JonoBlade

I am nominally in a band with the guy from Cairn. We even met once in Chicago. I don't like the drum production much, but those acoustic bits are so sweet. Really enjoying this Inanna. (is that "I Nanna" or "In Anna"? Why am I a Nanna, or who is Anna?)

Those Once Loyal | Bolt Thrower (bandcamp.com) Noticed that Obituary is doing a live stream gig in April, a classic set and playthrough of entire new album. It doesn't beat a live experience, but I think it's a good option and new revenue stream for a band these days. Especially cool if fans live somewhere remote like, I dunno, Tasmania, where Obituary isn't likely to tour anytime soon. Time difference can be a ball ache (even for me the gigs are at 10pm which is bedtime) but you can make a day/night of it or watch later.

I like this Mork stuff well enough. It sits in the right black metal zone for me. Plenty of variety and listenable production. My favourite of recent years is still Ordinance by a long way. Both albums. The vagina one and the purge one. The Triumph of Steel is one of those real nostalgia trips that I fully understand no one else will understand, especially 30 years later. At the time Kerrang! (which still had some street cred) declared it could not be rated, so metal was its contents. That made me and my friends laugh and give in to its power. I tried to go back and listen to earlier Manowar albums but nothing clicked. I'd go so far as to say they sucked, except Kings of Metal. I had the album after Triumph when the pedo joined the band, but have not heard it for 20 years. Nevertheless it is on my bucket list to see Manowar, but they never seem to come to the UK. Raise the Cairn | Cairn (bandcamp.com) Anyone heard this? It has the vibe of early Opeth. Most of the album is fully acoustic, but when the last song picks up it actually gets fairly heavy. I can listen to this acoustic type stuff all day.

Goddammit, you've got me one a King Diamond bender. They are all on bandcamp. Kings of Metal and The Triumph of Steel are solid. In fact ToS may well be in my top 20 albums of all time. A big call, but it was quite massive for an impressionable Jono upon release.

So far this morning, from my most recent BC purchases. I definitely try to get money's worth early on, before they fall down the 300 deep collection... New Dypet by Mork War Master (Full Dynamic Range Edition) by Bolt Thrower An Endless Static by Gozer Primordial Arcana by WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM The more I listen to that Gozer, the more I realise it basically is Neurosis. No idea how I landed on Mork. Someone mentioned it months ago, although the new album was only released about a week ago. I look forward to the eventual release of the career defining double album "...and Mindy" I'll pick up some more Bolt Thrower soon. I never legally obtained Those Once Loyal, which is shameful. At least that one is direct from the band. I have picked up a few Earache FDR releases....which presumably goes straight into Digby Pearson's pocket. Ugh. But at least he makes them available.

I think it is the other way around, Young is there permanently and Poland is a sporadic special guest. Chris Poland released the only guitar instrumental album I ever bought, Return to Metalopolis. I loved that album. Such a distinctive style.

For what it's worth, your post was relevant/topical to me. Quite surprised it is so bad, although I don't think Dave Jnr has a great quality barometer. If he wanted a real viable band he wouldn't have called it Kings of Thrash. Nevertheless I definitely would have gone/will go to see these guys playing live if they come close by. Because it would be classic Megadeth songs in a sweaty basement bar. I'm really not interested in seeing the supposed real Megadeth in an arena with average recent material and underperforming old songs. But up close and personal with a couple of the guys that actually played Hook in Mouth would be pretty cool. War Master (Full Dynamic Range Edition) | Bolt Thrower (bandcamp.com) An Endless Static | Gozer (bandcamp.com) Complete Recordings | Conventional Toasters (bandcamp.com) I had a dubbed video tape from an Australian music show (Rage?) of Cenotaph and it always defined what Bolt Thrower is to me. Up until now I don't think I had owned War Master. This sounds fantastic. Bolt Thrower has a real "break things" vibe. I'd almost join a mercenary force and go to Ukraine just so I can blast Bolt Thrower before going into battle and getting myself killed, because I forgot I had no military training whatsoever. Almost. Gozer. I have no idea why/from when this was in my wishlist but it is great. Any band calling themselves after the name of The Destructor has my vote.

Roots probably could have been ok if it was ruthlessly edited. It clocks over 70 minutes, which is twice as long as that kind of album should be. I recall the first Soulfly album being even wronger. A couple of decent tracks and massive amounts of self-indulgent filler. When that album came out I won a rigged competition at the local record store for a Soulfly branded t-shirt and soccer ball. I think its wise not to listen to anything Megadave said after 1992. Or before 1992.

I'm in the middle of War Master now, but I did have a soft spot for Devil Woman. With evil on her mind. I don't know how Life is Peachy coexisted with Dreams of the Carrion kind either, but somehow it did. I should clarify that I did technically own Significant Other but I'm not sure I ever listened to it all the way through. I knew it wasn't really for me. Got a ticket to Carcass just today for a June gig. They are playing 30 minutes away and I figured it would be actively rude not to go. I don't think Suicidal Tendencies is rap is it? I only have one compilation CD, which someone left in a CD player after a party 25 years ago....but it hits me right in the feels. There's something quaint about ST that always appealed to me. It was like a guy who couldn't sing well or play an instrument but tried really hard to see as his bandana kept falling over his eyes. Special needs. Bless.

Fascinating. I guess I did somehow know that "Judas Priest!" was a saying, but I didn't know it was necessarily a substitute for Jesus Christ. If we're giving bands names based on random sayings that don't mean anything, my next band is "Cor Blimey, me old China!" Now, I do remember my mum having a go at me for saying "Cor Blimey" (I was going through a cockney phase, as you do) because it meant "god, blind me" which she apparently found offensive. The Crust thing is interesting too. I think stenchcore might be for me given the death metal parallels. I really like Misery Index which has that rabid anti-establishment vibe...but the drum sound is too plastic and now they've gone and signed with Century Media. Way to be independent and stick it to the man. Their freedom to release music on bandcamp has been taken away. Fucking sell-outs. A stenchcore band sounds like it wouldn't sell out. I have always had a real prejudice against punk. It just seemed too image driven for my sensibilities. It goes back to that sub-culture discussion the other day. I always assumed punks were dipshits. I mean, metalheads are hardly intellectual giants most of the time, but punks occupy a special realm of moronity. Yet, I had a punk flatmate once and he was the sweetest guy. He played classical guitar of all things. ..... Goddamn it, Bolt Thrower is on the stenchcore list....so now I've gone down a BT rabbit hole. The full dynamic range editions are on bandcamp.

Have I posted this before? 13 | Head Like A Hole (bandcamp.com) The first and most classic album from Wellington's Head Like a Hole. These guys and Shihad ruled the Wellington scene when I was in my last year in high school. One of my earliest gig experiences was HLaH, Shihad and Conventional Toasters in a dockside warehouse. Conventional Toasters* were some kind of grind band that played in white lab coats. Classic. * not to be confused with Unconventional Toasters which was a Barry Manilow cover band of the same era.

...well Deathhammer and Napalm Death, which is why I picked up on the death thing. NDT sounds decent. I was not aware of this "stenchcore" of which you speak. Isn't Max Cavalera's a pioneer of that genre? Goatpenis has comedy/shock value, sure, but I can't see myself being inspired to get into it. Or get it into me. I always hated Judas Priest*. I never knew what it was or what it meant. I just knew Judas was the bad guy in a fairytale and my parents might not like it. It just seemed an unnecessary conflict that could be avoided if they had just called themselves something more benign like Drainpipe. *please do not quote me out of context on that one.

No, you don't have to be into them and it's perfectly valid to hate it too. But... I find it amusing that you think just because you wereN'T into Korn 25 years ago that means everyone else into metal must have NOT been into them as well. However, you can't go far wrong with discovering Shades of God in 1992. We can at least agree it was and is better than Korn. I liked it more than Korn then, and I like it a lot more than Korn now. But I had room in my heart for both. Interestingly, it sounds like you were more "mainstream" in the 90s than I was. While I knew of all those bands (and had a few AiC and Soundgarden CDs because, y'know, open mind), give me Disincarnate/Dreams of the Carrion Kind or Carcass/Necroticism anyday both then and now. Those would have been my most played albums. D'oh, I realised after the last post where I said rap was my line in the sand, I must be full of shit.....as I am a massive Rage Against the Machine fan. I mean, I don't listen to it much which is why I forgot, but every few months I'll crank that shit while vacuuming the house. It's surprising that Sir Cliff never made it to much consciousness in the States. He predated The Beatles with The Shadows and was huge in the UK. My mum liked him because he was wholesome, although I suspect his whole celibate/christian angle was simply because he is homosexual and never knew how to come to terms with it.

Where does open-minded end and impressionable begin? My music tastes had been solidified prior to advent of nu-metal (which makes me somewhat closed-minded I guess). While not a 20 year veteran, we'd been pretty entrenched for 10 years already. This included trad metal, death and some black metal by mid-nineties. However, if you were interested in current metal at all in 1995, you couldn't help but have come across Korn and nu-metal. It had infected Sepultura by '96. Korn was everywhere well before 1998. I remember buying the second album on the day it came out in 1996. And I lived in a backwater with no MTV. We can agree this was not a high water mark for music. My whole point here is that the passionate hatred for nu-metal seems to be revisionist and trendy. At the time I didn't know anyone that cared and I knew some metalheads that were older. We might have debated....yeah, I'm not sure about that one. I generally don't like rap...which was my line in the sand. Unless it was for comedic purposes. For my sins the first Anthrax song I heard was I'm the Man, so I thought they were a comedy rap band. I wonder what a resurgence would even look like. I didn't know kids were interested in their parent's music. My dad (from Yorkshire) likes Country and The Beatles. My mum doesn't like The Beatles (because they did drugs and were very naughty and anti-Christian), so all I was left with to buy every Christmas was a Cliff Richard album. Luckily he released one practically every Christmas.

Unfortunately "death" has become pretty diluted. Like king, witch, wizard, queen. Nuclear Death Terror is pretty terrible, unless it's a joke band. Goatpenis....I guess our tastes diverge on that one. I wonder what a Celtic Frost is? As opposed to a regular frost. Does it dance a jig? I am minded of those midgets dancing around stone 'enge.

Immortal and Emperor are the best band names of all time. Judas Priest and Metallica being among the worst.

Sons Of Northern Darkness | Immortal (bandcamp.com) Obviously a bit of a weird vibe to this band now. But I like the alboom. And the most recent ones are on bandcamp. Thra | Urskek (bandcamp.com) Just bought this. Weeks ago @Thatguy posted a tip of a year end list on canthisevenbecalledmusic.com. I spent some time going through the recommendations, which were nice and succinct, but the only one which really grabbed me was this Dark Crystal themed doom. Not as cool as my favourite Indiana Jones themed black metal band, Sallah, but a good listen.

That is one way of putting it. It was fuck off loud. Two dicks in hooded robes playing slow riffs on Les Pauls in a shitty basement. Rarely do I leave gigs early, but I didn't want to miss the last tube. That is how obnoxious they were. Drone going over time (because, y'know you can't finish that aimless drone a bit early). It wasn't like waiting for Angel of Death as an encore. The bouncer at the door looked positively pained.

Plus one for interest in Boris. I've never heard a single note. I have heard Sunn O))) and knew they weren't from Japan. I saw them live once. It is an experience I do not care to repeat.

I meant contrarian merely in the sense that you said all true metalheads thought nu-metal sucks and I was there to say that me and all my friends at the time who skived off school to listen to Slayer didn't hate nu-metal when it appeared. We didn't all jump ship and start wearing backwards baseball caps either (actually, y'know I think I did turn my baseball cap around once or twice, I am so sorry and regret it now). We just had an open mind. The heyday of nu-metal passed and we all moved on but no one I knew was rabidly anti-nu. Also, I agree that nu-metal didn't save metal. It wasn't going anywhere with or without it. But, it raised awareness of heavy music, for good or bad. Same with Pantera. It also wasn't short lived. All the band names we are kicking around still exist and seem to be doing ok. But I do like the encapsulating statement: "even as a relatively small niche genre, metal is too widely loved and too deeply entrenched in our western culture to fail" True dat. While at one point nu-metal definitely violated me, I don't remember that time with any contempt. That is fair enough. It could affect gigs if libtards be protestin' and that is a real enough concern, but it is unlikely to affect availability of the music though. The internet is just too big. I suppose theoretically Bandcamp (or Spotify for those craven enough to use it) could shut down a band that gets enough complaints. But, if the material is in fact a step too far in terms of artistic expression, then they are a privately owned platform and they can do what they want to police it.

I don't see that it matters if sub-cultures get diluted. That is up to the individual if they allow it to happen to them. "Culture" is for the most part dumb anyway. I like metal for the music and how it makes me feel. I don't care for the peripheral trimmings like what people wear, how many tattoos they have, beer they can drink or whether they skateboard or not. Which goon-beard has whined about black metal needing to be safer? If someone's blog said that, then don't read the blog. The black metal bands certainly don't care, nor will they be changing their approach for a goon-beard. To the original topic, it was mildly amusing that Master of Puppets was in Stranger Things and I caught my daughter listening to it again afterwards, despite her normally hating it. But MoP wasn't there randomly for some kind of street cred. The character playing the song was a DnD playing metalhead - which is exactly what me and my friends were in 1986* too. *just. Maybe 1988 - 1992 in reality.

Just to be contrarian, Slipknot is a huge gimmick but it is quite heavy. It blended more extreme forms of metal with studio trickery and DJ beeps and whistles. Myself and those around me in mid-90s had Korn, Slipknot and even Limp Bizkit albums and went to those gigs (anyone remember when Limp Bizkit headlined Big Day Out?) at the same time as worshipping at the alter of death (the whole genre, not just the one band). Now, I don't think any of that nu-metal stuff has aged well and it wasn't particularly good to start with, but it gave a new lease of life to the genre and can act as a gateway to other things. I'm not embarrassed that I listened to that stuff and didn't hate it. But we did grow apart. Since my tastes and what comprised "classic" bands had already been solidified by 1990, nu-metal wasn't going to supplant any of that, but I know plenty of people a few years younger than me that think Linkin Park is amazing and established their benchmark for what the heavy genre is.* Just as I was born in a relatively stable period in history and enjoyed a care-free upbringing; and won't experience the full force of living in a collapsing hellscape until my twilight years; it's all luck of the draw. *recently I was having a drink with a drummer I use for session work. He can do all the extreme blast stuff and is super awesome....and it came out in conversation his favourite band is Limp Bizkit. I almost choked. I did think less of him, but that says more about me than him.

It's so great, it's plural!

I remember when it aired in the first place....I don't think there was any advanced notice. Everyone at my high school watched Married with Children and Anthrax was quite popular too. In that same year they toured AU/NZ. It was my first big gig. At the time I felt sorry for Joey because he didn't actually get to be seen singing in the episode. Scott does the spoken word intro and the regular audience may have assumed he was the singer. And the guy sitting on the sofa was a groupie.

Sounds intriguing on all fronts. Moving, art, music. The moving art of music. I've been learning a guitar part written by someone else, which initially made my brain melt, but its coming together nicely now. Enjoy your walk.