GoatmasterGeneral

GG top 200 most played bands countdown according to lastFM These were two really important albums for me, if we were doing a list of albums instead of bands these would surely both have to be in my top 5. 14. Paradise Lost - Shades of God, Halifax, West Yorkshire UK (734) I'm sure I've written more than enough about this band and especially this album on the board by now and the last time was not even that long ago so I'll spare you all from having to read it all again. 13. Celtic Frost - To Mega Therion, Switzerland (777) This is the band that stumps me the most, I really don't know what genre(s) to put them in as they exibit traits from so many, but don't quite fit perfectly into any. Thought about maybe picking a different album for CF (no, not Cold Lake despite what I might've told Hungarino) but this was the one that really put them on the map and cemented their place in metal history. Fave track: Beyond the North Winds, but the whole thing smokes from cover to cover. I do love almost all their albums though for different reasons, and Tom G Warrior wil always be my metal hero.

We didn't know what to call anything back then in the early 80's man. Thrash wasn't known as thrash yet right from the very beginning, everything was still just being called heavy metal back then, up until at least '83. They tried out both power metal and power thrash briefly as sub-genre names, because that was the point at which suddenly it became apparent we needed labels to differentiate the newer heavier stuff that was coming out from the poppier hair and traditional metal bands we already had. But no one had been prepared for this or had thought about sub-genre names we never knew we'd need because heavy metal itself had ony been in existence for about 4 years in '83. Power metal hadn't been spoken for yet at the time so they tried it out for a short while (because the word power seemed to make sense for this new heavier strain of music) and then I even heard "power thrash" spoken once or twice, but ultimately "thrash" just kind of won out by popular demand (as we all now know) and power metal was back up for grabs again. Then what happened was anything heavier than like Maiden, Dokken, or Manowar became known as "thrash metal" and it took a few years to sort out all the different sub-genres of extreme metal and what they'd be called. So a heavy band like Napalm Death who were putting out demos as early as 1982 and were obviously much heavier than Maiden or Dio would have absoutely been called "thrash metal" circa like '83 or '84, maybe even into '85 - until we had enough thrash bands on the scene to where we could say "ok this shit over here is thrash, and that shit there's something else." Don't know exactly when the term 'death metal' was coined but I don't think I ever heard it until a few years later in the decade. I definitely heard the term "black metal" being used before I heard anyone say "death metal."

Don't leave out Pantera. PPfffttt dude you should have seen how much they cried and carried on that time you deactivated your account and quit for a few months. Oh my fucking god, all the teary-eyed heartfelt pleas for your safe return and all would be forgiven, things will be different this time and I take back all that shit I said about you...blah blah blah. After about two months of your absence the way they carried on you would have thought these dudes had lost a dear family member or broken up with their girlfriends or something, not just lost track of some Tassie Pantera fan they knew casually from an internet forum.

I'd say Behemoth has three distinct phases. Their first black metal phase, the middle death metal or blackened death metal phase and then their post-leukemia more commercial period they're in now which began with the Satanist. Or maybe they're just "maturing" or something. But I could be nitpicking. When drinking to get drunk, what is the mountain lions' usual bevvie of choice?

GG top 200 most played bands countdown according to lastFM 16. Blasphemophagher - For Chaos, Obscurity and Desolation, Italy (716) Sick fucking album from a sick band, just go get it, such a shame they quit after just 3 killer albums. They've been "on hold" for 11 years now. Top war metal band of all time if you ask me, which I'm sure you didn't. (unless you consider Archgoat to be war metal and then they'd have to be at the top of the food chain) The drummer here also plays guitar in Baphomet's Blood which is essentially the Italian Motorhead, who are really fucking good too if you're into blackened speed metal, which of course I am. 15. Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (725) There's not much I'll go all the way back this far 50 fucking years to 1973 for, but Sabbath has never left the regular rotation all these years. Their first 10 albums are iconic and still get airtime here. Don't play them weekly, but certainly a couple times a month anyway. I must've posted my favorite, Sabotage on here at least 50 different times so I'll go with this one for a change here cuz it was sounding pretty damn good to me the other night.

Still pretty gazey. Not post-metal, but maybe even worse than that. The Aevangelist was reasonably a-ight though. Not sure why it took them 61 minutes to make their point, they didn't have nearly enough twists and turns to fully flesh out 61 minutes so it dragged a little at times. A little dissonant for me too but within reasonable levels, I mean I wouldn't jump out of a moving car to avoid hearing it if you popped it on for the ride back to the the Docarooni compound from the airport. I'm willing to call Blivvington's list good already 9 albums in just because he's got a Finnish band on there at #192 and I always liked that album back in the day. Also he's got Shades of God on there, one of my top 3 or maybe top 5 metal albums of all time, although I've no idea why he'd rank it so low. Can't really knock his list as I've owned all of those 9 albums on there so far at one time or another except of course for the one.

GG top 200 most played bands countdown according to lastFM 18. Necros Christos - Trivne Impvrity Rites, occult death metal from Berlin Germany. (698) While this is an unbelievably great album, (easily top 10 for the decade of the 2000's maybe top 5) this band wouldn't be quite so high on my list if they didn't put so many damn tracks on their albums. Every song has a short 1 to 2 minute instrumental guitar interlude wedged in before and after, so the first two full lengths have 23 tracks each, and their 3rd was a triple album with 27 tracks on it. I like the interludes while I'm listening to it, but it does run up the play counts. Shame they broke up, but I guess they felt like they'd said what they'd needed to say musically and then moved on. I wish more legacy bands would take a hint and know when it's time to call it a day and move on to their next projects. 17. Necrophobic - The Nocturnal Silence, blackened death metal from Sweden (701) Don't listen to these guys as often as I used to anymore, but they still get a look every now and then. Thanks to CBS for taking Darkside and leaving this one for me. This is one of my top 20 metal albums of all time, absolutely unfuckwithable. They only had that one bad album in 2013, all the rest are solid slabs of blackened death. A straight 50/50 mix of black and death as I hear it, as opposed to Dissection which I'd say leans 60/40 black. Gonna have to call these dudes my 2nd favorite Swedeath band. Being right down front for their first ever US show at MDF in 2010 was cool as shit, even though it was hot as hell under the midday sun for their ridiculous 12:30 time slot and they must have been dying in their leather outfits even though they were sleeveless.

Shit, he looks as old as the Orca. KURDT VANDERHOOF of METAL CHURCH Talks New Album: 'It's Thrasher Than We've Ever Done Before!'

Not saying those two bands are exact replicas of each other, but if you can't see that they're both members of the same sub-genre then you're seriously missing something. They're both post-metal bands masquerading as black metal. But don't take offense Doc because I've already stipulated to the fact that the recent Fen album was "good" and I'm even happy to admit that Deafheaven is a good fucking band as well, they're just much too pretty and soft-cock for me and I hate that people want to call them black metal. But it's OK Doc, don't worry we can still bond over Killing Joke and ragging on the Orca.

GG top 200 most played bands countdown according to lastFM 20. Killing Joke - 25th anniversary show live in London UK 2/25/05. (682) I've owned the KJ debut for over 35 years since shortly after Metallica covered The Wait on Garage Days EP back in '87. But I never really listened to it much over the years. My buddy Marko has been singing these dudes' praises for years and I guess I never paid much attention until one day last August I just decided to jump in and see what was going on with this band. Bought their 2nd album from '81 and then I grabbed the reformation self titled from '03 (my personal favorite) and then I ended up having this big KJ epiphany. I watched their doco and fell competely in love with this band, couldn't get enough of them and so I picked up not all of their albums but a good 8 more of them within the next few weeks and just playing a few of them every single night for the next month or so. I slowed down a bit after that first month but I still racked up enough plays in just under a year to get them into my top 20. And that's not even counting a whole bunch of YT spins. If I had come around to discovering their awesomeness 2 or 3 years ago who knows, they might be in my top 10 by now. Can't say enough good things about this band, they really resonate with me. They're not strictly metal, they actually started out as a post-punk band in the late 70's and had some minor chart success in the early 80's. But they've gotten much heavier over the years since they stopped trying to write catchy singles and just started writing for themselves. And even I don't listen to metal all the time, there are other things that interest me from time to time. And this band is deffo one of them. 19. Grave - Endless Procession of Souls, Sweden. (691) Grave has always been my favoroite Swedeath band. A lot of people go with Dismember or Entombed or I've even heard some say Unleashed, but for my money Grave easily tops them all. Not much to say about them, they simply play no frills caveman death metal just the way I like it. CBS went with You'll Never See (nice choice) so I'll go with this banger from 2012.

GG top 200 most played bands countdown according to lastFM 22. Morrigan - Enter the Sea of Flames, Bathory-inspired celtic pagan black metal from Germany. I've posted their third album Celts numerous times on the board so thought I'd switch it up and pick a different one for a change. Their first 5 are all absolutely mandatory. This is another case like Father Befouled where I probably listen to the disciples more than their master. Essentially straight up Bathory worship but they decided to mix the early black metal stuff together with the later viking stuff and it fucking works beautifully for me, I fucking love these guys. They're like my Iron Maiden. 21. Azaghal - Omega, no-frills no compromise brutal hard hitting black metal from Finland. (672) I think this was my first Azaghal album from 2008 when I was just starting to delve deeper into black metal beyond just the basic bands everyone likes to reco to you first. And these fuckers (along with Behexen) were instrumental in my coming to understand that Finland would be the epicenter of the kind of riffy abrasive yet melodic black metal I like the most. They also showed me how much cooler black metal sounds with some low end in the mix which means they're also partially responsible for my generally preferring post 2000 black metal over the 90's stuff. Even now in my extreme elderliness this is one of those bands that makes me want to get up and fucking destroy shit. If this band doesn't immediately turn you into a fan of Finnish black metal right on the spot and make you start sprouting little nubs of goat horns out of your forehead then nothing will, just fuggeddaboudit and go listen to some nice emo nu-metal or Def Leffard or Asking Alexandria or In Sync or some shit. Maybe some lovely relaxing post-metal llike Fen or Deafheaven or whatever would be more your speed.

GG top 200 most played bands countdown according to lastFM 24. Father Befouled - Desolate Gods, Atlanta Georgia (666) These are my two favorite established American death metal bands. I always have some current favorite releases during the year by newer bands but these are the two I always go back to. Some say FB were just a clone of Incantation, but at this point they've gotten so good at it I often wonder if maybe they've out Incantationed Incantation. 23. Incantation - Diabolical Conquest, NJ/OH/PA these dudes have moved around a lot. (666) Definitely a proponent of the Incantation school of dark murky evil stench of death metal. The "evil" thing is just so much more appealing to me than the rapid fire machine gun style a lof of the Deicide and Hate Eternal clones have gone with.

Go to sleep for a few hours, clean up the house a little bit, make a few calls and wouldn't you know the Cum Blaster has finished shooting his bloody load, he's all done now and having a smoko. And here I am still at #25/26 after having such a big lead a few days ago. But that'll happen when the other dude switches to doing 5 at a clip and I'm still posting doubles. But it is what it is. I'll finish eventually, don't know if I can do all 13 remaining pairs today but should be able to wrap it all up at least by tomorrow and then Doc will just have to find something else to complain about. GG top 200 most played bands countdown according to lastFM 26. Integrity - Those Who Fear Tomorrow, Cleveland Ohio. Call it metalcore, call it hardcore, call it crust, call it metal, I don't care what you call it but these dudes are an important band for punk loving metalheads, they give you the best of both worlds. 25. Decayed - The Black Metal Flame, Portugal (655) It can be hard to know where to draw the line between black and black/thrash but who cares, this is fucking awesome. Records like this make me wonder what Venom might have sounded like had they actully been good and known how to play.

Never heard of Amyl or her Sniffers so I had to dial them up. I generally like punk rock and I think this would be ok except in this case her Aussie accent kind of ruins it for me. Which is not to say I'm anti-Aussie or anything, I don't mind Aussie accents in general, I just don't like hers. I'm sure she wouldn't like my NY accent either. Actuallly I watched a live video and it's not just her accent, I just don't like her. Her voice, her vocal delivery and the jerky way she moves, not feeling it. I'll just stick with the Psychos for my Aussie punk fix. Hopefully they won't scream about fucking me since your mom won't. And trust me no one wants to see those videos, not even you. You should probably burn them.

Yeah Cannibal is another one, too technical, too many notes for me. So I understand that one. But Morbid Angel and Deicide are on paper at least two bands that I'd probably be expected to like. Deicide in particular has been popping up a lot of different places lately and it just seems to be a given that everyone loves them, but I don't, I can't stand them. And it's not like anyone is shaming me for not liking them or anything, but when I notice 90% of people who I see as essentially dudes with taste like me and they all dig the same band and I'm the odd man out, after awhile it does make me wonder what's the problem I have with that band that no one else seems to be having. But I guess if there's one thing I have learned tonight it's that other people don't question things as much as I do, they're much more willing to just accept things while I always need to know why.

I think to a certain extent I understood Maiden's success and why people wanted that product in the 80's & 90's when they were still somewhat relevant, even though I wasn't a huge fan myself. But I don't understand this massive legendary stature they've attained in the entertainment world all these decades later in their golden years when it seems they're maybe even bigger now than they were back when they were good and not so old. I could say the same thing about the Stones, they fucking suck but why are they so damn big now that they're in their 80's or 90's? Why does the idea that they'll all be dead soon make them more appealing to people? Or Aerosmith, a perfect example of a band who was once good and then went to shit yet I think they're more insanely popular now in their 70's than they ever were back when they were good. I suppose what I'm really questioning is this whole concept of band loyalty spanning decades and transcending generations. Because I don't have this band loyalty gene instilled in me. Why won't people just learn to let shit go? When a band I dig releases a bad album or two that's all it takes and I will drop them in a heartbeat. And I mean dead to me like they never existed. I don't understand why liking a particular band means I should have to be locked in to liking them forever. That to me would be similar to liking a car so never buying a new one and just continuing to drive the same one for the next 50 years and two million miles even past the point where it's falling apart and just drive it right into the ground. If it were still running good then I could see it, yeah ok sure, keep it. But if it's falling apart and rusted through then it's ok to get a newer one. I personally see Maiden as having rusted out and fallen apart years ago so I'd expect most people to have moved on to other bands which are in better shape. But that doesn't appear to be the case. But nowadays it's like "My dad loves Maiden and so now I love them too!" For example I have a buddy who worships Rush. I hate them of course but he loves them. Until Neil died he used to take his kids to Rush concerts with him every year and now they're like 17 and 21 and they dig Rush too just like dad. It's like a religion or a sports team affiliation that just gets handed down to the next generation and no one questions it, and to me that's nuts. Because when we were kids we were expected to hate our parents' music and they were expected to hate ours even more. What happened with that?

Man, it's almost like everyone (the real metalheads) seems to love Deicide except me. But they just don't do anything at all for me. Morbid Angel either, I have absolutely no use for either one of them. Can't imagine what it is I could be missing, I do listen to lots of death metal, just don't happen to care for those two well loved bands. It just so happens that I have three American death metal bands left on my list as well. Or technically 2 American bands and one Mexican band who has been based in the US (Chicago) for 30 years since before their first full length album came out, so I count them as Americans. The 3 bands are sitting at numbers 23, 24 and 6. So being that it's 3:40 am already here, I might not get to them tonight as I'm only currently up to numbers 27 & 28. And here they are. GG top 200 most played bands countdown according to lastFM 28. Extreme Noise Terror - Being and Nothing, UK death/crust/grind (648) the whole album was not avaiable on YT in a single video at this time, so I just posted the title track. Wasn't about to change albums, this is the one. 27. Extinction of Mankind - The Nightmare Seconds... UK (652) phenomenal album, phenomenal band. But so many metalheads are inherently resistant to anything punk so they don't know it.

I don't read the blogs or track goings on in the mainstream metal world like you do, but no one's disputing their exalted larger than life status. I can accept that it's just the way it is. But I was just questioning why them of all bands. Have you never seen something that didn't quite add up to you and just wondered why them? No, one doesn't neccessarily need to understand to accept it, but did you ever just want to understand something? I know you must have some curiosity in you because you know how to fix mechanical things. This means you were at some point inspired to take things apart to see how they worked and then put them back together again. Well I just want to take Iron Maiden's massive success that seems to me to be completely disproportionate to their talent apart and get to the bottom of how and why it works. I already know that it works, otherwise I wouldn't be questioning how and why it works. And you definitely were trying to spell "spelled" you're just under the impression that "spelt" is a legitimate alternative pronunciation of "spelled."

I generally enjoy talking about this kind of metal history stuff with you Deadovic, because even though we don't always agree on many things, and even though you didn't live through this shit because you're just a kid, 😛 and even though you can be just as hard headed a son of a bitch as I can be, at least you know what the fuck you're talking about and you're not full of shit. So I respect that about you, I see you as a genuine dyed in the wool metalhead motherfucker like me, it's in your DNA, you're not some 42 year old Johnny come lately poseur who just discovered metal last year. So as such I really enjoy our debates, not because I want to win, or because I think I'm gonna change your mind about anything, but just for the pure fun of it. I can go anywhere on the internet and debate politics or whatever, but there are only so many of us genuine metalheads around the world with whom I can have fun discussions about shit like this and who I feel I've gotten to know well enough that they won't take any of this personally. Dude, believe me I've wrestled with the whole corpsepaint, leather and spikes aspects of black metal because I don't care about any of that nonsense, I'm really truly in it just for the music. I don't care about any of the Satanic aspects of black metal either because again, even though I do happen to be pretty vehemently anti-religion and anti-god (meaning I'm against the very delusional concept of gods and creators even existing to begin with, I'm not angry with some supernatural god being who doesn't even exist) I don't pay any attention to the lyrics in black or death metal and none of that Satan shit means anything at all to me, it's just a bunch of nonsense too that has nothing at all to do with why I'm drawn to black metal over death metal. I do admit to preferring music that sounds "evil" if we can even define what sounding "evil" means. I can't really explain it in words, but I know it when I hear it. And that holds true across all genres, black, death, thrash, doom or whatever, I just like it better when it's been "blackened" and sounds "evil." Even Tom Araya when asked how he could reconcile his devout Catholic religious beliefs with the Satanic lyrical themes in Slayer's music told them that they're reading too much into the Satan thing, he just likes it because it sounds cool, that's all there is to it. And that's basically where I'm at too. I crave heavy, ugly, evil, abrasive music because it just sounds cool to me. Nothing more sinister behind it than that. I understand there are a lot of other people out there who really latch onto either the fashion or the Satanic aspects of black metal (or both) and those things can be a big part of the appeal to them, but I have no control over that. For my part it's really always been the riffs and the music that have resonated with me on a visceral level and that's a feeling I just don't get anywhere else other than from listening to the kinds of metal that I enjoy. Now I will confess to walking around in my every day life sporting a bullet belt in my younger years back in the 80's, complete with the leather jacket, tight jeans and the long hair and the whole 9 yards. But I was a dumb 20-something kid back then, probably dumber and more immature back then than most of my peers I'd say if we're being completely forthright, and I'm not gonna defend that shit, but I'm not gonna apologize for it either. I did what I did and it was what it was, and I've long since abandoned any ideas or pretense about being "cool" in my old age or caring what anyone thinks of what I do or what I wear or what I say or what I listen to. I'm just another out of touch old man, just another swinging goat penis out on the bricks doing my own thing and minding my own damn business like anyone else. Just want to add that I don't know what it is, but Motörhead has had a strong appeal to me from basically the first time I ever heard them whenever that was, '81 maybe. Something about Lemmy's don't give a fuck attitude just appeals so strongly on a subconscious level I think. Even when doing my bands countdown thing with CBS I found that Motörhead is still my #2 most listened to band today even with the thing set to only count the plays for the last 7 years as far back as October 2016. Yes even me, the kvlt black metal freak who poo-poos all things 80's and trad metal still loves his Motörhead. Because Motörhead has been with me for over 40 years, year in and year out one of the dependable constants of my adult life. Weird having the three of them all dead and gone now, but I'm still gonna be listening to their music til I'm dead and gone regardless of whatever trendy sub-genres come and go between now and then.

I see Cum Blaster's awake and liking shit so I'd better get on with the countdown. GG top 200 most played bands countdown according to lastFM 30. Napalm Death - Apex Predator, Birmingham UK (588) Had no idea which one I'd pick for Napalm as they have so many good ones. Almost went with the Code is Red and I thought about it then changed it to Harmony Corruption at the last minute. 29. Discharge - End of Days, Stoke, Midlands UK. Yeah I could have gone with the classic era but Cum Blaster already used HNSNSN for his list so I took this one which was a good crust record in 2016. ( 595)

I know you're not a black metal guy. But that's OK, a lot of people aren't into it. Diaboli had much "bigger" souding records than that one, like Wiking Division and the last one Pagan Gods Rise. I think Wiking Division is my favorite, it's WWII themed so you might like that one better. The dude Pete behind Diaboli also put out a couple of death metal records under the name Psycopathic Terror. What do you think of this? The title was his prisoner number. Psychopathic Terror - 230204

Yeah you spelled "spelled" wrong but that's ok, you're 'Strayan and apparently they accept that kind of silliness down there so you can't be expected to know any better.

I do like my war metal but even I wouldn't consider it the best music genre in the world. That would naturally be black/death.