What Are You Listening To?

[Nasty_Cabbage]

NP: Tomb Mold - The Enduring Spirit

https://listen.20buckspin.com/album/the-enduring-spirit

Damn. These guys guitar work has come a long way since I first heard them. Vocals are fine. Bass is death metal bass for better or worse. Nice to hear drumming that doesn't feel the need to blast all the time, even though that style has it's place. The drumming seems happy to hang back and let the excellent guitars do their thing. Definitely a riff-fest guitar driven album. Good stuff.

[AlSymerz]

The Headcat - Live in Berlin

[GoatmasterGeneral]

3 hours ago, FatherAlabaster said:

No! Flawless catalog or death! One clunker is proof that everything else was a fluke! Talentless hacks!

 

I am of course also talking about Altarage.

Of course. But in Altarage's case it wasn't "one clunker" it was that lone fluke debut that was totally bangin' which later turned out to be the outlier. But obviously that 2016 debut Nihil was before they showed their true prog colors. Same trajectory as bands like Horrendous or Tribulation or Gorguts or Venenum or Chapel of Disease or Blood Incantation. Killer debut and/or demo to kick things off, then they never put out anything else that sounded anything like that ever again. I'm sure lots of fans view these bands as having gotten better over time as they matured or evolved or became better musicians or found their stride or whatever and that's cool, but I don't share that opinion myself. I want the raw unadulterated filth.

I wouldn't say I hate what any of these bands have now become (except I guess for Tribulation) and in Chapel of Disease's case I do definitely still enjoy their more recent stuff, it's just different from where they started which was wonderfully riffy osdm. (doesn't matter because they're "on hold" now anyway) But the thing is I was really excited about all of these bands' earliest stuff, I found them all extremely promising. The subsequent letdowns have been tremendous. But no biggie, I have plenty of stuff I want to listen to, I'm not in any way wanting for choices.

Now to be fair I've certainly been guilty as charged of the 'one clunker and you're dead to me forever more' mindset many times. I'm absolutely that guy, especialy when it's a band I've enjoyed for some time through multiple albums. But that scenario's not applicable in Altarage's case.

 

NP: Chapel of Disease - Summoning Black Gods, Germany 2012

 

4 hours ago, Thatguy said:

This gets us back to something we were all rabbiting about one some thread or another. It is, of course, perfectly fine to like one album from a band and not have any particular expectations that you'll like their others.

SPECTRAL LORE don't routinely interest me, but enjoyed this album.

LUXAETERNA is the same dude as NOIRCURE so there was no way you were going to tolerate it.

No idea who Noircure might be. 

[SurgicalBrute]

Antrisch - EXPEDITION I : Dissonanzgrat

https://antrisch.bandcamp.com/album/expedition-i-dissonanzgrat

[GoatmasterGeneral]

2 hours ago, Nasty_Cabbage said:

NP: Tomb Mold - The Enduring Spirit

Damn. These guys guitar work has come a long way since I first heard them. Vocals are fine. Bass is death metal bass for better or worse. Nice to hear drumming that doesn't feel the need to blast all the time, even though that style has it's place. The drumming seems happy to hang back and let the excellent guitars do their thing. Definitely a riff-fest guitar driven album. Good stuff.

Took a shot on the new Tomb Mold tonight and I made it through the first three tracks before I gave up. Only major problem I have with it is the too clean tweedly deedly lead guitar work that completely ruins it for me. Same reason I can't listen to technical anything. Not the worst album I've heard lately but 3 tracks is enough I'll never need to hear this again.

 

NP: Maze of Terror - A Decade of War and Darkness, thrashy death metal from Peru, a compilation of all the early demos, EP's and splits. This is more my speed.

 

[Dead1]

1 hour ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Took a shot on the new Tomb Mold tonight and I made it through the first three tracks before I gave up. Only major problem I have with it is the too clean tweedly deedly lead guitar work that completely ruins it for me. Same reason I can't listen to technical anything. Not the worst album I've heard lately but 3 tracks is enough I'll never need to hear this again.

You probably stopped listening to it on time.  Overall it gets very meandering at times.

 

Nile - Annihilation of the Wicked

19 hours ago, JonoBlade said:

 

Does anyone else get that? Y'know, that shiver that can only be borne of sonic perfection.

 

Sometimes but usually during an epic lead break eg solos in Slayer's Seasons In The Abyss

[AlSymerz]

Raw Power - After Your Brain

[Nasty_Cabbage]

1 hour ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Took a shot on the new Tomb Mold tonight and I made it through the first three tracks before I gave up. Only major problem I have with it is the too clean tweedly deedly lead guitar work that completely ruins it for me. Same reason I can't listen to technical anything. Not the worst album I've heard lately but 3 tracks is enough I'll never need to hear this again.

 

NP: Maze of Terror - A Decade of War and Darkness, thrashy death metal from Peru, a compilation of all the early demos, EP's and splits. This is more my speed.

 

Eh. Fair enough. I think I've pretty much established my love of tech-whatever at this point, and this year has been an absolute monster for that stuff. That Maze of Terror is on point for sure though. I demand riffs and Maze of Terror obliges. Thrash on, thrash off.

NP: The Waxwing Collective - The King You Thought You Were

Okay, so this one's weird. I was looking into the whole Pale Fire/Blade Runner 2049 connection because the fact that that movie makes such liberal use of their references to that book. Something about that felt inadequate since the book shares only the most surface level of connections. Still Gosling has gone on record as saying the book "unlocked the character" for him. I ended up going down a youtube rabbit hole from an excellent long form piece on Youtube by two Scottish students regarding the book that featured this presumably original song at the end, and good lord. It's good to know my initial interpretation of that book was more or less on the money. If I were a professor and two of my students prepared this piece as part of an assignment I'd have been absolutely elated.

If you're not down for a longer form video the song is at the end, and also on soundcloud by itself.

[GoatmasterGeneral]

1 hour ago, Nasty_Cabbage said:

Eh. Fair enough. I think I've pretty much established my love of tech-whatever at this point, and this year has been an absolute monster for that stuff.

I was not trying to talk you out of it or negate your opinion or step on your toes or anything Cabbage, you can like Tomb Mold and post your tech death as much as you want. I was just throwing my 2 cents in for no particular reason other than they are a fairly well known name in modern death metal that I already own albums by and I've even seen them live. So I was bound to have a listen to their new one and give my report sooner or later. I did like your Theosophy well enough if that makes you feel any better.

 

NP: Terrestrial Hospice - Indian Summer Brought Mushroom Clouds, Poland/Norway 2020. 

 

Terrestrial Hospice - Caviary to the General, 2023

 

[Thatguy]

4 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

No idea who Noircure might be. 

Search your copious files and/or memory. I posted it, you hated it. All good.

 

4 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

I'm sure lots of fans view these bands as having gotten better over time

We do, or even that they have got better.

 

3 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

the too clean tweedly deedly lead guitar work that completely ruins it for me

And, strangely enough, I agree.

DAKHMA - Hamkar Atonement. Not as nasty as I was hoping it was going to be.

EAVE - Fervor (Old) Krallice light.Yep, there is old and new Krallice and new Krallice has jumped the shark into tweedy deadly synth wankery. Psychogogue was probably the turning point and with Crystalline Exhaustion  I'm done. They are no longer worthy.

[Nasty_Cabbage]

53 minutes ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

I was not trying to talk you out of it or negate your opinion or step on your toes or anything Cabbage, you can like Tomb Mold and post your tech death as much as you want. I was just throwing my 2 cents in for no particular reason other than they are a fairly well known name in modern death metal that I already own albums by and I've even seen them live. So I was bound to have a listen to their new one and give my report sooner or later. I did like your Theosophy well enough if that makes you feel any better.

 

NP: Terrestrial Hospice - Indian Summer Brought Mushroom Clouds, Poland/Norway 2020. 

 

Terrestrial Hospice - Caviary to the General, 2023

 

I wasn't worried about it. I pretty much knew I was going to like the new Tomb Mold unless they went way outside the box with their sound (I'm looking at you Blood Incantation with your ambient nonsense album) Also with the past few weeks having been the way they've been I've been making some syntax miscues I don't normally make. I should probably just turn in, but tomorrow's another stupid busy day with a ton of stuff I need to plan around, and I've been starved of metal for a minute now. Priorities, dammit!

[GoatmasterGeneral]

2 hours ago, Thatguy said:

1. Search your copious files and/or memory. I posted it, you hated it. All good.

2. We do, or even that they have got better.

3. And, strangely enough, I agree.

4. DAKHMA - Hamkar Atonement. Not as nasty as I was hoping it was going to be.

5. EAVE - Fervor (Old) Krallice light.Yep, there is old and new Krallice and new Krallice has jumped the shark into tweedly deadly synth wankery. Psychogogue was probably the turning point and with Crystalline Exhaustion  I'm done. They are no longer worthy.

1. You can't expect me to remember every last stinkin' esoteric avant-garde post-metal Thatguy band you've ever posted that sucked. I can't even remember half the shit I've posted myself. 

2. One man's 'better' is another man's get the fuck outta here. In my best Tony Soprano Jersey accent of course. 

3. Damn straight.

4. It's rarely ever as nasty as I hope it's gonna be.

5. Krallice light. Lord have mercy on our souls. They were never worthy (see #2 and substitute "worthy" for "better") and as such they will burn in hellfire for all eternity for their unforgivable crimes against humanity. In addition, all their male offspring shall be neutered so they cannot pass down the wankery genes. Thus it has been written, thus it shall be done.

[Nasty_Cabbage]

NP: Ritual Necromancy - Disinterred Horror

https://darkdescentrecords.bandcamp.com/album/disinterred-horror

There's something really odd going on with the cover here with it's sections that were obviously given more effort (Which is parfectly understandable.)

Either way pretty decent death metal. Giving me early Cannibal Corpse vibes.

[JonoBlade]

11 hours ago, Dead1 said:

Sometimes but usually during an epic lead break eg solos in Slayer's Seasons In The Abyss

I've realised I more often get those goosebump moments when vocals and music meet, but there are a few guitar solos that do it. 

Paradise Lost - Jaded (the Draconian Times album is the sound of a band trying to sell out, but that song is still great)

▶︎ A Doomed Lover | My Dying Bride | Peaceville (bandcamp.com) (4:35 onwards unto oblivion)

The Writ (best Sabbath song, best Sabbath album)

Seasons in the Abyss is probably Slayer's most epic song. A masterclass from start to finish. That sure shivers me timbers.

Again, I observe that ALL OF THESE are closing tracks. The closing track on an album has always been the most important one to nail for me. 

[navybsn]

1 hour ago, Nasty_Cabbage said:

NP: Ritual Necromancy - Disinterred Horror

https://darkdescentrecords.bandcamp.com/album/disinterred-horror

There's something really odd going on with the cover here with it's sections that were obviously given more effort (Which is parfectly understandable.)

Either way pretty decent death metal. Giving me early Cannibal Corpse vibes.

Odd cover, but banging album and live band.

@JonoBlade: I'd say there are a few songs that still hit me in the "feels" and have me headbanging to my air guitar after all of these years. Raining Blood, Slowly We Rot, Holy Wars, Victim of Changes, I am the Black Wizards/Inno a Satana, Precious and Grace (ZZ Top), Spacegrass (Clutch), Skull Fracturing Nightmare (Demolition Hammer)...I'm sure there are a few more but I've not really ever thought about it much. But you are not alone. I still get the tingles after 4 decades of heshering.

NP: Abduction - All Pain As Penance

[SurgicalBrute]

Mephorash - Krystl-Ah (preview track)

https://regainrecords.bandcamp.com/album/krystl-ah

Not sure about this one. Mephorash has always been kind of hit-or-miss and while the second track was decent the first one didn't really grab me. Guess we'll have to see how the rest sounds when it comes out

 

[SurgicalBrute]

Vesthangarth - Ominous Path of Spectral Knowledge

https://vesthangarth.bandcamp.com/album/ominous-path-of-spectral-knowledge

[Serpentboi1992]

[GoatmasterGeneral]

6 hours ago, JonoBlade said:

I've realised I more often get those goosebump moments when vocals and music meet, but there are a few guitar solos that do it. 

Paradise Lost - Jaded (the Draconian Times album is the sound of a band trying to sell out, but that song is still great)

▶︎ A Doomed Lover | My Dying Bride | Peaceville (bandcamp.com) (4:35 onwards unto oblivion)

The Writ (best Sabbath song, best Sabbath album)

Seasons in the Abyss is probably Slayer's most epic song. A masterclass from start to finish. That sure shivers me timbers.

Again, I observe that ALL OF THESE are closing tracks. The closing track on an album has always been the most important one to nail for me. 

That's the problem with these kind of things, we all have our own personal moments, but we see the other guys moments and can't help thinking wtf is this dude smoking? Had to quick search up a video because I couldn't remember Jaded. My Draconian Times cassette got unceremoniously binned in 1995 because I couldn't accept my favorite band selling out. Still a little salty about it now 28 years later tbh even though I've mostly made my peace with the album. I have heaps of goosebumps inducing PL moments, but none of them from that album. No Forgiveness is the song that does it for me, as well as 4 or 5 other songs from Shades. Best doom album I've ever heard. This should have been the closing track, and it would've been if I had been the one sequencing it. Can't give you timestamps for this one bruv, the whole song stops me in my tracks. Can't ever play it just once, I have to go at least 3 in a row. Never been a big lyrics guy but I've always fixated on the line "hearing you talk is a waste of silence I can't bear"

No Forgiveness

 

Shallow Seasons. They were so good, I often wonder if they had found just a bit more success as a metal band in the mid 90's if they might have continued playing metal instead of going the electrionic route for the better part of a decade. And I don't even hate all those albums, just fun to wonder what might have been.

 

Jaded

 

The Writ is your favorite track from Sabotage? Clearly their best album, but I would rank the songs as follows: 

Hole in the Sky

Thrill of it All 

Symptom of the Universe

Megalomania

The Writ

I remember arguing with Carlissimo on the old forum about The Writ. He claimed it was a mish-mash of disparate thrown together ideas that didn't work together and he cited it as the main reason he couldn't rank Sabotage higher than he did. I love the song personally, don't let my ranking it last of the Sabotage tracks fool you, it's hard to rank greatness. Hole in the Sky is the clear winner for me here though. Best hard rock/metal song of the entire 1970's. I remember that day in 1975 quite clearly, walking 2 miles down into town after school and buying Sabotage along with Sweet's Desolation Blvd, and then walking 3 miles back up the hill to my house. Threw Sabotage on mom's stereo in the living room immediately, got lucky she was out that arvo so I could crank it up. 1-2-3-4 Then that riff hit me and my jaw hit the floor. By far the heaviest thing I had ever heard at that point in time. Possibly Ozzy's best ever studio vocal performance. No cover has ever done this song justice. Nothing super complicated about it, it's just tough to replicate perfection and nobody can seem to hit those high notes.

Hole in the Sky + Symptom of the Universe

 

The Writ. Killer track, there's about a dozen really badass riffs to be found in here and there's no denying the bass intro is cool as fuck.

 

 

I love 80's Slayer but Seasons (1990) not so much. Always thought that was their sell-out album where they got just a little too commercial and civilized for my liking. I certainly wasn't buying Slayer albums for civilized commerciality. Skeletons of Society was the track that really turned me against them. It was practically radio friendly. I still love everything up through South of Heaven though. So I had to go refresh my memory on this song too. The opening build up makes you think something really big and heavy is coming and then the song breaks down into total mundanity and it's just so disappointing. The chorus in particular is too melodic and harmonious, whatever that combination of chords is I really fucking hate it. The intro is cool and they do go back to the opening riff briefly at the very end, but I hate everything in between, so I'm not seeing this tune as particularly epic. No, for me it's Reign in Blood that gives me the chills, the entire album, every single second of it. Still can't listen to it without headbanging, and I'm an old man now. Best metal album of the 1980's for me ahead of Ride the Lightning and To Mega Therion and Epicus Doomicus by just a cunt hair. If I had to pick a special moment it'd be either the brutal and speedy title track (including Post Mortem) right at that spot when they kick it into overdrive going into the "trapped in purgatory" verse. Or Altar of Sacrifice/Jesus Saves which I consider to be all one track, I'd never play just one without the other. Enter to the realm of Satan (satan, satan, satan)

Seasons in the Abyss

 

Altar of Sacrifice & Jesus Saves

 

Postmortem/Raining Blood live. You left us too soon Jeff.

 

[Nasty_Cabbage]

3 hours ago, SurgicalBrute said:

Vesthangarth - Ominous Path of Spectral Knowledge

https://vesthangarth.bandcamp.com/album/ominous-path-of-spectral-knowledge

This is good. I can't figure out what type of effect they've got on the keys. It's certainly not vintage to my ears, but it's also very quiet in the mix which isn't a bad thing. It sounds like a sort of half marimba, but the harmonics in addition to being down in the mix really gives these songs (at least the two I've heard so far) a little extra oomph when they really want to drive. Perks the ears up for sure. I don't know if a whole album would desensitize the listener to it though. Still I like it and I don't think I could name another band using that particular effect on the keys. 

It's funny, it reminds me of an old roommate who would just sit out in the living room with his "vintage" keyboard set, make the whole apartment smell of densely cultivated foliage and play around with the effects. I don't think he actually knew his scales or anything like that since most of what he played around with were things like wind effects and various knob fiddling all run through high gain configurations. Good guy, and one of the better roommates I've had through the years even if deafening blizzard sound played on a back loop is not music to make spaghetti to. Hadn't thought about him in forever. I'm certainly not getting a Facebook or any social media to find him though, since apparently he's been asking around about me. I've held out against it all these years so there's no reason to get one now. He can write me a letter. Do kids today even remember handwriting letters?

[FatherAlabaster]

Thorn - Evergloom

[GoatmasterGeneral]

Mortuary - Blackened Images, riffy thrashy Mexican death metal 1990

 

Carbonized - For the Security, excellent Swedeath 1991

 

[SurgicalBrute]

Suphur Aeon - Swallowed by the Ocean's Tide

Man, there's like two or three songs I could have chosen from this album for that other thread

 

[Dead1]

8 hours ago, JonoBlade said:

 

Again, I observe that ALL OF THESE are closing tracks. The closing track on an album has always been the most important one to nail for me. 

 

I love the Writ too - superb song.

Had never thought about it but you are absolutely right about closing track being really important.  Very often albums just peter out or end with a non descript filler track.

 

 

[JamesT]

On 9/25/2023 at 5:06 AM, JonoBlade said:

What are you, the nicest guy on the internet? Forums are for hate-filled and spiteful rhetoric designed to belittle and ruin.

While I can't agree with Redeemer being anywhere near the top 5 of anything, a lot of other people seemed to really like Firepower. My main gripe is that it could have been great if they just trimmed it to the best 10 tracks. I don't want everything they've got, just the best. Priest is a peculiar band in that the extra session tracks they have released as bonuses over the years have been quite terrible* which shows that they've got 40 good minutes of songwriting in them at any given time and were wise to quit while they were ahead.

I started writing a rebuttal of @GoatmasterGeneral's comment about Firepower sounding like it is written by AI, but then realised my own opinion is based on Ritchie being the epitome of paint by numbers song writing. One could argue he has been trained on a dataset of classic metal such that his output is indistinguishable from a competent AI engine. 

However, "sounds like it was written by AI" is a charge you could level at practically any band that is past their prime. Even the filth GG listens to could be accused of being written by AI if it merely ticks off multiple tropes of the genre.

Nevertheless, I would Iike to give due credit to KK's songwriting on his new albums. It does sound a bit derivative of a genre he helped invent but the songs hang together well enough. I always assumed he played second fiddle to Glenn's superior playing and writing talent, since Tipton has sole songwritiing credit for my favourite track, Hell Bent for Leather. Also, Sinner, which KK seems to use as his conceptual basis for everything, is a Tipton song!

What I am getting at is, if Sermons of the Sinner were released 40 years ago, it would have been considered very good, if not great. I certainly would have loved it because the production would have been authentic. As it is, it's a decent album for a trad metal fanboy to get their fix, and it does show that KK was a better songwriter than I realised.

*there is a bonus track from the British Steel sessions called "Red White and Blue" which is so awful, eventually I really liked it.

 

I genuinely love the discussion, no matter who may disagree with my assessments or tastes!  This forum has been a fantastic discovery for me.  I can certainly understand why a lot of music fans consider some albums to be too long.  Personally, I would prefer as much music for my money as possible.  Give me 12-14 tracks with a run time between 50 minutes and an hour any day over an album that only has 9-10 tracks with a short run time of 38-42 minutes.  Unless, of course, there are several songs that are completely subpar - then I would certainly want it trimmed down a bit.  Outside of that, though, I never think of greater length to be a downside of an album.  I actually wish “Firepower” was even longer!  But I completely understand where other fans are coming from when referring to certain albums dragging on a bit too long.

Friday can’t come soon enough!  I don’t listen to singles - I wait for the full album to be released so I can enjoy it and spend time with the complete product.  So I’ll be throwing on “The Sinner Rides Again” with a fresh ear.  The new Nervosa album drops that same day, and that is one fantastic all-female blackened thrash juggernaut!  What a glorious day Friday will be!  How could it get better for a metalhead than that?  Two brand new releases from two of your favorite bands!

On a random note, 2024 is already shaping up to be an incredible year.  New albums from Judas Priest AND Accept??  Yes, please!  And if Saxon manages to crank out album number 24…… I’m not sure my metal-loving soul would survive the thrill!  On that note, methinks it’s time to make my way through the 23-album catalog of Saxon between now and Friday.  And I’m currently on vacation, so how could it get better?!