Phobophile

Rainbow is one band that is not introduced to new metalheads enough. In my nearly 12 years of listening to metal (still a newbie), I seriously didn't listen to Rising until about 3-4 years ago. I can't believe it took me that long. But in all honesty, I very likely would have dismissed it when I was 17, so there's that.

Only the ones made out of corn starch.

Enter My Silence - Coordinate: D1SA5T3R probably takes the cake on this one. Polished, modern production, douchey album title (seriously it's terrible but I don't hold that against the album), and really solid riffs with good hooks. Solution .45 - For Aeons Past just has no good riffing and is far too vocally driven. Melo-death that's so watered down just might as well be "angry" Euro power metal. I want to like that album but it just meanders.

I definitely think there's a market for this. I just listened to a couple tracks on your Soundcloud page and there's a lot of overlap in your aesthetic with the current instrumental/prog/djent scene.

If you want to be really glib and formulaic about it: Sludge = doom + some sort of hardcore + some some sort of psychedelic rock So bands like Acid Bath and Eyehategod, more "traditional" sludge bands combine Sabbathian elements with hardcore and Southern rock. Modern sludge (i.e. post-metal, a term which is kinda lame in my opinion) bands have doomy elements, often not with much Sabbath sound, post-hardcore, and post-rock (which is both psychedelic and innately doomy and often is the sole contributor to the band's doom aesthetic). Of course it's more nuanced than that and a lot of bands that you can consider to be "post-metal" don't sound all that sludgy, but like I said, I was being glib and formulaic about it.

Time to Die may be their best release since Dopethrone. I love Dopethrone, but it drags a bit to me towards the end (guess that means it's time to take another drag). Time to Die stays pretty consistently awesome throughout.

It's too damn expensive to fly to Australia. Stop being so expensive. I'd love to visit, but I've acknowledged that going to anywhere in the Pacific is going to be my entire vacation budget on just airfare.

I can agree with that. I do tend to forget about 1st wave BM and the intent of my post wasn't really to have discrete time periods where everything exists. Of course there are nuances and overlapping; influences from different bands who live in different areas and have concurrent ideas happening independently from one another. Plus, I just wasn't around back then lol.

Seriously, KEA is Metallica's only good album. I could do completely without their subsequent releases. RTL and MOP are incredibly overrated.

My first metal show was Children of Bodom opening up for Iced Earth. It was May 2004 at The Metro in Chicago (back when they actually played metal there). It's a shame they don't play metal there anymore. Fucking amazing sound and acoustics there.

Picked up an Artillery logo shirt with tour dates at their show a couple weeks ago in Chicago. Didn't realize they've never played in Chicago (hell that might have been their first US tour). Ordered Horrendous - Ecdysis from the band off Facebook. Should be here next week. Picked up a copy of Savage Master - Mask of the Devil last night at their show. First saw these guys in July opening for Slough Feg at this year's Alehorn of Power. Groovy, Cirith Ungol-inspired heavy metal and the frontwoman has a great set of pipes on her.

Holy shit, there was a new BAN? Sect(s) was pretty forgettable for me so that didn't set off the 777 trilogy on the right foot for me. Loved the first two Memoria Vetusta albums so I'll have to check this one out.

Here's my take on nu-metal: It's a studio exec's interpretation and marketing of that time period's hard rock. Follow the trends of mainstream, accessible "metal" for the past three and a half decades. When NWOBHM/trad metal came out in the 1980s, their response was glam/hair metal. It follows much of the visual and aural aesthetic of heavy metal, but in an accessible, mass-market appeal. Once that lost its luster and no longer became profitable by the late 80s/early 90s, mainstream hard rock turned its eye toward a grunge sound. A punk-inspired, countermovement to the cheesiness and decadence of the 1980s, which the 90s seemed to tried to shake off a great deal in many subcultures, not just music. That's when metal turned to the underground and the nascent death and black metal genres were able to proliferate. When grunge began to wane (it really seemed like Nirvana's demise ruined its profitability), the mid-1990s needed something new. Pantera's ability to thrive through the early 90s (ironic considering they started off as a hair metal and later switched to their groovy form of heavy metal) certainly influenced nu-metal. Groove is infectious. No doubt hip hop influenced nu-metal. The 90s saw hip hop become a mainstream phenomenon, which also is highly groovy. To a man in a suit, the two seem like a perfect fit, which is likely why we've seen so many hip hop-influenced nu-metal bands emerging by the late 90s. I think it's also important to note the significance of so-called "military metal" bands (like Drowning Pool and Disturbed) in the aughts (thanks to Ghouly's husband to introducing me to that hilarious pejorative term) as they seemed to have the nu-metal sound, but with less of the hip hop grooves seen a few years prior. Mainstream music is fashionable and easily goes out of vogue. Metalcore seemed like the next logical step in evolution in mainstream metal marketing. Hell, it sounds closer to actual metal than nu-metal did and it's riding on the coattails of the proliferation of melodic death/death metal that thrived in the underground in the 90s when heavy metal went all quiet on the western front, hence its insurgence in popularity in the late 2000s when nu-metal became old hat. I haven't been all that involved with current hard rock trends (hell, I don't even know if kids still like deathcore) but it would certainly interest me to see what "mainstream" form of metal/hard rock will succeed metalcore. I include mainstream in quotes because quite frankly, rock music isn't the marketable powerhouse it once was. It's very 20th Century. It's not even all that profitable to studio execs anymore. The consolidation of record labels and companies on the airwaves (thanks, Clear Channel!) and their avarice has been challenged by the internet and so they've reduced themselves to just pushing Top 40 drivel everywhere. My post kinda seems like it goes all over the place, but really my point is simple: follow the money.

I saw these guys in Chicago a few weeks ago. Holy fuck what an amazing show. Court in the Act truly is amazing, but do so check out their other two full-lengths. Life Sentence, their 2013 release, actually might be even better. Even managed to snag a photo with Brian Ross after the concert.

I completely disagree; Rainbows Are Free is a fan-fucking-tastic band name. Not enough tongue-in-cheek names out there. I haven't heard much from their first album, but Waves Ahead of the Ocean has been my best Bandcamp purchase this year. Highly, highly recommended for anyone a fan of stoner metal/modern doom/stoner rock. It's a wonderful album that treads the line between metal and hard rock ("Snake Bitten By Love" probably is the only straight-up hard rock track on the album and it plays like an awesome cock rock radio-play track). Great metal grooves with that 90s stoner rock punk energy. The album is available for full stream here: https://guestroomrecords.bandcamp.com/album/waves-ahead-of-the-ocean

The new Horrendous (Ecdysis) is anything but. Goddamn it's been a while since I've heard some really good DM and this is it. Death/early AtG/early Entombed vibe with some proggish-sounding atmosphere. Seriously bought the album after one listen.

Seriously an underappreciated band. Love the vocals. Totally Danzig-esque with such a thick Italian accent, lol.

None So Vile came out nearly two decades ago! Most current tech death bands wish they were half as coherent. And I can see where you're coming from with the album being exhausting. It's relentless, which is why I love it. They had the right idea keeping the LP's length to just over half an hour.

Stained Class is my favorite. Not a bad song in it. Painkiller comes in second but the album has terrible pacing. It blows it's load with the opening title track. The rest of the album is really good but each subsequent track isn't quite as nearly as good as the one before. Defenders of the Faith is my third favorite. It's a very consistent album throughout but nothing stands out too much for me. Screaming for Vengeance is next. Great singles mixed with a couple meh ones. You Got Another Thing Coming is a blatant radio play track and seriously drags the entire album down for me. I like Sad Wings but it's a bit "primitive"-sounding for me. It's the hardest for me to want to listen to consistently. I hate to admit I haven't heard British Steel. And I could do without listening to the rest of the discography.

Can't say I have. Just looked at their page on M-A and I'm intrigued. Looks like they have a pretty big discography; what's a good starting point?

[ATTACH]1540[/ATTACH] Well this is the thread for me. Went on a big haul for beers in Wisconsin (just about an hour drive north of Chicago) last weekend with a friend to do some "grocery" shopping. Picked up a rather big haul of some Wisconsin brews that don't distribute to Illinois. Particularly New Glarus. Half that shopping cart is new Glarus beer. Got some of their apple ale, cranberry lambic (both seasonals), their double IPA, their blonde lager (clean and refreshing), and Moon Man pale ale (a mainstay, but always good). I also picked up a couple six packs of Founders' Mosaic Promise, a SMASH made with Golden Promise malt and Mosaic hops. My homebrew club was fortunate to have a quarter barrel of it for our Oktoberfest a couple weeks ago and it tastes like baby Jesus's tears. Founders is one of the best Great Lakes region breweries and this is one of their finest offerings to date. And it's autumn so that means that Breakfast Stout should be back on shelves soon, if not already. I bought so much beer that day I can't remember it all. I also picked up a six pack of Nebraska Brewing Company's Brunette (I love brunettes more than blondes [emoji6] ). It's one of the tastiest nut brown ales I've had. Sessionable with just the right malt profile. Too many American offerings of this style are far too high in gravity and this gets it right at 4.7% ABV. American Brewers often treat this style as an autumn or early winter warmer but I love sessionable malt beers and this one stays truer to the English style. A damn good and surprising find from a brewery in the middle of nowhere (lol Nebraska).

you haven't heard Cryptopsy? Lord Worm's vocals are godly on None So Vile. Flo Mournier's drumming has brilliant phrasing--the drums are almost melodic onto themselves. Jon Levasseur is a great bassist; awesome slap bass in a brutal/tech death album. It's almost like the weakest part of the album are the guitars--but the riffs and solos rock my face off. And the album cover depicts the beheading of John the Baptist. How can you go wrong with that?