Jump to content

What Are You Listening To?

khaos

By khaos
in Forum Games

 Share

Recommended Posts

  • Replies 66.7k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters In This Topic

  • FatherAlabaster

    7826

  • MacabreEternal

    5085

  • RelentlessOblivion

    3999

  • GoatmasterGeneral

    3372

Popular Days

Top Posters In This Topic

Popular Days

Popular Posts

gregsbrews
gregsbrews

Death - Human

GoatmasterGeneral
GoatmasterGeneral

Slayer - Hell Awaits, 1985   Celtic Frost - To Mega Therion, 1985  

MacabreEternal
MacabreEternal

Immolation - Acts of God (2022) Number eight on my end of year list that if I am being honest, the boredom of being unable to do much of anything with COVID has led me to do an end of y

Posted Images

Thatguy Veteran

Thatguy

Posted
Posted
9 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Love ya Doc. Hope that response you provoked was as entertaining as you'd hoped. Lord knows I always strive to be entertaining. 

Yep. Good enough.

And, of course, we all love what we love. I enjoy a good few of the albums you put up, and acquire the odd one. I honestly think this particular album is not a good example of anything and it bathes in unappealing murk. But that's just me.

0
Link to comment
Share on other sites
GoatmasterGeneral Grand Master

GoatmasterGeneral

Posted
Posted
48 minutes ago, Thatguy said:

Yep. Good enough.

And, of course, we all love what we love. I enjoy a good few of the albums you put up, and acquire the odd one. I honestly think this particular album is not a good example of anything and it bathes in unappealing murk. But that's just me.

That's cool Doc you old geezer. But I do have a murky side to me so I do like the odd bit off fuzzy black metal now and then, even though that's certainly not my main focus in the type of black metal I'm looking for. I generally go for the more melodic and riffy but caustic stuff. And of course I love the evil primitive Archgoat-esque stuff. The fuzzy lo-fi stuff and atmo-black are definitely secondary concerns. Also I was only 4 minutes into my maiden voyage when I made that comment about knowing it was gonna be killer. It might not have been the very best example, but by the end I still liked it well enough although had I been familiar with the album beforehand, it still wouldn't have cracked my 2003 list.

1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
MacabreEternal Veteran

MacabreEternal

Posted
Posted

The Mist From The Mountains - Monumental - The Temple of Twilight (2022)

This mornings random listen to previously unheard and not searched for music takes me to Finland for some melodic black metal.  A brief scan of the one review on Encyclopaedia Metallum tells me that this is "..a greasy tray of chips to the sickly sweet, iced cakes of Dimmu Borgir."

I like iced cakes, I don't like Dimmu Borgir. That review is false in its reference points.  I would call this a meat and vegetables main course only instead of gravy there's jus all over everything and the broccoli is that tenderstem variety that goes limp too quickly if you over cook it.

3
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Hungarino Proficient

Hungarino

Posted
Posted

Concilivm - A Monument in Darkness. Maybe the best dM of the year for me. Chile.

Conquest Icon - Empire of the Worm. Insanely good and brutal riff fest. I love this style of Polish DM.

Impalement - The Impalement. Amazing black death from a solo Swiss metal-maven.

Inferno - Omniabsence Filled by His Greatness. Gnostic nightcap.

 

1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
GoatmasterGeneral Grand Master

GoatmasterGeneral

Posted
Posted
6 hours ago, Thatguy said:

CASTAVET - Obsian. This one brought home the bacon.

FEN - Dustwalker. 'Walking the Crowpath' will be played at my funeral. No time soon I hope.

NP - STEVE ROACH - What Remains. Ambient chill that is perfect for a grey wet afternoon.

You post this one a lot Doc. You must really like it. I've sampled it before, but it hasn't stuck with me so I'll draw a blank the next time you post it. Castevet as they used to be known are one of those alleged "black metal" bands from NYC that's not in any way playing anything remotely resembling black metal. Which immediately conjures up thoughts of Krallice and Liturgy. Not good. And I'm already annoyed with these boys because I want the album title to be Obsidian, but we're missing a di so it's just Obsian. Dumb. They're not even listed on the M-A so I had to Google them. Wikipedia says they formed in 2006 then changed names to CSTVT in 2010 but the pronunciation stayed the same. Wikipedia lists Castevet as "black metal" but CSTVT as an "emo band" which is 'fuckin' retawded' as we New Yorkers like to say. Wikipedia sucks. But I'm going to try to set all that shit aside for the moment and be at least somewhat objective.

The music here is not altogether terrible, although it's a bit jarring at 7am. Not because it's so extreme or brutal or anything, but just because it's very angular, all perpendicular straight lines there are no curves, there's no groove. What do all these 'Doc bands' have against groove I wonder? But when I listen a few more minutes I start thinking maybe there is some groove here. And then as soon as I start to feel like I might be able to synch my brain up with the groove, it's gone in a wash of ambient noise between tracks. Followed by more jarring non-groove. Bastards. I think maybe they're denying themselves the groove because they feel they don't deserve it because the mighty M-A wouldn't accept them. Like they could easily get into a groove and make me nod my head in time with them if they chose to do so, but once they realize they're doing that then they have to change it up because that'd be too easy and pedestrian and predictable and boring for them.

Not gonna liken this to any exotic vegetables (honestly before this morning I had no idea broccoli even came in different stem strengths) because I happen to really like veggies and there's just not that much flavor here. Gonna say this is like mashed spuds with no gravy or butter, just the milk they mashed 'em with. Maybe a pinch of salt but it was all in the middle, none to be tasted in the beginning or the end. Now toward the end of the album they hit me with some very understated, almost half-spoken, kinda monotone clean vocals that make me totally reevaluate everything I'd been thinking. No this is not good. Why would they do this? No wonder M-A wouldn't take them. With the end coming up so soon this will leave me with an overall bad impression of an album that wasn't really all that bad overall. But now it is and when it ends it will remain so in my mind, frozen in time forever. And that's on them, I had nothing to do with that. Their own damn fault. 

 

Castevet - Obsian, NYC 2013

 

Not even gonna touch Fen or the ambient one, I think my thoughts on those two would pretty much be exactly what you think they'd be.

0
Link to comment
Share on other sites
True Belief Community Regular

True Belief

Posted
Posted

Since I bought a new CD Transport my listening has reverted back 90% to hard copy. Absolutely loving it too.

Tonight’s (Decision) has seen the following rotate through:

Paradise Lost - Icon

Goatwhore - Constricting Rage of the Merciless

Katatonia - Tonight’s Decision

Novembre - Classica

Borknagar - True North 

2
Link to comment
Share on other sites
FatherAlabaster Grand Master

FatherAlabaster

Posted
Posted
18 minutes ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

They're not even listed on the M-A so I had to Google them. Wikipedia says they formed in 2006 then changed names to CSTVT in 2010 but the pronunciation stayed the same. Wikipedia lists Castevet as "black metal" but CSTVT as an "emo band" which is 'fuckin' retawded' as we New Yorkers like to say. Wikipedia sucks. 

 

19 minutes ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

No wonder M-A wouldn't take them.

Say what? 

https://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Castevet/3540282873 

Other band is different people. 

 

They are maybe a little Krallice-y, but only a little. Not a bad thing at all in my book - a different book from your book, to be sure. I've seen both bands live a few times and they were excellent. No pretense, no condescending bs, just good performances.

1
Link to comment
Share on other sites
navybsn Grand Master

navybsn

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, True Belief said:

Since I bought a new CD Transport my listening has reverted back 90% to hard copy. Absolutely loving it too.

Tonight’s (Decision) has seen the following rotate through:

Paradise Lost - Icon

Goatwhore - Constricting Rage of the Merciless

Katatonia - Tonight’s Decision

Novembre - Classica

Borknagar - True North 

Which transport did you get? I've been thinking of getting a new one. I really like the convenience of my server, but there are a few CD's I have that I randomly want to play but not rip, and the server has the occasional annoying hiccup that while not catastrophic are still aggravating. Also annoying is that some files load as duplicates which means that the albums have to be manually added to a playlist to avoid that. Plus, I just really like audio gear....

Borknagar has the ignoble distinction of being the quickest set I have ever walked out on. I've probably walked out on 100+ sets over the years. I will usually stick around for 1-2 songs even for shitty bands I'm not really interested in, but I only lasted 15 seconds into their 2019 set at MDF. Fucking wretched. As soon as IC Rex started singing, I was out.

0
Link to comment
Share on other sites
GoatmasterGeneral Grand Master

GoatmasterGeneral

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, RelentlessOblivion said:

Agalloch - The Mantle

44 albums to narrow down for 2002…R’Lyeh help me

I'm not R'Lyeh but if he's busy and you want my advice axe the Agalloch, they're lame. Now you have 43. But you probably don't want my advice. You probably worship Agalloch and the Mantle will be your #1.

 

Don't think I've ever heard Borknagar. 

 

 

4 hours ago, FatherAlabaster said:

 

Say what? 

https://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Castevet/3540282873 

Other band is different people. 

 

They are maybe a little Krallice-y, but only a little. Not a bad thing at all in my book - a different book from your book, to be sure. I've seen both bands live a few times and they were excellent. No pretense, no condescending bs, just good performances.

I was searching 'Castavet' with it spelled wrong, it's spelled 'Castevet' that's why they weren't coming up. 

Was wondering since you were probably still in Brooklyn back then if you might've known those guys or anything.

Didn't find them too Krallicey, I listened to it twice while I typed that post (which was largely tongue in cheek for Doc's benefit) and I'd never be able to make it through a Krallice album even once. Not even on a dare. I thought the album was alright, but I wish I could have been in the studio with them, because with a few little changes like dropping those clean vox at the end and a little more groove it could have been a damn good album. We would have called it Obsidian.

Why does art metal have to be so angular and dissonant? What do they gain from that? Makes it so inaccessible. I wish I could be a fly on the wall and watch one of these mathcore bands write a song and try to understand how it all comes together. It's not a genre I can say I enjoy listening to, but I admit I'm fascinated by the non musicality of it and the structure of the songs and how it all works and comes together into 'music' for them. 

2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing

  • Join Metal Forum

    joinus-home.jpg

  • Our picks

    • Sacred Reich "Awakening"

      MacabreEternal posted a blog entry in Album Reviews,

      Whichever tier of thrash metal you consigned Sacred Reich back in the 80's/90's they still had their moments.  "Ignorance" & "Surf Nicaragura" did a great job of establishing the band, whereas "The American Way" just got a little to comfortable and accessible (the title track grates nowadays) for my ears.  A couple more records better left forgotten about and then nothing for twenty three years.  2019 alone has now seen three releases from Phil Rind and co.  A live EP, a split EP with Iron Reagan and now a full length.

      Notable addition to the ranks for the current throng of releases is former Machine Head sticksman, Dave McClean.  Love or hate Machine Head, McClean is a more than capable drummer and his presence here is felt from the off with the opening and title track kicking things off with some real gusto.  'Divide & Conquer' and 'Salvation' muddle along nicely, never quite reaching any quality that would make my balls tingle but comfortable enough.  The looming build to 'Manifest Reality' delivers a real punch when the song starts proper.  Frenzied riffs and drums with shots of lead work to hold the interest.


      There's a problem already though (I know, I am such a fucking mood hoover).  I don't like Phil's vocals.  I never had if I am being honest.  The aggression to them seems a little forced even when they are at their best on tracks like 'Manifest Reality'.  When he tries to sing it just feels weak though ('Salvation') and tracks lose real punch.  Give him a riffy number such as 'Killing Machine' and he is fine with the Reich engine (probably a poor choice of phrase) up in sixth gear.  For every thrashy riff there's a fair share of rock edged, local bar act rhythm aplenty too.

      Let's not poo-poo proceedings though, because overall I actually enjoy "Awakening".  It is stacked full of catchy riffs that are sticky on the old ears.  Whilst not as raw as perhaps the - brilliant - artwork suggests with its black and white, tattoo flash sheet style design it is enjoyable enough.  Yes, 'Death Valley' & 'Something to Believe' have no place here, saved only by Arnett and Radziwill's lead work but 'Revolution' is a fucking 80's thrash heyday throwback to the extent that if you turn the TV on during it you might catch a new episode of Cheers!

      3/5
      • 5

        Reputation Points

      • 10 replies
      MacabreEternal

      Picked By

      MacabreEternal,

    • Immortal Bird "Thrive on Neglect"

      MacabreEternal posted a blog entry in Album Reviews,

      I
      • 1

        Reputation Points

      • 2 replies
      MacabreEternal

      Picked By

      MacabreEternal,

    • Vltimas 'Something Wicked Marches In'

      MacabreEternal posted a blog entry in Album Reviews,

      https://www.metalforum.com/blogs/entry/52-vltimas-something-wicked-marches-in/
      • 3

        Reputation Points

      • 3 replies
      MacabreEternal

      Picked By

      MacabreEternal,

    • Candlemass "The Door to Doom"

      MacabreEternal posted a blog entry in Album Reviews,


      https://www.metalforum.com/blogs/entry/48-candlemass-the-door-to-doom/
      • 3

        Reputation Points

      • 2 replies
      MacabreEternal

      Picked By

      MacabreEternal,

    • Overkill "The Wings of War"

      MacabreEternal posted a blog entry in Album Reviews,

      Full length number 19 from overkill certainly makes a splash in the energy stakes, I mean there's some modern thrash bands that are a good two decades younger than Overkill who can only hope to achieve the levels of spunk that New Jersey's finest produce here.  That in itself is an achievement, for a band of Overkill's stature and reputation to be able to still sound relevant four decades into their career is no mean feat.  Even in the albums weaker moments it never gets redundant and the energy levels remain high.  There's a real sense of a band in a state of some renewed vigour, helped in no small part by the addition of Jason Bittner on drums.  The former Flotsam & Jetsam skinsman is nothing short of superb throughout "The Wings of War" and seems to have squeezed a little extra out of the rest of his peers.

      The album kicks of with a great build to opening track "Last Man Standing" and for the first 4 tracks of the album the Overkill crew stomp, bash and groove their way to a solid level of consistency.  The lead work is of particular note and Blitz sounds as sneery and scathing as ever.  The album is well produced and mixed too with all parts of the thrash machine audible as the five piece hammer away at your skull with the usual blend of chugging riffs and infectious anthems.  


      There are weak moments as mentioned but they are more a victim of how good the strong tracks are.  In it's own right "Distortion" is a solid enough - if not slightly varied a journey from the last offering - but it just doesn't stand up well against a "Bat Shit Crazy" or a "Head of a Pin".  As the album draws to a close you get the increasing impression that the last few tracks are rescued really by some great solos and stomping skin work which is a shame because trimming of a couple of tracks may have made this less obvious. 

      4/5
      • 0

        Reputation Points

      • 4 replies
      MacabreEternal

      Picked By

      MacabreEternal,
    View All
×
×
  • Create New...