Requiem

I'll admit it's a pretty left field experiment. We'll see how it goes. It's in my car and to be honest I've already lost interest in the two or three days I've had it. I'll give it a few more spins. It's pretty interesting sonically. It's like a cross between Pantera and Coal Chamber or something with a foolishly synthetic Kevin Churko production. I seriously don't understand how Churko has a career, but all his albums seem to sell. He made Ozzy sound like a robot on 'Scream' and the singer in 5FDP has a lot of his aggressive potential smothered in computer fuzz. Everything sounds so goddamn synthetic. I'm currently listening to Sentenced - 'North From Here' if that makes you feel any better... EDIT: I just realised I don't own 'Shadows of the Past', Sentenced's first album. What the hell?? Travesty. I wouldn't want to belong to a forum that would have me as a member....

I just watched the video based on your post here. I really like the song - I think it's cool. The video is a bit shite though. And do I have it right, the main character in the video killed that other bloke, stole his battery, just to give the bin kid a torch? It seems like one of those nice gestures that is actually really unfortunate because he had to fight/kill some innocent guy for the battery. Just seems a really weird twist. Why was there a kid in the bin? Oh well. Good song.

Here we go... Anyway, I think whenever I hear the use of "post-black metal" it reminds me of 'diet coke' or 'lite cream cheese'. I usually want the full phat variety. Although I do love later Mayhem, and like Thorns and 'Volcano' era Satyricon quite a lot. So it ain't all bad. Most of my friends really like bands like Alcest for instance but it just tends to bore me for some reason.

Deathcult Armageddon - Dimmu Borgir

The kitchen staff here is sourced from the local peasantry.

Watching the Moonspell show on youtube 'Viva Latina' from Mexico City this year, and goddamn the backing tracks. They have female vocals on backing tracks (with nary a woman in sight), huge sweeps of programmed keyboards, even though they have Pedro Paixao basically on permanent keyboards these days, and all the sound effects and ambience of the albums pumping through. It just sucks. I love this band and I love these songs. I listen to them all the time. But I don't want to hear every studio tweak come out in the live setting. Basically, I don't want to hear the CD being played with the drummer, bass player and guitar player jamming along with it. That ain't a live show. That's karaoke. So Moonspell, Katatonia and Paradise Lost - you might be three of my favourite bands, but I can't call you live favourites you bunch of phoneys. Turn the CDs off and get up there and play some goddamn live music.

Alright, so we went to this amazing Greek restaurant within walking distance of Castle Requiem and here's what we had: 1. Fresh, warm pita brushed with olive oil, served with eggplant, salmon and tzatziki dips. (bread was updated throughout the night) 2. Dolmades (rice wrapped in vine leaves), large Greek salad (fucking delicious) 3. Saganaki (fried cheese with lemon) 4. Calamari 5. Grilled fish with lemon oil 6. Chicken skewers with some sort of herbs and lemon thing (another large Greek salad comes out) 7. Lamb 8. Pork 9. Baklava, lemon cake, date cake. Total time: 3 hours. So that's only 9 courses by my count, although each was exquisite enough for the most prejudiced of palates. I also drank most of a bottle of 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon, paid homage to Zeus, shed blood for Ares, and returned to the Castle grounds in a coach of undead footman immortally.

Yes, of course you're right. I've eaten degustation and banquet menus before, so yeah I get it. In fact, at Castle Requiem, if I receive fewer than four coruses I behead the kitchen staff. Details of the meal about to be posted in the Eatin' thread in the off topic forum.

See this is where this type of game falls down. I can't think of any album that starts with Z.

I'll check it out. Ditto. Not that I'm suddenly thirsting for this type of music though. Actually I've also got Thulcandra's 'Fallen Angel's Dominion', although they're German I think. I only bought it because of the deliberate Dissection worship, and I guess it's pretty good. I mean, it's impressive and fun, but at the end of the day it's a tribute. They're definitely in the Dissection/Dawn ballpark though. Ballpark - how's that for an Americanism that really means nothing in my country.

I'm sure there's some kind of catch, like the bread is one course and the dip you put it in is another, and suchlike, so on and so forth, and furthermore.

God help us. She's a terrible singer. I hate to be cynical when it comes to women in metal because they're obviously under-represented statistically, but there's really only one reason why those Arch Enemy videos get so many millions of views on youtube, right? I'm still really excited for Paradise Lost (despite True Belief's recent measured assessment), Moonspell and Cradle of Filth.

Didn't expect to be double posting here. Don't you guys listen to music? Current albums on Radio Requiem, coming at ya from the catacombs of olde Melbourne town: Five Finger Death Punch - 'Got Your Six' (calm down and read my explanation in the New Purchases thread) Amon Amarth - 'The Crusher' Amorphis - 'Tuonela'

I actually went ahead about bought 'Got Your Six' by Five Finger Death Punch. Admittedly it was only about 12 bucks, but this is still a big move on my part. I'd never heard the band's music until very recently - they were one of those bands that I ignored, like all of those modern so called 'metal' bands American kids these days are into. But I was really impressed with the track 'I Apologise' when I checked it out to see if this controversial singer is any good and to find out why their albums keep debuting at number two on the Billboard charts. I thought the song and video for 'I Apologise' were amazing to be honest. I can't say this is going to be still getting much rotation in a week or so, but for now I'm not entirely hating Five Finger Death Punch. I'll look back on this post in a fortnight's time and spit.

Shiraz from the musty, cobwebbed cellars at Castle Requiem.

X - The 69 Eyes

Ah Friday, long may we praise thee. Tonight six of us are going out for a 12 course Greek feast. Count em, 12. I have no idea how this is going to work but I'll report back afterwards - it might be one piece of bread at a time. I love most things about Greece though - the food, the history, the outlook on life. Not a huge fan of their economy but what country's perfect?

Oh ok, thanks for letting me know. It's a pity because I think if they're going to do something tricky like put three (random) albums in one package then they might as well give us something that people who already have the albums would care about.

This excites me more than a 40 year old virgin at a $2 peep show. I'm not sure why Sacramentum has escaped my notice. It's just one of those things. I'm a Dissection tragic, and I'm a huge fan of Dawn's 'Slaughtersun' album although I don't actually own it. I had it on my ebay watch list for months but never pulled the trigger and bought it, which is to my discredit. Other Swedish melodic black metal bands I'm a longtime fan of are Shining, Marduk and Dark Funeral, although I know at least one of these bands isn't to your personal taste. Any suggestions for what I should check out beyond Sacramentum and Dawn? EDIT: You're going to jump on the Shining reference, so I'll qualify it by saying something like "depressive-BM-with-elements-of-melody-at-times-although-not-enough-to define-the-band-as-melodic" melodic black metal.

Gosh, I'm not sure what to do. I can take or leave the patch, but the barbed wire and symbols thing intrigues me. If the CD cases/CDs are not the regular standard editions then it might be worth getting. Does the booklet have any particular liner notes of interest - like background to the recordings or anything like that? Anything different from the standard editions is what I'm looking for.

I've heard people call Children of Bodom 'black metal'. I'll steer you clear of them...

Quintessence - Borknagar

I think that's pretty much what I was saying. I like the idea that we're being somewhat liberal with genre boundaries for gothic metal. I know how much it pains you to see a band mislabelled by genre

One of the hardest things in creating a list of gothic metal is to figure out what is actually gothic metal and not simply romantic doom, or darkened pop metal, or symphonic melodic metal. In the end I just went with albums and bands that gave me the gothic vibe, had forlorn lyrical topics, maybe a violin or two. To paraphrase Fenriz: "Gothic metal isn't about one sound, it's about a feeling you get".

To my ears 'Autumn Aurora' stands well above 'The Swan Road' and 'Blood in Our Wells'. Once those po-faced Ukranians (is there any other kind?) seemed to slow production on Hate Forest albums they also seemed to ramp up the speed of Drudkh and sort of merged some of the HF flavour. I love the folky atmosphere of 'Forgotten Legends' and 'Autumn Aurora'. All Drudkh is pretty cool though. Alright, what else can I comment on here. Bolt Thrower have never really done it for me, but I think I need to purchase an album and sort of live with it for a while rather than just hearing things on youtube. That would probably make a difference. People rave about Bolt Thrower, but I've never got the vibe from them so I feel it's me rather than them that's at fault. Balor's black metal acquisitions are great. I feel compelled to buy the Mayhem 'A Season in Blasphemy' release just to add it to my collection, but of course I already have those great albums (plus 'Ordo ad Chao'). @Balor, can you tell me what the packaging/booklet/artwork is like please? If it's a cool package I'll buy it - if it's just the CDs in a box I'll probably pass.