JonoBlade

On Saturday my flatmates were watching rugby. I set up a new audio interface and switched to Windows 11 to solve some problems it was having. Finally started working. I then went to a gig in the evening, but not quite worth reporting. A local band Verminthrone, (The Cull | Verminthrone (bandcamp.com)) which sounds like it would be black metal, but closer to Pantera. Meat and potatoes. Decent. The opening band was Electric Wizard worship (Industrial Nightmare | Voidlurker (bandcamp.com)) but just a little too simple for me. The guitarist lost his pick before the last song and played with a credit card. You couldn't tell the difference. My favourite part was the knob twiddling guitar effects feedback over drum and bass that they finished with. That was pretty cool.
Sunday was fairly uneventful. Played mini-golf. Point being, I found occasion to write something on this here forums.
Oh, big name drop, on Friday night I had quite a long chat with Karl Sanders from Nile. It was like we'd been buddies forever. Nice bloke.
 

On Saturday my flatmates were watching rugby. I set up a new audio interface and switched to Windows 11 to solve some problems it was having. Finally started working. I then went to a gig in the evening, but not quite worth reporting. A local band Verminthrone, (The Cull | Verminthrone (bandcamp.com)) which sounds like it would be black metal, but closer to Pantera. Meat and potatoes. Decent. The opening band was Electric Wizard worship (Industrial Nightmare | Voidlurker (bandcamp.com)) but just a little too simple for me. The guitarist lost his pick before the last song and played with a credit card. You couldn't tell the difference. My favourite part was the knob twiddling guitar effects feedback over drum and bass that they finished with. That was pretty cool.
Sunday was fairly uneventful. Played mini-golf. Point being, I found occasion to write something on this here forums.
Oh, big name drop, on Friday night I had quite a long chat with Karl Sanders from Nile. It was like we'd been buddies forever. Nice bloke.
 

On Saturday my flatmates were watching rugby. I set up a new audio interface and switched to Windows 11 to solve some problems it was having. Finally started working. I then went to a gig in the evening, but not quite worth reporting. A local band Verminthrone, (The Cull | Verminthrone (bandcamp.com)) which sounds like it would be black metal, but closer to Pantera. Meat and potatoes. Decent. The opening band was Electric Wizard worship (Industrial Nightmare | Voidlurker (bandcamp.com)) but just a little too simple for me. The guitarist lost his pick before the last song and played with a credit card. You couldn't tell the difference. My favourite part was the knob twiddling guitar effects feedback over drum and bass that they finished with. That was pretty cool.
Sunday was fairly uneventful. Played mini-golf. Point being, I found occasion to write something on this here forums.
Oh, big name drop, on Friday night I had quite a long chat with Karl Sanders from Nile. It was like we'd been buddies forever. Nice bloke.
 

Time Ghoul riding My Little Pony

Time Ghoul riding My Little Pony

Monster Magnet... now I can get down with that. Let's throw on some Tab and Spine of God.
JP playlist game:
Winter/Deep Freeze
Victim of Changes
Call for the Priest/Let us Prey
Beyond the Realms of Death
Delivering the Goods
The Rage
Heading out to the Highway
Screaming for Vengeance
The Sentinel
Out in the Cold
Painkiller 
Judas Rising 
Honestly though, I can just throw on everything from Rocka Rolla through Defenders with a few select tracks from everything after and be good. Not my favorite band of all time, but I do listen to quite a bit of JP. I was late to the game on them along with most other late 60's-70's rock. That was my dad's music so I wanted my own stuff. Aside from VH, I was into Twisted Sister, Ratt, Helloween, Maiden, AC/DC, Queensryche, Def Leppard, and of course Rush. Only in the last 6-7 years have I gotten into older Scorpions, BOC, Uriah Heep, Priest etc. All of it is perfectly serviceable and good for a playlist. Rare I want to listen to a full album start to finish.
Yes, yes, yes, fuck Weather Report, yes, yes... Throw in some Brand X, Chick Corea, Wayne Shorter, Eric Dolphy, Thelonius Monk, Charles Mingus, Return to Forever, Stanley Clark, John Coltrane, and Al di Meola and call it a day.

You like to play the part of the rube, but anyone that reads your posts know that you are highly intelligent. We've engaged in a range of convos on your takes on history, left wing politics to the complexities of economics. You like language and culture. So, don't play the knuckle dragger with me! Your tastes are questionable, you like to instigate debate and can be annoying AF at times but your intellect is not in questions, sir. 
We have vastly different views on lyrics. Here's what I would say on the subject-first off, metal lyrics by and large don't add much. That said, in regards to extreme metal they sometimes help draw me into the world of the artist. You don't need to read the lyrics to The Ramones or Judas Priest. And most extreme metal lyrics are a throw away, but I've found that some artists really take the time to put a great deal of thought  into their lyrics. It's an odd thing-introspective lyrics that no one can understand-but that's part of the riddle of extreme metal. Most artists want success. Extreme metal is the opposite. There are self imposed barriers to limit entry like the code to get into khazad-dum. It requires effort on the part of the listener. In a way, that's part of the appeal. 
That's partly why I like physical media. I'll typically take a few minutes to look at the artwork and the lyrics and often don't read past the first couple of tracks. But, I just figure songs are combination of music and words and artists, no matter how primitive might want to say something or at minimum create an atmosphere where language plays some part. BM in particular has a way of taking the listener to other dimensions where the artwork and sometimes the lyrics can add to the mystique they try to envelope the listener in. 
Extreme metal can be complex and dense and the lyrics can be used to punctuate a point in the prose or storyline if there is one.
Beginning with Metallica and Anthrax per my listening, those artists were making great music but also talking about real societal things-racism, the criminal justice system, mental health drug addiction, the futility of war. Lemmy was actually an underrated lyricism. Beyond the sex, drugs and rock and roll culture of many of his songs, his lyrics were often hilarious and quite poignant writing about his disgust at the wealthy and powerful, disingenuity of elitists, his intolerance of the lies hoisted upon all of us by those that pull the strings in our world, the stupidity of war and and religion.  
Ihashn wrote some really interesting stuff on Anthems that took the power of their symphonic black metal and fused it with more than Satanism-but with occult mysticism that was genius for a teenager. I know you're not an Opeth fan,  Mikael Åkerfeldt basically wrote dark poetry that he set to music. I can't imagine listening to Blackwater Park or Ghost Reveries without taking a peek at the lyrics. He's a great example of using extreme metal to punctuate his lyrical themes. Neurosis is another band who took wild, ambitious ideas both sonically and lyrically using samples and ideas from myth and psychology. Arioch (both with Funeral Mist and Marduk) does some pretty intelligent things to the old Satanic tropes of BM inverting Christianity with some twisted shit. DSO is famous for their existential essays posed as intellectual Satanism set to music. I've noticed in recent years that DM sometimes brings in elements of eastern religion, particularly Buddhism and bands like Vastum (and definitely doomy post metal bands like Subrosa) pull from literature and in Vastum's case write some twisted, thought provoking disturbing shit.
I know you don't have any interest in any of that stuff, but my point is in a small percentage of metal, the time and talent put into lyrics enrich my enjoyment. It's like the dead sea scrolls or the Davinci code-only available to those that put the effort into deciphering secret runes.   Enough said!

Time Ghoul riding My Little Pony

Oof. I actively dislike those songs. Always seemed like they were trying too hard to write hits in those moments and definite album low points for me (which on Point of Entry is saying something). The writing team in Priest were too influenced by external trends and a dream of being popular (which is hard when you are as ugly s they are), whereas you can just tell that someone like Iommi wasn't interested in what others were playing. He's still in business, so would rather be popular and successful than not, but stayed truer to original mission statement.
I take issue with @markm piling on Ram it Down though. That came out just as I got into Priest and, as such, was amazing/life changing. And it was obviously better than Turbo, even for someone who'd been into Bon Jovi the year before. Turbo was Priest trying to write Bon Jovi songs and failing so bad, mainly because no one (and certainly not a Halford and a KK) can be as dreamy as Jon and Richie.

Pre-order done.

Pfft. As if!

Ah Judas Priest, for a time, quite a long time. Actually, they ranked among my favourite bands. These days, the only album I find even remotely palatable is Stained Class. The best thing to come out of painkiller was that time death covered the title track in my opinion. 

Np: Ahab - The Coral Tombs
I was talking to someone the other day about The Cart & Horses (because they lived round the corner) where Maiden played it's first gig. Although for years I thought it was The Ruskin Arms. I even played there years ago.
Anyhow, reading today about the literal birthplace of metal, where Sabbath first played. Turns out it is closed down but is still standing.
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2024/mar/15/the-crown-pub-birmingham-grade-ii-listed-black-sabbath-heavy-metal
 

@markm had me about to pick it up, but I guess I'll wait a little longer. It will appear to lose steam because it's too long. Or at the very least if it is soon over you won't feel you had to endure too much filler.
I was looking at logistics of driving to see them on Tuesday because the current set list does look pretty cool. But I doubt I will be able to drum up the enthusiasm.
That's a fair point. Although don't priests have to confess to someone further up the hierarchy? Only the pope would be unable to confess but presumably it is a perk of office to be autoabsolved.
You're wise not to go licking Cath without consent.

Np: Ahab - The Coral Tombs
I was talking to someone the other day about The Cart & Horses (because they lived round the corner) where Maiden played it's first gig. Although for years I thought it was The Ruskin Arms. I even played there years ago.
Anyhow, reading today about the literal birthplace of metal, where Sabbath first played. Turns out it is closed down but is still standing.
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2024/mar/15/the-crown-pub-birmingham-grade-ii-listed-black-sabbath-heavy-metal
 

How would a slaughtered priest confess his sins? It's a little late for that.

I think I'm gonna need to dig out both from the garage and have a listen, because it has been a few years. Superunknown is probably the definitive Soundgarden masterpiece, but I still enjoyed the hell out of Badmotorfinger at the time. I guess it was the wailing Jesus Christ Pose which played (overplayed) endlessly on a student TV station I had a show on - which I love but old goats will hate.  
Edit: nope, I'm full of shit. Turns out I had both CDs in a pile behind me. I must have got these out a year or so ago...probably on a prompt from the last time Soundgarden came up.

I think I'm gonna need to dig out both from the garage and have a listen, because it has been a few years. Superunknown is probably the definitive Soundgarden masterpiece, but I still enjoyed the hell out of Badmotorfinger at the time. I guess it was the wailing Jesus Christ Pose which played (overplayed) endlessly on a student TV station I had a show on - which I love but old goats will hate.  
Edit: nope, I'm full of shit. Turns out I had both CDs in a pile behind me. I must have got these out a year or so ago...probably on a prompt from the last time Soundgarden came up.

I think I'm gonna need to dig out both from the garage and have a listen, because it has been a few years. Superunknown is probably the definitive Soundgarden masterpiece, but I still enjoyed the hell out of Badmotorfinger at the time. I guess it was the wailing Jesus Christ Pose which played (overplayed) endlessly on a student TV station I had a show on - which I love but old goats will hate.  
Edit: nope, I'm full of shit. Turns out I had both CDs in a pile behind me. I must have got these out a year or so ago...probably on a prompt from the last time Soundgarden came up.

They seem to be reforming and continuing which is great to see.

Went to Cattle Decapitation on Friday night. The highlight was probably not the gig but meeting up with a mate and going to the pub afterwards until 1am, which is pretty much unheard of for me these days. Luckily I didn't have to get home afterwards, but nearly missed the last northbound tube to where I was staying. 
Anyway...to the show:
I missed the first band but saw the whole set from 200 Stab Wounds. Slave to the Scalpel | 200 Stab Wounds (bandcamp.com) Enjoyable, if unremarkable, fairly old school death metal.
As is the curse of opening acts, the guitar tone was pretty muddy so I just concentrated on watching the drummer. By the end of the set the balance was pretty good. I will give this a few listens and probably pick up on a BC Friday.
The next band was Signs of the Swarm. Absolvere | Signs of the Swarm | Unique Leader Records (bandcamp.com)
Oh dear. I believe this is what the kids call "deathcore." The above link doesn't quite capture what I took away from watching this band live. Every song was a prolonged breakdown. Each breakdown a raging torrent of breakdowns, flooded with rivulets of breakdowns, cascading into a waterfall of more breakdowns.
The typewriter drum sound and one trick vocal delivery, interjected with "circle pit" was so distracting I couldn't derive much enjoyment from this. Others around me seemed to "get it" but I was minded of the discussion of Slipknot on that other thread. This is metal made by AI for people that think lots of tattoos and flesh tunnels equate to talent. Tasteless.
Earlier in the day I had been genuinely worrying that I was just liking too much stuff I was listening to lately. I have been enjoying the shit out of the likes of post black Underdark and surf rock King Gizzard wondering if I was losing perspective. But this band renewed my faith in misanthropy. 

The main event, Cattle Decapitation, is a band I hadn't even heard before a few months ago. I had always assumed they were some joke grind band, but the AOTY accolades for Terrasite were too frequent to ignore. I am a convert, and had picked up a few other albums to cram for this gig. 
Luckily for me, I seem to have picked the albums they decided to pull pretty much the whole set from. There was only one, perhaps two, tracks I did not recognise.
I have the same gripe about the drum sound as Signs of Breakdowns mentioned above. Triggered to the point of distraction and outright offense, so that it removes any soul from the kit; I just can't fathom why any band would want this sound.  200 Stab Wounds' drum sound was so much better.

Apart from that, CatDecap were great. Vocal delivery was about what I knew it would be - flawed but so difficult to pull off live I was not expecting perfection. Still Travis Ryan is a great front man that did not once feel the need to request a circle pit or wall of death or make any other cliched idiot frontman comment. All class.
Lead guitar work is excellent with tasteful solos. Great bass tone. Rhythm guitarist had great hair and tight jeans.
From photos, it is obvious that unless I can fly, pics were taken from a balcony which was almost too steep of an angle, but a good vantage point. I stood in the same spot for 3 hours so as not to lose my place.
Finished at 11pm which vindicated my decision to stay in London rather than try to get home on a slow train and risk waking up in Crewe or Glasgow.
But, as mentioned, highlight of night was probably talking metal with buddy I don't see that often. He'd bought an autographed Terrasite LP, the bastard.

Went to Cattle Decapitation on Friday night. The highlight was probably not the gig but meeting up with a mate and going to the pub afterwards until 1am, which is pretty much unheard of for me these days. Luckily I didn't have to get home afterwards, but nearly missed the last northbound tube to where I was staying. 
Anyway...to the show:
I missed the first band but saw the whole set from 200 Stab Wounds. Slave to the Scalpel | 200 Stab Wounds (bandcamp.com) Enjoyable, if unremarkable, fairly old school death metal.
As is the curse of opening acts, the guitar tone was pretty muddy so I just concentrated on watching the drummer. By the end of the set the balance was pretty good. I will give this a few listens and probably pick up on a BC Friday.
The next band was Signs of the Swarm. Absolvere | Signs of the Swarm | Unique Leader Records (bandcamp.com)
Oh dear. I believe this is what the kids call "deathcore." The above link doesn't quite capture what I took away from watching this band live. Every song was a prolonged breakdown. Each breakdown a raging torrent of breakdowns, flooded with rivulets of breakdowns, cascading into a waterfall of more breakdowns.
The typewriter drum sound and one trick vocal delivery, interjected with "circle pit" was so distracting I couldn't derive much enjoyment from this. Others around me seemed to "get it" but I was minded of the discussion of Slipknot on that other thread. This is metal made by AI for people that think lots of tattoos and flesh tunnels equate to talent. Tasteless.
Earlier in the day I had been genuinely worrying that I was just liking too much stuff I was listening to lately. I have been enjoying the shit out of the likes of post black Underdark and surf rock King Gizzard wondering if I was losing perspective. But this band renewed my faith in misanthropy. 

The main event, Cattle Decapitation, is a band I hadn't even heard before a few months ago. I had always assumed they were some joke grind band, but the AOTY accolades for Terrasite were too frequent to ignore. I am a convert, and had picked up a few other albums to cram for this gig. 
Luckily for me, I seem to have picked the albums they decided to pull pretty much the whole set from. There was only one, perhaps two, tracks I did not recognise.
I have the same gripe about the drum sound as Signs of Breakdowns mentioned above. Triggered to the point of distraction and outright offense, so that it removes any soul from the kit; I just can't fathom why any band would want this sound.  200 Stab Wounds' drum sound was so much better.

Apart from that, CatDecap were great. Vocal delivery was about what I knew it would be - flawed but so difficult to pull off live I was not expecting perfection. Still Travis Ryan is a great front man that did not once feel the need to request a circle pit or wall of death or make any other cliched idiot frontman comment. All class.
Lead guitar work is excellent with tasteful solos. Great bass tone. Rhythm guitarist had great hair and tight jeans.
From photos, it is obvious that unless I can fly, pics were taken from a balcony which was almost too steep of an angle, but a good vantage point. I stood in the same spot for 3 hours so as not to lose my place.
Finished at 11pm which vindicated my decision to stay in London rather than try to get home on a slow train and risk waking up in Crewe or Glasgow.
But, as mentioned, highlight of night was probably talking metal with buddy I don't see that often. He'd bought an autographed Terrasite LP, the bastard.

Went to Cattle Decapitation on Friday night. The highlight was probably not the gig but meeting up with a mate and going to the pub afterwards until 1am, which is pretty much unheard of for me these days. Luckily I didn't have to get home afterwards, but nearly missed the last northbound tube to where I was staying. 
Anyway...to the show:
I missed the first band but saw the whole set from 200 Stab Wounds. Slave to the Scalpel | 200 Stab Wounds (bandcamp.com) Enjoyable, if unremarkable, fairly old school death metal.
As is the curse of opening acts, the guitar tone was pretty muddy so I just concentrated on watching the drummer. By the end of the set the balance was pretty good. I will give this a few listens and probably pick up on a BC Friday.
The next band was Signs of the Swarm. Absolvere | Signs of the Swarm | Unique Leader Records (bandcamp.com)
Oh dear. I believe this is what the kids call "deathcore." The above link doesn't quite capture what I took away from watching this band live. Every song was a prolonged breakdown. Each breakdown a raging torrent of breakdowns, flooded with rivulets of breakdowns, cascading into a waterfall of more breakdowns.
The typewriter drum sound and one trick vocal delivery, interjected with "circle pit" was so distracting I couldn't derive much enjoyment from this. Others around me seemed to "get it" but I was minded of the discussion of Slipknot on that other thread. This is metal made by AI for people that think lots of tattoos and flesh tunnels equate to talent. Tasteless.
Earlier in the day I had been genuinely worrying that I was just liking too much stuff I was listening to lately. I have been enjoying the shit out of the likes of post black Underdark and surf rock King Gizzard wondering if I was losing perspective. But this band renewed my faith in misanthropy. 

The main event, Cattle Decapitation, is a band I hadn't even heard before a few months ago. I had always assumed they were some joke grind band, but the AOTY accolades for Terrasite were too frequent to ignore. I am a convert, and had picked up a few other albums to cram for this gig. 
Luckily for me, I seem to have picked the albums they decided to pull pretty much the whole set from. There was only one, perhaps two, tracks I did not recognise.
I have the same gripe about the drum sound as Signs of Breakdowns mentioned above. Triggered to the point of distraction and outright offense, so that it removes any soul from the kit; I just can't fathom why any band would want this sound.  200 Stab Wounds' drum sound was so much better.

Apart from that, CatDecap were great. Vocal delivery was about what I knew it would be - flawed but so difficult to pull off live I was not expecting perfection. Still Travis Ryan is a great front man that did not once feel the need to request a circle pit or wall of death or make any other cliched idiot frontman comment. All class.
Lead guitar work is excellent with tasteful solos. Great bass tone. Rhythm guitarist had great hair and tight jeans.
From photos, it is obvious that unless I can fly, pics were taken from a balcony which was almost too steep of an angle, but a good vantage point. I stood in the same spot for 3 hours so as not to lose my place.
Finished at 11pm which vindicated my decision to stay in London rather than try to get home on a slow train and risk waking up in Crewe or Glasgow.
But, as mentioned, highlight of night was probably talking metal with buddy I don't see that often. He'd bought an autographed Terrasite LP, the bastard.

Power Trip - Nightmare Logic (2017)
 

Blasphemathory - War, Blasphemy & Divine Destruction
Bolt Thrower - Those Once Loyal
Sentient Divide - Haunted By Cruelty