Sheol

I dislike Sabaton for many reasons but their discipline and work-ethic is not one of them. The singer and bassist has worked really hard and focused to become as big as Metallica or Iron Maiden (that's the stated goal). Currently they own their own outdoors festival, nightliner bus and cruise ship festival, as well as a dedicated HQ with rehearsal space and recording studio. Per the bassist controls everything, the singer even has on contract that he can't shave his signature beard without consulting with the band management (i.e. Per). He's even said that he prefers making spreadsheets than playing bass, so the KISS comparisons are very apt I think.

In Sweden we have this tradition dating back to 1960, that there's a radio and a TV calendar each year. One episode airing each day. Different stories for TV and radio. I don't know how popular it is now a days but back when I was young and there only was 2 TV channels available (both state owned) this was a pretty big deal! Back then you could only see cartoons (Tom & Jerry) for a short 5 min segment each week in a sports program aimed at kids. Kids these days, I tell ya!

I think this is one of those "You had to have been there" bands. Objectively, Venom are aweful. I can see they're an important legacy band with tons of inspiration for coming bands, but they're just not enjoyable at all. Same as with Death, maybe I would enjoy them if they were one of the first bands I heard, but now I feel there's just so much better bands playing the same style.

It's an awesome album!

By some combination of gifts and purchases we ended up with 4 calendars this year. One with Jelly Beans, one with chocolate, one with licorice, and a regular one with just images.

Yeah, that song was not his best, but my god the video was gorgeous. I especially liked the allusion to William Blake's Red Dragon at 6:16

Author and Punisher - Krüller (out 11/2)

It took me way to long to figure out what was going on here....

First day of -20C this winter. Really glad I swapped car battery yesterday.

Couldn't it be thought of that GG and Dead are on opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to what they deem acceptable "genericism" in their music? If you dislike things that are generic, or reminds you of old bands, you're gonna be a lot more critical of an album then if you don't have a problem with that and just want music to sound and make you feel good. Given that all other variables are constant, that's where one will dismiss 95% of the music as unoriginal and the other will embrace 60% of the music because it makes them smile. Personally I don't really have a problem with music that can be seen as generic as long as it sounds good. It might not blow my socks of and make me get a tattoo of their logo, but it might still end up on my AOTY if it's engaging enough. For example, Spectral Wound doesn't REALLY do anything new and crazy, it's a lot of 2nd wave Norwegians, a little of the Quebec sound, and some punk, but they are FUN! and got great riffs, drum parts, and great vocals. That's good enough for me.

I had no idea hoover was a brand. I thought that was just another word for vacuuming. The more you know.

I was so happy to see them return. Their previous album was also great.

Heym did you see that he has a new album out after 10 years? https://www.blood-music.com/store-eu/27-aquilus

Fucking LOL! Zornheym - The Zornheim Sleep Experiment Speaking of ridiculously catchy, the songs of this fucking album keep popping up all the time, but it's different songs each time. I guess that says something about the level of songwriting.

We usually drink Zoega's "Mollbergs blandning" https://www.zoegas.se/produkter/mollbergs-blandning 500g cost about €5 but the stores usually have deals with 2 for €6-7. The worst thing in the world is weak coffee, you need 1 spoon per 1 dl water + 1 extra for the pot.

Cult of Luna - The Long Road North Out February 11. New track here. An interactive video and computer game(?) is scheduled to drop tonight here: My first impression is that this sounds a hell of a lot more engaging than A dwarf to fear, closer to the mood of The Raging River. Love the Hans Zimmer horns in the beginning and the groovy drums.

Same, for some reason having the "new albums" thread here buried somewhere among 500 sub-directories makes it really hard to find it and fill it up with new albums. I usually check out No clean singing and Invisible oranges, sometims Angry metal guy, but try to stay away from the gossip/news. Other than that I follow a bunch of vinyl nerds on Instagram that keeps me up to date on the underground.

+25C is right around what's uncomfortable to me, I'm much happier closer to 20. Today it's -10C and it's kinda rough since our bodies haven't acclimatized yet (been fairly mild up until now, around 0C). Come january -10 will feel quite pleasant.

Isn't that an uniquely American concept? I don't think I've ever heard of spousal support here in Sweden, outside of american movies. Sure, child custody is a different thing, but I think that has more to do with the individual judge.

I can't remember if I've ever answered in this thread, but no matter. I live in the northern part of Sweden, not that it says much since 50% of Sweden count's as "The North", but I grew up even further up north, semi-close to the Finnish border. I live in the largest town in the province. The goal is to find someplace a little outside of town to get some of that trve kvlt forrest thing going, but it's tricky to compromise the distance to work/school, with the rising prices for houses and summerhomes since Covid. We'll see. But the nature here is wonderful, both summer and winter.

I honestly think the death of Aleah broke Juha. His headspace seem to be totally different compared to the early StS albums. Can't blame him though.

Well, question is, are you both on the house contract? Or just one of you? I don't know how the law works in Tasmania/Aus, but maybe it's a good idea to look into a consulting with a lawyer on your own, to make sure your bases are covered. Because there's always the possibility your partner will try to fleece you of everything they can, just out of spite. And as Goatboy just said, no partner is ever worth killing yourself over. And I can 100% guarantee that will leave a hole in your daughters heart that will never be healed or filled. Just like you have past trauma that will never be fixed, don't put your family and friends in the same situation. For as long as I've known you you have complained about your marriage, and been more or less unhappy with your life. You're not even 50, there's a good chance you'll live another 30-35 years. Do you really wanna spend those years, mearly existing? For fucks sake, it took Goatboy into his 40's before he realized black metal existed! I honestly don't know what this means. Do you mean she's emptied out a savings account preemptively??

Two things: Why do you abbreviate Cult of Luna as CUL? Wouldn't logic dictate that you take the first letter of each word? So, CoL? Second, to me I've always thought that referring to these kinds of bands as Posthardcore made a lot of sense. Not only because many of them came from the hardcorescene, but also because that was very reflective in the music. The vocals are the kind of bellowed roars very common in European and US HC, the riffs aren't the typical death metal power chords or one-string melodic lines of black metal, but usually somehthing more angular, or more airey and layered. And the drums play a lot with dynamics. So to me posthardcore bands just take the components of HC and move past them. I think it's hard to say that ISIS and Cult of Luna don't have more in common with hardcore than metal.

I discovered Aleah on MySpace and Helgon (a swedish online community before Fb existed) and fell in love with her acoustic songs (and her looks ngl). Then she sort of fell of my radar as nothing really seemed to happen musically other then her guesting on Swallow the Sun's albums. That is until I saw the news that she had passed away. Incredibly sad. Juha recorded another album ("No stars on the bridge") together with Tomi (Amorphis) and Gas (H.I.M.) under the name Hallatar, using lyrics, poems and song fragments from Aleah. The result is heavier than ToE, closer to doom/death, and as you can imagine incredibly raw and painful to hear. Juha's grief comes through both in music and the empassioned vocals of Tomi (a vocalist I normally don't like). It also features another duet with Heike Langhans. Hallatar - My mistake

I found 5 albums I'd rank high on my AOTY.