markm

Old Forester 1920

We need to kick all the old timers off of this site.

Nocturnal Triumph S/T-yep, this is a good one.

Sweet. Checking out Undeath on Bandcamp on my lunch break now...

Great work Sheol. I still need to rank and put down my thoughts on the 2021 albums I ended up with and are in heavy rotation, currently. A couple we'll share and many others from your list I need to check out!

Bandcamp lunch: Fu Manchu/A Look Back : Dogtown And Z-Boys-classic stoner fuzz Boris/W-prolly their most dream pop and serene-a little undercooked for me but enjoyable enough Big Thief/Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You

Yeah, I was never a big music collector before the digital era but I remember starting to buy some CD's around 1990 because I remember buying Zeppelin's box set and transitioning from vinyl to CD when I graduated college in 90. It was just easier. I went through several of those mass produced boom box mini stereo things that had a CDP and cassette tape player. Shit, I didn't even have an actual stereo system until I was in my 40's. But from those original CD purchases...let's see, I still have old discs of Season in the Abyss, Slave to the Grind and Persistence of Time which I'm pretty sure all came out in 90. Anything after that was CD but wasn't that much. Prolly under 50 in all along with some jazz. I've never bothered with vinyl after CD's came out. Then, when I went digital, at one point I went out put together an essential library of classic rock, alternative, punk and classic metal. I bought a bunch of Maiden, Priest, etc. And all the way up to the present, I've slowly picked up discs of albums I missed from the day-stuff like The Cult, Accept....every once in a while, I'll get an itch-oh yeah, grabbed some old Twisted Sister, some Sabbath...just filling in holes here and there. Headphones were the reason you originally stopped by at Metal-Fi I believe. What are you using these days? b

I need to tap that Boris soon. Ordered CoL's new one on disc...big fan as you are....CoL usually take some processing time for me.

I have that Solitude Aeturnus album, myself. I haven't heard it in years-good prompt for me to revisit. My doom habits have changed along with the genre. And doom is one of my favorite genres in all it's forms. Other than MDB who I have a soft spot and stoner doom which I still like, I rarely listen to clean so called epic doom anymore even though I enjoy it when I randomly listen. I'd much rather it mixed with other influences like YOB or Sub Rosa, sludge or blackened sludge....more along the lines of Lord Mantis or Miznor or Primitive Man or something along those lines. But Solitude had a good sound and Rob Lowe is a great clean metal vocalist. I was never a hyuge Def Leppard fan. I was more like to listen to AC/DC or Twisted Sister or Motely Crue back then. I think High N' Dry and Pyro were the only albums I actually owned. Those of us old enough to live through that time ended up buying the many of the same albums we had on vinyl in CD form in the 90's and I never did that with Def L until a few years ago and grabbed a comp but never really listen to it because of all the later songs I have no interest in. The comp has a lot of pyro on it and I grabbed High'N'Dry recently and called it a day. I've never heard their first album but sill the think HND is worthy. Actually, it's one of the better popular albums of the early 80's.

Fu Manchu/Return To Earth 1991-1993-off my Bandcamp feed.

Verbum/ Exhortation to the Impure Midnartiis/Sinew of Sol Maule S/T

Great work FA. Totally enjoyed your album. Off the hook in a great way.

I'm all out of love, I'm so lost without you.

Iron Maiden/Senjutsu-officially in the pro (+) column for this one. I've been listening for a while, but actually bought the CD, gorgeous packaging I must say and disc one sounded terrific blasting on my ride to work. And on Bandcamp some 2022 schiit- Dark Meditation/Polluted Temples Deeper Graves/Colossal Sleep The Mist From The Mountains/Monumental /The Temple of Twilight Μνήμα/Disciples of Excremental Liturgies

But what about the "W" question? Why. Why the rise in black metal? I was going to come from it from a different angle. Far from being unchanged, black metal is amongst the most adaptable to tinkering. If the parameters of black metal were to include anything with the word "blackened" in the title, excluding blackened chicken and fish, why then you've got atmospheric black (a rather absurd umbrella that covers vast swaths of music), melodic black metal, Hellenic black, black'n'roll, folk black, Pegan/Viking black, raw black, progressive black, blackened sludge and doom, blackened death, black thrash, post black, blackgaze, avant-garde/experimental black metal, suicidal black metal, USBM, Cascadian black metal, symphonic black and it goes on and on. The author of the article made the point that in the current era we have all manor of genres that push the boundaries and definitions of what exactly constitutes metal. It's easy enough to slap on some kind of black vocals and if that's the only factor classifying black metal, yeah, no doubt it's seen the most growth while I've been following extreme metal.

From the article I posted-Stereogum-whose lists and analysis I've long leaned on-#2 album of January-Midnartiis – Coiled Within The Earth -Agallochian atmoblack-not bad

I'll have to pick up some small batch to compare, but I think I found it a little harsher to drink neat. Then, again that was near the beginning of my whisky pandemic exploration and I've got my whisky legs under me a little better now.

Came across this long discussion of metal that I thought was apropos of the discussion here, with a lot of analysis and charts, basically asking the question, has black metal overtaken death metal in popularity and discussing the ways defining metal has become increasingly difficult. https://www.stereogum.com/2174542/the-month-in-metal-january-2022/columns/the-black-market/

Four Roses, Single Barrel-one of those first steps to the high end of bourbon often touted. $40-50 U.S., closer to $50 in my area, don't know if that's due to inflation, but a solid bourbon that is smooth enough to drink straight or on the rocks, neat for me. Just grabbed a bottle. Complex enough without tasting like an after dinner desert drink but there is sweetness to heel the fire. Easy pick, readily available. From memory, a step up (in taste and price) from small batch.

Silhouette/Les Retranchments (2022)-kind of a Slyvaine, Myrkur vibe.

Oh man, bummer. I had mine removed when I first started teaching in L.A. when I was 27. I'll never forget that I did it on my spring break because it ruined the week off. I got an infection. They were impacted. Stupidly, due to the pain I doubled up on the pain meds and Doc would not give me more due to the addictive nature. I still remember the feeling of a jackhammer being taken to my jaw. That was some of the worst pain I've ever had.

It's more or less background coffee shop music.

Absolutely from a guy who pursued an acting career many years ago. You're super talented. Much repsect.

NP-40 Watt Sun/Behind My Eyes (2022)-classified as doom but it's very beautiful and mellow, with an acoustic-like-Americana sound to my ears-that makes me think of some of Panopticon's non metal passages-ultimately a reflective gentle singer songwriter feel. I have two earlier albums, The Inside Room and Wider Than The Sky. This was the direction he was going into-minimal confessional somber music. No metal here so far. This is gorgeous stripped down sad boy gentle minimalistic rock. In fact, Bandcamp tag-alternative. I like it at first blush Wiegedood is a potential winner for me as well.

Great post....highlighted some of your thoughts that resonated with me. BTW, your visual art amazing. Are you a fulltime working artist?