Nasty_Cabbage

NP: Deletere - Songes d'une Nuit Souillee

▶︎ Songes d'une Nuit Souillée | Délétère (bandcamp.com)

Black metal in a similar style to last years Liber Lvcifer II: Mahapralaya by Thy Darkened by Thy Darkened Shade, which I enjoyed. Not an immediate purchase, but we'll see how it treats me over the next few weeks.

NP: Dark Hunter - s/t

▶︎ Dark Hunter | Dark Hunter (bandcamp.com)

Cool album courtesy of Peru. This album gets me and what I want. Put the riffs front and center and then add whatever layer works best; raw, atmospheric, etc., but the riff needs to come first and drive the whole thing forward. It seems these guys have elected to forgoe any synth or atmospheric elements in favor of a much more stripped down approach. It still takes a few cues from newer bands, but the raw production helps the songs keep to the task at hand with minimal garbling of the sound, and the guitars as a clear focal point.

3 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

At the risk of incurring the wrath of FA, I really like that cover art. Looks like they reinvigorated it with a new color palate for the reissue. On the fence about the music though. It's serviceable for South American death metal circa 1996, I'll make it through 'til the end no problem. So not bad, but it's nothing special, I wouldn't be looking to buy this. Production's a bit thin, maybe that's what my problem is. There are a lot better SADM album than this imo, but maybe I've just been down the brutal death rabbit hole for a few weeks now and I could be having some trouble acclimating as I come back up for air. Not really hearing a lot of thrash here, but maybe I just misunderstood you. Not hearing any Angelcorpse or any Sodom. South America certainly has produced a ton of great death/thrash over the years though, at least on that much we can agree. These dudes definitely have some potential, I think maybe I'll check out some of their other albums and compare.

 

Masacre - Total Death, Colombian death 2004. This album cover kinda sucks, but the music is a bit better, and the production as well, fuller sounding, more deathlier. Good shit. Yes, I would think about buying this.

 

Masacre - Muerte Verdadera Muerte, 2001. This one's sort of halfway between the '96 one Sacro you posted and the one from '04 just above this. Yes this shit is right up my alley. Not sure if there are two vocalists here, the low register vocals are good, the higher shrieky ones not so much. But I can't let that ruin it for me, this music is very good. Probably my favorite of their albums.

 

Masacre - Brutal Aggre666ion, 2014. This one's a bit newer, more generic homogenized death metal sound. I definitely like it though, lots of cool lead work, same 2 guitarists so I guess they must've learned how to play a little better by 2014.

 

Their first album Reqviem from 1991 isn't very good, kind of amateurish with pretty shitty production. Fair enough, it was '91 in Colombia and they were probably just kids at the time so I can forgive them. But I'm not gonna bother posting the video for that one.

So my Colombian Masacre rankings are as follows: Muerte Verdadera Muerte #1, Total Death #2, Brutal Agre666ion #3, Sacro #4, Reqviem #5. All of them have something to offer and are worth hearing except for the debut I guess which I would skip. For fans of underground South American death metal anyway. The Pantera peeps probably wouldn't be interested.

Well to be fair the Pantera fans would probably not be interested in much besides giving Dime too much credit, pretending their glam phase never happened, and how to sound like Anselmo without ravaging their vocal cords like him.

Seriously though, nice breakdown. I overrate South American death leaning thrash all the time. I am hopelessly addicted to the stuff. Like an alcoholic in prison I've come to appreciate toilet brewed hooch for what it is.  As compared to their other south american peers I'd probably place them higher than Vulcano, but below Sextrash.

NP: Trivax - Eloah Burns Out

Eloah Burns Out | Trivax (bandcamp.com)

A whole lot of later Behemoth in this one. Not a bad thing. Obviously I prefer Behemoths black metal early stuff before Zos Kia. The later stuff can strike me from time to time, but they also went with a very overproduced sound quality that made it a little difficult to really accept the whole black to death metal with a pinch of black metal as seasoning evolution. Looking back, the signs were there. I just wasn't able to identify them. This is pretty close to that as well. I won't completely trash it, but maybe it's not  what I'm after right now.

NP: Masacre - Sacro

▶︎ Sacro | Masacre | Nuclear War Now! Productions (bandcamp.com)

Reissued last year. I should have been paying attention since this album is excellent. I definitely get more of an Angelcorpse vibe than Sodom, but I wouldn't complain about either. I really wonder what's in the water in most South American nations that they consistently put out some of the best extreme thrash out there. This whole album just bleeds 'woke up in a pool of blood on a greasy dive bar dirt floor and immediately started drinking again'. Alright looks like I'm headed right into another listening binge of Sextrash, Mutilator, Vulcano, and Sarcofago.

7 hours ago, Kristiko said:

Devin Townsend - Empath (album)

You know, I'm not huge into Strapping Young Lad or Devin's solo stuff so I don't really know where this one ranks among his fanbase. The only one I own and still play regularly is Synchestra. Without my rose tinted nostalgia glasses though, I have to admit that one is a really up and down listening experience. I also recall a lot of people lauding Ocean Machine, but still a ways from being everyone's consensus number one of his.

Then this album dropped and really hit me with a straight up right hook, and for a few months I was all about it. I don't see too many people talking about this one. Are you a fan? If so where do you rank this among his other albums (and for the sake of clarity lets just count the SYL albums and that weird Ziltoid saga thing as part of his catalogue).

I do have a lot of respect for Devin though. You don't get to bring Steve Vai a water when he's on stage unless your musical midi-chlorians are supernaturally high.

NP: Chapel of Disease - The Mysterious Ways of Repetitive Art.

• CHAPEL OF DISEASE - The Mysterious Ways of Repetitive Art [Full-length Album] OSDM - YouTube

I tried the new album from them yesterday, and I have to say they've really fallen off a cliff. This album's good. I just don't know how you get from that to whatever the new one was.

18 minutes ago, markm said:

I'm not even sure I really distinguish between what I consider stoner doom (Sleep, Wino, Pentagram, EW, YOB), traditional or so called epic l doom (Candlemass, Solitude Aeturnus) and hard doom. I think the marginal lines of error are so razor thin that it's mute other than stoner doom incorporates more 70's psyche and jamy sounds but to me it's just doom. 

Stoner = Lots of blues scales. Epic like Candlemass and Solitude almost always has a much more European approach to their melodies. There are exceptions though. St. Vitus, The Obsessed, Pentagram, and Cathedral take up the blues mantle more often than not and kind of go at it from a different angle that muddies the demarcation between stoner and epic. Then there's stuff like The Living Fields and Fall of the Idols that have harsh vocals (who I feel like I've been listening to and following forever) who work their way through both. YOB and Ufomammutt would probably fall in with that crowd. Even so YOB really only made a couple of actual stoner albums (Elaborations of Carbon and Catharsis) and even there you could definitely hear them trying to stretch the range of stoner and pushing the bluesy stuff to it's limit. Everything from The Illusion of Motion on and all bets are off. It's one of the reasons they're awesome. They have a completely unique signature sound, but each album feels like a different beast with it's own distinguishing characteristics within that sound.

NP: Thrall - Schisms

▶︎ Schisms | Thrall (bandcamp.com)

Don't mind it at all. There's a decent amount of ear piquing moments throughout. I hadn't heard of them before, but I'll definitely be keeping my eye on them going forward.

2024 has been fairly quiet for me as far as thrash goes. Haven't heard all that much that blew me away. Here's probably the thrash album so far whose wavelength I find it easiest to get on.

Night Slasher - s/t

▶︎ Night Slasher | Night Slasher (bandcamp.com)

33 minutes ago, Thatguy said:

Yeah, nah. I've never found the mix of church organ sound and rock instrumentation appealing. And yes, he can clearly play, but there are so many more interesting things you can do with an organ (no obvious jokes needed here thanks - those I'm talking to know who they are) - Messiaen, Anna von Hausswolf, Keith Jarrett - to name just a few. And then there's the fucking choir.

Woah woah woah. You leave poor Messiaen out of this. That yt video of his music next to the bird calls his music imitates is my favorite for confusing and angering people's pet cats. Now as far as organs go I tend toward using them in the proper context. I like Deep Purple and all, but they don't really capture the organ to it's potential. At least this Keygen stuff has some evident classical influence beyond the inevitable "Wagnerian" symphonic black metal (*blech). True that it doesn't reach all the way back to baroque, but it's also about as well integrated into the energetic style as you could hope for.

NP: Hideous Divinity - Unextinct

Unextinct (24-bit HD audio) | Hideous Divinity | Century Media Records (bandcamp.com)

This is exactly my bag. Seems like every year there's at least one brutal death metal album that snakes it's way onto my top ten with it's technical leanings, and this one's an early contender.

1 hour ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

These Belgians did an album in 2018 called Blood Oath that I really loved. Played the shit out of it. I missed that they'd put out a follow-up in 2021 until I heard this new one a couple of months ago. Still love the debut, but neither of the two subsequent releases do anything at all for me. Booooooring. I hate when this happens, but it happens all the time, which I why I have no band loyalty. In my world you're only as good as your last album or two. And two shitty albums in a row means you're effectively dead to me. 

 

Rituals of the Dead Hand - Blood Oath, black/doom 2018 Belgium

 

I'll check that Blood Oath tonight. I do hear potential in their new one. It's just a shame that it's spread so thin across the album.

NP: Keygen Church - Nel Nome Del Codice

▶︎ Nel Nome Del Codice | KEYGEN CHURCH (bandcamp.com)

Seen this one showing up this past week with a good deal of frequency. I was not expecting this. They've got both pipe organ and a really good concert piano sound going at once in parts. That piano sound with the choral elements is spot on. Honestly this dude knows his composition and lays down some completely lethal keys. Couldn't call it full on black metal, but I can appreciate what it is. This is about a nine out of ten for me, with the only drawback being the pulsing electronica effects on the guitar. Approaching it like you would a Progenie Terrestre Pura album this stuff shreds with wanton abandon out of nowhere. Gets a high recommendation from me.

NP: Rituals of the Dead Hand - The Wretched and The Vile

▶︎ RITUALS OF THE DEAD HAND The Wretched and the Vile | The Nox Entity (bandcamp.com)

Starting things off today with some black metal. I'm only a few tracks in. So far they're hitting the right buttons, just not quickly enough. I really find myself wanting less repetition. I can tell they like to build their atmosphere (sans keyboard as well), but going eight measures with each riff with little to no variation is going to test my patience if it should continue.

NP: Hypoxia - Defiance

▶︎ Defiance | HYPOXIA | Selfmadegod (bandcamp.com)

Seeing this had Michael Poggione on bass duty is what piqued my interest. Dude's been a bass mercenary for a while, and you've likely heard him play on something if you've been on a death metal diet for a while. I kind of like this because taken at face value it's about what you'd expect; brutal death that would be at home on Unique Leader or Razorback, but it's not brutal death with a capitol B. Primary influence I'm hearing is early Suffocation with just the slightest nod toward melody. Don't take me the wrong way though. You wouldn't mistake these guys for At The Gates in any universe ever, but it's presence does keep things interesting.

2 hours ago, FatherAlabaster said:

No issue, no need to defend. I'm surprised that you love it. Knowing how demanding and analytical you are in your listening, it seems incongruous to me. I feel like if you heard the musical equivalent of something this derivative and poorly executed, you'd have a scathing review ready to go before the end of the first song. 

I do think there's a very broad spectrum of "good art", and something doesn't need to be technically impressive to be impactful and meaningful, and being a good illustration is outside of both of those considerations. But even with that in mind I think this cover art sucks. It flaunts a lack of effort. So many other images in the genre are just way cooler and better done. I don't really put a lot of stock in cover art either way but this makes me a bit less likely to want to listen to the music.

So yeah, I'm a little surprised to see your high standards for music juxtaposed with genuine enjoyment of this piece. But I'm also not telling you what to enjoy... if this works for you, then great. You are the target audience. Love wins.

Fair enough I suppose even if I think "demanding" is a little strong. I should probably profess my love of gritty hand drawn artwork more often, and especially if it's sub sword and sorcery b-grade fantasy related. I'll occasionally criticize some of it for having very poor depth of field (that new Cirith Ungol still hurts my eyes), or trying to mimic Dan Seagrave and ending up just looking too busy.

Also musically maybe I am a little harsh on certain bands. If I'm being pulled both toward the extremely technical end of things or the simpler exposed raw nerve feeling over execution school, I probably resist the simpler one a little more. Still some of my personal favorites do come from that side. It might be that higher levels of complexity to my ears allow for a ton more variance and personal style. I can completely understand how somebody might hear Decrepit Birth and just hear later era Death worship. What's more they'd probably be correct to say so, but because of the abundance of musical choices made in the course of a given Decrepit Birth song I tend to listen to how and where they deviate from Death's style, and that's a little harder to do with a band that worships Under The Sign of The Black Mark era Bathory. When it hits me though, it hits hard.

NP: Overpower - Becoming the Tyrant

Becoming The Tyrant | Overpower | Mercenary Press (bandcamp.com)

Nifty little EP. Crunchy guitar tone. The pace changes edge a little too close to crossover thrash/hardcore for me to rave about it.

1 hour ago, FatherAlabaster said:

Really? Unironically?

Ummm... yeah. It doesn't all have to be Frazetta, but the influence is pretty clear, and if there's been some editing done to clean it up a little it doesn't take anything away from the hand-drawn feel. Wait, why am I defending my admiration of 'evil guy on a throne with a sword and fire' #3,041? I've got nothing against simplicity being used where simplicity works. What's the issue?

NP:  HÄXÄNKING - Pogani Spjevi

▶︎ Pogani Spjevi | HÄXÄNKING (bandcamp.com)

Love that cover. Something tells me if I asked him what optimization settings he was running his pc on he'd say "Crush Enemies = MAX, See Enemies Driven Before You = MAX, Hear the Lamentation of their Women = MAX."

1 hour ago, AlSymerz said:

Fuck! I thought there was something seriously fucking weird going on with the last three songs. There was extra instruments and shit that shouldn't have been there. Then in the last song started hearing an instrumental of Hotel California. It was then I realise the cooking videos I was looking at had sound and YT wasn't muted! Sounds much better without YT

😆Ha. I think we've all done that once or twice, but you got through at least two songs? Did you think the band had fallen off the deep end and gone full experimental modernism John Cage on everyone? That's actually really funny. I can see something like that causing some one's great grandparent to stroke.

Disclaimer: Don't be offended. I know you're not foolish, but that really is funny to me.

2 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Master - Master, Chicago 1990. Yes this is more like it. I think a large part of Deicide's popularity is mostly because Benton's an animated caricature of a satanic death metal front-man with the inverted cross branding, and the outrageous statements that have garnered some low-key publicity. While Speckmann just plays music. I'll take the first two Master albums over the first two Deicides any day.

Agreed. The self titled Master album deserves it's vaunted place in the history books. Deicide to me, can be pretty good, but you're right about the attention seeking. I feel really split about them. On just a strictly musical level they're a little above average, especially for how long they've been around. Benton is the textbook definition of what a lot of people would call a tryhard though.

44 minutes ago, AlSymerz said:

I play Scrabble.

I'm such a nerd!

Scrabble's fine for a day in with a few other people. It's one of those games that nearly everybody can play so there's not too many super-involved mechanics. Board games are strange in how willing or unwilling people are to learn them. I own a couple of board games that I've pretty much had to admit to myself I'll never get to actually play. Even fairly streamlined two-player games like Twilight Struggle seem especially difficult to get anybody to learn. Oh well.

Currently enjoying a really casual puzzle/platformer called Worldless. It's pretty good for what it is, but the abstractness of the whole thing sometimes gets in the way of getting any kind of solid instructions on some of the mechanics. For a lot of people who are really into the whole hidden mechanics thing that probably sound like somebody complaining that Mario Bros. NES doesn't tell you how to sprint, but there's really no reason for some of the vagueness here. The abstraction is pretty well preserved in the few bare bones story elements (there's almost none that I can tell so far) without having me wonder what the hell the weird interactable object I came across actually does. On the plus side the combat is a really great mix of older combat ideas and innovative new ones. It's not a full on rhythm game, but that does play a part. It's turn based, but actually fairly quick between turns using the timing elements to their max. Really good example of 'the bosses are the puzzles' philosophy of design that works really well for me.

5 hours ago, AlSymerz said:

There is a couple of songs on it that I skip and (without any hard evidence) I think there was some of the lyrics written as a kind of 'fuck you' to Dave Mustaine and the media. It's definitely not an album I listen to often but I don't mind a few of the songs now and again.

Well Mustaine was never known for his even temperament. At this point he's responsible for making just as much bad Megadeth as good Megadeth, and burning every bridge he crossed along the way. That ratio doesn't look to reverse in the future either.

NP: Slakpest - We All Shall Fall

▶︎ We All Shall Fall | Slaktpest | Salute Records (bandcamp.com)

Cool. The label made sure to emphatically state at the bottom of the bandcamp page that there is no website for this band, which is something of a headscratcher. I can understand the counter-mainstream attitude, and nobody's saying you have to employ a whole pr manager, but not even an MA page seems a bit much. Eh. Music's pretty good. Seems like it was recorded and mastered over a number of years so the production values being a bit different from track to track makes sense.

14 hours ago, AlSymerz said:

Dieth - To Hell And Back

Gotta say man, I despised this. I realize there's always going to be a discrepancy between what the general herd thinks represents extreme metal and the random outliers being cantankerous and seemingly not liking anything, but goddamn this album sounded supremely lazy and ineffective from the basic designed for radio single (something serpent something or other) to the rest of them. The whole bloody thing was flat, unimaginative, and safe.

NP Dominus Sathanas - The Black Hordes of Lucifer

▶︎ DOMINUS SATHANAS - The Black Hordes of Lucifer | BlackcrowneD Records (bandcamp.com)

There's that Venom influence I was looking for. Somewhat less punk (and more on beat, but that's a low bar to clear) than Venom, but the spirit's there.

57 minutes ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Well it's working for me.

Yeah. Probably just a case of just not hitting that particular mood for me today. We'll be back on the Scandinavian death train soon enough, though. Immediately after that I did manage to get on the same frequency as some Australian black metal so after a little course correction I'm good.

NP: Pestilential Shadows - Devil's Hammer

Devil's Hammer | Pestilential Shadows (bandcamp.com)

It's making want to go back and dig up some Cirith Gorgor for some reason.

NP: Cryptworm - Oozing Radioactive Vomition

▶︎ Oozing Radioactive Vomition | Cryptworm | Me Saco Un Ojo Records (bandcamp.com)

Honestly pretty middle of the road for having such a cool name and cover art. Definitely some non-Gothenberg Swedish influence (Entombed, Gorement, etc.) in the overall sound. Might hit the spot tomorrow or the day after since I do like a ton of this sort of thing, but today it just isn't working for me.

NP: Cercenatory - GoreSphere

▶︎ GoreSphere | CERCENATORY | Comatose Music (bandcamp.com)

Good stuff.

2 minutes ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Was on a forum about 15 years ago with this dude who touted Bethlehem incessantly. So I listened to part of their infamous second album one time (couldn't make it through the whole thing) and I never went back. Life is too short to waste time forcing yourself to like shit that you hate.

In general I agree. There are cases though, where curiosity gets the best of me and I end up finding out I was really trying to get at an album or artist from the wrong mindset or just happened to have some negative associations with them that I'd allowed to cloud my listening. It doesn't happen super often, but it does happen. I just wish whoever's managing that tiny little office in my brain would email me a memo or something when they decide to change their position like that.

NP: Drowned - Idola Specus

▶︎ Idola Specus | Drowned (bandcamp.com)

Archive keyword roulette again today. This one's a little odd. Coming out of Berlin with a string of shorter demos and singles, they supposedly formed in '92, but didn't record a full length until this album came out in 2014. The members seem like some of the same people from the demos, but they're abbreviated is such a way that I don't know who's an original member and who isn't. It would certainly be difficult to have the same exact people together for an album over twenty years later, but who knows. Stranger things have happened.

34 minutes ago, Necrolord said:

 

My bad @Nasty_Cabbage, I was thinking of Bethlehem when I wrote that, not Beherit! Bethlehem is dog shit. Tabernacle is a funny word. 

 

Bethlehem's an acquired taste, for sure. Took me a while to come around to them, but I got there eventually.

4 hours ago, Necrolord said:

Fascinating that you seem to care about which band is 'mainstream' or not and somehow this affects your judgment of their music? I don't care one bit about anything other than the pure music. I don't get distracted by the other stuff. It's odd that you even mention that. You should ignore everything except for the music. 

We probably have huge tastes difference re bm. I've been listening to all kinds of bm for over a decade. Everythng from Abigor to Zyklon, limbonic art, summoning, everything in between, even crap like Beherit etc etc..... I've delved into the deep end, don't worry... 

 

The ministry of jovial skeletons would not hear ye speak ill of Beherit, good sir.

Seriously though, this might be one of my favorite black metal compilations/album cover combos ever. I love how they all look like they're walking home from black mass talking casually, ready to sit back in their doubtless equally decayed recliners and put on the game.

NP: Adversaion - Dejection of the Malign Tabernacle

▶︎ Dejection of the Malign Tabernacle | Adversaion (bandcamp.com)

Death metal right out of the older playbook. Doesn't go too hard on the gore theming either, but lets it serve it's purpose. Love the riff work and the brief utilitarian solos that show just enough instrumental capability without a hint of ego or flash. Just a hint more Autopsy influence and  get rid of the spoken word bits that pop up now and then, and it'd be all aces. As it is, though, still excellent.