What Are You Listening To?

[GoatmasterGeneral]

33 minutes ago, JonoBlade said:

It was worth the trip. The Wedgie Doods were great. Listening to the bandcamp albums now. Unfortunately they are on my shitlist, having signed to Century Media, and no BC for latest album. So dumb. I hope you enjoy your 1 cent per billion streams on Spotify.

Live, they weren't exactly animated and I am very wary of a band with no bass but the drummer was notably cool, kind of like John Bonham doing blast beats. @GoatmasterGeneral would argue it doesn't matter for black metal, however, it sure don't look right.

Anyway, am I a fan of the band if I refuse to buy their album on the basis it is on Century Media? Yet a fan of the albums available to me.

After a fairly quick turnover and dead on time for the very early start of 8.05pm for the headliner, Russian Circles took the stage (mind you, they set up all their own gear so appeared to little rockstar fanfare). I am struck that this would be the perfect post metal band if they were fronted by Aaron Turner. Now that the post-Neurosis future of post metal is so uncertain.

Since I don't know RC that well, this was more of a curious reconnaissance mission where I happened to pick up another band I'll be coming back to (bassless though they may be). 

Anyhow, they put on a good show. As @navybsn noted, probably more reliable than Deicide. I only saw those guys once probably coming up 20 years ago when the Hoffman brothers were still onboard. I don't remember anything, but assume I enjoyed it. I came across a photo a while back which evidenced my brother was with me. So, it would have been a good night.

A gay old time was had. I somehow remembered the layout of the club and the distinctive brick walls even though I would have been munted the last time I was there (my guess 2004 or 5).

Jeez, but I was lucky on the way home. My train was cancelled while I was sitting on it, yet I didn't hear the announcement as I've got new custom IEMs which let nothing through. Luckily, as everyone started disappearing, I worked out the train on the next platform was rerouted to take me home. Pity the poor bastards who wanted to get to Liverpool - where the original train was supposed to terminate. They were told "we can get you to Crewe, but there aren't any trains to Liverpool from there. We will look into it and hopefully sort out a bus or something. Enjoy the ride and have a great evening!"

The great British privatised rail service. Avanti, you cvnts.

But I got home only 10 minutes later than scheduled.

Well it's a good thing you were only going as far as Milky Beans! Or you'd still be sitting in Crewe Station. Or you could just grab an Uber.

Just want to get something straight, I read it twice but I'm still confused. Are you saying that neither band had any bass? Not a 4-stringer on the entire bill? That's unusual. Wouldn't say it doesn't matter, bass is awesome. The only band I've seen live without a bass that pulled it off successfully was Inquisition. Don't know how he did it. Other than them I'd prefer to have bass. I assume some of these bands use bass in the studio but maybe just not live. Because I know less than nothing about the Russian Circles so I'm checking out their 2022 abum Gnosis, and there are definitely low frequencies being reproduced here, having no hard info I'd have to assume it's a bass guitar. This isn't what I was expecting, I think I checked them out on Youtube once many years ago, but this is almost metal and almost listenable. For post-rock. Might even be cool live, what were they a two-piece, guitar and drums? No vocals? Be better with vocals. Didn't think they were actually Russians, but I never knew they were from Chicago. They have a bass player listed on M-A, Brian Cook, says 2007 til the present. Maybe he just couldn't make the trip for some reason, or he's a convicted felon and they wouldn't let him into the country. Who knows he could be sitting at Crewe Station waiting for a ride to Liverpool or Manchester, not realizing the next gig was in Londontown.

Gnosis

 

[JamesT]

9 hours ago, Dead1 said:

Not necessarily a fan of bands, but some of those you've listed have put out some great albums.

 

Warbringer - Waking into Nightmares and Weapons of Tomorow

Havok - Conformicide - probably my favourite modern thrash album alongside Toxic Holocaust's Primal Future: 2019 

Evile - Five Serpents Teeth though Enter The Grave is pretty good too.

Enforced - probably the weakest of the bunch but Kill Grid was pretty decent.

 

Will check it out.

The surprise of the year though I need more time with it.

 

Evile - The Unknown

Ok I had expect to hate it due to it slowing down.  But it's actually quite listenable.  Definitely going down a doomier route.    Bits sound almost Paradise Lost.

Probably not metal enough for some people though.

 

I think you'll enjoy Wreck-Defy!  The musicianship and vocals are equally great.  

You and I have definitely both been on the "Congregation of Annihilation" train!  I just can't get over how perfect Marc Lopes is for the band's sound.  He can hit the Halford-like highs and can let out some fierce growls the very next moment.  Very impressive singer. 

I completely agree with you about the new Evile album, "The Unknown".  It took a few listens for me to get into it.  It's such a contrast from their 2021 comeback album, "Hell Unleashed", which is my second favorite album of theirs, only behind "Enter the Grave".  But now that I've listened through "The Unknown" several times, it has really grown on me.  It does have a couple of solid thrashers in the middle of the track listing, but the doomier songs are heavy in a completely different way, and I'm enjoying it!

[Nasty_Cabbage]

NP: Paranoid Existence - Drakaina

▶︎ Drakaina | Paranoid Existence | Kvlt und Kaos Productions (bandcamp.com)

Not bad death doom, but the sound is a little thin. It sounds like they've only got one guitar. If you're going to do that you really need some heft to the lower end that these guys seem to lack.

[JonoBlade]

5 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Well it's a good thing you were only going as far as Milky Beans! Or you'd still be sitting in Crewe Station. Or you could just grab an Uber.

Just want to get something straight, I read it twice but I'm still confused. Are you saying that neither band had any bass? Not a 4-stringer on the entire bill?

Sorry for the confusion, Wedgie Doods = no bass, Russian Circles = bass. BUT, the RC guy does also put down the bass and play second guitar sometimes during the set. At which point there is no bass, BUT I suspect they use a pitch shifter on one of the guitars to emulate a bass, just for those tracks.

I cannot tell you for certain if the Wedded Dudes use a bass in the studio. If it is there it is at Newsted levels. They probably do as you'd be stupid not to.

True story, back in 2006 my band did three dates in a row (the closest to a tour I ever did) and....there was no bass! The bass player had to switch to drums at 3 days notice because the drummer had total kidney failure, the inconsiderate bastard. The legend bass player that saved the day.

However, it was pretty metal that the drummer already recorded this entire album: Spacial Operations | Monsterworks (bandcamp.com) mere days before his kidney failure. He was complaining about fuzzy vision and headaches, but we were like "harden up cvnt."

I digress.

Yes, Russian Circles would be better with vocals - but then their angle is not having vocals, because I think some people actually prefer it. At least you don't have to worry whether its going to have annoying shouty ones, crooning dumb ones, nasally horrific ones or something in between. 

Quite rarely for me I got into Russian Circles because of a you tube video which popped up (must have been paid-for advertising). It was a short live-in-studio set which I thought was ace. I had ordered the album before the video finished.

 

NP: Primordial Arcana | WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM (bandcamp.com)

 

[JonoBlade]

6 hours ago, Nasty_Cabbage said:

NP: Sanctuarium - Into The Mephitic Abyss

▶︎ Into The Mephitic Abyss | Sanctuarium | BlackSeed Productions (bandcamp.com)

Have you ever been enjoying dISEMBOWELMENT and thought to yourself "This is great, but if they peppered in some faster segments for good measure"? Of course you have. You're only human after all, and boy oh boy do we have an album for you.

Straight to wishlist, cue for tomorrow as its teatime now.

I really liked Inverloch...which I think practically is dISEMBOWELMENT, but I have still not managed to hear the original band.

[navybsn]

Bass players > drummers. The bp would have toured until he died of kidney failure and never complained. Drummers... always the weakest link.

[Serpentboi1992]

[Nasty_Cabbage]

3 hours ago, JonoBlade said:

Straight to wishlist, cue for tomorrow as its teatime now.

I really liked Inverloch...which I think practically is dISEMBOWELMENT, but I have still not managed to hear the original band.

Wow. They've had a few reissues, but I suppose they were all in a fairly limited run. Such are the woes of metalheads out on the fringe I suppose. Fun story; I once needed a little quick cash for a burger or something so I took a few CDs I hadn't listened to in years to the CD shop, and the guy behind the counter must not have been there very long because whatever system they were using to inventory their stock didn't have about half my albums listed. You'd have thought I had walked in to a veterinary clinic with a unicorn. "They told me this database has everything. Where did you get this?

NP: Paroxysm Unit - Fragmentation // Strategem

▶︎ Paroxysm Unit | Fragmentation // Stratagem | New Standard Elite (bandcamp.com)

A diamond in the rough if you're into tech. It looks like these guys are on a pretty good label, but sometimes with death the total package design can get a little samey. Same spikey lettering, same Heavy Metal Magazine in a meat grinder style of cover art. I had no reason to think going into this that it'd be anything other than brutal slam death in the vein of Dying Fetus. It's not, though I can understand where that influence comes from. This is far more tech death than anything else. I adore tech death so naturally I love it. Individual results may vary though.

[GoatmasterGeneral]

Disembowelment - Transcendence into the Peripheral, Melbourne Victoria 1993. Your Sanctuarium can't touch the filth level of this. Although I do really like the idea of more faster sections being peppered in, you can't let that breach the integrity of the filth. Once the filth has been compromised it's all over. On the other hand I find the filth as we have here to be lacking something without many faster sections. There are a few but not enough. I liked Inverloch better than this as I recall. But this is still better than Sanctuarium. Especially when they veer into Evoken territitory like on track 2. Even though clearly Evoken got their sound from 'Bowelment since Evoken's earliest demos were '94 and this was '93. I'd say Evoken does it better though and has basically perfected it, although I know 'Bowelment has a very loyal cult following. Which probably just stems from the fact that they broke up right after this their one masterpiece came out and thoughts of what might have been. 

 

[AlSymerz]

19 hours ago, Dead1 said:

Will check it out.

If you're a follower of players then you'll possibly recognise Gregies bass in Wreck-Defy. Many claim he was one of Testament's best bass players and he did go on to play with Melbourne band Meshiaak for a brief time. But he's one of those players that never seems to find himself a permanent band. He's been in Wreck-Defy now since their second album, they seem a bit disjointed and they seem to struggle to keep players. I don't think the new vocalist has quite settled in yet but he's probably got more potential than the guy they had on the first two albums

 

[Thatguy]

HOPE DRONE - Hope Drone.

NP - PIERRE BOULEZ - Pli Selon Pli etc...

[Nasty_Cabbage]

1 hour ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Disembowelment - Transcendence into the Peripheral, Melbourne Victoria 1993. Your Sanctuarium can't touch the filth level of this. Although I do really like the idea of more faster sections being peppered in, you can't let that breach the integrity of the filth. Once the filth has been compromised it's all over. On the other hand I find the filth as we have here to be lacking something without many faster sections. There are a few but not enough. I liked Inverloch better than this as I recall. But this is still better than Sanctuarium. Especially when they veer into Evoken territitory like on track 2. Even though clearly Evoken got their sound from 'Bowelment since Evoken's earliest demos were '94 and this was '93. I'd say Evoken does it better though and has basically perfected it, although I know 'Bowelment has a very loyal cult following. Which probably just stems from the fact that they broke up right after this their one masterpiece came out and thoughts of what might have been. 

 

😆 Ah well. As long as you don't feel I wasted your time. I'm actually not familiar with Evoken. For some reason my brain associates them with Swallow the Sun among a handful of other somewhat anti-martial doom acts. That's the one thing I feel like most doom at this tempo can't survive. It just won't take on the stately character of military styled beats.

I think I'll keep my Sanctuarium for myself then. Of course, I'm also the guy who earnestly listens to and enjoys Rigor Sardonicous, and thinks they get a bad rep purely for not taking themselves seriously enough for most doom fans, so perhaps my sanity is in question.

NP: Rigor Sardonicous - Praeparet Bellum

Praeparet Bellum - 2023 | Rigor Sardonicous (bandcamp.com)

...And speaking of.

[Dead1]

Obituary - World Demise

A decent little romp even if it gets stuck in neutral sometimes.

[JamesT]

Wreck-Defy - "Powers That Be"

Wreck-Defy - "The World Enslaved"

Xentrix - "Bury the Pain"

Just a fantastic album from start to finish.

Exodus - "Tempo of the Damned"

Dark Angel - "Darkness Descends"

Accuser - "The Forlorn Divide"

Accuser - "The Mastery"

Accuser - Self-titled

Kreator - "Extreme Aggression"

Vulture - "Dealin' Death"

Excellent newer thrash band but with production that makes it sound like it came straight from 1986.  Highly recommended! 

[FatherAlabaster]

53 minutes ago, Nasty_Cabbage said:

😆 Ah well. As long as you don't feel I wasted your time. I'm actually not familiar with Evoken. For some reason my brain associates them with Swallow the Sun among a handful of other somewhat anti-martial doom acts. That's the one thing I feel like most doom at this tempo can't survive. It just won't take on the stately character of military styled beats.

I think I'll keep my Sanctuarium for myself then. Of course, I'm also the guy who earnestly listens to and enjoys Rigor Sardonicous, and thinks they get a bad rep purely for not taking themselves seriously enough for most doom fans, so perhaps my sanity is in question.

NP: Rigor Sardonicous - Praeparet Bellum

Praeparet Bellum - 2023 | Rigor Sardonicous (bandcamp.com)

...And speaking of.

Dude, Evoken fuckin rules. Embrace The Emptiness and Antithesis Of Light are great starting places. Their last one is a bit different but great too, kind of a more focused take on the stuff they were doing on the album prior, with some MDB vibes thrown in.

 

NP: Rush - Moving Pictures 

[GoatmasterGeneral]

1 hour ago, Nasty_Cabbage said:

😆 Ah well. As long as you don't feel I wasted your time. I'm actually not familiar with Evoken. For some reason my brain associates them with Swallow the Sun among a handful of other somewhat anti-martial doom acts. That's the one thing I feel like most doom at this tempo can't survive. It just won't take on the stately character of military styled beats.

I think I'll keep my Sanctuarium for myself then. Of course, I'm also the guy who earnestly listens to and enjoys Rigor Sardonicous, and thinks they get a bad rep purely for not taking themselves seriously enough for most doom fans, so perhaps my sanity is in question.

No my friend, I wasn't saying that at all, I liked the Sanctuarium. But you opened the door to this line of questioning when you brought the legendary Disembowelment into it. Seeing your post gave me the idea to compare the two head to head and report my findings. But I wasn't trying to discredit the Sanctuarium, I thought it was good. Just nowhere near death/doom titans like D'bowelment and Evoken.

If you like that Transcendence into the Peripheral album even a little bit do yourself a favor and check out some Evoken. Crushing death/doom from right here in New Jersey with a lot more death than most in that sub-genre, just played very slowly. Transcendence was a one-off album by a band that broke up soon after, but Evokern has taken that sound as their inspiration, cleaned it up a little bit, added even more crushing death atmosphere and really made it their own. I'm not even the biggest doom guy because I prefer faster music most of the time. But Evoken is the exception, they're in a class by themselves.

I flew across the country to see them at the Denver Doomfest in Oct 2013 because I just kept missing their shows back east. Was a good move, Jayke (a former poster and mod here) introduced me to John Paradiso, who said he felt like he owed me money for flying out just to see them. They were cool low key Jersey dudes and then they proceeded to absolutely blow the roof off that little club on South Broadway. Was so loud you could feel that crushing bass vibrating your internal organs, it was fucking awesome.

 

Evoken - Antithesis of Light, 2005. This is the one you want.

 

[Dead1]

Wreck Defy - Remnant of Pain

Meh thrash.  Vocals are a bit too melodic, song writing rather generic and production and performance are both bland.  Only time they have any fire in them is during lead breaks/solos.  Occasional modern Iced Earth vibes which is not really great as modern Iced Earth is mainly trash.  It's OK but not something I'd ever want to revisit.

[markm]

15 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Because I know less than nothing about the Russian Circles so I'm checking out their 2022 abum Gnosis, and there are definitely low frequencies being reproduced here, having no hard info I'd have to assume it's a bass guitar. This isn't what I was expecting, I think I checked them out on Youtube once many years ago, but this is almost metal and almost listenable.

Gnosis

 

I've got a couple or Russian Circles albums. I'm not a huge fan of instrumetal,  but I can do Pelican and an occasional spin of one off instru-stoners Karma to Burn's 2011 album Almost Heathen. A few others here and there.  RC are good at what they do. This one was arguably a little heavier and beefier...almost pissed off.  

[JamesT]

49 minutes ago, Dead1 said:

Wreck Defy - Remnant of Pain

Meh thrash.  Vocals are a bit too melodic, song writing rather generic and production and performance are both bland.  Only time they have any fire in them is during lead breaks/solos.  Occasional modern Iced Earth vibes which is not really great as modern Iced Earth is mainly trash.  It's OK but not something I'd ever want to revisit.

My mistake, my friend!  I finished listening through their 3 albums today, and I loved it, but we all hear things differently, which is totally cool!

[GoatmasterGeneral]

3 hours ago, Thatguy said:

HOPE DRONE - Hope Drone

More post-metal from the doctor. What is it you like so much about this sub-genre that I'm missing? This is not horrible (unlike the avant-classical Boulez) but why this when you could listen to actual black metal? 

I did enjoy that Quiet Man record you posted yesterday with the Easter bunny on the cover though, at least for a little while until I got bored with it after about 30 minutes. Might revisit that one sometime. That was post-metal too, but at least there was some sludge and aggression in there to make things interesting.

 

Worm - Foreverglade, the death/doom parade continues...

 

 

[AlSymerz]

1 hour ago, Dead1 said:

Wreck Defy - Remnant of Pain

Meh thrash.  Vocals are a bit too melodic, song writing rather generic and production and performance are both bland.  Only time they have any fire in them is during lead breaks/solos.  Occasional modern Iced Earth vibes which is not really great as modern Iced Earth is mainly trash.  It's OK but not something I'd ever want to revisit.

The latest album is slightly better because they got a new singer (he actually took over from Ripper in Ripper's cover band when Ripper joined JP, although that's not a glowing reference).

The 4th album still isn't great anything but it is better.

[GoatmasterGeneral]

45 minutes ago, JamesT said:

My mistake, my friend!  I finished listening through their 3 albums today, and I loved it, but we all hear things differently, which is totally cool!

Was getting some Testament vibes from this "Remnants of Pain" except just a bit more modern, fake and pastic sounding. But then the chorus came up and I couldn't do it man, I couldn't hang. Wasn't terrible though I should think if you're one of those modern thrash kinda guys (which obviously I'm not) certainly can't be any worse than that plastic sounding Havok band Deadovic likes. Betcha this would give our thrash master Orca a half-chub.

OK that's enough for my 15 minutes of thrash on a Tuesday night, going back to the safe haven of my death/doom now.

[JamesT]

6 minutes ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Was getting some Testament vibes from this "Remnants of Pain" except just a bit more modern, fake and pastic sounding. But then the chorus came up and I couldn't do it man, I couldn't hang. Wasn't terrible though I should think if you're one of those modern thrash kinda guys (which obviously I'm not) certainly can't be any worse than that plastic sounding Havok band Deadovic likes. Betcha this would give our thrash master Orca a half-chub.

OK that's enough for my 15 minutes of thrash on a Monday night, going back to the safe haven of my death/doom now.

Good evening, Mr. GG!  I'm grateful to you for putting Evoken back on my radar!  I used to listen to a lot more doom/funeral doom/death doom than I do now, but I still enjoy some bands quite a bit - Ahab, Evoken, Shape of Despair, Skepticism, etc.

"Antithesis of Light" is such a crushing album - loving every second of it all over again.

[Dead1]

1 hour ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

 

Worm - Foreverglade, the death/doom parade continues...

 

 

I am not usually a fan of Death/Doom but these guys are pretty cool.  They have some awesome 1990s vibes!

1 hour ago, AlSymerz said:

The latest album is slightly better because they got a new singer (he actually took over from Ripper in Ripper's cover band when Ripper joined JP, although that's not a glowing reference).

The 4th album still isn't great anything but it is better.

Still doesn't make me feel like putting them on! 

 

1 hour ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Was getting some Testament vibes from this "Remnants of Pain" except just a bit more modern, fake and pastic sounding. But then the chorus came up and I couldn't do it man, I couldn't hang. Wasn't terrible though I should think if you're one of those modern thrash kinda guys (which obviously I'm not) certainly can't be any worse than that plastic sounding Havok band Deadovic likes.

 

I like one Havok album "Conformicide" and that's a far more pissed off, more unique, and better written affair than Wreck Defy.  Plus awesome bass (which they had for one album and then the bass player left!)! 

Though it's production is plastic sounding but it kind of works for what it is - I think they were going for a later Death vibe.

You would hate it of course!

But that bass!

 

 

[GoatmasterGeneral]

I'm not usually a big death/doom guy either, normally when I want death metal I want something a little bit faster than this. But every now and then I'll get into a real doomy mood. This is the album that sparked my current death/doom binge, I posted it last night when I discovered it and now here it is again tonight. A one-man affair from Belgium, slow and heavy as you could want with plenty of atmosphere and some nice understated background guitar work. This is at least my third or fourth time through this today, it's only 30 minutes long so it goes by really quick. 

Gateway - Galgendood

 

Deteriorot - The Rebirth. Not quite as slow, these dudes rev the RPM's all the way up to midpaced at times, but it's mostly still slow enough to be death/doom. And it's killer. They used to be from Patterson NJ 20 years ago but now they've relocated a bit south to Charlotte in JT's home state of NC. I should probably check their 2nd album out sometime, I've only heard their classic 2001 debut In Ancient Beliefs and now this new third one.