What Are You Listening To?

[JamesT]

6 hours ago, AlSymerz said:

Is there a reason you're listening to it all a 3rd time in such a short time span?

 

NP: Exodus - Impact Is Imminent

 

Yes, sir!  It's purely because the entire catalog is so consistently great.  If I were to try and rank their discography from 1-12, there would be minimal separation between #12 and #1.  That can't often be said of any band, much less a band with a larger discography like this.  Plus, I'm just really digging the straight-forward, traditional heavy metal sound at the moment, and HammerFall does it perfectly. 

[markm]

• Judas Priest -Sad Wings of Destiny
• Garearea mirage

[Arioch]

Nevermore - The Politics of Ecstasy (1996)

Angelcorpse - Exterminate (1998)

 

[MacabreEternal]

Konvent - Call Down the Sun (2022)

Demolition Hammer - Tortured Existence (1990)

 

[GoatmasterGeneral]

12 hours ago, Arioch said:

If I had to go to a desert island with 10 must-have Thrash Metal albums

So once you got stranded there you found out they only allow thrash metal albums on your desert isand? Or you specifically arranged to be stranded on the thrash metal island? I like some thrash and could come up with a list of my top 20 thrash albums. But if they told me I could only bring thrash albums with me I'd have to cancel my stranding.

 

11 hours ago, JamesT said:

Yes, sir!  It's purely because the entire catalog is so consistently great.  If I were to try and rank their discography from 1-12, there would be minimal separation between #12 and #1.  That can't often be said of any band, much less a band with a larger discography like this.  Plus, I'm just really digging the straight-forward, traditional heavy metal sound at the moment, and HammerFall does it perfectly. 

I like your enthusiasm Jimmy T. Even though you and I have very different taste in music, I do enjoy your participation here. I really appreciate that even guys like us who are from different generations and come from different worlds still have a handful of metal bands we can come together on like Overkill and Candemass. Doesn't matter that you hate black metal and I find most traditional metal shit like Hammerfall unlistenabe.

Make sure you come back and give us your impressions of Scorched once you've heard it a couple of times. I can always get it up for an Overkill discussion. Did I mention that Bobby Blitz lives 10 minutes from me in Pleasant Valley Lakes?

 

NP: Concilivm - A Monument in Darkness, Chile 2022

 

[Serpentboi1992]

[Arioch]

Just now, GoatmasterGeneral said:

So once you got stranded there you found out they only allow thrash metal albums on your desert isand? Or you specifically arranged to be stranded on the thrash metal island? I like some thrash and could come up with a list of my top 20 thrash albums. But if they told me I could only bring thrash albums with me I'd have to cancel my stranding.

Oh no no 😁 It would be a desert island where you could take 10 albums of every style you like.

I don't only like Thrash : Death, Black (a little), Progressive Rock too ! 🤘😁🤘

Come on! End of the day in France!

A little AC/DC to finish quietly !

AC/DC - Highway to Hell (1979)

Cheers !

[MacabreEternal]

Cannibal Corpse - Eaten Back to Life (1990)

 

[AlSymerz]

9 hours ago, JamesT said:

Yes, sir!  It's purely because the entire catalog is so consistently great.  If I were to try and rank their discography from 1-12, there would be minimal separation between #12 and #1.  That can't often be said of any band, much less a band with a larger discography like this.  Plus, I'm just really digging the straight-forward, traditional heavy metal sound at the moment, and HammerFall does it perfectly. 

Fair enough

 

NP: Testament - Souls Of Black

[GoatmasterGeneral]

Noxis - "Live At Joe's Garage" Cleveland, Ohio 2023

 

[GoatmasterGeneral]

Moon Oracle - Ophidian Glare, Finland

 

Kometen  - Promo Demo I,  USBM 2022

 

[GoatmasterGeneral]

1 hour ago, AlSymerz said:

Testament - Souls of Black

You know I don't hate that Souls of Black album. I've seen a lot of people over the years say they don't like that one very much, thought it was one of their weakest albums. The production is not ideal, but I think it's a pretty good album, one of their better ones even. I really like The Ritual too, another one I've seen a lot of people like to slag off.

Listened to that Impact is Imminent album you mentioned yesterday a couple of times last night, and have it on again right now. (released June 21, 1990 - two days before my daughter was born) And I've come to the conclusion that it's really not a bad album (imo) they just kicked off side one with two lacklustre tracks (title track, AWOL) with real generic boring riffs that just sit there and don't do anything. Gary Holt should be ashamed. Tracks 3 & 4 (Lunatic Parade, Walls of Chaos) are nothing special either. So I think I probably used to take the record off at that point instead of flipping it over and would have just put on something else. But if you stick with it the next track (#5 Objection Overruled) is a bit better and then the back half of the album (Only Death Decides, Heads They Win (Tails You Lose) Changing of the Guard, Thrash Under Pressure) is actually really fucking good (imo) some of their best stuff. I now realize I should have been playing side 2 all those years and would have been better off skipping side 1 altogether.

 

Eggs at Us - Impact is Imminent, 1990, start this bitch at the 22 minute mark and you'll have a killer 28 minute album.

 

[AlSymerz]

I do prefer PWYP to Souls but Souls is one of those albums that is never too far away from the playlist and it's always been one of the Testament albums on rotation in the ute.

Impact's biggest problem was the label who wouldn't support it apparently. Like most albums it's not full of killer tracks but the label refused to support it, refused to push it and in the end they didn't tour that hard to support it. Apparently the tour schedule was only 6 months and included a tour with the Chilli Peppers. (A second and third tour was a bit better with Suicidal Tendencies on one and F&J and Vio-lence on the second.) But Gary claims although he co-produced the album and it has some of his best riffs, Capitol wont give them back the rights at any cost.

 

NP: Overkill - Scorched

(An old mate of mine was opening the record store this morning and he got me in early and told me not to tall anyone, whoops!)

 

[GoatmasterGeneral]

Gary Holt's gone on the record as saying the band had a serious meth problem in the 90's, so that could have had a lot to do with why they and their label didn't work too hard to support their record and the band was inactive during most of that decade. After 1992's Force of Habit they didn't do anything for 12 more years until '04's comeback record with Souza, Tempo of the Damned.

https://blabbermouth.net/news/gary-holt-looks-back-on-exoduss-self-destructive-behavior-during-1990s-it-fking-sucked

From the article:

The only complaint I've got is some of our self-destructive behavior in the past might have inhibited us a little bit." Asked what he would say that self-destructive behavior was, Gary said: "Oh, God. Meth. [Laughs] When four-fifths of your band — Jack [Gibson, bass] being the only guy who wasn't — was spun out of their minds, it kind of tends to put up some road blocks to success. I laugh about it now. Any former tweaker will tell you this: There are some fun moments, some fun shit that happens when you're sleep-deprived. But I'm so glad [that it's behind me]. I never [wanna] go back there." According to Gary, drugs weren't "a big problem" for Exodus back in the 1980s. "We partied. Back in the early days, we'd get a little bag of meth and the whole band would function on it all night. It was in the '90s when we reunited with Paul Baloff, and that's when we got really fucking spun and started smoking meth," he explained. "And shit got bad then. It fucking sucked. But I laid that cross to bear on the ground a long time ago — 2002. Hell, I'm 90 days sober today. I'm no fun at all anymore — no more meth, no more alcohol. I do smoke a little bit of weed nowadays though. It's much better. It's only an occasional thing for me, though. My wife's a full-on stoner, and occasionally I'll join her, like, 'Hand me that.'"

[AlSymerz]

Force Of Habit definitely sounds and looks like an album done under the influence of Meth. That Elvis Costello track should never have made it onto the album. Although I do think a little more highly of it now days than I did at the time of release but it's still not one of the best.

Many people blamed Holt for sacking Hunolt and breaking the 'team' but even Rick says that in those days as hard as being sacked was it didn't take him long to realise that it was probably the best thing Gary could have done for him because he'd be dead by now if he hadn't changed his ways and he didn't see himself changing while in a band.

 

[GoatmasterGeneral]

Rotpit - Let There Be Rot, Sweden/Germany

 

Yfel 1710/Martwa Aura - Kali Yuga Boys Split, 2022 Poland

 

[JamesT]

8 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

So once you got stranded there you found out they only allow thrash metal albums on your desert isand? Or you specifically arranged to be stranded on the thrash metal island? I like some thrash and could come up with a list of my top 20 thrash albums. But if they told me I could only bring thrash albums with me I'd have to cancel my stranding.

 

I like your enthusiasm Jimmy T. Even though you and I have very different taste in music, I do enjoy your participation here. I really appreciate that even guys like us who are from different generations and come from different worlds still have a handful of metal bands we can come together on like Overkill and Candemass. Doesn't matter that you hate black metal and I find most traditional metal shit like Hammerfall unlistenabe.

Make sure you come back and give us your impressions of Scorched once you've heard it a couple of times. I can always get it up for an Overkill discussion. Did I mention that Bobby Blitz lives 10 minutes from me in Pleasant Valley Lakes?

 

NP: Concilivm - A Monument in Darkness, Chile 2022

 

I appreciate the kind words, good sir!  Yes, I totally agree.  I rather enjoy the fact that we have different tastes - keeps things from getting stagnant.  I actually was just listening to "Sons of Northern Darkness" by Immortal and "In the Nightside Eclipse" from Emperor last night, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  I also enjoy Burzum from time to time.  So I guess I have a select soft spot for some black metal!

I absolutely cannot wait for "Scorched" to come out tomorrow.  It's been 4 long years since the last glorious Overkill release, the longest gap between albums in their entire career (no doubt due to the pandemic).  It would have been out in 2021, I firmly believe, had the pandemic not happened.  At any rate, release day has finally (almost) arrived.  My goodness, it's like Christmas morning for me!  I'll be eager to share my thoughts here once I've spun it a few times through and will be eagerly anticipating your thoughts as well!  In the meantime, I'm hitting the hay so that Christmas will come just a bit faster! 

[Serpentboi1992]

[AlSymerz]

Holy Moses - Invisible Queen

 

[Sheol]

On 4/12/2023 at 3:08 PM, GoatmasterGeneral said:

"Fun stuff?" It's fucking pop music. That was terrible. Clearly she does have a nice voice, but she's using it to perpetrate abhorrent pop music. We've really lost you haven't we? I miss the old Johan.

Lol, I knew you'd hate it. Ah well.

And stop fucking using my name you silly illiterate old goat! There's a reason I changed my username when we came here.

[Arioch]

Listening this morning :

Metallica - 72 Seasons (2023)

I wanted to listen to their album at least once, before moving on. I did.

On the positive side, I find Lars' drum sound much less horrifying than on Hardwired. At times, Robert's bass can be heard well and that must be rewarding for him. Some riffs, even if drowned among others more dispensable, are interesting, if not memorable.

On the negative side: I can't stand Kirk's wah-wah pedal, which has been resting on its laurels for far too long. And James' voice, I just can't stand it anymore! I would almost dream (I say almost) of an instrumental version of 72 Seasons so that I don't have to hear his voice anymore.

 

[MacabreEternal]

Sulfuric Cautery - Suffocating Feats of Dehumanization (2023)

Fuck Around Fridays have been renamed Fucked Off Fridays for this week (been that kind of a week) and so I have found some nasty fucking goregrind from the States.  Snare drumming galore (of course) and spewing vocals left, right and centre.

[Arioch]

Mayhem - De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas (1994)

 

[MacabreEternal]

Enslaved - Heimdal (2023)

 

[Arioch]

Mercyful Fate - Melissa (1983)