What Are You Listening To?

[Arioch]

3 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

I don't even care about the tryhard part, I'm able to ignore all of that nonsense, just stay above the fray. From a purely musical standpoint though I just don't like them, and I think they're boring. I haven't heard too many of their later albums, think I've heard about 5 of their 13 altogether so not quite half, but not a single note off of any their last 5. But judging by the first several that are supposed to be the best ones they're really just nothing special. And the worst part of their sound is Satan boy's vocals. For me anyway. Nothing worse than a vocalist who rubs you the wrong way splattered all over the top of everything. Not like you can just tune him out. So many better death metal bands out there to listen to, but there's a certain segment of the old school guys who absolutely revere them.

Thanks to you, I discovered the Archgoat band last night.

I'll have to find out more about them, but what I really liked was Angelslayer's vocals. It's so good!

@GoatmasterGeneral Which album should you listen to first? I've been in a satanic mood the last few weeks...

[navybsn]

7 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Deicide - Deicide, Tampa FLA 1990. Never got the hype over this band,

One of the worst live bands I've ever seen. Not a fan of Deicide at all, but I get the hype. Glenn was a frontrunner in the Florida death metal scene and a master of publicly. I remember the news stories when he carved the upside down cross in his forehead, was burning bibles, etc. Perfect sorta shit to draw outrage and attention in religiously charged central Florida in the early 90s. The music was completely mediocre but had all the blasphemy you can handle. So naturally kids gravitated to something that pissed off all the right people. He gets the love for being one of the first and people being nostalgic for a time when DM was controversial, satanic, and new. Has to be because the music, aside from Legion which is serviceable, is meh.

[FatherAlabaster]

12 minutes ago, navybsn said:

So naturally kids gravitated to something that pissed off all the right people.

Accurate. I was one of those kids. The first time I heard Once Upon The Cross I was 16, sitting alone in my truck before work, and the vocals actually scared me a bit. I used to like Benton's voice and thought the first 3 albums were killer. Never liked any of the later ones. They don't do much for me anymore but I think there's still some nostalgia value. 

[GoatmasterGeneral]

4 hours ago, Arioch said:

Thanks to you, I discovered the Archgoat band last night.

I'll have to find out more about them, but what I really liked was Angelslayer's vocals. It's so good!

@GoatmasterGeneral Which album should you listen to first? I've been in a satanic mood the last few weeks...

Whore of Bethlehem (2006) used to be my clear favorite, but lately I've really grown quite fond of the most recent 3 or 4 going back to 2015. Especially the most recent full length, 2021's Worship the Eternal Darkness. But don't start there, go back to 2006 and start there with their first proper full length album release. Their earlier 90's EP's 'n stuff were much more raw and inaccessible, I almost never revisit that stuff.

[Arioch]

Duly noted, thank you.

[navybsn]

28 minutes ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Whore of Bethlehem (2006) used to be my clear favorite, but lately I've really grown quite fond of the most recent 3 or 4 going back to 2015. Especially the most recent full length, 2021's Worship the Eternal Darkness. But don't start there, go back to 2006 and start there with their first proper full length album release. Their earlier 90's EP's 'n stuff were much more raw and inaccessible, I almost never revisit that stuff.

Controversial, but I think Luciferian Crown is the best thing they have ever done.

 

[MacabreEternal]

Misotheist - Vessels by Which the Devil is Made Flesh (2024)

 

[GoatmasterGeneral]

4 hours ago, navybsn said:

One of the worst live bands I've ever seen. Not a fan of Deicide at all, but I get the hype. Glenn was a frontrunner in the Florida death metal scene and a master of publicly. I remember the news stories when he carved the upside down cross in his forehead, was burning bibles, etc. Perfect sorta shit to draw outrage and attention in religiously charged central Florida in the early 90s. The music was completely mediocre but had all the blasphemy you can handle. So naturally kids gravitated to something that pissed off all the right people. He gets the love for being one of the first and people being nostalgic for a time when DM was controversial, satanic, and new. Has to be because the music, aside from Legion which is serviceable, is meh.

Here's what happened. One of the brothers who runs Hells Headbangers distro, Justin Horval (J-Dawg) has a YouTube channel. His videos are mostly either interviews with old school American death metal luminaries he corners outside of gigs in Cleveland Ohio where they're based, or they're 20 minute rants about sports jersey and flat brimmed ball cap wearing poseurs at shows and which bands are harder and more brutal and which bands send which other bands "home on a stretcher" as he likes to say. He's an idiot neanderthal basically. A short little puffed up body builder with an attitude. Says he's only 38 but he looks 50 with his thinning guido hair and Dumbo ears and big square head. Dude talks as if he was the original death metal fan from 1989 when he was actually just a toddler in preschool then. I click on his videos in my feed sometimes for their comedic value, and sometimes I'll leave comments basically telling him he's a idiot who's talking out of his ass. Except when he goes on his rants about how only the first 3 Death albums count as actually being death metal, or two and a half as he's on the fence about Spiritual Healing. That I basically agree with although I would never tell him that.

So anyway the other day he posted a video. Usually he starts off with paid questions, for $10 he will answer your question or read whatever statement you've written aloud. But there were no "Paid scaroonies" that particular day so his wife and camera woman "Hellcat" had printed out some comments from some of his previous videos for him to read and comment on. I was only half paying attention, I was texting somebody when I realized he was reading one of MY comments I'd made regarding Deicide. I'd asked him what's the deal Dawg, did Glen Benton blow you once? Why does he just harp on Deicide over and over on every single video as if they were all that? They wouldn't even be among my top 500 death metal bands. With so many other quality death metal bands to talk about in the last 30 years, why the fuck are we spending so much airtime on those has-beens? It's always Deicide and Cannibal those seem to be his two pet bands, along with Dismember and King Diamond and he seems to like a lot of goregrind too like Hemorrhage. So he said something about how I probably looooove Bolt Thrower (was that supposed to be a diss?) and then went on a rant about how if you don't like Deicide then you don't really like death metal. There's just no good reason why any true death metal fan who's not a complete poseur shouldn't worship them and count them among their favorite bands. But then he paused and laughed at my "they're not even in my 500 top favorite dm bands" line saying he realized that was hyperbole and he admitted that he exaggerates a lot too and is probably even more prone to hyperbole than I am, which I know isn't easy. I got a kick out of that brief glimpse of self awareness from a blockhead. Some of his "fans" have apparently started calling him "Sponge" in the comments, short for Sponge Bob Square Head, and he can't quite figure out what that means, these kids are trolling him calling him a blockhead, and he doesn't even get it.

But after trashing Deicide so publicly, I figured I should at least probably brush up on their early stuff so I know what the fuck I'm talking about. That's the only reason I was listening to them last night, just to see where I currently stood on the mighty Deicide, because it had been a minute.

 

[GoatmasterGeneral]

1 hour ago, navybsn said:

Controversial, but I think Luciferian Crown is the best thing they have ever done.

You really can't go wrong with any of them past 2006. That's my take anyway. LC is certainly a great album in my book.

[navybsn]

Rotting Christ - Triarchy of the Lost Lovers

Rotting Christ - Thy Mighty Contract

[AlSymerz]

Warface - Insanity Of The Obsessed

[FatherAlabaster]

3 hours ago, navybsn said:

Rotting Christ - Triarchy of the Lost Lovers

Rotting Christ - Thy Mighty Contract

Those two and Non Serviam are the ones I go for. I haven't warmed up to anything past that yet.

[Necrolord]

NP: MC @GoatmasterGeneral's Black Metal Mixtape Vol.666 (TM)

 

I've been listening to some of Goatmaster's black metal recommendations from a few pages ago. It was fun to explore something different from my usual thrash & death. As I expected most of it wasn't my cup of tea. I just find most black metal boring. I like speed, good production with an evil sound. Too many bands play simple or slow riffs and go for an epic sound instead...

Didn't get a chance to check everything but the bands I enjoyed were Armagedda, Deus Mortem, and especially Murg.

Murg - Varg & Bjorn. This one I really liked. A lot of memorable, fast-paced melodies and interesting guitar layers. The raw production suits the guitarwork and adds depth to everything. Seems like you're always hearing a cool melody beneath everything. Riffs often wrap up with unusual / undecipherable chord combinations that create a timeless sounding atmosphere. Here's one of the slower tracks but those guitar layers starting at 30 seconds in teleported me to a different place and time. Pure magic.

 

[AlSymerz]

Gunjack - The Cut Of The Triblade

 

[AlSymerz]

Hydra Vein - Rather Death Than False of Faith

[Nasty_Cabbage]

NP:  HÄXÄNKING - Pogani Spjevi

▶︎ Pogani Spjevi | HÄXÄNKING (bandcamp.com)

Love that cover. Something tells me if I asked him what optimization settings he was running his pc on he'd say "Crush Enemies = MAX, See Enemies Driven Before You = MAX, Hear the Lamentation of their Women = MAX."

[FatherAlabaster]

13 minutes ago, Nasty_Cabbage said:

Love that cover.

Really? Unironically?

[Nasty_Cabbage]

1 hour ago, FatherAlabaster said:

Really? Unironically?

Ummm... yeah. It doesn't all have to be Frazetta, but the influence is pretty clear, and if there's been some editing done to clean it up a little it doesn't take anything away from the hand-drawn feel. Wait, why am I defending my admiration of 'evil guy on a throne with a sword and fire' #3,041? I've got nothing against simplicity being used where simplicity works. What's the issue?

[AlSymerz]

To me it looks like a 80's cover. The eyes of the demon guy look a little strange, and so does the skull at the top but it's not bad.

 

NP: Algebra - Polymorph

[navybsn]

6 hours ago, FatherAlabaster said:

Those two and Non Serviam are the ones I go for. I haven't warmed up to anything past that yet.

Set I saw Saturday night was only from the first 3 albums. Might have to pick those up.

Another show tonight. Goth night with the girls. First local show I've ever managed to get the wife to.

Twin Tribes - Pendulum

Urban Heat - Wellness

 

[AlSymerz]

Dead Kelly - Such Is Life

[MacabreEternal]

Misotheist - Vessels by Which the Devil is Made Flesh (2024)

Orchid - The Mouths of Madness (2013)

 

[Kristiko]

Slayer - Hell Awaits (album)

[FatherAlabaster]

9 hours ago, Nasty_Cabbage said:

Ummm... yeah. It doesn't all have to be Frazetta, but the influence is pretty clear, and if there's been some editing done to clean it up a little it doesn't take anything away from the hand-drawn feel. Wait, why am I defending my admiration of 'evil guy on a throne with a sword and fire' #3,041? I've got nothing against simplicity being used where simplicity works. What's the issue?

No issue, no need to defend. I'm surprised that you love it. Knowing how demanding and analytical you are in your listening, it seems incongruous to me. I feel like if you heard the musical equivalent of something this derivative and poorly executed, you'd have a scathing review ready to go before the end of the first song. 

I do think there's a very broad spectrum of "good art", and something doesn't need to be technically impressive to be impactful and meaningful, and being a good illustration is outside of both of those considerations. But even with that in mind I think this cover art sucks. It flaunts a lack of effort. So many other images in the genre are just way cooler and better done. I don't really put a lot of stock in cover art either way but this makes me a bit less likely to want to listen to the music.

So yeah, I'm a little surprised to see your high standards for music juxtaposed with genuine enjoyment of this piece. But I'm also not telling you what to enjoy... if this works for you, then great. You are the target audience. Love wins.

[MacabreEternal]

Afterbirth - In But Not Of (2023)

Slimelord - Chytridiomycosis Relinquished (2024)