Requiem

Amorphis - Black Winter Day EP. It's the first CD I've ever received from the band and I got it in 1995. I was 15 and a kid at school swapped it for some other release (no idea what it was now). 'Black Winter Day' is right here now with me, 22 years later. Perfect EP. Perfect artwork. 22 years of love, awe and connection. How many itunes kids will be saying that in 22 years time?

It would definitely be cool, but come on, splitting a 12 minute demo onto two vinyls because it wouldn't fit on one. What do you take us for? Imagine splitting a more famous release up to fit on two different records because you really wanted individual lathe-cutting. It's just a nonsense putting a 12 minute demo on two different pieces of vinyl, lathe cut or not. Just admit it's for the double price. But good luck though, because obviously there are people out there mad enough to buy this. I express my opinion merely as a casual observer and long time fan of black metal and cast no aspersions on the ethical intentions of the purveyors of said products.

Hard to believe 'Jaktens Tid' is 16 years old this year. Time flies. but what a classic album. World class metal with great cultural atmosphere. Somnium wrote a lot of songs on this too, so putting this on with a tankard of ale in his honour is a worthy pursuit. Hail!

I shudder at the thought of force feeding you, GrayscaleDawn, but I highly recommend the first two albums if you want off the grid viking metal that has a deeper meaning than the commercial power nonsense the band currently sees as their money-earner. 'How Far To Asgaard' is a viking metal album from before they realised they could make money from music - therefore, excellent.

I wore a Dr Feelgood shirt to dinner with True Belief this evening. True story. As for 'Book of Souls', yeah, I know what everyone means. It's pretty good, but it's also really unexciting. There is no way it's competing with the 'must play' pile of my CDs. I love the last song about the blimp exploding, and the rest is cool, but it's not very compelling. Not sure what they were thinking about the double CD release idea. As usual it was a case of stripping away the weakest 5 songs and putting the whole thing on a single CD.

You guys locked the 2015 Rock am Ring thread so people would stop spamming? It was only a year ago! This is seriously a strange site. Ok whatever, I get it though, and that's fine. I think I'll pass on the Hellfest post... for obvious reasons.

Agreed. Apart from a couple of riffs here and there, there isn't a great deal that really speaks to me. Even when I try to put out of my mind the masterpieces that preceded it this comes up fairly empty. Maybe style over substance? I remember the press went crazy for this album in all the magazines. But I remember the whole time thinking it was a bit of an emperor's new clothes type of scenario. 'Tied in Bronze Chains' is a pretty happening song, but god the rest is just bland. Some of it is downright awful. I think 'Volcano' is a much better album. Overall, though, with Satyricon who were such a special band for me in the mid-90s it's really weird to see them as a (metal)household name. As for their self-titled album from a couple of years ago, urgh just awful. Satyricon Albums in Order from Best to Kill Me: The Shadowthrone Nemesis Divina Dark Medieval Times Volcano Now Diabolical The Age of Nero Rebel Extravaganza Satyricon Now Playing: Funeral - From These Wounds It's hard to put into words how transcendent this album is for me.

Dissection

Saturnus - Martyre Saturnus from Denmark released their first album, the fantastic 'Paradise Belongs to You' in 1997, and this post could easily be about that beautiful album, but instead I'm going with 1999's 'Martyre'. Yes there's doom here, plenty of it, and a bit of death, but as we are an equal opportunity thread I'm going to include this as gothic metal, and I think anyone who hears the album is going to see why. This is a special album for so many reasons. It's the last with founder and main songwriter Kim Larsen (they'll never be the same again). The opening choral piece '7' is haunting and perfect. The production is crisp yet warm. The vocals - in three styles by the almighty Thomas AG Jensen who speaks, moans and growls - are second to none in the doom/gothic scene. The spoken word vocals are just incredible. Evocative of some romantic era poet speaking odes to lost loves by haunted European lakes. The sense of quiet solitude and loneliness that pervades the album is so tangible you can taste it. Tracks like 'A Poem (written in moonlight)', 'Lost my Way' and the upbeat 'Empty Handed' are doom/gothic classics for the ages. A line from 'Empty Handed', "She's the lie I live by" really encapsulates the aura of unrequited love and obsession that pervades the album. With an iconic cover by Paul Delaroche which is actually a painting currently in the Louvre, the visual element of the release is also close to perfect. Here are the two first tracks, '7' and 'Inflame Thy Heart'. Check out the piano outro on 'Inflame the Heart' that complements the entire song.

Beers with True Belief earlier, now a couple of quiet white wines to the duclet strains of Samael's state of the art atmospheric metal.

I'm married to the totally perfect girl, so I'm going to say 'all the sex ever' because that would be way better. Would you rather listen to electronic dance music or country and western?

I was talking to Father Alabaster and accidentally quoted you.

Samael - Lux Mundi This is a band that really flies under the radar. This album from 2011 on Nuclear Blast is a full on masterwork of catchy heaviness and atmosphere. I'm a huge fan of 'Passage' and all those albums, but I have to say, I think 'Lux Mundi' is their best album. It's just amazing. I really need to listen to it more.

I guess so.

I was referring to the arbitrary naming of both men and cars with little else by way of information or reasoning. It's cool and everything, I just thought it was funny.

I've noticed that a lot of threads from about one to four years ago are locked. Sometimes it's every thread from a certain date that is locked and only one or two threads in the forum are open. Case in point, I went to the Metal Festivals forum to post about the 2008 Hellfest, but I found even 2015 Rock am Ring was blocked - along with all the others. I pulled out and didn't start a Hellfest 08 forum because why would that be ok if more recent festivals have been locked? I see this quite a bit actually. What's the idea?

Well it did well to last from 50 years ago, so I'm sure the next 50 won't be a huge issue for this brick. Just let me ask you this. As a Windows user, have you ever used a Mac for an extended period of time?

5/10 but only for the tune.

Wow, another person in the forums. It feels like someone has just walked in on me in the shower as I danced around in the bathroom thinking I'm the only one here. One arm, for sure. Are you suggesting we could keep our arms, but have literally no fingers to pick anything up? So we'd have two random clubs swinging around? Who on earth would choose that? English or American 'The Office'?

This is nearly as foolish as the favourite cars thread.

Sentenced - The Funeral Album Masterpiece.

I guess this is pretty cool, but am I reading this right? You're selling an 'EP' that runs for about 6 minutes at 13 Euros, with another one to follow, presumably at the same length (you don't specify). So the deal is 12 minutes of music on two different 7 inches for 25 Euros! A demo divided in two (why? Oh yeah = $) because it has Hoest on it when he was 19? I'm no expert, but does a 6 minute release qualify as an Extended Play (EP)? Seems like the only thing being extended is the consumer's credulity. Still, it's a free market so best of luck to you.

As an avid and curious fan of music, one of the things I noticed when listening to the amazing gothic metal of the mid to late 90s was the proliferation of the name Woodhouse Studios in the liner notes of all my favourite albums. This is obviously a phenomenon that will elude the itunes generation. This place is part of gothic metal folklore, and was the domain of amazing producers like Waldemar Sorychta and Siggi Bemm (who owns Woodhouse). Woodhouse Studios was the go-to studio for gothic metal bands at the time, especially on the Century Media label, who back then specialised in the genre. Located in Germany, releases there were typified by a clear and crisp sound that was all the rage back then. And of course a sound I love today. Some classic Woodhouse Studios albums: Moonspell - 'Irrelgious' and 'Sin/Pecado' Tiamat - 'Wildhoney' and 'A Deeper Kind of Slumber' Lacuna Coil - 'In a Reverie' and 'Comalies' Sentenced - 'Down' and 'Frozen' Theatre of Tragedy - 'Aegis' The Gathering - 'Mandylion' and 'Nighttime Birds' Therion - 'Vovin' Rotting Christ - 'A Dead Poem' and 'Sleep of the Angels' (I think a lot of their modern fans would be very surprised to hear Rotting Christ's gothic metal phase. Naturally I love it). plus many others. I want to take this opportunity to hail and praise Sorychta, Bemm, Century Media and all the bands who made this whole thing a great moment in time.

Facebook is the worst thing ever, and I deactivated my account about two years ago. And do you know I felt I ended up missing? Not a goddamn thing. It really is the embodiment of everything that is wrong with modern society. And oi, don't go messing with the glorious Gothic Metal forum you cheeky blighters or I'll nut ya!

Rhapsody - Dawn of Victory So corny. So egotistical. So awesome.