What Are You Listening To?

[Dead1]

4 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

I bought three of the first four Haunted albums before I gave up on them. Revolver, One Kill Wonder and The Haunted Made Me Do It. This was back in '04 - '05 when I was first really getting into extreme metal and they were somewhat of a gateway band for me into harsher vocalled stuff. I heard and bought Revolver first since it was their '04 new release, and then started working my way back.

How can you say they're thrash? They're sort of a groovy commercial melodeath band. The Crown being a death/thrash band is much more thrash than the Haunted. I don't hear any thrash at all in the Haunted's first 4 albums, and those are the only 4 of theirs I've ever heard to base my opinion on. (I was present when they played MDF one year in the mid 2010's but I wasn't really paying attention as the group I was with that year elected to use The Haunted's set to go get food and then peruse the merch tables) I get that it's pretty catchy accessible stuff and that's why a lot of people like them. But that's also the reason why I don't like them since I left almost all my 'gateway' bands behind somewhere around '07 when I found some metalheads on a metal forum who helped me graduate up to big boy extreme metal.

But setting aside personal taste for a minute and which bands each of us may personally like better, objectively speaking The Haunted are simply not a thrash band. At least not in any sense of the word "thrash" as I understand it, while The Crown clearly are. I'm not saying you shouldn't keep enjoying the Haunted's records if you do, that's entirely up to you. I just believe in calling things what they really are. And I know you do too because you're always calling out the specific points at which various popular 80's thrash bands stopped playing thrash.

I can remember reading articles in the mid 2000's that claimed a lot of bands were some sort of modern thrash: Trivium, Shadow's Fall, The Haunted, Himsa, Bodom, Bullet for my Valentine...and none of those turned out to be thrash bands. Seems like a lot of people have trouble understanding and recognizing what thrash is.

 

At the Gates - Terminal Spirit Disease, 1994. It's been a minute since I've heard this so I suppose a refresher is in order. Like this a lot better than the Haunted, that's for sure, but it's still not up to The Crown level intensity imho. Good record, but I could not call this phenomenal.

The only major thing that ties The Haunted to melodeath is the vocals and depending on vocalist (ie Peter Dowling) they are also quite hardcore.   There might be the old melodic DM riffs or passage but mostly it's The Haunted's music is a mash of thrash and groove metal which is incidentally what many older thrash bands today play (eg Overkill, Onslaught, Exodus, Testament, even Sodom and Destruction in early 00s etc).   Also notably Kreator and Arch Enemy also now play some sort of bastardised melodic death/commercial thrash as well.  

Darkane were similar - melodic death merged with commercial thrash leanings.

At The Gates were themselves going thrash on Slaughter of the Soul which is why so many kvlt trve hessians hate it and prefer their older stuff which has a bit more black metal influence (eg The Red In The Sky Is Ours).  

 

Shadows Fall did get to the point around The Art of Balance they were playing commercial thrash (think Metal Church, Annihilator Death Angel circa Act III era  or their initial reunion period, Suicidal Tendencies' commercial period, Testament's more modern commercial music) - basically heavy metal with a few thrash leanings (and Shadows Fall occasionally had some residual DM vocals from when they were a melodic DM band).

Trivium - apparently they did go more thrash on one album with a lot of Metallica worship but I've never heard it.  I did hear a couple of Bullet For My Valentine tracks that had elements of modern thrash.  As for Children of Bodom, no idea as I lost interest after Hatebreeder which is a superb melodic DM album.

No idea about Himsa.

 

Like death metal or black metal, I would argue thrash metal did evolve in the 2000s.

I had this argument with many back on Metalstorm.  Apparently Tribulation could still be death metal even though they're playing gothic rock and Nachtmystium still be black metal despite playing some sort of psychedelic prog black n roll,  but Metal Church and Suicidal Tendencies and Shadows Fall can't be thrash because they don't sound like Slayer circa 1986 or Testament circa 1988.

 

Suffice to say most of these numb nuts arguing this case didn't listen to any thrash - they all listened to black metal and despised thrash, heavy and other "lesser" forms of metal.

 

Indeed if you took all the commercial or melodic or groove out of thrash, then Metallica, Megadeth and Anthrax were never thrash bands.  Kill Em All is speed metal with a few heavy metal tracks, Ride the Lighting and Master of Puppets both slowed down considerably and had tons of of other influences  - each might have only 2 "pure" thrash songs.

 

As for The Crown, they lack interesting music, memorable riffs and dynamics.  A lot of the time they just pummel along without any purpose but not at the speed and intensity where pummelling along is a pleasure unto itself..  

[JamesT]

Primal Fear - "Jaws of Death" (1999)

Primal Fear - "Nuclear Fire" (2001)

Primal Fear - "Black Sun" (2002)

Primal Fear - "Devil's Ground" (2004)

Primal Fear - "Seven Seals" (2005)

Primal Fear - "New Religion" (2007)

Primal Fear - "16.6 (Before the Devil Knows You're Dead)" (2009)

Primal Fear - "Unbreakable" (2012)

Rolling through this incredibly high-quality catalog, and it's been a true pleasure.  Should finish it up tomorrow.

Can't wait for album #14 on Friday - "Code Red"!

[Thatguy]

MALEVICH - Our Hollow

ABEST - Molten Husk

BEES MADE HONEY IN THE VEIN TREE - Aion. No dicks here.

[AlSymerz]

Necrokinesis - S/T

 

[Nasty_Cabbage]

NP: Abatuar - Mortandad

▶︎ Mortandad | ABATUAR | Dunkelheit Produktionen (bandcamp.com)

Ah, nice and fuzzy. I think I'll go searching to see if Panama's scene has a similar level of quality.

[AlSymerz]

After recently watching what just might be the funniest fuck up doco ever, The Chris Holmes Story, I decided to listen to his music. I went in with low expectations but this guy writes the most thought provoking and amazing lyrics of all time.

 

NP Chris Holmes - Nothing To Lose

[Sheol]

8 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

How can you say they're thrash? They're sort of a groovy commercial melodeath band.

To me the first, self titled, album is thrash with hardcore vocals and a death metal production. They leaned in on the death metal aspects more with ...made me do it when it comes to the riffs and the new vocalist. But yeah, I'd say only the first album is thrash.

Quote

I haven't been exposed to any of the hype because I don't go anywhere on the internet where anyone is talking about metal except here. But I think this 2nd Blackbraid album is excellent, I've played it a ton and it has most certainly earned itself a spot in my top 20 black metal albums of 2023.

I think the second album is much better written than the debut. More focused songs. He's hypercommersial, sure, but he did say that the express goal is to live on his music so I'm not surprised.

[Dead1]

1 hour ago, AlSymerz said:

After recently watching what just might be the funniest fuck up doco ever, The Chris Holmes Story, I decided to listen to his music. I went in

 

 

NP Chris Holmes - Nothing To Lose

 

I want to watch it now!  

 

I listened to a couple of songs.  His vocals are whack (reminds me of Sumerland's or shittier version of Eternal Champion vocals) but I appreciate the guitar tone and meaty old school riffs.

 

 

[AlSymerz]

2 minutes ago, Dead1 said:

 

I want to watch it now!  

 

I listened to a couple of songs.  His vocals are whack but I appreciate the guitar tone and meaty old school riffs.

 

 

There is no doubt the dude can play guitar. There is also little doubt that for much of his career Blackie treated him like Blackie treats everyone who is not Blackie. But he was also a notorious drunk and drug addict and while he does take some of the blame for his life he's pretty quick to palm it off. But the story is still kind of interesting.

As for his music, he can't really sing, and his a fairly average lyricist, but some of his lyrics are fucking hilarious.

[GoatmasterGeneral]

44 minutes ago, AlSymerz said:

There is no doubt the dude can play guitar. There is also little doubt that for much of his career Blackie treated him like Blackie treats everyone who is not Blackie. But he was also a notorious drunk and drug addict and while he does take some of the blame for his life he's pretty quick to palm it off. But the story is still kind of interesting.

As for his music, he can't really sing, and his a fairly average lyricist, but some of his lyrics are fucking hilarious.

[Arioch]

9 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

That is one long-ass motherfucking train ride. How many hundreds or thousands of kilometers is your commute?

You'll laugh, but my journey was only about 500 km.

I left home at 4:20 in the morning for an hour's drive. Then 3 hours 10 minutes on the TGV (high-speed train, if that's what it's called), then another 1 hour on the train through Paris.

So this was my playlist for those 5+ hours of travel.

[AlSymerz]

16 minutes ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

And he's still the only person in the world who thinks that was vodka

[MacabreEternal]

Denial of God - The Ghouls of DOG (1996)

 

[MacabreEternal]

Bad Religion - Stranger Than Fiction (1994)

 

[GoatmasterGeneral]

5 hours ago, Arioch said:

You'll laugh, but my journey was only about 500 km.

I left home at 4:20 in the morning for an hour's drive. Then 3 hours 10 minutes on the TGV (high-speed train, if that's what it's called), then another 1 hour on the train through Paris.

So this was my playlist for those 5+ hours of travel.

You don't do this every day then, right? 5 hour daily commute each way to Paris would be a bit much, although I suppose it's always nice to have a chance to listen to 10 hours of metal.

[Arioch]

I did this for 6 months, once a week. And I'm talking about a return trip on the same day (so 2 times 5 hours) but now I do it once a month. The outward journey on Monday, the return on Tuesday.

[Nasty_Cabbage]

NP: Caïna - Setter of Unseen Snares

▶︎ Caïna - Setter of Unseen Snares | COF Records (bandcamp.com)

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[navybsn]

9 hours ago, MacabreEternal said:

Bad Religion - Stranger Than Fiction (1994)

 

My first and still favorite Bad Religion album.

[MacabreEternal]

Mare Cognitum - Solar Paroxysm (2021)

 

[navybsn]

Hypnosia - Extreme Hatred

 

[Thatguy]

6 hours ago, Nasty_Cabbage said:

NP: Caïna - Setter of Unseen Snares

Noice

[Serpentboi1992]

[AlSymerz]

Still loving Chris Holmes' brilliant lyrics, but now it's time for some thing completely different.

 

Devin Townsend - Devolution Series #3 Empath Live In America

[AlSymerz]

Exmortus - Necrophony

 

[Arioch]

I start my day gently with a French pop music. We'll choose something nastier later.

Forever Pavot - L'Idiophone (2023)