Requiem

Great album, in my opinion. Damn, I haven't heard this in ages. I love 'Dominate', 'Where the Slime Live' and 'Caesar's Palace' to name a few. Wow, I really need to drag these old death metal classics out of my collection and give them a spin in my car. I've neglected these guys - and others - for too long!

This thread doesn't get the workout it used to. On my mind is the fact that I bought my ticket to Cradle of Filth's show in which they will be playing 'Cruelty and the Beast' in its entirety this September. With the current line-up of absolute guns, it's safe to say that I'm more than a little excited. Dark Funeral are playing soon too, and I'll go, but live they always lose any definition in the riffs due to their volume of hyperblasting. It sucks. Still, duty calls and I'll be going. Might buy my ticket now actually. EDIT: Cradle are on Friday 6th and Dark Funeral are on Saturday 7th. Full weekend of dark metal for The True Requiem. I could also go and see Devin Townsend on the Sunday night, but I think that's just too many metal events in one weekend for one vampire...

Destruction 666 just had their Melbourne show cancelled as well, due to complaints to the venue by people who obviously have nothing to do with metal. One of the primary complaints was about verbal criticisms of Islam from the stage - which means that apparently you can't criticise a system of belief publicly at all anymore. They criticise Christianity for two decades and no one bats an eyelid, but a few sentences uttered at a show between songs about Islam and boom, show in Melbourne cancelled. This deep fear of offending Muslims is really concerning. I don't know what the political conditions are like in Singapore, but it seems fairly odd to cancel a band like Watain who don't really push any particular agenda or criticism beyond a generic metal stance against religion. It's just ridiculous and it feels like we're entering some kind of new conservative age where freedom of speech/expression/association seems to not count for much.

I was well into the first three Deftones albums back in the 90s. They were our high school anthems. 'My Own Summer', 'Be Quiet and Drive', 'Passenger'. I can't listen to those songs without a sweep of nostalgia. NP: Sabaton - 'The Last Stand'. Fun metal is fun.

And I never did... Anyway, I’ve just discovered that Cradle will be back in town in September to play ‘Cruelty and the Beast’ in its entirety. I’m a big fan of the ‘played in its entirety’ trend in general, so hearing this about one of the greatest albums in metal history is very exciting, especially with the ‘Cryptoriana’ line-up which I’m sure will do a stellar job. And I will eventually get around to writing about the Cradle drummers as mentioned above...

Caffeine. *sips red wine*

Great question. These are the two king views in life. Very tough one. I’ll go with Ocean and dream of the mountains. Would you rather live in a French village or an Italian village?

That’s a tough one. I love being alone and travelling, so I could do that unfettered. Poor and lots of friends would be ok I guess but friends only have so much to offer. I choose wealth and alone. I won’t be just sitting in my gold house though, don’t worry about that. I’ll be first classing it around the world. Would you rather be killed by a shark or crocodile?

Not at all. The new material sounds as bland and paint-by-numbers as most of their stuff from the last twenty years. They used to be innovators and frontrunners, but most of their career they’ve been content to be a tribute band to 80s metal, basically. Fenriz doesn’t even try to hide that fact. He just wants to ape the bands he loved back in the day. And that’s fine, but it leaves me flat (and also confused at their continued cult status). I also have a problem with their riff quality control - as in there doesn’t seem to be any. Any riff they seem to come up with over the recording weekend seems to make it on the albums. Some of them are dire. I’ll forever love the first six Darkthrone albums, but I can’t find a lot that moves me on the rest of them - Old Star’ pre-release track included.

Emperor - ‘I Am the Black Wizards’ in the front bar of the metal pub. Only public house in Melbourne where you’ll hear black metal on the speakers of the front bar, I assure you. They also recently played Pantera, Metallica, Skid Row (hell yeah) and good era In Flames.

My favourite single track album is definitely Insomnium - ‘Winter’s Gate’. Just a beautiful and moving album.

Hey that’s awesome! Sorry I didn’t see this post until now. Anyway, those photos are cool. Too bad they couldn’t carry on together. Stu Block just doesn’t do it for me.

Tatey. um, what else can we compare? Would you rather be the world’s best guitarist or the world’s best penis... sorry pianist?

Mgla - ‘Exercises in Futility’ About the only exercise I get these days. Am I right lads?

I'm sorry to see that no one replied to your request. The only thing that springs to mind, and that's because I've just got into them, but Sabaton have a very synth heavy, crisp and melodic thing going on. Check out their 'The Last Stand' album.