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Show last night. Hardcore kids playing death metal. Little heavier on the DM side than the core side, so it was ok. Local, weekend, $12. Works for me. Tombstoner (NYC), Accursed Creator (FL), and Skulldozer (MS). Tinnitus is cranking this morning. NP: Blind Guardian - Nightfall Helloween - Walls of Jericho Sepultura - BTR As an aside, the daughter's boyfriend comes over yesterday. Cool kid, into all sorts of music, vintage audio and vinyl. Likes most everything but usually turns up his nose at metal despite my best efforts. We usually meet at post-punk and psych/garage rock. Shows up in a Mortician shirt. I was like damn, just jump in the deep end of the pool. Talked for a bit and he had just picked up Hacked up for Barbecue and Chainsaw Dismemberment. Also Deicide - Once Upon the Cross. Realizing my opportunity, we went to the music room and took junior to school. Turned him on to a bunch of stuff and even a bit of black metal. All the goods. He left with some Dissection, Inquisition, Obituary, Morbid Angel, Bolt Thrower, Opeth, and a few others. Next lesson will be some grind. Kid's alright.

Fucking great stuff. Caught them live a few years ago and that was pretty special. Coroner - No More Color Coroner - Mental Vortex Coroner - Death Cult

Aoratos - Gods Without Name, Colorado 2019 Akhlys - Melinoë, Colorado 2020, same 2 guys as Aoratos

My Dying Bride - "Songs of Darkness, Words of Light" My Dying Bride - "The Dreadful Hours" It's been a fantastic 34th birthday jamming to these death/doom pioneers! Loving every bit of it.

No idea dude. That's quite a leap. He also name dropped Agoraphobic Nosebleed when we were talking. I was a bit shocked, like how the hell does he even know who these guys are? Not exactly household names and he doesn't have any metal friends/relatives other than me. And I don't exactly listen to either on a regular basis, maybe once or twice a year. Best guess is a youtube rabbit hole or the like. Funny thing though, last show I took him too (ASG & Red Beard Wall) i was telling him he needed to up his black t-shirt game since he only ever wears a tour shirt from The Church. Next time I see him... At least it's not some shitty death-core nonsense.

New Darkthrone day is always a good day. Darkthrone - It Beckons Us All

Electric Wizard - Witchcult Today, UK 2007 Dopethrone - III, Monreal Quebec 2012

ZAO - A Well-Intentioned Virus

Manowar - Fighting The World

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

Suicidal Tendencies - S/T

Iced Earth - Something Wicked This Way Comes

NP: Dolmen Gate - Gateways of Eternity ▶︎ Gateways of Eternity | Dolmen Gate (bandcamp.com) Marcolin era Candlemass is pretty easily identifiable as the primary source of influence. You could probably point to a little Trouble or Pentagram here and there. I do enjoy some of the Marcolin Candlemass albums, so this is a pretty easy going listen for me. The songwriting is excellent on this, even if I'm not a fan of echo laden Solitude Aeternus style production. The vocal layering is frustrating since the singer clearly has the pipes to carry her weight through the style. It's the same sort of frustration I feel when I hear the early Fates Warning albums with John Arch. They should really just trust their vocalist enough to leave the mix a little rawer and pick up a lot more of the inflections that the production seems to smooth over. Still definitely my kind of doom. B+ from me. Mayhem have had such an interesting career. I'm one of those nutcases who will actually defend A Grand Declaration of War onward era Mayhem. This album in particular seems to love making use of rests and what I would call very loud silences in the guitar work. It tends to push Attila's rangy growls a little further to the front, but in return we get erratic quick lashing riffs that actually finds me listening to the rests as intently as the notes themselves. You don't get into the listener's head like that without long years of experience and high confidence in your songwriting.

Scorpions - Animal Magnetism (1980)

Morningrise was where I discovered Opeth. Love it to pieces, but BWP is their pinnacle which extends through the twins of Deliverance and Damnation. @markm, id hesitate to reconsider your back catalog rule with any other band, but Opeth is different. Everything they did from the first album through Ghost Reveries is worth your time. My Arms and Orchid both have some real gems. The Baying of the Hounds, Face of Melinda, The Moor... just so many great tunes.

Paradise Lost - Gothic (1991) Fuck yeah!

Enslaved - "Heimdal" My Dying Bride - "For Lies I Sire" Vitriol - "Suffer & Become" Exodus - "Blood In, Blood Out"

Opeth - Morningrise (1996)

Storm of the Light's Bane, 1995 Dawn - Slaughtersun (Crown of the Triarchy) Sweden 1998 Dawn - Nær Sólen Gar Niþer for Evogher, 1994 Unanimated - In Light of Darkness, Sweden 2009 Necrophobic - Hrimthursum, Sweden 2006

IGGY POP - I'm Bored

Morbid Angel - Covenant

Coffin Curse - The Continuous Nothing, Chile. Where the hell's Blivvington gotten off to anyway? Wasn't he telling me that Death Metal Promotion channel got shut down? Well it seems he's back now with a new red logo. Unless it was a different YT channel Blivvie was talking about, I can't remember now. Obscurial - Heretic, Malaysia. Digging this one. Yeah, I've never really pictured you as being particularly aerodynamic.

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

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

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)

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)