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khaos

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Battle Dagorath - Cursed Storm of Ages, California/Switzerland 2013. I've never clicked on this band before because the name seems to me to have nerd connotations, I get visions of corpsepainted dudes rolling their 18 sided dice. But this is not bad atmo-black even with the understated presence of Doc's beloved cheesy synths. Love that the vocals sound like icy howling wind.

 

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Bad Omens - The Death of Peace of Mind (2022)

Number four on my top nine albums of 2022.

Look, I am as surprised as you probably all are. I would normally file a band like Bad Omens under ‘none of my business’. Although a lot more alternative in sound with their third release, there is still a very deeply embedded set of metalcore roots (a major strength in their armoury it is worth mentioning on an album that goes to places that are not in many ways related to metal at all), TDOPOM is much more than an album confined to one sub-genre, genre or indeed style of music.

What you get here is an emotionally taut album that sometimes comes at you trying to claw your eyes out, whilst on other occasions comes barring fists and then again sometimes weapons which it might not necessarily use on others. On more than one track though the album comes to you for a cry or a hug as well. As such it is an album that feels vibrant on almost every track; beyond just bouncy riffs screamed vocals though, even the electronic temperance of the synths and the glitchy beats that pepper the album in abundance have their own sense of tension just as much as any groovy riff or raging rhythm section. In creating this cacophony of styles and influences it strikes me that TDOPOM is incredibly well balanced. Unafraid to operate outside of the boundaries of their traditional territory, Bad Omens seem to gather more momentum the further away they go from their roots.

The dreamy/gazey pop sentiment of bad decisions could see the track land in any top ten of popular music releases on any given chart rundown. As someone who does not normally get drawn to these waters it is interesting to see a band so young (we are at album number three here let’s not forget) able to push different elements alongside more traditional ones that I personally am not entirely comfortable with. At the same time the album has enough breakdowns (or whatever the terminology is) and raw intensity to please the more extreme crowd. I can see how this may be too accessible for some but for me this accessibility is not at the expense of that emotional intensity that never falls into the territory of being over the top.

The anthemic choruses of Like A Villain, Just Pretend and CONCRETE JUNGLE are destined to be in my head for weeks yet but there is something about how they are written and structured that makes them interesting as well as contagiously memorable. In the more peaceful passages, I can liken proceedings to the likes of House of Heaven or Glaare (post-punk) and the groove metal edges to some of the riffs being deployed are straight out of the 90s to these ears. That is the variety on show here on what is one of my unique finds and most unexpected finds for a while.

Curved ball though it may be for me in terms of how much I do like this, it is not flawless. The record needs a trim and on a couple of occasions it flaunts itself as being something it is not. Who are you? is just a pop track that seems to be pushed as opposed to composed. Similarly, ARTIFICIAL SUICIDE just feels like something that they had to get off their chest as opposed to something that contributes anything of significance to the album overall. I find the songs are more interesting when they incorporate elements of everything in their repertoire as opposed to them always being able to stand up as separate entities that have exceeded known norms. I still maintain that this is a neat if not sought after find for me.

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On 12/30/2022 at 6:59 AM, MacabreEternal said:

Wiegedood - There's Always Blood at the End of the Road (2022)

Number five on my top nine releases of 2022

 

Giving this a listen right now based on your review. I've got De Doden Hebben Het Goed II which I've enjoyed quite a bit. If I'd seen it on Bandcamp, I'm sure I'd have listened earlier but for some reason, the band hasn't put it on their BC page. They've got their two De Doden albums I and II and a live 2018 recording. This is definitely cold and blistering with the harsh sort of BM vocals that straddles a fine line between blackened and HC vox to my ears. 

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The Sham-tera discussion on the other thread has inspired me to check out some of Zakk Wylde's Black Label Society music. I've heard some BLS before so I have a basic idea what I'm gonna hear, but just a few songs and it's gotta be at least 15-20 years or thereabouts. Just went with a best of collection to get a cross section of their supposed best stuff. 

I grew up on guitar-oriented generic hard rock music like this, so this doesn't bother or offend me really, I don't hate this at all. This is a lot better than any of Ozzy's post-Randy solo stuff I've ever heard, afaic anyway. Better than any Pantera songs I've ever heard too for that matter. Lot more acoustic ballads on display here than I would have guessed. Hell if this had come out back in my high school days '76 - '79 it probably would have placed in the upper half of my Top 10 albums of the year list at that time. Obviously it's not remotely the kind of thing I'm looking for nowadays, I wouldn't buy it or ever need to hear it again. But I have definitely heard a lot worse shit than this in my time, even some stuff that's been posted on this very thread right here on the Metalforum dot motherfucking com that I'll assume someone must've been digging if they went to the trouble to post it. 

 

Black Label Society - The Greatest Hits

 

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