of mine--Tupac..was the world's greatest rapper in my opinion...

I think that what would be considered offensive in regards to metal music would be extremely relative. Are you referring to what the general public would consider offensive, or members of the metal community? Bands like Cannibal Corpse might be shocking to most people, but are usually not so for those who enjoy death metal. At the same time, significant portions of the metal community become worked up over NSBM bands.

It is definitely not dying in the slightest. There is a continual influx of new albums being released around the world (though often of dubious quality) - just check out bandcamp.