What Are You Listening To?

[Nasty_Cabbage]

NP: Orbstruct - Deimos Falling

This death metal gets the seal of approval from the Ministry of Cabbage...

54 minutes ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Burial Hordes - Incendium, Greece 2014, love this record. Black metal with death metal overtones.

As does this.

[Dead1]

Resurrection - Embalmed Existence

More delicious old school death metal (1993).

Also this one's quite good as well.

 

Sepultura - Beneath The Remains

[Hungarino]

Sworn Enemy Of Life | Cystic (bandcamp.com)

NYP OSDM Gem here

[Innominate]

Judas Iscariot - To Embrace the Corpses Bleeding

 

[Arioch]

Defecation - Purity Dilution (1989)

 

[Arioch]

Demolition Hammer - Epidemic of Violence (1992)

 

[SurgicalBrute]

8 hours ago, Dead1 said:

Resurrection - Embalmed Existence

More delicious old school death metal (1993).

Only problem with that album is all the stupid intro narration before every song.

Deiphage - Nuclear Cavalry

U.S. war metal

https://deiphage-war.bandcamp.com/album/nuclear-cavalry

[JonoBlade]

21 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Shades of God, another album that changed my life. I didn't know what it was in '92 because sub-genres weren't a big part of my life yet then. It was just metal and it seemed super heavy to me compared to the thrash and 80's metal I had been used to. My friends couldn't even remember their name, they just refered to PL as "that really heavy band that Brian plays all the time." And that reinforced my thought that PL was super heavy. They didn't share my enthusiasm for it, but that mattered little to me, as it was my stereo and my name on the lease and I played that thing on repeat all throughout '92 and then the following year Shades and Icon were both on endless repeat. I would change things up every now and then to play an Alice in Chains album, for I was quite infatuated with them as well in the early 90's.

But you're right, Icon was where he went full on Jaymz, but since I was so in love with those two albums and played them back to back so much (and I was most likely stoned) the distinction between the two might have become a bit blurred. The release of Draconian Times however was a dark time for me. To learn that my favorite band had dropped a new album and then when I got it home to find that they gone soft on me was a crushing blow. Surely this couldn't have been the same PL I knew and loved. Always surprises me when people mention Draconian and Icon in the same breath as if they were similar things. I tried for a week or so but with every listen I just became more enraged and depressed. I was so upset about their change of direction that I destroyed my Draconian Times cassette, broke it into pieces and threw it in the garbage in protest. Just as well though, DT probably helped to soften the blow for when they later went full on soy boy. I can listen to it and appreciate it now 28 years later, but in '95 I was fucking shattered.

As far as Iommi being 44 in '92, it occurs to me that a decade earlier when that first Ozzy solo album came out in 1981 I turned 20. And I remember calculating that Ozzy born in 1948 was 33. And I found that mind blowing, and also quite encoraging that someone as old as Ozzy, an actual grown-ass man who had reached full adulthood (or so I erroneously assumed at the time) was still into heavy metal at such an advanced, elderly age. Because everyone had been telling me for so long that this heavy metal shit was just a phase that I would naturally grow out of and move on from. Ozzy gave me hope that I could still be into 'heavy' music well into adulthood. Which is absolutely hilarious considering the kind of stuff I generally listen to now in my old age. While I couldn't even imagine having any desire to listen to a 40 year old Ozzy solo album at this point.

Perception is a crazy thing. I'm not sure why Shades of God is "heavier" than a Fight Fire With Fire or a Postmortem/Raining Blood (I still marvel at the sonic weight of that combo). Maybe SoG has a spooky gravity from oop North that American thrash doesn't, but that is down to your unique POV. At the time I maybe wasn't looking for heavier, but interested in what metal could be. Like My Dying Bride which was violins and shit. Which didn't always work, but hats off to them for trying.

Ha. I don't recall having quite the visceral reaction to Draconian Times. In fact, one of my favourite solos is in the closing track, but it wasn't a step in the right direction and you could tell they were definitively streamlining for more airplay. The fact it was so obvious is what stings. Of the Peaceville 3 though, it was Anathema that was the most unfathomable. Serenades was probably my favourite of the early doom records. I can't say I even hated the later Anathema stuff and I presume they went onto some success as an alt-rock band that chicks might like, but the leap was between worlds.

"everyone had been telling me for so long that this heavy metal shit was just a phase that I would naturally grow out of and move on from" that is a quote for my gravestone.

[RelentlessOblivion]

As far as the peace ville three go Anathemamy favourite album in The Silent Enigma, but My Dying Bride are my favourite band, even if I haven’t enjoyed their last two albums.

 

NP: My Dying Bride - The Angel and the Dark Riverboast f

[JonoBlade]

36 minutes ago, RelentlessOblivion said:

As far as the peace ville three go Anathemamy favourite album in The Silent Enigma, but My Dying Bride are my favourite band, even if I haven’t enjoyed their last two albums.

 

NP: My Dying Bride - The Angel and the Dark Riverboast f

MDB is easily the most consistent and enjoyable of the 3. I don't think they've done a dud album. Last one was quite different with the layered vocals but I like it. Just let down by being too long. They released an EP of the leftover material....but should have just cut a few more songs from the album and turned the EP into a full length album six months after the first. They can charge more than an EP and the fans will still buy it. 

[Kristiko]

 

[Kristiko]

 

[Innominate]

Ildjarn-Nidhogg - S/T

 

[GoatmasterGeneral]

12 hours ago, JonoBlade said:

Perception is a crazy thing. I'm not sure why Shades of God is "heavier" than a Fight Fire With Fire or a Postmortem/Raining Blood (I still marvel at the sonic weight of that combo). Maybe SoG has a spooky gravity from oop North that American thrash doesn't, but that is down to your unique POV. At the time I maybe wasn't looking for heavier, but interested in what metal could be. Like My Dying Bride which was violins and shit. Which didn't always work, but hats off to them for trying.

Ha. I don't recall having quite the visceral reaction to Draconian Times. In fact, one of my favourite solos is in the closing track, but it wasn't a step in the right direction and you could tell they were definitively streamlining for more airplay. The fact it was so obvious is what stings. Of the Peaceville 3 though, it was Anathema that was the most unfathomable. Serenades was probably my favourite of the early doom records. I can't say I even hated the later Anathema stuff and I presume they went onto some success as an alt-rock band that chicks might like, but the leap was between worlds.

"everyone had been telling me for so long that this heavy metal shit was just a phase that I would naturally grow out of and move on from" that is a quote for my gravestone.

Interesting that you picked a track off Ride the Lightning and a track off Reign in Blood as your examples for pre-1992 heaviness. Most days I'd have them as the 2 of the 3 best albums of their era along with To Mega Therion. And those were indeed two heavy songs you've cited that I had a reaction to the first time I heard them. The other band that sticks out to me was early Sepultura up to and even including BtR that always seemed somehow heavier or more extreme to me than other thrash bands of the day. It's always been primarily about the heaviness for me, especially back then when heaviness seemed like a much rarer commodity. I certainly wasn't looking for violins or a Kiss to Remember (the only MDB song I can name off the top of my head) in those days, I was looking for bands to wreck my neck and smash my face in.

I can't make a case for Reign in Blood not being heavy, at the time of its release that album basically set the new bar for heaviness in my world along with Darkness Descends. Not sure I can adequately explain why Shades of God came across as so much heavier to me 6 years later in '92. You are correct that perception is a crazy and highly unpredictable thing.  The UK "oop north" gravitas thing might have been a small part of it as Halifax, West Yorkshire seemed far more distant, exotic and mysterious than the stupid California suburbs, which were exactly like the stupid NY suburbs I was living in, just with warmer weather and palm trees. I mean shit, Yorkshire was halfway to fucking Newcastle upon motherfucking Tyne! And I think Greg is originally Scottish so he's from even farther north than that. The band photo on the back cover might have been a part of it too, as even though the PL dudes were 21 year old kids 10 years younger than Slayer and Metallica and myself, they seemed deadly serious about things compared to pics of Metallica and Slayer you'd typically see in the rock mags back then which portrayed them as goofs, just silly suburban California kids getting fucked up and having some fun being dicks and spraying beer at each other. All the bay area thrash bands came off like that to me as kind of juvenile and childish.

Also Paradise Lost's overall sound wasn't quite like anyone else's I'd ever heard back then, they weren't thrash metal and they weren't death metal, they didn't sound like Celtic Frost or Candlemass or Fate, they kinda had their own unique thing going on which sounded to me like an updated Sabbath for the 90's. And I've always been all about the Sabbath. Slower parts, midpaced parts, faster parts, with great riffs and tons of solos. And Nick's vocals were certainly an upgrade from the Ozzman, god love him. The vocals on Shades were definitely a big part of this as well, since they were a wee bit rougher and gruffer and in a lower register than what Hetfield and most mainstream thrash bands had been doing in the 80's. And Nick sang those songs with an attitude like he fucking meant it. I'd honestly never liked Araya's vox to begin with, I loved Slayer's first 4 albums in spite of them. Don't forget, Metallica and Slayer had both fallen off considerably by 1992, in Metallica's case you could say they had lost their way with TBA. Likewise Seasons in the Abyss was not a good album in my mind either, it sounded a bit too commercial for Slayer to me. I don't want to neglect to say that a huge part of it was also Greg's lead work all over that album, he didn't just wedge in the requisite 30 second solo two thirds of the way through each track, he played tons of solos and he was also playing melodic structured leads all throughout the songs as well. I thought (and still think) this was a wonderful thing.

So I guess by 1992 after a full year spent crushing on Overkill's Horrorscope (which was my two roomates and my unanimously agreed upon favorite metal album of 1991) I was looking for a new band to give me my next fix of heaviness and to be my next infatuation. Paradise Lost came into my life with Shades of God and provided that. Then the following year's Icon cemented it for me, from that point on for the next 15 years they were undoubtedly my favorite band. Even after the Draconian Times debacle. Except of course on the random days when I might have told you it was Overkill, Motörhead or Monster Magnet. But more often than not Paradise Lost were my Yorkshire boys from oop north. In the mid 90's I really thought if I had a metal band I'd want them to sound just like Shades/Icon era PL. Was my true belief that was as good as it could get, the pinnacle of metallic excellence. Shades remained my all time favorite metal album for 15 years until I got into black metal later in life (46) and Inquisition took over the all-time top metal album crown with Nefarious Dismal Orations in '07. 

 

 

Paradise Lost ~ Icon, Yorkshire 1993

 

Shades of God, 1992. Thanks Jon, typing this post gave me an excuse to play both of these albums back to back twice like it was 1994. I know you won't come back and see this for a few more days til Monday morning, but when you do come back let me be the first to say I hope you had a lovely weekend that was sweet as.

 

[GoatmasterGeneral]

Listening to Icon got me to thinking about what else was awesome from 1993.

 

Necrophobic - The Nocturnal Silence, Sweden, their first and finest album, although they came close to it a few times.

 

Dissection - The Somberlain, Sweden, every bit as good as SotLB but doesn't get the same love.

 

[Nasty_Cabbage]

Inexorum - Equinox Vigil

▶︎ Equinox Vigil | Inexorum | Gilead Media (bandcamp.com)

Not a whole lot of window dressing here. Primarily black metal style vocals with some harmonized cleans in there over some catchy blackened heavy/trad riffage. Think Dawnbringer with more sparingly used, but also more effective cleans. What it does it does very well. 

[GoatmasterGeneral]

Korrupto - Chop the Cop EP UK Grindcore. Don't know why this one appeals to me so much, I've listened to it 4 or 5 times already tonight, but it's only 13 minutes and change so it goes by too quick.

 

Gummo - Sheltered Despair, 2019 - groovy French Grindcore pv

 

Swordwielder - Wielding Metal Massacre, Swedish crust. This is cool they've slowed things down a little bit here on their 3rd album, kinda wanna call this crust 'n' roll. Could do without the spoken word parts but it still kicks ass. Definite Amebix vibes. 

 

Deiphage - Nuclear Cavalry, killer little 20 minute EP of California war metal. I grabbed this some months back beacause NGL is the only Youtube channel I've ever subscribed to, but I forgot about it and never got around to listening to it again til tonight. So thanks for the reminder Surge.

 

Vile Ritual - Caverns of Occultic Hatred, dense black/death Chevy Chase MD

 

[Arioch]

Forbidden - Distortion (1994)

 

[Nasty_Cabbage]

Subterranean Disposition - Individuation

Individuation | Subterranean Disposition | Hypnotic Dirge Records (bandcamp.com)

Ummmm.... okay. Not going to lie, the sexy-sax slow jazz break completely knocked me off balance. Complete with Leonard Cohen style whisper-singing, too. I'm all for experimentation, but I think this one blew up the lab equipment. Love that cover art, though.

[Kristiko]

Gojira - Magma (album)

[Innominate]

D.R.I. - Crossover

D.R.I. - 4 of a Kind

D.R.I. - Full Speed Ahead

 

[agamerwholovesmetal]

Pentagram (1994) - gorgoroth

 

[SurgicalBrute]

Nachtmaer - Van de Mare Bereen

https://nachtmaer.bandcamp.com/album/van-de-mare-bereen

[RelentlessOblivion]

Ancient - Svartalvheim

[GoatmasterGeneral]

Mysterivm Xarxes - Grave of Urshilaku, rbm Austria

 

The Fals - Beyond the Grave of the Moon, bm Germany