JonoBlade

If you're a Yob yobbo and a completionalist then it is worth getting, but neither of us are. However, I decided to pick up The Illusion of Motion | YOB (bandcamp.com) because it was my first exposure to them back in 2004, which was when I was an illegal downloading dickhead. Now I am a legitimate dickhead.

All of The Experience is dead, so there's your supergroup right there. Although maybe not metal enough. Of the living, I'd like Nuno Bettencourt to play with John Tardy, Dave Lombardo and Geezer. It would probably be a hot mess, but I'd buy a ticket.

What happened to Navy and Zach? Like RIP "gone"? Did the goat bus crash in a holocaust of bleating and horn fragments? I still find the What Are You Listening To? section useful. It is varied enough that regularly enough I find something useful. My uptake of new music is about right for what time allows. It's true that the "your music sucks" beatdown does sometimes yield interesting convos, while alienating the OP. But, for a teenager looking for validation you may just crush their hopes and dreams and they'll start cutting on themselves or whatever it is the kids do for attention these days (shoot up an elementary school?). Old grizzled veterans such as we can handle it because we don't care what anyone else thinks. I haven't shot up an elementary school in months. Anyway, for this reason I think its useful to be constructive. Although, I remember a few threads where the tone was pretty welcoming and the poster disappears anyway. NP: Elaborations of Carbon (Reissue) | YOB (bandcamp.com) I haven't bought this yet because I'm still trying to decide if Yob is a bit interchangeable. Great, but interchangeable. Not nu-metal, that's for sure. And great background music....because I better get on and do some work.

This is all accurate, and what seems to happen here all the time. It's a pretty impossible situation to reconcile though. Some newbies post here hoping to find kindred spirits and just hear crickets. Although I think that is better than actively telling someone the music they love sucks. Watered down metal is still something...a thread to pull. I reckon anyone that jumps straight from Taylor Swift to the most discordant dense blackened death thrash is probably not that reliable as a long term prospect to the brotherhood anyway. What we want is people who are on a journey because they like how something a bit heavier makes them feel. And then want something a little bit heavier than that. It can be hard enough to connect with new posters that write all in caps or don't use sentences, but we probably need to make an effort, including not having mods scold people for not using the correct three year old thread to post about a topic.

This scenario is starting to turn into Dethklok. I was thinking a little more low key than mountainous stages flown in by helicopter. My other metal band concept "road movie" was touring the universe and bringing metal to the backwaters. Where there's green chicks with tentacle heads. Or the planet of amoebas. Kind of Ice Pirates meets Bad News, meets Red Dwarf.

It would be a cool guerilla road trip band movie idea to go coast to coast in the States, with a flat bed truck setting up in random places and playing metal loudly. But you'd probably get shot.

10/10 same as AiH. Neither are technically perfect albums (and I wouldn't expect anyone else to understand 35 years after the fact why they are 10s) but both completely essential to my development.

I don't reckon the Fleming Metallica albums are that well produced. I mean, they're ok sound-wise, they're legendary albums, but I never liked the drum sound - which isn't even a dig at Lars. When I listen to these albums I do think sometimes about the production - which means it isn't excellent production. Slayer on the other hand, RiB, SoH and SitA, are almost perfect. Rick Rubin only became a joke much later in his career. The recording format (digital or analog) makes no difference today. In fact, recording to tape has so much limitation that it isn't really worth it anymore - except for the kudos. The GEAR does make a difference. Dedicated outboard gear is going to sound better than everything in the box. The dumb reality is that it seems common to, even when you recorded in a good studio, to sample replace all the drums and re-amp the dry guitar signal through a processor. It can be done tastefully, I listened to AiH yesterday from an original vinyl. Actually, the drum sound is a bit 80s boxy which does detract from it. But great overall. Not sure what that guitar tone issue is from the OP.

I bet you would. And I bet Halford would too.

That is some endorsement. Reminds me a bit of Helmet. Will spend some time with it. Thanks for the tip off!

I've seen Enslaved at my local bar a few years ago. It was fun. £66.60 is just a bit steep for the festival ticket (one day only) when you only want to see a couple of bands and none that I desperately want to ticket off bucket list. I may have seen Marduk, I really can't remember. I was big into World Funeral and likely seen them on that tour. If Akercocke were playing (since they're local and just need to roll out of bed for it) I'd go in a heart beat, but alas.

That is six pounds sterling. Which is at least 10 kangaroo pelts. The latest vegan burgers (like Beyond Meat) are indistinguishable in taste and texture from minced beef. No one here will believe me of course and it's a tiring conversation to have, but that is my observation as someone who was a big fan of burgers. Same with cheese. It's at least as edible as that horrific shit they eat in America or those Dairy Lea slices I remember from childhood. There is now a massive market in all these meat analogs, although most of it is shit processed food. As people continue to get fat and unhealthy, they'll say "you see, vegan food is making us all ill!" It's almost an impossible sell because in truth it takes quite a lot of effort to eat properly in the modern world. Most people are really lazy.

After the letdown of Inter Arma not showing up to Desertfest on Saturday, I went on Sunday instead. The first band I saw after picking up my wristband at The Roundhouse was some flute-fronted retro band called Blood Ceremony (you would have assumed brutal death metal, you'd have been very wrong). The crowd was pretty big, it was only 3pm, but didn't exactly ignite. Not for me, so left early to walk the full length of Camden to get to the Underworld for 4pm. I have been wanting to see Weedpecker for a few years. From my bandcamp history it looks like I found out about them when the 3rd album came out, but I bought and listened to them in order from the first album. Now on their 4th release, they were fantastic live. Tearing up an Underworld that was PACKED. I have never seen it so full and it took a full 15 minutes just to get out again afterwards. Can only describe Weedpecker as good old fashioned hard rock. It's not retro in my opinion, despite the organ and hippy looking bass/guitar players. Timeless/gimmickless rock not trying to be anything else. King Buffalo, my main draw for the day, were playing back at The Roundhouse, a much more stately venue. I stopped off at Camden market for a dirty vegan burger (£10.50). Since Underworld had been so full I was genuinely worried The Roundhouse may be at capacity and only letting one-in-one-out. I gave myself half an hour to wait in line just in case this were so....but it was practically empty when I got there so I swanned in and went straight to the front barrier to wait. Not before buying a drink. They had a non-alc beer I'd only just discovered the previous weekend. 330mL Free Dam can. £5.50! It's a shame one can't put numbers in CAPITALS to emphasis the point. 330mL is roughly half a pint, which would make it twice as expensive as ordinary tap beer. Ludicrous. Anyhow. Worth it to see King Buffalo from the front row. King Buffalo is kind of a one trick pony...but the trick they do, they do it so well. Practically every song starts with a simple guitar riff which gets built up with a looper pedal until bass/drums come in with the money shot. There are a few keys (some of which operated from foot controllers) but mostly its the three piece + layers from loops. Interestingly, they must have played most of The Burden of Restlessness, even though it is not the latest album they are touring to support. It's because it's just a better album. So, despite every song sounding practically the same, I love these guys. They're like the AC/DC of "psychedelic trio[s] in the classic format, whose expansive and thunderous music is a powerful concoction of heavy psych, blues, and stoner rock. Texturally rich and oozing with psychedelic goodness, yet honed and driving in the next blink of an eye. " After they'd finished I bought another single 330mL beer (£5.50, it hadn't gotten cheaper) and hung out with a kiwi buddy I used to work with. The night before he'd become best friends on a bender with some local guys. They were munted, but I really enjoyed talking to them. In fact it might be the first time I have gone to a gig stone cold sober and actually interacted with the assembled buffoonery, being the total snob that I am. All were keen to convey just how shit they felt but were soldiering on. So hilarious to me, but I hope to see them again. There is Enslaved and Marduk at Incineration fest next weekend. I'm not sure if I can drag myself to that, but I may check if there are any tickets left and leave it to fate. I bought a King Buffalo t-shirt (£25) just before heading inside to see Boris. It was LOUD, but with silicon stuffed in my ears quite manageable. You'll never get me Boris! In truth I only stuck around for a few songs. It was pretty rocky stuff and considerably more energetic than what I'd seen so far but, not for me. Crowd was packed though, so what do I know. I have no idea who headliners Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats are, so I caught the train home. Oh, BTW, I did see the bejewelled hat put on Charles' head on Saturday. It was fascinating to see them roll out all these stolen artefacts that the anointed has to touch before being proclaimed King by a bunch of old men in dresses. You could not make it up. Yay for constitutional monarchy, boo for hereditary wealth.

Was looking forward to seeing Inter Arma tomorrow at Desertfest, checked today and find they've bloody pulled out! It was literally the only band I wanted to see on the Saturday line up, since I misread Weedeater as Weedpecker. Turned out ok because I could get a refund and there were still tickets available for Sunday when Boris, King Buffalo and Weedpecker are playing. Result! Now unfortunately I will not be at a metal gig as the crown is placed on King Charles' twatly head. While I accept that statistically a constitutional monarchy is the most stable form of government, I just can't bring myself to actually watch the absurd pantomime.

Bandcamp Friday! All you streaming bastards get out and actually support the bands you love by buying some merch or legit downloads. Pretty mainstream haul today of old albums I felt like listening to..... New Abigail by King Diamond New Universal by Borknagar New Vermis by Ulcerate

I have Opus Dei on vinyl because Live is Life became a bit of a student radio hit when I was at University. I've never been particularly into industrial (brief dalliance with Ministry - again due to student radio exposure) but have a soft nostalgia spot for this band. Will spin it at lunchtime!

Covenants of Salt | Balmog (bandcamp.com) New EP came out yesterday. Single 18 minute track. I pre-ordered and only just listening now after being away for the weekend. Rad.

This. Long songs are a great addition to an album if they make sense in context...and so long as the album as a whole is concise. The style of Type O lends itself to long songs/album and its not noticeable because they is more awesome than every other band. The best Sabbath album Sabotage has two long/epic side-closing tracks: Megalomania and The Writ. The variety of track lengths/interludes etc on this album makes it a masterclass in album construction, albeit for an experimental band. An AC/DC album wouldn't work so well with a 7 minute track*; their sin in the past has been exceeding the magic ten sub 4-minute tracks. Metallica writes long songs just fine but, like Maiden, they now make too many of them such that the standout epicness is weakened. EDIT: * Let There Be Rock excepted. AC/DC stopped taking any risks with song structure in 1978 and, despite commercial success, no latter album surpasses TNT (AU), Dirty Deeds (AU), Let There Be Rock or Powerage for album pacing/structure.

That Ripping Corpse one is so sweet(ness). Went to see Wayfarer and Wode last night. Decent. Hadn't been out for awhile so good to see some live music. However, disappointed when I realised that Wayfarer now signed to Century Media and presumably will not make new album available on bandcamp. Lame/shame. CM have taken another great band from me! Next gig is DesertFest where I bought the ticket solely for Inter Arma. I don't think they realised when it was booked it would be Coronation Weekend. So, as King Charles gets his twatly head crowned, I'll be caught in a mosh.

Uncharacteristically, I had a few moments and watched that review vid too. And, yes, I also prefer a few written paragraphs than an 8 minute tirade. It was as bloated as a Metallica song. Without ever needing to hear the album, the review confirms what I knew would be the case: overly long and aimless, but props to James for his vocal performance (which I noticed from the one music video I managed to sit all the way through). I thought he sounded great. So sad that I truly believe they have the capability to write a scorcher album of thrashtastic bangers, if they just trusted in a producer that would make tough decisions they are incapable of making themselves. Ok. I WILL DO IT. It will start with painting 47:25 in huge characters on the wall of the recording studio, and tattooing on Lars' forehead so James has to see it every day for the rest of his life. This is the length of Ride the Lightning. Which is already a few minutes too long, but I can live with it.

Yeah, I saw that announcement. Hard to imagine Forbidden without its voice, but could be cool. Twisted into Form is my favourite too, although, Eyes of Glass probably my favourite song. The video that showed up on some late night music show was epic to my teenage self.

It surely was. It was a long weekend away from my desk and I just happened to see this Annihilator post and couldn't resist. Set the World on Fire is definitely some kind of odd mish mash of thrash and glam that no one asked for, but on Alice in Hell I just don't hear it. I can see it in the fact that Randall P. Rampage has poofy hair and the band photo was taken with Vaseline on the lens, but I don't hear it. To me Alice in Hell is technical thrash with slightly harsh vocals. It is a masterclass in album production. A peppy sub-40 minutes without a clunker track, an acoustic intro (a must for an 80s thrash album) and clarity in the mix which, while not quite Rick Rubin Slayer production from that era, was pretty close from a 22 year old Canadian.

A worthy topic that I happened to ponder just yesterday upon reading that Live Evil was getting a 40th anniversary reissue, remixed and a separate remaster of original mix. This album famously had a lot of drama in the mixing phase and lead to Dio leaving Sabbath. In this case I'm interested to hear the remix but I am not gonna pay £140 for it.

There is some merit to discussing this album. Alice in Hell is about as close to a perfect debut as you can get. A few cracks had appeared in the follow up but the vocalist was still decent. Set the World on Fire jumped the shark on a rocket powered skateboard, wearing a clown suit. So, while an odd choice for a review without any context, you could make this part of a "where did they go so wrong" series. Jeff Waters was a supreme talent. He wrote and produced Alice in Hell when he was about 22. Then things just never seemed to go quite right. But, having said that, he is still around and doing what he loves to do. He runs a studio somewhere around Newcastle now. I looked into it, because I'd seriously go and record there just so I could ask, "dude, what happened?" In the grand scheme of things Annihilator is third tier but Alice in Hell was something special in terms of technical execution and production in 1989. It's hard to make that case to an old goat now, but trust me, if you didn't come across Alice in Hell when it first appeared, then you weren't keeping the right metal company.

I tend to agree that The Sham Mirrors is a little more accessible. I also intend to go back and check the early stuff now I know it is on bandcamp. I presume it may be like listening to early Ulver. Interestingly the first three Ulver records are not on bandcamp like everything else is. Not sure if that is a rights issue* or whitewashing of history (i.e. erasing of black metal origins). *Most likely rights issue. The wolf album is Century Media. Boo. Hiss!