What Are You Listening To?

[SurgicalBrute]

BLÅKULLA - The Immortal Cult

One man, French black metal with ties to the band Cénotaphe

 

[Dead1]

Darkthrone - Astral Fortress

Midnight - Sweet Death and Ecstasy

Razor - Executioner's Song

[GoatmasterGeneral]

Election night all chick band special in honor of Roevember.

 

Meanstreak - Roadkill, NY 1988

 

Phantom Blue - Built to Perform, LA 1993

 

Girlschool - Hit and Run, UK 1981

 

Rock Goddess - Rock Goddess, UK 1983

 

L7 - L7  1988

 

[GoatmasterGeneral]

1 hour ago, SurgicalBrute said:

BLÅKULLA - The Immortal Cult

 

Blackula, wasn't that a blaxploitation movie from the early 70's?

 

Blacula Official Trailer #1 (1972)

 

[Arioch]

Morbid Angel - Altars of Madness (1989)

Mekong Delta - Tales of a Future Past (2020)

Mr. Bungle - Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny demo (2020)

I own the collector's edition, with the green bunny on the cover that you can see in the dark, ha ha!

[Arioch]

Napalm Death - Harmony Corruption (1990)

Spock's Beard - Beware of Darkness (1996)

It's been a long time since I listened to a progressive rock album. This one is excellent, like all the early Spock's Beard albums.

Immortal - Battle in the North (1995)

 

[Arioch]

Akhlys - Melinoë (2020)

 

[Innominate]

Venom Inc. - There's Only Black

 

[navybsn]

Anathema - A Vision of Dying Embrace (Live in Krakow) - the boys at the height of their doom powers. I'm sure it's arguable, but Anathema was the best of the Peaceville 3. Not that you could go wrong with any of the 3 bands' early albums. They're only band I still listen to regularly their newer output as well. I think I have everything through Weather Systems. MDB never did it for me and Paradise Lost has their moments, but Anathema's post-doom direction towards a more Radiohead/Coldplay style just catches me the right way. A Fine Day to Exit is a desert island disc for my ears.

Vauruvã - Por Nós da Ventania - Brazilian progressive black metal. Really digging this one too. I think I noticed this on Surge's bandcamp and the cover caught my attention. Good shit. List worthy. I need to go back and pick up their release from last year.

Parius - The Signal Heard Throughout Space - prog metal that gives me the Mastodon meets Rush vibe without being the other bands or a clone. A little too slick for my preferences, but the quality of the music overrides that. Need to get this on the hifi rig to truly evaluate.

Psychonaut - Violate Consensus Reality - much closer to Mastodon but doesn't hit quite as hard. Very enjoyable if you like that style of prog metal. Need to check their back catalog.

Vorga - Striving Toward Oblivion - German black metal that scratches the itch but doesn't do anything special. I'm finding that with my black metal choices these days, a band has to come at me with something unusual. I've more than enough of the standard issue stuff. Give me psychedelic, experimental, progressive, weird.... This has none of those.

And I guess we're getting towards list season, so it's that time of year to start consolidating the good shit I've picked up. Based on what I've picked up, I guarantee this year's list will look nothing like previous years. A good thing I say as I made a conscious concerted effort to expand my horizons beyond the stench ridden goat flavored rabbit hole I've occupied for the last 5 years or more. Expect surprises and disagreement. Probably lose my Goat Mafia card too.

[JonoBlade]

17 minutes ago, navybsn said:

I'm sure it's arguable, but Anathema was the best of the Peaceville 3.

It sure is arguable. Maybe I even liked Serenades and Shades of God over Turn Loose the Swans, but MDB is one of the most consistent bands in all of metal. They've never shat a dud in 30 years of activity. The whatever.... Complete one is weird but it's still good. 

Anathema became gateway metal for chicks. The last CD I bought was Judgement, which was decent. I just don't need them in my life anymore. 

There's several Paradise Lost albums I never heard after Host just went a step too far, before returning to good graces with The Plague Within. 

If you graphed it out by worthiness of album releases (WoAR) over time (t) 1992 - 2022 for the 3 bands, MDB wins hands down. If you switch the x-axis variable to metalness (Mn) over time (t) the evidence in MDB's favour becomes even more stark. 

 

[FatherAlabaster]

20 minutes ago, navybsn said:

Anathema - A Vision of Dying Embrace (Live in Krakow) - the boys at the height of their doom powers. I'm sure it's arguable, but Anathema was the best of the Peaceville 3. Not that you could go wrong with any of the 3 bands' early albums. They're only band I still listen to regularly their newer output as well. I think I have everything through Weather Systems. MDB never did it for me and Paradise Lost has their moments, but Anathema's post-doom direction towards a more Radiohead/Coldplay style just catches me the right way. A Fine Day to Exit is a desert island disc for my ears.

Vauruvã - Por Nós da Ventania - Brazilian progressive black metal. Really digging this one too. I think I noticed this on Surge's bandcamp and the cover caught my attention. Good shit. List worthy. I need to go back and pick up their release from last year.

I loved Anathema up to Silent Enigma. That concert is really a great performance. MDB is my favorite of the Three, by a long shot... if you can stomach a little bit they had an awesome concert DVD shot at the same venue, with similarly high production values. Vauruvã is awesome, actually found myself connecting even more with the previous album than the new one when I had it on recently.

42 minutes ago, navybsn said:

I've more than enough of the standard issue stuff. Give me psychedelic, experimental, progressive, weird.... 

Big agree.

6 minutes ago, JonoBlade said:

It sure is arguable. Maybe I even liked Serenades and Shades of God over Turn Loose the Swans, but MDB is one of the most consistent bands in all of metal. They've never shat a dud in 30 years of activity. The whatever.... Complete one is weird but it's still good. 

MDB has had their low points in my book, but they've also come back from them with style. Turn Loose The Swans though, that album holds a special place for me. It has to be in my top few metal albums ever. Somehow the haphazard non-sequitur songwriting totally works for me on that album.

[AlSymerz]

Stoner - Stoners Rule

 

[FatherAlabaster]

Gentle Giant - The Power And The Glory  ...baby music. The little one digs this. Swinging her arms along with the beat for a bit. Maybe she'll be a prog head, or maybe the rhythms are just quirky and playful enough to keep her entertained.

[AlSymerz]

Have you tried the heavy metal lullabies?

I remember seeing them on one of the news sites a few years ago, they are probably on spotify or something. There was a whole list of metal songs, presumably with the band's permission, played as lullabies to help kids sleep. I have no idea if they work, my kids grew up on the real thing, but I'm pretty sure my wife would have preferred metal lullabies to old school Slayer if she'd had the choice!

 

[navybsn]

2 hours ago, JonoBlade said:

It sure is arguable. Maybe I even liked Serenades and Shades of God over Turn Loose the Swans, but MDB is one of the most consistent bands in all of metal. They've never shat a dud in 30 years of activity. The whatever.... Complete one is weird but it's still good. 

Anathema became gateway metal for chicks. The last CD I bought was Judgement, which was decent. I just don't need them in my life anymore. 

There's several Paradise Lost albums I never heard after Host just went a step too far, before returning to good graces with The Plague Within. 

If you graphed it out by worthiness of album releases (WoAR) over time (t) 1992 - 2022 for the 3 bands, MDB wins hands down. If you switch the x-axis variable to metalness (Mn) over time (t) the evidence in MDB's favour becomes even more stark. 

 

I've no quibble with any of the 3 although I never really connected with MDB outside of Turn Loose The Swans. Your math is valid unless you add the variability in catalog quotient (Vc) over time or the relative number of repeat spins (Rs) factor and the shift goes to Anathema. Of course, you have to input the numbers into the equation based on your personal database values...

Paradise Lost for me is Shades of God, Gothic, and Draconian Times. Full stop. I've never found anything else by them that grabbed my attention for more than a few spins. MDB outside of TLTS. Anathema, whole catalog is in rotation.

2 hours ago, FatherAlabaster said:

Vauruvã is awesome, actually found myself connecting even more with the previous album than the new one when I had it on recently.

Going directly in the bandcamp shopping cart.

[Dead1]

Gama Bomb - Speed Between The Lines

KURT RUSSELL!!!!

1 hour ago, navybsn said:

I've no quibble with any of the 3 although I never really connected with MDB outside of Turn Loose The Swans. 

 

As The Flower Withers for me as it's far more death metal orientated and there's some early Bolt Thrower style riffs.

 

As for Paradise Lost, for me Icon and Draconian Times are their peak but I am happy to listen to albums released between 2007-2012 as they follow in a similar style to Icon and Draconian Times but manage to keep it interesting.  

[markm]

4 hours ago, JonoBlade said:

 MDB is one of the most consistent bands in all of metal. They've never shat a dud in 30 years of activity. The whatever.... 

 

Totally agree notwithstanding taking words like melodramatic and grandiose to epic proportion....I've got quite a bit of MDB in my discog. Lots of gold to mine. 

[FatherAlabaster]

3 hours ago, navybsn said:

I've no quibble with any of the 3 although I never really connected with MDB outside of Turn Loose The Swans. Your math is valid unless you add the variability in catalog quotient (Vc) over time or the relative number of repeat spins (Rs) factor and the shift goes to Anathema. Of course, you have to input the numbers into the equation based on your personal database values...

Paradise Lost for me is Shades of God, Gothic, and Draconian Times. Full stop. I've never found anything else by them that grabbed my attention for more than a few spins. MDB outside of TLTS. Anathema, whole catalog is in rotation.

 

I love Gothic, it's a shame PL broke up after that album... they could have done great things

As The Flower Withers is great MDB, but if I'm not in the right mood it's too basic to keep me going. The stuff on the Trinity comp is maybe a bit inconsistent but it's some of their best death/doom. I like a bunch of their other stuff but those early recordings are the most compelling to me.

[GoatmasterGeneral]

1 hour ago, Dead1 said:

As for Paradise Lost, for me Icon and Draconian Times are their peak but I am happy to listen to albums released between 2007-2012 as they follow in a similar style to Icon and Draconian Times but manage to keep it interesting.  

I'd basically agree with this statement except I'd have to substitute Shades of God for the softer Draconian Times. For me, Shades of God was my unequivocal greatest metal album of all time (all sub-genres) for 15 years until Inquisition's Nefarious Dismal Oration deposed it in 2007.

I've always found it interesting that many different people will choose usually either Gothic, Shades, Icon or Draconian as their favorite PL platter. And all those albums sound quite different from one another so it basically comes down to a preference. I also enjoy their output from Requiem onward, but not nearly as much as the early stuff: Gothic-Shades-Icon. 

Haven't spent enough time with MDB to have any strong opinions about their music other than it's very slow. Haven't spent enough time with Anathema to form any opinions at all. I heard just enough years ago to know they're totally not my thing and I've never botheed to check back. 

 

Paradise Lost - Shades of God, 1992, good idea

 

[GoatmasterGeneral]

Evil - XII XX, death/crust 2016 Poland

 

Sorrow - Black Crow, death/crust 2022 Poland

 

[Arioch]

Sadus - Illusions (Chemical Exposure) (1988)

Apart from Elements of Anger, I know very little about Sadus' discography (please, don't kill me!). So I decided this morning to listen to Sadus' albums, starting with the first one!

Very intensive !!!

[Innominate]

Incantation - Diabolical Conquest

 

[MacabreEternal]

Nordicwinter - Beneath the Fleeting Light (2022)

One of the more consistent artists in the atmo-black realm for me.  Hard to call out a bad record from the last three releases at least.  Fucking Canadians, revelling in being full of their emptiness, sorrow, darkness and death.  Take that Justin Trudeau!

[Arioch]

Sadus - Swallowed in Black (1990)

I prefer this album to Illusions on first listen. I find the album better produced, the violence better controlled while remaining as intense. And I love DiGiorgio's bass sound!

By the way! Did you know that on his FaceBook page, Sadus has launched a countdown? In 8 days, an announcement will be made!

Is this the album they were supposed to record in 2020 and which will finally be released?

[JonoBlade]

11 hours ago, FatherAlabaster said:

I love Gothic, it's a shame PL broke up after that album... they could have done great things

As The Flower Withers is great MDB, but if I'm not in the right mood it's too basic to keep me going. 

This stuff is all available on the Peaceville bandcamp page: Music | Peaceville (bandcamp.com)

Oddly, while I have heard Gothic I don't know it well (except I used to play the title song over and over from a copied cassette tape). Same with As the Flower Withers.

I jumped on board with doom in the summer 1992 and never looked back...like literally never checked out the earlier albums if no one I knew had them.

11 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

I've always found it interesting that many different people will choose usually either Gothic, Shades, Icon or Draconian as their favorite PL platter. And all those albums sound quite different from one another so it basically comes down to a preference. I also enjoy their output from Requiem onward, but not nearly as much as the early stuff: Gothic-Shades-Icon. 

Haven't spent enough time with MDB to have any strong opinions about their music other than it's very slow. Haven't spent enough time with Anathema to form any opinions at all. I heard just enough years ago to know they're totally not my thing and I've never botheed to check back. 

PL was a band in perpetual evolution, perhaps more than any other. One Second and Host are distinct again, but metalheads started to lose patience at that point.

By contrast Anathema seemed like a different band from 1996. They tried one album in keeping with the original sound after vocalist Darren White left but Eternity was not evolution, it was intelligent design. Intelligent in the sense they must have reeeally wanted chicks to like their music, but they sacrificed originality. At the time I found it hard to listen to because the clean vocals are so warbly, overly sincere and cringeworthy. The best track by a long way was a cover co-written by David Gilmour (which I didn't find out until years later). 

I find Eternity hard to listen to but can't listen to Pentecost III at all as it contains Kingdom which makes me break down. I reserve it for only the most exquisitely tragic and miserable circumstances.