SurgicalBrute

Sorry...know you said you were good for now, but this one absolutely deserves attention Vinterland - Welcome my Last Chapter

Sacramentum - Far Away from the Sun Sarcasm - Burial Dimensions EDIT: Forgot an obvious one Thulcandra - Under a Frozen Sun

They're a relatively well known site because they're associated with both Metal injection and the PRP through the Blastbeat Ad network, but the site itelf is looked at as a joke. i think originally it was started as site that had kind of a humorous take on metal news, while also doing reviews and announcements, but somewhere along the line they shifted to outrage clicks, basically writing "articles" about how band X might be NSBM or how band member Y once said something stupid online 5 years ago....I'm sure you've seen the type. that was when they'd actually bother to write something original...more often than not they would just take a news article from sister site Metal Injection, wait 2 days, and then post the same thing, slightly reworded in a more humorous/snarky manner. Additionally, their actual music coverage was garbage...as a site they seemed completely unaware of anything that came out in the last 30 years that wasn't on a label like Nuclear Blast or Metal Blade, and what new stuff they did talk about was either some kind of prog, tech, or trendy -core band. (this is why I said ACSM was over as a band, because if Metalsucks was aware of you, you were probably about to become mainstream as fuck) The site lasted for the longest time on the fact that their audience hated the two main writers/owners, and enjoyed insulting them throughout the comments section on a daily basis. Gradually though, they started locking down what posts could and couldn't be made, to the point where most of their commenting audience finally wandered away. A couple of years back, the original guys apparently sold the site, or at the very least don't run the day-to-day anymore, and it has become marginally better, but overall you'd still be better getting your metal news and info from your local homeless guy under the overpass than from that site

Whelp...Metalsucks covered the new Antichrist Siege Machine...safe to say they're officially over as a band worth following 😆

Didn't get shut down (I don't think) ...dude did make it private because some clown was throwing out copyright claims (that weren't his to make) and fucking up channels since YouTube immediately defaults to the position that the person making the claim is always right, and any channel getting 3 violations gets killed. Think he had a back up channel set up to use, and he was planning to bring regular channel back when shit was safe to do

So you want everyone to hate your favorite black metal band? Im getting kinda mixed signals here

Probably more along the lines of naming one terrible black metal band Formless Oedon - Deathless Luminosity Not sure where I found this, but Im digging the first track https://formlessoedon.bandcamp.com/album/deathless-luminosity-2

...but can you actually name one of these fruity beers you hate so much? Chymist - Opus I: Nox https://chymist.bandcamp.com/album/opus-i-nox

Not at all...I know you've mentioned before you like beer. I was just betting on the fact that, despite what you were saying, you've probably had and enjoyed a style of beer that could be described as having some type of fruit flavor to it. ...but no, I didn't realize you were specifically talking about sours. No sensitivity here. I really don't have an issue with you liking beer, hating it, or being completely indifferent to it. I just disagree with the assertion that beer and beer that has hints of fruit in it's flavor profile are somehow two separate things.

I assume none of y'all enjoy stouts, porters, pale ales, dark ales, IPAs, DIPAs, ESBs, Kolschs, dubbels, trippels, quads, saisons, wheat beers, barley wines... For that matter, considering the majority of beers out there have some degree of citrus or dark fruit flavor to them, what the hell kind of beer do you "real beer doesn't have any fruit flavor in it" guys actually drink? Obscurial - Heretic Preview tracks for the new Obscurial album due out next week https://obscurialmusic.bandcamp.com/album/heretic?from=fandiscflw

Mark had asked about my never finished year end list for 2023, so I figured I'd share what I had before I gave up on it. I'd only just started making cuts, so this will be a lot longer than normal. Because of that I'm going to post it a little at a time and break it up by genre...and since the black metal list was the longest, I'll post it first. Black Metal Arnaut Pavle - Transylvanian Glare Arbor - Behold... The Age of Pagan Blood Atheosophia - Shadowgate of Winter's Spirit As the Shadows Envelop Me – Fedrekult Astral Tomb of Yearning - Summoning the Impenetrable Night Aeon Furnace - Providence Descends Abisma - Disciples of the Black Ram Black Hurst – S/T Blutschwur - Those of My Blood Crucifixion Bell - Mirages in Izar Ceremonial Crypt Desecration - Unholy Black Metal Against the Modern World Dai-Ichi – S/T Dominance - Slaughter of Human Offerings in the New Age of Pan Demoncy - Black Star Gnosis Ebony Pendant – S/T Fellwinter - The Dawn of Winter Final Eclipse - The Dark World Flaming Ouroboros – Blood Gauntlet Ring - Beyond the Veil of the Night Graf - Rite of Nocturnal Passage Gam - Alt hans væsen Geistaz'ika - Midnatsbøn ved djævelens port Helleruin - Devils, Death and Dark Arts Hinsides - Hinsides hörs djävulsklockans urklang Iron Firmament – Keepeater Kringa - All Stillborn Fires, Lick My Heart! Krigstjørn - Mod guders svig Kurgan - Ascetic Dissociations Lja – 1943 Mavorim - Ab Amitia Pulsae Motstand – S/T Mycorrhizae – The Great Filtration Noitila – Langennut Nöldr - Chaotic Mysticism from the Tormented Silence Nahasheol - Serpens Abyssi Nartvind – Breath of Night Orkblut – Ghost Paths to Septentrion Obsidian Grave – Blood of the Night Oerheks - Grondslagen Regnum Tenebrarum - Légendes noires Ravensrealm - A Crash of Heathen Thunder Sulphuric Night - Black Metal Tyranny Tsjuder – Helvegr Trest - Sorginak Unholy Craft - Naar all tid er omme Vestígio - Vestígios (^Mark and FA will both want to check out the above album) Versteck - Symbols of Seven Harmonies

I mean, you have to respect their commitment to being mediocre 😆

I don't know if it's worth a damn, not having tried it, but I've seen in my local that several of the better known foreign brewers like Paulaner and Weihenstephan are making non-alcoholic versions of their beer. If anyone can pull off a reliably decent tasting non-alcoholic, it's probably going to be one of them. What's interesting about those breweries though, is because their beer is so "blah" in flavor, their quality control is absolutely topnotch. It has to be because being so lacking in actual flavor any deviation would be incredibly noticeable

>Brewers in Belgium using recipes crafted and honed over hundreds of years - "Our beers are malt forward, mildly bitter, with some noticeable dark fruit flavors" >Some dude in Australia who thinks beer is a synonym for yellow, fizzy water - "Beer should taste like beer, not a fruit bowl" Well, I'm convinced

Bro...are you having a stroke. you've said that like 3 times now 😆

IPA's and Pale Ales aren't my chosen style, but I won't turn my nose up at them if that's what's available...and there has been the rare occasion, on a really hot day, when Ive absolutely craved one. My go-to styles in the summer months are typically brown ales, hefeweizans, or vienna lagers (though fuck Boston Lager, that stuff is ass). I've also picked up a taste for cream ales in the last couple of years. Love Scotch ales and Bocks, and I'll drink them all year around, but they can sit a bit heavy when you're eating a big meal, like at a family cook out. Funny you say that because my understanding of hazy ipa's are that they're typically not very bitter. That was supposedly the reason for their popularity... they caught on with the more casual market who wanted to be seen drinking trendy beers, but didn't like the bitter taste of the west coast style. Not at all. I think you've got the idea that when people are talking about beer with a fruit flavor they're talking about it like it tastes like orange soda or something, but they're really talking about more of a subtle aftertaste that's similar to bitter fruits like grapefruit or the rind from an orange. Those are flavors that lends themselves very naturally to the bitter, kind of piny and floral flavors that comes from beer hops. ...also, I can get beer that tastes like bacon, so anything is possible 😁

Yeah...I don't want it to sound like I'm complaining by any means. Md definitely isn't lacking for options, and if I have a craving for a certain style I can almost always find a well done version on the shelf. It's more that between the pandemic, the popularity of Hazy IPAs, and alternatives to beer fighting for the same shelf space, I've noticed there are far less options for a given style available than there was about 5 or so years ago...especially for styles that aren't in fashion with the Instagram crowd. Like, the brewers in North America are really good at making various types of IPA's and Stouts, so if I can't get Yeti from Great Divide anymore, it's disappointing but someone local probably makes something nearly as good. When it comes to a lot of the classic European styles though, well we don't have 1000 years worth of experience making Belgian style ales like Trappist monks in Europe. With a few exceptions, our versions of those styles are just pale imitations. So when a beer like that gets crowded off the shelf because local brewery #256 puts out another Hazy or Sour or whatever, it becomes a lot harder to find a replacement. Thats kind of what I'm disappointed about EDIT: I get it though. Both breweries and liquor stores need to prioritize what's selling, so from a business standpoint I totally understand why things are the way they are right now

Holy shit...yes. Especially the "Hazy IPA". How many versions of that style do people need? To be fair, I'm by no means hurting for good beer, and a lot of the local brewers are making some really good stuff. I just hate seeing the market contract to the point where certain styles are all but dying off because they aren't trendy. Like, give me a good bock or scotch ale, instead of the the 3000th fruited, imperial, milkshake sour

That's definitely a factor as well...was just wasting time today, hitting a couple of nearby stores just to see what they had, and local has absolutely eaten up the majority of shelf space. Ciders and alcoholic seltzers are cutting in too. It's just that it recently occurred to me that I haven't seen certain mainstay import beers on the shelf, and what they do have seems to be just the absolute basics...mostly hefeweizens

New Necrot is bland as fuck... ...that is all Necrot - Lifeless Birth https://necrot.bandcamp.com/album/lifeless-birth?from=discover_page

Trust me, while not as bad as it is for you, it's not exactly all sunshine and rainbows coming the other way. I was going to buy a Runespell (aussie black metal band) shirt the other day off of Bandcamp and they wanted $20 U.S. for the shirt and another $20 for the shipping...$40 for one t-shirt. Honestly, these days it doesn't matter where you're at. Shipping from overseas is an absolute shitshow. I wonder if thats why import beers are seeming to disappear from off the shelves. My area still gets some, but the sheer number has shrunken dramatically

Think they were going for a Sarcofago vibe, but that works too

Rapture - Aeons of Devastation Chilean death metal https://rapturedeathmetal.bandcamp.com/album/aeons-of-devastation

Hellish - La Danza de las Cuatro Serpientes Elementales Chilean blackened thrash https://entheosrecs.bandcamp.com/album/la-danza-de-las-cuatro-serpientes-elementales

Stop...you're going to make me blush. 😁 I am actually alive and well, and amusingly enough just happened to be looking in on the forum late last night when I saw my name go up, so I figured I'd check in. Didn't mean to completely wander off like I did, tends to happen with me sometimes when it feels like conversation at a place has gotten too quiet or fallen into too much of a rut...something else will grab my attention and off I go...and yeah, the new job, while not overly taxing by any means, definitely has moments where it needs a lot of my time (the next several weeks for example). So, that certainly doesn't help. As for Whitenoise and my taste, there is quite a bit of overlap. We definitely cover a lot of the same ground, and I've pulled some good reco's from him over the years, but he's right when he says we have different priorities in our music. Usually a lot of the stuff he likes best would get just get a "not bad" rating from me, and he'd probably say the same about a lot of my personal favorites. In recent years my tastes have been running toward bands that like to hide a surprising level of melody under a thick layer of fuzzy production...the so called "raw black metal" trend. Though, I'll admit, it's a trend that's quickly wearing out its welcome. I'm also probably a lot more forgiving of the use of synth, even though I seem to be one of only 5 people who's already over that Moonlight Sorcery band that's making everyone cream their shorts. Regarding my year end list...honestly, I got tired of trying to whittle it down to a manageable number, and since there was no real pressing need to have one, I figured why make myself nuts, and basically just kind of stopped working on it. If you want to see it "as-is" though, I'm more than happy to post my rough list. Hope everyone is doing well