What Are You Listening To?

[GoatmasterGeneral]

1 hour ago, Nasty_Cabbage said:

Malign Hex - Noctambulous Ecstasies

I'm currently at the start of the sixth and final track not counting the outro. Black metal like this always raises questions with me about how I hear and judge it. If we're going the raw route where's the line on what adds to the music and what's simply raw for it's own sake? I think on general principal I'd reject the notion that there was any kind of a time limit or expiration date on when or what's "true" raw black metal or not, but does access to better recording equipment in general factor in. Does it call into question the sincerity with which this sort of thing is made?

One way or the other these guys (or this guy. I haven't really looked into it) really do manage to push the harsh factor in places. It's more than just being the loudest or having the ugliest guitar tone. There's something here in the songwriting that's able to sustain longer songs at the level of external cacophony they achieve. I think I like it.

It's one Canadian dude who calls himself Zabaxios. The raw fuzzy "lo-fi" sound is intentional obviously, and there's gotta be hundreds if not thousands of bands out there now going this route. It's like a micro-sub-genre of bm unto itself even within the larger sub-genre of what's considered 'raw black metal'. I do like a lot of this kind of stuff and I know Surge does too. (another regular poster here who goes by Surgical Brute, he recently got a new job where he travels so he can't post as much as he once did) but I think he's deeper into this than I am, or at least I think he posts a lot more of this really fuzzy sort of stuff on the board than I do. But I probably find maybe 8 or 10 or even up to a dozen or so keeper albums each year in this micro-genre that I like enough to buy if they have a digital option. I call it 'fuzzy' for lack of a better word, but you know what I mean, right? For me it all comes down to the riffs and the vocals. The fuzzy production is a given, you're either down for it or you're not. The vocals here are excellent, but I'm only 10 minutes in so we'll have to see about the riffs. 

EDIT: Riffs aren't up to snuff, this will not be a purchase.

[Nasty_Cabbage]

18 minutes ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

It's one Canadian dude who calls himself Zabaxios. The raw fuzzy "lo-fi" sound is intentional obviously, and there's gotta be thousands of bands out there now going this route. It's like a micro-sub-genre of bm unto itself even within the larger sub-genre of what's considered 'raw black metal'. I do like a lot of this kind of stuff and I know Surge does too. (another regular poster here who goes by Surgical Brute, he recently got a new job where he travels so he can't post as much as he once did) but I think he's deeper into this than I am, or at least I think he posts a lot more of this really fuzzy sort of stuff on the board than I do. But I probably find maybe 8 or 10 or even up to a dozen or so keeper albums each year in this micro-genre that I like enough to buy if they have a digital option. I call it 'fuzzy' for lack of a better word, but you know what I mean, right? For me it all comes down to the riffs and the vocals. The fuzzy production is a given, you're either down for it or you're not. The vocals here are excellent, but I'm only 10 minutes in so we'll have to see about the riffs. 

Fuzzy's a pretty good descriptor. I can appreciate it since Beherit's Oath of Black Blood is top five all time black metal for me. I think the deciding factor is that I enjoy the fuzz as long as it's got something else going for it. It can be anything really (except maybe lyrics. I'm just not a lyrics guy). Be it strong songwriting, an addtional genre or style to make a unique hybrid, and sometimes just pure enthusiasm ("for love of the game" as they say) will contribute immeasurably to my enjoyment of the fuzz. I guess it has to be fuzz+ if that makes sense.

NP: Sacrilegious Impalement - IV Infinite Victor

▶︎ IV - Infinite Victor | Sacrilegious Impalement | Woodcut Records (bandcamp.com)

 My gut told me while listening to this that they'd been around for a while. A quick venture to the archives holds with that: Four full lengths and some demos going back to '06. They sound studio tight, not in the sense of compression but more like, if they have the material, they won't need more than a day or so in the studio and it'll come out finely sharpened to a cutting edge and stage ready. Sometimes you can really tell when a band plays like they've been playing together for years. This is by no means a bad thing. It just might sneak it's way onto my year ender.

[GoatmasterGeneral]

12 minutes ago, Nasty_Cabbage said:

Fuzzy's a pretty good descriptor. I can appreciate it since Beherit's Oath of Black Blood is top five all time black metal for me. I think the deciding factor is that I enjoy the fuzz as long as it's got something else going for it. It can be anything really (except maybe lyrics. I'm just not a lyrics guy). Be it strong songwriting, an addtional genre or style to make a unique hybrid, and sometimes just pure enthusiasm ("for love of the game" as they say) will contribute immeasurably to my enjoyment of the fuzz. I guess it has to be fuzz+ if that makes sense.

NP: Sacrilegious Impalement - IV Infinite Victor

My gut told me while listening to this that they'd been around for a while. A quick venture to the archives holds with that: Four full lengths and some demos going back to '06. They sound studio tight, not in the sense of compression but more like, if they have the material, they won't need more than a day or so in the studio and it'll come out finely sharpened to a cutting edge and stage ready. Sometimes you can really tell when a band plays like they've been playing together for years. This is by no means a bad thing. It just might sneak it's way onto my year ender.

Yeah exactly, getting that raw fuzzy sound just right is half the battle, but you still have to write some compelling music or else who's gonna want to come back and listen to it again? A lot of more atmospheric bands seem to fall into that trap of working so hard to get the whole thing to sound a certain way that they forget to write some cool riffs. I'm not a lyrics guy either so yeah I'm gonna be needing some riffs por favor.

 

Sacrilegious Impalement - Storming Death (Official Music Video)

I grabbed this Sacriligious Impalement back in May because I am the Finnblack guy after all, that's my favorite sub-genre of black metal. But as Finnish black metal goes I think this is kind of average or maybe slightly above. I have a working list of 41 black metal albums that are my favorites so far this year (so I don't forget and leave anything out come December) and this is on it, but I'm not really expecting it to still be there in 5 months at the end of the year. Guess it needs to be Finnblack+

 

NP: Porphyrion - Blood Orgies Beneath Disgrace Temples, Seattle WA

 

[CumBloodSucker]

7 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Pretty rare to see someone make a post and rattle off 10 bands in a row all of which I like. I agree that Blood Chalice is pretty bangin'. Only the two albums and an 11 minute demo so far but I'm expecting great things from them.

I laughed when you said your 204 was yesterday's 201. With those kinds of low play counts in the teens and 20's every time you play an album it's gonna change everything around. Those Blood Chalice albums have 12 tracks each so every time you play one of them it'll shoot way up in the rankings.

I'm going to play like a true mf to get nothing but good bands in top 200 next year.

I played alot of bands from your list yesterday. You like all 10, even Akitsa and Graveland? Specially Akitsa I don't expect anyone to like in this forum.

Akitsa - Haine et vengeance

 

[RelentlessOblivion]

11 minutes ago, CumBloodSucker said:

I'm going to play like a true mf to get nothing but good bands in top 200 next year.

I played alot of bands from your list yesterday. You like all 10, even Akitsa and Graveland? Specially Akitsa I don't expect anyone to like in this forum.

Akitsa - Haine et vengeance

 

Not bad, i’m sure I’m going to mix the pub in my head, but the vocals been buried in the mix a.m. remind me those Havohej demos a little, of Profanatica? Either way solid

 

My Dying Bride - the angel and the dark river

[GoatmasterGeneral]

37 minutes ago, CumBloodSucker said:

I'm going to play like a true mf to get nothing but good bands in top 200 next year.

I played alot of bands from your list yesterday. You like all 10, even Akitsa and Graveland? Specially Akitsa I don't expect anyone to like in this forum.

Akitsa - Haine et Vengeance

Yeah I liked the Akista, definitely dig the raw stuff like this when it's done well.

I've never been a huge Graveland fan in the past, but that one you said was your favorite, Glare of the Burning Churches was pretty damn good indeed, I might look into picking it up. They've got about 20 albums so maybe I had just been listening to the wrong ones.

Oh I see, it's one of their early demos from '93. Sounds a lot different than their later 2000's albums, wish they would have sayed on this track.

 

[GoatmasterGeneral]

Inhibitions - With the Fullmoon Above my Head, Greek black metal 2019

 

Graveland - Creed of Iron, bm Poland 2000, might have judged this Rob Darken dude too harshly in the past, I like this. Maybe Graveland will be in my top 200 next year.

 

[CumBloodSucker]

36 minutes ago, RelentlessOblivion said:

Not bad, i’m sure I’m going to mix the pub in my head, but the vocals been buried in the mix a.m. remind me those Havohej demos a little, of Profanatica? Either way solid

I haven't heard much Havohej, but yea the same raw approach. While the one song I posted is a typical raw bm song, Akitsa also blends noise, punk and folky elements into their bm. Vocals I'd say are the biggest factor wheter it catches or not, because sometimes it goes all out shrieking and other times clean. Really versatile band.

 

 

38 minutes ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

I've never been a huge Graveland fan in the past, but that one you said was your favorite, Glare of the Burning Churches was pretty damn good indeed, I might look into picking it up. They've got about 20 albums so maybe I had just been listening to the wrong ones.

I bought two albums early 2010, but they really catched like six years later when I picked one of those albums for a revisit. There is one demo Celtic winter that is same sounding as Glare of the burning churches. Then there are the 90's full-lengths where they improved musically and in production, essentially playing the same pagan style black metal. Immortal pride, Creed of iron are the transition albums where Graveland turned into more pagan/folk metal approached black metal. There has been lot of re-recordings in the last ten years and one new album two years ago.

I usually listen to Glare of burning churches, Carpathian wolves and little less Thousand swords, Creed of iron, Spears of heaven and Hour of Ragnarök.

 

[AlSymerz]

The Mist - Phantasmagoria

 

[RelentlessOblivion]

Ancient Wisdom - …and the Physical Shape of Light Bled

[Dead1]

In Flames - Whoracle

Their zenith in my opinion.  Near perfect melodic death metal.  After this comes mediocrity which then snowballs into total shit.

 

Shed the Skin - We Of Scorn

Riffy death metal with occasional forays into melodic death metal.

[Nasty_Cabbage]

NP: Odz Manouk - Bosoragazen

▶︎ Odz Manouk - Bosoragazan (Բոսորագազան) | Blood Coloured Beast (bandcamp.com)

Finally got around to this one to give it a proper listen in full. So far I'm enjoying the weirder riffs a lot more than when they switch up and go more traditional for a bit, but there's enough of the weird stuff to keep me listening.

[navybsn]

Casket Cassette - Chainless EP

The Dwarves - Blood, Guts, and Pussy

The Dead Milkmen - Depends on the Horse

Fugitive - Blast Furnace

Akercocke - Decades of Devil Worship

[Nasty_Cabbage]

3 hours ago, Dead1 said:

In Flames - Whoracle

Their zenith in my opinion. Near perfect melodic death metal.  Afterthis comes mediocrity which then snowballs into total shit.

You would not be alone in your opinion on Whoracle. Always had a soft spot for Clayman myself. I ended up seeing them just before whatever album came after Reroute to Remain. In Flames did okay. They were preceded by Job for a Cowboy which I could certainly done without. It was a pretty bad night for a number of reasons. Even though I'm not the biggest fan of the particular strain of mathcore Job... trade in, I gotta say they had the younger crowd pretty much in pocket and moving. Can't fault them there.

[RelentlessOblivion]

I like the subterranean EP fine, InFlames kind of squandered their potential in my opinion.

 

Vivaldi - Four Seasons: Winter

[Nasty_Cabbage]

NP: Thunder Volt - High and Low

▶︎ High and Low | Thunder Volt (bandcamp.com)

I said yesterday I'm just not a lyrics guy. I can probably count on one hand the artists whose lyrics I would say truly elevate the music. These guys would not count among them. Not only that, but I honestly hope a lot of what he enunciates is just edgy for it's own sake, because if the singer means half of what he sings he seriously needs to seek out help for depression. I'm not mocking or belittling it, but musically I really can't see the appeal of sitting down to listen to this dude sing his despondence with life. Not my thing. Nobody's saying you gotta take meds, but at least seek some counseling for your anhedonia dude.

[Nasty_Cabbage]

NP: Mourning Silence - Gripping Dark Serenade

▶︎ Mourning Silence - Gripping Dark Serenade | Reprisal Promotions (bandcamp.com)

Sounds like a doom band, right? That would be incorrect. Death metal with a slightly blackened tinge. Decent material, but good Lord guys get those vocals down in the mix. I was actually kind of enjoying the lo-fi bass neutering guitar sound until those vocals kicked in. Get those down and bring everything else up by like 20%. It's seriously dragging the whole thing down.

[Hungarino]

Shrines to Dagon | Out of the Mouth of Graves (bandcamp.com)

A pretty well executed if chaotic amalgamation of dark, nasty, cavernous slightly dissonant blackened brutalish DM. The art is representative of the insanity contained within. This one is growing on me.

[GoatmasterGeneral]

 

1 hour ago, Nasty_Cabbage said:

Decent material, but good Lord guys get those vocals down in the mix. I was actually kind of enjoying the lo-fi bass neutering guitar sound until those vocals kicked in. Get those down and bring everything else up by like 20%. It's seriously dragging the whole thing down.

Almost nothing can ruin an album faster than vocals being too high in the mix. Don't they have spekers in the studio? How do they not hear that and just let it go out like that? Can't even really hear any distorted guitars here, his tone is terrible, the drum sounds are atrocious, this is a hard pass before the first song is over. Incompetent botched production worse than most of the lo-fi crap I listen to. No great loss, the material wasn't anything special anyway.

 

Tank - Honor and Blood, 1984. Never owned this one, their 4th album, I had the 1st and 3rd Tank records before this. Kinda straddles the line between hard rock and heavy metal. Algy does have a very appealing voice. Wondering why they weren't a bit bigger back in the day. I guess the masses preferred Rob and Bruce's ear piercing screams. Idiots. 

 

Tank- Power of the Hunter, 1982, the 2nd Tank album.

 

[Nasty_Cabbage]

54 minutes ago, Hungarino said:

Shrines to Dagon | Out of the Mouth of Graves (bandcamp.com)

A pretty well executed if chaotic amalgamation of dark, nasty, cavernous slightly dissonant blackened brutalish DM. The art is representative of the insanity contained within. This one is growing on me.

Interesting. I'll check it out as soon as I'm done with an old fave

NP: Hypocrisy - Osculum Obscenum

Osculum Obscenum (Remastered) | Hypocrisy (bandcamp.com)

Now I know Penetralia is the early Hypocrisy album to own, and being as honest with myself as possible the Venom and Bathory covers really do mess with the flow, but this one will always hold a special place in my eviscerated heart. It was some of the first non-U.S. death metal I had heard and really had a chance to digest Carcass before this, but only Heartwork and Swansong.

[Hungarino]

Back to thrashier fare before playing the awesomely named Sacrilegious Impalement.

There is no way I am not going to listen to a band called Sacrilegious Impalement.

NP: Deranged - Lacerations

Deranged | Supreme Echo (bandcamp.com)

A compilation from two demos from this unheralded late 80's group from Victoria, BC.

[Serpentboi1992]

[Hungarino]

Exterminio - Demo II

As featured on Now That's What I Call Goat Blasphemy! Vol 666

[Thatguy]

9 hours ago, Nasty_Cabbage said:

NP: Odz Manouk - Bosoragazen

 

I had a listen to this yesterday and it didn't hold my interest.

 

6 hours ago, Hungarino said:

Shrines to Dagon | Out of the Mouth of Graves (bandcamp.com)

This is OK but is maybe a bit transparent for me and by that I mean that I can hear the wheels moving and I know where they are going and it is nowhere I haven't been before.

[Thatguy]

THE CONTORTIONIST - Relapse. I know this won't appeal to many here. It is a live in the studio retrospective. A lot of music and I am enjoying it. Sounds great.

ACKERCOCKE - Decades Of Devil Worship. Yeah, baby.

Is everyone too busy arguing about bacon to post some music?