What Are You Listening To?

[GoatmasterGeneral]

GG top 200 most played bands countdown according to lastFM

 

190. Ultra Silvam - The Sanctity of Death, Sweden

 

189. Í Myrkri - Drivende i Dødens Æter, Denmark

 

[Arioch]

Bathory - The Return... (1985)

 

[Arioch]

Bathory - Blood Fire Death (1988)

 

[GoatmasterGeneral]

GG top 200 most played bands countdown according to lastFM

 

188. Looking For An Answer - Dios Carne, Spain

 

187. Meth Leppard - Woke, Adelaide

 

[Arioch]

Ange - Emile Jacotey Résurrection (2014)

In 2014, the band revisited their 1975 album Emile Jacotey. Different sound, different arrangements, different musicians, an album that respects the spirit of the original album.

For the record, Emile Jacotey was a blacksmith who actually existed. The group met him when he was 85, because he had many stories and legends to tell. Ange drew inspiration from him for the 1975 album.

Emile Jacotey, a truly endearing character.

[CumBloodSucker]

5 hours ago, RelentlessOblivion said:

The accessibility of that app totally sucks, but at a guess I could probably name my top 10 most played bands off the top of my head.

 

NP: Ulcerate - Shrines of Paralysis

Totally outdated, I'm sure of it. I wouldn't recommend for anyone today.

 

3 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

GG top 200 most played bands countdown according to lastFM

 

188. Looking For An Answer - Dios Carne, Spain

 

187. Meth Leppard - Woke, Adelaide

 

These ones are great, awesome!

---

CBS's top 200 most played bands countdown according to lastFM

194. Abigor - Verwustung / Invoke the dark age

 

193. Countess - Ad maiorem Sathanae gloriam

 

[GoatmasterGeneral]

GG top 200 most played bands countdown according to lastFM

 

186. Diocletian - Gesundrian, Auckland NZ

 

185. Goatblood - Apparition of Doomsday, Germany

 

[Arioch]

Covenant - Nexus Polaris (1998)

 

[JamesT]

22 hours ago, Arioch said:

I listened to 3 extracts from the latest Evile. I didn't like them.

Completely understandable!  After hearing some more of it, this one will take some more listens to grow on me, if it does.

[Arioch]

9 minutes ago, JamesT said:

this one will take some more listens to grow on me, if it does.

Not a chance in my case.

[JamesT]

11 minutes ago, Arioch said:

Not a chance in my case.

It seems a rather odd direction for them to take.  After an absence of 8 years between "Skull" (2013) and "Hell Unleashed" (2021), they returned with a vengeance.  "Hell Unleashed" is crushing from start to finish.  After hearing that Matt Drake had left the band, and Ol' Drake would be taking over vocal duties, I wasn't sure what to expect.  But I couldn't have been more pleasantly surprised.  I'd rank the album as their second best, only behind the debut, "Enter the Grave".  Now, just a couple of years later, they release this new one, and it's just a completely different sound.  

I have a feeling that I'll personally grow to like it more as time goes on, but I had hoped they would continue in the vein of "Hell Unleashed" on future releases.  I'll be curious to read more reviews of the album as they're written!

[Arioch]

10 minutes ago, JamesT said:

I'll be curious to read more reviews of the album as they're written!

I've got one for you, a review of The Unknown if you're interested: https://metalobs.com/evile-the-unknown/

As it's in French, I'm posting a translation of the DeePL review here:

"Hell Unleashed may not have been able to be properly defended live in 2021 by Evile (like many other albums released during the covid-19 period), but it was unanimously acclaimed by fans and the media alike, and we at Metal Obs found it simply divine! A pure thrash slaughter of the kind that's sometimes rare these days, except in the current crossover thrash revival wave that many young bands are jumping on... Its main composer, lyricist and founder, Oliver Drake, was confident about this album despite a brand new line-up. Barely two years on, and wanting to strike while the iron's hot, he's trying to move quickly here on a sixth studio opus entitled The Unknown. And generally speaking, we tend to say that after several releases, each new recording is in some way a reaction to the previous one. And as soon as you listen to the first single, 'The Unknown', you realise that this is the case: the British artist has slowed down the pace, the aggression of the guitars and above all his vocals, in order to add more melody. The tone seems calmer, more circumspect, but also more melancholy through OL Drake's melody and lyrics. Musically, Evile seem to be leaning more towards the heavy than the thrash here, which is a real contrast to a single like 'The Thing (1982)' released two years ago on the terrible Hell Unleashed...

Mind you, the guitarist/vocalist's compositions are solid and well-crafted, but let's just say that this may seem a little surprising at first, especially as this tendency towards a clear slowing down and less aggression in favour of melody, over a slow, very heavy rhythm, is confirmed in the following songs: 'The Mask We Wear', with its interesting, contemplative, almost philosophical lyrics. There's a lot of introspection here. And 'Monolith' bears witness to this evolution towards systematic mid-tempo and extremely heavy riffs. The backing vocals are a welcome addition to OL Drake's voice, which has undergone a great deal of work on this new album. But the small problem is that it drags, and gives the album a false rhythm. You have to get past 'When Mortal Coils Shed' and its pretty melody to get down to serious, speedy stuff, but we're already halfway through the album. In fact, on 'Sleepless Eyes', OL Drake and Evile finally let their horses go and for a while abandon Annihilator-style heavy/thrash for Xentrix-style speed/thrash, or rather Exodus, old Metallica and Forbidden. It's about time, because we were getting a bit bored, even if the first four tracks of the album are, once again, very well made, it just didn't take off and lacked a bit of variety and dynamism until now. Right after that, 'Out Of Sight' will appeal to all fans of the genre, with its 1980s influences and catchy chorus that will make any normal thrasher headbang. A little further on, 'Reap What You Sow' is just as thrashy and more disturbing, albeit a little slower. It's a song about the ills of modern society, about dysfunction and regular street clashes, just as they were not so long ago in France at the start of the summer. It's nothing out of the ordinary here, just the usual thrash metal themes and demands since it first appeared in the 80s.

But a more versatile and varied song like "At Mirror's Speech" takes us back to the trend started at the beginning of the album, with a more mid-tempo rhythm and heavier, more sedate vocals, but still somewhere between melancholy and anger. "Balance Of Time', at the end of the album, also gets the job done with the 80s feel so dear to OL Drake, without tiring the listener. As for the guitar solos, you're in for a treat if you like shredding, but let's just say that the leads seem simpler and more sedate, even if the technical level remains high. Brevity is the order of the day here, as OL Drake has sought to simplify the impact of his songs. Overall, these ten new thrash commandments from Evile are all very good, and superbly produced (recording took place at Longwave Studios in Cardiff, Wales, with Chris Clancy (Kataklysm, Overkill, Machine Head, and his band Invictus). Perhaps a different track-listing would have allowed a greater appreciation of the contours of The Unknown, with a different, more balanced order (four slow, heavy tracks in the first half can quickly bore listeners waiting for speed/thrash accelerations), and above all one or two more daring, more original songs, or let's say less repetitive in their rhythm and vocals, would have been judicious.

All in all, this sixth studio bomb needs to be listened to carefully and slowly to fully appreciate every detail and melody. It does, however, mark a slight halt in Evile's aggression and evil side, which predominated in our English band until Hell Unleashed. What's more, the new artwork by Eliran Kantor (Kreator, Hatebreed, Soulfly, Loudblast...) is totally different from its predecessor. Now the question is: is this a short-term trend, just a passing need in reaction to the previous album, or is it a natural evolution that will be developed over the long term and risk losing some die hard fans waiting for more thrills. Alternatively, when it comes to European thrash, they can always fall back on Poison Chalice, the latest Legion Of The Damned (album of the month for June in Metal Obs, May-August 2023), or the next Sodom..."

[Arioch]

Crown of Thorns - The Burning (1995)

If only for the track Soulicide Demon-Might, I love listening to this album!

 

[GoatmasterGeneral]

GG top 200 most played bands countdown according to lastFM

 

184. Baptism - Grim Arts of Melancholy, Finland

 

183. Urgehal - Goatcraft Torment, Norway

 

[Arioch]

Defiance - Void Terra Firma (1990)

 

[Innominate]

The Stupids - Peruvian Vacation

 

[CumBloodSucker]

CBS's top 200 most played bands countdown according to lastFM

192. Cirith gorgor - Onwards to the spectral defile

191. Cattle decapitation - Death atlas

 

[GoatmasterGeneral]

GG top 200 most played bands countdown according to lastFM

 

182. Testament - The Ritual, San Francisco east bay area

 

181. Hypocrisy - Virus, Sweden

 

[GoatmasterGeneral]

GG top 200 most played bands countdown according to lastFM

 

180. Circus of Power - Circus of Power, NYC

 

179. Lynyrd Skynyrd - Nuthin' Fancy

 

[Thatguy]

16 minutes ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

179. Lynyrd Skynyrd - Nuthin' Fancy

Really?

And come on CBS - keep up!

[GoatmasterGeneral]

53 minutes ago, Thatguy said:

Really?

Abso-fucking-lutely! Don't know what you were listening to in the days befor metal came along back in the mid-late 70's in medical school Doc, I'm sure it was some weird-ass proggy shit or electronica. But those of us regular folk who liked to rock were into southern rock: Molly Hatchet, Skynyrd, Blackfoot, MTB, Outlaws and of course the inimitable ZZ Top. I suppose it might just be an American thing. Molly Hatchet and ZZ Top will be much higher up in my top 200 because I still bust all their shit out in the summertime even now 50 years later in my old age. I'm sure you think all your prog and post-metal is better than my southern rock and punk rock, but you'd be incorrect.

[Thatguy]

31 minutes ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

I'm sure you think all your prog and post-metal is better than my southern rock and punk rock, but you'd be incorrect.

This is a cultural gap that can't be bridged. You be your American you.

[AlSymerz]

I'm not sure what post metal is but by the band names alone I think I'd listen to more ZZ Top and Skynrd than I would post metal

[SurgicalBrute]

Kommodus - Wreath Of Bleeding Snowfall

[GoatmasterGeneral]

1 hour ago, Thatguy said:

This is a cultural gap that can't be bridged. You be your American you.

Southern rock is the only American music we had back then in the 70's that rocked hard. All the hardest rocking guitar bands back then in the mid-late 70's were from the UK. All we had over here was a ton of lame radio rock bulllshit and then southern rock and a few northern bands like Aerosmith and Ted Nugent who don't sound too exciting now, but we thought they rocked pretty hard for 1975.

I look at bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd and Molly Hatchet as the American counterparts to AC/DC and Rose Tattoo. Straight-forward no-frills hard rocking barroom bands with 3 guitar players and lots of guitar solos. What's not to like? Not liking ZZ Top, Skynyrd & Hatchet is the 1970's US eqivalent to not liking AC/DC and Rose Tatto in Oz, or not liking Motorhead or Thin Lizzy in the UK. I'm sure there are some people in each country who didn't like any of those bands, but I dismiss them as irrelevant, pretentious, know-nothings who probably walk around with sticks up their asses.

And sure, of course I would rather have been listening to metal in the '70's, but it hadn't been invented yet. So what was a poor teenage headbanger supposed to do? Sabbath was my favorite band back then because they were about as close as you could get to "metal" at that time. No other band was even remotely close to being "metal" in the 70's, but you can't just listen to one band all the time. Southern rock and later punk rock were the only things that kept me sane until metal arrived to save the day. 

1 hour ago, AlSymerz said:

I'm not sure what post-metal is, but by the band names alone I think I'd listen to more ZZ Top and Skynyrd than I would post metal. 

Have you really not figured out what post-metal is by now? Not even an inkling? I don't care for it, and I agree it's a stupid stupid name for a sub-genre, but it exists and surely you must have come across some somewhere by now. Weren't you the dude who listened along to all Doc's postings for a week or two a couple of months back? I'm sure there would have been some post-metal in there amonst those eclectic combination of albums, it's one of his favorite sub-genres. 

 

ZZ Top - Tejas 1976, The American AC/DC. Or maybe the American Thin Lizzy.