What Are You Listening To?

[Arioch]

Cannibal Corpse - Violence Unimagined (2021)

 

Ah. The drums are my favourite instrument. Unfortunately I'm not a musician, but if there's one instrument I'd love to have worked on, it's the drums.

On an album, it doesn't matter to me if it's properly present in the mix, as long as it doesn't come to the fore too much to the detriment of the other instruments. But the drummer has to send me a dream, which hasn't been the case in recent years in Thrash (my favourite style) where a lot of drummers imitate Tom Hunting's playing (meanwhile, the rest of the band imitate Exodus).

On the other hand, I couldn't listen to an album with just drums and a few sound effects behind them. Dave Lombardo's album, a drummer I adore, I can't listen to one of his tracks in its entirety.

[Nasty_Cabbage]

Gotta admit. As a tech-death fan there are probably more than a few of my favorite albums that employ drum triggers to get that crisp hyper-precision sound. Necrophagist, arguably the godfather of what most consider to be the stereotypical modern tech death sound, had a drum machine on the first album. Granted Suicmez later said that it was a huge mistake to do so, but still. I do feel as though when you have a really organic earthy drum sound where you can tell they're not just tuning their kit super tight and high so it carries over in the mix, but loses a lot of character in the process, I tend to appreciate it all the more. Then there are certain drummers who could probably salvage a drum kit from a dumpster behind the Spencer's Gifts shop of a burnt down shopping mall, and make it sound like a particularly disgruntled meteor hitting the earth. I love just about everything John Longstreth or Proscriptor does behind any kit at all bar none. Proscriptor in particular I'm a little bitter about after Slayer trashed his audition for them. Would have been so cool to hear what he could have done with that band, and might have even made Slayer relevant again.

Just for fun, for an underrated pick in terms of metal drummers listen to the performance John Merryman turned in for Cephalic Carnage's Xenosapien album and try and tell me that man is an actual human being held in thrall by the restrictions of mortals.

 

NP: Uada - Djinn

Djinn | UADA (bandcamp.com)

Woah. What the hell. I hear based in Portland and high production values and I become immediately apprehensive of the dreaded gazey post-black experimental whatever that often shows up with this stuff, but these guys are playing some really strong riffs with cool non-traditional song structures and twin harmonies that weave and break away from each other and rejoin to resolve. Not quite true counterpoint but definitely approaching it in places Strong harsh vocals, too? This is excellent.

[Arioch]

Bolt Thrower - War Master (1991)

 

[RelentlessOblivion]

11 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

No, I like midpaced. Never understood why some people seem to have such a big problem with midpaced. It's the really slow dirgey stuff like Blivvie digs so much that I can't get into. Varied tempos would be the ideal, but in lieu of that midpaced is fine. Better though when they can mix it up and offest it with a few faster and/or some slower sections. I do like a fair amount of fast music I guess too, but I really don't listen to a ton of stuff where they're just straight up blasting out of their minds the whole entire time. Most of the stuff I dig usually mixes the tempos up at least a little bit. 

I like punk and crust more than most. Almost all the black metal I enjoy will have a healthy amount of crust punk flavor to it. The more it has the better I'll like it. No such thing as too much crust afaic. Without that crust influence in either black or death metal I tend to lose interest very quickly. I think this is why Doc and myself have such a small amount of overlap in our black metal selections, because like you he really doesn't want too much crust punk in there. He goes more for dissonance which is a no-go for me. But I will agree with him that banjo and I'll add saxophone have no place in black metal. No Panopticon for me thanks.

Clean vocals though are very often a total deal breaker for me when they appear in black or death metal. Occasionally I'll come across some perfectly placed and understated cleans that actually sound cool and add something to the music, but these occasions are very rare.

Also, I care very deeply about guitar tone but not at all about drumming. Drumming is drumming, as long as there's some kind of drumming or percussion or even a drum machine keeping the beat, providing it's not that plastic clickety tech death sound or a retarded too loud garbage can snare sound, that's all I care about. I only notice drumming when it's absent.

 

I pretty much share your thoughts about drums, but I’m insulted, slow dirges are far too jaunty for my taste, why anything over 15bpm is so blisteringly quick my head spins 😂

 

NP: Evoken - Antithesis of Light

[JonoBlade]

NP: Celtic Frost - To Mega Therion

The CD arrived yesterday so I had a bit of a ripping frenzy on the ol' external CD-ROM drive.

It has extensive (eye)liner notes so I regressed to teenage self and read them meticulously while listening yesterday evening. 

Love this. Production is pretty good for 1985. Better drums than most bands around that time. Music is timeless and could have been recorded last week. Although I don't know if that just says metal has not progressed in 38 years, but who cares! And who would want it to.

The falsetto vocals that pop up out of nowhere every now and again are a bold artistic choice, but I listen to King Diamond so can't fault it. 

[JonoBlade]

2 hours ago, Nasty_Cabbage said:

Just for fun, for an underrated pick in terms of metal drummers listen to the performance John Merryman turned in for Cephalic Carnage's Xenosapien album and try and tell me that man is an actual human being held in thrall by the restrictions of mortals.

Djinn | UADA (bandcamp.com)

Woah. What the hell. I hear based in Portland and high production values and I become immediately apprehensive of the dreaded gazey post-black experimental whatever that often shows up with this stuff, but these guys are playing some really strong riffs with cool non-traditional song structures and twin harmonies that weave and break away from each other and rejoin to resolve. Not quite true counterpoint but definitely approaching it in places Strong harsh vocals, too? This is excellent.

That is the only Cephalic Carnage album I've heard and it is great. Excellent production on that one. Clear, but heavy as fuck.

By contrast that Uada sounds quite gutless. I have the previous album and found it fun. Djinn didn't quite land although listening again now, maybe it just takes a bit of unpacking. ...but now you've got me listening to Xenosapien and there's no comparison.

One of my favourite drumming albums is Labrat - Ruining it for Everyone. It's not on Bandcamp unfortunately. They disbanded years ago.

 

[Innominate]

No Alternative - Johnny Got His Gun '78 - '82

[Nasty_Cabbage]

11 hours ago, Hungarino said:

This is awesome. And I don't think it would be too much cultural appropriation considering parts of Oz do make Deliverance look like a lighthearted family comedy, amiright?

I have never been to Australia myself, but I can only assume there's a very good reason you guys have us completely outclassed when it comes to action and exploitation films. The only thing barter town was missing was a good local metal act. Oddly enough though some of my military friends who were stationed there have said it's a really nice place. That all depends on where they were stationed though, I suppose.

EDIT: By 'there' I meant Australia. I know barter town isn't a real place... just a beautiful dream.

Edited June 28, 2023 by Nasty_Cabbage
Clarification

[GoatmasterGeneral]

5 hours ago, JonoBlade said:

NP: Celtic Frost - To Mega Therion

The CD arrived yesterday so I had a bit of a ripping frenzy on the ol' external CD-ROM drive.

It has extensive (eye)liner notes so I regressed to teenage self and read them meticulously while listening yesterday evening. 

Love this. Production is pretty good for 1985. Better drums than most bands around that time. Music is timeless and could have been recorded last week. Although I don't know if that just says metal has not progressed in 38 years, but who cares! And who would want it to.

The falsetto vocals that pop up out of nowhere every now and again are a bold artistic choice, but I listen to King Diamond so can't fault it. 

I think the handful of falsetto incidents are nicely offset by all the patented TGW death grunts.  Oouugh!!

 

Tom G Warrior "death grunt" appreciation society tribute video. Basically all of Tom's screams, "Hey!"s and death grunts clipped and strung together one after another for four and a half minutes.

 

[Nasty_Cabbage]

5 hours ago, JonoBlade said:

That is the only Cephalic Carnage album I've heard and it is great. Excellent production on that one. Clear, but heavy as fuck.

By contrast that Uada sounds quite gutless. I have the previous album and found it fun. Djinn didn't quite land although listening again now, maybe it just takes a bit of unpacking. ...but now you've got me listening to Xenosapien and there's no comparison.

 

Well Uada is pretty clearly going for something completely different. Cephalic Carnage in general are awesome. I think a lot of people heard their "Dying Will Be The Death of Me" perfectly imitating and mocking metalcore and assumed that's kinda what they were about. Lucid Interval is a weird tech-death grindcore hybrid that really has it's own sound, and even their one song twenty minute doom EP "Halls of Amenti" is really compelling.

[Serpentboi1992]

[GoatmasterGeneral]

I don't do tech death at all and I don't do a lot of doom either. But I did hear a Cephalic album once on a friend's reco (Exploiting Dysfunction) and I did not hate it at all. So let's check out what their doom metal EP sounds like. I've been listening to this Windhand album on repeat since late last night which is doom metal, so I suppose this is as close as I ever get to being in the mood for doom. 

 

Cephalic Carnage, Halls of Amenti, 2002 Edgewater CO. Well it is slow, I'll give it that. Nothing wrong with it, it's not bad but I'm not finding it compelling and wouldn't buy it.

 

CEPHALIC CARNAGE - 'Xenosapien' In-Studio Episode #1, 2007. I wish all bands would put out these studio progress report videos, I find them fascinating even when it's a band I don't care that much about like this one.

 

CEPHALIC CARNAGE - 'Xenosapien' In-Studio Episode #2

 

[Thatguy]

12 hours ago, Arioch said:

But the drummer has to send me a dream

Great turn of phrase. I will use this.

12 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Yeah lots of people are into the drums but I don't care. I'm only hearing the drums with my peripheral hearing (is that a thing?) anyway because I'm lazer focused on the rythym guitars, and to a lesser extent the vocals, and then the bass. The drums are last on the list. I do want them to be present and to keep going and not stop without having to consciously think about them, like my heartbeat. There are some songs where there's that one specific drum fill that stands out to me and I'll be looking for it whenever I hear that song, but that's only a handful of songs out of thousands. I could probably be happy if they released albums with just the guitar tracks though.

Yep, we are all guitar focussed - that's the sine qua non of loving metal. A lot of what you listen to has inaudible or absent bass so I don't get you name checking the bass, but thanks. 

You would notice bad drumming I should think, so you take the good stuff for granted. I have played in bands with all levels of drummers, but in one band the drummer -  an amateur like the rest of us but a good drummer - dropped out and was replaced by an actual gigging professional. He lifted the band to a new level.

And, no drums = ambient, and I'm sure you don't want to go there.

[AlSymerz]

12 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

I could probably be happy if they released albums with just the guitar tracks though.

Well I have just the thing for you. I have a copy of R.I.P. where every instrument has it's own file. You'd be able to listen to your favourite artist, Mr. Shitstaine and the band play every instrument individually.

 

NP: Cosmic Psychos - S/T

[GoatmasterGeneral]

56 minutes ago, AlSymerz said:

Well I have just the thing for you. I have a copy of R.I.P. where every instrument has it's own file. You'd be able to listen to your favourite artist, Mr. Shitstaine and the band play every instrument individually.

You got me all excited there for about half a second when I saw R.I.P. because naturally I assumed that being a big thrash guy you would have meant the infinitely superior 1987 Coroner album R.I.P. Then I was crestfallen when I reaized you were actually talking about that Megashitstaine clown and the weaksauce Rust in Pieces. 

[AlSymerz]

Awe c'mon that's not fair Deth's RIP is the most important album in the history of metal. Dave Shitstaine says so himself. And given that he originally credited himself with all the writing, arranging and producing, all while spending 6 weeks of the recording in rehab, there is no denying it's importance to the world!

[JamesT]

Whitechapel - "Kin"

Signs of the Swarm - "The Disfigurement of Existence"

Signs of the Swarm - "Absolvere"

Judas Priest - "Firepower"

KK's Priest - "Sermons of the Sinner"

A bit all over the map today!  Some deathcore and some traditional heavy metal.  Love it all!

[Dead1]

Gamma Ray - Majestic

Terrorizer - World Downfall

[GoatmasterGeneral]

Apocalyptic Leaders - Theory of Death, Greek black

 

Hate Manifesto-To Those Who Glorified Death, Greek death

 

[GoatmasterGeneral]

Thunderbolt - Apocalyptic Doom, 2007 Poland

 

Fustilarian - All This Promiscuous Decadence, Portugal 2021

 

[RelentlessOblivion]

Rippikoulu - Musta Seremonia

[Arioch]

Unleashed - Where No Life Dwells (1991)

 

[Arioch]

Hate Eternal - Upon Desolate Sands (2018)

 

[GoatmasterGeneral]

Thunderbolt - Inhuman Ritual Massmurder, 2004 Poland

 

Flukt - Darkness Devour, Norway 2019

 

Hovmod - Doedsformasjon, Norway 2019

 

[Arioch]

Edge of Sanity - Infernal (1996)

I discovered the band with the fabulous and unrivalled Crimson.  So when Infernal came out, I jumped at it and was disappointed. You can tell on this album that the band's atmosphere is not at its peak.