GoatmasterGeneral

Guess not super original but quite enjoyable. Energetic riffy death/thrash.
Steel Bearing Hand - Slay in Hell
 
 
 

New Nattverd was quite the surprise, much better than their last I thought. I'm deffo digging it although I would hesitate to call it flawless or anything like that. 
Haven't gotten to the new Imperium Dekadenz yet even as I've enjoyed some of their previous stuff quite a bit. Maybe today is the day.

I think "flawless" was probably a poor choice of words for the thread title. On the other hand maybe the OP was truly in search of that one flawless album, his white whale so to speak and I'm totally misunderstanding. Either way I agree that we've all probably listed our favorites so many times compiled in so many different ways that it all becomes redundant at some point especially as our opinions change over time and as you say we can't remember what we've listed. That said I can never say no to a chance to make another list.
But also you do bring up a good point that one man's flaw is often another man's attribute. Or what you might think of as a flaw at first you can learn to see as an album defining high point. Funny how our own opinions of certain music can change so drastically over time both positively and negatively. 

Inquisition - Black Mass for a Mass Grave

Old Coven - The Awake of Ascendant Darkness
Black Curse - Endless Wound
 

Yeah, I could give up drinking anytime (unless I'm at a metal festival with the guys and then all bets are off) as I generally only have 1 or occasionally 2, not enough to get me drunk or have it alter my behavior. I think sorta like Vin's golden dragon kimono having a whiskey to sip on in the evenings just makes me feel like an adult and helps put me in the mood to relax.
But dark chocolate is a different story. I'm hopelessly addicted, I just can't stay away from it no matter what I do, I love it too much. I've successfully given up ice cream and cookies and all kinds of garbage food loaded with sugar over the last 2 years, but I can't stop nibbling on the luscious decadent dark chocolate late at night, usually with almonds. I rationalize that it supposedly has some type of minor health benefits and it goes quite nicely with the whiskey in the evenings. If society ever breaks down completely and we enter a post-apocalyptic dystopian phase and they stop making dark chocolate I'm gonna have a problem when my stockpile runs out. I wonder what the withdrawl symptoms might be like? 

Now if she could only resist those young tender livers.

Now if she could only resist those young tender livers.

Craft Total Soul Rape 

I thought this was your favorite song
 

Marko!! Glad you stopped by brother. 
But dude they don't know me as Whitenoise over here, to these folk I'm just the Goatmaster.
I don't lie, I embellish. There's a difference.
You know thinking back on my pooftah days of the late 70's and early 80's now it really seems surreal, like that all shit happened in another lifetime. It was 40 years ago, I should get a do-over.  But I do think I have an old video lying around here someplace of me back in my high school days circa 1978 though. Had to fight off Carmine's advances after the shoot because my faux satin pants got him all worked up.
1979, my senior year, I penned this one for Kiss because they were on the decline at that point and desperately needed a hit. I still get royalty checks in the mail.
 
This was 1980, a year after I graduated, I call this my headband phase.
 
 
Then this is one I did a few years later. They had to bring in Richard Simmons to give me prancing lessons. If you ask me I think I fucking nailed it.
 
And then I finally hit the bigtime with this megahit in '86
And who could forget this Whole Lotta Love rip-off in '87
This was one of the last ones I did in '91 when my daughter was just a baby. Hung up the spandex and hairspray for good after that and got a real job.
 

I thought this was your favorite song
 

Painted Willie - UpsideDownTown
Ramones - Road to Ruin
 
Plasmatics - Coup D'Etat
 

Well don't put any stock in what I say, I was born in the 60's, grew up in the 70's and fell in love with metal in the 80's. That was a long time ago now and although harsh vocals were a small speed bump I had to get past (and ultimately embrace) in the early 2000's that was nothing compared to the impassable road block dissonant and atonal music presents to me. 
I have struggled mightily with the dissonant and atonal ends of the extreme metal spectrum over the last 10 years or so. I have made some small headway with dissonance over the years and there are a few things I have learned to enjoy like the Incantation debut for instance or Abyssal. But for the most part I steer clear of it. While I would put Inquisitors of Satan in my top 25 black metal albums of all time, I can't listen to anything DSO recorded past 2002, no Gorguts for me or Ulcerate or Artificial Brian or Portal...even bands like Immolation and Morbid Angel that seem to be almost universally loved take things a little too far for me. I'm a meat & potatoes caveman guy and I'm OK with that.
Atonality though is a different story, I honestly don't get it at all on any level. I am not understanding the point of it, how this music is written or structured or how to approach listening to it. Obviously these types of bands with their odd time sigs and lack of harmony are not going for foot tapping head bobbing groovy goodness. And that's fine, to each his own, but it leaves me out of the loop as it were because I feel like I'm maybe just not smart enough to decipher and comprehend what it is they're trying to do. My brain keeps searching for harmony and order and rythym but there is none and that disturbs me. I can't make sense of it, it just feels like random notes flying out all over the place with no rhyme or reason.
I like riffy songs in 4/4 time that I can bop along to. Trained musicians who are music theory mavens like you apparently get what's going on with bands like Ad Nauseam or Pyrrhon and can see the skill and artistry and brilliance and creativity and how it all fits together and how it is in fact "music" - but it's all lost on my dumb ass. The artistry and proficiency and creativity simply flies way over my head. It all just sounds like noise to me.
But I mean I am glad to hear you've found a standout album this year that pleases you. I know that feeling well and it's glorious. I would not ever seek to impose my ignorant closed-minded neanderthal limitations on anyone else. I'm a postmodernist by nature I suppose and I tend to reject conventional ideas of universal objective truths. Or in other words there is no scientificly objective way to measure what is good or not good, at least most certainly not as it relates to art and music. We all like what we like and that's what we think is "good" or "true" in each of our own little worlds, and at the end of the road that's all that really matters. If we can connect with another soul(s) in this crazy world who sees things the way we do and we can share and appreciate art and music together well so much the better.
 
Reading that last paragraph back before I click Submit I guess it might sound a little out there. I'm not even stoned or tripping or inebriated or anything, I swear.
 
Now Playing:
Vomit Ritual - Callous
Badass bangin' black/death debut from Riverside Cali. Fuck yeah!
 
Hahaha yes!! Johnny 5 is the nickname I have assigned to you in my head. Please understand that my buddy Johan from Sweden is already Johan to me and no matter what he chages his username to be it Sheol or Shamrock or Shitforbrains after 5 years he will always be Johan to me. So since I can't call you both Johan here on the board I have taken the liberty of Americanising your name from Johan to Johnny. And the 5 is just me making the V into Roman numeral V that represents 5. Because you see there was a silly movie from the 1986 called Short Circuit that featured a robot named Johnny 5. Don't be confused or offended, I give everyone nicknames it's what I do. It means you've been accepted into the gang.

I don't think Ophiouchi are all that divisive Marky Mark. I gave their last album a whirl when you and Navy were discussing them a couple of weeks ago and I didn't hate it or even dislike it at all. Didn't give me a huge throbbing Ninja boner either and make me wanna sing their praises from the rooftops but we all have our different ideas about taste.
FWIW I don't think there are 50 of us here who are invested and involved though, maybe half of that number. Still hopeful that Marko and Surge and Jon stop by though, as they all said they would at some point. I even sent PM's to Cornhole and Sea Wolf but I have no idea if they saw them before the board went dark last week.
 
@Navy and Salmonella, gave that Këkht Aräkh Swordsman album (Ukraine) a shot last night, and I was totally into it right from the start, good album and then it turned out it was NYP to boot. Always a nice surprise.
@Johnny5 that dude from Saille looks like the blonde dude from Hall & Oates after a 5 day bender.
@Sheol/Johan the Whoredom RIfe track sounds promising but not spectacular. Think I'll reserve judgement until I've heard the rest. They've not equalled Dommedagskvad yet imho so I'm being cautious. I always wanna think they're Finnish for some reason and then get surprised to learn they're Norwegian. Guess that makes more sense as they don't sound particularly Finnish. Also while you know I'm quite fond of you personally, I fucking hate your new name. You should've gone with Vittra or Diabolical. Pariah even. Sheol just doesn't roll off the tongue.
________________________________________________________________________________
 
I had been cruising along on autopilot for the first few months of this year, not really paying too much attention to new music, just trying to spend some quality time with my 2020 favorites before I'd have to get back to work on the hamster wheel. As always January was consumed with critical listening for my listmaking endeavors (and shoveling snow) but then as usual the late winter Feb/March and into April was my downtime from the rat race. But holy shit things have exploded a bit for me here on the new black metal front, I'm being hit with quality shit from all sides it seems almost daily now these last few weeks. Not that I'm complaining, but it's just funny how these things seem to come in bunches. For the longest it seemed like Spectral Wound's album was standing alone at the top, head and shoulders above everything else I'd heard this year. But now with some recent discoveries and additions it finally has some real legit competition in the black metal sweepstakes. Still my frontrunner but we're nowhere near the stretch.
This is my latest crush, a sophomore full length from some young Belarussian black metal band I know nothing about. They seem to have chosen a name that's a mashup of Cryptopsy and Hospital. Belarus is one of those former Soviet nations that lacks some unique identity for many westerners. People I've known from Minsk I've usually thought of as "that Russian guy" because I'm ignorant. Sandwiched in as it is between Russia, Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania, I can kinda hear a little of each of those in their sound. Getting some Havukruunu vibes in spots, definitely some Drudkh in here as well among many other influences. This thing brings some atmosphere, some doom, some raw bm, some epic riffs, some synth interludes, some 80's cheese... It clocks in at 57 minutes on the button but doesn't feel like it, I never feel like it drags, which is how I know when something's good. Where's Jon to tell me he will not buy or even listen to anything over 49:59? This won't be weird or unusual enough for some of you but that's OK, I'm digging the fuck out of it. It's not just another WN Norsecore special or some lo-fi exercize in Satanistic minimalism either, it's good so give it a shot.  
Cryptospital - Scythe of the Black Death
 

Well actually he just speculated that maybe you'd eaten his liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti. None of us ever really thought you'd eaten all of him with mashed and gravy and peas, or stashed his remains in the coffin freezer like some kind of a savage heathen cannibal. 😜

Ad Omega - Tenebris Templum, ass kicking Italian black
 
Ulvehyrde - Englemakersken, Norwegian black metal, loving the shit out of this one
 

Well don't put any stock in what I say, I was born in the 60's, grew up in the 70's and fell in love with metal in the 80's. That was a long time ago now and although harsh vocals were a small speed bump I had to get past (and ultimately embrace) in the early 2000's that was nothing compared to the impassable road block dissonant and atonal music presents to me. 
I have struggled mightily with the dissonant and atonal ends of the extreme metal spectrum over the last 10 years or so. I have made some small headway with dissonance over the years and there are a few things I have learned to enjoy like the Incantation debut for instance or Abyssal. But for the most part I steer clear of it. While I would put Inquisitors of Satan in my top 25 black metal albums of all time, I can't listen to anything DSO recorded past 2002, no Gorguts for me or Ulcerate or Artificial Brian or Portal...even bands like Immolation and Morbid Angel that seem to be almost universally loved take things a little too far for me. I'm a meat & potatoes caveman guy and I'm OK with that.
Atonality though is a different story, I honestly don't get it at all on any level. I am not understanding the point of it, how this music is written or structured or how to approach listening to it. Obviously these types of bands with their odd time sigs and lack of harmony are not going for foot tapping head bobbing groovy goodness. And that's fine, to each his own, but it leaves me out of the loop as it were because I feel like I'm maybe just not smart enough to decipher and comprehend what it is they're trying to do. My brain keeps searching for harmony and order and rythym but there is none and that disturbs me. I can't make sense of it, it just feels like random notes flying out all over the place with no rhyme or reason.
I like riffy songs in 4/4 time that I can bop along to. Trained musicians who are music theory mavens like you apparently get what's going on with bands like Ad Nauseam or Pyrrhon and can see the skill and artistry and brilliance and creativity and how it all fits together and how it is in fact "music" - but it's all lost on my dumb ass. The artistry and proficiency and creativity simply flies way over my head. It all just sounds like noise to me.
But I mean I am glad to hear you've found a standout album this year that pleases you. I know that feeling well and it's glorious. I would not ever seek to impose my ignorant closed-minded neanderthal limitations on anyone else. I'm a postmodernist by nature I suppose and I tend to reject conventional ideas of universal objective truths. Or in other words there is no scientificly objective way to measure what is good or not good, at least most certainly not as it relates to art and music. We all like what we like and that's what we think is "good" or "true" in each of our own little worlds, and at the end of the road that's all that really matters. If we can connect with another soul(s) in this crazy world who sees things the way we do and we can share and appreciate art and music together well so much the better.
 
Reading that last paragraph back before I click Submit I guess it might sound a little out there. I'm not even stoned or tripping or inebriated or anything, I swear.
 
Now Playing:
Vomit Ritual - Callous
Badass bangin' black/death debut from Riverside Cali. Fuck yeah!
 
Hahaha yes!! Johnny 5 is the nickname I have assigned to you in my head. Please understand that my buddy Johan from Sweden is already Johan to me and no matter what he chages his username to be it Sheol or Shamrock or Shitforbrains after 5 years he will always be Johan to me. So since I can't call you both Johan here on the board I have taken the liberty of Americanising your name from Johan to Johnny. And the 5 is just me making the V into Roman numeral V that represents 5. Because you see there was a silly movie from the 1986 called Short Circuit that featured a robot named Johnny 5. Don't be confused or offended, I give everyone nicknames it's what I do. It means you've been accepted into the gang.

Zoebeast - Aduckolypse, Russian grind 'n roll
 
Kürøishi - Sound the Alarm, Finnish D-beat crust
 
Downwinder - S/T LP, Greek crust
 
FŌR - The Life Feeding Flame, crushing Swedish death/doom
 
Apostasy - Death Return, Chilean death/thrash
 

Well don't put any stock in what I say, I was born in the 60's, grew up in the 70's and fell in love with metal in the 80's. That was a long time ago now and although harsh vocals were a small speed bump I had to get past (and ultimately embrace) in the early 2000's that was nothing compared to the impassable road block dissonant and atonal music presents to me. 
I have struggled mightily with the dissonant and atonal ends of the extreme metal spectrum over the last 10 years or so. I have made some small headway with dissonance over the years and there are a few things I have learned to enjoy like the Incantation debut for instance or Abyssal. But for the most part I steer clear of it. While I would put Inquisitors of Satan in my top 25 black metal albums of all time, I can't listen to anything DSO recorded past 2002, no Gorguts for me or Ulcerate or Artificial Brian or Portal...even bands like Immolation and Morbid Angel that seem to be almost universally loved take things a little too far for me. I'm a meat & potatoes caveman guy and I'm OK with that.
Atonality though is a different story, I honestly don't get it at all on any level. I am not understanding the point of it, how this music is written or structured or how to approach listening to it. Obviously these types of bands with their odd time sigs and lack of harmony are not going for foot tapping head bobbing groovy goodness. And that's fine, to each his own, but it leaves me out of the loop as it were because I feel like I'm maybe just not smart enough to decipher and comprehend what it is they're trying to do. My brain keeps searching for harmony and order and rythym but there is none and that disturbs me. I can't make sense of it, it just feels like random notes flying out all over the place with no rhyme or reason.
I like riffy songs in 4/4 time that I can bop along to. Trained musicians who are music theory mavens like you apparently get what's going on with bands like Ad Nauseam or Pyrrhon and can see the skill and artistry and brilliance and creativity and how it all fits together and how it is in fact "music" - but it's all lost on my dumb ass. The artistry and proficiency and creativity simply flies way over my head. It all just sounds like noise to me.
But I mean I am glad to hear you've found a standout album this year that pleases you. I know that feeling well and it's glorious. I would not ever seek to impose my ignorant closed-minded neanderthal limitations on anyone else. I'm a postmodernist by nature I suppose and I tend to reject conventional ideas of universal objective truths. Or in other words there is no scientificly objective way to measure what is good or not good, at least most certainly not as it relates to art and music. We all like what we like and that's what we think is "good" or "true" in each of our own little worlds, and at the end of the road that's all that really matters. If we can connect with another soul(s) in this crazy world who sees things the way we do and we can share and appreciate art and music together well so much the better.
 
Reading that last paragraph back before I click Submit I guess it might sound a little out there. I'm not even stoned or tripping or inebriated or anything, I swear.
 
Now Playing:
Vomit Ritual - Callous
Badass bangin' black/death debut from Riverside Cali. Fuck yeah!
 
Hahaha yes!! Johnny 5 is the nickname I have assigned to you in my head. Please understand that my buddy Johan from Sweden is already Johan to me and no matter what he chages his username to be it Sheol or Shamrock or Shitforbrains after 5 years he will always be Johan to me. So since I can't call you both Johan here on the board I have taken the liberty of Americanising your name from Johan to Johnny. And the 5 is just me making the V into Roman numeral V that represents 5. Because you see there was a silly movie from the 1986 called Short Circuit that featured a robot named Johnny 5. Don't be confused or offended, I give everyone nicknames it's what I do. It means you've been accepted into the gang.

Alright then, so assuming no one got cold feet or cancelled at the last minute and the date took place as scheduled, are you gonna tell us what happened or leave us hanging? How did it go??? Is there going to be a second ever date?

Urgehal - Goatcraft Torment 
 

MURG - Strävan
before that:
Clandestine Blaze - Secrets of Laceration
 

Had a couple of these earlier ^ and now I'm having a little of this:

C.O.F.F.I.N. - Children of Finland Fighting in Norway