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I too am quite taken aback that the Goatmaster is fond of Undeath. They're like.... as far from "goat worthy" as you can get whilst still being an extreme metal band. On that note, they're also one of the least "extreme" death metal bands I've ever come across. I would've thought for sure they'd fall into the "poser mainstream garbage" category for him haha.
I think they're alright. I mean, I have both their albums, mainly because I figured if everyone and their dog was raving about them then there must be something of substance there, but I don't really hear it. They're remarkably unremarkable.

Its streaming on the bardo methodology website http://www.bardomethodology.com/articles/2022/12/15/misthyrming-med-hamri-interview/?fbclid=IwAR1XRGD99CDXT3e7feNjZz4Z5EIU2bsepwEpZuWiIBGdDK24WZoWHxVjzBg

It was a snarky comment at best directed at the regular posts on the site, not the EOTY lists. But, I was thinking that he was asking if these sites reflect what people on this site listen to. I'd say that's predominantly a no. Do they reflect what the larger community of metal heads listen to, somewhat. Like you said, they have to represent a little from every facet. Not a bad thing since if they were just focused on blackened-progressive-folk thrash from Lithuania, they never would have gained any sort of "metal mainstream" traction. At this point, I think they mainly review or write up what they are sent by labels and artists rather than hunt things down, but that's just my speculation.
And Undeath-Frozen Soul-Squishabugg-200 Stab Wounds are all the same band. Saw them all on the same bill this year and besides the backdrop on the stage, I couldn't tell them apart. All decidedly mediocre at best.

He's a bit of control freak isn't he, but at least he appreciates that an actual drummer beats programmed drums.
I like it but it won't be my AOTY.

Its streaming on the bardo methodology website http://www.bardomethodology.com/articles/2022/12/15/misthyrming-med-hamri-interview/?fbclid=IwAR1XRGD99CDXT3e7feNjZz4Z5EIU2bsepwEpZuWiIBGdDK24WZoWHxVjzBg

Its streaming on the bardo methodology website http://www.bardomethodology.com/articles/2022/12/15/misthyrming-med-hamri-interview/?fbclid=IwAR1XRGD99CDXT3e7feNjZz4Z5EIU2bsepwEpZuWiIBGdDK24WZoWHxVjzBg

Misþyrming - Með hamri (2022)
Well, I probably just found my AOTY. The Icelandic kings knock it out of the park again.

I'd even be willing to agree with that. Musically speaking the whole Ross Bay Cult scene left much to be desired. Not to mention most of these guys were a collection of skinheads, power lifters, miscreants, grave robbers and criminals. The ultimate meathead band. Before Deadly-do-Right mentioned them last night I can't even remember the last time I felt the urge to listen to Blasphemy, nevermind Conqueror or Revenge. But as you've pointed out, Blasphemy has influenced a ton of killer bands that I enjoy quite a bit so I respect them for getting the war metal ball rolling at least. Because I fucking love that sub-genre when it's done well. Problem is quite frequently it's not done very well, it can often just amount to a blur of noise. So you have to be selective. 
I've always felt basically the same way about Venom. Blasphemy and Venom are the two historically indispensable bands of questionable talent that have directly influencd a boatload of other really good bands that I'd much rather listen to than the originators. The difference for me is I will spin Fallen Angel once every couple of years, while I really don't ever feel the need to listen to Venom.
 
NP: Abhorrency - Climax of Disgusting Impurities, war metal from Sacramento California. If this bad boy don't get you head a-bangin' then this sub-genre might not be for you.
 

Oh wow. Goatmaster is going hard in the paint on USBM today.
EDIT: Oh yeah and I concur that Blasphemy were a shit band that happend to influence a lot of good ones. Same goes for Revenge.

Oh wow. Goatmaster is going hard in the paint on USBM today.
EDIT: Oh yeah and I concur that Blasphemy were a shit band that happend to influence a lot of good ones. Same goes for Revenge.

This will probably get me kicked out of the goat pen, but I've come to teh conclusion that I don't really like Blasphemy. It's a form of BM that is chaotic in the bad way, not really stand-out riffs, vocals or atmosphere. If it's gonna be chaotic and dissonant i much prefer my BM like Teitanblood, Novae Militae and DsO.

Immolation - Acts of God (2022)
Number eight on my end of year list that if I am being honest, the boredom of being unable to do much of anything with COVID has led me to do an end of year list.
I have listened to a lot of death metal in my lifetime. Give or take a couple of years, I have been active in the genre from its beginnings and have explored all manner of variants, sub-genres and cross-genre blending over the last 30+ years. In that time, I have seen bands hit real runs of form in terms of consistency and finding their peak output (Death from more or less start to finish) as well as simply finding amazing one-off releases from the more obscure artists in the far corners of the globe. I have watched bands like Morbid Angel define the very essence of the genre and then tragically run out of gas yet inexplicably carry on despite there clearly being nothing in the tank, whilst other old favourites like Obituary seem to have more than enough determination (if not necessarily the quality of old) to still bang out some serious death metal material.
Inevitably with so many choices out there, some bands slip through the net initially. Some quite well-known names in fact because I did not listen to any Immolation until well into the noughties. Over time, as I have discovered more and more of their output, they occupy a rarefied space in my buying habits whereby I will buy pretty much anything they put out, cold. Whilst I am unable to stipulate that the band has a flawless discography, their levels of consistency for over three decades is unable to be matched by many of their contemporaries. Such is my admiration of them I waited three long months to listen to their latest offering on vinyl as opposed to just going for the instant streaming option that is so easy to access nowadays.
For reasons I will go into shortly, upon initial purchase, I undertook a second full listen through in the digital format as there was a genuine need to compare the two following my initial spin on my trusty turntable. The over-arching statement first though is that this is Immolation through and through. Technically capable without being overly technical death metal, urgent without being sloppy and beastly without needing to be utterly monstrous at the expense of structures or form. You could pick this album up knowing nothing about the band and tell instantly that this is a record written and performed by guys who have been around the block a few times and who know their stuff as a result. The disdain for organised religion still sits at the heart of their lyrics and song themes and instrumentally they still balance pace and tempos well to offer a varied playbook out of which they pull every play possible over a lengthy fifteen tracks.
Complete with superb artwork from Eli Kantor, Acts of God is an album staged on very familiar and welcoming ground. However, as much as there is to be celebrated, there are also some challenges which keep the scores on the doors well away from being a full compliment. Firstly, Acts of God is too long. Now, this is not to say that it outstays its welcome – far from it. As a vinyl experience though you have two discs to play and each side averages around three songs so the overall experience gets a bit stop-start. Absolutely my choice to go with vinyl of course, but this really emphasises that there is a lot to get through here.
As I mentioned above, once I had heard the vinyl version of the album I reverted to the digital version for my next run through. There were two reasons for this. Oddly, Dolan’s vocals sounded too monstrous upon first listen, to the point of them sounding artificial. Clearly just and oddity in the formats as this is not an issue on the digital version. I also thought the production sounded a little too muddy on the vinyl format and again, this is not an issue with the streamed format. Whilst neither of the above challenges ruin the listening experience overall it was worth exploring the detail on this occasion. Worthy of noting that the album sound on vinyl is (as you would expect) absolutely huge.
Although by no means flawless, Immolation’s eleventh studio offering is well worth the five-year wait (as well as the extended couple of months due to issues with the vinyl pre-orders). It still sounds like a mature, well-established death metal band that are still able to sound relevant and individual at the same time. There cannot be many more of these in the tank – at least not based on my already noted experience of other bands in the genre who began at approximately the same time – and so to all intents and purposes Acts of God should be celebrated for the fine death metal album that it is.

The particular brand of metalcore that rose to prominence in the 2000's gave that genre an unfairly bad rap, if you ask me. I spent a good chunk of this past year digging into blackened hardcore and really liked a lot of what I found. Stuff like Young And In The Way, Sunlight's Bane and Pilori, to name a few. Nobody calls this stuff "metalcore" but really a black metal/hardcore fusion IS metalcore in the true sense of the word.

The particular brand of metalcore that rose to prominence in the 2000's gave that genre an unfairly bad rap, if you ask me. I spent a good chunk of this past year digging into blackened hardcore and really liked a lot of what I found. Stuff like Young And In The Way, Sunlight's Bane and Pilori, to name a few. Nobody calls this stuff "metalcore" but really a black metal/hardcore fusion IS metalcore in the true sense of the word.

See now I couldn't care less about diverse casting. I don't need to see ethnic diversity or sexual diversity in every fucking film and tv show. I just look at this from the standpoint that they are spending a lot of money to remake an animated feature into a live action movie and they cast this 22 year old grammy winning girl Halle Bailey in the lead role of Ariel. And then everyone lost their collective shit over this simply because she was black. Think how she must feel, she didn't do anything wrong, she just went in to audition for a role and then got picked, and now she must feel like everyone hates her. I'm thinking she must have a certain something going for her or else they probably wouldn't have risked picking her for a lead role in a major film that would likely be expected to gross hundreds of millions. Give the poor girl a chance!
How would you feel if it was your daughter who decided she was going to to follow in your footsteps and take up acting. So she went on some auditions and then got selected for a lead role in a film - and then there was a public outcry because many people felt her racial makeup was inappropriate and disqualified her for the role? I mean this is acting, where people take on roles and play parts that aren't necessarily anything like their actual real life selves. The best actors play all kinds of diverse parts, transforming themselves into someone else, going that extra mile to do whatever the role requires, never wanting to repeat themselves by doing the same thing twice or risk getting typecast. You can't tell me that it's an absolutely essential, intrinsic, non-negotiable part of this Ariel character for her to be white, the original character was just a fucking cartoon mermaid FFS. I don't think mermaids are race specific, anyone could play a mermaid as long as they can fit her for that prosthetic fish tail. This is not a serious dramatic production we're talking about here, it's a kid's movie. If they had cast Miss Bailey as the lead in the Princess Diana movie or something like that then I would agree she's not right for the role.
And in your case Mark, not to get too personal or disclose too much...but imagine if after 'auditioning' a few women to be your wife all those many years ago you selected the same one that you did, but then your family had lost their minds and told you they just couldn't accept this, and that you weren't welcome in their home anymore and they would not be wanting any contact with you or their future grandchildren because they had always imagined the role of your wife being played by a white girl. How would that have made you and your betrothed feel? You might think this scenario is pretty far fetched, but my daughter faced just such a situation when she married a black Dominican dude 8 years ago and this turned out to be a huge problem for her mother's side of the family. My daughter and her mother aren't even on speaking terms with each other anymore and they likely never will be again, mainly because of the disgusting way they treated her husband with the unbridled disrespect and the racial slurs and the naked contempt. I feel somewhat responsible for marrying that ignorant bitch in the first place back in '88.
I remember my daughter being hesitant to tell me about him too after they'd started dating 11 years ago when she was 21 because she didn't know how I'd react to the fact that he was black and also 10 years her senior. I told her as long as you love each other I don't care who you're with, because I know from first-hand experience that not everyone is lucky enough to ever find that in life. You've gotta take it where you can get it. And now 11 years later I really like my son in law, we get along great, he's a good dude, a hard worker and a great dad to my 3 awesome grandkids. And he loves my cooking and laughs at my jokes which is always a plus. So this workled out good for me because without a retirement plan I'll probably end up living with them when I'm old and decrepit, which could be in just a few short years. I hate that they live in Florida, I rank it 50th out of 50 states, mostly because of the weather. But it doesn't really matter because when the dementia sets in then I guess I won't know or care which state I'm in. And they do have central air. 

Woke (finding reasons to be offended) and anti-woke (finding reasons to be offended by the people finding reasons to be offended) are essentially the same dumbass thing from opposite sides of the fence. I dunno about how it plays out in Aussieland, but from what I've seen in the states, they play the same but to different ends of the socio-political spectrum. Playbook is the same. Bitching about a non prayer is the same as bitching about a prayer. Just don't participate. Stand there if attendance is required but don't say anything. I get "have a blessed day", "god bless you", and "prayers" all the time. We have an official chaplain who gets airtime in leadership meetings daily but only ever offers christian advice/prayers from his particular denomination which is specifically 1) against the chaplain code and 2) a clear infringement considering he works for the US government. I could bitch and complain, raise all sorts of hell, make a scene everytime someone says some pointless thing they feel is the right thing to say in a situation, but I chose to direct my energy in positive pursuits. I'm a card carrying member of the Satanic Temple, but I don't see the point in challenging something that has no effect on me or the rights of others just to make a point. I just choose to focus on something more productive.
Honestly seems a non-reason for getting bothered.

Yeah, that's reasonable. I think I'm biased having read the books and having a lot of the literature in my head. And I rest on my view that LOTR is based on Euro values.  It depends on how much of a purist any fan of the books might be.
Shakespeare might be a good comparison. It's older, based on even older stories that Shakespeare found to write about, and also written by a Brit. The plays have been adapted  in every conceivable way imaginable. But usually, albeit not always, productions want to be faithful to the words of Shakespeare.  
Like, I think it's great with unconventional casting in Shakespearean roles roles and concepts. A modern depiction of Romeo and Juliet, with DiCaprio-sure. But I also think you have honor the the culture, language, time and place those plays were written. So play with. Push it. No reason to not have an all black cast, Hamlet, awesome. I want to see that show. But there's still going to be "something rotten in Denmark". Not so crazy about fucking with the words. I'm dubious about changing Hamlet to being something rotten in Ontario or Senegal. 
If you want to reimagine Tolkien-cool. But there is a history involved with its creation and that involves the writer's culture. And, it's Europe like it or not. 
At least the actors have British accents. Put Stallone in as the once and future King and all bets are off 🤪

If the human species somehow manages to survive long enough we will all end up some brownish hue, probably mostly dark hair - an amalgamation of whatever genetic make-ups keep propagating. The sooner the better, imo.
I find hang-ups about race in fantasy shows hilarious. Its...fantasy. If anything matters less in the world right now please share.
 

I don't disagree. There's no doubt some things need to be edited or cut when translating something from one medium to another, and you're never going to please everyone. Even the LoTR movies had to make cuts to the story in order to make it work which annoyed some purists. I think the problem currently, is that the goal seems to have shifted from trying to make relatively faithful adaptions of a work into re-imagining a work, and that's when the issues start.
100% agree. Like I said to Zack, I'm not defending the excessive outrage itself...I think there's a large number of incredibly entitled fans out there, and quite often the things they get blown up about are absolutely beyond stupid. I just don't think that the outrage we see when characters are race/gender/sexuality swapped is itself necessarily coming from a place of prejudice, so much as a place of "how dare you make changes to this thing that's important to me"

The Dune novel saga would be the only one for me. And as it happens they actually did change both the race and gender of one of the minor characters in the recent Denis Villeneuve adaptation (Liet-Kynes). And, predictably, many fans were utterly outraged by this even though it really didn't change anything meaningful about the character. In fact, had I not already known about the gender change prior to viewing the film, I may not have even noticed. Other than the gender swap, the character was portrayed incredibly accurately in regards to the novelization, rendering the backlash all the more ridiculous. But that didn't stop the anti-woke crusaders from rage posting about it for months on end.
I never read Tolkien's works, but I'd be interested to hear how the ethnicity changes in RoP changed the lore significantly. 

The Dune novel saga would be the only one for me. And as it happens they actually did change both the race and gender of one of the minor characters in the recent Denis Villeneuve adaptation (Liet-Kynes). And, predictably, many fans were utterly outraged by this even though it really didn't change anything meaningful about the character. In fact, had I not already known about the gender change prior to viewing the film, I may not have even noticed. Other than the gender swap, the character was portrayed incredibly accurately in regards to the novelization, rendering the backlash all the more ridiculous. But that didn't stop the anti-woke crusaders from rage posting about it for months on end.
I never read Tolkien's works, but I'd be interested to hear how the ethnicity changes in RoP changed the lore significantly. 

No!! I don't know or hang out with any Disney fanatics (unless they're closeted) and I do my best to steer clear of LOTR/fantasy fans or anime nerds or superhero/action figure nerds or D&D nerds or cosplay nerds or Star Wars nerds...or just any of that shit. (even though my sister and her family fall squarely into this category - but I don't spend much time with them nor do we talk about any that nerd shit on holidays when I do - and if they do talk about it then I'm not paying any attention) But one does not need to immerse themselves in "nerd pop culture" (especially of the animated variety) to know that this "but the lore!" excuse is a giant load of shit. Not unlike how the "it's a states rights issue!" is a load of shit.

I mean... this is mostly true but the fact that there was such immense outrage over that Rings of Power Amazon series having an ethnically diverse cast is very revealing. The needle hasn't moved as far as many would like to believe.

The amount of outrage over the casting choices for just about every series/show/movie these days is pathetic. Fan bases are just unreasonable not to mention the culture warriors out there who have to pick everything apart. I just actively choose not to watch anything that doesn't suit my tastes. It's a decent way to avoid getting tweaked over dumb shit. Too bad people can't understand that they have the option to just avoid something they don't like. Freewill and all.

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