SurgicalBrute

Damn...that was fast. They already dropped a new demo and an EP this year

Okay...all caught up 2004 Armagedda - Ond Spiritism: Djæfvvlens Skalder Anno Serpenti MMIV Evilfeast - Mysteries of the Nocturnal Forest Kill - Horned Holocaust Satan's Host - Burning the Born Again... (A New Philosophy) Wolf - Evil Star Behexen - By the Blessing of Satan Church of Misery - The Second Coming Drowning the Light - Drowned Tsjuder - Desert Northern Hell The Chasm - The Spell of Retribution

Okay, for the record, I personally think that's a oversimplification for why violence exists, but for arguments sake, let's say that's true. Man is inherently violent, and we will enact that violence in some way at some point. There's still no evidence to suggest violent art enables this behavior. Everything we've ever studied on the subject says the exact opposite. So what exactly are we meant to be calling out regarding art? If anything, the ability to express these feelings in art, and the ability to engage with these feelings while viewing art, probably serves as a safe way to reduce those impulses...acting as a pressure release

This...particularly when studies into this have continually shown our behavior isn't determined solely by the content we view

So you believe that man, even in a day and age of relative civility, is completely incapable of overcoming his baser instincts? So what's your take on the various studies done towards video games, movies, and television that have repeatedly shown there is no direct causation between viewing violent art and becoming violent?

That's because we've been socialized over who knows how long into the view point that as a society we should protect women, and that's fine, but it's a socialization issue. In reality, the slaughter of any innocent human life is problematic, and I don't really think you (in the general sense) can make an argument about one depiction being worse than another that goes beyond a simple "this bothers me more on a personal level", and have it hold up to any real scrutiny. As for this part of your comment...that's an absolutely massive slippery slope you're standing on. We've seen time and time again, in various art forms that their is no direct causation between art and real world violence (I'll also add, there seems to be some evidence that it isn't a direct cause of misogyny either). That being said, there is some acknowledged indication that it can create a temporary increase in aggression within the brain, but this increase is no different than what you would see in an athlete during a competition. So if we're following this idea that even minor examples should be discouraged...that doesn't stop at pictures you don't like. That goes for your music, your TV, your books, your lyrics, your movies, etc. That's a point of view I can't get behind

Fleshcrawl - Made of Flesh

Does it though? I mean, I find albums that use that kind of art a bit uncomfortable to look at myself, but I can see how the band may look at it as some kind of weird brand imaging thing. I don't think it necessarily says anything about the band themselves as far as them having weird issues with women. It is an interesting question though. Murder and even torture are also real things. What makes this any more problematic than some band cover with a dude getting strung up on meat hooks or the like? I'd say it depends a lot on the depiction...not little kids obviously, but Pearl Jams "Jeremy" video came very close to this sort of thing Venom Prison - Animus cover art...Castrator - No Victim cover art...no one really batted an eyelash about it

Orange Goblin - Thieving From the House of God

Sleep I like...High on Fire does nothing for me Nothing like that...As I'm sure you've seen by now, it's just to keep down of forum clutter and minimize thread doubling. Honestly, it's pretty lax around here. I think most of us tend to forget these genre specific threads even exist since we tend to wander off subject quite a bit in the general metal thread

Hey man...don't get bogged down on semantics. What FA and Relentless are saying is that there's both a Stoner metal thread and a Doom metal thread. You are welcome to use either one to talk about stoner doom bands, but we don't need a totally separate thread for "stoner doom" since it falls between either of those categories.

I think Tara is the only Absu album I own, but never really clicked with me all that much. Maybe I'll get back around to it someday and give it another go. ChaosMancer - Procreation Of The Unholy (South American death metal has really been hitting just right the last few weeks)

New Weregoat

2003 Armagedda - Only True Believers Verminous - Impious Sacrilege Nocternity - Onyx Slugathor - Unleashing the Slugathron Abigail - Forever Street Metal Bitch Sargeist - Satanic Black Devotion Funeral Mist - Salvation Darkspace - Dark Space I Torturer - The Flames of Purification Faustcoven - The Halo of Burning Wings

No...trust me, it's not under explored. It was just a bad year for metal 2002 Inquisition - Invoking the Majestic Throne of Satan Sadistik Exekution - Fukk Unlord - Lord of Beneath Wolf - Black Wings Taake - Over Bjoergvin graater himmerik Kaamos – S/T Baptism - The Beherial Midnight Suidakra - Emprise to Avalon Craft - Terror Propaganda (Second Black Metal Attack) Sadism - Summon

I started with maybe 15 for 2001...by comparison, for 2000 and 2002 I started with roughly 40 for each year

Azarath - Demon Seed

2001 - overall, absolute dogshit year for metal Armagedda - The Final War Approaching Blood Storm - Ancient Wraith of Ku Church of Misery - Master of Brutality Deteriorot - In Ancient Beliefs Horna - Sudentaival Vomitory - Revelation Nausea Arkona - Zeta Reticuli: A Tale About Hatred and Total Enslavement Darkened Nocturn Slaughtercult - Follow the Calls for Battle Azarath - Demon Seed Satanic Warmaster - Strength & Honour

That was my point though... Those bands use of early social media to grab attention and build a fan base large enough that labels were willing to put money behind them showed it could theoretically be done again. It's proof of concept, even though it was a much smaller scale. Part of the reason it worked though was because the bands weren't much older than the fans they were engaging with, so they were young enough to be aware of the cultural shift in the way people communicated and take advantage of it. For metal to really take off again though, it would require a lot of different things to converge at just the right time. At the very least, you'd need some combination of: Something game changing in the social media landscape. Metal bands with members young enough to be aware of it, in order to take advantage of it Music that can grab devoted fan base, but would still be palatable enough to spread to a wider audience Enough bands playing it to sustain it So like I said before, it's pretty unlikely, but you never know what tomorrows going to bring either

One thing to also keep in mind here is what the next big step in social media might do for metal as a commercial force. I'm not arguing that metal came anywhere near it's heights from the 80's when I say this, but no matter what people may personally feel about metalcore and deathcore, there's no denying those bands were incredibly savvy in the way they used early social media platforms like MySpace to build a fanbase. It was effective enough that, at least for a short time, music labels were willing to put some money behind those bands in order to ride the trend. So there is some precedent that it can happen, but it really would require just the right alignment of something new grabbing a younger generations attention, and metal bands being quick enough to really take advantage of it.

Okay, because I'm lazy and only skimmed through this, let me ask. When people are saying thrash and metal in general has peaked/plateaued are you talking in terms of commercial viability or are you talking in terms of artistic expression? I don't think there's any question that metal of any kind has seen it's commercial heyday come and go...and while it's not impossible that it could happen again, I think it's extremely unlikely. Now has thrash metal seen its artistic peak? Arguably I'd have to say it probably has simply because it's such an explored genre that anything that might be seen as truly innovative would probably have to change the formula so much that it would run the risk of actually becoming something entirely unique. As for metal in general, I don't necessarily think that's true from an artistic point. It may not happen in our lifetime, but I don't think you can reasonably dismiss the idea that somewhere down the line someone will come along and do something truly unique again

It kind of was, but it kind of wasn't, either

2000 The Chasm - Procession to the Infraworld Megiddo – Devil and The Whore Thyrfing - Urkraft Ragnarok – Diabolical Age Sorhin - Apokalypsens ängel Unlord - Gladiator Primordial - Spirit the Earth Aflame Besatt - Hail Lucifer Behexen - Rituale Satanum Månegarm - Havets vargar

Only reason I asked was because you said it would legitimately bother you, and that if you had to confine it to 10 then it wouldn't be fun for you. So, I was honestly just curious what you felt the difference was that it would bug you like that. That's all. Destroyer 666 - Phoenix Rising

Why though? I don't think anyone here expects that those 10 albums are the only albums you like from a given year, or even that they're the only 10 you consider your favorites from that year, so I guess I wonder why the idea of not having every favorite would bother you so much? I mean, I think most of us start with big lists too, and I know I have a hard time choosing between one album or another at a certain level, but at the end of the day it's just a list on a message board. So if albums 9 and 10 are on the same level as albums 11 - 14, why does it matter which two make the list and which 4 get cut off? At that point they're essentially interchangeable, and you, presumably, know what your whole list of albums is already. So, outside of the rest of us just not seeing them, what changes for you personally if you were to only post 10 of those albums? I know you've said this before, and that's fine...no one's saying you shouldn't, but if the point is to keep a record for your own use, wouldn't it be much easier to just use a spreadsheet, or a website like RYM which is specifically for that kind of thing? I mean, you must have so many arbitrary lists floating around now, it's got to be a pain in the ass to remember which threads you dropped them in. I'm not saying this because I have an issue with it. I've known you long enough to know that the only way you could make a list of 10 is if everyone else agreed that the limit was 5, so I wasn't exactly doing a shocked pikachu face when you listed extra, but you were asking why the rest of us were trying to stick with just 10 albums. For me, the answer is because that was the point of the thread. Mortuary Drape - Tolling 13 Knell Pagan Hellfire - A Voice from Centuries Away