What Are You Listening To?

[JonoBlade]

3 hours ago, navybsn said:

No idea King Gizz had pumped out another one. Not sure how anyone can keep up with these guys. Seems they drop something every few months. I'll have to check this out.

It's not new. In fact over 10 years old. But, it's true their bandcamp page is pretty cramped with releases.

[GoatmasterGeneral]

19 hours ago, Nasty_Cabbage said:

NP: Faethom - Chaosmorphogoria

Minor complaint, but I kind of dislike the cover art here.

these guys play self-described "blackened progressive" metal

a bunch of people were trying to throw shade at Moonlight Sorcery for being 'power metal with black metal vocals'. 

I think hideous pretty well sums it up. I wouldn't ever be able to click on something that horrific, not a minor complaint by any means.

It's either blackened or progressive. They've gotta pick one, can't be both. Got curious so I went and dialed up a video, and holy shit it's worse than I even imagined. They're like a fucking power metal Arch Enemy hybrid. Nothing remotely progressive or blackened happening here, unless just having keyboards counts as being progressive. Who listens to this shit? This is worse than Moonlight Sorcery even. I might have nightmares.

Yeah last year's Moonlight Sorcery was pretty fucking terrible. Wretched even. Lame power metal with bm shrieks is about right. And I had gotten all excited beforehand because they're Finnish. I really think the Finnish metal authorities should confiscate their passports and deport them for that abomination.

Faethom

 

 

NP: Disciples of Mockery - Prelude to Apocalypse, New Jersey death, their only full length album from 1999. Craig Pillard of Incantation fame on guitar and vox. These guys certainly spared no expense on their cover art

 

[GoatmasterGeneral]

Fossilization - Leprous Daylight, São Paulo death 2023, still getting plenty of spins 6 months later

 

Seraphic Entombment - Sickness Particles Gleam, Alabama death, in keeping with the black & white theme

 

[Thatguy]

1 hour ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

It's either blackened or progressive. They've gotta pick one, can't be both.

That's like saying something can't be sweet but spicy...and many other analogies that I could go on and on about.

As far as this album goes I agree with the Cabbage that the art work is very bad and his write up told me I wouldn't like the music. But I had to listen, didn't I, after you put up the link. I wish I hadn't. No redeeming features.

[AlSymerz]

22 hours ago, Nasty_Cabbage said:

NP: Faethom - Chaosmorphogoria

▶︎ Chaosmorphogoria | FAETHOM (bandcamp.com)

Minor complaint, but I kind of dislike the cover art here. I realize that a ton of hand drawn/painted art is touched up with computers before going to print, but this almost seems lazy by even that  standard. It's imitating a hand drawn style you might have seen on concert fliers in the late eighties and early nineties, but the textures are so unblemished it's really disconcerting and unpleasant to look at.

Regardless these guys play self-described "blackened progressive" metal, and I can say pretty confidently that if you have even the slightest twinge of a purist streak the blackened part of that description is going to be what you have a gripe with. Occasional harsh vocals do not a blackened album make. If none of that trips your alarm bells though, I'd say you'll probably enjoy this. The songs are well performed and well put together. Instruments are on point. I found it a little weird last year when a bunch of people were trying to throw shade at Moonlight Sorcery for being 'power metal with black metal vocals'. This album better fits that description I think. Again whether you like it or not is going to depend pretty heavily on your tolerance for those genres. Personally I actually like this, but I also like both those genres and have no trouble reconciling their supposed incongruous qualities. It's nice to hear something newer that isn't just unique for uniqueness' sake. 

This is so much better than half the stuff posted here. Off to check out the other albums from the band

[Innominate]

Nightfeeder - Disgustor

[MarkhantonioYeatts]

INTEGRITY - Live

 

[navybsn]

2 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Seraphic Entombment - Sickness Particles Gleam, Alabama

Right down the street from me. About 3.5 hours away. Never heard of them, but I have heard of Ectovoid and Father Befouled where some of these cats also exercise their talents. So into the queue it goes.

[GoatmasterGeneral]

2 hours ago, Thatguy said:

That's like saying something can't be sweet but spicy...and many other analogies that I could go on and on about.

As far as this album goes I agree with the Cabbage that the art work is very bad and his write up told me I wouldn't like the music. But I had to listen, didn't I, after you put up the link. I wish I hadn't. No redeeming features.

One man's spicy is another man's bland and tasteless.

I've listened to many thousands of metal albums in my time Chockadoc, and I've yet to hear a prog metal album that I would consider properly "blackened." Some things like black and prog just don't go together. Just like burgers and 'beetroot' don't go together. Or power metal and war metal.

At least we can agree the album in question with the cringey artwork was just as cringey musically. I only listened to a minute or two. And I've mostly blocked it out of my mind today. 

[GoatmasterGeneral]

2 hours ago, navybsn said:

Right down the street from me. About 3.5 hours away. Never heard of them, but I have heard of Ectovoid and Father Befouled where some of these cats also exercise their talents. So into the queue it goes.

Father Befouled - Crowned In Veneficum, 2022. What a marvelous idea. I love FB, one of my absolute favorite death metal bands of the last 20 years.

 

Convocation - No Dawn For the Caliginous Night, death/doom Finland 2023. FFO Skepticism. This isn't quite funeral paced, but it's pretty close at times. Not often in the mood for 'slowcore' but when I am this hits the spot. Love the well placed ethereal female backing vocals juxtaposed against the paternal befoulment filth I just digested.

 

 

[MarkhantonioYeatts]

1 hour ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

One man's spicy is another man's bland and tasteless.

I've listened to many thousands of metal albums in my time Chockadoc, and I've yet to hear a prog metal album that I would consider properly "blackened." Some things like black and prog just don't go together. Just like burgers and 'beetroot' don't go together. Or power metal and war metal.

At least we can agree the album in question with the cringey artwork was just as cringey musically. I only listened to a minute or two. And I've mostly blocked it out of my mind today. 

....WhiteNoise....try this one out......

 

CLARET ASH - The Great Adjudication

.....these guys also have a new record that came out last year....to my ears they are proggy black....but in my world, black metal is black metal....I don't really pigeonhole beyond that....

[Thatguy]

1 hour ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

I've yet to hear a prog metal album that I would consider properly "blackened." Some things like black and prog just don't go together.

You'd have to define prog in a way I agreed with to sustain that argument, but let's not go there.

We can agree that Chaowhatever are shit. 

Father Befouled are perfectly acceptable and Convocation are a step above most of the low-fi gems you post. Oops, there's the choir - totally spoils the first track. The rest is a bit tedious - and there's more choir. Nah, yer man needs a full band to tell him fuck off we're not playing that.

5 minutes ago, MarkhantonioYeatts said:

CLARET ASH - The Great Adjudication

They are from Canberra too!

[GoatmasterGeneral]

42 minutes ago, MarkhantonioYeatts said:

.....these guys also have a new record that came out last year....to my ears they are proggy black....but in my world, black metal is black metal....I don't really pigeonhole beyond that....

 

39 minutes ago, Thatguy said:

You'd have to define prog in a way I agreed with to sustain that argument, but let's not go there.

Father Befouled are perfectly acceptable and Convocation are a step above most of the low-fi gems you post. Oops, there's the choir - totally spoils the first track. The rest is a bit tedious - and there's more choir. Nah, yer man needs a full band to tell him fuck off we're not playing that.

 

C'mon guys, you'ze know me by now, don't take my hyperbole and off-the-cuff statements so literally. I'm sure there are some blackened prog bands out there somewhere that manage to mix the two genres acceptably. I just don't like prog so I'm always gonna be biased against it to begin with, and I don't ever seek it out. To Doc's point I have no idea how I would define prog, but I knows it when I hears it. But I will check out Marko's rec regardless, because he almost never steers me wrong. 

Alright now this Claret Ash is black metal, or progressive black metal if you like, but it's primarily black metal, not blackened prog metal. Big difference. The prog elements here are minimal enough that I can accept them without issue or reservation and treat this as just a straight black metal album. A pretty good black metal album at that. Even if they are Aussies from Canberra of all places, and I guess tbh I'm not completely head over heels with all the cleans. But it's not like it's all weird, wacky and wonky just for the sake of it like so many of these insufferable prog bands.

And Doc, my dude, the 'choir' as you put it was what made it so good. It's not present throughout the whole thing, just in a few select spots. If it was an ever present thing featured on every track I probably wouldn't have liked it either. And yeah, I agree doom can definitely get quite tedious, which is why I'm so seldom in the mood for it. And also why it benefits from the female backing vocals. Sometimes doom just needs that little extra something to put it over the top, ya know?

[Innominate]

The Vibrators - V2

Negative Element - Yes, We have no bananas!

 

[AlSymerz]

Alice Cooper - Road

[FatherAlabaster]

Akercocke - Choronzon

[agamerwholovesmetal]

forest of equilibrium (1991) - cathedral 

 

[Nasty_Cabbage]

9 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

It's either blackened or progressive. They've gotta pick one, can't be both. Got curious so I went and dialed up a video, and holy shit it's worse than I even imagined. They're like a fucking power metal Arch Enemy hybrid. 

Yeah last year's Moonlight Sorcery was pretty fucking terrible. Wretched even. Lame power metal with bm shrieks is about right. And I had gotten all excited beforehand because they're Finnish. I really think the Finnish metal authorities should confiscate their passports and deport them for that abomination.

Faethom

 

Now see, we have completely opposite views on Moonlight Sorcery. Horned Lord... was one of my favorites of last year. As far as the influence I can very much appreciate it being more melodic than normal as long as it's brought into the songs well which I believe Moonlight Sorcery did with flying colors. Just avoid the J-pop anime sounding dogshit and I can dig it. On the vocal front I really don't let it bug me unless they're going for something like Bethlehem that requires a very specific style.

And Amott plus whoever's hanging out with him in Arch Enemy these days, was always a little overrated. He can still pull out a nice solo or two, but they're few and far between while the stigma of Gossow fronted AE has been following him since at least Wages Of Sin (and he barely even showed up for Heartwork if we're taking the stories at face value). It's worth mentioning that the first few AE albums before they blew up and got Century Media-ed into the dirt were actually pretty decent.

I definitely agree that putting the "blackened" label on any of it is a complete misnomer though. Progressive? Eh, that definition's a little looser even by most prog fans admission, and if they want to call it progressive I have no real genre benchmarks to refute them.

[Arioch]

Ripping Corpse - Dreaming with the Dead (1991)

 

[Nasty_Cabbage]

Throat - Blood Exaltation

▶︎ Blood Exaltation | THROAT | 𝔊𝔬𝔡𝔷 𝔒𝔳 𝔚𝔞𝔯 𝔓𝔯𝔬𝔡𝔲𝔠𝔱𝔦𝔬𝔫𝔰 (bandcamp.com)

It's difficult when you're approaching a death/doom band that you haven't heard before. What type of doom? Funeral doom, St. Vitus style stoner doom with harsh vocals, or slower like Sleep? Is it just mid-paced rock suffused with psychedelia and harsh vocals? Is the death dominant with some nice sludgey Incantation style slow-downs.

It's odd because staring down ten to twenty minute song lengths can give you a seconds pause over how much you want to commit yourself to at the start, and if they do the Apple thing of one minute samples that's hardly any help at all. What if the only example of Rush's 2112 album you'd ever heard was the Temple of Syrinx section of the title track? That really wouldn't give you a feel for the song much less the album at all.

This stuff is definitely death forward death/doom with a decent variety of pacing that never actually ventures above the territory of say Disma. So slower than Fleshcrawl but faster the dISEMBOWELMENT (man do I hate typing it like that). It's decent, but in going for the cavernous style of slower Grave Miasma or Dead Congregation it loses a little memorability.

[GoatmasterGeneral]

1 hour ago, Nasty_Cabbage said:

Now see, we have completely opposite views on Moonlight Sorcery. Horned Lord... was one of my favorites of last year. As far as the influence I can very much appreciate it being more melodic than normal as long as it's brought into the songs well which I believe Moonlight Sorcery did with flying colors. Just avoid the J-pop anime sounding dogshit and I can dig it. On the vocal front I really don't let it bug me unless they're going for something like Bethlehem that requires a very specific style.

And Amott plus whoever's hanging out with him in Arch Enemy these days, was always a little overrated. He can still pull out a nice solo or two, but they're few and far between while the stigma of Gossow fronted AE has been following him since at least Wages Of Sin (and he barely even showed up for Heartwork if we're taking the stories at face value). It's worth mentioning that the first few AE albums before they blew up and got Century Media-ed into the dirt were actually pretty decent.

I definitely agree that putting the "blackened" label on any of it is a complete misnomer though. Progressive? Eh, that definition's a little looser even by most prog fans admission, and if they want to call it progressive I have no real genre benchmarks to refute them.

Yeah man, I'm aware that many other people enjoy albums and sub-genres that I can't stand. My best friend of 48 years in real life loves Nightwish, says they're his favorite band. But of course I checked 'em out and I absolutely fucking hated them. Sounded fake and plastic and sparkley to me. But that's cool, I love him like a brother regardless of our musical differences and fortunately he doesn't ever make me listen to them. And we have lots of other bands in common.

I noticed several people posted that Moonlight Sorcery album last year. I'll assume because they liked it, but I thought it was dreadful. What was that other band a couple of years ago, Stormruler? Some people posted that, Shifty (True Belief) said it was one of his favorites from the year before, so I dialed it up to have a listen and it was fucking awful. I still feel kinda bad about how utterly shitty I told him I thought it was. I have a big mouth sometimes. 

When it comes to my metal I like it raw and filthy, down and dirty. I understand most people don't limit themselves like that, but I can't help it, that's just what does it for me. You could say I didn't choose filth, filth chose me. I look at it like a calling. Anything that sounds fake, plastic and sparkley to me will be avoided at all costs. It's not the melody I have a problem with, I like lots of fairly melodic stuff. It's just anything that comes across as too clean and bright or happy sounding just repulses me. As does most prog, and all that pretty fluffy post-metal, anything resembling sissy power metal with super high-pitched vocals, and pretty much anything that gets the "technical" tag. I just want raw nasty filth. Or at least something with balls. Unless it's not metal and then all bets are off. Non metal doesn't have to adhere to the rules and be raw and filthy, these rules only really apply to my extreme metal listening. Still don't really like any type of music that's too pretty or too happy or too sparkley, but if it's not metal then it doesn't all have to be raw nasty filth.

But you do you my brother, please feel free to keep on listening and posting whatever it is that makes you happy, because I would never want to stifle anyone's enjoyment of their music or impose my personal brand of fucked up insanity on anyone else. Don't worry about some of the shit I might have said about any of the stuff you may have posted, I really don't mean anything personal by it. I often like to offer my unfiltered hyperbolic opinions on stuff just to stimulate some conversation around here. Trust me, it's not easy being insane, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

 

 

Magoth - Anti Terrestrial Black Metal, Germany 2017

 

Murk - All is Lost, Italy 2008

 

[Arioch]

Dream Theater - Live at the Marquee (1993)

 

[Arioch]

Sodom - 'Til Death Do Us Unite (1997)

 

[Arioch]

Mucky Pup - Can't you take a Joke? (1987)

 

[Kristiko]

Meshuggah - ObZen (album)